The House of Xanadu

Happy New Year, y'all!

2012-01-01T08:39:00.006-05:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!!!

I have a feeling that 2012 will be THE YEAR!

Merry (Belated) Christmas, y'all!

2011-12-28T19:19:00.000-05:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

I hope that everyone had a healthy, happy, & very Merry Christmas!!

Woooow...

2011-11-12T16:15:00.002-05:00

ALOT of stuff to talk about, but I don't have the time.

I'll get back atcha when i can!

6 years of "The House of Xanadu"!

2011-07-27T19:06:00.000-05:00

Woooow...

I didn't realize that it has been 6 YEARS (7/23/05) since I've started this blog!

ALOT of thing s have happened since then, to me, and to the country:

1) The Great Recession, 'nuff said...

2) People woke up about Dubya Bush, FINALLY!!

3) A Black President (Well, actually BI-RACIAL as in half-Black and HALF-WHITE, but don't tell the conservatives and bigots that!)...

4) The Tea-Baggers. uh, I mean The Tea Party...

5) Sarah Palin. The less said, the better...

6) The Beginning of "Conservative Backlash" against a Black president...

7) The End of The Space Shuttle...

8) The Rise of Michele "Crazy B*&^%" Bachmann...

9) The Fall of John "Baby Daddy" Edwards...

10) The Rise of Cynisim...

11) The Fall of Hope...

12) Flash Mobs & "Mob Wives" on TV...

13) Cyberbullying...

14) Too many kids killing themselves...

15) Too many thing to list here in this blog...

I haven't been blogging as much lately with LIFE getting in the way and all, but I'll try to be here more often.

Peace...

Still here...

2011-07-08T18:02:00.000-05:00

Wooooooow!!
It's been THIS LONG since I last put up a post!

I'm still here, but my computer has been giving me problems and I've been working non-stop for awhile now. When I have the time, I'll post something new.

I have ALOT to say about the things going on in Greensboro as well as the world lately.

Jobs in Greensboro

2011-01-25T18:05:00.000-05:00

The Job Market here in Greensboro REALLY SUCKS!!

Happy New Year, y'all!!

2010-12-31T22:32:00.001-05:00

Everyone in "Blogland" have a Happy and Proseperous New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

A Quote for The New Year:

CHEERS!!

And I certainly hope that 2011 does better by me than 2010.

Merry Christmas, y'all!

2010-12-24T23:21:00.002-05:00

I hope everyone out there has a Very, Merry Christmas!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Also, don't forget the REAL REASON for Christmas:

Jesus Christ: The REAL REASON for Christmas!

Jesus Christ: The Lamb of GOD

Don't get too stuffed over Christmas Dinner!!

The N Club & LAX shootings & the city's response...

2010-11-12T18:02:00.008-05:00

I know I haven't blogged in awhile, but I just had to sound off on this topic.

What happened at The N Club & LAX were tragic (anytime someone gets shot), but the city's response to them, especially City Councilman Zack Matheny's "suggestions" are moronic & assinine!

First of all, a $5.00 parking fee? Are you serious?!!

Unless you want to have that rate ALL DAY, ALL THE TIME (That's right! All the people who work and/or visit downtown IN THE DAYTIME would have to pay that price!), that's not even legal!

It's just a way for the city and the security company that gets ALL of the city's security work (That would be Lankford Protective Services, the same agency that had a security guard arrested for tackling a guy at the Bus Depot even though HE WASN'T DOING ANYTHING WRONG!) to make some money. I guess they must be giving Matt some campaign money!

You wanna kill "Downtown Nightlife?" Add a $5.00 parking fee just after 9:00PM.

An "Entertainment License?" Get Real!!

You already have a business license that tells you what type of business it is. Once again, another way for the city to make money off this tragic series of events. In fact, you already have another "defacto entertainment license."

Know what it is? It's a... LIQUOR LICENSE!!!

Taking away a club's liquor license will effectively close that club down. This has been used to deal with "troubled" clubs in the past and will be used again in the future.

As far as security goes, that's up to the club owners, as long as they comply with the rules already on the books. With the current state of the economy, people aren't employing experienced club personnel. Instead, they're getting their buddies and friends who've NEVER DONE CLUB SECURITY BEFORE! And you wonder how a gun could get past security now adays.

Also, pay for club security has taken a worst nosedive since The Stock Market Crash of 1929! That's another reason that club security isn't "up to snuff." Nobody wants to pay what they did back in the 2000's, when an experienced club guy could get $150.00 a night for their job. Now? They're lucky to get a lousy $50.00! And the few that pay over $15.00 an hour only want you to work for 3 or 4 hours!

