More from The Queen of Soul:
Commercial success
In January 1967, choosing not to renew her Columbia contract after six years with the company, Franklin signed to Atlantic Records. That month, Aretha traveled to Muscle Shoals, Alabama to record at FAME Studios to record the song, “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)” in front of the musicians of the famed Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section.[18] The song was later issued that February and shot up to number-one on the R&B chart, while also peaking at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100, giving Aretha her first top ten pop single. The song’s b-side, “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man”, reached the R&B top 40, peaking at number 37. In April, Atlantic issued her frenetic version of Otis Redding’s “Respect”, which shot to number-one on both the R&B and pop charts and later became her signature song and was later hailed as a civil rights and feminist anthem.[18]
Aretha’s debut Atlantic album, I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You, also became commercially successful, later going gold. Aretha scored two more top ten singles in 1967 including “Baby I Love You” and “(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman”. Franklin’s rapport with producer Jerry Wexler helped in the creation of the majority of Aretha’s peak recordings with Atlantic. In 1968, she issued the top-selling albums, Lady Soul and Aretha Now, which included some of Franklin’s most popular hit singles including “Chain of Fools”, “Ain’t No Way”, “Think” and “I Say a Little Prayer”. In February 1968, Franklin earned the first two of her Grammys including the debut category for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.[19] On February 16, 1968, Aretha was honored with a day in her honor and was greeted by longtime friend Martin Luther King, Jr. who gave her the SCLC Drum Beat Award for Musicians just two months prior to his death.[20][21][22] In June 1968, she appeared on the cover of Time magazine.[23]
“Respect” was a huge hit for Franklin, it became a signature song for her.
Franklin’s success expanded during the early 1970s in which she recorded top ten singles such as “Spanish Harlem”, “Rock Steady” and “Day Dreaming” as well as the acclaimed albums, Spirit in the Dark, Young, Gifted & Black and her gospel album, Amazing Grace, which sold over two million copies. In 1971, Franklin became the first R&B performer to headline Fillmore West, later recording the live album, Aretha Live at Fillmore West.[24] Franklin’s career began experiencing issues while recording the album, Hey Now Hey (The Other Side of the Sky), which featured production from Quincy Jones. Despite the success of the single, “Angel”, the album bombed upon its release in 1973. Franklin continued having R&B success with songs such as “Until You Come Back to Me” and “I’m in Love” but by 1975, her albums and songs were failing to become a success. After Jerry Wexler left Atlantic for Warner Bros. Records in 1976, Franklin worked on the soundtrack to the film, “Sparkle”, with Curtis Mayfield. The album yielded Aretha’s final top 40 hit of the decade, “Something He Can Feel”, which also peaked at number-one on the R&B chart. Franklin’s follow-up albums for Atlantic including Sweet Passion, Almighty Fire and La Diva bombed on the charts and in 1979, Franklin opted to leave the company.
Breaking: FBI questions Hoboken mayor’s aides.
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/sources-fbi-questions-hoboken-mayors-aides?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed
FBI agents have begun questioning witnesses in the investigation into whether New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s aides threatened to cut off Hurricane Sandy relief money to Hoboken unless the city’s mayor backed a billion-dollar development project, three sources with direct knowledge of the probe told NBC News on Wednesday.
Federal prosecutors and agents have also instructed key witnesses to preserve all documents and emails relating to the allegations by Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer, these sources said.
After Zimmer gave her account of the alleged threat to federal prosecutors on Sunday, federal agents questioned Dan Bryan, Zimmer’s chief of staff, and Juan Melli, her communications director, the sources said.
The two Zimmer aides are among at least five witnesses who Zimmer told the FBI could confirm that she had previously told them about the conversation she says she had with Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno last May. Zimmer has alleged that during that conversation in a parking lot, the lieutenant governor linked Sandy funding to backing of the development project.
*******************
Luvvie’s written a love letter to Lupita:
…………….
Dear Lupita Nyong’o, Why Must You Slay Us So Effortlessly?
[ 107 ] January 22, 2014 | Luvvie
My newest celebrity crush is Lupita Nyong’o and if you have to ask me why, then we have nothing to talk about. I’m here to write her a love letter, because she is everything. I’m not even here to talk about her performance in 12 Years a Slave. No. I’m shallower that that. I am here because she is just gorgeous and her style makes me swoon.
with your beauty? WHAT MAKES YOU THINK THAT IS ALRIGHT?!? My goodness.
