The website and campaign, funded by the Restoration Project criticize Jackson for changing his position on abortion after being against it in the 1970s.

BET.com reports:

According to the Restoration Project, the organization behind the campaign and the billboard, African-American leaders have duped Blacks by their failure to take a stand against abortion in the African-American community.

“Something is wrong when those elected to protect the interests of their constituents turn a blind eye to the horrific impact that abortion is wreaking on the Black community,” said Catherine Davis of the Restoration Project. “In New York City, for every 1,000 Black babies born alive, 1,489 are aborted. In Washington, D.C., for every 100 Black babies born alive, 165 are aborted! Something is wrong!”

Read More At BET.com

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As the news was recently released that Black leaders had convened to attack the 40-year old “War on Drugs,” I could hear the collective “amen” coming from millions of Black folks all across America. I also heard my phone ring at 5:30 am, as a friend of mine in Kansas City told me about how her brother had been tackled by Federal Marshalls at a relative’s funeral for failing a urine analysis that had been a condition of his probation. The man had served several years in prison on a drug felony and was working hard to improve his life. But by smoking the same stuff that many attorneys and judges enjoy on the weekends, he may find himself back in prison for another five years.

I recall speaking to a police officer in one of the cities I was touring at the time. The officer candidly explained to me that nearly every official in the city was fully aware of where the drugs were coming from. They knew which boat delivered the drugs and could easily go onto the boat and make arrests that would significantly reduce the flow of drugs into their communities. The problem was that the person who owned the boat was politically connected, implying that any officer who entered the boat to make an arrest would be fired from his job. However, the officers were given full permission to make as many arrests as they wanted once the drugs had been delivered to various street corners on the urban side of town.

While these stories are anecdotal, they are also highly reflective of the racism and hypocrisy in our nation’s war on drugs. The drug war has been, for the most part, a racially-tinged fabrication that gives easy excuses to those who once felt that black empowerment had become a threat to national security. Not only has it been proven that the government consistently looked the other way as drugs flowed into Black neighborhoods, but there was the double-whammy of giving Black men long prison sentences as a result of possessing those very same drugs.

Decades later, the Black family is decimated unlike anything we’ve ever seen before: Over 70% of Black homes are fatherless and Black males are the leading victims of gun violence in America, with many of those weapons arriving into our community as a direct function of the drug trade. Black men going to prison is the norm for most families, as a recent Your Black World survey showed that over 75% of African Americans have a relative who has spent time in the penitentiary.

Last week, when I made an appearance with Jeff Henderson from the Food Network (aka Chef Jeff) regarding the state of the Black male in America, he candidly described the days in which he was a successful crack dealer in South Central Los Angeles. After serving 10 years in federal prison, Henderson has parlayed his experience into a powerful business model that leans on the cooking and business expertise he developed while being incarcerated. One thing that Jeff said which got me thinking was that “It seemed like crack just appeared in the hood,” explaining that before the crack cocaine epidemic, his community was entirely different from what it was before.

The guns and drugs that “just appear” in Black communities do not fall out of the sky. They are also not manufactured by African Americans. Most of this devastation is prepared for us in advance, with a larger agenda by greedy politicians who are not wired to care about what happens to urban children and families. The war on drugs has destroyed too many of us and killed many more, and it’s time for it to come to an end by any means necessary (yes, I am deliberately quoting Malcolm, who will always be my hero in spite of what Manning Marable chose to write about him).

Jesse Jackson said it best during the recent forum on the drug war.

“This is a crime against humanity. War on drugs is a war on Black and Brown and must be challenged by the highest levels of our government in the war for justice,” said the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson.

“This is government-sponsored terrorism,” Jackson said. “It raised the price on Black existence; it is an attack on the Black family; it has destroyed a generation. Those who are the least users have paid the most price because of race; those with money and attorneys have paid the least price. Those without attorneys remain behind bars today.”

“I’m here to tell you that one of the most fundamental pillars of what we see going on in our communities, this combustible caldron of genocide and death, is this war on drugs,” said Ron Daniels, CEO of the Institute of the Black World, which held the forum at which Rev. Jackson was speaking. “Why? It’s because it’s a racist war on drugs…I know many people are out there saying, ‘Why are you Negroes still talking about racism?’ That’s because we’ve been targeted for the police action – the war on drugs is a war on us.”

The string of statistics quoted in the Seattle Medium tell the story quite well.

• African-Americans are 62 percent of drug offenders sent to state prisons, yet they represent only 12 percent of the U. S. population.

• Black men are sent to state prisons on drug charges at 13 times the rate of White men.

• Drug transactions among Blacks are easier for police to target because they more often happen in public than do drug transactions between Whites.

• The disparities are particularly tragic in individual states where Black men are sent to federal prison on drug charges at a rate 57 times greater than White men, according to Human Rights Watch.

• More than 25.4 million Americans have been arrested on drug charges since 1980; about one-third of them were Black.

• The Black populations in state prisons are majorly disproportionate: In Georgia, the Black population is 29 percent, the Black prison population is 54 percent; Arkansas 16 percent -52 percent; Louisiana 33 percent-76 percent; Mississippi 36 percent-75 percent; Alabama 26 percent -65 percent; Tennessee 16 percent -63 percent; Kentucky 7 percent-36 percent; South Carolina 30 percent-69 percent; North Carolina 22 percent-64 percent; and Virginia 20 percent-68 percent.

• According to the Global Commission on Drug Policy arresting and incarcerating people fills prisons and destroys lives but does not reduce the availability of illicit drugs or the power of criminal organizations.

• The average daily cost per state prison inmate per day in the U.S. is $67.55. State prisons held 253,300 inmates for drug offenses in 2007. That means states spent approximately $17 million per day to imprison drug offenders, or more than $6.2 billion per year.

The individuals at the forum made some powerful recommendations on how this illicit war on drugs can come to an end:

• Ask Congress to repeal mandatory sentences for all drug offenses.

• Ask Congress to create new and fully-funded drug treatment facilities rather than more prisons.

• Press local, state and federal law enforcers to eliminate police profiling as a tactic to deal with drug trafficking.

• Encourage and support religious leaders to assist incarcerated persons and providing community and moral leadership.

• Ask President Obama to create a commission on review, remedy and action for drug laws that lead to racially disparate impacts.

• Ask local, state and federal governments to invest in activities that can both prevent young people from taking drugs in the first place and prevent those who do use drugs from developing more serious problems.

It’s time for all of us to wake up and attack the problem of mass incarceration and the drug war. If there were ever a set of realities that are reflective of the persistent racial divides that continue to plague America, this one would be it. As a man who’s biological father and older brother figure both spent time in prison, this issue is personal to me. I, like so many millions of black people across America, have experienced the hurt and pain that is caused by mass incarceration. It’s time for this system of Americanized apartheid to be brought to an end.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Professor at Syracuse University and founder of the Your Black World Coalition.  To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email,please click here.

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Jackson said in an interview with The Associated Press that he’s visited with the legendary singer four or five times recently, including a few days ago, and that Franklin’s “spirits are high, and her faith is strong.”

“She’s conscious, communicating and taking daily walks up and down the hall,” said Jackson, who accompanied Franklin on one of those walks during his most recent visit.

Franklin announced last week that she had undergone a surgical procedure, but neither she nor her publicist have said what is ailing the 68-year-old Queen of Soul.

Jackson wouldn’t either, other than to say his friend of more than 40 years is responding well to the surgery.

“She has amazing strength — body, religion and faith,” Jackson said. “It’s what he keeps her going.”

Last month, Franklin announced she was canceling all concert dates and personal appearances through May on the orders of her doctors.

It’s been a tough few months for Franklin, whose hits include “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” “Chain of Fools” and her signature song, “Respect.”

Her son, Eddie, was beaten by three men at a Detroit gas station in September. And a month before that, Franklin broke ribs in a fall, causing her to miss two free concerts in New York.

Franklin is one of the most honored singers in American history, having won numerous Grammys, the National Medal of Arts and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She also has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

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If I were locked in a room with Jesse Jackson and Soledad O’Brien and given a gun with exactly 1 bullet, I’d probably blow my own brains out because no matter which of those two I shot, I’d still be stuck with the other one.

Neither Jackson nor O’Brien is my favorite person. I’m almost diametrically opposed to each.

However, in the new and inane argument which has arisen apparently because Jesse slighted Ms. O’Brien “Blackness”, make no mistake, I gotta take up Soledad’s side.

Mr. Jackson, taking issue with Ms. O’Brien light skin—which is due to her being the product of a Black mother and a white father—pretty much implied that Ms. O’Brien isn’t Black at all which, we must agree, is absurd.

Some of the most important and iconic Black people on this hemisphere since the founding of this republic have either been Black or bi-racial (which is the exact same as being Black; don’t get that twisted).

If we were to live by Jesse’s implications, we’d lose Malcolm X, Bob Marley, Muhammad Ali, Halle Berry, Frederick Douglass, Lena Horne, Ntozake Shange, Angela Davis and Barack Obama.

And while some of y’all might think that we could afford to lose at least few of them, trust me when I tell you that we need every last one.

We live in a time during which the greatest freedom is that of choice. You can decide your own sexuality, your own gender and even your own race.

