I hope you have enjoyed this week with Gladys Knight.
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Potus Takes Oath of Office
Flotus & Daughters at Great Wall of China
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Even though 3Chics Politico is written and curated by three women: Ametia, Rikyrah, and SouthernGirl2, I must nominate this as one of the most engaging blogs I've found. Devoted to politics and culture, these three shine a light on contemporary life with humor and spirit.
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Conservatives who demanded to see Obama’s college records are now defending Scott Walker for never graduating.
3:20 PM – 13 Feb 2015
https://twitter.com/SuehailaAmen/status/566282293061619713/photo/1
her case was tired and weak. If she had done her job, which was to land in the top 10% of her class, she would have gotten into UT. But, she didn’t. So, don’t blame it on others who DID do their jobs and were in the top 10% of their class.
Her case was so phucking weak, that they couldn’t even take it on its own – they had to add the Michigan case to remotely give themselves cover.
Phucking White Privilege. Your azz wasn’t ENTITLED to a spot at UT.
…………………..
Fisher requests Supreme Court hear case against UT a second time
Published on February 11, 2015 at 1:32 pm
Last update on February 12, 2015 at 12:54 am
BY SAMANTHA KETTERER
Abigail Fisher’s lawyers filed a petition Tuesday for her case, Fisher v. University of Texas, to be heard by the Supreme Court a second time.
Fisher, a rejected undergraduate UT applicant, filed a lawsuit in 2008 after claiming the University discriminated against her based on her race. Fisher said the admissions policy was in violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. After losing at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2009, the case reached the Supreme Court in 2012.
The Supreme Court ultimately vacated and remanded the case in a 7–1 decision, ordering the 5th Circuit to examine UT’s race-conscious admissions policy more carefully to determine whether the University’s policies were necessary to achieve a “critical mass” of minority students. A three-judge panel sided with the University last year, and the full, 15-person court declined to rehear the case in November.
https://www.dailytexanonline.com/2015/02/11/fisher-requests-supreme-court-hear-case-against-ut-a-second-time
https://twitter.com/BuzzFeed/status/566289561740132357/photo/1
say it with me, folks..
DOMESTIC TERRORISM
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HFD: ACCELERANT USED IN SE HOUSTON ISLAMIC COMMUNITY FIRE
HOUSTON (KTRK) —
Fire officials now say an accelerant was used in a fire that broke out at an Islamic community and education center in southeast Houston early Friday morning, and now a group is calling for an investigation into whether the fire was the result of a possible hate crime.
Houston fire officials say the fire at the Quba Islamic Institute started around 5am. The cause of the fire is under investigation, but we’ve learned HFD says the accelerant was used, which usually points to a purposeful act.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations is calling on state and federal authorities to investigate the fire as a possible hate crime.
That call comes as Ahsan Zahid, assistant Imam at the institute, says he spoke with the Houston arson investigator about their preliminary results.
Zahid said, “They said their dog went through and he hit on some substances inside the place, and he said, ‘From what I see right now at this point, I have to say it was an incendiary fire which means that it was started on purpose.’ That’s all we can go on at this point. I don’t want to speculate.”
http://abc13.com/news/group-calls-for-hate-crime-probe-after-massive-fire-at-islamic-center/515887/
https://twitter.com/TheFix/status/566330934660976640/photo/1
Webb, Winston no longer involved in Rauner’s ‘fair share’ fight. Phil Beck in.
Posted: 02/13/2015, 11:34am | Natasha Korecki
Gov. Bruce Rauner started the week Monday with a bold one-two punch at organized labor:
He announced he planned to eliminate compulsory “fair share” union fees through his own executive power.
And he said that high-powered Chicago attorney Dan Webb would fight a parallel battle in federal court on behalf of the state.
Four days later, Webb and his law firm Winston & Strawn are out of the ring, and the legality of Rauner’s executive order has come under attack —with his own appointee for comptroller raising questions.
On Friday, Webb told the Sun-Times he could not represent the state on Rauner’s behalf in court because of conflicts. Rauner had said in his announcement on Monday that Webb’s involvement would be conditional on obtaining waivers.
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State Comptroller Leslie Munger, a Republican recently appointed by Rauner, initially did not abide, raising the question of whether it’s constitutional — without a court order — to withhold those fees and place them in an escrow account as Rauner had ordered.
The Illinois attorney general’s office said it wasn’t constitutional.
The governor’s executive order does not apply to other constitutional officers, according to Illinois attorney general office chief of staff Ann Spillane.
“There’s no question that under the current law that fair share fees are constitutional,” Spillane told the Sun-Times. “[Leslie Munger] can’t ignore validly signed contracts. She is an independent constitutional officer; an executive order doesn’t change her conduct.”
http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/7/71/367091/comptroller-ag-lisa-madigan-wont-ok-rauner-exec-order-union-fees
https://twitter.com/metaquest/status/566314275040272384/photo/1
Does this face look familiar? Valerie Jarrett’s ancestor honored with stamp.
By Krissah Thompson February 12
The presidential aide and confidant stood beside a blown-up image of her great-grandfather, looking up as it towered over her. She shares his broad forehead, his cafe-au-lait complexion — and surely his drive to achieve.
Here was Valerie Jarrett on stage at the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum, beaming proudly as her forebear Robert Robinson Taylor became the 38th person inducted into the U.S. Postal Service’s Black Heritage Stamp series. She called her mother to the front of the crowd. She whispered to her daughter. She thanked Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. for coming to the ceremony.
“Well! This is a celebration that we are having today,” she began.
In 1892, Taylor became the first black to graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He went on to become the nation’s first academically trained black architect and developed a long relationship with educator Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Institute.
…………….
