The Black Informant

Mayor seeks to leave post to head public schools in city

Mayor Seeks Job Switch, but Response Is Lukewarm

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By SHAILA DEWAN
nytimes.com

MEMPHIS — In the last 10 days, Mayor Willie W. Herenton has upended this city’s political order by announcing first that he would retire in July, a mere six months into his record fifth term, then explaining that he was doing so in order to return to his previous job as superintendent of city schools.

But what might have been perceived as a magnanimous gesture — a voluntary step down the career ladder out of concern for the city’s children — quickly became a debacle when the school board made it clear that the job was not his for the taking.

The tepid response — underscored by what amounted to a chorus of boos from many of his constituents — was a comedown for a man accustomed to hero status in a city where, until he came along, blacks held a majority but not the political power to match. In 1979, Mr. Herenton became the first black superintendent after working his way up through the school system, and in 1991 he became the first black mayor, beating the incumbent by 142 votes.

Over the years, his political base broadened and he gained white support, winning re-election by 20 points or more until last year, when polls showed virtually all of his white support and some of his black support had ebbed. He got 42 percent of the vote in a three-way race, enough to win but apparently not enough to hold his interest in the job.

On March 20, reports surfaced of a letter to the city’s chief administrative officer from the mayor that read, “This personal letter serves to alert you of my plans to retire from the office of City Mayor on July 31, 2008.”

That set off pitched speculation about Mr. Herenton’s motives, fueled by a recent revelation that his dealings with contractors were the subject of a federal corruption investigation. Some even conjectured that the mayor needed the $89,000 salary increase that the new job would bring.

Two days later, in an effort to squelch the rumors, Mr. Herenton offered proof of his interest in improving the school system, releasing a Feb. 7 letter to the board. “I have sadly watched the deterioration of what was once a respectable school system,” he wrote, citing the board’s choice of superintendents from outside Memphis. “National searches produce résumé builders and often candidates with no long-term commitments to a community.” (more…)

More history our children must know

Biographical Sketches of Black Pioneers and Settlers of the Pacific Northwest

Not looking good for the professor

Noose ‘Ties’ Eyed
Prof Files Subpoenaed
Murry Weiss
nypost.com

March 31, 2008 — A Manhattan grand jury has subpoenaed the university records of the controversial black Columbia Teachers College professor who found a noose hanging from her office door - signaling that the investigation is broadening to examine possible links between the teacher, her closest friends and the racially charged incident, The Post has learned.

According to sources, the subpoenas obtained recently by the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force and prosecutors demanded the college hand over a laundry list of records pertaining to embattled professor Madonna Constantine, whose colleague found a 4-foot hangman’s noose on her office doorknob last October.

The incident happened at the height of the school’s probe of plagiarism charges against her.

Last month, Teachers College announced that Constantine was responsible for two dozen incidents of stealing the work of a faculty member and two students under her tutelage, including lifting passages from their dissertations and hijacking their ideas. Constantine has denied the charge. (more…)

Ethanol and the egg

Rise in price of eggs is no chicken feed
Tom Abate, Chronicle Staff Writer
sfgate.com
March 22, 2008
[excerpted]

[…]

Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the average price of the soon-to-be-painted eggs rose 23 percent from $1.75 per dozen in February 2007 to $2.17 the same month this year.

Dave Kranz, spokesman for the California Farm Bureau Federation, said the price spike is the result of higher costs that farmers must pay for the grains that keep California’s hens a-laying - to the tune of about 4.9 billion eggs per year.

“The prices for chicken feed aren’t chicken feed anymore,” Kranz said.

And why does it take more scratch for farmers to buy the corn and soybean mixtures that constitute the main ingredients of chicken feed?

Daniel Sumner, director of the UC Agricultural Issues Center, said federal policies designed to encourage ethanol production have caused two separate shifts. Corn farmers have been selling more of their harvest to be processed into fuels, and that has driven up the cost of the part of the crop that goes into various animal feeds.

The lure of the ethanol market also has caused many farmers to replant what normally would be soybean acres into corn, Sumner said. The resulting drop in soybean acreage has boosted prices for that versatile crop, which is the other key constituent of henhouse cuisine.

“One-half of the farm price of eggs is the feed price,” Sumner said. “And about half of the retail price of eggs is the farm price.”

