Happy HUMP day, Everyone. Today’s featured artist is Ledisi.
Wiki: Ledisi Anibade Young (pron.: /ˈlɛdɨsiː/) (born July 9, 1978) is an eight-time Grammy-nominated American singer–songwriter and actress. Her first name means “to bring forth” or “to come here” in Yoruba.[1] Ledisi is known for her jazz influenced vocals. In 1995, Ledisi formed the group known as Anibade. After unsuccessfully trying to get the group signed to a major label, she formed LeSun Records with Sundra Manning. Along with her group Anibade, Ledisi released an album titled Take Time. The album gained major airplay from local radio stations.[citation needed]
In 2000, Ledisi released her first album, titled Soulsinger: The Revival. Ledisi and her group toured in 2001, performing various shows.[1] In 2002, Ledisi released her second album, Feeling Orange but Sometimes Blue. The album won her an award for “Outstanding Jazz Album” at the California Music Awards.
In 2007, Ledisi signed a major record deal with Verve Forecast and released her third album in August of that year, titled Lost & Found, which sold almost 217,000 copies and earned her two Grammy nominations, including one for Best New Artist.[2] In 2008, Ledisi released her Christmas album, It’s Christmas.
In 2009, Ledisi released her fourth album Turn Me Loose, which earned her 2 Grammy nominations.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Black Americans are Not Stupid, Nor Do We Need Your Advice: An Open Letter to Townhall’s Katie Kieffer
Dear Katie Kieffer, the nice white conservative lady who only has the best interests of Black Americans at heart:
I appreciate your concern for black people’s political wisdom. I know these feelings must run deep and could never be a function of a need to write a provocative column for the Right-wing website Townhall, or in response to an almost deranged and mouth-breathing brute force partisan hostility towards Barack Obama, the country’s first black president.
I am sure you are a member of the NAACP, mentor and volunteer with organizations which help black youth in under-served communities, have had black people over your house to eat, and count them as friends in some other capacity than as a nurse or maid. I am also sure that you have let those best friends of yours who are black use the toilet in your house, and did not send them to the McDonald’s across the street or the corner filling station. You may have also had a black lover or two.
In the spirit of sharing and friendship, I appreciate your worries about how black people are stupid and could use your good wisdom about how to better choose our “leaders.” We are only 150 years removed from slavery and are still getting the hang of this freedom thing. Democracy is scary.
You have saved us lots of work by nominating Niger Innis, Harry Alford, and Ben Carson as the brilliant triumvirate which will lead Black America to the promised land that Brother Dr. King envisioned for his people. Black people are lazy by nature. As such, your assistance has saved us much time and energy which we would actually rather spend on sleeping, playing basketball, having sex, eating watermelon and fried chicken, committing welfare fraud, and dancing…there are only so many hours in the day after all.
Our bad habits must have infected the many millions of white people who voted for Barack Obama. Black people can be very compelling that way. Black Americans, with our political struggles and triumphs, style, fashion, energy, and culture, are the most imitated people on Earth. It is only natural that there are tens of millions of white voters who would follow our lead and vote for Obama. I apologize for that as well. Sometimes, we black folks underestimate our magical powers of persuasion.
http://wearerespectablenegroes.blogspot.com/2013/03/black-americans-are-not-stupid-nor-do.html
Scout Prouty the man from Boston who taped Romney’s 47% rant is on ED Show now.WOW. JUST WOW!
Stand up guy Scott Prouty. We’ll post the video when available! GREAT INTERVIEW
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VO9PMNJc1gU
Go Ambassador Rice!
LOL McTurtle is taking MsMcTurtle off the shelf DESPERATE,MUCH.
Oh BOO effing Hoooo, Elaine and Mitch. Where were you two while the teabagger and birthers try to ridicule, threaten, coerce, and slam PBO with every racist screed they could muster? CRICKETS. GTFOH
Exactly.
“We love Kentucky.” That victim consciousness is NOT an attractive look, ELAINE.
Maybe We Need a Grand Bargain Over Judges?
—By Kevin Drum| Wed Mar. 13, 2013 10:07 AM PDT
Jeffrey Toobin wrote yesterday about a familiar problem: the all-but-total obstruction of judicial nominees by Senate Republicans. James Joyner comments:
There’s an argument to be made for high level scrutiny being applied to federal judges generally—it’s a lifetime appointment, after all—and for appellate judges in particular—they set precedent that guides thousands of cases. While my longstanding view is that a 60 vote requirement for confirmation is extraconstitutional, if not unconstitutional, I’m amenable to the argument that judicial nominees ought to be well within the mainstream; presidents shouldn’t be able to radicalize the legal system for decades to come by virtue of a slim Senate majority.
