Serendipity SOUL | Monday Open Thread | Santana Week!

Posted on August 26, 2013 by rikyrah

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Happy Monday, Everyone.  This week’s featured artist is Santana.

Santana_(1971)

Wiki: Santana is a Latin music influenced Grammy Award winning, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, rock band. Founded in San Francisco during the late 1960s, it is based around the compositions and playing of lead guitarist and founder Carlos Santana. The band first came to widespread public attention when their performance of their Latin rock song “Soul Sacrifice” at Woodstock in 1969 provided a contrast to other acts on the bill. This exposure helped propel their first album, also named Santana, into a hit, followed in the next two years by the successful Abraxas and Santana III.

In the years that followed lineup changes were common. Carlos Santana’s increasing involvement with guru Sri Chinmoy took the band into more esoteric music, though never quite losing its initial Latin influence.

In 1998, the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with Carlos Santana, Jose Chepito Areas, David Brown, Gregg Rolie, Mike Carabello and Michael Shrieve being honored.[1]

The band has earned eight Grammy Awards and three Latin Grammy Awards, the latter all in 2000. Carlos also won Grammy Awards as a solo artist in 1989 and 2003. Santana has sold more than 90 million records worldwide, making them one of the world’s best-selling groups of all time.[2] In 2013 Santana announced a reunion of the classic line-up for a new record, predicting a 2014 release.

Black Magic Woman

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121 Responses to Serendipity SOUL | Monday Open Thread | Santana Week!

  2. rikyrah says:
    August 26, 2013 at 9:40 pm

    Ex-US Attorney Calls James O’Keefe ‘A Nasty Little Cowardly Spud’

    The conservative video maker James O’Keefe has turned his cameras on the former federal prosecutor whose office brought charges against him and his accomplices in the phone-tampering of a Democratic U.S. senator.

    In a video released by O’Keefe’s Project Veritas on Monday, former U.S. Attorney James Letten can be seen shouting at O’Keefe and his colleagues. Letten can also be seen filming O’Keefe with his own smart phone.

    “You went to my house, you terrorized my wife, you’re violating federal law, you’re trespassing, you’re a nasty little cowardly spud,” Letten says in the video. “All of you, you’re hobbits. You are less than I can ever tell you. You are scum. Do you understand?”

    The video also shows O’Keefe going to Letten’s house and speaking with his wife.

    http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/ex-us-attorney-calls-james-okeefe-nasty-little?ref=fpa

    ………………………………………

    Different Category Of Gotcha

    David Kurtz August 26, 2013, 2:21 PM 681

    One more point on the latest James O’Keefe shenanigans.

    There’s a lot of backstory here, not least of which is that Jim Letten’s office prosecuted O’Keefe and his posse for their 2010 “prank” on Sen. Mary Landreiu’s office in which they gained access by posing as telephone repairmen.

    But the main thing to keep in mind in gauging Letten’s reaction is that Letten probably couldn’t care less whether O’Keefe is operating as a conservative activist (the term of art Letten uses in the video is “political extremist nutjob”) or as the journalist speaking truth to power that he fancies himself to be. As a career prosecutor, Letten is indifferent to which of those boxes O’Keefe fits in.

    In his mind, O’Keefe is a former criminal defendant who showed up at Letten’s home and talked to his spouse. That taps into the deepest, darkest fears of prosecutors. It’s in a different category than the usual O’Keefe on-camera gotcha and may explain in part why the man who took down Edwin Edwards is so livid in that video.

    Reply
  3. rikyrah says:
    August 26, 2013 at 9:24 pm

    —–☺@CharlesMBlow
    So, Rush Limbaugh goes after me today on his radio show. Yawn. In other news: kicked dogs will holler. –

    Reply
  4. rikyrah says:
    August 26, 2013 at 9:23 pm

    The problem with colorblindness

    By Alex Seitz-Wald, Published: August 26 at 12:13 pm

    As the nation marks the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s March on Washington this week, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal took the opportunity to make a plea for ignoring racial differences in a much-discussed Politico op-ed titled “The end of race“:

    There is no more shallow, hollow, or soulless way to think about human beings than in terms of their skin color. It is completely inane. Under what logic would any intelligent, logical, or decent person give any thought to the pigmentation of a person’s epidermis? It’s nothing short of immoral, not to mention stupid.

    He goes on to blame minorities and immigrants for sowing the seeds of division by being too proud of their heritage or too conscious of their skin color. That’s not what King would have wanted, Jindal writes, explaining that the civil rights icon would have embraced the American “melting pot” — “a concept that was completely compatible with Dr. King’s dream of every American being judged on the content of his character and not the color of his skin.”

    Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) (Danny Johnston/Associated Press)
    Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) (Danny Johnston/Associated Press)

    The idea is hardly unique to Jindal. Rather, it has become the de facto mainstream conservative position on race in America from people such as Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh, who essentially say, “We ignore race and look at individuals while the race-baiting left is obsessed with separateness.” There’s even a movement to “Unhyphenate America” by dropping descriptors like “African-American” and “Asian-American.”

    It’s a nice idea, in theory, but “colorblindness,” as some have called it, misunderstands King’s legacy and obscures the problems that minorities still face to this day while protecting the status quo.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/08/26/the-problem-with-colorblindness/

    Reply
  5. Yahtc says:
    August 26, 2013 at 4:00 pm

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUnyOETz7DY

    “I be your shelter
    
I be your land

    I be your every-thing;
    
I be your friend
    
I be your water

 when you’re thirsty and dry.

    

I woke up moaning in a crowded sick place
    
Surrounded by evil, protected by grace

    There were these hands, hundreds reaching for me

    They knew exactly who and what I should be

    Each way I turned, each one stronger than the last
    
Which would I choose and how could I pass?
    

