October 31, 2006

Don't Believe the HYPE


The stakes are high. The midterm elections offer us a real chance. A chance to reinstate the checks and balances into our government. Our complaining can amount to a shake up. Nothing revolutionary, just lettin the administration know that they can't do whatever they fancy. I'm not saying Obama is our savior, I'm saying we can change the current trajectory.

"My administration will carefully consider any proposal that will help us achieve victory." What happened to "stay the course?" The cover may have changed, but the contents remain the same.

While we're "winning" over there, more than
one hundred of my young brothers and sisters have died. While we've been barraged with negative ad campaigns, mudslinging, and partisan politics, one hundred of my young brothers and sisters have died. The clusterfuck continues:
no plan + too few troops = too many casualties. Unfortunately, too many casualties will mean more troops. More troops in a war without endpoints will equal more casualties. YOU do the math.

"Absolutely, we're winning," Bush said. "As a matter of fact, my view is the only way we lose in Iraq is if we leave before the job is done." "As General Casey reported yesterday in Iraq, 'the men and women of the Armed Forces... have never lost a battle in over three years in the war.'"

We've lost thousands of wars, but we're winning the battle. What does that mean to the family of the deceased?

Rhetoric sells. Just ask
Halliburton, Gyrocam, McDonnell Douglas Corp., L3 Vertex Aerospace, etc, etc, etc.....

October 30, 2006

Soul On Ice

Life goes on. Easier said than done. More than twenty years ago, Alan Newton was incarcerated for a robbery and rape that he didn't commit. This past July, the DNA test was finally done and Alan was released.
A whole lot older. A whole lot wiser. Alan's got a lot of catchin' up to do. A hole in his resume is the least of his worries. The city's a whole lot different. Crack homes have become luxury condos. Warehouses have become fashion boutiques. Email has become part of our daily vernacular. Hip hop has gone pop. Life goes on. What are YOU doing tomorrow? What are YOU doing NOW?
Where were the news crews then? Where are they now? No one wants to hear about the exonerated criminal who isn't angry. No one wants to hear about the wrongfully imprisoned who isn't suing. No one wants to hear about the wrongfully accused taking classes in Business Administration at Medgar Evars College in Brooklyn.
Prison news needs to be much more dramatic. Prison gets you a record deal. Prison gets you votes. Prison gets you money for the plastic surgery you really need. Prison gets you video hoes. Prison is a springboard to limelight. Prison is street cred.
Life goes on.

October 28, 2006

Why Barack Can't Win


White men: Lock up your daughters. Keep an eye on your wife.
The smooth talker is comin' to YOUR town.

A change is gonna come.

Don't Front on MY Brothers. I Take Care of Them Before I Take Care of OTHERS.

Small businesses can be a vehicle towards self-reliance and economic stability. They promote that do-it-yourself, do-it for-the-community fervor that many of our neighborhoods need. They promote investment, investment in communities that need more than Section 8 and rent collecters that show up on the 1st and 15th of the month. They also promote rhetoric. If you happen to make bombs, war can be a boon for your business.
G DUBBZ recently visited a "small business" in Florida, to promote his party's agenda:
"I wanted to stop by here at Gyrocam for a couple of reasons: One, low taxes encourage small business growth. One of the reasons why we're adding jobs in this country of ours is because our small business sector is flourishing. And in order to make sure that companies such as this little company continue to expand you got to keep taxes low. If we run up taxes it's going to make it harder for the small businesses to expand.....The other thing that's interesting about this little company is one of the products they make is an IED detector."
The truth comes out. What's an IED detector, you ask? It's an Improvised Explosive Device Detector. Oh, it tells us where mines are. Oh, this isn't a mom-and-pop small business. Gyrocam is a made-by-the-government small business. Last time I checked, my bodega didn't carry mine detectors. Gyrocam's a small business that made it, not via the old-school pick yourselves up by your bootstraps variety. Instead, they knew someone, who knew someone, who knew the president. Gyrocam just received a $51,730,000 government contract for their IED's. Who says we're in a slump?
The War Machine is alive and well. While YOU may not have a job, many of THEM do. While you're strugglin' through school, THEY'RE being grandfathered into their government contracts, trust funds, and hedge funds. While you're dying, they're building the weapons that may end up killing you. While YOU struggle to pay the bills or get that loan, the government's coverin' THEIR tab.



