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Stay involved in politics. visit Whitehouse.gov to learn more about President Barack Obama’s agenda. Now it’s time to make sure our President makes good on the political promises.

Eartha Kitt Dies at 81

Eartha Kitt, a sultry singer, dancer and actress who rose from South Carolina cotton fields to become an international symbol of elegance and sensuality, has died. She was 81.

Kitt, whose saucy rendition of “Santa Baby” became a holiday pop music classic, died in Connecticut on Christmas Day. Family spokesman Andrew Freedman said Kitt was recently treated at New York’s Columbia Presbyterian Hospital for colon cancer.

A self-proclaimed “sex kitten,” famous for her catlike purr, Kitt was one of America’s most versatile performers, winning two Emmys and nabbing a third nomination. She also was nominated for several Tonys and two Grammys.

Her career spanned six decades, from her start as a dancer with the famed Katherine Dunham troupe to cabarets and acting and singing on stage, in movies and on television. She persevered through an unhappy childhood as a mixed-race daughter of the South and made headlines in the 1960s for denouncing the Vietnam War during a visit to the White House.

Once dubbed the “most exciting woman in the world” by Orson Welles, she spent much of her life single, though brief romances with the rich and famous peppered her younger years.

After garnering notice for singing “Monotonous” in the Broadway revue “New Faces of 1952,” Kitt appeared in “Mrs. Patterson” in 1954-55. (Some references say she earned a Tony nomination for “Mrs. Patterson,” but only winners were publicly announced at that time.) She also made appearances in “Shinbone Alley” and “The Owl and the Pussycat.”

Her first album, “RCA Victor Presents Eartha Kitt,” came out in 1954, featuring such songs as “I Want to Be Evil,” “C’est Si Bon” and the gold digger’s theme song “Santa Baby,” which is revived on radio each Christmas.

“I Want to Be Evil”

The next year, the record company released the follow-up album “That Bad Eartha,” which featured “Let’s Do It,” “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” and “My Heart Belongs to Daddy.”

In 1996, she was nominated for a Grammy in the category of traditional pop vocal performance for her album “Back in Business.” She also had been nominated in the children’s recording category for the 1969 record “Folk Tales of the Tribes of Africa.”

Kitt also acted in movies, playing the lead female role opposite Nat King Cole in “St. Louis Blues” in 1958 and more recently appearing in “Boomerang” and “Harriet the Spy” in the 1990s.

On television, she was the sexy Catwoman on the popular “Batman” series in 1967-68, replacing Julie Newmar, who originated the role. A guest appearance on an episode of “I Spy” brought Kitt an Emmy nomination in 1966.

Kitt was plain-spoken about causes she believed in. Her antiwar comments at the White House came as she attended a luncheon held by Lady Bird Johnson.

“You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed,” she told the group of about 50 women. “They rebel in the street. They don’t want to go to school because they’re going to be snatched off from their mothers to be shot in Vietnam.”

For four years afterward, Kitt performed almost exclusively overseas. She was investigated by the FBI and CIA.

“The thing that hurts, that became anger, was when I realized that if you tell the truth — in a country that says you’re entitled to tell the truth — you get your face slapped and you get put out of work,” Kitt told Essence magazine two decades later.

In 1978, Kitt returned to Broadway in the musical “Timbuktu!” — which brought her a Tony nomination — and was invited back to the White House by President Carter.

In 2000, Kitt earned another Tony nod for “The Wild Party.”

She played the fairy godmother in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Cinderella” in 2002.

As recently as October 2003, she was on Broadway after replacing Chita Rivera in a revival of “Nine.”

She also gained new fans as the voice of Yzma in the 2000 Disney animated feature “The Emperor’s New Groove.”

For years, Kitt was unsure of her birthplace or birth date. In 1997, a group of students at historically black Benedict College in Columbia, S.C., located her birth certificate, which showed she was born Jan. 17, 1927, in North, S.C.

