Today’s comedian is Dr. Bill Cosby.
William Henry “Bill” Cosby Jr. (born July 12, 1937) is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer, educator, musician and activist. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at the hungry i in San Francisco and various other clubs, then landed a starring role in the 1960s action show I Spy. He later starred in his own sitcom, The Bill Cosby Show. He was one of the major performers on the children’s television series The Electric Company during its first two seasons, and created the educational cartoon comedy series Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, about a group of young friends growing up in the city. Cosby also acted in a number of films.
During the 1980s, Cosby produced and starred in one of the decade’s defining sitcoms, The Cosby Show, which aired eight seasons from 1984 to 1992. It was the number one show in America for five straight years (1985–89).[1] The sitcom highlighted the experiences and growth of an affluent African-American family. He also produced the spin-off sitcom A Different World, which became second to The Cosby Show in ratings. He starred in the sitcom Cosby from 1996 to 2000 and hosted Kids Say the Darndest Things for two seasons.
In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante included him in his book The 100 Greatest African Americans.[2]
In 1976, Cosby earned a Doctor of Education degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His dissertation discussed the use of Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids as a teaching tool in elementary schools.
Acting career
I Spy
In 1965, when he was cast alongside Robert Culp in the I Spy espionage adventure series, Cosby became the first African-American co-star in a dramatic television series, and NBC became the first to present a series so cast. At first Cosby and NBC executives were concerned that some affiliates might be unwilling to carry the series. At the beginning of the 1965 season, four stations declined the show; they were in Georgia, Florida, and Alabama.[citation needed] Viewers were taken with the show’s exotic locales and the authentic chemistry between the stars, and it became one of the ratings hits of that television season. I Spy finished among the twenty most-watched shows that year, and Cosby would be honored with three consecutive Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.
During the run of the series, Cosby continued to do stand-up comedy performances and recorded a half-dozen record albums for Warner Bros. Records. He also began to dabble in singing, recording Silver Throat: Bill Cosby Sings in 1967, which provided him with a hit single with his recording of “Li’l Ole Man”.[citation needed] He would record several more musical albums into the early 1970s, but he continued to record primarily stand-up comedy work.
In June 1968, Billboard reported that Cosby had turned down a five-year, US$3.5 million contract renewal offer and would leave the label in August that year to record for his own record label.[16]
Tetragrammaton Records was a division of the Campbell, Silver, Cosby (CSC) Corporation, the Los Angeles based production company founded by Cosby, his manager Roy Silver, and filmmaker Bruce Post Campbell. It produced films as well as records, including Cosby’s television specials, the Fat Albert cartoon special and series and several motion pictures. CSC hired industry veteran Artie Mogull as President of the label and Tetragrammaton was fairly active during 1968–69 (its most successful signing was British heavy rock band Deep Purple) but it quickly went into the red and ceased trading during 1970.[17]
Fat Albert, The Bill Cosby Show, and the 1970s
Cosby pursued a variety of additional television projects and appeared as a regular guest host on The Tonight Show and as the star of an annual special for NBC. He returned with another series in 1969, The Bill Cosby Show, a situation comedy that ran for two seasons. Cosby played a physical education teacher at a Los Angeles high school. While only a modest critical success, the show was a ratings hit, finishing eleventh in its first season. Cosby was lauded for using some previously unknown African-American performers such as Lillian Randolph, Moms Mabley, and Rex Ingram as characters. According to commentary on the Season 1 DVD’s for the show, Cosby was at odds with NBC over his refusal to include a laugh track in the show (he felt that viewers had the ability to find humor for themselves when watching a TV show). He was originally contracted with NBC to do the show for two seasons, and he believes the show was not renewed afterwards for that reason.
After The Bill Cosby Show left the air, Cosby returned to his education. He began graduate work at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. For the PBS series The Electric Company, Cosby recorded several segments teaching reading skills to young children.
