THE OBENSON REPORT

*Groan*

With leaders like these...

Reverend Jesse Lee Peterson is president and founder of The Brotherhood Organization of A New Destiny (BOND), an American group dedicated to promoting responsible fatherhood amongst African Americans. He has hosted a cable TV program and a syndicated radio talk show. He is a member of Choose Black America and a member of the advisory board of Project 21, an African American conservative organization. He's also a former board member of the California Christian Coalition.

Earlier this week:



Is there a need to bother commenting on nonsense like this? Am I really supposed to take this fellow seriously? Is he just courting controversy, which will likely pay off in dollars, if it already hasn't?

Unfortunately, he's far from alone!

Hat tip to Womanist-Musings for this one.

I simply don't have the words... just read on.

A Swiss gastronomist has stirred a controversy in the tranquil Alpine republic after announcing that he will serve meals cooked with human breast milk.

The owner of the Storchen restaurant in the exclusive Winterthur resort will improve his menu with local specialties such as meat stew and various soups and sauces containing at least 75 per cent of mother's milk.

"We have all been raised on it. Why should we not include it into our diet?" Hans Locher, who has become Switzerland most controversial restaurant owner, said.

Mr Locher attracted the attention of the leading media of the German-speaking world this week after he posted ads looking for women donors, who will receive just over three pounds for 14 ounces of their milk (that's about $5.4 for what amounts to a large cup of coffee).

He said: "I first experimented with breast milk when my daughter was born. "One can cook really delicious things with it. However, it always needs to be mixed with a bit of whipped cream, in order to keep the consistency."

The food control authority in Switzerland was initially confused by the apparent loophole in local legislation regulating the use of human milk and it was not clear whether Mr Locher could actually be banned from serving his specialties.

"Humans as producers of milk are simply not envisaged in the legislation. "They are not on the list of approved species such as cows and sheep, but they are also not on the list of the banned species such as apes and primates," Rolf Etter of the Zurich food control laboratory said.

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This doesn't surprise me...

Just as they did in 2000, those dastardly Repubes are already trying to manipulate that already suspect participatory process we call voting. At least this time, we've been made fully aware of their intentions ahead of D-Day in November, so, I certainly hope the Dems will act aggressively to intercept.

We can't let this one slip away just like we did 8 years ago, and into the hands of an unabashedly conservative Supreme Court.

Here are the specs:

- First in Indiana and Wisconsin, read this article from Newsweek: ‘Jim Crawford’ Republicans
- Then in Michigan, read this piece from The Michigan Messenger: Lose Your House, Lose Your Vote

In the meantime, those of you in Indiana who don't have some form of national identification (driver license, state ID, passport), do yourself and your country a favor, and head to your local DMV to handle that shit ASAP! It'll truly SUCK to lose an election over such a minor technicality.

I know that there are people who would actually fall for obvious shit like this, which is partly why I am posting this entry about it.

According to technology news website, CNET, a malicious spam e-mail is spreading that claims to have a link to a sex video of Obama. Instead, it's spyware that steals sensitive data from your computer. The subject line will say something like "Obama sex video!!!" and the e-mail appears to come from "infonews@obama.com."

Clicking on the link downloads an executable file that plays an amateur porn video, but, no suprise, Obama is not in it. Meanwhile, unbeknown to you, a Trojan horse is installed which targets Windows machines and steals usernames, passwords, bank account data, and the like.

Is it the work of the Republicans? Probably not. However, as Lorca warned... beware, and beware, and beware...

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Yeah, like this makes a lot of sense... sheesh!

Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe gave out $148,000 to the nation's Olympic athletes, with $100,000 alone having gone to world record-holding swimmer Kirsty Coventry... Mugabe referred to Coventry as Zimbabwe's "golden girl" before handing her $100,000 - golden for sure... she's a white Zimbabwean.

While many Zimbabweans are unable to afford food and other basics, members of the country's 13-member Olympic squad each received thousands of dollars from the president. In addition to Coventry's 100 grand, three on the team received $10,000 each while the remaining athletes pocketed $2,000.