In one of her three autobiographies, she wrote that her mother was black and Cherokee and her father was white, and she was left to live with relatives after her mother’s new husband objected to taking in a mixed-race girl.

An aunt eventually brought her to live in New York, where she attended the High School of Performing Arts, later dropping out to take various odd jobs.

By chance, she dropped by an audition for the dance group run by Dunham, a pioneering African American dancer. In 1946, Kitt was one of the Sans-Souci Singers in Dunham’s Broadway production “Bal Negre.”

Kitt’s travels with the Dunham troupe landed her a gig in a Paris nightclub in the early 1950s. She was spotted by Welles, who cast her in his Paris stage production of “Faust.”

That led to a role in “New Faces of 1952,” which featured such stars-to-be as Carol Lawrence, Paul Lynde and, as a writer, Mel Brooks.

Over the years, Kitt had liaisons with wealthy men, including Revlon founder Charles Revson, who showered her with lavish gifts.

In 1960, she married Bill McDonald but divorced him after the birth of their daughter. Her daughter, Kitt Shapiro, and two grandchildren survive her.

While on stage, Kitt was daringly sexy and always flirtatious. Offstage, however, she described herself as shy and almost reclusive, remnants of feeling unwanted and unloved as a child. She referred to herself as “that little urchin cotton-picker from the South, Eartha Mae.”

Associated Press 12/26/08

Time Magazine announced their Person of the Year for 2008, and to no ones surprise, the Person of the Year is President Elect Barack Obama.

For more information on Time Magazine’s selection, and more background of the man himself, click HERE.

No I throw shoes to show my hatred for you….

On November 26, 1968, Orenthal James Simpson was celebrating winning the Heisman Trophy, an annual award given to the most outstanding College football player. The young Mr. Simpson’s future would be as bright as a Southern California sunrise. 40 years later, that sunrise has finally set as O.J. Simpson was sentenced to serve a minimum of 9 years in prison.

Simpson was found guilty of nine felony counts, including kidnapping, in Clark County District Court in Nevada on October 3, 2008. Thirteen years to the day after he was acquitted of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman in 1995 in Los Angeles.

On Saturday, December 13^th, Tim Tebow, Graham Harrell, Colt McCoy, and Sam Bradford will be vying to be in the same company as OJ, as a Heisman Trophy winner.

From Jay Berwanger, the first Heisman Memorial Trophy recipient in 1935, to last years winner Tim Tebow, the fraternity of Heisman winners are all top notch individuals, as well as great College players.

Simpson is not the only Heisman winner who has had brushes with the law, however; nothing comes close to being accused of double murder and convicted of kidnapping and conspiracy charges.

Ricky Williams, who won the prestigious award in 1998 at Texas University, and Rashaan Salaam, 1994’s winner out of Colorado, both liked to hit the bong. Both would be suspended and fined from their respective teams and the NFL. Ricky Williams eventually found his way back into the NFL. Salaam fumbled his way out of the league for good in 2003.

Simpson’s treasured Heisman Trophy was auctioned in 1997 to pay part of his restitution for a civil wrongful death suit brought by the Goldman family. Now OJ has no ties with the Heisman Memorial Trophy anymore, and I’m pretty sure most are OK with that.

When all the previous winners get together for their Annual Heisman Trophy Dinner next Monday night, OJ will be having his own banquet of bread & water, right before lights out.

Many people will be talking about OJ Simpson in the coming days of the award presentation. Instead of celebrating his achievements in 1968, or taking pride in his being a member of the Heisman fraternity, most will be talking about his recent conviction and sentencing.

Hopefully, for the sake of all previous winners, and out of respect for the most prestigious College Football award, those conversations about Mr. Simpson will not darken what should be a day of celebrating brilliant young athletes.

No one should be talking about the man whose star has not only fallen, but has broken into a thousand little pieces, becoming a joke of a man, instead of what he once was; a brilliant athlete.

