Anita Denise Baker (born January 26, 1958 is an American singer-songwriter. Starting her career in the late-1970s with the funk band Chapter 8, Baker eventually released her first solo album, The Songstress, in 1983. In 1986, she rose to stardom following the release of her platinum-selling second album, Rapture, which included the Grammy-winning single “Sweet Love”. To date, Baker has won eight Grammy Awards and has five platinum albums and one gold album to her credit. Baker’s vocal range is contralto.
Anita Baker was born on January 26, 1958 in Toledo, Ohio. When she was two, her mother abandoned her and Baker was raised by a foster family in Detroit, Michigan.[7] When Baker was twelve, her foster parents died and her foster sister raised her afterwards.[7] By the time Baker was sixteen, she began singing R&B at Detroit nightclubs. After one performance, she was discovered by bandleader David Washington, who gave her a card to audition for the funk band, Chapter 8.
https://twitter.com/MikeNBC12/status/578334240556863488/photo/1
https://twitter.com/Lib_Librarian/status/578325032062955520
Please indulge me great women owners of this great blog, but I’ve got to get something off my chest.
The threat to Caroline Kennedy was made in February. FLOTUS is in Japan today on an official visit – her first in that country, and one she embarked upon for a myriad of educational and diplomatic official reasons, including the fact that the Japanese really wanted her to visit.
So, here’s the FLOTUS who’s received the most death threats in American history, (and all without a single peep from our media because heaven forbid the truth about racism in this country be confronted);
So here’s FLOTUS arriving in Tokyo, Japan for her first official visit, and all of a sudden, the media is all abuzz with ‘breaking news’ of a telephone threat to Caroline Kennedy. That’s all over the news. But even more ridiculous and incredibly disrespectful as far as I’m concerned, is the fact that Ms. Kennedy, our Ambassador to Japan is not on the ground at the airport when FLOTUS lands in Tokyo.
I can’t imagine that Ms Kennedy would have thought it okay that her own mother, a former first lady would arrive on an important official first visit and not be met by the Ambassador of that host country. It’d never have happened. Don’t care if the ambassador was recovering from a major illness, they’d be there with the intravenous drips still hanging.
And where was Ms Kennedy you ask? Well, turns out the big woman was delivering a lecture at a Tokyo University – and just the night before, had dinner and was hanging out with Bill Clinton who’s in Tokyo visiting too. Yup, the same Bill Clinton who together with his wife, aggressively went after, slandered and blocked Ms. Kennedy when she tried to run for Hillary’s Senate seat. Brazenly snatching and handing the seat to Kirsten Gillibrand.
This is important because I can’t imagine Ms. Kennedy or any other U.S Ambassador for that matter, putting their own personal plans and self-promotion over their official duty of welcoming a white FLOTUS to their host country. Actually, it would have been deemed an abomination, and probably cost them their jobs.
When FLOTUS visited China last year, the U.S Ambassador to China – former Senator Max Baucus, a rabid blue dog Democrat who was often hostile to the President, was at the airport together with his wife to meet FLOTUS. They accompanied her on most of her stops around China. And this was supposed to be the hostile guy.
You know, I’m sure Mrs Obama will ignore the insult and be as warm and gracious to Ms Kennedy when they do meet, but my mother has often contended that Mrs Obama has been far more disrespected and much worse, by some of our fellow Democrats. And many of these high-profile white liberal women have been the most hostile to her. Sure, they suck up to the President when it suits their purposes, but they’ve never been gracious or respectful to Mrs Obama. They’ve never come to her defense when she’s been attacked, nor have they lifted a finger in support of her. Heck, the ambassador can’t even be bothered to do her job of meeting the First Lady at the airport!
So forgive me if I don’t give a rats arse that Caroline Kennedy has gotten a death threat. Our First Lady lives every day with thousands of those – and nary a peep from anyone.
And if Ms Kennedy thinks she’s now too big to go meet and greet the First Lady of the United States who’s visiting the country where she’s our diplomatic representative, then it’s really time for Caroline Kennedy-Schlossberg to pack up her bags and return to New York.
Frankly, I’m sick and tired of this nonsense.
Indulge away, ellihass. Frankly, I could give a flying FUNGUS about Caroline Kennedy-Schlossberg and definitely Hillary Clinton.
