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Why Tom Brokaw Was In Jackson — Airs Sunday, July 23
[verbatim from NBC] "TOM BROKAW REPORTS: SEPARATE AND UNEQUAL" TO AIR ON SUNDAY, JULY 23 AT 7 PM
New York, N.Y. — In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, there were images that shocked America and the world. Not just the damage caused by the storm, but the sight of people left behind: inner-city blacks stranded by poverty, neglect, and failure from above and below. It's been almost a year since the storm, but in black neighborhoods across America, the same desperate conditions still exist. In the upcoming "Tom Brokaw Reports: Separate and Unequal," Brokaw travels to 200 miles north of New Orleans to Jackson, Miss., for an in-depth report on race and poverty, airing on Sunday, July 23 at 7 PM/ET on NBC.
The House That Racism Built
It's been another one of those weeks the media love in Jacktown: lots of screaming and finger-pointing and accusations of someone else, inevitably of a different race from the accuser, being "a racist."
Born To Be A Thug
A couple weeks back, culture czar Bill Bennett said crime would go down if all black babies were aborted. A couple months back, a business publication editor in Brandon said that the inner city is breeding young criminals. A couple years back, a city councilman told a group of North Jackson adults that "young tigers" are roaming our streets, looking to hurt us.
Gov. Haley Barbour
"To the Freedom Riders yourselves, our state does celebrate and thank you for your courage, your commitment, your suffering and your sacrifices of 50 years ago. We apologize to you for your mistreatment in 1961, and we appreciate this chance for atonement and reconciliation."
Rush Limbaugh Arrested on Drug Charges
WAPT is reporting that conservative talk darling Rush Limbaugh has been arrested:
Another Mucked-Up Hurricane Response?
Folo has a good post, and several links, pointing to another inadequate response to a hurricane disaster, this time in Texas. And there are reports that Texas Gov. Rick Perry is trying to keep the severity of the problem under wraps. Can this really be true?
Special-Session Man Is Back!
[verbatim] GOVERNOR BARBOUR TO CALL SPECIAL LEGISLATIVE SESSION
(JACKSON, Mississippi) * Governor Haley Barbour announced today he will call a special session of the Mississippi Legislature to convene at 9 a.m. on Thursday, August 24, 2006, and deal primarily with a huge job-creating project in northwest Mississippi known as Riverbend Crossing.
Come On And Rescue Me ...
Driving to work this morning, I saw a handful of pro-birth protesters with huge magnified fetus signed, probably Photoshopped (their favorite tech invention), in front of UMC. It seems that most of the traffic was ignoring them; it wasn't like they were met with a bunch of honks of support. I wanted to ask them what they were going to go to help "rescue" all the unwanted children and ensure they have adequate food and educations once they get our only abortion clinic closed and go on back wherever, but knew it wouldn't do any good with such zealots. I wonderfed if they had a permit to protest there; it seems they didn't and got arrested a short time later.
Youtube: Haley Barbour's ‘Trophy Wife' Gaffe
Also see: Jackpedia: Haley Barbour
Drama and hysteria don't change the world
After getting sucked into a couple different JFP conversations about the (over)reaction to recent Census numbers (the most recent one here), I've been thinking a lot about drama and the importance of precision in language over the last few weeks. The truth, as I have witnessed over the years, is that (a) too much drama blocks progress and (b) words really matter
‘A Real Buzz': Young People Expected to Vote in Record Numbers
New York Times today: "After dismal turnout by young voters in 2000, surveys this year show that interest in the election among the young is near the highest level it has reached at any time since 18- to 20-year-olds were given the vote in 1972. And state election officials say registration of new young voters is coming in at levels they have not seen in years. Polls in the spring and summer from the Harvard Institute of Politics, the Pew Research Center and MTV all found that young people say they plan to vote at a rate that will far eclipse the low-water mark of four years ago. The pool of potential young voters is substantial - about 40.6 million Americans ages 18 to 29, or one in five eligible voters, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, or Circle, a nonprofit research group that has concentrated on the youth vote.
