Is rap tomorrow's jazz?
By Thaddeus Russell,
THADDEUS RUSSELL is a professor of history and American studies at Barnard College.

A LEADING African American newspaper published a series of articles assailing black musicians for holding back the race. The music "is killing some people," the paper claimed. "Some are going insane; others are losing their religion." The artists under attack were not rappers such as 50 Cent or Ludacris but Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. "The young girls and boys who constantly take jazz every day and night are absolutely becoming bad, and some criminals," the (New York) Amsterdam News wrote in 1925.

I understand some low-crawler referred to Mrs. King as "professional widow."

Coretta Scott King set to begin therapy
Stroke affected arm, leg and speech

By ERNIE SUGGS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 08/19/05

Coretta Scott King's cardiologist said she could face months of physical, occupational and speech therapy after suffering a major stroke and minor heart attack earlier this week.

Posted on Fri, Aug. 19, 2005
Kanye West raps hip-hop homophobia

Kanye West says "gay" has become an antonym to hip-hop -- and that it needs to be stopped.

During an interview for an MTV special, the 27-year-old rapper launched into a discussion about hip-hop and homosexuality while talking about Hey Mama, a song on his upcoming album, Late Registration.

West says that when he was young, people would call him a "mama's boy."

"And what happened was, it made me kind of homophobic, 'cause it's like I would go back and question myself," West says on the show, All Eyes on Kanye West, which aired Thursday night.

West says he changed his ways, though, when he learned one of his cousins was gay.

Quote of note:

Though lawyers for the Justice Department did not dispute the diagnosis of anencephaly, they argued that the Congressional restriction furthered the government's interest in protecting human life and warned against a "slippery slope" if courts tried to determine which abnormalities warranted an abortion.

Ms. Stone, the executive director of the Northwest Women's Law Center in Seattle, said the government's argument was "irrational at best and cruel at worst" because everyone agreed there was no chance that a fetus with anencephaly could survive or even attain consciousness.

Court Rules U.S. Need Not Pay for Abortion of Doomed Fetus
By DEAN E. MURPHY

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 18 - While suggesting that its decision might seem "callous and unfeeling," a federal appeals court here ruled Thursday that the Navy need not pay for an abortion received by a sailor's wife, even though doctors said the fetus had a birth defect and could not survive.

Quote of note: 

To the Bush administration, the aid cuts are the price paid for refusing to offer support in an area where it views the United States, with its military might stretched across the globe, as being uniquely vulnerable.

Is it the military might, or the way its used, that leaves one vulnerable to such charges? Come on, tell the truth and shame the devil...

Not to mention acceding to pressure is a far cry from offering support.

Anyway... 

Bush's Aid Cuts on Court Issue Roils Latin America
By JUAN FORERO

Just one thing:

Abstinence is one critical prevention strategy, but it cannot be the only one. Focusing on abstinence assumes young people can choose whether to have sex. For adolescent girls in Nigeria and in many other countries, this is an inaccurate assumption. Many girls fall prey to sexual violence and coercion. Many others are married off very young, as young as 13 or 14, long before they are psychologically or physically ready. Abstinence is not an option for these girls

I think Professor Osotimehin has bad information about the guys currently writing the checks. The ones who are married off early are married, and therefore (?) not a problem to them. Local practice wouldn't seem to indicate sexual violence and coercion (as opposed to talking about it) is very problematic either.

The Other Half
By BABATUNDE OSOTIMEHIN
Abuja, Nigeria

THE world knows that Africans bear the brunt of the AIDS pandemic and that nearly two-thirds of the people infected with H.I.V. live here. The disease is devastating households and crippling economies across the continent. Though data show that girls and women are far more vulnerable to infection than men, we have yet to summon the courage and the political will to empower and protect them.

I will miss my friends who live there... 

Quote of note: 

The FEC ruling opens what could become a big hole in the federal law that limits campaign money. Depending on how aggressively lawmakers decide to exploit that opening, interest-group money could begin pouring into the state not only on the redistricting fight, but also on other high-profile issues voters will face in November, including parental notification for minors' abortions, political activities of unions and restraints on state spending.

Stage Set for Fundraising Free-for-All
California congressmen can now raise unlimited amounts to oppose the governor's redistricting measure. There are national implications.
By Nancy Vogel and Michael Finnegan, Times Staff Writers

Missile Fired at U.S. Navy Ship in Jordan
By JAMAL HALABY
Associated Press Writer
3:25 AM PDT, August 19, 2005

AMMAN, Jordan — Unknown assailants fired at least three missiles from Jordan early Friday, with one narrowly missing a U.S. Navy ship docked at port, an attack that killed a Jordanian soldier. One missile fell close to an airport in neighboring Israel, officials said.

Quote of note:

"We used to worship the army, but now they are distant from us," said Kinneret Tzabari, a 19-year-old who spent a month camped out in Neve Dekalim to try to halt the withdrawal. "You can't find the words — there is nothing to say to them."

