Curtis Lee Mayfield (June 3, 1942 – December 26, 1999) was an American soul, R&B, and funk singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for his anthemic music with The Impressions during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and for composing the soundtrack to the blaxploitation film Super Fly, Mayfield is highly regarded as a pioneer of funk and of politically conscious African-American music.[1][2] He was also a multi-instrumentalist who played the guitar, bass, piano, saxophone, and drums. Mayfield is a winner of both the Grammy Legend Award (in 1994) and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (in 1995), and he was a double inductee into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted as a member of The Impressions into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991, and again in 1999 as a solo artist. He is also a two-time Grammy Hall of Fame inductee
Breaking Politics @breakingpol
Federal authorities believe Jesse Jackson Jr. got tip about investigation into his finances – @Suntimes http://bit.ly/Ts5qls
Republicans Announce All Male House Chairs
Source: TPM
IGOR BOBIC 6:54 PM EST, TUESDAY NOVEMBER 27, 2012
Twelve of the major House committees will be chaired by men in the 113th Congress, the House Republican Steering Committee announced on Tuesday, as reported by Politico:
After a day of meetings closed to the public, the House Republican Steering Committee announced an all-male slate of committee chairs, including 12 returning lawmakers who will head up some of the most important panels in Washington. The chairmen for the House Ethics Committee and House Administration Committee have yet to be chosen, so a woman could end up in one of those slots.
“Is anyone really surprised?” the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Tweeted, following the report.
Read more: http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/republicans-announce-all-male-house-chairs
How Obama Killed the Norquist Pledge
Monday, November 26, 2012 |
Under the pressure of the fiscal cliff, Republicans are beginning to buckle. And the first casualty seems to be – drumrolls, please – the Grover Norquist pledge. I mean, when Republicans from blood-red states like Georgia and South Carolina start telling Grover Norquist to go suck a thumb, you know something palpable has changed in American politics. The one pledge that has come to define Republican governance – the “taxes = baaad” paradigm – is falling apart.
Why? Sure, it’s because President Obama won re-election and that fiscal cliff – the one that Republican set up for themselves – is coming crashing down on them at the end of the year. But how did we get here?
You see, the prevailing wisdom in the beltway is that we ended up in the bind of the fiscal cliff through Washington’s paralysis of governing. And that’s partially true. But that the paralysis is resulting today in Republicans abandoning their central economic philosophy wasn’t a given. In fact, it wouldn’t have happened were it not for the brilliant setup created by the president.
Too many people in the beltway seem to internalize an interesting case of cognitive dissonance about this president: that he is both a brilliant tactician who put together an unprecedented coalition to become the first Democrat to win a majority of the popular vote twice since FDR and that he’s a dumb negotiator who gives away football fields to opponents and “negotiates against himself.” Both things cannot be true, regardless of how much the beltway insists on both.
So what gives? Barack Obama is the most brilliant strategic mind of our time – perhaps since FDR. Anyone who believes that he did not figure out the Republican tactic of obstructing everything and being hell bent on robbing the public sector of all possible revenue within his first few months in office is a fool. He did figure it out. And when he figured it out, he set out to systematically destroy it. But being a strategic genius, he knew that it wasn’t going to be done in a day. In the first two years, he had sizeable (but by no means non-obstructable) Democratic majorities in the House and the Senate, and he needed to get the big policy agenda through: the largest economic recovery package in history, health care reform, Wall Street reform, equal pay for women, credit card reform, student loan reform, repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, keeping the safety net tight while the economy was still in upheaval.
http://www.thepeoplesview.net/2012/11/how-obama-killed-norquist-pledge.html
LOL They can OUTSMART the black PREZ. Good Riddance, Grover!
totally psyched about Les Miz the movie:
Mee too
California Federal Court Home To First All-Female Bench |
The federal district court based out of Oakland, Calif. is the first major federal courthouse in which all the judges are female – both lifetime appointees and magistrates (who serve eight-year terms).
Among the six women on the Northern District of California are five women of color, one of whom is also the first out lesbian on the court, according to the Recorder. Another was a former black police officer who started her career as one of four women in a 700-person office, and another a former corporate lawyer who was the first Latina partner at her firm.[….]
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/11/27/1237551/california-federal-court-home-to-first-all-female-bench/
This is all kinds of AWESOME, right here.
November 27, 2012
Messing with McCain-Graham’s mind
Politico:
McCain and Graham appeared to temper their criticism of Rice over the weekend, but the hour-and-a-half long meeting Tuesday only seemed to reignite their fury.
My guess? Susan Rice baited them. She entered this morning’s meeting on an aggressive, combative footing and never relented. Expecting little but obedient back-shuffling from a mere U.N. ambassador, nothing would steam the august good old boys of John McCain and Lindsey Graham more than a young black woman’s suggestion that these two almighty U.S. senators simply shove and then privately store their raving paranoia in an unlit, malodorous place.
Rice was baiting them. And McCain and Graham were too damn dumb to perceive it. That’s my guess.
***
p.s.: I suppose in this increasingly bizarre case I should add what seems like the obvious, which I’m generally loathe to do.
By now, the White House must be loving this. There appear to be sufficient votes in the Senate to confirm Rice as secretary of state; meanwhile McCain and Graham (and Ayotte) are only further contaminating the GOP brand. Hence the longer they embarrass themselves, the stronger the WH’s position becomes. In short, Rice had good reason for doing what I suspect she did.
http://pmcarpenter.blogs.com/p_m_carpenters_commentary/2012/11/messing-with-mccain-grahams-mind.html
LOL Repost; and needed.