October 25, 2006

Rhetoric SELLS. Who's Buying?


Darfur is more than just being ignored. Darfur is more than just where genocide is occuring right NOW. Darfur is more than just a word used to gain political points. Never again?

Darfur and much of Sudan are part of the "
new money" in the world oil game. They may not have the etiquette. They may not know which fork to use during the third course of their twelve course dinner. They may speak different. They may look different. They may not know how to tie an ascot, but President Omar Hasan al-Bashir knows that when oil talks, people listen.

While Bush has used words such as "genocide" and "sanctions," Sudan's GDP has grown by 8% in 2005 and is expected to rise by 12% this year. 400,000 people murdered? 2.5 million people displaced? Countless women raped? Here's the number that matters: Sudan now has the capability of producing
400,000 barrels of oil/day. YOU do the math: 400,000 people killed - 400,000 barrels oil/day = 0 feelings of guilt.

"Khartoum is hot - in all ways," said Hashim Wahir, chairman of Petronas Sudan, a branch of the Malaysian national oil company. Luckily, the stench emanating from the oil derrick's mask the smell of death and rape. According to the USA sanctions on Sudan:

Except for information or informational materials and donated articles intended to relieve human suffering, such as food, clothing and medicine, and the licensed export of agricultural commodities, medicine and medical devices, no goods, technology, or services may be exported from the United States to Sudan, either directly or through third countries, without a license.

Somehow, Coke can still sell its corn syrup to Sudan. Somehow, corn syrup for soda is deemed "intended to relieve human suffering." Somehow, people are STILL DYING. Loopholes are beautiful. Coke's Sudanese representative, Osama Daoud Abdellatif, puts it best: "Everything has been going so well, but Darfur could spoil the party." Don't you hate when GENOCIDE comes by and crashes your house party? Damn. And he always brings his friends Rape, Homelessness, and Despair.

Despite the sanctions rhetoric, foreign investment in Sudan has gone up nearly 20 times since 2000. Sudan doesn't need our money. Sudan needs our rhetoric. There's no such thing as bad publicity. Rhetorical threats work HERE. If 400,000 people die and no one does anything, did they even exist? If 400,000 barrels of oil are sold for a profit, does those people even matter?

JUNIOR REID: One Blood

October 23, 2006

7.5 Million People CAN Be Wrong.


It's THAT time. While
7.5 million of us tuned in to watch Flava Flav whore himself to Supremacy, we were being microtargeted. While the media writes about ratcheting and chicken-noodle soup, they're on their grind. Don't believe the hype. The Republican party has nothing to worry about. They're WATCHING YOU. They call it microtargeting.

This goes beyond wire-tapping. Karl Rove has a reason to be confident. The Republican Mantra: What you buy is who you are. No wonder
Don King, Mike Tyson, and Bob Johnson are the Republican Party's way of connecting to the minority vote.

The Republican Party does its research: 7.5 million people can't be wrong. With the media holding such a sway on our thoughts, no wonder the Republicans decided to
rewrite history and manipulate facts.

After watchin Flava, they suppose we'll believe anything. MLK is a Republican? Democrats abort too many black babies? Whatever it takes. They figure they'll cut their losses: lets go for the extremism. Let's go for emotion. Have you seen that Flavor of Love show? They don't vote anyway.

Who's next? As the pawns line up, rhetoric has become the word of the day. Communities, education, leadership, self-reliance have become buzzwords, not end-points.

