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NYC and LA Screenings of "The Souls of Black Girls" (This Wknd)

Just heard about this and want to get out the word.

The Souls of Black Girls is a provocative news documentary that takes a critical look at media images--how they are instituted, established and controlled. The documentary also examines the relationship between the historical and existing media images of women of color and raises the question of whether they may be suffering from a self-image disorder as a result of trying to attain the standards of beauty that are celebrated in media images.

The documentary features candid interviews with young women discussing their self-image and social commentary from Actresses Regina King and Jada Pinkett Smith, PBS Washington Week Moderator Gwen Ifill, Rapper/Political Activist Chuck D, and Cultural Critic Michaela Angela Davis, among others. The Souls of Black Girls is a piece that attempts to provoke honest dialogue and critical thinking among women of color about media images and our present condition—internally and externally.




Saturday

New York - October, 20 2007 - 3:45P
Harlem International Film Festival (Schomburg Center)
515 Malcolm X Blvd (Corner of 135th Street)
Harlem , New York|33 10037

Los Angeles - October, 20 2007 - 6:00P
African American Film Marketplace and the S.E. Manly Short Film Showcase
5300 Melrose Ave
Hollywood , CA
Cost: 10.00

Sunday

October, 21 2007 - 3:30P
African American Film Marketplace and the S.E. Manly Short Film Showcase
5300 Melrose Ave
Hollywood , CA

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Tis the Season to Claim Black Inferiority

cross-posted to Jack & Jill PoliticsEvery few years some scientist has to come out and claim that black people are genetically inferior or less intelligent or prone to more sex or some such nonsense.This week's buffoonish mascot is non other than Dr. James Watson, Nobel Prize winning scientist credited with discovering DNA.The Times of London reports:
Black people 'less intelligent' scientist claims
One of the world’s most respected scientists is embroiled in an extraordinary row after claiming that black people are less intelligent than white people. James Watson, a Nobel Prize winner for his part in discovering the structure of DNA, has provoked outrage with his comments, made ahead of his arrival in Britain today.
More fierce criticism of the eminent scientist is expected as he embarks on a number of engagements to promote a new book ‘Avoid Boring People: Lessons from a Life in Science’. Among his first commitments is a speech to a London audience at the Science Museum on Friday. The event is sold out.
 
Dr Watson, who runs one of America’s leading scientific research institutions, made the controversial remarks in an interview in The Sunday Times.
 
The 79-year-old geneticist said he was “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours - whereas all the testing says not really.". He said he hoped that everyone was equal, but countered that “people who have to deal with black employees find this not true”.
 
He says that you should not discriminate on the basis of colour, because “there are many people of colour who are very talented, but don’t promote them when they haven’t succeeded at the lower level”. He writes that “there is no firm reason to anticipate that the intellectual capacities of peoples geographically separated in their evolution should prove to have evolved identically. Our wanting to reserve equal powers of reason as some universal heritage of humanity will not be enough to make it so”.

 

Wow. Don't you love that scientific method? "People who have to deal with black employees"??? Amazing. Dude is clearly a bit old an no stranger to idiocracy. The same article points out his equally ignorant statements about women and homosexuals:
Watson is no stranger to controversy. He has been reported in the past saying that a woman should have the right to abort her unborn child if tests could determine it would be homosexual.
In addition, he has suggested a link between skin colour and sex drive, proposing a theory that black people have higher libidos.
 
He also claimed that beauty could be genetically manufactured, saying: “People say it would be terrible if we made all girls pretty. I think it would be great.”
It's funny, based on my scientific studies, white scientists who try to monopolize credit for one of the greatest discoveries of the 20th century then pontificate on affairs well beyond their expertise are genetically pre-disposed to ending up as racist, dirty old men.

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Obama and Iran. Homey Don't Play That

(cross-posted to Jack and Jill Politics) I almost let this story slip through the cracks and hadn't seen much coverage here in the Afrosphere outside of JP Smith over at black...MYstory, so here goes. Last Thursday, Obama dropped one hell of an op ed in the Union Leader about the Lieberman-Kyl bill labeling Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization. Titled "Five years after Iraq war vote, we're still foolishly rattling our sabers" Obama writes:

an amendment passed last month by the Senate could be used by the President as justification to strike Iran under the authority granted to him by the 2002 Iraq war resolution. <snip> Why is this so dangerous? The Bush administration could use language like this to justify a continued troop presence in Iraq as long as it perceives a threat from Iran. Even worse, the Bush administration could use the language in Lieberman-Kyl to justify an attack on Iran as a part of the ongoing war in Iraq.