LOL! Go, Ambassador Rice!
PoliticsNation with Al Sharpton
GOP Senators McCain, Ayotte, and Graham are ripping Amb. Rice after their meeting with her this morning, with Graham saying he’s now even more “disturbed” than he was before. http://nbcnews.to/Tj3Gr8
Do you have her back?
In the words of Patti LaBelle..
….Hey sister, go sister, soul sister, go sister!
Hello, hey Ms. Lindsey & McShame, you wanna give it go?
Grover Norquist’s Budget Is Largely Financed by Just Two Billionaire-Backed Nonprofits
Lee Fang on November 27, 2012 – 1:48 PM ET
Grover Norquist’s iron grip over much of the Republican Party is somewhat puzzling. Why should Senators and other lawmakers listen to a guy caught laundering money for Jack Abramoff?
But consider Norquist’s tax pledge and political power another way: that he’s just a proxy for the powerful interest groups that finance him. In the nineties, it was big tobacco that used Norquist’s tax pledge as a cover to lobby lawmakers against cigarette taxes (Norquist still uses an e-mail system donated to him by Altria to send out Tea Party action alerts against tobacco taxes). Now, big PhRMA and other industry groups provide grants to Norquist in exchange for his foundation’s endorsement on other giveaways, like a protectionist support against importing cheaper drugs from Canada and the classification of tax subsidies to refineries as “tax cuts” that must not be cut.
http://www.thenation.com/blog/171475/analysis-grover-norquists-budget-largely-financed-just-two-billionaire-backed-nonprofits?rel=emailNation
The Trouble With Steven Spielberg’s ‘Lincoln’
Jon Wiener on November 26, 2012 – 10:51 PM ET
Daniel Day Lewis deserves the Oscar for best actor for his wonderful portrayal of Lincoln in the new Steven Spielberg movie. But while the acting is great, there’s a problem with the film: it is dedicated to the proposition that Lincoln freed the slaves. Historians say that’s not quite right. The end of slavery did not come because Lincoln and the House of Representatives voted for the Thirteenth Amendment.
The best work I know about the end of slavery is Eric Foner’s unforgettable book The Fiery Trial: Lincoln and American Slavery, published in 2010, which won the Pulitzer Prize, the Bancroft Prize and the Lincoln Prize. Foner and many other historians over the last couple of decades have emphasized the central role played by the slaves themselves, who are virtually invisible in this movie. During the three weeks that the movie deals with, Sherman’s army was marching through South Carolina, where slaves were seizing plantations. They were dividing up land among themselves. They were seizing their freedom. Slavery was dying on the ground, not just in the House of Representatives. You get no sense of that in the movie.
In the film Lincoln is dedicated to the great task of getting the House to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment. But the film fails to note that Lincoln did not support the Thirteenth Amendment when it was proposed in 1864—by the Women’s National Loyal League, led by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Lincoln’s view at that point, as Foner shows, was that slavery should be abolished on a state-by-state basis, since slavery had been created by state law. He changed his mind in response to political pressure from Radical Republicans.
http://www.thenation.com/blog/171461/trouble-steven-spielbergs-lincoln?rel=emailNation#
Jeff Gauvin @JeffersonObama
——————————–
GOP has gone after ACORN, Michelle Obama, Shirley Sherrod, Valerie Jarrett, Van Jones, Eric Holder & now Rice….What’s the linkage here?
THEY’RE BLACK, BLACK, BLACKETY BLACK!
Too much BLACK POWER for WHITEY, EH?
BLACK
Blackilicious Black
LOL
BAM!
Put that paddle to their asses, dirty Harry!
Study: Black Nannies Earn the Most
By: Jenée Desmond-Harris | Posted: November 27, 2012 at 11:10 AM
The first ever national study of the employment conditions of domestic workers, released today by the National Domestic Workers Alliance, reveals low wages and few benefits for home help employees, but substantial variations in compensation based on ethnicity, immigration status, and whether employees live with their employers.
Interestingly, while white domestic workers generally earned more than their black, Hispanic and Asian counterparts, the study found that African-American nannies earned slightly more — a median of $12.71 an hour — than white ones ($12.55 an hour).
But overall, “Home Economics: The Invisible and Unregulated World of Domestic Work,” based on interviews with 2,086 workers in 14 major metropolitan areas to provide an empirically grounded picture of what it means to be a domestic worker in modern America, had somber finding for these workers as a group. Among the surveyed employees, who are excluded from key federal and state labor laws and regulations, researchers uncovered denial of meal and rest breaks, overtime pay, or paid vacations or holidays, and worse: multiple accounts of physical and psychological abuse.
http://www.theroot.com/buzz/study-black-nannies-earn-most
[Smartypants]:
[…] The minute I heard that Senator Ayotte joined these two knuckleheads in the meeting, I knew what was up. These are the same three that have been screaming the loudest about the $500 billion in cuts to defense spending that are set to kick in on January 1, 2013 as part of the debt ceiling deal.
All the whoopla about the negotiations related to the so-called “fiscal cliff” has been about taxes and entitlements. But cuts to entitlements are NOT set to kick in on Jan. 1st – thanks to the superior negotiating done by President Obama and the Democrats. On the other hand, what people have been forgetting about are the defense cuts that were included.
