I hope you have enjoyed our Prince week.
Increased output and The Gold Experience: 1994–2000
In 1994, Prince’s attitude towards his artistic output underwent a notable shift. He began to view releasing albums in quick succession as a means of ejecting himself from his contractual obligations to Warner Bros. The label, he believed, was intent on limiting his artistic freedom by insisting that he release albums more sporadically. He also blamed Warner Bros. for the poor commercial performance of the Love Symbol Album, claiming that it was insufficiently marketed by Warner. It was out of these developments that the aborted The Black Album was officially released, approximately seven years after its initial recording and near-release. The “new” release, which was already in wide circulation as a bootleg, sold relatively poorly.
Following that disappointing venture, Warner Bros. succumbed to Prince’s wishes to release an album of new material, to be entitled Come. When Come was eventually released, it confirmed all of Warner’s fears. It became Prince’s poorest-selling album to date, struggling to even shift 500,000 copies. Even more frustrating was the fact that Prince insisted on crediting the album to “Prince 1958–1993”.
Prince pushed to have his next album The Gold Experience released simultaneously with Love Symbol-era material. Warner Bros. allowed the single “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World” to be released via a small, independent distributor, Bellmark Records, in February 1994. The release was successful, reaching No.3 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and No.1 in many other countries, but it would not prove to be a model for subsequent releases. Warner Bros. still resisted releasing The Gold Experience, fearing poor sales and citing “market saturation” as a defense. When eventually released in September 1995, The Gold Experience failed to sell well, although it reached the top 10 of the Billboard 200 initially, and many reviewed it as Prince’s best effort since Sign “O” the Times. The album is now out-of-print. Chaos and Disorder, released in 1996, was Prince’s final album of new material for Warner Bros., as well as one of his least commercially successful releases. Prince attempted a major comeback later that year when, free of any further contractual obligations to Warner Bros., he released Emancipation, a 36-song, 3-CD set (each disc was exactly 60 minutes long). The album was released via his own NPG Records with distribution through EMI. To publish his songs on Emancipation, Prince did not use Controversy Music – ASCAP, which he had used for all his records since 1981, but rather used Emancipated Music Inc.[71] – ASCAP.
Certified Platinum by the RIAA, Emancipation is the first record featuring covers by Prince of songs of other artists: Joan Osborne’s top ten hit song of 1995 “One of Us”;[72] “Betcha by Golly Wow!” (written by Thomas Randolf Bell and Linda Creed);[73] “I Can’t Make You Love Me” (written by James Allen Shamblin II and Michael Barry Reid);[74] and “La-La (Means I Love You)” (written by Thomas Randolf Bell and William Hart).[75]
Prince released Crystal Ball, a 5-CD collection of unreleased material, in 1998. The distribution of this album was disorderly, with some fans pre-ordering the album on his website up to a year before it was eventually shipped to them; these pre-orders were eventually delivered months after the record had gone on sale in retail stores. The retail edition has only four discs, as it is missing the Kamasutra disc. There are also two different packaging editions for retail, one being in a 4-disc sized jewel case with a simple white cover and the Love Symbol in a colored circle; the other is all four discs in a round translucent snap jewel case. The discs are the same, as is the CD jacket. The Newpower Soul album released three months later failed to make much of an impression on the charts. His collaboration on Chaka Khan’s Come 2 My House, and Larry Graham’s GCS2000, both released on the NPG Records label around the same time as Newpower Soul met with the same fate, despite heavy promotion and live appearances on Vibe with Sinbad, and the NBC Today show’s Summer Concert Series.
In 1999, Prince once again signed with a major label, Arista Records, to release a new record, Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic. In an attempt to make his new album a success, Prince easily gave more interviews than at any other point in his career, appearing on MTV’s Total Request Live (with his album cover on the front of the Virgin Megastore, in the background on TRL throughout the whole show), Larry King Live (with Larry Graham) and other media outlets. Nevertheless, Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic failed to perform well commercially. A few months earlier, Warner Bros. had also released The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale, a collection of unreleased material recorded by Prince throughout his career, and his final recording commitment on his contract with Warner Bros. The greatest success he had during the year was with the EP 1999: The New Master, released in time for Prince to collect a small portion of the sales dollars Warner Bros. had been seeing for the album and singles of the original 1999.
The pay-per-view concert, Rave Un2 the Year 2000, was broadcast on December 31, 1999 and consisted of footage from the December 17 and 18 concerts of his 1999 tour. The concert featured appearances by many guest musicians including Lenny Kravitz, George Clinton, Jimmy Russell, and The Time. It was released to home video the following year. A remix album, Rave In2 the Joy Fantastic (as opposed to “Un2”) was released exclusively through Prince’s NPG Music Club in April 2000.
Super Bowl XLI and Planet Earth: 2007–08
Prince’s stage set for the Earth Tour in 2007
On February 2, 2007, Prince played at the Super Bowl XLI press conference. He and the band played a set comprising Chuck Berry’s hit, “Johnny B. Goode”, “Anotherloverholenyohead” from Parade and “Get On the Boat” from 3121. Prince performed at the Super Bowl XLI halftime show in Miami, Florida on February 4, 2007. The performance consisted of three Purple Rain tracks (“Let’s Go Crazy”, “Baby I’m a Star” and the title track), along with cover versions of “We Will Rock You” by Queen, “All Along the Watchtower” by Bob Dylan, the Foo Fighters song “Best of You” and “Proud Mary” by Creedence Clearwater Revival. Coincidentally, Miami had rain on the day of the Super Bowl, which was lit purple during the performance of “Purple Rain”. He played on a large stage shaped as his symbol. The event was carried to 140 million television viewers, the largest audience of his life. On February 4, 2010, Billboard.com ranked the performance as the greatest Super Bowl performance ever.[82]
Prince played 21 concerts in London during the summer of 2007. The Earth Tour included 21 nights at the 20,000 capacity O2 Arena, with Maceo Parker in his band. Tickets for the O2 Arena were priced at £31.21 (including a free copy of Prince’s latest album), in order to make the concerts “affordable for everybody”. The residency at the O2 Arena was increased to 15 nights after all 140,000 tickets for the original seven sold out in just 20 minutes.[83] It was then further extended to 21 nights.[84]
On May 10, 2007, Prince performed a ‘secret’ gig at London’s KOKO in front of a small crowd of fans and celebrities. Tickets went on sale that morning on a first-come-first-served basis (again at £31.21). A prelude to the forthcoming summer gigs in London, Prince played a relaxed set of classic hits (“Kiss”, changing the lyric from “You don’t have to watch Dynasty” to Desperate Housewives, “Girls & Boys”, and “Nothing Compares 2 U”) alongside more recent tracks, plus a well-received cover version of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy”.
Prince made an appearance at the 2007 ALMA Awards, performing with Sheila E. in June 2007. On June 28, 2007, the UK national newspaper the Mail on Sunday revealed that it had made a deal to give Prince’s new album, Planet Earth, away for free with an “imminent” edition of the paper, making it the first place in the world to get the album. This move sparked controversy among music distributors and also led the UK arm of Prince’s distributor, Sony BMG, to withdraw from distributing the album in UK stores.[85] The UK’s largest high street music retailer, HMV, decided to stock the paper on release day due to the giveaway. Planet Earth is rock-oriented along with disco, and other various music styles.
On July 7, 2007 Prince returned to his hometown of Minneapolis to perform three shows in what was unofficially declared Prince Day in Minnesota. He performed concerts at the Macy’s Auditorium (to promote his new perfume “3121”) on Nicollet Mall, the Target Center arena, and First Avenue.[86] It was the first time he had played at First Avenue (the club appeared in the film Purple Rain) since 1987.[87]
On April 25, 2008, Prince performed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, where he debuted a new song, “Turn Me Loose”. Days after, he headlined the Coachella Festival 2008. Prince was paid more than $5 million for his performance at Coachella, according to Reuters.[88]
Prince cancelled a concert, planned at Dublin’s Croke Park on June 16, 2008, at just 10 days’ notice. In October 2009 promoters MCD Productions went to court to sue Prince for €1.6 million, after paying him $1.5 million, half his agreed fee of $3 million for the concert. MCD claim they had to refund 55,126 tickets purchased and its total losses exceeded $1.66 million. Prince’s lawyers argued the MCD claim was “greatly inflated”.[89][90] Prince settled the case out of court in February 2010 for $2.95 million.[91][92] During the trial, it was revealed that Prince had been offered $22 million for seven concerts as part of a proposed 2008 European tour.[93]
In October 2008, Prince released a live album entitled Indigo Nights, as well as 21 Nights, an accompanying book of poems, lyrics and photos. The book chronicled his record-breaking tenure at London’s O2 Arena in 2007, while the album is a collection of songs performed live at aftershows in the IndigO2.
