She's Just Soni from tha Block

So I rolled outta bed this morning just in time to hear President Obama, *hey boo*, announce his pick for the Supreme Court, Federal Judge Sonia Sotomayor.


Don't be fooled by the rocks that she's got, Senora Sonia hails from Da Boogie Down Bronx. Lil Sonia grew up in the Bronxdale Housing Projects and went on to earn degrees from Princeton University and Yale Law School.


If Judge Sotomayor is confirmed, she will be the first Female Hispanic to serve on the Supreme Court. AZUCAR!!

NY Times Article

Why Won't The FTC Let Me Be Great?!?!

Before I could even get the gettin' whilst the gettin' was good, along come the FTC, Federal Trade Commision hindering a sister's greatness!!



The FTC has announced new regulations that would require bloggers to disclose monetary and material compensation provided by companies seeking exposure in the blogosphere
More commonly known as Payola, pay for play, the FTC wants bloggers to be upfront with readers about the source of the merchandise that they endorse or review favorably. In a time when advertising budgets are rapidly shrinking, and consumers are looking to man-on-the-street blogs versus Consumer's Digest and larger publications for the final word in spending, blogs have become a cheap alternative. Rather than shelling out big bucks for ad space in mags, in their merciful benevolence companies send out freebies to needy and deserving bloggers, who in turn might-or-might-not praise the merchandise. Now where is the harm in that?!?!
I like to think of it as the Corporation/Editorial/Consumer Circle of Life.....like in The Lion King.


The bugs eat the grass, the animals eat the bugs, the animals then eat each other, and we eat the animals. SEE?!?! One hand feeds the other. No body moves, No body gets hurt.

THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION = HATERS

Cuz truthfully they just wanna know how much merch is being trafficked so that they can tax it.
All the government ever wants to do is take their cut off the top and let the populace share the crumbs. Biggie said it best "Damn, Why the Wanna Stick Me for My Paper?"




Source Business Week

....Busy Making History

Hey Snobbers,
its ya girl checking in live and direct from the Nation's Capital.
Bright and early tomorrow morning I'll be heading down to the National Mall to watch our 44th President aka Dark and Lovely take office.
Bama Bama Y'all!!
Stay focused and stay tuned for a full Post-Inaugural Wrap Up.
Its sure to be patriotic, hilarious and a full-on tack fest!!!

It's raining shoes!!: Bush takes cover

Seriously....this is some shit straight outta The Simpsons'.
I couldn't make this up if i tried.....



On a side note his reflexes are impeccable.

I Wants None of It !!! Joe the Plumber ain't havin it!

Apparently America's favorite plumber, Joe, is none too pleased with all of the limelight hes been receiving of recent. The Associated Press reported yesterday that Joe the Plumber aka Joe Wurzelbacher is upset with the public scrutiny and media attention that has snowballed since his meeting Sen. Barack Obama on the campaign trail.

Joe the Plumber has been unable to work and carry on with his normal life due to the reporters and cameras camped out on his front lawn. After being referenced more than 20 times in the final presidential debate, Wurzelbacher has become a key figure in the personification of "Small Town America".

Don't worry Joe, your 15 minutes will be over soon enough and then you can get back to uncloggin toilets.

In other related news, the wesites www.JoeSixpack.net and www.JoeThePlumber.com have seen record high traffic for all the wrong reasons.



Source

LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!!!

The Stage is Set!

9pm EST
Keep it Clean Mofos!!!

More like Jacob the Jailer....

If you take a moment to scroll down you'll notice that I've placed mad labels on this post. I guess I'm having a hard time categorizing this foolishness.

(In)Famous jeweler of the Hip Hop Glitterati, Jacob Arabov aka Jacob the Jeweler, was sentenced to 30 months in prison and was slapped with a 2 million dollar fine this week.

"I got that work!!"

The crime?? Laundering Money, to the tune of over $270 million in narcotics earnings for a Detroit-based drug ring. No, that wasn't a typo...I said Detroit Drug Ring Fool!!!

My 2 cents: if hes working with over 270 million, you're only gonna fine him 2 million???
I can't get over the whole drug ring thing (unintentional rhyming, my bad).
I knew his ass was a little to interested in rap music.

Shit, I'm been Black since I was born and truthfully, I'm over rap music.

Source

On a side note.... I sure know how to pick 'em

Shout out to Junot Diaz, Author of The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao, who received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for 2008.




