BlackPerspective.net

On top of the recent indictments of Detroit’s Mayor and his “jump off” as Deputy Diva calls her, former Mayoral aid Beatty; now comes the tale of the real life Madea on the city council.

Watch as U.S. Rep John Conyers wife, Monica Conyers, commences to acting batty.

What a petulant friggin child. She acts like a Detroit stereotype.

And what the hell kind of childish response was that to those kids. I guess, “it depends” on what the meaning of is, is. Why was the 8th grade girl the adult in the conversation? That child schooled that fool.

I feel sorry for John Conyer if he has to come home at night to this ball breaker. It’s funny too, because he’s so mild mannered. He barely speaks above a whisper. You almost think he’s falling asleep in mid-sentence when he talks.

But I guess John doesn’t care cause he’s getting that young poo-tang, and yes her 40 something years is young to him. To put his age into perspective, he’s one year younger than Martin Luther King. She married him when she was in her mid-20s and he was already almost old enough to collect social security. He was in congress before she was born.

An article on her bar fight: www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=122248

Detroit seems intent on continually making Black people look bad.

[There were technical difficulties with the original post going to an error page when you try to comment, so here it is again]

With yet another blogger list that disrespects bloggers of color, where white is the default for anything good; I’ve decided to get into the fray of blogger recognition.

Villager has come up with the anecdote for Black bloggers being consistently left off of Best blog list, and being highly underrepresented on the blogs sites of popular netroots sites like MYDD and Daily Kos - DO OUR OWN.

For several months now he’s conducted Villager’s Best Black Blog Rankings monthly, based on Technorati Authority and Rank

Open Entrance recently did a Top Black Bloggers List, based solely on traffic

I want to create a list that takes in popularity, influence authority, and subjective quality criteria. To that end I’m holding a contest to create BlackPerspective.net’s Best Black Blogs List.

The process will go as follows:

1. We will take the top 50 blogs from Villager’s most influential list that’s based on Technorati Authority

2. From those 50 we will have a popular vote, and we will take the top 20 vote getters as finalist.

3. From that list of 20, we will personally examine all 20 blogs to determine a top 10 list, and the other 10 will be awarded Honorable Mention.

The criteria for examination are as follows with number 1 being the criteria to carry the most weight and descending in importance from there:

1. The veracity of the content of the blog; including use of multimedia
2. The creativeness and uniqueness of the perspective or twist on the information provided
3. How well written the content is
4. The diversity of content
5. The balance of informative versus entertainment or engagement value
6. The readability of the text area
7. The presentation via the layout

This will provide for a more comprehensive Black Blog list. It will go beyond the often use popular vote; which tells you more about which blogs have more mass appeal and less substantive material, more than it tells you the quality of the blog.

BlackPerspective.net’s Best Black Blogs List will start with its basis being the influence level of the blogs then taking the popularity pulse of those blogs, and yet finish with a human taking stock of the actual quality of the blogs based on some criteria.

This provides a more balanced level of objectivity with a level of critical judgment; rather than just going by raw numbers.

We’ll run this contest either bi-annually or quarterly, I haven’t decided yet.

The post to start your voting with the list of candidates will go up soon, so stay tuned.

In yet another race-bait moment in her national “southern strategy” campaign, Clinton said this to USA Today:

“I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on… Sen. Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me.”

This reminds me of a statement by Vicente’ Fox, then President of Mexico; when pushing illegal immigration as the Mexican government always does, said that:

“There is no doubt that Mexicans, filled with dignity, willingness and ability to work are doing jobs that not even blacks want to do there in the United States,”

Yes, Mexicans have dignity, as opposed to those undignified, lazy Blacks who won’t do the work.

As the Wretches of the Earth, we continue to get it from all sides.

In a post where Jack and Jill Politics refers to the comment as Hillary “remind us again that our votes don’t actually count:”; they highlight a great piece of fact that gets in the way of Clinton and the media’s “blue collar, white working class’ myth:

Steve M. points out that her husband didn’t win this group in the general yet won the election:

According to CNN’s 1996 exit poll, Bill Clinton lost the white vote (Dole 46%, Clinton 43%, Perot 9%). He lost the white male vote by an even larger margin (Dole 49%, Clinton 38%, Perot 11%). And he lost gun owners badly (Dole 51%, Clinton 38%, Perot 10%). However, Clinton won the popular vote overall

In 2000 — when Al Gore won the popular vote by half a million votes — he lost white males to Bush by a whopping 60%-36%, according to CNN’s exit poll. He lost men overall 53%-42%. He lost whites overall 54%-42%. He lost gun owners 61%-36%. He lost small-town voters 59%-38% and rural voters 59%-37%. He lost the Midwest overall 49%-48%.

