Are you enjoying this week with The Jackson 5?
-
-
Black Girls Rock!
Flickr Photos
-
Potus Takes Oath of Office
Flotus & Daughters at Great Wall of China
My Brothers Keeper
-
-
-
-
-
AFRO PUFFS
Most Adorable Shoe Stealer
Six Little Babies
Fatherhood
-
-
Even though 3Chics Politico is written and curated by three women: Ametia, Rikyrah, and SouthernGirl2, I must nominate this as one of the most engaging blogs I've found. Devoted to politics and culture, these three shine a light on contemporary life with humor and spirit.
-
3Chics Action Alert
Lets Make It Happen
3 Chics Trio
-
REALITY Blog Award
Recent Comments
Top Posts
Guard The Change
Vote 4 Democrats
-
-
-
Go to the polls
President Barack Obama
First Lady Michelle Obama
Obama Love
Your Vote Matters
President Obama & Bo
The Obama Family
-
-
-
-
Presidential hug
-
Prayers for everyone to be safe in Hawaii.
BAPs’ TV show sheds different light on African-American experience in St. Louis
July 23, 2014 9:30 am
BAPs,” St. Louis’ latest foray into reality TV, is ready for its national debut.
The Lifetime series follows a group of affluent African-American friends over the course of six hour-long episodes beginning Wednesday.
The cast proclaims itself as BAPs or Black American Princesses and Princes, a description that has raised the ire of some potential viewers. (The show has no connection to the 1997 Halle Berry comedy “B.A.P.S.”)
“I’m a BAP,” said cast member Anisha Morrell, 36, a public relations contractor and owner of KingMaker LLC. “Sure I am. I own it. People say it’s elitist. But I don’t want people to get disillusioned with the term BAP. It’s a celebration for me.”
Morrell and other cast members gave interviews this month at the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans, where the show had its world premiere.
Also there were Kristen Gipson Jones, 35, operations manager for several family-owned McDonald’s; Gina Cheatham, 44, a marketing and business development consultant; and Jason Wilson, 41, owner of Chronicle Coffee and Northwest Coffee Roasting Co.
The show also features Brandon Williams, 36, a lawyer; Ra-ina “Rai Rai” Evans, 28, a biology major at the University of Missouri-St. Louis; Kendrick Evans, 37, founder of Redy Rock Enterprises; and Riccarda Lacey, 34, a television producer/development executive from Wildwood, now living in Los Angeles, who helped bring the show to fruition.
For Gipson Jones, being a BAP refers to “someone who has the luxury of not having to worry about necessities and having access to resources and experiences that most people have not. It’s about being well educated and well traveled, knowing what RSVP means and how to conduct yourself in certain situations.”
She says the show is about upward mobility, success and hard work, but there’s a flip side.
http://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/music/kevin-johnson/baps-tv-show-sheds-different-light-on-african-american-experience/article_aab85caa-d051-53e1-bf29-32adf9f71164.html
‘BAPs’ creator defends controversial reality show
July 27, 2014 10:10 am
By Kevin C. Johnson
The creator of the new reality show “BAPs” is defending the controversial St. Louis show after viewers mostly panned it following its premiere Wednesday night on Lifetime.
Viewers complained about everything from the wigs, weaves to yet another reality show with black woman fighting. Some aren’t happy with the premise, focusing on an exclusive group of African-Americans in St. Louis, who position themselves in a higher class than others (a cast member says they’re Cosby black, not “Good Times” black).
And an argument resulting in one cast member spitting on another didn’t help the show’s promise of offering something different.
That first episode was titled “Welcome Home, No Spitting.”
St. Louis native Riccarda Lacey, who brought the idea to Lifetime, took to Facebook to defend “BAPs” with five bullet points.
This is what she had to say:
“Here’s the tea on #BAPS
1. I created and developed this series because there was a void in the television landscape for AA worlds and characters.
2. I created this show fully knowing that the BAP contingent of the African-American population is a polarizing group and that a series about this group would be provocative and controversial because BAPs are both reviled and revered.
3. The subject of cultural identity typically stirs up an emotionally charged dialogue among African-Americans. And the BAPS, from my vantage point, wrestle the most with their cultural identity: they should assimilate and adopt white American ideals while maintaining roots in their black identity… yet they can’t be ‘too’ black. This rather complex BAP ideology is what makes some other African-Americans resent them and, at times, makes the BAPs resent themselves. This series, with all of its drama, humor and irony examines that.
4. This series is not a part of some larger scheme concocted by Lifetime to continue to exploit African-Americans on reality television. But it is an entertaining dissection of African-American experiences and attitudes intended to encourage all Americans to consider how the constructs of race and class in this country shape how we view ourselves and one another.
5. It’s a TV show for Pete’s sake. It’s out there to be judged- good or bad so if you love it or hate it, that’s fine- everything ain’t for everybody. I just wanted to provide some context for the many folks out there asking “what in the hell?”
http://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/music/kevin-johnson/baps-creator-defends-controversial-reality-show/article_91d37860-4bb6-5231-9264-5347a1af9042.html
Josh Earnest ✔ @PressSec
Follow
POTUS: Earlier this week, one Iraqi in the area cried to the world, “There is no one coming to help.” Well today, America is coming to help.
