Night Heat is a Canadian police drama series, which aired on CTV from 1985 to 1991. The show also aired on CBS in the United States from 1987 to 1993 and was the first Canadian-produced drama series to air on an American network. CBS aired the series as part of CBS Late Night, a late night block of drama programming.
The show starred Allan Royal as journalist Tom Kirkwood, who chronicled the nightly police beat of detectives Kevin O’Brien (Scott Hylands) and Frank Giambone (Jeff Wincott). The cast also included Susan Hogan, Wendy Crewson, Sean McCann, Louise Vallance, and Clark Johnson. Concurrent with her work on Night Heat, Vallance was starring in the children’s series Zoobilee Zoo, playing a very different character.
Night Heat has since aired in reruns on Showcase, TVtropolis and DejaView.
A popular urban legend surrounds the filming of an episode featuring scenes set in New York City but filmed in Toronto. It is said that garbage was strewn around on the scene, to mimic New York’s less clean appearance than Toronto. However, while the cast and crew were on a lunch break, a City of Toronto Sanitation official ‘cleaned’ the street, believing it to be genuinely dirty. This story has been associated with various films, but is thought most likely to have occurred during the filming of Night Heat, if at all.
“There’s Still Bias Out There, and We Still Need Affirmative Action”
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/04/educational_bias_is_one_reason_we_still_need_affirmative_action.html?wpisrc=topstories
*SIGH* Democrat mayoral candidate Marie Burke: This is gonna be a (expletive) (N-word) town.” 1:18 mark.
Black Canseco @BlackCanseco
When MySpace got too Blackety, Whitefolk ran to Facebook. FB got all swirly, off to Twitter. Now POCs cookin on Twitter: “Twitter is dying.”
Rep. Thompson doubles down on racial remarks in interview with CNN’s Dana Bash
Bash: When you said Clarence Thomas was an “Uncle Tom,” what did you mean by that?
Thompson: “Well if you look at his decisions on the court, they have been adverse to the minority community, and the people I represent have a real issue with an African American not being sensible to those issues.”
Bash: Isn’t that a racially charged term?
Thompson: “For some it is, but to others it’s the truth.”
Bash: Because looking at that and hearing that kind of language, that certainly wouldn’t be appropriate if it was coming from somebody who was white.
Thompson: “But I’m black.”
Bash: That makes it OK?
Thompson: “I mean, you’re asking me the question, and I’m giving you a response. The people that I represent, for the most part, have a real issue with those decisions–voter ID, affirmative action, Affordable Care Act–all those issues are very important and for someone in the court who’s African American and not sensitive to that is a real problem.”
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/04/30/rep-thompson-doubles-down-on-racial-remarks-in-interview-with-cnns-dana-bash/
Sit your ass down somewhere Dana, Your false equivalency’s not working for Bernie!
BYE GIRL!
x 2
Paul Ryan Won’t Let Poor People Testify At Hearing About Poverty
By Bryce Covert April 30, 2014 at 12:30 pm Updated: April 30, 2014 at 2:05 pm
On Wednesday, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) will hold a hearing on poverty called “A Progress Report on the War on Poverty: Lessons from the Frontlines.” While it will feature three experts, none of them are actually low-income Americans who struggle to get by.
But that’s not for lack of trying from some poor people themselves. Witnesses to Hunger, an advocacy project that shares the stories of low-income Americans, has tried and failed twice to have some of their members who live in poverty speak at Ryan’s poverty hearings. “When Ryan had his first hearing last July,” Director Mariana Chilton told ThinkProgress, “we wrote to his office to see if we could testify, but they weren’t interested.” While Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) tried to get one of their low-income members to speak, it was too late. They were asked to submit written testimony instead.
Chilton’s organization stayed in touch with his office and immediately called his press team when they saw the announcement for Wednesday’s hearing. “They said, ‘It’s too late, we’ve already chosen our people.’” There was one slot left to be filled by Democrats, but that went to Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children’s Defense Fund. “I think Marian Wright Edelman is a great choice,” Chilton said. But “they had a stronger interest in having a more well-known person to testify.” That means that once again, the hearing won’t feature anyone who really is on the frontlines of poverty. “None of the people who are testifying today are currently living in poverty and it’s unclear if they really know what’s going on from the perspective of people living in it,” she said.
