Friday, December 12, 2008
Blended Families 2009 - Are you sure you want to marry that brother / sister with all of those chiren?
Join Brother Marcus live this weekend on Sunday December 14, 2008 as we discuss the subject of, “Blended Families 2009 - Are you sure you want to marry that brother / sister with all those chiren?” with our panelists. Today, at least one-third of all children in the U.S. are expected to live in a blended family situation before they reach age 18. Blended families are becoming more of the norm in America than anything else. Join us as we discuss the challenges, the conflicts and the heart wrenching transitions that happen within blended families. How do we work through the problems and live together successfully? How do you deal with baby momma’s / daddies who aren’t out of love with the person and are maybe still very much a part of your boo’s life? What should you know before you begin a blended family? What are the main myths about building a blended family? You can catch this show live by logging on to this web address this weekend: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/brothermarcusshow. You can also enter our chat room at this site as well. If you feel really strongly about this issue and want to voice your opinion or ask our panelists a question then call in live at (347) 215-9438.
We are also seeking guest panelists for this show! Would you like to be a guest panelist on "The Brother Marcus Show" this week?" Are you currently trying to blend a family? Have you had successful or unsuccessful experiences? Then call into the show at (347) 215-9438 and tell us all about it. Help your other brothers and sisters out here so they don't make the same mistakes that you did. Do you know someone who would make a good guest for this show? Do you have a question that you think we should ask our panel? If so call Brother Marcus at 404-542-3808 or email him at marcusgirard34@yahoo.com. Thank you and may God Bless you and your family in 2009!
Monday, November 17, 2008
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Monday, November 3, 2008
2008 Election Night:: Minister Farrakhan Warns Us To Be Cautious
Written by Jesse Muhammad
Within the last few days I have received countless e-vites to Election Night parties here in Houston, which I had not planned to attend. And now after hearing some heart-piercing instructions from the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, I am truly compelled to inform you all of what he has stated. He warned that we should stay in our homes because "you(Blacks) will be so overjoyed, and in your being so happy- over your Brother(Obama), you will not be cognizant that your joy is somebody else's sadness or anger. And for you to be out in the night celebrating – would not be wise. You go home. If there’s any celebrating to be done, do it in your house with your family; not in the streets, in any city, or town in America."
Source of Article
Thursday, October 30, 2008
That Obama....What a man!
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Sarah Palin, proud socialist
Posted by Mark Frauenfelder, October 28, 2008 4:23 PM permalink
The best part of Hendrik Hertzberg's excellent New Yorker commentary about McCain and Palin's failed attempt to convince people that Obama is a socialist is the final paragraph containing this boast from Gov. Sarah Palin:
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Yes it's true! Lou Dobbs has always been a racist, snobby, demonic piece of garbage!
For those of you who aren’t familiar, Lou Dobbs is a popular CNN anchor who hosts his own show, Lou Dobbs Tonight on the cable news network. Dobbs is known for being fair and unbiased in his reporting.
A loyal reader sent me this photo of Dobbs holding a box of Obama Pancake Waffles in a photo taken at a conference. The reader accuses Lou Dobbs of being racist.
If you’ve ever attended a major conference you know that there are always gift bags and freebies given away at conferences. So how does that make Lou Dobbs racist just because he was given a sample at a conference?
The reader points out that a post with this photo mysteriously disappeared from the Obama Waffles website.
Well, first off, I don’t think a company can manufacture waffles with Obama’s likeness and name without his permission.
Let’s choose our battles a little more carefully and try not to paint everybody with a sweeping racist brush.
Posted in Barack Obama, Politics, TV/radio . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed or Trackback from your own site. This site is Gravatar enabled. Sign up to upload your own avatar.
We must be vigilant against the real terrorists!
McCain-Palin rallies have started to look more like mob scenes than political events. The candidates keep asking "who is the real Barack Obama?" (a question that also kicks off almost every McCain television ad).6 In response, supporters have yelled "terrorist!" and "traitor!" And the venom goes beyond Obama--one McCain/Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at a Black member of a news crew, saying "sit down, boy."7 The outbursts at McCain/Palin events have crossed the line into direct threats and suggestions of violence. Last week, at the mention of Obama's name, a McCain supporter yelled "kill him!"8--prompting a secret service investigation.9 A few days later, someone shouted "off with his head!"10 In the face of all of this, McCain and Palin haven't stopped for five seconds to denounce these violent outbursts. In fact they've tried to defend them 11,12--and their fear-mongering smear tactics continue. McCain and Palin are going down a dangerous path. Watching some of their supporters being interviewed shows the kind of fear their campaign is stoking and exploiting.13,14 McCain and Palin are clearly in the driver's seat. They've personally made it a point to use "terrorist" and "Obama" in the same sentence; their surrogates have repeatedly referred to Obama by his middle-name;15,16 and they keep pushing the discredited guilt-by-association smears that have long been debunked. All of it plays on false rumors spread by email: that Obama is Muslim (a myth designed to tap into anti-Muslim bigotry); that he is anti-American; and that he's somehow connected with terrorists.17 The strategy works and is powerful because it plays into the suspicions some White Americans have about Blacks: about our true allegiances and our trustworthiness.
