Michael Rose (born 11 July 1957) is a Grammy award winning reggae singer from Jamaica. Possessing a wide-ranged voice, Rose would regularly meet in Kingston with singers, musicians, writers, and producers such as Dennis Brown, Big Youth, The Wailers, Gregory Isaacs, Sly and Robbie, and others.
Rose started his recording career as a solo artist for record producers Yabby You and Niney the Observer. He joined Black Uhuru in 1977 after the departure of Don Carlos and Garth Dennis. He led them to international success in the early 1980s, having written most of their popular material. They won the first-ever Grammy Award for reggae in 1985 for the album Anthem,[2] with the hallmark voice of Rose in the forefront.
“Jim Bonsall, Detroit CFO, Resigns After Racial Comment Invoking Trayvon Martin”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/15/jim-bonsall-resigns-trayvon-martin-comment_n_4102238.html
“…it was never my intention to offend anyone.”
Yes it was.
Why do they lie about it not being their intention to offend? Why don’t they just OWN their ish?
https://twitter.com/YoursAlwys/status/373280341953232896/photo/1
Nerdy Wonka @NerdyWonka
Now that the U.S. looks on the verge of default because of @GOP, privileged pundits who blamed both sides are panicking Karma just chuckled
5:38 PM – 15 Oct 2013
October 14, 2013
“Where Are the Riots?”: China Watches the Shutdown
Posted by Jiayang Fan
“Is the US government shutdown worth celebrating for the Chinese?” asked a post on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, almost two weeks after Washington locked itself into its political impasse. Thanks to a weeklong national holiday commemorating Communist China’s birth, which began, as luck would have it, on the same day D.C. decided to close its doors, the Chinese have had plenty of time to contemplate the question: Is a two-party democracy a system to envy or simply political delinquency?
China, as the chief holder of U.S. Treasury bonds—around $1.28 trillion—and thus one of the larger parties that wouldn’t be paid in the case of a debt default, may have justifiable cause to be concerned. America is hurtling toward the default deadline, on or around the 17th, having seen no sign of a real breakthrough over the weekend.
For the Communist Party, it has proved an opportune moment to propagandize and opine upon the perceived narcissism of China’s rival. “It is America’s arrogance that led to the U.S. decision to bypass the United Nations and launch a war in Iraq. It is the same arrogance that often lets America use its domestic policy to kidnap the global economy,” the People’s Daily, the Party mouthpiece, declared.
“As U.S. politicians of both political parties fail to find a viable deal to bring normality to the body politic they brag about, it is perhaps a good time for the befuddled world to start considering building a de-Americanized world,” pronounced Xinhua, the official state news agency.
For the apparatchiks in Beijing, a de-Americanized world will surely equal a Sinoized one. “Such alarming days when the destinies of others are in the hands of a hypocritical nation have to be terminated,” Xinhua continued. “Instead of honoring its duties as a responsible leading power, a self-serving Washington has abused its superpower status and introduced even more chaos into the world.”
The Chinese public is not unfamiliar with chaos. Beijing is known for its allergy to anarchy at all sizes and scales, which is why the Chinese, so far, have been the ones most baffled by the so-called shutdown. “Where are the riots, where is the looting and the pillage?” one perplexed Weibo user asked, echoing the sentiment of many sporting the #美国政府关门 (#USgovernmentshutdown) hashtag.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/10/where-are-the-riots-china-watches-the-shutdown.html
October 15, 2013
Why Congressional Staffers Hate the Vitter Amendment
Posted by Ryan Lizza
onight, the House of Representatives will likely vote on the so-called Vitter Amendment, a bill that will be attached to a debt-ceiling increase and a continuing resolution to re-open the government. The Vitter Amendment would take away health-care subsidies for Congressional staffers. Via Twitter, I asked Congressional aides for their feelings about the bill. Here’s what they e-mailed me. We’ll update as new comments roll in.
A House Republican staffer:
It’s definitely a morale killer. We’ve been dealing with stagnant pay, long hours—including weekends and federal holidays—but hey, at least we have good benefits. This will suck. I know the public doesn’t have much sympathy, but these are not easy jobs. If they hate Congress, imagine working for it.
That said, I can understand the rationale and strategy in embracing the amendment and I don’t resent the Members who are pushing it. They know full well they’ll have to deal with the consequences.
I’ve been a staffer in a republican Senate office for 8 years. It’s extremely frustrating to have Vitter portray the employer contribution as some sort of exemption from the exchanges. My healthcare costs are already going to sky rocket, but being responsible for 100% of my premiums just isn’t realistic on my salary. I know I’m not the only staffer looking for a job off the hill because I knew this was a possibility. I can only assume the poor staff having to write the amendment language are hopefully throwing death glares at Vitter.
A Senate Democratic staffer:
You’ve got to be fucking kidding me with this. Wouldn’t the Vitter amendment lead to an actual exemption for Congress? If Congress, as an institution employing thousands of workers, did not contribute to its employees’ health care like most companies do, isn’t that an exemption? Maybe not an exemption under law per se, but an exemption according to standard practice. Either way, if that somehow makes its way through, I’ll be looking for another job. Congrats Tea Party, your eternal quest to starve the beast is chugging along full steam ahead!
