Last night Q-Tip made it back to The Knitting Factory, this time for a solo performance to pre-heat the release of his new album The Renaissance. Busta Rhymes also hit the stage for a quick verse. At one point in the show Q-Tip dug into his bag of hits and performed “Check the Rhyme.”

It is kind of uncomfortable seeing Tip’s cousin Consequence step in for Phife and Tip saying.. “Y’all on point—” when you know how it should go. He got some help from the crowd though.

As far as I know there is no bad blood between Tip and Phife. They were together this summer on the Rock the Bells tour. It’s just impossible for a Tribe head to hear/see one of the classics performed without wanting it wrapped in the original packaging.

This is 2008. All about what’s new..

Q-Tip “Gettin Up”

Now, that’s on point!

Reagan Gomez is on the cover of this month’s King magazine. Excuse me, my mouth is watering. Too bad it isn’t VIBE they would have air-brushed her clothes off. This is King’s election issue, so Reagan had the opportunity to get all political and stuff. Reagan blogged up a sneak peek of her musings..

“This Presidential Race has me thinking about the generational gap that exists between young and old.There’s Jesse Jackson’s remarks; Bob Johnson; Rev. Wright’s apparent attempt to sabotage Barack’s campaign..

“What angers us young people is the blatant denial by some older blacks to acknowledge that we’re going through our own struggle. No, we’ve never seen “White Only” signs, or a black man lynched, or gone to segregated schools.”

“But we have seen young, unarmed, black men murdered time and time again by the police. And our schools are just as under-funded and segregated as they were 60 years ago…......

”......We can shut the country down and march for the Jena 6, and even get Don Imus fired, yet we can’t do anything about the staggering numbers of black men in prison, our outrageously under-funded schools, the HIV epidemic in black women, or the number of absent fathers?

”...... But I guess it’s not their job to actually FIX our community’s problems—-only to defend us when someone of another race wrongs us…......

......We love and appreciate all you’ve done, older politicians. But it’s a new day. Barack Obama represents change——not just for the country, but also for young people. A new Civil Rights movement is on the rise——no marching, but empowering and education us young people, so that we can add our own chapter to our already long and amazing history.”

What cha think? You know I couldn’t give you the WHOLE article, you have to go buy the magazine for that.

In what was labeled a must do or risk serious financial consequences, the Republicans have voted 228 - 205 against the 700 billion bailout bill. Congress seems to have listened to the opinions of people in their districts. They were getting calls and emails in waves, saying this was bailing out Wall Street ballers for their own mistakes and games.

I was undecided. On one hand, I agree that CEOs shouldn’t get a dime in this package. They were going to get ‘limited’ compensation. Why should they be paid by the public?

And if the financial problems stem from bad mortgages, why not stop the bleeding at the source? Give the people who are having problems paying off their mortgages the chance to restructure or help to pay off what they owe. The way the bill is structured, the current mess on the books gets cleaned up in spots, but there is nothing to stop the flow of new debt from rushing in to cause the same problems.

Help people along with the mortgages and the lenders won’t have to worry about collecting on the debt. The fat cats will then be satisfied and willing to continue spreading paper wealth and all is well. That’s an idealistic view, but how about a 60/40 split for the folks?

On the other hand, to simply think of it in terms of a, b, and c is wrong. The complexity of the financial system is more like spaghetti: you’ve got the plain tips of a single noodle on opposite sides of your plate, but you don’t see all the twists and turns under marinara and meatballs it takes to get to the other side. [I’ll be teaching economics at 4 PM on the corner of Myrtle and Broadway.]

There is another way to think about this. Maybe we have to bottom out - hard - before new ways (through mergers and consolidation) and the remaining viable ways of doing business rise to the top.

As I write this the stock market has dropped 620 points.

*Edit - It closed down 778*

To think that politicians may have listened to angry callers to determine how to vote on this is scary. Do you really believe Joe Next Door neighbor knows how money flows in the system? A few Republicans suggested that Barney Frank, the Democrat leading the reform of this bill, had hurt their feelings in some way, so they voted against it. Others were turned off by the additions of oversight added to the bill. Unbelievable.

I hope they did the right thing or we will all be eating jelly sandwiches for dinner.

