Today’s trailblazer is Diahann Carroll.
Diahann Carroll is the consummate entertainer. So varied and dynamic are her gifts that she continually astounds fans and critics alike with her versatility and magnetism. She is one of America’s major performing talents appearing in nightclubs, the Broadway stage, a Las Vegas headliner, in motion pictures and television. Diahann Carroll is a Tony Award winner, an Emmy and Grammy nominee, a Golden Globe winner and a Best Actress Oscar nominee.
In April 2006, she debuted her new cabaret show at Feinstein’s, New York’s prime venue, to sell-out audiences receiving overwhelming reviews. Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote, “Diahann Carroll is historic. Experience it while you can. Her opening number, “Come Rain or Come Shine” erupts out of her like an emotional volcano. From here on, the lava never stops flowing. The forceful dramatic immediacy of her performance of “As if We Never Said Goodbye”, is second to none. Throughout the show Ms. Carroll demonstrates her A-to-Z range as a singing actress. A rip-roaring version of the Sophie Tucker showstopper “Some of These Days” is matched in commitment by its quiet opposite, the break-up song “Where Do I Start?”. The New York Post said “Looking impossibly beautiful for her 70 years, and dressed and coiffed in a manner that would make Norma Desmond (whom she played “Sunset Boulevard”) proud, she delivers in a strong voice remarkably unaffected by age, a well-chosen mixture of standards, pop ballads and songs associated with her stage career”.
Her television nominations go back to 1963, and in 1968 Diahann Carroll become the first black actress in television history to star in her own series, “Julia” for NBC, which soared to the top of the Nielsen ratings and received an Emmy nomination in its first year on the air.
In 1989 she was nominated for an Emmy Award for the successful NBC-TV series, “A Different World”, as outstanding actress in a comedy series. In 1984 Diahann Carroll become the first black actress to star in the award-winning night-time series “Dynasty”, which is still in syndication around the world.
She had a recurring role in Showtime’s hit series “Soul Food”, playing the outspoken ‘Aunt Ruthie’, for which she was nominated twice for a NAACP Image Award. She guest starred in Lifetime TV’s “Strong Medicine” and in NBC-TV’s “WHOOPI”, playing Whoopi Goldberg’s mother. In 2004 she starred on stage in the musical “Bubbling Brown Sugar” receiving critical acclaim.
In October of 1995 she starred on stage as ‘Norma Desmond’ in the Toronto premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s hit musical “Sunset Boulevard”, staged by director Trevor Nunn and the show’s entire original creative team. Hailed by the press as “the ultimate Norma Desmond”, Diahann Carroll played to sell-out crowds and her Canadian cast recording outsold all other recordings of the show.
Diahann made her Broadway stage debut starring in Harold Arlen and Truman Capote’s “House of Flowers” and after seeing her in this production, Richard Rodgers created the Broadway production “No Strings” as a starring vehicle for Miss Carroll, for which she won the Tony Award. She also starred on Broadway in the award-winning play “Agnes of God”.
Her film work includes “Claudine”, for which she received a 1974 Best Actress Academy Award nomination, “Carmen Jones”, “Paris Blues”, “Porgy & Bess”, “Hurry Sundown”, “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” and “Eve’s Bayou”.
She is an award-winning actress, a successful entrepreneur, a devoted humanitarian … indeed Diahann Carroll is a legend.
Pingback: Cabaret Stories Vol. 1, No. 2 (September 1928) | The Great Pulp Magazine Index
Hey Chicas!
Django made that horse DANCE!
I got more than 5 on it
Dance for me…Dance for me….
Ametia, Rikyrah!
Just finished watching Django! Uh Uh Uh…
Why didn’t y’all tell me? Steven? I was screaming…kill that mofo! Kill him. Shoot him again..I mean shoot him! Shoot that mofo AGAIN.
BWA HA HA HA WUH; you mean I didn’t tell you some crackas bit the BULLET?
Django was off da chain, huh?
Django was off the chain. Whew! I hated Steven so much until I’m going to be giving Samuel Jackson the side eye! LOL!
Steven aka Samuel Jackson’s character is alive and well today…. Herman Cain, Allen West, Tim Scott, SELF-HATING NEGROES, who would sell their mama’s SOUL for the white man.
I love Huck.
Scandal= SHIT’S GETTING REAL. DAMN!
The comments are hilarious.
…………………………….
Wednesday, February 06, 2013
Hmmm.. a house husband with no kids?
Someone shared an article from Slate where a married dude with no kids opted to stay at home and be a full-time homemaker.
What can I say? I drop my wife off at her office (we’re trying to remain a one-car couple), then clean, mend, cook, run errands, and deal with the various logistics of life. Kids are a get-out-of-jail-free card when it comes to breaking stereotypical gender roles, but without them homemaking is not really seen as an ambitious life-calling or even particularly time-consuming. I have to say, I don’t see it that way…
…My salary was above average for a not-yet-licensed architect, and though sufficient to live on, it was nothing to write home about. When the-job-offer-she-couldn’t-refuse landed, we realized she was going to be the big earner. In fact, she would make enough to support us both, and this put my vocation in an entirely new context. I had no insecurities about being outearned by my partner, but I had never really considered the idea that my job could be optional.
