More Cicely! Today we look at Ms tyson and the movie The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.
Realistic Fiction Novel
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman is a 1971 novel by Ernest J. Gaines. The story depicts the struggles ofAfrican Americans as seen through the eyes of the narrator, a woman named Jane Pittman. She tells of the major events of her life from the time she was a young slave girl in the American South at the end of the Civil War.
The novel was dramatised in a TV movie in 1974, starring Cicely Tyson.
The novel and its main character are particularly notable for the breadth of time and history and stories they recall. In addition to the plethora of fictional characters who populate Jane’s narrative, Jane and others make many references to historical events and figures over the close-to-a hundred years Miss Jane can recall. In addition to its obvious opening in the American Civil War, Jane alludes to the Spanish-American War and her narrative spans across both World Warsand the beginning of the Vietnam War. Jane and other characters also mention Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Jackie Robinson, Fred Shuttlesworth, Rosa Parks, and others. Corporal Brown’s voice give these historical meditations a kind of “setting the record straight” mood to the storytelling presented in this novel. For instance, an entire section is dedicated to Huey P. Long in which Miss Jane explains “Oh, they got all kinds of stories about her now …. When I hear them talk like that I think, ‘Ha. You ought to been here twenty-five, thirty years ago. You ought to been here when poor people had nothing.'”[1] Because of the historical content, some readers thought the book was non-fiction.
Ernest Gaines commented:
Some people have asked me whether or not The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman is fiction or nonfiction. It is fiction. When Dial Press first sent it out, they did not put “a novel” on the galleys or on the dustjacket, so a lot of people had the feeling that it could have been real. …I did a lot of research in books to give some facts to what Miss Jane could talk about, but these are my creations. I read quite a few interviews performed with former slaves by the WPA during the thirties and I got their rhythm and how they said certain things. But I never interviewed anybody.[2]
Look at their faces at Georgia Tech….
https://twitter.com/DrLMPonte/status/575247611315253248/photo/1
https://twitter.com/deray/status/575103995905245184/photo/1
well then….this was the entire point of it all, wasn’t it?
https://twitter.com/chicagotribune/status/575358716729552898/photo/1
https://twitter.com/TheObamaDiary/status/575408866143371266/photo/1
https://twitter.com/taut_7/status/575359946893611008/photo/1
https://twitter.com/jccfergie/status/575336120491188225/photo/1
5’7 Black Male @absurdistwords
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One is not ARMED with #MentalIllness.
Mental illness is not a weapon.
Mental Illness is not a capital offense.
#AnthonyHill
8:43 AM – 10 Mar 2015
Olivia A. Cole @RantingOwl
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If you, as a police officer, can’t find a way to subdue a NAKED AND UNARMED man other than MURDER, then FIND ANOTHER JOB. #AnthonyHill
8:39 AM – 10 Mar 2015
Andrew Firestone @ae_firestone
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If #AnthonyHill were white it would be a national shame that a veteran who suffered from bipolar disorder was shot and killed by a cop
1:23 PM – 10 Mar 2015
https://twitter.com/taiping2/status/575184043924283392/photo/1
https://twitter.com/MsbethmartinezA/status/575333655138078723/photo/1
look at their faces. it’s like they’re looking at a movie star
https://twitter.com/thomassimonetti/status/575362195808215040/photo/1
Senate to take up Loretta Lynch nomination next week
By SEUNG MIN KIM 3/10/15 3:00 PM EDT
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that he plans to bring Loretta Lynch’s nomination for attorney general to the Senate floor next week.
Lynch, currently U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, cleared the Judiciary Committee on Feb. 26 with support from all Democrats and three Republicans. But Senate Democrats have become increasingly impatient about how long it was taking McConnell to bring her nomination to the floor.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/loretta-lynch-senate-nomination-schedule-115946.html#ixzz3U0qewYdR
BOOM! @Variety: BREAKING: ‘Blurred Lines’ Verdict: Pharrell, Robin Thicke Ordered to Pay $7.3 Million to Marvin Gaye Family http://t.co/hLzM0NbdHW
http://t.co/5whn3PkyxG
Ladies check your email.
