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Back in the day everybody wanted to rap or have a wicked jump shot so they could get up out of the hood, and escape the game.

Today rappers who were never in the game; but were hidding in their bedroom, peering from the window at the hustlers on the block, writing the rapper that would later make them famous; once they reach the dream, then they decide to become gangstas. Ball players are doing the same.

Now with their newly found fame, and usually money, or at least the leased trappings of it; they are the man on the block and surround themselves with a bunch of real thugs, who they then want to impress and gain the respect of. Likewise, the thug wants to curry favor with the rapper, so he can be on the video shoot lot to lay on the casting couch with the “video ho” or maybe get a deal himself; so he’s down to do violence on the rapper’s behalf at any moment. Being an uneducated gangsta, it’s all he has to offer to stay in the famous rapper or ball player’s circle.

Remy Ma, you made it fool. Why are you poppin gats? You have no one and nothing to blame but yourself. It’s not your mommma, society or your environment. It’s you and your choice to resort to violence first, and not even explore other options to resolve a problem. Save the tears now mama!

NYC judge sentences Remy Ma to 8 years in prison

By SAMUEL MAULL, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK - A weeping Remy Ma was sentenced to eight years in prison Tuesday for shooting a woman outside a Manhattan nightclub.

“I feel so bad for all the physical and mental pain you’ve gone through,” the Grammy-nominated rapper told the victim. “This has taken a toll on us and both our families. I would never wish you harm[you mean like shooting her???] and I pray the best for all of us.”

The entertainer, whose real name is Remy Smith, had faced up to 25 years in prison for assault, weapon possession and attempted coercion for shooting Makeda Barnes Joseph last July in a dispute over money.

Smith, 26, begged the judge for leniency for the sake of “my little boy,” [you weren’t thinking about your little boy when you shot her - selfish] saying she grew up “surrounded by failure, violence and poverty,” but “made something out of nothing” from her life.

State Supreme Court Justice Rena Uviller said she recognized that Smith had had a difficult childhood, but noted the victim had nearly died and will never be the same physically. Uviller called the rapper “a young woman whose anger is out of control.”

After the sentencing, Smith’s fiance, fellow rapper Papoose, began screaming in a hallway outside the courtroom. “All you want is money!” he said, apparently referring to the victim.

“Lock me up! Lock me up!” he then shouted to court officers, who escorted him out of the courthouse.

The couple had planned to wed last weekend at the Rikers Island jail, where Smith has been incarcerated. Correction officials said they called off the wedding after Papoose showed up with a handcuff key.

Smith’s lawyer, Ivan Fisher, said Papoose had a key but denied that it could be used to open handcuffs. Papoose, whose real is Shamele Mackie, hasn’t been charged.

Fisher said the couple still plan to wed.

The fight in Manhattan’s trendy Meatpacking District erupted after Smith accused Joseph of taking $2,000 from her purse.

Prosecutors said she then fired two .45-caliber slugs into the woman’s abdomen and fled without calling police or for medical help.

Fisher said the sentence would be appealed.

He said the women struggled and the gun went off accidentally. He said Joseph’s story changed when her lawyer was preparing a $20 million lawsuit, which was later withdrawn.

Smith was nominated for a Grammy as part of the Terror Squad for the 2004 smash “Lean Back.”

R Kelly, you’re next!

Dr. Watkin is an eloquent Black professor at Syracuse University, and sometimes television commentator. He’s also an Aphrosphere Blogger and even does videos; I remember he had a good Jena 6 video when that story was starting to break last August.

You can visit Dr. Watkins and see his response to O’Reilly at blog.boycewatkins.com/

So anyway, O’Racistly is going after Dr. Watkins because he called Jaun Williams, whom I’ve laid off of all these years, an “eternally happy Negro” for giving people like O’Racistly racial cover. And then right after O’Rasictly’s hit job segment tonight there was Jaun Williams by O’Rielly giving cover to his race suppression efforts, and proving Dr. Boyce right - only tonight he was an indignant eternally angry Negro; but only angry at the Black man. Only if he ever got so angry at O’Reilly and Sean Hannity’s racist antics.

O’Reilly did one of his ambush jobs, this time on Syracuse Chancellor Nancy Cantor. She would not engage except to repeat that Dr. Boyce’s words were his private words and that he was not speaking for the University; as the “reporter” and camera man stalked her all the way to her building.

