Happy Monday, Everyone! This week’s featured artist is Ms. Etta James
Wiki: Early life and career: 1938–1959
Jamesetta Hawkins was born on January 25, 1938 in Los Angeles to Dorothy Hawkins, who was only fourteen at the time. Her father has never been identified but was rumored to be possibly white. James speculated that her father was the pool player, Rudolf “Minnesota Fats” Wanderone, and met him briefly in 1987. Due to her mother being often absent carrying on relationships with various men, James lived with a series of caregivers, most notably “Sarge” and “Mama” Lu. James called her mother “the Mystery Lady”. Etta died on January 20th 2012.
Your mama cooked a chicken, thought it was a duck. She put it on the table with its legs cocked up.
– I’d Rather Be Blind
(Live at Montreux 1975)
2008, the movie”Cadillac Records” featured a Beyonce’s portrayal of Etta James
Love & Hip-Hop’s Mimi Faust ‘sex tape’: The Kim Kardashian Model doesn’t work for black women
Opinion
by Luvvie | April 14, 2014 at 3:53 PM
Sometimes, I wonder why people don’t want to win at life, business and their pursuit of happiness.
Today, TMZ announced that a sex tape starring Mimi Faust of Love and Hip Hop Atlanta infamy would be released by Vivid Entertainment. It stars Mimi and her boyfriend, Nikko Smith, who resembles the sloth from Ice Age – but that’s neither here nor there. I’m just petty so I had to point it out. Seriously, they’re twins.
There’s already a few screenshots of the tape floating around the Interwebs, and there’s even a Vine video of the action (because people move fast).
I am shaking my head because I wonder how we got here. Nobody’s supposed to be here. Shout-out to Deborah Cox for the foresight.
Mimi is already known for the being Chairman of the Board of Team Bad Decisions Corp. because of her volatile relationship with the father of her daughter, Stevie J. Some of you might know him as Master Splinter from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or Joseline Hernandez’s current boo. Any woman who voluntarily deals with him should be questioned for her judgment.
Still, although Mimi’s career path has been lined with foolishness, this sex tape is a new low even for her.
…………………………………..
The Kim Kardashian Model won’t work for you if you’re a black woman. It just will not. We are not afforded the same expansive boundaries of sexual expression.
In fact, the use of the word “hoe” when even Kardashian’s name comes up is still rampant (which I don’t agree with, but that’s another issue for another post). Almost a decade later, Kim still can’t step out from behind the shadow of her Ray J sex tape completely.
I’m not sure what Mimi’s trying to accomplish but unless it’s a lifetime of ridicule and disrespect, then she might have picked the wrong vehicle. She needs a mentor, a life coach and a friend in her corner who can tell her to #OccupyASeat. She needs Iyanla to pull her to the side and say, “Beloved, don’t do this!”
http://thegrio.com/2014/04/14/love-hip-hops-mimi-faust-sex-tape-the-kim-kardashian-model-doesnt-work-for-black-women/
See….this is why I think we love us some Denzel.
hat tip: TOD
http://youtu.be/O7wB_iglAu8
BWA HA HA These folks have always been this IGNORANT & MEDIOCRE. They’ve been given a pass due to the protection of the complexion.
https://twitter.com/TheObamaDiary/status/455803541735497728/photo/1
Cute picture. Everyone is looking at Bo and Sunny including the baby.
Sweet, I love how FLOTUS works with Bo & Sunny.
ICYMI Pharrell on Oprah
Spreading Happiness
April 14, 2014 — silentlyheardonce
http://silentlyheardonce.wordpress.com/2014/04/14/spreading-happiness/
https://twitter.com/TheObamaDiary/status/455804128791240704/photo/1
Lawrence O’Donnell Will Be Off MSNBC for Several Weeks After Car Accident
By Jordan Chariton on April 14, 2014 3:36 PM
Lawrence O’Donnell will be off the air for several weeks after being involved in a car accident over the weekend while vacationing.
