Happy Friday! Hope you’re enjoying Marvin Gaye week.
I Heard it Through the Grapevine; “People say believe half of what you see son, and none of what you hear.”
DISTANT LOVER
INNER CITY BLUES
Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)”, often shortened to “Inner City Blues”, is a song by Marvin Gaye, released as the third and final single from and the climactic song of his 1971 landmark album, What’s Going On. Written by Gaye and James Nyx, the song depicted the ghettos of inner-city America as it discussed how the bleak economic situation would lead to someone wanting to holler and throw ones hands up. The song was recorded in a mellow funk style with Gaye playing piano. Several of the Funk Brothers also contributed, including Eddie “Bongo” Brown, and bassist Bob Babbitt.
The song helped Gaye make history by being one of the few artists to have three or more Top 10 songs off Billboard’s Pop Singles chart peaking at #9 and one of the first to have three consecutive #1 hits on Billboard’s R&B Singles chart where it stayed for two weeks.[1] Although not certified by the RIAA at that time, all three releases from the What’s Going On album gained Gold status by selling over 1,000,000 copies in the United States.
In its unedited version as it appears on the album, the final minute of the song (and of the LP) is a reprise to the theme of “What’s Going On”, the album’s first song, then segues into a dark ending. This final minute was cut off of the single version, as well as other sections of the song so the single edit runs under three minutes–this edit appears on subsequent reissues of the LP.
“A Lonely Voice on Black Radio”
http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/a-lonely-voice-on-black-radio-b99116251z1-227452541.html
“Washington museum builds cultural collection of Black America”
http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Washington-museum-builds-cultural-collection-of-black-America/26514
The Only Thing Republicans Really Hate About ‘Obamacare’ is ‘Obama’
By Bob Cesca ·
October 11,2013
| 24726 Views |
Politics
It’s no secret that the most loathsome character in the
extraordinarily loathsome U.S. House of Representatives is Rep. Steve
Stockman (R-TX). In case you’re not aware of Stockman, he’s the first
term congressman from Ron Paul’s former district in Texas who invited
Ted Nugent to the State of the Union and who produced a bumper sticker
calling for the arming of fetuses to prevent abortions (a not-so-veiled
statement about killing abortion doctors).
It’s also no secret that this week was perhaps one of the most dismal
polling weeks for members of Congress. The polling has been so horrendous it led bipartisan pollsters for both NBC News and the Wall Street Journal to refer to Thursday’s numbers as “jaw-dropping.”
In spite of the harrowing numbers, including ones that suggested dog poop and hemorrhoids are better than Congress, Mr. Stockman tweeted this:
“57% of Americans oppose ObamaCare. @BarackObama and @TheDemocrats call them ‘terrorists’ and refuse to open the government.”
Let’s do the second part first. I’ve never heard the president refer
to Americans as “terrorists,” and the only Americans who some
congressional Democrats have compared to terrorists are the
congressional Republicans. But, naturally, the House Republicans only
make up around 0.00007 percent of the American population. So right
there, Mr. Stockman is just making things up.
Now the first part. Mr. Stockman tweeted that 57 percent of Americans
oppose Obamacare. He didn’t provide a link, so I initially didn’t know
what poll he was referring to. But I looked it up and, sure enough,
Stockman was right. It’s from a CNN poll released on October 1. And since Mr. Stockman seems to enjoy quoting poll numbers, let’s give him some poll numbers to tweet.
http://thedailybanter.com/2013/10/the-only-thing-republicans-really-hate-about-obamacare-is-obama/
House GOP is desperate for Obama to rescue it
By Jonathan Capehart
And here’s the truly breathtaking part: The House Republican leadership is desperately looking to a president it has disrespected for four years to rescue Republicans from a dangerous fight they never wanted. That they want him to lead them out of the political hole of their own making with the full faith and credit of the United States on the line is what’s irresponsible.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2013/10/05/house-gop-is-desperate-for-obama-to-rescue-it/?wprss=post-partisan
The 31 Most Gut-Wrenching Moments In The “Glee” Episode Honoring Cory Monteith
Tissues. The whole box.
posted on October 11, 2013 at 1:56am EDT
http://www.buzzfeed.com/jaimieetkin/glee-cory-monteith-episode-gut-wrenching-moments
john miller @deaconmill
GOP hates Obama because 1) he is Dem, 2) he is black and 3) he turned out not to be Stepin Fetchit like they hoped.
