John Robert Lewis (born February 21, 1940) is an American politician and civil rights leader. He is the U.S. Representative for Georgia’s 5th congressional district, serving since 1987, and is the dean of the Georgia congressional delegation. The district includes the northern three-fourths of Atlanta.
Lewis was one of the Big Six leaders in the American Civil Rights Movement and chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), playing a key role in the struggle to end legalized racial discrimination segregation. A member of the Democratic Party, Lewis is a member of the Democratic leadership of the House and has served in the Whip organization since shortly after his first election to Congress. Currently, he is Senior Chief Deputy Whip, leading an organization of chief deputy whips and serving as the primary assistant to the Democratic Whip. He has held this position since 1991.
Hallelujah I’m a travellin’
Hallelujah Ain’t it fine
Hallelujah I’m a travellin’
Down freedom’s main line
another terrific comment:
MsKitty
Here is a man who is madly, deeply, truly in love with his wife. When she comes in the room it takes his breath away every time, and even in a crowd he only sees her.
That kind of love is alien to these folks. They are so bitter, so jaded that that they’ll never get to experience that and they know it. That’s what’s eating them up inside.
What they don’t realize is that even if the bottom dropped out tomorrow, as long as Barack has Michelle (and the weeMichelles) he’s gonna be alright no matter what.
The joke is truly on these gossipers and shit stirrers.
President Barack Obama listens to cellist Khari Joyner, a 21-year-old Make-A-Wish recipient from Atlanta, Ga., in the Oval Office, Jan. 29
—Photo by Pete Souza
from the comments at POU about POTUS and the haters;
GOVCHRIS1988
Damn. They really want this black man to be a fuck up, don’t they? He is making all of our recent white Presidents look like shit, isn’t he? He isn’t senile, he isn’t stupid, he isn’t boring, he isn’t gaffe prone, he can speak, so now, there trying the underground whore track again. They always said if you don’t have people hating on you, you must be doing something wrong.
Push it Real Good!
http://youtu.be/0bWfuENnxjI
Colin Powell asks Bill O’Reilly: Why do you only see me as an African-American?
http://goo.gl/mylWN
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell chided Fox News host Bill O’Reilly on Tuesday night for focusing on his ethnicity when discussing his support of President Barack Obama.
At the beginning of a lengthy interview, O’Reilly questioned why Powell, a Republican, had supported Obama in 2008 and again in 2012.
Powell said he was troubled that the Republican Party had moved so far to the right and that Obama was the best choice. But O’Reilly questioned why Powell voted for Obama when the President’s policies didn’t seem to help African-Americans. O’Reilly rattled off a list of statistics to prove life for the average African-American had not improved under Obama.
“Why are you only seeing me as an African-American, Bill?” Powell responded. “That troubles me. I’m an American.”
O’Reilly defended his question, noting that Powell had condemned Republicans for looking down on minorities. Powell, apparently trying to change the subject, said the economy had improved but not enough.
“Not for African-Americans, not for minorities” O’Reilly interrupted.
Powell explained that the economic situation of minorities would improve once the economy recovered from the recession and financial crisis.
The two Republicans also clashed over voter ID laws. Powell alleged the laws were a cynical attempt to disenfranchise minority voters, a claim that O’Reilly dismissed.
BREAKING NEWS: NNSA Reports Incident at Nevada Nat’l Security Site
http://www.8newsnow.com/story/20804940/nnsa-reports-incident-at-nevada-natl-security-site
LAS VEGAS — Emergency responders are on the scene on an “incident” at the Nevada National Security Site Tuesday afternoon.
The incident is located in the central portion of the site, formerly known as the Nevada Test Site. The site is located about 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
The National Nuclear Security Administration released a brief statement alerting the media about 5:30 p.m. to the situation but provided no further details.
*********************************
OOPS!
———————————-FLATLINES————————-
This could be an Ad for the men in the GOP.
bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Who the hell does Ed Rendell think he is? Go sit your ass down, Rendell.
Rendell: If Hillary runs, Obama will get Biden out of the race
http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/01/29/rendell-if-hillary-runs-obama-will-get-biden-out-of-the-race/
Ed Rendell said he expects that if Hillary Clinton runs for president, President Obama will talk Vice President Biden out of launching his own bid for the White House.
“I think down the road if Hillary decides to run, President Obama will be sort of the peacemaker who talks to the vice president,” Rendell, the former Pennsylvania governor, said Tuesday on Andrea Mitchell Reports. “I love Joe Biden, I think he’s done a great job as vice president … but you can’t stand in the way of history. History is poised for the first woman president if Hillary Clinton chooses to go down that road.”
LOL
Dear Ed Rendell,
HISTORY has a way of repeating itself.
Hillary was poised to be the first woman POTUS in 2008 too.
Ask Hillary who the presidency won in 2008.
Here’s to HISTORY repeating itself in 2016
Toodles!
Ametia
President Obama To Visit Minneapolis On Monday
http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2013/01/29/president-obama-to-visit-minneapolis-on-monday/
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — President Obama will visit Minneapolis on Monday, according to the White House media affairs office.
No details have been released regarding the president’s visit.