In 1972, Cosby received an MA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was also back in prime time with a variety series, The New Bill Cosby Show. However, this time he met with poor ratings, and the show lasted only a season. More successful was a Saturday morning show, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, hosted by Cosby and based on his own childhood. That series ran from 1972 to 1979, and as The New Fat Albert Show in 1979 and The Adventures of Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids in 1984.[citation needed] Some schools used the program as a teaching tool,[citation needed] and Cosby himself wrote a dissertation on it, “An Integration of the Visual Media Via ‘Fat Albert And The Cosby Kids’ Into the Elementary School Curriculum as a Teaching Aid and Vehicle to Achieve Increased Learning”, as partial fulfillment of obtaining his 1976 doctorate in education, also from the University of Massachusetts.[8][18] Subsequently, Temple University, where Cosby had begun but never finished his undergraduate studies, would grant him his bachelor’s degree on the basis of “life experience.”[19]
Also during the 1970s, Cosby and other African-American actors, including Sidney Poitier, joined forces to make some successful comedy films that countered the violent “blaxploitation” films of the era. Uptown Saturday Night (1974) and Let’s Do It Again (1975) were generally praised, but much of Cosby’s film work has fallen flat. Mother, Jugs & Speed (1976), costarring Raquel Welch and Harvey Keitel; A Piece of the Action, with Poitier; and California Suite, a compilation of four Neil Simon plays, were all panned. In addition, Cos (1976) an hour-long variety show featuring puppets, sketches, and musical numbers, was canceled within the year. It was during this season that ABC decided to take advantage of this phase of Cosby’s career by associating with Filmation (producers of Fat Albert) in creating live-action segments starring Cosby for the 1964/1971 animated film Journey Back to Oz, which made its network premiere at Christmas 1976, and aired subsequently in syndication. Cosby was also a regular on children’s public television programs starting in the 1970s, hosting the “Picture Pages” segments that lasted into the early 1980s.
These endeavors created a bridge in Cosby’s career that led to his greatest success that would save a faltering television network from the ratings cellar.
The Cosby Show and the 1980s
Cosby’s greatest television success came in September 1984 with the debut of The Cosby Show. The program aired weekly on NBC and went on to become the highest ranking sitcom of all time.[citation needed] For Cosby, the new situation comedy was a response to the increasingly violent and vulgar fare the networks usually offered.[citation needed] Cosby is an advocate for humor that is family-oriented. He insisted on and received total creative control of the series, and he was involved in every aspect of the series. The show had parallels to Cosby’s actual family life: like the characters Cliff and Claire Huxtable, Cosby and his wife Camille were college educated, financially successful, and had five children. Essentially a throwback to the wholesome family situation comedy, The Cosby Show was unprecedented in its portrayal of an intelligent, affluent, African-American family.
Much of the material from the pilot and first season of The Cosby Show was taken from his video Bill Cosby: Himself, released in 1983. The series was an immediate success, debuting near the top of the ratings and staying there for most of its long run. The Cosby Show is one of only three American programs that have been #1 in the Nielsen ratings for at least five consecutive seasons, along with All in the Family and American Idol. People magazine called the show “revolutionary”,[citation needed] and Newsday concurred that it was a “real breakthrough.”[citation needed]
In 1987, Cosby attempted to return to film with the spy spoof Leonard Part 6. Although Cosby himself was producer and wrote the story, he realized during production that the film was not going to be what he wanted and publicly denounced it, warning audiences to stay away.[20]
I have every single Cosby Show on VHS! Remember VHS? Taped ’em myself.
Summer TV 2014: Must-Watch New Shows
http://www.tvguide.com/special/summer-tv/photogallery/Must-Watch-New-Shows-1081802
Thursday, June 5, 2014
Illegitimacy
I’m having a bit of a chuckle at my peers who – in the midst of all the lunacy over the prisoner exchange – have been trying to explain that George W. Bush released hundreds of Gitmo prisoners and that Ronald Reagan traded arms for hostages.
The reason why I laugh is because of the assumption that any of this is about a rational argument. When we go there, it gives this nonsense credibility. Thank goodness Michelle Malkin did us a favor by actually saying what its all about.
The Bowe Bergdahl mess isn’t just a story about one deserter, but two.
Just in case you missed it, the second “deserter” is the guy a majority of people in this country elected President…twice.
As these hysteria eruptions come and go, it always helps to remember that there is a faction in this country that never accepted the legitimacy of PRESIDENT Obama. In case Malkin’s truth-telling doesn’t convince you that’s what all this is about, the whole incident has put life back into every tin-foil hat conspiracy theory about the President along with this new one that showed up on my facebook page:
http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2014/06/illegitimacy.html?spref=tw
With no legislative approval, McAuliffe has begun planning for Medicaid expansion
By Laura Vozzella, Published: June 4 E-mail the writer
RICHMOND — Gov. Terry McAuliffe is quietly planning the nuts and bolts of enrolling an additional 400,000 Virginians in Medicaid even as the House of Delegates seems as firmly opposed as ever to expanding the health-care program for the poor.
