Hello, everyone! More Peabo…
Bryson’s family not only instilled in him his work ethic, but a love for music as well. “My mother was a serious music lover. Whenever there was somebody great in town, she’d drag us along to catch their act. I have seen most of the greats of that period – Sam Cooke, Little Richard and even Billie Holiday. Sam Cooke was a great influence on me. His voice had a pure quality – straight from-the-heart.”
“I think the sensitivity in my songs stems from my early childhood. I was raised by women – my grandmother, until she died, and my mother. My grandmother was a woman who lived and loved with incredible passion.”
I’m So Into You
Bryson moved to Capitol Records in 1978, where his album “Reaching for the Sky” went gold and the title track was a number six R&B hit. With his LP “Crosswinds” (gold,1978), he truly penetrated the hearts of soul fans everywhere with the title tracks “Feel the Fire” and “I’m So Into You”, which spent two weeks as the nation’s number two R&B hit. He was paired with Capitol label-mate Natalie Cole for the 1979 project “We’re the Best of Friends” and a year later with Roberta Flack for the double-LP “Live & More” (on Atlantic Records). Peabo delivered four more albums for Capitol before making a second, even bigger album with Flack titled “Born to Love”, a gold seller that featured the smash “Tonight I Celebrate My Love” (Top 5 R&B and #16 Pop). That led him to sign a deal with Elektra Records for four albums, the second of which, “Take No Prisoners”, featured the crossover smash “If Ever You’re In My Arms Again” (Top 10 Pop and Top 10 R&B).
bwa ha ha ha ha ha
OOPS! LOL
https://twitter.com/markknoller/status/494235236621123584/photo/1
https://twitter.com/CenterOnBudget/status/494151311395663872/photo/1
Ryan’s America’s GRANNY-STARVER!
The Associated Press ✔ @AP
Follow
BREAKING: US appeals court panel strikes down law that could have closed only Miss. abortion clinic.
1:27 PM – 29 Jul 2014
Jamison Foser @jamisonfoser
Follow
We’d never impeach Obama, that’s a fake Democrat talking point! — John Boehner, who voted to impeach the last Democratic president.
12:31 PM – 29 Jul 2014
Rauner pads lead against Quinn in new poll
Tue, 07/29/2014 – 7:37am
Chad Merda
Gov. Pat Quinn is facing an increasingly uphill battle against Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner, a new We Ask America poll shows.
Rauner is now sitting on a 14-point lead in the poll that was conducted July 28, which is up from his 10-point lead he had in a June poll. Rauner’s boost can be attributed to his economic plan, which includes a state income tax reduction. A poll showed while people don’t believe Illinois can afford this plan, a majority say it makes them more likely to vote for him.
Reboot Illinois, which was founded by hedge fund manager Anne Dias Griffin, commissioned the poll by We Ask America, an independent polling subsidiary of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association.
Overall, if the election were held today, Rauner would pull in 47 percent of the vote, compared to Quinn’s 33 percent, according to the poll. Twenty percent said they’re still undecided.
http://politics.suntimes.com/article/chicago/extra-alarm-over-cps-preference-firefighter-hiring/mon-07282014-802pm
Extra alarm over CPS preference in firefighter hiring
Mon, 07/28/2014 – 8:02pm
Mark Brown
Mayor Rahm Emanuel barely caused a ripple of reaction two years ago when he announced Chicago Public School graduates would be given a leg up when applying for city jobs.
But now that the city is preparing to take applications for firefighters for the first time in a decade, Emanuel’s “CPS preference” policy is sparking an outcry from some city residents who say it discriminates against graduates of Catholic and other private schools.
Several elected officials from the city’s Northwest and Southwest sides tell me the issue has heated up in the last two weeks after the city posted its job announcement for the forthcoming firefighters exam.
“People have been really upset,” said Ald. Nicholas Sposato (36th), a firefighter whose Northwest Side ward has historically been home to many city workers.
Sposato said lifelong residents of the city are asking him why they are being penalized for exercising their religious beliefs by sending their children to Catholic schools.
Of course, there’s a little more to it than that, with the Chicago Public Schools being overwhelmingly composed of minority students and with the Fire Department being a city agency where minorities have traditionally had difficulty getting hired.
Ald. Howard Brookins (21st) said those who are complaining “have been at an advantage for more than 100 years” in getting into the Fire Department, which he called “the whitest department in the city of Chicago.”
http://politics.suntimes.com/article/chicago/extra-alarm-over-cps-preference-firefighter-hiring/mon-07282014-802pm
Alderman knocks Emanuel for not attending Shamiya’s funeral
Mon, 07/28/2014 – 4:21pm
West Side alderman criticized Mayor Rahm Emanuel Monday for failing to attend Saturday’s funeral for 11-year-old Shamiya Adams, the latest innocent victim of Chicago’s never-ending gang violence.
“He should have been there. The message needs to be sent that this is one city. There are no unimportant parts of Chicago,” said Ald. Jason Ervin (28th), whose West Side ward includes the West Garfield Park neighborhood where Shamiya was gunned down when a bullet fired by an alleged gang member entered the open window of a home where the girl was having a sleepover with friends.
