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Visit John Brown’s new website and check back each Thursday for a new “Politickin With John Brown” post.
Michael Steele has a tough job. Clearly exploited by Republicans for his assumed appeal to a diverse populace, the RNC Chairman is consistently mocked by both sides of the aisle. With a long history of GOP service, the son of a military man is now on the front lines of the GOP’s image makeover. And it’s ugly out there. His awkward attempt to co-opt “hip-hop slang”—such as referring to Obama’s stimulus plan as “bling bling“—has been embarrassing, if not offensive.
But that’s not to say he lacks any supporters. Even Mike Tyson, who was once married to Steele’s sister, considers him a long-time friend and once offered to literally fight on his behalf. And with some GOP victories in Tuesday’s election—most notably, governorships in Virginia and New Jersey—Steele was feeling himself. Now with chatter of possibly running against Obama in 2012, it’s important to get up to speed with Steele’s most recent nail-on-the-chalkboard moments…
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Visit John Brown’s new website and check back each Thursday for a new “Politickin With John Brown” post.
It’s been an embarrassing month for Rush Limbaugh: rejected by the NFL; humiliated for running with a false story about President Obama’s “thesis”; even clowned by Dr. Dre. And I’m sure there’s more to come. Limbaugh’s multi-million dollar ascent is proof that hate-mongering is a lucrative business. As a rapper once said, “f*ck livin’ positive, cause negativity spreads faster” . But with Racist Rush’s profile as high as ever, it’s only a matter of time before his stumbles make him fall off into the world of disregarded crackpots. To get up to speed, here’s some of Limbaugh’s biggest L’s…
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Visit John Brown’s new website and check back each Thursday for a new “Politickin With John Brown” post.
In 1996, shortly after Republicans took control of Congress, new draconian immigration laws were enforced that encourage authorities to deport convicted criminals to their native country, even if the individual is a legal resident. The law is xenophobic at its core. In fact, US-born citizens are five times as likely to go to prison than those born elsewhere. But after 9/11, the deportation frenzy intensified. In total, over 700,000 immigrants have been removed from the States since 1997, even for misdemeanor offenses or basic civil immigration violations.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) runs their own detainment facilities, which are often outsourced to private companies who have a financial incentive to keep the beds filled. And while inhumane conditions are rampant, coverage is rarely given due to its low-profile residents. But the recent case of celebrity rapper, Shyne—born in Belize but raised in Brooklyn—has pushed the immigration dilemma to the fore-front of pop-culture dialogue. Shyne isn’t the first celebrity to face threats of deportation. Here’s a brief look back…
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The “Balloon Boy” story was full of helium hot air? Say it ain’t so! Turns out young Falcon Heene was just hiding in a box in the attic because his parents, former Wife Swap reality TV morons Richard and Mayumi Heene, told him the family was pulling off a stunt “for a show.” Now we can collectively despise and shame them for using their kid to get publicity (and causing lil’ homie to vomit repeatedly when they put him in front of media vultures who grilled him) and feel less disgusted with ourselves for morbidly following the balloon flight live in the off chance that we’d see a dead boy pulled from wreckage.
Of course, Balloon Boy’s parents weren’t the first people to pull one over on us, then eventually get caught in their lies. Check out more sensational publicity hoaxes after the jump…
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Visit John Brown’s new website and check back each Thursday for a new “Politickin With John Brown” post.
When seeking public office, there’s always the potential of screw-ups that result in grueling embarrassment for the entire family. It comes with the territory. While I’ve touched on the subject of male politicians who engage in extra-curricular smashing, I’ve yet to explore the other side of the coin: embarrassments by the wife. While few and far between, there is a history of First Ladies— most recently Maria Shriver who was caught talking on her cellphone while driving twice in California this week—who have made their governing husbands blush. Although Shriver is the latest, here’s a few more examples of when first ladies embarrass their politician spouses…
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By now we all know about Bernie Madoff’s corporate gangsta, with the $50 billion ponzi scheme he pulled on thousands of investors. But who woulda thunk the billionaire conman was down to get gully in the yard?
