Older Americans affected by HIV/AIDS

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Ahead in the polls

Presidential Candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), is ahead in the polls. However, for some, that is not good enough.
Why isn't he more ahead in the polls? some ask.
I say what does it matter? He is ahead in the polls.
These arguments, to me, go back to the very idea I personally reject: Blacks have to be twice or four times better than any white person. This goes for running for president, competing for a job, competing for a man etc.
Why can't Black people be like everyone else. Why are Blacks held to a higher standard just to be included?
Only cream of the crop (or very top cream of the crop in Obama's case) need apply.
Really, now. Any other man would be congratulated for running a good race. Why can't this man, Obama?

FutureResume.com

FutureResume.com Contest Video


I have reviewed the FutureResume.com site and I am impressed by how well it is laid out. It is easy to use and a great idea--especially for high profile jobs. I had no problems uploading my video.
Everyone wants a dream jobbecause it signals a desire to do more with you life than just work a job. A dream job is any career that you enjoy. Using this site will, in my opinion, expediate any work toward landing that dream job.
My dream job for a day would be a spokeswoman for a casino. I would get to be around happy people on vacation enjoying themselves. I would get to play hostess to these folks and represent the casino. This would be a drastic change from my current job as Mommy--giving me a much needed break from myself.

Earthquake!

There is no phone service--cell and land line in Southern California because it is out in certain places. People are being asked to use e-mail if possible.
That would mean people are using broadband.
The quake was 5.8 on the Richter Scale and felt as far away as Los Vegas.
Damage estimates are in the billions in some parts. Buildings were swaying, some people reported on the news.
I'm sure there will be hand-held images of the damage.

Trusted Tours & Attractions

The last time I visited Chicago on vacation, I went out and explored the Loop.
Those of you who are not familiar with what the Loop is, it is a section of downtown Chicago that is filled with the most wonderful shopping experience ever, in the day and the best fun-filled bar hopping experiences at night--if you are young-at-heart.

Now, even if you don’t inbibe, there are plenty of other things to do in Chicago.
Chicago nightlife is filled with live bands--the city is known for it’s Blues bands--and delicious regional food outlets.

However, had I looked at the Trusted Tours & Attractions web site and newsletter before staying in Chicago, I would have learned that Chicago offers a lot more.

I could have visited Lego Land Discovery Center for less than $20 bucks! The 30,000-square-foot attraction combines two floors of hands-on LEGO fun! (who doesn’t still like playing with Legos?)
I at least should have checked Trusted Tours & Attraction’s online travel guides.
I could have visited the Metropolitan museum of art where people who are in the know go to see is the world’s best and most up-to-date collections of art.

I could have taken a scenic tour of Chicago's lake front & downtown area aboard Trolley and New Upper Decker Buses. The Hop On-Hop Off Tour gives you unlimited access to the Trolleys and any of the designated stops over it's 13 mile route in order to visit famous city attractions.

I could have bought a CityPass. The nine-day pass allows you to enjoy five unforgettable attractions in Chicago: The Hancock Observatory, The Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, Adler Planetarium and Museum of Science and Industry plus OMNIMAX--the best of the Windy City!

Well, at least I’ll be prepared when I visit Florida.
The next time I go on vacation, I’m going to plan it by looking for things to do in Orlando with Trusted Tours & Attractions.

Thus far, I already know I’m going to spend the first day visiting Universal Studios. It is so much fun and there are lots of things to do for the whole family.

Planning your next vacation? Looking for ideas on what to do? Sign up for the Trusted Travels eNewsletter and enter to win a $150 iTunes gift card. Offer ends July 31st, 2008.

It is a special promotion they are having where a person can win a $150 iTunes Gift Card by signing up for the newsletter.

Bennigan's is closing

Can you believe it? Bennigans is closing!
That's where everyone would go for quick cheap eats and good drinks.
The news casters said it had been in business for 32 years and was operating in 32 states.
It was a great place to meet with good seating, decent food and great drinks.
People showing up for work had no idea and were turned away. 972-588-9000 is the corporate number if anyone wants to know.
A lot of people say they will miss Bennigans.
On the news it was speculated that the high price of food, combined with the high price of gas--for transporting said food--brought the good-time restaurant to a close.