You’re just FAHN for no reason. Finer than 3,000 count Egyptian cotton woven by the hands of that old woman who is ageless because folks lost count and all we know is she was here for both World Wars. Shit. As a straight woman, I’m not supposed to have my jaws on the ground every time I see your picture. That’s supposed to be reserved for Idris Elba (and his bow tie).
So Lupita. Let’s talk about your skin regimen. It looks like you swan dive in a pool of unicorn tears that the Pope anoints every morning.
http://www.awesomelyluvvie.com/2014/01/dear-lupita-nyongo-everything.html#comment-357733
Richard Sherman is simply awesome.
On people calling him a thug: “It’s the accepted way of calling someone the N-word nowadays.”
One of the saddest stories ever. I hope that this innocent child’s name is officially cleared, that isn’t much for his family to ask.
Wife of man shot for texting calls his death ‘unbearable’
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/wife-man-shot-texting-calls-death-unbearable-article-1.1587598
The widow of a man who police say was shot and killed in a Florida movie theater for merely texting said Wednesday her “whole world got shattered.”
In a brief press conference in Tampa, Nicole Oulson, speaking for the first time since the shooting last week, held back tears describing how a date with her husband, Chad Oulson, became a nightmare.
“It’s just unimaginable. Me and my husband didn’t get a date night together, much less a whole day together,” she said.
“To think in the blink of an eye my whole world got shattered in a million pieces and I’m left trying to pick them up and put them back together. It’s so hard, so unbearable.”
Police charged Curtis Reeves, 71, with second-degree murder for the Jan. 13 shooting at Cobb Grove 16 theater in Wesley Chapel, Fla.
He is being held without bail.
The New Nullification Movement
By Ari Berman
——————————–
The GOP is whiter, more Southern and more conservative than ever before, and the “Southernization” of the party, in both style and substance, extends west to states like Arizona and Kansas, which are embracing voter suppression tactics pioneered by the Jim Crow South. The party of Lincoln has “become the party of Calhoun,” Sam Tanenhaus wrote in The New Republic earlier this year. When it comes to voting rights and so many other issues, the Confederates and Dixiecrats of yesteryear are the Republicans of today.
—————————————–
http://www.thenation.com/article/176808/new-nullification-movement?page=0,1#
Juries have now become the worse enemies of black people seeking justice in this country.
http://gawker.com/cop-avoids-charge-for-shooting-unarmed-young-black-man-1506692164
A North Carolina grand jury has decided not to indict a Charlotte police officer arrested last year for manslaughter after he unloaded 10 rounds from his pistol into a former college athlete who’d sought the officer’s help. But the case might not stop there, according to prosecutors.
Members of the grand jury said there wasn’t enough evidence to indict Randall Kerrick, 28, of the felony charge, asking prosecutors to refile the case with lesser charges, according to NBC News. But prosecutors say the entire grand jury wasn’t present for that vote, and they want to try again for manslaughter.
Kerrick earned infamy last year when he shot Jonathan Ferrell, 24, a former Florida A&M football player, 10 times in the middle of the night last September. Ferrell had crashed his car in what police called “a pretty serious accident,” and he was reportedly seeking help while in distress. After a nearby homeowner called police, Ferrell staggered toward the officers who arrived on the scene. That’s when Kerrick shot the man. Again: 10 times.
A good question for Republicans about the Affordable Care Act
By Greg Sargent
January 21 at 2:17 pm
As I noted earlier today, the New York Times has a terrific piece on the “surge in sign-ups” that is happening in West Virginia, thanks to the Affordable Care Act. The Times reports that some 75,000 people have now enrolled in Medicaid (which the Dem governor expanded), a level of demand that has “surprised officials.”
“Waitresses, fast food workers, security guards and cleaners described feeling intense relief that they are now protected from the punishing medical bills that have punched holes in their family budgets,” the Times says. “They spoke in interviews of reclaiming the dignity they had lost over years of being turned away from doctors’ offices because they did not have insurance.”
Which raises a question: how would the GOP Senate candidate in West Virginia, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, respond if asked directly if she would take insurance away from all these people?
Capito, of course, is a gung-ho supporter of Obamacare repeal. But she has hedged on the Medicaid expansion itself. In December, she reportedly “declined to second-guess the decision” to expand Medicaid, asserting: “We are where we are now, and we have to figure out how to go forward.” But repeal would presumably roll back the Medicaid expansion, too. Does Capito support that?