In the end, it makes Obama's race a disadvantage without appearing overtly racist. A unified response As Americans of all stripes, we've seen how Barack Obama's historic candidacy has moved our friends and family to have a more honest conversation about race in this country. It's inspired a lot of people to step out of their comfort zone and confront racism in their own communities, with their friends, neighbors, and families. Now we have McCain, at a time of crisis in this country, pandering to one of the worst instincts in America. His campaign is playing to the kind of suspicion, hatred and fear that brings out the worst in us all, which history shows can lead to horrible consequences. We can fight back In the final days of this campaign, we can't let a desperate John McCain and Sarah Palin drag us down. If enough of us act, we can create a powerful story in the media about Black people and our allies of all races standing together against race-baiting and fear-mongering coming from the McCain/Palin campaign. But it will take a lot of us speaking in unison.
Will you sign an open letter to McCain and Palin, telling them who you are and why you won't let them move our country backward? We'll publish the letter and make sure John McCain is forced to respond. http://colorofchange.org/united/debate.html?id=2144-572732Thanks and Peace, -- James, Gabriel, Clarissa, Andre, Kai, and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org PAC team ???October 17th, 2008
References
1. "Unleashed, Palin Makes a Pit Bull Look Tame," Washington Post, 10/07/08 http://tinyurl.com/3wmg4c
2. "Obama called a terrorist" (video) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvXf9AUHTqM
3. "McCain Supporter Yells Out 'Traitor!'" (video) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiESklGDuH4
4. "McCain's 'Fellow Prisoners'," First Read, 10/08/08 http://tinyurl.com/4qc5vn
5. McCain-Obama Presidential Debate Transcript, Commission on Presidential Debates, 10/15/08 http://www.debates.org/pages/trans2008d.html
6. "TV Ad: Dangerous", John McCain campaign, 10/06/08 http://tinyurl.com/48j9uj
7. See reference 1.
8. See reference 1.
9. "'Kill Him' Yell At Clearwater Palin Rally Being Probed," Tampa Bay Online, 10/10/08 http://tinyurl.com/442vn5
10. See reference 4.
11. "McCain camp defends the behavior?," First Read, 10/10/08 http://tinyurl.com/4az7uw
12. "John Lewis vs. John McCain," First Read, 10/11/08 http://tinyurl.com/3m6qln
13. "The Sidewalk to Nowhere, McCain Supporters in Bethlehem, PA" (video) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itEucdhf4Us
14. "Misconceptions of Obama fuel Republican campaign" (video), Al-Jazeera, 10/13/08 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRqcfqiXCX0
15. "Florida Sheriff Intros Palin, Says 'Barack Hussein Obama'," (video) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woNYeyOQnuI
16. "McCain and Palin in Bethlehem: A live report!" Philly.com, 10/08/08 http://tinyurl.com/3wvq9x
17. "Who is Barack Obama?" Snopes.com, January 2008 http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslim.asp
Pat Buchanan’s Uncalled For Attack On Colin Powell
October 19, 2008 · 4 Comments
Source of Article
Marcus Comments: Sorry everyone, originally forgot to include the Source of the article!
Pat Buchanan has some very interesting comments in a segment on MSNBC Sunday afternoon with Chris Matthews. Buchanan felt that Colin Powell had sold out the Republican party by supporting Barack Obama. He eluded to a number of things saying that other generals were more qualified to be the Joint Chief of Staff, but were passed over to give the position to Powell. He felt that that Powell was not loyal to the party and had a hidden agenda. His own agenda.
This was a highly offensive assault on Colin Powell, by Buchanan, and was uncalled for. Certainly Colin Powell has a right to his opinions and does not need to get permission from anyone to voice his opinion or to get permission from conservative Republicans, before he decides to speak out on issues. Buchanan also said that Colin Powell supported Barack Obama, simply because both are black. Powell said during his announcement of his endorsement of Obama, that even though both are black, he made a conscious efforts to study both John McCain and Barack Obama, before making a decision on who he would endorse for the office of the Presidency, primarily because he knew that the issues of a black endorsing another black would come up.
Powell eloquently explained the thought process that he used in arriving at his decision and came up with a thoughtful, carefully crafted statement of why he decided to support Barack Obama. Yet Pat Buchanan could not accept this. Buchannan needs to know that we live in a changed America, not in the America that he envisions. . This is a new diverse America, with all types of people and no segment or race within American society has a premium on thoughts, actions , political agenda or patriotism.
Marcus Comments: Sorry everyone, originally forgot to include the Source of the article!
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
The Affirmative Case: Jay for Obama
By Jay Allbritton
Oct 13th 2008 10:13AM
Like so many others, the first time I heard of Barack Obama was in 2004, when he gave the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention. In his remarkable introduction to the American people, Obama showed he could communicate so effectively that one 20 minute speech made him a national political force. One of the ideas Barack Obama pushed in that speech was that America was not hopelessly divided. He went through a litany of touching anecdotes from individuals living in red states and blue states. All of these people had common problems and common expectations from the government. In the heat of one of the most vicious and partisan election cycles in a generation, Obama sold a lot of people on the idea that the best way forward for all Americans is to find common ground through pragmatic compromises and a deeper awareness of our common interests.
