Happy HUMP day! Hope you’re enjoying “The Eagles.”
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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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Jordan Davis’ parents will be on Larry O tomorrow night.
Lawd,
Luvvie done done a post on Cissy and Aretha.
As usual, the post is only 20% of the laughs. The rest of them come from the comments to the post.
http://www.awesomelyluvvie.com/2014/09/aretha-franklin-cissy-houston-david-letterman.html
I read it earlier today. Cissy Houston is on some heavy meds, bank it.
uh huh
uh huh
……………….
Chris Matthews: Obama Getting “Intellectually Lazy,” “Atrophied” By People Like Valerie Jarrett, Michelle Obama
Chris Matthews criticized President Obama for being “intellectually lazy” and “listening to the same voices all the time” on Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s Hardball. Matthews singled out close Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett and even First Lady Michelle Obama.
“Let’s get tough here,” Matthews said. “Is this the problem of a second term that presidents get lazy, intellectually lazy, and cut off from the country and they start picking deputies for jobs instead of looking for the best people?”
“The lazy thing to do is somebody leaves, you promote their deputy. This is, I think, part of the endemic problem of second terms,” Matthews observed.
“Presidents should go out and look for people,” Matthews said about the lack of fresh blood in the White House. “Or else they get atrophied into that little world of people like Valerie [Jarrett] and Mrs. Obama and you’re just listening to the same voices all the time.”
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2014/10/01/chris_matthews_obama_getting_intellectually_lazy_atrophied_by_people_like_valerie_jarrett_michelle_obama.html#.VCyc44ZzD2l.twitter
Matthews is INTELLECTUALLY LAZY, and that’s why he’s sitting behind a desk in front of a camera spitting out HATERADE, while Barack Obama is PRESIDING over America.
https://twitter.com/sarahclarkeabc/status/517408165764149248/photo/1
Alan Abramowitz @AlanIAbramowitz
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White people more likely to deal drugs, but black people are more likely to get arrested for it http://wapo.st/1qSstBr via @washingtonpost
11:51 AM – 1 Oct 2014
Why early voting is about so much more than convenience
This was supposed to be “Golden Week” in Ohio, a prime window one month from the midterm election when the state’s residents could both register to vote and cast their ballots at the same time. In theory, political participation doesn’t get much easier than that.
Monday, however, the Supreme Court halted the start of the state’s early voting in another 5-4 order along ideological lines that civil rights advocates fear will harm minority and poor voters in particular. The decision is a win for Republican officials in Ohio who had moved to curtail the state’s early voting with a law passed in February. Civil-rights groups including the ACLU and the NAACP had sued the state to block the law, and the Supreme Court’s order on Monday sets aside a lower-court ruling in their favor.
Now, as a result, voting in Ohio that was supposed to start today won’t begin until Oct. 7. And Ohio’s Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted, reacting swiftly to the Supreme Court order, has also rolled back evening hours and a day of Sunday voting that had been required by the earlier court decision.
By Husted’s logic, Ohio still remains one of the states with the most expansive early-voting provisions. So why are voting-rights advocates still so concerned? The changes target the very times — evenings, Sundays and well in advance of Election Day — when minorities and the poor (groups more likely to lean Democratic) are often able to vote. These are the times when people who can’t leave work during the day may cast ballots. They’re the times when churches in black communities lead Sunday “souls to the polls” voting drives.
In 2012, more than 157,000 Ohio voters cast their ballots during the days that have now been eliminated. Daniel Smith, a political scientist at the University of Florida, argued in an analysis conducted in support of suit against the state that blacks have been disproportionately likely to use early balloting in the state, and to vote early on the days that have now been canceled (data in other states suggest the same).
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/09/30/why-early-voting-is-about-so-much-more-than-convenience/
ADP reports sixth month of job gains above 200,000
Published: Oct 1, 2014 9:38 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Private-sector hiring picked up slightly in September, marking the sixth consecutive month of job gains above-200,000, a sign of strong and steady growth, according to a report released Wednesday.
Last month, private-sector employers added 213,000 jobs, up from 202,000 in August, Automatic Data Processing Inc. said. Economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires had expected a September gain of 209,000, compared with an originally reported increase of 204,000 in August.
“Especially encouraging most recently is the increasingly broad base nature of those gains. Nearly all industries and companies of all sizes are adding consistently to payrolls,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, which prepares the report for ADP.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/adp-reports-sixth-month-of-job-gains-above-200000-2014-10-01?dist=beforebell
justified agitator @Awkward_Duck
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As Halloween approaches, here’s some general guidelines around wearing blackface as costume: 1. No.
