Well, before you know it, Black History Month will be upon us.
And, it’s already awards season.
So, I thought we’d take a look at Black Oscar Nominees.
Today we’re going to look at the categories of Best Writing (Adapted and Original Screenplay), Best Sound Mixing, Best Short Film, Best Editing, Best Documentary Short, Best Cinematography.
Best Writing (Original Screenplay)
Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay
Year Name Film Status
1972 Suzanne de Passe Lady Sings the Blues Nominated
1989 Spike Lee Do the Right Thing Nominated
1991 John Singleton Boyz n the Hood Nominated
Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay
Year Name Film Adapted From Status
1972 Lonne Elder Sounder Nominated
1984 Charles Fuller A Soldier’s Story Nominated
2009 Geoffrey Fletcher Precious Won
Best Sound Mixing
Academy Award for Sound
Year Name Film Status
1978 Willie D. Burton The Buddy Holly Story Nominated
1980 Willie D. Burton Altered States Nominated
1983 Willie D. Burton WarGames Nominated
1988 Willie D. Burton Bird Won
1989 Russell Williams Glory Won
1990 Russell Williams Dances with Wolves Won
1994 Willie D. Burton The Shawshank Redemption Nominated
1999 Willie D. Burton The Green Mile Nominated
2006 Willie D. Burton Dreamgirls Won
Best Short Film (Live Action)
Academy Award for Live Action Short Film
Year Name Film Status
1991 David Massey Last Breeze of Summer Nominated
1995 Dianne Houston Tuesday Morning Ride Nominated
Best Editing
Academy Award for Film Editing
Year Name Film Status
1969 Hugh A. Robertson Midnight Cowboy Nominated
Best Documentary Short Subject
Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject
Year Name Film Status
2000 Leelai Demoz On Tiptoe: Gentle Steps to Freedom Nominated
2009 Roger Ross Williams Music by Prudence Won
Best Cinematography
Academy Award for Best Cinematography
Year Name Film Status
1998 Remi Adefarasin Elizabeth Nominated
Just got caught up onreading and watching videos of the Black Oscar Nominees post. Thanks so much Rikyrah.
“GOP Rep. Trey Radel, caught in cocaine sting, resigns Florida seat”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jan/27/trey-radel-resign-congress-report/
WV man, white, 62, shoots, kills two black brothers, 60 & 61, for visiting their own property
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024396943
Very disturbing case – he gunned these two guys down from a distance, using his high-powered scope rifle, without any attempt of communication.
He then called 911 and claimed he was stopping a break-in on what he said was his property
Two brothers were shot and killed in Barboursville Saturday afternoon after a neighbor believed they were trespassing on his property, according to law enforcement.
Rodney Bruce Black, 62, of Barboursville, was charged Saturday with two counts of first-degree murder, the Cabell County Sheriff’s Department said.
Black was charged after he called 911 dispatchers Saturday afternoon and said he shot Garrick Hopkins, 60, of Milton, and Carl Hopkins, 61, of Oak Hill, who he thought were breaking into an outbuilding on his property.
Garrick Hopkins recently purchased the lot adjacent to Black’s property at 12 Lane Drive in Barboursville. He was taking Carl Hopkins, his brother, to show him the property where he and his family planned to build a new home, a press release from the Sheriff’s Department said.
Affordable Care Act makes impact on Imperial County residents, hospitals and clinics
A brain tumor, a pre-existing medical condition to insurance companies, had prevented El Centro resident Eric Villanueva from qualifying for health coverage.
Thirty-three-year-old Villanueva had been without health insurance for about eight years until the Affordable Care Act took effect for him Jan. 1.
“I’m so happy now that I have insurance,” he said. “I can finally look at my family and tell them everything will be all right. I don’t have to worry about how I’m going to pay. That cloud is gone and there’s no more ‘what ifs.’ I’m covered.”
http://www.ivpressonline.com/news/local/affordable-care-act-makes-impact-on-imperial-county-residents-hospitals/article_fe2ac094-7b53-11e3-a708-001a4bcf6878.html
This Comic Strip Explains White Privilege Perfectly In Simple Language
By Tiffany Willis on January 24, 2014
Ever had a hard time explaining white privilege to clueless people? This comic strip by a teenage artist might help.
Teenage artist Jamie Kapp, 19, knows a bit about white privilege and institutionalized racism. She also understands that many people just don’t get it.
“I was mad that I had to explain such a simple issue as white privilege in a comic because it’s something that people should read for themselves,” she said. (Buzzfeed)
So she took to Tumblr to discuss white privilege and used her skills as an artist to try to clue people in. It was effective, but at the same time, she was stunned as she became the victim of bullying, death threats, and hate mail because of her efforts. She ended up shutting down her blog. She seems adamant, however, that she not be considered a victim. See her message
http://www.liberalamerica.org/2014/01/24/comic-strip-explains-white-privilege/
* Virginia: “State Del. Lynwood W. Lewis Jr. has won the recount for a Hampton Roads Senate seat, throwing control of the state Senate to Democrats and giving Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s first-year agenda a crucial boost.” Look for more on this on tonight’s show.
BREAKING: A grand jury has indicted Randall Kerrick on voluntary manslaughter in the death of Jonathan Ferrell.
http://bit.ly/1i3Tlgx
*******************
👏👏
Good!
