Hello Everyone! Enjoy your weekend.
The many covers of the MIGHTY Anthem: WHY CAN’T WE LIVE TOGETHER
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Black Girls Rock!
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Potus Takes Oath of Office
Flotus & Daughters at Great Wall of China
My Brothers Keeper
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AFRO PUFFS
Most Adorable Shoe Stealer
Six Little Babies
Fatherhood
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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.
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President Barack Obama
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Presidential hug
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https://twitter.com/davidaxelrod/status/503303798086197248/photo/1
https://twitter.com/Lib_Librarian/status/503322057417818112/photo/1
Black Enterprise ✔ @blackenterprise
The 5 Best Black Girls Code Apps You Should Know http://buff.ly/1mA6puJ #Tech #Coding #WOC
I absolutely can’t handle creepy stalker movies. But, I am going to spend my money opening weekend for the new Idris ELBA and Taraji P movie coming out September 12th.
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE JACKIE ROBINSON WEST TEAM!!!
They are going to the Little League Championship Game against South Korea.
KUDOS to THE JACKIE ROBINSON WEST TEAM!!!! Whooo hooooo!
PragmaticObotsUnite @PragObots
Announcer said Rachel Robinson, widow of Jackie Robinson, sent letter 2each member of #JackieRobinsonWest #LLWS2014 #BlackTwitter #blacknews
Saturday, August 23, 2014
A pragmatist’s musings on ending racism
Racism is a highly-charged emotional issue in this country. Rightly so. But I find it helpful to step back from the emotions every now and then to take a rational pragmatic look at where we are and what our goals should be going forward.
In order to do that, its important to recognize the two broad categories of racism: personal and systemic. Personal racism includes both the covert messages we’ve all internalized as a result of living in a white supremacist culture as well as overtly racist words/actions. Personal racism is basically a white-people’s problem as my friend Robinswing articulated a while ago when she said “We Can’t Fix Ya!” Ending personal racism is an individual journey.
I can’t speak for anyone else, but that journey for me was initiated and has been maintained by some very patient people of color in my life. I have tried my best on this blog platform to pass those lessons on to the few people who read here. White people are “my people,” and its important to me that we eventually get it.
But the truth is, people of color can walk away from personal racism. Unless they care individually or collectively about our opinions, they can chose to ignore us. Even the racist rantings of a Sterling or Bundy or Robertson (Duck Dynasty) are meaningless unless we give them weight.
Ultimately it is systemic racism that impacts people of color directly. It happens when racism becomes embedded, both overtly and covertly, in institutional patterns and practices. Both the Civil War and the Civil Rights movement were successful in ending different forms of systemic racism: slavery and legal segregation. But those patterns and practices have been embedded in our systems of education, health care, housing, employment, immigration and criminal justice.
http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2014/08/a-pragmatists-musings-on-ending-racism.html
Don’t call Nancy T SmartyPants for nothing. SPOT ON!
https://twitter.com/DaRiverZkind/status/503269793579819008/photo/1
Jonathan Capehart ✔ @CapehartJ
Follow
Some won’t be satisfied until Obama bursts into East Room clad in Kente cloth brandishing a definable “black agenda” http://wapo.st/1pIlxL6
10:28 AM – 23 Aug 2014
LOL I see Jonathan put on his big boy pants today.
Morning Plum: Can Dems defend expanding coverage to poor in red states?
By Greg Sargent August 21
Ever since embattled Dem Senator Mark Pryor went up with a new ad discussing his cancer and touting his vote for the health law as the right thing to do, critics have pointed out that he failed to name the whole law in the spot, so the ad doesn’t really count as a full-throated defense of it.
I think that’s a silly standard. But it does raise an interesting question: Can Democrats in difficult states stand behind the goal of expanding coverage to poor people?
The Pryor ad focuses on the law’s popular consumer protections against insurance industry abuse. But it doesn’t say anything about the state’s version of the Medicaid expansion, which is partly responsible for making Arkansas’ drop in the uninsured rate the steepest in the nation. I don’t think this omission matters. This is still a strong ad that unabashedly touts his vote for the law while focusing on one major pillar of it.
