More from Mr. Sondheim.
Burt Shevelove invited Sondheim to a party, but Sondheim accidentally got there before Shevelove, and unfortunately Sondheim knew no one else at the party. He saw a familiar face, Arthur Laurents, who had seen one of the auditions of Saturday Night, and began talking. Laurents told him he was working on a musicalization of Romeo & Juliet with Leonard Bernstein, but they were currently without a lyricist because Comden & Green were supposed to write the lyrics, but were being held to their Hollywood contract and couldn’t participate. Laurents told him he wasn’t a big fan of his music, but he loved the lyrics from Saturday Night and if wanted he could audition for Bernstein. Sondheim met Bernstein the next day, played for him, and Bernstein said he would let him know about Comden & Green. Sondheim did not want to write lyrics only, but the music as well. After consulting with Hammerstein, he told Sondheim that he would be working with talented people with experience, and that Sondheim could write music later.[19]
Original Cast Recording
In 1957, West Side Story opened and was directed by Jerome Robbins and ran for 732 performances. While this may be one of the best-known shows Sondheim ever worked on, he has expressed dissatisfaction with his lyrics, stating they do not always fit the characters and are sometimes too consciously poetic. It has been rumored that while Bernstein was off trying to fix the musical Candide, Sondheim wrote some of the music for West Side Story, and that Bernstein’s co-lyricist billing credit mysteriously disappeared from the credits of West Side Story during the tryout, presumably as a trade-off.[20] Sondheim himself insisted that Bernstein told the producers to list Sondheim as the sole lyricist. Sondheim described how the royalties were divided for the show, saying Bernstein getting three percent while Sondheim was getting one percent. Bernstein suggested evening the percentage, giving both two percent but Sondheim refused saying he only wanted the credit. Sondheim said later he wished “someone stuffed a handkerchief in my mouth because it would have been nice to get that extra percentage”.[19]
Some time after West Side Story opened, Burt Shevelove and Sondheim were gathered with other writers when Shevelove lamented that Broadway was missing “low brow comedy”, and Shevelove had mentioned making a musical out of Plautus’ Roman comedies. Sondheim was interested in the idea, and Shevelove called up his a friend of his, Larry Gelbart, to co-author the script with him. The show would go through many drafts, and was interrupted briefly by Sondheim’s next project.[21]
In 1959, Sondheim was approached by Laurents and Robbins to musicalize Gypsy Rose Lee’s memoir after Irving Berlin and Cole Porter turned it down . Sondheim agreed, but the woman touted to play Mama Rose, Ethel Merman, had just finished the musical Happy Hunting, which featured an unknown composer Harold Karr and unknown lyricist Matt Dubey. Sondheim wanted to write both music and lyrics but Merman refused to let another first time composer write for her. She demanded that her friend Jule Styne write the music.[22] Sondheim was hesitant that writing lyrics again would pigeonhole into being only a lyricist. He decided to call his mentor again and ask his advice. Hammerstein told him he should take the job because writing a star-vehicle would be another great learning experience. Sondheim again agreed to do what his mentor suggested. The result, Gypsy, opened on May 21, 1959 and ran for 702 performances.[19]
PragmaticObotsUnite @PragObots
This what Raven-Symone meant => “I’m very proud to be Black, I just don’t want to be paid like I’m Black” – Chris Rock #RHOHreunion
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA
http://youtu.be/G2tLyqfJd54
Looky here, folks!
Israelis: “Go back to Africa! Go back to Africa! We hate you as much as we can, motherfucker”.
Israelis Chant “N*ggers Go Home” Carrying ISIS-Style Flags At Anti-African Rally.
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/10/07/video-israelis-chant-nggers-go-home-carrying-isis-style-flags-at-anti-african-rally/
Video footage of Jewish Israelis with ISIS-style flags, chanting “niggers go home” at an anti-African rally in Tel Aviv on October 5 has surfaced. Hundreds of protesters could be heard in streets of Tel Aviv chanting anti-African racial slurs, following an Israeli High Court ruling to close down “Holot” detention facility within 90 days. Holot is essentially an internment camp holding about 2,300 of 60,000 African asylum seekers in Tel Aviv. Israelis are outraged by the court decision to close “Holot,” where African migrants from Eritrea and Sudan have been locked in facilities overnight and are forced to sign in several times per day.
