The Black Informant

If You Are Into Polling Data, Check Out This Video

While this guy does appear to be a supporter for Ron Paul, I think he makes some very interesting points on a topic I have had questions on for a long time.

On a side note, I can say that I have seen way more signs (not just the standard blue campaign signs, but creative advertising made by ordinary people) for Ron Paul than McCain and Clinton combined. Obama signs are mainly seen in Los Angeles. But again, that is coming from my vantage point.

Ron Paul’s troops quietly take over some local GOP groups
LA Time Political Blog “Top Of The Ticket”
Andrew Malcolm

If anybody thought the Ron Paul Revolution had expired, they need to rethink that one.

Clearly, the 72-year-old libertarian-minded Texas representative was not going to win the Republican Party’s nomination this year with his 12, 20 or 42 delegates, whomever you believe. Sen. John McCain already has enough to win the GOP nod in St. Paul in September. So Paul has taken his well-funded campaign and gone rather underground to the local level where his loyal Paulunteers are organizing and taking over several numerous county party operations in several states.

Quietly, beneath the political radar of the Republican Party establishment and mainstream media, they’re laboring at the local level. Last month Paul forces read the party rule book in Missouri and elected about a third of the delegates to the state convention that will pick the delegates to the national convention.

Last weekend in Nevada they drove through a rules change in the state party convention that halted the approval of pre-approved slates of convention delegates as a means to eventually substitute their own supporters to travel to St. Paul and boost Paul’s delegate totals for platform and other struggles this fall.

Using sophisticated communications techniques on the Nevada convention floor in Reno, Paul supporters transmitted mass text messaging to maneuver and direct their troops. When Paul appeared to speak, the ovation was thunderous.

At other times they shouted down the convention chair, Sen. Bob Beers. Taken by surprise the convention organizers and the McCain camp, which for instance had no supply of campaign signs to compete with the blizzard of Paul signs, eventually adjourned the convention in chaos without electing any delegates.

The excuse was the expiration of the convention’s contract with the host casino. No new convention date was announced. The Ron Paul crews move on to their next target. (more…)

The World Beyond Your Little ATM Card

Three Chinese banks in world’s top four: study
AFP

Three Chinese institutions were among the world’s top four banks at the end of 2007 at a time when the market capitalisation of Western banks was suffering from a global financial crisis, a study showed Wednesday.

The number one spot in the rankings, compiled by the Boston Consulting Group, was occupied by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, with market capitalisation of nearly 340 billion dollars (218 billion euros).

In second place was China Construction Bank, followed by HSBC of Britain, Bank of China, Bank of America and Citigroup of the United States.

The study found that banks in North America and Western Europe had suffered a loss of 695 billion dollars in market capitalisation at the end of 2007 while their counterparts in emerging market countries Brazil, Russia, China and India had seen their market capitalisation increase by 753 billion dollars. (more…)

Big government is LOOKING out for you

“I’m just glad the government is keeping me safe…You don’t have to worry about me anymore, Hank. The government is doing that now.” (Bill Dauterive–Character on the animated show King of The Hill)

When hybrids first hit the market some time ago, part of the list of selling point besides low fuel consumption and being better for the environment was its quiet operational noise (not a contributor to noise pollution). Well apparently some members of the blind population have been having some difficulty hearing these vehicles as they cross the street.

Quiet Hybrid Cars Cause Concerns For Safety Of Blind
news4jax.com

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Many people would think the less noisy a car is, the better. However, that’s not the case for people who rely on sound to get around safely.

The National Federation of the Blind and a local congressman agree that nearly silent hybrid cars may be a hazard because the cars’ electric-gas engines make the vehicles so quiet they’re almost undetectable to someone who can’t see them.

Now, many people are pushing for a change to hybrids.

[…]

However, the latest craze in cars doesn’t make much noise. That’s why Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., has drafted legislation that would change the way hybrids sound.

“I think it’s worth looking into because there are so many people who cross streets and depend on their hearing,” Stearms said.

