Happy FRY-day, Everyone! Hope you’re enjoying Santana week
2000 Grammy Awards show with winners Rob Thomas, Carlos Santana, and Clive Davis
Supernatural- Smooth
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
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Black Girls Rock!
Flickr Photos
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Potus Takes Oath of Office
Flotus & Daughters at Great Wall of China
My Brothers Keeper
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AFRO PUFFS
Most Adorable Shoe Stealer
Six Little Babies
Fatherhood
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Even though 3Chics Politico is written and curated by three women: Ametia, Rikyrah, and SouthernGirl2, I must nominate this as one of the most engaging blogs I've found. Devoted to politics and culture, these three shine a light on contemporary life with humor and spirit.
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3Chics Action Alert
Lets Make It Happen
3 Chics Trio
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REALITY Blog Award
Recent Comments
Top Posts
Guard The Change
Vote 4 Democrats
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Go to the polls
President Barack Obama
First Lady Michelle Obama
Obama Love
Your Vote Matters
President Obama & Bo
The Obama Family
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Presidential hug
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Rikyrah, where are you?!!
James Bond, uncut, Sept 1 marathon schedule on Encore
By April Neale Aug 28, 2013, 19:51 GMT
Bond, uncut and in full on Encore!
Beginning Sunday, September 1st at 8pm:Encore Will Feature 20 Uncut Classic James Bond Films Nightly…Including a premiere airing of The World Is Not Enough
ENCORE will have a month-long programming event for September: ENCORE’s The James Bond Collection, every night beginning Sunday, September 1, 2013 at 8pm et/pt on ENCORE.
Starring original Bond leads Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan, fans can join ENCORE in celebrating of one of the world’s most loved heroes with favorites such as Goldeneye, Goldfinger, Tomorrow Never Dies, Dr. No and more. Also, for the first time, The World Is Not Enough will premiere on ENCORE.
ENCORE’s The James Bond Collection will kick off with a Special 2-Day Labor Day Weekend Marathon on September 1st, followed by a Bond film each night in September at 8pm et/pt. Another mini-marathon will air September 29th and the Collection will end with Sean Connery’s Goldfinger.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/smallscreen/news/article_1717719.php/James-Bond-uncut-Sept-1-marathon-schedule-on-Encore
Yes yes yes
President Barack Obama said today that the U.S. military and his security team are looking at a “wide range of options” on how to respond to a chemical weapons attack in Syria.
Any U.S. action would not involve sending troops or waging a long-term campaign, Obama said.
Eugene Robinson: Obama’s speech remarkable for its context
By Eugene Robinson,
President Obama’s words from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial were bound to be criticized as underwhelming, no matter what he said. The context, though, was nothing short of mind-blowing.
It was a classic no-win situation: On Wednesday, at the 50th anniversary commemoration of the March on Washington, Obama stood where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered one of the greatest speeches in the nation’s history. No one could possibly measure up. It was wise not to try.
Instead of trying to match King’s poetic cadences and imagery, Obama paid homage to the “I have a dream” speech by echoing some of King’s rhetorical devices and using some of the same biblical references. The bulk of the speech, though, was vintage Obama, and anyone unfamiliar with his analysis of the social and economic challenges we face has not been paying attention.
But the context: As Obama spoke, everyone in the crowd knew he must have been preoccupied with events halfway around the world. Faced with compelling evidence that the government of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad had shelled a Damascus suburb with chemical weapons, killing hundreds, Obama had spent the past week laying the groundwork for a punitive military strike.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eugene-robinson-obamas-speech-remarkable-for-its-context/2013/08/29/745b5e64-10dc-11e3-bdf6-e4fc677d94a1_story.html
Michael Skolnik @MichaelSkolnik10m
YES! The Trayvon Martin Foundation just got a $50,000 donation to give college scholarships to graduating seniors from Trayvon’s high school
GTFOH
It is FACT that Ronald Reagan supported APARTHEID IN SOUTH AFRICA.
His Black Slave Catcher to defend it was ALAN KEYES.
(that’s how I first came to know about this hanky head..even back then I was like..who is this BLACK MAN DEFENDING APARTHEID?)
Black folks know which was was up with Ronnie.
Mofo began his campaign in PHILADELPHIA, MISSISSIPPI.
Told Black folks ALLLLLL they needed to know about him.
So these folks can have a stadium full of seats.
……………………….
What ‘The Butler’ gets wrong about Ronald Reagan and race
By Steven F. Hayward, Paul Kengor, Craig Shirley and Kiron K. Skinner,
Steven F. Hayward, Paul Kengor, Craig Shirley and Kiron K. Skinner are Ronald Reagan historians.
One cold evening in Dixon, Ill., in the early 1930s, a young man known as Dutch Reagan brought home two African American teammates from his Eureka College football team. The team was on the road, and the local hotels had refused the two black players. So Reagan invited them to spend the night and have breakfast with his family.
In November 1952, in one of his final meetings as president of Hollywood’s Screen Actors Guild, Ronald Reagan called upon the entertainment industry to provide greater employment for black actors. His stand went against the times and received national media attention.
