More from The Beatles.
1963–66: Beatlemania and touring years
In February 1963, the Beatles recorded ten songs during a single marathon studio session for their debut LP, Please Please Me. The album was supplemented by the four tracks already released on their first two singles.[45][nb 3] After the moderate success of “Love Me Do”, “Please Please Me” met with a more emphatic reception. Released in January 1963, two months ahead of the album of the same name, the song reached number one on every chart in London except Record Retailer, where it stalled at number two.[46] Recalling how the Beatles “rushed to deliver a debut album, bashing out Please Please Me in a day”, Allmusic’s Stephen Thomas Erlewine comments, “Decades after its release, the album still sounds fresh, precisely because of its intense origins.”[47] Lennon said little thought went into composition at the time; he and McCartney were “just writing songs à la Everly Brothers, à la Buddy Holly, pop songs with no more thought of them than that—to create a sound. And the words were almost irrelevant.”[48]
Released in March 1963, the album initiated a run during which eleven of their twelve studio albums released in the United Kingdom through 1970 reached number one.[49] The band’s third single, “From Me to You”, came out in April and was also a chart-topping hit, starting an almost unbroken string of seventeen British number one singles for the Beatles, including all but one of the eighteen they released over the next six years.[50] Released in August, the band’s fourth single, “She Loves You”, achieved the fastest sales of any record in the UK up to that time, selling three-quarters of a million copies in under four weeks.[51] It became their first single to sell a million copies, and remained the biggest-selling record in the UK until 1978, when “Mull of Kintyre”, by McCartney’s post-Beatles band Wings, surpassed it in sales.[52] Their commercial success brought increased media exposure, to which the Beatles responded with an irreverent and comical attitude that defied the expectations of pop musicians at the time, inspiring even more interest.[53][nb 4] As their popularity spread, a frenzied adulation of the group took hold. Greeted with riotous enthusiasm by screaming fans, the press dubbed the phenomenon “Beatlemania”.[55][56]
McCartney, Harrison, Swedish pop singer Lill-Babs and Lennon on the set of the Swedish television show Drop-In, 30 October 1963[57]
In late October, the Beatles began a five-day tour of Sweden, their first time abroad since the final Hamburg engagement of December 1962.[58] Upon their return to the UK on the 31 December, “several hundred screaming fans” greeted them in heavy rain at Heathrow Airport wrote Lewisohn. Around fifty to a hundred journalists and photographers as well as representatives from the BBC also joined the airport reception, the first of more than one hundred such events.[59] The next day, they began their fourth tour of Britain within nine months, this one scheduled for six weeks.[60] In mid-November, as Beatlemania intensified, police resorted to using high-pressure water hoses to control the crowd before a concert in Plymouth.[61]
Please Please Me maintained the top position on the Record Retailer chart for thirty weeks, only to be displaced by their follow-up, With the Beatles, which EMI delayed the release of until sales of Please Please Me had subsided.[62][nb 5] Recorded between July and October, With the Beatles made better use of studio production techniques than its predecessor.[64] It held the top spot for twenty-one weeks with a chart life of 40 weeks.[65] Erlewine described the LP as “a sequel of the highest order—one that betters the original”.[66][nb 6] The album caught the attention of music critic William Mann of The Times, who suggested that Lennon and McCartney were “the outstanding English composers of 1963”.[64] The newspaper published a series of articles in which Mann offered detailed analyses of the music, lending it respectability.[68] With the Beatles became the second album in UK chart history to sell a million copies, a figure previously reached only by the 1958 South Pacific soundtrack.[69] In writing the sleeve notes for the album, the band’s press officer, Tony Barrow used the superlative the “fabulous foursome”, which the media widely adopted as the “Fab Four”.[70]
“British Invasion”
EMI’s American subsidiary, Capitol Records, hindered the Beatles’ releases in the United States for more than a year by initially declining to issue their music, including their first three singles. Concurrent negotiations with the independent US labels Vee-Jay and Swan led to the release of the songs in 1963,[71] but legal issues with royalties and publishing rights proved an obstacle to the successful marketing of the group in the US.[72][nb 7] American chart success began after Epstein arranged for a $40,000 US marketing campaign and secured the support of disk jockey Carrol James, who first played the band’s records in mid-December 1963, initiating their music’s spread across US radio. This caused an increase in demand, leading Capitol to rush-release “I Want to Hold Your Hand” later that month.[74] Released 26 December 1963, with the band’s previously scheduled debut there just weeks away, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” sold a million copies, becoming a number one hit in the US by mid-January.[75]
A black and white image of four men are standing in front of a crowd of people at the bottom of an aeroplane staircase.
The Beatles arrive at John F. Kennedy International Airport, 7 February 1964The band left the United Kingdom on 7 February 1964, with an estimated four thousand fans gathered at Heathrow, waving and screaming as the aircraft took off.[76] Upon landing at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport, an uproarious crowd estimated at three thousand greeted them.[77] They gave their first live US television performance two days later on The Ed Sullivan Show, watched by approximately 73 million viewers in over 23 million households,[78] or 34 percent of the American population. According to the Nielsen rating service, it was “the largest audience that had ever been recorded for an American television program”, wrote biographer Jonathan Gould.[79] The next morning, the Beatles awoke to a negative critical consensus in the US,[80] but a day later their first US concert saw Beatlemania erupt at Washington Coliseum.[81] Back in New York the following day, the Beatles met with another strong reception during two shows at Carnegie Hall.[78] The band then flew to Florida and appeared on the weekly Ed Sullivan Show a second time, before another 70 million viewers, before returning to the UK on 22 February.[82]
Joy Reid @TheReidReport
I find Glenn unpursuasive because he seems to have an agenda, and an investment in Snowden…
6:00 PM – 18 Jun 2013
Joy Reid @TheReidReport
And I find Snowden more and more unpersuasive with every new narcissistic utterance and leak that prefers China or Russa to the U.S.
6:00 PM – 18 Jun 2013
Joy Reid @TheReidReport
That’s all. And now, if Glenn’s stans want to call me an Obama lackey (yes, I did press for the 08 campaign! The horror!) Go for it.
