Saturday, September 22, 2007

Bill O'Reilly Not First White Person To Visit Harlem



I was so upset with Bill O'Reilly, I made the video and sent this email..

Bill,

Hey, I like your show, but I gotta tell you your editorial about Blacks and your restaurant visit was one of the most unfortunate and stupid comments I've ever listened to.

Look, racism is both a mental illness and un-American. Moreover, not every Black person comes from "The Ghetto" but your take gives fuel to stupid uneducated people to essentially say racist comments.

Why not tell people, especially kids, that those who are successful -- really successful have all kind of friends and are intelligent enough to see them as individuals.

Thanks,

--
Zennie Abraham, Jr.
Chairman and CEO
http://www.sbs-world.com
Sports Business Simulations
510-387-9809
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz9MsdETJX8

Vernon Jordan Says Republicans Have Whites Only Sign Up



Well, the battle-lines are drawn both in Jena, LA, and in the 2008 Presidential Race. I've come to believe racism is both mental illness and un-American. Here's Vernon Jordan's take.

The candidates for the Republican party's presidential nod are building quite a track record--of snubbing prospective voters. This week the four leading candidates--Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney, Rudolph Giuliani and John McCain--added the PBS-sponsored debate at Baltimore's historically-black Morgan State University to their "I'll-pass" list. That list now includes the National Urban League, Univision, the Spanish-language television network, the National Association of Latino Elected Officials and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. It's getting to be a long list.

But perhaps it's those of us who are dismayed by these displays of camapign cowardice that just don't get it.

Perhaps the GOP candidates are following the same script the Bush administration has used for governance: be irresponsible.

Or perhaps, they're developing a new paradigm for how a political party contests elections. Perhaps they want to test that you actually improve your chances of winning by snubbing entire groups of voters, and that in a nation whose voting pool is becoming more and more diverse, you make it clear you want just the votes of whites.

Republicans love to talk about Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan, presidents whom they hold up as having met the tests of greatness. Is this what Abraham Lincoln would do? Is this what Ronald Reagan would do?

Republicans also used to talk about their welcoming all Americans into the party of the "big tent." But actions speak louder than words. The actions of the Republican candidates make it clear the big tent has a whites-only sign over the entrance.

Barack Obama To Storm New York September 27th - Barack Video

Senator Barack Obama's coming to New York City September 27th in what promises to be a love in. Here's a video called "Meet Barack Obama."

Dan Rather Sues CBS - Dan Rather Details - Broadcasting & Cabl



Dan Rather Suing CBS News for Violation of Contract

ALSO BY THIS AUTHOR...
$70M Suit Names Moonves, Redstone, Heyward

By Marisa Guthrie -- Broadcasting & Cable, 9/19/2007 6:14:00 PM

More than one year after Dan Rather left CBS News under a cloud for a flawed report on President Bush’s National Guard service, the former face of CBS News is suing CBS, its corporate parent and his former superiors at the news division.

In a $70 million suit filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan Wednesday, Rather, 75, alleged that CBS violated his contract by giving him precious little airtime on 60 Minutes, where he remained as a contributor after being forced to step down as anchor of the CBS Evening News in March 2005.

The suit alleged that CBS made him a “patsy” and that the network caved to “right-wing” pressure to get rid of him, and it also contended that CBS damaged Rather’s reputation by commissioning a “biased” investigation into the 60 Minutes II report.

Richard Thornburgh, who was an attorney general in the first Bush White House, was one of the panelists tasked with examining the National Guard segment.

The suit -- which seeks $20 million in compensatory damages and $50 million in punitive damages -- named CBS CEO Leslie Moonves, Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone and former CBS News head Andrew Heyward.

“These complaints are old news and this lawsuit is without merit,” CBS said in a statement.

CBS -- which recently settled a lawsuit with deposed shock jock Don Imus (to the tune of $20 million, according to published reports) -- will likely fight the Rather suit, according to sources.

Rather's attorney, Martin Gold, said in a statement that CBS "intentionally damaged" Rather's reputation by sacrificing "independent journalism for corporate financial interests."

He added that the goal of the suit was to "further" the principle of an "independent press."

If Rather is "successful," added Martin, "he intends to donate substantial sums to furthering these ideals."

But industry veterans are skeptical about Rather's chances of prevailing in his suit.

CBS' "only obligation is to pay him," says an industry insider well versed in contractual law. "They are not obligated to keep him on the air. If he thought they were wrong, he should not have taken their money; he should have walked out the door and immediately sued them."

The 60 Minutes II report-- which aired in September 2004, mere months before the presidential election -- posited that President Bush received preferential treatment that kept him out of combat in Vietnam while in the Texas Air National Guard. But the report relied on what turned out to be forged documents.

Three producers -- Mary Mapes, Betsy West and Josh Howard -- were forced out at CBS for their part in the disputed segment.

According to a report by The New York Times, Rather’s 32-page suit lawsuit paints him as little more than a narrator of the National Guard broadcast -- a perception at odds with his reputation and the recollection of others involved.

Rather, said Howard, now vice president of long-form programming at CNBC, “worked the phones. He talked to sources. He was in the room with the so-called document experts. He argued with us over every line of the script. I can’t imagine how he at this point can say he was just the narrator.”

After he left the CBS Evening News in March 2005, Rather’s contract called for him to become a “full-time correspondent” on 60 Minutes II and, after that broadcast was canceled in May 2005, on the original edition of 60 Minutes. But Rather’s suit contended that the eight pieces he did for 60 Minutes paled in comparison to what regular 60 Minutes correspondents did.

Rather officially left CBS News in 2006. He is now anchoring a series of news specials for Mark Cuban’s HDNet.

Rather did not return a detailed message for comment Wednesday.

AlterNet.org's Don Hazen Thinks The Porn Industry Has Run Amok



I agree with Don Hazen in AlterNet.org to a certain extent that porn's rampant, but he leaves out the way the Internet's used to fuel our desire to see porn. Also, this is painted as a male-only issue, where women too search for porn.

I think the idea's he expresses are outdated and not without a certain "male guilt" complex. What people forget is part of the way we're wired -- lust -- is the backbone of the reproductive process.

Now to be sure, he's writing about extreme porn -- whatever that is -- and that's not something I'm personally familar with. Perhaps he is.

Personally, this photo of Michelle Lin's enough for me.