DarkStar Spouts Off

Black Men Train to Mentor

Black men train today to mentor young males

Professional black men, including doctors, businessmen, athletes, coaches and administrators, will gather starting today at the Westin Hotel downtown to begin a three-day training session on how to mentor and tutor young black males.

The meeting is hosted by the Cincinnati Chapter of 100 Black Men, part of 100 Black Men of America Inc. The group is a voluntary service organization, dedicated to helping black men grow into adulthood and find useful careers, said John Moore, president of the Cincinnati chapter.

"The training forum is one of several that will be held across the country this year to make sure our members understand and use the 100 Black Men training model, designed for urban youths," Moore said.

He said the model deals with instilling self-respect, teaching self-reliance and identifying worth.

Dear Mr. Cosby, IV

Dear Mr. Cosby,
    Alphonso loves Jack Daniels and women. It is a combination that has caused, shall we say, interesting situations.

    Alphonso has 2 children by his ex-wife. The older child seems to have taken the most negative aspects of Alphonso's behavior and turned them into life lessons on how not to behave and not what to do. The younger child, daddy's girl, has suffered the most from Aphonso's irresponsible behavior. (She has also suffered from her mother's irresponsible behavior, but that's another letter).

   When Alphonso and his wife were together, the younger child was daddy's girl. Even though Alphonso cheated on his wife, stayed out at night, and drank too much, the younger child was still daddy's girl. When Alphonso and his wife split, drinking and women comprised more of Alphonso's time.

    While we tried to get Alphonso to calm down, the younger child seemed to take things in stride until she became a teenager. One day I saw her and her mother after I had not seem them for awhile. I said to her mother that the girl was cute just like her, and just like her, she has a phat butt.

    Her mother's response was to agree and then chime in that the daughter is now smelling herself. I talked to the daughter for a bit and realized right away that she was headed for dangerous waters.

    I contacted Alphonso and told him in no uncertain terms that he needed to take time with his daughter because she is looking like a woman. I told her to remember when we would talk about how the young girls looked older but something always gave their age away. I told him to remember how some of the other "men" we knew didn't care about age. If the girl was willing, they would "hit it." I told him that those same men are going to see his daughter, with her phat butt, and take advantage of the situation.

    He got mad at me for mentioning her attributes, but I told him I didn't care if he stayed mad at me or not, as long as he took time for his daughter because, as I knew and pointed out to him, she, like my daughter, really needs him now.

    Unfortunately, he didn't listen. His daughter, a very smart girl who always did well in school, started skipping class, acting out, and disrespecting adults. (Why should she respect adults when her father was a drunk and her mother was out there as well?)

    Family members stepped in to help her out but it didn't seem to matter. Another friend of ours asked her mother to give him guardianship so he could move her out of the city and into a more rural area. The mother signed the papers. Alphonso said he would sign and then changed his mind and refused. He took his daughter.

    However, Alphonso didn't change his ways even with his daughter living with him.

    Then, as a few of us predicted, that older "man" who didn't care about age, entered the daughter's life.

    When a few of us found out, "the uncles" decided to this "man" to let him know that "our niece" was under age. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending upon how you look at it, Alphonso called us and told us to forget the visit because statutory rape charges were filed.

    She is still a work in progress but she may be coming around. Please pray for her because she is a good kid and has great potential.

    Mr. Cosby, as I wrote before, he wasn't at your talk when you visited his city. Even if he was at your talk, why should he listen to you when he won't listen to us.

    What should we do?

Affirmative Action

The underlying premise, and often said premise, for the opposition to affirmative action is that affirmative action starts with the assumption that Blacks are not qualified and will fail with affirmative action in place.

The premise is false and based on the idea that Blacks are inferior. I don't care about the race of the person who is in opposition. The idea still is that Blacks are inferior. But, no one seems to think about the many cases where whites are unable to get the job done.

Forgive me if I ramble, but I'm writing from a stream of conscience about this right now.

Education

Let me go back to an orientation meeting during the first days of college. The dean of the engineering school told each of us to look left and then look right. He then said, in four years, 2 of the 3 of you will not be here. Interestingly enough, he was right. This was the e-school so the make up of the school was mostly white. I saw Blacks, Asians, and whites drop out of e-school. Some of those actually left the university all together.

I'll never forget the night in the computer lab when a white girl broke down crying about the major assignment saying she just couldn't get it done. A white boy was staring at the terminal, cursing under his breath at different times. Finally, he muttered a curse phrase, looked up, reached behind the computer terminal, cut it off, and said, "That's it. I quit. Obviously this isn't for me." I also remember the Black students who washed out of the computer science program.

But I marched on and graduated in four years.

However, no one seems to say anything about the whites that fail. It is as if the possibility of failure for them doesn't exist.

There are references to statistics that "show" Blacks who entered college under affirmative action are more prone to not finish in 4 or 5 years. What those statistics don't account for is:

1. The reason why the students didn't finish. Did the students transfer and if they did transfer, why did they transfer?
2. Did the students not finish because of funding issues? This point is key because Black students rely more on student loans and grants than white students. The fact is, Black students are more likely to not finish school because of funding issues.

Correlation is not causation is the key in that point.

I dated a woman who was an administrator in a college admissions office. She told me of the "fights" she went through just to add majority minority schools to the college recruiting tour. Once the schools were on the tour, she had to fight to keep them on the tour if the recruiting effort didn't produce "enough" applications. At a dinner where her and her admissions peers gathered, they told tales that echoed what she had told me:

• Black students seemingly not being given the same benefit of the doubt as white students.
• Majority minority schools not given the same amount of time to produce interest in the school before being recommended to be dropped from the school's recruiting efforts.
• White students being told about available scholarships while Black students were not being told about available scholarships.

Employment

During my work career, I have witnessed countless instances of incompetence. There have been instances of Blacks and whites being incompetent. But it doesn't matter because it's only the Black incompetence that means anything, right?

I worked at a company with an affirmative action policy in place. I helped interview people for a testing position and recommended a Black man for the job. Other interviewers, who were "over" me, recommended a much less experienced white man for the job. The white man got the job and was later moved to another position because he wasn't qualified.

At another company, one day a Black HR person was walking down the hall and I could tell she was mad. She told me that she was being given grief for recommending HBCUs for the employment recruiting tour. She said she had to fight to get HBCUs included because the other HR people never heard of the schools. She then said that she never heard of many of the schools from which they currently recruit.

Mindset

Am I the only person who seems to remember reports of:

• A study "showing" white men, even with records, being given more consideration as potential employees than Black men without records?
• A study "showing" that resumes of people with "Black sounding names" were given lower consideration than resumes of people without "Black sounding names" even if the resume of the "Black sounding name" indicated that person was more qualified?

Life Is Unfair

Yes, life is unfair.
Yes, we have to be twice as good to be considered as good.
But I'm "talking about" just getting into the damn door to show our asses off!

So don't come to me speaking nonsense saying affirmative action assumes Blacks are not qualified, because it's bull that isn't proven. To me the comment proves that people start with the assumption that Blacks can't do the job, and when we do, we are the exception, not the rule.

"Their" or "Our" or "Your" President

I'm tired of hearing the phrase:

• Their president;
• Your president; or
• Our president

coming off of the lips of politicians and partisans. Many of the people using these phrases are the same slime bags that say, "Use of hyphenated American is divisive".

Please, tell me what is more divisive than "your president"?

He is the president of the United States of America, regardless of who voted for him, what his party is, or if you like him.

Grow up.

Conflict of Interest

As I understand it, a conflict of interest exists when a party gets to stand in judgement of something of which they, or their interests, may benefit.

For example, it would be a conflict of interest if I recommend software for a task when I have stock in that software or may have helped to write that software.

With that in mind, someone please tell me why this is not a MAJOR situation of conflict in interest?

Microsoft Launches Security for Windows

Security software makers, the 800-pound gorilla has landed. Microsoft Corp. was to announce Wednesday that it is releasing software that aims to better protect people who use its Windows operating system from Internet attacks.

The move pits the world's largest software maker head-to-head with longtime business partners Symantec Corp., McAfee Inc. and others.

Windows Live OneCare, which will protect up to three computers for $49.95 per year, marks the latest step in Microsoft's effort over the years to make its operating system less vulnerable to crippling Internet attacks.