Webhostinggeeks.com

Whether you have a business web site or a personal site, no one wants unecessary downtime. So many people go with the cheapest web hosting site but is it really the best?

Well, one way to avoid the hunt and peck when choosing a cheap web hosting service is to go to a review site.

Webhostinggeeks.com takes some of the guess work out of choosing a reasonalbly priced web hosting service. Feel free to go to the site and look at customer reviews way down at the bottom of the page.

There you will find real life discussions on which service is the best or the worst. Then, you will be in the position to make an informed decision instead of choosing in the dark.

The Chronicle, U.S.A.

Well, it has been a week or so since the launch of my newest web site, The Chronicle, U.S.A.
It is just a mock-up site of the eventual online newspaper I would like to publish.
The Associated Press feeds will be expensive but are truly necessary. The advertising fees are supposed to cover those expenses. However, right now, I don't have any advertisers.
Boo hoo.
Really, though if anyone out there has any suggestions on how I should go about marketing this site, please e-mail me.

Barack Obama at Unity 08

Growing up American

As arguments against the positive points of Presidential Candidate Barack Obama's Overseas tour pile up, it only stands to prove the point of the Ugly American moniker US citizens want to dissipate.
Many of the naysayers have no insight of how they sound to the rest of the world. They sound bitter and hateful.
Obama is doing little wrong. He is not providing fodder for late-night talk show monologues and comedians that would stand to make him look doddering and foolish and out-of-step with the country.
However, my country and its future is no joke to me.
Obama is in-step with the country and is a front-runner.
Some in the world refuse to reward excellence and wonder why the youth of today are confused. Adults blame MTV, music videos and the underground urban culture.
I blame so-called adults who appear to be children, themselves, emotionally.
I know no one likes to be one-upped but on the same turn, no one likes unsportsman-like behavior. Or whining.
By the way, kudos to the Black French people's resurgence of the black consciousness movement in France.
I found out when CNN reporter Christian Amanpour asked about it during a press conference with Obama and Nicholas Sarkozy, President of France. She said the resurgence was due to Obama's barrier breaking progress in the U.S. election process.
Obama spoke of strengthening French - American relations and European relations on a whole.

The Winds of Change blow through Barack Obama

Kismet. His speech was so good. It was if he were making beautiful, sweet love to the audience--it was strong and passionate. It was like the purity and softness of a mother feeding her baby and singing it a comforting song of gratitude. The gentility of it was like sunshine on a bright afternoon. Barack's speech in Germany Thursday held thoughts of a bright future.
It was as simple a concept as a parent raising a child. His words expressed love for his nation and the world. It was like a man, caring and yearning for his lover, wanting her to run away with him.
"Baby, it'll be alright, we're going to make it," is all he had to say but we, being his audience--all Barack Obama lovers-- were as timid as virgins.
He gave us reassurance until we yielded unto him and matched his want, his need.
Barack stirs up the yearn for freedom.
You too, know that yearning...know the dream of freedom.
The speech went on. Barack talked of war and rumors of war and warriors and survivors and how when strengthened we would see light on the other end of our universal struggle.
However, his speeches are much more than details repeated back when asked, "what did he say?"
It is a feeling and a concept of love. The love that binds the human spirit to this world. Barack's words are edifying.
He talked of no more nukes, then talked of a strong European Union rejecting the cold war of the past.
He spoke of of his father and grandfather and how they used the idea of the American Dream as a backdrop in making a better life for themselves and their future generations.
We watched every gesture, pause and intonation Barack made that day. We watched for flickers of emotion which would show in his eyes.
We felt the rise and fall of each breath of his speech, for as he is ever hopeful, so too are we, right along with him.
God lives in all of us through his spirit. Much of God's spirit was with Barack that day, during that speech.