A House Democratic staffer:
My anonymous thought as a Democratic staffer is that it’s going to be another awkward night in The People’s House, watching Republican staffers as they watch their bosses argue for stripping away their employer health care contribution from their already meager salary. I almost feel bad for the staffers … which is saying a lot, given the way the Majority has conducted itself.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/10/why-congressional-staffers-hate-the-vitter-amendement.html
Nerdy Wonka @NerdyWonka
Heritage Action sends letter to House GOP to vote NO and Rules Committee meeting is immediately stopped. Thanks SCOTUS. #CitizensUnited
5:07 PM – 15 Oct 2013
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/10/15/house-republicans-boehner/2986085/
“As long as it’s taken care of by Thursday,” said Rep. Pete King, R-N.Y., another moderate. “That’s all that matters.
@tackettdc 19m
BREAKING Sen. Coons of Delaware says Reid tells Dems McConnell stepped away from the deal
@samsteinhp 1m
McConnell spokesman tells me the talks are on PAUSE, not broken down. “Both Leaders agreed to hold pending House action.”
Wham!…..He speaks truth!
Dems to House GOP: The answer is No
By Greg Sargent
October 15 at 11:53 am
House Republican leaders, apparently desperate to prevent any House vote on the emerging bipartisan Senate deal to end the crisis, have rolled out a new plan designed to reopen the government and lift the debt limit, but on their own terms. The House GOP plan would fund government until January 15th and lift the debt limit into early February, just as the Senate one does — but also require Dems accept significant changes to Obamacare, which they aren’t going to do.
Dem Rep. Chris Van Hollen, a key ally of the Dem leadership and White House, told House Democrats at a private meeting today that a vote for the new House GOP plan is a vote for a deliberate Tea Party effort to sabotage the emerging Senate deal.
In an interview with me, Van Hollen strongly suggested it will get no Democratic votes, which could call into question the ability of Republicans to pass this plan through the House, as some conservatives are already balking at it because it raises the debt limit
“This has no Democratic support,” Van Hollen told me. “It is a recipe for default. The Democratic leadership told the caucus that a vote for this is a vote for default and for keeping the government shut down. Democrats understood that this is exactly what this was.”
Van Hollen also ruled out the possibility of Dems accepting any middle ground between the House GOP plan and the Senate compromise — and again reiterated that anything that requires significant concessions from Dems under threat of default and economic havoc is a nonstarter. The House GOP plan includes a two year repeal of the medical device tax and the elimination of Obamacare subsidies for members of Congress and staff.
Pressed on whether Dems would accept any compromise between the two, Van Hollen said: “No. The message is, let the bipartisan Senate effort work. Don’t sabotage it. The whole purpose of the Tea Party caucus’ plan is to sabotage any bipartisan agreement.”
“Nobody gets anything for threatening to default on the debt and threatening the economy,” Van Hollen said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/10/15/dems-to-house-gop-the-answer-is-no/
The core argument that’s driving this whole crisis
BY GREG SARGENT
The answer to Appelbaum’s question above is Yes. The Senate GOP’s demands are legitimate, because they are being made in negotiations which are not occurring in a context where Republicans are presuming the threat of disaster gives them unilateral leverage. The Senate talks accept as a given that default won’t happen and are centered on horsetrading within that context. The House GOP’s demands are extortionate, because they continue to be premised on the idea — again, one rooted in genuine views House Republicans hold about acceptable governing norms – that Dems should fork over unilateral concessions on Obamacare, because if they don’t, economic disaster will be the consequences.
You don’t need to side with one or the other camp in order to acknowledge the basic contours of this argument, or of this overall situation.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/10/15/the-core-argument-thats-driving-this-whole-crisis/
Republican Texas Lt. Governor Calls For President Obama to Be Impeached
By: Jason Easley
Tuesday, October 15th, 2013, 2:37 pm
As the government is shutdown and the nation is inching towards default, Texas Republican Lt. Governor David Dewhurst is calling for the impeachment of the president over the ACA and Benghazi.
While speaking to tea party meeting, Dewhurst said, “This election is about protecting you and your freedoms, which are given to you by God, but which are being trampled on by Barack Obama right now. I don’t know about you, but Barack Obama ought to be impeached. Not only for trampling on our liberties, but what he did in Benghazi is just a crime.”
After his speech, Dewhurst told the Texas Observer, “I think this president, Barack Obama, has disregarded federal law. He’s tried to do things which are not authorized under federal law, such as with immigration, such as not following our federal drug laws. He’s created winners and losers out of Obamacare where he has no authority, such as allowing for unions and big businesses to postpone their mandate for a year….I’m very concerned about Benghazi, in which all of the national news reporting indicated that live video was streaming into the White House. That means that there was an overhead platform, probably a drone in the area. At least that’s what it tells me. And for not mobilizing some response to protect the ambassador and those three Americans is just outrageous to me. Just outrageous.”