But we’re well past that. Senate Republicans aren’t standing firm against radical judges but against Democratic judges. And, no, the two aren’t synonymous; the American people have, after all, elected a Democratic president two cycles in a row and Democrats got more votes for both the House and Senate as well.
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/03/maybe-we-need-grand-bargain-over-judges
Bulls Star Derrick Rose Offers To Pay For 6-Month-Old Jonylah Watkins’ Funeral
Posted by Camille Travis on Mar 13, 2013
With few tips to work from, Chicago detectives are continuing to piece together the murder of 6-month-old Jonylah Watkins who was shot five times Monday on the city’s South Side. The infant was killed while having her diaper changed by her father Jonathan Watkins, the intended target.
The 29-year-old man was still hospitalized Wednesday morning after being shot in his left side, right buttock and sustaining a graze wound to the face. Both father and daughter were hit when an unidentified man walked up to Watkins’ minivan and opened fire.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports Watkins is cooperating with police from his hospital bed, but has no idea who shot him. An $11,000 reward is being offered in the case.
According to ABC 7 Chicago, the family’s spokesman Reverend Corey Brooks said injured Bulls star Derrick Rose has offered to pay for Jonylah’s funeral.
http://uptownmagazine.com/2013/03/bulls-star-derrick-rose-offers-to-pay-for-6-month-old-jonylah-watkins-funeral/
Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina elected new pope
First Latin American and first Jesuit elected leader of the Catholic Church to be known as Pope Francis I.
Obama Destroys Paul Ryan’s Claim that America is Facing an Immediate Debt Crisis
By: Jason EasleyMar. 13th, 2013
President Obama has thrown cold water all over Paul Ryan’s claim that America is facing a debt crisis by sternly stating that, “We don’t have an immediate debt crisis.”
This was a direct jab at Paul Ryan, and the Republican idea that all social programs must be cut immediately because the nation can’t afford them. After the president’s inaugrual address, Ryan said, “What I was really hoping was he would say, ‘I want to deal with this debt crisis before it takes our economy off the rails, before it guarantees our children and our grand children are sated with our debts.’ That’s really what I was aching to hear.”
http://www.politicususa.com/obama-destroys-paul-ryan.html
LOL Love it. When will Lil Eddie and nem LEARN; when?
If Lil Eddie thinks Americans are going to allow him to dictate the narrative on any and all things dealing with our national debt./deficits/healthcare, he’s nuttier than I thought.
You Know Nothing of My Work’
PersonalMar 12 2013, 5:00 PM ET152
The most educational thing about coming to MIT has been this–my first real, long-term exposure to a large community of Asians and Asian-Americans. It hasn’t so much changed anything about my thinking, so much as it’s reinforced that which already thought. I was already skeptical of broad statements about groups which comprise a relatively large share of the human population.
But having members of that group regularly in your face makes this more than theory. It moves it from “intellectual truth” to “core truth”–so much so that you stop even considering them as a “group.” This is not about color-blindness. It’s not an assertion of who “they” are, but a statement about who “you” are. You may well know that humans are the same. But this truth often lives in brain. It is a beautiful thing when it migrates to the bone.
Last Monday we discussed David Brooks’ column “The Learning Virtues” in my class. The column purports to contrast “Asian” approaches to education with “Western” approaches. At various points “Chinese” is traded in for “Asian” and “American” for “Western.” My essay classes have all been majority Asian and Asian-American. This made for a Marshall Mcluhan-like spectacle. The idea that “there is no such concept” for “nerd” in Chinese language and culture made me suspicious. But now I was faced with Chinese (and Taiwanese-American) students in the class who literally laughed at the idea.
I think this is argument for “diversity” at our education institutions. Humanism in theory isn’t enough. You need to be confronted with actual humans to really feel it. It has become increasingly clear to me that I am not a member of any “black race.” That there is no such thing. I am, very much, a black person. This describes my history, my culture, my dialect, my community, my family, my collective experience with America. But there is nothing in my bones that makes me more like other “black persons” than like anyone else.
Perhaps this seems basic and elementary. But somehow in seeing more of the world–in being around people of another “race”–I’ve begun to really feel the absurdity of it all.
http://www.theatlantic.com/ta-nehisi-coates/
Yes; Coates essay is spot on. That color blind bullshit always rubbed me the wrong way. Just a cop out for the 2520s to NOT deal with their own shit about race & differences.
Archbishop of Buenos Aires Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio greets worshippers, in the Buenos Aires neighbourhood of Liniers, in this August 7, 2009 file photograph. Bergoglio was elected Pope to …
Wuh?! No Black Pope? LOL Surely the masses heads would be exploding left and right. NOT.READY for another Black WORLD LEADER.
NOT.READY for another Black WORLD LEADER.