Then I heard whispers (be still, be still, be still)
    
From deep inside me (be still, be still, be still)

    Then I heard whispers (be still, be still, be still)

    From deep inside me (be still, be still, be still)
    

As I gave power to the sound of my own voice

    A way broke before me,
    I followed my choice
    
I walked along the way other lives had been
    
Till I came to what seemed like an end

    
Again these hands, (there were these hands ) reaching beck’ning for me
(there were these hands)

    They knew exactly who and what I should be


    Again the whispers (be still, be still, be still)

    Keeping me steady (be still, be still, be still)

    Again the whispers (be still, be still, be still)

    Keeping me steady (be still, be still, be still)
    

The way before me was mine to take
    
There was no road, no path to take

    As I had my life through this muddy rock way
    
Others toiled beside me for a justice new day


    Still, I have felt lonely (I have felt lonely), most of the time (I have felt lonely)
    
Walking this sweet freedom struggle of mine
    
Still I have felt lonely (I have felt lonely), most of the time (I have felt lonely)
    
Walking this sweet freedom struggle of mine


    Saved by the whispers (be still, be still, be still)

    Keeping me steady (be still, be still, be still)
    
Saved by the whispers (be still, be still, be still)
    
Keeping me steady (be still, be still, be still)

    

Yesterday I stumbled around the bend
    
I saw you standing you reached me your hand

    I’ve seen you before, oh many a time
    
Why, your life had plowed the road right next to mine

    Now you make the sun (you make the sun) rise in my sky (you make the sun)

    You rock the cradle honey, you make me fly
    
You keep me company
    
Now you make the sun (you make the sun)
    
Rise in my sky (you make the sun),
    
You rock my cradle honey,

    You make me fly

    You keep me company
    

I be your shelter
I be your land
    
I be your every-thing
    
I be your friend
    
I be your water
 when you’re thirsty and dry

    *** “I be your Water” – Sweet Honey in the Rock

    >>>>>>

visit http://www.sweethoney.com
<<<<<>>>>>www.bernicejohnsonreagon.com<<<<&lt;

    

(video; joseph laurro)

    Reply
  7. Ametia says:
    August 26, 2013 at 3:17 pm

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-EjeRaLcUg

    Counting down the days when the GOP will try and RECLAIM their idea of healthcare.

    Reply
  8. SouthernGirl2 says:
    August 26, 2013 at 3:02 pm

    Jim Clyburn

    http://buzzfeedpolitics.tumblr.com/post/59408031685/when-congressman-jim-clyburn-was-15-years-old-a

    When Congressman Jim Clyburn was 15 years old, a white store owner pointed a gun in his face during a dispute over the cost of some honey buns and sodas.

    He remembers every detail about the day: how his mother let him take the car to go to a school homecoming 20 miles away in Sumter County; how he had left his clarinet behind and couldn’t march with his school’s band in the parade; how the store was right off of Highway 378; and how terrified he was when he stared at the end of the gun.

    “The guy told us how much we owed him and we disagreed with the price that he was charging us. We knew how to add — it added up to less money than he told us we owed him,” Clyburn told BuzzFeed. “We ended up paying him what it cost, what was on the labels. And we walked out of the store. I got to the car and started to turn the ignition and the man came out with Colt 45 pistol and put it on the window of the car. He said, ‘You boys owe me 50 more cents’ with a pistol in my face. My two friends jumped out of the car yelling and crying and gave him the rest of the money they had on them — more than 50 cents. And we took off. It was a harrowing experience.”

    As the nation commemorates the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington this week, Clyburn, 73, said he feared too many people today were giving in to what Martin Luther King Jr. called “the tranquilizing drug of gradualism” — and forgetting the details of the past.

    50 Years After The March On Washington, Jim Clyburn Is Worried

    Reply
    • Ametia says:
      August 26, 2013 at 3:07 pm

      SG2; these same folks are screaming about us complaining and telling us to get over it. They want us to shut up and disappear. HELL NAW! The same shady shit’s going down around America. They’re not even trying to hide the hatred and vitriol.

      Reply
      • Ametia says:
        August 26, 2013 at 3:10 pm

        BTW, some members of the CBC and few other house negroes are partially to blame for the backward slide, by buying in to the crumbs they were fed to keep quiet about the inequality and injustices being perpetuated in the black/hispanic communities.

        As well as the rest of us who starting falling asleep behind the wheel and took our eyes off the prize…

        Reply
    • Yahtc says:
      August 26, 2013 at 3:26 pm

      The link you posted, SG2, led to this op-ed by James Clyburn:

      I spent many of my college days organizing sit-ins and marches, and being jailed for my efforts; and my first meeting with Martin Luther King Jr. in October 1960 was a life-altering experience. So I was highly disappointed when preparations for my second year as a public school teacher in Charleston, S.C., prevented my participation in the historic March on Washington. Although my body was in South Carolina, like millions of Americans, my heart and soul were in Washington, D.C.
      But unlike millions of Americans, Dr. King’s soaring oration of the “Dream” was not what captured my attention at that march. Instead, it was his theme of the “fierce urgency of now” that resonated strongly with me. Dr. King and many of us during that era had grown weary of being told to “wait,” that the time was not right. As he stood before the Lincoln Memorial, Dr. King intoned, “This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy.”
      Even with that call for urgency, it would be several years before the segregated schools in which I began my career were integrated. Thanks to the persistence of Dr. King, Septima Clark, John Lewis and many others, slowly but surely significant progress was made. And when Barack Obama was elected our nation’s 44th president, many believed the United States had finally turned the corner on racial equality. Since that high point, however, the political pendulum has swung dramatically to the right and we have begun to witness the unraveling of much that took nearly a century to achieve.
      We are experiencing manufactured controversies and coordinated misrepresentations designed to undermine the president and devalue the presidency. Legislative efforts to deny access to affordable health care, educational opportunities and an unfettered ballot are sweeping the country. Judicial decisions equating corporations with people, money with speech, and effective representation with voter participation are becoming the norm. We seem to be standing on what Dr. King called the “quicksands of racial injustice.”
      As I watch these efforts unfold and grab hold, I am concerned at the lack of urgency among the affected groups. On Capitol Hill, the Congressional Black Caucus, Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Asian and Pacific Americans Caucus are sounding alarms, but we don’t feel the groundswell from the grass roots.
      As we celebrate the March on Washington’s 50th anniversary, let’s not forget what that petition was all about. We must remember that following the Emancipation Proclamation, black Americans were integrated into the mainstream of American government, business and society. But in its 1875 Cruikshank decision, the U.S. Supreme Court gave rise to decades of creative devices of “interposition and nullification” in state after state; and in its 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision established “separate but equal” as the law of the land and it remained so for the next 60 years.
      As a teacher, I often cautioned my students that anything that’s happened before can happen again. Today, I often remind audiences of George Santayana’s admonition that, if we fail to learn the lessons of our history, we are bound to repeat them.
      I am hopeful that current generations have learned the lessons of that history, a benefit our forebears did not have. Hopefully, we will not succumb to the “tranquilizing drug of gradualism,” as Dr. King warned, and remember his summon that “now is the time to make real the promise of democracy” and ensure that the promise is applied equitably and for eternity.

      http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/08/19/march-on-washington-jim-clyburn/2646865/

      Reply
  9. Yahtc says:
    August 26, 2013 at 2:49 pm

    Hey, Ladies……according to the Lakota creation story, woman was created FIRST!