This is why I didn’t include Tiger Woods on my list of light-skinned Blacks. He has made it implicitly clear that he is not Black.

So when someone like Ms. O’Brien actually claims “Blackness”, to have another Black person like Mr. Jackson try to shut them down is so sophomoric that you’d only expect it out of grade schoolers.

Also, if dark skin were the only barometer of “Blackness”, then how come there are no dark-skinned East Indians “saying it loud”? (holla at me Vijay Singh)

Lastly, if we’re to agree that once married, a couple becomes “one”, are we then to suggest that Black people who marry white people, folks like Seal, Taye Diggs, and Paula Patton, become somehow less Black?

Of course not.

Stop it Jesse, please.

You’re only making things worse.

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Kanye West surprises Delta passengers with an impromptu performance [from TheUrbanDaily.com]

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5th Annual Black Girls Rock Awards in NYC [from HelloBeautiful.com]

As I’ve traveled from state to state over the years, I’ve heard folks saying that “we need another Malcolm, we need another Martin,” as if dynamic hip-hop generational leaders like Malia Lazu, Ras Baraka, April Silver, Shani Jamila, and Brian Echols don’t even exist. In fact, I can easily count off 100 such leaders from coast to coast—all of who are doing incredible work in their communities.

We seem to have forgotten the old axiom that all movements are local. Black America has been pining for a national savior since the Civil Rights Movement came to a screeching halt in the 1970s. Apart from our flirtations with Rev. Jesse Jackson and Min. Louis Farrakhan in the 1980s and 90s, we’ve been stuck in the wilderness without any sort of national Black leadership model for forty long and difficult years.

Want to know why large pockets of Black America remain in great despair despite all our amazing post-Civil Rights era advances? Well, look no further than the incredible lack of vision and imagination of our Black leaders—be they elected officials, ministers and imams, public intellectuals, heads of social service organizations, educators, entrepreneurs, or grassroots activists.

Black American leadership has been in a state of arrested development since the days of Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Angela Davis, and the Black Panther Party. But some leaders were killed or driven mad by those times, while others wound up in jail or sold out their principles for access to the American dream, for themselves and their immediate circle, rather than for us all. Little wonder, then, that so many of us have pinned our dreams on Barack Obama in 2008. Someone like him was a long time a-coming.

But, no, President Barack Obama is not a Black leader; he is the President of the United States of America. Not the President of Black America, or of hip-hop America, or of young America. Just America. And therein lies the great irony of Mr. Obama being the first Black president in American history. There is this great expectation that President Obama will be that liberator for us, the modern-day Malcolm X-meets-Dr. King, with a swagger that fuses the jazz of John Coltrane and the hip hop of Jay-Z.

But some in Black America have been hard on President Obama for not being, well, Black enough for their taste. Part of the reason for this feeling is the huge void in visionary Black leadership. We’ve been stuck in this vacuum for so long that we expect Mr. Obama to fill it up for us. We expect him to tell it like it is on race and racism, and fulfill all the needs of Black America.

That is not only completely unfair to Mr. Obama, but it speaks of the desperation surrounding our lack of leadership. Many of us are still searching for the sort of leader that has never existed in the White House, or in the statehouse, or in any city’s City Hall.

Meanwhile, we ourselves are scattered, unfocused, and constantly reacting instead of being proactive. We react to the police murders of Sean Bell (New York) and Oscar Grant (the Bay Area), to the Tea Party, Glenn Beck, and Rush Limbaugh, and to gentrification, mass unemployment and mass incarceration, but where are our proactive local and national agendas?

Yes, no doubt racism is alive and well in America. In spite of all its proclamations to the contrary, America has never had the kind of national conversation about race we truly need. This is not a matter of somebody just giving a speech, no matter how eloquent. What we require is something akin to the truth and reconciliation commission established in South Africa after the fall of apartheid.

But what armchair critics of Barack Obama fail to grasp, in historical terms, is that it has always been the people, not the person in the White House, who pushed our nation forward. If there were no abolitionist movement led by the likes of Frederick Douglass, then there would have been no Emancipation Proclamation by President Lincoln. Without A. Phillip Randolph and others threatening a massive protest in Washington, then Franklin Roosevelt would not have banned discrimination within World War II industries. And with no Civil Rights Movement, there would be no Civil Rights Bill in 1964 and no Voting Rights Act in 1965.

Whoever has occupied the White House has always had to face harsh critics. And W.E.B. DuBois, an intellectual giant who lived well into his 90s, was chief among them. But current sideline critics and some of these multimedia hustlers posing as intellectuals ought to study DuBois a bit more closely. Not only was he a scholar, a prolific writer, and a true renaissance man interacting with Black people globally, but he also helped to build institutions that served the people, including the N.A.A.C.P. He didn’t just dog out a sitting president and leave it there.

DuBois understood that talk can be wonderful, but nothing beats action. And that’s the principle behind the N.A.A.C.P. before that organization went adrift. A strong difference of opinion on the best way to deal with racism is what led DuBois out of the N.A.A.C.P. in the mid-1930s. Here’s a small part of his stinging critique:

“Today this organization, which has been great and effective for nearly a quarter of a century, finds itself in a time of crisis and change, without a program, without effective organization, without executive officers who have either the ability or disposition to guide [it] in the right direction.”

Sound familiar?

DuBois was addressing the need for Black institutions of all kinds. Something that is still badly needed in Black America in 2010.

No wonder we are at such a crossroads in Black American history. On the one hand we have groups like the N.A.A.C.P., which seem so spooked by right-wing zealots that they allow a Shirley Sherrod to go down without making sure the people hear the truth, or even listen to her entire speech. On the other end of the spectrum are all the Barack-haters, folks who never seem to miss an opportunity to verbally assault the President every chance they get. That would include certain motor-mouth Black Ph.D.s, and the sort of media pundits who have much to say about the Black community, but who are rarely ever seen in any Black community except when it’s time for a drive-by photo opportunity.

All this noise makes for great headlines and television ratings, but does absolutely nothing to empower Black America.

It really is a sad joke. Doubly sad when you consider the many challenges we face, including the HIV/AIDS pandemic, nonstop violence in all forms, serious health problems like diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity, and the lack of respect afforded to both our elders and our youth.

Black leadership will continue to be dead if we waste our time heaving hate at Barack Obama, or waiting for him to solve all our problems. We ourselves must rise to meet the challenge. The question is what are you doing, in your local community, on a consistent basis, to build or support institutions that help our people to help themselves?

My job as a leader, and your job, too—if you care enough—is to support true visionary leaders. Folks like Charlie Braxton in Jackson, Mississippi—a handicapped Black man who works day to day, thanklessly and often anonymously, with and for the people. I have seen Charlie bring feuding gang members together, mentor all kinds of young people, create one business after another, and serve as a beacon of light for a community where so many other lights are dimmed.

That is the new model of Black leadership in the twenty-first century: build or maintain institutions that provide direct service, resources, and information to our communities; change, once and for all, how we discuss the many challenges facing our people; and be on the front lines with the people as much as possible.

When we can do that—and identify and support more who do—then we in Black America will have a real shot of getting out of this wilderness. But if we do not, then it will be another long 40 years looking for a Moses who may never come.

Kevin Powell is writer, activist, author of 10 books, and most recently a Democratic candidate for the United States Congress in Brooklyn, New York. He can be reached at kevin@kevinpowell.net

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Jesse Jackson recently released a statement that addressed the rumors of him having an affair with another woman. The same businessman who has accused him of being part of plan to donate money to Rod Blagojevich has said that he also paid for a female social acquaintance, Giovana Huidobro, to fly to Chicago. Of the incident, Jackson said:

The reference to a social acquaintance is a private and personal matter between me and my wife that was handled some time ago. I ask that you respect our privacy, know I have disappointed some supporters, and for that I am deeply sorry. But I remain committed to serving my constituents and fighting on their behalf.

Jackson’s wife, Sandi Jackson, said that the situation was:

A very private, painful and unfortunate situation that my family and I have been privately addressing for several months

Source

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Jesse Jackson Jr. Denies Bribe Allegations

Jesse Jackson Jr. Denies Being Part Of $1 Million Blagojevich Senate Seat Bribe

CHICAGO – Mulling over a possible run for mayor of Chicago, a defiant Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., spoke out publicly for the first time on Friday about potentially damning details that emerged in former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s recent corruption trial.

Prosecutors dropped a bombshell when they said in court a former state official told them Jackson attended a meeting where a businessman offered to raise $1 million for Blagojevich’s campaign if the governor appointed Jackson to President Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat.

Speaking on WLS Radio’s “The Don Wade and Roma Show,” Jackson said he was at the Oct. 28, 2008, meeting in a Chicago restaurant with several prominent members of the city’s Indian-American community but never heard talk about a donations-for-Senate-seat exchange.

One reason he couldn’t participate in the discussion was because other attendees at one point started speaking in a foreign language — possibly Hindi, he said — which he could not understand.

“I did not participate in any part of that conversation nor do I even remember hearing it,” Jackson said.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the possible development of a third regional airport in the southern Chicago suburb of Peotone, he said.

In the Friday interview, Jackson, the son of civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson, also broached the possibility of charges.

