TLC is an American girl group whose repertoire spans R&B, hip hop, soul, funk and new jack swing. TLC originally comprised singer Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins, rapper Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes and singer Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas. The group was very successful in the 1990s and early 2000s in spite of numerous spats with the law, each other, and the group’s record label.
TLC’s debut album, Ooooooohhh… On the TLC Tip (1992), sold 6 million copies worldwide and spawned the hit singles “Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg“, “Baby-Baby-Baby” and “What About Your Friends“.[4] This success was surpassed by their second album, CrazySexyCool (1994), which was certified diamond by the RIAA — a first for a female group. Buoyed by the top 5 singles “Creep“, “Red Light Special“, “Diggin’ on You“, and ‘”Waterfalls“, it eventually sold 23 million copies worldwide.[4] Five years later, in 1999, the group released their third album FanMail which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart and sold more than 11 million copies worldwide with the hit singles “No Scrubs” and “Unpretty“.[4]
The subsequent tour became the highest grossing tour of all time by a female band. In April 2002, Lopes died in a car accident in Honduras. Seven months later, T-Boz and Chilli released the group’s fourth album 3D, which sold 2 million copies worldwide, scored the Top 10 hit “Girl Talk“, and earned two Grammy Awards nominations. It featured previously unreleased vocals from Left Eye.
Breaking News on @CNN:
Official: Concerns at Dallas hospital over nurses walking out.
Meanwhile Governor Rick Perry’s in Europe, and the media folks are screaming for Obama to get down HEEEE-YA!
Paul Ryan’s forceful rejection of climate science
10/15/14 03:53 PM—UPDATED 10/15/14 03:55 PM
facebook twitter 0 save share group 4
By Steve Benen
The official Republican line on climate change has spread far and wide: “I’m not a scientist.” The poll-tested response threats a needle – it’s intended to avoid straight-up denial of science and evidence, while at the same time, keeping the GOP’s far-right base satisfied.
But House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has his own take, which not only involves ignoring science, but taking the next step of questioning what the science actually says. Jane C. Timm reported yesterday:
A full 97% of researchers taking a stance on climate change say it’s man-made, as do 97-98% of the most frequently-published climate scientists. But according to Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, they’re all wrong.
When asked during an election debate Monday if he believed humans cause climate change, the former Republican vice presidential nominee joined the growing number of Republicans who refuse to acknowledge the overwhelming scientific consensus that humans are influencing the Earth’s climate. “I don’t know the answer to that question,” he said according to the Associated Press. “I don’t think science does, either.”
Remember, according to much of the Beltway, Paul Ryan, the failed vice presidential candidate, is supposed to be one of his party’s most intellectually engaging policy wonks.
According to the AP’s report on the debate, the Republican lawmaker went on to say that “we’ve had climate change forever,” adding, “The benefits do not outweigh the costs.”
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/paul-ryans-forceful-rejection-climate-science
Appeals court revives Texas’ voter-ID law
10/15/14 12:40 PM
By Steve Benen
Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos not only ruled against Texas’ voter-ID law, she did so in a powerful and forceful way. The 147-page opinion reads like a beautiful recitation of history, before concluding that the voting restrictions imposed by Texas Republicans for no reason violates both the remaining provisions of the Voting Rights Act and the constitutional prohibition against poll taxes.
Ramos also found “that the law not only had the effect of discriminating against minorities, but was designed to do so.”
It did not, however, last long. Zach Roth reported last night:
A U.S. Appeals Court has ruled to put Texas’s strict voter ID law back in place for the upcoming election. […]
A three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday afternoon unanimously stayed an order issued Saturday by U.S. District Court Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos that had blocked the controversial law…. “Based primarily on the extremely fast-approaching election date, we STAY the district court’s judgment pending appeal,” Judge Edith Brown Clement, an appointee of President George W. Bush, wrote. It cited Purcell v. Gonzalez, a 2006 case in which the Supreme Court stopped an Arizona voting law from going into effect close to an election, to avoid causing confusion among voters.