We never have dignitaries like this,” a former local postmaster whispered, waving her hand around at the VIPs in the room. Indeed, it was an “Our Kind of People” gathering of America’s black upper class. Ann Jordan’s husband, businessman and political fixer Vernon Jordan, was there. John Rogers, chief executive of Ariel Investments and a Jarrett pal from Chicago, came. A few Congressional Black Caucus members and officials from Howard and Tuskegee universities attended as well. Together they stood as a Howard choir sang the national anthem and the Negro national anthem.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/does-this-face-look-familiar-valerie-jarrett-ancestor-honored-with-stamp/2015/02/12/e5791dfc-b22a-11e4-886b-c22184f27c35_story.html
how the phuck is a foreign company gonna use EMIMENT DOMAIN?
GET DA PHUCK OUTTA HERE!!
https://twitter.com/climateprogress/status/566246211137839104/photo/1
9 times the Obamas rocked pop culture
Emily Brown, USATODAY 5:35 p.m. EST February 13, 2015
President Obama proved to the world Thursday that he can work a selfie stick like a boss. Here are a few other times the Obamas blew our minds with their in-the-know pop-culture references and humor. (Which seems to happen a lot when they want to promote their pet projects.)
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/02/13/president-obama-michelle-pop-culture-moments/23359443/
So, let us follow the trail. If he never graduated from college, then whatever degree he got afterwards was a joke. Then that means that he was unqualified to practice. So, what does that mean for all the patients he saw?
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FRIDAY, FEB 13, 2015 03:15 PM CST
Rand Paul caught lying about his college record
Senator’s office forced to admit that he never graduated from Baylor University
LUKE BRINKER
Ophthalmologist-turned-politician Rand Paul may have a medical degree from Duke University, but the Kentucky senator and likely 2016 presidential candidate never completed his undergraduate education at Baylor University. So why did Paul assert twice yesterday that he holds two bachelor’s degrees from the institution?
The senator embellished his record during an appearance at the Lincoln Labs “Reboot Congress” event Thursday. In two instances highlighted by Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler, Paul falsely suggested that he had obtained undergraduate degrees. First came this exchange between Paul and TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington:
http://www.salon.com/2015/02/13/rand_paul_caught_lying_about_his_college_record/
Study: Black Girls Are Being Pushed Out of School
FEBRUARY 13, 2015 7:03 AM ET
News surrounding a confrontation in a Baltimore school is raising new questions about the role race plays in discipline for black girls. Baltimore television station WBAL has been reporting on an October incident that led to three students at the city’s Vanguard Middle School being injured, and later arrested and suspended, after an altercation with a school security officer.
School officials have supported the officer’s assertion that she was attacked, kicked and punched by the girls, but the school’s security tape shows something more complicated. By the end of the incident, the officer had struck one of the girls repeatedly with her baton — causing an injury that required multiple stitches — and pepper sprayed the two others. All three girls required treatment at a hospital.
The state’s attorney dropped the criminal charges after viewing the tape and photos of the students’ injuries, and the officer involved — who is African-American — has been placed on administrative leave, pending an investigation. But the girls have been reassigned to a school for troubled teens, something their families are fighting in court.
It’s just one incident of many that have played out across the country in which reported misconducted by black girls at school prompts a seemingly disproportionate — and often violent — response by school and local authorities.
But why? That’s what Columbia University law professor Kimberle Williams Crenshaw and her associates, Priscilla Ocen and Jyoti Nanda, set out to explain in their study, Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced and Underprotected.
They examined data from public schools in Boston and New York City, and the results are startling: Girls of color, and especially black girls, are subject to discipline that is harsher and more frequent than that of their white peers, and are six times more likely to be suspended than white girls. The racial disparities in punishment are greater for girls than for boys.
Crenshaw talked with Code Switch about this groundbreaking study.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2015/02/13/384005652/study-black-girls-are-being-pushed-out-of-school
It’s some real hateful people in America. Racists bombed a church in Birmingham & killed 4 little girls. Now they set fire to an Islamic Center in Houston destroying it. God deliver us from this evil.
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/566383475209420801
Rikyrah, thanks for posting the excellent article below on Piney Woods, “America’s largest Black boarding school which sends 97% of its graduates to college.
Again from the article:
I thought you and others here would enjoy this vintage video of when Dr. Laurence Jones, founder of Piney Woods School was the honoree on the TV program “This Is Your Life” :
http://youtu.be/x47dY2Q47YU&rel=0
Helen Keller visted the Piney Woods School in 1945.
http://www.aph.org/hall/images/HelenKellerPineyWoods1945.jpg
Democrat Kitzhaber Resigns As Oregon Governor Amid Ethics Scandal
Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) announced Friday that he would resign from office amid an ethics scandal that has plagued him and his fiance.
His resignation will take effect next Wednesday, Feb. 18. Secretary of State Kate Brown will succeed him.
Kitzhaber and his fiance Cylvia Hayes face allegations that aides to the governor helped find Hayes employment at public policy organizations in Oregon, sometimes paying six figures, while she was still informally advising the governor.
“It is not in my nature to walk away from a job I have undertaken – it is to stand and fight for the cause,” he said in a statement. “For that reason I apologize to all those people who gave of their faith, time, energy and resources to elect me to a fourth term last year and who have supported me over the past three decades.”
“It is deeply troubling to me to realize that we have come to a place in the history of this great state of ours where a person can be charged, tried, convicted and sentenced by the media with no due process and no independent verification of the allegations involved,” Kitzhaber continued. “But even more troubling – and on a very personal level as someone who has given 35 years of public service to Oregon – is that so many of my former allies in common cause have been willing to simply accept this judgment at its face value.”
