Yesterday, the US Senate defeated a measure that would provide $1.3 billion for summer jobs for young people. They also voted to end relief efforts for poor families with young children. Although Republicans were the loudest opponents, some Democrats also voted against the measure. Perhaps they are not feeling the future.

I think this is an amazingly dumb move. All of us have friends and family members that would benefit from these jobs. But if our nation’s leaders don’t have the heart to stand up for us, we will stand up for ourselves.

Over the next several weeks, legislators in the House and Senate will be jockying to get this measure back in some version of the jobs bill. The margin of defeat was incredibly close in the first round of voting, and our pressure in this period of negotiation could make the difference between failure and success.

Sign your name to our “Lead on Youth Employment” petition and we will hand deliver your message to your elected officials in D.C.!

The Senators that voted against this measure think we aren’t paying attention. They are flat wrong. It is time for the youth of America to stand up to the people who are selling our futures short.

Fill out our “Lead On Youth Employment” petition and we will hand deliver your message to your elected officials in D.C. Make sure you sign even if your Senator voted yes. Show them that we appreciate their support and expect them to do more for our generation.

Sign our Youth Employment Petition now.

This is up to us. We can only blame ourselves if we don’t step up.

Biko

In one of his first appearances since returning to the Center for American Progress, senior fellow Van Jones told attendees of the CAP-Apollo Alliance conference, “Picking a Winner: How to Make the U.S. a Leader in the Clean Energy Economy,” that we now know that the clean energy economy is coming. There are “three key questions that need to be addressed” about the emerging clean energy economy, Jones said, that need to be addressed, but only two already have a “robust policy discussion.

video after the jump. Read the full story

Lots of people hate on Lil Boosie, as he is obviously far from perfect.  But few MCs today are able to capture the pain of urban millennials better than Boosie Boo! Check out the first “8 Bars” of his song “You Don’t Know My Struggle.”  Hopefully, he will you use his art to get his life back together when he gets out of jail. We started off in the backyard,

I’m that boy,

Hate to lose,

if I lose, yo can get bruised,

I’m that hard.

Life starts from a bad memory.

Daddy loved drugs.

Can’t take this from him,

He loved girls.

Went from neighborhood jackas.

To neighborhood stackas

I-10 ridaz,

to I-10 traffickas.

Imagine us in that bottom on that PCP.

Walkin’ to school wit a tool,

who gon’ beef wit me.

A Pittsburgh teenager at the center of a racially charged police brutality investigation celebrated with his family Thursday after a judge dismissed charges from his arrest by officers he says beat him.

“This proves I was telling the truth. I didn’t want people to look at me negatively,” Jordan Miles, 18, said after a contentious hearing in Pittsburgh Municipal Court. “They asked me, ‘Where’s your gun, money and drugs?’ All kinds of thoughts went through my head. I thought I was going to get robbed.”im during an arrest on January 12th, 2010, finally faced Magisterial District Judge Oscar Petite Jr. jacked via the Pittsburgh Tribune

Onehood’s DJ Paradise was on the scene and captured the video above. Check Paradise’s blog here.

Over the last year or so, there have been more and more groups claiming that they work with noncollege youth.  This is sort of bitter sweet for me.  While the need in this community is tremendous and there is more than enough work to go around, the truth is that not all groups are created equal.

Many of the groups claiming to serve noncollege youth have absolutely no business mobilizing poor communities.  But because of their positional power, or because of their relationship to beltway insiders, they often times get resources to do this very tough and often times unrewarding work, when they should be deferring to other organizations.

So, in an effort to clear the air, and serve low income communities, I have a decided to drop this list of the “Top 5 Ways to Know You’re Not Really Working With Noncollege Youth.”

Enjoy.

1 You don’t have a hood or barrio pass!

Let’s keep it real, not every group has what it takes to canvass in low income communities.  There is a real art and science to mobilizing voters in low income neighborhoods. Trust me, you can’t just pop up in a neighborhood and get respect.  You have to earn it.  And word to John Mayer, hood passes aren’t earned easily.

2 You are more about promoting your organization than the community!

Lot’s of groups spend way more of their resources on branding and visibility than mobilizing their constituents.   That works for some constituencies, but to really get folks from noncollege communities to turn out, you have to really be about organizing. Low income communities only respond when they see a real commitment to organizing and local leadership development.  You can’t move folks with a bumper sticker or t-shirt.

3 You skip town when the election is over!

It’s okay, most organizations do it.  Heck, LYVEF has even had to close up a shop or two when money has gotten tight.  But that can’t be your M.O.  Noncollege communities need deep, long term investments.  You can’t get the respect you need to really mobilize people if you are only in town every other year.  Community folks know when organizations aren’t in it for the long haul.

4 Your whole strategy focuses on online work!

Word to the New Organizing Institute, I love online organizers.  But there is no way that you can mobilize noncollege folks if you only use an online strategy.  (Well, unless you are Worldstarhiphop.com.) Low income folks need to be able to look you in your eyes to see if you are legimiate.  Online organizing is a great tactic, but it CANNOT be the end all be all of your strategy.

