“True Colors” is a song written by songwriters Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly. It was both the title track and the first single released from Cyndi Lauper’s second album. It was the only original song on the album that Lauper did not help write.[1] “True Colors” spent two weeks in the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100, and was the last single from Lauper to occupy the top of the chart. It received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
Billy Steinberg originally wrote “True Colors” about his own mother. Tom Kelly altered the first verse and the duo originally submitted the song to Anne Murray, who passed, and then to Cyndi Lauper.[2] Their demo was in a form of piano based gospel ballad like “Bridge over Troubled Water”. Steinberg told Songfacts that “Cyndi completely dismantled that sort of traditional arrangement and came up with something that was breathtaking and stark.”[1] Other songs they wrote for Cyndi Lauper include “I Drove All Night” and “Unconditional Love”, of which the former went on to be covered by Celine Dion, the latter by Susanna Hoffs.
It reached number 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, 3 in Australia, and 12 on the UK Singles Chart.
In-depth conversation with Ta-Nehisi Coates on ‘The Case for Reparations’
Joy Reid talks with Ta-Nehisi Coates about his cover story for The Atlantic that’s awakening America’s consciousness on race and race relations.
http://www.msnbc.com/the-reid-report/watch/in-depth-talk-on-the-case-for-reparations-269726275634
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‘The Crowning Experience’ – One Of Many Lost Black Films In Need Of Rediscovery… That Is, If You Can Find It
by Sergio
May 23, 2014 3:54 PM
One of my pleasures of late has been reading my used copy of the New York Times Film Reviews 1959-1968 Volume 5, which contains literally every single film review that appeared in the newspaper during that decade. They are reprinted in the book the way they actually appeared in the newspaper, with the same typesetting, photos and captions.
It’s a heavy, huge book, well over 700 pages, and we’re talking THOUSANDS of movie reviews. It’s going to take me a while to get through it, to say the least. And I have the New York Times Film Reviews 1969-1970 Volume 6 to get though next.
Why do you ask? Because 1) it’s fun, and 2) literally EVERY SINGLE FILM that was made and released during the 1960’s opened in N.Y., even if it played for just one week, and never opened in other parts of the country, which was common back then.
But the other important reason is that, I firmly believe that the 1960s to the mid 70s were the most important period of filmmaking ever! That was the period when filmmaking was, at least for me, at its most interesting and innovative. Boundaries were crossed. Taboos were broken. Movie studios and independent producers were willing to take risks. Cinema was more “adult.” And it was during this period that the MPAA movie ratings system was introduced – in November 1968 to be exact (TRIVIA: the movie The Split, which starred Jim Brown, was the first film to be rated “R”). Filmmaking changed forever – for better and for worse.
Reading though the book, I’ve discovered countless movies that I’ve never heard of before; and I thought I had heard of everything. But one film that really stood out when I read the NY Times review of it, which was totally unknown to me, was the black dramatic musical film, The Crowning Experience, which opened N.Y. in late October 1960. The film did originally open months earlier in Los Angeles, in February, that same year. But I could not find any information on whether it ever played anywhere else in the country, nor could I find a single video clip from the film. It’s been lost to faded memory.
The film was actually based on a touring stage play, which itself was based on the life of Dr Mary McLeod Bethune, the pioneering educator and civil rights activist who became an adviser to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, although, in the film, she’s called Emma Tremaine and is played by Muriel Smith.
The film has an unusual back-story. It was produced, financed and self-distributed by a pacifist, anti-Communist religious group (some called it a cult) known as Moral Re-Armament, that was based in Mackinac Island, Michigan – a group that believed that people needed to be armed, not with guns, but with a “new moral outlook.”
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/the-crowning-experience-one-of-many-lost-black-films-in-need-of-rediscovery-that-is-if-you-can-find-it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-XHuNcSMLc
My grandson is going to love Reading Rainbow!!!!
this is wonderful. so encouraging.
Watch A Young Sidney Poitier And Diahann Carroll Fall In Love In ‘Paris Blues’
Features.
by Sergio
May 28, 2014 11:04 AM
My post about Diahann Carroll’s enchanting cameo in the 1961 film. Goodbye Again (HERE), got me thinking about that other black and white film shot in Paris, that she was in that same year, Paris Blues.
Directed by Martin Ritt, a great American director who I still think is terribly underrated (Hud, The Molly Maguires, Norma Rae, Sounder), the film is admittedly rather thin, plot-wise. More of a souffle than a full course meal.
But it’s made with real style, and has a wonderful vibrant feel to it, likely in large credit to a great score by Duke Ellington. And besides, what city in the world looks more beautiful in black and white than Paris?
The film revolves around two struggling jazz musicians, played by Sidney Poitier and Paul Newman, and their entangled romances with two visiting tourists, played by Newman’s real life wife Joanne Woodward and Diahann Carroll.
The story involving Newman and Woodard is admittedly not all that interesting; its the storyline involving Poitier and Carroll that I found more intriguing.
In the film, Poitier plays a sax player who’s been living in Paris for the previous five years, fleeing the racism he encountered in the States (not-so uncommon during those days for black artists). Meanwhile, Carroll is a young teacher Poitier meets, who, of course, is immediately smitten with him. But being more socially conscious, she wants Poitier to return to the states to participate in the the ongoing civil rights fight, instead of what she sees as him taking the easy way out, escaping the struggle at home to live a more carefree life abroad, in Paris.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/watch-a-young-sidney-poitier-and-diahann-carroll-fall-in-love-in-paris-blues
Novel Franchises Built Around Black Characters That Could Also Be Film Franchises
Features.
by Tambay A. Obenson
May 28, 2014 10:31 AM
With the recent reboot of the Alex Cross detective thriller series, based on the novel franchise written by James Patterson, which starred Tyler Perry in the title role, I thought I’d revisit an old post, but with a twist this time.
Previously, we discussed film franchises in film history that centered around characters of African descent. Needless to say, the pickings were (and still are) slim, because there just haven’t been that many. Narrow it down to film franchises akin to Alex Cross – black action heroes, for all intents and purposes – and the selection list gets even shorter, with franchise films featuring Shaft, Virgil Tibbs, and Axel Foley being the most prominent.
The question this time is to list potential film franchises based on the lives of characters of African descent, with novels being the source material, since Hollywood’s love affair with novel adaptations seems to only be intensifying – especially those in a series that have the potential to be film franchises, and hopefully box office triumphs (see The Hunger Games as a current example).
I can immediately think of one missed opportunity: Walter Mosley’s Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins series of detective novels. There was Devil In A Blue Dress which starred Denzel Washington – the first and only on-screen appearance of Rawlins, even though Mosley has featured the character in at least 10 novels.
And of course, Mosley has a few other titles that are part of a series that could get looks as well.
You’ll recall the announcement a couple of years ago that a TV series based on Mosley’s fictional African American private investigator Rawlins, was in the works for the NBC network; you’ll also remember that NBC later passed on it.
