Elastic Borders-Fort Wayne cooks its population numbers

Thomas L. Guthrie, Associate Professor of Economics Indiana University-Purdue University, Fort Wayne writes

Over the longer run, the capacity of the Fort Wayne area to grow employment is likely about half that of the nation. This is based on the area’s relative dominance in the slow growth manufacturing sector (4) and its relatively low population growth.

Read the rest in Indiana Business Review.

The urban flight to the suburbs impacts the city's growth. Cities seek ways to grow their urban core. Immigration is one way to do so. An influx of a migrating foreign population masks a poor job market. Overpriced housing are contracted or rented to the new immigrants to hide the out migration abandonment of such housing.

The Journal Gazette reports

Many demographers associate shrinking populations with economic problems, typically poor job markets or prohibitive housing prices.

But it depends on how you work the numbers, according to Fort Wayne. Com.

But the growth and spread of Indiana’s cities cannot be denied, and the continuing population shift raises significant challenges, as well as opportunities:

Nope, not unless you have other folks who can read census reports.

Indiana now has one fewer city in the 100,000+ category, as Gary dipped below that mark with an estimated population of 99,516.

None of Indiana’s four remaining cities with more than 100,000 people (Indianapolis, Evansville, South Bend and Fort Wayne) saw a population gain from 2003 to 2004.
Population has decreased over the four-and-one-quarter years since Census 2000 in three of those four cities. Indianapolis saw a gain of only 0.3 percent over this period, while Evansville, South Bend and Fort Wayne sustained losses of 3.6 percent, 2.3 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively. (However, Fort Wayne would show a gain of 6.6 percent if growth due to boundary annexations was included.)

The abandoned areas turn to recruitment of employment by growing the population through consolidation. If their is a residency requirement that prohibit those who live outside the city boundary.

Fort Wayne is betting on a Baseball Park to further grow its population. The Harrison Square Park is deemed a catalyst for bringing non immigrants to live, work, and play in the urban core.

More from the report

Between 2000 and 2004, the unincorporated areas of our counties gained more people (111,000) than our cities and towns (43,000). People are making a distinct choice, a choice that allows them to be in close proximity to cities and towns in their counties, but not living within the city or town limits

How do you think the City of Fort Wayne was able to amass so much downtown land to sell to developers? But little funds are placed toward improving the urban schools, public schools.

Bird! Where did Spring go?

No Jobs Tom Smith but you got your RiverFront

See Councilperson Tom Smith(R) I told you so. You got your riverfront. But I did not tell you anything you already didn't know? You were just funning with the masses, at the council table.

And Mayor Dick has come up with more money to buy land. Or should I say the Mayor Dick has more of the tax payers dollars to spent. I think a more fitting name would be Real Estate Dick. It sorta of relates more to what is happening to our city or should I say people?

The city revealed it had signed an option in January to buy 29 acres of land owned by OmniSource in the area west of Clinton Street, south of the former YWCA property and east of Harrison Street.

Well that looks like that clears the way, for you to vote on Harrison Square, Councilperson Smith.

City Councilman Tom Smith, R-1st, has long been a proponent of riverfront development, saying he would support Harrison Square if it were in the area the city now plans to examine.

Smith said he is pleased the city obtained an option on the land and hopes to see it developed.

“That land is some of the most important land in the downtown area,” he said. “I think it’s the key to any and all future development.”

The city’s decision does not allay Smith’s concerns about Harrison Square because they are two separate projects, he said.

The full task force is expected to be appointed next week and will have about 25 members.

Candidate John Edwards says No to Fox News Debate

The News-Sentinel reports

Edwards to skip Fox News debate
MIKE BAKER
Associated Press
RALEIGH, N.C. - Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards on Friday pulled out of a second debate co-hosted by Fox News Channel, saying the cable network has a conservative slant.

The Edwards campaign said it will not attend the Sept. 23 debate hosted by Fox News and the Congressional Black Caucus Institute, but officials added that Edwards will participate in a different debate hosted by the institute and CNN.

