Serendipity SOUL | Wednesday Open Thread |Marvin Gaye Week

Posted on October 9, 2013 by rikyrah

Happy HUMP day, Everyone. Guess what day it is! More of Marvelous Marvin Gaye

marvin_gaye

Got to Give it Up, Robin Thicke; you’e BUSTED. YOU can’t co-opt GENIUS.


Baby, I’m hot just like an oven…

Marvin_Gaye_-_Sexual_Healing_7-inch_single

Sexual Healing” is a 1982 song recorded by American singer Marvin Gaye on the Columbia Records label. It was his first single since his exit from his long-term record label Motown earlier in the year, following the release of the In Our Lifetime album the previous year. People magazine described it as “America’s hottest pop-culture turn-on since Olivia Newton-John suggested she wanted to get ‘Physical’.”[1] It is listed at No. 233 on the Rolling Stone list of its 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.[2]

In the winter of 1981, Marvin Gaye had relocated to Ostend, Belgium, following the end of a European tour amid financial difficulties with the Internal Revenue Service and the end of his second marriage. Struggling with depression and cocaine addiction, Gaye had agreed to move to Ostend on the advice of longtime resident Freddy Couseart. While in Ostend, Gaye began to curb his drug use and recover from his depression, partaking in Ostend’s beaches. Gaye also began cutting ties with his longtime recording label, Motown, following the release of In Our Lifetime, an album the musician did not declare to be finished. He declared that he would never record with the label ever again after he accused the label of betraying his creativity.[3]

Over the years, Gaye had received offers by labels such as I.R.S. Records, Arista Records and Elektra Records while still with Motown, afterwards, he sought to make a deal with CBS Records after they offered him a contract.[4] The label agreed to sign him and to help clear his financial debt. CBS would spend a year negotiating the contract. Needing spending money, Couseart set Gaye up with a month-long England tour between June 13 and July 1, 1981, titled “A Heavy Love Affair Tour 1981,” named after his song,”Heavy Love Affair” from In Our Lifetime.[5] After returning to Belgium that July, Gaye performed two shows at Ostend’s Casino Kursaal on July 3 and 4, 1981.[6] The tour’s commercial and critical success further renewed Gaye’s musical confidence.
“Sexual Healing” has been described as a “reggae-styled number” and has elements of funk, boogie, soul and gospel. The music starts off with a deep bass kick drum, performed on the Roland TR-808 drum machine, followed by “tinny handclap sounds,” “ticky snare” and “tishy hi-hats.”[13] The first vocal sounds are of whispers, recorded by singer Harvey Fuqua, an early mentor of Gaye’s who would assist him in production of the song and its parent album, Midnight Love. Fuqua whispers, “get up, wake up,” four times before the sounds of a rhythmic keyboard are played. Afterwards, Gaye is heard singing an ad-lib before the first verse.

As Gaye sings the verses, background vocals (provided by Gaye and Gordon Banks) are heard singing, “heal me, my darlin’,” while Gaye sings the lyrics. During the chorus, sounds of a harmonious synthesizer are heard before Gaye reaches a vocal bridge, that is led by Gaye and Gordon Banks providing a rhythm guitar solo. In the album version of the song, Fuqua’s whispers are repeated in the middle of the song, in the single version, however, Gaye takes Fuqua’s place, singing in part of Fuqua’s words adding more lyrics before returning to the verse. Another bridge follows after the second repeat of the chorus. In different versions of the song, Gaye had added extra lyrics to the second bridge as showcased on the song’s demo tape and on an alternate version of the song. Gaye eventually cut part of the lyrics off.

In the album version, Gaye and Banks’ background vocals immediately come after the second bridge ends, but in the single version, Gaye repeats the vamp he had sung at the ending of the first bridge, this time with Fuqua’s whispers added. The song ends with Gaye repeating the chorus line. As it fades out, Gaye can be heard singing, “please don’t procrastinate, it’s not good to masturbate.”[14]
Release and reception[edit]

“Sexual Healing” was released as a single on September 30, 1982. The song reached number one on Billboard’s Hot R&B Singles chart, where it stayed for a record ten weeks before being replaced by Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney’s duet, “The Girl Is Mine.” The success was similar on the Hot 100 where it peaked at number three. The song also was a success on Billboard’s other component charts, reaching number 12 on the Hot Dance Club Play chart and number 34 on the Hot Adult Contemporary chart. The song reached number one on Canada’s RPM chart. It also peaked at number four on the UK Singles Chart. On Belgium’s Ultratop 50 chart, the song reached number two. It also reached number one on New Zealand’s RIANZ chart, where it stayed at the top spot for six weeks. It reached number three on the Dutch Top 40 in the Netherlands and also reached number seven on the Irish Singles Chart in Ireland. In other countries such as Germany’s Media Control Charts, Switzerland’s Swedish Singles Chart and Italy’s Italian Singles Chart, success in those countries were modest, reaching number 23, 17 and 37 respectively in those countries’ charts.

In his review of Midnight Love for Rolling Stone, Dave Marsh described “Sexual Healing” as a track that was “sort of a polemic for the power of rampant humping.”[15] Blender described it as “the plaintively blue-balled model for basically every slow jam” since its release.[16] An Allmusic reviewer stated Gaye had “concocted a pioneering percussive sound that was balladic in taste but stimulating in feel.”[17] In its end-year lists of 1982, Rolling Stone, NME and the Village Voice listed it as one of the “songs of the year” with the latter two ranking it at number 2.[18]

“Sexual Healing” won Gaye several music industry awards. At the 1983 Grammy Awards, the song won Gaye two Grammys, including Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Instrumental Performance. Gaye’s performance of the song later made it into the compilation album, Grammy’s Greatest Moments Volume I, in 1994.[19] The American Music Awards recognized the track for Favorite Soul/R&B Single. “Sexual Healing” had reportedly sold over one million units in its standard format and was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in 2001. The digital sales of “Sexual Healing” reached 500,000 units in shipments and was certified as a gold single in 2005. Also issued as a mastertone, this format was certified platinum in 2007.

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95 Responses to Serendipity SOUL | Wednesday Open Thread |Marvin Gaye Week

  1. Yahtc says:
    October 11, 2013 at 3:24 pm

    “Teacher drops multiple F-bombs during tirade over use of term ‘African-American’”
    October 11, 2013

    A Los Angeles teacher whose profanity-laced tirade was caught on an audio recording admits a student heckler got the best of her.

    The outburst took place Sept. 26 during a lesson on race and ethnicity at the Humanities and Art Academy in Harbor City, The Daily Breeze reported Wednesday.

    The teacher, whose name has not been released, said she was trying to explain that the term, “African-American,” is at least partially inaccurate.

    “You’re an American first,” she said, adding that her family came from Italy, but she doesn’t call herself an Italian-American.

    The teacher said one student repeatedly told her she was wrong and then used her cell phone to record the teacher’s angry reaction.

    “I know my f–ing s—t,” the teacher can be heard saying. “Don’t f— with that. I’m tired of trying to educate you, and you guys resist every step of the f—ing way. Get the f— out of here.”

    The teacher admits she lost her cool, but she said she was also hurt that the student had recorded her outburst and then turned the recording over to another faculty member with whom she doesn’t get along.

    “I was trying to explain the difference between race and ethnicity, and this girl kept poking the bear,” she said.

    She also pointed out that the student had broken school rules by using her cell phone in class.

    The teacher has been placed on paid leave while the Los Angeles Unified School District investigates the incident.

    Students told KTLA-TV that they had forgiven the teacher, saying that students at the school can be tough on faculty members.

    “It is wrong to be cussing, at students especially, but a lot of kids here aggravate the teachers,” student Aaron Taylor said. “She’s a good teacher. Everybody makes mistakes and she’s only human.”

    Another student pointed out the teacher had apologized.

    “Everybody forgave her,” Summer Washington said. “That’s our favorite teacher.”

    But another student told KNBC-TV that the 10-year veteran teacher should be fired.

    “They’re not supposed to react like that no matter what the situation was,” said student Carla Mateo.

