Torture Is A Family Value?

US Congress legalizes torture and indefinite detention
By the WSWS.org editorial board
29 September 2006

The legislation adopted by the House of Representatives Wednesday and the Senate Thursday, legalizing the Bush administration’s policy of torture and indefinite detention without trial, as well as kangaroo-court procedures for Guantánamo detainees, marks a watershed for the United States.

For the first time in American history, Congress and the White House have agreed to set aside the provisions of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and formally adopt methods traditionally identified with police states.

This bill is the outcome of a protracted process of decay of American democracy, which has accompanied the immense growth in social inequality and reached a turning point in the stolen election of 2000. In early December of 2000, on the eve of the US Supreme Court ruling that halted the counting of votes in Florida and awarded the presidency to George W. Bush, who had lost the popular vote nationally to his Democratic opponent Al Gore, David North, the national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party of the US and chairman of the international editorial board of the World Socialist Web Site, in a report on the US election crisis said:

“What the decision of this court will reveal is how far the American ruling class is prepared to go in breaking with traditional bourgeois-democratic and constitutional norms. Is it prepared to sanction ballot fraud and the suppression of votes and install in the White House a candidate who has attained that office through blatantly illegal and anti-democratic methods?

“A substantial section of the bourgeoisie, and perhaps even a majority of the US Supreme Court, is prepared to do just that. There has been a dramatic erosion of support within the ruling elites for the traditional forms of bourgeois democracy in the United States.”

The Supreme Court ruling and the refusal of the Democratic Party to oppose it demonstrated that there remained no significant constituency within the American ruling elite for the defense of democratic rights.

The battery of police state measures enacted by the Bush administration, without any serious opposition from within the political establishment, has confirmed this analysis.

The Military Commission Act of 2006 will do far more than set down the procedures to be used to rubber-stamp the incarceration of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay and other US-run detention camps throughout the world. It attacks the rights of all American citizens as well as all legal residents and other immigrants, who will now be subject to the threat of arrest and imprisonment for life, on the order of the president alone, without judicial review.

The legislation now goes back to the House of Representatives for a final vote Friday, to reconcile minor language differences between the two versions. President Bush is expected to receive the bill for signing by the weekend.

Under the terms of this law, the president may designate any person as an “unlawful enemy combatant,” to be rounded up by intelligence agents and jailed indefinitely without legal recourse. The law defines an “unlawful enemy combatant” as “an individual engaged in hostilities against the United States” who is not a regular member of an opposing army.

Given the Bush administration’s elastic view as to what constitutes “hostilities,” this definition has the potential to erase any legal distinction between an actual Al Qaeda terrorist, an Arab immigrant who makes a charitable donation to Lebanese relief, and an American college student who clashes with police during a protest demonstration against the Iraq war.

The legislation passed the House Wednesday with the support of 34 Democrats, who joined 219 Republicans in the lopsided vote of 253-168. The Senate adopted the bill the next day, by an even wider 65-34 margin, with 12 Democrats joining a near-unanimous Republican bloc.

Before voting on the overall bill, senators defeated four amendments: to restore habeas corpus rights for prisoners, defeated 51-48; to increase congressional oversight of the CIA torture program, which lost 53-46; to impose a five-year limit on the military commissions, which lost 52-47; and to ban specific, named torture techniques, which lost by a similar margin.

The sweeping legislation meets all the desires of the Bush administration except for an explicit repeal of the Geneva Convention. The White House agreed to slightly weaker language that gives the president the power to “interpret” the Geneva Convention to permit lesser forms of torture.

Its major provisions include:

* Authorizing the president to establish military commissions to prosecute detainees taken into US custody, either overseas or within the United States.

* Giving the military commissions power to determine punishment, up to and including death.

* Rules of evidence that permit hearsay evidence and testimony coerced from witnesses.

* Permitting the use of testimony obtained by “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment” if the torture took place before December 30, 2005, when it was banned by Congress.

* Allowing prosecutors to withhold from defendants evidence given to a jury, if it involves classified information, and substitute unclassified summaries.

* Stripping US courts of jurisdiction over detainees, and stripping detainees of their right to seek a writ of habeas corpus.

Violations of the Constitution

Many of the provisions of this legislation are flagrant violations of the US Constitution. This was acknowledged by Republican Senator Arlen Specter, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, who nonetheless voted for the bill after his amendment to restore habeas corpus rights was defeated.

Specter said in the debate that in denying habeas corpus rights for suspects detained in the “war on terror,” the bill “would take our civilized society back some 900 years” to the time before the adoption of the Magna Carta—the first elaboration of democratic principles under English law.

