AtypicalAnecdote God, Life, and Observations all aggregated in a progressive pot of goodness.

The world hasn’t seen this kind of protesting in Egypt since the 1970’s. Thousands of people—men, woman, and children—are taking to the street to protest the autocratic governance of President Hosni Mubarak. The people of Egypt are tired of government corruption, poverty, and seemingly uncontrollable unemployment.
As protest leaders began assimilating their groups via Twitter, the Egyptian government responded by blocking Twitter and then proceeded to block facebook.  Twitter responded by developing a tweet feature based on a voicemail.Here's what they said on their blog:

We worked with a small team of engineers from Twitter, Google and SayNow, a company we acquired last week, to make this idea a reality. It’s already live and anyone can tweet by simply leaving a voicemail on one of these international phone numbers (+16504194196 or +390662207294 or +97316199855) and the service will instantly tweet the message using the hashtag #egypt. No Internet connection is required. People can listen to the messages by dialing the same phone numbers or going to twitter.com/speak2tweet.

Tablib Kweli said in an interview with Lipshultz on Billboard when questioned about his TV spot for Pepsi Max's NFL playoffs campaign:

"There's a segment of my fan base that wants to believe that I'm in some basement somewhere with a notebook, with a backpack on, writing rhymes to Eminem instrumentals or something," says Kweli. "So the idea that at this point [is that] I'm 35 years old and there's no music business, and I have grown man responsibilities, so of course I'm going to get paid for my craft. And I'm going to work with companies that are willing to support the lifestyle."

I respect that.  What most of you don't know--unless you out searching for that good hip hop is that Kewl's 5th album "Gutter Rainbows" was released digitally today. You can cop that on itunes here. 

President Obama said a few things that would make even the most rigorous Libertarian sit up a little taller in their chair. To be perfectly honest, I have not been as pleased with his term or his decisions but I have slowly come around to being pro Obama again. Although I would have liked to watch his address with my grandmother last night, my daughter had other things in mind.  


I sat and listened to this man who had promised so much at the beginning of his term and had failed. I then thought about how his presence alone seemed to be the unifying force for all ethnicities and how he is simply the most progressive President since FDR. You could tell from jump that as republican and democrats sat side by side, there was a little bit of a stale attitude creeping from the audience and out of the television.  Democrats who usually leap from their chairs with admiration and joy politely sat and clapped as they agreed with what the President said their neighbor Republican looked head on.

I was waiting on him to tackle a few issues head that seemed to cause unrest in the American people.  He said, “I've heard rumors that a few of you have some concerns about the new health care law," Obama joked. On curbing illegal immigration, Obama did little beyond expressing his support for tackling the issue and acknowledging that it will be "difficult and take time". The White House knows that Obama entered tonight's speech with genuine political momentum following last year's lame-duck Congressional session and the reaction to his handling of the Tucson tragedy. The speech then was geared to play it somewhat safe, offering up a popular message -- America needs to "win the future" -- and not engaging on some of the issues that dominated political discourse over the past two years.

This blog is not meant to give a blow by blow of what was spoken about…but as I mentioned before, after I sat with my 4 year and listened to a man whose complexion mirrors my own, how he compliments his white grandmother for instilling in him—much like my background---I’d like to remain hopeful.  Prayerfully he has a plan for his feel good words and I can again jump out of my seat with as much enthusiasm as I had on Nov. 4^th of 2008.