While Jesse lectured over at CNN.com over the importance of not being so dependent on “dirty fuels”, one person decided to help him behind the scenes by stealing his car.

“The Rev. Jesse Jackson found out just how rough things are in Detroit.

Several Detroit media outlets reported thieves stole Jackson’s ride — a 2009 Cadillac Escalade — from a parking lot near the city’s Doubletree Hotel.

The SUV was later recovered, but it was found without its rims and one of its windows had been broken, according to Detroit’s WXYZ-TV.”

Perhaps those rims were taken in order to make a windmill.

From tennessean.com

“Federal investigators are offering a $20,000 reward to anyone who can help identify the person or persons responsible for setting fire to construction equipment at the site of a future mosque south of Murfreesboro.

‘Somebody knows something,” ATF agent Steven Gerido said during a Friday press conference at the site on Veals Road, off Bradyville Pike. ‘The money is a motivator.’

FBI agent Keith Moses said the FBI would not decide whether the arson was a hate crime — motivated by someone hoping to intimidate local Muslims — until after suspects are identified and motives are determined.”

Some idiot sets fire CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT at the future site of a mosque and the Feds are all over it throwing around taxpayer money to find the person.

In the meantime, no reported action from the same Feds on the burning of a Black church in Los Angeles a few weeks ago. No Federal charges against the prime suspect in the case who reportedly flashed gang signs to some members of the church a few moment before the fire broke out. No Federal investigation on the fact that this same suspect needed an interpreter in court and could be in this country illegally. According to Ted Hayes, he was able to confirm via the Los Angeles Fire Department that the suspect is on immigration hold.

I dare you to do a Google news search on this story.

This one comes from another member of the African-American Photographer’s group on Flickr. Gentleman goes by the name “Urban_Photog” (quick bio here). He took this shot at the Ohio State Fair.

More from African-American Flickr group member “vieilles_annonces”

Okay, now this one caught my eye because I have never heard of this individual.

More on Sunshine Sammy (Frederick Ernest) Morrison (Website)

More from African-American Flickr group member “vieilles_annonces”

Today I am going to give a special shout out to African-American Flickr group member “vieilles_annonces”. She is just an awesome source of forgotten Black history. She has scanned over 7,000 clips of newspaper articles, magazines, pictures from decades gone by. Truly a labor of love for her and just a wonderful stop on the information highway.

From Targetmarketnews.com

(August 27, 2010) The Chicago-based Rainbow PUSH Coalition (RPC), headed by the Rev Jesse L. Jackson, issued a statement last week asking Burger King to reconsider its plan as quoted in news accounts dropping advertising assignments to it African-American and Hispanic ad agencies of record.

The PUSH demand comes after the New York Times quoted Burger King’s top marketing executives as saying they believe the expertise of ethnic ad shops is not necessary because “younger African-American and Hispanic consumers don’t necessarily see the world as ethnically divided, but rather as “a melting pot.”

Janice L. Mathis, RPC vice president and counsel, said “the remarks attributed to Burger King’s chief marketing officer Mike Kapitt are so inappropriate that we believe there must be a better explanation of the company’s recent advertising decisions.”

This is still very sad that these “ethnic” ad agencies are still crying over how companies like Burger King are dropping them and going with other marketing choices.

Burger King is right. This generation is not stuck in the 1950′s when it comes to buying products. If it’s cool, meets the general need, cost is reasonable, treated like every other customer then folks simply do not care if businesses Burger King are now using non-Black/Hispanic owned and operated ad agencies. That is not even the last thing on the mind of customers as they await their food in the drive thru line. Do they really believe that Black and Hispanic consumers are going to boycott Burger King over something like this?

I was always told the that the Civil Rights movement was about making sure people are treated equally. Now that companies like Burger King have achieved that goal for the most part, here comes the separatist movement disguised as “diversity” pleading to “The MAN” to keep their ad agencies employed.

I often think about how companies like BMW and Mercedes Benz barely (if at all) spent any money with Black/Hispanic ad agencies back in the day. Yet we as Black folks bought up these cars, gave them free advertisement in our videos and oftentimes bragged over the fact that we had one.

But somehow Black/Hispanic ad agencies are the only ones who know how to talk to their respected ethnic groups.

WAKE UP!