11:04 AM – 11 Oct 2013
LOL Ben Carson’s applied for the job of “STEPIN FETCHT.”
The Morning Plum: The secret GOP plot to salvage victory, or at least postpone defeat
By Greg Sargent, Updated: October 11, 2013
Today House Republicans will roll out their plan for a six-week debt ceiling hike, and the general tone in Washington is that the prospects for a “deal” have brightened. But if you dig deeper into this emerging deal, it becomes obvious the core disagreement driving this whole dispute remains entirely unresolved — and that Republicans remain fully committed to the posture that caused this crisis in the first place.
The reporting today suggests Republicans will continue to insist Dems enter into formal talks on spending and debt as a precondition to lifting the debt limit. On the surface, that seems like standard Washington posturing. Republicans want to be able to say they won something — we forced Democrats to come to the table to deal! — in exchange for a debt limit hike, which they are defining (falsely) as a big concession. But Republicans are privately confiding that a lot more is at stake than merely “saving face.” Here’s how they describe the situation to David Drucker:
For House Republicans, the fight over the debt ceiling isn’t just about fiscal reform. The battle that spawned a government shutdown is also very much about preserving the GOP majority’s relevance in future policy debates.
At issue isn’t whether House Republicans should accept a bad deal to raise the federal borrowing limit and ensure the U.S. does not default on its $16.7 trillion debt. Republicans are concerned that the refusal of President Obama and Senate Democrats to negotiate those issues with Republicans would establish a precedent making it impossible to haggle over future debt limit increases or to use them as leverage in other policy negotiations.
That has only reaffirmed to House Republican leaders — who wanted to avoid a government shutdown — that they have no choice but to stand their ground on the debt ceiling. Surrounded by a hostile White House and Senate, and with few legislative avenues beyond borrowing and spending bills to impose their agenda, Republicans said capitulating to Obama would cede to Democrats the only institutional authority Republicans possess.
For Republicans, simply agreeing to raise the debt limit, without getting anything in return, represents a surrender of their ability to use future debt limit deadlines as leverage in policy disputes. This gets at precisely the crux of the disagreement between the two parties.
Democrats believe standard policy negotiations should proceed outside a context in which the threat of harm to the country — whether through default or a continued government shutdown — gives one side unilateral leverage. Republicans want to retain that leverage; indeed, they see it as crucial to the House’s “institutional authority,” at least while they are in control of it. But even if you accept this definition of the House’s “institutional authority,” Democrats believe that what’s at stake here is governing norms, and that if they aren’t restored, this cycle will repeat itself, making future default and widespread economic destruction all but assured.
Republicans will argue they are removing the threat of default from the discussions, at least temporarily. But they continue to insist the government remain shut while these talks proceed, damaging the economy, and Politico’s report on the GOP proposal gets at the heart of the matter: “There’s no guarantee Republicans would stop using the debt limit as leverage in the future and Obama could find himself in the same position once the temporary extension expires.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/10/11/the-morning-plum-the-secret-gop-plot-to-salvage-victory-or-at-least-postpone-defeat/?print=1
Dems to GOP: No more extortion. No more extortion. No more extortion.
By Greg Sargent, Updated: October 11, 2013
Reports are dribbling out about a possible offer House Republicans are floating to get out of the crisis. The Associated Press reports they are suggesting funding of the government plus a temporary debt limit hike, in exchange for formal talks designed to ease the sequester by replacing it with entitlement cuts.
Democrats are taking this seriously — as a sign of a genuine shift in tone on the part of House Republicans, and as a sign they are seriously looking for a way to put an end to this mess. But they still think Republicans aren’t prepared to come to terms with the fundamental view of the situation that is motivating Democrats, and to work within that framework.