9:03 PM – 7 Aug 2014
Retweeted by The White House
TheObamaDiary.com @TheObamaDiary
Follow
Bush/Cheney destroyed Iraq for oil. President Obama is sending help to avoid genocide. Change we can believe in.
8:38 PM – 7 Aug 2014
Liberal Librarian @Lib_Librarian
Follow
I’m Barack Obama, and I’m still cleaning up shit from 2003.
8:36 PM – 7 Aug 2014
https://twitter.com/bobcesca_go/status/497536110973956097/photo/1
Double Standard: John Walsh Drops Senate Bid As Plagiarist Rand Paul Runs For President
By: Jason Easley more from Jason Easley
Thursday, August, 7th, 2014, 5:09 pm
Democratic Sen. John Walsh (D-MT) was forced to drop his Senate bid due to plagiarism, but serial plagiarist Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is being touted by the media as a serious 2016 presidential candidate.
According to the Billings Gazette, Sen. Walsh said in a statement, “I am ending my campaign so that I can focus on fulfilling the responsibility entrusted to me as your U.S. senator. You deserve someone who will always fight for Montana, and I will….I am proud that with your support, we held our opponent (Daines) accountable for his hurtful record to privatize Medicare, to deny women the freedom to make their own health decisions and to sell off our public lands. I know how important it is to continue the fight for these Montana values, and it is time for us all to return to the real issues of this election.”
Sen. Walsh’s reelection campaign went from an uphill battle to impossible after The New York Times broke the story that he plagiarized sections of his dissertation. Walsh blamed his PTSD, but that excuse didn’t fly with voters, and his support collapsed. Even in the best case scenario, it was unlikely that Walsh would win reelection. He has trailed Republican Rep. Steve Daines in every poll.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/08/07/double-standard-john-walsh-drops-senate-bid-plagiarist-rand-paul-runs-president.html
Media Alert:
Black Jesus on the Cartoon Network, tonight at 11 pm EST
https://twitter.com/jamisonfoser/status/497203090190528512/photo/1
Smiling Young White People Make App for Avoiding Black Neighborhoods
Sam Biddle
Today 3:37pm
Is there any way to keep white people from using computers, before this whole planet is ruined? I ask because the two enterprising white entrepreneurs above just made yet another app for avoiding non-white areas of your town—and it’s really taking off!
Crain’s reports on SketchFactor, a racist app made for avoiding “sketchy” neighborhoods, which is the term young white people use to describe places where they don’t feel safe because they watched all five seasons of The Wire:
http://valleywag.gawker.com/smiling-young-white-people-make-app-for-avoiding-black-1617775138/+sambiddle
Raw turf dancing skills
Breaking News: Theodore Wafer has been found guilty on all three counts for the death of Renisha McBride.
YES YES YES!
Ebony Elizabeth @Ebonyteach
Follow
Black Twitter strikes again with #APHeadlines — @AP’s Tweet slandering Renisha McBride, a dead & unarmed woman, is why #WeNeedDiverseMedia.
2:44 PM – 7 Aug 2014Ocean City, NJ, United States
May you rest in peace, Renisha.
There was justice for you today.
Lee Daniels to Direct Film Based on Brian Banks’ Story (Promising Athlete Falsely Convicted of Rape)
2 years ago, we profiled a then upcoming documentary project on Brian Banks, when he raised over $47,000 to tell his story of a promising football career that was derailed by a rape accusation that would eventually be recanted by the accuser, who admitted she lied about the entire incident – but only after Banks was convicted and spent over 5 years in prison, for a crime that he didn’t commit, and had to register as a sex offender.
As Banks himself said 2 years ago, when he sought to raise money to produce a documentary that would tell his story: “When I was 16 years old, I was just like any other typical high school junior, but I played football for one of the greatest high school football programs in the country. Dozens of colleges were actively recruiting me. I had dreams of playing football in the NFL after college. Then the unimaginable happened. I was accused of a crime, a terrible crime, that I didn’t commit. A female student accused me of raping her during summer school. I was tried as an adult, convicted, and was locked away for five years and two months. I lost everything: my hopes, my dreams, my entire world… With the help of the wonderful people at the California Innocence Project I am on a mission to take my life back. I need to make this film so I can tell the whole world my story as I experienced it; a story that tells it exactly as it happened, so that everyone who has ever known me can understand the truth. I want to finally set the record straight. I hope my story can serve as a catalyst for change.
The film isn’t complete yet, in part because, as Banks shared in a recent update, what he initially thought would be a *small* project has become something much larger, as more and more people learned of his story, leading to him trying out for NFL teams, eventually joining the Atlanta Falcons for training camp last summer (2013). He would go on to play in 4 games last football season, realizing his dream of playing in the NFL!