And the written testimonies they submitted will probably do little to impact the conversation. “They’re submitted and they disappear,” Chilton said. Tianna Gaines-Turner sent in a document last year, and this year Barbie Izquierdo has done the same. “If you look at the July hearing for the War on Poverty, you don’t see evidence of Tianna Gaines-Turner’s submitted testimony,” she added. It’s not on the website for the hearing, despite her requests to his office that they include the document, although it has been included on page 64 of the record. Izquierdo’s will probably meet the same fate. “Asking for formal written testimony is a way to let Paul Ryan’s office off the hook,” she said.
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/04/30/3432697/paul-ryan-poverty-hearing-poor-people/
great pics
Pete Souza: The Trip to Asia
By Chipsticks
http://theobamadiary.com/2014/04/30/pete-souza-the-trip-to-asia/
KSK(africa) @lawalazu
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GOP blocks minimum wage bill in the Senate.
There is no Moderate GOP.
GOP=Tea=GOP
Full Stop. Period. The end.
2:06 PM – 30 Apr 2014
https://twitter.com/omojuwa/status/461542923277176832/photo/1
heart-rending
A video clip, shown on Faroese Television on Tuesday (November 26), showed a
washed-up dead sperm whale explode, spraying entrails all over. The dead whale had been lying on the beach for two days after it got stuck in waters
Between the Faroe Islands’ two biggest islands.On Tuesday, marine biologist Bjarni Mikkelsen was dispatched to cut it open. As he did so, the whale exploded – the explosion being the result of methane gas accumulating
http://youtu.be/d2CfYOJ5oxk
Kathryn Brusco @KathrynBruscoBk
Fox News allegedly demoted Shepard Smith because he asked to come out: http://slate.me/1o3HIsu pic.twitter.com/uZUUA9yz6m via @Slate #lgbt
Retweeted by Morphus Bfly
Global Grind News @GlobalGrindNews 30m
Heartbreaking: Missing Nigerian girls reportedly sold as brides to militants for $12 each http://bit.ly/R3Ftdi #BringBackOurGirls
Obamacare beneficiary: ‘You wouldn’t have caught me dead watching MSNBC’
By Erik Wemple
April 29 at 3:43 pm
The story of Dean Angstadt’s sudden embrace of Obamacare made MSNBC last night. Host Chris Hayes picked up on a heartwarming story in the Philadelphia Inquirer about a 57-year-old logger of Boyertown, Pa., who’d resisted signing up for Obamacare coverage but finally relented under the urging of a friend.
Noted Hayes of Angstadt, “He was so resistant to the thought of submitting to the tyrannical Obamacare pushed by a party he despises that he refused to sign up, even though he needed to have a heart valve replaced. Finally, his friend basically staged an intervention, helping him apply and choose a plan, which then enabled him to have life-saving surgery. And without that, Angstadt says — quote — ‘I probably would have ended up falling over dead.’”
In an interview with the Erik Wemple Blog today, Angstadt reported having watched that MSNBC segment online today. It was an introduction of sorts: “You wouldn’t have caught me dead watching MSNBC,” said Angstadt. “That’s probably the longest I’d ever sat and watched MSNBC in my life.”
………………
Asked if Fox News had molded his view of Obamacare, Angstadt responded, “Yeah, yeah — they get people fired up. You know what, I really do have a different outlook on it. It’s really wrong that people are making it into a political thing. To me, it is a life-and-death thing.” Of Obamacare’s namesake, Angstadt says, “I didn’t care for Obama. I can’t say nothing bad about him now because it was his plan that probably saved my life
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2014/04/29/obamacare-beneficiary-you-wouldnt-have-caught-me-dead-watching-msnbc/
OMG! Listening to Fox News almost cost this man his life and he went along willingly.
—By Kevin Drum
| Tue Apr. 29, 2014 10:29 PM PDT
Judge Lynn Adelman, a federal district judge in Wisconsin, struck down that state’s voter ID law today. This was despite the Supreme Court’s 2008 decision in Crawford v. Marion County that Indiana’s voter ID law was justified. So what was different this time?
