Congressional Election Nullified – Nobody Noticed...

This is TRULY f'd up.

It seems that the Republicans are doing everything and anything to hold on to power.

My questions are:

Why aren't the Democrats doing anything about it?

And...

Why wasn't this reported in the "mainstream media?"


http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0608/S00316.htm


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Congressional Election Nullified – Nobody Noticed

Friday, 25 August 2006, 10:45 pmArticle: Michael Collins

Speaker of the House Nullified San Diego Congressional Race

By Michael Collins“Scoop” Independent MediaWashington, DC
See also... Election Nullification 2: Speaker's Special Source

It appears the US media overlooked one of the great political stories of the year. In what is becoming something of a pattern, here’s a brief chronology:

On June 6, 2006 Republican Brian Bilbray allegedly slightly outpolled Democrat Francine Busby in the special election for California’s 50th Congressional District, despite Busby’s lead in the polls going into the election. There were immediate cries of foul following the election due to major irregularities, including electronic voting machines sent out to the homes and cars of volunteers for up to 12 days prior to the election, and irregular election results like huge mega-precincts of absentee ballots where turnout was thousands of percent more than registered voters.

On June 13, 2006, Bilbray flew to Washington, DC and was sworn in as a member of the United States House of Representatives by House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

On or about June 30, 2006, 17 days after Bilbray was sworn in as a member of the House, Mikel Haas, Registrar of San Diego County, officially completed the audit of election results required for certification, and officially certified the election of Bilbray over Busby based on 163,931 votes cast, of which 2,053 votes were said to be cast on Diebold TSX touchscreens, and the remainder scanned via Diebold Accuvote OS computers.

On July 31, 2006, the Contestants filed an election contest, seeking a hand recount and to invalidate the election on several grounds, not only including the affirmative evidence of irregular results, but also including the stonewalling of citizen information requests and the pricing of recounts at an estimated $150,000 that made it difficult or impossible for any citizen to tell who won the election.

On August 22, 2006 the defendants moved to dismiss, arguing that the swearing in of Bilbray deprives everyone else of jurisdiction including specifically the San Diego Superior Court because Art. I, sec. 5 of the US Constitution has been held to mean that the House and Senate are the judges of the Qualifications of their Members, one of those qualifications is supposed to be “election.” There is some thing very wrong with this sequence. Elections are not complete, anywhere, until they are officially certified by local authorities. How can a citizen get sworn in as a member of the House of Representatives before his or her election is certified? Only Speaker Dennis Hastert, his team, and Bilbray have the answer.

In a filling in San Diego Municipal Court yesterday, attorney Paul Lehto outlined the core in stark terms: Defendants are in effect arguing for the remarkable proposition that unilateral self-serving actions by a majority party in the House of Representatives to shuttle in a member of the same party can be effective, even if those actions do violence to and amount to circumvention of other sections of the US Constitution as well as the California constitution.

Document available here. Lehto is one of the two attorneys representing citizens who are challenging the election. Shortly after the last vote was cast, citizens discovered disturbing facts. Prior to Election Day, several poll workers had taken home voting machines for periods of a day to a week at a time without supervision or even consistent tracking procedures. Other irregularities like vote switching on touch screen machines emerged. Brad Friedman of http://www.bradblog.com/ conducted an extensive investigation that uncovered a series of sloppy procedures by County Registrar Haas. The election became an immediate cause for citizens, supporters of the losing candidate, and national voting rights activists. The results were also challenged by Howard Dean, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

A suit was filed by two local citizens challenging the election. The initial filing relied on the right of citizens to know that their votes are and counted correctly in order to assure that the candidate designated as the winner is in fact the winner. Part of the suit is a request, denied to date, for a recount of the ballots cast on Election Day. In response to the suit, the County of San Diego filed a response questioning the authority of the local court to decide the case since (a) membership in the house was the province of the House of Representatives and (b) the speaker had already sworn in Bilbray.

Lehto and Simpkins filed a withering response to this argument. They point out that elections are the province of local and state authorities for all elections including federal contests, unless otherwise specified in the constitution. The following is form the filing yesterday: Clearly, the swift swearing in did not end the election in the 50th Congressional District, and it did not render everything, including the certification of results weeks later, nugatory and without “jurisdiction.” If this swearing in had this effect, then in the course of dismissing this case the Court would be bound to conclude that the certification of the results after the swearing in of Bilbray was without force and effect, without jurisdiction, and in contravention of principles of federalism, as Defendants argue. That conclusion, however, requires either an absurdity, or the conclusion that our Congressional election was canceled by decision of the Speaker of the House, before all the votes were fully counted, and well before certification. Document available here.

So there you have it. Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the United House of Representatives, called “the peoples’ House,” now has the authority to nullify elections simply by swearing in candidates and claiming federal privilege based on one narrow section of the constitution, while completing ignoring the others, including the one stating that members of the House shall be elected every two years “by the People,” and not selected in Washington DC. Once again, the country is faced with a Bush v. Gore style selection manufactured in Washington DC, and if only the people did not know which party benefited and which party was hurt by the selection, the country would be unanimous in denouncing this power grab.