They shown their asses, we smell them, and we know how foul the games they play.
Remember these two come from that camp where dynasty matters. That Black Michelle came along with that Black Barack, and cut that line of tired, old, white politicians & their families in the White House.
First Lady Michelle Obama has more grace, class, elegance, intelligence, strength, and yes LOVE than these women.
So, some racist troll @cowbow1922 latches onto FLOTUS’ Instagram account spewing the usual crap about who’s paying for her official visit to Japan, blah, blah, blah.
So along comes this burning response by @my_life_as_char:
@cowboy1922, Well, it’s certainly not you. You probably have way more hate and resentment than money to fund her trip. So, I suggest you let her represent the country on this goodwill mission and you keep watch over the deep fryer at KFC. 👀
Loved it!
*hollering* That was so good. Still laughing!
SO ON POINT
BWA HA HA HA HA HA
Nothing but white trash who are bitter, because how dare Michelle Obama actually EARN her way in life, especially with her husband into the highest office in the land!
Probably goes home every night smelling of grease and chicken! LOL
Obama snubs Netanyahu and criticises Israeli PM’s ‘divisive rhetoric’
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/18/obama-netanyahu-israel-election-white-house
President has yet to call Israeli PM to congratulate him on his election victory, as White House says it will have to re-evaluate its approach to peace talks.
The White House has made clear its dismay at Binyamin Netanyahu’s sweeping victory in the Israeli elections with a stinging rebuke of the “divisive rhetoric” used by the Israeli leader in the closing stages of the election.
President Obama has not called to congratulate Netanyahu, who is now attempting to build a coalition between rightwing parties and his own Likud, which won decisively in parliamentary elections on Tuesday.
But the White House said it would be forced to re-evaluate its policy on the Middle East peace process after Netanyahu abandoned a prior commitment to an independent Palestinian state, apparently to shore up support among conservatives in Israel.
“The United States and this administration is deeply concerned about rhetoric that seeks to marginalise Arab Israeli citizens,” Earnest said. “It undermines the values and democratic ideals that have been important to our democracy and an important part of what binds the United States and Israel together.”
He added: “Rhetoric that seeks to marginalise one segment of their population is deeply concerning, it is divisive, and I can tell you that these are views the administration intends to communicate directly to the Israelis.”
TheDemocrats
We’re watching you & how you respond to Netanyahu’s vile racism against a Palestinian State, against Arabs. Where do you stand?
If you stand with Netanyahu & Israel, you stand with vile ugly racism & all of it’s destructiveness. Israel’s re-election of him showed us they’re in agreement with him. Time to cut ties with this bigotry & hate.
Netanyahu is beyond contemptible. A man so greedy and short-sighted, he’ll destroy any chance at peace in a region and the world, just so he can keep power as prime minister. Truly evil personified.
It’s scary, Eliihass.
Employing blatant racism and exploiting the prejudice-driven fears of fellow racists and low-info citizens, this man will do long-term damage to keep his political career going for the short term.
And everyone simply shrugs per usual, with most talking heads giving Netanyahu a pass and even impressed at how he pulled it off, with nary a thought for the short and long term ramifications of his actions and his ‘winning’ message.
https://twitter.com/Variety/status/578258027142250496/photo/1
I’ve got to get this series and watch it from beginning.
Season 1 was terrific.
Season 2 went off course, but thank goodness it finally corrected itself.
WSJ’s Jason Riley: Black Progress Was Better “When Whites Were Still Lynching Blacks
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/03/18/wsjs-jason-riley-black-progress-was-better-when/202942
another slave catcher.
Attorney General Holder Jokes Republicans Have ‘A New Fondness For Me’
March 18, 2015 1:45 PM ET
Attorney General Eric Holder joked Wednesday that given nearly six months of Senate delays in confirming his successor at the Justice Department, “it’s almost as if the Republicans in Congress have discovered a new fondness for me.”
