Dixie Chicks is an American country music band which has also crossed over into other genres. The band is composed of founding members (and sisters) Martie Erwin Maguire and Emily Erwin Robison, and lead singer Natalie Maines. The band formed in 1989 in Dallas, Texas, and was originally composed of four women performing bluegrass and country music, busking and touring the bluegrass festival circuits and small venues for six years without attracting a major label. After the departure of one bandmate, the replacement of their lead singer, and a slight change in their repertoire, Dixie Chicks soon achieved commercial success, beginning in 1998 with hit songs “There’s Your Trouble” and “Wide Open Spaces“.
https://twitter.com/ZekeJMiller/status/469197381591117826/photo/1
THAT’S MY PRESIDENT!
http://youtu.be/9bzyJIo23C4
YOU DON’T WANT IT WITH HER: KENYA MOORE STEALS VIVICA FOX’S PHONE & GETS CUSSED CLEAN OUT
May 21, 2014 ‐ By Veronica Wells
If it’s one thing Kenya Moore knows how to do, it’s make new enemies. As you know it’s been reported that the RHOA star is on the upcoming season of “Celebrity Apprentice” and though the show has yet to air, she’s already found herself in trouble with her competition. I don’t know what Kenya thought but apparently she set her sights on taking down fellow contestant Vivica Fox. Lawd why? Everyone knows that Vivica is as sweet as can be until you take her there. And then the hood comes out.
Apparently Kenya didn’t get the memo or was still going to test the waters because on the show she came for the veteran actress in the most juvenile way imaginable. She stole her phone.
And she stole it to tweet this message.
“This menopause id [sic] killing me I can’t think straight, im acting a damn fool half the time 50 just isn’t sexy.”
The tweet was deleted but according to the Daily Mail, all hell broke loose on set afterward.
“It was World War III on that set. Vivica cursed her out so bad that the entire set was speechless, even Kenya.”
http://madamenoire.com/431635/kenya-moore-steals-vivica-foxs-phone-gets-cussed-clean-out/#sthash.pqGEQzn9.dpuf
Chris Christie to reduce pension payments to balance NJ budget
In a stunning reversal, Gov. Chris Christie today announced plans to grab, over two years, $2.43 billion meant for public workers’ pensions to balance New Jersey’s ailing state budget.
The plan threatens to derail one of Christie’s signature accomplishments in Trenton: a major revision to replenish New Jersey’s strained pension fund over the long term.
But it would solve an immediate crisis for the governor, who has to find more than $2 billion somewhere to cover budget shortfalls for the current and incoming fiscal years.
At a Statehouse news conference, the Republican governor said he plans to take $2.43 billion budgeted for the pension fund during this fiscal year and the next one to balance his budgets. He ruled out alternatives such as raising the state income tax or cutting funds for schools and Medicaid.
http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/05/christie_unveils_plan_to_cover_800m_budget_shortfall.html
http://youtu.be/naUFIUZ2Ryc
http://youtu.be/3zDHSLDY0Q8
So proud and happy the Sea Hawks are up in the HOUSE.
Richard Sherman and Russell Wilson, GO BROTHERS!
I thought Apprentice was off the air. And I’d never imagine Viva Fox being apart of rughead’s show.
SPOILER ALERT – ‘You’re the most evil woman I’ve ever met in my life!’: How Donald Trump blasts Kenya Moore in ‘brutal’ Celebrity Apprentice firing
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2630753/Donald-Trump-blasted-Kenya-Moore-brutal-Apprentice-firing.html
President Obama has notified Congress that he has deployed 80 U.S. military personnel to Chad to aid in the effort to locate more than 200 abducted schoolgirls in neighboring Nigeria.
Read more at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-deploys-80-military-personnel-to-chad/2014/05/21/edd7d21a-e11d-11e3-810f-764fe508b82d_story.html
Just a matter of time now!
Better ask somebody!
Life coach Iyanla Vanzant says many people confuse love for lust or obsession or jealousy. Watch as Iyanla explains why these impulses drive women to men who they want to fix—and why real love doesn’t need to be fixed.
http://youtu.be/cGRKnaJUzG4
Spot on, and the “romanticism” phase that should last for an eternity is bogus too. You can’t expect a mate to stay in that zone forever. It doesn’t allow for each to grow and learn.
The farts, belching, and other quirks will and should arise.
http://youtu.be/My3GWtRl-YU
Pelosi’s picks for the Benghazi Committee:
Elijah Cummings of Maryland
Adam Smith of Washington state
Adam Schiff of California
Linda Sanchez of California
Tammy Duckworth of Illinois.