Barack Obama's Great Uncle shares liberation memory

Obama's great-uncle recalls liberating Nazi camp from Associated Press

Hot dogs, sausage and bacon

Sodium nitrite, with chemical formula NaNO2, is used as a color fixative and preservative in meats and fish.
As a food additive, it serves a dual purpose in the food industry since it both alters the color of preserved fish and meats and also prevents growth of Clostridium botulinum, the bacteria which causes botulism. In the European Union it may be used only as a mixture with salt containing at most 0.6% sodium nitrite. It has the E number E250. Potassium nitrite (E249) is used in the same way.

While this chemical will prevent the growth of bacteria, it can be toxic for mammals. (LD50 in rats is 180 mg/kg.) For this reason, sodium nitrite sold as a food additive is dyed bright pink to avoid mistaking it for something else. Cooks and makers of charcuterie often simply refer to sodium nitrite as "pink salt".

Various dangers of using this as a food additive have been suggested and researched by scientists. A principal concern is the formation of carcinogenic N-nitrosamines by the reaction of sodium nitrite with amino acids in the presence of heat in an acidic environment. Sodium nitrite has also been linked to triggering migraines.[1]

Recent studies have found a link between high processed meat consumption and colon cancer, possibly due to preservatives such as sodium nitrite.[2][3]

Recent studies have also found a link between frequent ingestion of meats cured with nitrites and the COPD form of lung disease.[4]
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Japanese DVD Where Women Just Stare at You. Yup, Just. Stare

Japanese companies are always looking to meet the needs of the "niche-ist" of niche markets. Now there's a DVD for men who like their women to just look at them. And maybe blink a couple of times. The Avex Group is trying to reach such men (Hikikomori) with a new DVD - 'Just Looking' - as "corporate social responsibility"

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My Plan for Iraq

On my first day in office, I would give the military a new mission: ending this war.

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Obama ready to woo NWI

"I have a love for America," Dolores Brown told a group of Barack Obama campaign volunteers Saturday. "I have two sons who fought in the war. One went to Iraq and one to Kuwait," said the Merrillville resident. "I ask myself why."

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Black. Female. Accomplished. Attacked. - Michelle Obama

There she is -- no, not Miss America, but the Angela-Davis-Afro-wearing, machine-gun-toting, angry, unpatriotic Michelle Obama, greeting her husband with a fist bump instead of a kiss on the cheek.

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"...Let's Go Change the World"

Sen. Evan Bahy (D-IN) encourages Hoosiers to join Barack Obama's campaign for change at in.barackobama.com

YWCA asks churches for financial help

GARY -- The YWCA is asking every church in the city to donate $1 per member for the next three months to keep it from closing its doors.Board president Cynthia Powers made the request during a meeting with local ministers Friday morning, explaining that her colleagues are working "laboriously" to restore the agency's financial health.

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Clay endorses Bayh as Obama running mate

Mayor Rudy Clay threw his support behind U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh for vice president to join the ticket with presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.
"He would guarantee electoral votes for Indiana and surrounding states and unite Clinton and independent voters," Clay said.
On Wednesday, Bayh and Obama appeared at a panel discussion on national security with former Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn at Purdue University's West Lafayette campus.

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USDA EMPLOYEE PLEADS GUILTY

First prosecution in the United States under federal agricultural statute(LAREDO, Texas) - A U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) employee has pleaded guilty to illegally permitting infested agricultural products to enter the United States from Mexico.

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Questions of race, ethnic sincerity, creep up again

In an e-mailed letter, Erin Hofteig Director, New Media Media Matters for America, writes:

"This weekend on The McLaughlin Group, the program's host, John McLaughlin, asserted that Obama "fits the stereotype blacks once labeled as an Oreo -- a black on the outside, a white on the inside."

McLaughlin: "Question: Does it frost Jackson, Jesse Jackson, that someone like Obama, who fits the stereotype blacks once labeled as an Oreo -- a black on the outside, a white on the inside -- that an Oreo should be the beneficiary of the long civil rights struggle which Jesse Jackson spent his lifetime fighting for?"