POWERFUL
Yes, powerfullymoving!
Speaks to the weight of the heartfelt loss of a great, caring leader who advocated for and was the extended symbol of people’s hearts “crying out for justice.”
ACA opposition frays a little further
01/27/14 10:50 AM—Updated 01/27/14 11:01 AM
By Steve Benen
When Kit Bond was in the Senate, he absolutely hated the Affordable Care Act, and voted to reject and kill the law. As he was getting ready to retire, the Missouri Republican said the impact of the reform law, especially expanding Medicaid, would be “horrific.”
Last year, Bond went so far as to describe the Affordable Care Act as “a pile of manure.”
Now, however, it appears Bond, a former two-term governor and four-term senator, has changed his mind, at least about one key aspect of the law.
Proponents of expanding Medicaid in Missouri just landed an influential – and unlikely – new ally.
Republican and former U.S. Sen. Kit Bond has been hired as a lobbyist by the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry. His goal will be to persuade a General Assembly skeptical of all things Obamacare to go along with one of the law’s central tenets – adding 300,000 uninsured Missourians to the public health insurance program for the poor.
Dan Mehan, the Missouri chamber’s president, told the Kansas City Star that the business lobbying group “opposed Obamacare,” but the organization believes it will remain the law of the land. And as such, Mehan added, “We should take the opportunity to get an enormous amount of investment back into our state and, while we’re at it, improve Medicaid for everyone.”
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/aca-opposition-frays-little-further
A Guide to White Privilege for White People Who Think They’ve Never Had Any
By: Deborah Foster
I can relate to you. You are usually the white person who grew up poor, often living a marginalized existence, who overcame economic barriers to achieve a modicum of success as an adult. Sometimes, you knew a lot of other Black or Latino poor people and you compare yourself and your outcomes to theirs. Other times, you don’t really know anyone of a different race personally, but you have notions about how people should face adversity and overcome it, because you did. You apply these beliefs to people in what you consider to be a “colorblind” way. No matter what, you want to believe your race never got you anywhere. It was irrelevant to where you are today.
…………………….
Yet, even believing all of this, when I entered my first multicultural education class as a college student, I balked when I was told I had white privilege. I could accept that people of color faced oppression and racism. I could accept that white people perpetrated abuses and even that their institutions were biased against anyone who wasn’t white. But, I was stalled at accepting the notion that I had white privilege. How could I, a woman who had asked other school children for the leftovers on their lunch plates when I was in elementary school be privileged? How could I, someone who had a job by age 8, a job that caused multiple bouts of frostbite and a bad back, be advantaged in any way? What about the years spent with a suicidal, mentally ill mother who left me in the position of raising four younger brothers and sister when I was ten years old? That was misery, not privilege. Right?
Teachers assigned me the ubiquitous reading, “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack of White Privilege,” by Peggy MacIntosh, but Dr. MacIntosh made the mistake of putting items in that version of her list that represented economic privilege, not racial privilege, so immediately, I disagreed with the list. She has since revised it.
It was then that a skilled multicultural educator at the University of Michigan asked me to look at the list and see what I could own. He asked me to make my own list, because as he said, “I know you can do this.” I went away and in the end produced a product that would become a book chapter in, “Explorations in Privilege, Oppression, and Diversity,” by Anderson and Middleton. I could now embrace what being white had gotten me.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/01/26/guide-white-privilege-white-people-theyve.html
Senate Republicans To Announce Plan To Take Away Healthcare from 10 Million Americans
By: Jason Easley
Sunday, January, 26th, 2014, 3:54 pm
Senate Republicans are about to propose an alternative to Obamacare that involves taking health insurance coverage away from nearly 10 million people, and replacing it with a tax credit.
http://youtu.be/7kkifk6VIUQ
Bob Schieffer ask Kristol if this could pass, and Kristol’s response revealed the depths of Republican delusions about Obamacare, “If Republicans win the Senate in November, I think in 2015 you could imagine a Republican Senate and a Republican House passing this. Republican House might even pass it this year, then it’s up to the president whether he wants to abandon Obamacare and sign on to a sensible healthcare reform.”
The plan that Kristol hinted at sounds a lot like John McCain’s healthcare reform plan when he ran for office in 2008. Basically, the Republican plan is gut the ACA’s regulations and requirements that insurance companies have to sell a good product at an affordable price, kill the ACA and replace it with a tax credit.
The practical effect of what Republicans are proposing is to take away access to healthcare from the 3 million plus who have signed up through the exchanges and the 6.3 million people who are eligible for coverage under the Medicaid expansion.
So the Republican plan is to take healthcare away from nearly 10 million Americans, and replace their health insurance with a tax credit. The GOP plan would take away access to healthcare for 20 million Americans, and it will do nothing to cover the uninsured and expand coverage.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/01/26/senate-republicans-announce-plan-healthcare-10-million-americans.html
New Jersey Dems set to merge Chris Christie BridgeGate probe.
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/politics&id=9408542
TRENTON — New Jersey Democrats are set to pool their resources by merging separate legislative investigations into allegations that Gov. Chris Christie’s aides blocked traffic lanes near the George Washington Bridge to create backups into a nearby town to punish the Democratic mayor.