6:01 PM – 18 Jun 2013
Joy Reid @TheReidReport
Because I’m quite proud of the work I’ve done. And I’m happy to not go hysterical because a paranoid IT guy jets to China with NSA loot.
6:03 PM – 18 Jun 2013
Teacher to Students: No Experience Is Just ‘for White Girls’
By: Jenée Desmond-Harris | Posted: June 18, 2013 at 12:15 PM
A teacher at Public School 28 in Brooklyn, N.Y.’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, where an estimated 80 percent of children qualify for free lunch, overheard a student dismiss Manhattan’s expensive American Girl doll store as an unattainable destination — specifically, “a place that white girls go to.”
A $14,000 fundraising campaign later, he took 27 girls on a trip that included tea with the store’s cast of characters, DNAinfo New York reports. His only goal: to prove to them that they could have the same experiences as anyone else. “I decided I had to help change their perception of themselves and their worth,” Rob Robinson said. “This is less about the dolls, and more about telling them you have access to any place.”
http://www.theroot.com/buzz/teacher-students-no-experience-just-white-girls
zizi2
June 18, 2013 at 6:58 pm
If Snowden got the NSA info during training, It confirms the notion that he and GG connived BEFORE we went to work for NSA. it means he STOLE the information because he and his cohorts had planned that all along. He expressly went to work at NSA in order to STEAL information to harm the ‘republic
It takes a lot to shock me anymore but this is absolutely unbelievable about Senator Flake’s kid. The kid needs to be taken in for a mental health evaluation – yesterday.
Your Son’s Hate Speech Is Bad But Pretend Suicide Is Worse: What Kind Of Parent Are You Senator Flake? (VIDEO)
Author: T. Steelman June 18, 2013 8:47 am
Read more: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/06/18/your-sons-hate-speech-is-bad-but-pretend-suicide-is-worse-what-kind-of-parent-are-you-senator-flake-video/#ixzz2WQBVDYgN
rootless @root_e
@kurteichenwald as a trainee, he must have walked out of NSA with a thumb drive in his pocket.
Kurt Eichenwald @kurteichenwald
@root_e No idea. But wow…this means he stole the information, wasnt provided it. And means NSA security on FISA orders is abysmal.
4:33 PM – 18 Jun 2013
this is why this mofo can’t find anyone to watch his show
……………….
Christopher Hayes ✔ @chrislhayes
Is Keith Alexander the J Edgar Hoover of our time? James Bamford joins me tonight to discuss. #inners http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/06/general-keith-alexander-cyberwar/ …
4:45 PM – 18 Jun 2013
………………………
FYI, Alexander is the head of the NSA
zizi2 @zizii2
@chucktodd @nbcnews In May U LOUDLY said WH clobbered by GOP on IRS. R U gonna LOUDLY push Cummings proof Issa lied? http://democrats.oversight.house.gov/images/stories/IRS_Screening_Manager_Part_II.pdf …
5:17 PM – 18 Jun 2013
Monday, June 17, 2013
“Let that Negro go to Africa on his own dime.”
I love how hypocrisy rules the day in this country.
So now we are supposed to care that the president is taking a trip oversees because we are still in a recession? I need a break!
Why is this even an issue now with this president? Rhetorical question. I know why.
I suppose we should just kick the Kenyan out of the people’s house and rent his family a nice apartment in Northwest Washington. I am sure that would save us some money.
And, while we are at it, why don’t we just get Allied Barton to provide him with around the clock security? I mean why pay a secret service agent when we can get a rent a cop for $9 an hour?
http://field-negro.blogspot.com/2013/06/let-that-negro-go-to-africa-on-his-own.html
GO FIELD GO!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1SNcUaAs8g
Pokey Lacare’
Franks’ Place can be viewed on HULU!
Boehner posture weakens prospects for immigration reform
By Steve Benen
Tue Jun 18, 2013 12:28 PM EDT
After listening to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) talk to the media this morning, it’s hard to be optimistic about the fate of comprehensive immigration reform. Earlier, I suggested the bipartisan Senate bill still had a real shot, but if Boehner sticks to his current posture, the odds of success are poor.
For those who can’t watch clips online, the Speaker specifically told reporters, “I don’t see any way of bringing an immigration bill to the floor that doesn’t have a majority support of Republicans.”
The comments follow a Politico report that says Boehner assured conservative lawmakers in a closed-door meeting that he has “no intention of putting a bill on the floor that will violate the principles of our majority and divide our conference.”
To put it mildly, this is not what reform proponents wanted to hear. Indeed, Boehner has generally gone out of his way to making statements like these, leaving himself more wiggle room as the strategy comes together.
As we discussed this morning, the fate of the legislation is largely in Boehner’s hands — if the Speaker is prepared to ignore the so-called “Hastert Rule,” and rely on Democratic votes to pass the Senate version, then immigration reform would likely prevail. If, however, the Speaker cowered in the face of right-wing threats, and decided to let his members lead him rather than the other way around, then the reform effort would be in deep trouble.
Why does it matter so much that Boehner insists on “majority support of Republicans”? Because if the Speaker intends to prioritize the “majority of the majority” above all other considerations, he’ll need most House Republicans to endorse the bipartisan Senate bill.
And that almost certainly isn’t going to happen.
