Happy HUMP day, Everyone! Today’s Girl group, THE “MARVELOUS” MARVELETTES:
Wiki: The Marvelettes were an all-girl group who achieved popularity in the early to mid-1960s. They consisted of schoolmates Gladys Horton, Katherine Anderson (later Katherine Anderson Schnaffer), Georgeanna Tillman (later Georgeanna Tillman-Gordon), Juanita Cowart (later Juanita Cowart Motley) and Georgia Dobbins, who was replaced by Wanda Young (later Wanda Rogers) prior to the group signing their first deal. The group was the first major successful act of Motown Records after The Miracles and were its first significant successful girl group on the label’s early years after the release of the number-one single, “Please Mr. Postman”, one of the first number-one singles recorded by an all-female vocal group and the first by a Motown recording act.
Founded in 1960 while the group’s founding members performed together at their glee club at Inkster High School in Inkster, Michigan, they eventually were signed to Motown Records’ Tamla label in 1961. Some of the group’s early hits were written by band members and some of Motown’s rising singer-songwriters such as Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye, who played drums on a majority of their early recordings. Despite their early successes, the group was eclipsed in popularity by groups like The Supremes, with whom they shared an intense rivalry and struggled with issues of dismal promotion from Motown, illnesses and mental breakdowns, with Cowart the first to leave in 1963, followed by Georgeanna Tillman two years later and Gladys Horton two years after that. Nevertheless, they managed a major comeback in 1966 with “Don’t Mess with Bill”, followed by a few smaller follow-up hits.
The group ceased performing together in 1969 and, following the release of The Return of the Marvelettes in 1970, featuring only Wanda Rogers, the group disbanded for good, with both Rogers and Katherine Anderson leaving the music business.
The group has received several honors, including the Vocal Group Hall of Fame and the Pioneer Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. In 2005, two of the group’s most successful recordings, “Please Mr. Postman” and “Don’t Mess with Bill” earned million-selling Gold singles from the RIAA. In 2012, the Marvelettes were nominated for induction to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Don’t Mess With Bill” My Extended Version!
When you’re Young and in Love 1967
The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game
https://twitter.com/TheObamaDiary/status/334823102406090752/photo/1
[caption id="attachment_44754" align="alignnone" width="540"]
Doesn’t this picture say it all? Why 2520’s all over Washington losing their minds.[/caption]
A World Without Black (TV) Drama
Seanathan on April 30th, 2013
I was reading this piece on the 10 most promising network pilots and while I was excited to see some of these shows, I have to admit that I was slightly disappointed that we would go another year without seeing my television dream come true. I long for the day when a network will put on a drama with a cast made up mostly of African-Americans (Sorry, Netflix, Scandal is not an African-American drama so stop classifying it as such). Yes, there are Tyler Perry’s various comedies on TBS but I want more. I want a show like Breaking Bad or Sons of Anarchy. Is that too much to ask?
We all know why it won’t happen. Networks assume it would be a ratings disaster. They are trying to get the most amount of eyeballs as possible so having a show where the cast doesn’t reflect a majority of the population is probably a bad idea. I’m sure there is tons of marketing research that supports that view but I think it can be done. Sure, it would take a perfect storm but here’s that I think would need to happen.
It would have to be cable (AMC, FX, HBO, Showtime).
Aside from the fact that the best shows are on cable anyway, I don’t think this hypothetical show could garner the required ratings to stay on the air. Cable dramas attract the best talent behind and in front of the camera. If I had to choose a channel for my dream show, it would probably be FX. John Landgraf appeared on Grantland’s Hollywood Prospectus podcast and he sounds like the kind of exec who would give this show a chance. Also, the FX brand is strong enough that you would give anything they aired at least one show. (Worst case scenario: if the show had horrible ratings, we would at least get one full season.)
I would have said AMC but after The Killing, I approach all their new programming trepidatiously.
It would need to star at least one established movie actor/actress.
We need a respected actor or actress that will make people say, “Damn, if ____ is doing television, this must be good.” Obviously, this isn’t a foolproof system as many great actors have starred and appeared in many horrendous pilots. The biggest problem with this is there aren’t that many African-American actors/actresses that would make your casual television viewer say “Wow.” I don’t think Denzel Washington, Will Smith or Halle Berry is ready to give up being movie stars. I wonder what Eddie Murphy’s appearance is going to do for Shawn Ryan’s Beverly Hills Cop pilot. Speaking of Shawn Ryan…
It would need to be produced by someone with a proven track record in gritty cable dramas.
It makes me laugh when I see a trailer for a movie and the words “From the producers of..” pop up. It is a completely meaningless statement. However, in television, those words mean something. If this show had the backing of a Shawn Ryan (The Shield), Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad) or Kurt Sutter (Sons of Anarchy), it’s going to guarantee a certain amount of viewership that might give it a chance to survive.
The first four episodes would have to be perfect.
Not all pilots are great but the shows manage to survive. Our show will probably not have that luxury. It needs to be firing on all cylinders from the beginning. It needs to great enough compel television writers like HitFix’s Alan Sepinwall, Time Magazine’s James Poniewozik or Huffington Post’s Maureen Ryan to recap this show on a weekly basis. When a great show struggles, the critics can be your most important cheerleaders. If our show is on the bubble towards the end of season one, critical acclaim is the best way to survive. Well, viewers would actually be the best way but we might need a back-up plan.
It would have to be about crime in one way or another.
This isn’t an African-American thing just a fact that most of the popular dramas on cable are about criminals (Breaking Bad, Sons of Anarchy) or the pursuit of them (Justified). The beloved HBO drama, The Wire, was about the institutional failings in Baltimore but if you ask your average fan, all they remember is Omar.
It needs to be marketed as a universal drama while still marked specifically to African-Americans.
A little under three years ago, NBC premiered Undercovers, a spy action/drama produced by J.J. Abrams, with two Black leads, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Boris Kodjoe. Don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t a good show but I always thought NBC made a mistake by not having a marketing campaign aimed specifically at African-American viewers. It is a rarity to have two black leads on network television in prime time and NBC should have tried to take advantage of that.
The lead might have to be white.
I’ve been trying to find a way around this but it might be the only way to get our magical show greenlit. White viewers who make up a majority of the ratings need an entry point. The already cancelled Last Resort on ABC starred Andre Braugher but in a majority of posters and bus ads I saw around Los Angeles, the only cast member featured was Scott Speedman in a wet t-shirt. The established movie actor I mentioned might have to be white actor/actress with a lot of appeal and surround him with a solid minority cast. Dominic West wasn’t a star (actually he still isn’t) but I doubt The Wire gets made without him as the lead. As long as the show isn’t about this star saving African-Americans from themselves or their lot in life, I can live with it to make my dream come true.
http://www.bbcamerica.com/orphan-black/2013/05/02/orphan-black-season-2/
Fitz is crazy….LOL
http://youtu.be/2Fu59zByOmA
http://youtu.be/uh5lAV0uU0U
You gotta click through the slideshow..
it’s HILARIOUS
………………………..
Ya Mama’s Secret Past.
