According to recent report, Dallas Cowboys receiver Terrell Owens attempted suicide by overdosing on pain medication, even putting two more pills into his mouth after fire rescue personnel arrived. KTVT-TV in Dallas reported that a woman named “Etheridge”, likely his publicist Kim Etheridge, called police at 7:51 p.m. to report a suicide attempt. KTVT-TV reported that Owens ingested 35 pills.

Although I am deeply saddened by this news, I cannot say that I am surprised. After watching the 2005 debacle with the Eagles and reading his recent quasi-autobiography, it became apparent that Owens is not nearly as happy and confident as his public persona suggested. Beneath his cocky exterior is a profoundly insecure and sad figure whose rough childhood and adult struggles continue to plague him.

I will write more about this as new information becomes available. Until then, let us keep T.O. in our thoughts and hope for his speedy recovery.

Right-wing groups spend ten times more on youth leadership development than progressives do. If we want to win, we need to start investing in the next generation of leaders.

How Progressives Can Win In The Log Run
By Iara Peng 

For nearly 30 years, ultraconservatives have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in young people and built an infrastructure that initiates young people into the radical right movement through campus activism, leadership training and career development. Their investments have paid off. The radical right wing now controls the executive and legislative branches of government, and it’s only one seat away from complete dominance of the Supreme Court.

If progressives want to achieve the same sort of political success that the radical right has enjoyed for the past two decades, we’re going to have to do more than focus on the next round of elections and pay lip service to engaging young people. We must make a serious, long-term investment in our next generation of progressive leaders. Young people provide a vital infusion of ideas, energy and passion to the progressive movement right now, and their commitment to continued activism and leadership is critical to building a progressive future.

The right wing’s investment in young people

For decades, right-wing organizations including the Leadership Institute, Federalist Society, Cato Institute and Heritage Foundation have spearheaded a massive effort to bring young people into their movement. Last year alone, the Right invested $48 million in 11 youth-focused organizations aimed at increasing the number of ideologically friendly campus papers, fostering networks of students on campuses, shifting the way that students self-identify in terms of political ideology, providing skills and strategies training, and promoting right-wing values.

For the rest of this story, click here. 

“I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.” – Mark Twain

Today Mavericks owner Mark Cuban speaks out demanding an end to the continued incarceration of Genarlow Wilson. “The state of Georgia needs to come to its senses,” says Cuban. “This is a travesty and it needs to change.”

Genarlow Wilson is a Georgia teenager serving a 10-year sentence for a consensual act of oral sex with another teenager. (She was 15, he was 17.) The law at the time allowed the judge no other option than imposing the mandatory 10-year sentence, plus 1 year probation plus a lifetime requirement to register as a sex offender. Partly because of Genarlow’s situation, the law in Georgia has now been changed to view any consensual sex act between teens as a misdemeanor punishable by no more than a year in prison. The irony is, Genarlow has now served over 19 months, much more time than a teen convicted of the exact same offense would have to serve today.

Cuban voiced his support for Genarlow this morning when he appeared as a guest on The Tom Joyner Morning Show along with Genarlow’s mother, Juanessa Bennett, and Genarlow’s attorney, BJ Bernstein.

Cuban, who also heads HDNet, the first high definition television network, became passionately involved in efforts to free Genarlow after HDNet produced an in-depth documentary on the case.

Genarlow’s case is similar to that of Marcus Dixon, another Georgia teen. Dixon was sentenced to 10 years in prison for consensual intercourse with another teen. After Oprah Winfrey and other high profile celebrities rallied round him, Dixon won his appeal and was freed. Wilson’s attorney, BJ Bernstein, who also worked on Dixon’s appeal says, “We’ve been searching for a celebrity to champion Genarlow in a similar fashion, and we hope Mr. Cuban’s involvement will bring attention to the case and help us get this boy back home with his family and back on track for a productive life.”

“Right or wrong, many teenagers today are experimenting with sex,” says Bernstein. “But most of them have no idea it could land them in jail. This case should be a wake up call to all teens — and their parents.”

For more information, go to WilsonAppeal.com

In the late 1990s, Miss Cleo became a pop culture icon with her faux-Jamaican accent and late night infomercial requests to call the psychic hotline. By the end of the decade, you couldn’t turn on BET without hearing her famous catch phrase: “Call me, now!”

After a string of lawsuits and fraud allegations, the psychic hotline was shut down. Soon after, reports confirmed what most people suspected: Miss Cleo was not a Jamaican-born psychic. According to reports from a Florida newspaper, Cleo was really a Los Angeles born woman named Youree Dell Harris. Some groups, such as the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of the Paranormal, argued that she was not even a real psychic.

While many think that Harris had an ownership interest in the Miss Cleo hotline, she actually was paid a one-time flat fee of $1700 to appear on the commercials. Except for a few voice-acting gigs, the woman who earned millions for others was left with little to show for her short career.

In 2006, Miss Cleo has returned to the public eye. In a few weeks, the self-proclaimed shaman will join the cast of VH1’s Surreal Life, a haven for world-weary child actors, washed up rockers, and other flash in the pan C-listers.

Although she has yet to come clean about her American origins, she has made a far more important revelation: Miss Cleo is a lesbian.

In the October issue of The Advocate, Cleo explains that her gay godson provided her with the motivation and courage to come out:

“He and I started talking when he was concerned about coming out. He was 16. When he made the decision, I told him I’d be there to support him 100 percent, and he embraced [coming out] wholeheartedly. It’s a different vibe than when I was his age, being raised Catholic in an all-girls boarding school. But he was afraid of nothing, and I thought, I can’t be a hypocrite. This boy is going to force me to put my money where my mouth is.”

While the skeptic in me questions the timing of the announcement –personal confessions always seem to accompany new albums, books, and television shows– I’m nonetheless thrilled that Miss Cleo is coming out in full public view. As Keith Boykin mentioned yesterday, such gestures have enormous impact on the way queer identities are represented and read in the public sphere. My only concern is that her upcoming stay in VH1’s world of Celeb-Reality will turn her into a caricature and undermine her ability to speak with youth and adults about her personal and professional struggles.