Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ,[2] Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records. His contribution to music, dance, and fashion, along with a much-publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades. The seventh child of the Jackson family, he debuted on the professional music scene along with his brothers as a member of The Jackson 5, then the Jacksons in 1964, and began his solo career in 1971.
Posted at 03:02 PM ET, 11/11/2011
Links Inc. dedicates renovated new home
By Hamil R. Harris
Links Inc. on Friday dedicated it’s newly renovated national headquarters in the District as part of a weekend of festivities.
Prominent African American women from across the country mingled with government officials to celebrate the 65-year-old organization.
The crowd gathers at the Links, Incorporated ribbon cutting ceremony in Northwest DC on November 11, 2011. (Hamil R. Harris – The Washington Post)
“This place represents the hopes, aspirations, accomplishments and the collective work of all of the presidents who followed Link Dolly Adams,” said Links National President Margot James Copeland as she cut the ribbon on the a red brick three story building in the 1200 block of Massachusetts Avenue NW.
Started by a “circle” of nine friends in 1946, Links Inc. is made up business executives, members of Congress and many other influential African American women. The organization moved into its first national home in the District in 1974 and have continued to expand.
Links has 274 chapters in 42 states across the country and in the District of Columbia and the Bahamas.
The District is home to several prominent African American organizations. In 1995, the National Council of Negro Women, moved into their national headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue NW.
In addition to the building dedication, the Links will have a black-tie gala Saturday night hosted by Tim Reid and Daphne Maxwell Reid and featuring Grammy-award winning singer Will Downing.
Linda Johnson Rice, CEO of the Johnson Publishing Company, will receive the organization’s highest honor. A special church service is planned at Metropolitan AME Church.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/therootdc/post/links-inc-dedicates-renovated-new-home/2011/11/11/gIQAjmJmCN_blog.html?wprss=therootdc
In wake of Penn State, another college reveals abuse probe
By Harriet McLeod
CHARLESTON, South Carolina | Sat Nov 12, 2011 6:32pm EST
CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) – In the wake of the Penn State child sex abuse scandal, another university, The Citadel military college in South Carolina, revealed on Saturday that it had investigated accusations against a camp counselor but took no action.
The man has since been jailed on separate charges of molesting five boys in Mount Pleasant, near Charleston, South Carolina.
“We regret that we did not pursue this matter further,” Citadel President Lt. General John Rosa and Board of Visitors Chair Doug Snyder said in a statement.
The Citadel said it investigated four years ago accusations of inappropriate conduct with children by Louis Neal “Skip” ReVille, who was a counselor at the military school’s camp.
ReVille is a graduate of The Citadel, the college said, and worked as a counselor at the school’s camp for three summers between 2001 and 2003.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/12/us-crime-citadel-abuse-idUSTRE7AB12F20111112
November 12, 2011
Obama: Outlines of Pacific Trade Deal Reached
President Barack Obama has announced that the United States and eight other Pacific nations have reached the broad outlines of an agreement to create a Trans-Pacific Partnership to liberalize trade.
Negotiations aimed at finalizing the new trade group, composed of nations already members of the larger 21 member APEC group, have been going on for months.
Though the fine details and difficulty of the talks prevented any final agreement being announced in Honolulu, the conclusion of a framework for TPP was expected.
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/usa/Obama-Outlines-of-Pacific-Trade-Deal-Reached-133747848.html
never gets old
Berlusconi resigns amid jeering, celebrations
Nov 12 (Reuters) – Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi formally resigned on Saturday, ending one of the most scandal-plagued eras in recent Italian history amid the jeers of hundreds of protestors gathered in central Rome to celebrate his departure.
President Giorgio Napolitano accepted Berlusconi’s resignation after a meeting in the presidential palace, his office said.
Berlusconi, who failed to secure a majority in a crucial vote on Tuesday, handed in his resignation after parliament passed a package of measures demanded by European partners to restore market confidence in Italy’s strained public finances.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/12/italy-resigna…
the fans showed class today, according to PENN STATE coach Tom Bradley; really?