G.D. on May 12th, 2013
Ahead of Mother’s Day, we asked folks on the Twitters about the sordid details of their mothers’ pasts that they only discovered as they got older.
http://www.postbourgie.com/2013/05/12/ya-mamas-secret-past/
I love her Scandal-themed posts.
the comments are always funny and insightful
………………………………………….
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
About that #Scandal #IWillBeYourAnchor comment… whew!
Lookie here. I fully understand that I was 100% on board with Fitz wanting to earn him some Olivia on the “A Woman Scorned” episode of ABC’s runaway hit, Scandal. The episode was thrilling, dramatic, flashy and capped off with some steamy cocoa-stirring powered by the undeniable chemistry between Olivia and Fitz.
The “Any Questions” episode kind of turned a corner for me. Let’s be real, how often on the national stage do we get to see a brother stand for a sister like this? We don’t know what the story is behind Olivia and Harrison’s relationship but unless Shonda is going to tell me that they are blood relatives – I need to know why Harrison isn’t being considered as a viable love interest for Liv?
As we’ve discussed over the years here on BnB, I love love. I’m all about the euphoric majesty of all-consuming love. Scale the highest mountain, swim the widest sea love. Breathless, heart-racing, need it, want it, gotta have it – yes. All of that. But then again… I’m all about practicalities too. Why can’t you have the fire and the passion with someone who is, I don’t know, already there for you? Does it always have to complicated and messy to be real? Olivia may think so, I do not.
The seductive promise of a man telling you he’ll be your anchor had me topping off my obnoxiously large wineglass. And not just an anchor in calm seas but through the storm?! What?! Can we add that into some wedding vows? “I promise to love, honor and be your anchor?” I mean when you have an anchor – you can soar. You can try new things, you can take chances, you can be bold because at the end of the day – someone’s got you. Ya’ll don’t hear me though – at the end of the day, someone has GOT. YOU. Whew!
You find that and it’s a wrap. Lock it down and let no man put it asunder.
The shiny allure of a “watch me earn you” kind of fades (for me anyway) next to the rock solid resolution of “I will be your anchor.” You find someone willing to hold it down, who doesn’t have to explode everything in his world to make that happen? Well that’s a no-brainer for me. Le Sigh. I understand the heart wants what the heart wants. But at some point I need the brain to kick in and be like – “Girl. Anchor. That way. Let’s go.”
http://www.blacknbougie.com/2013/05/about-that-scandal-iwillbeyouranchor.html
Charges dropped against Florida teen over amateur science experiment :
Wilmot’s arrest became a national story, as members of the press and the scientific community insisted that Wilmot was the victim of a massive overreaction from law enforcement. A crowdfunded legal defense fund netted over $8,000 to cover Wilmot’s potential legal fees, and a Change.org petition to get the charges dropped received nearly 200,000 signatures.
“Even though I don’t have the privilege of knowing Kiera, I believe
we all have the responsibility to stand up with one another whenever there is injustice and felt I had to do whatever I could to make sure the unjust felony charges were dropped,” said Maggie Gilman, the creator of the petition, in a statement circulated by Change.org. “I’m very thankful to the 195,000 people who stood with Kiera and signed the petition on Change.org!”
Wilmot has already served a ten-day suspension, and is now attending another high school
http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/05/15/charges-dropped-against-florida-teen-over-amateur-science-experiment/
SG2,
TWO MORE GIFS
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxi9vdod7m1qf605ro1_500.gif
http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/127/663/tumblr_lgf3pgDzLT1qh4nf6o1_400.gif
LMBAO
bwa ha ha ha ha ha
Too funny! Love them! Thanks!
President Obama to make a statement at 6 p.m. EDT today.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/live
Acting director of IRS resigns
President Obama announced Wednesday that Steve T. Miller, the acting commissioner of the IRS, had resigned in the wake of the controversy over the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups. In an angry statement in the White House, Obama said the IRS’s actions were “inexcusable and Americans are right to be angry about it and I’m angry about it.” He added, “I will not tolerate this type of behavior in any agency but especially the IRS given the power it has and the reach it has.”
Read more at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Glad Joy Reid had a chance to speak truth to power on this IRS mess. Chris Matthews tried to shut her down Monday evening. Boloney-lipped muthafucka.
ya know what? FUCK CNN and their breaking news about the WH e-mails. We already know the Benghazi hoopla is manufactured by GOP & CNN aka media.
Eric Holder slams Darrell Issa During House Judiciary Committee Hearing
Kick his ass AG Eric Holder! Kick that mofo’s ass!
BWA HA HA HA “Shameful” in how he’s conducting himself” AG Holder’s being way to KIND to this MOFO, right here.
Darrell Issa: Mommy, would you inform the witness of the rules of the committee b/c he smacked my face!
They don’t want what Holder’s got for’em!
That RAT BASTARD Isa is gonna tell teh AG that he just doesn’t want to answer the questions, while he’s trying to ask the question. Daryl Isa is a DISGRACE, but he’s white, so the media gives this fucker a pass on blatant uruly, bad manners and flat out disrespect for our Attorney General. Fuck’em!
The petty car thief has no business in our Government where laws are made.
SG2,
can you make a gif outta this?
Carney To Fox Reporter: ‘Seriously?’
http://youtu.be/S1BbwVLk5Uk
I’m sorry. I don’t know how to do it. I wish I did.
Jay Carney: “WHAT THE FUCK? Just WTF?!
The STUPID fries with these ignorant MOFOs.
Dr. Dre tops Forbes’ highest-paid musicians list
By Gerrick D. Kennedy
November 29, 2012, 3:15 p.m.
Still waiting on Dr. Dre’s “Detox”? Well, keep waiting. The rapper is too busy raking in money — and tons of it.
The rapper/producer/entrepreneur will end the year — which included him bringing Tupac back to quasi-life at Coachella — at the top of Forbes’ annual list of highest-paid musicians.
Dre reportedly collected $110 million during the scoring period that ran from May 2011 to May 2012, beating Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Kanye West and Paul McCartney.
Though his earnings included royalties from his backcatalog and payment for his headlining gig at Coachella in April (alongside Snoop Dogg and a digital likeness of Tupac), most of the mogul’s cash came from his Beats product line, which includes a robust catalog of headphones, earphones, boomboxes and accessories.
Beats accounted for 53% of 2011’s $1-billion headphone market, according to market research company NPD Group, a surprising figure given the recent explosion of celeb-fronted headphones from Quincy Jones, RZA, Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z and 50 Cent.
Dre earned $100 million when HTC, a Taiwanese manufacturer of smartphones and tablets, purchased a 51% stake in the company last year, according to Forbes. The company later sold half of its share back to Beats, and they have exclusive rights to use Beats Audio technology in its mobile devices.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-dr-dre-tops-forbes-list-20121129,0,6515435.story
Dr. Dre, Jimmy Iovine to give $70 million to USC for new academy
The four-year program that the hip-hop star and music executive are pledging to fund will be a mix of arts, business training.
By Randy Lewis and Reed Johnson, Los Angeles Times
May 14, 2013, 9:50 p.m.
