They had it Bubblin like Soda Foam!

This pic is from one of the cooler spots that had sneaks.

As im boppin from city to city i had an epiphany. Independence and comradery is a state of mind. Im sauntering down Peters St. in the peach state and i see they know how to get it bubbling in a major way and the location is irrelevant. Here's the blueprint; a block about a half mile long packed with independent business on both sides and actually a couple around the corner. There is actually an art show every third friday of the month i believe but all the businesses in the area welcome you, even though they may not have art. The doors are all open and most of the spots offered complementary drinks and snacks.

A few spots actually had some art, every open lot or building had some local art and/or artist in it. The boutiques were open about an hour later and the whole thing drew a nice crowd. It is something to be said for people coming together and everybody can eat. Someone needs to tell these northerners that its enough money for everybody to eat. The whole thing was so cool because every place had its own flavor and it was pumping with lively ideas and creativity. A couple of restaurants were on the strip and the food that i had was on point like a harpoon.

The critical detail here is that the neighborhood/area is nothing special but because the people and businesses showed so much love it made the area special. I even ran into my man from De La Soul (shout out to original hip hop), the dark skin bald one. Matter of fact dude was sitting outside one of the good eats in a chair on his mac book, talking to his people when they came by. One of the eateries had a Mac that you could just walk up and use to jump on the internet or do what you please. It was creative.

So what im tryin to say is: Show love and We can All get it Crackin!

"Im Not Buying It"

Gentlemen and ladies we have a guest speaker today. Coming to the stage is my main man Hump. (Applause) Hump you have the floor:

Yesterday April 21 marked the kickoff of Senator John McCain’s “It’s Time for Action Tour.” The purpose of this tour is for the Arizona Senator to reach out to those as he describes, “That have been ignored for long years by the sins of indifference and injustice, or have been left behind as the world grew smaller and more economically interdependent." This five day tour kicked off yesterday in Selma, AL with a speech on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, which was the site of “Bloody Sunday” and other parts of the state. His tour continued today in Youngstown, OH to visit Fabart Inc. which is a heavy metal fabricating facility which shut down after filing Chapter 11 status, and to conduct a town hall meeting on the campus of Youngstown State University. His tour will continue with stops to Kentucky, New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana, and Little Rock, Arkansas. Now I think I’m one of the most positive and optimistic people you will ever meet, but with this particular issue I can’t be, with these reasons.

During his tenure of public service, the presumptive Republican Presidential Nominee has shown characteristics of one who has been ignoring those who he described on his tour. One example is as a Congressman in 1983, McCain voted against creating a federal Martin Luther King Holiday, motion that was voted for by the majority colleagues including at the time Reps. Dick Cheney of Wyoming, and Newt Gingrich of Georgia. This same man, who voted against honoring the memory and legacy of one of the greatest men to walk the face of the earth, had the audacity to go to Memphis, Tennessee and participate in the 40th anniversary of his death and speak in front of the motel of where he was assassinated. In my opinion, this was an attempt to garner camera time and votes for the general election by trying prostitute the legacy of a man and a movement. In his defense Senator McCain has said his position has evolved since he voted against the now national holiday, but his evolution is hard to comprehend when he continued to vote against legislation for the advancement of minorities and the underprivileged.

In 1990, Senator McCain voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1990. This bill was designed to address employer discrimination by imposing new penalties on employers convicted of job discrimination. Senator McCain didn’t vote against this bill not once, not twice, not three times, but FOUR times. In 1999 Senator McCain voted to table an amendment that required States to address juvenile delinquency prevention efforts and system improvement efforts designed to reduce the disproportionate number of juvenile members of 'racial minority groups' who come in contact with the juvenile justice system. When interviewed in 2004, Senator McCain stated he would not support affirmative action policies in public college admissions. Concerning the underprivileged, Senator McCain has on 8 different occasions voted against increasing the minimum wage.