These are just a few examples of Reagan’s sensitivity to racial discrimination. This attitude was instilled by his mother, who was deeply involved in the Disciples of Christ, and his father, who refused to allow him to see the movie “Birth of a Nation” because it glorified the Ku Klux Klan.
But you don’t get any sense of that in the film “Lee Daniels’ The Butler.”
Based on an article by The Washington Post’s Wil Haygood, adapted for the screen by Danny Strong and directed by Daniels, “The Butler” is the story of Eugene Allen, an inspiring African American who worked under eight presidents in the White House, Reagan among them. As historians of the 40th president, having written more than a dozen biographies between us, we are troubled by the movie’s portrayal of Reagan’s attitudes toward race. We are especially concerned because many Americans readily accept Hollywood depictions of history as factual.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/what-the-butler-gets-wrong-about-ronald-reagan-and-race/2013/08/29/5f6aa21e-0e87-11e3-8cdd-bcdc09410972_story.html?tid=pm_opinions_pop
Allied with Apartheid: Reagan Supported Racist South African Government
DEMOCRACY NOW
Throughout his presidency, Reagan supported the apartheid government in South Africa and even labeled Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress a notorious terrorist organization. We speak with South African activist Father Michael Lapsley who lost his hands, one eye and was burned severely in an assassination attempt under the De Klerk government.
Former South African President Nelson Mandela recently announced that he was retiring from public life. And Mandela will not be among the foreign dignitaries attending services for Ronald Reagan. After all, Mandela was languishing in a South African prison throughout the duration of Reagan’s presidency. But this history has been effectively re-written in the US. The dominant view is that the US was on the right side in South Africa, that it opposed apartheid. But nothing could be further from the truth, particularly when Reagan was president. Reagan labeled Mandela’s African National Congress a notorious terrorist organization, while continuing Washington’s support for the apartheid regime. In 1981, Reagan explained to CBS that he was loyal to the South African regime because it was “a country that has stood by us in every war we’ve ever fought, a country that, strategically, is essential to the free world in its production of minerals.”
But even as the majority of the American people came to oppose South Africa’s apartheid regime, Reagan stood by his friend. African American leaders and organizations pressured Congress to take action and ultimately it passed sanctions against South Africa. True to form, Reagan vetoed the bill. But to Reagan’s shame, Congress overrode the veto. Today, we are going to look at Reagan’s support for apartheid South Africa with one of the victim’s of that regime-Father Michael Lapsley. In 1990, three months after the release of Nelson Mandela, the De Klerk Government sent Father Lapsley a package containing two magazines. Inside one of them was a highly sophisticated bomb. When Lapsley opened the magazine, the explosion brought down ceilings in the house and blew a hole in the floors and shattered windows. It also blew off both of the priest’s hands, blew out one of his eyes and burned him severely. He flew in from South Africa last night and now joins us in our firehouse studio.
READ ON:
http://www.democracynow.org/2004/6/11/allied_with_apartheid_reagan_supported_racist
BTW, Fuck ALL Reaganites and the horsethey rode in on.
Cornel West @CornelWest6m
We saw the coronation of the bonafide house negro of the @BarackObama plantation, our dear brother @TheRevAl. http://snd.sc/19SK1YS
Glenn Greenwald✔@ggreenwald
Anyone claiming that David Miranda was carrying a password that allowed access to documents is lying. UK itself says they can’t access them.
David Barrett@davidbarrett
This password allowed them to decrypt one file on his seized hard drive, adds Oliver Robbins, Cabinet Office security adviser #miranda
3CHICS gif for the day
http://i.imgur.com/rnE90.gif
Oh snap…………LOL………Rev Al’s PR rep responds to Cornel West’s tweet..or rather responds to people inquiring if there WILL be a response!
Rachel Noerdlinger @rachelnoerd17m
No, we generally don’t respond to people that have no base & are tweeting from their Ivory Tower. We are busy fighting inequity & injustice
Another Story of Obamacare Rate Shock That Isn’t
BY JONATHAN COHN
Obamascare article is making the rounds. This one, from National Journal, is about what people buying their own insurance will pay on the new Obamacare exchanges—and how those prices compare to what people pay when they get coverage from their employers. “For the vast majority of Americans,” reporter Clara Ritger writes, “premium prices will be higher in the individual exchange than what they’re currently paying for employer-sponsored benefits, according to a National Journal analysis of new coverage and cost data. … Whether the quality of care in the new market is comparable to private offerings remains to be seen. But one thing is clear: The cost of care in the new market doesn’t stack up.”
Predictably, the article has gotten attention from conservatives. Already there’s a tweet from Byron York, a blog item from the Weekly Standard, plus entries at the American Thinker, HotAir, and PJ Media. You get the idea. But this analysis doesn’t really tell us what the Obamacare critics think it does. In fact, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t really tell us what Ritger thinks it does.