I’m sorry. I’m not evolved enough to be cool with this. Way too traditional. I understand he doesn’t have to work (wife pulls down great salary) but I’m thinking that even if he worked part-time, wouldn’t that bolster the retirement/vacation/expensive shoes fund? I’m of the mind that while you are able to maximize your earning potential – why not do it?
I’m also of the mind that it wouldn’t be too many nights before I walked in and gave him the “what have you been doing all day” look. I know, totally Stone Age in my thinking but there it is. I think I’ve told this story before but it fits so I’ll share it again.
http://www.blacknbougie.com/2013/02/hmmm-house-husband-with-no-kids.html
‘His campaign for the Republican presidential nomination was a joke. His beloved Dallas Cowboys haven’t been in the Super Bowl since 1996.’
By Kent Jones
Thu Feb 7, 2013 3:10 PM EST
—a Sacramento Bee editorial slamming a radio ad airing in California that features Texas governor Rick Perry saying, “Building a business is tough, but I hear building a business in California is next to impossible. This is Texas Governor Rick Perry, and I have a message for California businesses: Come check out Texas.”
The Bee’s response to that was:
Yes, come check out Texas. Check out a state that ranks dead last in the percent of its population with high school diplomas. Come check out a state that is last in mental health expenditures and workers’ compensation coverage. Come check out a state that ranks first in the number of executions, first in the number of uninsured, first in the amount of carbon dioxide emitted and first in the amount of toxic chemicals released into water.
The San Francisco Chronicle added:
——————————————————————————–
The Lone Star State knows it will have arrived when Texas trumps California as the prime stop for presidential candidates shaking down new-economy entrepreneurs for donations – and wealthy individuals who can live anywhere, such as the former Massachusetts governor who defeated Perry in the GOP primary, stop choosing La Jolla… Until then, Gov. Perry, keep those advertising dollars flowing into California.
The Bee closed with this:
As the late Molly Ivins said of her native Texas, “It’s a low-tax, low-service state – so shoot us. The only depressing part is that, unlike Mississippi, we can afford to do better. We just don’t.”
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/02/07/16886947-his-campaign-for-the-republican-presidential-nomination-was-a-joke-his-beloved-dallas-cowboys-havent-been-in-the-super-bowl-since-1996?lite
Here is what Funny or Die did. Yeah, we voted for “Funny” when we watched it, even though the Paul Harvey impersonator sounds a lot like a deranged Homer Simpson.
http://www.latinorebels.com/2013/02/07/funny-or-die-takes-on-so-god-made-a-farmer-commercial-and-nails-it/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=funny-or-die-takes-on-so-god-made-a-farmer-commercial-and-nails-it
Congressman Clyburn discusses GOP Voter Suppression.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3036697/#50710849
Black Chuck Todd @BlackChuckTodd
So George Zimmerman gets to decide if a American can be killed but Obama can’t? #CIA
REPOST!
Dr. Carson did some TRUTH-TELLING this morning. Must see-hear!
What a treat to have ms. Diahann Carroll speak on your accomplishments.
Repost Mo Cowan’s swearing in
Vice President Joe Biden re-enacts administering the Senate oath to Sen. William “Mo” Cowan, D-Mass. Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Joining him, from left are. Secretary of State John Kerry, who he is replacing, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., his sons Miles, 8, and Grant 4, and his wife Stacey. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)
Anti-Abortion Michigan Republicans push for transvaginal ultrasound bill
‘War on Women II’? Just months after the abortion issue turned out to be a vote-loser for the GOP, some state Republicans are trying to put the issue back on the political radar.
The transvaginal ultrasound is back.
Months after a Virginia measure to make women undergo the intrusive procedure before getting an abortion came to symbolize Democratic claims of a GOP “war on women,” Michigan Republicans are getting into the act. Legislation being pushed by a Republican state representative, and co-sponsored by 22 of his colleagues, would mandate women undergo the procedure at least two hours before an abortion
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/mich-gopers-push-transvaginal-ultrasound-bill-article-1.1257778#ixzz2KFgkDKWG
E-Mails Imply JPMorgan Knew Some Mortgage Deals Were Bad
BY JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG
When an outside analysis uncovered serious flaws with thousands of home loans, JPMorgan Chase executives found an easy fix.
Rather than disclosing the full extent of problems like fraudulent home appraisals and overextended borrowers, the bank adjusted the critical reviews, according to documents filed early Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan. As a result, the mortgages, which JPMorgan bundled into complex securities, appeared healthier, making the deals more appealing to investors.
The trove of internal e-mails and employee interviews, filed as part of a lawsuit by one of the investors in the securities, offers a fresh glimpse into Wall Street’s mortgage machine, which churned out billions of dollars of securities that later imploded. The documents reveal that JPMorgan, as well as two firms the bank acquired during the credit crisis, Washington Mutual and Bear Stearns, flouted quality controls and ignored problems, sometimes hiding them entirely, in a quest for profit.