“You couldn’t find a better child. She was doing well in school. She was helping to raise money for library books. If we don’t support children doing the right things in life, what hope do we show them?”
http://politics.suntimes.com/article/chicago/alderman-knocks-emanuel-not-attending-shamiya%E2%80%99s-funeral/mon-07282014-421pm
More from TOWN about the McDonnell trial
Dear Forbes: This Is Why Iggy Azalea Doesn’t “Run” Hip-Hop
The Internet is currently on fire following a piece on Forbes that was initially titled “Hip Hop Is Run By A White, Blonde, Australian Woman” but was changed after the backlash forced Forbes to realize what an absurd claim they were making. The new title is “Hip Hop’s Unlikely New Star: A White, Blonde, Australian Woman.”
I’m annoyed for multiple reasons. Let’s discuss them, shall we?
First off, I wouldn’t go to an Iggy Azalea concert if it were happening on my front porch. While I understand (somewhat confusedly) that she does have something of a fan base, anyone who has any love for hip-hop is currently decrying the notion that this woman “runs” hip-hop. Or anything at all, really. But that’s why the article title was changed, right? Because it (as the update reads) “did not accurately reflect the content of the piece.” Nor does it affect, um, reality. So yeah, good choice, Forbes. But you’re not off the hook.
Let’s get into the article. Here is the author’s reasoning for what he calls Iggy Azalea’s “notable” “rise to prominence”:
“Making a name for yourself as a woman and hip hop is laudable enough, forget the fact that she is a white, blonde, Australian woman. In a genre dominated almost exclusively by African American men she sticks out like a statuesque thumb.”
Yes, making a name for yourself in hip-hop as a woman is laudable. But lauding Iggy Azalea here is ludicrous. The author seems not to understand the fact that it is precisely because Iggy Azalea is white and blonde that she has “made a name for herself” in hip-hop. White privilege has successfully floated her to the top of a genre where black women have fought for decades to be represented: her presence (and success) in hip-hop isn’t a shining beacon for feminism, but for the power of whiteness and what it can accomplish.
http://oliviaacole.wordpress.com/2014/05/21/dear-forbes-this-is-why-iggy-azalea-doesnt-run-hip-hop/
Iggy + Forbes doing what they do best
Bill O’Reilly: It’s ‘part of the culture’ in the ‘ghetto’ for 9-year-olds to smoke weed
By Tom Boggioni
Tuesday, July 29, 2014 10:17 EDT
In a segment Monday night on The O’Reilly Factor, host Bill O’Reilly claimed the left supported marijuana legalization because children “in certain ghetto neighborhoods” were using the drug.
The Fox News host was responding to the New York Times’ call for the legalization of marijuana.
Joined by anti-legalization advocate Kevin Sabet, O’Reilly said that “the left” has claimed that marijuana is harmless and that they are concerned that “the blacks” are being trapped by drug laws.
Look, the left is basically saying ‘harmless,’ okay, which I don’t agree with, I think you know that. Not a harmless substance, alright,” O’Reilly explained. “And, it’s blacks, you know, because in certain ghetto neighborhoods it’s part of the culture. nine-year-old boys and girls are smoking it, and they don’t like that. They don’t want those kids to be targeted by the cops.”
O’Reilly did not note that, although black and white Americans use marijuana at about the same rates, African Americans are arrested at nearly four times the rate of whites for marijuana possession.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/07/29/bill-oreilly-its-part-of-the-culture-in-the-ghetto-for-9-year-olds-to-smoke-weed/
Michelle Obama Was Asked About Being A Working Mom. I Didn’t Expect Her Answer To Be So Real.
Erica Williams Simon
The home life and work life balance is a struggle no matter who you are. For the millions of workers all around the country who don’t have adequate flexibility in their jobs or employers who support and respect their needs, it’s even harder. Fortunately for us all, the first lady totally gets it.
http://youtu.be/9XGNDfm4gQM
http://www.upworthy.com/michelle-obama-was-asked-about-being-a-working-mom-i-didnt-expect-her-answer-to-be-so-real?c=hpstream
http://youtu.be/TY0jH6dk-ew
Republican Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback relied on a loan from his lieutenant governor to raise slightly more money this year than his Democratic challenger, campaign records show.
Brownback reported taking in $1.2 million for the reporting period ending July 24. That included a $500,000 loan from Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer, a plastic surgeon.
Subtract the loan, and Democratic challenger Paul Davis of Lawrence would have raised about $378,000 more than Brownback between Jan. 1 and July 24, records show. […..]
.
http://www.kansascity.com/news/government-politics/article818266.html
Zandar@ZandarVTS·
RT @ZekeJMiller: Inbox: RNC Chairman Reince Priebus To Address National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) || #AllOfTheSideeyes
http://youtu.be/RaTMdOeZzVo
White House To Boehner: We Did NOT Start Impeachment ‘Scam’
BySahil Kapur
Published July 29, 2014, 1:04 PM EDT
The White House fired back at Speaker John Boehner on Tuesday after the Republican told reporters that talk of impeachment is a “scam” by Democrats to raise money and gin up their base.