The Assembly and Senate plan to vote Monday to establish the joint bipartisan committee with power to subpoena people and correspondence related to the lane closings and abuse of power allegations. Chicago lawyer Reid Schar will serve as special counsel to the panel of eight Democrats and four Republicans.
“This is the optimal approach to ensuring the people of New Jersey get the answers they need to these questions about the abuse of government power,” said Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto, whose transportation committee was further along in its probe than a parallel effort in the Senate.
The U.S. Attorney’s office stepped up a criminal investigation of the matter with subpoenas to the Christie for Governor re-election campaign and the state GOP, and probably others last week.
Twenty subpoenas issued by the Assembly panel remain pending and are due back next week.
Those reach deep into the governor’s office, the re-election effort and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the agency that runs the bridge. None target Christie, a possible 2016 presidential candidate who has just begun a year-long chairmanship of the Republican Governors Association.
The governor has said he was not involved in the planning or execution of the scheme, which appears to have been authorized by his deputy chief of staff, Bridget Kelly, and carried out by his No. 2 man at the bridge agency, David Wildstein.
Good Morning 3Chics,
Ametia. I emailed after the Grammy’s: -50 Wind Chill tomorrow. I suppose the office is open. 5:11a: Yes, dress warm.
Stay warm all.
Y’all stay warm up there.
Hi Tyren, I’m just getting back in town from Austin, TX. Temp at airport there was 72 degrees. BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. Lawdy, I was hoping that I did not have to come back to the Twin Cities with this. And yes, we’re open for business today.
Hiya!
Glad you made it back safe and sound. I heard the temps are going to take another dip on Tuesday. :(
Hi ya, SG2! thanks so much. Yes; we may not be open for buisness tomorrow. I needed the warmth to help with my healing. It was a healing trip all the way.
Good for you!
Glad you got away for a minute… and time to heal.
Scarface Says Hip-Hop is Being White Washed like Rock Was…
We don’t always respect our elders, but watching Scarface talk about how hip-hop is being whitewashed reminds us why we always should. Sitting down with HardKnockTV, Uncle Face takes his time to say something “as offensive as I can fucking make it.”
“There’s no fucking way you can tell me that it’s not a conspiracy against the Blacks in hip-hop,” said the Houston rapper. “Because you put out fucking records that make us look stupid, that make us look dumb.”
Face went on to explain when “other rappers” come out they look great. He reasons that eventually fans will side with the intelligent rappers and, “Pretty soon…hip-hop is white now.”
http://www.complex.com/music/2013/04/watch-scarface-explains-how-hip-hop-is-being-whitewashed-like-rock-was
The Real World Story of Human Lives Sacrificed at the Altar of Deregulation
By: Dennis S
Sunday, January, 26th, 2014, 9:15 pm
I went to one of those “poisoned citizens” meetings the other night. It was a community meeting called by a couple of outside law firms that have just sued a number of corporate polluters for freely releasing their deadly environmental cargo upon unsuspecting and vulnerable neighbors. The community gathering was held in a Spartanburg, South Carolina hotel. Cannon’s Campground residents were there in force. They’re proud, hard working and contributing members of society and, thanks to Republican-enabling destruction of unions and wages, don’t have the proverbial pot to piss in. What a great number of them do have is cancer.
Many of their number are sick as dogs with existing cancers, leukemia, tumors and other physical insults caused by living too close to a certain kind of manufacturing facility; the kind that pollutes your water, property, possessions and loved ones while the state of South Carolina, its elected representatives and the governor look the other way…and have for decades!
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/01/26/real-world-story-human-lives-sacrificed-altar-deregulation.html
Sunday, Jan 26, 2014 06:00 AM CST
Confessions of a former Libertarian: My personal, psychological and intellectual epiphany
I was a Buddhist concerned with world suffering — and I could no longer reconcile my humanity with my ideology
Scott Parker
During college, a friend admitted he was confounded by my politics. He didn’t know how to reconcile my libertarianism with my other commitments. We were Buddhists and vegetarians, and I knew exactly what he meant. The tension centered around compassion. He wanted to know how someone concerned with the world’s suffering wouldn’t adopt a more compassionate political perspective.
It was a reasonable question, one that I asked myself regularly. My stock answer was that while I supported compassion in the form of assistance to those in need, I opposed the clumsy government mechanisms we relied on for it, not to mention the veiled coercion behind them — where did anyone get the right to enforce their values at the barrel of a gun (meaning taxes), no matter how noble those values might be?
Pretty by-the-books stuff. Libertarianism represented to me a matrix of freedom that could be collapsed onto any particular set of individual values. It was a simple formula to live by: If enough people value X, those people will pay for X, whether or not X = someone else’s interest. Government intervention was at best superfluous to this outcome and at worst distorting of the collective will (measured as the aggregate economy).
When my friend offered the natural response, What if people fail to provide enough for those in need?, I resorted to the tried-and-true strategy of telling him the problem wasn’t a problem. The real problem was taxation or regulation or minimum wage or a failed incentive structure. If people were in need it was because government was preventing the market from providing for them.
What’s interesting to me now is not why this kind of thinking is wrong but why it was once so attractive to me.
