Today’s Classic is Mahalia Jackson.
Mahalia Jackson (/məˈheɪljə/ mə-HAYL-yə; October 26, 1911[1] – January 27, 1972) was an American gospel singer. Possessing a powerful contralto voice,[2] she was referred to as “The Queen of Gospel”. Jackson became one of the most influential gospel singers in the world and was heralded internationally as a singer and civil rights activist. She was described by entertainer Harry Belafonte as “the single most powerful black woman in the United States”.[5] She recorded about 30 albums (mostly for Columbia Records) during her career, and her 45 rpm records included a dozen “golds”—million-sellers.
“I sing God’s music because it makes me feel free,” Jackson once said about her choice of gospel, adding, “It gives me hope. With the blues, when you finish, you still have the blues.”[6]
Career
1920s–1940s
In 1927, at the age of sixteen, Jackson moved from the south to Chicago, Illinois, in the midst of the Great Migration. After her first Sunday church service, where she had given an impromptu performance of her favorite song, “Hand Me Down My Silver Trumpet, Gabriel”, she was invited to join the Greater Salem Baptist Church Choir. She began touring the city’s churches and surrounding areas with the Johnson Gospel Singers, one of the earliest professional gospel groups.[7] In 1929, Jackson met the composer Thomas A. Dorsey, known as the Father of Gospel Music. He gave her musical advice, and in the mid-1930s they began a fourteen-year association of touring, with Jackson singing Dorsey’s songs in church programs and at conventions. His “Take My Hand, Precious Lord” became her signature song.[8]
In 1936, Jackson married Isaac Lanes Grey Hockenhull (“Ike”), a graduate of Fisk University and Tuskegee Institute, who was 10 years her senior. Mahalia refused to sing secular music, a pledge she would keep throughout her professional life.[citation needed] She was frequently offered money to do so and she divorced Isaac in 1941 because of his unrelenting pressure on her to sing secular music and his addiction to gambling on racehorses.[citation needed]
In 1931, Jackson recorded “You Better Run, Run, Run”. Not much is known about this recording and it is impossible to find. Biographer Laurraine Goreau cites that it was also around this time she added ‘i’ to her name, changing it from Mahala to Mahalia, pronounced /məˈheɪliə/. At age 26, Mahalia’s second set of records was recorded on May 21, 1937 under the Decca Coral label,[9] accompanied by Estelle Allen (piano), in order: “God’s Gonna Separate The Wheat From The Tares”, “My Lord”, “Keep Me Everyday”, and “God Shall Wipe All Tears Away”. Financially, these were not successful, and Decca let her go.
In 1947, she signed up with the Apollo label, and in 1948 recorded the William Herbert Brewster song “Move On Up a Little Higher”, a recording so popular that stores could not stock enough copies of it to meet demand, selling an astonishing eight million copies.[10] (The song was later honored with the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1998).[11] The success of this record rocketed Jackson to fame in the U.S. and soon after in Europe.[citation needed] During this time she toured as a concert artist, appearing more frequently in concert halls and less often in churches. As a consequence of this change in her venues, her arrangements expanded from piano and organ to orchestral accompaniments.
Other recordings received wide praise, including: “Let the Power of the Holy Ghost Fall on Me” (1949), which won the French Academy’s Grand Prix du Disque; and “Silent Night, Holy Night”, which became one of the best-selling singles in the history of Norway. When Jackson sang “Silent Night” on Denmark’s national radio, more than twenty thousand requests for copies poured in.[12] Other recordings on the Apollo label included “He Knows My Heart” (1946), “Amazing Grace” (1947), “Tired” (1947), “I Can Put My Trust in Jesus” (1949), “Walk with Me” (1949), “Let the Power of the Holy Ghost Fall on Me” (1949), “Go Tell It on the Mountain” (1950), “The Lord’s Prayer” (1950), “How I Got Over” (1951), “His Eye Is on the Sparrow” (1951), “I Believe” (1953), “Didn’t It Rain” (1953), “Hands of God” (1953), and “Nobody Knows” (1954).[13]
1950s–1970s
In 1950, Jackson became the first gospel singer to perform at New York’s Carnegie Hall when Joe Bostic produced the “Negro Gospel and Religious Music Festival”.[citation needed] She started touring Europe in 1952 and was hailed by critics as the “world’s greatest gospel singer”.[citation needed] In Paris she was called the Angel of Peace, and throughout the continent she sang to capacity audiences. The tour, however, had to be cut short due to exhaustion. Jackson began a radio series on CBS and signed to Columbia Records in 1954. A writer for Down Beat music magazine stated on November 17, 1954: “It is generally agreed that the greatest spiritual singer now alive is Mahalia Jackson.”[14] Her debut album for Columbia was The World’s Greatest Gospel Singer, recorded in 1954, followed by a Christmas album called Sweet Little Jesus Boy, and Bless This House in 1956.