“I assume that (prosecutors) have no evidence or they should have brought a charge,” he said. “If I’m a conspirator — bring it on. But I can’t possibly be a conspiracy to that which I am not a part of or have no knowledge of.”

Blagojevich’s trial ended last month with jurors deadlocked on 23 counts, including allegations he attempted to sell or trade an appointment to Obama’s old Senate seat for a top job or campaign cash. They convicted him on just one charge — lying to the FBI.

Blagojevich, who has denied wrongdoing, is slated to be retried on the deadlocked counts in January. Rep. Jackson’s name is likely to come up at least as often as it did in the first trial. If he does decide to run for Chicago mayor, the retrial could coincide with the campaign.

Mayor Richard M. Daley recently said he would not seek a seventh term, setting off speculation about candidates. The mayoral election is in February, but would-be candidates only have until Nov. 22 to file petitions to run.

Asked if he’d be at ease about his name emerging at the retrial while campaigning, Jackson responded, “No, I’m not at ease with it. Who could possibly be at ease with issues that could divert the attention of a very serious debate about the city’s economic future?”

The prospect of such diversions, he said, would be a consideration as he decided about entering the mayoral race.

Jackson, a Democratic congressman from Chicago’s South Side and adjacent suburbs, has said since Blagojevich’s arrest in December 2008 that he knew nothing about any alleged scheme to use campaign fundraising to buy his way into the Senate.

In reiterating that Friday, Jackson complained that the scrutiny of him has been unfair.

“Whatever happened to the idea that someone is innocent in America until proven guilty?” he said. “I have gone through 20 months of unprecedented accusations — unprecedented besmirching of my character.”

A phone message left Friday with Jackson’s Chicago office by The Associated Press was not immediately returned.

While his congressional seat appears safe in the November election — he has won it since 1995 with more than 80 percent of the vote each time — his association with the Blagojevich case has dimmed what once seemed a radiant political future.

Isaac Hayes, Jackson’s GOP challenger, criticized his opponent’s claim of being in the 2008 meeting but not being able to follow the conversation because it was in another language.

“He should resign now and save himself further embarrassment,” Hayes said in a statement.

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DETROIT (AP) — Bill Cosby and the Rev. Jesse Jackson are showing their support for the Detroit Public Schools.

The comedian and the activist were among a number of high-profile figures in downtown on Thursday for a back-to-school parade and Hart Plaza rally. They were joined by nationally syndicated radio host Rickey Smiley.

Hundreds of parents, teachers and students wearing blue “I’m In” student retention campaign T-shirts marched in the parade and participated in the rally.

It’s all part of a larger enrollment effort centered on new academic initiatives, including expanded time for reading and mathematics.

The district is hoping to meet a 77,314-student goal this year.

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Jackson deflected questions about the resolution at a news conference during the annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Kansas City.

Check out our gallery of Civil Rights leaders:

“We will not be diverted or otherwise distracted by any other message except putting America back to work,” Jackson said a day after convention delegates approved the resolution. “We want jobs and justice and peace.”

Sharpton was a little more direct, saying issues surrounding the tea party go beyond claims of racism. He said the civil rights movement sought to pressure the federal government to step in when states were enforcing segregation laws, and the tea party’s focus on states’ rights puts people at risk.

“They talk about restoring dignity. They are really talking about restoring a time before the federal government intervened and protected the rights of people,” Sharpton said.

He noted Arizona’s new law that directs local and state law enforcement to take on federal duties by questioning people about their immigration status, after they’ve been stopped for another crime, if there’s reason to suspect they’re in the U.S. illegally.

“There clearly are some racial leaves in their tea bag,” Sharpton said. “But this is not just about race. It is about how you see government.”

The resolution, approved Tuesday by delegates attending the conference, calls on tea party activists and others to “repudiate the racist element and activities” within the political movement. Tea party organizers quickly disputed its claims of racism and asked the NAACP to withdraw the resolution.

Mark Williams, a spokesman for the Tea Party Express, said Wednesday it was unfortunate that the NAACP has chosen to “profiteer off race-baiting and fear mongering” when it could be doing so much to help the black community.

He also questioned the motives of Sharpton, Jackson and NAACP officials, suggesting they were taking advantage of the publicity the resolution generated.

“I’m not surprised they are jumping into the fray here because the NAACP just tapped a Gulf oil well full of cash contributions that will arrive from this resolution,” Williams said. “And I know Al and Jesse want their piece of it. The slave traders of the 16th century should have been as good at exploiting Africans as these people are, because it’s just disgusting.”

When asked about the tea party, Jackson talked about jobs. He said the country has a plan for fixing other problems, but not for helping the millions who are without jobs — a disproportionate number of them minorities.

Sharpton stressed the Oct. 2 march in Washington, saying it would remind Congress and President Barack Obama about the challenges facing minority neighborhoods. NAACP President Ben Jealous said more than 150 organizations were involved, including civil rights, religious and labor groups.

Civil rights leaders also are planning a smaller event on Aug. 28 at the site where the Martin Luther King Jr. monument will be unveiled next year. Conservative pundit Glenn Beck also is planning a rally in Washington on the anniversary of King’s 1963 march on the nation’s capital, which was capped with his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

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Mel Gibson is not the first celebrity caught on tape going crazy and he won’t be the last. Most celebrities aren’t as nice as they seem on TV and a lot of them have issues regarding sex, race and alcohol.

10. Charlie Sheen Vs. Denise Richards

Why are white celebrities always using the n-word to their ex-girlfriends? Sheen is caught on tape calling his ex-wife and the mother of his children  the c-word (rhymes with bunt) and the n-word (1:20 in)

9. Casey Kasem Vs. Producer

Casey may be known for his cool family friendly voice and as the voice of Scooby-Doo’s Shaggy, but he gets a little irritated when things don’t go his way. When a producer tries to segway him into a story, he quickly loses his temper and goes on a curse filled rant.

8. Jesse Jackson Vs. Barack Obama

After Barack Obama won the election in 2008, Jesse Jackson was on TV, crying. Before Obama won the election, Jackson was telling a colleague that Obama was talking down to black people and he wanted to “rip his nuts off.”

7. Alec Baldwin Vs His Daughter

Alec Baldwin is very funny on “30 Rock,” but he has a serious side as well. After having some issues with his daughter, Baldwin decided to leave a very angry voicemail on her answering machine. Family, anger and voicemails are never a good combination. He threatens to straighten her out and calls he a rude thoughtless little pig, despite the fact that she is only 12 years old(he thinks).

6. Kanye West Vs. MTV

This is the rant that started it all. I think all the ones after this were set up but this rant from Kanye came from the heart.

5. Bill O’Reilly Vs. Inside Edition

O’Reilly had a small meltdown on “Inside Edition” after he had some problems with the teleprompter.

4. Mike Tyson Vs. Lennox Lewis

Tyson starts very pious and religious before ranting against Lennox Lewis and threatening to eat his children with his impregnable defense.

3. Christian Bale Vs. Terminator Crew Member

If Christian Bale can rough up his mother and sister, imagine what he would do to a crew member who interrupted him on set. This rant from the set of “Terminator, Salvation” showed just what a temper Batman really had.

2. Mel Gibson Vs. His Girlfriend

Mel Gibson is not only anti-semetic, but he’s a racist and a sexist too. I’m less disturbed by the n-word than by the fact he believes Black people travel in packs like wolves. I bet Danny Glover wouldn’t take any of that language.

1. Michael Richards Vs Heckler

Michael Richards like many of the fellow celebrity ranters like’s to use the n-word when he is angry yet says he’s not a racist. After bombing at a a comedy show and being heckled by some African Americans, the actor known for playing the fun loving eccentric character, Kramer, on “Seinfeld” went on an n-word laced rant.

First of all, let me say that I run no risk of being labeled an “Uncle Tom” for writing this. I will be labeled an “Uncle Tom” for writing this. But that doesn’t bother me for a couple of reasons.

First, the majority of people that use the pejorative “Uncle Tom” have never read Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Second, the truth, whether it is popular or not, should always be told. And the truth is, Dan Gilbert did the right thing.

In writing a scathing letter that was so anti-LeBron James that it was shocking, Dan Gilbert took the only path that a man in his position could have conceivably felt available.

Click here to view photos:

Yes, he did describe LeBron as “narcissistic” and yes, he did describe LeBron’s leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat as an act of “cowardly betrayal”, but if anybody were to put themselves in Dan Gilbert’s shoes for even a moment, they’d realize why he must have felt that both that letter and those words were absolutely necessary.

Think about it: you own the team that just lost the most marketable player in the sport and you’re going to have to try to sell season tickets next year.

What do you do?

Well, you identify an enemy and you give the hometown folks a rallying point. You give them a reason to come out to the game and spend money. You give them a reason to show love and loyalty to the city of Cleveland and especially the Cleveland Cavaliers.

And hate is just as good a reason as any.

The only mistake that Dan Gilbert made was that he expected everybody to be conned by his so-called “emotional” response, when most of us could see straight through his “passion” and into the financial motivation behind it.

I knew, sadly, that some Black people were going to react some kinda way over the fact that a white billionaire had just insulted a Black soon-to-be-billionaire, but I didn’t expect the good Reverend Jesse “give that bloody shirt to my baby-mama before I cut your balls off” Jackson to get all up in the mix.