5 You’re feeling a little intimidated by this article.

It’s ok.  I’m here to help.  As I said above, there is more than enough work to be done in this community.  If you really want to serve low income communities, come holla at me.  I am more than willing to connect you to a group in your city or region that is doing amazing work. Trust me, they exist.

BTW, here’s a link to our Number’s Don’t Lie–Census 2010 mixtape. Check it out, and download it for free!!!

Last night, the homie Xzibit won a NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Reality Series. X helped out with an episode of ABC’s ‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”. I don’t know why people keep sleeping on X, he is mad talented and has clearly established himself as a double threat.

So quick back story. Little homie in the video became Facebook famous after crashing his grandmother’s car. He was a super brat about it, thus causing the video of his rants and tantrums to go viral.

I guess Tosh.0 was paying attention because he had this bad little boy on his show. I haven’t seen the Comedy Central show yet, so at first I was like, okay this could be good. But the last couple of minutes really tickled my “that’s racist funny bone.” What do you think?

spotted via byroncrawford.com

spotted via nahright.com

Featured on Slim’s Demand More 1.2 Mixtape download: http://sharebee.com/fb0e0716

Today, Bossip posted our video of Melyssa Ford encouraging everyone to mail back their census forms. (The forms will be hitting your mailboxes in March.) While I am super appreciative that they showed love and threw up our video, I was a little surprised to see how they spun it.

More after the jump. Read the full story

Yesterday, the homie Snoop hit up Times Square with a legion of Storm Troopers + Anakin Skywalker (his momma named him Anakin, so I’mma call him Anakin.) Snoop showed up to help Lucafilm LTD push its new Star Wars collection with Adidas. Snoop rocked the Vader themed track suit.

Had me thinking, if Snoop’s Vader, who is hip-hop’s Yoda?

Apparently, the kids at PS22 in Staten Island are famous for being amazing singers. Just look at them feel the music. We definitely need more of this in our public schools. Found via Frank Dix’s Facebook page.

Trash would be converted into electricity at Project Apollo, a renewable energy project proposed for Milwaukee’s north side, developers said Tuesday.

Alliance Federated Energy announced plans to develop a $225 million renewable energy plant that would create 250 construction jobs and 45 full-time jobs. The first phase of the project is expected to be running by 2013.

The plant would use technology developed by Westinghouse Plasma Corp. of Madison, Pa., to convert the waste at high heat into a synthetic gas, or syngas. That, in turn, could be used as a fuel to generate power.

story jacked from Jsonline.com

The first phase of the renewable energy facility is expected to process about 1,200 tons of municipal and industrial waste per day. That would generate 25 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power roughly 20,000 typical homes, according to Alliance Federated Energy. A second phase is envisioned that would generate another 25 megawatts of power, company spokesman Josh Morby said.

Alliance is a Milwaukee-based company that focuses on developing and financing renewable energy projects. The company was founded in 2005, and Apollo is its first announced project.

Read the full story

The homie Invincible is performing a show this Thursday, February 4th, in Brooklyn at Sputnik. She will be joined by the Anomolies. The show starts at 9:30pm at Sputnik, 262 Taaffe Place. It will cost you 8 bones to get in the door. Mala Reignz, Dante, GNU, True Daley, and Bless Roxwell will also be on the stage.

jacked via emergencemusic.net

The GO! Experiment - Set 2 of 5 from The EP Art Brand on Vimeo.

I don’t know who these other folks are, but I am a HUGE fan of Mick Luter. He’s been one of my favorite MCs since 2004. Shouts out to the whole stay humble crew! spotted @ nahright.

On this 99problems.org exclusive, Game tells students to think twice about the street life. There are other options out there.

Below is a clip from spoken word artist Mario Willis. It’s a freewrite inspired by Chris Matthews’ “I forgot Obama was Black” comment. Willis is a poet out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and often juxtaposes humor and sorrow in his poetry to talk about the struggles of inner city America. Check out his “challenge”, it’s pretty funny, yet extremely poignant. The rest of the freewrite is after the jump, and it is pretty damn entertaining as well.

photo by Isaiah Merriweather

** a challenge** for the next week every time someone says something smart or important, remark that you forgot their race. Like “Wow, you did a good job today Tom, I forgot you were German”, “nice report Patty, i forgot you were Polish”, “Thanks for the help with my homework, Chananya, I forgot you were a jew”…

more of Mario’s freewrite after the jump. Read the full story

So the often controversial Chris Matthews has once again said something that could be interpreted as disrespectful. After last night’s State of the Union address, Matthews went into a long rant about how he forgot Obama was black. I’m not really sure what he meant by his remarks, although it’s clear that he wasn’t trying to be nasty. He prolly hasn’t met too many articulate black people before, and for the first time in his life was being forced to challenge his racialized vision of the world.

Check the video and more commentary after the jump.

Read the full story

Milwaukee stand up!!