Coming to see Ametia and crew *Skipstonordstromsfornewdress* LOL
Andrew Kaczynski @BuzzFeedAndrew
“Nobody in Ohio is advocating this,” OH SOS Jon Husted on changing how Ohio’s electoral votes are allocated. Um he was pic.twitter.com/59SuGDPz
BREAKING: Virginia Senate Committee Overwhelmingly Kills Electoral Vote Rigging Scheme http://fb.me/Jqqi8kzy
There you Go! We’re not playing with these MOFOs.
John Kerry Confirmed As Secretary Of State 94-3
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/29/john-kerry-confirmed_n_2576212.html?utm_hp_ref=tw
Read it here: Everything You Need To Know About The Bipartisan Immigration Reform Framework
SG2; where are you; is this TRUE?
Poll: Texas Voters Have Had Enough Of Rick Perry
TOM KLUDT 11:12 AM EST, TUESDAY JANUARY 29, 2013
His approval rating in the gutter, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) approaches 2014 with a large majority of his contituents indicating they’d prefer if he didn’t seek another term, according to a survey from Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling released Tuesday.
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/poll-texas-voters-have-had-enough-of-rick
Folks are tired here. We can’t take this ish anymore. Enough already.
Nerdy Wonka @NerdyWonka
Pres. Obama: “Unless you’re a Native American, you came from someplace else. Somebody brought you.” Crowd: “Yes!” #immigration
Nerdy Wonka @NerdyWonka
Pres. Obama says we need to stop framing immigration reform as Us vs. Them. Says we forget “Most of us used to be them.”
Full video is up on PBO’s immigration speech.
Secretary of State Jon Husted & other Republicans say Electoral College changes not in store for OHIO
ource: Cleveland Plain Dealer
Secretary of State Jon Husted and other Republicans say Electoral College changes not in store for Ohio
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Count Ohio’s Republican leaders out of a GOP-backed effort to end the Electoral College’s winner-take-all format in the Buckeye State and other presidential battlegrounds.
Spokesmen for Gov. John Kasich, State Senate President Keith Faber and House Speaker William G. Batchelder told The Plain Dealer this week that they are not pursuing plans to award electoral votes proportionally by congressional district.
Batchelder went a step further, saying through his communications director that he “is not supportive of such a move.” And Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted, the state’s chief elections administrator, emphasized that he does not favor the plan either, despite Democratic suspicions based on reported comments that he said were taken out of context.
“Nobody in Ohio is advocating this,” Husted said in a telephone interview.
Read more: http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2013/01/secretary_of_state_jon_husted_2.html
Victory For Democracy! Ohio Republicans Will Not Rig The Electoral College
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/01/29/1511561/victory-for-democracy-ohio-republicans-will-not-rig-the-electoral-college/
Nina Taylor and we will be watching you Husted. DON’T TRUST YOU!
The other high-profile Ayn Rand acolyte
By Steve Benen
Tue Jan 29, 2013 11:21 AM EST.
When we think about high-profile members of Congress who seem to enjoy Ayn Rand and Objectivism a little too much, we tend to focus on House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). It is, after all, the failed vice presidential candidate who credits Rand for inspiring his political career and who required his interns to read “Atlas Shrugged.”
But while Ryan has begun distancing himself from his Objectivist allies, and his boosters have characterized his time as a Rand acolyte as “an embarrassing past flirtation,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) isn’t embarrassed at all (thanks to reader R.B. for the tip).
http://youtu.be/uN1rxbk8a0o
Johnson sat down with the Atlas Society, a Randian group, just last week to share all sorts of nonsensical thoughts. The right-wing senator told the organization, for example, that the Affordable Care Act, is the “greatest assault on freedom in our lifetime,” though he didn’t exactly explain why. He added, “I think Americans are a little bit like a bunch of frogs in that pot of water, and the water is being brought up to a boil. I think we’re losing freedoms across the board.”
Johnson also, naturally, sees parallels between reality and Rand novels: “We really have developed this culture of entitlement and dependency. That is not what America is all about. I mean, America — and that’s of course what ‘Atlas Shrugged’ is all about — it is about individuals aspiring to build things to make their life — and, as a result, the world — a better place. If we shift to a culture where people are saying, ‘I’m happy to sit back and let the government provide me with things,’ that becomes a dangerous point and time for this country
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/01/29/16755241-the-other-high-profile-ayn-rand-acolyte?lite
Mitch McConnell Gets Desperate and Promises to Avoid Losing Battles with Obama
By: Sarah JonesJan. 28th, 2013
As Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell faces mounting tea party challenges (assisted by some Democrats) in his home state of Kentucky, his attempts to spin the daily news cycle in his favor are growing rather desperate. Recently, hoping to steer the base away from the reality of his fiscal cliff cave, McConnell bragged to the Republican base that he had beaten the liberals by avoiding complete Filibuster Reform.
Today, Senator McConnell announced that there will be “no more brinkmanship and no more last-minute deals.”
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has declared there will be no more brinkmanship and no more last-minute deals. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, last year’s Republican vice presidential nominee, says it’s all about “prudence.”