Obamacare is of course deeply unpopular in red states, and embracing repeal, generally at least, may prove a winner here. Capito is favored. But with enrollment mounting, is there a point at which the question of what repeal would actually mean to all the people who have gained coverage becomes a hard one for Republicans to answer?
The Dem candidate for Senate, Secretary of State Natalie Tennant, has criticized Obamacare, arguing that premiums are too high and choice too limited. She has not said whether she would have voted for it, claiming she’d have brought “more West Virginia values” to the debate over passage.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/01/21/a-good-question-for-republicans-about-the-affordable-care-act/
Another blow to the Iran sanctions bill
By Greg Sargent
January 22 at 2:44 pm
Add two more prominent Senators to the list of lawmakers who oppose a vote on an Iran sanctions bill right now: Patty Murray and Elizabeth Warren.
Murray’s opposition — which she declared in a letter to constituents that was sent my way by a source — is significant, because she is a member of the Senate Dem leadership, which is now clearly split on how to proceed. While Chuck Schumer favors the Iran sanctions bill, Murray, Harry Reid and (reportedly) Dick Durbin now oppose it. This could make it less likely that it ever gets a vote.
From Murray’s letter:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/01/22/another-blow-to-the-iran-sanctions-bill/
The GOP’s epic gamble
By Greg Sargent
January 21 at 5:06 pm
A huge amount has already been written about the GOP’s over-reliance on aging downscale white voters, and what this means for the future of the two parties. For instance, Ron Brownstein has long argued that the Democratic Party’s increasing dependence on the “coalition of the ascendant” — young voters, minorities, and college-educated whites, particularly women — has meant that Dems are reorienting their priorities in a way that no longer ministers closely to the the preoccupations of non-college whites, who are declining as a share of the vote.
That, in turn, has set in motion an argument over whether Republicans are taking a great political risk in failing to reform the party’s policy agenda to appeal to those growing consistencies.
In a terrific piece, political scientist Alan Abramowitz frames this debate in even starker terms, noting that not only is this trend likely to continue; Republicans may be doomed to perpetuating it:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/01/21/the-gops-epic-gamble-2/
Imani ABL @AngryBlackLady
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Oh, you’re worried the government is tapping your phone, dudebros? I’m worried that the GOP is trying to set up shop in my nether regions.
1:29 PM – 22 Jan 2014
Imani ABL @AngryBlackLady
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President Obama is not messing around when it comes to women’s rights.
1:28 PM – 22 Jan 2014
Imani ABL @AngryBlackLady
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But let’s make the midterms all about the NSA and fucking Wikileaks. That will be a real help to your mothers, sisters, daughters, nieces.
1:31 PM – 22 Jan 2014
Imani ABL @AngryBlackLady
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My point is not that you can’t care about NSA surveillance, but that those screaming loudest about it don’t seem to care about repro rights.
1:35 PM – 22 Jan 2014
https://twitter.com/CarolMaeWY/status/426049008058896384/photo/1
Can they be any cuter?
http://www.salon.com/2014/01/22/new_chris_christie_outrage_data_shows_stark_racial_gap_in_sandy_aid_distribution/
Amid growing questions about lane closures on the George Washington Bridge and Sandy aid to Hoboken, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is facing an additional charge about his administration’s disbursement of relief aid. State data, obtained from the Christie administration through a lawsuit by the Fair Share Housing Center, reveal a dramatic racial gap in who received preliminary approval for funds from Sandy relief programs. According to the data, decried by groups including the New Jersey NAACP, the Latino Action Network and the New York Times editorial board, the Reconstruction, Rehabilitation, Elevation and Mitigation Program rejected 35.1 percent of African-American applicants, 18.1 percent of Latino applicants, and only 13.6 percent of Caucasian applicants. The Resettlement Program rejected 38.1 percent of African-Americans, 20.4 percent of Latinos and 13.6 percent of Caucasians.
Speaking to Salon late last week, FSHC staff attorney Adam Gordon urged the federal government to expand its investigation to include the racially disparate aid distribution, accused the Christie administration of trying to change the topic by attacking his organization, and charged “neglect and callous indifference in the needs of Latino and African-American communities impacted by Sandy.” A condensed version of our conversation follows. Your assessment of this data shows that African-Americans were more than twice as likely as whites to get rejected by the RREM program and by the Resettlement program. What explains that disparity? We’re still trying to figure that out. And really, we’re talking to a lot of people who have been in that situation who are African-American and Latino and, you know, a lot of people feel like they’ve been rejected for no reason. You know, we’ve talked to people who live in mold-infested houses [with] serious damage, and got a rejection letter — and they can’t figure it out. So we’re still trying to figure it out.