All of that makes for a strong and direct link between the ethanol-driven crop shift in the Midwest and the cost of acquiring a dozen of those Large Grade A ovoid canvases upon which children of all ages will work their decorative magic this weekend. (more…)

There is something out there for everybody

WHAT IS NAAFA?

Founded in 1969, the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance is a non-profit human rights organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for fat people. NAAFA works to eliminate discrimination based on body size and provide fat people with the tools for self-empowerment through public education, advocacy, and member support. (source)

Make yours a happy home

When the notion of sin becomes relative

Random excerpts from the USA Today article “Has the ‘notion of sin’ been lost?”

“A lot of this is relative. We tend to view sin not as God views it, but how we view it,”

[…]

WHAT AMERICANS CALL SIN

• Adultery: 81%

• Racism: 74%

• Using “hard” drugs, such as cocaine, LSD: 65%

• Not saying anything if a cashier gives you too much change: 63%

• Having an abortion: 56%

• Homosexual activity or sex: 52%

• Not reporting some income on your tax returns: 52%

• Reading or watching pornography: 50%

• Gossip: 47%

• Swearing: 46%

• Sex before marriage: 45%

• Homosexual thoughts: 44%

• Sexual thoughts about someone you are not married to: 43%

• Doing things as a consumer that harm the environment: 41%

• Smoking marijuana: 41%

• Getting drunk: 41%

• Gambling: 30%

• Not attending church or religious services regularly: 18%

• Drinking any alcohol: 14%

Source: Ellison Research, August 2007, based on 1,007 adults through a representative online panel ad adjusted to be demographically representative of the USA Margin of error: ±3.1 percentage points.

More from the article:

Popular evangelist Joel Osteen, pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, never mentions sin in his TV sermons or best sellers such as Your Best Life Now.

“I never thought about (using the word ’sinners’), but I probably don’t,” Osteen told Larry King in an interview. “Most people already know what they’re doing wrong. When I get them to church, I want to tell them that you can change.”

The Rev. Michael Horton, professor of theology at Westminster Seminary in Escondido, Calif., calls this “moral therapy.”

“It’s changing your lifestyle to receive God’s favor,” Horton says. “It’s not heaven in the hereafter but happiness here and now. But it is still up to you to make it happen.”

He finds sad truth in an old newspaper headline he once saw: ” ‘To hell with sin when being good is enough.’ That’s the drift of American preaching today in a lot of churches. People know what sin is; they just don’t believe in it anymore. We mix up happiness and holiness, and God is no longer the reference point.”

In other words, he asks, if you can solve your problems or sins yourself, what difference does it make that Christ was crucified?

People have to see themselves as sinners — ultimately alienated from God and unable to save themselves — for Christ’s sacrifice to be essential, Horton says. “(The apostle) Paul didn’t see Easter as therapy.”

[…]

Even some people who say sin is real still steer by a compass of “moral pragmatics,” not a bright line of absolute truth, Mohler says. “People say, ‘I have high moral expectations of myself and others, but I know we are all human so I’m looking for a batting average.’

“We find a comfort zone of morality, a kind of middle-class middle level where we think we are doing well. We cut the grass. We don’t double-park. But we ignore the larger issues of sin.

“Instead of violating the law of the Creator, it becomes more a matter of etiquette. … We want our kids to play well in the sandbox and know their place in line. We want people to do things decently and in order. But it’s etiquette of morality without the ethics. The end result is that when we do things we wish people wouldn’t do, there’s no sense of guilt or shame.”

[…]

“What is unacceptable has changed,” Kosmin observes. “Racism and sexual harassment, which were not sins in the past, are now. Adultery and addiction are just bad or sad behavior. And commercial sex is a no, but breaking the bonds of marriage is not.

“Secularism is situational without fundamental, universal rules. Explanations are kosher. Mitigating circumstances, too. But if people are held guilty, the punishment, of course, has to be in this world, not the next. Secular people don’t burn in hell, they burn in the court of public opinion.” (more…)

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If someone were to ask me to define sin, the short answer I would give them is “Anything that is contrary to God’s law as defined in the Bible.” The Bible, not the mere opinions of man on what he deems as good/evil provides us with the ultimate tool for measuring what God defines as sin.