Ritger’s analysis is based on a seemingly simple comparison. She looked at what people can expect to pay for insurance in the new Obamacare “exchanges,” using figures from California’s new insurance marketplace, which seem pretty typical for the country as a whole. Then she looked at what people can expect to pay for employer coverage, using data on the “employee contribution” from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Ritger has written lots of good stories on health care reform and, to her great credit, she didn’t make some of the most common analytical errors, like forgetting to include the impact of federal subsidies.
But the analysis has other, serious flaws. For one thing, the true cost of employer-sponsored insurance should include at least some portion of what the employer pays. Jonathan Bernstein, who is guest-blogging at the Washington Post’s Plum Line, explains why:
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/114525/misleading-study-obamacare-premiums-not-so-unaffordable-after-all
College Bound Brotherhood 2.0 Graduation Recognizes Young Black Men Headed to College – Posted on June 17, 2013
African-American young men from throughout the San Francisco Bay Area who have graduated from high school and are heading to college in the fall will be recognized June 19 at a special graduation ceremony.[….] Together, the two foundations are investing more than $1 million in grants and other resources to support the Brotherhood’s efforts to reach 500 African-American young men this year, connecting them to resources that will ensure access to college and degree completion.
As part of that effort, the Brotherhood will provide $150,000 in scholarships to African-American males graduating high school who will enroll in college in the fall of 2013. The scholarship application process for 2013 closed on June 7, and scholarship awardees will be announced at the graduation ceremony. College-bound young Black men from around the country can join the celebration online by posting pictures in their caps and gowns to the Brotherhood’s Tumblr blog, along with a brief caption about the college or university they are attending.
http://oaklandlocal.com/2013/06/college-bound-brotherhood-2-0-graduation-to-recognize-bay-area-young-black-men-headed-to-college/
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Wants Student Loan Breaks for Public Workers
The agency is asking employers to better inform public servants about student loan repayment options and forgiveness programs
By ALLIE BIDWELL August 28, 2013 RSS Feed Print
Following President Barack Obama’s call to make college more affordable and ease the burden of student loan debt for graduates, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau launched an initiative Wednesday to urge public service organizations to better inform their employees about loan repayment and forgiveness options.
In a report issued in tandem with the initiative, the CFPB reports that one in four American workers may be eligible for student loan debt forgiveness programs open to public service employees, such as teachers, health workers, police officers, firefighters and social workers.
“People give up higher incomes to serve their city, their state, or their country,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray in a call with reporters Wednesday. “We believe that people who contribute part of their talents, part of the benefits of their education, to society as a whole should not be mired in debt because they stir themselves to the calling of public service.”
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/08/28/consumer-financial-protection-bureau-wants-student-loan-breaks-for-public-workers
@HonestToddler
Watching the Food Network because going to the park with any regularity is too much to ask.
@HonestToddler
Have you heard of Eggplant Parmesan? Wasting good cheese on a vegetable that looks like a growth on a witch’s neck.
@HonestToddler
This lady is talking about how absorbent eggplant is. So are paper towels but people judge you when you eat those. #hypocrite
Alabama Republican Wants to Ban Toni Morrison’s ‘The Bluest Eye’ from Schools
Bowing to Tea Party pressure, Alabama State Senator Bill Holtzclaw said this week that he thinks The Bluest Eye, Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison’s novel about a little black girl who wishes for blue eyes, should be banned in schools. He only made this statement after GOP members criticized him for opposing a repeal of the federal Common Core standards. The Bluest Eye is on the 11th grade reading list for the Common Core, a set of standards that has been adapted by more than 40 states.
Hotzclaw told the Alabama Media Group, “The book is just completely objectionable, from language to the content.” The novel is seemingly the most controversial on the 11th grade reading list, and thus, an easy one to criticize — there have been efforts to ban it in schools and libraries since it was written in 1970. It does contain graphic scenes of forced sex (which the conservative blog Politichicks helpfully provided context-free in a post titled “(WARNING: Graphic) Common Core Approved Child Pornography”).
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2013/08/alabama-republican-wants-ban-toni-morrisons-bluest-eye-schools/68884/
Here comes more Obamacare misinformation
By Jonathan Bernstein, Published: August 29 at 2:55 pm
Wow. National Journal really booted one today on the Affordable Care Act
The National Journal analysis, reported by Clara Ritger, claims that Republicans who claim that Obamacare will raise insurance costs for consumers “might be right.” Why?
Okay, take a minute and think about what this actually says. It says nothing about people currently on the individual market who will stay on the individual market. Nothing about people currently covered by employer-connected insurance who will stay on employer-connected insurance. Nothing about those with employer-connected insurance who would be losing it anyway — a long-term trend that Ritger does mention later in the article.
No, this is only about anyone who is dumped onto the new exchanges by Obamacare. So to begin with, we’re only talking about a very small sliver of all insurance customers.
Even for that group, however, the analysis appears to be completely wrong, because it misses one key fact: Employers don’t provide health insurance for employees out of some sort of weird altruism. They provide health insurance as part of employee compensation. That compensation is in the form of health insurance because it makes sense for both sides (thanks to tax treatment of wages and benefits). If that changes — if compensation through health insurance no longer saves both sides money — what would presumably happen is that employers would either substitute higher wages or other benefits. And yet National Journal apparently doesn’t factor that in at all to its calculations.
