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Even though 3Chics Politico is written and curated by three women: Ametia, Rikyrah, and SouthernGirl2, I must nominate this as one of the most engaging blogs I've found. Devoted to politics and culture, these three shine a light on contemporary life with humor and spirit.
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Hey Everybody!
Please help yourself to some candy:
http://glittermagic.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/halloween2009_candy_bowl.jpg
“Court Blocks Ruling on NY Police Stop-Frisk Policy”
NEW YORK October 31, 2013
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/court-blocks-ruling-ny-police-stop-frisk-policy-20746200
Excerpt:
Time to pray that the appeal by the city will be unsuccessful.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson: Why Obamacare Will Triumph Despite Glitches and the GOP
October 30, 2013
*The GOP controlled House Ways and Means is the first of the three GOP congressional committees “investigating” Obamacare to try and pulverize it–again.
GOP committee members pounded hard on the stock GOP hit points; it’s a mess because of a lousy computer system, thousands have gotten sticker shock after getting cancelation notices, there’s big sneaky insurance price hikes on the way, there are the subsidies that don’t subsidize, and the demand to oust HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. The capper is that President Obama supposedly blatantly lied when he promised no one would lose their current health insurance plan due to Obamacare.
The GOP hit points are based on the usual mix of lies, half-truths, and wild distortions. The computer glitch is a fact. But its importance in the overall initial implementation of Obamacare has been wildly overblown. Thousands have in fact searched and signed up for various health plans both online and through the state exchanges. Millions more will sign up online when the glitches are corrected, and they will be. The overwhelming majority of policy holders have either workplace plans and grandfathered polices that were purchased before March 2010. They are not forced at Obamcare gunpoint to switch to costly coverage plans. The penalties for not having insurance that were supposed to be financial killers amount to a $95 fine or 1 percent of an individual’s income whichever is greater.
The subsidies to help pay for coverage are bankrolled to the tune of more than a half trillion dollars. This will slash the actual costs of the various plans offered on the exchanges by more than half for a family of four. Most of those who fall below the poverty line won’t be affected by any of this since they’ll be covered through a radically ramped up Medicaid coverage in most states that’s paid for by the federal government. Despite she bluster from some GOP governors about rejecting the Medicaid funding increases, the almost certain rise in health care costs will force states to pay even more for medical coverage to low income persons. The pressure will be great for the hard ball GOP governors to rethink their opposition to taking the beefed up Medicaid bailout.
Then there are the supposed big price hikes that Obamacare supposedly will trigger. Insurance premium costs will likely jump no matter whether Obamacare exists or not. That’s due in part to inflated medical treatment costs, the impotence of most state regulatory agencies to halt rapacious insurer rate hikes, and the hard reality that programs that emphasize prevention which have proven far more effective in reining in medical costs are still poor step children to the pricey and vastly more profitable drug and surgical treatments that remain the bread and butter staple of the medical establishment.
Even if in an absolute best case scenario for the GOP every one of its hit points proved true, Obamacare would still go forth for the very reasons that it became law, and has survived every court test, up to and including the Supreme Court in the first place. It provides tens of millions of Americans with access to a health plan, there will be subsidies for low-income persons to offset the costs, a half million children will be covered under their parent’s plans, millions of dollars will be allocated for research and testing, the establishment of more than 1000 new health care facilities in many rural and urban communities, the National Health Service Corps workforce will be tripled and millions of elderly and disabled Americans covered under Medicare will have no cost access to health care preventive services.
Most important is that the millions of chronically uninsured and underinsured Americans for the first time will have full access to health care. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the number of uninsured Americans will fall from fifty-five million to thirty-one million between the present and 2023. The proportion of the population with coverage will rise from eighty-two per cent to ninety-two per cent.
The GOP hit plan on Obamacare is and always has been much more than a battle to scrap a health care plan that is supposedly flawed, failed, and a big government intrusion into the lives of Americans. It is a crude and cynical political ploy to inflame millions of Americans and stoke hostility to Obama and the Democrats. The GOP banks that its steady attack will give it the political edge it desperately needs to hold the House in the 2014 midterm elections and make a big run at gaining majority control in the Senate.