The proposed bill would include a two-year study of hybrids and industry leaders would have a say in what changes are made. Then, carmakers would be required to put a device on hybrids that would make them loud enough for blind pedestrians to hear. (more…)

And in 20 or so years there will be a proposal to fight against noise pollution.
Also I am very curious of just how many blind people have encountered this problem.

Grrrrrrr! (4/30/08)

*Ever since Destiny Child’s song “Bootylicious”, some folks STILL can’t break the habit of placing -licious at the end of anything. It has gotten old and frankly, some folks are too old to be using it in the first place.

*One of my biggest gripes about “unique business opportunities” that are pyramid-based is that you hear from folks who for years would not have given you the time of day. Now all of a sudden we need to “catch up”.

*Americans have been talking about race for years. Now all of a sudden we need to have a REAL discussion on race.

Grrrrrrrr!

Moe, Larry and Curly’s “solutions” are still a joke

Candidates’ Plan Could Indirectly Raise Gas Prices
Senators Back Steps That Portend Higher Pump Costs
By NICK TIMIRAOS in Winston-Salem, N.C., and ELIZABETH HOLMES in Washington
wsj.com

Although the major presidential candidates are making record gasoline prices a campaign issue, they are avoiding mention of measures they each support that would indirectly raise prices at the pump.

Regular unleaded gas averaged $3.60 a gallon last week, according to the Energy Information Association, up from around $3 at the beginning of the year. Some analysts say summer demand could drive the price past $4 a gallon.

Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and Republican John McCain support some type of corporate cap-and-trade system to curb greenhouse gases, which likely would increase fuel prices. In addition, the Democratic contenders have called for a “windfall profits” tax on oil companies, which ultimately could be passed on to consumers.

Sen. McCain started the debate earlier in the month by proposing a federal “gas-tax holiday” that would suspend the 18.5-cent federal gas tax, as well as the 24.4-cent diesel tax, from Memorial Day until Labor Day.

“If we give you a little relief at the gas pump this summer,” Sen. McCain said last week in Selma, Ala., “you can go a little further, so you can have a little more enjoyable vacation.”

Sen. Clinton quickly supported Sen. McCain’s proposal. She suggested paying for the holiday with money from a windfall-profits tax on oil companies.

Sen. Obama has been outspoken in his opposition. He argues that a tax holiday would do nothing to lower gas prices in the long term and could raise gas prices by encouraging more people to drive.

Sen. Obama, who supported a state-gas-tax repeal as a state senator in Illinois, said Tuesday that the new proposal would save the average American about $28. “This isn’t an idea designed to get you through the summer. It’s designed to get them through an election,” he said.

Sens. Clinton and McCain have characterized the Illinois senator as out of touch. Sen. Clinton is running an advertisement in Indiana touting her quick action. “Hillary Clinton knows it’s time to act — take some of the windfall profits of big oil to pay to suspend the gas tax this summer,” a narrator says in the ad. Polls show a dead heat for the Democratic primary in Indiana on May 6.

“Sen. Obama won’t provide relief, while Sen. McCain won’t pay for it. I’m the only candidate with a plan,” Sen. Clinton said while campaigning in Indiana Tuesday. (more…)

Striking back

It just so happened that I was home at the same time Obama gave his press conference this afternoon addressing the latest rounds shot by his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Personally I thought he handled it pretty well. In fact, he was more forceful about his denunciation of Wright than in the past (something he should have done in the first place). Now, the only question remains is whether or not voters are still going to keep those 20 years he stayed with the ministry in mind as they go to the voting booth for both the remaining primaries and the general (if he gets the nomination–which I believe he will).

As far as what to expect in the future of this ongoing issue, don’t be surprised if Wright goes completely new on Obama by exposing conversations or comments made by the Senator before all of this went down. I got a feeling that Wright is not going to shut up–especially after this press conference.

Also, you know good and doggone well that there are folks out there who are just chomping at the bit looking for some video footage of Obama agreeing with some ‘off’ comment made by Wright in some church service a while back. Same goes for Michelle. They better hope such tape exists.

