Rain Dance – This ceremonial dance is performed by numerous agricultural peoples, especially in the southwest, where summers can be extremely dry. The ceremony was performed to ask the spirits or gods to send rain for the tribes ‘ crops. The dance usually takes place during the spring planting season and before crops are harvested. However, it was also performed in times when rain was desperately needed.
One thing that makes rain dances unique from some other ceremonial dances is that both men and women participate in the ceremony. The dance varies from tribe to tribe, each having their own unique rituals and costumes. Some tribes wear large headdresses while others wear masks. Accessories often include paint on the body, beads, animal skins, horse and goat hair, feathers, embroidered aprons, and jewelry made of leather, silver, and turquoise. Feathers and the color blue are often found in dress and accessories, symbolizing the wind and rain, respectively. These special clothes and accessories which were worn during the rain dance, were generally not worn at other times of the year, but rather, were stored for this specific ceremony. Dance steps usually involve moving in a zigzag pattern as opposed to other ceremonial dances that involve standing in a circle.
Stories of the origins of ceremonial dances have been passed from generation to generation orally. When the Native Americans were relocated in the 19th century, the United States government banned certain tribal ceremonial dances. In some regions tribal members would tell federal authorities that they were performing a “rain dance” rather than disclosing the fact they were actually performing one of the banned ceremonies.
Though the rain dance was most often performed by tribes in the southwest such as the Puebloan, Hopi, Zuni, and Apache, other tribes also performed the ceremony, including the Cherokee in the Southeastern United States. Many tribes continue to perform this ceremony today.
Reid Remarks On Senate Republicans Ongoing Defense Of The Koch Brothers
April 7, 2014 | Press Releases
We are here in the Senate for one reason: to give Americans a fair shot at providing for their families and having their voices heard. But Republicans seem more willing to identify themselves by their billionaire sponsors.”
“If Charles and David Koch have helped members get a seat here in this chamber, they should not be ashamed to defend the Kochs’ power. If the Koch brothers have bank-rolled efforts to keep Senators in their seats, those Members should publicly acknowledge their providers.”
“ As for the Democrats here in the Senate, we will continue to defend American families from these oil baron bullies who want nothing more than to enrich themselves.”
http://www.reid.senate.gov/press_releases/2014-07-04-reid-remarks-on-senate-republicans-ongoing-defense-of-the-koch-brothers#.U0NAcqhdXSY
BEAT THEIR ASSES, HARRY, BEAT.THEM
The Koch brothers continue closing plants and laying-off employees in Alaska, Arkansas and North Carolina devastating the economies in those communities. Americans need a fair shot at getting back on their feet and finding work but Koch-backed groups are actively opposing the extension of benefits for the long-term unemployed. What about the dignity of the single-mother from Las Vegas, Christina, who is stuck living in her elderly grandmother’s living room, because she and her young son were evicted when Christina’s benefits were cut off? Perhaps Charles and David Koch should spend their nights sharing one air mattress, like Christina and her son, and see what dignity there is in that. The Koch brothers want Americans to be dignified as they lose their homes, cars, and security.
LOL! Is she excited or what?
‘OMG! He shook my hand!’
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024792471
GOP Grapples With The Unsettling Fear That Obamacare May Succeed
Sahil Kapur – April 7, 2014, 6:00 AM EDT29391
In light of Obamacare achieving its goal of 7 million initial insurance sign-ups, William Kristol’s 1993 memo urging his party to block health care reform at all costs seems prescient. In it, the then-GOP operative’s message was remarkably candid: it’s a “serious political threat to the Republican Party.”
Kristol argued that it would cast Democrats as protectors of the middle class and “strike a punishing blow” to GOP ideals about the evils of government.
“[T]he long-term political effects of a successful Clinton health care bill will be even worse — much worse,” Kristol wrote. “It will relegitimize middle-class dependence for ‘security’ on government spending and regulation. It will revive the reputation of the party that spends and regulates, the Democrats, as the generous protector of middle-class interests. And it will at the same time strike a punishing blow against Republican claims to defend the middle class by restraining government.”
Two decades later, Democrats have achieved their century-long dream, defeating the GOP’s revived Kristol-esque strategy to destroy health care reform at all costs. Obamacare unexpectedly crossed its first big milestone last week with 7 million sign-ups on the exchanges. While the law still faces many challenges, conservatives who broadly predicted it would collapse under its own weight are forced to reckon with the unsettling fear that health care reform might succeed.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/gop-obamacare-kristol-memo-1993
https://twitter.com/theonlyadult/status/453173959077273600/photo/1
https://twitter.com/SenatorReid/status/453234124409409536/photo/1
Sell-outs – every last one of them. For a few dollars they are willing to destroy everything this country is supposed to be about.
