President Obama Sings Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together”
President Obama singing Rev. Al Green’s hit song “Let’s Stay Together” during a fundraiser at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, NY yesterday.
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Why Urban Blogs Went Dark
They say if you want to get black people to join together in protesting a cause, just put it on the side of a bandwagon and we will all jump on board.
Yesterday, a few of your favorite urban blogs “went dark” in protest of 2 anti-piracy bills that has the Internet in an uproar. Urban bloggers, who certainly meant well, blacked out their blogs yesterday while the TMZ’s and the YouTube’s — websites that these bills would most likely affect — stayed in business as usual.
We never take the 10 minutes to research anything. We just jump on the first bandwagon that comes along because everyone else is on it — or because Russell Simmons tolds us to.
HELLO! The government already has the power to shut websites down. They’re doing it every day.
Wikipedia Goes Dark to Protest Obama’s Web Piracy Bills
If you planned on visiting Wikipedia.org today to look up celebrity discographies or birth dates (like I often do), forget about it; Wikipedia has gone dark for 24 hours to protest Obama’s proposed web piracy bill.
The online encyclopedia ranks up there with Google, Yahoo and other high traffic websites as the most visited online. Wikipedia, and other websites, took a stand against 2 bills: the Protect Intellectual Property Act and Stop Online Piracy Act, which are under consideration in the Senate.
The bills, backed by the motion picture and recording industries, intends to put a stop to online piracy and copyright infringement by infringing upon the rights of visitors to popular websites.
If signed into law by President Obama, the PIPA and the SOPA bills would require ISPs to block online access to foreign websites which supply many of the bootleg movies and CDs that are now available for download online.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) claims the online piracy costs as much as $250 billion per year and costs the industry 750,000 jobs.
But critics of the bill say the SOPA act would infringe upon “free expression while harming the Internet” and “severely inhibit people’s access to online information.”
Wikipedia says the bills would place “the burden on website owners to police user-contributed material and call for the unnecessary blocking of entire sites.”
Critics say smaller websites (such as Sandrarose.com) “won’t have sufficient resources to defend themselves” against a shut down for hosting content that may be considered pirated (such as Beyonce’s new album).
Wikipedia went offline at midnight on Jan. 18, and plans to stay dark for 24 hours.
Gingrich: why are blacks offended by his plan to put children to work?
During Monday night’s GOP debate in Myrtle Beach, SC, presidential candidate Newt Gingrich once again spoke on his much-derided plan to put school children to work. Sometimes it isn’t what you say but how you say it. So Gingrich was careful to couch his controversial plan in more acceptable phrasing.
Gingrich insists that black kids don’t need handouts from President Obama — they need jobs. Gingrich says schoolchildren should be given janitorial jobs because, in his opinion, janitors in the NYC public school system earn way too much money.
The average annual salary for a NYC public school janitor is $80,000, compared to a teacher who earns $45,000 annually.
According to the NY Daily News, Gingrich argued the best thing public schools could do for students – particularly black students – was to give them a broom.
“Can’t you see that this is viewed at a minimum as insulting to all Americans, but particularly to black Americans?” asked Fox News questioner Juan Williams, who is part Hispanic and black.
“No, I don’t see that,” Gingrich responded, with rousing applause from the majority white audience.
Herman Cain Launches ‘Women for Cain’ Website
Embattled GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain has launched a new website targeted at women, titled Women for Cain. This news follows more allegations of infidelity against Cain.
The NY Daily News reports that the site, which is run by his wife, Gloria Cain, features letters and emails from women who support her husband despite the latest allegations by a Georgia woman who claims she carried on a 13-year affair with Cain.
“Dear Mrs. Cain,” wrote one supporter from California, “Don’t pay attention to these pathetic husband-less women who are jealous of women like you in happy long-term marriages. These vindictive women can’t find a husband or keep one.”
Another fan from South Carolina wrote: “It’s pathetic and shameful women are so desperate for their five minutes of fame that they would position themselves against the greatest potential President Americans could be blessed enough to have.”
The website was launched a day after Cain set Monday as the deadline for making his decision to stay in the race for the White House. Cain had said he would “reassess” his candidacy after campaign donations began to decline.
Meanwhile Ginger White, the woman who alleges a 13-year affair with Cain, apologized Thursday to Cain’s wife for going public with the affair.
Woman Reveals 13-Year Affair With Herman Cain
An Atlanta business woman has come forward claiming she had a 13-year sexual relationship with GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain.
MyFOX Atlanta reports that “over the Thanksgiving weekend, FOX 5 senior I-Team reporter Dale Russell sat down with Ginger White, who had an amazing story to tell.”
“It was pretty simple,” White said. “It wasn’t complicated. I was aware that he was married. And I was also aware I was involved in a very inappropriate situation, relationship.”
Even before White’s story was known to the public, Mr. Cain went on CNN today and announced there would be another claim of infidelity made against him. He went on record denying the most recent allegations that had not been made yet.
Here’s an excerpt of a statement released by Mr. Cain’s Atlanta attorney Lin Wood today. The statement all but concedes that Mr. Cain was involved in a sexual relationship with Ms. White.
I have highlighted the key words in bold for emphasis.
This is not an accusation of harassment in the workplace – this is not an accusation of an assault – which are subject matters of legitimate inquiry to a political candidate. Rather, this appears to be an accusation of private, alleged consensual conduct between adults – a subject matter which is not a proper subject of inquiry by the media or the public. No individual, whether a private citizen, a candidate for public office or a public official, should be questioned about his or her private sexual life. The public’s right to know and the media’s right to report has boundaries and most certainly those boundaries end outside of one’s bedroom door.
Such a shame. I really had hopes that he would be a contender for U.S. President Barack Obama.
CURL: Obama doesn’t want a second term in office
According to Washington Post political analyst, Joseph Curl, U.S. President Barack Obama doesn’t want a second term in office. With less than a year to go before the 2012 presidential elections, Mr. Obama’s re-election campaign efforts have been virtually silent.
There are only two ways to look at the Obama re-election campaign right now: Either the upstart candidate who stunned the world when he defeated the Clinton machine to capture the Democratic nomination three years ago has lost every bit of that massive mojo, or the bruised and battered president, after three years in office, just doesn’t want another spin in the Oval Office.
It’s obvious from Obama’s words and actions over the past two years that Obama is ready to throw the towel in and return to the private sector along with his wife and children.
From the day he was elected, Mr. Obama has made it clear to the American public that all he really wanted was to make history. Obama, who is considered by many to be a narcissist, didn’t sign up to work hard or to put up with disgruntled Americans seeking jobs and a stimulated economy.
Democratic strategists Patrick H. Caddell and Douglas Schoen don’t want to see Obama run for re-election. “He should step aside,” they wrote, “for the one candidate who would become, by acclamation, the nominee of the Democratic Party: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.”
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