2:16 PM – 30 Sep 2014
2. HELL NO.
https://twitter.com/WilliamsJon/status/517295891192221696/photo/1
CPS grads can qualify for new city college scholarships
Qualified graduates of Chicago’s public high schools will be eligible for a free ride at one of the city’s seven community colleges under a scholarship program announced today by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and City Colleges of Chicago Chancellor Cheryl Hyman.
The Chicago Star Scholarship will cover the costs of tuition, fees and books to one of the City Colleges “pathway programs” for Chicago Public Schools graduates who have at least a 3.0 grade-point average and are academically ready for college-level math and English courses.
Eligible students must first apply for federal and state financial aid. Once those applications are complete, the Star Scholarship will cover costs for up to three years above any state or federal aid the student receives.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/cps-city-colleges-scholarships-20141001-story.html
https://twitter.com/NBCNightlyNews/status/517447168282857472/photo/1
LOLGOP @LOLGOP
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PLEASE NOTE: Americans are still far more likely to die of being denied Medicaid expansion than Ebola.
11:48 AM – 1 Oct 2014
PRE-SCHOOLERS?
PRE-SCHOOLERS?
WHAT DA PHUQ?
What happened to taking a child to A PARK?
………………..
CrossFit Tailors Workout for a New Demographic:PRESCHOOLERS
On a recent afternoon at the CrossFit gym in Long Island City, Queens, 3-year-old Ella Reznik bounded toward an array of hoops and candy-colored bouncy balls, her ponytail and her mother trailing behind her.
Ella’s brother Adam, 4, padded along nearby on rubber black mats and inspected some metal bars bolted to the wall. The gym’s owner and coach, Michele Kelber, greeted the Rezniks and other children with a series of high-fives and smiles. Soon, class was underway: Duck, Duck Goose, burpees and dangling from monkey bars.
CrossFit, the hard-core workout regimen, has a growing new demographic to court: preschoolers.
As the issue of youth fitness — from obesity to proper exercise regimens — takes on more resonance in schools and communities across the country, CrossFit Kids and other preschool fitness programs are raising questions about when and how children should start playing organized sports or hitting the gym.
The adult version of CrossFit has garnered acclaim and criticism in recent years for its high-intensity workouts and unyielding approach to exercise, with colorful language to match (barbell snatch, hang power clean, air squat, jerk and thruster). While critics have questioned the quality of some instructors and said there is insufficient research on injuries, CrossFit has dismissed those claims as its business has exploded. Today it includes devout followers at more than 10,000 gyms, or “boxes” worldwide, and conducts the CrossFit Games, an annual test to find “the fittest on earth.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/02/sports/crossfit-tailors-workout-for-a-new-demographic-preschoolers.html?smid=tw-nytimes&_r=1
just like charter schools, this is all about $$$$$. How about plain on recess or gym classes for the older kids. SHGDH
Shaun King @ShaunKing
Early this morning, a longtime St. Louis resident posted that she had a friend on the Grand Jury for Darren Wilson…
Shaun King@ShaunKing
She went on to post that her friend told her they doubted they’d charge Darren Wilson & hadn’t been given enough info to indict him yet.
Shaun King @ShaunKing · 47 minutes ago
Within seconds of posting this, her friends told her to delete it and she did. It was screenshotted first.
Shaun King @ShaunKing · 48 minutes ago
She has since deleted her entire account. Before she deleted it, we saw that she is indeed a St. Louis resident w/ years of tweets there.
https://twitter.com/tedgibson/status/517451070650347521
C’mon TPM That white man has a name, now doesn’t he? MICHAEL DUNN!!!!
White Florida Man Convicted Of Murder For Shooting Black Teen Over Loud Music
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A jury has found a Florida man guilty of first-degree murder for fatally shooting a teenager after an argument over loud music outside a Jacksonville convenience store.
The jury reached its verdict Wednesday after more than five hours of deliberations.
Prosecutors say Michael Dunn shot with intent to kill when he fired 10 times into an SUV carrying 17-year-old Jordan Davis and three of his friends in November 2012.
Dunn testified that he thought his life was in danger. Davis was from Marietta, Georgia.
Dunn was convicted previously of three counts of attempted second-degree murder in February and already faces at least 60 years in prison.