Here’s MSNBC’s statement:
“Lawrence O’Donnell and his brother Michael were injured in a taxi accident on Saturday while vacationing out of the country. They were transported back to the US – Lawrence to NYC and Michael to Boston. They are both under the care of doctors and expected to make a full recovery. Lawrence will be off from MSNBC for several weeks as he recuperates. Our thoughts and support are with the O’Donnell family and we look forward to having Lawrence back on the air soon.”
No word yet on the extent of the O’Donnell brothers’ injuries, but MSNBC tells us both are in good spirits.
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/lawrence-odonnell-will-be-off-msnbc-air-for-several-weeks-after-car-accident_b221504
Sorry to hear about LO. Wonder why MSNBC isn’t reporting about the news from CBO about OBAMACARE!
Etta James, baby!
The Right’s New Scam: Feigning Anger on Behalf of People They Encouraged to Skip Obamacare
BY BRIAN BEUTLER @brianbeutler
Beginning last summer, and continuing unabated until a few weeks ago, conservatives undertook a variety of efforts (both subtle and explicit) to discourage people, particularly young people, from enrolling in ACA-compliant health plans.
The idea was to deny state-based insurance markets critical mass, and sound risk pools, and send them into actuarial death spirals. In almost every instance, conservatives were appealing to strangers to undertake considerable personal risk in service of dubious ideological principles.
Though these efforts failed to achieve the larger goal, they almost certainly succeeded at convincing some people to skip Obamacare. And when confronted about the recklessness of their strategy, the most unscrupulous conservatives would say, No biggie! Obamacare allows people to enroll after they get sick or injured. So there’s no risk at all.
This was a lie. And if it weren’t such a dangerous lie, I’d be amused to find that conservatives now want you to be outraged about the fact that the Affordable Care Act creates limited open-enrollment periods each year to prohibit precisely that kind of free riding.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117361/obamacare-leaves-millions-uninsured-conservatives-pretend-care
They are too beautiful for words:
https://twitter.com/AmandaMichelle/status/455773719420366848
Just DARLING… Bet they’re best buds to this day!
Tres adorable!
http://youtu.be/h5hLgkKb0Ao
BWA HA HA HA I remember the days, dudes.
I love these kids, they are quite the entertainers.
I know right. And they took me right back to the same rules my parents laid down for us. Too cool.
http://youtu.be/a-b_0k34BTo
Please tell me, how is it tea party militias aimed guns at federal agents & NO ONE was arrested? And then they paraded the photos around on Twitter and bragged about it! WTFF?! Are we not a Nation of laws?!!
Yes; but these laws apparently are reserved for land-mooching, white privileged militia men.
‘It’s not over,’ Harry Reid says of Bundy vs. BLM standoff in Southern Nevada.
http://blogs.rgj.com/politics/2014/04/14/its-not-over-harry-reid-says-of-bundy-vs-blm-standoff-in-southern-nevada/
Nerdy Wonka @NerdyWonka
Follow
AMAZING. Pres. Obama took a $1.1T deficit down to $492B. RT @BloombergNews: BREAKING: U.S. deficit will be $492 billion this year, CBO says.
10:26 AM – 14 Apr 2014
https://twitter.com/TheObamaDiary/status/455711549441585154/photo/1
Brian Beutler: Democrats Need to Start Blaming the GOP for the Death of Charlene Dill
How liberals should talk about the Medicaid expansion
On Wednesday, the Orlando Weekly published the explosive and infuriating story of Charlene Dill, a struggling, 32 year old mother of three who collapsed and died on a stranger’s floor late last month. According to Weekly reporter Billy Manes, Dill suffered from a treatable heart condition. She also fell into what policy experts call the Medicaid coverage gap — a hole the Supreme Court punctured in the health safety net when seven of its justices rendered the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion entirely voluntary.