Over the years, churches have incorporated their own set of “do’s and don’t’s” in addition to God’s word. For example, many years ago during my k-12 years (I must have been in the 5th grade at the time), my parents had just enrolled me into a private Christian school who had just discarded their policy against interracial dating. From what I understand, school officials were confronted by Black parents who made the case that such a policy was not in any way substantiated in scripture. Some other examples are when folks falsely abide by a rank-list of types of sin. Looking at the list above, you can see that there are folks out there who believe that committing a homosexual act is worse than sex outside of marriage. Others may feel that racism is worse than having sexual fantasies about someone who is not your spouse. As a country that professes to be over 80% Christian, we have made the whole issue of sin relative (as long as it does not offend anybody [or anybody that matters to us], God must be okay with it). There are no rankings of sin in the Bible, plan and simple.

Scott Ashley writes the following in the publication The Good News I think defines this whole issue of sin in a way many of us can understand:

God sets high standards for us in finding and overcoming the sins that affect us. Ultimately, these definitions tell us that sin is anything that is contrary to the will of God or doesn’t express the holy character of God. That is the standard He has set for us, as seen by these definitions.

Our efforts to identify and remove sin can be compared to the story of a sculptor chipping away at an enormous block of stone. Another man asks him what he’s sculpting, and the sculptor replies, “An elephant.” The other man then asks, “How do you sculpt an elephant?” The sculptor considers the question, then says: “It’s really very simple. You just chip away anything that doesn’t look like an elephant.”

We are doing the same thing when we start chipping away sins from our lives. Our goal is, with God’s help, to chip away everything that isn’t like God. We are removing sin—everything that is contrary to or doesn’t express the holy character of God—with the purpose of more fully and maturely reflecting God’s very mind and way of life. (more…)

In this example, the sculptor is guided by one thing: The image of the elephant. The very fact that someone calls himself/herself a “Christian” says that they are “like Christ” or at least striving to be like him. This is an impossible task if your definition of sin is based on anything but God’s word.

And speaking of Black Marriage day…

I just came across the following story by way of the Black And Married With Kids blog. I’ll let them tell the story.

Anyways, you may have gotten an email about this very unusual proposal out of Atlanta. If not, I’d suggest peeping the photo gallery before you read this drop or it’ll all go over your head. My Inner Accountant says this whole event had to cost upwards of $20,000.[1] The photo gallery had become an internet sensation, and the couple has even been name-dropped by Oprah.

[…]

Robert Gray proposed to his girlfriend Keisha Williams by renting out several suites at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Atlanta, GA. In each suite, he had friends and family waiting for them where they prayed for the couple throughout the proposal. The suites were decorated with rose petals dipped in gold and lit candles everywhere. It was beautiful. I read somewhere that Robert actually rented out his home and stayed with his sister for months in order to save up for this elaborate proposal. (More from averagebro.com)

Here is a link to the photo gallery. I think you will like it.

So is $20k+ too much for a proposal?

IMO…. It all depends if you have it like that. I think that you can be creative and leave a lasting impression on your bride to be without breaking the bank. Plus, after the honeymoon is over, you are going to wish you had some of that money.

Perhaps this weekend I will share how I proposed to my wife. We’ll see.

Old news, but worth the mention (Cuban healthcare)

Hundreds of Cuban medical workers defecting to U.S. while overseas
By Tal Abbady | South Florida Sun-Sentinel
October 10, 2007

The Cuban government’s plan was for Beny Alfonso Rodriguez to help lead a group of 72 Cuban doctors on a medical mission in the town of Macarapana, Venezuela.

But Rodriguez, a former soldier, lasted four months. He joined the mission with one thing in mind: to flee Cuba.

“I was born into the revolution, but I didn’t choose it,” says Rodriguez, who arrived in Miami in April.

Rodriguez is among hundreds of Cuban medical personnel who have deserted their country’s overseas medical missions in recent months to apply for fast-track entry into the United States.

News of the U.S. government’s Cuban Medical Professional Parole program, launched in August 2006, quickly reached rural outposts in Venezuela and other countries. The policy allows Cuban doctors, nurses, administrators, lab technicians and other professionals working in humanitarian medical missions outside Cuba to apply at their host country’s U.S. embassy for entry into the United States. After undergoing a background check, most applicants are accepted, according to Ana Carbonell, chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Miami.

“The Castro regime has used these medical professionals as a vehicle for its international propaganda,” Carbonell said.

