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Speaking of the Mighty O, it’s going to be a long farewell as Oprah says goodbye to daytime TV. Winfrey steps down September of 2011, and she is already running a goodbye video. The new season, the 25th and final season, of The Oprah Winfrey Show kicks off September 13th. Oprah talks about her top 25 OMG moments in the new issue of TV Guide.
Wesley Snipes is determined not to go to jail. He wants a new trial for his tax evasion case. Snipes is facing three years in jail. He says he needs a new trial because of jury misconduct.
A lot of people are talking about Fantasia, and it’s not good. Fantasia shocked a lot of people at the Steve Harvey Hoodie Awards with her behavior. Attendees said she was loud, rude and wore ill fitting clothes. She was also sweating in all the wrong places. Just weeks after a recent suicide attempt, Fantasia was living it up. Is she behaving this way for her reality show? Some believe she’s pregnant by her married boyfriend Antwaun Cook. One industry insider says Fantasia needs a stylist and a therapist. Maybe fame is going to her head. The new season of her reality show is about to kickoff, and her new album, Back To Me, is already high on the charts
Three people were arrested after protesters threw eggs and shoes at Tony Blair when he arrived to sign copies of his best selling memoir at a bookshop in Dublin.
Some 200 activists clashed with police on the city’s main thoroughfare O’Connell street.
Security at the former’s British prime minister’s first signing of his autobiography had been tight due to opposition by an Irish nationalist group opposed to British control of Northern Ireland and by critics of Blair’s decision to join the war in Iraq.
No injuries were reported and the missiles did not hit Blair.
Sarah Palin can take down the fence.
Palin’s neighbor of three months on Wasilla’s Lake Lucille, author Joe McGinniss, is packing his bags and notebooks and leaving Sunday for his home in Massachusetts to write the book he has been researching on the former governor and GOP vice presidential candidate.
His arrival in May made headlines and drew an indignant reaction from Palin and a visit from her husband, Todd. The Palins even tacked an extension onto an 8-foot board fence between the homes, leaving only a part of their second-story home visible from McGinniss’ driveway.
Peeping into windows or peering through knotholes was never part of his research, McGinniss said.
“I’ve been very busy but on Lake Lucille it’s been very quiet,” he said. “As I told Todd back in May – he came over to get in my face about moving in there – I said, ‘You’re not even going to know I’m there. A lot of the time, I’m not going to be here. And when I am, I mind my own business. I don’t care what happens on your side of the fence. That’s not why I’m here.’”
And that’s how it has played out, McGinniss said.
A Palin spokesman didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail Saturday seeking any comments from the governor on the author’s departure.
McGinniss has written best-selling books, including “The Selling of the President,” on the marketing of Richard Nixon, “Fatal Vision,” an account of the Jeffrey MacDonald murder case, and “Blind Faith,” about a businessman’s contract killing of his wife.
He’s no newcomer to Alaska. Thirty-five years ago, McGinniss moved to the state to see how new oil money would affect Alaskans. He wrote a draft, returned for three months in 1977, and two years later completed “Going To Extremes.” The book has recently been reissued.
The Cabinet minister actually in charge of the controversial file raises a good point: Why hasn’t the captain or the crew of the Tamil refugee ship been busted for trafficking in human cargo?
Surfacing for the first time since the MV Sun Sea docked in Victoria three weeks ago, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says it seems a “sensible” result.
However, the fear-mongering face of Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, who was eager to blast the ship as a terrorist trawler when it docked in August, is mostly silent on the situation now.
Cracking down on human smuggling is the number one issue on voters’ minds if office feedback is any indication, Mr. Kenney insists, pooh-poohing the notion of scandals like the long-form census controversy as a figment of unimaginative media minds.
So where’s the rap sheet for the guy at the helm of a rustbucket that charged the equivalent of 20 first-class return air fares for one person’s ticket into a ship’s cargo hold?
Mr. Kenney defers to the cops. The way the RCMP explains it, the captain and crew are missing. They mingled with the refugee claimants departing the Sun Sea gangway and disappeared under a conspiratorial cone of silence.
How 492 Tamils could have roamed the Pacific for four months until they arrived in Victoria on Aug. 13 without passengers noting the person or persons in charge is one of those head-scratching scenarios mere Canadian pleasure boat users cannot comprehend. But police plead for more time as they sort passengers from crew while gathering data to make any charges stick. It could take a long time.