Cotton digs deeper after Iran letter sparks fury
03/10/15 12:54 PM
By Steve Benen
Over the last 24 hours, there’s been enormous national interest in the 47 Senate Republicans who wrote to Iran to undermine American foreign policy. Nationwide, as of a couple of hours ago, the top 10 trending Twitter topics in the United States listed “#47traitors” at the top. The list also included “#IranLetter” and “Logan Act,” which the senators are accused of violating.
As the intensity of the controversy grows, there’s renewed interest in Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), the right-wing freshman who organized the letter to Tehran. The GOP senator talked to msnbc this morning about the kind of policy he’d like to see.
When asked what an acceptable deal would look like to him, Cotton answered “complete nuclear disarmament by Iran.”
“They can simply disarm their nuclear weapons program and allow complete intrusive inspections,” Cotton said.
The Arkansan added that he wants Iranians to “completely disarm their nuclear weapons program.”
It’s worth emphasizing that Iran does not have nuclear weapons. “Disarming” sounds like a worthy goal, but it’s difficult to get rid of weapons that do not currently exist.
Cotton proceeded to quote Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu twice, and complain about Iran’s dominant influence in Baghdad – dominance made possible, of course, by the U.S. war in Iraq, a conflict Cotton supported and participated in.
The senator added there are “nothing but hardliners in Iran.” What he neglected to mention is that Iran’s hardliners oppose a nuclear agreement with the United States, our allies, and our negotiating partners, putting them in line with … Tom Cotton.
As the controversy continues to unfold, Republican presidential hopefuls are slowly starting to weigh in on the matter, most notably Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), who has a curious habit of answering questions he hasn’t been asked.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/cotton-digs-deeper-after-iran-letter-sparks-fury
Watch this open-carry activist taunt cops outside a school: ‘I’m talking to you, tough guy’
10 MAR 2015 AT 11:22 ET
A gun owner triggered a brief lockdown last week while demonstrating his open carry rights outside a Michigan high school.
Police spotted the man, who they recognized from previous encounters, walking about 11:30 a.m. Wednesday near Lamphere High School in Madison Heights.
Officers called administrators when the man approached school property, and they locked down the school for nearly an hour.
Police said they received “about a million calls” about the man, who lives near the school and was carrying a rifle and holstered pistol.
“We had a citizen exercise his right to open carry, and he chose to exercise that right near the high school,” said Officer Carey Spangler.
“We’ve dealt with this individual in the past,” Spangler added. “We know of him to exercise his right to open carry.”
Police did not identify the man, who was not arrested, charged, or injured in the encounter – which he recorded on video and posted online.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/watch-this-open-carry-activist-taunt-cops-outside-a-school-im-talking-to-you-tough-guy/
https://twitter.com/PragObots/status/575347686615818240/photo/1
This fool William Bruce James II really is dense. His family would likely have found him dead & rolled up in a rug somewhere.
Reminds me of that other black kid who proudly flew the confederate flag. Their families need to bring them home and reteach them about this country.
https://twitter.com/lurie_john/status/575009171319336960/photo/1
https://twitter.com/KevinMKruse/status/575324896743530496/photo/1
https://twitter.com/edsbs/status/575352184465817600/photo/1
Rand Paul’s bold stand for armor-piercing bullets
03/10/15 10:40 AM
By Steve Benen
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has earned a reputation for spinning some pretty wild conspiracy theories, but few issues seem to animate the Republican lawmaker like access to deadly weapons.
In 2013, for example, the GOP senator wrote a letter on behalf of a radical gun group in which Paul argued that the United Nations intends to “force” the United States to “CONFISCATE and DESTROY ALL ‘unauthorized’ civilian firearms,” while creating “an INTERNATIONAL gun registry, setting the stage for full-scale gun CONFISCATION.” (The capitalized words originally appeared in Paul’s 2013 fact-free letter; I didn’t capitalize them for emphasis.)
In 2012, Paul mistakenly accused gun-toting meteorologists of stockpiling ammunition. In 2014, he, pushed for more firearms in post offices.