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Talking about his upcoming $36 Million biopic of prominent Haitian revolution leader Toussaint L'Ouverture, while at a recent film seminar in Paris, Danny Glover said of his fund-seeking tribulations in America and Europe: "Producers said, 'it's a nice project, a great project . . . where are the white heroes?'"

Do those alabaster suits in Hollywood really STILL say things like that? I mean, really?! Essentially, they want to rewrite history, right? It's so freaking ridiculous that one can only laugh at the idiocy of it all! I'd never survive within their system... I'd probably bitchslap the jackass who asks me a question like that... or at the very least, spit some venom his way.

As previously reported, Venezuelan socialist leader Hugo Chavez gave $18 million to finance half of the project. The rest was supposed to come from a distributor, but according to Glover, no one in Hollywood was interested, stating, "I couldn't get the money here. I couldn't get the money in Britain. I went to everybody.. The first question you get is, 'Is it a black film? It's not going to do good in Europe, it's not going to do good in Japan.' Somebody has to prove that to be a lie."

Paging Will Smith... Oprah Winfrey... Denzel Washington... Eddie Murphy... can somebody lend this man a dollar... a dime... a nickle... a penny... something... so that he can get this film made, please? We're talking about a film about a man who was born a slave and would eventually lead a slave rebellion to victory over the Europeans, abolishing slavery in the region, and establishing Haiti as the first post-colonial independent black-led nation in the world! Come on folks!

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Can you answer all 3 of these questions?

1. Which party now controls Congress?
2. Who is the current U.S. secretary of state?
3. Name the new prime minister of Great Britain.

I certainly hope so!

According to a Pew Survey on News Consumption (taken every two years and released this afternoon), the national average for answering the three questions was only 18%!!

Let me repeat that again... 18-freaking-percent! Are you kidding me?

According to the release, even though most Americans surveyed scored poorly on the test, a vast majority of them actually believe that they follow national news closely - obviously not close enough! Maybe this shouldn't be a surprise, but it's rather pathetic and embarrassing.

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So.... Billionaire Donald Trump has agreed to "save" Ed McMahon from home foreclosure by buying McMahon's house (essentially paying off the $4.8 Million he owes to Countrywide) and then lease the property to McMahon?

For those who haven't been keeping up with the horror, Ed McMahon, the former Johnny Carson sidekick, and sweepstakes pitchman, defaulted on his multimillion-dollar Beverly Hills home, earlier this year, and has been fighting foreclosure. Apparently, even the wealthy, like McMahon, have been affected by the weak economy, and unsettling housing market, thanks in large part to subprime fever. McMahon had just 2 weeks left to sell his house before the bank repossessed it.

The man should have lost his house like so many other less fortunate Americans did, BUT, Trump simply couldn't let that happen. The kicker? Donald Trump doesn't even know Ed McMahon, stating, "I don't know the man, but I grew up watching him on TV... When I was at the Wharton School of Business... I'd watch him every night. How could this happen?"

Yeah Ed - how could this happen?

In reading this, the first thing I thought was to say, hey Donald, there are so many people facing similar dilemmas - people who are in far worse predicaments than Mr McMahon will ever know. There are some who have even killed themselves for fear of losing their property. Yes, it's true. So, why not take that $4.8 Million that you will be using to "save" McMahon from repossession, and instead invest in those average, everyday Americans, with homes worth far less than McMahon's, so that they don't lose their properties to foreclosure. I think McMahon will be just fine even if he did lose his home. He has lots of rich friends, and I'm sure he won't go wanting for very long... unlike John and Jane Doe who have a modest 3 bedroom home in middle America, with 4 kids, a midsize car or two, and who owe a fraction of what McMahon owes, but just aren't able to pay. In fact, with $4.8 Million, you could "save" a lot of people from losing their homes, as opposed to one privileged, washed up TV personality who, for some reason, couldn't manage his many millions well enough, and who I have absolutely no pity for.