I’m not saying these are goals to aspire to. I’m saying it’s a myth that Democrats had Joe Sixpack in their back pockets until that snooty arugula-eater Barack Obama came along, and it’s a myth that they suffer crushing defeats when bowlers and boilermaker-drinkers aren’t on board. 49%-41%-8%, and he won 70% of the electoral votes.

So it doesn’t matter. For a democrat to win you have to expand past the factory worker class, and get votes from the rest us, you know us college educated elitist, semi-professional and professionals of other kinds, Blacks and Latinos, services workers, etc.

There aren’t enough Pennsylvania rednecks across the country, who won’t vote for a Black guy for Hillary to win in November.

“At this point any abstract metric besides votes or delegates that Clinton can use as a rationale for her candidacy becomes the only appropriate one to use.”– Jack and Jill Politics

Man, I better stop working hard at my blog; apparently I’m acting white. Just like working hard to get my college degree makes me an elitist.

Arrested along with Sharpton was Bell’s fiance’ Nicole Paultre Bell and the other two shooting victims in the car with Bell, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield.

Black America Web has the story:

Sharpton, Dozens Arrested in Bell Case Protest
Date: Wednesday, May 07, 2008
By: Tom Hays and David B. Caruso, Associated Press

NEW YORK - (AP) The Rev. Al Sharpton was among dozens arrested Wednesday as demonstrators blocked traffic at the height of the evening rush hour to protest the acquittal of three detectives in the 50-bullet shooting of an unarmed black man on his wedding day.

Police estimated that about 190 people were arrested, including Sharpton, two survivors of the shooting and the slain man’s fiancee. They lined up and put their hands behind their backs as police arrested them on disorderly conduct charges.

Sharpton, the two survivors and the fiancee were released about four hours later, said Sharpton spokeswoman Rachel Noerdlinger…

…The protests were part of a coordinated campaign to urge federal authorities to investigate the shooting of Sean Bell in November 2006.

The three officers were acquitted of state charges last month in a case that from the start ignited protests and spurred criticism of police tactics. One of the officers fired 31 shots, emptying his clip two times in a few short seconds.

Sharpton has said Wednesday’s “pray-in” protest was a preview of potential future demonstrations designed to paralyze the city…

U.S. attorney spokesman Robert Nardoza said the case was under review, but he declined to comment further about a possible federal case.

[see more first hand pictures like this at majikthise.typepad.com/majikthise_/ - thanks to Cooper for the heads up]

Sharpton, shooting survivors Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, and Bell’s fiancee, Nicole Paultre Bell — who legally took his name after his death — linked arms as they blocked a street at the Brooklyn Bridge’s base.

They were trailed by at least 200 demonstrators who kneeled in prayer in the road and counted to 50 in a reference to the barrage of gunfire that killed Bell.

The arrested protesters were expected to be issued tickets for misdemeanor offenses.

On the opposite side of lower Manhattan, an ethnically diverse crowd of about 80 demonstrators chanted, “We’re fired up; we won’t take it no more,” and held hands as the Rev. James E. Booker Jr. blessed the crowd. After marching to the Holland Tunnel behind a “Stop the Brutality” banner, the protesters blocked two entrances…

There were also protestors into the hundreds at the Queensboro Bridge and Triborough Bridge in Harlem. Read the full story here

I’m still covering the Jena 6 at The Jena 6 Blog - just posted an update today

This post experienced technical difficulties. Please see the repost here:

www.blackperspective.net/index.php/blackperspectivenet-best-black-blogs-contest/#comment-2548

I mean, really there’s not much that needs to be said.

He has all the numbers on his side; Won the most states more than 2 to 1, he has won the delegate count, it is inevitable that he will clinch the majority of pledge delegates and likely soon, he’s winning the popular vote even if you do Hillary math of counting only primary states or the other Hillary math of counting in Florida.

He came within millimeters of winning what Hillary’s own camp described as a must win, Indiana; and he demolished her in North Carolina after the hardest three weeks a candidate can have.

He won a big state tonight, and one it big; there goes that argument. He went head to head with her in a sizable white working class state tonight, there goes that argument.

She has nothing to argue with – IT’S OVER

You’re Looking at the Democratic Party Presidential Nominee.

And probably the next President of these United States

(assuming they don’t assassinate him)

My VP List

Biden
Dodd
Gipheart
Rendell

I’ll elaborate in a post in the coming days.

I wrote previously about how Obama being elected president could actually have negative consequences for Black America.

I ended the piece by saying the following:

“I don’t know that an Obama presidency will be more bad than good for Black people in the final analysis; but if we are not prepared to strategically respond to the shift in the racial political landscape, there are good odds that it will.

Either way, we have to be (and yes here this word is again) strategic in our dealings in order to maximize a Black presidency. Otherwise we can end up getting precious little out of it.”