“We will just be on hand to welcome our brother, the leader of the African Union, on his first visit to the United States and to the United Nations, where I am sure he will make a major speech,” (Min. Louis Farrakhan)

===

“Clinton Administration officials said today that they would almost certainly reject an application from the Nation of Islam and its leader, Louis Farrakhan, to be allowed to accept a donation of more than $1 billion from Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya.” (Source)

“Addressing the European Union (EU) in Rome, Gaddafi warned that “Europe runs the risk of turning “black” unless the EU pays Libya at least €5 billion (£4.1 billion) a year to block the arrival of illegal immigrants from Africa”. He continued, “Tomorrow Europe might no longer be European and even black as there are millions (of Africans) who want to come in. He described the migration pattern as something “very dangerous”.”

In another report, “brother” Gadaffi was quoted in the same speech saying the following-

“We don’t know what will happen, what will be the reaction of the white and Christian Europeans faced with this influx of starving and ignorant Africans,”

It is going to be interesting if people like Farrakhan are going to chime in on this one given his full endorsement of Gadaffi as a “friend” to Black folks.

What is also going to be telling is how the same media and same blogosphere that can easily pull up past comments from folks in the past will tip toe through this one.

Click picture to see larger version.

Guess before clicking.

Answer:

A Fourth of July celebration. St. Helena Island, South Carolina, 1939. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

Minus the dated clothes, this picture looks like it was taken 20 years ago. Great color restoration!

I dare you to do a Google search under the following terms~

Support Asian owned businesses

Support White owned businesses

support Jewish owned businesses

support Mexican owned businesses

Now search this:

Support Black owned businesses

The Philadelphia African American Chamber of Commerce is once again begging Black folks to support Black businesses. I totally understand the sentiment and I absolutely love hearing about other Black businesses succeed. But when you have to plead and beg folks of the same race to support their own, something seriously needs to be addressed. Check out this excerpt from a spokesperson from the organization. Read it carefully.

“It’s not just saying go support these businesses regardless of the quality of service that you receive, but saying go support these businesses knowing that at the same time we’re working to help them improve their business.”

Just over 5 years ago, this same organization released the following press release.

African-American Chamber Survey: 40 Percent of Black Businesses Have Difficulty Finding Trained Staff; 81.8 Percent of Black Firm Employees are African-American

PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 12 /PRNewswire/ — In a recent survey of its member-businesses, the Philadelphia-area African-American Chamber of Commerce (AACC) found that 40 percent are experiencing difficulty in finding appropriately trained employees to work in their companies and that targeted training programs would allow them to hire more people, with greater confidence.

Among the impediments to finding suitable employees, the businesses said, was “technical skills deficiency,” “insufficient training,” “lack of expertise in the business’s specialty,” “lack of education,” a “lack of a clean background” and a “lack of work ethic, professionalism and punctuality.”

The firms, each of which was African-American owned, said that being ableto hire qualified African-Americans is a high priority for their businesses.”

If the quality of service does not improve, don’t expect Black folks to come knocking down your door.

But then again, would ANYBODY want to go through the door in the first place.

Your government is busy taking away more of your rights.

I’m a little short on time this morning, so I opted for Facebook today. Come join the party.

Just yesterday I happened to be browsing a book on American history when I came to a page that talked about the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-56. Now I have heard the story at least a million times already, but this time I was really struck with just how committed these folks were to the boycott. Could you imaging a whole demographic in one town opting to carpool or walk to work for a year TODAY???

These brave souls were fighting something that was real. Something that was in their face every day: Racism. Today, we only talk about it. Burning crosses, bombings, sniper attacks, lynchings, etc. have now been replaced with sound bites on YouTube as the new catalyst to at best get people talking for about a week. But that’s about it. There was no Internet in those days, no chain emails, no text messaging, no Facebook and no Twitter. All these folks had was a hefty dose of good ol’ fashioned commitment that did not mind walking in the rain back and forth to work for months. It did not mind carpooling or being inconvenienced. Today, we click “Like” next to the title of a Facebook fan page that declares that it hates racism and we define that as “commitment”.