Ongoing support and interference by the House of Representatives or persons associated therewith continues in San Diego. Paul Vinovich, Counsel to the House Administration Committee, Chaired by Bob Ney, R, of Ohio, had a letter delivered to San Diego Superior Court presiding Judge Yuri Hoffman, with a number of arguments in favor of the Judge dismissing the case. This type of communication with members of the judiciary, particularly when another government authority is involved, is covered by strict rules. One such rule is that the ex parte communication be provided simultaneously to counsel for all involved. In his own hand, Vinovich says to plaintiff’s attorney Lehto, “Letter delivered to court last evening.” Lehto received the fax at 8:56 a.m. Thursday morning, many hours after the letter was admittedly provided to the judge by Vinovich.

In the letter, Vinovich admits the time sequence of a July 13 swearing in followed by a July 29th certification of the election and then, through circular reasoning, tries to use the certification as justification for the swearing in ceremony. He fails to note that Speaker Hastert would have needed psychic powers on June 13th to know that the swearing in of Bilbray would be justified by a June 29th certification.

We’re clearly at the point where members of the ruling party are making up rules post hoc to justify whatever actions they wish to take. We are also at a point where there is little if any opposition to this. The House is silent. With the exception of local and national voting rights activists and Chairman Dean, the opposing party is silent. The Defendants literally argue that the Courts are powerless to stop them (without jurisdiction). Friday will reveal whether the courts are powerless to stop this abuse of power and premature termination of elections.
Will Judge Yuri Hoffman carry on the emerging tradition of silence, or will he take us back to the courage and integrity shown by Judge John Sirica, a Republican appointee, who made history by demanding the truth from the Watergate burglars?
*************
Copyright: This article may be used in whole or in part with attribution to the author and a link to “Scoop” Independent Media.
***END***

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Is this how democracy dies?

Hip Hop Minstrel Show...

I got this from Davey D's Hip Hop Daily News website and Youtube.com.

It's deep as Hell and alittle offensive, too.

It should be, because some elements of Hip Hop are losing it's way.

Hip Hop Minstrel Show






Maybe some people will learn from this and STOP SELLING OUT HIP HOP!!

Mel, Mel, Mel...

By now you heard what happened to Mel Gibson during a drunken tirade while he was under arrest.

Damn, Mel...

A question:

I wonder if Hollywood would be in such an uproar if Mel had said what he said about Blacks instead of Jews?

Hmmmm...

Survivor Getting Racial...

This is REALLY a trip.

I got this off a blog called blackprof.com.

I guess rating are really hurting for them to play "the race card."


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Survivor Getting Racial

August 23, 2006
by Marc Lamont Hill

On September 14, CBS will unveil the thirteenth season of the popular reality show “Survivor.” Like its predecessors, the upcoming season will send 20 people to a tropical island, divide the teams into four “tribes,” and have them compete against each other until one person is left standing. In addition to intensifying the colonial gaze through its reductive and exoticized representations of the “other,” the show has added yet another problematic twist: this year’s tribes will be divided by race. While the producers are labeling the show as a “social experiment, ” many critics are already dismissing it as a racist publicity stunt.

To be certain, the producers of the show are motivated by the high ratings that accompany such a sensational premise. Given the enormous hype and early high ratings for FX’s race-centered Black/White, it was merely a matter of time before another network followed suit. Initially, Donald Trump was planning to do a race-themed season of The Apprentice but opted out at the last minute. This was a wise business move, as the backlash from an offensive moment or two could permanently derail the series. Such a moment would have inevitable given Trump’s rough demeanor, disrespectful treatment of Omorosa, and public diss to Randal Pinkett.

Unfortunately, the folks at CBS don't share Trumps keen understanding of his own limitations.
Many critics have blasted the show for promoting racism through its racially segregated teams. Such a belief is undergirded by a wrongheaded liberal approach to race that eschews any recognition of racial difference. While I don’t believe that dividing teams by race is fundamentally racist, the claim that this show is an “experiment” that can tell us anything meaningful about race is spurious. Like FX’s Black/White, Survivor places relatively privileged people (check the list of participants) in contrived circumstances that don’t approximate the conditions of American social life.

Although White privilege, anti-Black racism, and systemic inequality certainly seep through the porous cultural walls of reality television, they are obscured by the heavily orchestrated interactions and identity performances that the reality television genre demands. Unfortunately, many Americans lack the theoretical tools and political will to understand how just how inaccurate and mendacious the show’s “findings” are. Just like in Black/White, when everyday people buttressed claims that racism didn’t exist by pointing out that Bruno (the White guy turned Black) didn’t get ignored in the shoe store, the new Survivor runs the risk of misstating the truth by overstating its “realness.” If the folks at CBS want to use Survivor to talk about race, they should figure out how Black people manage to survive with inadequate health care, diminishing job opportunities, poor schools, and institutionalized racism.

But that, of course, would be too real for them.

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I knew there was a reason I never liked Survivor...

What the Government Knows...

