Serendipity SOUL | Sunday Open Thread

Posted on November 18, 2012 by rikyrah

Happy Sunday, Everyone. Hope you’re enjoying your weekend. Loving this time of the year. Today’s featured artist is the INCOMPARABLE Pianist Mr. Geroge Winston.

Some Children See Him

The Holly and The Ivy

Thanksgiving

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60 Responses to Serendipity SOUL | Sunday Open Thread

  1. Pingback: Wednesday Open Thread - Jack & Jill Politics

  4. rikyrah says:
    November 18, 2012 at 5:00 pm

    White People Mourning More Than Romney

    A funny-yet-sad, election-inspired website highlights a racial rift. Whose country is it, anyway?
    By: Mychal Denzel Smith|Posted: November 10, 2012 at 12:45 AM

    The 2012 presidential election was historic, not just because of the re-election of the nation’s first black president but also because it became the first “meme” election. Over the course of the excruciatingly long campaign, the Internet responded to every noteworthy gaffe and unintentional revelation the candidates made by creating viral memes that poked fun of and spoke back to the candidates. We had Big Bird, binders full of women, horses and bayonets, “Paul Ryan Gosling” and much more. Even with the election over, the fun with memes hasn’t stopped.

    The latest is a Tumblr site dedicated to collecting photos and screenshots of white people reacting to the news of President Barack Obama’s re-election and Gov. Mitt Romney’s loss, aptly titled “White People Mourning Romney.” There are dozens of pictures of profoundly distraught white Romney supporters sobbing and otherwise looking forlorn. There is one picture of a storefront window with a handmade sign that says: “Closed to Mourn the Loss of the America That Our Forefathers Endowed to Us.” Another is of a yard where a flag bearing the GOP’s elephant mascot is flying at half-mast.

    It’s funny, but it also serves as a sad snapshot of just how far we haven’t come. Granted, had Obama lost, there would also have been legions of people crying across the country. But the people featured here aren’t crying about a lost election. They truly appear to be mourning the death of a country, or at least the idea of the country they’ve long held to be true.

    Obviously, America isn’t dead. But the right-wing echo chamber has so deluded its members into believing that the man currently occupying the White House has a secret socialist agenda — one that he inherited from his Kenyan anti-colonialist father and has been waiting to unleash — that they have concluded that his re-election spells the end of America.

    In one sense, it is the end of, as Fox News host Bill O’Reilly put it, “traditional America.” The white vote doesn’t decide elections anymore. One can’t simply appeal to white racial angst and expect to be victorious. Future presidential candidates will have to be able to communicate ideas to people of a variety of complex identities and not alienate any of them in the process through a visible hostility.

    That has been the GOP game for years, but in the last two presidential elections it has cost them big. Obama has walked away with historic levels of support among African Americans, Latinos, women and young people, and he posted clear Electoral College and popular-vote wins.

    But no, Obama’s re-election is not the death of America — it’s a signal that a new America is emerging. For the mourning white people in those photos, however, the two are one and the same. This new America, in which a majority-white vote doesn’t rule the day, is foreign and unappealing to those whose privilege comes under greater scrutiny with each passing moment.

    http://www.theroot.com/views/white-people-mourning-more-romney?wpisrc=obinsite

    Reply
  5. SouthernGirl2 says:
    November 18, 2012 at 4:55 pm

    YANGON, MYANMAR – NOVEMBER 18: A Burmese man wears an American flag as he drives, as Yangon gets prepared for the first visit of President Barack Obama November 18, 2012 in Yangon, Myanmar. Barack Obama will become the first US President to visit Myanmar during his four-day tour of Southeast Asia that will also include visits to Thailand and Cambodia.

    Reply
  6. Ametia says:
    November 18, 2012 at 4:11 pm

    IT’S TIME TO CALL OUT THE MEDIA FOR GIVING THIS MUTHAFUCKA AIR TIME TO BEAT THE WAR DRUM AND SMEAR OUR AMERICAN LEADERS.

    Reply
  8. rikyrah says:
    November 18, 2012 at 3:56 pm

    Romney’s Diversity Handicap

    His problem isn’t that he lost the black vote — it’s that his party doesn’t understand black voters.
    By: Gene Demby|Posted: November 18, 2012 at 12:22 AM

    Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have had some interesting takes on the scope and, uh, complexion of their Election Day throttling. The former governor was reportedly shell-shocked by the results. But they’re telling on themselves, as the old folks say.

    Romney hopped on a conference call with his wealthiest donors Wednesday and told them that Obama spurred turnout among his coalition by offering “gifts” to voters of color and young people, like health care and student-loan forgiveness. “You can imagine for somebody making $25,000 or $30,000 or $35,000 a year, being told you’re now going to get free health care, particularly if you don’t have it, getting free health care worth, what, $10,000 per family, in perpetuity — I mean, this is huge,” Mr. Romney said, while weirdly mischaracterizing how the Affordable Care Act actually works.