Hip-hop star Dr. Dre and music mogul Jimmy Iovine are donating $70 million to USC for a new academy that they say will give students the tools they need to break into the rapidly changing music industry.
Scheduled to be announced by Dre (whose given name is Andre Young) and Iovine on Wednesday in Santa Monica, the gift will establish the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation. The academy will open with an inaugural class of 25 students in fall 2014.
“The vision and generosity of Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young will profoundly influence the way all of us perceive and experience artistic media,” USC President C.L. Max Nikias said in a statement. “Our goal is to ensure that the academy is the most collaborative educational program in the world.”
Dre, Iovine and Nikias declined to be interviewed before the announcement, a USC spokesman said.
An unspecified portion of the $70-million donation will go toward construction of facilities that will house the academy. Students, who can earn an undergraduate degree from the academy, will use existing facilities while new ones are being built.
The four-year program will feature four core curriculum areas: arts and entrepreneurship; technology, design and marketability; concept and business platform; and creating a prototype. It aims to foster entrepreneurship that brings students’ entertainment, technology and business skills into play. Instruction will involve engineering, computer science, fine arts, graphic design, business and leadership training.
That training will come from faculty at USC’s Thornton School of Music, Roski School of Fine Arts, Marshall School of Business and Viterbi School of Engineering, as well as “industry icons and innovators as visiting faculty and guest speakers,” according to USC’s statement.
“Academy students will have the freedom to move easily from classroom to lab, from studio to workshop individually or in groups, and blow past any academic or structural barriers to spontaneous creativity,” Erica Muhl, dean of the fine arts school, said in a statement. Muhl will serve as the first director of the new academy.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-iovine-dre-usc-20130515,0,3844765.story
Well done, Dre, WELL DONE.
Ethan Klapper @ethanklapper9m
Holder to Issa: “The way you conduct yourself as a member of Congress is unacceptable and shameful”
Hey, did you know that Congressman Darrell Issa invented your neighbor’s car alarm, the one that goes off for hours at a time, because your neighbor is a fucking asshole? Congressman Darrell Issa got the idea for a car alarm after a satisfying career as a car robber and arsonist. He made hundreds of millions of dollars. You know what they say: create a need, and then fill it! But now someone has burgled Darrell Issa’s ill-gotten mansion of over one hundred thousand dollars in precious jewels. That someone is Karma, and she probably looks really pretty right now!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VW0v7wwfkQ&feature=player_embedded
The AP story on the late November burglary leaves out Issa’s arrests for car theft, even as it mentions that his fortune came from car alarms, because of course it does. DAMN YOU liberal media!
We will leave you, as always, with this (unsatisfying) video of Darrell Issa crying like a little girl who didn’t get a pony while announcing that he was getting out of the California governor’s race. It is unsatisfying because we watched it live when it happened, and it went on for like TWENTY MINUTES of him sobbing and gasping and struggling to talk, and this one is only like a minute-forty.
http://wonkette.com/491710/karma-burgles-car-robber-arsonist-congressmans-darrell-issas-house
Nerdy Wonka @NerdyWonka
Jay Carney to WHPC on Benghazi: “An email that was used was actually not accurately reported on. I have said that this is political.”
12:54 PM – 15 May 2013
Nerdy Wonka @NerdyWonka
Fox News WHPC reporter asks Jay Carney why Pres. Obama treats the DOJ as an independent body. Carney looks shocked: “Seriously?!”
12:59 PM – 15 May 2013
Nerdy Wonka @NerdyWonka
Jay Carney is throwing serious shade at the WHPC regarding Benghazi. Mentions Jon Karl’s article that used false white house emails.
1:01 PM – 15 May 2013
See the AUTHENTIC WH E-mail thread.
http://youtu.be/kbJcQYVtZMo
Former franchise owners’ lawsuit accuses Culver’s of racial bias
BY MARY MITCHELL
marym@suntimes.com
May 5, 2013 9:10AM
Whenever my sister and I drive up to Milwaukee to see my mother, we stop at the Culver’s located right off the highway.
Every time I stop, the same thought crosses my mind: Why are there no Culver’s restaurants in my neck of the woods?
In a federal lawsuit filed last week, the first black franchisees in the Culver’s system claimed to have an answer to that nagging question.
Two former African-American franchise owners accuse Culver’s of refusing to expand its brand into black communities because of racial bias.
Michael L. Jones and Michael G. Wilbern allege that they were thwarted in their efforts to open franchises in predominantly black neighborhoods in Chicago and Indiana.
The lawsuit alleges that Wilbern tried to open restaurants at 95th and Stony Island; 83rd and Stewart, and 119th & Marshfield on the far South Side. All three locations were turned down, even though Wilbern claims he notified Culver’s there was the potential to obtain tax-increment financing.”
In an emailed statement, Culver Franchising System, Inc. denied the discrimination charges.
“CFSI embraces diversity in race, religion, age and sexual orientation as it relates to team members, franchise partners, supplier partners and our valued guests. CFSI looks forward to responding to these charges and is confident the organization will be exonerated,” according to the statement.
But Ald. Carrie Austin (34th) questions why Culver’s wouldn’t let the black franchisee open a restaurant in her ward.
“It wasn’t Michael. He was gung-ho. He was a franchisee and he wanted to be there. But [Culver’s] turned it down. They said no, then they turned around and built one on 159th Street,” she said.
Wilbern and Jones had envisioned opening several restaurants in underserved areas in Chicago and Indiana.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/mitchell/19883464-452/former-franchise-owners-lawsuit-accuses-culvers-of-racial-bias.html
Fellow Progressives: The IRS ‘Scandal’ Is a Crock and You Should Fight Back
By: Dennis S
May. 14th, 2013
Republicans never rest. If they would dedicate a fraction of the time contributing to the betterment of the country as they do in trying to destroy the Democratic Party and its black president, what a delightful and lustrous nation this could be. But alas, such is not the case. First it was “Fast and Furious”, then “Benghazi.” Now, concurrent with Benghazi, it’s the repugnant tax snoops, the IRS, TARGETING so-called Conservative groups.
Supposedly, Fully 25% of the estimated 300 groups that were being scrutinized by the IRS as to whether their non-profit tax status as either 501 (c) (3) or 501 (c) (4) was deserved had Tea Party or ‘Patriot’ in the organization’s name. That was considered a red flag and the IRS appropriately paid particular attention to these groups. And Democrats are voiding all over themselves for such allegedly abject IRS behavior.
I thought Hardball’s Chris Matthews was going into atrial fibrillation when discussing the matter on his MSNBC show Monday evening. Time magazine’s Joe Klein, a guest, and Matthews must have tsk, tsked for 10 minutes. Matthews called on the president to fire every Internal Revenue Service employee with even the most tenuous ties to examining the inner-financial workings of Tea Party-type organizations.