Yes, I'm talking about you, Lotus Lounge! The same guy that said that they don't have the same crowd as The N Club! YES YOU DO, LIAR!!!

A curfew? That's cool, except that the people involved in this weren't under 18, so it wouldn't stop them. And why hasn't anyone said anything about the guy with the gun over at The Greene St. Club the same weekend?

Maybe because of what the guy looks like?

There are going to be incidents downtown when you have the crowds you do. I've also heard and seen incidents that never made it on the news as well. If you want to kill Downtown, like Milton Kern seems to want, do what Matty tells ya!

Rant over, for now...

I'm still patiently waiting...

2010-08-31T17:43:00.000-05:00

...for my bailout package!

Still here...

2010-07-29T16:37:00.001-05:00

I've been preoccupied with some other stuff lately, but I'll have plenty to say on things happening around town, such as the "smoking ban" and the "sweepstakes" issue.

Stay tuned...

J. Bruce Llewellyn, Who Forged a Path for Blacks in Business, Is Dead at 82

2010-05-10T01:16:00.003-05:00

This is actually a little old, but it deserves posting. I've always followed Mr. Llewellyn and his businesses in the pages of Black Enterprises magazine.

Read just a small part of his life here or below.

A true Black Business Pioneer.

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J. Bruce Llewellyn, Who Forged a Path for Blacks in Business, Is Dead at 82

By DOUGLAS MARTIN

Published: April 9, 2010

J. Bruce Llewellyn, whose success in fields as varied as banking, broadcasting, Coca-Cola bottling and groceries made him one of the most prominent black businessmen in America, died Wednesday night at his home in Manhattan. He was 82.

Larry Morris/The New York Times

J. Bruce Llewellyn was one of the nation’s richest African-Americans, with a personal wealth estimated at times to exceed $160 million.

The cause was renal failure, said Edward Lewis, a friend and legal guardian for Mr. Llewellyn. Mr. Llewellyn had been on dialysis for years, Mr. Lewis said.

Throughout his life, Mr. Llewellyn repeated his father’s dictum that blacks must work twice as hard as whites to achieve half as much. In an interview with The Black Collegian in 1997, he asserted that success had not come easily, calling it “nerve wracking, gut-wrenching and pain inducing.”

“You must act to acquire it with a vengeance and to pursue it with a passion,” he said.

Mr. Llewellyn was one of the nation’s richest African-Americans, with a personal wealth estimated at times to exceed $160 million. He was appointed to government posts and advised presidents.

In 1963 he joined with others, including David N. Dinkins, later to become mayor of New York City, in founding 100 Black Men, a social and philanthropic organization that began in New York and expanded throughout the United States.

“We pushed our guys onto bank boards, into government jobs,” Mr. Llewellyn told The New York Times in 1976. “We’re the most dynamic group of black men in the country.”

Perhaps his greatest triumph came in 1985 when he put together a group of black partners to buy a majority share of the Philadelphia Coca-Cola Bottling Company. It was the first of the company’s bottling plants to be acquired by a black person. Four years earlier, Jesse Jackson and his advocacy group Operation PUSH had demanded that Coke open its bottling ranks to black ownership, pointing out that blacks were a major consumer of Coca-Cola soft drinks.

Mr. Llewellyn, a deep-voiced, barrel-chested man who stood 6-foot-6, found initial success by mortgaging everything he owned to turn a tattered chain of supermarkets in Harlem and the Bronx, the Fedco Foods Corporation, into a company with $100 million in annual sales.

Mr. Llewellyn’s use of a leveraged buyout in 1969 to buy Fedco came years before the tactic became commonplace.

“For an African-American businessman to receive multimillion-dollar financing in the 1970s was a landmark event,” said Robert Towbin of the investment bank L.F. Rothschild, Unterberg and Towbin, as quoted by the Encyclopedia of African-American Business.

In 1971 Jackie Robinson, a friend, asked Mr. Llewellyn to join the board of the Freedom National Bank in Harlem, of which Mr. Robinson was chairman. Mr. Llewellyn succeeded Mr. Robinson in 1973, and the next year took a leave of absence from Fedco to be the bank’s acting president. He succeeded in sorting out Freedom’s finances, partly by bringing in capital from white-controlled financial firms. (The bank ultimately failed in 1990 under other leadership.)

