President Obama Speaks on Strong Middle Class

Kentucky Residents Without Power in the Cold for Weeks

Utility crews renewed work in subfreezing temperatures Saturday in their effort to put the power back on for nearly a million customers left in the dark by an ice storm that crippled parts of several states this week.

Thousands of people in ice-caked Kentucky awoke in motels and shelters, asked to leave their homes by authorities who said emergency teams in some areas were too strapped to reach everyone in need of food, water and warmth.

A 20-degree temperature boost was forecast across much of the region, a boon to the power crews but one that carried with it the threat of flooding.

Dozens of deaths have been reported and many people are pleading for a faster response to the power outages. About 536,000 homes and businesses across Kentucky were without power, down from more than 600,000 the largest outage in state history, surpassing the damage last year from the remnants of Hurricane Ike.

The outages disabled water systems in much of the western part of the state, where some in rural areas resorted to dipping buckets in a creek. Authorities warned it could be days or weeks before power was restored in the most remote spots.

 

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Your Black Women: Serena Williams Wins Another One

Serena Williams routed Dinara Safina 6-0, 6-3 Saturday to win the Australian Open for her 10th Grand Slam title and a return to the No. 1 ranking.

It was total domination for the second-seeded Williams, who moved fluidly on the court and looked at ease in winning back-to-back majors, including the U.S. Open title in September.

“I absolutely, clearly, love playing here,” the 27-year-old Williams said. “You guys root for me so much. I don’t get that everywhere. So thank you so much.”

Williams becomes only the seventh woman with double-digit Grand Slam singles titles. She leads all active players and broke a tie with two greats of the game — 2009 Hall of Fame inductee Monica Seles and Maureen Connolly — who each won nine majors.

Justine Henin was the last to win back-to-back major singles titles, at the 2003 U.S. Open and 2004 Australian Open.

Williams’ near-perfect performance was in sharp contrast to No. 3 Safina, who was tight from the start. Later apologizing to the crowd for her performance, Safina said Williams was just too good, leaving her feeling like a ballboy.

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Prominent Evangelical Pastor Ted Haggard Admits to another Male Affair

Evangelical pastor Ted Haggard described Thursday as “fundamentally true” an assertion that he engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a 20-year-old male volunteer in 2006.

Pastor Ted Haggard acknowledged on CNN’s “Larry King Live” that he had a second relationship with a man.

The incident occurred when the two men were in bed together, Grant Haas said in a videotaped interview played on CNN’s “Larry King Live.”

“He pretty much asked me if it was OK if he masturbated in front of me or masturbated in the bed next to me,” Haas said. “I told him no, it would make me really uncomfortable. But he grabbed a bottle of lotion and started masturbating.”

Haas added, “(Haggard) used to say to me, ‘You know what, Grant, you can become a man of God, and you can have a little bit of fun on the side.”

Haggard, 52, said the incident was “an indicator of the compulsive behavior” that ruled him at the time. However, he said he has been undergoing therapy during the two years since and “working it out.” Watch Haggard accuser speak out »

Controversy involving Haggard first erupted in November 2006, when a former prostitute, Mike Jones, said the pastor had paid him for sex over three years and had used methamphetamine in his presence.

Haggard initially admitted in interviews that he received a massage from Jones but denied having sex with him. He also said he bought methamphetamine, but threw it away instead of using it.

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Busta Rhymes Gets Heat for Insulting Arabs

The video for Busta Rhymes’ “Arab Money” is now officially available online.

Yes, I know it’s been on BET and YouTube for months.

Of course the BET version was always official. The other, not so much.

I raise this point because when I contacted Universal Records in November to get a copy of the video for Yahoo! Music, Busta was in the midst of controversy over the song which offended Muslims in the US and UK for misrepresenting the Middle Eastern culture, mixing sacred verses from the Holy Quran with secular hip-hop beats and rhetoric. I was told that the video was not being serviced at the time.

Over the last month, blogs addressed the controversy and Busta was even quoted in a few, expressing his sincere apology to those he offended.

There was so much outrage in the UK that popular Galaxy FM DJ Steve “Smooth” Sutherland was suspended after listeners complained about him playing the song.

A Dubai-based rapper Narcicyst got Busta’s attention when he released his explosive response record “Real Arab Money” that opens calling Busta’s version racist, claiming that the celebrated veteran rapper had not done his research and was even pronouncing Arab incorrectly.

In “Real Arab Money” the 26-year-old rapper said that pronouncing Arab as Ay-rab is the equivalent of calling an African-American the n-word. While Busta’s song compares his hip-hop lifestyle to that of Arabian royalty, Narcicyst stressed that the analogy is off base because all Arabs are not rich.

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Your Black Health: Black Women with HIV – The Psychological Side

Managing the psychological and social aspects of HIV/AIDS is as important as medical treatment in helping black women cope with the disease, a new research report shows.

Black women who are supported by nonprofit organizations are more likely to think of themselves as “living with the disease” rather than dying from it, and live longer than those who don’t have that support, according to the Northwestern University study.

“So I am trying to think of HIV as not just a medical condition that needs to be managed, but a social condition that needs to be managed,” said Celeste Watkins-Hayes, an assistant professor at Northwestern.

Her research is to be published in “Sex, Power and Taboo: Gender and HIV in the Caribbean and Beyond.”

Black women are the largest racial/ethnic group diagnosed with HIV in Chicago, according to a report released in November by the AIDS Foundation of Chicago. Citywide 79 percent of 316 women diagnosed with the disease in 2006 were black. Total HIV cases diagnosed that year, the most recent for which data is available, were 1,557.

 

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Republicans Choose Michael Steele to lead them: Will any old Black Man Do?

Michael Steele, a former Maryland lieutenant governor, was elected chairman of the Republican National Committee on Friday.

Michael Steele will be the next Republican National Committee chairman.

Steele, the first African-American to hold the post, defeated South Carolina GOP Chairman Katon Dawson, 91-77, in the final round of voting among the RNC’s 168 members.

“This is our opportunity. I cannot do this by myself,” he told the crowd at the annual RNC meeting Friday. “God bless you, and God bless our party.”

Earlier Friday, Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan, who was elected to lead the committee in 2007, dropped his re-election bid, telling committee members: “Obviously the winds of change are blowing here at the RNC.”

Two others also dropped out of the race Friday, leaving Steele and Dawson running against each other. After the sixth round of voting, Steele received 91 votes. Only 86 votes were needed.

Duncan rose to address the 168-member committee after three disappointing rounds of balloting in the chairman’s election. He bled votes on every successive ballot, his support trickling to the other candidates in the race.

Despite the sometimes contentious nature of the campaign and criticism that the party suffered with him at the helm, Duncan told the crowd the race had been worth it.

“I thought this would be good for the party,” he said. “And I think it has been.”

 

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Black Judge Takes Heat for Drunk Driving Racial Slurs

 

 

The case of E. Curtissa R. Cofield, the Superior Court judge accused of using racially charged language during her drunken driving arrest, has slipped off the news pages in recent months. But that could soon change.

Two state institutions, both with extraordinary influence over judicial appointments, have begun looking into the circumstances of Cofield’s Oct. 9 arrest on Route 2 in Glastonbury, according to a half-dozen lawyers and other officials familiar with the matter.

The attention of both institutions is focused on what the officials have described as a potentially explosive video recording of Cofield made at the Glastonbury Police Department. Although the recording has not yet become public, sources have said that Cofield, who is black, spoke in a racially demeaning fashion with police officers involved in her arrest.

The state Judicial Review Council, which is empowered under state law to punish judges for unprofessional conduct, has opened an investigation of the circumstances surrounding Cofield’s arrest, the officials said.

 

The council has the authority to issue a subpoena compelling Glastonbury police to provide it with the recording. If the council has not yet obtained the video, it is almost certain to do so in the near future, the officials said. Ross Garber, council chairman, refused to discuss the matter.

 

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Your Black President: Obama’s Team Filled with Too Many Egos

President Barack Obama is building a White House staff so loaded with big names and overlapping duties that it could collapse into chaos unless managed with a juggler’s skill.

It’s an administration that seems “addicted to czars,” says one longtime observer of government organization.

Obama has installed a White House health czar who doubles as secretary of Health and Human Services. The State Department now has “special envoys” for the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and for climate change — areas already overseen by other officials.

Just for the environment, along with the new climate envoy Obama has an energy secretary, an Environmental Protection Agency director and a chief of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Hovering over them all is Carol Browner, a high-profile former EPA administrator in a newly created role some call “climate czarina.”

 

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Your Black Money: Labor Report is Economic "Bloodbath"

The country tumbled deeper into recession and probably logged its worst economic performance in a quarter-century during the final three months of last year as battered consumers and businesses throttled back spending.

The U.S. economy is deteriorating at an alarming clip as the housing, credit and financial crises — the worst since the 1930s — feed on each other in a vicious cycle that has proven difficult for Washington policymakers to break.

The Commerce Department is set to release a report Friday expected to show the economy shrank at a pace of 5.4 percent in the October-December period, a much faster descent than the 0.5 percent decline logged in the prior quarter. If economists’ forecasts are correct, it would mark the weakest quarterly showing since an annualized drop of 6.4 percent in the first quarter of 1982, when the country was suffering through a severe recession.

“It was a bloodbath,” said Richard

 

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Your Black Sports: Larry Fitzgerald Willing to Give Away Money to Help Cards Win

Larry Fitzgerald would look at restructuring his contract if it would help keep fellowArizona Cardinals wide receiver Anquan Boldin on the team.

“Someone asked me a question if I would be willing to do something to help the team, and I said, `No problem,’ ” Fitzgerald said Wednesday. “This opportunity right here to be playing deep in the postseason, this is an amazing feeling. I’ll do whatever it takes to get back to this point going forward in my career.”

The question came up as the Cardinals prepared for Sunday’s Super Bowl matchup with Pittsburgh.

Fitzgerald and Boldin form arguably the best receiving tandem in the NFL. Fitzgerald caught 96 passes for 1,431 yards and 12 touchdowns in the regular season. Boldin, despite missing four games with injuries, caught 89 passes for 1,038 yards and 11 scores. Both players made the Pro Bowl.

Boldin said he appreciated Fitzgerald’s offer.

“Fitz and I have been together for five years, and we’ve been through a lot together,” Boldin said. “I think the relationship that we have, neither of us want to see broken up. There’s mutual respect, not only as receivers but as friends, and we realize that we make each other’s jobs easier.”

Boldin said in training camp that he would never re-sign with Arizona and would like to be traded because he feels management lied to him by not following through on a promise for a new contract. His latest comments indicate his position had softened.

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Your Black Sports: Old Man Shaq Gets Picked for All-Star Team

Shaq is back in the All-Star game.

After being left out of the NBA’s midseason gala for first time in his career last season, Shaquille O’Neal received his 15th All-Star selection Thursday night when the reserves were announced for the Feb. 15 game in Phoenix.

“It feels good. It’s not bad for somebody who can’t shoot,” said O’Neal, a career 52.7 percent free-throw shooter who is making more than 62 percent from the line this season.

O’Neal and Suns teammate Amare Stoudemire give the host team two Western Conference All-Stars.

“It helps to have the best power forward (Stoudemire), the best point guard (Steve Nash) and guys like (Grant) Hill playing with me. They’ve been looking out for me all season. They’ve been taking care of me. I’ve been trying to produce,” O’Neal said before the Suns hosted San Antonio.

New Orleans, San Antonio and the Los Angeles Lakers also had multiple players on the West roster, which will be coached by the Lakers’ Phil Jackson.