Windows, which runs on the vast majority of personal computers, has been a near-constant target of worms, viruses and other attacks, hurting countless users and forcing Microsoft to invest heavily in patching vulnerabilities and improving flaws.

You cannot tell me that Micro$oft will do all that it can to "lock down" Window$, thu$ potentially $horting potential revenue $tream to their new project, Window$ Live OneCare.

OH, you can tell me, but I ju$t will not believe it.

Dear Mr. Cosby, III

Dear Mr. Cosby,
    One day I was going to visit my cousin when I saw one of my cousin's and some other people boarding up a house that was used as a shooting gallery. I decided to join in on the effort. While this was going on, a policeman stopped his car and watched us as we went about our business.

    That night, the "inhabitants" of the building tore down the work we did and continued to do their business. Unfortunately, their business included raping women. Some time after that, an older lady who lived in the block was raped by someone who used that house. She was a nice woman, in her 70s. After news got around, a 14 or 15 year old teenage girl also came forward to say she was raped by someone who used that house.

    Prior to this, people in the neighborhood complained to the city and the police about the house but nothing was done. After the rapes, the police cleared the house and sealed it with bricks. It was later torn down. If you wonder why some people don't support the police, maybe this is a reason why.

    That's all Mr. Cosby. I don't have any questions.

Follow The Links...

Dear MSN search follower...

I have no idea why "why black africans hate black americans" but if you find out the answer, please let me know. I think the disconnect is silly. I can understand ambivalence, but hatred?

Dear Yahoo search follower...

I do know the "definition of a community." By the search, I guess you are a student.

Dear Google search follower...

I bet you didn't get what you were searching for when you followed that link to my blog entry that matched "criticisms of Shelby Steele," huh?

Oh, for the Yahoo user....
"how do most churces make their money"? I think it's called tithes and offerings.

And, yes, ....
"Flava flav" DOES belong in the Drop Squad.

Dear Mr. Cosby, II

Dear Mr. Cosby,
    I don't know where to begin this letter other than to say I know a man named Alphonso.

    Alphonso has always been considered a "ladies man." While in college, Alphonso got his girlfriend pregnant. He dropped out of college and obtained a good job. She dropped out of college but also obtained a good job.

    Alphonso and Daphannie married after the child was born. During the engagement period, Alphonso embarked on a "skirt chasing" mission to "get it out of" his system. His "mission" was awe inspiring. He was very "successful" and what was so amazing was his honesty in telling the women, up front, that he was getting married soon and that he was trying to get it "out of his system."

    There should be no surprise, I guess, that he cheated on his wife during their marriage. It may not also be a surprise that she cheated as well. But her story deserves another letter by itself.

   During their marriage, another child was born. This child has issues today because of the lack of parenting, lack of money management, lack of delay of gratification, on the part of both parents. But the "baby child" story deserves another letter by itself.

    I will mention now that not only does Alphonso love the ladies (and the ladies love Alphonso), but he also loves Jack. No, he's not on the "down low." Alphonso loves Jack Daniels.

    His love of women and Jack have lead to a lot of problems. Of the two, the most damage has come from his love of Jack Daniels. He has lost a job because of this love. He also damaged his long term earning potential because of accidents he has had because he chose to drive while intoxicated. Only God can be thanked for him not killing anyone.

    All along, friends of his, including myself, have tried to get him, and his ex-wife, on a better track. But, his ex-wife, as I wrote previously, is a different letter.

    We have tried to get him to give up alcohol, but since he has never hit true bottom, that has not happened. We have tried to get him to be more responsible with women and relationships, but that has not happened either. The truth of the matter is, there are so many women who find him attractive, love his "masculinity," his gift of gab, and, according to him and some of the women, his bedroom abilities, that there is really no reason for him to change his womanizing ways unless HE really wants to do so. In other words, he has to get tired of doing what he's doing for him to change. At least, that's the conclusion to which I have arrived.

    Alphonso now has another child for which he is claiming responsibility. There are real questions people have concerning his paternity of the child, but that doesn't matter. He says this is his chance to "do right" with this child. However, his behavior hasn't changed so, one would expect results to be the same.