According to reports, 71-year-old Madoff floored a fellow inmate after getting into it about the state of the stock market! Sure, it’s not an Aryan Brotherhood blood vendetta or enlisting the other guy into sexual servitude, but it sounds fucking jailish to us. It’s tough enough for the average Joe to survive prison without ended up in a scene straight out of American History X, but it’s a given that anyone with celebrity is gonna have to knuckle up from time to time; after all, “famous and scraped” > “anally raped.” So in a nod to Badass Bernie and his combative compatriots, here’s a brief history of other celebrity prison fights…
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They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery—except when it’s an insidious form of racist fuckery. Case in point? Blackface, the American theater tradition that portrayed African-Americans as stupid, lazy, and buffoon-like. Blackface had an undisputed detrimental impact on the country’s perception of black people, and, as a result, its existence today in America is limited mostly to history books and satirical works a la Spike Lee’s 2000 film Bamboozled (and probably Rush Limbaugh’s community theater group).
In other countries, however, blackface still has contemporary cultural relevancy. Korean recording artists “Bubble Sisters” released an album which showcased the group with their faces painted in black on the cover, and Japanese toy maker Sanrio at one point produced Bibinba, a small action figure with features easily attributable to blackface. And most recently, a group of white Australian performers performed a sketch mimicking/mocking the Jackson 5. Shake.Our.Heads. Complex looks at some of the other controversial foreign blackface moments…
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Visit John Brown’s new website and check back each Thursday for a new “Politickin With John Brown” post.
The release of Michael Moore’s controversial new film Capitalism: A Love Story marks the 20th anniversary of his work in muckraker documentary filmmaking. Whether you agree with his beliefs or not, Moore is clearly the king of pop-political exposés, converting hot-button social issues into blockbuster hits that have grossed over $300 million. His personal financial success is often used by critics as signs of his hypocrisy: “How can you be mad at a system that’s made you rich?!” Ah, the contradictions of inequality. So to put Moore’s newest film into perspective, here’s a look back at some of his greatest hits…
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Visit John Brown’s new website and check back each Thursday for a new “Politickin With John Brown” post.
In 2006, the elite members-only economic club decided to expand their group from 8 leaders to 20. Basically, it’s no longer 8 countries that are selling all the records, and the new indie contenders want a seat at the VMAs, so to speak. To date, the G20 has had four meetings and it’s not entirely clear what gets accomplished considering that the globe now faces its worst recession since World War II. Their most recent gathering occurred in Pittsburgh last week and the only concrete results seemed to be: keep an eye on bank bonuses, avoid “protectionism” and have a photo shoot.
Interestingly, they refused to set salary caps on financial players, unlike the NBA. Great. But public anger is growing and spilling into the streets. Despite having various agendas and beliefs, all protesters have one common goal—get attention. Like their bureaucratic targets, it’s also not entirely clear what gets accomplished with these protests, other than a whole lot of confrontation. In case you missed what’s been going down, here’s some clips…
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Visit John Brown’s new website and check back each Thursday for a new “Politickin With John Brown” post.
Anytime you convene the bosses of the world’s nations, there’s gonna be sparks. Whether it was Yasser Arafat supposedly bringing a gun to his debut speech or Slobodan Milosevic referring to the UN Court as a “retarded child“, it’s been a hotbed for hotheads. Clearly the UN has considerable flaws and at times has dropped the ball when it needed to stop genocide or prevent unnecessary wars. But at the end of the day, it’s probably safer to have a body where leaders can try to verbally air out their differences rather than see each other on the battlefield.
However, let’s face it: the UN tends to favor Western nations and its allies. I’m not going to get into the specifics, but it’s not coincidental that when certain world leaders give inflammatory speeches, they tend to be from countries that the West deems suspicious. Alas, a look back…
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