With her mainstream success, Jackson was criticized by some gospel purists who complained about her hand-clapping and foot-stomping and about her bringing “jazz into the church”.[15] Jackson had many notable accomplishments during this period, including her performance of many songs in the 1958 film St. Louis Blues, and singing “Trouble of the World” in 1959’s Imitation of Life; recording with Percy Faith. When Mahalia Jackson recorded The Power and the Glory with Faith, the orchestra arched their bows to honor her in solemn recognition of her great voice.[citation needed] She was the main attraction in the first gospel music showcase at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1957, which was organized by Joe Bostic and recorded by the Voice of America, and performed again in 1958 (Newport 1958). She was also present at the opening night of Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music in December 1957.[16] In 1961, she sang at U.S. President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural ball. She recorded her second Christmas album Silent Night (Songs for Christmas) in 1962. By this time, she had also become a familiar face to British television viewers as a result of short films of her performing that were occasionally shown. Historian Noel Serrano stated: “God touched the vocal chords of this Great Woman and placed a special elixir to sing for His honor and Glory!”[citation needed]
At the March on Washington in 1963, she sang in front of 250,000 people “How I Got Over” and “I’ve Been ‘Buked, and I’ve Been Scorned”. Martin Luther King, Jr. made his famous “I Have a Dream” speech there. She also sang “Take My Hand, Precious Lord” at his funeral after he was assassinated in 1968. Jackson sang to crowds at the 1964 New York World’s Fair and was accompanied by “wonderboy preacher” Al Sharpton.[17] She toured Europe again in 1961 (Recorded Live in Europe 1961), 1963–1964, 1967, 1968 and 1969. In 1970, she performed for Liberian President William Tubman.
Jackson’s last album was What The World Needs Now (1969). The next year, in 1970, Jackson and Louis Armstrong performed “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” and “When the Saints Go Marching In” together. She ended her career in 1971 with a concert in Germany, and when she returned, made one of her final television appearances on The Flip Wilson Show. Jackson devoted much of her time and energy to helping others. She established the Mahalia Jackson Scholarship Foundation for young people who wanted to attend college. For her efforts in helping international understanding, she received the Silver Dove Award. Chicago remained her home until the end. She opened a beauty parlor and a florist shop with her earnings, while also investing in real estate ($100,000 a year at her peak).[18]
Civil Rights Movement
Jackson was known to have played an important role during the civil rights movement. In August 1956, she met Ralph Abernathy and Martin Luther King, Jr. at the National Baptist Convention.[19][20] A few months later, both King and Abernathy contacted her about coming to Montgomery, Alabama to sing at a rally to raise money for the bus boycott. They also hoped that she would inspire the people who were getting discouraged with the boycott.[19]
Despite death threats, Mahalia Jackson agreed to sing in Montgomery. Her concert was on December 6, 1956. By then, the US Supreme Court ruled in Browder v. Gayle that bus segregation was unconstitutional. In Montgomery, the ruling was not yet put into effect, so the bus boycott continued. At this concert she sang “I’ve Heard of a City called Heaven”, “Move On Up a Little Higher”, and “Silent Night”. There was a good turnout at the concert and they were happy with the amount of money raised. But when she returned to the Abernathy’s home, it was bombed. The boycott finally ended on December 21, 1956 when federal injunctions were served, forcing Montgomery to comply with the court ruling.[19]
Although she was internationally known and had moved up to the northern states, she still encountered racial prejudice. One account of this was when she tried to buy a house in Chicago. Everywhere she went, the white owners and real estate agents would turn her away, claiming that the house had already been sold or that they changed their mind about selling. When she finally found a house, the neighbors were not happy. Shots were fired at her windows and she had to contact the police for protection. White families started moving out and black families started moving in. Everything remained the same in her neighborhood except for the skin color of the residents.[19]