Ya Girl sure can pick a winner. Today Pulitzer authors...tomorrow Lotto Numbers!

Is it something in the Water??

What in the world is going on?!?!

First there was Eliot Spitzer and Ashley Dupre,

(Spitzer discussing his manhood)




Then there was David Patterson and his God-Knows-How-Many Woman

(His wife looks like shes about to slap him)



Now Sharpe James and Tamika Riley....



And have you heard the charges...

1. Mail Fraud
2. Misapplication of Federal Funds
3. Tax Fraud and Evasion
4. Finally...Section 8 Housing Fraud

Does no one respect the Holy Union of Marriage? How about a Public Position???
Not even a little bit...
These folks are reckless!

Questionable Cover-age

Fact #245 about Culture Snobette: I am a Newsstand Addict!!
I absolutely adore magazines and publications in general and have been known to spend large amounts of Other People's Money on my voracious mag appetite.
So as apart of my self-imposed 12 Steps, I no longer have to buy each mag that I want/NEED. Thanks to steps 6 & 7, I can now simply peruse the covers, smell the pages and leave Universal News with my fix fully satisfied.

Anyway, while browsing the racks, I came across a few covers that were questionable to say the least, and others that were in clear Violation of The Culture Code of Ethics.

First up was Marie Claire


Christina, Whoring out your pregnancy for media coverage is a sad and dangerous game...We all saw what happened to Britney.... Now they only see mommy on saturdays and sundays between 12-4.

NOT SNOB-APPROVED!

Next up is KING


Now while I don't really expect much from this urban men's mag...I do expect more from it's cover girl Angel Melaku. Her parents are Ethiopian and Trinidadian and I hope they raised her better than this. Even if she is trying to parlay this videoHo thang (and yes, i did say thang!!) into an acting, singing, heck even book deal, she must know that know one is gonna take her seriously with such a huge ass. Point blank.
For further inspection


Hate to break it to ya...but you'll be doing bootie mags and BET Uncut till that thing starts to sag.
By the way Real or Fake????

NOT SNOB-APPROVED!

Last and definitely least is XXL



Lil Wayne. I'm over it. Period.

Coming from someone that grew up on AND with hip hop, someone who pressed their face to the window as The Notorious BIG's motorcade rolled pass that bleak day in Brooklyn, someone who has walked with the Greats (okay, maybe not all of that, but I was at an LL Cool J videoshoot and shook his hand).....Lil Wayne is neither great, nor good, muchless is his crap acceptable to anyone who has even heard of the word quality.

If you wanna listen to crappy hip hop while you're up in the club (Lil John & Ying Yang Twins), or even when you're taping your friends for YouTube (Chicken Noodle Soup & Soulja Boy), that's all well and good. But please people, Please I Implore you, don't exhalt these carbon copy "rappers" to the heights of Biggie, Tupac, Big L, Rakim.

And Most importantly "DON'T BELIVE THE HYPE" - Public Enemy



DEFINITELY NOT SNOB-APPROVED!

A-Train Girl Gang Attacks....

I recently came across this article and video on the website The Smoking Gun.
A gang of teenage girls attack a grown man on the A Train in Bedstuy section of Brooklyn.


Sounds crazy right... and whats even shadier is that the video was submitted to YouTube by one of the girls, who is an aspiring video director....

Smells fishy ehh?? ...Funny either way, to me at least

Check out the video, and tell me what you think...

By the Way, Meet My Homies Writer's Block

Hey Culture Snobbers out there, I wanna introduce you to my Spoken Word family Writer's Block.



This artist collective consist of a rotating cast of colorful and super-talented characters: Kesed Ragin, Soulful Jones, Falu, Jason Reynolds, Shanelle Gabrielle and last but definitely not least, the leader of the pack, RIP.



Each artist has reached heights of notoriety in their own right and under the suggestion of RIP have joined forces to destroy the existence of sucky poetry (no finger snapping please!!),and to knock the spoken word scene on its ass!!

Hmmm reminds me of another group......


I, Culture Snobbette, know all of them personally, and can attest to their lyrical capabilities, (ie: they are all FIERCE on the mic).

Therefore, it is soo very necessary to catch their debut performance at the Bowery Poetry Club on December 20 at The Black Power Poetry Party!!




Writer's Block is teaming up A.L.I.E.N. , the omniscient downtown extraterrestrials, to bring y'all this fly ass poetry set and super party.

Check Out their Trailer, and feel free to hit up their Myspace for more tracks and pics.