Saturday, April 16, 2011

Media Control

Here's the skinny:

The national media is controlled by a handful of folks. A few giant companies like Viacom, Time-Warner, News Corporation (Rupert Murdock), Disney Corporation, Gannett Company etc.

Just google the aforementioned names and you may (or may not if you pay attention) be amazed how many TV stations, newspapers, radio stations and magazines they collectively own.

Here's the good news:

Thus far, the internet thru bloggers, social websites and youtube like sites, is where legitimate news and information breaks thru the echo chamber.
Just in the last couple of days, I have become enamored with two blog sites.

Check them out:

Brown Watch

Suggested Reading

Libya all about oil, or Central Banking

The other blog is:

Field Negro

Suggested Reading

Real Talk

I Want My Country Back!


The GOP has truly jumped the shark!

After a few weeks of trolling with the bottom feeders (birthers), you'd think the poll ratings for Mr. Comb Over would have tanked.

That's how us rational folk think.

But as CNN has reported Comb Over is now tied for the lead among potential Republican 2012 presidential candidates.

I see the forthcoming trend picking up momentum, just utter the craziest anti-Obama rant and Mr. and Mrs. Wonderbread (Sarah Palinland folks) will embrace you.

Why?

Hey Dude, they want their country back!

Friday, April 15, 2011

The Donald: Comb Over Man




Comb Over Man: "I always had great relationships with the Blacks"

...he likes us, he really, really likes us...!

Internet Racism (IR)

Is it me or is IR exponentially growing? Whenever I read a story that involves people of color - black, brown, yellow - or a person of Islamic faith, I see hundreds, if not thousands, of comments spewing the vilest form of anonymous racism.

Just read a story on Barry Bonds, Chris Brown, immigration, Mosques, President Obama, Tiger Woods, Mexico (or any Latin American country) and the faceless comments are stunningly ugly and hateful.

As a blogger, I read several blogs from an African American perspective daily; and it seems as if these racist go out their way to find these sites in order to rant and rave.

The majority of IR comes from xenophobic and frightened little people. The country and world is changing right before their eyes and it's not change they believe in.

Read:

* Urban Dictionary: Internet Racism

* Resist Racism

Economic Empowerment: The New Frontier by Ben Harvey

As we commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, the war that ended slavery, we should by very proud of our monumental progress in a country that was riddled with racial hostility. At the same time, being mindful of our contemporary challenges, we should be vigilant in charting a new course to address our current needs.

I am of strong opinion that the new frontier includes Economic Empowerment and Financial Literacy. Good credit, adequate savings, wise investment and sound entrepreneurship should be taught at a very early age. We live in a competitive global market and by not providing our youth with financial education hampers their progress - which in turn retards the progress of our community.

The following is a list of suggestions from business motivational speaker Felica Joy:

Increase our financial literacy;

Start with a business plan;

Constantly train, study and execute to become smarter, more skilled entrepreneurs;

Grow our businesses with the intention of creating jobs because employer firms vastly out earn sole proprietors;

Operate our businesses based on principles and numbers, not emotions;

Learn to do business internationally;

Prepare and compete to be number one period (not just in our community);

Start or buy defensive businesses, which are ones that provide products and services that people need regardless of economic conditions;

Start or buy businesses in the biggest wealth creating industries—such as technology, engineering, manufacturing and energy; and

Spread this mentality and these behaviors among our family members and throughout our communities.

It Really Is Better Now for Blacks by John McWhorter

There are those who think that I am naive about racism or that I downplay it. The kinds of people who think so are often themselves accused, from other quarters, of being "stuck in the past," unable to admit that things truly change. Interestingly, I often feel that it's actually I who am stuck in the past.

I mean that I cannot help, at all times, comparing now with what it was like on a daily basis for those who came before us. Take this week, when we are marking the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr..
Many remind us that we have come only so far. I, on the other hand, think just as much -- and probably more -- of the fact that we really have come so very far.

Let's go back a hundred years from this exact month. What was it like to be black in April 1911? The handiest way to find out is with the issue of the NAACP's magazine the Crisis. And it leaves me thinking that if it makes me naive to feel much, much better about things than those people did, then naive I most definitely will stay.

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Thursday, April 14, 2011

How Obama Seized the Political High Ground in Budget War




By Robert Creamer (political organizer, strategist and author)

For several months, Washington conventional wisdom has convinced itself that President Obama -- and Democrats in Congress -- have been on the losing end of the deficit-budget debate. But with his speech yesterday, President Obama seized the high political ground in the budget war that will heavily define his second two years in office. Four factors have changed the political equation.

First, Obama changed the frame of debate from the realm of policies, programs and green eye-shades into a contest between the progressive values that have always defined what is best in America and the radical conservative values of the Gilded Age.

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Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Trump Madness by Selam Aster



Politics can be hard to stomach, especially when it comes to the stupidity of the Tea Party and to the dumb antics employed by media-obsessed egoists like Donald Trump who have nothing better to do than to criticize a hard-working President while he’s dedicating himself to reality TV and making sure he stay’s relevant as a celebrity.

Recently, Trump has tried to drum up skepticism about President Obama’s status as a natural born citizen, requesting that he show America his birth certificate. After Whoopi Goldberg on the View lambasted Trump’s accusations, Trump went on to provide Newsmax.com with his own birth certificate to demonstrate the ease of doing so. Later, Politico.com exposed the birth certificate to be fake. Do you think that expose of his foolery did anything to slow Trump down? Oh no.

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Hollywood In Africa

South Africa's new role as Hollywood's hottest back lot reflects how perceptions of the country and the continent are changing. That new image is even finding its way onscreen. March saw Ryan Reynolds and Denzel Washington wrap another action movie in Cape Town, Safe House. The film, originally slated to be set in Brazil and merely shot in South Africa, was rewritten so Cape Town could finally stop serving as a double and, for once, be cast as itself. Denis Lillie, CEO of the Cape Film Commission, says he expects more of that in the future. Like Los Angeles or New York, Cape Town is a naturally cinematic city, he says. "You have Table Mountain, the sea, the city, the townships. And it's a very soulful place. A lot of the stars get off the plane, touch the soil of Africa and discover a real connection." Sounds a lot like movie magic.

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