Dewhurst isn’t concerned that the government is shutdown, or that the nation is heading for default. Nope, his biggest concern for our country is that millions of Americans will get access to healthcare. He also seems obsessed with the widely debunked and completely untrue Benghazi conspiracy theory.
http://www.politicususa.com/2013/10/15/republican-texas-lt-governor-calls-president-obama-impeached.html
Why don’t these cracked nuts just go away!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=3oDgbDGxI4s
Nancy Pelosi Busts John Boehner for Trying to Sabotage the Senate Debt Ceiling Deal
By: Sarah Jones
Tuesday, October 15th, 2013, 12:20 pm
Democrats gave a presser in response to Speaker John Boehner’s presser over the House Republicans’ fake deal full of poison pills. As I explained earlier, the House’s proposal is meant to derail the Senate deal, whilst avoiding taking any responsibility for their destruction of the country.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said “This is a very big deal.” House Republicans are being “reckless, radical and irresponsible” by “sabotaging a good-faith effort” from Senate. She clarified the other problem Boehner faces, “What you saw here… was a Speaker who didn’t have the votes for his proposal.” This means that Boehner intentionally sabotaged the Senate deal for no reason other than to appease the Tea Party.
Indeed, Robert Costa says the House is tweaking their proposal to become more conservative in order to get to 217 (Costa says 218; I’m using 217 because they don’t have the full members but it’s the same concept):
Matthew Yglesias called the narrower Vitter Amendment proposed this morning (and already a loser) “… a bizarre idea, government by trolling.” So there will be more trolling now. I’m sure you’re not surprised.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) wasn’t impressed either. He pulled no punches calling Boehner out for saving his job over the country, “I’m very disappointed with John Boehner who would once again try to preserve his role at the expense of this county.”
Reid continued, “Let’s be clear: the House legislation will not pass the Senate.” He explained, “Extremists in the House are attempting to torpedo progress in the Senate.”
Boehner knew Democrats would never accept this deal, and in calling all of this attention to a deal he hasn’t actually hammered out yet and does not have his own party’s full support on yet, Boehner was trying to duck responsibility for the impending default. Nancy Pelosi is having none of that, and if Boehner keeps this up, he had best look elsewhere to be saved the next time he needs to pass something for his party.
http://www.politicususa.com/2013/10/15/reid-im-disappointed-john-boehner-putting-role-country.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=JIzHIRCBtdE
Bobfr @Our4thEstate
Go ahead @SpeakerBoehner leave town & have #PBO send #USMarshals to return you to your JOB. cc @VP @NancyPelosi @Pfeiffer44 @TheJusticeDept
12:32 PM – 15 Oct 2013
Charter schools are hurting urban public schools, Moody’s says
In 1997, Philadelphia’s first four charter schools opened. Fifteen years later, there are more than 80 — and they’re straining the city’s public schools.
Philadelphia is one of several urban public school districts where the rise of charter schools poses a threat to district finances, according to Moody’s, the credit rating agency. In 2003, the Philadelphia district spent 7.9 percent of its general fund on charters. By fiscal 2012, the schools ate up 23.7 percent of the fund.
“While the vast majority of traditional public districts are managing through the rise of charter schools without a negative credit impact, a small but growing number face financial stress due to the movement of students to charters,” a team of analysts write in a new Moody’s report.
Three factors are at play: demographic and financial shifts, difficulty adapting and state policies. Here’s how each contributes:
1. Demographic and financial shifts
Charter school enrollment has been steadily rising as a share of total enrollment over the past decade or so. And urban school systems, especially in the Northeast and Midwest, are particularly affected by the trend.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2013/10/15/charter-schools-are-hurting-urban-public-schools-moodys-says/?wpisrc=nl_pmpol
Here is the link to Pat Buchanan’s article:
http://mobile.wnd.com/2013/10/republicans-stand-up-polls-be-damned/#4KB0Xy4UqweAcgHo.99
Excerpt:
Nancy Pelosi @NancyPelosi1h
Speaker doesn’t have votes to pass R plan. He does have the votes to pass the Senate CR and reopen govt. Choice should be clear. #EndThisNow
“Northwest settlement was not immune to racism”
Published: October 15, 2013
By JOHN DODGE — Olympian
http://www.theolympian.com/2013/10/15/2775960/northwest-settlement-was-not-immune.html
Judd Legum @JuddLegum
Boehner essentially acknowledges he doesn’t have the votes for the plan he just floated to his conference.
10:12 AM – 15 Oct 2013
Boehner’s FUCKED.
Keith Boykin @keithboykin
The latest House GOP proposal. We’ll reopen the government if you let us make a few more changes to Obamacare.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2013/10/15/us/15reuters-usa-fiscal-republicans-plan.html?hp …
9:28 AM – 15 Oct 2013
Headed to the Brink
By Ed Kilgore
—————————-
Here’s the big hangup in the House, according to an anonymous conservative “aide’s” comments to Costa:
“The larger problem, particularly as we go forward for House members, is a free Coke and crackers aren’t going to cut it with Cruz, Heritage, FreedomWorks, and the Senate Conservatives Fund,” the aide adds. “They have been selling the idea they know the winning Powerball numbers and we are about to hit the jackpot. Expectations of what is achievable and what we can get out of this remain way out of whack…. Keep in mind the activists are still calling offices pushing for the full defund of Obamacare. The message has not been relayed to the grassroots that the defund option isn’t going to happen no matter how long we hold our breath or how much we wish it would happen.”