Of course, if the goal was to make the process less confusing, Texas is moving in the wrong direction. Roth added in a separate report that the 5th Circuit may have revived the voter-suppression law, “but while the state was pushing to get the law reinstated, it stopped issuing IDs. It said Wednesday morning that it has started again. The on-again-off-again schedule could add to the hurdles and confusion that voters face in obtaining an ID. And it offers a window into the GOP-controlled state’s approach to voting: In a nutshell, critics say, Texas jumped at the chance to stop issuing IDs, even though it was far from clear that a halt was required by law.”
What an extraordinary – and wholly unnecessary – fiasco in a state where over 600,000 registered voters don’t have the kind of ID Texas now expects them to show for the first time in order to cast a ballot. The policy has already caused voting problems in the Lone Star State and those problems are poised to get considerably worse.
As long as we’re on the subject of voter-ID laws, there’s another perspective that deserves broader attention. Brad Friedman had this report yesterday:
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/appeals-court-revives-texas-voter-id-law
Scott Brown combines ISIS, Ebola, and border security
10/15/14 11:08 AM
By Steve Benen
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/scott-brown-combines-isis-ebola-and-border-security
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson was dismissive yesterday of an unfounded concern: Islamic State terrorists using the Ebola virus. In remarks to the Association of the United States Army, Johnson specifically said, “We’ve seen no specific credible intelligence that [ISIS] is attempting to use any sort of disease or virus to attack our homeland.”
That’s good to hear, of course, but the fact that it was necessary for the DHS secretary to make these comments was itself rather striking.
As a friend reminded me yesterday, we’ve heard quite a bit about possible threats from ISIS terrorists; and we’ve heard plenty about the dangers of Ebola; but we’ve apparently entered a new phase in which ISIS may strike with Ebola.
And where is such talk coming from? Greg Sargent reported yesterday on the latest remarks from former Sen. Scott Brown (R), now running in New Hampshire after losing two years ago in Massachusetts. In this case, the Republican was asked whether he supports travel restrictions on countries in West Africa. Brown replied:
“We need a comprehensive approach and I think that should be part of it. I think it’s all connected. For example, we have people coming into our country by legal means bringing in diseases and other potential challenges. Yet we have a border that’s so porous that anyone can walk across it. I think it’s naive to think that people aren’t going to be walking through here who have those types of diseases and/or other types of intent, criminal or terrorist. And yet we do nothing to secure our border.”
Brown has dabbled in this before, but I think this was the most direct he’s been to date to tie together the disparate threads of terrorism, Ebola, and border security, all at the same time, all in the hopes of exploiting public anxiety to advance his personal ambitions. (North Carolina’s Thom Tillis recently pushed a similar tack, though he didn’t go for the full trifecta.)
‘White boy’ Biden calls tea party ‘crazy’
By Peter Hamby, CNN National Political Reporter
updated 8:58 AM EDT, Wed October 15, 2014
Washington (CNN) — Vice President Joe Biden, in a closed-door meeting with black clergy in South Carolina on Tuesday, referred to himself as “the only white boy on the east side of Wilmington” as he recalled his days as a Delaware public defender and pressed faith leaders to elect Democrats this year.
He offered a candid critique of Republicans, calling the tea party “crazy,” according to a detailed readout of Biden’s remarks provided to CNN by a person in the room.
“This is not your father’s Republican Party,” he said, according to the source. “This is a different breed of cat, man. I am not making a moral judgment, but I will tell you that they have no judgment.”
http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/14/politics/biden-south-carolina/index.html
Texas Ebola patient headed to Emory
Posted: 12:59 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2014
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
One of two Texas healthcare workers recently infected with the deadly Ebola virus will be transported to Emory University in Atlanta for treatment on Wednesday, according to officials with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The patient headed to Emory is the second nurse to apparently be infected with Ebola while caring for a Liberian man who died of the disease at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, CDC Director Tom Frieden told reporters during a press conference Wednesday afternoon.
