Chicago Overturns Foie Gras Ban

The City Council for the City of Chicago has announced it has overturned the ban on foie gras. The vote on the measure was 37-2.

This is a move for freedom besides the city's ban on foie gras was probably not preventing any animal cruelty.

Sharpton Shakes Down Aftermath

Al Sharpton is often attacked by conservatives who accuse him of being a shakedown artist. The latest example of Sharpton's shakedown tactics continues this pattern. According to Bruce Williams, Dr. Dre's former associate, Al Sharpton demanded half a million dollars or he would start demonstrations in regards to the beef between 50 Cent and the Game.

In an upcoming interview for HipHopDX with Dr. Dre’s former right hand man for over a decade, Bruce Williams, it was revealed that Rev Al Sharpton gave Dr. Dre and his Aftermath camp an ultimatum - Half a million to squash the 50 Cent/Game beef or they would march.

“He said if we didn’t have a million, we marching. It’s that easy,” Williams stated exclusively to HipHopDX. He also makes mention of the situation in his recently released book “Rollin With Dre.”

“We got a lot of black leaders that don’t do shit to me. I don’t see what they do,” he continues. “In the (Game/50) situation (Sharpton and company) are going to come and say ‘we need X amount of money’, whether you are going to give it to charity or not? Why don’t you come and say ‘hey, let’s all of us sit down and figure this out?’ Don’t come and say ‘give me a half a million dollars or we marching!’ That didn’t even get the situation resolved. You seen it. They didn’t even look like they squashed anything.”

Williams accuses Sharpton of “orchestrating” the press conference held to squash the beef and states that “so-called” activists do this “all of the time.”

“Look at C Delores Tucker back in the day,” Williams said. “They was sitting up there talking all that bullshit when behind closed doors they was trying to start their own label. But that isn’t what they were telling motherfuckers in the street!”

Do Sharpton's tactics have no bounds? Sounds like threats from Sharpton may have ended in squashing the beef between The Game and 50 Cent.

Chevy Boys

There was a time when rappers would mention a brand or a product in a song because they liked it, that time is long past.

I was recently sent a new song called "Chevy Boyz" by Blood Raw, one of Young Jeezy's weed carriers, Young Jeezy and Rick Ross. The song has Young Jeezy and the rest of them talking about how they love their Chevy and other nonsense. The song is alright but I find I no longer can listen to a rap song about a product and believe they really like it and they are not just pushing the brand on record due to an endorsement. A quick internet search reveals that Young Jeezy has considered an endorsement with Chevrolet in the past.

Is this song just part of an endorsement deal with Chevrolet? I'm not sure it might be.

Bobb Barr Says Cut Spending First

Bob Barr has a new video on YouTube calling for cuts in government spending and tax reform.

Bob Barr states that cutting the size of the government spending is more important than changing tax policy. I like tax cuts a lot but the problem with the Bush administration has been government spending not the lack of tax cuts.

Bob Barr stresses the need for tax reform stating that any reform of the system would be better than what the United States has now. Bob Barr has been the supporter of the Fair Tax which is essentially a national sales tax plan. Bob Barr does mention he is open to other types of tax reform plans including a flat tax plan. This is good news because I dislike the fair tax because I am afraid it would impose a harsh regulatory burden on small businesses. Barr's ability to consider other tax reform policies makes him a more of an attractive candidate for Libertarians.

T.I. - No Matter What MP3

T.I. has a new song out called No Matter What. For some reason the song reminds me of the scene at the end of The Wire where Marlo insists on defending his name after knowing he is out of the game.

Anyway it's an enjoyable song from T.I.

Celebrating the Freedom to Get Drunk

The Pennsylvania Legislature is about to make access to alcohol even easier. The state of Pennsylvania is considering allowing wine to be sold in vending machines.

Unfortunately, the state only plans on putting the vending machines in malls and grocery stores; Wendell Young IV, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776, whose members include state store clerks said "You're not going to put these up at bus stops, or on a street corner, like a Coke or Pepsi vending machine."

Alcohol vending machines have been used in Singapore, Japan, Scotland and elsewhere in Europe.

Another win for freedom of choice. It is always good when the state allows people more freedoms, even if that is just making it easier for them to get drunk on a cheap bottle of wine.

Atmosphere On Job Satisfaction

Hip-Hop DX.com has an interview with atmosphere with some interesting insights.

