We continue Black Comedians week with Redd Foxx.
John Elroy Sanford[1] (December 9, 1922 – October 11, 1991), known professionally as Redd Foxx, was an American comedian and actor, best remembered for his explicit comedy records and his starring role on the 1970s sitcom Sanford and Son.[2]
Foxx gained notoriety with his raunchy nightclub acts during the 1950s and 1960s. Known as the “King of the Party Records”, he performed on more than 50 records in his lifetime. He also starred in Sanford, The Redd Foxx Show and The Royal Family. His film roles included All the Fine Young Cannibals (1960) and Harlem Nights (1989).
In 2004, Comedy Central Presents: 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time ranked Foxx as the 24th best stand-up comedian.[3] Foxx not only influenced many comedians,[2] but was often portrayed in popular culture as well, mainly as a result of his famous catchphrases, body language and facial expressions exhibited on Sanford and Son.
Career
Nightclub act
Foxx gained notoriety with his raunchy nightclub act during the 1950s and 1960s. His big break came after singer Dinah Washington insisted that he come to Los Angeles, where Dootsie Williams of Dootone records caught his act at the Brass Rail nightclub. Foxx was signed to a long-term contract and released a series of comedy albums that quickly became cult favorites.[6]
Known as the “King of the party records,” Foxx performed on over 50 records in his lifetime.
He was also one of the first black comics to play to white audiences on the Las Vegas Strip. He used his starring role on Sanford and Son to help get jobs for his friends such as LaWanda Page, Slappy White, Gregory Sierra, Don Bexley, Beah Richards, Stymie Beard, Leroy Daniels, Ernest Mayhand and Noriyuki “Pat” Morita.
Sanford and Son
Foxx achieved his most widespread fame starring in the television sitcom, Sanford and Son,[2] an adaptation of the BBC series, Steptoe and Son. The series premiered on the NBC television network on January 14, 1972 and was broadcast for six seasons. The final episode aired on March 25, 1977.
Foxx played the role of Fred G. Sanford (“Fred Sanford” was actually Foxx’s father’s name), while Foxx’s co-star Demond Wilson played the role of his son Lamont. In this sitcom, Fred and Lamont were owners of a junk/salvage store who dealt with many humorous situations that would arise. The series was notable for its racial humor and overt prejudices which helped redefine the genre of black situation comedy.
The show also had several running gags. When angry with Lamont (Demond Wilson), Fred (Redd Foxx) would often say “You big dummy” or would often fake heart attacks by putting his hand on his chest and saying (usually while looking up at the sky) “It’s the big one, I’m coming to join ya honey/Elizabeth” (referring to his late wife Elizabeth). Fred would also complain about having arthritis to get out of working by showing Lamont his cramped hand. Foxx depicted a character in his 60s, although in real life he was younger.
These are among my favorite Sanford and Son episodes:
Fred helps when Lamont is taken for a ride by card sharks
Fred has a visit from – Lena Horne
Post-Sanford and Son career
In 1977, Foxx left Sanford and Son, after six seasons (the show was canceled with his departure) to star in a short-lived variety show. By 1980 he was back playing Fred G. Sanford in a brief revival/spin-off, Sanford. In 1986, he returned to television in the ABC series The Redd Foxx Show, which was cancelled after 12 episodes because of low ratings.
Foxx made a comeback with the series The Royal Family, in which he co-starred with his long-time friend Della Reese.
Death
On October 11, 1991, during a break from rehearsals for The Royal Family, he suffered a heart attack on the set.[14][15] According to Joshua Rich at Entertainment Weekly, “It was an end so ironic that for a brief moment cast mates figured Foxx — whose 70s TV character often faked heart attacks — was kidding when he grabbed a chair and fell to the floor.”[16] Foxx was taken to Queen Of Angels Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, where he died that evening.[17]
Foxx was posthumously given a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame on May 17, 1992.[18]
Foxx is buried in Las Vegas, at Palm Valley View Memorial Park. His mother, Mary Carson (1903–1993), outlived Foxx and died nearly 17 months later, in 1993. She was buried just to the right of her famed son.
Maddow is reporting that the teen mother school-Catherine Ferguson is finally closing in Detroit. The charter firm hired to run it, ran it into the ground, and a school that as recently as four years ago sent 90% of its students to college is CLOSING. Nobody ever answered the question as to HOW THE HELL a school graduating 90% of its students gets on anybody’s CLOSURE LIST!’ So, they closed a WORKING PUBLIC SCHOOL, and turned it over to the scam known as Charter Schools. To the scam of a for profit company that didn’t dedicate 30 years of their lives serving those young women. Why doesn’t the Soul Patrol report on THAT!
Is the Prisoner Swap Hysteria a sign of GOP War withdrawal Symptoms?
By Juan Cole
———————————
The problem for the happy warriors among the conservatives is that they can’t stop Obama from winding down America’s decade of war. They continually carp that Obama should have kept troops in Iraq past 2011, while carefully avoiding any admission that it was George W. Bush who failed to achieve a Status of Forces Agreement with the Iraqi parliament, which was unlikely to grant one to Obama, either. Without a UN authorization, and without a SOFA, US forces fighting in Iraq would have been open to prosecution both abroad and in Iraq.