This translates, as the AP pointed out, to avoiding losing battles with the very popular second-term Democratic President, and instead trying to reframe Republicans’ battles as being against Senate Democrats. So much for four years wasted attacking the Kenyan Socialist and asking for his birth certificate. Republicans can’t win against Obama, so they need to pretend they are no longer interested in fighting him.
As Jason Easley pointed out for Politicus today, Republican fear of Obama is only growing, “Terror has gripped House Republicans as they have finally realized that President Obama is already working to defeat them in 2014.”
http://www.politicususa.com/mitch-mcconnell-promises-avoid-losing-battles-president.html
Sen. Rand ‘I don’t have any proof’ Paul
By Steve Benen
Tue Jan 29, 2013 10:41 AM EST
Last week, during a Senate hearing on the Benghazi attack, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) asked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a deeply strange question: “[I]s the U.S. involved with any procuring of weapons, transfer of weapons, buying, selling, anyhow transferring weapons to Turkey out of Libya?”
Clinton, confused, said, “To Turkey?” Paul insisted this story has “been in news reports.” The Secretary of State said she didn’t have “any information on that” and the hearing moved on.
But it was hard not to wonder what in the world the Republican senator was talking about. Today, the kooky conspiracy website World Net Daily published a new report, explaining that Paul believes the Obama administration may be “covering up a gun-running scheme in Benghazi that fell apart when jihadists attacked the U.S. mission there.”
In an interview with WND, the senator said his “suspicion, although I don’t have any proof, is that guns were being smuggled out of Libya, through Turkey and into Syria.”
I have a few follow-up questions for Rand Paul. First, if you “don’t have any proof,” what on earth are you talking about? Second, why do you keep falling for silly conspiracy theories?
Third, why is a sitting U.S. senator talking to a fringe website like World Net Daily?
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/01/29/16754786-sen-rand-i-dont-have-any-proof-paul?lite
‘Ardent fans of the U.S. military’
By Steve Benen
Tue Jan 29, 2013 9:55 AM EST.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) delivered quite a speech to the National Review Institute over the weekend, declaring that Republicans “are and should be the party of the 47 percent,” his party should embrace routine hostage strategies, and he still wants to privatize Social Security out of existence.
But for all of the right-wing senator’s nonsense, this was the comment that warrants special attention.
http://youtu.be/d4b2AtD3hGQ
In this clip, at around the 0:44 mark, Cruz notes that the Senate has “two pending nominations, John Kerry and Chuck Hagel.” Describing the nominees, Cruz added, “Both of whom are very prominently…”
After pausing for a few moments, the event’s moderator said, “Anti-us?” Cruz responded that Kerry and Hagel are “less than ardent fans of the U.S. military.”
Perhaps Ted Cruz would benefit from a reminder about the men he’s attacking. John Kerry is a decorated war hero who was awarded combat medals including the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts. Chuck Hagel is a decorated war hero who was awarded combat medals including the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, two Purple Hearts, Army Commendation Medal, and the Combat Infantryman Badge.
Cruz, meanwhile, who apparently considers himself an “ardent fan of the U.S. military,” has never worn a uniform, except maybe on Halloween.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/01/29/16753966-ardent-fans-of-the-us-military?lite
LOL Have a seat until Halloween, Ted!
We don’t have a border security problem
Posted by Jamelle Bouie on January 29, 2013 at 1:15 pm
As Greg noted this morning, one of the sticking points in immigration reform is border security and enforcement. There is no agreement on the role of the proposed Southwestern border commission — even Republicans differ on whether it should be an advisory board or if it posses a veto.
More to the point, there’s clear disagreement between the two parties over what counts as a “secure” border — over the definition of “secure.”
Based on their push for greater border resources, Republicans seem to think that the border remains unprotected. In truth, the Obama administration has devoted tremendous resources to protecting the border and deporting undocumented immigrants. Last year, according to the nonpartisan Migration Research Institute, the Obama administration spent more than $18 billion on border security and immigration enforcement. That’s more than was spent on all other federal law enforcement agencies combined. And a 2011 report from the Government Accounting Office found that 81 percent of the border with Mexico met one of the top three levels of operational control and security, as defined by the Department of Homeland Security.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/01/29/we-dont-have-a-border-security-problem/
The Louisville Courier-Journal found in a new poll that only 17% of Kentucky voters are committed to vote for Sen. Mitch McConnell (R) next year. A plurality, 44%, intend to wait to see who runs against him.
GOP gets ‘tonally sensitive’ talking points on immigration
By Steve Benen
Tue Jan 29, 2013 12:36 PM EST
Now that Republicans have decided that all of their problems can be solved through better rhetoric, the next step is obvious: GOP policymakers and candidates have to learn what it is, exactly, they’re supposed to say.
……………………
And what about immigration? The a conservative Hispanic group has that covered, too.
The Hispanic Leadership Network, a center-right group looking to woo Latinos to the GOP, sent Republican congressmen of all stripes a list of suggested “Dos and Don’ts of Immigration Reform” Monday afternoon. The memo was obtained by The Hill.
“Tone and rhetoric will be key in the days and weeks ahead as both liberals and conservatives lay out their perspectives. Please consider these tonally sensitive messaging points as you discuss immigration, regardless of your position,” Hispanic Leadership Network Executive Director Jennifer Korn writes.