Yep!
shoot. I thought it was gonna be the one from Brazil.
LOL You mean Cardinal Eric Reguly. I see you, young lady
LMBAO
MARCH 13, 2013
VATICAN CALLS WHITE SMOKE A FALSE ALARM: “WE WERE JUST BURNING DOCUMENTS”
POSTED BY ANDY BOROWITZ
Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2013/03/vatican-calls-white-smoke-a-false-alarm-we-were-just-burning-documents.html#ixzz2NS08ahjK
Teenager Killed by New York Police Was Shot 7 Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/14/nyregion/teenager-killed-by-new-york-police-was-shot-7-times.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0
The 16-year-old boy who was killed in Brooklyn by the police in a hail of 11 bullets on Saturday night was hit by seven of them, three entering his body from the rear, the authorities said on Wednesday.
The report from the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner did not specify which of the seven bullets caused the death of the teenager, Kimani Gray; that determination awaits further investigation.
One bullet entered his left shoulder in the rear, exiting in the front; two other bullets struck the back of his thighs, one in the left thigh and one in the right. Two bullets struck from the front, hitting his right thigh; one bullet entered his left side, striking his lower rib cage; and the last bullet hit his left lower forearm.
The police said that two plainclothes officers fired at Mr. Gray after he pulled a .38-caliber revolver and pointed it at them; the officers then fired 11 shots, killing him. Mr. Gray’s revolver had four bullets in its chamber, the police said.
They couldn’t enable a 16 year old boy with one shot, NAW, gotta blast him to kingdom come.
3 Bullets hit him in the back. He had no idea they were police. It’s open season on black men.
Mr. Gray (16 years old) and now the po po wanna call him MR. GRAY. MR. GRAY didn’t KNOW WHAT HIT HIM. It’s CRIMINAL what these cops did, despicable and criminal.
Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina has been elected the next pope. He is the first non-European pope.
The decision came after the fifth ballot cast by the 115 cardinals since the papal conclave began Tuesday.
The new pope succeeds Pope Benedict XVI, who became the first pope to resign in hundreds of years. He stepped down February 28, citing advanced age.
The new pope becomes the leader of the worlds 1.2 billion Catholics.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio selected as next pope
French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran introduces Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina as the 266th pope, AP reports. The 76-year-old cardinal will be the Catholic Church’s first South American pope.
Read more at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/on-day-2-of-papal-conclave-alliances-should-take-shape/2013/03/13/5d88b616-8bba-11e2-9838-d62f083ba93f_story.html
What will it take to break Washington gridlock?
Posted by Jamelle Bouie on March 13, 2013 at 11:48 am
President Obama is scheduled to meet with Republican leaders this afternoon, presumably to discuss the dueling budget proposals introduced by House Republicans and Senate Democrats. This is part of his ongoing “charm offensive”—his attempt to build new relationships with Republicans in an effort to craft and pass an alternative to the sequester, and to make progress on other policies.
Participants have been enthusiastic about the meetings, but there’s little sign of progress. As NBC News notes, Obama’s dinner with Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn yielded little more than a hold on Senate Dem legislation to continue funding the government that doesn’t reduce the deficit entirely the way Republicans want — through spending cuts and no new revenues. Meanwhile, Obama’s lunch with Paul Ryan did nothing to stop the House Budget Committee chairman from releasing an extreme and regressive “roadmap” with deep cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and other social services, as well as full repeal of Obamacare and hefty tax cuts for upper-income earners.
All of this is to say that poor relations aren’t the obstacle to breaking gridlock in Washington. Rather, the obstacle to compromise is that the GOP remains an anti-tax, anti-government party that shows no signs of changing.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/03/13/what-will-it-take-to-break-washington-gridlock/
Will George P. Bush Bleed and Die for the Oil Industry?
by BooMan
Tue Mar 12th, 2013 at 09:00:54 PM EST
You probably don’t care that George P. Bush is running for land commissioner in Texas. But you might look back at this race as critically important. To see why, you need to understand how George P. Bush’s grandfather started out in politics. Poppy Bush was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1966, from a district in Houston, Texas. His biggest backer was his father Prescott Bush, a Republican from Connecticut who had served in the Senate from 1952-63, and who still had quite a bit of juice on Capitol Hill. But the rest of Poppy’s moneymen were oilmen who were primarily concerned with something called the “oil depletion allowance.” It was a tax write-off that Russ Baker detailed in his book: Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, America’s Invisible Government and the Hidden History of the Last Fifty Years.
