Someday at Christmas is a Christmas album by Stevie Wonder, released on November 27th, 1967 under Motown Records. It was his eighth studio album release. It would also be re-released in 1978 with different cover art and different Catalog number (Original 1967 catalog: T-281, 1978 reissue: T7-362 R1). It would again be re-released as part of Universal Music‘s Christmas Edition of their successful 20th Century Masters series in 2003 with additional tracks.
anyone else watch The Flash? I love this show.
Santa Claus…woooo…is coming straight to the ghetto…
Our Favorite Cook, Auntie Fee, Was on Steve Harvey’s Show. I LIVE.
Luvvie — December 10, 2014 0 7
You KNOW how much I love me some Auntie Fee! She of phrases such as “something sweet for the mufucking kids” and “kids and fat people like a lot of cheese.” She got internet fame from posting videos of her cooking various heart-clogging foods. Her son, Tavis, is behind the camera and he gets on her good last nerves so she drops a couple of 4-letter words pretty regularly and it is all gold. Because she’s so earnest with it.
Anywho, Auntie Fee was on Steve Harvey’s show yesterday and she had me hollering.
http://www.awesomelyluvvie.com/2014/12/auntie-fee-steve-harvey-show.html
PLEASE CHECK OUT THIS TWITTER FEED
He spills all sorts of tea about what went down between POTUS and the WHPC
https://twitter.com/EmoNegro1?original_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fpragmaticobotsunite.com%2Fwednesday-afternoon-thread-elton-john-week%2F&profile_id=359690061&tw_i=542762659599622145&tw_p=embeddedtimeline&tw_w=346960443669106688
I think it’s satire. Too funny. I wish he’d let loose on Ed Henry and Chuck Todd.
From Steve Benen:
* With Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) curtailing her fundraising, it’s widely believed she’ll retire in 2016. California Democrats are already tripping over each other to prepare for a possible statewide campaign.
The war on ACORN must never die
12/10/14 10:46 AM
By Steve Benen
Remember the community group called ACORN? Rest assured, congressional Republicans do.
As regular readers know, I’ve occasionally marveled at the right’s preoccupation with the organization, which permanently closed its doors several years ago. As recently as two years ago, Public Policy Polling found that nearly half of Republican voters believed President Obama only won re-election because of ACORN’s interference – even though ACORN didn’t exist at the time.
Such paranoia has been especially common in Congress, where Republicans continued to insist on provisions in spending bills that blocked ACORN from receiving public funding, despite its non-existence.
All of that changed, however, over the summer, when GOP lawmakers seemed to realize it was time to move on. House Republicans finally appeared to be “throwing in the towel” in its campaign against the organization, dropping the anti-ACORN language from their spending bills. It was a bright, new, reality-based day.
And now that day is over. Zach Carter reports that the nonsense is back with a vengeance.
Fear not, America. House Republicans have resumed their war on the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, an anti-poverty nonprofit staffed by low-income people, a scant 4 1/2 years after the organization officially folded. […]
On Tuesday, House negotiators unveiled a bill to fend off a looming government shutdown that included the following ominous provision: “None of the funds made available under this or any other Act, or any prior Appropriations Act, may be provided to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, allied organizations, or successors.”
Remember, at present, there is no ACORN. Denying it funding is about as sensible as cutting off unicorn research.
All of which leads to the larger issue of Republicans tackling imaginary problems.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/the-war-acorn-must-never-die
zizi2 @zizii2
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Not sure why folks r surprised by #CIATortureReport. America WAS FOUNDED on sadism towards #NativeAmericans & #Africans bound in chains
8:10 AM – 10 Dec 2014
Provision Tucked In Spending Bill Blows Up Campaign Finance Limits
ByDANIEL STRAUSS
PublishedDECEMBER 10, 2014, 10:40 AM EST
At about the very end of the omnibus bill meant to prevent a government shutdown there’s a provision tweaking campaign finance laws that lets politicians ask for even larger donations from the wealthiest American donors.
On page 1,599, as The Huffington Post flagged, there’s a provision that creates a trio of funds within the Republican National Committee and its counterpart, the Democratic National Committee.
In each fund, one donor could give as much as $97,200 per year to three separate funds within the committees. That means, if the provision does become law, just one donor could give to all three funds plus current donation caps for a total of $324,000 in one year (or twice that much in a two-year election cycle). This means that the new provision would allow for ten times the amount of spending currently allowed, according to the Washington Post.
The provision’s change would essentially gut the campaign finance contribution cap established in the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law in 2002. That law limits a donor’s giving to a national committee to just $32,400 each year in addition to the $32,400 annual donation to another fund that can only be used in a recount situation.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/omnibus-bill-donations-1-599-donor-contribution
Pelosi beats back GOP’s anti-contraception push
12/10/14 10:21 AM—UPDATED 12/10/14 10:33 AM
By Steve Benen
It’s tempting to think that in a fight over a congressional spending bill, Democrats and Republicans would be arguing over finances. But when it came to shape the $1.1 trillion spending package that funds most of the government in 2015, many of the fights had nothing to do with money at all.
Take birth control, for example.
Cultural conservatives in the House and Senate were also pressing to include a “conscience clause” for employers who say funding contraception violates their religious beliefs.
The Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby ruling already tackled this issue, but the scope of the ruling didn’t apply to all employers, so apparently some Republicans decided to tackle the issue in the so-called “Cromnibus” spending package. Caitlin MacNeal called it a “sneak attack” from the right, with conservatives trying to get this policy through without any real debate.
Given the circumstances, leaders in both parties were carefully scrutinizing the language written by their rivals, and in this case, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) balked at the GOP’s attempt to curtail birth control access. Lauren French reported:
…Pelosi was opposed, a senior Democratic source said. Republicans will likely depend on Democratic votes to pass the spending bill, so both parties have been negotiating over the language of the legislation.
Pelosi tapped Democratic negotiators to draw “a firm line” against any changes that focused on the so-called ‘conscience clause’, a senior Democratic source said.
“This kind of political maneuvering – using must-pass legislation to accomplish a ‘wish list’ of one faction of Congress and risking a government shutdown – is precisely the kind of behavior the American people detest. We urge you in the strongest possible terms to keep any appropriations legislation considered before the close of the 113th Congress free from ideological policy riders,” Reps. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) and Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) wrote in a letter to Boehner earlier this week.
What I find interesting about this isn’t just the behind-the-scenes wrangling, but also the peek at Republican priorities.
Even now, after the Hobby Lobby ruling, after all the criticisms of Republicans for focusing so heavily on women’s health care choices, GOP lawmakers are still looking for ways to limit access to birth control.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/pelosi-beats-back-gops-anti-contraception-push
meta @metaquest
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President Obama gives a great interview despite @jorgeramosnews pushing his own agenda with same old gotcha questions http://fusion.net/video/32985/jorge-ramos-obama-interview/ …
7:30 AM – 10 Dec 2014
Tika Sumpter Will Play Michelle Obama in ‘Before Sunset’-Style Romance on Obama’s First Date
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
December 5, 2014 at 1:33PM
Interesting, and unexpected but intriguing news here, given the style in which the film will be made…
A film based on the early romance between Barack and Michelle Obama is heading to the screen.
Titled “Southside With You” – I suppose referring to South Side, Chicago, home to some of the most significant figures in the history of American politics, including Obama – the project is being pitched as a “Before Sunset”-style type of movie (in short, man, woman, lots of mostly profound conversation over a period of time), which will take place entirely in one day during the summer of 1989, when one Barack Obama (then a first-year Harvard Law student) took his future wife, Michelle (an associate at a Chicago law firm), out on a first date, which included a tour of Chicago’s South Side.
The younger Barack has yet to be cast, but Deadline reports that Tika Sumpter will play the younger Michelle Obama (who was Michelle Robinson at the time).
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/tika-sumpter-will-play-michelle-obama-in-before-sunset-style-romance-on-obamas-first-date-20141205
Watch the First Trailer for Angela Bassett’s Whitney Houston Film
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
December 4, 2014 at 2:54PM
Angela Bassett makes her directorial debut with the Lifetime Original Movie “Whitney,” featuring Yaya DaCosta in the lead role, with Arlen Escarpeta alongside her as Bobby Brown.
The much-anticipated world premiere will be on Saturday, January 17, 2015, at 8pm ET/PT.
Whitney chronicles the headline-making relationship between the iconic singer, actress, producer and model Whitney Houston and singer and songwriter Bobby Brown from the time they first met at the very height of their celebrity to their courtship and tumultuous marriage. Throughout it all, difficulties followed the superstar couple while they dealt with the overwhelming rewards and consequences of the fame and fortune created by Houston’s meteoric rise that would soon overshadow them both.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/watch-the-first-trailer-for-angela-bassetts-whitney-houston-film-20141204
Here Are the Nominees for the 46th NAACP Image Awards
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
December 9, 2014 at 3:30PM
Announced today during a press conference hosted by Tracee Ellis Ross, Gina Rodriguez, Alfred Enoch, Aja Naomi King and Tessa Thompson, who were joined by the President and CEO of the NAACP, Cornell William Brooks, at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills, CA, here are the nominees for the 46th NAACP Image Awards.
Winners will be announced during a two-hour televised event, broadcast live on TV ONE on Friday, February 6, 2015 at 9pm/8c. It will be preceded by a one-hour pre-show special, airing live from the red carpet at 8pm/7c.
As the press release states, the NAACP Image Awards celebrates the accomplishments of people of color in the fields of television, music, literature and film and also honors individuals or groups who promote social justice through creative endeavors.
“The Image Awards continues the NAACP’s quest to celebrate and uplift individuals who model principles of hard work, perseverance, and community empowerment. I believe this year’s nominees exemplify just that,” stated Roslyn M. Brock, Chairman of the NAACP National Board of Directors. “We have enjoyed a great collaboration with TV One and look forward to working with them again this year to create a wonderful evening of entertainment”.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/here-are-the-nominees-for-the-46th-naacp-image-awards-20141209
Republicans love local control, except when they don’t
12/10/14 09:19 AM
By Steve Benen
When the voters of Colorado decided to legalize use of marijuana, pot became legal statewide. When voters in the state of Washington decided to legalize use of marijuana, pot became legal there, too. And this year, voters in Washington, D.C., went to the polls and overwhelmingly agreed to legalize up to 2 ounces of marijuana for adult, recreational use.