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/02/06/e-mails-imply-jpmorgan-knew-some-mortgage-deals-were-bad/
THIS, EVERY BIT OF THIS:
That’s the whole reason behind the SYG laws in Florida.
Black men = no gun
Whtie men = guns and shoot da niggras and claim you were SYG.
THE END
Bullseye!
Making sweet music: Rihanna and Chris Brown leave recording studio together after FIVE-HOUR late night session
By SARAH BULL
PUBLISHED: 08:25 EST, 6 February 2013 | UPDATED: 09:33 EST, 6 February 2013
She caused controversy with her recent musical collaboration with on-off boyfriend Chris Brown.
But it seems that Rihanna is ignoring any criticism of her decision to once again team up with the singer, and will soon be releasing more material with the rapper.
The 24-year-old star was seen leaving a recording studio with Beverly Hills in the early hours of Wednesday morning after a mammoth five-hour late night session with Brown.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2274413/Rihanna-Chris-Brown-leave-recording-studio-FIVE-HOUR-late-night-session.html#ixzz2KFOvLPNT
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From Balloon Juice:
Going Postal On The Mofo
By Zandar February 6th, 2013
Last call for Saturday mail, folks.
Let’s recall why the USPS is struggling: because Republicans in Congress forced the agency to pay their retiree health care costs decades down the road up front in 2006, then refused to give them the money to do that. As a result, the USPS made massive workforce cuts and forced thousands into early retirement, which of course means the USPS has to pay those health care benefits up front, putting them into a death spiral.
Also, let’s remember who lost the roughly 160,000 jobs since the PAEA was passed: middle-class civil service workers, a disproportionate amount of them African-American.
African-Americans make up about 20 percent of U.S. Postal Service workers – and are the majority in some urban centers, representing 75 percent to 80 percent of the 5,000 letter carriers in the Chicago area, according to Mack Julion, president of the Chicago branch of the National Association of Letter Carriers.
But the public sector has cut nearly 600,000 jobs since 2009, due to shrinking government budgets and a range of other issues, according to the Bureau of Labor Relations. The slower recovery for African-Americans in the labor market has, in part, been the result of government layoffs after the end of the recession was declared, according to the DOL report. In December, the black unemployment rate was 14 percent, roughly double that of whites.
While some other sectors of the economy are seeing recovery, the biggest problems may be just beginning for the Post Office, the nation’s second-largest civilian employer after Wal-Mart with about 536,000 career workers.
Death spiral accomplished, right? There’s a reason why the Postal Service was targeted folks, it was a source of tens of thousands of middle-class jobs, especially for minorities. Since We Can’t Have Nice Things, the PAEA was passed and BLAMMO, a recession coupled with structural failure in the Postal Service all but guaranteed a massive loss of jobs. And the USPS still has another 4 years to go to pay off the $22 billion or so it has left to pay off, thanks to Dubya. On top of all this, there are plenty of folks who keep saying the only way to save the USPS is to privatize the mail system completely.
Ed Schultz has consistently beat the drum about this…
See video from last night’s ED Show below.
Squawking Republicans Give Game Away
by BooMan
Thu Feb 7th, 2013 at 12:23:08 PM EST
When it comes to the Republicans and the looming sequester, Greg Sargent correctly observes:
The reflexive ideological opposition to cutting defense (which Republicans have long equated with weakness) is running headlong into the reflexive ideological insistence on shrinking government.
This isn’t a surprise. As far back as last summer, Rep. Buck McKeon, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, started to panic about the military cuts in the sequester. He wrote pieces in the Washington Post and Politico warning against the disastrous implications of such cuts for our national security.
If the United States faced an external enemy who threatened to do this kind of damage to our national security, the president would have the primary obligation to resolve it. To avert these cuts is to intimidate our enemies, reassure our allies and keep faith with those who have sacrificed so much for so long. The commander in chief must act.
The pro-military (versus the pro-Norquist) Republicans like to blame the president for inaction, but everyone knows it’s the hardliners’ refusal to compromise that is the problem. In other words, in Buck McKeon’s own terms the Republicans are doing real damage to our national security. It’s a point that Lindsey Graham made this morning in a press conference he gave with McKeon and Sens. John McCain and Kelly Ayotte.
Graham said that McKeon would be holding hearings on the sequester’s impact, and then added, in a barb directed at Republicans: “After this hearing, if you feel comfortable cutting the government this way, then you have lost your way as much as the president.” Graham indignantly noted that Ronald Reagan had said government’s number one responsibility is to fund defense, and concluded: “I intend to fight for the party of Ronald Reagan.”