Carbonell said 1,000 Cuban medical personnel have entered the United States under the new policy. But there are glitches. A group of Cuban doctors in Colombia was stranded there for months after applying.

Diaz-Balart’s office and South Florida Cuban exile groups have helped spread the word about the policy and answered e-mail and telephone inquiries from hundreds of Cuban doctors.

Cuban exile activists say dozens of Cuban medical personnel have defected in Venezuela. In exchange for cheap oil for Cuba, about 21,000 Cuban doctors staff President Hugo Chavez’s free health-care program for the poor, called Barrio Adentro (Inside the Barrio) — the backbone of the Venezuelan leader’s popular socialist reforms. (more…)

Black Marriage Day: Sunday, March 30, 2008

The following is from the Wedded Bliss Foundation website:

Welcome to Wedded Bliss Foundation a national initiative to promote marriage in the Black community. Our number one program is Black Marriage Day, the fourth Sunday in March every year. Join Wedded Bliss Foundation, Inc., as we organize churches, community groups, families and couples in celebration of Black Marriage Day, March 30, 2008. We are urging churches and community groups everywhere to mobilize couples to demonstrate their support for marriage by renewing their marriage vows in a national celebration of marriage as a key building block of family, community and our nation. Wedded Bliss Foundation’s goal is to have 5,000 couples across the country renew their wedding vows on Black Marriage Day, March 30, 2008, with the theme: Getting Married is Good; Staying Married is Better; a Healthy Marriage is Best. To increase couples chances of staying together we are asking organizations to offer free marriage education classes during March 2008 to celebrate marriage in the Black community.

Music industry consideres tax route

I have personally made it a point to pay for my music as opposed to getting it for free from various online resources. According to this latest proposal by the music industry, all of my efforts may have been a waste of time.

Fee for All
by Sam Gustin
portfolio.com

Edgar Bronfman Jr.’s Warner Music Group has tapped industry veteran Jim Griffin to spearhead a controversial plan to bundle a monthly fee into consumers’ internet-service bills for unlimited access to music.

The plan—the boldest move yet to keep the wounded entertainment industry giants afloat—is simple: Consumers will pay a monthly fee, bundled into an internet-service bill in exchange for unfettered access to a database of all known music.

Bronfman’s decision to hire Griffin, a respected industry critic, demonstrates the desperation of the recording industry. It has shrunk to a $10 billion business from $15 billion in almost a decade. Compact disc sales are plummeting as online music downloads skyrocket.

“Today, it has become purely voluntary to pay for music,” Griffin told Portfolio.com in an exclusive sit-down this week. “If I tell you to go listen to this band, you could pay, or you might not. It’s pretty much up to you. So the music business has become a big tip jar.”

Nothing provokes sheer terror in the recording industry more than the rise of peer-to-peer file-sharing networks. For years, digital-music seers have argued the rise of such networks has made copyright law obsolete and free music distribution universal.

Bronfman has asked Griffin, formerly Geffen Music’s digital chief, to develop a model that would create a pool of money from user fees to be distributed to artists and copyright holders. Warner has given Griffin a three-year contract to form a new organization to spearhead the plan.

Griffin says he hopes to move beyond the years of acrimonious record-industry litigation against illegal file-swappers, college students in particular.

“We’re still clinging to the vine of music as a product,” Griffin says, calling the industry’s plight “Tarzan” economics.

“But we’re swinging toward the vine of music as a service. We need to get ready to let go and grab the next vine, which is a pool of money and a fair way to split it up, rather than controlling the quantity and destiny of sound recordings.” (more…)
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So would folks who do not use their Internet connection to download music have to pay this tax as well. From the way it sounds, yes.
h/t: michellemalkin.com

Clitoria Jackson and the okie doke

While online this morning, I came across the following piece of “news”:

(DETROIT) In a decision that’s expected to send shockwaves through the African-American community—and yet, give much relief to teachers everywhere—a federal judge ruled today that black women no longer have independent naming rights for their children. Too many black children—and many adults—bear names that border on not even being words, he said. “I am simply tired of these ridiculous names black women are giving their children,” said U.S. Federal Judge Ryan Cabrera before rendering his decision. “Someone had to put a stop to it.”