Once the long campaign began, Obama immediately staked his campaign to the belief that he could compete with Hillary Clinton and John Edwards financially while limiting campaign contributions to small donors. In so doing, not only did Obama manage to stay competitive with the approach, he tapped into a movement of mostly younger voters displeased by the campaign finance system that keeps politicians from being directly beholden to the people and instead hands the greatest influence to a few powerful special interests that inevitably become any campaigns' biggest contributors.
Perhaps the boldest change Obama will bring to Washington is a new economic orientation. For nearly 28 years the people running our country's economy have primarily adhered to a "trickle down" approach that has left the middle class in progressively worse condition. Year after year, corporations face less regulation while workers face more restrictions, longer hours and lower wages. Barack Obama promises to change that. That doesn't make him a socialist. On the contrary, that puts him directly in line with an American economic tradition that has gone off the rails just as it did in the days before the Great Depression.
Obama's middle class-first approach to the economy will put more money in the hands of workers through tax cuts, by creating better jobs to that will repair our infrastructure, and by creating green collar jobs that will help us transition away from oil dependence. These forms of real economic stimulus will put a great deal of money in the hands of the people who need it, the people who will spend it and the people who work the hardest for it. Obama will bring a more balanced approach to foreign policy. When he met his former foreign policy adviser Dr. Samantha Power for the first time, the subject of diplomacy with Iran came up. She paraphrased Obama as saying this:
"I'm not afraid of Ahmadinejad. He's a Holocaust denier, he supports Hamas and Hezbollah, he has infiltrated Iraq, he's enriching uranium- and by being in the room talking to him, it's actually being tougher than lobbing these verbal grenades that Bush and Cheney toss from 5,000 miles away. Even if we fail to make progress on any of these issues, we will then have the international wind at our back, and we will have the capacity to mobilize a global response to his regime."
Because the Bush administration's focus diverted our military from capturing or killing Osama bin Laden, one of Obama's greatest accomplishments in his short three years in the Senate has been his commitment to securing loose nuclear material that could easily fall into the hands of al Qaida or the Taliban. In January 2007, President Bush signed a bill called "The Lugar-Obama Proliferation and Threat Reduction Initiative." Among other things, the law strengthened the ability of America's allies around the world to seize ships carrying potential weapons of mass destruction.
Finally, in the area of technology, Barack Obama is the only candidate with coherent ideas on how to utilize the massive advances made in computer technology this century to make government more efficient, transparent and accountable. In November of 2007, Obama gave a speech at Google headquarters that simply touched my geek side. In late 2007, the Obama campaign issued a position paper on technology that is nothing short of visionary. Obama promises network neutrality, government transparency, and universal broadband access. He plans to appoint a Chief Technology Officer who would "ensure government officials hold open meetings, broadcast live webcasts of those meetings, and use blogging software, wikis and open comments to communicate policies with Americans, according to the plan." Barack Obama often points out that his story could only happen in America.
While that is a hundred percent true, it is not the shifting settings of his life -- Kansas, Kenya, Indonesia, Hawaii, California, New York, Chicago, Harvard, The Senate -- that makes him the right person to be the next President of the United States. It is rather the unique mind and personality that have emerged from his amazing personal journey. Very seldom in American history have the challenges facing our country been so complex that they demand the person facing them in the office of the presidency to be so intellectually diverse. Barack Obama is the right person to lead us through these difficult times. More "Affirmative Case" endorsements:
Dave for McCain
Tommy for Obama
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Donna Brazile is fed up with those lying liars!
We've been waiting three days for this moment. This morning, the New Yorker finally posted video from "If I Were Running This Campaign," the Saturday morning panel featuring NY'er staff writer/moderator Jeffrey Toobin (swoon), and a bevy of his CNN colleagues, including Ed Rollins, Alex Castellanos, and Donna Brazile. Topics discussed: The GOP leadership, Bill Clinton, and Sarah Palin. As the 80-minute discussion wound down, Toobin raised the specter of race in the campaign, and Brazile, 48, let loose with an impassioned, ad-libbed exhortation that could be seen as a prescient, preemptive strike to the race-and-religion baiting tactics ("strategies"?) employed by the increasingly-ugly McCain-Palin campaign. Donna's remarks above; you can watch the entire video here.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Much of Black America is slipping fast into Third - World Economic Status - Drowning in Poverty
Third-World Economic Status Drowning in Poverty
Source of Article
A recent report by the Heartland Alliance confirms what much of black America already knows: Black America is in serious trouble economically, and many black people are living in "deep poverty."Black people in America are not just poor by American standards; many of us are "third-world" poor.While some economists praise the American economy with talk of low unemployment, record housing starts and a booming gross national product, none of this tells the real story of a quickly declining black economy within America. For instance, 30 percent of black Americans in Illinois live in poverty compared with only 8 percent of white Americans.