Call John McLaughlin and demand he apologize on-air during next week's broadcast.

McLaughlin's statement was so obviously out of touch and inappropriate that two members of the McLaughlin panel refuted the basic premise. Panelist and Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow Peter Beinart said: "Who knows what Jesse Jackson is thinking? But that's a completely unfair depiction of Barack Obama."

Later in the discussion, Michelle Bernard, president of the Independent Women's Forum, said: "I want to go back to the point you made about whether or not Obama is an Oreo, because if Barack Obama is an Oreo, then every member of this generation of African-Americans is an Oreo, because we stand on the shoulders of the people who fought for our rights."

Call John McLaughlin and demand he apologize on-air during next week's broadcast.

The all-important weekend political talk shows set the agenda for our nation's newsrooms and the acceptable terms of our public discourse -- McLaughlin's comments weren't just offensive, they were a relic of politics past.

I hope you will take a moment and make your voice heard on this important issue.


Take Action!
Call John McLaughlin and demand he apologize on-air during next week's broadcast.

The McLaughlin Group

John McLaughlin, Executive Producer
(202) 457-0870 x16
jmclaughlin@mclaughlin.com

When contacting the media, please be polite and professional. Express your specific concerns regarding that particular news report or commentary, and be sure to indicate exactly what you would like the media outlet to do differently in the future.

Minority Affairs Consortium

The AMA created the Minority Affairs Consortium (MAC) to address the specific needs of minority physicians and to stimulate and support efforts to train more minority physicians. The philanthropic arm of the AMA each year provides $10,000 scholarships to medical student winners of the AMA Foundation Minority Scholars Award, in
collaboration with the MAC. This year, 12 students received the award.

"Five years ago, the AMA joined with the National Medical Association
and the National Hispanic Medical Association to create the
Commission to End Health Care Disparities," said Dr. Davis. "Our goal
is to identify and study racial and ethnic health care disparities in
order to eradicate them. We strongly support the ‘Doctors Back to
School’ program, which the AMA founded, to inspire minority students to become the next generation of minority physicians."

The Doctors Back to School program, which was developed by the AMA
and adopted by the Commission, has visited more than 100 schools,
ranging from elementary schools to undergraduate colleges,
nationwide. The program has reached out to nearly 13,000 students to urge them to consider a career in medicine.
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Achieving Racial Harmony for the Benefit of Patients and Communities
Contrition, Reconciliation, and Collaboration
Ronald M. Davis, MD

Introduction
By the end of the 19th century, US physicians had formed 2 national
associations: the National Medical Association (NMA) and the American Medical Association (AMA). This peculiar duplication reflected a profession segregated by race. The AMA was almost entirely white; the NMA predominantly black—founded in reaction to the exclusion of black physicians by many state and local medical societies and the AMA's refusal to recognize several racially integrated societies. This professional segregation lasted well into the civil rights era.

The complex history of race in the medical profession is rarely
acknowledged and often misunderstood. Yet US medicine's legacy of
segregation and racism is linked to the current paucity of African
American physicians, distrust of professional associations by some
physicians, and contemporary racial health disparities. The goal of
this article is to encourage a discussion within the profession of
medicine about how to heal and unify the profession in the pursuit of providing equitable health care for all.

On Stands Now...

Monday
What He Believes...
The presumptive Democratic nominee told Senior Editor Lisa Miller and Senior White House Correspondent Richard Wolffe that as a 20-year-old Columbia University student he was torn a million different ways: between youth and maturity, black and white, coasts and continents, wonder and tragedy. "I did a lot of spiritual exploration. I withdrew from the world in a fairly deliberate way," he says. On restless Sunday mornings, while living in New York, he would wander into African-American congregations such as Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. "I'd just sit in the back and I'd listen to the choir and I'd listen to the sermon," he says. "There were times that I would just start tearing up listening to the choir and share that sense of release."