"We believe there's just no reason for Democrats to give Fox a platform to advance the right-wing agenda while pretending they're objective," said Jonathan Prince, Edwards' deputy campaign manager.

It's the second time Edwards has decided to skip a debate because of its affiliation with Fox News. Edwards decided in March that he would pass on an Aug. 14 debate in Reno, Nev., co-hosted by Fox News and the Nevada Democratic Party.

The Nevada Democratic Party canceled that debate just days after the Edwards announcement, citing comments by Fox News President Roger Ailes that the party found offensive. Ailes had made a joke comparing the name of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., to that of Osama bin Laden.

Online activists and bloggers have assailed Democratic leaders who have tried to work with Fox News, saying the cable news network is biased.

The Democratic National Committee has sanctioned six debates before the 2008 primary season, but it has snubbed the Congressional Black Caucus Institute debate.

A call by The Associated Press to Fox News was not immediately returned.

---

Easter Morning Sunrise Service

Come join the 6:00 a.m. Easter Sunday Early Sunrise Service at True Love Baptist along with Greater Faith Baptist Church.

True Love Baptist Church
715 E Wallace St
Fort Wayne, IN 46803
260-745-4901

Delivering the Word-Women

Brenda Simpson-Father Forgive Them

Heather Gatson-Today, Should Thy Be With Me in Paradise

Earlene Stephens-Women Behold Thy Son

Tammy Hatch-My God Why Have Thy Forsaken Me?

Michelle Freeman-I Thirst

Alice Kelsaw-It Is Finished

Edgie Adams-Father To Thy Hand I Commit My Spirit

And he still has a job?

MSNBC's host Don Imus referred to the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos. Read more on African American news alert.

Remarks and video here
Apology and video here

I see a vision of tennis shoes ! no jobs..tennis shoes

Fort Wayne is a city for dreamers. Young folks and kiddies that's our theme. All geared towards the tourists,of course, not our children, to say what a great city we have here !! The 7' 4" tennis shoes arrived just in time to test them out on our young folks during spring break. No chocolate Jesus here.

The giant sneakers will pitter patter their way into our big Allen County Public Library and pose for awhile. By summertime the tennies will have made their way to our big park, Headwaters in time for the summer festivals. Of course the high tops could not miss an opportunity to show up on the basketball court, Spiece Fieldhouse await them for the big American Youth Basketball Tour.
>

I posted about the sport shoes back in January parts of the post is below:






Sport shoes will be lining the streets of Fort Wayne, Indiana for part of the summer 2007. Fort Wayne/Allen County Convention and Visitors Bureau is selling their "Room for Dreams" logo with a "Team Dreams' theme fundraising event that involves shoes.

For the second straight year, the American Youth Basketball Tour and the United States Specialty Sports Association will hold their championships on various days from July 5 to July 30 at Spiece Fieldhouse and about 10 other area gymnasiums. The two organizations liked Fort Wayne so much they’re back with an expected 600 teams, 15,000 people and an estimated $6 million windfall.

Read more on what another city did with the fiberglass shoes.

Congressional Black Caucus Institute vs Community

The Republicans must have gotten tired waiting on Senator Hillary Clinton to bash Senator Barack Obama fundraising success. The International Herald Tribune: Americas reports on the snarly remark made by Republican National Committee spokesman Chris Taylor.

Taylor was unavailable to dispute the numbers so he went after Obama's brainpower.

Obama reported campaign contributions of $25 million (€18.7 million) in the first three months of this year, about $1 million (€750,000) less than what Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign reported.

Republican National Committee spokesman Chris Taylor responded that maybe the infusion of money into Obama's campaign would lead to more specifics in his health care plans.

"With all these funds, maybe now he'll be able to hire someone to write a health care plan for him," Taylor said.

Taylor calm down.

But what's up with Congressional Black Caucus Institute?