He’s also been speaking publicly, sharing his story at schools, organizations, and events across the country, meeting with politicians and lawmakers, helping to bring awareness to wrongful convictions in hopes of change.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/lee-daniels-to-direct-feature-based-on-brian-banks-story-promising-athlete-falsely-convicted-of-rape-20140806
https://twitter.com/shadowandact/status/497450155755724800/photo/1
STARZ Freshman Series ‘Power’ Draws “Highest Concentration of African American Viewers on Premium Cable
STARZ Original series and summer breakout hit “Power,” finished strong in its season finale and has averaged about 4 million viewers per week, with strong viewership among White and African American viewers – both male and female audiences (18-49), according to the press release from the premium cable TV network.
The New York-based drama, which has apparently resonated strongly with African American audiences throughout its 8-episode first season.
Viewership for “Power” grew throughout the strong first season. The August 2 finale’s 9PM results (2.9 HH rating and nearly 1.1 million viewers Live+SD) more than doubled the series premiere results (1.3 HH, 462K Live+SD), as the series became “appointment viewing” for its ever-increasing core audience.
“Power’s” final weekend was also the best to-date. Nearly 2.5 million viewers watched the “Power” season finale over the weekend on STARZ (up more than 20% from the premiere weekend). In fact, “Power’s” final weekend outpaced all recent STARZ finale weekends since “Spartacus: War of The Damned.”
The freshman season of “Power” generated the largest concentration (71%) of African American viewers of any scripted premium series since 2006. Furthermore, only HBO’s “Game Of Thrones” and “True Blood” drew larger numbers of African American viewers of any premium series currently running compared to “Power” on STARZ.
With new episode weekend viewership growing throughout the season, “Power” averaged about 4 million viewers per episode across all platforms including STARZ linear, STARZ ON DEMAND and STARZ PLAY.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/starz-freshman-series-power-draws-highest-concentration-of-african-american-viewers-on-premium-cable-20140807
excerpt:
Earlier in the day, Ron Easter traveled more than 70 miles to hear Clinton speak at a $200-minimum fundraiser that Grimes officials estimated would raise $275,000. Easter said he started out as a big Obama supporter, but he’s “backed off” because he thinks Obama has “fallen down on leadership.”
“I think that Grimes is, you know, I think she is that type of leader like Bill Clinton was,” he said.
That’s the message Grimes sent on Wednesday, with the Clinton fundraiser in the morning followed by a campaign rally in Hazard. Grimes’ campaign manager, Jonathan Hurst, hinted to reporters that Clinton could appear in some TV ads with Grimes this fall.
“One label, though, that I will proudly wear is that of a Clinton Democrat,” Grimes said.
Grimes shared the stage with more than a dozen retired and active coal miners from the United Mine Workers of America, which endorsed Grimes over the weekend. The union represents 2 percent of the state’s active coal miners and is not affiliated with a mine in eastern Kentucky. But the organization does boast about 10,000 retired Kentucky coal miners.
“Mitch McConnell may be for coal, but he’s not for the coal miner. That’s the difference,” said Buddy.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/bill-clinton-rallies-kentucky-senate-race-voters-24864054
Latest Ukrainian Intelligence News
As war rages in eastern Ukraine, with a possible Russian invasion looming, Kyiv has gone public today with shocking stories about the extent of Russian espionage and lethal covert action in their country.
As reported by 5 Kanal TV, Valentyn Nalyvaychenko, head of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), today stated that the 17 July shootdown of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 near Donetsk by Russian-backed separatists represented a terrible case of a Kremlin provocation gone horribly wrong. According to Nalyvaychenko, the SBU has evidence that what happened was the outcome of a diabolical Moscow plot to create a pretext for war, meaning Russian invasion, by shooting down an Aeroflot airline (specifically AFL2074) and killing its (mostly Russian) passengers, then placing blame on Ukrainian forces.
However, the SBU boss explained, Kremlin-backed militants were supposed to shoot down the Russian plane at Pervomaysk to the west of Donetsk, but the separatists, some of them foreign mercenaries with poor knowledge of the area, delivered the Russian Buk (SA-11) missile system to a different town with the same name. In error, the poorly trained militamen launched a missile at the Malaysian plane instead of the Russian one. This terrorist act was planned by war criminals as a pretext for Russia’s direct military intervention. In Nalyvaychenko’s words: “It means that a casus belli for the Russian invasion was created,” resulting in an act of terror “carried out by terrorists from our territory.”
http://20committee.com/2014/08/07/latest-ukrainian-intelligence-news/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUMErjy8oOQ
Cocaine & White privilege; HELLUA DRUGS
Hey, Liza. Look here.
Hi, SG2. I just now saw this. I read earlier today that the Dozier anthropology team would “have an announcement” today. Apparently, there’s also a second kid they are close to identifying with DNA. This is so, so sad. I believe they are going to find at least one more more graveyard where they buried the black kids. Or the bodies could be scattered around. They have a lot of land and some kind of creek on the property.