.. that thin of a layer of goodness too. *not my picture *

What did we learn in this first debate? That Barack Obama has gotten better since the primary. It must be acknowledged, there was no winner: John McCain was tough and kept his comments on the offensive; Barack Obama was left to explaining his positions.
This was primarily the foreign policy debate, supposedly a Barack Obama weakness, but he showed that he is well versed and capable on the issues.

The one question I wanted asked during the Iraq segment was: What is the definition of success in Iraq? John McCain constantly talking about staying until the war is won. When does that happen. What is the “strategy or tactic” to get to that nirvana?

Regarding the economy, it’s clear that even with an unplanned $700 billion project to start with, Barack Obama has a plan for growth that addresses the needs of the average American. Where as John McCain believes that savings to corporations and selective earmark cuts will find its way to your pocket. If it sounds like you’ve heard that before, try George Bush for the last eight years.

The most hilarious thing was John McCain’s attempt to flip positions and say Barack Obama is stubborn and sticks to the same ideas like.. George Bush. You hear that? That’s the cheers from the moose hunters.

It’s those kinds of one line declarations that stick in the minds of people with no interest in the two paragraph rebuttal.

“That’s not true, John”.. How many times did Barack Obama say that? And then proved it.

I say there is no winner only because (us) Barack Obama supporters will appreciate his command of the issues and John McCain supporters will love his dismissive attitude and ability to rattle off events from the past 30 years. Even though it was a draw, the reality is John McCain has no plan for the future - it really is that simple.

Two more rounds to go.

Moments Before the Debate flicks

Barack and Michelle Obama walk to the debate area..

Some last minute studying and a moment of silence.

Michelle is seated and ready for the show.

Time for some action.

Barack Obama 08’

With Washington Mutual bank the latest casualty of the financial sector and a $25 billion loan package just approved for the big three automakers, the big boy, that $700 bailout package, will be signed in some form or another. Laughably, John McCain ran to Washington to save the day and didn’t even read the three page proposal. Ahh.. who can blame him? Who needs all of that readin’ and thinkin’? Sarah and Johnny make a great duo.

Even those who know the details of the bailout proposal can’t say that it will solve the problem. It’s obvious that something has to be done, but the idea that We the People’s pockets will pay for the shark money games played on Wall Street just doesn’t go down easy.

Homegirl at The Resident (I don’t know her name) stuck a mic in front of the suits on Wall St. to get an answer to this crap ← slide to the last 10 seconds for the visual.

Wall Street Bailout. Good Idea or Bad Idea?

Today the second part of Katie Couric’s Sarah Palin interview was broadcast. Sarah Palin has been tucked away from the press for a good reason - she comes across as completely clueless on just about everything. She dances around in generalities and pushes her opinions to “John McCain believes..” so often, it’s not a question of, if she can step in and be President, it’s how did she ever become a governor in the first place?

Be honest, you really didn’t think Sarah Palin came up with that crack about Alaska being a rock step away from Russia, therefore she has foreign policy experience. It had to be a joke.

Nope.

I Can See Russia From My House

The full interview is here and there.

Vote accordingly.

Ready for Friday’s presidential debate? It’s only going to happen if there is a Chucky doll of John McCain on the other side of the stage. This morning Barack Obama called John McCain to suggest they prepare a joint statement about the financial crisis. John McCain agreed and added that he was thinking about suspending his campaign. Nothing concrete. Just a thought.

This afternoon John McCain held a press conference to say he was suspending his campaign, stopping all TV ads, and wants to postpone Friday’s debate. This he said, would allow he and Barack Obama to go to Washington to make sure all goes well with the bailout package.

This announcement was out of left field, the joint statement they talked about never happened, so Barack Obama did his share solo.

He also responded to John McCain’s call to stop everything to deal with the bailout package.

Barack Obama Responds to John McCain’s Debate Delay

“I believe that we should continue to have the debate..”

“Presidents are going to have to deal with more than one thing at a time. It’s not necessary for us to think we can only do one thing and suspend everything else..  I think that it makes sense for us to present ourselves before the American people, to talk about the nature of the problems we’re having with our financial system… If it turns out that we need to be in Washington, we’ve both got big planes. We’ve painted our slogans on the side of them. They can get us to Washington DC and back to Mississippi fairly quickly..”

There was a Washington Post article being passed around yesterday “McCain Loses His Head” by Republican columnist George Will, he said John McCain is.. “behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high” and “is not suited to the presidency.”

By dropping everything to deal with something that is already being handled, it looks like John McCain is helping to bold that point.