    Today the Lakota Sioux have an outstanding theater group:

    Reply
    • SouthernGirl2 says:
      August 26, 2013 at 3:06 pm

      Hey Yahtc!

      We’re on the same page today. I’m listening to Shawnee Sioux War Dance. Love Love it!

      My great grandmother was Choctaw.

      Reply
    • Yahtc says:
      August 26, 2013 at 3:11 pm

      In the last decade the Zuni people are returning to farming, gardening, nutrition, and healthy life styles.

      During this time they have returned to their Harvest Dance.

      Reply
    • Yahtc says:
      August 26, 2013 at 5:01 pm

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUneNRAneFg

      I watched this video a half a year ago. I came away from it so sad. Who could not come away upset after watching it.

      To think of all of the children who had their heritage of centuries “surgically” removed with precision schooling away from their family and tribe’s influence. Devasting. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

      It was a program to eliminate the Native American…..maybe not in the manner of direct genocide, but the effect was the same.

      There should be accountability; the government now should pay for teaching indigenous languages to the children of tribal nations today…..and so much more.

      Reply
      • SouthernGirl2 says:
        August 26, 2013 at 6:14 pm

        I am just shocked at our wave length today! What’s going on here? Ametia can witness that I sent her an email and we were speaking about this very thing. I’m working on some upcoming open thread posts on Native American Chiefs and was discussing the Indian kids sent to the Carlisle Indian industrial school with Ametia and how cruel it was to take those kids away from their parents/culture. Kids died by the hundreds.

        Reply
      • Yahtc says:
        August 26, 2013 at 6:36 pm

        Amazing! There has to be a reason for this.

        Reply
  11. Ametia says:
    August 26, 2013 at 2:25 pm

    I thoroughly enjoyed the Oprah-Tina interview last night on OWN. Here’s a snippet:

    Reply
  12. rikyrah says:
    August 26, 2013 at 1:51 pm

    For the Scandal Fans…

    I had missed this over at Luvvie’s

    ……………

    The Scandal Brolivia Pope Theory: Who is Harrison?

    [ 51 ] August 16, 2013 | Luvvie

    Two seasons into Scandal and the only person that still feels as mysterious as Olivia Pope is Harrison, the Gooning Gladiator in Gingham. Actually, I feel like we know him even less than we know Liv. We know nothing about his background, his hobbies, his home, and all that. At least we know Liv loves wine, white and wide-leg pants. All we know about Harrison is that he loves gingham and suspenders.

    Also, Harrison is the only main character who hasn’t been linked to anyone romantically. WHY CAN’T HARRISON’S SEGZY SELF GET SOME?!? Although I might be jealous when I finally see him with someone because CoYUMbus is my boo.

    I mentioned it in my season 2 finale recap and I think Harrison’s being called Brolivia Pope is more than just a nickname.

    We were calling him Brolivia Pope because he’s so protective of her and besides Huck, he’s the other Gladiator who is blindly loyal to her. No questions asked.

    Harrison will follow Liv to the ends of the Earth and fly off a cliff if she asks him to without a second thought. And there are times when this even confuses Liv. He is SO passionate about being a Gladiator and at first, I was wondering what she did to earn it. Besides the fact that she got his insider trading case dropped. He be so ready to GOON for her at any moment.

    Methinks Harrison is REALLY Olivia’s brother, and his fierce loyalty to her is a product of that

    http://www.awesomelyluvvie.com/2013/08/scandal-brolivia-pope-theory.html

    Reply
  13. rikyrah says:
    August 26, 2013 at 1:45 pm

    Rosen: The 2013 VMAs Were Dominated by Miley’s Minstrel Show
    By Jody Rosen

    Some awards were handed out at last night’s MTV Video Music Awards, but, really, only Wikipedia and Kanye West keep track of those. There was an interminable Justin Timberlake medley, interrupted, very briefly, by an *NSYNC reunion — after which, presumably, Timberlake’s ex-bandmates were Medevac-ed back to their South Florida retirement communities. Bruno Mars played the excellent “Gorilla,” the finest Def Leppard tribute song you’ve heard all year. Katy Perry closed the show with an enjoyable, boxing-themed staging of her jock-rock single “Roar,” which was hyped throughout the broadcast, inaccurately, as her “biggest hit ever.”

    But all of that stuff was superfluous. Everything you needed to see took place inside the first twenty minutes, in the two performances that opened the show. The evening began with Lady Gaga, who took the stage in what looked like an exploded version of Sally Field’s old Flying Nun getup, and ran through some intricate choreography, changing outfits, and wigs, several times while singing her new single “Applause.” It was a rather stiff performance; you could practically see Gaga counting off her dance steps in her head. It was also an exercise in VMAs classicism, mixing spectacle and mild titillation. It ended with Gaga stripped to a thong bikini made of seashells, which she wore for the rest of the night.

    http://www.vulture.com/2013/08/jody-rosen-miley-cyrus-vmas-minstrel.html?mid=twitter_nymag

    Reply
  14. rikyrah says:
    August 26, 2013 at 1:43 pm

    Count me as a Santana fan :)

    Reply
  15. rikyrah says:
    August 26, 2013 at 1:20 pm

    Miley Cyrus in Dolce&Gabbana at the 2013 MTV VMAs
    Posted on Aug 26, 2013 in Fashion

    Miley, we’re going to put on our Kindly Gay Uncles hats for a moment and speak to you in a loving, but direct manner.

    Girl, you look fucking STUPID.

    Now put that away. No one wants to see it.

    http://www.tomandlorenzo.com/2013/08/miley-cyrus-in-dolcegabbana-at-the-2013-mtv-vmas.html

    Reply
  16. TyrenM says:
    August 26, 2013 at 12:51 pm

    Good Morning 3Chics!
    In late from seeing daughter off to 1st grade. I’ve liked Santana since childhood. Looking forward to PBO speech Wednesday and “Maria Maria” later in the week. Have a good day all.

    Reply
    • SouthernGirl2 says:
      August 26, 2013 at 12:55 pm

      Hi Tyren!

      I hope your little one have the best year ever.

      Reply
      • Deborah Moore says:
        August 26, 2013 at 1:33 pm

        @SouthernGirl2:

        What’s up? Long time. Been working and trying to ignore the stupid headlines that they post about Fogen! Everytime he takes a sh** they print it! Let me reiterate: The only headline I want to read is when someone pops his punk A$$! He is walking around here smiling and knowing he got away with the murder of Trayvon Martin. If I believed in curses, I would put one on him, his family and all of his lying friends! LOL!