Israelis to African asylum-seekers: “May you get AIDS,you whore, daughter of a whore.” “May you be raped, you maniac!”
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/10/07/video-israelis-chant-nggers-go-home-carrying-isis-style-flags-at-anti-african-rally/
all that hate is bubbling up, it’s been buried deep for centuries.
Don’t the Israeli folks know that the are DESCENDANTS OF AFRICA. Evey human on this earth is.
Hate coming from all sides. This country and beyond.
Luvvie has done a post on that Raven-Symone interview
………………
Dear Raven Symone, About You Being “Colorless”… NOPE.
Luvvie — October 7, 2014
15 133
Because Raven Symone has earned a sternly-worded letter with the interview she did with Oprah on OWN this weekend.
Dear Raven Symone,
Hey girl, hey. Let’s talk about this interview you did with Mother Oprah and those things you said about not liking to be labeled. GWIRL STAHP!
First, lemme be say that I don’t have much of an issue about you not wanting to be identified as “African American.” A lot of people feel no love towards the phrase for political and personal reasons. I get it. However, a lot of those people will also acknowledge that they’re Black. Or Black American. Not you, though. You told Goddess Winfrey that you just don’t want to be any parts of a color.
facepalm olivia gif
“I mean, I don’t know where my roots go to. I don’t know how far back they go… I don’t know what country in Africa I’m from, but I do know that my roots are in Louisiana. “
You do know Ancestry.com and 23andme exist, right? Fine. Don’t claim Africa, even though those features you share with many of us born and raised on the continent claim you. Like that nose. Hey sis.
It wasn’t even that you lacked the ability to articulate what you wanted to say. NOPE. Because Oprah tried many times to save you from yourself but you weren’t having none of it. You were standing wrong and strong. O was like “aw hell.” She saw that disaster train coming and you laid on the tracks and slicked it with oil.
http://www.awesomelyluvvie.com/2014/10/dear-raven-symone-colorless.html
BEST COMMENT AT LUVVIE’S:
Deja
October 7, 2014 at 8:30 am
Oprah was all, your name in kunta! While Raven was all, just call me Toby.
I also liked this one:
Itsben1
October 7, 2014 at 9:17 am
You didn’t mind being labeled a millionaire when little girls labeled African American were buying your labeled “That’s So Raven” & “Cheetah Girls” items. So, yeah, just stop talking.
This is another good one:
Candace
October 7, 2014 at 9:44 am
Yes, Oprah gave her so many life-lines. I just thought all of Maya Angelou was about to rise up out of Mother Oprah. Praying her strength because I know that was a tough one. To sit and watch a child with a smug look on her face have no problem with the labels American, woman, student, entertainer, wealthy, able-bodied, employed, etc…just made me cringe. Hopefully, Oprah chatted with her after the cameras stopped rolling. If not – hopefully, she’ll see your blog.
This one is just plain church:
Socgrad
October 7, 2014 at 9:56 am
What she doesn’t say is just as important as what she did say. I think it’s telling to consider which labels she doesn’t reject. She doesn’t reject a label of able-bodied, upper middle-class, famous, or American. She claims those as part of her humanity (“I’m just a human”) and does not see these as detractions from her humanity. If labels are so problematic, then why are those ok? These are labels associated with positions of privilege. She lays claim to her privilege- those don’t catch her attention as illegitimate or irrelevant. Instead, she’s rejecting categories and identities associated with disadvantage in hopes of opting out of the struggle. It’s not identities she has a problem with, but the identities of disadvantage. This isn’t some progressive assertion of humanity over oppression, but rather a sad declaration of internalized oppression. My takeaway from her comments is that she very deeply identifies as black and gay, but is just as deeply ashamed but them both.
Self-hate & loathing is a terrible thing.
