Although most of you are probably sitting back and enjoying your day off in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. — this eliminates the need to procrastinate on the Internet — those of you who can't go a day without your favorite blog* (ha!) can use this clip of MLK delivering his last speech before his assassination to reflect on the life and legacy of a man who helped change America. Unfortunately, one only has to look at the comments under the video on YouTube to come to the conclusion that his infamous dream has not been fully realized.

*Your favorite blog is on a shortened schedule today, so don't be alarmed!

• Picket lines? Beyonce doesn't care about no stinkin' picket lines. [LAT]

• Officials at a Colorado school realized that it probably wasn't part of the dream to always send a segregated group to an annual MLK event. [CBS4]

• Hillary Clinton invokes MLK's legacy in Compton. The candidates need to stop "invoking" him, period. But with the holiday around the corner, it's probably unavoidable. [LAT]

• One would expect this sort of behavior from a German "gangster rapper." [PR-I]

• Racial strife in Ohio! [NYT]

ROMNEY'S FICTIONAL "MARCH ON GROSSE POINTE" Mitt Romney has taken to mentioning that, as a young man, he watched his father George, a former Michigan governor, participate in a march with Martin Luther King, Jr. The only problem is, no one can find any evidence that George Romney ever marched with MLK or that such a march ever occurred in Grosse Pointe, MI. Mitt Romney only just started talking about this in campaign speeches, so the fictional event must have come to him recently in a moment of inspiration. Too bad political reporters like to research such things.

• Readers in the New York area looking to break into the fashion industry and hear advice from blacks at the top of their game in the fashion world? Check out a panel discussion Sunday featuring Jay Alexander, Selita Ebanks, and Tia Williams (of Shake Your Beauty fame and, um, my mother's womb), among others. Ticket sales go toward Designers for Darfur. [TL]

• Say goodbye to the black middle class? [BET]

• At least Jay-Z know who wears the performing-pants in his relationship. [HHDX]

• Among others, the granite industry is pissed that the statue for the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial will be Chinese made. But will it be an excellent statue? That's all I want to know. [BG]

• Feds will "investigate" possible racism at a Louisiana public works department decorated with a bull whip, a noose, and a dart board with the bullseye replaced by a picture of a black man's eye. Umm, yeah. Investigate that. [AP]

• As long as there's no sex in the champagne room… [PS]

• Dissecting a public figure's classic "apology" for saying something racist. [RR]

• Birdman thinks Lil Wayne is greater than Tupac, Biggie and Jay-Z. [MNT]

• White supremacists plan a rally in Jena on Martin Luther King day. How innovative! [SPLC]

• Mekhi Phifer spawns. [E!]

Behind Ludacris' suddenly serious exterior — the short hair, mainly, but that counts as "serious" — lies a man without as much mental power as one would think or hope.

I can't see any other reason why he would think it was appropriate to drop the N-word during his performance at the Dream Concert, which benefited the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial.

Perhaps his manager forgot to brief him ahead of time on protocol to follow when honoring assassinated civil rights heroes.

[NYDN]

Hyped for weeks, last night's Dream Concert, a benefit for the MLK Memorial in DC, might have been just a teensy bit disappointing, performance-wise (read about it here), but stars like Kerry Washington showed support, and it hopefully did its job in raising funds for the memorial. Plus, Garth Brooks came. That was nice. More after the jump.

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Martin Luther King, Jr., who might, if he were alive, despise Viacom's product with all of his heart and soul, has nevertheless inspired the media behemoth to donate $1.5 million for a planned MLK memorial on the National Mall.

$1.5 million? Sounds like about $1.45 million more than Viacom is willing to invest in BET's new programming.

[NBC]

Am I the only one who has a really, really hard time stomaching this couple? [SMN]

Racial disparities abound in the Pittsburgh region. That's different from the rest of the country how? [PTR]

Rudy Giuiliani replaces his head fundraiser in South Carolina (he ran into some legal issues involving the distribution of cocaine) with a Confederate flag-lover who called the NAACP the National Association of Retarded People. [Stump]

An Alabama town has hit roadblocks in naming a street after Martin Luther King, Jr. They probably just saw that Chris Rock comedy show. [NC]

Booted American Idol singer Frenchie Davis claims she experienced racism on an Alaska Air flight and plans to hold a press conference about it? A press conference is a desperate move to extend her 15 minutes, which ran out long ago. Although, if her story is true, that's pretty f-ed up. [EUR]