Category Archives: Feeding The Music Jones

Kwame KilpaTRICK, You Get the Side Eye of the Week Week Week!*

01 Friday Feb 2008

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by vivrant thang on side eye of the week

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New feature that’s been rattling around in the brain for a while. EveryMost Fridays, I’ll highlight one or several things that occurred during that particular week that caused my side eye to twitch to the point where my special drops wouldn’t even help!

I’ve been talking slick about “Mayor” KilpaTRICK all week long (here and here) and I had no plans to devote a whole post to his foolishness. Especially when Average Bro and Skeptical Brotha  do it SO much better with these hilarious (as in laughing to keep from crying) posts.

However, when I read this on the Entrepreneur Magazine site, my side eye started twitching.  I know people that live there so I got heated all over again.

Whether you’re looking for an investment property or a place to live, here’s a look at the cities you should seek out and avoid in 2008.

Places to Avoid

 

  • Detroit, Michigan: The job market is in chaos. People are getting laid off left and right. National statistics seem to point to a significant problem with job loss and job income not keeping up with inflation. As a result, many nice neighborhoods are now abandoned due to people leaving their homes. Inventories exceed one year (under six months is what we want to see), and the foreclosure problem hit Detroit hard. With fewer jobs to support home purchases, I don’t see Detroit turning around anytime soon.

Hellll no, it won’t be turning around anytime soon because “Mayor” Phone Bone is too busy humping around to actually attend to the affairs of his crumbling city! He’s been involved in all kinds of tomfoolery for years and gotten away with it. As mayor of a city like Detroit (hell, any city), if you got time to send 14,000 non-work related texts, clearly you’re not on your job. Aren’t there some plans and initiatives that needed his attention while he was skulking around with ole girl at the Snooty Fox Motel?

But you know, what he did certainly isn’t anything new. He’s been involved in all kinds of nonsense for years and gotten away with it. Besides, sex scandals are as common as a cold these days for Black and White leaders alike.

So Vivrant Thang, why you gotta hold Kwame to a higher standard than those White officials? Because he’s Black?

Hellll yea! You want to know one major reason why? Because he is raising three Black boys, including a set of twins that are at a very impressionable age.  What kind of message is this sending to them? He has continued to give the city and his poor contituents the finger by repeatedly abusing the oath he took and costing the poor taxpayers nine millions dollars? Can you imagine the ways that could have been put to better use? So what does that teach his kids about responsiblity? About having integrity? Moral values? Hell, about being a MAN, which after all is his primary responsibility in life as their father.

Then he dishonors his marriage and publicly humiliates their mother, a black woman, and put all their business in the streets. What are they learning about commitment? Hell, again, about being a MAN?

But Vivrant Thang, Kwame is human. Isn’t he allowed to make mistakes?

Sure. And after watching this oh so heartfelt apology, during which I struggled not to break out my smallest violin, I’m sure many people’s hearts were breaking for him and his family. You know how we can be so forgiving of our leaders when they fall. At the end, while appearing to be close to tears, he’s kind enough to break down how all the ways the city has prospered under his six year tenure. Touching huh?

Hellll no, I’m not touched. “Carmen Slowsky” was though as she and the “Mayor” were holed up for the weekend in some cozy resort in North Carolina where he was speaking at an MLK Day event. Once again, his wife and kids were at home while he was slapping it, flipping it and rubbing it down on the organizer’s dime (which they may ask him to repay). How dumb can you be? What’s next? Are we gonna get the Eric Benet defense?

I don’t totally blame him though.

What was I saying earlier about raising Black sons? Whether this was for show or not (doubt it) and his mother, Michigan Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, was  slapping him all up in his face behind closed doors (doubt it), it comes off as ignorant and dismissive of what he did wrong, which was once again, say to hell with his oath and his constituents.

Congresswoman Kilpatrick was right about one thing though. The video was from his 2006 re-election campaign, after he had already spent his first first term blowing the city’s money on all kinds of debauchary and self-indulgence like in-house lapdances from “Strawberry. “  Obviously, the citizens of Detroit re-elected their “boy.”