As Black kids become photo-ops, as Black churches become a place of political maneuvering, as history is rewritten during midterm elections, we STILL can't wait for the new flavor:
FLAVORETTE. If it worked twice, why won't it work again? Until we turn our TV off, they know what's important to us.

MAX ROACH: We Insist! Freedom NOW Suite



October 22, 2006

The White Minstrel Show. Progress is progress, right?


I'll take it. It's a start. After Flava Flav's success. After hearing Flavorette is in production. After all of the rapper shootings. After the minstrelsy of BET. After all of the chicken-noodle-souping and ratcheting. After hearing that Don King is the Republican's answer to the Black vote.

I'll take it. It's refreshing to hear that White brothers can also make fools of themselves on television. Can I call it white minstrelsy? Can I call it whooning (white cooning)? Is there a word for that in our vernacular? Push play. For a couple moments, the world turns upside down. Breathe a sigh of relief. It's not YOU up on that screen. YOU don't need to whince when you look at the TV and see YOUR people acting the fool. Enjoy.


If only life were so simple.

Bobbi Humphrey: Blacks and Blues

October 16, 2006

Ain't That A Bitch?


The pie sure ain't what it used to be. Everyone wants a piece of it. Unfortunately, the crumbs are all that's left.

Workers have it tough here. They need to put in WORK, literally. The bling of the spoons they wash. The bling of the blades cutting your grass. The bling of the dew on your fruit they pick. The sparkle of the windows they wash. The ice on your car before they scrape it off. Diamonds aren't the only things that bling.

As we listen to our leaders talk of our strong economy and the strides it has made, one question must be asked: Who is benefiting?

The worker has lost 2.5 percent of his economic pie since the year 2000. Not accounting for inflation, that's a raise of zero dollars, with a bonus of zero dollars. Accounting for inflation, workers in the USA are making less than they did in the 1970s. YOU do the math.

You know these guys did THEIR math.

These guys also want to make sure China doesn't pass laws to curtail worker abuse. We can't whip our workers here. Hence, we want to make damn sure we can still whip our workers over there. Slavery ain't dead. Supremacy put it on life support. Supremacy pays $5.15 an hour. Supremacy calls 2,700 dead Americans a comma. Supremacy bargains with YOUR future. Supremacy will hire you to clean their windows. Supremacy will hire you to make a rap song.

Supremacy can pay its bills using YOUR sweat.

Charley Patton: King of the Delta Blues
Son House: The Original Delta Blues
Nappy Roots: Watermelon, Chicken and Gritz


October 13, 2006

Biochemical Slang is for the Children.


Our kids look good these days. Fresh kicks. Fresh hat. Gold. If our exam scores included realness, flatness of hat brims, and Lacoste shirts, we'd be beating those damn Asian countries. Those tests are culturally biased. What's math-em-at-icks?

As we wonder what happened with Foley and his entourage of pages, our kids are gettin' dumberer. As midterm elections approach, reactionary politics takes over. Preemptive politics died years ago. It doesn't grab your attention.

2/3 of New York state kids are proficient in math! Yes! As our kids got older, they steady got dumberer! Our kids demonstrated an 80% math proficiency in third grade, but a 50 % proficiency by eighth grade. NYC is at 57% proficiency and Chancellor Joel Klein added, "Today’s math results, I think, represent real progress." If you're meter stick is an inch long, ANYTHING will look like progress.

Klein added, “While we went down, we went down much less.” If you're meter stick is a centimeter, shit's LOOKIN' GOOD.

Where are my people at? In Africa gettin' their kufi and turban on. Gettin' streets named after them. "Leakin" their million dollar songs. Selling their million dollar clothes. Fuck Dear Summer. Where's Dear Summer School?