Not with Oscar Grant so freshly denied justice and some real Civil Rights Champion-worthy work to be done.

But Jesse probably knew that talking about Oscar Grant wouldn’t get him in the news.

So I can’t even knock him.

I could pretend Jesse Jackson speaks for such a tiny minority that his inflammatory, predictable and misguided remarks about LeBron James and Dan Gilbert are unworthy of rebuke.

But then, I’d have to ignore the mountain of e-mails that poured into my laptop from African-American brothers and sisters making the same argument.

Jesse has a constituency, a passionate group of idiots who believe the best way to combat white-wing political bigots such as Limbaugh and Hannity is with black-wing political bigotry.

And so, in defense of LeBron’s narcissistic ego explosion and Gilbert’s emotional reaction to it, Jesse compared Gilbert to an 18th-century slave owner.

Click here to read more.

Click here to view photos:

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From the Chicago Sun-Times:

The Rev. Jesse Jackson says the Gulf Coast oil spill is a result of the federal government’s weak enforcement of the nation’s environmental laws.

Jackson also said Wednesday that those laws are too weak and that the fines BP has faced for environmental violations are minimal compared with the British-based oil company’s profits.

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Jackson made the comments before leading a protest outside BP’s sprawling oil refinery in Whiting in northwest Indiana.

Click here to read more.

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From the Huffington Post:

By Jesse Jackson

The BP oil disaster in the Gulf Coast is now the most massive spill in world history. The negative impact of oil refining operations is being felt not just along the Gulf Coast, but right next door in Whiting, Indiana as well. The BP refinery in Whiting is polluting our air and water, and threatens the ecosystem of the Great Lakes. It is refining oil made from tar sands, one of the dirtiest forms of crude in the world, and is one of the largest polluters along the Great Lakes.

While the eyes of the world are focused on the unmitigated disaster along the Gulf Coast, there is a growing danger right here in Illinois. BP’s planned expansion of its Whiting, IN refinery — already the 6th largest polluter in the greater Chicago area — threatens the clean, cheap, and plentiful Lake Michigan drinking water, one of our region’s greatest natural resources.

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As Capitol Hill Blue reported, BP’s attack on the Great Lakes comes in three parts:

a) BP wants to drill under Lake Michigan, almost a mile below the lake’s bottom. Think of the Gulf leak, but with fresh, not salt water.

b) BP is the 6th largest polluter in the Chicago area. With its new Whiting refinery capacity, its pollution output will increase by 40%.

c) BP deliberately pollutes Lake Michigan with benzene & mercury. Remnants from the tar sands refining process will be far, far worse.

Click here to read more.

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From the Huffington Post:

A new study released by the Institute on Assets and Social Policy revealed that even when African-Americans had a good education and well-paying jobs, they could not achieve the wealth of their white peers in the workforce. As a result the wealth disparity between white and black households has more than quadrupled, regardless of income bracket.

Disparities are driven by racial discrimination because civil rights laws have all but been abandoned over the past decade. I am making a request that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy to examine ways to strengthen enforcement of civil rights laws.

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For example, Attorney General Holder’s initiative — launched this year to toughen enforcement of civil rights and fair lending laws — is critical. African-Americans and Latinos have disproportionately been affected by the home foreclosure crisis, with ample studies showing these communities were steered to subprime loans when they qualified for prime rate loans.

The IASP study found that middle-income white families hold much more assets (stocks, bonds, business interests, real estate other than primary residence) than do high-income black families and that many black families hold more debt than assets and at least 25 percent of black families had no assets to turn to in times of economic hardship.

This crisis deserves a White House conference. We vote in record numbers. We serve in the military. We’re playing on athletic fields. We’re No. 1 in infant mortality. We have lower life expectancy. There’s and obvious health gap, but more than that, a broad range of structural gaps that must be addressed. We sing, dance and entertain.

Click here to read more.

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From MSNBC:

DAKAR – Senegal’s monument to the “African Renaissance” will be formally unveiled before foreign dignitaries and celebrities on Saturday.

Slightly bigger than New York’s Statue of Liberty, the giant group of man, woman and infant is perched on a hill overlooking the Senegalese capital Dakar.

Click below to view GALLERY: Top Newsmakers

President Abdoulaye Wade has invited about 30 heads of state to the inauguration, a day before the 50th anniversary of Senegal’s independence. U.S.-Senegalese rapper Akon and U.S. civil rights activist Jesse Jackson will also attend.

Opponents of the statue — which is billed as representing Africa’s rise from “centuries of ignorance, intolerance and racism” — are due to protest in central Dakar on Saturday despite a ban on all marches by town authorities.

In the latest blow to Wade’s project, a leading imam on Friday issued a fatwa condemning it.

The $28-million statue has been criticized as a waste of money in a country with crumbling infrastructure and welfare provision, while Muslims have branded it “un-Islamic” for presenting the human form as an object of worship.

Click here to read more.

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Two months after ending his annual State of the Black Union conference, Tavis Smiley is gathering African-American advocates to press the case for a “black agenda.”

The decision was motivated by what Smiley called recent statements from some black leaders downplaying the need for President Barack Obama to specifically help African-Americans.

“I was compelled to do it because of this debate,” the activist and PBS talk show host said Wednesday.

The panel discussion will be March 20 at Chicago State University. Panelists include advertising pioneer Tom Burrell, professors Michael Eric Dyson and Cornel West, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and Bennett College President Julianne Malveaux.

The meeting is free and open to the public. Negotiations to televise the event are in progress, Smiley spokeswoman Leshelle Sargent said.

Some black politicians and activists have recently begun to question Obama’s longtime stance that helping the overall economy will improve the fortunes of blacks who are disproportionately poor and unemployed.

West, for example, gave Obama a grade of C minus on policies and priorities focused on poor and working people, saying, “He has really not come through in any substantial and significant way.” Members of the Congressional Black Caucus have blocked some legislation until their demands were met.

Last week, Smiley and the Rev. Al Sharpton had a fierce argument about the issue on Sharpton’s radio show, with Sharpton taking heated exception to Smiley’s claim that the reverend was giving Obama a pass on black issues.

When Smiley ended the State of the Black Union after 10 years, he said black issues were now being addressed elsewhere.

Apparently, however, not enough to his liking.

“This is not about Obama. It’s about us,” Smiley said in an interview.

He said that the Obama campaign and black leaders asked African-Americans for help during the election, but that “now that he’s elected, what are black people being asked to do to hold him accountable to our agenda?”

Eric Deggans, who writes about the media and race for Florida’s St. Petersburg Times, said Smiley’s new event is consistent with his record of criticizing Obama’s race-neutral stance. But there is a perception that Smiley is personally invested in the issue, he said, because Obama declined to attend Smiley’s 2008 State of the Black Union event during the presidential campaign.

“It could be hard for people watching this to see Tavis as an honest broker,” Deggans said. “He’s playing an odd game,” he continued. “He’s trying to make great television and also present something that effects social change. That’s often two different things.”

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I talk to Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton on a regular basis.  In fact, I spoke to both of them on Sunday and Monday.  I have to start off by telling you this so you’ll know that my perspective on these two individuals might be a bit different from others.  I am never on board with everything that another person says, but I’ll admit that getting to know these men behind the scenes gives a point of view that others are not so quick to understand.

RELATED: VIDEO: MSNBC Reporter Mistakes Jesse Jackson For Al Sharpton

Let me explain:  You see, mainstream media has an issue with African American men, particularly unapologetic African American “leadership,” (whatever that means).  You probably can’t think of one strong African American advocate who has not been made into a clown or had his dirty laundry aired in public.  This is not because black “leaders” have more dirty laundry than others.  I argue that it’s because the media doesn’t protect the images of black public figures the way it does for their white counter parts.  If you dig into the past of almost any respected white “leader,” you would probably find a whole lot more dirt than the media has presented to the American public.  But when it comes to Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Louis Farrakhan, all bets are off.

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With that said, I think it should be made clear that neither of these men are perfect, and neither was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  In fact, Dr. King died a very unpopular man and his heroic legacy was only restored after his death.  America has never loved black people who’ve pushed the envelope and forced America to look at itself in the mirror.  It is for their struggles and commitment to fighting for something greater than themselves that I will always respect Rev. Jackson and Rev. Sharpton.   In general, I believe in respecting my elders, for their contributions pave the way for the rest of us.

RELATED: Sean Bell’s Widow & Al Sharpton Lead Vigil On 3rd Anniversary

There are also deeper issues to consider in America’s fight for fairness.  One of the things I find most interesting is that people who complain about men like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton aren’t doing a damn thing themselves.  They will stare at the TV as armchair quarterbacks and complain about this and that, all the while, they aren’t doing anything to advance the causes that they expect their “leaders” to promote.  I get the emails every single day:

“We had a lady get shot in our neighborhood, and where was Jesse Jackson when that went down?  Naw, he was on TV making his money.”

“Al Sharpton wasn’t in California when the black man had his rent money stolen.  He only cares about himself.”