Protesters Turn Temples Into Theaters of Struggle
At one site, clashes with Israeli forces turn violent. Only three Gaza enclaves are uncleared.
By Ken Ellingwood and Laura King
Times Staff Writers
August 19, 2005

NEVE DEKALIM, Gaza Strip — Militant young holdouts fighting Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip made a furious last stand on the roof of a settlement synagogue Thursday, pelting riot police and soldiers with chunks of concrete and gallons of caustic fluid while troops fired back with water cannons.

Obviously someone needed something to talk about and just came up with this nonsense. We can't keep the animals we have alive.

Anyway... 

Lions and elephants on the Great Plains?
Scientists suggest relocating African species to North America

DENVER, Colorado (AP) -- If a group of prominent ecologists have their way, lions and elephants could someday be roaming the Great Plains of North America.

The idea of transplanting African wildlife to this continent is being greeted with gasps and groans from other scientists and conservationists who recall previous efforts to relocate foreign species halfway around the world, often with disastrous results.

But the proposal's supporters say it could help save some species from extinction in Africa, where protection is spotty and habitats are vanishing. They say the relocated animals could also restore the biodiversity in North America to a condition closer to what it was before humans overran the landscape more than 10,000 years ago.

Quote of note:

"I took them down to put them on my Wall of Recognition and Wall of Honor," said Hill. 

Clayton sheriff swats again
Moved plaques heats up feud
By KATHY JEFCOATS, ADD SEYMOUR JR.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 08/18/05

He calls it redecorating.

Others call it political spitefulness.

Whatever it is, another chapter has begun in the ongoing feud between Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill and the Clayton County Commission, particularly Chairman Eldrin Bell.

The whole point of linking:

Salem says it’s practically impossible to lie to him: "Even the most practiced liar, though, if they have an element of guilt, there's going to be what we call leakage."

"There is going to be information being given off. So, a politician can be trained and trained and trained and yet, their mouth is going to get a little dry when they're lying," adds Salem. "OK. There's gonna be the little bit of an adrenaline rush. … I would say virtually every thought we have has some physical manifestation."

"So to read somebody's thoughts, you've got to read their bodies?" asks Wallace.

"To read somebody's thoughts, you do need to read their bodies," says Salem.

And that’s the key to understanding his mental techniques. Salem believes that if we all used our observational skills better, we could do what he does. We could actually read other people’s thoughts.

How'd He Do That?

This drama doesn't put either side at physical risk. It does, however, strike at the very reason a significant number of Jewish folk believe Israel exists in the first place. This may further radicalize a movement which, at its most extreme, has already assasinated a Prime Minister.  

Quote of note:

About 1,500 outside "reinforcements" — most of them teenage activists from outside the settlement — remained holed up in the synagogue.

Push Comes To Shove In Gaza
KFAR DAROM, Gaza Strip, Aug. 18, 2005

Hundreds of Gaza pullout opponents barricaded themselves behind barbed wire in hard-line Jewish settlement synagogues Thursday, as security forces dragged screaming residents out of homes.

In Philly, at least...that's where the subversion of the Missing White Women Network broke out into public view.

Quote of note:

It wasn't just the timing of the 2 a.m. vote or the size of the raises. There was also the loophole legislators crafted around a state law that prohibits them from profiting from a pay increase until after the session in which it is approved. Instead of waiting until December 2006, legislators got their money right away through "unvouchered expenses" drawn from what some analysts called a "slush fund" of $130 million.

Not many voters knew that legislative caucus leaders in Harrisburg, the capital, had socked away the $130 million in "leadership accounts." And only belatedly did they learn that the loophole and pay raise were approved hours after legislators voted to slash Medicaid services to the state's disabled, elderly and poor. The state has a $450-million surplus, according to Madonna, but also faces a $1-billion-a-year deficit in Medicaid costs.

"Oil on ice does not get this slimy," wrote John Grogan, a Philadelphia Inquirer columnist who has helped lead a spirited attack on the legislators through a series of angry columns.

Voters Seethe Over Politicians' Raises
Pennsylvania legislators used a loophole to vote themselves immediate pay increases six weeks ago, at 2 a.m., then went on summer vacation.
By David Zucchino
Times Staff Writer
August 18, 2005

Company officials went through the records and identified two people who were involved with the name change and fired them, Andrews-Keenan said. It's unknown why the employees did it.

Woman Gets Cable Bill With Derogatory Name
Wednesday, August 17, 2005 (08-17)
17:30 PDT Chicago (AP) --

LaChania Govan said she got bounced around by her cable company when she called to complain. She made dozens of calls and was even transferred to a person who spoke Spanish — a language she doesn't understand.

But when she got her August bill from Comcast she had no trouble understanding she'd made somebody mad. It was addressed to "Bitch Dog."

Quote of note:

About midway through the 2004 season, it hit Snoop.

"I don't have to go against the system," he remembers thinking. "The best thing to do would be to create my own league, as opposed to me being used and them getting a lot of the credit." It would be "mine," he says. "Snoop began it."

Rapper Clears the Field
Snoop Dogg uses a tricked-out bus and star power to lure kids to his new league. Some say he's made an end run around existing teams.
By Steven Barrie-Anthony
Times Staff Writer

...Snoop, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, also has deep roots in youth football. He remembers the life lessons he learned while playing for the Long Beach Poly Junior Jackrabbits.