I found the following account on this page. It gives a very good account of some of the behind the scenes activity that took place during the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

When the boycott began, no one expected it to last for very long. There had been boycotts of buses by blacks before, most recently in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1953. A one-day boycott, followed three months later by a week-long boycott, resulted in buses that were more desegregated but that still had some seats reserved for whites as well as some for blacks. On Thursday, December 8, the fourth day of the boycott, King and other MIA officials met with officials and lawyers from the bus company, as well as the city commissioners, to present a moderate desegregation plan similar to the one already implemented in Baton Rouge and other Southern cities, including Mobile, Alabama. The MIA was hopeful that the plan would be accepted and the boycott would end, but the bus company refused to consider it. In addition, city officials struck a blow to the boycott when they announced that any cab driver charging less than the 45 cent minimum fare would be prosecuted. Since the boycott began, the black cab services had been charging blacks only 10 cents to ride, the same as the bus fare, but this service would be no more. Suddenly the MIA was faced with the prospect of having thousands of blacks with no way to get to work, and with no end to the boycott in sight.

In response, the MIA worked out a “private taxi” plan, under which blacks w ho owned cars picked up and dropped off blacks who needed rides at designated points. The plan was elaborate and took a great deal of planning; consequently, the MIA appointed a Transportation Committee to oversee it. The service worked so well so quickly that even the White Citizens Council (whose membership doubled during one month of the boycott) had to admit that it moved with “military precision.” [11]

Whites tried to end the boycott in every way possible. One often-used method was to try to divide the black community. On January 21, 1956, the City Commission met with three non-MIA black ministers and proposed a “compromise,” which was basically the system already in effect. The ministers accepted, and the commission leaked (false) reports to a newspaper that the boycott was over. The MIA did not even hear of the compromise until a black reporter in the North who received a wire report phoned to ask if the Montgomery blacks had really settled for so little. By that time it was Saturday night. On Sunday morning Montgomery newspapers were going to print the news that the boycott was over and the city’s blacks were going to believe it. To prevent this from happening, some MIA officials went bar-hopping to spread the word that the stories were a hoax, that the boycott was still on. Later, the black ministers told King that they hadn’t understood the proposal.

When that effort to break up the boycott failed, whites turned to violence. King’s home was bombed on January 30, and Nixon’s home was bombed on February 1.

Next, whites turned to the law. On February 21, 89 blacks were indicted under an old law prohibiting boycotts. King was the first defendant to be tried. As press from around the nation looked on, King was ordered to pay $500 plus $500 in court costs or spend 386 days in the state penitentiary.

Whites also tried to break down the “private taxi” system that many blacks relied on as their only means of transportation to and from work. Some churches had purchased station wagons, usually called “rolling churches,” to be used in the private taxi service. Liability insurance was canceled four times in four months before King found insurance through a black agent in Atlanta, underwritten by Lloyd’s of London. The police also arrested drivers for minor traffic offenses. When King dropped by a pickup point to help transport blacks waiting there, he was arrested for driving thirty miles per hour in a twenty-five mile per hour zone.

Despite all the pressures to end the boycott, blacks continued to stay off the buses. One white bus driver stopped to let off a lone black man in a black neighborhood. Looking in his rear view mirror, he saw an old black woman with a cane rushing towards the bus. He opened the door and said, “You don’t have to rush auntie. I’ll wait for you.” The woman replied, “In the first place, I ain’t your auntie. In the second place, I ain’t rushing to get on your bus. I’m jus’ trying to catch up with that nigger who just got off, so I can hit him with this here stick.”

By this point, some members of Montgomery’s business community were becoming frustrated with the boycott, which was costing them thousands of dollars because blacks were less likely to shop in downtown stores. Although they were as opposed to integration as the next white Montgomery resident, they realized that the boycott was bad for business and therefore wanted the boycott to end. They formed a group called the Men of Montgomery and tried negotiating directly with the boycotters. Eventually, however, these discussions broke down, and the boycott continued.

But blacks had already begun to fight to end the boycott in court. They would no longer settle for the moderate desegregation plan that they had first proposed. Now, they would accept nothing less than full integration. The city was fighting a losing battle. The blacks were armed with the Brown decision, less than two years old, which said that the “separate but equal” doctrine had no place in public education. Surely it must follow that the doctrine had no place in any public facilities. In addition, the city was not in the prejudiced local courts but in federal court, where even a black man could hope to have a fair trial. When the city defended segregation by saying that integration would lead to violence, Judge Rives asked, “Is it fair to command one man to surrender his constitutional rights, if they are his constitutional rights, in order to prevent another man from committing a crime?” [12]The federal court decided 2-1 in favor of the blacks, with the lone dissent coming from a Southern judge. The city, of course, appealed the ruling, but on November 13, 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the federal court’s ruling, declaring segregation on buses unconstitutional. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was officially over.

