Don't Tell Me That This Isn't...

...Child Abuse:



H/T to Urban Curlz

R.I.P. Michael Jackson

I know that I'm days late with a post about Michael Jackson but I just had to wrap my mind around his sudden death. I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. It just seems surreal. Death is part of life but it always seems unimaginable when it's your favorite artist.

See, I'm an 80's baby so his death affected me in a different kind of way. His music is the soundtrack of my childhood. I had school supplies and posters with Michael's images on them. I tried my hardest to mimmick his dance routines. I could recite the lyrics to all his songs. I caught every one of his award show performances. Nobody was touching Michael. Not even Prince ;-)

Michael's videos were played on regular network channels. People would lose their damned minds over him. Fainting and everything. He still has the best-selling album in music history. People still can't touch Michael. My man shut down Twitter, Facebook, and Google because of the reports surrounding the conditions leading up to his death.

What I loved most about Michael was his ability to appeal to people multiculturally, multiracially, and most importantLI, multigenerationally. I can't think of one artist as of late that has multigenerational appeal.

I'd like to wrap this post with some amazing videos and songs by and including Michael Jackson. Rest in peace, Michael. You're in a better place.

"Can You Feel It" by The Jacksons:



"Beat It" by Michael Jackson:



"Got to Be There" by Michael Jackson:

More Proof That Elisabeth Hasselbeck Is a Mindless Twit

Props to Jesse Ventura for the bold, and much-needed questioning.

H/T to Macon D.

Why Don't I Feel Sorry for Them?

For Christine Cameron, the recession became real when the financial analyst she had been dating for about a year would get drunk and disappear while they were out together, then accuse her the next day of being the one who had absconded.

Dawn Spinner Davis, 26, a beauty writer, said the downward-trending graphs began to make sense when the man she married on Nov. 1, a 28-year-old private wealth manager, stopped playing golf, once his passion. "One of his best friends told me that my job is now to keep him calm and keep him from dying at the age of 35," Ms. Davis said. "It's not what I signed up for."

Peep the mission statement:

Are you or someone you love dating a banker? If so, we are here to support you through these difficult times. Dating A Banker Anonymous (DABA) is a safe place where women can come together - free from the scrutiny of feminists- and share their tearful tales of how the mortgage meltdown has affected their relationships. DABA Girls was started by two best friends whose relationships tanked with the economy. Not knowing what else to do, we did what frustrated but articulate girls have done since the beginning of time - we started a blog. So if your monthly Bergdorf's allowance has been halved and bottle service has all but disappeared from your life, lighten your heart with laughter and email your stories to dabagirls@gmail.com. Warning all stories sent will be infused with our own special brand of DABA Girl humor.

SOURCE

Two words of criticism: Plum foolery. One word of advice: Reevaluation.

B#tch Please.

I love how out-of-touch White Americans assume some pseudo authority on race relations. I love how they conveniently ignore the "One Drop Rule" when convenient. I love how they pretend that we're all holding hands across the nation singing "Kumbayah" while dishing racist vitriol. I love how they can be unhealthily obsessed with people of color and dehumanize us at the same time.

And I also love how they can rely on antiquated and ruled-out research that feminizes and racializes poverty. I also love how they can run off at the mouth without offering any solutions. Bitch please.

Negro Please

*SMH* Is this what Nas was talking about on Hip Hop Is Dead? The fact these wet-behind-the-ears rappers pop shit and have no regard for their elders who've paved the way for their asses? His album better be a classic.

C. Hamilton needs to humble himself cuz he could easily find his way back to his old cardboard mat. You ain't been off the streets that long, homie.

H/T to I.G.O.D. over at the9elements.

Barack Obama Elected POTUS

Never did I think I'd see this day. I was prepared for this election to be stolen with all of the reports of faulty touch screen voting machines.

A Black man and his family in the White House. Amazing. It's really empowering to know that we can now honestly tell young Black children that they can be president. This is so surreal. I'm speechless and all cried out over this joyous moment.

See you at the inauguration :-)

"Vote for Me"

Please get out and vote. Be informed and vote the issues and vote your interests. I don't care who you vote for. Actually I do ;-) but still, vote.

Condi Rice Admits to White House Torture Talks

I just heard this on The Rachel Maddow Show.

These are news results that I've found so far:
http://news.google.com/news?sourceid=navclient-ff&rlz=1B3GGGL_enUS247US254&um=1&tab=wn&hl=en&scoring=n&q=condi+rice+admits+torture+talks&btnG=Search+News

It's always safe to 'fess up on your way out *Rolls eyes* Disgusting.

Why Is Georgia Rushing to Kill Troy Davis?

What’s the Rush?
By Bob Herbert

Troy Davis, who was convicted of shooting a police officer to death in the parking lot of a Burger King in Savannah, Ga., is scheduled to be executed on Tuesday.

There is some question as to his guilt (even the pope has weighed in on this case), but the odds of Mr. Davis escaping the death penalty are very slim. Putting someone to death whose guilt is uncertain is always perverted, but there’s an extra dose of perversion in this case.

The United States Supreme Court is scheduled to make a decision on whether to hear a last-ditch appeal by Mr. Davis on Sept. 29. That’s six days after the state of Georgia plans to kill him.

Mr. Davis’s lawyers have tried desperately to have the execution postponed for those few days, but so far to no avail. Georgia is among the most cold-blooded of states when it comes to dispatching prisoners into eternity.

So the lawyers are now trying to get the Supreme Court to issue a stay, or decide before Tuesday on whether it will consider the appeal.

No one anywhere would benefit from killing Mr. Davis on Tuesday, as opposed to waiting a week to see how the Supreme Court rules. So why the rush? The murder happened in 1989, and Mr. Davis has been on death row for 17 years. Six or seven more days will hardly matter.

Most of the time, the court declines to hear such cases.

If that’s the decision this time, Georgia can get on with the dirty business of taking a human life. If the court agrees to hear the appeal, it would have an opportunity to get a little closer to the truth of what actually happened on the terrible night of Aug. 19, 1989, when Officer Mark Allen MacPhail was murdered.

He was shot as he went to the aid of a homeless man who was being pistol-whipped in the parking lot.

Nine witnesses testified against Mr. Davis at his trial in 1991, but seven of the nine have since changed their stories. One of the recanting witnesses, Dorothy Ferrell, said she was on parole when she testified and was afraid that she’d be sent back to prison if she didn’t agree to finger Mr. Davis.

She said in an affidavit: “I told the detective that Troy Davis was the shooter, even though the truth was that I didn’t know who shot the officer.”

Another witness, Darrell Collins, a teenager at the time of the murder, said the police had “scared” him into falsely testifying by threatening to charge him as an accessory to the crime. He said they told him that he might never get out of prison.

“I didn’t want to go to jail because I didn’t do nothing wrong,” he said.

At least three witnesses who testified against Mr. Davis (and a number of others who were not part of the trial) have since said that a man named Sylvester “Redd” Coles admitted that he was the one who had killed the officer. (More Stuff...)

For more information on Troy Davis, visit http://www.troyanthonydavis.org/