“What this entire controversy boils down to is whether Congress is going to legislate to deny a constitutional right which is explicit in the document of the Constitution itself and which has been applied to aliens by the Supreme Court of the United States,” he said.

Article I, Section 9 of the US Constitution declares: “The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.” No one in the Bush administration or the congressional Republican leadership has suggested that the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 constituted such an invasion. They simply ignore the clear language of the Constitution.

The bill’s other provisions also violate the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution, which spell out the requirements of a fair trial, based on the colonists’ bitter experience with the injustices of the British Crown. The Amendment reads:

“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.”

Prisoners in Guantánamo and other US concentration camps will face trial by a panel of military officers, can be denied the right to see the evidence or witnesses against them, and will have lawyers hamstrung by being under the direct surveillance of the military and working under the authority of the commander-in-chief.

From the standpoint of the Bush administration and the congressional Republican leadership, these gross constitutional violations are not a regrettable necessity but a positive good. They are whipping up public fear of terrorism not merely for short-term electoral purposes, but to lay the basis for a permanent shift to authoritarian forms of rule in the United States.

The role of the Democrats

The votes on four amendments Thursday allowed Senate Democrats to posture as defenders of civil liberties and constitutional freedoms. Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, for instance, denounced the elimination of habeas corpus protection for 12 million legal resident immigrants, as well as for immigrants without legal papers. The provision “makes a mockery of the Bush-Cheney lofty rhetoric about exporting freedom across the globe,” he said, adding, “What hypocrisy!”

Senator Carl Levin of Michigan said, “The habeas corpus language in this bill is as legally abusive of rights guaranteed in the Constitution as the actions at Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo and secret prisons that were physically abusive of detainees.”

But Leahy and Levin did not explain why they and other Democratic leaders refused to block a vote on the legislation through a filibuster, which requires only 40 votes to sustain. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid reached an agreement Wednesday evening with Majority Leader Bill Frist to allow votes on the four amendments in return for the Democrats refraining from any filibuster—although the Democrats filibustered on much less weighty issues, such as the appointment of a number of federal appeals court judges.

In his Senate floor speech, Leahy declared, “We are about to put the darkest blot possible on the nation’s conscience. This is so wrong. . . . It is unconstitutional. It is un-American.” Apparently not so wrong, or so dark a blot, as to impel the Democrats to actually oppose the Bush administration one month before an election.

Instead, Democrat after Democrat facing close contests sided with the Bush administration. The 12 Democratic senators who voted for final passage of the bill included, besides such open right-wingers as Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, liberals facing re-election contests such as Robert Menendez of New Jersey, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Bill Nelson of Florida.

The 34 House Democrats included a number of right-wing Southern Democrats, but also several members of the Congessional Black Caucus and two congressmen who are Democratic candidates for the US Senate in next month’s election—Harold Ford of Tennessee and Sherrod Brown of Ohio.

Brown, a liberal, has sought to appeal to antiwar sentiment in Ohio, a state which has lost a disproportionate number of young men and women in Iraq, including two dozen from a single National Guard unit based in the Cleveland suburb of Brook Park. In an interview with MSNBC.com, Brown said that detainees “are not soldiers, not combatants representing a government, these are terrorists.”

Of course, the ostensible purpose of a judicial proceeding is to determine, on the basis of evidence, whether the accused are actually guilty of the charges against them. Brown, like the Bush administration, assumes that all those seized by the CIA and the US military are guilty, and uses that presumption of guilt to justify star-chamber proceedings.

Brown rejected criticism of his complicity with the Bush administration, saying, “Some people just don’t want me to agree with George Bush on anything.”

The New York Times observed, in its editorial deploring in advance the passage of the bill, the year 2006 will go down in history for the passage of “a tyrannical law that will be ranked with the low points in American democracy, our generation’s version of the Alien and Sedition Acts.” But the newspaper did not attempt to give a serious explanation for this turn toward tyranny, or suggest a basis for fighting against it.

Nor could it, since the Times, along with the rest of the establishment media and both political parties of the American corporate elite, supports the so-called “war on terror,” which is a political fig leaf for the use of militarism and war in pursuit of the global aims of US imperialism. A policy of military aggression and conquest abroad is ultimately incompatible with democracy at home.

The struggle against authoritarian methods of rule must be taken up by the working class, the only social force within American society that retains a deep attachment to the defense of democratic rights. The prerequisite for this struggle is a break with the two parties of the American ruling elite and the building of a mass socialist movement of the working class.

BIG BROTHER IS IN CHARGE.

Following in the footsteps of the House, the Senate yesterday approved the bill which vests in the President the power of indefinite, unreviewable detention (even of U.S. citizens) and which also legalizes various torture techniques. It is not hyperbole to say that this is one of the most tyrannical and dangerous bills to be enacted in American history....And the damned sheep just chew on their grass.