As for the others… Mosley has a deal in place with HBO, for his Leonid McGill series – the New York City private investigator, starting with the first book in the series titled, The Long Fall.
When asked in an interview who his choice is for the starring role in the Leonid McGill series, guess who he named? Jeffrey Wright of course! Wouldn’t that be nice if that actually came to pass.
There was also the TNT network’s ordering of a pilot for Mosley’s Fearless Jones series of novels, with plans for an eventual TV series.
Still no news of movement on any of those yet.
But I’m most interested in big screen franchise film adaptations.
There was a potential movie franchise with Rawlins for Denzel. And the first (and only) film, directed by Carl Franklin, was actually very well received, and is still held in high regard today. It didn’t do blockbuster box office, but the critics loved it, and one could say that it’s become something of a “cult classic” over the years, as audiences who didn’t see it in theaters during its initial release, discovered it on home video.
But, sadly, apparently no film studio saw the potential the novel franchise had as a film franchise, and thus, Devil In A Blue Dress is the only Rawlins novel to be adapted to film.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/novel-franchises-built-around-black-characters-that-could-also-be-film-franchises
Lupita Nyong’o’s ‘Acceptable Blackness’ and the Myth of a Post-Racial Hollywood
As Nyong’o’s star rises, the charming Ivy League graduate with an America-approved cultural pedigree is being used as proof of the mythical post-racialism of Hollywood.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/29/lupita-nyong-o-s-acceptable-blackness-and-the-myth-of-a-post-racial-hollywood.html?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=cheatsheet_afternoon&cid=newsletter%3Bemail%3Bcheatsheet_afternoon&utm_term=Cheat%20Sheet
oh good grief!
Exactly Trying to take away Lupita’s SHINE.
The Newark School Reform Wars
The city has a new mayor with a progressive mandate, but its schools are reeling from the market-based reforms Cory Booker introduced.
Owen Davis
May 28, 2014
Every time Newark shows up on the national radar—from Cory Booker’s celebrity turn to Mark Zuckerberg’s $100 million gift to Ras Baraka’s victory in the mayoral race earlier this month—its schools have been in the spotlight. In Mayor-elect Baraka, the school reform project inaugurated under Booker and Governor Chris Christie has met its most formidable opponent yet. But despite Baraka’s win, not to mention a flurry of sit-ins, walk-outs, protests and pickets, the transformation of the school system into a showcase of neoliberal ideas about education is unlikely to stop anytime soon.
That’s troubling news for students in the district schools, such as those at the Hawthorne Avenue School.
Hawthorne could have been a model for urban education. The Newark, New Jersey, K–8 school has raised its test scores in each of the last three years. The hallways that teachers describe as “chaos” four years ago are now quiet, save occasional bursts of laughter. Its performance on last year’s tests, on which it met all state benchmarks, compelled an assistant superintendent to make a personal visit to congratulate the faculty.
So the community was stunned when the district leveled the educational equivalent of a death sentence on the school.
At a public forum last December, the Chris Christie–appointed superintendent Cami Anderson announced that about a quarter of Newark’s schools would be closed, repurposed, consolidated or otherwise transformed. Hawthorne would lose grades 5–8, and two outside operators would assume management of younger grades. Every teacher would have to reapply.
“It won’t be Hawthorne anymore,” says Grace Sergio, a Hawthorne parent association leader whose eighth-grade son plays basketball and often stays at school till well after six. “This is a village.”
Since principal Grady James took the reins in 2010, the school has experienced a renaissance. “It was failing badly when he first started,” says Sergio. “He’s turned the school around.”
Housed in a stately though decaying four-story brick schoolhouse built in 1895, Hawthorne draws its enrollment from the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Newark’s impoverished South Ward. Nearly 90 percent of its pupils are African-American and 94 percent are economically disadvantaged. Although less than a third of its students score proficient in reading, Hawthorne’s growth puts it in the ninety-fourth percentile of comparable schools statewide. Its roster has grown consistently for three years.
Now the school is in limbo. “Teachers don’t know where they’re going, students don’t know where they’re going,” says Sergio.
Why has this school, whose academic gains outstrip those of every school in its local peer group, been targeted for turnover? Parents have lobbied officials, penned letters and protested to get an answer, but Superintendent Anderson hasn’t relented. “She doesn’t know what our kids need,” says Sergio.
The upheaval at Hawthorne comes amidst one of the most dizzying spells of school reform a city has seen since Hurricane Katrina turned New Orleans into a laboratory for market-based reforms.
In January, the district suspended Hawthorne’s principal and four others after they inveighed against One Newark, the reorganization plan. Superintendent Anderson’s appearance at community forums generates such protest that she’s stopped attending them altogether. Reforms under her tenure have spurred marches and student walk-outs. In April, seventy-seven faith leaders signed a letter urging Anderson to halt One Newark for “producing irreversible changes and fomenting widespread outrage.”
On May 20, members of the Newark Students Union overtook a district meeting chanting demands for One Newark’s repeal and Anderson’s ouster. The board members filed out after a few minutes, and the students stayed the night.
Amidst all this, Anderson has moved to lay off more than a thousand teachers over three years, an attempt to plug a budget deficit driven by the costs of the burgeoning charter school sector. Students who leave the district for charters—privately managed nonprofit schools exempt from some regulations—take 90 percent of their funding with them. A quarter of Newark students currently attend charters, a share that will rise to nearly 40 percent by 2016.
As it happens, Mayor-elect Ras Baraka was the principal at Hawthorne before taking the reins at Central High School. The son of the late radical poet Amiri Baraka, he’s used his public school credentials to assail the reforms Anderson and Christie have championed. Baraka’s education agenda begins with a moratorium on One Newark. “It’s drastic and radical,” Baraka says. “It completely disrupts families’ lives.” Within a week of his election, Baraka unveiled his own community-driven schools blueprint, the Newark Promise, which would push for expanded services and local control.
http://www.thenation.com/article/180044/newark-school-reform-wars#
Black Dynamite Makes His Explosive Blu-Ray & DVD Debut In All-New Adult Swim Release
News.
by Tambay A. Obenson
May 28, 2014 2:45 PM
I actually thought this was already on Blu-ray & DVD, but it actually is not.
But it will be, in July (July 15 specifically) – all ten 30-minute episodes of the first season, with a few extra features too of course, at a suggested retail price of $39.99 for the Blu-ray, and $29.98 for the DVD set.
Full details via press release from Adult Swim below, including a look at the box art:
This July, bust out your best polyester pants suit because Black Dynamite and his crew are about to explode onto the scene in all-new Blu-ray and DVD release, Black Dynamite Season One. The inaugural home entertainment release from the top-rated Adult Swim series will be available to own on July 15, 2014. Featuring all ten 30-minute episodes from the series’ first season, the Blu-ray and DVD release also contains a host of bonus content including the original pilot, a behind-the-scenes featurette and video commentaries with series creator Carl Jones (The Boondocks) and cast members. Black Dynamite Season One will be available for the suggested retail price of $39.99 on Blu-ray and $29.98 on two-disc DVD set, with a retailer pre-order date of June 10.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/black-dynamite-makes-his-explosive-blu-ray-dvd-debut-in-all-new-adult-swim-release
Hey Chicas! Looky here!
beautiful and smart!
