It’s a sad commentary on the state of women’s sports that Detroit’s Pistons, Red Wings and Lions generate more excitement by NOT making the championships of their respective sports than the Detroit Shock generate by making it to the finals for a chance at a second WNBA title.

Detroit’s women face the defending champion Sacramento Monarchs for what promises to be a dramatic series. Though the Pistons set NBA attendance records, the Shock are among the league’s attendance leaders with the Palace filled to less than 50% of its basketball capacity.

Where is the WNBA’s marketing blitz? It’s represented by the Shock’s pinup-style desktop wallpaper calendar! Go, ladies!

USA Today reports that US median household income rose by 1.1% in 2005, but earnings fell for full-time workers. That means American families are working more lower paying jobs. Additionally, household income for Blacks declined slightly so African Americans as a group now earn 34% less than the national average. This puts Black income at just over three-fifths of the median for American households. (more…)

“Members of two Iraqi military units have refused orders to deploy to heavily contested areas, a top U.S. military general said.”

If Iraqi soldiers won’t go fight in their own country because it is too dangerous, why are OUR soldiers over there??

AND…

If as Bush said, “we’ll stand down when the Iraqis stand up,” is this a sign that our troops may never come home?

Read The Raw Story

The British Broadcasting Corporation (also informally known as ‘the Beeb’ or ‘Auntie Beeb’) is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world. The Beeb has produced a new t.v. show about Robin Hood, but the original tapes have been stolen, and are being held for ransom.

Does theft get more poetic? Will the ransom, if acquired, be distributed to the poor? The London Guardian reports.

Huffington Post’s Trey Ellis gives a succinct analysis on chocolate cities as a function of a healthy democracy and our inability to talk about race like ‘grownups’

Huffington Post

One year after Hurricane Katrina devastated the US Gulf coast, America holds its collective breath, bracing for the next catastrophe.

Hurricane Ernesto is building strength in the Caribbean, threatening the impoverished islands of Haiti and Cuba. Meanwhile, the government of the world’s richest nation is still reeling from a violent 2005 hurricane season, its floundering imperial adventures in the Middle East, and tumultuous mid-term election politics. The US is ill-prepared for the first Hurricane of the new season or the impending political whirlwind that will accompany it. (more…)

Maybe we should all get certified in CPR…

The Detroit EMS is under scrutinity again and the word PRIVATIZATION, continues to loom over the city.

A Detroit woman says she woke up to find her father barely conscious, so her first reaction was to call 911, but the paramedics never made it to the patient who desperately needed them.Barbara Friend says she called 911 at least three times, but never saw an ambulance. Now she wants to know why help never got to her father.

Channel 7 Action News

Whats the answer?

Former US Congressman and past NAACP president Kwesi Mfume is running for the Senate as a Democrat in Maryland, but you’d never know it. Top Dems have endorsed his (white) rival US Rep. Benjamin Cardin despite Mfume’s record and his obvious appeal to Black voters.

But the kick in the head is that hip hop mogul Russell Simmons is endorsing the other Black guy in the race, Republican and Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele. Simmons appeared at a Steele fundraiser, attended mostly by young Black folks, and claimed the GOP candidate is leading the charge in “The last leg of the civil rights movement” which Simmons identifies as the economic empowerment step. (Read as “the pro-business and rich brothers step”.)

Early in his campaign, Steele took great effort to distance himself from the leader of his party, but has reversed that move of late, referring to Grandwizard GDub as his “homeboy”.

So where does that leave Mfume? He is the progressive horse in the race - antiwar, pro-liberal values - but with even his buddy Min. Ben Chavis Muhammad stumping for Steele on Simmons’ coattails, will Kweisi be able to mount a significant challenge come November?

The CBS reality show ‘Survivor’ is changing its format this fall. In the American tradition, CBS turns to race baiting to boost ratings. The teams, also known as tribes, will divide along racial lines. There will be a Black team, white team, Latino team, etc.

Hmm, who does Tiger Woods cheer for? And for that matter, what team is he on?

The show’s producer, Mark Burnett, says the following about the new format:

“In America today,” Mr. Burnett said, “I really don’t believe there are many people who hate each other because of their race. But even though people may work together, they do tend in their private lives to divide along social and ethnic lines.”

Burnett also says this isn’t a strategy to boost sagging ratings but an “interesting social experiment.”

NYTimes

I don’t know what to say about this story. It speaks for itself.

Cook County prosecutors say a 29-year-old man traveling with his mother desperately didn’t want her to know he’d packed a sexual aid for their trip to Turkey.

So he told security it was a bomb, officials said.

Madin Azad Amin, 29, of Skokie, was stopped Aug. 16 after guards found an object in his baggage that resembled a grenade, prosecutors said.

When officers asked him to identify it, Amin said it was a bomb, said Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Lorraine Scaduto.

He later told officials he’d lied about the item because his mother was nearby and he didn’t want her to hear that it was part of a penis pump, Scaduto said.

Yahoo News

It’s official. Astronomers finally developed a definition of “planet” after centuries without one, and as a result our distant cousin, Pluto gets the ax.

This will cause untold expense as science textbooks are rewritten, solar system mobiles are dismantled and school children everywhere are reprogrammed with new mnemonics:

(Many Very Educated Men Just Stress Un-Necessarily)

Numerous calls to former planet Pluto for comment about its demotion went unreturned.

Now astronomers can get back to their real work - finding a way for humans to escape to Mars before global warming and George Bush destroy Earth.
Yahoo News

Kevin Clash has been with Sesame Street’s Elmo for the last 20 years. Clash is the creator and Muppeteer of our furry red friend. Clash, originally from Baltimore, loves it when people meet the man behind the Muppet and discover Elmo is a Black man.

NYTimes

Detroit needs to be more vendor friendly. I attended the Carribbean and African World festival over the past two weekends at Hart Plaza in downtown Detroit, and some of the vendors were not happy.

$750 for the Carribbean festival and $950 for the African World festival were the amounts vendors were charged to set up booths at Hart Plaza. Some said they did not even make more than $200 for the two festivities. They complained about the lack of promotion for the events which could have attracted more than the usual crowd.

I can feel the vendors. If I’m paying that much to set up a booth at the event, I would expect more from the organizers than just paying $750 or $950.

Detroit should look to New York for mentoring on a more friendly vendor atmosphere. Becoming a cultural hub is more than just talking. Make vendors want to attend your events next time…and offer incentives.

Banky

Former Detroit city council member Alonzo Bates is on trial for playing fast and loose with public money. Bates put his fingers in the public piggy to spend on personal projects such as a new roof for his house, lawn maintenance and snow removal. He also played Big Daddy when he laced his girlfriend’s daughter with college cash. His lawyers insist he isn’t a crook….just a freeloader.

 Detroit News

The Times Online (UK) reports that:

American defence contractors are enjoying a bumper year as arms contracts won from foreign governments surge to record levels. So far this year contracts worth $21.7 billion have been passed to the US Congress for ratification, 76 per cent more than agreed during all of 2005, when America is believed to have lost market share in the global weapons trade to Europe.

America’s foreign military sales (FMS) for the whole of this year are expected to reach a level not seen since 1993 and the end of the first Gulf War.

Though Grandwizard GDub appears to be a poor manager on the surface, he is actually doing a bang-up job increasing profits for his family’s business portfolios in oil, finance, security and weapons. (more…)