In other words, all they’re saying here is that if employers react to Obamacare by slashing compensation, then employees will be worse off. Well, yes — but there’s no reason to believe that employers would be able to do so any more after ACA than before.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/08/29/here-comes-more-obamacare-misinformation/
White progressive assumptions about African American politics
I am becoming aware of something that I’ll bet many African Americans have known for a while now. So I’m hoping you’ll apply that sentiment of “better late than never” to my awakening consciousness.
We all know that since the passage of the Civil Rights Laws in the 60’s and the Republican Southern Strategy, African Americans have been the most loyal base of the Democratic Party. And I’d suggest that since that base was responsible for one of the most successful movements for change in this country, white progressives on the left have – for decades now – assumed that African Americans generally align with their political views (notice that word “assumed” – its always the basis of privilege).
And so, when an African American gets the Democratic nomination for president, the left wing of that party naturally assumes that he will align himself with their cause.
Whoops! Not so fast. If those white progressives had ever taken the time to learn about what black people in their communities actually believe, they might have been spared all this “disappointment” in President Obama. And they might have better understood why African Americans have remained so loyal.
I’ll give you an example that I’ve noticed for a while now but haven’t talked about here because it is a contentious issue that I don’t (yet?) have a firm position about. If there’s anything that’s clear when you talk to African Americans, its that their number one issue right now is what is happening to their young people – on the streets, in school, and in the juvenile justice system.
In my professional work in this community I’ve noticed for some time now that many African Americans don’t align themselves with a large portion of the left on their views about education. With a healthy skepticism about the intentions of Republicans, many of them have embraced the idea of alternatives to our public schools (ie, charters and private schools). That’s because it is THEIR children who are failing and they don’t necessarily have the time or patience to deal with the politics associated with teacher’s unions in the public schools.
http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2013/08/white-progressives-assumptions-about.html#comment-form
Spot on, SmartyPants! Ask Chris Hayes how that’s working for him.
Eric Holder steps up, digs in, and breaks out
By Steve Benen
Fri Aug 30, 2013 10:38 AM EDT
We talked yesterday about Attorney General Eric Holder giving officials in Colorado and Washington a green light on their state measures legalizing recreational use of marijuana, but the story, which Rachel explored in more detail last night, got me thinking about Holder’s tenure.
For a typical conservative, I suspect the Attorney General would top the list for his or her least favorite member of President Obama’s cabinet. Holder is truly reviled on the right, to the point that calls for his resignation have come from the RNC, many Senate Republicans, and at last count, 122 House Republicans.
But once we get past the partisan sniping and consider the policy breakthroughs, Eric Holder appears to have quietly positioned himself not only as a progressive champion, but as one of the more accomplished attorneys general in recent memory.
Think about some of the recent policies Holder has chosen to tackle: voting rights; sentencing reforms; condemnations of “Stand Your Ground” laws, and of course the drug policy announced yesterday. These are critically important law-enforcement policies, some of which have been neglected and ignored by officials in both parties for years, long in need of leadership — which Holder is now providing.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/08/30/20259837-eric-holder-steps-up-digs-in-and-breaks-out?lite
This week, the President hit the road for a College Affordability bus tour in New York and Pennsylvania, conferred the medal of honor for conspicuous gallantry, and reflected on what the Civil Rights Movement has meant for the country on the anniversary of the March on Washington 50 years ago, at the Let Freedom Ring ceremony on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
http://youtu.be/ZIa_asFvzSg
TheObamaDiary.com @TheObamaDiary
Cornell West, profiting from the disadvantaged all his life. Some folk, meanwhile, got on with actually helping them: pic.twitter.com/uU0Mf9PmWr
11:03 AM – 30 Aug 2013
SoS. John Kerry: 1429 people killed in this attack. 426 children.
SoS. John Kerry: “instead of being tucked in their beds, we saw rows of children, dead from Assad’s gas.
SG2
I appreciate that you are covering the horrific gassings of innocents……a heinous, depraved act of the Syrian government.
Those poor people..
Kerry: We will not repeat mistakes of Iraq: http://bit.ly/14eoa9R
Father of girl killed in 1963 Birmingham church bombing gains early release from prison
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/father-of-girl-killed-in-1963-birmingham-church-bombing-could-gain-early-release-from-prison/2013/08/29/778491dc-10be-11e3-85b6-d27422650fd5_story.html
One of the first inmates to benefit from the Obama administration’s new, less stringent guidelines on the early release of federal prisoners is the 87-year-old father of one of four African American girls killed in the infamous 1963 church bombing in Birmingham, Ala.
U.S. District Judge Lynwood Smith of Birmingham signed an order Thursday releasing Christopher McNair, a former county commissioner in the state who has served just over half of a five-year sentence for accepting $140,000 in bribes while in office.
The order came in response to a request from Justice Department lawyers earlier in the day seeking McNair’s release on medical grounds. By evening, McNair had been released from a federal prison hospital in Minnesota, and his attorney was arranging to fly him to Alabama.
