It's an early morning here at my desk, as I've just finished editing several of my team's articles. They are a team of student journalists, rising high school juniors and seniors, responsible, bright students of color. The children are the future, and many of these students will eventually make their impressions and contributions, with their pens in hand, and their ears tuned in to Hip-Hop music.

Tuesday, the rap legend NaS released his "Nigger" album, I haven't bought it yet, but my (blue, pink, green, red) friends who got it say it rocks, and I will buy it because NaS is my favorite rapper. I ask high schoolers what they think about the title and it doesn't really offend anybody. They don't want a white person calling them by that name, but most of these students call each other that. This is so passe.

It almost seems picture perfect that Reverend Jackson, who has so denounced the use of the so-called "nN" word, would be shown using it himself. And this latest shoe to drop reveals what we young ones have known all along - that objections to the word are more about politics than pain.

In the liberal establishment there been a lot of talk about how the super-delegates should vote in the Democratic primary; whether office-holding Democratic s.ds. should feel beholden to their states' or their constituents' support of Senator Clinton or Senator Obama.

Rep. John Lewis switched his support from Hillary to Barack, saying that he doesn't want to go against the overwhelming choice of his constituents. But Rep. Jim Clyburn says s.ds. are not obligated to honor their constituents' preferences when choosing who to support at the DNC.

I think John Lewis's defection could reflect some long-term fears that I would have if I were an elected official in an African-American district, especially if Obama is the next POTUS, or Clinton takes the nomination with fewer pledged delegates.

I am absolutely confounded that so many avowedly anti-war folks are ready to endorse candidates that refused to stand with us to oppose the Iraq war. As a student organizer in C.A.N. - the Campus Anti-War Network - I organized students and youths to march in Washington in the lead up to "Shock and Awe," and also to demand that the troops come home NOW.

The media diminished our numbers in their accounts, the politicians ignored us, the Feds and the police 'surveilled' us; we were the traitors, the naive, the blame America first motherf*kers.

We are still bearing the costs of the Iraq War, and no apology can undo the damage, death and destruction that millions of people will ultimately suffer.

I'm not committed to Senator Clinton but this piece in today's paper strikes me as just plain bullshit; unverified by facts, fueled by innuendo that could hurt Dem. chances in 2008.

With all this said... How true is this idea that Hillary Clinton's (or anybody's) nomination will hurt Democratic Congressional aspirations?

Vulnerable Democrats See Fates Tied to Clinton
MANHATTAN, Kan. — Nancy Boyda, a Democrat who ran for Congress in this district last year, owed her upset victory partly to the popularity of the Democratic woman at the top of the ticket: Kathleen Sebelius, who won the governor’s seat. Now, with a tough re-election race at hand in 2008, Ms. Boyda faces the prospect that her electoral fate could be tied to another woman: Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Hasn't it occurred to the New York Times that Republican support and ownership of the Iraq War, their efforts to privatize Social Security, and their impotence on healthcare could sway congressional outcomes more than how the Republicans hate Hillary?

The governor introduced the plan with the goal of increased security, safer roads and an opportunity to bring immigrants "out of the shadows." Opponents charged Spitzer would make it easier for would-be terrorists to get identification, and make the country less safe. Many New Yorkers agreed with them.

After all the hatred thrown his way by the likes of Bill O'Reilly and Lou Dobbs, Governor Spitzer abandoned plans to attack a major problem that hurts the pockets of New York's drivers--uninsured drivers on our roads.

New York's auto insurance premiums are consistently among the most taxing in the country. As a major port and bastion of American immigration, New York is home and sanctuary to many illegal aliens, many of whom drive, and who are at least as likely to get into expensive car accidents because they don't even take a road test before getting behind the wheel.

What does Dobbs want?! Should we expect the DMV to deport illegals?

Today's Washington Post features an article  about the U.S. Sentencing Commission's consideration of reductions in crack-cocaine sentences for Federal inmates. The commission has already reduced crack penalties for future convicts, and is now deliberating whether to make this rule retroactive.

The Bush administration opposes the new plan, arguing that it would overburden federal courts and release potentially dangerous drug offenders.

WTF?! Fair sentences don't burden the courts, it's mandatory minimums and a system in which rural, Republican communities benefit from prison population expansion - in the U.S. census (inmates count in the county they're jailed in, not the county they come from) - by receiving greater political and economic benefits through the imprisonment of poor and overwhelmingly non-white people.