The difference is, unlike every state, the people of the District of Columbia have to worry whether Congress will allow these Americans – who pay federal taxes but have no voice in federal lawmaking – to approve their own policies.
In theory, this shouldn’t be too big a problem. After all, congressional Democrats don’t care if D.C. voters voted to legalize small amounts of pot, and congressional Republicans claim to believe in a small federal government that emphasizes local control.
But the funny thing about Republican principles is just how malleable they can be. The Washington Post reported overnight:
The District will be prohibited from legalizing marijuana for the much of the coming year under a spending deal reached Tuesday…. The development – upending voter-approved Initiative 71 – shocked elected D.C. leaders, advocates for marijuana legalization and civil liberties groups who earlier in the day had grown confident that the measure would be at least partially protected while Democrats still controlled the Senate.
However, with Republicans set to take control of the chamber in January, the defeat suggested that the will of D.C. voters – who approved marijuana legalization last month by a margin of more than 2 to 1 – may be suspended indefinitely.
To be sure, Senate Democrats tried to push back against the change, but House Republicans were insistent – and with a deadline looming, Dems didn’t see this as an issue worthy of a shutdown.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/republicans-love-local-control-except-when-they-dont
my sister loves this mini-series. I might have to buy it for her
……………………
‘King’ Mini-Series w/Paul Winfield Coming Out on Blu-Ray DVD Next Month By Sergio | Shadow and ActDecember 10, 2014 at 9:26AM
With Selma about to come out, it was inevitabe that the 70’s TV mini-series King would make a comeback
It should be no surprise that with Ava DuVernay’s acclaimed Selma set for release nationwide in January, there would be attempts to capitalize on the film with the release (or re-release in this matter) of films on DVD which deal themacially with the same subject.
Which brings us the announcement yesterday that the Olive Films DVD label will be releasing on Jan. 27 a re-mastered blu-ray DVD of the TV mini-series King: The Martin Luther King Story starring Paul Winfield as MLK and Cicely Tyson as Coretta Scott King (The series was previously released on standard DVD on MGM/Fox Home Video back in 2005)
The 6 hour mini-series was broadcast on NBC in Feb 1978 over three nights to wide acclaim and obviously had the approval of the King family since several family members, including King’s sister Christine King Farris, his niece Alveda King, and his four children: Martin III, Dexter, Bernice,and Yolanda all appeared in small roles in the series with special notice given to Yolanda who played Rosa Parks in the program.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/king-mini-series-w-paul-winfield-coming-out-on-blu-ray-dvd-next-month-20141210
Eric Boehlert @EricBoehlert
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Dear @CNN read today’s NYT to understand journalism: the contents of #TortureReport is the news, not GOP whining abt the report
6:26 AM – 10 Dec 2014
Alycee @jazziz2
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Video The Fusion interview: Obama Talks Torture, Immigration, and More with Jorge Ramos http://fusion.net/video/32985/jorge-ramos-obama-interview/#ooid=pqczg3cjqq-oUR-of1YzFD6NkKeeBRrU …
1:01 AM – 10 Dec 2014
rootless @root_e
What happened to the white NBA players? Too chicken to wear the t-shirt?
there was much to love in this comment about Travis at POU:
of all of this:
Saks Fifth Avenue Dashiki crew
is my favorite
LMBAO!!
Honest Toddler @HonestToddler
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Just heard Santa Baby. Wow. Bet he wasn’t expecting his side chick to release a single.
4:32 PM – 9 Dec 2014
I liked this picture of POTUS
http://s1.ibtimes.com/sites/www.ibtimes.com/files/styles/v2_article_large/public/2014/12/09/president-barack-obama.JPG?itok=PIq5lgct
At Eric Garner Protests, Some White Activists Are Being Called Out for Their Behavior
…But as the demonstrations continue, some activists are noting the ironic reality of a racist culture obtaining within the protests themselves. Ferrara, a first-generation immigrant who identifies as mixed-race but concedes that “I have a lot of light-skinned privilege,” says she is seeing white protesters talking over people of color at meetings or dismissing their concerns. And on the evening of December 8, outside Atlantic Terminal — where protesters were hoping to disrupt the Brooklyn Nets game across the street at Barclays Center — she saw some white protesters confronting people of color who were trying to lead the demonstrations.
“There were a couple of white dudes trying to take the [megaphone] from one our leaders,” says Ferrara, a member of the New York Justice League, which helped organize the protest. “Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think this isn’t a place for white and light-skinned folks. I just think it’s important to constantly be examining your privilege.”
The previous night, during a protest at Union Square, a white man repeatedly antagonized police officers, calling them “scared” before another protester, Chris Makita, pulled him toward the group. “I’m a white guy — they’re not going to do anything to me!” the white protester said, laughing.
“I told him to come here [and join the group],” Makita, who is black, told the Voice. “We don’t need to do that.”…
“Antiracist movements become a hot-button event a lot of white people can latch onto,” says Matthew Hughey, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut who studies white antiracist activism. “It’s very easy to identify the police officer or police department to rally against. These movements allow good, well-meaning white people to say, ‘I am a good person.’ It’s like a story they can tell their kids someday.”…
Paris Alexandra, 28, says white people who try to be the loudest voices at demonstrations focusing on racial issues run the risk of polluting the very message they’re trying to spread.
