Jay Smooth On Cory Booker

Explaining why Cory Booker, who's usually the smoothest Mayor around, took a major L on Meet The Press last week. For background info see here:  Cory Booker, surrogate from hell

   

Jay Smooth - Phony (A Song For Mitt Romney)

Jay Smooth On: Gingrich vs. Romney

The Young Turks On Obama, Dems & Occupy Wall Street

Jay Smooth On Occupy Wall Street

Dallas Penn On #OccupyWallStreet

#OccupyWallStreet is trying to ruin my dreams of capitalism. 

Only a socialist wants people to be treated like humans. 

True capitalists see people as expendable chattel. 

Where is Ayn Rand when we need her the most?

US Wealth Gap Reflects Racism's Legacy

I Wish The News Covered MY Pittsburgh

It's funny, I used to often talk to friends that aren't from this area about my city and my less than positive opinion of it.  Most of those I talk to a pretty smart and know there way around the internet.  I would tell them about how much I dislike my city and why, while they would see different articles online about how livable or affordable it is.  I would always tell them that its great if you're white, but as a Black person . . . not so much.  The images of Pittsburgh and Pittsburghers are pretty much whitewashed on a nationally.  The successful Blacks in the city are primarily athletes that play for local teams (read: STEELERS) and are just passing through.

Was/Is It All Worth It?

I ask myself if it was all of the time and each day I come closer to saying, "no it wasn't".  I'm not going to go all Kanye and tell anyone not to go to school, but if I knew then what I know now I might not have bothered going to college.  I just thought I would pass along this article I found because it hit a tad too close to home. At least I'm not alone.

Many Young Adults in Poverty Have a College Degree, Report Says

By Sara Lipka

Increasing proportions of low-income young adults are pursuing higher education, but some remain poor even with a postsecondary degree, according to a new report from the Institute for Higher Education Policy.

In 2008, among Americans ages 18 to 26 whose total household income was near or below the federal poverty level, 47 percent were or had been enrolled in college, compared with 42 percent in 2000. Eleven percent of them had earned a degree, a proportion roughly equivalent to that eight years ago, according to the report, which is based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey.

The institute is a nonprofit group in Washington that conducts public-policy research to encourage access and success in higher education.

In introducing its report, the group called into question President Obama's declaration in his State of the Union address in January that "the best anti-poverty program around is a world-class education." Poor students go to college academically unprepared, the report says, and, amid competing family and work obligations, they accumulate debt "that could have been avoided by pursuing a different type of degree or a credential."

None of the 11 percent of low-income graduates should remain in poverty, said Gregory S. Kienzl, director of research and evaluation at the Institute for Higher Education Policy. "If you have a degree, you should no longer be poor," he said.

Across all racial and ethnic groups, greater proportions of low-income young adults were or had been enrolled in college in 2008, compared with 2000. Hispanic students showed the largest percentage-point increase, to 37 percent from 29 percent. Low-income Asian and Pacific Islander and white students enrolled at the highest rates in 2008, 62 percent and 51 percent, respectively; the greatest proportions of low-income degree holders were also from those groups.

The report, "A Portrait of Low-Income Young Adults in Education," is the first in a series financed in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The next report will focus on attendance and enrollment patterns among low-income students, Mr. Kienzl said, including that black and Hispanic women more often attend for-profit institutions than public four-year colleges.

Article courtesy of Chronicle.com

Thanks for stopping by,

8

Internets Celebrities - Stadium Status

"It's hard being a sports fan these days."

Stadium Status is a documentary which examines the rush of new sports stadiums in NYC as the latest example of an obscene national trend. New stadiums are built every year and the private businesses that own them benefit from huge sums of public money for their creation. Are we getting our money's worth?

Internets Celebrities are Dallas Penn, Rafi Kam and director Casimir Nozkowski
Featuring Neil deMause and Killian Jordan
Additional Cinematography - Ian Savage
Original Music - Bless 1

Stadium Status was funded by fans of the Internets Celebrities via Kickstarter including a sponsorship from our friends at DIYThemes -- the company behind the Thesis theme for Wordpress. We are grateful for everyone's support.