.
.
The GOP has to get over it. We won’t be at war much longer. And if their platform is again in 2016, as it was in 2012, that the US should have retained a division each in Iraq and Afghanistan and should intervene militarily in Syria and other conflicts as well, I think they will find that the public is just as unenthusiastic about that platform two and a half years from now as it was a year and a half ago.
———————————————-
http://www.juancole.com/2014/06/hysteria-withdrawal-symptoms.html
I wrote last week that, if they could, they would have been as repulsive as they could be about the First Lady and Dr. Biden’s efforts with military families. As it is, they never say anything positive about it. But, it would expose them truly for who they are, if they let their feelings be known.
They are so hateful and deranged that they thought they could
‘spin’ this against this President. What they’ve done with this soldier and also, to his family is beyond disgusting. But, this is who they are. Their lies are unraveling with every passing moment, and their ugliness is all there for folks to see. Those who gave them excuses can’t any longer.
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Journalistic Malpractice: The NY Times Offers an Extensive Piece About Elliot Rodger’s Mental Health. Mentions of Internalized Racism? Zero.
I have continued to write about Elliot Rodger because his murder spree is a concentrated example of so much that is wrong with American society: gun culture, consumerism, racism, woman-hating, crude sexuality as power without an appreciation for the erotic, White Supremacy, broken masculinity, a failed mental health system, and white privilege are channeled through his tortured life and gross actions.
I do not apologize when I nod my head like Brother Afrika Bambaataa, Godfather of Records, and one of the founding fathers of hip-hop, when he presides over a DJ set spun by one of his disciples.
There is a satisfaction that comes with “connecting the dots” about an issue of public concern in a way that garners acknowledgement and affirmation from the public and those in the pundit classes.
However, there is also a sickening sadness that comes with being correct about the nature of an event–how White Supremacy and whiteness hurts white people and others–that had death and destruction as a result.
Here, I wrote about how the mainstream media has, quite literally, white washed the Elliot Rodger saga, subsequently ignoring his manifesto, to remove any reference to how White Supremacy and internalized racism were major factors in his murder rampage.
My observation has been echoed and built upon by several other writers (most notably a piece in Al Jazeera by Dexter Thomas). Nevertheless, it remains an outlier opinion.
As evidence of how our discussions of the role that internalized white racism played in Elliot Rodger’s murder spree, and the mainstream media’s gross neglect in discussing such an obvious fact, I point to the recent NY Times’ piece “Before Brief, Deadly Spree, Trouble Since 8”.
There, the authors offer a rich and compelling narrative about Elliot Rodger’s mental health issues that led to his killing six people near Santa Barbara, California.
How many times is racism or internalized White Supremacy mentioned in the Times’ recent story? Zero.
http://www.chaunceydevega.com/2014/06/journalistic-malpractice-ny-times.html
Why Was Miss. Tea Partier In Locked Courthouse With Ballots On Election Night?
Dylan Scott – June 4, 2014, 4:58 PM EDT
A Mississippi tea party official with close ties to U.S. Senate candidate Chris McDaniel apparently ended up inside a locked and empty county courthouse late Tuesday night after primary election results had come in.
Hinds County Republican executive chairman Pete Perry told TPM that he received a phone call around 2:00 a.m. CT on Wednesday from Janis Lane, president of the Central Mississippi Tea Party, who said she was locked inside the Hinds County courthouse. That would be where the circuit clerk and election commission offices, and the primary election ballots, are located.
The incident seemed to mystify Perry, a supporter of Sen. Thad Cochran, whom McDaniel is challenging for the GOP nomination. The ballots had been secured prior to the intrusion, according to local authorities.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/mississippi-tea-party-courthouse-locked-in
zizi has written another fabulous post over at The Obama Diary
GOP Bergdahl attack is about Erasing PBO’s National Security Creds
By zizi2
AMEN
AMEN
AMEN
She speaks the truth
http://theobamadiary.com/2014/06/04/gop-bergdahl-attack-is-about-erasing-pbos-national-security-creds/
The entire piece is wonderful and on point
The president pumping iron: Major security breach after Obama is snapped working out by guest who smuggled camera into Polish hotel gymSnaps show President taking time out from schedule in Warsaw
He spent up to 30 minutes pumping iron before he retired
But security experts have no idea how pictures emerged
Obama is in the Polish capital to kick off his European tour
By Leon Watson
Published: 05:45 EST, 4 June 2014 | Updated: 08:51 EST, 4 June 2014
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2648339/Who-sneaked-camera-Obamas-hotel-gym-Security-questions-Polish-tabloid-runs-photos-President-working-out.html?ito=video_player_click
Monday, June 2, 2014
Negotiating With Terrorists
Are we really going to do this?
Is this what it’s finally come down to, is it really?
Look at yourselves, you silly selfish bastards.
Look. At. Yourselves.
Go on, do it, find a mirror and look into your own dead zombie eyes and see the empty void looking back.
This revolting, disgusting display of hypocrisy and moral bankruptcy, is this what we’ve finally become?
Are we now so filled with foul bilious hatred, are we now so consumed with soul-destroying fear, do we now despise our own selves so much that we would actually protest the return of one of our own? Is that it?