“I think it’s great people are showing solidarity,” says Alexandra, who is black. “I think people are just passionate. But as a white person, you’ve got to recognize the space you’re taking up. Just look and see who’s the loudest one talking. White supremacy takes place even in our interactions. You know what I’m saying?”…
“It becomes very easy for white people to grab the bullhorns and step to the front,” he says. “It can also do a lot of damage.”
He adds that all activists should learn what kind of voices a movement needs before they get involved.
“Educate yourself about whatever movement you want to be part of, and ask how you can help,” he advises. “Don’t just join and start leading.”
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2014/12/at_eric_garner_protests_some_whites_behaving_badly.php
Propane Jane@docrocktex26
Last month, Republicans thought they were gonna sail into 2015 without a care in the world. Now they’re defending torture. Welp
http://youtu.be/EBvjcXKd-nU
https://twitter.com/TheObamaDiary/status/542522418120503296/photo/1
Wow. Mr. Suburban Army Brat Brotha…gets it.
As Black Men Keep Getting Killed, We’re Seeing the Limits of ‘Respectability’ as a Shield Against Violence
We’ve seen too many instances in which even courteous compliance isn’t enough when you’re faced with someone determined to see a threat that isn’t there.
By: Blair L.M. Kelley
Posted: Dec. 9 2014 2:30 AM
A few weeks ago, one of America’s leading voices on black respectability, Lawrence Otis Graham, wrote in the Washington Post about the realization that respectability had failed to protect his son from the barbs of racial bias. In spite of his efforts as a father to make his son appear to be as accomplished and educated as possible, two white men slurred and threatened his son. This verbal attack by strangers became doubly frightening for Graham when his son’s school administrators did not take the incident seriously. They could not imagine what might be so frightening and traumatizing about being slurred.
For me the article was truly revelatory. Here was Graham, author of a book called Our Kind of People: Inside America’s Black Upper Class, who worked to cultivate America’s knowledge about a long-standing black American elite, now acknowledging that the artifice of appearing to be “good enough” had failed. His article lays bare the weakness at the heart of the politics of respectability: that no matter how neat, how well educated, how elite a black person might be, it actually provides little protection from people who can’t imagine themselves in our shoes.
Perhaps respectability, as a strategy, is losing its currency. Graham is no longer convinced. Bill Cosby, the nation’s most prominent voice on young black people pulling up their pants and having Eurocentric names, is dealing with his own problems right now. The Post’s Nia-Malika Henderson wrote that even the president’s calls for respectability are on the wane, so I was hopeful.
Then I heard about a toy-gun buyback in Cleveland.
It’s being organized in the wake of the police shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was playing with a toy gun in a park.
The Cleveland police officer who shot Rice, Timothy Loehmann, fired on the child just seconds after pulling into the park in response to a 911 call. Investigative reporting revealed that Loehmann had been pushed out of a job on the police force in rural Independence, Ohio, after he was deemed unfit for the job, and clearly should not have been hired in Cleveland. When the officer and his partner called in the shooting, they reported that they had shot a black man around 20 years old. Even looking into the face of Tamir, who had the chubby face and smaller proportions of a child, with a toy in his hand, the police saw a man with a gun
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/12/we_re_seeing_the_limits_of_respectability_politics.html
The US Injustice System—or How Caribbean Optimism Became Black Rage
I had held on to hope that the Eric Garner case would show a new beginning for the United States and police brutality. New York’s grand jury and the justice system proved me wrong.
By: Breanna Edwards
Posted: Dec. 5 2014 2:30 AM
The New York City grand jury decision not to charge the cop responsible for Eric Garner’s death has snatched away a lot of the hope that I’ve held on to about race relations here—my birth country—that I now see is still clinging tightly, in many places, to its white supremacist ways.
Reading that, you may think one of two things: 1) That’s harsh and 2) Only now?
For those who think the former, what’s harsh is the blatant miscarriage of justice, even after individuals vying for the right thing thought that there was no way—not with all the evidence, not with the video—there would not be a trial.
For those thinking the latter, bear with me.
You see, I’ve only lived in this country, experienced this country fully, for about six years. My birth certificate identifies me as African American, born in New York City’s Bronx borough. Everything else about me—from where I was raised, to the language I use, the food I prefer, the music I listen to, the place I envision from all my childhood memories, filled with peace and ignorant bliss—is decidedly West Indian … Antiguan, to be precise.
I grew up, for 18 years, in an idyllic sort of world, where people who looked like me were the majority; people who looked like me policed me; people who looked like me taught me; people who looked like me filled the parliament; and so people who looked like me made the laws that governed me.
As an early disclaimer (because I can already hear the rebuttals), I’m not saying that there’s no racism in the Caribbean. What I am saying is that in the country where I was raised, I never had to wonder whether the police were targeting me based on my race. I don’t have to worry about my ridiculously tall and muscular 15-year-old brother—who still lives in Antigua—running into a cop who will judge him solely on the color of his skin.