I'm posting this because people need to know what's REALLY going on with what some people are doing to "fight terrorism." I know it's alittle dated, but the info is genuine. Read on, if you dare...


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13561813/site/newsweek/


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What the Government Knows

While an overseas program to track bank records has unleashed a political storm, the domestic Patriot Act has already made a wealth of financial data available to U.S. law enforcement agencies.

By Michael Isikoff
Newsweek

June 26, 2006 - Over the last four years, U.S. law enforcement agencies have gained access to over 28,000 financial records inside the United States under a little known provision of the USA Patriot Act that parallels the secret international bank data program disclosed by news organizations last week, Treasury Department records show. The disclosure of the overseas program under which Treasury Department officials have tapped into the records of a vast Belgian-based international financial database called Swift (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications) has kicked up a storm of controversy. Some critics have decried the program as another example of the administration's invasion of privacy in the name of the war on terror. At the same time, President Bush today condemned as "disgraceful" the disclosure of the operation, which intended to help the government track overseas money movements of suspected terrorists. "For people to leak that program, and for a newspaper to publish it, does great harm to the United States of America, Bush told reporters in Washington. But the international program is only one part of a much broader, if little publicized, Treasury Department effort to probe suspect financial records including thousands of bank accounts, wire transfers and other transactions involving individuals, companies and nonprofit organizations inside the United States.

Under a section of the USA Patriot Act passed by Congress in the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks, Treasury officials were given new powers to direct U.S. banks and other financial institutions to search their records for accounts or transactions involving any individuals or groups who come under scrutiny during investigations of terrorism and money laundering cases. Although it has received little attention, the Patriot Act program has produced a wealth of previously unavailable financial data that has been shared with U.S. law enforcement agencies without any notice to the account holders who are being investigated. Since the fall of 2002, when the program began, U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCEN) an arm of the Treasury Department has directed searches of 4,397 "subjects of interest" and received reports back on 28,463 accounts and financial transactions, according to recent Treasury records.

Once there is a positive "match" showing a suspect individual or company has conducted a financial transaction with a U.S. bank, FINCEN then notifies the law enforcement agencies, which can use the existence of a reported "match" as the basis for a grand jury or administrative subpoena. The Treasury records show that U.S. agencies have used the program to obtain 1,206 grand jury subpoenas and 328 administrative subpoenas. It has also led, according to the Treasury records, to 90 indictments, 79 arrests and 10 convictions. Treasury Department officials last week cited those figures as evidence that the Patriot Act program has become an important tool that is being increasingly used by U.S. law enforcement agencies to obtain domestic financial records.

Robert Werner, the director of FINCEN, also told NEWSWEEK in an interview that data gleaned from the secret Swift program involving overseas bank records can then used by Treasury to request record searches of banks and broker dealers inside the United States under the Patriot Act program—one way in which the two efforts can complement each other. "You might have information from the Swift data that allows you to track a transaction inside the United States" under the Patriot Act program, Werner said.

The complementary nature of the two programs—one secret and the other entirely public (even if barely known to the general public)— puts a different context on the furor over the Swift program. After the Swift program was disclosed last week—in news stories by the Times, Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times—the ACLU decried the "financial spying" effort as "another example of the Bush administration's abuse of power."
But the Swift program is not significantly different—at least in concept—from the Patriot Act program. And the Patriot Act program involves purely domestic financial records, presumably an issue that would be of greater concern to American citizens who were concerned about the privacy of their financial records.

As outlined by Treasury Department officials last week, the overseas program is triggered by intelligence information about possible financial activity by suspected terrorists. Once Treasury receives the leads, it then obtains records on the suspected activity from Swift. Swift, a Brussels-based financial industry consortium, electronically processes billions of international wire transfers and money movements conducted among banks, brokerages and investment funds around the world.

Treasury Department officials insisted last week that the Swift program was closely monitored by an outside auditing firm to insure that the record searches requested by Treasury only involves legitimate terror suspects. But even though it was originally conceived as a tool for terror fighting, the Patriot Act program is actually broader than that and now frequently involves record searches in law enforcement cases that have nothing to do with terrorism.
This is because, as Congress wrote it, FINCEN searches under the Patriot Act may be for terrorism and money laundering cases—and money laundering is frequently present in a wide range of criminal activity unrelated to terrorism. Indeed, according to the recent Treasury Department figures, federal law enforcement agencies have requested FINCEN searches for financial records in a total of 536 cases—63 percent of which, or 342, involved suspected money laundering activity as opposed to terrorism. A Treasury Department "fact sheet" on the Patriot Act program highlights the fact that the program has been used in cases as diverse as cigarette smuggling, identity theft, investment fraud, and drug trafficking. In December 2003, Newsweek reported that the program had been used by the FBI office in Las Vegas to obtain the financial records of Clark County commissioners suspected of taking bribes from a local strip club operators.

After the disclosure, Treasury officials said last week, FINCEN has tightened up on its criteria for processing searches requested by law enforcement agencies and that many requests, 100 out of about 650 this year, are now rejected. "It has to be true money laundering," Werner said.