But polls consistently show that while many Americans have deep concerns and even legitimate fears about the short term effect of Obamacare, they do not want it scrapped. The GOP’s drumbeat hit campaign on Obamacare can’t erase this fact. That’s why Obamacare will ultimately triumph.
http://www.eurweb.com/2013/10/earl-ofari-hutchinson-why-obamacare-will-triumph-despite-glitches-and-the-gop/
See……..
Camp Clinton doesn’t know WHEN TO SHUT THE FUCK UP!
……………………
In the Clintons’ talk of brokering compromise, an implicit rebuke of Obama years
By Philip Rucker, Thursday, October 31, 11:35 AM
NORFOLK — In recent stump speeches and policy remarks, Bill and Hillary Clinton have offered sharp criticisms of the partisan gridlock paralyzing Washington, signaling a potential 2016 campaign theme if Hillary Clinton chooses to run for president.
The Clintons’ critiques in recent days have been explicitly aimed at congressional Republicans, who helped spur a 16-day government shutdown and potential debt default in October. But their remarks also seem to contain an implicit rebuke of President Obama’s failure to change Washington as he pledged when first running for the White House.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-the-clintons-talk-of-brokering-compromise-an-implicit-rebuke-of-obama-years/2013/10/31/f8cf7d66-40a1-11e3-a751-f032898f2dbc_story.html
Republicans block Watt’s nomination to head housing agency
By Ramsey Cox
Senate Republicans blocked Rep. Mel Watt’s nomination Thursday to serve as one of the nation’s top housing regulator.
The Senate voted 56-42 to end debate on Watt’s (D-N.C.) nomination to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), but 60 votes were needed to overcome a Republican filibuster. After eight hours of debate, the Senate will proceed to a vote on final confirmation, unless a deal is reached to hold the vote sooner.
Fellow North Carolinian Sen. Richard Burr (R) has supported Watt’s nomination since he was tapped by the president in the spring. He and Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) were the only Republicans to vote for the cloture motion Thursday.
National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling said Wednesday that Watt’s confirmation was “a top economic priority for this White House.” The agency has not had a Senate-confirmed director since it was formed five-years ago, after the economic housing crisis.
Republicans see Watt as someone who is likely to favor ongoing government intervention in the housing market. Groups like FreedomWorks and Heritage Action called on senators to vote against Watt.
http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/188841-republicans-block-watt%E2%80%99s-nomination-to-head-housing-agency
George Zimmerman Left Wife, Shellie, Bullet-Riddled Target As Threat: Report
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/31/george-zimmerman-target-bullet-wife-shelli_n_4181669.html?utm_hp_ref=tw
The estranged wife of George Zimmerman says he nailed a bullet-filled target to the wall of her home as a “subliminal message.”
Shellie Zimmerman, 26, filed for divorce in September, less than two months after George Zimmerman was found not guilty of second-degree murder after he shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2012.
Days later, Shellie Zimmerman called 911, stating that her husband was threatening her and her father with a gun, and that he punched her father in the nose.
President Obama Speaks at the SelectUSA Investment Summit
Now streaming…
http://www.whitehouse.gov/live/president-obama-speaks-selectusa-investment-summit
BWA HA HA HA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIA6j-_DI6o
SEND RAPHEL CRUZ’S ASS BACK TO CUBA
BREAKING: US Attorney announces Department of Justice WILL launch investigation into the death of Kendrick Johnson.
BRING IT, DOJ!!!
Oh, I feel a release of some kind of tension within me right now…..What a relief to hear this news.
Thanks for the update, SG2.
Yes!!!
YVW! Good news today! Someone needs to be held accountable for this brutal crime.
Good
The parents and lawyers were on Rev. Al tonight.
Mr. Booker Goes to Washington
by BooMan
Thu Oct 31st, 2013 at 12:18:30 PM EST
Congratulations to Cory Booker who was just sworn in as a U.S. Senator a few minutes after noon. The Democrats now have 55 members in their caucus. Sen. Booker’s first vote will be a cloture vote to end debate on the nomination of Rep. Mel Watt (D-NC) to be the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The vote is occurring as I write this and a lot of Republicans are voting no.