When I get these emails in my inbox (I get tons of them), my reactions to people are the following:

a) Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton nor anyone else can be in all places at once. Even when you travel constantly to do as much as you can (exhausting yourself in the process), there are still going to be incidents that you simply don’t have time to address.  The “Super Negro” Theory for Civil Rights must be abolished.

b) The person who is doing all the complaining in their email is usually doing absolutely nothing himself. So, my first response to the person who asks me why I’m not doing this or doing that is to say, “As soon as you send me a list of all the things you’re doing to help black people, I’ll send you a list of my own.”

My response is not meant to belittle the person’s comment or to attack them.  It is to remind them that this fight belongs to all of us, not just a few figure heads that we see on TV.  The Chicago Bulls were never a great team when the players stood around watching Michael Jordan take all the shots.  They were a great team when everyone got the ball and everyone played a role.  Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream doesn’t just live in a fantasy, it lives inside of you.  So, as you get tempted to complain about what others are and are not doing, or find yourself upset that their strategy doesn’t match the one you’d endorse, find the time to get involved in the fight yourself.  You might find that it’s far more difficult than you think.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.

NEW YORK – Thousands of mourners filled Riverside Church on Wednesday for the funeral of Percy Sutton, a former Tuskegee Airman, a media mogul, power broker and pioneering civil rights attorney who represented Malcolm X.

Among the dignitaries gathered at the church were Attorney General Eric Holder, Gov. David Paterson, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Sen. Charles Schumer. Two of Malcolm X’s daughters also attended.

Speaking to the people gathered in the church’s pews, Holder called Sutton “one of the nation’s true heroes.”

“I admired, respected and worked for him,” he continued. “The opportunities given to my generation were paid for by his.”

The Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton were among a group that escorted Sutton’s relatives into the church. In a chapel near the main sanctuary, Sutton lay in a coffin, dressed in a Navy blue suit, white shirt and a tie.

“The tallest tree in our forest has fallen,” Jackson said of Sutton, who died on Dec. 26. He was 89. “You’ve paved the way, Mr. Chairman. Be at rest,” Jackson concluded.

Bloomberg said that city buildings lowered flags in honor of Sutton, and that a building that houses three Manhattan public schools would be renamed the Percy Ellis Sutton Educational Complex.

Attalah Shabazz, one of Malcolm X’s daughters, said Sutton was not merely her father’s attorney. She said the two were “brethren.”
“Even when things weren’t on his side, he was always on yours. Am I right?” she said to applause from the sanctuary, which was filled to capacity.

U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel and former New York Mayor David Dinkins also attended. And Stevie Wonder sang his hit, “I’ll Be Loving You Always.”
Sutton, who was born in Texas, served with the famed Tuskegee Airmen, an all-black unit, in World War II before coming to Harlem, where he launched a trailblazing career in civil rights, politics and broadcasting. He served in the New York State Assembly and was Manhattan borough president.

Through his Harlem law firm, which he founded in 1953, he represented civil rights activists including Malcolm X and the slain activist’s relatives — even in their darkest times.

Sutton, along with Dinkins, served as attorneys for Malcolm Shabazz, the grandchild of the activist who was 12 when he set the 1997 fire that killed his grandmother, Betty Shabazz, Malcolm X’s widow, in her Yonkers apartment.

Sutton turned his attention to broadcasting by 1971, becoming, along with his brother, Oliver, pioneer black owners of a radio station in New York City.

His Inner City Broadcasting Corp. eventually picked up WBLS-FM, which reigned for years as New York’s top-rated radio station, before buying stations in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit and San Antonio.

Through the company, Sutton bought the Apollo Theater in 1981, rescuing the Harlem landmark from impending demise.

Jackie Robinson’s widow, Rachel, arrived early at the packed church and appeared shaken. She said her family loved and admired Sutton, who was her son’s godfather.

Marc Morial, the president of the National Urban League, called Sutton a “great man.”

“He was part of a generation that transformed the nation. He was a renaissance man.” Morial said, referring to Sutton’s involvement in law, politics, business and civil rights.

Referring to the throngs of people who lined up outside the church before services waiting to get inside, Morial said, “It is a testament to his incredible contribution, not only to Harlem and New York, but to the nation.”

Morial said young people would do well to study Sutton’s life, particularly his “stick-to-it-ness” and the barriers he overcame.

Dinkins said history would speak of Sutton as one of the most “dynamic, determined and dedicated men who ever walked these streets.”

“Percy Ellis Sutton departed us paid in full,” Dinkins said. “Let him not look down and find any of us in arrears.”

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WASHINGTON – Black groups on Wednesday urged the government to improve the count of African-Americans in next year’s high-stakes census, saying they won’t be satisfied with a tally that has historically overlooked millions in their community.

The National Urban League, the NAACP, Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson met with Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to voice their concerns the Census Bureau might not be doing enough to ensure an accurate tally. Roughly 3 million blacks were missed in 2000, while many whites were overcounted.

“The undercount of blacks in the last count and the overcount of whites by 1 percent is not just a Washington statistic,” Sharpton said at a news briefing after the meeting. “It manifests itself in goods and services that cost us.”

“We want what is ours,” he said.

The groups called for the Census Bureau, an agency of the Commerce Department, to expand its paid advertising to cities such as Newark, N.J.; Oakland, Calif.; parts of Mississippi and other areas that have high percentages of hard-to-count blacks, many of whom are distrustful of government workers.

They also are pushing for more census funding specifically targeted at black communities. About $23 million, or roughly 17 percent of the $133 million allocated for media buys, is currently earmarked for black communities to promote the census.

The black leaders said they wanted to see a change in how the government tallies prisoners, so they are counted as residents of the cities in which they previously lived, not in the places where a prison is located.

“There are a lot more things that have to be done for us to say that we are confident that this plan can address the historic undercount in this nation,” said Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League and chair of the 2010 Census Advisory Committee.

Commerce officials said the Census Bureau would take a second look at its $300 million communications campaign to determine if there are ways to make it better. The bureau kicks off its ad campaign next month and will conduct its head count via mail and door-to-door canvassing next spring.
“African Americans and other minority communities have been consistently undercounted in past censuses so we’re grateful to the respected leaders we met with for their commitment to achieving an accurate count,” Locke said in a statement.

The population figures, gathered every 10 years, are used to apportion House seats and distribute nearly $450 billion in federal aid.

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I love speaking with Rev. Jesse Jackson.  He walks and talks like a man who has seen and heard nearly everything.  Our civil rights leaders are social hubs through which many members of our society must travel in order to reach their destinations.   You can’t call yourself a black man and not know the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Rev. Jackson took things a step further by stating recently at a Congressional Black Caucus function that,”You can’t vote against health care and call yourself a black man.”

RELATED: Jesse Jackson Says To CBC You Can’t Be Black And Be Against Health Care

This comment was aimed at Rep. Artur Davis of Alabama, the only member of the Congressional Black Caucus who does not support health care reform.   What is most interesting about Jackson’s comment is that he is right, but not quite.  You can certainly argue that Davis’ lack of support for the plan implies  that his interests are not in line with the majority of African Americans in this country:  Most of them love Barack Obama and are willing to support anything that he supports.  The other sad truth is that health care reform is so complicated that most Americans don’t have a clue about what’s going on.   In that regard, we can argue that it is difficult for Davis to say that he represents the black community when he votes in a direction that is not correlated with the majority of African Americans in the state of Alabama.

Where Jackson is ultimately incorrect is that Artur Davis certainly has the right to call himself a black man, even without supporting health care reform.  Other prominent African Americans, such as Dr. Elaina George, have been vehemently outspoken against health care reform.  Dr. George even goes as far as arguing that health care reform is not only bad for doctors, it is also bad for the black community.  Davis, on the other hand, simply wants to be governor of Alabama, and taking conservative positions is the only way for a black man to get elected in that state.

Davis made his intentions clear with his eloquent, yet interesting response to Rev. Jackson’ s comment: “Rev. Jackson is entitled to his opinion…The voters are entitled to a governor who represents everyone in the state. They’re not looking for someone who speaks for a single community..His (Jackson) judgment is through the prism of race.”

Translation: “I don’t care what Jesse Jackson has to say.  I want to be governor more than I want to be committed to the black community.  Speaking for African Americans is not enough to get me elected, since whites and blacks see the world so differently.  Jesse Jackson is limited because he sees race in everything.”

RELATED: Black Caucus Says Public Option Or Nothing For Health Care

The bottom line is that Artur Davis, to some extent, is a slave to his self-imposed predicament.  When alleged black power shifts from community-based constituencies to formal political appointments that must be signed off by white America or corporate America, meaningful black leadership becomes highly diluted and ultimately distracted.  This point was made when I referenced Tom Joyner’s nervous response to our challenge against Wal-Mart during the Heather Ellis case (Wal-Mart is one of his primary corporate sponsors).  This is not to say that Tom Joyner is a sell-out; but it does imply that his loyalty to Wal-Mart is probably greater than his loyalty to a black woman that he doesn’t even know.  In America, there are two dominant types of capital: Political capital and financial capital.  African Americans are lacking in both, so you aren’t usually going to get rich or powerful by serving the needs of the black community.

