THE BLACK JEWISH EXPERIENCE

Gym Class Heroes: Stereo Hearts ft. Adam Levine: This Black Jew's Music You Have to Listen To

2011-12-04T14:28:00.005-05:00

Gym Class Heroes: Stereo Hearts ft. Adam Levine

Past Club Hits:
They Might Be Giants - I Palindrome I
Grandmaster Flash - The Message
Rosh Hashannah Songs
We Shall Overcome
Kirk Franklin - I Smile
The Plastic Ono Band - Give Peace A Chance
Billy Bragg -There Is Power In A Union
Mahilia Jackson - How I Got Over
MC Lyte ft. Missy Elliott - Cold Rock A Party
Madonna - Like a Prayer
LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
Maino - Million Bucks
Star Spangled Banner
Jessie J - Price Tag
Mos Def - Mathematics
Lupe Fiasco - Words I Never Said ft. Skylar Grey
American Anthem - Norah Jones
Dayenu, Coming Home - The Fountainheads Passover Song
Nate Dogg - Oh No
The Maccabeats - Purim Song
Notorious BIG - Big Pappa
Nina Simone - The King of Love is Dead
Debbie Friedman - Alef Bet Vet
OK Go - This Too Shall Pass - Rube Goldberg Machine version
Nas ft. Keri Hilson - Hero
Biz Markie and Jeff Goldblum - Just a Friend
Bob Marley - One Love
Angie Stone - Brotha
Lenny Kravitz - Can't Get You Off My Mind
Jay-Z Death of Autotune
Y-Love and Dov Rosenblatt
2Pac Changes
Nas - I Can
Pete Seeger - Which Side Are You On?

Money in Politics - Excerpt From My Letter to Planet Money

2011-11-21T07:07:00.000-05:00

(end of this clip)

Your story on Money in Politics was not quite right, but unfortunately a standard misunderstanding people have about how money in politics work.

I used to actually be a fundraiser for Congressional Democratic candidates. I still work in politics, so I have a certain level of expertise that I think help me understand this issue better.

Yes, money does get you access, but not to the issues people think of as core values such as choice or support for green energy. What you hinted at but did not quite grasp is that with 435 Representatives, 100 Senators, a President plus 50 State Houses, Governor's mansions and judiciaries, there is actually a limited number of financial resources for elected officials. Most of the money that is dolled out is entirely ideological. For example a Democratic House Representative will get money from unions or choice groups because they are likely to believe in those issues. Republicans get more money from CEO's and the Chamber of Commerce because what they believe lines up with those concerns. Even still that money is only given to candidates in swing districts and heads of committees. The rest of the money, most of it, comes from business people, associations and personal contacts in the Congressional District itself. That is where the pressure point of money actually takes place for most elected officials.

Where money is interesting on a more national level is actually on the issues that don't get covered. The issues where the American public are not at the table are where money plays its real role. For example, Communications firms spend more than just about any other industry. That's because the media doesn't cover itself. So for example you will see an issue where Republicans and Democrats agree is on giving Comcast the ability to buy NBC or Verizon to merge with T-Mobile. Opposition to Net Neutrality gets support from the Right Wing and the Congressional Black Caucus because that money flows to everyone in Congress on that issue.

Ironically the movie The Distinguished Gentleman with Eddie Murphy has done one of the best explanations of how money actually works. An issue comes before a Congressperson, and without any money, the lobbyists are able to appeal to the promise of Jobs. Fear of being opposed on a complex issue and not getting the sort of intelligent coverage of that issue by the media makes it hard to take it on. If you succumb to status-quo that lobbyist has money to make it more palatable decision.

The solution is actually simple. You don't need to regulate any money spent by Congressman. Just give them free access to the people's airwaves. Give every person running space on newspapers who get funding from the government as "Newspaper of record," and give them access to the radio airwaves. Equal access for free would take away any need for all the money.

Which gets to the heart of why money is needed in politics. For many local stations, Political Commercials are a primary source of income. So the media NEEDS money in politics.

I hope the next couple of stories on this get better.

Muppet Show - Mahna Mahna: This Black Jew's Music You Have to Listen To

2011-11-20T19:53:00.000-05:00

Muppet Show - Mahna Mahna

I have had a really rough week and for rough weeks, this is my happy place.

Past Club Hits:
They Might Be Giants - I Palindrome I
Grandmaster Flash - The Message
Rosh Hashannah Songs
We Shall Overcome
Kirk Franklin - I Smile
The Plastic Ono Band - Give Peace A Chance
Billy Bragg -There Is Power In A Union
Mahilia Jackson - How I Got Over
MC Lyte ft. Missy Elliott - Cold Rock A Party
Madonna - Like a Prayer
LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
Maino - Million Bucks
Star Spangled Banner
Jessie J - Price Tag
Mos Def - Mathematics
Lupe Fiasco - Words I Never Said ft. Skylar Grey
American Anthem - Norah Jones
Dayenu, Coming Home - The Fountainheads Passover Song
Nate Dogg - Oh No
The Maccabeats - Purim Song
Notorious BIG - Big Pappa
Nina Simone - The King of Love is Dead
Debbie Friedman - Alef Bet Vet
OK Go - This Too Shall Pass - Rube Goldberg Machine version
Nas ft. Keri Hilson - Hero
Biz Markie and Jeff Goldblum - Just a Friend
Bob Marley - One Love
Angie Stone - Brotha
Lenny Kravitz - Can't Get You Off My Mind
Jay-Z Death of Autotune
Y-Love and Dov Rosenblatt
2Pac Changes
Nas - I Can
Pete Seeger - Which Side Are You On?

Using Video Games for Exercise

2011-11-19T19:53:00.004-05:00

I often work 80 to 90 hours per week. If I am not filling my time trying to make the world just a little more perfect place, it feels like I am wasting my time. So I fill it with activism for a bunch of issues and activism for my actual work.

It doesn't leave much time for exercise, despite me actually loving to do it. Yes I am a very large Black Jew, but I have always been very active.

If I had copious amounts of free time and a world that treated every human being with the innate dignity of G-d, I would spend all my time hiking and playing sports. I wish I could play Rugby and Football, Hike, Swim, Softball, and my favorite Yoga.

I make time for none of these things. What I found in the absence I think is the future of exercise for a lot of Americans who are all over worked. Gaming Systems, especially as they become fitted with devices to catch our movement and actions, can be used as a means to substitute the gym.

They offer dynamic workouts that keep me interested where videos that simply replay the same thing over and over do not. And they keep track of my progress building and changing to match what I have done.

I have a Wii gaming system (I love you Wii) and these are the games I use to exercise.

EA Sports Active 2 for Wii

This was my favorite as it was like having a hardcore trainer in my house. The only problems with it were it doesn't always pick up real movements and after finishing the 90 day work out, game gets boring.

New U Fitness First Yoga Yes, actual yoga... its a lot of fun as well.

Golds Gym Cardio WorkoutI get to fake Box and by far it gives me the best work out. I end up sweating and feeling my core really worked, and I barely noticed.

If you are pressed for time and have a gaming system, I suggest you give it a try. Of course I always prefer getting out from the TV screen and enjoying nature or getting in front of a real yoga teacher who can place me in the right positions. But without the money and without the time, its a nice way to keep me going during those long weekdays when I get home after 10.

The Fight For Justice is Taking a Step Forward - Step Up, Make a Call

2011-11-15T09:08:00.001-05:00

Today the Transgender Civil Rights Bill will possibly be up for a vote in the Massachusetts State House. After 3 years the bill will finally get a fair opportunity to pass.

The bill simply extends civil rights protections, the ones we take for granted, to Transgendered Americans. Just as someone can't fire you, refuse you work, deny housing, education or credit, or suffer harassment or violence against you based on the color of your skin (that includes because you are White), your gender, how much money you make, your choice of partner, it would also say you can't be discriminated against people based on gender expression and self identification.

This simple word addition will transform our relationship to justice, opening Transgendered Bay Staters to be treated with the same rights as the rest of us.

Call your State Representative let them know you support this bill.

MA State House Switchboard (617) 722-2539

What I wrote a few months ago about the Transgender Equal Rights Bill

There's so much beauty in the world, I know it can be intimidating but we should embrace all beautiful forms that people come in. When all people are accepted as full expressions of themselves their beauty is able to be reflected out on our society giving us all the benefit of their fullest love, wisdom and creativity. For people to be who they are meant to be in all the wonderful beautiful colors, forms, sizes and manners that reflect the universal love that is in Jewish tradition referred to as Hashem, we at the very least need to give basic civil rights protection.

One of the ways we in America get us close to realizing the innate humanity of our citizenry is to ensure equality under the law. To realize the dream that everyone be able to “pursue, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” we require that people be judged on the content of their character.

When my great Grandmother was a slave we gave her freedoms and protection to ensure her ability to access freedom. When those failed to bring the equal access we passed more protections to say, we know she looks different, darker, but you need to give her equal access to housing, employment and basic rights; the same access to our society as her lighter counterparts.

When people were being discriminated against because of who they choose to love, we said that’s not right, for our society to be as great as it should be, we should encourage and value love not hate it. We as a Commonwealth said, what is important is that everyone have access to work, live and access services regardless of you love. Our communities are stronger for it.

Now we see (as this video above shows) that people are being beaten, killed, sexually assaulted, discriminated from housing and stopped from unleashing their creative energy in the workforce simply because their gender assignment doesn't fit neatly into a small box we created to differentiate people.

As a Straight Black Man, I am hurt when Transgenedered people are discriminated. Hurt that people I love, are told they are not equal, hurt because I don't get their full expression of themselves in my life. I get a human who first and foremost is trying to cope with a society that sees them as unequal, lesser than. Despite the amazing strength it takes to live with the basic dignity of knowing thyself, even the strongest of people, is shortened a little by carrying our society's hateful burden. In short, I am hurt that loved ones are more likely to be homeless and suicidal simply because they look “different.”

As a religious Jew I believe that we are made in the reflection of the universal love we know as Hashem, I don’t believe that reflection is narrow and small. I believe Hashem to be vast and incomprehensibly beautiful. I believe that Transgendered people are made in that incomprehensible beauty's image. Just as we as a society have come to understand that about my Great Grandmother, Grandmother, Mother and myself, so too must we come to understand that about everyone.

Call Now!

They Might Be Giants - I Palindrome I: This Black Jew's Music You Have to Listen To

2011-11-13T13:34:00.003-05:00

In honor of 11-11-11 one of my favorite They Might Be Giants songs about one of my favorite things, Palindromes. I had to honor 11-11-11 even if its no longer the 11th (although posting it today)

Past Club Hits:
Grandmaster Flash - The Message
Rosh Hashannah Songs
We Shall Overcome
Kirk Franklin - I Smile
The Plastic Ono Band - Give Peace A Chance
Billy Bragg -There Is Power In A Union
Mahilia Jackson - How I Got Over
MC Lyte ft. Missy Elliott - Cold Rock A Party
Madonna - Like a Prayer
LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
Maino - Million Bucks
Star Spangled Banner
Jessie J - Price Tag
Mos Def - Mathematics
Lupe Fiasco - Words I Never Said ft. Skylar Grey
American Anthem - Norah Jones
Dayenu, Coming Home - The Fountainheads Passover Song
Nate Dogg - Oh No
The Maccabeats - Purim Song
Notorious BIG - Big Pappa
Nina Simone - The King of Love is Dead
Debbie Friedman - Alef Bet Vet
OK Go - This Too Shall Pass - Rube Goldberg Machine version
Nas ft. Keri Hilson - Hero
Biz Markie and Jeff Goldblum - Just a Friend
Bob Marley - One Love
Angie Stone - Brotha
Lenny Kravitz - Can't Get You Off My Mind
Jay-Z Death of Autotune
Y-Love and Dov Rosenblatt
2Pac Changes
Nas - I Can
Pete Seeger - Which Side Are You On?

11-11-11 The Night I Can't Forget

2011-11-12T22:31:00.001-05:00

I have been debating whether or not to write about what happened to me and more importantly others Friday night. This blog always strives to not be a diary about my life but an exploration of what is actually important. For that reason, despite the incident being person, I put my thoughts below in hopes it furthers a dialogue so desperately needed.

Friday night on my way home from work I saw someone get stabbed. No more than maybe a foot or two away, I saw the face as one child stabbed another. I saw the young man who was stabbed's shock as he realized what had happened and blood started to pour out of his chest soaking the front of his entire shirt. I remember the face of the other child, the look as he no longer had any humanity for himself or the person he was trying to injure.

It's a moment I haven't been able to stop running through my mind since.

via Boston Globe:

A man suffered life-threatening injuries last night when he was stabbed downtown near the Boston Common, police said. Officer James Kenneally, a Boston Police Department spokesman, said the stabbing occurred at about 8:30 p.m. in the area of Temple Place and Tremont Street. The man was taken to Tufts Medical Center, Kenneally said.

I was walking by the fight on the way to take the bus to my car and I remember thinking I should just avoid this and it will run itself out. Then that horrible thought stopped myself instantly, there were so many people around, surely we could break this up by stepping in. I mean children fighting is surely important enough to stop so it didn't escalate beyond everyone's control. So I yelled stop. I saw some people try to pull the kids a part. But it didn't last it kept escalating. There was a moment I thought about just leaving fearful what might happen and wanting the violence to just be over.

But how could anyone walk away as our children were beating the crap our of one another?

Then it happened, as the girls were in the middle of the street beating up this mother of a two year old, a Child thinking himself a man, said "take this nigger," and stabbed a young man in the chest.

At first I thought he just punched him in the stomach, but as I quickly saw the blood spilling out through his shirt and onto the street I realized the worst had happened.

After he was stabbed I made the call to 911, something I admit was much harder then it should have been but I was so nervous and the buttons so small on my Blackberry what was an instant felt a lifetime to get them on the phone.

An EMT who was walking by helped me keep pressure on the wound. I took off my backpack to put my sweater on the wound. And then it was over, the ambulance came the police blocked off the area and we were left with what we saw. I mention this last part I think because I have to hope that our quick action to put pressure on the wound saved this man's life. I need the vanity of this to be true I think to expel some of the guilt for failing to miserably at breaking up the fight. I need it to be true to add some purpose to what still feels like a helpless situation.

Why write about it?

I first remember when the police gathered us to take our statements, that I hadn't noticed the 2 year old in a stroller. But there he was in tears looking up clearly scared and confused. Then the woman who was beaten on the ground told the police that the man stabbed was her husband.

What made me decided to write about this was when she said where she lived. A family homeless shelter.

Poverty is violent. The worry that you don't know where you will live or how you will eat tears at your body. Not to mention that when you don't have a roof over your head, protection from people who prey on other people is hard to come by. I used to work as an intake social worker at a family homeless shelter so seeing a child in tears, a mother and wife sobbing as her husband was fighting for his life hit a tragically comfortable memory.

A child who no longer has any self-worth, a group of children who see no humanity in other people, listless with nothing to do these children who started the fight with this working homeless family are our failed castaways. When a child has given up on himself and everyone else we have to ask, how have we failed? Yes, people make their own decisions, we should hold a person to account. But there is a difference between vengeance and justice. Justice requires self-examination just as these children have failed, we have also failed them.

Not just them, we failed a young family. How have we created a society where a young family can work and not have a place to live is tragic.

Friday was a tragedy I keep reliving. It was our lost humanity on display from the violence to all the people all who stood by and watched it. A moment, I can't stop thinking about.

Happy Veteran's Day & Happy Armistice Day

2011-11-11T18:32:00.000-05:00

Repost: Happy Veterans Day to my mother and to all those who are and are not with us today thank you for your service. To my Great Grandfather Gordon who fought in WWI and was there on Armistice Day and yet I got to meet and love, thank you for your service. To Grandpa: you are missed. Thank you for all you did for this country.

To Mom and Grandpa, Thanks For Your Service

Also:

Happy Armistice Day

Nov. 11, 1918 Was the end of WWI, before we made it Veterans Day, it was Armistice Day, to remind us of the end of a horrible war that brought the world tanks, machine guns, air warfare, and the first use of chemical and biological warfare. Before we made the mistake of making it a general day to salute military power it was a day to remember the day that was supposed to end the WAR OF ALL WARS.

Let us honor Armistice Day by striving to end war. Just as those who fought in WWI hoped would be the legacy of their sacrifice.

Go Vote Today

2011-11-08T05:55:00.001-05:00

Missed, the Passing of Sylvia Robinson

2011-10-29T23:04:00.000-05:00

Sylvia Robinson was the mother of Hip Hop. When rap hit the streets in the 70's, artist and record producer Sylvia Robinson decided to give this fledgling music a record opportunity. She signed Master Gee, Wonder Mike and Big Bank Hank to create the "Sugerhill Gang," and cut what is considered to be the first hip hop album.

It was her vision for what the future could be and love of the sound that she was hearing that created the sound of the streets.

via Daily Mail:

Sylvia Robinson, the woman some call the mother of hip-hop, has died at 76.

She hit with the sexually charged Pillow Talk but was later known as one of hip-hop's early founders as the record label owner that put out Rapper's Delight, rap's first mainstream success.

Along with her late husband, Joe, Robinson was the owner of Sugar Hill Records. In 1979, it released the song that would become widely known as rap's first hit, "Rapper's Delight," by the Sugar Hill Gang.

The song was released as hip-hop was just beginning to emerge as a genre; for the most part, it was a budding phenomenon bubbling on New York City streets. Robinson recognized the potential of the music and wanted her struggling label to capitalize on it.

'She saw where a DJ was talking and the crowd was responding to what he was saying, and this was the first time she ever saw this before,' her son Joey said in a 2000 interview with NPR.

It turned out she was right. After gathering three rappers (Master Gee, Wonder Mike and Big Bank Hank) to record the 15-minute song, the party groove became a sensation.

...But Sugar Hill Records would continue to play a part on the early years of hip-hop with a roster that included Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five.

Rest in Peace Mother of Hip Hop Sylvia Robinson.

Jesus Is a Brown, Anti-War, Arab, Socialist

2011-10-28T07:56:00.000-05:00

How Jesus went from the man who demanded we all sacrifice for the least among us to be an advocate for death violence and greed is so abhorrent I often wonder how people can preach it with straight face. And yet we have people preach the un-preachable, believe the unbelievable to justify immorality.

Via The Washington Post:

But to understand just how non-capitalistic Christianity is supposed to be we turn to the first chapter after the gospels, Acts, which describes the events of the early church. Chapters 2 and 4 state that all “the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need… No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had…. There were no needy persons among them. From time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.”

Now folks, that’s outright socialism of the type described millennia later by Marx - who likely got the general idea from the gospels.

