Girls Rock 2

Atlanta Hip Hop mainstay Señor Kaos tells the world why Girls Rock Too!

With rap music being at the center of discussions about misogyny and male attitudes toward women, the song “Girls Rock Too” by Señor Kaos was made to promote the opposite message.

A few years ago Don Imus came out and called the Rutgers female basketball team “Nappy Headed Hoes” and got away with it by blaming it on Hip Hop. It was at this point Señor Kaos became fed up and decided that it was a time for a Hip Hop anthem women everywhere could be proud off.

“I decided to make a song that countered the negative stereotypes and imagery oftentimes perpetuated in the media and in Hip Hop about women. The result is a song you can play in front of anybody. I can play this song in front of my mother, my grandmother, and my younger cousins, it’s something everyone can relate too.”

For every Hip Hop song that degrades women, theres 30 more that don’t, that you never hear on the radio! here’s a perfect example of a positive song made a young African American male. “I made this song with hopes to enlighten people of the female accomplishments that have been forgotten about. You have adults with children who refuse to let their kids listen to the music because of the messages that are associated with it. At the end of the day, I would love to see the media talk about this song the same way they talked about “Tip Drill” by Nelly. People love to focus on the negative side of Hip Hop, but the positives are all around us, therefore Girls Rock Too was created.” - Señor Kaos

Absence of Leadership

It took President Bush until Wednesday night to address the American people about the nation’s financial crisis, and pretty much all he had to offer was fear itself.

There was no acknowledgement of the shocking failure of government regulation, or that the country cannot afford more tax cuts for the very wealthy and budget-busting wars, or that spending at least $700 billion of taxpayers’ money to bail out Wall Street and the banks should be done carefully, transparently and with oversight by Congress and the courts.

We understand why he may have been reluctant to address the nation, since his contempt for regulation is a significant cause of the current mess. But he could have offered a great deal more than an eerily dispassionate primer on the credit markets in which he took no responsibility at all for the financial debacle.

He promised to protect taxpayers with his proposed bailout, but he did not explain how he would do that other than a superficial assurance that in sweeping up troubled assets, government would buy low and sell high. And he warned that “our entire economy is in danger” unless Congress passes his bailout plan immediately.

In the end, Mr. Bush’s appearance was just another reminder of something that has been worrying us throughout this crisis: the absence of any real national leadership, including on the campaign trail.

Given Mr. Bush’s shockingly weak performance, the only ones who could provide that are the two men battling to succeed him. So far, neither John McCain nor Barack Obama is offering that leadership.

What makes it especially frustrating is that this crisis should provide each man a chance to explain his economic policies and offer a concrete solution to the current crisis.

Mr. McCain is doing distinctly worse than Mr. Obama. First, he claimed that the economy was strong, ignoring the deep distress of the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have already lost their homes. Then he called for a 9/11-style commission to study the causes of the crisis, as if there were a mystery to be solved. Over the last few days he has become a born-again populist, a stance entirely at odds with the career, as he often says, started as “a foot soldier in the Reagan revolution.”

After daily pivoting, Mr. McCain now says that the bailout being debated in Congress has to protect taxpayers, that all the money has to be spent in public and that a bipartisan board should “provide oversight.” But he offered not the slightest clue about how he would ensure that taxpayers would ever “recover” the bailout money.

Mr. McCain proposed capping executives’ pay at firms that get bailout money, a nicely punitive idea but one that does nothing to mitigate the crisis. And that is about as far as his new populism went.

What is most important is that Mr. McCain hasn’t said a word about strengthening regulation or budged one inch from his insistence on maintaining Mr. Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy. That trickle-down notion has done nothing to improve the lives of most Americans and, even without a $700 billion bailout, saddled generations to come with crippling deficits.

Mr. Obama has been clearer on the magnitude and causes of the financial crisis. He has long called for robust regulation of the financial industry, and he said early on that a bailout must protect taxpayers. Mr. Obama also recognizes that the wealthy must pay more taxes or this country will never dig out of its deep financial hole. But as he does too often, Mr. Obama walked up to the edge of offering full prescriptions and stopped there.

We don’t know if Mr. McCain or Mr. Obama will do any good back in Washington. But Mr. McCain’s idea of postponing the Friday night debate was another wild gesture from a candidate entirely too prone to them. The nation needs to hear Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain debate this crisis and demonstrate who is ready to lead.