   We have tried intervention methods. We have tried yelling. We have tried long term discussions with him. (This has been on going for about 20 years now). We have tried religion. But, to no avail.

    Mr. Cosby, you have been to the city where Alphonso lives. He didn't attend your talk.

    Mr. Cosby, there is much more to this story, but I'll end it here. Mr. Cosby, what should we do?

Dear Mr. Cosby, I

Dear Mr. Cosby,
    Last night around 11:30 P.M. EDT, the police were called to a neighborhood I was in because kids were outside playing with a basketball and, in general, making a lot of noise. As my wife said at the time, "That's on the parents. If the kids don't know any better, the parents sure should know better!"

    Mr. Cosby, in the racially mixed neighborhood, the kids hanging out were Black and Hispanic. I know that at least 3 head of households have approached the head of households of the children who are disrespectful of the neighbors, in general.

    As you would guess, it isn't just about playing with a basketball at night. The kids leave trash around, make noise, and perform "low level vandalism" of the people who try to correct their behavior.

    Caring neighbors have tried to talk to the head of households of the children to no avail. Of course, since the head of households don't care, the children don't care.

    Caring neighbors have tried to befriend the kids to modify their behavior, but that long ongoing effort is not bearing fruit, because the head of households don't care. One woman, every bit of her 4'11" self, if I remember correctly, actually threatened to body slam one "child" because he "bucked" on her.

    Mr. Cosby, you have been to the city in which this has happened, although you didn't come to the neighborhood. And, even if the head of households did attend your "meeting", obviously it is not having any effect.

    Mr. Cosby, what should be done in this situation?

Dear Mr. Cosby

A category just for you Mr. Cosby.
Stay tuned.

Today

Today please take a moment to remember the men and women who have given their lives during armed conflicts that our country has been in. Please also remember the men and women in the service who have given their lives while training to perform their duties.

My extended family also takes this day to remember the members of our family who are no longer with us.

To the former group and their families, all I can do is salute.

To my family, especially those who in some way helped raise me, you will live as long as I live.

Passing of an Institution

*Sigh*

This post is about the passing of an institution in Northwest Baltimore.

 

You didn't come to The Roost for its ambience.

The carryout on Reisterstown Road in Northwest Baltimore still had the same shabby hut-shaped building from its days as a burger joint in the 1970s. The staff was a little surly, the neighborhood not the plushest and the wait for food almost always long.

What you did come for were the fish sandwiches, fried golden brown and served on white bread with a little hot sauce. Or the fish dinner with two sides. The fish was so popular that just about everyone knew the carryout not as "The Roost," but simply as "Lake Trout."

But Lake Trout, which had become a local institution, with lines that stretched out the door even in the middle of the night, is no more.

The owner of the restaurant, Doris Williams, died of ovarian cancer at age 69 in September. Her only child, a prominent doctor in Washington, closed the carryout for good last month and has decided to sell the family business.

"I kept the business open for a while just because I couldn't imagine it being closed," said Dr. Deborah Williams, chief of the division of cardiology at Howard University Hospital. "But after a while it didn't smell the same, it didn't look the same. And when I realized it wasn't her anymore, I knew it was time to get out. It wasn't her dream anymore."

I had no idea.

It has been years since I have been to Lake Trout. What the writer stated about the lines is 100% truth.

On Friday evenings, in the late spring thru early fall when the weather was nice, there would be a line around the building. That was NO JOKE, NO EXAGGERATION, NO LIE.

Man...

All you had to do was slap some hot sauce on that fried fish and go to TOWN.

But if you had to deal with some of the Negroes that came to that joint, you'd have a little bit of a surle to you as well. :-)

Man...

To North West Baltimore, that joint was like Ben's Chilli Bowl in D.C. I think Avery would have appreciated this joint.

It will be missed. I haven't been there for years like I said, and I feel a bit empty. :-(

God Bless you Miss Doris.

I'm Not A Wordsmith, But...

I am not a wordsmith and I have never claimed to be a wordsmith. On aptitude tests, I always perform better on math and spatial elements than verbal elements. (This despite the fact I was reading before I entered kindergarten).

