There is a billboard on I-35 in Minnesota that is leaving people with quite a few questions all because it ask one simple question about former president George Bush:

My resounding answer:  Ummmm, hell to the naw!

Nobody seems to know who paid for the billboard or why they would pay for it.  Is it satire, is it a joke, or is somebody really serious about this?  I mean, obviously, they can’t possibly be serious about it, but you never know where people’s heads are at these days.

The questions this billboard raises for me are: Why would you even ask?  Do you miss being lied to ?  Do you miss mispronounced words and slightly incoherent sentences?  Do you miss nobody paying attention while Wall Street runs wild?  Do you miss randomly made up reasons for wars?  Do you miss enough funding to occupy Iraq, but not enough funding to provide emergency aid or to run FEMA?  Where were they going with that?  etc.

I hope this billboard doesn’t start popping up in other places.

Michael Eric Dyson gets a big “C’mon Son!” for this comment.  Once again, can President Obama run the country?  He can deal with every race thing under the sun when he is caking from all of his book deals and university graduation speeches after he is done being president.  All y’all need to calm down.  You too, Michael Eric Dyson.  Great way to make a point about dealing with race in a positive and constructive way by using de-constructive stereotypes.

The October Issue of French Vogue features an entire shoot of a pale-skinned, blond haired model… not unusual for any fashion magazine, right?  The unusual (at least for 2009) part is that the model is painted brown.  I'm not talking had-a-bad-fake-bake brown.  I'm talking I-was-born-in-Nigeria-to-Nigerian-parents brown.  

At first glance I would just assume this girl was black.  Which leads me to say… why isn't she black?  Why get a white model just to make her look black?  I understand that this is fashion and art and blah blah blah, but there is no getting around the fact that French Vogue was trying to make the model look black, much like the offensive practice of blackface.  I understand they aren't using the pictures to make fun of black people, but I can't help thinking about a white guy painting himself black and singing spirituals in a southern drawl… ridiculous.  

Maybe they were being artistic, like these couture pieces are so epic (they don't look so epic to me) that putting on a whole new skin matches their magnitude.  Maybe they didn't see how this could be be offensive.  Maybe the point is that representing another race shouldn't be taken as racist in this day-and-age and that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.  Maybe the point is that dark skin is beautiful.  If the aim is to actually represent black as beautiful, though, I would like to have seen a black model get credit for being ALREADY black and beautiful… without the paint.  I can honestly say I'm not completely offended when I just try and enjoy it for the art, but I am confused. Maybe I don't understand art like I thought I did.  However, I do understand a publicity stunt.  Anna Wintour would know better than to pull something like this.  I never liked the looks of that Carine Roitfeld (Editor-in-Chief of French Vogue) and here she is just trying to kick up some controversy to sale her probably ailing publication – from now on I will refer to her as the Devil wears Dior.  SMH

S Dot Tell'Em

"Who you textin? Jesus?" Ha!

With last Thursdays brutal beating that led to the death of Chicago honor roll student Derrion Albert being caught on camera phone by other students, the major MAJOR issues over the violence and number of deaths amongst Chicago youth are becoming a focus again.  Albert wasn't a gang member and he wasn't getting into trouble.  He was just coming from school and walked right into a fight.  Derrion Albert was only 16 years old.

Albert's death has made tensions run high in his school; arguments and fights have  been occurring in the hallways.  A few blocks away from the school, where Albert was beaten, a memorial had been set up for friends and family to express their condolences and grief and it has already been burned down.  Four suspects, three students who also went to Albert's school and one former student of the school, have been arrested thanks to the camera phone video.

The school year isn't but a month in and already 3 Chicago kids have been killed.  Last school year 37 kids were killed… that comes out to more than one death a week for the entire school year.  Why are these kids wilding out Lord of the Flies style?  What is making them so violent and angry that they would beat another kid to death with lumber?  There are a lot of theories going around about what can minimize the youth violence in Chicago including encouragement of parent involvement, speaking to students about their options, mentorship programs, and making sure that students feel protected.  We hope the community leaders and parents figure it out before another young person dies in the Chi.