        Carlos Santana finally got the recognition he deserved at the Grammy awards so many years ago, but I knew he and that band were talented so many years ago. They were the bomb back in the day! I remember playing his jams on the boom box in the school cafeteria. I was to young to attend Woodstock, (and Mom said I couldn’t go anyway) but some of the kids from my older brothers class did go, and that is when Santana got world wide recognition, but he was known already here in NYC! My favorite songs by Santana? Black Magic Women, and Everybody’s Everything! Do you hear the congo’s in that song? Off the hook! You are bringing back memories of Junior High and High School and also revealing my age??! LOL! My kids love those songs, and my son just went to Youtube to play it!

        Reply
        • SouthernGirl2 says:
          August 26, 2013 at 1:51 pm

          Hola, Deborah!

          Nice to see you! The Orlando Sentinel prints GZ’s every move and his supporters wait like buzzards on a fence post to eat it up. I get so tired of reading the hate. They have no life but hate.

          Santana rocks! I’ve always loved Black Magic Woman & Oye Como Va! What chu saaaay?!


          Reply
      • Yahtc says:
        August 26, 2013 at 2:09 pm

        Hi Deborah!

        I am so glad to see you here!

        Reply
    • Ametia says:
      August 26, 2013 at 1:23 pm

      Hi ya, Brotha Tyren. I’ll bet your daughter was so excited. Wishing her all the best this year.

      BTW, Maria Maria is on the list this week. :-))

      Reply
  17. SouthernGirl2 says:
    August 26, 2013 at 12:20 pm

    Haley and Jay at school this morning.

    Haley at school

    Jay at school

    Reply
  18. rikyrah says:
    August 26, 2013 at 12:02 pm

    Blaming the unemployed
    By Steve Benen
    Mon Aug 26, 2013 12:43 PM EDT

    A few months ago, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (R) was asked about his poor record on job creation after three years in office. Corbett offered a variety of explanations for his record, including this gem: “[T]here are many employers that say we’re looking for people but we can’t find anybody that has passed a drug test, a lot of them.”

    As a rule, this isn’t exactly a political winner. For one thing, it’s factually wrong. For another, accusing the jobless of being drug addicts tends to offend those struggling to find work.

    But Corbett isn’t the only one who’s pushing this argument. Rep. Dave Joyce (R-Ohio) argued last week in a speech to a local Chamber of Commerce that there are “3 million jobs every month in this country that go unfilled.” The congressman thinks he knows why.

    “And the trouble is, it’s because they either can’t find people to come to work sober, daily, drug-free and want to learn the necessary skills going forward to be able to do those jobs,” he added.

    http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/08/26/20198732-blaming-the-unemployed?lite

    Reply
    • Yahtc says:
      August 26, 2013 at 12:15 pm

      Oh, come on…..there are plenty of qualified people…Corbett’s excuse is a lousy excuse.

      All of us need especially to become advocates for residents of inner cities across America. We need to DEMAND job creation in the inner cities.

      It is definitely possible to do…….Everybody in a position of power….whether corporations, store chains or elected representatives……..can make this HAPPEN!!!

      Reply
  19. rikyrah says:
    August 26, 2013 at 11:55 am

    A response over at BJ to a feminism celebration thread:

    Drexciya says:

    August 26, 2013 at 11:07 am
    .
    I’m sorry, let me attempt a different – but equally appropriate – response.

    You’re not on my side. Don’t pretend that you are. We’re not allies, we’re not friends and not only will we never be, we never should be. You’re loyal to a vision of political progress that rests on the invisibility and marginalization of the interests and challenges of me and mine. Your success rests on my disadvantage. We may both vote Democratic, but never take that as a reason to propel the delusion that you’re actually interested in what’s best for me and mine instead of what’s best for a white-defined, white-beneficial, falsely universal “all.” Your loyalties were exposed the moment you thought a self-serving elision of collective white responsibility for racism was a reasonable topical tack.

    In deemphasizing racism as a dynamic that warrants specific, proactive redress from the societally empowered, you’ve implicitly made the silent continuation and acceptance of racism and white supremacy a logical and morally defensible proposition if you’re white. That’s wonderful if that’s true for you. Unfortunately, that’s not true for everyone else. Condescendingly dismissing the trade-offs of prioritizing white supremacy innocuously presented as white, universal “interests” is exactly the kind of analysis that makes the broader and largely white progressive blogosphere moan about abstractions while maintaining a distant silence about the actively and directly disadvantaged.

    Also, I’m not remotely interested in making your argument for you. You’ve constructed a world where whiteness and access to whiteness didn’t qualify as social currency, regardless of gender. You’ve crafted a reality where white women – who directed black servants, lived on plantations, attended lynchings and were directly responsible for some of them and financially benefited from having white fathers, white brothers and white husbands – held no personal power and no personal agency for its propagation. Your objections rest on fiction. And you want me to address them seriously? You want me to say that only black people should be in a supposed “no-win situation?”

    I refuse.

    Reply
  20. rikyrah says:
    August 26, 2013 at 11:53 am

    [caption id="attachment_48454" align="alignnone" width="600"]EAST HAMPTON, NY - AUGUST 24: Colin Powell and Jamie Foxx perform at the 4th Annual Apollo In The Hamptons Benefit on August 24, 2013 in East Hampton, New York. (Photo by Shahar Azran/WireImage) EAST HAMPTON, NY – AUGUST 24: Colin Powell and Jamie Foxx perform at the 4th Annual Apollo In The Hamptons Benefit on August 24, 2013 in East Hampton, New York. (Photo by Shahar Azran/WireImage)[/caption]

    Colin Powell Sang ‘Blurred Lines’ on a Stage
    BY MAUREEN O’CONNOR

    Along with Katie Holmes, Lenny Kravitz, Ellen DeGeneres, Jamie Foxx, and Pharrell, former secretary of state Colin Powell “jumped onstage” at the Fourth Annual Apollo in the Hamptons benefit this weekend. He “even sang a few lines of Robin Thicke’s summer hit ‘Blurred Lines,'” reports “Page Six.”