During the Carter administration, Mr. Llewellyn was appointed to head the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, an agency that supports American investment in emerging foreign markets. He also accepted business-related assignments from President Bill Clinton.

Part of Mr. Llewellyn’s success stemmed from tax laws aimed at furthering minority ownership of communications companies. When he and some black partners bought a television station in Buffalo in 1985, the seller, Capital City Communications Inc., could get millions of dollars of tax advantages by selling to a member of a racial minority. As a result, Mr. Llewellyn’s group succeeded even though it offered a lower price than other suitors.

Mr. Llewellyn’s associates said his deal-making skills transcended race, however. “No one ever had to bend any rules for J. Bruce Llewellyn,” Mr. Jackson once told USA Today. “He has the entrepreneur’s spirit, the will to risk for reward.”

Mr. Llewellyn reprised the Buffalo deal when he assembled a group to buy NYT Cable TV, a New Jersey concern, from The New York Times Company in 1989 for $420 million. Mr. Llewellyn put up 20 percent of the price (the minimum percentage required to get tax breaks for minority ownership) while the Comcast Corporation and Lenfest Communications Inc. each picked up 40 percent. Mr. Llewellyn became chairman.

James Bruce Llewellyn was born to Jamaican immigrants on July 16, 1927, in East Harlem. His father, Charles, a newspaper linotype operator, moved the family to White Plains when Bruce was 2. His sister, Dorothy Cropper, became a judge on the New York State Court of Claims. Gen. Colin Powell was a close friend of the family’s.

In White Plains, Mr. Llewellyn worked in a restaurant his father acquired. He sold Fuller Brush products door to door and read Fortune magazine. Graduating from high school when he was 16, Mr. Llewellyn joined the Army in a special cadet program. He later became the youngest officer in his battalion.

Afterward he used Army severance pay to buy a liquor store in Harlem. While running it, he attended the City College of New York on the G.I. Bill and graduated in 1955. After attending Columbia Business School and the New York University School of Public Administration and Social Service without graduating from either, he earned a law degree from New York Law School in 1960.

He then entered private legal practice and went on to several city and federal government jobs in small business and housing.

During the power blackout of 1977, riots caused $1 million damage to his Fedco stores, a warehouse and a computer center. But the company rebounded, and by the time he sold the chain for $20 million to Krasdale Foods in 1982, he had quintupled sales and nearly tripled the number of stores.

In 1985, Mr. Llewellyn realized his dream of becoming the first black to own a major bottler when he won control of the Philadelphia Coca-Cola Bottling Company, using stock he owned in a New York bottling company. He added new routes, products and equipment, and the plant thrived.

Mr. Llewellyn’s marriage to Jacqueline Brown ended in divorce. He is survived by his wife, the former Shahara Ahmad; two daughters from his first marriage, Lisa Llewellyn and Alexandra Clancy; one from his second, Jaylaan Llewellyn; his sister, Judge Cropper; and a granddaughter.

In recent years Mr. Llewellyn suffered from kidney and heart problems and had lived apart from his wife. In 2008, Mr. Lewis, Maurice Sonnenberg, and Donald McHenry, a former United Nations ambassador, were appointed guardians to look after Mr. Llewellyn’s health and financial and legal affairs.

To many people in business, Mr. Llewellyn showed that investing in the black community could be profitable, as it was in the 1970s when he tailored his merchandising and employment practices to the black consumers and workers at his Fedco stores.

His often-repeated point was that political and social power grew out of economic power. “Minorities have to understand that the world revolves around the golden rule,” he wrote in Fortune magazine in 1990. “Those who have the gold, rule.”

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Not a bad life...

Deacons for Defense...

2010-04-27T14:08:00.002-05:00

Don't think for a second that all Black folks sang hymnals and let themselves get their asses beat during the time of "Jim Crow."

I read this off "The Panache Report," an extremely interesting website dealing with Black issues.

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DEACONS FOR DEFENSE

Despite having a film based on "The Deacons Of Defense," with actor Forrest Whitaker portraying Robert Hicks (above)-the story about Robert Hicks and his group-the Deacons for Defense have all but been erased from public consciousness.

You check on familiar touch points like YouTube and there's nothing there. Pictures are hard to find and articles are scant. The thought of armed Black men standing up to the KKK and successfully protecting lives during the harsh days of the Jim Crow South is a scary thought for many. The truth of the matter is many African Americans did not sit back and just allow themselves to be beaten and terrorized by the KKK. Hicks represented an underplayed part of our history.

