Saturday Open Thread

Atlantic Starr was a 1980s R&B band. Among their biggest hits were “Always” and “Secret Lovers.”

The group was started in 1976, in Greenburgh, New York, by trumpeter Duke Jones (who left the band prior to their first recordings), along with drummer Porter Carroll Jr., bassist Clifford Archer, percussionist and flutist Joseph Phillips, Sheldon Tucker (Guitar; parted ways with the band before the first recordings), and three brothers: David Lewis (vocals/guitar), Wayne Lewis (keyboards and vocals), and Jonathan Lewis (percussion and trombone). The band’s membership eventually stabilized around Carroll, Archer, Phillips, the three Lewis brothers, lead singer Sharon Bryant (who was later replaced by Barbara Weathers), trumpeter William Sudderth, and saxophonist Damon Rentie (who was later replaced by Koran Daniels).

About SouthernGirl2

A Native Texan who adores baby kittens, loves horses, rodeos, pomegranates, & collect Eagles. Enjoys politics, games shows, & dancing to all types of music. Loves discussing and learning about different cultures. A Phi Theta Kappa lifetime member with a passion for Social & Civil Justice.
This entry was posted in Current Events, Open Thread, Politics and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

67 Responses to Saturday Open Thread

    • Ametia says:

      THIS: “Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, has gotten this far with a guile that allows him to say whatever he thinks an audience wants to hear. But he has tied himself to the ultraconservative forces that control the Republican Party and embraced their policies, including reckless budget cuts and 30-year-old, discredited trickle-down ideas.

      Voters may still be confused about Mr. Romney’s true identity, but they know the Republican Party, and a Romney administration would reflect its agenda. Mr. Romney’s choice of Representative Paul Ryan as his running mate says volumes about that.

  1. Nate Silver: Ohio is not a toss-up

    http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251183003

    Ohio Is Not a Toss Up
    Nate Silver looks at the polling average in Ohio — made up of roughly a dozen polling firms who have surveyed the state over the past 10 days — and notes it shows President Obama with a 2.4 percentage point lead over Mitt Romney.

    “There are no precedents in the database for a candidate losing with a two- or three-point lead in a state when the polling volume was that rich… It is misinformed to refer to Ohio as a toss-up. Mr. Obama is the favorite there, and because of Ohio’s central position in the Electoral College, he is therefore the overall favorite in the election.”

  2. Marco Rubio’s daughter hospitalized after accident

    http://www.cfnews13.com/content/news/cfnews13/news/article.html/content/news/articles/cfn/2012/10/27/marco_rubio_daughter.html?cmpid=twitter

    LAKEWOOD CREST, Fla. (AP) —
    The 12-year-old daughter of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has been airlifted to Miami Children’s Hospital after a Saturday motor vehicle accident.

    The Republican senator was notified of the accident while coming off stage after a rally with GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney Saturday afternoon.

    A Rubio spokesman reports that the girl is in stable condition.

    The senator campaigned with Romney at two Florida rallies on Saturday and was scheduled to attend a third before being picked up by a state police cruiser along Romney’s motorcade route.

  3. BREAKING NEWS: The Star Tribune just endorsed BarackObama, “He’s in the better spot to move the country forward.” http://OFA.BO/HVLhrv

  4. Ametia says:

    Let’s be clear, despite the Teabaggers saying the EARLY VOTING is for Rom-Ry and the rest of the GOP SCUM; it’s a LIE. EARLY VOTING = A VOTE FOR BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA.

    That’s why Ohio’s SoS Husted tried to abolish early voting, so all dem blacks couldn’t vote early. there, FIXED!

  5. Ametia says:

    Early voters overwhelm polling places in D.C., Maryland
    By Tim Craig and Mike DeBonis,
    The Washington Post Saturday, October 27, 2:01 PM

    Voters in the District and Maryland overwhelmed election officials at several polling places Saturday when larger than expected crowds turned out on the first day of early voting to cast ballots.

    Officials said thousands showed up at voting sites, spurred on by President’s Obama plea to vote early — and concern about the threat posed by Hurricane Sandy. Several polling officials found themselves in a midday scramble to install more voting machines.

    Long lines and lengthy waits were reported at polling places in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, as well as in several of the District’s wards. Some voters, frustrated by the delays, left before voting.