He's Totally Finished....

'Cause he ate his spinach, he's Popeye the Sailor Man. R.I.P.

This Just In From The Twilight Zone....

Dancehall Grows Away From Roots

published: Sunday | September 24, 2006
Courtesy Of The Jamaica Gleaner

Krista Henry, Staff Reporter

"Dancehall was more than the music. Now the modelling come more than the music. The music could tone down a little, men coulda come out wid lyrics that more than just sell sex and violence."

- DJ Burru Banton

Currently, dancehall seems to be mainly about flesh, sex, violence and dancing. However, years ago it was all about creating the 'right vibe' in a space where music, dance and community energy merge.

Dancehall started from the work of early sound systems, such as Sir Coxsone's Downbeat, in the streets of Kingston. Only played at dances, it took hard work from dancehall's finest entertainers to get the new sound on radio in the early '80s. From there dancehall has achieved international success and effectively maintained Jamaica's place as a centre in world music.

Dancehall changed

But dancehall has changed from when it first started, a change that might not necessarily be for the better. In the mid- to late 1980s deejay Admiral Bailey was at the top of the game and he maintains that dancehall now and then are two different things.

While the music has changed, perhaps the biggest change is the dances themselves. The fashion, behaviour and dress typical of dances, such as Weddy Weddy Wednesdays, Hot Mondays, Passa Passa and Gabba Sundays, would not have been seen in dances years ago. According to Bailey, men in tight pants, pink shirts and with bleached out skin is a new phenomenon. He says, "Men were seen as rude boys. Dem a stand up inna di darkest corner of the fete. Back then women tek centrestage, nowadays men a tek over the dance and the video light."

Josey Wales, who has been deejaying from the 1970s, and Burru Banton, who emerged on the music scene in 1975, lamented about the nudist fashion sense of today's dancehall. "Dancehall was always concerned with the fashion thing, but it wasn't so x-rated. Everyone used to go to a dance to see the fashion, the ting is that men then didn't wear tight pants and the women didn't have their 'furniture' on display," Josey Wales said. Banton concurs that dancehall now is like a fashion house, where people go near naked, and says it has gone too far.

"We go a Asylum di other nite and di girls a dutty wine, OK. But now dem a hot fk. It gone too far. This is not like when we go dances where it used to be just fun", he said.

The veterans contend that while the fashion has changed and the dancehall has been elevated from a zinc fence lawn to a club, the music is still the same, with the exception of the lyrics. "Lyrics have changed over time. People want to hear about violent things now. Style and fashion, people used to love to hear about that," Bailey said.

Gangsterism the same

Wales contends that the gangsterism, a mentality he claims came from Rasta, the true founder of dancehall, is the same. "People tried to imitate them by wearing the khaki suit. Di music emulate the Rasta theory, way of thinking. The two greatest forces at the time was Rasta and Christians. Dancehall at that time was more Christian, the DJs were more Christian," he said.

"The only difference in the music is that it's a bit faster. We old guys can be on the same riddim as these new guys. You can sing anything you want, dem just bleep it out, which don't mek sense 'cause you get the storyline already. Back then you yourself wouldn't come out and talk dem tings, you neva need police to stop you," Josey Wales said.

Banton agrees that while in his heyday dancehall was considered slack, it was not violent like it is today. While he is not fighting against the artistes, as a concerned parent he does not want violent music in his household. "The amount of gun songs out there, telling kids you can kill people and is nothing. That's why we have so must violence. Dem tings must clean up," he said.

Another thing that needs to be cleaned up, according to Admiral Bailey, is the disunity among artistes. In his day there was a sense of community; now at a stage show, artistes avoid each other. "Now everyone is separate. You go behind stage and can't find no artiste. Dem stay inna dem bus until they are called," he said.

Burru Banton advises the present crop of DJs and dancehall fans to stop emulating American culture. He says, "Europe don't see dat side of di ting, the rawness. We a tek off America too much. We must put a Jamaica dream, where people want to come and dream of Jamaica. We a go backways."

Despite the criticism, none of them dispute the achievements and potential of dancehall music. Which was unexpected, as Admiral Bailey never thought the music would be as successful internationally as it is. "Dancehall is a creativeness, whether it's dancing, lyrics, sound, is just creative. We neva know dancehall coulda buss internationally. Dem time singers were di ting, we brought it to the next level. But like Sean Paul, Shaggy, Beenie Man, we didn't think people coulda go out dere and know and recognise Jamaican DJs," Bailey said.

Rock The Block!!

