Native American music is as vast and diverse as the people who create it, and each tribe has its own musical approach and style that has been passed down for centuries. Music is at the center of Native American culture, used in religious rituals, for healing, for accompanying work or games and for social gatherings of all kinds. For most Native Americans, music and song is not a human invention but something given to them by spirits to facilitate interaction between the heavens and Earth.
Lyrics are filled with symbolism, and singers sometimes use made-up sounds to help create the stories and rhythmic poetry. Vocals and chanting are ubiquitous in traditional Native American music, and flutes and drums are the most common instruments found throughout the various tribes.
This week let 3 Chics take you on a journey with our tribute to “FIRST NATIONS” people and Native American music. Through chants, drums, percussion, and dance, the music tells of their history of courtships, healings, meditation and spiritual rituals. With a mix of traditional, inter-tribal, and subgenre the transformative sounds and chants will definitely lift your spirits.
If you are of Native American heritage and would like to share lyrics, videos or chants, please feel free to do so. We love learning about artists, their intruments, and the contributions they’ve made to their tribes and our nation.
Evolution of Blog Dancing
With that said, everything I struggle with in writing about the Obama presidency and race is in this video. It’s often said that the Obama family’s occupation of the White House is only of “symbolic” importance. I don’t believe that’s true, but even if I did, I think symbols are really important. An unbroken 200-year plus run of white men in the White House must, necessarily, convey that only people meeting such a criteria need apply for the position.
It’s easy to wax cynical about black parents in 2008 saying, between tears, that “Now I can honestly tell my child that they can be anything.” Except that it’s sort of true. No progressive, pre-Barack Obama, would have said that only having white presidents was irrelevant to American history. I don’t know how you can hold the inverse opinion now.
That kind of symbolism comes through in this video with Michelle Obama and Jimmy Fallon. All I can say is that these are sort of moments that, as a black kid in the 80s and 90s, I could not have fathomed. And as sure as the white near-monopoly on the television screen once mattered, this matters. You can’t just say, “Yeah but what about….” It all matters.
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/02/evolution-of-blog-dancing/273550/
Conservative justices wary of Voting Rights Act
By Steve Benen
Wed Feb 27, 2013 1:53 PM EST
In recent decades, support for the Voting Rights Act became nearly universal — that is, until very recently. As much of the right has become increasingly radicalized, the VRA has become a popular target, and Attorney General Eric Holder recently noted that there have been more conservative legal challenges to the Section 5 of the VRA over the past two years than during the previous four decades.
The timing of these challenges is not coincidental — GOP policymakers nationwide launched an ambitious “war on voting,” deliberately creating longer voting lines, closing early-voting windows, addressing imaginary voter fraud through punitive voter-ID laws, restricting voter-registration drives, and overseeing an anti-voting campaign unlike anything seen in the United States since the days of Jim Crow. In many parts of the country, the Voting Rights Act has stood in the way of the larger conservative agenda.
This in turn set the stage for a historic Supreme Court showdown, which after this morning’s oral arguments, appears to heavily favor Republicans.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/02/27/17119281-conservative-justices-wary-of-voting-rights-act?lite
A new sequester scheme surfaces
By Steve Benen
Wed Feb 27, 2013 12:32 PM EST.
As you’ve probably heard, tomorrow is the deadline for automatic sequestration cuts, and it’s extraordinarily unlikely that a bipartisan deal will come together, receive votes in both chambers, and be signed into law in the next 36 hours.
And while there aren’t any meaningful talks or negotiations underway to stop this self-inflicted wound, there is a relatively new effort drawing attention that’s intended to kinda sorta help, at least according to GOP proponents.
Congressional Republicans are preparing to counter increasingly dire warnings from President Obama about the impact of automatic budget cuts with a plan to give the administration more flexibility in instituting $85 billion in cuts, a proposal they say could protect the most vital programs while shifting more of the political fallout to the White House. […]
Seeking to shift responsibility for the cuts to Mr. Obama and to defang attacks by the White House, Republicans were expected to unveil legislation on Tuesday that they said would mitigate some of the biggest concerns. The measure would let agencies and departments cull programs that were long ago proved to be ineffective, and would make sure critical federal functions like air traffic control and meat inspection were spared.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/02/27/17118656-a-new-sequester-scheme-surfaces?lite
Woodward: it’s ‘madness’ for Obama to follow federal law
By Steve Benen
Wed Feb 27, 2013 10:22 AM EST
David Ignatius argues in his new column that congressional Republicans are the “primary culprits” in the sequestration mess, and it’s time for President Obama to step up. How? Obama “should take the steering wheel firmly in hand and drive the car toward the destination where most maps show we need to be heading…. It’s time for an intervention, to take the keys away.”