Is that what we’ve become?
If so, then the sooner America collapses of its own maggot-ridden gangrenous rot, the better.
No. No, don’t you dare look away. Don’t roll your eyes and dismiss the question. Don’t change the subject. Don’t click on to another story you find more palatable. You started this. You look into your own rotten soul and you answer the question.
Is this who we are?
http://www.stonekettle.com/2014/06/negotiating-with-terrorists.html
read until the end….
I need a cigarette…and I don’t even smoke.
3 CHICS APPLAUSE
When Fox News Declared War On A Military Family
By Eric Boehlert
————————————–
They couldn’t have foreseen it because I don’t think it’s ever happened before. I don’t think we’ve ever seen a dedicated media campaign to not only undermine a returning prisoner of war, but to also cast doubt onto the soldier’s family; to portray them as un-American even as they prepare for their reunion.
Instead, Fox News has helped transform the prisoner swap involving Taliban detainees into “an increasingly vicious partisan issue,” as Buzzfeed described the Republican decision to go into relentless attack mode, complete with enlisted publicists and strategists, to subvert the return of an American POW.
It’s symptomatic of a conservative media mini-mob that now obsessively politicizing everything, and does it all with the knob turned up to 11.
—————————————–
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/06/04/when-fox-news-declared-war-on-a-military-family/199586
Hot damn! Looks so good–>06/03/14 Air Force One landing at Warsaw Chopin Airport
Bowe Bergdahl and the Politics of Shamelessness
By Liberal Librarian
There are times I think the Right can’t sink any lower. Surely it has reached its nadir and will just wallow in its self-imposed muck. There’s nothing it can do which would shock the conscience or incense the soul. Birtherism, rooting for citizens to not get health care, swearing fealty to the NRA after thousands die each year from gun murders. The list goes on, and it makes for sad reading.
However, I’ve learned to put aside my disbelief and prepare myself for the descent into the next circle of hell.
Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s release should have been a moment of unity. The one US soldier held captive by the Taliban was coming home. For that we gave up five Taliban prisoners, who will be locked up in velvet confinement in Qatar, unable to “take the field” against the US and its allies.
But, true to form, the Right—which had called for years for Sgt. Bergdahl’s release—saw not a moment of unity, but an opportunity to mount another frontal assault against Barack Obama.
Bob Bergdahl—Sgt. Bergdahl’s father—looks like a Taliban! And he learned Pashto! Unamerican!
Or: Bergdahl is a deserter, and cost the lives of men sent to look for him. Let him rot!
Or: We’ve never negotiated with terrorists! Obama is a weak appeaser!
Those are just some of the more tepid arguments from the Right. They range up to wanting to execute Sgt. Bergdahl for “desertion”, promising that it will come to pass in a Ted Cruz Administration.
I feel as if we’ve reached a turning point. It feels that way every time the Right comes up with some new outrage, but this time the Right has crossed a line it had never dared cross.
The unspoken rule of American politics, at least since 9/11, has been that the military is off-limits for criticism. Of course, the Right loves soldiers as long as they’re dying silently; it has not much use for them once they become veterans and start demanding services. But leave that aside. Respecting and honoring the military has been the one truism of American politics for the past decade and more. And if any servicemember was captured, bringing him or her home alive was a duty incumbent upon the Commander-in-Chief.
http://theobamadiary.com/2014/06/04/bowe-bergdahl-and-the-politics-of-shamelessness/
Obamacare Might Not Be The GOP’s 2014 Silver Bullet Anymore
Dylan Scott – June 4, 2014, 10:26 AM EDT
Evidence is emerging that the electoral landscape surrounding Obamacare is a little more complex than previously thought. While Republican politicians have struggled to match their rhetoric to Obamacare’s new reality, the law seems to be more of a wash between the parties than previously thought when it comes to motivating voters.
A Washington Post-ABC News poll released Tuesday found that Republicans and Democrats are almost evenly split on the importance of Obamacare to their vote: 73 percent of Republicans said the law would be important, and 67 percent of Democrats said the same.
The GOP still holds an intensity edge on the law — 26 percent say that Obamacare would be “very” important to their vote, as opposed to ‘fairly” important, while only 9 percent of Democrats said it was very important — but the numbers undermine the notion that the law is a clear-cut winner for Republicans.
For months now, most political watchers had seen the GOP’s 2014 electoral strategy as pretty simple: Trash Obamacare, turn out the base (which is more likely to vote in midterms, anyway) and cruise to control of the Senate. And poll after poll had suggested that might hold true, even as the law recovered from its disastrous launch and beat enrollment expectations.
Democratic strategists have regularly conceded as much in recent months. “People strongly believe that it’s being used for base intensity, for driving base turnout,” Stan Greenberg, a top Democratic pollster, told TPM of the GOP’s anti-Obamacare strategiy. “People are very alert to that.”
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/obamacare-gop-strategy-trouble?utm_content=buffer0b9a7&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
it NEVER EVER gets old
https://twitter.com/USNATO/status/474183066853068800/photo/1
Allen @StillCrazy808
Follow
532 Gitmo detainees were released prior to Inauguration Day, ’09. One was implicated in the Benghazi attack.
Where’s the GOP outrage?