WONDERFUL! Go get’em Ladies.
Will A Scripted Feature Film Based On Nat Turner’s Story Ever Be Made? Nate Parker Thinks So! He’s Working On One
News.
by Tambay A. Obenson
April 23, 2014 4:08 PM
Maybe one day, Nat Turner’s revolt will finally inspire a film that we all get to see; Maybe not.
But I suppose if it were indeed to happen, Nate Parker certainly would be an actor who would be suitable for the part. And luckily, he’s interested. Actually, he’s more than interested. As he told us in an interview while plugging his last film, Non-Stop (the Liam Neeson airplane actioner):
One of my biggest passions is to play Nat Turner. That’s a project that we’re working to get done. A lot of people thought he was a bad guy, but it’s perspective. I don’t think he was a bad guy at all, but we all have our ideas of what we want and why we want it, and what we’ll do to achieve those things.
That was in February.
Parker emphasized his desire to see the project realized in a New York Times interview published today, a couple of months later, in which he reveals a little more that I thought was worth sharing:
I’m directing a film in the fall, a biopic on Nat Turner, who led the most successful slave revolt in American history. I call it the black “Braveheart.” I wrote the script, I’m starring. That’s where I want to go. The goal for me is to push the envelope always.
So, now we can add that he has written the script, and he not only plans to star in the film, he will also direct it, with a fall start date eyed.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/will-a-scripted-feature-film-based-on-nat-turners-story-ever-be-made-nate-parker-thinks-so
Sonoma County Man Battling Cancer Denied Coverage By Anthem Blue Cross After Paying $100K In Premiums
May 28, 2014 9:23 PM
CAMP MEEKER (CBS SF) — A Sonoma County man battling more than a dozen tumors in his body is fighting a new battle with his insurance carrier, who has denied coverage for his treatments.
Jeffrey Rusch of Camp Meeker knew the news was bad when an MRI found 20 tumors in his brain. Two days later, a C-T scan at Sutter medical center in Santa Rosa brought another devastating blow, discovering a large tumor in his lungs, and more in his liver and bones.
Doctors told Jeffrey he would need to be hospitalized immediately.
“My husband was having a lot of difficulty breathing already, and he was getting a lot worse, so we went to the hospital and they admitted him immediately,” Jeffrey’s wife Zoe Keating said.
In the hospital, doctors removed a half-liter of fluid from Jeffrey’s lungs, and gave him steroids to reduce brain swelling. Doctors administered emergency chemotherapy.
Then came even more devastating news: Anthem Blue Cross was denying their coverage for the treatments.
The family received a letter from the insurance provider, saying his hospital stay didn’t meet the criteria for medical necessity.
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2014/05/28/health-insurance-provider-denies-cancer-treatment-premium-mri-scan-tumor-sonoma-county-man-battling-cancer-denied-coverage-by-anthem-blue-cross-after-paying-100k-in-premiums/
https://twitter.com/samsteinhp/status/472080921446076416/photo/1
LOL!
Good one!
https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/472075285006139392/photo/1
PBO to Mr. Yglesias:
WINNING!
First Official Images From ‘The Book of Negroes’ (Mini-Series Adaptation Of Award-Winning Bestseller)
Television.
by Tambay A. Obenson
May 29, 2014 2:10 PM
As you can see in the above production slate, principal photography for Clement Virgo’s much-anticipated film adaptation of author Lawrence Hill’s award-winning bestseller, The Book of Negroes, is complete, as the project now moves into the next phase of the production process.
Progress…
Aunjanue Ellis, Louis Gossett Jr., Cuba Gooding Jr., and Lyriq Bent are all members of the starring cast of the project from Conquering Lion Pictures, Out of Africa Entertainment and Entertainment One (eOne) Television.
Ben Chaplin, Allan Hawko and Jane Alexander also feature, amongst many others.
Boasting one of the strongest female characters in recent fiction, the novel’s synopsis reads:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/first-official-images-from-the-book-of-negroes-mini-series-adaptation-of-award-winning-bestseller
How African-American Success Stories Undermine Sympathy for Racial Inequalities
This article is by Clayton Critcher, an assistant professor of marketing, cognitive science, and psychology at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.
——————–
In his majority opinion that struck down the Voting Rights Act, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote, “Our country has changed,” essentially stating that the 1965 civil rights legislation was outdated. But the recent racist rants of Donald Sterling and Cliven Bundy have had some wondering just how far we have actually come.
What these episodes may most clearly illustrate is how difficult it is to gauge the prevalence of racism in modern America. Do Sterling and Bundy reflect a widespread racism that typically resides just outside of the limelight, or does the swiftness with which the NBA and Republican Party distanced themselves from these pariahs reinforce Roberts’ claim?
University of Chicago professor Jane Risen and I, recognizing that the racial climate is difficult to assess, set out to understand what guides people’s beliefs. After all, it matters whether you see modern America as a nation plagued by racism or as one where equal opportunity is real. It affects how you make sense of why racial disparities persist (and thus what, if anything, you think can be done about them).
We found that when non-blacks were exposed to African-American success stories—tales of those who defied the odds, like Merck chief executive Kenneth Frazier, Brown University President Ruth Simmons, and even President Obama—they became less sympathetic to more average African-Americans, without even realizing it. They unknowingly reasoned, “If he can do it, so can they.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesleadershipforum/2014/05/20/how-african-american-success-stories-undermine-sympathy-for-racial-inequalities/
I haven’t read the complete article. The REASON African Americans have the success stories they can live and boast about is because WE HAD TO FUCKING FIGHT FOR BASIC RIGHTS under the LAWS of this so-called great land of America.
And the fight continues every single minute of every single day. This isn’t about a few crumbs being thrown out to a few negroes.
White privilege does NOT recognize EQUALITY.
‘It’s an example of Ohio returning to the Dark Ages’
05/29/14 12:45 PM
By Steve Benen
Like most states, Ohio has sensible requirements that require power companies to generate some of their electricity through renewable sources of energy like solar and/or wind power. The goal is to position the state to generate a quarter of its energy from renewable sources by the year 2025.
Soon, Ohio’s Republican governor will make these rules and goals go away, at least until 2017.
Gov. John Kasich plans to sign a controversial pullback on renewable-energy rules that passed the Ohio House yesterday. […]
The bill passed the House 53-38, overcoming opposition from nearly all Democrats and some Republicans who said the measure will lead to job losses and an increase in air pollution. Soon after, the Senate voted to accept minor changes that the House had made to the bill, which sends it to the governor.