It’s the saddest thing ever. Poor kids were tortured, raped, beaten, killed and no one gave a damn.
oh really, Ezra?
The PRESIDENT is to blame?
NOT the racist muthaphuckas that met the NIGHT OF HIS INAUGURATION
and decided…
during the worst economic downtown of this country since the Great Depression that they would commit
ECONOMIC TREASON
against this country because they wanted the Black Man out of the White House..
No, THEY didn’t break politics…
The President did?
G-T-F-O-H
…………………………………………………………………….
Liberal MSNBC Host Says Obama Broke “American Politics Even Further”
Tommy Christopher on August 07, 2014
Fresh off his weeks-long stint flacking for Paul Ryan’s poverty plan, Vox publisher and All Infill-in host Ezra Klein further dabbled in Beltway view-from-nowhere dumbshittery Wednesday night when he declared, to MSNBC viewers, that President Obama broke politics. He promised to change politics, but instead, he broke them worse than they already were broken. Just listen:
…..
“The president didn’t do all of this by fixing American politics. He did this by breaking American politics even further.”
http://thedailybanter.com/2014/08/liberal-msnbc-host-says-obama-broke-politics/
Thursday, August 7, 2014
America First, Unless That’s What Obama Would Want
Over at Vox’s evil twin with the goatee that is The Federalist, David Harsanyi has suddenly decided that nothing is less patriotic and American than being an American company paying taxes to the American government, and that liberals and President Obama are probably fascists for suggesting that they do so.
You know, except for the part where if you don’t like what the executive branch is doing, you get a chance every four years to elect a new one.
It’s funny, for six years now people have been slagging President Obama for not putting America’s interests first. When he does, by making sure companies in the US pay taxes to the US government to help fund our roads and bridges and power grids and water mains, infrastructure that these companies use to provide and transport goods and services, it’s “fascistic”.
http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2014/08/america-first-unless-thats-what-obama.html
Rick Perry Staffs Up for White House Bid
Associated Press: “Those close to Perry say he is aggressively eyeing a second presidential bid… With the help of veteran Republican operative Henry Barbour, Perry has also begun hiring staff in key states to help prepare for a possible run. His travel and staffing is being paid by a nonprofit group, led by his chief political adviser, called Americans for Economic Freedom, which can raise and spend unlimited sums of money without disclosing its donors.”
http://www.pressherald.com/2014/08/06/for-2016-presidential-bid-texas-governor-has-eyes-on-new-hampshire/
LMBAO
Do it, Perry. Get your stupid redneck ass kicked again. By your own party.
Study: White People Support Harsher Criminal Laws If They Think More Black People Are Arrested
Stanford research suggests support for incarceration mirrors whites’ perception of black prison populations
Informing the white public that the percentage of black Americans in prison is far greater than the percentage of white people behind bars may not spur support for reform. Instead, it might actually generate support for the policies – such as stop-and-frisk and three-strikes laws – that created the situation.
BY SHARA TONN August 6, 2014
Stanford psychology researchers discovered that when white voters perceive more black Americans in the prison population, they support harsher laws.
Although African-Americans constitute only 12 percent of America’s population, they represent 40 percent of the nation’s prison inmates.
But informing the white public of this disproportionate incarceration rate may actually bolster support for the very policies that perpetuate the inequality, according to a studypublished in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/august/prison-black-laws-080614.html
So,
Peanut is discovering the re-runs of the following shows:
Sister Sister
Full House
The Cosby Show
It’s so fascinating watching these shows through her eyes.
https://twitter.com/japitter/status/497387852054163456
Iselle to give Hawaii first hurricane in 22 years
HONOLULU (AP) — Iselle was supposed to weaken as it slowly trudged west across the Pacific. It didn’t — and now Hawaii is poised to take its first direct hurricane hit in 22 years.
Tracking close behind it was Hurricane Julio, which strengthened early Thursday into a Category 2 storm.
State officials are assuring the islands are ready and people should prepare but not panic. Tourists wonder whether their flights and activities would be disrupted and tried to get in some last-minute beach time before the surf’s up, but ugly. And residents are making bottled water tougher to find than a cheap fruity cocktail.
………………
Hurricane Iselle was expected to arrive on the Big Island on Thursday evening, bringing heavy rains, winds gusting up to 85 mph and flooding in some areas. Weather officials changed their outlook on the system Wednesday after seeing it get a little stronger, giving it enough oomph to stay a hurricane as it reaches landfall.
“What ended up happening is the storm has resurged just enough to keep its hurricane strength,” said Mike Cantin, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
http://news.msn.com/us/iselle-to-give-hawaii-first-hurricane-in-22-years
from TOWN:
Town
Yesterday on As McDonnell Burns…
A juror went AWOL and had to be located
Mary Shea, Maureen’s assistant called Maureen a screaming nutbag on the stand
Said she paid for Maureen’s dress on her own personal credit card
Said she screamed & hollered so bad at the staff security had to rush in and see if things were ok
Said she sho’ was trying to get a job with Jonnie to get away from Maureen
Said Bob saw her crying and pleaded with her to stay on her job because Maureen’s dad died
Said she sho’ did get another job and took a pay cut to get the job but she is SOOOO much happier
Mary Shea and Bob hugged after she got off the stand and The Judge told them to shut that sh!t down.