1:16 AM – 4 Jun 2014
I can’t stomach turning on the TV.
Gabe Ortíz @TUSK81
Follow
New @LatinoDecisions polling: Latinos will blame @GOP if immigration reform fails this Congress. http://americasvoice.org/blog/new-poll-finds-latino-voters-unequivocally-support-immigration-reform-prior-2014-midterm-elections/ …
9:10 AM – 4 Jun 2014
Conservative Critics of the Bergdahl-Taliban Swap Have Some Explaining to Do
By Brian Beutler @brianbeutler
It’s difficult to work up sympathy for the conservatives second-guessing the negotiated release of an American POW in Afghanistan, when they and their fellow travelers spent Monday doing things like this and this and this and debating whether Bowe Bergdahl should have been rescued at all on Fox News.
But despite all that, they take tremendous umbrage at the suggestion that their actions provide any insight into their beliefs, and particularly at the suggestion that they think we should’ve left Bergdahl behind.
They have a point. The term “left behind” carries a permanence to it that I can’t justify attributing to anyone who works in or writes about politics for a living (a few thousand conservatives on social media notwithstanding). But unless they expand on their argument, it’s the inescapable conclusion of their views.
The emerging conservative position on Bergdahl’s release—and the many ways they’ve articulated it—has fueled the vitriol of abandonment supporters, but amounts to something different and incomplete. Not opposition to his return, per se, but a belief that the trade-offs the United States accepted to secure his release are unsupportable—a determination they’ve based in large part on an unforgiving examination of his conduct as a soldier.
That’s the charitable interpretation.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117988/conservative-attacks-bergdahl-deal-suggest-they-oppose-rescuing-pow
Republican Congressman Deletes Statement Calling Bergdahl “A National Hero”
A link on his website, now gone.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/republican-congressman-deletes-statement-calling-bergdahl-a
GOP Urged White House To ‘Do All It Can’ To Get Bowe Bergdahl
Posted: 06/03/2014 4:06 pm EDT Updated: 2 hours ago
As soon as President Barack Obama told the nation Saturday evening that America’s only prisoner of war in Afghanistan had been rescued, Republican lawmakers and pundits began criticizing the administration on how it handled the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.
Many lawmakers have been upset that Obama did not give Congress 30 days notice, as required by law. Others are upset that five Taliban detainees who were being held at Guantanamo Bay were released in return, with some conservatives even accusing the administration of negotiating with terrorists. (The government of Qatar actually negotiated the deal.) There are also now questions about Bergdahl himself, and whether he initially deserted his post.
“With 29 percent of former Guantanamo detainees having reengaged or being suspected of reengaging in terrorism, the administration’s decision to release these five terrorist detainees endangers U.S. national security interests,” said Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.). “It also sets a precedent that could encourage our enemies to capture more Americans in order to gain concessions from our government.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/03/bowe-bergdahl-release_n_5439644.html?1401826016
At the L.A. Times, Dean Baquet Dispatched a Strike Force to Rescue Stories Held Hostage
Mon, Jun 2, 2014 at 7:28 AM
By Peter Y. Hong
Dean Baquet: At the L.A. Times, he went looking for good stories that had suffered a premature death.In 2000, a few months after Dean Baquet became managing editor of the Los Angeles Times, one of the paper’s veteran investigative reporters asked me to stop by his office. He said he needed my help on an assignment from Dean. I was a reporter on the metro staff at the time.
Bill Rempel was a reporter who worked on the biggest investigative stories – those involving heads of state, or international drug lords. He had an office in an obscure corner of the building, not even on the same floor as the newsroom, and few people knew what he did or to whom he reported.
I had only met Dean in passing then, and didn’t know what to expect. I certainly wasn’t expecting to hear what Bill told me. “Dean assigned me and Marc [Duvoisin, now L.A. Times’ managing editor] to find stories that were killed that need to get into the paper,” Bill said. “I told him you’ve got some. Go up and see him. He wants me to work with reporters to get these stories out.”
So these were the first things I learned about Dean: First, he knew newspapers buried great stories under layers of bad decisions. Second, one of his first acts as a new managing editor was to assign two editors to see that these buried stories were unearthed for readers.
Since Dean became editor of the New York Times May 14, he has been criticized by some for killing a 2006 story on U.S. government surveillance of citizens while at theLos Angeles Times. The incident is being held up as an example of Baquet being somehow weak in taking on government.
I had no connection to the 2006 national security story the Los Angeles Times declined to run. But I did witness Dean’s absolute support for reporters whose work challenged those in power. It was one of his defining qualities in Los Angeles, and on at least two occasions he stuck his neck out for me.
http://m.laweekly.com/informer/2014/06/02/at-the-la-times-dean-baquet-dispatched-a-strike-force-to-rescue-stories-held-hostagemore
Morning Plum: Dems face steep midterm dropoff problem among core voters
A new Washington Post/ABC News poll finds Obama’s approval rating at 46-51, a finding that will draw every bit as much media attention as did last month’s poll showing his approval at 41 percent. (Okay, that isn’t really going to happen.) It also finds Dems lead the Congressional ballot matchup by 47-45, though that’s way too small to help Dems, given the deep structural disadvantages they face.