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Time for Campaignin

McCain Spoils Possible Financial Negotiations

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The Blind Leading the Blind

If you read or Don't Let Your Wardrobe Be Your Malfunction, or received an email like it, did you take the time to research that information? Or did you decide it sounded true enough and go with it?
This is your future. Be informed, be involved. ASK QUESTIONS before you decide who's got the answers.

Here's a perspective to consider. Is it yours?

a Letterman Reaction

Freddie Mac Paid McCain Campaign Manager's Firm Through last Month

Don't Let Your Wardrobe Be the Malfunction

This just in ... Don't give the enemy any room!

"DO NOT" wear any OBAMA Paraphernalia to the Voting Polls!!!!
The text below is very important information that we all need to share.


PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE ADVISE EVERYONE YOU KNOW THAT THEY ABSOLUTELY CAN
NOT GO TO THE POLLS WEARING ANY OBAMA SHIRTS, PINS OR HATS, IT IS
AGAINST
THE LAW AND WILL BE GROUNDS TO HAVE THE POLLING OFFICIALS TO TURN YOU
AWAY.
THAT IS CONSIDERED CAMPAIGNING AND NO ONE CAN CAMPAIGN WITHIN X AMOUNT
OF
FEET TO THE POLLS. THEY ARE BANKING ON US BEING EXCITED AND NOT BEING
AWARE
OF THIS LONG STANDING LAW THAT YOU CAN BET WILL BE ENFORCED THIS
YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THEY ARE BANKING THAT IF ARE TURNED AWAY YOU WILL NOT GO HOME AND
CHANGE YOUR CLOTHES.. PLEASE JUST DON'T WEAR OBAMA GEAR OF ANY SORTS TO
THE
POLLS!! PLEASE SHARE THIS INFORMATION, OH AND FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO
WERE ALREADY AWARE THIS WAS NOT MEANT TO INSULT YOUR INTELLIGENCE.

JUST TRYING TO COVER ALL GROUNDS.
"DO NOT" wear any OBAMA Paraphernalia to the Voting Polls!!!!

Never gonna,

ATL

click ATL & YaY for the Gangsta S%iT!

the Android

Google | T-Mobile collabo

Conversation Among Friends

HE SAID...

“Shopper,” she whispered in my ear and fell back to the couch, delighted at the fact that I’m voluntarily telling on myself. See her, she knows me. Whether I choose to admit or not. How much does she know? I couldn’t tell you. But she hasn’t been wrong yet.

Two face to faces six months apart, some dozen phone conversations and hundreds of text messages and she’s getting me.

I told her I wouldn’t leave this time. I had no way of making her believe me other than pointing out the fact that I never made that promise before. See because her, I think I hurt when I vanished. I’m not really sure what kind of hurt it was. I’m scared to find out. I’m going to ask her when this piece is complete. I have to. A part of me empathizes with her emotion. It’s part of the reason why I picked that hectic day to finally see her. I owed her that. And more. Her, is a blessing. That feeling you get from just being appreciated as you are…it’s good feeling.

She told me that the circumstance under which this camaraderie was forged was wack. From her perspective and mine, she’s absolutely correct. The wackness of it is short lived when you reflect on the present. Her, has things in common with me and that’s refreshing. Relaxing too. And though we’re not completely in a relaxation state, that’s the direction we’re facing. Sun’s in our face.

But don’t misunderstand my praise for her and what’s between us as a declaration of her being “the one for me” or something along that line. Yes, she is smart and sexy to boot. Yes, she’s got a thing for a fresh pair of sneakers like me. Yes, she’s creative and innovative. And yes, in a pair of heels has a strut badder than Nia’s in The Best Man. But all that doesn’t mean I’m obligated to pursue her. The code was written in my DNA but I’ve made some changes to it as of late and I have to admit, I’m really digging the results. The other day, she texted me to thank me for the warmth and comfort of my friendship so I have to say she’s digging them too.

then SHE SAID...

