Good Morning, have a good day from all of us at 3CHICS!!
Rocket Records to 21 at 33 (1974–1979)
John formed his own MCA-distributed label Rocket Records and signed acts to it – notably Neil Sedaka (“Bad Blood”, on which he sang background vocals) and Kiki Dee – in which he took a personal interest. Instead of releasing his own records on Rocket, he opted for $8 million offered by MCA. When the contract was signed in 1974, MCA reportedly took out a $25 million insurance policy on John’s life.[40]
In 1974 a collaboration with John Lennon took place, resulting in Lennon appearing on John’s single cover of The Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”, the b-side of which was Lennon’s “One Day at a Time. In return John was featured on “Whatever Gets You thru the Night” on Lennon’s “Walls and Bridges” album. Later that year, on Thanksgiving Day, in what would be Lennon’s last live performance, the pair performed these two number 1 hits along with the Beatles classic “I Saw Her Standing There” at Madison Square Garden in New York. Lennon made the rare stage appearance with John and his band to keep the promise he made that he would appear on stage with John if “Whatever Gets You Thru The Night” became a number 1 single.[41]
Caribou was released in 1974 and, although it reached number 1, it was widely considered[42] a lesser quality album. Reportedly recorded in a scant two weeks between live appearances, it featured “The Bitch Is Back”[42] and the lushly orchestrated “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me”.[42]
John performing, 1975.
Pete Townshend of The Who asked John to play a character called the “Local Lad” in the film of the rock opera Tommy, and to perform the song “Pinball Wizard”. Drawing on power chords, John’s version was recorded and used for the movie release in 1975 and the single came out in 1976 (1975 in the US). The song charted at number 7 in England. Bally subsequently released a “Captain Fantastic” pinball machine featuring an illustration of John in his movie guise.
On the 1975 autobiographical album Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, John revealed his previously ambiguous personality, with Taupin’s lyrics describing their early days as struggling songwriters and musicians in London. The lyrics and accompanying photo booklet are infused with a specific sense of place and time that is otherwise rare in John’s music. “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” was the hit single from this album and captured an early turning point in John’s life.
a couple of comments from POU about the election, Karl Rove, and being suspicious of Rove’s reaction on election night:
morphus
IT/Internet geek here. I’ve been deeply emerged within the computer industry for a very long time … long before the terms “IT”, “Internet” and “PC” came into common usage. I’m always absolutely dumbfounded there’s even an argument about whether an election result can be changed to favor a candidate given the fact that one company, ES&S, is involved in at least 41 states’ voting processes. Additionally, lessons learned from 2000 and 2004 elections showed that central vote tabulating servers in Tennessee changed Ohio’s vote tallies. Meaning, on election night during these election cycles, observers witnessed vote tallies slowing and irrationally decreasing in counties throughout Ohio favoring Bush and vote totals continued to reverse in his favor up to day of certification.
While observing this election cycle, I never believed that the GOP or Robme thought they could ‘honestly’ match or surpass PBO’s grassroots campaign. However, as the days ticked down to election day, my angst grew watching the thin veneer of the Robme campaign operate on autopilot while the cheerleaders in the media and pollsters created a ‘win’ storyline for public consumption. To me, the Robme con was even more evident when simply comparing the number of campaign offices on the ground in each state.
What did I believe? 1) The public assurances from red state Governors’ coalition announcing that their state’s entire election apparatus were embedded within Robme’s campaign and would produce, on election night, a Robme ‘win’ regardless of what our lying eyes told us (in short, a multi-state repeat of 2000). After all, that $6 billion spent this election cycle went somewhere other than TV ads; and 2) PBO’s campaign and volunteers’ multifaceted approach simply overpowered built-in biases. And, for me, the most important powerful and unappreciated aspect of it all, the souls at the polls who stood in lines for hours.
another comment:
Tafr
Yup there is no conspiracy theory considering they stole two elections once before. Hell for those of you on the fence read the Conyer’s docs.
I am like that lawyer from scandal. I have watched that video of Rove so many damn times. I watched that video of the votes being flipped in PA as well. What is really interesting is the tone of the Romney camp and their blatant arrogance in regards to winning this election.