S Dot Tell'Em

You've probably been hearing a lot about Reagan being the voice against "socialized medicine" back in 1961.  Even back in the day the health care industry was using scare tactics to confuse people… just like they're doing now.  Here is the Reagan recording about socialized medicine.  Bet you can't listen to the whole thing.

Blah, blah, effing blah.  I probably shouldn't go here, but… every time this propaganda has been played or referenced on the news over the past couple of months of the escalating health care issues debate, it makes me want to revisit a certain Boondocks episode.  I mean, health care isn't 100% about race, but I can't help but not overlook who is still vehemently against accessible health care; gun-toting, quick-noose-making, incoherent-slogan-yelling, conspiracy-of-foreign-born-president-believing nuts and the politicians who represent them.  All signs point towards people who are like, "I'd rather kill/die/make everyone suffer than see people I hate get adequate health care and I pretty much hate everyone who is not me."

S Dot Tell'Em

It is pretty much agreed upon that Halle Berry is one of the hottest women in America.  If I had a boyfriend of 4 months or less who was like, "Halle Berry saw me on the street and told me she wanted to get with me so I cheated on you," yeah, I'd breakup with him and call him a cheating dog, but I really wouldn't be that mad.  What could he do?  It was Halle Berry.

We try not to focus on or talk about ourselves too much on Get Fresh Daily, but I'm in need of some sympathy.  The election is over and done with, and yeah even though I'm happy to have it finished and am ecstatic about the presidential results, the next day I was like… "well, shit, what I am gonna write about now?"  I know, I know there are plenty of issues (health care, Prop. 8 in California, Obama's inaugauration and policy, states cutting budgets left and right etc.), but the election was a political blogger's dream come true.  Its like my posts wrote themselves!  Sometimes I had to NOT write about stuff because I would be in danger of being up all night or because every other political blogger had beat the subject to death already.  I'll look back at this first year of writing for Get Fresh Daily and think about how easy it was and then, after all of the stress, trying to stay fair in writing, trying to keep realistically optimistic, voicing how many people I talked to were feeling, being on the lookout for tips and leads, and sitting on pins a needles along with everybody else to find out how it would all turn out… the presidential election turned out exactly how I wanted it to.  I'd say there probably hasn't been anything this good to write about since emancipation so… sigh, I'd better get to researching.

The folks over at Strapped Condoms finally got a clue and realized how suspect their last ad was and took a different approach. It also seems that they are also on the touchy side. Mike over at Hybrid Nation told us about a "cease and desist" letter Strapped’s lawyers sent them "demanding" that they take down the article about how gay their first ad was. That ish is funny cuz it’s noone’s fault but their own that they completely overlooked something so blatant and then got the nerve to be upset that the rest of America didn’t. It’s called the First Amendment, maybe you’ve heard of it. I tell ya, bitchassness is speading like wildfire these days.

I know whose condoms I WON’T be using. If they were that damn reckless in putting together that first ad, who’s to say they weren’t reckless in the construction or testing of them rubbers! AIDS is real people, strap up with confidence.

-PopRotzi DL

The folks over at Strapped Condoms finally got a clue and realized how suspect their last ad was and took a different approach. It also seems that they are also on the touchy side. Mike over at Hybrid Nation told us about a "cease and desist" letter Strapped’s lawyers sent them "demanding" that they take down the article about how gay their first ad was. That ish is funny cuz it’s noone’s fault but their own that they completely overlooked something so blatant and then got the nerve to be upset that the rest of America didn’t. It’s called the First Amendment, maybe you’ve heard of it. I tell ya, bitchassness is speading like wildfire these days.

I know whose condoms I WON’T be using. If they were that damn reckless in putting together that first ad, who’s to say they weren’t reckless in the construction or testing of them rubbers! AIDS is real people, strap up with confidence.