    “We didn’t expect all these people to come out,” said Anthony F. Coachmen, a captain at the Columbia Heights Community Center in Ward 1. “It was a surprise.”
    (GTFOH with this surprise nonsense.) This is exactly what SHOULD HAVE BEEN EXPECTED. Folks to get discouraged and leave without voting.= voter suppression

    The line to vote there snaked around the gymnasium as residents waited to use one of the six machines

    READ ON:

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/early-voters-overwhelm-polling-places-in-the-district-maryland/2012/10/27/50fa54c8-205c-11e2-9cd5-b55c38388962_story.html

  6. rikyrah says:

    Bill Maher Warns Voters: If You Elect Romney, ‘You’re Electing Every Right Wing Nut He’s Pandered To’

    by Josh Feldman | 11:18 pm, October 26th, 2012
    » 160 comments

    Bill Maher used his final New Rule of the night to warn voters unhappy with President Obama of the political and social consequences of the other guy winning. Maher argued that Mitt Romney winning the presidency would not just be a victory for him, but for every Republican extremist Romney has ever supported in his recent political career. Maher said Romney “may seem like a nice fella,” but he’s “a compulsive liar whose whole life is secret” and would bring too much unwanted baggage into a relationship with America.

    Maher used the sexual analogy to say that when you do it (“it” meaning “voting”) with Romney, you’re also doing it with “every right wing nut he’s pandered to. Maher said that anyone who votes for Romney is supporting all of the crazies in the GOP, even the ones who believe in the end of days.

    He implored voters to think about the lack of any serious social controversies from the Obama White House. Compared to George W. Bush and Terri Schiavo, Maher argued that under Obama, the nation never turned into a “Jesus-freak episode of House.” And as for the global warming issue, the Obama administration actually takes the science seriously, Maher said, as opposed to the last administration, which maintained “heat melting ice was just a theory.”

    Maher also warned about the “fresh can of nuts” in Congress with wildly anti-scientific beliefs that would have more free reign under a Republican administration. Maher said that a Republican in the White House would mean the return of “Bible-thumping bullshit” in government.

    http://www.mediaite.com/tv/bill-maher-warns-voters-if-you-elect-romney-youre-electing-every-right-wing-nut-hes-pandered-to/

  7. Ametia says:

    Are black kids “spooky”?
    by: Myla, Canoga Park, California

    Discrimination is unacceptable especially against children. This 13 year old predominantly African-American and Latino youth football team playing in a predominantly Caucasian league, has lost only one game in the season and is ranked #1 in their conference. Playoffs start this Saturday and this team was told they are not welcome in the playoffs. Excuses such as poor sportsmanship, running up the score, etc. has been given, however, no coach or player has ever been suspended, ejected, or even verbally warned. There was no knowledge that there was even an issue, until the playoffs when they were told that their team is “SPOOKY” and too aggressive. This is TACKLE football and the word spooky is very insulting and ignorant and carries a racict connotation. These boys have played their hearts out all year and deserve to play. Please help us stand up for whats right and not allow money and power to be abused. Say no to racism and discrimination and let the Calabasas Raiders Senior Silver Team play in the playoffs where they belong.

    Click here to sign Myla’s petition, “Pacific Youth Football League AND Calabasas Raiders: Let the Senior SIlver youth team play in their earned spot in the playoffs”.

    You can also check out other popular petitions on Change.org by clicking here:

    http://www.change.org/petitions/pacific-youth-football-league-and-calabasas-raiders-let-the-senior-silver-youth-team-play-in-their-earned-spot-in-the-playoffs?utm_source=action_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=12485&alert_id=IIDxActoac_zVClOlqahk

  8. rikyrah says:

    Melissa Harris-Perry’s Open Letter To Richard Mourdock: Rape Survivors ‘Are The Gift To Ourselves’

    On Saturday, MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry presented an open letter to GOP senate candidate Richard Mourdock, drawing on her own experience with sexual assault. In this highly personal response to Mourdock’s statement about pregnancy resulting from rape being something that “God intended to happen,” Harris-Perry shared that she flinches sometimes at others’ touch and that some times of year can be harder because of associated memories. These, she explained, are “triggers” for her and for other survivors, and she spends her life trying to either avoid or manage these. A political race, she added, shouldn’t have to come with a trigger warning.