In a word, better arguments from one side. In Crawford, the state presented virtually no evidence that in-person voter fraud was a problem in Indiana—but neither did the plaintiffs provide much evidence that a voter ID law presented a serious obstacle to voting. Given this, the state’s interest in preventing voter fraud—even if that interest was more speculative than real—carried the day.
This time, the state once again produced virtually no evidence that in-person voter fraud was even a potential problem. But the judge was presented with loads of evidence that the burden of obtaining a photo ID was, in fact, quite high for low-income voters in particular. Since Crawford mandated the use of a balancing test to assess whether a photo ID law was justified, that made the difference and Wisconsin’s law was struck down.
The full opinion is here. Below are a few excerpts that explain Adelman’s reasoning. It’s worth a read because I wouldn’t be surprised if another photo ID case makes it to the Supreme Court sometime in the next few years. If it does, better arguments about the burden imposed by ID laws will be key to any reconsideration of Crawford.
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2014/04/heres-why-wisconsins-voter-id-law-got-struck-down
Breakout Star Alert: Gugu Mbatha-Raw Stars in Belle
By Joane Amay
A lifetime spent developing a career that keeps her as much on the London stage as the Hollywood film lot is finally paying off for Gugu Mbatha-Raw. Now 30, the transatlantic beauty that was born in Oxford to an English mother and South African father, first caught the acting bug at the age of 11 after playing Dorothy in a school production of the Wizard of Oz. By 17, she was touring with the National Youth Music Theatre in Stephen Sondheim’s Into The Woods and the musical Pendragon in Japan. By 18, she had enrolled in the prestigious RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art). Successful stints on the popular British television series Doctor Who and Spooks soon followed, but in 2009, her portrayal of Ophelia in the Broadway production of Hamlet with Jude Law caught the eye of Hollywood power players. J.J. Abrams, the creator of Lost, offered her a part in his short-lived TV show Undercovers (alongside Boris Kodjoe); Tom Hanks cast her in 2011’s Larry Crowne with Julia Roberts, and she starred opposite Kiefer Sutherland and Danny Glover in Fox’s drama, Touch.
But after spending years perfecting her American accent on stateside productions, a little bout of homesickness motivated her to accept the title role in the British film Belle, a Jane Austen-esque period piece based on the true story of Dido Elizabeth Belle, the illegitimate bi-racial daughter of a British Royal Navy Admiral, who was raised as an aristocratic Lady. “I was absolutely thrilled. I felt this was the role I was meant to play,” Mbatha-Raw says. “It must have been a difficult position for [Dido] to be privileged but still not equal,” she says.
http://uptownmagazine.com/2014/04/gaga-gugu-mbatha-raw-belle/
Will Liberal Cities Leave the Rest of America Behind?
APRIL 29, 2014
How can governments adopt substantial, effective policies in order to benefit the poor and the working class when corporations, the affluent and owners of capital can pull up stakes and relocate with ease?
The declining ability of the American political order to deliver a steadily rising standard of living to the vast middle and working classes began to show itself in the 1970s, well before most people grasped the significance of what was happening around them. Decades of globalization have been accompanied by diminishing opportunity for those in midlevel jobs; by stagnant wages, especially for men without college degrees; and by the virtual collapse of private sector unionization.
Standing in opposition to these adverse trends, a wave of newly elected mayors from New York to Seattle has taken office committed to deploying the power of city government and aggressive wage and tax policies to attack inequality and revive social and economic mobility.
These outspoken mayors have generated a growing optimism on the Democratic left that local officials can restore support for government activism. Mayors and city councils, in this view, can lead the drive to improve the prospects and living conditions of those in the bottom third of the income distribution.
Harold Meyerson, the editor-at-large of The American Prospect, argues in “The Revolt of the Cities” that this insurgency is already in motion. Urban chief executives are raising minimum wages; requiring contractors to hire inner-city residents and to increase pay on municipal projects; backing local union organizing efforts; initiating or expanding pre-K schooling; extending public transit into poor neighborhoods; and requiring police to videotape contacts with citizens.