“The fans showed class today, according to PENN STATE coach Tom Bradley; really?
Hey Ametia, I agree with your question: “Really?”. I also have a few questions myself about something else Tom Bradley said: I just heard the interim coach for Penn State say that after today’s football game (where he felt his players fought their hearts out in a losing effort), the “healing process can now begin.” My question is how can the healing process begin when this tragic case hasn’t even been resolved? When all of the victims’ voices have not been heard? When the perpetrators and enablers of henious crimes have not been punished? When Penn State has not paid its debt to the known and perhaps 100s of unknown young boys who were abused by this monster of man, Jerry Sandusky? No, the healing process has NOT begun!
I just heard the interim coach for Penn State say that after today’s football game (where he felt his players fought their hearts out in a losing effort), the “healing process can now begin.”
Hello NCW!
I tried really hard not to say bad words but I’m beside myself. It’s fking mind blowing how stupid these mofos are. Healing does not begin with a got damn football game. I’ve said from the beginning, Mcqueary probably didn’t call the police because the 10 year old was a little black boy. He walked out and allowed Sandusky to continue to rape. What a no good bee.itch! I could smack him to the moon.
100% hearing you & agree, NCW & SG2. These folks have their asses burried so far up their asses; they can’t smell themselves. It’s the game must go on, tell those youth to behave themselves, and this shyt will go away. NO.WAY. I hope every boy and their parent (s) come forward and take down those MOFOS at PENN STATE.
Check out these 2011 BET BLACK GIRLS ROCK performances from 11/6. AMAZING!
Mary J., Estelle, Jill Scott, Erikah Badu, etc.
http://thatgrapejuice.net/2011/11/black-girls-rock-2011-performances/
Earl Ofari Hutchinson: Did Race Explain Penn State’s Blind Eye to Sex Scandal?
Enough of the ghoulish, sordid facts are known about the Penn State University child sex scandal to say this. The alleged child rapes were known by some athletic department members, up to and including the football program boss, JoePa, Joe Paterno. The rumors, or worse, knowledge of the rapes may have been known by or at least heard of by others still unnamed that could eventually be a winding tangle through university staff, faculty, administrators, trustees, and corporate donors, and politicians.
The two prime offenders charged with the crimes were not some causal locker room jocks and hangers on, but long term, respected, and highly positioned athletic department mainstays. The Second Mile Foundation that served as a cover for the alleged rapes by its founder, the disgraced and accused child rapist Jerry Sandusky was not some fly-by-night, drive by, fast buck operation, but a well-established foundation that had been in business for more than three decades. Sandusky was with the Foundation from the start in 1977 until just last year. Even as the scandal unfolds, it is still in business. It has a big, impressive, full bodied website that boasts of its accomplishments, has three offices, and is actively soliciting donations. The reporters that have tried to get a comment from foundation officials have been summarily hung up on.
There will be more sordid facts and cases to emerge in the coming days and almost certainly more alleged victims will come forth and tell their stories. This poses the question that’s bantered about, agonized over, and reams of opinion written, and that’s why those who knew didn’t blow the whistle on and insure that the cuffs were slapped on the offenders years ago? The stock answer is that it was a case of fear, protectiveness, ego (Paterno’s), football deification and prestige, decades of institutional sports cronyism and the bushels of money that Penn State and other big time Division 1 schools haul in every year from their flagship football programs. This is all true.
But with the strong hints and now the public finger point by a parent of one of the victims that the victims were in her words ” Blacks about 10-12 and had a tall slim muscular build.” The Second Mile Foundation’s founder and accused Jerry Sandusky openly bragged that it was in the business of helping “underprivileged” youth, always the polite code word for poor, at risk, young blacks and Hispanics, it’s hardly a stretch to connect the dots to race.