Dick Gregory, Nas, Paul Mooney, and More Talk Race in “The Rules of Racism” Documentary
by Clutch — May 21, 2014
The infamous director, producer, author and radio host Tariq Nasheed says we need to talk about race and racism.
Nasheed, the force behind the Hidden Colors documentary series, is set to release the third installment entitled Hidden Colors 3: The Rules of Racism. His newest project features commentary from scholars and entertainers including Dick Gregory, Nas, and Paul Mooney.
http://youtu.be/56ZVoztD2yE
http://www.clutchmagonline.com/2014/05/dick-gregory-nas-paul-mooney-talk-race-rules-racism-documentary/
How Healthcare Expenses Cost Us Saturday Postal Delivery
By Josh Sanburn @joshsanburnFeb. 07, 2013
Wednesday’s announcement that the United States Postal Service would halt Saturday delivery to help fix its financial mess sounded like a good move for the deficit-laden agency. After all, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe says it will save the post office $2 billion a year.
But put in the context of $20 billion projected annual deficits, that $2 billion savings starts to look a lot less substantial.
A number of factors are behind the post office’s deficit problems: More of us use e-mail and text messaging to stay in touch, driving down mail volume; private competition from carriers like UPS and FedEx has chipped away at the Post Office’s package delivery service business; and USPS processing and distribution facilities have long been considered bloated and inefficient compared to private shippers. But the biggest obstacle to postal reform, by far, is the problem of funding Congressionally mandated pre-retiree health benefits.
Since 2006, the Post Office has been legally required to pre-fund health benefits for future retirees at a cost of around $5.5 billion a year. For the first time last year, it defaulted on its annual payment
When Congress imposed those mandates in 2006, the Post Office was doing just fine. Digital communication had yet to take such a huge bite out of the amount of mail the USPS processed and delivered. First-class mail volume was about 97 billion pieces in 2006. So there wasn’t much of a backlash when Congress decided that the Post Office was healthy enough to lock in health benefits for future retirees — for the next 75 years, mind you, something no other public or private agency does.
Two years later, the U.S. was hit by the Great Recession at around the same time that mobile communication and things like online bill payments were growing at explosive rates. The Post Office began reporting massive deficits from which it has yet to recover. Last year it delivered only 68 billion pieces of mail.
So far the Post Office has placed about $44 billion in that pre-retiree account. Without the mandate, the Post Office’s financials — while still not completely healthy — would be much more stable.
http://business.time.com/2013/02/07/how-healthcare-expenses-cost-us-saturday-postal-delivery/
A Desperate Darrell Issa Subpoenas The Entire Department of Justice
By: Jason Easley
Wednesday, May, 21st, 2014, 9:36 am
Republican witch hunter Darrell Issa is getting desperate, so desperate that he has subpoenaed the Department of Justice in an attempt to revive the IRS scandal.
In a letter that accompanied the subpoena, Rep. Issa wrote, “The Department’s refusal to allow Mr. Pilger to testify about matters highly relevant to the Committee’s investigation unnecessarily delays and frustrates the Committee’s Constitutional oversight obligations. The Department’s obstruction in this regard, coupled with its failure to produce any relevant material to date, leads the Committee to conclude the Department is not seriously committed to cooperating with the Committee’s investigation on the Committee’s terms.”
Issa is now claiming that the DOJ is part of some massive cover-up of the IRS scandal. Rep. Issa has long claimed that President Obama and the White House were behind the “targeting of conservative groups.” By subpoenaing the DOJ, Issa is trying to advance his conspiracy theory.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/05/21/desperate-darrell-issa-subpoenaes-entire-department-justice.html
Crazy Tea Party Congressman Suggests Only Property Owners Should Be Allowed To Vote
By: Justin Baragona
Tuesday, May, 20th, 2014, 2:54 pm
The watchdog group Right Wing Watch recently uncovered video footage of Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL) telling voters in his district that property owners should be the only ones allowed to vote. In the same video, he also suggested that early and absentee voting is a “travesty” and that he was glad that Florida Governor Rick Scott had taken measures at the time to reduce early voting. The video was taken during Yoho’s campaign in 2012, when he was still a candidate running for his first term in office. Since being elected, Yoho has made a name for himself by making outlandish and inflammatory statements. He is also a member of the Tea Party Caucus in the House of Representatives.