He didn’t even have the decency to walk into my life. Somehow he sidestepped the usual rules of engagement, caught me off guard with his openness about how men do what they do. Honesty. It’s always been attractive. His earnestness stood out even thru the supposed anonymity of cyberspace. Online community always felt like an oxymoron, only to discover kindred spirits, gentle hearts, purple stars and blue diamonds.
He’s so easy. Not because the words are written on him, but because the connection is so right, like puzzle-pieces. He man, she woman. And so…? And so she respects him and he respects her and they…work. But it wasn’t always this easy. Well it was, but he resisted it. He tried to walk away but something in her resisted because it didn’t make sense. She learned along the way not to let go of that which is important. Without knowing it would be like this, she just knew this one was a keeper & fought for the truth she could see clearer than he.
Him trying at all gave pause. Abandonment never feels right when things are as they should be. Lived that once before & still question if I let go too easy. But that was a wedding bells thing, this shouldn’t be that hard. & yet… There’s this thing in some of us that makes loss difficult. Trusted this 1 openly & early & for reasons not fully revealed. The process, or lack thereof, was damn near frightening—finding a place in my heart for a virtually faceless persona. It gave breath to the truth of the matter; it’s what’s inside that counts. The blood that runs through him tasted pure on my tongue, I feared no poison. But I’ve been wrong before.
He gave deeper meaning to the word acceptance. Reason or a season is REAL & HE made she feel, before knowing him more fully, that either way would be a blessing for them both. & she don’t even use that word often. She accepted it & didn’t resist. His resistance meant he didn’t trust 1 of us. The possibility that it could be her felt like a paper cut-it stung. The possibility that it could be him he didn’t trust made her wonder if men really can’t stand on their tippy toes & look over their dick heads (pun intended) to see the sturdiness of the building blocks of true friendship. Friendship in itself is a variation on love. Everyone wins until someone chooses to lose.
Two came together over a violation of the worst kind, at the hands of someone who’d claimed himself friend & I believed. Him being supportive, without hesitation or requirement gave her comfort & courage. Him pulling away from the table after that made me question if she’d misjudged yet again? Was she in fact tainted goods now? Would trusting become part of the past? She would never want to pull anyone into such a drama. He called out to her, made her feel no judgment would be passed. He jumped in with words and concern like a brother or father would-the way a man who cares for a woman would. & then nothing. There was no sense to be made of it & even the intensity of the sting surprised her. Where had this man come from to be snatched back so quickly? Too many people were being given their papers. Space was being made & he pitched a for sale sign before he ever even moved in. Cavernous. Echoes returned from seas yet uncharted, whispering loudly of friendship. But he’d already deferred, packed her shit up w/Return to Sender. An Indian Giver of the worst kind.
Like faith in one’s God, she had faith that where they intersected would draw them closer again. She was prepared to wear fresh kicks & happen by hi on the streets of the Illadelph. But that’s akin to stalking & she ain’t met the relationship (of any sort) that’s that serious. 6 months later & hundreds of texts in, he came out of himself & shined on her again. Her smile brightened. She’d heard about praying to Ralph. Guess he works miracles after all. She hopes he’s glad he returns & never regrets it. She hopes he can continue to appreciate the cornucopia that she is, enjoy the scenery while he takes in the rest, & find value in it all. There’s few like her. This experience is rare.
She’s treasure-chested him. He should let her know if he ever feels boxed in. She saw him recently. She leaned in & said something to him, knowingly. He smiled cuz she was dead on. She smiled because she can be clairvoyant & often knows a lot more. It’s not for her to tell but for them to walk together. She’s committed to thanking him for his role. She hopes he never gets embarrassed by the acknowledgry [is in there…yeah] (Footnotin' Phife Dawg).

EPA Won't Remove Rocket Fuel From Drinking Water

ERICA WERNER Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency has decided there's no need to rid drinking water of a toxic rocket fuel ingredient that has fouled public water supplies around the country.

EPA reached the conclusion in a draft regulatory document not yet made public but reviewed Monday by The Associated Press.

The ingredient, perchlorate, has been found in at least 395 sites in 35 states at levels high enough to interfere with thyroid function and pose developmental health risks, particularly for babies and fetuses, according to some scientists.

The EPA document says that mandating a clean-up level for perchlorate would not result in a "meaningful opportunity for health risk reduction for persons served by public-water systems."
The conclusion, which caps years of dispute over the issue, was denounced by Democrats and environmentalists who accused EPA of caving to pressure from the Pentagon.