I found my way to libertarianism in my teen years when I began reading some of its introductory texts and was attracted to the internal consistency of its policies. If you accepted that the individual was sacrosanct and the government’s only role was to protect the individual, everything else pretty much followed. Unlike mainstream liberalism and conservatism, which were constantly engaged in negotiations between social and economic freedoms, libertarianism was systematically clean and neat. So much so that I quickly stopped concerning myself with how ideas played out in the world. The ideas themselves were enough.
As a kid, you learn to refute anyone’s “theory” by snidely mocking — “In theory, communism works.” When I was in college, I knew that communism did not work, even in theory, and I was happy to tell you why. Only libertarianism worked in theory.
http://www.salon.com/2014/01/26/confessions_of_a_former_libertarian_my_personal_psychological_and_intellectual_epiphany/
How the right destroyed itself: History, ideology and strategic blunders
Republicans can’t moderate because their base won’t allow it. Even if they could, Democrats already beat them there
Brian Beutler
Last week I wrote an article arguing that the impediments to conservative reform are structural — that the idiosyncrasies of the Republican base make appealing to moderate voters a zero-sum game for the party, and thus eliminates the incentive that, for instance, impelled Democrats in the 1980s and 1990s to cater to less-liberal voters.
The article generated some interesting responses, which is fortunate, because they provide a jumping off point to explore the historical and political context of the GOP’s unique predicament.
I think it’s fairly evident that Republicans’ increasing reliance on an older, whiter, more conservative constituency has trapped them into a number of non-negotiable policy dogmas. And I think they they bear most of the blame for their own circumstances. It’s an outgrowth of a conscious political strategy. They began the country and their party down this road, hoping, as Pat Buchanan famously put it, to “split the country in two and…take the bigger half.” They fused the low tax, low regulation agenda of wealthy elites to the worldview of religious conservatives. They birthed the Reagan Revolution, then milked it so vigorously that they’ve become unable to wean themselves from it more than 30 years later.
But there’s more to the story than one losing bet. And I believe the historical backdrop supports the conclusion that there’s no space in U.S. politics for Republicans to undergo a DLC-style reform.
A big part of the story here is that Republicans probably didn’t have much choice but to begin a long trek into an ideological cul-de-sac. Writing at Slate, Matt Yglesias noted that the political sorting the country’s undergone over the past few decades was in some ways foreordained by the more organic creation of coherent liberal and conservative ideological intellectual camps in the early-mid 20th century.
That was the environment in which distinctly liberal and conservative activists began realigning the parties ideologically. Thus, nothing that happened subsequently in Republican politics — from the Southern Strategy to its enduring “47-percent” mindset — was arbitrary. It was built into both the party’s belief system and the professional incentives Republicans continue to face.
http://www.salon.com/2014/01/27/how_the_right_destroyed_itself_history_ideology_and_strategic_blunders/
Macklemore, White Privilege, and The Grammy For Best Rap Album
This Sunday, the 56th Annual Grammy Awards will air on CBS. If Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ The Heist wins the Grammy for Best Rap Album, it’ll be both the best and worst night of Macklemore’s career. Macklemore is nominated for a total of seven awards, including Best New Artist, Song of The Year, and even Album of The Year. But no award this year is more important than Best Rap Album. Why? Because in that category he faces off against rap’s golden boy, Kendrick Lamar, and his universally acclaimed rap masterpiece, good kid, m.A.A.d. city.
Despite the fact that there’s three other nominees, only Macklemore and Kendrick’s albums are also facing off for Album of the Year1, which means one or the other will certainly win Best Rap Album. (Sorry Kanye, Drake, and Jay Z). Kendrick is also nominated for seven awards, and Kendrick is signed to a major label, while Macklemore is an independent artist—so you might think Kendrick has a better shot at winning. But cynical rap fans know better.
Kendrick is black and Macklemore is white. This, at a time when Uncle Scarface is warning that hip-hop is becoming whitewashed and the Grammy voters are debating whether or not Macklemore is even a rapper. If Macklemore wins Best Rap Album, it’ll be a classic example of white privilege at work. Should Macklemore win, it won’t be because he’s a better rapper than Kendrick (he’s not) or because he made a better album than Kendrick (he didn’t). It will be because he’s safe and white and the kind of guy out-of-touch Grammy voters could get behind. This is the double-edged sword for Macklemore. Winning Best Rap Album would no doubt make him a bigger star, but it would also, very likely, make him into a major rap villain.
http://www.complex.com/music/2014/01/macklemore-white-privilege-grammy-best-rap-album
Mackle WHO?
Mitch McConnell and Ted Cruz Openly Threaten The Country With Economic Catastrophe
By: Rmuse
Monday, January, 27th, 2014, 10:24 am
By now, most people are familiar with Albert Einstein’s statement that insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” and by his definition Republicans are truly insane. As the next debt ceiling crisis looms in less than a month, Republicans are once again threatening to hold the debt limit hostage in return for a ransom payment that is, beyond belief, the height of insanity. Or is it really a calculated move to put America on a course for an economic catastrophe unless the President pays the hostage demands that will be catastrophic? Thus far, Republicans have proposed letting the nation default on its debt and initiate an economic disaster in America and around the world unless President Obama does what they call the “responsible thing” and allow them to impose ruinous damage on the economy, kill millions of jobs, gut social safety nets, and hand the Koch brothers billions in dirty energy profits for a foreign corporation’s catastrophic project.
On Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell followed teabag leader, Ted Cruz, by demanding two unreasonable, and potentially calamitous concessions from President Obama before Republicans raise the debt limit to pay for Bush-Republicans’ two unfunded wars, unfunded tax cuts for the rich, and an unfunded and botched roll-out of their Medicare prescription plan. There is nothing insane about the Republican demand for a ransom payment for doing the job they were elected to do, because their intent is decimating the economy in precisely the same manner as the debt ceiling crisis of 2011 while exacerbating the income inequality strangling the economic life out of the great majority of Americans. McConnell said there is no way Republicans will fulfill their job requirement unless the President approves the KeystoneXL pipeline, and agreed with Ted Cruz that the debt limit must be tied to a structural mechanism like the Budget Control Act that fostered the austerity measures included in the sequester.
First, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said the debt limit must be raised by late February to avoid a credit default; an outcome that all economic analysts agree would be catastrophic for the U.S. economy. President Obama has made his position perfectly clear that he will not negotiate on raising the debt limit, but McConnell is sticking to his guns like Republicans did in 2011 that gave the nation austerity madness (the sequester) that will have devastating effects on the economy for nine more years. McConnell said, “I think for the president to ask for a clean debt ceiling when we have a debt the size of our economy is irresponsible. So we ought to discuss adding something to his request to raise the debt ceiling that does something about the debt or produces at least something positive for our country” he said on “Fox News Sunday.”
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/01/27/mitch-mcconnell-ted-cruz-openly-threaten-country-economic-catastrophe.html
Brian Beutler (Salon): How the right destroyed itself: History, ideology and strategic blunders
Republicans can’t moderate because their base won’t allow it. Even if they could, Democrats already beat them there
Last week I wrote an article arguing that the impediments to conservative reform are structural — that the idiosyncrasies of the Republican base make appealing to moderate voters a zero-sum game for the party, and thus eliminates the incentive that, for instance, impelled Democrats in the 1980s and 1990s to cater to less-liberal voters.
The article generated some interesting responses, which is fortunate, because they provide a jumping off point to explore the historical and political context of the GOP’s unique predicament.
I think it’s fairly evident that Republicans’ increasing reliance on an older, whiter, more conservative constituency has trapped them into a number of non-negotiable policy dogmas. And I think they they bear most of the blame for their own circumstances. It’s an outgrowth of a conscious political strategy. They began the country and their party down this road, hoping, as Pat Buchanan famously put it, to “split the country in two and…take the bigger half.” They fused the low tax, low regulation agenda of wealthy elites to the worldview of religious conservatives. They birthed the Reagan Revolution, then milked it so vigorously that they’ve become unable to wean themselves from it more than 30 years later.
But there’s more to the story than one losing bet…
http://www.salon.com/2014/01/27/how_the_right_destroyed_itself_history_ideology_and_strategic_blunders/
FEMA warned Christie administration that AshBritt contract could jeopardize federal funding
The Federal Emergency Management Agency warned the Christie administration just days after Hurricane Sandy that its decision to award a no-bid contract to a politically connected firm to haul away debris could jeopardize maximum federal reimbursement for towns, The Star-Ledger has learned.
For months, Gov. Chris Christie has dismissed critics who said his decision to give the Florida-based AshBritt Inc. a contract could add costs for taxpayers in 53 New Jersey towns that employed the firm.
Christie and his staff also say FEMA all but endorsed the contract, which was “piggybacked,” or taken word for word, from a 2008 contract AshBritt had signed with Connecticut.
But a letter sent to Christie by U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) last month discloses the state was warned reimbursments could be at risk because of the contract.
“I am writing today because FEMA officials have informed my office that they warned the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General shortly after the storm that the “piggyback” contract utilized by the state for debris removal presents problems that could put federal reimbursement to local government at risk,” Lautenberg wrote in the Feb. 21 letter, obtained under the state’s Open Public Records Act.
Lautenberg added: “I urge you to take all the necessary steps to ensure that current and future debris removal contracts are in full compliance with federal procurement regulations.”
FEMA strongly discourages the use of “piggybacked” contracts and subjects them to greater scrutiny, Lautenberg told Christie. As a result, he wrote, FEMA will determine whether AshBritt’s rates are reasonable and may penalize towns by cutting reimbursement if it finds the costs are out of step with the marketplace.
http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/03/fema_warned_christie_administr.html
Ted Cruz, the Republicans’ id
01/27/14 10:13 AM
By Steve Benen
After Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) appeared on “Face the Nation” yesterday, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) seemed gobsmacked. “A lot of it’s sort of Alice in Wonderland,” Schumer said of Cruz’s rhetoric.
It was a fair assessment, but there’s arguably even more to it. Host Bob Schieffer, for example, asked Cruz if there were any circumstances that might lead Cruz to support another government shutdown. The Teas Republican responded:
Eventually, a slightly confused Schieffer asked, “Senator, if you didn’t threaten the shut down the government who was it that did?”