His most outlandish statement in the video was the following:
“I’ve had some radical ideas about voting and it’s probably not a good time to tell them, but you used to have to be a property owner to vote.”
http://youtu.be/xkrR85tDCJA
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/05/20/crazy-tea-party-congressman-suggests-property-owners-allowed-vote.html
Mitch McConnell Promises To Break Obama and Force Him to Do the GOP’s Bidding
By: Jason Easley
Tuesday, May, 20th, 2014, 9:10 pm
Sen. Mitch McConnell gave a bizarre victory speech tonight where he promised that if he is elected Senate Majority Leader, he will force President Obama to do the Republican Party’s bidding.
McConnell ironically began by saying the powers that be in Washington have treated the people with contempt. Mitch obviously didn’t realize that he is one of the powers that be in DC. After telling his supporters to give primary opponent Matt Bevin a hand, McConnell tried to suck up to the tea party. For some reason, McConnell talked about his mom’s polio, and said it gave him the tenacity to fight left-wing extremists.
McConnell claimed that he fought for good Kentucky jobs without mentioning that he has blocked dozens of jobs bills in the Senate. McConnell attacked Alison Grimes as a Hollywood liberal who Barack Obama and Harry Reid want in this race. McConnell tried to tie Grimes to Obama by saying, “A vote for my opponent is a vote for Obamacare.” McConnell said that the race isn’t about two political parties, but it is about holding the supposedly lying Obama accountable. McConnell then immediately told a gigantic lie about Obamacare.
Sen. McConnell claimed that candidates that Obama and Reid select are yes people for them. He called Grimes a partisan’s partisan. The whole scheme is designed to label Alison Lundgren Grimes as Barack Obama’s candidate, and McConnell repeated the tired, old lie that President Obama has been waging war against Kentucky jobs for five and a half years.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/05/20/mitch-mcconnell-promises-break-obama-force-gops-bidding.html
McTurtle’s spewing the same nonsense he did in 2009 about making PBO a 1 term president. Yes, that worked out really well didn’t it?
Just like Hillary, he didn’t learn anything either.
https://twitter.com/AlecMacGillis/status/469141578851037184
Yes, the GRAND OBSTRUCTIONIST PARTY BLOCKED the VA funding and now the water-carrying MEDIA are in cohoots with them on the latest FAKE-SCANDAL.
My youngest son came to visit me this morning and brought me breakfast. He’s so sweet & kind hearted. I Love him!
He’s growing some dreads. They are a lot longer than this photo. It looks cute!
he’s a good son
When I was in the hospital, he stayed in the room with me and did everything he could to help his mother. He walked with me around hospital to get exercise and pushed me outside in wheel chair to get some fresh air. He’s such a sweet kid.
What a great, loving son he is!
You are very blessed, SG2!
Thank you! He got off work this morning and showed up at my door with breakfast. :)
So handsome and kind. You have beautiful, loving children, SG2.
Thank you, Ametia!
May 21, 2014 10:39 AM
Georgia Senate: The Power of Money and Geography
By Ed Kilgore
Going into last night’s primaries, the biggest mystery for chattering classers was whether Jack Kingston or Karen Handel would make a runoff with David Perdue in the GOP GA SEN race. Since YORE (Year of the Republican Establishment) memesters were excited about a Perdue-Kingston primary, I became a bit emotionally invested in Handel making the cut. But there’s only so much you can care about the candidate of Erick Erickson and Sarah Palin having a good night.
I wrote up my impressions in an insta-column late last night for TPMCafe. I guess it was coherent, or at least early, since it’s currently running at the top of the page at TPM. In any event, it’s reasonably clear that a combination of money and geography did the trick for Kingston. He won huge margins in his southeast Georgia base, and as the top fundraiser in the race (over $5 million at the time of the April 30 finance filing, not counting the mil or so the U.S. Chamber was spending for him), he was able to run enough TV ads to perform respectably elsewhere. And speaking of TV ads, self-funder David Perdue cut deeply into the metro Atlanta votes that Karen Handel won in her gubernatorial race in 2010. I suppose that’s appropriate, since it’s not at all clear Handel would have been in the late running had Perdue not egregriously screwed up by disrespecting her educational credentials in a video that came out in early April.