“They are, in short, enacting at the municipal level many of the major policy changes that progressives have found themselves unable to enact at the federal and state levels,” Meyerson writes. “They also may be charting a new course for American liberalism.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/30/opinion/edsall-will-liberal-cities-leave-the-rest-of-america-behind.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0
So, we’re looking for a Summer Camp for Peanut. Here’s the thing…how can the same program description in the Park District, result in a price difference of HUNDREDS of Dollars, depending on the park?
So, to help Peanut’s mother, I’ve been going park to park, checking out the neighborhood and address.
Peanut’s at that difficult age. If I put her with the toddlers, she’s at the top end, and they only do half day programs, and what’s the point of the half-day program?
So, I’ve been looking at programs where she’ll be the youngest, but trying off-the-beaten path programs. I know which one I’m rooting for, and I hope her mother agrees, but I’ve given her a pack of options.
Camp is pricy.
Rikyrah, sounds wonderful. I haven’t seen pics of little Peanut in so long. I’ll bet she’s beautiful as ever. Sweet little doll!
Peanut’s blessed to have her Auntie Rikyrah look out for her. Now that you’ve help do the leg work for Peanut’s mom, she’ll have some really great options now. I know you’ll let her know your rationale for your top choice.
Jon Favreau @jonfavs
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Really wish Maureen Dowd would spare the rest of us and just send her fan mail directly to the President every month
6:56 AM – 30 Apr 2014
GOP Lawmakers Confronted By Constituents Demanding To Know Why They Won’t Expand Medicaid
By Tara Culp-Ressler April 29, 2014 at 2:04 pm
Updated: April 29, 2014 at 2:26 pm
Americans for Prosperity (AFP), a right-wing group funded by the billionaire Koch Brothers, has been aggressively pressuring states to reject Obamacare’s optional Medicaid expansion. Last fall, the organization launched a massive campaign that has focused mainly on Virginia. But the latest town hall meetings hosted by AFP in the state aren’t exactly going well.
Over the past week, at several town halls intended to emphasize why Virginia shouldn’t expand Medicaid, GOP lawmakers have been confronted by constituents who are demanding to know why they’re denying health care from an estimated 400,000 low-income residents.
Last week, at an AFP-sponsored forum in Charlottesville featuring two GOP lawmakers who oppose the expansion, the event was packed with more than a hundred Medicaid supporters. Protesters gathered outside the building with signs encouraging passing cars to honk for Medicaid expansion, and a local outlet noted that the politicians faced a “hostile audience” inside, too.
Then, on Monday, three Republicans were “deluged with questions” about their refusal to expand Medicaid at an AFP event in Ashburn. The “largely hostile, relentless audience” asked why the lawmakers would want to turn down the billions in federal funding that’s designated for the states expanding their public health programs, particularly since business groups in Virginia support the policy.
Also on Monday, an anti-expansion Republican faced push back at an AFP town hall in Waynesboro, fending off multiple questions about Virginia’s refusal to extend coverage to additional low-income residents. Attendees pointed out that the benefits of expanding the program outweigh the potential costs.
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/04/29/3432249/gop-lawmakers-virginia-medicaid/
Putin drives Russia into economic recession
04/30/14 11:13 AM
By Steve Benen
One of these days, the right really ought to take a moment to reevaluate their assumptions about Russian President Vladimir Putin being a strategic super-genius.
The International Monetary Fund estimates that Russia’s economy has already entered recession.
Last year, Russia’s economy grew 1.3 percent, its weakest rate in the past 13 years with the exception of 2009, when the country suffered in the global downturn. The growth slowed further this year as investors pulled money out of the county amid concerns over Russia’s policy in Ukraine.
The head of the IMF mission in Russia, Antonio Spilimbergo, told reporters Wednesday that Russia is already in recession as fears of broad economic sanctions weigh on the economy.
The Wall Street Journal report noted that the head of the IMF’s mission to Russia, Antonio Spilimbergo added that sanctions against Moscow have already hurt investment activity, fueled capital flight, and sent the ruble to all-time lows. If Putin’s moves lead to economic consequences, it’s likely to “reduce investment and growth further.”
This certainly doesn’t bolster the GOP’s complaints that the Obama administration’s sanctions are toothless and inconsequential.