The carefully choreographed legal maneuvers came after a quiet, years-long campaign by prominent African Americans and civil rights leaders in support of clemency for McNair. On May 24, his wife made a personal plea to President Obama at an Oval Office signing ceremony for legislation posthumously awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to the four girls, according to others present at the event. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. was also at the White House ceremony. He was deputy attorney general during the Clinton administration, when the federal investigation into the Birmingham church bombing was reopened.
A spokesman for the department said the recommendation to commute McNair’s sentence was made by the federal Bureau of Prisons and “based solely” on new federal rules aimed at making it easier for prisoners in declining health to seek early release. More than 30 inmates have applied for similar sentence reductions since some guidelines were first eased in April, and McNair is the seventh to be ordered released since June, according to the department.
2007 — Artist Ellen Gallagher’s “Coral Cities”:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/apr/28/art
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 03, 2007
Ellen Gallagher – Coral Cities
Excerpt from article:
http://drexciyaresearchlab.blogspot.com/2007/10/ellen-gallagher-coral-cities.html
Within the art book “Coral Cities” is Greg Tate’s article.
Here is an excerpt from that article:
“In reconceiving post-industrial Detroit as a marine maroon colony, Drexciya’s founding fathers joined a host of Black Electronica artists who’ve converted blighted urban conclaves into places where liberatory dreamings could form.”
also this from Wikipedia:
Quite unusual music
Photo of Ellen:
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRVxbpOdswJMB-Ev0u-VrRVIbsWaLODPx_ZnBCAAHjn_gwMMQFZWw
I actually meant to post a video on “Coral Cities”, but because her work transforming wig ads from old magazine, I will copy an article from a book I have on this other artwork of hers.
Please be patient with me as I take the time to type the article which explains this artwork.
From the video at timestamp 32:21:
excerpts from Robin D.G. Kelley in the art book on Ellen Gallagher’s wig ladies:
At the beginning of the article Robin D.G. Kelley told of a librarian who told of black children never harm a book in the library EXCEPT those picture books that had old negative looking black children.
The librarian said, “It insulted our Negro children…They didn’t want to be depicted that way. We knew that because they said so on the books. They would tear the pages out, take crayon and draw over them……”
and
For me, art books such as “Coral Cities” and “Preserve” are an indictment against the white power structure of our society which is responsible for the horrors inflicted on African Americans throughout its history and for its demand that Black citizens accept the trappings of whiteness.
As John Killens wrote in “Black Man’s Burden”:
Nancy Pelosi doesn’t want to be House speaker again:
http://bit.ly/17rIxTd
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said she wouldn’t want to assume the Speaker’s gavel again in an interview with National Journal published Thursday.
Asked if she’d like to return to the post, the first female House speaker responded “No, that’s not my thing. I did that.”
Pelosi told National Journal that she respects the position current House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) occupies, but wouldn’t comment on if she empathizes with his challenge of leading a divided caucus.
“He’s the speaker of the House. I respect the job,” she said. “The position that he holds is a very exalted one. I wish his members would respect his position as much as I do.”
Pelosi previously blasted Republicans in the House for voting down their own farm bill in June, calling the legislative debacle “major amateur hour.”
Secretary John Kerry makes statement on Syria
http://www.ustream.tv/cbsnews
“U.Va., Community Members Revive Call for Jobs and Freedom from 1963 March on Washington”
Anne E. Bromley AUGUST 29, 2013
excerpt:
http://broadwaycarl2point0.blogspot.com/2013/08/an-open-letter-to-chris-hayes.html
An Open Letter to Chris Hayes
I’m sure you must be feeling anguish and anxiety over your show’s dismal ratings, especially since you couldn’t hang onto to Ed Schultz’s audience, the pundit you replaced. The anguish must come from the blame you’re receiving for Rachel’s tanking numbers. Trust me. She’s done that to herself. And certainly, you must feel anxious about losing your job at MSNBC. After all, look what happened to Cenk Uyger after Phil Griffin sent him packing. “Cenk Who?” you ask. My point exactly. So I’m going to offer you some unsolicited advice about how to shore up your numbers and increase your viewership.
Your weekend morning show “Up with Chris” received much critical claim, and I’m sure for good reason. I couldn’t say though since I didn’t watch you much. Praise was heaped on you for having diverse discussion panels of not only people from different racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds, education, and professions, but also different political parties as well. But see, that’s where you lost me. Oh, I didn’t mind the fact that you had Republicans on as guests. Not at all. However, I was irritated that you rarely took them to task for their blatant, outrageous lies.
I could see you had many fine qualities, so when you took over Ed’s spot, I gave your new show a try. I liked it. I really really liked. You covered so many topics no other pundit was. Your guests were not only interesting but refreshing. You rarely had on the tiresome trio of Howard Fineman, Joan Walsh, and Ed Rendell. That was a big fat plus in your favor. But you eventually gave in, didn’t you? You and Howard Fineman took great delight in shredding the President for his “unprecedented attack on whistleblowers.” Oh yeah, you were “emo” all the way. I looked up the numbers–7 at the time. SEVEN so-called whistleblowers. They really weren’t whistleblowers, were they? Were they? Plus you never even mentioned that President Obama pushed hard for the protection of whistleblowers. That’s lying, Chris, no matter how you slice it. Rachel does that a lot, too–lying by omission.
