Sounds of Blackness is a Grammy Award-winning vocal and instrumental ensemble from Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota who perform music from several genres music including gospel, R&B, soul, and jazz. The group scored several hits on the Billboard R&B chart and Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in the 1990s. One of the group’s current members is Cynthia Johnson, who rose to fame with Lipps, Inc.
The group was founded in 1969 by Russell Knighton at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and the group was called the Macalester College Black Voices. It was in 1971 when current director Gary Hines took leadership over the ensemble, and the group name was officially changed to Sounds of Blackness (SOB). The group had acquired local celebrity status throughout the years though never signed with a record company because of various reasons including the fact that many companies were not comfortable with the group’s name. Some companies even suggested to Hines that the group’s name be changed to “The Sounds of Music.”[citation needed]
‘Life’s a Tripp’ for Bristol Palin with new reality show
http://tv.msn.com/tv/article.aspx?news=708006&ocid=ansent11
Following in the footsteps of her famous mom, Bristol Palin will now have her own reality show on Lifetime: “Bristol Palin: Life’s a Tripp.”‘
former “Dancing with the Stars” contender and best-selling author will get a 10-episode run on the network later this year, with the show providing “an exclusive, rare glimpse” into Bristol’s life as a single mother “forging her own way in the world” in Alaska with son Tripp, focusing on the close relationship she holds with her high-profile parents Todd and Sarah Palin and her siblings.
“From the first moment she was thrust into the public eye, Bristol and her son have been the subjects of a huge amount of curiosity and misunderstanding,” says Lifetime’s Rob Sharenow. “This show will reveal the real Bristol Palin and her journey as a daughter, a mother and a young woman making her way in the world.”
Donna Brazille is starring on CBS the “Good Wife.” right now
I read it on Twitter. Go Donna!
Love The Good Wife. Donna was good!
Here’s the link to the CBS shows The Good Wife. Look for the 3-3-12 show when available
: http://www.cbs.com/shows/the_good_wife/video/2198498418/the-good-wife-one-last-billable-hour
In case you missed This Week with Georgie Porgie- Full script and video. Noonan declares, the GOP is not declaring a war o women. It’s about religion…. the comments are hilrious
Villagers on This Week: What ‘War On Women’? No One Listens To Rush, Anyway, He’s Only An Entertainer
March 04, 2012 01:00 PM
By Susie Madrak
http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/villagers-week-what-war-women-no-one-
THIS VIDEO CLIP IS EVERYTHING SHORT OF GENIUS.
Wyatt Cenac Turns The Tables On PETA
http://criticalmassprogress.com/2012/03/04/wyatt-cenac-turns-the-tables-on-peta/
Where’s rikyrah. You’e going to LOVE this clip!
bwa ha ha ha ha a ha ha ha ha ha
LOL Go above the Youtube video and click on the other link. The full clip is there. It’s brilliant!
Hat tip Smartypants:
http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2012/03/some-laughs-to-end-weekend.html?showComment=1330903217961#c5811126562588993050
THE REPUBLICANS WANT TO BOMB IRAN, BUT THEY ARE AFRAID OF RUSH LIMBAUGH.
Lift Every Voice: Michelle Obama
Exclusive: Michelle Obama talks faith and fitness on Lift Every Voice. Watch on Sunday, March 4 at 10/9C. (Season 2012)
Lift Every Voice: Michelle Obama
Exclusive: Michelle Obama talks faith and fitness on Lift Every Voice. Watch on Sunday, March 4 at 10/9C. (Season 2012)
http://www.bet.com/video/lifteveryvoice/2012/exclusive/michelle-obama-flotus-lift-every-voice-s1.html
Happy Sunday, ALL! :-)
ThinkProgress @thinkprogress:
Romney tells 11-year-old boy that if Obama is reelected Iran will get a nuclear weapon http://thkpr.gs/xpWAc8
They’ve got nothing but fear & hate. Imagine the lengths he and the GOP will go through to gaina nd maintain POWER,, by FRIGHTENING an 11 year old boy, A boy who is probably susceptabe to guns, war games.
Romney is a nuclear weapon, and we have been experiencing his FALLOUT, ever since he started his bid for the presidency. One dangerously weak, rich MOFO.
i’m getting several of these. How about y’all? LOL
For those who are fans,
Breakout Kings begins a new season tonight at 10 pm EST on A&E.
this was funny
SNL Introduces “Real Housewives of Disney” (VIDEO)
http://www.gossipcop.com/real-housewives-of-disney-snl-video-princesses-snow-white-cinderella-belle-saturday-night-live-2012-watch/
3/03/2012 @ 10:18PM |8,702 views
Rush Limbaugh’s Non-Apology Apology
The art of the non-apology apology is often crude: a condescending, second insult on top of the first, really. But you’ve got to hand it to Rush Limbaugh. He issued a non-apology apology that was much more finely crafted than what we usually get. But no less insulting to the poor woman he spent several days attacking and defaming, and to the intelligence of anyone who paid attention.
As I’ve written before, the non-apology apology is issued under pressure in order to make a controversy go away, without actually expressing any contrition or admitting anything untoward happened, attributing problems to the perceptions of others. ”I’m sorry if anyone might have been offended by what I said,” is the prototypical non-apology apology.
Non-apology apologies have proliferated in recent years for several reasons: 1) The Internet has enabled the exposure and amplification of more embarrassments of all kinds. 2) The political landscape has grown more divided and fragmented, so there is more controversy and more crazy rhetoric. 3) Because of 2), there isn’t really a mass public to appeal to anymore, so there’s less incentive to apologize honestly; you end up apologizing only to get your enemies to shut up, not to win back any kind of broad legitimacy. The result is the apology that spits in the eye of your enemies while knowingly winking at your allies. The rise of the non-apology apology is a bad thing, part of a culture where nobody takes responsibility for anything, while the form of “taking responsibility” remains with us only as a hollowed-out shell.
The Limbaugh non-apology is more sophisticated than this, though, because it must placate a third party – his sponsors – who are not happy. So it’s tricky.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnmcquaid/2012/03/03/rush-limbaughs-non-apology-apology/
LOL You’re GOING DOWN, Lard ASS!
Saturday, March 3, 2012
The State Of The GOP War On Women
Posted by Zandar
Hey folks, guess what? While we’re certainly watching the GOP introduce bullet to foot on a daily basis at the national level, they’re completely winning the war on women at the state level with the power we gave them (in some cases unrestricted power) in 2010. Federal laws may change for the better, but it doesn’t matter a damn bit if states administering the programs simply refuse to implement them.