Election panel eyes reforms
01/22/14 12:57 PM
By Steve Benen
On the night President Obama won a second term, he thanked “every American who participated” in the election, whether they voted “for the very first time or waited in line for a very long time.” He quickly added a line that wasn’t in the written text: “By the way, we have to fix that.”
And as we talked about last March, the president didn’t forget about the issue. Obama referenced the issue again in his inaugural address: “Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote.” A month later, in a State of the Union address, the president went a step further, not only emphasizing the need for election reforms, but vowing to create “a nonpartisan commission to improve the voting experience in America – and it definitely needs improvement.”
The White House assembled the commission, which, following six months of effort, released its report this morning. It’s actually better than I expected it to be.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/election-panel-eyes-reforms
Bill Cosby Heading Back To NBC To Star In New Family Comedy
by Tambay A. Obenson January 22, 2014 2:02 PM
Bill Cosby heading back to NBC to star in a new family comedy, produced by former Cosby Show producer Tom Werner.
In the untitled series, Cosby will play the head of a multi-generational family, not-so unlike his past comedy series, Cosby Show and Cosby, which aired on CBS years after the Cosby Show ended its successful run on NBC.
No other specifics on the upcoming new series. The project is currently out to potential writers.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/bill-cosby-heading-back-to-nbc-to-star-in-new-family-comedy?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
An ugly experiment in North Carolina
01/22/14 10:01 AM—Updated 01/22/14 10:03 AM
By Steve Benen
When congressional Republicans blocked an extension of federal unemployment benefits, they did so based on a specific economic theory: the benefits hurt those struggling more than they help. The idea is, jobless Americans, if desperate enough, will re-enter the workforce. Cutting off benefits, Republicans said, will give people the “incentive” they need.
The theory has always been as dubious as it is ruthless, but in one important way, we already know the GOP’s argument is wrong. An experiment of sorts has been underway in North Carolina, where Republicans slashed the state’s unemployment program, reducing benefits and limiting the eligibility period to just 20 weeks.
Annie Lowrey takes a look at the preliminary evidence of how that’s working out for the state.
Also keep in mind, many of those who’ve re-entered the workforce out of desperation have done so by abandoning their profession and taking a job that pays far less.
It’s why the drop in the unemployment rate, at best, presents an incomplete picture.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/ugly-experiment-north-carolina
Join the Fight
by BooMan
Wed Jan 22nd, 2014 at 11:56:56 AM EST
I think the more affluent, better-educated wing of the progressive movement often doesn’t really appreciate how critical the labor movement is to the overall health and viability of the left. If you haven’t worked in a union job, and you don’t have close family who work union jobs, then you might be oblivious. But the Republicans understand perfectly well, and they’re doing something about it:
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2014/1/22/115656/280
Jamelle Bouie: No, Obama Didn’t Play The ‘Race Card’
In his long interview with David Remnick in the latest issue of The New Yorker, President Obama gave a few thoughts on the dynamics behind his job approval rating. For anyone who studies public opinion, and the intersection of politics and race, they were banal: “There’s no doubt that there’s some folks who just really dislike me because they don’t like the idea of a black President,” Obama said. “Now, the flip side of it is there are some black folks and maybe some white folks who really like me and give me the benefit of the doubt precisely because I’m a black President.”
Naturally, this led to an explosion of sputtering outrage from the right-wing, which was shocked that Obama would even mention race, much less in the context of his approval rating. This isn’t a coincidence. What political scientists call “racial resentment”—the intersection of anti-black sentiments and traditional American views on hard work and individualism—is one of the most reliable predicators of partisan affiliation. And according to a 2010 paper by political scientists Michael Tesler and David Sears, voters high on the racial resentment scale became more partisan in their attachment to the Republican Party.
Indeed, according to another paper from researchers at the University of Michigan, Stanford, and the University of Chicago, there’s been a marked increase in the number of voters with explicit anti-black attitudes in the last five years, which rose from 47.6 percent in 2008 to 50.9 percent in 2012. What’s more, anti-black attitudes are heavily distributed on the right side of the political divide, though they exist among Democrats and independents as well.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/01/21/no-obama-didn-t-play-the-race-card.html
McConnell hints at key vulnerability
01/22/14 08:50 AM—Updated 01/22/14 08:52 AM
By Steve Benen
When policymakers and candidates run campaign ads, there’s often a subtext about perceived vulnerabilities. If a politician is known for having a messy personal life, for example, his commercials are likely to emphasize footage of him and his family. If a politician is worried about being seen as a Washington insider, the ads will stress his or her experience away from Capitol Hill.