    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/11/teacher-drops-multiple-f-bombs-during-tirade-over-use-of-term-african-american/

    Reply
  2. Yahtc says:
    October 9, 2013 at 10:31 pm

    “Why I Stopped Writing Recommendation Letters for Teach for America
    And why my colleagues should do the same.”
    By Catherine Michna

    Excerpt:

    For the past nine years, I’ve been an instructor, a Ph.D. student, adjunct professor, and post-doctoral fellow in humanities departments at several different universities. During this time, many students have asked me to write recommendations for Teach for America. My students generally have little to no experience or training as teachers, but they are lured by TFA’s promises that they can help close the education gap for children in low-income communities. For humanities majors, TFA is a clear path to a job that both pays a living wage and provides a stepping stone to leadership positions in a cause of national importance.

    I understand why my students find so much hope in TFA. I empathize with them. In fact, I’m a former Teach for America corps member myself. But unless they are education majors—and most of them aren’t—I no longer write Teach for America letters of recommendation for my students. I urge my higher-ed colleagues to do the same.

    There is a movement rising in every city of this country that seeks true education reform—not the kind funded by billionaires, corporations, and hedge funds, and organized around their values. This movement consists of public school parents and students, veteran teachers, and ex-TFA corps members. It also consists of a national network of college students, such as those in Students United for Public Education, who talk about the damage TFA is inflicting on communities and public schools. These groups and others also acknowledge the relationship between the corporatization of higher education and the vast impact of corporate reform on our youngest and most needy children. It is these children who are harmed by the never-ending cycle of under-trained, uncertified, first- and second-year teachers that now populates disadvantaged schools, and by the data-obsessed approach to education that is enabled by these inexperienced teachers.

    Every year, TFA installs thousands of unprepared 22-year-olds, the majority of whom are from economically and culturally privileged backgrounds, into disadvantaged public schools. They are given a class of their own after only five to six weeks of training and a scant number of hours co-teaching summer school (in a different city, frequently in a different subject, and with students in a different age group than the one they end up teaching in the fall). College and university faculty allow these well-meaning young people to become pawns in a massive game to deprofessionalize teaching. TFA may look good on their resumés and allow them to attain social capital for their bright futures in consulting firms, law schools, and graduate schools. But in exchange for this social capital, our students have to take part in essentially privatizing public schools.

    The simple fact is that students who apply to TFA are not trained to be teachers. So by refusing to write TFA letters of recommendation, we’re merely telling our students that we can’t recommend them for a job they’re not qualified for. An increasing amount of research shows that TFA recruits perform at best no better, and often worse, than their trained and certified counterparts. What’s more, they tend to leave after just a few years in the classroom. Would a biology professor write a recommendation to medical school for an English major who’s never taken any core science courses? That would be strange. It would be even stranger if the professor knew the English major was just going into medicine for a few years, as a way to boost his resume, before ultimately going on to a career in public relations.

    So competence is one core issue here. Another one is race. Rooted in the corporate discourse around reform, charter schools, and “urban revitalization” is the hope that the (mostly white) elite class and free-market ideologies will combine to solve every social ill. Meanwhile, whole communities of African-American and Latino men and women are being warehoused in prisons, the racial income gap is widening, and urban communities of color are being gentrified out of their neighborhoods. TFA—and the charter schools that function as TFA’s biggest partners—perform a similar kind of gentrification by ridding cities of veteran teachers of color. Despite what you might hear, there is no teaching shortage. Schools and districts fire their unionized, more expensive professional staff in order to make slots for the cheaper, eternally revolving wheel of TFA and other nontraditionally certified recruits, who quickly burn out.

    http://www.slate.com/articles/life/education/2013/10/teach_for_america_recommendations_i_stopped_writing_them_and_my_colleague.html

    Reply
  3. Yahtc says:
    October 9, 2013 at 9:14 pm

    “As Pressure Mounts, House G.O.P. Weighs Short-Term Debt Deal”

    Excerpt:

    WASHINGTON — House Republicans, increasingly isolated from even some of their strongest supporters more than a week into a government shutdown, began on Wednesday to consider a path out of the fiscal impasse that would raise the debt ceiling for a few weeks as they press for a broader deficit reduction deal.
    ……
    “We’re more in the ideas stage right now,” said Representative Jack Kingston, Republican of Georgia and a senior member of the Appropriations Committee. “There is a developing consensus that this is a lot bigger than an Obamacare discussion.”

    At the same time, Congressional leaders from both parties began some preliminary discussions aimed at reopening the government and raising the statutory borrowing limit. And President Obama, who invited House Democrats on Wednesday, asked all House Republicans to the White House on Thursday, an invitation Speaker John A. Boehner whittled down to a short list of attendees he wants to negotiate a compromise.

    Democrats showed their own cracks. Twenty-six House Democrats planned to attend a bipartisan event on Thursday morning with the group No Labels, calling for negotiations to start immediately, a challenge to the president and to Democratic leaders who say they will not negotiate until the government reopens and the debt ceiling is lifted.

    In the meeting with House Democrats on Wednesday evening, Mr. Obama held firm to his stated intention to negotiate with Republicans only after the government is reopened and the debt ceiling is raised. He told Democrats that if he gives in now, Republican demands would be endless. “The only thing not on their list is my own resignation,” he told Democrats, according to a lawmaker in the room.

    With the impact of the shutdown starting to intensify, House Republicans were taking criticism from some of their longtime backers. Business groups demanded the immediate reopening of the government, and benefactors like Koch Industries publicly distanced themselves from the shutdown fight.

    Republicans acknowledged the pressure is mounting on them. On Wednesday, the National Retail Federation joined other reliably Republican business groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers in asking House Republicans to relent.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/10/us/politics/business-groups-urge-congress-to-reopen-as-shutdown-drags-on.html?_r=0

    Reply
  4. SouthernGirl2 says:
    October 9, 2013 at 8:47 pm
    Reply
  5. SouthernGirl2 says:
    October 9, 2013 at 7:51 pm

    Hey Chicas! Eleanor Holmes Norton clowned her ass off trying to front the President.

    Eleanor Holmes Norton confronts Obama on D.C. budget bill

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/10/09/eleanor-holmes-norton-confronts-obama-on-d-c-budget-bill/?Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost

    Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) had what some colleagues called “a heated exchange” and what she described as “a conversation” with President Obama during a White House meeting Wednesday afternoon regarding the District’s budget constraints as a result of the partial government shutdown.

    Norton attended the meeting in the White House East Room with nearly 200 House Democrats and was one of a handful given the opportunity to ask the president a question. When she was called upon, Norton pressed Obama to support a House-passed bill that would permit the District to use its locally raised tax funds to maintain operations until Dec. 15.

    Democrats, including Obama, have held fast in opposition to such piecemeal funding bills, saying Republicans must come to a deal to fund the entire government, not just favored segments.

    Making her point, Norton spoke over the president and refused to yield the microphone, according to a lawmaker who attended the event. The lawmaker described Norton as “strident,” “self-absorbed” and “parochial” in her exchange with Obama.

    But Obama held firm to his belief that Republicans should work to reopen the entire federal government and not pass stand-alone spending measures, said the lawmaker, who asked not to be identified in order to speak frankly and maintain relationships with colleagues.

    Norton confirmed in an interview that she pressed Obama to support the bill and that she doesn’t care whether some colleagues felt uncomfortable about the exchange.

    “I wasn’t picking a fight with the president, I think the people of the District would expect me to have a conversation with him rather than just asking a question,” Norton said.

    Reply
  6. rikyrah says:
    October 9, 2013 at 7:44 pm

    Totally forgot..forgive me

    Media Alert

    Angela Bassett on this season’s American Horror Story beginning tonight on FX

    Reply
  7. SouthernGirl2 says:
    October 9, 2013 at 5:51 pm

    Catholic Bishops Wanted Government Shutdown, Asked House Republicans To Hold Nation Hostage Over Birth Control Mandate.

    http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/10/08/catholic-bishops-letter-birth-control/

    When House Republicans shut down the government last Tuesday, they did so with the blessing of Catholic bishops. One week prior to the shutdown, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote a letter to the GOP House. The letter asked them to hold America hostage until Democrats kill birth control rules set by the White House. The rules require insurance companies to include birth control coverage for all employees, regardless of the religious beliefs of employers.

    Catholic bishops want House GOP to hold America hostage over birth control

    This didn’t sit well with Catholic bishops and conservative Christians, who want the right to deny their female employees contraception. So as part of their ongoing temper tantrum over women having access to birth control, the bishops sent a letter to House Republicans urging them to shut the government down until they get their way on contraception coverage.