The Orlando Magic made out best in the East, with Jameer Nelson and Rashard Lewis picked as reserves by the conference’s coaches alongside starter Dwight Howard. It’s the first time Orlando has had three All-Stars.

 

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Your Black Money: Dr Boyce on the Recession and African Americans with AOL Black Voices

 

Smart Money Tips With Dr. Boyce Watkins
Posted Jan 27th 2009 6:34PM by Alexis Stodghill
Filed under: Money Talks
By Alexis Garrett Stodghill, BlackVoices.com

Dr. Boyce Watkins is a renowned scholar and speaker in the area of finance. As an African-American financial expert, Dr. Watkins has made it his personal mission to educate our community through writing books and essays, making media appearances, public speaking and more — so that we may become more empowered with knowledge when it comes to the all-mighty dollar. BlackVoices.com asked the doctor to share his wisdom and advice for folks seeking tips to successfully navigate the current economic storm. According to Dr. Watkins, it’s still possible to get your finances in order — in fact, it’s imperative.

As a black finance expert, what is the most common problem you see in the black community when it comes to personal finance management?

The most common problem is that historically, African Americans have been excluded from the opportunity to build wealth. Money was made from our labor, but we never got much of it. That led to a laborer mentality in African-Americans that taught us how to go out and get jobs rather than learning the art of CREATING jobs. This problem was further exacerbated by the fact that building a company requires capital, which we typically don’t have. Most African-Americans have far lower inheritance levels than whites, and this impacts your economic opportunities in life. Also, when you’ve never had much money, you are usually not very good at managing it, so we are as bad as the rest of America when it comes to our spending, saving, investing and borrowing habits.

How would you suggest that someone with little knowledge of personal finance get started on the road to financial stability?

First, get educated. Empower yourself with financial literacy. The greatest university in the world is called Google.com. You can research any topic you want. Secondly, start small. You don’t have to conquer the world in two steps. Just start by saving 10% of your income. You might say you don’t have money to save, but you actually do. If your boss came into your office and gave you a 10% paycut, you’d find a way to survive. Find a way to learn to save. Finally, get a “side hustle.” Challenge yourself to find small ways to supplement your income. The riskiest thing to do in this economy is to get all of your personal income from one source.

You have two college degrees, a master’s degree and a PhD. What would you say is the relationship between level of education and income?

Education not only gives you many opportunities to earn more money, you usually earn more money with less work, doing a job that you might actually like. Personally, education was the difference for me between being financially well off and living a life of poverty. Education also provides job security, which is often overlooked. Autoworkers, for example, were always able to make high wages with little education. But once the Big Three started to buckle, they were stuck with unskilled labor opportunities. Everyone should get as much education as they can get, since education can be a path to both a wealthy bank account and a wealthy life.
Would you share some tips for sound money management in 2009?

Last Updated on Thursday, 29 January 2009 20:53

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Lady Drama: Star Sightings at The Dream Listening Party

The celebs were in full effect last night in NYC. They were seen everywhere from Dreams listening party to Karen Kwak’s (senior VP of Def Jam) Birthday party.

The Dream and Chrisitina Milian during Dream’s listening party

Angie Martinez was there showing her love for Dream
Toccara, Christina, and Dream at Karen Kwak’s B-Day Party

L.A. Reid and Jay-Z were partying it up too

Mary J. Blige and L.A. Reid

Angela Simmons, Vanessa Simmons, and LL Cool J were in NYC for the Global Grind press conference

Your Black Attorneys: NCAA Needs a Rooney Rule

By Leland C. Abraham, Esq.

While baseball may have once been America’s pastime, few can argue that football has quickly replaced baseball as America’s sport of choice. As a graduate from a South Eastern Conference school, I was able to see first hand how important football is to the American Psyche.

There is a disturbing trend within college football in which very few African-Americans are given the ultimate leadership position, head coach. Out of 119 Football Bowl Subdivision institutions, only 6 have black head football coaches. This is a disturbing trend as most of these schools that refuse to hire black football coaches have a majority black football team. This problem was once seen in the National Football League. Several black assistants and coordinators were not getting interviews for head coaching positions, so the NFL instituted the Rooney Rule in 2003. The Rooney Rule requires that when a head coaching vacancy becomes available, the team must interview at least one minority candidate. Many saw the Rooney rule as reverse discrimination, but a statistical analysis of the interviewees suggested that prior to the Rooney Rule, very few African American or Latino coaches were brought to the table for an interview. Since its inception, the number of minorities in coaching positions jumped from 6% prior to the Rooney Rule, to 22%. This rule does not apply, however, if an assistant has language in his contract that states he will be offered the head coaching position when there is an opening. In 2003, the NFL fined the Detroit Lions $200,000 for its failure to interview a minority candidate when the head coaching position became available.

In college football however, there is no such rule. In fact, some of the most qualified candidates are not getting viable opportunities. Of the 6 black coaches in the Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division 1), only one, Randy Shannon, is at a school that competes in one of the 6 major conferences; Randy Shannon is the head coach at the University of Miami, Fl. One of the more interesting coaching scenarios to occur during this past bowl season was the job search of Buffalo coach Turner Gill. Gill is a former Nebraska Quarterback who currently coaches at the University of Buffalo, a program that is in the mire of college football. After posting 4 wins at a university that has never been much of a winner, Gill was not interviewed when the Nebraska coaching job came open in 2007. Gill remained at Buffalo the following year where he took Buffalo to its first ever MAC Championship after beating Ball State in the MAC Championship game. Opportunities came open at Syracuse and Auburn. Of the two, Auburn would have been the most attractive opportunity as it is in the SEC, a major conference. Gill was passed over for the Auburn job in favor of Iowa State coach Gene Chezick. This sparked a lot of media controversy as Gill has won 7 games this past season at Buffalo whereas Chezick had won 5 games combined in two seasons at Iowa State. While the comparison of the resume would lead one to choose Gill over Chezick, Gill at least got an interview. Gill decided to remain at Buffalo.

There is another highly qualified coach who did not receive an interview this football year, despite all the coaching vacancies. Charlie Strong has been a successful defensive coordinator at the University of Florida for several years. He has been a successful component of two national championship teams, but has not received an interview. In a secret meeting with the athletic directors from 3 SEC schools, an ESPN correspondent discovered that the reason that Charlie Strong has not received any interviews is the same reason Turner Gill would not be hired in the SEC; they are married to white women.

It is surprising that in 2009, on the precipice of the nation’s first black presidential inauguration, the color of skin is still an issue. In the case of Gill and Strong, it is the color of their wives’ skin. Could the Rooney Rule help in situation like these? It is hard to say, but in the NFL, Herm Edwards who coaches the Kansas City Chiefs and Lovey Smith who coaches the Chicago Bears are married to white women. It would appear that the capitalism of the NFL has led owners to only care about who can get the job done whereas the college game is still subject to a “Good Ole Boys Club.” It is time for college football to adopt the Rooney Rule.

Legal Disclaimer: This site provides information about the law designed to keep readers informed of pertinent legal matters affecting the African-American community. But legal information is not the same as legal advice — the application of law to an individual’s specific circumstances. Although we go to great lengths to make sure our information is accurate and useful, we recommend you consult a lawyer in your specific location if you want professional assurance that our information, and your interpretation of it, is appropriate to your particular situation.

Lady Drama: Lisa Raye’s Confessions to Essence

These are Her Confessions…

I don’t know if Lisa Raye was having a guilty conscience or just wanted to set the record straight, but she sure did have a lot to tell during her recent interview with Essence.com. From her childhood to her current divorce, she lets it ALL out.

Check out some of the things she had to say below:

ESSENCE.COM: Is it difficult to go through rough times publicly, especially with a spouse.

LISARAYE: Yes. There is a law in Turks and Caicos that you must remain married for three years before you begin any kind ofdivorce proceedings. If you want to get a divorce before that you have to be able to prove certain things that will grant you the right to do so.
ESSENCE.COM: What evidence did you provide that helped you in your case?
LISARAYE: I can’t be specific right now. I will say that there are things that happen within a marriage which can disrespect the union and actions can be taken against those things. As an actress, I have put myself out there as an independent Black woman, a single mom, a go-getter, a hustler who isn’t afraid to survive. If you get with a man who goes against who you are or what you believe in, people who know you begin to say, “Hey, that’s not the LisaRaye I know.” As his wife, my name has been associated with things that I have nothing to do with, and I have to fight to clear my name.
ESSENCE.COM: Do you think that you and your husband could have avoided such a public war?
LISARAYE: Honestly, I hoped our divorce could be amicable. I’m saying to him, “Let’s get it over with so we can move on with our lives. It’s not fair to keep me involved in all this mess that I know nothing about… I’m human and enough is enough.” I’m going through some things, but I’ve been quiet and haven’t spoken to my country. I was trying to bow out gracefully, but after a while the Southside [of Chicago] had to come forward and finally say, “Hold on! Wait a minute!”
ESSENCE.COM: Many balked at your whirlwind romance and marriage and accused you of being an opportunist. How do you feel about that assessment of your character?

LISARAYE: First of all, I’m a fan of love and partnership. I would say this to my critics: If a man comes to you there obviously has to be a connection. I had a man who’s smart and powerful and who I fell in love with. He’s embracing my family. Add the fact that I have an opportunity to bring tourism to his country and be involved in something historical. Who in the hell would say no? But what scared me was the idea of being First Lady?
ESSENCE.COM: Bloggers have often said that you’re too “ghetto” to be a First Lady. How does that make you feel?

LISARAYE: I am not and never grew up in the ghetto. People need to get it right. I grew up on the Southside of Chicago. What people don’t realize is that my father was a multimillionaire who owned 12 hotels, motels, a steel mill, a radio station, a club, nursing home, and a law office. So I think it’s safe to say I’m a little above middle class and I’m a daddy’s girl. I make no apologies for loving the finer things in life or the men I choose to date. I don’t feel bad about the person I am. Now, I do have an edge, rawness and realness, and I can tell you I’m going to keep that. I’m one of those women who’s not to be messed with. I’m very opinionated and boisterous at times. I’m also kind and humble. I know when to fold and when to hold and that’s important. If my edge scares you, then you have a choice to remove yourself. Other than that, I’m very approachable, and when people meet me they always say, “You are so down to earth and nothing like I thought you were.”

Your Black President: Obama’s Abortion Order Clashes with the Vatican

The first sign of Vatican disappointment with the Obama administration came on Saturday, when Holy See officials reacted to the President’s executive order reversing the Mexico City policy, thus making federal money available to promote abortion internationally.

Obama signed the executive order canceling the eight-year-old restrictions on Friday, the third day of his presidency.

In an interview published Saturday in the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, the President of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Archbishop Rino Fisichella said that “among the many good things that he could have done, Barack Obama instead has chosen the worst.”

“What is important is to know how to listen… without locking oneself into ideological visions with the arrogance of a person who, having the power, thinks they can decide on life and death,” he added.

“If this is one of the first acts of President Obama, with all due respect, it seems to me that the path towards disappointment will have been very short,” Archbishop Fisichella said.

 

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Your Black President: Will Obama Have to Be Better Because He’s Black?

Just days before he was sworn in, President Obama was giving his daughters a tour of the Lincoln Memorial when one of them pointed to a copy of Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address carved into the wall.

President Obama strides into history as the nation’s first black president.

Obama’s 7-year-old daughter, Sasha, told her father that Lincoln’s speech was really long. Would he have to give a speech as long? Obama’s answer was completed by his older daughter, 10-year-old Malia.