All leadership has a “political daddy”: Someone or something that one must be loyal to in order to be successful.   The ultimate question black leaders must ask ourselves is, “Who’s your daddy?”, since the nature of the leader’s support base will dictate the incentives of the leader.  Many prominent African American figures are so hungry for power and validation that they will take support from any corporation or group of people who offer to provide it.  That’s like a teenage girl taking money from any boy who offers it without wondering if he is going to want the favor returned at the end of the night.  This is not to say that she shouldn’t take the money; it’s only to say that she better make sure that she likes the boy she’s dealing with.

Let’s be clear about this: Artur Davis is a conservative Democrat working to become governor of Alabama.  I honestly wonder why he is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus at all, since there is only minimal connection between his incentives and those of the African American community.  This is not to say that he doesn’t have the right to be a black man, but there is a difference between someone who is black all the time vs. someone who is black when it is convenient.   Jesse Jackson is a black man all the time, Artur Davis is a black man who wants to be governor: One is not necessarily better than the other, but it is clear that we know the difference.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Professor at Syracuse University and founder of the Your Black World Coalition.  To get more information, please visit www.BoyceWatkins.com.

Jesse Jackson recently spoke to the Congressional Black Caucus and directly addressed Artur Davis, a congressman from Alabama and a candidate for Governor. Davis was the lone member of the Congressional Black Caucus to oppose health care reform.

Jesse Jackson said:

We even have blacks voting against the health care bill from Alabama. You can’t vote against health care and call yourself a black man.

Davis would address Jackson’s statement, saying:

Rev. Jackson is entitled to his opinion…The voters are entitled to a governor who represents everyone in the state. They’re not looking for someone who speaks for a single community..His (Jackson) judgment is through the prism of race.

Jesse Jackson would later issue a statement, saying:

I offer no challenge to his integrity as a leader. Representatives should all vote their conscience in the interest of their constituency…There is a growing disparity among the black and the poor and we desperately need voices and votes..Among the black and the poor, the infant mortality rate is higher, life expectancy is shorter, poverty is growing and unemployment is highest…We need comprehensive health care that is more accessible and less expensive for all Americans. The historical Davis journey as a change agent continues and his latest quest deserves the support of the caring

Jackson Rides Bus To Fenger: “This Is A State Of Emergency”

VIDEO: Jesse Jackson Is Crowned A Prince In Africa

But somehow, MSNBC reporter Contessa Brewer, mistook Rev. Jesse Jackson to be Rev. Al Sharpton. And the Rev didn’t seem to like that…

Woops! The two Rev’s don’t look alike AT ALL, but, let’s give Contessa the benefit of the doubt…..

I might have mistaken her for Campbell Brown.

WATCH the slip-up here:

What do you think about this? Funny? Honest mistake? Speak on it!

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From HuffingtonPost.com:

CHICAGO – Responding to a wave of teen violence and the brutal killing of honor student Derrion Albert, the Rev. Jesse Jackson hopped on a school bus to escort students to the troubled Christian Fenger Academy High School.

Jackson joined a host of parents Tuesday morning to usher students across neighborhood boundaries on their way to Fenger. Rivalries between Fenger students from the Altgeld Gardens housing development and those from Roseland, closer to the school, have led to near-daily fights and incidents of stalking and harassment.

“This is a state of emergency,” Jackson said at a press conference before boarding the bus.

Neighborhood tensions escalated to fatal violence Sept. 24 when Albert, a 16-year-old Fenger student, was killed in an after school melee. Footage of the fight caught on a cell phone camera caused national outrage, prompting President Obama to dispatch cabinet officials to Chicago to address teen violence and release emergency federal anti-violence funding for Fenger.

To read more, click here.

Jesse Jackson was crowned a prince of the Agni people during a three-day visit to Ivory Coast.

Watch The Video

LOS ANGELES – Michael Jackson still had a faint pulse and his body was warm when his doctor found him in bed and not breathing, a lawyer for the doctor told The Associated Press on Sunday.

Lawyer Edward Chernoff also said Dr. Conrad Murray never prescribed or gave Jackson the drugs Demerol or OxyContin. He denied reports suggesting Murray gave Jackson drugs that contributed to his death.

Chernoff told the AP that Murray was at the pop icon’s rented mansion on Thursday afternoon when he discovered Jackson in bed and not breathing. The doctor immediately began administering CPR, Chernoff said.

“He just happened to find him in his bed, and he wasn’t breathing,” the lawyer said. “Mr. Jackson was still warm and had a pulse.”

Chernoff said any drugs the doctor gave Jackson were prescribed in response to a specific complaint from the entertainer.

“Dr. Murray has never prescribed nor administered Demerol to Michael Jackson,” Chernoff said. “Not ever. Not that day. … Not Oxycontin (either) for that matter.”

Paramedics were called to the mansion while the doctor was performing CPR, according to a recording of the 911 call. Medics spent three-quarters of an hour trying to revive Jackson. He was pronounced dead later at UCLA Medical Center.

People close to Jackson have said since his death that they were concerned about his use of painkillers. Los Angeles County medical examiners completed their autopsy Friday and said Jackson had taken unspecified prescription medication.

Murray was interviewed by investigators for three hours Saturday. His spokeswoman called Murray “a witness to this tragedy,” not a suspect in the death, and police described the doctor as cooperative.

Three days after the death of the King of Pop, celebrities descended on Los Angeles for what promised to be a spectacular celebration of Jackson’s life at the annual BET awards show.

Media requests for the Sunday night show doubled following the death, and the red carpet was lengthened. It was not immediately clear whether any members of the Jackson family, who gathered at their Encino compound over the weekend, planned to take part.

Previously announced performers including Beyonce and Ne-Yo, were working to overhaul performances they had planned for weeks so they could honor Jackson. Other stars tried to catch last-minute flights.

A private pathologist hired by the Jackson family completed a second, private autopsy Saturday, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the case.

A second autopsy can allow the family to get some information about a death almost immediately, including signs of heart, brain or lung disease or fresh needle punctures, said Dr. Michael Baden, a medical examiner not involved in the Jackson case.

“Usually if it looks normal with the naked eye, it looks normal under the microscope,” said Baden, who recently performed a second autopsy on actor David Carradine.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson said after visiting Michael Jackson’s family that the family still had unanswered questions about how he died.

Los Angeles County coroner’s officials said their autopsy found no indication of trauma or foul play. But because of additional tests, an official cause of death could take weeks to determine.

There was no word from the Jackson family on funeral plans. Many of Jackson’s relatives have gathered at the family’s Encino compound, caring there for Jackson’s three children.

On Saturday, three of Jackson’s brothers — Jackie, Jermaine and Tito — visited Jackson’s Neverland Ranch where they walked the manicured grounds and reminisced about his life. It is not clear what will become of the ranch, which has been under renovations.

Owen Blicksilver, a spokesman for the joint venture that owns the ranch and included Michael Jackson, said it was premature to discuss the future of Neverland. He said investor Thomas Barrack feels close to family members and wants to hear their thoughts on how best to honor Jackson’s memory.

Blicksilver says Jackie, Jermaine and Tito Jackson were joined for lunch Saturday at the sprawling Santa Barbara County property by Barrack, who previously set up the joint venture with Michael Jackson after the singer nearly lost the ranch to foreclosure.

A White House adviser said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that President Barack Obama had written to the Jackson family to express his condolences.

In an interview that aired earlier Sunday, Jackson’s father said he does not believe stress over the intense series of concerts the King of Pop planned for his comeback led to his death.

Joe Jackson also said he believes his son will be larger in death than he was in life. The patriarch of the Jackson 5 said he wished Michael Jackson were around to see the outpouring of affection since his death.

“Michael was the biggest superstar in the world and in history,” Joe Jackson told Fox News Channel’s “Geraldo at Large.” “He was loved by everybody, whether poor or wealthy or whatever may be.”

Actor Danny Glover joined labor, political and civil-rights leaders on one of the first stops of a four-day, 11-state tour supporting U.S. manufacturing workers.

The “Lethal Weapon” star told a crowd of mainly union workers Monday in the Detroit suburb of Hamtramck (Ham-TRAM’-ehk) the “deindustrialization of the nation” began in Michigan, and its workers can be “the architects of their own rescue.”

Glover, the son of union members, said he stands with those affected by plant closings.

The event also included the Rev. Jesse Jackson, U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow and United Steelworkers International President Leo Gerard.

The 61-year-old actor said it would be his only appearance because he has to return to Los Angeles for work.

The NAACP has fought for a century to bring equal and civil rights to blacks, but the Rev. Jesse Jackson believes the organization’s current battle is to help the troubled U.S. economy and struggling domestic auto industry.

“We must now save the entire industry from itself,” Jackson said as part of the keynote address Sunday night at the Detroit NAACP’s 54th Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner at Cobo Center.

“We cannot have joy while Chrysler is in bankruptcy and GM is in line. There is a sense of joy because it’s high noon in our politics, but it’s midnight in our economy.”

The civil rights activist and Operation PUSH founder had said earlier at a media gathering that the employment picture in Detroit, among the cities hardest hit by withering economy, has shifted from “the Big Three to gambling casinos.”

“Detroit is not just your city,” Jackson later told the crowd during his speech. “It is the soul of industrial America.

“We must fight back to save GM, Ford and Chrysler. That’s our lifeline.”