One of the funniest things you may read today

Mexican senators lighten penalties on illegal migrants
chron.com

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s Senate has voted unanimously to remove criminal penalties for undocumented migrants.

Some officials acknowledge that harsh immigration laws here have weakened Mexico’s argument for better treatment of its own migrants in the United States.

Monday’s measure must still be approved by the lower house, which passed a different version earlier.

Current law establishes punishments of one-and-a-half to six years in prison, but such penalties are seldom applied. Undocumented migrants are simply deported. (more…)

Yep! This is Overreaching!!

See what happens when you don’t own a Prius?

Global warming set to fan HIV
news.com.au

CLIMATE change is the latest threat to the world’s growing HIV epidemic, say Australian experts who warn of the “grim” outlook in the fight against the infectious disease.

A leading professor of health and human rights, Daniel Tarantola, has cautioned that global warming will indirectly make citizens of developing countries even more vulnerable to death and severe ill health from HIV/AIDS.

“It was clear soon after the emergence of the HIV epidemic that discrimination, gender inequality and lack of access to essential services have made some populations more vulnerable than others,” said Prof Tarantola, of the University of NSW.

Those problems had not gone away, he said, and today extra threats were lurking on the horizon “as the global economic situation deteriorates, food scarcity worsens and climate change begins to affect those who were already dependent on survival economies”.

“Climate change will trigger a chain of events which is likely to increase the stress on society and result in higher vulnerability to diseases including HIV,” said Prof Tarantola, due to address an HIV forum in Sydney tonight.

[…]

“Climate change will lead to food scarcity and poorer nutrition, putting people with perilous immune systems at more risk of dying of HIV, as well as contracting and transmitting new and unusual infections,” Prof Cooper said. (more…)

Linking School Suspensions to …Poverty?

At least that is what Des Moines school board member Jonathan Narcisse believes as reported in the following article.

Hoover seen reflecting state in black student suspensions
By RACHAEL STERN • CO-EDITOR, HOOVER CHALLENGER

Statistics from the Iowa Department of Education released earlier this year told a story familiar to elected officials who are black: The Des Moines school district, like the state collectively, has a disproportionately high number of black student suspensions.

Hoover High School Principal Doug Wheeler wasn’t surprised by the reports, and said that the same trend is present at Hoover, one of five Des Moines high schools.

“I’m sure that our percentage of suspensions here is probably predominantly African-American. The one thing that needs to be considered is that one-fourth of our school is African-American,” Wheeler said. “That being said, I’m sure there’s still a disproportionate number of African-American suspensions.”

Des Moines school board member Jonathan Narcisse was among those immediately concerned by the outcome of the studies. Narcisse, who is black, said that high levels of poverty in Des Moines could be one of the causes of the high suspension number for black students, and said in an interview that 80 percent to 90 percent of students in the district live in poverty.

“The economic and social conditions facing African-Americans in Iowa are brutal and coming out of that brutality is a presence, a behavior, an interaction, an engagement in our schools that often leads to suspensions and expulsions,” Narcisse said, “particularly as it relates to the lack of safety and security many African-American children feel as they experience acts of bullying, acts of intimidation, acts of inter-community violence.”

Now check this out.

Narcisse gave a conflicting opinion of his views on poverty causing problems within the district in a Feb. 28 e-mail, in which he stated: “Poverty is not the reason we are failing so miserably as a district.”

In an interview, Narcisse said that he didn’t believe low income played a part in suspensions.

“If we’re saying that poor kids are more violent or disruptive, I don’t think you can draw that,” he said.

Narcisse also claimed a different statistic for students living in poverty in an article he posted online March 8 at www.accountabledesmoines education.com. It said that 60 percent of Des Moines students live in poverty.

[Link]

The article goes on to quote another school faculty member who not only believes in the poverty-suspension link, but goes on to add that two parents working in Black, low-income homes may not have the time to help their children with schoolwork.

I guess what tires me about that excuse (because that is what it is) is that the same explanation rarely applies to other races. Also, this explanation relies too heavily on the assumption that many of these kids are coming from a TWO-parented home.

