ByronCrawford.com

Further proof Israelis are racist

They done took Cynthia McKinney hostage.

The Israeli navy intercepted and boarded a ship carrying pro-Palestinian activists and humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip on Tuesday in defiance of an Israeli blockade. [...]

On its web site, the Free Gaza movement said among the activists on the vessel, which it dubbed the Spirit of Humanity, were Irish Nobel peace prize laureate Mairead Maguire and former U.S. congresswoman Cynthia McKinney.

Damn.

I've given Cynthia McKinney shit in the past for being a psycho hose beast, but I agree with her on pretty much all of the issues, other than 2Pac. I probably would have voted for her in the last election, if it wasn't for Ralph Nader. (Fucking spoiler!)

Also, before motherfucking Abe Schwartz chimes in, I'll go ahead and point out that, for what it's worth, Israel did once run over a white girl with a bulldozer (thus shrinking my dating pool even further).

Checkit: Israeli navy takes control of activist ship to Gaza [Reuters via Twitter]

Karma finally visited upon Vibe magazine

That hip-hop blogs list must have been the final straw.

Vibe magazine, the urban-music magazine founded in 1993 by Quincy Jones, is the latest victim of the media recession. An assistant in the office of editor in chief Danyel Smith confirmed that the title is ceasing publication. No further information was immediately available. A call to Vibe Media CEO Steve Aaron went to voicemail.

Checkit: Vibe magazine shutting down [DailyFinance via Bucky Turco]

Previously:

• We're 29th!
• Danyel Smith hates Asher Roth? Shocker!
• Desperate times call for desperate measures
• Let's all pitch in so they can afford to print next month's Vibe

I was drinking wine before it was all trendy

Crab meats alert: About a minute and a half into the new Jay-Z video, he sips a glass of wine as if he's the only person in the hip-hop community to ever drink any wine that didn't taste like strawberries.

And who knows, he might be. Hip-hop is full of songs about drinking malt liquor, champagne, vodka and cognac, but you don't really hear much talk of wine-drinking. Lil Jon has his own wine that supposedly actually won an award, but he's secretly the son of two rocket scientists, so he doesn't really count.

If you know anything about these Jay-Z videos, you know he probably struck a deal with some company to have their wine featured, just like he did with Ace of Spades champagne in the first videos off Kingdom Come and American Gangster. In fact, don't be surprised if the bottle in this new video is from the same company that makes Ace of Spades.

Normally, this is the part where I get on Jay-Z for being such a shill, but at least this time it's wine he's shilling for. I wonder if he can turn it into an inexplicable trend, like he did with button down shirts, aka button ups. As Dallas Penn would say, I fucks with Yellow Tail hardbody. No Boutros.

Even Brazzers has an MJ tribute

I know I just said I wouldn't be posting any more MJ tributes... but this one is made up entirely of images of girls from the Brazzers sites. How could I not go in?

It's one of those mosaic pictures, which weren't even that cool back in the '90s. But this one kinda is, because it's pr0n. If I could, I'd buy one. I used to have a Jacko poster back in the day, before I had any use for pr0n. This would be a nice way of showing how my life has come 360.

You can make an MJ tribute of your own at a site called Adult Mosaic (nsfw, natch). Or what you could do, and what I might do when I get done posting this, is make a mosaic of a pr0n star made out of other pr0n stars!

Check the MJ tribute after the jump. You can't really see the naked women unless you stare very closely, but it's probably not the kind of thing you'd want most people to know you've seen, let alone your boss or any female coworkers. Consider yourself warned, Joel.

(via)

Star & Buc Wild's MJ tribute

Probably the only Jacko tribute I'll be posting, so spare me.

Related: Did the TIs have Jacko killed? [XXL]

And you know which video is after the jump.

Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett... Michael Jackson?

TMZ reports:

We've just learned Michael Jackson was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Los Angeles ... and we're told it was cardiac arrest and that paramedics administered CPR in the ambulance.

This has all transpired in the last half hour or so. I'm about to go take care of some shit. Hopefully he's still alive when I get back.

I was joking just now on Twitter, but I really would be broken up if Jacko died. I don't care if he raped kids. My inner African just can't let go of Thriller.

UPDATE: And now he's dead.

We've just learned Michael Jackson has died. He was 50.

