Monday, March 31, 2008

That Boy Ronaldo!

Wow! The backheel goal?! Cristiano is setting the new standard in football.



Peep the backheel cross to Tevez, the backheel thru-ball to Rooney, and another thru ball to Rooney. This man is ready for Roma! UNITED!!!!!



Manchester United Vs Aston Villa Full Match Highlights (29/03/20 - video powered by Metacafe

Friday, March 28, 2008

Learn Something (Ladies!)

To all the Ladies in the house!!!!

Look, if you can't cook, and cook well, chances are you are single. Don't expect to get a man if you cannot hold your own in the kitchen, and have some real flavor. Real talk! All that Destiiny's Child "Independant Woman" stuff is great, and I fully encourage the majority of it, but if you can't cook you won't get a man and have a family. I know gender roles are not PC and stuff like that, but FOR REALS, if you can't hold it down in the kitchen you will be single. Hey, I can cook, and I can cook well. I was home trained by my Mother, and even made my queen a royal breakfast on our first date, but the majority of single men in America are gay, taken, or weird. Most of the time these men can be summed up quite easily. They are into sports or music, have no idea how to cook, and want to have sex all the time. They are not very sensitive, and have no idea how to be in a relationship. They cheat, they lie, and they always think the grass is greener. And usually have a strong fear of commitment, and can't communicate worth a damn. But, for some strange reason women like these kind of men, and are drawn to losers. So, look at this series of pictures and learn something. My queen is one of a kind. Not only is she out of this world beautiful, she has a knowledge of self and culture, has a great wealth of intelligence, and can cook! She didn't even know how to make meals before she met me, that is one thing I have refined in her life, but now look at this.


She baked 2 dozen cupcakes (I love cupcakes!) and frosted half of them.


She then starts hooking up the chicken for quesadillas.


She is holding down the entire kitchen!


And then she goes with the neopolitan frosting flair!

Get your kitchen game up!

Rasta Is My Foundation

In College (Univ. of Tampa) this was on my door:

"Greetings in the name of His Imperial Majesty, JAH RASTAFARI"

And it will always be that way. Yesterday I met this Man, for those of you who don't know, he is Mickael Pietrus from the Golden State Warriors. We spotted him at PF Chang's in Emeryville, after eating some lunch and running errands. I approached him and said, "Hi Mickael! Are you going to play tonight?" He looked at me like I was some kind of half human half vampire and looked totally shook. He didn't say a word and shook his head no. The look on his face was like a kid who was caught stealing candy from a candy store and lied to your face about it. I mean, I looked like a ghost to him because he was shook. After about 10 seconds of his awkward stare at me I replied with, "Well, good luck anyway." I was fucking pissed off. On TV he comes off as such a nice person, and Jimmy B. always talks about how approachable he is. I saw the true Mickael, and first impressions last. Next time I see you Pietrus, I will not show you any love. I hope you get traded to the Miami Heat, sucka ass punk.

This pissed me off more than the punk ass sales associates at Sports Basement (off Bryant). Those people were BEYOND racist and were treating me like the scum of the Earth. Not only did they NOT help me find what I was looking for. They had the audacity to think I was stealing from the store. How do I know they were racist pricks? Every other [WHITE]customer in that 4 floored massive warehouse was greeted with a smile. Sales associates were jovial and joking with them and sharing sports anecdotes. Also, they were talking to each other gleefully, but when it came to me and my queen, silence and stares. To top it off, my queen was knocking things over (not on purpose) and not one person gave a damn. But, when we were looking at the swim goggles, this sales associate came up to us and gave us, "Are you finding everything okay?" I said yeah and she gave my girl the ice grill. As one who is trained in the arts of customer service, she was told over the radio, go check on that pair over there and see what's up (i.e. stealing) It is a joke! We were in there for almost half an hour before someone steps to us but as soon as other [WHITE] customers came in the door it was "Welcome to Sports Basement!" (Yes we got two tennis racquets and some tennis balls, that were paid for!)