    Survivors of sexual assault, she said, learn not to judge one another’s responses to their respective experiences. She then shared that, as a descendant of American slaves, some of her foremothers were women whose children — conceived through rape — increased the wealth of their rapists. And even these children, as complicated and painful and harrowing as their births may have been, were loved.

    http://www.mediaite.com/tv/melissa-harris-perrys-open-letter-to-richard-mourdock-rape-survivors-are-the-gift-to-ourselves/

  9. Ametia says:

    Touch a Four-leaf Clover, maybe you’ll get over. Try, your luck might come my way.
    Sweetest R& B EVER!

  10. Ametia says:

    Here’s the clip from Hardball last night. Tweety practically shutdown Joy Reid, when she tried to speak about Mormon. He wouldn’t let her speak to give a context about how she would give her analysis.

    SUNUNU, TRUMP, & PALIN AMP UP RACIST ATTACKS AGAINST OBAMA

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/ns/msnbc_tv-hardball_with_chris_matthews/#49574270

  11. Waiting for the President in New Hampshire

  12. Vote line in Columbia Heights Community Center Washington, DC

  13. Edward Lazarus says:

    Having voted in Presidential elections for well over a half century, I cannot recall a single instance when the choice of candidate was so incredibly important!
    Once these phonies get in office–(God Forbid)–the damage they will do is difficult to calculate.
    Even a hard working leader like Obama could not clean up the horrible damage Bush did. America is not yet back to her strongest, and it seems unlikely we could overcome the harm Romney and his lying partner will do in very little time!
    The one person we know is capable of cleaning up the mess created by republicans is our president. He needs –(and certainly has earned)–another four years.
    By then, he will be able to turn leadership over to Hillary, who will take us safely to 2024!
    Eight years of Obama followed by eight more by Hillary should, hopefully, cause many of these right wing trash like Limbaugh, Hannity, and assorted morons like Coulter to stroke out. Every time a right wing zealot dies, America comes closer to the ideal we all know is possible!
    VOTE! DON’T WAIT….VOTE EARLY! Find a couple of people to vote at the same time. None of us can afford to let these republican imbeciles control our government! They are incapable of reasonable thought….so we cannot allow them to interfere in our progress.

  14. rikyrah says:

    Obama May Not Need To Repeat 2008 Support From White Voters To Win
    by Frank James

    October 26, 2012 6:11 PM

    While much of what will happen on Election Day is now unknowable, we can predict with certainty that President Obama won’t win a majority of the white vote.

    No news there. No Democratic presidential candidate, after all, has received the support of most white voters since President Lyndon Johnson’s 1964 historic rout of Sen. Barry Goldwater of Arizona.

    Still, four years ago, Obama did manage to get a very respectable 43 percent of white voters to choose him over Goldwater’s Senate successor from Arizona, Sen. John McCain.

    That was then.

    As Election Day 2012 nears, Obama appears unlikely to come anywhere near to attracting the percentage of overall white voters he did four years ago.

    But that may not matter because of growth in voter groups much more inclined to back the nation’s first black president, members of minority groups, especially African-Americans and Latinos, who can counter Obama’s losses with many white voters, especially those defined as working class.

    How bad are Obama’s prospects with white voters? A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll put Obama’s support among white voters at 38 percent, dangerous territory for a president seeking re-election. The same poll placed Republican Mitt Romney’s support from white voters at 59 percent.

    The Washington Post reported that was the lowest level of support for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1988, when Michael Dukakis received 40 percent of the white vote against then-Vice President George H.W. Bush. (The Roper Center indicates Bill Clinton came in slightly lower than that in 1992, at 39 percent of the white vote in a three-way race featuring Bush and Ross Perot.)

    In 2008, Obama lost white working-class voters to McCain by 18 points. He’s not the only Democrat to fare poorly with these voters. In the 2010 congressional midterm election, which found Democrats losing control of the House, Democrats lost the white working-class vote to Republicans by 30 points.

    There appear to be exceptions, however, as in all-important Ohio. A recent Quinnipiac University poll showed Obama trailing Romney among white voters without a college degree there by only 4 percentage points — Romney, 49 percent, Obama 45 percent.