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/2/7/12238/30143
Go, Duncan, Go
by BooMan
Wed Feb 6th, 2013 at 03:20:18 PM EST
It’s interesting to see Duncan Black take to pages of USA Today to try to change the paradigm about Social Security. He argues that we must increase Social Security benefits. Needless to say, no one in Washington DC is making that argument. As for 401(k)’s being a disaster, I have long felt that way, too. But it’s not just that people do not (and often cannot) sock enough income away in their accounts, it’s that it has led a generation of people to believe that they have skin in the game on Wall Street. People want the stock market to go up so they can get a nice quarterly report. But that’s like a bunch of guppies taking an interest in the shark tank. Unless you have a ton of money, you are not a player, and you have no business watching CNBC as if you were.
You should be focused on employee rights, not the Nasdaq.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/2/6/152018/4112
Thre you GO!
PA: Hates Governor, Supports Gun Control
by BooMan
Thu Feb 7th, 2013 at 11:16:23 AM EST
The new Franklin & Marshall College Poll shows that people hate Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett and would like to see him tarred and feathered. They also favor universal background checks for gun purchases (94%), banning high-capacity magazines (61%), banning assault weapons (61%), and limiting handgun purchases to one per month (61%).
Now, Pennsylvania is correctly viewed as a blue state, but it is a very culturally conservative state with a huge hunting population. It is not some liberal outlier where people are not familiar with firearms. It’s true that the numbers are skewed a bit by Philadelphia and it suburbs, but I don’t think the gun numbers would be much different in a state like Missouri.
In any case, I’m convinced that Corbett will lose his bid for reelection completely irrespective of his opponent. He’s proven that he’s a loser. I can’t wait for election day.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/2/7/111623/6003
Fear of (and for) the youth vote in Indiana
By Laura Conaway
Thu Feb 7, 2013 1:34 PM EST
A Republican lawmaker in Indiana is pushing a bill that would ban students who pay out-of-state tuition from registering to vote where they go to college. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1979 that students have the right to do that, but an Indiana House committee debated the bill yesterday anyhow.
Check out this one account of how difficult it can be to qualify for in-state tuition — and by extension, under this bill, the right to vote. From the Indianapolis Star:
………………………………………………………………
Indy Star reporter Mary Beth Schneider tweeted from the hearing yesterday that the bill’s sponsor didn’t realize that private colleges don’t charge out-of-state tuition and said she would work on fixing that part of the bill. The sponsor also intends to amend the bill to make it constitutional — which, given that its fundamental premise is unconstitutional, will be something to see.
(AP image: Lining up to vote at Purdue in November. Forty-two percent of Purdue students could not vote there under the new bill.)
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/02/07/16886957-fear-of-and-for-the-youth-vote-in-indiana?lite
A political test emerges in Georgia
By Steve Benen
Thu Feb 7, 2013 2:27 PM EST.
Rep. Paul Broun’s (R-Ga.) interest in running for the Senate was evident even before Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) announced his retirement. With the incumbent out of the way, the congressman’s announcement was only a matter of time.
………………………………………
It’s hard to overstate just how unusual Paul Broun really is. Words like “crazy” and “extreme” are used with some frequency to describe politicians on the fringes of modern American thought, but even among the true cranks, Broun is a unique individual.
Rachel noted many of the congressman’s greatest hits the other night, and the segment is well worth your time. Broun, for example, is perhaps best known for arguing that that cosmology, biology, and geology are, quite literally, “lies straight from the pit of Hell,” and that President Obama only believes in supporting “the Soviet constitution.”
But we can keep going. Broun, an apparent Birther, believes cap-and-trade would kill people; the Affordable Care Act will dictate what kind of car Americans can drive; the health care reform effort reminds him of “Northern Aggression”; and that he considers President Obama to be a Hitler-like figure intent on establishing a Gestapo-like security force to impose a Marxist dictatorship on Americans.
In 2010, Broun argued that the Centers for Disease Control might “give all the power to the federal government to force you” to eat healthier foods, which would include the CDC “calling you to make sure you eat fruits and vegetables, every day. This is socialism of the highest order!”
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/02/07/16887477-a-political-test-emerges-in-georgia?lite
What the ‘cranks, haters and bigots’ believe
By Steve Benen
Thu Feb 7, 2013 12:40 PM EST.
As Dick Morris and Sarah Palin find themselves without a cable-news home, and Karl Rove launches a controversial initiative to keep the most ridiculous Republicans from winning primaries, a subtle pattern seems to be emerging. Indeed, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen reported overnight, “Republicans and Fox News are moving to purge the controversial political creatures they created.”
One high-profile Republican strategist, who refused to be named in order to avoid inflaming the very segments of the party he wants to silence, said there is a deliberate effort by party leaders to “marginalize the cranks, haters and bigots — there’s a lot of underbrush that has to be cleaned out.”
It led Jon Chait to raise an excellent point: “In order to purge a party of crankish and bigoted sentiments, you would need to identify what those sentiments are.”
Quite right. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), for example, is labeled on the new cover of Time magazine as the Republican Party’s “savior.” It comes a day after his party tapped the young Floridian to give the GOP’s response to President Obama’s State of the Union address, and against the backdrop of assumptions that Rubio will seek national office at the next available opportunity.