Got it. But before we move on, perhaps someone can remind me: how is this legal?
I don’t mean to be a stickler for details, but we live in a constitutional system in which there’s a rule of law. Congress has the sole power to allocate funds and lay taxes. To be sure, the legislative branch is acting with breathtaking recklessness, acting against the nation’s interests, but the last time I checked, there is no legal mechanism in place that allows the executive branch to “take the keys away” from the legislative branch. Indeed, I believe that would be fairly characterized as a coup.
My point is not to pick on Ignatius, whose frustrations I share. My point is that many exasperated pundits, when they’re not reflexively and unfairly blaming “both sides” for Washington’s ills, have also abandoned Civics 101. Ignatius would like to see Obama take away Congress’ power of the purse; Ron Fournier thinks Obama can issue orders that Congress must follow, and Bob Woodward thinks the president should simply start ignoring federal laws.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/02/27/17117597-woodward-its-madness-for-obama-to-follow-federal-law?lite
Bob Woodward’s up at night having wet dreams about DEEP THROAT & “Watergate”
He wants to Nail PBO for something; IMPEACHMENT, maybe. Major coup for him to get the negro
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=32cxzANsFwI
Got that AZZ smacked by the PO PO. Prolly loved it.
Newtown father delivers emotional plea to Congress on gun violence
Jake Miller /
CBS News/ February 27, 2013, 3:34 PM
Nel Helsin’s EMOTIONAL PLEA TO CONGREES
VIDEO
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57571664/newtown-father-delivers-emotional-plea-to-congress-on-gun-violence/
Newtown father delivers emotional plea to Congress on gun violence
The R. Kelly & Mr. Biggs Saga: One of the Greatest Soap Operas of All-Time
February 29, 2012
All My Children, Days of Our Lives, The Young and the Restless and General Hospital—all are good soap operas with interesting storylines and well-developed characters. But each of those soaps are like candles in the sun compared to The R. Kelly & Mr. Biggs Saga. The Kellz and Biggs story had it all: Drama—check. Good storyline—check. Romance—check. Conflict, attractive women and lots of sex—check, check and check. Shit, not even the Goku vs. Frieza saga can compare to Kelly vs. Biggs.
And although Robert Kelly would go on to write the extremely entertaining “Trapped in the Closet” series, it pales in comparison to his original tale with Isley. Spanning over the course of nine years, the R. Kelly and Mr. Biggs story started with one song—a little tune entitled, “Down Low.”
With these words, began one of the most epic tales of love, betrayal and infidelity. “Down Low” appeared on R. Kelly’s self-titled 1995 album and became an instant classic. In the video, R. Kelly is the right-hand man to Frank “Mr. Biggs” Biggs (Ronald Isley)—the baddest mob boss in town. Everything is cool until Biggs has to go out of town and asks Kelly to watch over his fine ass wife, Lila Hart (Garcelle Beauvais). Kellz tried to behave, but you know how these things go: When the cat’s away, fuck his wife—or something like that. The secret lovers are eventually caught by Mr. Biggs and his goons (Michael Clarke Duncan as Goon #1) and dealt with swiftly. Both Kelly and Lila get their respective asses beat—thoroughly.
http://www.mostlyjunkfood.com/the-r-kelly-mr-biggs-saga-one-of-the-greatest-soap-operas-of-all-time/
CNN Chile- Former Ambassador of Panama to the OAS: “Hugo Chavez is dead”
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.cnnchile.com/noticia/2013/02/27/ex-embajador-de-panama-en-la-oea-hugo-chavez-esta-muerto&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dwhat%2Bis%2BEx%2BEmbajador%2Bde%2BPanam%25C3%25A1%2Ben%2Bla%2BOEA:%2B%2522Hugo%2BCh%25C3%25A1vez%2Best%25C3%25A1%2Bmuerto%2522%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4GGHP_enUS459US459%26biw%3D1366%26bih%3D492&sa=X&ei=KKUuUbDmKIL4yQHf5IHoBA&ved=0CDMQ7gEwAA
Guillermo Cochez Panamanian politician says the president of Venezuela is deceased
Contact with CNN Chile’s former ambassador said that since last December 30 President Chavez declared brain dead in Cuba, with which he returned to Venezuela in that state, and therefore it could not be visited by the various leaders who have visited, questioned and denied as the last picture that was published between Chavez and his daughters.