Indeed, this poll once again provides a glimpse of those structural disadvantages: It finds that the percentages of voters from core Dem groups who say they’re definitely going to vote are significantly lower than the percentages from core GOP groups who say the same. Overall, 74 percent of registered voters are absolutely certain to vote, and here’s the breakdown:
– 81 percent of Republicans are absolutely certain to vote, versus 74 percent of Democrats.
– 86 percent of conservative Republicans are absolutely certain to vote, versus 79 percent of liberal Democrats.
– 77 percent of white voters are absolutely certain to vote, versus 67 percent of non-whites.
– 79 percent of those over 65 are absolutely certain to vote, versus 66 percent of those from 18-39.
The poll also explains why Dems are placing so much of an emphasis on female voters:
– Dems lead among women in the generic ballot match-up by 52-42, while Republicans lead among men by 49-40. And yet…
– In the one seeming break from the above pattern, 77 percent of female voters are absolutely certain to vote, versus 70 percent of men
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/06/03/morning-plum-dems-face-steep-midterm-dropoff-problem-among-core-voters/
Hastings on Bergdahl email to parents.
Study finds strong evidence for discriminatory intent behind voter ID laws
By Christopher Ingraham June 3 at 2:03 pm
State legislators who support voter ID laws are motivated in no small part by racial bias, according to a new study from the University of Southern California. The study finds strong evidence that “discriminatory intent underlies legislative support for voter identification laws.”
The findings raise questions about the constitutionality of voter ID laws, which the Supreme Court affirmed in 2007 on the basis that Indiana’s strict law represented a “generally applicable, nondiscriminatory voting regulation.” For quick background, these laws require registered voters to show some sort of government-issued ID before they vote — supporters say they’re necessary to prevent voter fraud, while opponents counter that they disproportionately affect elderly, minority and low-income groups. For more, see ProPublica’s excellent backgrounder on the topic.
Demonstrating racial bias is not easy — as I’ve discussed before, nobody actually calls themselves racists, because much racial bias happens at the subconscious level — so the USC researchers developed a novel real-world field experiment to test bias among state legislators. In the two weeks prior to the 2012 election, they sent e-mail correspondence to a total of 1,871 state legislators in 14 states. The e-mails read as follows:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/06/03/study-finds-strong-evidence-for-discriminatory-intent-behind-voter-id-laws/
Good Morning 3Chics,
I’m enjoying the Comedy Series. I remember mom’s records of Moms Mabley talking bout I need a young man. There’s nothing an old man can do for her. And Redd Foxx “ya gotta wash ya ass.” Fun times for a kid. Have a good day all.
Hi Tyren!
I remember listening to one of Moms jokes about young men where she says.. “there is a rumor going around that Moms likes young men……and it’s true”. LOL!
john miller @deaconmill
Follow
GOP says Obama doesn’t treat them with respect. Well, maybe if they acted in a way to deserve respect, he would. You get what you deserve.
8:42 AM – 4 Jun 2014
that’s total bullshit. They want the black prez to tap dance for’em, and he is not their step-in-fetch! THE END.
Oregon insurer proposes double-digit premium cut
By Elise Viebeck – 06/03/14 06:05 PM EDT
One health insurance company on Oregon’s ObamaCare exchange is proposing to lower premiums an average of 16 percent next year, according to a report.
The other two carriers — Regence BlueCross Blue Shield and Kaiser — are proposing negligible increases of less than 5 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively.
The rates were reported by the Portland Business Journal on Tuesday. They come as state officials around the country begin to shed light on what consumers might pay on ObamaCare’s exchanges next year.
In most states, including Oregon, proposed rate changes must be approved by state regulators and will affect consumers differently based on age, plan and location.
.
http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/208127-oregon-insurer-proposes-double-digit-rate-decrease#.U48dyHnAL5Y.twitter#ixzz33g6Lqdmt
I hope BCBS (stress the BS) MN follows suit.
Tim Mak
Politics06.03.14
Obama Shut Out Congress for 2 Years About Bergdahl Deal, Key Senator Says
The clash between the White House and Congress over the deal for Bowe Bergdahl intensified after Sen. Dianne Feinstein claimed she’s been kept in the dark since 2012.
On Tuesday, President Obama insisted that he had “consulted with Congress for quite some time” over the possibility of swapping Taliban detainees for American hostage Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. That’s news to Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, who said it’s been more than two years since she was consulted on the issue, adding that the exchange was greeted by the Senate Intelligence Committee with “surprise and dismay.”
News of Bergdahl’s release this past weekend has stirred controversy in part because the Obama administration side-stepped a legal requirement to give Congress 30 days’ advance notice.
In late Nov. 2011, Feinstein was first briefed on the Obama administration’s proposal to trade five senior Taliban detainees at Guantanamo for Bergdahl, she told reporters Tuesday.
Alarmed at the prospect, Feinstein and her Republican vice-chairman Saxby Chambliss, wrote two classified letters expressing their views—in Dec. 2011 to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and to the president himself in Jan. 2012.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/03/obama-shut-out-congress-for-2-years-about-bergdahl-deal-key-senator-says.html
Right wing organizes bashing of American POW
Maddow & MSNBC had better BRING IT.
