EUR This N That | Urban Black News Blog

N’awlins Says ‘No Repeat!’

The Gulf Coast area watched as Haiti and Cuba suffered death and injury by the monster hurricane Gustav.  But this time they are not going to let it take them.  The effects of this “Storm of the Century” as New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagan called it, could be catastrophic.  The hurricane seemed to slow up a bit to give Cuba a small break, but it doesn’t appear that New Orleans will be so lucky.  This time there were a fleet of buses and trains prepared to move the crowds.  The government even allowed the freeway to be opened on both sides, so that those driving out of the city could make it out faster.  There may be houses destroyed and left afloat like three years ago, but you can bet your bottom dollar, New Orleans residents have left the building!  Check out the status of the storm here.

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McCain Is the Bigger Man?

 If ever there was an opportunity to take advantage of the sympathies of America’s voters, this is it.  Gustav has made its way through Cuba and Haiti destroying everything in its path and now New Orleans is in the crosshairs.  Actually, all of the Gulf coast seems to be at risk.  So, in an effort to show America what he’s made of (wink wink), John McCain will scale down all of his plans for the Republican National Convention in Minnesota.  He’s already made a trip to Mississippi to check on the readiness of the emergency management center.  Seems someone is jumping the gun on their responsibilities as President.  But, nonetheless, whether he was planning to reel in his convention or not, it seems that all of his governmental buddies took a look at Obama’s convention and all of a sudden McCain isn’t the cool guy in school anymore.  Schwarzenegger is strapped for cash, Bush and Cheney are tending to the hurricane (finally) and even his wife got a headache and is staying in.  Okay, maybe that isn’t altogether true, but it seems like Gustav let some folks off the hook. But, we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and say they all still believe McCain will win the whole enchilada.  All we can say is, good luck with that!  Read here to see where you can get your refund for any money you layed down for your ticket to be there.

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Obama Reaches Nearly Everyone

No wonder the Republicans are hatin’ on Obama and trying to make him out to be a “rock star.”  Everybody on Earth was watching him make his acceptance speech on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream Speech”, including the green-eyed monster.  The speech was more like a rallying call from “Lord of the Rings” or something than an acceptance speech.  “John McCain likes to say that he’ll follow bin Laden to the Gates of Hell – but he won’t even go to the cave where he lives.”  What?!  Now if that’s not the Commander of the free world who is?  Nielsen reported a record 38 million viewers for the speech.  And that’s not counting media outlets such as C-Span or public television.  Read here to see how many records were broken by the charismatic leader.

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Diddy’s Been Grounded?

Now what is the world coming to when Diddy can’t get where he needs to go because of the gas prices?  Doesn’t he make something like 2 million dollars an hour?  But, po’ Diddy still can’t manage to fire up the private jet.  He cried to the Arabs that oil prices just have to come down because he can’t afford the gas and child support. Just jokes…obviously.  We reported recently that the entertainment mogul, for the second year in a row, captured third place on Forbes list of Hip Hop’s ”Cash Kings”, raking in a whopping $35 million for the year.  Combine the salaries of our staff, all of our readers, and some folks just surfing the web that just happened to land on our site, and we’d still need $200, an Independence card and LaQuisha’s baby’s food stamps to equal a percentage of his earnings.  And none of us probably fly first class on a regular basis.  Read herehow Diddy is suffering while you get your Crown Royal bag out to count up change for gas.

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This is Obama Country!

During the Presidential primaries I had never in my 21 years of voting had an experience like that day.  I was moved to tears several times and tried to hide my tears for fear that someone would think I was in an abusive situation, I had lost a loved one, I had done anything but come to the polls and was moved by the experience.  When I say I was moved it was not merely because I was proud to be voting in such a monumental election where my choices were between a black man and a woman, but because I knew that at that very moment, if I was uncertain of who I was voting for, as a woman, I could be swayed by what I saw in the line. 

I saw so many young people being asked for ID to vote.  One girl, very young in appearance, was at the voting booth at its opening time (a little after 7 a.m.) with her twin baby girls in tote.  She had them in two separate umbrella strollers with the assistance of another woman, ready to vote.  Having twin baby girls myself, I knew that this took extreme effort on her part.  She had been motivated. 

I live in a racially mixed neighborhood and this was the first time I’d been in line for an election and there were a lack of whites at the poll early in the morning.  There were only two in the whole time that I stood in this serpentine line that took me 45 minutes to walk. 

Standing in line was memorable in itself.  I was there to cast my vote and it was a special day.  I was black, I was responsible and today I had a chance at being very important.  I felt more important than at any other time in my voting life that I can remember.  I could be instrumental in the election of a man who had possibly brought, not just these black people, but these people of all ages to the poll.  The possibility of Hillary Clinton bringing women to the polls was there, but the youth have been associated with Barack Obama.   To me, that was important. 

Several times, one of the election administrators had to ask people in line, “Are you 18?”  It is a turning point in the mindset of our young people and the thought of their place in the world.  For the first time, they are actively thinking about the election process and what it means to them.  This time for the first time in my lifetime, young people were informed and voting.  The future, to them, with Barack at the helm, does not seem Dismal. Arbitrary. Parental.  There were real possibilities out there that this man could make a difference in their life as well as the movement of America on the worldwide stage.

As a young person who had survived government cheese and hadn’t seen much of the world, I was just at the polls seeking the lesser of two evils and whatever I thought my Mom might like.  There were no great candidates, just a cool white man who blew his horn on Arsenio and had “puffed” a little weed.  He was hip, he was fresh, had gray hair, but we didn’t notice it, we just knew that this would be the first time, since Kennedy, that the White House might just have someone in it that kept black folks issues in mind.

The one good thing Bush has done as President is reveal to the world what can happen when you pick the wrong guy.  The extreme atrocities committed while on his watch are unprecedented and Barack Obama reminded us of a lot of them as he accepted the nomination for the Democratic candidate for the President of the United States.   Pass or fail, he is a man who may make mistakes, but he has shown that he will give his best to all of us.  I physically shuddered with strength and hope during his speech when he said these words:  “Tonight, I say to the American people, to Democrats and Republicans and Independents across this great land … Enough!”

I am not afraid, nor ashamed that I am excited about a black candidate and the possibility of voting him into office.  I’m proud that I’m informed about both candidates and still have plenty of reason to vote for him.  But most of all, I’m glad that I was able to pull myself together during the primary election, choke back the tears and make history by pushing the button in his favor.  And I can’t wait until November 4, when I can follow the orders of our next Commander and Chief and say ”Eight is enough.” 

-J.C. Brooks

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City Allows Teachers to Bring the Heat

Whatever happened to the day where your teacher brought an extra pencil or extra paper for his/her students?  The days when the teacher had extra crayons or a treat when you were leaving for the day are long behind us.  We’ve traded them in for beating up the teacher in Baltimore and the infamous Columbine shootings in Colorado.  And those incidents are just a couple out of many, many, horrendous acts where gangs haunt the schools and drugs are on the playgrounds.  But in the no nonsense state of Texas, the teachers have been granted the right to bring their pistols to school and defend themselves.  The small town has no peers in this legal ruling.  Some students actually find it amusing.  Check out the wild, wild west and how the people of Harrold, Texas feel about their teacher’s license to ill. 

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