Today’s composer is Elmer Bernstein:
Elmer Bernstein (April 4, 1922 – August 18, 2004) was an American composer and conductor best known for his many film scores. In a career which spanned fifty years, he composed music for hundreds of film and television productions. His most popular works include the scores to The Magnificent Seven, The Ten Commandments, The Great Escape, To Kill a Mockingbird, Ghostbusters, and The Rookies.
Bernstein won an Oscar for his score to Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967) and was nominated for fourteen Oscars in total. He also won two Golden Globes and was nominated for two Grammy Awards.
Awards
Over the course of his career, Bernstein won an Academy Award, an Emmy Award, and two Golden Globe Awards.[9] In addition, he was nominated for the Tony Award three times[5] and a Grammy Award five times.
He received 14 Academy Award nominations and was nominated at least once per decade from the 1950s until the 2000s, but his only win was for Thoroughly Modern Millie for Best Original Music Score. Bernstein was recognized by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association with Golden Globes for his scores for To Kill a Mockingbird and Hawaii. In 1963, he won the Emmy for Excellence in Television for his score of the documentary The Making of The President 1960. He is the recipient of Western Heritage Awards for The Magnificent Seven (1960) and The Hallelujah Trail (1965).[9]
He received five Grammy Award nominations from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and garnered two Tony Award nominations for the Broadway musicals How Now Dow Jones and Merlin.
Additional honors included Lifetime achievement awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), the Society for the Preservation of Film Music, the USA, Woodstock, Santa Barbara, Newport Beach and Flanders International Film Festivals and the Foundation for a Creative America.
In 1996, Bernstein was honored with a star on Hollywood Boulevard.[10] In 1999, he received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Five Towns College in New York and was honored by the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. Bernstein again was honored by ASCAP with its marquee Founders Award in 2001[10] and with the NARAS Governors Award in June 2004.
His scores for The Magnificent Seven and To Kill a Mockingbird were ranked by the American Film Institute as the eighth and seventeenth greatest American film scores of all time, respectively, on the list of AFI’s 100 Years of Film Scores. Bernstein, Bernard Herrmann, Max Steiner, and Jerry Goldsmith are the only composers to have two scores listed, and are therefore in second place for the most scores on the list, behind John Williams, who has three. Other Bernstein scores for the following the films were nominated for the list:
Obama to give ‘Star Wars’ creator National Medal of Arts
By Jonathan Easley – 07/10/13 08:37 AM ET
President Obama on Monday will present filmmaker George Lucas with a National Medal of Arts award for his “contributions to American cinema.”
Lucas wrote and directed the “Star Wars” movies, and produced the “Indiana Jones” films, among many others.
“By combining the art of storytelling with boundless imagination and cutting-edge techniques, Mr. Lucas has transported us to new worlds and created some of the most beloved and iconic films of all time,” the White House said in a statement.
Lucas is one of 12 artists, authors and musicians who will be presented with the award at a ceremony in the East Room.
In addition, the president will give out 12 National Humanities medals to teachers and philanthropists in the arts world. Author Joan Didion is among the recipients for her “mastery of style in writing.”
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/310067-obama-to-give-star-wars-creator-national-medal-of-arts?utm_source=buffer&utm_campaign=Buffer&utm_content=buffer6074f&utm_medium=twitter#ixzz2YfdA3Etr
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Murray’s Wimbledon winning moment – made of Lego
http://youtu.be/X_aB5XYed4w
Don’t poison a law, then claim it’s sick
By Steve Benen
Wed Jul 10, 2013 11:16 AM EDT.
One does not usually expect blistering, progressive-minded editorials from USA Today, but this morning’s piece on the Affordable Care Act is a gem. The headline reads, “GOP poisons ObamaCare, then claims it’s sick.”
Regular readers know we’ve been talking quite a bit about Republican efforts to sabotage the federal health care system in the hopes of partisan and ideological gain, and it’s good to see the USA Today editorial board notice. “Having lost in Congress and in court, they’re now using the most cynical of tactics: trying to make the law fail,” the paper explains. “Never mind the public inconvenience and human misery that will result…. There is a distinct line between fighting to turn your ideas into law and trying to wreck a law once it has been passed.”