——————————————————————————–
Indeed, just two weeks ago, nearly every member of the House Republican caucus voted to deport Dream Act kids. If 221 GOP House members are going to vote this way on an issue that’s supposed to be easy, the likelihood that most of the caucus will back comprehensive immigration reform is, at best, remote.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/06/18/19023617-boehner-posture-weakens-prospects-for-immigration-reform?lite
Greenwald, Snowden and the Art of Hero Worship
By Chez Pazienza · June 18,2013
The fight over who was right in the wake of last week’s big NSA data-mining disclosure, the Obama Administration or Snowden and Greenwald, was over before it even started. Let me explain by way of a recent piece in Salon, written by Andrew O’Hehir, that detailed the bizarre public battle being played out between documentary director Alex Gibney and left-wing journalist Chris Hedges. It concerns Gibney’s new movie, “We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks,” which details the rise of the notorious secret-sharing site Wikileaks and its equally notorious founder Julian Assange. Gibney directed the harrowing Oscar-winning documentary “Taxi To the Dark Side,” about a doomed Afghan cab driver’s very unfortunate run-in with the Bush-Cheney-era torture policy, so you’d think he had a good amount of street cred with the institutional left. Not enough, though, apparently, to protect him from being excoriated when it believes he’s stepping out of line with accepted orthodoxy. In “We Steal Secrets,” Gibney is sympathetic but still tough on Assange and his creation — too tough, it seems, for Hedges, who two weeks ago wrote a scathing piece in TruthDig calling the film “agitprop for the security and surveillance state.” O’Hehir’s take on Hedges’s unnecessarily blistering attack on Gibney and his movie, seemingly for the crime of not being deferential enough to Assange’s supposedly well-established status as a demi-god, is terrifically insightful.
Not only does O’Hehir nail it with this assessment, he goes a long way in explaining the reason why political disagreements in general in the year 2013 will almost never be objectively decided or even considered: hero worship. It’s not only the left that does it; it’s all of us. We create and then rally behind those we happen to agree with and will generally defend them against all comers, convinced that what we’re doing is contributing to the greater good. While I certainly don’t want to succumb to the dreaded “both sides do it” meme, well, yeah, both sides do it. Conservatives notoriously gather in lockstep behind the people and issues they deify and hold true and, despite a few recent hiccups, rarely break ranks; liberals, particularly the far-left, which suffers from the worst kind of persecution complex, also choose their totems and then guard them at all costs in the name of preserving the sanctity of their value to the overall movement. What’s interesting about the institutional left, though, is that, since it prides itself on intellectual honesty and a strict adherence to thorough analysis, it actually manages to convince itself that what it’s doing isn’t mindless hero worship and is instead something far more noble. Despite Andrew O’Hehir’s willingness to come right out and admit reality, many on the left truly believe they’re immune to confirmation bias. That kind of ignorance is for the less-enlightened beings on the other side, they say.
http://thedailybanter.com/2013/06/greenwald-snowden-and-the-art-of-hero-worship/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=greenwald-snowden-and-the-art-of-hero-worship&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
What Marsha Blackburn doesn’t understand
By Steve Benen
–
Tue Jun 18, 2013 1:52 PM EDT.
8
This afternoon, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) will take the lead this afternoon pushing Rep. Trent Frnaks’ (R-Ariz.) anti-abortion legislation on the House floor — by some measures the most sweeping restrictions on reproductive rights to reach the floor of Congress in a decade. She stopped by MSNBC this morning for a lively interview with Craig Melvin (thanks to R.S. for the tip).
For those who can’t watch clips online, Melvin asked Blackburn whether she agrees with Franks about the rarity of pregnancies resulting from rape. “Well I think, that, what, you know, is that Representative Franks has apologized for his comments,” she replied.
That happens to be the exact opposite of the truth — Franks didn’t apologize; he started fundraising off the comments last week.
Blackburn went on to defend the reporting requirements in the legislation, arguing, “[T]he hope is that that will help with getting some of the perpetrators out of the population that are committing these crimes against women and against minor females. We certainly would hope that we could rid our society of these perpetrators.”
In other words, the Tennessee Republican thinks her bill will reduce rapes. When Melvin asked, “How do you fight rapists with an abortion bill?” Blackburn changed the subject.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/06/18/19024314-what-marsha-blackburn-doesnt-understand?lite
The game Issa loves to play
By Steve Benen
Tue Jun 18, 2013 11:30 AM EDT
The House Oversight Committee dispatched investigators to interview IRS employees in Cincinnati several weeks ago as part of the investigation into agency scrutiny of groups seeking tax-exempt status, and Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has seen the full transcripts. What’s more, it’s been over two weeks since Issa himself vowed to release all of the information to the public.
That hasn’t happened. Indeed, as the controversy began to fade, and it became clearer that the political scandal was evaporating, Issa released carefully edited portions of the transcripts — parts that Issa liked, without context — in the hopes of fueling the controversy. Now, as the Huffington Post reported, he’s doing it again.
‘
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the ranking member on the committee, “By leaking transcript portions that omit key details from the accounts witnesses provided to the Committee, Chairman Issa has now drawn condemnation even from House Republicans working with him on this very investigation.”
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/06/18/19022925-the-game-issa-loves-to-play?lite
Republican cites masturbating fetuses to support new abortion restrictions
By Eric W. Dolan
Monday, June 17, 2013 23:57 EDT
Representative Michael Burgess (R-TX) on Monday asserted that he witnessed male fetuses pleasuring themselves as early as 15-weeks after conception, RH Reality Check reported.
His comments came during a House Rules committee debate on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would ban abortions nationwide after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
“This is a subject that I do know something about,” Burgess said, citing his experience as an OB/GYN. “There is no question in my mind that a baby at 20-weeks after conception can feel pain. The fact of the matter is, I argue with the chairman because I thought the date was far too late. We should be setting this at 15-weeks, 16-weeks.”
“Watch a sonogram of a 15-week baby, and they have movements that are purposeful,” he continued. “They stroke their face. If they’re a male baby, they may have their hand between their legs. If they feel pleasure, why is it so hard to think that they could feel pain?”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/06/17/republican-cites-masturbating-fetuses-to-support-new-abortion-restrictions/
Launching the Obamacare campaign
By GLENN THRUSH and DAVID NATHER | 6/18/13 5:13 AM EDT
President Barack Obama brought a campaigner’s mindset to the White House — but the roll-out of Obamacare marks the first time he’s adapted his campaign’s groundbreaking grassroots tactics to the task of turning policy into reality.
A trio of Obama’s most experienced campaign operatives — one in the West Wing, two others in outside groups closely allied with Obama — are overseeing an effort to ensure that the Affordable Care Act, the president’s biggest legacy project, doesn’t turn into the failure the GOP predicts it will be.