    Now, we cannot say with certainty whether or not the following picture shows Colin Powell singing the lines, “But you’re an animal, baby, it’s in your nature / Just let me liberate you / Hey, hey, hey

    http://nymag.com/thecut/2013/08/colin-powell-sang-blurred-lines-on-a-stage.html

    Reply
  21. rikyrah says:
    August 26, 2013 at 11:29 am

    smith family reaction to miley cyrus
    The Smith Family reaction to Miley Cyrus at the VMAs

    Reply
  22. rikyrah says:
    August 26, 2013 at 11:28 am

    jennifer hudson as princess tiana

    Jennifer Hudson as Princess Tiana

    Reply
  23. rikyrah says:
    August 26, 2013 at 11:26 am

    The right seizes on Christopher Lane’s killing
    By Steve Benen
    Mon Aug 26, 2013 11:02 AM EDT

    Shooting deaths in the United States may be tragically common, but when three Oklahoma teenagers shot and killed Australian baseball player Christopher Lane 10 days ago, the circumstances were gut-wrenching. The suspected killers, ranging in age from 15 to 17, later said they murdered Lane because they were simply “bored and didn’t have anything to do.”

    Since the terrible incident in the town of Duncan, however, U.S. conservatives have decided Lane’s death is a political opportunity. This is especially true of Fox News, whose White House correspondent, Ed Henry, had this exchange last Wednesday with White House Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest:

    HENRY: Do you have any reaction to the Christopher Lane case?

    EARNEST: I’m not familiar with it, actually.

    HENRY: In Oklahoma, this 22-year-old Australian — 22 or 23, I’ve seen different reports — baseball player, came from Australia, was targeted apparently by three African American young men who — the Australian was out on a jog and these young men apparently told the police they were bored and they thought it would just be fun to kill him. Any reaction to that?

    Note the specific wording of Henry’s question: “three African American young men.” In reality, one of the alleged shooters is black, one is white, and one is of mixed racial heritage. But for the Fox News correspondent, this became “three African American young men.”

    The back-and-forth continued as you might expect it to — the White House spokesperson said it “sounds like a pretty tragic case” and add some related thoughts on the importance of reducing gun violence. Ed Henry, unsatisfied, wanted an explanation as to why President Obama commented on the Trayvon Martin case, but not this one.

    And almost immediately, the rest of the conservative media began pushing the same line, almost as if it were coordinated. In the blink of an eye, the murder was the right’s new rallying cry to express a racial/political grievance — if the shooting of an unarmed black teenager was a national controversy, then the shooting of an unarmed white baseball player should be, too.

    In one especially jarring instance, Drudge published a piece on this Friday carefully omitting the mugshot of the white assailant, showing only the other two suspected shooters. The racial subtext was so obvious, it was no longer a subtext at all.

    It was part of a much larger push, which quickly started ignoring relevant details.

    http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/08/26/20197642-the-right-seizes-on-christopher-lanes-killing?threadId=3802125&commentId=78547370#c78547370

    Reply
  24. Yahtc says:
    August 26, 2013 at 11:24 am

    “Black lawmakers lament flaring of racial tensions under Obama”

    By Niall Stanage – 08/26/13 05:45 AM ET

    http://thehill.com/homenews/news/318601-black-lawmakers-lament-flaring-of-racial-tensions-under-obama

    Reply
    • Ametia says:
      August 26, 2013 at 11:48 am

      The comments section in this article are despicable, and it proves that these RACIST white folks don’t have a clue. They’re always the first ones to deny racism, by projecting racism on black fols.

      Not one of the commenters would ever dream of highlighting any actual facts about voter suppression laws written to disinfranchise blacks, elderly, college students, etc. Nope it’s all Al Sharpton’s fault that they hate black people so much.

      What these bigots really want is for us to be quite and remain SILENT, while they assail, lie, cheat, steal, and reign their racial hatred on POC. GTFOH. We will not be SILENCED.

      Reply
      • Yahtc says:
        August 26, 2013 at 11:59 am

        x2

        Reply
      • aquagranny911 says:
        August 26, 2013 at 12:21 pm

        I’ve got real issues with members of the CBC who blame President Obama for the ugly & “right out in front of God & everybody” (quoting my Granny) racist behavior that is condoned by media, GOP & the emufrogs on the left.

        The racists have always been there but they just feel more free to spew their hate in public these days because they are not being really called out & shunned as total “unpersons.”

        I totally agree “We will not be SILENCED.” If we have any honor for those who went before 50 years ago, suffered & died then we have to STAND & not be MOVED! “Speak the truth & shame the devil!” (another quote from my Granny)

        Reply
      • Ametia says:
        August 26, 2013 at 1:21 pm

        @AG. Some of the members of CBC are so entrenched in the ways of white folks, they go along to get along at this point. We need new, younger blood.

        Reply
  25. Yahtc says:
    August 26, 2013 at 11:21 am

    “Right On Track: Chicago premiere of ‘Pullman Porter Blues’ story of hope and dreams of equality for southside train fame neighborhood”

    http://www.nwitimes.com/niche/shore/entertainment/arts-and-theatre/right-on-track-chicago-premiere-of-pullman-porter-blues-story/article_0dbdf4d3-2ac3-522a-b68b-215bcdf60bd4.html

    Reply
  26. rikyrah says:
    August 26, 2013 at 11:16 am

    Who has Obama’s back? Those who’ve been in the struggle all along

    Today I’d like to point you all to a diary my friend Denise Oliver Velez wrote back in 2008 when the FISA bill was going through Congress. I don’t agree with everything she said (as the saying goes, if I did, one of us would be unnecessary) – but the message is clear.

    I have never had privacy. My parents had no privacy. I grew up under the persecution of the McCarthy period, and watched family friends driven out of jobs, and some driven to suicide. I watched my father watch the backs of his friends, and I have learned how to be a trooper since the day I could walk…

    The Constitution that has been bandied about here in hysterical FISA diaries of outrage in the last few days has very little meaning for me…The privacy that you are so willing to throw Obama under the bus for has no meaning for me. I’ve never had the luxury to have any…

    The Constitution was a series of compromises, and black folks got the worst of them. Legislation is a series of compromises. This country is a series of compromises. The young are impatient. It makes them refreshing but it also makes them stupid. They will throw themselves at the barricades and commit revolutionary suicide in the name of purity…

    And so they rant on…in diary after diary after diary…and I sit in wonder and wonder – where were you when we were dying? Where are you when were crying? Who among you challenged COINTELPRO? Who fought J Edgar Hoover? Who among you will go to jail for me? Will die for me, will call out the names of the dead killed by that piece of paper you now brandish like a sword to impale your former Hero? Oh how your Champion has fallen and will you banish him from your side of this game called politics? For I see now that for you it is but a game.