A-Rod Lawsuit: MLB Paid Off Clinic Head
Plus paid $150K for stolen records, say his lawyers
By Arden Dier, Newser Staff
Posted Oct 4, 2013 11:50 AM CDT
A-Rod is not only appealing his suspension from baseball, he’s suing the league. Alex Rodriguez filed his suit against MLB yesterday, claiming “tortious interference” as part of a “witch hunt” to get him out of baseball, reports the New York Times. The suit accuses the league of paying for the cooperation of Anthony Bosch, who ran the clinic at the heart of the latest doping scandal. The money totaled $5 million, says the lawsuit, which also claims the MLB paid $150,000 in cash for Rodriguez’s stolen records. The news comes on the fifth day of A-Rod’s suspension appeal in Manhattan, where the Yankees’ legal team is getting a chance to grill Bosch on the stand, the New York Daily News reports.
http://www.newser.com/story/175367/a-rod-lawsuit-mlb-paid-off-clinic-head.html
This should get interesting!
Read more at EBONY http://www.ebony.com/love-sex/yes-ladies-there-are-good-men-out-there-so-what-kind-of-women-do-they-want#ixzz2gosdCN1d
Follow us: @EbonyMag on Twitter | EbonyMag on Facebook
above is from a 2012 article
Pat Robertson tells elderly woman: If you tithe you won’t have medical problems anymore.
http://freakoutnation.com/2013/10/04/pat-robertson-tells-elderly-woman-if-you-tithe-you-wont-have-medical-problems-anymore/
*********************************
Make It Stop!
Well, he will have more in his church coffers.
Why doesn’t Pat Robertson concentrate on helping others?
I have a firm belief that my parents watch over me.
And, we have guardian angels!
There is a beautiful spiritual world of goodness out there!
“Sleep My Child and Peace Attend Thee”
Popular variation:
I just came across this 2012 article:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2116613/I-thought-black-Ninth-grader-told-read-poem-black-English-teacher.html
“The State of Race in America: Media and Popular Culture”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=nMqIuUDG6RE
Excellent discussion!
A must watch!
Only 538 people have viewed this.
Millions should view this discussion video!
“Rethinking the Canon: African Collectors and the Canon of African Art”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=9HF3kfoAw6c
The whole range of African Art should be considered. There is strong focus on African primitive art without enough on contemporary and other areas.
Yahtc, SG2, where are you?
Miriam Carey: Did the Capitol Hill Police Have to Kill Her?
Posted: 04 Oct 2013 10:40 AM PDT
I’m bothered by the centerpiece of news reports on yesterday’s shooting on Capitol Hill being police officers working without pay, due to the government shutdown. I’d like to think that the real story would be the victim, and postpartum depression. That said, maybe if she was armed with an assault rifle there’d be more of a focus on her and her motive. But Miriam Carey is now dead so we;ll never know now, will we?
I’m not going to lie to you, but when the news first broke yesterday I thought the victim was someone who went postal as a result of the government shutdown. You know, like a disgruntled worker who may have been unsure of when the next paycheck cometh. I also thought that maybe the suspect was one of those angry Tea Party types pissed off about Obamacare, hence the attempt to bumrush the White House.
It was only after it was revealed that the suspect was a black woman, that I decided that none of those two aforementioned scenarios made sense. First of all, black folks are pretty much used to living from pay check to paycheck. And, as far as black folks are concerned the government has been shutdown on us for a while — yes, not getting a paycheck is nothing new in this economy. Secondly, there aren’t but two black people in the Tea P:arty, so automatically I knew it wasn’t about trying to run up in the White House and “set it off” because of Obamacare.
Read on
http://www.rippdemup.com/2013/10/miriam-carey-did-the-capitol-hill-police-have-to-kill-her/
What I was disturbed by yesterday was the news media reporting amidst all the confusion instead of waiting for a police spokesman to give a better picture. The media’s stories were all over the place.
Are we to believe this latest story?
LOL…..what am I doing with my computer mouse!
Here is the link to the news story:
http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-capitol-shooting-obama-fixation-20131004,0,1440486.story
I know what you are getting at, Ametia!
Excerpt from article below:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/05/nyregion/investigators-search-for-causes-behind-washington-car-chase.html?_r=0
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/shooting-at-capitol-debate-fatal-shooting/2013/10/04/a2b38a64-2d26-11e3-b139-029811dbb57f_story.html
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/04/20824624-family-of-woman-killed-in-dc-chase-wants-answers?lite
I couldn’t believe police fired upon the car with a little baby in the seat. They HAD to see that baby b/c they had the car surrounded.
I agree 100% with you, SG2!
We have seen all of those LE standing with guns out looking into the car.
They had to have seen the baby!
Friday, October 4, 2013
Shutdown: The Tea Party GOP are Useful Idiots for the Rich and Powerful. They are not “Suicide Bombers” or “Kamikazes”
A nice flourish in language and a bit of personality in one’s writing are ever present temptations. And for a craft which can be dry and tedious, a writer should on occasion be allowed a bit of self-indulgence.
The government shutdown by the Tea Party neo Confederates is an easy target for rhetorical excess and pretty turns of phrase. Why? The visual of old white political cosplayers dressed up like zombie George Washington and Thomas Jefferson is absurd to begin with. Thus, there is a temptation to treat the Tea Party Republicans with the disdain they have earned.
However, the ability of a tyrannical minority to derail the governance of the world’s only superpower is serious business. The 4th Estate should rise to the occasion by exposing the madness of the Tea Party GOP, as opposed to sinking down into the political muck and mire–aided by sloppy language and false equivalences about empirical reality–which birthed Right-wing populism.
http://www.chaunceydevega.com/2013/10/shutdown-tea-party-gop-are-political.html
Good “sock it to ’em” article.
Remember this appearance by Nixon on TV “Laugh-in” program?
oops!
The 15 minutes of fame of Ted Cruz. He’s already circling the drain, he just doesn’t know it because he is too focused on himself.
yes, John Boehner and the GOP Are Going to Use the Debt Ceiling as a Hostage
Contrary to what you may have read yesterday, Speaker John Boehner and the Republicans aren’t going to raise the debt ceiling without getting “concessions”. That was all a rather transparent ruse designed to get some good press for the Speaker.
David Drucker at the Washington Examiner reported early Friday evening that Republicans now denounce such lunacy. Of course they will be holding America’s economy hostage in order to pretend like they won elections:
Congressional Republicans on Friday issued a stern warning to President Obama: They will not approve legislation needed to raise the debt ceiling unless it includes fiscal reforms and won’t retreat from the fight if he refuses to negotiate.
House Republicans and connected GOP insiders dismiss press reports suggesting House Speaker John Boehner would offer debt ceiling legislation that didn’t include any GOP demands, like spending cuts, just to ensure that the federal government doesn’t default on its financial obligations once it hits its $16.7 trillion borrowing limit on Oct. 17.
The “confusion” was caused by an unnamed lawmaker talking to the New York Times yesterday, but it resulted in a nice round of headlines about the reasonable Speaker not holding the debt ceiling hostage. Yesterday I warned against falling for this ruse:
http://www.politicususa.com/2013/10/04/yes-john-boehner-gop-debt-ceiling-hostage.html
Sabrina @Charmed86 5m
Jay is reading articles about republicans who have signed up for #Obamacare.
Sabrina @Charmed861m
Whoaaaa Jay just told him “I know it’s disappointing to you and the man behind you that don’t want Americans to get HC”
Sabrina @Charmed869m
DAmnnnn Jay is Brutal today “if you want a soap box then I can put one outside for you” #Burn
Jay Carney took no prisoners today. KAPOW!!!!
……………………..
I believe they know it’s over.
They just don’t get it.
Willard did get over 60% of the WHITE VOTE
and it didn’t fucking matter, because he STILL got his ass kicked
Not only in the Electoral College, but in the Popular Vote.