War on voting follows GOP inaction on rights
Rachel Maddow reviews how Republicans failed to follow up on promises to fix the Voting Rights Act after it was gutted by the Supreme Court, helping usher in a new Republican war on voting with new ID laws, restrictions and intimidation tactics.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/watch/war-on-voting-follows-gop-inaction-on-rights-273215043693
An exceedingly rare NRA apology
06/04/14 09:05 AM
By Steve Benen
It’s been about four decades since Ali MacGraw and Ryan O’Neal introduced us to an unfortunate catchphrase: “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” More recently, I’ve always thought it was better applied to the National Rifle Association, which never has to say it’s sorry, either.
No matter how extreme the far-right group gets, no matter who it offends, no matter the consequences of its policy purism, the NRA just doesn’t apologize for anything, ever.
Once in a great while, however, there are exceptions.
The National Rifle Association has disavowed its recent criticism of pro-gun demonstrations in Texas.
In an interview on Tuesday with the organization’s own news site, the head of the NRA’s lobbying arm blamed a staff member’s “personal opinion” for the content of an unsigned statement published Friday on the organization’s website, and he apologized for “any confusion” the statement may have caused.
For those just joining this story, a variety of gun enthusiasts, most notably members of a group called Open Carry Texas, have carried assault rifles into assorted restaurants and retail outlets, basically because the law allows it.
This led the NRA’s lobbying arm, the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, to issue a lengthy statement, urging activists to stop doing this. The organization made the case that “public displays of firearms as a means to draw attention to oneself or one’s cause” can be “downright scary” to members of the public. The far-right group added that a recent incident at a Chili’s restaurant was “downright weird” – and the NRA wasn’t referring to the manager’s request that the gun-toting patrons leave the premises.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/exceedingly-rare-nra-apology
Natalie Cole: An Unforgettable Dream House
The singer recalls the English Tudor home her dad, Nat King Cole, bought in 1948 in a predominantly white section of Los Angeles—triggering a wave of racial hostility but a childhood of fond memories
The house where I grew up in the Hancock Park section of Los Angeles was like a dream—even though my family faced threats after my father bought it in August 1948. At the time, many homeowners in white areas of Los Angeles refused to sell to blacks and other minorities, and Hancock Park was predominantly white and wealthy. But as a young girl, I was oblivious to all that. I felt like royalty living in our home.
I was born in 1950, so my first memories of our English Tudor brick house were filtered through my mid-’50s childhood world. I don’t think my dad had a clue that the neighborhood was going to have such a hostile reaction to us living there. Both of my parents were celebrities and exceptional artists. After all, my dad was Nat King Cole, one of the country’s most popular pianists and singers, and my mom, Maria Hawkins Cole, had been a singer in Duke Ellington’s band. She wanted a nice house after they married in ’48 and my dad had the money to buy it for his new bride. His money was as good as anyone else’s, and he figured that would settle it.
But it didn’t. When my mother, father and older sister Carole moved in they became the first black family in the area. Apparently my father’s real-estate agent had a light-skinned black woman put a binder on the house and then sign it over to my dad. The neighborhood was furious when they realized what had happened. Despite cash offers, threats, a lawsuit and racist signs on our lawn, we stayed put. Little by little, many of the neighbors calmed down once they realized we were a great family. My mom was a natural interior decorator and she turned the house into a symbol of elegance and beauty, and my father’s fame kept growing in the ’50s. It was impossible not to love him.
We lived in an interesting neighborhood. On one street were the Van de Kamps, who made their fortune in baked goods. On the others were the Gettys and Shells of oil fame, and the Vons and Ralphs, who pioneered supermarket chains. My best friend was a daughter in the Ralph family, and we sold Girl Scout cookies together. I got along with all the girls in the neighborhood. As kids, we had no clue about the racial stuff that seemed to preoccupy adults. We just enjoyed our life as kids.
http://online.wsj.com/articles/natalie-cole-an-unforgettable-dream-house-1401298798?mod=WSJ_GoogleNews
From TOD:
jackiegrumbacherJune 4, 2014 at 9:02 am
More good news from PA. After Rasmussen showed a 20 point lead for Dem Tom Wolf over Gov. Corbett, PPP’s latest poll has Wolf leading Corbett by 25 percent!!! Wolf has the support of 24 percent of PA Republicans and has a whopping 43percent lead among Independents. Pennsylvanians just can’t stand Corbett and they seem to be ready to break a long-standing tradition of electing each governor for two terms. Anything can happen and the Koch-supported Corbett will get a lot of money from the brothers, but if these poll results are anything like the November election outcome, I’m praying that voters also reject the Republican state House and Senate majority. Electing a governor whose hands will be tied by a right wing legislator is not going to get us very far.
McCain’s reversals on Bowe Bergdahl
06/03/14 02:51 PM—Updated 06/04/14 01:25 AM
By Steve Benen
It was just last week when Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) delivered a Memorial Day message in which she urged Americans to keep Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl “in our thoughts and prayers.” She added, “I renew my call on the Defense Department to redouble its efforts to find Sergeant Bergdahl and return him safely to his family.”
Less than a week later, the Defense Department announced that Bergdahl had been freed and he’ll be returned safely to his family – prompting a new round of criticism from Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.).