It has been reported on various blogs,such as African American Political Pundit that the Congressional Black Caucus Institute has partnered with Fox News to carry two presidential debate. The Color of Change has a petition to shame CBCI. Electronic Village has an excellent article about the situation. Although, The "D" Spot suggest Fox is NBC is ABC, you get the picture.

But I wonder.

Is not CBCI following the lead of the African American community who continues to watch Fox and those who bow down and give their support to Senator Clinton, unquestioned. Senator Clinton need not bash Senator Obama as she plays nice as we quietly say nothing about the accomplishment of this man. According to Independent Org, Talk/Talk an estimated 50% of African American support Senator Clinton.

What if we turned off all the televisions in the African-American community for say..one week. What would happen? Let's stage a "One Week without T.V. blogger fans ! Now back to Hillary.

Sigh. Unbelievable. The fact ,a woman, is enough for a sista to vote for Senator Clinton sistas. Sad. And my brothas. How quickly we forget the three strikes Crime Bill(locked them up and throw away the key) under the first black president, Bill Clinton, as knighted by Toni Morrison, author of the bluest eyes. Just need a moment to catch my breathe...Now, tell me again the statistics on the brothas in prison (forget jail) compared to those brothas in college?

My brothas has distanced themselves from Obama because he is not brotha enough. Is this how we choose our leaders base on skin color and gender?

We have all the opportunities to check out the candidates qualifications, viewpoints and we of all people are hung up on color.we. In the afrosphere, blackosphere, African-Americanosphere, afronetizens, I have found few blogs in the blogcommunity that state they outright support Senator Obama. There were over 9000 blogs supporting Senator Obama. Of those 9000, how many are African-American bloggers?

What's up with all this unity in the blog?

I only ask, is not Senator Obama worthy of our support? Temple 3 you are so right about another one of our male legislator heroes. But the Dr. Rev. King, Jr. spoke to the masses too, and went to jail in spite of. It was the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who stated African-American needs a third party. In other words, not to march to the title of Democrats or Republicans but to independently select candidates.

FWCS Petition Color Battle for schools not students

Fort Wayne Community Schools repair battle has evolved into two camps. The fight is over a half of a billion dollars on schools on schools that educate the majority of African-American students, in the public school system. Camp one is code blue. Code blue sounds an alarm that the money would be better spent on improving students academic achievement.

Camp two is the yellow camp. Yellow sounds like a canary cautioning that the repair of the building will improve the learning environment and will be a beacon for improving students performance.

Which side wins? It depends on signatures.


Kevin Leininger writes.

Thirty thousand.

That’s the number of signatures opponents say they might need to defeat a $500 million school-improvement campaign. If they get that many, it would be a remarkable achievement. Probably even a record.

That's right the code blue name would need 30,000 signatures. Now we get to the meat of the problem. How are you going to get 30, 000 signatures when


Property owners are only allowed to sign the petitions.

Now according to the Allen County Auditor Office there are 91, 225 parcels in Fort Wayne that receive tax bills. But from households there could be an estimated 182, 450 property owners within the Fort Wayne Community School District.

Those it does not take a rock scientist to see that the estimate appears to suggest that at least two signature comes out of each parcels. Now we know that many couples are not marriage, but are living in houses as if they are married. Who really own the property, if the property is only in one name and the other person is signing it?

But even more troubling in bulking up the numbers of property owners to sign the petition comes from the fact that of the 91,225 parcels, 7,747 are businesses owners who can vote twice. Yet there are only 31,884 students attending Fort Wayne Community Schools. How many of these students parents are home owners? How many will of these parents signature will be missing from the petitions? Is it not these parents whom children are actually attending these schools? Do you think its these parents who do not want better and improved schools for their children?


But the signature must be collected within 30 days.

Not going to happen.

But, the increase in property taxes has already happened.

Why all the bellyaching?

Distraction. Property taxes are being increased and its been going on long before the decision to repair schools. But elected officials who are in charge of the budget express the need to prevent the tax payers from knowing they approve and sign off on the major tax increases by passing bloated budgets.