“I’m feeling love there that I haven’t felt for some time. And where was all this affection the last six years?” the attorney general asked, to laughter, in brief remarks at the Center for American Progress in Washington.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2015/03/18/393844505/attorney-general-holder-jokes-republicans-have-a-new-fondness-for-me?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=politics&utm_medium=social&utm_term=nprnews
https://twitter.com/people/status/578195434755264512/photo/1
Hey Chicas! John Kerry called Netanyahu to congratulate him. Potus didn’t. WH says he’ll call in a few days. Potus is TICKED!
https://twitter.com/AliABCNews/status/578233393042714624
https://twitter.com/AliABCNews/status/578238897915707392
Then stop funding Israel’s RACIST Prime Minister and his cohorts.
https://twitter.com/kerrywashington/status/577519935552950272/photo/1
Ladies, check your email
Illinois’ Kirk suggests Dems are defending slavery
03/18/15 12:52 PM
By Steve Benen
When congressional Republicans threatened to shut down the Department of Homeland Security last month, Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) embraced some unfortunate rhetorical excesses. Indeed, in some instances, he was arguably hysterical, urging the GOP to “build a number of coffins outside each Democratic office.”
That was last month’s fight. This month’s fight is over a human-trafficking bill, which used to enjoy bipartisan support until Republican senators added an anti-abortion provision. The debate has led Kirk to once again use some truly bizarre rhetoric.
“[Senate Democrats] are making the same mistake that Democrats made in the 1850s when they defended slavery,” he said. “We should all be neo-abolitionists here, to make sure that there is no right in America to enslave others using the Internet.”
Look, we can have a spirited conversation about the parties and ideologies of the mid-19th century, but to suggest modern-day Democrats are defending slavery is just bonkers.
The legislative history here isn’t complicated: there was bipartisan support for the human-trafficking bill. Then Democrats learned that Republicans quietly inserted an anti-abortion provision into the legislation, prompting Dems to ask that the bill be put back the way it was. The GOP has refused, so the bill is stuck.
This is a substantive disagreement over a policy. It’s not a defense of slavery.
Kirk must understand this because he also told Roll Call yesterday that he wishes his own party “hadn’t junked that bill up with abortion politics.” He added that the GOP majority should act “as a governing party, always keep bills focused on their main purpose, not link them to the hot social issues of our time.”
If Democrats agree with this Mark Kirk sentiment, they’re “making the same mistake that Democrats made in the 1850s when they defended slavery”?
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/illinois-kirk-suggests-dems-are-defending-slavery
https://twitter.com/markknoller/status/578220476310384640/photo/1
https://twitter.com/MillionHoodies/status/578231058732347392
MAKING OF A HIT
03.18.15
How to Build an ‘Empire’: Co-Creator Danny Strong Reveals the Secrets Behind the Show’s Success
It’s been decades since a TV show has been as addictive as Empire. Ahead of its finale, co-creator Danny Strong discusses the show’s record rise, controversies, backlash, and more.
The day before Empire premiered on Fox, Danny Strong, who co-created the blockbuster hit series with Lee Daniels, called his agent to ask about ratings. Fresh off the box-office success of The Butler, which he co-wrote, and critical accolades for his TV movies Game Change and Recount—which aired on HBO, where viewership is more of a novelty than a necessity—he was kind of clueless about the whole thing.
“I called and said, ‘So what’s good?’” he says, laughing hysterically at the silliness of the question now.
After all, Empire’s unprecedented ratings success has become the stuff of TV legend. The wildly popular, outlandishly bold, and irresistibly addictive soap opera about a hip-hop mogul and his epically flawed family was the first drama in 21 years to score higher ratings in each of its first three weeks. And then it kept growing for every single one of its nine episodes, all leading up to its hotly anticipated season finale airing Wednesday night.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/03/18/how-to-build-an-empire-co-creator-danny-strong-reveals-the-secrets-behind-the-show-s-success.html?via=newsletter&source=DDMorning
LOL
………..
I’m actually black’: Awkwardness ensues when journalist calls radio host Jay Smooth white
David Ferguson
18 Mar 2015 at 09:45 ET
n one of the most cringe-worthy moments of television you will ever see, on Tuesday night’s All In with Chris Hayes, activist Nancy Giles of CBS Sunday Morning accused hip hop critic and cultural commentator Jay Smooth of being a white man who is trying to “code switch,” i.e., talk “black” to reach the rap audience.
Smooth — who was born John Randolph to a black father and a white mother — gently explained to Giles that he is, in fact, black.
The discussion began innocently enough, with Hayes and his two guests discussing Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz’s decree that all U.S. baristas should write the words “Race together” in Sharpie on their paper cups in order to foster a dialogue about race with their customers.