You can disagree with Boyce Watkins opinion about Williams, but he doesn’t deserve to be labeled a racist for them as he said nothing racist; and he doesn’t deserve to have his boss stalked (and of course she doesn’t deserve to be ambushed and stalked), nor to have his job put in jeopardy.

This reverse claim of racism anytime a person of color speaks up strongly against racism, or about our own racially pandering to the majority for self advancement; is a full bore intentional tactic by the defenders of the status quo, of white privelege, and of racial discrimination to try to suppress strong voices against racism; and to cut down and try to discredit those standing up for the victims of racism so that the status quo might be maintained.

Support Dr. Watkins

1. I’d say for one, go to his site and leave words of encouragement as I did.

2. Call Syracuse and leave messages for Dr. Cantor in support of Dr. Watkins, and to congratulate her on how she handle O’Reilly’s thugs, and didn’t unfairly throw Boyce under the bus: 315-443-1870

Check out this video response by Boyce

…and the organization should be retired and put in a museum

My Blogging comrade Shawn has a good post up advocation for why he thinks his pastor should be the NAACP president, “6 reasons why Dr. Frederick D. Haynes should be the next president of the NAACP”

This post is not a swipe at Dr. Haynes nor Shawn’s advocacy of him; but is to point out why I think the NAACP doesn’t need a president, and rather should retire itself:

1. We stopped being Colored at least a half century ago
2. The NAACP’s insistence on old outdated methods and old outdated thinking rivals there insistence on that old outdated name.
3. It’s a corrupt institution of old men that basically exist as an apparatus for the good Negro faction of our community to gain personal status through climbing its ranks
4. It’s too entrenched in being the establishment to fight the establishment
5. Its leaders rather be on t.v. to advocate for foolish crap and foolish people; rather than standing up for maligned folks even if no cameras are around and even if no dues are paid (for instance how they wouldn’t help the Jena 6 until a town of less than a thousand Blacks opened up a branch)
6. They’re not Afrocentric and self-determination minded; they’ve always been funded by white people, and even have at least one white chapter head that I know of.

I could go on…

No, really I could!

You fought the good fight NAACP…a LONG LONG LONG LONG time ago, in what seems like a galaxy far away. Time to hang it up.

Your thoughts?

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.

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

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.

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.

I say yes, what’s your call?

Black councilwoman sets precedent: She attends Confederate memorial
By David Bauerlein, The Times-Union

Jacksonville City Councilwoman Glorious Johnson admires Abraham Lincoln and the confederate Flag.

Her appearance marked the first time an African-American council member has come to the annual memorial event at the Old City Cemetery near downtown.



It wasn’t an entirely new venue for Johnson, who is considering a future run for mayor. She also has attended the Jackson-Lee Dinner put on by the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The Kirby-Smith Camp of the organization invited Johnson, a former music teacher, to lead I Wish I Was in Dixie at the event Sunday. The song became a favorite anthem of Confederate soldiers during the Civil War.

“Let’s sing loud and let’s sing proud,” Johnson told the group.

Behind her, Confederate flags rippled in the breeze at graves where the Kirby-Smith Camp says 40 Confederate soldiers are buried. Tending to such graves is part of the mission for the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

During the ceremony, Johnson joined about 60 others who pledged allegiance to the United States flag and then said a “salute to the Confederate Flag.”

The Confederate flag has been controversial, particularly when elements of it have been used in state flags. The Sons of Confederate Veterans has asked Florida to sell specialty license plates with the Confederate Flag on them.

Johnson said in an interview after the ceremony she doesn’t view the Confederate flag as a racist symbol. She said by talking with members of the organization, she has learned more about the Civil War.

“This flag is not a flag of hate, but a flag about heritage and history,” she said. “The people out here are not about hate, but about heritage.”

Johnson, a Republican, cites Lincoln as a fellow member of the GOP. She said Lincoln deserves credit for signing the Emancipation Proclamation that ended slavery, though she said Lincoln did so partly because freed slaves would give the Union forces more military recruits.

If you’re one of our cultural unaware citizens you can watch the video of Clayton Bigsby, Black white-supremist here:

Clayton Bigsby - For more of the funniest videos, click here

Maybe next she can appear at a noose hanging ceremony; there are plenty occuring in my neck of the woods.