The pro-capitalist Christians who are aware of these passages wave them away even though it is the only explicit description of Christian economics in the Bible.

To get just how central collectivism is to Christian canon, consider that the Bible contains the first description of socialism in history. Anti-socialist Christians also claim that the Biblical version was voluntary. Aside from it being obvious that the biblical version of God was not the anti-socialist Christian capitalists commonly proclaim he was, some dark passages in Acts indicate how deeply pro-socialist the New Testament deity is. Chapter 5 details how when a church member fails to turn over all his property to the church “he fell down and died,” when his wife later did the same “she fell down… and died… Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.”

Dear readers, does this not sound like a form of terror-enforced-communism imposed by a God who thinks that Christians who fail to join the collective are worthy of death? Not only is socialism a Christian invention, so is its extreme communistic variant. The claim by many Christians that Christ hates socialism is untrue, while no explicit description of capitalism is found in the Bible - not surprising because it had not yet evolved.

Troops renew attacks on pro-democracy demonstrators

2011-10-26T07:35:00.030-05:00

Security Forces moved into the demonstrations late last night to clear out pro-Democracy protestors who had been gaining momentum as they demand an end to their country's oppressive regime. Security Forces waited until the late morning hours before firing bullets and tear gas at demonstrators disperse the peaceful protest. Journalists who were on the scene were also beaten by police and had their cameras confiscated. Pro-Democracy protesters who were taken into custody by Security Forces were put into cells without food or water for hours without charge before finally being release today. One pro-Democracy demonstrator was put in solitary confinement and locked away unless $10,000 was paid in ransom. Officials for the regime claimed the pro-democracy demonstrator was standing around without proper I.D. The regime has said there will be no repercussions for the security forces who were forced to take action against the peaceful demonstration.

The above title is taken from a Western account of Syria’s actions against protestors. We cover protests in Syria as attacks on peaceful protesters but you don’t have to go to Damascus or Cairo to see that sort of violent crackdown you can just look to the streets of our cities. Oakland saw an attack on American cities that rivals crack downs on the Arab streets of despotic regimes. It’s an escalation (as repressive regimes are want to do) from previous violent crack downs at Occupy Wall Street, Boston, Chicago and Atlanta.

This is not to say that the Obama administration or any other democratic institutions in this country are the same as the dictators that fell during the Arab Spring. It's to recognize that they have so been taken over by the corrosive forces of corporate greed and legal corporate bribery under the guise of campaign donations as to have lost control. Add to that a media that is antagonistic to outpouring of democracy against the corporate regime that is responsible for the undemocratic takeover.

What should follow in a democratic society after an event like the police riot in Oakland is a discussion of what the police did with our money and in our name. If the Oakland PD should have stopped pro-democracy protesters from using OUR streets, OUR parks, OUR sidewalks to express their First Amendment rights to assembly and free speech.

What actually happened because the security forces are not bound by democratic institutions but rather the protection of the elite ruling class. They lie and cover up their actions just as they did in Egypt, Tunisia and are currently doing in Syria.

via RT.com:

Google has been asked by a US law enforcement agency to remove several videos exposing police brutality from the video sharing service YouTube, the company has revealed in its latest update to an online transparency report.

Another request filed by a different agency required Google to remove videos allegedly defaming law enforcement officials. The two requests were among 92 submissions for content removal by various authorities in the US filed between January and June 2011. Both were rejected by Google along with 27 per cent of the submissions.

They then went out and claimed they didn’t use rubber bullets.

"A police 12 ga. cartridge and a rubber bullet. #OccupyOakland on Twitpic"

Just like in Egypt, we have a few Armed Service members who understand who they serve and why. If there is a clearer vision for what this country stands for, this must be it. Navy Man standing in uniform holding a copy of the constitution as police fire on him:

"Single navyman faces riot police after they fire tear gas. he... on Twitpic"

We should be just as outraged when it happens here.

"Lousy Media Coverage" Hurting our Country says Pulitzer-winning journalist

2011-10-25T20:20:00.007-05:00

I think of this video because of the coverage of the Occupy Movement and the continued abdication of the "mainstream" media of its role in informing the US electorate about important issues. While critical discussions around deficit, taxes and health care are playing out in our politics, the corporate media is focused on "who is winning," and "what does that say about this politician or that." There is no attempt to even try to make these important issues approachable in a serious way. Let alone give voice to viewpoints outside the extreme right wing to a little right of center.

more from David Cay Johnston via Media Matters:

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Cay Johnston offers a scathing indictment of contemporary journalism:

[W]e are failing in our core mission of providing people with the knowledge they need for our democracy to function.

...Increasingly what I see are news reports evidencing a basic lack of knowledge about government. And this isn’t happening just with beat reporters but with the assignment and copy editors who are supposed to review stories before they get into print or on the air.

…Far too much of journalism consists of quoting what police, prosecutors, politicians and publicists say—and this is especially the case with beat reporters. It’s news on the cheap and most of it isn’t worth the time it takes to read, hear or watch.

…Much of what passes for reporting about government these days is not only information that is useless, it is laughable nonsense, and I have the coffee stains on my robe to prove it. Every morning I read “Beat the Press” on the Center for Economic and Policy Research website, which is liberal economist Dean Baker’s critique of the economic theory, policy and “facts” he finds on the front pages of The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other media outlets. Baker routinely picks apart articles that are as far from reality as a weather story that says the sun rose in the West.

Sometimes I send these criticisms on to the ombudsman or top editors of the offending publications. I have even put together packages showing from the newspaper’s own clips that what was printed is utterly false. But I rarely see any corrections made nor any insistence that writers actually know what they are writing about when it comes to government policy, economic policy, taxes or treaties.

There’s more, and it’s well worth a read.

Koch Brother Kill Americans - Still Supported

2011-10-24T21:21:00.000-05:00

15 people in Arkansas died because they lived down river from Koch industries who knowingly dumped chemicals into people's eco system. If we had a functioning justice system that actually prosecuted criminals instead of punishing the poor, the Koch Brothers would be in jail instead of bribing legislators to get favorable laws passed.

We the 99 Percent Need You to go to Liberty Plaza to SAVE OUR MOVEMENT

2011-10-13T17:38:00.000-05:00

The movement to finally hold Wall Street accountable and to re-imagine the America we see dwindling away from our collective dreams has reached that critical moment.

Occupy Wall Street is at a critical moment. Mayor Bloomberg has decided he can’t stand the protestors in Liberty Plaza any longer. He is removing the protestors, taking away their freedom to assemble, illegally seizing their valuables and making it illegal to “lie down” in the park. Bloomberg, the mayor who made his money off our backs, who created a media empire to cater to that 1% is standing up for them.

Now more than ever we need anyone who is able to go down to New York or who lives in the area and thought about attending. Now is that time.

This movement will die, unless we successfully defy this unjust order.

When the Freedom Riders decided to go from Chicago down to New Orleans through Alabama and Mississippi defying Southern Jim Crow law and the unspoken rules of the day they were crazy radicals even Dr. King warned to think twice. Beaten and arrested for what was ultimately right but not yet law, it sparked something in our parents and grandparents to say, this has to end.

The Kennedy administration and the south hoped it would go away. But what started as an act of Northerners riding down agitating for equality gained momentum. It became a country wide effort that gained momentum and got larger as officials tried to squash it.

This is that moment. When NYPD comes into the square, making and beating protestors to clear the square. THERE HAS TO BE REINFORCEMENTS. THERE HAS TO BE NUMBERS SO LARGE that to defy the protesters request will feel a fool’s errand and against public will.

THAT CAN ONLY HAPPEN IF YOU GO TO DEFEND LIBERTY PLAZA nonviolently.

THIS IS THE MOMENT.

What started out as a few lefty white kids who read Ad Busters to a worldwide phenomenon inspired by protests against Arab dictatorships and inspiring similar actions against the repressive hopelessness that has engulfed Westernize Democracies, has reached its first big moment.

Do you believe change is going to come? Or will you be a part of making it? We need you, WE the 99% need all of YOU who can do it to fill in the ranks, nonviolently defend Liberty Plaza as Gandhi, the Suffragists, Dr. King, Caesar Chavez and countless others have taught us to do.

Now is the time to make this fight clear, the political forces stand with the financial elite, we can only win if everyone else stands with the 99 Percent.

Boston Can't Decide Why it Had to Arrest, Steal and Beat Occupy Boston Protestors

2011-10-12T06:22:00.014-05:00

Late around 1 a.m. the Boston PD moved into a public park gifted by Rose Kennedy to brutally attack the Occupy Boston protesters who had moved onto our Greenway.

The Greenway was created after Massachusetts and indeed Nationwide tax payers created the Boston Big Dig putting the highway underground. The Greenway is our space. It is named after Rose Kennedy a stalwart advocate for increasing human rights who gave this nation 3 of her sons in service to that goal.

Yet, the Boston PD had the moment they wanted, they moved in and attacked. Knocking down Veterans, stealing people's property and beating American citizens expressing their first amendment rights.

Why? Well, it depends when and who you ask. Via Boston.com: Mayor, BPD need to get their story straight on overnight arrests

The reasons Mayor Thomas Menino and the Boston Police Department arrested protestors at the Occupy Boston movement late last night — after days of peaceful coexistence — depends on which newspaper website you read this morning.

The 2:53 a.m. version of Boston Globe’s website story says the police were trying to protect the Greenway, and that the space on the Greenway protestors moved to is private property. Here are two paragraphs from the Globe story:
Officials do not want the protesters, who originally settled in Dewey Square, to occupy the space across Congress Street on the Greenway because it recently underwent a renovation project where expensive improvements were added, according to Elaine Driscoll, police spokeswoman.

The notice informed the group of laws against trespassing on a new patch of the Greenway — bordered by Congress Street, Atlantic Avenue, Pearl Street, and Purchase Street — where tents have sprung up since about 4 p.m, and is also private property.
According to the Boston Herald website, in a story the website says was updated at 8 a.m., Boston Police were moving against a new, more dangerous contingent of protestors: anarchists.
Davis acknowledged that the arrests marked a shift in the once harmonious relations between the group and the police.

“The group that was here for the first ten days was working very closely with us,” Davis said, “but they warned us yesterday morning that a new group, the anarchists, wanted to take control.”
If I read that quote right, Commissioner Davis says the police moved in and made arrest because the Occupy Boston people told the police “anarchists” were moving in with plans to “take control.”

But BPD spokeswomen Driscoll says it was because the protestors had moved onto newly renovated private property on the Greeneway.

In an interview with WBUR this morning, Menino said the police were called in to make arrests because “the protestors exceeded the boundaries we set up for them for the original encampment. They took on property that was not part of the agreement they had.”

The mayor made it clear in in the interview that more police action is coming.

“There is a time and place at which we have to end the encampment, and that time and place will come in the near future, but we have to continue to listen to some of the issues they talk about,” Menino told WBUR. “They have some right issues, but the way they went about it – civil disobedience doesn’t work for Boston and it doesn’t work for anyone.”

Stay tuned. This is about to get even more confrontational, and it is unsettling that the Boston Police Department cannot coherently explain the reasons for its actions.

The real reason, they don't like having to care about these issues. These issues take real political courage, political will and a focus on those who don't contribute or often unfortunately vote. It requires the sort of dedication to America at the expense of personal gain that politicians despise (I know, I work with them). That is why this movement must continue to grow.

OCCUPY EVERYWHERE!

The Republican Party I Remember and Admired On Display Because of Occupy Wall Street

2011-10-11T19:56:00.019-05:00

It may be hard to believe as a Black Jew that I have Republicans in my family. My grandfather was an elected Republican Mayor and candidate for Congress. My own mother is a registered Republican (yes she is one of the 5 Black Republicans left).

The Republicans I know care deeply about the American people and want a better future, but one where we balance support with a critical look at the role of Government in that. Lovers of freedom, science and common sense; its a party they no longer know. They see a Republican party that increases freedom and takes on the powerful whether government or corporate who challenges that America.

That Republican party no longer exists, but maybe the Occupy Wall Street representing the 99 Percent is bringing it back.

Via Think Progress

RIP Fred Shuttlesworth Civil Rights Icon

2011-10-10T06:37:00.001-05:00

One of the most important icons of the Civil Rights movement in the 60's past last week.

Fred Shuttlesworth was the co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the organization that launched and housed, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

He was also key in the Freedom Rides which invigorated the Civil Rights movement and laid the groundwork for the type of multi-racial, multi-generational direct confrontation that would be the most successful tactic for the movement.

It was a reflection of his combative nature, he famously promised to "kill segregation or be killed by it." He also wanted Dr. King to take on even more direct action he warned Dr. King that his flowery language meant nothing without actions to back it up.

His focus on ministering Jesus message of redemption by working to bring people out of the captivity of poverty and bondage of racism to freedom inspires us today.

Rest in Peace Fred Shuttleswoth your work is surely done and time for the eternal peace so definitely deserved. Our successes in the fight for ultimate liberation are your legacy we should never forget.

Grandmaster Flash The Message: This Black Jew's Music You Have to Listen To

2011-10-09T08:29:00.001-05:00

When people think to when commercial hip hop mattered, they always think of this song, "The Message." A classic by Grandmaster Flash it told a simple story about life at the time. And yet in the simple 6 minute video it has more depth then any video being made by the major hip hop labels today. Its not just a Black Jews favorite, its all Hip Hop Heads favorite.

Past Club Hits:
Rosh Hashannah Songs
We Shall Overcome
Kirk Franklin - I Smile
The Plastic Ono Band - Give Peace A Chance
Billy Bragg -There Is Power In A Union
Mahilia Jackson - How I Got Over
MC Lyte ft. Missy Elliott - Cold Rock A Party
Madonna - Like a Prayer
LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
Maino - Million Bucks
Star Spangled Banner
Jessie J - Price Tag
Mos Def - Mathematics
Lupe Fiasco - Words I Never Said ft. Skylar Grey
American Anthem - Norah Jones
Dayenu, Coming Home - The Fountainheads Passover Song
Nate Dogg - Oh No
The Maccabeats - Purim Song
Notorious BIG - Big Pappa
Nina Simone - The King of Love is Dead
Debbie Friedman - Alef Bet Vet
OK Go - This Too Shall Pass - Rube Goldberg Machine version
Nas ft. Keri Hilson - Hero
Biz Markie and Jeff Goldblum - Just a Friend
Bob Marley - One Love
Angie Stone - Brotha
Lenny Kravitz - Can't Get You Off My Mind
Jay-Z Death of Autotune
Y-Love and Dov Rosenblatt
2Pac Changes
Nas - I Can
Pete Seeger - Which Side Are You On?

Yom Kippur: Day of Truthful Reflection

2011-10-07T09:22:00.003-05:00

I have so much smugness almost every day I assume that I have tomorrow. There is a real arrogance to believing you will get tomorrow. When I think about the distance between the person I could be and the person that I am it’s hard to make the case for it. And yet, with an almost unbearable conceitedness I hope that I will get it.

Rosh Hashanah into Yom Kippur is a time to reflect let it be not just for the Jewish people, but for us all. I had a Rabbi who would say that each person is their own thermometer we do the work of filling our own, but we can never know what another individual person can do. We do the work of trying to perfect our own selves, and through that work, we hope to inspire and create more justice.

I have been given so many innumerable gifts and countless privileges that I am deeply sorry to say I have squandered. I can and should be a better person. I fail, repeatedly and fall back into bad habits. I pray I get the amazing gift of more sunsets and more sunrises to be better. It is a lot to ask and yet I so desperately yearn for it, to be the Jordan I should be.

I apologize to you for every personal, purposeful and accidental harm I have done to you. If there is a way I can make it up to you, please let me know.

Have a peaceful fast and a fruitful New Year!

Hashem: Will I Die

I am really not ready to go, despite all my actions. And yet this time of the year I am always more worried than ever.

Yom Kippur is supposed to be the most solemn day of the Jewish year. It certainly is as we make one finally plea for our souls.

But I always found Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year much more worrying.

We say during the holidays: "On Rush Hashanah it is writing on Yom Kippur it is sealed."

Rosh Hashanah is actually the day we are judged. By Yom Kippur it’s nearly to late, we just pleading one last time for G-d to take our innate flaws as humans into consideration.

And let’s face it, I have been horrible. I mean I have broken nearly every commandment and countless requirements as a Jew and more important as the torah tells us as a human. We actually need to apologize person to person before we can even approach G-d for forgiveness.

I have done so many deeply hurtful things even a deep heartfelt apology is often not enough for the people left in my wake.

The saddest part is that I know better every time. I do it and it causes nothing but trouble and pain for me. I know better but that doesn’t stop me from being a righteous prick.

As life is a process, I think I am getting better, learning from my deep transgressions. I wish I could apologize more to all those I have hurt. I am sorry. I just hope I continue to get the opportunity to make mistakes and learn from my mistakes.

While Rosh Hashanah is supposed to be a celebration of the New Year I have to admit that I am always scared as I approach G-d during this holiday. I just know I am not ready.

It's Time to Fightback (nonviolently) It's Time to Occupy

2011-10-06T07:37:00.004-05:00

Despite all the nay saying, the stumbles, the Occupy movement is already a success. Since the 1980’s we have been voiceless as the powerful have systematically taken away the economically secure lifestyle of our grandparents and great grandparents to benefit a few more dollars in their pockets.

For the first time since then we are having a conversation on the policies and corruption that have eaten away at American opportunity.

Because of Occupy Everywhere, the media has been forced to take on the complete abdication of responsibility by the powerful financial elite that led to the most recent transfer of wealth from our pockets to theirs through the bailouts. While it has mostly been dismissive, that political corruption, crony corporatism and the attack on our nation’s general welfare are even on the tongues of the media (who you should know are all a part of the 1%) is a success.

What is so exciting, is the building that is happening. Linkages between traditional activists and just people frustrated; the young are meeting and feeling the power of labor unions; the privileged are forced to have conversations about race and gender equality; organizers are finally getting the nonviolent support for the change we have so long envisioned.

Occupy Everywhere is real, I could not encourage you more to get involved. Spend an hour or a day or a month with the movement. Tell your story on your facebook, twitter, or upload to this tumblr: http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/

If you have a blanket to spare, $20 for some food, supplies are needed. This movement is for us, by us, and needs our support.

We are the 99 Percent. It Is time to Occupy!

JP Morgan Chase Bribes NYPD

2011-10-04T07:49:00.000-05:00

Everyone has seen the violent crackdown of peaceful protestors on Wall Street. Rather than arresting the criminals who have bribed politicians, illegal foreclosed on homes they don’t own, defrauded investors, etc. etc. they have turned on the poor people who have dared to speak up.