The passing of Robert Hicks (on April 13, 2010) hasn't really been acknowledged via media outlets.

BACKSTORY:

Mr. Hicks was repeatedly jailed for protesting. He watched as his 15-year-old son was bitten by a police dog. The Klan displayed a coffin with his name on it beside a burning cross. He persisted, his wife said, for one reason: “It was something that needed to be done.”

Someone had called to say the Ku Klux Klan was coming to bomb Robert Hicks’s house. The police said there was nothing they could do. It was the night of Feb. 1, 1965, in Bogalusa, La.

The Klan was furious that Mr. Hicks, a black paper mill worker, was putting up two white civil rights workers in his home. It was just six months after three young civil rights workers had been murdered in Philadelphia, Miss.

Mr. Hicks and his wife, Valeria, made some phone calls. They found neighbors to take in their children, and they reached out to friends for protection. Soon, armed black men materialized. Nothing happened.

Less than three weeks later, the leaders of a secretive, paramilitary organization of blacks called the Deacons for Defense and Justice visited Bogalusa. It had been formed in Jonesboro, La., in 1964 mainly to protect unarmed civil rights demonstrators from the Klan. After listening to the Deacons, Mr. Hicks took the lead in forming a Bogalusa chapter, recruiting many of the men who had gone to his house to protect his family and guests.

By 1968, the Deacons had pretty much vanished. In time they were “hardly a footnote in most books on the civil rights movement.”

Mr. Hicks died of cancer at his home in Bogalusa on April 13 at the age of 81, his wife said. He was one of the last surviving Deacon leaders.

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It's a shame that more people, Black AND White, don't know about these folks. In fact, there was even a branch in Winston-Salem, NC, but you hardly hear anything about them.

I guess Black Folks protecting themselves still make people nervous...

Happy Birthday to ME!

2010-04-01T17:47:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEEEEEE, Happy Birthday to MEEEE!! 41 and STILL goin' strong!!

R.I.P. Curtis Goode...

2010-02-23T23:18:00.004-05:00

A good friend of 20 years recently passed from this mortal coil.

He was a true, blue friend. Money can't buy friends like him.

Curtis Goode

One of the best!

Rest in Peace, old friend.

Until we meet again...

Merry Christmas, y'all!

2009-12-25T23:08:00.004-05:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS, Y'ALL!

I hope everybody had a nice Christmas!

It's cold as Hell in NJ, though I'm enjoying stuffing my face with Mom's home-cooking! LOL!

Keep in mind though, that it's not"X-Mas" or "Season's Greetings" or "Happy Holidays."

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a holiday.

Veteran's Day is a holiday.

Columbus Day is a holiday.

It's called "CHRISTmas" because of Jesus CHRIST. Let's not forget that.

The Birth of Jesus Christ, The Savior and Messiah

The REAL reason for Christmas!

What Jesus Christ thinks of "X-Mas"...

DAMN RIGHT!

No offense, "Santa"...

WOOOOW! Almost two months between posts!

2009-11-29T15:02:00.001-05:00

Yeah, I'm still around. Just scrambling to make some money for the holidays.

How come you can NEVER save money during this time of year?

I'm STILL waitng paitiently for my BAILOUT PACKAGE! LOL!

Things sucks out here...

2009-09-30T15:20:00.002-05:00

The job market/money situation in Greensboro is truly horrible (That is, if you don't ALREADY have money.).

People are robbing and stealing and aren't helping each other, taxi cab drivers are over-charging, food keeps going up (even at Wal-Mart), gas is still high (and will probably NEVER go back down), there are NO JOBS in the classifieds...

I hope people don't "go postal" and/or start a revolution because it really looks bad out here.

Why?

2009-08-31T17:26:00.002-05:00

Why are people using this economy as an excuse to screw people over?

Companies and businesses are making money, just not as much as they would like. They're laying people off, cutting people's hours, and only hiring their friends/relatives and they wonder why people are PISSED!!

I can see why some people go off and shoot up a building full of people...

Kanye West is...

2009-07-31T23:48:00.000-05:00

... an arrogant little bastard for calling himself the NEW "King of Pop!"

How big can a man's ego get?

No words...

2009-06-26T01:31:00.005-05:00

No words...

...except one: Damn.

25 Things to know about me...

2009-06-18T19:26:00.003-05:00

I got this idea from a post by my recently rediscovered classmate (Go FMB & NHS) Debi Hatem Sudaley (Giving credit where credit is due.) on Facebook, so here goes:

==========

25 things to know about me

Rules: you've been tagged (as I just was), you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you.

