News & Current Affairs
[Podcast] Pop Life with Jeff Sledge & Angelique Miles (1.31.11)
The homie, Jeff Sledge from the former hustle (and the man responsible for introducing Travis Porter to the world beyond the A!) chops it up w/ the luscious Angelique Miles on a variety of urban-oriented pop culture and gossip news items in the first of what is scheduled to be a weekly podcast series. This could get interesting as Sledge always has something interesting to say. Check it out and tell me what you think….
MP3: Pop Life with Jeff Sledge & Angelique Miles (1.31.11 Podcast) [Hulkshare download link]
[News] Canadians Face Evacuation Shakedown in Cairo!
Via The Toronto Star:
“First, they had unbelievable luck. Amid cancelled international flights and chaos in the streets, about 200 Canadian passengers made it past the desperate hordes at Cairo airport to board a Canadian-chartered flight out.
Then, the shakedown. Egyptian airport officials demanded cash — $2,000 from passengers, which they quickly collected on board — before the plane would be allowed to take off. That was on top of the “roughly $400” the Conservative government intends to charge them for passage to the “safe haven” cities of London, Paris or Frankfurt.
Canadian evacuees will then have to pay their way home from those locations, but the government promises to help with the bookings. It’s the first time ever in a rescue effort the government is charging to recover costs for evacuation flights.
In Ottawa, the government denied its Egyptian rescue effort was in disarray even as the Canadians were hit up for extravagant “departure” fees, could not reach embassy personnel by phone, and said Ottawa’s emergency voice mailbox was full. When word reached Ottawa about the runway cash demands, Canadian officials made an angry call to Egypt’s ambassador.
Canadian officials raised “concerns . . . about additional fees charged to release the plane” — fees the government was told were charged “for luggage” handling, said Melissa Lantsman, communications director for Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon.”
CLICK HERE to read the full article.
First off, why wasn’t someone from the Canadian embassy there to make sure the evacuation of its citizen went smoothly??! Smdh! Yet more proof that Canada does not know how to look after its own citizens. Just ask Maher Arar, Suaad Hagi Mohamud, Abousfian Abdelrazik and Omar Khadr. Hmm… what do all of those people seem to have in common??
[News] DJ Kool Herc Needs Help with his Medical Bills!
Via the UK’s Guardian:
“DJ Kool Herc, one of the founding fathers of hip-hop, is allegedly “very sick” and cannot afford hospital treatment. The man who invented breakbeats is without health insurance and needs help, his friends say, to pay for surgery.
“[He] who we call the father of hip-hop, Kool Herc, is not doing well,” DJ Premier revealed on his Sirius XM radio show this weekend. “Since he’s very sick and has no insurance … [he] needs to pay his bills so he can get out of hospital.”
Kool Herc, real name Clive Campbell, was an integral figure in early hip-hop, developing DJ techniques and encouraging breakdance culture. But although he was a major influence on artists such as Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa, Kool Herc was a DJ, not a record producer, and did not score any hits. Consequently, Premier said, the 55-year-old cannot afford surgery.
DJ Kool Herc’s condition has not been disclosed.”
CLICK HERE to read the full article.
This is crazy! I wouldn’t have had a career doing what I did if it wasn’t for this guy! In fact, If, anyone who made a living in the hip hop game over the past couple decades, would never have been able to do that had it not been for the creative genius and innovations of Clive ‘Kool Herc’ Campbell.
Donations for Kool Herc can be sent to: Kool Herc Production, P.O. Box 20472, Huntington Station, NY 11746.
[UPDATE (2/1): dude had kidney stones??! I mean not to downplay that because I’ve actually had them too and even minor incidents can be painful like a muh-f-kcer, but I kind of feel like dupe for even having done this post now…]
[via Davey D]
News: Riots in Egypt Spread; The Government Shuts off the Internet & Text Messaging
Seriously, it’s SUPER loony-tunes right now in Egypt. Here’s an additional twisted thought though: if more countries, after Tunisia, Lebanon, Yemen and Egypt, continue to collapse like this, some may posit that George W. Bush’s ‘domino theory’ for spreading democracy in the Middle East has been vindicated and ultimately proven right although I’m not sure this fits my personal definition of peace and democracy!
Read more:
– Egyptian Internet cutoff ‘unprecedented’ [Vancouver Sun]
– This Is What It Looks Like When An Entire Country Leaves The Internet [Business Insider]
– CNN Anchor Says Network’s Satellites In Egypt Have Been Shut Off [Business Insider]
Hit the jump for another video clip which WARNING: contains disturbing footgae of someone being shot, possibly to death according to the video subject title.
Associated Press Fact-Checks President Obama’s State of the Union Address
You’re fact-checking Obama??! How about those loony GOP and Tea Party responses from Paul Ryan and Michelle Bachmann??! Scary thing is that, as I said on twitter, as crazy as Bachmann is and wild questionable with her interpretation of events & the stats (the US has ‘the world’s finest health care’?? Really??), her SOTU response might resonate with more people than Obama’s actual SOTU. Although, as The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart pointed out, what was up with her weird eye contact??
Related:
– Top House Republican downplays Bachmann SOTU response. [MSNBC First Response]
– Right-Wing Media Embrace Ryan’s SOTU Response — But Economists Disagree. [Media Matters]
And from PolitiFact.com:
Hit the jump for for more video of President Obama expand on his SOTU themes of American rising to the challenge of innovating to ‘win the future.’
#DK11: The album, This One Goes To Eleven… OUT NOW
