N'Spirational Conversations(C)
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An N'Spirational Conversations Reader sent this to me and I just had to share it with you!
Enjoy!!Now, this is wisdom and worth reading. Consider your life and enjoy!
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While there, I looked out the window during a commercial break and noticed all the cars coming and going. It really caught my attention when I saw a white Hearst pull in the parking lot.
I had forgotten that a legendary Radio Personality, Wesley South, had made his transision, and the Repast was being held there at WVON.
Seeing all the people come and pay their respects reminded me of just how precious our time is on this earth. The discussion of how the funeral industry is ripping us off is one thing, but more important is what we do with the time we have here on earth.
Legendary Radio Personality Wesley South (Who paved the way for Emilie and myself to be siting in the studio broadcasting live on a Saturday afternoon) did what he loved. As a result of that love, he passed a lasting legacy on to those of us who carry on in his footsteps.
I love broadcasting on the radio as much as much as the next Radio Personality, and would do it at the drop of a hat! (As I did when Producer Robbie Smith called and asked me at the last minute)
So the question I ask is this?
What would you do, at the last moment, that brings you joy!
Whatever it is, DO IT NOW!
DO IT TODAY!
Tomorrow, this afternoon, or tonight is not a sure thing! Don't go to your grave not having done something that brings you so much joy, that you forget about time, money and everything else.
So! What will it be?
Happy New Year! New You! New Yang!
My N'Spirational Conversation Readers send me so many goodies, I can't help but to share. It's so befitting for the new year. Thanks Frank!
THAT MADE YOU SMILE!!!!!!!
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| Percy Sutton, the pioneering civil rights attorney who
represented Malcolm X before launching successful careers as a political power
broker and media mogul, has died. He was 89. Marissa Shorenstein, a spokeswoman for Gov. David Paterson, confirmed that Sutton died Saturday. She did not know the cause. His daughter, Cheryl Sutton, declined to comment Saturday when reached by phone at her New York City home. The son of a slave, Percy Sutton became a fixture on 125th Street in Harlem after moving to New York City following his service with the famed Tuskegee Airmen in World War II. His Harlem law office, founded in 1953, represented Malcolm X and the slain activist's family for decades. The consummate politician, Sutton served in the New York State Assembly before taking over as Manhattan borough president in 1966, becoming the highest-ranking black elected official in the state. Sutton also mounted unsuccessful campaigns for the U.S. Senate and mayor of New York , and served as political mentor for the Rev. Jesse Jackson's two presidential races. Jackson recalled Sutton talking about electing a black president as early as 1972. Sutton was influential in getting his 1984 campaign going, he said. "He never stopped building bridges and laying the groundwork," Jackson said Sunday. "We are very glad to be the beneficiaries of his work." In a statement released Saturday night, Gov. David Paterson called Sutton a mentor and "one of New York 's and this nation's most influential African-American leaders." "Percy was fiercely loyal, compassionate and a truly kind soul," Paterson continued. "He will be missed but his legacy lives on through the next generations of African-Americans he inspired to pursue and fulfill their own dreams and ambitions." In 1971, with his brother Oliver, Sutton purchased WLIB-AM, making it the first black-owned radio station in New York City . His Inner City Broadcasting Corp. eventually picked up WBLS-FM, which reigned for years as New York 's top-rated radio station, before buying stations in Los Angeles , San Francisco , Detroit and San Antonio between 1978-85. The Texas purchase marked a homecoming for the suave and sophisticated Sutton, born in San Antonio on Nov. 24, 1920, the youngest of 15 children. Among Sutton's other endeavors was his purchase and renovation of the famed Apollo Theater when the Harlem landmark's demise appeared imminent. Sutton's father, Samuel, was born into slavery just before the Civil War. The elder Sutton became principal at a segregated San Antonio high school, and he made education a family priority: All 12 of his surviving children attended college. When he was 13, Percy Sutton endured a traumatic experience that drove him inexorably into the fight for racial equality. A police officer approached Sutton as the teen handed out NAACP pamphlets. "N-----, what are you doing out of your neighborhood?" he asked before beating the youth. When World War II arrived, Sutton's enlistment attempts were rebuffed by Southern white recruiters. The young man went to New York , where he was accepted and joined the Tuskegee Airmen. After the war, Sutton earned a law degree in New York while working as a post office clerk and a subway conductor. He served again as an Air Force intelligence officer during the Korean War before returning to Harlem in 1953 and establishing his law office with brother Oliver and a third partner, George Covington. In addition to representing Malcolm X for a decade until his 1965 assassination, the Sutton firm handled the cases of more than 200 defendants arrested in the South during the 1963-64 civil rights marches. Sutton was also elected to two terms as president of the New York office of the NAACP. After Malcolm's assassination, Sutton worked as lawyer for Malcolm's widow, Betty Shabazz. He represented her grandson, 12-year-old Malcolm Shabazz, when the youth was accused of setting a 1997 fire that caused her death. Sutton was elected to the state Legislature in 1965, and quickly emerged as spokesman for its 13 black members. His charisma and eloquence led to his selection as Manhattan borough president in 1966, completing the term of Constance Baker Motley, who was appointed federal judge. Two years later, Sutton announced a run for the U.S. Senate seat held by Jacob Javits, although he pulled out of the Democratic primary to back Paul O'Dwyer. Sutton remained in his Manhattan job through 1977, the same year he launched a doomed campaign for mayor that ended with Edward I. Koch defeating six competitors for the Democratic nomination. Sutton was among the first voices raised against the Vietnam War, surrendering his delegate's seat at the 1968 Democratic convention in protest and supporting anti-war candidate George McGovern four years later against incumbent President Richard Nixon. In addition to his radio holdings, Sutton also headed a group that owned The Amsterdam News, the second largest black weekly newspaper in the country. The paper was later sold. Sutton's devotion to Harlem and its people was rarely more evident than when he spent $250,000 to purchase the shuttered Apollo Theater in 1981. The Apollo turned 70 in 2004, a milestone that was unthinkable until Sutton stepped in to save the landmark. Sutton "retired" in 1991, but his work as an adviser, mentor and confidante to politicians and businessmen never abated. He was among a group of American businessmen selected during the Clinton administration to attend meetings with the Group of Seven (G-7) Nations in 1995-96. "He was a great man," said Charles Warfield Jr., the president and chief operating officer of ICBC Broadcast Holdings Inc., when reached early Sunday. He declined to comment further out of respect for the wishes of Sutton's family. The Rev. Al Sharpton planned a news conference Sunday to talk about Sutton's life and legacy. |
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Troi Tyler is Back on V103!
Your Queen of N'Spiration is back on the air! That's the greatest Christmas Present yet!
You may remember hearing Troi read the N'Spirational Conversations by Zelda Robinson on V103 for so many years, but Corporate cutbacks put an end to that!
All good things must come to an end, but it doesn't mean forever!
So be sure and tune in Sundays 7pm-1am. I leave CLTV reporting the traffic and run home so I can hear her!
Hope you'll do the same!
Radio just wasn't radio without Troi Tyler!! Be sure and call the hot line and let her know how much you miss her! (312) 591-V103!
!
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What do you think?
WHY ATHLETES CAN’T HAVE REAL JOBS
1. Chicago Cubs outfielder Andre Dawson on being a role model:
"I wan' all dem kids to do what I do, to look up to me. I wan' all the kids to copulate me."
2. New Orleans Saint RB George Rogers when asked about the upcoming season:
"I want to rush for 1,000 or 1,500 yards, whichever comes first."
3. And, upon hearing Joe Jacobi of the 'Skins say:and;
"I'd run over my own mother to win the Super Bowl”
Matt Millen of the Raiders said: "To win, I'd r un over Joe's Mom, too."
4. Torrin Polk, University of Houston receiver, on his coach, John Jenkins:
He treats us like men. He lets us wear earrings."
5. Football commentator and former player Joe Theismann, 1996:
"Nobody in football should be called a genius. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein."
6. Senior basketball player at the University of Pittsburgh :
"I'm going to graduate on time, no matter how long it takes." (Now that is beautiful)
7. Bill Peterson, a Florida State football coach:
"You guys line up alphabetically by height." And, "You guys pair up in groups of three, and then line up in a circle."
8. Boxing promoter Dan Duva on Mike Tyson going to prison:
"Why would anyone expect him to come out
smarter? He went to prison for three years, not Princeton "
9. Stu Grimson, Chicago Blackhawks left wing, when asked why he keeps a
color photo of himself above
his locker:
That's so when I forget how to spell my name, I can
still find my clothes."
10. Lou Duva, veteran boxing trainer, on the Spartan regime of
heavyweight Andrew Golota:
"He's a guy who get s up six o'clock
in the morning, regardless of what time it is."
11. Chuck Nevitt , North Carolina
State basketball player, explaining toCoach Jim Valvano why he
appeared nervous at practice:
"My sister's expecting a baby, and I don't know if I'm going to be
an uncle or an aunt."
I
wonder if his IQ ever hit room temperature even in January.
12. Frank Layden , Utah
Jazz20president, on a former player:
"I told him, 'Son, what is it with you? Is it ignorance or
apathy?' He said, 'Coach, Idon't know
and I don't care."
;
13. Shelby Metcalf, basketball coach at Texas A&M, recounts what he
told a player who received four
F's
and one D: "Son, looks to me like you're
spending too much time on one subject."
14.
Amarillo High School and Oiler coach Bum Phillips, when asked by Bob
Costas why he takes his wife on
all the road trips:
Phillips responded:"Because she is too damn ugly to kiss
good-bye."
15. Bobby Bowden , Florida States football coach, when asked why he
didn't invest in condos, said:
"I am too old to use th em now."
It's always inspirational to me to find ways to teach and fund media projects. Here's something for your creative mind!
2010 Knight News Challenge
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is accepting applications for the 2010 Knight News Challenge, a contest awarding as much as $5 million for innovative ideas using digital experiments to transform community news. The deadline is Dec. 15. Do you have a big idea for informing and inspiring a geographic community? Does it include innovative use of new digital tools or processes such as social media, mash-ups or wikis? How about new ways to exchange information via hand-held devices like cell phones? Knight Foundation wants to know. Open to community-minded innovators worldwide, the contest has just three rules. Projects must use digital, open-source technology, distribute news in the public interest and be tested in a local community.