According to the Children's Defense Fund, nearly one million black children in the United States are living in extreme poverty. While the official national unemployment rate is 4.4 percent, the official unemployment rate for blacks is 10 percent. Of course, the official unemployment rate does not include people who have given up looking for work and those who are underemployed. In 2003 in New York City, 48.2 percent of black men ages 16 to 64 were officially unemployed!
As American cities become more expensive to live in, black people, with our declining wealth, are forced by economics to leave these cities. Although things might be good economically in America, the majority of black people are living through their worst economic depression since slavery!Ironically, even as black people earn more money in the United States, the wealth gap between blacks and whites grows dramatically. Misery indices in the Black community -- poor and useless educational preparation, mass unemployment, low-quality housing stock, disintegrating communities, and failing families -- are rising.
According to a 2004 study by the Pew Hispanic Trust, between 1996 and 2002, the median net worth of blacks dropped by 16 percent.Black net worth declined to a paltry $5,998 per household, while the net worth for white households grew by 17 percent during the same period to $88,651. Twenty percent of black median net worth was in cash, approximately $1,200, with the balance comprised of home equity. The housing foreclosure crisis of the past eight years has caused Black America to lose between $72 billion and $93 billion in housing-equity wealth. "Black families lost 25 percent of their wealth during the jobless recovery from the recent recession," said Thomas Shapiro, a Brandeis University professor of law and social policy.This means that more black people are struggling in 2006 with such basic conditions as securing employment, paying rent or a mortgage, paying utilities and insurance, obtaining affordable health coverage and buying food.Shapiro also stated that only 26 percent of black families could survive more than three months after a major income interruption. The other 74 percent would be forced to seek government assistance, dip deep into savings, sell off assets, relocate with a friend or relative, file bankruptcy or become homeless!
In this economic depression, college is an unaffordable luxury for many black people. Higher education, once the reliable key to moving from low-income to middle-income status, is no longer an option. The portals that lead away from poverty, crime and despair are closing or have already closed. Generational poverty is inextricably intertwined with race. Hope for breaking the poverty cycle diminishes and another generation of the impoverished is born. Many blacks in America are slipping from poverty to deep poverty into a third-world status.We as black American families cannot wait for the government to save us. Annually, black Americans generate about $700 billion within the U.S. economy.
However, a 2005 report by the Target Market Group shows that we don't use our dollars wisely to improve our plight in America. For example, in 2004, we had collective purchases that included $22 billion for clothes, $10.7 billion for furniture, $28.7 billion for cars, $14 billion for phone service, $3.7 billion for consumer electronics (not computers) and $2.3 billion on alcoholic beverages.Unfortunately, the only area where we showed restraint in our spending was on books, where we spent only $257 million, down from $303 million in 2002. We spent more on our fingernails and our hair -- $6.3 billion on personal care -- than on books and reading materials.We must take control of our economic destinies to improve black personal finances, our family wealth and our community economies, and to help lift many blacks out of deep poverty.
TEN KEY SOLUTIONS FOR BLACK ECONOMIC WELL-BEING:
1. Start your own business. By starting your own business, you can hire family, friends, and community members. Click here for one great business to become a member of...
2. Get as much education as you can.
3. Stop renting an apartment. Save enough money to make a down payment on a house. Then buy a house.
4. Open savings accounts for your children, teach your children the value of money and take personal finance classes.
5. First, invest your money and your time in your skills, your knowledge base and your self-improvement. Second, learn how to let big companies work for you rather than you only working for them through stock ownership. And third, invest your money in the U.S. and global stock markets.
6. Manage your credit carefully and avoid unnecessary debt.
7. Get married! Two-person headed households are more viable economically. Marriage can be an economic advantage when both parties are aligned on financial priorities and fiscal realities.
8. Create a living strategy that includes good nutrition, plenty of exercise and proper rest so that you can share your good fortune in a long and healthy life. Health is wealth!
9. Contribute to your faith-based institution or invest in a social cause.
10. Create a will to pass on your accumulated wealth.Phillip Jackson is founder and executive director of The Black Star Project in Chicago. You may reach him at 773.285.9600 or by e-mail at http://mc620.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=blackstar1000@ameritech.net.
A letter from Michael Moore that's very interesting
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=235
Monday, September 29th, 2008The Rich Are Staging a Coup This Morning ...a message from Michael Moore
Friends,
Let me cut to the chase. The biggest robbery in the history of this country is taking place as you read this. Though no guns are being used, 300 million hostages are being taken. Make no mistake about it: After stealing a half trillion dollars to line the pockets of their war-profiteering backers for the past five years, after lining the pockets of their fellow oilmen to the tune of over a hundred billion dollars in just the last two years, Bush and his cronies -- who must soon vacate the White House -- are looting the U.S. Treasury of every dollar they can grab. They are swiping as much of the silverware as they can on their way out the door.
No matter what they say, no matter how many scare words they use, they are up to their old tricks of creating fear and confusion in order to make and keep themselves and the upper one percent filthy rich. Just read the first four paragraphs of the lead story in last Monday's New York Times and you can see what the real deal is:
"Even as policy makers worked on details of a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry, Wall Street began looking for ways to profit from it. "Financial firms were lobbying to have all manner of troubled investments covered, not just those related to mortgages. "At the same time, investment firms were jockeying to oversee all the assets that Treasury plans to take off the books of financial institutions, a role that could earn them hundreds of millions of dollars a year in fees. "Nobody wants to be left out of Treasury's proposal to buy up bad assets of financial institutions."