And in 2015, the Obama administration is considering a proposal to ban armor-piercing “green tip” bullets, originally exempted from a 1986 policy because they were “primarily intended to be used for sporting purposes.” Now that newer handguns can make use of the ammunition, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is weighing an end to the exemption.
Once again, Rand Paul is on the case.
…Paul is urging his supporters to help thwart the move, calling it a “backdoor route to imposing President Obama’s gun control.”
“Recently, Obama’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATF) announced they will ban .223 M855 ammunition,” Paul wrote in a letter posted to the website of his political action committee, RANDPAC. “The BATF has a March 17th deadline to hear public comments on this outrageous assault on the Second Amendment. And I’m counting on your immediate action to help RANDPAC flood the agency with a message from America’s pro-gun majority.”
The senator added that support from his activist base “played a vital role in defeating President Obama’s national gun registration scheme in 2013.” It’s worth noting that in reality there was no national gun registration scheme and President Obama’s proposal actually did the opposite, prohibiting the creation of a registration.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/rand-pauls-bold-stand-armor-piercing-bullets
WOULD THIS HAVE HAPPENED TO A WHITE MAN WHO WAS JUST DOING HIS JOB?
…………………………………..
Sanitation worker’s early pickup leads to two weekends in jail
By Stephanie Gallman, CNN
Updated 1:38 PM ET, Tue March 10, 2015
(CNN)—Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and . . . a criminal?
A sanitation worker in an Atlanta suburb already served two weekends in jail — and faced several more until officials relented Monday– after authorities charged him for doing his job too early in the morning.
Kevin McGill, a garbage collector in Sandy Springs, Georgia, had been sentenced to a total of 30 days in jail for violating the city’s noise ordinance that states that “trash collection must be conducted between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.” He was cited one recent morning after starting work about 5 a.m.
McGill said that when he appeared in court, he was “stunned” when he learned he’d have to serve time for collecting garbage too early.
“The solicitor said, ‘It’s automatic jail time,'” McGill told CNN affiliate WSB.
McGill said it was the first time he’d violated the ordinance, but the solicitor “didn’t want to hear nothing I had to say.”
“I was shocked,” McGill told WSB.
City spokeswoman Sharon Kraun said McGill appeared in court with his employer and agreed to a plea deal, which included a 30-day jail sentence. The court said the sentence could be served on weekends, and Kraun confirmed Monday that McGill already spent two weekends behind bars.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/09/us/sanitation-worker-jail-time/
FROM POU:
Miranda Mod
This is an epidemic in a county with only 23,000 people and these are poor white people that don’t want medicaid expansion and they will suffer dearly for it. The county is 98% white, voted overwhelmingly GOP in every race held since 2008.
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Scott County health officials say 42 people have tested positive for HIV
Posted: Mar 09, 2015 9:26 PM EDT
SCOTTSBURG, Ind. (WDRB) — The number of confirmed HIV cases in Scott County, Indiana, continues to grow.
The outbreak is tied to a problem the county’s been dealing with for years: prescription drug use. Health officials have linked the majority of HIV cases to people sharing needles while using the painkiller Opana.
“We have 42 positive for HIV,” said Scott County Public Health Nurse Brittany Combs.
Forty-two in the past few months and in a typical year, the county sees fewer than five new cases.
http://www.wdrb.com/story/28323923/scott-county-health-officials-say-42-people-have-tested-positive-for-hiv
Not a Tea Party, a Confederate Party
Tea Partiers say you don’t understand them because you don’t understand American history. That’s probably true, but not in the way they want you to think.
——————————————————————————–
Late in 2012, I came out of the Lincoln movie with two historical mysteries to solve:
•How did the two parties switch places regarding the South, white supremacy, and civil rights? In Lincoln’s day, a radical Republican was an abolitionist, and when blacks did get the vote, they almost unanimously voted Republican. Today, the archetypal Republican is a Southern white, and blacks are almost all Democrats. How did American politics get from there to here?
•One of the movie’s themes was how heavily the war’s continuing carnage weighed on Lincoln. (It particularly came through during Grant’s guided tour of the Richmond battlefield.) Could any cause, however lofty, justify this incredible slaughter? And yet, I realized, Lincoln was winning. What must the Confederate leaders have been thinking, as an even larger percentage of their citizens died, as their cities burned, and as the accumulated wealth of generations crumbled? Where was their urge to end this on any terms, rather than wait for complete destruction?