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/oregon-governor-kitzhaber-resigns
Senate GOP pushes pro-Netanyahu resolution
02/13/15 11:32 AM—UPDATED 02/13/15 02:13 PM
By Steve Benen
If congressional Republican wanted to make the ongoing controversy surrounding Benjamin Netanyahu even more of a partisan food fight, this is clearly the way to do exactly that.
Senate Republicans on Thursday moved to officially welcome Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the U.S. ahead of his planned speech to Congress next month, the latest development in a saga that has roiled politics in both countries.
Almost all GOP senators were listed as co-sponsors of a resolution by Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas) saying the Senate “eagerly awaits the address of Prime Minister Netanyahu before a joint session of the United States Congress” and reaffirms the U.S. commitment to standby Israel in “times of uncertainty.”
“During this time of such great instability and danger in the Middle East, the United States should be unequivocal about our commitment to one of our closest and most important allies,” Mr. Cornyn said in a statement.
How subtle.
If Cornyn is expecting unanimous support for his resolution, he’s likely to be disappointed. As of last night, 22 congressional Democrats – 19 in the House and three in the Senate – have announced they will not attend the Israeli prime minister’s scheduled speech on March 3, and that number continues to steadily grow.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/senate-gop-pushes-pro-netanyahu-resolution
https://twitter.com/PragObots/status/566310349218263040/photo/1
Perry boasts about Texas’ uninsured rate
02/13/15 12:47 PM
By Steve Benen
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), freed from the burdens of a day job, has hit the campaign trail with great vigor recently, touting his still-unannounced presidential bid. And this week, this meant a swing through the first primary state: New Hampshire.
Perry proposed repeal of the Affordable Care Act, which he called “another example of one-size-fits-all coming out of Washington, D.C.” And he noted that Texas chose not to participate in Medicaid expansion.
“Texas has been criticized for having a large number of uninsured,” he said, “but that’s what Texans wanted. They did not want a large government program forcing everyone to purchase insurance.” But he said Texans passed in 2003 a constitutional amendment that brought “the most sweeping tort reform in the nation. And the result of that is that there are now 35,000 more licensed physicians in Texas.”
“And the access to health care exploded,” he said.
Hmm. Where to begin.
First, the Affordable Care Act isn’t really a “one-size-fits-all” model. States can set up their own exchange marketplaces, working with their own insurers, which can offer consumers a variety of coverage options.
Second, it’s true that the number of physicians in Texas grew after “tort reform,” but the connection between the two is sketchy. Other states saw an increase in licensed doctors, too, regardless of liability laws. What’s more, the number of Texas’ doctors grew, but so did its population.
None of this means expanded “access to health care” for those who have no insurance.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/perry-boasts-about-texas-uninsured-rate
I have spent a lot of time with Gladys Knight and have never failed to enjoy every moment of that time; since I was 9 or 10 years old.
Wow. That just brought Marvin to mind and a great sadness washes over me as it always does. These are the people who made the soundtrack of my life. Their songs aren’t just songs. They are moments in time. Memories of a childhood and of a coming of age. Markers along a path that; though we know it can have no good end; we also know must be traveled and cannot be rewound.
Study: Ky. Medicaid expansion showing benefits
Chris Kenning, The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal 9:31 p.m. EST February 12, 2015
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/02/12/study-ky-medicaid-expansion-showing-benefits/23328607/
America’s Largest Black Boarding School Sends 97 Percent of Students to College
This Mississippi school was founded to teach the illiterate children of freed slaves. It’s still helping disadvantaged students.
By Alexia Fernández Campbell and Mauro Whiteman
PINEY WOODS, Miss.—”Those who think they can’t are usually right,” reads a sign in the grass outside the girls’ dormitory at Piney Woods Country Life School.
“Success Depends Upon Yourself” is carved into a stone in the gazebo. A few feet away, the Latin phrase “Labor Omnia Vincit” is carved onto a concrete ledge. Work Conquers All.
Motivational quotes like these are scattered throughout the 2,000-acre boarding school in rural Mississippi. They are the kinds of messages students get from the moment their alarms go off at 5:30 in the morning until lights-out at 10 pm.
The Piney Woods Country Life School is America’s largest historically black boarding school, and one of the few remaining, with a sprawling campus of pine trees and rolling farmland just 20 miles south of Jackson. It opened in 1909 as the vision of an educated African-American man from St. Louis who felt a desire to teach the illiterate children of freed slaves how to farm and read. In the face of hunger, poverty, and lynching threats, Dr. Laurence Jones and his wife fought to keep the school open in the segregated South.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/next-america/population-2043/america-s-largest-black-boarding-school-sends-97-percent-of-students-to-college-20150212
Chapel Hill Victim’s Sister: Police ‘Insulting and Outrageous’ for Saying Killing Happened Over Parking
Dr. Susanne Barakat, the sister of Deah Barakat, one of the three victims, appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe to rebut the claim that her brother died over a mere dispute over parking.
By Zaid Jilani / AlterNet February
http://www.alternet.org/chapel-hill-victims-sister-police-insulting-and-outrageous-saying-killing-happened-over-parking
https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/566277045320421376/photo/1
https://twitter.com/BrentNYT/status/566272612591226880/photo/1
https://twitter.com/Stanford/status/566272745315766272/photo/1
Cause he thinks he’s so special
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Rand Paul asks Kentucky GOP leaders for a presidential caucus in 2016
BY SAM YOUNGMAN
February 12, 2015
Sen. Rand Paul has been looking for a way to run for president and for re-election.
Requesting help to avoid a “costly and time-consuming legal challenge,” U.S. Sen. Rand Paul is asking members of the Republican Party of Kentucky to create a presidential caucus in 2016 that would happen well ahead of the May primary election.
In a letter dated Feb. 9, Paul told GOP leaders that an earlier presidential preference vote would give Kentuckians “more leverage to be relevant” in the wide-open competition for the Republican presidential nomination.