I don’t even watch Dancing with the Stars, but I admit…I had been waiting for this..
http://youtu.be/F2ROkuG2mAo
Alfonso Ribeiro STILL got it! Yeah!
Go CARLTON! Love this.
The 7th Circuit Relies On Fox Logic and Lies To Uphold Wisconsin’s Vote Suppression Law
By: Adalia Woodbury more from Adalia Woodbury
Tuesday, October, 7th, 2014, 5:42 pm
On Monday, the Seventh Circuit handed Wisconsin’s vote suppressors a victory with a ruling that is to law, what Fox is to news. Judge Frank Easterbrook relied on the sort of logic that you can find in a Sarah Palin word salad and the sort of lies Fox relies to pretend that it reports the news.
For example, Easterbrook dismissed the fact that 300,000 registered voters will be disenfranchised, based on the following.
Take the conclusion (based on the testimony of a “marketing consultant”) that 300,000 registered voters lack acceptable photo ID. The number is questionable; the district judge who tried the Indiana case rejected a large estimate as fanciful in a world in which photo ID is essential to board an airplane, enter Canada or any other foreign nation, drive a car (even people who do not own cars need licenses to drive friends’ or relatives’ cars), buy a beer, purchase pseudoephedrine for a stuffy nose or pick up a prescription at a pharmacy, open a bank account or cash a check at a currency exchange, buy a gun, or enter a courthouse to serve as a juror or watch the argument of this appeal.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/10/07/seventh-circuit-relies-fox-logic-uphold-wisconsins-vote-suppression-law.html
Pnthrgrlgail @Mama4Obama1
Follow
RT @ABCPolitics: JUST IN: 9th Circuit Court of Appeals strikes down Idaho and Nevada same-sex marriage bans – @stevenportnoy
3:51 PM – 7 Oct 2014
https://twitter.com/TheObamaDiary/status/519581015241531393/photo/1
I want that skirt FLOTUS is wearing. These dems better know that FLOTUS not stumping for them becasue she’s bored.
https://twitter.com/EMC_Square2/status/518420897217007616/photo/1
Washington Post ✔ @washingtonpost
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The CDC says it is exploring ways to increase screening for travelers flying from West Africa to the U.S. http://wapo.st/1vLu1D1
5:45 PM – 7 Oct 2014
https://twitter.com/TheObamaDiary/status/519625046667440129/photo/1
WHELP!
Federal court throws out boundaries of Virginia’s 3rd District
A federal court in Richmond has thrown out the boundaries of Virginia’s only majority-black congressional seat, saying that it wrongly packs African-Americans in a single district that spans from Norfolk to Richmond.
The court ordered the Republican-dominated General Assembly to redraw the 3rd U.S. House district by April 1, 2015, saying that the election currently underway in the district should proceed as scheduled.
Changes to the 3rd will trigger revisions elsewhere, possibly jeopardizing the GOP’s 8-3 advantage in the state’s House delegation.
Three voters residing in the 3rd, which is represented by Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, a Democrat from Newport News, accused the General Assembly of racial gerrymandering by loading African-American voters into the district.
That had the effect, they alleged, of freeing — for purposes of creating Republican-friendly districts — large swatches of majority-white localities. The legislature rejected an alternative plan that would have created a second predominately African-American district.
http://www.timesdispatch.com/federal-court-throws-out-boundaries-of-virginia-s-rd-district/article_a1d2cec5-fb05-5872-b16b-a91523aed028.html
This mofo here
………………
Cuomo administration edited and delayed key fracking study
By Scott Waldman 5:00 a.m. | Oct. 6, 2014 52 follow this reporter
ALBANY—A federal water study commissioned by the Cuomo administration as it weighed a key decision on fracking was edited and delayed by state officials before it was published, a Capital review has found.
The study, originally commissioned by the state in 2011, when the administration was reportedly considering approving fracking on a limited basis, was going to result in a number of politically inconvenient conclusions for Governor Andrew Cuomo, according to an early draft of the report by the U.S. Geological Survey obtained by Capital through a Freedom of Information Act request.