But even putting that aside, Putin is quite the grandmaster chess player, isn’t he? The Russian leader has pushed his country into a recession and investors are “fleeing the country.” Diplomatically, Russia is increasingly isolated. Much of the world thinks the Russian president has gone nuts.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/putin-drives-russia-economic-recession
Forbes: Here’s How Obama’s Russia Sanctions Will Destroy Vladimir Putin
The US Treasury Department announced further sanctions today on seven Russian officials and 17 Russian companies, including Igor Sechin, the head of Rosneft, Russia’s largest oil company, several financial institutions and a number of firms connected to the energy sector. These will include visa bans, asset freezes and further restrictions on trade.
When the first round of sanctions were imposed, the Russians largely laughed them off and critics of the administration pounced. How could visa bans and asset freezes affect the calculus of Putin’s most ardent supporters? What effect will it have on the ones don’t travel extensively the West or keep assets in foreign banks?
Yet this line of reasoning betrays a deep misunderstanding about the purpose and effects of the sanctions. They are, in fact, a new breed of financial warfare that the Treasury department has been honing since 9/11, which rely on new legislation such as Section 311 of the Patriot Act and “know your customer” banking rules.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregsatell/2014/04/28/heres-how-obamas-sanctions-will-destroy-vladimir-putin/
Charles Pierce: Another Win For Voting Rights
There is so little good news on the voter-suppression front these days that, when some actually rears its head, it catches you somewhat by surprise, even more so when it cites what everybody knows about these laws, but what many people have to pretend they can’t figure out.
…. There will be appeals. There also may be an attempt to push another, similar bill through the legislature by Scott Walker, the goggle-eyed homunculus hired by Koch Industries to manage their midwest subsidiary formerly known as the state of Wisconsin. But, for now, something resembling the state’s proud progressive history has prevailed.
Sentencing / Post-Conviction
Oklahoma inmate dies of heart attack after botched execution; second scheduled execution postponed
Updated: An inmate died after his execution at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester was botched, and the second execution also scheduled for Tuesday evening has been postponed.
Witnesses say that Clayton Lockett kicked and grimaced and lifted his head from the gurney to which he was strapped in reaction to the execution drugs, Tulsa World reported. Sixteen minutes into the execution, the department of corrections closed the death chamber blinds to the media and other observers, and Department of Corrections Director Robert Patton was on the phone for several minutes before calling a halt to the execution and issuing a 14-day stay for the execution of Charles Warner, according to Tulsa World and the Associated Press. Patton characterized the problem as a vein failure. Lockett was pronounced dead of a massive heart attack at 7:06 p.m.—43 minutes after the process began, Tulsa World reported.
“It was extremely difficult to watch,” Lockett’s attorney, David Autry, told the Associated Press afterward. Autry and fellow Lockett attorney Dean Sanderford were the only witnesses present in the death chamber, Tulsa World reported.
http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/oklahoma_plans_double_execution_for_tuesday_evening/?utm_source=maestro&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily_email
I really enjoyed PBS series “Pioneers of Television” last night. Thanks for the hat tip, Rikyrah.
Charlie Crist is a Human Oil Slick.
But, he’s what can win as a Democrat in Florida, so, just get thy asses to the polls and vote for him.
The good part about Crist being a Human Oil Slick is that he knows every trick in the book and isn’t afraid to do them all.
How he showed up Valdemort’s Lt. Governor the other week was a thing of beauty.
And unlike a whole lotta scared ass Democrats, Crist is running on Obamacare.
In the contest between the Human Oil Slick – Charlie Crist and Governor Valdemort, here’s the latest:
…………………….
Looking for complaints, Rick Scott instead finds praise for Obamacare
By Anthony ManSun Sentinel
3:02 p.m. EDT, April 29, 2014
Gov. Rick Scott visited a senior center Tuesday to warn about cuts he said Obamacare is forcing in a popular version of the Medicare health program and to collect their horror stories.
What he found was a satisfied group with few complaints.
The 20 seniors assembled for a roundtable with Scott at the Volen Center were largely content with their Medicare coverage and didn’t have negative stories to recount.
And some praised Obamacare – a program that Scott frequently criticizes.
“I’m completely satisfied,” Harvey Eisen, 92, a West Boca resident, told Scott.