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A question if I may:

How is this supposed to stop Osama and people like him?

Does the gov't think he's hanging out in a strip club?

Whistleblowers Say State Farm Cheated Katrina Victims...

This is some f'd up stuff.

Thought I'd post this up to see how there are people that are screwing over the Katrina victims. The original link is below as well as the entire article.

Check it out.


http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/08/state_farm_insi.html

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Exclusive: Whistleblowers Say State Farm Cheated Katrina Victims

August 28, 2006 10:25 AM
Brian Ross and Joseph Rhee Report:

State Farm Insurance supervisors systematically demanded that Hurricane Katrina damage reports be buried or replaced or changed so that the company would not have to pay policyholders' claims in Mississippi, two State Farm insiders tell ABC News.

Kerri and Cori Rigsby, independent adjusters who had worked for State Farm exclusively for eight years, say they have turned over thousands of internal company documents and their own detailed statement to the FBI and Mississippi state investigators. In an exclusive interview with ABC news, that was broadcast on 20/20 and World News, the Rigsby sisters say they saw "widespread" fraud at the State Farm offices in Biloxi and Gulfport, Miss. "Katrina was devastating, but so was State Farm," says Cori Rigsby.

At one point, they say State Farm brought in a special shredding truck they believe was used to destroy key documents. State Farm says shredding is standard to protect policyholders' privacy. The sisters say they saw supervisors go to great lengths to pressure outside engineers to prepare reports concluding that damage was caused by water, not covered under State Farm policies, rather than by wind.

They say reports that concluded that damage was caused by wind, for which State Farm would have to pay, were hidden in a special file and new reports were ordered. Cori Rigsby says she recalls a senior coordinator ordering that an engineering company be told to alter the findings in its report so that State Farm would not have to pay. "Tell them if they don't change their report, we're not paying their invoice," she remembers the supervisor saying.

A lawyer for State Farm, Wayne Drinkwater, told ABC News he was unfamiliar with the Rigsby sisters but denied State Farm cheated policyholders or pressured outside engineers to reach particular conclusions in their damage reports. "We, of course, have not been cheating," Drinkwater said. The allegations, if proven, would support the suspicions of thousands of homeowners along the Mississippi Gulf Coast who have been unable to collect enough insurance money to rebuild their homes.

Many have filed lawsuits against State Farm and other insurance companies alleging the companies of wrongly denying or low-balling their claims. The Rigsby sisters' allegations are now a key part of suits filed against State Farm by well-known Mississippi lawyer Dickie Scruggs, famous for taking on the tobacco companies.

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Damn, that's messed up.

Why do some people try to screw others over during a massive tragedy like this?

Sorry, Greedy Landlords...

You wanna know something?

I REALLY hate LANDLORDS that don't do what they are SUPPOSED to do even though you're giving them some of your HARD EARNED CASH for a place to stay!

And I hope he's reading this blog entry.

A Sorry, Greedy Landlord

DO YOUR DAMN JOB!!

Gangsta: The Steroids of Hip-Hop?

Here's a post from the Incredible Chuck D of Public Enemy, or PE for the true fans out there. The originl link is below so check it out.

I know you must be wondering, "Why is Ken B. posting stuff from OTHER people's blogs?"

The reason?

So that you get exposed to peoples' views that you might not otherwise come across on your own, That's why I always add the original link so you can check out the various sites yourself and their archives.

Feel me?

http://www.publicenemy.com/index.php?page=page3&item=111

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Public Enemy's Official Logo

GANGSTA: The Steroids Of Hip Hop?
June 16, 2006

Living in America makes it always time it pull out the race card. I really smell race stench on the MLB back turning on Barry Bonds this year as he passed the Babe. Not so much in the media itself , but in the atmosphere they fester in their big payback to BBs so called 'career surliness' toward them. The media kind of lets the average sports ( usually white) working class male pull the pin to the grenade they plant, and step back and witness the perfect storm. Fed right into a millennium lynch mob. The Babe will always be a hero, regardless of how much pork was in some of those ingested hot dogs, liquor binges, and chick orgies in his career and especially the year he almost overdosed in all that excess.

It's much of the same demographic that has supported the posturing of gangster rap. Who am I to argue? As I named the group Public Enemy off what I knew was a fascination of 1930's Capone era lifestyle. In the depression era , the gangster was blown up by the media to the largely skeptical Americanation. It was like modern day Robin Hood fantasies come to life or at least the big screen when that aura was passed from the Capones' and Schultzes' to the Edward G Robinsons and George Rafts depicting them. Escapism in rough times.

Like a sport. As with war and cowboy westerns, television era brought guns to the living room during the baby boom. The first eleven years of my life were Vietnamed with violence. Cartoons were laced with bombing, lasers, and thunderous blows in fights, at least the ones I dug. During the depression era of R&B (Reagan and Bush) the imagery of the updated Robin Hood came in rap music. Somehow crack and guns were in post disco black neighborhoods while kept outside of the white privileged Rubelled fueled cocaine laced Studio 54. Its the 80's and as presented by NWA ...surprise niggers, uh I mean niggas..yeah..WTF?