http://youtu.be/pr-3i3bJ7Yg
9 Surprising Facts About Junk Food
New York Times reporter Michael Moss trains a light into the murky corners of food-industry marketing.
By Tom Philpott | Wed Feb. 27, 2013 3:01 AM PST
Riffing on his new book Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Industry Hooked Us [1], ace New York Times investigative reporter Michael Moss is suddenly everywhere—he’s out with a blockbuster article [2]in the Times Magazine and just appeared on Fresh Air [3].
I haven’t had a chance to read the book yet, but I’ve skimmed it, and it looks excellent. Here are nine quick takeaways:
1. The Cheeto is a modern miracle. Made of [4] corn, fat, and something called “cheese seasoning” (which itself is made of 11 ingredients, including canola oil and artificial color “yellow 6”), this ever-popular snack, which now comes in no fewer than 17 different flavors, [5] may be the food industry’s creation par excellence. Here’s Moss:
“This,” Witherly [a food scientist] said, “is one of the most marvelously constructed foods on the planet, in terms of pure pleasure.” He ticked off a dozen attributes of the Cheetos that make the brain say more. But the one he focused on most was the puff’s uncanny ability to melt in the mouth. “It’s called vanishing caloric density,” Witherly said. “If something melts down quickly, your brain thinks that there’s no calories in it . . . you can just keep eating it forever.”
2. Subverting “sensory-specific satiety” is the key to junk-food success. Moss identifies this key food industry concept as “the tendency for big, distinct flavors to overwhelm the brain, which responds by depressing your desire to have more.” The key is to create recipes that get around it. Moss explains:
Sensory-specific satiety also became a guiding principle for the processed-food industry. The biggest hits—be they Coca-Cola or Doritos —owe their success to complex formulas that pique the taste buds enough to be alluring but don’t have a distinct, overriding single flavor that tells the brain to stop eating.
http://www.motherjones.com/print/217121
The Makers: Xerox CEO Ursula Burns Tells Her Story
When Ursula Burns started as an intern at Xerox more than 30 years ago, she had no idea that she would someday end up running the company.[….] A summer internship turned into a full-time job in 1981, when Xerox hired Burns as soon as she completed her master’s degree in mechanical engineering at Columbia University. It wasn’t necessarily the predictable path for someone who grew up “very, very poor” in a Manhattan housing project, raised by a single mother “who was struggling to feed us properly and make sure that we got a good education,” Burns recounts in the film.
A few years later, her mother’s admonition to speak up brought Burns to the attention of Xerox senior executive Wayland Hicks when she challenged him over the role of women and minorities at the company. By 1990, she was Hicks’s top assistant, starting her ascent up the corporate ladder. At the age of 51, almost three decades after joining the company as an intern, she was named CEO.Both Forbes and Fortune magazine have consistently named Burns one of the most powerful women in business. But she remains down-to-earth.[….]
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/02/25/ursula-burns-makers-pbs-xerox/
The Political Importance of Elizabeth Warren
Financial reform in the United States and worldwide hangs in the balance. The problems that brought us the terrible crisis of 2007-08 have not been fixed. Some underlying weaknesses are actually worse than they were a decade ago, including the problem of “too big to fail” global megabanks.
Europe is backtracking on financial reform issues; its policymakers are too preoccupied with holding the eurozone together. In the US, there will be no new legislation under the current Congress – and probably not for a long while to come. The Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 may turn out to be a framework for effective regulation, or it might become another set of empty promises. So far, implementation has been slow.
Implementation depends on regulators – some of whom are very good, while others remain in thrall to the big Wall Street banks. The issues are detailed and technical, and the financial lobby has deployed a small army of highly paid experts on a mission of delay, dilution, and diversion. The process is still subject to political supervision, but many politicians are easily bamboozled when the conversation really gets into the weeds.
