The Black Informant

iPhone stuff

Here is another review for the pile worth checking out.

From engadget.com

* The mobile version of OS X or whatever it is the iPhone runs takes up 700MB of the device’s capacity.
* There’s no way to cut, copy, or paste text! WHOA! Big, big mistake.
* No A2DP support. That, friends, is such a huge bummer right there.
* Sorry, music can’t be used as a ringtone — even if it’s just a raw MP3. No additional ringtones will be sold at launch.
* On a PC the iPhone syncs with Outlook for calendars AND addresses! Noice.
* It supports Exchange in some capacity, according to Walt, but he doesn’t exactly say * *Pogue again confirms document file reading — but not editing — for PDF, Word, and Excel (only).
* Adobe Flash support is officially out. It’s just not in the browser. Neither is there any other kind of embedded video support. Sorry everybody, that’s that.
* It will take snaps, but won’t record video. How can Apple love YouTube as much as it does and not realize cellphone-shot movies make up a sizable chunk of the crazy crap you find on there? (source)

Hey, if you can’t afford it, I can hook you up

NOT MY VIDEO (for the record)

Things I miss

While listening to Steve Wonder’s “Songs In Key Of Life” and cleaning up, thoughts of me growing up in North Philly began to swell. Specifically, I was thinking about how kids would be out playing at night. While many of us had to be in the house when the street lights came on, parents oftentimes allowed us to play in front of the house while they sat on the stoop either enjoying a smoke, beer, or catching up on the latest gossip with the next door neighbor. I can still hear the rapid pitter patter of double dutch jump rope while the night air swirled all around us. The boys would either be playing with our Matchbox cars as we pushed them down the incline between the stoop or catching lighting bugs while the occasional SEPTA bus would pass, adding a slight boost to the night breeze.

I miss the pre-Playstation/X-box/Gamecube/PC/200+ TV channels days.

Check, Check and Check

Derrick Z. Jackson for The Boston Globe is hitting against something that has been on my mind for days, but just did not know the best way to put it together. I’ll let him do the lead-off and then I will chime in later in the post.

Outrage comes too easy for the Democrats

(boston.com) THURSDAY NIGHT’S debate was too easy for the Democratic presidential candidates. Before a hugely black audience at Howard University, they bashed the Supreme Court decision ending voluntary desegregation. They lambasted the Bush administration’s bungling of Hurricane Katrina. Barack Obama said you can’t have No Child Left Behind if you leave the money behind. The biggest cheer of the night came when Hillary Clinton said, “If AIDS were the leading cause of death between the ages of 25 and 34, there would be an outraged outcry in this country.”

[…]

That is precisely the point. Playing to the outraged is child’s play for the Democrats, so easy that John Edwards, he of the $400 haircut, claimed with a straight face, “The issue of poverty is the cause of my life.” All the candidates said poverty, healthcare, and education were connected.

What they did not say is how they would make this connection with white, middle-class, and suburban voters. What they did not say is how they will convince them that these problems outweigh outrage and outcry over taxes.

What they did not say was how they would get the rest of the country outraged with empathy, not dismissal.

[…]

The last Democrat in the White House proved both how difficult it was to connect the haves and have-nots and his own unwillingness to expend political capital to do so. This week, for instance, it was announced that America’s prison and jail population had its largest increase since 2000 and now stands at more than 2.2 million.

But before you blame President Bush for this, remember that under President Clinton, the population skyrocketed from 1.4 million to more than 2 million.

For all the legend about Clinton’s connectivity to black people, the rate of incarceration during his administration went up to 3,620 prisoners for every 100,000 black men. It had been 2,800 per 100,000 black men at the end of the Reagan-Bush I era, according to the Justice Policy Institute in Washington. (more…)

Back in the early days of this website, I can remember how critics would slam me along with other Black Conservatives on how we tend to focus too much on the problem without providing any practical solutions (an accusation that I still pops up from time to time). I took these criticisms into consideration and decided for a time to amp up what I was already doing by making one day in the week a “Good news in Black America” day where nothing but “positive” news would be posted. I also featured stories of folks who overcame odds to find success. Two of the road blocks I kept running into were A. Finding good news in general is daunting task and B. Getting folks to participate was just as daunting–especially the folks who were throwing around these accusations. One of the immediate things that I noticed that on the days where only good news was talked about, my readership numbers went down. The other thing was that I did not receive NOT ONE E-MAIL from the thousands of readers to this site even when I placed a announcement on my sidebar.