They planned to steal this one right out in the open. The only question I have is what went wrong? I believe that the Ohio SOS chickened out. I also believe they were foolish to think they could steal PA hence the focus on PA weeks and days before the election. Lord knows I could go on and on lol.
Bottom line they thought they were slick. All that talk about Tagg owning the voting machines did not help them at all. Folks were watching them,waiting for them to pull some mess.
A comment from Town about Willard:
Town
No, Mitt Romney is going through attention withdrawal. All his life and especially for the past 11 months, Mitt Romney has been THE MAN, commanding attention everywhere he goes. He’s had Secret Service protection, motorcades, reporters blowing up his ass and drinking his bathwater.
After 12:55 am on November 7, 2012 all that went away. He got swept off the stage. No more Secret Service. No more motorcades. No more TV shows. No more rallies. The Republicans don’t want to hear from him. You think Paul Ryan has called him since 12:55 11/7/12? Nope. People are able to get close enough to him to snap his picture while he looks rumpled, wrinkled & disheveled pumping his own gas at the gas station.
This man is used to being Number 1. This man is used to being a star. He had dreams of HAIL TO THE CHIEF being played everywhere he goes. He had dreams of people saluting him and him being able to command world wide attention at the drop of a hat. All that’s gone. No lovely parties for Ann. No living at the White House and he has to live with the knowledge that he can buy as many houses as he wants but he’ll never be able to buy 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
So he’s doing what most attention whores do: he’s going where he can get some attention. Do we really believe Mitt & Ann Romney drink out of red Solo cups? Watch TWILIGHT? Look at him getting attention at Disneyland. This man has never had a hair out of place…and now he shows up looking crazy at the gas station? He couldn’t have gotten Javier or even Tagg to gas up for him?
Naw, Mitt Romney knew what he was doing when he showed up at the gas station looking crazed and deranged. He wants some ATTENTION.
And on the off chance that Mitt Romney IS going crazed & deranged, Ann needs to hustle him to a psychologist ASAP. Ann, come get your husband and Mitt, come get your life!
Morning Joe Sort of Apologizes to Nate Silver But Not Really
By Imani Gandy (ABL) November 21st, 2012Joe Scarborough penned a spectacularly snotty op-ed in which he sorta not really apologizes for mocking Nate Silver’s election forecasts.
It’s the sort of apology issued by people who can never admit that they were wrong about anything. In other words: Republicans. And of course it attempts to revise history, because that’s what Republicans do.
Here’s what Scarborough claims in his “semi-apology”:
Since the president’s reelection, liberals have been cluttering my Twitter feed with demands that I apologize to Nate for dismissing his 74.8374629% prediction in October that Barack Obama would win. I have ignored those requests because as is usually the case for ideologues on Twitter, their rage is unfocused and based in ignorance. These critics conveniently forget that I consistently predicted an Obama win throughout the year and even said on Election Day that the president’s stubborn lead in swing state polls would doom Romney.
I won’t apologize to Mr. Silver for predicting an outcome that I had also been predicting for a year. But I do need to tell Nate I’m sorry for leaning in too hard and lumping him with pollsters whose methodology is as rigorous as the Simpsons’ strip mall physician, Dr. Nick. For those sins (and a multitude of others that I’m sure I don’t even know about), I am sorry.
But on October 29, Scarborough called Nate Silver and anyone who doesn’t believe in the almighty tossup, “jokes”:
“Nate Silver says this is a 73.6 percent chance that the president is going to win? Nobody in that campaign thinks they have a 73 percent chance — they think they have a 50.1 percent chance of winning. And you talk to the Romney people, it’s the same thing,” Scarborough said. “Both sides understand that it is close, and it could go either way. And anybody that thinks that this race is anything but a tossup right now is such an ideologue, they should be kept away from typewriters, computers, laptops and microphones for the next 10 days, because they’re jokes.”
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/11/21/morning-joe-sort-of-apologizes-to-nate-silver-but-not-really/
November 21, 2012
The fiscal choke
On “The Last Word” last night, guest host Ezra Klein was entering a euphoric state of optimism within a rapture of jubilation atop clouds nine, ten and eleven as he rattled off, from a NY Times story, the names of several Republican lawmakers–Peter King, Saxby Chambliss, Tom Coburn, John McCain, Lindsey Graham–who are defying Grover Mephistopheles’s demands and going, or so it seems, all Faustian with the Dems.