Home owners don't understand the elected officials are in their pockets, to insure jobs for their families and friends. Salaries and increases are in the budget, the elected officials just rewarded Mayor Dick a raise $130,000. Did that raise help improve students achievement? So home owners wrongly blame solely the school repairs for the tax increases.

Because the public schools have long been neglected, they are need of repair. And second with the mandates under No Child Left Behind, parents are able to remove their students from failing schools and placed them in other public schools. Nicer public schools in raced white neighborhoods.

Ese Isiorho reports

“As a large urban district, we continue to work hard to meet the accountability demands of the NCLB legislation,” Superintendent Wendy Robinson said in a statement.

FWCS is the second-largest district in the state, with nearly 32,000 students.

“AYP mandates spell success differently for large urban districts such as FWCS, which has to meet all criteria in 37 categories to be successful,” FWCS spokeswoman Debbie Morgan said in a statement.

Pleasant Center, Irwin, Harris and Waynedale elementary schools and Elmhurst High School missed making AYP because they fell short in just one subgroup.

As a district, FWCS has failed for the past four years to make AYP, but Robinson has said the district is attempting to improve student achievement. During FWCS’ last school board meeting March 26, she opened the floor for board members to discuss the district’s educational goals, which include accountability, leadership, focus and instruction. The board will meet periodically throughout the next few months to talk about specific topics in-depth.

“We applaud (NCLB’s) goal of success for all students,” Robinson said.

Some parents are not applauding NCLB and would rather see school closed than improved if that would mean their children would have to attend schools beyond their neighborhoods. Prometheus 6 blogs about

schools

segregated schools. Fort Wayne Community Schools have an enrollment of African-American students between 25-29% and 56 % raced whites. The African-Americans population is over 35,000 the estimated number of raced whites in the core of the city is probably 55,000. The boundary expansion has erased the city of Fort Wayne into other areas, which has reduced the African-American population to 8% and raced whites to 92%, as an estimation.

Segregated. They don't care if the schools caves in. That's one less school that their child will have to attend. And you thought it was about pretty buildings. Here sharing some G-itch stuff, here, and here.

Dogs and Cats, who next?

I eat a lot of fish. And I love me some chicken. Matter of fact, I am frying some chicken in the pan, right now. That's right frying. I love ribs too. And I will have me some burgers every now and then. But with the e coli scare I have scaled back on certain meats. So what happens, the moment I began to make my monster salads? That's right, something goes wrong with the lettuce !

Yeah yeah, I know they said they tracked down the bad lettuce.

But now what, I know I should have paid closer attention. Dogs poisoned with dog food. I know some of the elders were rumored to serve up some cat food to each other every now and then. I sometimes wonder to myself, is this really tuna that I am loving at the time I'm gobbing it on my salad. But I don't think folks are mixing up any dog food ingredients and serving it to folks, you think?


Well read here.

The Food and Drug Administration has said the investigation into the pet deaths was focused on wheat gluten in the food. The gluten itself would not cause kidney failure, but it could have been contaminated, the FDA said.

Paul Henderson, chief executive of Menu Foods, confirmed Friday that the wheat gluten was purchased from China.

Bob Rosenberg, senior vice president of government affairs for the National Pest Management Association, said it would be unusual for the wheat to be tainted.

"It would make no sense to spray a crop itself with rodenticide," Rosenberg said, adding that grain shippers typically put bait stations around the perimeter of their storage facilities.

The substance in the food was identified as aminopterin, a cancer drug that once was used to induce abortions in the United States and is still used to kill rats in some other countries, state Agriculture Commissioner Patrick Hooker said.

"Any amount of this product is too much in food," Hooker said.

Did I see China.

Well my chicken is about done, or is this chicken? And if you thinking about downing a few malt liquor read what Dr. Lester K. Spence have to say before you take a sip.

FBI detained black wearing war protesters

Forget about the crips and bloods frothing at the mouth about folks and people wearing red and blue. Now we got law enforcement preforming preemptive strikes against war protesters who wear black.