I and I deal with inequality on the daily. Yet, my foundation is solid as the pyrimids in Africa. Never did I disrespect. Not once did I come at anybody sideways and off the hook. People see me and the first thing they see is a nigger, or big Black man, or scary Black person. Not everybody is like this!, fourtunately for the world, but even in cosmopolitan San Francisco, overt non-discrete racist action occurs. I have dealt with this kind of bullshit for my entire existence and don't expect it to change. So, in the spirit of Rastafari, I will give you a song.




Man to man is so unjust, children
You don't know who to trust
Your worst enemy could be your best friend
And your best friend your worst enemy

Some will eat and drink with you
Then behind them su-su 'pon you
Only your friend know your secrets
So only he could reveal it
And who the cap fit, let them wear it [repeat]
Said I throw me corn, me no call no fowl
I saying, "Cok-cok-cok, cluck-cluck-cluck"

Some will hate you, pretend they love you now
Then behind they try to eliminate you
But who JAH bless, no one curse
Thank God we're past the worse

Hypocrites and parasites
Will come up and take a bite
And if your night should turn to day
A lot of people would run away
And who the cap fit let them wear it [repeat]

And then a gonna throw me corn
And then a gonna call no fowl
And then a gonna "Cok-cok-cok, cluck-cluck-cluck"

Some will eat and drink with you
And then behind them su-su 'pon you
And if your night should turn to day
A lot of people will run away
Who the cap fit, let them wear it [repeat]
Throw me corn, me no call no fowl
I saying "Cok-cok-cok, cluck-cluck-cluck"

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Ode To The Ghetto (In stores/iTunes today!)



Guilty Simpson is quickly rising high on my list of emcees I like. Go cop the album today and support. Guilty is coming to San Francisco on April 12, 2008 @ Poleng Lounge. Put your Red Wings T's on display, and your Tigers fitteds to the back, and keep that Pistons jacket crispy! Kwame Kilpatrick may be a dumbass, but at least the artists and athletes still inspire the citizens of Detroit!

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Kwame Kilpatrick You're A Mess

The Mayor of Detroit, Michigan needs to step down. He lied, and stole, and is sticking to a bunk story. His tenure started off rocky and will end with a bang. Kwame, stop it, you are now done.


First this...


Then this...
In an August 2007 trial, Kilpatrick and Beatty both under oath denied that they had a sexual relationship or that they fired Brown. The text messages contradict their sworn testimony with such messages as:

Beatty: "And, did you miss me, sexually?"
Kilpatrick: "Hell yeah! You couldn't tell. I want some more."

and

Beatty: "I'm sorry that we are going through this mess because of a decision that we made to fire Gary Brown. I will make sure that the next decision is much more thought out. Not regretting what was done at all. But thinking about how we can do things smarter."
Kilpatrick: "It had to happen though. I'm all the way with that!"

Wow...
This man was using tax payer money to cheat on his wife and have his personal bodygaurds chauffer Beatty around. Pathetic. He is caught up and is about to stand trial. What is it going to take to save Detroit?

Rest In Peace



Rest In Peace Uncle

Monday, March 24, 2008

American Boy



If you want to get some airtime, call Kanye. Estelle has a nice sound. Check it out.

Boondocks Part 1

The Uncle Ruckus Reality Show Part 1

Boondocks Part 2

The Uncle Ruckus Reality Show Part 2

Detroit Represent


Get Riches by Guilty Simpson. Guilty is from Detriot, Michigan. Nuff Said.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

A More Perfect Union







--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

March 18, 2008
Transcript
Barack Obama’s Speech on Race
The following is the text as prepared for delivery of Senator Barack Obama’s speech on race in Philadelphia, as provided by his presidential campaign.

“We the people, in order to form a more perfect union.”

Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America’s improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.

The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation’s original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.

Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution – a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.

And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part – through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.

This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign – to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together – unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction – towards a better future for our children and our grandchildren.

This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story.

I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton’s Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I’ve gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world’s poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners – an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.

It’s a story that hasn’t made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts – that out of many, we are truly one.

Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where the Confederate Flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans.

This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either “too black” or “not black enough.” We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.

And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.

On one end of the spectrum, we’ve heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it’s based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we’ve heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.

I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.

But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren’t simply controversial. They weren’t simply a religious leader’s effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country – a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.

As such, Reverend Wright’s comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems – two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.

Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way

But the truth is, that isn’t all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God’s work here on Earth – by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity:

“People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend’s voice up into the rafters….And in that single note – hope! – I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion’s den, Ezekiel’s field of dry bones. Those stories – of survival, and freedom, and hope – became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn’t need to feel shame about…memories that all people might study and cherish – and with which we could start to rebuild.”

That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety – the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity’s services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.

And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions – the good and the bad – of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.

Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias.

But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America – to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.

The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we’ve never really worked through – a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.

Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, “The past isn’t dead and buried. In fact, it isn’t even past.” We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.

Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven’t fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today’s black and white students.

Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments – meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today’s urban and rural communities.

A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one’s family, contributed to the erosion of black families – a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods – parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement – all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us.

This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. What’s remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them.

But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn’t make it – those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations – those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright’s generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician’s own failings.

And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright’s sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.

In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don’t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience – as far as they’re concerned, no one’s handed them anything, they’ve built it from scratch. They’ve worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they’re told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.

Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren’t always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.

Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze – a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns – this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.

This is where we are right now. It’s a racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy – particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.

But I have asserted a firm conviction – a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people – that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice if we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.

For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances – for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans -- the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man who's been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives – by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.

Ironically, this quintessentially American – and yes, conservative – notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright’s sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change.

The profound mistake of Reverend Wright’s sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It’s that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country – a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know -- what we have seen – is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope – the audacity to hope – for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds – by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.

In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world’s great religions demand – that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother’s keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister’s keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.

For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle – as we did in the OJ trial – or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright’s sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she’s playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.

We can do that.

But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we’ll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.

That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, “Not this time.” This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can’t learn; that those kids who don’t look like us are somebody else’s problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.

This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don’t have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.

This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn’t look like you might take your job; it’s that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.

This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should’ve been authorized and never should’ve been waged, and we want to talk about how we’ll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned.

I would not be running for President if I didn’t believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation – the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.

There is one story in particularly that I’d like to leave you with today – a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. King’s birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta.

There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.

And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that’s when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.

She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.

She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.

Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother’s problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn’t. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.

Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they’re supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who’s been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he’s there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, “I am here because of Ashley.”

“I’m here because of Ashley.” By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.

But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.



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Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Monday, March 10, 2008

Making of Fibonacci

Day 1









Day 2











On day 1 I met up with members of (g)eppetto (G)estapo to work on A Fibonacci Sequence. We did a live jamdown @ UCSF. On day 2 I woke up and wrote my verse and then we went to the studio and banged it out, first take first try. Recorded live in HD, mixed and mastered by Adrian Wong. Look for the album Plans of the Planets to drop in the near future.

A Fibonacci Sequence

Clint Allday aka Clintaur aka Tone999- bass
Alice Wang- electric cello
Trevor Oelrich- harmonica
Julie O'Neal- drums
Curt Allday aka Galactic Son aka Catastrophe God- vox

featuring
Tshilumba Kabongo aka Mad Scientist aka The Golden Griffin- vox

Engineer- Adrian Wong

Friday, March 7, 2008

Dedication by Rashid Hadee



The Dirty Dutchmen of indiefeedhiphop.com was the first person to put me on to Hadee. Rashid got them beats and Rashid got them rhymes. Those are the first two things that let me know if I will like your album or not. Why would I ever grace this blog with wackness? This is such a good listen. I've been knocking it ever since BoHandles blessed me with yet another album of dope hip hop (keep it comin' Sun!). Let's go on another musical journey, shall we?

01 DEDICATION INTRO | prod. rashid hadee

What an introduction! This ain't some 60 second rant about, "We got that fiyah!" Or some "We got beef with, so and so". Like he says, "This music is sacred". On the real. This is a real motivator. When you are having a downer day, put this joint on and re-focus. The fading is excellent, the use of the decrescendo is impeccable. (I am a hip hop connoisseur, don't hate!)