The effort is about to ramp up. One of the main outreach campaigns – by Enroll America, a nonprofit coalition run by Obama administration allies – is set to launch on Tuesday. The help can’t come too soon for the organizers on the ground, who have been nervously waiting for real details they can give to the millions of uninsured they have to reach.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/obamacare-campaign-92950.html#ixzz2WarQnDQv
Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning: Know What to Look for
In many child drownings, adults are nearby but have no idea the victim is dying. There is very little splashing, no waving, and no yelling or calls for help of any kind. Such reactions are only seen on TV.
To get an idea of just how quiet and undramatic from the surface drowning can be, consider this: It is the No. 2 cause of accidental death in children, ages 15 and under (just behind vehicle accidents)—of the approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about 375 of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult. In some of those drownings, the adult will actually watch the child do it, having no idea it is happening.[….]
https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/health/drowning-doesnt-look-like-drowning.html
Electrolux gives refrigerators, vacuums to struggling Charlotte families
Dashana Teloma tried not to cry Friday as she hugged a new stainless steel Electrolux refrigerator at Crisis Assistance Ministry’s furniture bank.
For months now, the 25-year-old homeless mom has been working to get out of a shelter and into an apartment. But she lacked the refrigerator required for government rent assistance.
Electrolux took care of that as part of a corporate act of kindness that included giving 100 refrigerators and 125 vacuum cleaners to charities that help the poor.
Most of the products went to charity programs that help homeless families get into housing. Teloma, a mother of two preschoolers, is part of one such program at the Salvation Army Center of Hope shelter for women and children.
She’ll be moving out of the shelter next week and into an apartment.
“I can’t stop crying when I think of how far I’ve come in such a short time,” said Teloma, who works two jobs in cosmetology.
Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/05/24/4062251/electrolux-gives-refrigerators.html#storylink=cpy
How Obamacare Is Trying To Make It Easier For Poor Americans To Pay For Their Health Insurance
By Sy Mukherjee on Jun 18, 2013 at 9:00 am
Officials overseeing the implementation of the Affordable Care Act have proposed rules to require that insurance companies accept a variety of payment methods, including cashier’s checks, money orders, and re-loadable pre-paid debit cards. That’s expected to help millions of low-income Americans — many of whom don’t have access to credit cards and checking accounts — who will receive federal tax credits to purchase insurance through Obamacare’s statewide marketplaces.
The health law extends premium subsidies to American households making up to 400 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), or about $94,200 for a family of four.
But many of the people gaining insurance through Obamacare’s marketplaces will be relatively poor, since higher-paying jobs tend to come with employer-sponsored health coverage. That could wind up being a problem when they try to pay their monthly premium under the law, because a large number of lower-income people don’t have checking accounts or do business with banks, despite the increasingly electronic nature of money transfers.
CNNMoney reports that 10 million U.S. households don’t have bank accounts at all, and according to one study cited by Kaiser Health News, one in four Americans who will qualify for premium subsidies through the health law don’t have checking accounts or a credit card.
These Americans have to rely on the sort of alternative payment methods that federal officials are now encouraging. Critics may point out that some of these methods — particularly debit card transaction — carry transaction fees, and could lead insurers to pass the cost of those charges onto low-income Americans.
But as Kaiser Health News notes, another Obamacare consumer protection will shield consumers from potential price gouging by insurers: the so-called “80/20 rule” that requires individual and small group health plans to spend at least 80 percent of the premiums they charge Americans on actual health care, rather than administrative overhead or profit. Card transaction fees are considered to be administrative, meaning that insurers would have to include those costs as part of their 20 percent overhead limit.
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/06/18/2171761/poor-americans-pay-for-obamacare/
Posted at 08:52 AM ET, 06/18/2013
FCC nominee Tom Wheeler to face Senate committee
By Hayley TsukayamaE-mail the writer
Tom Wheeler, President Obama’s nominee for chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, is set to speak before the Senate Commerce Committee Tuesday for his nominations hearing.
A former tech and telecom lobbyist and venture capitalist, Wheeler will focus on his years of experience in the industry to illustrate his knowledge and ability to read shifting trends in the technology space, according to written testimony obtained by The Washington Post ahead of the hearing. But Wheeler may face questions about how he will transition from his role as industry advocate to regulator.
In his testimony, Wheeler notes that his business experience has led him to believe that free, competitive markets perform better than regulated or uncompetitive markets.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-tech/post/fcc-nominee-tom-wheeler-to-face-senate-committee/2013/06/18/67ea2116-d80a-11e2-a016-92547bf094cc_blog.html?wpisrc=nl_tech_b
McDonnell, Coryn, nothing but CaC welfare recipients
Duncan has ‘questions’ about the president’s ‘validity’
By Steve Benen
–
Tue Jun 18, 2013 9:54 AM EDT.
House Republicans are spending the day working on the most restrictive anti-abortion bill considered in Congress in a decade — for no apparent reason. Is there anything else GOP lawmakers can do to derail their flailing “rebranding” campaign? How about some birther nonsense?
As my friend Kyle Mantyla at Right Wing Watch reported yesterday, Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) was a guest on Rick Wiles’ unhinged radio show the other day to discuss some of the major issues of the day, including the host’s fears that immigration reform may lead the government to implant biometric scanners in U.S. citizens. Wiles specifically asked Duncan whether lawmakers might “pursue Barack Obama’s phony identification papers.”
Duncan initially tied to laugh it off, saying that people should have voted against Obama during the last election but Wiles refused to let it go, saying “if we know they are lying about all these other things, why not go back and say ‘well, maybe the first scandal was a lie too?'”
And with that point, Duncan wholeheartedly agreed, saying “there you go; I’m all with you, so let’s go back and revisit some of these things because Americans have questions about not only the IRS scandal but also about the president’s validity.”
I’d really hoped we were past this.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/06/18/19022056-duncan-has-questions-about-the-presidents-validity?lite
The Morning Plum: Conservatives may be getting marginalized in immigration talks
By Greg Sargent, Published: June 18, 2013 at 9:20 am
If you want to judge the chances for real, comprehensive immigration reform becoming law this year, keep an eye on the amendment Marco Rubio is negotiating with fellow Republican Senators — the one meant to toughen up border security in hopes of winning over more Republicans.