I’ll be interested to see how Sen. Booker adapts to the non-stop infantile trolling of his colleagues on the other side of the aisle.
I do think he has some skill sets to build congenial relationships on the other side of the aisle, but I just don’t know how much that is worth these days.
Update [2013-10-31 12:29:54 by BooMan]: Vote is not over but it is already clear that there are 41 votes to block cloture. So, Booker’s first vote involved the Republicans blocking a black nominee with a filibuster.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/10/31/121830/86
@skepticalbrotha
Rand Paul kills #MelWatt’s nomination to lead Housing Finance Authority. #p2
@keithboykin
Mel Watt has been blocked. For the first time since 1843, the Senate has rejected a sitting member of Congress to a Cabinet-level position.
Geraldo Rivera: Barack Obama Is ‘Stuck-Up’ And ‘Snobby’
Oct 30, 2013
By Terrell Jermaine Starr
I guess the depth to which Geraldo Rivera can stick his foot down his mouth is limitless because he keeps lodging it deeper inside of his throat over and over again.
The talk show host took to his radio show Tuesday morning to criticize the myriad of issues emerging after the launch of the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama‘s signature legislation to date. While there are a wide range of issues to take aim at regarding “Obamacare“– website malfunctions, miscommunication over benefits, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius‘ testimony this morning, to name a few–, it seems as though Rivera has to take personal jabs at the president that have nothing to do with policy.
Like this:
Stuck-up? Snobby, he says? What does that have to do with anything other than revealing his animus for a man he claims he wants to succeed? Rivera is the kind of person who enjoys taking on very complex topics without contributing any iota of intellectual depth, no matter the ideology.
http://newsone.com/2748458/geraldo-rivera-barack-obama-affordable-care-act-obamacare/
YOU’RE AN IDIOT, JERK-RALDO!
—☺ @keithboykin
Carolyn Newman, a 50-year-old Floridian with breast cancer, will see her rates drop from $1270/month to $640/month. http://www.miamiherald.com/201… …
– -☺@keithboykin
Liz Buzone of Florida will see her rates go up about $15-$20 but she’s pleased because she’ll get better coverage.http://www.miamiherald.com/201… …
Presenting Draculaura and Iron Man!
****************
Iron Man is rocking it today! Save me, Iron Man! Save me!
they’re so cute. too cute for words. those boots on Haley are something else!
bwa ha ha ha ha ha
They’ve been waiting all week for this. LOL!
OMG, they are so adorable.
Liza,
Jay is so excited today. He’s IRON MAN! lol
Yes, he looks very powerful. I like his stance with the arms crossed.
Lawdy have Mer-cy, can these two kids be any cuter? I want those boots. And tell Mr.Iron Man, I’m in need of saving!!! LOL Happy Tricks & Treats to you Jay & Haley!
bwa ha ha ha ha..I will and JAY will SAVE us all.
These 2 really are just too CUTE for words. Look at Haley. She’s like I got all my teeth, and I’m not afraid to use’em! BWA HA HA
Haley feels pretty today.
Haley is BEAUTIFUL
Thank you. I’ll be sure to tell her you said she was beautiful. Watch her smile wide. lol
Oh my gosh…..how precious!
Haley is lovely….what a great costume!
I feel much safer now with Iron Man gracing this page. Look at those muscles!
Give them a hug for me, SG2!
LOL! Jay will save us all! He’s our SUPER HERO! :)
We Think You Are Insane
by BooMan
Thu Oct 31st, 2013 at 10:10:02 AM EST
The Republicans’ candidate for Lieutenant Governor in Virginia is a little crazier than average. He thinks that it is a big mistake to do yoga or meditate because if you empty out your mind it will allow Satan to walk right in and take control of your dead spirit.
Now, maybe if you go down to Arkansas and say something like that you will find an audience that nods in agreement. But in Northern Virginia or New Jersey or the Philly suburbs, people will start making calls for a paddy wagon. In our half of the country, talking about yoga and demonic possession isn’t a mere difference of opinion. It means you are a lunatic who needs immediate psychiatric help. You aren’t considered a conservative; you are considered insane. And there is no fucking way that people will vote for you.