Like I said before, I consider myself to be a very optimistic person and I want to assume positive intent of his “tour” through areas of the country he feels the Republican Party has neglected and taken for granted for so many years. It is hard for me to do this because it was just last year where Senator McCain denied the opportunity to participate in a dialogue concerning the issues of minorities and the underprivileged during “The All American Presidential Forums” held on the campuses of Howard University and Morgan State University. These debates were opportunities for the candidates from the Democratic and Republican Parties to directly address the issues facing the people described in Senator McCain’s tour. It is funny how back then when nobody believed he had a shot at a legit bid at The White House he didn’t want to address the issues of minorities and the underprivileged. Now since he is on the brink of doing what he set out from the beginning of his candidacy, he wants to now reach out to those who have been forgotten.

I’m sorry Senator McCain, but I’m not buying what you’re selling.

A Job without Benefits... or Consequences

The New York Knicks have a new president and his name is Donnie Walsh. Walsh obviously comes in with his own ideas and theories. One of the first decisions he made is to strip Isaiah Thomas of his general manager and head coach title. However, they are retaining him in a mystical capacity. Donnie Walsh said that no person will report to Isaiah and he is to have no contact with the team. As a matter of fact the wording states, "he is barred from contact with the team as a result of his reassignment agreement". The question that should be asked then would be, is he still going to get paid? For the record, Isaiah assembled that whole team.

Pretend this is not the Knicks i am talking about lets make it Sony. What person have we ever seen or known that works but reports to no one? They are also allowed to work but can have no contact with another division of the company. This is like the movie Office Space where they move the gentleman down to the basement and he works by himself, but in actuality he doesn't even work for the company, he just thinks he does. Possibly Isaiah will be submitting reports and information to an erroneous email address too. How can this be a real job? Even more peculiar is Walsh's candor (i have always been one of the most fervent advocates for honesty), most executives use some form of soft deception and ambiguity to sugar coat a company position to make it appear more than what it is. Matter of fact think about your job and when they hired you. But Walsh lunged straight forward and virtually said, hey this guy won't be helping anybody and won't be talking to anybody. He should have just said he's useless but we don't want to fire him just yet.

The Knicks are in disarray and there are whispers that Mark Jackson could be in line for a coaching job. A guy that has played but never coached matter of fact he has spent the last few years in the broadcasting booth. Here's a memo to New York, save yourself some money and hire me, I cost less!

Times are rough for you too, huh?

This was my guy in his hey day. I recently found a report from Nov. 07 that former ESPN Sportscenter anchor, talk show host (Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn on CBS), and actor from the Benchwarmers showed up homeless, drunk, and passed-out in front of ESPN's studios in Bristol, CT. Im uncertain as to how they deemed he was he was homeless but the article said so, therefore they have to deal with any repercussions if its not true, not me. The account also reported he was extremely frail. Granted this is hitting the blog past it ripe date, im sure you didn't know either so consider this breaking news.

Allegedly at the time he was found he had one shoe, not as if that means he was homeless. He managed to finagle his way into ESPN studios, im assuming only because he previously worked there. Once in the building he became disruptive yelling former catch-phrases from his stint on the air with ESPN. Im sure he got that nostalgic feeling being back at his old stupering, oops i mean stumping grounds. He was extremely aggressive and obnoxious but yet aloof. A past co-worker attempted to help Kilborn once he unexpectedly found Kilborn sitting in his chair. This is way more depressing than i thought it would be when i clicked the link. You can look him up if you want the disheartening details (I kept it light).

Now here's my commentary: How can you shut it down on Sportscenter, get your own show on CBS (that was actually kind of funny) and then you end up in the bottom of the barrel, scraping. Maybe athletes aren't the only ones who blow their money. But lets not go to far yet, back to this homeless thing. How do they know he was homeless? Did he have a certificate that said "just lost house; homeless", semi-colon and all. Maybe they indulged...but here is something to remember, its never as good as they say it is and its never as bad as they say it is. Im gonna look up and he is going to be on Good Morning America getting his shine on. And if that happens i want a cut because i held him down on the blog.