At college radio WBAU around 1985, KING TEE painted a picture to us in the east first depicting that life wasn't all 'soul train dancers and palm trees in the left coast. Better Get A Gun was the name of the record. Caught my attention. ICEburg T brought the tales of that life to the wax , depicting the details of the good, bad, and the ugly. The South Bronx escapism from the reality of thuglife 1980 style was peace, love, unity and having much fun rather than witnessing the broken glass everywhere. Nobody there wanted to hear no depressing sht. It was already right thurr. By 1987 Scott LaRock and blastmaster KRS ONE brought that reality to east coast rap wax with Criminal Minded. Well the answers were no where to be found on who was gonna fix the ghetto. Not Reagan, Nor the next prez Bush. PE found a way to flip all this gun fare and criminality in the air and morph it into black nationality on the remembrance edges of militancy.

By that time white kids invited to the hip hop party through the portals of FLASH, RUN-DMC and The BEASTIES had to walk gingerly on the black paper rug laid down of afrocentricity. It was a entrance fee of respect beyond the registers of retail.

NWA and the POSSE one upped the lyrical pictures of ICE T with a super team of emcees along with a west coast master of records named DR DRE, who produced with the WRECKING CREW and made early mixtapes of largely East coast rap joints sold at the swap meets ( I clearly remember a swap meet outside in the parking lot of the San Diego Sports Arena in 1987, where the ever intimidating ERIC B single handedly confiscated every tape he saw with his music on it from sellers he placed fear upon). I think back then it was the good and evil that balanced upon the shoulders of NWA, the righteousness that made DRE say he wouldn't give into the drug-game at the time so easily when he claimed he didn't smoke weed or cess. Crack and mo guns spread to the cities in 1987-1990, the media bias considered everything outside NYC lines the suburbs, and thus called it that way.

The cable privileged side of YO MTV Raps swelled up at the bravado of the black gangsta though. Black guns, style and maybe some ass in the living room on the sneak tip. Besides the nationalism was a bit too much of a price to pay , where maybe NATIVE TONGUE style invited those to the peace, love, unity and having fun thing as BAM intended. The other flip was that the spread of urban reality into the first Bushsht years, brought the aspect of gangsterism as escapism. The Source immediately praises the gangsta black life because the numbers of fascination were higher, and they never knew it existed in the first place. Black folks in the east were tired of the reality of gangsta life. But something was sold under the counter. Maybe via Viacom. Possibly dragging along everything in its path as well. The key balance of conscious ICE CUBE defected to the east keeping the balance, while NWA spiraled to being 'Niggas for the rest of their lives to white amerikkkas praise.

By this time it was about numbers and the quantity was king over the quality of the issues at hand. There was no looking back as one year the Source claimed that everything that sprouted from the Straight Outta Compton existence had generated into tens of millions of records, white the PE, BDP-XCLANish stuff only resulted in a couple million. The numbers were staggering al the way up to these Get Rich Or Die Trying times. Through the murders of PAC, BIG, BIG L, MAC DRE, etc , the style was the dominant identity praised by the media. The films followed path of the modern day rapper classic 'SCARFACE' ( which by the way I think is the most mis-followed movie of all time. The world is never his and people ignore his wackass ending...hello? .. there's a message here..)

Seventeen years stemmed from the seed it could've went either way. Taking the reality and making a better situation from it. But the numbers don't lie. It is what it is. 'Die nigger Die' is amerikkkas longest running profitable horror flick. But its a horror flick to my constituency, possibly a chitlin western porno, possibly comedy to the Barry Bonds hating crowd. A sad documentary, in fact, not a friendly game of baseball as MAIN SOURCE said. It might be what it is Amerikkkan like baseball, hot dogs and big apple pie,but let's check the bat and the blood, before it splinters and splatters into the basics of what was originally intended to do. Balance yall.

mistachuck@rapstation.com


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The Incredible Chuck D

Chuck D is the f*ckin' man!

The Origin Of Baggy Clothes In Hip-Hop And Gang Culture...

Here's another one by Chance. With all of the "baggy clothes crap" going on, I thought I would show how the "baggy" craze TRULY started.

Read on...

The so-called "baggy look."

http://chancellorfiles.typepad.com/chancellorfiles/2005/12/the_origin_of_b.html


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The Origin Of Baggy Clothes In Hip-Hop And Gang Culture

Chance writes: Baggy clothes and Hip Hop are united like husband and wife before you criticize the baggy clothes style. You should first try to find out the origins this is what the thoughtful one’s do

Category-Social commentary & Hip Hop Culture
The Origin Of Baggy Clothes In Hip-Hop And Gang Culture
By Chance, The Chancellorfiles

Chance: The baggy clothes style was started by black American crip and blood gang members.It all started in the 1970's at the Los Angeles county jail in Los Angeles, California.When people got arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department and once they arrived at the Los Angeles County jail. The Los Angeles county sheriffs would take the inmates belts and shoe laces away. The reason for this procedure was because some inmates would use their belts and shoe laces to kill themselves. There were inmates who didn’t want to do time in jail or prison so they would commit suicide. So the Los Angeles County Sheriffs started taking belts and shoe laces away from all inmates.