O.J. will be locked away for at least the next 9 years. He will be remembered. Unfortunately for him, most memories will be what happened off the field, than the incredible feats he attained on the field.Whether you were a fan or not, that is a tragic fall. I’m sure the Brown’s and Goldman’s couldn’t care less.

]]> http://grantlove.wordpress.com/2008/12/08/oj-heisman/feed/ 0 grantlove oj-w-heisman http://grantlove.wordpress.com/2008/11/24/giveusourpeace/ http://grantlove.wordpress.com/2008/11/24/giveusourpeace/#comments Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:55:21 +0000 grantlove http://grantlove.wordpress.com/?p=421 ]]>

President Elect Obama will be sworn into the Office as the 44th President of the United Stated in less than two months. With all the economic turmoil, and all the Right vs. Left, Conservative vs Liberal nonsense, and all the threats of terrorism, and possibilities of more Wars. Now more than any other time in our History, we need peace. Even in War, Peace is ones greatest strategy.

This poem by Langston Hughes sums up what myself, and millions of people around the globe expect from our new Commander in Chief.

Give us a peace equal to the war
Or else our souls will be unsatisfied,
And we will wonder what we have fought for
And why the many died.

Give us a peace of accepting every challenge –
The challenge of the poor, the black, of all denied,
The challenge of the vast colonial world
That long has had so little justice by its side.

Give us a peace that dares us to be wise.
Give us a peace that dares us to be strong.
Give us a peace that dares us still uphold
Throughout the peace our battle against wrong.

Give us a peace that is not cheaply used,
A peace that is no clever scheme,
A people’s peace for which men can enthuse,
A peace that brings reality to our dream.

Give us a peace that will produce great schools –
As the war produced great armament,
A peace that will wipe out our slums –
As war wiped out our foes on evil bent.

Give us a peace that will enlist
A mighty army serving human kind,
Not just an army geared to kill,
But trained to help the living mind.

An army trained to shape our common good
And bring about a world of brotherhood.

Langston Hughes

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For all you Soul, Funk, Jazz, Neo-Soul, Old School Rap, 80′s R&B, and more.

This Election Year has set records for turnout in just about every State. History could indeed be in the making as Barack Obama hoped, and has spoken about for the past two years. I’m personally amazed at how so many younger voters, many voting in their very first election, have become so engaged in the political process.

I hear co-workers, many younger than my quadragenerian self, talk about the Electoral College, they talk about the economy, and healthcare, some talk about family values, and others even speak about abortion rights.

A co-worker came to me and asked, “Who’d you Vote for? Obama right?!” I had to take a step back and explain that such conclusions could be considered racist, or simply foolish. I also explained to him that race should not matter. “I’ve been voting since 1988. My first presidential election, I voted for Michael Dukakis, even with Lenore Fulani (who is a Black Woman) on the Independent ticket.” I’ve been voting Democratic ever since, as far as the Presidential Elections go. When it comes to Senate and House seats, I vote Independently, focusing on the issues at hand and coming to a determination that one candidate will be an honorable representative for my State. There are minorities who vote Republican who are not elitists, but don’t believe in abortion, or believe in the ideology of the Republican Party. That doesn’t “revoke” their minority status, they are just simply voting for who they believe is best for them and their family. The politically correct question should have been, “Did you vote? Great!”

I’ve also been hearing so much celebrating, as if the outcome is inevitable. For those of you to young to remember this, take a look below.

Not So Fast My Friend

[Truman was seen as an underdog going into the 1948 election--so much so that the Chicago Tribune printed newspapers with the headline "Dewey Defeats Truman." A picture of the victorious Truman holding the newspaper is one of the most famous photos in U.S. history] – History.com

Remember not to go out celebrating tonight until it’s all said and done. Even if Obama gets to 270, remember the recount of 2000 when Gore won Florida, then Lost Florida in a matter of hours, eventually losing the Presidency, even with winning the popular vote.

Using John McCain’s own words, “Nothing is inevitable.”  That’s the smartest thing he’s said the entire campaign.

For more Presidential Election History visit HERE