Over 20 Republican state governments have ripped that hole wide open by refusing billions of federal dollars, offered on the sole condition that they be used to insure residents who earn less than 138 percent of the federal poverty level. In their states, residents who weren’t previously eligible for Medicaid, but currently earn too little to qualify for subsidies to purchase private insurance, are out of luck. Experts estimate that five million people nationwide have fallen into the gap. Nearly a million of those people reside in Florida alone — collateral damage in the GOP’s war against Obamacare. Dill was one of those people. She was selling a vacuum cleaner to earn the money she needed to buy her heart medication when she collapsed.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117352/charlene-dill-death-obamacare-medicaid-expansion-would-save-lives
If a Person of Color Was Committing Clive Bundy’s Crimes, the GOP Would Be Demanding Action
By: Rmuse
Monday, April, 14th, 2014, 11:19 am
The phrase law of the land is a legal term that refers to all of the laws in force within a country, including both statute law and common law, and being as such requires that all citizens of that country to obey the laws of a land regardless they agree with them. The majority of Americans adhere to the laws of the land whether they agree with them or not, and it is why there is not anarchy in the streets and why society is relatively well-ordered and safe from frequent armed confrontation with law enforcement. Since the American people first elected an African American man as their President, Republicans have shown a predilection for violating federal laws whether it is passing outright nullification legislation over non-existent gun safety measures, or passing unconstitutional legislation to get an audience before the conservative Supreme Court for authority to violate the law with judicial support. Since President Obama’s election, Republicans encouraged their teabagger and conservative supporters to violate federal laws with gun violence and, over the past two weeks, conservatives and Republicans rallied behind an un-American man who refuses to acknowledge federal government or judicial authority to enforce the law of the land.
It is without doubt that if a person of color openly violated a law in front of law enforcement and summoned assistance from gun-wielding supporters, law enforcement would gun them down with extreme prejudice and justify their actions as necessary to maintain order and bring a criminal to justice; no Republican would even consider condemning law enforcement. Republicans maintain a different stance when a white man violates federal law and court orders, and instead of condemning the man’s lawlessness and threat of violence from armed supporters, rushed to rally support for the law-breaker and defend his actions as an important stand for the right to violate federal law.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/04/14/person-color-committing-clive-bundys-crimes-gop-demanding-action.html
WP is a hellava drug!
How an HBCU Prepared Me for Harvard
My Thing Is: There’s no question about whether these schools are still relevant. It’s thanks to my time at Hampton that I was ready to take on the intellectual and emotional challenges of the Ivy League.
As a Harvard School of Education graduate, I was elated and moved to see the global conversation that the creators of the recent I, Too, Am Harvard and Being Black at the University of Michigan campaigns sparked about the experience of underrepresented groups on college campuses, including the one where I earned my master’s degree.
There’s no doubt that top institutions can feel unwelcoming to students of color. On top of the expected academic challenges, we have to battle the views of some in the school community that affirmative action has given us an undeserved opportunity.
But at Harvard, I was much less troubled than many others by those perceptions. I didn’t question my preparedness, and I was more energized than bothered by the occasional expectation that I “speak for the race” in class or by interrogations about how I handled my hair. My confidence that I belonged, and my enthusiasm for taking advantage of every opportunity the Ivy League institution offered, never faltered during my time there.
Why? I believe it was because I was fortified by my undergraduate experience at Hampton University.
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/04/hbcu_prepared_me_for_harvard_first_person_perspective.html?wpisrc=mostpopular
By: Mia Hall
Posted: April 14 2014 2:00 AM
Regular Black’ vs. ‘Ethnic Black’: Why the Divide?
The issue of identity extends beyond college campuses.
By: Diamond Sharp
Posted: April 14 2014 2:00 AM
I first heard someone at a black student union party refer to herself—and to me, by extension—as a “regular black.” The music had made a quick turn from the latest rap song to a Caribbean dancehall mix.
“Oh, I’m regular black; I don’t dance to this music.”
Well, this “regular black” continued dancing, but I was intrigued by the term.