The administration is considering how it would handle the flood of applications that are expected to pour in if expansion comes to pass. Privately run call centers could be an option
The planning comes on top of research McAuliffe’s office has conducted into whether he has the power to expand Medicaid by executive order if he cannot get the GOP-dominated House to budge. And it comes to light as McAuliffe is claiming broad authority to keep most, if not all, of the state government running if the standoff prevents passage of a budget before July 1, the start of the fiscal year.
McAuliffe (D), who ran for office as a bipartisan dealmaker, continues to say publicly that he wants to find a legislative solution to the Medicaid standoff. But with the start of the new fiscal year less than a month away, the governor appears to be mulling over the extraordinary use of executive power, both to keep the lights on in state government and to muscle Medicaid expansion past the legislature.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/with-no-legislative-approval-mcauliffe-has-begun-planning-for-medicaid-expansion/2014/06/04/2a7a8b4c-ea77-11e3-9f5c-9075d5508f0a_story.html
Virginia’s McAuliffe to get creative on Medicaid expansion
06/05/14 09:29 AM—Updated 06/05/14 09:45 AM
By Steve Benen
In Virginia, Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) campaigned on Medicaid expansion as a key element of his 2013 platform, and after taking office, he made it clear to state lawmakers that this is one of his top priorities. Republicans responded by saying they are prepared to do practically anything to block the policy – including a possible shutdown of the state government.
The governor, however, believes he simply cannot take “no” for an answer. Medicaid expansion would bring coverage to 400,000 low-income Virginians; it would improve the commonwealth’s finances in the short term; and it would boost the state’s economy in the long term.
And with this in mind, in early April, McAuliffe started consulting with lawyers about how to do the smart thing without the approval of the Republican-dominated House of Delegates. As the Washington Post reported at the time, the office of Attorney General Mark Herring (D) has also been researching the matter.
It’s become increasingly clear that the governor isn’t bluffing.
Gov. Terry McAuliffe is quietly planning the nuts and bolts of enrolling an additional 400,000 Virginians in Medicaid even as the House of Delegates seems as firmly opposed as ever to expanding the health-care program for the poor.
The administration is considering how it would handle the flood of applications that are expected to pour in if expansion comes to pass. Privately run call centers could be an option.
The planning comes on top of research McAuliffe’s office has conducted into whether he has the power to expand Medicaid by executive order if he cannot get the GOP-dominated House to budge. And it comes to light as McAuliffe is claiming broad authority to keep most, if not all, of the state government running if the standoff prevents passage of a budget before July 1, the start of the fiscal year.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/virginias-mcauliffe-get-creative
Lupita Nyong’o is set to reteam with Brad Pitt’s Plan B production company on the drama Americanah.
Plan B, which produced 12 Years a Slave, has acquired big-screen rights to the Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie-penned novel and will produce alongside D2 Prods. and Potboiler Prods. (The Last King of Scotland, Generation Kill). Nyong’o will produce and star.
Americanah is the epic love story of young Nigerians, a romance that spans continents, visas, phone cards and breakups, while exploring the cruelties and the humor of both the modern immigrant experience and the difficulty of finding your way home. The novel was the winner of the 2013 National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction and was selected as one of the 10 best books of the year by The New York Times Book Review, the BBC and Newsday.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/lupita-nyongo-brad-pitt-reteam-709653
Republicans Want to Harm Millions of Americans By Killing Obamacare Tax Credit
By: Sarah Jones
Wednesday, June, 4th, 2014, 8:10 pm
As Republicans refuse to fund the VA to its needs and continue to sell themselves out to the highest corporate bidder, going to bat for more tax breaks for big business whilst imposing austerity on Americas workers, they are also coming for your Obamacare tax credits.
Republicans are demanding a halt to all tax credits issued to millions of Americans who signed up for insurance through the Obamacare exchanges in a letter to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew signed by, among many others, GOP budget “wonk” Paul Ryan (R-WI), who never did manage to balance his own budget.