What Jackson is bringing up here is quite frankly something that Black Liberals of all shades of ideology will not hold to themselves: the never ending whining over what’s wrong in Black America. The Democratic candidates at this last debate knew full well that whoever was best at playing the outrage card (mind you, a card that is shaded with accusations of racism) would come out on top. While this may play extremely well with a Black audience, it also alienates those within the Democratic party who are getting ‘too old’ for marches and are ready for some practical solutions with measured results.

And before some folks out there pepper me with random quotes and instances where Conservatives have used some of the same tactics to get the Black vote, let me beat you to the punch by agreeing with you. The point here is that I have yet to see an equal challenge being put out to Liberals regarding how they only play to our anger and not our intellect. In other words, instead of harping on the recent Supreme Court ruling and how it will affect Brown vs. Board of Education, why do they find it hard to address the growing drop out rates, low test scores and the growing number of inner-city parents who want to send their kids to either a charter or private school—ALL UNDER THEIR WATCH ON THE LOCAL LEVEL. Why do we not hear them owning up to some of the responsibility instead of relying on Bush bashing? Which one of their solutions has decreased the number of Black men entering into the prison system? Should we get into a full analysis of how raising the minimum wage has “helped” poor folks over the years? Maybe we should talk about how millions of tax payer’s money spent on AIDS education has benefited the Black community?

Hey, politics is politics and you can’t have politics unless you incorporate a certain level of emotionalism. While that may be true, emotionalism rarely provides long term and sustaining solutions. Yet, thanks to venues like the Internet, 24 hour cable news, blogs and podcasting, emotionalism is what sells these days.

>Can I get an A-men?

Dr. Seuss and Western apathy towards terrorism

Terror Strike’ As Burning Jeep Hits Airport

Putting a face on the statistics (part V)

Clyde Paschal, 35, a black man, was shot in the torso at 690 E. 50th St. in LAPD’s Newton Division. He died at 2:54 a.m. Friday, June 22. A suspect is in custody.

Ashley Lunsford, 19, a young black woman, suffered multiple gunshot wounds at the intersection of Mills and Kingsley avenues in Pomona in a shooting incident that also killed 19-year-old Shannon Fortune, below. Lunsford’s time of death was listed as 11:34 p.m. Monday, June 18.

Pomona officers called to the scene of a reported fight received reports of gunshots as they sped to the scene. When they got there, they found both victims on the sidewalk, dead at the scene.

If a Black man could blush in embarrassment…

Random music from back in the day that is too painful to listen to today (sorry for the bad layout of this post).

Rockwell
Five Star
Ready For The World (sorry, I just could not get past the curls, y’all!)
Jermaine Stewart (Man, I did not know he was dead!)

There are plenty others!!!

Time to move on

Juan Williams responds to yesterday’s Supreme Court decision regarding the use of race as a basis for school assignment.

LET us now praise the Brown decision. Let us now bury the Brown decision.

With yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling ending the use of voluntary schemes to create racial balance among students, it is time to acknowledge that Brown’s time has passed. It is worthy of a send-off with fanfare for setting off the civil rights movement and inspiring social progress for women, gays and the poor. But the decision in Brown v. Board of Education that focused on outlawing segregated schools as unconstitutional is now out of step with American political and social realities.

Desegregation does not speak to dropout rates that hover near 50 percent for black and Hispanic high school students. It does not equip society to address the so-called achievement gap between black and white students that mocks Brown’s promise of equal educational opportunity.

And the fact is, during the last 20 years, with Brown in full force, America’s public schools have been growing more segregated — even as the nation has become more racially diverse. In 2001, the National Center for Education Statistics reported that the average white student attends a school that is 80 percent white, while 70 percent of black students attend schools where nearly two-thirds of students are black and Hispanic. (more…)

Williams absolutely nails it in this piece because as he pointed out, this selective process has done NOTHING in addressing the current problems we are having in our public schools. I believe that dissapointment over this decision has more to do with symbolism than the practical. I know this is off topic, but this also reminds me of the whole King-Harbor mess and how folks are more concerned with keeping it a “Black” hospital than the quality it should offer.

It’s just politics

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - The Legislative Black Caucus’s nonprofit foundation acknowledges it gave scholarship money to relatives of 5 lawmakers.

The group’s leader says it will review the way it hands out educational grants.

Democratic Representative Alma Adams chairs the 28-member black caucus. She says the foundation gave out $54,000 in scholarships in the 2005 and 2006 academic years.

Adams says about a tenth of the total scholarship money provided during those years benefited relatives of 5 legislators. Adams says there was no intention to improperly benefit a legislator. (more…)

Quotes from the Democratic Debate

I did not watch it (I only watch debates when it is between the Democratic and Republican nominee). Based on these quotes, I did not miss much at all.