.
.
If that’s the deal behind the “no-deal” in the House, it really is time, right now, for business lobbyists to begin telling Boehner that he needs to put the Senate deal on the floor for an up-or-down vote no matter how many sub-factions of House conservatives freak out about it.
———————————
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2013_10/headed_to_the_brink047321.php
These fools think they could STILL tack on bullshit to alter OBAMACARE.
It’s the MUTHAFUCKIN LAW, FUCKERS!
It’s so freaking insane. We have some really dumb tea party politicians in Congress who doesn’t understand what a got damn law is.
Sarah Reese Jones @srjones66
Are you freaking kidding me? RT @RameshPonnuru: Hearing House may pass its bill and then skip town.
8:56 AM – 15 Oct 2013
White House quickly rejects House GOP proposal to end shutdown.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/15/white-house-quickly-rejects-house-gop-proposal-end/
House GOP Load Their Debt Ceiling Bill with Poison Pills That Democrats Won’t Take
By: Sarah Jones
Tuesday, October 15th, 2013, 11:06 am
National Review senior editor Ramesh Ponnuru tweeted several alarming distinctions between the House bill and the Senate bill. The House bill is clearly meant to appease conservatives, but in the doing, it’s so bad that it seems like it’s not a serious effort to avoid default.
For shutting down the government and threatening to default on our full faith and credit and thereby violate the Constitution, Republicans in the House are offering to:
1) Take more power away from the President by removing executive agencies ability to allocate funds during sequestration (which should be a big clue that they have no plan to end their sequestration and also gives them incentive not to—neither of which is a good plan for the country), which they can do in the Senate bill.
http://www.politicususa.com/2013/10/15/clueless-gop-house-bill-effort-avoid-default.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+politicususa%2FfJAl+%28Politicus+USA+%29
Political Animal
October 15, 2013 10:49 AMHouse Wants More Obamacare Concessions
By Ed Kilgore
Early reports on what House Republicans might offer as a “new volley” of demands as the debt limit breach approaches centered on a reiteration of the very short-term debt limit and appropriations extensions that were sent to the White House over the weekend only to be rejected. But now it seems clear that a determination to obtain more Obamacare concessions is the main difference between House and Senate GOP conferences, according to WaPo’s Montgomery and Helderman:
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif,) said the new House plan was designed to be attractive to Democrats, because it would follow key timelines that have been established in the Senate negotiations — funding government agencies until Jan. 15, for example, and raising the debt ceiling until Feb. 7.
But the plan would also include a two-year repeal of the medical device tax, and a provision eliminating the employer health-care contribution for members of Congress and White House officials, provisions that are likely to generate strenuous opposition. The House bill would also require income verification for individuals and families receiving subsidies for health insurance….
A battle also was raging over a GOP demand to deny Treasury Secretary Jack Lew the use of special measures to extend his borrowing power past Feb. 7. Republicans want to ensure a firm deadline for the next debt-limit increase, with no wiggle room for Treasury Department accountants. But Democratic lawmakers and the White House were flatly refusing to give up that flexibility to manage the nation’s finances, aides said.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2013_10/house_wants_more_obamacare_con047322.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+washingtonmonthly%2Frss+%28Political+Animal+at+Washington+Monthly%29
THESE MOFOS ARE GOING TO LET OUR COUNTRY DEFAULT. Even The FOUNDERS are rolling over in their graves,, right now.
The Morning Plum: Dems think they’re killing debt limit GOP extortion for good
By Greg Sargent
October 15 at 9:12 am
The broad outlines of a deal to end the crisis are now emerging from the Senate: It would lift the debt limit until February 7th, reopen the government through January 15th, and trigger budget talks to replace the sequester. There’s some last minute haggling over minor Obamacare concessions. House Republicans will seek changes to the deal, and it’s unclear whether they’ll even allow a vote on it.
The question about the deal is this: Given that the next debt limit deadline looms just after the date on which government funding runs out, doesn’t this just mean we’ll find ourselves in roughly the same situation in a few months, with Republicans demanding concessions in exchange for averting default and economic chaos?
Senate Democratic aides tell me they think the possibility that conservatives will insist on another round of debt limit brinksmanship is very real. But they think they’re on the verge of rendering any such threat an entirely empty one. The idea: Decoupling the debt limit from the budget talks, and placing the debt limit deadline further out, will effectively isolate the debt limit debate and make another default extortion crisis even harder politically. By refusing any meaningful concessions in exchange for a debt limit hike this time — and earlier this year – Dems will have finally killed the “Boehner Rule” (which demands spending cuts in exchange for any hike) and driven home that GOP debt ceiling extortion will never be rewarded again.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/10/15/the-morning-plum-dems-think-theyre-killing-debt-limit-gop-extortion-for-good/
The Seven Lying Democrats That Betrayed Democracy, and Joined GOP on HR 368 to Deny Vote on Clean CR
The Seven Lying Democrats That Betrayed Democracy, and Joined GOP on HR 368 to Deny Vote on Clean CR
These seven Democrats crossed party lines to vote for a resolution that gives Eric Cantor, and only Eric Cantor the ability to bring fourth a vote a clear CR to get the government working aging…and yes, open the monuments.