With this in mind, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell released a new ad overnight that tells us a little something about his re-election concerns.
In the 60-second ad featured above, viewers hear from Robert Pierce, who got throat cancer after working at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, and who praises the Republican senator for having “knocked down walls” for him and others. Pointing to McConnell’s work on a cancer-screening program, Pierce says in the spot, “I know firsthand, he cares.”
In other words, Team McConnell’s most significant ad buy of the election cycle so far is about the senator and his efforts to help people in need of … health care.
What a curious choice.
It’s striking, of course, because Mitch McConnell has fought relentlessly against expanding access to affordable health care, not just for families in Kentucky, but for Americans nationwide.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/mcconnell-hints-key-vulnerability
I love smartness. I love intelligence. Mrs. First Lady Michelle Obama exhibits this on a daily basis, and just think, her daughters will get some of this mixed with their father. They will be a triple threat.
I agree. So very proud of our Flotus.
Also you 3 chics are pretty smart yourselves. You guys are no slouches either.
Aww… Thank you, Vitamin!
Hey 3CP!
Yahtc & I were in discussion last night and I went searching for information and look what I found by accident.
http://cisupa.proquest.com/ksc_assets/catalog/101768.pdf
Department of Justice files on Civil Rights from 1914-1949. Letters were written to President Franklin D. Roosevelt about black people. I admit, I had tears after reading a few letters.
In October 1943, Ileane Warde of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, composed a four-page
letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt (Reel 7, Frames 0230–0233). Despite the war
raging throughout the world, she had more pressing issues to discuss. “Please,” she
asked, “won’t you do something about the niggers?” Explaining that she was a member
of the “poorer class,” she revealed the source of her concern: “the coons are getting
unbearable,” she explained, and “it isn’t safe fore [sic] a white person to go out any more.
Coons go after white girls, molest [and] try to flirt with them; others grab white women,
take [them] up dark alleys beat them unmercifully, criminally attack them, tear their
clothes off their back and leave them half dead.” Expressing a fear shared by many white
citizens, she foretold the overthrow of the white population, warning that before long the
“neggers will far outnumber us, and therefor take advantage of us. After [a] while they’ll
rule this country then good bye us; for they’re in the same class as Jap; the lower class are
just as uncivilized as Japs [sic].”
Ileane Ward was not the only concerned citizen to petition the president. Five years
earlier, in February 1938, Mrs. Viola West of White Plains, New York, had protested
eloquently on behalf of colored folk against racial discrimination (Reel 13, Frames 0687–
0690). “This thing,” she wrote, referring to the practice of lynching, “is as a black cloud
hanging over our race where ever we go we see it, we hear it, we feel it deep down into
the very depths of our souls.” She too confessed that when she peered into the future, she
“shuddered with the fear of uncertainty,” though for very different reasons than Ileane
Ward. She asked the president beseechingly: “Can you realize yourself what these things
are doing to the colored race of America? If we cannot look to the government of which
we are subjected for protection where or to whom can we turn?”
Not all writers were opposed to lynching; some whites championed it in blunt terms,
mostly on the grounds that blacks lusted after white women and that they were lazy and
fit only to be servants. A 90-year-old white woman offered a simple solution to the
problem of lynching, stating that the “Negro can more easily stop lynching than any law
can—teach them that he must keep his hands off white ladies” (Reel 4, Frame 0111).
Another writer suggested that blacks either be settled onto reservations “as it was done
for Indians,” or better yet, sterilized “as Hitler h[as] just done in Germany.” At any rate,
he declared, “Negros are the real black menace calling for immediate attention,” for they
were “lazy, indolent, noicy, spity, arrogantly indecents and cynically criminals and will
never change [sic]” (Reel 7, Frame 0165). While less vitriolic, Agnes Doty Smith of
Charleston, South Carolina, was equally in favor of lynching, writing that “we have
always treated the negro kindly and given him what he needs, but social equality never.
The negro was made only for a servant, and he is even poor at that” (Reel 12, Frame
0321).
Interesting link. More proof that this country’s only real enemy has always been the one within. The ignorance is astonishing. Still is.
Hi, SG2. That’s really cute and cheerful.