02 YOU CAN'T HIDE FT. AUGUSTINE | prod. rashid hadee

This cat is from the City of Wind. A "mid-coast" cat who is straight bull-rushing hip hop. It really seems like he doesn't care what the hell other cats are doing. He is pure. And by pure I mean, he is coming original. Just like my favorite band (311 all day). He doesn't sound like anybody else. He is on his grind when it comes to production as well. So dangerous. He isn't waiting on anybody else to catch on, he trailblazes with the soundscape. Such a great track to play loud. Very rich indeed.

03 THE REMEMBERANCE | prod. rashid hadee

I don't know why I am such a huge fan of the use of record sampling, I just am. He starts this off so nice, "Ice Cubes today was a good day, but the opposite". He is remembering times past and his recollections are so genuine. I can't tell if this is poetry or a diary entry. I can visualize every single word. This is coherent rhyming, not that ignorant shit.

04 LET GO | prod. rashid hadee

When I get to SD I am going to play this one right hurr loud on the surround sound. A party song for real. The drums are fast paced, and there is this drum roll sample that proceeds throughout the entire song that is just so damn fresh. Do the wop and LET GO!

05 SURRENDER FT. MANOV WAR | prod. rashid hadee

This one happens to be on the myspace right now. Beautiful. It reminds me of this dark haired, brown eyed beauty that I've been in love with for many years now. "Everyboooooody's willing to surrender!" says the sample at the begining. There is a Method Man sample in here and some SICK scratches, I mean Primo style scratches. Neck-breaking head nodding going on right now. For the lovers and loved. If you got a girl that likes hop, put this track on and you might get your mid-paced two step on in the apartment, if you got it like that. The way the verses blend together are like watching Chicagof, seamless transitions.

06 PUSHERS FT. SINCERE, AUGUSTINE, SKINNY KENNY & YOUNG VALENTINE | prod. rashid hadee

Ghetto. "Take a hit of thses bars, it's like the Kush up in ya." This is a soundtrack to my old 'hood in Frisco, The Mission. When I hear this one I just think of the 16th and Mission Bart station and skating from there down to 24th St. Hella slingin' going on so flagrantly. Fiends, pushers, smoke, cops, young bangers, and bicycles, 24hrs a day 7 days a week. Go to that street and see what I am talking about. A hood-ass posse cut, is the way I describe this one.

07 SIX TO SEVEN | prod. rashid hadee

"What do you believe in, Heaven or Hell?" Another track about pain! I like those ones. I can just relate to pain so much easier than, cats flossing big chains. I never had a chain made of a precious metal or rims bigger than 20 inches. I can relate to being down and out. I can relate to going through Hell to get to Heaven. "Keep it movin' now". Don't dwell. Working and going to school at the same time is such a different lifestyle. Working so hard for so long, it is easy to try and stay on "permanent vacay". You should try it sometime, the working and going to University at the same time. Talk about on your grind! I like the little outro beat to this track too.

08 GET YOU OUTTA MY HEAD FT. YOUNG VALENTINE | prod. young valentine

This track isn't produced by Hadee but it is still hella fresh. This one is about a girl. Men out there that have been loved and left, this one is for you. The one that got away, and it was your fault. If you got a good lady, don't slip on the work to keep the love-light burning, because I have seen many a bredren and non bredren alike just let some great women drop off the family tree like a ripe acorn. The grass isn't really that much greener, go ahead and not believe me, but my G is too futuristic fo y'all niggas anyway, so go and be the typical dumbass and then somebody will swoop on your old bird and then you'll remember what I said. Sometimes you got to mess up to realize.

09 ALL I NEED YOU TO DO FT. AUGUSTINE & KHALLEE | prod. rashid hadee

I like to bump this one before balling. This is a good track to have some highlights going on over, or some skating. I could see Stevie Williams skating with this one in the background. Each snare hit is distinct, like the crack of a skateboard pop. Filmers out there you can thank me later.

10 ADDICTION | prod. rashid hadee

Oh my goodness. Yet another banger. I am addicted to a couple of things, and hip hop is one of them. Hip Hop isn't even my favorite kind of music to tell you the truth. (Its ROOTS REGGAE, just in case you wanted to know) But I can't get enough of it, it is the twins' fault. If my brother and sister weren't so cool to me when I was younger I wouldn't be hopped out like I am these days. I just want to zone out and listen to albums. Like the day the new Common came out, I got it put it on the pod and went to Golden Gate Park to walk around and hear the whole thing. If you got a silver G35 we are going to play this one hella loud with the top down, or if you are rolling in a champagne colored Benz this one is disc 6...

