Bessie Regina Norris,[1] better known by her stage name, Betty Wright (born December 21, 1953),[2] is a Miami-based soul and R&B singer-songwriter, who won fame in the 1970s with hits such as “Clean Up Woman” and “Tonight Is the Night”. A pioneering singer-songwriter and entrepreneur, she remains one of the few black female musicians to have a gold record on her own vanity label. She possesses a six-octave vocal range and is adept at using the whistle register.[3]
Born Bessie Regina Norris on December 21, 1953, Wright was the youngest of seven children to Rosa Akins Braddy-Wright and her second husband, McArthur Norris.
http://youtu.be/5-zfZESE2_M
Obama Has Already Cemented His Legacy, Like It or Not
Ron Fournier says Obama’s legacy hinges on Term Two. But that disregards a couple of game-changers from Term One.
By Jill Lawrence
Updated: January 11, 2013 | 5:54 p.m.
January 11, 2013 | 6:00 a.m.
What does a president have to do these days to get his face carved into a mountainside?
My colleague and old friend Ron Fournier contends that President Obama needs to tame gun violence, climate change, and the $16 trillion national debt to achieve immortality, and “pity his legacy” if he fails. In the spirit of the Web, and Joan Rivers, can we talk?
All of those agenda items are, of course, enormously significant. But there are limits on what even Obama’s best, most skillful self could achieve on some of them, and I’d further argue that Obama already has notched two or three accomplishments that cement his legacy.
The top item has got to be the Affordable Care Act. Love it or hate it, America next year will have a health care system that aims for universal insurance coverage and that sets up—some would say inflicts—the architecture to make that a reality. Obama has thus achieved what presidents have been trying to do on and off since Teddy Roosevelt broached the issue in 1912, and what the other wealthy nations of the world already do. That’s transformational, from the standpoint of both citizens facing illness and a nation setting its priorities.
The second potentially immortalizing item in my book is ending the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy for gay troops, with support from most military leaders and poignant advocacy from at least one. It was a symbolic, highly visible step that appears to have ushered in a new era of gay-rights progress.
Transformational possibility No. 3 has to do with economic survival, of individuals and a nation. Historians may determine that Obama prevented his country from spiraling into a full-scale Great Depression II. If that’s the case, his much-disparaged stimulus package—with its grab bag of state and local aid, highway projects, education grants, and green-energy subsidies—will be seen as pivotal to his presidency. So will the Wall Street bailout and the steps his administration took to ensure the health of banks. And so will the auto bailout, which preserved an iconic U.S. industry and ultimately might also be viewed, along with various aspects of the stimulus, as having rescued and rejuvenated American manufacturing.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/obama-has-already-cemented-his-legacy-like-it-or-not-20130111#.UPGmqP0xNn8.twitter
During his first term in office, the president appointed a record 72 women to the federal bench, and in six separate instances, he appointed the first woman to a specific post.
President Obama is the first to not select a majority of white males for lifetime appointments on the federal bench. And he has also appointed three openly gay judges, surpassing the Bush record of appointing zero.
http://www.bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2013/01/progress-14.html
10 Jan 2013: Scary Jack Lew
Let us give a little thought to Jack Lew. Obama has nominated him to replace Tim Geithner as Treasury Secretary. The Republicans are afraid—very afraid. How can Obama choose Jack Lew?!
And he is a scary guy, I can tell you that. Last year, Eric Cantor told Politico, “No one was more prepared and more in tune with the numbers than Jack Lew.” This was in an article titled, Jack Lew: A Liberal GOP Says It Trusts. So you know: this is Freddy Krueger scary. No. Wait. Not Freddy Krueger scary; Kermit the Frog scary. When it comes to Obama nominees, it doesn’t take much to scare the Republicans.
Jonathan Bernstein over at The Plum Line tells us that Jeff Sessions (Fucktard from Alabama) is against Lew becoming Treasury Secretary. But not because Lew is a drunk or a philanderer. No, Sessions thinks he doesn’t have the “gavitas” for the job. What this means is just that he’s against him because that’s what you do to all the nominations of a Democratic president—especialla un oo’s a colored. Bernstein is nicer, “Or, as Kevin Drum figures, it’s just that Lew insists on using real math during budget negotiations.” That’s even worse: a edacated colored nominee.