I had never heard the term “regular black” until I reached the campus of my small liberal arts college outside Boston. As my colleague Diana Ozemebhoya Eromosele wrote last week, the term was mostly used in jest. It seemed to be a good defense to the multiple questions that I and other African Americans were asked about our ethnic ancestry.
Many of us were coming from places with large African-American populations, such as my hometown of Chicago, and had never been questioned about our ethnicity. Questions about ethnic and cultural backgrounds are typical on college campuses, where students are trying to learn more about their peers. However, there were times when it was clear that the underlying assumptions behind the questions posed to those who were “regular black” was that their cultural background was lacking and inferior to those considered “ethnic black.”
But if we’re being honest, this isn’t just an issue on elite college campuses. Colleges are just smaller versions of the outside world. In the United States, there is a long history of members of the African diaspora not engaging positively with each other. Blacks from the United States and those from the Caribbean and Africa have long had bridges to cross because of cultural differences.
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/04/regular_black_vs_ethnic_black_why_the_divide.html?wpisrc=mostpopular
Belle: A Lesson About British Slavery Buried in a Love Story
It’s the true story of a biracial woman who may have helped bring about the end of slavery in Britain.
Fresh off the Oscar success of 12 Years a Slave, another slavery-themed, major motion picture is set to hit theaters next month. For now you’ll just have to take my word that it’s about slavery, because if you watch the trailer for Belle, you might think it is strictly a love story. You wouldn’t know that the movie is actually about a woman many believe had a role in the ending of slavery in Britain.
Her name was Dido Elizabeth Belle. Her mother was an enslaved African, and her father was an officer in the British Royal Navy. (The true nature of and the circumstances surrounding their relationship are unclear.) Belle was spared a life in slavery. She was taken from her mother to live in the home of her aristocratic great-uncle, where, even as an illegitimate child, she was afforded the privileged life that came with her father’s bloodline. But because she was also biracial/black, she was denied full societal and familial acceptance. As the character sums it up in the movie, “How may I be too high in rank to dine with the servants but too low to dine with my family?”
The filmmakers take some liberties with parts of her story. Belle’s love affair with a white man, John Davinier, is given the dramatic Hollywood treatment and plays prominently in the movie, but the real-life Belle did marry Davinier. Her family circumstances are also historically accurate, including that her great-uncle, the man who raised her, was the first earl of Mansfield. He served as lord chief justice of England in the late 18th century and presided over two of the most significant legal cases during the transatlantic slave trade that eventually led to the abolition of slavery in Britain. And one of the cases, Gregson v. Gilbert, serves as the backdrop for the movie
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/04/belle_the_biracial_woman_who_may_have_changed_the_course_of_britain_s_slave.html
Harvard Accepts Record Percentage of Black Students
An estimated 170 could enter the university this fall.
BY: DIAMOND SHARP Posted: April 14 2014 10:43 AM
College admissions letters are out, and for the Class of 2018, Harvard University has accepted a record-high percentage of black students.
According to the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, of Harvard’s total acceptances for the Class of 2018, 11.9 percent are black, the highest ever for the university. The Journal estimates that nearly 170 black students will enter Harvard this fall. Overall, Harvard accepted only 2,023 students from a pool of 34,295 applicants.
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/04/_harvard_accepts_record_percentage_of_black_students.html?wpisrc=topstories
RNC unveils its ‘14 in ‘14’ plan
04/14/14 10:20 AM
By Steve Benen
When Democratic policymakers started a fight over the Paycheck Fairness Act, Republicans responded by dismissing it as a hollow, election-year stunt. Sure, it was a substantive policy response to a legitimate issue, but GOP officials said the debate itself was little more than a cheap political exercise – which women voters would see through immediately.
And speaking of cheap political exercises that women voters will see through immediately…
The Republican National Committee plans to a new initiative, “14 in ‘14,” to recruit and train women under age 40 to help spread the party’s message in the final 14 weeks of the campaign. […]
They are encouraging candidates to include their wives and daughters in campaign ads, have women at their events and build a Facebook-like internal database of women willing to campaign on their behalf.