……………………………..
What’s more, as Jed Lewison explained, “Before you even read word one from the memo, the fact that the group is more concerned about how congressional Republicans talk about the issue than how they vote on it is a pretty clear indication of just how backwards Republicans are on this topic. Usually in politics, advocacy groups try to achieve actual policy priorities. Here, they are just trying to stop their party from acting like a**holes — and based on some of their advice, they must really think there’s a lot of a**holes in their party.”
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/01/29/16756029-gop-gets-tonally-sensitive-talking-points-on-immigration?lite
Joe Scarborough and the Beltway Deficit Feedback Loop
Posted by Greg Sargent on January 29, 2013 at 11:32 am
Joe Scarborough and Paul Krugman are having a very interesting argument that offers a useful peek into Beltway deficit mania. It’s a reminder that even as the deficit as a share of GDP has begun to come down, and even as President Obama is trying to refocus the conversation (to some degree) on a more progressive second term agenda, the Beltway Deficit Feedback Loop is alive and well.
To summarize, Krugman went on Morning Joe the other day and reiterated his view that the deficit is mostly a function of the bad economy, and that it isn’t the long term menace to American civilization that the deficit hysterics — who are really motivated by a desire to shrink government — would have you believe. Scarborough responded with this:
Of course, Krugman isn’t really isolated in this view. Joe Weisenthal responded this morning to Scarborough with a list of 10 prominent economists and public officials who largely agree with Krugman that deficit hysteria is misguided and overblown. As Weisenthal puts it: “there are plenty of economists and economically-literate minds who think that, to varying degrees, the deficit is not what we should be worrying about.”
That’s true, but it’s worth reflecting on why Scarborough believes Krugman’s views are so marginal and isolated. It gets back to what I’ve called the “Beltway Deficit Feedback Loop.” The relentless bipartisan focus on the deficit convinces voters to be worried about it, which in turn leads lawmakers to spend still more time talking about it and less time talking about the economy, a phenomenon that is self-reinforcing. This is exacerbated by some commentators and news orgs, who continue to treat the deficit scolds with a great deal of deference, while marginalizing the opinion that we should prioritize boosting the economy and job creation as a means of getting the country’s fiscal problems under control over time without savage spending cuts that will hurt a lot of people. Back in 2011 one study actually confirmed that newspapers were spending far more time talking about the deficit than the economy — at a time when the recovery was in serious peril.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/01/29/joe-scarborough-and-the-beltway-deficit-feedback-loop/
The Morning Plum: Confusion envelops Senate immigration plan
Posted by Greg Sargent on January 29, 2013 at 9:14 am
One of the central questions about the Senate’s new immigration plan remains: Does the new Southwestern border commission it creates have to declare the border secure before the path to citizenship is triggered?
The answer is central to the prospects for reform. If the answer is Yes, the commission could give veto power over the fate of 11 million undocumented immigrants to the likes of Jan Brewer. Yet the bipartisan Gang of 8 Senators differ on this.
On CBS this morning, John McCain said the “final decision” about whether the border is secure will be made by the Department of Homeland Security, which suggests a diminished role for this commission, while remaining inconclusive on precisely how this process will work. But in an interview with Ed Morrissey late yesterday, Marco Rubio suggested he won’t support a path to citizenship unless the commission does sign off on border security, a position he reiterated in another interview. There’s no clear agreement even among Republicans about the role of this commission.
Meanwhile, Dem Senate aides tell me that the commission’s role is designed to be purely advisory and nonbinding. At the same time, Chuck Schumer’s office declined to respond to my request for clarification on this point.
Can we get a straight answer on this, please? This question is viewed as critical by people on both sides of the debate. Yet Senators appear to want to keep the answer to this question vague. Which tells us something about the politics of this fight — and about just how difficult the prospects for reform remain.
Judging by Rubio’s response to this question, it’ll be hard for Republicans to support reform that doesn’t require a security seal of approval from border state officials. This reflects pressure from the right on Republicans to demand an extremely heavy emphasis on enforcement in the plan. (See Conn Carroll pushing Rubio on this point.)
But immigration advocates view this commission as a potential threat to reform itself. They believe a ton of resources have already been thrown at border security. Given the continued insistence among Republicans that it still isn’t secure, they worry that such a commission will never give the border the thumbs up, and that it shouldn’t have the veto power over reform that conservatives want it to have. Indeed, immigration advocates believe an overemphasis on security — especially one giving security metrics influence over the fate of reform itself — is fundamentally wrongheaded, in the sense that you can’t ultimately secure the border until the whole system is reformed, removing incentives for breaching the border. Agreement on the need for citizenship for the 11 million is a major step forward, but this gap will need to be bridged somehow if reform is to happen. Yet the current confusion around the Senate plan suggests that’s far off.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/01/29/the-morning-plum-confusion-envelops-senate-immigration-plan/
Same As It Ever Was
by BooMan
Tue Jan 29th, 2013 at 11:49:58 AM EST
Imagine that it is June 1964 and Congress is getting set to vote on the Civil Rights Act. What do you think will happen if the New York Times sends a reporter to Greenville, South Carolina to gauge the mood of public opinion? The South has changed since then, of course. For one thing, most white folks have the good sense these days not to espouse open racism. If they don’t like the idea of creating a path to citizenship for the people who pick their vegetables, clean their motel rooms, and look after their children, they attribute their reluctance to the rule of law, not their distaste for brown people or their desire not to see them vote. You aren’t as likely to hear people throw around terms like “spics” and “wetbacks.” Instead, you get stuff like this:
“The people who are coming across the border — as far as I’m concerned, they are common criminals,” said Bill Storey, 68, a retired civil engineer from Greenville. “We should not adopt policies to reward them for coming into this country illegally. I have all the regard for them in the world if they come through the legal system, but not the illegal system.
in the world if they come through the legal system, but not the illegal system.”