Stay tuned….
I’ve Been Watching “Married At First Sight” and I’m Totally Into It
August 3, 2014 | Luvvie
A couple of weeks ago, someone tweeted me to check out the new TV show “Married at First Sight.” It’s airing on the networked formerly known as A&E (now FYI). Finally, I bingewatched the first four episodes on Hulu Plus and I kinda fell in love with the show.
A team of experts match up singles who are ready to be committed with a life partner. Except, the first time the partners meet, talk to each other or even hear each others’ names is at the altar. They blindly marry this person who was chosen as a perfect scientific match, based on an extensive questionnaire they had to fill out and the therapist interviewing each of them.
The (extreme) arranged marriage can be annulled at the end of the show, after the couples spend 5 weeks living together in wedded bliss or chaos.
Crazy, I know. But hey, 72-day marriages that are supposedly real exist soooo why not this kind? The social experiment is fascinating because we see these strangers get to know each other in the most forced and awkward situation. Will they make the best of it or will it be a complete disaster?
http://www.awesomelyluvvie.com/2014/08/married-at-first-sight.html
Rand Paul employs Reagan fact-denying tactic
Rick Perlstein, author of “The Invisible Bridge,” talks with Steve Kornacki about Rand Paul’s practice of saying whatever it takes, regardless of fact, to present the campaign image he thinks can win, a tactic reminiscent of Ronald Reagan.
http://on.msnbc.com/1lC8khT
This auction occurred yesterday.
“Harvard diploma of first African-American grad to be auctioned”
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-first-black-harvard-grads-diploma-to-auction-20140805-story.html
Aug 5, 2014
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-first-black-harvard-grads-diploma-to-auction-20140805-story.html
The undergraduate diploma of the nation’s first African-American to graduate from Harvard is set to be auctioned in Chicago tomorrow, years after it was unearthed in an Englewood home.
Richard T. Greener’s bachelor of arts diploma — commended in June 1870, printed on vellum and measuring roughly 15 by 20 inches — is expected to fetch from $10,000 to $15,000 at auction Wednesday. The diploma is among a collection of Greener’s papers owned by a contractor who found them five years ago.
Greener enrolled at Harvard in 1865 graduated with honors and went on to serve as dean of Howard University’s law school before President William McKinley tapped him to serve as a diplomat in Russia.
He earned a reputation as a scholar and an advocate for racial equality, historians said.
Leslie Hindman Auctioneers, the Near West Side firm handling the auction, described the diploma as “a document of incalculable historical significance.”
Greener’s papers were thought to have been lost in the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, the auction house said.
But in 2009, a Chicago contractor uncovered a steamer trunk containing a trove of Greener’s documents at an Englewood home that was scheduled for demolition. Greener lived his final years with family in Hyde Park, historians said, but his connection to the building where his papers were found was not clear.
The contractor, Rufus McDonald, said a New York appraiser suggested he ask Harvard for $65,000 for a collection that included Greener’s Harvard diploma, a certificate written in Russian from his time as a diplomat and five other documents.
McDonald said he was stunned when Harvard offered $7,500. A Harvard representative at the time said the university offered McDonald a significantly larger sum after an appraisal.
McDonnell trial spins into soap opera
Steve Kornacki reports on the latest developments in the criminal trial of former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell, whose defense strategy appears to be to deflect as much blame as possible for inappropriate gifts onto his wife, Maureen.
http://on.msnbc.com/1lC8vKc
Life Time Movie channel’s booking stars for this made for tv DRAMEDY.
Who’s gone play Gov Good hair and who’s gone play Maureen?
https://twitter.com/worldmist1/status/496697187087446016/photo/1
SPOT on! Could you please ad to the MO-FO Brooks thread too? THANKS!
LOLGOP @LOLGOP
Follow
Nobody wants to ban birth control.
– Rand Paul, who sponsored a personhood bill that bans some birth control, speaking in third-person
10:22 AM – 6 Aug 2014
https://twitter.com/NYDailyNews/status/492056076280664064/photo/1
Wanker of the Day: Quin Hillyer
by BooMan
Wed Aug 6th, 2014 at 07:42:53 PM EST
My God, Quin Hillyer, what would it take for you to acknowledge that the people who pointed a finger at the Chris McDaniel campaign and called it racist had a good goddamned point? Sometimes, when people say someone or some thing is racist, it’s because they or it are racist. Why spend all this time excoriating Haley Barbour for supporting attacks on the McDaniel campaign and their Tea Party supporters and then come right out in the end and admit that the McDaniel and his campaign are racist pieces of shit?