Eisen told the governor he wasn’t sure “if, as you say,” there are Obamacare-inspired cuts to Medicare. But even if there are, that would be OK. “I can’t expect that me as a senior citizen are going to get preferential treatment when other programs are also being cut.”
Ruthlyn Rubin, 66, of Boca Raton, told the governor that people who are too young for Medicare need the health coverage they get from Obamacare. If young people don’t have insurance, she said, everyone else ends up paying for their care when they get sick or injured and end up in the hospital.
Eventually, Rubin said, Obamacare will become more popular. “People were appalled at Social Security. They were appalled at Medicare when it came out. I think these major changes take some people aback. But I think we have to be careful not to just rely on the fact that we’re seniors and have an entitlement to certain things,” she said.
“We’re all just sitting here taking it for granted that because we have Medicare we don’t want to lose one part of it. That’s wrong to me. I think we have to spread it around. This is the United States of America. It’s not the United States of senior citizens,” Rubin said from her spot two seats away from the governor.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/broward-politics-blog/sfl-rick-scott-obamacare-20140429,0,5601325.story
Bogus ‘Moderate’ Susan Collins Plans to Vote Down Min Wage Increase
By: Keith Brekhus
Tuesday, April, 29th, 2014, 8:53 pm
Striking a blow against low-wage American workers, Maine’s GOP Senator Susan Collins signaled her opposition to a plan to raise the nation’s minimum wage to 10.10 an hour, likely dooming the bills chances of reaching a vote in the U.S Senate. Although the bill has the expected support of almost every Senate Democrat (52 out of 53 with Mark Pryor of Arkansas being the one possible exception) and both Senate Independents (Maine’s Angus King and Vermont’s Bernie Sanders) it lacks any Republican support. Bob Corker (R) of Tennessee is the only Senate Republican who plans to allow the bill to come up for a vote, although he intends to ultimately vote down the measure.
Collins, who the media is fond of describing as a “moderate” Senator, has aligned herself with right-wing opposition to a pay raise for America’s low wage workers. The Harkin bill that she opposes would raise the minimum wage in steps to a modest 10.10 an hour by 2016. The bill also would boost the minimum wage for tipped employees from a paltry 2.13 an hour to a more substantial 7.07 hourly rate by 2016.
Collins’ choice to side with the right-wing of the Republican Party further illustrates the complete collapse of the centrist wing of the GOP over the past decade. New England moderates once held several seats in the Senate, and could sometimes be counted on to vote for legislation that helped working class Americans. Collins herself has voted for some minimum wage increases in the past, but increasingly she has abandoned any pretense of moderation, choosing instead to vote the party line and stick it to the American worker.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/04/29/bogus-moderate-susan-collins-plans-vote-min-wage-increase.html
Buried in Your Primary Ballot; Benign Questions, Huge Stakes!
By: Dennis S
Tuesday, April, 29th, 2014, 10:18 pm
Oh, the political intrigues that lurk on the touch screens of the upcoming primary elections. The byproducts of the high-stakes political parlor games played in sumptuous office back rooms and expensive restaurant booths, largely hidden from public view. It’s in these spots where playuhs gather and deals are hammered out to benefit the filthy rich and candidate wannabes on the make. And you won’t wake up to your iVotronic screen-tapping role until it’s waaaaay too late. Because all the sudden, you’re voting on something you’re barely aware even existed.
A little civics music please. About half the states in the union don’t allow ballot initiatives or referendums. What is allowed is something called an Advisory Question. Many of you will be given a ballot with one, two or even more advisory questions. Advisory questions are nothing more than glorified non-binding opinion polls that have no force of law, but that politicians can use to great effect on their way to the general election. These questions can sound newborn innocent, but, believe me, some represent billions upon billions of dollars. My state of South Carolina has an open primary. That means you’re not limited to just a Republican or just a Democratic ballot as you are as a registrant of either party in a closed primary. You have a choice.
…………………….
Here are the bombshells, though on the surface appearing to be little more than ladyfingers. Question 1: “Do you believe each state, not Congress, should decide for itself whether to allow online gaming and determine how to regulate online gaming in their state?” YES or NO? This inquiry is followed by Democratic question 2. “The South Carolina Department of Transportation estimates more than $20 billion is required to fix South Carolina’s crumbling roads and bridges. Should gaming laws be modernized to fund the repairs instead of a tax increase? YES or NO? ‘YES’ appears to be the answer the Democratic brain-trust seeks. That puts them in an almost states rights and anti-tax posture, usually reserved for their opposition.