These three are going to use this whole Benghazi nonsense as a justification for holding up the nomination of Ambassador Rice to be Secretary of State. They’ve renewed their commitment to do that when/if President Obama nominates her. And they’ll block her until the defense cuts are restored.
That’s what all this is about. How Ambassador Rice handled the situation in Benghazi is just a distraction.
http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-republicans-next-hostage-susan-rice.html
Of course the 3 stooges are a distraction. Great catch on the defense cuts angle. It makes sense.
Carey where you at? We miss you!
Three arrested as naked protesters storm Boehner’s office over budget cuts
Source: Raw Story
At least three AIDS activists were arrested on Tuesday after they and other naked demonstrators briefly took over House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) to protest budget cuts to health care services.
Activists from ACT UP, New York ACT UP, Philadelphia ACT UP, Housing Works and the Student Global AIDS Campaign stripped down in the lobby of the Speakers office and began chanting to send Congress a message ahead of World AIDS Day on December 1.
“Budget cuts are really rude, that’s why we have to be so nude!” the protesters shouted. “Boehner, Boehner, don’t be a dick! Budget cuts will make us sick!”
After several warnings from Capital Police the protesters agreed to get dressed and leave the building. But after media left, activists said at least three of the women who had been nude were arrested on charges of lewd conduct and indecent exposure. No male protesters were reportedly arrested.
Raw Story (http://s.tt/1v1xH)
Tim Wise on White Anxiety and The Future of Multiracial Democracy (GRIT TV), 11/16/12
Posted on November 26, 2012
Video here: http://www.timwise.org/2012/11/tim-wise-on-white-anxiety-and-the-future-of-multiracial-democracy-grit-tv-111612/
Spielberg’s Lincoln Movie: Yet More White Saviors?
By Joe
November 26, 2012
Political scientist Corey Robin has a very thorough review and analysis of issues in and around the new Spielberg movie, Lincoln. It focuses on the political machinations in regard to the thirteenth amendment, which officially ended slavery — which was a or the major foundation of the US economic and political system for well over half this country’s history. I have not yet seen the movie, but according to Robin and others, it is another “white savior” movie:
Read on here: http://www.racismreview.com/blog/
THIS: Actually those “black players,” the 210,000 black Union soldiers and sailors and the 300,000 black Union support troops played the biggest role in many ways, yet get almost no attention in mainstream accounts of a typically white-centered Civil War. Not to mention the great “strike” of black labor against the treasonous Confederate slaveholders, the black laborers who fled slavery to the North or who sabotaged the plantation economy during the war.
What Mitch McConnell fears
Posted by Ezra Klein on November 27, 2012 at 1:15 pm
teve Benen asks a sensible question: Harry Reid’s proposed filibuster reforms are quite modest. If they pass wholesale, the 60-vote supermajority requirement will remain unchanged. So why’s he so steamed?
I’ve asked Senate staff the same question, and I’ve gotten, in general, three answers.
First, moving to a “talking filibuster” is not seen as the minor tweak that some – including me — have made it out to be. True, it doesn’t change the fact that the Senate is now a 60-vote institution. But it does make the life of an obstructing minority much harder. Given the size of the Republican minority, to fill a day-long filibuster, every senator would have to be up and speaking for at least half an hour, and a critical mass of minority senators would have to be in the chamber at all times. Coordinating that kind of action among 45 senators who’ve got fundraisers and flights and out-of-town family and who usually don’t stay in Washington even for a full week at a time is no small task.
Second, speeding up the time it takes to break a filibuster reduces McConnell’s power to slow the Senate down, which has been a significant element of his strategy. Again, it doesn’t change the number of votes needed at the end of the day, but it does make it easier for Democrats to move through their agenda when they do have the votes.
Third and most importantly, the real fight, according to a number of Senate sources, is simply the effort to use the so-called “constitutional option” to change the Senate’s rules with 51 votes rather than 67. If you look at McConnell’s blistering speech Monday, that’s actually what he focuses on first:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/11/27/what-mitch-mcconnell-fears/?print=1
I’ll have what PM’s having:
November 27, 2012
Messing with McCain-Graham’s mind
Politico:
McCain and Graham appeared to temper their criticism of Rice over the weekend, but the hour-and-a-half long meeting Tuesday only seemed to reignite their fury.
My guess? Susan Rice baited them. She entered this morning’s meeting on an aggressive, combative footing and never relented. Expecting little but obedient back-shuffling from a mere U.N. ambassador, nothing would steam the august good old boys of John McCain and Lindsey Graham more than a young black woman’s suggestion that these two almighty U.S. senators simply shove and then privately store their raving paranoia in an unlit, malodorous place.
Rice was baiting them. And McCain and Graham were too damn dumb to perceive it. That’s my guess.
http://pmcarpenter.blogs.com/p_m_carpenters_commentary/
McConnell Extends Olive Branch To Reid To Avoid Filibuster Reform
Source: TPM
BRIAN BEUTLER 11:04 AM EST, TUESDAY NOVEMBER 27, 2012
In an effort to avoid a unilateral Democratic to change the Senate’s filibuster rules in January, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell offered to negotiate a consensus package of rules change with Majority Leader Harry Reid
“I think it’s appropriate, that we talk about rule changes together, but that’s not what he’s suggesting he’s going to do here,” McConnell said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “That is not a negotiation with the minority overr ules changes. What we ought to be doing is talking to each other about what adjustments in the rules we could advocate together. And not one party with a majority today that might be in a minority two years from now changing the rules, break the rules to change the rules for some kind of misguided, short-term advantage. That’s the problem. So I would be happy to talk to the majority leader about these issues.”
