Hip-Hop Inaugural Events Start TONIGHT (1/14/09)…Ludicras Co-Hosting “Urban Ball”

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

Hey, guess what’s starting today??  The first of a week-long series of HIP-HOP Inaugural events!

I happened to get onto this when I visited The Black Agenda Report, saw a graphic and clicked on it.

As it turns out, there are at least TWO hip-hop groups running events.  Tonight, January 14, the “Hip-Hop Caucus…Politics for a New Generation” holds its “kick-off” party.

By Saturday (January 17), the schedule begins to rev up as the Congressional Black Caucus gets involved in a “roundtable” discussion of hip-hop and politics; that evening, Mary J. Blige is featured in a nighttime event.

Hip Hop & Politics Roundtable

Return soon more information, or sign up here for Inauguration updates.  The Source Mind Squad, Chuck D, Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr. and Members of the Congressional Black Caucus
Time: 1pm-4pm

Venue: TBD

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Then on the 19th there’s an event to honor MLK  being held in partnership with the Presidential Inaugural Committee….

Mon. Jan 19th

National Day of Service in Honor of Dr. King

In partnership with the Presidential Inaugural Committee the Hip Hop Caucus will organize community service efforts nationally and in Washington, DC.
Return soon more information, or sign up here for Inauguration updates.

There’s also a pricey “scholars” party being held during the week titled “Dreams from My Father” after Obama’s bio mostly made-up life story:

Sun. Jan 18th

“Dreams from My Father” American Scholars Inaugural Ball @ The “5 Diamond” Four Seasons Hotel in Georgetown

Hosted By the National Intellectual Property Institute, the Hip Hop Caucus, Dave & Ray Ent., with The Source Magazine Time: 8pm – 2am Cost: Doctorate Level – $550 ($1000 for Couples) | Graduate Level – $350 ($600 for Couples) | Bachelor Level – Student Discounts Available (visit www.americanscholarsball.org) Venue Address: 2800 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington, DC 20007

Then there’s THIS action being held by another Hip-Hop organization: the Hip-Hop Inaugural Ball.

The event has big name sponsors, Heineken and Hip-Hop Summit Action Network. HSAN’s mission statement:

Mission Statement:

Founded in 2001, the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN) is dedicated to harnessing the cultural relevance of Hip-Hop music to serve as a catalyst for education advocacy and other societal concerns fundamental to the empowerment of youth. HSAN is a non-profit, non-partisan national coalition of Hip-Hop artists, entertainment industry leaders, education advocates, civil rights proponents, and youth leaders united in the belief that Hip-Hop is an enormously influential agent for social change which must be responsibly and proactively utilized to fight the war on poverty and injustice.

(“Social change”–like we’ve seen in Ludacris’ enlightened view of women??)

This event has big ticket prices, too…The “cheap” seats at $250 are sold out, but tickets at $500, $1000 General) , and $2500 (VIP) are still available!!!  ( I guess the VIPs get to drink more…)

CELEBRATING THE INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA…

(If you can’t see it, the banner reads: ” And the Hip-Hop Community for Inspiring the Transformation of America“)

Now, you might be wondering if Ludacris will be showing up! Oh, yeah, he’ll be in D.C.  Back in December the plans were set to have 2 American Music Inaugural Balls: one will be hosted by Dionne Warwicke (the one for the older crowd) and the other will feature our FAVORITE hip-hopper Ludacris along with OutKast’s Big Boi. From MTV:

On January 20, D.C.’s Marriott Wardman Park Hotel will hold two American Music events. Luda and Big Boi will co-host the Urban Ball, which is reportedly slated to include appearances from David Banner, Bobby Valentino, Lil Jon, T-Pain, Cedric the Entertainer, the Cheetah Girls, Fantasia and Monica. A number of former NBA players will also reportedly be on hand, including Jalen Rose, Kenny Smith and Alonzo Mourning. Tickets for the ball will run you $350. Spokespeople for Luda and Big Boi could not be reached for comment at press time.

The lineup for the Legends Ball, co-hosted by Dionne Warwick and Yolanda Adams, is slated to feature appearances by Chaka Khan, George Clinton, Kirk Franklin, Harold Melvin & Blue Notes, the Temptations with Dennis Edwards, Isaiah Washington and Reggie Miller. Tickets for this event will cost $450.

Here are our guys!!

Big Boi (L) and Ludacris (R)

MTV will be hosting its own ball…

One thing is for sure: MTV will be hosting its own “Be the Change Inaugural Ball,” co-hosted by ServiceNation, to celebrate the massive youth-voter turnout in this year’s presidential election.