It’s against this backdrop that Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) falsely argued in his party’s weekly radio address that the law would disrupt people’s cancer care, and GOP governors nationwide block Medicaid expansion for no substantive reason.
It doesn’t have to be this way, but it appears today’s Republican Party knows no other way.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/07/10/19395815-dont-poison-a-law-then-claim-its-sick?lite
Texas House approves sweeping restrictions on reproductive rights
By Steve Benen
Wed Jul 10, 2013 1:51 PM EDT
The outcome in Texas this morning was never really in doubt, but for supporters of reproductive rights, it was nevertheless disappointing.
House Republicans Wednesday muscled through a sweeping package of abortion restrictions — shifting the spotlight back on the Senate, where the controversial proposal failed to pass last month after a marathon filibuster by Democrats.
Final approval of House Bill 2 came Wednesday via a 96-49 vote in the lower chamber. That wraps up a nasty partisan fight in the House and sends proposal to the Senate for what is likely to be the Legislature’s last showdown this summer on abortion.
The proposal now heads to the state Senate, which will consider the bill in committee tomorrow. It’s expected to reach the floor early next week — and this time, proponents believe procedural tactics, from state Sen. Wendy Davis (D), will not succeed.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/07/10/19397495-texas-house-approves-sweeping-restrictions-on-reproductive-rights?lite
GOP Bill Would Block Federal Funding To Schools That Ban Imaginary Guns
A Republican congressman introduced legislation this week that would block federal dollars from going to schools that prohibit students from playing with imaginary weapons.
Introduced by Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX), the Student Protection Act says that schools’ zero-tolerance policies are being used to outlaw “harmless expressions of childhood play” and teach students to be “afraid of inanimate objects that are shaped like guns.” It cites several examples of students being disciplined at schools for seemingly innocuous uses of imaginary weapons, including a 7-year-old Colorado student who was suspended for throwing an imaginary hand grenade.
The bill provides a list of activities that would be grounds for cutting federal funding. Among the activities: “brandishing a pastry or other food which is partially consumed in such a way that the remnant resembles a gun,” “using a finger or hand to simulate a gun” and “sing a pencil, pen or other writing utensil to simulate a firearm.”
The pastry addition comes in response to a Maryland student who was suspended for partially eating a Pop Tart to make it look like a gun.
The introduction of this bill was first reported by The Hill.
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/gop-bill-would-block-federal-funding-to-schools?ref=fpblg
Hillary Clinton, a mistake for 2016
By David Frum, CNN Contributor
updated 8:11 AM EDT, Tue April 2, 2013
Democrats seem poised to choose their next presidential nominee the way Republicans often choose theirs: according to the principle of “next in line.”
Hillary Clinton came second in the nomination fight of 2008. If she were a Republican, that would make her a near-certainty to be nominated in 2016. Five of the past six Republican nominees had finished second in the previous round of primaries. (The sixth was George W. Bush, son of the most recent Republican president.)
Democrats, by contrast, prefer newcomers. Six of their eight nominees since 1972 had never sought national office before.
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Hillary Clinton is 14 years older than Barack Obama. A party has never nominated a leader that much older than his immediate predecessor. (The previous record-holder was James Buchanan, 13 years older than Franklin Pierce when the Democrats chose him in 1856. Runner-up: Dwight Eisenhower, 12 years older than his predecessor, Thomas Dewey.)
Parties have good reasons to avoid reaching back to politicians of prior generations. When they do, they bring forward not only the ideas of the past, but also the personalities and the quarrels of the past.
One particular quarrel that a Hillary Clinton nomination would bring forward is the quarrel over the ethical standards of the Clinton White House — and, maybe even more, of the Clintons’ post-White House careers. Relying on Hillary Clinton’s annual financial disclosure reports, CNN reported last year that former President Bill Clinton had earned $89 million in speaking fees since leaving the White House in 2001. Many of these earnings came from foreign sources. In 2011 alone, the former president earned $6.1 million from 16 speeches in 11 foreign countries.
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Yet the biggest risk to Democrats from a Hillary Clinton nomination is not that it would be generationally backward-looking — or that it would reopen embarrassing ethical disputes — but that it would short-circuit the necessary work of party renewal.