The first question took some work, but yielded readily to patient googling. I wrote up the answer in “A Short History of White Racism in the Two-Party System“. The second turned out to be much deeper than I expected, and set off a reading project that has eaten an enormous amount of my time over the last two years. (Chunks of that research have shown up in posts like “Slavery Lasted Until Pearl Harbor“, “Cliven Bundy and the Klan Komplex“, and my review of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ article on reparations.) Along the way, I came to see how I (along with just about everyone I know) have misunderstood large chunks of American history, and how that misunderstanding clouds our perception of what is happening today.
http://weeklysift.com/2014/08/11/not-a-tea-party-a-confederate-party/
https://twitter.com/joshledermanAP/status/575341891958476800/photo/1
But America hate OBAMA dough LOL
Turning the tables in the patriotism debate
03/10/15 09:23 AM
By Steve Benen
Though Rudy Giuliani’s recent attack on President Obama’s patriotism has faded from view, the Republican offensive against the president’s love of country remains surprisingly common. Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee said last week that Obama has an “innate desire” to see America become “a weaker country.”
A day later, Jeb Bush told Iowans the president “does not believe that American power is a force for good,” despite reality, which points in the exact opposite direction.
But this week offers an unexpected twist in this ridiculous debate. For example, Americans saw the president travel to Selma, where he presented an impassioned vision of American patriotism, dismissing the “feeble attempts to define some of us as more American than others.”
At the same time, Senate Republicans offered Obama an opportunity to turn the tables on the entire debate when they tried to sabotage American foreign policy.
President Barack Obama criticized Republican outreach to the government of Iran, saying the lawmakers were effectively aligning themselves with Iranian hardliners who oppose an international nuclear deal.
“I think it’s somewhat ironic to see some members of Congress wanting to make common cause with the hardliners in Iran,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday. “It’s an unusual coalition.”
It is, indeed. When it comes to the future of U.S./Iranian relations, we’re accustomed to thinking about the divisions among Americans, with GOP lawmakers going to unprecedented lengths to undermine intentional diplomatic talks with Tehran. But let’s not forget that Iran, like every country on the planet, has its own political divisions.
In this case, while some Iranian officials are obviously willing to engage in multi-party talks, Iran has its own hardliners who’ve been eager to condemn the negotiations, insisting Americans, our allies, and our negotiating partners are not to be trusted.
Obama clearly did not question Republicans’ love of country, but there was an interesting subtext to his comments yesterday: the American politicians who question his patriotism are the same people who hope to undermine U.S. foreign policy by finding common cause with Iran hardliners.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/turning-the-tables-the-patriotism-debate
https://twitter.com/MrPooni/status/575305398049243136/photo/1
A lynching.
Yes and that William Bruce James II up thread would have been crusin’ for a brusin’ if he had pledged SAE, before it was DISMANTLED.
Dustin Racioppi @dracioppi
Nj credit has been downgraded 8 times under @GovChristie. He says if state can get his pension plan done it will get upgraded.
Mr. NFTG @Kennymack1971
The MSM including a lot of “liberals” have never held Republicans accountable for their bullshit so of course they rachet up the foolishness
Sam Stein ✔ @samsteinhp
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This ain’t CPAC. Dead silence as Ted Cruz tells firefighters union he wants to abolish the IRS and repeal Obamacare
8:56 AM – 10 Mar 2015
Bill to change how Michigan divvies up electoral votes back in the Lansing mix
By SARAH CWIEK • MAR 6, 2015
A bill that would change how Michigan allocates its electoral college votes is back in the mix in Lansing.
Republican state representatives Cindy Gamrat, Todd Courser, Thomas Hooker, and Gary Glenn introduced the bill this week.
It proposes that each of the state’s 14 Congressional districts gets one electoral vote — with the two remaining votes going to the statewide winner.
Currently, nine of those 14 districts lean Republican.