If it moves away from requiring hard border security triggers as preconditions for the path to citizenship to begin — as John Cornyn is requiring in his amendment, which is a non-starter for Dems — it will be a sign that conservatives determined to kill reform are getting marginalized. The reporting is conflicted on this point this morning, but the signs (for now, at least) are generally positive.
Reuters, for instance, reports that the amendment is moving away from hard triggers:
It could include provisions for deploying high-tech surveillance equipment and other specifics, according to congressional sources and people close to the talks.
The sources said the amendment would give Congress a bigger role in overseeing border security steps to be taken by the Department of Homeland Security. […]
The proposal might not go as far as some conservative Republicans would like in toughening up “triggers” in the bill that would make the path to citizenship for undocumented workers contingent on meeting certain goals for securing the U.S.-Mexico border.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/06/18/the-morning-plum-conservatives-may-be-getting-marginalized-in-immigration-talks/
The NSA FISA and Glenn Greenwald Did he Lie to Anyone?
Saturday, June 15, 2013 | Posted by adept2u at 8:24 AM
31
In the interest of full disclosure, I don’t like Glenn Greenwald and haven’t for some time. The incident that put him on my permanent shit list occurred when I was just a little bird deciding to see what this Twitter thing was all about.
There’s a presence out on those twitter streets that goes by the handle @angryblacklady if you aren’t following her I would suggest you do I was an open fan of hers before I tried to hop out the twitter nest. I was introduced to her by her political writing which has graced places like The Grio among others, I guess I could hit her bio and find tons of other stuff but I didn’t need anyone’s validation then and just trust me she’s wicked wicked smaht.
One day I’m enjoying watching ABL dissect Glenn Greenwald live and before the world on the issue of the NDAA one of her arguments happened to be the Patriot Act is of far more impact, and scary and is going to bite us first let’s work on that. I wonder if the fact she was right means anything now anyway.
I know she was taking him apart because he and his followers decided that the issue of the NDAA was no longer the topic of the day but rather the character of Obama supporters. I once took philosophy way back in High School (I know huh? Public school taught philosophy) where we went over all the forms of logical fallacy in argument. Mr. Navarro spoke to me from the dim mists of time and said that’s an Ad Hominem Adept, an attack against the person not the topic means the person has nothing to say on topic.
………………………
Glenn’s story and the outrage around this hinged on the unfettered access to American’s private data, or spying. The story is not true. That the government has accessed and also stores mind you the private information of millions of Americans. That story is not true. I believe a question was asked of a member of our National Security Team James Clapper “are we storing or accessing the data of millions of Americans” when he answered no he was called liar by vast swaths of the reality based community. My next work might be James Clapper did he lie cause I know it takes a whole freaking bunch of 6 and 7 thousands to add up to millions, but the theme is growing tiresome.
http://www.thepeoplesview.net/2013/06/the-nsa-fisa-and-glenn-greenwald-did-he.html
‘Gang of Eight’ felt the need to lobby Fox
By Steve Benen
Tue Jun 18, 2013 9:27 AM EDT.
The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza has a fascinating item on the Senate’s “Gang of Eight” and their efforts to pass comprehensive immigration reform, and there’s quite a bit to chew on in the piece. But like Paul Waldman, I was struck by an interesting tidbit I hadn’t heard about before: Republican “gang” members actually lobbied Fox News on this issue.
At a certain level, all of this makes perfect sense. Republican proponents of immigration reform want to boost their bill’s prospects, and if Fox News decides the legislation is a mistake, their job becomes vastly more difficult. With this in mind, it’s not surprising that leading GOP senators would privately lobby Fox hosts in the hopes of persuading them on the bill’s merit.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/06/18/19021703-gang-of-eight-felt-the-need-to-lobby-fox?lite
New Hampshire court strikes down law to divert public funds to religious schools
A New Hampshire state court on Monday struck down a recently enacted law that established an education tax credit program to help fund private schools.
The program provided a large tax credit to businesses that contributed to scholarship organizations that paid for tuition at private schools. Though the program was purportedly designed to expand educational opportunities, Justice John M. Lewis held the program violated the state’s constitution because it had the effect of diverting public funds to religious schools.
“New Hampshire students, and their parents, certainly have the right to choose a religious education,” the Stafford County Superior Court judge wrote in the ruling. “However, the government is under no obligation to fund ‘religious’ education. Indeed, the government is expressly forbidden from doing so by the very language of the New Hampshire Constitution.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/06/17/new-hampshire-court-strikes-down-law-to-divert-public-funds-to-religious-schools/
June 17, 2013 9:50 AM
Raising the Stakes on Immigration
By Ed Kilgore
On Meet the Press yesterday, Sen. Lindsey Graham was a one-man expectations-raising crew, sunnily predicting that the Senate would pass immigration reform legislation with more than 70 votes, and then suggesting that if a bill wasn’t ultimately enacted, then maybe the Republican Party should just fold its tent.
We’re going to hear a lot of such talk this week as Graham and the rest of the handful of Republican senators committed to comprehensive immigration reform try to expand their ranks by ballyhooing Democratic concessions on border enforcement—still all 100% up in the air—and creating an impression of irresistible momentum. They’ll get a lot of help from MSM observers who find conservative resistance to this legislation baffling, and figure the “Republican Establishment” will do whatever is necessary to bring the yahoos into line.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2013_06/raising_the_stakes_on_immigrat045301.php
FBI Looks for Leaks at Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court
by Eli Lake Jun 18, 2013 4:45 AM EDT
Investigators still do not know if the FISA system has been compromised, or if Edward Snowden was the source of the Verizon warrant published by the ‘Guardian.’ Eli Lake reports.
The FBI is investigating whether the highly protected and segregated computer systems that store the secret court warrants authorizing electronic surveillance inside the United States have been breached, according to current and former U.S. intelligence officials. Thirteen days after the Guardian published a top-secret court order from the top-secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court disclosing the National Security Agency’s collection of all phone records from Verizon’s business customers over a three-month period, the U.S. intelligence community has yet to determine how the warrant, one of the most highly classified documents inside the U.S. government, was leaked.