They are WHITE, so what they say SHOULD GO
and all those non-White people told them to go somewhere, sit down, STFU and have a nice day.
his RE-Election has sent them over the bend.
and, the fact that you, me and they know the MSM bent over backwards to shill for Willard
and they spent a BILLION DOLLARS trying to defeat this Black man and got their asses kicked…
they are stunned.
but, you know how I feel about ’em: FUCK ‘EM
Nevada Residents Are Calling Their Obamacare Hotline In Tears, Desperate For Health Coverage
By Sy Mukherjee on October 4, 2013 at 11:28 am
Uninsured Americans in Nevada are so desperate to get health coverage under Obamacare that many are calling the state’s new insurance marketplace “in tears.”
Kevin Walsh, a senior Xerox official who heads the department that is helping some states maintain their online Obamacare marketplaces and call centers, told Bloomberg Businessweek that many people had contacted Nevada’s Obamacare hotline with “just raw emotion” within the first hour that the marketplace was open on Tuesday. Nevada has an adult uninsurance rate of 27 percent — the fifth highest in the country.
“They were calling up saying, ‘Can I get my coverage today so I can see my doctor this afternoon?’” said Walsh. “That is in one sense moving but also frustrating because, sure, you can sign up — but the coverage can’t be effective until January 1st.”
Uninsured Americans and those with costly or skimpy health plans have been rushing to sign up for health coverage under the law, although technical glitches have delayed the enrollment process for some of them. Those who have successfully enrolled say that they are pleased with the new coverage they will be getting beginning in January.
Even some ardent Republicans and Obamacare skeptics who signed up for coverage are admitting that the law will be a financial boon to them and give them peace of mind. Butch Matthews, a lifelong Republican and initial proponent of repealing the law, told ThinkProgress that it would end up saving him $13,000 per year on medical costs. “I still am a very strong Republican, but this… I’m so happy that this came along,” he said.
Nevada is one of the 14 states that is running its own Obamacare marketplace. After facing initial technical problems, the website and call centers have been running smoothly, according to state officials. The Nevada Health Link Twitter account reported that the site had 77,000 unique visitors by the end of the second day of open enrollment, and logged about 2,500 phone calls and 18,806 active accounts. There has been such heavy interest in Obamacare’s marketplaces throughout the country that some of the websites have been overloaded with traffic.
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/10/04/2732141/uninsured-nevadans-obamacare/
Full Jay Carney Press briefing
Dusty Baker: “I’ve been getting hate mail, racial mail … all sorts of references to Barack Obama”
Regardless of what you think of Dusty Baker as a baseball manager and whether or not you agree with the Reds’ decision to fire him today, this report from Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com is sad/depressing:
Baker quite likely started to sense that maybe his time was up in Cincinnati. Maybe that’s why he said what he said. “The last couple weeks, I’ve been getting a rash of hate mail, racial mail,” he said. “Maybe it is time to go.”
“This is really ugly,” he said. “There are all sorts of references to Barack Obama. So now I know where they are coming from. I don’t know, maybe people are mad at him, so they don’t like the idea of blacks in authority.”
http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/10/04/dusty-baker-ive-been-getting-a-rash-of-hate-mail-racial-mail-all-sorts-of-references-to-barack-obama/
A Delusional Eric Cantor is Betting on President Obama Caving
By: Sarah Jones
Oct. 3rd, 2013
Eric Cantor seems to believe that if Republicans keep hanging tight with their winning position of destroying the economy, the President will cave. Reminder: This is from the folks who brought you “Romney surge”, “unskewed polls” and “Ohio is in the bag”.
CQ Roll Call published a very confident sounding email from House Majority Leader Eric Cantor laying out the Republican strategy for winning. The title of the email is “Current State of Play, Strategy, and Goals,” because nothing says “play” like kids with cancer not getting the help they need because the government is shutdown. #Winning. Naturally their strategy is to blame Democrats and wait for the President to cave.
From Roll Call:
Our Strategy: While no one can predict with certainty how the current shutdown will be resolved, I am confident that if we keep advancing common-sense solutions to the problems created by the shutdown that Senate Democrats and President Obama will eventually agree to meaningful discussions that would allow us to ultimately resolve this impasse. The American people have elected a divided government and they expect us to work together and they will not countenance one party simply refusing to negotiate.
http://www.politicususa.com/2013/10/03/delusional-eric-cantor-betting-president-obama-caving.html
GTFOH Cantor!
harry Reid on Obama at Shutdown Meeting, ‘The POTUS was very very strong, strong, strong.’
Harry Reid came out of tonight’s meeting at the White House on the government shutdown with praise for the president. Reid said,’The President of the United States was very, very strong, strong, strong.’
Video of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi remarks after the White House meeting:
http://www.politicususa.com/2013/10/02/harry-reid-describes-obama-shutdown-meeting-the-president-united-states-strong-strong-strong.html
Kentucky’s insurance exchange rolls out smoother than most thanks to good web design
By Travis Gettys
Friday, October 4, 2013 10:14 EDT
Quality web design is being credited in part for the smooth rollout of Kentucky’s health insurance exchange, which earned praise in its first couple of days in operation.
The rollout of the Kentucky’s health insurance exchange was smoother than in many other states, where tech problems delayed or prevented many Americans from checking what their rates would be under the exchanges established by the Affordable Care Act.
State officials and outside experts told the Wall Street Journal that Kentucky extensively tested its system before rolling it out and used simpler and more efficient web design than many states.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/04/kentuckys-insurance-exchange-rolls-out-smoother-than-most-thanks-to-good-web-design/
Kentucky has a Democratic Governoer; if not for him, those mofos would be up shit’s creek without a paddle.
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Scandal’ Returns To Record Highs, ‘The Millers’ Premiere OK, New NBC Comedies, ‘The Originals’ Soft
By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday October 4, 2013 @ 10:14am
Here is a note to producers disheartened by the soft opening of their new series — it can still become a hit. You just need to have a showrunner like Shonda Rhimes behind it. Rhimes’ ABC drama Scandal continues to grow, opening its third season with series highs in adults 18-49 (3.6) and total viewers (10.5 million). In 18-49, that was up a whopping 71% from last fall’s Season 2 debut, which in turn was up 5% from the show’s inauspicious midseason debut (2.0). (Can anyone on TV do cliffhangers better than Rhimes?) Scandal also built on its Grey’s Anatomy lead-in by its largest margins ever, 12% in viewers and 20% in 18-49. Grey’s (3.0) was down 12% from last week’s season premiere.
http://www.deadline.com/2013/10/ratings-rat-race-scandal-returns-to-record-highs-the-millers-premiere-ok-new-nbc-comedies-the-originals-soft/
What Happens to Conservatism When the Obamacare War Is Over?
Paul Waldman
October 2, 2013
Over the last four years, Obamacare swallowed conservatism whole. Where will they go now?
When we look back decades from now, one of the keys to understanding this period in our political history will be the story of how a set of market-based health insurance reforms that started as a proposal from the Heritage Foundation and then were successfully implemented by a Republican governor who later became the GOP presidential nominee, ended up being viewed by virtually all conservatives as not just an abomination but the very essence of statist oppression. Liberals have often expressed wonder or exasperation about the way conservatives changed their opinions about this particular brand of reform. But now that it’s driving a government shutdown (and soon a potential default on the debt), we have to acknowledge that it’s more than just a policy conservatives hate. The Affordable Care Act is far, far bigger than that. It has become the most important definer of conservatism in America circa 2013. It isn’t that conservatives don’t still want to cut taxes for the wealthy, or slash the social safety net, or liberate corporations from pesky regulations on worker safety and the environment, or make it impossible for women to get abortions, because they still want all those things. But Obamacare has swallowed conservatism whole.
Since the health-care exchanges opened yesterday, some have suggested that the increased attention brought to the fact of their opening by the shutdown has done the administration a favor, informing more people that open enrollment has begun than the Department of Health and Human Services could possibly have managed on its own. That’s probably true. This controversy has also served to remind conservatives that there is nothing more important than fighting Obamacare. Every Republican politician has to prove that their hatred of the law is as great as that of the angriest Tea Partier. Every conservative everywhere is being told that this is what it means to be a conservative, this is so important to their beliefs and the future prospects of their party and their ideological movement that it is worth laying waste to the government and even the economy itself. If you’re a conservative and you aren’t willing to risk everything on even the smallest chance to toss your spear into this foul beast’s heart, then you’re not really a conservative at all.