It’s a simple idea that seems to make perfect sense. If you entered the country illegally, then you broke the law, and you are therefore a criminal. Why should your crime be ignored? Why should you be rewarded with citizenship? I get the sentiment. But it’s just too simplistic.
To see why, all we have to do is look at what happened in neighboring Georgia when they passed a harsh anti-immigrant law.
Georgia’s tough anti-illegal-immigrant law drove a sizable fraction of the migrant labor pool out of the state, and as a result, “millions of dollars’ worth of blueberries, onions, melons and other crops [are] unharvested and rotting in the fields.” The jobs the migrants did paid an average of $8/hour, without benefits, a wage that is so low that the state’s probationed prisoners have turned it down. Guest-writing in the Atlantic’s economics section, Adam Ozimek doesn’t believe that the farms would be viable if they paid wages that legal American workers would take: “it’s quite possible that the wages required to get workers to do the job are so high that it’s no longer profitable for farmers to plant the crops in the first place.
Georgia farmers were put at a competitive disadvantage because they could no longer rely on cheap undocumented migrant workers who were still available to pick the crops in other states. They couldn’t attract American citizens to do the job at anything near the pay rate they had been giving the migrant-workers. Even probationary prisoners quit after a day or two of poorly-compensated hard labor. The result was rotting produce and an inability to compete.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/1/29/114958/759
David Brooks: Stupid as a Boiled Ham
by BooMan
Tue Jan 29th, 2013 at 09:42:45 AM EST
You knew that at one point David Brooks would suffer enough cognitive dissonance to lead him to make a permanent break with the Republican Party. That day has not yet come. Instead, because his paycheck depends on his willingness to ignore all cognitive dissonance, Brooks has today decided to advocate the creation of a second Republican Party. This party won’t be based in the South or the Mormon Mountain West. It won’t be completely paranoid about the ever-growing encroachment of the Nanny State. Possibly, it won’t be bug-eyed nuts about Sharia Law and Latinos who behead white people in the Arizona desert.
It’s probably futile to try to change current Republicans. It’s smarter to build a new wing of the Republican Party, one that can compete in the Northeast, the mid-Atlantic states, in the upper Midwest and along the West Coast. It’s smarter to build a new division that is different the way the Westin is different than the Sheraton.
The second G.O.P. wouldn’t be based on the Encroachment Story. It would be based on the idea that America is being hit simultaneously by two crises, which you might call the Mancur Olson crisis and the Charles Murray crisis.
Olson argued that nations decline because their aging institutions get bloated and sclerotic and retard national dynamism. Murray argues that America is coming apart, dividing into two nations — one with high education levels, stable families and good opportunities and the other with low education levels, unstable families and bad opportunities.
The second G.O.P. would tackle both problems at once. It would be filled with people who recoiled at President Obama’s second Inaugural Address because of its excessive faith in centralized power, but who don’t share the absolute antigovernment story of the current G.O.P.
Would a coastal and Midwestern G.O.P. sit easily with the Southern and Western one? No, but majority parties are usually coalitions of the incompatible. This is really the only chance Republicans have. The question is: Who’s going to build a second G.O.P.?
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/1/29/94245/2503#22
Marco Rubio Fears Obama Speech WIll Start ‘Bidding War’ Over Citizenship
Benjy Sarlin – 12:38 PM EST, Tuesday January 29, 2013
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), one of the Senate’s “Gang of 8” backing an immigration reform framework, said in a floor speech Tuesday that he feared President Obama plans to call for too rapid a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
“I don’t want to turn this into a partisan thing, but let me just say this: If this endeavor becomes a bidding war to see who can come up with the easiest, quickest and cheapest pathway to green card possible, this thing is not going to go well, folks,” Rubio said.
Rubio’s own guidelines explicitly call for a path to citizenship, but are vague on the process, prompting some experts to raise concerns that it may end up providing citizenship “in name only.”
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/marco-rubio-fears-obama-speech-will-start-bidding
Kerry Washington in the 2013 Hollywood Portfolio
Kerry Washington on discovering James Baldwin’s “middle road,” race in America, and the artists who inspire her.
Watch the video here:
http://www.vanityfair.com/video/2013/01/kerry-washington-in-the-2013-hollywood-portfolio_2115001238001?playlistid=2112657098001#page=1&plid=2112657098001
Hillary Clinton super PAC launched
Source: Washington Post
A super PAC supporting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for president in 2016, “Ready for Hillary,” was registered with the Federal Election Commission on Friday.