A Senate Democratic leadership aide tells me Dems aren’t prepared to comment directly on the House GOP offer — because details involving things such as duration are unclear — but reiterated to me that the general framework underlying the offer is still not acceptable.
“What we don’t want to do is give away any policy concessions now, if part of the deal is having a second phase of negotiations,” the aide tells me. “If they are offering a six week thing, or a couple of months, we’re not going to give them policy concessions so they can seek more during a second phase of negotiation.”
The aide described the Dem principle as follows: “Is this deal a stopgap? Or will it take the CR and debt ceiling off the table for a year or so? We can have a negotiation, but we can’t have it be backstopped by the threat of default later.”
“No major concessions in exchange for anything that sets us up for another round of crisis negotiations,” the aide added. “If we’re talking about a global deal here that puts us in an entirely different place, then we’re more open.”
In an interesting twist, Dems believe that by floating the six-week debt limit hike, House Republicans have paradoxically “lit a fire” under Senate Republicans to move towards a deal with Senate Dems, as the aide puts it — because Senate GOPers don’t want to be back in the same place later this fall.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/10/11/dems-to-gop-no-more-extortion-no-more-extortion-no-more-extortion/?print=1
https://twitter.com/dougmillsnyt/status/388738889847803905/photo/1
Greg Sargent ✔ @ThePlumLineGS
I see media is entering the “scrutinize every syllable of Dem rhetoric for any fake sign of a cave we can find” mode.
3:59 PM – 11 Oct 2013
When a a near-50 gal looks like THAT in a lace micro-mini and fuck-me pumps, these two fashion queens need to sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up.
It doesn’t matter a bit that the dress is kinda bleh. What she’s doing to that dress is all that matters.
We also appreciate that someone gave her hair a little life and bounce to it. More of that, please.
Pft. As if anyone’s looking at her hair.
http://tomandlorenzo.com/2013/10/sandra-bullock-in-stella-mccartney-at-gravity-screening.html
love the dress & shoes. Sandra’s ROCKIN both
President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and their daughter Malia meet with Malala Yousafzai, the young Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot in the head by the Taliban a year ago, in the Oval Office, Oct. 11
—Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
Priceless pic. It’s a moment Malia will always treasure, I’m sure.
LOL PBO to GOP: “You ain’t got to go home, but you got to get the hell out of here!”
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BWUAGd1CAAAZRm1.jpg
National News Alert
White House rejects House debt-limit proposal
Speaking after the markets closed, White House press secretary Jay Carney welcomed a “new willingness” among congressional Republicans to open the government and avoid default but said the president would not agree to tie budget negotiations to a six-week debt-limit extension. “What we think is not the right way to go is to try again to link extension of the debt ceiling to budget negotiations, and therefore link the possibility of default to whether one side gets what it wants in those negotiations.”
Carney’s statement came after President Obama spoke by phone with House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio). Boehner’s office issued a terse statemement, saying they agreed “that we should all keep talking.”
Read more at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-to-host-gop-senators-after-first-signs-of-progress-in-bitter-spending-stalemate/2013/10/11/d578655a-3280-11e3-89ae-16e186e117d8_story.html?hpid=z1
BWA HA HA HA We need a graphic!
McGrmpy’s still a deluded old fool. He’s still spewing the same old shit about “negotiating” the debt ceiling. GTFOH
The fear of ‘precedent’
By Steve Benen
Fri Oct 11, 2013 12:47 PM EDT.
For President Obama and his White House team, negotiations over the 2011 debt-ceiling increase are an area of major regret. At the time, the president looked at this as a straightforward opportunity — he and Republican leaders were both interested in a long-term debt-reduction deal, so this seemed like a suitable time to work on one. GOP officials, meanwhile, saw it slightly differently — the White House was expected to meet Republican demands or they would create a deliberate economic catastrophe.