Those who receive the warrant—the first of its kind to be publicly disclosed—are not allowed “to disclose to any other person” except to carry out its terms or receive legal advice about it, and any person seeing it for those reasons is also legally bound not to disclose the order. The officials say phone companies like Verizon are not allowed to store a digital copy of the warrant, and that the documents are not accessible on most NSA internal classified computer networks or on the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System, the top-secret internet used by the U.S. intelligence community.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/06/18/fbi-looks-for-leaks-at-foreign-intelligence-surveillance-court.html
David Plouffe @davidplouffe
This whole CNN poll is polluted. Immig reform opposed by 35% of Dems and 38% of liberals? Common sense says off. But trumpet anyway.
Jeff Gauvin @JeffersonObama
I agree, the poll is a narrative push poll. Everything is overweighted right on the poli-spectrum. Narrative = Obama = DOOMED @davidplouffe
6:12 AM – 18 Jun 2013
Jeff Gauvin @JeffersonObama
Media organizations are now under pressure to shape the polling data to fit the narrative du jour of the Beltway. This CNN poll is epic fail
6:27 AM – 18 Jun 2013
Even Stevie Wonder can see these poll numbers are a big ass MAJOR FAIL.
‘No way in hell’?
By Steve Benen
Tue Jun 18, 2013 8:29 AM EDT.
It’s long been clear that the fate of comprehensive immigration reform is in House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) hands. While Senate passage is not yet assured, it is likely — even anti-immigration senators expect it to pass — and attention has already turned to the bipartisan bill’s prospects in the lower chamber.
There are a few relevant angles to this, but arguably the most salient is whether the House Speaker is prepared to rely on Democratic votes to pass immigration reform, even over the objections of most of his majority caucus. The Washington Examiner’s David Drucker reported yesterday that this is a step Boehner will not take.
A few hours later, the Associated Press published a report saying largely the opposite.
………………………………….
So why not just ignore the chatter, rely on House Dems, and pass the bill? Because there’s a chance he’d face a revolt that would end his career.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/06/18/19021108-no-way-in-hell?lite
June 17, 2013 5:30 PM
Bad News for the Amigos
By Ed Kilgore
Speaking of polls: Gallup asked about support for or opposition to the president’s decisions to direct military aid to Syrian rebels. 37% of respondents approved while 54% disapproved.
The partisan breakdowns are more interesting: Democrats favored the stepped-up intervention by a 51/42 margin, while Republican disapprove by a much larger 29/63 margin, with indies also disapproving 33/60. Yes, the specific reference to the president probably skewed the results, and there may be some who “disapprove” the escalation of U.S. involvement because it wasn’t violent enough.
But if these numbers are bad news for the president, they are worse news for the neocons (particularly the Dos Amigos, McCain and Graham) most identified with advocacy of maximum U.S. intervention in Syria, and most avid to intervene elsewhere if given a chance. This may reflect a new phase in the passive-aggressive oscillation of conservative grassroots opinion about foreign policy and national security (with unilateralism being the one principle holding them together), or it may represent the price Republican pols pay when they demonize a president who shares some of their own views. But you can expect that GOP pols looking ahead to 2016—including those like Marco Rubio who have been neo-connish in the past—to pay attention and at least avoid becoming a third Amigo replacing the departed Joe Lieberman.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2013_06/bad_news_for_the_amigos045318.php
Republicans trying to use health-care law to derail Obama’s immigration reform efforts
By David Nakamura and Sandhya Somashekhar, Published: June 16
After spending years unsuccessfully trying to overturn “Obamacare,” Republicans are now attempting to use President Obama’s landmark health-care law to derail his top second-term initiative — a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s immigration system.
Conservatives in both chambers of Congress are insisting on measures that would expand the denial of public health benefits to the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants beyond limits set in a comprehensive bill pending in the Senate.
In the House, Republicans are considering proposals that would deny publicly subsidized emergency care to illegal immigrants and force them to purchase private health insurance plans, without access to federal subsidies, as a requirement for earning permanent legal residency.
In the Senate, Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has endorsed an amendment to a comprehensive immigration bill he helped negotiate that would deny health benefits to immigrants for five years after they become legal residents — two years after they would be eligible to become citizens under the legislation.
Some Republicans, eager to capitalize on public uncertainty about the complexities of the Affordable Care Act, are casting the immigration legislation as a similarly unwieldy law.
The immigration bill “reminds me of a more recent piece of legislation: Obamacare,” Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) said on the Senate floor last week. “It grants broad new powers to the same executive branch that today is mired in scandal for incompetence and abuse of power. Total cost estimates are in the trillions. And rather than fix our current immigration problems, the bill makes many of them worse.”
The insertion of the politics of health-care reform — one of the most polarizing issues in Washington — into the immigration debate threatens to split open the emerging bipartisan coalitions that are crucial to passing a bill.
This month, Rep. Raúl R. Labrador (R-Idaho) blamed a standoff over health-care benefits for his decision to drop out of bipartisan talks with seven colleagues who were negotiating a House alternative to the Senate immigration proposal. That has forced House leaders to proceed with a series of smaller-scale proposals next week in lieu of a sweeping agreement.
“When I joined the group, I was told that the aliens would have to pay for their own health care,” Labrador told Fox News. “Now that has changed. And I can’t agree to all of the exceptions.”
Frustrated Democrats argue that Republicans are picking a fight where one does not exist. In both chambers, Democrats say, they have agreed that illegal immigrants would not be eligible for public benefits — including health-care subsidies and Medicaid — as they embark on a path to permanent legal status, which would take at least 10 years under the Senate plan.
“We have said since Day One . . . that undocumented people will not have access to subsidies in the Affordable Care Act,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said last month. “Any thought that we want to do something different than that is simply not true. It is a bottom line. No need to even discuss it.”