I'd like to thank all of the students from the College Of Charleston, Charleston Southern & The Citadel for making my performance at the "Rock The Block" a huge success! Your energy was contagious & I'm glad that I was able to bring some cool & positive vibes to the Block Party. I'm told that there were at least 1500 people in attendance. Hopefully, I'll be asked to perform at local college functions in the future.It makes me feel good to see people enjoying themselves & truly appreciating my music. Hope to see you again really soon. For those of you interested in purchasing some of my music, feel free to contact me via e-mail.

paparobbie@gmail.com

From The What The Hell Section....

'Cocaine' drink claims to be real thing

Anti-drug campaigners today attacked the makers of a soft drink who have called their product cocaine.

The high-energy drink is being billed as a "legal alternative" to the class A drug, using a massive hit of caffeine instead of cocaine.

Its maker claims the title is "a bit of fun" but critics slammed the technique as a cynical ploy which could tempt young people into using drugs.

The drink's inventor, Jamie Kirby, said: "It's an energy drink, and it's a fun name. As soon as people look at the can, they smile."

He claims Cocaine is "350 percent stronger than Red Bull" but that people do not experience the "sugar crash" or jitters that he says some of the other energy drinks can produce.

But David Raynes, of the UK National Drug Prevention Alliance, said: "It is people exploiting drugs. It is a pretty cynical tactic exploiting illegal drugs for their own benefit."

Las Vegas-based drinks company Redux Beverages is producing the drink which contains 280 milligrams of caffeine. According to the company's website, the only way to get more caffeine per ounce is with an espresso.

Mr Raynes added: "The fact is that subliminally, it is making the image of drug use cool and that's what kids what to be, cool.

"Kids will be drinking Cocaine and will inevitably link the two. The drink is relatively innocuous, but they will be linking it with cocaine use and the market, which is far from innocuous."

Dr Charles O'Brien, a professor and vice chairman of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, said: "It's just a bad idea and has all the same downsides of too much caffeine plus a very bad name."

The company has received inquiries about selling Cocaine in Britain and throughout Europe. At the moment it is being sold only in the Los Angeles and New York metropolitan areas - mainly to teenagers.
Courtesy Of DailyMail.uk

Chuck D Speaks

Whos Your Hero? ... The VIBE Mag Rebuttal.

September 20, 2006

.... When I was first asked to do an interview answering to VIBE's concern about reality shows and the mismanagement of female images in media, I straight out flatly refused. I'm neither arrogant, elitist, nor bitter, its just that the problems with the topic are beyond articles, sound bites, and special one off tele, broad, or even webcasts. It's worthy of dissertation, educational curriculum, and books of new social science containing cultural analysis yet to be published and exposed. Quite frankly I had my reservations until Danyel Smith took over the magazine (one which to me has had the tendency of coming off like a cultural coloring book). I wish the mag and VIXEN a testosterone-less good look and luck. And it's the main reason agreeing to the issue here at hand.

With that said, the question of how blacks are treated in the world of reality television is answered simply in that reality TV is not reality at all. It's shot, canned, edited, and processed Amerikkkan style like Mickey D fries, over 300 million served and told. The public should know that Flavor's and other reality shows are shot five months beforehand within a ten day span, so how stupid is it when people wait week by week to find out something that at happened a half a year before? Pavlovic eh? It's no secret when we don't control things, they can end up governing our existence. Black ownership in media is nil and none. Maybe there's some negrownwership in the house, because corporations (usually a squad of white males) need them around to create and endorse 'niggers' - this avoids the race tag I guess. Black media tries to justify parallel programming by saying they need numbers to stay in business. This is a root problem that quantifies black people in a rating system of eyeballs and ears rather than the old school issue of 'quality' and 'feelin' it.

But the scientific effects go beyond race as most Americans generally have a poor grip on geography and history (i.e. a shameful 18% of US citizens own passports, and many Americans we're surprised so many black folk lived in New Orleans after watching the news drunken-ality of post Katrina). When one studies mass communication you find that each situation broke a giant genie out of and busted the bottle with it. Martin Luther (not the king or the singer) with the printing press, Marconi with radio, and various events leading up to post World War Two invention of television. Television is considered the most powerful weapon/tool created to inflict influence. More powerful than a hundred trillion bibles, Korans, or Torahs in the minds of the masses. The power as far as black folk is concerned is like a snapshot of a gathering. If you were in that gathering and the snapshot was passed around, the first person you look for is yourself. This is the basic reason black folks flock and suck to the tube. Take science, drop it in some perceived culture, and you can have some millennium pied piper sht goin on.