Obama and his aides learned from the experience and came to a clear conclusion: no more negotiating over the debt ceiling. Indeed, the president has been candid on this point throughout 2013: he’ll negotiate on just about anything, but not if Republicans hold the full faith and credit of the United States hostage. For Obama, it’s simply too dangerous to set a precedent in which Congress threatens the nation’s well-being every time the debt-ceiling needs to be raised.
Oddly enough, congressional Republicans are thinking along identical lines, just from the opposite perspective.
National Journal reported yesterday, “Many House Republicans have sworn never to support a clean debt-ceiling extension, no matter the length, because of the precedent it would set.” David Drucker added this morning:
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/10/11/20922738-the-fear-of-precedent?lite
GTFOH Boner
Republicans Said to Insist on Conditions to End Shutdown
Republican senators wait at the Capitol for a shuttle bus ride to the White House for a meeting with President Barack Obama on settling the debt limit and government funding issues, on October 11, 2013 in Washington, DC. Photographer: Win McNamee/Getty Images
House Republicans offered a plan to raise the U.S. debt limit and end a partial government shutdown that would require the president to accept policy conditions attached to a spending measure, said two congressional aides.
Republicans sent a list of policy options to the White House following a meeting yesterday, said the aides, who spoke on condition of anonymity. President Barack Obama has insisted that he won’t accept conditions for ending the shutdown, which is in its 11th day.
“There will be some matters that we’re discussing now that would be added to that, hopefully,” Representative Hal Rogers of Kentucky, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said in an interview today. “I hope there’s specific matters but that’s under discussion.”
House Republicans also want Obama to agree to a framework for future negotiations on long-term fiscal and health care policy. If that happens, the House could vote as soon as today on pushing the lapse of U.S. borrowing authority to Nov. 22 from Oct. 17, according to the aides, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private offer.
http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-11/republicans-said-to-insist-on-conditions-to-end-shutdown.html
I CAN’T, I JUST CAN’T
Carson: Obamacare is ‘worst thing … since slavery’
1:14
October 11, 2013 11:50 AM EDT — Fox news contributor Ben Carson compared the Affordable Care Act to slavery at the Values Voters’ Summit Friday, saying, “It was never about health care; it was about control.” (The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/posttv/politics/carson-obamacare-is-worst-thing–since-slavery/2013/10/11/e40289d6-328d-11e3-89ae-16e186e117d8_video.html
THIS DUMBASS NIGGA, RIGHT HERE.
WTF is wrong with Ben Carson? He has lost his damn mind!
Marriage fight intensifies in New Jersey
By Steve Benen
–
Fri Oct 11, 2013 10:07 AM EDT.
1
Associated Press
Two weeks ago, a state judge in New Jersey offered civil-right proponents some heartening news: Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson ordered the state to begin officiating same-sex marriages on Oct. 21. The ruling was largely based on the Supreme Court precedent set in the Defense of Marriage Act case.
After Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) administration appealed the decision, it was widely assumed that the order would be put on hold, leaving the current law in place, while the case is litigated further.
But that’s not quite what’s happened.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/10/11/20920788-marriage-fight-intensifies-in-new-jersey?lite
Cruz has some explaining to do
By Steve Benen
Fri Oct 11, 2013 9:33 AM EDT
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) appeared on CNN last night, and suggested Americans should look no further than national polling to see how right he is.
First, the 37% approval rating for Obama came from an online poll that also put Congress’ approval rating at 5% — the “lowest it’s ever been.” Second, the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll Cruz cited shows support for the Republican Party collapsing to a degree unseen in modern times. And third, every major national poll conducted over the last two weeks shows Americans blaming Republicans for a wildly unpopular shutdown — including a poll commissioned by a guy named Ted Cruz.
And now the right-wing Texan wants to go on national television to talk about public opinion? Seriously?
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/10/11/20920404-cruz-has-some-explaining-to-do?lite
Why Face-Saving Won’t Work
by BooMan
Fri Oct 11th, 2013 at 10:40:59 AM EST
I like Charlie Cook and I think he’s an excellent analyst, but he does sometimes exhibit some blind spots that I attribute to being too much of a creature of Washington DC. It’s not his fault; I find that I begin to lose my compass after just a day or two in the capital.