Obama's religious journey is a uniquely American tale. It's one of a seeker, an intellectually curious young man trying to cobble together a religious identity out of myriad influences. Obama embarked on a spiritual quest in which he tried to reconcile his rational side with his yearning for transcendence. He found Christ-but that hasn't stopped him from asking questions. "I'm on my own faith journey and I'm searching," he says. "I leave open the possibility that I'm entirely wrong."

Obama has spoken often and eloquently about the importance of religion in public life. But like many political leaders wary of offending potential backers, he has been less revealing about what he believes-about God, about prayer, about the connection between salvation and personal responsibility. In some respects, his reticence is understandable. Obama's religious biography is unconventional and politically problematic. Born to a Christian-turned-secular mother and a Muslim-turned-atheist African father, Obama grew up living all across the world with plenty of spiritual influences, but without any particular religion. He is now a Christian, having been baptized in the early 1990s at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. But rumors about Obama's religion persist. In the new Newsweek Poll, 12 percent of voters incorrectly believe he's Muslim; more than a quarter believe he was raised in a Muslim home.

The story of Obama's faith begins with his mother, Ann. Raised in the Midwest by two lapsed Christians, she lived and traveled throughout the world appreciating all religions but confessing to none. One of Ann's favorite spiritual texts was "Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth," a set of PBS interviews with Bill Moyers that traces the common themes of religion and mythology, Obama's half sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, tells Newsweek. When the family lived in Indonesia, Ann would take the children to Catholic mass; after returning to Hawaii, they would celebrate Easter and Christmas at United Church of Christ congregations. Ann later went back to Indonesia with Maya, and when Obama visited, they would take him to Borobudur, one of the largest Buddhist temples in the world. "These kinds of experiences were a regular part of our childhood and our upbringing, and were important to [our mother] because they involved ritual," says Maya. "She thought that ritual was very beautiful. The idea of human beings' striving to be better, having the curiosity and questions about all these things, [was] perpetual and constant inside her."

Obama's organizing days in Chicago helped clarify his sense of faith and social action as intertwined. "It's hard for me to imagine being true to my faith-and not thinking beyond myself, and not thinking about what's good for other people, and not acting in a moral and ethical way," he says. When these ideas merged with his more emotional search for belonging, he was able to arrive at the foot of the cross. He "felt God's spirit beckoning me," he writes in his book "The Audacity of Hope." "I submitted myself to His will, and dedicated myself to discovering His truth." The cross under which Obama went to Jesus was at the controversial Trinity United Church of Christ led by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. "That community of faith suited me," Obama says. At the point of his decision to accept Christ, Obama says, "what was intellectual and what was emotional joined, and the belief in the redemptive power of Jesus Christ, that he died for our sins, that through him we could achieve eternal life-but also that, through good works we could find order and meaning here on Earth and transcend our limits and our flaws and our foibles-I found that powerful."

But Obama's faith is not without its critics. Some on the right say his particular brand of Christianity is a modern amalgam-unorthodox, undisciplined, even insincere. Last month Dr. James Dobson accused Obama of "deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own world view, his own confused theology." The campaign responded that Obama was reaching out to people of faith and standing up for families.

Since severing ties with Wright and Trinity, Obama is a little spiritually rootless again. He lost a friend in Wright-and he lost a home, however tenuous those ties may have been toward the end, in Trinity. He has not found a new church, and he doesn't plan to look for one until after the election. "There's an aspect of the campaign process that would not make it a good time to figure out whether a particular church community worked for us," he says. "Because of what happened at Trinity, we'd be under a spotlight."

Nevertheless, his spiritual life on the campaign trail survives through prayer and reading the bible. And although he and Michelle do not have a systematic course of religious study for their daughters, "we say grace at the table. They are inquiring minds, so whenever they have a question about God or faith, then I have a conversation with them," he says. "I'm a big believer in a faith that is not imposed but taps into what's already there, their curiosity or their spirit."

Check out my newest website

This is only a sample of what you'll find!