This fight, indeed these protests have been in the works for months. 8 months before protestors took over and renamed the park Liberty Plaza, they were planning the occupy wall street. In that same time, JP Morgan Chase decided to make the largest donation to NYPD in its history. It may have just come through this past week, but make no mistake, they knew this fight was coming to their door.

As old fashioned as kings buying loyalty for protection against the Democratic hoards, the Banks have bought their protection, first the politicians, through ads in the media and now the people with the guns.

It won’t work, the movement for sanity in our country is gaining momentum because the time has come.

We have stayed silent to long as we have traded away our economic future out of fear the corrupt enriched will make our plight even worse. The brave have stepped out to say enough is enough, it gives room for everyone else to say enough is enough.

via Your Black World:

One has to ask whether or not it’s coincidence that the NYPD receives its largest donation ever from a Wall Street firm and later arrests 700 Wall Street protesters at one time. It turns out that the NYPD “just happened” to receive a massive $4.6 million dollar donation from JP Morgan Chase this year. The funds were used to buy new police laptops, as well as security-monitoring software for the NYPD data center.

We Don't Know Anything About Elizabeth Warren's Policies, Let's Find Out Before Her Anointing

2011-10-03T23:20:00.002-05:00

Being an economic warrior is the bare minimum to be a Massachusetts Senator. I know that we will good Democrat in an election year in 2012, and with the first Black President on the ticket we should go about electing the best one.

I want to know that Elizabeth Warren is going to be a voice beyond middle class families. Is she going to be a voice to end mandatory minimums as Ted Kennedy did? Is she going to speak out for Transgender Civil Rights? Is she going to fight to stop the corporate takeovers of our schools?

Is Elizabeth Warren going to be a voice for human rights or another mealy-mouthed politician for piecemeal immigration reform?

Does she know any Black people who have been affected by the regressive policies pushed by Harvard University that have targeted our families? Like the targeting of our "problem" Black youth as a means to address the poverty caused violence.

Will she be a voice for the conscience of this nation as a Massachusetts Senator should be or an echo chamber for Democratic Presidents?

Because I don't know the answer to these questions I don't understand the hype. She could be great, but right now she is just the choice of the elite who happens to teach at an ivory tower and is speaking seemingly exclusively to the 20% of people who pay close attention to politics.

I am not willing to anoint MA's senate seat held by Ted Kennedy based on that.

I’m not saying that Elizabeth Warren isn’t qualified, I’m saying that I don’t know if she’s the best candidate, and we have many other qualified candidates running that I am not ready to dismiss.

There is a woman running for the Massachusetts Senate who isn't Elizabeth Warren.

An accomplished immigration attorney, Marissa DeFranco was one of the originally announced candidates for the Senate race to replace Sen. Scott Brown. Marissa was named a 2011 Top Woman of Law.

Marissa takes the hardest immigration cases such as fighting for the equality of love of LGBTQ couples who had the misfortune of falling in love with someone of the wrong country of origin.

Dedication to upholding the morality of our immigration system should qualify you to be a Senator. Certainly as qualified as a State Representative and Male model.

And yet, I hear over and over even on Rachel Maddow how great it is to have a woman running for Senate. Emily's list decided, Democrats are excited a woman is in the race. Elizabeth Warren is not the only woman running, she isn't the first and she may not even be the most qualified.

Bob Massie isn't just a former candidate for Lt. Governor. He is an advocate for HIV/AIDS victims, he was a voice in the wilderness educating the American public about the ills of South Africa's Apartheid; he is a courageous voice for the causes we know are right but often feel resigned that they are lost.

Bob Massie, I know will also be a conscience of the Senate because in many ways he is already the conscience of our commonwealth.

Alan Khazei gave young people the opportunity to take the energy and desire to actually work to change our world. City Year is a service, not just to the young people they serve, but to the young people who learn the profession of service. His vision is deeply beautiful and it is a vision of this country and indeed our commonwealth that we would be honored to have in the Senate.

Best of all, just like Ted Kennedy he knows how to take crazy lefty values and turn them into real bi-partisan policies.

Herbie Robinson is a nuclear physicist who is brilliant beyond my comprehension. He may not have the name recognition, rugged good looks or polish of most politicians. But he has regular common sense married with a brilliance that he wants to use to serve this country. We would all be richer were he to win the seat.

State Representative Tom Conroy is from a Conservative part of our state, but he serves as a proud Democrat. He speaks with a clarity of values that is to often forgotten in the State House. Just like Sen. Brown, he is starting as an unknown State Rep. State Rep. Conroy understood that the only way to serve the people is to talk to them.

What I know is that there are 6 other declared candidates in the Democratic Party, 5 of which have answered all of those questions on policies and all would be great Senators in their own right.

Let's have that discussion, let's find out who will be the best Senator. We don't know Chuck Schumer or the Democratic apparatus who fail us time and time again deciding who our Senator should be. Let us decide. Let's do so beyond a 2 minute blurb.

Soul Bigger (The Rosh Hashana Song): This Black Jew's Music You Have to Listen To

2011-10-02T08:09:00.000-05:00

We actually have 2 here because well they are both equally ridiculously Jewy. Enjoy and Shannah Tova

Past Club Hits:
We Shall Overcome
Kirk Franklin - I Smile
The Plastic Ono Band - Give Peace A Chance
Billy Bragg -There Is Power In A Union
Mahilia Jackson - How I Got Over
MC Lyte ft. Missy Elliott - Cold Rock A Party
Madonna - Like a Prayer
LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
Maino - Million Bucks
Star Spangled Banner
Jessie J - Price Tag
Mos Def - Mathematics
Lupe Fiasco - Words I Never Said ft. Skylar Grey
American Anthem - Norah Jones
Dayenu, Coming Home - The Fountainheads Passover Song
Nate Dogg - Oh No
The Maccabeats - Purim Song
Notorious BIG - Big Pappa
Nina Simone - The King of Love is Dead
Debbie Friedman - Alef Bet Vet
OK Go - This Too Shall Pass - Rube Goldberg Machine version
Nas ft. Keri Hilson - Hero
Biz Markie and Jeff Goldblum - Just a Friend
Bob Marley - One Love
Angie Stone - Brotha
Lenny Kravitz - Can't Get You Off My Mind
Jay-Z Death of Autotune
Y-Love and Dov Rosenblatt
2Pac Changes
Nas - I Can
Pete Seeger - Which Side Are You On?

If LMFAO Made a Rosh Hashannah Song

2011-09-28T15:38:00.003-05:00

Celebrate in style 5772 is here

Our War on Drugs A Large Human Disaster

2011-09-27T22:15:00.014-05:00

Four years ago the Atlanta police shot and killed 92 year old Kathryn Johnston and then planted evidence on her in a failed attempt to shift blame. If you haven't heard about this case, don't be surprised, the corporate owned media has no interest in telling you about these stories; many run or own stock in the private prisons.

Why do the police go to so much trouble to convict innocent people? Why do they go to so much trouble to put drug addicts and low level criminals behind bars?

Why does the drug war continue despite everyone agreeing its failed, locking up addicts failed and is needlessly expensive.

Via Alternet:

Because the amount of funding narcotics taskforces receive is often based on how many people they arrest and the amount of drugs they seize, individual officers can advance their careers significantly by making a large number of arrests, even if the people they're arresting are not harming anyone. This incentive structure has led to fabricating informants, raiding homes on false evidence, lying to judges, and planting evidence. Anything to increase the body count. To be sure most officers are good people, but the demands put on then by their superiors and local politicians foster civil rights abuses and undermine public safety.

Atlanta's police union has complained that narcotics officers are under enormous pressure to meet quotas for arrests. The easiest way to boost their numbers is to arrest low-level offenders - from people smoking marijuana on the street corner to drug mules and the homeless. Low-level offenders are plentiful and easy to catch. Arresting them pads the official reports, but does nothing to stop major traffickers or reduce the problems associated with substance abuse. While officers are booking people for drug possession, they're not patrolling neighborhoods for real criminals. And money spent prosecuting and jailing low-level offenders is money not being spent on drug treatment or education.

Instead of grading narcotics taskforces on how many arrests they've made, how many warrants they've served, and how many pounds of drug they've seized, they should be graded on more informative and meaningful criteria. Is violence in the drug trade decreasing? Are drug overdoses declining? Are police officers helping or hindering needle exchange programs that reduce the spread of HIV/AID from injection drug use? Are police agencies dismantling major crime networks or just wasting time arresting low level drug offenders? These are all better measurement criteria than generalized arrest numbers.

Ms. Johnston's death is about more than bad apples in the Atlanta police department. It's about the corrupting incentives of a failed drug policy. At a minimum policymakers need to change these incentives or more innocent citizens like Kathryn Johnston will die. Ultimately, substance abuse should be treated as a health issue instead of a criminal justice issue. The greatest investment of drug resources should be in prevention, treatment, and harm reduction programs that prevent death, disease and disability related to drug misuse. Law enforcement's role should be limited to stopping drug offenders who threaten public safety (people who commit violence, rob or steal to support their habit, drive while impaired). This sensible approach would cost taxpayers less and accomplish more than arresting and jailing millions of nonviolent drug offenders.

When Will the Criminals Be Held Responsible for the Violence at the Occupy Wall Street Protests?

2011-09-26T06:54:00.004-05:00

Imagine you came up to a person and just maced them in the face. There would be repercussions. You couldn't just throw people to the ground or make up laws as you go along. And yet that's what the police are allowed to do to the protesters occupying Wall Street.

Bankers and traders walk around with impunity despite illegally forcing people out of their homes and generally defrauding the American tax payer. The police haven't maced, harassed, beat, dragged, or arrested any of the people who have destroyed our lives, but they have to those asking for accountability.

80 Protesters were arrested under trumped up charges as the police assaulted the Occupy Wall Street protests.

The difference between street thugs and some of these cops, I don't know.

Beaten for talking to the cops:

This coward maced a perfectly peaceful protester then ran away:

More Abuse...

This person carted away had their mother's home stolen. The police arrest him:

Just Bull Connor put the whole might of his police brutality onto the peaceful bus boycotters and protesters in Birmingham, AL it seems NYPD is willing to fight for the unjust against those with the moral right.

Hopefully just as his crackdown (although obviously Bull Connor's at this point was more violent) inspired action to address the wrong, so to will the NYPD attack on this protest inspire us to finally address the illegality of wall street.

Our leaders need to stand up, but they have no courage, hopefully this protest and these actions will inspire the courage to do what the majority of Americans want them to do; to crack down on the excesses of the elite who are using the rest of us as personal piggy banks.

That is why they are scared, that is why the police have been pushed onto the protests, because if they gain traction, the know they will be in trouble.

These protests are showing another way, not just in aims but in process

"I See Beauty All Around Me"

I am so inspired by these protests. I am so saddened by the police brutality. Instead of protecting the elite they should be leading the people into Wall Street to arrest the real criminals.

To keep following the story go to:

Occupy Wall Street.org

We Shall Overcome: This Black Jew's Music You Have to Listen To

2011-09-25T15:54:00.000-05:00

We Shall Overcome someday...

Past Club Hits:
Kirk Franklin - I Smile
The Plastic Ono Band - Give Peace A Chance
Billy Bragg -There Is Power In A Union
Mahilia Jackson - How I Got Over
MC Lyte ft. Missy Elliott - Cold Rock A Party
Madonna - Like a Prayer
LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
Maino - Million Bucks
Star Spangled Banner
Jessie J - Price Tag
Mos Def - Mathematics
Lupe Fiasco - Words I Never Said ft. Skylar Grey
American Anthem - Norah Jones
Dayenu, Coming Home - The Fountainheads Passover Song
Nate Dogg - Oh No
The Maccabeats - Purim Song
Notorious BIG - Big Pappa
Nina Simone - The King of Love is Dead
Debbie Friedman - Alef Bet Vet
OK Go - This Too Shall Pass - Rube Goldberg Machine version
Nas ft. Keri Hilson - Hero
Biz Markie and Jeff Goldblum - Just a Friend
Bob Marley - One Love
Angie Stone - Brotha
Lenny Kravitz - Can't Get You Off My Mind
Jay-Z Death of Autotune
Y-Love and Dov Rosenblatt
2Pac Changes
Nas - I Can
Pete Seeger - Which Side Are You On?

Palestinian Independence: A UN Vote Forced by Israel's Radical Right Wing

2011-09-23T18:00:00.001-05:00

The Palestinian bid for U.N. recognition of a Palestinian State was a success. The purpose was never to get the U.N. to unilaterally create a state through a vote, but to force Israel's hand to demand action.

Before President Mahmoud Abbas decided to push for U.N. Statehood, there were no talks with the radical right wing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Their desire for basic equality had fallen out of the world's consciousness.

With this bid that is sure to be vetoed, delayed and pushed back, Abbas has gotten the conversation that his government has so far been denied.

The request for the U.N. to recognize a Palestinian State has been a success in its actual purpose; to force a peace process to restart.

It's a moment Israel and the world would be wrong to lose. According to a poll by Hebrew University 69% of Israeli's, think the government should accept the Palestinian's bid in front of the U.N. and begin negotiations. 80% of Palestinians agreed with the bid before the U.N. and want an agreed upon settlement.

A negotiated end to the Israel-Palestine conflict is within reach.

Netanyahu wants to drag out the process because the more he can fear monger, the more he can empower the terrorists and make Palestinians feel helpless, the longer he can use his racist ideology to win elections.

Netanyahu and right wing radicals across the Western world need a violent hopeless Palestinian youth who resort to violence to justify the fear they use to keep power.

If we continue to allow the poisonous moral corrosion of our Jewish state there will only be one result the isolation of Israel and the radicalism of Palestinian hate and desire for a one state solution.

Peace will normalize life and take away the power of terrorists and war mongers who get rich on power from the current violent stalemate.

Turkey, one of the first countries to recognize Israel, a country with deep security ties with the Jewish state has cut off communication because the government refused to apologize for the murder of 9 of their citizens. Instead of a sensible apology, Israel's crazy Foreign Minister decided to threaten Turkey.

It is the distance between Israel's criminally in intransigent government and reality that forced Abbas to go to the U.N. In Abbas we have a reluctant democratic leaning autocrat whose tenuous hold on power is the only link to a final negotiated Peace agreement.

This is the moment to seize it. Use the widely popular Oslo agreement to find solutions to water, create a Jewish Jerusalem with the Palestinians putting a capital wherever they want in their territory (even if its East-Jerusalem), Jews kicked out of Arab countries get to stay in Israel and Palestinians if they choose can go to Palestine or apply for immigration to Israel, pull troops out of the West Bank and cooperate to prosecute any terrorists as the murderers they are. No one has to close a settlement, they can be Jews in Palestine which is what they are now anyway.

Peace can and should be found. We as Jews have a moral obligation to find it. Just as the U.N. granting Jews a place on the world stage by recognizing Israel, so too this should be a moment where the Palestinian request creates 2 states.

Two states bound by a common history, a similar language and a deep love of family that should we grow together could be a powerhouse for the region and a guide for peace around the world.

Let this be the first step to that vision. Let us this Shabbat take, Hillel's advice:

"Be of the students of Aaron, love peace, pursue peace, love the creatures and bring them close to the Torah,"

the Torah whose "ways of pleasantness and all her paths peaceful."

Troy Davis Was Murdered Last Night

2011-09-22T22:27:00.002-05:00

Troy Davis was lynched by the state of Georgia last night. At 11:08 pm an innocent man was killed on behalf of all of us.

All witnesses who testified against Troy Davis have said he did not commit the crime. The only hold outs is the person 9 other people have signed affidavits saying committed the crime and one paid informant. There is no physical evidence, no DNA, no proof Troy had a gun or could buy a gun. Even worse one of the Witnesses said she was intimidated by the real killer to not come forward and she left Georgia because of it. 6 Witnesses said the police intimidated, harassed and used violence to get them to testify against Troy.

The former head of the prison where the execution took place, right wing Congressman Bob Barr, former head of the FBI, The Pope, Desmond Tutu, Jimmy Carter, the entire European Union, 51 members of Congress, 1 million Americans signed statements all were asking to stop this murder.

And yet despite no one really believing that Troy should be murdered and for most that he even did the crime, despite all that, he was killed.

The Right leaning Daily Telegraph makes the point that even if you agree with the Death Penalty (which they don't) how you stay quiet is bewildering.

If you are pro-death penalty, you should be shouting twice as loud as the rest of us about the imminent murder of Troy Davis...Otherwise, you can't claim to be supporting a stark but necessary act of justice. You're just a fan of killing people in general. There are words for people like that. None of them are nice.

Colorlines has the best summation of how the lynching of Troy Davis exemplifies the problems of the Just-Us system:

Davis’s case offers a bracing and depressing illustration of capital punishment’s many problems. In their eagerness to prosecute a black man for murdering a white cop, local officials set in motion a killing machine that, once turned on, is near impossible to halt without executive intervention. Much has already been written about the details of Davis’s case; no reasonable observer can deny there is significant doubt as to his guilt. But our criminal justice system is anything but reasonable. Those who don’t come into contact with it can sit in self-satisfied assurance that our cops and courts measure out blind justice that keeps society well ordered. The evidence simply does not support that fantasy, as Davis’s life and death so dreadfully illustrate. In fact, if we are to judge our criminal justice system by its outcomes, it is built to round up masses of black men, transfer public funds to private companies to warehouse them, and then kill them in cold blood.

In this I take inspiration from Troy's last message to us all:

There are so many more Troy Davis’. This fight to end the death penalty is not won or lost through me but through our strength to move forward and save every innocent person in captivity around the globe. We need to dismantle this Unjust system city by city, state by state and country by country.

I can’t wait to Stand with you, no matter if that is in physical or spiritual form, I will one day be announcing,

“I AM TROY DAVIS, and I AM FREE!”

Never Stop Fighting for Justice and We will Win!

Hopefully Troy's murder is the one of the last nails in the coffin for the death penalty.

When people say we don't kill innocent people just tell them, Troy Davis!

When people say we need to get rid of murderers remind them of Troy Davis who was murdered by the state while the real murderer walks free.

When people ask why Troy Davis was executed despite all the universal opposition, tell them of his life story a poor young Black male. And educate them on the facts, that we only kill poor people, most of them Black and almost always men.

Remind them of what Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said, "I have yet to see a death case among the dozen coming to the Supreme Court on eve-of-execution stay applications in which the defendant was well represented at trial... People who are well represented at trial do not get the death penalty." I would amend that to say, people who can AFFORD good representation.

When people are searching their soul for the strength to believe what is right, just remind them of today, remind them of Troy Davis and say do you want to live in an America where we murder innocent people? Where even when everyone knows we are doing it, we can't stop the execution.

