I Wouldn't Have Done It

I don't like this. I don't really get her point. I know the Black National Anthem well. In fact, if my recollection is correct, I learned all three verses by heart, by 6th grade, from white nuns at my Catholic grade school However, I love both The Star Spangled Banner and America The Beatiful. This was a city event. Why couldn't she just have sang the dang song?

One of the most notable incidents from Tuesday's State of the City address occurred even before the mayor's speech began.

After the Pledge of Allegiance, Rene Marie was introduced to sing the national anthem.

But that's not what she sang.

Marie actually sang the tune of the traditional national anthem with the lyrics to "Lift Every Voice and Sing." It's a song some have called the National Black Anthem, the Negro National Anthem or the Black National Anthem.

How NOT To Get The Girl!

I'd call this idiot back just to cuss him the hell out!

Those Pesky Muskrats!

This sounds crazy!

A heroic effort by hundreds of townspeople, volunteers and National Guardsmen to hold back the Mississippi River failed Friday — undone by a burrowing muskrat.

The furry rodent dug a hole through the earthen levee in this eastern Missouri community, allowing water to penetrate the floodwall, which failed shortly before dawn.

"It's so disappointing," said Linda Wilmesherr as she peered through binoculars at water pouring through a gap that appeared to be 30 feet wide. "With all the guns in this county, couldn't we kill a muskrat?"

CNN Is Slipping

I hate to quote the ridiculous man that is Flavor Flav but all I can say is Woooow!



(h/t OW)

Didn't This Man See Mississippi Masala?

This is the follow-up to this madness I posted on earlier this month. This man was found guilty of having his daughter-in-law murdered.

A Mississippi businessman born in India was found guilty Thursday on charges that he arranged to have a hitman murder his African-American daughter-in-law.

A Fulton County jury returned the verdict a day after closing arguments in the trial of 68-year-old Chiman Rai.

Sparkle Rai was killed in her Fulton County apartment in 2000, a month after marrying Rai's son.

Prosecutors contended that Rai had the daughter-in-law, Sparkle Rai, killed because he was a racist and believed an interracial marriage would embarrass his family in caste-conscious Indian society.

Prosecutors planned to seek the death penalty if Rai was convicted. The trial now goes into a sentencing phase.

Sparkle Rai was killed April 26, 2000, in a Fulton County apartment a month after marrying Rai's son. The case baffled police for years until two years ago and authorities arrested Chiman Rai and four other men, including the alleged hit man, a Rai business associate and a retired Jackson, Miss., businessman.

So now this man is going to get life or the death penalty over a "bad" marriage? I cannot fathom how all of this was worth it. Like it or not, he has a grandchild. His son has moved on in the "right kind" of marriage but how must he feel knowing his dad did this? How must his new wife feel knowing that her husband's family is capable of such a heinous act? I know this kind of thing may be fairly commonplace over there but it's just not going to fly here. How will this old man fare in prison in Mississippi with a whole bunch of folks who are black and know he had a black woman killed because he thought his son was too good for her? Other cultures have a right to their traditions but not when they break the law and not when people end up maimed or killed. I almost feel bad for him because he could have probably gotten away with this in India - and almost did here.

No Pregnancy Pact?

Just 17 individually stupid teens breeding for no damned reason!

pregnant high school student disputed the notion Tuesday that girls in this New England fishing town made a pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together.

"There was definitely no pact," 17-year-old Lindsey Oliver told "Good Morning America" on Tuesday. "There was a group of girls already pregnant that decided they were going to help each other to finish school and raise their kids together. I think it was just a coincidence."

Oliver, who is five months pregnant, said she and her 20-year-old boyfriend, Andrew Psalidas, a community college student, were using birth control and her pregnancy was unplanned.

I didn't post on this when the story broke because this just makes me soooo mad!

Imus At It Again

Imus clearly can't help himself however at least this was on his radio show and not on MSNBC in the morning where he co-mingled this BS with reputable, informative guests. He's where he belongs with the kind of audience who lives and breathes this foolishness.

Wolf: "Defensive back Adam 'Pacman' Jones, recently signed by the Cowboys. Here's a guy suspended all of 2007 following a shooting in a Vegas night club."