I don’t know how you did this, but thanks SG2:)
Whee! What fun!
Thank you SG2 for your sparkling greeting!
UH HUH
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/01/21/fraternity-mlk-party-arizona-state/4721827/
Why Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hates Roe v. Wade
Sahil Kapur – January 22, 2014, 5:59 AM EST1807
Close observers of the legal war over abortion are familiar with the story: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the leader of the Supreme Court’s liberal wing, is a passionate critic of Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that turned 41 on Wednesday.
It’s not that she opposes the holding that recognizes a right to an abortion. It’s that she opposes the logic of the 1973 court’s majority opinion and the constitutional basis under which seven justices arrived at their conclusion.
“Roe isn’t really about the woman’s choice, is it?” the Clinton-appointed justice said last May at the University of Chicago Law School. “It’s about the doctor’s freedom to practice … it wasn’t woman-centered, it was physician-centered.”
Her pique is that the Roe opinion, written by Justice Harry Blackmun, relies on a “right of privacy” under the 4th Amendment and emphasizes the right of physicians to practice medicine as they see fit. She prefers that abortion rights be recognized under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, based on the view that having a child should be a woman’s choice.
Ginsburg has also said that the ruling damaged the growing movement for abortion rights by going “too far, too fast” and catalyzing the conservative pro-life community, which considers Roe a monumental act of judicial overreach. Her words ring truer than ever today as the movement that was then on the decline has since has been successful at unwinding Roe protections in the Supreme Court and has dramatically curtailing abortion rights in red states, potentially nudging the issue back to the justices in the foreseeable future.
“That was my concern, that the court had given opponents of access to abortion a target to aim at relentlessly,” she told students at the University of Chicago Law School, as reported by The Associated Press. “My criticism of Roe is that it seemed to have stopped the momentum that was on the side of change.”
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/ruth-bader-ginsburg-roe-wade
igorvolsky @igorvolsky
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25% of Obamacare enrollees in California are between ages of 18 to 34. Age group represents 25% of state’s population http://bit.ly/1hLsUMx
8:15 AM – 22 Jan 2014
gifs for today.
first one:
http://jscdn.swaggernewyork.com/media/2012/12/tumblr_mee8ckDy6u1qfzvero1_2501.gif
second one:
http://24.media.tumblr.com/92bf2af51b1fe50dc0b94b2e75261f00/tumblr_mryuqn5EkI1qbh0eio1_500.gif
third one:
http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/b437/wesura/whitney-houston-show-me-the-receipts-gif.gif
Maddow spent the first 22 Minutes of her show on Governor Transvaginal Ultrasound.
Loved it all…LOL
http://on.msnbc.com/1aoWMia
Acceptance Speech by Martin Luther King Jr. (12 minutes)
Martin Luther King Jr. held his acceptance speech in the auditorium of the University of Oslo on 10 December 1964.Copyright © Norsk Rikskringkasting AS 2012
http://www.nobelprize.org/mediaplayer/index.php?id=1853
The Independent ✔ @Independent
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Pope Francis tells Davos business leaders: ‘Ensure humanity is served by wealth, not ruled by it’ http://ind.pn/1c0iOGD
4:48 AM – 22 Jan 2014
Ed Sykes @EdSykes29
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Many talking abt Mrs. McDonnell’s role in case. @aburnspolitico calls her “Lady Macbeth with an AMEX card…” http://www.politico.com/story/2014/01/bob-mcdonnell-virginia-indictment-scandal-102460.html?hp=t1_3 … #vagov
10:01 PM – 21 Jan 2014 from Richmond, VA, United States
Democrats win state Senate seat in Northern Virginia — and perhaps control of the chamber
By Caitlin Gibson and Ben Pershing,
Democrats remained on course to take control of the Virginia Senate after winning a key special election Tuesday, as thousands of Northern Virginia voters braved snow and bitter winds to cast ballots in an unusual, three-way contest.
In the race to fill the seat vacated by Attorney General Mark R. Herring (D), Democrat Jennifer Wexton prevailed over Republican John Whitbeck and independent Joe T. May, a former Republican delegate running as an independent, according to unofficial election results. The district encompasses a slice of Fairfax County and a hefty portion of eastern Loudoun County, a region that has leaned toward Democrats in recent elections but remains battleground territory.
With the Virginia Senate previously split 20-20, Democrats must hold the two seats vacated by Herring and Lt. Gov. Ralph S. Northam (D) so they don’t lose control to Republicans. If the chamber remains evenly divided, Northam would act as a tie-breaking vote, giving Democrats control of the chamber. Republicans had previously controlled the chamber with a GOP lieutenant governor, Bill Bolling, providing the tie-breaking vote.