Guest Robert Reich responded: I’ll believe it when I see it.
I’m with Reich on this one.
Dark and contemptible as he is, Mephistopheles is at least a man of his final word. Contemporary Republicans, on the other hand, shift and slither as they say one seemingly conclusive thing but mean another, or another when they mean one. Sen. Graham, for instance, “said that … closing tax loopholes and eliminating deductions have to be considered, ‘even though that may technically violate the pledge.'” This sounds GOP-unorthodox; real renegade stuff, right? Not really. It still rejects the single most prominent position on which President Obama won decisive reelection: a hike in the top marginal tax rate. And keep in mind–as Lindsey surely does–that the SC senator is looking at being tea-party primaried in 2014. Courage has its pragmatic limits.
Klein’s larger argument was that the fiscal cliff or curb or slope might well be avoided. A late December deal awaits, believes Klein. Let’s grant, for the sake of that argument, a few Senate mavericks. Yet Klein must further assume some rather sizable GOP apostasy in the House, which is a vision that verges on the utopian. What’s more, he must assume that House Democrats will be willing en masse or in large part to accept what will likely be rather grievous entitlement injuries. Unquestionably, some rough equilibrium of bipartisan agreement on averting the cliff will be required. Yet I, along with Reich, just can’t see enough insufferable tea partiers shaking hands with enough socialist House devils.
Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Reich is wrong. But if we are, I won’t be pleasantly surprised. I’ll be pleasantly shocked
http://pmcarpenter.blogs.com/p_m_carpenters_commentary/2012/11/the-fiscal-choke.html
http://youtu.be/pqQxBlAufGA
Citizens rush council members as chaos erupts at Newark City Hall meeting http://www.nj.com/essex/index….
Video of the drama: http://www.bluejersey.com/show…
This was a dumb move on Booker’s part. According to Newark Municipal Code:
“40:69A-41, Approval or veto of ordinances; attending meetings: (b) The mayor may attend meetings of council and may take part in discussions of council but shall have no vote except in the case of a tie on the question of filling a vacancy in the council, in which case he may cast the deciding vote.”
The vote was 4-3 in favor Ms. Speight, so there was no tie and no need for Booker to cast a vote.
But I found this comment at another site:
“I think Booker is correct on the law. An ordinance requires 5 affirmative votes. A council resolution, according to state law, only needs a simple majority of those present, provided those present constitute a quorum.
The law referenced above (40:69A-41) says that the Mayor can only break a tie when the Council has a tie vote for a vacancy on the Council (the Mayor doesn’t get to cast a tie-breaking vote if the Council ties in a vote on other routine business matters).
The vote to fill the council vacancy is via resolution, not ordinance. Therefore, so long as there was a quorum present, Booker gets to break the tie.
It might have looked ugly, it might have been politically risky, but the vote by Booker appears to be legal.”
Sen. Graham to Obama: Your Turn to Answer Questions on Benghazi. // Dear Lindsey Graham… EFF YOU!
I’m taking a break for a minute. It’s official. I am tired! But I got so much accomplished. I love cooking my kids favorite dishes and watching them enjoy. It’s the bestest! :)
Boehner: ‘ObamaCare’ must be on the table in ‘fiscal cliff’ negotiations
By Sam Baker – 11/21/12 11:19 AM ET
President Obama’s signature healthcare law has to be on the table for cuts as Congress tried to negotiate a deal to avoid the “fiscal cliff,” House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) wrote in an op-ed.
“We can’t afford it, and we can’t afford to leave it intact,” Boehner wrote in the Cincinnati Enquirer. “That’s why I’ve been clear that the law has to stay on the table as both parties discuss ways to solve our nation’s massive debt challenge.”
Republicans have already made clear that they hope to go after the law’s insurance subsidies in upcoming debt talks. The subsidies represent billions of dollars that will, in 2014, help the uninsured pay for private insurance coverage. But Republicans want to cut into the subsidies to help pay for a fiscal-cliff agreement.