And it could help him win that nomination, he said.
“You, as a member of the Kentucky Republican Central Committee, will be the one to decide if you want to help me get an equal chance at the nomination,” Paul wrote.
http://www.kentucky.com/2015/02/12/3691040_rand-paul-asks-kentucky-gop-leaders.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy
Rand Paul bedeviled by Kentucky law
02/13/15 11:03 AM
By Steve Benen
On the one hand, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is a stickler for the rules and legal limits. “We can’t be for the rule of law at our own convenience,” the senator has said.
On the other hand, laws sometimes get in Rand Paul’s way.
Requesting help to avoid a “costly and time-consuming legal challenge,” U.S. Sen. Rand Paul is asking members of the Republican Party of Kentucky to create a presidential caucus in 2016 that would happen well ahead of the May primary election.
In a letter dated Feb. 9, Paul told GOP leaders that an earlier presidential preference vote would give Kentuckians “more leverage to be relevant” in the wide-open competition for the Republican presidential nomination.
But as the senator conceded, the goal here is not solely about improving Kentucky’s “relevance”; this is about helping him advance his personal ambitions.
While some states allow candidates to seek more than one public office at a time, the Bluegrass State does not. Next year, that poses a problem for Kentucky’s junior senator – Rand Paul wants to run for president, but he also wants to run for re-election. He could give up his Senate seat to pursue the White House, but given his odds at winning a national campaign, there’s a pretty good chance Paul would find himself unemployed in January 2017.
The Republican lawmaker pushed for the state legislature to change the statute, but Kentucky Democrats balked, leaving Paul to explore new options for circumventing an inconvenient law.
“We can’t be for the rule of law at our own convenience,” but apparently we can be for loopholes when the law proves to be annoying.
As the Lexington Herald-Leader reported, if Kentucky Republicans agreed to move up their presidential nominating contest from a May primary to a March caucus, “Paul’s name could appear on a May primary ballot for re-election to the Senate.”
In other words, GOP voters in Kentucky would vote for “Paul for President” in March, and then “Paul for Senate” two months later.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/rand-paul-bedeviled-kentucky-law
FBI chief offers ‘hard truths’ on race, law enforcement
02/13/15 10:23 AM—UPDATED 02/13/15 10:45 AM
By Steve Benen
Simmering tensions between law enforcement and minority communities reached alarming new levels in recent months, in the wake of tragic deaths of unarmed civilians. And as the national discussion about these crises has unfolded, Americans have heard from a variety of leaders, including President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder.
But it was a thoughtful, engaging speech yesterday from FBI Director James Comey that stood out as especially important, in part because of its substance, but also because of the reaction to it. Trymaine Lee reported yesterday:
In a rare move by a top Justice Department official, FBI Director James Comey on Thursday addressed the tenuous relationship between law enforcement and many African Americans, acknowledging “hard truths” about the current state of race relations and policing.
Comey, during a speech at Georgetown University, drew largely on the lessons of Ferguson, Missouri, saying that police must come to terms with a longstanding culture of racial bias.
If you missed it, a full transcript of the FBI director’s speech is online, and no matter what one’s perspective about the larger debate, this is well worth your time. Comey’s remarks were candid and personal, and we don’t usually hear speeches like these from officials in positions of authority.
In one especially memorable moment, he even quoted the song “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist” from the Broadway show: “Avenue Q”: “Look around and you will find, no one’s really color blind.. Maybe it’s a fact we all should face. Everyone makes judgments based on race.”
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/fbi-chief-offers-hard-truths-race-law-enforcement
Watch New August Wilson Panel Conversation w/ Phylicia Rashad, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Sam Pollard, Others
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
February 12, 2015 at 4:37PM
Coming to PBS primetime this month, as part of its AMERICAN MASTERS series, is the documentary, “August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand,” airing on February 20 at 9pm ET.
Directed by Emmy and Peabody-winner Sam Pollard (long-time Spike Lee editor, as well as a director and producer in his own right), the documentary explores the life and legacy of Tony- and Pulitzer-winning playwright August Wilson – the man some call America’s Shakespeare — from his roots as a Pittsburgh activist and poet, to his indelible mark on Broadway.
Unprecedented access to Wilson’s theatrical archives, rarely seen interviews, and new dramatic readings, bring to life his seminal 10-play cycle chronicling each decade of the 20th century African American experience. The film features new interviews with Viola Davis, Charles Dutton, Laurence Fishburne, James Earl Jones, Suzan-Lori Parks, Phylicia Rashad, his widow/costume designer Constanza Romero, and others, sharing stories of the late great African American playwright’s rich theatrical canon.
PBS is premiering the film in honor of the 70th anniversary of Wilson’s birth, as well as the 10th anniversary of his death, and for Black History Month.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/watch-new-august-wilson-panel-conversation-w-phylicia-rashad-ruben-santiago-hudson-sam-pollard-others-20150212
GOP flips the script, endorses executive overreach
02/13/15 08:40 AM—UPDATED 02/13/15 09:12 AM
By Steve Benen
The good news is, six months after President Obama launched a military offensive against ISIS targets in the Middle East, Congress is starting to debate the U.S. mission. The bad news is, the debate is off to a ridiculous start.
President Barack Obama should be asking for more power to wage war against Islamic State extremists, some Republicans on the U.S. House Foreign Affairs committee said. […]
While Republicans have repeatedly accused Obama of executive overreach in areas such as immigration, several lawmakers at the hearing questioned why he wasn’t seeking broader authority this time.
You’ve probably heard that the GOP is outraged by the White House’s proposed Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), but it’s important to understand why.
