Naked Man throws a book at Obama's head

Truth About Bush Tax Cuts: They Don't Work

It appears that with midterm elections quickly approaching in November, all any Washington, D.C., politician can talk about is tax cuts. Not just any tax cuts but the Bush tax cuts, which largely benefited the rich. Republicans believe that we should keep them in place — at least for another two years and Democrats say they should only be kept in place for the middle class. What is not talked about is whether the tax cuts have had any impact on the average American.

The two major tax-cutting bills from the Bush era were the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act (EGTRRA) of 2001, and the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003. These bills lowered tax rates across the board on income, dividends and capital gains; eventually eliminated the estate tax; further lowered burdens on married couples, parents and the working poor; and increased tax credits for education and retirement savings. The Obama Administration’s proposal would extend most of these reductions, allowing only those for individuals earning more than $200,000 and families earning more than $250,000 per year to expire.

Bush tax cut dollars benefit higher-income households, the group of people who save more and spend less than lower income earners. If this is how jobs are created then there should be some visible growth, given that they are still in place until December 31, 2010. Also, it is inaccurate to say that if removed they will hurt small businesses. Less than 2 percent of tax returns reporting small-business income are filed by taxpayers in the top two income brackets.

The fact is that extending the tax cuts adds to the deficit by creating an even larger deficit. In fact, even if everyone in America was employed, continuing the Bush tax cuts would lead to a national debt, meaning the yearly deficit would rise from 6 to 7 percent of GDP by 2020. The Bush tax cuts reduced revenue and by some estimates, account for 25 percent of our current deficit. As for creating jobs, there is no evidence of that for if they did, we would have more jobs being created now with the tax cuts still in place

Protesting Against 'Essence' Magazine Is the Real Fashion Faux Pas

It seems that some African American women are still upset still with Essence magazine, so much so that they recently protested on the streets of New York. Why? Because the magazine has a new fashion director, Ellianna Placas. They are really upset because she is white.

I do not understand why this situation would be worthy of a protest, it is not as if they won’t let you sit at any restaurant and order food, or like they make you sit in the back of a bus or an innocent man is sitting on death row. No it is not about anything important such as the aforementioned but rather the lack of diversity in the world of fashion. "Diversity" in this sense equals African American women.

On the first day of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week N.Y. Spring 2011, a small coterie of young black women dressed in black and wearing black sunglasses marched from Time Inc.'s headquarters to Lincoln Center. Completely silent, the women carried signs that read, "I am a fashion director," and "I am Susan Taylor" — along with the names of African Americans who have served in the fashion director role at Essence in the past.

It's cool, to protest but in most cases it should be about something important. What is wrong with having a white fashion editor? After all, most of the clothing these women wear isn’t even made by African Americans. From Polo, to Coach, to Vera Wang, To Gucci to Louis Vuitton, most African Americans wear attire that is made by folks of European descent. But they do not protest that. Who better to talk about clothes and accessories made by whites that black women wear than a white person?

This is the dumbest protest I have ever heard of. It basically shows that we choose issues without any serious thought, and even worse, that what we really value is materialism. Protesting against Essence magazine is a real fashion faux pas.

Mr. President: Recession hitting us folk hard

The recession is crushing African American communities in major urban centers like Detroit and Memphis. Since the collapse of the auto industry and housing market, Detroit’s population has dropped to under a million from 1.8 million.

Today it is possible to buy a three-bedroom home in Detroit for around $10,000, however there are no buyers. Given this predicament, Mayor Dave Bing, a former NBA star, has suggested reducing the size of the metropolitan area in hopes of reducing the city’s expenses.

Bing’s proposal would require the city to demolish nearly 40,000 homes over the next several years. Poverty rates in Detroit are far above the national average. Some have asserted that such draconian approaches border on being a form of "ethnic cleansing." The fact is that almost a third of the city's 139 square miles is uninhabited.

Foreclosure procedures have been initiated against 1.7 million of the nation’s households, with the average borrower in foreclosure being delinquent for more than 400 days before actually being evicted. More than 650,000 households had not made a mortgage payment in 18 months.

In cities such as Memphis, the recession is having a similar effect due to rising unemployment and growing foreclosures. The median income of black homeowners in Memphis has dropped to pre-1990 levels. The unemployment rates for African Americans in the city is approaching 20 percent when it was below 10 percent just two years ago.

The recession is creating an ever-widening economic gap between whites and African Americans across the nation. Several studies have documented this disheartening trend.

