Talk about poor timing.

Russell Simmons released his book, Do You: Laws To Access The Power In You To Achieve Happiness And Success, right as the argument about hip hop’s often misogynist lyrics reached a fever pitch.

The result? He is answering (or dodging) more questions about hip hop lyrics during his book tour than he is being asked about his book.

So when the hip hop mogul sat down recently with NPR’s Farai Chideya, he got so flustered she thought he was going to walk out.
(more…)

This is a cause we can ALL get behind!

From Alternet.org

“We now seem more determined than ever to work harder and produce more stuff, which creates a bizarre paradox: We are proudly breaking our backs to decrease the carrying capacity of the planet,” says Conrad Schmidt, an internationally known social activist and founder of the Work Less Party, a Vancouver-based initiative aimed at moving to a 32-hour work week — a radical departure from the in early, out late cycle we’ve grown accustomed to. “Choosing to work less is the biggest environmental issue no one’s talking about.”

Americans work more hours than anyone else in the industrialized world. According to the United Nations’ International Labor Organization, we work 250 hours, or five weeks, more than the Brits, and a whopping 500 hours, or 12 and a half weeks, more than the Germans. So how does ecological damage figure in to the 40-plus workweek?

Do the math: Longer hours plus labor-saving technology equals ever-increasing productivity. Without high annual growth to match productivity, there’s unemployment. Maintaining growth means using more energy and resources, both in manpower and raw materials, which results in increased waste and pollution.

So chill out. Stop working so hard. Live a little. Life is too short. Your grandchildren will thank you, and you’ll thank yourself.

Alternet.org: Why Working Less is Better for the Globe

As Detroit’s entrepreneurs search for new business opportunities, we should not overlook an important growth industry that could improve both the economic and physical well-being of the city.

Urban farming and community gardening have been touted for several years as a possible source of fresh produce and jobs for The D. Pioneers like Grace and Jimmy Boggs have shown us the way, and a few of us have followed.

The information in this recent article on Entreprenuer.com demonstrates that Michigan entrepreneurs should pick up the pace, not only when it comes to organic farming, but also in distribution and retail.
(more…)

The US Senate just scored a major victory for America’s drug dealers.

I’m not talking about the “dope boys” pushing nickels and dimes on the corner. I’m talking about the nation’s REAL drug dealers. The big ballers - the major pharmaceutical companies who raked in over $600 billion in global prescription drug spending in 2006.

On May 9, the Senate passed a bill that, according to The New York Times,

…gives the Food and Drug Administration sweeping new power to police drug safety, order changes in drug labels, regulate advertising and restrict the use and distribution of medicines found to pose serious risks to consumers.

While the measure takes small steps in an effort to ease consumer fears about the FDA’s questionable drug approval methods, the bill renewed the government’s deal with the devil that allows drug companies to pay fees that speed up new drug testing, review and approval. The Times quotes Public Citizen’s Health Research Group director Dr. Sidney M. Wolfe as saying, “The bill’s improvements in F.D.A. authority are important but inadequate. The bill would increase collaboration between the agency and the drug industry, by increasing the agency’s reliance on user fees to finance drug reviews.”

The bill also fails to legalize the importation of lower cost drugs from Canada or to cap the rising cost of medicine. In a society that dopes up on legal and illegal substances of many stripes, drug dealers will have a stronger grip on American bodies and wallets thanks to our politicians.
(more…)

Right on the heals of Mitch Albom’s claims that the Duke lacrosse players will carry this “slander” with them for the rest of their lives (read Pidgin’s post from a couple of days ago), comes the news that team captain David Evans has just landed a six-figure gig on Wall Street working for Morgan Stanley.

What was it Albom said?

I’d like to follow them when they apply for a job, and the company interviewing them has a staff meeting and someone in that staff meeting says, “Maybe we should stay away from this guy. After all, that whole rape thing …”

Well, the New York Post says:

The high-powered hiring comes after Evans, 24, lost out on a job offer from JPMorgan Chase when he was accused last year of raping a stripper at a lacrosse team party. Last week, he and teammates Reade Seligmann of New Jersey and Collin Finnerty of Long Island were cleared.

The loss of the job was a bitter blow to Evans.

“This woman has destroyed everything I worked for in my life,” Evans told CBS’s “60 Minutes.” “She’s put it on hold.”

Apparently Evans’ life wasn’t on hold for long. He’s just received a lesson that many have to wait years to learn. A good lawyer can be a rich man’s best friend.

I wonder how the accuser’s job prospects will improve now that this case is behind her. I suppose Mitch Albom couldn’t care less.

The New York Post

I don’t use my mobile phone to access the Internet, so that may be why I haven’t become inundated with mobile ads yet.

But according to Business Week, if you are surfing on your cellular, you may begin seeing more commercials on your phone. Advertisers are gearing up to use targeted mobile ads in a big way. (more…)

Hip hop executive and music manager Chris Lighty of Violator Management talks about the Black persons’ MBA–earned in “hell.”