If we inverted Hillyer’s column and put the second half at the top, the whole thing would make no sense whatsoever. That’s because the first half of the piece is devoted to the idea that people erroneously and unfairly maligned McDaniel and his supporters as being racists. Then in the second half, Hillyer is begrudgingly forced to admit that the McDaniel campaign actually went to court and specifically complained not about Democrats voting in the Republican primary but about blacks voting in the Republican primary.
Based on scientific, reliable methodology, a comparative analysis of county-by-county increases [in votes cast from the first primary to the runoff] indicates that Cochran’s vote increases were correlated to the percentage of blacks that live in each county. A regression analysis of county vote results from both the June 3 and June 24 elections with the percentage of blacks and non-blacks who make up each county’s population shows that, without the predominantly Democratic voter participation in the Republican runoff, Cochran would have lost the runoff election by about 25,000 votes.
Things are still bad enough down in Mississippi that there are lawyers who think this is a winning argument in court. “Your honor, the statistics clearly show that my client won the non-nigger vote and should be awarded his rightful victory.”
I’ve never met a lawyer who would make that argument in a legal filing. It’s incomprehensible unless you understand how conservative Mississippi judges are apt to be.
They even prepared a press release that specifically complained only about blacks voting. Someone had the good sense to nix that, but it was good enough for the Mississippi court system. Unbelievable. What further proof would someone need to understand the racism involved in that primary? If anything, Cochran and his allies were too soft on the issue for fear of alienating some of their own supporters.
Let’s get something straight. Black folks down in Mississippi have a very good reason to prefer Thad Cochran to Chris McDaniel, and they made sure to express their opinion. That is as it should be. It’s how it always should have been.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2014/8/6/194253/4212
The complaint Rick Scott isn’t supposed to make
08/06/14 12:37 PM
By Steve Benen
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (R) has invested a fair amount of time and energy in undermining the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. It was therefore odd, in an ironic sort of way, to hear the far-right governor complain that the ACA isn’t producing better results in his home state.
It’s really not complicated: those who’ve tried to make “Obamacare” fail at the state level don’t get to complain about the law underperforming in their state. (Rachel recently demonstrated the underlying point with a metaphor involving a hammer and a remote-control car. I’ve included it below for your viewing pleasure.)
Alas, Bryant wasn’t alone. We talked earlier about the preliminary data on ACA premiums, which Republicans said would “skyrocket” in 2015, but which actually look pretty good in most parts of the country. Simon Maloy explained, however, that the right is focusing on figures out of Florida.
The Miami Herald reported earlier this week that “Floridians who buy health insurance on the individual market for next year will face an average increase of 13.2 percent in their monthly premiums, according to rate proposals unveiled Monday by the state’s Office of Insurance Regulation.” That isn’t anywhere near the “skyrocketing” that Republicans assured us was coming, but 13.2 percent would qualify as a “double-digit rate increase,” and conservatives were quick to point that out. (Consumer health advocates in the state accused regulators of employing a flawed methodology, as the Herald notes.)
One loud critic of the Florida premium increase is the state’s Republican governor, Rick Scott, who said in a statement that “Obamacare is a bad law that just seems to be getting worse,” and “Florida families are going to be slammed with higher costs. Obamacare has failed to live up to its promises in nearly every way.”
The problem, of course, is Scott’s complete and total lack of credibility. Indeed, he has the same problem Bryant has in Mississippi – those who try to break something don’t get to whine when it fails to meet their expectations for efficacy.
Or as Maloy put it, Florida Republicans “set out to sabotage the law, and now they’re trying to score political points off the fruits of their sabotage.”
To be sure, plenty of red-state officials, far from the Sunshine State, refused to create exchange marketplaces and rejected Medicaid expansion, hobbling the ACA’s ability to work effectively for Americans who need it. But Scott and his allies didn’t just stop there – Florida Republicans went to truly ridiculous lengths to block “navigators” from helping consumers better understand the system and blocked state insurance officials from negotiating lower prices on behalf of consumers.
At a distance, it’s almost as if the governor started with a specific goal: try to make premiums higher for Floridians. He then worked backwards to make sure that goal was reached, then pretended to be outraged when Scott realized his plan actually worked – in so far as his constituents are getting a raw deal.
Let’s make this plain: those who deliberately undermine laws don’t get to complain about the efficacy of those laws.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/the-complaint-rick-scott-isnt-supposed-make
The Long Goodbye”
The last African-American family on a Portland block faces losing its home.
http://www.wweek.com/portland/article-22898-the_long_goodbye.html
Excerpt:
“It was evenly divided between black and white,” says Dennis Adams, a neighbor for 24 years. “Now it’s gentrified even for us.”
Portland has seen African-American families forced out of North and Northeast Portland for decades as housing prices there have risen and neighborhoods undergo gentrification. Mayor Charlie Hales earlier this year made reversing this trend one of his top priorities.
“Portland has had policies and projects that have led to disinvestment, disruption and dislocation for our communities of color,” Hales declared in his State of the City speech in March. “We need to own this history, while we work to write new history.”