Republicans claim they need to pick pocket Americans because the Health and Human Services department is still verifying some income information for some families. The Republicans will stop at no measure of oversight to make sure the entire law is messed up in order to keep some people from getting away with something somewhere. Of course, this timeline for verification was expected and anticipated by all who actually read the legislation.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/06/04/pick-pocket-republicans-coming-6800000-individuals-families-obamacare-tax-credits.html
Contraception opponents aren’t backing down
06/05/14 11:34 AM
By Steve Benen
The Supreme Court has not yet ruled whether corporations are people that can drop birth control coverage for their employees, but conservative efforts against birth control are continuing apace.
In Ohio, for example, Republican lawmakers are advancing a proposal to make it illegal for a private insurance company to cover abortions, even in cases of rape, incest and when pregnancy threatens a mother’s life. The Columbus Dispatch’s report added, however, that the state legislation doesn’t stop there (thanks to my colleague Kate Osborn for the heads-up).
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/contraception-opponents-arent-backing-down
After GOP failure, Obama should reform America’s immigration system
By Fernando Espuelas
Call me a bright-eyed optimist. Until very recently, I have forcibly advocated for congressional action to finally resolve the nation’s dysfunctional immigration system. Enough of executive actions — it’s time for a law to be dully passed by Congress.
I even criticized activists for taking the proverbial eye off the ball — pressuring President Obama and leaving Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), the only man who can call a vote in the House, off the hook.
Of course, I had the expectation that when faced with a decomposing electoral coalition, ever more homogenous, smaller and older, Boehner and other Republicans would see the wisdom in not further alienating minorities with hateful rhetoric and, most importantly, by finally passing the Senate’s bipartisan immigration reform bill. After all, considering a bill, debating it and voting is what Congress does.
I was wrong.
In speaking with House Republicans over the last two weeks, I have not been able to get one single positive response to my question: Will the House pass the immigration reform bill before August? Not one member of Congress I spoke to has expressed even the slightest bit of optimism.
I will not here repeat all the benefits to America that accrue once immigration reform, some version of the Senate bill, goes into effect. Suffice it to say that the significant economic benefits (as pointedly articulated by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and many others on the right, center and left) are apparently insufficient empirical reasons to drive the Speaker and his leadership team to schedule a vote of the House.
In fact, things have even gotten worse. The GOP’s chief spokesman on immigration, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), engineered yet another vote to pass a bill that would deport all Dreamers. Yes, in the midst of overwhelming public sentiment (even among Republicans) in favor of immigration reform, King gets Republicans in the House to support a symbolic statement of bigotry against young immigrants.
Executive action has become a hot-button issue in Washington. Republicans talk about impeachment as if were now the norm when faced with a Democratic White House. Yet as the president promised in his State of the Union speech, if Congress does not act, he will.
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/immigration/208383-after-gop-failure-obama-should-reform-americas-immigration#.U5DOx4zZKC9.twitter#ixzz33oDjcGdk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UwHfwGVoEY
Never gets old.
Love this!
Senators Announce Accord on Improving Veterans’ Care
By JONATHAN WEISMAN and JENNIFER STEINHAUER
JUNE 5, 2014
Senators reached a bipartisan accord on Thursday to bolster the authority of the acting veterans affairs secretary, allowing him to fire senior officials and to expand health care access to veterans stuck on long waiting lists at the department’s hospitals.
The deal between Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont and the chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, and Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, is likely to be the main legislative response to the scandal involving secret waiting lists and other efforts to paper over crushing waits for veterans seeking health care.
“We have learned that in many parts of this country veterans cannot get the timely care that they need,” Mr. Sanders said. “So this bill in a significant way begins to address that important issue.”
In the short run, the agreement would authorize veterans to seek care from private doctors, paid for by the Department of Veterans Affairs. That provision would apply to veterans who are either stuck on a waiting list or who live 40 miles or more from one of the department’s medical centers. It also would authorize the department to lease 26 major medical facilities in 18 states and Puerto Rico to try to shrink the backlog.
It would provide $500 million to bolster the Veteran Affairs Department’s ability to recruit and retain doctors. And the deal includes a measure to improve the delivery of care to veterans who were victims of sexual assault while in the military.
The deal includes some measures from a bill that died after a filibuster. One of the measures would offer in-state tuition at any public university to veterans, and it would extend the tuition benefits to spouses of service members who died during their time in the military.
“Bernie Sanders is a fighter, and it’s been a pleasure to do combat with him,” Mr. McCain said.