To apply, or for more information, visit www.newschallenge.org
also
Here's a great mid-career Knight Fellowships at Stanford University.
The deadline is coming up.
There have have some important changes/updates to the program. Info is below.
Knight Fellowships-Stanford University
A year to make a difference for journalism...
Think of it.
A year to study and research, removed from the dailiness of newsroom deadline pressures, in the company of other accomplished journalists at Stanford University, one of the top research and innovation institutions in the world.
A year in which you can pursue those fascinating threads of knowledge that get ignored when you're working on tomorrow's story. A year to hone your professional intellect for the rest of your career. A year to dive into the challenges and opportunities of 21st century journalism.
What could be better?
The John S. Knight professional journalism fellowships at Stanford offers such a year. We give outstanding journalists the chance to broaden and deepen their understanding of a changing world, while working on very real journalism issues. Our goal? To improve the quality of news and information reaching the public through the news media: print, broadcast and cyberspace.
Changes to the Knight Fellowships Program
It's not the same old story, not in journalism and not at the Knight Fellowships program. Beginning with the 2009-10 fellowship year, the program will put a new emphasis on journalistic innovation, entrepreneurship and leadership.
The program is transforming itself in order to serve the needs of journalism and journalists as much in the years ahead as it has in the past. The dizzying landscape of layoffs and consolidation, Internet media sites, citizen journalism and bloggers make journalism a chaotic and exciting proposition today. We are making bold changes to meet these new realities.
To get more information or to apply, you must go to the Knight Fellowship website. DO NOT SUBMIT A RESUME VIA SNAILMAIL OR EMAIL A RESUME.
Go to http://knight.stanford.edu/ and apply online on the site.
Or click here:
http://knight.stanford.edu/
There's nothing more inspirational than knowing your history. Here's something you may not have known. Enjoy!
From an N'Spirational Conversations Reader:
| BLACK GERMAN
HOLOCAUST VICTIMS
One documentary now touring the film festival circuit, telling us to "Always Remember" is "Black Survivors of the Holocaust" (1997). Outside the U.S.., the film is entitled "Hitler's Forgotten Victims" (Afro-Wisdom Productions). It codifies another dimension to the "Never Forget " Holocaust story--our dimension.
Did you know that in the 1920's, there were 24,000 Blacks living in Germany ? Neither did I. Here's how it happened, and how many of them were eventually caught unawares by the events of the Holocaust.
Like most West European nations, Germany established colonies in Africa in the late 1800's in what later became Togo , Cameroon , Namibia , and Tanzania . German genetic experiments began there, most notably involving prisoners taken from the 1904 Heroro Massacre that left 60,000 Africans dead, following a 4-year revolt against German colonization. After the shellacking Germany received in World War I,it was stripped of its African colonies in 1918.
As a spoil of war, the French were allowed to occupy Germany in the Rhineland --a bitter piece of real estate that has gone back and forth between the two nations for centuries. The French willfully deployed their own colonized African soldiers as the occupying force. Germans viewed this as the final insult of World War I, and, soon thereafter, 92% of them voted in the Nazi party.
Hundreds of the African Rhineland-based soldiers intermarried with German women and raised their children as Black Germans. In Mein Kampf, Hitler wrote about his plans for these "Rhineland Bastards". When he came to power, one of his first directives was aimed at these mixed-race children. Underscoring Hitler's obsession with racial purity, by 1937, every identified mixed-race child in the Rhineland had been forcibly sterilized, in order to prevent further "race polluting", as Hitler termed it.
Hans Hauck, a Black Holocaust survivor and a victim of Hitler's mandatory sterilization program, explained in the film "Hitler's Forgotten Victims" that, when he was forced to undergo sterilization as a teenager, he was given no anesthetic. Once he received his sterilization certificate, he was "free to go", so long as he agreed to have no sexual relations whatsoever with Germans.
Although most Black Germans attempted to escape their fatherland, heading for France where people like Josephine Baker were steadily aiding and supporting the French Underground, many still encountered problems elsewhere. Nations shut their doors to Germans, including the Black ones.
Some Black Germans were able to eke out a living during Hitler's reign of terror by performing in Vaudeville shows, but many Blacks, steadfast in their belief that they were German first, Black second, opted to remain in Germany . Some fought with the Nazis (a few even became Lut waffe pilots)! Unfortunately, many Black Germans were arrested, charged with treason, and shipped in cattle cars to concentration camps. Often these trains were so packed with people and (equipped with no bathroom facilities or food), that, after the four-day journey, box car doors were opened to piles of the dead and dying.
Once inside the concentration camps, Blacks were given the worst jobs conceivable. Some Black American soldiers, who were captured and held as prisoners of war, recounted that, while they were being starved and forced into dangerous labor (violating the Geneva Convention), they were still better off than Black German concentration camp detainees, who were forced to do the unthinkable-- man the crematoriums and work in labs where genetic experiments were being conducted. As a final sacrifice, these Blacks were killed every three months so that they would never be able to reveal the inner workings of the "Final Sol ution".
In every story of Black oppression, no matter how we were enslaved, shackled, or beaten, we always found a way to survive and to rescue others. As a case in point, consider Johnny Voste, a Belgian resistance fighter who was arrested in 1942 for alleged sabotage and then shipped to Dachau . One of his jobs was stacking vitamin crates. Risking his own life, he distributed hundreds of vitamins to camp detainees, which saved the lives of many who were starving, weak, and ill--conditions exacerbated by extreme vitamin deficiencies. His motto was "No, you can't have my life; I will fight for it."
According to Essex University 's Delroy Constantine-Simms, there were Black Germans who resisted Nazi Germany, such as Lari Gilges, who founded the Northwest Rann --an organization of entertainers that fought the Nazis in his home town of Dusseldorf --and who was murdered by the SS in 1933, the year that Hitler came into power.
Little information remains about the numbers of Black Germans held in the camps or killed under the Nazi regime. Some victims of the & gt; Nazi sterilization project and Black survivors of the Holocaust are still alive and telling their story in films such as "Black Survivors of the Nazi Holocaust", but they must also speak out for justice, not just history.
Unlike Jews (in Israel and in Germany ), Black Germans receive no war reparations because their German citizenship was revoked (even though they were German-born). The only pension they get is from those of us who are willing to tell the world their stories and continue their battle for recognition and compensation.
After the war, scores of Blacks who had somehow managed to survive the Nazi regime, were rounded up and tried as war criminals. Talk about the final insult! There are thousands of Black Holocaust stories, from the triangle trade, to slavery in America , to the gas oven s in Germany .
We often shy away fr om hearing about our historical past because so much of it is painful; however, we are in this struggle together for rights, dignity, and, yes, reparations for wrongs done to us through the centuries. We need to always remember so that we can take steps to ensure that these atrocities never happen again.
For further information, read: Destined to Witness: Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany , by Hans J. Massaquoi.
PLEASE PASS THIS ON, AND ALWAYS REMEMBER... LEST WE FORGET! |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You should know by now when Dick Gregory speaks, the world listens. Thought you'd enjoy this!
Dick Gregory on Obama, longevity, comic geniuses
Steve Johnson
Tribune reporter
October 25, 2009
"It caught everyone by surprise," said the 77-year-old comedian and civil rights activist. "If two white dudes were running in 2000, and one wins and the other one stole it, you almost think that would happen to a black."
Gregory will share his wit and wisdom in "The Color of Funny: Dick Gregory on Race, Comedy and Justice," a Chicago Humanities Festival forum, at 5 p.m. Nov. 8, at Northwestern University School of Law's Thorne Auditorium.
"There's just nothing like Dick Gregory," said Stuart Flack, the festival's executive director. "He represents such a long slice of American history and American social criticism and all the different forms that it took. With someone like Dick Gregory you have an unbroken line from the mid-'60s into today."
The event, featuring journalist Laura Washington questioning Gregory, was a rapid sellout. But before flying to Houston for a comedy appearance earlier this month, Gregory, speaking from the Washington, D.C., home of one of his 10 children, shared some of what has been on his mind.
Longevity, for one thing.
Gregory was ranked No. 81 on a Comedy Central list of the 100 greatest comedians, just below Sinbad (78) but just above Howie Mandel (82). He thinks he should have been higher, he said with a laugh, before adding, "But since it don't affect your pay..."
The country has produced, to his mind, three comedic geniuses: "One was Mark Twain, and you shouldn't mention these other two within the same year you mention Mark Twain, he's so far ahead of everybody."
Pause, pretend a year has passed. The two others? " Lenny Bruce and then Richard Pryor."
Gregory thinks he learned his style -- he calls himself a "humorist," a storyteller, as opposed to a "comic," who delivers jokes -- the same place Aretha Franklin learned to sing.
"I didn't like Bob Hope. I thought he was corny. There was no TV, and the radio, I thought, was kind of stupid. How stupid you gotta be to listen to a tap dancer on the radio?
"So where did I learn my comedy? It dawned on me: It was the black church. The black minister. The black minister don't go to church on Sunday to be a comedian. That's just part of it. Here's a person that does not have Hollywood writers. You hear a new script every Sunday. And funny, and funny."
Born in St. Louis, educated at Southern Illinois University on a track scholarship, Gregory started his comedy career and his family in Chicago. He moved here in 1956 and raised 10 children with wife Lillian in Hyde Park, before the family moved to a Massachusetts farm in 1973.
The difference? "Chicago is the only town in America, and New York is the only city in America. When you're in a town, you have more leeway. You can take your time."
It took Gregory five years to break the color barrier in nightclubs.
"As a black comic, we were hustlers. Now, I don't mean that (to be) derogatory. It's like, if I'm not able to sell my oranges in a store, then I get me a little stand. I'm hustling."
He was discovered by Hugh Hefner, who booked him to play Chicago's Playboy Club.
"Back then about 93 percent of all nightclubs were owned by the mob and they didn't have the (fortitude)" to hire a black comic, Gregory recalled. "They're supposed to be so bad. Here, this little Hefner comes through and said, 'Come on in.' "
In a January 1961 appearance at the Playboy Club, according to documentarian and "Curb Your Enthusiasm" executive producer Robert Weide, Gregory told this joke to an audience that included many visiting white Southerners:
"Last time I was down South I walked into this restaurant and this white waitress came up to me and said, 'We don't serve colored people here.' I said, 'That's all right. I don't eat colored people. Bring me a whole fried chicken.' "
He was a hit that night, would go on to be booked on Jack Paar's "Tonight Show" and make a national name for himself.
President John Kennedy's assassination, he said, taught him an important lesson about the limits of humor.
"At one time I thought that nothing took the place of laughter," Gregory said. "Then when Kennedy got shot I realized there was nothing laughter could do. It was music. That's the only thing that got us through."
Gregory, of course, became as outspoken a civil rights activist as he was a comedian.
And he has lived to see what he believes is genuine change.
Southern Illinois University, in a town where he worked to integrate local businesses, brought him back to Carbondale recently to be homecoming parade grand marshal.
"I think about how I aggravated them white folk down there," Gregory said. "To be down there and hear them old white folks (say), 'Welcome home, Mr. Gregory.' Wow, man. Have I died and gone to heaven?"
Overseas, recently, he said he was asked whether the election of Obama had been the point of the struggle.
"That would have been an insult," Gregory said. "We weren't out there, black folks and white folks, going to jail and getting killed, for a black president. We were out there fighting for the least amongst us to have the right to vote. Out of that came a black president."
Tribune reporter Mark Caro contributed to this article.
Enjoy!
After being interviewed by the school administration, the prospective teacher said: 'Let me see if I've got this right.
'You want me to go into that room with all those kids, correct their disruptive behavior, observe them for signs of abuse, monitor their dress habits, censor their T-shirt messages, and instill in them a love for learning.
'You want me to check their backpacks for weapons, wage war on drugsand sexually transmitted diseases, and raise their sense of self esteem and personal pride.
'You want me to teach them patriotism and good citizenship, sportsmanship and fair play, and how to register to vote, balance a checkbook, and apply for a job.
'You want me to check their heads for lice, recognize signs of antisocial behavior, and make sure that they all pass the final exams.
'You also want me to provide them with an equal education regardless of their handicaps, and communicate regularly with their parents in English, Spanish or any other language, by letter, telephone, newsletter, and report card.
'You want me to do all this with a piece of chalk, a blackboard, a bulletin board, a few books, a big smile, and a starting salary that qualifies me for food stamps.
'You want me to do all this and then you tell me. . .
|
For decades, Black America has been the victim of all kinds of media distortion. It doesn't take a keen eye to see the regression of images in the past twenty years, in the eighties Cosby was America's number one sitcom and twenty years later VH1's "Flavor of Love" held television's highest rated African American program. Historically, one critical form of communication – Black radio - was the antidote to that distortion, consistently standing as a reliable source of news, information and culture throughout local communities nationwide.
Unfortunately, Black radio is swiftly becoming part of the problem, not the solution. It began, of course, with black-owned stations losing their independent voices and turning into sterile corporate jukeboxes limiting both information and community access, while feeding us music that reinforced the same stereotypes that for decades radio helped to defeat.
Now the few surviving Black-owned radio stations are abusing their unique influence in the community to misinform listeners about the impact of a new Congressional bill designed to support the kind of independent, creative and positive musical artists we all have demanding.Cathy Hughes, Founder of Radio One, as one example, has been leading the charge against HR 848, an act of legislation that Hughes charges will “end black radio.” Nothing could be further from the truth. The facts on HR 848 are clear if you take the time to read them. Formally called The Performance Rights Act, the bill proposes what should be simple - paying performers royalties for radio airplay. Only the United States, North Korea and Iran don't pay royalties for performers on free AM/FM radio.
Currently performers and recording owners are only paid in the States when their songs are played on satellite radio, cable stations and internet radio. Songwriters and publishers continue to be paid by AM & FM radio. So why should the performers be excluded? The fact is that most of music we love is not made by people who are that rare combination of singer/songwriter.
When performers lose a route to compensation – especially in this age of the download – we eventually lose those performers. The equations is easy: no money=no performers, no performer=no music, no music=no Black radio in the long term. U.S broadcasters argue that they don't compensate foreign performers when they play their music. That argument loses an estimated 70 to 100 million dollars abroad for U.S. performers under the current law. Without reciprocity, American performers lose twice for their work here in the U.S. and abroad.
The Copyright Act of 1909, was implemented before there was a record industry or recording artists. If H.R. 848 passes, it would finally allow the people whose talent makes the work come alive to be fairly compensated for it in any country where it gets played. American music makes up nearly 30 to 50% of foreign radio airplay. It's time for the U.S. to catch up with the rest of the free world.
Naturally, radio stations – particularly Black radio stations – consider any new compensation for artists to be a financial burden, even as they continue to ask artists to perform free for radio promotions. Popular syndicated hosts Tom Joyner, Al Sharpton, Michael Baisden, Warren Ballentine, Yolanda Adams and hundreds of radio stations have all followed Hughes' lead, merely reinforcing the broadcasters’ mandate. Hundreds of public service announcements and interviews about the bill have lacked clarity and an opposing side of the debate. Still, Black radio's cry to "Save Black Radio" has been heard loud and clear by legislators who have added several safety measures to help broadcasters in these tough economic times. H.R. 848 takes into account smaller radio stations.
Noncommercial stations such as NPR and college radio stations would pay only $1,000 per year. Religious broadcasts would be exempt. And any station making less than $1,250,000 would pay no more than $5,000. Chairman John Conyers and his committee also have stated there would be no payment for any station making less than $5 million annually for two years due to the tough economic times. The facts when debated are quite clear. But Black radio has a problem much larger then any pending legislation. It's been suffering on life support for a while but no one's leading.
While minorities make up well over a third of the population, less then seven percent of stations are owned by minorities.Radio broadcasters have done a number on Black America over the past fifteen years. First, by allowing a "pay for play" list of hip-hop that distorts or alters the mind set of the next generation with a steady diet of misogyny, violence and drug culture. We all sat back and watched while BET and Black radio simply mirrored the local news at eleven, reinforcing stereotypes and replacing lyricists with the lyrically challenged. Black radio is syndicated 25 times more than its white counterparts, reducing the historic community connection of local personalities.
When you limiting the voices you can control the messenger and the message. Sadly, Black radio is black these days only in name. From Radio One to Clear Channel, the independent voices have been silenced and critical information has been replaced with jokes, condensed play lists and little to no local community or grassroots outreach of the kind that established Black radio’s power. There's more to H.R. 848 than radio is telling you.
Paul Porter is the co-founder of Industry Ears, a non-profit that seeks media justice.
The media consistently shows us the negative side of Black Men in America. All that negativity is finally turning around. Here's something I thought you and someone you know could benefit from. SPREAD THE WORD!
Here's an email from someone doing their part. Hopefully you'lll read this and NOT keep it to yourself. We make a difference by everything we do and DON'T DO. So please do your part and help save a BLACK MAN! NOW!! TELL SOMEONE!
"My dean and I are launching an 18-month Academy here at Pennfocused on preparing Black males for admission to Ph.D. programs in education immediately upon completion of their undergraduate studies. We will begin the Academy this fall with 10 Black males who are in their junior year of college; I would love to have some juniors from the Univ. of Wisconsin apply.
Check it out here:http://www.gse.upenn.edu/blackmen
Each Academy participant will receive a 4-day all-expense paid visit to Philadelphiathis fall; opportunities for meaningful engagement with our dean, faculty, graduate students, and Black male alumni; free enrollment in a 3-month Kaplan GRE Prep Course (for which Penn is paying $1,200 per participant); a current Black male Ph.D. student who will mentor him through the application process; and an application fee waiverwhen he applies for Fall 2011 admission to Penn (valued at $85).
Please forward this link to Black male undergraduates on your campus and encourage them to submit applications by August 21st:
http://www.gse.upenn.edu/blackmen.
Again, the Academy is only for Black men who are starting their junior year this fall and planning to graduate in Spring 2011. Many thanks,
_____________________________________________
Shaun R. Harper, Ph.D.Higher
Education Management Program
University of Pennsylvania,
Graduate School of Education
3700 Walnut Street, PME 425Philadelphia, PA 19104
Phone: (215) 898-5147
Website: http://works.bepress.com/sharper
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Contact Your State Legislator:Your state representatives and senators are in their district offices between now and July 14th. Call your legislator's district office, or meet with them, and share how their inaction on passing a fair and equitable budget has negatively impacted you, your family, and/or your community. Need help locating your state legislator? Click here. Need help with talking points? Click here.
Attend July 14th Rally in Springfield:Illinois Action for Children, along with several other statewide advocacy organizations, is organizing a rally at the State Capitol Building in Springfield, IL for Tuesday, July 14th at Noon. Action is also coordinating free bus rides and pick up routes. For more information, please contact Nataly Barrera at barreran@actforchildren.org or 773-697-6126.
Now that you know better, you can do better!
You do have a choice to make something happen, or sit by and watch what happens. Which one are you?
It was a long and arduous process, but well worth it. It was done from the heart. I hope you like it.
Please e-mail me your feedback or post a comment about your thoughts of the video
YouTube's comment page. We would love to know your feeling about the video.
