Hallelujah and Praise Jesus!

Finally, Obama. This is a good start...

Another Random RC Posting

Here's a little something I wrote for the Research Center that FINALLY got published. To see the graph, visit the permalink for the entire stat here. Enjoy!

State Policies Toward Pregnant and Parenting Teens

By Alexis ----

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the U.S. teen pregnancy rate is on the rise for the first time since 1991. The report, based on 2006 data, shows that the birth rate for ages 15-19 increased by three percent.

Though there are no federal requirements for schools regarding pregnant and parenting students, some states have enacted policies for these students who are considered at-risk of dropping out of school. The EPE Research Center analyzed these state policies compiled by The National Association of State Boards of Education. Of the 50 states, 20 have policies that address pregnant or parenting students. These policies differ, but all address the academic or health concerns faced by this group of students.

Of the 20 states, only seven have policies that explicitly focus on absence from class. Chronic school absence is an important issue facing today’s pregnant and parenting teens, as many are forced to take extended time off from school for medical reasons concerning themselves or their children.

Thirteen states have policies addressing other areas for pregnant and parenting students. Six states provide funding guidelines for programs designed specifically for these students. Four states prohibit discrimination against any student on the basis of pregnancy or parenthood. West Virginia provides additional food for pregnant or lactating students, while South Dakota allows schools to offer daycare to enrolled students.

With teen pregnancy on the rise, there is much work needed at the state level to not only lower the teen pregnancy rates, but to accommodate pregnant or parenting students. Experts agree that offering policies and initiatives to assist at-risk students may be integral in assuring these students receive a diploma (“The Down Staircase,” Diplomas Count, 2006).

...Or Not...

I've come to realize that Yahoo! hates anything liberal. They've even included this poorly written story about why liberal bloggers are angry with Barack Obama. Perhaps they are trying to persuade "liberal bloggers" to become angry with him as part of this media shift into Hillarytardism...

I'm not angry with Barack Obama, and I consider myself to be quite liberal. Who I am angry with is Jeremiah Wright. Seriously... wtf, bro? Did the Republicans hire him to ensure that Obama does not get the Democratic nomination?? If Barack hasn't cut off all ties with him at this point, I suggest he do so immediately before this guy really goes apeshit.

As a Black woman, I have spent time around men like Jeremiah Wright. You know -- those angry old black men whose opinions are wholly outdated. Initially, you try to argue with them. This doesn't always work, since many of these old men lack reasoning in their old age. Then, you try to ignore them. This doesn't work because they only talk louder, maybe start using more profanity, and then start offending people. What comes next? I dunno. Maybe you don't allow your kids around them, or you send them to a home -- who knows? What I do know is that Obama needs to come up with a plan, soon, because this man is crapping all over his campaign.

Obama still has a shot to win the nom. I think that he'll take NC by a large margin (unless something really crappy comes along), and that he will probably win Indiana, though by a smaller margin. I think the biggest problem with Obama that sticks out in people's minds are that he's this angry black man, surrounded by even angrier, old black men, and that he hates White people and Jews. Jeremiah Wright only aided in this false perception of Obama for representing just that. Look, mainstream media, and Main Street, America cannot handle men like this. They're not used to it. They find men like Wright threatening, even despite the fact that there are angry old men of every race living in this country -- heck, there are "organizations" filled with them. Why does Wright get so much more media attention than other angry, offensive, racist old men? You be the judge of that.

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Eugene Robinson's article on this very topic speaks to my very opinion of the situation. Jeremiah Wright needs to stop misrepresenting the Black Church and thinking that he speaks for everyone. He certainly doesn't speak for me.

This is my favorite part of the article:

"Historically and theologically, he was inflating his importance in a pride-goeth-before-the-fall kind of way. Politically, by surfacing now, he was throwing Barack Obama under the bus.

Sadly, it's time for Obama to return the favor."

Can You Smell What Barack is Cookin'?

Yikes! After being threatened to blog more, I reckon I have no other choice but to do so...

Has anybody else taken notice of the way the media has shifted from being Obamites to Hillarytards? Everything I read now about Hillary is positive. Hillary can beat McCain (my ass she can). Hillary is in the lead (uh, no?). Hillary is God's gift to mankind (riiight). Geez Louise. Can Obama get a little love? Now, as a former journalist, I am going to go out a limb here and say that, perhaps, the media should be objective. Why do they want her to win so badly?

Seems like around the time of the Philly debate, the media shifted it's focus to the Wicked Witch of the West Wing. Could it because they thought that maybe Barack really did have a chance to win, and they were feeling pressure to squash those chances. It's like they hyped him up, and now, all of sudden, its like "wait. We can't really have him as President. Hmm... guess it's time to join team HRC."

Does anyone else feel the same way?

Are There Any Readers...?

I apologize to any of my readers out there for not posting more blogs this past week. Quite honestly, there's not much that I've felt like blogging about...