Right now, whichever presidential candidate wins the overall vote in Michigan claims all the state’s 16 electoral college votes.
http://michiganradio.org/post/bill-change-how-michigan-divvies-electoral-votes-back-lansing-mix
Steve King: I faced ‘retribution’ from Boehner
By Jeremy Diamond, CNN
Updated 7:36 AM ET, Tue March 10, 2015
Washington (CNN) – A conservative House Republican who opposed House Speaker John Boehner’s attempts to pass a “clean” bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security said he faced “retribution” for his efforts.
Iowa Rep. Steve King, a leading conservative opponent of President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration, said the Speaker’s office canceled funding at the last-minute for what he called “a very important diplomatic mission.” That came after King and a group of about 50 Republicans opposed Boehner’s eleventh-hour attempt to fund the Department of Homeland Security without rolling back the executive order.
“He’s currently throwing tantrums,” King said of Boehner. “This is retribution on the highest scale.”
King said the trip “had been signed off on, certified, authorized, everything all booked” until the last-minute cancellation.
“Apparently the people whom he most objects to for disagreeing with him are now grounded to the United States,” King said.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/10/politics/steve-king-retribution-bohner/index.html
http://youtu.be/G876iI2J77Q
https://twitter.com/ABC/status/575016219042013184/photo/1
Walker signs new anti-union measure in Wisconsin
03/09/15 03:50 PM—UPDATED 03/09/15 04:52 PM
By Steve Benen
As a candidate seeking re-election last fall, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) was quite clear: he wouldn’t push a so-called “right to work” measure. The Republican governor didn’t say he’d veto such a measure, but Walker nevertheless vowed he wouldn’t be “supporting it in this session.”
As recently as October, the governor specifically said, “We’re not going to do anything with right-to-work.”
Occasionally, however, there’s a gap between what Walker says and what he does.
Overhauling more than a half century of labor law in Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker on Monday signed so-called right-to-work legislation banning labor contracts that require private sector workers to pay labor fees.
In a matter of weeks, Republicans pushed through the measure making Wisconsin the 25th state with such a law, giving a victory to manufacturers in the state and a blow to organized labor and some construction firms, which had opposed the measure.
Note, during Walker’s first year in office, after assuring voters he wouldn’t pursue a union-busting campaign in office, the governor sparked a costly and divisive fight, undermining the collective bargaining rights of many public-sector workers.
This new policy, signed into law today, goes even further, undermining private-sector workers.
As Jared Bernstein wrote last week, “[I]t’s worth unpacking what’s going on here.”
Let’s be very clear about this: [Right to Work] does not confer some new right or privilege on those in states that adopt it. It takes away an existing right: the ability of unions to require the beneficiaries of union contracts to pay for their negotiation and enforcement. In anything, the law creates a right to freeload – to reap the significant benefits of union bargaining without paying for them.
Let’s also be clear about what goes on in non-RTW states, as anti-union forces consistently distort the current reality. In non-RTW states, no one has to join a union. There have been no “closed shops” in America for more than 20 years. When RTW advocates say they’re fighting against “forced unionism,” they are making stuff up. There’s no such thing.
Boasting at today’s bill signing about the legislation he promised not to sign, Walker said the new policy would boost Wisconsin’s economy and make the state more competitive. It we put aside the governor’s awful track record – the governor has been wrong repeatedly about which policies would improve the state economy – is there any evidence that RTW actually helps?
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/walker-signs-new-anti-union-measure-wisconsin
GOP sabotage effort sparks furious backlash
03/10/15 08:00 AM
By Steve Benen
It probably seemed like a good idea at the time. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a right-wing freshman just two months into his first term, decided he’d try to sabotage international diplomatic talks with Iran. He recruited 46 of his Senate Republican colleagues to write a condescending letter to officials in Tehran, effectively telling Iranians not to trust the United States, our allies, or our negotiating partners.
It’s not unusual for GOP lawmakers to pull some pretty offensive stunts, but this was qualitatively different than the usual Capitol Hill nonsense. The ferocity of the Democratic response was equally unusual.
…………………..
The scale of the Republican fiasco grew more obvious as the day progressed. The GOP hoped to divide Democrats, but Cotton & Co. brought Dems closer together. Republicans hoped to push Iran away from the negotiating table, but they very likely helped the negotiations move closer to an agreement.