But after watching Smooth’s clip “How to Tell Someone They Sound Racist,” Giles took it upon herself to comment on Smooth’s “co-opting blackness.”
“I can’t not tease Jay about the kinda like ‘brotha’ way he was trying to talk, like, ‘Hey,’ with the rap music in the background, and like down with the people,” Giles said.
“I’m a rap guy,” Smooth explained.
She continued, “Yeah, I know, but it’s another interesting, funny thing about race. Like, there would be some people that would feel that you co-opted something like that, and other people might feel like that’s his background and that’s really cool, too. These are conversations, you know, ‘Yo, like ya know, yeah, if somebody takes my wallet,’ I mean it’s really interesting.”
“It’s also interesting because I’m actually black, but you assumed otherwise,” Smooth countered. “And this is the sort of awkwardness that we can look forward to at Starbucks across America.”
Watch the video, embedded below via MSNBC:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/im-actually-black-awkwardness-ensues-when-journalist-calls-radio-host-jay-smooth-white/
Jay proved the point. Starbuck “race together” nonsense was total bull$hit.
This whole Starbucks thing was just another way for white folks to get a pass on addressing their own racism by writing race together on a fucking cup.
That’s it in a nutshell. We talk about racism and call it out, because we experience, and even if some white folks don’t overtly behave in racist ways, they don’t want to talk about it. it’s too much like looking in the mirror to examine themselves, and God for bid they should do that, be held responsible for those kinds of beliefs and behaviors.
Jay: “The intentions seem noble and I want to keep an open mind, but I think there’s already this strange fixation on ‘conversation’ when it comes to race that you don’t see with other issues we want to take seriously. … If you look at the DOJ report on Ferguson it does not describe issues that can be addressed by increasing the number of chats in coffee shops. We’re talking about institutional, systemic issues.”
that’s because the President belongs to the NFTG club
…………………….
Stephen Collinson: Obama Redefines The Lame Duck Presidency
At the time in his tenure when most presidents fret over their waning clout, Barack Obama is redefining the concept of the lame duck. His administration has been energized by his aggressive use of executive power. Some of the most hard-won achievements of his early years in office are beginning to pay off. And his political luck seems to be turning. With a term and a half behind him, Obama’s prospects are brighter than they have been for years. Though Republicans paint Obama’s glass as half full, and argued that the administration is overstating its record, that hasn’t rattled the man in the Oval Office.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/17/politics/obama-politics-white-house/index.html
I’m thinking PBO has never relied on LUCK for anything.
Hopefully he has relied on Americans to be smarter than the DUMB hucksters who try to pawn us and throw us back into the 18th century.
https://twitter.com/petermaer/status/578218737091756033
Well now! Senator Dick Durbin, you’re on POINT.
Black girl’s parents banned from school after complaining about racist threats warning, ‘N****rs don’t belong’
18 MAR 2015 AT 09:22 ET
An Indiana sixth-grader’s parents were banned from school after confronting administrators over racist threats made against their daughter.
NyZeria Neely, the only black student in her high-ability class at Concord Intermediate School, said she found a pair of threatening notes in her locker two weeks in a row.
The first note, which she found last week, warned, “Watch your back,” reported the Elkhart Truth.
The second note, which she found Monday, read, “N****rs don’t belong!!!”
NyZeria said she considered crumpling up the second note, fearing no one would understand how she felt targeted in a school where just 10 percent of students are black and 2 percent of school personnel.
http://www.elkharttruth.com/news/schools/concord-high-school/2015/03/17/Notes-with-threats-racial-slurs-found-in-Concord-Intermediate-student-s-locker.html
I tweeted this to Melissa Harris Perry.
WAYMENT, the parents complained about RACIST threatening notes to their child, and the parents get banned from the school?
My head is spinning…..
https://twitter.com/ReignOfApril/status/577902829442101248
https://twitter.com/thepipsqueaks/status/577910327460933633
https://twitter.com/ReignOfApril/status/577901887212617729
https://twitter.com/PlMPCESS/status/577884423657373696
https://twitter.com/JamaicanScholar/status/577922395643777024
https://twitter.com/brokeymcpoverty/status/577924468321984513
Netanyahu’s racist bigotry came bubbling out. He couldn’t keep it inside. And voters rewarded him.