Remember when you grandparents told you not to spend it all in one place. Turns out they knew what they were talking about.

Goodbye California...

Pay attention people. This is pretty serious. Governor Schwarzenegger has signed a law outlawing terms that are allegedly percieved negative to gays, i.e. "mom and dad" and "husband and wife" in public schools. WHAT! If you want to look the bill up it is Bill SB777. Furthermore, students male or female can now utilize the gender oriented restroom and locker room of which they choose to identify with. To put it in rudimentary terms (perhaps i shouldn't have used rudimentary) the boys can use the ladies restroom and locker room and vice versa. All you can do is shake your head to this one. This is a quote so you know im not making this up.

"We are shocked and appalled that the governor has blatantly attacked traditional family values in California," said Karen England, executive director of Capitol Resource Institute.

For all the salt of the world this is demoralizing. Even more important is the fact that text, teaching aids, and reference guides that refer to marriage as only between a man and a woman or say people are born male and female (nothing in between) will be banned. In addition, sources that fail to include a variety of transsexual, bisexual and homosexual historical figures, and sex education materials that fail to offer the option of sex changes will also be banned.This is important because California is one of the largest purchaser of text books, from what i read publishers are not apt to labor the cost of making two sets of text books, one for California and one for the rest of the states, and do not intend on losing California as a purchaser because they are a substantial money tree. So what do we anticipate the textbooks will look like in the near future? Like my man Big Boi said, "an adolescent mind is very impressionable in those stages". Additionally the word "sex" will no longer refer to your biological gender.

Only in Cali, that's what they said when Arnold was elected and look what has spawned. My question is what should the children who have mothers and fathers call their parents, because they are mom and dad. They are expeditiously trying to reform America, they are looking to break values and create chaos. It is not discriminatory to anyone if a child calls his mom "mother", how can someone be offended, that is what she is. It doesn't refer to anyone else's family situation. If you effectively get rid of mother and father then will boy and girl be next? Will we all just be simply "human". If California does not understand that only a man and a woman can make a child then they deserve to break off and drift into the ocean. This is what happens when you get shows like "Tila Tequila" all over tv. In an effort to desensitize people gradually inject more and more homosexuality into America and then it turns into this. For the record I love everyone but right is right and wrong is wrong. To choose your own way of life is your right and that should not be taken away from you, ultimately you live with the decisions you make. However, when you begin to confuse children that creates a larger problem. Children are probably not even concerened with sexuality. Private schools should see a significant spike in Cali, and if they don't then its a problem. How can parents feel comforted and at ease that their child is being educated in school and not being brainwashed concerning sexuality. First they take prayer out of school and now this.

California you can go ahead and break off into the ocean whenever you get a minute. You can populate your island with gender reflective relationships and see how that works. Arnold has really done it this time, seriously!

Calendar Girls!!

Aren't these ladies lovely. Well the middle aged women of Serradilla del Arroyo, Spain put together a holiday calendar as a fundraiser for their children's small rural school. Ensuing is a legible glimpse:

One of the photos shows the mothers with Christmas tinsel as their only garb — no private parts on view. Other goofy poses include a shotgun-toting mother wearing only a fox pelt and kneeling on a table, and another shows a woman covering her body with a red umbrella on a picnic table.

Hopefully you didn't expect visual samples. The calendar debuted in November and initially looked promising. Putting your heads and bodies together to make money, great idea right?