So far so good. Unfortunately, Obama didn't make the vote himself as he was campaigning in New Hampshire. His absence is essentially a nay, bit Hillary was present and voted hip hop hooray. Check out another excerpt from Obama's piece:

I strongly differ with Sen. Hillary Clinton, who was the only Democratic presidential candidate to support this reckless amendment. <snip> Sen. Clinton says she was merely voting for more diplomacy, not war with Iran. If this has a familiar ring, it should. Five years after the original vote for war in Iraq, Sen. Clinton has argued that her vote was not for war -- it was for diplomacy, or inspections. But all of us knew what the Senate was debating in 2002. John Edwards has renounced his own vote for the war, and he should be applauded for his candor. After all, we didn't need to authorize a war in order to have United Nations weapons inspections. No one thought Congress was debating diplomacy. No newspaper headlines ran on Oct. 12, 2002, reading, "Congress authorizes diplomacy." This was a vote to authorize war, and without that vote, there would have been no war.

Booyah! That's what I'm talkin' bout. It's one thing for Obama to continually draw distinctions with Clinton over the 2002 vote and "focus on the past." It's another thing entirely to see that him raising that point is still very relevant today and into the future. After that 2002 vote, I was utterly disappointed in the Democrats for granting Bush any authority whatsoever. Here was a man who was as incompetent as he was illegitimate, and we hand over the keys to the armed forces in a fit of misguided, so-called patriotism. After what we've seen go down in Iraq, I figured we would all refuse such acquiescence in the future. I was wrong. I'm especially annoyed with Clinton whose militarism scares me and who should know better the second time around. I can't believe I'm about to invoke Nancy Reagan, but in this case, the Dems should have just said, "No."

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Nooses: When Retro Goes too Far

(cross-posted to Jack & Jill Politics) When bellbottoms came back, I was ok with it. When 1980s style jeans and hair made a comeback, I was annoyed, but I let it go. However, it seems we've got the return of a much more powerful and painful symbol of the past to contend with nowadays: the noose. photo by thetombstonesnake courtesy of Flickr Of course, there's Jena, LA over a year ago, and the idiots who brought nooses back during the recent protest, but there are a frightening number of noose sightings all over the nation. I was watching CNN a few minutes ago and found this story October 4th at the Coast Guard Academy: Coast Guard tries to deal with noose incidents
The head of the U.S. Coast Guard and a congressman planned to travel to the Coast Guard Academy on Thursday to speak to cadets about the discovery this summer of two small hangman's nooses on Coast Guard properties.
October 4th, outside of Pittsburgh: Nooses Left At O'Hara Township Work Site
A third possible incident of racial workplace intimidation in the Pittsburgh area this week was reported on Thursday morning. Errol Madyun told WTAE Channel 4 Action News reporter Ari Hait that he found a noose on Wednesday at the construction site where he's working in O'Hara Township.
October 4th, outside of Pittsburgh: Local Verizon Worker Says She's Target Of Racial Threat
The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, claimed someone left a noose around a doll's neck with a note saying she didn't deserve a promotion. The doll was left on her desk in an inner-office envelope at the Verizon Wireless complex in Cranberry.
October 3rd, near Ft. Wayne, IN: Noose found on utility pole at Army Depot
Authorities are trying to determine who tied a noose to a utility pole in the industrial area of the Anniston Army Depot. A passerby spotted the noose yesterday at about 10 a.m
October 3rd, near Louisville, KY: Woman quits job after twice finding doll with noose around its neck
A year ago, Carla Hinkle says she found a doll with a rope wrapped around its neck in a plant at her job.
October 2, Pittsburgh: Racist Threat Found In Port Authority Garage
Officials said a black baby doll, with a racist threat, was found hanging Monday in a hallway at PAT's East Liberty garage. The threat was directed at an unspecified black woman.
September 30th, in Hempstead, Long Island NY: Noose Found Hanging In L.I. Police Station; Called 'Intolerable'
A noose was found dangling in the headquarters of a suburban police department that prides itself on its diversity, the police chief said.... <snip> Corey Pegues, a New York City police captain and the president of the Long Island chapter of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, said members believed the noose may have been directed at a high-ranking Hempstead police official who is black.
This doesn't include all the incidents brklyngrl posted about on OpenLeft this weekend. Like the word "nigger" a noose can be used by any white person to bring down any black person. Doesn't matter if we're talking about high school students or Coast Guard officers, construction workers or police chiefs. I'm sure many of these incidents are copycats "inspired" by the Jena 6 story, but let's not forget that George Allen kept one in his law office long before that famous "schoolyard fight" in Louisiana. Hanging a noose, like burning a cross or blowing up school children (whether on a city bus or in a church) is an act of terrorism. It forces people to change their habits, quit their jobs and live in fear. It is a threat on one's life. Black folks in America have been living with some form of terrorism since we arrived here, but somehow, I don't expect the government will be sending the troops to Hempstead and Louisville and Pittsburgh anytime soon. P.S. And then there's this incident on the campus of Grambling State: GSU president orders 'hanging photo' off Web. Apparently black parents wanted to dramatize the significance of the noose to their children in the wake of the Jena protest.
The Gramblinite's Web site Friday included a comment from a woman who identified herself as Irene Booker. She said in her posted comment, "Yes, it was a rope around the little girl's neck. It was a (safe) demonstration as to what the rope symbolized to blacks. This was my granddaughter and she along with so many of the other students did not understand the intimidation of the noose. I held her in my arms and she knows that I would not harm her or put her life in danger. In order to understand racism one must experience it to make the connection."
Thoughts, readers and fellow bloggers? Does the popularity of the noose indicate some resurgent racism, an increased comfort among racist people, a misguided set of "pranks" triggered by the Jena 6 case or something else altogether?