Reid somewhat skeptically accepted the offer.
“The facts are the facts. We can’t make them up. The Senate is not working, and we need to do something to fix it. I close then as I began. I would be happy to work with leader McConnell about rules changes. I’ve made clear what we seek. I await his suggestions…. If the Republican leader has some ideas as to what he thinks should be done, I will come to his office, we could do it privately or publicly. I’m happy to work with him.”
Read more: http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/mcconnell-extends-olive-branch-to-reid-to-avoid
We got your olive branch, Tippy Turtle; right here:
http://youtu.be/1C5G_8bx0bE
LOL Love Bashir…
Cindy and Meghan McCain, COME GET THIS FOOL; HE’S “TROUBLED.”
AW HELL MUTHA&8KIN NO!
Dimon Best to Lead Treasury in Crisis, Buffett Says
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon would be the best person to lead the U.S. Treasury Department in a financial crisis, billionaire investor Warren Buffett said.
“If we did run into problems in markets, I think he would actually be the best person you could have in the job,” Buffett said in response to a question about Dimon from Charlie Rose, according to the transcript of an interview that was scheduled to air yesterday on PBS. “World leaders would have confidence in him.”
read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/…
Time to REPOST
Grover Norquist Pimps The Taxpayer Protection Pledge: GOP Whores Signed It, But Refuse To Sign Debt Ceiling Bill: Is ANTI-TAX ANTI -AMERICAN?
Posted on July 18, 2011 by Ametia
http://3chicspolitico.com/2011/07/18/grover-norquist-pimps-the-taxpayer-protection-pledge-gop-whores-signed-it-but-refuse-to-sign-debt-ceiling-bill-is-anti-tax-anti-american/
Stacy Westfall’s Championship Run
Check this out, 3Chics!
No saddle, halter or bit! Wow! **goosebumps**
Stacy Westfall is ALL KINDS OF AWESOME!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2as3EYaqFT4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ltaYcU3n2Xs
You are DISTURBED, DIVA LINDSEY!
When the preoccupation with lower rates gets silly
By Steve Benen – Tue Nov 27, 2012 10:08 AM EST
The New York Times ran an interesting item the other day — unfortunately, it was the day after Thanksgiving, when it was easy to miss — about just how far Republicans are prepared to go to prevent tax rates from increasing on the wealthiest Americans.
Congressional negotiators, trying to avert a fiscal crisis in January, are examining ideas that would allow effective tax rates to rise for the wealthy without technically raising the top tax rate of 35 percent. They hope the proposals will advance negotiations by allowing both parties to claim they stood their ground.
One possible change would tax the entire salary earned by those making more than a certain level — $400,000 or so — at the top rate of 35 percent rather than allowing them to pay lower rates before they reach the target, as is the standard formula. That plan would allow Republicans to say they did not back down in their opposition to raising marginal tax rates and Democrats to say they prevailed by increasing effective tax rates on the rich.
Got that? We’ve talked about how easy it is to mock wealthy-but-ignorant people who go to great lengths to keep their income at $249,999 because they don’t understand how marginal tax rates work. But under the plan being floated by Republicans, those silly folks would actually be correct — GOP policymakers would apply the higher rate to all of their income, rather than just income above a certain threshold, creating a legitimate reason for some wealthy folks to avoid a higher tax bracket.
The larger point, of course, is that these GOP tax-policy contortions — raising revenue without raising rates — are becoming farcical. Republicans are arguing that the only meaningful goal in this debate is keeping tax rates exactly where they are, and once that premise is in place, everything else is open to conversation, even scrapping
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/11/27/15483574-when-the-preoccupation-with-lower-rates-gets-silly?lite
The Kids Are Alright
By Steve Benen – Tue Nov 27, 2012 11:20 AM EST
There was a fair amount of skepticism going into the presidential election as to whether President Obama could count on younger voters’ support the way he did four years ago. But it’s clear the youth vote once again made a critical difference, as a new Pew Research Center report helped document.
The divide between young voters and older voters was as stark this year as it was in 2008. While Obama lost ground among voters younger than 30, he still won this age group by 24 points over Mitt Romney (60% to 36%). […]
In Florida, Ohio, Virginia and Pennsylvania, Obama also failed to win a majority of voters 30 and older. Yet he swept all four battleground states, in part because he won majorities of 60% or more among young voters.
Just as critically, young people made up as large a share of the overall electorate as they did in 2008, according to the national exit poll (19% in 2012, 18% in 2008). As recently as September, young voters were significantly less engaged in the campaign than they had been four years earlier. But their interest and engagement levels increased in the campaign’s final weeks.
As a matter of election analysis, this is certainly noteworthy data, which helps explain why the president was able to do as well as he did.
But in the larger context, this has even greater salience. There’s been ample talk of late about Republicans having a “demographics” problem — the GOP is an overwhelmingly white party with pockets of regional appeal in a nation that’s growing more racially and ethnically diverse.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/11/27/15484930-the-kids-are-alright?lite
Power To The People!