Let this moment, let Troy Davis, live through our work and on the edge of our tongues until the day he can Rest in Peace because we have abolished the death penalty. On that day we can finally say, "it's because of Troy Davis we no longer kill people with the death penalty."

Troy Davis Deserves to Live: Let Us Pray for Sanity

2011-09-20T05:50:00.000-05:00

No one really thinks Troy Davis should die. Juror's have come to testify asking that he not be put to death. All 7 of the witnesses not purchased by the State of Georgia have either recanted (i.e. said their testimony in court was a lie) or changed their testimony to say Troy didn't do it. One of the witnesses who was so admit he did, the other witnesses said is the murderer.

The most we could say is that we don't know for sure what happened that horrible night when Off Duty Police Officer Mark MacPhail was murdered.

Davis, 42, has repeatedly claimed his innocence and his supporters say the evidence supports that. No murder weapon was ever found, no DNA evidence or fingerprints tie Davis to the crime, and other witnesses have since said the murder was committed by another man -- a witness who testified against Davis.

As Raw Story explained, there is nothing that proves he committed the murder left now that all the "witnesses" said they witnessed something else. So many people have spoken out asking that the state do the right thing. Everyone agrees the state is about to make a huge mistake. via Field

Georgia Representatives John Lewis and Hank Johnson sent the parole board a letter signed by over 50 members of Congress supporting clemency for Davis. In addition to that letter, other public figures who support commuting Davis’ death sentence include Pope Benedict XVI, Archbishop of Atlanta Wilton Gregory, President Jimmy Carter, activist and singer Harry Belafonte, the European Parliament, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and many others.

Pro-death penalty figures have also voiced their opposition to the execution, including former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr, former Texas Governor Mark White, and Norman Fletcher, a former Georgia Supreme Court Justice.

Why are they going to do this anyway? Because people don't like to admit they made a mistake. What does it say if Troy Davis is not put to death? Can they walk back a death sentence they have come so close?

We have to hope/pray/whatever you feel compelled to do that they do the right thing.

Back in 2008 I asked this Blog's readers to write the same board and his execution was put off.
In 2011 this year we thought we had another opportunity.

I can't help but think about our souls at a time like this. When you quiet everything else and go deep into ourselves, into the place JudeoChristian theology teaches G-d is within us, when we search our soul, we know this is not the right thing to do.

We don't want to decide to put someone to death you know should not be killed by the state.

There is too much doubt to put Troy Davis to death.

Liberty Square: Reclaiming Our Democracy

2011-09-19T20:03:00.002-05:00

For too long we have sat on the sidelines as the elite divide up this country for their own economic gain. Abandoned by our politicians fearful of the next election and the money that decide them; uneducated as the media has been gobbled up by corporations who keep us uninformed on the issues; and muted by fear that we could be next on the economic chopping bloc, we have done little to fight back.

But brave leaders have decided to take the fight to the center of this corruption. The epicenter of our rotting core is led by Wall Street who is getting rich leaching off the American people by nickle and dimming us to the grave and beyond.

To fight back we need to raise the stakes of the fight. There are no better guides on how to win this fight than India's non-violence fighters. Their direct confrontation won India's independence, inspired the civil rights movement and seeded the Arab Spring.

Their legacy of independence is now left to us.

Stand with those OCCUPYING WALL STREET.

I am proud to support the newly renamed Liberty Square as the revolution starts there.

For More information you can go to one of the catalysts website:

ADBUSTERS

To learn how to beat "the financial Gomorrah of the nation."

What are they protesting? Well help decide meet to create the:
END THE MONIED CORRUPTION OF AMERICA MANIFESTO

Also Waging Nonviolence is updating on the events. Really I just love the name of his website.

Tweet your friends tag #libertyplaza and #OccupyWallSt you can also follow @OccupyWallSt

Democracy Now's Coverage:

Kirk Franklin - I Smile: This Black Jew's Music You Have to Listen To

2011-09-18T17:17:00.002-05:00

I love Gospel music. Anytime someone is celebrating their religion I just think its so beautiful. There is something so positive when love of G-d inspires such beauty. In the face of religion being used for so many ugly things, Kirk Franklin using it to inspire people to smile is beautiful.

Past Club Hits:
The Plastic Ono Band - Give Peace A Chance
Billy Bragg -There Is Power In A Union
Mahilia Jackson - How I Got Over
MC Lyte ft. Missy Elliott - Cold Rock A Party
Madonna - Like a Prayer
LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
Maino - Million Bucks
Star Spangled Banner
Jessie J - Price Tag
Mos Def - Mathematics
Lupe Fiasco - Words I Never Said ft. Skylar Grey
American Anthem - Norah Jones
Dayenu, Coming Home - The Fountainheads Passover Song
Nate Dogg - Oh No
The Maccabeats - Purim Song
Notorious BIG - Big Pappa
Nina Simone - The King of Love is Dead
Debbie Friedman - Alef Bet Vet
OK Go - This Too Shall Pass - Rube Goldberg Machine version
Nas ft. Keri Hilson - Hero
Biz Markie and Jeff Goldblum - Just a Friend
Bob Marley - One Love
Angie Stone - Brotha
Lenny Kravitz - Can't Get You Off My Mind
Jay-Z Death of Autotune
Y-Love and Dov Rosenblatt
2Pac Changes
Nas - I Can
Pete Seeger - Which Side Are You On?

Safest Place to Be Black is In Prison

2011-09-15T08:57:00.010-05:00

I wish when reports like this make the rounds it spurred some sort of feeling of action. Black men are safer in prison then outside, surely, that should warrant some sort of TV coverage or politicians at least pretending to do something about it.

What does it say about us, that we do so little to care for people that putting them in small cages is safer than being out living our lives?

Alternet had a version of this story:

Now a new study from the Annals of Epidemiology says a black man is half as likely to die in prison as he is outside of prison. The study focused on 100,000 men, aged 20 to 79 years, held in North Carolina prisons between the years of 1995 and 2005. Sixty percent of those in the study were black. Researchers found that less than 1 percent of the imprisoned men (both black and white) died in that time period and there was no difference in the death rates between black and white men in prison.

...The study alerts us to two main dangers of being a black man in civil society. Exposure to violent crime and lack of access to sufficient health care are the biggest killers of black men in the United States.

This is a serious crisis in our country. When will someone have the courage to address it?

In the News We Should Hear About, Dominican Republic Xenophobic Immigration Laws

2011-09-13T23:15:00.000-05:00

Maybe the reason we don’t hear about this is because journalists don’t want to give Republicans any ideas. I mean something this hateful and harmful to families might catch on like wild fire in Republican circles.

The Dominican Republic passed a law taking away citizenship from Dominicans born in the Republic but whose parents appear to not be Dominican.

This racist law is meant to take away citizenship from Dominicans whose parents were Haitians.

From the BBC Radio’s Documentary Series - Statelessness in the Dominican Republic

Thousands of people of Haitian descent are suffering systematic discrimination by authorities in the Dominican Republic it is claimed.

Denied official recognition of their nationality, they are unable to attend school, vote, travel, get married, register the birth of their children or even access the judicial system.

Recent government legislation has meant these people - including schoolteachers, lawyers, doctors and students - have become "functionally stateless".

So what? Well imagine 2 weeks after the Haitian earthquake you lost your citizenship. Work, school, the ability to drive legally would be gone. What would you do? This is what these Dominicans are facing. Via Refugees International

Today I interviewed a young woman – let’s call her Pilar – whose case is a perfect example of the problems facing so many in her community. Pilar was born in the Dominican Republic to Haitian parents. Her father was a sugar-cane cutter, and he had a temporary worker’s card issued by the State Sugar Company. With this card he was allowed to register his daughter, and she was issued her birth certificate and her Dominican identity card.

Pilar went to a Dominican school; she was a good student and wanted to go to university. In order to register for university in the Dominican Republic you need to get a certified copy of your birth certificate from the civil registry office. She had done this several times before, for example when she needed a certified copy to get her passport, and she had always been given these copies before. Now, the civil registry office is refusing her a certified copy of her birth certificate, saying that they have to investigate the migratory status of her parents when she was registered over 20 years ago - despite the fact that this was under the old constitution when “birthright citizenship” rules applied.

Because of this, Pilar can’t go to university now. She told me: “I’m from a very poor Haitian immigrant family. They taught me that my future life and my chance of getting dignified work depend on my studies. I love to study, but now I am frustrated because my future has been limited. I am Dominican, and I work hard and pay taxes and vote. What can I do if Dominican society doesn’t recognize me, after I grew up being told I was a citizen? I don’t know anything about my parents’ country, Haiti.”

Our country upped the aid to the Dominican Republic to help with its efforts

9-11 We Remember

2011-09-12T01:46:00.001-05:00

Sound of Silence

Remembering that Morning 10 Years After 9-11-01

2011-09-11T22:13:00.001-05:00

I remember the afternoon of September 11th, 2001, it was the afternoon because I was in a tiny Thohoyandou, South Africa. 5 hours ahead, we had a full day of class and I was in a computer lab catching up on my email. Logging into Yahoo.com I saw that a plane flew into the twin towers.

Shocked I let everyone in the computer lab know, but we all assumed it was a horrible horrible accident. I started to make my way to my Thohoyandou home, when I was stopped on the street. My new friends and surrogate family were worried about me; America, they told me, was under attack.

We forget the panic of that morning, not just the Towers being hit, CNN International was reporting that the Pentagon had been hit, the National Mall was on fire, there might be a bomb at the Department of Commerce and Pennsylvania was struck by a plane. The State Department was warning all Americans abroad to report to embassies.

From rural South Africa there was a sense that Americans were unsafe no matter where we were.

We couldn't get phone calls in, so we worried about our loved ones back home. My mother was unavailable at an undisclosed Air Force base in the country. My father was in Pennyslvania, which we knew had been attacked as well. Of course Pennsylvania is huge, but in the fear of September 11th you feared for the worst.

American University where my study abroad originated from is in Washington, DC what we did learn from the University is that tanks had rolled past the college to protect missile silos around the corner from the campus.

Other students who had traveled to Thohoyandou had loved ones in New York, one student even has a Brother who is a New York Firefighter. He went into the Towers that day, luckily he got out alive.

In the haze of that morning there were so many tears and so much fear. What I remember most is the kindness of everyone in rural Thohoyandou. Almost no one had even met an American before, most only knew us from passing by and yet they all gave us hugs and support.

They didn't even know my name, but they wanted to know if my family was safe, if I knew anyone who had been killed.

It was the sense that 9-11 didn't just happen to Americans, we were all in this together.

I still have the newspaper clippings from the South African newspapers showing all of the places the victims are from. It was a way of saying, we all suffered that day. As weeks went on the newspapers ran stories of South African victims and those South Africans fortunate enough to make it out of the towers safely.

It wasn't just that Americans felt a sense of unity, the world was united by the horror of that day. In the aftermath of 9-11 I remember feeling that the terrorists had lost, we were together - the world - and just for a moment it felt like we could end the violence that had led the horror that we now mourn.

Of course that proved to be fleeting, the violence provided to much an opportunity for Conservative politicians and violent profiteers to gain more power. And so that moment of world unity was wasted, taken from our fingertips.

But we should never forget, tragedy doesn't have to be the only way we find that level of unity. That day kindness was international and a sense of community was limitless. Out of the abject horror of that 9-11 was a profound beauty we should never forget.

The Plastic Ono Band - Give Peace A Chance:This Black Jew's Music You Have to Listen To

2011-09-10T21:09:00.009-05:00

"All we are saying... is give peace a chance." It may seem like a naive dream, but as President Kennedy reminded us, it is the only way we will save ourselves from ourselves.

The Plastic Ono Band - Give Peace A Chance

Past Club Hits:
Billy Bragg -There Is Power In A Union
Mahilia Jackson - How I Got Over
MC Lyte ft. Missy Elliott - Cold Rock A Party
Madonna - Like a Prayer
LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
Maino - Million Bucks
Star Spangled Banner
Jessie J - Price Tag
Mos Def - Mathematics
Lupe Fiasco - Words I Never Said ft. Skylar Grey
American Anthem - Norah Jones
Dayenu, Coming Home - The Fountainheads Passover Song
Nate Dogg - Oh No
The Maccabeats - Purim Song
Notorious BIG - Big Pappa
Nina Simone - The King of Love is Dead
Debbie Friedman - Alef Bet Vet
OK Go - This Too Shall Pass - Rube Goldberg Machine version
Nas ft. Keri Hilson - Hero
Biz Markie and Jeff Goldblum - Just a Friend
Bob Marley - One Love
Angie Stone - Brotha
Lenny Kravitz - Can't Get You Off My Mind
Jay-Z Death of Autotune
Y-Love and Dov Rosenblatt
2Pac Changes
Nas - I Can
Pete Seeger - Which Side Are You On?

Republicans Want You to Suffer and They Will Win if We Don’t Fight Back

2011-09-08T08:38:00.000-05:00

If you had the misfortune of watching a Republican Presidential debate you would be shocked by the America they see. One where women are dropping off their aborted fetuses at Planned Parenthood; where there are too many “Legal” immigrants let alone dealing with undocumented workers; and the way to save education is to close the Department of Education and cut funding for schools by 80%.

Not to mention that global warming is a scientific conspiracy as is evolution, etc. after crazy etc.

I don’t talk about conservatives much, because they have gone to crazy town. As a blog about a Black Jewish perspective, there isn’t much to say. They see Black Americans as criminals un-yet arrested unless proven otherwise and Jewish values are the inverse of their values.

Jews in modern Conservative America’s view are to move to Israel and start a war that will bring on the end times.

Conservatism love of war, killing, punitive inhuman treatment, suspicion of anyone different, greed, and protection of the powerful; the antithesis of the Torah – Jewish Bible – which are the foundation of Jewish values.

By in large Conservative ideas have gone off so far off the deep end of making sense that they aren’t worth discussing.

What does worry me, is that modern conservatism does a great job of pushing the conversation on their crazy ideas to make them a reality. Without functional opposition they become realities.

President Eisenhower said that anyone who talks of cutting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid should be sent out of Washington on a rail.

And yet now we have a Democratic President who refers to the programs as “entitlements” that we have to negotiate with.

Something you pay into is not an entitlement; it’s a program you paid for that will make sure you don’t die on the street.

It would be more accurate to call Social Security moral policies; they ensure we live in an America that treats people as humans.

With each of the Conservatives terrible ideas we need a loud and well thought out counter. Not one that gets into the weeds of the policy but gets at the heart of the issue.

The debates made clear what we are not doing, drawing lines in the sand with moral values.

If you believe you should have clean air and water, the right to freedom over your internal organs, quality education, a well paying job, and a retirement without starvation then you need to make that clear. Because the forces opposed to those things are making a strong play for their beliefs.

Labor Day: The Forgotten Holiday (Retread)

2011-09-05T03:24:00.002-05:00

Repost: Happy Labor Day

It’s easy to forget Labor Day. The end of the summer, the trees’ leaves are losing color, children are getting new outfits for school, football is back on TV and we are all excited about the return of our favorite shows.

But Labor Day is an important day that Americans need to remember. Since taking office, the Bush administration has waged a war trying to overturn all the hard won victories of organized labor.

Before the turn of the century, the industrial revolution transformed America and Europe in ways we still feel today. No longer was our society one of vast tracts of land where Americans toiled in the fields. Cities were places of embarkation, when you came to America you stopped in New York City to make enough to get out west. Fortunes were in owning land; but the industrial revolution transformed that landscape.

Now the money and jobs that were in cities are no longer transient places and great wealth. The first wave of urbanization that is still being experienced all over the world started with the advent of the industrial machines.

And big businesses took advantage. They worked children, women and our fathers to the bone, 6 to 7 days a week (the average work week was 80 hours). AMERICANS AVERAGED 80 HOURS OF WORK PER WEEK. Think about that….

While the corporate elite met and dined together making decisions as a group to make sure competition between them would not harm the whole industry, workers were forced to toil on their own without any protections of relief.

Then our great grandparents and grandparents decided to do something about it. A groundswell of organizing and often violent upheaval against the industrial complex and their purchased mercenaries resulted in the society we see today.

IT WAS NOT EASY. People died simply for the right to organize and come together to put their common interests and desires toward a better society.

It triumphed in the populist election of Teddy Roosevelt who waged a war on the first corporate fat cats and created protections for workers we have today.

And continued with the creation of the 40 hour work week, protections against child labor, a MINIMUM WAGE, equal pay laws, workers safety and COMPENSATION when hurt at work. Health Care, Social Security, Pensions, VACATIONS. People were beaten, fired, lives destroyed, even killed simply for the right to have time off from work. These were important hard won rights. Rights I and all Americans take for granted these days.

This Labor Day I almost forgot the cost of getting that day off. Please please don’t make the same mistake.

The Bush Administration is at war with many of these rights: the basic right to organize, pension protection, eroding worker safety standards, the bankrupting of social security, the lapse enforcement of 40 hour work week and overtime protections, a decrease in the value of minimum wage, protecting corporations over workers in working compensation cases.

Over and over these things we take for granted are being eroded while we don’t pay attention. And that is why we need Labor Day so badly.

Billy Bragg -There Is Power In A Union: This Black Jew's Music You Have to Listen To

2011-09-04T15:12:00.001-05:00

Billy Bragg -There Is Power In A Union

Happy Labor Day people who work for a living.

Past Club Hits:
Mahilia Jackson - How I Got Over
MC Lyte ft. Missy Elliott - Cold Rock A Party
Madonna - Like a Prayer
LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
Maino - Million Bucks
Star Spangled Banner
Jessie J - Price Tag
Mos Def - Mathematics
Lupe Fiasco - Words I Never Said ft. Skylar Grey
American Anthem - Norah Jones
Dayenu, Coming Home - The Fountainheads Passover Song
Nate Dogg - Oh No
The Maccabeats - Purim Song
Notorious BIG - Big Pappa
Nina Simone - The King of Love is Dead
Debbie Friedman - Alef Bet Vet
OK Go - This Too Shall Pass - Rube Goldberg Machine version
Nas ft. Keri Hilson - Hero
Biz Markie and Jeff Goldblum - Just a Friend
Bob Marley - One Love
Angie Stone - Brotha
Lenny Kravitz - Can't Get You Off My Mind
Jay-Z Death of Autotune
Y-Love and Dov Rosenblatt
2Pac Changes
Nas - I Can
Pete Seeger - Which Side Are You On?

Tar Sands: Obama Do The Right Thing

2011-08-31T22:54:00.000-05:00

Why have over 700 Americans been arrested at the White House? Out of the site of most the media is a critical fight that will set our priorities for years to come. Will we be committed to finding cleaner, renewable sources of energy that will bring us to the forefront of the future world economy or will continue down the path of addiction only hitting rock bottom when we destroy our economy.