“Well if that’s the case then I suspect that there may be members of the Republican conference that didn’t receive the memo,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters at his daily briefing, proceeding to rattle off a list of Republicans who have floated impeachment.
“We’ve seen comments in recent months from Congressman Steve King from Iowa, Congressman Ted Yoho from Florida, Congressman Lou Barletta from Pennsylvania, the distinguished Congressman Steve Stockman from Texas; his fellow Texan Blake Farenthold has raised this prospect. We’ve even seen Kerry Bentivolio from Michigan call this a dream come true. I think that was about 9 or 10 months ago,” Earnest said. “So that’s an indication that if the case then maybe the Speaker should direct that attention and that message to members of his own conference.”
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/white-house-boehner-impeachment-scam
Dangerous Game
ByJosh MarshallPublishedJuly 28, 2014, 3:19 PM EDT 12085 views
US officials are “fuming” in the AP’s words at the barrage of Israeli criticism of Secretary of States John Kerry. But as Chemi Shalev notes in Haaretz, there’s a deeper backstory. Nothing gets the Obama administration’s ire up like the perception (very often grounded in reality) that Netanyahu and his government ministers are trying to scuttle his initiatives by inveigling themselves into domestic partisan conflict in the US. Specifically, using GOP proxies as cut-outs to push back against the President’s initiatives.
This is not entirely new. There was an episode during the first Bush administration when the shoe was on the other partisan foot. But Netanyahu, who speaks perfect English and lived a number of years in the United States, is better able to do it than many of his predecessors. And the US partisan alignment creates more tools to do it with.
In one very notable example, Israel’s current Ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, is a former GOP political operative who once worked for Frank Luntz, and only made aliyah (immigrated to Israel) in 2005. He even reportedly played some role (though I suspect a small one since he was just out of college at the time) in creating the 1994 Contract with America. It’s usually good for both countries when a country’s ambassador has a deep relationship with the country’s head of government. It makes more seamless and reliable communication possible. And all seem to agree that Dermer’s relationship with Netanyahu is very, very deep – this article refers to him as “Bibi’s Brain.”
So Dermer is tight with Netanyahu and he, by definition, has a ready grasp of the the minute intricacies of US politics, particularly Washington politics. But his background makes Democrats and especially this White House suspicious.
I don’t know what role Dermer himself plays in the working the general ties with US Republicans, though I suspect it’s substantial. But Netanyahu has made the de facto alliance between the Likud or what remains of the faction he owns (that part gets very complicated) and the US Republican party increasingly explicit. And that’s dangerous. Dangerous for all concerned but particularly for Israel. I wish Netanyahu and his government had a better sense of the toxic repercussions of mobilizing GOP proxies as cut-outs in this way. It should go without saying that the Israel-US alliance becomes more brittle as it becomes more clearly identified with a single US political party. And perhaps more than that, as it becomes more clearly identified with the ties between Netanyahu and US Republicans.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/dangerous-game–2
from POU:
Town
Well damn:
Bob McDonnell’s defense attorney said Wifey told Bob she hated him because he was broke and didn’t pay attention to her
2016 hopeful’s ethics controversy
Ari Melber talks with New York Times reporter Nick Confessore about NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D) alleged interference in an anti-corruption commission.
http://on.msnbc.com/X7kt8Z
THE LAST WORD WITH LAWRENCE O’DONNELL 07/28/14
Mayor O’Neal goes to Washington
GOP Mayor Adam O’Neal of Belhaven, NC, arrives in Washington, D.C. to highlight the closure of his town’s local hospital and why Medicaid expansion saves lives.
http://on.msnbc.com/X7o1Io
House GOP cuts Obama’s $3.7 billion border funding request down to $659 million
House GOP cuts border funding bill
By SEUNG MIN KIM Updated: 7/29/14 11:39 AM EDT
House Republicans will unveil a significantly pared-back emergency funding package of $659 million for the border crisis and are angling for a Thursday vote before Congress flees Washington for the August recess.
That figure is dramatically lower than the $3.7 billion that President Barack Obama originally requested from Capitol Hill to respond to the influx of unaccompanied children, primarily from Central America, at the Texas border.
It’s also a far cry from the $1.5 billion in emergency funding that was initially proposed last week by House Republicans.
“I think there is sufficient support in the House to move this bill,” Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Tuesday. “We have a little more work to do, though. We should do something before we go home.”
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/house-gop-border-bill-funding-cut-109490.html#ixzz38sF8emIE
Georgia school officials sued in Kendrick Johnson’s gym death
By Alan Duke, CNN
updated 9:29 AM EDT, Tue July 29, 2014
(CNN) — The family of Kendrick Johnson filed a wrongful death lawsuit against school officials claiming their lack of action led to his death at the hands of another student.
Johnson’s body was found in a rolled-up mat in the Lowndes High School gymnasium on January 11, 2013.