The rule applies to all black women, but Cabrera singled out impoverished mothers. “They are the worst perpetrators,” he said. “They put in apostrophes where none are needed. They think a ‘Q’ is a must. There was a time when Shaniqua and Tawanda were names you dreaded. Now, if you’re a black girl, you hope you get a name as sensible as one of those.” Few stepped forward to defend black women—and black women themselves seemed relieved. It’s so hard to keep coming up with something unique,” said Uneeqqi Jenkins, 22, an African-American mother of seven who survives on public assistance. Her children are named Daryl, Q’Antity, Uhlleejsha, Cray-Ig, Fellisittee, Tay’Sh’awn and Day’Shawndra.

Beginning in one week, at least three white people must agree with the name before a black mother can name her child. “Hopefully we can see a lot more black children with sensible names like Jake and Connor,” Cabrera said. His ruling stemmed from a lawsuit brought by a 13-year-old girl whose mother created her name using Incan hieroglyphics. “She said it would make me stand out,” said the girl, whose name can’t be reproduced by this newspaper’s technology. “But it’s really just stupid.”

The National Association of Elementary School Teachers celebrated Cabrera’s decision. “Oh my God, the first day of school you’d be standing there sweating, looking at the list of names wondering ‘How do I pronounce Q’J’Q’Sha.’?” said Joyce Harmon, NAEST spokeswoman. “Is this even English?” The practice of giving black children outlandish names began in the 1960s, when blacks were getting in touch with their African roots, said historian Corlione Vest.

But even he admits it got out of hand. “I have a niece who’s six. I’m embarrassed to say I can’t even pronounce her name,” said Vest, a professor at Princeton University. “Whenever I want to talk to her, I just wait until she looks at me and then I wave her over.” Cabrera’s ruling exempted black men because so few of them are actually involved in their children’s lives.

This news has apparently been creating a lot of buzz online. So as usual, I began to cross check the information with other news sources. For starters, out of all the news wires out there, this story is not covered by one of them. Second, any Google search for the “Federal judge” that supposedly ruled in this case (Federal Judge Ryan Cabrera) only brings up this particular article. Third, while I am aware of a National Association of Elementary School Principals, this is the first I have heard of The National Association of Elementary School Teachers. Again, any Google search for the latter will bring up this article. Same goes for any search for Princeton University professor Corlione Vest.

Finally, while I can agree that some of our names can get a bit out of hand, I have never seen names like Q’J’Q’Sha, Tay’Sh’awn or most of the others listed in this article.

Police escort just to go to school

You know they’re coming for somebody from ABLA’
‘OPERATION SAFE PASSAGE’ | Parents keep kids home, fearing retaliation — so cops will escort them
BY MAUDLYNE IHEJIRIKA Staff Reporter - Chicago Sun Times

You got one of ours. We’re gonna get one of yours.”

That reality of gang life has kept nearly 200 Crane High School students from the ABLA Homes out of school since March 7, when a reputed gang member from ABLA gunned down another student who lived in rival gang territory. Their parents refuse to send them.

“You know they’re coming for somebody from ABLA, and it doesn’t have to be a gang member,” said a 16-year-old girl, a junior who was afraid to be identified.

So officials have come up with “Operation Safe Passage,” an unprecedented plan to protect students who fear they may be the next target.
Police to watch over buses

When spring break ends next week, Crane students from ABLA — also known as “the Village” — will gather at one central location each morning. CTA buses will pick them up after they’ve walked en masse to the bus stop.

Then a Chicago Police escort will follow the buses to a transfer point, where under the watchful eyes of even more officers, they will board second buses to Crane at 2245 W. Jackson. They will enter the school under police watch.

“On their way home, it will be vice versa,” said Ald. Bob Fioretti (2nd). (more…)

One of those arguments that are only valid when your side of the fence is affected

The Lies and Distortions of the 30-Second Sound Bite
By Gwen Richardson

Can an individual’s entire life’s work be encapsulated in a 30-second sound bite? Members of the media would apparently say “yes,” but most rational, logical human beings would answer this question with a resounding “no.”

The reason is that the selective nature of a 30-second sound bite could either spotlight the positives or, in the case of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the negatives, and lead an observer to reach a conclusion that is completely devoid of reality. A sound bite could capture one’s most devastating failures or one’s most resounding triumphs. But media’s lust for negativity, with their focus on crime, death and destruction, virtually guarantees that any person’s successes will be overshadowed by their defeats.