BOY indeed. They got that part right.

At the end of the day, aside from the wanderings of his magic stick,  it’s all about accountability. I hope he gets what he deserves, which is a nice vacation in Oz.  We would have stayed out of your bedroom antics had your lies and alibies not cost Detroit millions. Sure, the economics conditions in that city are part of a larger issue. However, as the mayor, you’re supposed to be helping, not hurting.

Therefore, Kwame KilpaTRICK, you get the side eye of the week week week.

Update 2/3/08: I found this posting from a Detrot resident on a Topix message board. Ole boy may just need to get the side eye of the month month month.

I cannot believe the ignorance of some of the people in Detroit making comments on the news such as, ” He said he was sorry, we all make mistakes, its time we forgive him and move on”

What kind of people think like this. ( Her guess is as good as mine)

He LIED UNDER OATH, HE BROKE the LAW. Its not our place to forgive him for the affair and for him to ask us to is just wrong.

This plea for forgiveness last night was just a ploy to divert the attention of the fact that he lied and has been lying to the people of Detroit for many years now. (Yessir!)

Lets talk about the explorer, Lets talk about the missing stripper, lets talk about all his uses of TAX dollars used for selfindulgance. ( Wellll!)

Its very simple he LIED under oath, he lied to the people of Detroit. He has been nothing but an embarrassment to the STATE of Michigan.

I so sick of people saying we should focus on the good he as done for this City.
WHAT good has he done? Someone make a list for me. We live in dilapidated neighborhoods. The schools look like school in a third world country.

Falling down abandoned homes, crack houses, CITIZENS of Detroit stripping houses in broad day light. Dogs running the neighborhood. Citizens throwing trash on other peoples lawns, I have actually witnessed people stopping there cars on a side street to get out and pee on someone’s house or fence.

Maybe it’s because the people of Detroit find how they live is acceptable. Maybe they find having a Mayor with such blatant disregard for its citizens is acceptable. I think its disgusting. (You’re not the only one!)

Tell me people, what good has he done. In the last 4 years I have only seen the neighborhoods decline to a war zone appearance. Yet the property taxes have gone up.

KK needs to step down, his legacy is an embarrassment to the City and the State of Michigan.

Step up people and have some PRIDE. (Preach!)
SAVE OUR STREETS.

 

    *with love to Huggy Low Down and Butta

    Makes Me Wanna Holler: BTSNBN, No Ya’ll Sit Down!

    31 Thursday Jan 2008

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    by vivrant thang on makes me wanna holler

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    Oh make me wanna holler / throw up both my hands
    Oh, make me wanna holler/They don’t understand

    Read this mess that was posted a couple of days ago on the notorious celebrity gossip BTSNBN (Blog That Shall Not Be Named). It’s easy enough to find.

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    I am not an avid reader of the site, nor will I ever be. I have been there a few times in the past when linked there from other sites. As with all these kinds of blogs, they make their dollars by being habitual line steppers and stirring up controversy. Fine. They are reporting gossip after all. The celebrities revel in the attention.

    However, there are certain lines you do NOT cross. How dare they fix their cyberlips to call a pillar of our community a “ho?” That’s a disgrace.

    Some of the commenters are arguing that “Ho Sit Down” it’s a recurring theme on the site and that’s it been used for other celebs and public figures when they do something that the “BTSNBN” staff disagrees with. So why are we up in arms over “old ass” Maya Angelou? Besides, she actually is a former ho.

    I know, I know. I’m close to the edge as well.

    Because of all the controversy, which I’m sure they are thrilled about because hits equal dollars, the staff put up a silly “disclaimer” that of course appeased some of their ignorant commenters.

    You see what I thought of it.

    You can’t piss on Vivrant Thang and tell her it’s raining.