About a year ago, the Republican condemnation of President Obama shifted – “he doesn’t lead enough” was out, “he leads too much” was in. The more Obama’s policy agenda succeeded in practical terms, the more the GOP argued the president is a lawless, out-of-control tyrannical dictator, hell bent on limitless power without regard for the Constitution.
This week, however, Republicans are disgusted by Obama’s lack of executive overreach. GOP lawmakers are suddenly convinced the tyrannical dictator needs even more sweeping powers to act unilaterally in matters of life and death.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who occasionally pretends to believe his party’s talking points, expressed dismay yesterday that the president’s AUMF would “tie his hands even further.” Congress’ top lawmaker apparently hopes for a more diminished role for Congress.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/gop-flips-the-script-endorses-executive-overreach
Why Republicans Are Suddenly Talking about Economic Inequality
The New York Times
By BRENDAN NYHAN 3 hrs ago
For decades, Democrats have been the party that emphasizes concerns about inequality. So why are many top Republicans — including a number of the party’s presidential hopefuls — talking about the issue?
“Issue ownership” theories predict that parties and candidates will emphasize issues on which they have an advantage — specifically, ones in which the public tends to see their party as more competent. For instance, Democrats historically “own” education and health care, while Republicans are typically seen as better on crime and national security. Given that the G.O.P. has prioritized economic growth and opportunity over distributional concerns in recent decades, we would therefore expect concerns about inequality to be voiced primarily by Democrats like Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, not Republicans.
Yet last week, Jeb Bush gave a speech in Detroit titled “Restoring the Right to Rise in America” — the latestin a series of proposals and statements by top Republicans focusing on the rapid increase of income inequality in this country.
Though Republicans’ shift in emphasis has drawn some derisive commentary, it’s worth examining why one party might choose to “trespass” into territory associated with the other. Such a move may be necessary to address an issue that the public sees as especially important and to minimize the damage it can cause to a disadvantaged candidate or party. In his first presidential campaign, for instance, Bill Clinton successfully portrayed himself as tough on crime, defusing a highly salient issue that had been seen as a weakness of Democrats such as the party’s 1988 presidential nominee, Michael Dukakis.
Along these lines, Mr. Obama’s recent focus on inequality has helped make the issue more prominent in policy debates within Washington. But the issue is still not a top public concern — in fact, fewer than half of Americans think the government should do “a lot” to address it.
A better explanation is that the G.O.P. needs a way to criticize President Obama’s management of the economy. With more jobs being created, Republicans have been forced to shift to criticizing inequality and continued wage stagnation rather than a lack of economic growth.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/why-republicans-are-suddenly-talking-about-economic-inequality/ar-AA9lSCe
update on the man who was partially paralyzed because he was WALKING WHILE NON-WHITE
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Alabama police officer charged with assaulting Indian man
Associated Press
MADISON, Ala. — An Alabama police officer has been charged with assault and will be fired after authorities say he badly injured an Indian man whom he stopped to question as the man was walking through his son’s neighborhood. The man has filed a lawsuit, and the FBI has opened an investigation.
The lawsuit filed by Sureshbhai Patel on Thursday claims that his injuries include partial paralysis. His son said his father had to undergo surgery to fuse two vertebrae in his spine. Hours after the suit was filed, Madison Police Chief Larry Muncey announced that Officer Eric Parker would be fired.
Last Friday, Parker responded to the neighborhood in response to a call about a suspicious person walking onto driveways and looking into garages, department officials said in a statement.
Parker and other officers stopped Patel, 57, and tried talking to him but he spoke little English, authorities said.
Officers tried patting Patel down but he put his hands in his pockets and pulled away, police said. A video released by police shows an officer throwing Patel to the ground. Later, after Patel was in cuffs, the video shows officers trying to lift him to his feet but Patel’s knees buckle and the officers help him back to the ground. Officers then try to clean him up, picking things off of his clothing. Patel was taken to a local hospital, police said.
When Patel was stopped, he told police “no English,” and repeated his son’s house number, family attorney Hank Sherrod told Al.com. Sherrod claims Patel was accosted because of his brown skin.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/alabama-police-officer-charged-with-assaulting-indian-man/ar-AA9jI2j
White Water’ Makes TV One Ratings History
By Sergio | Shadow and Act
February 12, 2015 at 2:27PM
“White Water,” the period dramedy starring Sharon Leal and Larenz Tate, directed by Rusty Cundieff, and produced by Dwayne Johnson-Cochran, made TV One ratings history.
The original TV movie, which premiered on the network last Saturday, was the most watched TV One original movie premiere for the network since November 2011.
It was also, according the network, the No. 1 TV One movie telecast among Total Adults, 25-54, and the second most watched TV One program so far this year, behind the No. 1 most watched show, the NAACP Image Awards.
On the social media scale, “White Water” ranked #5 in Nielsen Social’s Daily Top 5 ranking for Saturday Feb. 7Th
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/white-water-makes-tv-one-rating-history-20150212
sigh
sigh
sigh
Well, of course, the self-certifier would come up with this. It worked for him, why not corporations
…………..
Rand Paul: What If Companies Could Create Their Own Currencies?
Feb 12, 2015 12:36 PM CST
When he travels to Silicon Valley, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul has a libertarian posse. PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel sunk seven figures into a super-PAC that supported the 2012 presidential bid of Paul’s father, Ron. In visits to tech companies, Paul has explained why the open-minded folks who become technologists should reject the leviathan grip of government. Last summer, Paul was the star of the conservative Lincoln Labs “2014: Reboot” conference, where he mused about how the crypto-currency Bitcoin could break up the money monopoly. It could lead to “Wal-Mart Coin, K-Mart Coin,” of companies building their own currencies, tied to stocks.