Chrysler, the nation’s third-largest automaker behind General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Thursday after months of surviving on government loans. All three car companies have laid off thousands of workers and closed a number of factories in the Detroit area and across the country.

Detroit has mirrored their failures. The city’s poverty and unemployment are among the highest in the country, as is its home foreclosure rate.

The city’s population is more than 80 percent black. Detroit’s black residential base began swelling decades ago as blacks from the south moved north to find jobs in manufacturing and in the auto industry, still the lifeblood of the city.

Those jobs must be saved, Jackson said in his 25-minute speech.

“The cause of the workers is a moral cause,” he said. “It’s time for a righteous rebellion, civil disobedience.”

Jackson also criticized federal bailouts to banks, who in turn gave million-dollar bonuses to executives while urban neighborhoods continue to suffer and jobs are being lost.

His message came at the right time, said 27-year-old Jonathan Guest of Detroit.

“We need to stand behind them and fight for them,” he said of the auto industry and its workers.

It all made sense, said Doris Jordan-Smith of Detroit.

The auto industry’s jobs crisis has affected others outside the car companies, said the 65-year-old insurance company marketer.

“We fought to get those jobs. We’ve got to fight to keep them,” she said.

Detroit NAACP president Wendell Anthony attributed the rise of the black middle class to the auto industry, which was honored at the dinner.

“Detroit is still the motor city capitol of the world,” Anthony said. “Standards have been set and innovations have been met.”

The United Auto Workers union and its president Ron Gettelfinger also were honored. Gettelfinger thanked the NAACP for its support for America’s auto workers.

GM Chief Executive Fritz Henderson spoke on behalf of GM, Ford and Chrysler.

“We recognize that most of us derived our livelihood from the auto industry, directly or indirectly,” Henderson said. “We’re all in this together.”

Singer Aretha Franklin, the Rev. Al Sharpton and Detroit pastor the Rev. Edwin Rowe also were honored for contributions to the civil rights movement.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson says he would like to travel to Iran to personally appeal for the release of a U.S. journalist convicted of spying and sentenced to eight years in prison.

Jackson says he “would be anxious to travel with a delegation to Iran if we are permitted and make an appeal for her freedom.”

Jackson was speaking at a university forum during a visit Monday to Malaysia.

Iran has released very few facts about Roxana Saberi’s case and initially said she was arrested for working without press credentials. The government later charged the 31-year-old dual American-Iranian citizen with spying for the United States and convicted her in a one-day trial behind closed doors.

From CNN

“If our voices are heard in Iran today, I would be anxious to travel with a delegation to Iran, if we are permitted, and make an appeal for her freedom,” said the longtime civil rights activist, according to his Rainbow PUSH Coalition. Jackson, 67, was speaking Tuesday at a peace conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

“Whenever we’ve brought people out of captivity, whether in Syria, Cuba, Iraq, or Yugoslavia, or Liberia, it’s always opened a diplomatic door to reduce tensions,” he added.

n 1984, Jackson successfully secured the release of a Navy pilot held in Syria. In 1991, he helped secure the release of 500 “international guests” held in Iraq, and in 1999, he worked to persuade Yugoslavia to release three U.S. soldiers held there during the Kosovo conflict.

This election was one of the most powerful events in American history. Barack Obama’s impact on the nation has been unseen in a lifetime. Obama’s rise and victory brought extreme emotions from everybody from politicians, entertainers, to regular working class people. Here’s a retrospective on the many tears of joy that Obama inspired.

Watch Jesse Jackson and Oprah cry at Obama’s victory speech at Grant Park

Watch Condoleezza Rice Cry About Obama’s Victory

See more of NewsOne’s BEST OF EVERYTHING 2008!!!

Watch Colin Powell Crying After Obama’s Victory

Watch Will Smith Talking About Crying About Obama’s Victory

Watch A Gallery Of The Many People Obama Brought to Tears

See more of NewsOne’s BEST OF EVERYTHING 2008!!!

Watch Sherrie Shepard Cry Over The Obama Victory on The View

Watch Magic Johnson Talk About Crying For Obama on Larry King

See more of NewsOne’s BEST OF EVERYTHING 2008!!!

The exchange contributed to charges against Blagojevich in which he is accused of putting his office up for sale, while raising questions about the identity of the candidate.

On Wednesday, it was revealed that U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. was the candidate, prompting him to hold an emotional news conference proclaiming his innocence. Jackson, the son of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, said prosecutors have told him he is not the target of the bombshell investigation, nor is he accused of any wrongdoing.

“I did not initiate nor authorize anyone, at any time, to promise anything to Gov. Blagojevich on my behalf,” he said, without taking questions. “I never sent a message or an emissary to the governor to make an offer or to propose a deal about the U.S. Senate seat.”

Jackson said he openly sought appointment to Obama’s seat but denied offering favors in return to Blagojevich. His lawyer, James D. Montgomery Sr., acknowledged the Illinois Democrat is “Senate Candidate 5″ in the 76-page federal complaint filed against the governor, who was arrested Tuesday.

U.S. attorney’s spokesman Randall Samborn would not confirm or deny Jackson’s assertions.

Blagojevich, a second-term Democrat, is accused of scheming to enrich himself by selling Obama’s open seat for cash or a lucrative job for himself or his wife.

In an interview with The Associated Press, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said it’s “common in politics for people to try to leverage relationships,” but his son didn’t do such a thing.

“The good is news is … that it did not say he had done anything illegal,” Jackson said, referring to the criminal complaint. “Somebody in his name was trying to negotiate.”

Jackson said he didn’t know who tried to negotiate on his son’s behalf and that he had not spoken with the FBI. He said he hadn’t spoken with Blagojevich in months and that he didn’t promote his son for the Senate seat. Jackson said his son was always critical of “clandestine, backroom” deals.

He said the scandal had saddened many people, especially after Obama’s historic victory.

“Our hearts dropped,” he said. “We were astonished. All of us were. We went from the height of joy and exuberance to oceanic depths and a sense of bewilderment. There’s a great sense of pain in the state.”

Jackson Jr. said he met with Blagojevich on Monday in Chicago for 90 minutes to discuss the Senate vacancy. It was their first meeting in about four years, he said.

“I presented my record, my qualifications and my vision,” Jackson said. “Despite what he may have been looking for, that’s all I had to offer.”

The federal complaint cites an intercepted Blagojevich conversation on Dec. 4. In it, the complaint alleges, the governor told an unidentified adviser “that he was giving Senate Candidate 5 greater consideration for the Senate seat because, among other reasons, if Rod Blagojevich ran for re-election, Senate Candidate 5 would `raise money’ for him.”

The complaint alleges that Blagojevich said he might get some money “up front, maybe” from the Senate hopeful “to insure Senate Candidate 5 kept his promise about raising money” for the governor.

On Wednesday, the seven-term congressman called on Blagojevich to resign and said he was appalled “by the pay-to-play schemes hatched at the highest levels of Illinois state government.”

“Politicians and fundraisers do some very strange things from time to time,” said Montgomery, the lawyer. “I wouldn’t put it past someone to be purporting to represent Jesse without authority.”

Dont’s:

William Jefferson

He was Louisiana’s first African-American Congressman since Reconstruction, however scandal prevailed over this great achievement. On June 4, 2007, a federal grand jury indicted Jefferson on 16 charges related to corruption after searching and seizing many items in his office related to the corruption charges. FBI agents found $90,000 of cash in the freezer. The cash was separated into $10,000 increments wrapped in aluminum foil and then stuffed inside frozen food containers.

Sharpe James

This Mayor of Newark and New Jersey State Senator got in trouble with the law during his career for fraud and conspiracy. He was indicted on July 12, 2008 and then convicted on April 16, 2008 of all five counts of fraud. He abused public social programs and took a huge $213,000 salary in 2002 to become the highest paid mayor in the nation. All this happened with his cabinet members by his side helping to corrupt the New Jersey government.

Kwame Kilpatrick

Kwame Kilpatrick served as the youngest mayor in the history of Detroit, Michigan. While in office from 2002 to 2008 the controversies and scandals that surrounded his tenure made him one of the worst big-city mayors in the United States. Just some of Kilpatrick’s scandals included stealing and misusing money, throwing an extravagant party with exotic dancers, infidelities and murder. Finally on September 4, 2008, he resigned as mayor of Detroit and later went to jail where he currently resides.

Marion Barry

On January 18, 1990, Marion Berry, the mayor of the District Of Columbia, was arrested with former girlfriend Hazel “Rasheeda” Moore at the Vista Hotel for crack cocaine use and possession. The sting operation was videotaped a shown on television across the country. Barry ended up being charged with one count of possessing cocaine and went on to be re-elected as mayor after serving his sentence.

Jesse Jackson

Despite being a great civil rights activist and religious leader, Jackson made several mistakes throughout his career. Jackson did run two moderately successful campaigns for president twice in 1984 and 1988. During the 1984 campaign he did refer to Jews as “Hymies” and New York City as “Hymietown,” which caused Jewish leaders to become outraged and unsupportive of Jackson. In 2001 it was revealed that Jackson had a love child with a member of his staff in 1999.