1. I truly dreaded turning the "Big 4-0." So much so that I really didn't celebrate it. I mean, no big parties or anything. I guess I'll grin and bear it.

2. I am not happy with how this planet is turning out. Things ARE NOT as they should be. Sometimes I wish I still had the naivety I had when I was in high school. Sometimes, Ignorance IS bliss...

3. I love being out on my own.

4. I love North Carolina, even though the City of Greensboro needs alittle (No, alot of) work.

5. On occasion, I miss New Jersey. Not the weather mind you, but being able to go to NYC on a whim or to The Meadowlands or to the horse track... ahhh, the memories of youth.

6. I love God. I don't like organized religion. There IS a difference and far too many people use religion to control people, to hurt them, and to destroy them. THAT WAS NOT GOD'S INTENTION!!

7. My appearance has changed ALOT since I graduated from NHS. I never thought that I would have hair damn near past my shoulders.

8. I have very few regrets in my life. One of the few is that I didn't attend my 10 year high school reunion.

9. I've learned to hate politics. It's as bad as organized religion.

10. When asking an honest or even stupid question, I expect an honest answer.

11. There are ways to tell a person the truth about something without being blunt or hurtful. I've learned this over the years.

12. If I have wasted my time on anything, it's trying to convince ignorant and/or racist people how not all Black people are "bad" or "dangerous." Now, I don't give a f**k. Just stay the Hell out of my way and I won't kill you.

13. I've also learned that "turning the other cheek" is a total waste of time as well. If someone tries to hurt you (physically, mentally, and/or spiritually), block and counter-punch! There's absolutely nothing wrong with defending yourself. I also believe in destroying your enemy if he/she is attacking you or trying to hurt your family. SHOW NO MERCY!

14. I truly hate fake-ass people.The kind that will smile in your face, but talk mad junk behind your back. COWARDS!!

15. There's nothing wrong with following your dreams, even at our age. It's NEVER too late!!

16. I love the environment, but I'm not crazy with it. I'm not going to spray you with paint if you're wearing a fur coat or live in a tree or anything.

17. I believe that certain truths are being kept from the general population so that a "chosen few" can be in power and make crazy profit.

18. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but when it comes to certain things involving our government, the old saying is: "Something smell rotten in Denmark (Or Washington, DC in this case)."

19. I truly hate racism in ANY FORM! Be it against Black folks, White folks, or anyone that some people feel are "different" from themselves. We all bleed red. We all breath the same air and when we die, we will all be judged. AND WE ALL HAVE FEELINGS!

20. I am a meat-eater and will be one until the day I die. I don't understand vegans. It doesn't mean I don't like them, I just don't understand some of their views.

21. I was never overly ambitious in high school or in my 20's. When I hit my early 30's however, I had an epiphany, and now all of the sudden, I want to rule the world! I don't know how the Hell that happened. Go figure...

22. The older I get, the more open-minded I become. That's a good thing.

23. I was never an avid reader in high school. Now, I have an extensive personal library and a collection that many of my friends envy. How'd that happen?

24. I love The Internet! It's hard to believe that I grew up without it. Also, who would have thought in high school that any of us not only would have a personal and portable phone on them, but that it does so much stuff! Making a phone call is the least of it's varied functions.

25. I can cook. No really. I'm kinda surprised by that myself, but I truly enjoy cooking.

That's it for now. I kinda like doing that. maybe I'll do another "25 Things" as well.

============

Keep in mind that the original post was on my Facebook page and it was geared toward people who haven't seen or talked with me since high school, but I think it's appropriate for my public blog as well.

Ciao!

Beware of the scorpions in your life!

2009-06-18T19:25:00.000-05:00

We've all have had bad influences in our life at one time or another.

Friends who were really enemies in disguise. People who were "helping" you were really hindering your progress. People who say one thing and do another. Here's alittle remainder what the scorpions in our lives can do if we don't get rid of them:

"A scorpion who couldn't swim asked the frog to carry him across the river on his back. The frog said, "Do you think I'm crazy? Halfway across the river, you'll sting me and I'll drown." "That's not reasonable," said the scorpion. "If I sting you and you drown, I'll drown too." Frog thought about it, he said, "Climb on." Halfway across the river, the scorpion stung the frog, and as the frog was drowning, he said to the scorpion, "But now you'll drown too." The scorpion said, "Yes. I know." "That's not reasonable," said the frog, and the scorpion replied, "Reason has nothing to do with it. I'm a scorpion. It's my nature."