Making matters just a little worse, analyses were soon published suggesting the Republicans’ attempt at freelance foreign policy, which included factual errors, may have violated federal law and is arguably unconstitutional.
The editorial board of the Detroit Free Press had a doozy of a piece on the subject, calling the Republican letter a stunt that “disgraces America.” Though the paper said it’s “unlikely” the GOP letter “rises to the level of treason,” it “certainly betrays a deep misunderstanding of our governmental structure, and a profound and dismaying disrespect for the office of the presidency, as well as its incumbent occupant. To disagree with a sitting president is one thing, even if that disagreement is loud, even if it is raucous. A deliberate attempt to undermine a sitting president’s efforts to discharge his constitutional obligations is something else entirely.”
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/gop-sabotage-effort-sparks-furious-backlash
Monday, March 9, 2015
The Miseducation Of Juan Williams
Posted by Zandar
Former FOX News contributor Juan Williams is shocked — shocked, I tell you! — to discover that Republicans are trying to completely destroy the nation’s public education system.
What was the “Student Success Act” anyway? You’d be forgiven for not hearing anything about it. It got zero coverage in the wake of the failures of No Child Left Behind and the dismantling of Race To The Top and the war over Common Core standards. It was the latest batch of snake oil from the GOP on education, and it effectively dismantled the Department of Education.
http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-miseducation-of-juan-williams.html
Who in turn miseducated his own son. Poor misguided Juan.
BET’s Original Mini-Series ‘Book of Negroes’ Will Arrive w/ More Than 3 Hours of Extras on 3-Disc DVD Set
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
March 9, 2015 at 6:02PM
Following its U.S. broadcast premiere on BET last month, “The Book of Negroes” miniseries will be available as a special edition 3-disc DVD release on April 7, 2015, exclusively from Entertainment One.
The DVD set will feature more than three hours of in-depth bonus features, collectively going behind-the-scenes, deeper into history and into the minds of those involved in the production, and more.
Extras include the featurettes “History of the Black Loyalists Society” and “Amistad”; ten cast interviews with stars Aunjanue Ellis, Louis Gossett Jr., Cuba Gooding Jr. and others; two exclusive interviews with best-selling author Lawrence Hill; and 30-minutes of deleted scenes. Additionally, the set contains a 28-page collector’s book featuring an exclusive essay from Hill.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/bets-original-mini-series-book-of-negroes-will-arrive-w-more-than-3-hours-of-extras-on-3-disc-dvd-set-20150309
Filming Begins on ‘Free State of Jones’ + Release Date Set + Synopsis (Gugu Mbatha-Raw & Mahershala Ali)
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
March 9, 2015 at 5:36PM
Motion picture and television studio STX Entertainment has announced the beginning of principal photography on the theatrical feature “The Free State of Jones” in and around New Orleans, Louisiana.
The “epic action-drama” (as the press release describes it) is written and directed by Gary Ross (“The Hunger Games,” “Seabiscuit,” “Pleasantville”), and stars Matthew McConaughey, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Keri Russell and Mahershala Ali.
Set during the Civil War, “The Free State of Jones” tells the story of defiant Southern farmer Newt Knight, and his extraordinary armed rebellion against the Confederacy. Banding together with other small farmers, and with the assistance of local slaves, Knight launched an uprising that led Jones County, Mississippi to secede from the Confederacy, creating a Free State of Jones. His marriage to a former slave, Rachel, and his subsequent establishment of a mixed race community was unique in the post-war South. Knight continued his struggle into Reconstruction, which distinguished him as a compelling, if controversial, figure of defiance long beyond the War.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/filming-begins-on-free-state-of-jones-march-2016-release-date-set-gugu-mbatha-raw-mahershala-ali-20150309
Years ago Jon Stewart interviewed the author of a book about anti Confederate sentiment in Mississippi. She was fascinating. Now I need to google her to get the book.
Idris Elba and Sean Penn Meet in First Clip From ‘The Gunman’
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
March 9, 2015 at 5:02PM
We see more of him in this short clip than we do in the trailer. And it’s not much of a clip. Hopefully he’s given more to do than light Sean Penn’s cigarettes, and deliver speeches filled with epigrams (see my “Is Idris Elba a Hollywood Leading Man Yet?” post from a few months ago).