    Ryan told a Wisconsin television station the day before that they were surprised by that surge in turnout, especially in “urban” areas. “When we watched Virginia and Ohio coming in, and those ones coming in as tight as they were, and looking like we were going to lose them, that’s when it became clear we weren’t going to win,” he said. (Whatever helps you sleep at night, my dude: Romney lost in lily-white states like New Hampshire and Iowa, too.)

    Surprised? That surge in “urban turnout” wasn’t some unknowable, unpredictable variable, like a massive Election Day earthquake. For months, it had looked like a very real possibility. The National Urban League published a study this summer about the import African Americans would have in this election — they expected the black electorate to grow by several percentage points from 2008, found that registered black voters were the group most likely to vote in 2008 (93 percent did so) and that if black turnout dipped to 2004 levels, Obama would struggle in several other swing states. If the Urban League’s relatively small research and policy shop knew this, then the number crunchers in Obama’s Chicago headquarters certainly did, as well. So why didn’t Team Romney? (Those devious Urban Leaguers! Hiding their research by holding open conference calls with the press and then sneakily plastering it all over the country’s major news outlets!)

    Romney ran on his business acumen and his purported ability to find pragmatic solutions to big problems. But his failed campaign might inadvertently make a great business-school case study on the many ways diversity matters. Yes, there are lots of obvious, compelling moral and ethical reasons for making diversity an organizational goal, but there are practical, functional ones, too: Organizations with narrow fields of vision become institutionally incapable of spotting where the icebergs ahead are located. Romney’s campaign apparently didn’t even acknowledge that there might be icebergs.

    Republican talking heads kept saying that black voters would stay home because disproportionately high unemployment would have sapped their enthusiasm. Some conservative news outlets reported on claims that black people would stay home because of President Obama’s endorsement of same-sex marriage. There wasn’t a lot of evidence to back either of those things.

    It’s also become obvious that Team Romney comically misjudged how galvanizing the Republican push for voter-ID laws would be among a voting bloc that has a long history of state-sponsored disenfranchisement. And so pastors preached to their flocks about it on Sundays, reporters covered stories of ordinary people whose voting rights were suddenly in question and voting and civil rights groups not-so-quietly went out and registered hundreds of thousands of new voters. But Romney never saw it coming.

    http://www.theroot.com/views/romneys-diversity-handicap

    Reply
  9. Ametia says:
    November 18, 2012 at 3:55 pm

    Here we go!

    November 15
    Elected to the House: Winthrop’s Hickman a no-nonsense ‘walking improbability’

    have two words for Republicans who wonder, in the wake of last week’s shellacking at the polls, what Maine’s resurgent Democrats have that they don’t:

    Craig Hickman.

    He’s black.

    He’s gay.

    He’s an organic farmer who’s more than happy to give away as much as a quarter of the food that he and his partner, Jop Blom, raise on their 25-acre piece of heaven right in the heart of central Maine.

    And, oh yes, one more thing. For the next two years, Hickman, 45, will represent his hometown of Winthrop and neighboring Readfield in the Maine House of Representatives.

    “A friend of mine says I am a walking improbability,” mused Hickman during a break from Thursday’s orientation at the State House for rookie lawmakers. “I like to just think that I have faith in people. I’ve always had faith in people.”

    It appears to be mutual. In the race to replace Rep. Patrick Flood, a popular Republican who was prevented by term limits from seeking re-election, Hickman beat Republican Scott Davis, 59 percent to 41 percent.

    That, no doubt, is big news around the coffee counters of Winthrop and Readfield. At the same time, far beyond House District 82, Hickman’s victory speaks volumes about the strikingly different trajectories of Maine’s two major political parties.

    http://www.onlinesentinel.com/news/elected-to-the-house-a-no-nonsense-walking-improbability_2012-11-15.html

    Reply
    • Ametia says:
      November 18, 2012 at 1:12 pm

      SMGDH Bob Schieffer; UN Ambassador Rice does’nt have the authority to change talking points to suit her fancy. *Bangs head on desk*

      MOFOs continuing blaming the messenger,instead of the folks who are responsible for giving the points.

      Reply
  11. SouthernGirl2 says:
    November 18, 2012 at 12:40 pm

    McCain wants Rice to say ‘I was wrong’ http://feedly.com/k/Xpf0ZL

    _______________________

    John McCain is still spewing the stupid! Apologize to Ambassador Rice, John McCain! YOU were WRONG. Have some honor & decency to OWN your fk up!

    Reply
  12. rikyrah says:
    November 18, 2012 at 12:17 pm

    Look in the Mirror

    by BooMan
    Sun Nov 18th, 2012 at 08:41:28 AM EST

    Here is an Australian point of view on Mitt Romney and the presidential election.

    In the minds of many critics, Mr Romney’s comments about Mr Obama’s “gifts” reinforces the idea that he lacked empathy with voters to start with. Many Republicans were lukewarm about their candidate: he was seen as the best of a lacklustre field.
    In September, Mr Romney suffered much political flak, including from his own side, when he was reported as having told wealthy donors in Florida that he did not care about the 47 per cent of Americans who considered themselves victims.