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We Are All Mercenaries (Weekly Dig)

Originally published in Baratunde’s bi-weekly GOODCRIMETHINK column in the September 26, 2007 edition of Boston’s Weekly Dig. Click through to see the awesome graphic the Dig created! And now, back to our war. Last week, the Iraqi government said it was going to cancel the license of Blackwater USA for allegedly killing 11 civilians in a gun battle surrounding an official's convoy. I smiled when I saw the headlines and thought, "Oh, isn't that cute? The Iraqi government thinks it can govern." There are just over 160,000 US military personnel in Iraq and 180,000 private contractors, including up to 50,000 employed in "security" functions. Blackwater is one of the most important to the American government. The State Department has a large contract with them, as does the Defense Department. They're so close that when the secretary of defense visits Iraq, he is protected by Blackwater forces, not the US military. Given the elderly, criminal and mentally unstable (but, by God, not gay) recruits the Pentagon has been desperately snagging lately, I can understand the decision. With all this, the idea that Blackwater can simply leave Iraq will remain just that: an idea. Didn't anyone tell the Iraqi officials that private security contractors were explicitly granted immunity from Iraqi law back in 2004? Didn't anyone tell the Iraqi officials that they cannot "revoke" Blackwater's license because all evidence suggests the company has been operating without a license since 2006 or earlier? Really, what does the Iraqi prime minister talk about with US officials who constantly drop in for surprise visits, Bill Belichick's intelligence apparatus? "But," many of my left-leaning friends say, "they're mercenaries!" OK, just what is a mercenary? Critics argue that the private contractors are only fighting for the money, but why else would you be in Iraq? Freedom? Democracy? Hummus? If money is the true motivation, then be prepared to call that American kid enticed by the Army's $25,000 "Quick Ship" signing bonus a mercenary, too. With the entire US occupation based on America's need for oil and the money flowing from it, we are all mercenaries. Besides, mercenaries are not always a bad thing. Do me a favor, and watch The Devil Came on Horseback, a film about the genocide in Darfur. After you're done watching the mass displacement, rape and slaughter, and after you've heard the latest resolution-without-action from the UN and US politicians, tell me you don't want to send in some hard Blackwater guys to take down the Janjaweed immediately. I will help you raise the money myself. Blackwater is not the problem. It is a symptom. It is a symptom of a rush to war on the cheap and without proper planning. It is a symptom of our bias toward privatization combined with a failure to establish clear rules for just who these private contractors are accountable to. It is easy to look at this most recent Blackwater incident and blame private contractors for all the problems surrounding them in Iraq, but these companies are, after all, contractors. This means somebody contracted with them to do their work. Demanding that Blackwater leave the country was as far as the Iraqis could go. They'd be hard-pressed to find, much less cancel the license of, the US government. BARATUNDE THURSTON IS A COMEDIAN AND AUTHOR. HIS COLUMN RUNS BIWEEKLY. CATCH HIM PERFORMING AT THE BOSTON COMEDY FESTIVAL NEXT WEEK. FOR DETAILS, VISIT BARATUNDE.COM.