“I said, ‘Actually, that one is pretty short. Mine may even be a little longer,’ ” Obama told CNN recently. “At which point, Malia turns to me and says, ‘First African-American president, better be good.’ ”

The story is light-hearted, but it touches on a delicate question: Will people hold Obama to a different standard because he is the first African-American president?

Americans appear split by race on that answer. According to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll, 53 percent of blacks say the American public will hold Obama to a higher standard than past presidents because he is black. Most whites — 61 percent — say Obama’s race will not matter in how he will be judged.

The question divided several people who were racial pioneers themselves.

Alexander Jefferson was one of the first blacks allowed to become a fighter pilot. He was a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of black pilots who escorted bombers in World War II.

“We had to be twice as good to be average,” he says.

Obama won’t face the same pressures he did because his presidential predecessor was so inept, Jefferson says.

“No, the world is ready for him,” he says. “The [George W.] Bush debacle was so depressing.”

Jefferson was shot down by ground fire on his 19th mission and spent a year in German prison camps. He wrote about his POW experiences in “Red Tail Captured, Red Tail Free: Memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman and POW.”

Jefferson says he dealt with the pressures of being a racial pioneer by drawing on the strength of black leaders who opened doors for him.

 

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Man Kills Entire Family After Losing His Job

Watching his family’s new, two-story home being built in 2001, Ervin Antonio Lupoe appeared to be riding a wave of hope and excitement. He dropped by each week to check the progress, one construction worker recalled.
But in what authorities believe was a gruesome burst of anger after he and his wife lost their jobs, the burly 40-year-old X-ray technician turned that same Wilmington home into a family tomb, officials said Tuesday.

Armed with a handgun, Lupoe evidently roamed room to room starting as early as Monday evening, fatally shooting his wife and five young children — including two sets of twins.
Early Tuesday, Lupoe faxed a bitter, rambling two-page letter to a local television station blaming his employer for his actions. Though his wife and children were already dead, he also called the station threatening to kill his family, investigators believe. He followed this up with an incongruous call to police saying that he had returned home and that “my whole family has been shot.”
Before police and firefighters arrived, he turned the weapon on himself, authorities believe.

Amid record job losses and economic distress for millions of families, the killings struck a chord.

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Your Black President: Roland Martin Says 100 Days Is Not Enough for Obama

The new president has been in office one week and already the clock is ticking as to whether or not he can get a lot accomplished in the first 100 days of his presidency.

Did I miss the memo? I thought the presidency is a four-year term.

If you turn on television or radio, commentators, correspondents and talk show hosts are speaking in breathless tones about the need for President Barack Obama to get off to a fast start and show all kinds of accomplishments in the first 100 days.

And we are given the sense that if he hasn’t signed a lot of major bills into law and issued a slew of important executive orders, then he will have failed.

Oh stop it.

Lest you think this is about Obama, it isn’t. I thought it was just as stupid to put Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush on some kind of silly shot clock.

This Washington, D.C., parlor game happens every four or eight years. It has gotten so silly that some folks actually analyzed Obama’s first 100 hours. It took that long to figure out the quickest path from the presidential sleeping quarters to the Oval Office!

The problem with so much emphasis being placed on the first 100 days is that a premium is placed on speed as opposed to thoughtfulness.

Take the president’s stimulus package.

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Black Love Alert – Opposite Sex Friendships: Lying to Yourselves?

When Suzanne Babb, a 34-year-old professional organizer from Gilbert, Arizona, is having a bad hair day, she does what many women do. She calls her best friend.

Psychologist says honest discussions with your spouse and their friend can help make the relationships work.

“I’ll be crying my eyes out and will say, ‘I’m fat and ugly, and I don’t have a boyfriend,’” she says. “Then Eric will come over and tell me I’m pretty, and we’ll watch ’300.’ It’s like having all the benefits of a really great husband — without having to do the laundry.”

Babb is one of many adults whose platonic friendship contradicts the old “When Harry Met Sally” maxim about sex always getting in the way of men and women being buddies. Though they have been close since high school, Babb says she and Eric have never even kissed.

“It would be like kissing my brother,” she says. “Ewwwww.”

The ‘Harry Met Sally’ myth

Although opposite-sex friends inevitably hook up in movies and on TV (Chandler and Monica, anyone?), many people think that it is possible to be platonic pals.

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• What is virginity worth today?

Some 83 percent of the people surveyed think that cross-gender friendships can and do exist, according to a 2001 Match.com poll of more than 1,500 members. And a 2006 study by Canada’s Public Health Agency of nearly 10,000 Canadian children shows that they often start early, with 65 percent of boys and 60 percent of girls declaring three or more close opposite-sex friends by grade 10.

Eighth-grade math class was where Rob Shore, a 48-year-old social media consultant from Newport Beach, California, met Andrea.

Click to read.

Your Black Gospel: To Tithe or Not to Tithe

In an article dated December 28, 2008 I wrote the first part of “To Tithe Or Not To Tithe?” In it I shared that tithing (donating 10% of our income to God’s work) is often taught as a biblical requirement. This teaching is based primarily on a portion of scripture from the book of Malachi, chapter 3, verses 8-12. Through Malachi, God challenges his people to “prove me now herewith, (by tithes and offerings) saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it…” (Mal. 3:10 parenthesis mine)
The full measure of this portion of scripture says that if we don’t tithe, we are “robbing God,” and that there is a curse on us, and of course, God will not open the windows of heaven and pour us out a blessing that there is not enough room to receive it.
As I had said in that first article, the problem with this teaching is that this is an attempt by man to “earn” the blessing of God through his own self effort. Like all law, this law was given to men to prove to us that we cannot keep it to God’s standard of perfection and can never attain his blessings by trying to keep it. It is intended to lead us to Christ who kept the whole law for us; and it is through faith in him that we can obtain ALL the blessings that God has for us including this one promised through tithing. All of God’s blessings are free through Jesus.
Attempting to “earn” God’s blessing through tithing is the same as trying to “earn” our salvation by doing enough good works. Neither is possible. The only way to receive either is through our faith in Christ.

It was in Christ that was given to us ALL that God is and ALL that God has. The truth of the matter is that God already opened the windows of heaven and poured us out a blessing that we have not enough room to receive it when he gave us Jesus. This blessing of God, along with any other is already purchased for us and is ours when we accept Jesus as our savior.
In order for you to get a larger picture of this whole idea, along with a New Testament understanding of the role of “giving” (as opposed to tithing), and its importance in our lives, I will refer you back to the 12/28/08 article.
The reason that I am writing this follow up article is for those of you who decide to stop tithing. If you decide to do this as I have, it will take trusting that God has already given you the blessing that Malachi promised, and it will take believing that the blessing is ALREADY yours in Christ instead of trusting in tithing. And that may not be an easy thing, especially if you have thought for years that tithing was a requirement and that you may be bringing a curse upon yourself if you don’t. It posed a problem for me and may also for you. The problem I faced was one of feeling guilty and struggling with fear of breaking a law of God and of not being blessed. But if you think about it, it is that sense of guilt you may experience that should be a red flag indicating that you are indeed living under the law. Under grace, there is no guilt.
Guilt and fear is the way the law keeps people bound to it. And yet, the law can never help us. We can never keep it well enough for it to do so. In fact I don’t know anyone who has received a blessing so large that they could not receive it, despite years of diligent tithing. On the contrary, most of those I know are still just getting by. And that is because this blessing cannot be earned by our own efforts anymore than salvation can be earned by our own efforts!

So what do you do if you want to break free from the law? What you are going to have to do is to resist guilt and receive grace and freedom AND like I said, you will have to receive the blessing of God by FAITH. That means you must rely on Jesus and what he did for you, rather than on what you can do yourself. And if you think about it, that is a good thing. And that is why Paul calls this fight you’re going to have to fight, the “good fight of faith.” In this fight, you will need to trust God, not your tithing. Think about what scripture says; that it is through Christ that we are joint heirs, already inheriting with Jesus all that he inherited, and the bible says that he inherited all things. It also says that we are complete in him and that through him have been given all things that pertain unto life and godliness. We do not have to tithe to obtain these immense blessings. They are already ours and obtainable through faith, the same as our salvation is. (Rom. 8:17, Col. 2:10, 2Pet. 1:3)
Now, if you fight this fight, faith will begin to grow in your heart, you will find a new rest in the Lord and the blessing of total provision will begin to manifest itself in your life. After all, that is what Jesus purchased for us. And I can vouch for this because ever since I stopped tithing, (nearly seven years now) my finances have steadily grown and so has my peace with God. I give now according as I purpose in my heart, and as God impresses me to give, and in all cases, my giving (not my tithing) has become sweet and joyous and fulfilling. It is no longer under compulsion or law or of necessity that I give. It is true freedom. Guilt and fear still try to get into my life, but I don’t let them in. Instead, I let the “blessing” in and ALL else that Jesus has purchased for me. I know now that I do not have to fulfill ANY law to be blessed by God except the law of faith because all of the blessings of God are a free gift. I know now that I am not under the law. I am under grace. And as long as I live by faith, the blessing will continue to grow in my life even to the point of not being able to have room enough to receive it. And as the blessing grows and my faith grows; so does my desire to give. That is how it works and it is FREEDOM! It is the goodness of God that leads us to any kind of repentance, not the law of God. (Rom. 2:4, 3:27, 6:14)
What I could never accomplish by tithing or any other works of my own, Jesus accomplished for me. And it is through my faith in him that I attain ANY blessing from God and ANY ability to do good for him.
It is now a much better life. In fact, it great. It is one of faith, not of works, it is one of rest and trust in God, not one of futile, tiring trying of my own, a life that was filled with guilt and fear when I didn’t “do enough,” (which was all of the time). And this way of life works. And it will work for anyone who lives it because it is the word of God and the word of God always works. It is our trying harder to please God and to fulfill his requirements that don’t work. (Gal. 3:10-14)
It was a Psalmist who aptly wrote, “O taste and see that the Lord is good. BLESSED is the man who trusteth in him.” (Ps. 34:8)
Submitted by John B. Agati
Author of: “Suffering (God’s Will?)”
More information about this and an upcoming book “Suffering, Unanswered Prayer, (And How to Fix the Whole Thing),” along with a short bio may be found at: www. jbagati.com

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Posted By John B. Agati to Your Black Gospel at 1/25/2009 06:32:00 PM

Young Jeezy Goes Off on Bill O’Reilly

As you may remember Conservative dummy Bill O’Reilly was b*tching about rappers Jay-Z and Young Jezzy calling them “low class”, because of their negative comments about former President George W. Bush. Now Jezzy has responded, and he definitely came hard.

Read what Jeezy told XXLMag.com below:

“Damn right! I ain’t never ran, nah mean?At the end of the day, you’re dealing with cats who think that we as young black men don’t know what it is we do. We entrepreneurs, we came from nothing. If you gotta mispronounce my name to try to be funny and you got a Harvard or whatever education you got, then you’re really showing how ignorant you are.”

“If you didn’t hear what the f*ck I said, it’s all good, but you didn’t hear all these people crying in New Orleans. You ain’t know bout the [Oscar] Grant kid that got killed in Oakland, you ain’t speaking on that. You ain’t talking about these ladies out here killing these babies, you worried about what I said.”

Michelle Obama Takes Heat for Having No-Black Designers

Michelle Obama is taking heat for not using any African American designers in her inauguration wardrobe.  On inauguration day, the First Lady wore a dress designed by Cuban designer Isabel Toledo and at night, she wore a gown by Taiwanese designer Jason Wu.  The Black Artist’s association founder Amnau Eele stated:

BAA’s founder Amnau Eele, a former model, told WWD:

“It’s fine and good if you want to be all ‘Kumbaya’ and ‘We Are the World’ by representing all different countries. But if you are going to have Isabel Toledo do the inauguration dress, and Jason Wu do the evening gown, why not have Kevan Hall, B Michael, Stephen Burrows or any of the other black designers do something too?” Eele said.