Parents who really care about their kids will make the time to help them. That applies to everyone, regardless of economic status. This dumbing-down of poor Black people by linking bad behavior to poverty has got to stop.

Probably a good way to measure outrage

I wonder if the system is set up to recognize repeat callers?
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P&G Weighs Pulling Ads From MTV, BET
Packaged=Goods Giant Soliciting Advice From Consumers Via Toll-Free Number
By Linda Haugsted — Multichannel News

The packaged-goods company is taking calls at an 800 number. Once dialed, callers are advised they have two choice regarding advertising on the two cable networks: press one if they want P&G to make changes in its advertising, or press two to indicate support for continued advertising on the networks. Input will be forwarded to the proper P&G executives, the recording indicates.

P&G is being criticized by Enough is Enough, an advocacy group partnering with the Parents Television Council, which released a report on April 10 asserting that shows on the network are “bombarding” youth with music videos larded with sex, violence and profanity. PTC singles out BET’s Rap City and 106 & Park, and MTV’s Sucker Free for its toughest criticism. The group, in its study, alleges these music video shows depict sex, violence or other profane images on average every 38 seconds.

Enough is Enough was formed last September to fight images on television that objectify women as sex objects, promote stereotypes of minorities as thugs and drug dealers and depict other negative images. The group has also criticized Procter & Gamble, labeling the corporation as hypocritical for promoting a marketing effort called “My Black is Beautiful,” which affirms the inner and outer beauty of African American women while it advertises on the targeted music video shows. (source)

After a while, comments like this become too predictable

Sharpton Raps Obama
By CHUCK BENNETT and KAVITA MOKHA
NYPost.com

Barack Obama made a call for nonviolence in the aftermath of the Sean Bell verdict - infuriating the Rev. Al Sharpton, who accused the presidential candidate of trying to “grandstand in front of white people,” sources told The Post.

During what a source described as a “heated” phone call yesterday, Sharpton told Obama he was disappointed with the Illinois senator’s words on Friday, when Obama said “resorting to violence to express displeasure” was “completely unacceptable and counterproductive.”

“[Obama] issues this statement and not a single rock had been thrown,” said a source. “How does the candidate of change ask people to accept a verdict that is unjust?”

The source said Sharpton had hoped Obama would “side with the Bell family” and not use it as an “opportunity to grandstand in front of white people.”

An Obama spokesman described the conversation as a chance to “hear [Sharpton’s] views and to get his perspective.” (more…)

Mandate, Referendum, What-Ever

House Democrats work on huge Iraq money bill
Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau

House Democratic leaders are putting together the largest Iraq war spending bill yet, a measure that is expected to fund the war through the end of the Bush presidency and for nearly six months into the next president’s term.

The bill, which could be unveiled as early as this week, signals that Democrats are resigned to the fact they can’t change course in Iraq in the final months of President Bush’s term. Instead, the party is pinning its hopes of ending the war on winning the White House in November.

Bay Area lawmakers, who represent perhaps the most anti-war part of the country, acknowledge the bill will anger many voters back home.

“It’s going to be a tough sell to convince people in my district that funding the war for six months into the new president’s term is the way to end the war,” said Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, a leader of the Out of Iraq Caucus who plans to oppose the funding. “It sounds like we are paying for something we don’t want.”

The bill is expected to provide $108 billion that the White House has requested for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Lawmakers who are drafting it say it also will include a so-called bridge fund of $70 billion to give the new president several months of breathing room before having to ask Congress for more money.

The debate is shaping up as a key test for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The San Francisco Democrat, who opposed the war from the start, faces fierce criticism from the anti-war left for refusing to cut off funding for the war. She’s trying to hold together a caucus split between anti-war lawmakers, who’d prefer a showdown with the White House, and conservative Democrats, who believe cutting off the war funding would make the party look weak on national security and put its majority at risk. (more…)

Attack Of The Doll People

Iran urged to fight Barbie doll invasion

TEHRAN: Iran’s toy market is being inundated by models of Barbie, Batman, Spiderman and Harry Potter and the young must be protected from their harmful cultural effects, the prosecutor general was quoted as saying on Sunday.