    Maya Angelou is an icon in our community. She is an elder that has made invaluable contributions to our literary landscape and was an important figure in the Civil Rights Movement. If it wasn’t for these “chitlin-era” (WTF?) leaders, their (presumably) BLACK asses wouldn’t have a platform to talk the mess they talk on there. We are in fact standing on their shoulders. It’s okay to disagree with their actions and critique their ineffectiveness as it’s true that a lot of our leaders are in fact still stuck in the dark ages. However, it must be done respectfully. It’s unconscionable that she was mentioned or pictured anywhere near the word “ho.”

    So let’s delve into the argument that they use the “Ho Sit Down” theme on the site for anyone in the public eye that says or does things they disagree with. They are using it for Maya because she came out endorsing Hillary with what they percieve to be a diss to Obama, who I guess is their candidate of choice.

     “As we saw in S.C., these old-timers are disconnected with what the people want.”

    First of all, did I miss something? Obama did win big in SC and got some pretty huge endorsements after that. So what the  hell are they talking about? Was there another outcome that they wanted?

    Then, they are disconnected with what the PEOPLE want? She’s talking about what SHE wants. Is she not entitled to endorse the candidate of her choice?

    Again, this is the problem I have with these Obama stans (not to be confused with supporters, of which I am one). They attack anyone that isn’t voting for him, as if we all have one collective mind and are not allowed to think and evaluate a candidate individually. Somehow everybody with black skin better vote for Obama or you are a race traitor that needs to be taken out immediately. That mess pisses me off royally. Ya’ll ignorant negroes are always a day late, a dollar short, and a few bricks shy of a load when it comes time to get down with the “U-N-I-T-Y.”

    Whatever the reasons, Maya chose to overlook the major Billary missteps and support “her girl.” Disagree with her? Cool. But don’t disrespect her like that. She doesn’t deserve it. Save those insults for Kwame Kilpatrick. Now that’s a proven ho that needs to definitely sit down!

    What’s next? Is there a post coming tomorrow with Maxine Waters picture under, “Supaman this ho!”

    Despite her endorsement of the Hillary, does anyone really think Obama wants the vote of anyone that would in any way associate Maya with the word ho? Do you really think he would approve of that kind of “support?”

    I think not. Not my candidate. I don’t know who they are really voting for. What’s really going on? We are supposed to be running the upstanding campaign here. It’s ignorant to reference Obama’s name on anything like this. Wait until this story really catches on. It’s already spreading like wildfire.

    And we were up in arms over Imus. I tell you, some of us sure got it twisted.

    Now, let me go sit down…with a drink.

    If I make it through this campaign, it will be a miracle.

    If you care to want to have your say about this, here’s all the info you need.

    Update: 1/31 : Verizon Wireless is pulling their advertising dollars from that site. Good. I don’t want my cell phone bill money going to fund foolishness.

    Also, check out Afrobella’s commentary. She’s much more eloquent in her disapproval. Ya’ll know how I do.

    Daily News: I’m Fashionably Late To The Party, But I’ve Arrived…

    29 Tuesday Jan 2008

    Posted by in Feeding The Music Jones

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    by vivrant thang on the daily news

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    I hadn’t mentioned the elections here because up to this point, I was undecided. My politics seem to most closely align with Edwards, but he’s not even a factor no longer in the race. Besides, I think he needs to be home with his wife and kids. Everything happens for a reason.

    When considering Hilary and Barack, both had their pros and cons in my book. I’ve read up on their stances on the issues that are most important to me (economy, healthcare, Iraq, and civil rights). Both of them have plans that I could potentially support. I don’t align with either of them 100% and there is plenty that neither of them have addressed, particularly when it comes to the black community and black women. I’m a realist though. They are both running for President of the United States of America and they have to have a broad-based agenda in order to win. Besides, we have to get our own shit together and hold our own local leaders accountable for their actions before we can get larger agendas addressed (again, I’m looking at your dumb ass, Kwame Kilpatrick).

    I took my time in selecting a candidate. I wasn’t going to be swayed by the threat of the revocation of my Black card if I didn’t support the Black candidate, which is what a lot of “Obama stans” are apparently threatening. I care about who is going to be able to reach across the aisles and get people working together to get this thing turned around. (I think there is too much animosity towards the Billary machine on the other side of the aisle.) We’re in trouble and I need to trust that my candidate can build a cabinet that is going to be able to rescue this sinking ship with a quickness.