The agreement could defuse partisan tensions that have arisen since the first reports of long waiting lists and the veterans who have died awaiting care. The House passed a narrow bill last month granting the veterans affairs secretary authority to fire or demote senior executives without going through a bulky federal review process. But Mr. Sanders wanted a Senate measure that would also deal with access to care at overburdened medical facilities.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/06/us/politics/senators-announce-accord-on-improving-veterans-care.html?_r=0
Lindsey Graham’s Threat to Impeach The President Is Racial Animus Towards Obama
By: Rmuse
In August 2012 around the time of the Republican National Convention, Republican Senator Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) complained bitterly that Republicans “were not generating enough angry white guys to stay in business for the long term.” Although there is no dearth of angry white guys in, or supporting, the Republican ranks, Graham is doing his best to take up the slack and perpetuate racial animus toward people of color; particularly the person of color occupying the Oval Office.
Graham is so angry and white, he is threatening the African American President with impeachment if he attempts to close Guantanamo Bay or release any more Muslim detainees captured when America invaded two sovereign nations during warmonger president George W. Bush’s administration. Republicans still cannot accept that Americans elected an African American as President, or that he is not waging pre-emptive wars against Muslim nations, so an impeachment threat over bringing home an American soldier held as a prisoner of war, however unpatriotic, is nothing new for Republican intolerance of a Black President.
However, Graham’s threat to impeach the President if he attempts to close Guantanamo Bay or release detained Muslims is going to run into serious problems after December 31, 2014 when the Afghanistan War officially comes to an end and the United States is required to release them. If any of the detainees are suspected of terrorist activities against America, the normal legal process to determine their guilt or innocence is trying and convicting them in an American court of law like the Bush administration successfully did. However, this is 2014 and the “normal legal process” went out the window when the people elected an African American man as President a little over five years ago.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/06/05/lindsey-grahams-threat-impeach-president-racial-animus-obama.html
Memo to GOP: The War over Big Government health care is over, and you lost
By Paul Waldman
June 5 at 12:18 pm
The federal government has released new data on Medicaid enrollment showing that with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, six million Americans were added to the program’s rolls. That’s six million low-income people who now have health coverage, who can see a doctor when they need to and who don’t have to worry about whether an accident or an illness will send them spiraling into utter financial ruin.
The numbers reveal something else, too, something that should horrify conservatives: we’re well on our way to health-care socialism.
Okay, that’s an exaggeration. But only a slight one. And at a time when the press is realizing that Republicans are losing their taste for anti-Obamacare bloviating (more on that in a moment), it shows that Bill Kristol’s nightmare has nearly come true.
Back in 1993, Kristol wrote Republicans an enormously influential memo advising that the best approach to Bill Clinton’s health reform plan was notto do everything they could to kill it outright. If any plan managed to pass, he warned, “it will re-legitimize middle-class dependence for ‘security’ on government spending and regulation. It will revive the reputation of the party that spends and regulates, the Democrats, as the generous protector of middle-class interests. And it will at the same time strike a punishing blow against Republican claims to defend the middle class by restraining government.”
Now let’s look at where we are today. Prior to ACA implementation, there were just under 59 million people enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP, the program that covers poor children. States that accepted the ACA’s expansion of Medicaid signed up a total of 5.2 million new people. The states that rejected the expansion signed up an additional 800,000; these are “woodwork” enrollees, people who were already eligible under their state’s (often absurdly restrictive) rules, but came out of the woodwork to sign up because of all the attention to health care. Add them in, and there are now 64 million Americans on Medicaid and CHIP.
On top of that, there are now over 52 million seniors on Medicare. There are another 9 million veterans enrolled in the Veterans Health Service.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/06/05/memo-to-gop-the-war-over-big-government-health-care-is-over-and-you-lost/
Ohio May Take Away Low-Income Women’s Access To The Most Effective Form Of Birth Control
By Tara Culp-Ressler
June 4, 2014 at 11:18 am
The Ohio legislature is currently considering a measure that would institute a sweeping ban on insurance coverage for abortion in state residents’ public and private health plans. Restricting women’s ability to use their insurance plans to pay for abortion is becoming an increasingly popular anti-choice strategy — and Ohio’s proposed legislation may actually go even further. The measure would also make it harder for low-income women to afford the most effective form of birth control.
House Bill 351, which was the subject of a committee hearing on Tuesday, seeks to prohibit insurance plans from covering “drugs or devices used to prevent the implantation of a fertilized ovum.” That definition effectively bans several types of contraception, like the birth control pill and the IUD.