After eight years in the White House, a party requires a self-appraisal and a debate over its way forward. Bill Clinton offered Democrats just such a debate in 1992 with his “New Democrat” ideas. Barack Obama offered another in 2008 with his careful but unmistakable criticism of Clinton-era domestic policies and Hillary Clinton’s Iraq war vote. But if Hillary Clinton glides into the nomination in 2016 on the strength of money, name recognition, and a generalized feeling of “It’s her turn,” then Democrats will forgo this necessary renewal.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/01/opinion/frum-hillary-clinton-2016
Immigration Reform’s Moment of Truth
House Republicans are meeting today to figure out what’s next for the landmark legislation. Things look bleak for reformers.
Molly BallJul 10 2013, 10:47 AM ET
Immigration reform passed the Senate, but can it get through the House? We may find out soon.
House Republicans are scheduled to meet Wednesday afternoon for a summit aimed at deciding how to move forward on the issue. It is a meeting that could signal the way forward for an issue that has teetered schizophrenically between a sense of optimism (a big, bipartisan bill passed the Senate with 68 votes!) and a sense of doom (the conservative House will never agree to this!).
Despite that big Senate vote, Speaker John Boehner has been adamant that the House “do its own job” rather than taking up the Senate bill. He has also insisted that any House bill get the support of a majority of Republicans. At the same time, Boehner said Monday that inaction was not an option: “We just can’t turn a blind eye to this problem and believe it will go away.” Add up all these self-imposed conditions, and the nominal leader of the House of Representatives is in quite a bind.
Boehner is believed to favor immigration reform on policy as well as political grounds. Some of the Republican Party’s most influential constituencies — big business and religious groups — strongly favor it, and the GOP establishment sees it as a way to begin to restore the party’s standing with Hispanic voters. But as has become painfully clear, Boehner holds little sway over the rambunctious House Republican caucus. Recognizing this, he seems to have resigned himself to a more passive role — listening to his members and letting them dictate how he moves forward. That’s why today’s conference is so potentially important.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/07/immigration-reforms-moment-of-truth/277665/
Carmen Dell’Orefice for You Magazine
Darlings, here is your Gorgeous of the Day. Lucky for you, it’s also your Life Goal for the Day. Supermodel Extraordinaire (all others are mere pretenders) Carmen Dell’Orefice serves up bone structure, attitude, and experience for You mag. We’ve long adored her and even got to speak very briefly to her at Fashion Week a couple of seasons ago. For the record, this is really what she looks like in person. Oh sure, there’s always photoshoppery in every editorial, but she really is luminous, aristocratic and smooth-skinned in the way she appears in her pictures. The only time she looked anything close to her age (EIGHTY-TWO, BITCHES. MODELLING FOR ALMOST SEVENTY YEARS BOW DOWN I SAID BOW DOWN RIGHT NOW) was when she struggled slightly to get out of her chair when we asked her if we could take a picture.
http://www.tomandlorenzo.com/2013/07/carmen-dellorefice-for-you-magazine.html
More voter-fraud allegations evaporate into nothing
By Steve Benen
Wed Jul 10, 2013 12:36 PM EDT
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Voting Rights Act, Republican state lawmakers have intensified the “war on voting” to new heights, with sweeping new restrictions proposed to prevent some Americans from participating in elections. For GOP officials, there’s a familiar defense: such restrictions are necessary to prevent voter fraud.
The problem with the argument is three-fold. First, in the real world, voter fraud is a mirage. Second, some of the pending Republican proposals have literally nothing to do with their ostensible goal (why does eliminating Sunday voting have to do with deterring fraud?).
And finally, whenever Republicans think they’ve finally uncovered genuine fraud, they’re invariably left holding a big bag of nothing.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/07/10/19396665-more-voter-fraud-allegations-evaporate-into-nothing?lite
The Morning Plum: House GOP stares into abyss on immigration
By Greg Sargent, Published: July 10, 2013 at 9:14 amE-mail the writer
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Today House Republicans are set to hold a crucial private meeting to hash out the way forward on immigration reform. It is now widely assumed the House will kill it, no matter what. In a piece that purports to be bucking the conventional wisdom but actually echoes it, Politico proclaims that reform is heading for a “slow death” in the House.
So here are the questions I hope the reporting on the meeting helps answer:
1) Is there any level of border security that can get a majority of House Republicans to support a path to citizenship? What would that look like? Can a majority of House Republicans accept citizenship under any circumstances?