The measure doesn’t completely eliminate Ohio’s renewable energy rules; it just renders them meaningless for a couple of years, at which point policymakers will presumably take another look. The severity of the climate crisis will only get worse in the interim, though that apparently isn’t alarming to the new policy’s proponents.
Defending the energy standards he helped create while in office, former Gov. Ted Strickland (D) told Bloomberg News, “It’s an example of Ohio returning to the Dark Ages.”
Did I mention that the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity helped champion the proposal? It did.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer’s editorial board added that the soon-to-be-approved bill “is more than a simple freeze; the bill also will chill what have been burgeoning alternative-energy investments in a state, and during a governorship, that aims to create Ohio jobs.”
What’s more, note that Ohio is breaking new ground – of the dozens of states with renewable energy standards, the Buckeye State is poised to become the first to move backwards. (Kansas very nearly did the same thing, though as Rachel reported earlier this month, the bill ended up failing.)
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/its-example-ohio-returning-the
Why don’t they just call the organization “Americans for Prosperity”, “2 Americans for Prosperity”?
Oregon’s Wehby fundraises off VA scandal
05/29/14 12:01 PM—Updated 05/29/14 01:02 PM
By Steve Benen
The politics of the controversy surrounding the VA are different from the typical Beltway scandal. For one thing, there’s nothing partisan about it – both parties can express outrage without regard for scoring political points. For another, the systemic problems have been ongoing for so many years, they span multiple administrations, including Democratic and Republican presidencies.
With this in mind, turning the VA scandal into some kind of cheap political football isn’t easy – though some are trying to find a way.
The Republican National Committee, for example, announced yesterday that it’s “launching robocalls and a Twitter campaign urging Americans to call their representatives and ask for an independent investigation” of the VA. What’s wrong with the existing investigations? The RNC didn’t say, but it’s launching robocalls and a Twitter campaign anyway. Soon after, Karl Rove’s attack operation launched a negative ad in Alaska, trying to somehow connect Sen. Mark Begich (D) to the controversy.
But as Amanda Terkel reported, one statewide candidate went further than most and actually based a fundraising appeal on the VA scandal.
Oregon GOP Senate candidate Monica Wehby used the troubles at the Department of Veterans Affairs Wednesday as the basis for a fundraising email attacking her opponent, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.). […]
In her fundraising pitch, Wehby chastises Merkley for not calling for the resignation of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki – then asks people to donate to her campaign.
In the appeal, Wehby’s supporters are supposed to give some campaign cash in order to “help Dr. Monica Wehby stand up for our veterans.”
Terkel’s report added that Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.), chair of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, argued yesterday that it would be a mistake to turn the issue into “political football.”
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/oregons-wehby-fundraises-va-scandal
The political fight over VA privatization
05/29/14 11:41 AM
By Steve Benen
When I argued last week that privatizing veterans’ care was a bad idea, a conservative reader pushed back. It’s easy for me to say, he argued, since I don’t have to “wait in line for VA care.”
That’s true; I don’t. But there are quite a few groups that represent veterans’ interests, including many who do have to wait in line for VA care, and they remain opposed to privatization, too.
The notion that privatizing veterans’ care is the ideal solution is quickly rising on the list of Republican talking points. It started with Fox News and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a longtime proponent of the change, but the push has generated broader GOP support in recent days, including an endorsement of sorts from House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).
“I still like the idea [of privatization], and especially now,” the Speaker told reporters this week.
The basic idea will sound familiar: many Republicans like the idea of veterans receiving private care, which would be subsidized (in part or in whole) with public funds. VA facilities may still exist under the plan, but with fewer resources, and obviously fewer patients.
As German Lopez explained, veterans’ advocates, who have long opposed privatization, haven’t changed their minds – they see this was an approach that would “undercut a system that specializes in veterans’ needs.”
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/the-political-fight-over-va-privatization
North Carolina Republicans move quickly to advance fracking
05/29/14 11:05 AM
facebooktwitter0savesharegroup3
By Steve Benen
There is already a moratorium in place that prevents hydraulic fracturing – also known as “fracking” – in North Carolina. Republican policymakers in the state are moving with remarkable speed, however, to change that.
The state House gave tentative approval Wednesday to a proposal that would allow natural gas drilling to start in the state as soon as rules for the industry are finalized. Senate Bill 786 passed its first of two votes, 63-52.
The legislation was first unveiled in the House less than 24 hours before the vote, moving through two committees with almost no public notice. It was moved onto the House floor Wednesday through a parliamentary maneuver.
It’s not yet a done deal, but it’s close. The state House is expected to hold a final vote today, followed by action from the Republican-led state House. Gov. Pat McCrory (R), who would presumably sign the measure into law, could have the bill on his desk for consideration by next week.
The state House, it’s worth noting, is currently run by Speaker Thom Tillis (R), who also happens to be the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in North Carolina this year. He’ll face incumbent Sen. Kay Hagan (D) in the fall. And in this case, the state House Speaker doesn’t usually vote on legislation, but he made sure to cast a vote in support of fracking yesterday.
Note, the fracking bill would also make it illegal for anyone “to reveal a driller’s formula for fracking fluid.”
In the event of a catastrophe, however, the proposal allows first responders to “find out what chemicals they’re dealing with.” How generous of the bill’s sponsors to be so accommodating.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/north-carolina-republicans-move-quickly
https://twitter.com/root_e/status/472037238466158592
I just can’t anymore with these muthaf*$cks falling for the GOP trap. Senator Al Franken has climbed aboard the wagon. SO DISAPPOINTED in him!
GOP’s new Obamacare strategy: Why their “repeal” cries have suddenly shifted
As benefits take hold, Republicans’ message falls victim to the inevitable onset of nuance
Simon Maloy
A moment of silence, if you please, for the Republican “repeal Obamacare” message. It’s not dead yet, but it has fallen victim to a deadly terminal illness: nuance.
The Wall Street Journal’s Washington Wire blog delivered the diagnosis this morning, noting that the Republican candidate field, as it transitions out of primary season, is discovering that simply calling for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act is not the winning strategy that it was once assumed to be. The millions of people who gained coverage through the ACA, and would stand to lose it were the law to be scuttled, obviously would like to know what comes next. “Republicans won’t back off their push to repeal the law,” Washington Wire notes, “but the message is likely to be more nuanced, said Bill McInturff, a Republican pollster who has long studied the politics of health care.”
“Nuance” in this sense means that Republicans are going to start using terms like “fix” and “reform” alongside (or in place of) “repeal.” It’s already happening in Senate and House races across the country, but it has to be said that Republican candidates still aren’t saying exactly what they would put in Obamacare’s place. Instead we get bromides about “free-market solutions” or “consumer-based” plans.