The jury in the first trial deadlocked on the first-degree murder count, which led prosecutors to retry him in this case.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/michael-dunn-convicted-murder
Finally, a somewhat diverse but mostly white jury in the Confederacy said that a white man can’t kill a black child for no reason and expect to get away with it by making up a cock and bull self-defense story. Those bullet trajectories don’t lie.
Thank God for this moment of relief. The same should have happened to George Zimmerman and countless others.
AMEN!
Amen and Amen
THIS! Now Darren Wilson needs to get his come uppence.
Breaking News: Michael Dunn found guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Jordan Davis.
FINALLY, JUSTICE IS SERVED!
Now on to Darren Wilson. ARREST THAT MOFO
AMEN!
Is the Jordan family going to bring a CIVIL SUIT against Dunn? This would be the complete icing on the cake, if they did and won it.
Breaking News: Secret Service Director resigns.
Good, and Don’t let the DOOR hit you, where the good lord split ya!
https://twitter.com/dylanlscott/status/517381653157519360
oh the horror…a BLACK child….
sigh….
…………..
White Mother Sues Sperm Bank After Birth of Mixed-Race Daughter
Jennifer Cramblett is suing the Midwest Sperm Bank for wrongful birth and emotional suffering.
A Chicago-area sperm bank is being sued by an Ohio woman for mistakenly giving her vials from an African-American donor, reports the Chicago Tribune.
Jennifer Cramblett, who is white, filed a lawsuit stating that Midwest Sperm Bank gave her the vials of a black man instead of the white man she and her partner had chosen. Documents show that Cramblett and her partner, Amanda Zinkon, chose donor No. 380, who is white. However, they were sent the sperm from donor No. 330, who is black.
When the couple ordered more vials so that they could have more children using sperm from the original white donor they claim they requested, it was then that they realized the initial donor didn’t match the one they requested. But by then, Cramblett was pregnant.
Cramblett is suing the sperm bank for “wrongful birth and breach of warranty, citing the emotional and economic losses she has suffered,” the Tribune reports.
The lawsuit states, “On August 21, 2012, Jennifer gave birth to Payton, a beautiful, obviously mixed-race baby girl. Jennifer bonded with Payton easily and she and Amanda love her very much. Even so, Jennifer lives each day with fears, anxieties and uncertainty about her future and Payton’s future.”
Cramblett and her partner have stated that there are challenges to raising Payton in the small, virtually all-white town of Uniontown, Ohio. Cramblett stated in the lawsuit that she was raised in a community that held racially intolerant beliefs about people of color. Cramblett did not meet any black Americans until she attended college. The lawsuit states that it is because of her upbringing that “Jennifer acknowledges her limited cultural competency relative to African-Americans and steep learning curve, particularly in small, homogenous Uniontown, which she regards as too racially intolerant.”
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/10/white_mother_sues_sperm_bank_after_birth_of_mix_raced_daughter.html?wpisrc=see_also_article
I feel for this child’s future with these ignorant folks. These parents are part of the problem with race
Either get the fuck outta of dodge with the racists POS, stay there, or provide a loving, safe home for your mixed-raced child with PEOPLES OF COLOR. There FIXED!
New Study Seeks to ‘Unlock Opportunity for African-American Girls’
A new study from the NAACP LDF and the National Women’s Law Center provides historical context for educational and economic issues facing black girls and women.
A new report from the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the National Women’s Law Center seeks to explain the reasons behind the often depressing statistics that black girls and women face. It’s a response to President Barack Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative, the $200 million program for boys of color that received heavy criticism from those who felt that young women should be included.
The report, “Unlocking Opportunity for African-American Girls” (pdf), states that the underlying causes for these issues stem from historical and institutional barriers to educational and economic success that black girls and women face, according to Colorlines: “In 2013, 43 percent of black women without a high school degree were living in poverty, compared to 28 percent of white women with the same levels of educational attainment. Black women with full-time jobs working year-round still make just 64 cents on the dollar compared to white men, and 82 cents for every dollar that their white female counterparts make.”
Other statistics show that in 2010, 34 percent of African-American girls did not graduate on time from high school, compared with 22 percent of all female students. In addition, black girls are more likely to be suspended from school. In Wisconsin the numbers are staggering: More than 1 in 5 black girls received an out-of-school suspension during the 2011-2012 school year.
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/09/new_study_seeks_to_unlock_opportunity_for_african_american_girls.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr%3Acontent%26
Florida officer Tasers 62-year-old black woman in the back as she walks away
Oct 1, 2014
Florida police officer has place been on paid administrative leave after cell phone video showed him using a Taser to stun a 62-year-old African-American woman in the back as she was walking away.
In a press conference held at 3:15 a.m. on Wednesday, Tallahassee Police Chief Michael DeLeo announced that Officer Terry Mahan had been placed on leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.
Police said that officers were responding to reports of drug dealing in a neighborhood on Tuesday afternoon. Cell phone video provided to police by a neighbor shows officers placing three suspects in the patrol cars, and repeatedly warning them about walking in the street.
Viola Young, 62, approaches Officer Mahan to ask about one of the men who was being detained. Mahan advises her to stay back, and tries to grab her arm. After she turns and walks away, the officer pulls out his Taser and fires it into her back.
Young falls face down onto the pavement.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/10/watch-florida-officer-tasers-62-year-old-black-woman-in-the-back-as-she-walks-away/
America has a cop problem that is so out of control I honestly do not know where we are headed.
Sat Sep 27, 2014 at 10:34 AM PDT.
Washington football fans freak out when confronted by actual live Native Americans
by Frank Vyan Walton
On Thursday night The Daily Show did another little live real world comedy/reality bit contrasting and comparing a set of pro-Washington football fans with a set of actual real live, breathing, and not exactly happy with their team’s name Native Americans.
Things did not go exactly as planned.
Follow me below the fold for the clip and more on the incident.
.
Here’s the segment as it aired, which followed a long and uncharacteristic explanatory preamble by host Jon Stewart [which is cut off in this YouTube version of the clip].
We learned later that some of the individuals who participated in the piece — they didn’t enjoy the experience. It’s something that happens a lot less than you would think,” Stewart said. “But we take the complaint seriously. We generally don’t want people who participate in the show to have a bad experience. We work very hard to find real people who have real beliefs and want to express those beliefs on television, and we work hard to make sure that the gist of those beliefs are represented accurately, albeit sometimes comedically on our program.”
“If we find out that someone in a piece was intentionally misled or if their comments were intentionally misrepresented, we do not air that piece. We would not air that piece,” he added. “So that being said, I hope you enjoy the following piece.”
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/09/27/1332747/-Washington-Football-Fans-Freak-Out-when-Confronted-by-Actual-Live-Native-Americans?detail=email#
Secret Service: You Can’t Slip Up With This President
With President Barack Obama, the agency is dealing with four times as many threats as were made against his predecessor, but a series of incidents have people questioning its effectiveness.
By: Charles D. Ellison
Posted: Sept. 30 2014 3:00 AM
More than a week after the world watched a deranged Omar Gonzalez somehow slip his way into what we thought was one of the most impregnable fortresses in the world, we find out that what actually happened was even worse.
According to a Washington Post exclusive, not only did Gonzalez get across the White House lawn, but he was so deep inside the president’s house that he pretty much got the tour of the main floor. Most of us have to get through months of background checks and waiting lists before we can even go through the visitors’ side entrance. Gonzalez, a mentally ill former sniper, just danced right in—with a knife in hand and 800 rounds of military-grade ammunition in a car parked not too far away.
Which raises the question: What’s up with the Secret Service? There could be only two reasons that Secret Service protection for President Barack Obama is slipping these days: Either agents missed the memo that he’s the first black president or they really are just that overwhelmed.
We can quip about the first reason, even though race is going to factor into it whether we like it or not. But giving the vaunted agency of “elite” federal law-enforcement sentinels the benefit of the doubt, perhaps it’s the latter—which has everything to do with him being the first black president.
With Obama receiving four times as many annual threats as the last guy in the White House, one would think the service would be at its finest. Clearly, we get it: A 400 percent increase in threats is enough to overwhelm, and security can’t always be at 100—something is bound to slip through bad cracks. But it’s been an embarrassing ball drop after ball drop, with White House guards unable to fully secure what we thought was, until another Washington Post exposé, the most secure building on the planet. (The Post describes a chilling episode of Secret Service ineptitude when a gunman opened fire on the president’s home back in 2011.)
……………
While Voorhees celebrates what “the Secret Service got right amidst all they did wrong: not a single shot was fired,” the rest of us are a bit hazy. That’s not how it works when you’re protecting the “leader of the free world”—or so our cinematic conditioning tells us. And nothing should be left to chance when it’s the entire first black family’s life on the line.
http://www.theroot.com/articles/politics/2014/09/secret_service_can_t_slip_up_with_this_president.html
George Robert Carruthers was born on this day in 1939. From Wikipedia:
George Robert Carruthers (born October 1, 1939) is an African-American inventor, physicist, and space scientist. He has lived most of his life in Washington, DC.