GET RID OF THE SCORPIONS IN YOUR LIFE!

Watch out for the stinger!

NASA gets it's First Black Administrator...

2009-05-25T18:08:00.005-05:00

Yeah, I found it hard to believe too, but it's true.

Major General Charles Bolden, Jr. , after confirmation by The Senate, will be the new head of NASA!

He's even a former astronaut, something NASA hasn't had in 20 years. In fact, he's only the second astronaut (The first was Richard H. Truly in '89.) to take the post in NASA's 50 year-plus history.

Read the article here (Courtesy of Yahoo News & The AP), or below:

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Uncertain NASA gets familiar former astronaut boss

By Seth Borenstein

HOUSTON – The nation's turbulent space program will be run by one of its own, a calming well-liked former space shuttle commander.

President Barack Obama on Saturday chose retired astronaut Maj. Gen. Charles Bolden to lead NASA. He also named former NASA associate administrator Lori Garver as the agency's No. 2. If confirmed, Bolden, who has flown in space four times and

was an assistant deputy administrator at one point, would be the agency's first black administrator.

Bolden would also be only the second astronaut to run NASA in its 50-year history. Vice Adm. Richard Truly was the first. In 2002, then-President George W. Bush unsuccessfully tried to appoint Bolden as the space agency's deputy administrator. The

Pentagon said it needed to keep Bolden, who was a Marine major general at the time and a pilot who flew more than 100 sorties in Vietnam.

"Charlie knows NASA and the people know Charlie; there's a level of comfort," especially given the uncertainty the space agency faces, said retired astronaut Steve Hawley, who flew twice in space with Bolden.

Bolden likely will bring "more balance" to NASA, increasing spend

ing on aeronautics and environment missions, working more with other nations in space, and emphasizing education, which the president often talks about when it comes to space, said former Johnson Space Center Director George Abbey, a longtime friend.

"He's a real leader," Abbey said Saturday. "NASA has been looking for a leader like this that they could have confidence in."

Bolden's appointment came during the tail end of the space shuttle Atlantis' mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope one final time. He was the pilot on the fl

ight that sent Hubble into orbit in 1990.

Bolden, 62, would inherit a NASA that doesn't look much like the still-somewhat-fresh-from-the-moon agency he joined as an astronaut in 1980. NASA now "is faced with a lot of uncertainty," Abbey said.

Bush set in motion a plan to retire the space shuttle fleet at the end of next year and return astronauts to the moon and then head out to Mars in a series of

rockets and capsules that borrows heavily from the 1960s Apollo program. The shuttle's replacement won't be ready until at least 2015, so for five years the only way Americans will be able to get in space is by hitching a ride on a Russian space capsule. And some of NASA's biggest science programs are over budget.

Earlier this month, the White House ordered a complete outside examination of the manned space program. The Obama administration hasn't been explicit about its space policy, with White House science adviser John Holdren saying the policy would come after a NASA chief was named.

"These talented individuals will help put NASA on course to boldly push the boundaries of science, aeronautics and exploration in the 21st century and ensure the long-term vibrancy of America's space program," Obama said of Bolden and Garver in a statement.

Bolden, a native of Columbia, S.C., and his wife donated $750 to the Obama campaign in 2008.

At NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, where Bolden spent about a decade, his impending appointment was quietly cheered on all week long.

The diminutive salt-and-pepper haired Bolden, who lives only a few miles from the space center, on Saturday morning said he couldn't talk until after Senate confirmation. He was busy answering congratulatory e-mails from home. He has his own consulting firm in Houston and sits on corporate boards.

Those who have flown or worked with Bolden can't praise him enough.

Retired astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz interviewed to become an astronaut the same week as Bolden, was picked at the same time, and they flew together on their first flights.

Soon after that much-delayed launch of the space shuttle Colum

bia in January 1986, Chang-Diaz looked at his friend Bolden and saw that the shuttle pilot had a "big, big smile... we were kind of like kids in a candy store."

Hawley and then-U.S. Rep. Bill Nelson were also aboard that 1986 flight. Nelson, now the chairman of the Senate subcommittee on space that will oversee Bolden's nomination and one of the people pushing Bolden's nomination to the White House, commented: "I trusted Charlie with my life - and would do so again."