Now some of the Black inmates were gang-members these black gang members were Crips and Bloods. When these black Crip and Blood gang-members were released from the Los Angeles County Jail and from the California prison system.

They remembered the way their pants would fall down because the sheriffs took away their belts; and their shoes were loose because of no shoe laces. Also, they remembered how they where given white-t shirts that were too big for some of them to wear. So these black gang-members kept the style that they got from jail and prison.

Example a black gang-member in Los Angeles who wore a 34inch waist in pants would buy a size 40 inch waist in pants. Also he might be a size large in shirt but he would buy 3x large t-shirt (triple x large). Because he remembered being locked up in jail and prison having no choice but to wear white-t-shirts and other shirts that were too big for him.

Chance: Also Hispanics Americans (Latinos) in California have been wearing white-t-shirts since the 1940s. These Hispanic Americans were called Chicanos (Hispanic of Mexican descent). The Hispanic gangs of California back in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s were called Pachucos. The Pachucos had their own neat and clean pants, shoes, zoot suits and shirts, Pachucos would sometimes wear white-t-shirts and white tank top t-shirts also. The Pachucos dressed very clean and neat - and they were Hispanic gang-members.

But the reason you see black gang-members wearing white-t-shirts is because a white-t-shirt was one of the shirts they were given to wear in jail and prison. When people saw black rappers on television, music videos, and album covers wearing baggy clothes.

That’s when people from all ethnic-groups started wearing baggy clothes. Baggy clothes are no longer the sign of a GANG-MEMBER because people who enjoy HIP-HOP - and those who don’t like HIP-HOP wear BAGGY CLOTHES for fashion, not because they’re in gangs.
Also the fashion industry has been influenced by baggy clothes just look at some of the designs of the latest fashion clothing. Even today jails and prisons still give inmates white-t-shirts to wear as an under-shirt.

California Started The Baggy Clothes Style In General

Baggy clothes did not originate in New York cities Hip-Hop community, baggy clothes was introduced to Hip-Hop culture and gang life by Blacks from California. Also, Latinos who were called Pachucos wore their double pleated baggy dress pants back in the 1920s all the way to the late 1960s. And, in Califonia’s subculture Blacks and Hispanics were already wearing double pleated cottlers, Parachute pants, and lock pants.

The first New Yorkers to start wearing baggy clothes were the freestyle dances and Webo dancers this is how New York break dancers started wearing baggy clothes. Freestyle and webo dancers were New York break dancers. And then by the late 1980’s baggy clothes became more popular at hip Hop events in New York and the entire East coast.

The California and the West coast already had the baggy clothes style before the East coast. Black California gang members who became Hip Hop gangster rappers (gangsta) then started making video’s and more and more people of all ages saw the baggy clothes look that black gang members got from California’s jail’s and prison system.

So New York created the Hip Hop culture and California created the baggy clothes style and the two merged and united and came together to form one Hip Hop community.

Through Hip Hop and baggy fashion clothes (the baggy clothes) the East coast and West coast united young people of all racial groups and ethnic back grounds.Hip Hop culture has done what politics and religion sometimes have a hard time doing and that is uniting people of all ethnicities, political, and religious back grounds.

Hip Hop is a culture
What is a culture made of?

1. Politics
2. Religion
3. Economics
4. Music
5. Clothes
6. Literature – books, poetry, educational and books on any subject.
7. Heritage
8. common experiences
9. Relationships – family, friends, casual acquaintances, husband and wife, boyfriend and girl friend, co-workers, etc.
10. Psychology
11. Language – a language can be a dialect or in metaphors or slang.
12. Ideas – Opinions and thoughts on any subject, situation and circumstance that many members of a particular culture find important to the members of their culture.
13. Foods
14. Written and unwritten - rules and codes of conduct on what to say and do and what not to say and do.
15. Philosophy- opinions about certain situations and circumstances in life also - opinions about certain intellectual, political, educational, and religious topics. Also there are many other things that can make up culture but these are the major ones.

Hip Hop is the culture and music is a part of the Hip Hop culture, rap music is not culture rap music is a part of the Hip hop culture. And rap expresses the cultural and personal experiences of the rapper.

Eric Eazy-E wright is the God-Father And Founder Of Gangster Rap
He Is The One Who Started It

Look at Gangsta rap (Gangster rap) it is the most popular music among all ethnic-group also rap music especially Gangsta Rap music is the most widely sold music on the planet. Now not all Rap music is Gangsta rap, some rap music is about relationships between male and female, some about life, some rap songs are about being aware of your culture, some rap music is about being intelligent and some rap music is about the gangsta life.