If there’s a party-wide initiative to clean out the party’s ugly “underbrush” and “marginalize the cranks, haters and bigots,” presumably it would be part of an effort to clear the way for rising-star leaders like Marco Rubio.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/02/07/16886649-what-the-cranks-haters-and-bigots-believe?lite
Does Rubio really think the GOP REALLY looks to him to be their savior just because he’s a Repbulican? Couldn’t have anything to do with Marco Rubio be Latina and courting the Hispanic voters… Naw, not this.
Rik, I just want to reiterate how much I appreciate and enjoy reading about and listening to these amazing Black women. The research for pics, articles, and vids is truly a labor of love. I feel it. So thank you!
Rikyrah’s presentation is off the hook! The photos are outstanding. She is working it out!
What motivates opponents of the Violence Against Women Act
By Steve Benen
Thu Feb 7, 2013 9:54 AM EST.
In all likelihood, the Senate will easily approve the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act today, and the vote will be rather lopsided. But it won’t be unanimous — last year, most Senate Republicans voted against it — and House Republicans remain deeply skeptical.
The next question, of course, is why anyone in America would oppose the Violence Against Women Act in the first place. It’s not like there’s a powerful lobbying organization that supports domestic violence pressuring lawmakers to crush the law.
But VAWA is facing well-organized opposition, and as Jillian Rayfield reported, it’s coming almost entirely from the religious right movement.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/02/07/16885233-what-motivates-opponents-of-the-violence-against-women-act?lite
Rik, where are you?
Umm, didn’t know he’s connected with Samuel Goldwyn
I did know that.
Bey’s band. GIRLS ROCK!
LOL Thought ole Ed’s head was going to EXPLODE last night.
he’s been a lone drum telling this story.
He really has. And It’s suprising more folks aren’t as enraged. I can’t tell you how many postal service workers that I know who are not white. Yes; I said it.
McTurtle, DESPERATE MUCH…
It’s so funny how desperate they are
THIS MORNING: LAPD reportedly shot two women delivering newspapers by mistake http://thkpr.gs/WRuSSq
Shot the women in a car; one in the hand and one in the mofo back. I hope these officers are on admin leave and being investigated for this fuck up. I smell LAW SUIT.
BIG FAT LAW SUIT! Hit them deep!
how you gonna mistake 2 ASIAN WOMEN
for a BLACK MAN
Reckless and foolish
Weez all looks alike, Ms. Rikyrah! SMGDH Trigger happy mofos. They need those badges snatched, and they need to be SUED.
Exclusive: Obama considering MIT physicist Moniz for energy secretary – sources
By Roberta Rampton and Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON | Wed Feb 6, 2013 9:41pm EST
Reuters) – President Barack Obama is considering naming nuclear physicist Ernest Moniz, one of his science and energy advisers, as the next energy secretary, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.
Moniz, who was undersecretary at the Energy Department during the Clinton administration, is a familiar figure on Capitol Hill, where he has often talked to lawmakers about how abundant supplies of U.S. natural gas will gradually replace coal as a source of electricity.
Moniz is director of MIT’s Energy Initiative, a research group that gets funding from industry heavyweights including BP, Chevron, and Saudi Aramco for academic work on projects aimed at reducing climate-changing greenhouse gases.
He did not respond to an e-mail request for comment on Wednesday evening.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/07/us-usa-cabinet-energy-idUSBRE91602H20130207
From 2011
A Manufactured ‘Crisis’: Congress Can Let The Post Office Save Itself Without Mass Layoffs Or Service Reductions
By Zaid Jilani on Sep 28, 2011 at 11:40 am
Both the news media and a number of politicians have claimed recently that the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is in “crisis,” and that it is necessary to lay off thousands of workers or reduce service in order to make the post office fiscally stable. And the Post Office itself has proposed laying off as many as 120,000 employees and withdrawing from federal health care plans in order to navigate upcoming fiscal crunches.
It is true that USPS is facing fiscal challenges — it lost nearly $20 billion over the last four years and is at risk of not being able to meet a $5.5 billion mandated payment to the Treasury at the end of this month (which has been put off six weeks thanks to the last continuing resolution in Congress).
But what has been lost in the political debate over the Post Office is why it is losing this money. Major media coverage points to the rise of email or Internet services and the inefficiency of the post model as the major culprits. While these factors may cause some fiscal pain, almost all of the postal service’s losses over the last four years can be traced back to a single, artificial restriction forced onto the Post Office by the Republican-led Congress in 2006.
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/09/28/330524/postal-non-crisis-post-office-save-itself/
NewsBreaker@newsbreaker
BREAKING: LAPD Chief Beck says his officers “tragically” & mistakingly shot 2 people in Torrance CA this AM while looking for Chris Dorner
Jim Roberts@nycjim
Chief Beck on two women shot today during manhunt: “Tragically we believe this was a case of mistaken identity by LAPD officers.”
**********************
How the fk are you going to mistake TWO WOMEN while looking for a MAN?
WTF So the headline should read, COPS shoots two women, while searching for a man named Chris Dorner. The tragedy is these MOFOs made a mistake by LYING. How the fuck are you going to mistake not one, but TWO women for a man?