And now several of the seven House Democrats that voted for HR 368, are Tweeting and saying that they want a clean CR and are supporting the discharge petition. But I’m not falling for it. These seven members willfully voted against democracy, and supported the GOP’s effort to create yet another manufactured crisis.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/10/14/1247222/-The-Seven-Lying-Democrats-That-Betroyed-Democracy-and-Joined-GOP-on-HR-368-to-Deny-Vote-on-Clean-CR
Good Morning, Ed Henry
By Charles P. Pierce at 9:30AM
Read more: Ed Henry White House Walkout – Good Morning, Ed Henry – Esquire
Please blow me now.
A visibly angry Henry walked out of the briefing after press secretary Jay Carney ignored his repeated questions. Speaking to colleague Brian Kilmeade on Monday, Henry said that, though he looked annoyed, he had to duck out to appear on television. “The briefing went on for about 40 minutes and I didn’t get a question, for whatever reason,” he said. “I guess Jay Carney will have to answer that. I don’t know why, I guess maybe he was upset. I wasn’t. I was running to do a live shot.” “Does he do that a lot?” Kilmeade asked of Carney. “That hasn’t happened before, ever,” Henry said, adding later that the “professional thing” for Carney to do would have been to call on him.
Snip
“Your organization is a running sore on the profession. It’s what happens when a craft fails to keep its septic system up to date.” SLAPPPPPPPPPPPPP!
Snip
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/ed-henry-white-house-walkout-101513
Cops Caught on Tape Harassing Minorities: ‘You Weaken the F*cking Country!’
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/cops-caught-on-tape-harassing-minorities-you-weaken-the-fcking-country/
Recent video of Philadelphia police officers verbally harassing a couple of minority pedestrians went viral over the weekend, drawing attention once again to the controversial tactics of “stop and frisk” as well as questions about racial profiling and police abuse.
The video, dated Sept. 27, was recently posted to YouTube by one of the frisked pedestrians. After an officer calls out “Yo, my man,” from inside the cruiser, things quickly go downhill. The two officers allege that the two pedestrians said hi to a stranger, and in that particular neighborhood of Philadelphia, “you don’t just say ‘hi’ to strangers.”
Officers exit their vehicle and begin frisking the two men, calling one a “fucking dirty ass.” The men complain that they’ve done nothing wrong, prompting an officer to shout: “Why don’t you shut the fuck up? Everyone thinks they’re a fucking lawyer and they don’t know jack shit.”
Later on, Officer Philip Nace told the two men: “Don’t come to fucking Philadelphia, stay in Jersey.”
“I have family out here,” responded one of the unidentified men.
“We don’t want you here, anyway,” the officer responded. “All you do is weaken the fucking country.”
“How do I weaken the country? By working?” the man asksed
“No, freeloading,” Nace replied.
As it turns out, one of the men said he works as a server at a local country club, prompting this reply from Nace: “Server. Serving weed?”
Saw this last night. The KKK in cop uniform. I hope these brothas sue the LIVING SHYT out these FILTHY PIGS.
Original Sin
Why the GOP is and will continue to be the party of white people
by Sam Tanenhaus | February 10, 2013
With Barack Obama sworn in for a second term—the first president in either party since Ronald Reagan to be elected twice with popular majorities—the GOP is in jeopardy, the gravest since 1964, of ceasing to be a national party. The civil rights pageantry of the inauguration—Abraham Lincoln’s Bible and Martin Luther King’s, Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s swearing in of Joe Biden, Beyoncé’s slinky glamor, the verses read by the gay Cuban poet Richard Blanco—seemed not just an assertion of Democratic solidarity, but also a reminder of the GOP’s ever-narrowing identity and of how long it has been in the making.
“Who needs Manhattan when we can get the electoral votes of eleven Southern states?” Kevin Phillips, the prophet of “the emerging Republican majority,” asked in 1968, when he was piecing together Richard Nixon’s electoral map. The eleven states, he meant, of the Old Confederacy. “Put those together with the Farm Belt and the Rocky Mountains, and we don’t need the big cities. We don’t even want them. Sure, Hubert [Humphrey] will carry Riverside Drive in November. La-de-dah. What will he do in Oklahoma?”
Forty-five years later, the GOP safely has Oklahoma, and Dixie, too. But Phillips’s Sunbelt strategy was built for a different time, and a different America. Many have noted Mitt Romney’s failure to collect a single vote in 91 precincts in New York City and 59 precincts in Philadelphia. More telling is his defeat in eleven more of the nation’s 15 largest cities. Not just Chicago and Columbus, but also Indianapolis, San Diego, Houston, even Dallas—this last a reason the GOP fears that, within a generation Texas will become a swing state. Remove Texas from the vast, lightly populated Republican expanse west of the Mississippi, and the remaining 13 states yield fewer electoral votes than the West Coast triad of California, Oregon, and Washington. If those trends continue, the GOP could find itself unable to count on a single state that has as many as 20 electoral votes.