Conservatives Are Furious With Harry Reid For Warring With The Kochs
Sahil Kapur – April 7, 2014, 11:55 AM EDT3542
Harry Reid’s war on the Koch brothers — the wealthy oil tycoons who are spending millions to defeat Democrats in the 2014 mid-terms — has sparked an intense backlash from Republicans and prominent conservatives.
The feud has grown acrimonious and personal over the last few weeks, with figures on the right leaping to the defense of the Kochs and even suggesting that the Democratic Senate majority leader is mentally unstable.
“There’s something going on with Harry Reid’s mental state and we need to really be concerned about it,” Sharron Angle, the GOP nominee who lost to Reid in the 2010 Nevada Senate race, said April 3 on her radio show. “[T]hat’s the onset of something more serious, and as you say, there’s something mentally going on here, when you can’t remember.”
“Poor Harry Reid,” Mike Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate, said on Fox News. “I mean, either he’s off his meds — and he clearly needs some assistance immediately, he needs to be rushed to an emergency room — or the man is just brazenly unable to tell the truth.”
Republican officials have echoed the attacks, which came in response to Reid’s frequent accusations that the Koch brothers are lying about Obamacare and smearing its supporters.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/harry-reid-war-kochs-conservative-backlash
Ted Kennedy Jr. To Run For Connecticut Senate
JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN – April 7, 2014, 12:28 PM EDT567
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Ted Kennedy Jr. is planning to run for the state Senate in Connecticut in his first bid for public office, two people briefed on the decision told The Associated Press on Monday.
The son of the late U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts will announce Tuesday he intends to seek the Democratic nomination for the 12th Senatorial District, two people said on condition of anonymity becauseKennedy wants to make the announcement. Kennedy said he would announce his decision that evening at a library in Branford.
Kennedy is 52-year-old health care lawyer who lives in Branford, a coastal town near New Haven, and has been mentioned as a possible political candidate for some time. He said last month he was considering running for the seat.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/ted-kennedy-jr-to-run-for-ct-senate
Vice President Biden : “Stand Up” for Voting Rights
http://youtu.be/V9LoNcjqD1w
BFD VP BIDEN gotta tell his own party to fucking get with the program, after the GOP’s voter suppression stunts the past 2 elections.
published Monday, April 7th, 2014
VW considering tossing election results and accepting UAW union, group says
An anti-union group said today that Volkswagen is considering disregarding the February election results over United Auto Workers representation at the Chattanooga plant and accepting authorization cards the union claims to have collected last year.
Matt Patterson of the Center for Worker Freedom said that such a course of action “would hand over its Chattanooga assembly plant to the UAW in spite of that union’s failure to win a February secret ballot election.”
VW workers rejected the union in a 712 to 626 vote after a three-day election overseen by the National Labor Relations Board.
Patterson, citing unidentified sources, said VW is considering recognizing the cards even though they’ve never been examined by a third party and a number of VW workers have complained to labor authorities that they had been tricked or coerced into signing such cards.
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2014/apr/07/vw-considering-tossing-election-results-and-accept/?breakingnews
Tue Apr 01, 2014 at 07:33 AM PDT
Fox News Refuses to Acknowledge Ivy League Wunderkind is Black
by Ismay
Its been covered in every media outlet. A 17-year old high school senior has been accepted to every Ivy League school he applied–8 and counting. He scored in the 99th percentile on his SATs. He’s wicked smart.
He is also a first generation African-American from Ghana.
Other outlets, such as HuffPo, or USAtoday, or abcnews or any number out there mentions his accomplishment but also says his family immigrated from Ghana, that he is African-American, and/or includes a picture of him.
Except Fox.
Their report took out any reference to where his family was from (except to say “Shirley, NY”). No reference to him being African-American, and the picture they used was of a Harvard building… even though all the other outlets found his profile, which is all over the internet.
They covered the story, I’m sure, to not be accused of failing to cover a very popular, positive story on a black kid, but at the same time, did what they could to hide the fact that he is black from their typical audience.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/04/01/1288847/-Fox-News-Refuses-to-Acknowledge-Ivy-League-Wunderkind-is-Black
Florida Senate Approves Ballot Measure Letting Next Governor Pack Supreme Court
Published on April 6, 2014.
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
The Florida Senate passed a bill this week that could raise the stakes of this year’s gubernatorial election.