I’m getting chills all over, aren’t you?  Somehow, I’m getting the feeling that all this is ONE aspect of the Obama-JFK “connection” made by Caroline Kennedy that is not quite on a par with what Jackie-O would have signed on for.  Ain’t no Pablo Casals in sight…

And what about all those poorer Obama supporters who can’t cough up all the money and/or don’t have “black tie”?  Well, there will be plenty of bars  open, of course. Although the original plan to let bars stay open for extended hours has been scaled back by one hour, there’s a lot of apprehension  about law enforcement personnel being stretched too thin.    You have to wonder if we’re going to see the scary stuff we saw on election night in Philly(see video of Election Night in Philly here).

From the Washington Post:

Inaugural ‘Last Call’ Moved Up

David Nakamura

Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 17, 2008; Page B01

D.C. bars and nightclubs will be allowed to serve alcohol until 4 a.m., not 5 a.m., during inauguration week after the D.C. Council voted last night to modestly scale back the emergency legislation it approved two weeks ago.

Under the revised rules, nightlife establishments will still be allowed to remain open for food service round-the-clock from Jan. 17 to 21.

(SNIP)

Terry Lynch, executive director of the Downtown Cluster of Congregations, an ecumenical association, said his members strongly oppose allowing nightlife establishments to stay open later than normal.

Pointing to recent violence in Adams Morgan, Lynch said: “It just doesn’t make sense, given the situation we’re currently facing. There is a lack adequate police currently, and add to that the overwhelming nature of duties they’re going to face during the inaugural.”

If anything happens in the street on January 20, I doubt you’ll see it.  The “news” organizations are already drunk on Obama and won’t be paying attention to anything that might spoil THEIR ratings party…

From Family Fun to Family Feud: Obama Crashes the Dinner Party…

~~Posted by kenosha Marge

I remember some very lively Holiday Dinner table conversation when I was growing up. That’s because my mother and her family were all Republicans and my father and his family were all Democrats. Politics was often the topic.

I remember heated arguments with yelling and with laughter. We took our politics seriously in my family. What I don’t remember is the anger and the hate. Nowadays in order to be a good Democrat you are supposed to hate the Republicans.

Republicans are also expected to hate Democrats. Who thought this was a good idea?

I’m not very good at hating. Most of the time loathing is the best I can manage. Hate takes too much energy and often harms the hater more than the hatee.  Hating someone simply because they favor one party over another would be like hating Chicago Bears fans just because I am a lifelong Packer Backer. Well… maybe a Bears fan…

I grew up to become a Democrat. That was fine with my family because my Republican Mom voted for JFK and my Democratic Dad hated Ike and loved Truman.

In our family voting was stressed, not who you voted for. Of course around those holiday dinner tables you had best be prepared to defend your choice. Those who offered nothing but Talking Points were laughed out of the conversation. Voting was stressed but it was expected that when you voted you made a good decision based on all the information you could find.

I was a moderate, loyal Democrat who voted a straight Democratic ticket forover 40 years with one small exception. I voted for a Green Candidate, one Rae Vogler over our DINO Senator Herb Kohl. And I enjoyed doing it. And will do it again if given the chance.

I am now a moderate, liberal Independent. I saw first hand the ugliness that has infested the party I supported for all those years. I saw arrogance, corruption and misogyny and I was disgusted. So I became disinclined to support them for what they have become. Don’t even get me started on what I think about the media. Now there’s something I could almost bring myself to hate.

The Holiday Dinner table conversation now tends to keep away from politics. Someone always gets angry and someone always insults someone else and the conversation becomes nasty and juvenile. We’ve come along way baby and it isn’t for the good. Politics affects our lives every single day. We must talk, reasonably, about them and not in an echo chamber or how can we grow and learn?

I confess that I have reached the point where I am not interested in a conversation about Obama. I know all I care to know about this person. The time comes when you decide you have all the information you need to make a decision.

I’ve reached that point.

Having reached my decision based on information garnered over many months I don’t want to argue about it anymore. You have your idea and I have mine and if we are both content then that’s that. Right?

For most of my family that’s okay. However one Obamacrat Granddaughter regards me as a traitor and has even gone so far as to suggest a bit of racism on my part. I nipped that in the bud quickly and forcefully. I do not hate my Obamacrat Granddaughter. I confess to being a little disappointed because she doesn’t make a good argument for her choice. She spouts talking points and facts run off her like water off a duck’s back. She was raised better but now, sigh, seems to only listen to her boyfriend; a condescending jerk who regards me as an over-the-hill senile female person unable to understand and appreciate his brilliance.

