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Earth to Northside Sun, Ledger, etc.: Stop Making Sh*t Up
It is simply remarkable to watch the media in Jackson that lost their mayoral endorsement go to the same tired, *false* well so quickly after Harvey Johnson Jr. won back the mayor's race in a landslide. Today's Northside Sun editorial starts out with this: "One reason we suspect Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson lost four years ago was his claim that crime was a perception rather than a reality."
Sherr-ief, Please Scoop the Poop
OK, that's it. We just saw the Fondren deputy-horse in our parking lot, and as adorable as he is, we are really tired of the trail of poop that he is leaving behind in this, the best walking community in the city. It's in the parking lot in front of our building, and it is lining the parking lot leading up to Jerusalem Cafe. I stepped in it last week near Lenny's.
Donna's Blog Gets a New Attitude
OK, all, I've decided to take my blog in a different direction. That is, I'm going to use it as more of a catch-all journal than a place to aggregate media stories. I stayed offline all weekend — heaven! — and I realized that there are so many little things I observe in this crazy, wonderful place called Jackson that I don't have a place to put.
Kaze's Hip-Hop Hater of the Week: Ebony Magazine
Here we go again folks. America just can't seem to do anything without going to the absolute extreme. As I expected the en-vogue pursuit to clean up objectionable lyrics is going to turn into an all out witch hunt. One where ALL of hiphop is going to suffer for the crusading of a few. Instead of eliminating the language that we all agree must progress. You've given hiphop haters worldwide a reason to try and eliminate the genre altogether. And poor Ludacris, probably one of the more docile of all the "language" culprits gets screwed again. Being removed from the 'Black Father's" edition of Ebony Magazine (June isseue). bumped for pretty boy boris Kudjoe. Now ladies won't be mad at all..but as a rapper Im steaming again. Is Ludacris not a good father? IS Ebony just going with the flow?
Former JFP Intern Starts New Orleans Magazine
From Jessica Kinnison, one of our favorite former interns, and Jackson Prep graduate:
I am writing on behalf of Voix du Vieux / Voice of the Quarter, a New Orleans based monthly publication that serves as a forum for painters, photographers, poets, fiction writers and musicians. We started this project just over four months ago with the intention of doing our part
Lou Dobbs' False Immigrant ‘Facts' Exposed ... Again
CNN's Lou Dobbs continues to dig himself into the xenophobic ground, and challenge FOX's Bill O'Reilly as the most unreliable personality on television. According to a FAIR media analysis, he claimed as "fact" a baseless assertion that half of the Culinary Workers Union "are illegal aliens"; CNN's media personality Candy Crowley did not challenge him:
Are Obama Comparisons to JFK Unhealthy ‘Baby-Boomer Reminiscing'?
New York Times blogger Matt Bai argues that it's time to move forward instead of backward, as all the Kennedy comparisons do:
43 Events Today; 50 Events Saturday; Holiday Events Mania
If you're looking for exciting things to do this weekend, holiday or not, the new JFP events calendar is packed full of daily events, and categories of stuff to do from holiday to shopping to literary. You'll also find extensive gallery listings and movie times over there.
Jackson to The Clarion-Ledger: GO HOME
Well, the Clarion-Ledger edit-boyz have finally come so full circle on their ridiculous support of Melton and their horrendous reporting on him during the campaign and over the years. Today they published a dramatic editorial starting out:
St. Paddy's Weekend in Jacktown Starts Right Here and Now
It's here! It's the week we all party like the Irish. The JFP has gathered all the details in one place for you; pick up the huge print edition this week for schedules and a discount map (p. 18). Click here for a list of St. Paddy's events (and add your own). Check out for the city's most complete events calendar (and add your own). Post your pictures and your plans at LoungeList.com (and, I hear, win prizes). Head over to the Fly Blog for all sorts of fun Irish tips, trivia and DIY ideas. And, of course, to the parade Saturday! Catch lots of beads! Stimulate your locally owned Jackson businesses! Be safe! Have fun! Post pictures!
Imagine Bush or McCain Playing Taboo!?!
The Associated Press has a fun story about Barack Obama playing Taboo on his campaign plane with young journalists. From the story:
6th Annual JFP Chick Ball
It's Chick Ball week in the city! Every summer, the Jackson Free Press presents the JFP Chick Ball at Hal & Mal's in downtown Jackson for two reasons: to fight domestic abuse in the area and to spotlight strong women and their artistry.
Does Obama Fill America's ‘Unconsummated Desire'?
I'm no fan of the NYT's David Brooks, but this column analyzing the Kennedy embrace of Obama, and the larger implications, is breathtaking. Per Brooks:
Young Voters May Sway Election
MSNBC is reporting that more young people may vote Tuesday than they have in many years—primarily because young people their age are dying in Iraq and because they don't approve of how the government responded to 9/11 and Katrina:
Mentally Ill in County Jails
The Clarion-Ledger has an important story today about how mentally ill people who have not been charged with crimes are being held in the Hinds County Detention Center in Raymond. (I'd tell you who wrote it, but there's no byline on the story as of this posting. Sorry.)
Four Years Ago Today
In my election hangover today, I've thought a lot about how four years ago today felt after a very bad president was re-elected. Here's our post the next morning, "Mourning in America." It was hard to feel worse than that day with a mess in Iraq and progressives under fire, here in Mississippi and around the country. We didn't know just how bad it would get during Bush's second term, or that Katrina would change us forever, or that the Republican Party of recent years would crumble under its own greed and corruption right before our eyes. We sure couldn't have known that four long years later the country would elect an openly progressive African American president with record turnouta president with the ability to help us first face, and then heal, our divisions.
Dr. King: More Than an Icon
Geov Parrish writes for Alternet:
MLK, Jr. Day, the holiday, has devolved into the Mississippi Burning of third Mondays. What started out as gratitude that they made a movie about it, gradually becomes revulsion at how new generations of Euro-Americans mislearn the story. King is not a legend because he believed in diversity trainings and civic ceremonies, or because he had a nice dream. He is remembered because he took serious risks and, as the Quakers say, spoke truth to power. ... What little history TV will give us to commemorate his birthday is as much about forgetting as about remembering, as much about self-congratulatory patriotism -- that King was American -- as self-examination, that American racism made him necessary, and that government, at every level, sought to destroy him.
Haley Barbour, Environmentalist
This column is running in the Hattiesburg American. It would seem that the Barbours are helping the hunters and fishermen on the Coast, if not poor people who need housing down there:
Melton Calls Councilman a ‘Goddamn Idiot'
Mayor Frank Melton showed his dark side publicly yesterday while in a meeting to try to figure how to alleviate his $3 million budget deficit from last year. The Clarion-Ledger reports today on Melton's meltdown:
The Story Behind Clarion-Ledger's ‘ShopLocal'
The name is Orwellian, almost. Even as the Jackson Free Press and other local businesses believe that Jacksonians need to spend money with businesses actually owned locally, The Clarion-Ledger, an outlet of the Gannett Corp., promotes its own version of "ShopLocal" on its Web site and in its paper, heavily pushing the likes of Sam's and Home Depot—not exactly everyone's idea of "shopping local." The national newspaper trade magazine, Editor & Publisher, currently has a piece on the ShopLocal network, explaining how the "local" service works: