Bell and James was an American soul group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Formed by Leroy Bell (drums, guitar) and Casey James (guitar, bass, keyboards), both played in Special Blend before beginning to write songs together. Bell’s uncle Thom Bell got them signed to Gamble & Huff as songwriters.[1] They wrote tunes for Elton John, MFSB, The O’Jays, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Freda Payne, and others, before A&M Records took notice and signed them to a full album deal in 1978. Three albums and several hit singles followed, including “Livin’ it Up (Friday Night),” which hit #7 on the U.S. Billboard Black singles, and #15 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts in 1979. It sold over one million copies in the U.S., plus the same track reached #59 in the UK Singles Chart.[2]
Happy FRY-day, Everyone!
When Grifters attack
by Dennis G.
Now. Tonight. In Washington. Grifters from all over America are in town sharing tips and better ways to scam the guilble. It is one big wet kiss to the beauty of the con. It is a celebration of the folks who put the “Con” in Conservative.
It is the second annual Faith and Freedom Conference. It was organized by Hall of Fame grifter Ralph Reed. Reed is a fellow who has super-charged the “I am a Christian scam” to levels that would make Satan himself blush. A few years ago it looked like Reed would go down in the Abramoff scandal. He was exposed as a money grubbing, hypocrite who had no problem scamming Christians into support gambling, human trafficking, sex slavery and forced abortions just to make a fast buck. The list of Reed’s exposed crimes and ethical lapses should have ended his grifter career and his influence over anything. But Ralph is a Republican, and we all know that any crime Is OK If You’re A Republican. And so, Republican candidates for President and other elected officials come to the Faith and Freedom Conference to lick Ralph Reed’s ass.
But that’s not all.
They also come to bow before Grifter legend Grover Norquist. He was also exposed in the Abramoff scadal and should have gone to jail, but he made a deal with McCain. Grover supported McCain’s run for the White House and McCain let the investigation end and made sure that evidence of Grover’s crimes were buried for twenty-five years. And now every Republican seeking office must make the stop to lick Grover’s ass as well.
And then the rest of the schedule is just filled with other grifters—big and small—and the politicians compelled to pander to them. Watch some of the C-Span feed if you feel like checking out the freak show. You could drop in anywhere and it would be almost always the same: Obama is bad. He is that scary black thug seeking to destroy America. White values are under attack. And only by giving your time, money, energy and money to the grifters behind this conference can you and those you love be saved from Obama and his nonwhite army of destruction.
And while most speeches are predictable, sometimes they are accidetially revealing. The speech earlier tonight from Dick Morris was an example (see the beginning of this segment). It was a direct appeal to white voters that their very survival depends on opposing Obama—who in Morris’ telling was only elected because ignorant young white voters made common cause with Latinos and shiftless Negroes. It was shameless race-baiting, but It was also OK because, well, they are Republicans.
That grifters like Reed, Norquist, Beck, Armey, Palin, Trump, Ailes, Gingrich, Ryan and so many others control the CONservative movement should tell you all you need to know. It should also inspire you to keep a tight grip on your wallet whenever any of them are near—but no. Instead they are celebrated. And the worst of them must be paid off and give their blessings before any candidate is supported or any action by the Republican Confederate Party is taken. Having Reed and Norquist as GOP gatekeepers is like Democrats deciding that Dollar “Bill” Jefferson, John Edwards and Rod Blagojevich have to approve any candidate or policy before others in the Party would endorse it.
The idea that you out-source control of policy and candidate approval to known grifters is insane, but, also too, IOKIYAR.
Cheers
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2011/06/04/when-grifters-attack/#comment-2617604
Couldn’t have NAILED these CONS any better.
there you GO!
I’m watching Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, and there is this teenaged Hispanic girl talking about her AND her LITTLE SISTER on the verge of having TYPE-2 DIABETES.
Yes, she’s overweight, and she talks about the diet she’s had her entire life, along with all the fast food she’s been eating.
Then, I think about folks like Corny West, denigrating what the First Lady is doing, and asking ‘ why doesn’t she go to prisons’.
Fool, I want to ask, do you REALLY even know ‘regular’ Black folk. Have you taken your ass to a Golden Corral, or Old Country Buffet, or the local Chinese Restaurant that has a buffet, and really LOOKED AT OUR CHILDREN?
This might be the first generation of Black folk not to live longer than the generation before, BECAUSE OF THE OBESITY EPIDEMIC IN OUR MIDST.
I refer back to this young women up top…sure, she’s Hispanic, but this could have EASILY been a young Black girl from South Central, or Newark, or the South Side of Chicago, or Anacostia. She’s NOT out of high school and is worried about TYPE-2 DIABETES!!
My mother, sister, and uncle all got TYPE-2 DIABETES…..
AFTER THEY WERE 50 YEARS OLD
A TEENAGER vs. 50 YEARS OLD
do you see where I’m going?
This young girl, as do MILLIONS of American children….
will have a PRE-EXISTING CONDITION BEFORE THEIR 18TH BIRTHDAY.
but, what FLOTUS is trying to do isn’t of importance…
yeah…..right.
uh huh.
Tell the truth and shame the DEVILS, rikyrah. Cornel West was exposed for the talkin loud, sayin’nothin, doin’ nothing clown that he is. This is the danger of folks like him who talk bullshit that tries to keep black folks locked in the “victim” state of consciousness
In comes First Lady Michelle Obama, who provides LIFE-SAVING INFORMATION that ALL americans can chose to benefit from a healthy life style. Making DIFFERENT FOOD CHOICES and moving our lazy asses can save lives. Who but the power of the FIRST BLACK FIRST LADY can provide that kind of an example for BLACK people?
How Fraudulent Is the GOP Budget Plan? It Wouldn’t Even Make a Dent In the Deficit!
A plan being sold to the public as a “serious” attempt to reduce the federal deficit would cut the budget gap by just one-seventh of one percent over the next decade.
May 31, 2011 |
The Republican budget plan is the purest expression of the Right’s longstanding desire to dismantle the social safety net. It’s not about the budget deficit—that’s simply a premise — it’s the “Shock Doctrine” in action.
How radical is it? According to an analysis by the non-partisan Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), the plan would slash all public spending other than Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid by almost three-quarters by 2050. And because the “budget does not envision defense cuts in real terms,” what this means is that “most of the rest of the federal government outside of health care, Social Security, and defense would cease to exist.”
It’s the epitome of anti-tax zealot Grover Norquist’s fantasy of shrinking the government down to a point where he could “drown it in a bathtub.”
And it’s not just a matter of bait-and-switch; the entire proposal is a fraud. Just consider this: while selling their plan to the public as a “serious” and “bold” attempt to reduce the federal deficit, Republicans are overstating how much it would cut the budget gap by ten-fold.
http://www.alternet.org/news/151156/how_fraudulent_is_the_gop_budget_plan_it_wouldn%27t_even_make_a_dent_in_the_deficit%21/
Source: AP/Boston Globe
WASHINGTON—A White House official says President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner will play a round of golf together later this month.
Obama and Boehner — both avid golfers — will hit the links June 18. No word on where the round will take place, or whether they’ll be joined by any colleagues.
The president’s invitation comes as Boehner has urged Obama to take a more active role in the ongoing negotiations over how to reduce the nation’s deficit. Vice President Joe Biden has been leading bipartisan negotiations, but those talks appear stalled.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity in order to disclose the president’s private invitation.
Read more: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2… /
I’d take that golf club and place it upside Boehner’s… h….e a d …hat
Wisconsin Dems to announce that they will try to recall Scott Walker
By Greg Sargent
There’s a long way to go, and the goal seems like a very tough one to reach, but Wisconsin Democrats are set to go for it: They will announce at their annual convention later today that they intend to launch an effort to recall the ultimate target — Scott Walker himself.
Mike Tate, the chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, will reveal the plan in a speech today at the convention in Milwaukee, according to advance excerpts of the speech that were sent my way.
“We will not stand down — and next year, we will recall Scott Walker from office,” Tate will tell the crowd, according to the excerpts. “We will begin to repair the damage done to this state and we will begin anew with a Democratic Governor who will fight for our children, who will fight for our families, our teachers and our firefighters. We will fight for the people — not the powerful.”
While Dems have long been expected to ultimately launch a recall campaign against Walker, this will be the most explicit vow to date from Wisconsin Dems that they will, in fact, take the plunge. And the announcement is likely to make for some good political theater to fire up Wisconsin Democrats and grassroots activists, who are currently in a battle to recall six Wisconsin GOP state senators. It’s still unclear how many Wisconsin Dems will have to face recall elections, pending an official review of GOP signature-gathering.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/wisc…
June 03, 2011 1:00 PM
NRCC desperate to parse the meaning of ‘end’
By Steve Benen
For two months, Democrats have said, “Republicans intend to scrap Medicare and replace it with a privatized voucher scheme.” And for two months, Republicans, PolitiFact, and much of the media have responded, “Maybe, but you’re not allowed to say ‘end.’”
Greg Sargent reports on the latest twist in this ongoing fight, though this one may have broader consequences than just rhetorical squabbling.
Attention, people, this is important: The battle over whether it’s true that the Republican plan would “end Medicare” is about to play out in a critical way in New Hampshire.
The National Republican Congressional Committee, which oversees House races for the GOP, has written a sharply-worded letter demanding that a New Hampshire TV station yank an ad making that claim. Whether the ad gets taken down could help set a precedent for whether other stations will air Dem TV ads making this argument, which is expected to be a central message for Dems in the 2012 elections.
The NRCC letter was provided to me by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which is airing the ad on WMUR against GOP Rep. Charlie Bass.
There’s no real mystery here. The more Democrats use the word “end” — a verb first used to describe the Republican plan by Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal, by the way — the more damaging it is to the GOP. If Republicans can throw a big enough tantrum, and get stations to block campaign speech that uses the “e” word, then it might provide the GOP a layer of protection.
And if Comcast Boston backs down to the National Republican Congressional Committee now, the party will use this as precedent to get other channels to do the same.
The problem, of course, is that the Republican argument is ridiculous.
I realize that semantics debates can get pretty tiresome, but this need not be complicated. If there’s a government program, and it’s replaced with a different program, proponents brought an end to the original program. That’s what the verb means.
Medicare is a single-payer health care system offering guaranteed benefits to seniors. The House Republican plan intends to do away with the existing system and replace it with vouchers. It would still be called “Medicare,” but it wouldn’t be Medicare.
Paul Krugman recently explained, “When you transform a program that pays seniors’ medical bills into a program that gives them a voucher that almost certainly isn’t enough to buy adequate insurance, you can call the new scheme Medicare, but it isn’t the same program…. Republicans are proposing to destroy Medicare; saying that clearly isn’t scare tactics, it’s simply pointing out the truth.”
It’s a truth the GOP is desperate to keep from the public. Test Case #1 will apparently be in New Hampshire.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_06/nrcc_desperate_to_parse_the_me030010.php
What I think Republicans should do
by Doug Harlan J
I think that politically, it might be smart for Republicans to force a default this summer and blow up the economy. It would be a risk and it might destroy them but I think it could be the best chance they have right now. I would not have said this before they all voted for Vouchercare. Seems some Republicans are thinking the same way:
“Of course, it’s dangerous,” a House Republican close to Boehner said of the politics of a government default. “But it’s dangerous for everybody, especially the president. At the end of the day, [Obama] will have to give in.”
“Who has egg on their face if there is a sovereign debt crisis, House Republicans or the president?” asked another senior GOP lawmaker.
If the economy goes into true free fall, they’ve got a very good shot to unseat Obama. I’m not sure they’ll get blamed if they cause it with default or default lite or whatever, because the media is so much on their side on the debt ceiling stuff in a way that it wasn’t with the possible shut down.
Once they’re in, they should find some pretext to abolish labor unions as much as possible and then try to disenfranchise as many younger and non-white people as they can, after extended DOJ “investigation”/Congressional hearings/Breitbart circuses about teh voter fraud. Again, I think the media would back much of this.
Am I being too cynical? This is what I honestly think they should do if they want to obtain and maintain power.
Update. As many have pointed out, there’s no way their corporate masters would allow them to do this. They’d take a big hit in terms of donations. But I still think this might be their best chance to take the White House.
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2011/06/03/what-i-think-republicans-should-to/
under Bitch, Please news:
……………………….
George Allen Offers Emotional Apology For Macaca Incident
George Allen is really sorry about that macaca thing. Five years after he threw the slur at a Democratic tracker during the 2006 Senate campaign, Allen offered a long and emotional apology to a small crowd at the Faith and Family Conference.
“During our last campaign, I never should have singled out that young man working for my opponent calling him a name,” said Allen, who’s running again for the seat he lost in 2006. “He was just doing his job.”
The incident became national news and arguably derailed Allen’s run for another term in the Senate against challenger Jim Webb. Now, as he gears up his 2012 campaign, Allen is speaking about the incident with a sense of contrition that was absent from his 2006 bid.
“I was wrong to do that to him,” Allen said of the macaca moment, “and it diverted our campaign away from the real issues that families care about.”
Allen said his personal life suffered after the macaca incident, just as his professional life did.
“Speaking of families, my family had to endure a lot of taunts and insults because of my mistake,” he said. “And I never want to have them go through something like that again.”
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/06/george-allen-im-really-sorry-about-that-whole-1.php?ref=dcblt
fuck you George Macaca!
Kiss off, George Allen! Next…
Huntsman To Social Conservatives: I Am One Of You
Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman just finished speaking at the Faith and Freedom Conference in Washington, and his message to the social conservatives in the crowd was clear: I am one of you.
This is something of a tough sell for Huntsman, who is best known on the national scene as a moderate and stands out from the Republican presidential pack for his support of gay civil unions. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and other speakers this morning got big applause by talking about “traditional marriage,” but Huntsman understandably stayed away from the topic.
Instead, he tried to sell himself as one of the nation’s leading opponents of abortion. That’s another favorite topic here, and the kind of thing Huntsman needs to be known for if he wants to win over wary conservative primary voters.
“As governor of Utah I signed every pro-life bill that came to my desk,” Hunstman told the crowd. “I signed the bill that made second-trimester abortions illegal, and increased the penalty for doing so. I signed the bill to allow women to know the pain an abortion causes an unborn child. I signed the bill requiring parental permission for abortion. I signed the bill that would trigger a ban on abortions in Utah if Roe v. Wade was overturned.”
Expect no social conservative “truce” like the one Mitch Daniels tried to sell back when he was considering a White House run, Huntsman made clear.
“You see, I don’t think the Republican party should focus on our economic life to the neglect of our human life. That is a trade we should not make,” Huntsman said. “If Republicans ignore life, the deficit we face is one that is much more destructive. It will be a deficit of the heart and of the soul.”
Of course, support for civil unions isn’t the only thing standing between Huntsman and the conservative wing of the GOP. He’s doesn’t think climate change is a hoax, a position some evangelicals have agreed with in the past, though it’s safe to say most here don’t.
He didn’t mention climate change either.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/06/huntsman-to-social-conservatives-i-am-one-of-you-i-promise.php?ref=dcblt
Go on down that rabbit hole, Huntsman, go deeper.
Eric Cantor: Palestinian Culture ‘Filled With Resentment And Hatred’ Is Behind Israeli Conflict
Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) blamed the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict on a violent and resentful culture among Palestinians and the broader Arab world, condemning President Obama’s call for new peace negotiations in a speech to the Faith & Freedom Conference on Friday.
Cantor recounted a story for the audience about a Palestinian woman from Gaza who was treated for injuries in a hospital in the Israeli city of Beer Sheva, only to return later as a would-be suicide bomber in a failed terrorist attack.
“You got to ask what type of culture leads one to do that?” he said. “Sadly it’s a culture filled with resentment and hatred. It is that culture that underlies the Palestinians’ and broader Arab world’s refusal to accept Israel’s right to exist, and this is the root of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.”
He added: “It’s not about the 1967 lines,” a dig at President Obama’s position that Israel and the Palestinians should base negotiations on 1967 borders, with any changes based on mutually agreed land swaps.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/06/eric-cantor-palestinian-culture-filled-with-resentment-and-hatred-behind-israeli-conflict.php
Eric Cantor’s words and behavior towards Americans are indicative of some of Israeli’s own resentment and hatred towards Palestinians.
Michelle Obama announces official visit to Africa
Michelle Obama announced Friday that she’s heading to Africa on an official visit later this month, stopping in South Africa and Botswana to continue her work encouraging young people around the world to become active in their countries.
The first lady will visit Johannesburg and Cape Town in South Africa and Gaborone, Botswana, during the June 21-26 trip.
Besides youth leadership, Mrs. Obama will also focus on education, health and wellness.
Officials said the visit will highlight the important stake the U.S. has in the success of Africa’s many nations, as well as the historic ties between Americans and people who live in Africa. President Barack Obama’s late father was Kenyan.
South Africa is a political leader and economic powerhouse in Africa, and an example of a successful democratic transition on the continent. Botswana has held free and fair democratic elections since gaining independence in 1966.
The trip will be the second one in which the first lady travels abroad without the president. She will be accompanied by her daughters, Malia and Sasha, and her mother, Marian Robinson.
Last year, Mrs. Obama visited Haiti after its devastating earthquake, and Mexico.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110603/ap_on_re_us/us_michelle_obama_africa_2
Yeah! I’m mega excited about this news. Malia, Sasha, and Mama Robinson and FLOTUS together again in Africa; splendid.
Go FLOTUS! Big Up!
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
“Awww Shucky Ducky!” Herman Cain Plays the Black Buffoon as He Announces his 2012 Presidential Campaign Run
Last week, America was collectively witness to a rich demonstration of the range of political thought and identity within the black community.
There, Princeton University Professor and public intellectual Cornel West launched a broadside against President Obama about apparent deficiencies in how the latter has attended to the political interests and needs of the black community–as well as the working classes and poor, more generally–during his first term in office. Predictably, the African American pundit class was up in arms and quickly chose sides. Some rallied to Cornel’s clarion call. Others took up the banner of President Barack Obama.
To my eyes, the beauty of this moment was how some of the big and perennial questions which surround black politics in the post-Civil Rights era (conversations that are often limited to barbershops, hair salons, living rooms, churches, and classrooms), were debated in public—and at least for a moment were central to the national conversation as we collectively negotiate just what Obama’s presidency means for the dynamics of race in America.
In total, the Cornel West versus President Obama fracas was a great example of the diversity in political thought among African Americans, and one more indicator for outsiders and the uninformed that black folk—like any other group—are not a hive mind that walks zombie-like to the beat of the same political drummer.
It is ironic then, that as a fitting footnote and coda to this conversation, that Herman Cain, self-described “American Black Conservative” and leading Tea Party GOP figure, announced at a rally held on Saturday that he would be running for the Republican nomination in the 2012 presidential election.
Staged in Herman Cain’s hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, the political theater was indeed grand. Cain strutted to the stage before an almost uniformly White, Tea Party friendly audience. All eyes were glued to this charismatic figure, a black dot in a sea of white bodies, a man who is one part motivational speaker and two parts infomercial pitchman. Cain paused and took in the moment.
History has indeed come full circle. In another century, not too long ago, this would be a scene more akin to a lynching. Where instead of strange fruit ready to be hung and harvested by a blood thirsty rabid crowd of white folks, Cain was greeted with cheers and love by throngs of his Tea Party GOP White Populist devotees. Then, he proceeded to make history: before a live crowd of many thousands, and a national TV audience of many more, Herman Cain channeled all of the energy of Tyler Perry (sans cross-dressing), Meet the Browns, Amos and Andy, as well as Steppin Fetchit, and in his well practiced faux “Southern Negro dialectic” inaugurated the “Awww Schucky Ducky” era of American politics.
When Herman Cain uttered that phrase at the two minute and forty four second mark of his speech, Dignity personified walked out of the room. In total, there are 40 million ways to be Black in America. And just as he did at the freak show carnivalesque Conservative Political Action Conference some months ago, in that moment Herman Cain chose to be a black buffoon for the joys and pleasures of White Conservatives. Sadly it is a script, that like many Black Conservatives before him, Cain knows all too well.
How he chooses to perform his blackness—and do not be mistaken, it is a carefully mediated, honed, and polished routine that is precise in how it fulfills the fantasies of the White Conservative Soul and tickles the delights of the White gaze—is directly related to the grotesque policies that Cain, like many other Tea Party GOP candidates, endorse.
Herman Cain was a leading supporter of the Birther Movement. He wants to further encourage the growth of the corporatecracy and upward maldistribution of the wealth in this country. A self-professed bigot and Islamophobe, Herman Cain is also a religious zealot who in defiance of the Constitution—a document that Conservatives make into a fetish and magical totem—would implement tests of a person’s Judeo Christian faith in order to determine their qualification for public office. Slipping further into “conspiranoid” land, Cain also believes that the reproductive health services offered by Planned Parenthood are part of a genocidal plot to destroy the black family.
Like many Conservatives, he is also drunk on the fiction that cutting taxes and redistributing wealth to the rich will create prosperity for all. Like other Tea Party GOP candidates, a group wallowing in the toxic afterbirth of Reagan’s lie of trickle down economics and the Laffer curve, Cain wants to balance the federal budget on the backs of the poor and working classes through the implementation of a national sales tax and other regressive fiscal measures.
When looked at collectively, black conservatives in the mold of Herman Cain are upright walking human chaff for the most pernicious policies of the Right-wing and Conservatism in the United States. In a perverse play on “the race card” and Conservative victimology, they provide both cover and a defense for charges that these policies are pernicious and harmful to the Common Good, as any critiques of said policies can be summarily dismissed by the Right-wing as “racist.” Ultimately, as I have suggested many times, if you kick over any of the rocks that are giving cover to some of the most extreme policies of the New Right Tea Party GOP in the Age of Obama, a black conservative is almost always uncovered.
For example, Herman Cain shills for the wrong side of history as he tries to vindicate the most extreme elements of social and political Conservatism. Clarence Thomas voted against a significant portion of the Voting Rights Act. Thomas also strongly supported the infamous Citizens United case, where he issued an opinion that lets corporations give unlimited secret monies to political candidates. Juan Williams is a snarling attack dog who cries the victim as he works to support defunding NPR and PBS. And finally, Representative Allen West wants to defund Medicare and leave the country’s most vulnerable citizens open to the predatory practices of the private insurance market.
There are a set of noteworthy paradoxes at work in Cain’s presidential run. Herman Cain is all about race, while simultaneously having nothing to do with race. Herman Cain’s blackness is central to his performance, but Black political interests have nothing to do with his policies. If candidate Herman Cain’s antics to this point are any an indication of what is to come, the “Awww Schucky Ducky” era of American politics will be mighty entertaining.
Funny, at the nadir of American Empire we can fiddle while Rome burns, but if Cain has his way, Nero will most certainly be wearing blackface as he buckdances for gold and silver as the country descends into further rot.
http://wearerespectablenegroes.blogspot.com/2011/05/awww-shucky-ducky-herman-cain-plays.html
What a disgrace, but then we already knew that Herman Cain’s a shuckin’ & buckin, skinin’ & grinin’, lawn jockey, hanky-headed, slave-catchin’ coon!
A Shuckin and Buckin Nigga!
June 03, 2011
Palin as George W.
From Politico:
Palin has long brushed off … skepticism from Republican officialdom, insisting that she refuses to play by the rules of the political establishment….
Palin told a … group of reporters Monday that if she runs for president, it “would definitely be unconventional and nontraditional.”
In the way of an alternative explanation of Palin’s flaky “unconventionality,” permit this comparison.
After Osama bin Laden had eluded George Bush’s incompetent tentacles, the latter decided that the world’s ultimate chase wasn’t all that important. Bush shrugged off bin Laden; said he didn’t know, didn’t care where he was, and Bush suggested, in effect, that the hard work of further pursuit was beneath the high gifts of such a brilliant, talented, shoot-from-the-hip leader as himself. Bush careened from the “conventional” approach to — he careened, that is, from “play[ing] by the rules of” — pursuing a global mass murderer, but only because Bush had been thwarted and his bullyesque personality knew of nothing else to do but go flippantly, publicly “unconventional.”
Sarah Palin, being the abject incompetent that she is, couldn’t organize a bake sale. Deep down she knows it, thus the assembly of a conventional presidential campaign and its inescapable fundraising demands and all that issue-briefing jazz rightly terrify her. She would never understand — and therefore she would make a show of rejecting — the necessary “rules” behind any serious pursuit of the White House. Plus, at heart she’s a bully (and in this there lies the real linkage), characteristically intolerant of and frightened by pushback, so press-avoidance — a rather difficult coup in a national political campaign — becomes a chief objective.
So like Bush, rather than face the rigors of scrutiny and hard work, much easier to go flippantly “unconventional and nontraditional.”
I realize the simile is imperfect, still, it seems to loosely — and creepily — apply.
http://pmcarpenter.blogs.com/p_m_carpenters_commentary/2011/06/palin-as-george-w.html
TRANSLATION: Palin is a white, ignorant, dumb woman and proud of it!
Too ignorant to know she’s ignorant.
Quick look at the American auto industry resurgence since 2009
Infographics here;
http://www.whitehouse.gov/auto-industry-resurgence?utm_source=060311&utm_medium=image&utm_campaign=daily
Paul Ryan Confronted By Bible-Wielding Protester Decrying Ayn Rand
Paul Ryan was chased by a protester waving a giant Bible and decrying libertarian author Ayn Rand on his way out of the Faith and Freedom Conference, a social conservative gathering in DC where he delivered a speech on his budget.
“Why did you choose to model your budget on the extreme ideology of Ayn Rand rather than the faith of economic justice in the Bible?” the blond, 20-something male asked. He said he wanted to “present” Ryan with a Bible to teach him how to help the “most vulnerable.”
Ryan talked to reporters briefly and signed autographs for fans, largely ignoring the protester.
The Congressman never mentioned Rand in his speech, who he has cited as a hero in the past, but did discuss his faith and its connection to American government.
“Our rights our not given to us from government, our rights are given to us naturally, given by God,” he said, adding that “applying these principles” is what keeps America from entering decline each generation.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/06/paul-ryan-confronted-by-bible-wielding-protester-decrying-ayn-rand.php?ref=dcblt
Give it up, Paul Ryan. We know our rights and where they come from. How about you trying to deny Americans their rights, by trying to KILL medicare.
ok,
BWA HA HA HA HA AHA HA HA HA
……………………………….
New Hampshire’s Biggest Paper Puts Romney Announcement Below Palin Tour
If Mitt Romney was looking for huge headlines from his Thursday campaign launch in New Hampshire…well, he might have reason to be a bit disappointed.
Friday’s front page of the New Hampshire Union Leader, the state’s largest newspaper, has Romney’s launch seriously overshadowed by two other events: The death of former Gov. Walter Peterson (R) — and Sarah Palin’s tour of the state. The latter was given the banner headline just above the fold, “Palin Hits The Seacoast,” plus a large photo of Palin and her daughter Piper.
By comparison, Romney’s kickoff was reduced to a mere inset photo within text of the Palin piece, and a small headline, “Romney Announces.”
The caption text: “INSIDE: Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney announces his presidential candidacy Thursday in Stratham. Story, Page A3.”
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/06/new-hampshires-biggest-paper-puts-romney-announcement-below-palin-tour.php
they are making a movie about Jackie Robinson.
who should be cast?
if he was 6 inches taller, I’d want Don Cheadle.
Denzel Washington, because he has matured, has the features most like Jackie and he’s a brilliant actor!
you don’t think he’s too old to play a younger Jackie?
No, I don’t, but now that you reminded me that the role calls for a younger JR, I think Morris Chesnut or Cheadle could pull if off.
The GOP’s dangerous arrogance
An American default – or deliberate descent into another economic crisis – is unthinkable to most of global civil society. What great nation would do this to itself – or everyone else?
posted on June 2, 2011, at 3:24 PM
Nationally and globally, the economy is at a tipping point. The GOP, driven by invincible ignorance or cynical design – and perhaps both – is working overtime to trash the recovery with budget cuts that would drain demand from the economy – or a debt ceiling vote that could trigger a financial collapse equal to 2008, or perhaps unpredictably graver. For proof, all you had to do was listen to Mitt Romney’s announcement speech today. In it, he made a smarmy attempt to blame Barack Obama for the economic pain actually caused by the dereliction of duty by George W. Bush & Co., pain that was then prolonged by the obstruction of congressional Republicans. Those legislators contrived successfully to limit the stimulus package, block a second one, and forthwith blame the stimulus that saved us from another Great Depression for the slow climb out of the Great Recession. Never, of course, did they mention that the America’s deep deficits were generated by the fraudulent Bush war in Iraq and the unfair Bush tax cuts, which were founded on the false premise that they would pay for themselves.
The same tawdry spectacle has played out for two years and more in America’s capitol, a place that is still, despite recently fashionable worries about its destiny, the indispensible engine of the world economy. Indeed, the future of billions of human beings is determined by our elections, in which most of them have no vote. JFK once noted that the proudest boast of the ancient world was the boast of democratic citizenship: Civis Romanus sum: ‘I am a Roman citizen.’ The inescapable reality of the present world, for better or worse, is that people everywhere have to say, Civis Americanus sum. That’s strikingly clear here in Europe, in good times and bad. President Obama is a more popular, hope-giving figure than the leaders he recently visited; he’s the counterpoint to Bush and the redeemer of an American image carelessly disfigured during the first decade of the century.
And now the GOP that has moved decidedly to the right of Bush would compound his errors. Congressional Republicans could shatter the restored credibility of the United States by refusing to protect its full faith and credit by raising the national debt ceiling or by holding that essential measure hostage to the repeal of the New Deal – something that never even occurred to Ronald Reagan or either Bush president. In those Oval Offices, they regularly signed debt-ceiling increases.
Republicans generally, from the newest tea-soaked member of Congress to the weak brew of presidential candidates, have also adopted and ritualistically invoked a notion of American exceptionalism that all but explicitly proclaims that we have a unique mandate – with the religious right, presumably our own Mandate of Heaven – to do whatever we want, wherever we want. In the name of strengthening the nation, they would weaken it, losing respect, fraying alliances, and forcing the United States to go it alone in a fateful time? Retreating to this notion would represent one of history’s more stunning examples of the triumph of arrogance over experience.
There is an American exceptionalism that, rightly understood, holds that we have something exceptional to share with others, not to impose upon them. The ideals that underlie our whole national life are, as Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln argued, life forces in the world that can inspire great change – and they have, from the France of 1789 to the Arab Spring today. You sometimes have to fight for those ideals; but above all, they are beliefs, not bullets or bullying. There is a self-defeating xenophobia in the impulse to exercise power without “a decent respect to the opinions of mankind,” as the Declaration of Independence puts it. But the Republican hardliners, and they’re indisputably the Republican Party now, repeatedly assail the president for “kowtowing” to foreigners simply because he’s renewed America’s standing by listening as well as leading. Supposedly this is soft; just ask Dick Cheney. But to the discomfort of the unilateralists, it was Obama not Bush who got Osama bin Laden.
http://theweek.com/bullpen/column/215915/the-gops-dangerous-arrogance
Gabrielle Giffords And Mark Kelly Reunite, Hold Hands For 2 Hours
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/02/gabrielle-giffords-mark-kelly-reunite_n_870707.html#comments
HOUSTON — Endeavour commander Mark Kelly and wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords reunited Thursday evening after more than two weeks apart and they weren’t letting go.
Kelly, who landed Wednesday after a 16-day flight that was Endeavour’s final mission, finally got back together the next day with Giffords, who is recovering from a gunshot wound to the head. The reunited couple held hands for two hours, said Giffords spokesman C.J. Karamargin.
“It was actually a very touching moment,” Karamargin said Thursday evening. “They are smiling ear-to-ear and haven’t let go of each other’s hands.”
Kelly had rushed to Giffords’ rehabilitation center after a public celebration that lasted more than an hour for the six-man Endeavour crew’s return home to Houston. He caught Giffords still putting on her makeup, Karamargin said.
Amazing power of God! God IS good all the time and all the time God IS good!
June 03, 2011 07:00 AM
Wonder Why Anthony Weiner Was Attacked? Wingnuts Needed A Diversion From His Clarence Thomas Recusal Campaign
By Susie Madrak
Rep. Anthony Weiner has been working since February to hold Clarence Thomas accountable for hiding his wife’s income to avoid the appearance of a conflict, and his campaign was finally getting some traction. So what do the wingnuts do? They quickly create a diversion:
Rep. Anthony Weiner says Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas should recuse himself from any health reform cases cases that come before the high court, and he and 73 other Congress members have formally asked him to in a letter.
Their problem is that Thomas’ wife, Virginia, has reportedly earmed money lobbying against the health insurance reform law.
“As an Associate Justice, you are entrusted with the responsibility to exercise the highest degree of discretion and impartiality when deciding a case,” Weiner and Co. wrote.
“As Members of Congress, we were surprised by recent revelations of your financial ties to leading organizations dedicated to lobbying against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,” they wrote. “We write today to respectfully ask that you maintain the integrity of this court and recuse yourself from any deliberations on the constitutionality of this act.”
They point to her touting her connections to clients who want the health reform law tossed. One of those connections might be considered to be her husband, they argue, and say Thomas should duck any cases that raise the appearance of a conlict of interest.
They also note that Thomas had failed to disclose the $686,589 that Virginia Thomas earned from the health reform-opposing Heritage Foundation from 2003 to 2007, and that his wife stood to gain from his decision in the Citizens United case.
Karoli adds:
Does anyone remember hearing that Justice Thomas released his financial disclosures on May 27th? Here’s a little tidbit for you: His disclosures indicate a direct cash investment of between $15,000 and $25,000 into Ginni Thomas’ Liberty Consulting lobby firm…the one that she started after resigning from the Liberty Central Tea Party astroturf group. The disclosures also indicate payment from Liberty Central and Liberty Consulting to Ginni Thomas in 2010, post Citizens United.
And Anthony Weiner was pushing hard on Thomas to recuse himself from any ACA-related lawsuits before Andrew Breitbart sprung into action.
This timeline is interesting:
Sept 9, 2009: Citizens United argued.
Nov 6, 2009: Virginia Thomas launches her new Liberty Central 501(c)(4) organization, which raises 550K in 2009.
Jan 21, 2010: Citizens United decided.
Virginia Thomas announces that Liberty Central would “accept donations from various sources — including corporations — as allowed under campaign finance rules recently loosened by the Supreme Court.”
November 14, 2010: Liberty Central announces that Virginia Thomas would be leaving the organization.
November 16, 2010: Liberty Consulting incorporated in the state of Virginia.
February 4, 2011: Politico reports that Virginia Thomas had launched Liberty Consulting
http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/wonder-why-anthony-weiner-was-attacke
John Edwards Indicted: Charged With Conspiracy, Campaign Finance Violations By Federal Grand Jury
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/03/john-edwards-indicted_n_867406.html
RALEIGH, North Carolina — A federal grand jury has indicted two-time presidential candidate John Edwards over massive sums of money spent to keep his mistress in hiding during the peak of his 2008 campaign for the White House.
The case of USA v. Johnny Reid Edwards contains six counts, including conspiracy, four counts of illegal campaign contributions and one count of false statements. The indictment was returned in the Middle District of North Carolina Friday.
An Edwards spokeswoman said she wasn’t aware of the filing and declined immediate comment.
The indictment is the culmination of a federal investigation that lasted more than two years and scoured through virtually every corner of Edwards’ political career.
Every dog has its day.
June 03, 2011 10:25 AM
Off to a mendacious start
By Steve Benen
Mitt Romney launched his second presidential campaign yesterday, and offered the public quite a few whoppers on his first day. My personal favorite: “We are only inches away from ceasing to be a free market economy.”
David Corn was understandably amazed.
Inches away? Is he kidding? Did Sarah Palin write this line for Romney?
Reporters should ask the former mandate-embracing governor of Massachusetts to back up this demagogic statement…. American automakers are in a much better (and more competitive) position, due to Obama’s rescue plan. (Romney opposed the use of federal money to save Detroit.) Corporate and bank profits have been soaring in recent months. And the stock mark recovered from the losses brought about by the Bush-Cheney crash of 2008. If this be the end of our free market economy, titans of industry and investors may be tempted to embrace its demise. […]
The nation’s free market economy is not on the verge of extinction. (Oh, look, here come the collectivists!) Romney must know that. Yet his willingness to utter such an extreme, fear-laden remark shows he’s eager to tap the paranoid, Obama-is-destroying-America sentiment rife within Republican ranks. You might even say that Romney has drunk the tea.
The Associated Press, to its credit, ran a fact-check piece of its own, documenting clear falsehoods from Romney’s kick-off speech, including (1) a bogus claim that Obama made the recession “worse”; (2) arguing that the president “traveled around the globe to apologize for America”; (3) insisting that Obama “raises” taxes on “entrepreneurs and employers”; (4) falsely claiming he never raised taxes during his one term as governor.
And while we’re at it, National Journal noted that Romney’s condemnation of the administration’s economic agenda overlooks the fact that Romney endorsed much of that same agenda in 2009.
None of this is especially surprising — Romney’s willing to lie to get ahead? You don’t say — but it sets an unhelpful tone for the rest of the campaign. The former Massachusetts governor is not only the most dramatic flip-flopper American politics has seen in a generation, he’s also well on his way to being among the most dishonest candidates, too.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_06/off_to_a_mendacious_start030001.php
June 03, 2011 8:00 AM
House Dems get their turn with POTUS
By Steve Benen
On Wednesday, President Obama had a fairly contentious discussion with several House Republicans, including the GOP leadership, over ongoing debt-reduction talks. The House majority party, not surprisingly, pushed the president to accept sweeping cuts to just about everything, most notably Medicare.
Yesterday afternoon, it was House Democrats’ turn to push Obama in the opposite direction.
In a meeting with House Democrats on Thursday, President Obama stressed that his administration would draw a firm line on taxes and revenues both in the deficit- and debt-reduction debates and in the buildup to the 2012 elections.
According to multiple meeting attendees, the president reiterated on several occasions that a deal to raise the country’s debt ceiling would include revenue increases, even as Republican lawmakers insist that such a deal should be restricted to spending cuts and entitlement reforms.
“I’ve been very clear about revenues as a part of a balanced package, and I will continue to be,” said Obama.
The goal of a “clean” debt-ceiling bill is obviously long gone; the question now is what kind of deal the parties will reach. The president remains committed to the “balanced” approach that includes both cuts and additional revenue, but Republicans have said repeatedly they won’t accept any plan that includes any tax increase on anyone at any time. And as some top GOP lawmakers conceded yesterday, they fully expect Obama to cave when the pressure intensifies.
The president’s message to his House Democratic allies was straightforward: he’ll hold the line and demand additional revenue. Indeed, Obama vowed to let the tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans expire on schedule next year “no matter what hostages” Republicans take.
That’s obviously what the caucus wanted to hear.
On foreign policy, however, the discussion was a little less friendly.
One of the leading Democratic opponents of the war in Afghanistan exited the White House disappointed with Obama’s lack of clarity on what he plans to do next month, when a drawdown of troops from Afghanistan is slated to begin.
“I told him that if it’s just a token drawdown, I think people will be pretty outraged by that. The American people want an end to this war,” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said afterward. McGovern, the author of a plan to set a firm timeline for withdraw, added that he felt Obama had evaded the specifics of how many troops would begin to come home.
“I don’t feel we got an assurance that there would be a substantial and significant drawdown of American forces in July,” McGovern said. “He didn’t tell us what it would be, but I didn’t get the assurance that I was hoping to get.”
Other Democrats said that McGovern received a strong applause from rank-and-file Democrats for pushing the president on the issue.
Obama ended the discussion, which lasted more than an hour, by noting that talking with House Dems is like being with “family.” And like any family, these folks aren’t going to agree on everything, but by all accounts, Democratic lawmakers left the White House fairly pleased.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_06/house_dems_get_their_turn_with029997.php
Eshoo: Chamber Having ‘Sissy Fit’ Over Campaign Disclosure
Lawmakers on Thursday offered two competing amendments to a bill addressing the anonymous flow of taxpayer money to third party political groups. One would have required disclosure of such donations, the other would ban the government from doing anything to shed any light on the financial flows.
Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) said her amendment, which was ruled out of order, would “require that anyone that receives an appropriation, a contract, doing business with the federal government produce full disclosure relative to political expenditures.” She said it would eliminate “a dark corner of our system that is not being addressed.”
Her amendment was offered as a rebuttal to an amendment by Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) which would ban the government from requiring disclosure of such donations. He’s offered similar amendments and introduced a self-standing piece of legislation to accomplish the same objective.
Eshoo told TPM that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is throwing a “sissy fit” over the prospect of companies that receive taxpayer money through federal contracts having to disclose their donations to third party groups.
“It’s a classic case of follow the money. [Republicans] were for it before they were against it,” Eshoo said. “They’re mounting an effort against it because they see how they win under the present set up. I think this is really a back door earmark, it has everything to do with the process here.”
“That must be highly menacing to them, it’s obvious — the national Chamber of Commerce is having a sissy fit, the uber organization for lobbyists, those that represent the lobbyists that represent lobbyists,” Eshoo said. Many members of the Chamber already voluntarily disclose their donations to third party political groups.
Eshoo said that Democrats need to do more to combat the Republican narrative on the executive order being considered by President Barack Obama. If passed that would would require companies bidding on federal contracts to disclose their donations to third-party groups. Republicans have painted the measure as a backdoor attempt by the Obama administration to intimidate political opponents.
“I think Democrats should take this up and create a real drumbeat on it,” Eshoo told TPM between votes. “Now the leader understood how important this was, spoke on the floor about it, as have other members, but do I think its raised to a level of where it should be? – no I don’t think so.”
“But you can see how the Republicans are – take the piece of candy away and they’re Pavlovian about it – cause it’s all about money,” Eshoo said.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/06/eshoo_chamber_having_sissy_fit_over_campaign_discl.php?ref=mblt
Fri Jun 03, 2011 at 06:22 AM PDT.
Crunch. Jobs report even worse than projected
by Meteor Blades
Analysts’ expectations ahead of today’s monthly jobs report were lowered this week after the release of troubling news about manufacturing, housing and retail sales. But they weren’t lowered enough.
In its seasonally adjusted report, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that only 54,000 jobs were added to the economy, far below the monthly average of 182,000 new jobs added in the first four months of 2011. The private sector added 83,000 jobs, less than a third of what it did in April. Layoffs of 28,000 public-sector employees by financially straitened state and local governments brought the overall numbers down.
The official unemployment rate rose to 9.1 percent.
Numbers for job growth in March and April were revised downward as well, in March from 221,000 to 194,000, and in April from 244,000 to 235,000.
Whether the sharp reversal of a steadily improving job creation trend since late last year will be a one-month affair or something more permanent will without doubt be a big topic of discussion today. The report will certainly add to growing concerns about the slowdown in an economic expansion that has been anemic in terms of job creation since it began 23 months ago. Gone are the predictions of earlier this year that the gross domestic product might rise 4 percent or more for 2011. Or even 3 percent.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/06/03/981670/-Crunch-Jobs-report-even-worse-than-projected-?via=blog_1
On the road, Palin’s tour a rolling menace
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/56186.html
SEABROOK, N.H. — Sarah Palin’s bus is plastered with a mockup of the U.S. Constitution. But her entourage — both the three-vehicle motorcade that includes the bus and the smaller, two-SUV version she uses for smaller events — hasn’t been very respectful of the traffic laws.
They speed. They run red lights and stop signs. They make last-second lane changes to get off the highway, sometimes without signaling.
So do the reporters following them.
Journalists in the caravan trailing her One Nation tour bus describe the experience as harrowing, a rolling menace careening up the East Coast in hot pursuit of the former Alaska governor who declined to provide any advance itinerary of her tour over six days on the road.
As they left the clambake she attended Thursday in New Hampshire, Palin’s two-SUV caravan did 52 miles per hour in a 35 zone as it peeled away from the hosts’ neighborhood. Both cars blew through a stop sign about a mile later. They did 70 mph in a 55 mph zone on I-95 — and then, after they got off, without signaling, flew right past a flashing sign informing them they were going 45 mph in a 35 mph zone.
And that was after they’d already stormed the major cities — and just missed driving through a tornado on the road into Boston.
On Tuesday, the bus nearly hit a biker turning off of Pine Street in Philadelphia.
Why are journalists putting their lives at risk following this dumb ignorant grifting trash?! Not only is she a menace on the road…she’s a menace to the country!
Get off the political stage, Palin!
So now the Sno’ Ho has literally plastered CROSSHAIRS on America’s roads. She’s a DANGER to society at large!
I wish we had a “like” button for comments!
The First Lady Participates in Three Sisters Garden Planting
http://www.whitehouse.gov/live
June 03, 2011 3:45 PM EDT
President Obama Speaks to Workers at Chrysler Group Toledo Supplier Park
http://www.whitehouse.gov/live
June 03, 2011 1:25 PM EDT
Jack Kevorkian, convicted in assisted suicides, dies at 83
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43265235/ns/us_news-life
Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the Michigan pathologist dubbed “Dr. Death” for his role in assisting the suicides of more than 100 terminally ill people, died early Friday, his lawyer said.
Kevorkian, 83, died at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich., where he had been hospitalized subce last month with pneumonia and kidney problems.
The lawyer, Mayer Morganroth, said it appears Kevorkian suffered a pulmonary thrombosis when a blood clot from his leg broke free and lodged in his heart, according to the Detroit Free Press.
“It was peaceful. He didn’t feel a thing,” Morganroth told the newspaper. According to the Associated Press, he said nurses played classical music by Kevorkian’s favorite composal, Johann Sebastian Bach, before he died.
Morganroth says Kevorkian was conscious Thursday night and the two spoke about leaving the hospital and getting ready for rehabilitation.
Morganroth told the Free Press that the hospital staff, doctors and nurses said Kevorkian’s passing was “a tremendous loss and I agree with them. He did so much.”
No plans for memorial
Morganroth told the paper that he doubts anyone will assume Kevorkian’s role in assisted suicide: “Who else would take those kind of risks?”
Morganroth said there are no plans for any memorial.
Kevorkian, believed to have assisted in 130 suicides, was convicted of second-degree murder in 1999 and sentenced to 10-25 years in prison but was released in 2007.
RIP doc; now you can mingle with the other 130 souls you helped to cross over.
Thu Jun 02, 2011 at 10:36 PM PDT.
Breaking! WI Joint Finance Committe slips Collective Bargaining Changes into Budget at Midnight!by Sand Hill Crane .
I have been attending at a fundraising event and just came home to discover that the Republicans on the Wisconsin State Joint Finance Committee are inserting the Collective Bargaining Changes into Budget. This is being discussed right now at 12:31am Central and you can watch it from your computer at http://www.wisconsineye.org
This is from Peter Barca’s Facebook page (Peter Barca is the Minority Leader of WI State Assembly)
If you tune into http://www.wisconsineye.org you can watch the proceedings of Jt. Finance and see them in what appears to be an attempt to actually make the collective bargaining changes even more restrictive than what the Governor originally proposed. Of course they waited until nearly midnight to take this up!
The Motion passed with all of the GOP members voting yes. I can not find the text to this motion online right now. I will add it when it becomes available.
This is from Peter Barca’s Facebook page (Peter Barca is the Minority Leader of WI State Assembly)
It is not clear what all is exactly covered in this motion! Perhaps if they would share these motions before midnight the citizens of this state could actually comment and contact their legislators to share their views before it is actually voted on, versus reading about it in the paper in the morning. It does not appear to be putting all of Act 10 back in the budget at this point. Wonder when that will be taken up
Update 2
This is from Peter Barca’s Facebook page (Peter Barca is the Minority Leader of WI State Assembly)
We all need to get some rest as tomorrow they will be bringing up various key university and environmental issues and who knows what else! Of course as many of you have commented what makes this so challenging is that so often they bring up these detailed changes with no time to even review the documents. Tonight they only gave the Democratic Members 5 minutes to review these revisions before beginning the debate (my emphasis added)
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/06/03/981610/-Breaking!-WI-Joint-Finance-Committe-slips-Collective-Bargaining-Changes-into-Budget-at-Midnight!?via=siderec
Dirty SOBs.