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/12/eric_garner_how_caribbean_optimism_became_black_rage.html
water is wet news
………..
Survey: Michael Brown and Eric Garner Cases Show Deep Racial Divide
Most white people do not believe that race was a major factor in the grand jury decision in either case.
By: Breanna Edwards
Posted: Dec. 9 2014 1:29 PM
While most black adults believe that race played a major factor in the Eric Garner and Michael Brown cases, their white counterparts are less inclined to believe so. In fact, a new national survey by the Pew Research Center and USA Today reveals that a majority of white America believes that race was “not a factor at all.”
According to the report, 80 percent of black respondents said that the grand jury was wrong not to charge Ferguson, Mo., police Officer Darren Wilson in the unarmed Brown’s shooting death. A whopping 90 percent said that the New York City grand jury was wrong for not indicting Officer Daniel Pantaleo in Garner’s choke hold death in Staten Island, N.Y.
These responses are in marked contrast with those of white adults, 64 percent of whom said that the grand jury in Ferguson made the right decision in refusing to indict Wilson (compared with 23 percent who said it was the wrong decision). However, in Garner’s case, nearly half (47 percent) agreed with black respondents who noted that the grand jury made the wrong decision not to indict; 28 percent said it made the correct decision.
A further breakdown provided in the study shows that black respondents were more likely to believe that race was a “major factor” in the grand juries’ decisions, while white respondents were more likely to think that color did not factor in at all.
In the case of Ferguson, 64 percent of black adults believed that race played a major factor, while only 16 percent of whites believed the same. The majority of whites, at 60 percent, believed that race was “not a factor at all,” while only 9 percent of black respondents echoed those sentiments.
Regarding New York City, once again, 62 percent of blacks believed that race played a major factor, with 18 percent of whites agreeing. However, in Garner’s case the number of whites believing that race was not a factor dropped to 48 percent, although that still represented the largest group of white respondents.
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/12/survey_brown_garner_cases_show_deep_racial_divide.html
Healthy Utah looks good
Posted by Richard Mayhew at 8:01 am Dec 102014
Utah has been a leading conservative state that has actually been trying to engage in constructive healthcare policy for most of this century. Utah did not accept straight up Medicaid expansion, but there has been a variety of efforts to form several different waiver applications to cover the people who make less than 138% Federal Poverty Line. It looks like the governor and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have come to an agreement. The state legislature still needs to approve the expansion.
The agreement looks reasonable from both a conservative policy objective point of view, and from a liberal coverage expansion without poor shaming point of view. This is an agreement that we could have seen in fifteen or twenty states after Chief Justice decided to rewrite the law to fuck over poor people if we had a coherent political process of trade-offs. Conservatives get some policy reforms, liberals and moderates get coverage expansion, and the public gets a bit better off. Not a bad deal at all, but it is still unfortunately a rare deal.
There are a couple of major things going on in the proposal. The first is that there are effectively two seperate programs. The first is an expansion and modification of Medicaid for people making under 100% Federal Poverty Line. There will be small ($4 to $8 per service) co-pays for this group that are within normal Medicaid standards. People who make between 50% and 100% FPL will have an inpatient service co-pay as well. But fundamentally, these people will be getting straight up Medicaid expansion.
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2014/12/10/healthy-utah-looks-good/
I really want to see this movie
……………
Top Five Might Be Chris Rock’s Best Film Ever
The new film has everything we ever loved about the comedian and more.
By: The Shadow League
Posted: Dec. 9 2014 2:30 AM
What does it look like when you finally accomplish a thing that is more indicative of the total sum of your talents than anything you have done before in your life? For Chris Rock, it would look something like his new film, Top Five, which he stars in, directs and co-wrote along with Scott Rudin.
Just as life often affords us multiple opportunities to right wrongs, Rock has afforded himself the opportunity to direct, write and star in a comedy that might be a hit. Though he has attempted to do so in the past with such offerings as I Think I Love My Wife and Head of State, we believe Top Five, which opens Friday, is the most quintessentially Chris Rock film of all time. Yes, we’re aware that’s saying a lot, but perhaps that hyperbole will give you some sort of an idea as to the content, scope and comic sensibilities of the movie.
Featuring an all-star class of elite black comedians, the likes of whom have not been seen since Eddie Murphy’s Boomerang and Harlem Nights, Top Five stars Rock, JB Smoove, Tracy Morgan, Michael Che, Cedric the Entertainer, Kevin Hart, Sherri Shepherd, Gabrielle Union, Leslie Jones and Rosario Dawson. This modern comedy is smart, funny, full of wit and delicious ribaldry.
Rock plays a standup comic named Andre Allen who made it big by portraying a man in a bear suit named Hammy, but now he wishes to move beyond that character and try to make a name for himself in dramatic roles. But things aren’t going so well because the media and his fans simply won’t take his career shift seriously and insist that he play a character he’s grown tired of.
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/12/_top_five_might_be_chris_rock_s_best_film_ever.html
After a $41,000,000 Settlement From NYC, the Central Park 5 Want $52,000,000 From the State
The five men, who were imprisoned for a 1989 rape they didn’t commit, seek $52 million from the state of New York in a wrongful-imprisonment suit.