“Because I’m sort of a believer in currency having value,” Paul said in a separate interview, “if you’re going to create a currency, have it backed up by—you know, Hayek used to talk about a basket of commodities? You could have a basket of stocks, and have some exchangeability, because it’s hard for people like me who are a bit tangible. But you could have an average of stocks. I’m wondering if that’s the next permutation.”
Today, at another Lincoln Labs event—this one quartered at the Chamber of Commerce offices in Washington, and titled “Reboot Congress,” TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington asked Paul to expand on his view of Bitcoin.
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-02-12/rand-paul-could-big-companies-grow-their-profits-by-creating-their-own-currencies-
The Kentucky senator on a bright Bitcoin future.
They’re so simple.
They really do tickle me.
………………….
Perry: US Wants More Than ‘Young, Attractive’ Orator Obama
DOVER, N.H. — Feb 12, 2015, 9:16 PM ET
By HOLLY RAMER Associated Press
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday that voters have had enough of a “young, attractive” and inexperienced president and will be looking for a proven leader in 2016.
Perry, who is considering a second run for president, wrapped up a two-day trip to New Hampshire with a speech at the Strafford County Republican Committee’s Lincoln Day Dinner. While he repeated his warning that GOP voters shouldn’t nominate a “critic in chief,” he had plenty of criticism for President Barack Obama, saying his lack of executive experience before becoming president has hurt him and that he hasn’t picked up many management skills on the job. The nation is ready, he said, to move beyond “eight years of this years of this young, very attractive, amazing orator, junior U.S. senator.”
“I don’t think they’re going to go there,” Perry said. “They’re going to go to a tested, results-oriented executive who has a record of accomplishment.”
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/perry-us-young-attractive-orator-obama-28935049
Social Security faces threat from ‘ideological war’
02/12/15 12:36 PM—Updated 02/12/15 02:02 PM
By Steve Benen
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) sent a message to supporters yesterday, warning of a real threat to Social Security. By any fair measure, she’s right.
“We’ve known for years that Social Security Disability Insurance is set to run low in 2016, and most people assumed that another bipartisan reallocation was coming,” the senator wrote. “But now, thanks to the Republican ideological war on our most important national safety net, disabled Americans could suddenly face a 20% cut in their Social Security checks next year.”
Let’s recap for those just joining us. The Social Security system provides disability payments to Americans who want to work but can’t for health reasons. For generations, when the disability-insurance program runs short on funds, Congress transfers money from elsewhere in the Social Security system to prevent benefit cuts. The solution, sometimes called “reallocation,” has never been especially controversial – in fact, it’s been done 11 times over the last seven decades.
But last month, congressional Republicans adopted a rule change that makes it almost impossible to approve the usual, straightforward fix. GOP lawmakers seem to want to create the conditions for a crisis.
All of which led to an important Senate hearing yesterday.
Carolyn Colvin, acting commissioner for the Social Security Administration, urged senators to act first to avert the crisis at hand and then begin serious negotiations on finding a longer-term solution. She said the threatened cut in disability payments – about 19 percent – would be a “death sentence” for many of the poorest recipients, but time and again, she refused to opine on more concrete options going forward.
When Colvin read aloud the president’s six principles for future reforms, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) was scornful. “That’s a set of principles that makes sure we do absolutely nothing meaningful,” Graham said. “If that’s the president’s plan, we’ll never get there.”
And by “meaningful,” it appears Graham and other Senate Republicans are waiting for the White House to propose cuts to Social Security. (Ironically, President Obama was open to modest Social Security cuts as part of a grand bargain with GOP lawmakers, but Republicans have refused to consider any possible concessions and effectively ruled out the possibility of a compromise.)
The Politico report added that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the Senate Budget Committee’s ranking member, “angrily accused the GOP of ‘manufacturing a crisis’ to hide its intent to resurrect past proposals to cut Social Security benefits and privatize the system.”
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/social-security-faces-threat-ideological-war
Hillary Clinton should jump in now
By James Downie February 12 at 2:58 PM
If she runs, Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee in 2016. Everyone knows this. Even accounting for the unreliability of early polls, her current lead over the rest of the field (between 40 percent and 60 percentage points) dwarfs her 10 point to 20 point lead over then-Senator Barack Obama at this stage eight years ago. All that is left for her to do is formally enter the race. So why hasn’t she?
Some of those who think Clinton should wait make two arguments in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal: Waiting to announce lets the media focus on Republicans fighting each other, and it saves money on campaign operations. (There is a third argument that others make privately: Announcing now prolongs the period when Clinton is under even more scrutiny, having to take stances on every issue while avoiding “gaffes.” But Clinton is hardly silent right now, and if Democrats are truly fearful that Clinton could seriously hurt her chances in the next few months, they should probably be looking harder for another candidate.)
Clinton should want the media to focus on her would-be GOP opponents clawing at each other, but, as the Iowa caucuses get closer, Republican candidates will only get nastier toward each other. At the moment, with the exception of Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the GOP candidates are still playing nice. That comity will not last. If Clinton waits until “between April and July,” which the Journal reported is the most likely date, her announcement may not just take media attention away from Paul’s tweeting, but from some more serious internal GOP fighting.
As for the expense of starting the campaign earlier, it is true that (at least according to former top adviser Mark Penn) Clinton’s 2008 campaign managed to blow through most of the money it raised in its first year. But the proper response to the fear of repeating those errors is not to delay the campaign, but to learn from the mistakes in 2008 and from veterans of the Obama campaign, which somehow managed not to spend as foolishly. And without serious opposition, the costs for this primary will inevitably be lower.