A comparison of the original draft of the study on naturally occurring methane in water wells across the gas-rich Southern Tier with the final version of the report, which came out after extensive communications between the federal agency and Cuomo administration officials, reveals that some of the authors’ original descriptions of environmental and health risks associated with fracking were played down or removed.
The final version of the report also excised a reference to risks associated with gas pipelines and underground storage—a reference which could have complicated the Cuomo administration’s potential support for a number of other controversial energy projects, including a proposed gas storage facility in the Finger Lakes region that local wine makers say could destroy their burgeoning industry.
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/albany/2014/10/8553530/cuomo-administration-edited-and-delayed-key-fracking-study
OUTRAGE! Listen to the terrified child crying after police break glass to taser passenger over a seat belt violation.
CNN legal analyst explodes over ‘inherent’ police racism: ‘This is what it’s like to be a black person’
07 OCT 2014
The case of a police using a Taser on a young African-American car passenger became personal for CNN legal analyst Sonny Hostin on Tuesday when her colleague, Paul Callan, tried to claim that abuses of power did not have a racial component.
CNN’s Susan Candiotti reported that an Indiana family was suing the Hammond police department for a Sept. 25 traffic stop that ended with officers breaking a passenger-side window and tasing Jamal Jones because he would not produce an ID.
Callan said that police had mishandled the case, but predicted that the city would prevail.
“The cops screwed up here, there are kids in the back seat, they should have handled it differently,” he remarked. “But the law, I think, will back them… Because you have an obligation to produce identification. If they tell you get out of the car, get out of the car.”
The entire time that Candiotti and Callan were discussing the case, Hostin could be seen quietly seething on the panel.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/10/cnn-legal-analyst-explodes-over-inherent-police-racism-this-is-what-its-like-to-be-a-black-person/
How Justice Sotomayor Is ‘Busting’ The Supreme Court’s Steady Rhythms
by NINA TOTENBERG October 07, 2014 5:03 AM ET
excerpt:
Underlining those astonishing numbers is the fact that, as Biskupic puts it, Sotomayor is not someone who “happened to be Puerto Rican.” Her heritage is central to her identity. True, her odyssey in the legal profession was a cautious one; even after winning appointments to two lower federal courts, Sotomayor avoided controversy and continued to build alliances. But at the same time, she made no attempt to tamp down her unreserved personality or her Latina sense of style. And, says Biskupic, by the time Sotomayor got to the Supreme Court, her “unvarnished approach sometimes discombobulated” fellow justices, while at the same time conveying to others outside the court “an authenticity, even a vulnerability that they could identify with.”
Biskupic opens her book with a scene illustrating the point. At the end of Sotomayor’s first year on the court, the justices are having their annual party. It’s in one of the most ornate and beautiful rooms at the court, with painted portraits of past chief justices decorating the walls. It is a very private event, and by tradition, the featured entertainment is a set of skits put on by the law clerks to gently parody their bosses. On this occasion, however, after the skits, something unexpected happens.
Justice Sotomayor “springs from her chair” and tells the law clerks that while their skits were fine, “they lacked a certain something.” With that, “she gets her clerks to cue salsa music, and she goes one by one and gets the justices” — some of them extremely reluctant — “to dance with her.” Justice Anthony Kennedy “did a jitterbug move.” Others were less willing; 90-year-old Justice John Paul Stevens “felt as if he had two left feet” and quickly sat down.
http://www.npr.org/2014/10/07/353515075/how-justice-sotomayor-is-busting-the-supreme-courts-steady-rhythms?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social
Voter-ID ruling to carry consequences in Wisconsin
10/07/14 12:41 PM—UPDATED 10/07/14 12:43 PM
By Steve Benen
A federal court in April ruled against Wisconsin’s voter-ID law, concluding that the restriction violated the Voting Rights Act’s ban on racial discrimination. Last month, however, a three-judge panel on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals – featuring three Republican-appointed jurists – lifted the lower court’s injunction, creating some election chaos in the Badger State.
Yesterday, as Zach Roth reported, the same 7th Circuit panel finished the job, ruling on the merits.