This is why Rick Santorum was drubbed out of office by 18 points. Once it became known that he thought same-sex relationships would encourage bestiality, his support near Philly approached zero. It was no longer a choice between a Democrat and a Republican, but a choice between a normal functioning human being and a person who was in need of some kind of medication.
People on the right like to accuse us of being secular and not believing in God, but Blue America includes many religious people. That doesn’t mean that we will countenance obvious morons.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/10/31/10102/859
Like we needed to know this mess…this is so tasteless
…………….
Julius Erving: Braces Prevented Oral Sex, Led to Conception of Tennis Player Alexandra Stevenson
By Jason Lisk October 30, 2013 6:22 pm ET @jasonlisk
Julius Erving, former Philadelphia 76ers all-time basketball great, is the father of tennis player Alexandra Stevenson. According to an excerpt from Erving’s new autobiography, “Dr. J”, as noted at by Richard Johnson of the New York Post’s Page Six, the Doctor attributes the conception of Stevenson to some dental work.
Samantha Stevenson was a writer covering the Philadelphia 76ers at the time for Sport Magazine. As always, the lesson here: braces can be costly.
http://thebiglead.com/2013/10/30/julius-erving-braces-prevented-oral-sex-led-to-conception-of-tennis-player-alexandra-stephenson/
School Report Card: Payton scores No. 1 spot statewide; Hinsdale Central tops in suburbs
BY BECKY SCHLIKERMAN AND ART GOLAB Staff Reporters October 31, 2013 12:01AM
At Walter Payton College Prep on the Near North Side, 16-year-olds Diamond Merrell and Skylar Ozoh performed an improv sketch in front of their giggling classmates.
In another classroom, Jamyah Hawkins casually worked on her freshman physics class work
And during lunch, groups of students gathered in a hallway chatting with friends, texting and playing Ping-Pong.
It was just a regular day at the selective enrollment Chicago public school.
But it’s not a regular year for the high school.
For the first time, Payton ranks as the No. 1 high school in the entire state, according to a Chicago Sun-Times analysis of school report card data released Thursday. Payton unseated Northside College Prep from the top spot it has held for 12 years. Payton had been No. 2 and No. 3 in previous years
The focus on standardized tests at Payton is “somewhat minimal” Principal Tim Devine said. “We really believe if you just have a great curriculum starting from Day One of the school year, and you build that throughout the entire year and the student’s four-year career, great standardized test scores will be a byproduct of great teaching and learning,” he said.
Hinsdale Central High School claimed the top suburban spot — and No. 4 statewide.
New Trier Township High School was bumped down from the No. 4 spot to No. 6 this year.
The top elementary school in the rankings is also a Chicago Public Schools institution — Skinner North Classical School, which also took the top spot last year.
http://www.suntimes.com/23417092-761/school-report-card-payton-scores-no-1-spot-statewide-hinsdale-central-tops-in-suburbs.html
Subpoened for what?
@AskLisaD: BREAKING: House Oversight Chairman Issa has subpoened HHS Sec. Sebelius, I am told by committee spox.
hauntingly BEA-U-TI-FUL
AMETIA…SG2
NEED EVERY COONING GIF POSSIBLE PLEASE….
HARRIET TUBMAN…WE STILL NEED YOU!
………………………………..
via Joe Madison’s Facebook
Check
out this Halloween costume with a black woman with a basket full of
cotton and her white friends holding her neck with a noose.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152019114597125&set=pb.67284357124.-2207520000.1383227485.&type=3&theater
I almost fainted!
OH.DEAR.GOD.HELP.US.ALL.
No words for this one, no words, just this:
http://withoutsanctuary.org/main.html
uwww…..no……not after all the brutality represented by those symbols……and to be laughing amidst those heinous props…….ugly
Poll: Pennsylvanians oppose repealing Affordable Care Act, favor expanding Medicaid
Pennsylvania voters oppose repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, by a 50-40 percent margin, a statewide poll shows.
The poll of 628 registered voters by Franklin & Marshall College found substantial support for Medicaid expansion, which the law allowed as a choice for states in a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Those surveyed favor providing Medicaid coverage to poor, uninsured people by almost two-thirds.