The bill, S.B. 1188, would allow the winner of this year’s election to appoint three new Florida Supreme Court Justices—replacing three of the state high court’s most liberal members.
According to The Florida Current, the bill passed in the Senate along party lines on Thursday, 26-14.
These political ramifications have divided lawmakers strictly among party lines.
http://fcir.org/2014/04/06/florida-senate-approves-ballot-measure-letting-next-governor-pack-supreme-court/
Mon Apr 07, 2014 at 10:30 AM PDT
Meet the biggest douchebag ‘Democrat’ in New York—and the fearless progressive who can unseat him
by David Nir
The day after the Nov. 2012 elections, New York Democrats woke up to find they’d won a majority of seats in the 63-member state Senate—enough to take it back from Republicans, who themselves had regained the chamber in the 2010 wave.
But despite what basic math and common sense would dictate, the GOP retained control of the Senate, and still holds it to this day. So how did such an utterly nonsensical turn of events come to pass?
Two words, and remember them well: Jeff Klein.
Klein is a state senator—and a self-described “progressive” Democrat—who represents parts of the Bronx and Westchester County, including the well-to-do neighborhood of Riverdale. Klein served as deputy majority leader during the brief period from 2009-10 when Democrats ran the Senate, the first time they’d done so since the 1950s. It was a chaotic time, marred by dysfunction, and while there was plenty of blame to go around, Klein, as the party’s second in command, bore a considerable share of responsibility.
Please read below the fold for more on this story.
But when the going got tough after Republicans recaptured the Senate in 2010, Klein didn’t stick around to help rebuild his party from the inside. Along with three other alleged Democrats (David Valesky, David Carlucci, and Diane Savino), Klein broke away from his caucus to create the so-called Independent Democratic Conference, a group whose sole purpose was to suck up to the GOP.
Klein, who’d always been interested in power for its own sake, was never going to be named leader of his own party after the debacles of the prior two years, so instead, he went over to the Republicans to further his own political ambitions. In exchange, he received (among other things) a custom-carved district—just check out the remarkable lines on that thing—in the hopes of protecting himself from a primary challenge.
But abandonment was just Klein’s first step into darkness. The true betrayal came next. As Barack Obama convincingly won re-election and carried New York handily, Democrats captured 33 seats in the state Senate; the GOP, meanwhile, held on to just 30, despite a map they’d gerrymandered for their own advantage. One conservative Democrat (Simcha Felder, who represents one of the reddest districts in the chamber) sided with the Republicans with little hesitation, but that still left Democrats with a 32-31 majority.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/04/07/1290160/-Meet-the-biggest-douchebag-Democrat-in-New-York-and-the-fearless-progressive-who-can-unseat-him
UPDATED: McAllister caught in extramarital encounter, issues apology (video)
Posted: Monday, April 7, 2014 12:19 pm | Updated: 4:29 pm, Mon Apr 7, 2014.
By Zach Parker and Sam Hanna Jr. zach@ouachitacitizen.com samhannajr@samhannajr.com | 0 comments
UPDATED: Congressman Vance McAllister issued a statement Monday afternoon “asking for forgiveness” after The Ouachita Citizen first reported McAllister was captured in a video recording passionately kissing and embracing a member of his congressional staff.
http://www.hannapub.com/ouachitacitizen/news/article_dce7369e-be77-11e3-9b86-0017a43b2370.html#user-comment-area
A good post about what’s happening in Kansas
Last night, in a legislative session that extended until 3AM, and might have extended to 5AM if Republicans thought the teachers would leave the building, Kansas Republicans put forward a bill that would, in effect, end public education.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/04/06/1290050/-Day-2-of-the-Fight-for-KS-Education-in-Topeka
from POU:
Miranda
This is some BULLSHIT. These mofos dont want us to have ANYTHING. They took from FAMU before just to hand over a thriving Law School to FSU, now they wanna take away the Engineering School. This is BULLSHIT.
Senate approves money for FSU engineering school
FAMU officials balk at surprise move, remember law school closing
Apr. 4, 2014
Sen. Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, opposed a budget amendment to provide Florida State $13 million to pursue its own engineering school, ending a 30-year partnership with Florida A&M. Joyner was a member of the final class at FAMU’s original law school, eliminated in 1965 by the Legislature, a year before lawmakers approved a law school for FSU
Written by Paul Flemming
In the shadow of unhappy history, the Florida Senate Thursday approved a state budget that includes $13 million for Florida State to pursue its own engineering school separate from Florida A&M, an action that recalled bitter memories of times past when lawmakers took from FAMU and gave to FSU.