11 MISSING PIECES | prod. rashid hadee

You ever feel lonely? You ever missing anybody? Play this one right here. To the incarcerated ones and the ones that are in the next level and the ones that have left Earth. I miss Patrice Lumumba and I never even met him.

12 THE XPRESSWAY | prod. melatone

Is it possible to like every single track on one album? Yes, it really is. L-Taraval outbound to Civic Center, then BART from Civic to Balboa Park, and finally the 43 Masonic to my block. If you take that ride then you will really really feel me.

13 PLANNIN' FOR TOMORROW | prod. rashid hadee

How many hip hop songs talk about planning for another day? Not many, right? Rashid is not preaching to you on this one either. Listen to the samples at the begining and end of the track for more insight to what this dude is talking about.

14 MERCURY RETROGRADE (BONUS TRACK) | prod. rashid hadee

Song Of The Week!



I can't get enuff of this banger right here!

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

POLITCAL RANTS



(Disclosure: Truth And Rights is politically affiliated with the Creator and no other political party besides the Congolese Revolutionary Party For Progress. For this United States of America Presidential Election, the staff of TAR is giving Barack Obama its full support, however on this a very important politcal day the author is not optimistic about the future of the Presidency and below states thoughts and personal feelings. In no way are websites, companies, and other persons other than the TAR staff associated with these views. Thank you)

On the real because this is America, there is no way that the voting population of this country will have Clinton or Obama in the White House. After my first voting experience as a wee 18 year old in the 2000 election, I was pimp slapped into reality that all people do is talk, talk, talk, and NEVER vote. Young blacks, not at the ballot box, young male latinos, not at the ballot box (where are they you ask? incarcerated or in iraq). With all the MTV rock the vote propaganda, and mass media making us think that this Democratic Primary Race is the hot shit, America does what it does best in crunch time, go for the familiar. Clintons in the White House again, yeah right! A Black man as the President in racist ass USA, Dream on! Yeah Obama gets my support and the support of many others, but when the REAL election comes around in November, I would not be surprised if your boy "Jackie" (Sen. John McCain) is getting his inaguration on. White males will stay up in the white house because that is what this country is about, that is who the "founding fathers" are.



Until the people that are from that era of big time haterism are dead and buried, like when my kids have kids, then maybe just maybe we can have a new look White House.
This country is only 40 years removed from the
"colored" water fountain.



30 years removed from intergration of public schooling. It would be foolish and downright assinine to think that this place, who wants to kick out Mexicans who do our "dirty jobs"
, this country, founded by immigrants, yet want to be all separatist from them, this land of the free and home of the brave, that wants Iran to never have a nuclear program while being the only country with enough balls to blast Japan with nukes, this land, full of inflation, taxation, media sensationalization, and military domination, this country of yours and mine, will not and is not mature enough to have a female, or a Black man run the show.
With that being said, I will still continue to vote and be a patriot. For years I was an American hating on America, which is a problem I say, and now at the ripe old age of 25, going on 48, I now see the hope lies in the future generations. Cliche? Yes, but true. All of us adults are rigid and set in our ways. We all think we are right every single time, and use our bias ass sources to back us up. As an educator of youth, I teach the principles of TRUTH and RIGHTS, and that, my loves is the only way to effect change amongst the population. I and I deal only with righteousness. I treat those who would be considered enemies as friends. I listen and respect the opposition, and kill only with kindness. Mr.John McCain is not an enemey but my teacher. Showing me a different side of reality which, at this time seems quite logical and grounded in what is really going on politically. So, don't hate appreciate and learn to listen.
Peace to you and yours, and GO VOTE! (Stop just talking shit!)

Monday, March 3, 2008

Jay Electronica



Yo, DJ BoHandles comes thru with that real hop 24/7. He put me onto Jay Electronica and now he is about to blow. Seek and be free.

For Kanku


Sis, listen to this HOTNESS from Lupe!

Mamba as Carver

Mama, there goes that man!



Kobe went off! Honestly, Dirk's end of regulation 3 pointer was the hardest shot all game.