During the Eisenhower years, the Texas oil industry really took off. Poppy was now part of a “swarm of young Ivy Leaguers,” as Fortune magazine put it, who had “descended on an isolated west Texas oil town—Midland—and created a most unlikely outpost of the working rich.” Central to these ambitions was continued congressional support for the oil depletion allowance, which greatly reduced taxes on income derived from the production of oil. The allowance was first enacted in 1913 as part of the original income tax. At first it was a 5 percent deduction but by 1926 it had grown to 27.5 percent. This was a time when Washington was “wading shoulder-deep in oil,” the New Republic reported.
“In the hotels, on the streets, at the dinner tables, the sole subject of discussion is oil. Congress has abandoned all other business.”
Following the discovery of the giant East Texas oil fields in 1931, there was nothing Texas oilmen fought for more vigorously than their depletion allowance. From its inception to the late 1960s, the oil depletion allowance had cost taxpayers an estimated $140 billion in lost revenue.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/3/12/21054/0351
Republicans say they want entitlement cuts. But they want Dems to own them.
Posted by Greg Sargent on March 13, 2013 at 1:21 pm
So what’s the endgame in the fiscal fight? Ron Fournier asks White House and GOP aides to be candid about where they really see this battle going, and gets some revealing answers
……………………………..
Careful readers will note something important here: The endgames envisioned by both sides — Republicans included — require the GOP to accept the need to give on revenues in order to get entitlement cuts. It’s good to see it admitted forthrightly that the only conceivable way to a deal, as I’ve been arguing, is for Republicans to concede this point. But the way this is couched is revealing, and demonstrates another overlooked reason compromise is so hard: Republicans say they want entitlement cuts, but they want Dems to own them.
As Fournier notes, the way the endgame would work in Republicans’ dreams is that Obama’s approval ratings would continue to drop as the sequester damages the economy, making him so desperate for a deal to replace the sequester that Dems would have no choice but to offer up significant entitlement reforms, at which point a small number of Republicans would have the cover they need to agree to a deal with new revenues under the guise of “tax reform.” In this scenario, Dems would have their fingerprints all over the entitlement cuts and any deal would presumably pass both houses mostly with Dem support.
The problem with this scenario is that Republicans have already poisoned this well by demagoguing relentlessly on Medicare cuts for two straight election cycles. Republicans made their attacks on Obamacare’s Medicare cuts central to dozens and dozens of Congressional and Senate races in 2010, and Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan attacked Obama for cutting Medicare for months throughout 2012 in ads, in speeches, and on the stump. Dems know — or should know — that if they take ownership of the entitlement cuts Republicans say they want, GOP strategists will not hesitate to attack them again over them in 2014 and 2016. GOP conduct over the last two cycles is a strong disincentive — or should be, anyway — against Dems doing such a thing. And so, if Dems really do decide to go the “Grand Bargain” route, Dems will likely insist that Republicans co-own entitlement reform and won’t fall into the trap of owning it themselves.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/03/13/republicans-say-they-want-entitlement-cuts-but-they-want-dems-to-own-them/
The Morning Plum: No, the GOP isn’t “winning” the argument over sequester
Posted by Greg Sargent on March 13, 2013 at 9:17 am
President Obama is set to meet with House Republicans today, and the air is thick with suggestions that Obama is losing the political battle over the sequester. And indeed, a new Washington Post poll has some toplines that are troubling for the president. The Post homepage headline captures it well: “Obama losing trust on the economy.”
But dig deeper into the poll and you find something striking: Public disapproval of the sequester is running high — and more Americans hold Republicans responsible for it. Solid majorities oppose specific cuts to government programs to replace the sequester — even as solid majorities support closing tax loopholes to replace it. Solid majorities reject the basic Republican argument about the sequester and the economy.
It’s true that the poll finds that Obama only holds a small edge over Republicans on who is most trusted on the economy, 44-40. His approval rating has slipped, though it remains at 50 percent. The public also is split on who has the balance right on government spending (though this may again reflect that people always like cutting spending in the abstract). But look at these findings:
* 72 percent of Americans, including 74 percent of independents and 81 percent of moderates, disapprove of the Congressional GOP.
* Americans disapprove of the sequester cuts by 53-39; 64 percent say they’ll hurt the economy; 60 percent say they’ll hurt the government’s ability to provide basic services; and 69 percent say they’ll hurt the military.
* Americans hold Congressional Republicans responsible for the sequester cuts by 47-33.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/03/13/the-morning-plum-no-the-gop-isnt-winning-the-argument-over-sequester/
from TOD:
New ABC/WAPO Poll has PBO 50% A 46% D
We all hate polls but this is what is going to push the news cycle so get the real #’s and not the cherry-picked ones….I’ve decide to cherry pick after saying that!! “Seventy-three percent of those who say they sense economic growth approve of the way the president is doing his job” So basically if the media quits telling us the world is going to end every 3 months well………
LOL a jock strap’s got more support than Ryan and the GOP.