    As Republicans turn on him, exit polls from November 6 tend not to support Mr Romney’s conclusions. Mr Obama won a slightly smaller number of young voters overall, compared with 2008. He won about the same number of African-American voters. More Hispanics voted for Mr Obama, but their vote counted most in battleground states.

    Mitt Romney doesn’t act like he failed. He acts like he was betrayed or cheated. He ought to look in the mirror and ask himself why everyone in the United Kingdom hates his guts. He is a very unpleasant man. No one likes him. That’s the beginning point for understanding why he lost. He probably thinks he wasn’t enough of a jerk. After all, the only jump he ever got in the polls was a reward for a debate performance in which he treated the president with disrespect and told about seventy-five lies. His base likes it when people tell lies about the president. But his base isn’t big enough to win a national election. Mitt Romney lost for a lot of reasons, but the most glaring reason is that he is a dick.

    http://www.boomantribune.com/

    Reply
  13. rikyrah says:
    November 18, 2012 at 12:15 pm

    Israel is Making a Mistake

    by BooMan
    Sun Nov 18th, 2012 at 12:23:27 PM EST

    It hardly matters to the Palestinians and Israelis who are facing aerial bombardment, but one downside of the fighting in the Middle East is that it is overshadowing the president’s trip to Southeast Asia. In my opinion, the timing of this escalation of fighting was at Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s choosing. He waited until after the U.S. election, but there was no particular reason to assassinate a Hamas leader on the eve of the president’s trip. Reading between the lines of this New York Times piece, it could not be clearer that the administration is angry with Israel for picking a fight right now and is deeply opposed to any incursion into the Gaza Strip.
    The timeline of events is controversial, of course, as there is never really a beginning and an end to events in Israel and Palestine. And once rockets begin to fall on the outskirts of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, the Israeli government feels compelled to keep fighting until the threat is eliminated. Yet, I think this just highlights how the status quo is not manageable for Israel. What they have done so far in this latest flare-up is to reveal that Hamas has longer-range rockets and can inflict unacceptable damage to Israel’s urban centers. They can periodically “mow the grass” in the Gaza Strip and go in, kill a bunch of people, and remove the rockets. But they can’t keep doing that and maintain their peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan. They can’t sustain the kind of moral condemnation they receive from the international community every time they feel compelled to remove the threat.

    At root, the problem is their determination to expand the settlements in the absence of any progress towards a Palestinian state. Even the United States government and its people do not see that as a fair and just policy. Israel it totally alone in pursuing this deteriorating status-quo. And it is going to start putting some serious strain on the U.S.-Israeli relationship very soon now.

    http://www.boomantribune.com/

    Reply
  14. rikyrah says:
    November 18, 2012 at 12:13 pm

    TPM2012

    Obama’s Approval Rating, Popularity Spike After Election

    Tom Kludt-November 16, 2012, 2:28 PM

    There may not be a consensus yet on how much political capital President Obama picked up in his re-election, but a number of post-election polls suggest his victory did wonders for his public standing.

    A USA Today/Gallup survey released on Friday showed Obama and his party drawing goodwill from much of the country in the wake of their triumph at the ballot box last week. Fifty-eight percent of Americans have a favorable view of the president — up 3 points from the USA Today/Gallup poll conducted right before the election. It’s also his highest favorability rating in the poll since July of 2009.

    The public’s view of Democrats is also positive in the wake of a largely successful election for the party. Fifty-one percent of those surveyed have a favorable impression of the party, a 6-point bump since August and a more impressive showing than the 43 percent who have a favorable view of the Republican Party. Fifty percent have an unfavorable opinion of the GOP, although Gallup notes that “Americans have been negative on balance toward the Republican Party since late 2005.”

    http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/11/obama-approval-favorability-bounce.php

    Reply
  15. rikyrah says:
    November 18, 2012 at 12:06 pm

    brilliant comment at POU about the Susan Rice attacks:

    Camille

    Let me be blunt (like I’m ever not), this Susan Rice witch hunt is Hillary and Bill Clinton at work. I realize that some of my family here won’t be happy with my thoughts on this matter, but I still think that it is important that we each get to tell our own truths as we see it. No?

    Hillary Clinton prematurely and in what should have been roundly denounced by Democrats and all thinking, honest brokers, brow-raisingly announced over a year and half ago – and in the midst of a difficult time for the world (her delegated territory) – that she would not be returning “even if the President were re-elected”. That announcement could have waited. It was unnecessary and could have harmed ongoing international discussions.

    This was done in very bad faith, was uncalled for and served absolutely no purpose besides sending very strong and negative messages. No high ranking team player in any administration, especially the Secretary of State, does that unless they have an ulterior motive and want to seriously undermine and undercut the President.

    And please don’t tell me that Hillary Clinton as politically savvy as she is, did not consider the ramifications and precisely the message such a premature and very undiplomatic, self-serving and short-sighted announcement would convey.

    And voila! Right about that very time, we were suddenly bombarded with calls from the usual suspects in the Clinton camp and their friends in the media, insisting that President Obama “needed Hillary as V.P to win reelection” – think Doug Wilder, Ed Rendell etc. Heck even Joe Scarborough! There was suddenly a strong call and push to replace Joe Biden, along with very malicious attempts at smearing a great, loyal and solid statesman, Joe Biden as inept and full of blunder.

