The Rance Allen Group is a gospel music group formed in Monroe, Michigan and based in Toledo, Ohio.[1] The group’s incorporation of rock and soul into traditional gospel music prefigures the crossover success of such artists as Amy Grant, Andrae Crouch, and The Winans.[1][2]
The Rance Allen Group was formed by vocalist, guitarist, pianist, and songwriter Rance Allen (b. Monroe, Michigan) with his brothers Tom (drums) and Steve (bass guitar); another brother, Esau (percussionist), joined the group on an intermittent basis.[3]:256 During an appearance at a gospel talent contest in Detroit, Michigan, they came to the attention of one of the judges, record promoter Dave Clark, who worked for Stax Records.[1][3]:255-256 The group was the first to be signed to the Stax imprint Gospel Truth, and they recorded for the Stax organization throughout the 1970s.[1][3]:256 In 1972, the group appeared in the documentary film Wattstax.[3]:270 Following this appearance, the group was named “Best Religious Group” by the National Association of Television and Radio Announcers (NATRA).[3]:272 David Porter co-produced the group’s 1975 album A Soulful Experience, for which he wrote an autobiographical song, “Just Found Me”.[3]:363 In 1978, the group had a Top 30 R&B hit, “I Belong to You.”[2]
Breaking News Alert: Radiation levels at Japanese nuclear plant 100,000 times above normal
March 27, 2011 7:27:23 PM
—————————————-
Leaked water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant showed the highest radiation readings yet, compounding the risks for the hundreds of workers trying to repair the facility’s cooling system. Seventeen workers have been exposed to high levels of radiation, and airborne radioactivity in the unit 2 building remained so high that a worker there would reach his yearly occupational exposure limit in 15 minutes.
http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/HXJVEI/GKQA42/AWKTJQ/EHUVJ4/T5F5O/82/h
My Lord! Pleading for mercy, dear Father!
I LOATHE THE MEDIA.
Ballantine Books / By David Sirota
March 25, 2011
Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explain the World We Live in Now
In his new book, David Sirota examines how ’80s propaganda led us to reject the past and ultimately embrace the capitalistic future planned out for us.
Die, Hippie, Die! Every time one of these ex-hippies comes prancing in from yesteryear, we gotta get out the love beads and pretend we care about people.
Alex P. Keaton, 1986
For the past several days I’ve been noticing a steep rise in the number of hippies coming to town. . . . I know hippies. I’ve hated them all my life. I’ve kept this town free of hippies on my own since I was five and a half. But I can’t contain them on my own anymore. We have to do something, fast! -Eric Cartman, 2005
In 1975, a Democratic Party emboldened by civil rights, environmental, antiwar, and post-Watergate electoral successes was on the verge of seizing the presidency and a filibuster-proof congressional majority. That year, the Rocky Horror Picture Show and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest were two of the three top-grossing films — the former a parody using the late-sixties sexual revolution to laugh at the puritanical fifties, the latter based on the novel by beat writer Ken Kesey. Meanwhile, three of the top-rated seven television shows were liberal-themed programs produced by progressive icon Norman Lear, including “All in the Family” –a show built around a hippie, Mike Stivic, poking fun at the ignorance of his traditionalist father-in-law, Archie Bunker.
A mere ten years later, Republican Ronald Reagan had just been reelected by
one of the largest electoral landslides in American history, and his party had also gained control of the U.S. Senate. Two of the top three grossing films were Back to the Future, which eulogized the fifties, and Rambo: First Blood Part II, which blamed sixties antiwar activism for losing the Vietnam conflict. Most telling, “All in the Family’s” formula of using sixties-motivated youth and progressivism to ridicule fifties-rooted parents and their traditionalism had been replaced atop the television charts by its antithesis: a “Family Ties” whose fifties-inspired youth ridicules his parents’ sixties spirit.