It won’t do to blame it all on Romney. No doubt he was a weak candidate, but he was the best the party could muster, as the GOP’s leaders insisted till the end, many of them convinced he would win, possibly in a landslide. Neither can Romney be blamed for the party’s whiter-shade-of-pale legislative Rotary Club: the four Republicans among the record 20 women in the Senate, the absence of Republicans among the 42 African Americans in the House (and the GOP’s absence as well among the six new members who are openly gay or lesbian). These are remarkable totals in a two-party system, and they reflect not only a failure of strategy or “outreach,” but also a history of long-standing indifference, at times outright hostility, to the nation’s diverse constituencies—blacks, women, Latinos, Asians, gays.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/112365/why-republicans-are-party-white-people
http://www.dallasnews.com/business/headlines/20131014-large-dallas-law-firms-flunking-diversity.ece
“Maxine Powell, Motown’s chief of charm, dies at 98”
http://news.msn.com/obits/maxine-powell-motowns-chief-of-charm-dies-at-98-1
“Black scholar’s post-Civil War diploma survives”
SUSANNE M. SCHAFER, Associated Press
http://www.independentmail.com/news/2013/oct/15/black-scholars-post-civil-war-diploma-survives/
Jon Favreau @jonfavs
Why can’t we just skip to the part where Boehner realizes he can’t pass anything and gives the floor to Pelosi?
7:44 AM – 15 Oct 2013
Brett LoGiurato @BrettLoGiurato44m
Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.): Anyone in the “surrender caucus” who votes for the Senate deal is going to be primaried. http://nyti.ms/16dhREo
———————-
But while both Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, and Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, praised the progress that was made in the Senate, it was already clear that the most conservative members of the House were not going to go along quietly with a plan that does not accomplish their goal from the outset of this two-week-old crisis: dismantling the president’s health care law.
“We’ve got a name for it in the House: it’s called the Senate surrender caucus,” said Representative Tim Huelskamp, Republican of Kansas. “Anybody who would vote for that in the House as Republican would virtually guarantee a primary challenger.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/15/us/politics/seeking-deal-to-avert-default-lawmakers-to-meet-obama.html?_r=2&
The Tea Party Adds the GOP to its List of Enemies to be Destroyed
By: Hrafnkell Haraldsson
Tuesday, October 15th, 2013, 7:14 am
At the same time we are seeing speakers at the Values Voters Summit dump on “establishment Republicans” like John McCain, Peter King, and Lindsey Graham for failing to stand strong alongside Ted Cruz for conservative principles, Sean Hannity appeared in a video on mofopolitics.com – the “official arbiter of conservatism” – yesterday to call for a conservative third party.
Everyone is taking sides. Hannity wants this new party separate from what he sees as the establishment-controlled Republican Party, which is apparently full of Obama enablers. On the other side of the equation we have one of those “establishment Republicans” (identified as such by his opposition to Ted Cruz), Peter King, who says, “We cannot allow our party to be taken over by the likes of Ted Cruz and Rand Paul. I mean, these people are isolationists. I consider them RINOs…” Meanwhile a poll at mofopolitics.com lists Paul Ryan as a “RINO wimp.”
S.E. Cupp, a Ryan defender, laments that “once again, Republicans have decided to cannibalize themselves viciously and needlessly instead of uniting over common goals.” To say there is a struggle right now to determine what it means to be a Republican hardly does justice to the battle that is brewing for the soul of conservative America.
http://www.politicususa.com/2013/10/15/tea-party-adds-gop-list-enemies-destroyed.html
“Richmond Awaits a Bold Antipoverty Plan”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/15/us/richmond-awaits-a-bold-antipoverty-plan.html?_r=0
http://www.newsleader.com/article/20131014/NEWS01/310140021/African-American-newspapers-preserved-made-public
The default has already begun
By Felix Salmon
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While debt default is undoubtedly the worst of all possible worlds, then, the bonkers level of Washington dysfunction on display right now is nearly as bad. Every day that goes past is a day where trust and faith in the US government is evaporating — and once it has evaporated, it will never return. The Republicans in the House have already managed to inflict significant, lasting damage to the US and the global economy — even if they were to pass a completely clean bill tomorrow morning, which they won’t. The default has already started, and is already causing real harm. The only question is how much worse it’s going to get.
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http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2013/10/14/the-default-has-already-begun/
Young are being recruited to help gut Obamacare
As the battle over the healthcare law grinds on — Republicans no closer to victory than when they forced the government shutdown — a different fight was rising on a recent Saturday from inside Sharkey’s, a bar near the campus of Virginia Tech, 260 miles away.
Lured by free beer, gift cards and the chance to win an iPad, 100 students heard a pitch from the young staffers of a group named Generation Opportunity: Obamacare is a bad deal, and you should opt out.
With enrollment in the insurance marketplaces under way, and tens of millions of taxpayer dollars being spent on a public-awareness campaign, critics are aiming a provocative counter-effort at a critical population: millennials, age 18 to 29, who may not feel the need or have the money for insurance.