    Bill Clinton who had been mute and mostly out of sight in the 8 years George Bush was president – and who never publicly commented on anything including the unnecessary and financially crippling wars, meanwhile had now found his voice again and has been running around from the very beginning of the Obama presidency, very publicly doing his usual underhanded thing of criticizing and contradicting President Obama at every turn, while damning with feint praise. His people put out leaks about everything from private meetings with the Obama team and narratives that demeaned – and where that failed to have the desired effect, tried to grab for more influence by publicly strong arming President Obama. These narratives were immediately picked up and pushed hard by their flunkies like Ed Rendell, Chris Matthews, Dana Milbank, John Heilemann, Harold Ford etc.

    Let’s not even delve into the matter of how very close friends and allies of the Clintons over the past 4 years consistently and very publicly bashed, disrespected and demeaned President and Mrs Obama – with a lot of them very publicly backing and fundraising for various Republican candidates including John Huntsman and Mitt Romney. And please do not tell me that the Clintons could not rein them in. Bullshit. I can honestly tell you that Ed Rendell, James Carville, Mark Penn, Thomas F. “Mack” McLarty (who gushes about Romney being a “problem solver”!), Erskine Bowles, Kiki Mclean and her PUMA/No Labels crowd all voted for Mitt Romney. Lynn de Rothschild etc, already publicly backed McCain and then Jon Huntsman.

    In fact there was rather tacit approval by the Clintons as evidenced by the many attacks on President and Mrs Obama directly or “anonymously” via their very close friends and staff including from Bill Clinton’s current “chief of staff” (who voted for Romney because it helped Hillary’s chances at winning in 2016 – a fact that he never even bothered to deny), PUMA’s hired to fill positions at the State Department by Hillary including Anna Marie Slaughter who even as Policy Director for Hillary at the State Dept, continued to publicly and maliciously attack President Obama. The list is endless.

    When Bill Clinton was asked about Donald Trump’s nonstop racist birther attacks on President Obama, Clinton’s response was one if had the tables been turned and it was Barack Obama responding, would have caused such a stink and outrage from Democrats and the media alike.

    Bill Clinton talked about how kind Trump has been to him and Hillary and how he likes and appreciates Trump and enjoys their many golf outings together. Uh huh.

    Can you imagine if President Obama had publicly declared his friendship with and deep appreciation for an obnoxious public figure who continues to maliciously slander Bill and Hillary Clinton?!

    It is important to note that in one of Trump’s many rantings, he specifically referenced his conversations with the Clintons and how disgusted they were that “the ungrateful blacks” abandoned them for Obama “after everything the Clintons had done for them”.

    Bill Clinton jumped onto the re-election campaign bandwagon several weeks before the elections – after spending 4 very public years diminishing and chipping away at President Obama and very deliberately muddying up the President’s message at every turn.

    There was this calculation that if Hillary is to Run and win in 2016, there had to be a sense for Democrats and the silly Obamacrats that Bill Clinton had really, really tried to help the Obamas get reelected.

    But there was also the sheer vanity thing with Bill Clinton and his obsessive need to be continually fawned over and to be in and have the spotlight. He got that at the DNC convention in North Carolina – where incidentally, Chelsea Clinton who has NEVER acknowledged little less voiced any sort of support for President and Mrs Obama or their daughters, also had her very own strategically placed roundtable on something.

    There was absolutely nothing Bill CLinton said in that speech at the DNC that the President hadn’t already talked about. And the same media who actually should have been reporting that very obvious fiscal dynamics without any prompting, were all on a high because Bill Clinton said it. And only because Bill Clinton was going to be their new weapon to flog and try to continue to demean and deny President Obama credit for all his accomplishments. If they could once again elevate Clinton, they could take away Barack’s shine. And so it began.

    The Clintons also hoped that by sending Bill around campaigning, they would automatically inherit the unstoppable OFA machine President Obama had built amongst other things. Also commit Barack and Michelle to campaigning and fundraising for Hillary. Notice how Bill Clinton never failed to publicly keep count and mention to the crowd how many campaign stops he’d made on behalf of President Obama, even though his campaign stomp speeches were less about President Obama (restrained praise, “good” job) and more about him, his “successful” presidency and of course Hillary (“great” job as SOS). There was never any unrestrained or effusive endorsement or validation of President Obama’s many accomplishments which were never deliberately tempered or offered with qualifiers that managed to diminish the actual accomplishment. Incidentally, Health care reform was nearly always missing in many Clinton stomp speeches.

    Folks got so distracted by the visuals of Bill Clinton campaigning and paid little attention to his actual stomp speeches. I promise you that had they been as good or effective as his DNC speech, the media would have highlighted them more – but of course they didn’t because they were largely duds.

    If Bill Clinton was such a master campaigner could someone please tell me why he didn’t go work his magic for President Obama in his home State of Arkansas where he was Governor and is by many accounts, still “beloved”.