By 1964, Carruthers began employment for the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., where his work focused on far ultraviolet astronomy.[2] 1969 was the year he received a patent for his invention, the “Image Converter,” which detected electromagnetic radiation in short wavelengths, and in 1970, he made the first examination of molecular hydrogen in space. Two years later, Carruthers invented the first moon-based observatory, the Far Ultraviolet Camera/Spectrograph, which was used in the Apollo 16 mission.
During the 1980s, Carruthers helped create a program called the Science & Engineers Apprentice Program, which allows high school students to spend a summer working with scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory. Later on in 1986, one of Carruthers’ inventions captured an ultraviolet image of Halley’s Comet. In 1991, he invented a camera that was used in the Space Shuttle Mission. During the summers of 1996 and 1997 he taught a course in Earth and Space Science for D.C. Public Schools Science teachers. He also helped develop a series of videotapes on Earth and Space science for high-school students.
Since 1983 he has been Chairman of the Editing and Review Committee and Editor, Journal of the National Technical Association.
Since 2002, Carruthers has been teaching a two-semester course in Earth and Space Science at Howard University sponsored by a NASA Aerospace Workforce Development Grant.
On February 12, 2009, Carruthers was honored as a Distinguished Lecturer at the Office of Naval Research for his achievements in the field of space science.
On February 1, 2013, Dr. Carruthers was awarded the 2012 National Medal of Technology and Innovation by President Barack Obama at the White House.
http://youtu.be/znkvi7VtUXM&rel=0
http://youtu.be/d2eNwNNHMIk&rel=0
Thug Kitchen: A Recipe in Blackface
The identities of the creators of the popular blog, rife with thug-isms, leave many confused.
By: Akeya Dickson
Posted: Sept. 30 2014 12:39 PM
When I first clicked through the recipes at Thug Kitchen, a tongue-in-cheek, vegan cooking blog served up with a heaping side of expletives, I imagined a calorie-conscious, gangly young black man who’s particularly vehement about clean eating, insistently tapping recipes into his blog while Dead Prez reverberates in the background. He has a good eye, too, as he complements such recipes as “Roasted Brussels Sprouts With Quinoa and Motherf–king Cranberries” with Pinterest-worthy pics and the tagline, “Eat like you give a f–k.”
With African Americans especially plagued with obesity and the accompanying stressors and diseases, it was a refreshing idea that a young black man would be the purveyor of not just healthy eating but vegan cuisine at that, a leap that some health-conscious folks might find it difficult to make, given the restrictions on eggs and dairy in addition to meats.
More Auntie Fee than Chef G. Garvin, the blog would likely discourage trading recipes word for word with your mom. Still, I was inspired. To me, Thug Kitchen could have helped whip up a healthy eating movement akin to those of the natural-hair purists or, say, Black Girls Run— which are all uplifting healthwise for black folks and enforce a positive message for us. Would Chef G. Garvin or Chef Roblé feature the up-and-comer? Might he be cooking with the Neelys one day?
With more than 51,000 followers on Twitter, a couple of endorsements from Gwyneth Paltrow and a new cookbook released to much fanfare, the mystery blogger behind the well-trafficked site was poised and ready to emerge from the shadows and join fellow next-level black entrepreneurs.
An Epicurious profile revealed one astonishing caveat, however: The Thug Kitchen creator isn’t exactly a black entrepreneur—or black at all.
In the spirit of Thug Kitchen language, what the f–k?
The blog is actually the brainchild of a white man and white woman who started it in August 2012 on Tumblr.
“Months later, after a bit of detective work and a fair amount of sweet-talking, I found myself driving through East Hollywood on the way to sample some dairy-free ice cream from Scoops, blasting Gucci [Mane’s] ‘Lemonade’ with the windows down. I was rolling with Michelle Davis and Matt Holloway, both 29, aka the pair behind Thug Kitchen,” reads Matt Duckor’s profile of the duo, which revealed the pair’s identity for the first time.
Le sigh.
Is it really any coincidence that the Thug Kitchen bloggers waited this long to reveal their true identity? They had to know that it would be incongruous and wouldn’t fly if they told readers from the beginning that they were white.
Their recently released commercial is full of white people, young and old, touting the benefits of eating healthy thanks to the cookbook. One woman says that she is no longer lazy about the food she gives her family: “Now that I have the Thug Kitchen cookbook, I don’t play that s–t anymore.”