Let’s fast-forward a couple of years from now, after this crisis ends without the ACA being defunded or delayed. The law is all rolled out, and while it’s far from perfect, things are going pretty well. We don’t have universal coverage, but the vast majority of Americans now have insurance, including millions who didn’t have it before. It’s not dirt cheap, but the trends that are evident today—a slowdown in the overall health-care spending growth rate, mirrored by a slowdown in premium increases—are continuing. More states have put aside their ideological objections and accepted the expansion of Medicaid to cover all their poor citizens, even if there are a few straggler states left. What with “pre-existing conditions” and “job lock” things of the past, even the most doctrinaire Tea Partier admits that there’s no more question about whether Obamacare can be repealed. Its tendrils have reached too many people who now benefit from it and would react angrily if you tried to take it away.
http://prospect.org/article/what-happens-conservatism-when-obamacare-war-over
32 Republicans Who Caused the Government Shutdown
Meet the House conservative hardliners.
Svati Kirsten Narula, Ryan Jacobs, and Judith OhikuareOct 4 2013, 4:46 PM ET
Friday was the fourth day of the government shutdown, and there’s still no sign of an exit. What’s surprising about the ongoing fight is how a small group of members of Congress have managed to bring Washington to a halt. Just months ago, Speaker John Boehner was warning that forcing the government to shut down over Obamacare or anything else was politically hazardous. Yet Boehner remains stuck, his strategy dictated by a small rump of members in the Republican caucus who refuse to budge. On Monday night, as government funding ran out, a group of around 40 hardline conservatives refused to support any resolution to fund the government that didn’t defund Obamacare. Since Monday night, their goals may have become less clear, but their resolve has not weakened. While it’s widely believed that a “clean” resolution would pass the House handily, it would also likely lead to a right-wing rebellion in the caucus that would spell the end of Boehner’s speakership.
So who are those hardliners? To create this list, we started with a roster that the Senate Conservatives Fund, a group aligned with Ted Cruz, created of representatives who were allied with them. We cross-checked it with the list of members who signed an August letter by Rep. Mark Meadows demanding that Boehner use a shutdown as a threat to defund Obamacare, and against other public statements this week. It’s not a comprehensive roll — there’s no official “wacko bird” caucus that keeps a register — but it’s a window into the small but powerful group of men and women in the House of Representatives who brought the federal government to a standstill.
Read on
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/10/32-republicans-who-caused-the-government-shutdown/280236/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKFZstyVMaM
The water-carriers just can’t help themselves. Literally begging Jay Carney to say that POTUS will negotiate with these fuckers.
The Rude Pundit: A Tyranny by the Minority, Part 2: The Reign of the Cracker Babies
You remember when there was supposed to be an epidemic of “crack babies”? They were babies whose mothers had smoked crack (or done coke) during pregnancy and would give birth to drug addicted bundles of joy. They were going to grow up to be sociopaths who would wreak havoc on the nation. Yeah, not so much.
However, what we are seeing now is the plague of the cracker babies. These are primarily white people who grew up insulated in communities that had fucked-up beliefs about God, guns, and America, who became resentful of people different than them who might have gotten help from the government, who watched Fox “news” since it started and listened to conservative talk radio before that, who have been pandered to and exploited by opportunists and snake oil salesmen who made them think that their stunted intellectual development is an asset. We are now in the grip of their electoral choices, which even includes some of their own (lookin’ at you, Louis Gohmert, you god among cracker babies).
Let’s just put it this way: When its new season premiered back in August, more people watched Duck Dynasty, a TV show about crazed, conservative, religious fundamentalists who happen to have gotten rich making a decent duck call, than watched the series finale of Breaking Bad. More people will watch the antics bearded backwoods tree carvers who barely speak anything we might acknowledge as “English” than will ever watch Mad Men, Homeland, or any of those shows that get TV critics all hard and wet.
Is this intellectual elitism? You fucking well bet it is. By pretending that the beliefs of yahoos, crackers, and cousin-fuckers are worthy of consideration in the public sphere, we have degraded the nation to the point that, well, fuck, they have successfully taken over one chamber of Congress by essentially threatening the leadership of the GOP with a banjo-accompanied ass raping while they giggle out their last couple of teeth.
http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/
Haha, so well said. Remember when “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo,” the reality show about a real redneck family, got higher ratings than Paul Ryan’s 2012 RNC speech? Now that I think about it, that kind of explains why the crackers tuned in to watch Sarah Palin in 2008. Palin and her Wasilla hillbillies can easily go neck and neck with Honey Boo Boo and her redneck clan.
The next Citizens United?
By Chris Cillizza, Published: October 4 at 12:12 pm
Never heard of McCutcheon vs FEC?
The case, which the Supreme Court will hear early next week, is being looked at by campaign finance experts as the next major moment in the ongoing push-pull of money in politics.
We explain why it matters in this “In Play” clip.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/posttv/video/inplay/the-next-citizens-united/2013/10/03/1598d148-2c8b-11e3-b139-029811dbb57f_video.html
KAPOW!!!!!
SG2; where the graphic?
LOL Ed Henry is a POS. THE END.
And that’s why he gets smacked down all the time. He keeps doing it so I guess he likes it.
GO JAY!!!
x2
Awesomely Luvvie: Top 10 Moments – ‘Scandal’ Season 3 Premiere
by Luvvie Ajayi | October 4, 2013 at 11:22 AM | Black Entertainment, Scandal
Scandal season 3 is BACK and it picked up right where we left off in the season 2 finale as Olivia is riding in a limo with her dad, Rowan. Here are top 10 most memorable moments in the episode.
1. Rowan Pope’s Lecture – Rowan takes Olivia to an airplane hanger and tells her that she needs to disappear. But before he does, he gives her the lecture of the century, scolding her about how her affair with President Fitzgerald Grant goes against everything he taught her. That tongue-lashing was so proper that it rendered the usually confident Liv silent, with a pout on her face. She looked so downtrodden as Poppa Pope treated her like a child. Now we know where she gets her ability to CUT FOLKS DOWN with words.
2. Sally Langston and Cyrus Beene Showdown – Vice-President Sally Langston and Cyrus Beene have never liked each other but when they met up in the Oval Office with President Fitz for some damage control, things came to a head. Sally brings up the Lord and Cyrus tells her that the Lord can’t vote
http://xfinity.comcast.net/blogs/tv/2013/10/04/awesomely-luvvie-top-10-moments-scandal-season-3-premiere/
Scandal is BACK! Season 3: Episode 1 Handled It!
October 4, 2013 | Luvvie
Scandal is BACK, yall! I’ve been preparing for this moment ALL MY LIFE (ok 4 months, but still). Gladiators everywhere have analyzed the show to pieces and got our minds ready to see what Shonda Rhimes was gonna serve us for season three and last night was finally the time!
http://www.awesomelyluvvie.com/2013/10/scandal-season-3-episode-1-handled-recap.html
More on Purvis Young:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=hLJX2dM4O_E
Uploaded by Najee Dorsey on December 10, 2011
The above video is from 2012
Democrats tap procedural trick to force House CR vote
The earliest House Democrats could get a floor vote would be Oct. 14.
By JOHN BRESNAHAN and JONATHAN ALLEN | 10/4/13 1:45 PM EDT
House Democrats will use a parliamentary procedure to try to break a logjam over government funding and bring a “clean” continuing resolution to the floor, according to senior Democratic lawmakers and leadership aides.
Reps. George Miller (D-Calif.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) will attempt to “hijack” an existing Republican bill and file a discharge petition that ripens in just seven legislative days, instead of the normal 30 days.
Under the procedure that Miller and Van Hollen plan to use, they can begin gathering signatures on their discharge petition on Oct. 11, one week from today. If the Democratic pair were successful and can line up 218 supporters for their measure, then they can bring a clean funding resolution to the floor despite opposition to such a move from Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House GOP leaders.
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/government-shutdown-house-cr-vote-97849.html#ixzz2gmPEn1Q7
The party making no demands
By Steve Benen
Fri Oct 4, 2013 10:23 AM EDT.
Charles Krauthammer sticks to his party’s script in his new column this morning, complaining about President Obama’s “refusal to compromise or even negotiate.” It got me thinking about how best to explain to conservatives why this makes so little sense.
Maybe it’s time to flip the script to better illustrate the point. After all, when it comes to funding the government and protecting the integrity of the full faith and credit of the United States, we’re describing an inherently cooperative process — the White House needs Congress to pass legislation, the Congress needs a president to sign the legislation. One without the other doesn’t work.