The probable cause to arrest the protesters as they retrieved food from their parked van? They were wearing black -- a color choice the FBI and police associated with anarchists, according to the police records.

Find the article over on AAPP spot.

Building Community

The Free Shaquanda Cotton net campaign may have influenced or motivated another type of movement in the blogosphere. It seems that Asabagna had a vision and shared the idea with the free slave.

I always had an idea, a vision really, to create a diasporic-wide think tank type blog. I envisioned that it would focus on discussing issues, exchanging ideas and creating strategies, with the objective of developing concrete and viable solutions to tackle the concerns relating to those of us of African descent worldwide.

I shared this vision over at thefreeslave blog page and I was overwhelmed by how enthusiastically it was received. It is not necessarily an original idea on my part and others have previously either engaged in similar discussions or have created such a venue. However it garnered much discussion, offers of assistance and words of encouragement.

Others have joined in on the discussion and are rolling toward forming a think tank blog, Exodus Mentality, Francis L. Holland, Field Negro, Prometheus 6. . The think tank has branded the group with a theme and with a spear. Republic T may be now occurring in afrosphere/blackopshere/AfricanAmericanosphere/afronetizens/villagers.

After my post recounting the “blogroll purge,” I wrote another piece about the African American blogosphere. It got link by several other black bloggers, but has been overshadowed by the “purge” post. But I think there’s a link between the two, especially when it comes to African Americans and other minority groups and how they built communities of their own.

When they found themselves effectively shut out of the dominant power structure, they built their own. In some cases, when they were denied service or treated badly in existing establishments, they started their own and refused patronize establishments where they were neither respected or valued. They started their own newspapers, radio stations, social clubs, professional associations, etc., and they defined and celebrated success within those spheres.

They often did so out of necessity. Faced with a dominant power structure that wasn’t likely to change, they had no choice but to build their own. They did not accept the argument offered: that if they could not succeed under that status quo because they were not good enough. They created communities that served them well for a long time. (Probably because members of those communities assumed some responsibility to and for each other.)

That’s basically what I’m saying, that people who are frustrated with the what the believe is an insular top tier in political blogging (which is actually a very small world, especially when pared down to progressive political blogs only) should do. Stop pouring time, energy, passion, and bandwidth into theirs, and build your own.


The difference is that our spheres are naturally linked because instead of being solely based on factors like gender, religion, or ethnicity, we are also linked by interest and experience across our many spheres. If human nature creates systems in which inequality is inevitable, then human diversity — encompassing all of our varied experiences, passions, pass-times, and personal interests — may be the best way to overcome that inequality, or at least to start.

In the same way that sites like Amazon and phenomenons like eBay or Amazon have created the “Long Tail” by making an unlimited supply of content available to even the tiniest demand, the internet and blogging have made it possible for people who would once have been disparate and disenfranchised by distance to build communities where they can connect with one another and potentially an impact that would have been out of their reach before. It’s what Chris Anderson wrote about in The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More, as well as on his blog.

To read the rest click here.


Other bloggers suggested ways to build community. Electronic Village with a family pledge. African American Political Pundit commented on Dr. Lester K. Spence on the building of community. And I can't forget the words of James Clingman, Jr of Blackonomic$, in stating if you want to rename a sign in your neighborhood just do it. It's is after all your neighborhood. I weighted in early on my views about the blogosphere here. The world is not flat but it has become more connected, and get little play by the established mainstream media including their African-American writers.

I am a Man- Obama-$25 millions

CNN reports Senator Barack Obama raised $25 millions. Senator Obama campaign raised over $23,500,000 for the primary.



Go to Obama website for the breakdown of the numbers.

How fitting on this day, when many in the community will be honoring the legacy of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to be able to celebrate Senator Obama fund raising abilities to run for the United State's presidency.

Dr. King, Jr. was shot in Memphis, Tennessee on the balcony of the Loraine Motel on April 4, 1968.