Bernstein argues that the real problem is that congressional Republicans have abandoned norms. Until Obama we elected, it was accepted that the president should be allowed to have the cabinet that he chose. But no longer. This is what I call the Republicans becoming a revolutionary party.
…………………………………………….
Beneath his nerdy exterior, Lew is a passionate progressive on the issue of wealth disparity and programs for the poor. In the original Gramm-Rudman-Hollings “sequestration” talks in the mid-1980s, Lew negotiated the exemptions from automatic budget cuts for Medicaid and other low-income programs. In the 1990s, he again defended Medicaid from the budget ax as President Clinton tacked to the center. And his speakerphone outburst in 2011 was in response to the Republican staffer’s suggestion that Medicaid cuts be added to the revivified sequestration process to avoid debt default.
http://www.franklycurious.com/index.php?itemid=3614
White Dude Gets Slap on the Wrist for Threatening to Kill People; Brown Dudes, Like, WTF!?
By Imani Gandy (ABL) January 12th, 2013
Isn’t it nice when unhinged white folks can record YouTube videos of themselves threatening to kill people if they don’t get their way, and the only response is that the local Department of Homeland Security revokes their gun permit?
If James Yeager had been Jalal al Yeager or Tyrone Yeager, who wants to wager that the response to his roid tantrum this week would have been vastly different?
Anyone?
Being white must be nice.
http://angryblackladychronicles.com/2013/01/11/dude-who-threatened-to-kill-people-has-gun-permit-suspended/
Must feel so nice to have all that privilege. If he was black or muslim he’d be behind bars with doors welded shut…never to see the light of day again.
US Treasury: We won’t mint a platinum coin to sidestep the debt ceiling
http://wapo.st/Y0YGhM
Obama administration begins major overhaul of food safety rules
By Megan R. Wilson and Elise Viebeck – 01/04/13 03:29 PM ET
The Obama administration on Friday began the biggest overhaul of food safety rules in more than 70 years.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released two major regulations aimed at preventing contamination of the food supply. The long-delayed rules implement the Food Safety Modernization Act, a 2010 law that “[shifts] the focus from responding to contamination to preventing it.”
“Preventing problems before they cause harm is not only common sense, it is the key to food safety in the 21st century,” said FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg.
The two rules proposed by the FDA would require food producers to develop and enact comprehensive plans to prevent contamination of their products. Those plans would be submitted to the FDA for approval and enforcement.
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/food-safety/275691-obama-admin-releases-major-food-safety-regs#ixzz2HmnhGppa
WONDERFUL NEWS! Oh wait; Margaret Hamburg, isn’t she a WOMAN? LOL
HATERS GONNA HATE
Ald. Sandi Jackson resigns from City Council effective Jan. 15
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter
fspielman@suntimes.com
January 11, 2013 3:22PM
Ald. Sandi Jackson (7th) on Friday abruptly resigned the City Council seat she has held since 2007, saying she cannot balance her role as the wife of a former congressman under federal investigation who is also suffering from bi-polar disorder with her demanding role as a Chicago alderman.
Jackson is the wife of disgraced former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who resigned in late November amid a federal investigation of his campaign finances that, for the last year, has included questions about Sandi Jackson’s finances.
http://www.suntimes.com/17521604-761/ald-sandi-jackson-resigns-from-city-council-effective-jan-15.html
did you ladies hear about this foolishness yesterday?
……………………………………………..
Sepia
Here’s the video of The Cycle’s discussion about whether or not media pundits should refer to PBO as President:
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/49263362#50436344
Kornacki is referencing the hissy fit he threw last week about the fiscal cliff. I didn’t see the segment, but I saw folks calling him out on Twitter and it wasn’t just about him not calling PBO President. They were getting on him about his condescending, nasty tone as well as his criticism about the fiscal cliff deal. Instead of talking about that, Kornacki tries to reduce the twitter backlash to folks only being upset about him not using a title.
As for SE Cupp, of course that bish tries to make it about her and how she’s treated, and how Bush II was treated, all which have NOTHING to do with the disrespect towards PBO
……………………………………….
here is Camille’s response:
Camille
You should have seen Kornacki’s face when Alex Wagner in picking President Obama as her person of the year, described how kind and decent etc. he has been.