    “[W]e have already urged you to enact the Health Care Conscience Rights Act (H.R. 940/S. 1204), the letter declared. “As Congress considers a Continuing Resolution and debt ceiling bill in the days to come, we reaffirm the vital importance of incorporating the policy of this bill into such ‘must-pass’ legislation.”

    The Catholic bishops’ war on birth control threatens women and the nation

    The Conference of Catholic Bishops wants the government shutdown to continue, and for the US to default on its debt … Unless they get special treatment in regards to birth control access. To deny women contraception, they’re willing to deny families critical food assistance, take childcare away from working parents, and threaten the financial well-being of millions of Americans. It totally outrageous.

    Reply
  8. rikyrah says:
    October 9, 2013 at 4:17 pm

    Rajiv Chandrasekaran ✔ @rajivwashpost

    Four families had to pay own way to meet caskets at Dover AFB today

    1:48 PM – 9 Oct 2013

    Reply
  9. Ametia says:
    October 9, 2013 at 3:59 pm

    How Racism Caused The Shutdown
    By Zack Beauchamp on October 9, 2013 at 9:00 am

    This isn’t an article about how Republicans shut down the government because they hate that the President is black. This is an article about how racism caused the government to shut down and the U.S. to teeter on the brink of an unprecedented and catastrophic default.

    I understand if you’re confused. A lot of people think the only way that racism “causes” anything is when one person intentionally discriminates against another because of their color of their skin. But that’s wrong. And understanding the history of the forces that produced the current crisis will lay plain the more subtle, but fundamental, ways in which race and racism formed the scaffolding that structures American politics — even as explicit battles over race receded from our daily politics.

    The roots of the current crisis began with the New Deal — but not in the way you might think. They grew gradually, with two big bursts in the 1960s and the 1980s reflecting decades of more graduated change. And the tree that grew out of them, the Tea Party and a radically polarized Republican Party, bore the shutdown as its fruits.

    How The New Deal Drove The Racists Out

    In 1938, Sen. Josiah W. Bailey (D-NC) filibustered his own party’s bill. Well, part of his party — Northern Democrats, together with Northern Republicans, were pushing an federal anti-lynching bill. Bailey promised that Southern Democrats would teach “a lesson which no political party will ever again forget” to their Northern co-partisans if they “come down to North Carolina and try to impose your will upon us about the Negro:”

    Just as when the Republicans in the [1860s] undertook to impose the national will upon us with respect to the Negro, we resented it and hated that party with a hatred that has outlasted generations; we hated it beyond measure; we hated it more than was right for us and more than was just; we hated it because of what it had done to us, because of the wrong it undertook to put upon us; and just as that same policy destroyed the hope of the Republican party in the South, that same policy adopted by the Democratic party will destroy the Democratic party in the South.

    http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/10/09/2730651/how-racism-caused-the-shutdown/

    Reply
  10. rikyrah says:
    October 9, 2013 at 3:48 pm

    john miller @deaconmill

    Even if GOP asked for reasonable concession to raise ceiling, answer must still be no. Still sets precedent that destroys US system of gvnmt

    12:46 PM – 9 Oct 2013

    Reply
  11. rikyrah says:
    October 9, 2013 at 3:45 pm

    meta @metaquest

    @DSenFloor 2 days ago it was 19 #GOP objections to budget conference. Today it’s 21.

    12:20 PM – 9 Oct 2013

    Reply
    • Yahtc says:
      October 9, 2013 at 6:27 pm

      Thank you for this, Ametia.

      This is an important and amazing interview on MANY levels.

      Perhaps I will comment on it at a later time.

      Reply
      • Yahtc says:
        October 9, 2013 at 6:55 pm

        I was using Google search to locate a transcript of this interview and came across these words by Tim Wise about this very interview:

        A fascinating interview with James Baldwin, fifty years ago, discussing race in America. As with all Baldwin interviews, this one too is amazing for how much of his analysis about the nation’s predicament — and the system of white supremacy — remains pertinent today, despite the end of formal and legal segregation. And the white denial and ignorance on display, particularly from the panelists, is as stunning as ever…

        Posted September 16, 2013 by TimWise

        http://www.timwise.org/2013/09/james-baldwin-interview-1963-florida-forum/

        Reply
      • Yahtc says:
        October 9, 2013 at 8:55 pm

        I have been transcribing this interview this evening.

        Reply
      • Yahtc says:
        October 13, 2013 at 12:36 pm

        JAMES BALDWIN: 1963 Interview (Florida Forum, Miami)

        Channel 7, WCKT (NBC) Miami

        Moderator Tom Miller:

        Good Evening. National attention has been focused on the problems of the American Negro for the past several weeks. Major civil rights legislation from President Kennedy is now before Congress; huge demonstrations have been held across the country; violence has erupted in many places.

        Last week on Florida forum we discussed the racial situation with Governor George Wallace of Alabama who tried unsuccessfully to bar the entrance of two Negro students to the University of Alabama.

        This week we have invited author and playwright James Baldwin to express his views in this growing controversy. Mr. Baldwin is the best selling author of several books that reflect on racial conflict. He has offered his intellectual and moral support to the cause of the American Negro. And, tonight, he has interrupted his schedule in Puerto Rico where he is writing a play…. to answer questions questions from our panel and studio audience.

        Questioning Mr. Baldwin tonight will be WCKT newsman Al Dempsy and Dr. Carleton Tebeau chairman of the history department of the University of Miami. There will also be questions from our studio audience after this message.

        (commercial break)

        To begin tonight’s program, we will ask Mr. Baldwin to state briefly if he feels the racial conflict in Alabama and Mississippi could happen here in Florida.

        JAMES BALDWIN: Well, in my view, which I think is the view of most American Negroes or the experience of most American Negroes, the situation in Alabama and Mississippi, which is spectacular, and surprises the country, is nationwide. Not only could it happen in Florida, it could happen in New York or Chicago, Detroit or anywhere there is a significant Negro population…

        .because, until the day all the Negroes in this country, in one way or another, in different fashions, North or South, are kept in what is in fact prison. In the North, one lives in ghettos, and, in the South the situation is so intolerable as they become (?) not knowing if Mississippi or Alabama or Florida
        but for the whole future of this country.

        White people are surprised at the vehemence of Negro feeling and the depth of the danger, but I don’t think it has caught the Negro by surprise. One has been in a terrible situation for a very, very long time.

        MODERATOR: Now to our panel, Mr. Dempsy.

        AL DEMPSEY: Well, why could it happen? Why does it have to be violence? Why can’t it be something other than violence?

        BALDWIN: Well, part of the reason, one is doing best to avoid violence, but one of the reasons that it could happen that way is because, for so long, four hundred years, the American republic in general has ignored and denied the whole situation that Negroes have operated within….to be a source of cheap labor for example, North or South is to be in effect oppressed.

        Now the impression is bad enough. But the myth that the country has created about the object of the oppression…..the myth about the Negro being happy in his place is something that the republic has managed to believe. And so in addition to the fact of oppression, one has also the fact that within the country for one hundred years have been a way of life occurring in the country which most of the country knows nothing about.

        And, this is reflected, for example, in the way Negroes talk to each other. It is a kind of language which does not really exist on what we like to think as a major level of the American culture.

        AL DEMPSEY: Alright, but hasn’t there been a lethargy on the part of American Negro for that hundred year period, too, along with the white supremacy added to it?

        BALDWIN: I don’t think so, NO. I think that’s again part of the myth. One’s got to remember that, after all…this may sound very rude…..but you’ve got to remember who wrote the history books and toward what end.

        I have never known a lethargic Negro. I have known a great many demoralize Negroes, but that is not the same thing. The truth is Negroes have been fighting for (?) years to obtain their rights, but…and the country has ignored it. And, the technique of the country has been mainly to accomodate or to contain it, but never to really change the situation.

        And, what has happened our time, these last few years, it is almost impossible to contain it. And the technique of accommodation has broken down. For the first time, really, the situation is now in the open, and no American can ignore it as has been true up until, let us say, 1954.

        Al Dempsy: Alright. Why did it happen. Why do you think it happened? in 1954?