Ok, before I lose you to whippings of ass distraction which is the reality television credo; those powers that be move the M in 'the masses', and consider 'them asses' - just consumers. In a land where a village idiot reigns at the top, it's no surprise that many citizens would be reduced to 'vidiots'. Anti-lectualism and mass dumbassification puts big brother on blast, thus television across five hundred channels comes across as candied stress relief away from the rigors of reality. Thus reality gets created for mass consumption just like the black entertainment and athlete gods are created by the 'godmakers' that the public does not or doesn't care to know.

When one examines the positioning of women and especially black women in the media, again it's reduced to whatever sells. We've heard that sex sells for the longest time but the past fifteen years corporations looking for numbers have perved their way into selling it to a severely underage demographic. Just check the nearest sixth grader nearest you. Reality TV, music, hip hop and their adult themes have indirectly invited kids to the orgy.

This disturbance is Xeroxed, reflected, and re-emitted by hip hop in the treatment of women. If mass media has basically been a locker room, that women have had to find a safe corner haven, then hip hop is that testosterone heavy, dude crib where the refrigerator's empty, rugs filthy garbage overflowed, unkept nasty bathroom for all to trip over the debris. Videos have captured the eyeballs for years, and now if they can roll ten to fifteen hot chicks per rapper/singer, marketing teams ( I'm so sick of that wack term marketing 2006 = pimpin) can keep making ugly the new cute...WTF!? This process has been followed by television programming. To hell with an idea and script for the lowest denomination.

But Viacom and reality shows are inseparable, the real world jumped it off in the early 90's. What's more disturbed is that Christina Morgan of MTV Networks, Debra L. Lee of BET, and Cathy Hughes of Radio One are all black women, and presidents of the most powerful portals of culture, image - portrayals that tens of millions of black folk visit daily, and at the same time black women's images have never been so low. ( a shameless plug here is all female rap group Crew Grrl Order debut on my SLAMjamz.com label, it'll be interesting to see the support of these womens' recordings by these mega conglomerates come this October 2006) Then again when Biggie told the crowd to rub your privates if you love hip hop, and smart cats in fear of being called 'out' just did it cause Simon said it, what do you expect ten years later?

This brings me to Flav's scenario. Yes, there is a problem but he's been generally the same cat I pulled up from his humble beginnings twenty-five years ago. Flav has always existed with a somewhat conscious surrounding, and Public Enemy was a varied, diversified collection of personalities, just as our neighborhood depicted. And we reflected that black men we're still grouped in one boxed Amerikkan cookie cutter category whether lawyer, clown, militant, athlete, mechanic, drug dealer, drug addict, soldier, academic cat, thug etc. At the crest of R&B (Reagan and Bush) black life was considered valueless in Amerikka. Flav was Skittles and Starburst to Professor Griff's okra and beets, and everything else we did was in between. Somehow along the way black life and culture was deemed profitable, and the big great white male took interest and fought over the seven seas of soul. Niggativity, which was a minority element in the hood, had its DNA corporately extracted and created the climate for a Flavor Of Love and others. It's called diminishing returns. I'm glad Flav is busy, really not surprised at all ( been traveling and living with dude all over the earth 20 years people, 56 countries, 54 tours....hello why would I be surprised?) But it's a double wince at times when the stats say that its a well watched program by the masses of blackfolk and the topic the next day amongst blackfolk at school and work. Grown people mind you.

Personally I thought Flavor was the smartest cat in the room on Surreal Life, and showed the heart he had in Strange love (although I interjected when I heard a conflict was shot between he and his ex, and I threatened VH 1 and the production company if they aired it, we'd have problems...they were calling the conflict 'good TV'...... sht) When Flav told me he was doing a Flavor version of the bachelor, I just laughed and wished him luck. Flavor Flav is addicted to fame, he ain't never changed. When he has had run ins with the law and some substance cases, it's been when his fame was on the low. In that position I know this magazine and other cultural mags, shows, blogs etc, would cover the worst news unfit to print to get black folk's knee jerk consumer response at the register. After continued run ins and possible boredom in the Bronx, Hank Shocklee and I suggested he head to California. Hollywood, the place where every time I visit and leave there I have to take IQ rehab. You must understand twenty years ago, myself and Hank formed a noisy rap vehicle in words and sonic assault. PE was to destroy music as we knew it, because it was elitist from a position of black complacency. We knew individuals in the form of Negroes and niggers marionetted in black guise, for the sake of getting rich for self and never thinking, we're running abundant under those blonde suits. At least we knew Flav would be the loudest in whatever room, restaurant he was in. In a twisted way perhaps he was an asteroid smash landed to possibly change the terrain of imagery, and wake some people up.

