Botswana is an African country made up of a number of ethnic groups, although the Batswana are the majority of the population. Music is a large part of Botswana culture, and includes popular and folk forms. Botswana church choirs are common nationwide. Music education is an essential component of the Botswana educational system, and children of all ages are taught traditional songs and dances.
Botswana culture is best expressed in music and dance. There is a cordial existence of traditional folklore and modern music in the local music industry.
Mother AFRICA! There is no other continent on the planet that music and culture has not been derived from it. From chants, drumming, acapella, and tribal dance, join 3 ChicsPolitico as we explore the beauty, wonder, richness and SOUL of African music and dance.
In Wyoming, A Cheney Run Worries G.O.P.
By JONATHAN MARTIN
Published: July 6, 2013
A young Dick Cheney began his first campaign for the House in this tiny village — population 1,600 — after the state’s sole Congressional seat finally opened up. But nowadays, his daughter Liz does not seem inclined to wait patiently for such an opening.
Ms. Cheney, 46, is showing up everywhere in the state, from chicken dinners to cattle growers’ meetings, sometimes with her parents in tow. She has made it clear that she wants to run for the Senate seat now held by Michael B. Enzi, a soft-spoken Republican and onetime fly-fishing partner of her father.
But Ms. Cheney’s move threatens to start a civil war within the state’s Republican establishment, despite the reverence many hold for her family.
Mr. Enzi, 69, says he is not ready to retire, and many Republicans say he has done nothing to deserve being turned out.
It would bring about “the destruction of the Republican Party of Wyoming if she decides to run and he runs, too,” Alan K. Simpson, a former Republican senator from the state, said in an interview last week. “It’s a disaster — a divisive, ugly situation — and all it does is open the door for the Democrats for 20 years.”
The developments underscore the complicated relationship between the Beltway-centered Cheney family and the sparsely populated state that provided its political base. Dick and Lynne Cheney, who divide their time between McLean, Va., a home on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and a house near Jackson Hole, Wyo., are widely admired here.
Liz Cheney, who grew up in McLean and moved her family to the Jackson Hole area last year, is eager to establish her Cowboy State credentials, peppering social media sites with photos of her children’s horse-riding competitions and descriptions of Wyoming as “God’s Country.”
Ms. Cheney’s ambitions reflect a greater tension within the Republican Party as a younger generation feels less reluctance to challenge incumbents in the party, especially if they are seen as too consensus-minded or insufficiently conservative.
Mr. Enzi is known as a studious, low-key legislator who worked well with Senator Edward M. Kennedy. He avoids political talk shows because, he says, their goal is to get guests to “beat up on their colleagues.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/07/us/politics/a-cheney-on-the-wyoming-ballot-if-so-a-problem-for-the-gop.html?_r=1&
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDBZr4ie2AE
Make NO mistake, these cops would have gladly gunned down Leon Rosby in a heartbeat, in broad daylight. They shot his dog instead, because folks were watching them.
Republicans Steamed At Employer Mandate Delay — For All The Wrong Reasons
BRIAN BEUTLER JULY 5, 2013, 1:01 PM 4437
The news that the Obama administration will delay by one year a requirement that large employers either provide employees affordable insurance or pay a penalty came as a surprise to Obamacare’s staunchest allies, and even to the people in government tasked with implementing other parts of the law.
It’s an undeniable fact that the so-called “employer mandate” is poorly designed and creating real challenges for businesses and workers alike. When critics of the law cite the delay as evidence of an implementation “train wreck,” in other words, they’re being tendentious, and thinking wishfully, but there’s a kernel of truth to it.
But if the employer mandate snafu were as bad and as symptomatic as Republicans would have you believe, they’d treat it as vindication — a cause for celebration. As we and others have reported, though, the employer mandate exists at the margins of the law’s core functions. The decision to delay it for a year sidelines one liability that would have harmed the law’s rollout, robs Republicans (temporarily, but during an election year) of a legitimate public critique of the law’s real-life effects, and ironically strengthens the state-based insurance exchanges, which arethe must-work components of the ACA.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/07/republicans-steamed-at-employer-mandate-delay—-for-all-the-wrong-reasons.php
House Disregards Electoral College Logic
by BooMan
Sat Jul 6th, 2013 at 10:40:01 AM EST
Take a look at an Electoral College calculator. If the Republicans fail to pass comprehensive immigration reform and thereby badly alienate the Latino community, they can write off winning Nevada, Colorado, and New Mexico. In order to win the presidency, they would have to win Iowa, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida. And I am being generous in assuming that Florida would still be an attainable goal. If they can’t win Florida, they’d have to replace it by winning both Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. When certain conservatives talk about abandoning any Latino outreach efforts in favor of a strategy of getting a greater share of the white vote, what they are really saying is that they can win the Electoral College by winning midwestern industrial states like Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, even while losing Florida and the southwest (excluding Arizona).
One thing to consider is that this kind of strategy consigns any Republican nominee to a situation in which they have to run the table on a half dozen competitive state races in order to win the barest of majorities. If they lose even one race, they will lose. And, if they win, they will win by the skin of their teeth with almost half of the country opposed to them.