Unbelievable. Wall Street and its backers created this mess and now they are going to clean up like bandits. Even Rudy Giuliani is lobbying for his firm to be hired (and paid) to "consult" in the bailout.
The problem is, nobody truly knows what this "collapse" is all about. Even Treasury Secretary Paulson admitted he doesn't know the exact amount that is needed (he just picked the $700 billion number out of his head!). The head of the congressional budget office said he can't figure it out nor can he explain it to anyone.
And yet, they are screeching about how the end is near! Panic! Recession! The Great Depression! Y2K! Bird flu! Killer bees! We must pass the bailout bill today!! The sky is falling! The sky is falling!
Falling for whom? NOTHING in this "bailout" package will lower the price of the gas you have to put in your car to get to work. NOTHING in this bill will protect you from losing your home. NOTHING in this bill will give you health insurance.
Health insurance? Mike, why are you bringing this up? What's this got to do with the Wall Street collapse?
It has everything to do with it. This so-called "collapse" was triggered by the massive defaulting and foreclosures going on with people's home mortgages. Do you know why so many Americans are losing their homes? To hear the Republicans describe it, it's because too many working class idiots were given mortgages that they really couldn't afford. Here's the truth: The number one cause of people declaring bankruptcy is because of medical bills. Let me state this simply: If we had had universal health coverage, this mortgage "crisis" may never have happened.
This bailout's mission is to protect the obscene amount of wealth that has been accumulated in the last eight years. It's to protect the top shareholders who own and control corporate America. It's to make sure their yachts and mansions and "way of life" go uninterrupted while the rest of America suffers and struggles to pay the bills. Let the rich suffer for once. Let them pay for the bailout. We are spending 400 million dollars a day on the war in Iraq. Let them end the war immediately and save us all another half-trillion dollars!
I have to stop writing this and you have to stop reading it. They are staging a financial coup this morning in our country. They are hoping Congress will act fast before they stop to think, before we have a chance to stop them ourselves. So stop reading this and do something -- NOW! Here's what you can do immediately:
1. Call or e-mail Senator Obama. Tell him he does not need to be sitting there trying to help prop up Bush and Cheney and the mess they've made. Tell him we know he has the smarts to slow this thing down and figure out what's the best route to take. Tell him the rich have to pay for whatever help is offered. Use the leverage we have now to insist on a moratorium on home foreclosures, to insist on a move to universal health coverage, and tell him that we the people need to be in charge of the economic decisions that affect our lives, not the barons of Wall Street.
2. Take to the streets. Participate in one of the hundreds of quickly-called demonstrations that are taking place all over the country (especially those near Wall Street and DC).
3. Call your Representative in Congress and your Senators. (click here to find their phone numbers). Tell them what you told Senator Obama.
When you screw up in life, there is hell to pay. Each and every one of you reading this knows that basic lesson and has paid the consequences of your actions at some point. In this great democracy, we cannot let there be one set of rules for the vast majority of hard-working citizens, and another set of rules for the elite, who, when they screw up, are handed one more gift on a silver platter. No more! Not again!
Yours,Michael MooreMMFlint@aol.comMichaelMoore.com
P.S. Having read further the details of this bailout bill, you need to know you are being lied to. They talk about how they will prevent golden parachutes. It says NOTHING about what these executives and fat cats will make in SALARY. According to Rep. Brad Sherman of California, these top managers will continue to receive million-dollar-a-month paychecks under this new bill. There is no direct ownership given to the American people for the money being handed over. Foreign banks and investors will be allowed to receive billion-dollar handouts. A large chunk of this $700 billion is going to be given directly to Chinese and Middle Eastern banks.
There is NO guarantee of ever seeing that money again.
P.P.S. From talking to people I know in DC, they say the reason so many Dems are behind this is because Wall Street this weekend put a gun to their heads and said either turn over the $700 billion or the first thing we'll start blowing up are the pension funds and 401(k)s of your middle class constituents. The Dems are scared they may make good on their threat. But this is not the time to back down or act like the typical Democrat we have witnessed for the last eight years. The Dems handed a stolen election over to Bush. The Dems gave Bush the votes he needed to invade a sovereign country. Once they took over Congress in 2007, they refused to pull the plug on the war. And now they have been cowered into being accomplices in the crime of the century. You have to call them now and say "NO!" If we let them do this, just imagine how hard it will be to get anything good done when President Obama is in the W! hite House. THESE DEMOCRATS ARE ONLY AS STRONG AS THE BACKBONE WE GIVE THEM. CALL CONGRESS NOW. Join Mike's Mailing List Join Mike's Facebook Group Become Mike's MySpace Friend
Friday, September 26, 2008
Have we forgotten God?