The 23-page ruling, written by Judge Frank Easterbrook, finds that the law is constitutional and does not violate the Voting Rights Act’s (VRA) ban on racial discrimination. The opinion is striking for its blithe tone in upholding a law that could disenfranchise many thousands. One prominent election law scholar called it “horrendous.” […]
The law has likely disenfranchised voters already. When the appeals panel abruptly put the law into effect last month after it had been blocked for over two years, hundreds of people had already returned absentee ballots without ID, since the ID requirement wasn’t in effect at the time they voted.
Elections-law expert Rick Hasen was clearly disgusted: “Judge Easterbrook picks out the evidence from the record he likes, and dismisses the evidence he does not like…. The opinion is also full of things that make my blood boil.”
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has also already approved the voting restrictions, concluding that “voter fraud” is a legitimate “concern.” The ruling specifically pointed to a Republican voter in Milwaukee accused of 13 counts of voter fraud – none of which, ironically, would have been prevented by a voter-ID law.
Voting-rights advocates still hope that the U.S. Supreme Court will intervene before thousands of Wisconsin voters are disenfranchised for no reason, but few consider it likely.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/voter-id-ruling-carry-consequences-wisconsin
Scott Brown equates child tax credits, oil industry subsidies
10/07/14 09:11 AM
By Steve Benen
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) faced off against former Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) in a New Hampshire debate last night, and choosing the most amazing part is surprisingly difficult.
We could, for example, start with Brown’s odd boast that he’s pro-contraception – a position he says he’s held “since I was 18 years old” – despite the fact that he agrees with the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby ruling. Or maybe we should kick things off with the fact that Brown has now changed his mind, once again, about whether he believes in climate change.
But for my money, the real treat was hearing Scott Brown talk about taxpayer subsidies to the oil industry.
Shaheen argued that the already shrinking deficit could be even smaller by closing some existing tax loopholes, including billions of dollars in tax breaks the extraordinarily profitable oil industry receives but doesn’t need. “There’s real money there, and if you add it up, you begin to see the impact it would have,” the Democrat said.
The Republican, running in a new state two years after being rejected by his previous state, didn’t quite see it that way.
Brown wasn’t buying it, however, saying that going after “fraud, waste and abuse” was a better idea. He also lumped all loopholes into one great big category, and suggested they should be left alone. […]
“What’s a loophole? Well, the investment tax credit is a loophole. The R&D tax credit is a loophole, the child care tax credit, the homeowner interest deduction,” he said.
Wait, did Brown really equate the child care tax credit with oil-industry subsidies? Why, yes, actually he did.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/scott-brown-equates-child-tax-credits-oil-industry-subsidies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXAho8vlmAI
Dear Raven Symone, About You Being “Colorless”… NOPE
http://www.awesomelyluvvie.com/2014/10/dear-raven-symone-colorless.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Luvvie+%28Awesomely+Luvvie%29
Black
BLACK
BLACK
BLACK
BLACK
BLACK
BLACK
BLACK
BLACK
(There’s a radio host that does this every week on her program)
It just tickles me when she does it.
Federal Judge Rules Police Violated First Amendment Rights Of Ferguson Protesters
By: Justin Baragona
Tuesday, October, 7th, 2014, 10:01 am
In response to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Missouri, a federal judge ruled Monday that police in Ferguson cannot enforce a so-called ‘five-second rule’ requiring protesters to keep moving or face arrest. Shortly after Missouri Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson took charge of security in Ferguson to handle the protests that rose up in the aftermath of Michael Brown’s death, he instituted a ‘keep moving’ rule. After a tense weekend of demonstrations in mid-August, Johnson informed protesters that they were now required to be in constant movement and weren’t allowed to congregate in large groups.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/10/07/federal-judge-rules-police-violated-amendment-rights-ferguson-protesters.html
Republicans bite their tongues following marriage breakthrough
10/06/14 03:34 PM
By Steve Benen
The U.S. Supreme Court today made big news when it cleared the way for marriage equality in several states. Indeed, five states joined the marriage-equality club today, and with six more on the way, the number of states that treat same-sex couples equally is poised to reach 30.