Let us not ask the question what would Dr. King, Jr. do if he was here today. Let's ask what will you do in remembering the legacy of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. crusade for the right to be a full blooded American citizen? What will you do to change America? Senator Obama is doing his part to keep Dr. King, Jr. dream alive.



hat tip to BlackProf.

Blogger Released from Jail

Josh Walsh, a blogger(8) spent eight months in jail, according to a story in the Washington Post. The federal government wanted a video that Walsh had recorded. The U.S. attorney office finally offered a deal in which Walsh accepted as a get out of jail. Walsh holds the record for the longest contempt of court charge by some one in the United State media.

A San Francisco blogger who spent nearly eight months in jail for refusing to testify about an anarchists' demonstration was released yesterday after turning over a videotape of the protest and posting it on his Web site.

Josh Wolf, 24, also answered two questions from prosecutors, after striking a deal that ends the longest contempt-of-court term ever served by someone in the U.S. media.

This should get journalists to going, a blogger as part of the media. For shame.

The case sparked a First Amendment debate over whether Wolf is a journalist and whether he deserved protection for the video he shot of the 2005 protest against a G-8 summit meeting in Scotland, since he made no explicit promises of confidentiality. Wolf sold other parts of the tape to local television stations and posted those portions online. In reaching the agreement with prosecutors, Wolf backed off his original position that he would not turn over the footage.

Do bloggers have first amendment protection?

Email vs. blogging

Interesting I write about Women and blogging and Spencer Overton over on BlackProf writes about the email usage among African-Americans. An email posted on the BlackProf spread like wildfire through the email community. Overton ask the question,

While there are a number of successful African American blogs, why does email continue to be such a big driver of political discourse in the African American community?

Well, let's see email is pretty much free. Yahoo and other makes it pretty simple to set up an email.


Once someone sends you something to read, with a click of the mouse you can send it to another person, effortless.

If they get an email that is from a friend or family marked urgent, it is sent to everyone they know. And if you check the chain mail list and find a friend or family member name missing you send it to the next person.


It's easy to get away with sending stuff on email on the job.

Email spam is easy to do when you are bored.

Email does not require you to know how to write.


Now blogging.

Blogging can be time consuming.

Blogging requires you to write.

Blogging requires you to post

Blogging may cost you money.

Blogging may require you to have your own computer.

I would suggest that many bloggers are young technically savvy folks.

Of course blogging does not require either, but that's my take.

I also believe many African-Americans bloggers are college students.

I suggest that the young students use myspace.


Email generation tend to be older African-Americans who are unwilling to give up time to learn about utilizing the internet beyond being consumers. Many of the younger generation are using IM or texts on their cellphone. Blogging reaches a broader network than the more personal email.

I had only one class in computers... to learn workprocessing. Curiosity keeps me coming back.

Easter Chocolate for everybody

Censorship of writing has a long history. But so does art. A huge chocolate image was created in time for this year Easter season to celebrate a man who died for our sins. Sweet Jesus. But, some folks don't want to see it...a Chocolate Jesus.

When Mel Gibson movie the Passion hit the theatre, the lovers of Christ, somehow forgot the rule of what would Jesus do, and attacked the movie. Now the artist Cosimo Cavallaro who created a chocolate image of Jesus has had his work somewhat banned, or at least the exhibit cancelled.

We pass images of Jesus all the time. But this chocolate Jesus got folks in such an uproar. Most folks loves chocolate. The stores are full of chocolate treats for Easter. It is such a sinful treat.

It appears that not only was Jesus a delightful milk chocolate, but he had a penis wait a chocolate penis at that. I guess Jesus penis for all to see was too much for the Catholics. Not banning pedophiles, but a chocolate Jesus, me think.

Word of the milk chocolate Christ infuriated Catholics, including Egan, who described it as "a sickening display." Bill Donohue, head of the watchdog Catholic League, said it was "one of the worst assaults on Christian sensibilities ever."