    I don’t play games. Games are for children. I’m not in a tournament. Tournaments are for athletes and Knights of the Roundtable in fairy tales. I’m in a war – and this is just one battle, one skirmish in a war that has gone on since Christopher Columbus got lost on his way to despoil India. A war that I will not see the end of. A war that requires a patience that transcends death. A war that may determine if any human beings remain alive to carry on the struggle on this planet when I am turned to dust.

    But I know my role in that war. I’m an aging foot soldier. I’m a protective grandmother, a woman, a black woman. I don’t forget, and I don’t forgive, but I do my duty and I stand as one among thousands. I say proudly, “Barack. Young man. I got your back.” I will fight all and any who have falsely claimed to be a part of this struggle, but turned tail at the sight of the first puff of smoke. I will denounce them as cowards.

    The way I see it, women and people of color know that RIGHT NOW they are in the fight of their lives to maintain the forward movements people like Denise and her generation struggled to attain. And she’s not about to get distracted from that fight by the games the purists want to play. You go girl!!!!

    http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2013/08/who-has-obamas-back-those-whove-been-in.html?spref=tw

    Reply
    • Ametia says:
      August 26, 2013 at 11:25 am

      X’S 100000000000000000000000

      3 CHICS’ GOT YOUR BACK, MR. PRESIDENT!

      Reply
      • aquagranny911 says:
        August 26, 2013 at 11:54 am

        Co-Sign that 10000000000000000000000000000TIMES!!!

        Just IMHO, but the concept of “privacy” has always seemed to me to be something for the privileged. All the emufrog wailing about NSA reading email & knowing what porn sites some people visit makes me look on them with contempt. People applying for food stamps or other public assistance know real violations of privacy.

        Not to be silly but my Sis says this: “No Latino truly knows privacy since the familia & community is always up in our business. The Anglos must live in a different place than us.

        Reply
  27. aquagranny911 says:
    August 26, 2013 at 11:13 am

    I will try this one more time. Third time for luck & then I give up.

    Reply
  28. SouthernGirl2 says:
    August 26, 2013 at 10:33 am

    Jay and Haley went back to school today. I’m sad this morning. :(

    Reply
  29. rikyrah says:
    August 26, 2013 at 9:23 am

    How not to defend voter suppression in North Carolina
    By Steve Benen
    Mon Aug 26, 2013 10:10 AM EDT

    Two weeks after North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) approved the most sweeping voter-suppression law seen in the United States in a generation, the political world is taking note of the disaster in growing numbers. Last week, former Secretary of State Colin Powell condemned the state’s new voting restrictions, and yesterday, pundit Cokie Roberts said, “[W]hat’s going on about voting rights is downright evil.”

    But don’t worry, the Eagle Forum’s Phyllis Schlafly, a prominent leader of the religious right movement for decades, has a new defense. In a WorldNetDaily column, the right-wing activist offered an unexpected explanation of why some of North Carolina’s new restrictions are worthwhile.

    The reduction in the number of days allowed for early voting is particularly important because early voting plays a major role in Obama’s ground game. The Democrats carried most states that allow many days of early voting, and Obama’s national field director admitted, shortly before last year’s election, that “early voting is giving us a solid lead in the battleground states that will decide this election.”

    The Obama technocrats have developed an efficient system of identifying prospective Obama voters and then nagging them (some might say harassing them) until they actually vote. It may take several days to accomplish this, so early voting is an essential component of the Democrats’ get-out-the-vote campaign.

    Have you ever heard a political figure accidentally read stage direction, unaware that it’s not supposed to repeated out loud? This is what Schlafly’s published column reminds me of.

    For North Carolina Republicans, the state’s new voter-suppression measures are ostensibly legitimate — GOP officials are simply worried about non-existent fraud. The response from Democrats and voting-rights advocates is multi-faceted, but emphasizes that some of these measures, including restrictions on early voting, have nothing whatsoever to do with fraud prevention and everything to do with a partisan agenda.

    And then there’s Phyllis Schlafly, writing a piece for publication effectively saying Democrats are entirely right — North Carolina had to dramatically cut early voting because it’s not good for Republicans.

    http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/08/26/20197189-how-not-to-defend-voter-suppression-in-north-carolina?lite

    Reply
  30. CarolMaeWY says:
    August 26, 2013 at 9:09 am

    Good Morning. Thank you for choosing Santana. I can remember the first time someone on my dorm got their album and we even watched her open it. Then we listened. A REAL album. Times were tough then; no iPods. ;)

    Reply
  31. rikyrah says:
    August 26, 2013 at 8:27 am

    Ginsburg reflects on present, future
    By Steve Benen
    Mon Aug 26, 2013 8:37 AM EDT.

    Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg sat down for a fascinating interview with the New York Times’ Adam Liptak, which is generally a departure from the norm. As Liptak noted, “Unless they have a book to sell, Supreme Court justices rarely give interviews.”

    But Ginsburg, an 80-year-old jurist confirmed to the high court two decades ago, had quite a bit to say about the justices’ recent work, Congress’ dysfunction, and the recent far-right trend that has made this “one of the most activist courts in history.”

    Of particular interest to court watchers, though, are Ginsburg’s career plans. For many on the left, her retirement before the end of President Obama’s second term is critically important to the nation’s future, but for now, the justice seems intent on staying on the job.

    On Friday, she said repeatedly that the identity of the president who would appoint her replacement did not figure in her retirement planning.

    “There will be a president after this one, and I’m hopeful that that president will be a fine president,” she said.

    Were Mr. Obama to name Justice Ginsburg’s successor, it would presumably be a one-for-one liberal swap that would not alter the court’s ideological balance. But if a Republican president is elected in 2016 and gets to name her successor, the court would be fundamentally reshaped.

    http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/08/26/20196360-ginsburg-reflects-on-present-future?lite

    Reply
  32. rikyrah says:
    August 26, 2013 at 8:22 am

    A rare defeat for the religious right in Alabama
    By Steve Benen
    Mon Aug 26, 2013 9:19 AM EDT.

    Dissent on culture-war issues is rarely tolerated within the Republican Party. A few months ago, for example, the chair of the Illinois Republican Party was forced to step down for having the audacity to say gay Americans should be able to allowed to get married.

    In Alabama, where dissent among Republicans on social conservatism is even less common, a similar fight has brewed in recent weeks and was resolved over the weekend. The outcome was not altogether expected.

    At the heart of the controversy is Alabama College Republicans Chairwoman Stephanie Petelos, who praised the Supreme Court’s ruling striking down the Defense of Marriage Act on Facebook. Soon after, she told a local news outlet she supports marriage equality because “we’re governed by the constitution and not the Bible.”