I mean if this isn’t political pandering to the empth degree. Some people will do absolutely anything for power. Even Hillary Clinton wouldn’t stoop this low…well!

Hat tip to Black Political Thought for the story

I think this is what a great many white people have in mind for racial conciliation. We capitulate to this type of crap and utter insult and just accept it; then we’ll be good acceptable Negroes that they can get along with. That seems to be Pelmo’s message in the comments of the last link.

I’m defining Obamanites here, not simply as those who support Senator Barack Obama for the presidency; but as those who are true believers (of the Primary Colors variety) in the man as some sort of demi-messiah; who can assuredly as the sun comes up, save American democracy.

It never fails that no matter how many missed opportunities go by Mr. Obama, and no matter how many head scratching mistakes he makes; no matter how big a continued strategy fails (see 10 point loss in Penn), the Obamanites never see one wrong thing that he is doing/has done.

Obama brought to his campaign some ingenious ideals and a wonderful strategy. He separated himself from the pack by having a completely different message of fundamental change that he grew over the months, he expanded the Dean model of internet fundraising from the beginning, he organized a strong ground game from state to state a head of time (something Clinton did not do), he put together a very good campaign staff, and he’s done a great job of articulating an overall vision.

Nonetheless he’s come up short time and again in a number of areas. It all primarily comes under the heading of not adjusting to the changing winds, i.e. he rest on those positive factors that I’ve highlighted and no matter the circumstance will hardly adjust to meet new developing challenges.

The conditions are different when you’re the national front runner versus when you were 30 points behind. Different tactics are called for when no one is laying a glove on you versus when you’re being hammered. Which does not call for a complete overhaul of what he’s been doing, indeed what’s still effective should be accentuated; but what no longer quite works under new conditions should be shifted (for instance, ignoring or only lightly responding to attacks. Might work when you’re barely being attacked; doesn’t work when there’s a constant torrent of attacks.)

Obamanites will have none of this talk though. A one to three percent shrinking lead is a massive success to them. Going into June having eeked out a bare minimum win to them is evidence of perfection, though he’s had opportunity to bury his opponent; yet instead has allowed her to define him to the public and raise his negatives going into the general.

They resist any critique of him, including constructive criticism by Obama supporters who haven’t drunk the kool-aid and are not enthralled with the man’s perfection. This is an unfortunate constant in our public discourse, where if certain people are for someone then they refuse to acknowledge any negatives about them. They can’t be for someone and be critical of them at the same time. They find that to somehow be mutually exclusive, rather than nobly honest and constructive.

I wrote about this phenomenon visa via Bill Clinton, in part, back in January. What’s funny is, the same people who say Obama is basically doing no wrong are the same ones who used to say that about Clinton, but are now mad at Clinton. The thing is Bill Clinton didn’t change; he’s always acted this way, it’s just that his true believers refused to see it. Now enchanted with Obama instead of Clinton, they can now see how Clinton is acting a fool; but they don’t see any flaws with Obama’s maneuverings.

Obamanites remind me of parents who when they receive a note home from school about their child’s behavior, they go up to the school to cuss out the teacher rather than acknowledge that little Johnny is not a perfect angle.

Proclaiming that he’s running a practically perfect campaign is ridiculous; but this is basically what I get from Obamanites, as no matter what adjustment is suggested they say no adjustment is needed.

Obama doesn’t need a self-aggrandizing echo chamber of yes men. An echo chamber never made anyone better or better at their task. If you have someone’s back, you out to tell them when they’re slipping, not sit back and cheer them on as they fall.

Obamanites need to realize that no matter how YOU see him, he oft times comes off bad to other; sometimes even by his own doing, and sometimes simply because he passively fails to strongly challenge how others are painting him. Obama cannot win with just Obamanites votes, he needs a lot of the others.

John Kerry didn’t respond to the swift boat affair 4 years ago until it was too late because he thought the American people were too smart to fall for the that nonsense – he was patently wrong! Michael Dukakis will tell you to this day that he made a big mistake in not responding more quickly and more fervently to George Bush; and letting his opponent define him.

You all keep telling Obama that he’s doing just fine in parroting the approach of Kerry and Dukakis, and his campaign will go the way of Kerry and Ducacus; hell, actually, he might not even make it out of the primary.