Greg Sargent has been doing yeoman’s work tracking the Obamacare evasions of some of the Republican Senate candidates in must-win states like North Carolina and Arkansas. They all back “repeal,” but when asked what they’d do to ensure continuing coverage for, say, Medicaid beneficiaries, they duck the question or offer up some well-tossed word salads. The best example of this phenomenon is Mitch McConnell, whose ridiculous strategy is to argue that the popular parts of Obamacare are not actually connected to Obamacare.
http://www.salon.com/2014/05/28/gops_new_obamacare_strategy_why_their_repeal_cries_have_suddenly_shifted/
Turning the conventional wisdom on its ear
05/28/14 12:49 PM
By Steve Benen
It was just a few months ago that the political world took solace in a few obvious facts. The Affordable Care Act was failing; it stood no chance of meeting its enrollment projections; and Republicans would use “Obamacare” as a cudgel for the rest of the year, beating Democrats who would no doubt try to change the subject.
That was then; this is now. All of a sudden, the ACA looks like a great success; the system has already exceeded its enrollment projections; and Democrats are suddenly willing to take the offensive on the issue they were supposed to avoid. The Wall Street Journal reports today that some Dems have even begun “attacking Republicans” for trying to repeal “popular benefits of the law.”
Not long ago, many Democrats were in a defensive crouch when it came to health care, amid public anger about the botched rollout of the federal website to sign up for insurance and stories of people who lost existing coverage because it didn’t meet federal standards. Many focused on fixes they said should be made to the law rather than trying to convince voters of its benefits.
Now, in at least half a dozen competitive Senate and gubernatorial races, Democrats and their allies are airing TV commercials that directly support the legislation, focusing on its guaranteed coverage for pre-existing conditions, preventive-care benefits and a ban on charging women more for insurance.
In some cases, the ads talk up how the Democrat candidate has worked to guarantee these benefits; in others, they attack a Republican for wanting to take them away.
This was largely unimaginable last fall. The very idea that Democrats would put Republicans on the defensive by condemning the GOP’s repeal efforts just didn’t seem like a feasible political strategy.
And yet, here we are.
As for Republicans, who seem far more eager to talk about the 2012 attack in Benghazi than health care policy, the midterm strategy appears to have fallen apart.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/turning-the-conventional-wisdom-its-ear
Kickstart This: Film Adaptation of Edwidge Danticat’s Haitian Family Drama ‘Caroline’s Wedding’
News.
by Jai Tiggett
May 28, 2014 3:48 PM
Haitian American author and actress Edwidge Danticat has lent the rights for her short story “Caroline’s Wedding” to be adapted into a feature film. New York based filmmaker and NYU Cinema Studies graduate student Easmanie Michel recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to jumpstart production on the project, which is set to be her feature directorial debut.
“Caroline’s Wedding” is the last story in Danticat’s collection Krik? Krak!, which was published in 1995 and centers on:
The narrator and protagonist, Gracina (Grace) Azile, who, with her mother and sister Caroline, has immigrated to the United States from Haiti. It describes the cross-generational and cross-cultural conflicts triggered by Caroline’s wedding to a non-Haitian man. Danticat introduces her readers to traditional stories, games, beliefs, and rituals from a culture that is little known or understood outside Haiti. In particular, the story explores the role of storytelling and tradition, and the relationship between mother and daughter, in creating social and family cohesion.
Michel is set to adapt the work along with co-writers France-Luce Beeson and Darcy Miller. Producer Stephanie Dawson and cinematographer Kay Chung round out the production team.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/film-adaptation-of-edwidge-danticats-carolines-wedding-in-development-fundraising
Second Trailer For ‘Annie’ Remake Starring Quvenzhané Wallis
by Tambay A. Obenson
May 29, 2014 10:36 AM
Here’s the 2nd trailer for the upcoming long-in-development remake/reimagining of the Broadway musical Annie, starring Quvenzhané Wallis as the title character, Jamie Foxx, Rose Byrne, and Cameron Diaz, which Sony Pictures has set for a December 19, 2014 release
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/second-trailer-for-annie-remake-starring-quvenzhane-wallis
Thanks checking this out later.
GOP healthcare confusion
By Alexandra Jaffe and Elise Viebeck – 05/29/14 06:00 AM EDT
If Kentuckians like their healthcare exchange, can they keep it — even if ObamaCare is repealed?
Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) campaign has been arguing just that this week after the Senate minority leader said last Friday that his push for the healthcare law’s repeal was “unconnected” to the existence of Kynect, the state’s own exchange.
Health care experts have widely panned McConnell’s claims, with one calling him “delusional.”
But McConnell’s tap dance highlights the difficulty facing Republicans as they grapple with their message of repeal in the face of benefits the law is now delivering.
Democrats have been slow to jump on the comments, a reflection of their reluctance to make ObamaCare an issue, particularly in red-leaning states like Kentucky where Obama remains deeply unpopular.
Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/207530-kentucky-health-care-hiccups#ixzz337EzpcCs
Follow us: @thehill on Twitter | TheHill on Facebook
John Boyega Will Be Replaced By Stephan James In Jesse Owens Biopic
by Tambay A. Obenson
May 28, 2014 6:09 PM
When it was first announced that he had been cast to play the part, I thought it was an unexpected, and interesting choice; I just couldn’t immediately picture him in the role.
He’s now no longer attached to star, because of his new commitment to Star Wars: Episode VII, which he was eventually cast in, after much speculation. Clearly he and his agent/manager felt that a tent-pole Hollywood movie franchise was a better career move than a *smaller* biopic on one of the greatest athletes of our time.
I certainly can’t argue with that decision.
But, in short, his Star Wars casting presented a scheduling conflict, and a choice had to be made. It happens often.
John Boyega will no longer play Jesse Owens in the biopic titled Race, from Forecast Pictures and ID+.
He will be replaced by Stephan James according to TheWrap.
The up-and-comer is a Canadian film and television actor, whose past notable roles include Julian Williams in Degrassi: The Next Generation, and Everton St. Clair in Sudz Sutherland’s feature film Home Again for which he received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the 1st Canadian Screen Awards.
His future looks quite bright, with roles in upcoming film and TV projects like Ava DuVernay’s Selma, and Clement Virgo’s The Book of Negroes.
Starring as Jesse Owens should only further raise his industry profile, leading to even more work.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/john-boyega-will-be-replaced-by-stephan-james-in-jesse-owens-biopic
Why You Still Can’t See That ‘Porgy and Bess’ Movie Starring Sidney Poitier and Dorothy Dandridge
Features.
by Sergio
May 29, 2014 10:20 AM
Considering that I first wrote about this three years ago and, as I mentioned in my piece below about Maya Angeiou’s screenplay for Georgia Georgia, that her actual first film appearance was as an uncredited dancer in this film, I thought, why not revisit it?
And besides, a question that gets asked a lot is, why hasn’t the 1959 film version of George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess been shown or seen anywhere for, literally, decades?
Furthermore, the film, starring Sidney Poitier as Porgy, Dorothy Dandridge as Bess, and Sammy Davis Jr. as Sportin’ Life (pictured above) directed by Otto Preminger, and produced by independent Hollywood producer Samuel Goldwyn, has never been available on video in any format at any time… Well, not exactly; but I’ll get to that in a second.