And in response to the news, Republicans, longtime opponents of gay rights who pushed for an anti-gay constitutional amendment in the not-too-distant past, said … very little. Kate Nocera reported this afternoon:
As of Monday afternoon, Sen. Mike Lee was the lone GOP member to issue a statement. His home state of Utah was one of the states where a marriage ban was overturned by an appeals court and the state is now moving forward with allowing same-sex couples to marry. Lee called the Supreme Court decision to not review the appeals “disappointing.”
Supreme Court decisions are often met with swift reaction from members on Capitol Hill, filling reporter’s inboxes with statements of disappointment or support for whatever the justices have ruled. All the more when the decision impacts a hot-button social issue.
The muted response from congressional Republicans is telling.
It is, indeed. News from the high court, especially on high-profile issues like this one, usually generates a flood of press releases. Today, Nocera found one GOP senator weighing in – Mike Lee’s home state of Utah was directly affected by this morning’s developments – and no one else. On the other side of Capitol Hill, I checked the websites for the House Speaker, House Majority Leader, House Majority Whip, and House Conference Chair, and combined, the four Republican leaders said a grand total of nothing.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/republicans-bite-their-tongues-following-marriage-breakthrough
Check out the vile
https://www.toptweet.org/hashtag/Darren
Viola Davis Opens Up About Losing Hair to Alopecia and Wearing Wigs
Oct 7, 2014
By EURWeb
Viola Davis is one of Hollywood’s most accomplished actresses. But even she struggles with everyday issues.
The “How To Get Away With Murder” star, who has been vocal about her thoughts on being called “less classically beautiful,” recently opened up about her own struggles with beauty.
In the Vulture magazine interview, Davis shared her thoughts on losing half her hair at age 28 to Alopecia Areata and how she would wear a wig everywhere to feel beautiful:
The following is an excerpt from the interview:
On describing black women in media:
“We need to use the same adjectives as we use for any woman. Which could be dangerous, too, but I’ll accept that. Any day.”
When Davis was 28, she lost half her hair to Alopecia Areata.
“I woke up one day and it looked like I had a Mohawk. Big splash of bald on the top of my head,” she says. “I was like, What is this? Until I found out it was stress related. That’s how I internalized it. I don’t do that anymore. My favorite saying in the world is, ‘The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.’ I am telling you, I have spent so much of my life not feeling comfortable in my skin. I am just so not there anymore.”
After Alopecia, she wore a wig everywhere.
http://blackamericaweb.com/2014/10/07/viola-davis-opens-up-about-losing-hair-to-alopecia-and-wearing-wigs
My youngest daughter so admires her!
Mon Oct 06, 2014 at 05:55 PM PDT.
New Mexico Teacher Sends Backpacks Full of Food Home with His First-Grade Students on the Weekends
by markthshark
An elementary school teacher in Albuquerque, New Mexico, named Marvin Callahan saw an injustice and decided to do something about it. He noticed a number of his students were coming to class hungry on a regular basis.
When he started the job 21 years ago, he said he had no idea how many families were struggling to feed their children or keep a roof over their heads. New Mexico has the highest rate of child hunger in the country, with nearly a third of children going to bed hungry, although the problem is widespread enough that three-quarters of the country’s teachers say students routinely show up to school hungry.
Armed with a purpose and compassion, Callahan called upon other members of his community for help. They made a list of the most underprivileged of his pupils, and began sending 37 of them home each Friday with backpacks stuffed with food. Every Friday, each child takes home two breakfasts, two lunches and two dinners — all nutritional, all tasty, and all easily put together.
As Carolyn Gregoire of the Huffington Post reports, “Retired teachers come in on Thursdays to fill up the backpacks with food items like breakfast bars, oatmeal, macaroni and cheese, beefaroni and sliced turkey — things that the kids can easily put together themselves.”
He began the program two years ago out of his own pocket, although it now has donations from members of the community and local organizations.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/06/1334774/-New-Mexico-Teacher-Sends-Backpacks-Full-of-Food-Home-with-His-First-Grade-Students-on-the-Weekends#
Love & Compassion is PRICELESS.