    So what is most important to me is having a candidate that is electable. I need someone who is going to win in November because I can’t take another 4-8 years of Republican domination. I don’t need another “decider.” It seems that a diverse population of folks feel that Obama  is electable, which is also important to me. I’ve finally decided to throw my support behind him as well.

    Don’t get it twisted. I won’t be stanning for Obama. I won’t be berating anyone that chooses to support Hillary, despite how gully her and Bill have gotten. I won’t be staging blog attacks against anyone that doesn’t support my candidate or my views. This is America, people. We all have the right to choose…except if that choice is Republican! Seriously, I wish people would concentrate those energies on getting Obama into office and not on attacking people that don’t support him.

    I’m not ignorant. I realize that for the first time, we really have a shot at getting a black man into office. That’s huge. I know a lot of black people feel that as a community, we should all throw our support behind him. I reject that. Apparently, he rejects that as well. I’m choosing who I personally feel is the best, electable candidate. For those undecided, I hope that you do the same. 

    On another note, I am also anxiously waiting to hear whispers on who he might consider as a running mate if he gets the nod. I know he will choose wisely, as that will have a huge impact. Should he get the nod, I hope that he chooses someone with a long resume to allay folks concerns that he is not experienced enough. I heard that just this past weekend from a friend who is supporting Hillary simply because of her experience.

    Michelle Obama has also played a factor in my decision. From the very beginning, she has impressed me. There is something special about her. I know that she will be heard and keep Barack grounded. She won’t hesistate to call him on his mess if need be. I don’t see her simply hosting tea parties and keeping mum. She’s too intelligent for that. She will have her say, even if it isn’t until they are lying in bed at night. I also look forward to the possibility of seeing Malia and Sasha grow up in the White House. I know they won’t be acting a fool like those Bush girls. Michelle ain’t having that!

    Now I’m not going to lie. I’m still very nervous. I worked the polls for the last election. I sat for 12 hours straight with barely one bathroom break checking off name after name until the words became a blur. I was stunned by the record numbers that came out, presumably to get Bush’s crooked ass out of office. Especially us. I was proud…and later sick to my stomach to see the election literally stolen by those crooks. I see what they can do. I worry about whether a black man…or a woman is electable in this United States of America.

    I just don’t trust you like that, Amerikkka.

    Although I am concerned that if Barack gets the nod, people will come out the woodwork and vote against him, I am letting all that go and believing that this country may just be ready for a change…a fresh face. I am proud of the campaign he has run this far. I am impressed by the people that are supporting him. I love how he has reinvigorated young people’s interest in the political process. Hell, I like how young and energetic HE is. All of these factors played a role in my decision.

    I was also waiting to feel some kind of connection or sign as to which way I should go. I finally got one.

    Obama held a townhall meeting in my family’s hometown of Kingstree, SC. He went really grassroots and that definitely warmed my heart on a personal level. My great-great grandfather purchased our family’s first piece of land and built a house back in the early 1960s. He had migrated north with my great-grandmother and then returned South to buy that land. I remember summers down there playing with the pigs and other farm animals. Life was oh so simple then. We just sold that house a couple of years ago, many years after my great-great grandparents deaths. But not before we all gathered there one last time. Brought back a lot of memories. I can appreciate him going to Kingstree, of all places, and talking to the people about what’s important to them.  My people.

    Bottom line, candidates are going to say what they have to say on the campaign trail to earn your vote. Some say it better than others. Some are more believable than others. Both candidates have had their missteps, some much worse than others. However, I think people are tired of politics as usual. So am I. We do need a change because this country is headed to hell in a handbasket. Hell, we’re already there. I hope that Obama will be the one to bring about that change once he gets into office.