Advice: #1 Tell the truth. Be scrupulous even if doesn’t fit your agenda.
One show particularly captivated me–the one with the young folks leading the fast food workers’ protests in NYC. Wow! Those kids were articulate, concerned, and courageous. Kudos to you for giving them some publicity. I even told friends I liked your show, and believe me, I’ll never hear the end of that. But then you latched onto Glenn Greenwald, and Snowden. Really, even before that, you were beginning to drone on and on. (Get it? Drone on.) Needless to say, you started losing me. Not because the use of drones shouldn’t be discussed, but you overdid it. There are so many pressing problems beyond the world of white privilege that you no longer cover.
Ah, but then you hit pay dirt, the big time, a moment in the sun–the NSA security leaks. Your first reaction to Edward Snowden was to gush he’s like Martin Luther King Jr. Seriously, Chris, aren’t you now just a smidgy embarrassed now. Why exactly does the white punditry also want to toss out MLK Jr. comparisons when talking about President Obama? But I digress. You then began to trot out Glenn Greenwald ad naseum with a little dash of David Sirota.
Advice: #2 Lose your Libertarian friends. They are duplicitous, discredited hacks. I suggest you read more of The Daily Banter and Little Green Footballs and less of The Guardian and Salon.com.
Pay attention carefully to this. You and your buddies have always misidentified President Obama’s base. We ordinary common folk are his base, not the the likes of Hamsher, Greenwald, Moore, Adam Green, and Sirota. They and you have never spoken for the base. Guess who MSNBC’s audience is? President Obama’s base. That’s right, the Obamabots and Obamatrons who mindlessly follow dear leader. Obamabots are just like I am although I happen to be an old white woman. Even though Obamabots cut across all spectrums of American life, young, old, black, white, Latino, Asian-American, Native American, we share many similarities. We are educated, and we are activists. We are politically astute and knowledgeable.
We also recognize bullshit when we see or hear it. The mistaken notion is that we never have any differences with President Obama, which is just absurd. Of course we would have differences with President Obama. What we object to is unfair and unfounded criticism of the President. What we object to are the vitriolic tempered
tantrums thrown by so many of the professional left and libertarians. We object to unreasonable expectations. We object to half-truths and lies. We don’t object to fair criticism contrary to what you and your fellows may think.
We actually listen to President Obama’s speeches. When he said change will take time, more than one president’s term, we knew he was right. In fact, when he said change may take the terms of several presidents, we said, “Amen! We understand.” When he said change happens because all of us work together for change, we said we know that and we have your back. Too many of you folks on the left saw unicorns and sparkle dust and never really heard the words the president said.
Advice: #3 (probably the most important piece of advice I’m going to give you). Know your audience.
That doesn’t mean that you are not free to criticize President Obama, but make sure you have a sound case for that criticism. To keep yourself honest bring in knowledgeable people who disagree with you and who can further a civil debate. Now that would be a novel idea for MSNBC.
I promise you, you may not bring in a huge audience but your ratings will start to come up and your viewership will grow if you just follow those three pieces of advice I have given you. Otherwise, not to be too unkind, you’re toast.
Sincerely,
Ms. Desert Crone NM
BWA HA HA HA Right up side the HADE!!!
Bravo bravo bravo
“Civil Rights Struggle Brought Black Literature to Fore”
by Naharnet Newsdesk August 29, 2013
http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/96003-civil-rights-struggle-brought-black-literature-to-fore
More Good News on Health Care: Medicare Costs Are Down, Down, Down
—By Kevin Drum
| Fri Aug. 30, 2013 3:00 AM PDT
I’ve written before about my belief that health care costs in the United States have been trending downward for a long time. Not just during the aughts (which everyone seems to agree about), but since the early ’80s. Click here for a refresher.
Last week brought some confirmation of this from the Congressional Budget Office. Michael Levine and Melinda Buntin took a look at Medicare spending per beneficiary over the past three decades and came to a very similar conclusion: “Growth in spending per beneficiary in the fee-for-service portion of Medicare has slowed substantially in recent years. The slowdown has been widespread, extending across all of the major service categories, groups of beneficiaries that receive very different amounts of medical care, and all major regions.”
Their basic chart is below. It starts in 1980, but I think it’s better to omit 1980-82. Inflation was very high in those years, which makes Medicare spending growth look artificially high and the subsequent decline artificially steep. However, consumer inflation has been pretty low and steady since then (at around 2 to 3 percent), so inflation doesn’t muddy the picture much after 1983. I’ve drawn an eyeball regression line starting then and it still tells much the same story:
Read on: http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/08/medicare-costs-down-down-down
“River Run” (Grand Canyon composition by Paul Winter)
This is RICH, isn’t it?