Steve Kornacki was so mad and looked like he was going to have a stroke.
The dagger eyes he gave Alex Wagner was epic.
It was clear that Steve Kornacki simply couldn’t believe Alex Wagner just broke their pact about never telling the truth about President Obama!
Steve Kornacki NEVER addresses President Obama as anything other than “Obama”. And he goes out of his way to really emphasize it. As if daring anyone to challenge him on it while simultaneously conveying his utter contempt of the President.
Steve Kornacki has some very serious issues – so serious, I don’t think even the best psychotic drugs could help him. His ODS is only made worse by the sense that he’s actually deluded himself into thinking he and President Obama are equals.
What’s frightening about Kornacki’s condition is that at first glance he appears altogether reasonable and normal, unlike say Chuck Todd, Dana Milbank, Chris Hayes, Ezra Klein etc. who all strike you at the very first glance as ever so slightly off.
I heard it. I couldn’t believe my ears.
rik, check your email, please! Thanks
SPOT ON! these mofos are really showing their true colors. I’ve never watched the Cycle and have no plans to watch it.
MR. PRESIDENT/PRESIDENT OBAMA–NEXT!
*Please note Thread post of CAMILLE’S 1- 11 COMMENT.
Another wonderful comment by Camille:
Camille
This is in response to Sepia’s comment about Maureen Dowd and the song playing in her head.
Maureen Dowd is representative of those women – and men unable to contain their raw and blinding rage at the impenetrable and unbreakable love and bond Barack and Michelle Obama share, prioritize and categorically declare by their every action, glance and unspoken word. The most unique and important currency the President holds.
Maureen Dowd’s rage is laid bare and weekly manifested in her bizarre, vicious and crazy missives so spiteful, bitter, malicious, laden with personal attacks, incoherent rantings that read only similar to the psychiatrist- recommended daily journal entries of a seriously demented and damaged patient, used to monitor the extent of the patient’s obsession with the object of her desire.
Maureen Dowd and her fellow psychiatry patients can’t decide who they hate and resent more:
Barack Obama who is so unapologetically madly in love with his wife and mother of his two gorgeous daughters who are an uncannily beautiful melding and capture of both him and his regally stunning and super sexy wife – and constant and present reminders of their love and all they’ve shared and been through to get to where they are now-
Or the incredibly amazing and effortlessly spectacular Michelle Obama who simply by being, exudes such a rare embodiment of all that’s most attractive and best in womanhood.
A complete woman in the truest sense of that word. And who just goes about life being her most authentic and super-attractive and grounded self-
Focused, smart, savvy, chockfull of common sense, completely unaffected or undistracted from and never losing sight of what’s most important in life: her children, her husband and her family and coming out at the end of this and any phase in their lives completely whole and intact.
And to the chagrin of Maureen Dowd and the sadistic, envy-ravaged, perpetually salivating, eagle-eyed, always on call, scandal-hunters in D.C with their various and far-reaching national and international networks, the Obamas have failed to provide them the scandal or hints of it, that the sadists and ill-intentioned desperately crave.
But the scandal hunters will never let up. They sit on the sidelines with baited breath.
Some impatiently try to cynically influence, push for and even set up scenarios they hope might eventually pay off and offer them what they’ve all waited for: scandal – in any shape of form.
Specifically a personal scandal that torpedoes what has been most powerful, most compelling, consistent, most attractive and best about them: their love, bond, partnership and marriage.
The scandal-hunters from both the left and right are on the prowl. They are super desperate now. Jodie Kantor already took a first stab at it – and failed woefully.
They hope and pray for hints of trouble in the marriage – a growing apart triggered by the dubious scenarios their various gossip partners in the media try to set up – including those who have up till now conveniently managed to overlook, completely ignored and failed to ever acknowledge Mrs Obama for the awesome woman she is, but particularly, for her singular importance to the very being of the man Barack Obama.
They all know too well that she is and remains his singularly most important asset – even if they will never, ever acknowledge it or let it drop from their lips!
She can never have that which Hillary Clinton could never lay claim to. How dare Michelle!