BREAKING: Michelle Obama to attend Saturday funeral of Hadiya Pendleton
http://www.suntimes.com/18075265-761/michelle-obama-to-attend-saturday-funeral-of-hadiya-pendleton.html
First Lady Michelle Obama is planning on attending the Saturday funeral services for slain teenager Hadiya Pendleton, who has become a national symbol for the growing problem of gun and gang violence in the city of Chicago.
Obama will be accompanied at the funeral by Valerie Jarrett, a senior advisor to the president, and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.
Wonderful! FLOTUS’ presence will bring great comfort to Hdiya’s family. I sensed either she or POTUS would attend. Thank you, First Lady Michelle.
Mythe sent me a couple of packages today of a Michelle Obama calendar, an Inaguration program, an Inauguration paper weight and a movie! Woot! Can y’all see me smiling? I’s happy! :)
Woot! You’ve more than EARNED these goodies, SG2. You’ve worked tirelessly for PBO’s re-election. You should have gotten an inaugural INVITATION!!!
YOU & RIKYRAH should have gotten an Inaugural INVITATION. You Chicas brought the info and facts, spreading it far and wide across the blogosphere everyday!
Yes! 3CHICS should have gotten Inaugural invitations.
After falling in sequester ditch, GOPers look for way out
By Steve Benen
Remember the Republicans’ debt-ceiling crisis in 2011? It was about a year and a half ago when GOP leaders handed President Obama a ransom note: accept more than $2 trillion in debt reduction or the economy gets it. The parties agreed to more than $1 trillion in cuts, but agreed they needed more time to work on a larger agreement.
So, they crafted a mechanism intended to force both sides to the negotiating table — a sword of Damocles hanging over Washington’s head that would be so severe, Democrats and Republicans would have a strong incentive to strike a deal to avoid the drastic consequences.
The mechanism was automatic sequestration cuts — or “the sequester” — valued at about $1.2 trillion, half of which would come from the Pentagon. (Democrats originally wanted automatic tax hikes to motivate the GOP, but Republicans refused — even hypothetical tax increases were deemed outrageous — and deep Defense cuts were used instead.)
These cuts kick in three weeks from today, and so far, the two sides aren’t close. Democrats want a balanced deal the GOP should find tolerable — spending cuts on one side of the ledger, revenue from closed tax loopholes on the other. Republicans, meanwhile, say they’re prepared to simply let the sequester happen, regardless of the consequences to the economy, the military, or the public.
At least, that’s what they say publicly. Behind the scenes, the GOP strategy is on shaky ground.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/02/07/16885721-after-falling-in-sequester-ditch-gopers-look-for-way-out?lite
Watched “ALI” again last night
One of my favorite scenes…
Kerry Washington: “I Would Not Have Done ‘Scandal’ If President Were Black” [VIDEO]
The scandalous nature of her relationship with the POTUS on the show does not escape Washington, who says that is exactly why she would have passed on the role if the character were played by a Black man.
http://newsone.com/2188067/kerry-washington-scandal/
Enemies line up against Conservative Victory Project
By Steve Benen
Karl Rove’s attack operation, American Crossroads, probably expected some pushback when it launched the Conservative Victory Project, intended to help discourage the Republican Party’s right wing from nominating unelectable loons who lose general-election races. But I suspect the reaction from the far-right is far more intense than anything Rove’s team imagined.
Yesterday, for example, Crossroads spokesperson Jonathan Collegio appeared on DC-area radio show and described L. Brent Bozell, a prominent far-right activist, as a “hater.”
Now, for folks below a certain age, “hater” refers to those who are frequently negative. It appears that’s not quite how Bozell and his allies took it.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/02/07/16886218-enemies-line-up-against-conservative-victory-project?lite
GOP throws new roadblock in Hagel’s way
By Steve Benen
Former Sen. Chuck Hagel, President Obama’s choice to lead the Defense Department, has generated some controversy, but is nevertheless well positioned to earn Senate confirmation. There’s been some chatter about an unprecedented Republican filibuster — no modern cabinet nominee has ever faced such obstructionism — but there are more than enough votes to overcome the opposition.
So, it’s over? With Hagel set to clear the Senate Armed Services Committee today, it’s only a matter of time before the Nebraska Republican is sworn in, right? As Ali Gharib reported late last night, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has put a new roadblock between Hagel and confirmation — and it’s a doozy
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/02/07/16884989-gop-throws-new-roadblock-in-hagels-way?lite
Utah Democrats call for more protected public land, slowly
By Kent Jones
One of the more sublime locations on the planet is the 1.4 million acre Greater Canyonlands in southern Utah, a place that inspires fierce protective feelings amongst those who don’t want gas, oil, tar sands, or uranium companies to set up shop there.