Why NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell Has Survived
By Kevin Clark Oct. 6, 2014 7:04 p.m. ET
…But no owner has broken ranks and joined them. Inside the small, elite circle of owners, nothing much changed. That is because, in a job in which you work for owners, no one has worked for owners better than Goodell.
All modern sports commissioners are servants of the league’s owners, but this is especially true of Goodell. Watch on Wednesday, during Goodell’s news conference in downtown Manhattan following the league meeting, when the inevitable question arises about the Washington Redskins’ team name. Goodell will again play defense attorney for the controversy surrounding owner Daniel Snyder. He will say, again, that the name isn’t meant to offend anyone, and Goodell again will take the heat for it.
Or Goodell will be the bad guy in stadium negotiations, mentioning the desperate need for a new stadium in St. Louis or San Diego or Oakland. And, not coincidentally, he’ll mention a team may move to Los Angeles, too. Or London.
More than the money that has been pouring into the league—and there has been tons of money—Goodell’s greatest play in his eight years as commissioner has been to protect the owners in every situation. And now they are returning the favor.
http://online.wsj.com/articles/why-nfl-commissioner-roger-goodell-has-survived-1412636655?mod=WSJ_GoogleNews
You Wanted Some Anger?
by brendan
Mon Oct 6th, 2014 at 10:22:15 PM EST
It’s a bluesy little evening here in Philadelphia, where it looks like a royal shit storm has broken over public education as the School Reform Commission just unilaterally tore up the teachers’ contract, and did away entirely with health benefits for retired teachers, all in a seventeen minute secret meeting that deliberately excluded parents. And then, OF COURSE, these Shining Examples of Concern for The Children held a press conference that excluded both the press and the parents. Oh and by the way:
The contract stalemate between the SRC and the PFT has been going on for 21 months, so why take this vote in such a rash and arrogant fashion on this particular morning, October 6, 2014? Could it be because it’s exactly 29 days before Pennsylvania votes on whether to keep Gov. Corbett — who appointed the majority on the five-member SRC — or ditch him for Democrat Tom Wolf. Do you remember that it was just last year that a Republican firm took a secret poll and used the report to urge Gov. Corbett that there was only one way that the foundering, unpopular governor could restore his image on education issues: To confront the Philadelphia teachers union. Now, with Corbett in the political fight of his life and losing badly, the school commission led by the governor’s appointees is starting a fight with the Philadelphia teachers’ union. What a remarkable coincidence!
You guys who have been wanting to see some anger out of me, it looks like you might get it after all. Philadelphia, along with Chicago and New Orleans, has been one of the major battlegrounds between the teachers unions and the bullshit “reform” movement, which has lined the pockets of duplicitous, lying kitchen scum like Michele Rhee and her ilk for decades.
Philadelphia’s schools have had funding problems for years, because the state is one of the very few that does not have a fair funding formula for public education. We ALMOST had one when Governor Ed Rendell left office. But because the clowns at the state Democratic Party -a diseased brain trust of goons, simpletons, and thick-skulled fuckknuckles if I have ever seen one- ran a boring unknown candidate with the charisma of dead manatee, we ended up with Tom Corbett, who promptly threw the formula out the window, and cut public education spending.
The state-controlled SRC, which has run Philadelphia’s district for a decade and has hardly made a secret of it’s hostility to public education and in particular the teachers union, has screwed the pooch even worse than when the city ran the schools. Instead of reflecting on their own failures, they decided to publicly blame the parents and children. Or, as noted Philadelphia school reform grifter Mark Gleason once put it “Dump the losers.”
Here are the faces of the child-hating toadies of the school reform movement. These are the people who closed more than 80 public schools, primarily impacting low-income minority youth; laid off thousands of staff, including nurses and counselors, and quite possibly leading to the death of a young girl from asthma; and has now decided, like the brain-dead golem it is, to try to crush the union. One of them, Bill Green, thinks he’s going to be mayor someday: this is never going to happen. Not now.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2014/10/6/222215/694
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Good Morning, Rikyrah & Everyone! :-) I’m enjoying musical theater week.