"This is a widespread contamination problem, and to see the Bush EPA just walk away is shocking," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who chairs the Senate's environment committee.
Lenny Siegel, director of the Center for Public Environmental Oversight in Mountain View, Calif., added: "This is an unconscionable decision not based upon science or law but on concern that a more stringent standard could cost the government significantly."

The Defense Department used perchlorate for decades in testing missiles and rockets, and most perchlorate contamination is the result of defense and aerospace activities, congressional investigators said last year.

Pentagon could face liability if EPA set a national drinking water standard that forced water agencies around the country to undertake costly clean-up efforts. Defense officials have spent years questioning EPA's conclusions about the risks posed by perchlorate.
The Pentagon objected strongly Monday to the suggestion that it sought to influence EPA's decision.

"We have not intervened in any way in EPA's determination not to regulate perchlorate. If you read their determination, that's based on criteria in the Safe Drinking Water Act," Paul Yaroschak, Pentagon deputy director for emerging contaminants, said in an interview.

Yaroschak said the Pentagon has been working for years to clean up perchlorate at its facilities. He also contended that the Pentagon wasn't the source of as much perchlorate contamination as once believed, noting that it also comes from fireworks, road flares and fertilizer.

Benjamin Grumbles, EPA's assistant administrator for water, said in a statement that "science, not the politics of fear in an election year, will drive our final decision."

"We know perchlorate in drinking water presents some degree of risk, and we're committed to working with states and scientists to ensure public health is protected and meaningful opportunities for reducing risk are fully considered," Grumbles said.

Grumbles said the EPA expected to seek comment and take final action before the end of the year. The draft document was first reported Monday by the Washington Post.

Perchlorate is particularly widespread in California and the Southwest, where it's been found in groundwater and in the Colorado River, a drinking-water source for 20 million people. It's also been found in lettuce and other foods.

In absence of federal action, states have acted on their own. In 2007, California adopted a drinking water standard of 6 parts per billion. Massachusetts has set a drinking water standard of 2 parts per billion.

If Democrats were Republicans, they would totally run this ad

lil' bad ass

Poll shows gap between blacks and whites over racial discrimination

By CHARLES BABBINGTON, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Since the nation's birth, Americans have discussed race and avoided it, organized neighborhoods and political movements around it, and used it to divide and hurt people even as relations have improved dramatically since the days of slavery, Reconstruction and legal segregation.

Now, in what could be a historic year for a black presidential candidate, a new Associated Press-Yahoo! News poll, conducted with Stanford University, shows just how wide a gap remains between whites and blacks.

It shows that a substantial portion of white Americans still harbor negative feelings toward blacks. It shows that blacks and whites disagree tremendously on how much racial prejudice exists, whose fault it is and how much influence blacks have in politics. One result is that Barack Obama's path to the presidency is steeper than it would be if he were white.

Until now, social scientists have not closely examined racial sentiments on a nationwide scale at a moment when race is central to choosing the next president. The poll, which featured a large sample of Americans — more than 2,200 — and sophisticated survey techniques rarely used in media surveys, reflected the complexity, change and occasional contradictions of race relations.
More whites apply positive attributes to blacks than negative ones, and blacks are even more generous in their descriptions of whites. Racial prejudice is lower among college-educated whites living outside the South. And many whites who think most blacks are somewhat lazy, violent or boastful are willing or even eager to vote for Obama over Republican John McCain, who is white.
The poll, however, shows that blacks and whites see racial discrimination in starkly different terms. When asked "how much discrimination against blacks" exists, 10 percent of whites said "a lot" and 45 percent said "some." Among blacks, 57 percent said "a lot" and all but a fraction of the rest said "some."

Asked how much of America's existing racial tension is created by blacks, more than one-third of white respondents said "most" or "all," and 9 percent said "not much." Only 3 percent of blacks said "most" or "all," while half said "not much at all."

Nearly three-fourths of blacks said white people have too much influence in American politics. Only 12 percent of whites agreed. Almost three times as many blacks as whites said blacks have too little influence.

Far more blacks than whites say government officials "usually pay less attention to a request or complaint from a black person than a white person."

One in five whites have felt admiration for blacks "very" or "extremely" often. Seventy percent of blacks have felt the same about whites.

The poll may surprise those who thought Obama's appeal to young voters proves Americans in their 20s and 30s are clearly less racially biased than their parents. The survey found no meaningful differences among age groups in whites' perceptions of blacks, although older whites appear more likely to discuss their views.