Why the right’s reaction to Shelley Moore Capito matters
By Steve Benen – Tue Nov 27, 2012 10:46 AM EST.1
Getty Images
In 2010, Republican primary voters ignored the GOP establishment’s wishes and several U.S. Senate races. The result was several winnable contests for Republicans — including Nevada, Delaware, and Colorado — in which Democrats prevailed. In 2012, it happened again in states like Missouri and Indiana.
Looking ahead, GOP leaders are desperate to prevent similar fiascoes, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee is eyeing a more prominent role in party primaries to prevent unelectable candidates from winning the party’s nomination.
There is, however, a big problem — far-right activists don’t care what the establishment wants, don’t like the candidates the NRSC supports, and don’t see the problem with the status quo. This is likely to get ugly, and we’re already watching the first proxy fight unfold.
Rep. Shelley Moore Capito’s (R-W.Va.) candidacy for a West Virginia Senate seat is already signaling that Republicans could face the same intra-party split that plagued them in primaries over the past two cycles.
On day one of her candidacy, Capito received criticism from two conservative groups known for mounting primary challenges against establishment-backed Republicans: the Club for Growth and the Senate Conservatives Fund, a group founded by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.).
Chris Chocola, president of the Club, slammed her as an “establishment candidate,” and Senate Conservatives Fund executive director Matt Hoskins said the group wouldn’t endorse her.
For the Republican establishment, Capito’s announcement was fantastic news — she’s easily the most popular Republican in West Virginia and her campaign kickoff might pressure incumbent Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D) to retire. With Capito on the ballot in this once-blue-now-red state, the GOP sees this race a big step towards retaking the Senate majority.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/11/27/15484234-why-the-rights-reaction-to-shelley-moore-capito-matters?lite
Posted at 08:51 AM ET, 11/27/2012
The Morning Plum: Will taking it to the people work for Obama?
By Greg Sargent
Here we go: Obama is getting ready to mount more public pressure on Republicans to pass an extension of just the tax cuts for those under $250,000 — and reach a deal on the fiscal cliff.
A White House official says Obama will meet today with small business owners. He’ll host another event tomorrow with middle class Americans facing the expiration of the Bush tax cuts. On Friday Obama will tour a toy manufacturing plant in Pennsylvania that may take a hit if middle class taxes go up and holiday consumption drops.
Will it work? As Jonathan Bernstein has noted, this sort of activity doesn’t necessarily move Republican members of Congress, since many only need to worry about their districts and were elected by safe margins. But such public campaigning is valuable anyway: It may keep the president and his fiscal approach popular — and the overall GOP brand unpopular — heading into the next round of midterm elections. Also: it could keep the Dem activist base engaged, post-election.
Obama has the leverage here. Yesterday’s CNN poll found that 53 percent have an unfavorable view of the GOP. More would blame Congressional Republicans (45 percent) than Obama (34) if we go over the fiscal cliff. Two-thirds say any fiscal deal should include a mix of spending cuts and tax increases; 56 percent say taxes on the rich should be kept high so government can continue helping low-income people.
The clear verdict of the election was that the safety net — and the core mission of the big progressive reforms of the 20th Century — must be preserved and that the rich must bear a greater burden for bringing down the deficit. This helps explain why Republicans are now claiming they support revenue increases via the closing of loopholes, but not by the raising of rates. Republicans can no longer maintain their no-tax-hikes-at-all-costs posture, so they are trying to create the appearance of flexibility by hinting at a break with Grover Norquist’s anti-tax pledge.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line
Wow!
This pic is sooo powerful. Education knows NO income bracket.
AMEN!
no…the power of education as a lifechanging force is universal.
Say; that again, so we can hear you, Rikyrah!
GOP senators not backing down on Benghazi: http://tpm.ly/Y0uBz6
Luke Russert@LukeRussert
Graham after meeting with Rice: “I’m more disturbed now than I was before.” #Benghazi
_____________________
Ha! Susan Rice didn’t beg them. Kick rocks Lindsey Graham!
you mean she didn’t bow down to Miss Lindsey?
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
LOL I wish I could find that vid of dude on Bill Press Show yesterday. He called Lindsey and McShame “FADING DIVAS.”
We’ve only just begun to live
White lace and promises
A kiss for luck and we’re on our way
Before the rising sun we fly
So many roads to choose
We start our walking and learn to run..
That Founding Fathers bullshit WILL NOT FLY. It’s the 21st century, BITHCES!
The Daily Beast@thedailybeast
David Axelrod on @sullydish after Obama’s first debate: “MSNBC was relentless that night. And Andrew Sullivan was on a suicide watch…”
Will the fiscal cliff break Grover Norquist’s hold on Republicans?
By Aaron Blake, Published: November 26
Grover Norquist’s anti-tax pledge has been a sacred and unchallenged keystone of the Republican platform for more than two decades, playing a central role in almost every budget battle in Congress since 1986. But Norquist and his pledge, signed by 95 percent of congressional Republicans, are now in danger of becoming Washington relics as more and more defectors inch toward accepting tax increases to avert the “fiscal cliff.”