Montana and New Jersey have eliminated altogether their state family planning programs. New Hampshire cut its funding by 57 percent and five other states made more modest program trims.
But the biggest impact, by far, has been in Texas.
State lawmakers last fall cut family-planning funds by two-thirds, or nearly $74 million over two years. Within months, half the state-supported family planning clinics in Texas had closed.
The state network, which once provided 220,000 women a year free and low-cost birth control, cervical cancer tests and diabetes screenings, will now serve just 40,000 to 60,000, officials said.
Another 130,000 low-income Texas women who get free exams and contraceptives through Medicaid could lose those benefits by month’s end, due to a dispute between the state and federal governments over whether Planned Parenthood should be allowed to serve women on that program.
So yes, hundreds of thousands of women are losing access to contraception and basic women’s health services. Voters taught President Obama and the Democrats a “lesson” in 2010, ostensibly over government interference in health care. Is anyone surprised that the first thing Republicans do when given power of government is use it to take away health care from hundreds of thousands?
If this kind of nonsense pisses you off, you do have an option in November, you know. Consider the real “lesson” of the 2010 elections: Maybe there’s something to the notion that the “Republicans are worse” as a valid, motivating factor to get your ass into the voting booth this fall.
http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2012/03/state-of-gop-war-on-women.html
What They Should Have Done
by John Cole
The craziest thing to me about this whole Rush flare-up and the lunatic fringe of the right doubling down on the slut issue is how politically incompetent it all is. I remember someone calling this political malpractice, and that is correct. I’m really not used to this kind of political incompetence from Republicans- usually they are horribly wrong on the issues, but win the political battles. This time, not so much.
What they should have done is simple. They should have claimed victory when Obama made the modification to the mandate. When the initial mandate came out from HHS, there was a multi-day freakout, the Bishops and the prudes generated a lot of press, and Team Obama looked at things, calibrated the mandate so that so-called “religious freedom” was preserved, and the entire issue would have been taken off the table if the right had done the smart thing and just claimed victory. They could have celebrated it as a triumph of religious freedom over Obama, and could have claimed that their political might forced Obama to capitulate. He gave them an out and a political victory while maintaining a political victory for himself- he created a win/win situation for them. They could have used it to their advantage- “Obama attempted to assault religious freedom and our collective political power and might was able to make sure that religious organizations no longer have to provide contraception.” They could have made this into a big win for the team.
But instead of seizing upon it, they instead shit the bed and decided to double down, and now we have near 70% of the country looking at the Republicans like they are some kind of freak show, with their leaders introducing the Blunt and Rubio amendments and their spiritual leaders calling all women who use contraceptives sluts and prostitutes and the base doubling down and following their lead. It’s bewildering to watch. If I were Frank Luntz or the other Republican strategists I would be pulling my hair out and trying to get them into a room listening to Kenny Rogers looped for 24 hours.
I’m not sure what is motivating this insanity. Part of it, of course, is the fact that they just hate you. Part of it is they are just opposed to anything liberals support. Part of it is that they are beholden to religious nuts. Part of it is an attempt to simply gut ACA. And I’m sure part of it is that they are so in their own bubble that they honestly don’t believe anything but their own bullshit.
Regardless, it is crazy, and at the same time, I am cheering them on. It’s like watching a movie where the villain is mortally wounded and defeated, yet as they lie there in a pile of their own blood and bile, they still attempt to reach for the gun just out of their reach, giving the good guys one more reason to finish them off for good.
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/03/04/what-they-should-have-done/
BWA HA HA HA I love this whole write of from Ballon Juilce!
NBC News/Marist poll: Santorum, Romney neck and neck in Ohio
By NBC News Senior Political Editor Mark Murray
Two days until Super Tuesday and the pivotal Ohio Republican presidential primary, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney are running neck and neck in the Buckeye State, according to a new NBC News/Marist poll conducted Feb. 29 – March 2.
Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator, gets the support of 34 percent of likely GOP primary voters, and Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, gets 32 percent.
They’re followed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich at 15 percent and Texas Rep. Ron Paul at 13 percen
………………………………..
Obama has the early general-election edge in both states
And that’s reflected in the head-to-head match ups for the general election in these two important battleground states.
In Ohio – where President Obama’s approval rating stands at 45 percent – he leads Paul by 10 points among registered voters (48 to 38 percent), Romney by 12 points (50 to 38 percent), Santorum by 14 (50 to 36 percent) and Gingrich by 15 (51 to 36 percent).
In Virginia – where his approval rating is 51 percent – his leads are even bigger: 17 points over Romney (52 to 35 percent), 21 points over Paul (53 to 32 percent), 22 points over Santorum (54 to 32 percent) and 26 over Gingrich (57 to 31 percent).
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/04/10571792-nbc-newsmarist-poll-santorum-romney-neck-and-neck-in-ohio?ocid=twitter
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Going Back To The Oil Well
Posted by Zandar
Ahead of a trial that was to begin on Monday, oil giant BP has reached a $7.8 billion settlement with Gulf Coast claimants suing the company. BP is claiming the settlement means these folks will get the money they deserve sooner rather than later…or never.
The estimated $7.8 billion deal struck by BP Plc with businesses and individuals suing over the massive 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill could speed up payments to thousands of claimants and offers lawyers a potential windfall in legal fees.
London-based BP announced the deal on Friday with the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee (PSC), which represents condominium owners, fishermen, hoteliers, restaurateurs and others who say their livelihoods were damaged by the April 20, 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and subsequent oil spill.
The settlement, which delayed a giant trial that had been set to get underway in a New Orleans federal court on Monday, is a step by BP toward resolving its liability in the case, which stretches into the billions of dollars. However, the deal does nothing to settle charges brought by the biggest player in the trial: the U.S. government.
And that’s the big problem for BP. The federal trial is still going forward.
Well, unless the GOP gains control of the Justice Department. You have a say in that as a voter. If you think President Obama’s been soft on BP, the GOP will not exactly bring them to justice.
http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2012/03/going-back-to-oil-well.html
March 04, 2012
Nothing personal, Mr. Limbaugh
“I did not mean a personal attack on Ms. Fluke,” writes a platoon of p.r. dandies, a division of pettifoggers and an army of bomb disposal experts for their client, the big fat idiot Rush Limbaugh, although my Frankenesque description of this hayseed of a Westbrook Pegler should in no way be construed as a personal attack on Mr. Limbaugh.