    That helps explain why in a number of Ohio polls, Obama has a small lead over Romney.

    http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2012/10/26/163730734/obama-may-not-need-to-repeat-2008-support-from-white-voters-to-win

  15. Ametia says:

    Romney co-opts PBO’s message of CHANGE.

  16. Ametia says:

    WHOLE LOT OF FAIL RIGHT CHERE:

  17. Souls to the polls in Florida

    http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021644280

    WASHINGTON, Oct. 25, 2012 — Unity Protect Our Vote Sundays, will also launch in churches nationally October 28

    WASHINGTON, Oct. 25, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Hoping to send a strong message that will resonate nationwide, a coalition of non-partisan organizations have joined forces to conduct a massive march comprised of over 200 congregations “Marching Souls to the Polls” on the first Sunday of early voting in Florida, October 28, 2012.

    The Florida Coalition on Black Civic Participation, Unity 12 Voter Empowerment Campaign, National Congress of Black Women, ACLU, Rainbow/PUSH, A. Philip Randolph Institute, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, AFL-CIO, Black Women’s Roundtable, Black Youth Vote!, African American Council of Christian Clergy, and F.I.R.E., have come together to coordinate this massive initiative as the Black Civic Engagement Working Group of Fl.

  18. Ametia says:

    F.D.A. Details Contamination at Pharmacy
    By SABRINA TAVERNISE and ANDREW POLLACK
    Published: October 26, 2012

    WASHINGTON — A federal inspection of a company whose tainted pain medicine has caused one of the worst public health drug disasters since the 1930s found greenish-yellow residue on sterilization equipment, surfaces coated with levels of mold and bacteria that exceeded the company’s own environmental limits, and an air-conditioner that was shut off nightly despite the importance of controlling temperature and humidity.

    The findings, made public on Friday by the Food and Drug Administration, followed a report from Massachusetts regulators on Tuesday and offered disturbing new details in an emerging portrait of what went wrong inside the New England Compounding Center, the pharmacy at the heart of a national meningitis outbreak in which 25 people have died, 313 more have fallen ill and as many as 14,000 people are believed to have been exposed.

    Instead of producing tailor-made drugs for individual patients, as the law allowed, the company turned into a major drug maker that supplied some of the most prestigious hospitals in the country, including ones affiliated with Harvard, Yale and the Mayo Clinic, all with minimal oversight from federal regulators.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/27/health/fda-finds-unsanitary-conditions-at-new-england-compounding-center.html?_r=1&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=cheatsheet_morning&cid=newsletter%3Bemail%3Bcheatsheet_morning&utm_term=Cheat%20Sheet&pagewanted=all

  19. Racial Views: Poll Shows Majority Harbor Prejudice Against Blacks http://huff.to/WQoZ8W

  20. Targeting Minority Voters

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9n4jMNvTe4&feature=player_embedded

    ____________________

    I wish a teabagger would…

  21. Newly Uncovered Paul Ryan Staff Emails Show Sensitivity To Stimulus Hypocrisy

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/27/paul-ryan-emails-stimulus_n_2027975.html#comments

    WASHINGTON — In late September 2011, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s office notified Rep. Paul Ryan’s office with some good news. The U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs had awarded a grant to a Wisconsin veteran’s home to help renovate its water distribution system. Walker’s office just needed Ryan’s people to sign off on the press release. But what started out as a routine matter quickly turned into a minor panic among aides to the two Republicans.

    Wendy Riemann, Walker’s director of federal relations, sent an email to Ryan’s communications director, Kevin Seifert, asking for a quote from the congressman.

    “Not sure if you’re doing your own release, etc.,” Riemann emailed on Sept. 26. “Let me know — we’ll wait to hear from you either way before putting it out.”

    Seifert replied with a simple message: Stop the presses. He had one concern. Could the grant be tied to federal stimulus funds?

    “Not to create more work for you all but — do you have any idea where the money for this grant came from? Was it from the stimulus/the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act?” Seifert wrote. “Our concern is that if it’s stimulus funds, we won’t want to highlight (and would think you guys wouldn’t either).”

    Seifert did not want Ryan appearing to support President Barack Obama.

  22. It’s early (in person) voting in Florida and the people are in long lines ready to VOTE! Go Florida!

  23. Good Morning, Chics!

Leave a Reply to SouthernGirl2Cancel reply