The political and cultural trends these changes typified were neither coincidental nor unrelated, and their intertwined backstories explain why we’re still scarred by the metamorphosis.
http://www.alternet.org/books/150364/back_to_our_future%3A_how_the_1980s_explain_the_world_we_live_in_now/
An Open Letter to the Left on Libya
Posted on 03/27/2011 by Juan
As I expected, now that Qaddafi’s advantage in armor and heavy weapons is being neutralized by the UN allies’ air campaign, the liberation movement is regaining lost territory. Liberators took back Ajdabiya and Brega (Marsa al-Burayqa), key oil towns, on Saturday into Sunday morning, and seemed set to head further West. This rapid advance is almost certainly made possible in part by the hatred of Qaddafi among the majority of the people of these cities. The Buraiqa Basin contains much of Libya’s oil wealth, and the Transitional Government in Benghazi will soon again control 80 percent of this resource, an advantage in their struggle with Qaddafi.
I am unabashedly cheering the liberation movement on, and glad that the UNSC-authorized intervention has saved them from being crushed. I can still remember when I was a teenager how disappointed I was that Soviet tanks were allowed to put down the Prague Spring and extirpate socialism with a human face. Our multilateral world has more spaces in it for successful change and defiance of totalitarianism than did the old bipolar world of the Cold War, where the US and the USSR often deferred to each other’s sphere of influence.
The United Nations-authorized intervention in Libya has pitched ethical issues of the highest importance, and has split progressives in unfortunate ways. I hope we can have a calm and civilized discussion of the rights and wrongs here.
On the surface, the situation in Libya a week and a half ago posed a contradiction between two key principles of Left politics: supporting the ordinary people and opposing foreign domination of them. Libya’s workers and townspeople had risen up to overthrow the dictator in city after city– Tobruk, Dirna, al-Bayda, Benghazi, Ajdabiya, Misrata, Zawiya, Zuara, Zintan. Even in the capital of Tripoli, working-class neighborhoods such as Suq al-Jumah and Tajoura had chased out the secret police. In the two weeks after February 17, there was little or no sign of the protesters being armed or engaging in violence.
The libel put out by the dictator, that the 570,000 people of Misrata or the 700,000 people of Benghazi were supporters of “al-Qaeda,” was without foundation. That a handful of young Libyan men from Dirna and the surrounding area had fought in Iraq is simply irrelevant. The Sunni Arab resistance in Iraq was for the most part not accurately called ‘al-Qaeda,’ which is a propaganda term in this case. All of the countries experiencing liberation movements had sympathizers with the Sunni Iraqi resistance; in fact opinion polling shows such sympathy almost universal throughout the Sunni Arab world. All of them had at least some fundamentalist movements. That was no reason to wish the Tunisians, Egyptians, Syrians and others ill. The question is what kind of leadership was emerging in places like Benghazi. The answer is that it was simply the notables of the city. If there were an uprising against Silvio Berlusconi in Milan, it would likely unite businessmen and factory workers, Catholics and secularists. It would just be the people of Milan. A few old time members of the Red Brigades might even come out, and perhaps some organized crime figures. But to defame all Milan with them would be mere propaganda.
Then Muammar Qaddafi’s sons rallied his armored brigades and air force to bomb the civilian crowds and shoot tank shells into them. Members of the Transitional Government Council in Benghazi estimate that 8000 were killed as Qaddafi’s forces attacked and subdued Zawiya, Zuara, Ra’s Lanuf, Brega, Ajdabiya, and the working class districts of Tripoli itself, using live ammunition fired into defenseless rallies. If 8000 was an exaggeration, simply “thousands” was not, as attested by Left media such as Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now! As Qaddafi’s tank brigades reached the southern districts of Benghazi, the prospect loomed of a massacre of committed rebels on a large scale.
The United Nations Security Council authorization for UN member states to intervene to forestall this massacre thus pitched the question. If the Left opposed intervention, it de facto acquiesced in Qaddafi’s destruction of a movement embodying the aspirations of most of Libya’s workers and poor, along with large numbers of white collar middle class people. Qaddafi would have reestablished himself, with the liberation movement squashed like a bug and the country put back under secret police rule. The implications of a resurgent, angry and wounded Mad Dog, his coffers filled with oil billions, for the democracy movements on either side of Libya, in Egypt and Tunisia, could well have been pernicious.
