It brings me great pleasure to applaud Brother Jeff Johnson on his new show on BET. Starting this Friday night Jeff Johnson will be hosting a news program geared discussing the news of the week, in depth coverage of the Presidential Elections while also addressing issues that are specific to the black community.

BET is often dubbed “the worst thing for black people”, Bamboozled Entertainment Television” and a host of other unflattering names. However, when shows like this are brought on the air they receive hardly any attention and viewership. Television is in the business of making money and if people are not watching news programming geared towards people of color then you can expect to not see those types of television shows on air. Support Brother Jeff Johnson as you supported Soledad O’Brien with CNN’s Black In America.

I have listen to Brother Jeff Johnson speak on numerous occasions and this is one intelligent man who has a knack for understanding issues and presenting them in a way that others can grasp them quickly as well. I look forward to this show and I applaud BET for attempting something like this. PLEASE SUPPORT!

Link

Very interesting read about Dictatorships in Africa and their relationship to the United States!

Wednesday, 09 July 2008
African Dictatorships and Double-Standards
Stephen Zunes

This article originally appeared in Foreign Policy In Focus

“U.S. credibility as a defender of human rights and free elections is seriously compromised.”

The Bush administration has justifiably criticized the Zimbabwean regime of liberator-turned-dictator Robert Mugabe. It has joined a unanimous UN Security Council resolution condemning the campaign of violence unleashed upon pro-democracy activists and calling for increased diplomatic sanctions in the face of yet another sham election. In addition, both the House and the Senate have passed strongly worded resolutions of solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe in support of their struggle for freedom and democracy.

However, neither the Republican administration nor the Democratic-controlled Congress is sincerely concerned about human rights and democratic elections as a matter of principle. Rather, they are more likely acting out of political expediency. Despite claims of support for the advancement of democracy, the United States continues to support other African dictatorships that are as bad as or even worse than that of Zimbabwe.

Indeed, the United States currently provides economic aid and security assistance to such repressive African regimes as Swaziland, Congo, Cameroun, Togo, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Rwanda, Gabon, Egypt, and Tunisia. None of these countries holds free elections, and all have severely suppressed their political opposition.

The Worst Abuser

Among the worst of these African tyrannies has been the regime of Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea. Obiang has been in power even longer than the 28-year reign of Mugabe and, according to a recent article in the British newspaper The Independent, makes the Zimbabwean dictator “seem stable and benign” by comparison. Obiang originally seized power in a 1979 coup by murdering his uncle, who had ruled the country since its independence from Spain in 1968. Under his rule, Equatorial Guinea nominally allowed the existence of opposition parties as a condition of receiving foreign aid in the early 1990s. But the four leading candidates withdrew from the last presidential election in December 2002 in protest of irregularities in the voting process and violence against their supporters. In that election, Obiang officially received more than 97% of the vote (down from 99.5% in the previous election.)

Though the U.S. State Department acknowledged that the election was “marred by extensive fraud and intimidation,” the Congress and the administration devoted none of the vehement condemnation that was so evident after the recent, similarly marred election process in Zimbabwe.

One major reason for the difference in response is oil. The development of vast oil reserves over the past decade has made Equatorial Guinea one of the wealthiest countries in Africa in terms of per capita gross domestic product. Virtually all of the oil revenues, however, goes to Obiang and his cronies. The dictator himself is worth an estimated $1 billion, making him the wealthiest leader in Africa; his real estate holdings include two mansions in Maryland just outside of Washington, DC. Meanwhile, the vast majority of the country’s population lives on only a few dollars a day, and nearly half of all children under five are malnourished. The country’s major towns and cities lack basic sanitation and potable water while conditions in the countryside are even worse.

“The development of vast oil reserves over the past decade has made Equatorial Guinea one of the wealthiest countries in Africa in terms of per capita gross domestic product.”

During his most recent visit to Washington in 2006, Obiang was warmly received by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who praised the dictator as “a good friend” of the United States. Not once during their joint appearance did she mention the words “human rights” or “democracy.” At the same press conference, Obiang praised his regime’s “extremely good relations with the United States” and his expectation that “this relationship will continue to grow in friendship and cooperation.” None of the assembled reporters raised any questions about the regime’s notorious human rights record or its lack of democracy, instead using the opportunity to ask Secretary Rice questions about the alleged threat from Iran.

In 2002, the dictator met with President George W. Bush in New York to discuss military and energy security issues. He followed up in 2004 with meetings with then-Secretary of State Colin Powell and then-Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham.

Cozy Relations

Equatorial Guinea receives U.S. government funding and training through the International Military Education and Training Program (IMET). In addition, the private U.S. firm Military Professional Resources Incorporated - founded by former senior Pentagon officials who cite the regime’s friendliness to U.S. strategic and economic interests - plays a key role in the country’s internal security apparatus. Furthermore, as a result of Obiang’s understandable lack of trust in his own people, soldiers from Morocco - one of America’s closest African allies - have served for decades in a number of important security functions, including the role of presidential guards.