    Arkansas, a State which by the way voted Democratic mostly but which President Obama lost even worse than he did South Carolina, Georgia, Oklahoma and Mississippi! President Obama only fared worse in Wyoming and Utah!

    In all the noise that the Clinton P.R people made about Bill Clinton “helping” President Obama by bringing in his “big money fundraisers” who 4 years later still refused to support President Obama because they had “not been given the green light” by the Clintons, was all hoopla. Noise.

    Because in the end, It is important to note that most of those closest to Bill Clinton including his close buddy and party mate, billionaire Stephen Bing and Haim Saban amongst others, NEVER donated to the Obama campaign or the pro-Obama SuperPac even after the much touted Clinton fundraising assist. Haim Saban showed up at one event hosted by former Obama ambassador to the Bahamas, Nicole Savant and her husband Netflix exec. Ted Sarandos. But no donation. He did however scale back his vicious attacks on President Obama re: Israel. Saban is a Clinton leaning version of Sheldon Adelson.

    The Clintons weren’t really expecting an Obama win. They did however hedge their bets just in case he did.

    This Susan Rice attack is indeed being spearheaded by the Clintons.

    When Hillary announced that she would be departing as Sec. of State, she did this in typical Hillary short-sightedness, largely banking on an Obama defeat.

    Hillary demanded from President Obama and got complete control of the State Department and she and Bill and his Clinton Global Initiative reaped greatly from her vaunted position and access – something she will now need to somehow hold on to even without being SOS.

    Susan Rice even with her original ties to the Clintons, is nobody’s flunky.

    A savvy, whipsmart, blunt, efficient, levelheaded, strong, independent woman, she has shown time again that she can hold her own. And if put in charge of the State Dept, will completely disassemble Hillaryland and return normalcy to what has become largely an operation and carefully crafted PR effort to keep Hilllary Clinton viable for her run for the presidency as opposed to the primary work of serving the best interests of the United States and the President.

    Much has been made about Susan Rice’s “lack of diplomacy” and “bluntness” and coming from people who coo about how “wonderful” Hillary Clinton has been as SOS, this has to be the most hilarious, incredulous and brazenly disingenuous accusation thrown at Dr. Rice.

    The truth is Susan Rice is better qualified and equipped than Hillary Clinton ever was to be SOS.

    A Stanford and Oxford University graduate and Rhode Scholar, Foreign policy has been Susan Rice’s lifework.

    Susan Rice has earned this position if President Obama does indeed nominate her for it.

    She has not gotten where she is by being married to anyone or positioning herself at every point. She has worked hard at something she has had a great interest in and studied for in University under the tutelage of some of the greatest scholars.

    The fact that there are those out there doing coordinated hit pieces that reference the Clintons should come as no surprise.

    The Clintons once again want an in on the Obama second term to manipulate things to serve their short and longterm plans.

    Unfortunately, this is no longer a newbie Democratic President/admin and so “old hand WH veteran Democrats from the Clinton era” won’t get to run roughshod or lead, affect and corrupt the transition and set-up this time around.

    Hence the media enlisted fight to embed some Clinton loyalists or republican spoilers in powerful/influential positions such as Treasury, Defense and of course State.

    Why on earth would a second term President give away his plumest and most important positions that potentially make or break his Presidency and legacy to people he cannot trust or who hold primary loyalties to the Clintons or the Republican party?

    President Obama is no fool and try as these noisy media errand boys may, they will not succeed in destroying President Obama in his second term – having failed to fell him in his first and meet their expressed goal of denying him a second term.

    On the night President Obama won re-election, instead of celebrating him, the media spent time brooding and making very vocal pronouncements that wished for the President to have a scandal-strewn second term. Barbara Walters as part of the ABC election night coverage actually went as far as putting out instances where she hoped there potentially could be “scandal”. She mentioned the Obama girls getting older and Malia going off to college and “rumors of problems in the Obama marriage”! yes, on election night!

    Has anyone wondered why in spite of being in charge of the State Department and being the Sec. of State – the person directly and solely responsible for embassies and ambassadors, something she fought hard to deny President Obama any access or say – as part of her original negotiation and deal to take the SOS position, there has been little or no mention of Hillary Clinton, her role or responsibility in all of this Benghazi furor?

    How has a powerful SOS who for the first time in American history, negotiated the terms of the job with her boss the President to have complete say so and oversight over the State Dept with zero interference from the President, now suddenly be so so mum?

    Why and how is the media allowing John McCain, Lindsey Graham etc. to selectively attack the President and Susan Rice on Benghazi, while the two key players – the Secretary of State and the CIA director slither away unscathed? Hey John McCain if you are truly concerned with truth and fact finding focus on the current SOS won’t you?

    Something is terribly wrong with this picture, but it will all be fixed in no time.

    My prayer for President Obama has always been that God expose, uproot and destroy any and all things operating in his life and sphere of influence that seek to cause President Obama and his family pain, sorrow or harm. I also ask God to expose, uproot and destroy all of President Obama’s enemies – seen and unseen, known and unknown, remote or direct, in any shape or form they’ve taken: false friends, false allies, double agents, saboteurs, undermining agents and stealth and outright attackers.