But all things considered, these conflicting statements are mild compared to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and his recent reversals, highlighted today by Doug Mataconis.
The Arizona senator, himself a former prisoner of war, initially balked at the idea of a prisoner swap, calling the idea in 2012 “bizarre.” A few months ago, however, McCain changed his mind.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/mccains-reversals-bowe-bergdahl
PragmaticObotsUnite@PragObots
Clinton allies telling media she was against #Bergdahl swap when she was SoS is attempt to prove hawk bonafides for 2016. #POUSeesYou #p2
https://twitter.com/PatriotsOfMars/status/474044133330276355/photo/1
Charles Johnson @Green_Footballs · 8h
There’s a strange vibe coming from right wing Twitter tonight. Almost as if they realize how badly they’ve fucked up.
missLtoe @missLtoe
Follow
No Drug Tests For Food Stamp Recipients, Feds Tell Georgia http://huff.to/1mPnTUA
11:20 PM – 3 Jun 2014
Critics Are Questioning American Military Credo of Leaving No One Behind
By ERIC SCHMITT, MARK MAZZETTI and PETER BAKERJUNE 3, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/04/world/critics-questioning-credo-of-leaving-no-one-behind.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-thecaucus
https://twitter.com/TPM/status/474023210703265792/photo/1
Can Bowe Bergdahl Be Tied to 6 Lost Lives? Facts Are Murky
By CHARLIE SAVAGE and ANDREW W. LEHREN JUNE 3, 2014
…But a review of casualty reports and contemporaneous military logs from the Afghanistan war shows that the facts surrounding the eight deaths are far murkier than definitive — even as critics of Sergeant Bergdahl contend that every American combat death in Paktika Province in the months after he disappeared, from July to September 2009, was his fault.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/04/world/middleeast/can-gi-be-tied-to-6-lost-lives-facts-are-murky.html?hp&_r=1
Dan Marino could have been a game changer in concussion discussion
Paul Kennedy
FOX Sports Florida
JUN 03, 2014 5:45p ET
Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly lay too emaciated from cancer treatments to attend his Kelly for Kids Foundation charity golf classic that has raised millions of dollars for children.
But Dan Marino — Kelly’s greatest on-field rival — was there Monday. For the kids and, especially, for Kelly.
That same day, the L.A. Times learned that Marino was suing the National Football League.
In its essence, Marino was contending that the collective NFL — which would include former Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga and former coach Don Shula — concealed the long-term effects of concussions from players to keep them in action on Sundays.
Spin this any which way — flare, screen, takeoff, hook — and dress it up in legalese, but that’s what Marino was chucking.
This from a 17-season NFL superstar who passed for a league-record 65,871 yards and 452 touchdowns. Who earned a bust in Canton. Who rode the wave of fame to a recently concluded 12-year run at CBS, promoting the very league he was taking to court.
Until Tuesday.
That’s when, upon further review, Marino reportedly withdrew from litigation. According to the Florida Sun-Sentinel, a source said he merely wanted to be included in any award of health benefits determined to have been caused by participation in league activities, should the need arise, in future years.
What in the heck is going on?
Say this with certainty: As was the case on game day, with Marino in action this is far more interesting. One of most charismatic competitors in the history of the game involved in former players’ suit that is far from being resolved and seeks reinvigorated leadership.
http://msn.foxsports.com/florida/story/is-there-something-more-to-marino-s-withdrawal-from-concussion-suit-060314
https://twitter.com/mch7576/status/457027506248646656/photo/1
https://twitter.com/EmrgencyKittens/status/460233150602698752/photo/1
https://twitter.com/evtumia/status/474065976515125249/photo/1
https://twitter.com/BabyAnimalPics/status/453173363457130496/photo/1
Bowe Bergdahl release handover from the Taliban
https://twitter.com/ZonkerPHL/status/474161371194884096/photo/1
Good morning, everyone!
ummmmmm
ummmmmm
ummmmmm
https://twitter.com/thedailybeast/status/474004750845739009/photo/1
BWA HA HA HA HA WORDLESS!
‘Open Carry’ Gun Fight Moves to Target Stores
3:39 pm ET Jun 3, 2014
Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, the Michael Bloomberg-funded gun-control group that shamed Starbucks and Chipotle into asking customers to leave their guns at home, is setting its sights on the Target chain.
The group turned its focus to Target after gun-rights groups advocating open-carry laws in Texas photographed themselves shopping at Dallas-area Target stores toting rifles strapped over their shoulders.
“Moms have their eye on Target because it’s a place we take our children to shop — and we’ve been disturbed by some of the demonstrations that gun extremists have held with loaded rifles inside and outside some stores. Assault rifles have no place in the baby aisle,” said Erika Soto Lamb, a spokeswoman for the group.
The group is poised to launch a campaign on social media to pressure Target. The group also held protests in front of local franchises during its efforts to influence Starbucks and other outlets.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/06/03/open-carry-gun-fight-moves-to-target-stores/
White House first discussed Bergdahl prisoner exchange with lawmakers in 2011
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said he first learned about the prisoner swap on Saturday and that a formal written White House notification arrived on Monday.
