"Obama Pimpin"

I'm sure most of you have heard about the Illinois governor, Rod Blagojevich and his top aid, John Harris who were arrested today for trying to financially profit from President-elect Barack Obama's U.S. Senate seat. My only question is, how much money is worth ruining your career for? Seriously, did he think he was gonna get away with it? I'm not really sure what was the logic, besides greed, that led Gov. Blagojevich to make choices that would end with him wearing silver shackles!

For the full story go to www.washingtonpost.com

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Wrap it Up!

Let's face it, teenagers are having sex at younger and younger ages. When 11 and 12 year old children are engaging in sexual activity on the school bus, its officially time to seriously address this epidemic. Apparently, in Normandy, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, sex education has not been a priority. Earlier this month a student confessed to not only being HIV-positive but that possibly 50 other teenagers might have been exposed to the virus. While Cheryl Wittenauer of the AP provides a thorough examination of the crisis, the public is still searching for answers. How does something like this happen and what can we do to prevent future outbreaks?

For the full story go to, www.newsweek.com

Lessons Learned?

Former Detroit Mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick is going to jail. Not for embezzlement or murder, but for lying about the extent of his personal relationship with his top aid, Christine Beatty. I'm not sure what's worst, having an extramarital affair or using your work phone to send sexually explicit messages about your affair? Clearly, Kilpatrick wasn't thinking with the head on his shoulders. Now, he's going to jail and to make matters worst, a judge has released more racy text messages between Kilpatrick and Beatty. While Kilpatrick reports to jail in a less than a week, Beatty should start working on her defense, she's headed to trail early next year. What's the lesson in this situation? If you're doing scandalous things, don't do them at work AND don't lie about it when you get caught!

For the full story, go to www.blackamericaweb.com

African women continue to fall prey to rapist

Reports of rape and unspeakable violence against women from Congo, Rwanda and Darfur have become common place in the media. Now, the voice of survivors in Cote d'Ivoire has bubbled to the surface. While the IRIN report was superficial at best, it did highlight an epidemic plaguing the continent. Violence against women is becoming as common place as poverty and civil war. Until world leaders begin to actively address this cancer that is killing women and young girls, we are destined to be stuck in an endless cycle of self destruction.

COTE D'IVOIRE: “Rapes are encouraged”

DAKAR, 21 October 2008 (IRIN) - Rapes of women and girls are common in western Côte d’Ivoire and generally go unpunished, said residents of the region.

“These days nearly every time we hear of armed robberies in homes, on the roads or on plantations, we hear of rape,” said a resident of the western town of Duékoué some 500km from the commercial capital Abidjan, who wanted to remain anonymous.

“We hear of two, three, four rapes every day.”

For the full story, go to www.irinnews.org

Homophobia in Black America

Ta-Nehisi Coates at The Atlantic has some important things to say about that last bastion of acceptable discrimination in America: homophobia. Yesterday, he wrote about black support for banning gay marriage in California. Today he comments on the nature of bigotry in general. You only have to look to blacks' reactions to Arab Americans post-9/11 to see how quickly the oppressed can become the oppressors. There's nothing like watching the down-trodden jump on the bandwagon to trod over someone else. Religious convictions are important. But ultimately, the black church and the evangelical community are going to have to find a way to reconcile those convictions with the reality that gays love God too. And they live here. And we should let them live.

Conservatives respond to Powell endorsement

It seems there are a lot people who think Powell's endorsement of Obama was driven by race and not ideology. Oprah got a similar reaction from some of her viewers when she came out for Obama ("a betrayal to women everywhere!"). You have to admit that having two prominent black figures break with their own traditions to endorse the black candidate seems at least a little racial. But why not? White folks are talking about how Obama's race makes him a transcendent candidate and a beacon of hope for the country. Why shouldn't black folks feel the same way? Plus... Colin still has that unfortunate pro-war U.N. speech hanging over his head. Endorsing the anti-war candidate now is the least he could do.

Further coverage at the Huffington Post here:
In the immediate aftermath of his appearance on Meet The Press, several prominent GOP officials - ranging from the established to the extreme - defined the announcement more by skin color than ideology.

The most crass interpretation came from talk radio host Rush Limbaugh, who wrote the Politico's Jonathan Martin the following:

"Secretary Powell says his endorsement is not about race... OK, fine. I am now researching his past endorsements to see if I can find all the inexperienced, very liberal, white candidates he has endorsed..."

Sarah Palin rap

As everyone knows by now, Sarah Palin was on SNL last night. For the most part, the appearance was pointless. Really, Tina Fey does a better Palin than Palin does. But the episode produced this little gem of a viral video. Even eight months pregnant, Amy Poehler is a G.