The truth is that our image was forsaken in the 90's when drawing the line was blurred, set back or didn't matter as much. Black folk started calling athletes and entertainers 'heroes and legends' instead of everyday people doing real and important things. Class clowns and thugs were co signed and socially applauded and rewarded by lazier working images and shielded by money. While teachers, and valedictorians were being clowned, thus silencing the smartest kids in the room.

Corporation's millennium marketing big picture says Black people are not asked we are told, and black women are simply just ordered whether it's a demand or as virtual plate-side condiments.

We've gone from being laughed with to laughed at. Contrary to popular belief things ain't gotta be hip hop or have streetcred to cut across to us, but somebody better reverse this momentum that Amerikkan whitefolks believe, or forever culture here will be petri dished in a boardroom.

Ultimately this is a wake up call to prevent the 'falling off of black America.' It has little to do with how much money one has, when black folks stop praising and weighing cultural and social success to things and individuals just because money is made, then some of the climate will reverse itself. When culture and news props up those with degrees and key community profile instead of putting celebrity baby mama issues on the front blast page and reflects cats who work everyday for our people with no gloss, floss and glory then the climate will reverse. Perhaps Flavor is an introduction to black folks killing off the nigger in ourselves.

This just in....the rest of PE continues to do and contribute socially nationally and abroad, we're balanced as a structure and expect no coverage or publicity campaign costing 6k a month. But I don't do reality TV and won't bend for it. Amongst many things I've been on the Air America Radio network the past three years with a black woman co-host, Gia'na Garel, boosting social-cultural-political opinions nationally and abroad. We expect a minority of listeners, but also I realize the glaring fact that if I'd merely robbed a gas station I wouldn't need a publicist, I'd be put on blast on every black media outlet possible and every black person beyond reading this would easily apply my name to the negative, like what Eddie Johnson just went through .

So I would like this to be read, and thoroughly comprehended. If not and it's fulla sht and too deep then there you have it. I'm glad you've made it this far. Don't expect some reality show nearest you, I'm not for sale and quick to telling people' nunya gd damn bizness...

Gone....

'I cannot teach you, I can only help you explore yourself' Bruce Lee

Chuck D Mistachuck@rapstation.com On The Real radioshow w Giana Garel Airamericaradio.com sunday nights 11p-1est. www.publicenemy.com www.SLAMjamz.com www.rapstation.com

FINALLY!!! Someone with a heart!!!

I just bought a bunch of Starbury clothing & shoes myself and plan to buy plenty more. Stephon Marbury is doing the right thing and I hope more athletes and entertainers would get the intestinal fortitude to do the same thing. Click on the Starbury link to learn more.








Marbury promotes affordable sneakers

By MONICA HAYNES
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
12-SEP-06

Stephon Marbury does not ride a horse throughout the countryside yelling about guys in red coats.

Stephon Marbury does not make impassioned pleas about liberty or death.

Stephon Marbury merely came up with the idea of selling high-quality sneakers and apparel for less than $15.

However, in a world where youngsters have been convinced that any sneaker worth wearing has to cost almost as much as a monthly car payment, Marbury's concept could be the shot heard 'round the world.

This New York Knicks point guard/revolutionary is bringing his $14.98 Starbury Ones basketball sneakers around the country during a 42-city, 17-day tour.

The two-time NBA All-Star says he will be wearing Starbury Ones when he plays in the coming season.

"My first home game I'm going to go to the store and pick up a pair of shoes and bring them to the (Madison Square) Garden and lace them up and play in them," he said.

Marbury says Starbury Ones have the same quality leather and construction as the sneakers NBA legend Michael Jordan and other basketball stars have turned into a near necessity of urban childhood.

Ironically, the man behind the Jordan marketing is Erin Patton, who is now helping Marbury develop his line.

In fact, Marbury was one of those youngsters growing up in the public housing projects in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, N.Y., who could not afford the $150 sneakers marketed to those who could least pay for them.

Nothing in his Starbury clothing and shoe line, sold exclusively at Steve & Barry's stores, costs more than $15.

The 29-year-old basketball star and father of three can now buy anything his family wants, but he still remembers the times when he couldn't.

"I know how hard my mother had to work for the little bit she had," said Marbury, who was the sixth of seven children in his family. "I wouldn't even ask my mother to buy me some $200 shoes. Being in the NBA and being able to provide for my family is a beautiful thing."

He believes that his sneaker revolution can help young people and their parents to be educated consumers. His line includes leather jackets for $10, hats, hoodies, jeans and jean jackets and a variety of sneakers.

The clothes and sneakers in his line are the same exact stuff, he said, as the lines that cost much more. He created the line with Steve & Barry's, which was founded in 1985 at the University of Pennsylvania to offer items found at the campus bookstore for much lower prices. After expanding to other university campuses around the country, it branched out to other casual apparel in 1998.