Because, you see, I was merely “illustrat[ing] the absurd with absurdity,” as I have done for a number of years now, often hours a days, and more frequently than not, at least five days a week.
Thus, this morning should I also choose to evoke a Platonic Ideal of Justice for the absurd Mr. Limbaugh as one of him being brutally bitch-slapped and repeatedly gang-raped by a pissy throng of iron-pumping Santorums in some Florida hellhole of an underfunded prison, you might be justified in suspecting some trifle of animus on my part toward this sack of diseased human waste.
But you would be wrong, of course. And because the “of course-ness” of that correction practically screams its own affirmative defense, I would be offended in having to even point it out.
I might have chosen “the wrong words in my analogy of the situation” — the situation being that this sociopathic cryptofascist deserves the grimmest of temporal karmas imaginable — but for heaven’s sake how anyone protective of the big fat idiot could think that I would have meant a personal attack on Mr. Limbaugh just goes to show you how politically correct and sensitively unmanly his affiliated party of cryptofascists has become.
http://pmcarpenter.blogs.com/p_m_carpenters_commentary/2012/03/nothing-personal-mr-limbaugh.html
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Bumping Uglies
Posted by Bon The Geek
Yeah, I knew you’d look.
Pamela Haag reminds us that this whole war on women isn’t completely about health care. It’s also about sex, plain and simple. We have several good examples of cysts and hormonal conditions that the Pill helps with, but there is also the fact that as adults, women and men alike should be able to conduct their sex lives as they see fit, and enjoy protection from unwanted babies. Haag reminds us that there are healthy couples in committed relationships who want to enjoy sex without introducing a child into the world. She’s completely right, and while I see the issue as a combination of sexual freedom and medical need, she addresses a valid and relatively quiet point: we enjoy sex and we should be able to enjoy it on our terms.
Sex.
Why that gets those old righteous farts whipped into a frenzy isn’t hard to understand. What is scary is that with a teeny bit of encouragement how far it went, and how fast. As Zandar pointed out, states are removing choices for women without apology. This has been going on for a while, but the recent snowball of stupidity is alarming.
It’s women who ultimately pay the price for this ego and hypocrisy. The fathers may or may not have to pay child support, but they won’t have to raise a child they never asked for. They won’t have near the social stigma associated with not wanting a child. They won’t have to know what it feels like to have their rights to their body decided by a panel of strangers. Many women wouldn’t put a child up for adoption or have an abortion if they became pregnant, which is why they use birth control in the first place. Imagine having to give up your child because you know it would likely give them a better life. How many mothers who couldn’t afford simple contraception are going to find themselves in that situation?
The only reason the GOP is giving are their “values” and implying that the “other” people don’t deserve equal treatment. They vote against fair pay for women, but expect women to support babies or live a sexless life to satisfy the moral values of someone they will never meet. It’s not just about discounts on birth control. It’s about medical rights, fair treatment and recognition under law, and ending a double standard that women can work as hard as men but are not worthy of the same freedoms and choices. Just quoting their beliefs and holding us hostage to their ideals isn’t enough. Where is the discussion about the legality and the ethics as applied to all of the citizens? While we are discussing religion and throwing insults, the real argument is being neglected. The underlying concept of equality and silly notions like Constitutional checks and balances are ignored while Rush calls women sluts.
What would happen if a female candidate called them on their stupidity? Can you imagine a woman saying she opposed Viagra, that if God wanted you to have a boner you would have a boner, and that it is offensive for us to see your trouser mouse jump every time there’s a breeze? To have such dirty thoughts that led to an erection is an offense to our religious freedom, and we want you to explain to our satisfaction why you think you should have condoms, otherwise they triple in price. Any child you had a role in creating will be yours to raise, and how you plan to work full-time and raise a child is your problem, not ours. We have no plans to help you once you have the child, because you were a slut and brought this on yourself. Now go make me a sammich.
http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2012/03/bumping-uglies.html
****HOLERING*** @”Now go make me a sammich.”
Rick Santorum on Fox News Defends Birth Control Position, Obama ‘Snob’ Comment
Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace put Rick Santorum on the defensive Sunday with pointed questions about his stance on birth control, his insult to President Barack Obama over higher education, and his low record of charitable giving. A visibly flustered Santorum tried to defend and explain some of his previous missteps and inconsistencies ahead of Super Tuesday.
On the subject of birth control and the controversial Blunt amendment, which would have allowed employers to deny contraception and other health coverage for moral reasons, Santorum tried to drive the conversation away from contraception and toward the issue of religious liberty. But pressed on his own views about birth control and confronted with the fact that 99 percent of sexually active women have used it at some point, Santorum defensively acknowledged that he believes it’s morally wrong and that employers should be able to opt out of covering it.
“I’m reflecting the views of the church that I believe in,” he said. “We used to be tolerant of those beliefs. I guess now when you have beliefs that are consistent with the church, somehow, now you’re out of the mainstream, and that to me is a pretty sad situation when you can’t have personal held beliefs. But that’s not the issue — the issue is whether the government can force you to do things that are against your conscience, and that’s what we’ve been talking about on the road. We haven’t been talking about my own personal beliefs.”
Santorum’s reiteration of his Catholic beliefs gave Wallace an opportunity to hammer him on another moral issue: his own lack of charitable giving. While both Obama and fellow GOP candidate Mitt Romney gave around 14 percent of their respective incomes to charity in 2010, Santorum donated only 1.76 percent of his $923,411 in income.
The former Senator blamed the lag on the costs of caring for a disabled daughter.
“I was in a situation where we have seven children, one disabled child who we take care of, and she’s very, very expensive,” he said. “We love her and cherish the opportunity to take care of her, but it’s an additional expense. We have to have around-the-clock care for her, and our insurance company doesn’t cover it, so I have to cover it.”
Santorum’s comments about the cost of having a disabled child and the lack of insurance coverage are particularly interesting in light his recent criticism of free prenatal testing under the Affordable Care Act, which he opposes because the test results might “cull the ranks of the disabled” by encouraging expecting parents to have an abortion.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/04/rick-santorum-fix-news-birth-control_n_1319393.html?ref=politics
riday, March 2, 2012
Controlling sexuality = controlling identity
It would be my contention that if we are ever going to really tackle patriarchy as expressed in the desire to control things like women’s sexuality, we’re going to have to understand the roots of where the desire to do so comes from – as well as the deep affects it has on us all.
Sometimes when we need to tackle big questions like that, the best place to start is with our own personal stories. They might not take us directly to all the answers, but they can help us at least begin the journey. It is in that spirit that I offer mine.