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Obama and NASCAR team up for Pocono

SI.com has learned that for the first time in history, a major presidential candidate may sponsor a race car in NASCAR's premier series. According to sources, Barack Obama's campaign is in talks to become the primary sponsor of BAM Racing's No. 49 Sprint Cup car for the Pocono race on August 3. Details of the agreement are expected to be worked out over the coming days.
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Polls: Obama ahead by eight

Obama is up over McCain in the latest CNN poll of polls.
(CNN) — As the dog days of summer set in and Americans take a break from the daily political band-and-forth, a new CNN analysis of several recent national opinion surveys show Barack Obama with a sizeable lead over John McCain.
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Polls show poverty tops interest list

Americans want the news media to focus more on poverty during the current presidential campaign, according to a new poll commissioned by Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, an initiative that raises awareness about economic distress in America.
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With All Due Respect: Please be QUIET, Rev. Jackson!

Why in the world would the good Reverend say something like that?
Emasculating Barack Obama!

Barack gives me the impression that he is waaay more cunning than to let that happen. If he beats up (verbally) the Reverend, then he is seen as a brute beating up on an old man. If he does nothing--well--I dunno--what would happen?

Because Barack stood up for all of the fatherless children and husbandless/boyfriendless/babydaddyless women, Reverend Jackson wants to cut Barack's nuts off. That doesn't even make sense. His nuts should be cut off.

Barack wasn't talking down to me because I take care of mine. Barack was talking to all of the sperm donors walking around blinged out while their children suffer and go without.
Who even cares if Reverend Jackson fits into the latter category. Who cares!
What I did care about is Jackson winning the presidency. He didn't. He ran twice.
I need one black man to really take care of this community by climbing out of the barrel of crabs and rise to success--that now realistically includes becoming president of the U.S.A.
Apparently, that one black man is Barack Obama.
What he is doing takes a personal commitment from him and all of us--his supporters.
We should be donating money, hosting fundraisers and talking to each other about how we can play a role in Barack's multi-point plans.
The point Barack was trying to make during his Father's Day speech is that he would have liked to have his own father around but he left when he was two. His mother, grandmother and grandfather raised and shaped his life. And his uncles.
I don't know how if feels to be raised fatherless because mine was there and still is there so I can only speak from my experiences. My ex-husband is now sick and laying in a hospital bed. I don't know what will become of us so I guess we'll be finding out soon.
I found most people haven't even listened to Barack's speeches enough to comment intelligently from what I have heard on talk radio.
Reverend Jackson looks like a publicity hound right now.
Barack is trying to win over the white vote. Not the vote of the decent, smart forward thinking whites because he already has their support but the opposite whites--ignorant, uneducated, prejudiced, whites who are hurting financially just as bad as the next black man but won't let go of the white supremacist idea enough to wake up and vote Barack.
That is what Barack is doing--running for president. He is climbing out of the barrel of crabs. He is not grandstanding, seeking publicity, or promoting himself to gain riches.
He is wanting to right the wrongs that have occurred in the past eight to 200 years.
And instead of helping him, some of us are taking this opportunity to kick him and bring him back down into that barrel.
Most of us cannot even discuss his candidacy without bristling white folks who saw Hillary as the last great white hope.
It will be a great blessing to finally find a middle ground with them so that we can move on as one Democratic group and win the election. The win is within reach and all we have to do is hold it together enough to reach out and grab it.
So keep ya mouth shut Reverend Jackson!

The Obamas: The cutest, sweetest, family EVER!

PART ONE

PART TWO


HOLLYWOOD ACCESS PREVIEW CLIP

PART THREE

Today show one-on-one with Sen. Barack Obama, McCain camp silences protester

The Real Michelle Obama


McCain Camp silences protester--she promises to sue

Ebony magazine defines Black Cool

Obama: Coolest man in the world...you vote

The 25 Coolest Brothers Of All Time
Jay-Z, Barack Obama, Prince, Samuel L. Jackson, Denzel Washington, Marvin Gaye, Muhammad Ali, Billy Dee Williams and many more!