2) What is the appetite among House Republicans for John Boehner ultimately allowing something without a majority of House Republicans behind it — the Senate bill, or something else produced by conference negotiations that approximates it — to come to a vote, and passing with mostly Dems? Is there a sizable bloc who might privately want that to happen for the good of the party, while publicly voting against it?
We already know the answer to number one is almost certainly No. That’s why folks, understandably, continue to predict reform’s certain demise. Making things worse, Boehner has now laid down his marker: draconian border security measures must precede legalization. If he sticks to this marker, reform will die. At any rate, a majority of House Republicans almost certainly won’t support anything short of that. So the main question seems to be: can anything get a vote without the support of a majority of House Republicans?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/07/10/the-morning-plum-house-gop-stares-into-abyss-on-immigration/
Protecting the Underclass
by BooMan
Wed Jul 10th, 2013 at 08:56:00 AM EST
I certainly do not think the Democratic Party has been particularly pro-consumer in the past, although the party has taken the lead in the consumer protections that have developed over the years. From Clinton’s second term deregulation of Wall Street to the passage of the Bankruptcy Bill under Bush, the banks were on an absolute roll. It could be, however, that one of Obama’s most lasting positive legacies is his refocusing on the consumer. As the Senate prepares to battle over judicial and executive nominations, including Richard Cordray to be the permanent head of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, the administration is moving ahead with regulations and enforcement that will protect the indebted from abuse.
Apparently, the laws that we currently have about how debt can be collected only pertain to third party debt collectors. If you owe money directly to Macy’s, for example, then Macy’s can call you morning, noon, and night.
From the beginning of his administration, Obama has been highly focused on how people get into debt and how they are treated once they are indebted. In 2009, he signed the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act and the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act. In 2010, he signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. And, while not debt-related, in 2011, he signed the Food Safety and Modernization Act, which was the first major overhaul of our food safety laws since 1938.
When I was working for ACORN in the black community in North Philadelphia, I became acquainted with the types of concerns people have in our country’s inner cities. These aren’t unique concerns, but they are concerns that disproportionately impact our urban poor. Near the top, after crime and schools, is predatory lending. Check cashing joints, pay day lenders, income tax preparers, unscrupulous mortgage providers, all prey on the poor and undereducated, making fraudulent claims and/or charging usurious interest rates. One of the main things ACORN did, God rest its soul, was help advise people facing foreclosure on how to save their homes. Most of the time in the mid-2000s, the problem was that consumers had been duped into taking out mortgages they could afford initially but not once the hidden conditions of the loan kicked in later on.
Fraud and usury were the areas most in need of attention on the federal level, as crime and schools are more local issues. This is where Obama has delivered most effectively on a progressive agenda to help his urban base of support.
He seems to get very little credit for it from the progressive commentariat, so I thought I should mention it.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/7/10/8560/66797
5 Statements That Show Why Elisabeth Hasselbeck Will Fit Right In On Fox And Friends
By Rebecca Leber on Jul 10, 2013 at 11:53 am
Fox and Friends will have a new co-host come September to replace Gretchen Carlson: Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Rumors suggested for months that Hasselbeck would leave The View, where she represented the conservative position and often clashed with other co-hosts. In a statement, ABC said of Hasselbeck leaving that, “She stood behind her political views even if they were not the most popular opinions at the table never shying away from voicing a difficult question.”
Hasselbeck will be right at home at Fox and Friends, a show that has pushed some wild conspiracy theories about how Spongebob Squarepants has a “global warming agenda,” the Labor Department cooked the jobs report, and Hillary Clinton faked her December concussion to avoid testifying before Congress.
Here are five examples of Hasselbeck’s right-wing views:
1. Morning-after pill is like abandoning a baby in the street. It’s no secret Hasselbeck is against abortion, arguing women only get them for “superficial reasons.” In 2006, she argued that emergency contraception is “the same thing as birthing a baby and leaving it out in the street!”
2. Older lesbian women just couldn’t get a man. Her theory on why lesbians come out later in life is that older men prefer young women, “leaving older women with no one.”