Asked if he would have liked to have known sooner, Levin said: “If possible, sure, but the president says he has the authority, if necessary, to move more quickly, under the Constitution,” he said. “That’s been a presidential position under various different kinds of circumstances as long as there have been presidents.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/06/03/white-house-first-discussed-bergdahl-prisoner-exchange-with-house-gop-leaders-in-nov-2011/
Black dentists complain over TennCare removal
The Tennessean 9:05 p.m. EDT June 3, 2014
Black dentists from across Tennessee told a group of lawmakers Tuesday that they had been treated unfairly by the company that administers the state’s contract to provide dental services to the poor.
Several dentists said they and their colleagues had been purged from the list of providers approved to treat patients through TennCare, the state’s Medicaid program, shortly after a new contract was awarded last year to DentaQuest, a Boston-based provider.
They and representatives for the National Dental Association, a trade group for black dentists, said dentists never were offered an explanation for why they were removed or an opportunity to appeal the decisions. But some said the purge had destroyed their practices and risked the health of the often poor TennCare patients they see.
http://www.wbir.com/story/news/local/2014/06/03/black-dentists-complain-over-tenncare-removal/9935603/
uh uh uh
http://youtu.be/2JRAjTonk08
Uh huh
Uh huh
……………………………………………
Hillary Clinton Was Skeptical of Taliban-Bergdahl Swap
By Josh Rogin
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was personally and intensely involved in the debate over swapping five Taliban commanders for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in 2011 and 2012. But she had severe reservations about the potential deal, and demanded stricter conditions for the release of the prisoners than what President Obama settled for last week.
Despite that the White House’s claim this week that the United States
did not negotiate “directly” with the Taliban to secure the Bergdahl
swap, the State Department, Defense Department, and White House
officials did meet several times with Taliban leaders in 2011 and 2012 to discuss the deal. The negotiations, held in in Munich and Doha, fell apart in early 2012. But before they did, Clinton had a framework deal drawn up that was much tougher on the Taliban than what ultimately got done two years later.
Three former administration officials who were involved in the process told The Daily Beast that Clinton was worried about the ability to enforce the deal and disinclined to trust the Taliban or the Haqqani
network in Pakistan, which held Bergdahl until this weekend. Clinton was so concerned, the former officials added, that she may not have even signed off if the negotiations had succeeded.
…Clinton was not the only top member of the Obama administration skeptical of the deal. Three U.S. intelligence officials told The Daily Beast on Monday that James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence, flat out rejected the release of the five detainees, saying there was too high a risk these Taliban commanders would return to the battlefield and orchestrate attacks against Americans. Then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta declined to certify that the United States could mitigate the risk of releasing the Taliban commanders.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/03/hillary-clinton-was-skeptical-of-taliban-bergdahl-swap.html
Wasn’t she also reserved about going in and getting Bin Laden?
From DonnaDem at TOD:
——————————————————————————–
donna dem 4 obama
June 4, 2014 at 7:24 am
Good Morning TOD
Before I head out to work let’s make today a Day of Action
We can start by all of us contacting Sen. Dianne Feinstein
Here is her contact information
Phone: (202) 224-3841
Fax: (202) 228-3954
Email: https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/e-mail-me
Twitter: @SenFeinstein
We can help her to understand that as a Democrat it should be her primary goal to support this President and if she has issue with anything he does she needs to talk to his staff or him directly about it. It is not necessary for her to run to every open mike and give the Republicans and the media ammunition to bash President Obama.
Ladies, this are very postable videos.
RACHEL MADDOW 06/03/14
1) Right wing organizes bashing of American POW
Rachel Maddow reports on the passion and outrage with which the American right is objecting to the return of American soldier Bowe Bergdahl, rejecting the longstanding American principle of leaving no soldier behind.
http://on.msnbc.com/1ouzk53
2) Right ignores due process in zeal to condemn American POW
Patrick Murphy, an Iraq War veteran, former congressman, and the host of “Taking the Hill” on msnbc, talks with Rachel Maddow about unexpected passion on the right for leaving an American soldier behind in Afghanistan as a prisoner of the Taliban.
http://on.msnbc.com/1hy0ZDG
https://twitter.com/nycsouthpaw/status/473588634332188672/photo/1
https://twitter.com/nbcwashington/status/474157000927240192/photo/1
wonderful!
Greg Sargent ✔ @ThePlumLineGS
Follow
Oy, @AlisonForKY RT @reidepstein: Listen to Alison Lundergan Grimes’s new radio ad whacking President Obama http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/06/04/coal-fears-push-kentuckys-grimes-to-criticize-obama/ …
7:16 AM – 4 Jun 2014
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Good Morning, and Happy HUMP day, Everyone!
Good Afternoon, rikyrah, Ametia and Everyone :)
Samuel Lee Gravely, Jr. was born on this day in 1922. From Wikipedia:
“Samuel Lee Gravely, Jr. (June 4, 1922 – October 22, 2004) was an African-American pioneer in the United States Navy — the first African American in the U.S. Navy to serve aboard a fighting ship as an officer, the first to command a Navy ship, the first fleet commander, and the first to become a flag officer, retiring as a vice admiral.”
“VADM Samuel L. Gravely, Jr., USN, Retirement Ceremony(1980)”