As I’ve said many times, I was raised in a right-wing fundamentalist christian family, church and community. As such, I got through most of adolescence by buying all I was taught and doing everything in my power to be a “good girl.”
After finishing college at a private fundamentalist christian college and getting a master’s degree from an evangelical seminary, I started to question my faith. I began to read books about women’s spirituality. The three that had the most impact on me were The Chalice and the Blade by Riane Eisler, The Great Cosmic Mother by Monica Sjoo and Barbara Mor and When God Was a Woman by Merlin Stone.
It was as I was finishing that last one that an awareness hit me: I could shed the burden of always being a “good girl” and that meant that I had the freedom to chose when I wanted to have sex and with whom. I can’t explain the profound sense of freedom I felt at that moment…it is beyond description.
I’m not one that typically has visions, but that night I had perhaps the most powerful dream of my life. I saw myself as a skyscraper under construction with the metal beams still exposed. In the dream, the shape of the building was shifting and molding itself into an entirely new pattern.
When I woke up and remembered the dream, I knew – deep within myself – that I was becoming a new person…one of my own choosing rather than someone else’s mold.
THAT is what sexual freedom means and why it is so threatening to those would would try to control us.
Posted by Smartypants at 6:14 PM
http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2012/03/controlling-sexuality-controlling.html
Awesome dream! Next thing you know these filthy GOP pirates will dry to INVADE our dreamstate. Anything they can’t control, they will try to legislate. You know being a they are for smaller government and all!
Robert Reich’s stale liberalism and conservative economics
Saturday, March 03, 2012 |
Posted by rootless_e at 10:23 AM
Romney, Santorum and Obama all vow to fight for U.S. manufacturing. It’s not just a lost cause; it’s the wrong one [..]
Even if we didn’t have to compete with lower-wage workers overseas, we’d still have fewer factory jobs because the old assembly line has been replaced by numerically-controlled machine tools and robotics. Manufacturing is going high-tech.[…]
The fundamental problem isn’t the decline of American manufacturing, and reviving manufacturing won’t solve it. The problem is the declining power of American workers to share in the gains of the American economy. Robert Reich in Salon Feb 2012
The three foundations of “progressive” liberalism are exhibited here: conservative economics, eagerness to help discredit the Democratic President, and empty populist rhetoric. The whole complex legal system of “free trade” from GATT to NAFTA, the tax favors for businesses that move production outside the USA, the high dollar policy that favors finance and the special tax favors to finance and oil companies, the laws that limit labor union activity (like boycotts) and regulations that force companies and cities to go through Wall Street for their financing are taboo topics in conservative economics. According to conservative economists, whether they call themselves Keynesians or not, the basic structure and evolution of the economy is because of “laws” of economics (and technology) not because, for example, people like Robert Reich helped change the rules to benefit companies that import manufactured products.
And the populism is just slogans not connected to any concrete plan to reverse the declining power of American worker – in fact it is used to discredit people who are helping improve the bargaining position of American workers. You won’t learn about President Obama’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) assistance for the machinists union at Boeing from Reich or about how Labor Secretary Hilda Solis has been enforcing labor rights and occupational safety laws ( in marked contrast to the Department of Labor under Robert Reich). What you will get is disingenuous stuff like this:
the president has not promised that if reelected he’d push for the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier for workers to organize a union. He had supported it in the 2008 election but never moved the legislation once elected.
“Never moved” is a nice euphemism for “Congress didn’t support it”. And speaking of “didn’t support”, let’s not forget Reich’s attacks on President Obama during the rescue of the auto industry and Americas largest industrial union.
Here’s what Mr. Reich wrote:
GM has been on a downward slide for years. In the 1960s, consumer advocate Ralph Nader revealed its cars were unsafe. In the 1970s, Middle East oil producers showed its cars were uneconomic. In the 1980s, Japanese auto makers exposed them as unreliable and costly. Many younger Americans have never bought a GM car and would not think of doing so. Given this record, it seems doubtful that taxpayers will even be repaid our $60 billion. But getting repaid cannot be the main goal of the bail-out. Presumably, the reason is to serve some larger public purpose. But the goal is not obvious.
[…]
The purpose cannot be to create a new, lean, debt-free company that might one day turn a profit. That is what the private sector is supposed to achieve on its own and what a reorganization under bankruptcy would do. […]
Middle-class taxpayers worry they cannot afford to bail out companies like GM. Yet they worry they cannot afford to lose their jobs. […] The answer is not to bail out GM. It is to smooth the way to a new, post-manufacturing economy.. Robert Reich in June 2009
Putting aside Reich’s apparently incurable need to sneer at Barack Obama, what’s interesting about this essay is Reich’s agreement with Mitt Romney that reforming GM is something “the private sector is supposed to achieve on its own”. It was obvious at the time that there would be no private sector financing – except for a fire sale of GM and Chrysler assets and the dumping of the auto company pension obligations on the taxpayer. And it was also obvious that the fiasco at GM and Chrysler had been created in a large part by the dysfunction of the finance business. GM kept losing money and kept selling bonds that required it to divert more and more of its revenue to interest payments and commissions to Wall Street banks.
Contrary to the theory, neither stockholders nor bondholders pushed to change a management that was clearly inept – and as GM lost more and more money and fell further behind on its pension obligations, it generated more and more profits for hedge funds and Wall Street banks. The economy does not operate according to the theory of conservative economics. The theory of conservative economics remains what it was when Henry Carey called it a system designed to explain and justify the misery it causes. The goals of liberalism, a more just society with freedom and opportunity for all people cannot be achieved on the basis of this stale theory.
http://www.thepeoplesview.net/2012/03/robert-reichs-stale-liberalism-and.html
Boo is just tooo cute!
My List of the 2012 GOP Agenda
by Steven D
Sun Mar 4th, 2012 at 11:46:15 AM EST
A brief list of what we have learned so far regarding the Republican platform for this Fall’s election campaign (in no particular order):
1. Cut taxes on Billionaires.
2. Raise Taxes on the poor & the middle class.
3. De-regulate Big Banks and make fraud and insider trading easier if not legal.
4. Drill Baby Drill, and Frack Baby Frack.
5. Eliminate Abortions and Contraception for women.
6. Force women to endure government sanctioned rape by vaginal probes.
7. Make voting a right for white conservatives and a privilege rarely extended to anyone else.
8. Bomb Iran.
9. Bomb Iran some more.
10. Repeal the Affordable Health Care Act (i.e., “Obamacare”) lock, stock and barrel.
11. Eliminate the Consumer Financial Protection Agency.
12. Eliminate the EPA, the FDA, the SEC, the USDA, and any other agency that regulates any industry that contributes money to Republicans.