For the FIRST TIME EVER, Ebony magazine defines Black Cool in an exclusive 8-cover feature unlike anything you’ve seen before. In this historic collector’s edition, we will name the 25 coolest brothers of all time.
and...
TWO SIDES: Are There Still Two Americas Separate and Unequal?
“Yes. 40 years after the Kerner Report, a racial divide still exists,” said DeWayne Wickham, columnist for USA TODAY and the Gannett News Service.
“No. For Blacks, we’ve come a long, long way,” said Larry Elder, Los Angeles-based radio talk show host and best-selling author.

US ships cigarettes, bras, more to Iran

U.S. exports to Iran — including brassieres, bull semen, cosmetics and possibly even weapons — grew more than tenfold during President Bush's years in office even as he accused Iran of nuclear ambitions and helping terrorists.

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Obama, Clinton host fundraisers

BUTTE, Montana (CNN) — Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will appear together at three fund-raisers next week in New York, an Obama spokeswoman said.
Two of the fund-raisers are Wednesday night. Thursday morning, they'll also appear together at a women's fund-raising breakfast for Obama. The events are private.
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ST. LOUIS, Missouri (CNN) — Sen. Barack Obama, speaking on board his campaign plane as it headed to St. Louis on Saturday, continued to defend his position on Iraq — and questioned reporters' parsing of his words.
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Happy Birthday U.S.A., Happy Birthday Me

Well, you know how yesterday went since it was the Fourth of July. Smoke, yelling, heat, meat. At least I didn't burn anything this year.

I bought a box of Moo & Oink pork rib tips for $8 and some change at the local market--Save More on Broadway for those of you who know. Now usually, I go out to Ultra in Highland but because of high gas prices I was compelled to shop local. I got a great deal and the line wasn't that long.
Then comes the yelling: Lauren, my autistic 17-year-old daughter, put on top of her pajamas, a pair of shorts and another pair of pants, her shoes on the wrong foot and three t-shirts. My son who is still a finicky eater, wanted to go to granny's for fireworks to get out of eating some of all of that food I cooked. Also, he refused to shower. He's 10. My day was spent badgering and grilling.



Anyway.
I cooked pre-pattied hamburgers--they were on sale too--mac & cheese, green beans (fresh frozen courtesy of Aldi grocery store) and deviled eggs with fresh dill from my garden (yes it smelled like dill).
Needless to say he had some tips and all the fixin's too. Lauren ate dinner as well but refused to take off all of those extra clothes.

My mother wanted to know why I cooked all of that meat (I chopped up two slabs for them) and why I sent so much to her house. My parents may have one piece and will place the rest in the freezer to cook with great northern beans during the fall (mmm, delish!) so it is in my personal interest to send meat to their home.
Later, I tried to take photos of local fireworks displays. I used a portrait, night, shutter speed and f-stop settings but I forget which one worked because I had to experiment to see when to depress the shutter. On a large fireworks display, there are more of them lighting the night sky but the ordinary guy lighting fireworks for his family, is going one-at-a-time so I had to choose when to squeeze the shutter button.

Anyway.
Today is my birthday.
(I know yall thought I'd get up on my soap box about America and Independence and whatever but hey--it's the Fourth of July weekend and even I just gotta give it a break and enjoy the day. Happy Holidays!)

Nomination acceptance speech may be at Denver stadium

Call it location, location, location.

Barack Obama's campaign is thinking of having the Democratic presidential candidate give his presidential nomination acceptance speech at a football stadium rather than in the arena in Denver, Colorado, where the Democratic National Convention is being held
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Obama response to jobs loss report

As we head into the 4th of July weekend, today's report that our economy has lost another 62,000 jobs is a stark reminder that far too many Americans will spend this holiday out of work and struggling to provide for their families because of the failed policies of the last eight years.

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A Call to Service: Obama asks Americans to participate in society like never before

Seeks to form civilian national security force after winning election


Response to speech from residents

Town Finds Drug Agent Is Really an Impostor

A man who pretended to be a federal agent has stirred a legal and political controversy in a small Missouri town.

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Let's Get Organized!