In some ways, Hales has recognized the problem just in time to see the last black families on many North and Northeast streets leave. It’s not the city’s place to rescue all homeowners who are underwater with their mortgages. But the city lacks a cohesive strategy for addressing the economic pressures on low- and medium-income families who have lived in these neighborhoods for years and can no longer afford to stay.
“Everything that’s happened in Northeast Portland they could have seen coming,” says James Posey, co-founder of the Portland chapter of the National Association of Minority Contractors and a former mayoral candidate. “It was obvious people were going to be displaced. The black community’s been hit, like a sledgehammer to the head.”
Kansas’ Brownback struggles, faces new debt downgrade
08/06/14 02:54 PM—UPDATED 08/06/14 02:55 PM
By Steve Benen
A couple of months ago, when then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) suffered a stunning defeat, congressional Republicans argued – with a straight face – that this was President Obama’s fault. A variety of GOP officials, including House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) insisted that Republican primary voters are so enraged by the White House that they’re voting against Republicans who oppose the White House.
It was one of more transparently silly spins I’ve ever heard. Regrettably, it’s spreading.
In Kansas yesterday, Gov. Sam Brownback (R) faced a token primary challenge from an unknown political neophyte named Jennifer Winn, who raised about $13,600 for the race. The incumbent governor won, of course, but Winn won nearly 37% of the vote – far more than anyone thought possible in a GOP primary.
Asked for an explanation, Brownback blamed – you guessed it – the president.
Kansas Governor Sam Brownback, who will all-but-certainly receive his party’s stamp of approval to stand for reelection when the votes are counted Tuesday, offered a theory when asked why significant numbers of Republican primary voters are casting ballots against their incumbents Tuesday.
“I think a big part of it is Barack Obama. That a lot of people are so irritated at what the president is doing, they just, they want somebody to throw a brick,” Brownback told 41 Action News…. “I think it’s a lot of deep irritation with the way the president has taken the country.”
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/kansas-brownback-struggles-faces-new-debt-downgrade
See where they’re trying to take this?
On Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued its highest possible emergency health alert over the Ebola outbreak.
The ramped up alert allows the federal agency to free up hundreds of workers to focus specifically on the Ebola crisis, but it also indicates that the CDC views this as a long-term health crisis. The agency’s “level 1 activation” was utilized during the 2009 bird flu concerns and 2005’s Hurricane Katrina.
The announcement comes after good domestic news regarding the virus; the two American patients suffering form Ebola are improving and the man in New York feared to have Ebola tested negative for the virus.
http://elink.thedailybeast.com/4e555ee3e018bee76c3458201qcjv.3ri0/U-Nu_-YQjVh77vCFB0ab4
Jobless claims improve, return to pre-recession low
08/07/14 08:39 AM
By Steve Benen
Since the start of the Great Recession, the very idea of initial unemployment claims dropping below the 300,000 threshold seemed rather fanciful. But the latest data from the Labor Department now shows that it’s happened twice in three weeks.
The number of people who applied for unemployment benefits fell below 300,000 for the second time in three weeks, solidifying a picture of an improving U.S. labor market in which layoffs remain low and companies are hiring at the fastest pace in years. Initial jobless claims fell by 14,000 to 289,000 in the week of July 27 to Aug. 2, the Labor Department said Thursday. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected claims to total a seasonally adjusted 305,000. The average of new claims over the past four weeks, meanwhile, dropped by 4,000 to 293,500, reaching the lowest level since February 2006.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/jobless-claims-improve-return-pre-recession-low
IMPEACH OBAMA!!!
snark/
“Labor union, NAACP allege racial disparity in airport jobs”
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/labor-union-naacp-allege-racial-disparity-airport-jobs
Huckabee sees Obama as impeachable ‘Caesar acting like God’
08/07/14 08:00 AM
By Steve Benen
Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), a member of the House Democratic leadership, told reporters yesterday that the House Republicans’ anti-Obama lawsuit is little more than a “precursor to impeachment.”
“If the Republicans maintain control of the House, Barack Obama will be impeached…. I hope I’m wrong. But I don’t think so,” the Assistant Democratic Leader said. “They would just love to be able to open the history books years from now and say, yeah he may have been the first African-American president, but he was also an impeached president.”
Given recent events, this would ordinarily be the point at which Republicans and much of the Beltway media starts complaining: “Why are Democrats always the ones talking about impeachment?” Except the criticisms ring hallow under the circumstances.
Mike Huckabee appeared on Monday’s edition of Iowa-based Steve Deace’s radio talk show, where he said President Obama “absolutely” deserves to be impeached but cautioned that Republicans should not pursue impeachment at this time since the GOP doesn’t have the votes to convict him in the Senate.
“There’s no doubt that he has done plenty of things worthy of impeachment,” Huckabee said.
Earlier in the show, Huckabee accused Obama of deliberately weakening border security and creating lawlessness: “The government is going to have to secure the border. There’s a big difference between what we owe God and what we owe Caesar, and right now we’ve got Caesar acting like God.”