King and Abernathy continued to protest segregation. In 1957, they founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The first major event sponsored by the SCLC was the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom in Washington D.C. on May 17, 1957, the third anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision.[19] From this point forward, she appeared often with King, singing before his speeches and for SCLC fundraisers. In a 1962 SCLC press release, King wrote that Jackson had “appeared on numerous programs that helped the struggle in the South, but now she has indicated that she wants to be involved on a regular basis”.[20] Jesse Jackson said that when King called on her, she never refused, traveling with him to the deepest parts of the segregated south.[21]
Jackson performed “I Been ‘Buked and I Been Scorned” before Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. She also sang “Precious Lord” at his funeral in 1968.[20]
Jackson said she hoped her music could “break down some of the hate and fear that divide the white and black people in this country”.[22] She also contributed financially to the movement.[20]
Mark Knoller @markknoller5m
Tomorrow at the WH: An historic gathering as Pres Obama welcomes former Negro League baseball players to a reception. But no press coverage.
https://twitter.com/jashsf/status/364156311551754240/photo/1
The Politics of Payday Loans
by Henry on August 4, 2013
Via Michael Froomkin, this Pro Publica piece is well worth reading.
As the Rev. Susan McCann stood outside a public library in Springfield, Mo., last year, she did her best to persuade passers-by to sign an initiative to ban high-cost payday loans. But it was difficult to keep her composure, she remembers. A man was shouting in her face. He and several others had been paid to try to prevent people from signing. “Every time I tried to speak to somebody,” she recalls, “they would scream, ‘Liar! Liar! Liar! Don’t listen to her!’” Such confrontations, repeated across the state, exposed something that rarely comes into view so vividly: the high-cost lending industry’s ferocious effort to stay legal and stay in business.
http://crookedtimber.org/2013/08/04/the-politics-of-payday-loans/
Good evening Everyone! :-) Nobody soothes Soul like Ms.Mahalia.
Chris Wallace Rips Eric Cantor as Fox News Drops a Reality Bomb on House Republicans
By: Jason Easley
Aug. 4th, 2013
Chris Wallace tore through Eric Cantor with some tough realistic question on Fox News Sunday, and proved that Fox News is frighteningly more in touch with reality than House Republicans.
Chris Wallace first asked Cantor, “Is what you have been doing the best way to spend Congress’s time when you are about to go on recess for five full weeks?” Cantor tried to defend the votes with standard House Republican talking points, government doesn’t create jobs, blah, blah, blah. Wallace then dropped a reality bomb on Majority Leader Cantor, “But Congressman, rightly or wrongly, none of these bills that you passed is going to become law. Your own members say they’re not going to pass the Senate. The president won’t sign them. Let’s talk reality. You haven’t passed a Farm Bill. You’ve only passed 4 of the 12 appropriations bills you’re supposed to pass. We face a government shutdown and debt limit in the fall. Again, is the best way to spend your time passing bills that aren’t going to become law? An added question, with so much unfinished business why not stick around instead of taking a five week vacation. Rep. Cantor blamed Obama for being out giving campaign speeches, and not cooperating with the House.
Wallace kept after Cantor, “You could tend to your own knitting. You could pass a Farm Bill. You could take. You have the power of the purse. Only 4 of the 12 appropriations bills have you even passed. Why not do what the House is supposed to do?” Cantor claimed they passed a Farm Bill, and tried to turn their complete failure to pass a comprehensive Farm Bill into Republican reform. Cantor blamed the Senate for lack of passage of appropriations bills, and said the House has passed more than the Senate.