    I will be watching the developments extra closely, particularly since I just accepted a new job that is very politically-involved. I expect to learn a lot. Now that I’ve chosen a candidate, I also plan to get involved in the campaign here on a local level.

    I’m not going to lie ya’ll. More than anything else, this does something to me.

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    At the end of the day, just knowing that this strong, black woman got his back, I know he can do anything.

    What’s Going On: The Banita Jacks Case

    17 Thursday Jan 2008

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    by vivrant thang on what’s going on and the daily news

    marvin.jpg

    Mother, mother
    There’s too many of you crying
    Brother, brother, brother
    There’s far too many of you dying
    You know we’ve got to find a way
    To bring some lovin’ here today

    I often joke that the future Mr. Vivrant Thang will not only need to have the patience of Job, but should also have experience dealing with mental patients in order to live with me for the rest of his life. It’s cases like this that remind me that there are some issues that just aren’t a laughing matter.

    I was talking with The First Lady yesterday and realized that people outside the area may not have heard about this case, although it has been picked up nationally.

    It’s a difficult story to report on several levels because so much of it doesn’t make sense and there are so many details that are still unfolding. I suspect there are some things that will never be fully explained because there are no explanations.

    banita-jacks.jpgLast week, authorities arrived at the home of 33-year-old Banita Jacks’ to evict her from her DC residence. Instead, they essentially stumbled upon a house of horrors. Inside the home were the badly decomposed bodies of her four daughters; Brittany Jacks, 16; Tatianna Jacks, 11; N’Kiah Fogle, 6; and Aja Fogle, 5. It’s unclear how long the children had been dead. The medical examiner says at least two weeks.

    Jacks claims they were possessed by demons and died in their sleep some time before her electricity was cut off , which was back in September 2007. However, the girls were found to have blunt force trauma, stab wounds, and ligature marks around their necks. Jacks also admitted she starved them before they “died.”

    There are many more details to this story which you can read about here and here. After you read them, I’m sure you’ll be left with several questions.

    Here are my issues.

    There were 30 family members in the courtroom at Jacks’ first appearance. Where were these same family members when these girls went missing?Reports have said that the family would come over there and she wouldn’t answer or she wouldn’t let them in. See, this brings up an issue in the Black community that I need to talk about in another post. We don’t have “Big Mommas” anymore. Big Momma would have gone over there to see about her babies. If Jacks’ would have dared to fix her lips to say that she couldn’t come in, she would have been backhanded and shoved to the side.

    Apparently, there was a grandmother to two of the girls in the picture. She gave the same sob story about trying to contact them but had gotten cussed out and turned away. I guess she gave up.

    What about the two fathers of the oldest girls? Did they not notice their daughters were missing? No, because neither of those negroes were paying regular child support so they probably couldn’t have cared less about seeing the girls. They probably were glad not to have seen or heard from Jacks. We won’t even get into how social services and the school system failed this family. Just like any inner city, you got a bunch of lazy heifers and negroes sitting up there collecting fat checks while claiming they are underpaid and overworked. Sure, the system needs major reform and Mayor Fenty wasted no time cleaning house, as he should have. It’s unconscionable that a school social worker actually did her job and after a visit to the home in April, had to plead for authorities to help the girls. At that point, they had missed over a month of school and were essentially being held hostage in a nasty house by a deranged mother. The social worker reported all of this and the cops went over there and left, apparently without laying eyes on them. Those girls could have been dying then. Can you imagine how terrified they must have been? The older girls probably tried to comfort the younger ones while dealing with their own hunger and fear. Horrible.I know there are rules that have to be followed, but officials seriously dropped the ball here.

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    Cellmates of Benita Jacks have said she admitted to killing the girls and that she is “crazy.” There is no question in my mind that this woman is indeed mentally ill. Apparently after the father of the two youngest died of cancer, the family situation changed drastically and something inside of her snapped. Why didn’t someone recognize this and get this woman some help?