Your Black Education: College Financial Aid In Crisis

Finding financial aid for college this year promises to be tougher than any final exam.

The quest for money that begins for students and parents every January has taken on new urgency in 2009 amid fears that loans and grants will be scarcer than in the past due to the recession.

“The financing system for college is in real crisis,” said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of College Registrars and Admissions Officers. “Every one of the participants in the system is experiencing hardship — higher education institutions, states, aid donors and families all are cash-strapped.”

Federal student loans remain readily available — with some funding even increased recently by Congress. But the prospect that grants and scholarships may be cut at many schools, combined with the shrinking availability of private loans, has fueled widespread angst at a time when more people than ever are seeking help. Applications for federal aid for the current academic year already are running 10% above last year’s record pace, according to the Department of Education.

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Your Black Education: Jesse Jackson Speaks on Obama Educational Plan

By Rev. Jesse L. Jackson

One of the most impressive proposals advanced by President Barack Obama to aid college students is the creation of a new American Opportunity Tax Credit worth $4,000 in exchange for 100 hours of community service. While that program is still in the developmental stage, the Rainbow Coalition offers a plan that will immediately benefit students holding college loans.

We’re calling it “The Rainbow PUSH Education Stimulus Plan.” It is a simple-yet-sweeping plan to help families finance college costs that are steadily putting higher education out of the reach of most Americans. Our proposal is that students holding and applying for college loans should be offered interest rates that do not exceed 1 percent – the same favorable terms now being offered to large corporations under the federal bailout plan.

What we are seeking is fundamental fairness. Our nation’s largest banks and financial institutions – including Bank of America, Citigroup, and JP Morgan – are borrowing money from the federal government at a rate of less than 1 percent. However, students are generally forced to borrow for their education at rates in the range of 4 percent to 8 percent. Many are financing their education with credit cards that carry rates of 20 percent or higher.

Before graduating seniors can launch their families and careers, they are already saddled with excessive debt. To make matters worse, if students miss payments in this fragile economy, their credit score declines, forcing them to pay the highest interest rates for cars, homes and other necessities — if they can qualify at all. Yet, financial institutions with what is tantamount to bad credit reports are being rewarded with tax-supported, low-interest loans.

Lowering student loan interest rates to 1 percent directly addresses affordability, one of the most pressing problems facing our country. According to a report issued by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, the cost of attending college has risen nearly three times the rate of the cost of living. After being adjusted for inflation, college tuition and fees rose 439 percent from 1982 to 2007, far outpacing increases for medical care, housing and food. During this same period, median family income rose 147 percent.

As financial aid shifted from direct grants to loans, borrowing for higher education has more than doubled over the past decade. Meanwhile, the U.S. is falling behind in the global economy. Approximately 34 percent of young American adults are enrolled in college, putting the U.S behind Korea – which has a 53 percent rate – Hungary, Belgium, Ireland, Poland and Greece.

Moreover, by the year 2020, the United States will need 14 million more college-trained workers than it will produce, according to the National Center on Education and the Economy. A report issued by the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education at New York University observed, “We are losing ground and jobs to other countries – for example, China and India. Our nation’s ability to sustain long-term economic success increasingly depends on the very children we are not educating now.”

And the children we are not educating are mostly people of color. Every year, 1.2 million children do not graduate from high school. Of those, 348,427 are African-American and 296,555 are Latino. College graduation rates are equally dismal. Only 31 percent of Latinos and 48 percent of African-Americans complete some college, compared to 62 percent of Whites and 80 percent of Asians.

If we are to increase the college graduation rate for African-Americans, we cannot ignore economic inequality:

* The total median income for a White family was $64,427 in 2007. The total for a Black family was $40,143, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

* The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 6.1 percent of the overall U.S. labor force was unemployed in the third quarter of 2008; 11.4 percent of the Black labor force was out of work. Those figures are considered conservative by most economists and do not include discouraged people who have quit looking for work.

* 10.6 percent of the White U.S. population in 2007 lived below the official poverty threshold ($21,000 for a family of four), compared to 24.4 percent of the Black population, the data said.

Affordability takes on larger significance when one considers that the average annual cost of attending an in-state public university is $17,336. The figure for private universities is $35,374 per year.
The report from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education found: “On average, students from working and poor families must pay 40 percent of family income to enroll in public four-year colleges. Students from middle-income families and upper-income families must pay 25 percent and 13 percent of family income, respectively.”

As we can see from the foregoing data, the issues of college affordability and access to higher education are inextricably linked to the very future of our nation. Placing a 1 percent cap on college loans will remove a major obstacle for millions of students who want to attend college but can’t afford it.

Your Black Money: Success is Manufactured

by: Lawrence Watkins

I remember it like it was yesterday. I’m sitting in Perkins Restaurant as we finished our Friday morning bible study class in Louisville, KY. With me was Carl Brazley, my closest and most creative mentor. We were about to start one of our usual mentoring sessions that we had about once per month. This session was special as he shared his wisdom about success that has become fundamental in my life philosophy.

Mr. Brazley asked me two questions right off the bat: “What does success mean to me?” and “How will I go about achieving it?” I shared with him my personal mission statement that I had recently developed at the LeaderShape program in Champaign, IL. It states that “I want to become a tycoon politically, socially, and economically so that I may have a positive impact on my community.” Mr. Brazley then said, “That’s great! Now how are you going to ACHIEVE your mission?” This was the question that I was still trying to figure out. I had seen ultra-successful all around me in person or on TV, but I found the process mystifying at times.

Mr. Brazley continued, “Lawrence, don’t believe the hype that you see on TV when it comes to people who you view as successful. The media loves stories about self mad millionaires and billionaires, but rarely are they self made.” What he said next changed my perspective, “Here is what they [the media and often the individual in question] don’t want you to know: Success is manufactured! Many successful people have other hidden influential people in the background guiding them on the right path. Giving them the connections that they need to accelerate their success. This is what I am going to do with you Lawrence.” Whoa!! Talk about some heavy material!

The Real Secret Sauce of Success

I researched the statement that Mr. Brazley made further and I started to read more about individuals who I view to be successful. I was very surprised at the results/trends that I found. Let’s start with Donald Trump, the King of the Self Made…His father had over $100 million in real estate by the time he was born. Warren Buffett (a major influence in my thinking), the Sage of Omaha… His father was a stockbroker and four-term congressman from the state of Nebraska. What about Bill Gates? His mother sat on the board of directors of a bank and his father was a prominent Seattle attorney. The more people that I researched, the more surprised I became. Then I started to feel apprehensive, “What do I need to become successful?”

There are two things that I don’t want to happen by sharing this story with you:

1. I do not want to relegate or belittle the accomplishments of successful people just because they come from a well connected family. The people mentioned above are all extremely intelligent and have a strong work ethic. It’s also important not to hide facts about people’s environment as if that doesn’t play a critical role in success.

2. I do not want you to feel like the situation is hopeless if you don’t come from a rich and powerful family. Throughout this article, I’m going to teach you how to create your own “synthetic power family.”

Your Synthetic Family of Networks

If you don’t come from a rich and well connected family, do not worry about it. It is not the end all, be all. In fact, I know many people who come from well-to-do families, but their lives are in shambles. Money and entitlement can be hindrances to living a WEALTHY LIFE just as much as they can be assets. I come from a solidly middle class family where my father was a high-ranking police official and my mother was a high school guidance counselor. I was able to use this base to expand even further and broaden my experiences to study at Phillips Academy Andover, Carnegie Mellon University, and now Cornell. The most beautiful part is that I have paid very little for my educational experience and it’s because I created a synthetic family to help me achieve my goals.

A synthetic family is not the family you were born with, but one that you created that helps provide the resources you need to accomplish goals. I’m not just talking about money, but also advice and connections as well. Having a synthetic family is not a substitute for your real family, proper planning, or an intelligent work ethic (see my Pareto and Parkinson article). I view the synthetic family as an accelerator of the success process. The great thing about the synthetic family is that it is easy to start and replicate.

Be Your Own Barack Obama

After President Obama (wow, that sounds great) won the election for United States President in November, he had to move his actions from campaigning mode to governing mode. Immediately, Obama selected Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff and then dozens of other appointments were announced in the following weeks. President Obama surrounded himself with individuals who have a greater knowledge about different aspects of governance than he does. When President Obama and his advisors meet about the current economic situation, the advisors give their expert opinions about what Obama should do. After that, President Obama escorts them out of the room and then makes the decision he feels will be best for the country.

I ask, “What’s keeping you from being your own Barack Obama?” I urge you to assemble your own personal board of advisors to help you when you have a tough decision to make. There is not a human being on the face of the planet who knows everything. Seek out those individuals who have general wisdom as well as those who have specific expertise. Bring them into your family and achieve your goals more effectively.

The Early Bird Gets the Worm

One of the great myths of networking is that you start reaching out to others when you need something. The people who really succeed in building relationships know that you need to start building way BEFORE you need anything. This is especially true if you are thinking of opening your own business. Many people start the networking process too late in the game. Prospective entrepreneurs think about details like incorporating or the specific name of their company. Although those tasks are important, they have much less influence over your business success compared to relationship building.

Immediately after graduating from college I worked for my brother, Dr. Boyce Watkins. My job was to book him for speaking engagements and manage his growing national media profile. I knew long before I started to work for him that I wanted to start my own company and I took steps to achieve this goal. For example, when Boyce would appear on a national TV show, he was often on the show with other high profile guests. We would make sure to collect that person’s contact information and follow up with him/her right away. When I started Great Black Speakers Bureau, those were my first speakers. Make sure to always begin with an end in mind!

Overcome your Fear of Rejection

Bestselling author and networking guru Keith Ferrazzi calls this the “genius of audacity.” If you never ask for what you want, very rarely do you ever get what you want. The two major emotions that stop people from asking are the fear of rejection from the other person and a feeling that the other person is better than you. Question: What’s going to have a longer impact on your life? FEAR of rejection or FAILING to reach your goals? The answer to this question for me is not reaching the goals I set out to accomplish. In this scenario, rejection MIGHT happen but failure WILL happen.

Follow Up and Stay in Touch

If the yin is overcoming your fears and asking for what you want, then the yang is following up with your contacts. This is something that I have personally struggled with lately as my number of contacts has grown significantly. However, I have noticed a direct correlation between my rate of follow up and the amount of success I achieve over any period of time. It is funny how people spend so much time making new contacts and so little time following up with them. This reminds me of the local ladies man who is only interested in the chase of a woman. Once he gets her, he then loses interest. In business and in life, don’t be this person! It is much more expensive to attain a new client/contact/friend than to maintain the ones you already have. I am not telling you to not meet new people, just do right by them when you do meet them for long lasting business/personal relationships.

Your Black President: Obama’s Black Appointees Getting Confirmed

While President Barack Obama’s choice to head the U.S. Justice Department has hit a stumbling block, two of his other Black appointees cleared the Senate this week on motions of unanimous consent.

A hearing has been tentatively scheduled next week for Obama’s pick for attorney general, Eric Holder. But it remains unclear whether he will face more questions or when a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee will take place.

Holder’s confirmation is being held up by Republicans on the committee who have demanded more time to question him about harsh interrogation techniques, Guantanamo trials and other topics. Holder’s confirmation is not considered in doubt, however, since he has solid Democratic support and enough backing from Republicans to prevent a filibuster.

