Happy Friday, Everyone! We made it through the week without freezing to death. Today we’re featuring duets & tributes with Ms. Warwick.
Above: Lyricist Hal David with Dionne Warwick and Burt Bacharach in the recording studio.
DUETS
Dionne & Christopher Cross- Sailing
Dionne & Maetro Barry White – Never Gonna Give You Up
Dionne & Roberta Flack- Killing Me Softly
Dionne & MJ- Never Love This Way Again
That’s What Friends are For
Whitney Houston- Dionne Warwick Medley
Dionne Warwick – Live ’00 Tribute to Burt Bacharach & Hal David
And coming in May 2014…
Singer Dionne Warwick had little trouble summoning partners for her upcoming duets album. That’s what friends are for.
She’s paired with Alicia Keys, Ne-Yo and Stevie Wonder on Feels So Good, a duets album set for release in May. The Grammy Hall of Famer also links voices with Ziggy Marley and Cee Lo Green on the 10-track project, a combination of new songs and classic covers.
Warwick, 72, worked with producers Swizz Beatz, Jack Splash, Jesse “Corporal” Wilson and her son, Damon Elliott. Feels So Good will be released on the newly formed Damon Elliott Music Group label in partnership with Caroline. In addition to scoring numerous films, Elliott has worked with Beyoncé, Pink, Gwen Stefani and Christina Aguilera.
Additional artists and song titles will be announced soon. Check here for updates
Have a teriffic weekend!
https://twitter.com/Gigi2my3/status/421704747297435648/photo/1
First Look: How Colorism Affects People Around the World
Tune in Friday, January 10, at 9/8c. on OWN
http://youtu.be/chXEbdMT9kU
Veronica Mars Movie Poster Is Here and You’re Going to LoVe It
“She thought she was out,” but fans wouldn’t let Veronica Mars stay dead. The official movie poster for the highly anticipated Veronica Mars movie is here and it’s a doozy.
Our heroine, Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell), is front and center with her trusted camera. To her right: film reel with shots of her friends and family. Please note there are two images of Jason Dohring as Logan Echolls and only one of Chris Lowell as Piz. We’re not picking sides, just pointing it out.
The Veronica Mars movie picks up several years after the series ended its three-season run in 2007. Veronica has moved on from Neptune and private investigator work and hasn’t seen Logan since. She’s got a great boyfriend, Piz, is about to graduate law school and Jamie Lee Curtis might be giving her a job! But then Logan’s accused of murder. What’s a girl to do when her epic LoVe is in trouble?
The official logline:
“In the film, Veronica Mars has put Neptune and her amateur sleuthing days behind her on the eve of graduating law school. While interviewing at high-end law firms, Veronica gets a call from her ex-boyfriend Logan who has been accused of murder. Veronica heads back to Neptune just to help Logan find an attorney, but when things don’t seem right with how Logan’s case is perceived and handled, Veronica finds herself being pulled back into a life she thought she had left behind.”
http://www.eonline.com/news/497949/veronica-mars-movie-poster-is-here-and-you-re-going-to-love-it?cmpid=sn-000000-twitterfeed-365-kristin&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=twitterfeed_kristin&dlvrit=51396
http://youtu.be/wq1R93UMqlk
New Yorker gives Christie cover treatment
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2014/01/10/new-yorker-gives-christie-cover-treatment/?wpisrc=nl%5Fpopns
Keep digging, Christie! There’s a place wide and deep enough called the Grand Canyon to bury you and your LIES.
GOD IS GOOD. Good for you, Ms. Alexander!
Can’t let this week end without thanking you for the wonderful music from Ms. Warwick. I had to watch a PBS special to really grasp the depth and breadth of her musical career….Ms. Warwick was a true trailblazer.
YVW! Glad you enjoyed Ms. Warwick, Rikyrah.
Did anyone else know about this? I found this in the comments at TOD:
https://twitter.com/CallOut4/status/421383589033291776/photo/1
Wow!
OMG!
Nature is awe inspiring.