Obama rejects GOP premise on balanced budgets
By Steve Benen
Wed Mar 13, 2013 8:38 AM EDT.
According to congressional Republicans, federal policymakers should have a specific fiscal goal: balance the budget in 10 years. Why? Well, no one knows, exactly. GOP leaders seemed to pick an arbitrary number and demanded that the political world not only take it seriously, but agree to a fiscal debate on their terms.
President Obama sat down yesterday with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos and said something interesting: he sees no need to have a debate that accepts the Republican premise
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zGe1TdgZ5g8
For those who can’t watch clips online, Stephanopoulos noted that Paul Ryan has unveiled the House Republican budget plan and has challenged Obama to present a plan that eliminates the deficit entirely. The ABC host asked, “Are you going to do that?” The president, “No.”
“My goal is not to chase a balanced budget just for the sake of balance. My goal is, how do we grow the economy, put people back to work, and if we do that, we’re going to be bringing in more revenue, if we control spending and we’ve got a smart entitlement package, then potentially what you have is balance. But it’s not balance on the backs of the poor, the elderly, students who need student loans, families who’ve got disabled kids — that’s not the right way to balance our budget
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/03/13/17296239-obama-rejects-gop-premise-on-balanced-budgets?lite
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/03/13/17296239-obama-rejects-gop-premise-on-balanced-budgets?lite
House GOP eyes end to ‘Obamaphones’
By Steve Benen
Wed Mar 13, 2013 10:02 AM EDT.
In September, far-right activists got pretty worked up about a video featuring the “Obamaphone” woman. The gist of the clip was simple: an excited woman supports the president, she said, in large part because Obama helped her afford a cell phone. It was one of the uglier stories of the 2012 campaign, eagerly touted by the far-right.
But while the campaign is over, interest in the issue hasn’t faded just yet.
…………….
As Tim Murphy explained yesterday, Rep. Tim Griffin (R-Ark.) and some of his friends hope to end a program called “Lifeline,” which provides subsidized phone service to the very poor. The point of the program is to offer these folks a chance to call first responders in the event of an emergency.
It’s true that the program suffered from some fraud, but as Murphy explained, “Griffin ignored the fact that the feds were already reining in the Lifeline program — and the phone companies that exploited it…. Obama isn’t giving everyone free phones. The FCC is already fixing the program.”
I’d just emphasize one angle to the story that’s frequently overlooked: the “Lifeline” program wasn’t even Obama’s idea, so this notion that the president was somehow bribing poor people, trading phones for votes, never made any sense.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/03/13/17296984-house-gop-eyes-end-to-obamaphones?lite
Why we can’t have nice things
By Steve Benen
Wed Mar 13, 2013 10:34 AM EDT.
It’s hard to believe, but the economy is actually starting to look pretty good. The latest job numbers were strong; the latest manufacturing figures were very encouraging; the housing sector is looking increasingly strong; Wall Street is up; and the new retail-sales numbers were so good, “it’s hard to imagine how the numbers could have been stronger.”
All Americans really have to worry about now is their elected lawmakers acting against their interests on purpose.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/03/13/17297281-why-we-cant-have-nice-things?lite
Making a commitment to a lie
By Steve Benen
Wed Mar 13, 2013 11:17 AM EDT.
Remember in “Seinfeld” when George Costanza got a new job and his employer thought he had a physical disability? He loved the benefits and attention, so he fully committed himself to the lie — and intended to keep it up indefinitely.
The episode reminds me a bit of how Republicans treat their 2012 welfare reform lie.
As you’ll recall, a bipartisan group of governors asked the Obama administration for some flexibility on the existing welfare law, transitioning beneficiaries from welfare to work. The White House agreed to give the states some leeway, so long as the work requirement wasn’t weakened. It inspired Mitt Romney and GOP leaders to make up a shameless lie, accusing President Obama of weakening welfare work requirements.
The blatant falsehood didn’t make much of a difference, and I assumed the issue would disappear once the election ended. But like George Costanza, Republicans have become so invested in the lie, they’re afraid to let it go.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/03/13/17297659-making-a-commitment-to-a-lie?lite
Military tuition assistance snagged by sequestration
By Steve Benen
Wed Mar 13, 2013 12:32 PM EDT.
Late last week, a new petition was launched on the White House’s “We the People” website, and it’s already caused quite a stir, generating about 86,000 signatures as of this morning. The topic may not be front-page news, but it’s important: veterans’ benefits cut under the military’s Tuition Assistance program.
What’s this all about? For all the Beltway assumptions about sequestration cuts not having a real-world effect, there are examples like these that suggest otherwise.
Service members hoping to get financial aid to further their education will be out of luck as the Army’s Tuition Assistance program becomes the latest casualty of budget cuts.