I’m committed for being who I am 150% of the time, whether it’s on record, in an interview or ordering coffee, eating, sleeping, I’m committed to being me. It’s your issue to make people relate to me or recognize me, or make me their friend, or hate me or think I suck. I can’t put any thought into what can I do to make people think I suck, or make people think I’m cool. The minute I do that I don’t know that I can necessarily do this job. I’d have to go find a new job, and not on some martyr me shit, but on some like, the reason I like this job more than any other job is not because I get to travel, it’s not because I get to smoke as many cigarettes as I want, any time that I want. It’s because it feels purposeful, and I don’t mean that what we do has this higher purpose. I mean like, this, compared to driving a delivery truck is soothing me. This makes me fucking happier than shit. Driving a delivery truck would make me happy too, much more than working a cash register…so it’s just the elements of this job that I love, I try to stick to in order to keep me in check and keep me from taking this for granted. That makes me a loser now, anyone who takes their job for granted is a fucking loser. If you come to terms that you deliver newspapers, and that’s what you do and you take that for granted and fuck that off? Then you’re a loser, cause you’ve got something that someone would kill to have. That’s how I see it, I don’t want to be a loser.

Slug of Atmosphere has a point here in his approach to the jobs we choose in life.

Rappers Can Sell Anything

Rappers haven't been doing a great job selling records recently but marketers realize rappers can promote just about anything. Endorsements by rappers have gone beyond the financial stables for rappers of clothing, cars and malt liquor to now the range of endorsements seems almost endless with Nas recently endorsing SanDisk's line of flash memory players; SanDisk also is a sponsor for this years Rock The Bells tour.

Chris Bennett ends campaign for VP under Libertarian Party

Chris Bennett has announced he will no longer seek the Libertarian Party's nomination for Vice-President. Bennett ended his campaign for VP because it was no longer financially feasible for him. Chris Bennett is not giving up on the Libertarian Party,

"I want to thank those who did contribute and keep contributing to Libertarian candidates all over the country. My campaign was solely focusing on the growth of the LP. Even though I am no longer a candidate, the LP needs to reach out to younger voters, minorities and women. We need to elect more principled Libertarians at all levels and I promise to continue to lend any support I can to our candidates. We need to strengthen our state and local organizations and increase college campus libertarian groups across the country. The LP is not just about our principled ideas it’s also about growth and without growth we can’t assure that our party will exist for future generations. Thank you for your support and please keep supporting the Libertarian Party!"

Brent Bozell Is Not Hip-Hop

Brent Bozell uses Obama's recent reference to Jay-z as an excuse to attack Obama and hip-hop. Obama has been critical of the lyrical content of rap music in the past, even being accused by the website HipHopDx of hating hip-hop.

But Obama's criticisms of hip-hop are not enough for Brent Bozell who would probably only be happy with politicians referencing hip-hop as code for insulting black people like Bill Clinton did in his 1992 campaign for President when he brought up Sista Souljah.

Bozell cites a Parents Television Council study that points out some problems with the hip-hop videos being aired on TV by Viacom:

Obama should take a look at a new report from the Parents Television Council about three popular rap-music programs that air in the afternoon or early evening — "Sucker Free" on MTV and "Rap City" and "106 & Park" on Black Entertainment Television for two weeks in December and a week in March.

In 41 and a half hours studied, analysts found 282 uses of the N-word. Is that "a little too frequently," too?

A little too much degrading of women? In those same hours, there were 143 uses of the B-word to describe women.

A little too much focus on material things? Here, Obama is gliding by the question of what material things are acquired. The rap shows included 205 depictions or discussions of drug sale or use and other illegal activity during the study period, for an average of 7.5 instances per hour, or roughly one instance every eight minutes.

Obama did not discuss the heavily sexualized world of rap in his answer. Sexually explicit scenes or lyrical references on these shows appeared 27 times an hour in December and 40 times an hour in March. No one could miss that drumbeat.

In just one week of programming — 14 hours in March — PTC analysts found 1,342 instances of offensive/adult content, or 95.8 instances per hour, or one instance of adult content every 38 seconds.

There certainly are problems with hip-hop and the programs Bozell mentions but it is not fair to say that 106 & Park represent all of hip-hop. Obama has mentioned that he has discussed the problems he have with the lyrics in hip-hop with Nas and Jay-z who are certainly high profile rappers. What more could Brent Bozell want?

Did Obama Make a Jay-Z Reference?

Obama may be the big government candidate for President, but is hard not to like the guy.

In Wednesday's debate about trivial issues, Obama did not perform at his best. Obama's not worried. At his speech the following day, Obama makes what I think is a clear reference to Jay-z by brushing the dirt off his shoulders.