The reasons behind the tone and vitriol of the latest DailyKos anti-Obama attacks is completely lost on me. I've seen people make the case that McClurkin is to blame for abandoned, lost and suicidal gay teens. I've seen people disregard Senator Obama's statements in support of LGBT rights, and in disagreement with McClurkin's views.

How does one draw the line from all of the rejection and oppression faced by gays to Barack Obama, the anti-Christ?

How are the other national Democrats or viable presidential candidates any better, when all they offer is more inequality? Dennis Kucinich is the only Democrat in favor of marriage equality who debated last nite in Philadelphia.

Here's a rant...

Or even the Michael Vick treatment for that matter?

Granted, Phil Spector only killed ONE person (allegedly). She was dead INSIDE the man's house.

Sure, Spector produced masterpieces of music for John Lennon and many others, but one wonders why America's outrage ain't quite so deafening as a wall of sound. The rage towards Simpson flows strong almost 15 years after his acquittal.

And I wonder if its a revelation from the Lord that while one black murderer is beat down in the media, once again, as if we didn't already know he killed, a white murderer is relatively ignored by society.

First off I'd like to say Don Imus is rich, he'll be fine.

This whole Imus ordeal is so chaotic and crazy to me; I don't understand why Reverend Sharpton would call for Imus to be fired after accepting Michael Richards' apology, I mean he didn't even call for a boycott..

Any listener of Imus's program knows he even refers to his wife as a 'ho.' And not even Reverend Sharpton had the balls to ask why discussions on accomplished females tend to focus on their appearance, which was the true crime Imus committed.

And remember Fat Nick Minucci, who was convicted of a hate crime last year after he bludgeoned a black kid while calling him a nigger - his lawyer used the hip-hop defense, claiming that Minucci's use of the word was not racist, but rather a common term expressed by fans of hip-hop as a term of endearment, the jury didn't buy that one.

Between these last few racist uproars I see a pattern - to say that hateful comments aren't so bad because rappers use or have used the same language.

When an unarmed Patrick Dorismond was shot by an undercover cop during Rudy Giuliani's administration, America's Mayor unsealed and released the man's juvenile record to the public within a week of the man's funeral.. or was it before his funeral?

Three of five police officers have been indicted on charges connected to the killing of Sean Bell and woundings of Trent Benefield and Joseph Guzman, all unarmed, after Sean Bell's bachelor party, the morning of his wedding last November. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has maintained a positive tone throughout these months, while the police have been out in the streets in force, as we've been expecting the grand jury's decision for a week now.

So some conservatives are scapegoating Condoleeza Rice for the lack of any coherent foreign policy in the Bush Administration. These people never cease to amaze! The gist of the article, in the right-wing rag Insight Magazine, is that Bush needs to replace Rice because her rhetoric against Iran and North Korea hasn't been "strong" enough.

And who are the provocateurs? Richard Perle, Newt Gingrich, unnamed congressional staffers, and wingnut bureaucrats in the Pentagon and NSC. Go figure...

  Harlem has always been a neighborhood of grand and sturdy architecture juxtaposed with working class homeliness & scrappy New York attitude. And since the blight of the 1950s when many of Harlem's more affluent fled the neighborhood as drugs, crime and poor services spread, there's been a disconnect between the high expectations set by Harlem's history and what most of us have actually been able to accomplish by living, going to school and socializing here.

  What the hell am I talking about? Until very recently residents of Harlem were hard-pressed to find a bank anywhere not on 125th street(MLK Jr. Blvd), the major commercial center in the neighborhood. In Central Harlem (e. of Columbia U. @ Morningside Av. and w. of Park Av.) I can recall the existence of one bank and a few random bodega ATMs between Central Park North (110th st) and 125th st.; but competition is stiff between the several liquor and fried chicken spots in this same area. Now comes 111 Central Park North on the corner of 110th st. and Lenox Avenue (Malcolm X Blvd).

 

I guess Ann Coulter's pissed the terrorist attacks didn't cause us to lose our souls and become rabid Nazis ready to nuke Islam. But I think she'll hit her sales projections with the help of the "surprise" and outrage voiced by the likes of Hillary and the New York Daily News.

What's everybody so surprised about? The bitch has a book coming out, and Matt Drudge is her personal amazon.com. A wingnut attack on the 9/11 families was a long-time coming, especially considering the political feelings of most of us in the New York metro area.