Some findings fall into the glass half-empty or half-full category. One-fourth of white Democrats ascribed at least two negative attributes to blacks. But two-thirds of those Democrats said they will vote for Obama.

That finding alone could nourish a debate about how much harm is done by racial prejudices that seem to have modest influence on how people behave.

Kelly Edmondson, 34, of Cincinnati, is a white Democrat enthusiastic about backing Obama. The country needs a new direction, she said, and "I feel like he can reach a lot of people."

She cares for her two sets of young twins during the day and teaches college at night; most of her students are black. In the survey, Edmondson said positive words such as "hardworking" and "intelligent" describe most blacks "very well." She said a few negative traits, such as "lazy" and "irresponsible," apply "somewhat well" to most blacks.

In a telephone interview, Edmondson said those attributes apply equally to all races. She fretted that some of her fellow Ohioans might be less candid, privately planning to vote for McCain when they publicly say they are "on the fence." "I worry about that," she said.

Polls consistently show Obama running about even with McCain, or leading by a notably smaller margin than the one Democrats enjoy over Republicans in most generic surveys about which party is best suited to govern.

The AP-Yahoo News poll suggests that racial prejudice could cost Obama up to 6 percentage points this fall. That's a big hurdle in a nation whose last two presidential elections were decided by much smaller margins.

Charles Crozier, 73, of Marietta, Ga., said he is a "quasi-independent" Democrat who is undecided on the presidential contest. He likes McCain on energy issues, including his call for more nuclear energy. But he prefers Obama's stands on economic issues.

Crozier, who is white, said race is not a factor in his thinking. He said he's not sure "how much of an issue it is for (other) people" in his community. It frustrates him to hear people incorrectly state that Obama (who is Christian) is a Muslim because they read it on the Internet.

"I'm old enough to know a lie repeated often enough becomes the truth," Crozier said. "You can't change their minds."

Racial progress in America is undeniable on many fronts. But millions of white and black Americans still barely interact at all, bringing the very term "race relations" into question.
"There's still a lot of estrangement out there" between the races, said David Bositis, who writes about racial matters at the Washington-based Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. "There's still an enormous amount of segregation."

Even with sophisticated polls, it's hard to measure the progress, or lack of progress, in race relations.

"The prior forms of racism, with hindsight, were relatively easy to deal with," said Kenneth O'Reilly, who has written books on racial politics and now teaches history at Milwaukee Area Technical College. He cited slavery, lynchings and legal and de facto segregation.

Now, he said, racial prejudices and grievances are more subtle. "If you ask 100 people what is the main color line problem today," he said, "you get 100 answers."

The AP-Yahoo News poll of 2,227 adults was conducted Aug. 27-Sept. 5, and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points. It was designed to plumb people's racial attitudes, and particularly how those attitudes affect voting.

The survey used the unique methodology of Knowledge Networks, of Menlo Park, Calif., including questions about how well words like "friendly" or "violent" describe blacks; having respondents type sensitive answers into computers, which tends to make them more honest; and using brief flashes of faces of people of different races to detect that people may not be aware they have.

Stanford University political scientist Paul Sniderman said that in today's society, racial prejudice "is a deep challenge, and it's one that Americans in general, and for that matter, political scientists, just haven't been ready to acknowledge fully."
For minority candidates such as Obama, he said, "there's a penalty for prejudice, and it's not trivial." If the presidential contest remains close, he said, racial prejudice "might be enough to tip the election."

race matters...

He represents change, inspires good feelings, emulates genuine sincerity, offers practical solutions and easily qualifies for the job, but at the end of the day it seems as though presidential candidate Barack Obama’s race is going to be what matters most to a significant number of white voters.

At least that’s what this recent poll indicates.

And I couldn’t be more disappointed. Not surprised. Just disappointed. I mean, come on, we’ve known this all along. Heck, most of us didn’t even expect him to make it THIS far.

But from the moment he shocked the snot outta everybody and won the Iowa primary, I actually started to consider the notion that maybe, just maybe America is ready.

Still, I can’t get too doom and gloom with this when I consider something else – for the most part, the man’s been leading or tied with McCain in most of the polls. So while this particular poll offers a grim prediction, maybe just maybe the poll is wrong.
We all know it wouldn’t be the first time.

I guess we’ll see soon enough. Just 44 days till election day...