Maintaining close ties with such a notorious ruler has led even conservative Republicans like Frank Ruddy, who served as President Ronald Reagan’s ambassador to Equatorial Guinea in the mid-1980s, to denounce the Bush administration for being “big cheerleaders for the government - and it’s an awful government.”

“U.S. oil companies paid hundreds of millions of dollars destined to state treasuries directly into the dictator’s private bank accounts.”

Though the Chinese have also recently begun investing in the country’s oil sector, U.S. companies ExxonMobil, Amerada Hess, Chevron/Texaco, and Marathon Oil have played the most significant role. A report by the International Monetary Fund notes that U.S. oil companies receive “by far the most generous tax and profit-sharing provisions in the region.” Congressional hearings recently revealed how U.S. oil companies paid hundreds of millions of dollars destined to state treasuries directly into the dictator’s private bank accounts. A Senate report faulted U.S. oil companies for making “substantial payments to, or entering into business ventures with,” government officials and their family members.

The irony of the relative silence of Congress and the Bush administration regarding the human rights abuses and the undemocratic nature of Obiang’s regime is that, due to the critical role of U.S. economic investment and security assistance, the United States has far more leverage on the government of Equatorial Guinea than it does on the government of Zimbabwe. As a result, Americans can feel self-righteous in their condemnation of a regime in Zimbabwe with which the United States has little leverage while continuing to support an even more repressive regime over which the United States could successfully exert pressure if it chose to do so.

This does not mean the United States should have waited until it first ends its support of Obiang and other African dictatorships before joining the rest of the international community in condemning the repression in Zimbabwe. However, as long as the United States maintains such blatant double-standards, U.S. credibility as a defender of human rights and free elections is seriously compromised and thereby plays right into the hands of autocrats and demagogues like Robert Mugabe.

Stephen Zunes is a senior analyst for Foreign Policy In Focus and a professor of politics at the University of San Francisco.

Man I tell you, living in Technology world, you have to watch what you say! I mean every other week we are hearing people’s personal phone conversations, voicemails, sound bytes from closed affairs. So in the words of T.I. “Watch what you say” Brother Jackson!

I hear the infamous Bill O’Reilly will air Jackson’s comments later on this evening, I will find the youtube link and then post the comments. But let’s be serious Jesse Jackson was probably ticked off like every other black man that Barack Obama used Father’s Day as the day that he would condemn the absence of fatherhood in the black community. Black men all over the nation are irate about this because quite frankly they do not see Barack addressing other issues head on that deal with the black population.

He was not very vocal about Jena 6, his remarks were watered down when he spoke of the Sean Bell incident, he was absent from the State of the Black Union; so people feel that Obama does not have the right to condemn black fathers and not look to condemn the absence of fatherhood as a whole across racial lines. I mean that has been his strong point thus far so black men across the country were angered by Barack’s statement.

It’s not that I disagree with Obama’s statements about irresponsible fathers or that I feel he should have addressed all absentee fathers. My issue with the speech was highlighting the negative which is already known. It’s like the bad child in the classroom, they get more attention than the students who actually do their work further making those “good” students feel under-appreciated. The same can be said for fathers like mine who work two jobs to provide for their families. Men who provide for their families should be honored on father’s day and less emphasis placed on the dead beat dad’s. Let’s lift up the brothers who are doing the right thing. Maybe our selfless praise of these men will inspire the men who are not effectively handling the business of their children as fathers.

For the rest of this story click here

UPDATE: HERE IS THE CLIP

UMM Jesse “I wanna Cut His Nuts Off” umm yea I’ll let you all be the judge!

Say it ain’t so Mr. Clinton. Say it ain’t so Bill. Bill is smarter than this, I simply will not believe it, LOL!

OBAMA YES WE CA, SI SE PUEDE!

Mr Obama is expected to speak to Mr Clinton for the first time since he won the nomination in the next few days, but campaign insiders say that the former president’s future campaign role is a “sticking point” in peace talks with Mrs Clinton’s aides.

“It’s time for him to get over it or go off and do his charitable work. He knows the rules of the road. What’s going on now is kind of strange. I think his behavior is really, really shocking.”

click here for article

Atleast the community members and parents are angered by this. I mean does it get any more ignorant.

Check out the full story at:

Street Knowledge

This morning they will be campaigning together in New Hampshire. Here is what they both had to say last night at a fundraiser where Barack and Michelle donated $4,600 to Hillary’s campaign.