The arguments against international intervention are not trivial, but they all did have the implication that it was all right with the world community if Qaddafi deployed tanks against innocent civilian crowds just exercising their right to peaceful assembly and to petition their government. (It simply is not true that very many of the protesters took up arms early on, though some were later forced into it by Qaddafi’s aggressive military campaign against them. There still are no trained troops to speak of on the rebel side).
Read on
http://www.juancole.com/2011/03/an-open-letter-to-the-left-on-libya.html
Hat tip makesense4tulips @ The Only Adult in the Room
Libya :Thank You & Keep It Up President Obama ,Coalition and UN
811 People Have Sent 1,802 Letters and Emails
http://www.petition2congress.com/4214/view_all/7/
EXCLUSIVE: Herman Cain Tells ThinkProgress ‘I Would Not’ Appoint A Muslim In My Administration
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/26/herman-cain-muslims/
As the Republican presidential nomination process begins, one GOP candidate is making a name for himself as the Islamophobia candidate: Herman Cain.
Earlier this week, Cain gave an interview to Christianity Today in which he declared that, “based upon the little knowledge that I have of the Muslim religion, you know, they have an objective to convert all infidels or kill them.”
ThinkProgress caught up with the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza today at the Conservative Principles Conference in Des Moines, Iowa, to discuss his comments further. We asked him, in light of his statements on Islam, would he be comfortable appointing any Muslims in his administration. Rather than skirting the question or hedging his answer, as most presidential aspirants are wont to do, Cain was definitive: “No, I would not”:
KEYES: You came under a bit of controversy this week for some of the comments made about Muslims in general. Would you be comfortable appointing a Muslim, either in your cabinet or as a federal judge?
CAIN: No, I would not. And here’s why. There is this creeping attempt, there is this attempt to gradually ease Sharia law and the Muslim faith into our government. It does not belong in our government. This is what happened in Europe. And little by little, to try and be politically correct, they made this little change, they made this little change. And now they’ve got a social problem that they don’t know what to do with hardly.
The question that was asked that “raised some questions” and, as my grandfather said, “I does not care, I feel the way I feel.” I was asked, “what is the role of Islam in America?” I thought it was an odd question. I said the role of Islam in America is for those that believe in Islam to practice it and leave us alone. Just like Christianity. We have a First Amendment. And I get upset when the Muslims in this country, some of them, try to force their Sharia law onto the rest of us.
What Administration?
Herman Cain = A buck-dancing, boot licking, cooning, conniving, trifling hanky-head lawn jockey!
… SLAVE-CATCHING COON
DIVING OFF THE SINKING SHIP OF AMERICA
Bob Herbert’s Last NYT Column: America Has ‘Lost Its Way Entirely’
by Ken Layne
1:50 am March 26, 2011
America’s last half-assed attempt at a serious newspaper, the New York Times, is rapidly losing the last of its serious op-ed writers. Bob Herbert is the latest to say goodbye, and his final column is devastating. It starts like this: “So here we are pouring shiploads of cash into yet another war, this time in Libya, while simultaneously demolishing school budgets, closing libraries, laying off teachers and police officers, and generally letting the bottom fall out of the quality of life here at home.” Haha, and then it gets depressing. But it’s good to see somebody in the NYT taking on the actual monsters in our nation — our horrific income inequality, the Obama Administration’s perfidy in letting G.E. chief executive Jeffrey Immelt run the White House’s “Council on Jobs and Competitiveness” even as G.E. refuses to pay a nickel in corporate tax, statehouse wars against public-service employees, congressional wars against women and Muslims and the poor, etc.
Bob Herbert’s farewell:
The U.S. has not just misplaced its priorities. When the most powerful country ever to inhabit the earth finds it so easy to plunge into the horror of warfare but almost impossible to find adequate work for its people or to properly educate its young, it has lost its way entirely ….
There is plenty of economic activity in the U.S., and plenty of wealth. But like greedy children, the folks at the top are seizing virtually all the marbles. Income and wealth inequality in the U.S. have reached stages that would make the third world blush. As the Economic Policy Institute has reported, the richest 10 percent of Americans received an unconscionable 100 percent of the average income growth in the years 2000 to 2007, the most recent extended period of economic expansion.