Even as this democratic nomination race endlessly lingers on, with Obama winning the nomination and the general still being more likely than not; we should attend to our strategic task.

We should be doing two things: preparing our agenda for President Obama, and launching a pre-emptive offensive against white folk’s ‘post-racial’/’racism is dead’ argument that will be boasted if Obama were to win. The Pastor Wright saga and redneck’s admitting they won’t vote for Obama because he’s Black; is proof that there is no post-racial in America. Controlling the public discourse about the continued affects of racism and the realities of race are the types of things we should do in lue of an Obama Presidency if we want to maximize the benefit of having a Black man as president.

He can have a coronation from the First Tuesday in November until inauguration day in January; but after the grinning, he’s to be held accountable to responding to our agenda. If he were to not be responsive, then he is to be opposed. No passes like you gave your last “first Black president” who didn’t do shit for us but pay us lip service.

The post-racial argument must be stumped down in it’s tracks as there can be no reform of racist institutions and practices in America if the racism is not acknowledge to it’s fullest extent. It never has been fully acknowledged, that’s why it still persists; and diminishing its recognition to decreasing levels of minimialization would be detrimental to our cause. Hence, we should be out in front of controlling the public discourse on this issue, and providing sound, well articulated and understandable argument about how racism persist and affects racial minorities in society; and how the election of one Black man by a minority of white American’s votes, doesn’t change that reality.

I think the above would be far more fruitful than the staunch, unrelenting Black critics of Obama who apparently feel that he running on anything short of the Black Panther 10 Point Plan as his expressed policy, makes him unworthy of Black support; and therefore want to ridicule him on the campaign trail and derail his candidacy. How they think John McCain and Hillary Clinton will benefit Black people, I don’t know; and they never respond when asked.

Black think tanks and social advocacy groups should have some practical actions and specific goals to present to president Obama, and then we should continuously hold him in judgment as to his administration’s progress in pushing towards these ends. Here’s just some ideal of what we need to detail and articulate as far as issue aside from those that universal to most Americans in general:

We want a push back in the erosion of affirmative action, particularly in higher education; racial profiling rooted out of the practice of law enforcement patrolling federal high ways, real changes in education that recognizes and deals with people coming from different circumstances and how public schooling can be responsive to that; A Justice Department that vigorously investigates and prosecutes discrimination in commercial practices and in law enforcement, as well as vigorously prosecutes racial intimidation and so-called ‘hate crimes’; we need prosecution disparities addressed, as well as the criminalization of Black youth; safe residency for those in federally funded housing (think Dunbar Village for instance), more early intervention for ‘at risk youth’, etc.

Obama must be held to addressing these needs, and if he were not to; we must not let him slide just because he’s the Black guy.

As I’ve said before, having a Black face in a high place is not the prize. Symbolism does nothing for us.

*Note: My comment on the 10 Point Plan is not a swipe against it, as I mostly agree with the plan except the guaranteed income part; but the point is, it’s a losing cause to run on it as ones EXPRESSED policy.

In the case them seemingly never happens, The Chicago Sun-Times brings us some new info

Exclusive: Witness to testify she had a threesome with R. Kelly, victim
ERIC HERMAN Criminal Courts Reporter

A woman is set to testify at R. Kelly’s upcoming child pornography trial that she had a three-way sexual encounter with Kelly and the allegedly underage girl shown in the video at the heart of the case.

The 41-year-old R&B superstar is accused of videotaping himself having sex with a girl estimated to be 13 or 14. He has pleaded not guilty. Jury selection is set to begin Friday.

As part of the case, prosecutors claim to have identified the girl in the videotape. This alleged victim is now in her 20s. Kelly’s lawyers plan to argue — and the alleged victim will reportedly testify — that she is not the girl in the tape.

But the prosecution’s new witness could undermine that defense, since she will identify the girl, sources with knowledge of the matter told the Chicago Sun-Times. In addition, the witness is expected to say the girl was underage at the time of their encounter.

“She was involved in a threesome with [the girl] and R. Kelly,” one source said.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers declined to comment, citing a gag order in the case.

The witness’ testimony was among the evidence discussed in secret hearings last month before Judge Vincent Gaughan. The judge, citing concerns about pretrial publicity, closed the hearings to the public and put multiple court filings under seal…

In the past, Kelly has faced civil lawsuits from underage girls accusing the singer of inducing them to have sex with him and a second woman. The title track of his 2007 album “Double Up” refers to a man arranging a ménage a trois.

The Kelly case has been pending since June 2002, when the R&B star was indicted on multiple counts of child pornography. It has been delayed repeatedly, but lawyers and courthouse personnel expect it will finally begin May 9.

www.suntimes.com/news/metro/kelly/929564,rkelly050308.article

Did she know how old the girl was, cause that make her a rapist too if she did. Guess she’s getting immunity or something.