With this mind, imagine a hypothetical.
Let’s say President Obama, feeling good after winning re-election fairly easily, adopted an overly confident posture with lawmakers. He started boasting about the fact that his approval rating is four times higher than Congress’ approval rating; his policy agenda enjoys broader public support than Republicans’ policy agenda; and he decided it’s time they start rewarding him before he considered engaging in basic governance.
“Sure,” Obama said to Republicans in this imaginary scenario, “I’ll sign the spending measures to prevent a government shutdown, but first you have to raise taxes on the wealthy. And end the sequestration policy. And pass comprehensive immigration reform. And approve universal background checks. The American people are with me, so I expect you to compromise and negotiate with me on these matters.”
The president then said to GOP lawmakers, “And sure, I’ll sign a bill to raise the debt limit, paying the bills you already piled up, but I’m not ready to sign a ‘clean’ bill. Instead, I also expect Congress to pass a cap-and-trade bill, a public option for the health care system, universal pre-K, and billions in infrastructure investments. If you refuse, I’ll have no choice but to tell the public you refuse to compromise and negotiate.”
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/10/04/20819207-the-party-making-no-demands?lite
“New Art Show Explores African American Identity”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=SGHusxWy3bk
Uploaded on Oct 3, 2011 by VOAvideo
“New Art Show Explores African American Identity”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=SGHusxWy3bk
Uploaded on Oct 3, 2011 by VOAvideo
Leaving the uninsured behind
By Steve Benen
Fri Oct 4, 2013 11:30 AM EDT
In early August, reflecting on Republican tactics, President Obama told reporters, “Their number one priority, the one unifying principle in the Republican Party at this moment, is making sure that 30 million people don’t have health care.” It was an argument that had the benefit of being true.
But Karl Rove’s attack operation, American Crossroads, pushed a different message. Shortly after the White House press conference, Crossroads sent a message to reporters, claiming, “CBO states that under Obamacare, we’ll still have 30 million uninsured in 10 years.” The Republican group added that the White House’s policy “isn’t even solving the problem of uninsured.”
It was one of those arguments predicated on the assumption that political reporters are fools. What Crossroads failed to mention is that he CBO report said we’ll still have tens of millions of uninsured in 10 years, even after “Obamacare” is fully implemented, because several Republican governors refuse to expand Medicaid. (The Republican operatives at American Crossroads, in other words, were indirectly attacking Republicans for denying Americans health care benefits.)
Whether Rove’s attack operation understands this or not, the policy is a tragedy — which the White House is powerless to fix.
The Affordable Care Act originally made Medicaid expansion mandatory for states, guaranteeing coverage for millions, but a narrow Supreme Court majority ruled that it must be optional — if states want to take advantage of an amazing deal they could, but if they choose to turn down the federal money, Washington can’t force them to accept it.
——————————————————————————–
In fairness, it’s not strictly a partisan issue, and several Republican governors have both a moral compass and a healthy enough understanding of arithmetic that they welcomed Medicaid expansion in their states.
But with most of the South rejecting the policy — most notably Texas, the state with the highest percentage of uninsured Americans in the nation — the result is millions of struggling families who’ll go without access to basic, affordable care, which they would otherwise get if they didn’t live in a “red” state.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/10/04/20819745-leaving-the-uninsured-behind?lite
Every Black Father Must Show His Son This Video
Oct 3, 2013
By NewsOne Staff Most Black men have had to learn how to survive in White America, where the chips seem like they are often stacked against us in every aspect of life–especially in the area of law enforcement.
Many of us struggle with how to best educate our sons and nephews about these harsh realities, but Javon Johnson of Los Angeles may have delivered the best articulation of that conflict since the release of Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “We Wear The Mask.”
During the semi-finals of the “Nation Poetry Slam 2013″ in Boston, Mass., back in August, Johnson critiqued how Black children are treated like problems before their viewed as human beings. The video is nuanced with conflict, fear and anger. Simply powerful.
http://youtu.be/u9Wf8y_5Yn4
Thursday, Oct 3, 2013 04:38 PM CDT
Republicans finally confronting reality: They’re trapped!
Obama’s ironclad resolve not to negotiate over the debt limit appears to finally be sinking in among GOP leaders VIDEO
By Brian Beutler
After struggling for weeks and weeks in stages one through four, Republicans are finally entering the final stage of grief over the death of their belief that President Obama would begin offering concessions in exchange for an increase in the debt limit.
The catalyzing event appears to have been an hour-plus-long meeting between Obama and congressional leaders at the White House on Wednesday. Senior administration officials say that if the meeting accomplished only one thing it was to convey to Republican leaders the extent of Obama’s determination not to negotiate with them over the budget until after they fund the government and increase the debt limit. These officials say his will here is stronger than at any time since he decided to press ahead with healthcare reform after Scott Brown ended the Democrats’ Senate supermajority in 2010.
There’s evidence that it sunk in.
First, there’s this hot mic moment in which Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell tells Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., that the president’s position is ironclad.
Then we learn that House Speaker John Boehner has told at least one House Republican privately what he and McConnell have hinted at publicly for months, which is that they won’t execute their debt limit hostage. Boehner specifically said, according to a New York Times report, and obliquely confirmed by a House GOP aide, that he would increase the debt limit before defaulting even if he lost more than half his conference on a vote.
None of this is to say that Republicans have “folded” exactly, but they’ve pulled the curtain back before the stage has been fully set for the final act, and revealed who’s being fitted with the red dye packet.
http://www.salon.com/2013/10/03/republicans_finally_confronting_reality_theyre_trapped/
The Morning Plum: Conservatives have no endgame in shutdown fight
By Greg Sargent, Updated: October 4, 2013
With the government shutdown now dragging into Day Four, there’s increasing chatter this morning that Republicans are trying to steer the debate away from Obamacare and are trying to roll the government shutdown battle into a fight over the debt limit. The idea seems to be that this will somehow increase Republicans’ leverage.
But the very vagueness of the strategy is now becoming a serious problem among top Republicans, who are furious with conservatives for leaving the party in this position. And conservatives have no answer for them; they can’t articulate a way out of it, either. The New York Times reports on an anecdote that perfectly captures where we are:
This basic disconnect is why the GOP is currently spinning its wheels. Politico reports that John Boehner is now looking towards the debt limit, rather than just the government shutdown, as a way of extracting concessions from Democrats, and adds details about a private meeting:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/10/04/the-morning-plum-conservatives-have-no-endgame-in-shutdown-fight/?print=1
The Republican Hardliners Aren’t Conservatives, They’re Radicals
The legislators driving the direction of the GOP aren’t interested in smart, limited government. They’re aiming to eviscerate even the parts that work well.
Norm Ornstein
Oct 3 2013, 8:30 AM ET
In their third iteration of shutdown poker, House Republicans eagerly seized on a new approach: to demand the removal of all subsidies for members of Congress and their staffs for health insurance. They framed this as treating Congress just like other Americans. It is utter nonsense. Most Americans have health insurance through their employers, and the lion’s share of their insurance premiums are paid — tax free — by their employers. Nothing in the Affordable Care Act will change this. Members of Congress and their staff have traditionally been treated the same as other federal employees; they purchase insurance on the federal employees health insurance marketplace, with 72 percent of their premiums covered.
A capricious amendment to the Affordable Care Act offered by Senator Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, moved senators and their staffs off the federal employee health marketplace and onto the new Affordable Care Act exchanges, but it left ambiguous whether their subsidies would remain. (Grassley, remember, engaged in sham negotiations with his “friend” Max Baucus for many months in 2009 to find common ground and compromise on a health reform plan that was based on his own ardent support for the Republican plan to counter the Clinton health plan in 1993-94; he, however, pulled the rug out from under those negotiations and denounced in the strongest terms things he had strongly supported before Barack Obama became president.) Urged on by a bipartisan group of senators, including Tom Coburn, who feared that the removal of subsidies — a unique punishment — would result in a major brain drain in personal offices and committees, the administration said that the subsidies could remain, albeit in a very constrained form.
For the past month or more, Senator David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican, has blocked every significant action in the Senate, whether important for national security, homeland security, or the ability of Senate committees to function, in return for his demand to knock those subsidies out. Now House Republicans have jumped on this faux-populist bandwagon, knowing that anything that smacks of special privilege for Congress — even if falsely so — will be popular back home.