Capitalism: A Love Story

How cool are these?

Sadly, they are just about all sold out. You can try to cop one at Designboom.com.

Stewart Puts Cramer On Summer Jam Screen

While I watched this interview all I could hear in my head were the gunshots that were at the beginning of Nas' Ether. I could sense that a foot was about to be permanently lodged up Mr. Cramer's hind parts, but I didn't foresee this. This was worse than what Nas did to Jay-Z.

Jon Stewart across the belly/Jim Cramer lost already

This was closer to what 50 Cent did to Ja Rule. Can Jim Cramer & CNBC recover?



Stewart was on the top of his game. He was in a zone. It was one thing for him to ask Cramer why the network wasn't looking out for the public, but for him to then show 3 year old clips of Cramer outing himself as a mini Madoff was the nail in the coffin. He basically reverse Rossed him. Ross is a corrections officer who wants to be seen as the biggest drug trafficker in Miami. Jim Cramer is a crook that wants to be seen as someone who truly cares about the public's financial health.

C.N.B.C., Get gunned up and clapped quick/Dylan Ratigan get gunned up and clapped quick/Your whole damn network gunned up and clapped quick

This interview seemed like it should've been on a Beef street DVD. The interview was clearly an example of Stewart being 20 steps ahead of Cramer. This was a chess vs. checkers moment on par with Couric & Palin.

Mr. Stewart, I am comfortable enough in my manhood to say that I love you! Yup, there . . . I said it! You have cemented yourself as my man crush of all man crushes.

Bank Of America Blows Bailout On Execs

Ski Mask Way (Rambling Man)

I just felt that I needed to say this to as many people as possible so hopefully it may make at least one person think twice.

Please Stop Using Your Debit Cards So Much!!!!

Unless you are someone who keeps every receipt from every purchase that you make, it's best to just go to the atm and take more than enough money to get you through the day. It's much easier to keep tracked of one receipt than every receipt for ever purchase that you made throughout the day. Are you really going to hold onto that receipt for that frappachino that you copped this morning until you get home at night? If you are that dilligent that you balance your check book everynight (checking your balance online doesn't count, more on this later), great! But, most of you aren't that dilligent about it. Hell, I'm pretty damn good with mine and I don't do it everyday, but I only have a couple of atm receipts to stuff in my check book until I do get to it later in the week. :)

I can already hear you saying, "I hate carrying cash!" I never really understood this line of thinking. You can lose a debit card, which can give someone access to your whole account or you can lose however much you have on you at that particular time. I don't know of a single person or place that will not take cash, but I know more than a few places that don't take debit or credit cards.

If you are one of those people that keep their balance strictly online with your bank, you need to remember one very important detail . . . the balance on the bank's site can only take into account the transactions they are aware of. Those balances are never true. If you wrote a check that has not gotten back to them, that's not included in your balance. If you made a card transaction and the merchant for whatever reason hasn't taken the funds from your account yet, that's not included. The only true balance you can keep is the one you keep at home. You can use atm balances, online balances and phone balances to HELP you, but they can and will not replace breaking out the pen and calculator and keeping tracked of things at home. You can use those other things to see if something has cleared, but you can't go by those balances from the bank. They are changing around the clock. Things are posting to your account under Monday's date as late as 7am Tuesday morning. Some places take that long to process.

If you aren't one of the many of use who are living check to check, then go crazy with the card. Hell, receipts are just wallpaper to you, but for those of us who are getting by, forgetting just one transaction can lead to tons of overdraft fees. Plus, since many banks charge overdraft fees per negative transaction that's another reason to not use your debit card for lots of small transactions. If you are close to zero in your account do you really want to get hit with a $35 fee for a McFlurry, putting a few bucks in your tank & a pack of Cools? That's $105 in fees!!! One atm withdrawal for say $100 will just be one fee typically. Banks are typically going to take your largest transaction first so more than likely when you overdraft your account you are getting fees for the smaller transactions that you make.

And I shall leave you with this . . .