Imus: "Well, stuff happens. You're in a night club, for God's sake. What do you think's gonna happen in a night club? People are drinking and doing drugs, there are women there, and people have guns. So, there, go ahead."


Wolf: "He's also been arrested six times since being drafted by Tennessee in 2005."


Imus: "What color is he?"


Wolf: "He's African-American."


Imus: "Well, there you go. Now we know."

Update: So, Imus says he was defending Pacman and was not being derogatory. I actually heard a longer segment of the program and I can see where that might be the case so I'll backpedal on my criticism. But, I do think that someone needs to tell them that "African-American" is not a color.

Does Obama's "Tightly Wrapped Message" Exclude Muslims?

Congressman Keith Ellison seems to think so.

As Senator Barack Obama courted voters in Iowa last December, Representative Keith Ellison, the country’s first Muslim congressman, stepped forward eagerly to help.

Mr. Ellison believed that Mr. Obama’s message of unity resonated deeply with American Muslims. He volunteered to speak on Mr. Obama’s behalf at a mosque in Cedar Rapids, one of the nation’s oldest Muslim enclaves. But before the rally could take place, aides to Mr. Obama asked Mr. Ellison to cancel the trip because it might stir controversy. An aide appeared at Mr. Ellison’s Washington office to explain.

“I will never forget the quote,” Mr. Ellison said, leaning forward in his chair as he recalled the aide’s words. “He said, ‘We have a very tightly wrapped message.’ ”

When Mr. Obama began his presidential campaign, Muslim Americans from California to Virginia responded with enthusiasm, seeing him as a long-awaited champion of civil liberties, religious tolerance and diplomacy in foreign affairs. But more than a year later, many say, he has not returned their embrace.

While the senator has visited churches and synagogues, he has yet to appear at a single mosque. Muslim and Arab-American organizations have tried repeatedly to arrange meetings with Mr. Obama, but officials with those organizations say their invitations — unlike those of their Jewish and Christian counterparts — have been ignored. Last week, two Muslim women wearing head scarves were barred by campaign volunteers from appearing behind Mr. Obama at a rally in Detroit.

In interviews, Muslim political and civic leaders said they understood that their support for Mr. Obama could be a problem for him at a time when some Americans are deeply suspicious of Muslims. Yet those leaders nonetheless expressed disappointment and even anger at the distance that Mr. Obama has kept from them.

“This is the ‘hope campaign,’ this is the ‘change campaign,’ ” said Mr. Ellison, Democrat of Minnesota. Muslims are frustrated, he added, that “they have not been fully engaged in it.”

I like Keith Ellison, particularly with the classy way he handled some of the heinously ignorant people he had to endure in the run up to his election and just after - including some of his fellow members of Congress. If he's concerned, I am too. While I fully understand what a hot button issue the very word "Muslim" has become, I'd think that someone who is being pegged as an ultra liberal University of Chicago elite would take the high road and thumb his nose at closed-minded thinkers and embrace the Muslim Americans who, at least now, are supporting him.

I'm No Kobe Fan But Dang!

Shaq is crazy! Kobe is a punk but, dang, Shaq had to write a rhyme about it?

Shaquille O'Neal took the mic at a NYC club last night, unleashing a freestyle verbal assault directed at his arch-enemy Kobe Bryant -- blaming his former teammate for ruining his marriage and imploring him to "Tell me how my ass tastes."

After spending several verses shredding Kobe apart for losing in the NBA playoffs, Shaq drops the line, "I'm a horse, Kobe ratted me out, that's why I'm getting divorced."

Launch photosThe line most likely references a comment Kobe made during his infamous 2003 rape case, when he told Colorado police that he "Should have done what Shaq does ... Shaq would pay his women not to say anything." The two became famously bitter rivals after the incident.

The video is a riot!

This Is Booty

Zimbabwe needs to do better. This stinks!

Zimbabwe's opposition leader says he is pulling out of Friday's runoff election against President Robert Mugabe.

Morgan Tsvangirai says this is because of mounting violence and intimidation against the opposition during the campaign.

Tsvangirai announced his decision during a news conference in Zimbabwe's capital on Sunday after thousands of ruling party militants blockaded the site of the opposition's main campaign rally.

The opposition says that police in full riot gear and soldiers have taken over the site of the rally.