September 2007 Archives

This is a new weekly feature on The 'Hustle. Each week we'll look back at a classic song from the '70's, '80's or '90's, and the group that did the deed. This week, it's the pop classic "Just An Illusion" by Imagination. Hot!

A new movement is underway in the present political silly-season, but it's not a new idea. Unity08 is attempting to draft an effective cross-party/third-party hybrid ticket for the upcoming presidential election in November next year. Chairman Mao said that power is not ceded but is taken at the barrel of a gun. True. But I also believe that simple involvement can wrest that power back to those who choose to be vocal and active.

Good Lord, am I sick and tired of this jackass Bill O'Reilly and the rest of the Fox News crew. You may have been privy to this a-hole's comments that he was "surprised there was no difference" between Sylvia's restaurant and any eatery in the predominantly white suburbs though Sylvia's is "run by blacks." Well, here's something for you in my outside voice: "F*** you, M-Fer."

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the forced integration of Little Rock Central High School in 1957. The nine had been admitted by court order and the president, determined to enforce federal law -- and backed up by nationalized Army paratroopers -- brought the power of the federal government to bear. The integration, and the battle preceding, was one of the iconic moments of the civil rights era.

When The Donald says you're a liability, you know you done fucked up. And I'm sure W is a nice man, not having met the man personally. But he's a lousy Commander in Chief.

While he'd been gone for a while, it's nice to have Pharaohe Monch back in the mix. If you forgot about him, you need to get reacquainted. Now. Pharoahe Monch is the Truth

OK, I'm in the middle of my day, sitting in front of my Power Mac G5 playing Junior Computer Geek -- that's programming, folks -- with my iTunes on blast, marveling at one of the most slept on releases of the year: Talib Kweli's Eardrum. This is a GREAT, and I mean GREAT release. If you haven't grabbed this one, you ought to.

So, it appears that the Republican party still believes in the Southern Strategy -- if not overtly -- at least in practice.

Philadelphia Police Chief Sylvester Johnson made an unusual, but to me very welcome request yesterday. Black man, take care of yo' ish. It's funny how things come full circle.

Perhaps the deepest statement on the present state of hip-hop. Fellas, we have to step up and meet the sistats half-way on this, and make a statement that we won't tolerate (what we've allowed) hip-hop to become.

While many of us knew that inaccuracies were common in credit reports, there was nothing but anecdotal evidence race being a predictive or determining factor in credit scoring. Now there is confirmation and proof. That's the good news.

Right now, I don't feel like I have a home.

I guess Dave Chappelle was right when he said that if women were a stock, it'd be at an all-time low. I muse a tiny bit on what it means to be beautiful.

Does the war in Iraq make America safer? Wait 'til you hear the answer from the commanding general testifying before the Senate.

A prayer on this sixth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the United States

We waited four months for the commander of our armed forces, General David Petraeus to speak to Congress, and for what? To get the party line: "give us more time...?"

Has religious intolerance, and political hubris in the United States developed to such a point that we publicly pray to a loving God to smite these "enemies of the church" over a political candidate? Last week, Wiley S. Drake, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, California, and a former national leader of the Southern Baptist Convention, asked his followers to pray for the deaths of two leaders of Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AUSCS). His prayer comes after a call to the IRS about a political endorsement he issued for Mike Huckabee.

Appearing in the op-ed section on the Boston Globe's online presence, Boston.com was an article Destruction in Black America Is Self-Inflicted by Jeff Jacoby, one of the paper's columnists. In his piece, he relates the story of how he was accosted at a lecture on capital punishment a few years ago, by a young African-American woman. She took apparent offense to Mr. Jacoby's assertion that, in essence, African-Americans are a greater danger to themselves than Caucasian-Americans. While Mr. Jacoby is way off-base in his evaluation that racism "is now associated mostly with feeble has-beens," he makes his point that other issues are at play in the destruction of black communities.

Many of you may be following the drama that is the plight of the "Jena 6." Five of the teens in the town of Jena, Louisiana were originally charged with attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, carrying sentences of up to 80 years in prison. The sixth, a juvenile, faces undisclosed charges at this moment. It's sad and simultaneously funny how in some areas of the United States, nothing has changed much in 60-70 years. But I guess as consolation, we should be happy that the Jena 6 didn't get lynched right off, eh?

Yes, your trusty writer has become the victim of crime, dammit. My vehicle was burglarized over the Labor Day weekend. All thieves should be banished to hell. And what gives you the right to break into my (or anyone else's) vehicle, and take what other's work hard for?