…
“Instead of spending money on levee maintenance and improvements, the levee board focused on widening bridges and making other accommodations for riverboat casino…”
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These are the words of the former president of the New Orleans City Council and member of the Orleans Levee Board. I wonder if Spike Lee will use her as a source for his movie on Katrina…
Probably not.
The story continues here.
Just “Why”?
Pacers’ Jackson calls ban on chains ‘racist statement’
INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Pacers guard Stephen Jackson, contending that a league ban on chains worn over clothing is “a racist statement” from the league, wore every long, diamond-studded chain in his collection Tuesday night as a protest.
Jackson voiced no opposition to the bulk of the “business casual” demands in the NBA’s new dress code, but he described the jewelry ban as “attacking young black males.” (more…)
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Funny, about 50 years ago segregated bathrooms were considered racist.
George Lucas Donates $1 Million to MLK Memorial
Washington D.C. (AP) – Filmmaker George Lucas has donated $1 million to build a memorial to Martin Luther King Junior on the National Mall. (more…)
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Although Lucas’ donation is much appreciated, I find it somewhat unfortunate that more money has not come from us on this project which has been in dire need for funds.
You know those annoying e-mails you keep getting from Nigeria?
latimes.com
FESTAC, Nigeria  As patient as fishermen, the young men toil day and night, trawling for replies to the e-mails they shoot to strangers half a world away.
…But the few who actually reply make this a tempting and lucrative business for the boys of Festac, a neighborhood of Lagos at the center of the cyber-scam universe. The targets are called maghas  scammer slang from a Yoruba word meaning fool, and refers to gullible white people.
Samuel is 19, handsome, bright, well-dressed and ambitious. He has a special flair for computers. Until he quit the game last year, he was one of Festac’s best-known cyber-scam champions.
Like nearly everyone here, he is desperate to escape the run-down, teeming streets, the grimy buildings, the broken refrigerators stacked outside, the strings of wet washing. It’s the kind of place where plainclothes police prowl the streets extorting bribes, where mobs burn thieves to death for stealing a cellphone, and where some people paint “This House Is Not For Sale” in big letters on their homes, in case someone posing as the owner tries to put it on the market.
…The e-mail scammers here prefer hitting Americans, whom they see as rich and easy to fool. They rationalize the crime by telling themselves there are no real victims: Maghas are avaricious and complicit.
To them, the scams, called 419 after the Nigerian statute against fraud, are a game.
Their anthem, “I Go Chop Your Dollars,” hugely popular in Lagos, hit the airwaves a few months ago as a CD penned by an artist called Osofia:
“419 is just a game, you are the losers, we are the winners.
White people are greedy, I can say they are greedy
White men, I will eat your dollars, will take your money and disappear.
419 is just a game, we are the masters, you are the losers.”
“Nobody feels sorry for the victims,” Samuel said.
Scammers, he said, “have the belief that white men are stupid and greedy. They say the American guy has a good life. There’s this belief that for every dollar they lose, the American government will pay them back in some way.” (more…)
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A whole lot to this piece I could talk about, but I will save it for later.
The funny and sad thing about their scheme is that I know plenty of black folks who have received their e-mails…
Including me!
More Government Waste
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers want to spend $3 billion to make sure millions of Americans won’t wake up to blank TV screens when the country makes the switch to all-digital broadcasts.
The subsidy was approved Thursday by the Senate Commerce Committee as part of legislation that would set April 7, 2009, as the firm date for television broadcasters to end their traditional analog transmissions and send their broadcasts via digital signals.
Digital television promises sharper pictures and better sound than analog TV. But millions of Americans with older TV sets rely solely on free, over the-air-television, and they’ll need some type of a converter box to keep receiving their television service. Cable and satellite customers won’t be affected (more…)
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I think that it is safe to say that most Americans have either cable or satellite. Yet political idiots still want to spend THREE BILLION DOLLARS of our tax money to make sure that those who do not have cable/satellite are able to watch TV. The sad thing here is that I would normally say spend the money on books…
but who would read them?
Speaking of books…
Black-themed west Las Vegas bookstore to close
When Locke came from Los Angeles, she quickly became a fixture at the store.
With closing, at the end of the year, drawing near, she complains that the community has not fully appreciated or utilized the opportunity for a cultural center that the bookstore brings.
Smith, who earned a bachelor’s degree in African American history from a small college in New York state, laments not only the lack of interest in black history among young people, but also the decline in reading in society as a whole.
“I’m just not going to throw away the time and the money anymore,” a visibly tired Smith said. “Books are dead. I’ll find something else to do.” (more…)
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If you want to hide the knowledge on how a people can better themselves, hide it in a book!
Whup that A** Academy
Someone just sent me this video link. I think many of us can relate.
For other news briefs, please visit the website/blog of Booker Rising.