Anyway, that said, I HATE the use of two words in the American-English language. Those two words are:

• conversate
• athleticism

For "conversate" the word to use is converse or talk or have a conversation!

For "athleticism" use athletic ability dang nabit!!!

That is all.

Review of the Nagin Win

This is a review of the Nagin win. It was written on Sunday, at 1 PM, EDT. Let's start off with this

Ray Nagin won:

Nagin won with 52.3 percent, or 59,460 votes, to Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu's 47.7 percent, or 54,131 votes. While the vote was split largely along racial lines, Nagin got enough of a crossover in predominantly white districts to make the difference. He also won a slim majority of absentee and fax votes cast by evacuees scattered across the country.

I haven't read any news article about the win except for the article shown in this link. I haven't read any commentary about Nagin's winning. This post is going to reflect what I believe the commentary about Nagin's win will be about.

Race Is The Reason Nagin Won

Ladies and gentlemen, that will be the #1 reason given for Nagin's win. But look at what the quote stated. The votes went down racial lines. Whites voted for the white candidate, Blacks voted for the Black candidate. But it was white voters who gave Nagin the victory.

From previous articles about Nagin, Nagin first won as mayor because of white voters not Black voters.

This article shows something interesting:

Also after the primary, some black leaders and activists threatened a legal challenge to the results, saying that voter turnout figures proved their case that black voting strength had been unfairly diluted. Turnout among black voters in the primary was 31 percent, compared with 51 percent for white voters.

While black voter turnout in New Orleans generally lags white turnout, the disparity was more than 10 percent points larger than usual. In the 2002 mayoral primary, for instance, 50 percent of eligible white voters cast votes, compared with 45 percent of eligible black voters.

...

As the runoff campaign took shape, the city's ingrained political and racial patterns began to break down. Landrieu was endorsed by the third-place finisher, Audubon Nature Institute chief executive Ron Forman, a Democrat who had attracted the support of many white conservatives. Nagin countered by landing the backing of Couhig, the leading Republican in the primary, and Boulet, a liberal Democrat, both of whom are white. He was also endorsed by firebrand minister the Rev. Tom Watson, who is black.

Landrieu, meanwhile, picked up endorsements from the Republican Party, a large contingent of elected officials of both races, and Bishop Paul Morton, pastor of the state's largest black church.

The results Saturday suggest that Nagin managed to build back a sizable portion of his once-enviable white base, an accomplishment that likely put him over the top.

Pollsters had said that, based on his strong showing among black voters in the primary, Nagin would need at least 20 percent and perhaps 25 percent of the white vote to win. Landrieu, conversely, would have had to build slightly upon the 24 percent of black votes he received in the primary.

Early analyses Saturday night indicate that Nagin met his goal of a 20 percent share of the white vote, while Landrieu failed to build upon his African-American support, and might have even lost some.

Here's something to think about. If whites voted mainly for Landrieu, did they do so out of racism or because they made the "right" decision. Meanwhile, Blacks vote for Blacks because it's racism.

Really. Think about it.

Democrat vs. Republican

There is going to be more commentary about Democrat vs. Republican policies and their affect on communities, but people who spout that will choose to ignore the Nagin was a Republican who switched to be a Democrat for the mayoral race.

The "Blame" Will Lie With Black Voters

Black voters will be called stupid. There may be references to Marion Barry just to solidify the point. But I think I've shown enough to say the "blame" goes all around.

Those are my predictions. I wonder how I did?

At Sunday, 2:05PM EDT:

OK, here we go:

In the non-PC world of truth, one must wonder if racism is still alive and well in Big Easy?

How else to explain Nagin’s re-election, given the fact that the overwhelming majority of his votes came from blacks, the same community most harmed by his poor response to Katrina?

The same black community, by the way, that accused the Bush administration of racism for deliberately delaying federal assistance to New Orleans, thereby resulting in untold numbers of black deaths and property loss.

Liberals, of course, will deny black racism was a factor in Nagin’s victory. Some even contend that people of color are incapable of racism—–that only Caucasians are so cursed.

Sunday, 2:10PM EDT:

Having witnessed Marion Barry repeatedly elected mayor of Washington, D.C., I can't say I'm surprised at Nagin's success. Re-electing an unsuccessful or disgraced mayor apparently can become a source of civic pride, particularly when the racial politics are right.