Meanwhile, the Senate confirmed Susan Rice as ambassador of the United Nations on Jan. 22 by unanimous consent. A Washington, D.C., native, Rice is the first African American woman to hold the position.

 

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Your Black Sports: 49ers Appear to Be Aiming for Michael Vick

God bless NFL.com’s Adam Schefter for trying to figure out why on Earth the 49ers would interview former Falcons head coach Dan Reeves for the open offensive coordinator position. But this seems a bit … thin.

The 49ers are interviewing former Falcons head coach Dan Reeves today for their offensive coordinator vacancy. Reeves was Atlanta’s head coach in 2001, when the team traded for the No. 1 overall draft pick to use on QB Michael Vick. One day earlier, the 49ers interviewed Ravens quarterbacks coach Hue Jackson, who used to coach Vick in Atlanta. And San Francisco also has expressed some interest in former Falcons wide receivers coach Mike Johnson, who coached quarterbacks in Baltimore and also knows Vick well.
So, some of the candidates the 49ers have begun to focus on all have connections to Vick, who could be back in the NFL as early as this summer after being released from federal prison.

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Obama-Brand Heroin For Sale in New York

 

Hope! Change! Heroin!

VIA Smoking Gun

They’re calling it “The Audacity of Dope”, while we think it’s all cutting a little too close to home for the comfort of those in the Kool-Aid Gang.

Sort of like Liza Minnelli coming out with her own line of vodka (Liquid Liza!).

Or Oprah marketing the most-calorie-packed, fattening marshmallows ever invented (Marsh-mo-prahs!).

Police in upstate New York have started seizing heroin stamped with the Obama brand, appealing to his followers who want to get high while toking on hopium (and not bothering to pick up their own litter, like they did in Washington on Wednesday).

We thought his followers would start demanding his name and face on our national currency (”Who was Alexander Hamilton anyway? It’s racist not to put Obama on the ten dollar bill! Benjamen Franklin was a lousy president — the hundred should be “The Obama”!”) — we never dreamed they’d stamp his brand on heroin.

Sure explains a lot, though.

Your Black President: Reporter Attacks Obama at Press Room Visit

The web is buzzing over a reporter who grills President Obama during a short press room visit.  Some say Obama looks agitated, but some disagree.  The interaction begins at the 3:20 mark in the video.

Lady Drama: Knicks star eddie curry’s ex-girlfriend, daughter found dead

It has been reported that the ex-girlfriend and daughter of Eddie Curry were found dead in their South Side Chicago apartment yesterday. Eddie’s 3 year old son was also at the apartment but he was unharmed. None of the immediate family members commented on the tragedy but a man claiming to being Nova Henry’s (the ex-girlfriend) uncle made a statement. Read what he had to say below:
“She had a stalker boyfriend,” he told WMAQ in Chicago. “And she had a restraining order against him and she was trying to avoid all this.”

Doesn’t all of this sound familiar, seems like Chicago is full of a lot of crazy men. This is truly a sad situation, and I will keep their family in my thoughts.
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Posted By N. Taylor to Your Black Gossip at 1/25/2009 01:26:00 PM

Your Black Global: Well Known Congo Rebel Arrested

Your Black Technology: 25 Years of the Mac Celebrated

Long before fish swam in Macquariums, hipsters got Apple logo tattoos and thousands camped out for days to get into computer store openings, there was a machine.

Danielle Brecker found this 1989 photo of friends on their Macs at Drexel University in Philadelphia.

Saturday marks the 25th anniversary of the original Macintosh, the first personal computer to draw masses, introduce the mouse and incorporate a graphical user interface, relying on images instead of text.

The Apple Inc. watershed product entered American consciousness amid fanfare, with a $1.5 million commercial, made by Ridley Scott, wowing audiences during Super Bowl XVIII. The piece’s title, “1984,” invoked author George Orwell’s message and stood as a warning against conformity.

Two days after the ad ran, the Macintosh became available and life, as people knew it, changed. No longer were computers viewed as toys with which to play primitive games or as untouchable tools reserved for degreed engineers. We began to think different.

“The Macintosh demonstrated that it was possible and profitable to create a machine to be used by millions and millions of people,” said Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, research director for the Institute for the Future, a Palo Alto, California, think tank, and chief force behind “Making the Macintosh: Technology and Culture in Silicon Valley,” an online historical exhibit. “The gold standard now for personal electronics is, ‘Is it easy enough for my grandmother to use it?’ People on the Macintosh project were the first people to talk about a product in that way.”

Pang, 44, remembered being “mesmerized” by the computer when he first saw it up close in his college bookstore. He wasn’t alone. Read about how iReporters are preserving Mac history

 

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Your Black President: Obama vs. Limbaugh

Matt Drudge would never overstate anything, of course. Histop headline right now is certainly an attention-grabber: “President takes on Rush Limbaugh in new media war.”

The story Matt is pointing to was put online last night by theNew York Post. It says a White House official confirms that during yesterday’s meeting with Congressional leaders from both parties, President Obama told the Republican lawmakers that “you can’t just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done.”

Does that sound like a “media war?”

Meanwhile, Rush spoke at length yesterday about what he meant when he said he hopes the president “fails”:

“Speaking honestly, I mean look, people are misunderstanding this, Snerdley got a couple calls from some of his buddies last night, ‘What did your boss mean, he wants the president to fail?’

 

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Your Black President: Inauguration Crowds Caused Major Problems

The U.S. senator in charge of the Congressional Inaugural Committee has acknowledged there were “significant problems” handling crowds that kept thousands of people with valid tickets from witnessing the inauguration of President Obama.

Meaghan McCamman photographed this Inauguration Day crowd stuck in an underground tunnel.

Some were stuck underground in a tunnel jammed with lines of people that took hours to clear. Others made it to a designated gate only to find it had closed.

Among the thousands who were at a standstill that day in the 3rd Street Tunnel was a woman who told CNN: “This is the only way in. One gate.”

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, said the incidents prompted “great concern” among members of the Congressional Inaugural Committee.

Feinstein, who chairs the committee, has since met with key law enforcement and planning officials and issued a statement Thursday acknowledging the problems.

The meeting “was to learn more about what led to thousands of people not being able to get into their designated ticketed areas,” the statement said, and that “it is clear that there were significant problems with managing crowds, especially in the 3rd Street Tunnel.”

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Your Black Politics: With Barack Obama in Office, Is there a Need for "Black Leadership"?

As the nation celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day and anticipated the inauguration of the nation’s first black president, civil rights leaders here cautioned that the fight for equality for African-Americans is still far from over.

“We are here because the struggle is not over — the struggle has just begun,” declared Rev. Charles Steele, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. King was the first president of the group, which is based in Atlanta.

At its annual prayer breakfast here — part celebration, part gospel revival — conference leaders proclaimed to more than 450 guests that their organization is alive, well, and still necessary, even after Barack Obama takes office Tuesday.

“Barack Obama has run the last lap of a 60-year race,” said Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was an aide to King and SCLC co-founder Ralph Abernathy.

“Like any great finisher, he ran a strong last lap,” Jackson said. “But this is not a four-year race. This is a tag team race.”

Elsewhere in Washington, organizers of a long-delayed memorial for Martin Luther King Jr. announced Monday they had received a $1 million donation from a Chicago energy company.

Exelon Corp.’s donation brings the total raised for the memorial to $104 million. Organizers, who have been working on the project for more than a decade, say they need $120 million to build the tribute on the National Mall, not far from the Lincoln Memorial where King gave his 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech.

At the SCLC breakfast, Jackson pointed out that without the civil rights movement, there couldn’t be a black president.

In an emotional recount, Jackson — who unsuccessfully ran for president in 1984 and 1988 — described those who died in the movement as part of the lineage that led to a black president.

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Your Black Sports: Kansas City Coach Herm Edwards Fired

The Chiefs have fired coach Herm Edwards after three seasons, the team confirmed Friday afternoon.

The move came 10 days after new general manager Scott Pioli was introduced as Carl Peterson’s replacement and a lengthy and mysterious period in which word rarely leaked about Pioli’s thinking or the direction the Chiefs might go.

The Chiefs have been in negotiations to land Mike Shanahan as their next coach and a deal is near, league sources told ESPN’s Chris Mortensen.

“After careful deliberation over the last week, Scott and I decided that it was in the best interests of the Chiefs to move forward in a different direction,” team chairman Clark Hunt said in a statement released by the team. “This was not an easy decision. Herm is an outstanding football coach and a man of integrity. We appreciate his leadership over the past three seasons, and we wish him all the best in the future.”

 

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Your Black Hip Hop: The Source Will Take No More "Booty Ads"

One thing magazine advertising and hip-hop music have always had in common is skin — images of models, usually women, in alluring poses and various states of undress. The Source, the hip-hop magazine, does not aim to do away with such images — there is a lot of money in them — but it wants to make the sex in its pages a lot less explicit.

Enlarge This Image

Ads for pornography and escorts had been a mainstay for The Source, more than half the ads at times.

To that end, the magazine announced recently that it would no longer take what the co-publisher, L. Londell McMillan, calls “booty ads,” for pornographic films, pornographic Web sites or escort services. But those have been a mainstay for The Source — more than half the ads in the magazine at times, he said.

The Source hopes to gain more than it loses by chasing mainstream advertisers that do not want their ads alongside the adults-only kind. That’s a serious gamble at a time when magazines are struggling, unable to hold onto the ads they have.

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Your Black Celebrities: Lil Kim Livid Over "Notorious"

Lil’ Kim finally went to go see “Notorious”, and as expected she was not pleased. Prior to the release of the film Kim expressed her dislike of her portrayal in the film, but now she is even more outraged.

“I feel like I was not portrayed how I should have been in this movie. I was in love with BIG and he was in love with me. I was never a JUMP-OFF, I know this and BIG knew this. I wasn’t even able to choose who I wanted to portray me in this movie. I would have never picked Naturi, she doesn’t have a Lil Kim aura at all! She looks nothing like I looked back then. We have NO similarities. Watching her on-screen was so “dreadful” as Simon Cowell would say. She is tasteless and talentless. Never once did she contact me for input or to get a feel of me for the character. A “TRUE” actress would contact the source to be the best they can be in portaying someone. That told me right there, she wasn’t right for the part and not to mention, Naturi has got to be one of THE worst actresses I’ve ever seen and I can’t believe they chose her. I really can’t!”

Seems to me that Kim needs to except the fact that she was indeed B.I.G’.s jumpoff, but I guess it’s true what they say THE TRUTH HURTS.

–
Posted By N. Taylor to Your Black Gossip at 1/23/2009 03:36:00 PM

Your Black President: CNN’s Campbell Brown Calls Barack Obama a Hypocrite

Your Black Hip Hop: Bad Boy Rapper Writes Nasty Tell-All Book About Diddy

According to ThisIs50.com,former Bad Boy rapper Mark Curry is releasing a tell-all book about his time at Bad Boy. In the book, titled Dancing With the Devil, Curry speaks on Diddy’s penchant for stealing artists’ shine and charge them strange fees.

“Puff has an annoying habit of inserting himself into the songs and videos of all the artists on his label and its common knowledge that many Bad Boy acts resented him for this,” writes Curry. “Asked about his practice in the July 1995 issue of a magazine aimed at black teenagers, Puff said: ‘I like performing with my artists. I like talking on the records and I like being in the videos. It protects my interests in terms of what I’m going to do in the future. Say if a company tries to remove me. It’s going to be hard to remove me and still have my acts and [have] the same level of intensity and the same flavour and feeling’.”