When it comes to the government shutdown, Mr. Cook’s blind spot is that he has not correctly identified what the Democrats are trying to accomplish. He thinks that the Democrats are trying to avoid a default and reopen the government, and their main concern should be related to enticing the Republicans to stop punching themselves in the face.
But the Republicans will never intentionally default on our debts, and it was never much more than the remotest possibility that they would do so by accident. That was a hostage that wasn’t a hostage. The GOP leadership has already ceded this point. As to the government shutdown, it’s very unfortunate, but really no more unfortunate the sequester which has been grinding people down all year long and has been hurting the economy. For the Democrats, the shutdown is undermining the people’s faith in effective government, which is a big problem. But, in every other respect, it is working in the party’s favor.
What the Democrats are trying to do is not to end the shutdown for its own sake, but to break the cycle of crises governance, where they are constantly being asked to make absurd concessions merely to keep the government operating. They want to take away the Republicans’ ability to hold a gun to our country’s credit rating and take away their will to shut down the government. And, since this is the priority, helping the Republicans save face by giving them some reward, no matter how paltry, is entirely counterproductive.
To put it in parent/child terms, if you have a boy who throws a lot of tantrums, your problem isn’t the particular tantrum he is throwing right now, but the fact that he throws tantrums whenever he doesn’t get what he wants. When you bargain with the child, you ensure that he will continue the behavior in the future because it is effective.
It’s very important to understand that the GOP is not going to default on our debts. They do not, in fact, have a gallon of gasoline and a match that they will light if we don’t give in to their tantrum. We don’t have to worry about that. All we have to worry about is the government shutdown. And we can wait on that.
I remember that the singer Joe Cocker once answered a question about how he decided to stop using drugs and he said, “You can only hit yourself in the face for so long before it hurts.”
We’ll just sit here and see how long that takes.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/10/11/104059/71
October 11, 2013, 10:18 am 7 Comments
The War On The Poor Is A War On You-Know-Who
Lots of people have been referencing this Democracy Corps report on focus-group meetings with Republicans, and with good reason: Greenberg has basically provided a unified theory of the craziness that has enveloped American politics in the last few years.
What the report makes clear is that the current Republican obsession with attacking programs that benefit Americans in need, ranging from food stamps to Obamacare, isn’t about some philosophical commitment to small government, still less worries about incentive effects and implicit marginal tax rates. It’s about anxiety over a changing America — the multiracial, multicultural society we’re becoming — and anger that Democrats are taking Their Money and giving it to Those People. In other words, it’s still race after all these years.
One irony here is that at this point it’s the liberals who believe in America, while the conservatives don’t. I believe in our ability to change while retaining our essential nature; I believe that today’s immigrants will be incorporated into the fabric of our society, just as Italian and Jewish immigrants — once regarded as fundamentally incompatible with American ways — became “white” by the middle of the 20th century.
Another irony is that the great right-wing fear — that social insurance programs will in effect buy minority votes for Democrats, leading to further change — is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. The GOP could have tried to reach out to immigrants, moderate its stances on Obamacare, and stake out a position as the restrained, sensible party. Instead, it’s alienating all the people it needs to win over, and quite possibly setting the stage for the very liberal dominance it fears.
Meanwhile, a key takeaway for us wonks is that none of the ostensible debates we’re having — say, the debate over rising disability rolls — can be taken at face value. Yes, we need to crunch the numbers, but in the end the other side doesn’t care about the evidence.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/11/the-war-on-the-poor-is-a-war-on-you-know-who/?_r=0#postComment
Cowering Delusional Fools
by BooMan
Fri Oct 11th, 2013 at 09:58:35 AM EST
According to Jonathan Strong at National Review, Republicans are beefing up security at their district offices because federal workers are going to miss their paychecks today. He also says that Republican lawmakers are spooked by the polls.