In any event, I expect a long, vicious, expensive runoff campaign between these two men. Kingston’s already been campaigning like the second coming of Jim DeMint for a good while now, and has drawn a bead on Perdue as a rich RINO who built his wealth on the bones of unemployed workers. If his benefactors at the Chamber mind him running down a successful Job Creator (not to mention trashing their Common Core initiative), they haven’t said so by cutting off his financial lifeline. And I’m guessing Perdue will respond with his own ideological salvos, blasting Kingston as a Big Spending appropriator. I’m sure the Michelle Nunn camp would have been happier with a Paul Broun/Phil Gingrey runoff. But given enough time, Perdue and Kingston can certainly work their way down to that level.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2014_05/georgia_senate_the_power_of_mo050443.php
April 24, 2014 5:35 PM
Co-opting Rand Paul Into the Veepship
By Ed Kilgore
Last night at Ten Miles Square, we published a Bloomberg column by conservative writer Ramesh Ponnuru that made an intriguing suggestion: Rand Paul might turn out to be the rare failed Republican candidate who could actually add significant value to a GOP ticket in 2016 in the second position. The reasoning is pretty obvious: Paul would likely reduce the vote siphoned off by the Libertarian Party, which could matter a great deal in a very close race or in very close states.
But Ramesh’s piece got me thinking about something a bit different: the peace of mind orthodox Republicans could derive from popularizing the idea of Paul as a Veep under somebody else, thus reducing his viability as a candidate for the top of the ticket.
In any event, for Ponnuru’s scenario to play out, other Republicans would have to restrain themselves a bit from demonizing Paul during the primaries. You know, you wouldn’t want to label your future vice-presidential candidate as an Enemy of Israel, or give too much play to his old man’s racist newsletters. On the other hand, pulling one’s punches against Paul might increase the odds of him actually getting the nomination. I’m probably not the only one mystified by the disinclination of his 2010 Senate primary opponents to spend the entire contest dwelling on such topics as Ron Paul’s emphathy for that victim of American imperialism, Mohammad Mossadegh. I’m not sure Republicans will make the same mistake if Paul starts surging in the polls or wins in Iowa and/or New Hampshire.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2014_04/coopting_rand_paul_into_the_ve050052.php
Still my favorite Dixie Chicks song.
Loves this one too, Ametia!
https://twitter.com/Lawrence/status/468915674631651329/photo/1
BINGO! Kudos to you Shannon Lawrence!
zizi2 @zizii2
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Yup: @BarackObama: ‘In five years it will no longer be called Obamacare..I don’t know if it will be “Reagancare’ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/05/20/obama-in-five-years-it-will-no-longer-be-called-obamacare/ …
6:16 PM – 20 May 2014
May 20, 2014 4:24 PM
Getting Retirees To “Look Down On” the Disabled
By Ed Kilgore
If you recall the video involving Republican Senate nominee Thom Tillis that made news right before the NC primary, the self-styled conservative revolutionary told GOP activists they needed to drive a wedge between the government-dependent by getting people with disabilities to “look down on” able-bodied beneficiaries of government assistance. He actually called it a “divide and conquer” strategy.
Well, something similar is brewing on a more perilous (for the GOP) front: a conservative effort to get retirees to “look down on” those receiving Social Security Disability benefits. Greg Sargent is all over it today:
Dem Senator Sherrod Brown, a member of the Finance Committee, tells me that GOP Senators have requested hearings into Social Security Disability Insurance this summer. Dems expect Republicans to attack the program as wasteful and fraudulent, in part because conservative media have already done so, and in part because at least one GOP proposal in recent days took aim at the program….
“They want to separate ‘good’ Social Security (retirement security) from ‘bad’ Social Security (disability insurance), to win support for structural reform,” said Brown, who is holding a Senate Finance sub-committee hearing tomorrow on the overall program. “The attacks on disability insurance will accelerate. This is how they will try to back-door the dismantling of social insurance.”
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2014_05/getting_retirees_to_look_down050433.php
Republicans Are Laying Our Throats Bare for Their Corporate Masters
By: Hrafnkell Haraldsson
Wednesday, May, 21st, 2014, 7:43 am
As Justin Baragona reported here yesterday, Right Wing Watch revealed “recently unearthed footage of Rep. Ted Yoho speaking at Berean Baptist Chuch in Ocala, Florida, during his candidacy for Congress in the 2012 election cycle shows the Republican politician suggesting that only property owners should have the right to vote.”
I’ve had some radical ideas about voting and it’s probably not a good time to tell them, but you used to have to be a property owner to vote.
Just to be clear, Ted Yoho wants people he doesn’t think should have the right to vote in the first place, to vote him into office, where he can turn around and strip those voters of the right to vote. In other words, a vote for Ted Yoho is a vote against your own voting rights.
But he doesn’t want you to know that.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/05/21/republicans-throats-corporate-masters.html
https://twitter.com/Okixie/status/468871190669688832/photo/1
https://twitter.com/thecrisismag/status/469077780445945857/photo/1
Congratulations!
Great news! Congratulations TSU women’s debate team!!!!
KSK(africa) @lawalazu
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MEMO to Congressional Black Caucus.