Because if too few young, healthy people sign up, Obamacare will be denied the financial blood to support older, more needy participants. So the race is on for the attention of 2.7 million people deemed necessary to enroll in the first year for Obamacare to be successful.
Generation Opportunity, which formed in 2011 and gets funding in part from the conservative Koch brothers, is about to embark on a tour of 20 college towns nationally, including a Nov. 9 stop at the University of Miami. The pitch is that you shouldn’t feel compelled by the government to buy insurance, and that it may be cheaper outside the marketplaces.
A blueprint for an upcoming tailgate calls for games such as beer pong and cornhole, free Taco Bell and beer. Pictures of people signing petitions to opt out would be sent over Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
The group, and more recognizable conservative organizations such as Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks, show how the fight has shifted from Congress to the grassroots. Young people are among the law’s most ardent supporters, but at the same time many are unaware of the benefits, providing an opening for critics.
“We’re happy to watch the law crumble under its own weight by young people making good decisions,” said Evan Feinberg, Generation Opportunity’s 29-year-old president. “This is a creepy law.”
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/10/14/3689755/young-are-being-recruited-to-help.html#storylink=cpy
Orange Julius better man the fuck up
…………..
Ted Cruz, House Republicans Meet in Secret at Tortilla Coast
By Matt Fuller Posted at 12:06 a.m. Oct. 15
Sen. Ted Cruz met with roughly 15 to 20 House Republicans for around two hours late Monday night at the Capitol Hill watering hole Tortilla Coast.
The group appeared to be talking strategy about how they should respond to a tentative Senate deal to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling without addressing Obamacare in a substantive way, according to sources who witnessed the gathering. The Texas Republican senator and many of the House Republicans in attendance had insisted on including amendments aimed at dismantling Obamacare in the continuing resolution that was intended to avert the current shutdown.
Sources said the House Republicans meeting in the basement of Tortilla Coast with Cruz were some of the most conservative in the House: Reps. Louie Gohmert of Texas, Steve King of Iowa, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Raúl R. Labrador of Idaho, Steve Southerland II of Florida, Mark Meadows of North Carolina and Justin Amash of Michigan.
The group is a collection of members who have often given leadership headaches in recent years by opposing both compromise measures as well as packages crafted by fellow Republicans. And, it seems, leadership unwittingly became aware of the meetup.
http://blogs.rollcall.com/218/ted-cruz-house-republicans-meet-in-secret-at-tortilla-coast/
It’s open warfare within the GOP – and all of America is caught in the crossfire From Rolling Stone: Partisan gerrymandering of 2012 locked in the Republican electoral gains of 2010. In redrawing congressional districts following the census, the GOP focused its efforts on protecting House incumbents – making their districts as red as possible.
Last November, this redistricting effort produced a shocking subversion of representative democracy. In the popular vote, almost 1.4 million more Americans cast their votes for Democratic House candidates than voted for Republicans. But Republicans maintained a commanding majority in the House. “Gerrymandering saved them,” says Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. Today, the number of true swing districts in the House is vanishingly small. Only 17 Republicans won in districts that Barack Obama also carried. Meanwhile, the number of what elections-data savant Nate Silver calls “landslide districts” – districts that are 20-plus points more Republican than the nation at large – has swelled to 125, up from 92 just a decade ago. Members from these über-safe districts don’t fear the challenge posed by a mainstream Democrat in the general election.
They dread a well-funded primary opponent running to their right. “You’ve got very small numbers of people who vote in GOP primaries,” says Bartlett, who served in the Reagan administration. “It doesn’t take very many of these Tea Party people to show up to find out you’re on your ass.” To keep this threat fresh in members’ minds, the Club for Growth recently launched a campaign called “Primary My Congressman!” that seeks to oust centrist Republicans from safe seats – and replace them with the hardest of the hardcore. “The Club for Growth is a cancer on the Republican Party,” said Steve LaTourette, a recently retired moderate House Republican from Ohio. “The only thing that grows when the Club for Growth gets involved is the number of Democrats in office.” … The chaos now roiling the House is, in many ways, a battle between the two most powerful GOP party bosses – Karl Rove and Jim DeMint. –
See more at: http://criticalmassprogress.com/2013/10/15/inside-the-republican-suicide-machine-its-demint-v-rove/#sthash.Fh12dsM0.dpuf
MILWAUKEE — The son of a slain Sikh temple president plans to challenge U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan in next year’s congressional election, in a Wisconsin district where support for the 2012 Republican vice presidential nominee has been strong but slipping.
Amar Kaleka, 35, told The Associated Press he’ll file paperwork Wednesday to form an exploratory congressional committee. He plans to formally announce his candidacy as a Democrat next month.
Kaleka said he wants to bring accountability and transparency back to Washington. He blamed the government shutdown on Ryan, who’s the House Budget Committee chairman, and his GOP colleagues. He said citizens are tired of career politicians who care more about staying in power than serving the people…
Kaleka’s father, Satwant Singh Kaleka, was a small-business owner who founded the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in suburban Milwaukee. On Aug. 5, 2012, a white supremacist walked into the temple and opened fire, killing Kaleka and five others before taking his own life. The FBI was unable to determine a motive….
