Where HipHop and Libertarianism Meet

Charlie Rangel must not get cable, radio or a newspaper because Rangel pushed the premise of the joke Kerry made about the troops serving because they don’t have any other opportunities. Rangel seems to be just being an idiot unlike Kerry who was at least trying to make a joke. Rangel’s blunder:

“If a young fellow has an option of having a decent career, or joining the Army to fight in Iraq, you can bet your life that he would not be in Iraq,” Mr. Rangel, a Democrat representing Manhattan and Queens, said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“If there’s anyone who believes these youngsters want to fight, as the Pentagon and some generals have said, you can just forget about it. No bright young individual wants to fight just because of a bonus and just because of educational benefits. And most all of them come from communities of very, very high unemployment,” the congressman said.

MTV has a promotional contest that has very little to do with Jay-Z. From the press release I was sent:

On the heels of his latest album, Kingdom Come, Jay-Z has joined forces with MTV to give you the ultimate holiday gift – a chance to live like the Hova himself!

The Jay-Z Platinum Experience Contest will offer the grand prize winner and guest a trip to NYC and the chance to live like Jay-Z. They will start their Platinum Experience by getting picked up from the airport up in a helicopter and whisked off to NYC. Then, they’ll get a glimpse of the mogul life when they get a private tour of the Island Def Jam offices to walk the same halls as their idol. Next, our winners will be off to some of Jay-Z’s favorite NYC hot spots where they will be taken in an escalade to Cipriani for dinner and then continue the high life by heading to a NJ Nets home game.

We’ll send our winner off in true Jay-Z style with gear from his Roc-A-Wear fashion line and S. Carter Reebok Sneakers. But a Platinum Experience wouldn’t be complete without a personalized Jay-Z Platinum album to hang their wall! By the end of this trip, our grand prize winner will be living the dream of Jay-Z the entrepreneur and hip-hop icon.

For more info and to enter, click here: http://www.mtvjay-zplatinumexperience.com/

O.J. Simpson was scheduled to release a book with ReganBooks called “If I Did It…” in which O.J. describes how he would have killed his wife… if he did it.

The book is a confessional in the sense that O.J. probably killed his wife and has now written describing how he would kill his wife. The book is not a true confessional in the fact that O.J.’s description of killing his wife is different than the way he, uh, actually killed his wife.

In addition to the book being released the Fox Network was going to have a big 2 hour primetime special interview with O.J. All the news networks and other channels immediately ramped up criticism of Fox but were really just jealous they didn’t get the interview with O.J.

So now Fox News Corp. which owns the book publisher and Fox Network decided to can both the interview and the book. Now the public will be deprived of hearing how O.J. realizes what the perfect way of killing his wife would have been. O.J. Simpson, unlike the media, has not profited from his wife’s murder but he did get away with murder.

Update Here is a Chris Rock scketch from The Chris Roc Show where he introduces the very idea O.J. has recently entertained:

Chris Rock saying he would understand OJ’s murders:

Dave Chappelle skit as potential juror:

FoxNews is planning on putting on a half-hour satire show on Saturday Nights. According to the Hollywood Reporter:

The half-hour show is executive produced by “24′s” Joel Surnow and Manny Cota and creator Ned Rice, who previously wrote for “Politically Incorrect” and “Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson” through This Just In Prods. It would take aim at what Surnow calls “the sacred cows of the left” that don’t get made as much fun of by other comedy shows.

“It’s a satirical news format that would play more to the Fox News audience than the Michael Moore channel,” Surnow said. “It would tip more right as ‘The Daily Show’ tips left.”

The success of this could really depend on finding the right host. Fox News should concentrate on finding someone who is funny first and a conservative second. This also can’t do much worse than the current program they run on Weekend Nights that consists of reruns of Fox News Watch and Cal Thomas’s show which has been known to put me to sleep.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem recently visited Iraq on a diplomatic vision. This is the first diplomatic effort made by one of Iraq’s neighbors.

Part of the failure in Iraq is due to the Bush administration’s refusal to consider diplomacy.

Elliot Wilson has an interview with Jay-z at XXL.com Jay-Z interviews all seem the same after awhile but there are some interesting things.

At one point in the interview Elliot Wilson as being thought of as an underdog with the release of Kingdom Come. From some quick searching on the internet I can not find any references to Jay-Z being an underdog. Jay-Z is the biggest rap star at this moment. The only reason I can think of why Jay-Z would be considered an underdog is because that is part of his marketing program. Rap fans love the story of an underdog succeeding and Jay-Z realizes he is no different in that respect.

The interesting part of the interview is when Elliot Wilson asks Jay-Z about the low number of hip-hop albums from Def Jam records:

I tell anybody: 150K is 60K now. One hundred fifty was a strong, respectable number. It’s 60 now. I mean, we got to face the reality of what’s going on. It’s not the business—it’s the whole format. We have to find another way. We have to fix it. We have a big digital hole in the world, so you gotta work with it now. How do we get around that? Music is the soundtrack to your life. It’s not going to go anywhere. But the way people are purchasing music has changed. It’s not the same anymore. It will never be the same.

Jay-Z realizes the rap music bussiness model is broken; this is the first step in fixing the problem. Jay-Z does not offer any easy solutions but it is good to see a record exec thinking out of the box.

The Drug Policy Alliance points out how advertisements aimed at persuading people to stop smoking and stop taking marijuana actually increase their use among the youth.

The ONDCP has funded the anti-marijuana laws which evidence points out they have not been effective at stopping marijuana use. In fact, a study by researchers at Texas State University-San Marcos found that 18- to 19-year-old college students who viewed the program’s anti-marijuana TV ads developed more positive attitudes towards marijuana than those who did not.

At the same time, Philip Morris has been airing ads urging teenagers not to start smoking. A new study in the December issue of the American Journal of Public health reports that these ads may have actually increased smoking rates among teenagers. Although these are not government ads, Phillip Morris airs these ads partly as a settlement to the numerous state lawsuits.

Alex Tabarrok points out how USAID, the United States Agency for International Development, puts protectionist policies ahead of development in many cases.

Alex Tabarrok points out the example of how USAID purchases condoms produced domestically instead of overseas costing the American government $13.5 million dollars a year. A partial reason for this happening is because USAID probably follows procurement guidelines encouraging domestic purchases. Local aid becomes more about helping American companies and less about spreading American goodwill generally.

If the condoms the United States distributes overseas are bought in a global bidding process, it could save $13.5 million dollars a year. Then again maybe the federal government should get out of the business of giving away condoms overseas.

Today I received a press release for a new service called Textango. Textango allows people to buy music through their cellphones. Buying the music would involve searching for it and purchasing on the cellphone and then downloading on to a computer.

I haven’t even figured out how to use punctuation in text messaging yet but I am sure this might be convenient for some people. But if the music is going to be downloaded on to the computer I don’t understand the purpose of using a cell phone.

So far the only artist I recognized from the service is Chino XL.

Last election cycle Diddy, or whatever you want to call him promoted the slogan “Vote or Die!” In New York, it does not have to be a choice.

New Yorkers take voting so seriously that death will not stop New Yorkers from voting. According to the Poughkeepsie Journal in New York state 77,000 dead people are registered to vote and 2,600 people have made the effort to vote despite deing dead. I highly doubt the dead in all other states take their civic oaths as seriously as those in New York.

Ghosts seen around Halloween may just be out to fill their absentee forms.