50 Cent Slams Gay Men; Says Lesbians ‘Cool'
MTV News reports: "In a wide-ranging interview with Playboy magazine, 50 Cent has let his feelings on homosexuality be known, in language sure to draw the ire of gay-rights supporters. 'I ain't into f----ts,' 50 says in an interview in the April issue of Playboy, which hits stands Friday. 'I don't like gay people around me, because I'm not comfortable with what their thoughts are. I'm not prejudiced. I just don't go with gay people and kick it – we don't have that much in common. I'd rather hang out with a straight dude. But women who like women, that's cool.'"
Transcript of ‘State of the Union' Address
George W. Bush last night:
‘Confederacy of Dunces'
Salon's Joan Walsh reports that Howard Dean's critics have it wrong: "Does anyone really believe that former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean was borrowing a playbook from the GOP and telegraphing coded support for Southern racism when he said, in an interview last week, 'I still want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks'? Dean explained his unorthodox approach this way: 'We can't beat George Bush unless we appeal to a broad cross section of Democrats.' I'd add this: Democrats can't beat Bush unless they abandon their elitist approach to working-class cultural conservatives, especially in the South -- and the opportunistic, preachy pile-on by Dean's Democratic opponents after his remarks won't help."
JFP Chick Ball Raises $7,000 for Domestic Abuse Victims
A preliminary count shows that the 3rd annual JFP Chick Ball raised just over $7,000 for the Center for Violence Prevention in Pearl. This amount was raised through direct donations, a $5 cover charge, $5 raffle tickets for 25 door-prize packages donated by local businesses, the sale of t-shirts purchased by the Jackson alumni chapter of Delta Sigma Theater sorority and a silent auction of art by dozens of artists and prize packages donated by businesses. Those prizes included diamond earrings donated by Carter Jewelers. The amount raised surpassed the total of the first two Chick Balls, which together raised about $5,000 for the center.
Chasing Amy
<b>Can Barbara Blackmon Make History?</b>
Read the full transcript of this interview on the JFP Politics Blog.
Radio JFP to Discuss Melton Interview Noon Friday
Here's a double whammy for y'all. Mayor Frank Melton is slated to appear on Ben Allen's WJNT radio show Friday morning. Then, at noon, the JFP will discuss is comments on our radio show on WLEZ (103.7 FM). Tune in!
Is The Clarion-Ledger the Worst Daily in the U.S.?
This thread contains analysis of the Clarion-Ledger's reporting on Melton, talk about Melton's record of drug arrests at MBN, and Ben Allen on the friendship between Kenneth Stokes and Frank Melton. Just call it a blog potpourri.
Breaking: All Five ‘Grayhead' Defendants Found Not Guilty
After four hours of deliberations, a jury has acquitted the five defendants accused of kidnapping and assaulting Michael Sanders to warn him away from talking to the police. Police say that Aundre Mason, 29, Darnell Turner, 28, Terrance Womack, 29, Elisha Moton, 26, and Corey Redd, 27—allegedly part of a "gang known as "Grayhead"—shot Sanders in the leg, duct taped his mouth and locked him in a car trunk for several hours on March 10, 2004. However, today the jury exonerated the five men of this crime.
BREAKING: Frank Melton Sues Clarion-Ledger
Melton told the JFP Friday that he was planning to file a lawsuit against the paper.
April 18, 2006—Sources tell the Jackson Free Press tonight that Mayor Frank Melton has filed a civil lawsuit against The Clarion-Ledger for damages in the Hinds County Circuit Court. He is alleging breach of contract in the case filed by Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics agents. Melton claims that when he provided a memo, written by then-MBN deputy Roy Sandifer, to The Clarion-Ledger that he had an "oral contract" with the reporter to check the facts contained therein. The memo, which detailed wrongdoing by the agents, was later found to be largely false by the state auditor's office. Sandifer is now assistant chief of the Jackson Police Department.