President Obama sternly condemned the IRS in what is now being called a scandal. “It’s outrageous”, the president fumed. “Those responsible must be held fully accountable.” Lighten up Barry. Accountable for what? Examining the books of a bunch of political hustlers and professional Obama-haters with operations supported by unidentified millionaires and billionaires? A Democratic Senator, parroting Obama, is calling it an “outrageous abuse of power.” Republicans are reacting with unbridled glee, cloaked in somber tones…something about “profound distrust” and we better start hearings in the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee. The Inspector General is investigating. The least credible news organization in all media history, Fox News, blathers that the administration is “spiraling out of control.” That’s like the Crips or the Bloods calling Mix Martial Arts “too violent.”
The Director of the Department overseeing tax-exempt groups, Lois Lerner said “We made mistakes. For that we’re apologetic.” Horse patooties! Repeat after me. When a horde of right-wing, racists under the guise of God-fearing and patriotic organizations, suddenly show up contemporaneously in full political bloom and ready to attack all things Obama, unless you’re a featherheaded idiot, you look into where their money is coming from and whether they are abusing the “non-profit” tax-avoidance system for what are repeated attempts to destroy any influence of the federal government. All for the greater glory of their mentors and sugar daddies, the filthy rich (FR) and multinational corporations.
http://www.politicususa.com/fellow-progressives-flee-so-called-irs-scandal-crock-fight.html
Unions, retirees slam Emanuel plan to cut health-care subsidy
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall
Reporter fspielman@suntimes.com
May 15, 2013 11:22AM
Union leaders and retirees blasted Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday for saving $108.7 million by phasing out a city subsidy for retiree health care, then using $125 million in public funds to build a new basketball arena near McCormick Place.
“Why are retirees with the least ability to absorb this financial blow the first ones made to suffer?… Can’t the mayor find the savings elsewhere?” Fraternal Order of Police President Mike Shields wrote in an e-mail to the Chicago Sun-Times.
“Our city continually victimizes its most vulnerable citizens with red light cameras in lower income neighborhoods, dangerous school closures, high murder rates caused by a downsized police force, and now Chicago is set to abandon retired police officers who risked their lives serving and protecting this City and were promised healthcare during retirement,” Shields wrote.
Tom Ryan, president of the Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2, branded it “outrageous” that city retirees were forced to read about “this drastic change in their retirement security” in the Chicago Sun-Times, instead of hearing it first from City Hall.
“ I also find it ironic that this reduction to promised healthcare coverage for retirees, which the City says will save it 109 million dollars per year, is proclaimed at the very same time that the Mayor is poised to announce a plan to use millions of dollars in public funds to help build a basketball facility for a private institution. I must ask, where are our priorities?” Ryan wrote in an e-mail to the Sun-Times.
http://www.suntimes.com/20126264-761/unions-retirees-slam-emanuel-plan-to-cut-health-care-subsidy.html
Another GOP Obama Scandal Falls Apart as It Is Revealed the IRS also Targeted Liberals
By: Jason Easley
The latest Republican Obama scandal is starting to fall apart too. The IRS didn’t just target conservative groups. They also questioned the tax exempt status of liberal groups too.
In 2012, The Chicago Tribune reported on the IRS denying tax exempt status to a liberal political group,
The IRS announced in May and June that it took the actions against two groups defined as tax-exempt under the 501(c)(4) section of the tax code. The IRS on Thursday declined comment on its tax-exempt final rulings. Tax-exempt groups raising money for both major political parties ahead of the Nov. 6 election walk a fine line between promoting “social welfare” for tax-exempt purposes and purely political interests.
A 501(c)(4) group denied tax-exempt status by the IRS would run afoul of Federal Election Commission rules and could be
required to disclose its donors. Emerge America, a group which helps Democratic women seeking elected office, said it lost it tax-exempt status last October. The IRS invoked the “private benefit doctrine” barring 501(c)(4) status for any group promoting a candidate or political party. The IRS announced its final decision in May.
In June the IRS said it denied 501(c)(4) tax-exemption for an unnamed political group also under the private benefit doctrine. The IRS is barred by law from disclosing the group’s name and the group has not publicly identified itself. The group had one objective: to serve the political goals of its founder, the IRS said. A 501(c)(4) group can spend some funds on political advocacy, but electioneering cannot be its sole reason for existence or comprise a majority of its spending.
It looks like the IRS was not just targeting conservative groups, but was targeting political action groups who may have been violating the tax exemption guidelines. If the IRS wasn’t targeting conservatives, but trying to deal with the surge of dark money groups applying for tax exempt status, this story takes on an entirely different context.
http://www.politicususa.com/gop-scandal-falls-irs-targeted-liberals-2012.html
ABC Admits That They Never Read Benghazi Emails That They Smeared Obama With
By: Jason Easley
After Jake Tapper exposed ABC’s Benghazi email scoop as edited to make Obama look bad, ABC News admitted that they lied to America. They never actually read the original emails.
In their May 10th exclusive, ABC News claimed that they had obtained the Benghazi emails, “ABC News has obtained 12 different versions of the talking points that show they were extensively edited as they evolved from the drafts first written entirely by the CIA to the final version distributed to Congress and to U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice before she appeared on five talk shows the Sunday after that attack.”
Later in the same story, ABC’s Jonathan Karl wrote, “White House emails reviewed by ABC News suggest the edits were made with extensive input from the State Department.”
After CNN’s Jake Tapper exposed ABC’s report was based on information that was edited in order to make the Obama administration look bad, ABC tried to explain away their lies by claiming that their inaccurate story, and the actual emails are the same thing, “Assuming the email cited by Jake Tapper is accurate, it is consistent with the summary quoted by Jon Karl.”
In the process of trying to defend himself, Karl exposed his own lies, “This is how I reported the contents of that e-mail, quoting verbatim a source who reviewed the original documents and shared detailed notes.” (In his original story, Karl claimed that ABC News had obtained the emails. This obviously wasn’t true.)
Karl also explained that he and ABC News never reviewed the emails, “The source was not permitted to make copies of the original e-mails. The White House has refused multiple requests – from journalists, including myself, and from Republican leaders in Congress – to release the full e-mail exchanges.”
Jon Karl wrote that nobody could get copies the emails. If this was true, how did Jake Tapper get them?
http://www.politicususa.com/abc-admits-read-benghazi-emails-smeared-obama-2.html
Republican Rep. Tom Price Says Obama No Longer has Consent of the Governed
By: Hrafnkell Haraldsson
The predators smell blood and they are gathering to take down our embattled president; a president who’s only sin is to oppose the failed Republican agenda for America.
When Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) complained Tuesday on Red State that the federal government “no longer has the consent of the governed,” what he really means is that Obama no longer has the consent of the governed, and what he means by “the governed” is “angry white people” like himself who have sold their souls to the ravenous corporations and special interest groups seeking to replace the federal government.
Central to this theme of betrayal is a set of made-up facts. It doesn’t matter the specifics of the topic at hand, whether its Obamacare or Benghazi: a fake set of facts have been constructed to more closely align the event and its consequences with Tea Party ideology: this is how the world works, therefore this is what must have happened and these must be the consequences.
It’s a neat system. A closed system onto which no trace of reality can intrude. It must be very comforting to have your every fear confirmed for you by your corporate masters. And Price is playing his part. “Well, it’s because they’ve been deceived,” he complains.