The group is chaired by Allida Black, founder of the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project at George Washington University and Roosevelt Institute.
Black was also behind a pro-Clinton PAC in the 2008 primary, WomenCount, and she pushed for Clinton’s name to be put into nomination at the convention that year. (Black was a delegate from Virginia.) She told reporters at the time that she had cashed in her retirement savings to follow Clinton to 14 states. She and Judy Beck, her partner and the group’s treasurer, served on Clinton’s Virginia Women’s Steering Committee in that election.
“Our purpose is simple: We are ready to work for Hillary to be president when she is ready to run,” Black told the Center for Public Integrity, which first noticed the filing. “When our Web site launches in a few weeks, we plan to reach out to our grass-roots networks and contributors to mobilize them to support her.”
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/01/28/hillary-clinton-super-pac-launched/?hpid=z3
On Japan’s school lunch menu: A healthy meal, made from scratch
By Chico Harlan,
In TOKYO — In Japan, school lunch means a regular meal, not one that harms your health. The food is grown locally and almost never frozen. There’s no mystery in front of the meat. From time to time, parents even call up with an unusual question: Can they get the recipes?
“Parents hear their kids talking about what they had for lunch,” said Tatsuji Shino, the principal at Umejima Elementary School in Tokyo, “and kids ask them to re-create the meals at home.”
Japan takes seriously both its food and its health and, as a result, its school lunches are a point of national pride — not a source of dismay. As other countries, including the United States, struggle to design school meals that are healthy, tasty and affordable, Japan has all but solved the puzzle, using a system that officials here describe as utterly common sense.
In the United States, where obesity rates have tripled over the past three decades, new legislation championed by Michelle Obama has pushed schools to debut menus with controversial calorie restrictions. But even the healthiest choices are generally provided by large agri-food companies, cooked off site, frozen and then reheated, and forced to compete in cafeterias with all things fried, salty and sweet.
Schools in Japan, by contrast, give children the sort of food they’d get at home, not at a stadium. The meals are often made from scratch. They’re balanced but hearty, heavy on rice and vegetables, fish and soups. The meals haven’t changed much in four decades.
Mealtime is a scene of communal duty: In both elementary and middle schools, students don white coats and caps and serve their classmates. Children eat in their classrooms. They get identical meals, and if
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/on-japans-school-lunch-menu-a-healthy-meal-made-from-scratch/2013/01/26/5f31d208-63a2-11e2-85f5-a8a9228e55e7_print.html
A Word of Caution to Hillary Supporters
http://youtu.be/zW-wANZ-iaA
http://www.jackandjillpolitics.com/2013/01/a-word-of-caution-to-hillary-supporters/
There is a tendency, not from Hillary herself, but from those of her ardent supporters who are still resentful of Obama’s victory, still stinging from the President’s dominance in the primary and through two general elections. It is these people who love Hillary but are luke warm on the President that I offer this message of caution.
However happy, thrilled, enthusiastic, energized, you are about Hillary Clinton and her supposed proposed run for President. Black people are now and always will be more, happy, thrilled, enthusiastic, energized about President Obama. My proof. 97 and 93% of our community voted for the guy. There are whole precincts in cities where Romney didn’t get a single vote. Not one single vote.
Hillary is a much more complicated figure and huge swaths of women are going to vote against her. She is loved. But it isn’t a universal love. It isn’t Obama Love. And as such, while it is fine to treat the President as a political figure instead of a messianic one, deference and respect must be paid. President Obama does not ever speak of Hillary in less than glowing terms.
Holla!
There are whole precincts in cities where Romney didn’t get a single vote. Not one single vote.
Don’t mess with us!
Hey now! and the screamin lefties had better recognize, get on board and help support the CURRENT POTUS. We’ve got a lot of work to do in the next 4 years and they’ve already plopped Hil’s azz in the Oval Office leather.
Tell it!
LOL Tippy Turtle McConnell; your peeps are ready to send you back into your shell.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, the lone Republican in President Barack Obama’s Cabinet, is leaving the administration.
“I want to thank Secretary LaHood for his dedication, his hard work, and his years of service to the American people — including the outstanding work hes done over the last four years as Secretary of Transportation,” the president said in a statement.
The departure of LaHood is the latest of several changes in Obama’s administration since the president won re-election in November.
LaHood, 67, was named transportation secretary in January 2009. Before that, he served seven terms in the U.S. House as a representative from Illinois.
Govenor Deval Patrick will be on the Last Word Tonight.
Who will Gov. Deval Patrick appoint as interim Senator from Massachusetts?
Source: MassLive.com
When Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick announces who will fill Sen. John Kerry’s seat on Wednesday, that person will instantly gain a distinction which they’ll carry through the end of their life- the title of “United States senator.”
With the Senate expected to vote Tuesday to confirm Kerry as the next secretary of state, Patrick’s appointed pick will serve until June 25, when the Massachusetts voters choose their third senator in four years.
And although this past weekend’s online shenanigans involving former Republican U.S. Sen. Scott Brown led some to again question who exactly will be squaring off in the special election, the interim appointment position boasts an equally interesting list of political possibilities.