The ‘YES’ response will make the billionaire class miserable until certain “flexible” Republican legislators, local and national, provide the ammo the Richie Riches need to push something through Congress and general assemblies that their handlers in Vegas will pay dearly for through handsome contributions to those legislator’s war chests. The legal bribes are already changing hands. According to the NY Times, one of the early recipients, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, has already stuffed his campaign coffers with tens of thousands from just one source, plus that guy’s kin and pals and there are dozens of others at his doorstep. Another giftee is the ethically challenged Republican governor, Nikki Haley, in a tough race with Democrat, Vincent Sheheen.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/04/29/buried-primary-ballot-benign-questions-huge-stakes.html
Chief Justice Roberts, Meet Bundy and Sterling
Posted by Jeffrey Toobin
It’s challenging to keep up with the latest in racist tirades, so let’s attempt a brief review. Last week, Cliven Bundy, a Nevada rancher who became a conservative folk hero for his refusal to pay his debts to the federal government, said that he often wondered if black people fared better as slaves. Then, over the weekend, a tape of what appears to be the voice of Donald Sterling, the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, surfaced, and it featured Sterling instructing his girlfriend to avoid being photographed with black people and to refrain from bringing African-Americans to the Clippers’ basketball games.
Bundy and Sterling represent an ugly corner of contemporary American life, but it is one that is entirely invisible in recent Supreme Court rulings. In the Roberts Court, there are no Bundys and Sterlings; the real targets of the conservative majority are those who’ve spent their lives fighting the Bundys and Sterlings of the world.
Chief Justice John Roberts has made a famous utterance on the subject of race, and it’s a revealing one. The remark came in a case in which the Justices addressed perhaps the most celebrated precedent in the Court’s history: Brown v. Board of Education. In that decision, in 1954, the Justices ruled that segregated public schools were by their nature unconstitutional. In 2007, the Justices evaluated one of the many attempts that communities have made to address the legacy of legal segregation in schools. Seattle used race as one factor to determine which schools some students attended; the goal of the local initiative was integrated schools. But the Court struck down the Seattle plan as a violation of the Constitution and of Brown. Even to ameliorate segregation, the consideration of race was unconstitutional. In Roberts’ evocative phrase, “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” In other words, those who were trying to integrate the schools were the ones doing the “discriminating.”
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2014/04/chief-justice-roberts-meet-bundy-and-sterling.html?utm_source=www&utm_medium=tw&utm_campaign=20140429
The White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault stated, in a report released Tuesday entitled “Not Alone,” that they aim to fight, prevent and bring more transparency to campus sexual assault crimes, which are currently underreported in the United States due to victims “left feeling isolated, ashamed or to blame.”
http://youtu.be/FJpQmUpEXtU
Published on Apr 29, 2014
President Obama, Vice President Biden, Daniel Craig, Benicio Del Toro, Dulé Hill, Seth Meyers and Steve Carell on putting an end to sexual assault
http://youtu.be/xLdElcv5qqc
When you get POTUS, VPOTUS, and James Bond together for this cause……. WELP
https://twitter.com/tychistormTVN/status/461370342263361536/photo/1
https://twitter.com/Interior/status/461161694928986112/photo/1
LittleMiss Scare-All @mizblossom
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Also @BringGirlsBack is working to get mobilized for these 234 precious #NigerianSchoolgirls so follow them & signalboost #BringBackOurGirls
7:39 PM – 29 Apr 2014
Keith White @Keethers
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If 234 white girls from the UK suddenly went missing, twitter and the national media would be in full meltdown. #BringBackOurGirls
10:22 AM – 29 Apr 2014
The GOP’s choice: The party of reform, or the party of mass deportations?
By Greg Sargent
April 29 at 3:15 pm
The other day John Boehner made a heretical admission. By mocking House GOP colleagues for moaning about the difficulties inherent in tackling immigration reform, he revealed them to be the true obstacle to movement on the issue.
