Rapper Being Held on $1 Million Bail for Making a ‘Terrorist’ Themed Song

Cameron D’Ambrosio aka Cammy Dee

Just reading this story about a teenager being held in prison for 1 million dollars bail for posting up rap lyrics deemed offensive on Facebook.. Here’s whats in the NY Daily News..

A Massachusetts high schooler is facing federal terror charges for posting to Facebook rap lyrics mentioning the Boston Marathon bombing and the White House.

Cameron D’Ambrosio, 18, of Methune, was picked up by feds at around 1:40 p.m. Tuesday after a friend saw the lyrics and called the principal of Methuen High School, who called police, the Valley Patriot newspaper reported.

“Ya’ll want me to…kill somebody?” the lyrics said, according to the Boston Globe.

“A Boston bombing wait till you see the [expletive] I do. I’m a be famous rapping, and beat every murder charge that comes across me!” the message said….

The teen, who appeared in a handful of self-made YouTube clips rapping under the handle “CammyDee,” was charged with communication of terrorist threats and being held on $1 million bail.

According to posts on YouTube and Facebook, D’Ambrosio lived in “da hood” of Methuen and appeared to have a strong interest in “gangs, violence and a criminal lifestyle,” the Valley Patriot said.

His Facebook page contained satanic images and a picture of his face on a “Wanted Dead or Alive” poster.

Read the rest of the story HERE or you can check out another story HERE

Now there’s a lot to unpack here..Over the past few years we’ve had militias and armed Tea Party folks show up to the White House lawn with guns talking reckless about President Obama and nothing happened except maybe the IRS looked at taxes and you see where that’s gotten us/

No matter what this kid has said we’ve heard and seen images that are far more ‘politically charged’. For example shortly after 9-11, with the Patriot Act on the books and the term enemy combatant defined, we had artist like Paris do an entire album called ‘Sonic Jihad’ smashing on President George Bush and his Post-9-11 policies.. Who could forget this infamous album cover of a plane flying into the white house..That’s just for starters.. Since Paris there’s been a slew of songs that have referenced the World Trade being blown up. Some have made the case that George Bush ‘knocked down the towers’… We seen an explosion in ‘terrorism’ shows ranging from 24 to The Cell to the recent movie ‘Olympus Has Fallen‘, where the white house is attacked and destroyed by terrorists.. If someone saw the scripts to those movies or caught wind of the dialogue, would they be carted off to jail and held with 1 million dollar bond?

During the Democratic Convention some guy showed up and drove around Charlotte with a effigy of Obama being hung.. There was no arrests or anyone sent to jail, even though it was disturbing and highly offensive.If this is happening now, whats gonna be the rules everyone has to follow to avoid jail time? Don’t reference a recent bombing? Don’t talk greasy about the President unless you’re a deranged Senator or Congressman or Tea Party member? Will the net of jailable offenses be expanded to include forbidding one to talk about the military or police?? Will we start have folks define ‘terrorist threat’ any expression of anger toward authority figures and lawmakers?Meanwhile if you’re a rapper like Chief Keef sporting a 2 million dollar bill, you can talk about stabbing a woman for not given you head or be a rapper who’s actually shot and been accused of killing someone like Snoop Dogg and Gucci Mane and be not only handsomely rewarded but celebrated. Seems like with each passing day the Obama administration are pushing the envelope to see what liberties they can snatch away with.. This is especially scary when you consider that we’ve killed 4 Americans with drones without any sort of due process..To me that’s an act of terror, but thus far no one has been punished for that..Lets keep our eyes on this story..

After I posted this article some folks sent me a video of the cops in Salem harassing folks who went to the court to find out whats happening in this case.. This is the police being over the top..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5gpIWRMo3s&feature=youtu.be

Our Thoughts on Michele Obama & Fantasizing about Ballers and Rappers

Michelle Obama gave a speech over the weekend at Bowie State saying that too many Black kids fantasize about being ‘ballers and rappers’..Her exact quotes were as follows…

Today, more than 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, more than 50 years after the end of ‘separate but equal,’ when it comes to getting an education, too many of our young people just can’t be bothered,”

“Today, instead of walking miles every day to school, they’re sitting on couches for hours, playing video games, watching TV. Instead of dreaming of being a teacher or a lawyer or a business leader, they’re fantasizing about being a baller or a rapper,”

She concluded that many Black kids think getting an education is acting white… Her quote was “reject the slander that a black child with a book is trying to act white.”

Damn Michelle who the hell wrote your speech??

A few things to think about.. First lets just go on record and note, those ballers and rappers that many fantasize about, played a key role in getting Michelle and her husband into the White House, not once but twice..From Lebron James to Jay-Z to Will I am to Common to Beyonce who the First Lady famously asserted was role model for her daughters, were all up in the mix during their campaigns and subsequent inaugurations..These rappers and ballers went out and engaged their fans, by doing songs, concerts and special appearances  to go to the polls and vote in what we are now seeing to be record numbers..

If we really wanna keep it 100.. I saw Diddy and Jigga hanging out at the inaugurations in 08 and not prominent scholars like a Cornel West who actually went and campaigned in 60 + cities for the president. We’ve seen countless pictures of rappers all up in the white house..Why wouldn’t a kid fantasize about being a rapper or baller when its them hob nobbing with the Obamas not his teacher or preacher?

Second point.. For the love of God, lets dispel with this 25-year-old cliché first uttered by Spike Lee back in the late 80s at the height of the crack epidemic about Black kids not wanting to read because it would make them appear white.. People who are trying to do the tough love thing have been running with that quote for far too long and it has no bearing in reality.