But there’s plenty of evidence that Democrats more broadly — particularly in red states — have shied away from defending the provisions in it that expand coverage to lower-income people. Some embattled Dems — like Mary Landrieu and Kay Hagan — have blasted their opponents for opposing the Medicaid expansion, noting that they are denying hundreds of thousands of people coverage. But we have seen few if any ads on the topic. (That widely-acclaimed pro-ACA ad in the Alaska Senate race focused only on the ban on discrimination against preexisting conditions.) Broadly speaking, the law’s expansion of coverage to the poor has been a topic Dems have been loath to take on.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/08/21/morning-plum-can-dems-defend-expanding-coverage-to-poor-in-red-states/
Why Obama is constrained in talking about race on Ferguson
By Paul Waldman August 21
The latest poll about the events in Ferguson comes from CBS and the New York Times, and you will not be surprised to learn that evaluations of President Obama’s performance on this issue, like evaluations of his performance on every issue, are divided along racial lines:
Forty-one percent of Americans are satisfied with how the president is responding to the situation in Ferguson, while 34 percent are dissatisfied. Twenty-five percent don’t have an opinion.
African-Americans, who have been strong supporters of Mr. Obama, are satisfied with his response (60 percent), compared to just 35 percent of whites. Partisanship also plays a role: Republicans are more critical of the president than Democrats.
The important context to keep in mind for these figures is that Obama hasn’t actually done much of anything to either be pleased or displeased about. His statements on the subject have been designed to offend no one, trying to touch every possible perspective — there’s no excuse for violence, but people’s First Amendment rights have to be respected, but we don’t want to see excessive force by the police, but attacking the police is wrong, etc.
You’d think the people who would logically be dissatisfied with the President’s response are those who think he should be doing more. And that would mean mostly Democrats and African-Americans. But that’s not what’s happening. Here are some internals from the CBS/NYT poll:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/08/21/why-obama-is-constrained-in-talking-about-race-on-ferguson/
For the fifty eleventh time PBO has had the talk on RACE. Ball’s in AMERICA’S COURT now. NEXT
New Emails Shed Light On Walker Campaign Amid Legal Probe
ByDYLAN SCOTTPublishedAUGUST 23, 2014, 9:49 AM EDT 7098 Views
Court documents released Friday provided new details on Gov. Scott Walker’s recall campaign, including some insight into the role of the governor himself, as prosecutors probe whether the campaign illegally worked with outside groups.
Court documents filed by prosecutors back in June placed Walker at the center of a “criminal scheme” in which his campaign illegally coordinated with as many as 12 outside conservative groups in 2011 and 2012. They later said that Walker was “not a target of the investigation,” but the legal probe into the campaign has continued.
The New York Times reported Friday on newly released emails from the investigation. In particular, the emails point to the Walker campaign’s close relationship with the Wisconsin chapter of the conservative mega-group Club for Growth.
“Stress that donations to WiCFG are not disclosed and can accept corporate donations without limits,” said one alleged 2011 email to Walker from adviser Kelly Rindfleisch as he prepared for a fundraising trip. “Let them know that you can accept corporate contributions and it is not reported.”
There were also alleged emails among Walker aides that hinted at the extent of Walker’s role, per the Times.
“As the governor discussed … he wants all the issue advocacy efforts run thru one group to ensure correct messaging,” Kate Doner, a Walker consultant, wrote another adviser. “We had some past problems with multiple groups doing work on ‘behalf’ of Gov. Walker and it caused some issues.”
Walker aides urged the campaign to take money from the billionaire Koch Brothers and casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. “Ask for $1m now,” Doner told Walker in an email as he prepared to visit Adelson in Las Vegas.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/scott-walker-criminal-scheme-probe-emails
Obamacare Is Disappearing As A GOP Weapon In 2014
BySAHIL KAPUR
PublishedAUGUST 21, 2014, 6:00 AM EDT
Weeks into Obamacare’s disastrous rollout last fall, Democrats’ worst nightmares were coming true. The politics were so dreadful that even liberal stalwarts like Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley were endorsing “fixes” to gut key elements of the law. One Democratic Senate aide expressed concern that that the law’s failures could cause a Republican sweep in every open seat and every contested red state in the 2014 elections.
Nine months later, Obamacare has rebounded, and the politics have changed dramatically. Democrats’ Senate majority remains in jeopardy, but Obamacare is no longer the silver bullet that Republicans once thought it was. It is gradually losing its power as a political weapon.
The number of ads attacking Obamacare in battleground states like North Carolina, Louisiana and Arkansas plummeted between April and July, according to data collected by media trackers. Republican pollsters have found that the most effective attacks on the law are the most dubious. Now even Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR), one of the most vulnerable incumbents this cycle, is touting his support for the law in a new television ad.
So, what changed?