The support for President Obama’s signature health care plan occurs despite an online launch of the federal insurance marketplace on Oct. 1 that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius acknowledged has performed “miserably,” frustrating millions of Americans trying to sign up at HealthCare.gov. Sebelius on Wednesday apologized for problems at a House committee hearing in Washington.
Read more: http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/4968256-74/percent-poll-medicaid#ixzz2jJRjpOvq
Follow us: @triblive on Twitter | triblive on Facebook
Man Cusses Out Cop For Profiling Him In Auburn, AL
http://youtu.be/SEyE_ZN5rqs
Theater of The Absurd: Pres. Obama Dispels GOP Healthcare Myths
http://youtu.be/ovf22iwLFks
Guess Who Really Wants to Take Away Your Insurance: Republicans
BY JONATHAN COHN @citizencohn
Republicans are outraged that some Americans must give up their current insurance plans because they don’t satisfy Obamacare’s new regulations for benefits and pricing. Partly they are mad at President Obama, because he repeatedly said people who like their coverage would get to keep it. And that’s fine. As I said yesterday, Obama should have said “most” people, not “all” people. Readers can decide for themselves whether, by the standards of politics, that’s a felony or misdemeanor.
But Republicans are also making a substantive argument here. It’s unconscionable, they say, that lawmakers would force people to give up their current coverage. Just a few minutes ago, during congressional testimony by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, an angry Representative Marsha Blackburn from Tennessee practically screamed at the witness: “You’re taking away their choice!”
It’s good politics, I’m sure. It’s also breathtakingly cynical. Republicans have repeatedly endorsed proposals that would take insurance away from many more Americans—and leave them much, much worse off.
Start with the federal budgets crafted by Paul Ryan. You remember those, right? Those proposals passed through the House with unanimous Republican support and were, in 2012, a basis of the Republican presidential platform. Those budgets called for dramatic funding cuts to Medicaid. If Republicans had swept into power and enacted such changes, according to projections prepared by Urban Institute scholars and published by the Kaiser Family Foundation, between 14 and 20 million Medicaid recipients would lose their insurance. And that doesn’t even include the people who are starting to get Medicaid coverage through Obamacare’s expansions of the program. That’s another 10 to 17 million people.
And it’s not just people on Medicaid who would lose coverage if Republicans got their way. While Republicans in Congress have not unified by a single alternative to Obamacare, a building block of virtually every proposal in circulation is to equalize the tax treatment of employer-sponsored insurance and individual insurance—which, in layman’s terms, means making it much more appealing for somebody who gets coverage on the job to buy coverage on his or her own. Typically these proposals would allow insurers selling individual coverage to continue some of their current practices, like charging higher premiums or refusing to cover certain services for people with pre-existing conditions, or offering coverage with serous gaps in benefits. Most experts believe such reforms would hike the cost of employer plans, as only sicker people remained on them, potentially creating a “death spiral” that would lead to fewer employers offering plans. (Even the more optimistic estimates assume erosion of employer-sponsored insurance.)
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/115403/obamacare-plan-cancellation-letters-cynical-republican-hypocrisy
The Story Behind the Racial Profiling Article in The Times
By MARGARET SULLIVAN
…My post on Monday raised the question of why The Times hadn’t yet written about the story that has received plenty of attention elsewhere over the past few weeks, particularly in New York’s tabloid newspapers. The Metro section editor, Wendell Jamieson, said that The Times would write about it only when there was a way to move the story forward from what competing news organizations had already written.
He told me Wednesday that a reporter had been assigned to the story
last week, and that on Tuesday, he was able to confirm a piece of news – that changes in security practices at Barneys had resulted in more
shoppers being detained and in significantly more contact between store security and the New York Police Department. That, in addition to the announcement of an investigation by the state attorney general’s office, provided enough news value for The Times to publish it, Mr. Jamieson said.
He said he was reluctant to mention that the story had been assigned when I questioned him Monday. “We don’t talk about what our reporters are working on,” he said. “And I had no idea if our reporting would pan out.”
http://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/30/the-story-behind-the-racial-profiling-article-in-the-times/?smid=tw-share&_r=0
Rich People Just Care Less
By DANIEL GOLEMAN
Turning a blind eye. Giving someone the cold shoulder. Looking down on people. Seeing right through them.