Nonetheless, they are still engaged in delusional thinking.
They are not going to get any ObamaCare win. They aren’t delaying the mandate. They aren’t eliminating the “Death Panels.” They aren’t going to get to screw their staffers out of their employer subsidy. And, if the medical-device tax is going to be eliminated, it will only happen after the Republicans capitulate, and only if the revenue is completely replaced.
But, whatever. Let them keep their delusions a little while longer. At least they’ve smartened up enough to be afraid.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/10/11/95835/277
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIICgDdhHME
Cry baby, Cruz; he’s blaming POTUS for his nonsensical ramblings.
I couldn’t stop laughing at the beginning of the show with the scene of Daddy Goon in his best Bill Cosby sweater at their weekly dinner. I’m like…oh no he isn’t doing his Bill Cosby impersonation.
Huck…I still love you, Huck.
We have to wrap our minds around that Huck feels as if the world just exploded.
I mean, the crazy ass assassin that betrayed him and killed his ‘perfect’ play family is NOTHING compared to Huck believing Olivia betrayed him.
That scene was hard as hell to watch, but Huck doesn’t have anything to hold onto now….Huck is so lost.
LOL Daddy goon might have been tryna do Cos, but I loved it when he told Livie to sit down and enjoy her sunday breakfast with him, and she got the fuck up and walked out.
For me, the flashbacks were hard to watch.
Jake comes stumbling at Olivia’s door. What’s in it for her and Jake?
Cyrus to Prez Ftiz: “You need to grow some presidential BALLS.”
Paying the Piper
by BooMan
Thu Oct 10th, 2013 at 12:12:43 PM EST
Beyond all the sturm und drang, the basic reality is that pretty much everything the Republicans have been doing all year has been bullshit. They don’t know how to get their party unified enough to make a deal with the president on the budget. That’s why they tried to compel the president to make a deal under duress, so they could avoid actually spelling out their demands in any specific way.
When your base is riding around on Medicare scooters, you don’t want to make slashing Medicare and Social Security your number one priority. But it is their number one priority. Everything we’re witnessing is a consequence of this simple fact.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/10/10/121243/80
Republican support in ‘jaw-dropping’ free fall
By Steve Benen
Fri Oct 11, 2013 8:48 AM EDT.
Let’s put it this way: if this poll were a campfire story, it’d leave Republicans shaking uncontrollably in their sleeping bags. The GOP wasn’t in especially good shape before, but the shutdown crisis and the threats to crash the economy on purpose have been an unmitigated disaster for the party, causing the sort of collapse in public support pollsters simply don’t see very often.
What’s the good news for Republicans in the poll? There is no good news.
* Approval ratings: While President Obama’s approval rating improved after GOP lawmakers shut down the government, Republican support has collapsed. In the new poll, 70% of Americans disapprove of the way in which GOP lawmakers are doing their jobs. Republicans have reached a level of unpopularity unseen in the history of the poll.
* Shutdown: Asked who bears responsibility for the shutdown, a 53% majority blame congressional Republicans. Less than a third (31%) blame the president.
* “Obamacare”: Despite the difficulties the Affordable Care Act has encountered since the open-enrollment period began, support for the law has increased.
* Generic ballot: Democrats enjoy an eight-point advantage in the congressional midterm elections (47% to 39%), as compared to a three-point advantage last month (46% to 43%).
* Government activism: By a 52% to 44% margin, Americans believe the government should do more, not less, to solve problems. In June, the results were evenly split.
* Patriotism: A 70% majority believe congressional Republicans are “putting their own political agenda ahead of what is good for the country.”
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/10/11/20919733-republican-support-in-jaw-dropping-free-fall?lite
Professional pollsters for major news organizations are notoriously cautious people who avoid hyperbole. So when Democratic pollster Peter Hart and Republican Bill McInturff conducted the new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll and described the results as “jaw-dropping,” it’s worth appreciating why.
@sarahkendziorToday my toddler punched me in the face then asked for comfort because he hurt his hand. Now I’m worried he’s a Republican.