On Friday, Donohue said he was "delighted with the outcome" after hearing of the cancellation. But Donohue was still angry with Semler for describing his criticism of the sculpture as "a Catholic fatwa."

"He had no business saying my letter of protest was hate speech," Donohue said. "It just goes to show the guy is out of his mind."

The sculpture was to debut Monday evening, the day after Palm Sunday and just four days before Christians mark the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Good Friday. The final day of the exhibit was planned for Easter Sunday.

The hotel and the gallery were overrun Thursday with angry phone calls and e-mails about the exhibit. Semler said the calls included death threats over the work of Cavallaro, who was described as disappointed by the cancellation.

"In this situation, the hotel couldn't continue to be supportive because of a fear for their own safety," said Semler. Cavallaro still hoped the sweet sculpture could go on display elsewhere, according to Semler.

But we see naked statute all the time. But they are not Jesus, so it's okay. And for gosh sake they are not chocolate.


It unbelievable but I think a chocolate Jesus was just too deep..chocolate that is. Besides the chocolate Jesus was too big. Simply too big for the children to see. He was much bigger than the Easter Bunny, a full six feet

!

Well what next to offend the religious right,Obama as Jesus?

SJR-7 Amendment to the Indiana Constitution -Dead

Advance Indiana is celebrating the death of SJR-7. SJR-7 would have constitutionally banned same sex marriage in the State of Indiana. Political parties on both sides voted the amendment down. The Democrats cited the fact that Indiana already had laws on the book banning same sex marriage. And Indiana Court of Appeal has ruled in favor of upholding the ban.

But to give Democrats a finger snap for voting down the amendment, I don't understand. Hey it was not because of the same sex ban that they voted against the resolution. It was that little tricky language that would have have robbed "keeping house couples" benefits, that carried the day.

That second paragraph screwed Indiana General Assembly from Constitutionally ousting same sex union off the land of Indiana. It was legal incidents of marriage that killed no amendment, not Democrats.

But I'm still voting for Obama. What the heck is the same sex community thinking?

Women get dissed on the blog

I started blogging in June 2006. I would have started earlier, but I kept asking around for help to get started. I was dismissed or told I don't know. So, I realized I needde to commit to putting in the time to build a blog. I knew I wanted to be anonymous. I was aware of the sick people in cyberspace. Leeches seeking out ways to get into your private space. One of the cases I studied back in in early 2000 had to do with sex predators online making friendly with children. This would be a dangerous place for the naivete.

I entered chat rooms and found adults wanting to hook up. This was not my objective. I was seeking expertise in different areas that were not available in my hometown atmosphere. I started out with Black Planet. It was pretty interaction, but young children were interacting in grown folks conversation. So, I left Black planet and headed toward blogging. I selected a name for myself, a generic name, Independent. Independent was my political stance. I quietly made my debut.

Nothing happened. No traffic. I went to other spots and made my comments and safely returned to my blog, to wait for them to come see about me. My blog I could write whatever.. that is until one day, my blog would take on a new direction. I was told to read a posting on another local blog. I did and added my two cents. Big mistake.

My two cents was not wanted and it upset the tranquility of the local blogosphere. For me, an African-American there would be hell to be paid in offering up that two cents. It quickly became a local group blog to discover who is this credo. To discredit my blog and my writing, it was essential that personal information be quickly gathered it did not matter if it was truth, just the semblance of truth was all that matter.

But, unbeknownst to the culprits, I was collecting the attacks as they began to turn personal and racial. It became apparent that at least one thing was certain, I was not one of them. I was not worthy to be counted among the local blogger community.


I thought about starting anew. But instead, I made it crystal clear, who I was, an African-American and a woman, in the change to the title of my blog. No more wondering, local bloggers, yes I was indeed African-American and a woman to top it off. I took the risk of entering a male dominated raced white community of bloggers and integrated it. My rule: attack my thoughts but no racial attacks would be allowed on my blog.

I had read other African-American bloggers demanding the same. And it made sense, especially after one African-American female shut down her site, after being attacked by raced white women. Simply because she was voicing her opinion. I would have to be stronger and sing a little dittie called, and I am telling you...