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Blow by Blow of House Hearings on Hip Hop

cross-posted to Jack & Jill Politics Eddie Griffin posted in the comments of my original post that What About Our Daughters had some great coverage of yesterday's hearings. After reviewing their ridiculously good coverage, I need to give a phat shout to What About Our Daughters (WAOD). Even if you watched the live web stream, their perspective is unique and valuable. I thought I'd pull out some links to make it more accessible to yall. I've done some selective quoting to give you a flavor of the highlights. When you click through to the articles, you'll have to scroll down past a large header before you get to the main blog post. Just a heads up. BTW, these posts are in chronological order. If you want to see the full live blogging set over at WAOD, just click here. I love bloggers man. Talk about democratization of media. This is a shining example right here. WAOD Live Blogging From Imus to Industry Hearings in Washington,DC- Witness List Up(SMH) _ Rev. Al Gotta be MAD!

Master P and Levell Crump( Open mind. Must. Keep. An. Open. Mind.(repeat)) Y'all know Rev. Al is TICKED that his arch nemesis, David Banner is speaking before Congress.

I'm in the hearing rom by the skin of my teeth

We were in line since 8:00 but barely got into the hearing room because Viacom brought about 50 lobbyists and the entertainment companies brought HUGE groups of people with them. ONLY 25 people in the line that had been there since 8:00AM got in. The room was already filled when we got in. Apparently WE ended up in the section reserved for the press so this female staffer in a black suit and a green silk shirt keeps giving us the STANK eye and I keep giving it back!

Blogger Eddie Griffin and Afrospear Get a Shout out in the hearing! - EDDIES's Statement in Full( BELOW)

YAY Eddie! Congressman Burgess read your e-mail in the hearing room. ... Hell we are over an hour in and the congresspeople are STILL talking. Couldn't they all just STIPULATE that they A) aren't in favor of Censorship and B) Folks can get a V-chip

Viacom uses Hearings to Promote BET Show "HIp Hop Versus America"

SHAMELESS Plug. Viacom is the Devil. Shameless. They made us sit through a commercial of BET in the House of the People! Bought and paid for. Shecodes is having a fit next to me. Why didn't Viacom show a clip from 106 and Park? Why didn't they show "A Bay Bay"

Celebrity Sightings at Break AND We finally get to the QUESTIONS! _ Its getting hot in here! FINALLY

Ranking Republican member (Stearns) - confronting head of Universal Music with 50 Cent and Cam'ron lyrics. Go get em! I guess the Republicans didn't get the memo. THAT'S what Viacom gets for not throwing them a reception tonight as part of CBC week. The ranking member is taking it to them. This is what I sat cramped in an airline seat to see. I am loving this!

Congressman Butterfield(NC) is Enraptured with Viacom - just gushing. Viacom CEO says he doesn't actually keep up with that what they put on the air. Viacom CEO is satisfied with his standards. Salutes Warner Music for the work that they do? Who the hell is this Congressman. He has to be a member of the CBC.

Viacom CEO says Rev. Coates is "Harassing Debra Lee at her Home"

WHY is this sister Congresswomen sitting up on the podium waving a church fan? She came in late so i don't know her name yet, but WHY did she pull out a big ole fan waving like she up in a hot church. ... Viacom is very proud of funding "Hot Ghetto Mess".

Panel Two - David Banner, Michael Eric Dyson and Master P

David banner looks like that guy from Saturday Night Live , Tracey something. His suit is too tight. David Banner is the Republican Witness.

VIACOM CONTROLS WITNESS LIST! WAOD SCOOP!

I was wondering why folks were passing out flyers up in here.

Panel Two - David Banner College Graduate? Couldn't tell - Calls Hip Hop "Horror Music"

David Banner defends the "N" Word. Wonders why Steven King and Stephen Spilberg get a pass wants Hip Hop to be considered "Horror Music" Oh lord he is going after Homeland Security now. David Banner's mama showed up and and applauded at the end of his opening statement.

Panel Three FINALLY Starts - They Should Have Gone First

The hearing room is now empty. Congressmen and women are gone. Most of the Audience that was packed in is gone when perhaps this is the panel most of these folks should have made sure they listened to.

Rush is the only Congressman left to ask questions of Panel 3

Rush is talking out both of the sides of his mouth. He was preening and fawning over the entertainment execs and now he is oozing with empathy for Black women in front of the ONLY PANEL WITH WOMEN on it. Why didn't he ask the Execs this question?

Post Hearings Reflections - Congress States Definitively "Black Women, Y'all are on Your Own!"

If you thought the hearings were long tedious and boring, you were wrong. What happened on camera was nothing like the circus off camera. Like caribou locking antlers in a battle of a territory, we watched the melodrama of the Black Elite Establishment play out in front of our eyes. It would make you laugh, make you cry, make you want to see it again and again.

The main lesson is the one I pointed out at the beginning of this blog. The negative depiction of Black women is not a matter for Capitol Hill, it is a matter for the capital markets. Its not abotu free speech, but the free market. Its not a constitutional issue, but a customer service issue.

WE DON"T NEED CONGRESS!

Phew. A hat tip doesn't seem like enough praise to WAOD. How do you get bigger than that? Maybe a gallon hat flip? I'm trippin. Anyway, hope this was helpful.

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Global Warming, the New Colonialism?

(cross-posted to Jack & Jill Politics) A troubling set of Western-initiated forces are aligning to further destabilize Africa. That Cold War mentality which saw the rich nations of the world treat Africa as a playground and dumping ground is in full effect. Foreign debt is crushing already-struggling economies. A thirst for oil is exacerbating the gap between rich and poor and driving societies further away from freedom. The so-called "War on Terror" has made Africa suddenly interesting to the U.S. military. But the biggest force may be global warming. According to a report in Time magazine, global warming may be "drowning Africa."

"This weather is what climatologists predicted, and it is happening even faster than expected," says Grace Akumu, executive director of the Kenya-based Climate Change Network. "We are overwhelmed." The immediate consequences of climate change in Africa? Countries will experience either torrential floods or severe drought during a season. Akumu says that the unpredictable climate will threaten the food supply in Africa and potentially eliminate key crops. Africans are expected to face a severe lack of food and drinkable water by the end of the century.

Not all of Africa's problems can be blamed on the West, but a whole lot can. Global warming is undoubtedly caused by Western industrialized society and its rampant consumerism, but the effects are disproportionately felt by the world's non-industrialized and poor nations. Adding further insult is the fact that these nations don't have the resources (financial, technological or otherwise) to combat the effects of global warming in the same way Western societies can. Push come to shove, the U.S. will probably erect sea walls and pursue other measures to limit social and economic damage from rising sea levels, etc. Most African nations cannot afford such an expense. The Time article continues:

Africa is particularly vulnerable because it has a low institutional capacity to combat the changing weather. As a result, says Ugandan climate change specialist James Magezi-Akiiki, "in Africa, adaptation to climate change is more important than mitigation." In response to the floods devouring Uganda, Magezi-Akiiki says that the government will now consider the effects of global warming, such as increased rainfall, in its planning of future infrastructure projects.

Ironically, Africa produces far less carbon than other continents, leading some scientists to blame industrialized countries for Africa's climate plight. Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni announced at an African Union summit this year that developed countries were "committing aggression" against Africa by causing global warming.

The irony is extra spicy in this case. As our Western societies max out on resources such as energy, we could learn a thing or two from our "third world" brothers and sisters about how to live more in a more sustainable fashion, but we're too busy exploiting them to see such a possibility. As Africa becomes less stable, we will extend an offer of help, but it will come with major strings attached. We'll probably repeat the mistakes we made in Latin America all over again, propping up unjust regimes to get ours and get out. We should all be paying a lot more attention to energy, climate and food issues. I recommend checking out the blog for the African American Environmentalist Association which just posted about an upcoming CBC Foundation event on environmental justice.

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House to Hold Hearings on the BUSINESS of Stereotypes and Degrading Images

(cross-posted to Jack and Jill Politics) Tip of the hat to Eddie Griffin (no not that one) for the heads up about this. Today, Tuesday September 25th, a House Subommittee will hold a hearing on the following: From Imus to Industry: The Business of Stereotypes and Degrading Images Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection Hearing 10:00 a.m. in room 2123 Rayburn House Office Building you can view the live stream with Windows Media Player starting about 10 minutes before the hearing begins. Variety, in many ways the official entertainment industry magazine, wrote about the hearings back on September 4th.

