Cross Posted on Jack and Jill Politics

Yesterday I introduced you and the JJP community to the Hip Hop Caucus movement. Today I invite you to get involved…

Hurricane Katrina was the first moment when the Hip Hop Caucus movement filled a major void in our civil rights movement of today.It is really when our momentum got going, and our relevancy was made clear.  Our work organizing and mobilizing in response to Hurricane Katrina is why the Hip Hop Caucus Education Fund is now a member of the Black Leadership Forum and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. Â It is also the reason why we have worked so hard to more deeply connect the African American community to the climate and environmental movement, (some examples here and here).

The 5 Year Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina is this August 29th.  What you probably already know is that Katrina survivors still remain displaced, and there is still rebuilding and restoration that needs to happen. Â Yet you may not know that some of the Road Home Recovery dollars remain sitting in government bank accounts, not yet spent.

This brings me to why I really wanted to reach out to you today. Â Despite the focus on the BP Oil Spill and the upcoming 5 Year Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the civil and human rights community, the labor community, and the progressive community, have mostly moved away from the injustices from the Hurricane Katrina experience.

Sometimes, you've got to go backwards to go forward!

On August 28, 1955, Emmitt Till was killed in Mississippi, and the shocking photos published in JET Magazine of his open casket funeral catalyzed the civil rights movement. On August 28, 1963, at the March for Jobs and Freedom in Washington, DC, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his I have a Dreamatic speech.  On August 28, 2005 Hurricane Katrina hit the shores of the Gulf Coast, and in the morning of the 29th, the levees broke flooding the lower 9th Ward and other areas of the city.

This year Glenn Beck, a Fox News commentator who consistently spreads lies and misinformation through lightly-veiled coded words of hate, announced that on August 28, 2010 he will lead a rally at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. This rally is to, in his words, restore honor to America. In no reality could Glenn Beck ever co-opt the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom for his odious purposes.

Let Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, and Fox News have Washington, DC on August 28th this year. We shall respond with morality, faith, and love for our country. We will not respond to hate with more hate.

Continue Reading HERE

(AllHipHop News) Hip-Hop star Wyclef Jean will announce his bid for the President of Haiti, a source has confirmed with AllHipHop.com exclusively.

Sources close to Wyclef confirmed with AllHipHop.com that the rapper will announce his bid for the country’s highest office next Thursday, on August 5th.

The 37-year-old was born in Haiti, but immigrated to the United States at the age of 9-years-old, when he landed in Brooklyn, before settling in South Orange, New Jersey.

As a member of The Fugees and as a solo artist, Wyclef has sold millions of records, in addition to collaborating with artists like Paul Simon, Gloria Estefen, Destiny’s Child, Carlos Santana and others.

The rapper sprung into action on January 12th, when his native land was leveled by a 7.0 earthquake that left 300,000 people dead over a million others displaced.

Even prior to the earthquake, Wyclef Jean’s Yele Haiti organization raised funds for the country, but after the deadly earthquake, the rapper helped raise over $10 million dollars in less than three months.

The rapper will make his official announcement just two days prior to the country’s August 7th deadline to submit his plan for running for President.

Analysts are predicting that Wyclef Jean will easily win the race with his financial connections, influence among the Haitian youth and his political influence around the world.

Continue Reading Article HERE

Remember This???

BILOXI, Miss. — BP's incoming CEO said Friday that it's time for a "scaleback" of the massive effort to clean up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, but stressed the commitment to make things right is the same as ever.

Tens of thousands of people – many of them idled fishermen – have been involved in the cleanup, but more than two weeks after the leak was stopped there is relatively little oil on the surface, leaving less work for oil skimmers to do.

Bob Dudley, who heads BP's oil spill recovery and will take over as CEO in October, said it's "not too soon for a scaleback" in the cleanup, and in areas where there is no oil, "you probably don't need to see people in hazmat suits on the beach."

He added, however, that there is "no pullback" in BP's commitment to clean up the spill. Dudley was in Biloxi to announce that former Federal Emergency Management Agency chief James Lee Witt will be supporting BP's Gulf restoration work.

Continue Reading Article HERE