3. Stalking victim’s outfit was too slutty. Hasselbeck joked that Dancing With the Stars contestant Erin Andrews’ outfit was too skimpy for the stalking victim who was filmed nude in her hotel room. “In light of what happened and as a legal [matter] […] I mean, in some way if I’m him, I’m like, ‘Man! I just could’ve waited 12 weeks and seen this — a little bit less — without the prison time!’” Hasselbeck later said she regretted the comments and gave a tearful apology on-air.
4. Waterboarding isn’t torture. Hasselbeck suggested that the military requires waterboarding and it was used effectively post-9/11 to gain intelligence information. “I’m not saying hey everyone should go next door to be waterboarded,” she said. But she maintained a distinction from torture: “Torture is wrong, but enhanced interrogation techniques is different.” A large majority of Americans disagree.
5. Feminists only “burn their bras” for liberals. In a debate over Rush Limbaugh’s misogynist attacks, Hasselbeck took issue with feminists who do not stand up for conservative women. However, in making her point, she invoked the “bra-burning” stereotype about feminists. “The sisters that you speak of… my question for them is why they are so selective in their feminism, why aren’t they burning their bras when a conservative women is attacked,” she said.
http://thinkprogress.org/media/2013/07/10/2276221/hasselbeck-joins-fox/
The Decline of North Carolina
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Published: July 9, 2013 851
Every Monday since April, thousands of North Carolina residents have gathered at the State Capitol to protest the grotesque damagethat a new Republican majority has been doing to a tradition of caring for the least fortunate. Nearly 700 people have been arrested in the “Moral Monday” demonstrations, as they are known. But the bad news keeps on coming from the Legislature, and pretty soon a single day of the week may not be enough to contain the outrage.
In January, after the election of Pat McCrory as governor, Republicans took control of both the executive and legislative branches for the first time since Reconstruction. Since then, state government has become a demolition derby, tearing down years of progress in public education, tax policy, racial equality in the courtroom and access to the ballot.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/10/opinion/the-decline-of-north-carolina.html?_r=1&
Another twist in the N.C. crusade against reproductive rights
By Steve Benen
Wed Jul 10, 2013 11:39 AM EDT
Last week, while much of the country was focused on the July 4th holiday, Republicans in North Carolina’s state Senate launched a legislative ambush — they took a bill related to Sharia law, of all things, amended it to include sweeping new restrictions on reproductive rights, and then rammed the bill through a day later on July 3rd.
With the bill pending in the GOP-led state House, all eyes quickly turned to rookie North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R), who swore as a candidate last year that he would leave the state’s existing abortion laws alone. Would he keep his promise?
As of this morning, yes. McCrory said that without significant changes, he would veto House Bill 695. There’s some ambiguity about the scope of the governor’s commitment — he apparently wants clarifications on health and safety measures, so he’s open to some new restrictions — but for now, the bill would not get his signature.
What’s truly amazing is how state GOP lawmakers responded to the governor’s comments
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/07/10/19396022-another-twist-in-the-nc-crusade-against-reproductive-rights?lite
Hillary Clinton super PAC turns to Obama team
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/07/hillary-clinton-super-pac-turns-to-obama-team-93931.html#ixzz2Yf0nQpqB
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the wonderful Camille comments:
https://twitter.com/OFA_NC/status/354712508180881408/photo/1
Bush still losing the blame game
By Steve Benen
Wed Jul 10, 2013 10:00 AM EDT.
Throughout President Obama’s first term, his Republican detractors desperately tried to convince the public that poor economic conditions were the White House’s fault. It was a bad argument that struggled to persuade — the American mainstream may have a short memory, but folks realized that Obama didn’t create a crisis, he inherited one.
What I find interesting at this point, however, is how consistent public attitudes remain on the subject over the course of several years.
Gallup published a report yesterday with this chart, explaining, “Americans are still more likely to blame former President George W. Bush ‘a great deal’ or ‘a moderate amount’ than President Barack Obama for the country’s current economic problems. More Americans blamed Bush during Obama’s first year as president in 2009; however, since mid-2010, views have been steady at levels similar to today’s.”