Wow, why is everybody going all communist all the sudden? Oh right, because it’s time for Total Revolution. Anyway, good luck, Bob! Good luck, America! [NYT]
http://wonkette.com/441427/bob-herberts-last-nyt-column-america-has-lost-its-way-entirely
Aretha Franklin dances, sings at 69th birthday party
By theGrio
4:56 PM on 03/26/2011
NEW YORK (AP) — Aretha Franklin proved her voice is still divine at 69 as she gave a brief but rousing performance at a swank birthday party in her honor.
Tony Bennett, Smokey Robinson, music mogul Clive Davis, Bette Midler and Gayle King were among the celebrities on hand to pay tribute to the Queen of Soul on Friday night at a late-night birthday party at a Central Park Hotel.
“It’s a fabulous moment,” said Franklin, showing off her noticeably thinner frame in a flowing white and gold gown as she sat at a table with several gifts.
Bennett, who called Franklin “one of a kind” was one of those who came with a present — and his was unique.
“I also paint, so she knows about that,” he said. “A long time ago, she said, ‘I’d love to have you do a painting of me,’ and I remembered that, and when I heard I was coming here, I just knocked off a quick sketch tonight and gave it to her tonight.”
More than 100 friends and family gathered to celebrate Franklin, who just a few months ago underwent surgery for an ailment she has declined to disclose. In recent weeks, she’s made more public appearances and is set to resume her stage performances in May. At the party, Franklin seemed full of energy, greeting guests and dancing to the music.
Franklin wasn’t billed as the evening’s entertainment. Instead, she had other acclaimed musicians on hand to perform for her: jazz musician Roy Ayers, singer Nnenna Freelon, and Tito Puente Jr. all gave mini-concerts at the soiree.
But after former Temptations frontman Dennis Edwards serenaded her with a couple of riveting songs, she joined him and they both sang “The Way We Were.”
Afterward, Edwards and the crowd sang “Happy Birthday” to Franklin, and she cut her birthday cake.
The Detroit native planned to stay in New York for at least a day more, but don’t expect much more celebrating for Franklin.
“I will be in a horizontal position tomorrow, all day!” she said.
http://www.thegrio.com/entertainment/aretha-franklin-dances-sings-at-69th-birthday-party.php
I’m glad she’s doing well.
If the Queen can still dance, she’s def feeling better. Happy belated birthday, Ms. Reefa!
Fox News’ Chris Wallace Slams White House For Blocking Access To Clinton, Gates (VIDEO)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/27/chris-wallace-slams-white-house-fox-news_n_841129.html
Secretary Of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates made the talk show rounds on Sunday, appearing on ABC, CBS and NBC to discuss Libya. However, they did not go on Fox News–something which made Chris Wallace, host of “Fox News Sunday,” very unhappy–and he let his viewers know it. (h/t Politico.)
After ending an interview with former Speaker Newt Gingrich, Wallace said:
“Of course we wanted to get the White House view on Libya. However, they chose to offer Secretary of State Clinton and Defense Secretary Gates to ABC, CBS and NBC, but not to Fox. Despite the fact that we routinely have more viewers than two of those Sunday shows, the Obama team felt no need to explain to the millions of you who watch this program and Fox News why they have sent U.S. servicemen and women into combat. We thought you’d like to know.”
Chris Wallace…kiss my entire black ass!
Fox News are lying liars! Why should Clinton or Gates come on your show where you lie and distort the truth. During Fox interviews with the President, you interrupt him continuously without shame. You don’t want your viewers knowing the truth ……so….Phuck you!
LOL
On Ferraro
All of this:
Boy, Did Shakespeare Get It Wrong
… Or, maybe more accurately, Mark Antony got it wrong in Julius Caesar when he said that bit about how the evil that people do lives after them, while the good is interred with their bones.