His parents earlier filed a negligence lawsuit against the south Georgia school district claiming it was negligent and violated Johnson’s constitutional right to equal protection based on race. Johnson, 17 when he died, was African-American.
The new lawsuit accuses the Lowndes County Board of Education, its superintendent and the high school principal of ignoring reports that Johnson was repeatedly attacked and harassed by a white student.
“As a direct result of and proximate result of defendants’ aforesaid actions and omissions, on or about January 10, 2013, Kendrick Lamar Johnson was violently assaulted, severely injured, suffered great physical pain and mental anguish, and subjected to insult and loss of life, all of which took place at the hands of one or more students while on the property of Lowndes High School and during its normal hours of operations,” the lawsuit said.
The complaint said school officials knew about an attack on Johnson by a white student during a school bus trip a year earlier and another attack later.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/28/us/georgia-kendrick-johnson-lawsuit/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
2.1 million reasons why Dems love the GOP’s anti-Obama push
07/29/14 10:15 AM—UPDATED 07/29/14 12:04 PM
By Steve Benen
In 1998, congressional Republicans, filled with irrational rage towards a Democratic president in his sixth year, launched an impeachment crusade the American mainstream saw as wildly unnecessary. The electoral results were striking: Bill Clinton’s Democratic Party had the best sixth-year midterms of any administration in a century.
The history is not lost on contemporary Democrats. If GOP overreach 16 years ago alienated Republicans from the public at large and encouraged Democratic voters to show up for the elections, maybe history can repeat itself now that the GOP is once again launching an outlandish crusade against another Dem White House.
But let’s be clear about the circumstances: Democrats aren’t just shining a bright light on the GOP’s impeachment talk and anti-Obama lawsuit because they’re hoping for a replay of 1998. They also have quantifiable evidence that the strategy is having the desired effect. Wesley Lowery reported yesterday
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/21-million-reasons-why-dems-love-the-gops-anti-obama-push
Cutting taxes for the wealthy? Again?
07/29/14 10:53 AM
By Steve Benen
In his unnervingly dishonest op-ed for USA Today this week, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) assured voters his party isn’t just obsessed with going after President Obama. “At the same time,” he argued, “we remain focused on the American people’s top priority: jobs and the economy.”
What possible rationale could there be to justify such a claim? It’s actually pretty simple: House Republicans continue to pass tax cuts. Ergo, Boehner thinks he’s telling the truth when he claims the GOP is focused on “jobs and the economy,” all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding.
It didn’t get much attention, but late last week, House Republicans quietly approved yet another tax break, this time advancing a tax policy that benefits the wealthy while hurting the poor. Danny Vinik had a good piece on this:
Here’s how the [Child Tax Credit] currently works: Couples receive a maximum credit of $1,000 per-child, meaning they can lower their tax bill by that amount. For instance, a couple with two kids and an income of $50,000 would owe $8,356 in federal income taxes. With the CTC, they would reduce their tax bill by $2,000, to $6,356. However, not everyone is eligible for the credit. Those with income below $3,000 cannot collect it. And for couples, the credit begins phasing out at $110,000 and is entirely phased out at $150,000. For singles, those numbers are $75,000 and $115,000, respectively.
Thus, the current design of the CTC creates a marriage penalty. For instance, imagine a couple where each person makes $60,000. Separately, they would both be eligible to collect the full credit. But combined, their income ($120,000) would exceed the current phase-out threshold for couples filing jointly. Therefore, the couple could maximize their after-tax income by living together, but not marrying.
What’s wrong with that? If you’re a deficit hawk, quite a bit, but there’s a more glaring concern here: the House GOP measure was structured to punish the poor while benefiting the rich.
On the one hand, we have a new break for the upper-middle class, including households making up to $150,000 a year, which will be indexed to inflation. Any chance we can also index policies like the minimum wage to inflation? Of course not; that’s socialism.
On other hand, current law on the Child Tax Credit also has a provision that makes more low-income Americans eligible to receive the tax break, but it expires in 2017. What does the new bill from House Republicans do about this? Nothing.
In other words, the GOP structured the legislation in a fairly specific way: making things better for wealthier earners, while making things tougher for the working poor.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/cutting-taxes-the-wealthy-again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlz5hnMdsAg
from POU:
Monday, July 28, 2014
PRE-EMPTIVE SHRIEK.
The conservative impeachment crusade is metastasizing thus — Rich Lowry at National Review:
Does Obama WANT to Get Impeached?
…The White House may consider the unilateral amnesty a winning move on several different levels: it gets its policy goal; it satisfies an important part of its base; and if there is any serious move toward impeachment, it rallies the entirety of the Democratic base in a way we haven’t seen since 2008 and — assuming the politics of impeachment are bad for Republicans — drives the middle away from the GOP. An administration that is fast entering its dotage could consider this one of the few potential positive game-changers that it has direct control over — the Constitution and the rule of law be damned.
Daily Caller:
Rep. Scalise Calls Out Obama: ‘First White House In History Trying To Start Narrative Of Impeachment’
Glenn Beck:
“Who wants [impeachment]? The president does,” Beck argued. “Because then he’ll be able to say, ‘I demand justice.’ The birther thing is over, the Black thing is over. So now he needs to be able to call for justice.”