New Neighbor’s Agenda: White Power Takeover
LEITH, N.D. — The bearded man with thinning, gray-and-bleach-blond hair flapping down his neck first appeared in this tiny agricultural town last year, quietly and inconspicuously roaming the crackly dirt roads.
Snip
Their new neighbor, they thought, was just another person looking to get closer to the lucrative oil fields in western North Dakota known as the Bakken.
But all that changed last week.
The Southern Poverty Law Center and The Bismarck Tribune revealed that the man, Paul Craig Cobb, 61, has been buying up property in this town of 24 people in an effort to transform it into a colony for white supremacists.
In the past two years, Mr. Cobb, a longtime proselytizer for white supremacy who is wanted in Canada on charges of promoting hatred, has bought a dozen plots of land in Leith (pronounced Leeth) and has sold or transferred ownership of some of them to a couple of like-minded white nationalists.
Snip
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/30/us/white-supremacists-plan-angers-a-north-dakota-town.html?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=cheatsheet_morning&cid=newsletter%3Bemail%3Bcheatsheet_morning&utm_term=Cheat%20Sheet&_r=0
Kerry to make statement on Syria at 12:30 P.M. ET:
http://bit.ly/12Tjita
Looking forward to hearing what SoS Kerry has to say. I sick of hearing the drumbeats of war, that much I can tell ya!
Bill O’Reilly Forced to Apologize for His GOP Not Invited to March on Washington Lie
http://www.politicususa.com/2013/08/29/bill-o-reilly-forced-apologize-republicans-invited-march-washington-lie.html …
Bill O’Reilly has finally told a lie that was so big and untrue that even he had to apologize for it on Fox News.
O’Reilly said, “Last night during my discussion with James Carville about the Martin Luther King commemoration, I said that there were no Republican speakers invited. Wrong, I was wrong. Some Republicans were asked to speak. They declined, and that was a mistake. They should have spoken. Now, the mistake, entirely on me. I simply assumed that since all the speakers were liberal Democrats, Republicans were excluded. So here’s the tip of the day. Always check out the facts before you make a definitive statement. And when you make a mistake, admit it. By the way, I’m sorry that I made that mistake. It’s very annoying because I know you guys watch The Factor for accuracy.”
O’Reilly’s apology doesn’t mean JACKSHIT, especially relaying it to Skeletor” Carville.
Next
O’Reilly had to apologize because folks exposed their lies and gutted them wide open. Tim Scott is one sorry sob. I mean sorry.
He apologized, but he doesn’t mean it. It’ll be on to the next LIE, until it too is exposed. These people have no conscience.
NYC poll: Bill de Blasio leads, Christine Quinn sinks
By BREANNA EDWARDS | 8/29/13 8:04 PM EDT
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has plummeted in the Democratic primary race for New York City mayor, leaving her at a distant third far behind Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and former Comptroller Bill Thompson, a new poll found Thursday.
According to another amNewYork-News 12 survey, conducted by polling firm Penn Schoen Berland, de Blasio has skyrocketed to lead the pack with 29 percent, with Thompson five percentage points behind at 24 percent.
Quinn, who has always enjoyed a rather comfortable spot among the leaders, is in third for the first time in recent months at 17 percent, trailing Thompson by seven percentage points and de Blasio by 12. Scandal-ridden candidate Anthony Weiner is all but a distant memory, coming in seven percentage points behind Quinn.
Just two weeks ago the last Quinnipiac Poll and NBC poll had Quinn tied with de Blasio, with Thompson at their heels.
Recently, de Blasio has made friends in powerful places with several celebrities appearing in an ad endorsing him. The big names included Harry Belafonte, Steve Buscemi, Susan Sarandon, Cynthia Nixon, Russel Simmons and Lee Daniels.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/poll-bill-de-blasio-christine-quinn-nyc-96059.html#ixzz2dSQNq61R
Florida Insurers Are Now Free to Screw Consumers and Must, By Law, Blame Obamacare
Posted: 08/20/2013 10:49 am
First do no harm. That’s a tenet of medical ethics that future doctors worldwide are taught in medical school.
If only the people we elect to represent us were required to take such an oath when they’re sworn into office.
Because they aren’t, folks in Florida are facing having to pay far more for health insurance over the next two years than necessary. And health insurance executives will be laughing all the way to the bank.
Florida state lawmakers, in their ongoing efforts to block the implementation of Obamacare in the Sunshine State, recently passed a law that will allow health insurance companies to gouge Floridians more than any corporate boss dreamed was possible.
And if that weren’t bad enough, insurers will actually be required by law to mislead their Florida customers about why they’re hiking their premiums.
Republicans, who control the governor’s office as well as both houses of the Florida legislature, were confident the U.S. Supreme Court would declare the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. Not only did they vote to prohibit the state from spending money to implement a law they just knew would be overturned by the high court, they refused to accept money from the federal government that would have enabled the state’s department of insurance to do a better job of regulating health insurers and enforcing new consumer protections in the law.
When the Supreme Court shocked Obamacare opponents last year by upholding the law, Florida lawmakers were in a pickle.