With the exception of a special screening every few years, somewhere in the world, such as in New York at the Ziegfield Theater back in 2007, in Seattle around 2008 (a reportedly a rare 70MM print from Europe), and in Switzerland a few years ago, the last time the film was actually seen by the public at large was when the ABC Network showed it as a Sunday Night Movie, during the late 60’s. It was also broadcast in the early 70’s on a local TV station KTLA in Los Angeles, which had access to the Goldwyn film library for a brief while.
And that’s about it.
No, the film has never been shown on TV since then, and for anyone who claims that they’ve seen it on Turner Classic Movies or some other cable channel, your mind is playing tricks on you (I called TCM to check, and they confirmed that they have never broadcast the film).
Yes, there are some crummy pan and scan bootleg copies, and I have read of a supposedly good looking German DVD of the film in its correct aspect ratio, but in a severely trimmed 115 minute version from the longer original 138 minute cut, and without its overture, intermission and the exit music.
There is also a 35MM print in excellent shape, and a 4 track steno magnetic track at the UCLA archive library, but that is never loaned out for any screenings.
I know it’s all confusing, and, as a result, the film is considered one of the great “lost” movies – an important film that, somehow, has been unavailable to the public.
So why?
Well, it’s pretty simple. The basic fact is that, through a contractual agreement, the rights to the film reverted back to the Gershwin estate, from the Goldwyn company, in 1974, and the estate has kept the film underwraps since then, rarely allowing it to be seen anywhere except for very special occasions. Reportedly the estate was never happy with the film version, since a lot of the original music was cut out, and they were also very displeased with the orchestral arrangements of the music.
But actually it’s a bit more complicated than that. It turns out that there are actually two different Gershwin estates that, reportedly, have never gotten along with each other, and both claim ownership of the film.
Furthermore, there’s also an issue involving MGM. Years ago, the studio bought the ancillary rights to most of Goldwyn’s films, claiming Porgy and Bess as well, and the studio has made claims that any DVD or cable licensing release, as well as the required restoration, has to be done by them. However, that too has gotten rather complicated since Warner Bros now owns the Goldwyn library, so they now rightfully could make the same claims that MGM used to.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/why-you-still-cant-see-that-porgy-and-bess-movie-starring-sidney-poitier-and-dorothy-dandridge?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
https://twitter.com/rosholm44/status/472013025403502593
LOL Sherman looks good enough to eat. *SKIPSTONAUGHTYCORNER*
*daps*
LOL I see you too, lady.
LeVar Burton wants your help to reboot ‘Reading Rainbow’
UPDATE: LeVar Burton and the Reading Rainbow team have reached their $1 million goal on Kickstarter in less than a day.
ORIGINAL POST: Take a look, it’s in a book — a reading rainbow!
If you were in elementary school any time between 1983 and 2009, chances are you’ve still got those lyrics and the rest of the Reading Rainbow theme song lodged away somewhere in your brain.
The PBS show, whose 26-year run was helmed by host LeVar Burton, may be slated for a comeback. But that mostly depends on you.
http://entertainthis.usatoday.com/2014/05/28/reading-rainbow-kickstarter-online-levar-burton-campaign/
Mitch McConnell Is Playing Voters for Fools With His Big Obamacare Lie
Will his Democratic opponent have the courage to call him out?
By Brian Beutler
The real political bombshell here is that the senator feels compelled to dodge accountability for his position at all. This simple observation—perhaps subjoined by six or seven exclamation marks — shatters the conventional wisdom that Obamacare politics are simple, straightforward, and winning for this year’s Republican candidates. And the many Democrats who adhere to that wisdom will blow a huge opportunity to capitalize on the opening McConnell just created, if they fail to set it aside for now….As much as voters might despise Obama, and Obamacare, and the endless fighting over Obamacare, I’m quite confident they prefer all three to unpopular incumbents who condescend to them and play them for fools.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117934/mcconnells-obamacare-lie-gives-alison-grimes-huge-opening
Morning Plum: Mitch McConnell effectively abandons Obamacare repeal
Today we have a big break in the Case of the Pathologically Dissembling Senate Minority Leader.
As you know, Mitch McConnell has been struggling to articulate his position on the Affordable Care Act, ever since he laughably declared that the fate of Kentucky Kynect — the state exchange that has signed up over 400,000 people for coverage and is more popular than the hated Obamacare — is “unconnected” to his push to repeal the law. His subsequent clarification only obfuscated matters more.
Now, however, the McConnell campaign has issued a new statement to Post fact checker Glenn Kessler that, in effect, abandons his commitment to repeal. In the statement, a McConnell spokesman suggests he might largely retain the Medicaid expansion, which has expanded coverage to hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians.
The crux of this dispute revolves around McConnell’s blatant attempt to mislead his constituents by suggesting Kynect could remain in place even if Obamacare were repealed “root and branch,” as McConnell continues to advocate. But the real question is whether McConnell is claiming that those who have gained coverage through the exchange would be able to keep it. Obamacare repeal would theoretically roll back the funding for that coverage, particularly the Medicaid expansion, but also subsidies. Yet McConnell seems to be hinting people would somehow remain covered anyway.
Kessler pressed campaign spokesman Jesse Benton on this point and elicited a breakthrough:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/05/29/morning-plum-mitch-mcconnell-effectively-abandons-obamacare-repeal/
https://twitter.com/TheObamaDiary/status/471987597674573824/photo/1
That’s OUR President!
Potus is fine!
Will Virginia GOPs be fooled?
Cheesy Kabuki — Panicked Cantor Claims He’s Anti-Amnesty Champion: Now we know how embattled GOP Majority Leader Eric Cantor plans to hold on to his seat against a primary challenger. A week after lobbyist Haley Barbour praised Cantor** the House GOP leadership’s team for its commitment to passing an immigration amnesty – and claimed that Republican voters support it – Cantor dropped a mailer into GOP voters’ boxes claiming that he’s … a fighter against amnesty! (“CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN ERIC CANTOR IS STOPPING THE OBAMA REID PLAN TO GIVE ILLEGAL ALIENS AMNESTY”).
There’s nothing subtle about what’s going on here. Cantor clearly favors some form of immigration amnesty–maybe not the Senate’s massive bill, which even amnesty advocates concede is dead, but a sweeping legalization of the undocumented population. He has said he’s “committed” to immigration reform and he’s one of the few Republicans who endorsed John Boehner’s so-called immigration “principles,” the last of which is legalization (“these persons could live legally and without fear in the U.S.”). He’s been writing his own version of the DREAM Act, legitimizing young undocumented immigrants–as recently as last week he said that bill was “still under discussion.” He supports Rep. Denham’s so-called ENLIST Act–a limited measure significant mainly because it would act as a Trojan Horse giving Reid’s Senate a chance to insert a much larger amnesty in “conference” with the House. Cantor was the behind-the-scenes driver of the attempt to attach ENLIST to a must-pass defense authorization bill.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/05/27/will-virginia-gops-be-fooled/#ixzz336qTPxF3
Typical white privileged MOFO. IT’s everybody’s fault but his.
https://twitter.com/HistoricalPics/status/471731410248933377/photo/1
https://twitter.com/amk4obama/status/471826141221634048/photo/1
https://twitter.com/TheObamaDiary/status/471829245669699584/photo/1
In New Orleans, major school district closes traditional public schools for good
NEW ORLEANS — The second-graders paraded to the Dumpster in the rear parking lot, where they chucked boxes of old work sheets, notebooks and other detritus into the trash, emptying their school for good.