Etc. etc. etc.
As I have chronicled, conservatives have been plotting Obama’s impeachment since 2009, and it’s only getting worse: Try Googling “impeach” and “Benghazi” and see what you get. But now they’re peddling the story that it’s Obama who’s trying to get impeached, based on the fact that Democrats are fundraising off the threat of a new Republican Senate railroading the President.
http://alicublog.blogspot.com/2014/07/pre-emptive-shriek.html
Putting out positive thoughts and prayers for Peanut’s Mother.
Prayer for Peanut’s Mom:
Think, o God, of Peanut’s Mom who is in need of healing, whom we now commend to Your compassionate regard.
Comfort her, and help ease her challenges as she continues her life journey.
We know that no healing is too hard for the Lord, if it be thy will.
We therefore pray that You bless Peanut’s Mom with Your loving care, renew her strength, and heal what ails her in thy loving name.
Thank You, God
Amen and May the Blessings Be!
Amen.
EJ Dionne ✔ @EJDionne
Follow
“North Carolina Republicans choose ideology over lives.” The moral cost of rejecting the Medicaid expansion. @milbank http://wapo.st/UyyX04
8:52 PM – 28 Jul 2014
Inside the Obama-Romney Rematch Numbers: CNN’s Deception and the Return of the PUMAs
Spandan Chakrabarti | July 28, 2014
So a new CNN poll released over the weekend gave conservatives quite the tingle up the legs: were a hypothetical rematch of the 2012 election to be held between July 18 and 20, 2014, CNN’s poll said, Romney would smoke Obama by 9 points, 53 to 44 percent. Romney is, however, trailing a hypothetical matchup with Hillary Clinton by 13 points.
Interestingly enough, CNN failed to disclose most of the the crosstabs that matter – i.e. while they broke down support by party, region, age, and race, they did not disclose what portion of their polled electorate belonged to each category, except for party.
The poll is nothing more than fantasy – a bad conservative fantasy at that. Not only is the likelihood of Mitt Romney facing President Obama again in an election roughly the same as rainbow and glitter farting flying unicorns lighting up the skies over Boston, there is no campaign and no actual scrutiny on Romney. The President is daily demonized by the press – because problems created half a world away by the war policies of his predecessor is somehow now the black guy’s fault (after all, isn’t everything?).
But the criticism of the poll based on circumstances and fantasy, while accurate, does not capture the full absurdity of the poll. The bottom line of the poll is that CNN literally cannot add. Here is what they say at the beginning of their crosstabs:
http://www.thepeoplesview.net/main/2014/7/28/obama-romney-rematch-cnn-deception-return-of-pumas#.U9eYoEUyrn1.twitter
GOP Governor Who Won’t Expand Medicaid Blames Obama For High Uninsured Rate In State
By: Justin Baragona
Monday, July, 28th, 2014, 4:24 pm
Due to the Affordable Care Act, the percentage of uninsured people in this country has decreased dramatically over the past few months. However, there is one state where there has actually been an increase in those who lack health insurance. A study done by WalletHub finds that Mississippi is the only state that has seen its uninsured population increase since the implementation of Obamacare. Prior to the first enrollment period on the health care exchanges, Mississippi’s uninsured rate was 18.11%. It has since climbed to 21.46%, which is the second highest uninsured rate in the nation, trailing only Texas.
When presented with this information by The Daily Journal, Republican Gov. Phil Bryant knew exactly where to point the finger of blame.
“If statistics show that the ill-conceived and so-called Affordable Care Act is resulting in higher rates of uninsured people in Mississippi, I’d say that’s yet another example of a broken promise from Barack Obama.”
Of course, what the Governor failed to point out is that he has refused to expand Medicaid in his state even though his state won’t have to pay for it for the first three years, and the federal government will pay 90% of the expansion in subsequent years. What is even more dumbfounding about Bryant’s decision to not provide expanded Medicaid coverage to the state’s residents is that Mississippi is the nation’s poorest state and has largest percentage of its population living below the poverty line. Mississippi also has the highest unemployment rate in the country.
In an effort to see Obamacare fail, Bryant and other Republicans in Mississippi are going out of their way to deliberately hurt the poorest people in their state. In a state that has proven time and time again that pushing an extreme conservative ideology only makes things worse, Mississippi Republicans continue to insist that everything is the fault of liberals and Democrats. If they aren’t blaming Obama for their ills, they are claiming that not having insurance isn’t all that bad anyway. That it is really just about having a choice. Mississippi’s Speaker of the House Philip Gunn had the following to say when asked if it was good that more people in Mississippi are now uninsured.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/07/28/gop-governor-expand-medicaid-blames-obama-high-uninsured-percentage-state.html
https://twitter.com/petesouza/status/493909695833178112/photo/1
LOVE this pic!
Now, in case you haven’t figured it out, these builders didn’t allow Section 8 into their buildings out of the goodness of their hearts.