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/huckabee-sees-obama-impeachable-caesar-acting-god
“Don’t just sit still”
http://www.stlamerican.com/news/columnists/guest_columnists/article_fc018dfc-1da6-11e4-87a7-001a4bcf887a.html
“Minority Voters Still Face Hurdles In Georgia, South”
http://www.gpb.org/news/2014/08/06/minority-voters-still-face-hurdles-in-georgia-south
“Americans shift identity for Census”
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/08/americans-shift-identity-for-census-109788.html
Excerpt:
The report showed that 1 in 16 people — or approximately 9.8 million of 162 million — who responded to both the 2000 and 2010 censuses gave different answers when it came to race and ethnicity.
If extrapolated across the entire population, that would mean that 8.3 percent of people in the United States would have made a change in their racial or ethnic identity in that decade, according to the paper authored by Sonya Rastogi, Leticia E. Fernandez, James M. Noon and Sharon R. Ennis of the U.S. Census Bureau and Carolyn A. Liebler of the University of Minnesota.
The largest change was from Hispanic (some other race) to Hispanic white, with 2.38 million people making that change on their census forms. But the next greatest change was from Hispanic white to Hispanic (some other race), with 1.2 million people deciding that designation fit them better. Put together, these two changes make up more than a third (37 percent) of the race/ethnicity changes in the report.
The two next biggest changes were also paired: 710,019 people decided to change from white to Hispanic white, and 417,855 moved from Hispanic white to white from the 2000 to the 2010 census.
The groups most likely to change were people who were children and/or living in the West in 2000. That region also had a higher rate of interracial marriage, and multiple race reporting, the report said. The census defines the West as being Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
The most stable groups were single-race, non-Hispanic whites, blacks and Asians, with those who checked those boxes staying with them in both censuses. People were also consistent with their Hispanic/non-Hispanic choices.
But “there is extensive population churning among American Indians, Pacific Islanders and multiple-race respondents in our data,” the report said. “Many people left each of these populations between 2000 and 2010, and about as many joined each group.”
The census identifies races as white; black or African American; American Indian or Alaska Native; Asian; Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander; and other for those claiming more than one race. There is also a Hispanic ethnic category.
“European Spacecraft Pulls Alongside Comet After 10 Years and Four Billion Miles”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/07/science/space/spacecraft-pulls-alongside-comet.html?_r=0
(video and photos)
After 10 years and a journey of four billion miles, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft arrived at its destination on Wednesday for the first extended, close examination of a comet.
A six-minute thruster firing at 5 a.m. Eastern time, the last in a series of 10 over the past few months, slowed Rosetta to the pace of a person walking, about two miles per hour relative to the speed of its target, Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
“It is like driving a car or a bus on a motorway for 10 years,” said Andrea Accomazzo, the flight director, at a post-rendezvous news conference. “Now we’ve entered downtown. We’re downtown and we have to start orienting ourselves. We don’t know the town yet, so we have to discover it first.”
Over the coming months, Rosetta and its comet, called C-G for short, will plunge together toward the sun.
A three-dimensional model of 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko created on July 24 from images of the comet.Rosetta Spacecraft Set for Unprecedented Close Study of a CometAUG. 5, 2014
Intricate European Mission Goes Hunting for a Comet (Feb. 24, 2004)
In November, a small 220-pound lander is to leave the spacecraft, set down on the comet and harpoon itself to the surface, the first time a spacecraft will gently land on a comet.
Damaging tax cuts haunt Brownback reelection campaign
Dave Helling, columnist for the Kansas City Star, talks with Steve Kornacki about the war within the Kansas Republican Party over the damage Governor Brownback has done to the state’s finances with deep tax cuts that failed to produce new revenue.
http://on.msnbc.com/1qXBvUs
Keke Palmer: Broadway’s 1st black Cinderella
Actress Keke Palmer talks with Lawrence O’Donnell about making history before she puts on the glass slipper in front of her first Broadway audience.
http://on.msnbc.com/1sfgrbE
Rewrite: Michelle Obama on the role of men
The First Lady has some straight talk about how men can help in the advancement of women’s rights around the world.
http://on.msnbc.com/1y7DhAo
https://twitter.com/HumanAfrica/status/497110857633906688/photo/1
Beautiful expression of authentic LOVE!
https://twitter.com/HumanAfrica/status/488079669808201728/photo/1
https://twitter.com/repjohnlewis/status/497007930407809024/photo/1
https://twitter.com/TheDemocrats/status/497114439494414336/photo/1
BWA HA HA HA Brilliant AD
Rand Paul’s a FAKE as that RUG on his head.
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Good Morning, Rikyrah & Everyone!
Yes; I’m thoroughly enjoying Jackson Five Week. Cracking up at the pool pic.
A few of those boys were a little shy about showing the impression of their “package.” LOL *winks@Michael*
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Ralph Bunche was born on this day in 1904.
UCLA marks anniversary of Ralph J. Bunche receiving Nobel Peace Prize”
December 9, 2010
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/dec-10-60th-anniversary-of-first-188563