Bibi’s Ugly Win Will Harm Israel http://zite.to/1x0BGl8
I knew this would happen, I just knew it. Either the fix is in or he really got the most votes, but either way, it was going to happen.
This is the world we live in, folks. This is our f**king world. Unconditional US support for Israel is what enables this because without that, Israel would have to learn to get along with their neighbors. They would have to learn that it’s not okay to kill one or two thousand Palestinians every two or three years. They would have to honor the human rights of all people, even the Palestinians who they want to disappear. God help us.
USA, PBO & anyone parroting this bullshit- “Our bond with Israel is unbreakable.”
Well then so is the bond to support America’s RACISM!
Absolutely. It’s no coincidence that the most racist political party in the US, the GOP, is trying to build this exclusive alliance with Net’n-Yahoo and his Israeli warmongering supporters. They both believe in the supremacy of their respective race/ethnicity and they place zero value on the lives of those who they believe to be inferior.
https://twitter.com/bulaong_ramiz/status/577903663357812737
https://twitter.com/bulaong_ramiz/status/577903433069568000
https://twitter.com/bulaong_ramiz/status/577903356833865731
https://twitter.com/bulaong_ramiz/status/577903304300199937
https://twitter.com/bulaong_ramiz/status/577902597056630784
https://twitter.com/bulaong_ramiz/status/577902076874878976
https://twitter.com/ReignOfApril/status/577903592222429185
ALL Tweets… ON POINT
https://twitter.com/thinkprogress/status/577857345268662272
https://twitter.com/Wonkblog/status/577936001651335168
https://twitter.com/ViceMayne/status/577669267107155968
https://twitter.com/ReignOfApril/status/577688120365330432
This is a damn shame.
Racism is TAUGHT. period.
…………………….
Parents won’t let daughter attend birthday sleepover because birthday girl is black
POSTED 2:45 PM, MARCH 17, 2015, BY CNN WIRE
MEMPHIS, Tennessee — A young girl wrote her friend a letter that explained she could not go to her birthday party because she is black. The children are students at Highland Oaks Elementary near Memphis. Civil rights activist Lasimba Gray said he hoped the letter can turn into a teaching experience.
“Fifty-two years since the Dr. King ‘I have a dream speech,’ you would think that the basis for racism would disappear, but evidently it is being perpetuated by those who teach it,” Gray said. Gray, who has dedicated his life to civil and human rights, said when he saw the letter he called it “regrettable” because a parent told their child it was OK to judge someone based on the color of their skin.
“Every child has a blank canvas when they come into the world,” Gray said.
The letter reads in part, “Maybe I will not be able to go to your birthday sleepover because my dad will not let me go because you are black.”
http://wtvr.com/2015/03/17/birthday-letter/
I know this happened because it happened to my daughter. When we moved into our neighborhood in 1981, we were the only black family living here. My daughter used to play with the other kids, and some of them would eat lunch and dinner with us. Well, one year I decided to invite her playmates to her birthday party. None of them showed up. The little girl she walked to school with everyday told her that her step-mom said she couldn’t come to the party because she’s black. Never mind that I was better-educated and made more money than their parents, they just couldn’t get past our blackness. None of the parents said anything about my daughter playing with their kids or about them eating at my house, but having their kids come to my daughter’s birthday party was going “too far” in their minds. My daughter was very hurt because she didn’t understand. She thought that surely, if they were her playmates and could eat at the same table in her house, they could attend her birthday party. If I live to be 100, I’ll never forget how those racist b*stards treated my kid. Out of all of the kids she played with, she was the only one to graduate from high school and college with honors. This was the best revenge.
majiir, sometimes the kids pay the ultimate price for the hateful acts of racism.
But education is the best REVENGE, education that racist behaviors are not ours to take on. Being white must be so very painful for these folks, being that is all they have to hold onto to feel like they are worth more than anyone else.
https://twitter.com/nwlc/status/577845667927703552
https://twitter.com/jbendery/status/577905735058743296
https://twitter.com/jbendery/status/577888905443340288
https://twitter.com/TheRoot/status/577800889957744640
All this week, he made us one consistent promise: In his coming term as prime minister, there will be no hope. It is one promise that we have all come to believe he can keep.
By Bradley Burston | Mar. 18, 2015 | 12:00 PM
This week, push came to shove.