That’s why many people reached the following conclusions from the endless loop of negative video snippets regarding Wright: He is a hateful preacher, frothing at the mouth with obscenities and anti-American sentiments; that these snippets are indicative of every Sunday sermon he has preached, from beginning to end, for the last 35 years; that even the marriage ceremonies and baptisms he performs are laden with similar language; and that anyone attending Trinity United Church of Christ must be a left-wing radical with animosity toward White people, in general, and the American government, in particular.

Although the conclusions are, in my opinion, completely irrational, the media have left some people no choice. That is virtually all media have shown viewers about Rev. Wright and they have included no information to the contrary. Some observers have, thus, reached the conclusion that that is all there is. The only way their minds can be changed is if they conduct their own research, which few will bother to do.

Yet, if media did a minimal amount of research, they would discover that Wright is multi-dimensional, as we all are. For example, they would discover that he served six years in the U.S. Marines, much of that time as a hospital corpsman, and received a letter of commendation from President Lyndon Johnson for assisting in his heart surgery procedure in December 1964. They would find that Wright is not a pastor on the fringe, but is rather a mainstream preacher, having been invited to the White House in September 1998 to pray with President Clinton when he was under siege during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

They would find that Wright is the author of four books, holds four earned degrees and eight honorary doctorates. They would find that Trinity has a significant number of White members and that the United Church of Christ is a denomination which is 98 percent White. (more…)

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1332: Made some minor updates to post.

The 30-second sound bite is a very effective tool in the world of politics. As far as defining it as fair or unfair, that depends if your side is the benefactor or not. So sis, get used to it.

Remember Bush’s “Mission Accomplished?”

Or how about his comment to former FEMA director Michael Brown?

“Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job,”

How about New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin?

“I don’t care what people are saying Uptown or wherever they are. This city will be chocolate at the end of the day,” he said. “This city will be a majority African-American city. It’s the way God wants it to be.”

How about Sen. Robert Byrd’s ridiculous comment?

“The people of West Virginia don’t need a lobbyist,” declared the irate senator. “They have me.”

Let’s not forget Bill Clinton’s bold-faced lie:

“I did not have sexual relations that woman.”

Remember the clip that deep-sixed John Kerry’s run for the presidency?

I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it.

Senator Obama has successfully convinced a hefty portion of Americans that he is the right man for the job as head of one of the most powerful political machines in the world. You don’t get there by using handicap ramps and safety rails that steer you away from the dangers of criticism. No, you get there by using whatever tool that is available to you. That includes the use of 30-second clips that do not tell the whole story (ever checked out a political commercial?)

My reason for highlighting this particular article is because it represents many of the sentiments of folks I have been reading online in the past couple of weeks regarding this Rev. Wright business. What is interesting to me is that some of the same folks who are putting forth such a great effort to convince others that Wright was just having a bad day and that he is being unfairly judged based on a 30-second clip are the same folks who in most cases said NOTHING about this judgmental standard when it was being applied to politicians or personalities they disliked. Fairness should not be relative, but it usually is.

Rev. Wright has a long history of saying the things he said in those clips and apparently he has not issued an apology for his remarks or attempted to water them down. So why do certain members of the public (like the author of the article above) feel obligated to “rescue” him? He is a grown man and both his comments over the years as well as his actions have already spoken for him.

I think that for most Blacks, it is going to be quite interesting (and to some, quite intrusive) if the world gets the opportunity to place a Black man, his family and his associations under a constant microscope. What really makes this interesting is that Obama does not fit the narrative about Blacks in this country we have been pumping into the international market of opinions for decades. Let’s be honest here, this has hardly been a problem when the microscope has been on White presidents for all of these years. So under an Obama presidency, the world will get a up-close and daily view of the real plight of Black Americans who fully take advantage of what this nation has to offer them.

Welcome to the world of politics where the clip can make or break a person.

HBCU history digitized

Founding of Historically Black Colleges and Universities Celebrated
Online Collection Includes More Than 1,000 Scanned Items from HBCU Institutions
Blacknews.com

Ithaca, NY (BlackNews.com) - The first digital collection of documents and materials chronicling the founding of America’s historically black colleges and universities is now available online at contentdm.auctr.edu

“A Digital Collection Celebrating the Founding of the Historically Black College and University” includes more than 1,000 scanned photographs, manuscripts, letters and publications from 10 institutions designated as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU).