Their response? They passed a bill that prohibits the state’s Office of Insurance Regulation from protecting consumers from unreasonable rate increases for two years.
I learned about what is essentially a “first, do as much harm as possible” bill in a letter the nine Democrats in the Florida congressional delegation sent to U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius earlier this month pleading with her to step in to protect Floridians by taking an active role in regulating rate increases in the state.
The lawmakers said intervention by HHS was urgently needed because of a law signed in May by Gov. Rick Scott that specifically prohibits Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty from doing his job of reviewing rate increases and rejecting those he and his staff determine are unjustifiably high.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wendell-potter/florida-insurers-are-now_b_3785206.html
“Kittens Arthur and August rescued after shutting down subway service for nearly two hours”
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/kittens-shut-subway-service-45-minutes-article-1.1440740#ixzz2dSPqF4EK
Store rewards honest shoppers
By Justin Lear, CNN
updated 12:27 PM EDT, Wed August 28, 2013
Four honest college football players are getting more than they bargained for after a shopping trip in Wayne, New Jersey.
On Sunday night, Thomas James, Kell’E Gallimore, Jelani Bruce and Anthony Biondi drove from William Paterson University to Buddy’s Small Lots to look for a few items for their dorm rooms. But when they walked inside, no one else was there.
The students thought it was odd that they were the only ones, but they say they had no idea it was supposed to be closed. Bruce told CNN: “At first, we were nervous. We didn’t know what to do. We thought people were there. We didn’t just want to walk out of the store.”
When they paid for their batteries and sunglasses, they even included how much they owed for sales tax. And after leaving the money at a checkout counter, they walked to a Rite-Aid store next door and told an employee what they had done.
Meanwhile, police were being alerted. Marci Lederman of Buddy’s Small Lots told CNN affiliate News 12 New Jersey: “We got a phone call from the police department saying that there had been a break-in at the store.” Upon arrival, store management said nothing was seen missing. It turns out a security malfunction had unlocked the doors.
Lederman said that since the store is in a basement, some lights are left on after hours. Management took a look at the store’s surveillance video, which showed the four college students doing a little shopping and then walking around the store calling out for a store clerk so they could pay. In the video, two of the student athletes can be seen putting cash on the counter.
James, who’s seen in the video waving to try to catch an employee’s attention, said he didn’t think too much about what happened until his brother called him the next day. “He asked me if I was at Buddy’s, my heart dropped a little bit,” James said. So he asked his brother: “Are we in trouble?”
It turns out that trouble should have been the last thing on the students’ minds. The family-owned store chain wanted to thank the students for their honesty. So the four made another visit to Buddy’s on Tuesday, this time to meet employees and go on a free shopping spree.
The students got memory foam pillows, since their school beds are uncomfortable; backpacks; Beats speakers for their iPhones; and cologne, among other things. The store’s security malfunction has since been fixed.
The four students even earned praise from Jerry Flora, their college football coach, who said they’re “what any coach wants on any team, they represented their families well.”
http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/28/us/new-jersey-honest-shoppers/index.html?sr=sharebar_twitter
Ga. insurance chief brags about sabotage of ObamaCare
By Jay Bookman
NOTE: This column was originally published Wednesday in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and at myajc.com.
—————–
“Let me tell you what we’re doing (about ObamaCare),” Georgia Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens bragged to a crowd of fellow Republicans in Floyd County earlier this month: “Everything in our power to be an obstructionist.”
After pausing to let applause roll over him, a grinning Hudgens went on to give an example of that obstructionist behavior, this one involving so-called “navigators” who are being hired to guide customers through the process of buying health insurance on marketplaces, or exchanges, set up under the federal program.
“We have passed a law that says that a navigator, which is a position in that exchange, has to be licensed by our Department of Insurance,” Hudgens said. “The ObamaCare law says that we cannot require them to be an insurance agent, so we said fine, we’ll just require them to be a licensed navigator. So we’re going to make up the test, and basically you take the insurance agent test, you erase the name, you write ‘navigator test’ on it.”
Hudgens clearly thought that was a pretty cute way for state officials to obstruct and delay implementation of the program and to ensure that it doesn’t work well for Georgians. Judging from their reaction, his audience thought so too. The question is why he thinks such steps are necessary
http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/jay-bookman/2013/aug/29/ga-insurance-chief-brags-about-sabotage-obamacare/
FABULOUS COMMENT FROM MIRANDA ABOUT THE PRESIDENT’S CRITICS FOR HIS SPEECH AT THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON ANNIVERSARY:
Ametia, where’s that graphic…you know the one…the one that says AMEN AMEN AMEN
3CHICS APPLAUSE:
Santana week has been FABLOUS!!!
THANK YOU!
Yes, thank you, Ametia!
Good morning, everyone!
Ametia, Santana has been sweet to my ears. Loves Loves his music!
TYVM! Happy everyone’s enjoying Santana. :-))))))))
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Good Morning, Everyone! :-)))
Good Morning, Ametia and Everybody!
“Zuni Sunrise Song”
Beautiful!!!!!!!
Sweet! Thank you, Yahtc.