Less than a fifth (19%) of Americans blame President Obama solely for the nation’s ongoing economic problems, while nearly twice as many (35%) hold his Republican predecessor solely responsible.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/07/10/19394847-bush-still-losing-the-blame-game?lite
Protests Sparked in Detroit Over the Dumping of Black History Books
ZACH SCHONFELD1,612 ViewsJUL 9, 2013
A Detroit area school district has erupted in protest over the discarding of a historic book collection that is said to contain more than 10,000 black history volumes, included films, videos, and other artifacts. The blame, according to residents of Highland Park, a small city surrounded on nearly all sides by Detroit, belongs to Emergency Manager Donald Weatherspoon, who claims the collection was thrown out by mistake but that the district cannot afford to preserve it. Yesterday, angry residents held a public protest, blocking traffic, wielding megaphones, and displaying picket signs with slogans like “21st Century Hitler Burning Books” and “Dump The EM, Not The Books”—referring to the state-appointed emergency manager.
Among the picketers was Deblon Jackson, a Detroit-area musician.
“The emergency manager had been in the district for over a year and then they decided to throw away all the black artifacts—books that were no longer in print or published, all kinds of tapes and catalogues,” Jackson explained to The Atlantic Wire. “We want to preserve those artifacts so our children have something to look back on. We’re just mad about it and we’re not going to stand for it, just throwing away our history like that.”
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/07/protests-sparked-detroit-over-dumping-black-history-books/66975/
Split farm bill lacks House votes
By Erik Wasson – 07/10/13 10:08 AM ET
A plan backed by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and other House GOP leaders to split the farm bill into two pieces is facing a setback.
A split farm bill was anticipated to come before the Rules Committee as early as Wednesday, but there is now no sign that this is happening.
A House GOP whip count on Tuesday on a farm subsidy bill without food stamp funding came up short of the 218 votes needed for passage, sources said.
http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/agriculture/310097-cantor-farm-bill-plan-faces-setback#ixzz2YeskN7l3
How The Media Outrageously Blew The GOP Manufactured ‘IRS’ Scandal
http://youtu.be/VDJZcBdMSz0
Walgreens, Blue Cross launch effort to promote ObamaCare
By Elise Viebeck – 07/10/13 09:22 AM ET
The nation’s largest drugstore chain is partnering with Blue Cross Blue Shield to promote ObamaCare before new insurance exchanges open on Oct. 1.
Walgreens and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) launched a website Wednesday and promised to distribute brochures about ObamaCare at Walgreens stores around the country.
The materials guide patients through basic questions about the Affordable Care Act — what the law does, when it takes effect, and who is eligible for benefits. Details are provided in simple, concise language.
http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/310081-walgreens-blues-launch-obamacare-education-campaign#ixzz2YeTyteAQ
New scandal revelations imperils Virginia’s McDonnell
By Steve Benen
Wed Jul 10, 2013 8:00 AM EDT.
Just last night, while reporting on Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell’s (R) efforts to address one aspect of the scandal surrounding him, Rachel noted that the governor’s term in office ends officially in January, but “smart bookmakers everywhere are taking bets on whether or not he makes it that far.”
In light of a new Washington Post report, published this morning, the odds of McDonnell’s political survival are considerably worse.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/07/10/19393239-new-scandal-revelations-imperils-virginias-mcdonnell?lite
Why the GOP plan on the farm bill matters
By Steve Benen
Wed Jul 10, 2013 8:35 AM EDT
Imagine I go once again to my favorite deli and I prepare to engage in a transaction with the guy behind the counter — he’ll give me a sandwich and I’ll give him $5. But there’s a small problem after he makes the sandwich: I decide maybe I don’t really want to give him the money after all.
“Look,” I tell the guy, “both of us agree that I should get the sandwich. You’ve already made it; it’s right there on the counter; so this is clearly an area of consensus. Instead of bickering, let’s focus on our common ground — I’ll eat the sandwich, and we can argue about the $5 later. You can disagree, but you’re being needlessly divisive.”
In Congress, Democrats are the guy behind the counter.
The farm bill, in a general sense, is a big compromise — the left gets food stamps for poor families struggling to eat, while the right gets support for the agricultural industry. It’s this win-win scenario that makes the bill so easy to pass, year in and year out.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/07/10/19393786-why-the-gop-plan-on-the-farm-bill-matters?lite
GRIFTERS GOTTA GRIFT
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WikiLeaks’ Money Trail: How It’s Raising Money for Snowden & Assange by Caitlin Dickson, Eliza Shapiro
Jul 9, 2013 4:45 AM EDT
Julian Assange has acknowledged the irony: a group dedicated to
transparency has truly murky finances. Caitlin Dickson and Eliza Shapiro report on how it’s getting funding for Snowden and more.