THEY GOT A BIG TAX BREAK in exchange for allowing the Section 8.
I guess the tax break must be about up, so they want to get rid of the Section 8 folks.
Hence, this clown.
Notice, no mention of the tax breaks for the builders.
………………………..
Congressman wants to end CHA “supervouchers”
CHICAGO (AP) — Illinois Congressman Aaron Schock is seeking an end to a Chicago Housing Authority program that puts some of the city’s poorest residents into its highest priced apartments.
Schock says CHA “supervouchers” allows a select few families to receive $3,000 to $4,000 a month in rent assistance that puts them in “some of the nicest luxury units.”
Schock says the agency awards vouchers up to 300 percent of market value. The Peoria Republican wants to bring that down to 120 percent.
Tony Rossi of Chicago-based RMK Management Corp. told Crain’s Chicago Business (http://bit.ly/UFQqn5 ) that he and other landlords believe the vouchers are a mistake because there are about 15,000 people on the CHA’s voucher waiting list.
The CHA says the program is less than two percent of its voucher portfolio.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/state-and-regional/illinois/congressman-wants-to-end-cha-supervouchers/article_ad09bd61-ae4f-54d4-b315-82cec09a898b.html
George Lucas announces architects for lakefront museum
By Blair Kamin, Tribune critic
3:15 p.m. CDT, July 28, 2014
Star Wars” creator George Lucas on Monday announced an architectural team for his controversial planned museum on Chicago’s lakefront: an avant-garde Chinese designer whose credits include Toronto-area skyscrapers dubbed the “Marilyn Monroe Towers” and Chicago’s Jeanne Gang, shaper of the undulating Aqua Tower here.
Ma Yansong, founder of the Beijing firm MAD Architects, will design the building for Lucas’ Museum of Narrative Art. Gang, who heads Studio Gang Architects, will conceive the landscape around the building and design a pedestrian bridge linking the museum to Northerly Island, a peninsula east of the museum site.
The announcement of the star-studded team, a surprise given Lucas’ penchant for traditional designs, has political implications for a project championed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel. It would rise on 17 acres now occupied by parking lots between Soldier Field and McCormick Place.
If the architects produce a design gem that upgrades the landscape of the Museum Campus, the cluster of shoreline museums to which the Lucas Museum would belong, it could soften, or at least blunt, opposition.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-lucas-museum-met-0728-20140728,0,3127265.story
HOW MANY SCHOOLS DID MAYOR RAHM CLOSE?
55
Kansas Is Going Bankrupt And Republicans Are Lying About the Tax Cutting Reason Why
By: Rmuse
In the field of psychiatry, pathological lying, compulsive lying, or pseudologia fantastica is a behavior of habitual lying that is defined as “falsification entirely disproportionate to any discernible end in view, may be extensive and very complicated, and may manifest over a period of years or even a lifetime.” In some cases the individual may be be unaware that they are relating fantasies, but when they repeat the same lie as fact for thirty years despite empirical data disproving their assertion, it is safe to say they know they are lying.
Republicans and conservative economists continue claiming cutting taxes for the rich is key to full employment, wealth for the masses, government flush with money, and a robust economy. In fact, Kansas Republican Governor Sam Brownback and the Republican legislature were so confident that slashing safety nets, cutting education, and spending a budget surplus on tax cuts for the rich would produce an economic bonanza, they gave the wealthy well over a billion dollars in unfunded tax cuts that has the state’s economy starved of revenue. However, despite Republican warnings the state will be bankrupt in two years, more than 100 Kansas Republicans swearing to help replace Brownback with a Democrat for governor, and a credit agency downgrading Kansas credit, a noted conservative economist lied to support Brownback’s tax cuts as a job creating bonanza. Kansas is lagging behind the rest of the nation in creating jobs besides facing a revenue shortfall of massive proportions.
The Heritage Foundation’s senior economist, Stephen Moore, wrote a pro-Brownback op-ed attacking Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman because like every economist not in the employ of the Heritage Foundation and Fox News, Krugman does not support Republicans’ failed trickle-down scam. Moore was caught red-handed deliberately using incorrect statistics to convince readers that Brownback’s tax cuts create jobs. Moore lied and claimed states that do not give huge tax cuts to the rich are “getting clobbered by tax-cutting states” in the number of jobs created. The editorial board of The Kansas City Star caught Moore’s lies and published annotated corrections to his false assertions specifically stating that “the author misstated job growth rates for four states and the time covered.” In other words; Moore was lying to convince Kansas residents that Brownback’s “ruinous” and “dramatic tax-cutting failure” warrants giving him another four years to completely eviscerate the Kansas economy.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/07/28/kansas-bankrupt-republicans-lying-tax-cutting-reason.html
Twitter releases diversity data showing staff run mostly by white males
by Lilly Workneh | July 24, 2014 at 12:04 PM
Following in the footsteps of tech giants like Google and Facebook, Twitter has officially released its diversity report.
And — just like Google and Facebook — it turns out Twitter is run mainly by white males.