The project, which was funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, represents the first collaborative effort by HBCU libraries to make a historical collection digitally available. The online collection, which is hosted by the Robert W. Woodruff Library of the Atlanta University Center, is the product of a partnership between the HBCU Library Alliance, HBCU institutions, the Southeastern Library Network (SOLINET) and Cornell University.

The contents of the collection date back to the early 1800s and include campus charters, student yearbooks, early campus architectural drawings, and a rich assortment of photographs featuring first presidents, graduating classes, famous alumni and churches, which often served as the first classrooms at several of these institutions.

“This is an excellent resource for scholars and others interested in understanding the importance of institutions of higher learning founded by African-Americans. It offers direct access to original documents and images chronicling the story of these institutions, which are usually only available to researchers by travel to the institutions themselves,” said Dorothy Autrey, chair of the history and political science department at Alabama State University. (more…)

[Link to image database]

Breastfeeding our Black men

Schumer addresses high unemployment rate among African American males
Peter Iglinski
publicbroadcasting.net

ROCHESTER, NY (2008-03-26) US Senator Charles Schumer says the high unemployment rate among African American men must be a national imperative.

Schumer addressed the issue before a group of government and community leaders at the Strong Museum of Play Wednesday morning. He said, in Rochester alone, the unemployment rate among black men is just over 23%. That compares to six%for white men.

Schumer says the unemployment rate doesn’t give the complete picture. Schumer the high jobless rate leads to other problems, such as crime, alienation, intolerance and violence.

Schumer will be coming up with a number of proposals to address the problem. They’ll include legislation to create job training programs that focus on the “soft skills”, such as how to dress on the job and how to behave in the workplace. Also, Schumer would like to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit to include more men. He says that would provide a greater employment incentive for black males. (more…)

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When we have reached the point where legislation needs to be created to teach our Black men how to dress and behave in the workplace, or creating an incentive to stay committed to a job, we have truly reached a new low. And yet, to many this is viewed as “help”.

“You betta THINK!”

March 25, 2008

Aretha Franklin
c/o Gwendolyn Quinn
GQ Media & Public Relations, Inc.
1650 Broadway, Ste. 1011
New York, NY 10019

1 page via fax: 212-765-7905

Dear Ms. Franklin,

I am writing regarding the pending foreclosure of your home. We would like
to help you out by paying the approximately $19,000 in back taxes that you
owe—if you’ll agree to save animals from hideous suffering and death by
promising never to wear fur again and donating your old furs to PETA. We
are absolutely sincere in making this offer—we believe that you know in
your heart that your fans will love you even more if you make a fur-free
resolution.

As you no doubt now realize, animals who are trapped in the wild can suffer
for days before dying from exposure, frostbite, shock, or infection or by
being strangled, stomped, or bludgeoned to death by trappers. Animals on fur
farms are confined to tiny, filthy cages where they often go insane before
they are gassed, poisoned, or electrocuted or have their necks broken. These
crude killing methods aren’t always effective, and sometimes animals are
skinned alive.

Our offer is a win-win situation: You get to keep your home, and animals get
to keep their lives. We are rooting for you to please give animals the R-E-S-
P-E-C-T that they deserve by giving up fur.

Please contact me as soon as possible through Megan Hartman at 757-622-
7382, to discuss our offer. Thank you very much for your consideration.

Very truly yours,

Ingrid E. Newkirk
President

[link to actual letter–posted on TMZ]

The socialist state

Supervisor proposes lights-out for downtown

Wyatt Buchanan,Jonathan Curiel, Chronicle Staff Writers
sfgate.com

San Francisco’s picturesque skyline would be dark at night under a first-in-the-nation law proposed Tuesday that would mandate all skyscrapers turn off nonemergency lights after work hours.

Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin said his measure would reduce the energy wasted in the city’s downtown.

“Anyone who has passed through our Financial District after dark knows that many large financial buildings in the downtown keep their lights on throughout the night even when there is not work or janitorial service going on,” Peskin said.

The proposed light ban is reminiscent of the so-called “watt cops,” the police officers who patrolled some California cities in search of people using unnecessary lights during the state’s 2001 energy crisis.

But this time, there is no statewide emergency. Under the proposal, energy-wasting scofflaws would face fines for each floor where lights are on, with $50 for the first infraction, $100 for the second and $250 for any subsequent violation.

The proposal would also require businesses undergoing major renovations to install devices that would automatically turn off lights when nobody is in a room.