Okay, so the debate in Philly last night has come and gone, and what do I have to show for it? Nothing. The way I felt about the debate last night can be summed up with the same word to describe how Senator Obama looked last night: tired. The most exciting thing that I observed during the brief period where I was actually watching/listening to the debate were just after the commercial breaks, where the announcers made it sound like a PPV Heavyweight Championship Match.

While there were topics they addressed that hadn't been tackled much, if at all, in earlier debates, it just seemed, I don't know, bland.

Cherry Blossoms

Going down to the Cherry Blossom Festival today. Hopefully I won't have a terrible allergy attack. More later...

Today, Hmmm... Something Different

Today I decided to blog on my other site...

I only have two posts on it, and I realized that it was here that I blogged about a sexism vs racism article I read.

Human Rights Discussion

Though a week late, I've finally decided to comment on the human rights violations of the Bush Administration, among others...

Yesterday, I attended The Samuel Dash Conference on Human Rights: The Future of Human Rights hosted by the Center for American Progress and Georgetown University Law Center. Let me just preface this blog by noting that the Honorable Madeleine Albright was the keynote speaker for the event. Fascinating. Interesting. Good-humored.

Being a returned Washington Suburbanite has its pitfalls. Being born and raised in this area, you would think that I know D.C. like the back of my hand, but I must warn you that this is incorrect. I really only drove in the D.C. area for 2 years before heading off to school in NYC, and scarcely had time to acclimate myself to the streets of D.C. Nonetheless, I had to maneuver my way through the District yesterday morning (as a result of a Nyquil coma causing me to drown out the sound of my alarm for almost an hour) my automobile, as opposed to what I had planned- the trusty old Metro.

Driving through D.C. is quite a phenomenon. I'm sure that the description that is to follow pales in comparison to physically seeing all of the sights, but I'm going to make an effort anyway.

As soon as you enter D.C. by car, you know that you've hit the city's streets without even seeing one of those red and white Welcome to the District of Columbia signs posted among between brick posts, or one of those small, cheesy, blue signs that say something along the same lines; when you drive into D.C. you are greeted by lovely potholes. They come in all shapes and sizes, but they, without a shadow of a doubt, will be there to greet you- much like the stench of grease-truck gyros and homeless man body odors in NYC.

Drive a mile in D.C. and you see all sorts of peculiar things. You may see some national landmark, a prestigious museum, or even the White House, but in between these edifices, you will see poverty, construction, and protesters. Strange sights in any other city in the U.S. are just a D.C. staple. When I say strange, I don't mean a group of trannies hailing a cab (NYC), or gold-painted men doing the robot (San Francisco); I mean the truly bizarre. To me, bizarre is a block where people stand wearing V for Vendetta masks expressing their discontent with a relatively new religion, and on the other side of the street, an unmarked vehicle that, in an instant, becomes a police vehicle. What's most bizarre about it all is that nobody seems to notice. "Oh, that's just D.C." We Washingtonians seem to be okay with the fact that reality TV shows will rarely depict our beautiful city, or that we can't take too many pictures in one specific location. To us, it just comes with the territory.

Yesterday, driving in front of the courthouse that houses DCPD such as my uncle, I saw something that the average American would find strange, but just forced me to shrug my shoulders and think at least I know I made it to the right city. This police vehicle peeled through the intersection, and behind it followed one of those big black SUVS (the Hummers on Big Love are reminiscent) that you know, without really knowing, that some Secret Service Agent or another is surely tucked inside the vehicle. So the driver is obviously quite mad, on the verge of flipping the vehicle over (the truck looks like Michael Jackson in my favorite scene in the "Smooth Criminal" video), without a care of his fellow drivers. As he passes me, there is a man that appears was just snatched (or just jumped in the back- I couldn't tell), flopping around in the back of the truck. The rear door window was opened (the kind that opens out) and there were a bunch of men in the back of the truck wearing sunglasses. It wasn't sunny.

To add to this already strange incident, these two women, dressed in the standard DC uniform of skirted suits, cheered. Huh? I couldn't tell if they knew the main guy in the back of the truck, or if they knew where he was going, but I felt out of the loop. Go figure.

People don't have much going on in the rights department in D.C. Anyone who has ever seen a D.C. license plate knows that they actually advertise the fact that real Washingtonians do not share one basic right with their fellow citizens: No Taxation Without Representation. I don't think that the citizens of D.C. do not care. I'm not sure what the deal is, but I do find it interesting that I attended a conference that was held in D.C., where the main topic on the agenda was human rights.

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Attempting for at least 20 minutes to find parking anywhere in the vicinity of Georgetown Law (without a clue as to which building the conference was to be held in), I decided to cave in and ask the guards on campus where the nearest parking location was (I didn't have any change, so I couldn't even park at a meter). Fortunately, the young, cute, sweet act worked, and one of the guards allowed me to park in the faculty parking garage, moving several trash cans out of one spot so that I would be assured a parking spot that did not belong to anyone else. After telling him which conference I was attending, and how long I would be there, he told me that the auditorium where the first half of the conference would take place was right through the parking garage doors. Whew!