        BALDWIN: Well, the one thing, what happened in the South is that when the Supreme Court desegregated schools, or tried to desegregate schools, the South, which until that time had really ignored pleas on the part the NAACP to do something about creating a situation in the South…they were not asking for desegregation but to honor the separate but equal clause. And, the schools of the South were not equal.

        Now, this meant, after ’54, the South which had ignored the necessities on the part of Negroes to be educated suddenly what leaped into that breach is now building schools for Negroes to keep the schools segregated.

        And this meant, in effect, that if I were a college president in the deep South at a state college, that I had lost my position. I could no longer bargain. I couldn’t…I no longer had to go to the governor to get a new dormitory or a new chemistry lab. The governor was all to anxious to give me a new chemistry lab. That meant that I no longer had any effect, no power whatever. I couldn’t guarantee the facility of my students. The bargaining table had suddenly disappeared. This is what really happened, I think.

        AL DEMPSEY: Well, that was 1954. This is 1963. All of a sudden we have violence. That’s what we’re talking about here. Are you Negro leaders, and let’s consider you one of the Negro leaders…ARe Negro leaders encouraging conditions of violence?

        BALDWIN: No. No responsible Negro leader can possibly…all the people I work with know, are working as hard as they know how to channelize an energy which they know is there in order for it not to become violence. But, to be candid, there is something amazing really in the fact that the Negro has not been violent sooner, you know. There is something very impressive in my view in the ways which Negroes have managed to deal with this situation. And, the kind of discipline, the interior discipline of an adolescent to sit-in and to boycott and to undergo all the things have to undergo is an extraordinary thing. And, if it were true that was a new Negro that he had never been seen before that would be a miracle.

        What has really happen is these people have been coming a long, long time. In the ’30’s, for example, people like Roy Wilkins in the South as hobos trying to organize unions and being beatened and clubbed and murdered. The Republic ignored all of this. But every Negro child growing up knew something about it.

        It is the Republic, I repeat, that has been captured by its own myth of the subservient Negro and now is surprised to discover that the myth was never true.

        DR. TEBEAU: Mr. Baldwin, are you saying that possibly, if separate but equal facilities had been provided for Negroes that none of this might have happened?

        BALDWIN: No, I am not saying that at all.

        DR. TEBEAU: I didn’t think you meant to say that.

        BALDWIN: No, I didn’t mean to suggest that. But, I did mean to suggest that the NAACP at that point was trying to change a law but doing again what Negro leaders always try to do which is try to save children…to get the children…to invest the children with morale….and you can’t teach a child if the situation in which he is studying is intolerable. And, we all know that.

        Now, it is also true that you cannot really…..no Negro child is going to a segregated school, it is going to cost millions of dollars…it’s true with the bodies there….it’s true because the white people want them there and no place else. And, you cannot educate a child in that context either. Do you see?

        DR. TEBEAU: It seems to me also, that while you are asking White people to change their estimate of Negro, to raise their estimate Negro, you are also saying to the Negro he ought to do something to raise his estimate of himself. Isn’t that true?

        BALDWIN: It’s one of the great problems, let me put it this way, of being an American Negro in the first place: That you are taught…. really the entire weight of the Republic teaches you to despise yourself. All the standards….when you open your eyes on the world and look out at it….there is nothing reflecting you. As far as we can tell, for example, from television programs, there are no Negroes in the country at all…or almost all the Hollywood productions. The country has arbitrarily declared that kinky hair and dark skin, wide nose, big lips, is a hideous thing to be afflicted with.

        Now the Negro parent, in this case, say I am the Negro parent in this case, has used everything he can find to counteract the Republic’s attempt to diminish this child. And, it is inevitable then, by the time the boy or becomes twenty or a girl becomes twenty, they are in a great battle inside to release themselves from what the country calls them. Do you see?

        Now this estimate of ones self is a very difficult thing, you know, to change. But, this is part of the battle, one has got to do that.

        And, incidentally, I think that White Americans themselves do something else. They seem to assume that I live in a segregated society, and they don’t realize that they live in a segregated society….that we do. And that the White child is really just as victimized by this peculiar medieval system as any Negro child. And, what is worse the White child doesn’t know it, and his whole attitude toward the world and toward reality is slanted.

        DR. TEBEAU: If I may add one more question, why are you as doubtful as you are about what liberals are going to do for the cause of the Negro?

        BALDWIN: Well, because I’ve….I don’t mean to sound cruel…..there are exceptions…..but, in general, my experience with liberals: They have attitude. And, they have all the proper attitudes, but they have no REAL conviction. And, when the chips are down, and you expect them to deliver on what you thought they felt, they somehow are not there.

        DR. TEBEAU: Is that your estimate of the Kennedy administration to some extent?

        BALDWIN: My estimate of the Kennedy administration…part of my estimate of the Kennedy administration….is that, first of all, the Kennedy brothers like almost all other White Americans, even with the best of the world, know very little…in fact, I would have to say, until very recently, virtually nothing about what we like to call the “Negro Problem.”

        You know, most of the Americans that I’ve ever encountered…really, you know……had a Negro friend or Negro maid or somebody in high school, but they never, or rarely…after school was over or whatever…. came to my kitchen.

        You know, we were segregated from the school house door. Therefore, he doesn’t know…..he really does not know……..what it was like for me to leave my house, you know, leave the school and go back to Harlem…..doesn’t know how Negroes live.

        And, it comes as a great surprise to the Kennedy brothers and to everybody else in the country.

        I’m certain, again you know, that like most White Americans that I have encountered, they have no…I am sure have nothing against me…….that is really not the question.

        The question is really how did apathy and ignorance…which is a price we pay for segregation…..it’s what segregation means……You don’t know what is happening on the other side of the wall (world?) because you don’t want to know.

        MODERATOR: Mr. Baldwin, I am going to have to interrupt for just a moment. We will be back for more questions after this message.

        Commercial

        MODERATOR: Now we will have questions from our studio audience. I’d like to remind you to wait for recognition, then stand and state your name and affiliation. First of all, we have a gentleman in the third row on the end.

        AUDIENCE MEMBER: My name is (?) vice president of the (?) NAACP. I (?) New York …I lived in Mississippi for awhile, and I personally have lived there for a year and am surprised at the action taken by these people who 10 years ago would have been terrified to act in concert as they do.

        It seems that Negroes all over the country now are no longer afraid of personal injury in these things. How do you (?) and what do you think caused this?

        BALDWIN: It’s a hard question for me to answer because I don’t know the South that well. I have been in Mississippi, but I’ve never really lived there.

        But, I should suppose that, in the very same way that…on the very same principle that even White Southern segregationists….what we call the poor White is dimly aware because of television, because of newspapers of a world breaking in on his…the world that seemed so safe before….is being threatened by a larger world which he doesn’t understand.

        Now in the case of Negroes, who I think have …lived somewhat closer to the realities than most White Americans who do, seemed to have lived, I think the impact of ( ) like Africa, the impact of Martin Luther King in Montgomery, the impact of…..the awareness that there was something that Negroes could do for themselves began to change the climate, the tenor, the relationship that Negroes had to each other in such a place as Jackson, Mississippi, for example.

        After all, there has been a great deal…you’ve lived there so you know…there has been a great deal of ground work going on among people in NAACP and students, you know, so that it was inevitable in my view that one day these people would ally themselves in the movement which they have known to be in one way irresistible. I don’t know if that answers you at all.

        Timestamp 14:35 –AUDIENCE MEMBER:

        Reply
  13. SouthernGirl2 says:
    October 9, 2013 at 2:40 pm

    214 House Republicans Refuse to Come to the White House to Talk to President Obama

    http://www.politicususa.com/2013/10/09/house-republicans-blow-obamas-offer-talk-18-232-show.html

    Reply
  14. Ametia says:
    October 9, 2013 at 2:04 pm

    Four Arguments for Eliminating Television
    By Jerry Mander – Former Advertising Executive1
    Synopsis and Comments by William H. Gross – Colorado Springs 2005

    PDF

    http://z5.ifrm.com/30157/88/0/p1094049/Ev_Four_Arguments_for_Eliminating_Television.pdf

    Reply
  15. rikyrah says:
    October 9, 2013 at 1:58 pm

    ‘A small ask’

    By Steve Benen
    Wed Oct 9, 2013 12:42 PM EDT

    MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell had an interesting chat yesterday with Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.) about the government shutdown, and the congressman shared a perspective that deserves more attention. Indeed, Jonathan Capehart noted that this exchange in particular left him “slack-jawed.”