    God hears and acts without fail. It is well.

    Reply
    • rikyrah says:
      November 18, 2012 at 12:11 pm

      And a fabulous response by sag:

      sagittarius

      I can’t think of a POU Fam member who would have any quarter with your analysis (not that I can speak for anyone but myself). This is righteous, spot-on and accurate.

      We know this is coming from Bill and Hill. As I said earlier in the week about Bubba’s 2012 campaigning: he earned some brownie points. He in no form, shape or fashion, will EVER again enjoy the 80-90% support from black folks that he did when he was President. What Bubba failed to realize is when he got down like that in the 2008 SC primary – we started to take a look back at his presidency. The cocaine sentencing disparity. Welfare reform. Taking the teeth out of the FCC. Repealing Glass-Steagall. All of the damage Bush II was able to do from 2000-2008 was because Bubba weakened the checks and balances of various systems. He couldn’t keep it in his pants and the Repubs impeached him and took full advantage of a weakened presidency. That’s why they are trying so hard to attach a scandal to PBO – so they can weaken his second term.

      You see – black folk know who has been ride or die with PBO – and we count VPOTUS; Sen Kerry and a few others among that group. The Clintons showed us who they were in 2008 and we haven’t forgotten.

      ETA – and this whole thing with Dr. Susan Rice? Yeah, I’m flashing back to other black women who were dogged by the Clintons. Sista Soulja. Lani Guinier. Dr. Joycelyn Elders. I don’t think I’m the only black person having these flashbacks.

      Reply
    • SouthernGirl2 says:
      November 18, 2012 at 12:18 pm

      Let the Church say..AMEN!

      Reply
      • Ametia says:
        November 18, 2012 at 12:27 pm

        AMEN! And I’m sure PBO knew all along what these 2 have been up to. He knows how the saying works. KEEP YOUR ENEMIES CLOSE. And this is what he did in chosing Hillary as SoS. I would NEVER; I mean NEVER vote for another CLINTON to set foot into the White House. EVER!

        Reply
      • SouthernGirl2 says:
        November 18, 2012 at 12:34 pm

        I would NEVER; I mean NEVER vote for another CLINTON to set foot into the White House. EVER!

        Likewise. If Hillary is thinking about a run in 2016..FORGET IT!

        Reply
  16. rikyrah says:
    November 18, 2012 at 12:03 pm

    A New Southern Strategy

    Election Day results at Southern polling places reflected the same urban-rural divide that appeared everywhere else.

    By KAREN L. COX

    Published: November 17, 2012

    IT’S tough being a Southern liberal. In the postelection analysis of the past two weeks, pundits have made hay of the fact that while Barack Obama won the election, Mitt Romney won the Confederacy. Or as Jon Stewart put it, “most of the Confederacy.”

    After Mr. Romney carried the lion’s share of the region’s electoral votes, people were quick to pounce. One person on Twitter wrote, “I always knew the Zombie Apocalypse would start in the Southern States.” On Facebook, in a widely shared image comparing the 2012 electoral map with the map of former slave states, the individual who posted it wrote, “Sometimes change is really hard, especially when people don’t want to change.”

    That we are still using the term “Confederacy” to describe the South and pointing to slave maps says a lot about how hard it is for the region to move beyond its historical reputation, however richly deserved, for one that reflects more current realities.

    Voters in Charlotte, N.C., Atlanta, Nashville, New Orleans, Birmingham, Ala., and even Jackson, Miss., gave Mr. Obama substantial majorities, not because they are out of step with the rest of the country but because they are part of the same urban-rural divide that drives voting everywhere.

    So if we’re going to apply the term “Confederacy,” then perhaps we can all agree that while a majority of Southern white voters seem intransigent to change, the region is nevertheless being transformed by its changing demographics.

    Virginia, home to the capital of the Confederacy, went for Mr. Obama. Florida, part of the original Confederacy, also went for Mr. Obama. North Carolina, which Mr. Obama carried in 2008, went to Mr. Romney, but by a very slim margin — more attributable to the economy and job losses than to any conspiracy of Confederate dunces.

    Many people have labeled my home state of North Carolina a red state, but it’s much more complicated than that. In the very rural mountain county of Avery, for example, Mr. Romney won with a whopping 74.5 percent of the vote, yet in Mecklenburg County, which includes Charlotte, he lost to Mr. Obama by nearly 23 percentage points. (True, North Carolinians elected a Republican governor, but to be fair, the Democratic candidate ran a weak campaign.)

    Similarly, in Fulton County, Georgia, whose county seat is Atlanta, Mr. Obama bested Mr. Romney with about 64 percent of the vote but lost in the state’s mostly rural counties. If Charlotte or Atlanta were the size of New York City, then perhaps we wouldn’t tag either North Carolina or Georgia as red states.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/18/opinion/sunday/a-new-southern-strategy.html?_r=1&

    Reply
  17. rikyrah says:
    November 18, 2012 at 12:01 pm

    from TPM:


    TPM Editor’s Blog

    Just Read This

    Josh Marshall-November 16, 2012, 7:57 PM
    I found this a really amazing email on several levels. Just give it a read. From TPM Reader AH …

    A couple of thoughts about the election:
    I’m from Boise, Idaho but my wife and I relocated to Ohio to volunteer for President Obama’s campaign for the four weeks before the election.