LOL
October 10, 2013 1:31 PM
The “Grand” Perspective
By Ed Kilgore
As we all go down our various rabbit-holes in trying to understand the fiscal crisis situation, much of which seems to be playing out in John Boehner’s nicotine-soaked brain, it’s appropriate to step back and look at it all from a broader perspective.
What’s ultimately going on here is that congressional Republicans (and their “conservative base”) are determined to do something big on “entitlements,” despite their loss of the White House and the Senate in 2012. Yes, they are strategically divided between conventional conservatives pursuing Paul Ryan’s well-trod path of indirectly undermining the entitlement status of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid though stealth and gimmicks, and Tea Folk determined to make a frontal assault on Obamacare as the “tipping point” after which America lurches into socialist slavery. But it’s all part of the same big policy goal of stopping any extension of the New Deal/Great Society legacy and then reversing it.
But the Republican obsession with their version of what is so imprecisely referred to as “entitlement reform” is exceeded by another obsession of theological dimensions: opposition to high-end tax increases. Their nemesis, Barack Obama, has refused to give them “entitlement reform” (even a pale version of it) without high-end tax increases. So they are stymied unless fearful liberals are correct that Obama will, with enough pressure, cave and give GOPers what they want without what they refuse to accept as a price. This whole hostage-taking exercise is a test of whether they can generate enough pressure to make Obama surrender his iron equation of “entitlement reforms” and tax hikes. That’s what the current Republican demand for “grand bargain” talks is really about, as Ezra Klein noted this morning at Wonkblog:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2013_10/the_grand_perspective047257.php
LUVVIE’S SCANDAL RECAP IS UP!
Guess Who’s Gooning at Dinner: Scandal Episode 302 Recap
[ 11 ] October 11, 2013 | Luvvie
If there’s one thing Scandal continues to do, it’s to out-goon itself. There’s just so much bad-assness in this show, and I am now comfortable truly crowning Rowan Pope as King Goon of the World. My man has no chill and no dambs to give about anyone but the republic. “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” spilled A LOT of tea and I am just ready to talk about it so let’s get into it.
Back to the Past (flashback) – The show starts with a flashback from five years before, with Olivia rocking her past pain wig. She’s at dinner with Poppa Goon, and is irritated by him. She’s just there so he can pay her law school loans and he’s there to make up for sending her away after her Mom died (I’ont think she’s dead). After he tells her he’s trying, she tells him she’s dating Senator Pudding Pop (Edison Davis), who wants to marry her but hasn’t met Pops.
Olivia returns to the train station after dinner and muggers try to come for her but Hobo Huck comes outta nowhere and hands out a serious can of ass-whooping as Liv runs away.
http://www.awesomelyluvvie.com/2013/10/guess-whos-coming-dinner-scandal-episode-302-recap.html
Mark Murray ✔ @mmurraypolitics
Headline from the new NBC/WSJ poll: Shutdown debate badly damages GOP, while Obama’s approval ticks up to 47%
5:30 PM – 10 Oct 2013
Mark Murray ✔ @mmurraypolitics
By 22pt margin (53%-31%) public blames GOP more for the shutdown than Obama — a wider margin of blame than GOP got in poll in ’95-96
5:31 PM – 10 Oct 2013
Mark Murray ✔ @mmurraypolitics
Just 24% have fav opinion of GOP, and only 21% have fav opinion of Tea Party — all-time lows for both. Dem Party fav is at 39%
5:32 PM – 10 Oct 2013
Mark Murray ✔ @mmurraypolitics
And Dems have a +8 advantage on the poll’s generic-ballot test, up from +3 last month before the shutdown
5:32 PM – 10 Oct 2013
Tea Party: Obama’s too mean
By Steve Benen
Thu Oct 10, 2013 3:06 PM EDT
Tea Party Republicans are not known for their timidity. We are, after all, talking about a group of right-wing activists and lawmakers who push an agenda that’s as aggressive as it is regressive, reject compromise, and demand brutal policy consequences for everyone who stands in their way.