ProgressiveHelpPhD @CallOut4
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Small experiment: CA rejects austerity, initiates modest tax increases & liberal reforms, economy surges http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/california-budget-surges-record-high-21476781 …
10:11 PM – 9 Jan 2014
GTFOH Murdering JOE!
Scarborough: If We Attack ‘Culture’ of Christie, ‘We Have to Go After Culture of Obama’
by Noah Rothman | 8:07 am, January 10th, 2014
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/scarborough-if-we-attack-culture-of-christie-admin-we-have-to-go-after-culture-of-barack-obama/
https://twitter.com/NerdyWonka/status/421499703184728064/photo/1
Joey Tranchina @JoeyFotoFr
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What a state w/ a future does @latimes: California schools get $10 billion more than last year in budget proposal http://lat.ms/1aLzz43
11:00 PM – 9 Jan 2014
https://twitter.com/TWThrive/status/421441498102497280/photo/1
This Pig is getting ROASTED.
Oink!
ThisMagicalEarth @MagicalEarth
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DOJ raked in $8 billion in legal actions last year. More than 3 times amt GOP budgets for DOJ. http://thehill.com/blogs/regwatch/finance/195032-doj-raked-in-8-billion-in-legal-actions-last-year?nopaging=1 … #Uniteblue #Holder
10:56 PM – 9 Jan 2014
All-Male Congressional Committee Considers Imposing Far-Reaching Abortion Restrictions
By Tara Culp-Ressler on January 9, 2014 at 12:06 pm
On Thursday morning, the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice held a hearing on HR 7, the “No Taxpayer Funding For Abortion Act.” That subcommittee, which is headed up by Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) and comprised of 12 other male lawmakers, is deciding whether to advance sweeping restrictions on abortion coverage that would make the procedure less affordable for women across the country.
Abortion opponents are relentless in their efforts to ensure that taxpayer dollars don’t end up financing abortion services. But HR 7 is actually deceptively titled. Under the guise of preventing federal money from covering abortion, it would actually have dramatic consequences for the insurance industry and the tax code as a whole, potentially creating a society in which private insurance no longer includes abortion care.
“This bill is a sweeping piece of legislation that would affect nearly all women in this country and would do significant harm to many, especially those women and families who are struggling to make ends meet,” Susan Woods, an associate professor of health policy at George Washington University, explained in her testimony against HR 7 on Thursday.
In addition to banning insurance coverage for abortion in all of Obamacare’s new state-level insurance marketplaces, HR 7 would also reach into Americans’ private insurance plans. It would force small businesses to pay additional taxes on their health benefits if they offer their employees a plan that covers abortion. It would also eliminate medical-expense deductions for abortion care, except in cases of rape, incest, or life endangerment — an update to the tax code that the IRS would be forced to figure out how to implement. NARAL Pro-Choice America points out that the IRS would be empowered to make the final decision about what “counts” as rape or incest, essentially conducting an audit of victims to ensure they’re not committing fraud.
In an interview with ThinkProgress, Wood explained that these regulatory changes could end up dramatically reshaping the entire private insurance market. “The status quo is that abortion has been regularly covered — not called out, not controversial — as part of general medical coverage in private health insurance,” she noted. “HR 7 could really change the nature of the insurance market such that ultimately it becomes the norm not to cover abortion.”
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/01/09/3140711/taxpayer-funding-abortion-hearing/
Big Chicken Exposed
By Charles P. Pierce on January 9, 2014
Permit me to revise and extend my remarks from yesterday regarding Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey, the putative Republican frontrunner for president in 2016, and, apparently, nothing but a delicate feather in the wind, buffeted in his professional life by the machinations of the web of scoundrels and liars with whom he innocently had surrounded himself, and the innocent victim, always, of the traps and snares of others. I admit, I was somewhat dismissive of the impact of the obvious political morass into which Big Chicken had been led by the people in whom he had so naively trusted never, ever, to lie to him. But now, after two days of this, I have seen a number of things that have caused me to change my mind. First of all, yesterday morning, on MSNBC, while still confessin’ their love for the big, trusting lug, Squint and the Meat Puppet admitted that the revelations regarding the low-rent ratfking of the George Washington Bridge — And can we stop calling it the GWB scandal, please. Those initials next to the word “scandal” still remain redundant. — had given them pause about his national ambitions. Second, Sokolich, the mayor of Fort Lee, is really good on television. And then, finally, and most important, I spent a couple of hours watching his bop-til-you-drop press conference this morning, and I came to the following conclusion.