Former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank retired from Congress at the end of 2012, and expressed an interest in TV punditry and book writing. But in an about face on the notion, Frank recently made a plea to Patrick for the appointment and his efforts were backed up with online petitions by the powerful liberal groups MoveOn.org and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.
Read more: http://www.masslive.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/01/who_will_gov_deval_patrick_app.html#incart_river_politics#incart_m-rpt-2
Walker starts to get cold feet on electoral scheme
By Steve Benen
Tue Jan 29, 2013 9:21 AM EST
Over the weekend, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) offered cautious encouragement to Republicans hoping to rig the 2016 presidential election by changing how his state allocates electoral votes. The conservative governor didn’t explicitly endorse the idea, but Walker called it “interesting” and “worth looking at.”
Yesterday, the Wisconsin Republican was far more circumspect.
Gov. Scott Walker says he has a “real concern” about a Republican idea to change the way the state awards its electoral votes, conceding the move could make Wisconsin irrelevant in presidential campaigns. […]
“One of our advantages is, as a swing state, candidates come here. We get to hear from the candidates,” said Walker in an interview Saturday at a conservative conference in Washington, D.C. “That’s good for voters. If we change that, that would take that away, it would largely make us irrelevant.”
That’s a far cry from what Walker was saying over the weekend, and it’s a welcome change. What’s more, it’s worth noting that the governor happens to be correct — if Wisconsin changed to a system in which electoral votes are dictated by gerrymandered district lines, the state would immediately go from key, contested battleground to campaign afterthought.
Indeed, that applies to any of the other states (Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, and Florida) where the election-rigging scheme has been discussed — candidates and their campaign teams wouldn’t have any incentive to invest time and energy in states where the outcome is predetermined.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/01/29/16753840-walker-starts-to-get-cold-feet-on-electoral-scheme?lite
http://youtu.be/3k9A4OYz5B8
LOL This clip was the only tv I watched last night. L.O.: “Sarah Palin will never run for president..” That GRIFTING Wasilla hillbilly was over before she began. BYE!
Hispanic group to GOP congressmen: Watch your language
By Cameron Joseph – 01/28/13 06:27 PM ET
A leading GOP Hispanic group has a message for Republicans as Congress begins debate on immigration: Watch your language.
The Hispanic Leadership Network, a center-right group looking to woo Latinos to the GOP, sent Republican congressmen of all stripes a list of suggested “Dos and Don’ts of Immigration Reform” Monday afternoon. The memo was obtained by The Hill.
“Tone and rhetoric will be key in the days and weeks ahead as both liberals and conservatives lay out their perspectives. Please consider these tonally sensitive messaging points as you discuss immigration, regardless of your position,” Hispanic Leadership Network Executive Director Jennifer Korn writes.
Many Republican operatives have been as or more worried about their party’s rhetoric on immigration and immigrants than their actual policy positions, and there have been some concerted private efforts to convince immigration hard-liners to be more careful in their rhetoric, even if they don’t change their positions at all. This memo shows exactly how to approach that messaging battle and try to unify the GOP while finding ways to attack Democrats.
The memo suggests that Republican senators and congressmen refer to “undocumented immigrant[s]” rather than “illegals” or “aliens” and that they never use the phrase “anchor babies.” It also warns Republicans against using the term “amnesty” to describe the plan, and suggests attacking President Obama for not pushing earlier for a plan.
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/senate-races/279753-hispanic-republican-group-to-gop-congressmen-watch-your-language-on-immigration#ixzz2JNFPAHgi
Follow us: @thehill on Twitter | TheHill on Facebook
Odds keep improving for immigration reform
By Steve Benen
Tue Jan 29, 2013 8:40 AM EST
After a bipartisan group of eight senators unveiled their proposal for comprehensive immigration reform, most proponents of improving the status quo, including President Obama and his team, were delighted. All eyes, however, quickly turned to House Republicans, who’ve long opposed reform and are in a position to kill it in this Congress.
And so it came as a bit of a surprise when Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), arguably one of the nation’s fiercest anti-immigrant voices, issued a statement responding to the Senate plan that read, “I agree with most of the language in the very broad guidelines.”
Now, King may be trying to moderate his image in advance of a Senate campaign, or maybe he hopes to sound reasonable before demanding a series of changes to the bipartisan package, but the right-wing congressman’s statement served as a reminder that immigration reform stands a reasonably good chance of actually passing Congress this year.
Indeed, John Stanton reported that a bipartisan House group is moving forward with its own plan.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/01/29/16753351-odds-keep-improving-for-immigration-reform?lite
Bay Buchanan quits TV punditry, takes online real estate class after Romney’s ‘brutal’ loss
A former top aide to Mitt Romney says that she quit her career as a television pundit and began taking online real estate classes after the former Republican presidential nominee’s “brutal” loss to President Barack Obama.
Bay Buchanan, the sister of former Republican presidential candidate Pat Buchanan, told the Washington Examiner that Romney’s defeat was a sign that it was time for her to find a new career.
“It was so tough. It was brutal,” she explained. “I think it’s the toughest because we really expected to win it.”