    DUFFY: You were asking me about the larger issue of why can’t people resolve this government shutdown. And we have been incredibly reasonable, making a small ask. And if the president —

    MITCHELL: Do you consider it a small ask that he get rid of the central part of his health care plan that was upheld by the vote of a presidential election and the United States Supreme Court?

    DUFFY: Andrea, hold on. That’s your spin.

    Now, Mitchell was simply reminding the Republican lawmaker about some basic facts. That’s not “spin”; that’s a little something many of us like to call “reality.”

    But what’s truly amazing is Duffy’s apparent belief that he and his far-right colleagues have been “incredibly reasonable,” offering nothing but “a small ask.”

    I’ll confess that I don’t expect much in the way of substance from Sean Duffy, but his delusional perspective helps capture a larger problem among congressional Republicans.

    http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/10/09/20886375-a-small-ask?lite

    Reply
  16. Ametia says:
    October 9, 2013 at 1:57 pm

    3:10 pm ET PBO announces Yellen for Fed chairman

    http://www.whitehouse.gov/live

    Reply
  17. rikyrah says:
    October 9, 2013 at 1:50 pm

    October 09, 2013 11:53 AM
    More Support For Speaker Cruz
    Maybe Erick Erickson thinks he’s lost control of the troops he helped marshal in the “Defund Obamacare” campaign. But the Grand Marshal, Ted Cruz, is doing quite well, at least among Republicans.

    A new national survey from PPP asks respondents whether they’d prefer to have John Boehner or Ted Cruz as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. Among self-identified GOPers, Cruz edges out the Orange Man by a 40-37 margin. Since a decent number of Tea Folk prefer to self-identify as indies, perhaps the better measurement of the GOP rank-and-file is 2012 Romney voters. They prefer Speaker Cruz to Speaker Boehner by a 44-32 margin.

    This probably isn’t surprising in view of a late-September PPP survey showing Cruz leaping to the front of the pack in 2016 presidential soundings among Republicans, and being vastly more popular among GOPers than Boehner or Mitch McConnell.

    It’s worth remembering next time you read one of those blind-quote-laden accounts of how much Cruz is hated among congressional Republicans. So was Joe McCarthy, but he was wildly popular on the Right until he finally overreached by accusing a Republican administration of commie-coddling.

    http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/index.php

    Reply
  18. rikyrah says:
    October 9, 2013 at 1:49 pm

    Kochs Deny Pushing for Shutdown Over Health Law

    Koch Industries, whose co-founders, Charles and David Koch, are major donors to Tea Party-inspired conservative causes, accused Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, on Wednesday of spreading “false information” about the brothers by suggesting they are behind the move to end financing for President Obama’s healthcare law and the partial shutdown of the federal government.

    “Koch believes that Obamacare will increase deficits, lead to an overall lowering of the standard of health care and raise taxes,’’ Philip Ellender, the company’s chief spokesman, wrote in a letter to senators. “However, Koch has not taken a position on the legislative tactic of tying the continuing resolution to defunding Obamacare, nor have we lobbied on legislative programs defunding Obamacare.’’

    The Koch brothers have long worked against the health law, and have contributed to organizations, like Heritage Action for America, that are pressing lawmakers to end financing for it.

    But groups that rely heavily on Koch funding, like Americans for Prosperity, Freedom Partners and a new group, Generation Opportunity, which is aimed at young people, are focused on sowing doubts about the health law and to undermine it in other ways, including by persuading Americans not to enroll for health insurance and pressing state lawmakers not to expand Medicaid under the law. Americans for Prosperity alone has run $5.5 million in television advertising against the law over the past three months.

    Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity, said in an interview last week that his group’s goal is not to defund the law, but to have it repealed.

    http://www.nytimes.com/news/fiscal-crisis/2013/10/09/kochs-deny-pushing-for-shutdown-over-health-law/?smid=tw-share&_r=0

    Reply
  19. Yahtc says:
    October 9, 2013 at 1:44 pm

    “Vincent Harding — Beyond civil rights: building spiritual democracy”

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=pFgzPlGOumI

    Uploaded on Nov 15, 2010 by IkedaCenter

    Reply
  20. rikyrah says:
    October 9, 2013 at 1:44 pm

    meta @metaquest

    Kochs fund Heritage but don’t like being mentioned on Senate floor? Kochs Deny Pushing for Shutdown Over Health Law http://nyti.ms/17nbhup

    11:16 AM – 9 Oct 2013

    Reply
  21. rikyrah says:
    October 9, 2013 at 1:38 pm

    Frank Schaeffer @Frank_Schaeffer

    a man who received 65 million votes nationwide is told to cave by a man who received 246,000 votes in one congressional district in Ohio

    10:32 AM – 9 Oct 2013

    Reply
  22. rikyrah says:
    October 9, 2013 at 1:37 pm

    David Corn ✔ @DavidCornDC

    An inside report: How tea party back-benchers, right-wing groups, and the Koch network hijacked John Boehner: http://mojo.ly/16QjA8R

    9:00 AM – 9 Oct 2013

    Reply
  23. Ametia says:
    October 9, 2013 at 12:51 pm

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

    Perhaps Tom should have stood on the floor and cut that fuckin credit card up when G.W.Bush took us into 2 wars and ran up our debt.

    Reply
  25. Ametia says:
    October 9, 2013 at 12:20 pm

    SCOTUS Considers Putting Citizens United on Steroids

    By: Adalia Woodbury
    Wednesday, October 9th, 2013, 12:27 pm

    The first case the Supreme Court heard this term brought what’s left of campaign finance laws back for scrutiny by the same court that gave us corporations have civil rights and money is speech in Citizens United. Citizens United, the Sequel, is brought to you by Sean McCutcheon, a businessman and Republican activist from Alabama. Naturally, the chief benefactor of Citizens United joined him: the RNC.

    This is a bfd because, if McCutcheon prevails, it means the Koch brothers and other rich totalitarian types will have unlimited use of their corporate wealth and their personal wealth to pool resources to buy Federal, state and local governments. President Obama and Senator Bernie Sanders voiced the grave consequences to our political system that came with Citizens United and why they will be greater in this case.

    In effect, this case seeks to reduce elections to auctions in which billionaires are the loudest bidders. It means no matter who we vote for, our political representatives will be a billionaire’s pet

    http://www.politicususa.com/2013/10/09/scotus-considers-putting-citizens-united-steroids.html

    Reply
  27. Yahtc says:
    October 9, 2013 at 12:07 pm

    The Life & Legacy of Carter G. Woodson – Dr. Greg Kimathi Carr

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=W0b-LgUBLh4

    Interesting: At timestamp 028:29 to 0:31:39 you will find his opinion about Emory College buying all of Carter Woodson’s library.

    Reply
  28. Ametia says:
    October 9, 2013 at 11:45 am

    Leaders met on Hill
    By JAKE SHERMAN and JOHN BRESNAHAN | 10/9/13 7:38 AM EDT Updated: 10/9/13 12:41 PM EDT

    House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor quietly met on Wednesday with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer.

    The meeting, held in Boehner’s (R-Ohio) suite of offices in the Capitol, comes a week into the government shutdown and eight days before the Treasury Department says the debt ceiling will be reached.

    “Reps. Pelosi and Hoyer asked for the meeting, and as we’ve stated publicly, we’re willing to meet with any Democratic leader who is willing to talk,” said Michael Steel, Boehner’s spokesman. Pelosi would not comment.

    After the meeting ended, Boehner refused to comment on what was said, or on anything related to the shutdown or debt ceiling hike. He then went to the House floor and delivered a brief speech chastising the health care law as a “train wreck” and detailing the glitches that have plagued the rollout of the new Obamacare exchanges since Oct. 1.

    Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/government-shutdown-house-democrats-white-house-meeting-98047.html#ixzz2hFCCLQtt

    Reply
  29. SouthernGirl2 says:
    October 9, 2013 at 11:15 am

    Brit Hume: Obama Deliberately Ignored Major Networks at Presser to Avoid Tough Questions

    http://www.mediaite.com/tv/brit-hume-obama-deliberately-ignored-major-networks-at-presser-to-avoid-tough-questions/

    Fox News’ Brit Hume was bewildered at the complete lack of hard-hitting questions at President Obama‘s press conference on Tuesday, calling out Obama for ignoring the network TV correspondents because, as Hume saw it, they are traditionally tougher on presidents than other journalists.

    Hume explained to Greta Van Susteren why he found the lack of any challenging questions at all so appalling.

    “There’s a long tradition among network correspondents that cover the White House of asking presidents of both parties challenging questions. They may sympathize with the president, but they ask challenging questions. No network correspondents were called on today.”

    Hume said this was “obviously deliberate,” adding that no one asked a thing about the Obamacare roll-out or challenged him on his debt ceiling remarks.

    Earlier in the day, Hume fired off a series of tweets slamming the lack of challenging questions at the presser.

    Reply
  31. TyrenM says:
    October 9, 2013 at 9:59 am

    Thanks for more back story on Marvin. Last request – Inner City Blues. I appreciate him going in during early 70’s just as much as the duets with Ms. Tami. Have a good day.

    Reply
  32. rikyrah says:
    October 9, 2013 at 9:09 am

    Obama Snubs TV Reporters at Press Briefing

    By Kenneth T. Walsh

    The White House press corps is buzzing because President Obama did the unexpected Tuesday afternoon: He stiffed network television reporters at his White House news conference by not calling on a single one of them.

    Obama granted questions to correspondents from The Associated Press, Bloomberg, Huffington Post, Reuters, NPR, The New York Times, Financial Times, Roll Call, Agence France-Presse, CBS Radio and Real Clear Politics.

    As the hourlong session progressed, it became clear to the reporters in attendance and many in the viewing audience that none of the front-line network TV correspondents had gotten questions, which is extremely rare.

    Toward the end of the encounter, TV reporters, who mostly sit in the first row, seemed restless and some began shouting questions instead of waiting to be called on. This prompted Obama to say, “I’m just going through my list, guys. Talk to Jay” – a reference to White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.

    In fact, many non-TV reporters welcomed the snubbing of the TV stars because Obama and Carney usually allow the television correspondents to dominate such question-and-answer sessions, and many other journalists don’t get to ask questions.

    http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/Ken-Walshs-Washington/2013/10/09/obama-snubs-tv-reporters-at-press-briefing

    Reply
  34. rikyrah says:
    October 9, 2013 at 8:30 am

    Obamacare Improvement Act of 2017

    Posted by Richard Mayhew at 6:29 am .

    Oct092013
    .

    Let us make the following assumptions about a potential Obamacare Improvement Act of 2017:
    •The exchange and Medicaid coverage expansion both go live on 1/1/14
    •There are known and unknown glitches with both programs
    •On Jan. 21, 2017, Democrats control at least one veto point (The Senate is the easiest veto point. The 2016 terrain is very favorable for Democrats to add a significant number of seats in blue and purple states from the Tea Bagger wave of 2010)
    •We’re living in a more rational political universe where trade-offs can occur.

    The strongest assumption leading to an Obamacare Improvement Act of 2017 is that by then “fuck you, I’ve got mine” will work in our favor. The weakest assumption is the “rational” political universe.

    People will be used to buying insurance on the Exchange/Marketplace. People will be used to getting tax subsidies. People will be used to not having a panic attack when a round of lay-offs are announced for the one member of the family who has employer sponsored group insurance coverage. Obamacare will be status quo. Inertia and tweaking works in favor of improvement.

    So what would such an act look like?

    I think we can divide the changes into four major categories. Bug fixes, cost sharing, pilot projects being brought to scale and coverage expansion.

    The first and I think the easiest set of changes to incorporate will be bug fixes. There are four notable bugs at the moment. The first is Congressional staffers have to go on Exchange for their insurance, but there was ambiguity as to whether or not their employer contribution followed them to the Exchange. OPM made a rule saying the premium subsidy from the employers followed the employees. A simple fix could clarify this. Another example is clergy can’t apply subsidies to some church sponsored plans that don’t qualify as adequate coverage for Obamacare regulations. Sen. Coons and Sen. Pryor have a bill to tweak the regulation. The bug that will get the most headlines over the next three years is the family coverage glitch. Right now, if an employer offers “affordable” insurance to the employee but not the family, the family is unable to get subsidies on the Exchange. That needs to change. The final issue is PPACA was passed with the assumption that all states would quickly expand Medicaid and therefore individuals who made less than 100% FPL would never see the Exchange and thus should not receive subsidy. Tweaking that language so that anyone who qualifies for the Exchange can get subsidy is a straightforward fix. There are other small known issues. There will be a laundry list of other issues that pop up during the next three years that can be fixed.

    Currently subsidies are on a sliding scale up to 400% FPL. The maximum the second lowest silver policy can cost is 9.5% of modified adjusted gross income (MAGI). In most cases this works out very nicely. However there are a few corner cases where the second lowest silver for an individual who makes just more than 400% FPL is significantly above 9.5% of FPL. Good social welfare policy making should not have explicit or implicit marginal tax rates of several thousand percent. That messes up work incentives a bit. The policy change should be subsidies apply to any and all situations regardless of income to bring the cost of the second lowest silver down to 9.5% of MAGI. If that means someone with an income of 512% FPL gets a $1,200 subsidy, oh well, they need it.

    http://www.balloon-juice.com/2013/10/09/obamacare-improvement-act-of-2017/

    Reply
  35. rikyrah says:
    October 9, 2013 at 8:28 am

    The Morning Plum: A clarifying moment of Washington dysfunction

    By Greg Sargent, Updated: October 9, 2013

    Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan have both published new articles that add up to a kind of closing argument against the White House as the crisis hits a climax. Both are usefully revealing. By eliding the core disagreement driving this standoff, both reveal just how weak the GOP case really is, in a manner only the most determined “both sides to blame” commentator could fail to appreciate.

    Cantor’s piece describes the standoff as a “clarifying moment of Washington dysfunction.” He’s right. But it isn’t clarifying in the manner he claims it is.

    Cantor’s and Ryan’s pieces call for Obama to negotiate with Republicans on entitlements and spending as a route to resolving the current crisis. Says Cantor: “The president not only has refused to negotiate on issues of debt and spending but also has mocked the very idea of engaging with Congress.” Cantor’s statement is false. Obama and Republicans don’t disagree over the need to negotiate on these issues. They disagree over the conditions under which these negotiations should proceed.

    Dems want Republicans to agree to reopen the government at sequester levels, and to avert the threat of default, before entering into these negotiations. They don’t believe the threat of widespread harm to the country should give Republicans unilateral leverage in those negotiations — not just because it will be used to force unilateral concessions from Dems, but because it will legitimize such tactics as conventional Washington negotiating tools and make default, and immense damage to the country, more likely later.

    By contrast, Republicans will only agree to have these negotiations in a context where a government shutdown and the threat of default do give them that added leverage. This is an objective statement of the GOP position. Dems have offered Republicans the negotiations they want, once those conditions are lifted. Republicans have refused. Therefore, their position is that conditions which continue to threaten widespread destruction, giving them leverage, must remain for any talks to proceed.

    The key tell is that Cantor and Ryan don’t directly defend this position. They elide it. To be sure, both repeat the claim there have been negotiations attached to debt ceiling hikes in the past. But as Jonathan Chait explains, that isn’t the same as dangling the actual threat of default and untold economic havoc as a way to extract massive one-sided concessions. Republicans cannot defend this tactic because they will not acknowledge they are actually employing it. John Boehner already allowed in March that the debt ceiling will and must be raised, because: ”I’m not going to risk the full faith and credit of the federal government.” But on ABC on Sunday, when Boehner was pressed on whether he’d actually allow default if Dems didn’t give him what he wants, he repeatedly fudged, saying he would not allow a vote on a ”clean” debt limit bill. What happens if default is the only other option? We just don’t know.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/10/09/the-morning-plum-a-clarifying-moment-of-washington-dysfunction/?print=1

    Reply
  36. rikyrah says:
    October 9, 2013 at 8:27 am

    The basic story: Democratic unity

    By Jonathan Bernstein, Updated: October 8, 2013

    Barack Obama gave a lengthy press conference today, and what was most notable about it wasn’t anything he said that was new — basically, he stuck to his line that he’ll negotiate anything as long as Republicans allow the government to reopen and raise the debt limit — but just how unified the Democrats remain. Here’s the core message he delivered:

    [M]embers of Congress, and the House Republicans in particular, don’t get to demand ransom in exchange for doing their jobs. And two of their very basic jobs are passing a budget and making sure that America’s paying its bills. They don’t also get to say, you know, unless you give me what the voters rejected in the last election, I’m going to cause a recession.

