More blacks in KY prisons -- who knew?

"Honey, I thought Obama's candidacy ended racism?!?"

The C-J ran a piece of the racial disparities in Kentucky prisons. Look at the numbers in Jefferson County (Metro Louisville), where black folk make up 57% of the people sent to the state prisons but only only 20 percent of the counties population. Other counties like Kenton and Daviess have a much worse ratios.

"Marc Mauer, executive director of the Washington-based National Sentencing Project...said that while both whites and blacks use illegal substances, blacks are arrested and incarcerated more frequently, as law enforcement tends to focus more resources on the low-income, minority community."

The good news? Mauer said the Bluegrass is below the national average. Here blacks are only 5x times more likely to be incarcerated than whites. The national average is 5.6x -- hooray for .6%, keep hope alive!

The Bill Cosby/O'Reilly crowd will cite parenting, personal responsibility and ghetto values as the culprit. And undoubtedly that's at play. Not every imprisoned black person is Mumia.

I happen to agree with Michael Eric Dyson, however, who says though they're not all political prisoners their incarceration is certainly politicized. Especially in KY where felon's voting rights are constitutionally denied unless restoration is signed by the governor.

So much for rehabilitation.

Alas, progressives use a lot academic buzzwords like socioeconomic status, institutional racism and prison industrial complex. They just don't have the same rallying affects as Cosby's ignorant rants of black stereotypes.

Until then...listen to Lupe

MSNBC reporter suspended for "pimpin' out" comment about Chelsea Clinton

I remember watching this Thursday. What do you think?

David Shuster's comment was a bit more colorful than his usual dull presentations. If you watch cable news you know he's certainly not a professional blowhard like Lou Dobbs, Bill O'Reilly, Nancy Grace or Glenn Beck. He's a real journalist (i.e. he's a corporate blowhard than doesn't rock the boat).

I'll be honest, I saw no serious foul in his comment. Then again, I laughed at Imus' infamous nappy-headed ho comment. Maybe I'm an insensitive misogynist. Or maybe I can still laugh at stupid comments and still be a proud lefty.

I agree it was inappropriate but far below the usual cable noise. I'm sure Billary supporter, Ellen Malcolm -- president of EMILY's List and a top adviser to Sen. Clinton -- would disagree. She wrote a scathing letter to NBC Sr. VP Phil Griffin. And after Billary threatened to boycott future debate appearances on the network, Shuster 's was apologizing every 30 minutes.

The worst of the American left seems committed to editing the English language down to two simple words: be nice.

Yarmuth endorses Obama, but what about Horne?

Rep. John Yarmuth (D -KY3) officially announced his endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama for president today. "Barack Obama has the unique capacity to build support from Americans of all parties from Kentucky to Idaho to Connecticut, and he will lead us to recapture our potential when as President," said Yarmuth in a press release.

Surprising? Not really.

Just a few weeks ago he "unofficially" supported Obama on WLOU 1350AM when he was a guest on the Simmons Saturday Morning Solutions radio program. And it's not very risky either, according to Federal Election Commission reports Louisville's wallets support Obama over Billary 3-to-1. Plus, Yarmuth staffers love to say Louisville discovered Obama's house packing charisma when he appeared at Slugger Field during Yarmuth's congressional campaign in 2006.

Still, every little bit helps.

KY bloggers have already sidestepped this feathery news. Most want to know if Yarmuth is going to follow-up his "unofficial" endorsement of Andrew Horne -- "He is the person to take on Mitch McConnell" -- in the upcoming Senatorial race against the Godfather of KY, Sen. Mitch McConnell, who awaits whatever Democrat survives the primary.

Yarmuth's endorsement in that race is significant considering his proximity to KY politics and that nearly 40% of Kentucky’s voters reside in the 3rd Congressional District.

More on Kwame Kilpatrick's text message scandal

"Shhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttt!"

Dipping to a dismal 25% approval rating, things are only getting worse for the hip-hop mayor.

First, a judge ordered Tuesday the release of secret documents that confirm Mayor Kilpatrick tried to hide the 14000 text messages sent to his mistress, also his former Chief of Staff, in a lawsuit settlement. Second, later that day the City Council discovered they approved the $8.4 million lawsuit payout without being told of the secret settlement pact.