Blacks continued, however, to stay off the city buses until the mandate from the Supreme Court arrived. During that time, MIA officials tried to prepare blacks as best they could for integrated buses. But, as Martin Luther King, Jr., noted wryly, “not a single white group would take the responsibility of preparing the white community.” [13]

Blacks returned to the buses on December 21, 1956, over a year after the boycott began. But their troubles were not over. Snipers shot at buses, forcing the city to suspend bus operations after 5 P.M. A group tried to start a whites-only bus service. There was also a wave of bombings. The homes of two black leaders, four Baptists churches, the People’s Service Station and Cab Stand, and the home of another black were all bombed. In addition, an unexploded bomb was found on King’s front porch. Seven white men were arrested for the bombings, and five were indicted. The first two defendants, Raymond D. York and Sonny Kyle Livingston, were found not guilty, even though they had signed confessions. The remainder of the bombers were set free under a compromise that also canceled the cases of blacks arrested under the anti-boycott laws, although King still had to pay his $500 fine.

The KKK also tried to scare the blacks, but “it seemed to have lost its spell,” King wrote. “…[O]ne cold night a small Negro boy was seen warming his hands at a burning cross.” [14]The violence died down after several prominent whites spoke out against it, and the integration of the Montgomery buses was ultimately successful.

“We are acting like little boys…Somebody’s name will have to be known, and if we are afraid we might just as well fold up right now. We must also be men enough to discuss our recommendations in the open; this idea of secretly passing something around on paper is a lot of bunk. The white folks are eventually going to find out anyway. We’d better decide now if we are going to be fearless men or scared boys.” E.D. Nixon (pictured) on whether or not to reveal the names of the leadership behind the boycott. Taken from the book “A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King”.

Looking back, I understand why these bruthas were not quick to reveal the names of the leadership behind the boycott. They recognized the full weight and potential danger to anyone claiming to be a leader of such a movement. People like Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson may have prison time under their belt, but they far away from the real threats of death. Jail time for them is more of a media stunt. Everybody expects them to walk out in one piece.

Ted Hayes is doing the work MSM will not do.

[See my first post on this story]

Well it appears that LAPD has nabbed their suspect who set ablaze the Black-owned church a couple of week ago. This wasn’t just any old church. This church was about 100 years old, making it a genuine piece of Los Angeles history.

As you scan over the news headlines, you will be very hard pressed to find any news outlet updating the public on the latest information regarding this case (Personally I could not find one news outlet covering the latest on this story). According to this recent court document, the subject’s name is Ricardo Aguilar Martinez. And also according to this document, Mr. Martinez apparently needed a court interpreter.

So this is what we know so far…

According to this video, the pastor of the church said that a young Hispanic male was standing outside of the church yelling and throwing gang signs just before the fire. A Hispanic male has been arrested for possibly being the one who started the fire. The suspect apparently needs an interpreter to understand English.

A historically Black church gets burned down and not one media outlet reports that a suspect has been nabbed?
Interesting.

NNPA columnist George E. Curry has already picked his side in the upcoming battle of the marches that will take place in D.C. over the next few weeks.

Dear Dr. King,

There will be a march this Saturday to commemorate the 47th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Actually, there will be two marches, with leaders of each claiming to be walking in your footsteps.

The march being led by Al Sharpton is the only one with any legitimacy. Sharpton was mentored by Jesse Jackson similar to the way you mentored Jesse. Sharpton is being joined by Marc Morial, the president and CEO of the National Urban League; Benjamin Jealous, the head of the NAACP, and your oldest son, Martin Luther King III. You would be proud of all of them. You’d be especially proud because they are refusing to let Glenn Beck, an ultra-conservative talk show host, hijack your memory. (more…)

Marches are old and played out. They no longer hold the same weight they did years ago in the imagination of the American people. So the fact that someone of Curry’s stature would stoop down to entertain the thought that one is more “legitimate” than the other shows just how out of touch both he and the rest of the talking heads out there really are.

Critics of the Tea Party movement are going to be paying very close attention to the amount of people that show up at the Beck-Fest. No matter how many people show up, the media will try to make the point that the crowd was not as big as expected. What they miss is the fact that Tea Party rallies have been going on nationwide well over a year now. The Sharpton-Fest is a one time deal. Based on that, the Tea Party movement has already proven itself to be a real movement that is (for now) in line with voter sentiment.

When people are pissed off about their government, they show that sentiment in a number of ways. Younger people tend to take their frustration out on the Internet and older generations gravitate towards what was effective for them back in their day: marches. So I find it funny when I hear people cracking on the age of the people at Tea Party rallies. Jesse and Al aren’t exactly teenagers. I wonder if anybody in the media will take note of that? I also wonder if the racial demographic will reflect the approx. 70% White/13% Black makeup of America? I wonder…

Marches move no mountains in today’s Washington. Trust me, you will not see politicians within the halls of the House and Senate peeking out of the windows quaking in their boots over the crowds. Votes and poll numbers are way more effective. Marches are nothing more than political theater that give the media something to write about.

Does Mr. Curry really believe that most Americas will be glued to their television sets (on C-Span out of all places) watching both marches as if it were 1963? If he really believes that, then he is certainly way out of touch.

I have already vented out some of my frustration with the Tea Party movement and how their efforts would be better spent making the sell to voters in places abandoned by the Democratic party. So Beck-Fest to me is just more theater–nothing more.

Votes speak louder than marches. In the meantime, grab the popcorn.

Nothing is every free.

“Google Inc. offered consumers another reason to ditch their traditional landlines Wednesday by unveiling a service that lets them make free phone calls through its popular e-mail program.

The Mountain View search giant is allowing U.S. users to place free calls domestically and to Canada through its Web-based Gmail service, using their computer’s built-in speaker and microphone, or a headset.”

And to think that the Android platform is from Google.

Enjoy the night

“I don’t think you want me to waste my time to read every page of the health care bill. You know why? It’s statutory language,” [Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.] said. “We hire experts.” (source)

So here you have one of the main authors of the bill admitting that he didn’t even read the thing. Yet some months ago you were somehow a “racist” or didn’t care about poor people if you opposed it.

The ignorant defending the ignorant.

“So why was it okay to raise the debt when Bush was in power but not okay to raise the debt when Obama is in power?

Because of racism in this country.”

[...]

“Add to the fact that Obama is an African American, a minority, and someone with an Arab middle name who still, despite the facts, the truth and repeated denials, is labeled a “Muslim” (Gasp!), we can see why Obama’s proposals would galvanize an odd couple of Republicans and Conservative Democrats who would rather help protect their pals in the banking industry than lend a helping hand to the over burdened in this country, a large majority of whom are minorities, poor and in need.” (Ray Hanania in Huffington Post, 7/09)

Zennie Abraham~

“What a victory. A win for what’s right and just against those who were wrong and injust. The Tea Party Movement members are the goats in all of this, because their behavior in no small way worked to bring Democrats together.

What the country saw over the weekend was racism and that racism is a mental illness. It’s about time.

Rep. Charles Rangel

“The group that were in Washington fighting against the health bill and fighting against the President, [they] looked just like and sounded just like those groups that attacked the civil rights movement in the South,” Rangel, 79, told NY1′s “Inside City Hall.”

Eric D. Knowles, Brian S. Lowery, Rebecca L. Schaumberg–These “doctors” penned a paper exploring the “psychological” relationship between racist and those who opposed Obama’s policies.

“…individuals high in anti-Black prejudice tended to oppose Obama at least in
part because they dislike him as a Black person. In sum, our data support the notion that racial prejudice
is one factor driving opposition to Obama and his policies.”

There are many, MANY others that took this similar stance but have since gone silent and moved on to calling everyone against the mosque in the Ground Zero area “racists”.

This parade of fools has no end. So grab the popcorn.

Did I say “CIA”? Whoops!
I guess the CIA could use some jive translators as well.

DEA Seeking Ebonics Experts for Narcotics Investigations

Here are some picks.

Mushmouth

That jive-talking White lady from Airplane

Hillary Clinton…maybe

Kyra Phillips of CNN…naaaah