In a report released Wednesday by Janet Van Huysse VP of Diversity and Inclusion, Twitter’s diversity numbers are dismal across both gender and race.
According to the data, 59 percent of Twitter’s U.S. employees are white, 29 percent are Asian and only 2 percent are African-American, while 3 percent are Hispanic or Latino.
As for gender statistics, 70 percent of Twitter’s overall staff are male.
http://thegrio.com/2014/07/24/twitter-releases-dismal-diversity-data/
SHOCKED. just shocked, I tell ya! And Black folks have command of TWITTER.
Go figure.
https://twitter.com/JulianCastro/status/493842631135600640/photo/1
He is as cute as a little button.
LOL I see you, vitaminlover. Julian Castro’s a cutey!
Yes indeed. Now doesn’t he have an identical twin?
Paul Ryan’s New Clothes
By E. J. Dionne
WASHINGTON — Paul Ryan is counting on this: Because he says he wants to preserve a safety net, speaks with concern about poor people and put out a 73-page report, many will elide over the details of the proposals he made last week in his major anti-poverty speech.
………………………………………………………………..
Who can possibly like those “bureaucratic formulas”? The phrase is another disguise. Among the programs Ryan would block grant are food stamps (now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP). Food stamps are one of our most valuable initiatives because people are automatically eligible for them when they lose a job or their income drops sharply. Studies have amply documented how important food stamps are to the well-being of children.
For the economy and for the disadvantaged, curtailing SNAP would be devastating. While providing nutrition help to families in desperate need, food stamps also offer an immediate economic stimulus at moments when the economy is losing purchasing power. Economists call such programs “automatic stabilizers.”
Ryan’s block grant would not be nearly as responsive to economic changes. If Congress would have to step in, its reaction would be slow. And the history of Ryan’s own budgets shows that increasing spending for poor people is not exactly a priority on his side of politics.
Food stamps aren’t the only programs that get wrapped into the grant. Housing vouchers go there, too, which could lead to more homelessness. So does money for child care. Ryan says there would be rules barring states from using funding from his Opportunity Grant for purposes other than helping the needy. But it’s not clear from his outline how he’d stop states from using their new flexibility to move spending away from the needy indirectly by substituting block grant money for existing expenditures.
Ryan might reply: You just don’t trust the states! And my answer would be: You’re absolutely right, there are some states I don’t trust to stand up for their poor people. I’d point specifically to the 24 states that are depriving roughly 5 million Americans of health insurance because they refuse to participate in the Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act.
http://www.nationalmemo.com/paul-ryans-new-clothes/
July 27, 2014, 01:03 pm
Scott Brown’s Granite State bust
By Alexandra Jaffe
Scott Brown’s much anticipated Granite State brawl with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) has turned out to be more of a Granite State bust.
The former Massachusetts senator is still the most competitive Republican in the New Hampshire race. But polling has shown Shaheen holding a consistent single-digit lead and posting strong approval ratings from voters in the state even as races in similar blue-leaning battleground states have tightened in the GOP’s favor.
Perhaps most problematic for Brown is not Shaheen’s lead but his persistently middling to low popularity in the state.
In nearly every poll, New Hampshire voters are at best split on how they feel about him, and in some cases view him more negatively than positively. A WMUR-UNH poll out in early July showed him underwater by about nine points; an NBC-Marist poll out last week showed voters split, with about 40 percent each viewing him positively and negatively.
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/senate-races/213424-scott-browns-granite-state-bust#ixzz38rPRTa6P
Follow us: @thehill on Twitter | TheHill on Facebook
Eric Boehlert @EricBoehlert
oh look, in generic match-up in CNN poll, Dems have 6 pt lead over GOP for midterms; http://bit.ly/1rrI3qh #GOPwave
3:41 PM – 27 Jul 2014
Rand Paul caught lying about past Civil Rights Act objections
Rachel Maddow points out the clear, on-video record of Rand Paul’s past objections to the Civil Rights Act, showing he’s lying when he denies having held that position.
http://on.msnbc.com/UsTW4j
We see MR. RUG HEAD.
Greg Sargent ✔ @ThePlumLineGS
Follow
Millions in Koch cash up in flames RT @jgohringer: Even Rs admit Scott Brown’s #NHSen campaign is a bust: http://bit.ly/1qGsPlb
11:46 AM – 28 Jul 2014
BWA HA HA HA
https://twitter.com/TheObamaDiary/status/493908513119166466/photo/1
This photo’s getting framed.
Bernard Lafayette was born on this day in 1940. Excerpts from Wikipedia:
Bernard Lafayette Jr. (born July 29, 1940 in Tampa, Florida) is a longtime civil rights activist and organizer, who was a leader in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. He played a leading role in early organizing of the Selma, Alabama, voting rights campaign; was a member of the Nashville Student Movement; and worked closely throughout the 1960s movements with groups such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the American Friends Service Committee.