“Puff charged the artists for his appearance on their records and videos, usually without [them] realizing it until they receive their royalty statements,” wrote the rapper, who was known for his appearance on the hit “Bad Boy for Life.” “That’s when they discovered that their large sums of money had gone to fees which were doubled, tripled and even quadrupled because of Puff’s ‘special appearances.’ He charged artists, for example, for having his Bentley in his videos-which he insisted upon- then took tax credit for business use of a car.”

-Dancing With the Devil is slated for a February release.

Your Black Brothers: Roland Martin Writes about Obama’s Daughter

 

Roland S. Martin says Sasha Obama is from a generation raised in a diverse world and open to possibility.

There are so many things that we could take away and remember forever regarding the inauguration of the first African-American president in the history of the United States, but I’ll always remember the laughter of a little girl.

Shortly after President-elect Barack Obama finished the oath and became President Barack Obama, he joined hands with his family and waved to the cheering voices of 1.8 million people packed from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial.

People cried, others hugged, celebrities and everyday folks snapped photos to capture the moment.

There really was an amazing energy that permeated the crowd as we all witnessed a barrier come tumbling down before our eyes.

But what stood out for me was a moment when President Obama looked down at his 7-year-old daughter, Sasha, and she said something to him, and then let out this huge laugh.

I don’t know whether it was her statement or his response, but the bubbly child was having the time of her life. The sheer joy that was on her face as she grinned from ear to ear caused me to just start laughing as I watched her reaction.

I was shooting photos from the CNN platform just across from where he spoke, and one of the many images was of a beaming Sasha alongside her mom and 10-year-old sister, Malia.

Can you imagine what was going through this young girl’s mind, to see her father stand there and take the oath of office?

As I saw her that day, and later bouncing along a sidewalk as she walked with her father, my niece Anastacia came to mind. Their smiles and bouncy walk are so much alike, and both are the same age.

 

Click to read.

Your Black President: Statement from Barack Obama

“This afternoon, I met with our Ambassador to Iraq, the commander in Iraq, and the overall theater commander in the region in order to get a full update on the situation in Iraq.  Key members of my cabinet and senior national security officials also participated in this meeting. 

“The meeting was productive and I very much appreciated receiving assessments from these experienced and dedicated individuals.  During the discussion, I asked the military leadership to engage in additional planning necessary to execute a responsible military drawdown from Iraq.

“In the coming days and weeks, I will also visit the Department of Defense to consult with the Joint Chiefs on these issues, and we will undertake a full review of the situation in Afghanistan in order to develop a comprehensive policy for the entire region.”

Your Black President: Obama Newspaper Covers from Around the World

Your Black News: 18 Year Old Gets 36 years in Prison for Videogame Murder

A Colorado teen has been sentenced to 36 years in prison for his role in the death of a 7-year-old girl during an apparent imitation of the “Mortal Kombat” video game.
Lamar Roberts was sentenced Friday in Greeley’s Weld County District Court. The 18-year-old pleaded guilty last month to knowingly or recklessly causing a death through child abuse.
Prosecutors say Roberts and 17-year-old Heather Trujillo were baby-sitting Zoe Garcia on Dec. 6, 2007. They say the two kicked, hit and slammed Trujillo’s half-sister to the floor.
According to arrest affidavits, Trujillo and Roberts were baby-sitting Zoe and her twin, 3-year-old sisters, who were sleeping in another room, while Trujillo’s mother worked at a nearby bar.

 

Click to read.

Tim Wise Releases a New Book

According to The Wall Street Journal, Barack Obama’s presidential victory means we “can put to rest the myth of racism as a barrier to achievement in this splendid country.”

According to columnist Richard Cohen, Obama as President signifies that America is a “post-racial” nation, and that “we have overcome” the vestiges of racism and discrimination.

And according to the Atlantic Monthly, Obama’s ascent to the White House may well signify, “The End of White America,” or at least the extent to which whiteness remains a privileged “norm.”

Yet, beneath the proclamations of achieved color-blindness and race-neutral ecumenism, the evidence of racism in employment, education, housing, health care and the justice system remains substantial. And white racial attitudes–not about Obama and those who, like him, “transcend race,” but rather about the bulk of black and brown folks in the nation–continue to indicate substantial white racism at the personal level as well.

In Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama, author and activist, Tim Wise, explores what Obama’s success means, and importantly what it doesn’t mean for race and racism in the United States. Contrary to popular perception, Obama’s victory says little about racism as a larger institutional phenomenon, and may well make the fight against racism more difficult than ever, by reinforcing longstanding white denial, reinforcing the myth of meritocracy that has long served as a justification for profound racial disparities, and by creating a new and limiting archetype of acceptable blackness, which although met by those like Obama, would erect higher obstacles than ever in the path of non-Obama-like persons of color.

About the book, actor and human rights activist, Danny Glover says that Wise “provides an insightful and much-needed lens through which we can begin to navigate this current stage in our ongoing quest for a more inclusive definition of who we are as a nation. It’s definitely a book for these times.”

And Bill Fletcher, long time activist and Executive Editor of BlackCommentator.com says:

“Tim Wise has looked behind the curtain…His book debunks any notion that the United States has entered a post-racial period…With this book, Wise hits the bull’s eye.”

As we enter the Obama-era, it will be increasingly important to arm ourselves with the factual information and analysis needed to place the quest for racial justice in the forefront of public consciousness. With the media and the talking heads proclaiming that Obama signifies the virtual fulfillment of Dr. King’s dream, piercing the veil of denial and deflection will become more difficult, but also more critical than ever. Between Barack and a Hard Place can help to re-claim the race discourse from those who prefer to paper over the ongoing presence of racism as a potent social force.

Get your copy today from City Lights Books (the publisher), Amazon.com, or your local independent bookstore!

Your Black Scholar: A Moment to Be Proud

Dr. Wilmer J. Leon III

On January 11, 1989 in his formal goodbye to the nation, President Ronald Reagan said:

“The past few days when I’ve been at that window upstairs, I’ve thought a bit of the “shining city upon a hill.””

President Reagan was quoting John Winthrop, a pilgrim who in 1630 was seeking a homeland that would be free. Since America’s inception, Americans have struggled to build that “shining city”, a country that would live up to the principles and precepts that the founding fathers so eloquently articulated in the Declaration of Independence and later in the Constitution.

From the Three Fifths Compromise, Fugitive Slave Provision, and the allowance of slaves to be imported for twenty-one years after the adoption of the Constitution to the illegal occupation of Iraq, torture, warrantless wiretapping, and extraordinary renditions, America has endured numerous challenges to its principles, values, and ideals. The most recent examples of these ethical compromises or lapses have left many people wondering if that beacon of light would continue to shine.

On January 20, 2009 with the inauguration of America’s 44^th President, its first African American President, America takes a giant step toward reclaiming its light. This is the moment for Americans to be proud and an invitation for this country to truly be great again.

President Obama gave his inaugural address from the steps of a Capitol built in 1793 by slaves who were kept in pens just yards from where he stood. He and his family will live in a house constructed in 1792 by slaves who toiled in Virginia quarries to dig and transport the stones and lumber used to build the residence. The irony is mind boggling; two hundred and nineteen years later an African American is sworn into the highest office in the land. Finally, the two disparate narratives have merged; truly a moment for all Americans to be proud.

From this moment has come the opportunity to reclaim greatness. President Obama has called upon Americans to face the “gathering clouds and raging storms” by remaining “faithful to the ideals of our forebears, and true to our founding documents.” He has called for the American collective “to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics…and to… choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.”

President Obama has made it very clear that true greatness can only be achieved through commitment, sacrifice, and hard work by saying, “…we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted — for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame.

Some view this historic event in the context of Dr. King and the fulfillment of The Dream. Never confuse a down payment with the balance being paid. The Dream was never about electing an African American President. The Dream was about brotherhood, freedom, and justice for the least of us so that the true meaning of the American creed can be enjoyed by all of us. As Dr. King said, “And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.”

The racial disparities and injustices that Dr. King fought against still exist in America today. The election and inauguration of President Obama does not negate the fact that he has received more death threats than any elected official in the history of this nation. The Dream can not be fulfilled when a candidate for President has to run a deracialized campaign in order to make the masses comfortable with the obvious aesthetic. The inauguration of President Obama does not negate the reality of Driving While Black, disproportionate rates of unemployment, high school dropouts, incarceration; death by hypertension, heart disease, and cancer in the African American community. This inauguration is a great step forward in America but remember, we have miles to go before we sleep.

As Dr. King the realist and prophet stated in his famous I Have a Dream speech, “We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now… Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy… It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment.” President Obama told the nation, “That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood… our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

So as American’s bask in this moment and celebrate the accomplishment they should never lose site of the challenges that lie before them. The greatness of this moment lies not in the moment itself but in the potential of what it can become. President Obama did not talk about his personal accomplishment; he spoke about the American collective, We the People. “At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because we the people have remained faithful to the ideals of our forebears, and true to our founding documents.”

This democracy only works when We the People see to it that it does. If America is to be a great nation again, its creed, The Dream must become true. So it was at the founding of this great nation; so it will be going forward.

God Bless President Obama!

Dr. Wilmer Leon is the Producer/ Host of the nationally broadcast call-in talk radio program “On With Leon,” a regular guest on CNN’s Lou Dobb’s Tonight, and a Teaching Associate in the Department of Political Science at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Go to www.wilmerleon.com or email: wjl3us@yahoo.com.

© 2009 InfoWave Communications, LLC.

Lady Drama: Swizz Beats Wife Speaks Against Alicia Keys

Singer Mashonda set the record straight letting it be known that A. Keys in fact was the reason behind the divorce from her hubby Swizz Beats. Mashonda told Angela Lee of Shade 45’s Lip Service Radio, that she began to notice a change in Swizz’s attitude causing her to look through his hotel receipts. The receipts she found matched up with the times he was on tour with Alicia convincing her he was cheating with her.
Check out the convo below:
Who would of ever thought that A. Keys was a homewrecker. Well I can’t wait to hear her side of the story, hopefully she will clear her name. Plus Alicia already has a man, why does she need to go stealing Swizz???…Especially since he ain’t cute…HMM

Your Black News: Woman Sells her Virginity for $3.8M

Is a woman’s virginity worth $3.8 million? That’s how much a 22-year-old from San Diego, California, said she has been offered through an auction she announced in September.

Natalie Dylan, 22, said she has put her virginity up for auction through the Moonlite Bunny Ranch.

The woman, who goes by “Natalie Dylan,” set up a private auction through the Moonlite Bunny Ranch, a legal brothel in Nevada, has given her lots of “business opportunities,” she said.

Her top bid comes from a 39-year-old Australian, but she has no immediate plans to settle the auction, she said in a recent interview with CNN.

Some men may seek virgins because they want them as trophies, or desire purity. But as to why men would bid so much money on virginity, she said she has no answer.

“I honestly don’t know what they see in it,” she said.

If you think Dylan’s auction amounts to prostitution, she completely agrees. She also said she’s not breaking any laws — after all, prostitution in Nevada is legal.

“I feel people should be pro-choice with their body, and I’m not hurting anyone,” she said. “It really comes down to a moral and religious argument, and this doesn’t go against my religion or my morals. There’s no right or wrong to this.”

 

 

Click to read.

Your Black Sports: NFL Gets a New Black Coach

Raheem Morris is young, energetic and confident he’s the right choice as new coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The 32-year-old oozed enthusiasm during a news conference to introduce him as Jon Gruden’s successor on Saturday, even if he did not offer specifics about his plan to help the Bucs climb back among the NFL’s elite.