That level of candor could not be allowed to stand. Today Boehner apologized to them for going too far, reverting to the stance that the real culprit is that Obama can’t be trusted to enforce the law.
Yet in the process, Boehner once again accidentally revealed the truth: The real obstacle to movement on reform is that Republicans have yet to show an ability to accept any form of legal status for the 11 million under any circumstances. The unvarnished reality of the situation is that Republican rhetoric on this issue has boxed the party into a place that is entirely incompatible with getting to Yes on reform — despite Boehner’s professed desire to do so.
This is revealed in a story by Seung Min Kim, who talked to GOP Rep. John Fleming of Louisiana about Boehner’s meeting with Republicans today:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/04/29/the-gops-choice-the-party-of-reform-or-the-party-of-mass-deportations/
LOLGOP @LOLGOP
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Voter ID. The way the GOP says, “Don’t bring black people to the polls
Supreme Court Says Clean Air Trumps State’s Rights in Upholding EPA Rule
By: Keith Brekhus
Tuesday, April, 29th, 2014, 4:57 pm
In a victory for environmentalists and the Obama administration, the Supreme Court today ruled to uphold the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule set by Obama’s EPA in 2011. The rule requires 28 states to reduce power plant emissions that can negatively affect the air quality in neighboring states. Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the majority opinion in the case. The Court ruled 6-2 in favor of the rule with Justices Breyer, Sotomayor, Kagen, Roberts and Kennedy joining Ginsburg in supporting the EPA mandate. Justices Anton Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented from the majority, arguing that the court’s decision ”feeds the uncontrolled growth of the administrative state at the expense of government by the people.”
While Thomas and Scalia may support the right of one state’s power plants to pollute downwind states with pollutants that cause respiratory illnesses and increase the risk of heart attacks for the downwind residents, the courts other justices disagreed. The Court majority determined that the EPA rule was a reasonable mandate consistent with the EPA’s mission, and that upholding the rule would improve the air quality for the American people.
The states of Texas, Ohio, and Michigan opposed the ruling. Some companies that operate coal-fired power plants including Xcel Energy and American Electric Power Company, also opposed the court’s decision. Environmentalists and proponents of clean air on the other hand were pleased with the outcome. Fred Krupp, speaking on behalf of the Environmental Defense Fund, applauded the ruling, stating:
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/04/29/supreme-court-clean-air-trumps-states-rights-upholding-epa-rule.html
https://twitter.com/BestEarthPix/status/460910851416129536/photo/1
AdamSerwer ✔ @AdamSerwer
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Look, Rush Limbaugh isn’t a racist, he just thinks the Donald Sterling thing might all be Magic Johnson’s fault.
3:13 PM – 29 Apr 2014
Bomani Jones ✔ @bomani_jones
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lost in this, btw: i bet there are some office workers for the clippers celebrating like it’s juneteenth that sterling’s gone.
9:46 PM – 29 Apr 2014
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Mr. Goodell plase pay attention. This is how a Commissioner should act.
Kudos to Adam Silver for acting decisively and relatively quickly to punish Donald Sterling. The NBA averted what could have been a very ugly situation.
Silver did what the previous owner, the gutless David Stern failed to do, and he should be commended.
Speaking of gutless, Roger Goodell should now confront the owner of the Washington D.C. football team about changing the disgraceful name of that franchise.
This entire episode has been quite interesting. The public condemnation of an old racist caught being a racist has been unanimous (except for the usual racist suspects led by their television network), but I read two articles today which I thought were quite thought provoking.
http://field-negro.blogspot.com/2014/04/mr-goodell-plase-pay-attention-this-is.html#.U2DwNeMo670
Michelle Janine Howard was born on this day in 1960. From Wikipedia:
Video:
USFF Deputy Commander Receives NAACP Image Award
https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=597475070278681
Good morning, everyone!
Hope you’re enjoying the blast from the past of TV Show theme songs. I loved Night Heat. I was very surprised to learn it was a Canadian police drama.
Good Morning, SG2 and everyone :)
Yes, I am enjoying the music you are bring us this week :)
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Good Morning, Ladies & Everyone! :-)
I vaguely remember Night Heat. Hubby remembers it well, having been a Canadian citizen for decades.