I see. If Democrats push the Paycheck Fairness Act, they’re cynically trying to give the appearance of helping women in the workplace. But if Republicans include more women in campaign ads, that’s just quality messaging.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/rnc-unveils-its-14-14-plan
Another Republican Goes Down as Rick Perry Is The Focus Of a Criminal Investigation
Texas Gov. Rick Perry has lawyered up as the criminal investigation into whether he illegally withheld money from a district attorney’s office is gaining steam.[….] Perry got himself into hot water by threating to withhold $7.5 million in funding unless the Democratic Travis County DA resigned. Perry wanted her to resign after she was convicted of a DWI. The Democrat promised not to run for reelection, but refused to resign.
Perry’s actions put a cloud of uncertainty over hundreds of criminal
investigations and were illegal. The governor can’t withhold funding in order to pressure another elected official to resign. The matter of the DA and her DWI is an issue between her and the voters.[….]
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/04/14/republican-rick-perry-focus-criminal-investigation.html
http://youtu.be/mPpiK8-ziq0
My favorite is…
when they use your whole name…you’re in trouble.
who doesn’t know that?
LOL
LOL! Yes ma’am! Like when I Joshua vs Josh or Jonne’ Michelle means they’re in TROUBLE!
http://youtu.be/77HMSuKUNLQ
The Republican id, on full display
04/14/14 09:34 AM
By Steve Benen
There will be plenty of cattle calls for Republicans with national ambitions in the coming months, but one notable event was held over the weekend in the nation’s first primary state. The inaugural New Hampshire Freedom Summit, co-sponsored by the Koch brothers’ Americans For Prosperity, drew quite a crowd of likely candidates: Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Mike Lee, and Mike Huckabee, each trying to out conservative the other.
NBC’s Mark Murray and Carrie Dann had a good piece on the event this morning, noting how clear it’s become that today’s Republican Party is “more distant from the Bush family” than at any point since early 2009.
At the [event] Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) delivered one of the more well-received lines at the conference when she criticized the Common Core education standards that Jeb Bush supports. “We need to replace Common Core with some common sense!” she said. In fact, NBC’s Kasie Hunt says Common Core was the loudest applause line at the confab. The crowd also booed when another speaker, Donald Trump, mentioned Jeb Bush’s recent remark that illegal immigration is “act of love.”
The Bushes support comprehensive immigration reform, but at the New Hampshire Freedom Summit, immigration reform was a non-starter. The Bushes support Common Core education standards, but at the New Hampshire Freedom Summit, Common Core is seen as a dangerous part of a government conspiracy. The Bush administration launched expansive government surveillance programs as part of a sweeping counter-terrorism agenda, but at the New Hampshire Freedom Summit, the right has suddenly decided it finds such efforts outrageous.
Benjy Sarlin reported this jaw-droppper from Huckabee’s speech: “My gosh, I’m beginning to think that there’s more freedom in North Korea sometimes than there is in the United States. When I go to the airport, I have to get in the surrender position, people put hands all over me, and I have to provide photo ID and a couple of different forms and prove that I really am not going to terrorize the airplane – but if I want to go vote I don’t need a thing.”
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/the-republican-id-full-display
On pay equity, if you’re explaining, you’re losing
04/14/14 08:00 AM
By Steve Benen
During last week’s debate on the Paycheck Fairness Act, congressional Republicans insisted they were wholly unconcerned about facing a public backlash over killing the bill. In fact, they kept talking about how unfazed they were, over and over again, raising questions as to whether they were trying to convince us or themselves.
Over the weekend, perhaps unfamiliar with the phrase “doth protest too much,” congressional Republicans continued to show just how unconcerned they are about the pay-equity debate by devoting their weekly national address to explaining themselves.
The House’s highest-ranking female Republican sought to rebuff criticism over a move by Senate GOP lawmakers this week to block equal pay legislation.