The Army announced on Friday that soldiers would no longer be able to submit new requests for tuition assistance. The decision will exempt those service members already enrolled in courses and receiving aid.
“The Army understands the impacts of this action and will re-evaluate should the budgetary situation improve,” said Lt. Col. Tom Alexander, spokesman for the Army’s personnel chief.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/03/13/17298225-military-tuition-assistance-snagged-by-sequestration?lite
Scandal forces Florida Lt. Gov. to resign
By Steve Benen
Wed Mar 13, 2013 1:46 PM EDT.
It’s been about three years since Florida Republican Rick Scott tapped Jennifer Carroll as his gubernatorial running mate, and in office, Carroll has had few notable accomplishments. Arguably the only major news story of her tenure came last summer when Carroll argued publicly that she considers herself too attractive to be a lesbian. She later apologized.
Now, however, it appears she’ll be known for something else.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/03/13/17298885-scandal-forces-florida-lt-gov-to-resign?lite
Updated: 6:48 p.m. Tuesday, March 12, 2013 | Posted: 6:47 p.m. Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Appalachia school chiefs want share of Ohio wealth
By JULIE CARR SMYTH
The Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio —
Superintendents from Appalachian Ohio said Tuesday that the governor’s state budget doesn’t share enough of Ohio’s economic good fortune with their schools and children.
Members of the Coalition of Rural and Appalachian Schools told state lawmakers and reporters Tuesday they are disappointed with the budget. They said the administration’s new school-funding formula leaves many of their districts worse off.
“I could understand the continued funding reductions if Ohio was still headed down the road to economic ruin, but that is not the case,” said George Wood, superintendent of Federal Hocking schools in Athens County. “The governor’s been proclaiming that things are turning around in Ohio.”
Wood said Gov. John Kasich’s $63.2 billion, two-year state budget calls for revenue growth from income taxes, sales taxes and the Ohio Lottery.
“I’m happy about all that, I just want it to be shared,” Wood said. “And I think the first place you share in a state is with your children. That’s where you start first then everything else happens later.”
He noted cuts come as districts are phasing in a host of new education policies.
………………….
So essentially we have a budget that proposes to take the very resources from the most depressed region of our state … and distribute it to other areas of the state based on income, which means that isn’t coming back to southeast Ohio,” he said. “That money is going to wealthier suburban and urban districts.”
Gibbs said, “It just doesn’t make sense.”
http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/ap/education/appalachia-school-chiefs-want-share-of-ohio-wealth/nWpyR/
Miss Israel ‘very excited’ to meet Obama
By SAM SOKOL JPOST.COM STAFF
03/13/2013 11:05
Yityish Aynaw, first Ethiopian-born to win pageant invited to dine at Peres’s house; cites as hero Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
One day after receiving an invitation to dine with American President Barak Obama and Shimon Peres during the former’s upcoming trip, newly crowned Miss Israel Yityish Aynaw told the Jerusalem Post that she is “very excited” for the opportunity to meet a man whose success she cited as a “notable influence on her life.”
Aynaw who is 21-years-old and a former Israeli army officer became the first Ethiopian-born Israeli to win the pageant.
Speaking with the Jerusalem Post on Wednesday afternoon, Aynaw said that she “didn’t believe that this was happening when she received a personal dinner invitation from “President Shimon Peres himself.”
President Obama is “someone who accomplished things by dint of his hard work,” she said.
Asked why she was chosen to attend the dinner, Aynaw replied that she is “the first black Miss Israel to be chosen and [Obama] is the first black American President. These goes together.”
http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=306268
Kudos to Miss Israel, Yityish Aynaw! Stay away from the comments section; the RACISTS are out in full force.
How Asian-Americans Became Progressives
By Ruy Teixeira, Guest Blogger on Mar 13, 2013 at 11:53 am
One of the most undercovered stories of recent years has been the increasing importance of Asian-Americans as a progressive group. In the 2012 election, Asians raised their share of voters by a percentage point, about half of the overall increase in minority vote share. Moreover, they contributed significantly to increased minority voting in many swing states, including Minnesota and Michigan in the midwest and, particularly, Colorado and Nevada in the southwest. In Colorado, Asians increased their share of the voting electorate by 3 points, accounting for most of the increase in minority voting in that state. And in Nevada, where the share of minority voters increased by 5 points, that increase was split evenly between Latinos and Asians.