By: Diana Ozemebhoya Eromosele
Posted: Dec. 9 2014 7:50 AM
The Central Park Five—the five men wrongfully convicted of sexually assaulting and attempting to kill a white female jogger in New York City’s Central Park in 1989—are seeking $52 million from the state of New York in a wrongful-imprisonment claim, an amount that would be in addition to a $41 million settlement with New York City that they won in a civil rights suit in federal court, the New York Daily News reports.
“After winning a landmark $41 million settlement from the city, the Central Park Five are looking to make New York State pay even more for their time behind bars,” the Daily News explained.
According to the paper, the quintet—made up of four African Americans and one Hispanic—reactivated their individual claims with the state after their collective suit was approved in a federal court in Manhattan.
One of the wrongfully convicted men, Raymond Santana, made his case to the Daily News that their coming back for more money from another level of government, the state, was completely warranted because it has been incredibly difficult for the men to transition back to civilian life and fend for themselves after spending so many years behind bars.
“When you have a person who has been exonerated of a crime, the city provides no services to transition him back to society,” Santana told the Daily News. “The only thing left is something like this—so you can receive some type of money so you can survive.”
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/12/the_central_park_five_files_a_52_million_wrongful_imprisonment_suit_against.html?wpisrc=mostpopular
Thug Kills White People in Texas
by Steven D
Tue Dec 9th, 2014 at 07:40:01 PM EST
This is the tale of a fiend, a true murdering devil. Not only did he ruthlessly kill Michael “Mike” McClelland, 63, the prosecutor of Kaufmann County and his wife Cynthia, 65, but also the assistant prosecutor, Mark Hasse. Hasse was ruthlessly gunned in the street in January, 2013, while walking home. The McClellands were callously shot down like dogs in their home in March of the same year. All three, were viciously butchered by a large, ugly brute who calls himself Eric Williams. It goes without saying he was a felon who had a prior record of burglary and theft. Yet somehow he had amassed a veritable arsenal of weapons as prosecutors during the penalty phase of his trial revealed:
On Tuesday afternoon, prosecutors assembled the arsenal of weapons found in Williams’ storage unit in the courtroom. The guns were displayed on three wooden racks in the middle of the courtroom, 42 handguns in the middle and 22 long guns flanking each side. In front of the racks were boxes of ammunition — thousands of rounds were recovered — and a crossbow. Bullets were loose in bags, as well as still packaged in boxes.
By the way, this is the face of the killer of these three upstanding citizens, a true animal (if I may say so) with no sense of morality and little if any respect for human life:
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So while Eric Williams is one sick, evil SOB, he does have the color of his skin going for him. You won’t hear of any Fox News host or right wing radio jocks calling him a thug. They probably won’t mention him at all, and if they do, there won’t be any discussion of white on white crime. They sure as hell won’t touch the subject of his gun collection, which is every white American’s God given right under the second amendment.
White people with strong political agenda can walk around the street and in stores carrying their semiautomatic “long guns” and nothing happens to them. A drunken, angry white man stand outs in the street pointing a loaded rifle at passersby, and law enforcement treats him with respect and spend as much time as they need to “de-escalate the situation.” Black boys play in an empty park with a fake gun, or carry a fake samurai sword and get shot shortly after police arrive on the scene.
And let’s not forget the masses of white men who took their guns to Cliven Bundy’s Ranch in Nevada to protect the rights of a common criminal. They threatened and intimidated local law enforcement, Federal officials and the people of Clark County, but not one of Bundy’s numerous supporters who endangered the lives of everyone withing the range of their high powered rifles was arrested or charged with a crime, much less fired upon by law enforcement – with the possible exception for Jerad and Amanda Miller who were kicked out of the Bundy compound and then went on a shooting spree in Las Vegas, killing two police officers and an armed civilian at a local Walmart before killing themselves.
So, my friends, who are the real thugs? The armed white people who shoot to kill, such as Mr. Eric Williams, or the unarmed black men and boys killed by police and left to die? Michael Brown, Eric Garner, John Crawford, Darrien Hunt, Tamir Rice and so many more have been labeled “thugs,” their reputations smeared in the National news media. In the case of 12 year-old Tamir Rice, his parents’ past history and their alleged bad parenting were blamed for his death by cop. Protestors in Ferguson and elsewhere these past few months have been described as looters, rioters, criminals, et cetera, who deserved the massive militarized police response to what were primarily peaceful protests.
Words matter. They define how we interpret events, and how we judge the character and actions of individuals. They reinforce existing bias, prejudice and stereotypes. They justify violence against innocent people when those people are labeled with words that have negative and sinister connotations. Native Americans in were constantly called savages in the 19th century. European Jews in the 20th century were labeled cockroaches and vermin. African Americans, especially males, in the 21st Century are now called “thugs.” Words that dehumanize their subjects. Words that lead to fear and loathing. Words that make it easier to kill and/or tolerate, and in some quarters of our society celebrate, the deaths of those so named.
Words like “Thug.”
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2014/12/9/19401/2118
Sure, Let’s Pardon Mark Wahlberg for His Violent, Racist Past
The actor, who went to prison as a teenager for partially blinding a man, deserves a second chance—as do all the men of color who’ve been convicted of felonies.