Asked how he can sell his items at such an unheard of price, Marbury simply states that it cost less than $14.98 to make them. Steve & Barry's also cuts costs by doing no advertising, relying heavily on word of mouth.

Marbury said his clothing line "is creating a positive flow of energy for people to feel good about themselves," he said.

And that positive attitude is flowing right back to Marbury during his tour.

He said one woman, a mother of eight, called him her hero because finally she was able to buy her children all something at one time.

"I created the tour because I wanted people to really understand we're not just doing this for money," Marbury said. "Sure, it takes money to do what we're doing, to travel, stay in hotels, but it's not about the money. It's about basically showing the love.

"This is not about basketball," he continued. "Everything we're doing is motivated by us, just being a group of people who feel it's time for change."

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)

POPEYE'S IN TROUBLE

Popeye The Sailor Man Panicked by Spinach Recall
Written by Gail Farrelly

As the U.S. recalls bagged spinach due to an E. coli scare, Popeye The Sailor Man is in a state of total panic. Friends are trying to get him interested in carrots, but so far it's a no go. "How can I live without spinach?" he asks. "It's part of my persona. I draw all my strength from it." Poor Popeye is quiet, inactive, sad and depressed, confident that he will become a total wimp without that very special green fuel that keeps him going.

Girlfriend Olive Oyl expresses sympathy for her man. When she's with him, that is. But in reality she's delighted with the recall, confiding to friends, "Spinach is okay, but he expects me to make it all the time. I mean, year after year, how much spinach can you take? The guy has a one-track mind." Olive reports she's done it all: hot spinach, cold spinach, chopped spinach, spinach salads, spinach soufflé, and so on. "I'm sick of it! Can't I have a string bean once in a while? Or maybe a carrot?" (Now's your chance Olive, now's your chance!)

Equally delighted to hear about the recall was Suzy SpinachHater of Westchester, New York. She complains, "I'm only eleven years old, and I already must have heard 'eat your spinach' from my mom at least a million times. How boring is that? Enough already." Suzy says she's usually disgusted with the government but now she feels differently. "I mean, to hear the government say 'don't eat your spinach,' how cool is that? Right on man, right on."

Norman NoSympathy, Executive Director of The Broccoli Growers of America, has issued a statement stressing all the safety precautions BROCCOLI growers take to ensure the safety of their very nutritious product. In public, he's expressed sympathy for the producers of spinach. Privately, he's indicated to friends, "Yippee! Now broccoli will get the market share it deserves."

An investigation continues as to what caused tainting of the spinach. There's the possibility that it wasn't an accident. No official suspects have been named. However, Spoof spies report that Olive Oyl, Sally SpinachHater, and Norman NoSympathy are definitely considered "persons of interest" in the investigation.

First The Fat Boys Broke Up....

Now Bobby & Whitney are splitting up. Wow. I'm amazed that it took this long. What will Bobby do about his series "Being Bobby Brown"? I suppose there's plenty of freebase footage to use.

A Brief History Of The U.S.A.

JOURNEY THROUGH MY MIND!!!!

WINDOWS HS: Microsoft Does High School

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (AP) -- Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has famously called high schools "obsolete" and warned about their effect on U.S. competitiveness. Now, his company has a chance to prove that it can help fix the woes of public education.

After three years of planning, the Microsoft Corp.-designed "School of the Future" opened its doors Thursday, a gleaming white modern facility looking out of place amid rows of ramshackle homes in a working-class West Philadelphia neighborhood.

The school is being touted as unlike any in the world, with not only a high-tech building -- students have digital lockers and teachers use interactive "smart boards" -- but also a learning process modeled on Microsoft's management techniques.

"Philadelphia came to us ... and asked us to design a school," said Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer of Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft. "We're going to take our best shot."

The company didn't pay the $63 million cost -- that was borne by the Philadelphia School District -- but shared its personnel and management skills. About 170 teens, nearly all black and mainly low-income, were chosen by lottery to make up the freshman class. The school eventually plans to enroll up to 750 students.

Sabria Johnson, a 14-year-old from West Philadelphia, said she is excited to be attending the school.

"We're getting a chance to do something new," said the freshman, who hopes one day to go to Harvard or to the London College of Fashion. "We don't get a lot of opportunities like the suburban kids."

Mundie said companies have long been concerned that schools aren't churning out graduates with the skills and know-how that businesses require in employees to compete globally -- and mental acuity is especially critical to Microsoft.

"Our raw material is smart people," he said.

School district CEO Paul Vallas said he was impressed by more than just the company's technology.

