Rise and Grind If You Have 'More Month Than Money'

Rise and Grind! I understand the anxiety that my fellow villagers are feeling as they deal with unemployment and floundering business revenue. Some people joke about the idea of having "more month than money". It ain't no joke for many of us. We're less than halfway through the month ... and we're juggling bills and delaying purchase decisions so that we can make it to the end of the month. It's Monday morning and many villagers, including myself, realize that we need to rise, hustle and grind things out.

I'm an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs need to find new clients and retain current clients. That is easier said than done in today's economic environment. However, when the sun rises today I'll begin my grustle (hustle and grind). How about you? Are you feeling any real pain from the economy?

One thing that I'm fairly sure about ... I could give a phuque about renewing the Bush Tax Cuts for the wealthy. The wealthy always do well. They were doing well back when Clinton was president. So, in my view, they can handle having the same tax rates in 2011 that they had in the Clinton Administration. The GOP wants me to believe that Obama has a "Kenyan anti-colonial world view" because he wants to let the Bush Tax Cuts for the wealthy expire. Heck, if the GOP was serious about those tax cuts in the first place ... why did they put the sunset date into the law when it was originally passed. They said that the tax cuts should expire in 2010 ... so let 'em expire.  Newt Gingrich wants us to believe that President Obama is a "con-man".  I guess if Republicans can believe that our president isn't an American and that he practices Islam religion ... they may fall for Gingrich's nonsense as well.

On a personal note, I want to wish my 15-year old niece a very happy birthday. Zoe turned 15 yesterday ... and she is one of the most creative youngsters that I know. I wish her nothing but love and happiness over the course of the next year.

Finally, I give praise to the New England Patriots. They ripped the hearts out of the Cincinnati Bengals yesterday with a 38-24 victory. The Bengals need to do a gut-check this week as it gets no easier next week when the Baltimore Ravens come into town.

Baltmore Ravens vs. New York Jets tonight on Monday Night Football.   I'm hoping that New York Jets can live up to their hype by putting a beat-down on the Ravens.  Who you got in tonight's game?

Newt Gingrich: 'I Shouldn't Have Called Sonia Sotomayor a Racist'

The heat got to be too much for Newt Gingrich. He folded. He now admits that he was wrong to call Judge Sonia Sotomayor a racist. In a Human Events column, the former Republican House Leader wrote:

"My initial reaction was strong and direct -- perhaps too strong and too direct. The sentiment struck me as racist and I said so. Since then, some who want to have an open and honest consideration of Judge Sotomayor's fitness to serve on the nation's highest court have been critical of my word choice.

With these critics who want to have an honest conversation, I agree. The word "racist" should not have been applied to Judge Sotomayor as a person, even if her words themselves are unacceptable (a fact which both President Obama and his Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs, have since admitted)."

The remarkable thing is that Newt Gingrich aspires to be our next President. Can you imagine having a person with his lack of discipline in the White House?

Villagers, I encourage you to continue beating the drums against the voices of hate and extremism, who instead of looking at her judicial record have launched a vocal rampage that has reached new heights of absurdity.

Take action to put a stop to it.

Newt Gingrich apologized. However, former Congressman, failed presidential candidate, and anti-immigrant extremist Tom Tancredo, unable to provide a shred of evidence for his assertion that Judge Sotomayor is a "racist," went off the deep end on CNN, saying Sotomayor belongs to "the Latino KKK without the hoods and nooses."




Raising questions and concerns about Judge Sotomayor's 17-year record on the bench is legitimate. Resorting to outdated stereotypes, defamation of character, and outright falsehoods is not ... as Newt Gingrich learned.

Please join us and send a message to Chairman Michael Steele of the RNC, House Minority Leader John Boehner, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell asking them to denounce these statements and restore the nomination process for Judge Sotomayor to a more appropriate and civil discourse.

Rev. Al Sharpton Jumps Into the Education Debate

Many of you saw Michael Bloomberg, Newt Gingrich and Al Sharpton on the White House lawn earlier this month. This unusual trio joined forces to work on education reform. Below is a clip of Sharpton's remarks after the meeting at the White House on May 7.



What you may not know is that Rev. Sharpton pitched this idea with Barack Obama while he was on the campaign trail.

I guess it is true what they say -- 'The way to a man's heart is through his stomach'!

I Want to be Proud of My Next President

I've voted Democratic for all of my adult life. Ronald Ray-gun was enough for me to realize that the Republicans had no love for me or others of African descent here in America. I enjoyed the Bill Clinton years. What wasn't to enjoy. The federal deficit built up by Reagan and the first George Bush was wiped out during Clinton's administration. I don't need to go through all of the good things that happened during his 8 years as president. His record speaks for itself. The sad thing is that Newt Gingrich, Special Prosecutor Starr and others were so jealous (envious?) of his success that they used a sexual indiscretion with Monica Lewensky to go through an entire impeachment process. As a result, Clinton limped through the final years of his administration.

Fast forward to 2007. Does it seem that karma is in full effect?

Not only is George Bush limping through the final years of his administration. The party that Bush leads loudly proclaims that it is the bastion of 'family values'. What a joke that turned out to be.

• Republican Larry Craig - one of the 100 senators that serve at the top levels of our government ... was arrested at Minneapolis airport in June. Arrest document reportedly alleges Craig signaled desire for "lewd conduct". Craig pleaded guilty to the charges and is currently serving on probation for his efforts to engage in male restroom. Craig had to quit his leadership position in the presidential campaign of Mitt Romney.
• Louisiana Sen. David Vitter - was a client of the 'D.C. Madam' was the way in which the senator himself disclosed it. Vitter was outed by Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt. Vitter's relationship with prostitutes in Washington DC is not unusual. After all, he was accused by a member of the Louisiana Republican State Central Committee of carrying on a lengthy affair with a prostitute in New Orleans's French Quarter in his first Senate campaign. Anyhow, Vitter had to quit his leadership position in the presidential campaign of Rudy Giuliani.
• Florida congressman Mark Foley after being outed as a quasi-pedophile inappropriately reaching out to teenage pages in the House of Representatives. - resigned
• Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfield after the Republicans got run out of the congressional leadership as result of the November 2006 mid-term elections. It is likely that Rumsfield will be remembered as the worst Secretary of Defense in the nation's history based on his running of the Iraq War. -fired/resigned
• US Attorney General Albert Gonzales/resigned today after having his honesty and credibility questioned on a daily basis for the past 18 months. My Hispanic brothers and are likly ashamed of Gonzales in much the same way that most Black folks are ashamed of Clarence Thomas. The one advantage that my Hispanic brothers and sisters have is that Gonzales wasn't appointed to a lifetime position, therefore, he can now fade ingloriously into the past. At best, Gonzales was a simple puppet of the White House. At worst, he was a conniving, lying lawyer for George Bush who knowingly lied and connived for purposes of helping his sugar daddy (President George Bush). - fired

Personally, I'm waiting for the next presidency in the hopes that karma is finished and we can have a president that will make all of us proud. My preference would be Barack Obama. I would be comfortable with Clinton or Edwards. I just want the next president to be someone we can look to with pride.

Villagers, what do you think?