Detroit Free Press columnist, Stephen Henderson's wrote:

"It's becoming clearer, in the ongoing litigation between the Free Press and the city, that the core of the mayor's misbehavior was not the affair with his chief of staff, the investigation he stopped before police could spill the beans about his dalliance, or the lies he told about it on the witness stand. It's about a massive cover-up, and the distinct possibility that Kilpatrick sought to brazenly deceive City Council and the voters when he grabbed $9 million in public money to settle whistle-blower suits filed by city police officers....in the plainest terms, what the mayor did was perpetrate a fraud on all of us. Kilpatrick worked us."

No comment, just watch.

Where do all the TV reporters go?

Ever notice how local TV reporters vanish? Even the good ones. That's because they're often forced to leave town because of non-compete clauses in their contracts. Rick Redding's On Media column in LEO this week provides a lucid discussion about the nature of these clauses and scratches the surface of how they affect local media.

"If you’re a local TV reporter...you better check your contract. Non-compete clauses in employment are enforceable in Kentucky, in many industries, and are standard in the broadcast industry. That’s why it’s rare to see a reporter leave a station and start work at another in the same market...even if you’re fired from a station, the pacts can keep you from working in the market."

Read more on Redding's blog here.

Not in My Park

Louisville has seen its fair share of violent crimes against children. Not surprisingly one of ideas to combat the problem in "Possibility City" has been a memorial spearheaded by the ubiquitous grim reaper, Christopher 2X.

Well that children's memorial and its planned location, Wyandotte Park, have hit a few bumps in the road. Namely another community activist leaping before he looks and upsetting a neighborhood that doesn't want to be stigmatized as the cities hotel for child murderers.

Read more here.

I’m sure every city has a local activist like Christopher 2X, who hops from tragedy to tragedy under the guise of "healer" or "community activist". or "hood prophet". They are not true community organizers who substantively combat issues by mobilizing constituents from the grassroots up. Instead they’re TV personalities who find an occupation in the web of death. Give him credit, he created a legal job for himself. We can employ many descriptions for this position: misery pimp, ghetto grim reaper, or undertaker-activist.

You pick.

One would think, however, that eventually this shameless ambulance chasing that leads us nowhere would stop. Or at least shrugged off for something more substantive. I guess sooner or later someone: a journalist worth their notepad, a real community organizer, or the general public, will question the productivity of this sort of activism. Until then...

Barack Obama f. will.I.am - Yes We Can

What do you think?

McConnell ad with U of L doctors criticized

First, the ad:


Nothing especially egregious. It features U of L physicians saying a bunch of nice things about the university and medical research, connecting them to Sen. Mitch McConnell's moneybag tactics in Washington.

Well according to the C-J's piece the physicians, along with U of L President, James Ramsey and Dr. Donald Miller, director of the Uof L Brown Cancer Center, didn't know the comments would be used for television or re-electing McConnell.

"Two of three University of Louisville physicians who made videotaped statements of support for U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell last year say they didn't realize their comments would be part of a television ad for the senator's re-election campaign...

Ramsey said he initially believed the videos would be used only on a McConnell Web site. Had he known they'd be broadcast more widely in televised campaign commercials, he said, he would have handled things differently. 'I should have known that anything that goes on the Web is public domain.'

Dr. Larry Cook, U of L's executive vice president for health affairs, and Dr. Donald Miller, director of the Brown Cancer Center, said in interviews that they believed their testimonials would appear only on the Web, and not in television ads.

Dr. Laman Gray, chief of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery, whose video appeared on the campaign Web site, said he wasn't sure how the video was going to be used."

I'm sorry.

You have to be incredibly naive to believe that in an election year a Machiavellian politician won't use your words to stay in office.

Also, a question for President Ramsey: why does it matter if the videos were web-exclusive? If the university prohibits employees from using their affiliation to make political endorsements, the ads being made -- not being more widely viewed -- should be the problem. Right?

KY Derby Festival poster unveiled

Yep, it's that time of year again.
The first symptom of Derby fever.


The abstract was created by artist Rick Garcia, of Santa Fe, N.M.
What do you think?