Thank you very much.
www.peterlove.biz
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www.myspace.com/peterlovemusic
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AND RACIAL SEGREGATION OF AFRICAN-AMERICANS
| HOW IS MAJOR MEDIA REPORTING JUNETEENTH TODAY??? From: Mark Allen <newbldi@aol.com> Juneteenth (June 19th) is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. >From its Galveston, Texas origin in 1865, the observance of June 19th as the African American Emancipation Day has spread across the United States and beyond. Today Juneteenth commemorates African American freedom and emphasizes education and achievement. It is a day, a week, and in some areas a month marked with celebrations, guest speakers, picnics and family gatherings. It is a time for reflection and rejoicing. It is a time for assessment, self-improvement and for planning the future. Its growing popularity signifies a level of maturity and dignity in America long over due. In cities across the country, people of all races, nationalities and religions are joining hands to truthfully acknowledge a period in our history that shaped and continues to influence our society today. Sensitized to the conditions and experiences of others, only then can we make significant and lasting improvements in our society. © JUNETEENTH.com |
A bipartisan, bicameral resolution passed by the U.S. Senate today provides an apology for the enslavement
and racial segregation of African-Americans. The measure comes as the nation celebrates Juneteenth, the
oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the end of slavery. It was sponsored by Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA)
and Sam Brownback (R-KS) and in the U.S. House by Congressmen Cohen. It is expected to be taken up by
the U.S. House shortly.
“Numerous states and even corporations such as J.P. Morgan and Aetna have apologized for their role in slavery and
Jim Crow. But slavery and Jim Crow, and their continuing consequences are not the historical baggage of one state,
one region, or one company. They are an enduring national shame,” said Senator Harkin. “It was the nation that
enshrined slavery in the Constitution and Congress that passed laws such as the Missouri Compromise and Fugitive
Slave Act. It was the nation’s Supreme Court which bolstered slavery and affirmed segregation in Dred Scott v. Sandford
and Plessey v. Ferguson. This resolution acknowledges and apologizes for a past collective injustice. And it is long over-due.”
“I am pleased that Congress has officially offered an apology for slavery and it’s long overdue,” said Senator Brownback.
“The formation of my home state of Kansas was centered around slavery and came to be known as Bleeding Kansas.
I believe that this official apology will enable our nation to begin healing our racial wounds rooted in the institution of slavery.
I do not pretend that this apology is a panacea but it is a much needed catalyst for reconciliation. It is vital that together
we are able to reconcile the hurt and shame of our past and begin together a brighter future for all Americans.”
“Last year’s historic vote in the House on a similar Slavery Apology resolution put us squarely on the path toward reconciliation
and healing. Today’s actions by the Senate have moved us further down that road. Slavery and Jim Crow are stains upon our
nation and our government. As we strive toward the goal of a more perfect union, we must acknowledge our past mistakes
that we have made on that journey. I thank Senators Harkin and Brownback for their efforts,” Congressman Steve Cohen.
After making detailed findings regarding slavery and the system of de jure segregation known as “Jim Crow,” the resolution
reads that the Congress:
Acknowledges the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow laws;
Apologizes to African-Americans on behalf of the people of the United States, for the wrongs committed against them
and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow laws; and
Expresses its recommitment to the principle that all people are created equal and endowed with inalienable rights to life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and calls on all people of the United States to work toward eliminating racial
prejudices, injustices and discrimination from our society.
In 1993, Congress apologized to native Hawaiians for overthrowing their king. In 2005, the Senate apologized for its failure to enact
anti-lynching legislation. Last year, the Senate adopted as part of the Indian Health Bill an amendment apologizing to Native
Americans. The resolution, therefore, addresses a glaring oversight that Congress has not, on behalf of the nation, acknowledged
and apologized for slavery and Jim Crow.
The measure is supported by various civil rights groups, including the NAACP and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.
For more information contact:
Kate Cyrul (Harkin) 202-224-3254
Brian Hart (Brownback) 202-228-3107
Steven Broderick (Cohen) 202-226-7916
The Black Man In Charge of The White House
The Black Man Who Runs The White House: Admiral Stephen Rochon, USA
No, I’m not talking about President Barack Obama. I thought I’d return to the older dudes. Who is this guy?
Rear Admiral Stephen Rochon is the White House Chief Usher. The Louisiana native is in charge of the domestic staff at the White House, and making sure everything runs like clockwork. He is the eighth person and the first black person to hold this position. He was appointed to this position in 2007 under President George W. Bush after the previous usher retired after 20 years of service, and the Obamas decided to retain him.
However, don’t get it twisted. Ol’ boy ain’t the butler. Admiral Rochon manages the day-to-day operations of the White House, with its 132 rooms, $13-million plus budget, and 90+ staff. He oversees the White House operations, maintenance and utilities and works with the White House Social Security on ceremonial events of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. If the president needs him, he’s on it..
I
f Mrs. Obama wants an environmentally-friendly, American-made swing set for Sasha and Malia, he’s testing the equipment on her behalf.
When the Obamas host dinners, he’s there. When the Obamas say they want to make the White House more accessible to the public, he’s on it.
His job is to run a tight ship, of which he is very familiar. Admiral Rochon previously served as the Coast Guard’s commander of the Maintenance and Logistics Command Atlantic, where he was responsible for naval and civil engineering, financial management, personnel, legal, civil rights, electronic systems support, and contingencyplanning across 40 U.S. states, Puerto Rico, Europe, and the Middle East.
Admiral Rochon has a B.S. in Business Administration from Xavier University , and an M.S in National Resource Strategy from the National Defense University . He has earned the Coast Guard Distinguished Medal and three Legion of Merit medals.
Admiral Rochon is married and has four children.
When I was thinking about goosebumps moments, I mentioned that HGTV Special at The White House with The First Lady, and I thought it would be wonderful for Admiral Rochon, the first Black Chief Usher to be in service to the first Black First Family.
Now that's inspiration!
This is really something special. Here we have a ten-year old, African American boy, making an eloquent public oration on the use of the "N" word.
Click Below!
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For the baby boomers!
Comments Made in the Year 1955!
That's only 53 years ago! Wow! Seems like yesterday!
Makes you feel old? At least you're living to feel anything! Being alive is truly inspirational!
Enjoy these tidbits from a reader!
'I'll tell you one thing, if things keep going the way they are, it's going to be impossible to buy a week's groceries for $20.00.'
'Have you seen the new cars coming out next year? It won't be long before $2,000.00 will only buy a used one.'
'If cigarettes keep going up in price, I'm going to quit. A quarter a pack is ridiculous.
'Did you hear the post office is thinking about charging a dime just to mail a letter?'
'If they raise the minimum wage to $1.00, nobody will be able to hire outside help at the store.'
'When I first started driving, who would have thought gas would someday cost 29 cents a gallon. Guess we'd be better off leaving the car in the garage.'
'Kids today are impossible. Those duck tail hair cuts make it impossible to stay groomed. Next thing you know, boys will be wearing their hair as long as the girls.'
'I'm afraid to send my kids to the movies any more. Ever since they let Clark Gable get by with saying DAMN in GONE WITH THE WIND, it seems every new movie has either HELL of DAMN in it.'
'I read the other day where some scientist thinks it's possible to put a man on the moon by the end of the century. They even have some fellows they call astronauts preparing for it down in Texas '
'Did you see where some baseball player just signed a contract for $75,000 a year just to play ball? It wouldn't surprise me if someday they'll be making more than the President.'
'I never thought I'd see the day all our kitchen appliances would be electric. They are even making electric typewriters now.'
'It's too bad things are so tough nowadays. I see where a few married women are having to work to make ends meet.'
'It won't be long before young couples are going to have to hire someone to watch their kids so they can both work.'
'Marriage doesn't mean a thing any more, thoseHollywood stars seem to be getting divorced at the drop of a hat.'
'I'm afraid the Volkswagen car is going to open the door to a whole lot of foreign business.'
'The drive-in restaurant is convenient in nice weather, but I seriously doubt they will ever catch on.'
'There is no sense going for a weekend, it costs nearly $15.00 a night to stay in a hotel.'
'No one can afford to be sick anymore, at $35.00 a day in the hospital it's too rich for my blood.'
'If they think I'll pay 50 cents for a hair cut, forget it.'
If you know any friends who would get a kick out of these, pass this on!
Be sure and send it to your kids and grandkids
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It's always fun to go back in time!
Someone sent it to me, and I'm sharing it with you! Enjoy! DON'T CHEAT! YOU MISS THE FUN!
This is pretty neat.
DON'T CHEAT BY SCROLLING DOWN FIRST!
It takes less than a minute .
Work this out as you read .
Be sure you don't read the bottom until you've worked it out!
This is not one of those waste of time things, it's fun.
1. First of all, pick the number of times a week that you would like to have chocolate (more than once but fewer than 10)
2. Multiply this number by 2 (just to be bold)
3. Add 5
4. Multiply it by 50 -- I'll wait while you get the calculator
5. If you have already had your birthday this year add 1759 ...
If you haven't, add 1758.
6. Now subtract the four digit year that you were born.
You should have a three digit number
The first digit of this was your original number
(i.e., how many times you want to have chocolate each week).
The next two numbers are
YOUR AGE! (Oh YES, it is!!!!!)
THIS IS THE ONLY YEAR (2009) IT WILL EVER WORK, SO SPREAD IT AROUND WHILE IT LASTS.
chocolate Calculator.
I't's often said that as much money as African Americans spend in this economy, we should own radio and television stations. Since WNUA 95.5 (FORMERLY SMOOTH JAZZ) has changed it's format to Spanish Radio, the handwriting is not only on the wall, it's IN THE AIR!
Until the African American and Latino community come together, Corporate America will always get the bulk of our spending dollars. Until we join forces and make sure our dollars are appreciated, we will always be preyed upon by those who control the media. In the meantime, here's an article I thought you could apprecaite.
Clyburn & Co. Seek Treasury Help for Minority Broadcasters
Legislators request assistance along lines of auto industry in letter to Treasury Secretary Geithner
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 5/21/2009 5:37:03 AM MT
A Clyburn is already taking steps to help minority broadcasters.
No, not Mignon Clyburn, the South Carolina utility regulator who is the Obama administration's pick for a Democratic seat on the FCC, but her father, James Clyburn (D-S.C.), House minority whip.
The senior Clyburn has joined with a dozen other House members to ask Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for financial help for minority broadcasters similar to the help the government is giving auto dealers.
Among the suggestions are helping free up credit as Treasury did in the Auto Supplier Support Program, bridge loans or government-backed loans.
The legislators, which include Barney Frank (D-Mass.), Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), argue that minority broadcasters have been among the hardest hit by the economic meltdown, which they say threatens to "erase the modest inroads" minorities have made in the broadcast business.
The say they are looking for a helping hand, not a handout, and that what is at stake is more than just the bottom line.
"Like so many businesses caught in the maw of the most severe recession and contraction of credit since the Great Depression, minority broadcasters are not failing businesses looking for a free pass," they said. "[T]hey are looking for continued access to capital to continue their otherwise fundamentally sound operations. And while many jobs are at stake, a more important principle--the government's fundamental interest in promoting a diversity of voices, including service to underserved communities--is severely threatened."
They want Geithner to reply by June 5. They also sent copies of the letter to acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps as well as representatives of Fannie Mae and the FDIC.
The Obama administration has made broadcast diversity a priority of its communications agenda. That priority has been echoed by Copps, whose FCC has taken steps to improve data collection on minority ownership, essentially teeing up the issue for his successor, FCC Chairman designate Julius Genachowski, in the hope that it will be on top of his agenda as well.
The full text of the letter is below:
Dear Secretary Geithner,
The ongoing economic and credit crisis has had disastrous impacts throughout every sector of our financial system. Among those hardest hit are minority-owned enterprises, and in particular, minority-owned broadcasters. We write to request that you take immediate action to ensure these minority-owned entities are able to weather this financial storm and emerge as viable and thriving companies when the economy and credit market conditions stabilize.
As you are aware, it is a long-standing policy goal of the Congress and the Federal Communications Commission to promote diversity within the telecommunications marketplace, both with regard to content and ownership. For too long, the telecommunications industry has been dominated by multi-billion dollar conglomerates with considerable economic strength. Minorities are currently underserved and underrepresented in ownership of broadcast media stations.
Less than seven percent of full-power radio stations today are owned by minorities, and minority television station ownership is negligible. Like so many businesses caught in the maw of the most severe recession and contraction of credit since the Great Depression, minority broadcasters are not failing businesses looking for a free pass; they are looking for continued access to capital to continue their otherwise fundamentally sound operations.
And while many jobs are at stake, a more important principle - the government's fundamental interest in promoting a diversity of voices, including service to underserved communities - is severely threatened. Many minority broadcasters are experiencing severe financial distress. Although profits are down dramatically, business fundamentals remain sound. Despite the historically steep barriers to credit these enterprises have faced, minority ownership groups are well-operated with decades of executive broadcast management experience.
In addition to the credit crisis, also weighing heavily on minority broadcasters is a significant decline in advertising revenues, particularly the loss of automobile advertising, which comprised a substantial source of revenue for minority-owned stations. Let us be clear: It is absolutely essential that we do not allow this once-in-a-generation financial crisis to erase the modest inroads minorities have made into the broadcast industry.
To assist these firms in this time of crisis, we urge you to take bold and decisive action to support minority-owned broadcasters. One proposal we suggest you consider is the enactment of a facility similar to the Auto Supplier Support Program announced on March 19, which will help restore credit flows to the broadcast sector of the economy. Other options we suggest you consider include temporary bridge financing or government-backed loans, until the economy improves, the financial system recovers and credit begins to flow more freely again. We respectfully request that you review these and other options to assist minority-owned broadcasters.
We also would like for Treasury Department staff to meet with representatives from minority-owned broadcast entities, as well as representatives from the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters, so that you can be fully briefed on this urgent situation and discuss possible options to address this crisis. We would also appreciate if members of your team could brief our staff at their earliest convenience on the Department's response to this request, but no later than Friday, June 5. "
So what. Now what?
What you say, what you do and who you are.
Marketing Guru Seth Godin shared this with me, and I am s haring it with you!
We no longer care what you say.
We care a great deal about what you do.
If you charge for hand raking but use a leaf blowerwhen the client isn't home If you sneak into an exercise class because you were on the wait list and it isn't fair cause you never get a bike If you snicker behind the boss's back If you don't pay attention in meetings If you argue with a customer instead of delighting them If you copy work and pass it off as your own If you shade the truth a little If you lobby to preserve the unsustainable status quo If you network to get, not to give If you do as little as you can get away with
...then we already know who you are.
Steve Harvey says V103 change that bumped Tom Joyner was Clear Channel's doing, not his
Phil Rosenthal
Media
April 10, 2009
Like any other comedian capable of packing a venue, Steve Harvey is usually able to turn his aggravation into something funny.
On the phone from Atlanta this week, however, he just sounded frustrated.
"I'm the fall guy," he said. "I'm not the reason you don't have your beloved Tom. I just want people to know."
Tom is Tom Joyner, whose Chicago radio roots reach all the way back to 1972 and whose syndicated morning program was for 13 years heard on Clear Channel's WVAZ-FM 102.7 until last month. Without warning, Clear Channel moved Harvey's syndicated show to V103 from Chicago's WGCI-FM 107.5, bumping Joyner.
A big reason for the move was so Clear Channel could launch "The Morning Riot," a local program more in sync with WGCI's hip-hop playlist the rest of the day, so it can better compete against Power 92, Crawford Broadcasting's WPWX-FM 92.3.
But Harvey, whose show is syndicated by a Clear Channel subsidiary, enjoyed an in-house edge on Joyner, who chose to go into business with Radio One in 2004. Radio One subsequently yanked Joyner's show off Clear Channel stations in markets where it also owned outlets.
Joyner last month told the Tribune that if he were in Clear Channel's position, he would "probably do exactly the same thing because … strategically, it's what they should have done."
But the people who had been waking up to Joyner on their clock radio for years and years were none too pleased to abruptly have someone else rousting them from bed. Calls for a boycott were fueled by a sound bite making the rounds in which detractors claimed Harvey kissed off disgruntled Joyner fans in Chicago.
Harvey insists the clip—something about how people who don't like what has happened can go home—came from his cousin and was in regard to something else in a different market. But these things take a life of their own, and the controversy over Clear Channel's move in Chicago is one he clearly wants to snuff out.
"It doesn't make any sense for me to say something like that," Harvey said. "I'm trying to win and endear myself to people and not aggravate people and drive a wedge between me and the audience. I do respect and love Tom Joyner. He and I have been friends a long time. And we've talked since he's been off the air [in Chicago]. But the move to V103, Steve Harvey has absolutely no control over. That's what's alarming to me.
"I'm just a hired gun. It's unfair when people think the radio guys have a say-so. We don't own the stations. … Somebody should explain to the people that while you're boycotting, Tom Joyner is going to resurface in Chicago radio. If somebody would tell that to people, it would be better for people. But nobody's telling them."
For one thing, nobody in a position to actually make that happen will confirm it, although obviously it's possible. One potential snag is that for Joyner to land on another Chicago station before the end of this year, Clear Channel must OK it.
Still, Harvey is taking the unusual stance of arguing that the guy he replaced and whose absence probably benefits him and his show will return sooner than later.
"My success is not hinged on Tom's demise," Harvey said. "I've never built my career on something bad happening to someone else. What God has for me, he has for me—and he's always given me what I have coming. … What I did not expect is to be the heavy in all of this and be the guy who caused this to happen, because I'm not."
What caused this to happen is WGCI's need to fend off WPWX.
"They want to battle and bring Power down, and I can't help them do that," explained Harvey, who has a relationship book out, "Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man." "They started asking me to switch my music. I tried to go along with it for a little while, but I can't do that. It's not true to who I am and the audience I built."
That's what he's fighting for now. His audience has to like and trust him.
"I have to protect my brand," he said. "I don't care what the corporate side has to say. I don't do corporate. I do people. I'm in the numbers game for people, and I want the people of Chicago to understand this is the truth."
Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune
How often do we complain to each other?
What good does it actually do?
Who should we really be complaining to?
Should we stop complaining and put a plan into action?
These are just some of the thoughts I had after reading this article.
See if your thoughts are similar.
If not, think about this.
Do you like what you hear when you turn on the radio?
If no, why not?
What can you do about it?
After you read it, drop me a line and share your thoughts.
http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/tom-joyner-steve-harvey-tavis-smiley-and-impoverishment-black-media
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I simply love it that the powers that be are upset that someone has come along to take the negative image off the word FELONY.
A couple of years agaon I hosted an event on the west side of Chicago in which I met a blind man and his wife who had the VISION to do such a thing. A new chance is being given to those who have been incarcerated in the past, by giving them employment with a new organization with the name FELONY included.
Felony Franks' Hot Dog Stand Hires ex-offenders.
Here's a short piece from the news.
"CHICAGO — A Chicago alderman says he doesn't mind that a businessman plans to open a hot dog stand in his ward and hire former convicts to work there, but he does object to the stand's crime-linked theme.
Alderman Fioretti said Friday his Second Ward on the city's West Side has major crime problems, so he thinks the stand's name, Felony Franks, is simply not in good taste.
Fioretti also objected to several slogans, including: "Food so good, it's criminal," and "Home of the misdemeanor wiener."
Stand owner Jim Andrews, though, says he thinks the tongue-in-cheek name and a menu that features such items as "burglar beef" and "chain gang chili dog" will help to erase some of the stigma that being a former convict carries."
OK! That's his opinion, and he's entitled to it, but I bet he'd have a different opinion if someone in his family need a job and he couldn't get them on at city hall! I am so excited about what he's doing for the community, I look forward to having him on our TV Show! What do you think?
I listened faithfully to Tom Joyner and was thrilled that he knew who I was (after working at sister station WGCI/1390AM) and lovingly referred to me as "Z" (somethng my friends called me) and he didn't even know me that well. Tom is personable like that!
Yesterday there was an outpouring of love and support for the TJMS through e-mails, texts and phone calls letting us know how much we will be missed on Chicago radio. Many of you were looking for a call to action, and to you I say this: One, thank you for caring enough to take time out of your busy life to let us know how you feel. Two, the most immediate call to action for people in Chicago and anywhere else where we aren't heard is to listen on BlackAmericaWeb.com - which, by the way, had a record number of people tuning in to hear our show yesterday. Three, support the advertisers you hear on our stations, and let them know you're supporting them because you heard them advertising on our show. And four, pass this message on to all other community members who want to keep the voice of black radio alive!