…The main artery funneling WikiLeaks’ donations through cyberspace is Wau Holland, a Berlin-based hacker organization that manages WikiLeaks’ finances, at least publicly.
…The Wau Holland Foundation was created in 2001 by members of the German Chaos Computer Club, one of the world’s oldest hacker groups, and started official operations in 2003. That was three years before WikiLeaks was founded, but even then Julian Assange was in contact with the foundation’s members, said Bernd Fix, a founding member of Wau Holland.
“We don’t know who these people are,” Fix said. “We are not the NSA, you know. People can donate anonymously.”
While Fix said the typical donation is small, around $20, Wau Holland also has received some serious piles of cash. The biggest bundle it’s taken in for WikiLeaks was $50,000, from an American donor. Fix knows who it was but isn’t telling.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/09/wikileaks-money-trail-how-it-s-raising-money-for-snowden-assange.html
a gif for this morning
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BOcXFJkCIAACxEF.jpg:large
Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You
by BooMan
Tue Jul 9th, 2013 at 06:46:46 PM EST
Jennifer Rubin couldn’t disagree more with Bill Kristol and Rich Lowry about immigration reform. For Rubin, who I think actually cares about maybe seeing a Republican president again in her lifetime, the opponents of immigration reform are hypocrites. They say that there is a big crisis at the border but they don’t want to do anything about it.
But Kristol and Lowry are probably more interested in their magazines’ circulation numbers than winning elections, so they take a casual attitude to the consequences of killing reform.
At the presidential level in 2016, it would be better if Republicans won more Hispanic voters than they have in the past—but it’s most important that the party perform better among working-class and younger voters concerned about economic opportunity and upward mobility. Passing this unworkable, ramshackle bill is counterproductive or irrelevant to that task.
Where I come from a vote is a vote. If you lose a white working class vote but gain a Latino vote, it’s a wash. What Republicans like Ms. Rubin are trying to avoid is creating a situation where Latinos conclude, like blacks before them, that the Republican Party is implacably hostile to the interests- even their mere existence.
Now, some white working class voters might be annoyed if the Republicans help pass immigration reform, but they won’t conclude that the GOP simply hates them and wants them to cease to exist. Some might stay home on election day, but they won’t go running into the embrace of the Democratic Party. But if the Republicans kill immigration reform, a lot of Latinos will do more than vote against the GOP; they will work to defeat them.
It’s not a fluke that both of Arizona’s senators, who are both conservative Republicans, were leaders on the Senate’s immigration bill. Arizona is probably the last southwestern state that is still attainable for a Republican presidential candidate, but it won’t stay that way if the Republicans don’t begin working harder for the Latino vote. Texas is not far behind. And it’s possible that Florida is slipping out of their reach, which would really put any Republican presidential candidate behind the 8-ball.
But, hey, keep on pandering to the white bigots. It’s working out for us.
http://www.boomantribune.com/
http://youtu.be/6sG2UbzlNKc
I saw these interviews. Loved hearing about India’s journery from India.
http://youtu.be/N6XshWzhfks
http://youtu.be/dXjoN77qIFQ
I so appreciated India’s honesty about fearing success. It comes down to us knowing our worth, true worth, and not letting others define who we are and what we’re worth.
http://youtu.be/_ox09zb3pXo
More than 20 years after The Cosby Show finale aired, actress Phylicia Rashad is still best known as TV’s favorite mom, Clair Huxtable. For eight seasons, Phylicia defended the hit sitcom’s portrayal of African-American life. Does she believe it was realistic to script a lawyer and a doctor living under one roof?
http://youtu.be/mio8JacwoYQ
Of course she believed it was realistic to script a lawyer and a dr. We grew up with black professionals. A certain segment of white America who owned the media didn’t think it was realistic to portray us as professionals.
Remember during the 1950’s late 60’s there where what I called “white Wonder Bread” families on tv. Father Knows Best, Leave it to Beaver, The Donna Reid Show, etc. These shows were considered the “All American” Blacks and other POC were rarely shown, if at all. And when they were shown, they were somebody maid or butler.
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Good Morning, Rikyrah & Everyone! :-)