The American people have been deceived by this administration and by what their policies were. And it all started with the stimulus bill, that was a non-stimulus bill that took hundreds of billions of dollars, nearly a trillion dollars, and spent it on things that didn’t improve the economy, that didn’t turn things around, that didn’t decrease unemployment, in spite of the testimonials of the president and those in his administration. So that was the first part.
http://www.politicususa.com/rep-tom-price-obama-longer-cosent-governed.html
May 8, 2013 05:59 PM PDT
Fall TV Preview: Your Guide to What’s New!
by Team TVLine
Review the following alphabetical slideshow and then hit the comments to let us know what you’ll be watching. And make sure to bookmark this page and visit often as more shows will be added as pick-ups are announced. (We’ll also share trailers as they become available.)
http://tvline.com/2013/05/08/new-tv-shows-2013-fall-list-previews/#!29/mixology/
Did I read this right? Isaiah Washington’s returning to TV? WHOOOO HOOO!
http://www.wetpaint.com/greys-anatomy/articles/2013-05-09-isaiah-washington-return-cws-100
White House renews push for media shield law
By Steve Benen
Wed May 15, 2013 2:01 PM EDT
At a press conference yesterday, Attorney General Eric Holder was pressed on the controversy surrounding subpoenas for AP phone logs, and one reporter said, “[I]t leaves us in a position of wondering whether the administration has somehow decided, policy-wise, that it’s kind of going after us.” Holder said this is “certainly not” the case, and reminded reporters of his and the administration’s support for a media shield law.
The proposal “didn’t get the necessary support up on the Hill,” Holder said, but “it is something this administration still thinks would be appropriate.”
Indeed, less than a day later, the White House has taken a renewed interest in the idea.
………………………………….
This has come up before, but Republican opposition killed the bills in 2008 and 2010, with the WikiLeaks story helped derail the latter. [Update: the White House supported the shield law in 2010, but called for significant national-security exceptions. It’s unclear which version Schumer has been asked to re-introduce.]
Regardless, given this week’s news, the stage is set for an interesting fight. The White House, obviously aware of the AP mess, is effectively saying the administration will continue to act as far as it can within the law, but it also wants to see the law narrowed to prevent future controversies. Or put another way, “Stop us before we subpoena again.”
If the shield law passes, this problem largely goes away, and Justice Department subpoenas for news organization’s phone records ends. So will it pass?
I found Kevin Drum’s take compelling: “Politically, Obama is basically daring Republicans to put their money where their mouths are. You want to make the DOJ leak investigation into an issue of executive overreach? Fine. Then rein it in. Pass a law making it clear what DOJ can and can’t do in leak investigations. This is a win-win for me. If Republicans take Obama up on his offer, then we get a law I approve of. If they don’t, then they need to shut up. What’s not to like?”
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/05/15/18277829-white-house-renews-push-for-media-shield-law?lite
Igor Bobic @igorbobic
RT @charlie_savage: White House this morning asked Senator Schumer to reintroduce the media shield bill which died on Senate floor in 2010.
11:22 AM – 15 May 2013
How Pinterest Brought Me Over 100,000 Pageviews in the Last 3 Months
[ 20 ] May 13, 2013 | Luvvie
Pinterest is an online visual site where you can “pin” pictures (and videos) while following other folks and re-pinning their stuff. I joined at the end of 2011 and quickly became addicted to it. I e’em wrote a blogpost in January 2012 on how I’m obsessed with Pinterest and board creating. Back then, I only had 12 boards. That number has ballooned to 30. I got issues.
Besides the fact that it’s great for ideas and inspiration and dope recipes and stuff, Pinterest is also an amazing traffic source for websites. Last year, Pinterest actually drove more traffic to sites than Twitter and Bing, according to Sprout Social. That is no small feat at all.
And for me, I’ve seen that power first-hand. In the last 3 months, Pinterest has brought me over 100,000 pageviews. My Google Analytics told me that and you can see the screenshot below:
http://www.awesomelyluvvie.com/2013/05/pinterest-100000-pageviews-3-months.html
Go Luvvie! Thanks for this.
Nerdy Wonka @NerdyWonka
@MichaelEDyson is right. AG Holder has fought to protect Civil and Voting Rights yet we’re supposed to cheer the press calling for his head?
TheObamaDiary.com @TheObamaDiary
.@NerdyWonka People chiefly calling for Holder’s firing are those who’ve never had to worry about voting rights @bknutson6 @MichaelEDyson
11:24 AM – 15 May 2013
Holder’s doing his JOB; and that’s why the crackas are screamin’ bloody murder!
Sebelius
Women are now free to pick any primary care provider or OB-GYN in their health plan’s network without a referral. #NWHWchat
12:15 PM – 15 May 2013
******
bwa ha ha ha ha ha They’re after Bo too. Poor Bo!
LMBAO Yes; and we can see how successful the GOP’s been at “wanting” The RE-ELECTION of PBO’s sent the crackas & coons scrambling to get their GRIFT on.
this gif gets me EVERYTIME!!
LOL 3 Chics is working on creating our own GIFs.
from THE OBAMA DIARY
…………………………
A Word from Donna
By Chipsticks
by Donna
I’ve been listening to Urban Talk radio of late during my drive in to work and on lunch break (Joe Madison in the morning and Rev Al at lunch).
Joe Madison has been blasting the Republicans and the media this week. It has been a thing of beauty to listen to. The callers to his show know the game as well and if these Republicans think that they are going to try and take this President down based on these bogus so-called “scandals” they are in for a rude awakening. The Republicans will feel their wrath like never before so let them keep overreaching…..
I’d like to say a word or two about a topic that he did touch on this morning (just as I arrived at work and couldn’t hear the end) was the WH’s response to these so-called scandals. I’m also seeing a lot of this in my twitter timeline. There seems to be this notion that the WH isn’t getting out in front of these issues as fast as some would like.
Now, if I said that at times I don’t get frustrated with our rapid response team I would be lying. I do, but what I have learned to understand is that there is a process to everything. This President would rather be right than first. Meaning he won’t send folks out to say things until he knows all the facts. He also is the President of the United States and people that want him to go crazy on the Republicans every time they do something crazy just don’t understand this man. He is not a cowboy and he is not a thug so folks need to stop expecting him to act like one.
All those saying that the President should have been out front on the AP scandal because the notification from the AG’s office was sent on Friday have to understand that the AG’s office is an independent entity. They cannot coordinate with the WH on any legal matter. So the WH found out when we found out and there wasn’t a doggone thing that they could have done about it. Also, the WH cannot dictate to the Justice Dept how to do their job. It just doesn’t work that way. The media was going to take the side of the AP whether or not the breath of those subpoenas was appropriate or not because that’s what they do. This is the same media who all stuck together and pushed back when this WH tried to take on Fox news in the early years of his Presidency. It’s a strong union and they feel if you come after one of us (even the illegitimate ones) you might come after all of us.