Benjamin Banneker Elementary closed Wednesday as New Orleans’s Recovery School District permanently shuttered its last five traditional public schools this week.
With the start of the next school year, the Recovery School District will be the first in the country made up completely of public charter schools, a milestone for New Orleans and a grand experiment in urban education for the nation.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/in-new-orleans-traditional-public-schools-close-for-good/2014/05/28/ae4f5724-e5de-11e3-8f90-73e071f3d637_story.html?wpisrc=nl_hdtop
think nothing of this. it’s all a fucking scam.
Yep Jindal KABUKI
scary
https://twitter.com/Sherrea_D/status/471834623937630208/photo/1
LOL And he cooks too.
https://twitter.com/TheObamaDiary/status/471838178505404416/photo/1
The Campaign for Junk Food
Michelle Obama on Attempts to Roll Back Healthy Reforms
By MICHELLE OBAMA
MAY 28, 2014
WHEN we began our Let’s Move! initiative four years ago, we set one simple but ambitious goal: to end the epidemic of childhood obesity in a generation so that kids born today will grow up healthy.
To achieve this goal, we have adhered to one clear standard: what works. The initiatives we undertake are evidence-based, and we rely on the most current science. Research indicated that kids needed less sugar, salt and fat in their diets, so we revamped school lunch menus accordingly. When data showed that the lack of nearby grocery stores negatively affected people’s eating habits, we worked to get more fresh-food retailers into underserved areas. Studies on habit formation in young children drove our efforts to get healthier food and more physical activity into child care centers.
Today, we are seeing glimmers of progress. Tens of millions of kids are getting better nutrition in school; families are thinking more carefully about food they eat, cook and buy; companies are rushing to create healthier products to meet the growing demand; and the obesity rate is finally beginning to fall from its peak among our youngest children.
So we know that when we rely on sound science, we can actually begin to turn the tide on childhood obesity.
But unfortunately, we’re now seeing attempts in Congress to undo so much of what we’ve accomplished on behalf of our children. Take, for example, what’s going on now with the Women, Infants and Children program, known as WIC. This is a federal program designed to provide supplemental nutrition to low-income women and their babies and toddlers. The idea is to fill in the gaps in their diets — to help them buy items like fresh produce that they can’t afford on their own — and give them the nutrition they’re missing.
Right now, the House of Representatives is considering a bill to override science by mandating that white potatoes be included on the list of foods that women can purchase using WIC dollars. Now, there is nothing wrong with potatoes. The problem is that many women and children already consume enough potatoes and not enough of the nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables they need. That’s why the Institute of Medicine — the nonpartisan, scientific body that advises on the standards for WIC — has said that potatoes should not be part of the WIC program.
Unfortunately, this isn’t an isolated occurrence. We’re seeing the same kind of scenario unfold with our school lunch program. Back in 2010, Congress passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which set higher nutritional standards for school lunches, also based on recommendations from the Institute of Medicine. Today, 90 percent of schools report that they are meeting these new standards. As a result, kids are now getting more fruits, vegetables, whole grains and other foods they need to be healthy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/29/opinion/michelle-obama-on-attempts-to-roll-back-healthy-reforms.html?_r=0
https://twitter.com/MensHumor/status/471659674509389824/photo/1
LMBAO Good luck with that system. Been around for almost 6 decades, and the mystery is still not resolved in my household.
cjtown@ladyc10
Snowden did this interview because he wants to come home.
Mr. NFTG @Kennymack1971
Follow
@ladyc10 And AG Holder is waiting for Lil Eddie….on the porch with the strap.
10:31 PM – 28 May 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPJHkSU_6Hc
THIS MOFO RIGHT HERE
I couldn’t believe my eyes. A traitor sitting there giving an interview talking ish about he did it for his country. White privilege is a hellava drug! Any black or poc would have been tried and executed already.
https://twitter.com/amk4obama/status/471858776543199235/photo/1
PERSONIFIED… And “FOX” cable NOISE is the FUEL for it ALL.
x 2
https://twitter.com/MiamiLib/status/471738908904943616/photo/1
Big Dairy Is Putting Microscopic Pieces of Metal in Your Food
—By Tom Philpott
| Wed May 28, 2014 6:00 AM EDT
The rapid emergence of nanotechnology suggests that size does, indeed, matter. It turns out that if you break common substances like silver and nickel into really, really tiny particles—measured in nanometers, which are billionths of a meter—they behave in radically different ways. For example, regular silver, the stuff of fancy tableware, doesn’t have any obvious place in sock production. But nano-size silver particles apparently do. According to boosters, when embedded in the fabric of socks, microscopic silver particles are “strongly antibacterial to a wide range of pathogens, absorb sweat, and by killing bacteria help eliminate unpleasant foot odor.” (By most definitions, a particle qualifies as “nano” when it’s 100 nanometers wide or less. By contrast, a human hair clocks in at about 80,000 nanometers in diameter.)
According to the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN)—a joint venture of Virginia Tech and the Wilson Center—there are more than 1,600 nanotechnology-based consumer products on the market today. If SmartSilver Anti-Odor Nanotechnology Underwear sounds like a rather intimate application for this novel technology, consider that the PEN database lists 96 food items currently on US grocery shelves that contain unlabeled nano ingredients. Examples include Dannon Greek Plain Yogurt, Silk Original Soy Milk, Rice Dream Rice Drink, Hershey’s Bliss Dark Chocolate, and Kraft’s iconic American Cheese Singles, all of which now contain nano-size titanium dioxide. As recently as 2008, only eight US food products were known to contain nanoparticles, according to a recent analysis from Friends of the Earth—a more than tenfold increase in just six years.
http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2014/05/nanotech-food-safety-fda-nano-material
https://twitter.com/KennettDems/status/470920083271720960/photo/1
Jeff Gauvin @JeffersonObama
Follow
Whistle Blowers go to the FBI to report kickbacks or fake management quotas…etc….they don’t go to China & Russia with US intelligence
11:21 PM – 28 May 2014
THIS! #CANONLYCLAIMWHISTLEBLOWERSTATUSIFWHITEMALE
Jeff Gauvin @JeffersonObama
Follow
Team Greenwald/Snowden are traitors. How does selling American intelligence to the Russian intelligence agencies constitute WHISTLE BLOWING?