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/breaking-news/texas-ebola-patient-headed-to-emory/nhjsK/
Exclusive: Ebola didn’t have to kill Thomas Eric Duncan, nephew says
By Josephus Weeks
Published: 14 October 2014 05:46 PM
On Friday, Sept. 25, 2014, my uncle Thomas Eric Duncan went to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. He had a high fever and stomach pains. He told the nurse he had recently been in Liberia. But he was a man of color with no health insurance and no means to pay for treatment, so within hours he was released with some antibiotics and Tylenol.
Two days later, he returned to the hospital in an ambulance. Two days after that, he was finally diagnosed with Ebola. Eight days later, he died alone in a hospital room.
Now, Dallas suffers. Our country is concerned. Greatly. About the lack of answers and transparency coming from a hospital whose ignorance, incompetence and indecency has yet to be explained. I write this on behalf of my family because we want to set the record straight about what happened and ensure that Thomas Eric did not die in vain. So, here’s the truth about my uncle and his battle with Ebola.
http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/latest-columns/20141014-josephus-weeks-ebola-didnt-have-to-kill-my-uncle.ece
Colorado A.G. candidate: it’s time ‘we took back’ federal land
10/15/14 11:38 AM—UPDATED 10/15/14 11:40 AM
By Steve Benen
About a third of Colorado’s 100,000 square miles is national public land, which is managed by the federal government and owned by the people of the United States. It’s a pretty familiar dynamic in many Western states, which has a wide variety of national parks, forests, and wildlife refuges.
But ThinkProgress reported on a Colorado candidate for state Attorney General who apparently isn’t satisfied with the status quo.
In previously unreported comments that were captured on video, Colorado Republican attorney general candidate Cynthia Coffman can be seen telling supporters that she intends to lead a legal fight against the U.S. government to seize America’s national forests and public lands for state ownership and control.
The video appears to have been posted publicly by the Independent attorney general candidate David Williams in July. It shows Coffman describing her plan to attend the annual Conference of Western Attorneys General this summer with a “mission” to build support for taking over America’s public lands. Coffman says public land “has been taken from us” and that “it is time that the Western attorneys general join together and fought back against the federal government, and we took back that land.”
I don’t mean to sound picky, but Colorado can’t simply “take” federal land because it wants to. That’s plainly at odds with the American legal system.
Hunter joked, “Coffman also surely has to know that her proposed remedy of ‘taking back’ federal land is unconstitutional, though I imagine the remedy is to simply rewrite the offending parts until we get to the desired outcome. Those national parks aren’t going to frack themselves, after all.”
But the larger question is, what’s up with these far-right state A.G. candidates?
In Nevada, for example, Republicans nominated Adam Laxalt to run for state Attorney General, though he seems to have a curious background. One local report noted that his law firm conducted a performance review of his work in private practice two years ago and found that Laxalt is “a train wreck” who “doesn’t even have the basic skill set” to practice law.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/colorado-ag-candidate-its-time-we-took-back-federal-land
https://twitter.com/GR8_2B_alive/status/522407369469206528
https://twitter.com/TPM/status/522441057506971650
132 people spread out everywhere. UGH!
This cockroach right here
No shit, Rachel
https://twitter.com/rollcall/status/522418700100833280
Where are the 132 passengers from and where else are they traveling? Inquiring minds want to know
Everywhere
And God knows… touching how many people.
https://twitter.com/AP/status/522420010594369536
Another person has been infected with Ebola and she flew from Cleveland to Dallas on Frontier Flight 1143 the day before being diagnosed. Got dammit!
https://twitter.com/tjholmes/status/522409952930197504
I am praying for those infected.
Hope people treat them with love and not as outcasts as they endure their scary struggle .
Good Morning, Everyone :)
https://twitter.com/TheObamaDiary/status/522395471709753345
Happy HUMP day, Everyone! :-) TLC! Love them.!!!
Good morning, everyone! TLC is the business.