The race to replace Northam in his former Senate district, which is based in Norfolk and also leans Democratic, remains undecided. Del. Lynwood W. Lewis (D-Accomack) was certified the winner of a special election by just nine votes, prompting Republican Wayne Coleman on Thursday to request a recount.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/democrats-win-state-senate-seat-in-northern-virginia–and-perhaps-control-of-the-chamber/2014/01/21/6a0eecac-829a-11e3-8099-9181471f7aaf_story.html
ThinkProgress ✔ @thinkprogress
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India almost doubled its solar power last year http://thkpr.gs/1he4UAX
7:00 PM – 21 Jan 2014
Jim Roberts ✔ @nycjim
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For Christie & MSNBC, a Messy Divorce Plays Out in Public. via @nytimes. Ratings win for @Maddow http://nyti.ms/19Ghd9B
7:22 AM – 20 Jan 2014
Republicans Seek To Sabotage Obamacare With Higher Premiums
Sahil Kapur – January 22, 2014, 6:00 AM EST1819
Conservative wonks and Republican lawmakers are coalescing around a new strategy to sabotage Obamacare by repealing a temporary piece of the law designed to hold down premiums in the event of major market disruptions.
The provision — called “risk corridors,” but dubbed the “Obamacare bailout” by the law’s opponents — seeks to stabilize costs by creating a pot of money that takes in funds from insurers who enroll healthier customers and uses it to pay out insurers who enroll sicker customers. It’s a safety valve that sunsets after 2016. The repeal push is clever messaging in a sense because it lets conservatives snatch the mantle of populism from liberals against wealthy insurance companies. But it comes with its share of dangers, too.
Last November, as TPM reported, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) introduced legislation to repeal this provision. Since then it has picked up 13 Republican co-sponsors, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and two companion bills in the House, which are supported by numerous Republicans. The idea has been championed by conservative lobbying groups like the Club For Growth and Heritage Action, and pushed by writers including Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post, Ramesh Punnuru in Bloomberg View and Deroy Murdock in National Review.
The conservatives are open about the end goal: collapse Obamacare by causing higher premiums on the law’s marketplaces for the newly insured, which progressive experts who support Obamacare agree would occur.
Ponnuru, labeling the risk corridors “outrageous,” writes that without them insurance companies “would have to raise premiums and thus make their plans even more unattractive than they already are — or just withdraw from the exchanges. Obamacare would, in other words, become even less likely to succeed than it already is.”
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/obamacare-bailout-risk-corridors-conservatives-sabotage
Virginia GOP’s Civil War Heats Up
by BooMan
Tue Jan 21st, 2014 at 07:08:49 PM EST
In the emerging Republican civil war, it’s difficult to root for either side. The Establishment is sick and tired of losing elections, while the Tea Baggers are done with empty rhetoric and broken promises. In Virginia, the Establishment is striking back in an interesting way. Their problem has been that the state’s GOP likes to nominate their candidates in a convention dominated by looney-toon freakazoids. The result has been candidates like Ken Cuccinelli and E.W. Jackson. So, how to get rid of these damn conventions and let the voters decide?
The answer is to make it all about the troops. Troops deployed abroad or lying injured in Walter Reed cannot attend the convention and, therefore, cannot have a say in who is nominated. And the nominee may get elected and one day vote to send them to war. That’s not fair!
So, the Virginia legislature is pushing out a bill that would disallow any nominating procedure that would deny the participation of “activity-duty military, reservists and other defense personnel.”
Who can vote against that? In Virginia?
The Tea Baggers are understandably disgruntled:
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2014/1/21/19849/3252
The Eight Juiciest Revelations From The Bob McDonnell Indictment
Eric Lach – January 21, 2014, 6:21 PM EST22676
Earlier this month, Bob McDonnell became former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell. On Tuesday, he became indicted former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell.
Just days after he left office, the Republican and and his wife, Maureen McDonnell, were charged in federal court with more than a dozen counts related to the tens of thousands of dollars in gifts and loans they accepted from a wealthy Virginia businessman. (The ex-governor maintained on Tuesday that he had done nothing illegal.)