Kathryn Sullivan was the payload commander on the 1992 flig

ht of Atlantis, which was Bolden's first of two shuttle commands. She said Bolden has all the aspects of leadership that a good chief requires. That includes experience, wisdom and the ability to listen to all sides. She called him "one of the finest people I've ever known."

"Charlie's a great leader," Chang-Diaz agreed. "He takes care of his team.

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Major General Charles Bolden, Jr. as a Astronaut in 1992...

... And now

Congrats, bruh!

Happy Memorial Day!!

2009-05-25T17:54:00.003-05:00

To all of the people who fought for and sacrificed for this country of ours, THANK YOU!

The USA isn't perfect, but it's ours and only we, the citizens, can make it "be all that it can be!"

Happy Memorial Day!

Don't get to stuffed on burgers and beer!

And don't forget why we celebrate Memorial Day, either!

The Honored Fallen!

We will NEVER forget!!

The Bill of Rights...

2009-05-06T18:56:00.002-05:00

You know, when people try to take away what's rightfully yours, they need a reminder on what can CAN and CANNOT DO!

So for all of you who think you know what's good for us, read the following:

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THE BILL OF RIGHTS

Amendments 1-10 of the Constitution

The Conventions of a number of the States having, at the time of adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added, and as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government will best insure the beneficent ends of its institution.

Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, two-thirds of both Houses concurring, that the following articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as amendments to the Constitution of the United States; all or any of which articles, when ratified by three-fourths of the said Legislatures, to be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the said Constitution, namely:

Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Amendment II
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

Amendment III
No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Amendment V
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Amendment VI
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.

Amendment VII
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

Amendment VIII
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

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WE ALREADY KNOW WHAT'S GOOD FOR US, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!

Doctors, Single Payer Activists Arrested...

2009-05-06T18:51:00.002-05:00

This is bullsh*t.

I got this off one of my Myspace pal's blog.

When it is illegal to express one's opinion?

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Doctors, Single Payer Activists Arrested

By Donna Smith

Created May 6 2009 - 10:29am

It has finally happened right here in the United States. Citizens who believe healthcare is a human right have been arrested and are being processed like criminals through the Southeast District of Columbia police station. Their crime? Asking for single payer healthcare reform - publicly funded, privately delivered healthcare - to be discussed during the Congressional hearings on reform.

Doctors and other single payer activists were handcuffed and went to jail today speaking up for single payer to be at the table in the Senate finance Committee's roundtable discussion on healthcare access and coverage. In stark contrast, Karen Ignagni, head of the industry lobby group American Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) was escorted into the room like royalty by staff members of the Senate committee. Clearly, the position of the United States Senate is not with the majority of Americans who support a national, public insurance system.

It made me physically ill to see Maryland pediatrician Margaret Flowers cuffed like a criminal and pushed out the door as the Senators waited to begin their staged roundtable discussion. It made me want to scream. It made me proud of them for being bold but ashamed that not one Senator spoke up for their own citizen-protestors and asked that they at least be allowed to speak. But the insistence that the citizens rising in protest be arrested continued from the chair with each incident.

Simply asking to have single payer be included and fully vetted is a crime. Profiting as the for-profit health insurance companies do at the expense of 22,000 American lives every year, however, gets you a run of the table in this healthcare reform discussion. Just ask the Senators who are drafting what this nation's health system will look like - and watch their behavior today - if you want evidence of how your voice will be heard in the process.

The protestors were stoic and respectful but direct. One by one they stood. One by one they asked why single payer reform was not "at the table" of 15 witnesses Senator Max Baucus and his finance Committee gathered to map out what sort of coverage Americans might expect in the Senate reform bill now being crafted.

Sen. Baucus eventually spoke and indicated that he was respectful of those who believe in single payer - as he acknowledged many of his constituents in Montana do - but he made no attempt to explain why no single payer voice has been included in any Senate discussion to date. He urged any others in the audience who might have any designs on speaking up like the protestors did to not do so, and then he moved on to his roundtable discussion.

The press seated comfortably at the press table first looked amused and then puzzled by the procession of protest in the chamber. The C-SPAN cameras fixed on both the Committee's table at the front of the room and the witness table directly across from them could have easily picked up the protests but the network chose to keep their cameras fixed only on Chairman Baucus - though the protestors' words could be heard in the audience. Only two reporters of the 20 or so assembled were curious enough or industrious enough to rise and exit the room to see the arrests being carried out in the hallway.