So here we sit. Still a family divided but not with good humor and respect for other’s opinions. Now if you don’t agree with one side or another there’s a pretty fair chance you will NOT be receiving a Christmas card this year. Who knew; disagree with a relative and save a tree.

Democratic Delegates Should See Gore Vidal’s “The Best Man” (1964) Before They Make Their HUGE MISTAKE Tonight…

Late on Sunday night (August 24), Turner Classic Movies aired “The Best Man,” the 1964 film based on Gore Vidal’s 1960 play about a power struggle for the Presidential nomination. The movie stars Henry Fonda playing Secretary of State William Russell, an intellectual in the Adlai Stevenson mode (Vidal said JFK was part of the blend) and Cliff Robertson, who plays Joe Cantwell, a brash Senator running as a populist who is maneuvering to stop Russell from winning the nomination (some reviewers think he’s “Nixonian.”)

Neither candidate has enough delegates on the first ballot, so watching this film is like experiencing “deja vu all” in many ways.

Along the way, the viewer witnesses all sorts of political shenanigans, which includes the hiding of a broken marriage, an attempt at blackmail through the threat of revealing a medical history of one candidate, and the revelation of the homosexual past of the another. (Cheating on a wife, however, is of little consequence in the scheme of things, unlike today.)

There are some great lines in this flick, many coming from the dying former President Hockstader who is reinvigorated by the battle for his endorsement; at one point he says, “There’s nothing like a low-down political fight to put the roses in your cheeks!” One of the best scenes involves  Hockstader and Cantwell.  Cantwell, who believes the ends justify the means of getting into office, including taking his positions based based on polling, is told by Hockstader that “there are no ends, Joe, only means.”  Hockstader also tells the stop-at-nothing Cantwell that if he begins to believe his own “myth” and then gets to the Oval Office without having any real ideas of his own, he’ll be creating a recipe for disaster. As the plot unfolds and Cantwell threatens to reveal a secret from Russell’s past, Hockstader has another great line: “It’s not that I mind your being a bastard. . . . It’s your being such a stupid bastard, I object to.”

At another point in the film Hockstader, reflecting on how times have changed since his campaign days,  observes that when he ran “you had to pour God over everything, like ketchup.”  Back in 1960, the issue of Kennedy’s Catholicism came up, but today, we’re really back to the “ketchup” days with religious groups being pandered to by the Democratic Party like never before.

Howard K. Smith, then a real network anchor, appears in the scenes covering the Convention which makes it seem even more realistic.  This is a real rough-and-tumble affair…and the votes swing quickly at the surprise ending. This film sure made me wish that we were back to the old-style conventions! As a kid, I remember Mike Wallace prowling the conventions and the genuine excitement on the floor.  There was much less polish and a damned site more more grit and excitement.

You’ll see how little has changed in nearly 50 years with respect the status of women in the Party beyond the lack of concern over the philandering of a candidate.  Ann Southern plays Mrs. Gammadge, who despite here flighty image, is a savvy women’s leader who knows all the players and knows her own power as she drops hints to the rivals about how they should appeal to women.  But the scene at the pre-Convention dinner clearly displays where the REAL power lies.  During his pre-Convention speech, Hockstader says to the delight of the men in the crowd that after the Party takes care of a couple of constituencies, which includes the “colored” folks,  “then we’ll take care of the downtrodden majority, the ladies” to a roomful of appreciative laughter.

Last on the list then…and last on the list now…So, have we really come a long way, baby???  If you ever get to see “The Best Man” you’ll probably say, “NO!”

If the delegates could tear themselves away from the trendy “eco-food” for a couple of hours before tonight’s fake “roll call” to view “The Best Man,” they might be in for a shock and realize that they could use their power to right a ship that’s taking on water.  But they’d have to really face themselves and be brutally honest about who they’re all falling in line for.   Sadly, as they struggle to stay in the “no-fry” zone and eat their fruits and veggies, they won’t have time to really think about doing the right thing, which tonight  should be nominating “The Best Woman.”

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SPOILER ALERT

For an excellent rundown on the plot (which doesn’t give away the ending), check out this essay.

If you want to know who actually wins the nomination, check here.

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For a brief bio on Gore Vidal which explains his family ties to both the Gore and Kennedy families, and his runs for the House and Senate,  see here. Gore Vidal actually ran for Congress in 1960, the year “The Best Man” was first produced on Broadway.  For a picturesof Gore greeting JFK when the latter attended a performance as President-elect, click here.  According to historian Michael Bechloss, Kennedy “blinked nervously at the references to Russell’s infidelities, which he (correctly) presumed to be based on his own.”