    The comments were not well received within the Alabama GOP. State Republican officials quickly began the process of writing new bylaws that would require all steering committee members to support the party’s positions as outlined in the national platform. Those who publicly disagree would be removed from their leadership posts.

    On Saturday, in a surprising turn of events, efforts to punish Petelos fell short.

    http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/08/26/20196811-a-rare-defeat-for-the-religious-right-in-alabama?lite

    Reply
  33. rikyrah says:
    August 26, 2013 at 8:10 am

    ‘We do not have the votes right now’
    By Steve Benen
    Mon Aug 26, 2013 8:00 AM EDT

    Proponents of the Republican government-shutdown scheme generally express nothing but optimism — their support is growing, they say, and the effort continues apace.

    There is, however, ample reason to believe the GOP is moving further away from actually executing the shutdown plan.

    Late last week, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), the #4 member of the House Republican leadership, dismissed the scheme, saying it’s “probably not realistic.” Around the same time, Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.) stressed his hatred for the Affordable Care Act, but nevertheless added that his party should invest its energies elsewhere.

    Yesterday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), one of the key ringleaders of the shutdown scheme, conceded, “We do not have the votes right now.”

    So, it’s over, right? Not quite yet.

    http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/08/26/20195733-we-do-not-have-the-votes-right-now?lite

    Reply
  34. rikyrah says:
    August 26, 2013 at 8:03 am

    Martin Luther King Was A Liberal Progressive Who Favored Left Wing Causes & Don’t You Forget It

    By Oliver Willis · August 23,2013

    As we head towards the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, it is worth pausing for a second to solidly stake out the fact that Martin Luther King Jr. was a man of the left.

    For years the right has sought to either de-politicize Rev. King or expunge his leftist sentiment from the public record. We are told time and again that King was somehow beyond ideology and that his quest for civil rights and justice didn’t deal in politics.

    Bull.

    Rev. King was a liberal. A dyed in the wool liberal. He was on the left. He favored liberal solutions and liberal policies. He wasn’t a centrist, moderate, on the center-left or God forbid anywhere near the right. HE WAS A LIBERAL.

    The first, and worst counterargument to King’s liberalism often relies on conservatives assuming that people are either stupid, ignorant or unwilling to challenge their perversion of history. They claim that since the most vehement of opposition to King was often rooted in the Democratic party, while he had support in the Republican party, as proof that he was on the right.

    This is absurd because it pretends that both parties occupied the same positions on the left-right spectrum in 1963 that they do today. In fact, as anyone who has ever cracked open a history book understands, the Democrats had a contingent of southern racists while the Republicans had northeastern liberals.

    It just happens that it was the movement led by Rev. King and others that helped to remake the two parties. Lyndon Johnson – a Democrat – signed the Civil Rights Act into law, and the racist Dixiecrats soon found themselves on the outside of the party. Similarly, the conservative takeover of the Republican Party – liberal Rockefeller lost the nomination in favor of Goldwater – moved that party to the right. Soon the Dixiecrats found a resting place in the GOP while liberals became a part of the Democratic Party.

    But back to King.

    http://thedailybanter.com/2013/08/martin-luther-king-was-a-liberal-progressive-who-favored-left-wing-causes-dont-you-forget-it/

    Reply
  35. rikyrah says:
    August 26, 2013 at 8:01 am

    Ted Cruz Is Psychotic

    Posted on August 25, 2013 at 4:59 pm by Mr. Brink

    Oh, the face of defeat really does have a pretty mouth sometimes.

    In an interview today on CNN‘s State Of The Union with slumlord/host Candy Crowley, Senator Ted Cruz(R-TX), Mr. Defund Obamacare Or Else Great Harm Will Come To You! told America that he intends to actually assist his misguided, healthcare-seeking constituents in signing up for the federal healthcare insurance exchange, set to begin open enrollment October 1st. So, by the state of Texas’s actions in publicly refusing expansion of Medicaid, as called for in the Affordable Care Act, on the grounds that the government has no business in their healthcare business– It appears that Texas, in particular, is secretly leaving pies on Sheriff Bart’s windowsill to help manage their twisted, states’ rights affairs.

    Fooling all of the people all of the time can become a grind, but this is the problem with only reading headlines. On paper, Ted Cruz sounds like he’s concerned and will do anything he can to help people, saying,

    “I am honored to represent 26 million Texans,” he said, “and dealing with the government is inherently frustrating, it’s inherently confusing and one of the things our office takes very seriously is trying to help Americans deal with the government.”

    Oh, sure. He’s a helper on paper, maybe in bipartisan headlines, maybe even a traitor in some parts, but if you go to the tape, all of that reliable GOP fake sincerity and concern trolling is bolstered by Ted Cruz’s visibly uncomfortable body language, bordering on polite hostility. And, with that polished sheen of Southern-transplant condescension enjoyed by millions of compassionate conservative sociopaths everywhere, Obamacare is saved!

    If the word empathy has any life left in it, Ted Cruz is now pissing arsenic into it’s ocular cavity. They’ve basically turned the idea of empathy and compassion into a dog whistle, or selling point, for those who refuse to believe that the GOP is actually this psychotic

    http://bobcesca.thedailybanter.com/blog-archives/2013/08/ted-cruz-is-psychotic.html

    Reply
  38. rikyrah says:
    August 26, 2013 at 7:56 am

    Young black men energized by 50th anniversary march

    by Todd Johnson | August 25, 2013 at 11:45 AM

    Chicago teenager Terrence Riley didn’t plan to attend the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington Saturday, but his grandmother insisted he come.

    She’s pretty old and it meant a lot to her because she marched [back in 1963],” said Riley, 17. “She really wanted me to be a part of it and my [younger] brother, but we weren’t really exactly excited.”

    Riley’s indifference to the event changed quickly, however. He admitted he was inspired by the “passion” of several speakers and the overall atmosphere.

    Riley was among tens of thousands of people who gathered to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

    TheGrio.com asked several young African-American men to reflect on the day’s events and share how the anniversary is relevant to their lives in 2013. Responses ranged from stories of pride and appreciation to calls for more action and participation from young people in civil rights issues.

    Engaging older generations for advice

    Matt Williams is part of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion at Wake Forest University. Williams said participating in the 50th anniversary events in DC was a way for him to show older generations his appreciation for their sacrifices.