13. Eliminate HUD, the Department of Education, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Commerce.
14. Eliminate the Congressional Budgeting Office and the Government Accounting Office.
15. Repeal the Freedom of Information Act and any law that requires open government.
16. Make anything Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals and Transgendered people do illegal, from adoption to marriage to loving the people with whom they fall in love.
17. Make “bullying” of LGBT people protected speech (including beatings, threats, stalking and any other forms of violence or abuse.)
18. Make Unions illegal.
19. Eliminate public schools.
20. Make it more and more difficult for young people to go to college by whatever means necessary.
21. Pass stringent laws requiring any non-Republicans to verify he or she is qualified to run for elective office, especially if that person is a minority running as a Democrat.
22. Pass laws that allow States to remove local elected officials and privatize municipalities, school districts, prisons, police forces, fire departments, etc.
23. Shut down libraries.
24. Provide complete immunity to law enforcement agencies that violate the civil rights of any group, organization or individual who exercises their first amendment rights regardless of the level of force employed by law enforcement officials.
25. Provide increased incentives for corporations to move their manufacturing and production production facilities overseas.
26. Eliminate subsidies for Green Technologies and Environmental research (especially scientists who are studying the climate).
27. Make it easier for Fossil Fuel companies to obtain the right to extract coal, oil and natural gas wherever it may be located.
28. Allow companies that extract fossil fuel to have the sole right to determine if they have satisfied any remaining worker safety or environmental laws.
29. Eliminate (or cut the funding drastically) for NOAA, FEMA and the National Weather Service.
30. Eliminate federal tax deductions for all mortgages, for payment of state taxes and for out of pocket health care costs.
31. Mandate the teaching of Creationism as an alternative to Evolution, and eliminate from school science classes the teaching of any topic regarding climate change and the role played by human activities to exacerbate it.
33. Privatize Medicare and Social Security.
34. Eliminate Medicaid.
35. Require prayer in school, especially Christian prayers.
36. Use Taxpayer funds to pay for private schools and subsidize those who choose to home school their children.
37. Require all government documents to be only printed in English, including but not limited to, school materials and voting ballots.
38. Pass strict voter identification laws.
39. Repeal the Antitrust laws.
40. Pass laws permitting child labor beginning at the age beginning somewhere between 6 and 10 years.
41. Eliminate the minimum wage.
42. Repeal the American Disabilities Act.
43. Repeal the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.
44. Enforce DOMA.
45. Reinstate the policy of “Don’t ask, Don’t Tell” for the Military.
46. Require loyalty oaths for all citizens who practice Islam.
48. Make racial profiling legal.
49. Eliminate finding for law enforcement monitoring of radical right wing militias, sovereign citizens organizations, white nationalists, etc.
50. Seek a constitutional amendment authorizing Biblical law to preempt any secular laws, including the Bill of Rights and any laws passed by any government that grants rights to individuals not authorized by Biblical principles.
I could go on but 50 seemed like a good stopping point. Now I do not claim that each and every item listed above will actually be set forth in the platform adopted by the Republican delegates to their 2012 National Convention. I do contend however that this list, written off the top of my head, represents the agenda of a majority of Republican politicians, their financial supporters, and the hard core base of the Republican party. I also contend that you can find support online for each of these positions by Republican candidates and/or their supporters.
Feel free to prove me wrong.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2012/3/4/114615/4558
March 04, 2012 10:07 AM
Rush Limbaugh’s Non-Apology Apology
By Adele Stan
The headlines have it all wrong: “Rush Limbaugh Apologizes to Georgetown Student,” reads Politico, while the Washington Post puts this headline on an Associated Press story: “Limbaugh Apologizes to Student, Says He Did Not ‘Intend a Personal Attack’”.
But if you look at Limbaugh’s statement about his three-day festival of hate speech, on his daily nationally syndicated radio program, against Georgetown Law School student Sandra Fluke, he doesn’t apologize for much:
For over 20 years, I have illustrated the absurd with absurdity, three hours a day, five days a week. In this instance, I chose the wrong words in my analogy of the situation. I did not mean a personal attack on Ms. Fluke.
[…]
My choice of words was not the best, and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir. I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choices.
You’ll recall that Limbaugh’s jihad against Fluke, as we blogged here yesterday, focused on her testimony before a congressional committee in favor of the Obama administration’s mandate that employer-provided health insurance plans include no-co-pay coverage for prescription contraception.
This prompted Limbaugh to label Fluke “a slut” and “a prostitute,” and those are presumably the “word choices” for which he is issuing this highly-qualified apology, which was likely prompted by the exodus of sponsors that followed, under pressure from women’s rights advocates, progressive activists and Democrats. Six advertisers, as of Saturday, had dumped “The Rush Limbaugh Show,” and even Republican politicians — generally a pretty ditto-head lot — felt the need to distance themselves, most of them, gingerly, from Limbaugh’s smears.
But Limbaugh’s use of the words “slut” and “prostitute” to describe Fluke isn’t the worst of what he did. What different words would he chose, one wonders, to suggest that Fluke should post videos of herself having sex on the internet in exchange for contraception, as he did last week?
Upon reflection, what words would he select to less insultingly conjure images of Fluke having sex? Additionally, is there a better way for him to ask where she obtained condoms when she was “in junior high,” as he did on one of his programs? You know, a way that would not constitute a “personal attack”?
Limbaugh not only owes an honest apology to Fluke for the truly reprehensible attack he made on her, which was essentially a verbal rape, but to his listeners and the American people, not least of all for the lie he perpetuated all week that the contraception mandate requires “taxpayers” to foot the bill for the no-co-pay birth control. In reality, that responsibility falls to the insurers, most of which are only too happy to do so, because contraceptives are much cheaper than covering a pregnancy.