The fight is over making it easier to excavate oil from tar sands in Canada and send it via a pipeline. Tar Sands is a dirty way to get oil. And pipelines leak, they attract terrorists and if they work perfectly will make this terrible process a little cheaper.

The pipeline would run 1,700 miles from Canada to Texas, taking farms, peoples homes and habitats to make room.

The good news, is this fight doesn't require a congressional decision. There is nothing for Obama to compromise on, he can just do the right thing.

President Obama just has to say no. That's it.

So 700 people and counting including a top NASA scientist, religious leaders, Danny Glover, teachers, nurses, people who have never taken action are being arrested at the White House to pressure Obama to do the right thing.

Here is his chance to be the environmentalist I know he aspires to be. This is the chance for Obama to reset the path for America and make our world a better place for his children.

Via TreeHugger.com:

James Hansen is one of the world's foremost climate scientists. He's arguably done more pioneering work in the field than any other American scientist -- and he's repeatedly testified before Congress and appealed to the White House, stating the dangers climate change poses to the nation. He's also been really good at putting his money where his mouth is; risking arrest to protest polluting practices in acts of civil disobedience. He'll be heading down to join the protesters that have taken to the White House to rally against the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, which Hansen has said would mean "game over" for the global climate if approved.

Now, he's got some even stronger words, and this time they're aimed squarely at Barack Obama.

Here's Climate Wire on the New York Times:
NASA scientist James Hansen, who galvanized the environmental movement decades ago with his congressional testimony about the dangers of climate change, said yesterday that President Obama has a rare opportunity to show he is not a "hopeless addict."

"If Obama chooses the dirty needle it will confirm that Obama was just greenwashing all along, like the other well-oiled coal-fired politicians, with no real intention of solving the addiction," Hansen said.
Hansen will join dozens of protesters engaging in civil disobedience in front of the White House as the Obama administration weighs whether to grant Keystone XL a cross-border permit by the end of the year. As of yesterday, more than 300 people had been arrested, with 1,000 or so planning to go to jail before sit-ins end on Sept. 3.

For more information on the tar sands protests, see our previous posts on the action and check out Tar Sands Action.

Take Action to make your voice heard. Let Obama know this is a big deal and worth doing the right thing over.

Voting in America: Still More of a Struggle Than It Should Be

2011-08-29T23:21:00.002-05:00

Tonight I spoke at the Worcester Election Commission hearing regarding the commission's possible plans to make it harder for Americans to vote here. This is at the behest of Tea Party Massachusetts members most of which don't even live in Worcester.

Unfortunately this is not a new conversation, it would sound similar to hearings happening around the country as America struggled to allow participation by Black Americans in the 60's.

Fear of Black and Brown Americans voting led equally older White people to create laws to "protect the integrity of our voting system." They created barriers like literacy tests and poll tests to make sure the right types of people were voting. They created regulations and financial barriers like expensive IDs to limit Black people and poor people from voting.

Those who didn't get the message that they weren't desired, were intimidated at the polls.

Is this any different from demanding that voters pay $60 for a drivers license they may not need otherwise for the "right" to vote? That is what those advocating before the commission wanted us to believe.

Is this any different then as happened here in Worcester County where White Tea Party members challenged every Spanish speaking voter's right to vote during a special election? Initimidating non-native English speakers and threatening Brown skinned Americans. People may not like it, but in America there is no requirement you speak the native language. No one checks for people's ability to speak Navajo or Iroquoian (what my native Great Grandmother spoke).

Voting is our right as Americans; it cannot and should not be available only if you have the money (which is a violation of the constitution). It cannot be taken away because you don't speak English or can't read.

Our country is better when people are voting and we make as few impediments to that as possible.

If you live in our community and you have the legal right to do so you should get to vote. We need everyone's input if we are to realize a true Republican Democracy. Groups that advocate for that like Neighbor to Neighbor here in Massachusetts are stewards of our Democracy.

The enemy of our Democracy are those who want to put up impediments to citizens being included in it. They are familiar voices and just as in the past, we should remember where they come from. Those who intimidate, harass and advocate for poll taxes our of a faux fear are all too familiar its just they used to wear hoods to protect themselves from society's judgement.

Mahalia Jackson - How I Got Over: This Black Jew's Music You Have to Listen To

2011-08-28T15:26:00.015-05:00

Mahalia Jackson song this song right before Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his most famous speech. So beautiful I wanted a better version below.

Mahilia Jackson - How I Got Over

Past Club Hits:
MC Lyte ft. Missy Elliott - Cold Rock A Party
Madonna - Like a Prayer
LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
Maino - Million Bucks
Star Spangled Banner
Jessie J - Price Tag
Mos Def - Mathematics
Lupe Fiasco - Words I Never Said ft. Skylar Grey
American Anthem - Norah Jones
Dayenu, Coming Home - The Fountainheads Passover Song
Nate Dogg - Oh No
The Maccabeats - Purim Song
Notorious BIG - Big Pappa
Nina Simone - The King of Love is Dead
Debbie Friedman - Alef Bet Vet
OK Go - This Too Shall Pass - Rube Goldberg Machine version
Nas ft. Keri Hilson - Hero
Biz Markie and Jeff Goldblum - Just a Friend
Bob Marley - One Love
Angie Stone - Brotha
Lenny Kravitz - Can't Get You Off My Mind
Jay-Z Death of Autotune
Y-Love and Dov Rosenblatt
2Pac Changes
Nas - I Can
Pete Seeger - Which Side Are You On?

How Race Holds Us Back

2011-08-26T07:48:00.039-05:00

You can't understand what is going on in America without understanding the role race plays in our everyday life. This isn't to say that everything bad that happens is racist. But you can't understand the hatred of Latino immigrants without race. We can't understand why Black men are more likely to go to jail then graduate college or why Black families have a fraction of the wealth.

Dr. King understood that to take on the foundations of inequality in our society was to attack racism at all angles, whether it be because of legal segregation, the scourge of inequality education or to attack poverty.

What he saw, his vision, was a society not of an end to race but of equal opportunities. He saw that such liberation was not for Black people but for the betterment of all people.

We are more complete when we have neighbors, friends, and loved ones are able to be the fullest expressions of themselves. When that struggle is successful it liberates us all from the oppression.

We are failing that liberation and we lose our humanity in the process. We lose it when we no longer see someone who speaks a foreign language as a future American who are continuing the tradition that our ancestors gifted to us.

We lose it when we see young Black men and don't see future innovators, dreamers, fathers and brother in-laws. When we are quick to pass judgement and want retribution from children simply because of their skin pigmentation.

Our in ability to get past our own prejudices keeps us from moving forward to create the America that gives opportunity to us all rather than the few. It has us fighting amongst ourselves instead of focused on uplifting us all equally.

Dr King's Unfinished Business: Economic Justice

2011-08-25T00:47:00.000-05:00

“We’ve got to massively confront the power structure. So this is a move to dramatize the situation, channelize the very legitimate and understandable rage of the ghetto and we know we can’t do it with something weak. It has to be something strong, dramatic, and attention-getting.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
Announcing the Poor People’s Campaign, Dec. 4, 1967

The Poor People's campaign people worried was a distraction from Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "work" of racial equality. The work of ending racial segregation was still unfinished fellow leaders in the civil rights movement complained, how could he shift to economics?

This followed a speech given exactly a year before his murder in which Dr. King called for an end to Vietnam. Not just because our country is the "greatest purveyor of violence in the world today," but because,

"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."

For Dr. King he rightly saw that the fight for economic dignity was intertwined in the fight for racial equality.

We can't understand the economic situation without understanding the role race plays in continuing economic depression.

It's easy to distract Americans from the causes of their money strains, job loss and fear of for a secure future when those whose fault it is can trade on racist ideas embedded into our community. Fear of the unknown is embedded into who we are as humans.

Every generation fear of the new Americans immigrating to reinvigorate the American experiment is used to hide the powerful from responsibility for the harm their greed causes. Latino immigrants are this generations, Chinese, Irish, Germans, etc. etc. as if we forget With Out Papers was turned into a hate speech and not toward Latino immigrants.

As soon as Black faces started streaming out of boats in handcuffs, Black Americans have been used as pawns to scare poor people into giving up their own rights.

Similarly in Black people's lives access to hope for a better future, Dr. King would say, is just as important as access to the right to vote. In fact, they are synonymous.

That work, equal access to opportunity that is at the heart of the fight for racial equality was left unfinished. Days before Dr. King was to lead the Poor People's Campaign in Washington, DC he was murdered.

That is to say, when Dr. King got truly dangerous especially to those with so much he was killed.

In honor of Dr. King, we need creative radicalism to complete his work.

The Case Against Compromise

2011-08-24T07:25:00.015-05:00

Self-Described Radical Extremist Rev. Dr. King Arrested

The Letter from Birmingham Jail is a clear indictment of the voices for compromise and appeasement. Far from universal support for Boycotts, sit-ins and direct confrontation, Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was always under assault from journalists, commentators and Black voices who wanted him to chart a less aggressive and confrontational approach. (Of course especially as time went on, there were voices for more radicalism as well).

168 newspapers the day after Dr. King gave his speech against the Vietnam War denounced his radicalism. They wanted Dr. King to stay focused and not be so radical. The voices for compromise, the voices that say you just don't understand how it goes. Those same voices always want a "middle ground," or a "less confrontational approach."

In 1936 compromise with the Nazis was what the adults in the room had to do; politically speaking, appeasement was the middle ground.

Ask Women how well the compromise during the 14th amendment debate which grants Black Americans the right to vote but left women out, worked. It's also a reminder that compromise far too often gives away Black Women’s humanity.

I never forget that the document that gives me my freedom and which I revere the US Constitution also considers me 3/5ths a person because of the Three-Fifths Compromise.

The Missouri Compromise famously created the Mason-Dixon Line, a false border that split our country in two; a compromise that literally led to civil war.

They asked Thurgood Marshal not to push so hard on integrating schools. What if we lost? Then the civil rights movement would be even farther behind. It was Marshal’s rigidness that brought us Brown v. Board of Education.

Civil unions are a compromise of LGBTQ community’s equality. It tells them their love is second class to heterosexual love.

Of course many good things start out as compromise and get better. These are extreme cases. But it’s a lesson that whenever we compromise it is not simply a feel good moment for journalists, lazy comedians and unaffected people who have the privilege to not be directly affected by the compromise.

The things we love were advocated by extremists and where we fell short is where our ideals were forced to be compromised. Universal health for all was cut short at 65 and above.

Affirmative action is a compromise from making the US government pay back for the 250 years of free labor that gave America the economic advantage to become an economic superpower.

Answering the complaints that abolitionists were too strident, too unwilling to bend in their demands, Fredrick Douglass spoke out on July 5th,

I hear some one of my audience say, it is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on the public mind. Would you argue more and denounce less, would you persuade more and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed. But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue?

We in America right now have a fetish for compromise which is strangely met with a media infatuation with Regressives loudly abusive inflexibility.

Extremism should not be confused for moral certitude. Certainty of righteousness does not mean dirty tricks, lying or shutting down conversation to win. Dr. King understood that the certitude of our morality will cut through all the apologies for Jim Crow and calls for appeasement. But we need make our voice clear and take the case to the people. Not the compromised version of our beliefs but our clearest of visions for the community.

The Suffragists were unabashed agitators. During a time of war, they were arrested as traitors for being outspoken in their demands for the right to vote.

Fighting to expand freedom, to release people from the shackles of economic insecurity, to fight for quality education and access to the best of health care; the fight to empower people to be their greatest version of themselves. That is a fight that we should never compromise for.

When politicians and the media that report on them talk about compromise, someone is getting screwed. And a politician who’s willing to compromise what is right at the altar of perceived moderatism should not be lauded.

Yet we understand that moments come when we must take what we can get to make lives a little better. Good governance is not compromise for the sake of compromise or perceived ability to be reelected, but rather judging when we should continue to fight or give in to the forces of regression and take what we can get.

This is not a virtue, but a reality of our failed humanity. The inability to make real the suffering caused by our fear and greed. We would do more to celebrate those who stand for our better selves and not lust for agreement for agreement sake.

As we dedicate a memorial to Dr. King this week, let us remember his message from the Letters from Birmingham Jail:

But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Was not Amos an extremist for justice: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Was not Martin Luther an extremist: "Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God." And John Bunyan: "I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience." And Abraham Lincoln: "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." And Thomas Jefferson: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal ..." So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime---the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.

Creating our Own Voice: Civil Rights Movement and Media

2011-08-23T19:47:00.000-05:00

It's as if the Civil Rights movement waited on the media to cover it with "balance" and objectivity. Civil Rights leaders knew the importance of telling our own stories.

The abolitionists didn't wait for the New York Times to come to its senses and call for an end to slavery. Nor did they think, the "regular" media could be trusted to adequately tell their case for abolition. Fredrick Douglas created The North Star which spoke the truth of slavery before we were prepared as a nation to hear it.

It's as if we don't have Ida B. Wells to teach us about the importance of taking ownership over our own voices for change; of that the Liberator wasn't published.

We need to learn from this important history if we are to get closer to completing Dr. King's life work of giving everyone dignity and work.

Via Hip Hop and Politics:

The other thing to keep in mind about Dr King was his shrewd understanding of media in particular radio and what a powerful tool it was. many do not talk about the special relationship King had withJack ‘Jack tha Rapper Gibson and the nations first Black owned radio station WERD founded in 1949 which was housed in the same building as King’s SCLC headquarters on Auburn street in Atlanta.

Gibson is credited with being the first to broadcast King and other Civil Rights leaders on public airwaves. There are stories about how when rallies and special events were unfolding, King would bang on the ceiling with a broom to the studio housed above him, the disc jockey would lower the boom mic and King would speak to the people via radio.

In 1967 Dr King delivered a rare and powerful speech in Atlanta to NATRA ( National Association of Television and Radio Announcers). The members of this important African American organization were very appreciative as King laid out the indispensable role Black radio had played in shaping and furthering the Civil Rights struggle. King names off some of the key unsung radio heroes who he says there would not have been a Civil Rights movement had they not reflected the mood of the people and brought critical information to the masses.

King also talks about how radio is the most important and predominant medium in the Black community. It has far more reach and influence than television. He also talks about how the music these Black radio announcers played. King asserted that it helped united people. King pointed out how Blacks and Whites were listening to the same songs and doing the same dances and that the Soul Music these disc jockey’s played had served as an important cultural bridge.

He also talks about how some of them were vilified for ‘creating a climate’ that led to the unrest in American cities. Most notable was the radio announcer namedMagnificent Montague who had coined the phraseBurn Baby Burn to describe a hot record, but was later used a rallying cry for the Watts Riots of 1965.

It is time that we no longer look to the media system to aid us in making change by doing their job of educating the public. We must assume, as our mothers and fathers did before us, that to make change, we cannot simply advocate, we must also communicate to a larger audience.

Is the Black Blogsphere the answer? partially. But we need to get in people's lives, whether that be a paper accompaniment or radio or TV. We need to give our movements a voice.

Josephine Baker Spoke at the March on Washington? The Absence of Women in Civil Rights History

2011-08-22T07:46:00.022-05:00

I don't know when I learned that Josephine Baker spoke at the August 28th, 1963 March on Washington famously gave his, "I have a dream," speech. But it was way too late to appreciate such an amazing woman. (and for that matter the brilliance of youth leadership as expressed by now Congressman John Lewis).

With all the amazing women in my house growing up, the absence of women's history in the civil rights movement seems even more tragic.

Josephine Baker was a Black American actress, singer, performer, Civil Rights activist, War Heroine and all around bad ass. She started off dancing on the street corner in St. Louis and she was so good brought into a show. Which brought her to Paris in the 20's where she became an immediate star.

From Wikipedia which does a good job of distilling down this part of her life.

On October 2, 1925, she opened in Paris at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, where she became an instant success for her erotic dancing and for appearing practically nude on stage. After a successful tour of Europe, she reneged on her contract and returned to France to star at the Folies Bergères, setting the standard for her future acts. She performed the Danse sauvage, wearing a costume consisting of a skirt made of a string of artificial bananas.

Baker's success coincided (1925) with the Exposition des Arts Décoratifs, which gave birth to the term "Art Deco", and also with a renewal of interest in ethnic forms of art, including African. Baker represented one aspect of this fashion.

In later shows in Paris she was often accompanied on stage by her pet cheetah, Chiquita, who was adorned with a diamond collar. The cheetah frequently escaped into the orchestra pit, where it terrorized the musicians, adding another element of excitement to the show.

As she grew in popularity she did movies becoming the first Black female major movie star.
But because of the racism in the US she lived mostly in Paris.

During World War II she used her fame to protect herself while she spied for the French government under Nazis occupation. It was that service and courage that made her the first American-born woman to get the Croix de guerre, Frances highest military honor.

After the war when she came back to the US in the 50's and 60's she reused to perform in segregated performance halls. It was that inspirational leadership that led her to be (sadly) the only Black woman to speak during the famous March on Washington which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous "I have a dream," speech.

So important to the movement, after Dr. King was murdered, Coretta Scott King tried to give Josephine Baker control. She declined.

This is a story that needs to be told. We need to know that Josephine Baker came all the way from France and was only going to get a minute to speak. That she was going to be one of 8 women who got a minute while the men got as much time as they needed.

The sexism in the movement shouldn't persist with the telling of our history. The civil rights movement was an American and even International story. Women and men of all races and religions stood side by side to bring the end to racial legal discrimination. It was beautiful and disgusting the complexity of which should inspire and educate our actions now.

As we celebrate this week the unveiling of a monument to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the mall in DC let us not sanitize and forget again the movement would not exist without the strength and courage of Black women like Josephine Baker.

MC Lyte ft. Missy Elliott - Cold Rock A Party: This Black Jew's Music You Have to Listen To

2011-08-21T20:19:00.011-05:00

As a kid I loved MC Lyte. Some of my first tapes I ever got were MC Lyte. With my little Walkman I even got harassed for liking it. It didn't deter me, she is still making amazing music. This is one of my favorites.

