Happy HUMP day & Fourth of July, Everyone! Nina week continues…
FEELIN’ GOOD
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Black Girls Rock!
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Potus Takes Oath of Office
Flotus & Daughters at Great Wall of China
My Brothers Keeper
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AFRO PUFFS
Most Adorable Shoe Stealer
Six Little Babies
Fatherhood
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Even though 3Chics Politico is written and curated by three women: Ametia, Rikyrah, and SouthernGirl2, I must nominate this as one of the most engaging blogs I've found. Devoted to politics and culture, these three shine a light on contemporary life with humor and spirit.
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Presidential hug
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Amber looks great in her red, white and blue dress……love it.
I love that the First Couple opens up the White House to military families on the 4th.
It’s so American
Gabby Douglas finished first and secured a spot on the US Gymnastics Olympic Team.
Keep Piling On Roberts, Please
by BooMan
Wed Jul 4th, 2012 at 08:51:14 AM EST
Chief Justice John Roberts is 57 years-old. If he serves as long as his former colleague John Paul Stevens, he will retire in 2048. I don’t expect Roberts to become a reliable vote for the liberal point of view on the Court, but anything that pushes him in that direction has to be considered a good thing. It doesn’t seem like he is currently welcome in the conservatives’ camp. I hope that continues. I’m sure the liberals will be happy to lunch with him today, tomorrow, and for the next few decades. Chief Justice Roberts is a human being, and he will seek positive rewards where he can find them. He may try to repair his damaged reputation with conservatives by overcompensating in future cases. Or, he may feel badly alienated and mistreated, and decide that his positive reinforcement comes from some other source. In either case, I encourage all Republicans to pile on Roberts with all the vituperative hatred and disrespect they can muster. Make life miserable for this man, please.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2012/7/4/85114/70877
Samuel L. Jackson & Angela Bassett cast as grandparents in ‘Black Nativity’
The two actors (aged 63 and 53, respectively) are in negotiations to star as grandparents in Fox Searchlight’s planned film version of the Broadway musical “Black Nativity,” with Jennifer Hudson in talks to play their estranged daughter.
Kasi Lemmons (“Eve’s Bayou,” “Talk to Me”) is writing and directing the adaptation, which centers on a young black teenager who is sent by his mother (Hudson) to spend Christmas in Harlem with the grandparents he’s never met. A sermon delivered by his grandfather, the Reverend Clarence Cobbs (Jackson), serves as the catalyst for a stylized retelling of the classic Nativity story.
In addition to his role as the Reverend, Jackson is expected to play several different parts in the film’s Nativity sequences.
The news was broken by Variety.
Written by legendary novelist, poet and playwright Langston Hughes, “Black Nativity” was first performed on Broadway in 1961, becoming one of the first shows penned by an African-American to be staged there.
http://www.hitfix.com/news/samuel-l-jackson-angela-bassett-cast-as-grandparents-in-black-nativity
LOL I’m with Booman, on this.
Winfield residents upset over flier for whites only pastors’ conference
Updated: Jul 03, 2012 6:02 PM CDT
By Alan Collins
In most situations, a flier advertising a pastors’ conference wouldn’t cause much stir, but one event in West Alabama has the townspeople of Winfield upset.
The flier was discovered at Norris Music in downtown Winfield Monday advertising for a conference titled: “Annual Pastors Conference All White Christians Invited.”
“It was put up throughout the town in the middle of the night. When everyone was asleep without the permission of the business owner.” Norris Music manager Tyler Cantrell said.
According to the flier, the three-day conference ends with a “Sacred Christian Cross Lighting Ceremony.” The conference is to be held in neighboring Lamar County.
Winfield Mayor Wayne Silas says he and other folks in town are not pleased since this event is not representative of their community in any way.
“Business people are upset. The city is upset. The city of Winfield does not condone this,” Silas said.
“It’s surprising to see something like that in our town,” Cantrell said. “I know it’s been here in the past.”
The organizer of the event, Rev. William C. Collier says that his Church of God’s Chosen (Christian Identity Ministries) is not a hate group but adds that he believes “the white race is God’s chosen people.”
Collier defends why only white Christians are invited.
“We don’t have the facilities to accommodate other people. We haven’t got any invitations to black, Muslim events. Of course we are not invited to Jewish events and stuff,” Collier said.
http://www.14news.com/story/18944454/winfield-residents-upset-over-flier-for-whites-only-pastors-conference
Health
Romney Directly Contradicts His Campaign, Now Insists Health Mandate Is ‘A Tax’
By Igor Volsky posted from ThinkProgress Health on Jul 4, 2012 at 12:51 pm
Earlier this week, Mitt Romney’s top campaign adviser broke with the entire Republican party and insisted that the individual mandate at the center of the Affordable Care Act and Massachusetts’ 2006 health care law is “not a tax.” “The governor disagreed with the ruling of the Court. He agreed with the dissent, which was written by Justice Scalia, which very clearly stated that the mandate was not a tax,” Eric Fehrnstrom told MSNBC’s Chuck Todd.