The Economic Policy Institute notes that as of December 2009, median white and African American wealth fell 34 percent and 77 percent, respectively. A study conducted by the Institute on Assets and Social Policy at Brandeis University concluded that for each dollar of wealth owned by a white family, a black family owns just 16 cents, based on Federal Reserve numbers.

The recession is real and it may take several years before any progress or improvement is noticed or felt at the community level. So for the time being, African American families will have to deal with rising unemployment and foreclosure rates and manage to survive the best way they can.

Increase Poverty not a good look for Obama

This week, Census figures will be released and it may be very bad news for President Barack Obama and his administration. The number of people in the U.S. who are in living in poverty is growing and approaching record levels not observed since the 1960s.

Reports from six demographers who track poverty trends expect increases in the range of between 14 and 15 percent.

If the estimates are accurate, this would mean that 1 out of 7 or more than 45 million people were poor last year in America. This would be the largest number since the government started tracking poverty figures in 1959. Prior to this, 1980 showed the biggest increase when the rate jumped 1.3 percentage points to 13 percent during the energy crisis.

Among the 18-64 working-age population, the demographers expect the rate to rise beyond 12.4 percent, up from 11.7 percent. That would make it the highest since at least 1965, when another Democratic president, Lyndon B. Johnson, launched the war on poverty that expanded the federal government's role in social welfare programs from education to health care.

This is particularly troubling for African Americans, since we disproportionately are represented with respect to poverty and unemployment. This is also so true for children since experts anticipate child poverty rates to increase to more than 20 percent.

If these projections are accurate, Republicans, although they have not stated any specific policies to deal with the economy, will have ammunition to continue their attacks against Democrats and President Obama citing a higher poverty rate as evidence of their failed economic policy, although these poverty increases started under President Bush.

Regardless of the political arguments, something needs to be done or else poverty rates will continue to rise and even worse, will start to creep up to middle-class working and unemployed families. Unfortunately, neither party is dealing with answering the question of what can be done to assist families in dire economic need. The all-time high was 22.4 percent in 1959, the first year the government began tracking poverty. As of 2008, the poverty level stood at $22,025 for a family of four.

God Loves Stupid People

I was once told that God loves stupid people because he mad so many. This is no more evident than what is said and seen on television news. For some reason it seems that many pundits don't have the capacity to think freely.

Take for example the coverage recently regarding the gay student Tyler Clementi whose roommate allegedly streamed video of him with another man making out. The experience was so troubling to him that it supposedly led him to drive an hour from Rutger's University to a bridge over the Hudson River and leap to his death, prior to which he left a update on his face book page.

No in all seriousness this is a tragedy. But I cannot see how many, especially CNN can make the leap to homophobia and bullying without any substantial evidence. It is very hard for me to see this as an example of bullying or homo phobia, but more so a behavioral function of the age of instant media and cellular telephony that we live in. From what I understand, there was no indication that Clementi's roommate, Dharun Ravi had anything against homosexuals.

In fact, I would argue the opposite, that it was all about entertainment in this age of Internet celebrity, seeking followers of face book and twitter, and a media culture that justifies the use of hidden camera's more than accuracy, fact and objectivity.

The truth is that this is a YouTube culture for most youth today. From celebrity sex video's to street fights, most are insensitive, or even worse, not concerned about the personal orientations of the people they use as vehicles for entertainment than their race or sexual orientation.

Shows like cheaters have lead the way, not to mention the assorted media and hidden camera stings that flood the airwaves from the sting of Acorn to main steam media outlets tracking any political figure.

This has nothing to do with bullying or homo phobia but rather is a reflection of a culture that has been desensitized to any rights of privacy or respect for common decorum. I bet if some one killed themselves after being on cheaters for being outed or caught, we would not call them a bully?

Like I said to start this essay, God must love stupid people, because he made so many and seems to have placed most of them on cable television news shows on CNN.

Only in Memphis: Man accused of shooting teen for not pulling up pants

Wikipedia Article Promotes Racial Inferiority of Non Whites

Just when you thought you could turn your head and look away from the stupidity, neo-Nazi and white supremacist attitudes and beliefs again rear their ugly heads — this time on Wikipedia. If you go to Wikipedia, do me a favor and search for race and Intelligence and you will see what I mean. The article you find there will be up at least until September 1, 2010.