Residents with public insurance — which includes state government employees as well as low-income individuals who rely on Medicaid — are already prevented from using their coverage for most abortions. But since HB 351 stipulates they also can’t use it for any drugs that inhibit implantation, the legislation could end up functioning as a birth control ban for public insurance plans.
Rep. John Becker (R), who sponsored the bill, said during Tuesday’s hearing that birth control pills should not be banned under HB 351. But he still wants IUDs, which are long-acting forms of birth control that are inserted in the uterus, to fall under the ban because he considers IUDs to be a form of abortion. “This is just a personal view. I’m not a medical doctor,” he said.
Nonetheless, if HB 351 is approved, Becker’s personal view could end up having serious medical consequences for women across the state — including the economically disadvantaged women on Medicaid, who are already most at risk for unintended pregnancy.
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/06/04/3444814/ohio-lawmakers-insurance-iuds/
Scott Brown’s Senate Bid is Sinking Fast as He Cuts Ties With Shady Florida Company
By: Jason Easley
Thursday, June, 5th, 2014, 1:50 pm
Already trailing Democratic incumbent Sen. Jeanne Shaheen in every major poll, Scott Brown’s bid to return to the US Senate via New Hampshire has run into trouble due to some shady business associations.
The Boston Globe reported:
Republican Scott Brown abruptly resigned Wednesday from an obscure Florida company and gave up stock initially valued at $1.3 million after facing a barrage of questions about his role as a “senior adviser,” a controversy that had dogged his US Senate campaign in New Hampshire.
Brown’s resignation from the advisory board of Global Digital Solutions Inc. was announced about two hours after a news media event in the state’s capital designed to highlight his official entry into the race. He was repeatedly challenged by reporters in Concord seeking answers about what he had done to earn the stock grant, and whether he had scrutinized the company before lending it his name.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/06/05/scott-browns-senate-bid-sinking-fast-cuts-ties-shady-florida-company.html
https://twitter.com/thedailymeal/status/474656700168155138/photo/1
Let’s see if I can see a place for donuts in this photo :)
http://popularwealth.com/images/randys-donuts-plane-lax.jpg
1 in 10 still support discrimination against African-Americans on religious grounds
06/04/14 02:33 PM—Updated 06/04/14 04:05 PM
By Morgan Whitaker
One in 10 Americans believe small business owners should be free to refuse to serve or do business with African-Americans on religious grounds, according to a new poll.
A survey released this week by the Public Religion Research Institute finds that strong majorities of Americans reject the idea that businesses should be legally allowed to refuse to serve either African-American, Jewish, gays and lesbians, or atheists, but a small portion of the country still believes you should be able to.
Among the four groups, the survey found the least support for refusing service to African-Americans, but the most for discriminating against gay or lesbian individuals.
Asked if it should be legal to refuse to do business with members of the LGBT community on religious grounds, 16% said yes and 80% said no. Similarly, 15% said it should be legal to refuse service to atheists, with 81% saying it shouldn’t be. The polling found slightly less support for religious beliefs being sufficient to allow a small business owner to refuse to business with Jewish people, 12% said yes and 85% said no. And when it came to African-Americans, 10% said they supported the legal right to refuse service and 87% said they did not. PRRI conducted the survey of more than 1,000 adults via telephone, including cell phone users, and results have a margin of error of 3.1%.
http://www.msnbc.com/politicsnation/1-in-10-americans-still-support-discrimination?cid=sm_m_main_1_20140605_25382916
https://twitter.com/bannerite/status/474585937335169024/photo/1
KAPOW, BOOM! BAM! LIGHT UP THAT AZZ……………………
Michelle Obama to speak at Maya Angelou’s memorial service
http://on.thegrio.com/1kCUXAT
Wonderful! I’m looking forward to Ms Angelou’s HOMEGOING service.
Thanks for the heads up. Hope I can find the live streaming on Saturday.
Chuck Todd @chucktodd · 1h
WH just announced that the First Lady will speak at the Maya Angelou memorial service on Sat in Winston Salem.
Bill R @cmpnwtr
Follow
#ChrisMathews launches attack on Amer soldier #POW #BoweBergdhal w/five years captivity. What has Chris & @MSNBC done for our country?