Marcus Girard
I don’t know anyone in this day and time in my life that is not going through a lot just to maintain their sanity. Times are hard in all of our lives but they are hard for a reason. When we are going through car troubles, immediate and extended family troubles, job crises and uncertainty, we wonder where God is when we need Him. The Creator is not absent. He hasn’t moved away from us, we’ve moved away from Him. When times are going real good many of us don’t have any real time for God. Many of us are just to busy to pray and ask God for His assistance on a daily basis. So He has to keep most of us in constant trouble just to get a sincere prayer out of us.
The entertainer Fantasia sang a song called, “Free Yourself”. The lyrics simply went, “If you don’t want me then don’t talk to me. Go ahead and free yourself. If you don’t want me then don’t talk to me. Go ahead with someone else.” On the surface she may sound bitter over some relationship. But we have to look a little deeper and ask ourselves, “Is God expressing to us the same sentiment in this song?” By now we all should have learned that God is a jealous God. He doesn’t like us to place anyone or anything before Him. When we do this we cause God to destroy that thing or that person right in front of our eyes just to show us that nothing deserves to be praised or worshipped but Him.
He wants it to be in the front of our minds and hearts that He is the one that blessed us with our College degrees. He gave us the health, and the strength and the knowledge and the patience to get through that process. He blessed us with a spouse and then a house and then maybe a car or two. Then He blessed us with children. God will bless us with money and then send a poor man or woman our way just to see what we will do and what our attitude towards the less fortunate than ourselves truly is. How’s your attitude towards people who don’t have what you have? Do you hate the poor too? The Bible says that the poor are hated by their own neighbors. Many of us don’t even associate with people who are not in our income bracket. The Bible also states that the love of money is the root of all evil and because we are so busy coveting over the material possessions that someone else has we have erred from the faith and pierced ourselves through with many sorrows. Have we allowed money to become our God?
In this hour where our faith is being tried, and many of us are suffering loss we should re-study and reexamine the book of Job. God had blessed Job with what seems like everything and then God allowed the devil according to the Book to take everything away from Job except his life. God already knew what kind of heart and mind Job had. Many times He allows us to be tried so that we can see what’s really in us. Job lost everything and was even stricken with sickness. But look at Job’s attitude about all the stuff and possessions that he had acquired. Job said, “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” After successfully completing His trial, Job was given so much more than he originally had. We need the faith of Job in this hour of great and tremendous loss. As I conclude this post, I just wanted to share that God is always checking our attitudes and our overall gratitude towards Him for what He has given us. My teacher taught me that God will test our love for Him until it is pure and then He will test our love for Him again, after it is pure to make sure that it is still pure. Do you have a pure love for God in this hour? If He gave us all that we have, then He can take it away from us when and if He so pleases. And He can make all of our knowledge that we have acquired to be of non-effect to keep what He has given us. The question that is before us to consider is, “Have we forgotten God?” My teacher told me, “When the trials of life begin to disturb you, it is only God beckoning you to come closer to Him.” Are the trials of life beginning to disturb you?
Marcus Girard
Books and CD Messages
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
This is your nation on white privilege!
This is Your Nation on White Privilege
September, 14 2008
By Tim Wise
For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.* White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because "every family has challenges," even as black and Latino families with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.*
White privilege is when you can call yourself a "fuckin' redneck," like Bristol Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll "kick their fuckin' ass," and talk about how you like to "shoot shit" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.* White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.*
White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don't all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you're "untested."*
White privilege is being able to say that you support the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it's good enough for me," and not be immediately disqualified from holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the "under God" part wasn't added until the 1950s--while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.*
White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you. White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was "Alaska first," and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she's being disrespectful.*
White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor--and people think you're being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college--you're somehow being mean, or even sexist.*
White privilege is being able to convince white women who don't even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a "second look."*
White privilege is being able to fire people who didn't support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicagomeans you must be corrupt.*
White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God's punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you're just a good church-going Christian, but if you're black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S.foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you're an extremist who probably hates America.*
White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a "trick question," while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O'Reilly means you're dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.* White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it a "light" burden.*
And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren't sure about that whole "change" thing. Ya know, it's just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.White privilege is, in short, the problem.
Our Young People and Sex
Our Young People and Sex
Getting a child to talk to you maybe harder than anything you have ever tried to do. Whether you think they are listening 5, 10 or 100 percent of the time, remember that something is better than nothing because when you least expect your child can surprise you and make the right decision. Teaching your child how to refuse the pressures of sexual activity can be the most important things you teach him or her. Let your child know that you understand peer pressure and how strong it can be. Then help your teen think through and plan what he or she would do in a tough and/or uncomfortable situation. The final not to take with you is…you are the first influence in your child’s life and that takes top priority over anything else.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
I love and support Michelle Obama too!
By Sophia A. Nelson
Sunday, July 20, 2008; B01
It was supposed to be satire, but the caricature of Barack Obama and his wife that appeared on the cover of the New Yorker last week rightly caused a major flap. And among black professional women like me and many of my sisters in the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, who happened to be gathered last week in Washington for our 100th anniversary celebration, the mischaracterization of Michelle hit the rawest of nerves.