By: Danielle C. Belton
Posted: Dec. 8 2014 3:42 PM
Remember that time actor Mark Wahlberg punched a man in the eye so hard, he partially blinded him forever?
What about the time when he chased black schoolchildren, shouting racial slurs while throwing rocks?
If you don’t, better read up on it now because Wahlberg is petitioning (pdf) Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick to have part of his violent past pardoned in order to further his business empire: the Wahlburgers fast-food chain.
Before Mark Wahlberg—the former Columbusing rapper, now-popular actor, producer and businessman—there was Mark Wahlberg, the once irresponsibly violent, high-on-cocaine, racist teenager. At 15 he, along with three white friends, attacked those black schoolchildren. According to court documents, someone in the group shouted, “We don’t like black n–gers in the neighborhood, so get the f–k away from the area,” and “Kill the n–ger,” as the children fled, finding refuge in a nearby Burger King restaurant. Later, at 16, he would attack two Vietnamese men, partially blinding one, after attempting to steal beer. Wahlberg, who was initially charged as an adult with attempted murder, would plead guilty to assault. It’s this crime that the actor is trying to have expunged.
Should it be expunged? Sure. Why not? Wahlberg is a perfect example of how anyone, no matter how horrible and seemingly racist, can be reformed. Wahlberg—as far as I know—hasn’t publicly beaten the crap out of anyone while screaming racist slurs in years. (Wahlberg’s last-known violent indiscretion was in 1992, when he beat up his neighbor.)
He never apologized for what he did to black music or how he initially made his fame off gross cultural misappropriation (while, you know, also seemingly not liking black people), but he did apologize for being a teenage drug-addict criminal. He’s never paid any reparations to his victims since becoming wealthy, but hey, he feels sort of bad. And he did his short time—45 days on what was supposed to be a two-year stretch—in prison through our highly flawed, but the only one we have, justice system.
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/12/we_should_pardon_mark_wahlberg_for_his_violent_racist_past.html?wpisrc=mostpopular
really need that dancing raccoon
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Ben Carson’s ‘Women’s Lib’ Rant Was a Barely Veiled Shot at Black Women
Dr. Carson’s “women’s lib” crack was his latest attempt to pathologize blackness.
By: Kirsten West Savali
Posted: Dec. 5 2014 7:26 AM
Known for being the beloved darling of the Grand Old Party, Dr. Ben Carson has a penchant for pathologizing blackness that dovetailed last week with his blatant misogyny, causing the good doc to blame the extrajudicial killing of African-American boys and men on—wait for it—the “women’s lib movement.”
“Certainly in a lot of our inner cities, in particular the black inner cities, where 73 percent of the young people are born out of wedlock, the majority of them have no father figure in their life,” said Carson in an interview on American Family Radio’s Today’s Issues. “Usually the father figure is where you learn how to respond to authority. So now you become a teenager, you’re out there, you really have no idea how to respond to authority, you eventually run into the police or you run into somebody else in the neighborhood who also doesn’t know how to respond but is badder than you are, and you get killed or you end up in the penal system.”
He also said, “I think a lot of it really got started in the ’60s with the ‘me generation.’ ‘What’s in it for me?’ I hate to say it, but a lot of it had to do with the women’s lib movement. You know, ‘I’ve been taking care of my family, I’ve been doing that, what about me?’ You know, it really should be about us.”
And though Carson attempted to situate “women’s lib” as a generational, racially ambiguous movement, his true intent seems pretty clear. He’s not talking about equal pay, political representation and sexual freedom for all women. In the context of his blanket statements about the black community, Carson is speaking to how he perceives women’s liberation to have manifested in black families and, by extension, black communities. He’s drawing from the “strong, black woman” trope that litters misogynoir dialogue, which serves as a castigation of black feminism. In doing so, he is deliberately placing the blame for failing communities squarely at the feet of black mothers.
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/12/_women_s_lib_is_ben_carson_s_latest_rant.html
they are wrong
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2 Storied Black Sororities—AKA and Delta—Won’t Let Their Members Protest While Wearing Greek Letters
They might mean well, but these two legendary organizations could wind up on the wrong side of history.
By: Kirsten West Savali
Posted: Dec. 9 2014 3:46 PM
Collectively known as the Divine Nine, black fraternities and sororities have long been central to the African-American college experience—standing as vanguards of social justice, community service, black excellence and achievement.
So it has been surprising and, to many members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., disappointing that they’ve been forbidden by their respective organizations from wearing their Greek-letter paraphernalia while participating in protests that have been sparked around the country to voice anger and frustration at nonindictment decisions for former Ferguson, Mo., police Officer Darren Wilson and New York City police Officer Daniel Pantaleo.
AKAs received an email that said sisters could wear sorority colors at protests, but asked them to “refrain” from wearing any sorority “paraphernalia.” Deltas were notified of a similar prohibition on their organization’s website.
In both cases the instructions contained a disclaimer of legal liability—which appears to be the impetus for the ban. But as of press time, my calls, seeking comment, to both the national offices of Alpha Kappa Alpha and Delta Sigma Theta have not yet been returned.