The actor joins Sean Penn and Javier Bardem in director Pierre Morel’s action thriller, “The Gunman,” which is based on the novel, “The Prone Gunman,” by Jean-Patrick Manchette.
The story, which was adapted to script by Peter Travis, goes: “Martin Terrier is a hired killer who wants out of the game – so he can settle down and marry his childhood sweetheart. After all, that’s why he took up this profession! But the Organization won’t let him go: they have other plans. For one more time, the gunman must assume the prone shooting position. A tour de force, this violent tale shatters as many illusions about life and politics as bodies.”
The age-old “one last job before I retire” — “just when I thought I was out, they pull me back In” sub-sub-sub genre(s).
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/idris-elba-and-sean-penn-meet-in-first-clip-from-the-gunman-20150309
Tracee Ellis Ross to Receive 2015 National Association of Broadcasters Chairman’s Award; Shonda Rhimes to be Inducted into Broadcasting Hall of Fame.
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
March 9, 2015 at 3:29PM
Tracee Ellis Ross, who stars on the new ABC comedy series “Black-ish,” will receive the 2015 National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Television Chairman’s Award during the NAB Show Television Luncheon.
“Tracee Ellis Ross is a gifted talent who brings wit and style to the roles that she plays, most recently on ABC’s breakout hit comedy ‘Black-ish’,” said Marcellus Alexander, NAB Executive Vice President of Television. “We are thrilled to honor her as this year’s Chairman’s Award recipient.”
Established to recognize individuals for significant achievement in one or more specific art disciplines in television, the Television Chairman’s Award first debuted in 2009 with four-time Emmy and two-time Golden Globe-winning actor Kelsey Grammar as the recipient. The last recipient was Jim Parsons, Emmy nominee and star of the critically acclaimed CBS comedy series “The Big Bang Theory” in 2010.
The Luncheon will also include the previously-announced induction of Shonda Rhimes, to the NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/tracee-ellis-ross-to-receive-2015-national-association-of-broadcasters-chairmans-award-shonda-rhimes-to-be-inducted-into-broadcasting-hall-of-fame-20150309
Jon Swaine ✔ @jonswaine
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Missouri seizes control of Ferguson’s court system as judge who pushed aggressive fees policy resigns http://gu.com/p/46f7a/stw
7:02 PM – 9 Mar 2015
Pete Souza, photo journalist
Behind the Lens: Selma, 50 Years Later
…I came to admire the photographs, especially of Charles Moore — a photojournalist who was documenting civil rights for Life magazine. I probably learned more about what had happened on that day and that period of time by studying his photographs than I did in any history class I ever had in school. For me, the photographs depicted the horror and the hatred in a way that words couldn’t.
Last Saturday, as I accompanied the Obama family to Selma for the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, I couldn’t help but think of the photographs taken by Charles Moore and other brave photojournalists 50 years ago. Their photographs, taken ostensibly for daily and weekly publications, have now become powerful images for history.
…It is perhaps fitting that we’ve chosen a gallery on the 50th anniversary of that day in Selma to kick off a new way of presenting photographs. In the weeks and months to come, we’ll regularly post galleries like this — providing a different perspective on life here at the White House or on the road. Sometimes it will be a series of thematic images. Other times, it might just be a single photo with a great story behind it. Take a look, and check back for more.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/03/09/behind-lens-selma-50-years-later
https://twitter.com/THR/status/575149616355807232/photo/1
https://twitter.com/daisycreager/status/575016214826647552/photo/1
The Associated Press ✔ @AP
BREAKING: Ivory Coast court gives former 1st lady Simone Gbagbo 20 years jail for post-election violence
https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/575262310354280448/photo/1
https://twitter.com/SorayaTWP/status/574994936292073472/photo/1
https://twitter.com/EricWolfson/status/575253162359193600/photo/1
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B_sydpOWQAAAWSt.jpg
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Good Morning, Rikyrah. So the GOP continues their descent into MADNESS.