Consider these stunning statistics: As of 2007, according to the New York Times, 70 percent of professional black women were unmarried. Black women are five times more likely than white women to be single at age 40. In 2003, Newsweek reported that there are more black women than black men (24 percent to 17 percent) in the professional-managerial class. According to Department of Education statistics cited by the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, black women earn 67 percent of all bachelor’s degrees awarded to blacks, as well as 71 percent of all master’s degrees and 65 percent of all doctoral degrees.
snelson@iaskinc.org
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Black Men and Depression
Friday, September 5, 2008
Please come out on Sunday September 21, 2008 and support this wonderful play that our youth have developed!
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Eight million Blacks still not registered to vote
Eight million Blacks still not registered to vote
By Hazel Trice EdneyUpdated Sep 3, 2008, 11:33 am
WASHINGTON (NNPA) - Despite record numbers of voters who turned out during the presidential primaries last spring, eight million Blacks are still not registered to vote.
This according to Rick Wade, African-American vote director for the Obama for America presidential campaign.
“Our principle focus has been a 50-state voter registration initiative. I think we all appreciate that if we increase the number of African-American registered voters and then increase turnout and get people to the polls on Nov. 4, then Sen. Obama will be the next president of the United States,” Mr. Wade says.
Mr. Wade explains that the eight million unregistered Black voters accounts for 32 percent of eligible Black voting population nationwide.
“In 2004, African-Americans made up approximately 11 percent of the overall vote nationwide. If the percentage of African-Americans was a mere 2.5 percent higher at 13.5 percent, Democrats would currently be running for re-election at this time,” he said. “For example in the state of Ohio in 2004, we lost by 2 percent or 100,000 votes. There were 270,000 unregistered African-Americans. I use that as an illustration to show how the African-American vote can make the difference in a state and across this country. So the African-American vote can absolutely make the difference in this election.”
But, the Democrats are not alone in going after the Black vote. Republicans, who barely get a tenth of Black voters in presidential elections, say they are not giving up.
“The [Republican National Convention] is working to turn out voters of all races to support Sen. John McCain and all of our Republican candidates, by focusing on using a strong grassroots program that relies on neighbor-to-neighbor interactions, putting out surrogates on a daily basis, and registering and mobilizing voters,” says RNC spokesman Sean Conner. “Chairman Duncan has visited 38 states in the last 16 months, and our Party’s nominee has participated in important African-American national events such as the NAACP conference and the National Urban League Convention. We’re looking forward to increased support from the African-American community, and will compete for each vote within the various ethnic communities of our country.”
As both parties prepare for grassroots mobilization efforts at their back-to-back conventions (Democrats, last week of August and Republican, first week of September), non-partisan groups have intensified their efforts with grassroots campaigns year round.
Melanie Campbell, executive director of the non-partisan National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, says because of the intensity of voter registration efforts, there’s a great possibility to take voter registration to a whole new level, particularly in the Black community, by intensifying voter education and focusing on issues.
“The potential is that you will create a whole new expanded electorate. It’s something that we’ve been trying to have happen for a lot of years,” Ms. Campbell says. “Because traditionally, there’s been about 15 million people not voting in the general election. So, this has potential for that number to go down tremendously...If the trend continues, because it’s so competitive, it’s going to drive the turn out and that’s going to be across all demographics.”
The intensity of the current election and get-out-to-vote efforts have caught fire from coast to coast and doesn’t begin and end with the presidential election.
“There’s elections from the school board to the presidency that impacts your life,” Ms. Campbell says. “We know the presidency is a big deal. But, it is one of many elections that’s taking place on Nov. 4.”
Related links:
NAACP National Voter Registration Page (NAACP.org)
Respect My Vote goes after out-of-college youth (FCN, 08-14-2008)
Black voters made the difference in 2006 election (FCN, 12-03-2006)
Can Obama and Black Democrats deliver the Black vote? (FCN, 08-22-2004)
Please vote brother and sister! Make sure you are registered to vote!
This is a real and true document. Never forget the price paid for where you stand today. This was once our resume' ... None of us has had to experience the pain of separation or live with the disgrace and humiliation that comes with not being free. When you cast your vote for who will run our country, never forget your history and keep this bill of sale in mind. When we allow ourselves to forget our not so distant past, then we are destined to repeat these actions in our future. Stand for those who came before us and those who could not stand up for themselves. VOTE! I encourage you to share this with everyone you know.
None of us has had to experience the pain of separation or live with the disgrace and humiliation that comes with not being free. When you cast your vote for who will run our country, never forget your history and keep this bill of sale in mind. When we allow ourselves to forget our not so distant past, then we are destined to repeat these actions in our future. Stand for those who came before us and those who could not stand up for themselves. VOTE!
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
The Wise Men and Women Have Sent Me to Tell You
Marcus Girard Ordering Marcus Girard's Book Online Radio Show
The Black Community and Depression
By Brother Marcus (Girard)
Peace brothers and sisters. Have you ever come across an important book that once you read through the first few pages you instinctively knew this book would be transformative to you? Well if you have had that experience then you know what I must be feeling. For the month of September 2008, I will be discussing a book by Terrie M. Williams called, “Black Pain – It Just Looks Like We’re Not Hurting”. Although Williams is a highly successful social worker by training, and a public relations professional by trade she opens up to readers about her personal battles with depression as well as the stories of many others with readers in the book. She makes a point to let the reader know that depression isn’t something new but cultural influences shape how people of different races deal with the illness.
