The Obligatory "New York Senator Eric Adams Hopes To End Youths' Pants-Sagging Trend" Post

CNN.com:

A Brooklyn, New York, politician is hitting the streets in an effort to bag the sag.

State Sen. Eric Adams announced plans to post six billboards around Brooklyn targeting the pants-sagging trend popular with many young men. The billboards, which will hang on busy streets, feature two young men wearing low-hanging pants above the phrase, "Raise your pants, raise your image."

"It's part of a larger campaign ... to tell our young people and our community as a whole, we are better than this," Adams told CNN, adding that the sagging trend originated from prison culture. According to the former New York police captain, "I policed all over the city. ... The first indicator of whether a young person was in trouble was the way they dressed."

He plans to reach out to school boards to establish a standard dress code in classrooms and is also looking to media outlets, the Internet and endorsements to spread the word.

Cool in sentiment, but will it work? Highly doubt it. First, there's the fact teenagers especially, don't like to be told what they can and can't wear, much less how they should wear it. Secondly, while Adams message (on each ad is the slogan “Raise your pants, raise your image.”) is correct in every sense of how you represent yourself being a direct reflection of how outsiders see you, this stuff starts at home. So if parents aren't putting a stop to the baggy-pants nonsense, how's a political supposed to do it? Third, as much as I hate to stereotype the genre, hip-hop has to (and will) get part of the blame here (although it should be noted that most experts on urban culture agree that the baggy-pants trend started behond prison bars, not wih rap music) what with today's rap artists continuing to milk "gangsta" images, kids will feel free to continue to emulating them. Last, if Senator Adams really wants his campaign to succeed, clearly he's going to have to put in a call to Larry "Pants on the Ground" Platt--I mean who better to get out there and demand that kids pull their pants up? Really now.

Barack Obama Can't Handle Violence In Chicago, Much Less Iraq

How can one vote a man in for President when the candidate can't even handle the daily mess that's going on in his own backyard?

In recent months there has been a string of violence, mostly gang-related, which has claimed the lives of dozens of youth in Chicago, Illinois. In a single weekend in April, 36 people were shot, and nine died of their injuries. Since last September, 24 Chicago public school students have been killed in such shootings.

The victims of these tragedies have been working class and minority youth, including many who were innocent bystanders.

Last March, for example, Chavez Clarke became the 20th Chicago public school student killed up to that point. Chavez was 18 years old and a student at the Simeon Career Academy. He had hoped either to attend an apprentice school for drafting and architecture or train as a truck driver. He was caught in gang crossfire as he walked down the street with his twin brother, Travez. Two students from Dunbar Career Academy, aged 17 and 19, were ultimately charged by police in Chavez’s murder.

Indeed Chicago, which has been run by Democrats for about 70 years now, is enduring high episodes of deadly violence on a weekly basis, including this past one:

From Friday night through Sunday morning, nine people have been killed in acts of violence in and around Chicago.

About 11:05 p.m. Friday, a 19-year-old man was killed and a 22-year-old woman wounded in a shooting on the West Side.

The shooting happened on the 1700 block of North Linder Avenue.

The more dangerous living in Chicago becomes, the more you see an indictment of a Democratic establishment that includes Barack Obama:

In this regard, mention must be made of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, who has pointed to the 1984 election of Harold Washington, the city’s first black mayor, as a key motivating factor for his entry into political life. Washington, like his white counterparts in the Democratic Party, was a loyal defender of the capitalist system who carried out regressive policies that contributed to the social catastrophe confronting young people and workers in the city.

Obama himself was elected state senator from Chicago and then US Senator from Illinois during a period when tens of thousands lost their jobs and social programs were being cut. He is deeply integrated into the Cook County Democratic Party, the corrupt political machine that has long dominated Chicago politics.

Obama used the recent media attention on violence in the city to bolster his “law and order” credentials, claiming that the shooting could be curtailed by restoring funding for community policing. “Additional police improves public safety,” he said. “We’ve got to help local communities put more police on the streets.” He also suggested that lack of parental guidance and moral upbringing could be responsible, saying, “Children have to be taught right and wrong and violence isn’t a way to resolve problems.”

Obama made a perfunctory reference to poor conditions facing young people in the city. However, he has made it clear that, if elected, urban policy would not involve any sharp increases in taxation on corporations and the wealthy or a massive public expenditure to eradicate poverty and provide a decent future to working class youth.

Sorry Senator, but if you want to be the guy who'll dictate policy on say Iraq, Israel and Iran, you're going to have to start offering the American people more than just messages of hope.

Politiks As Usual: In The News 7/30/07

Newt Gingrich Predicts Hillary-Obama Ticket For Dems

Cities Sue Gangs In Bid To Stop Violence

Wedding Between Usher And Pregnant Fiancee Cancelled At Last Minute

The Hollywood Culture Takes Over

Liberal Daily Kos Blames Pat Tillman Death On President Bush

Bush Meets With New British PM Brown

Ward Churchill Too Dumb To Teach?