On the Benghazi lying email mess…IMO, we probably should/could have seen this coming knowing how rabid the Repubs Faux News crowd has been about this topic but you can only respond to what you know so how could the WH react any faster to this story until the story broke? The “blockbuster” story that Karl broke was on Friday. Someone “notified” certain media types on Tuesday morning about the “actual” email but shouldn’t the emphasis be on the lying, bogus, good-for-nothing media that ran with this story without any due-diligence?
Look, I get that we are frustrated that our media sucks and that the President doesn’t appear to have the same level of respect or support from the Dems on the Hill that the Clinton’s had and our silly party will join right in with the right condemning him without all the facts and that this WH doesn’t spend all its time trying to figure out ways to annihilate the Republicans. I get that, but President Obama sees that as counter-productive because he has far more supporters outside of the beltway and he is trying his best to harness that support into action. He needs your voice everywhere you can raise it to inform, enlighten and engage the public. So before going public with your frustration remember that this President has been fighting every single day that he has been in office. They can try with all their might to bring him down but we must always remember our role is to continue to take him higher.
As Bobfr would say… #TrustObama
http://theobamadiary.com/2013/05/15/a-word-from-donna/
a wonderful reply at TOD:
betseyc
May 15, 2013 at 1:39 pm
Great post, Donna. At this point I really only get my news from here (and find I’m far better informed than most of the people I talk to). I don’t own a television, and haven’t listened to a pundit in years, following my rule of not listening to people who are paid to talk, since something, anything, has to keep coming out of their mouths. So any anxiety I feel about things usually comes from anxiety expressed here.
But, because I get my news from here, I’m very struck by how much PBO and his administration are doing, despite all the obstacles and venom and craziness. And lately it’s occurred to me that he might not even care all that much about the craziness, because it lets him get on with the job without worrying about polls and reactions, because no one polls about how people feel about the greening of the armed forces and how that progress will affect the nation, or raising a billion dollars to educate people about Obamacare, or reducing sexual assault in the armed forces.
Of course he’d like to be working with supportive Dems and a sane opposition party to do amazing things. But he’s not, and he knows it, and under all the noise, he keeps going, our energizer bunny, and things keep happening. Not necessarily flashy things, but very important things. If the Repubs weren’t so afraid of what he’s capable of accomplishing, they wouldn’t react the way they’re reacting.
I’ve said this before, and I believe it from the bottom of my heart — he was sent. He’s the avatar. It’s not even about what he accomplishes, though that will be mighty. It’s about the fact that he’s the pivot, the cultural hinge. Nothing will be the same, the world over, because this man, at this time, became the leader of the world. If I ever get discouraged about what he’s being put through, I remember my friend’s visit to Egypt, where young kids would follow her around, pointing to their brown arms, saying “Obama!” And she would point to her Irish-white arm and say, “Obama!” and everyone would laugh.
Every child of color in every part of the world, from this presidency on, will view themselves, the world, and their place in it, differently. And the world, right now, is mostly children of color. That’s why the doughy white guys are in a panic, trying to grab everything they can get for themselves before they’re a shrinking minority.
THIS: “That’s why the doughy white guys are in a panic, trying to grab everything they can get for themselves before they’re a shrinking minority.”
The doughy wihte guys have been doing this since the beginning of TIME.
Dems going on offense on Obamacare
By Greg Sargent, Published: May 15, 2013 at 11:52 am
Republicans have vowed to use Obamacare implementation problems as a weapon against Dems in the 2014 elections. Will Dems be spooked by the prospect of implementation becoming an albatross, or will they stand behind the law and refuse to get baited into running away from it?
The immediate answer appears to be the latter: National Dems are planning to seize on today’s House GOP vote to repeal Obamacare — the 37th such vote — to hammer Republican Senate candidates as more interested in grandstanding for the Tea Party base than in solving people’s problems.
The DSCC is putting out press releases in the districts of multiple House Republicans today who are either running for Senate, or are contemplating a run, highlighting today’s vote for Obamacare repeal. Here’s the release that hits three GOP Members of Congress in Georgia who are running for Senate:
Paul Broun, Phil Gingrey, and Jack Kingston are far more interested in scoring partisan political points than helping middle class Georgians, and voting for the 37th time to repeal health care reform proves it. Georgia voters want their representatives in Congress working on common sense reforms to our health care system, not wasting the country’s time with meaningless stunts designed to score political points. Broun, Gingrey, and Kingston’s reckless waste of taxpayers’ time and resources only threatens to take us back to the time when insurance companies could discriminate and deny coverage for people with preexisting conditions, drop you from your plan when you get sick, and kick children off their parents’ health care before they turn 26
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/05/15/dems-going-on-offense-on-obamacare/
The Morning Plum: The other story behind the GOP’s `scandal’ triumphalism
By Greg Sargent, Published: May 15, 2013 at 9:17 am
Republicans (and some news organizations) are in full scandal-mania mode today, with widespread rejoicing on the right over all the storylines that are all but certain to eventually bring down the president. And it’s true that the IRS and Associated Press stories are both serious business and require a full accounting.
At the same time, however, Republicans are set to vote today for the 37th time to repeal Obamacare, and House conservatives are set to demand a balanced budget in 10 years in exchange for any debt limit hike. Roll Call reports:
The House Republican Conference will meet Wednesday afternoon to discuss the way forward on debt limit negotiations, and a conservative aide said that instead of making cuts to discretionary spending, members are seeking a structural overhaul.
“We do expect many conservatives to make the point that the debt ceiling needs to be tied to reforms from our House-passed budget that get us on a path to balance in 10 years, especially via mandatory spending that drives our debt,” the aide said.
Rep. John Fleming, R-La., said that, for him and many members of the conservative Republican Study Committee, any deal to raise the debt ceiling would have to be tied to a budget that would balance in 10 years “at a minimum.”
The problem here, of course, is that the GOP leadership has already made it clear that Republicans are not prepared to allow default — it caved on the debt ceiling last spring, and John Boehner has openly acknowledged that he has no intention of putting the “full faith and credit of the federal government” at risk.” So it’s unclear how the debt limit can be used as leverage to extract these spending cuts. But conservatives appear insistent on using the threat of economic calamity to demand cuts that would balance the budget in 10 years — something that would essentially wipe away large swaths of the federal government. That isn’t going to happen, and it remains unclear how the House GOP leadership will get conservatives to Yes on raising the debt limit, which means another messy governing-by-crisis showdown that could further damage the GOP.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/05/15/the-morning-plum-the-other-story-behind-the-gops-scandal-triumphalism/
More Thoughts on AP
by BooMan
Wed May 15th, 2013 at 11:57:18 AM EST
On this whole Associated Press thing, it’s good to put things in some context. Why was the AP so hellbent on publishing that we had disrupted a new al-Qaeda plot to blow up airliners with underwear bombs? The answer is clear from the article. They thought it was newsworthy that there had been a plot when when the Department of Homeland Security and the White House press secretary had both recently said that they were unaware of any plots. In fact, this discrepancy may have been what caused the leaker to leak.
Now, I am willing to stipulate that it is newsworthy whenever the White House or its cabinet members are caught saying something untrue. But once the AP contacted the White House and learned that there was an ongoing operation and the threat had always been contained, they should have questioned the motives of the leaker and they also should have stopped seeing the story as newsworthy. Did they really think it was possible for the administration to acknowledge a plot at the time they were asked about possible plots?