2:05 PM – 5 Jun 2014
https://twitter.com/zizii2/status/474625792677539840/photo/1
White House withheld Bergdahl swap info from Congress because Taliban threatened to execute him if terms were leaked.
http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_289563/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=wabdXUmI
For Trayvon Martin’s friend Rachel Jeantel, a ‘village’ of mentors trying to keep her on track
By Krissah Thompson and Lonnae O’Neal Parker June 4 at 8:55 PM
…It’s a Friday afternoon and they are sitting in an Italian restaurant
celebrating Jeantel’s high school graduation and reflecting on this past year of the young woman’s life. The woman is Rose Reeder, who has become part of Jeantel’s “village,” an extended network of mentors, tutors and advisers — black professionals all.
Jeantel tries again. “I was mad because they judged me,” she concedes. “You don’t know me.”
This is what her life has been like for the past year. Directed, interrupted, lectured and groomed. Put another way — they have been all up in her business.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/for-rachel-jeantel-travyon-martins-friend-the-journey-continues/2014/06/04/0135d5a2-ec11-11e3-93d2-edd4be1f5d9e_story.html?tid=pm_pop
Good Afternoon, Everyone :)
Today was Peanut’s graduation from Kindergarten.
So, we went to that. Then took her to a graduation breakfast.
Her class had arranged for a picnic in the park this afternoon, and we went there. Just returned from that. It was nice. Peanut and a few of her classmates parked themselves in the sand of the volleyball courts, and I helped her make sand castles.
It was a good day :)
Congratulations, Peanut! Whoo Hoo! Peanut is growing up.
Sounds like you guys had an awesome day. So much fun and joy with the graduate. Did they have cap & gown? Jay’s class didn’t. They had green T-Shirts.
They had graduation t-shirts with their names on the back. When we got to the picnic, it made sense. T-shirts and school gym shorts…so the kids could play as hard as they wanted.
Good idea! Let them have fun. They worked hard all year. :)
CONGRATULATIONS, PEANUT!
Congratulations, Peanut!
Sounds as if you had a SUPER day!!!
http://www.clipartbest.com/cliparts/dc7/58M/dc758MKc9.jpeg
Congratulations, Miss Peanut.
rikyrah,
Thank you SO much for your fabulous posts on Black comedy this week!!!
Rikyrah & SG2 ALWAYS takes it higher with their posts. I Spy wasn’t comedy, but I fell in love with both Cosby & Culp. Was raised on I Spy and loved this series.
President Obama: I make no apologies for Bergdahl deal.
*********************************
BAM! Did PBO give the media and haters the finger?
LMBAO PBO just keeps on truckin’ while the media whores pimp their lies.
Yessss. No apology or explanation needed, Sir!
I know it’s KOS, but it’s a post of when the right-wing was for Bergdahl’s release before they were against it. A compilation of who wrote for his release before the Black President actually got him released.
Tue Jun 03, 2014 at 08:12 PM PDT
The way back machine delivers the LOLs. Bonus Alan West LOL. Bonus Gateway Pundit LOL.
by SantaFeMarie
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/06/03/1304227/-The-way-back-machine-delivers-the-LOLs
Bobfr @Our4thEstate
Follow
@EMC_Square2 @ReproRights If Women, Blacks, Hispanics exercised their ‘2nd Amendment Rights’ the NRA would be out of biz in a nanosecond.
12:36 AM – 5 Jun 2014
I know that’s right.
can you believe this shyt?
https://twitter.com/TIME/status/474499525898678272/photo/1
Just like “NOISE WEAK, TIMED OUT” is heading for the dust bin.
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Good Morning, Rikryah.
You’ve really done OUTSTANDING work on this week’s Black comedy posts! I can’t wait to watch all the Cosby clips tonight when I get home. Thanks so much.
Good morning, rikyrah, Ametia, SG2 and Everyone!
Another instance proving that we are not a post-racial society:
This.HORRIBLE.RACISM! – – –
(Note…within the article link is a video with the news reporter where the victim of verbal racist abuse and environment racist abuse plays his recording that documents it.)
“Boss Tells Black Employees Not To Drink Out of ‘White People Only’ Water”
http://www.alan.com/2014/06/03/boss-tells-black-employees-not-to-drink-out-of-white-people-only-water/
Here is the video:
Can’t the employer be prosecuted in some manner?
will take a look see when I get home this evening.
Good morning, everyone!
I want coffee!