    (J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press)

    We’re a week-plus into this shutdown, and I didn’t hear anything from the president which deviated, even a tiny bit, from what House and Senate Democrats are saying. Not only that, but there doesn’t seem to be any split between any of these Democratic politicians and Democratic activists, party-aligned interest groups and other party actors. They appear to be completely united on rejecting GOP “hostage-taking.”

    That’s certainly not the case on the other side, where Republicans have turned on each other, sometimes bitterly so, and where party-aligned groups have regularly criticized Republican politicians in Congress, whether it’s the Chamber of Commerce rejecting the Republican approach or tea party groups that have been quick to criticize House Speaker John Boehner and pragmatic conservative Republican senators.

    Why the Democratic unity? It seems pretty straightforward: Democrats agree that both the substance and the procedure of Republican requests is flatly unreasonable. It’s not spin. It’s not a bluffing negotiating position. It’s apparently the virtually unanimous reaction of Democrats at all levels.

    And that, finally, is why Republicans are losing the shutdown fight, and are going to continue losing it. The only question has been how badly the nation will be hurt by it, and how long it takes for Republicans to accept that they’ve misplayed this horribly.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/10/08/the-basic-story-democratic-unity/?print=1

    Reply
  37. rikyrah says:
    October 9, 2013 at 8:26 am

    What the Tea Party is really afraid of: California

    Tuesday, October 08, 2013 | Posted by Spandan C at 12:03 PM

    Yeah, what he said.

    This year, California’s deficit suddenly disappeared (thanks partly to voters hiking income taxes on the rich), we raised the minimum wage, made undocumented immigrants eligible for drivers’ licenses and law licenses, and passed new gun control measures. Well, not suddenly, really. You see, voters in last year’s elections in California cleaned out a certain political party. Having lost all of the statewide constitutional offices in 2010 (yeah, while the rest of the country was busy giving power to the GOP, we cleaned their clock here), they also lost their last leverage in state politics in 2012 – as voters gave Democrats a two-thirds majority in both houses of the state legislature, Republicans lost their last refuge to stop certain legislation.

    While a lot of people would like to tell you that California has always been a liberal bastion, this was a fairly rapid turnaround. Just a decade ago, in 2003, Californians recalled a Democratic governor, and put in a popular Republican movie star in his place, who then won a big re-election in 2006. Some of the most ardent wingbat conservatives in Congress hail from California (ahem, Darrell Issa), as did GOP’s patron saint Ronald Reagan.

    And so, California Republicans met for their convention in Anaheim this weekend, irrelevant as they are, and stuck between the the wingbat Tea Party conservatives and others who actually hope to win a statewide election in the state ever again. But California’s dramatic shift has happened because of some factors that are coming to the rest of America.

    First, demography is destiny. California is not only a minority majority state, with Hispanics now equaling the Anglo population in the state, but we are also one of the most diverse. Our ethnic composition spans Anglos, Latinos, Asians, Native Americans, African Americans, and nearly everything else you can think of.

    The Republicans began their long decline with the state’s minority population with Pete Wilson and Proposition 187, which outlawed undocumented immigration from using state services, including outlawing children from going to school. It took a Democratic governor in 1999 to stop the appeals after a federal court overturned the law. Republicans didn’t learn their lesson though, as the following Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger turned back a Gray Davis era law to grant drivers’ licenses to undocumented immigrants.

    http://www.thepeoplesview.net/2013/10/what-tea-party-is-really-afraid-of.html

    Reply
  38. rikyrah says:
    October 9, 2013 at 8:17 am

    Default deniers complicate GOP extortion plan
    By Steve Benen
    Wed Oct 9, 2013 8:47 AM EDT

    Following up on Rachel’s segment from last night — and for the love of all that is good in the world, I sure hope you watched the Moby Dick production — the world has a serious problem on its hands. More than a few congressional Republicans have convinced themselves that a sovereign debt crisis wouldn’t be so bad and Congress should feel free to ignore the debt-ceiling deadline.

    To be sure, there were a handful of extremist lawmakers who made this argument in 2011, during the first-ever Republican debt-ceiling crisis, but they were considered strange policy freaks who were generally ignored.

    Over the last two years, however, as the radicalism of extremist Republican politics has intensified, the argument has gone mainstream. Both the New York Times and Politico have lengthy reports this morning on the growing number of GOP lawmakers — some in the House, some in the Senate, some new to Congress, some who’ve had lengthy congressional careers — who genuinely seem to believe the crisis they’re creating on purpose won’t be “that bad.”

    The evidence is overwhelming that their argument is, among other things, dangerously insane. What they’re suggesting — the Treasury can simply “prioritize” expenditures to prevent default on our debts — is illegal and literally impossible.

    But looking at this genuine madness in the bigger picture, I have three questions I’d like the default deniers and the rest of the political world to consider as the crisis continues.

    http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/10/09/20884271-default-deniers-complicate-gop-extortion-plan?lite

    Reply
  39. rikyrah says:
    October 9, 2013 at 8:15 am

    Paul Begala ‏@PaulBegala 11h

    .@johnboehner has called 42 separate votes to repeal Obamacare. Why won’t he call one to fund the govt? #JustVote

    Reply
  40. rikyrah says:
    October 9, 2013 at 8:15 am

    LiveScience @LiveScience

    Shutdown Cancels Entire US Antarctic Research Program http://dlvr.it/46Dz5S

    6:02 AM – 9 Oct 2013

    Reply
  41. rikyrah says:
    October 9, 2013 at 8:12 am

    ‘Unconditional surrender’
    By Steve Benen

    Wed Oct 9, 2013 8:00 AM EDT

    About an hour after President Obama held a pretty impressive press conference at the White House, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) hosted a much briefer event — 5 minutes compared to 68 minutes — in which he made several odd-but-important claims.

    To be sure, much of the rhetoric was the usual nonsense, which has become little more than annoying background noise. The Republican leader said, for example, the president “refuses to negotiate,” which is largely the opposite of what Obama actually said. Boehner also gave a brief lecture on “the way our government works,” as if it’s normal for a major party to ignore election results, shut down the government, and threaten a sovereign debt crisis unless its demands are met.

    I was particularly amused when the Speaker said, “This isn’t about me and frankly, it’s not about Republicans. This is about saving the future for our kids and our grandkids.” Apparently the fight has become about deficit reduction, despite the fact that the deficit has already been cut in half; despite the fact that Boehner has rejected a series of bipartisan measures that would reduce it further; and despite the fact that Boehner voted to add Bush’s two tax cuts, two wars, and a Wall Street bailout to the national charge card.

    But that wasn’t the really funny part. This was:

    “So the president’s position that, ‘Listen, we’re not going to sit down and talk to you until you surrender,’ is just not sustainable…. What the president said today was, if there is unconditional surrender by Republicans, he’ll sit down and talk to us.”

    This is the argument that raises legitimate questions about whether Boehner is simply in over his head — it’s quickly becoming apparent that he’s simply not well suited for the office he currently holds and not at all prepared for the responsibilities that have overwhelmed him.

    http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/10/09/20883723-unconditional-surrender?lite

    Reply
  42. rikyrah says:
    October 9, 2013 at 8:09 am

    GOP Rep: Obamacare A Bigger Threat Than Default

    Tom Kludt – October 9, 2013, 7:27 AM EDT

    For Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA), every threat to the nation’s economy — including default — pales in comparison to the Affordable Care Act.

    While many hardline conservatives in the Republican Party have sharply criticized the health care law, Broun’s rhetoric has been particularly apocalyptic. Echoing what he told National Review earlier this week, Broun told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday that “Obamacare is going to destroy everything that we know as a nation.”

    So with the mid-October debt limit deadline looming, Broun said he’s prioritizing the economic ills.