Says RCMP Constable Michael McLaughlin: “I can’t comment yet. The investigation is ongoing and it’s nowhere near its conclusion.”
Now, apparently, this is not unusual. The first Tamil ship, Ocean Lady, docked in Victoria last October carrying 76 men and they still haven’t charged anybody. But Mr. Kenney insists it’s only a matter of time before the bad guys face the music as smugglers who could qualify for a life sentence.
“Anyone who was paid to facilitate this voyage in terms of crew members are likely involved in human smuggling,” Mr. Kenney said in an interview. “But these are complicated situations and a lot of fear is used as a tool…. [The operators] have a way of keeping people quiet.”
U.S. police shot and killed a man who took three people hostage, waving a gun and apparently fitted out with explosives, in the headquarters of the Discovery Channel near Washington on Wednesday.
Officers who had been watching the hostage drama on a building security camera crept in while police negotiated with the emotional gunman and shot him when he pointed his pistol at one of the three men he held hostage.
“A hostage moved, he pulled his gun, and a shot was taken,” Montgomery County police chief Tom Manger told reporters. He said the suspect was killed and the hostages were safe.
The man, named by a U.S. law enforcement official as James Lee, had been arrested before for protesting against Discovery Channel over environmental issues.
“He had a history … of conflict with Discovery,” Manger said.
The incident caused chaos in Silver Spring, Maryland, a shopping and office district and commuter hub on the edge of the U.S. capital.
Police sealed off the area around the building and SWAT teams deployed shortly after the suspect entered the building carrying a handgun at about 1 p.m. Manger said county and state police, FBI and Homeland Security agents joined the operation.
The building, where nearly 1,900 employees work, was evacuated and children were rushed from a day-care centre.
Police said they were still trying to determine whether two boxes and two backpacks that the hostage-taker had were explosive devices. Bomb-sniffing dogs checked the area before workers were allowed to leave neighbouring buildings.
American Frankenstein is written as a timely response to the need to revisit the history and realities of the Black existence in America… As with Dr. Frankenstein’s creature, African-Americans have been aimlessly trying t find their way in society, trying to fit in… Likewise, as with Dr.
Frankenstein’s creature, the African-American plight has been filled with hatred, mistrust, neglect, and outright violent rejection…
Society demonized and criminalized the Black man… and relegated him to second-class status, capable only of menial, labor-intensive, low-wage employment… While African-Americans strived to assimilate into society… they were still, by and large, unaccepted and unappreciated… They were generally rejected just as Frankenstein was.
The irony is that if care and fairness had replaced hatred and bigotry, the African-American would have developed into one of the country’s greatest human assets over the last few hundred years… The question is, is there enough compassion in American society to recognize the error of its ways and enough esteem left in African-Americans to correct for past indiscretions?” — Excerpted from the Introduction
*Given the ascendancy of Barack Obama to the Presidency, and the country’s concomitant cultivation of black billionaires like Oprah Winfrey, and Bob and Sheila Johnson, there are many who point to such successes as proof that America has finally arrived at a point where it should congratulate itself for finally achieving that colorblind society envisioned by Dr. Martin Luther King. Not so fast, suggests Kyle Stanford Cramer who argues that U.S. still has a long way to go to be considered post-racial.
In his thought-provoking book, American Frankenstein: How the United States Created a Monster, Mr. Cramer makes a novel analogy between the history of mistreatment of African-Americans and the way the misunderstood movie villain was so heartlessly hunted down by an intolerant mob of townspeople armed with torches and pitchforks. The author is admirably earnest in his endeavor, recounting in chronological fashion how black folks have repeatedly been denied access to mainstream society, despite exhibiting extraordinary patience, bending over backwards while waiting for that ever-elusive opportunity to assimilate.
He says that the disparity created during slavery was not corrected in the wake of emancipation, given that the government reneged on the promise of 40 acres and a mule. The failure of Reconstruction was followed by the rise of Jim Crow segregation which was brutally enforced by the Klan via a century-long reign of terror which can only be described as domestic terrorism.