WHY WAS GRUDEN FIRED? Ex-players aren’t supportive

NFL COACHING CAROUSEL: Who’s coming, going on the sideline

Morris paid homage to Gruden, who led Tampa Bay to its only Super Bowl title six years ago, and said his predecessor sent him a text message earlier in the day wishing him well in his new job.

“He told me to take this thing and run with it,” Morris said. “That’s what I planned on doing. That’s what I want to do.”

Click to read.

Your Black Sports: Lebron James Joins Cleveland Browns…Sort of

LeBron James once dreamed of playing in the NFL. He did for 30 seconds.

In a television commercial debuting Sunday for State Farm Insurance, James, a former star wide receiver in high school, suits up for the Cleveland Browns.

A die-hard Dallas Cowboys fan, James wears a brown No. 23 Browns jersey with “LeBron” on the back. The spot was recently shot at the University of Akron’s indoor training facility and will be shown will during Sunday’s AFC and NFC championship games.

This will be the second commercial James has done with State Farm, which signed him to a sponsorship last year hoping he could help the company attract young adult policyholders.

“He is one of the few sports stars who transcends his sport as a pop culture icon,” said State Farm’s Mark Gibson, an assistant vice president of advertising. “He has helped connect people to State Farm who may not have been connected with us.”

James also has done public service announcements and appearances for the insurance provider.

At 6-foot-8 and 250 pounds, James often describes himself as a football player. He was an All-Ohio selection at Akron’s St. Vincent-St. Mary High School and still plays flag football at the school during the offseason.

James said he had input into the commercial, which shows using some of his basketball skills to help the Browns on the football field.

Click to read.

Your Black Sports: NCAA Makes Another Rule to Hurt College Athletes

Every spring, dozens of college basketball players grapple with an enormous, life-altering decision: Shoul d they stay in school, or turn pro? Given the high stakes, it’s understandable why many of these underclassmen wait until the last possible moment to make up their minds.

As you might imagine, this waiting game can be uncomfortable for coaches, since the NBA permits players to wait until just before the draft in June to withdraw their names from the eligibility pool. Yet, that discomfort seems to be a small price to pay for doing business. After all, most of the players in this situation come from the top programs where the coaches make seven-figure salaries, or at least high six-figure ones. The players, on the other hand, often come from underprivileged backgrounds and face enormous pressure from their family and friends to take the money and run. The situation is not ideal for anyone, but all things considered, it is pretty fair.

That’s why it’s so disheartening that the 12 coaches from one the nation’s preeminent basketball conferences, the ACC, are leading the charge to pass a new rule that would move the deadline on this decision to the day before the spring signing period for high school seniors. This year, that period begins on April 15, which means a player who competed in the national championship game would have all of nine days to make the most important decision of his life. When the NCAA’s Division-I Legislative Council took up the proposal last week, it decided to postpone a vote for 60 days so it could collect more feedback from the membership. They didn’t ask for my input, but I’ll give it to them anyway: Do the right thing by these kids, and vote this sucker down.

Click to read.

Hail to the Chief – By Dr. Boyce Watkins

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Hail to the Chief

By Dr. Boyce Watkins

www.BoyceWatkins.com

During my recent trip to New York, I was stunned after watching US Airways passengers standing on the icy wings of an airplane floating on the Hudson River.  It was only after looking at my cancelled ticket that I realized I was scheduled to fly out of the same city, in the same airport, with the same airline on the same day, at the same time as the people on that flight.   They were going to Charlotte and I wasn’t, but that’s still too close for comfort.

In spite of invitations I have to speak and live in big cities, I stay isolated here in Syracuse so I can search for my personal perception of truth within the deepest components of my heart.  I seek ideology that is disconnected from hype, politics, financial compensation or other tools used for the tainting of souls and manipulation of minds.   I chose not to go to the inauguration and I’ve rarely watched television, all because I wanted to figure out how I feel about recent events without allowing CNN or anyone else to tell me how I should feel.

This morning I watched a Black man….a real brother, Barack Obama, stand and take the oath as President of the United States.  When I endorsed Barack long before he appeared to ever have a chance of winning, it was honestly just wishful thinking.  I supported the campaigns of Barack, Jesse and Al, mainly because I never believed Bill Clinton to be (as some called him) the First Black President.  I also saw something in Barack’s eyes and mannerisms that made me trust him.  My “brother radar” gave security clearance, and I knew that only a real Black man would marry an amazing woman like Michelle Obama (the woman I came closest to marrying is actually a beautiful attorney who reminds me of Michelle).  I also saw something in Obama’s poise and intelligence that made me believe that he would be good for our nation.  My only concern was that I was not sure if a nation willing to elect incompetent men like George Bush would have the vision necessary to choose the best man or woman for the job.

I don’t do media appearances on Fox News anymore mainly because I was disappointed by their attacks on Barack Obama and Jeremiah Wright.  I was even more upset with Bill O’Reilly’s statements about having a “lynching party” against Michelle Obama, and the light-hearted death threats made by Fox News Analyst Liz Trotter, who stated that she would “take (Obama) out if she could”.   I love Barack Obama, and I was inspired by his ability to make the impossible possible.  Like all of us, I was happy to sacrifice to help get him into the White House.

But while I support Barack Obama, I never let myself get into Obama-mania. 

While I felt the need to show up and vote, I never chose to “Barack the Vote”.

My position has always been simple:  Falling in love with a politician can be a very dangerous thing, and I simply wasn’t going to do it.

Like Barack Obama, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was another President who took over our country during a tough economic time.  When Black leaders met with Roosevelt to discuss their justifiable indignation over Civil Rights abuses throughout the nation, Roosevelt simply told them, “I agree with you and I want to do it.  Now go out and make me do it.”

The interpretation of Roosevelt’s words is that after the celebrations are over and we’ve come back to reality, we must be sure to do what is necessary to effectively utilize this opportunity.  Barack Obama is a good man, I know this from speaking to my contacts on the South Side of Chicago.  But we must work hard to ensure that Barack THE MAN aligns squarely and firmly with Barack THE POLITICIAN.  We must always be aware of the difference between BARACK OBAMA and the OBAMA ADMINISTRATION.

BARACK OBAMA believes that public schools should get all the funding they need and that education is critically important. 

The OBAMA ADMINISTRATION knows that children don’t vote or pay taxes.

BARACK OBAMA knows that 30 – 40% Black male unemployment is an economic tragedy. 

The OBAMA ADMINISTRATION knows that being too closely aligned with issues effecting Black men is neither politically productive nor popular in a country that still doesn’t like Black people all that much, especially if they are poor.  

BARACK OBAMA knows that, in spite of having a Black President, institutionalized racism in wealth and income levels, health care disparities and other areas will take at least another 100 years to eradicate.   He is also intelligent enough to know that reparations are long overdue.

The OBAMA ADMINISTRATION knows that talking about racism using the same language as the United Nations (who states clearly that America continues to maintain a two-tiered society) is something that many Americans simply do not want to hear.

So, as we live in the bliss of “Obama-mania”, please consider this:

The dictionary defines “mania” as “A severe medical condition characterized by elevated moods, energy, unusual thought patterns and sometimes psychosis.  Some symptoms are fixation, madness, compulsion, craving, craze, delirium, dementia, derangement, disorder, fad, fancy, fascination, fetish, insanity, lunacy and obsession.”

Like bottles of strong liquor, mania feels good.  However, it should only be temporary. You also need designated drivers to keep the political house party under control and get everyone back home safely.  Those who remain “high” and detached from reality are easy targets for emotionally void and disturbingly rational political administrations.  Any good politician with constituents living in the midst of mania logically understands that there is very little work to do.  No one campaigns in the regions they already control.

So, as Roosevelt explained in the example above, we can best show our love for President Obama by being politically intelligent, diligently resourceful, well-organized and focused on the issues.  Political engines like the Obama Administration only understand those with the power to churn those engines.  The easiest trick in the world is to make us think that racism is over because we have a Black President.  Let’s keep our eyes on the prize.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Finance Professor at Syracuse University.  He does regular commentary in national media, including CNN, BET, ESPN and CBS.  For more information, please visit www.BoyceWatkins.com.

Your Black Sports: Player Jumps Over Opponent for Dunk

Your Black News: Barack Obama to Retake Presidential Oath

President Obama retook his oath of office Wednesday after Chief Justice John Roberts flubbed while delivering it at Tuesday’s inauguration.

Barack Obama is pictured at the inauguration on Tuesday in Washington as Michelle Obama watches.

The second oath — also administered by Roberts — took place at 7:35 p.m. Wednesday in the White House’s Map Room. Roberts asked Obama whether he was ready.

“I am, and we’re going to do it very slowly,” Obama replied.

The do-over was aimed at dispelling any confusion that might arise from Tuesday’s take — in which “faithfully” was said out of sequence — and erase any question that Obama is legally the president.

However, per the Constitution, Obama became president at noon Tuesday without taking the oath.

“We believe that the oath of office was administered effectively and that the president was sworn in appropriately yesterday,” White House counsel Greg Craig said Wednesday in a written statement.

“But the oath appears in the Constitution itself. And out of an abundance of caution, because there was one word out of sequence, Chief Justice Roberts administered the oath a second time,” the statement read. Watch Tuesday’s oath »

Click to read.

Your Black Education: Obama’s Bad Choice for Education Secretary

By Kevin K. Kumashiro

Duncan’s record is clear. Less court intervention to desegregate schools. Less parental and community involvement in school governance. Less support for teachers’ unions. Less breadth and depth in what and how students learn, as schools place more emphasis on narrow high-stakes testing. More opportunities to certify teachers without adequate preparation and training. More penalties for schools, but without adequate resources for those in high-poverty areas. And more profit for businesses, as school systems become increasingly privatized.>>

Hailed by some as a pioneer in education reform, Arne Duncan, the chief executive officer of the Chicago public schools, has been selected by President-elect Barack Obama to be our next U.S. secretary of education. But Duncan’s seven-year track record in Chicago gives evidence of why he is the wrong choice for America’s schools.

Behind the rhetoric of reform is the reality of Duncan’s accomplishments, particularly the problems behind his signature initiative, Renaissance 2010. Launched in 2004, Renaissance 2010 aims to open 100 new, smaller schools (and close about 60 “failing” schools) by 2010. To date, 75 of the new schools have opened.

Many of these schools, however, are charter schools that serve fewer low-income, limited-English-proficient, and disabled students than regular public schools. More than a third are in communities that are not in high-need areas. During Duncan’s tenure, districtwide high school test scores have not risen, and most of the lowest-performing high schools saw scores drop. Renaissance 2010 is not doing enough to support those students who struggle the most.

“Public education should aim for more than high test scores and a stronger business sector.”

This should not be surprising. The blueprint of Renaissance 2010 lies in a report titled “Left Behind,” produced a year earlier by the Commercial Club of Chicago. The report mapped out a strategy for schools to more closely align with the goals of the business elite. Central to that strategy was the creation of 100 new charter schools, managed by for-profit businesses and freed of the city’s local school councils and teachers’ union—groups that historically have put the welfare of poor and minority students before that of the business sector.

Business leaders have long had influence over America’s schools. In the early 1900s, the business sector influenced how large school districts were consolidated and managed. In the late 1900s, and into the era of No Child Left Behind, the Business Roundtable (the top 300 business CEOs in America) influenced how policymakers narrowly defined “standards” and “accountability.” Today, public debates on education are too often framed by business principles, and certain assumptions go unquestioned as they gain dubious status as simply “common sense.” These include the assumption that improvement comes when schools are put into competition with one another, like businesses in a so-called free market.

“Duncan’s reforms are steeped in a free-market model of school reform, … but research does not support such initiatives.”