What a fking poltroon.
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/conclusions-from-chris-christie-scandal-010914
LOL Tell us what and how you really think and feel, Charlie. Memo to Christie & Co. Don’t even try and fuck with Sokolich, the “SERBIAN.”
The Four Key Questions Chris Christie Didn’t Answer at His Press Conference
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie held a lengthy press conference on Thursday aimed at answering questions about his administration’s involvement in the sudden decision to close traffics lanes in the town of Fort Lee last September. But a number of critical questions went unanswered.
Background: The closure of most of the on-ramp lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge between New Jersey and New York the week of September 9 meant a massive traffic back-ups in Fort Lee, slowing emergency vehicles (with dangerous effect) and delaying commuters. The town’s mayor, Mark Sokolich, wrote a letter on Thursday of that week, suggesting the closures were punitive.
At the time, two Christie appointees ran the Port Authority’s New Jersey arm, both of whom have resigned. One, David Wildstein, had his emails subpoenaed, revealing that Bridget Anne Kelly, deputy chief of staff to Christie, told him shortly before the traffic change that it was “time for traffic problems in Fort Lee.”
Christie’s press conference lasted about two hours, but there remain some outstanding questions.
http://www.thewire.com/politics/2014/01/four-key-questions-chris-christie-didnt-answer-his-press-conference/356857/
Remember the deficit? It’s melting
By David Lauter
January 9, 2014, 3:00 a.m.
WASHINGTON — The capital may be enduring a brief spell of record-low temperatures this week, but the federal deficit continues to melt away.
According to the latest figures from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the red ink for the first quarter of fiscal 2014, which began Oct. 1, dropped by almost 40% compared with the same period a year earlier.
The deficit has gone down so much that the federal government actually ran a surplus for December — a one-time occurrence that resulted from some special circumstances but still an indicator of the rapidly improving state of the government’s finances.
Indeed, many prominent economists, including outgoing Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, have suggested that the deficit is now coming down too fast.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-pn-deficit-20140109,0,1467119.story#ixzz2q0i8Ftdv
The Medicaid Cure
Something really interesting is happening on the health-care front: costs are rising much less rapidly than anyone expected. This is good news for the budget; it’s also good news for Obamacare. There was much skepticism about promises that health reform would “bend the curve”, reducing cost growth; well, the curve is bending, and it’s likely that the cost control measures that are part of Obamacare (and have been in effect for several years) are part of the reason.
One thing I haven’t seen mentioned much, however, is that another aspect of recent developments — the rapid rise in Medicaid enrollment, despite Republican efforts to block it — adds to the prospect of continuing good news on health costs.
Medicaid gets a bad rap. It’s a poor people’s program, and it’s widely assumed that this means poor care. In fact, there’s not much evidence that this is true, and claims that Medicaid patients can’t find care are greatly exaggerated. Beyond that, however, Medicaid is the piece of the US health care system (aside from the VA) that does the best job of controlling costs. It does this by being able to say no. For example, it’s able (in a way Medicare so far can’t) to say that it won’t pay for me-too drugs that are far more expensive than equally or almost equally good alternatives. This ability to say no, combined with its size, means that Medicaid covers people far more cheaply than private insurance, and probably than Medicare.
One way to think about this is that Medicaid is actually the piece of the US system that looks most like European health systems, which cost far less than ours while delivering comparable results.
Now, expanded Medicaid is a key part of Obamacare — and so far, despite GOP obstruction, Medicaid enrollments have outpaced insurance through the exchanges. This is often reported as if it were a bad thing — as if Medicaid were somehow a fake solution, as if only purchases of private insurance count. But Medicaid is good, very cost-effective coverage! And rising Medicaid enrollment is, aside from a huge benefit to the previously uninsured, a step toward better cost control in the system as a whole.