Instead, by not setting up an official campaign, Clinton has left a vacuum that various super PACs have struggled to fill. These groups haven’t been able to raise the money they were hoping to (precisely because Clinton has delayed her entrance), and at the same time various Democratic insiders are fighting with each other for influence over Clinton. This has meant that, somehow, the prohibitive favorite for the Democratic nomination has managed to have a week of negative headlines.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2015/02/12/hillary-clinton-should-jump-in-now/
February 12, 2015
There’s Another Shutdown Fight in Washington. Republicans Will Lose This One, Too
By Danny Vinik @dannyvinik
Congressional Republicans are in a tough spot. Funding for the Department of Homeland Security expires on February 27, but conservatives are demanding that any DHS funding bill also block President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration. That’s unacceptable to Senate Democrats, who filibustered the legislation three times last week.
And now we’re stuck. Some Republican senators are urging their House colleagues to accept a “clean” funding bill that doesn’t block Obama’s unilateral actions, but that’s unacceptable to House Republicans. “The House did its job,” Speaker John Boehner said Wednesday. “Now it’s time for the Senate to do their work.” No one is quite sure how this will end. “I guess the lesson learned is don’t put yourself in a box you can’t figure out a way to get out of,” Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito said.
The exact outcome may be unpredictable, but this impasse wasn’t.
Think back two months ago, when Congress needed to reach an agreement to fund the entire government. Conservatives were still seething at the president for taking executive action on immigration and wanted to use the government funding deadline as leverage to enact concessions from Obama. Republican leadership, on the other hand, was terrified that another government shutdown would be a political disaster for the GOP, just as they regained full control over Congress. And, they argued, Republicans would have more leverage in the 114th Congress, having won the Senate in November. The compromise was to fund the government through the rest of the fiscal year—with the exception of the Department of Homeland Security, which was funded only until February 27.
Conservatives weren’t happy with the deal, but Boehner’s job was safe. More importantly, the Republican leadership had limited the political downside of a potential shutdown. Now, it wouldn’t be a full government shutdown, just one department. Given the Tea Party’s fury at Obama, that was a huge victory for Boehner.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/121046/gop-trapped-itself-homeland-security-department-funding-purpose
https://twitter.com/freemarissanow/status/565989804932747264/photo/1
https://twitter.com/nbcwashington/status/566240401150197760/photo/1
Yay!
A president without a diploma?
02/12/15 03:34 PM—UPDATED 02/12/15 05:19 PM
By Steve Benen
Every major presidential candidate, at least in modern times, has come to expect a thorough review of their background. It just comes with the territory, and while occasionally unpleasant, it’s arguably a valuable part of the process.
And if part of a candidate’s background is particularly unusual, it stands to reason that this will be of particular interest to political reporters looking for something interesting to say about candidates. For example, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) doesn’t have a college degree, a detail noted in an interesting Washington Post report yesterday.
I get the sense the right is feeling a bit defensive about this, for reasons that seem wholly unnecessary. RedState, for example, had this item last night (thanks to my colleague Kent Jones for the heads-up):
I fully understand and even approve of the need to vet candidates who are running for the highest office in the land, or any office for that matter. The public needs to know the character of the person who will represent their will. But, the media chose not to do that for Barack Obama, and they are maliciously slinging mud against a man who hasn’t officially announced it yet. The bias is plain as day and, sadly, it’s unsurprising.
I honestly have no idea what this is supposed to mean. For one thing, Obama’s life was under the microscope for two years in the 2008 campaign and we learned about his background in granular detail. If he didn’t graduate from college, I imagine the Washington Post would have done a piece about that, too.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/president-without-diploma
Liberals’ secret Koch strategy
Activist groups to focus on brothers’ labor, environmental practices.
By Tarini Parti
2/13/15 5:40 AM EST
After trying and failing to make the Koch brothers the focus of the mid-term election, Democrats are digging deeper into the billionaire brothers’ operations to combat their prodigious fundraising and making them the focus — once again — of the 2016 election.
Representatives of several powerful Democratic groups — from unions to abortion rights activists and environmentalists — gathered behind closed doors on Tuesday to take the next steps in plotting a strategy for dealing with Charles and David Koch’s plan to raise and spend more than $889 million over the next two years.
They emerged with a commitment to expand their rapid-response and research teams to fight back against the Kochs’ political agenda, according to attendees. And the host of the meeting, the well-funded opposition-research group American Bridge, has been pouring resources into a series of state reports that will focus on the Koch brothers’ business practices — environmental record, layoffs and outsourcing – and their impact in key states such as Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Ohio and Wisconsin for Democrats to use in campaigns nationwide.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/02/koch-strategy-liberals-115163.html#ixzz3RdNJceGO
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Take The Money And Run
Posted by Zandar
If you want to get more into the weeds on Obamacare, you should be reading Richard Mayhew’s posts over at Balloon Juice frankly, but I wanted to point out a couple of things in the latest Obamacare sign-up numbers.
Signups for ObamaCare are surging in southern states, with increases of nearly 100 percent in some states compared to last year, federal health officials said Wednesday.
Texas, Louisiana, South Carolina and Mississippi have each seen 80 percent more signups compared to last year, Deputy Administrator Andy Slavitt said.
The same states are also reporting the fastest rate of growth in the final two weeks of the current enrollment period, which ends Feb. 15. Each of the states has reported 5 percent more signups over the last two weeks compared to last year.
The trend is particularly significant given that the Republican governors in each of the states have made little or no effort to promote signups, leaving the outreach to state and national healthcare advocacy groups. State leaders, like Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, have been some of the law’s harshest critics.
“Real simply, I think word is spreading. I think word of mouth is spreading really positively as neighbors tell neighbors how easy it’s been to get coverage this year,” Slavitt told reporters in a briefing Wednesday.