But many senators who privately complain about Vitter’s obstructionism and demagoguery have been unwilling to stand up and vote to stop him; Republicans in the Senate voted in lockstep to support the House plan
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/10/the-republican-hardliners-arent-conservatives-theyre-radicals/280217/
Meet Chad Henderson, the Obamacare enrollee tons of reporters are calling
By Sarah Kliff, Updated: October 3, 2013
(Photo by Jonathan Alcorn/Reuters)
Ask and, apparently, you shall receive.
Just moments after writing a blog post Thursday morning, about the lack of information on Obamacare enrollees, Enroll America reached out with contact information for Chad Henderson, a 21-year-old in Georgia who had successfully enrolled in coverage on the federal marketplace.
It was a little difficult to reach Henderson, mostly because so many other reporters wanted to talk to him. “I’m supposed to talk to the Chattanooga Times Free Press in a half hour,” Henderson said. “And The Wall Street Journal is supposed to call.”
Luckily, Henderson managed to squeeze me in for a few minutes. He’s a student at Chattanooga State University who lives across the state border in Flintstone, Ga. (population: 3,456). He describes himself as a supporter of President Obama who has anxiously awaited Obamacare’s rollout.
“I haven’t had health insurance for 14 years,” Henderson said. “My dad put me on BlueCross BlueShield, but the premiums kept rising, and we dropped it since he wasn’t making that much.”
Henderson is a part-time worker at a day-care center. He did not qualify for tax credits to purchase health coverage because his income is below the poverty line. Since Georgia is not expanding the Medicaid program, that meant Henderson was essentially responsible for his entire premium.
He logged onto the Web site around midnight on Oct. 1, ready to purchase coverage. Part of his decision was ideological: He wants the health-care law to succeed.
“I’ve read a few articles about how young people are very critical to the law’s success,” he told me. “I really just wanted to do my part to help out with the entire process.”
The sign-up process took about three hours.
Like other Obamacare shoppers I talked to, Henderson passed the time by watching news coverage of the government shutdown, which was happening at the same time.
“I had to wait like everybody else,” he says. “Millions of people apparently got on the Web site. It took me til about 3 a.m. to create an account. That was probably the longest thing. After creating an account and getting logged in, it was pretty smooth sailing.”
Henderson purchased a health insurance plan with a $175 monthly premium. While that price does fit in his budget, he was also hoping for a better deal.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/10/03/meet-chad-henderson-the-obamacare-enrollee-tons-of-reporters-are-calling/?print=1
I apreciate this story on so many levels. It realy indicates to me what PBO and the ACA has set in motion. Americans have to decide to take control of their lives and be responsible. There’s no other way to say this. they have to decide what is in their own best interest and who they can trust to help them meet their individual and collective goals in life.
And that my friends takes due dillegence, hard work, perserverance, and optimism. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY is going to hand you anything on a silver platter.
Why Wendy Davis’s announcement is a big deal
By Danny Hayes
October 3 at 2:34 pm
When Wendy Davis announces Thursday that she is running for Texas governor, it will be a victory for women’s representation. Not because she’s likely to win. As a Democrat in a state where Republicans have monopolized statewide office since “Seinfeld” ended, she’s not.
But because the main barrier to electing more women in the United States is getting them to run in the first place, Davis’s emergence – the result of her 11-hour filibuster against an abortion bill in the state Senate in June – may be critical for encouraging other female candidates to throw their hats into the ring.
This is important to keep in mind, because popular discussions often identify sexism in the media or voter discrimination as the reasons that women constitute just 19 percent of Congress, and hold 10 percent of governor’s seats and 12 percent of big city mayor’s offices. But a spate of recent political science research suggests that those aren’t the primary impediments to women’s electoral success.
For instance, Deborah Brooks’ recently published book shows that voters don’t hold male and female candidates to double standards on the campaign trail. In a series of experimental studies, Brooks finds that female candidates who act tough, get angry (gated), shed tears or commit gaffes are treated no differently than male candidates who do the same thing. Recent work by Kathy Dolan as well as me and Jennifer Lawless finds the same: Voters don’t stereotype women politicians in ways that prove detrimental.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2013/10/03/why-wendy-daviss-announcement-is-a-big-deal/
The Wendy Davis Scouting Report
Abby Rapoport
October 3, 2013
How does the new prospect look going into her first big-league season?
The 2014 political season is just beginning to ramp up, and, for fans and the professionals, it’s time to start gauging which races to watch—and guessing which candidates can go all the way. Thursday will mark the emergence of one of the hottest Democratic prospects to come out of Texas in more than a decade: State Senator Wendy Davis, who’s set to announce her candidacy for governor. But hold on to your hats, sports fans, ’cause this one is gonna get messy.
Davis garnered national attention this summer when she successfully filibustered an abortion ban that was passed in a later special session of the state legislature. Over 100,000 people watched a live feed, and in Texas thousands stormed the capitol in a show of support unprecedented in recent memory. By all accounts, today Davis will tell the world that she’ll be the standard bearer for a team with that’s lost more than 100 consecutive races statewide: the Texas Democratic Party.
But Texas Democrats are in the midst of a major set of changes, many of which aren’t easy to see or assess, particularly from outside the state. There are the steady demographic shifts; the state is becoming less and less white, as the Latino population, which leans two-to-one Democratic, continues to grow. At the beginning of the year, the Obama campaign’s national field director Jeremy Bird announced his soon-ballyhooed plans to turn Texas blue, creating the group Battleground Texas. The group promised to invest in field organizing and build strong volunteer-driven grassroots—a strategy state Democrats had been notably slow to embrace, despite low turnout among the groups most likely to vote for them.
http://prospect.org/article/wendy-davis-scouting-report
John Boehner all on tv cussing..
Is John Boehner cussing b/c the President says he’s winning or is it BECAUSE he’s winning?
bwa ha ha ha ha
LOL
It’s on teh 3 Chics house, Mr. Speaker!
Of course it’s natural for these MOFOs to blame the black guy
Blog››› October 1, 2013 10:51 AM EDT
How The Press Helped Cause The GOP Shutdown
Years Of Bogus ‘Both-Sides-To-Blame’ Coverage Have Emboldened Radical Republicans
ppearing on MSNBC’s Morning Joe just days before the looming deadline for a federal government shutdown, Politico’s Mike Allen was assessing the politics of the controversy and predicting which Beltway players would get tagged with the blame for the intentional legislative debacle. Despite the fact that Republicans were refusing to fund the government if the White House balked at the demand to essentially repeal its 2010 health care law, Allen suggested President Obama would be the real political loser.
Why Obama? Because he’s more famous than the GOP congressional leaders whose actions are causing the impasse.
“A lot of people in the country don’t know John Boehner. There’s no one in the world who doesn’t know Barack Obama,” Allen explained. “So when Washington is not working, it’s going off the rails in a very visible way, a way that is vivid and touches people, that’s not good ultimately for the president.”
That’s an awfully tenuous path to blame Obama for the Republicans’ proudly obstructionist strategy to stop funding the government.
Read on
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/10/01/how-the-press-helped-cause-the-gop-shutdown/196187
**************
See, this is why we can’t have nice things..
Mark Knoller should be GONE from the WHPC. What he is doing is throwing red meat to the uninformed and sitting back watching how they devour his lies. It’s outrageous how he’s poisoning the public with that ignorant nonsense.
Reblogged this on Big Blue Dot Y'all and commented:
Genius
rikyrah,
I would be interested in a U.S. travel series on places to visit that reflect African-American history and experience.
Is this something you would consider?
hmmmm…..I’ll think about it
@Yahtc. Great video. I’d go further and say it was eye-opening for me when I moved to Toronto in the mid nineties. I lived there for 5 years, and for the first time in my life, I felt free from the racism. Not that it isn’t there, but at no time did I experience it.
Ametia,
Toronto…that is so interesting.
You three have no idea how much I am learning from you.
And, what is nice is that it happens naturally as different news articles or postings appear. {You know….like you don’t have to deal with me asking “What is the whole low down on everything :)
“Interview With Rowena Husbands a Celebrity Photographer”
Published on Apr 16, 2013 by DukeTVNYC
“Feraba-A.R.T. Summer Camp 2011”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=b_DCNjIfa_0
http://joelgordon.photoshelter.com/image/I0000m_lbv0WKuWY
John Boehner gives away the game (a bit)
By Greg Sargent, Updated: October 3, 2013
Multiple reports today inform us that John Boehner is privately telling colleagues that in the end, he won’t allow default and will even let a debt ceiling hike pass with mostly Dem votes if it comes down to it. Plenty of folks are rightly skeptical about this development. But it’s not entirely without significance.