It is therefore rather amusing to hear about President Obama being a big meanie.
The sentiment was echoed by Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), who said Obama’s willingness to antagonize Republicans is “not good for the country.”
Wilson is perhaps best known for heckling the president during a speech to a joint session of Congress. He’s the guy complaining about Obama antagonizing him.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/10/10/20902011-tea-party-obamas-too-mean?lite
NBC/WSJ poll: Nearly two-thirds say not raising debt ceiling would be a serious problem
By Mark Murray, NBC News
With House Republicans set to meet with President Barack Obama to discuss raising the debt limit and ending the government shutdown, a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows that 63 percent of Americans believe refusing to raise the debt ceiling would be a real and serious problem.
Andrea Mitchell talks to Rep. Jeb Hensarling, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, and Rep. James Clyburn about the recent developments to avoid debt default while still keeping the government shutdown.
That’s up from the 55 percent who said this in July 2011, during the last political fight over raising the debt ceiling.
That opinion might explain why House Republicans have proposed temporarily raising the debt limit — though not ending the government shutdown — when they meet with the president at the White House.
But there is a partisan divide here: 72 percent of Democrats believe not raising the debt ceiling would be a real and serious problem, versus 57 percent of Republicans and independents who think this
http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/10/20902490-nbcwsj-poll-nearly-two-thirds-say-not-raising-debt-ceiling-would-be-a-serious-problem?ocid=twitter
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1469768546/baddddd-sonia-sanchez-a-documentary-film
You can see a promotional video for the film “BaddDDD Sonia Sanchez”: A new film by Barbara Attie, Janet Goldwater and Sabrina Schmidt Gordon, with musical score by Evan Solot.
Sonia Sanchez was/is part of the Black Arts movement.
You can read about the Black Arts Movement on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Arts_Movement
More can be found here:
http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai3/community/text8/blackartsmovement.pdf
Lucille Clifton was part of the Black Arts Movement.
You can find her poem “Won’t You Celebrate With Me” at this link:
http://poetry.rapgenius.com/Lucille-clifton-wont-you-celebrate-with-me-lyrics
“2008: Sonia Sanchez — Middle Passage”
“How I visited a closed national park”
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chapman/chi-how-i-visited-a-closed-national-park-20131009,0,1987602.column
“Utah’s national parks, Lake Powell to reopen Saturday”
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865588123/Breakthrough-National-parks-could-be-reopened-soon-if-Utah-uses-own-money.html
“The African American Cultural Festival of Raleigh and Wake County”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=GJy8-XlpyX4
Published on Sep 27, 2013 by Robert Brown
The festival took place on September 28.
I think it was September 28.
“Lucy C. Laney Museum of Black History”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=umKJw0xO1Ww
“African-American businesses honored”
Thursday, October 10, 2013:
Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2013/10/10/3031996/african-american-businesses-honored.html#storylink=cpy
Info on the founder of the Carolina Panorama newspaper from a 2008 article:
http://scafricanamerican.com/honorees/view/2008/1/
http://www.mndaily.com/ae/authors/2013/10/10/book-club-“penumbra-premier-stage-african-american-drama”
Excerpt:
http://www.philly.com/philly/obituaries/20131011_Charles_P__Braxton__86__1st_African-American_in_police_Marine_Unit.html?c=r
“International Politics and How the First African American Flight Attendants Were Hired”
Excerpt:
http://www.psmag.com/culture/international-politics-first-african-american-flight-attendants-hired-67891/
Good Morning, Ametia and Everyone,
Thank you so much for this great week of Marvin Gaye!
Good Morning, Everyone !!!
And, I, too, must thank you for the marvelous Marvin Gaye week!
Good Morning, Ladies & Everyone! My pleasure, so happy you’re enjoying Mr. Gaye.
Good morning, everyone!
I’m so enjoying Marvin this morning! I Heard It Through The Grapevine…uh uh uh…
**waves hand in the air**
Where’s that dancing graphic, lady?
Bustin’ a move, eh, lady? LOL