Put bluntly, if Penn State officials kept their yaps shut for years in the face of open knowledge of and strong suspicions of the child rapes and the victims were young black males, than the last dot connected is the charge that black lives are routinely devalued when it comes to officials taking action to protect them. This charge has repeatedly been leveled in serial murders, inner city gang carnage, and against child service agencies that ignore or downplay repeated reports of abuse when the victims and the abused are black. That’s only part of the problem. Race can’t be separated from poverty or “underprivileged” in the parlance of Sandusky’s The Second Mile Foundation. A study in the March issue of the Journal Pediatrics, “Racial Bias in Child Protection? A Comparison of Competing Explanations Using National Data,” found that poverty was a huge determinant not only of levels of abuse. The study predictably found that a disproportionate number of the reported child abuse cases in 2009 which spanned the gamut from neglect to child rape were African-American children. The study directly linked the abuse to poverty. Parents and caregivers that are desperate to provide their children with a pathway out of harm’s way from any and every type of abuse that comes with poverty latch on to organizations that promise to provide resources, mentoring, nurturing, and a protective environment for at risk black children.
The Second Mile Foundation that so persuasively and passionately marketed itself under its accused founder Jerry Sandusky, and with the resources, clout and national name recognition of Penn State University’s premier football majordomo Joe Paterno to boot, as just such an organization would be hungrily grabbed at as the ticket out of the ghetto for the kids. Given the name and the prestige of those behind this Foundation, why would anyone in their wildest nightmares ever think or suspect that colossal evil lurked underneath the façade of its alleged unadulterated philanthropic and do good aims?
In the days to come as more details unfold about how the Foundation under Sandusky used its good name to commit alleged serial heinous crimes, all with the tacit blessing of Paterno and university officials, the hard suspicions and hints that the target of the crimes were young black males may well be confirmed. If that’s the case, then the deep soul search that university and others everywhere that turn a blind eye to child abuse must undergo will be rudely forced to confront one more horrifying possibility. And that’s that race was one more reason for that blind eye.
http://www.eurweb.com/2011/11/earl-ofari-hutchinson-did-race-explain-penn-states-blind-eye-to-sex-scandal/
PUN INTENEDED; DARKNESS WILL EVENTUALLY COME TO LIGHT.
I think this is the horrifying thought that was in the back of most black folks’ minds when this Penn State scandal first surfaced last week. I know it was for me. Unfortunately, IMO, if this proves true the likelihood of the majority of the victims — both known and those yet to be known — getting significant financial settlements will be reduced because the majority of them may be black and poor. I’ve already read a couple of articles today that talked about “loopholes” in the law that Paterno can use if he gets served with a barrage of lawsuits. Here’s one related link. I can’t locate the other one right now:
http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7216338/penn-state-nittany-lions-child-sex-abuse-scandal-victims-become-scapegoats-lawyer-says
I know; it’s like a scavenger hunt to piece together the FILTH, NCW. I highly suspect PA authorities wrote a law with loopholes for such occassions. Rmember PSU and other universities are CORPORATIONS. And COPORATIONS are running American politics, laws, they are running pretty much every thing in AMERICA.
What is Cain’s Wife Doing?
by BooMan
Sat Nov 12th, 2011 at 11:26:42 AM EST
Here’s is something that is incomprehensible to me. Why is Herman Cain’s wife going to do an interview on Fox News defending her husband against allegations of sexual assault and harassment? How could she possibly know the truth about these allegations? She can say that he’s a great man and a wonderful husband and that he’d never drunkenly proposition an underling at a conference or shove an unwilling woman’s head into his lap. But, she doesn’t know. She’d be the last person to know. All she’s doing is setting herself up to look foolish and she won’t help her husband at all. From what I understand, several women are going to have a joint press conference where they each describe Herman Cain acting inappropriately with them. Collectively, they’ll have a lot more credibility than a women who wasn’t present on any of the relevant occasions. Mrs. Cain should stay out of it. What she should do is carefully listen to the accusers and make an honest judgment about whether they’re telling the truth. Because, if they are, she might not want to be married to the Hermanator anymore.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2011/11/12/112642/83
Blog
November 12, 2011 10:55 AM
Romney stumbles badly on veterans’ care
By Steve Benen
Ordinarily, presidential candidates wouldn’t pick Veterans’ Day to annoy veterans. Mitt Romney must have missed the memo.