So liberals, don’t apologize for Medicaid growth. In economic and human terms, it’s just what the, um, doctor ordered.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/10/the-medicaid-cure/?_r=1&
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017168535
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Judge denies motion to revoke Marissa Alexander’s bond. Fuck you, Angela Corey.
HAVE A SEAT, ANGIE BABY
********************
Translation: sense of entitlement = uppity.
Angela Corey need to sit her trifling vindictive ass against black people down. If only she worked this hard to keep a child killer in jail?
Christie Says, “I Am Not a Bully.” Here Are 8 Videos of Him Yelling, Name-Calling, and Belittling People.
By Dana Liebelson
New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie asserts, “I am who I am. But I am not a bully.” He once told an Occupy Wall Street protester: “Something may be going down tonight, but it ain’t going to be jobs, sweetheart.”
http://convio.motherjones.com/site/R?i=Gl4iCOhWU7eyxZER_40QTw
amk4obama @amk4obama
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A small town newspaper unearths the truth behind the #bridgegate while the overpaid corrupt bw msm hacks still cover & kiss christie’s ass.
7:45 AM – 10 Jan 2014
Death threats and denial for woman who showed college athletes struggle to read
By Sara Ganim, CNN
updated 8:04 PM EST, Thu January 9, 2014
The death threats, Mary Willingham expected.
More shocking is that the University of North Carolina is now disavowing her research as a whistle-blower — research that showed between 8% and 10% of the school’s football and basketball players are reading below a third-grade level.
UNC issued a statement Wednesday night saying it did not believe Willingham’s account of a basketball player who could not read or write.
It went on: “University officials can’t comment on the other statistical claims mentioned in the story because they have not seen that data. University officials have asked for that data, but those requests have not been met.”
As well as questioning UNC many times about the story before publication, CNN has also detailed Willingham’s research.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/09/us/ncaa-athletes-unc-response/index.html?c=homepage-t
CNN analysis: Some college athletes play like adults, read like 5th-graders
Early in her career as a learning specialist, Mary Willingham was in her office when a basketball player at the University of North Carolina walked in looking for help with his classwork.
He couldn’t read or write.
“And I kind of panicked. What do you do with that?” she said, recalling the meeting.
Willingham’s job was to help athletes who weren’t quite ready academically for the work required at UNC at Chapel Hill, one of the country’s top public universities.
But she was shocked that one couldn’t read. And then she found he was not an anomaly.
Soon, she’d meet a student-athlete who couldn’t read multisyllabic words. She had to teach him to sound out Wis-con-sin, as kids do in elementary school.
And then another came with this request: “If I could teach him to read well enough so he could read about himself in the news, because that was something really important to him,” Willingham said.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/07/us/ncaa-athletes-reading-scores/index.html
BLS-Labor Statistics ✔ @BLS_gov
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December unemployment rate declines (6.7%); payroll employment edges up (+74,000) http://go.usa.gov/vrK #JobsReport #BLSdata
7:30 AM – 10 Jan 2014
Rachel Maddow has an alternative theory as to why Christie’s gang went after Fort Lee. It’s quite interesting.
Especially since we now know he removed the Black woman from being Attorney General because she wouldn’t sue about Obamacare.
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2014/01/10/open-thread-christie-complains-it-was-a-different-democrat-he-was-punishing/
Maddow Suggests Plausible Alternate Theory to Christie NJ Bridge Scandal
VIDEO: http://www.mediaite.com/tv/maddow-nj-bridge-scandal-was-political-revenge-but-maybe-not-for-the-reason-you-think%e2%80%a6/
http://youtu.be/PL6jJMFN1hE
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Good morning, everyone!
Happy FRY-day, Everyone!
Good Morning, Everyone!
Ametia, Oh how I love all of Dionne’s performances you have brought us this week. You have really outdone yourself in your post today!!
I so love the “That’s What Friends Are For” video + I love Dionne’s and Roberta Flack’s duet!
Thank you, Yahtc. So glad you’re enjoying Ms. Warwick! :-)