Help those who really need to help Donald! You won't get a pat on the back from me for this supposed act of altruism!

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So what do you do when you sense that your once rising star is starting to quickly fall? Easy! You return to an old favorite. And that's exactly what Mike Myers is planning on doing.

His last outing, The Love Guru, was heavily critically panned and a box office failure. Thus, rather than make a successive attempt into new territory, the former SNL star is said to be reviving his mostly successful Austin Powers series.

While the news does nothing but elicit a big yawn out of me, I can't argue with the likely financial reasons Myers wants to bring Dr Evil and company back. All 3 previous films have grossed an average of about $225 Million each, worldwide, despite individual budgets in the $16 to $60 Million range. With numbers like that, and not even including DVD sales, it's safe to say each film was certainly very profitable for the responsible studio, and Myers.

According to Deadline Hollywood Daily, there's no deal in place yet with any studio, but New Line is reportedly heavily courting the project. Myers has started writing the script for Austin Powers 4 which is said to be an homage to his father, with this next installment focusing on the relationship between Dr. Evil and his son (introduced already as Scott Evil, played by Seth Green).

No word on whether Beyonce will be back as Foxy Cleopatra, who's apparently, "a whole lotta woman!"

Once again... Yawn...! Myers's career could start to resemble another SNL alum's seemingly downward spiral... Eddie Murphy.

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So, I just heard that lots of people are squirming at the newly released Ludacris tune that's essentially a battle cry for Obama's candidacy, and some are calling for Obama to denounce Ludacris as well as the track in which he calls Hillary a bitch, and says that McCain doesn't belong in any chair unless he's paralyzed, plus jabs at Jesse Jackson and George Bush, accompanied by the usual chest-pounding male bravado, etc, etc, etc... Hillary supporters of course are enraged, with her former campaign finance co-chair stating, "I hope Senator Obama has the presence of mind to denounce and distance himself from Ludacris."

As we all probably read previously, when Obama revealed his iTunes library to the world in Rolling Stone Magazine recently, Ludacris is one of his faves, calling both he and Jay-Z "great talents and great businessmen." I'm sure the Repubes will have a field day with this one, although Obama's camp quickly released the following statement: "As Barack Obama has said many, many times in the past, rap lyrics today too often perpetuate misogyny, materialism, and degrading images that he doesn't want his daughters or any children exposed to. This song is not only outrageously offensive to Senator Clinton, Reverend Jackson, Senator McCain, and President Bush, it is offensive to all of us who are trying to raise our children with the values we hold dear. While Ludacris is a talented individual he should be ashamed of these lyrics."

The Ludacris track is immediately below, followed by the printed lyrics at the very bottom of this post.

Lyrics:

I'm back on it like I just signed my record deal Yeah the best is here, the Bentley Coup paint is dripping wet, it got sex appeal Never should have hated You never should've doubted him With a slot in the president's iPod Obama shattered 'em

Said I handled his biz and I'm one of his favorite rappers Well give Luda a special pardon if I'm ever in the slammer Better yet put him in office, make me your vice president Hillary hated on you, so that bitch is irrelevant

Jesse talking slick and apologizing for what? If you said it then you meant it how you want it have a gut! And all you other politicians trying to hate on my man, watch us win a majority vote in every state on my man

You can't stop what's bout to happen, we bout to make history The first black president is destined and it's meant to be The threats ain't fazing us, the nooses or the jokes So get off your ass, black people, it's time to get out and vote!

Paint the White House black and I'm sure that's got 'em terrified McCain don't belong in any chair unless he's paralyzed Yeah I said it cause Bush is mentally handicapped Ball up all of his speeches and I throw 'em like candy wrap 'cause what you talking I hear nothing even relevant and you the worst of all 43 presidents

Get out and vote or the end will be near The world is ready for change because Obama is here! 'cause Obama is here The world is ready for change because Obama is here!

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