Raw Story (http://s.tt/1z3NW)
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/01/28/bay-buchanan-quits-tv-punditry-takes-online-real-estate-class-after-romneys-brutal-loss/
Sandy aid passes Senate despite GOP opposition
By Steve Benen
Tue Jan 29, 2013 8:00 AM EST.
It’s taken far longer than it should have, but federal aid for areas affected by Hurricane Sandy is finally on the way.
The Senate Monday night passed a $50.5 billion emergency spending bill to aid people in New York and New Jersey who are trying to rebuild their homes and businesses after last October’s devastation from super-storm Sandy.
The vote was 62 to 36, with 60 votes needed for passage
The vote came nearly two weeks after the House approved an identical measure, and sends the bill to the White House for President Obama’s signature.
But before we move on, it’s worth pausing to note the partisan split on Sandy relief — in the Senate, 36 Senate Republicans, including members representing coastal states like Florida, Texas, Alabama, and the Carolinas, voted against the federal aid. Or put another way, 80% of Senate Republicans opposed post-Sandy relief.
In the House, we saw roughly the same outcome — 78% of House Republicans voted against the emergency assistance.
What we’re seeing, in other words, is a fundamental shift in how GOP policymakers respond to communities struggling after a natural disaster.
——————————————————————————–
For generations, these votes were not politicized or considered particularly controversial — Americans could count on their elected representatives to step up if a natural disaster struck. It wasn’t partisan and it wasn’t ideological; this is just what the country did. It was a reflection of who we are.
And those days are over. As the Sandy votes demonstrate, it is now effectively the standard position of congressional Republicans to reject disaster relief unless the funding is offset by other spending cuts. So long, compassionate conservatism, we hardly knew you.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/01/29/16752701-sandy-aid-passes-senate-despite-gop-opposition?lite
Democratic Governors✔ @DemGovs
2008: GOP mocks Obama’s community organizer background. 2013: GOP wants to learn how to organize like Obama http://demgovs.org/YvEo01
Just a friendly reminder for the GOP. Youtube bitches!
Rudy Giuliani mocks community organizers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mAAxCg2CC4
Palin mocks community organizers
LOL Loosers!
SG2,
This series is wonderfully informative
Jim Crow Laws
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/issues/jim-crow-laws
The segregation and disenfranchisement laws known as “Jim Crow” represented a formal, codified system of racial apartheid that dominated the American South for three quarters of a century beginning in the 1890s. The laws affected almost every aspect of daily life, mandating segregation of schools, parks, libraries, drinking fountains, restrooms, buses, trains, and restaurants. “Whites Only” and “Colored” signs were constant reminders of the enforced racial order.
In legal theory, blacks received “separate but equal” treatment under the law — in actuality, public facilities for blacks were nearly always inferior to those for whites, when they existed at all. In addition, blacks were systematically denied the right to vote in most of the rural South through the selective application of literacy tests and other racially motivated criteria.
The Jim Crow system was upheld by local government officials and reinforced by acts of terror perpetrated by Vigilantes. In 1896, the Supreme Court established the doctrine of separate but equal in Plessy v. Ferguson, after a black man in New Orleans attempted to sit in a whites-only railway car.
In 1908, journalist Ray Stannard Baker observed that “no other point of race contact is so much and so bitterly discussed among Negroes as the Jim Crow car.” As bus travel became widespread in the South over the first half of the 20th century, it followed the same pattern.
“Travel in the segregated South for black people was humiliating,” recalled Diane Nash in her interview for Freedom Riders. “The very fact that there were separate facilities was to say to black people and white people that blacks were so subhuman and so inferior that we could not even use the public facilities that white people used.”
Transit was a core component of segregation in the South, as the 1947 Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) pamphlet and Bayard Rustin song, “You Don’t Have to Ride Jim Crow” attests. Keeping whites and blacks from sitting together on a bus, train, or trolley car might seem insignificant, but it was one more link in a system of segregation that had to be defended at all times — lest it collapse. Thus transit was a logical point of attack for the foes of segregation, in the courtroom and on the buses themselves.
It would take several decades of legal action and months of nonviolent direct action before these efforts achieved their intended result.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/rides#bottom_main
The Freedom Riders- The Fresh Troops
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/watch
Rev. James M. Lawson, Jr. trained future Freedom Riders in nonviolence during role-playing activities in Nashville, TN. Drawing upon this training, students worked to desegregate businesses in downtown Nashville.
The Inspiration
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/watch
Mahatma Gandhi’s nonviolent movement to free India from British colonial rule inspired American civil rights activists who had immersed themselves in Gandhi’s teachings and viewed non-violence as an effective way to challenge the tyranny of the Jim Crow South.
Mother’s Day, May 14, 1961: A Greyhound bus carrying the Freedom Riders was attacked by a mob who slashed its tires, and then firebombed the disabled vehicle outside of Anniston, Alabama.
Bull Connor, head of Birmingham’s police, made a pact with the Klan that the police would stay away from Birmingham’s bus terminal.
Good morning, everyone!
Good Morning, SG2, Ametia, CPL and Everyone :)
Good Morning, Everyone! :-) SG2; this series is top-snotch. We must NEVER forget the struggle, bravery, and bone-chilling hatred. It’s resurfacing in America and becoming the norm in some pockets.