“Promoting figures like Barbie, Batman, Spiderman and Harry Potter and the uncontrolled import of CDs of video games and films should alarm all the country’s officials,” Ghorban Ali Dori Najafabadi was quoted as saying by the student ISNA news agency. “We need to find substitutes to ward off this onslaught, which aims at children and young people whose personality is in the process of being formed,” he added.

Dori Najafabadi’s comments came in a letter to an Iranian vice president, urging measures to protect “Islamic culture and revolutionary values”. While officials regularly lambast Western culture for polluting the minds of the public, Western toys have become a regular and popular feature on the shelves of toy shops in Iran in recent years. Affluent Iranian parents are known for indulging their children and the purchase of such toys has become for many an obligatory treat.

But Dori Najafabadi said: “These toys, which do not respect the required norms, present dangers for the health of children and affect the survival of toy factories in this country.” afp (source…)

Still Making Some Changes

If you have not noticed by now, much of the blogroll for this site is either missing or has been moved to its own separate page. The process is still ongoing as I am sifting out dead links and replacing them with better ones.

Another thing, when I upgraded my version of Wordpress, I lost all of my categories leaving me with the task of re-categorizing everything (almost 4,000 posts).

Like I tell my kids in the car “We’ll get there when we get there.”

I am REALLY starting to hate the word “green”

All the “green” rhetoric has really increased in the last couple of weeks.

I am down with taking care of the environment, but sheesh! Do we have to hear about it at every turn?

While it may be easy to lay most of the blame on greedy marketing firms, I don’t see folks who legitimately preach the green gospel not trying to stop it.

Random articles from around the net–

Alternative fuels aren’t solving Phoenix’s air-pollution problem, and it’s doubtful that they will anytime soon
By Ray Stern
phoenixnewtimes.com

A few years ago, the city of Phoenix owned about 1,400 light trucks and cars that can run on compressed natural gas as part of its effort to reduce dependence on gasoline and help clean the air. Now it has cut back to 1,073 such vehicles. And over the next several years, the city will shed most — if not all — of its remaining light-duty natural-gas vehicles.

For now, the replacements burn standard gasoline.

As the fleet shrinks, much of the decade-old $13 million in infrastructure for these vehicles will slowly be rendered useless. Burly compressors for the natural gas and maintenance equipment will be sold off.

The trend is affecting government fleets all over the Valley, as well as private vehicles. A look at the state Motor Vehicle Division’s license plate statistics shows that the number of alternative-fuel vehicles in the state — in spite of the so-called green movement — is going down.

[…]

Eight years ago, Arizona showed the rest of the country just how ludicrous alternative-fuel subsidies could get. The state promised to pay residents about half of the cost of a new vehicle (most were SUVs loaded with options) if the buyer converted the vehicle to run partly on natural gas or propane. The vehicle didn’t actually have to use the fuel, mind you. Many buyers installed only a token four-gallon natural-gas tank to get the subsidy, with no intention (or any practical way) of actually using the fuel.

People even got some vehicles for free.

A flat subsidy of $30,000 was paid for heavier pickup trucks, like Ford F-450s, even though, without options, the trucks retailed for less than $30,000. One loophole allowed buyers to collect the subsidy and immediately sell the vehicles out of state for profit. Another failed to effectively limit how many people could get a subsidy.

Accountants had mistakenly informed state lawmakers that the program would cost the state $10 million at most. But by the time Arizona lawmakers killed the program in late 2000, qualified state residents had applied for about $800 million in subsidies. (more…)

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While Sarah Fenske (also a writer for the Phoenix New Times) does believe in the premise of man-created global warming, she is at least willing to be honest about the whole green wave in her piece “We’re all destroying the earth, and buying an organic handbag ain’t gonna help“.

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Britons tired of green issues news
AOL News

Many Britons are suffering from “eco-fatigue”, with more than a quarter tired of the attention green issues are receiving, according to a new survey.