Wrong, these amatuers owe $16,000 to a printer. The vixens (im being facetious) are steeped 5,000 copies deep with their calendar. The group did not have their plan together and because of a snag with the distributor they missed the Christmas season. If you're gonna have a holiday calendar it might help to get it out for the holiday season. It looks like it gonna be hard to recycle this one. Providing a nude calendar to raise money for a school of 7-11 year old children doesn't seem to correlate, i could be wrong but i doubt it. What ever happened to a bake sale? If you were 10 would you want your mom nude on a calendar for the whole neighborhood? Now that i reflect I don't think lack of sales had anything to do with the holiday season blunder, I think those kids were more astute than the mothers and shut that operation down. Maybe next year a bake sale is in order.

Put your foot down

I would ride this thing until the laces got caught in the chain. Look at this, can you say right up my alley. Only thing i would have to worry about is my shoes turning sideways. But you can't get this bike if you wear a small shoe size because you might have gaps on your wheels. This is great, as you can tell im excited, but hey, I had to show my next bike to the world! I got Sole.

Little known American Fact ( to me)

I just found this out on the hush. George Bush (W and H) was a cheerleader. Now im not knocking cheerleaders but...You mean to tell me that soon to be former president bush (well both of them) was cart wheeling and fist pumping for his favorite teams. I knew it was reason i always found him hilarious. He just has the "it" factor for being funny. Bush has an innate characteristic to keep the people on the edge of their seats, whether good or bad. I usually don't condone this but why didn't John Kerry or Al Gore break out the pics of Bush cheerleading when this was a presidential war. Bush would have never won Florida on a recount. Shout out to Julie. GO George GO!

America, Spare me please

First and foremost I would like to apologize to the public for my hiatus, but IM BACK! It hurt me just as much as it hurt you, trust me. With no further adieu, lets jump back in the pool, CANNONBALL!!!!

I have to jump on the olympic protest, i.e. the smotherers of the flame. I realize the fact that some nations are more active politically than us Americans and I certainly saw their rationale in creating a ruckus around the olympic torch. However, when the flame hit San Francisco people were trying to act a fool and pretend they are incensed and perturbed about the lack of humanity demonstrated in China. The paucity of social demonstraters in America leads me to believe that this was a bandwagon move. No matter how many times you extinguish the olympic torch, in essence you will accomplish nothing. The flame WILL eventually make it to Beijing, I can assure you. I empathize with the idea that some attention needs to be paid to the issue that exists but... where was the anger before the olympics. Perhaps it was there it just wasn't reported over here in America? Perhaps because we all know how American media likes to show meaningless news stories.

Now the ancillary issue is the notion of protesting the olympics altogether. What!? If you refuse to have your athletes compete in sporting events in Beijing how is that going to reform their practices? Many of these athletes have been training for years for their opportunity to participate in the olympics; to spring this on them at the doorstep of the event is pretty ridiculous. It's not as if you can miss the olympics and then go next month. It won't be back for another four years for crying out loud. And that effectively eliminates a whole lot of people and their dreams. From an American perspective, how about you stop taking so many imports from China. Maybe not have so many of your factories over there. I think China would feel that a little more than the absence of your athletes. I mean these are only ideas if youre serious about the issue and not just playing the public protest game. Don't have one foot in and one foot out. American could help itself and increase the value of the dollar among other things if they were really sympathetic to what is going on in China.

Blowing hot air won't get you anywhere, cause you can't float over to China in a hot air balloon.

Take the tie off Barack!

This is going to be very light but it pissed me off. Don't take me serious on this one (but im serious). Why was Barack bowling in a suit and tie? Is there no form of casual clothes in his closet. I had Al over here rationalizing it to me, telling me "he's running for president, he has to give you that presidential image". Im not buying it, was he on the way to make a speech and he just decided that he wanted to bowl. And the worst part about this thing is that he bowled a 37! A 37! Traditional math tells us that is just under four pins a frame. If they thought this would be good for his image, they were sadly mistaken, because i can't vote for anyone who bowls a 37. I actually think it was a joke. Back to the point, doesn't he have any chinos or something. If nothing else, at least take the tie off. I reinterate, "what is he doing".

I don't know why i just posted this, but its just how i feel so im not erasing it.