But Asians did not just turn out in larger numbers, they also sharply increased their level of support for Obama. In 2012, Asians supported Obama by a staggering 73-26, compared to 62-35 in 2008. This is a remarkable trajectory for a group that, back in 1992, supported George H.W. Bush over Bill Clinton by a strong 54-30 margin. In every election since then, Asians have increased their support for the Democratic candidate, including elections like 2004 where most other groups, even progressive ones, were going in the opposite direction:
http://thinkprogress.org/election/2013/03/13/1712311/how-asian-americans-became-progressives/
GOP Congressman Admits Republicans Don’t Care What Gets Cut In The Budget
By Adam Peck on Mar 13, 2013 at 9:45 am
Congressman Tom Price (R-GA) made a startling admission on CNN’s Starting Point on Wednesday morning, telling host Soledad O’Brien that Republicans are not concerned about how they cut spending — or the millions of people who suffer as a result — so long as they achieve a balanced budget.
O’BREIN: [The President] said he doesn’t want balance for the sake of balance, that actually the wrong kinds of cuts that would be hurtful to people would be a problem. What do make of what he told George Stephanopoulos?
REP. PRICE: We believe it’s important to balance not the how of ‘how you balance,’ but the ‘why’, why is it important to balance. well it’s important to get our budget in balance, so that means that Washington doesn’t spend more money than it takes in, just like families can’t, just like businesses across this country can’t.
The lack of concern over how Republicans are cutting some $5 trillion in spending is evident in the cuts they are planning to hand down to low-income families, young people, women and seniors, all of whom stand to lose significant protections under the Republicans’ balanced budget. Meanwhile, the Ryan budget likely maintains billions in tax savings for millionaires, Big Oil and financial conglomerates that will benefit from the proposed repeal of regulations imposed on Wall Street.
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/03/13/1710571/gop-congressman-admits-republicans-dont-care-what-gets-cut-in-the-budget/
Emo Negro is going ham on Tavis/CBC
E. Mo Black @EmoNegro1
Also, Brotha Tavis & I are upset Obama has not advocated for a Black Pope. We discuss this in our podcast NO HOPE FOR BLACK POPES.
LOL Maybe by the time this one withers on the vine, Catholics will get a Black pope.
Maybe!
BREAKING: White smoke emerges at the Vatican signaling new POPE has been elected.
LOL
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Mitch Already Turtling Up
Posted by Zandar
Seems Mitch The Turtle is already shelling out big bucks to attack Ashley Judd in ads, some 20 months before the election and without Judd even throwing her hat in on the Dem primary yet. Scared much, man?
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has bought six figures worth of airtime to back a television ad campaign beginning on Thursday. The buy marks the start of what could be one of the cycle’s most contentious races.
McConnell’s ads, up a year and eight months before his name appears on a general election ballot, will air for a week in the Lexington, Ky., and Louisville, Ky., media markets. The buy is in the “low six figures,” a McConnell aide told CQ Roll Call.
Democrats framed the early ad buy as a sign of weakness.
“Running campaign commercials almost two years before an election is an unprecedented admission of fear for a sitting senator,” Dan Logsdon, the chairman of the state Democratic Party, said in a statement.
Well no foolin’. Yes, Mitch is scared, because he knows he’s vulnerable. Hell, he might not even survive his own primary at this rate.
In his shell, alone and scared…
http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2013/03/mitch-already-turtling-up.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ZVTS+%28Zandar+Versus+The+Stupid%29
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WW28hvc4FfQ&hd=0
Tweety had the cast on Hardball last night. He was soooo irritating; hardly let them speak.
I want to see this movie!
How Many Gun Dealers Are There In Your State?
The United States has 58,344 Federally Licensed Gun Dealers.* That’s nearly twice the number of post offices.
See how many gun dealers are in your state and share the national map with your friends and family.
http://www.demandaction.org/dealers?akid=82.1639660.XfU1qy&rd=1&t=2
LET’S GET THEM FOLKS!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztmulAiUwmg
THIS dItsy bey-otch right here and Fineman; what a HACK. I see Toure is not amused.
I’m loving Ledisi— In the morning, will you be there in the morning to love me Love me, love me? I don’t know what it is about your love. ;)
Ledisi’s my girl. Love her. My daughters turned me on to Ledisi. LOL
DJ on JJP turned me on to her. Love her!
her azz is about to be indicted…count on it.
………………..
Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll resigns
Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll has resigned.
The resignation comes two days after Florida Department of Law Enforcement officers interviewed Carroll about her involvement with Allied Veterans of the World, a non-profit that operates internet cafes in Florida.
Officials from Allied Veterans and Nelson Cuba, the president of the Jacksonville Florida Order of Police, were arrested on racketeering charges after an investigation by the IRS and Secret Service.
Carroll gave her resignation letter to Gov. Rick Scott Tuesday. It gives no details about the decision, but in a statement, Adam Hollingsworth, Scott’s chief-of-staff, said fallout from the Allied Veterans investigation spurred the resignation.
http://jacksonville.com/news/2013-03-13/story/florida-lt-gov-jennifer-carroll-resigns#ixzz2NQRzrJaB
Yes; And what does he nefarious Governor Rick Scott have to say about all this, except accepting her resignation?