    “So much has happened since the [March on Washington] in 1963,” said Williams, who graduated from Wake Forest in 2009. “But there is so much more to do in terms of justice in America…creating a fair and equal playing field for everyone to sort of be their whole self and sort of get to the larger issues that are affecting us all.”

    http://thegrio.com/2013/08/25/young-black-men-energized-by-50th-anniversary-march/

    Reply
  39. rikyrah says:
    August 26, 2013 at 7:55 am

    Republicans Are Doing Their Best to Kill Dr. King’s Dream

    By: Rmuse
    Aug. 25th, 2013

    It is counterintuitive to rational thought and a law of physics that anything remains static after 50 years of passing time. It is just as irrational that people living in the 21st century fail to evolve and a segment of the American population have not progressed beyond the 1950s. Fifty years ago Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of his dream that one day Americans would judge other Americans by the character of their heart and not the color of their skin, and his dream’s fulfillment depended on the passage of time and a shift in people’s values. Fifty years later a large segment of the population has a dream to return America to conditions the Civil Rights movement sought to change, and Republicans are fulfilling their vision of second-class status for African Americans because a majority of the population elected an African American man as President.

    Although racial animus never left a segment of the population, it appeared that as a whole Americans had indeed looked at African Americans as human beings worthy of the respect and dignity all citizens deserve, and Dr. King would have been pleased at the apparent progress this country made toward fulfilling his dream. However, due to Republicans propagating racial angst and suspicion toward Barack Obama within days of his election victory in 2008, any progress the nation made toward a semblance of racial equality went out the window. To be fair, only John McCain attempted to put Republican-driven suspicion of Barack Obama to rest during his campaign for the presidency when he told a hate-filled senior citizen that then-Senator Obama was a good American family man whom he disagreed with as far as politics. It was all Republican fear-mongering, suspicion, and denigration for the President from then on that drastically ratcheted up the minute President Obama was sworn in office, and it has only gotten worse since he won re-election to a second term.

    To say Republicans, teabaggers, and conservative talking-heads have incited bigots to new heights of hatred borne of their racial animus is an understatement, and throughout it all Republicans have been loath to quell their supporters’ racist angst. In fact, throughout the Republican primaries last year and inherent in the presidential campaign of Willard Romney, blatant and dog whistle racism was part and parcel of the Republican strategy to denigrate the President that exploded after George Zimmerman was acquitted for stalking and murdering Trayvon Martin. It is true there were calls for a race war that marked a new low for the conservative movement over the past two years, but instead of rushing to calm racial hatred, Republicans gave their tacit approval with their silence and fear of conservatives instigating racial hatred for African Americans.

    http://www.politicususa.com/2013/08/25/gop-king-dream.html

    Reply
    • Yahtc says:
      August 26, 2013 at 8:26 am

      Excellent assessment of the conditions that exist today because of the hateful racism of a large part of the Republican Party and seems to be approved by the other part of the Republican Party through its silence and lack of effort to stop this heinous push to turn the clock back.

      Because both Presidents Bush, Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney…. and others from the past and present Republican leadership positions….. have not strongly spoken out against this racism, against various states’ efforts to suppress the African American vote, and against profiling of the African American by the police, we have to assume that these leaders APPROVE of what is occurring. They have the ability to speak out and stop it, but they are doing NOTHING. Because of this, they, too, are RESPONSIBLE for this racial attack on African Americans and for the effort to turn the clock back.

      Reply
      • Yahtc says:
        August 26, 2013 at 8:55 am

        Jeb Bush’s SILENCE is also BLATANT!

        Because of his silence, Jeb Bush has NO political future.

        Reply
      • aquagranny911 says:
        August 26, 2013 at 11:26 am

        Jeb Bush is especially repugnant. He’s married to a Latina & they have children. His silence on these issues is contemptible.

        Reply
  40. rikyrah says:
    August 26, 2013 at 7:54 am

    On the road with the Dream Defenders

    by Trymaine Lee, MSNBC | August 25, 2013 at 12:16 PM

    It was a little before midnight on Thursday when the 12-person van packed with 15 people pulled onto the campus of Florida A&M University in Tallahassee. The bleary-eyed, huddled masses inside yelled for the driver to turn up the stereo as they pumped their fists and cheered.

    After eight long hours on the road from Miami–with stops at a couple college campuses across the state–the core of the Dream Defenders, a group of mostly twenty-something activists, had made it that much closer to their final destination: Washington, DC.

    They were greeted by a charter bus and about 50 other college students from all over Florida. The scene was part-family reunion, part-field trip. There were hugs and smiles and a kind of giddy excitement as the group loaded bags into the belly of the bus under the moonlight.

    For the next 16 hours the group rumbled up I-95 and the eastern seaboard toward Washington and a date with history, pulling into the district late on Friday afternoon as a slew of rallies, receptions and commemorations for the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington were set to begin.

    http://thegrio.com/2013/08/25/on-the-road-with-the-dream-defenders/

    Reply
  42. Ametia says:
    August 26, 2013 at 7:43 am

    Is Al Jazeera America Going to Change the Way Networks Cover Climate Change?

    —By Thomas Stackpole
    | Thu Aug. 22, 2013 3:24 PM PDT

    On its first day of broadcasting, Al Jazeera America devoted 30 minutes to climate change—more time than top shows on CNN and Fox News have given to this issue in the past four-and-a-half months, combined. In fact, the full half-hour (24 minutes, plus commercials) of broadcast of Inside Story was equal to about half of the coverage climate change received in 2012 from the nightly news on ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox, combined. For a network that promised to provide “unbiased, fact-based and in-depth, journalism,” this seems like a promising start.

    According to Media Matters, Al Jazeera’s Inside Story had more coverage of climate change “than what was featured by CNN’s Erin Burnett OutFront and Anderson Cooper 360 and Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor and Hannity combined in the past four and a half months.” It was just behind the 32 minutes that MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow has devoted over the same time period, though a long way back from Chris Hayes, who has spent a whopping hour and 42 minutes of his show on the subject since April 1 (not including a two-part documentary).

    http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2013/08/al-jazeera-america-climate-change

    Reply
    • Liza says:
      August 26, 2013 at 9:09 am

      Real investigative journalism may be dying in the US, but that doesn’t mean it’s dying everywhere. Our brand of journalism will soon be nothing but a joke for the entire world, if it isn’t already. If Al Jazeera America can capitalize on that, good for them, maybe some of our own news stations will be inspired.

      Reply
  43. Ametia says:
    August 26, 2013 at 7:39 am

    Good Morning, Everyone! :-)

    Reply

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