Consider this:
Sources later told CNN that the operative who was supposed to have carried the bomb had been inserted into al Qaeda’s Yemeni affiliate by Saudi intelligence, and that the device had been handed over to U.S. analysts. One source said Saudi counterterrorism officials were upset that details of the operation had emerged in the United States because they had a network of agents inside the Yemeni branch who could have been compromised by leaks from Washington.
And this from The Guardian:
The [British] agent was recruited by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which operates in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, and asked to carry a bomb aboard a US-bound plane.
The revelation is politically and legally awkward for MI6 and MI5 whose agents, unlike American ones, are banned from missions that lead to assassinations, such as the US drone attack at the weekend that killed the top al-Qaida operative in the Yemen, Fahd al-Quso. The attack is being attributed to information from the agent.
In fact, the original AP article was published the day after Fahd al-Quso met his maker. So, what kind of gotcha journalism is it to make believe that the administration was misleading the public for political advantage, rather than to protect a sensitive operation and our relations with Saudi and British intelligence?
My best guess is that we (or the Saudis) had to remove a bunch of agents-in-place who were giving intelligence on AQAP and trying to help us catch the bomb maker.
It’s not just that the AP reported the story, it’s how they reported it.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/5/15/115718/835
Why the GOP is taking a pass on an Obama admin scandal
By Steve Benen
Wed May 15, 2013 9:19 AM EDT
Scandal hierarchies can be tricky, because even the most honest political observers can have sincere disagreements over the seriousness of a controversy. It seems to me, though, that if there are three main Obama administration “scandals” — Benghazi, IRS scrutiny, and AP subpoenas — one rises above the other two.
The Benghazi story is a tragedy and a national-security matter, but attempts to turn it into a political controversy have been misguided. The IRS story is legit, but limited — it’s hard to run an all-caps “White House in crisis!” banner headline when we’re talking about confused bureaucrats struggling with vague tax-law guidelines, far from political interference.
But subpoenaing journalists’ phone logs raises more meaningful questions about freedom of the press and law-enforcement overreach. It’s not a story about the president or the White House, per se, but when the Justice Department pushes the envelope, it’s a reflection of administration policy.
And yet, oddly enough, Republicans seem uncharacteristically passive about the one controversy arguably matters most.
Republican senators who have long been critics of Attorney General Eric Holder were noticeably muted on Tuesday when asked to respond to the news of the Justice Department seizing reporters’ records as part of a broader probe into national security leaks.
“Well, I think we need to see how this plays out,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), one of Holder’s biggest critics and who last year demanded that the attorney general resign amid the Fast and Furious gun-running probe. “I have questions about it, but I’m willing to wait and see how this plays out, whether it was narrowly targeted or whether it was a net that was too broadly cast,” Cornyn said.
“I want to see the details — what was their rationale, why did they do it — before offering an opinion,” said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who earlier this week accused the administration of engaging in a “cover-up” in Benghazi. “For me, to rush to a judgment without knowing all the facts is just not appropriate.”
Really? Cornyn has never seen any need to “wait and see how this plays out” with other stories related to the Obama administration, and McCain loves rushing to judgment without knowing all the facts. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) condemned administration scandals yesterday, but didn’t mention the AP subpoenas, and neither House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) nor House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) have commented on the AP story directly. [Update: Even Ted Cruz doesn’t seem to care.]
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/05/15/18273984-why-the-gop-is-taking-a-pass-on-an-obama-admin-scandal?lite
So, It’s On?
by BooMan
Wed May 15th, 2013 at 07:46:49 AM EST
I don’t know if Alexander Burns and John Harris of Politico are so much commenting on a new narrative as they are trying to construct one. Perhaps they are trying to write the definitive version.
The narrative is personal. The uproars over alleged politicization of the IRS and far-reaching attempts to monitor journalists and their sources have not been linked directly to Obama. But it does not strain credulity to suggest that Obama’s well-known intolerance for leaks, and his regular condemnations of conservative dark-money groups, could have filtered down to subordinates.
The narrative is ideological. For five years, this president has been making the case that a growing and activist government has good intentions and can carry these intentions out with competence. Conservatives have warned that government is dangerous, and even good intentions get bungled in the execution. In different ways, the IRS uproar, the Justice Department leak investigations, the Benghazi tragedy and the misleading attempts to explain it, and the growing problems with implementation of health care reform all bolster the conservative worldview…
…In Obama’s case, the narrative emerging from this tumultuous week goes something like this: None of these messes would have happened under a president less obsessed with politics, less insulated within his own White House and less trusting of government as an institution.
I don’t know whose narrative this is supposed to belong to. I don’t think the Republicans are going to argue that the problem is that Obama is too trusting in government as an institution. They are going to argue that he’s a fascist dictator who sics the IRS on his political opponents and tramples on the 1st Amendment and the 2nd Amendment, and the 10th, and any other amendments they can think of. And rather than offer a little balance to that unhinged talk, organizations like Politico will write that the president handed them the ammo even though he wasn’t directly responsible for any of it.
How’d he hand them the ammo? He criticized the Citizens United ruling and all the dark money in politics. He didn’t invite enough Washingtonians to dinner. He trusted that the government could do things like expand access to health care and remove some injustices from the system. He agreed with the Republicans that national security leaks should be aggressively investigated.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/5/15/74649/9722
Deficit hawks unmoved by facts
By Steve Benen
–
Wed May 15, 2013 9:49 AM EDT
Yesterday’s news from the Congressional Budget Office on the shrinking deficit came as something of a shock to those who pay attention to such things. We knew the budget deficit was getting smaller, but we didn’t realize just how quickly the perceived problem was vanishing — we’re now looking at over $400 billion in deficit reduction in just one year, and about $800 billion in deficit reduction since President Obama took office.
There are several important angles to this, but perhaps the most politically salient one is the way in which the shrinking deficit leaves Republican talking points in tatters. GOP arguments about President Obama’s fiscal recklessness now look absurd. Conservative cries about the United States becoming Greece look ridiculous. Republican demands for austerity appear pointless and unnecessarily destructive.
And yet, the drive among congressional Republicans to hold the nation hostage and create another debt-ceiling crisis remains unaffected.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/05/15/18274496-deficit-hawks-unmoved-by-facts?lite
IG Report on IRS is a Giant Dud
by BooMan
Tue May 14th, 2013 at 11:16:28 PM EST
I can’t believe I actually wasted my time reading the Inspector General’s report on the IRS. How unbelievably boring it is! This is another non-scandal. Or, rather, the scandal is that the IRS didn’t actually deny tax-exempt status to a single Tea Party or Glenn Beck-inspired 9/12 applicant. Not one. Sure, they delayed responding to some of those applicants. They asked for inappropriate information from some of those applicants. But they didn’t actually tell any of those nutballs to take their tax-exempt application and stuff it where the sun don’t shine.
When someone simultaneously tells you that they don’t intend to engage primarily in political behavior and that their organization is a “party,” you ought to do a little investigating, don’t you think?