“In principal, this sounds like a commonsense, good idea,” said Mark Westlund, spokesman for the city’s Department of the Environment, which would enforce the measure. Westlund said department officials had not yet seen the proposal. (more…)

This reminds me of another issue that has been coming up from time to time here in SoCal:

The next pollution frontier: your fireplace
New smog rule would prohibit wood-burning fireplaces in new homes and limit residential wood burning during smog episodes.
By PAT BRENNAN
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Smoking chimneys could go the way of smoke-filled restaurants under proposed smog rules aimed at curtailing the use of wood-burning fireplaces in Orange County and the rest of the Los Angeles basin.

Regional smog regulators today will consider banning the installation of traditional wood-fueled hearths in new homes, limiting sales of wood-burning devices, and, by 2013, even placing mandatory limits on burning wood in home fireplaces during heavy smog episodes.

The new rules, which would affect Orange County and parts of Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, are similar to those being considered, or already put in place, by air-quality regulators throughout California.

“If you look at it legally, if you look at the health implications, this is the time to adopt this regulation,” said Elaine Chang, deputy executive officer at the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

The new rules might make it tougher even to find wood to burn. One provision would ban the sale of firewood that has not been properly seasoned to reduce its moisture content – and hence its ability to produce smoke. (more…)

BUT ITS FOR THE GREATER GOOD….
BUT ITS FOR THE GREATER GOOD
BUT ITS FOR THE GREATER GOOD
BUT ITS FOR THE GREATER GOOD
GREATER GOOD
GREATER GOOD
GREATER GOOD

SING OR DIE!!!!

You may see “White”, but they are seeing “Green”

Black Women Giving Birth to White Babies on the Rise
emergingminds.org

London, United Kingdom - The number of Black women who are giving birth to White babies, has been on the rise with the increasing number of infertile couples choosing cross racial surrogacy across Europe, a new study reveals.

The study shows that Nigerians and Ghanaians women leading among the middle aged African-Caribbean women willing to use their body to make money while helping desperate infertile white couples, in which the majority of whom have failed trying to have children through IVF.

The practice sees the fertilized egg from the commissioning couples being implanted into the surrogate, who then carries the child for nine months.

And when the babies are born, they are handed over to their real parents.

One fertility expert at the London Fertility Clinic revealed that: “many women were willing to use black surrogates because there was a lesser chance of the host becoming attached to a child of a different color”. (more…)

I hear the linkages to house mammies back during the slave era here in the US coming over the horizon.

More on Black wealth

World’s wealthiest Blacks
By William Reed
insightnews.com

Collectively Black Americans are the richest Blacks in the world. But, only two Black Americans can claim a nine-figure. Times are changing and Black Africans are making more money than African Americans and have made it onto Forbes’ list of the world’s wealthiest billionaires.

At the top of Forbes’ list, Warren Buffett’s $62 billion ranks him as the world’s richest man. Of the world’s 1125 wealthiest individuals, Mexico’s Carlos Slim Helu ranks second with $60 billion. Despite being worth $58 billion, $2 billion more than last year, Microsoft’s Bill Gates is now just the world’s third-richest person.

Ethiopian-born Mohammed Al Amoudi is the richest Black person in the world with a total net worth of $9 billion. Al Amoudi is ranked 97th on the Forbes list and followed by billionaire Blacks such as Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote ($3.3 billion), American Oprah Winfrey ($2.5 billion), London-based Sudanese Mohamed “Mo” Ibrahim ($2.5 billion) and South African Patrice Motsepe ($2.4 billion). BET founder Robert Johnson’s divorce dropped him to just a $1 billion fortune.

Al Amoudi made his fortune in construction and real estate before betting on Swedish and Moroccan oil refineries. His Svenska Petroleum conducts oil exploration from the Nordic shelf to the Ivory Coast. He is the largest private investor in Ethiopia, putting money into such diverse assets as a hotel, gold mines and a food processing plant.

At the age of 21, Aliko Dangote became a stock trader off a loan from his uncle. After he built his company, The Dangote Group, into a conglomerate with interests in sugar, flour milling, cement and salt processing, he struck gold when his sugar production company was listed on the Nigerian stock exchange last year. The Dangote Group dominates the sugar market in Nigeria and is the country’s largest industrial group. Dangote is ranked the 334th richest man in the world. (read more…)