When Fox News is more in touch with reality than the Republican Majority Leader in the House, there’s a big problem.
http://www.politicususa.com/2013/08/04/chris-wallace-rips-eric-cantor-fox-news-drops-reality-bomb-house-republicans.html
Bernie Sanders Exposes The Republican Goal of Abolishing The Minimum Wage
By: Jason Easley
Aug. 4th, 2013
Sen. Bernie Sanders is talking about something that few other politicians will mention. Republicans aren’t just opposed to the minimum wage. They want to abolish it.
ED SCHULTZ: Senator, do you believe, of course, the Republicans have not helped out on any jobs package whatsoever they’re stuck in the mud. They don’t want to work with the Democrats or help this president on a jobs bill in any way, shame or form. Do you think the Republicans want higher unemployment so people will be so desperate, they will go to the corporations and work for $7.25 an hour and have no voice and no push and no union to stick up for them whatsoever? Do you think the Republicans, do you think that this is a conservative utopia? That they like everything the way it is right now?
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: Let me take it a step further and this will shock you and your viewers.This is the truth. The fact of the matter is that there are many many Republicans in Congress right now, perhaps a majority, who not only are opposed to raising the minimum wage. They want to abolish the minimum wage. That’s the truth. In a city like Detroit, remember, 40% of the black kids in this country are facing unemployment. 20% of the young people in this country facing unemployment. 14% of the American people unemployed. They believe that if they can hire, if an employer can hire a worker at $3 and $4 an hour that’s fine. That’s freedom. Get government out of the business of regulating a minimum wage. What I happen to believe is very, very different.
SCHULTZ: Go ahead.
SANDERS:It’s just that if we’re going to grow the middle class, we have to create decent paying jobs. One way to do that is to raise the minimum wage to at least $10 an hour which is what the American people want.
Bernie Sanders was speaking from experience. In June, during a committee hearing, he got Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander (TN) to admit that he supports abolishing the minimum wage. This isn’t some theoretical Republican fantasy discussion centered around the great what if of abolishing the minimum wage. Republicans in power want to abolish the minimum wage. It is part of their goals and agenda. Earlier this year, Forbes ran an article from the Ayn Rand Center titled, To Protect The Defenseless, We Must Abolish The Minimum Wage.
http://www.politicususa.com/2013/08/04/bernie-sanders-exposes-republican-goal-abolishing-minimum-wage.html
there are whiners about Pete Souza’s photography of the President
here’s a response:
They’ve complained about everything else when it comes to this President.
Why not complain about the OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHER.
They are mad because Souza’s work cuts through all the negative that they have tried to spill on this President. It’s because Souza’s work shows this President as he is…and his humanity and goodness, and the love that he has for this country…all shine through.
Crystal Wright @GOPBlackChick: Never hear white people talking about “white pride.” Cause they think as individuals first.
Ian @iboudreau5h
White people do talk about “white pride” sometimes, @GOPblackchick. It’s just at special meetings. You might not have been invited.
SNAP!
Crystal Wright is a simp. She developed that website for the RNC and the Romney campaign black outreach and they squashed and I doubt they paid her, but now she’s back on the plantation carrying water for Massa.
Doing Green Jobs Right
[….] “Our community is really toxic,” Evans says. “We have the highest rates of a lot of illnesses related to the environment, so it’s necessary for us to be active. Being an African-American woman myself, I think I need to be part of the solution.”[….] In October 2009, the Green Justice Coalition scored an important victory by getting environmental justice language inserted into Massachusetts’s new, $1.4 billion energy efficiency plan, one of the first comprehensive plans in the nation.[….] There will be a financing plan to make energy-saving home improvements more affordable.
Many of the 23,300 jobs to be generated by the plan will go to contractors who pay decent wages and meet “high road” employment standards. Finally, four pilot programs across the state will test a radically new outreach model by going door to door and mobilizing low- and moderate-income families in building greener neighborhoods.[….]
