Do You Want Booker Rising To Grow? Only $570 Left To Raise!

Last Friday, Booker Rising celebrated its 8th year (you can see the blog's very post here). Yes, it's that time of the year again: Booker Rising's biannual fundraising drive.

As mentioned back in January, I had to delay redesigning the blog (which was last done in 2008). As you know, my schedule has been crazy busy this year, which prevented regular blog posting until recently. Now that I'm getting around to the redesign, the designer has increased his price somewhat in the interim as well.

In celebration of Booker Rising's 8th birthday, my goal is to raise $800. Booker Rising is the only one-stop source on the Internet on the global black center-right, from America to Zimbabwe. It's the go-to source for black center-right news, amid a vast sea of black center-left news sources. If only 26 of my readers contribute $25, the May goal will be met.

It is Day 12 of the campaign. Booker Rising has met 29% of its birthday goal so far ($230). If you appreciate the work of Booker Rising, you can donate by clicking on the "Donate" button at the top of the blog. You can donate through PayPal, if you have an account. If you don't have a PayPal account, you can donate using Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, or Echeck. I should note that contributions are not tax-deductible.

5/17 Flashback Song Of The Day: Donna Summer, "She Works Hard For The Money" (1983)

Donna Summer died this morning in Key West, Florida at age 63, after a long battle with breast cancer. In honor of the Queen Of Disco, I showcase my favorite song of hers:



Some background info on the Boston-born entertainer, courtesy of Wikipedia: "LaDonna Adrian Gaines (December 31, 1948 – May 17, 2012), known by the stage name Donna Summer, was an American singer/songwriter who gained prominence during the disco era of the 1970s. She had a mezzo-soprano vocal range, and was a five-time Grammy Award winner. Summer was the first artist to have three consecutive double albums reach number one on the US Billboard chart, and she also charted four number-one singles in the United States within a 13-month period."

G.O.P. 'Super PAC' Reportedly Seeks Black Conservative To Lead Hard-Line Criticism Of Obama

Larry Elder is on the short list

According to The New York Times: "A group of high-profile Republican strategists is working with a conservative billionaire on a proposal to mount one of the most provocative campaigns of the 'super PAC' era and attack President Obama in ways that Republicans have so far shied away from. Timed to upend the Democratic National Convention in September, the plan would 'do exactly what John McCain would not let us do,' the strategists wrote. The plan, which is awaiting approval, calls for running commercials linking Mr. Obama to incendiary comments by his former spiritual adviser, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., whose race-related sermons made him a highly charged figure in the 2008 campaign. 'The world is about to see Jeremiah Wright and understand his influence on Barack Obama for the first time in a big, attention-arresting way,' says the proposal, which was overseen by Fred Davis and commissioned by Joe Ricketts, the founder of the brokerage firm TD Ameritrade. Mr. Ricketts is increasingly putting his fortune to work in conservative politics."

More about the super PAC's plan: "The $10 million plan, one of several being studied by Mr. Ricketts, includes preparations for how to respond to the charges of race-baiting it envisions if it highlights Mr. Obama’s former ties to Mr. Wright, who espouses what is known as 'black liberation theology.' The group suggested hiring as a spokesman an 'extremely literate conservative African-American' who can argue that Mr. Obama misled the nation by presenting himself as what the proposal calls a 'metrosexual, black Abe Lincoln.' A copy of a detailed advertising plan was obtained by The New York Times through a person not connected to the proposal who was alarmed by its tone. It is titled 'The Defeat of Barack Hussein Obama: The Ricketts Plan to End His Spending for Good.' The proposal was presented last week in Chicago to associates and family members of Mr. Ricketts, who is also the patriarch of the family that owns the Chicago Cubs."

The article continues about the proposal: "The 54-page proposal was professionally bound and illustrated with color photographs, indicating that it is far beyond a mere discussion. The strategists have already contacted Larry Elder, a black conservative radio host in Los Angeles, about serving as a spokesman, and the plan calls for a group of black business leaders to endorse the effort. The strategists have also registered a domain name, Character Matters."

Booker Rising response: Going hard on Obama is fine, but this is four-year-old news. These folks can't be serious! The focus should be on (1) this awful economy under President Obama's tenure; and (2) Obama not doing a damn thing for blacks (despite getting 96% of the black vote, and blacks remaining his most fervent supporters) while going to bat for everybody else from gays to illegal Mexican immigrants. Hell, even Rev. Wright himself agrees with me that Obama has not one policy that primarily benefits black folks to his credit.

WALTER MYERS COMMENTARY: The Tragedy Of The Same-Sex Marriage Debate

The conservative blogger in California opines: "What Obama would have you believe, as well as the mainstream media that shills for him (including some Fox News commentators), is that legalization of same-sex marriage is a matter that should be uncritically accepted with no thought to the societal consequences. It is this simplistic notion that I think severely degrades the debate, as if making wholesale changes to an institution that has been around since the dawn of civilization is something that can be implemented without serious thought or debate. And of course, if you don’t blindly go along with the program, then you are either a bigot or a homophobe. It cannot be that you see changing the very definition of marriage, which will affect laws, religion, politics, and society as a whole, as something that should take sober, reasoned and thoughtful consideration. Because the debate is purely emotional and lacking in any reasonable scholarship, I think we should all beware of the possible results. We have some who falsely compare this debate to the 'interracial marriage' debate in the mid to late 20th century. Yet it is the fundamental ability to naturally procreate that grounds marriage as a natural right irrespective of race. So there should never have been a question about interracial marriage."

Census: Minorities Now Surpass Whites In U.S. Births

Hispanics are driving the growth

Well, when you have tens of millions of illegal Mexican immigrants having anchor babies, that's bound to happen. The black rate is flat, by the way: "For the first time, racial and ethnic minorities make up more than half the children born in the U.S., capping decades of heady immigration growth that is now slowing. New 2011 census estimates highlight sweeping changes in the nation's racial makeup and the prolonged impact of a weak economy, which is now resulting in fewer Hispanics entering the U.S. 'This is an important landmark,' said Roderick Harrison, a former chief of racial statistics at the Census Bureau who is now a sociologist at Howard University. 'This generation is growing up much more accustomed to diversity than its elders.'"

The article continues about America's birth rates by race: "As a whole, the nation's minority population continues to rise, following a higher-than-expected Hispanic count in the 2010 census. Minorities increased 1.9 percent to 114.1 million, or 36.6 percent of the total U.S. population, lifted by prior waves of immigration that brought in young families and boosted the number of Hispanic women in their prime childbearing years. But a recent slowdown in the growth of the Hispanic and Asian populations is shifting notions on when the tipping point in U.S. diversity will come -- the time when non-Hispanic whites become a minority. After 2010 census results suggested a crossover as early as 2040, demographers now believe the pivotal moment may be pushed back several years when new projections are released in December. The annual growth rates for Hispanics and Asians fell sharply last year to just over 2 percent, roughly half the rates in 2000 and the lowest in more than a decade. The black growth rate stayed flat at 1 percent."

More: "Minorities made up roughly 2.02 million, or 50.4 percent of U.S. births in the 12-month period ending July 2011. That compares with 37 percent in 1990. In all, 348 of the nation's 3,143 counties, or 1 in 9, have minority populations across all age groups that total more than 50 percent. In a sign of future U.S. race and ethnic change, the number of counties reaching the tipping point increases to more than 690, or nearly 1 in 4, when looking only at the under age 5 population."