In the age of Youtube, the Internet and other forms of technology we have all sorts of cross pollination taking place. You have some kids in the hood rocking skinny jeans and skateboard gear made popular by white kids and in the burbs you will see white kids rocking a hat to the side and sagging pants made popular by their Black counterparts. Slang and patterns of speech are damn near universal at this point in time. In short if we’re going by style of dress and surface mannerisms one can question about what does it mean to be Black or white?

If we wanna talk about Black kids reading books and stereotypical perceptions behind that, we have to couch that in the context of disparities in education and how that plays out on the ground.

President Obama and Common

The fact is many of the ballers and rappers who kids MAY fantasize about are actually moguls in their own right with lots of money and perceived power which many have come to understand is the result of them having hustle, a willingness to grind and intelligence to navigate the systems before them.. Whether its Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Common, Rick Ross, Kobe  or Beyonce, you name it all have made it abundantly clear their success was the result of them grinding ..

Its been made clear their mogulness has been the result of them soaking up game and learning the business aspect of the worlds they enter. As Jay-Z once famously rapped..I’m a businessman, I’m a Business, Man If that hasn’t been made clear, its up to people like Michelle Obama to highlight that aspect vs deriding one’s ‘fantasy’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyvMMBNuXMY

Have We Sold Our Souls By Turning a Blind Eye to Obama’s Drones?

There’s a lot of talk about President Obama and his use of drones as well as him having a kill list which has asserts that he can kill American citizens that he deems to be working against America and somehow down with al-Qaeda.. This is indeed very scary and something all of us should seriously reflect on, because whatever steps Obama takes will not be limited to him.. Whoever sits in the Oval office will be able to pick up where Obama leaves off..

Seems like quite a few are giving the President a pass on his policies.. Would we be comfortable with those policies if we had President Romney as opposed to Obama? What if it was former President George Bush saying he has a kill list and has a right to use it on American citizens? Many of us took to the streets and raised a ruckus for far less.

Yesterday in Washington, there were confirmation hearings for John Brennan who is said to be the brains behind Obama’s insidious drone policy…Brennan is shooting to be director of the CIA.. Are people really comfortable with his policies? Are we comfortable with the US setting up drone bases in Niger, knowing that during the Bush administration Bush had Colin Powell lie before the United Nations about the African country providing uranium for terrorists? His testimony was briefly interrupted by folks upset with the drone policies he later defended..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEycDKgUwbw

Are we comfortable with Obama having a secret drone base in Saudi Arabia and mainstream news outlets like the Washington Post agreeing not to report this to the American people?

I want people to be aware of a tactic that is being used in support of White House policies around the discussion on drones.. There is a set of talking points and particular phrasing being used by stealth surrogates and ‘supporters’ of the President designed to frame the conversation in way that moves one away from talk about diplomacy and de-escalation and into the arena of ‘All  We must fight terrorism at e

Inevitably someone will make try to put the onus on you for objecting..Pay close attention when someone responds or inserts themselves in a conversation and ask questions or makes statements along these lines:

1-If we don’t use drones what better ideas do you have to eliminate top terror operatives? Instead of complaining about the President fighting the war on terror, perhaps you should help him..This is difficult work..

2-Troops on the ground are not as effective..Drones are the only way to fight back… Do you have another way for us to take out top terrorist without troops?

3-There are Bigger threats that you can’t see. Bush started something that Obama unfortunately must finish to protect us all.. It took us over a decade to find Bin Laden

4-Those so-called innocents who have been killed by drones hide or aid terrorists..The terrorists use kids to fight us and then claim innocence. We haven’t killed that many innocent people.. They killed innocent people during 9-11…Our drones are doing the job of fighting terror more effectively

5-The terrorist plan there and then come here or against our interests around the world. They started it-remember 9-11. Its better for us to fight them over there then at home..

6-We must use drones because we have no other options Our allies like Pakistan hid Osama for years and lied to us.

7-Diplomacy doesn’t work..They want to kill us. They have an advantage on their land..they know it better than anyone. I don’t condone killing innocent people but so we must use drones to level the playing field.. They must be stopped!

Basically the tactic used is to situate the discussion as if we have no other choice but to fight the war on terror. Its designed to make you forget that the War on terror was a manufactured war with the goal of keeping it open-ended, and perpetual.. so we could expand it as necessary.

Obama is depicted as a reluctant participant who would rather have peace, but is ‘forced to clean up the mess’ that George Bush has started..

We are also reminded that its better for us to fight the war on terror overseas then have it here at home..Innocent people being killed is justified as being a part of war which is ‘ugly’. We are also reminded that terrorists use kids to fight us and hence we shouldn’t be ‘fooled’ or overly sympathetic..

There are Black and Brown faces increasingly being used to push these arguments.. Some are literally paid pundits and operatives. Others in a misguided sense of Black pride and unity have sold their souls and turned a blind eye to actions and policies that they know are dead wrong.. Others who once upon a time have been excluded, have been made to feel ‘special’ because they were put on some sort of White House mailing list,  got a phone call from someone important asking for their help or been invited to informal White House briefings.. The end result is a misguided sense of loyalty at all costs.. As fellow journalist JR Valrey of the Block Report once famously noted, many are not interested in justice or preserving life, they just want their turn to hold and crack the whip..

Bottom line be wary of the attempts to get folks to buy into a concept that we once railed against called ‘preemptive strikes‘..When Bush kicked this off we hit the streets by the thousands.. Obama doesn’t use the that term, instead he invokes the image of us being in a life and death struggle against ‘evil terrorists‘. As a result many have checked their conscience at the door to pick up a sword to join in sable rattling while simultaneously bemoaning the fact that youth in our community have turned to violence as a solution to problems vs de-escalation and diplomacy..