    I admire Nate Silver for his election model and its forecasts; they are one of the few things I read about politics while we were on duty and they gave me a lot of hope during those dark days after the first debate and while the skewed Gallup polls were coming out. But I want to add that there was a huge army of people who tried to make sure that the polls that Nate used turned into actual votes.

    For the last four days of the election, we helped manage a staging location for GOTV in one ward of a city in the eastern suburbs of Cleveland. I imagine that the campaign will never release the total number of people who worked or volunteered in Ohio; they might not even know. But extrapolating from our experience, I estimate that there might have been close to 50,000 people on the ground in one way or another during GOTV in Ohio including 700 lawyers, 300 in the Cleveland area alone, protecting our vote.

    I believe that our democracy was at serious risk this election. If we had lost to lies, a torrent of dark money, voter suppression, and racism, it might have taken decades for our democracy to come back from the bad laws and court decisions on further voter suppression and corporate power, if it could recover at all. Certainly beyond my lifetime since I’m 67. But people seemed to sense the crisis and responded, and folks from all walks of life joined together to do one extra-ordinary thing: re-elect an African American President in a time of high unemployment and in the face of everything the would be aristocracy could throw at us. I certainly sensed more determination and intensity at the door than I did (in a different suburb) in 2008.

    Coming from largely white Idaho I was struck by the diversity of the people who canvassed out of our one small location. We had old white males, young African American females, and everything “in between,” as well as Asian Americans and Hispanics. Some of the volunteers had ancestors who were in the country 300 years ago; some had only arrived recently themselves. There was a married gay man, single straights and, of course, vice versa. Old and young, PhD’s and less than high school, the fit who could walk five miles a day to canvass and those who served best by sitting at the polling place and welcoming and reassuring voters. Our employments status included corporate executives, more modest positions, the unemployed, and the retired. Representatives of all the major faith traditions passed through as well as the non-observant or non-believers. People arrived at the location by car, by bus, by private jet, and on foot. In short, twenty-first century America turned out for Barack Obama.

    When we finally came up for air and watched CNN on election night, I was struck by the group that showed up on television at the gathering in Boston. Where was the rest of America?

    My second point is more mundane and numerous people have probably made it already. President Obama has now put together a coalition that has won two consecutive Presidential elections without needing one single electoral vote from the old Confederacy. I believe that Bill Clinton did the same Perhaps the influence of that region is beginning to wane, at least in presidential politics.

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2012/11/just_read_this_1.php?ref=fpblg

    Reply
    • Ametia says:
      November 18, 2012 at 12:08 pm

      THIS: I believe that our democracy was at serious risk this election. If we had lost to lies, a torrent of dark money, voter suppression, and racism, it might have taken decades for our democracy to come back from the bad laws and court decisions on further voter suppression and corporate power, if it could recover at all. Certainly beyond my lifetime since I’m 67. But people seemed to sense the crisis and responded, and folks from all walks of life joined together to do one extra-ordinary thing: re-elect an African American President in a time of high unemployment and in the face of everything the would be aristocracy could throw at us. I certainly sensed more determination and intensity at the door than I did (in a different suburb) in 2008.

      And now the REAL WORK BEGINS. We’ve got to keep our eyes on the prize. Continue Beating back those mofos who want to suppress our votes, take our SS & medicare, fuck with our EDUCATION, get our men out of prisons and into college, feed and clothe our poor, ensure our healthcare system serves Americans- ACA.

      Reply
  18. Ametia says:
    November 18, 2012 at 11:17 am

    ANOTHER HIT PIECE

    Is Rice Cooked?
    By MAUREEN DOWD
    Published: November 17, 2012

    OUR Rice is better than your Rice.

    That’s the argument Democrats are aggressively making against Republicans.

    And it’s true. Condi Rice sold her soul. Susan Rice merely rented hers on the talk shows one Sunday in September.

    Ambitious to be secretary of state, Condi jilted her mentor, Brent Scowcroft, who publicly opposed the Iraq invasion. In 2002, she bolted to the winning, warmongering side with W., Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, helping them twist intelligence and getting Foggy Bottom in return.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/18/opinion/sunday/dowd-is-rice-cooked.html?hpw

    Reply
  19. Ametia says:
    November 18, 2012 at 10:46 am

    November 18, 2012
    The WSJ’s cutting-edge paranoia
    PM Carpenter

    It finally occurred to the Wall Street Journal editorial board that Susan Rice isn’t running for the White House in 2016. Ambassador Rice has built a fine career that is GOP-worthy in every respect for some vintage McCarthyite slashing, but absent any discernible political aspirations on her part, what’s the point in destroying her over Benghazi?