At an event in South Carolina, the former Massachusetts governor, who has no background in the military, suggested he’d like to “introduce some private sector competition” into veterans’ health care, at least partially privatizing the existing system. Given the excellence of the care our veterans receive, it seemed like a bizarre thing to say. Indeed, the VFW was not at all pleased.
When reporters asked the Romney campaign to explain, his spokesperson said the Republican candidate is “only interested in providing veterans with the world-class care they deserve and reversing the defense cuts and failed policies of the Obama administration.”
None of that statement makes any sense.
Paul Krugman took on the most glaring policy problem with Romney’s approach.
First, you know what voucherization would mean in practice: the vouchers would be inadequate, and become more so over time, so that veterans who don’t make enough money to top them up would fail to receive essential care. Patriotism!
Second, the VA is one of the great policy success stories of the past two decades…. So naturally Romney wants to privatize it. Because let’s remember, he’s the serious Republican.
Actually, this is quite consistent with the rest of his health care ideas. Basically, he wants to replace Medicare with Romneycare/Obamacare; this despite the fact that the only reason Romneycare/Obamacare runs through private insurers, rather than being straight single-payers, is as a political compromise. Medicare has lots of problems, but it’s more cost-effective than private insurance — as demonstrated by the utter failure of Medicare Advantage to save, as opposed to costing, money.
So, our serious Republican is committed on ideological grounds to demolishing successful programs and replacing them with conservative fantasies that have failed repeatedly in the past.
But there’s one other thing that’s worth mentioning. The campaign’s statement said Romney is committed to “reversing the defense cuts … of the Obama administration.”
I realize Romney can be a little slow when it comes to understanding the nuances of current events, so let’s make this easy to understand: Obama has increased defense spending, and an increase is the opposite of a cut.
Maybe Romney would understand this better if we put in visual form. Here are the Pentagon budgets over the last six years, with the red columns showing defense spending under Bush, and the blue columns showing defense spending under Obama.
If Romney seriously believes this shows a decrease in defense spending, he should forget about the White House and go back to elementary school.
Romney clearly wants to be taken seriously on these issues, which suggests he should probably take the time to brush up on the details. The guy’s been running for president non-stop for nearly six years, and the fact that he’s still confused about the basics isn’t encouraging.
This isn’t as funny as Rick Perry’s “brain freeze,” but it’s arguably much more important.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_11/romney_stumbles_badly_on_veter033453.php
November 12, 2011 10:15 AM
Crossroads ad gets pulled for inaccuracy
By Steve Benen
The public discourse would be better off if more television stations pulled political attack ads that mislead the public.
An ad by Karl Rove-backed Crossroads GPS was yanked from rotation on a Montana cable show because it made claims that the network deemed false.
Recently a number of ads by the well-funded conservative outfit have been declared misleading and false, but the spot targeting Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) is apparently the first pulled from the air. The Associated Press reported that other outlets are still running the ad.
In it, Tester is accused of supporting an Environmental Protection Agency rule — a rule that was never in fact proposed — to regulate farm dust. But the vote that the ad cites actually had nothing to do with dust or the EPA; it was a procedural vote on a measure aimed at cracking down on China for manipulating currency.
Rove’s attack operation, in other words, put together yet another blatantly dishonest attack ad. Kudos to Cablevision’s Optimum cable service for dropping the spot.
Keep in mind, of course, that this latest example fits nicely into the larger pattern of dishonesty emanating from Crossroads GPS. Rove’s outfit was caught blatantly lying earlier this week in an ad that argues former President Bill Clinton disagrees with President Obama on tax policy (the opposite is true). Crossroads GPS was then caught pushing obviously bogus claims to smear Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts.
Two days later, Rove’s operation was also caught making demonstrably false claims about former Gov. Tim Kaine (D), running in a very competitive U.S. Senate race in Virginia.