The Obama administration’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes more than $30 billion for green construction—and this one-time stimulus is just a fraction of the money that state and federal agencies will spend to increase energy efficiency and reduce carbon consumption in the coming years.[….]
http://www.thenation.com/article/154165/doing-green-jobs-right#axzz2b2WN7KSU
Obama hits the links ahead of birthday
By Jonathan Easley – 08/03/13 03:43 PM ET
President Obama on Saturday celebrated his upcoming birthday on the golf course with friends from nearly every stage of his life.
The president – who turns 52 on Sunday – invited a group of 12 to Andrews Air Force base for the round.
Included in the group were Obama’s high school pals from Hawaii, Greg Orme, Bobby Titcomb and Mike Ramos. Wahid Hamid and Laurent Delanney, who attended Occidental College with the president, also made the trip.
The president’s graduate school days in New York were represented by Hasan Chandoo, while Martin Nesbitt and Eric Whitaker know the president from his time in Chicago.
And some friends from the White House made the cut – the president’s former and current body men, Reggie Love and Marvin Nicholson golfed on Saturday, as did Obama’s senior policy advisor on nutrition and the executive director of Let’s Move!, Sam Kass.
A White House official said Obama was briefed on the potential terrorist threat emanating from the Arabian Peninsula before departing on the golf outing. He will continue to be updated through the weekend, the official said.
After golfing, Obama headed to Camp David for the evening. He will return to the White House on Sunday.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/315395-obama-golfing-ahead-of-birthday#ixzz2b0VGVMKm
Open Letter to Reince Preibus
As a Black Conservative Republican, right now I feel like Patton.I have been fighting philosophical and political battles with friends and enemies on theLeft for years. That is no surprise. The new phenomenon, for me, is dealing withRepublicans who are self-promoting and clearly do not have the best interest of the Partyat heart. If I were a Democrat I would be blasting Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, MichaelEric Dyson, and a host of others. But I am a Republican, so instead of addressing thoseon the Left, I am addressing my own, those on the Right.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/157752781/An-Open-Letter-to-Reince-Priebus
Alison Grimes Storms Into Fancy Farm and Turns Mitch McConnell Into a Paranoid Old Man
Democratic senate candidate Alison Grimes blew into the Fancy Farm Picnic, stared down Mitch McConnell, and left him looking like a directionless and paranoid old man.
Alison Grimes began by talking about her long name and then said with your help Kentucky in January 2015 you can call me senator. Grimes said that she didn’t have to apologize for having more government experience than Rand Paul. She took a shot at Paul by pointing out that he wasn’t in Kentucky, he was spending his weekend with his loved ones, the tea party in Iowa. Grimes slammed McConnell for trying to gut Medicare. She said,”If the doctors told Sen. McConnell he had a kidney stone, he would refuse to pass it.” She hammered McConnell for being the most unpopular senator among both Democrats and Republicans.
Grimes said that McConnell is disliked by the voters in Kentucky and in the United States. She said McConnell is at the center of the DC dysfunction. The Democrat said after years of McConnell’s leadership the GOP stands for Gridlock Obstruction and Partisanship. She told McConnell to stop. She called out his empty rhetoric on defending Kentucky coal. She called McConnell on his votes against the Violence Against Women Act, and the Fair Pay Act.
http://www.politicususa.com/2013/08/03/alison-grimes-storms-fancy-farm-turns-mitch-mcconnell-paranoid-man.html
Prof. Anthea Butler’s piece about the harassment she received from right wingers about her op-ed about the Zimmerman verdict. Here’s some of what she wrote:
…In the wake of the Zimmerman verdict, several Black academics have
received the hate tweet and email treatment from those disgruntled with
our analysis of the role of race in the trial. Some, like Mark Sawyer of
UCLA, even had social media accounts hacked. I created a Tumblr
of racist tweets and emails to both chronicle the racist missives of my
detractors, both for campus security and as a teaching tool. Several
theologians wrote responses buttressing my piece, but the right wing
spin machine portrayed me as a racist, liberal professor with bad
ratings who should be fired.