Really?
It’s deceptive and feels a lot like the latest iteration of nouveau blackface. It stirs up the same anomalous feelings one has when one sees a tweet from an Iggy Azalea fan account dubbing her and Macklemore the queen and king of rap.
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/09/thug_kitchen_a_recipe_in_blackface.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr%3Acontent%26
I.JUST.CAN’T. with this foolishness.
Co-sign.
Special Report: Brown Family And Prosecutor Bitterly Divided Over Grand Jury Probe In Ferguson
ByDylan Scott
PublishedOctober 1, 2014, 6:00 AM EDT
…………..
Still, the unusual nature of the grand jury proceedings has raised eyebrows, and former prosecutors have told TPM that the approach would undoubtedly give McCulloch some public-relations cover if the jury decides not to indict Wilson. In fact, one suggested that there was a easy way to help one understand how truly transparent this grand jury would be.
“If they’re doing this wide open grand jury investigation, is it simply the district attorney’s office who’s deciding what witnesses are going in there?” Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor who is now a law professor at Loyola University in Los Angeles, told TPM. “Or have they reached out to the lawyers of the family or other people? Are they actually soliciting input from other parties?”
“That can give you an idea of whether this is just cover,” she said, “or this is really a community investigation.”
So over the last few weeks, TPM tried to answer that question. And while it is never easy to reach a firm conclusion in these legal gray areas, which can look very different depending on what side you’re on, what is undeniable is the rift between the prosecutor’s office and the Brown family. As TPM probed the issue, both sides seemed to be preemptively spinning the grand jury decision yet to come.
…………
First, TPM approached lawyers from the Brown family. Wilson’s lawyer Greg Kloeppel did not return TPM’s request for comment on whether they had been allowed to offer other evidence, but Wilson had been offered the opportunity to testify and taken it. So what input has the family of 18-year-old Brown had?
Benjamin Crump, the Florida civil rights attorney who also represented Trayvon Martin’s family, told TPM on Sept. 11, more than three weeks after the grand jury started hearing evidence, that they had never been approached.
“We certainly believe that we have some things that we think should be presented to the grand jury and make probable cause clear,” Crump said in a phone interview.
He also conveyed the Brown family’s general distrust of the proceedings and his belief that the case should have never gone to a grand jury because McCulloch already has enough evidence to indict Wilson.
“The whole process concerns us, the entire process,” Crump said. “I think there’s a reason why the people mistrust the local law enforcement so much in the Ferguson community. They think this secret proceeding is going to be whatever the prosecutor wants it be, and nobody is going to know except the prosecutors and those jurors.”
“If the prosecutor presents the case appropriately, there will be an indictment,” he continued. “If not, then there won’t be an indictment and the grand jury will do what the prosecutor will have them do.”
Another former prosecutor, Eugene O’Donnell, who worked as a district attorney in Queens and is now a lecturer at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told TPM that there was no reason for McCulloch’s office not to give the Brown family a chance to suggest evidence. It would then be the prosecutor’s job to determine if it was appropriate to present to the grand jury, he said.
“There’s no reason at all why the family should not be asked about what they think is relevant,” he told TPM. McCulloch’s office “should offer. The difficulty you’re going to have is the evidence’s relevance and whether it’s hearsay. But they’re in the best position to put all these pieces together.”
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/michael-brown-darren-wilson-grand-jury
It really isn’t ROCKET SCIENCE here. If McColloch and his grand jury do not hear evidence from other witnesses and Crump’s evidence. THERE WILL BE NO INDICTMENT of Darren Wilson.
Hong Kong stages huge National Day democracy protests
Thousands have joined pro-democracy protests which have spread in Hong Kong on China’s 65th National Day.
The protesters want China to withdraw plans to vet candidates for the next Hong Kong leadership election in 2017.
Hong Kong leader CY Leung was heckled as he addressed a flag-raising ceremony, where he urged them to back electoral reforms set out by Beijing.
A student protest leader has said they will occupy government buildings if Mr Leung does not resign by Thursday.
Lester Shum, of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, told reporters there was “no room for dialogue” with Hong Kong’s chief executive after he ordered police to fire tear gas at demonstrators at the weekend.
Mr Shum said student leaders would welcome an opportunity to speak with a Chinese central government official, but not with Mr Leung.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-29430229
Bell Gardens Mayor Daniel Crespo fatally shot at home; wife released
Bell Gardens Mayor Daniel Crespo died Tuesday after his wife, Levette, shot him several times during a domestic dispute, Sheriff’s Department officials told The Times.