FAMU officials and alumni, including those in the Legislature, bitterly opposed the move to end a three-decade partnership with FSU in the joint College of Engineering. The budget amendment was passed on a voice vote and, later, senators approved their full $75 billion spending plan by a 37-2 vote.
The money for FSU, first raised Wednesday evening as an amendment, prompted impassioned opposition from black Democratic members, most of them graduates of FAMU who told fellow senators how the Legislature in 1965 closed the university’s law school a year before the predominantly white FSU was granted funding to open its own.
“Back in 1965, the Legislature did what it did that is similar to what’s being done today,” said Sen. Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa and an entering law student in 1965 as a member of the final graduating class of the original FAMU law school. “This is different for me than anybody here because it takes me back to a time when I sat in the stacks and studied as the books were being removed to Florida State.”
Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine and the most prominent and powerful member of the Seminoles Caucus in the Legislature, insisted his amendment would not harm FAMU and would result in more admissions for black engineering students if FAMU had its own, stand-alone College of Engineering. He said the college’s accreditation agency requires admission requirements be the same for all students and that FAMU students have been a decreasing portion of students in the college.
http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20140404/POLITICSPOLICY08/304040005/Senate-approves-money-FSU-engineering-school?nclick_check=1
KS House, Senate OK school finance bill that eliminates due process for teachers
By Bryan Lowry
Published Sunday, April 6, 2014, at 11:24 a.m.
TOPEKA — A bill that allocates millions more to schools but also strips teachers of a protection they have had since 1957 will head to the governor’s desk.
Both the House and Senate passed compromise bill HB2506 at the tail end of a marathon work weekend.
The House voted 63-57. The Senate voted 22-16.
The bill would put $129 million toward addressing inequities to satisfy a March 7 Kansas Supreme Court ruling.
It also would eliminate public school teachers’ right to due process hearings that was established by a 1957 Supreme Court case. And it would provide tax breaks for corporations that donate to scholarships for private schools.
http://www.kansas.com/2014/04/06/3388925/kansas-senate-convenes-sunday.html
this pic is hilarious. if you had one of ‘those fathers’, you can relate.
https://twitter.com/SBNation/status/453180834624045056
LOL Yep, my dad and my ex husband..
https://twitter.com/TheObamaDiary/status/453205626487709696
https://twitter.com/NerdyWonka/status/453206449888313344/photo/1
from POU:
Miranda
WOW!!! DO THE DAMN THANG LADY!!!
Louisiana State University gymnastLloinimcia Hall earned a perfect 10 for her floor routine, and the video posted to YouTube has gone viral.
The January 31 routine was the LSU junior’s third career perfect score on the floor exercise.
The Dallas native’s perfect score helped the tiger’s defeat the University of Alabama 197.650-196.825.
http://youtu.be/GsrJ1jJuhjI
God help us! The kid was building a treehouse for crying out loud!
WTFF? Black kids can’t have fun anymore?
WTF, just WTF!!
The kid is 11 years old. That cop needs to be fired at the very least, he should not be a cop and he should not be armed because it sounds like he wants to hurt someone.
Check out this BS
Not surprising at all that he would do this, cry like a baby, apologize to the family, express remorse, etc…Since the young woman is dead, she can’t tell the judge what really happened, same as Trayvon Martin. If he manages to get off, it will be another travesty.
Oscar doesn’t want to go to prison.
Just like here in America. SOME of these white men do NOT want to accept responsibility for their actions, especially MURDERS. It’s easier for them to blame it on the phantom black man!
SMGDH It’s ALL about how Postorius feels.
I’m looking forward to this week’s Native American Dance Series, SG2!
I hope everyone enjoys. I love the music. My kids claim I call up the panthers whenever I play Native American music b/c I get so into it.
Mickey Rooney passed away.
RIP, Mr. Rooney.
A movie legend. Thanks for the memories, Mr. Rooney. “Boys Town” was one of my favs.
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Happy Monday, Everyone!
Can’t wait to read in the morning. . . :)
Morning CarolMae!
I hope you enjoy!
I’m sure I will. Maybe the rain dance can put me to sleep. ;)
LOL! And may it bring lots of blessings.
☔️ ☔️ ☔️
Hi CarolMae. How are the eyes?
Well I’ve been banned from TOD by Dr. AMK until May so I don’t read or write . 😥 Got to rest my eyes. Better take his advice.
Take care of your eyes, CarolMae!
Thank you.