Environmental groups like the Sierra Club and outdoor related businesses would like President Obama to invoke the Antiquities Act of 1906 and, with one Teddy Roosevelt-like stroke of the pen, proclaim Greater Canyonlands a national monument This group includes Aron Ralston of 127 Hours fame, the adventurer who amputated his own arm after being trapped for six days in one of those canyons. He writes:
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/02/06/16854179-utah-democrats-call-for-more-protected-public-land-slowly?lite
POTUS speaks at the National Prayer Breakfast
http://www.c-span.org/Events/President-Obama-Speaks-at-the-National-Prayer-Breakfast/10737437895-1/
FLOTUS Looks lovely in forrest green dress.
A Hospital Offers a Grisly Lesson on Gun Violence
By JON HURDLE
Published: February 6, 2013
In a darkened classroom, 15 eighth graders gasped as a photograph appeared on the screen in front of them. It showed a dead man whose jaw had been destroyed by a shotgun blast, leaving the lower half of his face a shapeless, bloody mess.
Next came a picture of the bullet-perforated legs of someone who had been shot with an AK-47 assault rifle, and then one of the bloated abdomen of a gunshot victim with internal injuries so grievous that the patient had to be fitted with a colostomy bag to replace intestines that can no longer function normally.
These are among about 500 gunshot victims who are treated each year at Temple University Hospital, an institution in the heart of impoverished, crime-ridden North Philadelphia. While President Obama and Congressional leaders debate legislation intended to prevent mass killings like the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn., the hospital is trying to slow the rate of street killings by helping teenagers understand the realities of gun violence.
The unusual program, called Cradle to Grave, brings in youths from across Philadelphia in the hope that an unflinching look at the effects that guns have in their community will deter young people from reaching for a gun to settle personal scores, and will help them recognize that gun violence is not the glamorous business sometimes depicted in television shows and rap music.
The program is open to all schools in the city, but about two-thirds of the participants were referred by officials from the juvenile justice system. Children younger than 13 are not normally admitted. So far, about 7,000 teenagers have participated since it began in 2006, and despite the graphic content, no parent has ever complained, said Scott P. Charles, the hospital’s trauma outreach coordinator.
“In seven and a half years, I have never had a parent say, ‘I can’t believe what you just showed my child,’ ” Mr. Charles said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/07/us/07philly.html?hp&_r=1&
Heres’ the NYT Oscar ballot
http://oscars.nytimes.com/2013/ballot/afqi3rwt?WT.mc_id=EN-E-I-NYT-EM-BALLOT-0213-IITT
President Obama Speaks at the House Democratic Issues Conference
Lansdowne, Virginia today at 12:30 p.m. EST
http://www.whitehouse.gov/live
isonprize
PBO is calllin’ em out at the National Prayer Breakfast.
(whispering a prayer …thank you, Jesus, for seating PBO between FLOTUS and Jeff Session)
“When I go back to the White House, it’s like we didn’t just pray… You would think that the shelf life wouldn’t be so short”
Strom Thurmond’s mixed-race daughter’s passing
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/152-uncategorized/281619-strom-thurmonds-mixed-race-daughters-passing
People die, but the truth lives and breathes freely on its own.
We now mourn the passing of 87-year-old Essie Mae Washington-Williams, who in December 2003 confirmed one of the oldest rumors of Southern political folklore: that she was the mixed-race daughter of former Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.).
Now that Mrs. Williams has passed on, there will be a few days of dissecting their relationship again and reminding the public that the senator was ashamed of his daughter. But this was not the case.
***************************
Strom Thurmond never once publicly acknowledged his own offspring. He was ashamed. Giving money for support is not love!
These words can NEVER be erased. And he had ALL of those years to repent and didn’t.
“There’s not enough troops in the army to force the southern people to break down segregation and admit the n—– race into our theaters, into our swimming pools, into our homes and into our churches.”
***************
A stab right through the heart. How can anyone hurt their own offspring with such cruelty?
STrom Thurmond was a hateful, petty, small and fearful, bigoted man, who could not let LOVE enter his heart. He threw his dick in black woman to fullfil his own lustful needs, and could never get past his own insecurities and racism to accept his own flesh and blood.
TELL THE TRUTH, AMETIA
…and could never get past his own insecurities and racism to accept his own flesh and blood.
THIS!
What a sad sad thing.
SNEED EXCLUSIVE: Pending Jesse Jackson Jr. plea deal includes ‘significant jail time,’ source says
By MICHAEL SNEED msneed@suntimes.com February 6, 2013 9:41PM
Sneed has learned a plea deal is now on the table between former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and federal authorities probing allegations of campaign fund misuse.
Sneed is told the plea deal includes Jackson serving time in federal prison.
“Significant jail time is now definitely a part of the deal,” said a top Sneed source close to the probe.
“But I think [Jackson’s wife] Sandi, feels like she was thrown under the bus by her husband, ” now that a separate probe has begun on her, a second source added.
Sandi Jackson claims she was stunned by campaign finance abuse disclosures against her husband, who has been treated for mental disorders and allegedly spent $40,000 on a Rolex watch purchased with campaign funds.