This week, we saw how things really work. How our prime minister really thinks. What he’s willing to do, how far he’s willing to go, how many of us he’s willing to sell out, slander, abuse, for the sake of hanging on to the thing that matters to him more than anything: his job.
After this week, we can never again say that we didn’t quite know who Benjamin Netanyahu is.
As an Israeli, I am ashamed that my prime minister is a racist.
http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/a-special-place-in-hell/.premium-1.647564#!
Welcome to the jungle, dude.
How many thousands of Palestinians has Net’n-Yahoo killed? I think most reasonable people who have been paying attention already knew that he is racist.
https://twitter.com/absurdistwords/status/577940138619248640
https://twitter.com/capetownbrown/status/577893169125285888
https://twitter.com/dsheehy100/status/577860060031795203
https://twitter.com/MADBLACKTHOT/status/577525753991991296
Charles M. Blow ✔ @CharlesMBlow
When ppl say “playing the race card” they are diminishing the effects of racism and reasonable reactions to it. Its a privileged dismissal.
It’s trash talk, overused trash talk. Unoriginal and without meaning, overused by people who go through life without thinking, just repeating what they hear because they want to talk even though they have nothing to say.
Jeb Bush makes the case for a $0 federal minimum wage
03/18/15 08:40 AM—UPDATED 03/18/15 09:02 AM
facebook twitter 0 save share group 17
By Steve Benen
For decades, the political debate surrounding the federal minimum wage has had fairly narrow parameters: the discussion was limited to those who wanted to increase the wage and those who wanted to keep it at current levels.
But as Republican politics moved to the right, a new contingent emerged: GOP lawmakers who believe federal minimum wage should be lowered from $7.25 to $0.
The far-right position is more common among congressional Republicans, but lately we’ve seen a growing number of GOP presidential hopefuls who’ve made the same argument – former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), for example, have both said they’re comfortable with eliminating the federal minimum wage altogether.
Yesterday in South Carolina, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) appeared to endorse the same approach.
“We need to leave it to the private sector. I think state minimum wages are fine. The federal government shouldn’t be doing this. This is one of those poll-driven deals. It polls well, I’m sure – I haven’t looked at the polling, but I’m sure on the surface without any conversation, without any digging into it people say, ‘Yea, everybody’s wages should be up.’ And in the case of Wal-Mart they have raised wages because of supply and demand and that’s good.
“But the federal government doing this will make it harder and harder for the first rung of the ladder to be reached, particularly for young people, particularly for people that have less education.”
The likely Republican candidate insisted a higher minimum wage would hurt workers at the bottom of the income scale. “Politically, I’m sure it’s a great soundbite,” Bush concluded. “But from an economic point of view this is not how we need to be successful.”
Taken at face value, Jeb’s comments weren’t just expressing opposition to a minimum-wage increase, such as the one supported by President Obama, congressional Democrats, and most Americans. Rather, Bush seemed to be making an explicit case for eliminating the federal minimum wage altogether.
When The Hill asked Bush aides whether the former governor was making the case against a federal wage increase or against the existence of the federal minimum-wage law, the Republican’s staffers didn’t want to talk about it. That said, Bush comments didn’t leave much in the way of ambiguity.
As for the candidate’s substantive argument against the minimum wage, it’s worth emphasizing that there’s ample evidence that points in the exact opposite direction.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/jeb-bush-makes-the-case-0-federal-minimum-wage
https://twitter.com/ReignOfApril/status/577801460026613760
https://twitter.com/anildash/status/577673254619521024
https://twitter.com/SenatorBaldwin/status/577895714367242240
https://twitter.com/Medium/status/577894190085853184
how come he resigns and JJJ is in jail.
Please note that the car in question does NOT have 170k miles on it.
………………………………
https://twitter.com/sethporges/status/578005290467115008
I sense a thread coming on about Schock.
uh huh
uh huh
https://twitter.com/AbbyMartin/status/578154417914036225
https://twitter.com/metaquest/status/578182333653635072
https://twitter.com/thinkprogress/status/578180939563581440
https://twitter.com/FLOTUSnews/status/578177247921717248/photo/1
http://youtu.be/8vz6sLyKUQQ
She’s gorgeous. I’m so glad and very proud that she’s ramping up her international work.