Kaleka knows he’d be taking on a formidable candidate. Ryan has so much political clout that he raised $1.7 million in the first six months of the year, nearly three times more than any other member of Wisconsin’s congressional delegation.
Kaleka hopes to counter in part by tapping into the wealthy Indian and Arabic communities that he said encouraged him to run in the first place. If he can demonstrate his fundraising chops he expects the national Democratic Party, which he said supports his candidacy, to step in with another $1 million to $2 million…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/apnewsbreak-son-of-slain-sikh-leader-to-challenge-ex-vp-candidate-ryan-for-wis-us-house-seat/2013/10/14/e503777e-34f3-11e3-89db-8002ba99b894_story.html
Don’t Complain About the Size of the Rout
by BooMan
Mon Oct 14th, 2013 at 11:47:54 PM EST
I see a lot of progressives bitching about the outlines of a deal that hasn’t even been finalized, yet. But I don’t think they are focused on the right things. There is a real lost opportunity here, and it’s a victim of the plan to jam the House Republicans. Basically, the idea is that the Senate will chew up all the available time before the Thursday deadline and pass something that gives Speaker Boehner a choice between passing a bill with mostly Democratic votes or being responsible for a financial armageddon. That’s a solid plan.
The thing is, if Speaker Boehner needs House Democrats’ votes, then House Democrats should have the right to make demands. But they will be just as jammed up as the Speaker. They will be in same boat, unable to amend the bill for fear of causing a financial calamity through delay. This limits how much the Democrats can gain from the Republicans’ hubris.
I don’t think we should be pissed about this, exactly, but it is worth lamenting. The victory could have been bigger.
The deal itself, as it has been outlined, is not too bad. It doesn’t officially remove the Republicans’ ability to reprise another debt ceiling crisis, nor does it preclude them from causing another government shutdown. But the Democrats will be only too happy to go through this process again next year, closer to the midterm elections. If the Republicans haven’t learned their lesson, the electoral consequences will be quite rewarding for the Democrats.
The concessions under discussion are half imaginary (income verification for ObamaCare subsidies) and half a favor to labor unions (a delay in employer reinsurance requirements). Neither will incentivize the Republicans to make a repeat performance of their auto-da-fé.
The end result of this shutdown will be a victory nearly as decisive as the one the Russians achieved at Stalingrad. I can imagine a bigger win, but I have no real complaints.
I think, with this, the fever that started with 2010 midterm election results will finally be broken. I look forward to the return of some small degree of normalcy.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/10/14/234754/95
As I look at the art market for African American painters, I have noticed that some of these present day folk painters are offering paintings to please the old South type patron by painting stereotypical views of children holding watermelon slices, workers in cotton fields, etc.
Now, I have just found an article entitled ” Black Oursider Artist in a White Art World” in which the African American artist answers a question “admitting” this:
http://hyperallergic.com/65400/a-black-outsider-artist-in-a-white-art-world/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=2u9vEGmrjJ4
You can watch this complete film “ALL ME” at this link:
http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/all_me_the_life_and_times_of_winfred_rembert
Good Morning everyone at 3Chicspolitico :)
Crisis and Leadership: Lessons from Barack Obama
Tuesday, October 15, 2013 | Posted by Spandan C at 5:28 AM
For the longest time, the press and the Republicans have whined that in the current government shutdown and impending default threats, President Obama has failed to lead. You cannot turn on any 24-hour cable news channel without hearing some pundit whining about the lack of presidential leadership. Even those who correctly place the blame on the Republicans for the suicide-bombing caucus inflicted wound on America don’t miss a chance to brandish their pundit credentials by charging President Obama as MIA in a leadership role.
They base this accusation on the fact that the president has refused to negotiate with a gun to America’s head and to pay ransom to the Tea Party. What these pundits miss is that that refusal is the leadership the president needed to provide at this critical juncture in history, and he has passed that test with flying colors.
Think about this with a long term view. Seeing the presidency slip from them, the far Right radical Republicans are attempting to write a dangerous new norm into American policymaking: government by extortion. They are trying to normalize the behavior of a fringe to demand ransom for the simple fact that Congress would do its job. The idea is to get with extortion what they could not – and likely have decided no longer can – win at the ballot box, or they break the government and wreck the world economy. They are trying to turn democracy on its head.
This cannot be allowed to happen. America cannot indefinitely continue to govern by manufactured crises, or give into extortion to end one such crisis only until another is manufactured. We especially cannot accept that a small fringe can manipulate the political process to effectively end a law that they cannot outright repeal.
And so, the president’s job, as not simply the head of government but the leader of our republic, is not to attempt to Congress’ job for them. The president’s job is to ensure that the American form of government – a representative democracy – is protected not just for his presidency but for future presidents and future Congresses. What the president needed to do as a leader is to crush the forces of government by extortion and make them understand, once and for all, America does not negotiate with economic terrorists.
http://www.thepeoplesview.net/2013/10/crisis-and-leadership-lessons-from.html
http://youtu.be/0Jd-iaYLO1A
I <3 Chris Van Hollen! :-))))
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Good morning, Rikyrah , Yahtc & everyone!
Good Morning Ladies & 3 Chica LURKERS!