On Monday, Sen. Bob Corker (Tenn.) became the latest in a handful of prominent Republican lawmakers to take to the airwaves in recent days and say they are willing to break their pledge to oppose all tax increases.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/will-the-fiscal-cliff-break-grover-norquists-hold-on-republicans/2012/11/26/c77a60b0-3804-11e2-a263-f0ebffed2f15_story.html?wpisrc=nl_politics
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA AH AH AHAH H A
……………………………
Mr. 47 Percent
By Steve Benen
Tue Nov 27, 2012 9:22 AM EST
Election Day was three weeks ago, but every day, the overall popular-vote totals change just a little as additional results are published. And as of yesterday, we appear to have reached an interesting, albeit largely symbolic, threshold.
Call it irony or call it coincidence: Mitt Romney’s share of the popular vote in the 2012 presidential race is very likely to be 47 percent.
Romney’s campaign, of course, was doomed in large part by comments made on a hidden camera in which he suggested that 47 percent of the country was so reliant on government services that those people would never vote for him.
The words ’47 percent’ came to define what was already evident: that Romney struggled to connect with lower- and middle-income voters and with groups such as Latinos. And in the end, it looks like 47 percent also just happens to be the share of the vote that Romney will get.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/11/27/15482682-mr-47-percent?threadId=3618209&commentId=72196605#c72196605
KARMA: It’s what’s for BREAKFAST, LUNCH, & DINNER, MITTENS!
Good morning you happy people,
I am sorry to hear of the problem you have been having with the reblog option. I can understand why this is so upsetting. Blogging is supposed to be how we express our personal beliefs and feelings an opinions. For someone to copy everything oneposts is like stealing. Not the same at all as reblogging because you like a certain article or photo. Not the same as using another blogger’s work as a kickoff point for your own thoughts. Sad that someone would take advantage of this feature to enhance their own blog numbers or to ridicule your work. Much like the Republican party who plays games of deceit and fakery rather than approach discussions honestly and openly. if this guy has something to say; he should just come on and comment so that we can all hear what he has to say; and comment ourselves. Cowardice is what I see and typical Right-Wing tactics.
We shouldn’t be surprized that the minions emulate the inappropriate behavior of the masters.
Sometimes blogging can be very frustrating. Choosing to take the acceptable course of verbal dialogue can sometimes leave one frustrated at not being able to reach out and “touch” someone; hard. LOL
;)
Good morning!
Hi Angrymanspeaks. LMBAO I’m not trying to go into verbal cyber warfare with anyone. It’s a losing battle. And really the coward’s way to deal with life.
Wanker of the Day: Bruce Bartlett
by BooMan
Mon Nov 26th, 2012 at 10:55:08 PM EST
There is something almost epically pathetic about Bruce Bartlett’s long column about how he slowly learned that the Republican Party is full of shit. It is basically an admission that he’s not very bright. How could he think that the GOP could go from attracting 10% percent of the black vote to 30% just because Republicans started telling black folks about the Democratic Party’s responsibility for Jim Crow laws. Ann Coulter says stupid stuff like that, but she does it to sell books, not because she thinks it will convince blacks.
It seems like what he really wants is for Republicans to forgive him for his apostasy, agree that he was right all along, and to start following his advice. But his advice varies from the ridiculous idea that the future of the GOP is in winning 30% of the black vote to the toxic idea that Paul Krugman is an economic genius.
He was genuinely shocked when he learned that he was being punished for criticizing the Bush administration from the right in the New York Times, but he was even more shocked when he learned that no one on the right bothered to read his column in the New York Times because they were all watching Fox News.
The recent election didn’t prove Bartlett right about anything. It may have confirmed for Bartlett that the right is suffering from “epistemic closure,” but the rest of us already knew that.
I did notice that Bartlett was writing some sane criticisms of the Republican Party in recent years and I appreciated his effort, but I still think he’s an idiot.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2012/11/26/22558/295
Republican Humor
by BooMan
Tue Nov 27th, 2012 at 09:01:42 AM EST
I don’t get the Republican sense of humor. It’s not just that I am not amused by their jokes. It’s that I can’t really determine where the snark begins and the sarcasm ends. Victor Davis Hanson’s NRO piece on winning the Latino vote is clearly tongue-in-cheek, except when it isn’t. If his intent were to make fun of Republicans’ views on race relations, his piece would actually be kind of clever, but that is not his intent at all. He’s making fun of the very idea of trying to reach out to Latinos.
My favorite part of his column is the the section that mocks the president for acting black like two times in his first term and then protests all the left’s false accusations of racism.
The Obama administration’s four-year barrage of “my people,” “punish our enemies,” “a nation of cowards,” the Skip Gates pontification, the Trayvon Martin if-I-had-a-son line, Eric Holder’s charges of racism over the Fast and Furious investigation, the whites-in-Hell slurs from Joseph Lowery, who gave the benediction at Obama’s inauguration in 2008, the hyphenated campaign committees, the executive orders, Sandra Fluke, the constant charges of racism by the liberal media, the weekly outraged Black Caucus — all of that insidiously created a climate of socially acceptable anti-old-white-guy feeling that anyone not of that suspect group could buy into — and anyone of that unfortunate group could buy out of by loudly proclaiming his support for Obama.
Is this not a model for capturing more of the Latino vote?
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2012/11/27/9142/1494#1
Cantor’s unique definition of ‘serious’
By Steve Benen
Mon Nov 26, 2012 3:10 PM EST.
As fiscal talks resume, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) believes President Obama must show he’s “serious” by putting the Affordable Care Act “on the table.”
http://youtu.be/Ai3WylSQr9s
Cantor argued, “There is no question in my mind that [Obamacare] is the largest expansion of government programs that we’ve seen.” He added that he specifically wants to see the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) eliminated.