The Post’s account points out that this may be a trial balloon designed to gauge how this will play with conservatives. Meanwhile, a spokesman for Boehner has been reiterating that Boehner does not intend to allow default, even as that spokesman is simultaneously reiterating that he will expect concessions in exchange for raising the debt limit, anyway. Why? Because a “clean” debt limit cannot pass the House.
This is a variation on the glaring absurdity that’s been at the heart of Boehner’s position for some time, i.e, the simultaneous insistence that he knows the debt limit hike must happen — and that the contrary is not an option — even as he asks us to grant the presumption that the prospect of default gives him leverage. The twist added here is that this leverage is derived from the fact that only way to avert default is for Dems to give up enough in concessions so a high enough number of Republicans will vote to raise the debt limit to get it through. The game is that Boehner knows it must be raised — wink, wink — but all those crazies in his caucus will need some goodies to get them to go along.
Note these details from the Post’s write up:
In a series of small-group meetings in his office suite, Boehner has told fellow Republicans that he will not permit a vote on a “clean” short-term spending bill that does not end or delay parts of the new federal health-care law. But the aides indicated that Boehner is willing to risk infuriating some of the most conservative House GOP lawmakers by relying on a majority of Democratic votes — and less than a majority of Republicans — to pass a debt-ceiling increase.
What still needs to be nailed down is whether Boehner is prepared to allow a vote on a “clean” debt ceiling increase. Quotes from his spokespeople suggest not, but on the other hand, if a debt ceiling increase is going to pass with mostly Dems, it would have to be clean. More clarification here would be useful.
More broadly, what seems to be going on here is that this is Boehner’s “big give,” as one Dem aide put it to me sarcastically. Boehner is signaling flexibility in the sense that he just may be willing to give Dems the “clean” debt ceiling increase they want, but only in a larger context where Dems will be expected to make concessions in exchange for keeping the government open. In other words, whether or not Boehner ends up being open to a “clean” debt ceiling vote, the larger picture will remain that Democrats will still have to hand over a series of concessions in exchange for GOP cooperation in returning us to something resembling governing normalcy.
So in one sense, this isn’t much of a concession. On the other hand, the mere fact that Boehner sees a need to telegraph nominal flexibility to begin with could be a key tell. With Obama warning that Wall Street should take the possibility of default seriously, Boehner seems to see a need to underscore, again, that he will not allow default under any circumstances, and that keeping alive any doubts about this is politically untenable. Dems will look at this and probably only be even more encouraged to hold to a hard line on both the government shutdown and the debt limit. Boehner’s trial balloon is also useful in the sense that it makes the glaring absurdity that’s always been at the heart of his position even more glaringly absurd.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/10/03/john-boehner-gives-away-the-game-a-bit/?print=1
I don’t TRUST Rusty Boehner.
Liza,
Is this the museum you visited in Texas?
You can see two art images at this site:
http://www.biblicalarts.org/#!african-american-and-hispanic
Hello, Yahtc,
I don’t know how you find these links. The art museum where I saw the exhibit was in San Antonio and I think it was their largest art museum. I wish I could describe the art but I do not know much about Christian fundamentalism. Thematically, I think it was generally about good versus evil and how these people could imagine that conflict given their religious beliefs and the circumstances of their lives in rural Texas during those times. And they were quite imaginative, their art is really special.
You’ve given me the idea to contact these art experts. I am bound to run into someone who knows about this especially in Texas. Thank you for this.
Liza,
I just found this site about the African American experience and history in Texas. I haven’t had a chance to really look at it, but perhaps it will mention some churches in the San Antonio area or a museum with significant African American art.
http://www.thc.state.tx.us/public/upload/publications/african-american-booklet.pdf
Also, why don’t you look through these images that I found with another search:
https://www.google.com/search?q=african+american+painting+black+religious+art&client=safari&rls=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=VFdPUp_0Bs7j4APYhoHQDw&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1276&bih=599&dpr=1
Yahtc, I saved that pdf, it is awesome. There are quite a few promising links in there, churches with websites and contact info. In looking at those images, I would say that William H. Johnson’s “Jesus and the Three Marys” is definitely reminiscent of the folk art style of the rural Texas artists but thematically different. There are some really interesting links among those images. American folk art is my absolute favorite, second to none. Thank you so much for all of the research you have done.
What the White House fears most about the debt limit fight
By Greg Sargent, Updated: October 3, 2013
Right now, the primary fear among senior Obama administration officials is that John Boehner and the GOP leadership don’t grasp just how damaging Obama believes it would be to the remainder of his tenure — and the office of the presidency itself and the proper balance of power between it and Congress — if he were to concede anything in exchange for GOP support for a debt limit hike.
Yesterday’s meeting between Congressional leaders and Obama, in which he reiterated his refusal to negotiate over the debt limit, went some way towards driving that home to the Speaker, senior administration officials believe. But there’s still some worry that perhaps GOP leaders still think the President will fold in the end, and that as a result, they still don’t grasp just how much pressure there is on them to resolve internal party differences that are making it impossible for Boehner to agree to raise the debt limit without extracting concessions Tea Partyers would view as a victory.
Obama and his senior advisers view the debt limit battle as a “must win” fight — not one where the difference can be split in any meaningful sense. They see it as a battle that, if not concluded decisively, could have lasting ramifications not just for this presidency, but for others to follow. Some of this has to do with the electoral calendar. If Obama were to offer up anything meaningful in the way of policy concessions in exchange for a debt limit hike now, that would only make a worse showdown more likely later, particularly in 2014, when members of Congress are up for reelection and Republican lawmakers are facing possible primary challenges, particularly in conservative districts.
Publicly, the President escalated his warnings today about what default would mean for the country, and the Treasury Department released a report warning of the consequences brinksmanship itself would have for the economy.
Beyond this presidency, Obama and senior officials think that if the debt limit continues to be seen as a legitimate lever with which to extract major policy concessions, it could mar the appropriate balance of power between future presidents and Congresses. This is a defining moment, one in which it is imperative to stabilize the imbalances that continue to convulse our system, largely due to the deeply unhinged expectations of the Tea Party, and the outsized influence it continues to wield over the GOP and its leadership.
Obama liked to say in 2012 that the election would break the Tea Party fever — or “pop the blister,” as he put it. That obviously didn’t happen. Now — given the calamitous damage default could unleash, and given the continued damage future threats of default could do to the economy and political and governmental system — a clean and decisive victory is viewed as an imperative.
By this same metric, of course, a cave — should it happen, which Obama is adamantly resolved against — would be a catastrophic, epic failure.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/10/03/what-the-white-house-fears-most-about-the-debt-limit-fight/?print=1
I hate the lede in this piece. PBO is anything but fearful of the GOP, Greg S.
Republicans have no idea why they’ve shut down the government
By Jonathan Bernstein, Updated: October 3, 2013
There’s one question I think all reporters should be asking Republicans today:
Why are you against passing a clean CR and reopening the government?
That’s pretty basic stuff — and something that many House Republicans, in the third day of a shutdown, seem to have no idea how to answer.
Greg already quoted the previously unknown Republican representative Marlin Stutzman, whose Kinsey gaffe defined the shutdown: “We’re not going to be disrespected. We have to get something out of this. And I don’t know what that even is.”
Now, via Brian Beutler, we have a Tea Artier, Mark Meadows of North Carolina, giving a gibberish answer to the question of why they’re still out.
Greg says, with some justification, that this is about Republicans stuck in 2011. That’s a part of it. At a deeper level I think what’s happening here is, as I said back in May, extortion for the sake of extortion: holding the nation hostage in order to prove their True Conservative credentials is the principle they’re fighting for, with the specific demands sort of irrelevant to that.
Either way, what Republicans have been up to since about Saturday night has been stumbling from one Fox-ready talking point to the next, while moving farther and farther from actually having any idea of what, specifically, they believe is worth shutting the government down over. And don’t forget: 20 Republicans now publicly support the clean CR that would reopen the government, and reports have it that anywhere from 100 to some 180 privately would be happy to see that result, even if they are too fraidy-cat to vote that way.