This is why newly elected Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts is already proving so effective. Warren has worked hard on financial-sector issues over many years. She had the key ideas that led to the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and she helped get that agency on its feet. But she has also been engaged with all of the other practical details of financial reform for as long as anyone – in part due to her experience as chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).
Warren is now bringing this expertise to bear where it is needed most – directly on senior regulators. In her most high-profile intervention to date, she castigated leading officials at a Senate Banking Committee hearing on February 14, beginning with a simple question: When was the last time you took a big bank to trial?
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/elizabeth-warren-versus-the-financial-regulators-by-simon-johnson
Interesting….these attorneys about to find out you really shouldn’t take every case.
Attorneys for man behind e-mails to legislator call them free speech
Attorneys for a man arrested for sending harassing e-mails to Rep. Rhonda Fields accused her on Tuesday of “trampling” on his free-speech rights to further her political agenda.
Franklin Glenn Sain, 42, of Colorado Springs, remained free on bond facing charges of harassment and attempting to influence a public official, a felony. Denver police say he sent Fields, D-Aurora, at least six e-mails and also left her voicemails between Feb. 13 and Feb. 15. He was arrested Friday.
“We are deeply concerned about the government’s retaliation against Mr. Sain for his protected First Amendment political speech,” defense attorneys Siddhartha Rathod and Qusair Mohamedbhai wrote in a statement. “We appreciate Representative Rhonda Fields’s service to our community; however, we remind you that Mr. Sain valiantly served his country as a decorated Iraqi war veteran. Representative Fields appears to be furthering her political agenda by trampling on Mr. Sain’s constitutionally protected free speech in order to infringe on all Coloradans’ Second Amendment rights.”
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_22672820/firm-suspends-man-accused-harassing-rhonda-fields#ixzz2M765escy
Ready for a Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle Comedy Tour?
By: The Root Staff | Posted: February 27, 2013 at 4:16 PM
Audience members at a small New York City comedy club got the treat of a lifetime Tuesday night, Vulture reports.
According to the Comic’s Comic, comedy legends Chris Rock and the elusive Dave Chappelle joined each other onstage — where they texted Jay-Z, left voicemails for Arsenio Hall and Lenny Kravitz and dissected Seth MacFarlane’s Academy Awards hosting performance. To make matters more amazing, they reportedly also tossed around the idea of taking their impromptu act on the road. We hope it wasn’t all jokes.
http://www.theroot.com/buzz/ready-chris-rock-and-dave-chappelle-comedy-tour
Lawdy; I would love to hear what they did with Seth MacFarlane’s performance!
Samuel L. Jackson @SamuelLJackson
Just because Charlize lets them fuck up her name, Quvenzhane’ is a brat cause she won’t?! WTF?! FUCK da Onion!!!
Here yee, here yee, Samuel has spoken!
I so LOVE the series on Native American music this week, SG2. It’s powerful.
TY! I love it so much.
this series has indeed rocked the house. thank you SG2
–☻Nerdy Wonka @NerdyWonka
Scalia’s mantra. RT @jesseltaylor: The Voting Rights Act: the remedy to racism so successful it apparently became racist. —
– – -☻Nerdy Wonka @NerdyWonka
And their true colors shone. RT @goldietaylor: In 2006, GOP voted overwhelmingly to reauthorize Voting Rights Act. Then PBO was elected…
– —☻TheObamaDiary.com @TheObamaDiary
“Rosa sat so Martin could walk, Martin walked so Barack could run, Barack ran so our children can fly” pic.twitter.com/Q0yG68b7Ys
Retweeted by Nerdy Wonka
View photo – – —-BEAUTIFUL – – -POWERFUL –PHOTO :>) – –
– —☻Nerdy Wonka @NerdyWonka
Pres. Obama: “Rosa Parks single act of disobedience launched a movement…It is because of these men and women that I stand here today.” – —AMEN :>) – –
Yes; after PBO won his second term; the crazy old white men are still gasping for their last breath of power and control. STOP DEM NIGGAS FROM VOTING!!!
STOP THE NIGGAS!
*sigh* Who gives a shit; just do it.
Is (WHITE) America Ready for a Black Bachelorette?