My primary concern with Cantor’s argument is that it’s incoherent. Put aside politics, ideology, and the merits of the health care law and we’re left with a simple proposition: the House Majority Leader believes the way to reduce the deficit is to increase the deficit.
It’s really not complicated. The Affordable Care Act cuts the deficit by over $100 billion over the next decade, and several hundred billion dollars more in the following decade. If the goal is to reduce the deficit and improve the nation’s finances, targeting the law is not an example of being “serious”; it’s the opposite.
As for IPAB, this is nearly as ridiculous, and Cantor’s comments reinforce the impression that the House Majority Leader simply hasn’t taken the time to read up on the basics.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/11/26/15460397-cantors-unique-definition-of-serious?lite
Have a seat, Eric Cantor. We know who’s serious about governing and presiding, and it’s certainly not YOU or your GOP cohorts. BYE BOY!
Reid, McConnell face off on Senate reforms
By Steve Benen
Tue Nov 27, 2012 8:43 AM EST.
There is a certain irony to watching Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) argue about filibuster reform. After all, up until fairly recently, Reid was so committed to institutionalism, he opposed even minor changes.
But as we were reminded yesterday, watching the two leaders face off on the Senate floor, Republicans haven’t given Reid much of a choice.
http://youtu.be/LG2Wq2PgdFo
What’s striking about McConnell’s defense of obstructionism is how weak his arguments are and how quickly they fall apart after minimal scrutiny. The Republican leader has completely destroyed the way in which the Senate was designed to function — and the way it functioned for two centuries — but nevertheless has the chutzpah to whine that Democrats are pursuing a “naked power grab” that would “poison party relations.”
Ezra Klein had a good piece yesterday, documenting McConnell’s “biggest whoppers” on filibusters, which suggest the Republican is either confused about the institution, its rules, and its history, or he’s not yet prepared for an honest debate on the merits.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/11/27/15481917-reid-mcconnell-face-off-on-senate-reforms?lite
Obama hits ‘fiscal cliff’ campaign trail
President Obama is expanding his campaign for a “fiscal cliff” plan that includes higher taxes on wealthier Americans.
Over the course of this week, Obama will meet with small business owners and middle-class Americans about the possible impact of higher taxes and budget cuts that would kick in next year if the White House and Congress are unable to reach a budget deal.
So far, the two sides are at an impasse over taxes — hence Obama’s stepped-up schedule of public pressure.
On Friday, Obama makes a campaign-style appearance at a toy manufacturing plant in Hatfield, Pa. — “a business,” says the White House, “that depends on middle class consumers during the holiday season, and could be impacted if taxes go up on 98% of Americans at the end of the year.”
That is a reference to George W. Bush-era tax cuts that expire on Jan. 1 — Obama want to preserve those tax rate for the middle class, but eliminate them for Americans who make more than $250,000 a year.
Republicans want to preserve all the Bush tax cuts, and instead put the emphasis on reduced government spending as the best way to reduce the nation’s $16 trillion-plus debt. GOP officials said they would agree to new government revenues through the closing of tax loopholes.
The term “fiscal cliff” refers to a series of tax hikes and budget cuts — including defense — that take effect next year without a budget agreement.
Obama is trying to use the power of the presidency — and the momentum of his re-election — to pressure Republicans into giving up the tax cuts for wealthier Americans.
The White House outlines this week’s schedule for Obama:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/theoval/2012/11/27/obama-fiscal-cliff-pennsylvania–business/1728885/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&dlvrit=206567
MSNBC and the Well-Known Liberal Media Bias
November 27,2012
By Bob Cesca:
Last week, Michael Calderone of The Huffington Post published an extensive item on MSNBC’s alleged pro-Obama, pro-Democratic Party bias, as well as network president Phil Griffin’s defensiveness about the conventional wisdom’s perception of his programming.
I don’t have any qualms with Calderone’s reporting or the article itself, but the observations he collected were indicative of a chronic and unfair view of MSNBC. Make no mistake, the network has its problems, but a liberal (or Democratic) bias isn’t one of them. As fellow liberals have discussed for years, the entire notion of a liberal media bias is a joke. The news media, and especially cable news, is exceedingly deferential to Republicans and is, in fact, predominantly owned by Republicans.
The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism published a bizarre and misleading report about the cable news coverage of the presidential election. This study was the centerpiece of Calderone’s article.
The most alarming determination in the report was that during the final week of the election, 51 percent of MSNBC news stories about President Obama had a positive tone, while none of the network’s Obama stories were negative. Concurrently, zero percent of the network’s stories about Mitt Romney were positive, and 68 percent were negative. Meanwhile, Fox News Channel’s stories about Obama were only 5 percent positive and 56 percent negative. Fox News’ Romney coverage was 42 percent positive and 11 percent negative.