LOL when I grow up, I want to be like dude.
Fit at 102: Ray Clark is proof that it’s never too late to start exercising
By Lenny Bernstein, Published: March 12
It wasn’t the toll from lugging a heavy tool box to work that finally sent Ray Clark to the gym. It was something more profound. He lost his wife of 67 years. Then he lost his daughter. He was looking for something to fill the empty hours.
“I was getting a little lazy at home, and I decided I’d go down to the exercise club,” he recalled.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/fit-at-102/2013/03/12/786a7e96-8346-11e2-b99e-6baf4ebe42df_story.html?wpisrc=nl_health
WASHINGTON, March 13 (UPI) —
President Obama meets with the House Republican Conference Wednesday, the White House said.
What; no video or audio allowed? We’ll wait and see.
Repost
MOFOs are DOMESTIC TERRORIST.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRMzty4hdWw
Why is this man going before the cameras?
Bernie Sanders and Maxine Waters were bellowing last night on ED
it might take awhile, but the truth does come out.
…………………………
Ryan’s unfortunate slip
By Steve Benen
Tue Mar 12, 2013 3:28 PM EDT.
Jed Lewison catches House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) delivering a line today he probably wishes he could take back.
http://youtu.be/LT3Px11xN-0
For those who can’t watch clips online, Ryan said, in reference to his plans for health care:
“This to us is something that we’re not going to give up on, because we’re not going to give up on destroying the health care system for the American people.”
Coming soon to a campaign ad near you.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/03/12/17286141-ryans-unfortunate-slip?lite
Zombie-eyed GRANNY KILLER needs to go somewhere and sit his greasy-headed ass down.
The Endless Drone of Sirota and Greenwald
By Chez Pazienza · March 12,2013
This has been alluded to a couple of times here over the past two days, mostly by the always thoughtful and analytical Bob Cesca, but as usual I’ll be the one to dispense with all the pleasantries and just come right out and say it: Fuck Glenn Greenwald and David Sirota. Fuck them because their opinions don’t deserve to be taken the least bit seriously.
Their supposedly bottomless reservoir of intellectual honesty is really puddle-deep and, in fact, they’re nothing more than what their fiercest critics have always accused them of being: sanctimonious jokes who pretend to be dedicated, indignant fighters of all manner of civil liberties injustices when in reality they’ve bequeathed to themselves wide latitude to choose which sins to prosecute and which to forgive or overlook completely. They don’t care about all affronts by authority to your civil rights. They only care about the select few they’ve chosen to plant their flag in and dig deep on and if their slavish devotion to those signature issues happens to force them into a position of defending a set of civil rights offenses they care less about but which are in the grand scheme no less awful, then so be it.
http://thedailybanter.com/2013/03/the-endless-drone-of-sirota-and-greenwald/
White People Make Up 42% of the Poor, But Take in Whopping 69% of Government Benefits
by Yvette Carnell
If you pay any attention to right wing media, then you know that folks on the right are obsessed with unraveling the safety net, mostly because they
The Economix blog at the New York Times reported the following in February of last year:
Another finding of the study is that the distribution of benefits no longer aligns with the demography of poverty. African-Americans, who make up 22 percent of the poor, receive 14 percent of government benefits, close to their 12 percent population share.
White non-Hispanics, who make up 42 percent of the poor, receive 69 percent of government benefits – again, much closer to their 64 percent population share.
Read that again. It says blacks comprise 22 percent of the poor, but blacks only take in 14 percent of government benefits. Conversely, whites make up 42 percent of the poor , but take in a disproportionate 69 percent of government benefits.
If Republicans cut these programs, as part of the sequester or any other backdoor maneuver, their issue will be with their own base, not blacks. Although, I’m not yet convinced that some white right wingers wouldn’t starve themselves if it meant robbing a black or brown person of a spoonful of broth
http://www.yourblackworld.net/2013/03/black-news/white-people-make-up-42-of-the-poor-but-take-in-whopping-69-of-government-benefits/
LOL what a revelation, huh? The loudest screaming about BIG GUBMINT, are the ones’ taking the most from BIG GOVERNMENT. 2520s just don’t want those BROWN & BLACK folks getting their share.
Brad Woodhouse@woodhouseb
Man, people have missed the lead in the new WaPo-ABC poll. GOP is at 72% disapproval. SEVENTY TWO percent. Stunning, wholesale rejection.
The GOP have proven they don’t know SHIT from SHINOLA.
Good Morning, Everyone! :-)
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Howdy, Rik. We’ve got a Eddie Munster thread going. Can you drop any links and articles there, please? Thanks!
Good morning, everyone!