Elmer ‘Geronimo’ Pratt, a former Black Panther leader, dies in Tanzania
Elmer G. “Geronimo” Pratt, a former Los Angeles Black Panther Party leader who spent 27 years in prison for a murder he says he did not commit and whose case became a symbol of racial injustice during the turbulent 1960s, has died. He was 63.
Pratt died at his home in a small village in Tanzania, where he had been living with his wife and child, according to Stuart Hanlon, a San Francisco attorney who helped overturn Pratt’s murder conviction. Hanlon said he was informed of the death by Pratt’s sister.
Pratt’s case became a cause celebre for elected officials, Amnesty International, clergy and celebrities who believed he was framed by the government because he was African American and a member of the Black Panthers.
“Geronimo was a powerful leader,” Hanlon told The Times. “For that reason he was targeted.”
Pratt was convicted in 1972 and sentenced to life in prison for the 1968 fatal shooting of Caroline Olsen and the serious wounding of her husband, Kenneth, in a robbery that netted $18. The case was overturned in 1997 by an Orange County Superior Court judge who ruled that prosecutors at Pratt’s murder trial had concealed evidence that could have led to his acquittal.
Pratt maintained that the FBI knew he was innocent because the agency had him under surveillance in Oakland when the murder was committed in Santa Monica.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/06/geronimo-pratt-dies.html
Well done thy good and faithful servant. RIP, Mr. Pratt.
Obama administration subpoenas Goldman Sachs
Ruh-roh, Raggy. Looks like Obama Bank & Trust, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Big Banks, Inc. (according to some) is getting frisky. They’ve subpoenaed Goldman Sachs:
A prosecutor in New York has subpoenaed Wall Street powerhouse Goldman Sachs for information related to the financial crisis, a person familiar with the development said Thursday.
The broad request from the Manhattan district attorney, issued last month, stems from an April report by Senate investigators that accused Goldman Sachs of abusive behavior, according to the source.
The report said Goldman Sachs contributed to the financial crisis, partly by designing mortgage-related investments that enabled the firm to profit while its clients lost money.
I know that there are a whole lotta people out there who consider this president an utter failure because he couldn’t do in two years what previous presidents could not do at all. I get that. I just think it’s bullshit. This administration gets things done. It’s just that there is so goddam MUCH to get done that it takes some time.
Patience, Padawan. Your pony is on its way.
http://www.eclectablog.com/2011/06/obama-administration-subpoenas-goldman.html
Congratulations Sukanya Roy Scripps National Spelling Bee Champion! Here’s her pic so you’re not confused as to the winner:
http://www.mercurynews.com/portlet/article/html/render_gallery.jsp?articleId=18189289&siteId=568&startImage=1
Pa. girl aces ‘cymotrichous’ to win Spelling Bee
By JOSEPH WHITE Associated Press
Posted: 06/02/2011 12:35:02 AM PDT
Updated: 06/02/2011 09:34:49 PM PDT
OXON HILL, Md.—It went on and on and on. Five spellers who seemingly had memorized the entire dictionary simply could not be stumped with any word tossed their way. It was getting late, way past bedtime and well beyond the time slot allotted by ESPN for its telecast.
Finally, after 21 consecutive spellings without a miss, one of them finally flubbed a word. Eventually, the others were gone—having heard the telltale bell of elimination—except for 14-year-old eighth grader Sukanya Roy of South Abington Township, Pa., who took home the trophy and the more than $40,000 in cash and prizes Thursday at the 84th Scripps National Spelling Bee.
12th in 2009 and 20th in 2010, “and I guess some of the words really stuck.”
Sukanya’s winning word was “cymotrichous,” which relates to wavy hair. She likes hiking, rock climbing and ice skating, wants to travel and perhaps pursue a career in international relations. She is the fourth consecutive Indian-American to win the bee and the ninth in the last 13 years, a run that began when Nupur Lala captured the crown in 1999 and was later featured in the documentary “Spellbound.”
“They look up to that. But I don’t know how that impacted her,” said Sukanya’s farther, Abhijit Roy. “This is not something we pressurized her to do. She wanted to do this by herself, and we basically just helped her along. It’s a
“I went through the dictionary once or twice,” said Sukanya, who tied for few years; this didn’t
Read the rest here:
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_18189289?nclick_check=1
Yglesias
Will The Egg-On-Face Factor Lead To An Economic Calamity?
By Matthew Yglesias posted from ThinkProgress Yglesias on Jun 2, 2011 at 9:30 pm
Your quotes of the day:
“Of course, it’s dangerous,” a House Republican close to Boehner said of the politics of a government default. “But it’s dangerous for everybody, especially the president. At the end of the day, [Obama] will have to give in.”
“Who has egg on their face if there is a sovereign debt crisis, House Republicans or the president?” asked another senior GOP lawmaker.
This is, incidentally, why it was a mistake of the White House and Congressional Democrats to get dragged into a negotiation in the first place. That said, the evidence from political science does appear to suggest that if Republican intransigence destroys the American economy, that the voters will respond to this by punishing the incumbent President and electing a Republican. Obviously the models on which that conclusion is based don’t include a scenario in which out-party irresponsibility leads to sovereign default. No model is better than the parameters in which it’s based, and a sovereign default could easily be a model-busting occurrence. Still, it seems like at least one “House Republican close to Boehner” thinks this isn’t the case and the president will get most of the blame for a default. That’s a dangerous case of power without responsibility.
http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2011/06/02/235091/will-the-egg-on-face-factor-lead-to-an-economic-calamity/
Times are eastern. PRESIDENT OBAMA’S JUNE 3, 2011 SCHEDULE
9:30 AMThe President receives the Presidential Daily Briefing
Oval Office
Closed Press
9:55 AMThe President departs the White House en route Andrews Air Force Base
South Lawn
Open Press
10:10 AMThe President departs Andrews Air Force Base en route Toledo, Ohio
Travel Pool Coverage
11:30 AMThe President arrives in Toledo, Ohio
Ohio, Toledo, Toledo Express Airport
Open Press
1:00 PMThe President tours Chrysler Group Toledo Supplier Park
Chrysler Group Toledo Supplier Park, Ohio, Toledo
Travel Pool Coverage
1:25 PMThe President delivers remarks to workers LIVE STREAM
Chrysler Group Toledo Supplier Park, Ohio, Toledo
Open Press
4:00 PMThe President departs Toledo, Ohio en route Andrews Air Force Base
Ohio, Toledo, Toledo Express Airport
Open Press
5:15 PMThe President arrives at Andrews Air Force Base
Travel Pool Coverage
5:30 PMThe President arrives at the White House
South Lawn
Good Morning, Everyone! :-)
Special shout out to creolechild. 3 Chics is sending our love and blessing; get well soon. We miss you!
Good Morning, Everyone at 3CHICS !!
LOL Good Morning, SG2. Loving the 3 Chicks!
Coffee: http://community.cbs47.tv/blogs/files/5005/4324331/coffee-cup-01.jpg
:)
I’d be delighted! Thank you for your kindness!
Have a most enjoyable Friday!
Inspiration for today…
Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!
Isaiah 30:18