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/ted-cruz-the-republicans-id
Fear of a ‘Progressive Kristallnacht’
01/27/14 09:33 AM—Updated 01/27/14 10:02 AM
By Steve Benen
It’s not unusual to find a persecution complex at the heart of conservative ideology, but over the weekend, billionaire venture capitalist Tom Perkins took this to a level that bordered on self-parody. The Wall Street Journal published a letter to the editor from Perkins with a headline that said quite a bit: “Progressive Kristallnacht Coming?”
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/fear-progressive-kristallnacht
Paul, the Clintons, and the ‘war on women’
01/27/14 08:45 AM
By Steve Benen
A few too many Republicans have an unfortunate habit when confronted with criticism: they reflexively defect the criticism by attributing the misdeed to Democrats.
When the GOP is criticized for wanting to slash Medicare, for example, they respond, “No, it’s **Democrats** who want to cut Medicare.” They’ve done the same thing on a wide range of other issues, leading Rachel to label this the “I’m rubber, you’re glue” tactic.
But perhaps no issue helps capture the problem with the GOP strategy better than the “war on women. Last year, Republicans began arguing in earnest that they’re not the ones waging a war on women; Democrats are. For proof, Republicans began pointing to specific, individual men embroiled in scandals: Eliot Spitzer, Anthony Weiner, and Bob Filner.
Yesterday on “Meet the Press,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) pushed this even further.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/paul-the-clintons-and-the-war-women
McConnell redefines ‘irresponsible’
01/27/14 08:00 AM
By Steve Benen
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) speaks to reporters following the weekly policy lunch of the Republican caucus on Nov. 19, 2013 in Washington, D.C.
At some point over the next month or so, Congress will have to raise the debt ceiling or risk causing catastrophic economic consequences. There are no other options: either lawmakers pay the nation’s bills or the United States defaults on its obligations, causing untold damage to the global economy.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), true to form, said on “Fox News Sunday” that it’d be “irresponsible” of lawmakers to simply pay the nation’s bills.
It’s very hard to believe McConnell actually believes his own talking points. Indeed, it’s impossible. Earlier this month, Congress approved a bipartisan budget plan that funds the federal government. Just, two weeks later, McConnell is telling the world Congress won’t pay for the spending it just approved unless President Obama gives Republicans some kind of treat.
It would be, McConnell suggested, “irresponsible” to avoid a debt-ceiling crisis.
McConnell is hardly alone; many Republican lawmakers are making similar threats. Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said over the weekend that the White House will have to give congressional Republicans something “impressive” in order to entice GOP officials to do their duty and avoid crashing the economy on purpose.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/mcconnell-redefines-irresponsible
Republicans Are In Total Retreat As Obamacare Enrollment Skyrockets Past 3 Million
By: Jason Easley
Saturday, January, 25th, 2014, 1:48 pm
The defeated Republican anti-Obamacare forces are in full retreat after ACA enrollment in healthcare plans surged past 3 million.
………………….
800,000 people have signed up in the few weeks between late December and January 15. This surge in enrollment means that the administration is only 300,000 behind their original target of 3.3 million enrollees. Once the full numbers for January are released, it is expected that the ACA will not only be on target, but may be ahead of schedule.
The mainstream media isn’t reporting this, but the ACA is turning into a huge victory for President Obama.
Before leaving on their current vacation, Republicans signaled their defeat by voting to fund the healthcare law for 2014. Now Republicans like John Boehner and John McCain are completely dropping the repeal and only repeal ruse, and suggesting that the GOP needs to come up with its own healthcare alternative.
It’s too late for alternative plans. The ACA is the law of the land. Millions of people have signed up. This isn’t a policy discussion anymore. Republicans can’t escape the fact that any alternative that they suggest will involve taking health insurance away from millions of people.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/01/25/republicans-total-retreat-obamacare-enrollment-skyrockets-3-million.html
Republicans discover their NSA fears
01/24/14 03:15 PM—Updated 01/25/14 12:18 PM
By Steve Benen
Almost immediately after President Obama was elected, Republicans began changing their mind on a series of issues. GOP support for cap and trade, an individual mandate in health care, civilian trials for terrorist suspects, a payroll tax cut, the DREAM Act, and clean debt-ceiling increases, among other issues, quickly evaporated the moment Republicans realized the president agreed with them.
But as Benjy Sarlin reports today, the Republican National Committee added to this list in rather dramatic fashion at their winter meeting.
Nevada Committeewoman Diana Orrock, who introduced the resolution, told Sarlin, “I have to thank Edward Snowden for bringing forth the blatant trampling of our First and Fourth Amendment rights in the guise of security,” she said. “Something had to be said. Something had to be done.”
And when the RNC voted today, how many members objected or called for additional debate? None.
As a substantive matter, the RNC’s position is obviously defensible. Indeed, the party’s resolution, as adopted today, would probably generate quite a bit of support from liberals and many Democrats.
But that doesn’t change the fact that as Republican reversals go, this one’s a doozy.