…As an academic who occasionally appears on television and writes both
for the academy and the public, these questions are at the forefront of
my mind as I both teach and mentor graduate students. It is one thing
to endure the ire of your peers, quite another to have hatred heaped on
you publically. Tenure was a walk in the park compared to the harassment I receive. Since September of 2012, when I made a comment on Twitter about a movie that was then thought to be the reason behind the attack on the American embassy in Benghazi, I have been routinely subjected to screeds from Fox news, Weazel Zippers, Twitchy, News Busters, and a myriad of other sites that have targeted me for my “liburl” viewpoint.
The University of Pennsylvania, and my wonderful colleagues in the
Department of Religious Studies have been routinely sent hate emails
about me. Calls to fire me are numerous. Some have even come from within the university. The Penn Switchboard is flooded with calls, and the
more conservative alums threaten to stop contributing.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/29/george-zimmerman-conservative-backlash?CMP=twt_gu
@bmangh
So far: 947 days since @SpeakerBoehner said jobs will be ‘priority one’ (and he’s delivered none) http://shar.es/h1bME
@Dreamdefenders
Today’s theme song: “Bad Boy For Life” – @iamdiddy
‘We ain’t goin nowhere….’
36 Senators Introduce Bill Prohibiting Virtually Any New Law Helping Workers
More than three-quarters of the Senate Republican caucus signed onto legislation introduced Wednesday by Sens. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Rand Paul (R-KY) that could render it virtually impossible for Congress to enact any legislation intended to improve working conditions or otherwise regulate the workplace.[….] While the bill does not apply retroactively — so existing labor laws would continue to function — the bill does allow a procedural objection to be raised against any new legislation that does not comply with the limits imposed by the bill.
Such an objection could be used to block any most attempts to enact new workplace laws — such as a bill increasing the national minimum wage or a bill prohibiting all employers from firing workers because they are gay. Similarly, Coburn and Paul’s bill could permanently entrench decisions by the conservative Roberts Court rolling back existing protections for workers — such as a recent decision shielding many employers whose senior employees engage in sexual harassment.[….]
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/08/02/2404301/36-senators-introduce-bill-prohibiting-virtually-any-new-federal-law-helping-workers/
Riley Cooper’s Grandma: He Made His Bed; ‘Has to Deal with Consequences’
Philadelphia Eagles player Riley Cooper messed up big time when he publicly used the n-word and w0n’t be getting any sympathy from this grandma.
Riley’s grandmother Betty told TMZ that it’s his own fault and he has to clean up his own mess: “[Riley] brought it upon himself and he has to deal with the consequences.”
As previously reported, during a recent Kenny Chesney concert, Riley said he would fight “every n***er” at the show and has since taken leave from the Eagles to pursue counseling.
According to his nana, Riley’s behavior is surprising as he was raised in a good household that never condoned racism at all.
But Grandma Betty says its good he’s facing his problem now before it gets any worse.
http://www.eurweb.com/2013/08/riley-coopers-grandma-he-made-his-bed-has-to-deal-with-consequences/
I don’t know if Granny is racist or not, but I will bet the farm that Riley Cooper had a great deal of influence from his family and the relatives to become the racist that he is.
I wish the Eagles would just cut him and be done with it. He isn’t worth the pain in the a$$ that he is now and always will be. And what is counseling supposed to do? Teach him to say the right things? Leopards don’t change their spots.
Counseling? Riley Cooper seem to be pretty comfortable saying the slurs. He thought he was in good company.
fuck this slave catching coon
………………
Detroit Emergency Manager Orr: Union workers were “dumb, lazy, happy and rich”
by Eclectablog on AUGUST 4, 2013
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr had some choice insulting words about union workers in Detroit. In the interview, he had this to say:
“For a long time the city was dumb, lazy, happy and rich…Detroit has been the center of more change in the 20th century than I dare say virtually any other city, but that wealth allowed us to have a covenant [that held] if you had an eighth grade education, you’ll get 30 years of a good job and a pension and great health care, but you don’t have to worry about what’s going to come.”