Boehner went on to argue that the push to repeal the Affordable Care Act will be aided by strict congressional oversight. He also praised Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R-Ohio) for refusing to implement a state-based insurance exchange, but neglected to mention that the choice invites the federal government to operate Ohio’s exchange.
“I’m proud of our governor and lieutenant governor for taking this stand and resisting the federal takeover of health care in Ohio. Repeal of the president’s health care law is critically important to the economic future of our country,” Boehner wrote.
http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/269059-boehner-obamacare-must-be-on-table-in-debt-talks
—Messina: Obama camp raised record $700 million online – —
– — -Over on the home page, POLITICO’s Ginger Gibson reports on Obama campaign manager Jim Messina’s Playbook breakfast interview, where Mike Allen gets the lowdown on all those fundraising emails:
The campaign also used its large amounts of individual data — which Messina insisted was mostly data the campaign generated by knocking on doors and making phone calls — to tailor fundraising requests to each recipient. The campaign tested the emails to see if recipients were likely to respond.
— – -SNIP – –
And it all paid off, with the campaign raising more than $700 million online, Messina said. That figure is up from the just under $500 million it raised in 2008.
Messina said he wasn’t sure where all that data will end up but he suggested it won’t be in Washington. “You can’t run two presidential campaigns from the grassroots and say now we’re going to run this from D.C.,” Messina told Playbook. Read the full story and watch clips of the interview here.
http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/11/messina-obama-camp-raised-record-million-online-150027.html
From The Maddow BLog
If you perceive reality as the enemy, you’re doing it wrong
By Steve Benen
Wed Nov 21, 2012 8:00 AM EST
Rachel noted on the show last night that there are a series of people saying things about the 2012 election “that aren’t true, but it makes them feel better to say it anyway.” Most notably, she highlighted a guy named Dean Chambers, best known for creating a website, Unskewed Polls, that weighted election surveys in a way Republicans liked, in order to make it look like Mitt Romney was poised to win with relative ease.
When making a list of people who looked awfully foolish when President Obama won a second term, we can start with folks like Karl Rove and Dick Morris, but Dean Chambers is certainly right up there on the list.
Given this ignominious notoriety, Chambers might be expected to lay low for a while, staying out of the public eye so as to avoid reminding people of his failures. But that’s not what’s happening — Chambers has now created BarackOFraudo.com, allowing the conservative to apply his razor-sharp analytic skills to arguing the president was elected by virtue of voter fraud.
Dave Weigel talked to Chambers yesterday about his evidence, and not surprisingly, the activist had very little to offer to substantiate his strange theories. Those who see the imaginary scourge of voter fraud always seem to stumble when asked for legitimate proof.
The larger takeaway, however, is that the right is still struggling badly to learn from its recent mistakes.
——————————————————————————–
I don’t mean electoral mistakes, or even policy missteps; I’m thinking more about conservatives’ discomfort with reality. Going into the elections, the right descended into a strange alternate universe — one of their own making — in which objective truths could be manipulated, distorted, or easily explained away.
Unpleasant poll results were unskewed; economic improvements were dismissed through conspiracy theories; public policies were twisted beyond recognition; and the laws of arithmetic were ignored.
If 2012 taught the right anything, there should have been one overarching lesson: if you perceive reality as the enemy, you’re doing it wrong.
Conservatives are going to do what they’re going to do, but for everyone’s benefit, here’s hoping they put their feet back on the ground, stop believing in unhinged nonsense, and start evaluating objective reality in a sane way.
BarackOFraudo.com suggests they’re off to a poor start.
Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. Resigns From Congress: http://tpm.ly/TclSTq
From The Chicago Sun Times:
Jesse Jackson Jr. resigns from Congress
BY MARY MITCHELL AND LYNN SWEET Staff Reporters November 21, 2012 12:38PM
Battling bipolar disorder and a federal probe into his campaign accounts, U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. resigned from Congress Wednesday afternoon, submitting his letter of resignation to House Speaker John Boehner.