Take, for example, the apparent liberal hagiography/amnesia on the untimely death of Geraldine Ferraro, the 1984 Democratic Vice Presidential nominee – the first woman selected to run on a major party’s ticket, which was, without question, an event of major historical significance. Don’t get me wrong; I very much appreciate what a big deal that was. The 1984 election was only the second presidential election I was able to vote in, and I, like many wide-eyed young liberals at the time, was enormously proud of my party for taking such a (an?) historical step. And Ferraro seemed like a genuinely likable candidate: She was well experienced and smart, and, best of all, took no grief from anybody. That combination of competence and toughness went a long way to shatter the prevailing gender stereotypes of the day, and for that Geraldine Ferraro deserves much credit.
Unlike a lot of other equally qualified and likeable women in politics, however, Geraldine Ferraro had a fairly glaring character flaw: She was a racist.
Read on
http://davescornertavern.blogspot.com/2011/03/boy-did-shakespeare-get-it-wrong.html
Unlike a lot of other equally qualified and likeable women in politics, however, Geraldine Ferraro had a fairly glaring character flaw: She was a racist.
Oh! Oh!
Tell it! Tell it!
Lest we forget…
Chris Brown and Rihanna to Reunite on ABC?
By The Editors of AOL Music
Posted Mar 26th 2011 12:39PM
Just three days after Chris Brown’s notorious window-smashing blowup at ABC’s ‘Good Morning America,’ the network reportedly wants to book him for a sit-down interview together with ex-girlfriend Rihanna.
In a surprising twist of events, a source close to ABC News told E! the network wants to “milk this event for everything it’s worth,” adding, “It’s all about the ratings…at all other costs.”
On Tuesday, Brown had a violent outburst following an interview with GMA’s Robin Roberts, because she asked him a question about his 2009 assault on Rihanna. The singer kept his composure during the interview, then “terrified” employees backstage as he broke a window in his dressing room, tore off his shirt and stormed out of the studio without performing his second scheduled song for the live broadcast.
Now, the network may be capitalizing on the headlines, working on getting Chris Brown to appear with the girlfriend he beat up the night before the 2009 Grammys. Perhaps ABC hopes they can pull it off now that Rihanna’s restraining order against Brown was just lifted.
Another unofficial rumor is that ABC may offer Brown a reality series, however that scenario was slammed by the E! source, who said, “No, that would never happen here.”
The source added, “What’s far more likely is orchestrating Chris Brown talking to Rihanna for the first time.”
And even though Diane Sawyer famously got Rihanna to open up about the physical abuse she suffered at Brown’s hands, E! says its ABC source denies that Sawyer would get involved this time: “She would never do it….it would be Robin [Roberts].”
The network decided not to press charges against Brown this week, and he’s still scheduled to appear on next week’s ‘Dancing with the Stars.’
Everything seems to be working out for Brown so far, with the exception of his representation: The singer’s publicist quit after her client’s ‘Good Morning America’ tantrum.
http://www.popeater.com/2011/03/26/abc-wants-chris-brown-rihanna-interview/
Don’t do it Chris…
Really, Brown does not have adequate handlers. And it is crystal clear he has not dealt with his issues. Did you see the Robin Roberts interview?
I heard about it. Chris needs some parental guidance and love. He’s not getting it.
You nailed it, Dannie. This young man needs LOVE.
Here you go, SG2, join me: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__j-Yh5rKmeY/Sh2rGgOB69I/AAAAAAAAAjQ/o5mFlyVP8pk/s400/cup-of-coffee.jpg
Bless you! I’d be delighted!
We’re going to need it. The COONS & handwringers are out in full bloom. LOL
I se like clockwork, the talking heads on the Sunday morning circus shows are in “WHAT SHOULD HE SAY” mode. (President Obama speaks to the nation tomorrow night). Uggh! And ABC is featuring that liar, & “unknown Knowns” clown.
Good Morning, 3 Chics, Friends & Lurkers!
More Sunday Comments
Inspiration for today….
Bible Verse Graphics
Good Morning, SG2 & Everybody. Indeed, God is LOVE.
Hi Dannie. Happy Sunday, lady! :-)
Good morning all!