And now a Montana network is pulling a fourth ad from Crossroads GPS because it makes claims that just aren’t true.
I’m starting to get the sense that Rove’s attack group has an honesty problem.
As Greg Sargent noted yesterday, “At risk of sounding terribly earnest, I’m going to continue to insist that it kind of matters that Crossroads GPS … is again blanketing airwaves across the country with millions of dollars in ads containing demonstrable falsehoods and distortions.”
Agreed. When one attack operation releases four ads in a week, and all four are proven to include obvious falsehoods, it’s not unreasonable to think Crossroads GPS is less an “advocacy organization” and more a group of professional liars.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_11/crossroads_ad_gets_pulled_for033452.php
Political Animal
Blog
November 12, 2011 9:40 AM
When Republicans love stimulus spending
By Steve Benen
I have to admit, I never tire of stories like these.
Rep. Frank Guinta (R-NH) kicked it old school on Thursday by cutting the ribbon on a new road that received millions from the same spending bill he opposed.
Guinta spoke at the opening ceremony for Raymond Wieczorek Drive, a new access road connecting various towns to the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport. Later he posted a picture of the event on his official Facebook page. Other attendees included Gov. John Lynch (D) and New Hampshire House Speaker William O’Brien.
“It’s going to help us with our tourism, our economy, and it’s going to provide us greater flexibility for our residents, our business commuters, and those visiting our state,” Guinta said at the event. “It’s a real example of how when we put our mind to it we can accomplish anything we want to accomplish.”
These examples are a lot less common now, not because GOP officials have become more responsible, but because Recovery Act funding has just about been exhausted. But when the instances come along, they tend to be doozies.
In this case, Guinta absolutely loathes stimulus spending — his hatred for these public investments was a central part of his 2010 campaign platform — but that didn’t stop him from trying to take credit for the infrastructure project that was financed by stimulus spending. That this new project wouldn’t exist if Guinta had his way didn’t interfere with his smiles at the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Now, every time these examples come up, I get some pushback. As the argument goes, these Republican lawmakers who hate stimulus spending and want stimulus spending at the same time aren’t really doing anything wrong, because once the funds are available, members of Congress have a responsibility to look out for their districts’ interests.
There’s certainly some truth to this, and I can fully appreciate the importance of fighting for a slice of a pie. After all, their taxpaying constituents are paying for these investments whether they like it or not.
The problem, though, is the ways in which this practice pokes holes in the larger Republican ideology. GOP lawmakers like Guinta run around telling the public that public investments can’t create jobs and are bad for the economy. GOP lawmakers like Guinta then also tell the public investments can create jobs and are good for the economy.
Look again at those remarks the conservative Republican lawmaker made at the ribbon-cutting ceremony: because Congress agreed to spend this money, over his objections, Guinta’s community will get a larger economic boost. But if that’s true, why has Guinta fought so hard to kill this and related investments? Isn’t boosting the economy a worthwhile goal?
If there’s money on the table, and Republicans want to fight for some of it, fine. But what gets me are the ideological arguments that are as wrong as they are cynical — public spending will undermine the economy, unless it’s in my area, in which case it will be good for the economy.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_11/when_republicans_love_stimulus033451.php
That was a sweet setting for a basketball game. I was hating lol
LOL Hi Dannie. It certainly would have been a trip to be seated courtside on USS Carl Vinson last night with POTUS & FLOTUS!
War and violence sells. Is it any wonder….
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 breaks sales records
More than 6.5 million copies of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 were sold in the first 24 hours after the game’s release, breaking records for a video game launch.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/video-game-news/8884726/Call-of-Duty-Modern-Warfare-3-breaks-sales-records.html
Our President is so fly…
TOTALLY FLY.
Good Morning, Chicas, Friends & Visitors!
Happy Saturday!
Inspiration for today
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Good Morning, SG2, rikyrah, & All you BEAUTIFUL PEOPLES! :-)