As many of you know, we are attempting to launch Dallas South into the upper limits of the blogosphere . To make this happening I’m going to need a little help from the Dallas South Family.

I hate to go all Sally Struthers on you, but if everyone reading this email right now contributed 10 dollars to Dallas South, we’d have more than enough gas to drive this puppy into the Summer. So image what 20 bucks would do.  Not that you have to limit your gift to those amounts….I’m just using those figures as examples.

There is a donate button in the sidebar, but just in case you can’t get to it, let me plop one down in the middle of this post. You can make a secure donation via credit card or Pay Pal account.

In all seriousness, I am very thankful for the Community Supports who have jumped behind this effort as well as all of the folks who have made donations so far this year. If Dallas South is going to be all that I believe that it can, it’s going to take a strong financial foundation to build it upon.

You are already, providing the first thing that I need which are your eyes reading the words that I’m writing. That’s most important. Links are good too, so if you have a website or blog please feel free to hook us up with some link love.

But in order to continue to push the envelope by providing the insight and opinions that are missing from mainstream media, a small gift here or there would be welcome. Even Wikipedia has done their own fundraising over the last few months.

As African-Americans in newsrooms across the country continue to lose their jobs, I think it’s important that some of us prepare to stand in the gap. Hopefully you feel Dallas South is doing so already and are compelled to chip-in. If you’re not able to do so in light of these tough economic times don’t worry, I’ll be back next month.

The positive emails I’ve received from all over the country just in the last week mean we must be doing something right. I appreciate each and everyone of you and may God bless you and yours.

Today we’re running down the Top 8 stories posted at Dallas South in 2008.  Feel free to share some of your 2008 memories -Dallas South or otherwise- as well.

8. The story of Clarence Otis Jr. – Darden CEO leads Red Lobster and Olive Garden Jan 10th

I received an email regarding Mr. Otis and thought it would be a great story to share with the Dallas South Family. There were a number of folks who were glad to know C.O. was out there doing it big as the CEO of Darden Restaurants Inc., the largest casual dining operator in the nation. Darden is the parent company of Olive Garden and Red Lobster.

The story was later picked up in the North Dallas Gazette. (16 comments)

7. Soledad O’Brien speaks with Dallas South about upcoming CNN special on King Assassination April 3rd

I received an email from CNN asking if I would promote Soledad O’Brian’s upcoming special about the Martin Luther King Assassination. I agreed and then sent a message back requesting an interview with Soledad via email. CNN responded and apologized for not being able to meet my request, but asked me if I were interested in a live telephone interview. Uh….yeah

Soledad was so cool. We talked before and after the interview about the special and some of the folks she met while working on it. I had the chance to interview her again for CNN’s Black in America. (15 Comments)

6. Barack Obama declared winner of Iowa caucuses. Will African-Americans have the Audacity of Hope for a Black President? January 3rd

At the time, it was nice to see that the voters of Iowa -overwhelmingly white- would deem Barack Obama worthy of being the Democratic presidential nominee. But at the time, it still didn’t seem very realistic that this would turn into any national trend.

Yet when Obama took the podium on that January night, a night he identified as a “defining moment in history,” he seemed presidential. He seemed like a man that might be able to actually pull it off. I was behind him, but I still didn’t think it would happen. (2 comments)

5. The Great C.A.W. Clark, pastor of Good Street Baptist Church, dies Sunday in Dallas (1914-2008) July 28th

C.A.W. Clark was one of the truly great preacher/pastors this country has ever seen. I had the opportunity to meet him in my grandmother’s living room when I was a child and my uncle served as an armor bearer for Dr. Clark.

He was often listed by Ebony magazine as one of America’s 15 best preachers. Clark’s homegoing was celebrated by dignitaries from all over the city and all over the nation.

4. A note to all by Anne Kilkenny  September 3rd

Everyone on the internet owes Sarah Palin a little gratitude for all the traffic that she sent our way at the end of 2008. This email that I received from a Wasilla, Alaska resident is proof of that.

After checking it for authenticity, I posted the letter from Anne Kilkenny and the comments started rolling in. The next day Dallas South was listed on page one of Google searches for the term Anne Kilkenny. This is still tied for the most commented about story ever on Dallas South. (77 Comments)

3. Texas Democratic Election a Primary/Caucus Hybrid, requires an extra trip to the polls February 7th

This wasn’t a particularly long post, but it was one of the first documentations on the web -outside of the Texas Dems site- about the peculiar way Democrats select their presidential choice in our state. We came to call it the Texas Two-Step, and prior to this year hardly anyone had heard of it.

This post was copied into emails and sent around the state by people trying to get the word out about the extra trip to the polls. It’s tied with the Kilkenny post for the most commented upon post. (77 comments)

2. The Media Lynching of Rev. Jeremiah Wright (Part 1 of 3) March 16th

The beating that Rev. Jeremiah Wright took in the media was personal for me. I had watched Dr. Wright come to our church for the last ten years teaching a gospel of love and social justice.

The man who had married Barack Obama, and baptized his children, was now being used as the one hope to derail his candidacy. But Obama used this as an opportunity to deliver a pivitol speech on race.

Dr. Wright’s plans for a peaceful retirement went out the window, and his relationship with Obama was over. I wrote my first non-local column for the Dallas Morning News after this post titled Black Preachers Speak Truth To Power. (56 comments).

1. IT’S OBAMA!!!!!  November 4th

I was typing feverishly while on the phone hosting the blog talk show just after CNN made the call.  It didn’t take a lot of words to capture what had just happend:

Wow, who woulda thunk it.  Yes we did.  Yes we did.  6000 People at Friendship West tonight for President Barack Obama’s big moment.  I have video that will be up on YouTube momentarily.

That truly was the moment. The moment that many of us had hoped for, but still wouldn’t allow ourselves to truly believe it was going to happen.  After months of campaigning, live blogging, debating, and the whole nine, the dream was finally a reality.  Barack Obama had been elected the 44th President of the United States.  (2 comments)
What will 2009 have in store for him, for us, and for this great nation?  Whatever it is, you know we’ll cover it here at Dallas South.

Happy New Year!!!!