    “There are a lot of things that are going to affect our economy,” Broun told the New York Times in a story published Wednesday. “The greatest threat right now is Obamacare. It’s already destroyed jobs, it’s already destroyed our economy, and if it stays in place as it is now, it’s going to destroy America.”

    The Times piece focused on a group of Republicans who have been dismissive of the threat of default. Obama called those default deniers “irresponsible” during a news conference on Tuesday.

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/gop-rep-obamacare-a-bigger-threat-than-default

    Reply
  43. rikyrah says:
    October 9, 2013 at 8:08 am

    Paul Ryan’s Debt Limit Proposals Don’t Gut Obamacare

    Tom Kludt – October 9, 2013, 6:00 AM EDT

    House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) wrote in an op-ed published Wednesday that President Barack Obama must “come to the table” in order to avert the looming fiscal crisis and that “both sides should agree to common-sense reforms of the country’s entitlement programs and tax code.”

    But noticeably absent from Ryan’s proposals was any reference to the Affordable Care Act.

    “The president is giving Congress the silent treatment. He’s refusing to talk, even though the federal government is about to hit the debt ceiling. That’s a shame—because this doesn’t have to be another crisis,” Ryan wrote in the Wall Street Journal. “It could be a breakthrough.”

    Ryan’s proposals include requiring those who are “better off to pay higher premiums for Medicare” and reforming the Medigap plans “to encourage efficiency and reduce costs.”

    And although he addressed the need for a “complete rethinking of government’s approach to health care,” Paul never explicitly called for changes to Obamacare, a pre-requisite to any deal for many conservatives on Capitol Hill. Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ) said earlier this week that any debt limit deal must delay or defund the Affordable Care Act.

    House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said emphatically Tuesday that a “clean” debt limit increase — one without reforms attached — would be tantamount to “unconditional surrender” for Republicans.

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/paul-ryan-both-sides-should-embrace-entitlement-tax-reform-to-avoid-fiscal-crisis

    Reply
  44. rikyrah says:
    October 9, 2013 at 8:07 am

    Arizona law may restrict voting in local elections

    By Reid Wilson, Published: October 9 at 6:00 am

    Arizona residents who registered to vote using forms provided by the federal government will not be allowed to vote in state and local elections next year, according to an opinion issued by the state’s attorney general, setting up the possibility of a two-track electoral system that will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and impact just a small handful of voters.

    In a legal opinion [pdf] presented to Secretary of State Ken Bennett (R), Attorney General Tom Horne (R) said voters who registered using a federal registration form but failed to provide a document proving their citizenship are eligible to vote in federal elections, but not in state and local elections.

    Horne also held that voters who registered using the federal form won’t be eligible to sign petitions for candidates or ballot initiatives.

    The federal registration form, created as part of the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, better known as the Motor Voter law, requires voters to certify, under penalty of perjury, that they are citizens eligible to cast a ballot.

    But in 2004, Arizona voters passed Proposition 200, a measure that required voters to go farther than the federal rules and present proof of citizenship, such as a driver’s license number, a photocopy of a birth certificate or a passport. State-printed voter registration forms require that proof of citizenship; federal forms do not.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2013/10/09/arizona-law-may-restrict-voting-in-local-elections/?Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost

    Reply
  45. rikyrah says:
    October 9, 2013 at 8:06 am

    Yet Another Poll Shows GOP Receiving Most Blame For Shutdown

    Tom Kludt – October 9, 2013, 6:54 AM EDT

    A web poll released Wednesday showed that Republicans continue to bear most of the blame for the government shutdown, the latest iteration of a clear and consistent trend.

    The Associated Press-GfK survey showed that 62 percent of American adults primarily blame Republicans for the first shutdown since 1996, while about half pinned the blame on President Barack Obama or congressional Democrats.

    And while 52 percent said that Obama is not cooperating enough with the GOP to end the shutdown, 63 percent said Republicans aren’t doing enough to cooperate with the president.

    Republicans have assailed Obama for his refusal to negotiate the terms of a continuing resolution that would re-open the shuttered government. Obama, meanwhile, has said that he will negotiate but only after Congress passes a bill to fund the government.

    Polls conducted before and after the shutdown have consistently shown that the public holds Republicans responsible for the situation.

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/yet-another-poll-shows-gop-receiving-most-blame-for-shutdown

    Reply
  46. Yahtc says:
    October 9, 2013 at 8:05 am

    Leonard Pitts: ‘You and I have an obligation’

    http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20131009/NEWS/131009736/1291/news?p=3&tc=pg
    Excerpt:

    “We have to understand justice is not for sale at the mall and change cannot be ordered from Amazon. If you want to see them, you have to be them,” he said.

    Reply
  47. rikyrah says:
    October 9, 2013 at 8:04 am

    amk4obama @amk4obama

    40,000 New Yorkers have signed up for quality, low-cost health insurance in just a little over one week. http://www.healthbenefitexchange.ny.gov/news/press-release-ny-state-health-announces-exchange-has-signed-tens-thousands-new-yorkers-low-cost …

    7:31 AM – 9 Oct 2013

    Reply
  49. Yahtc says:
    October 9, 2013 at 7:53 am

    “Norris tells her six-word essay at UW”

    National Public Radio correspondent Michele Norris’ advice to young people can be captured in a six-word sentence: “Always write your future in pencil.”

    Norris, an award winning journalist, spoke on campus as part of the Wisconsin Union Directorate Distinguished Lecture Series Monday night, emphasizing the idea that life has a way of rewriting itself.

    Once a University of Wisconsin electrical engineering undergraduate, Norris said she found a passion for journalism as a transfer student at the University of Minnesota.

    The first African-American host at NPR, Norris said when she began working in journalism she was concerned about being the person in the workroom that always talks about race.

    “I never wanted to take on that mantle, because it is sort of given to you when you are a person of color … I wanted to cover all the fields … I didn’t want to be the journalist that always talked about race,” Norris said.

    Now, Norris said race discussions are the largest part of her portfolio, a change she made willingly.

    “Race is something we have a hard time talking about in this country,” Norris said. “I entered through this door because I was trying to make this conversation easier.”

    ‘Playing the race card’ is one of the phrases Norris said she hates the most, because it is imprecise and used to shut down conversation. But to ease into conversations about race, Norris decided to literally play the race card.

    Norris’s Race Card Project asks people to reduce their thoughts and observations about race to one six-word sentence.

    She began the project by creating 200 postcards and handing them out to people in cities she visited. Norris said she was unsure whether she would get a response, but 30 percent of the original 200 were mailed back to her.

    Once the project got started it did not stop, Norris said. Postcards starting pouring in from all over the country and moved into the social media sphere, she said. Now, Norris said she even receives postcards from abroad.

    It is all people expressing their thoughts on race, a very difficult topic, in six words, Norris said.

    “The Race Card Project is meant to open us all up to different ways of thinking, not to change anyone’s mind, necessarily, but in some ways it’s a mirror and a window,” Norris said. “You will see things maybe you understand and recognize but you will also learn a little about life as lived by someone else.”

    The project also allows people to understand smaller moments in life and not just the big things in history books, she said.

    America is changing in significant ways and it can be seen everywhere, Norris said. Young people will inherit a world that is so much different than the one she grew up in, she added.

    There are shifting demographics in the country and the nation is transforming into a majority-minority nation, Norris said, which requires people to think about things they may not want to.

    The race cards are most interesting when people talk about themselves, because that is when you really understand people because they are digging deep and are much more introspective, Norris said.

    “[The Race Card Project] has been an education unlike any other I’ve received in the classroom or the newsroom,” Norris said. “I’ve learned fundamental things about America that are only possible because people have opened up and shared their stories with me and allowed me to share them with others.”

    University of Wisconsin teamed up with Norris’ The Race Card Project to encourage students to join in on the race conversation.

    http://badgerherald.com/news/2013/10/08/norris-tells-six-word-essay-uw-ai-tg-mmm/

    Reply
  51. rikyrah says:
    October 9, 2013 at 7:46 am

    LOVE LOVE LOVE me some Marvin Gaye!!

    THANK YOU

    Reply
  53. Ametia says:
    October 9, 2013 at 7:40 am

    Good Morning, Everyone! :-)))

    Reply

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