What Mr. Orr seems to forget is that it was the rise of the manufacturing industry in the United States along with the labor unions that created the middle class. The men and women he degrades with this callous statement worked hard every day in the factories that built things in this country. To describe them as dumb, lazy, and rich is beyond absurd and is incredibly insulting. Detroit’s problems don’t stem from union workers being able to make a decent wage with benefits and a pension. This country is strong, both economically and socially, because workers had enough money in their pockets to buy the things they were building.
http://www.eclectablog.com/2013/08/detroit-emergency-manager-orr-union-workers-were-dumb-lazy-happy-and-rich.html
Republicans Go On Attack — Against Others In GOP
DAVID ESPO AUGUST 3, 2013, 9:09 AM
WASHINGTON (AP) — The barbs are personal, the differences are multiplying among Republicans, a party divided over spending, foreign policy, a willingness to risk a government shutdown in order to defund the health care law and more.
“I didn’t start this one and I don’t plan on starting things by criticizing other Republicans,” Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said recently as he and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie likened one another to various cuts of a butchered pig.
“But if they want to make me the target, they will get it back in spades.”
No matter who started it, in the past few months, one Republican called others “wacko birds,” another said some of the party’s lawmakers were “stale and moss-covered” and a third suggested one member of the GOP was a tool of the White House.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/republicans-go-on-attack—-against-others-in-gop.php
Glenn Thrush @GlennThrush24m
@petesouza is a very good photog — but it would be nice to see White House offer photojournalists more access to Obama.
Ron Fournier @ron_fournier22m
@GlennThrush @petesouza agree. He is a good photog, but his job is now PR. Need skeptical eyes on Presidents.
Yahtc,
Here is my response.
From the beginning of the Trayvon Martin case, it made racists uncomfortable because they could not sweep it under the floor.
First Crime: Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin FOUGHT FOR THEIR BLACK SON.
Yes, they had the nerve to fight for their BLACK SON.
They had the nerve not to buy the racist bullshyt set forth by the Sanford Police Department.
Black people are constantly told by White folks that we should just ‘ accept’ what the Police tells us. That Black people just ‘ imagine’ all the problems and issues and mistrust that we have with law enforcement, due to the YEARS of mistreatment by law enforcement.
The OBVIOUSNESS of the Sanford Police Department in doing EVERYTHING BAD THAT BLACK PEOPLE HAVE SAID FOR YEARS about how the police treat us differently….
They were mad that that couldn’t be swept under the floor.
Second Crime: Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin WERE EDUCATED, SAVVY Black people who knew how to work it to bring their case to the forefront.
This cannot be discounted. They knew how to use the media to get their son’s case out there in the media. They knew which attorney’s to contact. They got Rev. Al involved.
Third Crime: Black people all over the country said HELL TO THE NO about Zimmerman not being charged.
White folk couldn’t control it, were never out in front of it, and the more they tried to dismiss it, the louder the voices got.
Fourth Crime: Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin smashed every stereotype possible when it came to Black parents. They weren’t together, but it was obvious that they were raising their son together. They weren’t battling one another. They were supporting one another. Tracy Martin was a strong, loving dignified Black man whose love for his son poured out from every syllable he uttered.
Fifth Crime: President Obama expressed sympathy and support for Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin.
I have routinely said that Trayvon Martin was stalked, hunted and murdered for the crime of WALKING WHILE BLACK.
There is absolutely nothing that any racist can say to combat that.
Trayvon committed no crime.
That trial was as farcical as the trial of the killers of Emmitt Till.
Thank you so much, rikyrah, for breaking down the racist response with such clarity for me. You post really helps me understand how racists just want to bury any challenge to themselves and their racist, white-power system of justice.
And there you have it!
Good Morning, Everyone.
Good Morning, rikyrah and Everybody!
My soul feels good listening to Mahalia!
Happy Sunday, everyone!
1 John 5:14
And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.