11:16 PM – 28 May 2014
Edward Snowden Says The US Stranded Him In Russia — Here Are 4 Problems With That Claim
Michael Kelley
May 28, 2014, 9:05 AM
Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden told “Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams in Moscow that he “never intended to end up in Russia.”
The 30-year-old asserts that the U.S. State Department stranded him in Moscow after he arrived from Hong Kong on June 23.
“I had a flight booked to Cuba onwards to Latin America and I was stopped because the United States government decided to revoke my passport and trap me in Moscow Airport,” Snowden said. “So when people ask why are you in Russia, I say, ‘Please ask the State Department.'”
There are several issues with the claim that the U.S. stranded Snowden in Russia. Here are the most glaring:
1. Snowden couldn’t have left Russia because he had no valid travel documents when he landed at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport. The U.S. revoked Snowden’s passport the day before he left. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange then acquired an unsigned Ecuadorian travel document — ostensibly for safe passage to Latin America — that was void when Snowden landed in Moscow.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/snowden-says-us-stranded-him-in-russia-2014-5#ixzz336dnFZkp
Mitch McConnell Is Playing Voters for Fools With His Big Obamacare Lie
Will his Democratic opponent have the courage to call him out?
By Brian Beutler @brianbeutler
We’ve already established that Mitch McConnell is trying to dodge accountability for supporting Obamacare repeal by exploiting public confusion over the identity between Kentucky’s successful, popular insurance exchange—Kynect—and the law itself.
But the real political bombshell here is that the senator feels compelled to dodge accountability for his position at all. This simple observation—perhaps subjoined by six or seven exclamation marks—shatters the conventional wisdom that Obamacare politics are simple, straightforward, and winning for this year’s Republican candidates. And the many Democrats who adhere to that wisdom will blow a huge opportunity to capitalize on the opening McConnell just created, if they fail to set it aside for now.
I understand why these Democrats are reluctant. Conservatives spent the last eight months essentially executing a psy-op mission to convince liberals that Obamacare is much less supportable than it actually is, and intimidate Democrats out of running on it proactively. I’ve been arguing that the politics of Obamacare would undergo a marked shift in 2014 for a long time now, and more or less stuck to my guns during the rollout failures this past fall. Others did too. The whole way through, conservatives met us with gleeful mockery anytime we suggested Obamacare politics carried any risk for Republicans or were nuanced in any way. Including McConnell’s spokesman!
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117934/mcconnells-obamacare-lie-gives-alison-grimes-huge-opening
Wed May 28, 2014 at 11:55 AM PDT.
Cuomo’s camp admits to keeping Republicans in control of Senate
by kos
Nice to see them admit this:
Gov. Cuomo will work to toss the Senate Republicans from power by reuniting the chamber’s fractured Democrats if the GOP does not agree to create a statewide public financing system for campaigns, according to sources with direct knowledge of the situation [ …]
“If Dean and the Republican conference renege and fail to pass campaign finance this session, the governor is going to actively campaign for Senate Democrats and work very hard after the election in November to unite” the breakaway and mainstream Democrats, a source said.
Why hasn’t Cuomo already been actively campaigning for Senate Democrats and working to reunite the fractured Senate Democratic caucus? Why? Because that Republican-controlled Senate has suited his purposes nicely. He never has to worry about signing or vetoing genuinely progressive legislation. And because Senate Republicans know they exist at the whim of the governor, he has a lever to use against them whenever he actually wants something to pass.
So could you imagine this guy being our president? That’s his endgame. Our job is to make sure that never happens.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/05/28/1302620/-Cuomo-s-camp-admits-to-keeping-Republicans-in-control-of-Senate#
Andrew Cuomo Has A Real Problem On His Left Flank. Good.
By Alec MacGillis
We’ve spent a lot of time fixated on the Tea Party during this primary season, but a possibly more intriguing internal political struggle is now playing out on the left. And you can bet the Hillary Clinton campaign-in-waiting is paying attention.
The drama is in New York, where Governor Andrew Cuomo is facing a serious insurrection on his left flank as he heads into what was supposed to be a blissfully uneventful reelection campaign. An increasingly influential third-party in the state is threatening to withhold its support from the governor this fall, which has set off a remarkable flurry of negotiations this week as Cuomo scrambles to keep the group in the fold.
Cuomo’s first term as governor has been defined by his melding of liberal policies on social issues such as same-sex marriage and gun control with far more centrist if not conservative policies on the economic front, where he has pushed tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy. This ideological hybrid has come to dominate the center-left elite consensus of the “Morning Joe”-watching, Acela-riding set, to the consternation of economic populists who wish that bien pensant liberals would get as exercised about rising inequality and stagnating wages as they do about marriage equality. But in New York, at least, there is a social-democratic force in place to push back at concessions to economic conservatism: the Working Families Party, which was founded in 1998 to advocate for progressive policies on bread-and-butter issues and has increasingly become a player to be reckoned with in New York politics.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117933/andrew-cuomo-has-real-problem-his-left
Teacake @_praxis_ 1h
see when white folk call notable black folk human what they mean is that they have trancended their blackness to a place of white respect
https://twitter.com/HumanAfrica/status/467722046277824513/photo/1
TRUE COLORS are BEAUTIFUL like a RAINBOW.
Gorgeous!
Lynching history spurs call for closure, 90 years later
Nina Denson-Rogers, a historian for the Lee County Black History Society, becomes emotional when describing the lynchings of two black boys in Fort Myers, Fla. in May 1924.
FORT MYERS, Fla. — For decades, Nina Denson-Rogers has tried to piece together the story of two gruesome days in 1924 when a mob of white people lynched two black teens and dragged their bullet-riddled bodies through Fort Myers.
The historian for the Lee County Black History Society found few willing to talk. Those who did divulged details that drew tears to the historian’s eyes last week as she sat in the society’s office near the city museum it runs.
On May 25, it will be 90 years since the ugly chapter in county history was written. R.J. Johnson and Milton Wilson are the only recorded lynching victims in Lee County, Florida. Over the years, their names have been reported differently, though a local scholar has evidence Milton’s last name was Williams.
Denson-Rogers would like to see their lives recognized.
One resident told her a basket was used to recover one of the bodies.
“When I think about it, I can see why they get all upset,” Denson-Rogers said.
She shook her head, paused and sighed. She lifted her wire-rimmed glasses to wipe her eyes.
They were just boys, around 14 and 15.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/05/21/fort-myers-lynchings-1924/9397183/
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Good Morning, Rikyrah & Everyone! :-))
Good morning!
What’s happening, Lady? any Good news to report?
Jay graduated from PreK. Whoo Hoo!
Wonderful!
Hehe:
Thank you! Jay thanks you too! :)
You two are very welcome! :)
GO JAY!!!
Jay says thank you!
CONGRATULATIONS, JAY!!! WAY.TO.GO
Hey now!
Thank you! Jay is smiling. He wants to rock too! :)