-PopRotzi DL

Maybe we rag on Bush a lot, but the man has done and said some pretty off the wall things.  One instance that many people might not recall is when Bush was running for president for the first time.  During a debate, somebody asked him what he thought about the situations in Somalia and other African nations.  The person noted that some of the reasons he had mentioned for going into countries in the Middle East were some of the same crises going on in some African countries.  They asked if he planned on also going into African nations to help with the situations there.  His reply, "Africa is not where our interests lie."

8 years of pressure and change in international sentiment later, Bush went on his second 5 country tour of Africa.  On February, 26th he spoke to a prominent pro-African U.S. organization about his thoughts upon Africa and U.S. involvement there, saying "Congress needs to make America’s commitment clear by fully and promptly
funding our development programs. And presidential candidates of both
parties should make clear that engagement with Africa will be an
enduring priority of the United States."  Hmmm, how things change when your legacy is on the line and the responsibility will soon not be yours.

Is Hillary too soft or too hard?  Did Obama say that Louis Farrakhan is a cool guy?  Did McCain have a questionable relationship 20 years ago?  Do any of these questions sound like they matter to you or to the future of the country.  I hate when you ask somebody why they dislike a candidate and the only reason they can give you is that "she was a different person in 19(before I was even born)70" or "he (might have accidentally) sold his house to a crook."  Can somebody please say "I like her because she believes in compulsory health care for all" or "I like him because he wants to start a program where, through service to the community, students can pay off their student loans after college"  or "I like him because he has the potential to bridge the gap between the political parties so more politics might actually get done." 

People get so tired of the talk from the people who just like to hear themselves talk about things that don’t really need to be talked about.  Then these pundits, reporters, and commentators wonder why people seem apathetic about voting.  If you want to review some straight forward positions about the candidates, check out On the Issues.org, a straightforward, no frills directory of issues and actual things candidates have said that make their positions on the issues clear.

Photo from Reuters

Two women were strapped with remote controlled explosives in Baghdad today killing at least 73 people and wounding over 150. Tragic, I know. Oh I forgot to mention the two women had Down’s Syndrome. I’m speechless…

More on this story…

CIA

Photo from Reuters

Two women were strapped with remote controlled explosives in Baghdad today killing at least 73 people and wounding over 150. Tragic, I know. Oh I forgot to mention the two women had Down’s Syndrome. I’m speechless…

More on this story…

CIA

Photo from Reuters

Two women were strapped with remote controlled explosives in Baghdad today killing at least 73 people and wounding over 150. Tragic, I know. Oh I forgot to mention the two women had Down’s Syndrome. I’m speechless…

More on this story…

CIA

The new season of making the band finally premiered Monday night and so far this season is turning out to be less-than-stellar. Being an avid MTB viewer myself, not so much for the sheer foolishness of it all or even Diddy’s shameless self-promotion and glitter-filled cameos, I just really enjoy singing and dancing.  Anyway, although by the end there was a good amount of work being done (album making and such), the rest of the episode was just awkward.

I have a feeling that the highlights of the show will be lasting throughout the season:
1. The requisite sexual tension between Aubrey and Diddy complete with longing *stare* as she smirks and slowly walks away…
2. Aubrey again reminds us why Diddy had the talk with her in the first place with frequent displays of drunken recklessness…

3. Serious bow chicka waow waow music playing in the background whenever a guy and girl talk to eachother…

However, what disturbed me the most about the premiere, besides the awkward silence in every scene was that inexplicable fur thing Diddy was wearing as a jacket.  Peep the straggles chillin’ up over the collar…

This is what Diddy’s jacket reminds me of…

                                                                                                                            -G.Diddy 

According to the Associated Press, 6 people have died building the venues for the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the past 5 years. Not only have there been deaths but Chinese officials had been lying about how many deaths had actually occured…Get it together, just because you have over a billion people it doesn’t mean that worker safety is an option. F

-CIA