DarkStar Spouts Off

Eye Witness Accounts

This article by Gregory Kane stands without comment.

DNA proves court right to suspect eyewitnesses
Gregory Kane

Jerry Miller reached a milestone this week, but I'm willing to bet it's one he'd prefer didn't involve him at all.

Miller was arrested as a suspect in the kidnapping, rape and robbery of a Chicago woman in 1981. He was convicted in 1982, sentenced to 45 years and paroled in 2006 as a registered sex offender. Miller had to wear an electronic monitoring device, couldn't answer his door for Halloween trick-or-treaters or leave his job when he took a lunch break.

Then DNA testing intervened. Semen on the victim's clothing was tested for DNA, and it wasn't Miller's. On Monday, Miller became, according to the Innocence Project, the 200th person in the country to be exonerated as a result of DNA testing.

"The Cook County state's attorney's office joined us in asking the court to vacate [Miller's] conviction," said Eric Ferrero, a spokesman for the Innocence Project, a 15-year-old organization founded to help prisoners who could be exonerated through DNA testing. But how was Miller convicted in the first place? It wasn't from physical evidence. It was from that old reliable prosecutorial standby eyewitness identification, which is frequently proving to be highly unreliable.

"Seventy-seven percent of the 200 exonerations involved erroneous eyewitness identification," Ferrero said.

You read that correctly. Ferrero didn't say "7 percent." He said "77 percent." As in 154 people being wrongfully convicted because jurors gave far more weight to eyewitness identification than is warranted by the facts.

I changed my mind. I have to make a comment.

I have this question: do the police and prosecutors, who know about eyewitness accounts, use techniques to plant information into the minds of victims?

Protection Issues

I have Zone Alarm Pro and Norton Anti Virus 2004 running on my laptop. I needed to renew my subscription and decided to upgrade to NAV 2007. After removing old Norton and rebooting several times, and installing NAV 2007 and rebooting several times, I was at the point to start it up.

Lo and behold! A message that indicates ZAP and NAV 2007 aren't compatible and Norton recommends ZAP be removed from the system.

OHHHHH... That sounds so familiar.... Like I had a problem with Windows 95 and a Micro$oft tech said remove all non-IE web browsers!

Norton? You want to play like that? OK, I'll go with AVG. How you like THAT!?!?!?

Rosie Gone From "The View"!

Rosie is gone from "The View."

CENSORSHIP!!!!

FIRED BECAUSE OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS!!!!

WHAT ABOUT FREE SPEECH!?!?!?!?!?

Star is laughing her butt off!

[ Update ]

I guess I should have mentioned this was sarcasm with a bow towards Imus comments. :-)

The Sopranos: Wimping of Men

So far, I have to say that "The Sopranos" is example A for the media wimpification of men in the media.

What is with Tony still in therapy? Other family bosses afraid to step up and take over because "they are too old"? Refusing to whack a drugged out captain? Letting your wife dictate to you how you do your business? A long time man in the family never whacking someone?

Wind Em Up Chuck!

Sometimes I buy music from people on the G.P. When I do that, they have been in the music business for some time and I love their prior work, so I just have to show my respect by getting the new CD.

Ladies and gentlemen, Chuck Brown has a new CD out today and believe me, I'm going to get it TODAY!

Donnie Simpson has been playing parts of the CD this morning and I like what I've heard.

[ Update ]

The new CD is titled "We're About the Business".

African American Mentoring

Charlotte Mecklenburg African American Agenda (CM3A)!

Mission:

Assemble and link Charlotte-Mecklenburg African American community stakeholders.
All citizens have a stake in the progress of the African American community.

CM3A will:

• Build collaborative relationships
• Prioritize issues relevant to Charlotte-Mecklenburg African Americans
• Empower the community to hold all leaders responsible for improving the quality of life for African Americans living in Charlotte-Mecklenburg

Vision:

CM3A will launch and maintain a powerful communication vehicle that engages Charlotte-Mecklenburg stakeholders in dialogue and action around issues affecting the African American community.

---

Detroit teacher is also mentor, entrepreneur

DETROIT -- After Chico Sorrell graduated Howard University in 1990, the Detroit native envisioned a life in the world of business, perhaps owning a radio or television station.

But Sorrell's path to entrepreneurial glory has taken a detour.

Now, 17 years later, Sorrell mixes his business acumen with a daily dose of classroom reality. During the day he is a social studies teacher at Detroit Central High School. Afterward, he morphs in a businessman who owns two area car washes and several residential properties around town. At other times, he's a promoter rubbing shoulders with top music acts like Busta Rhymes.

At all times, though, he helps his students, giving them jobs and advice.

"I let them know that if I can do it and make something of myself, they can do it themselves," he said.

---

African America Studies Program adopts second mentor school

The Citadel’s African American Studies Program has adopted its second mentor school, the Charleston Development Academy, a Charleston County public elementary charter school for children in kindergarten through the sixth grade.

The mentor partnership between the two schools is a key part of the African American Studies Community Outreach Initiative at The Citadel. The initiative, which is part of the African American Studies program at the college, serves as a channel for student, faculty, and staff involvement with the community and surrounding area. Other outreach initiatives will include community meetings, conferences, workshops, fund raising and a speakers’ bureau.

The African American Studies Community Outreach Initiative adopted its first school, the Military Magnet Academy, in September 2005.

"Gorby, Tear Down This Wall!"

Uhhh....

The US military is building a three-mile concrete wall in the centre of Baghdad along the most murderous faultline between Sunni and Shia Muslims.

The wall, which recognises the reality of the hardening sectarian divide in Baghdad, is a central part of George Bush's final push to pacify the capital. Work began on April 10 under cover of darkness and is due for completion by the end of the month.

The highly symbolic wall has evoked comparisons to the barriers dividing Protestants and Catholics in Belfast and Israelis and Palestinians along the length of the West Bank.

Captain Scott McLearn, who is based at Camp Victory, the US base on the outskirts of Baghdad, said Shias "are coming in and hitting Sunnis, and Sunnis are retaliating across the street".

Although Baghdad is full of barriers and checkpoints, particularly round the Green Zone where the US and British are based along with the Iraq government, this is the first time a wall has been built along sectarian lines.

Uhhh....

Berlin?

Happiness Is...

Happiness is a beautiful spring Saturday, 2 year-old with diarrhea,  a spouse with an upset stomach, a partially wet basement, and a migraine, all at the same time :0(

Stop Snitchin

Remember this since the topic is coming up again:

• The Mafia had an "no snitching" rule that existed for years. It broke down some when RICO started being applied harshly to low level members.
• The police have the "blue wall of silence" that is the same as "stop snitching."

I think the "stop snitching" thought is wrong and does nothing but make neighborhoods worse. But people are going to say this is a "Black thing" or a "hip hop thing" and they are willfully lying.

Media Irresponsibility

I admit that I looked at the pictures of the Virginia Tech killer.

Even though I am sick to look at the pictures, I think it is the height of media irresponsibility to have the pictures, video, and text of his rantings made public.

Education Con-fusion

I just don't know what to say.

Shaker Heights, an affluent suburb of Cleveland, operates a program called the Minority Achievement Committee Scholars that serves as a model.

This program was started 15 years ago by a group of junior and senior African-American males at Shaker Heights High who mentor to freshmen and sophomore males.

"They believed there were not enough role models and a lot of capable young men were running off the rails," said Peggy Caldwell, communications director for Shaker Heights schools. "Their job is to mentor, coach, cajole and hassle the younger students. It's been very successful."

School officials in Teaneck created an after-school club for African-American boys two years ago, where members of the business community serve as role models.

Some parents and civil rights officials have questioned whether such programs are counter-productive.

The New York Civil Rights Coalition last year filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education over a similar program at the City University of New York, said Michael Meyers, the group's executive director.

Meyers said Monday his group is considering filing a complaint against Ossining's efforts, which he has called a process that could make the boys feel inferior and different.

I just don't know what to say.

VaTech and the Media

Once again, the media is demonstrating how heartless and non-thinking they can be in their response to this tragedy.

Bill O'Reily and Geraldo Riveria and many others in the media, seeking to point out blame in the reaction of Virginia Tech officials without knowing what happened, the size of the campus, the flow of students on campus, off campus, on and off campus, etc.

Then they stick microphones into the faces of students right after it happens and they ask questions. Meanwhile, the students, themselves, are saying they are in shock.

More later.

After Watching 60 Minutes

After watching "60 Minutes" tonight, I have to say 2 things:

1. People should pray for the Duke rape false accuser and pray even harder for her children.
2. The Duke students received a raw deal. But they were not angels.

The end.

Baseball

I really don't know what to say about Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier in baseball. As a child, I learned his baseball story and I was nonchalant about it. I didn't understand the "big deal." When I was slightly older, and I learned more about what he had to go through, and thinking about what I went through playing baseball and just having opposing players and parents saying I was a scrub, I marveled at his strength.

During this time of memories and tales of what he went through, all I can think about is his mental strength, strength of character, and his baseball skills. Then, that brings me to thinking about Barry Bonds and Hank Aaron.

When I was a child, Hank Aaron was one of my baseball heroes. Other baseball heroes were Frank Robinson, Al Bumbry,  and Reggie Jackson. I remember when Aaron broke Babe Ruth's record and I remember the racial mess that surrounded him as he came close to beating the record. Aaron was, and is the man.