These metaphors for condescending or dismissive behavior are more than just descriptive. They suggest, to a surprisingly accurate extent, the social distance between those with greater power and those with less — a distance that goes beyond the realm of interpersonal interactions and may exacerbate the soaring inequality in the United States.
A growing body of recent research shows that people with the most social power pay scant attention to those with little such power. This tuning out has been observed, for instance, with strangers in a mere five-minute get-acquainted session, where the more powerful person shows fewer signals of paying attention, like nodding or laughing. Higher-status people are also more likely to express disregard, through facial expressions, and are more likely to take over the conversation and interrupt or look past the other speaker.
Bringing the micropolitics of interpersonal attention to the understanding of social power, researchers are suggesting, has implications for public policy.
Of course, in any society, social power is relative; any of us may be higher or lower in a given interaction, and the research shows the effect still prevails. Though the more powerful pay less attention to us than we do to them, in other situations we are relatively higher on the totem pole of status — and we, too, tend to pay less attention to those a rung or two down.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/05/rich-people-just-care-less/?_r=0
Bring It
by BooMan
Wed Oct 30th, 2013 at 08:50:56 PM EST
I wouldn’t use the word “insurmountable” in this sentence. Maybe “irrepressible” would be more appropriate.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/10/30/205057/87
President Obama Calls Out The Media For Grossly Misleading Coverage of The ACA
By: Jason Easley more from Jason Easley
Wednesday, October, 30th, 2013, 8:43 pm
President Obama called out the media today for misleading the American people with inaccurate stories about people having their health insurance canceled due to the ACA.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Because of the tax credits that we’re offering and the competition between insurers, most people are going to be able to get better, comprehensive health care plans for the same price or even cheaper than projected. You’re going to get a better deal.
Now, there’s a fraction of Americans with higher incomes who will pay more on the front end for better insurance with better benefits and protections like the patient’s bill of rights, and that will actually save them from financial ruin if they get sick. But nobody is losing their right to health care coverage. And no insurance company will ever be able to deny you coverage or drop you as a customer altogether. Those days are over, and that’s the truth. That is the truth. (Cheers, applause.)
So for people without health insurance, they’re finally going to be able to get it. For the vast majority of people who have health insurance that works, you can keep it. For the fewer than 5 percent of Americans who buy insurance on your own, you will be getting a better deal. So anyone peddling the notion that insurers are canceling peoples’ plan without mentioning that almost all the insurers are encouraging people to join better plans with the same carrier and stronger benefits and stronger protections while others will be able to get better plans with new carriers through the marketplace, and that many will get new help to pay for these better plans and make them actually cheaper — if you leave that stuff out, you’re being grossly misleading, to say the least. (Applause.)
http://www.politicususa.com/2013/10/30/president-obama-calls-media-grossly-misleading-coverage-aca.html
Obama Selects 3 African Americans to Manage Key U.S. Security and Counter-Terrorism Operations
Oct 30, 2013
By Michael H. Cottman, BlackAmericaWeb.com
For the first time in history, three African Americans selected by President Barack Obama could simultaneously manage high-level federal operations that shape national and global law enforcement policies while also protecting America against terrorists.
It’s no coincidence – and it’s a rare moment in the nation’s history.
Obama has carefully assembled a qualified team of black senior advisors, all Cabinet members, who have wide-ranging expertise in law enforcement, national security issues, and counter-terrorism.
Susan Rice, the U.S. National Security Advisor, reports directly to the president on precarious global matters that impact America. Rice is the third African American to hold the post.
Eric Holder, the first African American U.S. Attorney General and the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, oversees the U.S. Department of Justice.
And Obama recently appointed Jeh Johnson, formerly the Pentagon’s top lawyer, to head the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Johnson would become the first African American to lead the Department of Homeland Security.
Johnson would succeed Janet Napolitano, who announced she was leaving the Cabinet post in July. Political insiders say they expect Johnson to be confirmed, but Republicans may try to rough him up during his confirmation hearings.