    It has also occurred to the WSJ that President Obama won’t be running in 2016, either. The children at Fox News, the drug-addled Rush Limbaugh, the lobotomized Jen Rubin, the psychotic Glenn Beck and all the other far-right agitators aren’t as deeply strategic and analytically complex as the WSJ editorial board, thus the former couldn’t know what has dawned on the latter: politically, Obama-as-principal-target ain’t the GOP’s future, not, anyway, in regard to the GOP’s Benghazi Illusion.

    http://pmcarpenter.blogs.com/p_m_carpenters_commentary/2012/11/the-wsjs-cutting-edge-paranoia.html#comments

    Reply
  21. SouthernGirl2 says:
    November 18, 2012 at 10:08 am

    On tour: Obama and Clinton at the Wat Pho Royal Monastery in Bangkok

    Reply
  22. SouthernGirl2 says:
    November 18, 2012 at 10:02 am

    Spiritual: Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tour the Viharn of the Reclining Buddha with Chaokun Suthee Thammanuwat

    Reply
    • SouthernGirl2 says:
      November 18, 2012 at 2:54 pm

      US President Barack Obama (L) and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (C) wearing no shoes listen to dean of the Faculty of Buddhism, Chaokun Suthee Thammanuwat (R), during a tour at the Wat Pho Royal Monastery in Bangkok on November 18, 2012. Obama landed in Thailand on November 18, intensifying his diplomatic ‘pivot’ to Asia, on a tour which will see him make history by visiting Myanmar in a bid to encourage political reform.

      Reply
  23. Ametia says:
    November 18, 2012 at 9:59 am

    Umm, I wonder if these folks abusing painkillers in MAINE are “BLAH” people

    Maine doctors requiring random drug tests before writing prescriptions for pain pills

    Source: BDN

    In an effort to combat Maine’s high rate of prescription drug addiction, doctors are asking patients to sign a controlled-substances agreement that, in part, allows the doctor to ask for a blood or urine sample at any time to ensure patients are taking their pills, rather than selling them, and are taking those pills only.

    Patients who don’t sign likely won’t get prescriptions. And those who fail the test will have some explaining to do.

    “Everybody is under pressure to have policies that do everything they can to tighten up the prescribing of opiates,” said Gordon Smith, executive vice president of the Maine Medical Association.

    Maine has had a prescription drug problem for years. The state has the highest per-capita rate of opiate addiction in the nation, and more Mainers are seeking treatment for painkillers than for alcohol. The number of babies born with opiate withdrawal symptoms has skyrocketed. And this week Maine had its 50th pharmacy robbery of 2012, a crime that experts say is directly tied to prescription drug addiction. Maine had half that number of robberies in 2011; not long ago it had none.

    Read more: http://bangordailynews.com/2012/11/18/health/maine-doctors-requiring-random-drug-tests-before-writing-prescriptions-for-pain-pills/

    Reply
  25. SouthernGirl2 says:
    November 18, 2012 at 9:29 am

    U.S. President Barack Obama, second left, and Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, second right, arrive for an official dinner at Government House in Bangkok, Thailand, Sunday, Nov. 18, 2012.

    Reply
  26. SouthernGirl2 says:
    November 18, 2012 at 9:12 am

    Official Schedule for President Obama’s Visit to Thailand

    http://www.richardbarrow.com/2012/11/official-schedule-for-president-obamas-visit-to-thailand/

    The following is the official schedule released by the White House for President Obama’s visit to Thailand on Sunday 18th November 2012:

    On Sunday, the President will arrive in Bangkok at Don Mueang International Airport. In the afternoon, the President will visit Wat Pho Royal Monastery. Later, the President will receive a Royal Audience with King Bhumibol Adulyadej at Siriraj Hospital. The President will then travel to the Thai Koo Fah Building and take part in a formal welcome ceremony and sign a guest book. Afterwards, the President will meet with Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra of Thailand. In the evening, the President and Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra will hold a joint press conference. Later in the evening, the President will attend an official dinner with Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra of Thailand. Later, the President will meet and greet with United States Embassy personnel at Chulalongkorn University. The President will spend the night in Bangkok, Thailand.

    3:10PM The President arrives Bangkok, Thailand (Don Mueang International Airport)
    3:45PM The President visits Wat Pho Royal Monastery
    5:00PM The President receives a Royal Audience with King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Siriraj Hospital)
    6:00PM The President arrives Thai Koo Fah Building and takes part in a formal welcome ceremony (Government House)
    6:10PM The President signs a guest book
    6:15PM The President meets with Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra of Thailand
    7:10PM The President and Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra hold a joint press conference
    8:15PM The President attends an official dinner with Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra of Thailand
    9:45PM The President meets and greets with United States Embassy personnel (Chulalongkorn University)

    Reply
  27. SouthernGirl2 says:
    November 18, 2012 at 9:08 am

    Ametia, I’m loving the music this morning. Just beautiful!

    Reply
  28. SouthernGirl2 says:
    November 18, 2012 at 9:06 am

    Good Morning, 3Chics! Happy Sunday!

    Bible Verse Picture Cards

    Reply

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