Crespo, 45, was shot about 2:30 p.m. at his home in the Vinas la Campana condominium complex in the 6300 block of Gage Avenue during an argument with his wife, 43, and his 19-year-old son, said Nicole Nishida, Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-bell-gardens-mayor-shot-20140930-story.html?utm_medium=twitter&dlvrit=649324&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_campaign=cheatsheet_morning&track=rss&cid=newsletter%3Bemail%3Bcheatsheet_morning&utm_term=Cheat%20Sheet
THESE MOFOS HERE!!
…………………..
Really Politico?
ByJosh MarshallPublishedSeptember 30, 2014, 11:47 PM EDT 4692 views
I’m wondering what the editors at Politico were thinking when they let through this bizarre line about Obama being such an abysmal manager that only his death by assassination is likely to bring about needed reform of the Secret Service.
The piece in question is a quickly published piece in Politico Magazine by Ronald Kessler.
Kessler is a legitimate expert on national law enforcement and intelligence agencies. He’s written many books on these topics. I actually interviewed him a couple times for pieces I wrote just after 9/11 on post-attack preparedness, intelligence sharing and related topics. But over the last decade he’s made a hard veer to the right, with a heavy dose of Obama-hating conspiracy mongering.
All of which is to say that on this topic Kessler is simultaneously a genuine expert and a bit of a kook.
So here’s the kicker at the end of the piece.
Agents tell me it’s a miracle an assassination has not already occurred. Sadly, given Obama’s colossal lack of management judgment, that calamity may be the only catalyst that will reform the Secret Service.
Read that a few times.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/really-politico?utm_content=buffer026d4&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
That whole piece written by a POLITICO HACK is a CLARION CALLfor some nut to take down President Obama. So they can prove the Secret Service under his watch was the reason. IT REEKS of an INSIDE JOB,and the media riding the wave.
I have absolutely no tolerance for this nonsense. And the very fact that Daryl Isa and his cohorts are on the hill feigning outrage about the safety of OBABA. C’mon folks!
Leakers go public with Secret Service chaos
Carol Leonnig, national reporter for the Washington Post, talks with Rachel Maddow about the growing list of Secret Service embarrassments coming to public light as inside sources leak details to journalists and legislators.
http://on.msnbc.com/1uA2YMP
Even now, Romney just can’t help himself
09/30/14 04:47 PM
By Steve Benen
The Mitt’s Mendacity project ran its course a couple of years ago, and it will not return. But just for old times’ sake, let’s pause to note that the poor guy is still truth-challenged.
Romney, who seems to spend a little too much time thinking about ways to condemn the president who defeated him, has run into trouble once more, this time in an interview with Mark Leibovich. The twice-defeated candidate is apparently still thinking about the “47 percent” video that helped drag down his candidacy.
“I was talking to one of my political advisers,” Romney continued, “and I said: ‘If I had to do this again, I’d insist that you literally had a camera on me at all times” – essentially employing his own tracker, as opposition researchers call them. “I want to be reminded that this is not off the cuff.” This, as he saw it, was what got him in trouble at that Boca Raton fund-raiser, when Romney told the crowd he was writing off the 47 percent of the electorate that supported Obama (a.k.a. “those people”; “victims” who take no “personal responsibility”). Romney told me that the statement came out wrong, because it was an attempt to placate a rambling supporter who was saying that Obama voters were essentially deadbeats.
“My mistake was that I was speaking in a way that reflected back to the man,” Romney said. “If I had been able to see the camera, I would have remembered that I was talking to the whole world, not just the man.” I had never heard Romney say that he was prompted into the “47 percent” line by a ranting supporter.
No, that’s a new one. It’s also patently false.
Since David Corn first helped shine a light on the infamous “47 percent” video, in which Romney told a group of wealthy donors that nearly half of Americans are lazy parasites, the Republican has struggled to come up with a coherent response. Initially, Romney actually endorsed the sentiments on the video and said they reflected his core beliefs.
He later changed his mind, saying his remarks were “completely wrong” and the result of misspeaking. Later still, Romney switched gears again and said the comments were taken out of context. Now he’s come up with an entirely new explanation: Romney’s not responsible for what Romney said; some guy in the audience deserves the blame.
Ironically, in the video itself, Romney says of struggling Americans, “I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility.” Funny, he doesn’t seem to be a big fan of personal responsibility, either.