FLOTUS’ dress… ME LIKEY!
https://twitter.com/UltraVerified/status/578169832937492481
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Tanks For The Memories
Posted by Zandar
West Virginia passed legislation regulating safety of all the state’s chemical storage tanks in the wake of last year’s chemical spill that contaminated tap water for more than 300,000 people. Over the weekend however, Republicans rewrote the legislation to cover only a quarter of the state’s tanks, in a major victory for chemical and energy companies.
The rest of the state’s other 38,000 plus tanks? Well, who knows and who cares. The free market will see to those. And should another major chemical leak happen in those bigger tanks between three-year inspections, well, residents have been through it before, they’ll know what to do. We can’t have businesses spending money of ludicrous things like “keeping public drinking water safe.”
http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2015/03/tanks-for-memories.html
Watch Ava DuVernay’s Rousing SXSW Keynote Address
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
March 17, 2015 at 5:45PM
Twitter was all-abuzz over Ava DuVernay’s SXSW keynote address, in which she impressed upon the festival audience a familiar message of self-agency and empowerment – familiar because that’s very much in keeping with how she approaches her own life and career. And if you’ve been following her journey since many of us were first introduced to her – when she launched AFFRM a few years ago – you’d already know this.
During her SXSW speech, she declared to the crowd that she had enjoyed “the most awesome f—ing year,” despite the controversy that followed “Selma” after its release. And, from the outside looking in, it does appear that it has indeed been one hell of a year for the director, who marches on seemingly resolutely.
Full of quotables, the roughly hour-long keynote address (which includes a 20-minute Q&A) is embedded below. Of note, I’m sure many of you will be thrilled to hear her share her desire to bring Octavia Butler’s “Kindred” to the big screen, if she were granted the rights. As I mentioned on Twitter, now that she’s made her interest public, I wouldn’t at all be surprised if her wish is granted. “Kindred” is a novel that’s been optioned a number of times over the years, since it was first published in 1979, but funding was the usual hurdle each optioner couldn’t get over. But if anyone is in any position today to break through that wall, it’s probably Ms DuVernay.
There was of course a lot more to her speech than that. So I’ll say no more, and just present it to you below:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/watch-ava-duvernays-rousing-sxsw-keynote-address-20150317
Can’t wait to view the video. Thanks for this.
Watch Trailer for Rashida Jones’ New TV Comedy ‘Angie Tribeca’ (There’s Just That One Thing Though…)
By Sergio | Shadow and Act
March 17, 2015 at 6:33PM
Here is the first trailer for the new TBS comedy series “Angie Tribeca,” starring Rashida Jones as a cop on the Los Angeles Police force in the RHCU (Really Heinous Crimes Unit). It’s obvious from the trailer that the show is trying to recapture that joke-a-second, off-the wall absurdist humor from other similar TV police comedies of the 1980’s, such as the still classic “Police Squad” with Leslie Nielsen (which became the basis for those hysterical “Naked Gun” comedy movies) and “Sledgehammer.”
However something seems off in this trailer. The humor feels too forced and not absurdist enough, and Jones, at least to me, is woefully miscast in the role. She doesn’t seem to understand this kind of humor, or get into the spirit of things. But there’s something else too…
I just can’t put my finger on it. But there’s something about her that annoys me. I’m trying to come with a word…
O.K. she’s passing.
There… I said it. She’s passing. She’s always been passing. Even her sister Kidada said so herself (in an interview back in 2012 and, yes, I looked that up).
So I guess it means that I probably won’t be watching “Angie Tribeca” even though I love “Police Squad.”
The question is will you?
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/watch-promo-trailer-for-rashida-jones-new-tv-comedy-angie-tribeca-theres-just-that-one-thing-though-20150317
Clues Into Tomorrow’s Season Finale? The ‘Empire’ Cast & Writers Describe the Episode in 3 Words
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
March 17, 2015 at 8:31PM
Watch Terrence Howard, Taraji P. Henson, Jussie Smollett, Grace Gealey, Ta’Rhonda Jones, Kaitlin Doubleday, Bryshere Y. Gray and “Empire’s” writers each share 3 words that describe the upcoming finale:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/clues-into-tomorrows-season-finale-the-empire-cast-writers-describe-the-episode-in-3-words-20150317
TONIGHT: PBS Digs into Poverty & Education Challenges in New Documentary ‘180 Days: Hartsville’
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
March 17, 2015 at 10:55AM
The inspiring new documentary, “180 Days: Hartsville,” takes a fresh look at the nation’s poverty and education challenges in a rural South Carolina town. The two-hour special, co-produced by South Carolina ETV (SCETV) and National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC), airs tonight, on PBS, from 8 to 10 p.m. ET (check local listings). The film was funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) as part of “American Graduate: Let’s Make it Happen,” a public media initiative to stem the dropout crisis by supporting community-based solutions.