By: Jenée Desmond-Harris | Posted: February 27, 2013 at 12:45 PM
So far, every single star of ABC’s The Bachelorette has been white. Misee Harris, a 28-year-old pediatric dentist from Tennessee, is using a social media campaign to change that. She hopes to become the first black star of the reality dating program, Jezebel reports today.
The Bachelor franchise has already been sued for racial discrimination (that didn’t really pan out) by African-American men, so it will be interesting to see whether this nonlegal approach is more effective.
Given that it’s the year 2013 in a country that’s on its way to becoming a “majority-minority” nation, we think it would make sense to include a little diversity in casting. But when it comes to issues of race, we all know that making sense often isn’t enough. We’ll keep you posted.
http://www.theroot.com/buzz/america-ready-black-bachelorette
Accused Killers Had 3-Way Sex On Black Corpses?
http://newsone.com/2252138/joshua-miner-joliet-illinois-eric-glover-terrence-rankin/
There is some new information on the four Joliet, Ill., suspects who are facing first-degree murder charges for the strangulation deaths of two 22-year-old Black men who were allegedly robbed, killed, and partially dismembered in January. Police investigators have now learned that three of the accused murderers may have had sex on top of the corpses, reports the Joliet Patch.
The bodies of Glover and Rankins were discovered in Massaro’s home, and according to Joliet police, the two victims were allegedly lured to the home, robbed of their cash, strangled, and then partially dismembered.
Police were tipped off on January 10th about the two dead bodies in Massaro’s home. When officers arrived at the address on Hickory Street, they saw movement within the residence and proceeded to investigate.
Police state that Landerman, Massaro, and Miner were just sitting around obliviously playing video games when police barged in.
The two dead victims were lying face down and had plastic bags tied around their heads when police found them. One of the man’s hands had been bound, while it was apparent that the other body’s hands had been tied up at one point but later released.
The fourth suspect, McKee, had left the home before police arrived but was picked up by authorities in nearby Kankakee.
So far, police have not released any information as to who actually committed the brutal murders or the motives for the killings.
NO WORDS…
eewww
nasty and evil
Reposting here
Justices offer split views on Voting Rights Act enforcement
http://tinyurl.com/aaks23z
Washington (CNN) – A predictably divided Supreme Court appeared ready to strike down – at least in part – the key enforcement provision of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965, with many conservative justices on Wednesday suggesting it was a constitutionally unnecessary vestige of the civil rights era.
Known as Section 5, it gives the federal government open-ended oversight of states and localities mostly in the South with a history of voter discrimination.
http://t.co/pBvOjGm9TC
Go Chuck Hagel! Winning!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhQLRRc3Qx4
LOL
Keith Ellison vs Sean Hannity
Go Keith! Go! Go! Go!
hannity’s a drama queen. Ellison smacked that ass.
LOL! Right out of the gate Keith Ellison was on Hannity’s ass. He didn’t waste any time. And Ellison has such a cute smile. :)
hell yeah!!!
Chuck Hagel speaks to Pentagon employees for the first time
Watch Live
http://edition.cnn.com/video/flashLive/live.html?stream=4
Ladies
Josh said thank you very much for the birthday wishes. We had a great time last night. We sang happy birthday to him at the restaurant and Josh turned red. Oh God he is so shy! LOL!
So glad Josh got to celebrate his birthday with his beloved family.
We had a good time. He didn’t expect us to sing happy birthday to him. We embarrassed him. He has always been shy. :)
Study ties black-white wealth gap to stubborn disparities in real estate
By Michael Fletcher,
Published: February 26
The large and growing wealth gap separating white and black families is the product of stubborn barriers that disproportionately consign African Americans to less-valuable real estate and lower-paying jobs, according to a new study.
A long-term examination of the financial lives of black and white Americans revealed that African Americans typically face a subtle but persistent opportunity gap that has served to widen financial disparities remaining from a long history of overt discrimination, according to a report to be released Wednesday by Brandeis University’s Institute on Assets and Social Policy.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/study-ties-black-white-wealth-gap-to-stubborn-disparities-in-real-estate/2013/02/26/8b4b3f50-8035-11e2-b99e-6baf4ebe42df_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines
Happy HUMP day, Everyone! :-)
Morning, everyone!
SG2 is tired this morning.