Yes these folks who barely ever mention Mrs Obama except on the rare occasion and only if it serves to trivialize and dismiss both her and her husband. They will all suddenly be the first to create the 24 hours unending “news” loops “lamenting”.
What happened? They’ve grown apart. He seems to be spending more time and said to be more relaxed with and enjoying himself around so and so.
He doesn’t look at or gush about Michelle the way he used to, she looks miserable, he doesn’t seem to spend as much time with her as he did earlier on in his presidency preferring instead to hang out with his staff and friends. He seems annoyed and impatient whenever she’s around. She’s lashing out and they both can barely stand to even appear civil in public any longer. The kids are said to be rebelling and acting out in response. Sources say their school work and grades have taken a hit and they are withdrawn and shells of their former selves.
What happened? How did this model love, bond, partnership, marriage and family completely fall apart?
Did his pursuit for political power and a determination for a place in the history books destroy them? Was he only using her to advance his political career as many had always suspected?
Anything at all to attack, diminish and entirely demolish them both. And once again try to force Barack Obama to cede his moral ground. The one thing the media can’t and never seem to be able to challenge him on – no matter how much they try to prove just how inferior a president he is compared to their new found hero and model president, Bill Clinton.
So as you hear these many coordinated shouts from the sidelines for President Obama to “socialize more” and to appoint “more women to his inner circle”, beware and don’t be fooled. This is not just to create idle, silly news or simply to nip away at Barack Obama’s heels.
As with everything that has been thrown at this particular President and First Lady, this is not simply par for the course or mere “political needling or mischief”.
There is indeed a much more more sinister and insidious objective – not just designed to irritate, annoy or obstruct, but to completely decimate him, his legacy and anything remotely attached to him that complements, enriches and in anyway elevates or casts President and Mrs Obama in the best light.
There are those so determined to make sure that Barack Obama goes into the history books with not just one, but several asterisks that ostensibly diminish him as a president, but even more importantly, as a person.
Know that it is all being set up to push for and strike at several targets all at the same time – least of which isn’t the President’s most prized and most important asset: his wife and their marriage.
Again, Jodi Kantor already took a first stab and failed. They’ve since regrouped and once again now even more than before, are more desperate than ever. Nothing is off limits. And they’ll be trying every tactic and scenario that they hope might potentially nab them their prize: a tarnished if not completely degraded presidency.
We keep the President and Mrs Obama in our prayers and ask God’s continued grace, blessings, guidance and protection upon them always – while we will never let up in our unyielding support of them.
This has already been front paged. See thread. Thanks!
It’s windy with drizzle rain here. I don’t like it.
sunny and 10 degerees here.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Chauncy DeVega
Watch Out! Of Guns, Citizenship, and Freedom: A Letter from a Black World War One Soldier to the Jim Crow Draft Board That Sent Him to Europe
We have been talking about gun culture and masculinity a good amount here in the aftermath of the Newtown massacre. Given the madness of the gun right, and their efforts to appropriate everything from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., to black enslavement in the New World in order to further their agenda, it is easy to dismiss the relationship between the gun and “freedom.”
http://wearerespectablenegroes.blogspot.com/2013/01/watch-out-of-guns-citizenship-and.html
Lawmakers Gone Wild
Four-star dining! Luxury cars! European getaways! An exclusive investigation reveals how Illinois politicians are living large on their campaigns’ dime.
By David Bernstein and the Better Government Association
……
In the spring of 1993, Robert LeFlore Jr., 62, a Democratic state representative from the West Side, died in office after a long illness. The costs of his funeral ($4,400) and his burial plot ($3,200) were paid not by his family but by his still-active campaign fund. Recalls Kent Redfield, a political scientist at the University of Illinois at Springfield and a campaign finance specialist: “The joke at the time was that if people were told that the money they were giving politicians was being used to bury them, they’d be much more willing to contribute to their campaigns.”
The bigger joke was the fact that using campaign funds to pay for your own funeral—could there be a more patently nonelection-related expense?—wasn’t illegal. Before 1998, Illinois imposed no restrictions on how political candidates and officeholders could spend campaign money they raised. None. “It was the Wild West,” says Michaelson. “Fur coats for the wife, country club dues, new cars, college tuition”—using political war chests to cover such expenses was all perfectly legit.