Link to Associated Press article

A Microsoft Exchange

The New York Beacon recently reported on a meeting between Microsoft and members of NNPA (National Newspapers Publishers Association). I thought that the article did a pretty good job representing both sides of this issue.

Excerpt 1

Speaking heatedly in the large auditorium, Eubanks said that the Black Press gets the “crumbs” when it comes to advertising dollars compared to White newspapers and that the chances of other Black-owned newspapers getting the company’s advertising are slim.

“I’m in Seattle, I’m right in your market and I can’t even get the time of day. So God knows how these other publishers who are outside your market are going to reach Microsoft,” said Eubanks.

Excerpt 2

Smith’s sentiments were reaffirmed by Ken Smikle, founder and president of Target Market News. Smikle later told publishers in a workshop called “The African-American Market” that a 21st Century advertising market is more digital, more numbers-oriented and far more technical.

However, some publishers rejected Smikle’s message, contending that after realizing that even when they had the data, advertising executives still do not give them the time of day.

“Data does not necessarily do the deal,” said James Washington, publisher of the Dallas Weekly. “Doing business with us is new; we have to show our value beyond readership and circulation.”

But, Terry Artis of Limelight newspaper in St. Louis agrees that the Black Press must make some change in its advertising strategies: “They don’t want to hear ‘its good for the community’ anymore; they want a win-win situation.”

I had a recent exchange with reader MIB on this issue that you may find interesting. I see this as a sad move by the Black press to excuse their low readership (mind you, most newspapers around the country are also losing readership–mainly due to the Internet) by slamming anyone for not advertising in BLACK newspapers. MIB on the other hand does not see it that way. In any event, I think that this is a topic worthy of discussion for anybody interested in Black media.

When the race card gets denied

(eurweb.com) The DUI arrest report for Vivica A. Fox, uncovered by TMZ.com, reveals an attempt by the actress to use the race card in playing one arresting cop against the other.

The officer says in the report, after she was stopped, “Fox began to walk away, yelling at my partner, ‘Brother help a sister — are you going to let this racist white cop do this … well are you?’”

Turns out the “brother,” Officer Sam Dealba, is Hispanic. The white officer referred to as racist by Fox, Daniel Laubscher, wrote the report. (more…)

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Are teeth whiteners dangerous?

(news.bbc.co.uk) “Tooth whitening kits have been found to contain illegally high levels of the bleaching agent hydrogen peroxide.

Trading Standards Institute (TSI) tests found hydrogen peroxide levels were higher than the legal limit in 18 out of 20 DIY products tested.

In one case the legal limit was exceeded by a factor of 230 times.

Hydrogen peroxide, commonly used as a hair dye, can aggravate gum disease and cause sensitive teeth - or even chemical burns to the mouth. (more…)

Myths and realities of immigration

Mike King of the Atlanta Journal Constitution wrote this interesting piece on some of the misconceptions and realities regarding immigration. I’ll just provide you with his first point here (click here for the rest of the article).

Reality: Historically, Americans have resisted large-scale immigration movements even when those coming to our shores were white Europeans. The opposition a century ago was built on fears that the poor and poorly educated migrants from Ireland, Italy, eastern Europe and Asia would drag down the national economy and would refuse to assimilate. There is an echo of that in the opposition aimed at Latino immigrants today.

Still, it’s unfair to characterize many of those opposed to comprehensive immigration reform as racist or anti-immigrant. Many Americans are furious that the nation’s immigration laws have been so widely ignored, by the illegal immigrants, by the employers who use them and by the government. It is difficult for them to understand why government has allowed American employers to ignore the statutes.

That abdication on Washington’s part has exposed communities around the country, including many in Georgia, to a mass migration of illegal immigrants moving into cheap rental housing, crowding classrooms with special-needs students and showing up in hospital emergency rooms in need of medical attention with no way of paying for it. That frustration fuels the emotionalism behind the debate.

He also addresses the other following myths…

#Illegal immigrants are not interested in learning English.
#The 1986 immigration reform law failed because it granted amnesty to 3 million illegal immigrants already here.
#Immigrants today have no interest in assimilation in American culture the way immigrants in the past did.