Cramer concedes that the Civil Rights Movement of the Sixties made some significant inroads, however even that effort was effectively undermined by the backlash of white flight from the inner cities, the crippling crutch of welfare and the tease of token affirmation action. He persuasively augments his arguments with both statistical evidence and personal anecdotes recounting his own experiences as a black kid growing up in Chicago where he miraculously overcame the odds to earn a master’s degree at Northwestern University.
Seeing himself as an anomaly, Kyle Stanford Cramer is today committed to alleviating the persistently-desperate plight of the bulk of the still-marginalized masses of black people. His solution? While stopping short of a call for reparations, he nonetheless adamantly insists that America ought to opt to make amends by belatedly funding a Federal Reconstruction program which he envisions as incorporating everything from an apology for slavery and subsequent oppression to mental healthcare to an overhaul of the criminal justice system to education reform to job training to social support services to genealogical research critical to retracing roots and thereby knowing oneself. That’s a man with a plan.
Frankenstein resuscitated as a civil rights figure. I love it, What’s next, using The Joker to make the case for gay marriage? I think I just gave somebody an idea.
As previously reported, conservative radio host and Fox News commentator Glenn Beck is hosting a rally in Washington, D.C., Saturday on the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech — but he says the date was not chosen intentionally.
“Whites don’t own Abraham Lincoln,” Beck said in a recent broadcast of his Fox News show. “Blacks don’t own Martin Luther King. Those are American icons, American ideas, and we should just talk about character, and that’s really what this event is about. It’s about honoring character.”
The “Restoring Honor Rally,” which has Sarah Palin booked to speak, will taking place at the Lincoln Memorial on Saturday- the sight of Dr. King’s speech – and is intended to “celebrate America by honoring our heroes,” according to the event’s website.
Beck, who has called President Obama a racist, says the rally is not political, and will even spend time celebrating Dr. King.
Meanwhile…
Rev. Al Sharpton will also hold an event in D.C. on the same day to honor the 47th anniversary of the famous speech.
“When we heard about Glenn Beck, it was puzzling,” Sharpton told the New York Daily News. “Because if you read Dr. King’s speech, it just doesn’t gel with what Mr. Beck or Mrs. Palin are representing.
Beck is expecting approximately 100,000 people at the event.
DC Metro Map
For readers who live in the DC area or are familiar with its metro system, writer Jason Linkins wrote a hilarious piece last week about a real visitors guide from rally organizers warning attendees to avoid certain stops on the Orange and Blue Lines, and to stay away from the Green and Yellow Lines altogether.
Linkins wrote in his Huffington Post piece: ”As someone who rides the Green and Yellow Lines all the time, I can assure you that there are no ‘rules’ that state these subway lines must be avoided at all times, especially at night. But then, I guess I’m not using ‘A Cliche-Ridden Guide To Avoiding The Black People On The Subway In Washington’ as a rulebook.
Automakers are operating in terra incognita as they prepare for the biggest change in the way cars are powered in a century. As they begin to add battery-powered cars to their lineups, they will have to solve some fundamental problems about how the cars are built and sold.
For engineers, the questions include:
Should automakers be technology leaders or fast followers?
Should they develop their own batteries or leave that to specialists?
Should they focus on one technology or hedge their bets with several?
For marketers, the issues are:
Should automakers use existing body styles and model names or create new ones?
Should they start slowly and wait for demand to develop or try to grab market share immediately?
Should they distribute cars through existing dealer networks or start from scratch?
There are few guideposts to follow. The only equivalent parallel in recent history has been the launch of the hybrid gas-electric vehicle, where, arguably, only one company has been successful.
That is Toyota (TM), which unlike most other manufacturers, built a hybrid-specific car, the Prius. The car’s unique character attracted early adopters as well as the environmentally-conscious who wanted to visibly demonstrate their commitment, and Toyota promoted it effectively.
Honda tried to drive the same road with its own hybrid, the Insight. But both the first- and second-generation vehicles sold poorly.
Other automakers installed their gas-electric powertrains in existing models, essentially making the hybrid device an option. The cars lacked a distinctive identity, most have suffered weak sales.
If there lessons to be learned from Prius, they haven’t been reflected in current battery-electric strategies, no two of which seem to be alike.
Two French automakers, for instance, are using sharply different approaches.