What We Are Up Against
Without boring you, I'd like to give you a quick lesson in black radio and what we are up against in this ever-changing world. We face a system that has never worked in the favor of black media. And other factors such as a new ratings system and the country's horrible economic state stack even more odds against us. The bottom line is black radio will never be what it once was, and there's absolutely nothing we can do about that. There are and will continue to be radio stations playing urban music, and of those few, the only way they will survive is if they are making money. They make money from the commercials they sell, and that's based on them being able to prove that the people listening are good candidates for buying their products. It isn't personal; it's business. And as much as I appreciate the emotions expressed in the letters, texts and e-mails I've gotten, we can only move forward if we recognize the business we're dealing with.
Like all businesses, the success of black radio is based on supply and demand - not just for the station owners and the advertisers but for the audience too. You know what you want, and you know whether the radio stations you tune in to are providing it. As much as you love to hear R&B music, if that were all you wanted, you could load your iPod with your favorite songs and never tune in to black radio again. But you obviously want more than that, and you have fewer places to get it than ever before. So, the issue is much bigger than which urban D.J. you like better in the morning. The issue is whether the urban format is worth saving.
It Was Black Radio That Empowered Us
The old saying "Give a man fish, you feed him for a day; but teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime" has never rung truer. If it had not been for the urban format, many of us would not have ever known the importance of radio advocacy and how a wrong can be righted with the power of our phone calls, pens, voices and votes. It has helped us to do everything from saving a sitcom from cancellation to electing the first African-American president. It has made us more accountable, more self reliant and more empowered.
In the end, whether there are 50 black radio stations or two, you will have been victorious because you stood tall and lifted your voice. We have black radio to thank for that, and that's something no man, no format, and no conglomerate can take away. So we move forward stronger, wiser and looking for a better way to do things - and that's a lot more than play music. Please comment on this at my blog on BlackAmericaWeb.com and for those of you that can't currently hear the Tom Joyner Morning Show the morning stream can also be found there too.
Whatever you're going through, someone is going through something just a little bit worse than you. Everything comes to teach us a lesson, whther we like it or not! The challenge is to ask the question "What did it come to teach me" instead of Oh why me?
And you think you have problems!
Try this one on for size.
Lawsuit: Texas town stops minorities, seizes property.
Among the plaintiffs are two African-Americans who claim they forfeited more than $50,000 under threat of money-laundering charges, and a biracial couple who gave up more than $6,000 after officials threatened to put their children in foster care. No one was charged with a crime.
The lawsuit, filed in July 2008, has 10 plaintiffs, said attorney Timothy Garrigan, one of the attorneys who filed the suit. But he told CNN Wednesday that "we get more inquiries every day." Attorneys are seeking class-action status for the suit, he said.
The suit names as defendants Tenaha's mayor and deputy city marshal, plus several Shelby County officials, including the district attorney. It alleges that the officials "have developed an illegal 'stop and seize' practice of targeting, stopping, detaining, searching and often seizing property from apparently non-white citizens and those traveling with non-white citizens."
"The defendants undertake this practice without legal justification, in violation of the citizens' rights, not for any legitimate law enforcement purpose but to enrich their offices and perhaps themselves, by seizing and converting cash and other valuable personal property they can find during the course of the illegal stop and seize practice," the suit claims.
City and county officials, however, maintain they are doing their jobs along the highway through Tenaha. They say the road is a known route for drug traffickers between Shreveport, Louisiana, and Houston, Texas, according to The Chicago Tribune, which first reported on the lawsuit Tuesday. Tenaha, which had just more than 1,000 residents in the 2000 census, is about 60 miles southwest of Shreveport.
"The police and local district attorney there say they're operating within the law, and it appears as if they are," said Howard Witt, the Tribune reporter who wrote the story. "Texas has an asset forfeiture law similar to many other states, and it basically allows police to seize assets [that] are used, or suspected in being used, in commission of a crime."
The law as it currently exists does not mandate that a person be convicted of a crime or even charged with one before the police can seize the assets, Witt said. A bill was introduced Tuesday in the state Legislature to close that loophole, he said, because of the alleged goings-on in Tenaha.
"We are in the business of enforcing the law," Tenaha Mayor George Bowers told CNN in a written statement. "We send our officers to school and train them well. All we've done is enforced the law."
In court documents filed responding to the suit, several defendants have denied some allegations and said they did not have knowledge of others. Each maintained they were doing their jobs.
Garrigan told CNN the plaintiffs he represents are not drug traffickers, and their criminal histories contain "nothing that would suggest it was appropriate for them to be pulled over and robbed this way by police."
"Typically, these people are stopped, no drugs are found and only their money and valuables are taken," he said. "We don't think they should be able to get away with that."
He said he didn't know if the route was known for drug trafficking, but "I don't think that justifies what they've done."
The suit's plaintiffs all were traveling through Tenaha in rental vehicles or in cars with out-of-state license plates, according to the suit. In each case, they were stopped and ordered out of their cars. In some cases, officials searched their cars. But all the plaintiffs claim they were asked if they had any money, and coerced into giving up cash, cell phones and other property.
All of the plaintiffs were threatened with arrest and prosecution for money laundering. The couple, Jennifer Boatright and Ronald Henderson, were threatened with another charge concerning their children.
Boatright told the Tribune that police stopped them for driving in a left-turn lane. During a search, she said, police found a gift for Boatright's sister, an unused glass pipe similar to those used to smoke marijuana.
No drugs were found, but police seized the $6,037 the couple was carrying to buy a car. After they contacted an attorney, the city returned the money, but offered no explanation or apology, she said.
"It was give them the money or they were taking our kids," she said. "They suggested that we never bring it up again. We figured we better give them our cash and get the hell out of there."
Now, what do you think about your current situation? Give thanks for it and seek guidance from within. Higher Learning comes from within, trust the process!
This time I'm going to take a lesson from the guys!
All right ladies, single and married...
Let's NOT be "MAKE-DO" Women!
Let's LOVE OURSELVES and ENCOURAGE each other! Pass it on!
It's something we could all appreciate....
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OBAMA INAUGURATION TRAVEL GUIDE
With 4 million people anticipated to attend the big event on January 20th, it is destined
to be the largest event of any kind in our nation's capitol. Transportation, lodging, dining
and shopping will be strained to the limit.
Savvy attendees should use our guide to help plan their Black heritage activities in
Washington, DC before, during and after the event. Equally important, we point out
alternative cities (Baltimore, Richmond, Philadelphia, etc.) that are a convenient train ride
or short drive away -- probably the best option.
We'll be tracking transportation and lodging arrangements in this "living" travel guide
up to the big day. So return often for the latest information at
http://www.soulofamerica.com/obama-inauguration.phtml.
With 4 million people anticipated to attend the big event on January 20th, it is destined
to be the largest event of any kind in our nation's capitol. Transportation, lodging, dining
and shopping will be strained to the limit.
Savvy attendees should use our guide to help plan their Black heritage activities in
Washington, DC before, during and after the event. Equally important, we point out
alternative cities (Baltimore, Richmond, Philadelphia, etc.) that are a convenient train ride
or short drive away -- probably the best option.
We'll be tracking transportation and lodging arrangements in this "living" travel guide
up to the big day. So return often for the latest information at
http://www.soulofamerica.com/obama-inauguration.phtml.
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I hope you've made your arrangements to go to Washington D.C. for the inauguration of President-Elect Barack Obama! Yes, it will be probably 5 million people there, but you'll be one of them. There's n nothing ever that compares to this history makeing event, and I plan to be one of the millions that did make it. I hope to see you there and be part of my documentary!
My only wish is that we all do for ouselves what we did for this country. My wish is that we show up at the polls of our own lives and do someting on a daily basis to make a difference. I we only spend 5 minutes a day working on our own dream. Even if you don't have a dream, you can work on something yo like to do, can't you?
Until then, get a copy of the 2009 COLLECTOR'S EDITION of Barack Obama at www.HigherLearningNetwork.org and be inspired!
Tax deductions are available to the fullest extinct of the law!
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You did it Chicago and the world!
You made it happen, now reap the benefits! Words of inspiration cannot express the joy the world is experiencing! I had the pleasure and priviledge of covering the event from a b-t-s (behind the scenes) perspective. Here's a slidehsow of the downtown Chicago Grant Park rally! Enjoy!
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Seven Things That Could Go Wrong on Election Day
by: Michael Scherer, Time Magazine
(Photo: Phil Coale / AP)
We can go to the moon, split atoms to power submarines, squeeze profits from a 99 cent hamburger and watch football highlights on cell phones. But the most successful democracy in human history has yet to figure out how to conduct a proper election. As it stands, the American voting system is a worrisome mess, a labyrinth of local, state and federal laws spotted with bewildered volunteers, harried public officials, partisan distortions, misdesigned forms, malfunctioning machines and polling-place confusion. Each time, problems pop up on the margins; if the election is close, these problems matter a great deal. Republicans and Democrats predict record turnouts, perhaps 130 million people, including millions who have never voted before. The vast majority will cast their votes without a hitch. But some voters will find themselves at the mercy of registration rolls that have been poorly maintained or, in some cases, improperly handled. Others will endure long lines, too few voting machines and observers who challenge their identities. Long a prerogative of local government, the patchwork of election rules often defies logic. A convicted felon can vote in Maine, but not in Virginia. A government-issued photo ID is required of all voters at the polls in Indiana, but not in New York. Voting lines are shorter in the suburbs, and the rules governing when provisional ballots count sometimes vary from state to state. As Americans cast their ballots on Nov. 4, here are some problems that threaten to throw this election to the courts again.
1. The Database Dilemma
"Joe the plumber" is not registered to vote. Or at least he is not registered under his own name. The man known to his mother as Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, who has become a feature of John McCain's stump speech, is inscribed in Ohio's Lucas County registration records as "Worzelbacher," a problem of penmanship more than anything else. "You can't read his signature to tell if it is an o or a u," explains Linda Howe, the local elections director.