Co-directors Jacquie Jones and Garland McLaurin, the team behind the Peabody Award-winning documentary “180 Days: A Year Inside an American High School,” which premiered in 2013, joined SCETV in Hartsville, South Carolina for more than a year. They filmed in 2 elementary schools struggling with new curriculum standards and maintaining funding, while meeting the needs of individual students. South Carolina ranks 45th in the country in education. The majority of Hartsville residents hover on the poverty line with a median income of less than $30,000 and more than half of the city’s students qualify for free and reduced-price school lunches.
Yet Hartsville is fighting the odds, and winning, with an astonishing 92 percent graduation rate in their city – a remarkable achievement considering that one-third of students from low-income families in many states did not graduate despite an increase in the national graduation rate of 80 percent for the class of 2012, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/tonight-pbs-digs-into-poverty-education-challenges-in-new-documentary-180-days-hartsville-20150317
The GOP and their ‘magic asterisks’
03/18/15 08:00 AM
By Steve Benen
In 1981, the newly inaugurated Reagan administration presented Congress with a budget plan filled with an odd little trick that came to be known as the “magic asterisk.” The technique, as Michael Kinsley explained a few decades ago, “consisted of hiding phony cuts in the small print of various budget documents in order to exaggerate the Administration’s success in spending reduction and to minimize the projected deficit.”
In effect, the “magic asterisk” represented illusory spending cuts that the Reagan White House promised to figure out later. The new Republican administration didn’t want to come right out and say, “We can’t figure out how to make our numbers add up,” so they used the asterisks as placeholders.
At the time, some Republicans in Congress weren’t quite sold on the idea, so Reagan’s aides asked allies in the media to attack them. It worked – GOP lawmakers “beat a tactical retreat” and gave in to Reagan’s bogus budget games. The result was some of the largest deficits in American history, even after Reagan had promised the country the opposite.
A generation later, congressional Republicans aren’t questioning the trick; they’re embracing it. House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) took a look at the new House GOP budget blueprint and told the Washington Post, “They have a magic asterisk.”
Hoyer was apparently not referring to an actual asterisk, but to a row of figures with the innocuous label “Other Mandatory” in one of several tables at the back of the document. The numbers show that Republicans are planning to save $1.1 trillion over 10 years by reducing outlays for mandatory spending other than on health care and Social Security, a drastic reduction for that category as compared to current policy.
It was not immediately clear where the savings would come from, but they’re necessary in order for the budget to balance within a decade, as Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), the chairman of the House Budget Committee, said it would.
House Republicans started with a vision: increase defense spending while balancing the budget within 10 years, without raising any taxes on anyone. The problem, as Reagan and his aides discovered in the 1980s, is that this really can’t be done without “magic.”
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/the-gop-and-their-magic-asterisks
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Where Bibi Leads, the GOP Will Follow
Michael Tomasky
A day before his apparent victory in Israel, the prime minister rejected a two-state solution. Now expect Republicans to follow him—destroying a rare point of unity with Democrats.
Yes, it looks like Bibi Netanyahu has a better shot than Bougie Herzog does of forming the next government. There are many moving parts here, so it’s not completely set in stone. But the clear consensus by 5 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday, an hour after the polls closed, was that Netanyahu and Likud have a clearer path to 61 seats than Herzog and the Zionist Union party do.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/03/17/the-grim-reality-of-bibi-s-win-for-americans.html?via=newsletter&source=CSAMedition
Good morning, all.
I want to know what good love feels like
Good love, good love
I want a love that’s sure to stand the test of time
….bayybeee
Happy HUMP day, SG2 & Everyone! :-)
So nice to hear Ms Baker serenading us today.
Good Love, morning, noon, and night, every day of my life.