The Chicago Democrat is embroiled in a federal probe into his campaign accounts, and multiple sources have said the eldest son of the famed civil rights leader is trying to negotiate a deal with the feds.
No such deal is in place, however, a source said.
Jackson had planned on a press conference to announce his resignation but was not able to bring himself to speak about it because of his illness, the source said.
“A plea deal has not happened yet. He couldn’t stop crying so he couldn’t give a press conference. He hasn’t cut a deal yet, but we are trying to get that done,” according to the source close to Jackson.
“First, he is not well. He is up and down. When he’s up he can talk but he breaks down that’s why he couldn’t conduct the press conference.”
The announcement comes after mounting pressure faced by Jackson as federal investigators appeared to widen their ongoing investigation into the congressman’s activities.
Jackson had been missing in action politically for more than five months. His absence from his official congressional duties began June 10, although his office did not disclose it until two weeks later.
He has checked in and out of the Mayo Clinic at least twice for treatment for bipolar depression, but is currently believed to be in the Chicago area.
The Chicago Sun-Times has reported that Jackson has hired high-profile criminal defense attorney Dan Webb and has been in the midst of plea negotiations.
Federal authorities have probed campaign spending by Jackson on personal items, including interior decorating and a luxury watch that was purchased with campaign money.
As the investigation has intensified, so has the media scrutiny on Jackson in recent months. He complained he could not walk to his doctor’s appointment from his Washington, D.C., home, given the reporters outside his house. And at a recent fundraiser, his wife, Ald. Sandi Jackson, refereed to the media as “jackals.”
BREAKING! @Reuters EGYPTIAN OFFICIAL CONFIRMS TO REUTERS CEASEFIRE AGREEMENT REACHED BETWEEN PALESTINIANS, ISRAEL
Joe Scarborough to Nate Silver: “I’m sorry”
http://www.salon.com/2012/11/21/joe_scarborough_to_nate_silver_im_sorry/ …
Joe Scarborough — who called the 2012 election a “dead heat” on Twitter and mocked anyone who would predict how it would turn out — has apologized to the man who correctly called every state for the second presidential race in a row.
In a column on Politico this morning, the “Morning Joe” co-host told Nate Silver he was sorry for doubting the methodology Silver uses on his fivethirtyeight blog.
I am listening to God Rest You Merry Gentlemen and Miss Haley comes in & ask….”granny, isn’t that jazz”? ***raises eyebrow***
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dJlCoHDJKU&feature=player_embedded
ALL.OF.THIS.
When does the pardoning of the WH Turkey happen?
My tree is up. I finished decorating last night. Jay came this morning and said…”granny, I like your house”! :)
LOL Jay is into the holday season already, huh?
ah Jay….
a young man after my own heart…
November 19, 2012, 6:48 pm
A Public Service Reminder: Paul Ryan is a Con Man
So now that the Unperson/Ryan ticket has lost, Republicans are clearly expecting Paul Ryan to move right back into his previous role as Washington’s favorite Serious, Honest Conservative.
He might get away with it; but I hope not.
The fact is that Ryan is and always was a fraud. His plan never added up; it was never, contrary to what people who should know better asserted, “scored” by the CBO. What he actually offered was a plan to hurt the poor and reward the rich, actually increasing the deficit along the way, plus magic asterisks that supposedly reduced the debt by means unspecified.
His genius, if you can all it that, was in realizing that there was a role — as I said, that of Honest, Serious Conservative — that self-proclaimed centrists desperately wanted to see filled, so that they could demonstrate their bipartisanship by lavishing praise on the holder of that position. So Ryan did his best to impersonate a budget wonk. It wasn’t a very good impersonation — in fact, he’s pretty bad at budget math. But the “centrists” saw what they wanted to see.
Ryan can’t be ignored, since his party does retain blocking power, and he chairs an important committee. But if he must be dealt with, it should be with no illusions. Fool me once …
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/19/a-public-service-reminder-paul-ryan-is-a-con-man/?
A big step forward on ‘Obamacare’ implementation
By Steve Benen
Wed Nov 21, 2012 8:45 AM EST
The Affordable Care Act was a massive piece of legislation, but it only went so far in defining the details of policy implementation. For example, the text of the bill mandates that Americans’ preventive care be provided without a copay, but it doesn’t specify what, exactly, counts as preventive care.