Michael suffered a cardiac arrest earlier this afternoon and paramedics were unable to revive him. We're told when paramedics arrived Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back.

Michael is survived by three children: Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr., Paris Michael Katherine Jackson and Prince "Blanket" Michael Jackson II.

Jackson had 13 number one hits during his solo career.

Story developing...

Checkit: Michael Jackson Dies [TMZ]

Michelle Obama: Kind of a hoodrat?

Toure, aka the legendary SackBeast, did this silly story in New York magazine about how the Obamas might be vacationing on Martha's Vineyard, which has had its share of race issues. There's a separate part of the island for black people, as seen in the classic film the Inkwell, and I guess there's also some division within the black community. Rich black people don't want less-rich black people coming around and embarrassing them around rich white people.

Which is certainly understandable. Back in the late '90s, my parents let my uncle get married at their house, and their neighbors still look at them a bit funny.

Towards the very end of SackBeast's piece (no Boutros), there's a quote from someone who's afraid the first lady might not get along well on Martha's Vineyard. Because she's not classy enough. He/She (it's probably a she, right?) even goes so far as to call Michelle a "ghetto girl."

And I quote:

At the same time, there’s also a bit of wariness among the wealthiest ones, an uncertainty whether Obama will affirm them. “Obama is more a man of the people,” says a Vineyarder who’s part of black high society. “He doesn’t seem to identify with affluent black people. His wife definitely doesn’t; she is basically a ghetto girl. That’s what she says—I’m just being sociological. She grew up in the same place Jennifer Hudson did. She hasn’t reached out to the social community of Washington, and people are waiting to see what they’ll do about that.”

Roffle.

For what it's worth, I'll point out that Michelle Obama has been on her a-game. Every once in a while she'll have a stank look on her face, but I haven't heard her come out the side of her neck with anything too ridiculous since the election, when she kept referring to Barack as "the brother" and talking about how he might get shot while putting gas in his car, as if that had anything to do with the election. And that's been going on a year ago. As Stasson Goines, himself a classy black man, would say, that's an old crime!

Checkit: Black and White on Martha’s Vineyard [New York]

Busta Rhymes reminded people don't really like beta male rap

He also does that thing where he talks about how much he loves another guy.

The comments section gets its own magazine

Stand up, guys. It's been a long time coming. (via)

Black gossip blog beef gets ugly

I can't claim to know why Sandra Rose and Necole Bitchie are beefing with one another. I try to check Sandra's site once a day, to see if anyone's been outed, but I don't get too deep into it. As a guy, I could care less about seeing pictures of celebrities, unless it's Anne Hathaway, and that has less to do with the fact that she's been in movies than it does... well, you know.

If I had to guess, I'd say Sandra Rose is jealous of Necole Bitchie's success. Sandra is more talented than Necole, but Necole looks halfway decent and has been that much more successful at marketing herself. If Necole's site isn't the most popular of these black gossip sites, it probably will be eventually.

Sandra Rose, for her part, claims it was a picture of Necole Bitchie making out with obscure R&B singer Trey Songz that set her off. There had been rumors of Necole getting it on with a number of celebrities, and Sandra had always come to her defense, and I guess Sandra felt betrayed, once presented with photographic evidence.

If I banged one of these R&B broads, I'd receive nothing but high fives, but you know how these women are. They're their own worse enemies.

The next day, I saw someone had set up a twitter account called Fuck Sandra Rose. It may have been that same Puerto Rican woman who's trying to rob me, who stays beefing with Sandra Rose. Or maybe it was Necole Bitchie. Who knows.

I checked Sandra's site, to see if the beef had developed any further, and, wouldn't you know, it had. It developed way further. Sandra posted these pictures someone sent her of Necole when she apparently used to be one of these "urban" (read cellulite-ridden, delusional) models. Sandra said it wasn't really Necole, and she was only posting them to show the lengths some people will go to destroy someone's image, but it's obvious it really is her. It looks just like her in the face, and she's got a tattoo that says "Necole," misspelling and all.

Checkit:

• Are Bloggers F***ing for Blog Hits Now? [Sandra Rose]
• I Refuse To Believe This is Necole Bitchie [Sandra Rose]
• Personal Diary: It’s Love… [Necole Bitchie]