More than anything I want him to go to jail just so he can’t make no more Trapped In The Closet Videos.

New York’s message to Black people is clearly that ‘a Black man has no rights that a police officer is bound to respect’; not even the Preamble right to life. And thus this nation has come full circle in its disregard for the humanity of Black people.

On March 6, 1857 Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney declared that “The negro has no rights which the white man is bound to respect”; in a decision to denie a Black slave, Dread Scott, and his familie their freedom.

Though not using those words, Judges across America, and especially in New York, have made a like decleration through their actions about where Black people’s rights stand with cops.

Whether it the shooting of a Black mother and her infant or tasering a wheel chaired woman with schizofrenia to death for 4 minutes; the police are never accountable for wrongfully killing Black people.

As I noted in my post on the day of the Sean Bell Verdict the license to kill colored folk doesn’t stop with the race of the cop, as Black police officers are so often mentally co-opted into the Blue mentality of abuse.

The National Black Police Association even says that “It does not matter that two of the officers who killed Sean Bell are black. The larger issue is that police officers of any color, in jurisdictions throughout the United States are given a blank check to abuse people of color. Prosecutors routinely look the other way and if they prosecute, they throw the fight (a real possibility of what happened in the Bell case). ”

Many court observers note a sloppy handling of trial by the prosecution in the Sean Bell case; including what appeared to be unprepared witness. Then couple that with the prosecutor coming out to a press confrence right after the verdict with nary a word of protest to the verdict; but simply dispassionately saying that we must “respect the verdict”; makes the “throwing the fight” senario seem likely.

They’ve been shooting down our people in New York since Eleanor Bumper and before; as being short of 98 dollars rent is justifiable homicide for cops shooting Black folk.

kathmanduk2.wordpress.com states that “according to Attorney Roger Wareham of the December 12th Movement’s International Secretariat, the criminal justice system in this country “always finds a rationale for letting off cops who kill black and brown people.” Indeed, police officers seem to know that they can kill certain people with impunity.”

Parroting Darth Vader and his boss the Sith Lord George W. Bush; Hillary dared Congress to show if they were “with us or against us”. No she didn’t single out democrats; but both houses of Congress have Democrat majorities, and the leadership of those two houses are Democrats; so calling out the congress to pass her gas tax gimmick or be on the record as “against us”, is a direct threat to the Democrats in Congress.

I brought you the story 5 weeks ago of how Hillary was threatening the entire democratic party by having her big money backers threaten to try to torpedo the election and re-election bids of all democrats running for congress this fall if she did not get her way.

She said on Thursday that:

“I believe it is important to get every member of Congress on the record. Do they stand with hard pressed Americans who are trying to pay their gas bills at the gas station or do they once again stand with the big oil companies? That’s a vote I’m going to try to get, because I want to know where they stand and I want them to tell us - are they with us or against us?”

The New York Times’ blog reports that:

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s decision to take on members of Congress over her proposal for a federal gas tax holiday this summer -– “are they with us or against us” –- is tempting fate a bit…In a sign that Mrs. Clinton’s challenge is probably not helping her case with superderlegates, Representative Mark Udall, who is officially uncommitted, took her challenge today – and rejected the gas tax.

From Udall’s statement:

Senator Clinton claimed yesterday that I either stand with her on this proposal or stand with the oil companies. To that I say: I stand with the families of Colorado, who aren’t looking for bumper sticker fixes that don’t fix anything, but for meaningful change that brings real relief and a new direction for our energy policy. We can’t afford more Washington-style pandering while families keep getting squeezed.

Mr. Udall is running in what is likely to be a close Senate race in Colorado.

You’re With Us or Against Us

Just as George W. Bush said it in his cowboy diplomacy after 9/11 and Darth Vader told his mentor Obi Wan before their epic fight in Revenge of the Sith; Hillary has taken to laying down absoltist ultimatums that demands that you either agree with her, or screw you. Same as the attitude that has her dismiss the voters of almost every state she has lost as irrelevant for one reason or another, and had her send out her goon to call Governor Richardson Judas when he endorsed Obama; because indeed, you’re either do her will or your irrelevant to her.

But I wonder about who the “us” is; shrill, vile, elitist Washington politicians like Senator Clinton? Is “us” 109 millionaires who haven’t pumped their own gas for 16 years because they have their driver do it? Are they rich people who don’t know how to use a gas station coffee machine because for most of their whole adult lives they’ve had servants bring them their coffee.

Actually this is not Hillary’s first time parroting this refrain, she followed Gee Dub in doing it right after September 11th, in what would be the beginning of her visible mimicking of republicans in rhetoric and behavior.