During the Bush/Cheney era, Republican support for expansive surveillance and a sprawling national-security state was practically unanimous. This was the party of the PATRIOT Act, warrantless wiretaps, and a new FISA law that delivered broad, discretionary powers to the executive branch. Sarlin report added:
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/republicans-discover-their-nsa-fears
RNC eyes major calendar changes
01/24/14 05:15 PM—Updated 01/25/14 12:18 PM
By Steve Benen
The race for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 wasn’t pretty. The interminable, mind-numbing process dragged on endlessly, alienated the American mainstream, and generally made the candidates look ridiculous. Party officials couldn’t be sure who’d run in 2016, but they were determined to create a less destructive process.
The Republican National Committee took a step in that direction at their winter meeting. Aaron Blake reported:
While the old calendar stretched six months from early January to late June – and was competitive for about half that span – the new one is intended to be as much as three months shorter – from early February to April or May.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/rnc-eyes-major-calendar-changes
Don’t call it a comeback
01/24/14 04:06 PM—Updated 01/24/14 04:35 PM
By Steve Benen
Congressional Republicans haven’t been shy about their 2014 plans. The entire election-year strategy comes down to obsessive opposition to the Affordable Care Act – the party assumes the law is unpopular, unworkable, and an electoral albatross for Democrats nationwide. Republicans don’t need to govern, the argument goes, they just need to wait for “Obamacare” to implode.
If party strategists worked on a Plan B, it might be time to dust off the file. As Greg Sargent noted this morning, “There are increasing signs that the GOP’s total war opposition to Obamacare is becoming tougher to sustain.
Consider, for example, the latest enrollment news.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/dont-call-it-comeback
I love the New Sherlock.
Simply love it.
The Calculus of Hypocrisy: It’s Still a Lie Even If You Believe It
I don’t trust the Republican Party. This goes beyond disagreeing with them on every single policy position they hold. As a party, they’re deceitful, manipulative, and wholly disingenuous. It’s not even a question anymore; it’s verifiable fact. Their brand is badly damaged and is about to become completely unsalvageable.
I never bought into the post-modern notion of created reality, that all truth is subjective. In contrast, objective reality isn’t classified into strictly rigid forms Desecrates style. Objective reality doesn’t have to be something that’s true absolutely or universally only. That’s not to say there’s no such thing as a universal truth, but with our limited capacity for knowledge, finite perception, biases, and biological restrictions, having perfect knowledge is out of reach. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t strive toward truth. Something can be declared true or false based on a system of reason and use of fact-based evidence. It’s one of the hallmarks of the Scientific Method and a foundational principle of Western Civilization. Ideas and their subsequent implementation can be judged as better or worse using this standard. Without it, our biases, and superstitions remain unchallenged which in turn stifles progress.
To use a simple historical example: we must declare that Julius Caesar is dead. Was he a tyrant removed from power by a group of doomed idealists, or was he unjustly murdered by men wishing to hang on to their own power? Is it perhaps a little bit of both? An event’s historical significance is debatable; it’s why historians still have jobs, but certain immutable facts aren’t. Today, Ceasar is dead and while that might not seem like much, it’s an unspoken, mutually agreed upon starting point. That debate rests within a historical space and while it might be altered, enlarged, or constricted, it cannot run on indefinitely.
This is the rot within the Republican Party. Thanks to Karl Rove, the Architect, the GOP abandoned notions of objective reality in an effort to win elections. They’ve latched onto their own created delusion and show no signs of changing. If they can’t effectively message whatever reality they’re trying to create, then they simply change their position to be counter to the opposition. They’re not concerned with what’s actual. It’s about how they can bend actual to their will but their grip is weakening.
http://thedailybanter.com/2014/01/the-calculus-of-hypocrisy-its-still-a-lie-even-if-you-believe-it/
GOP Candidates Suddenly Find Love For Obamacare’s Medicaid Expansion
Dylan Scott – January 27, 2014, 6:00 AM EST6043
The conventional wisdom is that Republicans running in 2014 will be campaigning against Obamacare, attempting to recreate the 2010 magic that saw them make massive gains in Congress and state governments, holding themselves in stark contract to Democrats who are responsible for what the GOP sees as a fatally flawed law.
That’s the narrative, and that’s what Republican strategists would have you believe. But comments — or the lack thereof — from some GOP candidates in state and national elections suggest that opposition might not be as ironclad as previously believed, as the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent has documented. In at least one case, in fact, a Republican in one of the most competitive Senate races in the country effectively endorsed the expansion.
It’s a huge shift from the “defund or repeal” mantra during the government shutdown of October, a possible indicator that some conservatives are recognizing that Obamacare is here to stay — and that proposing to knock the newly enrolled off Medicaid is politically perilous.
In an interview with National Journal last week, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, expected to be effectively unopposed for the Republican nomination for the open U.S. Senate seat in West Virginia, had some of the kindest words yet for one of Obamacare’s key provisions from a GOP candidate.
“Coverage is great and having more people covered is excellent,” Capito said of the expansion. She included a number of caveats — she’s concerned about long-term costs — but she simultaneously acknowledged that repealing Obamacare is likely an unachievable goal and that aiming to improve the health care reform law while keeping people insured is a preferable pursuit.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/2014-gop-candidates-medicaid-expansion
Clintonistas Organizing in Iowa
by BooMan
Mon Jan 27th, 2014 at 10:09:30 AM EST
The Ready for Hillary PAC was active in Iowa over the weekend, and they are trying to figure out how to help Clinton’s campaign even before she announces that she’s a candidate. It’s probably helpful that she has people making an effort to get organized this far out from the caucuses, but it is an unusual circumstance. Iowans are accustomed to candidates asking them for their support, not asking candidates to run for office.