Are you on TV screaming about this story? http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/wtf–15
6:48 AM – 21 May 2014
There’s no GOP establishment/Tea Party divide, and there never has been
BY Paul Waldman
———————————–
The reality, however, is that there was never any significant ideological divide between the Republican establishment and the Tea Party. The establishment just understands better than it did in 2010 or 2012 the dangers the Tea Party presents and how to handle them.
.
.
The rallying cry of establishment Republicans since 2012 has been “No more Akins,” referring to Todd Akin, the Missouri congressman who lost a Senate race in 2012 after his infamous “legitimate rape” comment. The problem with Akin and other recent failed candidates like Richard Mourdock and Sharron Angle wasn’t that they had extreme positions on issues that the Republican establishment disagreed with. It was that they were idiots — poor campaigners who inevitably said stupid things that generated media frenzies.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/05/07/theres-no-gop-establishmenttea-party-divide-and-there-never-has-been/
RiskyLiberal @RiskyLiberal
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213,881 GOP turnout in contested race McConnell-Bevin. 309,207 Dem turnout in virtual uncontested race Alison Grimes. What’s the narrative?
7:20 AM – 21 May 2014
https://twitter.com/kharyp/status/468942295702994945/photo/1
BWA HA HA HA
Working with Peanut on her homework last night. One of their worksheets was about Nouns.
So, then, from somewhere inside, I started to sing to her the Schoolhouse Rock about Nouns, and she just looked at me with this face…
So, we went to Youtube, and I brought up the Schoolhouse Rock, and she watched her first Schoolhouse Rocks. We watched about five of them….
cracked me up.
Peanut’s so fortunate to have Auntie Rikyrah introduce her to Schoolhouse Rock. They’re classic tools for teaching kids and grownup.
Peanut is Rikyrah’s baby! Peanut is so blessed to have Rikyrah in her life.
Go, Rikyrah! Get it done!
WTF?
Josh Marshall – May 20, 2014, 11:35 PM EDT
I’m not sure why this isn’t a bigger deal. I hadn’t heard about it other than in this brief passage tucked away in a Politico article about the House GOP agriculture bill. But it takes a small program intended provide meals to children in the school lunch program during the summer months and says it can now only be used to benefit kids in “rural areas”.
In other words, “urban” kids are now out of luck.
Here’s the passage in question ..
There seems to be a degree of understatement going on here, particularly in the final paragraph. What gives?
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/wtf–15
“Democrats were surprised to see urban children were excluded.” I just CAN NOT with this foolishness. Just so we’re clear, “URBAN”=BLACK here. This is exactly what this has been about from jump with Paul Ryan and his cohorts. DESPICABLE!
Shaun Goodman, Wealthy Man With 7th DUI Arrest, Gets Light Sentence
The Huffington Post | by Sebastian Murdock
A Washington State man who led police on a high-speed chase during his seventh DUI arrest was sentenced to just one year of work release.
Joshua Shaun Goodman, 42, was arrested last December after driving 100 mph through downtown Olympia, where he crashed into two cars and a house before police were able to apprehend him with their guns drawn, KOMO News reported.
Goodman was sentenced last week to one year of work release, which allows him to spend his days freely before returning to a Thurston County Jail to sleep. Goodman pleaded guilty to felony eluding of an officer and driving under the influence.
Last Friday, demonstrators gathered at the courthouse where Goodman was sentenced to protest what they called a slap on the wrist. The protestors claim that Goodman — who was driving a Ferrari valued at $70,000 the night of his crash and arrest — was given special treatment because he is wealthy.
“It’s not fair that there’s a two-tiered legal system, one for those with money and another for those without,” Sam Miller, one of the organizers of the protest, told the Seattle Times.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/19/shaun-goodman-wealthy-dui_n_5352632.html
Yeah, tell me about inequality in our justice system.
The playing field needs to be leveled out!
to pick up your Wednesday:
http://youtu.be/fhyhP_5VfKM
All right!
Check this out Chicas! Way cool!
3 Strangers Meet For First Time. Listen to their spontaneous jam.
But wait….Jimmy Kimmel picked them up.
Jam Session Guys feat. Trey Songz, Juicy J & Aloe Blacc
Jesse Rya sitting out in the cold at Kroger in January
WOW!!!!!
Good morning, friends!
Cowboy take me away
Fly this girl as high as you can
Into the wild blue…
Loves hearing the Banjo playing. Good music!
Good Morning, SG2 & Everyone. Happy HUMP day!
Good Morning, Everyone :)
I have to believe change will come. Please Lord.
From the organization Playing for change