“I have always supported equal pay for equal work,” said Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) in Saturday’s weekly Republican address.
She added that existing laws are adequate in addressing wage discrimination before arguing, “[F]or women across American, it’s not just about equal pay. It’s about achieving a better life.” The entirety of McMorris Rodgers’ address is online here.
At this point, it appears the two sides of the debate are talking past one another. Democrats are saying, “Congress should approve remedies to prevent, discourage, and address unequal pay for equal work,” to which Republicans keep replying, “We support equal pay for equal work.”
But the asymmetry between them remains a problem. It’s certainly nice that GOP policymakers support equal pay for equal work – literally no one on Capitol Hill is running around publicly endorsing wage discrimination against women – but the posture misses the point. The debate isn’t about whether pay equity is worthwhile, but rather, how best to work towards the goal.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/pay-equity-if-youre-explaining
Sunday, April 13, 2014
Bundy Ranch, Privilege, And Cattle
If you want to know what I mean by privilege, take a look at the Bundy Ranch incident in Nevada this weekend.
……………….
Guy grazes his herd on federal land for 20 years, doesn’t pay a dime. Feds show up to actually do something about the guy squatting on federal land for two decades, it triggers a showdown with dozens of armed militia types ready to put a few holes in some feds and start another Ruby Ridge. Feds wisely figure this is exactly what these assholes want and leave for now.
Here’s where the privilege comes in.
Can you imagine what the reaction of America would be to a black cattle rancher grazing cattle on federal land, without paying the feds, for 20 years? Think about how that would be reported. Cliven Bundy is considered a patriot and hero for resisting the awful mean ol’ federal government, despite breaking the law for two decades plus. If he was black, the calls from the same exact people now hailing him as a hero would be far, far different.
Furthermore,look who showed up to help Bundy. What do you think FOX News’s reaction of an armed group of black men showing up to defend that cattle rancher from the feds? You’d be hearing about race wars and all kinds of crazy shit. Worse, the white militia guys showing up now to defend Bundy would absolutely be on the scene hunting down the black ranchers.
It would be chaos. And it sure wouldn’t have ended peacefully, that’s for damn sure.
ABC News calls Bundy a “defiant cattleman”. If he was black, he would be a “militant thug.”
And then he’d be dead.
http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2014/04/bundy-ranch-privilege-and-cattle.html
This Bundy fuckery is some white privilege bullshit of the highest order.
Sunday, April 13, 2014
America’s Conversation On Race Is Apparently Now Over
So declares Brit Hume and George F. Will of FOX, who are tired of black people being black and just want them to be American, because as white men they’re sick of hearing about racism. And by “black people”, they mean liberals.
And thus the conversation about race in America is now over because if you’re black, Hume and Will don’t want to hear about it. You need to be American instead and just get over it. Besides, being black is a huge advantage, because look at all the black US Presidents and US Attorneys General we’ve had in America’s history.
Should you still have a problem with this or the way President Obama or AG Holder have been treated, well, the statute of limitations is up and now “racist” and “racism” are meaningless terms because they don’t exist. How can they with a black president and black AG?
http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2014/04/americas-conversation-on-race-is.html
Republicans Plan Weird and Extreme Voter Suppression Tricks for 2014
By: Adalia Woodbury
Sunday, April, 13th, 2014, 10:35 am
When President Obama spoke about voting rights on Friday, he pointed out that the severity of the Republican Party’s attack on voter rights is the most serious it has been in the past 50 years.
President Obama also addressed the Republican Party’s marketing ploys to justify laws that everyone knows are intended to suppress the vote.
While recognizing that we need reasonable rules to ensure the integrity of our elections, President Obama said he is against requiring ID that millions of Americans don’t have.
On the question of voter fraud, President Obama used something Republicans don’t believe in – evidence based data
Occasionally, Republicans are forced to walk back a vote suppression policy. For example, Ohio Republicans backed down following a public outcry when they tried to financially penalize the state’s largest county for sending out absentee ballots.