The fact that the McDonnells were under scrutiny from prosecutors was no secret. Stories about the investigation, and the relationship between the McDonnells and the businessman, Jonnie Williams, had been appearing in the press for months. We knew (thanks in large part to stellar reporting from The Washington Post) about the Rolex, and the Oscar de la Renta dress, and the Ferrari joyride, and the golf outings. But the 43-page indictment filed on Tuesday did reveal numerous new details about the scandal, and confirmed several other points which had been fuzzy or in dispute.
Here are the highlights:
1. It All Started With An Inauguration Dress
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/mcdonnell-indictment-revelations
https://twitter.com/petesouza/status/425777455027089408/photo/1
Statue Captures a Black Saint’s Prominent Role
Image of the Week: St. Maurice, a Roman soldier of African origin, is depicted as the patron saint of the empire.
This image is part of a weekly series that The Root is presenting in conjunction with the Image of the Black in Western Art Archive at Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois Research Institute, part of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research.
One of the most imposing sculptural monuments to the great black warrior-saint Maurice is found, not surprisingly, at the chief place of his veneration. Less expected, though, is the persistence of this august figure at a time when his traditional significance was undergoing a radical change.
The stirring characterization of the saint seen here forms an integral part of a magnificent pulpit adorned with carved alabaster reliefs. An architectural complex in itself, this brilliant ensemble is set within the immense space of Magdeburg cathedral, one of the great architectural landmarks of Germany. Its winding structure accommodates the massive vertical form of a stone pier in the nave of the church toward the choir.
Christoph Kapup, a highly talented but relatively little-studied representative of the German late Renaissance, carved the impressive structure between 1595 and 1597. His somewhat mannered style, characterized by an engaging play between ornament and content, typified much of European art produced just before the exuberant forms of Baroque expression revolutionized artistic expression across the continent.
http://www.theroot.com/articles/history/2014/01/blacks_in_western_art_st_maurice_statue_captures_black_soldier_s_legacy.html
Chief: Boy ‘saved those other 6 people’
Tyler J. Doohan knew he didn’t have school Monday morning because of the holiday, and asked his mother if it would be OK if he stayed at his grandfather’s trailer at the East Avenue Manufactured Home Community off Route 441 in Penfield.
It was a place Tyler knew well. He stayed there frequently, playing with other kids in the neighborhood and having barbecues and bonfires with his family in the summer.
It was in the back bedroom of that small, single-wide trailer at 39 Fondiller Ave. that firefighters found Tyler’s body Monday morning, just a few feet away from the bed of his disabled Uncle Steve, who investigators believe Tyler was trying to save.
Firefighters say Tyler, an 8-year-old who seemingly spent much of his young life in different homes and school districts, was killed along with his grandfather, Louis J. Beach, 57, and Steven D. Smith, 54, in a fire that appears to have been caused by an electrical problem at the front of the trailer.
And as Penfield firefighters — working their third trailer fire in a little more than a year — sorted through the rubble of melted toys and furniture charred beyond recognition, neighbors discussed the number of people who’d taken up residence in a metal home which they say had been deemed unlivable more than once.
“The roof had collapsed on the front half of the trailer and one of the individuals was found there, probably on a couch but there was nothing left to even see if it was furniture,” said Penfield Fire Chief Chris Ebmeyer.
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/local/2014/01/20/fire-chief-he-saved-those-other-six-people-/4668401/
Landmark discussion tackles immigration in black America
by Kunbi Tinuoye | January 21, 2014 at 11:39 AM
SNBC’s Joy-Ann Reid is taking time out of her busy schedule on Wednesday to participate in a high-profile panel discussion on immigration and how it impacts the black community.
Reid, the managing editor of theGrio and a regular MSNBC contributor, will join forces with New York City’s new first lady Chirlane McCray and the Rev. A.R. Bernard, alongside other prominent figures at the All Faces, All Races immigration forum to be held at the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, where Rev. Bernard is pastor.
Other speakers scheduled to attend on Wednesday include Grammy-award winner Pras Michel, composer Daniel Bernard Roumain, Bishop Orlando Findlayter of New Hope Christian Fellowship, and Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas.
Presented by African-American think tank The Black Institute, the interactive town hall forum aims to heighten the visibility of black immigrants and put the spotlight on current immigration laws, reform efforts, and their impact on immigration.
http://thegrio.com/2014/01/21/landmark-discussion-tackles-immigration-in-black-america/
it’s ok….the dust went in my eye reading this too.
https://twitter.com/JakeIsMobile/status/425640005433049088/photo/1
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Good morning, everyone!
I’m off to get a cup of coffee.