In the summer of 1962, Lafayette accepted a position with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to do organizing work in Selma, Alabama. On the night of June 12, 1963, (the same night that Medgar Evers was murdered in Mississippi), Lafayette was severely beaten by a white assailant. In early 1965, Lafayette, Bevel, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Orange, Nash and others organized a series of public demonstrations that finally—with the march from Selma-to-Montgomery initiated by Bevel—put enough pressure on the federal government to take action, and gave enough support to President Lyndon Johnson for Johnson to demand the drafting and passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Lafayette went on to work on the 1966 Chicago Open Housing Movement (he had worked in Chicago earlier with Kale Williams, Bill Moyer, David Jehnsen and other leaders of the American Friends Service Committee). He later became ordained as a Baptist minister and served as president of the American Baptist Theological Seminary.
In 1973, Lafayette was named first director of the Peace Education Program at Gustavus Adolphus College, Saint Peter, Minnesota.He was a Senior Fellow at the University of Rhode Island, where he helped to found the Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies.
Thanks for this, Yahtc. Mr. Lafayette was a WARRIOR for peace & justice.
YW, Ametia :)
He has my admiration!
Israel’s Gaza Campaign Endangers US Security: Why Obama & Kerry are Furious
By Juan Cole
Jul. 28, 2014|
The United States as a great Power is facing a large number of challenges in the Muslim world, and Israel’s Gaza campaign is endangering both American diplomacy there and the very security of the US. Given the series of setbacks for the US in the Middle East, in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Egypt, Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu could scarcely have chosen a worst time to kill hundreds of Palestinian civilians in the full light of world media.
The ability of an al-Qaeda offshoot, the so-called “Islamic State,” to take substantial territory in Syria and northern Iraq has alarmed Washington. The US embassy in Baghdad is in as much danger as the capital itself from IS violence. IS recruiting, and the radicalization of Muslim youth, is given enormous help by the scenes of Israeli munitions killing Palestinian civilians.
As security deteriorates to unprecedented lows in Libya, the US has had to pull its ambassador and her staff from Tripoli. Fundamentalist radicals in Benghazi and elsewhere, already suspicious of the US, are seeing blood because of America’s statements in support of the Israeli military campaign. The radicals already despise the US, but one doesn’t want to give them recruitment tools among the general population, most of which had been grateful for the help with overthrowing Gaddafi.
Even long-term allies of the US in the region are disturbed by the Israeli campaign. Turkey is a member of NATO, which the US is actually pledged to defend from attack. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has been scathing about the Israeli attack on Gaza, calling it a “genocide.”There is even a possibility that Turkey will send another Mavi Marmara-style aid ship to Gaza, this time flanked by Turkish destroyers. For the US, few dilemmas are more foreboding than a military conflict between its two most important Middle East allies.
http://www.juancole.com/2014/07/campaign-endangers-security.html
Phaedra Parks is not quitting ‘Real Housewives of Atlanta’
by Chris Witherspoon | July 28, 2014 at 5:07 PM
Several reports have surfaced stating that Phaedra Parks is quitting the Real Housewives of Atlanta, and won’t be returning to film any scenes for the upcoming seventh season of the hit Bravo reality series.
This news has reportedly been attributed to several personal matters, including legal issues involving her husband Apollo Nida, who is headed off to prison soon to serve an 8-year sentence for credit card fraud and money laundering.
http://thegrio.com/2014/07/28/phaedra-parks-is-not-quitting-real-housewives-of-atlanta/
Watch: Daddy-daughter dance off goes viral
by Lilly Workneh | July 28, 2014 at 3:21 PM
http://youtu.be/2NFFOUFpmyA
http://thegrio.com/2014/07/28/watch-daddy-daughter-dance-off-goes-viral/
Love it!
She is so talented!
5 cities where wages are soaring
Nationwide, average weekly pay flattened out last year. But workers in these metro areas saw big gains, driven by the construction and manufacturing industries.
By Alexander Kent and Alexander E.M. Hess, 24/7 Wall St.
Rising pay
Although there are many signs the economy is improving, average weekly wages in the United States remained stagnant throughout 2013. This was a notable change from a year earlier, when weekly wages rose 4.7 percent over the same period.
But despite flattening nationally, wages posted strong growth in some cities. A strong construction sector drove wages up some of the metro areas with the largest pay increases. Martin Kohli, chief regional economist for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), explained that construction wage growth was particularly strong among specialty trade contractors — those who are responsible for specific aspects of a construction project rather than overseeing the whole process.
Manufacturing also appears to have contributed to wage growth. Nationally, industry wages were up 1.3 percent.
http://money.msn.com/investing/5-cities-where-wages-are-soaring
https://twitter.com/drkent/status/493155612553793536/photo/1
https://twitter.com/Cynthiapoet/status/493769635461074945/photo/1
http://youtu.be/rp03AorAWLY
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Good Morning, rikyrah and Everyone!
Morning, Ladies!
*yougetthatyardworkdonewoman?*
I am making progress…weeds- – – well weeds are kind of aggressive no matter what I do….
:)
Also, had family visiting for a week this last week.
Yahtzee, my poor little plants are so sad. My mother always had beautiful flowers and plants. She had a green thumb. Me, not so much.
:(