Depression is definitely something that all Nations, races and ethnicities need to pay attention to. Of the estimated 20 million Americans who are affected by some form of depression, 9.2 million have major or clinical depression and two-thirds of people suffering from depression do not seek the necessary treatment. Eighty percent of all people with clinical depression who have received treatment significantly improve their lives. The economic cost of depression is estimated at $30.4 billion a year but the cost in human suffering cannot be estimated. It is also worth noting that women experience depression about twice as often as men. By the year 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that depression will be the number two cause of "lost years of healthy life" worldwide.
Again, Terrie Williams is not arguing that depression is a black thing. In describing the symptoms of depression that everyone deals with she said, “You run from yourself. It's a human thing to keep things locked up inside of you. When you're working 24-7 and you don't have the energy to do anything at all, when you have difficulty concentrating, when you're not doing work that fills your spirit — those are things that mean you have unresolved issues. And you may also sleep a lot because you're afraid to get up.African-Americans suppress and repress pain. [Still], there are many signs of depression that are like neon lights, but we don't really pay attention, or we don't have time to listen. With more dialogue, maybe, just maybe, there will be more sensitivity. Remember, everyone has a story. Assume that that person has a story just like you do, is just as fragile and as challenged as you are. I've always been a very sensitive person. I feel other people's pain and have a tendency to absorb it. I have a sense of the universality of humanity. I have a sense that underneath the face that everyone wears, we all share the same thing. People speak to you on so many different levels. I often will pay more attention to a person's body language than I will to what they say. That's what speaks really loudly to me. And a lot of times, I think three of the hardest words to answer honestly are, "How are you?" We usually lie, and when we do lie, it chips away at our spirit. So when we do ask this question, really listen to the answer.”
Here are some questions for you to answer. These questions are not designed to clinically diagnose you in any way but to perhaps put you on the road to seeing someone who can help you. Do you find yourself experiencing sadness throughout the day, nearly every day? Feeling sad is a natural part of life, but prolonged sadness can be a symptom associated with depression, especially if you find that your sadness interferes with everyday life. Have you experienced a loss of interest in or enjoyment of your favorite activities? If you have lost interest in the things you once enjoyed, like going to the movies, hanging out with friends, or walking in the community, you may be experiencing one of the common symptoms of depression. Are you experiencing feelings of worthlessness? Do you feel like you don't matter or that you don't deserve to be happy? Have you experienced these feelings for an extended period of time? Are you experiencing inappropriate feelings of guilt? Having excessive feelings of guilt should raise a red flag. Are you constantly blaming yourself when things don't turn out well? You may have done nothing wrong, but maybe you feel like what you do is never right. Are you experiencing thoughts of death or suicide? In one of the rap songs by the late great prophet, Tupac Shakur, called “Shed so many tears” he stated, “Now I'm lost and I'm weary, so many tears. I’m suicidal so don't stand near me. My every move is a calculated step, to bring me closer to embrace an early death, now there's nothing left.” If you are not suicidal then never think for a moment that the thought hasn’t crossed the mind of your teenage son or daughter. Thoughts of death or suicide are common in depression, and it's important to take these thoughts seriously. If you feel like giving up, call the National Suicide Prevention Helpline, 1-800-SUICIDE (1-800-784-2433).
Are you experiencing trouble making decisions? Are you having trouble making decisions? Do the little things frustrate you? Do some decisions seem too overwhelming or burdensome? Are you experiencing fatigue or lack of energy? Did you know that feeling tired or fatigued nearly every day may be associated with depression. Do you drag yourself out of bed each morning? Do you feel like you have no energy to make dinner or do laundry? Are you experiencing sleeping too much or too little? Sleeping too much or not enough may be a symptom of depression. Do you stay awake at night and feel sleepy during the day? Sleep studies suggest that 40% to 60% of outpatients—and 90% of inpatients—with depression may have sleep problems. Are you experiencing changes in appetite or weight? A weight change of more than 5% (up or down) in a month when you haven't been trying to gain or lose weight may be a sign of depression. Are you experiencing trouble concentrating? Has your performance at work or school gone down because you can't concentrate? Are you unable to focus on your daily tasks and projects? Is your mind always racing? Are you experiencing complaints of pain? Complaints of pain can be a symptom of depression. Do you have nagging aches and pains that don't seem to go away? Are you experiencing restlessness? Are you easily agitated? Do you have trouble sitting still? Do you pace back and forth?
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Hard times are here if we don't unite our dollars! We are the change that we have been looking for...
I'm hiring! Know anybody who needs some extra cash?
http://www.blackbusinessbuilders.com/compplan.htm
Peace and Love to you dear family. My name is Brother Marcus and welcome to The Knowledge Cafe. I am so honored that you have chosen to visit this blog and share your opinions with us. I have been blessed to work with thousands of youth and adults over the last fifteen years and I have decided to open this blog up to everyone who would like to enlighten folks with knowledge, wisdom and understanding. Please feel free to post your comments on whatever topic you may desire.