"It taught me how to work with other kids," he says, "how to have a relationship, how to learn. My coach taught me about religion as well as football, about keeping God in everything we did."

So two years ago, with Snoop's two boys old enough to play league ball, he enrolled them in the Rowland Raiders program, signed on as an offensive coordinator and weathered the media hullabaloo that ensued.

League Commissioner Bob Barna received "some e-mails from parents, saying, 'How dare you let somebody like that be with our youth?' " Barna says. "But did he bring anything negative? No. He acted like a dad."

I needed a new keyboard, and I got one of those ergonomic curved ones. My wrists do feel more comfortable, but I don't know where any of the keys are anymore...and it's not like I'm a typist to begin with.

The other thing is, I find I really like the "Black Intrapolitics" hook, so I registered "intrapolitics.org." It may be more marketable than "niggerati.net" (which I will not give up, by the way). Now I have to park a page by that name on my server.

I may install Movable Type over there...The latest beta is apparently massively succesful at beating on comment spam, which they HAD to beat, given all the big money corporate contracts they've gotten recently.

I'd really like trackbacks to work again, too.

I find it hysterical that a bag of marshmallows has nutritional information on it.

Back to Darkstar's troublemaking.

He actually started at Booker Rising asking in a thread that presented the McWhorter polemic

Can someone tell me exactly what came out of "Black militancy" other than a lot of hot air?

What policy or anti-policy?
What "attitude" that didn't exist prior and that wound up "in the mainstream"?

Somehting.
Because, right now, it seems like smoke and mirrors.

...subsequently modified at Vision Circle to

What would we as individuals have today WITHOUT black militancy?

Quote of note:

Matching investors with doctors can raise particularly troubling questions. Physicians frequently serve as clinical researchers for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, testing new drugs. Inside knowledge about those tests, before it is publicly available, could be worth millions. The Securities and Exchange Commission has now begun looking at whether doctors, participating in clinical trials, are accepting money to talk to analysts and investors about the confidential results. Such a breach, under some circumstances, could be construed as a violation of insider trading law.

Doctors' Links With Investors Raise Concerns
By STEPHANIE SAUL and JENNY ANDERSON

Standard economic rundown, but ignoring the high "d'oh!" factor of the title led me to two things I'd like to point out.

First of all, there's a picture of a really fine sister and her son at the top of the page who gets a line for no reason I can discern (her husband isn't in the photograph, but he's in the picture so don't get stoopit). Secondly, down in the middle there's a really tight explanation of why the looming end of the housing bubble will fuk you up.

The blow has been softened in recent years by falling long-term interest rates, which have allowed homeowners to refinance their mortgages and cut their monthly payments, and by rising house values.

"You don't have to take a couple hundred bucks and stick it in the bank each month, because your home price is going up," said Lakshman R. Achuthan, managing director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute in New York. "You might even withdraw some money."

Economy Shows Signs of Strain From Oil Prices
By JAD MOUAWAD and DAVID LEONHARDT

Inflation surged last month, the government reported yesterday, as the long rise in energy prices finally seemed to be pinching the American economy. After absorbing the burden of oil at $40 a barrel, then at $50 and beyond, consumers have started to react as prices have risen above $60 in recent weeks.

Quote of note:

Would shareholders be better served, in the long run, if companies diverted more of their earnings to capital spending, hiring and other investments in their basic businesses, instead of taking shares off the market?

...the case for greater business capital spending is that it could "lay the foundation for a more enduring economic recovery," Bowers said.

Consumer spending has largely powered the economy since 2000, but some analysts believe businesses should be leading the way now, investing in new plants and equipment and adding more jobs. That in itself would be a vote of confidence in the economy, their argument goes, and could help the struggling stock market as well.

Buyback Surge Is Stoking Debate
In a shift, some big investors say more earnings should be used for reinvestment.
By Tom Petruno
Times Staff Writer
August 17, 2005

Quote of note:

"It's not about Wal-Mart -- it's about the rest of the labor market," Levy said. "If the rest of the labor market was strong, you wouldn't have 11, 000 people applying for 400 jobs."

During the dot-com boom, Levy said, businesses like Starbucks bumped up wages to recruit employees in the middle of a hot job market. But now the situation has reversed, and more people are willing to take whatever they can get.

Want a Wal-Mart job? Join the crowd
11,000 apply for 400 openings at retailer's new Oakland store
- Pia Sarkar, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Coretta Scott King in hospital after stroke
By MAE GENTRY , ERNIE SUGGS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 08/17/05

Coretta Scott King, the widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., suffered a stroke Tuesday and was admitted to Piedmont Hospital, people close to her said.

A hospital spokeswoman confirmed that King was admitted but declined to discuss her medical condition and would say only that she was "resting comfortably."

King, 78, was diagnosed this spring with a heart malady called atrial fibrillation, which causes irregular heartbeats or fluttering. Medical experts say the condition can lead to a stroke.

...which is better than shooting ME all to hell... 

London Inquiry Refutes Police in Their Killing of a Suspect
By ALAN COWELL