Instead, in his non-apologetic statement, Limbaugh doubles down on the lie:
I think it is absolutely absurd that during these very serious political times, we are discussing personal sexual recreational activities before members of Congress. I personally do not agree that American citizens should pay for these social activities. What happened to personal responsibility and accountability? Where do we draw the line? If this is accepted as the norm, what will follow? Will we be debating if taxpayers should pay for new sneakers for all students that are interested in running to keep fit? In my monologue, I posited that it is not our business whatsoever to know what is going on in anyone’s bedroom nor do I think it is a topic that should reach a Presidential level. [Emphasis added]
What we may be witnessing here is the self-destruction of a once-powerful media figure. Fake apologies tend not to play well, according to Tom Jacobs, writing at the Miller McCune site in January. Jacobs also lays out four different categories of non-apologies, citing a 2008 article by Zohar Kampf in the Journal of Pragmatics:
One type of pseudo-apology downplays the transgressor’s degree of responsibility. Kampf identifies five variations on this theme, noting that a wrongdoer can: 1) apologize while undermining the claim that he offended someone; 2) apologize for the outcome but not for the act; 3) apologize for the style but not for the essence; 4) apologize for a specific component of the offense but not for the entire occurrence; and 5) apologize while using syntactic and lexical means to downgrade his responsibility.” The latter category includes referring to an offensive action as a “mistake,” which effectively minimizes guilt.
Limbaugh’s brief statement manages to fall into at least four of the five categories. That’s quite a feat!
Meanwhile, via Hunter at the Daily Kos, we learn that a new Harris poll reveals Limbaugh to be the least liked “news personality” — even among Republicans! — on a list of 26.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2012_03/rush_limbaughs_nonapology_apol035812.php
Political Animal
Blog
March 04, 2012 8:28 AM
The War on the War on Voting?
By Sebastian Jones
One of the upcoming election’s little discussed subplots has to be the Republican effort to make it harder for millions of Americans to cast their ballots, all under the guise of combatting “voter fraud.”
As Ari Berman explained in an excellent Rolling Stone article last August:
All told, a dozen states have approved new obstacles to voting. Kansas and Alabama now require would-be voters to provide proof of citizenship before registering. Florida and Texas made it harder for groups like the League of Women Voters to register new voters. Maine repealed Election Day voter registration, which had been on the books since 1973. Five states – Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Tennessee and West Virginia – cut short their early voting periods. Florida and Iowa barred all ex-felons from the polls, disenfranchising thousands of previously eligible voters. And six states controlled by Republican governors and legislatures – Alabama, Kansas, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin – will require voters to produce a government-issued ID before casting ballots. More than 10 percent of U.S. citizens lack such identification, and the numbers are even higher among constituencies that traditionally lean Democratic – including 18 percent of young voters and 25 percent of African-Americans.
Now, in a move that bears watching, the Justice Department has objected to a number of the tactics Berman describes above, suggesting in a court filing that a Florida law limiting early voting and making it harder to register voters may be in violation of the Voting Rights Act. It will be interesting to see how aggressively the Justice Department goes after similar laws in other states as the election draws nigh.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2012_03/the_war_on_the_war_on_voting035806.php
11:24 AM EST
NBC/Marist: Obama Up Double Digits On Romney In Ohio
A new NBC/Marist poll of Ohio registered voters shows President Obama at the fifty percent mark in the swing state against former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who sees 38 percent versus the President. Obama leads all possible GOP challengers in the state by double digits, which sampled over 3,000 Ohio voters. From Marist’s analysis:
Ohio voters are more likely to identify as independents than they were in a similar poll conducted in October 2008. 35% of registered voters now consider themselves to be independent compared with 31% at that time. Republican identification has decreased from 31% to 26%, and Democrats are little changed. They went from 37% in 2008 to 38% now.
“President Obama’s advantage over his potential challengers in Ohio is underscored by the fact that more voters support him over the GOP field than approve of his job performance,” says Dr. Lee M. Miringoff, Director of The Marist College Institute for Public Opinion.
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/nbc-marist-obama-up-double-digits-on-romney
Limbaugh Apology Not Enough, Say Democrats
Rush Limbaugh acknowledged his critics — and the advertisers bailing on his show — Saturday when he issued a rare public statement of apology to Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown law student he attacked last week as “a slut.”
“My choice of words was not the best, and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir,” Limbaugh said in the statement. “I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choices.”
If Limbaugh thought his words would get his critics off his back, the early signs are he’s missed the mark.
Twitter blew up Saturday afternoon with comments on Rush’s statement, which Democrats seemed to view as disingenuous, insulting or both.
“Amazing what losing advertisers can do for one’s conscience,” tweeted DNC Communications Director Brad Woodhouse.
Democrats pointed to the long center section of Limbaugh’s statement, where he doubled down on his criticism of new rules aimed at increasing insurance coverage for contraception, which Limbaugh has characterized as forcing employers to pay to support an employee’s sexual habits.
Here’s that section of Limbaugh’s statement:
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/03/rush-limbaugh-apology-falling-on-deaf-ears.php?ref=fpb
Sun Mar 04, 2012 at 06:30 AM PST
I’ve spent the past 2 days trying to convince my 16 y/o she is not a “slut”+*
by beantown mom
I can hardly type, can hardly put this into words! I have been writing and rewriting this because if I don’t break down in tears, I get so angry that I can’t think straight! I know that so much has already been written about this whole issue, but I am writing this diary from a very personal point of view; forgive me if I find no humor in any of this, excuse me if I take no part in celebrating the loss of sponsorship for that pig’s radio program. You see, my 16 year old daughter came home from school on Friday in tears and has been in a state of utter despair since. She was told, in no uncertain terms, that she is a slut, a prostitute, a horny piece of trash that is out to sleep with every guy in school! The horrid little monsters who started harassing my daughter had the audacity to tell her their mothers were the ones who labeled her with these despicable opinions- they were just “telling it like it is, you know, like that guy on the radio! The one who isn’t afraid to tell the truth!” Who does this?! How does Rush Limbaugh or anyone else have the right to do this, to say these things about anyone?