Thus, when he was governor from 1977 to 1991, James Thompson, a Republican, was able to use thousands of dollars in campaign funds to pay his family’s babysitters. Jane Byrne, the Democratic mayor of Chicago from 1979 to 1983, used her campaign fund to buy her daughter a new $14,000 Mustang.
Democratic state senator John D’Arco Jr. took $45,000 to pay legal bills during his 1991 federal trial on bribe-taking and influence-peddling charges. A year later, Democratic alderman Fred Roti withdrew triple that amount for his own legal defense.
Back then, reformers were focused not so much on how candidates spent their contributions but on who donated the money in the first place. “It’s the cash coming in, the income on the front end, that offers the greatest risk of corruption,” says Morrison.
When it came to spending reform, the federal government was way ahead of Illinois. In 1979, Congress passed a law banning federal candidates and legislators from using campaign money for personal expenses. (That statute applies to federal lawmakers such as Jesse Jackson Jr., the ex-congressman who at presstime was being investigated for allegedly using campaign funds to decorate a lavish home and buy a $40,000 Rolex.)
Many states passed similar laws. But in Illinois, the tipping point wasn’t until around 1995, when a series of scandals, including a massive Medicaid fraud, erupted. The FBI and state police busted staffers from Governor Jim Edgar’s office and officials from the state’s public aid office for accepting gifts and bribes from Management Services of Illinois, a major campaign contributor that overbilled the state by about $12 million.
http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/January-2013/Illinois-Lawmakers-Gone-Wild/?src=longreads
Sales of Guns Soar in U.S. as Nation Weighs Tougher Limits
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/12/us/as-us-weighs-new-rules-sales-of-guns-and-ammunition-surge.html
HELLO! Now this looks like an Inaugural party I can get with LOL
Rahm Emanuel hosting Inaugural late-night after party: Hot invite
By Lynn Sweet on January 11, 2013 5:31 PM
Mayor Rahm Emanuel will be hosting the late-night post-inagural party on Jan. 21 in one of Washington’s newest venues, the Hamilton, just down the block from the White House. How late? Runs from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. in an event billed as a “Chicago-Style after hours.”
The invite is from Emanuel and the Presidential Inaugural Committee co-chairs, Matthew Barzun, Eva Longoria, Jane Stetson, Frank White, Stephanie Cutter, Jen O’Malley Dixon, Patrick Gaspard, Rufus Gifford, Jim Messina and Julianna Smoot.
Emanuel’s late-night party at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. was a sought-after ticket and jammed
http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2013/01/rahm_emanuel_hosting_inaugural.html
Yepper, Kazai. By the end of next year WEEZ OUTTA AFGHANISTAN. Bye now!
http://thegrio.com/2013/01/11/nra-was-pro-gun-control-when-it-came-to-black-panthers/
In the wake of the deadly Newtown Connecticut shooting in December, President Barack Obama appointed Vice President Joe Biden to convene a gun violence prevention task force. The National Rifle Association, or the NRA, expressed its disappointment with a meeting it held with Biden, who will release his recommendations on Tuesday.
“We were disappointed with how little this meeting had to do with keeping our children safe and how much it had to do with an agenda to attack the Second Amendment,” the NRA wrote in a statement. “While claiming that no policy proposals would be ‘prejudged,’ this Task Force spent most of its time on proposed restrictions on lawful firearms owners — honest, taxpaying, hardworking Americans.”
While today’s NRA takes hardline positions against even the most modest gun control measures, this was not always the case. Throughout its history, the NRA supported gun control, including restrictions on gun ownership, and was not focused on the Second Amendment.
But the organization had a change of heart in the 1970s when the Black Panthers advocated for an individual right to bear arms. Ironically, the Panthers were the founders of the modern-day gun rights movement, which became the purview of predominantly white, rural conservatives.
This deserves a THREAD all its own. Bottom line, those negroes shouldn’t ahve guns, ’cause it’s us whites that SHOULD have them to protect us from those negroes.
YEAH, I SAID IT.
Good Morning, everyone! Happy Saturday!
Good Morning, SG2 & Everyone! :-)
go ahead Ms. Wright. Where’s that Scandal video? LOL
Good Morning, Everyone :))