Duncan’s reforms are steeped in a free-market model of school reform, particularly the notion that school choice and 100 new charter and specialty schools will motivate educators to work harder to do better (as will penalties for not meeting standards). But research does not support such initiatives. There is evidence that opening new schools and encouraging choice and competition will not raise districtwide achievement, and that charter schools in particular are not outperforming regular schools. There is evidence, moreover, that choice programs actually exacerbate racial segregation. And, there is evidence that high-stakes testing increases the dropout rate.

Duncan’s record is clear. Less court intervention to desegregate schools. Less parental and community involvement in school governance. Less support for teachers’ unions. Less breadth and depth in what and how students learn, as schools place more emphasis on narrow high-stakes testing. More opportunities to certify teachers without adequate preparation and training. More penalties for schools, but without adequate resources for those in high-poverty areas. And more profit for businesses, as school systems become increasingly privatized.

Students do not benefit from these changes. Duncan’s accomplishments for Chicago’s public schools are not a model for the nation.

Yes, America’s schools are in dire need of reform. And in 2009, we have the opportunity to do just that—first by correcting the false assumptions and failed policies of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The research is clear: Students need to learn more, not less. Parents need to be involved more, not less. Teachers need to be trained more. Schools need to be resourced more. We need new ways to fund schools, to integrate schools, to evaluate learning, and to envision what we want schools to accomplish.

This will not happen by continuing to follow the perceived wisdom that is so blindly embraced by Arne Duncan and many other education leaders. Public education should aim for more than high test scores and a stronger business sector. Its goal should be to prepare every child to flourish in life.

We need a different leader, one with a rich knowledge of research, an unwavering commitment to educating our diverse population of children, and a vision big enough to make that happen.

Kevin K. Kumashiro is an associate professor and chair of educational policy studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the interim co-director of its Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy. He is also the author of The Seduction of Common Sense: How the Right Has Framed the Debate on America’s Schools (Teachers College Press, 2008).

Pareto and Parkinson’s: Old Laws for a New Year

by Lawrence Watkins

CEO, The Great Black Speakers Bureau

The 2009 year is underway it it’s shaping up to be a great one. I’ve talked to many of my friends and I’ve heard THOUSANDS (Ok. I’m exaggerating) of New Year’s resolutions. Everything from losing 20 pounds, to being in bed by a certain time, to making straight A’s on their transcripts, to finding satisfying careers, to not eating meat, to etc… What is more surprising than this, is that a couple of people that I talked to have more than 10 resolutions. You may be wondering, “Lawrence, what are your New Year’s resolutions?” Is it to lose weight? (I have gained more than a couple of pounds since undergrad) Nope. Is it to make all A’s in school? Not this time.

My resolution is something much simpler, yet it is one of the most powerful forces known to human productivity. It is to implement Pareto’s Law and Parkinson’s Law into all facets of my life. Surely I need more goals than this to have a successful year, right? No, because of this ONE goal, I will have a MORE successful 2009 compared to any other year in my life!

Pareto’s Law states that a minority of causes, inputs, or efforts usually lead to a majority of the results, outputs, or rewards. Parkinson’s Law states that a task will swell up in perceived importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted for its completion. The Law’s are inverses of each other and when taken together, can drastically make you happier and more productive. This is a good time to give thanks to my friend Tim Ferris, author of “The 4-Hour Workweek.” I don’t actually know Tim, but I feel a Bromance going on between us since I’ve read his book 7 times. No other business book has influenced me as much as 4HWW and this is where I first learned of Pareto and Parkinson.

Pareto’s Law and my Life

Vilfredo Pareto was a controversial economist who lived from 1848 to 1943. He was an engineer by training and started his career managing coal mines. He later took a position at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland and explored the income distribution of 19^th century England. He found that 80 percent of the wealth in England was controlled by 20% of the population. When Pareto started to explore this phenomenon more, he noticed that this pattern of imbalance was repeated consistently whenever he looked at data referring to different time periods and different countries.

The critical thing is not to look at the specific 80/20 relationship, but to focus on the main concept. There is an inherent level of imbalance between inputs and outputs. I experienced this phenomena many times throughout my time as head honcho of Great Black Speakers Bureau, a company dedicated to spreading African American thought to the masses. I remember the early days in January of 2007 when I was working to elevate the company off of the ground. I would put in 10-12 hour days/6 days per week personally building the website, making sales calls, emailing potential clients, getting contracts signed, mailing thank you cards, and pretty much anything else you could think of for a starting entrepreneur. Even though the company was growing at an extremely fast rate, I was always exhausted at the end of the day.

Then a life changing event happened in my life. The Lord blessed me with a scholarship to earn my MBA at Cornell University. After a couple of weeks of pure elation, reality started to sink in that I REALLY won’t be able to run my company and go to school at the same time. By this time, we had grown by about 900% since we started the company the year before. The problem is that much of this growth was directly related to my personal inputs. How on earth was Great Black Speakers going to grow, or even maintain, if I wasn’t there to run it? True, I wrote a good B.S. answer to this question in my business school applications, but now I HAD to come up with real solutions.

I now had to do some soul searching and heavy prioritizing. There was NO WAY that I would leave my baby GBS to dwindle and die. Over the course of two days, I turned off all communication with the world and I spent hours of laying out and analyzing every facet of GBS with a single question in mind that I learned from Mr. Ferris. What inputs in GBS generated the majority of the outputs? After the analysis, I wasn’t very happy with myself and I noticed major ineffectiveness in my process. I then made an vital decision to revive my company; I would go through a business liposuction process and cut off the fat that would cause GBS to die in the transition.

The first thing that I did was to start searching for a new director of GBS. I was looking for a highly organized person who was excellent at selling. I found both of these traits and more in my friend Diana, who I’ve known for many years since my childhood in Louisville, KY. In fact, Diana is an improvement over me in both of these areas. The next thing that I did was to look at the mundane, but essential tasks that consumed most of my time. Some of these tasks included makings cold calls, working on the website, writing thank you letters, filling out contracts. One by one, I started outsourcing these tasks to other companies that specialize in one or more of these areas. It was actually much less expensive than I thought it was going to be. In my next article, I will talk more about outsourcing your life.

The results have been outstanding in the 8 months since I started this process. I have increased my personal income by 250%, while decreasing my GBS workload from 55 – 70 hours per week down to 8 – 10 hours/week. Furthermore, most of the gains have happened AFTER I started business school. From this situation, I learned a couple of lessons:

1) You don’t have to work like crazy to generate sufficient income for yourself.

2) If you surround yourself with the right people and implement the right process, you can accomplish a lot with very little.

Parkinson’s Law

As stated earlier, Parkinson’s Law states that a task will swell in importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted for its completion. There are two major truisms that I’ve learned that accompany this law:

1) Doing something unimportant well does not make it important.

2) Requiring a lot of time does not make a task important.

The definition of true productivity is simple: Productivity is doing activities that get you closer to your goals. Unproductivity is doing activities that keep you stagnant or take you further away from your goals.

Many people suffer from a common form of laziness: it is called busyness, which is also a disease. This disease is so prevalent that it has brainwashed people to believe that business = busyness. A paradigm shift occurred in my life for me to know that this isn’t true. Working 9 – 5 is an archaic way of doing business. It’s funny how ALL jobs in America take the exact same amount of time to complete. It’s funny because it isn’t true.

Time Compression

Time compression is an important fundamental to manipulate Parkinson’s Law. The law isn’t inherently a good or bad thing, it is just what it is. Parkinson’s Law is similar to fire. Fire can be good when you are cooking, but it would be a terrible thing if your house burns up in flames. Time compression to complete tasks is harnessing the Parkinson’s Law power to help productivity. What I do is think about an aggressive timeline for a task and then I cut that time by a ½ or 1/3. THAT is my deadline. By doing this, I am forced to focus on the bare essentials ( 20% inputs) of a task and avoid the minutiae that often clutters projects. Time compression has been one of the hardest concepts to implement into my life and one in which I fail to implement often. But when I do, the results of my improvements are amazing.

Synergies

Taking these two concepts together gives you one simple rule: Focus on the essentials of a task and work like crazy to get those tasks done as quick as possible. However, just because this rule is simple doesn’t mean it’s easy. People often interchange the words difficult and complex. These two words are NOT synonyms of each other. I struggle every day to avoid the laziness of business, and I often fail. I fail less when I ask one simple question: Am I inventing things to do to avoid the important? If I am, I immediately take self corrective measures to put me back on track.

Conclusion

I would like return to my opening statement on why this is my ONLY New Year’s resolution. The reason is that it would be contradictory for me to have 13 New Year’s resolutions and try to implement Pareto and Parkinson at the same time in my life. If I set my resolution as implementing The Law’s, other goals will follow as all encompassing improvements. I’m not against setting many goals for oneself; the exact opposite is true as I have many different personal and business goals. However, the point of The Law’s is to simplify and streamline life as much as possible, which is what I want to do for 2009. As Bruce Le once wrote, “One does not accumulate but eliminate. It is not the daily increase, but the daily decrease. The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity.” So with that, Happy and Fulfilled New Year’s!!!!

Your Black Hip Hop: Rappers Celebrate Obama, but Use the N-Word

All hail the chief! Young Jeezy made immediate impact his first night in D.C.: Jeezy debuted a remix of the hip-hop national anthem right now, “My President.” Not too long after T.I. performed at D.C. club Love, the Snowman took to the stage for his “Presidential Status” inaugural ball — and his guest on the new version of “My President” was Jay-Z.

“My president is black, he’s black, he’s half white/ So even in a racist mind, he’s half right/ So if you got a racist mind, it’s alright/ My president is black, but his house is all white,” Jay spit a capella as the DJ pulled the music for his verse.

“No more white lies, my president is black!” Hov finished, as the crowd in the club repeated his last line over and over again.

Among the messages in Hov’s rap was fidelity — we’ll see if Jeezy returns the favor and comes out during Hov’s “Concert on the Eve of Change” in D.C. on Monday night (January 19)!

As for the new video of the song, which debuted over the weekend, it’s reminiscent of Public Enemy‘s “Fight the Power,” in which the whole community comes out for a common cause. Besides Nas, who raps on the record, Bow Wow, Bun B, DJ Greg Street and Jeezy’s artist Roccett make cameos.

 

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Your Black Woman: 107-year Old Woman Excited Over Obama Presidency

Ann Nixon Cooper craned her neck and leaned her head forward. On the television set across the room, Barack Obama moved forward and put his hand on the Bible.

Ann Nixon Cooper, 107, watched the inauguration from her Atlanta home: “I’m most excited.”

At 107 years old, Cooper said she always believed she might live to see a black man sworn in as president of the United States.

“I had that in mind all the time — all the time — hoping for a great change that would happen in my day,” she said, a charm necklace with a gold “107″ around her neck.

“I was hoping that it would happen in my time.”

This moment in history, she said, marks one of the greatest days of her event-filled life.

“I’m most excited about it … just nothing but the greatest,” she said, a wide smile spread across her face. “Our new president means nothing but more freedom as a human being. That’s all. That’s all it could mean to us. You feel more like a real person.” Watch Cooper’s reaction »

She knew the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. when he was just a boy in Atlanta. Today, she said, “he would be most happy.”

She added, “That’s all I looked forward to: better days, because we’ve never known any better days. But now, you see, we can live like real people.”

The African-American centenarian, three grandsons and her caretaker gathered in her quiet Atlanta home to watch the inauguration of the nation’s first African-American president. When Obama began heading toward the ceremony, she asked not to be bothered. “I’ve got to be concentrating,” she said with a smile.

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