I have written a couple comments about my daughter regarding this birth control issue. She is on birth control and has been for almost a year now- not for sexual activity and pregnancy prevention, but even if that were the case so what?!?! No, instead beantown girl suffers from menorrhagia and secondary dysmenorrhea. That is, since almost the time of her very first period, she bled so heavily and suffered such severe pain and cramping that she was rendered immobile for the first 2-3 days of menstruation. She would become so violently ill that she would miss at least 2 days of school each month. PMS for this poor child was so horrible- she would rage, cry and be so very depressed that the entire family would try anything to avoid being near her. It ended up the safest place for her was her room for the week preceding her actual period and we all knew to just stay away from her if we could. I finally convinced her that she needed to see a doctor about this when her periods began to last for 8-9 days and she would become so pale and listless throughout the entire period that I feared she was becoming anemic. She was. After doing extensive testing, ultrasounds and blood work, the doctor diagnosed her with the menorrhagia and dysmenorrhea. She placed beantown girl on Ortho Tri-cyclen Lo, a low dose birth control pill in order to try to balance out the hormones. Since she has been on the hormones, her periods have become regular, 4-5 days of normal menstruation with less cramping and no more violent, raging PMS- an absolute godsend to my beautiful daughter, to be sure! (author’s note- I am writing this with my daughter’s permission; even though I could have just written this whole piece without her knowledge, I felt like I needed to have her blessing. It’s hard enough being 16– add into it your mother wants to write about your periods and everything else about this unfortunate incident and, well, I just needed to know that it was ok with her if I did this)
Now to this week. My daughter took a trip with the school band for 5 days just a week and a half ago. Any student on prescription medication had to have a form filled out and signed by the prescribing physician turned in before the trip. The day of the trip, the prescription medication was given to the doctor who was traveling with the students. He would hand out the medication as prescribed. For beantown girl, this was every morning after breakfast. She never thought a thing about it- neither did I. They returned from their trip and went back to the daily grind of high school. Thursday, my daughter came home from school and seemed to be a little out of sorts. I chalked it up to being tired and trying to get caught up on homework and such; however, I did ask her if everything was alright and she said yes, she thought so- it was just that at lunch there were some girls whispering and pointing at her in lunch and then they would break out into little fits of laughter. She couldn’t figure out why they were singling her out but admitted that a couple of the girls were ones she had once had a problem with. They were the “popular” girls, 2 of whom were cheerleaders, and last year they had singled her out calling her names and such when they got bored and, in my daughter’s words, “ran out of girls to harass and make fun of in lunch”. I gave it no further consideration- we went on about our business of getting homework done, etc. Friday morning, I took my kids to school and headed off to my mother’s to do some errands and such for my family. With the impending storms and bad weather bearing down on us, I sent my daughter a text that I would pick her up from school. My son had baseball so I only had to worry about her getting home.
I pulled into the parking lot and saw that she was standing inside the doors at school, her head down and shoulders shaking- I thought she was laughing at something someone said or was looking at her phone reading something funny. I honked and waived to motion her out, not sure if she saw me. She never looked up, just pushed open the door and practically ran to the car. She flung open the door and I started to say something about the wind and rain, but stopped mid sentence because of the look on my child’s face! She was sobbing, face streaked with tears, cheeks red and eyes so swollen I could hardly see her beautiful brown eyes- I slammed the car into park right in the middle of the parking lot and asked her what was wrong.
Apparently I’m a slut- a whore- a bitch who is screwing every guy in school!
She was speaking but it wasn’t making sense- who said this? What are you talking about? For a minute we were talking over each other and finally I said just get in the car and tell me what is going on! She handed me a wrinkled piece of paper. I could tell it had been opened and closed, folded and unfolded wadded up and straightened out so many times it almost looked like it was going to fall apart in my hands.
Little miss innocent, huh? Whatever slut- you take birth control pills so you can f*&# every guy in school! What a joke- u are nothin but a whore! Pretty bad when some guy on the radio who isn’t afraid to tell the truth has to break it down for everybody- if u on the Pill u are nothing but a skank ass ho! My mom said girls on the pill are tramps who just wanna get laid and don’t care about nothin- is that how u are?
I thought I was going to throw up! I was crying- crying for my sweet daughter who was in a puddle on the front seat of my car, crying because I was so angry I didn’t know what to do first! I drove home with one arm around my daughter and one hand on the wheel; I was saying things but for the life of me I can’t remember any of what I said now. I just wanted to take the pain away from my child! I wanted to make her stop crying, wanted to erase all the horrible pain that she was feeling.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/04/1070800/-I-ve-spent-the-past-2-days-trying-to-convince-my-16-y-o-she-is-not-a-slut-?via=siderec
This story is heart rendingly painful to read. This is the POISON te American airwaves has allowedd to seep into our young people’s psyche. Shut down the sewer that is Limbaugh.
This is why that cesspool has to go. Time to shut Rush down.
Keep the heat on folks and let it burn baby burn.
President Obama is addressing AIPAC now – watch it on live on CNN or at http://CNN.com/Live.”
POTUS: “I make no apologies for pursuing peace” with Palestinians. #AIPAC
POTUS: “If during this political season you hear some question my Administration’s support for Israel…not backed up by the facts.”
President Obama: “As you examine my commitment, you don’t just have to count on my words. You can look at my deeds.”
Sun Mar 04, 2012 at 07:30 AM PST
Super PACs and the law of intended consequences+*
by Georgia Logothetis
As a percentage of the total voting population, campaign donors are a rare breed. In October of 2011, President Barack Obama’s campaign passed the 1 million donor mark for his reelection campaign (he had some 3 million donors in 2008). Even if one were to add up the total number of donors from all the presidential campaigns this cycle, the number would be minuscule compared the hundreds of million eligible voters.
Whittle down that number to those who actually bankroll the majority of campaign funds with max out checks and bundling and the number gets even smaller. Whittle that number down to those who are substantially bankrolling Super Pacs and we’re down to, as Ari Berman has pointed out, the .0000063 percent:
Those are the 196 individual donors who have provided nearly 80 percent of the money raised by super PACs in 2011 by giving $100,000 or more each.
Most Super Pac donors also max out to a candidate’s political campaign. That’s the way the system is crafted. That’s the way it’s supposed to work.
For all the mouth-agape horror at the avalanche of money that’s blanketed the 2012 election campaign in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, no one can seriously claim surprise that America’s modern political system has finally been fully exposed for the plutocracy that it really is. The laws of that political system are such that money begets power, which begets money, which in turn begets power again…on and on in an ever-expanding cycle whose sphere of influence grows while the number of players remains relatively constant.
Speaking of plutocrats, this weekend, conservative pundit George Will defended the notion of Super PACs, claiming that clearly they don’t wield the awesome power many claim because they haven’t been able to produce a “king” in the Republican nomination process:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/04/1070617/-Super-PACs-and-the-law-of-intended-consequences?via=blog_1
Fixing Citizens United
by BooMan
Sun Mar 4th, 2012 at 09:05:00 AM EST
The Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling in the Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission case removed all restrictions on corporate spending on electioneering communications. The Court said that the First Amendment protected corporations’ speech. In other words, “corporations are people, my friend.” And, as long as the Supreme Court thinks that corporations are people, we will have no chance of having a political system that has more than a passing resemblance to a representative democracy. The ruling struck down provisions of the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA). Specifically, it made it possible to run unlimited television advertisements in the 60-day window before an election. The result has been an immediate change in how our presidential elections are run. Super PACs are now spending more than the candidates in the Republican nominating process.