And that’s where the regulatory process kicks in. It’s up to the Obama administration to make choices defining the limits and the benefits under the legal framework. With this in mind, “Obamacare” implementation took another important step forward yesterday.
The Obama administration took a big step on Tuesday to carry out the new health care law by defining “essential health benefits” that must be offered to most Americans and by allowing employers to offer much bigger financial rewards to employees who quit smoking or adopt other healthy behaviors. […]
The rules translate the broad promises of the 2010 law into detailed standards that can be enforced by state and federal officials. Under the rules, insurers cannot deny coverage or charge higher premiums to people because they are sick or have been ill. They also cannot charge women more than men, as many now do.
“Thanks to the health care law, no one will be discriminated against because of a pre-existing condition,” said Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, who issued the rules with Phyllis C. Borzi, an assistant secretary of labor, and Steven T. Miller, the acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service.
When it comes to “essential” benefits, states will have some leeway, but under the regulations unveiled yesterday, all insurers will be required to provide “dental care and vision services for children, treatment of mental health and drug abuse problems, and ‘habilitative services’ for people with conditions like autism or cerebral palsy.”
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/11/21/15333779-a-big-step-forward-on-obamacare-implementation?lite
Rise Above, CNBC’s move into advocacy
Corporate America’s house organ starts an anti-political political campaign
By Ryan Chittum
Any time you see Wall Street CEOs and CNBC campaigning for what they call the common good, it’s worth raising an eyebrow or two.
So it is with CNBC’s “Rise Above” crusade, which has blanketed its airwaves and adorned its lapels since the day after the election with pleas for a solution to the so-called “fiscal cliff.”
You’ll note that CNBC has not Risen Above for the common good on issues like stimulating a depressed economy, ameliorating the housing catastrophe, or prosecuting its Wall Street sources/dinner partners for the subprime fiasco. But make no mistake: even if it had, it would have been stepping outside the boundaries of traditional American journalism practice into political advocacy. And that’s precisely what it’s doing here, at further cost to its credibility as a mainstream news organization instead of some HD version of Wall Street CCTV.
The big question: Why is a news organization running what’s effectively a political campaign for Simpson-Bowles, complete with thirty-second spots and campaign buttons? Look, kids. You can get your very own Rise Above pin, wrapped in the flag, just like your favorite business-news personalities! Roger Ailes himself must blush at this kind of grandstanding, but I have a hard time believing the business class and CNBC would be so worked up over this austerity program if it weren’t for the major tax increases contained therein.
The day after the election, Joe Kernen read off the prompter, with all the enthusiasm of a TASS newscaster, “We are ‘Rising Above’ the partisan rhetoric to find a solution for the fiscal cliff.”
http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/rise_above_cnbcs_move_into_adv.php?page=all
Benghazi Security Chief Assassinated
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/21/benghazi-security-chief-assassinated-libya_n_2169743.html#comments
TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Libya’s deputy interior minister says gunmen assassinated the security chief of the eastern city of Benghazi overnight.
Omar al-Khadrawi says National Security Chief Col. Farag al-Dersi was shot dead while returning from work on Wednesday.
“Three men opened fire, killed him and then fled the scene,” he said, adding that it was unclear who is behind the killing.
The country’s second largest city has witnessed a series of assassinations and car bombs over the past months by unidentified assailants targeting mainly security officials who worked under the rule of ousted dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
On Sept. 11, U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed in an hours-long assault on the U.S. mission in Benghazi. Islamic extremists are believed to be behind the attack.
Ametia,
have a safe trip.
Thank you, Lady. Loving Elton John this week. You’re posting all my favs.
Good Morning, Everyone at 3CHICS!!
Good morning, 3Chics! Getting ready to start cooking after I have a cup of coffee. :)
oooh….what are you cooking, SG2?
Whew! I just finished washing greens. Next up…cornbread. :)
Good Morning, Ladies & Everyone! :-)
What time is dinner? :-)
Dinner will be served around 3pm.
My turkey necks are on & cooking. Now I am ready to make the pasta salad.