Right now, congressional negotiations over the final details of the health care reform bill are going on behind closed doors — and Congressman Bart Stupak is still insisting that the final bill include his total ban on private health insurance coverage for abortion.
Yes, one man is holding health care reform hostage. His goal: dictating the kind of health insurance coverage tens of millions of women will receive under reform.  - Planned Parenthood Action Fund
I don’t know about you, but this just is not right. I don’t believe this is what …

You might know those terms in the title to refer to double-dutch moves, especially if you’re from New York ( and only if you’re real!). I wonder what kinds of tricks they pulled in the ropes in Chicago back in the day? Let’s ask Michelle Obama, shall we?

I find this terribly awesome and so very very Black. Pay no mind to what you see in those double-dutch competitions full of skinny lil boys and red-haired girls in French braids with matching t-shirts who call it ‘skipping rope’. I love D-D …

So remember how I was all womp womp about not being able to be in DC with all of you for the inauguration? Well, I’m still womp womp. Even more so after I had to go to bed last night knowing everyone stateside was just gearing up to watch everything (from the frigid Mall or gathered around their TV sets).
I woke up around 8:30am (6:30pm est) and watched a replay of the President’s oath and speech on MSNBC. I caught up on reactions via Twitter. I flipped through blogs and …

By now, I assume most of you have seen the card RuPaul did in Obama style. If not, see Exhibit A.
I’m not really going to go on about the photo except to say that I think RuPaul looks freakin’ fabulous as Michelle and pretty damn sharp as Barack too. Seeing the photo made me think of RuPaul who has been off of the radar for a minute. I thought about how cool she was and was inspired to blog about it.
RuPaul was doing her thing in the 90′s, no …

Y’all know Byron Hurt? I’m late on homeboy, but he’s a filmmaker and an anti-sexist activist speaking out on gender violence prevention and helping to examine our ideas surrounding manhood – particularly Black manhood.
If you read my blog regularly, you probably know that I have an interest in this type of stuff (gender roles, gender violence, yadda yadda). Peep these clips from Hurt’s documentaries. The first one is pretty straight forward, an intro to Beyond Beats and Rhymes. The second is interesting because it “contrast[s] styles of manhood exhibited by …

Reposting from Michelle Obama Watch where Gina points out Michelle Obama’s somewhat different, not lesser, role as First Lady.

We have another in a growing list of laments that somehow the fact that Michelle Obama will not be working for someone else and will be free to fill her time with the activities of her choosing is somehow a great tragedy and a setback for women. This time its Rebecca Traister in The National Post in an article called “Not Such a Long Way Baby”
Americans may be ready for a black …

Whoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!! I have no voice. I was screaming that all night. Yes! Victory! This is some crazy shit, yo. BONKERS!
I was sitting in my girl’s crib, surrounded by friends, new and old. We took a break from playing Taboo (the greatest game ever) as the results of key states started to roll in. All of a sudden, CNN threw up a bar on the bottom of the screen that said Barack Obama Elected President. The reactions were all some form of, “Wait, wha?”  “No, really?”  “Yes.”  “We’re reading it.” “Turn …

but I think it’s super cool that today’s their 16th wedding anniversary. Maybe I just love this photo. I don’t know. *Cues up Tony, Toni, Toné.*

This Democratic National Convention is the very first DNC I’ve ever watched. Not that I haven’t been involved in the process: as soon as I turned 18 I was voting. However, I always thought the DNC was some snooze-worthy event for the press and old political fogeys. Not anymore. This has certainly been an EVENT. I can’t tell you how many people hit me up asking where the viewing party was at. Emphasis on party. As I watched Barack Obama speak, I was still reeling from sangria and ‘ritas. Still, …

em•pa •thy [em-puh-thee] – noun
1. the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another.
2. the imaginative ascribing to an object, as a natural object or work of art, feelings or attitudes present in oneself: By means of empathy, a great painting becomes a mirror of the self.
em•pa•thet•ic [em-puh-thet-ik] -adjective
Of, pertaining to, or characterized by empathy: a sensitive, empathetic school counselor.
That’s just a little lesson for all of you losers out there with limited vocabs and no grip on how to properly use a comma. …