This disclosure follows in the wake of an exclusive report Tuesday by Sneed and Sun-Times political reporter Natasha Korecki, revealing the feds’ financial probe of the once-politically powerful Jackson couple has evolved into two separate investigations, with federal authorities now taking an independent look at former Ald. Sandi Jackson.
http://www.suntimes.com/18059047-761/sneed-exclusive-jesse-jackson-jr-plea-deal-on-table-includes-significant-jail-time-source-says.html
Judd Legum @JuddLegum
REPORT: Jesse Jackson Jr. plea deal will include jail time http://thkpr.gs/YW2qlg
Beautiful Diahann Carroll!
Rikyrah, you’re doing a wonderful job presenting! I am so loving it.
thanks SG2.
We have such a rich history, and I am grateful for this women coming along and battling those doors, opening them for the rest of us.
Diahann Carroll was the reason I was inspired to become a NURSE! Beauty, brains, class, style, She and other Black women blazed a trail for little black girls everywhere. We owe them a debt of gratitude. BLACK WOMEN ROCK!
Thanks for this series. Can’t wait to view it.
Clyburn slams brakes on Cabinet talk
By Keith Laing – 02/06/13 10:45 PM ET
Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) said Wednesday evening that he is not interested in joining President Obama’s Cabinet, despite a push from the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) to have him considered for Transportation secretary.
The CBC was pushing Obama consider Clyburn to replace outgoing Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood as Obama has been under pressure to appoint more women and minorities to Cabinet positions.
However, a spokesman for Clyburn said in a statement provided to The Hill that the longtime South Carolina lawmaker was staying put in the House.
“He’s proud and honored that some of his colleagues think enough of him to recommend him for Transportation Secretary, but the only job change Mr. Clyburn is working on is once again becoming Majority Whip when the American people reject the Republicans’ failed leadership and extreme partisan gamesmanship and Democrats win back the House,” Clyburn spokesman Patrick Delvin said in response to the Department of Transportation (DOT) speculation.
Clyburn is currently highest ranking African-American in the House of Representatives, and he is the third highest-ranking Democrat in the chamber.
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/transportation-report/1095-other/281491-congressional-black-caucus-pushing-clyburn-for-dot-post-#ixzz2KDlGwu5g
Follow us: @thehill on Twitter | TheHill on Facebook
SMGDH Why, pray tell, would Clyburn give up his ranking in the Dem chambers, CBC Clowns?
The party of Reagan, or the party of the Club for Growth?
Posted by Greg Sargent on February 6, 2013 at 3:07 pm
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At a press conference just now, Republican officials who fear that the sequester will damage our national security trained their fire mostly on President Obama, lambasting him for putting us in a position that could compromise our military.
But no matter how much ire was directed at the President, what the presser revealed with overwhelming clarity is that the battle over the sequester has sparked intra-party tensions among Republicans — one that exposes the rift between “anti-tax Republicans” and “defense Republicans,” as Josh Green put it today.
At the presser, GOP officials like John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Kelly Ayotte, and Buck McKeon all lined up to warn that the sequester must be averted at all costs. McKeon has long been pushing for a bill that would avert the sequester with an across the board cut of 10 percent to the federal workforce.
“Our defense should not be used as a bargaining chip,” Ayotte said.
The only trouble with this line is that other Republicans have explicitly said they are prepared to use the sequester in just this way — to force the spending cuts they want. John Boehner recently told the Wall Street Journal that the sequester (and not the debt ceiling) would be the primary source of the party’s leverage in the fiscal battles to come. Paul Ryan has hinted he’s prepared to let the sequester go forward if Dems won’t agree to avert it only with spending cuts. The Club For Growth, meanwhile, is actively urging lawmakers to allow it to happen.
But at the presser, defense Republicans denounced this course of action as a threat to the country’s security, and even likened it to helping the enemy. At one point, Lindsey Graham said: “I’m sure Iran is very supportive of sequestration.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/02/06/the-party-of-reagan-or-the-party-of-norquist/
From @QuadCityPat on the Twitters….
It’s Been a Privilege
All across the vast spaces of the internet, and specifically that ribald hippy commune known as Twitter, Salon “journalists” Joan Walsh and David Sirota caused quite a stir. You see, Ms. Walsh completely misquoted Goldie Taylor, an MSNBC contributor, author, and former Marine about a tweet that she made about drones, and Walsh and Sirota went on to try to whitesplain* privilege to a whole bunch of black folks.
For the uninitiated, whitesplain means what it sounds like. White people in the professional left trying to explain things like why there is no white privilege and the silly Negroes just don’t understand how down for the cause their white asses are. People trying to act like they know the struggles of other cultures because they read it somewhere in a book or ‘have [insert minority] friends’.
I’m a white guy (shocking!). It took me years to understand that while I can commiserate with the struggles of my Female, Persons of Color, Gay or Lesbian friends, I can never really escape the fact that I’m white and straight therefore I have been afforded a certain privilege
http://quadcitypat.blogspot.com/2013/02/its-been-privilege.html?spref=tw
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Good morning, everyone!
Good Morning, Ladies & Everyone! :-)
Ms. Diahann Carroll is FIERCE. Loving this post, Rikyrah.