Coppin State University

Coppin State University, an HBCU in Baltimore, adopted a troubled elementary school named Rosemont. Coppin and Rosemont are within walking distance from one of the areas in Baltimore in which I grew up.

I want to give some information concerning how that effort is turning out.

Accomplishments    

• Met Maryland State's Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) in all area for the years 2003, 2004
• 3rd and 5th grades average reading scored higher than Baltimore City Public School System�s average scores
• 5th grade reading scores exceeded the State of Maryland�s average scores
• 3rd and 5th grades average math scored higher than Baltimore City Public School System�s average scores    
• 3rd and 5th grades average math scores exceeded the State of Maryland�s average scores    
• 1st and 2nd grades scored above the National Average in reading and math on the Stanford 10 assessment    
• One of the first schools in Baltimore City to have it�s Pre-Kindergarten program to be validated by Maryland State Department of Education
• Removal from Maryland State�s reconstituted list in 2003    
• Double digit increased in standardized testing    
• Reduced Discipline Referrals by 74%
• Reduced Suspensions by 50%
• Increased parent involvement by 75%    
• Selected to showcase our school for our Coppin Professional Development Schools (PDS) on March 26, 2003 at a National PDS Conference in Florida
• Selected to showcase our school�s infussion of math for Coppin State University on January 4, 2005 at a National Math Conference in Georgia
• Received Grants from U.S. Fish and Wildlife, Chesapeake Bay Trust, Coppin State University, Goldsmith, TIMMS, and TEAMS, VH1
• Ben Carson Scholars recognized by Dr. Carson
• Ben Carson Reading Room constructed

This came out of Google's cache of an Afro American Newspaper article by Elijah Cummings:

I recently visited Rosemont Elementary School and learned how this school is putting the mission of investing in our children into good practice and making an overwhelming difference in students' lives. Just five years ago, this school was the lowest performing school in the State of Maryland. Today, its fifth grade reading and math scores on the Maryland State Assessment Exam have reached 87 percent and 80 percent proficiency levels respectively.  These scores exceed the state average.

Now, Rosemont Elementary School proudly takes its place as one of the top performing schools in Baltimore.

During my visit to the school, I witnessed first-hand how the spirit of excellence is being instilled in the students. These young people are eager to learn and to grow.

If you ask Principal Sandra Ashe how the school made such an amazing turnaround, she will credit her students' hard work and the commitment made by teachers, parents and the surrounding community to educating these students. "Neglect is the primary cause of a student's failure," she proclaimed. "If you don't water a plant, it will wither and die. The same principle holds true for nurturing the minds of our young people."

Rosemont has developed effective partnerships with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and with Southwest Airlines' Adopt-A-Pilot program to teach science, technology, and math in creative and challenging environments. Coppin State University and the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute have also committed to provide mentorship programs and support services to help foster Rosemont's success.

Efforts to Close the Achievement Gap

Dr. Stanley Battle, president of Coppin State University, takes comfort in knowing that his "children" are close by. Nearly 120 ninth-graders enrolled in the Coppin Academy, Baltimore's newest public high school, occupy two floors of the university's library. They are just an elevator ride away from Battle's office.

In one room of the academy, Telisa Claiborne guides students in her English class through a discussion of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. Down the hall, university students are wrapping up tutoring sessions with a group of freshmen--high school freshmen. Although Battle runs the campus, Coppin Academy is under the command of Principal William L. Howard.

The academy, which draws from a pool of Baltimore ninth-graders, is one of nearly a dozen such innovative school partnerships nationwide. Various studies have suggested that students, particularly African-Americans, may perform better in smaller, more personalized learning communities. In recent years, Black colleges and universities have proven increasingly willing to test that theory, launching early college high schools to educate and nurture minority students. The goal is that those students will continue to progress through high school and choose to attend college after graduation.

For many students, Coppin Academy is a dramatic change in environment from their troubled homes and impoverished neighborhoods. Howard and the instructors at the academy emphasize respect, manners, neatness and scholarship. Howard, a former Catholic school principal and guidance counselor, wants a lot for his students.