As Barry Bonds, son of Bobby Bonds, another GREAT baseball player, comes close to breaking Aaron's record, I marvel at Aaron's stance about being at one of the games where Bonds stands a chance of tying or beating Aaron's record:

Aaron said he wouldn't attend if Bonds were within reach of the record when the San Francisco Giants play at Atlanta from Aug. 14-16.

"I'd probably fly to West Palm Beach to play golf," Aaron was quoted as saying in Moore's column. "Again, it has nothing to do with anybody, other than I had enough of it.

"I don't want to be around that sort of thing anymore. I just want to be at peace with myself. I don't want to answer questions. It's going to be a no-win situation for me anyway. If I go, people are going to say, 'Well, he went because of this.' If I don't go, they'll say whatever. I'll just let them make their own mind up."

I marvel at Aaron's stance simply because I think he made the right call. I don't consider this a snub. It's going to be a media mess one way or the other.

I think this is a class move. He can't win. Bonds can't win. Bonds' record will always be considered to be with an asterisk.

Staight Up: Juan Williams Is A Liar

We are going to the late service at church so I got to see Fox News Sunday live instead of via TiVo.

On the Imus situation, Chris Wallace interviewed Al Sharpton and got his head handed to him by Sharpton. Sharpton said, just as I have written many times, that they have been doing things but the media has, for the most part, not covered it. When Wallace said he could find no evidence of it, I wanted to throw the iron at the television.

"No evidence"? How about  a simple Google search? That is how I found these. Does this mean "Al Sharpton" can't be found in Lexus/Nexus?

For Juan Williams to later state that there are no activities done by Sharpton, is plain wrong. Hell, the man, Juan Williams, lied.

More later...

[ Update ]

I consider Chris Wallace and Tim Russert to be the best "talking head" show hosts/interviewers today. Both, I think, are equally harsh on their guests. But, when Wallace doesn't like someone, he REALLY goes after them and this was the case today with the questioning of Al Sharpton.

On the Imus mess, Wallace lost his journalistic sense. He had a script that he believed in, or was told to follow, and refused to listen to what Sharpton was saying. But, worst of all, he did NO preparation! How else could you account for Wallace not finding the information that I found using Google? Wallace said he was unable to find any evidence of Sharpton speaking out against the filth in rap?

How else could you account for Wallace, nor anyone on his staff, not getting transcripts of Sharpton's radio show or at least not listening to the show on Thursday or Friday to know that Sharpton called the actions of Nifong wrong in the Duke rape case? When Wallace asked if Sharpton apologized for what he said about the Duke case, and he showed a clip of Sharpton speaking to Bill O'Reily, I wondered why Sharpton should apologize. He, Sharpton, said he had no reason to believe Nifong would not be pursuing the case if nothing was there. Sharpton told Wallace that he should not apologize for being misled by Nifong.

I have to agree with him on that point.

I understand not agreeing with Sharpton. I understand people going after Sharpton to bring him down. But if it is done, it would be best to use what Sharpton has done or not done, with the proper research to back it up, then playing by the standard conservative play book and then looking like a fool when Sharpton, a man who is not dumb, hands you your head, factually and rhetorically.

[ Update 2 ]

The Fox News transcript can be found here.

Free Speech

Free speech:

• The Dixie Chicks saying they are ashamed to be from Texas because George Bush is from Texas.
• Bill Maher stating the 9/11 hijackers are brave.
• Don Imus calling the Rutgers team, "nappy headed hos".

Free speech consequences, also known as market forces response:

• Reduction in CD sales and concert gate receipts.
• Maher losing his show on broadcast television.
• Imus being fired.

And the problem, again, is?

This Should Make You Wet Your Paints

What do "Snoop Dogg" and "50 Cent" have in common?

They are both parents of boys.

When Mainstream Pays Attention and Doesn't Pay Attention

Another data point for "mainstream media" paying attention vs. ignorning.

By Rashod D. Ollison
Sun Pop Music Critic

April 13, 2007

The firing of radio talk-show host Don Imus, who last week referred to Rutgers University's female basketball players as "nappy-headed hos," thrust into the national limelight the misogyny of rap lyrics - a long-debated issue in the African-American community.

There long has been some resistance in the black community to how women are portrayed in rap lyrics. In the 1990s, during the boom of the music's dominance over mainstream radio, politician and civil rights activist C. Delores Tucker and pop-soul legend Dionne Warwick were prominent, outspoken opponents of the misogyny they said was corrupting the genre. And in the past few months, Sharpley-Whiting, Neal, author Joan Morgan and other hip-hop intellectuals have toured the national college circuit with "Rap Sessions: Does Hip-Hop Hate Black Women?" a forum that debates the lack of artistic and civil responsibility in the hip-hop generation.