“Lighty grew up during the 1980s in the gritty Bronx River Projects surrounded by crack and crime. He was one of six children brought up by a single mom working two jobs to feed the family. He saw his best friend, DJ Scott La Rock, murdered before his eyes, the victim of a trivial spat. Starting a business was “the only option,” he said.”

NYDailyNews

It can sound a little whiny when Black people are the only ones pointing out American’s love of dead white men. So we love the occassional observation from other white people.

Wonkette, the D.C. gossip, talked about U.S. Mint’s newest series of coins. Dollar coins with pictures of presidents…all dead white men.

The U.S. Mint, always up on the current trends, is also putting some serious thought into the penny. It seems the copper that is used to make a penny is worth more than the cent itself.

“How dumb do you have to be to mint money at a loss? In the latest only-in-Washington episode, we find that the government may have lost as much as $40 million coining pennies and nickels last year.” - NYTIMES

God bless America.

Wonkette, Los Angeles Times, NYTIMES

As if they were rubbing salt in Detroit’s wounds, Toyota just announced that it is posting record quarterly profits for the 4th quarter of 2006. That’s the same quarter in which Ford posted a $5.8 billion loss to end its worst year in the company’s 103-year history.

The entire blame cannot be placed at the feet of high labor costs though that is where U.S. automakers seem to be cutting. As Ford, GM and Chrysler workers brace for lay-offs, Toyota is trying to decide where to build its next U.S. factory.

Toyota reports brisk sales of its fuel-stingy SUV, the RAV4 and the mid-sized Camry. During Super Bowl ads, Ford was still hawking the gas-guzzling, but high-profit margin F150. With oil prices set to rise as the winter gets colder, Toyota’s sales will only go up and Ford’s will drop.

After watching Who Killed The Electric Car? I can only say that U.S. automakers brought this on themselves. I’d buy a plug-in hybrid SUV in a minute!

Big Three: Why haven’t you learned anything?

Yahoo News

Russell Simmons, hip hop mogul extraordinaire and money grubber, went on a fact finding mission paid for by the Diamond Industry and has come to the conclusion that he has a problem with the “current misinformation around diamonds.”

Simmons, who also sells diamonds through his Baby Phat line, went to Southern Africa to draw his own conclusions about this Blood Diamond-hoopla.

And according to him, it is all good in the hood…continue with the bling. And the Diamond Industry is just happy they could get a Black person to say what they have been saying all along.

NY Times “A Hip-hop Mogul Is The Diamond Industry’s New Best Friend”

NYTimes’ bloggers go ape crap over Black Enterprise’s current cover story “75 Most Powerful Blacks on Wall Street.” The Black Enterprise article tackles a familiar topic to most on this site–examinig the strides/setbacks African Americans have made in the corporate world. As most know, the question of economic empowerment still looms large for most Black folk. Yet, equal opportunity comments (yes, even Black people) go a little something like this:

• It is not enough to decry the shortage of Blacks in top level jobs. That may be the case, but are qualified applicants really being passed over? I have seen no reports indicating this. As a black woman and a recruiter I can tell you that I review a depressingly small candidate pool of minorities for most positions advertised by my firm. It has led me to believe that they just aren’t there in large numbers and the makeup of most firms’ management teams seems to lend credence to this. Educated and accomplished blacks where are you? You need to start showing up - we’re stuck at bemoaning your absence - account for yourselves.
• I am sick and tired of the incessant complaining by all minorities about the lack of representation in government, corporate america, etc., etc. It’s important to recognise that the opportunities have been created and it’s then left largely to the population of minorities to seek to take advantage of those opportunities. Stop your bloody complaining and work to earn that place.
• Well, if I was an African American I would be worried. While the African-Americans sit around bickering and complaining about lack of recognition, the Asians and Latinos in business are going to continue climbing business ladders without screaming “Look at me I’m climbing!”.
• When is the article on the lack of diversity, subtitled “The Discrimination against Asians in the NBA and the NFL,” coming out? I am also still waiting for the article on “The Highly Qualified Asian Students Who Do Not Get into Elite Schools so that Utterly Unprepared and Unqualified Affirmative Action Students Can Steal Their Rightful Places, which Is Futile since They Never Graduate Anyway.”

Slavery is still legal in the United States. Section 1 of the 13th Amendment says, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

With the US prison population reaching 2 million people - the largest incarceration rate of any industrialized nation - prison/slave labor is often more profitable than outsourcing the work to developing countries. According to this article on Alternet.org, “many prisoners… earn about $60 for an entire month of nine-hour days.” (more…)

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…)

Ford’s announcement that they will cut 4th Quarter production by 21% (168,000 vehicles) is another huge blow to the sluggish Michigan economy. This will lead to more job cuts in an area where so many businesses are dependent on this one industry.

Consumers have been asking for more fuel efficient vehicles for years, and though gas-guzzling truck and SUV sales have been keeping Ford’s ship afloat for a while, the writing has been on the wall for some time now. Company leadership just refused to read it, and now they are sinking under the weight of their own arrogance.

Dinosaurs like Ford and GM continue to react to the market while Japanese automakers anticipate demand and even set trends. This is why the dinos are losing marketshare.

Didn’t Detroit’s automakers go through this in the 70’s? Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.