I rushed through the doors, finding myself right in front of the doors to the auditorium. I opened the doors and was in the back of the auditorium. Living in New York, and being a college student, I quickly spotted an empty seat that would cause the least amount of distraction. Some guy was talking about something, and since it wasn't anything related to human rights, I tuned out. I walked past this lady who obviously was lacking in experience with finding a seat without disturbing anyone within a 20-foot radius, politely asked a lady if I could sit in the seat next to her, and sat my late butt down.

Turns out the "Some Guy" was introducing Madeleine Albright. Boy, was I there just in the nick of time! I could see her and her staff peeking in through a door on stage right, and I was anticipating the lecture that was soon to follow. I waited for Some Guy to quit yapping, and finally came on stage, greeted with humble applause.

She didn't look the way I expected.

To avoid sounding shallow, I was expecting this very stately woman with a very serious demeanor, wearing all black and a frown. Much to my delight, she was much more of a grandmotherly type- slightly robust, clothes not worn sloppily but not so pristine either, and a purple dress with a purple jacket. She kind of reminded me of my English grandmother in a way, though far more dignified.

As aforementioned, Madeleine Albright is not only a fascinating character, but she's got a pretty good sense of humor. She began the lecture with a funny anecdote about Americans and our terrible short/long term memory that went a little something like this:

She was at the airport, when the woman in front of her asked her how she was able to get such amazing screw tops for her bottles. Her items always seemed to spill in flight, and she could never find lids that stayed shut.

Albright responded, "The Container Store."

Walking to the final security checkpoint, one of the security guards stopped her and said "it's you!" He told her he was from Bosnia and said how much the Bosnian people loved her, blah blah blah. He asked her to take a photograph with him, and she obliged.

Bottle Cap Lady caught up with her shortly thereafter and asked her what all the hubbub was all about.

"I used to be Secretary of State," answered Albright.

"Of Bosnia?" asked Bottle Cap Lady.

This caused the audience to burst into laughter.

Another Topic to Discuss...

Listening to Democracy Now on the radio this morning, I listened in to the writer of this article. Fascinating, disturbing, and mostly more disturbing, Philippe Sands described the Bush Administration's role in what most people across the world would describe as war crimes.

More discussion on this topic to follow...

WTF

I'm dumbfounded. I was writing another new blog post, when this came across my screen...

Hillary Clinton compared herself to Rocky Balboa.

I tell you what, I don't want to see her in shorts.

Please read my chatbox on the right and respond. I'd like to get a good discussion going.

My Evolving Views of Illegal Immigration

I had the opportunity to screen a wonderful film last night at the AFI Silver Theatre. It was called The Visitor, and was written and directed by a guy I immediately recognized as the prick journalist on The Wire, Tom McCarthy.

The acting in the film was superb, and it was a topic I hadn't seen much film on- immigration. Yes, I've seen immigration films, human trafficking films, etc. (see Maria Llena de Gracia (Maria Full of Grace)); however, this touched on a separate issue that I personally have not heard much about, and that is detention centers.

Before the screening began, we heard a brief introduction by a woman from the Center for American Progress, and then a short lecture on immigration by a woman from Amnesty International. (I know, we Washington suburbanites have access to so many organizations, think tanks, officials, etc- gotta love it.) I have to be honest- I really didn't know much of anything about detention centers before the film. Through the Q&A session following the film, I learned more about them, and have decided to do a bit of side research (while I'm supposed to be doing important research presently) on these detention centers. There are many organizations that address this issue, though the issue still has not fallen into mainstream media (of COURSE). I'd like to open up discussion on detention centers and the rights of illegal immigrants.

(Does anyone know what happens after you get deported?)


I must also add that I have a newly developed crush on one of the main actors in the film, Haaz Sleiman, who I got to see in person at the screening, which confirmed my crush.

The Nats NEW Home Opener

No, I didn't get a chance to go to the home opener, but I did get a chance to watch the best part of the game...


And I'm not talking about Zimmerman's game-winning home run...

What, you ask, might I be talking about? Dubya throwing the first pitch, of course!


I held a sense of pride for my fellow DMV (DC/MD/VA) suburbanites who booed the POTUS. It was my dad's birthday, so we had a Seafood Cook-In at the house, which several of his friends attended. One guy said "how can they boo the President?" I told him that I would have not only booed him, but thrown popcorn at him as well. Not only did he throw the first pitch, and got booed at, but he then went upstairs to a nice press box where he helped commentate the game. At this point, I was shocked. Not because he actually stayed at the game past the first pitch, but because of what he did while in the press box. He touched the black dude's arm! Okay, he was wearing a jacket, so he didn't actually touch his black skin, but I found it to be a bit contrive, as though he was trying to prove Kanye West wrong. "I do like black people, Kanye, I do!" My dad said that he probably leaned in after the cameras went off him and said "you're going to get me a drink after this, right?"

What a way to kick off a new season with a new stadium and a new record (undefeated)! Go Nats!