Under current law, illegal immigrants and legal residents of fewer than five years are mostly barred from receiving benefits under Medicaid, the joint state-federal health insurance program for the poor. That restriction does not apply to poor immigrants who show up at hospital emergency rooms, however.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/republicans-trying-to-use-health-care-law-to-derail-obamas-immigration-reform-efforts/2013/06/16/60e21138-d442-11e2-a73e-826d299ff459_print.html
POLLSTER UPDATE: CNN Poll Exaggerates Barack Obama Approval Decline
Posted: 06/17/2013 6:41 pm EDT | Updated: 06/17/2013 10:14 pm EDT
Obama’s approval rating has declined since May but not nearly as much as implied by a new CNN poll. Americans are just as opposed to military aid to the Syrian rebels now as they were before Friday. And pie charts still suck. This is the HuffPost Pollster update for Monday, June 17, 2013.
OBAMA APPROVAL FALLS ON CNN POLL – A new national poll from CNN/ORC shows “President Barack Obama’s approval rating dropped eight percentage points over the past month…The president’s approval rating stands at 45%, down from 53% in mid-May. And 54% say they disapprove of how Obama’s handling his job, up nine points from last month. It’s the first time in CNN polling since November 2011 that a majority of Americans have had a negative view of the president.” [CNN]
Obama’s approval has been declining… – Obama’s job approval ratings have been drifting steadily downward since January, eliminating the gains that occurred during the fall reelection campaign and just before the inauguration. The Pollster chart’s estimate of Obama’s approval rating, based on all public polls, stands at 46.7 percent as of this writing, just slightly higher than the 46.4 percent recorded in early July 2012. [Pollster]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/17/barack-obama-cnn-poll_n_3456322.html
https://twitter.com/amk4obama/status/346950993751195649/photo/1
LOL I concur.
amk4obama @amk4obama
Nato hands over the entire security to Afghans. First time since 2001. A big step. Best wishes, Afghanistan. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22942013 …
5:22 AM – 18 Jun 2013
The Associated Press’ Biased Reporting Fueled Anti-Obama Vendetta
By: Crissie Brown
Jun. 17th, 2013
The AP have launched a vendetta to bring down President Obama, and made their agenda crystal clear in this wildly-misleading article:
NEW YORK (AP) – Apple says it received between 4,000 and 5,000 requests from U.S. law enforcement for customer data for the six months ended in May.
The company, like some other businesses, had asked the U.S government to be able to share how many requests it received related to national security and how it handled them. Those requests were made as part of Prism, the recently revealed highly classified National Security Agency program that seizes records from Internet companies.
Only if you read to the end of the article will you discover this:
It said that the most common form of request came from police investigating robberies and other crimes, searching for missing children, trying to locate a patient with Alzheimer’s disease, or hoping to prevent a suicide.
The company also made clear how much access the government has.
“We do not provide any government agency with direct access to our servers, and any government agency requesting customer content must get a court order,” Apple said in a statement on its website.
Of course, leading with that very innocuous information wouldn’t fit the Beltway media’s Orwell fetish, which is especially strong at the AP since news emerged that the Department of Justice subpoenaed AP reporters’ phone records in investigating a leak of classified information. Here’s Michael Calderone quoting former AP reporter Ron Fournier:
http://www.politicususa.com/2013/06/17/press-biased-reporting-fueled-anti-obama-vendetta.html
June 17, 2013 12:37 PM
A Test of Republican Loyalties
By Anne Kim and Ed Kilgore
How much do congressional Republicans hate Obamacare? How determined are they to see it fail?
We may soon find out. For the first time, a constituency group to whom the GOP normally pays close attention—religious institutions—is asking for a legislative “fix” of the Affordable Care Act to make it work as intended. If the recent past is any indication, conservatives will resist any such effort on grounds that Obamacare must be repealed root and branch, not repaired or reformed.
Months of outreach to Republican Senate offices by religious leaders have yielded no official GOP support to an appeal from a broad coalition of religious denominations to ensure that church-sponsored health plans can participate in the ACA’s health insurance exchanges. Worse yet, from a partisan Republican point of view, two Democratic senators, Mark Pryor and Chris Coons, were the first responders to this call, introducing legislation late last week. Pryor is widely viewed as the GOP’s number one senatorial target in 2014.
Without the requested “fix,” as many as one million clergy members and church employees now enrolled in church-sponsored health plans could soon face the choice of leaving these plans (designed to meet their unique needs, such as the frequent reassignment of clergy across state lines) or losing access to the tax subsidies provided by the ACA to help lower-to-middle income Americans purchase insurance.
……………………………………………
Since the issue isn’t cost but simply whether the subsidies will flow to existing church-based plans or alternative insurers, supporters of the “fix” regard it as non-controversial. “We had hoped for it to be bipartisan,” said Barbara A. Boigegrain, Chief Executive Officer of the pensions and benefits board for the United Methodist Church, in an interview with the Washington Monthly.
Religious groups have sought this fix since at least 2011, and several sources say that at least half a dozen Republican Senate offices have been approached for their support, including Sens. Marco Rubio, Lamar Alexander and Dan Coats, but so far to no avail. Emails and calls by the Washington Monthly to Sen. Rubio’s and Alexander’s offices were not returned.
Instead, Republicans seem to be signaling their determination to bring down the Great White Whale of Obamacare at almost any cost to potential beneficiaries.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2013_06/a_test_of_republican_loyalties045300.php
African-American men in New Orleans are an untapped workforce, new report says
The Lindy Boggs National Center For Community Literacy has published a report calling for more focus on employing African American men in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Beleaguered by high unemployment and an economy drifting away from blue-collar jobs that had kept many African-American men employed in past decades, New Orleans needs to do a better job of educating and advancing the careers of black men, according to a report that Loyola University released Wednesday.
The report, published by the Lindy Boggs National Center for Community Literacy, describes black men, who account for 26 percent of the city’s population that is able to work, as an untapped resource as the city’s growing construction and manufacturing businesses place more and more value on education beyond a high school diploma.
“If New Orleans is to substantially reverse decades of economic decline, high crime rates, and a shrinking city tax base, then greater educational attainment and economic progress for African-American men will be critical,” the report’s conclusion states.