Hillary:

“I know my supporters have extremely strong feelings, and I know Barack’s do as well,” Clinton told her fundraisers. “But we are a family, and we have an opportunity now to really demonstrate clearly we do know what’s at stake, and we will do whatever it takes to win back this White House.”

Barack:

“I recognize that this room shared the same passion that a roomful of my supporters would show. I do not expect that passion to be transferred. Sen. Clinton is unique, and your relationships with her are unique,” he said. “Sen. Clinton and I at our core agree deeply that this country needs to change.”

At the end of his remarks, Obama made a direct appeal for support. “I’m going to need Hillary by my side campaigning during his election, and I’m going to need all of you.”

Ok first, this is a message to all the young black males and females in America who struggle when their class mates say that they are talking white because they choose to speak proper English.

This fallacy has gone too far, in fact there is nothing “white” about being an articulate and intelligent individual. And now we have to hear these same type of attacks from Presidential hopefuls who know they have no chance in hel of ever becomig the President of these United States.

I am sad that Cornell West once endorsed your run Mr. Nader for you are the epitome of ignorance and you have taken upon yourself to promote discension and misunderstanding throughout the land with your careless remarks.

Recently Nader said, “”There’s only one thing different about Barack Obama when it comes to being a Democratic presidential candidate. He’s half African-American,” Nader told the paper in comments published Tuesday. “Whether that will make any difference, I don’t know. I haven’t heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, lead. What’s keeping him from doing that? Is it because he wants to talk white? He doesn’t want to appear like Jesse Jackson? We’ll see all that play out in the next few months and if he gets elected afterwards.”

So to speak to blacks or about black issues is only to speak about what is going on in the ghettos. Are both whites, blacks and latinos alike not the victims of predatory lending, payday loans, asbestos and lead.

And what is this “talking white” you speak of. Barack Obama often speaks of changing politics, changing America and creating a better world for people of all ethnicities to live in. Is that talking white Mr. Nader. Deep down Nader has the same white supremacist attitude that others before him have had and will inject race into this equation or election whichever you want to call it whenever he can.

I just wonder how does it feel to go down in history as the quintiessential loser. As the man who helped put George Bush in office, who has destroyed the reputation of America and kept us in a bloody war with Iraq where Iraqi officials kill U.S. troops.

Beat it Ralph Nader!

This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD. He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. “But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit. Jeremiah 17: 5-8

Last night I was reflecting on the man I was a year and a half ago. To the naked eye not much has changed, but inside I know there is a difference. I have always had a relationship with God but that did not mean that I was working towards building a better relationship with God. I was like, I’ll stay right here where it’s comfortable, I’ll get real into the word when I get old like my grandparents. Thankfully the Lord threw some situations my way that made me realize that our connection had to get better and that we needed to be constantly working on our relationship. So I feel like this verse represents me in some ways. Not that I did not trust in the Lord, that I did not have confidence in him but maybe I was guilty of not trying to get closer to God.

Now I strive to have a better understanding of the word and how it relates to my life. Not just my life but the lives of those around me, I strive to understand how their worlds and my world have collided and what work God wants us to do together. A few months ago I was emailing Kevin Powell and I wasn’t really getting any responses. At first I was like, you know this guy is busy so it’s all good. But after a few times I became angered because I felt that I had something valuable to offer the efforts he is working on not only in Brooklyn but around the country. Well last night I had the opportunity to have a two hour conversation with the man. Someone who inspires me through his words, through his writings and definitely through our conversation. When the conversation was over all I could do was thank God. All I had wanted was an email response but now I was blessed with a memorable and enlightening conversation. Only God could make something like that possible, so I look forward to building my relationship with the Lord and working for him because it is clear that he keeps his children in his favor. Peace and Grace be unto you!

CHANGE THE WAY A MAN VIEWS THINGS AND THE MAN CHANGES HIS WORLD.

Over here at Notes of This Native Son we always like to shout out up and coming artists. Today I want to send a special shout out to the sultry sounds of L. Michele. We have to start supporting real musicians so that we can stop being plagued with trash music. Her work speaks for itself, ENJOY!

Could it be that the world is falling in love with the new sultry sounds of L. Michele? She’s your friend, your neighbor, the girl you knew all your life. Entering the music scene with soulful beats and beautiful vocals, she is rebirthing the movement of rhythm and blues. Her sultry melodies and charismatic personality make it nearly impossible not to fall in love with her Brooklyn bred stylish yet street edge flavor.

Over the years, the borough has been highlighted for its hip-hop artists; however, L. Michele is here to remind the world that her hometown also belts out crooners. At the tender age of 12, L. Michele got her start performing at the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem, NY. With such a powerful instrument coming from her small body, L Michele captivated her audience and the desires for her dreams were actualized on that fateful night. It was at that moment that her sound caught the ear of record producer True Master, whose credits include Alicia Keys, Busta Rhymes and The Wu Tang Clan, who then put L. Michele under his wing and began to hone her craft through songwriting.