"I want them to be good people, well rounded, conscious of their heritage and able to speak to the homeless or to dignitaries with equal respect," he says.

The United Way Is At It Again

The United Way seems to be in financial trouble again.

The chief financial officer of the United Way of the National Capital Area has resigned in frustration over the organization's reluctance to abandon questionable financial practices she was hired to fix, the Washington Post reports.

Kim Tran, who left the United Way of America in 2003 to help clean up the United Way of the National Capital Area's bookkeeping, resigned in March after UWNCA CEO Charles Anderson instructed her to include $1 million in questionable corporate donations in the announced total for its 2004 campaign. "[Anderson] literally told me, 'I want that [total] as high as possible,'" said Tran, who said she was given no proper documentation for the donations and stayed at her post long enough to make sure accountants used the correct numbers when they finished auditing the organization's books earlier this year. Two other employees, including marketing and communications chief Anthony Owens, also left the organization in March and have confirmed Tran's account.

Yes, I know it's the D.C. region of the United Way. But I still think that organization should be considered to be suspect.

You Know You Are Getting Old When

You find those "man law" commercials as being STOOPID.

"Separation Of Powers"

"Separation of powers" in the Jefferson case doesn't exist.

Here is the reason: the congress-critters are afraid their offices will be raided for some valid reason and they fear getting caught.

[ Update ] 8:20 PM EDT

OH. MY. GOODNESS!!!!

Officials: Hastert "In the Mix" of Congressional Bribery Investigation

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dennis Hastert, is under investigation by the FBI, which is seeking to determine his role in an ongoing public corruption probe into members of Congress, ABC News has learned from senior U.S. law enforcement officials.

Federal officials say the information implicating Hastert was developed from convicted lobbyists who are now cooperating with the government.

Part of the investigation involves a letter Hastert wrote three years ago, urging the Secretary of the Interior to block a casino on an Indian reservation that would have competed with other tribes.

I TOLD YOU SO!!!!

[ Update 2 ] 10:20 PM EDT

My bad...

WASHINGTON May 24, 2006 (AP)— The Justice Department denied a news report Wednesday that it was investigating House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

The statement by department spokeswoman Tasia Scolinos came in response to a report by ABC News that Hastert was under investigation by the FBI to determine his role in a public corruption probe centered around convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Do Your Kid A Favor

Listen to them.

Offer to take them and their friends out some where. It doesn't matter if you walk or take them in your car, either is good, but do it.

Then just listen to the conversations that your kid(s) and their friends have in front of you.

Just listen.

Maybe speak up every now and then if something really comes up, but listen.

Repeat.

Then do this with just your kids. Just you, not the spouse/SO, and the kids.

Repeat.

Just listen.

You will start to pick up key words and then trends.

Just listen.

At some point you will find yourself actually talking with your kid.

And then you will be doing yourself a favor.

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday to "DS 2.0"!

No, he's not a Jr. Someone called him that and I kind of like it!
:-)

Success

Part of success comes from being around successful people, being around positive people, being around people who believe in your ability to achieve.

Given that bit of information, why should any Black teenager read public Black conservatives when most of what they write is negative about Blacks? Why should any Black teenager read public Black liberals when most of what they write is negative about Blacks?

Let me paraphrase something I heard from a teenager recently: "If I believe all the things that are written about blacks, then I would have to believe that I am doomed to fail, so there would be no need for me to try."

If people wonder why I keep bringing up that Blacks need to see, and acknowledge, the positives that are going on, that's why.

This ain't the first time I've heard something like this.

If you think back to when you saw a Black teenager wearing a shirt that said, "Just because I'm Black, It doesn't mean I'm a criminal," this is EXACTLY what that teenager was saying.

But ya'll don't hear me doh...

Baltimore Education Network

Frankly, I think the Baltimore Public School System needs to be nuked. But, I'll give props to those who deserve it:

Baltimore Education Network

The Baltimore Education Network (BEN) has as its vision that the public school system will provide a consistently excellent education to our students, as families, youth and community act as true partners in the education process and its decision-making. The mission of BEN is to support families, youth, and community in creating the agenda for how their schools can improve and using their individual and collective power to move this agenda. To accomplish this mission, BEN:

• provides access to education information,
• enhances participants' skills through trainings and workshops, and
• facilitates dialogue and collective action among individuals and organizations.

BEN is known in the community as a welcoming place for learning, discussing, and acting together on the issues impacting our schools. It models and seeks to create a climate in the city where authentic parent, youth and community engagement is respected, valued and nurtured, and contributes to the improvement of the Baltimore City public schools.

Identity Theft

It should be obvious to people at this point that government doesn't care about identity theft.

There are thousands of illegal immigrants who are stealing using Social Security numbers that do not belong to them. The I.R.S. and the Social Security Administration knows this but doesn't try to get the thieves people who are using the stolen mistaken numbers to face justice correct the mistake.

Now, we have an employee taking home sensitive information of thousands of veterans. OK, it's around 26 million veterans, but what does it matter if I'm off by a factor of 100 or so? The government is refusing to release the name of the employee who broke the regulations in taking that information home. Not only that, but at this writing, the government isn't going to offer the veterans free credit watch services as other companies did when they had data security failures.

So, why should Michael Steele expect the people who stole his credit information to go to jail? After all, stealing or losing sensitive information like the social security number isn't a big thing. He and the veterans just have to suck it up.

Note: For the sarcasm impaired, this is a sarcastic post.

Global Warming Isn't A FACT, Just A Theory

Global warming isn't a fact, it is just a theory. There are facts to support that the Earth is, indeed, warming. The problem, for me, lies with a basic question: Is the warming trend outside of the normal range of warming and/or cooling trends that the Earth has already been through?

In other words, is the temperature change abnormal or normal? Frankly, I don't think there is enough information to say one way or the other.

How does a doctor know that a person is running a fever? Answer: over the years a baseline temperature of 98.6 has been established as the normal temperature of a human being. However, there is a delta, or a range, of variance from that temperature where doctors don't worry that the person is running a temperature. Having "too low" of a temperature is also a problem, but again, there is a delta where the doctor doesn't worry about it.

Why am I writing about this?

Well, Al Gore has a movie that screams "The global warming sky is falling" and I'm tired of people going off half-cocked without having "the other side" to it.

Here's a story: My daughter was telling me about global warming and what her teacher told her. I told her to ask her teacher these questions and report back to me:

For global warming to be true, there has to be a base temperature that is used for the comparison. What is that base temperature?

How many years did it take to come up with this base temperature?

Isn't a flucuation of a "global temperature" normal?

Her teacher didn't appreciate the questions my daughter was told to ask her.

Check this one out:

Mr. Legates critiques the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment that proclaimed Arctic air temperature trends strongly indicate global warming, causing polar ice caps and glaciers to melt. However, Mr. Legates says, the Assessment ignored data that undermine these claims.

For example, coastal stations in Greenland are cooling and average summer air temperatures at the summit of the Greenland Ice Sheet have decreased by 4 degrees Fahrenheit per decade since measurements began in 1987. In addition, records from Russian coastal stations show the extent and thickness of sea ice has varied greatly over 60- to 80-year periods during the last 125 years. Moreover, the maximum air temperature they report for the 20th century was in 1938, when it was nearly four-tenths of a degree Fahrenheit warmer than the air temperature in 2000.

Ice core data from Baffin Island and sea core sediments from the Chukchi Sea also show that even if there is warming, it has occurred before. In Alaska, the onset of a climatic shift -- a warming -- in 1976-1977 ended the multidecade cold trend in the mid-20th century returning temperatures to those of the early 20th century.

In addition, a study commissioned by Canada's Fisheries and Oceans Department examined the relationship between air temperature and sea ice coverage, concluding, "the possible impact of global warming appears to play a minor role in changes to Arctic sea ice."

More later...

I Just Gotta Say

Ray Nagin:

The voters have spoken so he will get another chance. Personally, I would have voted against him. But, it appears the voters gave the 2 worst candidates the chance in the run off. It's like a repeat of the bad choice of Edwin Edwards and David Duke.

William Jefferson:

Any Black politician who says the government is always going after Black politicians and tries to defend William "$90,000 in the freezer is old school thug" Jefferson, will automatically earn a spot in my Drop Squad,  and should be pimp smacked.