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/06/african_american_men_in_new_or.html#incart_most-comments
Congressional Republicans face a health care conundrum
By Steve Benen
Mon Jun 17, 2013 3:11 PM EDT
Whenever a major reform initiative becomes law, minor tweaks and technical fixes are simply unavoidable. Within a couple of years of Social Security passing, Congress had opened the law back up, identified changes that needed to be made, and made adjustments accordingly. The same is true of Medicare. Washington has worked this way for generations.
And it would be true of the Affordable Care Act, too, if Congress was still able to function. Democrats and Republicans have identified some areas of the law that need tweaking in order to help various constituencies and make the law more effective, but therein lies the rub: GOP lawmakers have decided that “Obamacare” cannot be touched in any way. Indeed, the more policymakers identify the need for adjustments, the more Republicans resist.
It’s not because GOP officials love the law the way it is; it’s because GOP officials desperately hope to sabotage the law and ensure its failure. If Democrats identify worthwhile tweaks, and those changes aren’t made, Republicans are delighted — it means a less-effective law. If some groups are unnecessarily punished, under the GOP’s approach, that’s just too bad.
But what if Republicans actually like some of the groups facing undue punishment, and can prevent the trouble by approving technical fixes? As it turns out, Ann Kim and Ed Kilgore have uncovered just such a conundrum.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/06/17/19007068-congressional-republicans-face-a-health-care-conundrum?lite
Camille on Joy-Ann Reid
Brilliant comment by Camille
………………………
A Marco Rubio Aide Sparked A Firestorm On Immigration By Saying Some American Workers ‘Can’t Cut It’
Brett LoGiurato Jun. 17, 2013, 2:41 PM
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) office sparked a bit of a firestorm on Sunday when a quote attributed to one of his aides claimed that immigration reform is necessary because some American workers “just can’t cut it.”
The aide made the comment to The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza in an article published early Monday morning, explaining why Rubio sided with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on the issue of a guest-worker program for the construction industry.
“There are American workers who, for lack of a better term, can’t cut it,” the Rubio aide told Lizza. “There shouldn’t be a presumption that every American worker is a star performer. There are people who just can’t get it, can’t do it, don’t want to do it. And so you can’t obviously discuss that publicly.”
The statement rankled feathers on both sides of the aisle. Conservative Erick Erickson wrote that “we have to take seriously” the notion that Rubio believes some Americans will have to “suffer the fate of natural selection.”
New York Magazine’s Jonathan Chait worried that the quote could torpedo immigration reform altogether, imagining that Republican support for the bill could erode based on the quote.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/marco-rubio-aide-immigration-reform-american-workers-dont-cut-it-2013-6#ixzz2WZWwHm3G
GOP plan to appeal to millennials: “Make abortion funny”
Young Christian-right leaders think the answer to their problems with young voters lies in more snark
By Alex Seitz-Wald
“How do you make abortion funny?” That was a key question mulled at a major conservative gathering Friday on how to make social conservatism appealing to young people, after an election where Republicans got trounced in the battle for millennial voters (who are are moving even further and further away from the Christian-right on marriage and other issues).
Abortion has to be made funny, the thinking goes, because funny sells on social media, and that’s where one goes to court young people. “You can engage with sarcasm, it’s hard with the abortion issue, but you have to,” said Students for Life president Kristan Hawkins at a breakout panel at the Faith and Freedom Coalition Conference in Washington today on how to win millennial voters. “Unfortunately we have to, because this is the generation that we’ve been dealt.”
As the Republican Party tries to remake itself after the 2012 election to better appeal to young people and minorities, there’s been a movement to jettison issues social conservatives hold dear, especially support for “traditional marriage.” But the activists at Ralph Reed’s confab said absolutely not. “You’ve got to be pro-life, you’ve got be pro-marriage, or else you’re not going to get our money,” Hawkins said firmly.
How, then, do you win over young voters when as many as 70 percent support marriage equality? The answers offered feel a bit like jamming a square peg in a round hole.
http://www.salon.com/2013/06/17/gop_plan_to_appeal_to_millennials_make_abortion_funny/
Mansion spending records indicate improper billing by Virginia governor and his family
By Laura Vozzella, Published: June 16
RICHMOND — Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) and his wife, Maureen, have used taxpayer money for a range of small personal items they should have paid for themselves under state policy, according to spending records.
The McDonnells have billed the state for body wash, sunscreen, dog vitamins and a digestive system “detox cleanse,” the records show. They also have used state employees to run personal errands for their adult children. In the middle of a workday, for example, a staffer retrieved Rachel McDonnell’s newly hemmed pants at a tailoring shop nine miles from the governor’s mansion. Another time, a state worker was dispatched to a dry cleaner 20 miles away to pick up a storage box for Cailin McDonnell’s wedding dress.
About six months into the governor’s term, the official who oversees mansion spending told the McDonnells that they should not have charged taxpayers for a number of expenses, including deodorant, shoe repairs and dry-cleaning their children’s clothing. The official asked the McDonnells to pay the state back more than $300, which they did, and also gave them a refresher on what the state will and won’t provide for occupants of the governor’s mansion.
But since that time, state records show that the McDonnells have continued to let taxpayers pick up the tab for numerous personal items, including vitamins, nasal spray and sleep-inducing elixirs.
Under the Freedom of Information Act, The Washington Post sought records of personal expenses covered by the state over the couple’s 31 / 2 years in the mansion. The full cost of those items is unknown because the state released only 16 sales receipts, most of them from 2011. State records show that there were many more personal shopping trips — nine others in January 2011 alone, including two to Bed Bath & Beyond to pick up “college stuff” for the McDonnells’ children.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/va-politics/mansion-spending-records-indicate-improper-billing-by-virginia-governor-and-his-family/2013/06/16/6008bfdc-c240-11e2-8c3b-0b5e9247e8ca_story.html
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Watch President Obama and Russian President Putin Speak at the G8 Conference
http://youtu.be/vSL8reiterY
President Barack Obama Sits Down with Charlie Rose 06/17/2013 (FULL INTERVIEW)
http://youtu.be/IlThTTJgKYo
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Good Morning, Rikyrah & Everyone! :-)