Clinton ran a disappointing third in the 2008 caucuses, and there are some bad feelings to clean up. An internal memo leaked suggesting that she blow off the caucuses entirely, and a lot of people feel that she didn’t pay due respect to the state with her above-the-fray campaign.
It’s not clear, yet, whether someone else will get on the ground in Iowa’s 99 counties and really try to beat Clinton. But it’s still doable. The caucus system was Hillary’s achilles heel in 2008, and it could be a real weakness for her again if a progressive alternative emerges.
Unfortunately for anyone hoping to derail Clinton’s candidacy, she will not be following Mark Penn’s advice the next time around
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2014/1/27/10930/8756
Saw the trailer for Peabody & Sherman. Outside of old Bullwinkle fans, how does this appeal to the young audience? I’m going to go see it because I loved Bullwinkle, but I just don’t think I’m the target audience. I found some clips on youtube and tried sitting down with Peanut yesterday, and she just didn’t get the appeal.
Fuck these 2 with a TWO, BIG, RUSTY NAILS.
GOP is Anti-Voting
by BooMan
Sun Jan 26th, 2014 at 11:11:31 AM EST
Tucker Carlson is concerned that some states are allowing 17 year olds to pre-register to vote and participate in party primaries if they will be 18 on election day. His argument is that 17 year olds are too immature to successfully order food at a restaurant, so they must be too stupid for their political opinions to be worthy of consideration.
However, Campus Reform reporter Katherine Timpf reassured him that some young people are disappointed in Barack Obama’s presidency and might actually vote for Republicans. This is the crux of the matter. Republicans oppose voter participation by any group who they think will not support them, while Democrats support the broadest voter participation possible.
Perhaps Democrats wouldn’t be quite so pro-voting if it worked against them, but I can’t imagine the Democrats arguing that their goal is to suppress certain voting groups. The Republicans do tend to couch their opposition to voting in terms of voter fraud in order to disguise their true intent, but they are often quite explicit about their desire to keep black turnout down, or to prevent college students from participating. There are groups that vote reliably Republican, but you never hear any talk from Democrats about suppressing their votes.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2014/1/26/111131/371
Some Republicans Departing From Response Script
By JEREMY W. PETERS
JAN. 26, 2014
WASHINGTON — The protocol is staid and formulaic. The president addresses Congress on the State of the Union, then the opposition party’s designee follows with a reply.
The choreography is tight, predictable and usually forgettable.
Not this year. The response, a once careful attempt at stagecraft fashioned under the close watch of party chiefs to be as uniform and on message as possible, has given way to political free agency.
The shift speaks volumes about politics today: the value placed on the individual brand over the larger organization, and the way social media and technology have torn down barriers to fame and influence.
For example, Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, plans to spend part of Tuesday in a television studio off Capitol Hill recording his own unsanctioned rebuttal to Mr. Obama’s address that night. His staff plans to blast the video to news outlets around the world, and to the hundreds of thousands of people the senator reaches online through Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat.
Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, will have top billing for the newest — and to some Republicans the most unwelcome — post-State of the Union event, the official Tea Party response.
Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, not content to wait until Tuesday, got rolling last week when he released a statement in which he demanded that Mr. Obama answer accusations on a variety of issues, including National Security Agency surveillance and the Affordable Care Act. He then followed up with a letter to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. asking for a special prosecutor to look into accusations of political persecution by the Internal Revenue Service.
Competing with them for the soapbox will be Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, the fourth-ranking Republican in the House, who is to deliver the party’s official response.
“There is no clear leadership in the Republican Party right now, no clear direction or message, and no way to enforce discipline,” said Mark McKinnon, a veteran Republican strategist who has become an outspoken critic of his party. “And because there’s a vacuum, and no shortage of cameras, there are plenty of actors happy to audition.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/27/us/politics/some-republicans-departing-from-response-script.html?_r=1
https://twitter.com/MsBam_fo/status/427657412171280384/photo/1
https://twitter.com/_Snape_/status/427658562777935872/photo/1
https://twitter.com/Pharrellhat/status/427660830906126337/photo/1
https://twitter.com/Amazing_Maps/status/427553817966964736/photo/1
LOL Africa is big as a MUG
https://twitter.com/SKTV_/status/427655765684670465/photo/1
https://twitter.com/GlobalGrindStyl/status/427646965330247680/photo/1
Good Morning, Everyone :)
I decided to stay put today.
Good Morning 3Chics!!! Rikyrah, I am so glad you stayed home. I live in Alabama and I can tell you now that folks are gonna go nuts about the possible snow flurries predicted for our area, HA!!! Have a hugely Blessed Day!!! tw
Morning, everyone!
Good you stayed home, Rikyrah. You and Peanut stay warm up there.
HI Rikyrah. I’m back from Texas!! Yes, you and Peanut STAY PUT. I can’t even begin to tell you how good is was to feel the warmth of the sun on my skin, while visiting there. Only to come back last night to another artic blast! *sigh.