Such mistakes riddle the nation's voting rolls, but they did not matter much before computers digitized records. The misspelled Joes of America still got their ballots. But after the voting debacle in 2000, Congress required each state to create a single voter database, which could then be matched with other data, such as driver's licenses, to detect false registrations, dead people and those who have moved or become "inactive." In the marble halls of Congress, this sounded like a great idea - solve old problems with new technology. But in the hands of sometimes inept or partisan state officials, the database matches have become a practical nightmare that experts fear could disenfranchise thousands.
In Wisconsin, an August check of a new voter-registration database against other state records turned up a 22% match-failure rate. Around the time four of the six former judges who oversee state elections could not be matched with state driver's license data, the board decided to suspend any database purges of new registrants. But database-matching continues elsewhere. In Florida, nearly 9,000 new registrants have been flagged through the state's "No Match, No Vote" law. (Their votes will not be counted unless they prove their identity to a state worker in the coming weeks.) In Ohio, Republicans have repeatedly gone to court to make public a list of more than 200,000 unmatched registrations, presumably so that those voters can be challenged at the polls, even though most of them, like Joe, are probably legit. "It's disenfranchisement by typo," explains Michael Waldman, executive director of the Brennan Center for Justice, which tracks voting issues.
Elsewhere the purges are peremptory. A county official in Georgia this year removed 700 people from voter lists, even though some of those people had never received so much as a parking ticket. Another Georgia voter purge, which seeks to remove illegal immigrants from the rolls, has been challenged by voting-rights groups that say legal voters have been intimidated by repeated requests to prove their citizenship. Back in Mississippi last March, an election official wrongly purged 10,000 people from the voting rolls - including a Republican congressional candidate - while using her home computer. (The names were restored before the primary.)
With just days until the election, the scale of the database-purge problem is unknown. Millions have been stripped from voter rolls in key states, but the legitimacy of those eliminations remains unclear. The sheer volume of state voter checks against the federal Social Security Administration database, however, has raised concerns. Six states that are heavily using the federal database were recently warned by Social Security commissioner Michael Astrue about the danger of improperly blocking legitimate voters. "It is absolutely essential that people entitled to register to vote are allowed to do so," he said in October.
2. "Mickey Mouse" Registrations and Polling-Place Challenges
Thanks to a few bad apples, ACORN is no longer just an oak-tree nut. McCain blames the group for "maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history." Members of Congress have demanded investigations. The fbi is asking questions. Republican protesters have started crashing political events in squirrel costumes.
Yet the problem of registration fraud is age-old. For decades, both parties and many other groups have paid people to go out and register new voters. In the case of acorn, a community group that represents low-income and minority communities, this led to a massive registration drive this year, which signed up 1.3 million new people, mostly in swing states. The problem is that a small fraction of those new voters don't exist. That's because the 13,000 part-time workers conducting the acorn registration drive were paid on a quota system, providing them a clear incentive to fabricate registrations. Across the country, registrars have flagged thousands of acorn forms as suspect. In Florida, "Mickey Mouse" tried to register with an application stamped with the acorn logo. The starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys signed up to vote in Nevada. But there's a difference between registration fraud and voter fraud; the latter has not been documented on any significant scale in decades. Phony registrations are difficult to translate into fraudulent votes. Under federal law, new registrants still have to provide election officials with identification before casting their first ballot. Unless Mickey Mouse has an ID, the chance that he'll vote is slim.
Democrats complain that trumped-up charges of voting fraud could scare people from the polls. On the other hand, the acorn effect makes elections suspect - and that's bad for everyone. Republicans in several key swing states have argued that the false registrations make it necessary to monitor polls and challenge suspect voters. If that happens on a grand scale, the voting process could become more like running a gauntlet than exercising a right, with polling-place delays and confrontations that could scare people off or just lead them to conclude it's not worth the time.
3. Bad Forms
Until the palm beach county butterfly ballot had its 15 minutes of fame, few believed that bad design could determine the fate of the world. But then a local election official created a form that confused elderly voters, causing thousands to mark both Al Gore and another candidate on the same form, disqualifying enough votes to put George W. Bush in the White House.
Eight years later, punch-card ballots are mostly a thing of the past, but bad design lives on. This summer, the McCain campaign sent poorly designed absentee-ballot forms to more than 1 million voters in Ohio. The form included a redundant box for voters to check if they were "qualified electors." Though the box was not required by law, the Democratic secretary of state, Jennifer Brunner, rejected thousands of otherwise complete forms with unchecked boxes. Luckily for the voters, the state supreme court stepped in to overrule Brunner's order, which it noted "served no vital public purpose or interest." A lawsuit has yet to be filed in a similar case in Colorado, where Republican secretary of state Mike Coffman, who is running for Congress, ruled that more than 6,400 new registrations should be rejected because people failed to check a box before providing the last four digits of their Social Security number. Again, the box was redundant, since new registrants provided all the other required information, yet Coffman has declared the forms incomplete and sent letters alerting voters that they have just a few days to fix the mistakes or be left off the rolls.
4. The Voting-Machine Fiasco
As soon as the last chad was counted in Florida, Congress got to work on a new law that authorized $3.9 billion to buy new, high-tech voting equipment. On the whole, the new machines were an improvement over the old punch cards and levers, but many parts of the country now find themselves yearning for the old problems of paper.
About one-third of voters this fall will use electronic machines, usually touchscreen systems that produce no paper record of the vote. If the machines are miscalibrated, they are known to malfunction, sometimes causing the selection of one candidate to show as a vote for another. But the bigger concern, which has been echoed by computer scientists, is that the machines have no independent paper backup. A memory failure or a corruption of the data leaves no route for a recount. The 2006 congressional election in Florida's 13th District produced the nightmare scenario. Republican Vern Buchanan won the contest by a margin of 369 votes. But in a single, Democratic-leaning county, more than 18,000 voters mysteriously failed to record a selection in the congressional race, an undervote as much as six times the rate of other counties. There is no way to know for sure what, if anything, went wrong.
Since that election, several states, including Florida and California, have required paper records for all electronic-voting devices. A bill in Congress that would mandate paper records of all machines nationwide has gathered 216 co-sponsors, including 20 Republicans.
Meanwhile, 11 million people live in counties that will use lever machines or punch-card ballots this year, even though the congressional deadline to replace that equipment passed in 2006.
5. Unequal Distribution of Resources
This summer, a local democratic county clerk in Indiana noted a surprising increase in new registrations from the area around Ball State University. He suggested that a new early-voting location be set up on campus. But the county's Republican chairwoman, Kaye Whitehead, opposed the plan, calling it a "political ploy" that would encourage students to vote in exchange for freebies like hot dogs. "This is a serious election," she told the local newspaper, before the lone Republican on the election board blocked the site. "You need voters who are informed."
Partisan squabbles about access occur regularly across the country, often with major effects on Election Day. In 2004 lines in Ohio's Franklin County led some Democrats to complain that Republicans were using resources to affect the outcome of the vote. While suburban precincts had enough machines so voters didn't have to wait, largely Democratic precincts in Columbus had lines with four-hour waits - often in the rain. Bipartisan estimates suggested that between 5,000 and 15,000 voters gave up on waiting and never voted. But even the question of which precincts get election machines is a maze: in Wisconsin, one voting machine is required for every 200 voters registered in a precinct. In Virginia, by contrast, the law calls for one machine for every 500 to 750 voters, depending on the size of the precinct. In Colorado, which saw six-hour waits for ballots in 2006, the law simply calls for a "sufficient" number of voting booths.
6. New Burdens of Proof
The sisters of the holy cross in notre Dame, Ind., don't have much use for driver's licenses. Or at least that's what a dozen of the nuns thought on May 6, when they went to vote in the presidential primary. They were each turned away as a result of a recently established ID-check requirement at Indiana polls.
In the intervening months, the elderly sisters have all had a chance to get government identification. But an explosion in voter-identification laws has raised the prospect that thousands will turn up to vote next month and find themselves turned away. Federal law now requires that all first-time voters who register by mail provide some sort of identification either when they register or when they vote. But states have applied that rule in markedly different ways. In Pennsylvania, first-time voters can use a firearm permit or a utility bill to identify themselves, and longtime voters don't have to show anything at all. In Georgia and Florida, gun permits don't help; all voters must show a state or federal photo ID at the polls. In Indiana, residents who attend state schools can use their student IDs in many cases, but students who attend private schools cannot. The laws have been established to prevent voter fraud, but some experts worry that voter suppression will result. "There is very little evidence of widespread voter fraud," says R. Michael Alvarez, co-director of the Caltech/mit Voting Technology Project. "Imposing these additional barriers doesn't seem terribly justified."
How big a barrier? A 2001 study found that 6% to 10% of the voting-age population lacks driver's licenses or other state-issued IDs. The most reasonable worry is that many local ID requirements are not well known to voters, which could lead to significant numbers of people leaving the polls frustrated on Election Day without casting their ballot. That should not happen: in all states, voters without IDs are permitted to cast a provisional ballot. But in many states, for the ballot to count they must bring a valid ID to election officials within days after the election, proving that they are the person they claim to be.
7. Confusing Rules, Bad Information
As election day nears, dirty tricks surface. Flyers are left on cars telling Democrats that they should vote on Wednesday, not Tuesday. Anonymous automated phone calls warn people that they will be arrested at the polls or that their polling places have moved. The impact of such gambits is usually small, and in an increasing number of states, such tricks are punishable by law.
A more insidious type of misinformation starts months earlier with local officials. Last March, the president of Colorado College in Colorado Springs received a letter from the El Paso County clerk, Robert Balink, warning that out-of-state students cannot register to vote if their parents claim them as dependents in another state. This was false. The registrar of elections for the area around Virginia Tech issued other confusing messages to students there, obliquely suggesting that their parents' tax status could be jeopardized based on vague state-board-of-elections guidelines.
A widely circulated anonymous e-mail warns voters that they will be turned away from polling places if they wear a barack obama button or a john mccain T shirt. This is true in only a minority of states. In Virginia, for instance, wearing a candidate's T shirt or button can get you tossed from a polling place. After agreeing to the policy, Virginia Board of Elections officials said decisions about what to do will be subject to the interpretation of local poll workers and judges - which is a pretty good metaphor for the controlled electoral chaos that is about to unfold all over America in a few short days.