As far as his second and fourth point goes, I would have to say that I somewhat disagree with him. For starters, the one word that is missing from these points is “ILLEGAL” immigration. For people who enter into this country illegally, they do not have as much of an incentive to learn the English language or assimilate for the simple reason they receive many of many of the same benefits legal American citizens receive while at the same time maintaining citizenship with their country of origin. This especially holds true for folks who illegally enter this country as Mexican citizens. On the other hand, LEGAL immigrants do tend to want to learn the language because there is a clear incentive to do so. Check out this article that I came across last month:

(latimes.com) Now Mexican consulates in the U.S. are taking on an even more formidable challenge: the healthcare system.

A program called Ventanillas de Salud, or Health Windows, aims to provide Mexican immigrants with basic health information, cholesterol checks and other preventive tests. It also makes referrals to U.S. hospitals, health centers and government programs where patients can get care without fear of being turned over to immigration authorities.

[…]

“In the L.A. Consulate, we noticed there were 1,000 or 2,000 people visiting on a daily basis, waiting for their appointments,” said Xochitl Castañeda, director of the Health Initiative. “They were hanging around, eating junk food, watching TV. And we thought: This is an opportunity. We can provide them with information about health and with referrals.”

Maria Cortez, an undocumented housecleaner who lives in Santa Clarita, went to the consulate last week with her husband and daughter to get ID cards.

But when she saw the Ventanillas counter, she asked what else besides emergency Medi-Cal she could receive. The consular employee explained that her two daughters might be eligible for a public health program. (source)

So here you have an agency for another country here in this country showing its citizens how to get benefits that were originally designed for LEGAL American citizens.

Another point that Mr. King should consider is: For English, Press 1.

Not too long ago I was in a grocery store where much of the signage was in both English and Spanish. There are also some stores that have both an English and Spanish version of their sales circulars (I know, because I almost always pick up the Spanish version). While I do not mind some of the bilingual offerings, I just do not see how America bending over backwards for these bilingual offerings gives folks the incentive to learn English.

As far as his first point goes, let’s face it. The anti-illegal immigration fight is primarily being led by Conservative White folks who are in essence one in the same with The Minuteman Project (White men who are protecting their land from Brown invaders–enter some of the shades of “Jim Crow”). For many, this perception alone is enough to keep them miles away from agreeing with the clear sovereignty issue here as they too do not want to be perceived as “racists”.

Factors affecting military recruitment

(airforcetimes.com) VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Most of today’s youth are not eligible for military service because they are too fat, too weak, not smart enough and prone to drug-use and criminal behavior, according to a panel of senior military officers.

“We are all victims of our own past success. We all have a conscript mentality that there’s a never-ending supply of perfect high school graduates that are over the horizon coming at us to fill every job we have,” said Vice Adm. John Cotton, commander of the Navy Reserve. “I’ll tell you what, we’re about to be shocked, because they are not there.”

Cotton spoke on a panel on recruiting and retention with officers from the Marines, Army and Air Force at a conference on “transformation warfare” hosted by the U.S. Naval Institute and the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association in Virginia Beach.

Seventy-two percent of American youth between 17 and 24 years of age are not eligible for military service for fitness, academic and law enforcement deficiencies, Cotton said, citing national statistics that some 30 percent of male youths drop out of high school. (more…)

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Chávez’s “Fairness” doctrine

(eluniversal.com) On the National Journalists’ Day, on June 27, Venezuelan journalists are not celebrating. Rather, they are staging a march in Caracas streets to demand President Hugo Chávez to order resumption of private television station RCTV’s broadcast on its original open signal and to advocate freedom of expression.

The march -organized by Periodistas Unidos por la Libertad de Expresión (Journalists United for Freedom of Expression)- is departing from Plaza Venezuela at 10:00 a.m. to the headquarters of RCTV in Quinta Crespo, west Caracas.

The student movement, actors, and workers and trade unions of news media, professional associations, political parties, and non-governmental associations will join reporters. (more…)

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3 years and still rollin’

Between last month and this month Blackinformant.com passed the 3 year milestone (don’t worry, I am not this bad when it comes to my wedding anniversary ). This site started on blogger.com but then I moved it over to Wordpress. It was during that migration that I lost quite a few of my very first posts (which explains why I do not know the exact birth date of this site).

Whatever you reasons for coming to this site on a regular basis, I want to personally thank you for making blackinformant.com part of your online travels. I especially thank all fellow bloggers and web site owners who have linked to this site. Also, I want to thank all the invites I have received this past year to either serve as a guest blogger or commentator for publications. I hope those invitations are still open :).

As far as podcasting goes, I plan to restart that venture in the very near future. After going through a recent move about a month ago, I am still trying to get situated (incidentally, did you know that one of the songs that I use for the podcast was composed by yours truly? I did it a few years ago along with some other pieces and just kept it for some future use. Once I get my place set up, I want to devote more time to music composition–some of which I will use in the podcast).