An ICM report for the Ideal Home Show also found nearly a quarter of people (23%) admitted they were bored of “eco news” and nearly a fifth (18%) exaggerated their environmental behaviour because it is fashionable.

>>(Hahahahah! This is EXACTLY why I do not believe most polls that suggest Americans overwhelmingly are fully converted on this issue.)<<

Back to the article

While more than half (57%) believed a difference could be made to the environment if everyone did their bit, nearly four fifths of those questioned (78%) think not everybody is making the effort.

But people rated their own green performance quite highly, with 83% saying they acted in an environmentally friendly way, the research found. (more…)

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The Latest Craze

Walking away from your current mortgage because you know it is about to reset (or already has) and getting a BIGGER house with a smaller mortgage payment.

Negotiated truth

From the website oldtruth.com

RC Sproul said the following:

“There is an attitude pervasively present in evangelical Christianity today that says “We’re sick and tired of doctrinal debates and disputes that divide people and create disharmony, dissidence, hard feelings, split churches and all that. Why should we have denominations? Why do we have these differences? Those things aren’t important. All that matters is ‘Do you love Jesus?’” When that attitude prevails, you can kiss the church of Christ goodbye, because the desire for peace, which is a good desire, a godly desire, and the New Testament and the Old Testament frequently enjoin us to seek peace, to pursue peace, to live at peace, and wherever it’s possible - to not be argumentative, contentious, divisive. But when we win peace by negotiating truth, where truth is slain in the streets, what we have is what the Bible calls false peace, a carnal peace, a peace that has no substance.”

Read the rest of the post here.

Memorable quote (week ending 4/26/08)

“When something is taken like a sound bite for a political purpose and put constantly over and over again, looped in the face of the public, that’s not a failure to communicate,” Wright said in an appearance with Bill Moyers. “Those who are doing that are communicating exactly what they want to do, which is to paint me as some sort of fanatic or as the learned journalist from the New York Times called me, a ‘wackadoodle.’ “ (Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., Obama’s controversial former longtime pastor, in his recent appearance on PBS’ Bill Moyers) [link]

>Truth is a two-way street for those who wish to travel it. - Me.

Typical American Cat

Notice the hand (I mean, paw).

Cosby Teams Up With The Judge

Cosby, Tucker join Fulton judge in message to black youths
CHRISTIAN BOONE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

(Image: AJC.com)

When Fulton Superior Court Judge Marvin Arrington got mad, an icon listened.

On Thursday, Bill Cosby headlined a “fireside chat” with Arrington and Atlanta-born comic Chris Tucker at Benjamin E. Mays High School. The packed auditorium held mostly at-risk high school students and their parents — the people Cosby is trying to reach with his message of tough love for the African-American community.

“I’m blunt, and I’m going to stay blunt,” he said, drawing cheers from the crowd. Cosby’s approach has its critics, but he’s unbowed.

Barack Obama says “Yes, we can.” Cosby’s message: “Yes we should.”

“The man from Nigeria comes here, he’s here two months, and what does he do?” he asked. “He goes to community college. He’s learning a second language while he drives the cab. What are our children doing? Practicing a first language that only they can understand.”

Arrington has become a recent convert to Cosby’s unflinching gospel of personal responsibility. The judge’s tipping point came earlier this month after he surveyed yet another round of mostly African-American perpetrators awaiting sentencing.

“I was tired of being sick and tired,” he said.

He responded by asking the white people in attendance to leave so he could speak frankly to the 50 or so young, black defendants. Arrington said he was following his grandmother’s admonition not to air the community’s dirty laundry in front of whites, but apologized soon after for a “bad judgment call.”

He’s since reconsidered, as reaction has been overwhelmingly positive, Arrington said. Cosby was among those cheering.

“This man cleared the courthouse because he was embarrassed,” the television trailblazer said. “The problem we have is apathy.”

He contacted Arrington, telling the judge he wanted to come to Atlanta “to help you in your fight to turn these young people around.” (more…)