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With reporting by Marti Covington and Maya Curry / Washington.
URGENT VOTING INFORMATION!
NEW INFORMATION ON VOTING STRAIGHT DEMOCRATIC.
I called the secretary of state office, and democratic office and they said THIS IS NOT TRUE: I have been getting calls and emails today about people being told that if they vote straight Democratic ticket that it wouldn't count for the president vote to Obama that they would have to click Obama a separate time.
So I called the democratic office and election department and confirmed this is not true. If you vote straight democratic ticket you are voting for Obama and if you go back and click Obama separate (after clicking straight democratic) you will then be taking your vote away from Obama.
The democratic office said they have received several calls on this all week. And they think it is a way someone is trying to sabotage the election.
Please tell everyone you know and here are the phone# 214-821-8331 and 214-637-7937 they can verify this for their self.
SO TO SUM IT UP YOU CAN VOTE STRAIGT TICKET AND YOU WILL BE VOTING FOR THE PRESIDENT ON THAT TICKET.
PLEASE VERIFY VOTE BEFORE SUBMITTING THE BALLOT.
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Voting early is a great option. At first I was reluctant to do so because of the last election stolen by Bush. A friend pointed out to me that if everyone votes on Tuesday Nov. 4th, everything will be overwhelmed and chaoctic! So why not vote now and avoid the rush as well as all the other nonsense that can come with it.!
This is the most important election in America!
Don't let it pass you buy without making your voice heard!
Regardless of who you're voting for, make sure you vote! I've enclosed places in Chicago where you can vote early, which is available Oct.13-30, 2008.
Spread the word! Feel free to copy and paste and send to others or simply send this link!
Locations and Hours:
from Oct. 13-30, 2008, seven days a week.
one in each ward, plus the Chicago Election Board office at 69 W. Washington St.
69 W. Washington St., Lower Level, and only from 9 a.m. to noon. (All other
Early Voting sites in the city are closed on Sundays.)
Monday, October 13 - Thursday, October 30, 2008
Monday-Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
69 W. Washington, Lower Level
(All other Chicago Early Voting sites are closed on Sundays.)
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Please send this out to all DEMOCRAT AND OBAMA groups you possibly can... OBAMA SUPPORTERS & DEMOCRATS; NEED TO STEP UP TO THE PLATE AND TAKE A NOTABLE STAND AGAINST THIS.....
WAL-MART OPPOSES OBAMA PRESIDENCY.....
Wal-Mart is taking this outrageous step because Democrat Barack Obama has committed to pass the Employee Free Choice Act to restore workers' freedom to bargain for fair wages, health care, decent working conditions and a real voice on the job. All of America 's workers have the right to freely decide whom to vote for independent of employer pressure and intimidation. So, please forward this email to everyone you know. Be sure to get the word out. Let’s hit them in their pocket book. STOP giving money to Wal-Mart Republ icans and Corporate Neo-Nazis.
We need to let our money do our talking. DON'T SHOP AT WAL-MART. Let’s take them to school and hit them where it hurts – in their greedy little pocket books! Corporate giants like Wal-Mart have been suppressing workers' wages and passing along health care costs to hardworking taxpayers like you for years. Wal-Mart executives are getting rich, while we're being left behind. They understand what is at stake in this election, and so do we--a real voice at work for:
-- Fair pay;
-- Health care for all;
-- Equal treatment;
-- Safe workplaces; and
-- A secure retirement.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Wal-Mart is telling its managers to tell employees not to vote for Democrats (OBAMA). Here’s the story:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121755649066303381.html?mod=hpp_us_whats_news
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Just when you'd given up hope because you missed the deadline to restier to vote and make your voice heard, God makes miracles happen all the time.
After the official 'deadline' to register to vote on October 7, voters have one last chance under the "grace period" option.
The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners officially will offer "grace period" registration and voting from Wednesday, October 8, 2008 through Tuesday, October 21, 2008. This will give Chicagoans who are eligible to vote but who missed the registration deadline one last opportunity to participate in the November 4, 2008 General Election. "Under this newer provision of the state Election Code, eligible voters may still register or update their records and vote, but only at Election Board headquarters," said Chicago Election Board Chairman Langdon D. Neal.
Chicago voters who utilize the "grace period" must come to 69 W. Washington Street, Suite 600. The "grace period" closes on Tuesday, October 21, 2008, under state law.
Unlike voters who register by the October 7 deadline, voters who update records during the "grace period" cannot vote at their polling places on Election Day or in the Early Voting program. To register to vote for the upcoming General Election, persons must be citizens of the United States and 18 years of age or older by November 4, 2008. When registering during the "grace period," a person needs to show two (2) valid pieces of identification, with at least one showing the current residence address.
visit the website for details.
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Some peope talk the talk, and some walk it. Obama Talks. Obama Walks. Obama Rocks!
This email was shared with me, and I just had to share it with you. some things are just too good not to sharwe.
Enjoy!
Historic Bailout Bill PASSES
Obama is awesome!
"In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths." Proverbs 3:6
Congress OKs historic bailout bill By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS and DAVID ESPO Associated Press Writers WASHINGTON —
With the economy on the brink and elections looming, Congress approved an unprecedented $700 billion government bailout of the battered financial industry on Friday and sent it to President Bush for his certain signature. The final vote, 263-171 in the House, a comfortable margin that was 58 more votes than it garnered on Monday. The vote capped two weeks of tumult in Congress and on Wall Street, punctuated by daily warnings that the country confronted the gravest economic crisis since the Great Depression if lawmakers failed to act.
House Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., is followed by a group of reporters after meeting with fellow Democrats about the financial bailout package Thursday, Oct. 2, 2008 in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) Bush was poised to make a statement on the historic vote. "We all know that we are in the midst of a financial crisis," House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio, said shortly before casting his vote for government intervention in private capital markets that was unthinkable only a month ago. "And we know that if we do nothing, this crisis is likely to worsen and to put us into an economic slump like most of us have never seen."
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the bill was needed to "Begin to shape the financial stability of our country and the economic security of our people." Stocks were up on Wall Street, where there was a lot of anticipation of the vote but where investors also were buffeted by a bad report on the job market. The Labor Department said employers slashed 159,000 jobs in September, the largest cut in five years and further evidence of a sinking economy.
Even before the measure cleared Congress, the White House sought to dampen optimism of its immediate impact on the economy. "This legislation is to fix a problem in our financial markets," said spokesman Tony Fratto. "It's not sold as giving a boost to the economy, but rather preventing a crisis in our economy... If it works as we hope it will, credit will be able to begin flowing again."
The House vote marked a sharp change from Monday, when an earlier measure was sent down to defeat, largely at the hands of angry conservative Republicans. Senate leaders quickly took custody of the measure, adding on $110 billion in tax and spending provisions designed to attract additional support, then grafting on legislation mandating broader mental health coverage in the insurance industry. The revised measure won Senate approval Wednesday night, 74-25, setting up a furious round of lobbying in the House as the administration, congressional leaders, the major party presidential candidates and outside groups joined forces behind the measure. It worked — augmented by a sudden switch in public opinion that occurred after the stock market took its largest-ever one-day dive on Monday.
"No matter what we do or what we pass, there are still tough times out there. People are mad — I'm mad," said Republican Rep. J. Gresham Barrett of South Carolina, who opposed the measure the first time it came to a vote. Now, he said, "We have to act. We have to act now." Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., another convert, said, "I have decided that the cost of doing nothing is greater than the cost of doing something." Critics were unrelenting.
"How can we have capitalism on the way up and socialism on the way down," said Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas, a leader among conservative Republicans who oppose the central thrust of the legislation — an unprecedented federal intervention into the private capital markets. It was little more than two weeksago that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke concluded that the economy was in such danger that a massive government intervention in the private markets was essential. The core of the plan remains little changed from its inception — the Treasury Department would have $700 billion at its disposal to purchase bad mortage-related securities that are weighing down the balance sheets of institutions that hold them. The flow of credit has slowed, in some cases drying up, threatening the ability of businesses to conduct routine operations or expand.
At the same time, lawmakers have dramatically changed the measure, insisting on greater congressional supervision over the $700 billion, taking measures to protect taxpayers, and insisting on steps to crack down on so-called "golden parachutes" that go to corporate executives whose companies fail.
Earlier in the week, the legislation was altered to expand the federal insurance program for individual bank deposits, and the Securities and Exchange Commission took steps to ease the impact of the questionable mortgage-backed securities on financial institutions. In the moments before the vote, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, pledged "serious surgery" next year to address the underlying causes of the crisis.
If anything, the economic news added to the sense of urgency. The Labor Department said initial claims for jobless benefits had increased last week to the highest level since the gloomy days after the 2001 terror attacks. The news of the payroll cuts came on top of Thursday's Commerce Department report that factory orders in August plunged by 4 percent.
Typifying arguments the problem no longer is just a Wall Street issue but also one for Main Street, lawmakers from California and Florida said their state governments were beginning to experience trouble borrowing funds for their own operations. Pelosi said, "We must win it for Mr. and Mrs. Jones on Main Street." One month before election day, the drama unfolded in an intensely political atmosphere. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, a supporter of the bill, made calls to members of the Congressional Black Caucus, who publicly credited him with changing their minds.
Rep. Elijah Cummings and Donna Edwards, both Maryland Democrats, were among them. They said Obama had pledged if he wins the White House that he would help homeowners facing foreclosure on their mortgages. He also pledged to support changes in the bankruptcy law to make it less burdensome on consumers. "It's not too often you get the future president telling you that his priority matches your priority," said Cummings.Obama's rival, Sen. John McCain, who announced a brief suspension in his campaign more than a week ago to try and help solve the financial crisis, made calls to Republicans. His impact was not immediately clear.
Republican Rep. Sue Myrick of North Carolina, who said she was switching her vote to favor the measure, said of McCain: "They told me he was going to call me. He didn't." Looking ahead to election day, she added,