L. Michele has achieved many accomplishments in her pursuits for success. She was a member of the Grammy and Stellar Award winning choir, The Love Fellowship Tabernacle Choir. It was with them she made numerous television appearances including the Bobby Jones Gospel special and the McDonalds Gospel Fest. This opportunity gave her the chance to sing along side such music greats as Fred Hammond, Stevie Wonder, Babyface, Sean Combs and Mario Winans. Along with those performances, she has also performed at the famed venues Radio City Music Hall and Madison Square Garden.

With the release of her first album self-titled L. Michele her unique self-proclaimed sound captivates and soothes your ears but promises to make you two-step with songs such as “Could It Be” and “No One Compares.” For easy listening “1,000 Words” and “Love” will soothe your melodic pleasures.

With a distinct voice, multifaceted talent and intelligent character, L. Michele’s possibilities for success are endless.

L. Michele the Writer
L. Michele the Singer
L. Michele the Performer

Visit www.IamLMichele.com for more info

People have it confused; if you and your man do a crime and you get caught and he doesn’t and you tell. THAT’S SNITCHING! You chose that lifestyle, you are only telling because you got caught. However if a little girl gets shot in the street and you say you’re not going to “snitch”, a. that’s not snitching, b. you’re a punk and you’ll end up dead soon enough. See because you chose not to snitch you bring death to your own front doorstep! 1

START SNITCHING

We see it glorified in old mob flicks, rap records hail it as the sin of all sins; the number one code of the streets; “don’t snitch”. LOYALTY, I understand the concept very well, but when does it border stupidity and become a cause in fact of the violence and destruction of our neighborhoods. The “Stop Snitching Campaign” was subliminally etched into our minds long before the celebrated t-shirts with stop signs and the word snitching embedded within. Well please forgive me, for I am about to break the ultimate code of honor, I’m about to become the rat of all rats, because my charge for us as a community is to… “START SNITCHING”.

There, I said it, START SNITCHING, start snitching if you want your children to live to see past their elementary school graduation. Start Snitching if you want to stop living in fear as you walk to the corner store. This is heavy, because as a people we have a strong distrust for law enforcement. I mean, why wouldn’t we, after seeing many of our leaders crippled by this system of American Justice. We vividly remember news clips of the Civil Rights Era, watching police officers brutally attack people of color with water hoses and K-9 dogs? Many of us can attest to the “random” car stops, the harassment and brutality that our people face on a daily basis from those who are supposed to protect and serve. Yet I still say START SNITCHING, far too many of our children are becoming victims in the crossfire of drug wars, domestic disputes and other various forms of crime that begat violence.

What do you tell a mother who just lost her 6-year-old child to gun violence and you know what happened? What do we put on your grave when you’re no longer here, “here lies a good man cause he wasn’t no snitch”. No, more like here lies a coward who was too afraid to take ownership of his community and protect the lives around him. Now you’re thinking, “I‘m not snitching because then they are going to come and get me”. I agree, and sadly once again law enforcement does an awful job at protecting those who come forward with the truth. There is power in numbers, if we take a stand as a people we can combat these atrocities. We can put pressure on the legislators to create better programs for those who come forward, put pressure on city hall to allocate sufficient funds to the police department for such programs. Once we become aware of our power we won’t have to live in fear, we will begin to think for the system and have our thoughts implemented, as they should be in the first place. We elect, key word “elect” public officials, they are in their positions to serve us. So if we don’t feel safe it is our duty to get that message across to those who we have elected to make us feel protected. We can employ “effective snitching” by going to city council meetings, arranging town hall meetings and charging elected officials with doing their job and implementing programs that will make our streets safer. Our taxes are what pay the salaries of these elected officials and law enforcement personnel, so essentially they work for us, its time that we remind these people who write their checks and demand that produce results!

I’m talking about taking a stand for the well-being of the children we are raising. We know exactly what goes on around the way from violence to drug dealing and we even know what times it is more probable that these crimes occur. Effective snitching means as a community going to these elected officials and providing them with this information, demanding that they not only look at the information but that they create a plan of action to address it. Jail time is supposed to serve as a deterrent for crimes committed, meaning if you do the crime you do the time. By not snitching and taking a blind eye to the crimes within our neighborhoods, we are sending our people the message that what they’re doing is right and will be tolerated. We’re saying there’s no reason to think before you act because no one is going to tell so you don’t have to worry about prison time. No wonder the murder rates are so high, we have sent a message that people can be killed and we will protect the killers by keeping silent. START SNITCHING, effective snitching, lets be a catalyst for the change that we wish to see in our communities. Let’s Make It Happen!

Cedric D. Shine