Do’s:

Cory Booker

The current mayor of Newark, New Jersey, unsuccessfully ran against Sharpe James until 2002 when he was elected into office. Booker can be noted for his life long efforts to end poverty and improve life in Newark. Much of his involvement in these noble efforts included strikes and other unconventional methods. While in office Booker called for a 8.3% increase in the city’s property tax, an increase in the number of city employees and a strict monitoring of the drug trade.

Deval Patrick

Patrick is the current and first African-American Governor of Massachusetts (and third African-American governor in the history of the United States). He has been a successful governor who has a few mishaps during his tenure but has proved to be an all around liberal and progressive politician.

Thurgood Marshall

Marshall is the first African-American to serve on the Supreme Court, appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967. While he served on the Court Marshall supported the Constitutional protection of individual rights, civil rights and criminal procedure. Most notable is his involvement in Brown v. Board f Education, which abolished the “separate but equal” doctrine in the U.S. government.

Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.

This African-American politician served in the United States House of Representatives between 1945 and 1971 representing Harlem, New York. Powell began his career focusing on fighting for civil rights in Harlem. As Congressman he fought against segregation and supported education and labor movements.

Jesse Jackson

Jackson has overcome the difficulties in this career to revered as one of the most important Black leaders ever. He began his career as an American civil rights activist in the 1960s alongside Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Jackson also ran for President of the United States twice in the 1980s and did not make it pas the primaries but made an impressionable dent on the Presidential races.

Jesse Jackson was memorably in tears the night Obama claimed victory. Despite his well publicized dispute with Obama, it was very clear how happy and proud he was to see Obama claim the presidency. He recently spoke to NPR on why he was crying.

“Well, on the one hand, I saw President Barack Obama standing there looking so majestic. And I knew that people in the villages of Kenya and Haiti, and mansions and palaces in Europe and China, were all watching this young African-American male assume the leadership to take our nation out of a pit to a higher place.

“And then, I thought of who was not there,” Jackson said on NPR News’ Tell Me More. “As mentioned, Medgar Evers, the husband of Sister Myrlie. …So the martyrs and murdered whose blood made last night possible. I could not help think that this was their night.

“And if I had one wish: if Medgar, or if Dr. King could have just been there for a second in time, would have made my heart rejoice. And so it was kind of duo-fold – his ascension into leadership and the price that was paid to get him there.”

Watch Jesse Jackson Cry For Obama’s Victory

Although Robinson was extremely talented, there were black players with more talent such as Satchel Paige or Josh Gibson. Robinson was chosen because of his personality, his easygoing and inoffensive personality. The challenge for Robinson as a black baseball player wasn’t his athletic ability but his ability to deal with white racism.

As a baseball player, Robinson received death threats, numerous racial taunts and was spat on and attacked by opposing players. All the time he dealt with indignities in a gentle way, turning the other cheek. Robinson became one of the first few acceptable mainstream Negroes. Robinson would use his status later in his life to criticize other unacceptable Negroes like Muhammed Ali for his ‘un-american’ behavior.

In many ways the comparison has held true. Obama has had to endure racist attacks from Fox News and Rush Limbaugh, turning the other cheek, not even mentioning their attacks or the Republican powers structure behind them. The Republicans have attacked him on his name, his race, his background, his religion and his wife and besides telling the Republicans to “back off my wife” he has endured the attacks with humble dignity.
Even when Obama criticized an attack were he accused the McCain camp of saying he didn’t look like the Presidents on the dollar bill, he was accused of playing the race card. Obama has received criticism in the black community for not responding forcefully to incidents such as Sean Bell and the Jena 6.

Jackson Jr. went on to say, “No one wants an angry African-American in the White House” just like no one wanted an angry black baseball player on the field in the fifties. The U.S. has a history of only accepting talented “non-threatening” black males such as Nat King Cole, Bill Cosby, Sammy Davis and Michael Jordan, while those equally talented who have shown anger and emotion and responded to attacks like Jack Johnson, Muhammed Ali, and Jim Brown have been cast as villains.

Maybe this is why Obama has chosen Biden as a running mate. As an old white man, America is comfortable with seeing Biden show anger and Biden can do all the attacking that would cast Obama as an angry black man.

Watch GritTv reporters discuss the price of being Barack in a historic race:

]]> http://newsone.com/obama/casey-gane-mccalla/did-jackie-robinson-lead-off-for-obama/feed/ 0 http://newsone.com/obama/bakari-kitwana/4212/ http://newsone.com/obama/bakari-kitwana/4212/#comments Mon, 12 May 2008 15:27:09 +0000 Bakari Kitwana http://newsone.com/?p=4212 Jeremiah Wright's apparent undermining of Barack Obama's campaign gets to the heart of an ongoing battle that has been heating up in the Black community since Obama first announced his candidacy.  By entertaining the mainstream media that has been quick to pull down Obama, Wright is displaying a dangerous disregard for Obama's historic candidacy. But he's not doing it on purpose. Jeremiah Wright, like others of his generation, is only treating Barack Obama's candidacy like the youthful pipe dream that he always thought it was. Read more..]]> Jeremiah Wright’s apparent undermining of Barack Obama’s campaign gets to the heart of an ongoing battle that has been heating up in the Black community since Obama first announced his candidacy.  By entertaining the mainstream media that has been quick to pull down Obama, Wright is displaying a dangerous disregard for Obama’s historic candidacy. But he’s not doing it on purpose. Jeremiah Wright, like others of his generation, is only treating Barack Obama’s candidacy like the youthful pipe dream that he always thought it was.

Barack Obama winning the presidency cracks the foundation of Wright’s lived experience.  For his generation, white racism is inseparable from the very idea of America. According to their line of thinking, White racism will never allow a Black man to be president.  Ever. (Did I say, Ever?) For them, this is fact, not conjecture.

This belief more than anything else is central to what others interpret as Wright’s media carelessness but what I see as the ultimate display of the cynicism of Wright’s generation.

We saw a similar cynicism in the unwillingness of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton–themselves, former presidential candidates–to take Obama’s candidacy seriously.

We saw it more recently in civil rights icon, John Lewis’ flip-flopping.  The founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus supported Hillary early on but was forced by his district’s overwhelming support of Barack Obama to cast his superdelegate ballot with the ‘hope’ candidate.

When Obama said, in his second-too-many press conference on Wright, that “the person I saw yesterday is not the person I met twenty years ago,” he was expressing frustration but also a recognition that Wright’s generation isn’t equipped to confront the difficulties of race in our time. Wright’s vision only allows him to see what America was and not what America could be.  Barack Obama has outgrown him.

Now, those who look at Wright’s media blitz and ponder, “Why now?” are missing the point. It’s not that Wright fails to recognize that he’s hurting Barack’s campaign. Rather, it’s a question of how he’s approaching the situation. To Wright, if a Black presidency is unfathomable, how can he hurt it? White racism decided long ago–regardless of what Wright does–that Obama’s inability to win is a foregone conclusion.

As legions of young supporters have shown throughout this election season however, that’s crap.  And it’s not that younger generation politicians like Barack Obama, Newark mayor Corey Booker and their young multi-racial supporters have forgotten that white racism is alive and well.  What’s unique to their generation’s racial worldview is that they believe they can defeat it.

Their faith in what America could be, despite the naysayers groaning behind the Wright whirlwind, is what will save Barack Obama’s campaign.

Bakari Kitwana is author of Why White Kids Love Hip-Hop, and Artist-in-Residence at the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture at the University of Chicago.

Back then, I was harassed or arrested all over the South for fighting for my rights.  While a student at Johnson C. Smith University in 1960, I led more than 200 students into downtown to desegregate the lunch counters. We felt good about ourselves, doing the right thing by grabbing hold of a nonviolent way to change our society.  We sat at the lunch counters every day until by July of that year they opened to all people regardless of race.

I helped organize the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) at Shaw University. I was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama as a freedom rider. I was arrested in Rock Hill, South Carolina for sitting at a lunch counter.  I spent 30 days hard labor on the chain gang just for trying to order a hamburger and Coke.

I went to jail with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. while organizing the desegregation campaign in Albany, Georgia. SNCC was successful there because the people were ready and we achieved a level of total community organization that attracted Dr. King. Working with him then, I came to more fully understand the power of national and international communities working together.

This primary is very different for black North Carolinians of my generation.  Jesse Jackson showed us in ’87 that some day, if we worked and stayed together, we would have an African-American President of the United States of America. Brother Obama is that man and this is our time. He is us.

Brother Obama has generated such excitement for me, as a Black man, my friends and my community. He has the power and support of most black folk in the state, as well as a broad coalition.  Everyone sees that he is real.  And, that he has the policy ideas and experience to raise Americans to a level of mass involvement that is sorely needed at this time.

One of the most inspiring moments of my life was shaking Brother Obama’s hand after the rally that drew 14,000 people on Friday.  I told him how proud I was of him and gave my and my generation’s blessings to him and his generation.

I will with great pride be voting for Obama today and taking many of my neighbors to the polls to also vote for him.  I expect that he will win.  I have always believed that given the facts and the truth about the issues, the majority of Americans will do the right thing.  Electing Barack Obama president of these United States is the right thing.

J. Charles Jones, Esq., a key organizer of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s, is a graduate of Howard University Law School.  He has been practicing in Charlotte for 30 years.