The directives have come down as students at several black colleges, notably the Atlanta University Center—which includes Morehouse College, Spelman College and Clark Atlanta University—have become visibly active in speaking out against injustice in the Ferguson and New York City cases.
And given the histories of both sororities—and the legacies of such illustrious AKAs as C. Delores Tucker, Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King; as well as Fannie Lou Hamer, Myrlie Evers-Williams and Mary McLeod Bethune, all members of DST—some young activists have rejected their organizations’ national directives because they believe that the directives run, fundamentally, in opposition to the values upon which these sororities were built.
I spoke with several sorority members who shared these sentiments but did not want to make public statements counter to their organizational leadership. Tamura Lomax, co-founder of the Feminist Wire and a member of Delta Sigma Theta, voiced her frustration with her organization’s position, emailing the following:
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/12/aka_dst_members_can_t_wear_letters_at_protests.html
Tentative deal comes together ahead of shutdown deadline
12/10/14 08:00 AM
By Steve Benen
With a deadline looming over a possible government shutdown – current federal spending expires tomorrow at midnight – House and Senate negotiators have been working on a compromise package for a while now. The plan was to wrap up a deal over the weekend. There were rumors the agreement would be released on Monday morning.
Which soon became Monday night. Then Tuesday morning. Finally, last night, as Suzy Khimm and Benjy Sarlin reported, the bicameral compromise was unveiled.
House and Senate leaders have reached a bipartisan deal to avert a government shutdown, agreeing to fund most operations through September of next year. […]
Republicans won some significant victories in the deal: While most domestic spending remains flat, the spending bill cuts funding for the IRS and Environmental Protection Agency, and it guts a significant provision in the Dodd-Frank Act.
We’ll explore some of these policy details later this morning – the Wall Street Journal had a handy round-up of some of the package’s highlights (or lowlights, depending on one’s perspective) – but for now let’s focus on some of the procedural questions, because with one day remaining before the deadline, the overarching question is whether or not the government is going to shut down tomorrow at midnight.
The answer is, probably not, though success is hardly assured.
The way forward is largely consistent with what House Republican leaders had in mind all along: nearly all federal operations will be funded through the end of the fiscal year in September 2015. The exception is the Department of Homeland Security, which will be funded through February 2015, allowing GOP lawmakers another chance for a standoff over President Obama’s immigration policy.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/tentative-deal-comes-together-ahead-shutdown-deadline
The New Republic: An Appreciation
It is impossible to avoid the conclusion that black lives didn’t matter much at all to the magazine.
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Dec 9 2014, 12:02 PM ET
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Earlier this year, Foer edited an anthology of TNR writings titled Insurrections of the Mind, commemorating the magazine’s 100-year history. “This book hasn’t been compiled in the name of definitiveness,” Foer wrote. “It was put together in the spirit of the magazine that it anthologizes: it is an argument about what matters.” There is only one essay in Insurrections that takes race as its subject. The volume includes only one black writer and only two writers of color. This is not an oversight. Nor does it mean that Foer is a bad human. On the contrary, if one were to attempt to capture the “spirit” of TNR, it would be impossible to avoid the conclusion that black lives don’t matter much at all.
That explains why the family rows at TNR’s virtual funeral look like the “Whites Only” section of a Jim Crow-era movie-house. For most of its modern history, TNR has been an entirely white publication, which published stories confirming white people’s worst instincts. During the culture wars of the ’80s and ’90s, TNR regarded black people with an attitude ranging from removed disregard to blatant bigotry. When people discuss TNR’s racism, Andrew Sullivan’s publication of excerpts from Charles Murray’s book The Bell Curve (and a series of dissents) gets the most attention. But this fuels the lie that one infamous issue stands apart. In fact, the Bell Curve episode is remarkable for how well it fits with the rest of TNR’s history.
The personal attitude of TNR’s longtime owner, the bigoted Martin Peretz, should be mentioned here. Peretz’s dossier of racist hits (mostly at the expense of blacks and Arabs) is shameful, and one does not have to look hard to find evidence of it in Peretz’s writing or in the sensibility of the magazine during his ownership. In 1984, long before Sullivan was tapped to helm TNR, Charles Murray was dubbing affirmative action a form of “new racism” that targeted white people.
Two years later, Washington Post writer Richard Cohen was roundly rebuked for advocating that D.C. jewelry stores discriminate against young black men—but not by TNR. The magazine took the opportunity to convene a panel to “reflect briefly” on whether it was moral for merchants to bar black men from their stores. (“Expecting a jewelry store owner to risk his life in the service of color-blind justice is expecting too much,” the magazine concluded.)
TNR made a habit of “reflecting briefly” on matters that were life and death to black people but were mostly abstract thought experiments to the magazine’s editors. Before, during, and after Sullivan’s tenure, the magazine seemed to believe that the kind of racism that mattered most was best evidenced in the evils of Afrocentrism, the excesses of multiculturalism, and the machinations of Jesse Jackson. It’s true that TNR’s staff roundly objected to excerpting The Bell Curve, but I was never quite sure why. Sullivan was simply exposing the dark premise that lay beneath much of the magazine’s coverage of America’s ancient dilemma.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/12/the-new-republic-an-appreciation/383561/?single_page=true
Good Morning, Everyone :)