Thank y’all. I will be back here later on today. I hope you are as well!

Take care,

D. Brayboy
The Black Informant
www.blackinformant.com

Mugabe continues to wreck his country

(SW Radio Africa–allafrica.com) Speaking at the burial of the late Army Brigadier General Armstrong Gunda on Wednesday, Robert Mugabe threatened to take over all foreign companies, which he accused of hiking prices in a campaign to sabotage the economy and remove him from government. Mugabe is quoted saying: “All companies, we will take them over if they continue with their dirty game. Take note, we will be equal to the challenge. We are capable of playing that game too.” The ruling party leader said mines were included.

The threats came as shops in the capital ignored a government directive to cut prices by 50%. While Mugabe ranted, consumers who rushed to the shops Wednesday hoping to find prices reduced by half were disappointed. In fact some products had not only gone up in price, but they had doubled. The authorities had directed manufacturers, retailers and wholesalers to cut the price of basic commodities by up to 50% with immediate effect. But economic analysts blame daily price increases on hyperinflation. With inflation officially at 3700%, businesses have no choice but to increase prices to keep up with rising costs. (more…)

I think that it is time for me to write my book

For years now I have been toying with the idea of creating a quick pamphlet entitled “Are You Being Paid To Be An Idiot?: Practical Ways For Not Allowing The Call Center To Dumb You Down.”

I cannot begin to tell you about my very bad experiences with various customer service reps within the past few days. I have now reached the conclusion that 99% of the time I need to immediately ask to speak to a manager. Even at that level it has been the equivalent of speaking to a mannequin at times.

How am I as a customer you ask? I do not yell nor do I speak over people. In fact, my wife has said on several occasions that I am more patient with these folks that she. That probably makes sense because on several pit stops in my career, I used to be on the other side of the phone. However, what I have been experiencing over the past few months is just plain laziness coupled with a “Don’t care, ain’t my problem…” attitude.

While I can completely understand the boredom that comes with doing the same thing over and over again oftentimes with no window to see the outside world during the day, I still was able to use this experience as a stepping stone for better things later on. Once I was able to see a little bit of myself in each customer, my whole attitude and career outlook changed drastically.

Now I may not be an expert worthy of having my own infomercial, I think my frustration would be better channeled into putting together something that could hopefully help a few folks out there who feel trapped in these types of positions. Hopefully this would in turn translate into better customer service somewhere down the line.

In the coming days ahead, I will try to put something together that I will post under “Research”.

Oh no they didn’t!

(nbc10.com) A child’s tantrum onboard a Delta commuter flight forced a pilot to make an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport.

[…]

The forced landing was caused by a fight over apple juice.
A 4-year-old wanted apple juice and when the stewardess didn’t get it quick enough, the child threw a tantrum, NBC 10 reported. (more…)

You know, I couldn’t even make the scenario up telling you “If that was my child…” because it wouldn’t.

I don’t know about you, but I have seen an increase of small children talking back to their parents in public while they just take it. However I must admit that I was recently encouraged on two separate occasions where one Hispanic mom told her kid who was giving her lip “I don’t care if they do call the cops on me, I can still kick you A**” (she already looked very tired, so I had little doubt that she would not have done it). The other was a White mom who gave her child a swift pop on the behind for ignoring her father (I mean one of those ‘clapping’ pops).

Now I know this is the part where all of those who have been “abused” as children will chime in by condemning all forms of physical discipline. While I do agree that some folks can get a little carried away with it, I also believe that as a society we have taken sensitivity a little bit too far.

Basically, whatever works for you, use it. Cuz’ this is one brotha who would’ve intervened in the situation–especially if I was running late for something.

Gentrification hits Seattle’s Black community

(king5.com) SEATTLE – As far as Lottie Cross is concerned, there is no Central District in Seattle anymore.

Gentrification has changed the character of the historically African American neighborhood.

“It’s phasing out,” she said.

But as condos sprout up on street corners and new white, middle class families move in, some say an integral part of the community has been victimized. Black businesses struggle even as new wealth enters their neighborhood.

Cross is part of a nonprofit organization that’s working to sustain African American businesses, both in Seattle and throughout the Pacific Northwest.

The Black Dollar Days Task Force provides black businesses with guidance, financial support and most of all – exposure.

It’s an important cause, said Robert Jeffrey, who founded the task force. He moved to Seattle in 1986.

“Gentrification has eaten up most of the businesses that were here when I came,” he said. “The climate is dismal.” (more…)

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