In the late 1970’s and up to the mid 1980s your Hip-Hop rappers like Run-Dmc, Ll Cool J, Dougie Fresh, Whodini, and many others were not gangsta rappers. They were Hip-Hop performers, entertainers and rappers but not gangsta rappers (Gangster rappers). Yes other music categories like Rock ‘n’ Roll, Classical, Country, and all the other musical categories sell millions of albums also. But Generally Hip-Hop Music and Gangsta Rap Music sell more albums than any-other musical category.

So as previously stated rap music currently is the number one most sold music on the planet and numbers don’t lie. There are many reasons why rap music is the most WIDELY SOLD music in music store Retail and the most internet DOWNLOADED music on earth.
One of the major reasons is that people from all ethnic and racial groups buy it more people from all ethnic-groups also buy Rock’n’ Roll, Country, Classical, and all other musical categories. But they buy Rap music more than any-other. The Hip-Hop culture is open to all ethnic and racial groups. Also, people from other ethnic groups don’t feel like it’s a Black American cultural thing only.

Why? Because black people welcome all people from every ethnic background to their culture there-fore it becomes humanities culture. Someday the whole world will be united just like the Hip-Hop community is united by all ethnic groups. All ethnic groups united, representing one international-humanity just like the Hip-Hop community.

By chance (Chancellor)
Written during the 21st century by Chance.

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I was NEVER down with the baggy look.

As Bill Cosby would say,

"PULL YOUR PANTS UP!!"

HIP-HOP doesn't kill people, PEOPLE kill people...

Here's a blog that I read on the regular by a Black Moderate named Dell Gines. He has ALOT of intersting and informative stuff to say on his blog. I truly recommend it. Here's an entry that talks about Modern Hip-Hop and the original link is below.

Check it out.

http://www.dellgines.com/?p=593

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50 Cent and The Game during their "make-up" truce.

Pro-Hip Hop Part II: Hip Hop doesn’t Kill People, People Kill People

Blogged under Social Commentary by Dell on Tuesday 27 June 2006

Although I understand where folks are coming from when they argue that hip hop creates negative behavior here is a mistake in analysis that I think they are making. They (it seems) are assuming that the elimination of ‘negative’ hip hop would dramatically reduce ‘negative’ behavior particularly amongst us blacks. I simply don’t believe that anymore after really reflecting on my previously held position. I think any form of ‘communication’ can reinforce positive or negative pre-existing potential to do a certain behavior but I really no longer believe that it is the genesis, the creation of such behavior.

I don’t think hip hop creates negative behavior, I think it simply reinforces the negative perception or the negative potential that pre-exist in an individual. When hip hop cats say ‘hip hop is just a window to the ghetto or street life’ I think they are right, but not in the way they think they are right.

For example, if my intent is to kill you, I mean I seriously beyond of shadow of a doubt want to kill you, then yes a gun might make it easier for me to do so, but if indeed it is my intent to kill then I will find a way regardless.

If the intent of an individual is to do some anti-social behavior, hip hop may be like the gun per se in that it provides a vehicle by which to shape anti-social behavior but it does not create said behavior. I believe the behavior would occur regardless because the intent of the person doing anti-social behavior was not created by the music that simply reinforces it or provides a shaping mechanism for it.

When you evaluate hip hop as a shaping mechanism for pre-existing anti-social tendencies and behavior, and not the creator of anti-social tendencies and behavior it forces you to look not at hip hop but at the root causes of the behavior that hip hop actually shapes.

Like the old saying goes, “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people” so it can be said that, “Hip hop doesn’t create bad behavior in people, people create bad behavior in people”. In other words, the infastructure and social dynamics in our community create an environment in which hip hop can serve as a shaping mechanism for the over abundance of anti-social behavior that our communities disproportionately produce. If we don’t correct the infastructure that produces anti-social behavior in the first place, we can eliminate hip hop, but we won’t eliminate the anti-social behavior that hip hop shapes.

Does hip hop in many ways portray us in a negative light to the world? Yep indeed. Doesn’t it also have positive aspects? Yes indeed. Do the negative aspects out weight the positive aspects? Absolutely irrelevent. When we change ourselves and our communities and rebuild our social infastructure then hip hop will cease to be the gun used with the intent to murder, because the intent simply will not be there.

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Damn.

It keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?

Mexico & Japan...

'Sup, y'all.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know... It's been awhile.
You know a brotha has to pay rent.

Anyhoo, here's an entry from an interesting blog I ran into on cyberspace. It's written by a light-skinned Black dude who calls himself "Chance." Alot of his stuff is factual and deep as Hell. The original link is below.

Read on...

http://chancellorfiles.typepad.com/chancellorfiles/2006/07/mexico_and_japa.html

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MEXICO AND JAPAN

Mexico's Official Flag

Japan's Official Flag

(Japan has no natural resources Mexico has many natural resources then why is Japan a wealthier country?)

Chance: When I see many Japanese and Mexican immigrants coming to America one can't help but to observe the difference in their accomplishments of education, economics, and the types of jobs they apply for. The thoughtful ones often ask themselves why is there a difference in one group of people and another when it comes to achievements in certain areas?
Example when you look at Japanese people living in America you will notice, that they often pursue jobs that pay a lot more and these jobs are technical jobs. You don't see many Japanese working in large numbers minimum wage jobs, some do but not many. Go and observe little Tokyo in Los Angeles, California and go to other American cities in the United states of America that have Japanese communities -- and you will see that the people are very educated not all but the majority. And they work in very high skilled jobs that require technical and computer knowledge, engineering, science and math in order to do the job.