I’d add that any strategy that depends on winning Pennsylvania and Wisconsin is pretty close to hopeless. Pennsylvania was last won by a Republican in 1988 and Wisconsin was last won by a Republican in 1984. Even Iowa is problematic. Bush won it in 2004, but that is the only time since 1984 that Republicans have carried the state.
However, it doesn’t seem like the Republican House majority is thinking at all about presidential elections as they consider what to do about immigration reform. This places the Democrats in the catbird’s seat. The Democrats will be almost assured of winning the presidency in 2016 if the House refuses to pass a comprehensive bill. Yet, their chances won’t really be dimmed if the House agrees to reform. That’s because, as it stands, the Republicans have only the narrowest of chances of winning the Electoral College regardless of what they do.
Still to have a fighting chance, they need to keep as many states in play as possible, and the only way to do that is to pass immigration reform.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/7/6/10401/09775
Oregon Joins 15 Other States In Resolution Calling For The Overturn Of Citizens United
Omar Rivero🕔5 July, 2013
Earlier this week, Oregon joined the growing chorus of 16 states calling for the overturning the Supreme Court’s landmark 2010 Citizens United ruling, which allows corporations to spend nearly unlimited sums of money buying our political system.
With the state Senate’s passage of House Joint Memorial 6, Oregon legislators have made it clear that they stand with the American people and against a corporatist Supreme Court that defied all logic by ruling that corporations should receive the same free-speech rights as individuals, and they are allowed to express these rights by channeling unlimited amounts of undisclosed cash into super Political Action Committees (PACs).
According to this wonderfully progressive resolution, it is upon Congress to propose a constitutional amendment “clarifying the distinction between the rights of natural persons and the rights of corporations” and recognizing “that Congress and state legislatures may regulate all moneys raised and spent for political purposes.”
BuzzFlash breaks down the status similar resolutions around the nation:
Oregon joins four other states – Delaware, Maine, West Virginia and Illinois – that have called for a constitutional amendment over just the past two months. All of the resolutions this year have passed with bipartisan support in at least one chamber. This is an issue that affects every American, regardless of political affiliation.
The other states that have called for an amendment to overturn Citizens United are California, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont, Connecticut, Maryland, Colorado and Montana. The Washington, D.C., Council has called for an amendment as well.
http://occupydemocrats.com/oregon-joins-15-other-states-in-resolution-calling-for-the-overturn-of-citizens-united/
What do the corporate capture of America, voter suppression and NSA spying have in common?
By LOLGOP on July 6, 2013 in GOPocrisy
Chief Justice John Roberts, the man who appointed ALL of the judges to the FISA court
Even before this session the Supreme Court, the Roberts “Citizens United” Court had already demonstrated an frightening willingness to rule on the behalf of corporations whenever possible.
http://www.eclectablog.com/2013/07/what-do-the-corporate-capture-of-america-voter-suppression-and-nsa-spying-have-in-common.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+eclectablog%2FkInS+%28Eclectablog%29
Bolivia “is willing to give asylum” to U.S. intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, President Evo Morales said Saturday, according to a government statement.
Morales earlier expressed anger at the United States over an incident involving the presidential plane and a rumor about Snowden.
Several European countries refused to allow Morales’ plane through their airspace Tuesday because of suspicions Snowden was aboard. With no clear path home available, the flight crew made an emergency landing in Vienna, where authorities confirmed Snowden was not a passenger.
The Bolivians put the blame for the incident squarely on the United States.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has also offered asylum to Snowden, the state-run AVN news agency reported Friday. The report came shortly after Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said he would grant Snowden asylum in his country “if the circumstances permit.”
Snowden h as been holed up at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport since June 23, when he arrived from Hong Kong.
‘Dozens dead’ in school attack in Nigeria’s Yobe state
At least 29 pupils and a teacher have been killed in a pre-dawn attack by suspected Islamists on a school in northeastern Nigeria, reports say.
Eyewitnesses said some of the victims were burned alive in the attack, in Mamudo town, Yobe state.
Dozens of schools have been burned in attacks by Islamists since 2010.
Yobe is one of three states where President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in May, sending thousands of troops to the area.
A reporter from the Associated Press found chaotic scenes at the hospital in nearby Potiskum, where traumatised parents struggled to identify their children among the charred bodies and gunshot victims.
Survivors said suspected militants arrived with containers full of fuel and set fire to the school.
Some pupils were burned alive, others were shot as they tried to flee.
The BBC’s Will Ross, in Lagos, says this area has frequently been attacked by the Boko Haram militant group.
More than 600 people were believed to have been killed in 2012 by the group, which is fighting to overthrow the government and create an Islamic state in Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim north.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23209181
Anyone watching MHP in NOLA for the Essence Festival?
Ametia,
are you going to post the videos from today on MSNBC
SG2 & I will see what we can do to post some.
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Good Morning and yes I loved it.
Good morning, everyone! And we’re off to Botswana today. As we wrap up our series on African Music and Dance, I surely hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed presenting it to you.
Have a happy and blessed week end.
Good Morning, Everyone. Great series this week, SG2. I thoroughly enjoyed it.