But on Wednesday, in another sign that the Romney campaign doesn’t appear to speak for its candidate, Romney told CBS News that he agrees both with the Supreme Court’s dissent striking down the law and also its majority opinion upholding the mandate as a tax:
Q: Do you now believe that it is a tax at the federal level, that the Supreme Court has said it’s a tax, so it is a tax?
ROMNEY: Well, I said that I agreed with the dissent. And the dissent made it very clear that they felt it was unconstitutional. But the dissent lost — it’s in the minority. And so now the Supreme Court has spoken. And while I agreed with the dissent, that’s taken over by the fact that the majority of the Court said it is a tax, and therefore it is a tax. They have spoken. There is no way around that.
http://thinkprogress.org/
THE MAJORITY OF THE RIGHT WING REPORTS *FOX-CNN SAYS IT’S A TAX, SO IT’S A TAX
Jonathan Krohn Laughs Off Bitter Conservative Reprisals
Benjy Sarlin-July 4, 2012, 8:27 AM
Jonathan Krohn, the teen conservative idol turned liberal heretic, is on the receiving end of a world of abuse from right wing pundits this week. Fine by him. But please folks, lay off his mom.
“My mother had a friend today who said she can’t be friends anymore because of me,” said Krohn, who described her as close to tears. “She texted her and said ‘Have a nice life.’ It’s a friend she’s known since before I was born!” Krohn told TPM Tuesday.
Republicans had largely forgotten about Krohn since turning him into a star speaker and author in 2009 at the tender age of 13. But that didn’t mean they were happy to let him go, reacting to a Politico interview in which he said he now supported President Obama with a torrent of unrestrained rage.
The Daily Caller led the charge. Gregg Re started things offwith a profanity-filled screed from a spurned conservative who attended Krohn’s big CPAC speech in 2009 and apparently demanded anonymity to tell Re the 17-year-old was a “douche.”
Re then took to Twitter to snipe at Krohn for expressing his views while denying his article — “Tired Of Being Typecast As Conservative, ‘Douche’ Actor and CPAC speaker Jonathan Krohn Turns to Liberalism — was meant as an attack.
“If I’d given a speech as devoid of thought as [Krohn] (and made money from it), I’d call myself a douche,” another Daily Caller writer, Justin Green, chimed in.
Another Daily Caller editor, Peter Tucci, got into an extended angry sparring match with Krohn, dropping repeated references to his “hipster glasses” and throwing out such witty barbs as “Oops, I overestimated you. You’re not mature after all. I take back my praise.”
Krohn told TPM he takes the attacks in stride. He spent much of Tuesday engaging with critics and supporters alike on Twitter, in between a stop at his grandmother’s 80th birthday and a haircut ahead of his appearance on Hardball that evening.
“Nothing’s really stung me, all of its just so absurd,” he said. “My favorite was someone who tweeted at me ‘You betrayed God and William Bennett, you little bastard!’ Because apparently they’re on the same plateau in this person’s mind.”
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/07/jonathan-krohn-interview.php?ref=fpnewsfeed
WH Naturalization Ceremony for Service Members airing now
http://www.whitehouse.gov/live
Sankaty lied
By DougJ July 4th, 2012
More on some of Romney’s financial holdings, with some context:
For nearly 15 years, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s financial portfolio has included an offshore company that remained invisible to voters as his political star rose.
Based in Bermuda, Sankaty High Yield Asset Investors Ltd. was not listed on any of Romney’s state or federal financial reports. The company is among several Romney holdings that have not been fully disclosed, including one that recently posted a $1.9 million earning — suggesting he could be wealthier than the nearly $250 million estimated by his campaign.
The omissions were permitted by state and federal authorities overseeing Romney’s ethics filings, and he has never been cited for failing to disclose information about his money. But Romney’s limited disclosures deprive the public of an accurate depiction of his wealth and a clear understanding of how his assets are handled and taxed, according to experts in private equity, tax and campaign finance law.
When the Obama campaign starts running ads about this, Halperin will whine it’s class warfare and Glenn Kessler will give it Four Pinocchios. But how many divisions do they have?