A new front on the content wars may be opening when Congress holds its first hearing specifically into media "stereotypes and degradation" of women -- particularly African- American women -- later this month.

Hearing, not yet officially announced and tentatively skedded for Sept. 25, will focus primarily on hip-hop lyrics and videos, which critics have frequently derided for explicit misogyny aimed largely at black women.

But other media will likely come under scrutiny, too.

"I want to engage not just the music industry but the entertainment industry at large to be part of a solution," said Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection, which will hold the hearing.

Just as his colleagues on other committees have summoned TV execs to be grilled on sexual or violent content, Rush wants to hear from the leaders of companies purveying rap music. The intent is to examine commercial practices behind the music's most controversial content.

According to the subcommittee website, the hearings will consist of three panels with a variety of witnesses. Panel 1 (the c-walkers) Phillipe P. Dauman, President & CEO, Viacom Edgar Bronfman, Jr., Chairman & CEO, Warner Music Group Doug Morris, Chairman & CEO, Universal Music Group Alfred C. Liggins III, President & CEO, Radio One Strauss Zelnick, Chairman of the Board, Take-Two Interactive Software (creators of the Grand Theft Auto game franchise) Panel 2 (the artists) Percy Miller, aka Master P Levell Crump, aka David Banner Panel 3 (the akademiks) I provide links to their bios or books, etc. Tracy Sharpley-Whiting, PhD @ Vanderbilt Andrew Rojecki, Phd @ Univ of Illinois Chicago Faye WIlliams, PhD & Chair Nat'l Congress of Black Women Lisa Fager Bediako, President of Industry Ears Karen Dill, PhD @ Lenoi-Rhyne College This should be very interesting. I won't be able to tune in, but I hope someone can report back on some highlights. Congress has a habit of dragging content executives to the Hill when there is a public outcry of inappropriate images, especially where children are the intended audience. Criticisms of the media as a "vast wasteland" date back nearly to the medium's beginning in former FCC Chairman Newton Minow's famous 1961 speech. As an artist and "content creator" myself, I don't relish the idea of legislation dictating what I can and cannot say, but I'm interested in what this hearing will bring out. The title suggests they will do more than drag a few artists and execs up in order to rub their noses in filthy content. Being about the business of stereotypes, we could see some interesting data on the affects of images and sound on the audience and the profits behind such. I was in high school when I first saw C. Delores Tucker protesting "gangster rap," and she honestly irked me to no end. When I saw her, she was rude, mean and didn't seem to want to listen. I can't say that's how she is, but that was my impression and I wanted none of it. Let folks play what they will, I thought. But the marketplace of images isn't so fairly balanced as to let just the "market" decide, and saying that violent images don't affect people is plain wrong. As a friend of mine put it so well once, "there's a multibillion dollar industry predicated on the idea that images and sound make people do sh*t. It's called advertising."

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Blogger Roundtable on NPR's News & Notes, Sep 19, 2007

(cross-posted to Jack & Jill Politics) In case you missed it, here is the audio from the Blogger Roundtable section of NPR's News & Notes, hosted by Farai Chideya. The show aired Wednesday September 19, 2007 at 1pm Eastern Time. You can also access it on NPR's website.

Click on the image below to play the show right here.

Video thumbnail. Click to play
Click To Play


Bloggers at the table this week were:

lynne and I were in the NYC studio, and I can't remember where Juliette was. We had originally planned to discuss four topics but had to drop the Juanita Bynum story due to time constraints. The three we did get to were:

Some of my extended thoughts on the topics...

OJ. I have nothing to say about the man. I got two text messages from CNN about his "story" but none about Petraeus, none about Jena.

The GOP. Giving the Heismann to black and brown voters is foolish. What happened to the testosterone-filled manly men of the GOP? Are they afraid of getting tough questions from colored folks, values voters and even YouTubers? I'm a lefty, but I know the truth lies in the middle of so-called Left and Right. I am genuinely interested in how Republicans might propose to seriously address the concerns of black and brown folks. But, if you don't bring your ideas to the table, you might as well not have any.

Blackwater. This was a tough story for me to get a handle on. I have a knee-jerk liberal-type reaction against privatized security forces, but I reached out to a good friend with some expertise on the matter and found some truly balanced opinions at BlackWaterBlogger.com. Things are rarely as simple as they appear, and definitely more complicated that we want them to be. I also highly recommend Iraq for Sale from Brave New Films.

Thanks to News & Notes and the other bloggers for a good time.


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