And these new signups on federal exchange red states with no Medicaid expansion are exactly the folks who are going to get screwed should King v Burwell go south in June. They are the most likely to be able to get subsidies because of low income (providing they don’t fall into the gap left by refusal to expand Medicaid), and the ones least likely to be able to afford insurance without them, should Scalia and company have their way.
In other words, Jindal and Abbott and Phil Bryant and Nikki Haley are going to have a bunch of rather angry constituents on their hands. The conventional wisdom is that red state governors are somehow going to be the ones pushing for a post-King fix should it come to that.
I doubt they will. They’ll simply blame Obama and walk away from the mess. It’s not like voters give a damn enough to punish these clowns. It’s possible that there may be a critical mass demanding Congress fix subsidies, but even best case scenario on that is Boehner and McConnell going “OK, so what do you want to give us in order to fix this?” and that’s without a full Tea Party revolt at the idea of “fixing” Obamacare.
It’s just depressing to believe that we’re seriously talking about the likely possibility of the Supreme
Court wrecking the lives of millions over a goddamn typo, and it’s just obscene to consider the aftermath of a situation.
http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2015/02/take-money-and-run.html
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Last Call For Ore-Gone Crazy
Posted by Zandar
I’m beginning to wonder if at this point, there’s anything that Oregon Dem Gov. John Kitzhaber can do correctly without looking like a moron.
Gov. John Kitzhaber decided to resign Tuesday but then changed his mind, insisting Wednesday afternoon that he’s staying, The Oregonian/OregonLive has learned.
Events developed as the Democratic governor, now in a historic fourth term and fighting multiple investigations, faced eroding support from other elected officials and even his own advisers.
The governor decided to pull back from resigning – set for Thursday or Friday — after meeting with his attorney, Portland lawyer Jim McDermott, and his fiancée, Cylvia Hayes. Hayes’ role in his administration has been the source of much of his troubles.
The account of the tumultuous 24 hours was developed from a half-dozen sources with knowledge of the events.
My lawyer and my crazy fiancee talked me out of resigning” is a really, really good sign you need to resign anyway, man.
http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2015/02/last-call-for-ore-gone-crazy.html
HSBC whistleblower: There are ‘more revelations’
He came across as credible, assured and clear in what he is trying to achieve.
Nothing less than a “battle against secrecy”.
And now Herve Falciani has revealed that far from this week being the end of the story, there is still plenty of information that is likely to come out about HSBC.
One million new bits of data, to be precise.
He says work will start soon on analysing the information.
And that a major oil company could be next to feel the effects of a major data leak about how it operates.
‘Relieved’
Mr Falciani is the man behind the largest data leak in banking history – and after days of revelations about HSBC and tax evasion by its wealthy customers between 2005 and 2007, he now says he feels vindicated.
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-31451644
https://twitter.com/thehill/status/566224051111460864/photo/1
https://twitter.com/NerdyWonka/status/566217902517280768/photo/1
incompetent boobs
…………
GOP infighting grows over Homeland Security funding
By Cristina Marcos and Rebecca Shabad – 02/13/15 06:00 AM EST
GOP infighting between the House and Senate is growing as Republicans work to prevent a partial shutdown of the Homeland Security Department at the end of the month.
House conservatives on Thursday pointedly criticized Senate Republicans for saying a House-approved bill funding the agency and reversing President Obama’s executive actions on immigration was dead in the Senate.
If we’re going to allow seven Democratic senators to decide what the agenda is of the House Republican conference, of the Senate Republican majority, then we might as well just give them the chairmanships, give them the leadership of the Senate,” Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) said at an event held with the Heritage Foundation.
He and other conservatives called for Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) to gut the Senate’s filibuster if necessary to move the House bill to President Obama. With Democrats objecting to the immigration language, Republicans in the Senate are far short of the 60 votes needed to overcome procedural hurdles.
Senate Republicans quickly fired back at Labrador, arguing the suggestion was unrealistic.
“We should change 200 years of precedent?” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told The Hill. “No. If you change it for one issue, then you change it forever.”
Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), who previously served in the House, said the upper chamber shouldn’t change its rules because the move could backfire for the GOP.
“Any time you start taking 51 votes and declaring 51 as 60, and use the nuclear option, you change the filibuster forever on it,” he said. “It’s one thing to change the filibuster on nominations, it’s another to change it on legislative action. The Senate should have a protection for the minority. Both parties will be in the minority at different points. We need to be able to protect the rights of the minority.”
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/232704-gop-infighting-grows-over-homeland-security-funding
Lawyer helping Chicago Little League team stripped of title
Associated Press
By DON BABWIN, Associated Press 4 hrs ago
CHICAGO — A day after Little League International stripped Chicago’s Jackie Robinson West of its national championship, team officials announced they’ve hired a high-profile attorney to conduct an investigation they hope will end with the return of their title.
The sport’s governing body announced Wednesday that team officials had violated regulations by including players who didn’t qualify because they lived outside the team’s boundaries, then scrambled to get adjacent leagues to go along with the scheme. But attorney Victor Henderson said Thursday he will try to determine not only whether the team broke any rules but whether — as supporters in Chicago have suggested — Little League International unfairly singled them out.
“I want to make sure that whatever rules and regulations are being applied to Jackie Robinson West are being applied to any other team,” Henderson said during a news conference, flanked by members of the family that runs the league on the city’s South Side and the team’s manager, who has been suspended.
Henderson said it is too early to say if Jackie Robinson West will file a lawsuit against Little League International.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/more-sports/lawyer-helping-chicago-little-league-team-stripped-of-title/ar-AA9lI76?ocid=HPCDHP
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Happy Friday, everyone!
Happy Friday, Everyone! :-)
Gladys week has been fantstic, Rikyrah. Thank you! Gladys knows how to wear a head pieces. LOL
Glad you liked this week with Ms. Knight.
I concur.