Note, by the way, that it’s perfectly fair to ask Democrats why they oppose the House’s later offer (a CR that would delay the individual mandate for a year and demagogue Hill staff health insurance). The difference? They actually have an answer to that one.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/10/03/republicans-have-no-idea-why-theyve-shut-down-the-government/?print=1
I’ve seen it in a few places, but I’m glad it’s getting traction:
that the GOP has no idea why it shut down the Government.
keep on saying it, because it’s fucking true.
THEY SAID it was about Obamacare…but, do you see how they’ve been backpeddling on it, ever since the exchanges opened?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/03/african-american-postwar-art_n_4031104.html
The Morning Plum: Republicans and their voters are stuck in 2011
By Greg Sargent, Updated: October 3, 2013
If there is one factor causing the current crisis, it may be this: Many House Republicans won’t let go of the idea that they still retain the leverage over Obama they enjoyed in 2011. That leverage was artificial and fleeting — the product of singular circumstances that have largely been reversed. But accepting this very idea represents abject surrender on their part — not only to them, but to their voters.
Today House Republicans continue to hold out against letting a “clean CR” funding the government pass with mostly Dems. Instead they will roll this fight into the debt limit battle, supposedly giving Republicans more leverage.
The Post’s Paul Kane has a great piece this morning detailing why House Speaker John Boehner is opting for this course. Boehner is so weak that he cannot afford to alienate House Tea Partyers twice — on the shutdown and again on the debt limit — so better to fight the good fight now and compromise in the debt limit fight, when the consequences of failure are far more dire. So Boehner is keeping Tea Partyers happy as long as possible. This anecdote captures it perfectly:
“We’re more united in the conference now than we’ve ever been,” said Rep. Blake Farenthold, a second-term lawmaker. Eighteen months ago, the speaker “couldn’t pick me out of a lineup,” Farenthold said. “He now blows me kisses.”
That’s everything in a nutshell right there. Many House Republicans now demanding Boehner exercise maximum tactics to block Obamacare – such as Farenthold – were elected in the Tea Party wave of 2010. Their formative legislative experiences included the heady debt ceiling showdown of 2011, in which Obama — badly weakened by the 2010 election results, and fully convinced Republicans would allow default, because an economic meltdown would ensure his 2012 defeat — bowed to the leverage the default threat gave them, resulting in the terrible 2011 austerity deal that still haunts us today.
But all those conditions are no longer operative. Obama won reelection decisively, and now it’s House Republicans who stand to lose the most politically from default and economic havoc. All indications are that Obama now believes he made a major mistake in 2011 and is determined not to repeat it. Indeed, now the incentives run strongly against legitimizing use of the debt ceiling as a tactic to extract concessions.
What’s particularly worrisome is that many House Republicans don’t seem to understand or accept any of this. Stuck in 2011, they continue to proceed from the premise that agreeing to fund the government at sequester levels, or raising the debt ceiling, represent leverage points for which they should be rewarded by concessions in return. It’s true Obama legitimized this idea in 2011. But today’s Tea Partyers don’t seem capable of understanding that this leverage was artificial, rather than an enduring fact – the product of circumstances that have dramatically shifted — and that Democrats are determined not reproduce those circumstances for them.
And so, when these lawmakers insist they must not “surrender” by funding government or raising the debt ceiling without unwinding Obamacare, what they really mean is that letting go of the very idea that those things give them leverage is itself surrender. One House conservative put it perfectly: “We’re not going to be disrespected. We have to get something out of this. And I don’t know what that even is.” Really? Why?
This makes the basic give and take of governing impossible, but these lawmakers have no incentive to drop this basic posture, because if they do, they risk a primary. Indeed, today’s CBS News poll finds 57 percent of Tea Party Republicans approve of shutting down the government over Obamacare. But 72 percent of Americans overall disapprove. And that means Boehner, at some point, must find a way out of this jam. But that in turn means he can’t “blow kisses” at Tea Party lawmakers forever.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/10/03/the-morning-plum-republicans-and-their-voters-are-stuck-in-2011/?print=1
Hot mic! Rand Paul caught selling talking point to “win” #GOPshutdown
Thursday, October 03, 2013 | Posted by Spandan C at 4:52 PM
Rand Paul wants to “win this.” This is the shutdown of the US government, which he apparently thinks is a game. He just got caught on camera telling Mitch McConnell that he thinks they can “win this” by repeating their talking point about how they are willing to “compromise” on just how much of Obamacare they are allowed to kill by holding the operations of the government hostage. Here’s the video:
…………………………….
Dear Senator Paul, people have come before you trying to make the Affordable Care Act into “Obama’s Waterloo.” They have failed, and so will you.
But more importantly, this is not a game, Senator. This isn’t about a sales job that you can do just by repeating your talking point over and over. This isn’t about “poll testing” your “message.” This is about you and your ilk blocking funding needed to keep the government running over something completely irrelevant, and something your forced shutdown cannot accomplish.
Listen up. The President will not negotiate with economic terrorists like yourself. You will not “win” your little game. And in 2014, you will pay for this at the polls.
http://www.thepeoplesview.net/2013/10/hot-mic-rand-paul-caught-selling.html
GOP’s moneymen want lights out at the Tea Party
Thursday, October 03, 2013 | Posted by Spandan C at 3:59 PM
We have been discussing here how the GOP’s Wall Street and big business moneymen created the Tea Party Frankenstein, and how they needed to make a course correction. It seems that they are finally beginning to take steps towards that, by starting to turn off the ATM. They are flat out telling the GOP’s head fundraisers that they need to choose between them and the Tea Party.
The Daily Beasts reports on a conversation between Rep. Greg Walden – the House Republicans’ point man whose job it is to maintain their majority – and their benefactors on Wall Street and DC law firms last month.
In response, Walden admitted that the Tea Party has put the fear of God in the Republicans, thus essentially admitting that the real hostage crisis is the Tea Party taking the GOP hostage.
…………………………………..
Be that as it may, the GOP’s moneymen aren’t buying the Tea Party excuse. No, really. They are literally not buying it.
http://www.thepeoplesview.net/2013/10/gops-moneymen-turn-out-lights-at-tea.html
LUVVIE IS BACK!!!
……………….
Scandal is BACK! Season 3: Episode 1 Handled It!
October 4, 2013 | Luvvie
Scandal is BACK, yall! I’ve been preparing for this moment ALL MY LIFE (ok 4 months, but still). Gladiators everywhere have analyzed the show to pieces and got our minds ready to see what Shonda Rhimes was gonna serve us for season three and last night was finally the time!
I was in a room with 200 women at the #CBTVScandal watch party at Blogalicious and it was like being in a giant living room.
Chile… look. From the second the show started til the minute it ended, I had to hyperfocus because they packed SO MUCH into that hour. Let’s just get into it.
Rowan’s Rousing Read – Olivia rides in a limo with Daddy Goon (Rowan) and he takes her to some airplane hanger space and proceeds to read our girl for FILTH AND TRASH! He dropkicked her emotions through the goalposts of life, telling her “You opened your knees and gave it to a man with too much power.” WELL DANG, Daddy! NO ONE has ever snatched Liv’s wig like this and all she could so was look down and pout.
When he told her “I am the hell and high water” I had to give props. ROWAN POPE THE KING GOON, ladies and gents!”
After he was good and done, he told her she needs to disappear for eight months and get a new life. She goes along with it and gets on the plane. When she calls Cyrus, he tells her not to run and she decides to face the music. Rowan was NOT pleased!
http://www.awesomelyluvvie.com/2013/10/scandal-season-3-episode-1-handled-recap.html
I’m not part of the Twiteratti, but it was hot last night. Ya girl Luvvie, goes well with my am coffee. Thanks.
Ametia…
Scandal line of the night….
Daddy Pope: I AM THE HELL AND THE HIGH WATER!!!!
Lawd, child Shonda Rhimes IS.NOT.PLAYIN
Joe Morton to Olivia: “You have to be twice as good to get half of what they have.”
What every Black parent tells their child. #Scandal
—
Nerdy Wonka (@NerdyWonka) October 04, 2013
i know that’s right
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Hi rikyrah,
Thanks for bringing us Prince this week. Great articles!
Good morning, everyone!
Rikyrah, you’ve outdone yourself with the purple one…with his sexy self. He looks TOO good with that guitar!
Good Morning, Chicas! Rikyrah turned it all out on the Purple one. BIG UP, Lady.