……………………………………………………………
It shouldn’t come as any surprise that Greenwald echoed typically right-wing attacks against MSNBC, probably because the network doesn’t align with his narrow priorities and view of the Obama presidency — a view that’s obsessively focused on a few specific foreign policy issue areas, namely the aforementioned drones, along with indefinite detention and national security whistle-blowers. Yet Rachel Maddow and Chris Hayes have both covered those stories on their respective shows. Greenwald noted that Maddow only rarely criticizes Democrats anymore. But just because Maddow doesn’t always cover the same three things that Greenwald writes about every day with his exact same ferocity and tenacity doesn’t mean she’s ignored the flaws of the Democratic Party. But of course Greenwald is going to say these things because it’s part of his agenda to shame anyone who dares to report on something — anything — positive about the Obama presidency. And having watched Maddow since she first appeared on MSNBC, I can tell you that she’s the most intellectually honest, the most insightful and the most empirical of any cable news host — possibly ever. If the administration does something wrong, Maddow usually covers it. If the president does something correctly, Maddow covers that, too, with an equal and opposite reaction.
http://thedailybanter.com/2012/11/msnbc-and-the-well-known-liberal-media-bias/
Over the Fiscal Cliff for “Those People”
By Anne Laurie November 26th, 2012
Kris E. Benson at Wonkette links to an excellent Atlantic article on the Republican’s proposed Austerity Bomb (“We only have a budget crisis if [the very richest households] refuse to pay higher taxes”), and points out an added little poison sac in the details:
Your Wonkette agrees with the Atlantic’s James Kwack that Olds should be able to retire with dignity, and with health care. HOWEVER, we would just like to point out a few things. Kwack says that “decades ago, Congress decided that anyone who worked for ten years, and his or her spouse, deserved a basic level of health insurance.” But that’s not quite true! Kwack forgets that Social Security, when introduced, excluded women and nonwhites from eligibility, so it’s more realistic to say that “decades ago, Congress decided that any white man who worked for ten years deserved a basic level of insurance, along with his spouse.”
Of course, later race and gender barriers to entitlements were far less explicit. Between 1960 and 1980 when the full retirement age was 65, black men could theoretically qualify for benefits, but the average life expectancy of an African American male was roughly 62 years old. So Blacks would pay into the program their entire lives and die before they could take any substantive advantage.
Then in the 1980s, when Black male life expectancy had finally increased to 65, it was decided that entitlements needed an overhaul and the age of full retirement was raised to 67.
Currently, Black male life expectancy is finally at 70, and what a SHOCK that Romney/Ryan would have raised the age of Medicare eligibility to 70…
Shorter GOP: Well, SOME people deserve a secure retirement, but THOSE PEOPLE just want to steal undeserved handouts!
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/11/26/over-the-fiscal-cliff-for-those-people/
Susan Rice to meet with GOP accusers
By Steve Benen
Tue Nov 27, 2012 8:00 AM EST.
Following up on a story Rachel mentioned at the top of the show last night, Susan Rice will head to Capitol Hill today, where she’s scheduled to meet with the same Republican senators who’ve spent a few weeks trying to destroy her reputation.
Ms. Rice, the president’s ambassador to the United Nations and a front-runner to be the next secretary of state, will meet with Senator John McCain of Arizona and two other Republican senators who have excoriated her, saying she provided a misleading account of the attack on the diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya.
Ms. Rice asked for the meeting, according to a government official. Mr. McCain seemed to soften his opposition to her potential nomination on “Fox News Sunday” and said “she deserves the ability and the opportunity to explain herself.” Also attending the meeting will be Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, officials said. Ms. Rice will be accompanied by Michael J. Morell, the acting C.I.A. director.
In terms of the significance of the meeting, it now appears Rice’s nomination to replace Hillary Clinton at the State Department is practically a foregone conclusion — it’s hard to imagine the White House going to such lengths unless Rice were slated for a promotion. Indeed, she has additional meetings scheduled for tomorrow with Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), soon to be the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as well as Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the ranking member on the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/
Ambassador Rice is meeting with John McShame today, per her request.
David Axelrod Surprised by Romney Campaign’s Missed Opportunities
Nov 27, 2012 4:45 AM EST
Obama’s top election strategist tells a Chicago audience he was surprised Mitt Romney’s team did not attack Obama more, stuck so narrowly with their base—and chose Paul Ryan for VP.
President Obama’s top reelection strategist conceded surprise Monday that Republican super PACS didn’t attack Obama far earlier, Mitt Romney didn’t invest much more in ground operations, and that the Republican nominee played narrowly to the party base in picking Rep. Paul Ryan as a running mate.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/11/27/david-axelrod-surprised-by-romney-campaign-s-missed-opportunities.html?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=cheatsheet_morning&cid=newsletter%3Bemail%3Bcheatsheet_morning&utm_term=Cheat%20Sheet
Breaking Grover Norquist’s anti-tax pledge
By Eugene Robinson,
Nov 27, 2012 12:19 AM EST
The Washington Post Published: November 26
Maybe the fever is breaking. Maybe the delirium is lifting. Maybe Republicans are finally asking themselves: What were we thinking when we put an absurdly unrealistic pledge to a Washington lobbyist ahead of our duty to the American people?
I said maybe. So far, the renunciations of Grover Norquist’s “Taxpayer Protection Pledge” amount to a trickle, not a flood. But we’re seeing the first signs in years that on the question of taxation — one of the fundamental responsibilities of government — the GOP may be starting to recover its senses.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eugene-robinson-breaking-grover-norquists-anti-tax-pledge/2012/11/26/49cdcd16-37ee-11e2-8a97-363b0f9a0ab3_story.html?wpisrc=nl_opinions
This MOFO right here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MluC7XmWEbw&feature=player_embedded
Good Morning, Everyone! :-)
Good Morning, Ametia, SG2 and EVERYONE :)
Good morning , everyone!