This Friday, Harvard University Law School will be sponsoring a conference on Blogging. No, this isn’t a new millenium Star Trek convention filled with middle aged White guys who still live in their mother’s basements (”I have my own entrance”!), wear extra-medium t-shirts, and  rarely indulge in thorough personal hygiene.

Instead, this conference will examine how blogging has transformed legal scholarship, as well as created a whole new set of legal problematics.

Here’s the info:

Bloggership: How Blogs are Transforming Legal Scholarship Web logs (”blogs”) are transforming much of American society, including government, politics, journalism, and business. In the past few years, blogs have begun to affect the delivery of legal education, the production and dissemination of legal scholarship, and the practice of law. We are delighted that over twenty of the nation’s leading law professor bloggers have agreed to join with us for the first scholarly conference on the impact of blogs on the legal academy.

The link for the webcast is: http://hlssun3.law.harvard.edu:8888/ramgen/encoder/2006_04_28_berkman_bloggership.rm.

Yesterday, Kobe Bryant announced that he would be changing his number from 8 to 24. Although he gave no explanation, the likely reason for the switch was the fact that he wore 24 early in his high school career. Still, I thought it would be funny for us –that is, all of you readers out there and I– to make a David Letterman-esque “Top Ten Reasons Why Kobe Switched to #24″. I can’t wait for the responses!!

This is just not a good year for Cynthia McKinney. Just a few weeks after the Georgia Congresswoman was embroiled in a national controversy stemming from an altercation with a security guard, McKinney was caught on tape calling one of her aides a “fool.”

Moments after scolding the media for its unnecessary focus on the minor scuffle, which she first described as racism and then as a misunderstanding, she ended the press conference, stood up, and began talking to her staff. Unfortunately, McKinney forgot to disconnect the microphone and was overheard saying “Oh crap… they lied to Coz and Coz is a fool.” After realizing her mistake, McKinney returned to the press table and said “anything that is captured by your audio, that is captured while I’m not seated in this chair, is off the record and is not permissible to be used. Is that understood?”

Of course the media was under no such obligation. Furthermore, they likely had no such desire given McKinney’s prior chastisement.

Despite her recent questionable behavior, it’s unfortunate the McKinney is receiving such treatment. Her statement “Coz is a fool” seems fairly harmless. To be sure, it’s less offensive than George W. Bush and Dick Cheney’s comment –they forgot the mic was on too– that a reporter was a “big asshole” just a few months before they took office.

Despite her media trouble, McKinney has been a tireless advocate for her constituents and a source of truth-telling for the entire nation. In fact, it was her critical comments about the Bush Administration’s response to 9/11 that led to her 2002 election loss. By 2004, however, the nation realized that she was right and she regained her seat after a rigorous primary and landslide general election.

Unfortunately, the current focus on her media misshaps has undermined her political work by taking attention away from real issues. Worse, the recent negative attention may alienate her voting base and lead to the election of Hank Johnson, an attorney and two-term member of the DeKalb County Commission. No disrespect to Mr. Johnson, but this would be a tragedy, not only for Georgia but for the entire nation.

D4L’s time may soon be up!

U.S. regulators have intensified their probe into four big radio station chains,  Clear Channel Communications Inc., CBS Corp., Citadel Broadcasting Corp. and Entercom Communications Corp., for exchanging radio play for money. Although several of the companies have offered to pay one million dollars to resolve the initial inquiry, the government has persisted.

Hopefully, the aftermath of the investigation will be a much more diverse and enjoyable radio play list. Of course, I wouldn’t hold my breath.
(Disclaimer: I have no direct evidence to suggest that D4L has engaged in payola.)

(Photos courtesy of Alice Backer from www.kiskeyacity.blogspot.com)

Last night’s hip-hop panel at the Schomburg turned out to be quite interesting and useful, both for the attendees and panelists. As always, Cornel West was brilliant and moderated the panel quite well. The panelists, however, each brought their own unique insights to bear on the political possibilities of hip-hop. It was truly an honor to sit on the same panel with Greg Tate (one of the great hip-hop writers and cultural critics of his generation), Akiba Solomon (another brilliant writer and fellow Philadelphian who tore the house down), Carlito Rodriguez (visionary BET producer and former Source magazine honcho), and Imani Perry (law professor, author of “Prophets of the Hood”, and one of the leaders of hip-hop studies). Unlike many panels, particularly hip-hop panels, there was no grandstanding or needless bickering (check KRS-One’s tirade at Stanford’s hip-hop conference for a counter-example). Instead everyone engaged in a thoughtful, sincere, and productive conversation.