I'm talking about Japanese born in the United States of America, those Japanese who come from Japan to live in America, and Japanese who live in Japan. Some people just say that Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans who are born in the United States are inferior to Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans who are born in the United States.

This is not true because there is no race or ethnic group that is superior because of their ethnicity. It is all about how each racial and ethnic group takes advantage of their genetic make up, natural talents, education, moral development, cultural development, etc these things can make a particular racial or ethnic more evolved and developed than another. Because if one ethnic group continue to develop themselves and another group lags and is culturally stagnant. Then the natural result will be that the ethnic group that continued to develop its culture will be more successful than the ethnic group that did not continue to develop its culture. Now let's take a look at the Mexican immigrants the majority of Mexican immigrants currently work low paying jobs -- some move up to the economic ladder and get higher blue collar jobs that pay a lot more. And a smaller percentage of Mexican immigrants go to the university and receive a college degree and use that degree to get a high paying white collar job. When you look at Japanese Americans and Mexican Americans you see that the Japanese Americans work higher paying jobs that require math, science, engineering and sophisticated computer skills.

NATURAL RESOURCES

If we look at Mexico we will see that Mexico has all kinds of natural resources like oil, silver, gold, lead, zinc, copper, and timber. And now, let's look at Japan’s natural resources fish yes; this is true Japan’s major natural resource is fish notice the Japanese are famous for their fish cuisines like sushi. Everybody knows that sushi is a Japanese fish cuisine. Now Mexico having all these natural resources especially oil should be a very wealthy country, and Japan having no natural resources should be a very poor country but this is not the case.

Mexico is a poor second world country and Japan is a wealthy first world country why is this? The reason is very simple Japan is rich in human resource (human capitol)-- and what is human resource (human capital)? It is educated people Japan has millions of educated people who graduated from high school and universities. Now in world war II one of the major reasons that Japan got involved with the war was because Japan needed natural resources like oil, gold, silver, zinc, lead, timber, etc but out of all the natural resources Japan needed oil the most.
Adolf Hitler the leader of Germany knew that Japan needed oil and that Japan had also planned to conqueror other Asian Countries and by conquering other Asian countries then Japan could take their natural resources especially the oil. But look at Japan today they buy all of their natural resources from other countries without invading them and taking their resources why?
Because the Japanese are using their education and intelligence to buy the natural resources they need. Now if we look at Mexico we will notice that Mexico has a lot of natural resources like oil but Mexico is a poor second world country. If it was not for Mexico being so close to America and allowing the America government and businesses to take advantage of its oil and other natural resources Mexico would be a third world country like it use to be.

But even with America giving Mexico financial loans and sending certain jobs to Mexico-Mexico is still a very poor country why? Because Mexico has fewer educated people and in the Mexican school system the children are given free education up to the sixth grade and after the sixth grade; the parents have to pay for their children’s education from 7th grade to 12th grade.
So many parents can't afford to pay the Mexican school system that is run by the Mexican government. So this is why most Mexicans only have a sixth grade education and when they come to the United States they are not skilled technologically, scientifically, and not skilled computer wise.

Most Mexican are skilled agriculturally, manually ( factory and warehouse skills) and work other minimum wage type jobs now Japan’s public school system educate their children all the way to the 12th grade for free without charging the parents.

When many Mexicans come to the united states their children are born here and some of the influences that the Mexican parents had in Mexico about types of jobs to work unintentionally ( not on purpose ) rubs off on their united states born children and you see many Mexican American adults born in the united states working lower minimum wage jobs for many years.
Also, some move up to blue collar jobs and others go and get higher education from a university and then get a white collar job. But often many Mexican Americans semi follow in the tracks of their Mexican parents and only work lower paying jobs not all but many.

Japanese Americans follow in their parents shoes and apply for higher paying jobs not all but many. So Mexico is rich in natural resources and Japan is rich in human recourses.

EDUCATION VS. NATURAL RESOURCES

Chance: So what it finally comes down to is Education vs. Natural resources and the winner is education a perfect example is the United States of America-the United States has educated people and natural resources and look how wealthy America is. Look at the Middle East those Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and other Middle Eastern Muslim countries they all have oil but they are poorer than Mexico.

Also the Middle East has more oil than Mexico but compared to the Middle East Mexico has more educated people than many Middle East Muslim countries. So therefore, Mexico is rich in human resources when compared to the Muslim Countries of the Middle East -- and this is why Mexico currently has a higher standard of living than Middle Eastern Muslim countries.
So no ethnic group or racial group is inferior because of their race or ethnicity the wealth of a country depends on the education and civil rights of its people.

By Chance Kelsey (Chancellor)
Written during the 21st century by Chance

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Some interesting stuff, ain't it?