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/07/04/sankaty-lied/
Republicans and anti-abortion groups announce: sunshine is no longer the best disinfectant
By Kay July 4th, 2012
When Republicans told us that they wanted to gut campaign finance laws, they said it wouldn’t matter, because they would support reporting and disclosure requirements. Sunshine is the best disinfectant. For anyone who relied on their solemn, heart-felt, good-government vows to support disclosure and reporting requirements, I got news for you.
They all lied:
During their long campaign to loosen rules on campaign money, conservatives argued that there was a simpler way to prevent corruption: transparency. Get rid of limits on contributions and spending, they said, but make sure voters know where the money is coming from.
Today, with those fundraising restrictions largely removed, many conservatives have changed their tune. They now say disclosure could be an enemy of free speech.
High-profile donors could face bullying and harassment from liberals out to “muzzle” their opponents, Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a recent speech. Corporations could be subject to boycotts and pickets, warned the Wall Street Journal editorial page this spring. Democrats “want to intimidate people into not giving to these conservative efforts,” said Republican strategist Karl Rove on Fox News. “I think it’s shameful.”
Boycotts and pickets! In other words, corporations could be subject to political speech, in response to their political speech. The unfairness of it all! You mean, people get to… talk back under this liberal “free speech” scheme? Who knew? Is that in the Tea Party Constitution?
“Disclosure is the one area where [conservatives] haven’t won,” said Richard Briffault, an election law professor at Columbia Law School. “This is the next frontier for them.
Anti-abortion groups are leaders in suing to gut campaign finance, disclosure and reporting rules. Recently, anti-abortion groups targeted the state of Vermont’s laws regulating campaign finance and disclosure. They lost this round, but they’ll be back.
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/07/04/republicans-and-anti-abortion-groups-announce-sunshine-is-no-longer-the-best-disinfectant/
For Daughters of the American Revolution, a New Chapter
By SARAH MASLIN NIR
Published: July 3, 2012
Olivia Cousins can trace her family in the United States to a soldier who joined the rebelling colonists when he was just 17. But when a friend suggested she join the Daughters of the American Revolution, an organization whose members can prove they are related to someone who aided the rebels in 1776, Dr. Cousins nearly laughed
Dr. Cousins is black. And the D.A.R., as it is commonly called, is a historically white organization with a record of excluding blacks so ugly that Eleanor Roosevelt renounced her membership in protest.
Yet last week, in a circa-1857 stone chapel in Jamaica, Queens, Dr. Cousins was named an officer in a small ceremony establishing a new chapter. Her daughter took photos. The pictures documented a singular moment for the D.A.R., founded in 1890: 5 of the 13 members of the new chapter are black.
Perhaps more strikingly, the Queens chapter is one of the first in the organization’s nearly 122-year history that was started by a black woman: Wilhelmena Rhodes Kelly, from Rosedale, who is also its regent, or president. Ms. Kelly traces her origins to the relationship between a slaveholder and a slave, who appear to have considered themselves married, and her new position is part of a remarkable journey for both her family and the organization.
“My parents understood that they were Americans and that they were a real important part of the American story,” said Dr. Cousins, who, like the other members, is a passionate student of genealogy. Her Revolutionary War ancestor was a free man of mixed race. “Their whole thing was that segregation is unacceptable,” she said of her parents. For her, she said, “de facto segregation was unacceptable.”
Racism and the vicissitudes of history have long kept the number of minorities in the D.A.R. low. Only about 5,000 of the nearly 400,000 American soldiers in the Revolution were black, said Eric Grundset, director of the organization’s library. Some were freed slaves who joined voluntarily, others slaves who bartered their service against promises of earning their freedom (which were often reneged on), and others sent to fight in place of the men who owned them.
“To the best of my knowledge, we have never had both an African-American charter regent as well as this percentage of members,” said Denise Doring VanBuren, the organization’s New York regent, who presides over the 7,000 members in the state.
Dr. Cousins, a professor of medical sociology at Borough of Manhattan Community College, joined the group with two of her sisters, who are both substitute teachers: Collette Cousins, who lives in Durham, N.C., and Michelle Wherry, who lives in Lewis Center, Ohio. They will commute to the monthly meetings in Queens.
Ms. VanBuren said the D.A.R. tried in recent decades to attract members of diverse backgrounds.
In doing so, it had to overcome as many decades of bad press.
“Because of their reputation, they are probably not going to attract very many African-Americans,” said Raymond Arsenault, a professor of Southern history at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, and a civil-rights historian. “So this is quite striking that this is happening.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/04/nyregion/for-daughters-of-the-american-revolution-more-black-members.html?_r=3&nl=nyregion&emc=edit_ur_20120704
Good Morning, Everyone :)