Still, there is no tactic too extreme or too low for the Republican Party to try if they can get away with it. These extend beyond the already unacceptable restrictions on voter and registration ID, shorter voting hours, eliminated weekend voting, reduced or eliminated early voting, reduced or eliminated absentee voting, and eliminated same day registration.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/04/13/republican-voter-suppression-guide-2014-edition.html
Morning Plum: The GOP’s economic agenda for women
By Greg Sargent
April 14 at 9:05 am
As you know, Dems are gearing up a major 2014 campaign push to emphasize pocketbook issues designed to appeal to female voters — the minimum wage hike; pay equity; an emphasis on Obamacare’s protections for women. Now the Republicans Party is planning a counterattack.
But judging by today’s reports, the new GOP strategy appears to be largely cosmetic, with little emphasis on any concrete economic policy agenda for women — with the exception, perhaps, of the continued vow to repeal Obamacare’s protections for them.
The Associated Press hits all the high points of the new strategy. There’s a new initiative, “14 in 14,” to recruit women under 40 for outreach to other women to get them to the polls. GOP officials are also “encouraging candidates to include their wives and daughters in campaign ads.”
Republicans will also continue to highlight pay inequity on the White House staff, point out that women have suffered under the #Obummer economy (reprising a strategy that didn’t work for Mitt Romney in 2014), and, of course, continue to highlight the ways Obamacare is hurting people (without acknowledging the law’s beneficiaries).
Which again raises the question: Do Republicans have an economic agenda for women? Do they need one?
Republicans, to be sure, may win big in 2014 no matter what agenda they roll out, thanks to the map and other fundamentals (including the fact that unmarried women, a key constituency for Dems, tend to drop off faster in midterms than married women do). And Republicans are right to stress good old fashioned GOTV efforts — such organizing could matter as much as issues in getting out the right voters.
But as David Hawkings has argued well, the battle over the female vote has ramifications that go well beyond 2014. “No matter how many caveats and qualifiers are factored into the calculations,” Hawkings notes, “women are still paid measurably less than men for doing the same work. And the Republicans in Congress are steadfastly opposed to the legislative remedies they’ve been offered for closing the gap.” Meanwhile: “What has changed is the political gender gap, steadily widening and reaching record proportions — to the seemingly obvious and dangerous detriment for the Republicans.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/04/14/morning-plum-the-gops-economic-agenda-for-women/
Kathleen Sebelius Crushes The GOP Lie That She Was Forced To Resign Due of Obamacare
By: Jason Easley
Sunday, April, 13th, 2014, 7:38 pm
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius came out today, and smashed the Republican lie that she was forced to resign by President Obama and Senate Democrats.
What Sebelius said makes perfect sense. The theory that Ted Cruz advanced that Senate Democrats forced Sebelius out was complete lunacy. Cruz based his theory on a fantasy that all Democrats are scared and losing their seats, so they pushed Sebelius out to save their own hides.
Sebelius makes it clear in this interview that she wanted to leave at the end of the president’s first term, but she stuck around to finish the job, and get the ACA rolled out. The truth is that political optics did play a role in the timing of her departure. There is no doubt that the White House wanted her to exit on a high note, and if she had resigned sooner, Republicans would have claimed that she was resigning because of the rough website launch.
Kathleen Sebelius pretty much had to stay at HHS until things were running well, but she made it clear that she is leaving on her own terms now. She got the ACA through stage one. It will be up to her replacement to lead the administration of the Affordable Care Act into the future.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/04/13/kathleen-sebelius-crushes-gop-lie-forced-resign-due-obamacare.html
Today I had to break out the Eskimo Coat, Hat, Scarf, Boots.
sigh
Ha! I’m soooo feeling you, Rikyrah. 18 degrees tonight?!!! WTH
Good Morning, Everyone! :-)
Good Morning, Everyone :)