The facts here are obvious and easily checked.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/even-now-romney-just-cant-help-himself
Just go the fuck away Mitt & Ann! GTFOH
The re-emergence of the ‘intelligence briefings’ attack
10/01/14 08:00 AM
By Steve Benen
In September 2012, near the height of the presidential campaign, Dick Cheney, Marc Thiessen, and a handful of other Republican voices briefly focused on a new line of attack against President Obama: the president, they claimed, was routinely “skipping” intelligence briefings related to national security. It wasn’t true – Obama receives written briefings every day, and there are no in-person briefings to skip – and the criticisms soon faded.
Until this week, when the right decided to bring it back.
President Obama has received a face-to-face intelligence briefing 42% of the days he’s been in office, a conservative watchdog group said Tuesday.
The group, the Government Accountability Institute, issued a similar report in 2012, finding that Obama had such in-person briefings 42% of the days during his first term.
Right on cue, Rush Limbaugh, right-wing blogs, and Fox News pounced. The cast of “Fox & Friends,” focusing on the 42% figure, asked viewers, “Is that good enough for the globe that your national security interests are in the low 40s?”
Even by conservative standards, this doesn’t make any sense at all. The right really ought to be embarrassed by such nonsense – especially since they rolled out this same silliness two years ago, when it was proven to be ridiculous.
But since some folks have apparently forgotten the basics, let’s set the record straight again.
According to the “Government Accountability Institute,” since President Obama’s second inaugural, he’s received in-person daily intelligence briefings 41.26% of the time, and written daily intelligence briefings 58.74% of the time. Under the White House’s system, if the president has follow-up questions or requests additional details after reading the written report, intelligence officials then provide more information upon request.
Why is this interesting? It’s not.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/the-re-emergence-the-intelligence-briefings-attack
Running from, not on, a policy agenda
09/30/14 12:50 PM—UPDATED 09/30/14 07:32 PM
By Steve Benen
It was 20 years ago this week that House Republican leaders, eager to make the case for a GOP takeover of Congress, presented the public with an agenda called the “Contract with America.” Republicans knew at the time that the then-Democratic president wasn’t popular, and the GOP was likely to make big gains in the midterms, but the party wanted to make the case for fairly specific proposals that Republicans would work on if elected.
In popular lore, the platform helped propel the GOP into the majority, though I think much of this is overstated – most Americans weren’t familiar with the “Contract” by Election Day 1994. Still, it was an era in which Republicans saw value in crafting and presenting policy ideas.
That era is long gone. NBC’s First Read did a nice job this morning noting that as far as the current crop of congressional Republicans are concerned, running on a non-existent policy platform isn’t a problem.
In their midterm messaging, Republican say they want to repeal the federal health-care law, but replace it with what? They want to “secure” the border, but how do you accomplish that (and at what cost)? And they want to take the fight to ISIS in the Middle East, but aren’t leaving the campaign trail to vote on authorizing U.S. military force there. […]
As Lou Zickar of the Ripon Society, a moderate GOP group, put it: The 1994 Contract with America “is a moment worth remembering because it was also a time when the GOP loudly and proudly proclaimed not what they stood against, but what they stood for.”
For their part, GOP officials routinely say they have at least some priorities. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), for example, sat down with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos the other day, and the host asked what congressional Republicans intend to do with their power.
“We have focused like a laser for the last three and a half years on jobs and the economy,” the Speaker who tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act several dozen times for no reason said. “Over 40 [jobs] bills sitting in the U.S. Senate. Let’s start with those bills.”
I hate to sound picky, but (a) there really aren’t over 40 jobs bills, no matter how many times Boehner falsely claims otherwise; and (b) for a Speaker who has literally no major legislative accomplishments after nearly four years on the job, this is a rather pathetic basis for an election-year platform.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/running-not-policy-agenda
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA
Twitter is the devil
https://twitter.com/Luvvie/status/517122108636139520/photo/1
BWA HA HA HA
Reefa’ on the other hand… She gone be Aretha.
FYI, Cissy H. is probably still taking medication for her nerves after Whitney’s death. It’s a lot to handle, after losing a child, no matter the age.
zizi2 @zizii2
Question:How does #FindingYourRoots account for official records that were falsified way back then. Or stolen kids? @HenryLouisGates @PBS
this just cracked me up – found in a twitter feed
http://youtu.be/ME_6sReyDQM
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Good Morning, Rikyrah & Everyone! :-)