In short, Obamacare is working largely as intended. More than 10 million Americans have gained coverage and the national uninsured rate is falling, with better results in states that embraced it. Some states which rejected the law’s Medicaid expansion saw modest upticks in uninsured. The sprawling law has certainly created its share of losers, but many of the horror stories touted by opponents have turned out to be exaggerated or false.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/obamacare-politics-turn-a-corner
The GOP’s Midterm Strategy Is as Hollow as Their Ideas Are
Meanwhile, Democrats are running on Obamacare—they’re just not calling it that
By Brian Beutler
The most interesting thing about Senator Mark Pryor’s decision to tout his support for the Affordable Care Act in a well-financed, statewide television ad isn’t that he stands apart from other embattled Democrats this election cycle. It’s that Republicans scrambled to spin the story, insisting to reporters that Pryor couldn’t possibly be running on Obamacare if he won’t refer to the law by name.
This was poorly disguised Calvinball, a standard that Republicans invented for the special case of the ACA. Literally no other members of Congress are expected to refer to the laws they’ve helped pass by name or nickname. Republicans in the aughts weren’t expected to refer to the “Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act,” or “EGTRRA,” or “the Bush tax cuts,” or “the Bush tax cuts for the rich,” no matter how unpopular the moniker became. They ran on having cut taxes, and wanting to renew those tax cuts. And sure enough when President Obama set about trying to let “the Bush tax cuts” expire, he conveniently omitted the popular ones. Which is to say, the vast majority of them. He made those permanent.
Nevertheless, several reporters fell into line. And good for the ref workers. Score one for them.
But if Obamacare is a huge liability for Democrats, why are conservatives and GOP operatives desperate to control the narrative surrounding Pryor’s decision to run on the law? If your opponent’s stepping on rakes, why not just stand back and let him?
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119171/pryor-obamacare-ad-mcconnell-shutdown-threat-tell-midterm-story
Morning Plum: GOP’s Obamacare repeal follies continue
By Greg Sargent August 22
One of the most amusing subplots of the 2014 elections has been the endless and frequently comic struggles of GOP Senate candidates to articulate their position on Medicaid. The politics of Obamacare are supposed to be nothing but a slam dunk for Republicans — yet many can’t seem to answer the simple question of whether the Medicaid expansion should remain in place in the states they would represent.
Iowa Senate candidate Joni Ernst has now opened herself up to this line of questioning. Asked how she would approach entitlements in an interview with John Harwood, Ernst says people on Medicaid should should be allowed to keep it:
“What we have to do is protect those that are on Medicaid now; those that are on Social Security now. That, we need to protect. We have made promises to these people…We have to understand there’s a problem, and address it. But those that are already engaged in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, we need to protect that for them.”
Does this mean Ernst is now trying to claim she supports allowing those on Iowa’s version of the Medicaid expansion to keep their benefits? Unclear, but it sure sounds like it. And yet she proudly touted her vote against Iowa’s Medicaid expansion and continues to be a gung-ho advocate for repealing Obamacare, which would roll back funding for the expansion.
Iowa’s Medicaid expansion is expected to make coverage available to around 100,000 people on its Medicaid expansion, and according to Charles Gaba, at least 20,000 people had already signed up as of three months ago. Ernst’s repeal stance would mean all those people lose their coverage. Does she no longer think that should happen? I’ve emailed Ernst’s campaign for clarification.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/08/22/morning-plum-gops-obamacare-repeal-follies-continue/
August 22, 2014 4:45 PM
Medicaid Expansion Is Good For You
By Ed Kilgore
At the New Yorker Sam Wang took a fresh look at gubernatorial polling in competitive states and noticed something: Republicans who accepted the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion are doing much better than those who are fighting it.
The Republicans Tom Corbett, of Pennsylvania, and Paul LePage, of Maine, are both unlikely to win their races, and Nathan Deal, of Georgia, is locked in a tight contest with the Democrat Jason Carter. Corbett, LePage, Deal, and Walker have all governed according to their party’s most strongly held beliefs. They stalled or blocked implementation of the Affordable Care Act, including its Medicaid expansion. And all have sharply cut state budgets, imposing austerity measures during a recession….