EUGENE McDANIELS: Outlaw

October 11, 2006

The Pot Can Still Call the Kettle Nig***


Here's a piece of news for ya: black people can systematically suppress white people. Noxubee County, Mississippi, with a population of under 9,000, blacks outnumber whites 3-to-1. Somehow, the US Department of Justice believes this man is responsible for the suppression of the white vote in Noxubee. Among other things, Ike is accused of rigging absentee ballots, harassing white poll-goers, bringing in black ringers to run against white candidates, and hiring only black poll managers.

I am not making this up: "[The] United States alleges that the practices of local election and party officials discriminate against whites in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act."

Poor whitey. Feeling excluded, once every two years, must feel pretty bad. Feeling like you don't belong, once every two years, must really hurt. Knowing that your skin color is to blame for people's perceptions of you, once every two years, must be hard to come to terms with.

Ike isn't worried: “They can’t win anyway unless we choose to vote for them,” he said with a smile. “If I was doing something wrong — that’s like closing the barn door when the horse is already gone.” His lawyer was even more on the money: "He is a Karl Rove genius on the Noxubee County level.”

Black people organizing to get their agenda on the table? That's scary. The Black Karl Rove? White people, grab your guns, stash your daughters, and head for the hills.

Mississippi John Hurt: The Immortal Mississippi John Hurt
Pablo Moses: Revolutionary Dream


October 10, 2006

Transformers II: Supremacy is REAL


Don't forget. Transformers are among us. They come out during soccer games and during the celebration of genocidal killers. Columbus didn't just sail the ocean blue in fourteen hundred and ninety-two. He opened up the Americas to SUPREMACY.

Disguised as exploration. Cloaked in commerce. Manifest destiny. Proselytizing. Call it what you will, supremacy has helped shape our world TODAY.

Do you need another reminder? Peep
President Bush's Columbus Day commemoration:
More than five centuries ago, Christopher Columbus boldly set out on a long and challenging journey across the Atlantic that led the way for exploration of the Americas. On Columbus Day, we celebrate the historic voyages of the Italian explorer and honor his life, heritage, and lasting legacy.

Columbus' brave expeditions expanded the horizons of human knowledge and inspired generations of risk-takers and pioneers in America and around the world. Our Nation is built on the efforts of men and women who possess both the vision to see beyond what is and the desire to pursue what might be. Today, the same passion for discovery that drove Columbus is leading bold visionaries to explore the frontiers of space, find new energy sources, and solve our most difficult medical challenges.


That's real talk. History is how we choose to remember it. History is decided for us: Supremacy becomes exploration. Genocide becomes vision, passion, and legacy. Our nation is built on the efforts of men and how we're told to remember them.

X-CLAN: To the East and Backwards

October 09, 2006

The Educational Baton Race: Who's Gonna Take the BLAME?


Back in the days, our parents used to take care of us.
Look at 'em now, they even fuckin' scared of us.
Callin' the city for help because they can't maintain.
Damn, shit done changed

Fast forward to 2006. Parents are still calling the city. However, now the city is calling private businesses because they can't maintain. More than 50 small schools in NYC will lose their funding in June. Klein and Bloomberg decided to open their schools to private businesses.

College Board. Kaplan. Princeton Review. Urban Assembly. Private interests who may ultimately control curricula, standards, and exams. Kids lunch money paper is LONG. Fuck real estate. Well, buy up your favorite crack house and turn it into a crack home. Then, invest in the BUSINESS of education. Our kids are not the products of their environment. They're the environment for THEIR products.

Black kids make great photo-ops. Smart Black kids at a charter school, posing to advance your agenda make even better photo-ops. Here's the Bush logic: We need to make children test-taking machines. We need to give children tests. We'll see the results and THEN we'll fund education: "We'll spend more money on education, but in return, we want to see results."

In return? Damn. Dude is danglin' education over the fire. While we disapprove of the guy, he's bargaining with your kid's education. When you vote, ask yourself: What is precious to you? Before you turn that crank in the voting booth, does the politician getting your vote have the same precious?

Leaders of the New School: A Future Without A Past
Organized Konfusion: Organized Konfusion
Mobb Deep: Hell on Earth