Past Club Hits:
Madonna - Like a Prayer
LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
Maino - Million Bucks
Star Spangled Banner
Jessie J - Price Tag
Mos Def - Mathematics
Lupe Fiasco - Words I Never Said ft. Skylar Grey
American Anthem - Norah Jones
Dayenu, Coming Home - The Fountainheads Passover Song
Nate Dogg - Oh No
The Maccabeats - Purim Song
Notorious BIG - Big Pappa
Nina Simone - The King of Love is Dead
Debbie Friedman - Alef Bet Vet
OK Go - This Too Shall Pass - Rube Goldberg Machine version
Nas ft. Keri Hilson - Hero
Biz Markie and Jeff Goldblum - Just a Friend
Bob Marley - One Love
Angie Stone - Brotha
Lenny Kravitz - Can't Get You Off My Mind
Jay-Z Death of Autotune
Y-Love and Dov Rosenblatt
2Pac Changes
Nas - I Can
Pete Seeger - Which Side Are You On?

The End of Marriage For All

2011-08-19T23:07:00.000-05:00

While people honestly believe that marriage equality, that is we will not discriminate on who has access to marriage, will end the institution of marriage, those same people do nothing as it is actually eroded.

According to Census data married households for the first time make up less than half of all households just 45%. And married with children which at 1950 was 43% of all households is now just 20%.

As the Economist in its June 25th edition noted, “traditional marriage has evolved from a near-universal rite to a luxury for the educated and affluent.”

“There barely was a marriage gap in 1960: only four percentage points separated the wedded ways of college and high school graduates (76% versus 72%). The gap has since widedened to 16 percentage points, according to the Pew Research Center.

....Americans with a high-school degree or less (who account for 58% of the populations) tell researchers they would like to marry, but do not believe they can afford it. Instead they raise their children out of wedlock.”

And studies have shown regardless of what you think of the institution for the economically less previlidge unmarried households with a high-school degree or less are far more likely to be in poverty than married

Economic deprivation is the true threat to marriage. And yet those who are so loudly against marriage equality supposedly in the vain of sanctity of marriage are the greatest threat to it. Marriage is political, as it was when my parents got married just a few years it was legal in America. Marriage as an institution like all social institutions reflect the strengths of our US community. It suffering from economic desperation that so many other parts of our community are suffering from.

Madonna - Like A Prayer: This Black Jew's Music You Have to Listen To

2011-08-14T19:23:00.000-05:00

I love Madonna like really love Madonna,so I am shocked that I haven't posted her yet. This song I love for several reasons, one its an amazing song. Two the interracial relationship if you can believe it for mid 90's caused a huge stir. Third it was banned for the interracial relationship and sexual overtones.

Amazing song

Past Club Hits:
LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
Maino - Million Bucks
Star Spangled Banner
Jessie J - Price Tag
Mos Def - Mathematics
Lupe Fiasco - Words I Never Said ft. Skylar Grey
American Anthem - Norah Jones
Dayenu, Coming Home - The Fountainheads Passover Song
Nate Dogg - Oh No
The Maccabeats - Purim Song
Notorious BIG - Big Pappa
Nina Simone - The King of Love is Dead
Debbie Friedman - Alef Bet Vet
OK Go - This Too Shall Pass - Rube Goldberg Machine version
Nas ft. Keri Hilson - Hero
Biz Markie and Jeff Goldblum - Just a Friend
Bob Marley - One Love
Angie Stone - Brotha
Lenny Kravitz - Can't Get You Off My Mind
Jay-Z Death of Autotune
Y-Love and Dov Rosenblatt
2Pac Changes
Nas - I Can
Pete Seeger - Which Side Are You On?

Environmental Injustice: Oppose Coal Companies go to Jail, Kill Miners Get a Raise

2011-08-11T21:55:00.000-05:00

read Climate Ground Zero to find out more on the ground

Hyperbole? Or environmental policy in modern America where corporate owners run wild like 1920’s barons?

…This is only the tip of the iceberg of the overwhelming damage Massey Energy has caused to communities across southern West Virginia and beyond. They have been the biggest perpetrator of mountaintop removal coal mining, which has destroyed over 500 mountains and buried and polluted over 2000 miles of headwater streams. They violated the Clean Water Act over 4500 times in a six year time period and only paid $20 million dollars, which is less than 1% of the maximum fine. They are responsible for the deadliest coal mining accident in over 40 years. What right do they have to continue to do business?

Why does former CEO of Massey Energy, Don Blankenship walk free today, while climate activist Tim DeChristopher goes to jail? Tim DeChristopher illegally bid on oil and gas leases in Utah in 2008 in order to stop climate change and demonstrate how the federal government was giving away public lands to corporations for next to nothing. (Read more here about this case). In his eloquent pre-sentencing statement, DeChristopher says of Massey,
A West Virginia state investigation found that Massey Energy had been cited with 62,923 violations of the law in the ten years preceding the disaster that killed 29 people last year. The investigation also revealed that Massey paid for almost none of those violations because the company provided millions of dollars worth of campaign contributions that elected most of the appeals court judges in the state… Those crimes committed by Massey Energy led not only to the deaths of their own workers, but to the deaths of countless local residents, such as Joshua McCormick, who died of kidney cancer at age 22 because he was unlucky enough to live downstream from a coal mine.

What does it say about us that someone protecting the environment goes to jail but someone who ILLEGALLY destroys the environment and literally kills people has no repercussions?

How to Fight Back as Limousine Liberals Champion Conservative Ideas to Abandon Public Schools

2011-08-10T06:32:00.002-05:00

via Colorlines and MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP/Getty Image

We are losing the fight for universal public opportunity as made possible by quality education for every kid regardless of their financial resources, parents, or location in the right neighborhoods.

We may never have had that dream realized, but rather then making progress forward, limousine liberals have decided to sell off opportunity to a few Black kids (definitely not Latino and non-English first learners) whose parents talk the right game and promise to corporatize their children.

How do we fight back?

Well the students in Chile give us an amazingly aspiring path. Unhappy with the cost of higher education and the siphoning off of opportunity to the very rich and fortunate (sound familiar Americans?) students took to the streets.

Via ColorLines

In Chile, months of student demonstrations across the country have given way to mass protests in the capital of Santiago. Nearly 900 protesters have been arrested today in the crackdown against the demonstrations, the New York Times reported.

Tens of thousands of the nation’s high school and college students have been demonstrating for two months against a higher education system that was largely privatized under General Pinochet and since left students in serious debt. Students have called on President Sebastián Piñera to support reforms promising high-quality and free compulsory education and an overhaul of the university system.

But in Chile, protests are not limited to walkouts and marches and hunger strikes, though there have been plenty of those too. The New York Times reports that at any one time two to three protesters can be seen jogging outside the presidential palace. They’re attempting to reach 1,800 laps to symbolize the $1.8 billion that they want the country to invest in the education system. They have dressed up as superheroes and choreographed dance routines. They’ve staged collective suicides, with lines of people collapsing into the streets at once.

They’ve also staged kiss-ins. Protesters have paired off and started kissing marathons, smooching in the streets to bring attention to their cause.

“I think it’s a beautiful way to protest,” one woman told Reuters last month. “I think it’s better to see these young people, you know, us, protesting in such a simple way, with a kiss.”

Today’s protests ended with a more traditional demonstration. In a throwback to the days of the Pinochet era, student organizers called on supporters to take to the streets to bang pots and pans to challenge the arrests, the Guardian reported. It was used as a call to protest decades ago, and tonight was revived in the streets of Santiago.

There is no reason we should take the selling off of public education as a foregone conclusion. Despite the money and monolithic thought of conservatives and limousine liberals, we have the means to fight back.

We just need to get creative.

Violence Against Youth In London UnChecked Violence By Youth Gets Full Coverage

2011-08-09T17:54:00.000-05:00

It's as if we cant remember that millions of students took to the streets to protest the government ripping opportunity from their futures'. Those same kids now without hope of University, lowered investment in education and closing of youth facilities, the Conservative government is now quick to bash over the heads with battons and throw away into small cells.

Making college $15,000 or so a year (depending on exchange rate) or £9,000 may not seem a big deal here in the US but we have a system of government backed loans to make it at least approachable for poor and middle class students. England has no system of credit to make college affordable, so an 18 year old student would have to have £9,000 just laying around to pay for school. What chance does any poor kid have of that? When that same child started school years, university was free. Now that hope of a better world is gone.

They told those students don't bother dreaming of a better life it's not accessible to you.

I NEVER CONDONE VIOLENCE but we should never be so childish as to not understand that violence begets violence which begets violence.

Those kids haven't forgetten the violence done to their future; the callous deaf ears their peaceful democratic pleas fell on.

It's as if this violence came out of no where; the rioting in London and across England is not a natural disaster its an adult made one.

In the face of historical peaceful protests the students were attacked by grown adults with tear gas and batons. It was then, students turned on Tory offices, and why shouldnt' they?

Were there police with handcuffs when their future was stolen from them?

Then a father of four was shot dead the crime of being poor, Brown and hopeless. Like so many dark faced "criminals" across the westernworld shot by the police for being a "threat," without ever doing something threatening.

On the BBC News Hour Camila Batmanghelidjh -"founder of two youth charities" talked about the causes of the riot (a discussion we could only dream of in our media system) and said something that was striking to me.

While we should not condone the lawlessness, what does it say about US, the adults that OUR CHILDREN and so many feel so little regard for their own lives and those of shop keepers and neighbor's houses?

When will the adults be held to account for our violence? for our ruthlessness? for our pillaging and plundering of the innocent? When will a conservative be held in jail for "destroying people's livelihood?"

These kids learned the lesson the Adults have made clear they are not a part of our society. They are saying it's our turn to run lawless without morals like the Conservative Tories.

The BBC actually spoke to two girls who were rioting in Croydon, South London and they said "its the government's fault the conservatives... we are showing the police we can do what we want." Yes its lawlessness but its also an obstinent teenager, saying "you can do whatever you want to me, well I can do it to you." Anybody who has met a teenage could see the obstinence of it.

Yes, we should hold these teens responsible, but appropriately for their ages. But what about us? When will adults be held responsible of our looting and pillaging for a few cents back in our pockets?

The pictures are of a the peaceful protest turned violent by adults against children. When will that mirror finally be shown on ourselves?

I wish we had the same vigil for the burning futures of these children as we do when we see burning businesses.

You Create Jobs Not Rich People

2011-08-08T07:09:00.048-05:00

There is nothing true about the Republican drones repetition of support for the "job creators." Not only does it make no economic sense, even if you believe their logic, it is falls down under the overwhelming weight of reality.

It doesn't matter how much money businesses have, how easy it is for rich people to do what they want without rules or how little it costs corporations to make something.

Here is the simple reality, without someone to BUY those products, what good does ripping poor and middle people off do?

America used to understand this balance, the "Ford" ethos that you pay someone enough to buy his product was a staple of economic policy.

You need the freedom to create but the workers to have the money to buy those innovations. Its a balance that is so out of whack that the greed the underlines conservative don't tax the rich policy is starting to bankrupt the rich.

People should have the ability to be rich if the only thing they cherish is glitter and gold. But our government has to play a role in making sure that greed is mitigated by the need for a functioning capitalistic marketplace.

Ask Adam Smith the "father of capitalism", he wrote about it in The Theory of Moral Sentiments

Lets pretend that Republicans are right, corporations and the very rich create jobs, then why aren't they creating jobs?

Via the right wing Murdoch Wall Street Journal

U.S. companies are holding more cash in the bank than at any point on record, underscoring persistent worries about financial markets and about the sustainability of the economic recovery.

So its not that they don't have enough money, they could spend today to create jobs.

Well maybe they are hanging on to the money not as the Wall Street Journal claims because they are worried about a fragile economy but because they just aren't making enough profits. If you aren't making much, put away what you can.

Via AFP Major Companies packing away record profits.

Major US companies are packing away record profits even as the economy falters, unemployment remains high and the debt-ceiling crisis has shaken confidence in the country, analysts said.

In July, corporate giants such as 3M, Caterpillar, Goodyear, Microsoft and Apple reported all-time high revenues in the second quarter of 2011, though the stock market still slumped amid fears of an economic slowdown and a possible government default.

Of the companies in the S&P 500 list of large-cap firms which have reported their quarterly earnings to date, 72 percent have beaten analysts' forecasts, according to Standard & Poor's analyst Howard Silverblatt.

Moreover, if the current trend keeps up, the S&P 500 companies are poised to have their most profitable quarter ever, he said.

Yeah they made more money then ever and sit on more money then ever but those corporations can't create jobs because they are worried about sustainability with too many taxes.

Corporations paid little to no taxes. Follow the link or Google it to completely debunk that stupidity. Everyone heard that G.E. GOT money from US taxpayers (not rich people mind you) but this is my favorite anecdote about how ridiculous this is.

You Have More Money In Your Wallet Than Bank Of America Pays In Federal Taxes

via Thinkprogress:

As he says, if you have “one dollar” in your wallet, you’re paying more than the “combined income tax liability of GE, ExxonMobil, Citibank, and the Bank of America“:
[Gibson] explains, “I have one dollar in my wallet. That’s more than the combined income tax liability of GE, ExxonMobil, Citibank, and the Bank of America. That means somebody is gaming the system."

That's corporations, what about individuals?

Forbes tells that truth. The top 400 richest Americans paid less in taxes then their cleaning staff. (This despite the cleaning staff working much harder, having a more intellectually and physically challenging work.)

Despite all the breaks in the world rich people are not creating jobs. It's not their fault, they can't create jobs. It's up to us.

The only way we can create jobs is to have jobs. Jobs that pay well, support us, give us time to spend it and do so without worry we won't have the job next week.

Want to fix the economic crisis, spend money on good union jobs, spend money on green union jobs and training on the jobs of the future.

And to pay for that TAX the people who do NOTHING but sit on their growing money piles.

LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem: This Black Jew's Music You Have to Listen To

2011-08-07T13:04:00.000-05:00

LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem is an awesome song that I am way too old to love as much as I do. What is great about it is not just that it's catchy or a good dance song, but that its all those things without the sexist consumerist trappings most corporate radio stars default to.

Past Club Hits:
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
Maino - Million Bucks
Star Spangled Banner
Jessie J - Price Tag
Mos Def - Mathematics
Lupe Fiasco - Words I Never Said ft. Skylar Grey
American Anthem - Norah Jones
Dayenu, Coming Home - The Fountainheads Passover Song
Nate Dogg - Oh No
The Maccabeats - Purim Song
Notorious BIG - Big Pappa
Nina Simone - The King of Love is Dead
Debbie Friedman - Alef Bet Vet
OK Go - This Too Shall Pass - Rube Goldberg Machine version
Nas ft. Keri Hilson - Hero
Biz Markie and Jeff Goldblum - Just a Friend
Bob Marley - One Love
Angie Stone - Brotha
Lenny Kravitz - Can't Get You Off My Mind
Jay-Z Death of Autotune
Y-Love and Dov Rosenblatt
2Pac Changes
Nas - I Can
Pete Seeger - Which Side Are You On?

Debt Ceiling Cuts Hurt Economy Not Ability to Pay Debt

2011-08-04T22:21:00.014-05:00

The way the mainstream corporate media is talking about Debt Ceiling affects is hurting my economic soul. Quick economics lesson it will be painless.

If as the meme is going around the problem is the cuts were not deep enough, then the interest rate on the 30 year Treasury would be going up. Investors would be saying, you haven't cut enough, we don't believe you'll pay us back so we want higher interest rate to lend you money. (like a bad credit score) But in fact Treasury 30 year WENT DOWN. Which means investors rightly are concerned not cuts to small but that cuts will stop growth and cause recession.

The sell off today is about a bad short term economy, NOT THE DEBT. The world of investors are rightly saying, "we know the US will pay us in the long term, the US Treasury is the safest bet. But we worry about ability of consumers to sustain an economic recovery now."

Its a lesson that what we actually needed was a clean debt ceiling and stimulus not Democrats and Republicans fighting to cut jobs and cause a depression.

The Effects of a Bad Debt Deal

2011-08-02T23:31:00.064-05:00

There is a predictable effect tot he passage of the Debt ceiling deal. With Government pulling $2.5 Billion out of the economy and doing so by FIRING AMERICANS we will have cuts in jobs and economic decline.

Further State and Local governments already bankrupt because the Federal government is not giving enough to meet the basic services are going to struggle and fail even more.

We will most likely fall back into another recession and at best slow growth to an equilibrium of 10% unemployment.

Was this the best deal Obama could get? As I discussed yesterday clearly he failed to be a leader period. But maybe, if you believe he had to pass a deal this is the best he could do?

Paul Krugman mad ehte case most on the left are making. The President Surrenders

For the deal itself, given the available information, is a disaster, and not just for President Obama and his party. It will damage an already depressed economy; it will probably make America’s long-run deficit problem worse, not better; and most important, by demonstrating that raw extortion works and carries no political cost, it will take America a long way down the road to banana-republic status.

But a really interesting article examines, if Obama continues to appear a centrist why are his poll numbers dropping?

The Diminished President

By rights, Barack Obama should be emerging as the big political winner in the debt ceiling debate. For months, he’s positioned himself near the center of public opinion, leaving Republicans to occupy the rightward flank. Poll after poll suggests that Americans prefer the president’s call for a mix of spending cuts and tax increases to the Republican Party’s anti-tax approach. Poll after poll shows that House Republicans, not Obama, would take most of the blame if the debt ceiling weren’t raised.

Yet the president’s approval ratings have been sinking steadily for weeks, hitting a George W. Bush-esque low of 40 percent in a recent Gallup survey. The voters incline toward Obama on the issues, still like him personally and consider the Republican opposition too extreme. But they are increasingly judging his presidency a failure anyway.

The administration would no doubt blame this judgment on the steady stream of miserable economic news. But it should save some of the blame for its own political approach. Ever since the midterms, the White House’s tactics have consistently maximized President Obama’s short-term advantage while diminishing his overall authority. Call it the “too clever by half” presidency: the administration’s maneuvering keeps working out as planned, but Obama’s position keeps eroding.

TPM Reader has great analysis about why this is great work and deal by Obama that really made me think.

Let me get this straight. The President kept revenues on the table, did not touch the sunset provisions in the Bush tax cuts, ensured that military cuts keep the GOP honest, protected Medicare by adding in only provider cuts in the trigger, made the reduction apparently enough to stave off a debt downgrade, got the debt ceiling raised, wounded Boehner by demonstrating to the world that he is controlled by the Tea Party caucus, took out the requirement that a BBA be passed and sent to the states and got the extension through 2012? What exactly is wrong with this deal?

The fact that there are cuts? If people don't like that, why in God's name didn't they turn out to vote and bring back our Congressional majority?

Glenn Greenwald has a must read on why Obama does what he does:

It appears to be true that the President wanted tax revenues to be part of this deal. But it is absolutely false that he did not want these brutal budget cuts and was simply forced -- either by his own strategic "blunders" or the "weakness" of his office -- into accepting them. The evidence is overwhelming that Obama has long wanted exactly what he got: these severe domestic budget cuts and even ones well beyond these, including Social Security and Medicare, which he is likely to get with the Super-Committee created by this bill (as Robert Reich described the bill: "No tax increases on rich yet almost certain cuts in Med[icare] and Social Security . . . . Ds can no longer campaign on R's desire to Medicare and Soc Security, now that O has agreed it").