The Republicans Susana Martinez, of New Mexico, John Kasich, of Ohio, and Rick Snyder, of Michigan, look as strong as they did when they were first elected. All three accepted the Affordable Care Act and its Medicaid expansion. Evidently, Obamacare is not the political liability it was once thought to be. This stance by Martinez, Kasich, and Snyder has been predictive of their support of other issues with that have drawn support from both parties. Martinez and Kasich, for example, have pursued education-reform policies that have gained a lot of traction among both Democrats and Republicans. To the extent that governors hold on to their offices in close races, it may be because they have focussed on issues that are important to the voters in their states rather than the core views of their party.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2014_08/medicaid_expansion_is_good_for051793.php
August 21, 2014
A War on Gaza’s Future? Israeli Assault Leaves 500 Kids Dead, 3,000 Injured, 373,000 Traumatized
As the Israeli offensive in Gaza resumes, we look at the impact the military campaign has had on the children of Gaza. More than 467 Palestinian children have died since July. That is more than the combined number of child fatalities in the two previous conflicts in Gaza. According to the World Health Organization, more than 3,000 children have been injured, of which an estimated 1,000 will suffer from a lifelong disability. The United Nations estimates at least 373,000 children require direct and specialized psychosocial support. And, based on the total number of adults killed, there may be up to 1,500 children orphaned. Gazan children’s right to an education has also been severely compromised with at least 25 schools reportedly damaged so severely that they can no longer be used. We speak to Pernille Ironside, chief of UNICEF’s Gaza field office.
VIDEO plus transcript
http://www.democracynow.org/2014/8/21/a_war_on_gazas_future_israeli
r.e. kameir
@rawiya
3h
the extent to which the nyt continues to enable white people who think they discovered brooklyn is baffling http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08… …
http://youtu.be/x1CY8Wm3lmg
https://twitter.com/Interior/status/502583119783157761/photo/1
“Poll: Nunn widens lead over Perdue”
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/poll-nunn-widens-lead-over-perdue/ng7Z6/
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Posted: 6:19 p.m. Friday, Aug. 22, 2014
ATLANTA —
A new poll in Georgia’s U.S. Senate race shows Republican candidate David Perdue is slipping further behind Democratic candidate Michelle Nunn.
The Landmark Communications poll conducted exclusively for WSB-TV asked active Georgia voters who they would choose if the election were held today.
Nunn received 47 percent of the vote and Perdue received 40 percent. Libertarian candidate Amanda Swafford received 3 percent and 10 percent of respondents remain undecided.
The poll shows Perdue with a 7-point advantage among men but trailing Nunn 52 percent to 34 percent when it comes to women voters.
Nunn has a 65 percent advantage when it comes to African-American voters while Perdue maintains a 20-point edge among white voters
Jesse Jackson, Jr. spent 10 years doing all the heavy lifting trying to get this airport off the ground. He was laughed at and mocked as he put forth the idea for the airport.
This is background reference for you as you read the article.
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Kadner: Welcome to the state’s Bult Field
BY PHIL KADNER
Gov. Pat Quinn and elected leaders from throughout the Southland gathered Thursday to pay tribute to the vision of a wealthy businessman and a congressman who went to prison.
The wealthy businessman’s name now is on a plaque at the entrance to a state-owned airport.
The congressman’s name, Jesse Jackson Jr., never was even mentioned at the news conference.
The governor came out to Bult Field in Will County, which the state recently bought for $34 million, to announce that the Illinois Department of Transportation will be meeting with private developers, air carriers and potential airport tenants next month to plan the construction of the South Suburban Airport.
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But the only reason the airport still is being discussed, the only reason the governor can use it as a stop on his campaign tour, is that Congressman Jackson kept the project alive.
It was Jackson who came up with the idea of a public-private partnership to develop the airport when former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley made off with every federal dollar available for building airports in this country.
http://southtownstar.suntimes.com/29116969-522/kadner-welcome-to-the-states-bult-field.html#.U_jFDmO2Ono
This is the WA P folks-
Obama’s summer vacation, by the numbers
By Sebastian Payne August 23 at 7:32 AM
VINEYARD HAVEN, Mass. — President’s Obama time on Martha’s Vineyard is almost over — he heads back to Washington on Sunday. And what a time it’s been. His summer vacation has been a mix of golf, world crises, golf, domestic crisis, golf, time on the beach, and — well, you know.
Here’s the president’s vacation, by the numbers:
Days on Martha’s Vineyard this month: 15. The president returned to Washington briefly late last week for two days of meetings, but has otherwise been enjoying the island since August 9.
Rounds of golf: 8. The most notable activity of the president’s vacation, which has brought him criticism from some and defense from others. At the time of writing, the president has hit the links eight times. Given his love of the game, it is likely Obama will try and squeeze in another round or two over the weekend.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/08/23/obamas-summer-vacation-by-the-numbers/
they have nothing better to do
Good Morning, Rikyrah & Everyone.
Good Morning Ametia, rikyrah and Everybody :)
Everybody wants to live.
Everybody’s got to be together.
No matter, no matter what colour.
You are still my brother.
I said no matter, no matter what colour.
You are still my brother.
Yahtc, I have always loved this song.
It’s layed. and calls on the listeners to answer the question for themselves.