The article attempts to apply a rational justification — albeit non-empirically or scientifically based — that blacks are genetically inferior to whites in general and especially with respect to intelligence. It incorporates the findings that recently manifested when The Journal of Psychology, Public Policy and Law, published an article by J.P. Rushton and A.R. Jensen called “Thirty Years of Research on Race Differences in Cognitive Ability and the recent book by Ricard Nisbett, Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count.

These individuals, in concert with the classic premise of racial inferiority as postulated by Freud, Jung, Sir Francis Galton and others, postulate the heritability of intelligence as a perceived genetic disposition is greatest among white populations. Moreover, it asserts that as a function, test scores, specifically IQ differences are a function of genetic inheritability as well. The article, which claims to be sound research, even states that “Brain size is correlated to IQ and blacks have smaller brains than whites.” This has never been scientifically documented from an anatomical or physiological locution.

In the past I have informed many that Google and Wikipedia are not references and should not be used as such. In fact they actually may do more harm than good, seeing they allowed a single man to propose a feculent theory regarding the genetic impact of race on intelligence when science indicates that race is fictitious and completely man-made.

As a scientist in the field of behavior, I attempted to correct and argue the factual historical and scientific authenticity and negate the fallacious assertions presented in this article, but I cannot edit it since it is being disputed for its factual accuracy and incessant systemic bias presented. We should all read this, even if it just to show you what Africans in the world are up against, or how little you actually know.

Them

I was trying to stay as far away from this Muslim community center and Quran burning stuff as I could. I feel that talking and or writing about it gives it credence as a legitimate issue — although it is not.

First of all, the much-talked about Ground Zero mosque will not be located at ground zero, nor is it a mosque, which makes the venomous opposition so difficult to understand. I expect such attitudes from hatemongers, extremists and anyotherpeoplephobes. To date I have heard no valid argument against it, unless one accepts emotion as a logical construct for an argument. This perspective is so sophistical and wacky because it seems make it acceptable to block building an Islamic center in New York but gives tacit approval to the Quran burning proposed by Gainesville, Fla.'s self-proclaimed Guy Montag (the fireman who burned books in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451).

I remember as a child the day Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered in Memphis, Tenn. His death was the result of illogical emotionalism and racial extremism. How quickly we forget that from Memphis to the Alabama cities of Birmingham and Selma, King, too, was asked not to March, although many acknowledged his constitutional right to do so.

Then there is the attempt to make the irrational rational using statistics to infer that Americans are not radical, extremist or anti-Muslim just because 70 percent of them oppose the Islamic center in New York. It is obvious we do not follow history, because we have forgotten that more than 70 percent of Americans disagreed with the Supreme Court ruling (Brown vs. Board of Education) that abolished segregation in schools. Not to mention that the majority of Americans were also against equal rights for African Americans.

Historically, America seems to conveniently forget its history and gets defensive when the truth is impinged on their senses. The simple fact is that America is the land of racists and anyotherpeoplephobes. The newest target is Islam and Muslims. We refer to this group as THEM, just like we do and did Native Americans and African Americans. This is sad. Now I know why white folks are scared of all black people if one black person robs them. To whites, all Muslims are the same as the ones who flew planes into the Twin Towers; just as all black folks are the same. I call this racist, for anyone who isn't white in America is the pronoun THEM.

Montgomery Using Blight Ordinance to Destroy Homes of African Americans

When we think of the Civil Rights Movement, some cities stand out more than others, like Montgomery, Ala., for instance. Montgomery was where the historic bus boycott officially started on Dec. 1, 1955. On that day, African Americans decided that they would boycott the city buses until they could sit anywhere they wanted, as opposed to being relegated to the back of the bus.

Yes, Montgomery is a city steeped in the history of the Civil Rights Movement. However, the landscape of the past may be destroyed and lost to the practices of gentrification.

Montgomery officials have been declaring homes "blighted" and condemning them. Karen Jones' home was declared blighted and bulldozed with most of her belongings still inside. To add insult to injury, the city sent her a bill for $1,225 for the demolition, forcing her to pay or suffer a lien on her property. The sad thing is that this is happening to many African American homeowners in the city at an accelerated rate. Residents have accused the city of taking their property without just compensation, and many of the properties are ending end up in the hands of wealthy developers.

David Beito, a history professor at the University of Alabama, who as chair of the Alabama State Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights held hearings on the demolitions in April 2009, describes what is happening as “a civil rights crisis.” Ironically, many of the homes that have been demolished are located along a commemorative trail that runs through Rosa Parks' former neighborhood