That these morons in the IRS screwed up is undeniable. They were horrible at their jobs (and badly understaffed, I might add). Instead of creating a stupid Be On the Lookout (BOLO) criteria for Tea Party folks, they should have crafted ideologically-neutral language that had the effect of doing the exact same thing. And then they should have promptly DENIED most of the requests because being Dick Armey’s anti-tax stooge doesn’t qualify you as a charitable organization concerned with the general welfare.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/5/14/231628/126
SG2,,
this gif is HILARIOUS!!!!
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mb06e24jVf1rcyy94o1_400.gif
bwa ha ha ha ha ha
thanks for this, Rikyrah!
Don’t mess with Bill
Leave my Billy alone…
;)
Tell you one more time… Don’t mess with Bill; leave my Billy alone.
My older sister use to sing this song and insert the name of the guy she was dating for Bill. I loved it. I thought it was too cool. Sweet memories!
Good memories, indeed. I loved the styles and fashions of the 60s. These ladies could sing, look fierce, and perform their asses off.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZC8C_JH2eQc
Let the GOP Clown keep driving itself into TOTAL Oblivion. PBO owns stock in cans of whoop AZZ
“Spring’s in the air; full of LOVE. There’s magic everywhere. When you’re young and in LOVE”….<3
https://twitter.com/carolmaewy/status/334663613992284162
Good morning, CarolMae! :-)
Good morning!
Good morning, everyone!
CarolMae, I’m loving this!
Thank you. I’m loving your website. But I’m not going to let the bastards get me down! :)
Watch This: Soledad O’Brien Calls Out White People
By: Lynette Holloway | Posted: May 14, 2013 at 3:45 PM
Former CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien said during a recent talk at Harvard’s Institute of Politics that she is often confronted by whites who want to take issue with her documentaries on race in America, the Washington Examiner reports.
Recently removed from her position as anchor of CNN’s Starting point, O’Brien will continue to make documentaries about race for the station. She was also recently named a distinguished visiting fellow at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education.
“People would sometimes, when I give speeches, stand up and say, ‘You know, I think your black-America documentaries [are] divisive. I think … we shouldn’t think of ourselves as African American. We’re Americans, and everybody should stop separating themselves out,’ ” she said in a new video from the institute.
She continued: “First of all, it’s only white people who ever said that — ‘If we could just see beyond race. If only people didn’t see race, it would be such a better place; and you are responsible for bringing up these icky race issues, Soledad. You should just let sleeping dogs lie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaiQZ6m1Ksw&feature=share&list=UUbsnZhYv_NB31qetOdTTWKA
http://www.theroot.com/buzz/watch-soledad-obrien-calls-out-white-people
OOPS! Tell it like it IS, and not like it was, Soledad.
Meanwhile, House GOP Proposes Even Bigger Cuts to SNAP
Posted on May 14, 2013 at 6:30 pm by JM Ashby
While no one is watching because they’re focused on recurring nontroversies in the media, the House of Representatives is currently debating the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013 which carries with it changes that will occur through fiscal 2018, and included in the current version of the bill being pushed by House conservatives is an even bigger cut to food stamps than we’ve already seen.
From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
The proposed legislation would cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program) by almost $21 billion over the next decade, eliminating food assistance to nearly 2 million low-income people, mostly working families with children and senior citizens. The proposal reduces total farm bill spending by an estimated $39.7 billion over ten years, so more than half of its cuts come from SNAP. The SNAP cuts are more than $4 billion larger than those included in last year’s House Agriculture Committee bill.
But that’s not all.
The cuts proposed by House Republicans would come on top of an automatic reduction that will occur near the end of this year for another shocking reason.
The bill’s SNAP cuts would come on top of an across-the-board reduction in benefits that every SNAP recipient will experience starting November 1, 2013. On that date, the increase in SNAP benefits established by the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) will end, resulting in a loss of approximately $25 in monthly SNAP benefits for a family of four. Placing the SNAP cuts in this farm bill on top of the benefit cuts that will take effect in November is likely to put substantial numbers of poor families at risk of food insecurity.
It’s astonishing that the 2009 American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (the stimulus) will still be providing food to poor families through the end of 2013.
In some states the cuts proposed by House Republicans would lead to a reduction in benefits totaling as much or more than half of what they currently receive, and according to the Congressional Budget Office, as many as 210,000 children could lose their free school lunches because they’re tied to SNAP benefits.
As for the idea that SNAP benefits are somehow dragging down the economy, the CBO has also projected that the currently-elevated participation rate in the SNAP program will “fall back to 2008 levels in coming years and that SNAP costs as a share of the economy will fall back to their 1995 level by 2019″ because of the improving economy.
http://bobcesca.thedailybanter.com/blog-archives/2013/05/meanwhile-house-gop-proposes-even-bigger-cuts-to-snap.html
THIS HERE’S THE REAL SCANDAL.
5-Year-Old NJ Boy Uses ABCs to Save Dad’s Life
By Beth Greenfield, Shine Staff | Parenting – 21 hours ago
A 5-year-old Newark, NJ boy became a hero after he used quick thinking and A-B-C skills to save his father’s life last week
The two were driving home from buying Nathaniel Dancy Jr. school shoes when Nathaniel Sr. suffered an aneurysm and stroke, making him violently ill, according to a report by New York’s NBC Channel 4 News. (NBC reported his name as Nathaniel Darcy, but Nathaniel Jr.’s school, the public North Star Academy Charter School, confirmed for Yahoo! Shine it was Dancy). He was able to pull the car over, but then got out of the car, vomited, and became paralyzed by a seizure. That’s when Nathaniel Jr., who is in kindergarten, sprang into action, grabbing his dad’s phone and calling his grandmother.
He said, ‘Come and help me and my daddy. We’re in trouble,’” Susan Hardy-Blackman told NBC New York. She asked him where they were, and, though her grandson was unable to read the sign on the store they were in front of, he spelled it for her: F-U-R-N-I-T-U-R-E. But she was still confused. And that prompted the young boy to be persistent well beyond his years.
“He said, ‘Grandma, use your active listening skills,’” she said. “‘Listen to the words that are coming out of my mouth.’” He gave her another clue, that they’d just gone through a tunnel, and Hardy-Blackman was able to go to them, where they were parked in front of a furniture store, and send an ambulance there, too.
Brett Baker, director of operations at Nathaniel’s North Star Academy, told Yahoo! Shine that young Nathaniel is “a very caring individual,” and that he was proud to know the school’s emphasis of core values “really helped him seize the moment, as it were.”
http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/5-year-old-nj-boy-uses-abcs-to-save-dad-s-life-152518878.html?vp=1
http://youtu.be/4D_R4eZ9Yt4
Thanks for the trailer, Rikyrah. I am so WATCHING this series. It’s good to see Blair Underwood back in the HOUSE!
REPOSTS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SRosYbfdsu4#t=0s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeykvNFAxCY&feature=player_embedded
Good Morning, Everyone! :-)
Good Morning, Ametia, SG2 and Everyone :)
Morning, everyone!