Also on Salon this terrible article by Matthew Dickinson which offers the same old same old from Obamapologists who feel no need to provide actual thoughtfulness. This is all you need to know on that"

Obama didn't "cave" on the debt ceiling: Yes, he got almost nothing out of this deal. But let's consider the harsh political realities he was up against

But the comments are actually thoughtful and interesting.

But what is most interesting is this. PIMCO Investment talks about why deal not being big enough is not simply cuts but also that it will kill GDP growth.

Pimco CEO El-Erian: Debt Ceiling Deal Will Lead To More Unemployment, Less Growth, More Inequality

The Debate That Should Have Never Happened: Obama Failed to Lead and Hurt America

2011-08-01T21:55:00.010-05:00

The debt ceiling debate offered President Obama 3 clear alternatives to capitulating to Republicans.

The debt ceiling debate offered Obama an opportunity to act decisively and communicate a clear progressive value. Or at the very least to make the case that Democrats stand for something.

Instead Obama chose to negotiate with economic terrorists and we all lost.

Back in December 2010 when Obama was asked if the capitulation on tax revenue would replicate itself on the debt ceiling he amazed every political observer saying that he thought Republicans would bargain in good faith. Defaulting America was to serious to jeapordize he thought. It was especially naive because at the heart is a false belief that Republicans have our best interests at heart.

Republicans are on a cultish mission to remake America into Ayn Rand's dream world. If complete bankruptcy gets in the way, its the price they are willing to have Americans pay.

Obama could have taken the path President Clinton laid out to Joe Conason in National Memo, which is to invoke the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. The 14th Amendment Section 4 guarantees the US' debt.

Because we would still have money to pay our creditors for some time, it could have been argued that the President does not have that right. But faced with economic insecurity and an amendment to the constitution meant for this very situation, the Supreme Court would have upheld Obama invoking the 14th.

At the very least Obama could have used the threat of the 14th to strengthen his position.

Like demanding a clean up or down vote on the debt ceiling. By capitulating to Republican demands, Obama gave up the important bargaining position that the ceiling is fake and not worth bankrupting the country over.

Obama could have used the 14th Amendment option to force support for Republican Senate Minority Leader McConnell's plan which also called for no cuts.

There were so many opportunities for Obama to stand strong and yet in the end we get cuts. The poor, the hungry and the financially struggling will be decimated and for what? Because our Democratic president cannot effectively fight for the majority of Americans.

Urban League Is So Out of Touch With Black America Its Hurting Us

2011-07-25T08:26:00.020-05:00

This is all you need to know about the Urban League. Boston has a vibrant Black and/or urban community that is teaming with talent and wisdom that's waiting to be accessed and let loose on the country.

Empowering and amplifying the voice of Urban Black America is supposed to be the purpose of the Urban League. But whose voice are you accessing when the cost to have that conversation costs even students $165.

Do you know any students who could access an event for that cost?

I am a talented Deputy Director of a nonprofit, at $350 for a young profession, what profession would I have to be in to afford that?

The Urban League should not be the voice of the elite...even Black elite. The Urban League should be an organization taking the dynamism of our community, harnessing it to advocate for us; not taking the money of the elite and to be "educated" by corporations and their lackeys.

I am ashamed how far the Urban League has fallen. This event is all you need to know how horrible and out of touch the National Urban League is.

Amy Winehouse - Back To Black (RIP): This Black Jew's Music You Have to Listen To

2011-07-24T22:18:00.002-05:00

Vidivodo.com : amy winehouse - back to black Etiket: amy_winehouse

I remember when I first heard Amy Winehouse. I was in an Oxfam consignment shop in London when I heard Me & Mr. Jones. At first I was trying to figure out what old school song it was. Then as the words washed over me, I realized I had never heard the song. The play of Motown's love ballad over a trashy story was so brilliant I asked the cashier who it was.

Back to Black has been a favorite album since. Amy Winehouse's brilliant voice, mixed with classic R&B and Soul and an updated story telling that touched souls across the world.

The Album is brilliant and in a certain dark time, this song brought a profound comfort that was also profoundly scary and haunting.

Past Club Hits:
Maino - Million Bucks
Star Spangled Banner
Jessie J - Price Tag
Mos Def - Mathematics
Lupe Fiasco - Words I Never Said ft. Skylar Grey
American Anthem - Norah Jones
Dayenu, Coming Home - The Fountainheads Passover Song
Nate Dogg - Oh No
The Maccabeats - Purim Song
Notorious BIG - Big Pappa
Nina Simone - The King of Love is Dead
Debbie Friedman - Alef Bet Vet
OK Go - This Too Shall Pass - Rube Goldberg Machine version
Nas ft. Keri Hilson - Hero
Biz Markie and Jeff Goldblum - Just a Friend
Bob Marley - One Love
Angie Stone - Brotha
Lenny Kravitz - Can't Get You Off My Mind
Jay-Z Death of Autotune
Y-Love and Dov Rosenblatt
2Pac Changes
Nas - I Can
Pete Seeger - Which Side Are You On?

Maino - Million Bucks: This Black Jew's Music You Have to Listen To

2011-07-17T22:44:00.006-05:00

Love the ethos of this song. Maino - Million Bucks

Past Club Hits:
Star Spangled Banner
Jessie J featuring B.O.B - Price Tag
Mos Def - Mathematics
Lupe Fiasco - Words I Never Said ft. Skylar Grey
American Anthem - Norah Jones
Dayenu, Coming Home - The Fountainheads Passover Song
Nate Dogg - Oh No
The Maccabeats - Purim Song
Notorious BIG - Big Pappa
Nina Simone - The King of Love is Dead
Debbie Friedman - Alef Bet Vet
OK Go - This Too Shall Pass - Rube Goldberg Machine version
Nas ft. Keri Hilson - Hero
Biz Markie and Jeff Goldblum - Just a Friend
Bob Marley - One Love
Angie Stone - Brotha
Lenny Kravitz - Can't Get You Off My Mind
Jay-Z Death of Autotune
Y-Love and Dov Rosenblatt
2Pac Changes
Nas - I Can
Pete Seeger - Which Side Are You On?

My Birthday Wish - Change the World

2011-07-12T12:19:00.001-05:00

I hope you’ll indulge a little narcissism on this blog for my birthday. I got asked not to long ago, what drives me, “what gets you up in the morning to do this work?” It’s a question I think about a lot, why do I spend my time fighting a system that seems immovable, especially when my dream growing up was to own a bar on a tropical island spending my life giving out drinks with a little bit of life wisdom.

It’s a dilemma faced by a fellow July 12th Birthdayer Henry David Thoreau. Who simultaneously felt that the best way to live life was to spend it enjoying nature and at the same time was drawn to the work of making the world a better place.

That tension he answers so succinctly I think it defines my life:

“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.”

I have a similar impulse to find a quiet spot and wait out my little time here contemplating life and finding peace. But that impulse is overwhelmed by the fire that burns inside demanding action. It’s a fire fed by the injustice and suffering too many people still face.

After working for the consultantency class who run the Democratic Party in the belly of the beast in Washington, DC I was burnt out. Frustrated by the inaction on peoples’ suffering, the glib way even Democrats thought about, spoke about and created policies for women, people of color and the economically disadvantaged. Add to that an unending and all encompassing racism of Washington, DC and by my mid 20’s I was already profoundly tired, I decided I had to leave.

First I spent a year writing and working for a homeless shelter, I like to say to finally help people. But soon after I left, I didn’t much care to where, I just knew to never return to the US.

And in London I felt the peace I had desired, yes there are severe problems. But my education was affordable, for the first time in years I had health care that treated my asthma and other ailments, and the racism evaporated. Because I went to an elite university, I had the privilege of class to go along with my privilege of being male and speaking English (even with an American accent in Europe).

Despite my desire to stay or to travel elsewhere internally the fire was burning out of control.

America has given me so many gifts; I have the gift of liberation given to me by my Grandparents and parents through the fight for civil rights. I was given the gift of access, the ability to change a government that sets policy and morals for the whole world.

But America has not yet reached her perfection, she still discriminates against her Black and Brown citizens, she still kills the innocent and allows the suffering of the less fortunate.

While I was enjoying my break from that suffering, Black people were still suffering. Part of the promise made when my Grandparents and parents gave me the gift of civil rights, was to make sure that I continue that fight for full equality. It’s a generational promise from one to the next. It’s a spiritual promise made at the base of Mount Sinai that I took on when my soul received the Torah (Jewish Bible).

People should not have to suffer simply for coming out of the wrong womb. And yet people suffer, human beings starve; they are threatened, bullied, harassed, raped and killed. Not just by “bad apples,” but by our society’s lack of desire to tackle human suffering. People are unable to be full expressions of themselves, because of economic deprivation, environmental degradation, racism, sexism, classicism, sexual inquisition and violence, war and hatred despite our ability to make this world otherwise.

I get up every day and do what I do because people are needlessly suffering and I can do something about it. Specifically, I was given a gift of people intelligence – the ability to read people – which makes politics a natural skill. So I get up to do my part to fight until I have breath to make sure every person’s life is valued the same. Fight until everyone has the same opportunity to be their fullest version and my life’s imprint in total is to not have added to that suffering but to have relieved some of it.

In Judaism we call this Tikkun Olam, the need to make the world whole. I say all this because the greatest birthday present would be the gift of the fire. If I could light the same fire even in a small way to be a life who’s imprint has relieved suffering and minimized pain.

If I could light your fire to make a better world with me; to add your intelligence, your wisdom, your innate human beauty to this struggle, then that would be the greatest gift of all.

For the Love of The Voice

2011-07-10T22:42:00.002-05:00

The Voice is one of the best shows on television, I am glad we as America have a reality show that celebrates real talent and reflects the beautiful diversity that talent comes in. The Voice focused on what is important and so lacking in today’s corporatized music scene, just the talent. And the journey we took with the participants was uplifting and beautiful, even in competition we and the participants were built up, not torn down.

I don’t normally write positive things about “reality” TV game shows. First off there is nothing real about reality TV. I point you to one of my favorite books Jenn Pozner’s Reality Bites Back as the definitive work on frankenbites, the myth of popularity of reality tv, advertisers deciding outcomes, etc. etc.

But The Voice is different. The Voice was a singing competition on NBC in which America voted on their favorite artist. But the focus was so different, it started from the beginning in which competitors were picked just on the sound of their voice. By focusing the viewers attention on what is important, that value became the permeating moral.

Rather than judges, who talk down and tear down talent, The Voice featured coaches who competed to have the “voice” on their team. Artists were therefor not denigrated but encouraged, loved and seen for who they are. Once on a team, those singers competed for their Coaches, so everyone had an interest in working with their artists to get out their best singing performances.

And unlike on American Idol, outfits and presentation were the fault of coaches not the singers themselves.

It might seem subtle, but that meant that as from the beginning, artists were always judged on their singing talent.

Gone were the judgements we see on other shows were contestants are told they are too ugly, fat, queer, female, basically in so many words: too different, to deserve America’s vote.

On the contrary the focus on talent meant that The Voice was filled with the diverse talent that makes America great. Interracial singers were more common than not, the final four had 3 women, 2 of which were proudly out as Lesbians. Not that it was an important component to the show, but it became a part of who they were as full humans, not tokenized or shunned, but a strength to be celebrated with their unique voices, styles and backgrounds.

The contestants were encouraged and loved so much so that coaches helped them discover their “warrior dance,” found the “innate beauty in their voice,” and even became “a part of the family.”

Even though it was a competition the Christina Aguilara talked about how much the other coaches support meant to her. Each coach talked up the talents of all the singers. After every show I felt better about humanity and excited about their music.

While the rest of society is grappling to embrace all the diverse and beautiful ways humans come in, The Voice celebrated it. The easiest example is Frenchie Davis, a talented Black woman whose amazing voice matched her amazing curves. Big, Black and beautiful Frenchie was kicked off Idol because she had expressed her true beauty in some topless pictures at some point.

Had she not been forced off, Idol would have degraded her daily for her size. An idol contestant, she would surely be today on OK Magazine cover pushing the latest diet craze and proudly talking about all the weight she had lost. Instead Frenchie was celebrated on The Voice as one of the best TALENTS in the country. Her outfits embraced who she was and added to her performances while never making it the point. Frenchie shined when idol literally shunned her.

The cultural editor at Think Progress got this too a few weeks before the final:

I’ve never really fallen for competition reality shows before. I dislike American Idol‘s tendency to humiliate candidates who aren’t remotely qualified. I can’t taste the food on Top Chef. And I did watch my way through a full season of Project Runway before its move from Bravo to Lifetime, but it never quite stuck. But I’ve finally fallen for one: I am totally, insanely obsessed with The Voice. Too many good things cannot be said about the competition: there are, by design, no duds in the lineup of uniformly strong singers; the format’s oriented toward craft and positive reinforcement, and rewards humor; the mix of judges is genuinely productive and fun to watch.

But I’m also really digging the way the show’s developed as a rebuke to Idol’s habitual weirdness on gay rights — the dominant competition reality show asked a gay contestant to remove any references to his sexual orientation in the first season, ostensibly to make sure he didn’t end up with an unfair advantage, and in season five, ended up with a competitor who was maybe a supporter of the ex-gay movement. Adam Lambert’s non-denial denials about whether he was gay ended up seeming forced and absurd the longer they dragged out. By contrast, the two standouts on The Voice are not only gay, but refreshingly, gay people who the show isn’t forcing to conform to media-friendly stereotypes of lipstick lesbians or fashion-obsessed effeminate gay men. There’s something kind of awesome about watching Beverly McClellan stomp out on stage in a kilt, military jacket, and her shaved head and tattoos, tear into a Melissa Etheridge track, and to have Blake Shelton, who earlier in the season got himself in hot water for rewriting a country song to have weirdly homophobic lyrics, tell her how attractive he finds her:

The show’s not perfect, of course. It was really too bad that the show labeled Nakia’s partner Robert his “friend” in subtitles after Nakia’s battle ground, especially since he’s talked extensively about how important Robert is to him, and how he’s doing the show as a thank-you to Robert for all the support he’s given him over the years:

In the semi-finals the Voice fixed this by giving Nakia an opportunity to thank is longtime boyfriend for all he sacrificed for him. It was a moment that was so profoundly beautiful that even the stoic Carson Daily fought away tears.

It’s a reality show worth watching on Hulu, it’s that good.

The famous 5th of July Speech, “The Meaning of the 4th of July for the Negro.”

2011-07-05T23:12:00.001-05:00

Thanks to Community Change Inc for organizing the event and posting video.

On July 5th 1862 Frederick Douglass was asked to speak before congress on the 4th of July. There are so many lessons for today I wanted to share with you the whole speech read by total strangers behind the famous 54th Massachusetts statute (see Glory for reference) opposite The Massachusetts state house.

Douglass was an escaped slave who used that same cunning and genius to raise himself through the political world to be the most visible and vocal advocate for emancipation and general human rights. Asked to speak about the 4th of July he reminded the congress that the fight for independence was not preordained or easy but an extraordinary leap of faith by men who refused to compromise on their rights. So extreme was their position that they believed those rights to be “inalienable.”

Further, when the British government acted in the wrong, they were not swayed by the idea that government is infallible but rather that it only exists at the consent of us. If we do not like the actions, we need not consent. version from an abridged version as edited by Janet Gillespie Director Programming Community Change Inc.

On the 2nd of July, 1776, the old Continental Congress, to the dismay of the lovers of ease, and the worshipers of property, clothed that dreadful idea with all the authority of national sanction. They did so in the form of a resolution. We seldom hit upon resolutions, drawn up in our day whose transparency is at all equal it: “Resolved, that these united colonies are, and of right, ought to be free and independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown.”

And then in a message to all future journalists and commentators who are always the voice for the status quo, who abhor agitation and confrontation for what is right, Fredrick Douglass speaks to the constant complaint about extremism and moral certitude.

I hear some one of my audience say, it is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on the public mind. Would you argue more and denounce less, would you persuade more and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed. But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue?

Today we hear this all the time, a desire for people to get along, use less harsh tones and language. But just as with slavery, these are not political issues, they are peoples’ lives. Being able to marry who you love is not comprimisable, its life and death to a couple. Control over women’s reproductive systems is not a political issue, for women, it is literal life and death. From economic security to environmental degredation, these are not “issues,” they are fundamental questions on the value we place on life. Does everyone have the same opportunity? Is everyone’s life worth the same regardless of the location of the womb and the person’s you are born to.

Showing the true orator that has made it past the short memory of historians he ends the amazing speech:

Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. .. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from the Declaration of Independence, the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age. Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world, and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference. The time was when such could be done. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity.

Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. Space is comparatively annihilated. Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic are, distinctly heard on the other.

…In the fervent aspirations of William Lloyd Garrison, I say, and let every heart join in saying it:

God speed the day when human blood
Shall cease to flow!
In every clime be understood,
The claims of human brotherhood,
And each return for evil, good,
Not blow for blow;

That day will come all feuds to end.
And change into a faithful friend
Each foe.

Thanks to The New Liberator for a version as well

4th of July The Truest Independence Day

2011-07-04T07:57:00.003-05:00

There are those, I know, who will say that the liberation of humanity, the freedom of man and mind, is nothing but a dream. They are right. It is the American dream. ~Archibald MacLeish

I wrote this a few years ago for the 4th of July. I had totally forgotten about it, but thesis of it still so reverberates in my thoughts and writing today.

I was listening to NPR and I heard something I never thought of before:

“The celebration is not of a successful battle or conquest, but rather of liberation of the minds by paper, by words. Our revolution is that of a declaration of freedom.”

What a testament to our country, to our forefathers that our day of liberation is that of the mind, not that of an army. Something I think people of all political persuasions forget.

Many people like to proclaim their love for this country, wrap themselves in a flag and send young men and women to war to “liberate,” while never facilitating the most important liberation of those people, their minds.

Others talk about anti-war/anti-globalization and have so much disdain for the symbols, anthems and country that gives them the political and equally important economic freedom to do so.

Both sides miss the point. This country is great because of its ideas, not just because of those who are willing to die for all of our freedoms but also those who are willing to die for its promise.

When I see the flag, I remember my parents and grandparents. Not just because my mother and grandfather serve in the armed services and were sent to war for me. But because my parents and grandparents were willing to march to bring me those freedoms they put their lives on the line for. Because my father had the guts to say no to Vietnam and instead serve orphaned children in NYC. Because my grandmother was willing to go to college, when all that could be expected was servitude to an inequitable society.