The issue of blogging while something other than raced white would return upon a visit to African-American Political Pundit post listing bloggers who addressed the issues of blogging while black or brown. And now it appears that raced white women have been dissed in the blogosphere. Misogyny gone wild.

I found this out by doing a click over to Michelle Malkin website. Malkin had a post titled Liberal female bloggers discover Web misogyny... Now that was not my purpose for visting Malkin, this was, The John Doe Manifesto. Web misogyny, nevertheless caught my attention and took me to Huffington Post, where I found Misogyny in the blogsphere:The Debate Continues. The debate continues because it appears that not unlike our sista, Kortney Ryan Ziegler as reported on ColorLines, another female blogger stopped posting.

Melissa Lafsky posted on Huff and Stuff about an anonymous death threat aimed at the female blogger, Kathy Sierra. Sierra maintained the site until her address was posted after the death threat on the site, and that was enough to stop her from blogging on creating passionate users. It appears a typed and posted death threat is not protected speech. but the threat was enough to cause economic damage, Sierre, a techie decided to cancel a ETech presentation at a conference after the death threat.

But some of the bloggers in the community believe it does not matter the issue of gender based blogging. Bloggers of all type must have thick skin. Joan Walsh of Salon.com entered the discussion, and weighed on the issue of Women Web ABuse@ or WWA on whether or not female bloggers need to just cowboy up.

...Is Sierra another woman silenced by vicious online sexism, or just a wuss? Were the threats of violence real? Or is she the real bully, organizing a "lynch mob" to win her blogosphere battle?

I avoided writing about the mess for a day or two because I had mixed feelings about it. Ever since Salon automated its letters, it's been hard to ignore that the criticisms of women writers are much more brutal and vicious than those about men -- sometimes nakedly sexist, sometimes less obviously so; sometimes sexually and/or personally degrading. But I've never admitted the toll our letters can sometimes take on women writers at Salon, myself included, because admitting it would be giving misogynist losers -- and these are the posters I'm talking about -- power. Still, I've come to think that denying it gives them another kind of power, and I'm trying to sort that out by thinking about the Kathy Sierra mess in all its complexity.

Power. Does power allows for certain abuse in the blogosphere?
Was it that need for power when some of these same women tolerated the blackface of Joe Lieberman as okay on the blog? Silence.

However, the newspaper picked up the story of the death threat of Sierra. The media is outraged when women are denigrated on the blogosphere but ignore the same type of experience by African-Americans on the blogosphere? How come?

Both should be handled with swiftness, as the backlash came and prompted the blackface to be taken down from Huff and Stuff. But does the netosphere really provide an equal opportunity for all users regardless of their background? Or is it an exclusive marketing tool for the rich and the famous?

Or does the blogosphere mirror our america? Is the message to African-American you are consumers and are not a part of the global marketing occurring in the blogosphere?

AAPP inquires whether or not campaign dollars will be spent on African-Americans blogspots? Does African-Americans blogs matter? Jeanette Ponder was profiled in the print media, but her blog was not mentioned. When African-American bloggers united in an online campaigning, Howard Witt,of the Chicago Tribute gave a generic mention to bloggers! But not a nayer African American blogger link was mentioned. African-American links matters!

Just ask Francis L. Holland. Holland was censored from Daily Kos. The censorship occurred when African-Americans do not participate in the group think and challenge the one sided conversations. And when attempting to participate beyond the African-American audience, African-American bloggers are censored. That appeared to be what happened to me, as my website was taken over and redirected by a raced white blogger. But who gave him the authority simply because he was unable to deal with opinions from an African-American woman.

Why is this acceptable behavior in the blogosphere? But more importantly why are we women and African-American bloggers not banning together to capture the dollars from those who do not want us on the Afro/Blackosphere/netizens, villager/African-Americans blogworld. Where is the marketing strategy on the net for us?

This post can be found on African American Political Pundit.