...

But the Imus issue now is highlighting the question of accountability and moral authority within the hip-hop community. Why is the radio jock held responsible for calling a group of black women a slang term for prostitutes, some cultural critics ask, when scores of rappers have gone multi-platinum using the same word and uglier ones in reference to black women everywhere?

"There has been a dialog going on in the [black] community for years about the negative images in hip-hop," Sharpley-Whiting says. "But it's about what the mainstream media think is newsworthy. This 'ho' issue is so old. Mainstream media have erased the legacy of protest about this issue. With Imus, he's white and generates a lot of revenue, and so he gets a lot more attention when he uses 'ho' to describe black women."

My "Rap Attack"

One day I was listening to the radio in my small office when I heard a song that I thought went over the line. I got the telephone number to WKYS and called the station/program manager.

I told the person my name, my age, and why I was displeased with their music choices. After I was done, the station/program manager told me their target demographic was girls between the ages of 13-19 and they do very well in their target demographic. Essentially, he was telling me what I thought didn't matter because they had the ratings.

Later that evening, I wrote letters to the FCC and WKYS's parent company complaining about their music selection. I also wrote letters to the FCC about WPGC and WERQ. Of course, it didn't work but I tried.

Some time later, I contacted big churches in the Baltimore-Washington area to try to get them to purchase stock in Radio One. My idea was that if the churches had a large enough block of stock, they could go to stock holders meeting to attempt to force a change in Radio One's music selection. I had heard that all of the "hip hop" stations were programmed by one person with allowances for local tastes and I hoped this tactic would work.

Cathy Hughes is respected in the area and my attempt to do this, failed.

Read other's "rap attacks" here.

Don Imus: What I've Learned

This is what I've learned from the situation. This time, I'm using numbered bullet points because order is important. If you are a radio personality:

1. Don't spew filth at people who are not in the public eye. Do you remember the DJ who lost his job because he "joked" about raping a competitor's daughter?
2. If you spew filth and it starts to gain steam, apologize right away and apologize DIRECTLY to the people you offended.
3. If activists get involved, don't apologize to them, don't meet with them, don't respond to their comments. If you do, your blood is in the water and at that point, you are doomed.
4. Money talks. Imus wasn't suspended or fired right away. The advertisers started to go away and that is when he became a liability.

Now What Happens?

Don Imus is gone. Now what happens?

Do WE pick up the ball WE dropped and put more power behind the efforts started at Essence Magazine and Spellman to clean up rap lyrics?

Do We pick up the ball WE dropped, or never picked up, to protest and act against radio stations, including those owned by Radio One, for playing the filth?

What happens now?

Damn, Ain't THIS Interesting?

Right now I'm listening to Rush Limbaugh and I find it INTERESTING that he is speaking out against inaccurate reporting in the media based up how the reporting went in concerning the Duke non-rape case.

I find it INTERESTING because he is talking about prosecutorial misconduct and the prosecutors leaking to the media, and stating that this may be standard practice across the United States. I find it INTERESTING because others, *cough*Blacks*cough* have raised the flag of unfair prosecutions and reporting but NOW Limbaugh is commenting on it.

I guess it has NOTHING to do with Florida prosecutors going after him for "doctor shopping" and everything to do with the need for having faith in the justice system in order to sustain a civil society. Yeah, that's it.

Rap Attack

There are so many comments about "Black Leaders" and other Blacks not speaking out against rap, that I made a public Google Notebook called Rap Attack to address that false belief.

Updates to the notebook are coming.

Main Stream Media, "Black Leaders", and Ignorance

The Don Imus fiasco, once again, shows exactly how much the "main stream media" ignores so-called "Black leaders" and the Black media when Blacks are attempting to address issues in the Black community?

[ What do you mean D.S.? ]

Listening to mainstream talk radio in the Baltimore-D.C. corridor, it was evident that they had no clue that Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Sr., and Lewis Farrakhan, to name a few, have blasted the lyrics in rap and rappers. The popular refrain was, "Where are [ insert so-called last name of Black leader here ] criticizing the lyrics in rap?"

I sent a few links to 2 talk show hosts. One recognized he was wrong and backed down some, the other kept spewing.

It's funny how the "mainstream media" can give coverage to so-called "Black leaders" at certain times while ignoring them at other times. For example, when Cosby was given press for his comments, how many in the press stated the NAACP audience applauded vs. how many stated otherwise?

More later...

Rutgers Conference

The Rutgers conference on the Imus situation can be summed up with one word: CLASS.