"I was also taken by their culture," Vallas said. "They created a culture within which ideas can be generated and acted upon."

At the 162,000-square-foot high school, which sits on nearly eight acres, the day starts at 9:15 a.m. and ends at 4:19 p.m., simulating the typical work day. Officials said studies show students do better when they start later in the day.

Students -- who are called "learners" -- use smart cards to register attendance, open their digital lockers and track calories they consume. They carry laptops, not books, and the entire campus has wireless Internet access.

Teachers, or "educators," rather than using blackboards, have interactive "smart boards" that allow teachers to zoom in and out, write or draw, and even link to the Internet.

There's no library, but an "interactive learning center" where information is all digital and a "multimedia specialist" will help out students.

Instead of a cafeteria, there's a food court with restaurant-style seating. The performance center -- where two sections rotate close to create a smaller space -- replaces the typical auditorium.

"This is completely different from any Philadelphia school I've ever seen," said Tramelle Hicks, 39, of West Philadelphia, whose 15-year-old daughter, Kierra, is going to the school. She said she believes her daughter would benefit from learning strategic and organizational skills from Microsoft.

The high school will use an "education competency wheel," patterned after a set of desirable traits Microsoft encourages among its employees. Officials, teachers and students are to be trained in dozens of skills, including organizing and planning, negotiating, dealing with ambiguity and managing relationships.

Students have scheduled appointments with teachers, typed into their online calendars, instead of being limited to structured times for classes. Their laptops carry software that assesses how quickly they're learning the lesson. If they get it, they'll dive deeper into the subject. If not, they get remedial help.

Lessons will have more incorporation of current events to teach subjects. For instance, a question of whether Philadelphia is safe from the avian flu will teach students about geography, science and history.

"Learning is not just going to school," said Shirley Grover, the school's energetic principal who came from the American School in Milan, Italy. "Learning is equal to life."

In addition, students at the school must apply to college to get a diploma.

This new approach to education has sparked the interest of Doug Lynch, vice dean of the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania.

"Two things are quite intriguing -- the willingness of the district and Microsoft to try something different," Lynch said. He cautioned, however, that while trying new methods may be valuable "we have to be careful because you're messing with kids' lives."

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Reporter Gets Clock Cleaned....

As much as I despise FAUX NEWS, I must admit that these people were obviously wrong in every way. This guy did't deserve this.

Footage Of Mos Def's Arrest

How many of these "rappers" are willing to go out and get arrested for something worth a damn? Not many. Mos Def is from the old school activist mindset. He gets props for not being a shufflin', head scratchin' conspicuous consumption lovin' fool.

Mos Def: KATRINA CLAP

Here's the song that Mos Def was performing when he got arrested

WARN DEM!!!

One of my favorite songs from Tanya Stephens' Rebelution CD...WARN DEM

Mos Def Arrested at MTV Awards

Mos Def was taken into custody and charged with disorderly conduct Thursday night after an unauthorized performance outside Radio City Music Hall during the Video Music Awards, police confirmed to MTV News.

According to authorities, the rapper pulled up in front of the venue in a flatbed truck around 10 p.m. for an impromptu show for the audience gathered outside. An NYPD spokesperson said officers asked Mos Def and members of his entourage to shut down their operation due to crowd conditions and the overall safety of everyone involved.


It wasn't clear whether Mos Def (real name: Dante Smith) ignored or refused the orders, the police spokesperson continued.

Sources close to the rapper said Mos Def was performing "Katrina Clap," a freestyle indictment of the Bush administration's slow response to last year's hurricane victims in New Orleans.

After Mos Def arrived at Radio City Music Hall with his team in tow, the source said, officers on the scene approached the truck inquiring about a permit. When police were told a permit was in possession, officers let the one-song performance continue.

The source said additional officers then approached the rapper demanding the operation be shut down immediately. The order wasn't communicated to Mos Def immediately, so the rapper didn't end his performance right away, the source said. Police then began to arrest members of the rapper's entourage, including his brother, according to the source. It was unclear whether or not a permit was granted.

Mos Def's publicist called the New York Police Department's treatment of the rapper excessive.

"Mos Def was unjustly arrested tonight while performing on a flatbed track in New York City outside the Video Music Awards," said Carleen Donovan. "Mos Def was not out to break any laws. His only goal was to heighten the awareness of a serious situation that still exists in our country. He does not want people to forget that although it's one year later, the people and cities hit by the hurricane still need the help of the American people."

Members of Mos Def's camp say they have the entire ordeal on tape and will publish the video, possibly on a Web site, to shed light on their side of the confrontation.

Mos Def was released early Friday morning (September 1).
-Courtesy of MTV.com