While neither the Finance Committee or the press allowed their proceedings to be disrupted for very long, the air in the room and the atmosphere had changed -- the giddy and gleeful assembly of industry lobbyists who had been chattering in rapt anticipation of the coming of their carefully chosen witnesses could not deny that some brave and patriotic fellow citizens had just been hauled out for arrest for nothing more than demanding that a point of view held by a majority of patients, nurses, physicians and other healthcare providers be included in the national discussion.

While this Congress may pass something very different than single payer reform, it will not do so without hearing the cries of the people left so openly exposed to personal health and financial ruin by the corrupt system that celebrates only profit. The citizens who stood for the thousands and thousands of dead today will not let this democracy give itself completely over to the big money interests in healthcare. Not without a fight. Not on their lives or yours or mine.

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For those of you who don't know what The First Amendment is, read below:

Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Nuff said...

"Tea Parties" Downtown and around America...

2009-04-17T19:46:00.002-05:00

I gotta say something about these so-called "tea party" protests that have been taking place lately:

Where were these people when Bush was f**king up the country?

Where were these people when Bush's buddies failed to give the troops the necessary equipment (not to mention NO ARMOR FOR PROTECTION) to protect themselves?

Where were these people every other April 15th when Bush was in office?

If these people were really so concerned about taxes, then why did many of them hold signs like "Obama bin Laden" and other not-so-nice names for out president?

Let me explain something: President Obama hasn't been in office 100 days yet and people are talking trash about him. Bush's first 100 days were spent on his ranch in Crawford, TX while President Obama is stuck with the mess that Bush and his cronies made.

The only reason for these so-called 'Tea Parties" are that there are PLENTY of people who are MAD AS HELL that a Black man is the president!

PLAIN & SIMPLE!!

I guess people forget the fact that he's also half-white and that President Obama came out of the womb of a White women just like the vast majority of protesters who were in Downtown Greensboro!

Do any of the protesters even know why there was a "Boston Tea Party?"

I doubt it.

The President is Black (or Half-Black, depending on how you look at it.)...

GET OVER IT!!!

Happy Birthday to Me!

2009-04-01T23:13:00.002-05:00

Well, the Earth didn't expolde, I didn't implode into myself, and all is well.

I guess turning the "Big 4-0" isn't all that bad, though I'll miss saying that "I'm in my 30's."

I guess I'll just grin and bear it.

Almost Dreading the day...

2009-03-31T03:11:00.000-05:00

...that I turn the "Big 4-0," which is tomorrow.

We'll see how it turns out.

Has it been THAT long?

2009-02-28T16:49:00.001-05:00

When I find the time, I'll be back bloggin'.

But for now, a brotha gotta make than damn money!!

Later...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

2009-01-01T12:17:00.003-05:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Pop that bottle!!

To a better year than this one...

I hope everyone has a Happy, Healthy, and SAFE celebration this year!!

See Ya in 2009!!!

Be careful out there...

2008-12-31T18:22:00.003-05:00

I've been reading some crazy stuff while I've been in NJ...

A guy dresses as Santa kills nine people, then himself...

A guy is accused of murder when his truck broke down and his daughter died because of the cold when they tried to "hoof it" to their destination...

Perverts all around as grown-ass adults take advantage of kids for sexual purposes...

"Killings Galore" over in Israel and The Gaza Strip...

Too many robberies and break-ins to mention...

Y'all be safe out there tonight, because sh*t is gettin' CRAZY!!!

I sincerely hope that 2009 is WAAAAAY better than 2008!

Merry (Belated) Christmas, y'all!!

2008-12-30T21:44:00.006-05:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

(And NO, it's not X-Mas!)

Sorry I didn't post this sooner but I've been busy stuffing my face with some of that good ol' fashioned home-cookin' back home in NJ.

I hope everyone received what they wanted for Christmas!

Especially since this economy is in the toliet.

Here's some "Santa Humor" for you below...

***WARNING!!!***
If you're OFFENDED by any type of "Santa Humor," I suggest you don't scroll down!!

Kris Kringle & Coca-Cola!

Santa says, "Have a Coke and a SMILE!"

Santa and Booze...

Even Santa needs a sip every once in awhile...

Biker Santa

I guess Rudolph was sick this year...

MERRY CHRISTMAS, Y'ALL!!!

T.I.- Whatever You Like SPOOF! (OBAMA- Whatever I Like)

2008-12-01T00:42:00.001-05:00

This vid is HILARIOUS!!

Enjoy!!

You go, Barry!!

I mean PRESIDENT OBAMA!!!