When I think of the 4th of July, I think of Crispus Attucks being the first to give his life for this idea of a free country, did not include freedom for him.

I am thankful for this country cause for all its faults, its great its diversity. Where we must constantly confront the changing makeup of our society. While other nations are fragmenting by their ethnic differences, we demand that our society incorporate them.

I always remember Abbie Hoffman, Chicago 8 said (paraphrase) the reason he spends so much fighting this country is because he loves it so much and wants it to be all it can be.

Being America A Lot Like Being Jewish

2011-07-03T08:44:00.007-05:00

I like to think of being an American as a lot being Jewish. It’s a great honor and opportunity getting the gift of being born an American, but it’s also a responsibility. The 4th of July celebrates the victory of ideas; the liberation of minds, it’s the day when the most famous of resolutions was read to the American people:

“That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown”

We were free not by the butt of a gun. (although those heroes were waging that war) we were free via Democratic Decree.

It’s a legacy that women embraced and expanded through the suffragist movement and later feminist movement. It was more perfected by the abolitionist and then civil rights movement. As sons and daughters of this amazing experiment and the people who have more perfected it, we have been given this amazing gift.

Through their spirit, talent and undying dedication to making this country great, we have a level of economic security and freedom that we have the privilege of taking for granted. When you take the totality of human experience, it’s hard not to appreciate what an amazing gift being a son of this country is.

But just as with our foremothers and fathers, we have an obligation. Our decisions effect not just 300 to 400 million Americans in our borders, they affect the world. Our simple marking on a bubble, pulling a lever or punching a card ring across the globe and set the course for billions of people.

By that act of democracy we lead by example inspiring and giving the moral demanding that all people have similar access.

People mistake being one of the “Chosen People,” as meaning better than, but chosen does not mean Jews are the best, it means we are obligated to service. We were Chosen to get the Torah (Jewish Bible) by Hashem (the universal love that is sometimes referred to as G-d) which is an amazing honor and gift I feel blessed to have received. But it comes with obligations, obligations other people do not have.

Jews, to be good Jews, have the obligation to make the world whole; to do good work. Is that not the same obligation we have by getting this gift of freedom, economic opportunity, and this experiment in racial coexistence that no other country on earth has?

Being American we can influence human events in ways people only dream of, it’s the inheritance of these brave men and women when they embarked on this grand political experiment.

The Star-Spangled Banner: This Black Jew's Music You Have to Listen To

2011-07-02T21:18:00.000-05:00

O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

It still gives me chills.

So a little known fact about me, I love the Star Spangled Banner. Or more accurately I love the poem, "Defence of Fort McHenry," written by Francis Scott Key in 1814 as the Flag continued to fly after a night of bombardment by the British Navy.

The song was actually a British drinking song which was acquired later to become our national anthem.

As a child (and really into adulthood), I had a cherished book the history of this important song. Not the history of Scott Key or the drinking song which make this anthem. It was a book from Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia with the words of the song matched in pictures to the story behind America's creation and survival of the 1812 war.

The book captivated my mind and gave life to this poem that to too many is just a required standing at sporting events.

The poem is a beautiful ode and homage to our country through the story of our flag. I have to admit that when I hear it I think to those amazing precious moments when our country was founded, to the moments when my family fought for freedom in this country to freedom for our country in wars abroad. And just as the little kid sitting in the back of the car flipping through the pages amazed at the story behind our anthem, the rendition still stirs that excitement and amazement to all we have built together.

So much sacrifice represented in this important song and so much promise to be proud of.

Past Club Hits:
Jessie J featuring B.O.B - Price Tag
Mos Def - Mathematics
Lupe Fiasco - Words I Never Said ft. Skylar Grey
American Anthem - Norah Jones
Dayenu, Coming Home - The Fountainheads Passover Song
Nate Dogg - Oh No
The Maccabeats - Purim Song
Notorious BIG - Big Pappa
Nina Simone - The King of Love is Dead
Debbie Friedman - Alef Bet Vet
OK Go - This Too Shall Pass - Rube Goldberg Machine version
Nas ft. Keri Hilson - Hero
Biz Markie and Jeff Goldblum - Just a Friend
Bob Marley - One Love
Angie Stone - Brotha
Lenny Kravitz - Can't Get You Off My Mind
Jay-Z Death of Autotune
Y-Love and Dov Rosenblatt
2Pac Changes
Nas - I Can
Pete Seeger - Which Side Are You On?

Greece Doesn't Need Austerity it Needs Tax Revenue

2011-07-01T09:02:00.000-05:00

The Greece "austerity" package is bullsh*t. Greece doesn't need to sell the Acropolis there is plenty of wealth in the country.

What Greece should have done was crack down on the rich people who don't pay their taxes. Which in Greece is THE problem. One study Greece loosed $30 Billion that's Billion with a "B" a year to tax evasion. I bet you its worse than that, once we start to realize all the ways people creatively ducked paying their fair share.

The cheating is often quite bold. When tax authorities recently surveyed the returns of 150 doctors with offices in the trendy Athens neighborhood of Kolonaki, where Prada and Chanel stores can be found, more than half had claimed an income of less than $40,000. Thirty-four of them claimed less than $13,300, a figure that exempted them from paying any taxes at all.

Rather than get new resources, the Greek government is actually closing 130 tax offices, along with staff and the salaries for the people left.

Rather than pass austerity, Greece's government should have hired more tax collectors, created a special expedited court system for tax evaders and start seizing some boats and mansions. Then when people start going to jail and the punishment is worth more than the taxes, people will start paying.

Corporatocracy At Work – At least in the US, Thank G-d for Canada

2011-06-30T22:41:00.000-05:00

In one of those stories I know you missed, but you shouldn’t have. David Sirota now of Salon.com but one of my favorite writers for a long time:

As if we needed any more evidence that the United States is fast becoming a Corporate Police State (i.e., systematically deploying police power to protect narrow corporate interests), make sure to check out this jaw-dropping story that broke in Canada late Friday. It details how the British Columbia Supreme Court uncovered what it says is a massive collusion between computer giant Cisco and U.S. law enforcement -- a collusion that seems designed to use criminal prosecution to stop a whistle-blower's antitrust case against a powerful politically connected corporation.

The machinations in this case are complicated, but the basics go like this: Ex-Cisco exec Peter Alfred-Adekeye filed a whistle-blower suit against his former employer Cisco in civil court -- a suit that could compel the company to pay millions in damages for allegedly "forcing customers to buy maintenance contracts," according to the Vancouver Sun.

Cisco subsequently responded with two moves designed to intimidate Adekeye: First, the company filed a counter civil suit against him for allegedly "using a former colleague's computer code to illicitly access Cisco services worth 'more than $14,000.'" Then, the corporation had its allies in U.S. law enforcement cite the civil counter-suit to issue a whopping 97 criminal charges against Adekeye. In other words, instead of following Adekeye's civil case with criminal antitrust charges against Cisco, U.S. authorities were convinced by the corporation to add criminal charges to Cisco's counter civil suit against Adekeye (this move to add state-sanctioned criminal prosecution to a corporation's civil action, of course, is a textbook definition of a Corporate Police State).

Ultimately, U.S. authorities demanded the Canadian government extradite Adekeye for prosecution, and Canadian officials proceeded to follow U.S. orders by arresting and detaining him. However, on Friday, a top Canadian court rejected the extradition request, issuing a stunning ruling that goes way beyond one whistle-blower dispute. As reported by the Sun (emphasis added):

The giant computer company Cisco and U.S. prosecutors deceived Canadian authorities and courts in a massive abuse of process to have a former executive thrown in jail, says a B.C. Supreme Court judge. The point, said Justice Ronald McKinnon [was] to derail a lawsuit launched by the former employee... [McKinnon] called Adekeye's ordeal something out of a novel by Joseph Heller, the author of Catch-22.

"This speaks volumes for Cisco's duplicity," the judge said, adding the company had "the unmitigated gall" to try to use the criminal process to humiliate and force Adekeye to abandon a civil suit... the arrest was orchestrated by Cisco as part of litigation strategy to derail the massive anti-trust suit Adekeye launched in December 2008...

At the time of his arrest, Adekeye was suing Cisco for forcing customers to buy a maintenance contract to cover future software-bug fixes, patches and updates for its operating system and applications... Adekeye was accused [of] using a former colleague's computer code to illicitly access Cisco services worth "more than $14,000."...McKinnon said little of what the Americans told Ottawa was true...

Justice McKinnon said that his main offence was that [Adekeye] "dared to take on a multinational giant."

….The Sun reports that in 2008 he "was denied re-entry [into the United States] when he attempted to return to participate" in the antitrust litigation against Cisco. Additionally, "far from trying to avoid a showdown" in Cisco's counter civil suit against him, "Adekeye flew to Vancouver to testify at a special [Canadian] sitting of the [Cisco's civil countersuit] ordered by the U.S. District Court for Northern California because he couldn't gain legal entry to America." But then suddenly, the same guy who was barred from entering the United States to push his whistle-blower case or to clear his name in a civil case -- this same guy was the target of extradition proceedings by U.S. prosecutors who want to bring him up on criminal charges. Indeed, as if to underscore the bizarre nature of the U.S. government's change of posture, U.S. authorities actually had Adekeye arrested on extradition charges right as he was testifying before the special session of the U.S. court in Vancouver (he was actually perp-walked out of the hearing).

On this blog, I have pointed out numerous times, whether the it’s an investor who is not tried for a hit and run murder because it might affect his employability to the police’s war on Black and Brown youth, there are just different justice systems.

Our country more and more is being run by the powerful against the rest of us. The real crime, for me, is not Cisco – corporations will always do evil things for their own benefit – but prosecutors for the federal government went along with it. Our money (because you know Cisco pays zero to almost zero taxes) was being spent to prosecute the justice and defense the illegal. Those prosecutors should go to jail.

This is as clear an example of the corporatocracy taking over as I have seen.

We Need to Tax Our Way out of Recession

2011-06-29T22:34:00.001-05:00

Our country needs the government to spend our way out of this recession. Despite all of the rhetoric, Corporate America doesn’t need a tax cut, they have record profits, record productivity and are sitting on the largest pile of cash reserves in history. The problem is all that money is not going to create jobs.

That is why we need less dogmatic stupidity and more thoughtful policies. Taxing corporations will move that money out of their bank accounts where it is doing nothing and back into the economy funding the jobs we need to get out of this lingering recession.

Similarly taxing rich people so that the government has the money for teachers, roads and funding the green economy which will provide the jobs of the future. Just as we did in the 40s, 50s and 60s sand other countries are doing now, we need to incubate the jobs of the future, only Government can do that.

Listening to the current debate on economic policy and taxation from both Republicans and Democrats you would think we hadn’t just experienced 10 years of big tax cuts ruining our economy. Did the smallest taxation in our modern history create any jobs in the last 10 years until now? Or did taxing the rich in the 40s, 50s, 60s and 90s not lead to our most prosperous times?

Tax cuts for what Republicans dub the “job creators,” has led to stagnant wages and Americans stuck in unhappy jobs.

The only way we are going to get this economy going (and since there is no intellectual will to do it, we are probably screwed) is for the government to tax the people who are sitting on our money and put it back into the economy through job creation.

via Alternet

Many recent reports, easily accessible to your research staff, would have found a long list of giant corporations that pay no taxes, and often get millions or even billions in tax rebates. Among them such well known names as Exxon Mobil, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citgroup, Boeing, General Electric, Valero Energy, ConocoPhillips, and Chevron.

Some 30 years ago, coinciding with the administration of Ronald Reagan, corporations and individuals contributed about equally to the U.S. treasury; now individuals account for some five times as much, a direct result of deliberate policies which permit big corporations to avoid paying taxes.

Because of the numerous tax loopholes, there is no real tax rate in the U.S. To let the right-wing economists and a corporate CEO whine that they are burdened by a 35 percent rate that no one pays, without dissenting voices, is to thoroughly distort reality.

2. Corporations are not creating jobs or investing in America because of the onerous 35 percent tax rate.

This is probably an even greater fiction that your show deliberately promoted without a single counter-voice.

First, the supposed high tax rate is hardly damping down profits. Corporate profits in the third quarter of 2010 were $1.6 trillion – the highest on record. Yet the past two years have also witnessed the highest unemployment in decades, officially at least 8.9 percent now, with the real figure probably double that.

Therefore, it is dishonest to report that the tax rate is preventing these companies from creating jobs in the U.S. or reinvesting in America. They have more than enough money to do that, if they wished. Which brings up the point that it is a false argument that Stahl and the Wall Street representatives make that these companies would invest in job creation if they only had a lower tax rate.

That argument was further debunked by, among others, Austan Goolsbee, President Obama’s Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, in a 1997 paper, in which he wrote:

“Although there appears to be an abiding faith among policy makers that tax incentives can influence the investment decisions of firms and serve as a tool for stabilizing the economy, empirical evidence for the connection is weak. Econometric research has commonly found that tax policy and the cost of capital have little effect on real investment.”

Even your own report suggested a one-time tax holiday did not spur growth, and it would not this time either. Reducing the tax rate, even to zero, would undoubtedly further expand corporate profits, enabling the super-rich CEOs to engage in even more of the specious financial speculation that was a major source of our present economic crisis, and as an ancillary perk to buy more private planes, yachts and vacation homes. But there is no evidence it would create jobs or spur investment.

That money as SEIU (full disclosure, I work for a coalition that their locals 1199, 509 and State Council are a part of) makes so so clear has gone to do virtually nothing; job creators must be bad at their jobs.

While we're on the subject of the tax breaks the very wealthy have been afforded these past ten years under the Bush tax cuts, now seems like an appropriate time to look back to see just how well giving those tax cuts has worked out for our country. How, for example, have many of the richest 1% of taxpayers chosen to use their tax-cut funds?

Mother Jones' Stephanie Mencimer makes this recent comment about Bush tax cut recipients:

"The best-known result of the Bush tax cuts is that virtually all the benefits were conferred upon people who didn't need them at all and who didn't use the money to, say, create more jobs or pay their workers better."
We'll let you be the judge. Straight from the mouth of (billionaire) babes:

"I got a bigger boat than I used to have."
- Spoken by Dennis Mehiel, Founder and Chairman of cardboard box manufacturer U.S. Corrugated, Inc., in an interview with Huffington Post on how he's spent some of the millions he's saved from the tax cuts enacted during the George W. Bush administration. (Unfortunately, Mehiel elaborates, the sale of this boat wasn't actually the end result of U.S. labor, nor did it create any jobs for American workers. "It was built in Italy," he said.)

Dal LaMagna, founder of Tweezerman, reports he

"[U]sed his extra money to help the local economy in by 'adding stuff' to his large home."

Among this "stuff" was a dance floor and a parking garage.

Other billionaires chose to take a slightly less "philanthropic" path.

"I have not done anything with that money."
- Paul Egerman, the founder of medical transcription company eScription.

Well! There you have it, folks!

According to Citizens for Tax Justice, extending the Bush tax cuts further would result in an extra $68,079 for the average member of the richest 1% of taxpayers in 2013. Making them permanent would nearly double our country's budget deficit.

We cannot shred the social safety net when it's most needed. It's long past time to require the super wealthy pay their fair share.

In nearly 20 states, Americans are joining together on this 10th anniversary of the Bush tax cuts to highlight the wrong priorities of politicians who want to give even more tax breaks to millionaires at the expense of hardworking Americans. Speak up now to do your part to help build support in Congress for tax justice and oppose budget cuts.

Cable Companies Get It Why Doesn’t Congress

2011-06-28T22:42:00.000-05:00

I don’t write much about Republicans, because, well why? They aren’t serious; their only ideas are failed ones and frankly they themselves don’t believe in them. Almost anything modern Republicans say is disprovable in the time it takes to type in their comments into Google.

But Democrats would be wise to spend their time caring about and getting serious about this issue. We need to create Jobs, good jobs, 21st, 22nd and 23rd century jobs. And we need to reregulate the cable companies so that costs match reality and people have the income from quality jobs to pay for the service we all depend on.

CABLESHOW-Cable worried about U.S. poverty, not Netflix

For all the talk about competitive threats from the likes of Netflix Inc (NFLX.O) or Apple Inc (AAPL.O), it is rising poverty among U.S. households that TV executives say is their biggest source of concern.

Executives from News Corp (NWSA.O), Comcast Corp (CMCSA.O) and Time Warner Inc (TWX.N), speaking at the annual Cable Show industry event, made clear the industry needed a stronger housing market and better jobs picture to win new customers and keep existing ones.

"We have to be sensitive in making sure we have a product that consumers can afford," said Pat Esser, president of privately held Cox Communications, speaking at the industry's biggest yearly event.

Investors and analysts, with a few exceptions, can often be heard worrying more about how the cable industry will cope with cheaper entertainment packages from rivals such as Netflix, Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) or Google Inc (GOOG.O).

Time Warner Cable (TWC.N) Chief Executive Glenn Britt, however, was one of the executives focussing on the hazards of a bad economy.

"There clearly is a growing underclass of people who clearly can't afford it," he said. "It would serve us well to worry about that group."

A nonprofit worker, I am starting to fall into this category of looking at cable as an unnecessary luxury that for $80 a month is well out of a reasonable cost.

It’s sad that even corrupt out of touch cable companies get what Democrats don’t, “it’s the economy stupid.”

Jessie J - Price Tag: This Black Jew's Music You Have to Listen To

2011-06-26T21:48:00.005-05:00

Jessie J featuring B.O.B. - Price Tag is a great dance song, message and actually talented track I can't suggest enough. Song is stuck in my head and I was excited about it. Plus Jessie J is one of the best artists I have seen this year.

Past Club Hits:
Mos Def - Mathematics
Lupe Fiasco - Words I Never Said ft. Skylar Grey
American Anthem - Norah Jones
Dayenu, Coming Home - The Fountainheads Passover Song
Nate Dogg - Oh No
The Maccabeats - Purim Song
Notorious BIG - Big Pappa
Nina Simone - The King of Love is Dead
Debbie Friedman - Alef Bet Vet
OK Go - This Too Shall Pass - Rube Goldberg Machine version
Nas ft. Keri Hilson - Hero
Biz Markie and Jeff Goldblum - Just a Friend
Bob Marley - One Love
Angie Stone - Brotha
Lenny Kravitz - Can't Get You Off My Mind
Jay-Z Death of Autotune
Y-Love and Dov Rosenblatt
2Pac Changes
Nas - I Can
Pete Seeger - Which Side Are You On?