    Mental illness is a serious problem in this country that is not being addressed. We are quick to dismiss someone as “crazy,” and keep it moving until something like this happens. A girl that I hang out with on occasion is battling depression and I am the first to admit that I often avoid her or become impatient with her moody behavior and what I deem stand-offishness. I don’t know the extent of her illness because she doesn’t talk about it, but clinical depression is also nothing to ignore.

    It’s time for us to go back to the days of it taking a village to raise a child. If we don’t start speaking up and getting involved when something ain’t quite right about a situation (and not stopping until there is a resolution!), we are going to keep losing our children.

    Based on some accounts, it seems Jacks was a good mother before she snapped. So if she had gotten some help, there’s a chance this tragedy could have been avoided. Who knows what these girls could have accomplished had they actually had a chance at life? Perhaps this? Or any of this?

    Sadly, we’ll never know.

    Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves : [Soror] Dr. Calandra Tate, Ph.D.

    15 Tuesday Jan 2008

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    by vivrant thang on sisters doing it for themselves and young gifted & black

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    The “inferior sex” got a new exterior
    We got doctors, lawyers, politicians too.
    Everybody – take a look around.
    Can you see – can you see – can you see
    There’s a woman right next to you!
    Sisters are doing it for themselves!

    I bet you were worried I was going to do the whole post in pink and green huh? Don’t trip. You know it’s lovely.

    On this date 100 years ago, my beloved sorority was founded on the campus of Howard University by a group of extraordinary women, many of them educators. So it is only fitting that I highlight one of my sorority sisters who is following in the footsteps of our beloved founders.

    I was so proud to visit one of the blogs I highly respect, What About Our Daughters, and see Calandra featured as part of the “You Oughta Know” series, which focuses on inspirational and positive portrayals of black women who are doing it for themselves. It just so happens that Calandra is my former chapter soror and we were in grad school at University of Maryland during the same time. I finished my MA in English in 2001 and she was on the Ph.D. track. We also lived in the same apartment complex for a while. When I met her and learned that she was working towards her doctorate in math, I was beyond impressed.

    See, I am so right-brained, I can’t fathom getting a doctorate in any left-brained oriented field. It blows my mind. However, to see a woman…a black woman… not only getting an advanced degree in that field, but also having a passion for it and wanting to share that with others really garnered my admiration. I can’t remember having any black male or female math or science teachers in school. I’m just glad to know that if my child should develop an affinity for math or science (must gonna come from her daddy’s side of the family), she’ll have another black woman to look up to. That pool is very small.

    From What About Our Daughters:

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    Dr. Calandra Tate, Ph.D. graduated from Xavier University and went on to earn her doctorate in applied mathematics from the University of Maryland in College Park this month (December 2007 – the same month she turned 30). With her achievement Dr. Tate joins a distinguished and small group of Black women. According to The National Science Foundation 4,300 doctorates in mathematics and statistics were awarded in the 8 years between 1998-2005, only 48 were earned by African-American women.

    She teaches statistics and probability at the U.S. Military Academy (West Point) through a special assignment with her employer, the U.S. Army Research Laboratory in Aldelphi, Md. It is at the research lab where she thought of her dissertation topic – “An Investigation of the Relationship Between Automated Machine Translation Evaluation Metrics and User Performance on an Information Extraction Task”. (wow!)

    Tate started her freshman year at Xavier University pre-med but before the year’s end switched to mathematics. At the same time she was wooed by the language department to become a French major. She studied French since grade school and was an exchange student in France between her junior and senior years of high school.    While at Xavier, Tate was active in student government and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. Her senior year, she received two coveted Xavier awards: the Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Award for community service and the Mother Agatha Ryan Award for exemplifying the spirit and standards of the school through “reverence, personal integrity, loyalty, service and scholarship.”

    Read more about Dr. Tate. I’m so thrilled to be able to call her “Dr.” and even prouder to call her my Soror. As I asked on my last related post, what are you doing with your life?

    Happy Centennial Founders Day to each and every beautiful member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. I am truly proud to be a part of this sisterhood.

    I’d also like to say rest in peace to Soror Donda West. Even though there were times you may have felt unpretty, you will always be beautiful to your Sorors.