The president’s decision to hire three black specialists to oversee national civil rights issues, counter-terrorism strategy and matters relating to national security shows that Obama, the nation’s first black president, is committed to empowering black people to lead America’s most security-sensitive agencies and operations.
Protecting the nation, Obama supporters say, also keeps black Americans safe.
http://blackamericaweb.com/179520/analysis-3-african-americans-could-manage-key-u-s-security-and-counter-terrorism-operations/
Throw in Todd Jones at ATF and America’s worst nightmare is in full tilt. Black in charge of guns, police, courts, borders, war making…
Doin it!
TEE HEE HEE
NERD Fund donor CVS Caremark scores $60 million no-bid contract in Detroit
This is why NERD Fund opacity is such a BFD
I (and so many others) have talked a LOT about Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s NERD Fund, financed by unknown corporate entities and wealthy individuals. Because they have been paying for Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr’s accomodations in a luxury hotel and for his transportation costs, the complete lack of transparency raises questions about who is paying and what they are getting. In other words, what conflicts of interest exist. Thanks to Snyder shutting down the Fund without revealing its donors, we may never know.
A couple of revelations this past week have brought these concerns into sharp relief. First, Detroit chief procurement officer Andre DuPerry recently resigned due to what he says is a “waste of taxpayer dollars” in awarding contracts for city services without properly going through the competitive bid process. Here’s what he said in his resignation letter:
…………………..
A second revelation concerns a contract awarded to Caremark to cover pharmacy benefits for city of Detroit employees. State Representative Thomas F. Stallworth III of Detroit had this to say about this “process”:
http://www.eclectablog.com/2013/10/cvs-caremark-scores-60-million-no-bid-contract-in-detroit.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+eclectablog%2FkInS+%28Eclectablog%29
https://twitter.com/keithboykin/status/395655266412142592/photo/1
https://twitter.com/SenateDems/status/395658509972279296/photo/1
Sen. Reid joins Rachel Maddow
This is the full, unedited interview of Senator Harry Reid, D-NV, Senate Majority Leader, by Rachel Maddow.
————————————–
http://on.msnbc.com/1ivU9Jj
Proudly Cheerleading for ObamaCare Because the Media is Supposed to be Serving the People
By: Sarah Jones more from Sarah Jones
Wednesday, October, 30th, 2013, 7:31 pm
Perspective is sorely lacking, and this apparent disconnect with regular citizens has never been so glaring as it is right now during the media’s ACA website glitch hysteria.
The gang of beltway intelligentsia came down on Joan Walsh when she pointed out that tech glitches were not the be all end all of ObamaCare, which just goes to show you that you are only allowed to have one thought in the media and it’s the one that the boys agree is “accurate” – the fact that white men are the minority and can’t possibly speak for everyone is totally lost here.
So the reason you see this huge disconnect is we have a government run by mostly privileged white men, being reported on by mostly privileged white men. Their experience frames their views, and they are so privileged that they stamp these views as the “facts” without a moment of doubt that they are correct and right.
A tech glitch will never stop desperate people from signing up for health insurance. It won’t stop the tears of gratitude from the many (not few) who had a health scare without insurance. And by the way, those with insurance were also denied help from insurance companies before ObamaCare.
Not everyone has the kind of privilege that makes messing with them a bad bet.
So we come again to the meaning of “minority”. In social and political terms, “minority” refers to people who hold few positions of power. Groups of minorities are categorized by race, gender, disability, wealth, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and more. Maybe white men from privileged backgrounds (who hold the majority of positions of social power in our society) don’t really know anything about what a majority (together, minorities are a numerical majority) of this country faces when they try to access services. If they did, they wouldn’t dream of being obsessed with tech glitches and hold music fails.
http://www.politicususa.com/2013/10/30/joan-walsh-calls-medias-tech-glitch-obsession-called-obama-cheerleader.html
http://youtu.be/SWvBAQf7v8g
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Michelle Obama chants “Let’s Move!” with Elmo, Rosita to support healthy food marketing: http://bit.ly/1aEXNh3
http://youtu.be/8jn4jJTLzgM
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