Can we agree that this a bad thing? Yes? Okay. So, what can be done about it? Passing laws isn’t going to help. They’ll just be struck down as unconstitutional.
Well, there are two things we can do. The first thing is to realize that the Citizens United case was narrowly decided. If we can replace, with a reasonable person, one of the five conservative Justices who ruled against the FEC, the Court will probably overturn itself. There would be a whole process to that involving the creation of a challenge to the prior ruling. But I’ll leave that to the lawyers. The bottom line is that reelecting Barack Obama will create a four-year window in which we might be able to change the composition of the Court from 5-4 conservative to 5-4 liberal. Reelecting Obama gives us a potential opportunity to fix the problem created by the Citizens United ruling. It’s only a potential opportunity because there is no guarantee that Obama will have a chance to replace one of the conservative members of the Court.
The second thing we can do is to amend the Constitution of the United States to make it legally permissible to regulate money in our elections in whatever way we see fit. That’s easy to say, but much harder to do. How does one amend the Constitution?
The procedure is spelled out in Article Five of the Constitution.
The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.
Let me clear this up a little. First, let’s get rid of the clutter at the end. The part about not allowing any amendments until 1808 is about slavery and taxes. The first clause of the Ninth Section of the First Article says:
The migration or importation of such persons as any of the states now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each person.
The fourth clause also imposes a limit on taxation. These clauses were the result of some intense negotiations led by South Carolina delegate John Rutledge. The history is very interesting, but it need not concern us here. This part of the Constitution has been superseded by the 13th and 16th Amendments.
What we are interested in is the first part about the two different ways we can amend the Constitution. Under the first provision, if we can convince two-thirds of both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives to agree to convene a convention for proposing amendments, and we can get them to pass our amendment by a two-thirds majority, it will go to the states legislatures. Then we will need three-quarters (or thirty-eight out of fifty) of our state legislatures to ratify the amendment. In every state except Nebraska, which has a unicameral legislature, passing the amendment will require both the lower and upper houses to agree. This first procedure is how all of our amendments have been passed, including the first ten, which are known collectively as the Bill of Rights.
The second provision has never been used. In this scenario, we would need to get the legislatures of two-thirds (not three-fourths) of the states to petition the Congress to convene a convention for the consideration of amendments. If we were successful, the process would be identical to the first scenario from that point forward. We would need two-thirds of both the Senate and the House of Representatives to approve our amendment, and then we would need three-fourths (or thirty-eight) of our states to ratify it.
One interesting side note belongs here. Amendments can come with time limits, although that has created some controversy. Our most recent amendment (the Twenty-Seventh) was sent to the states along with the Bill of Rights. The states didn’t get around to ratifying it until 1992. It obviously did not have a time limit. The Equal Rights Amendment, on the other hand, was sent to the states in 1972 with a seven-year deadline. The deadline was later extended to ten years. When less than 38 states had ratified the ERA by mid-1982, the bill expired. One thing to watch out for are efforts to put a timeline on our amendment. It will take time to build support for our efforts, and we don’t want to have to worry about stalling tactics killing our project.
I am going to suggest that the best way to successfully pass a constitutional amendment that will fix the problem of corporate financing of our elections, is to use the process that has never been used before. This is because of the uniqueness of this particular problem. Our Congress has been corrupted in a way that precludes it from being a leader in de-corrupting itself. With only a handful of temporary exceptions, every member of Congress has been elected. To get elected, they’ve successfully navigated a system that is absolutely awash with corporate money. They may not like the system, but they’ve mastered it. And they won’t willingly change a system that protects them and creates such a giant barrier to entry for potential competitors. We can build a grassroots army of citizens to put ever-increasing pressure on Congress to pass an amendment, but I can’t foresee a time in even the distant future when we’ll be able to convince 67% of both houses of Congress to do away with corporate dominance of our politics.
If we are going to have any chance of convincing Congress to act, we’re going to need two-thirds of the state legislatures to make the request on our behalf. In many ways, state politics are significantly more corrupt than federal politics. It costs less money to peddle influence and there is much less sunlight from the media and an inquisitive citizenry. But other factors work in our favor. The political parties are less polarized at the state and local level. The lower cost of creating influence works in our favor. We can afford to play. And many legislators are not career politicians. Many have full-time jobs. When it comes to corporate influence, many on the right don’t see it as something to protect because it advantages their side of the aisle. They see it as simple corruption.
I don’t think most rank-and-file Republicans and right-leaning independents have any investment at all in a system that is awash in corporate and labor union money. These are the people we need to identify and mobilize. And we need to do it all over the country on the local level. And that means we can’t make it about partisanship or class warfare. It has to be about good government. It has to be neighbors talking to neighbors.
It will take a long time. People should plan on it taking more than a decade, and perhaps two. But, if we can get one state legislature to pass it, we can move on to the second one, and the third. If Congress is ever presented with a petition from two-thirds of the states, they will be under tremendous pressure to act, especially considering what that accomplishment would imply about the organization of the movement that made it happen.
What else are we going to do? Sit around on our asses and watch this country go down the drain?
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2012/2/29/144424/128
Study Shows Severe Inequity In Courtrooms
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/04/federal-judges-sentences_n_1319313.html#comments
10 am on BET FLOTUS ON LIFT EVERY VOiCE.
D.C. photographer chronicled a host of African American firsts
By J. Freedom du Lac, Published: March 3
Back before Ray Wilson went blind, there was little he loved more than looking at visages through his viewfinder. He preferred them black and historic.
Over three decades, Wilson photographed Buffalo soldiers and Thurgood Marshall, Sidney Poitier and Rosa Parks, Ron Brown and James Brown. Civil rights leader Dorothy Height was a favorite subject, and the city’s black mayors appear frequently in Wilson’s frames.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-photographer-chronicled-a-host-of-african-american-firsts/2012/03/02/gIQAo9CBpR_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines
President Obama Addresses Annual AIPAC Conference today at 10:30AM EST on C-SPAN
Great; will this be a featured thread? LOL
BREAKING: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor endorses Gov. Mitt Romney on Meet the Press #MTP
Dannie Owens @DAOWENS44:
Kasich turns down federal disaster aid | http://Cincinnati.com | http://cincinnati.com http://cin.ci/yr2ghv
Morning, Jueseppi!
Happy Sunday!
good morning
Morning, Dannie!
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Good Morning, 3Chics! Happy Sunday!