Today’s featured movie is A Patch of Blue and Uptown Saturday Night!
Wiki: A Patch of Blue is a 1965 American drama film directed by Guy Green about the relationship between a black man, Gordon (played by Sidney Poitier), and a blind white female teenager, Selina (Elizabeth Hartman), and the problems that plague their relationship when they fall in love in a racially divided America. Made in 1965 against the backdrop of the growing civil rights movement, the film explores racism from the perspective of “love is blind.”
Shelley Winters won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, her second win for the award, following her victory in 1959 for The Diary of Anne Frank. It was also the final screen appearance for veteran actor Wallace Ford.
Scenes of Poitier and Hartman kissing were excised from the film when it was shown in film theaters in the Southern United States.[2] These scenes are intact in the DVD version. According to the DVD audio commentary, it was the decision of director Guy Green that A Patch of Blue be filmed in black-and-white, although color was available. In the 1990s, Turner Entertainment Co. colorized the movie for broadcast on the Turner-owned cable station TNT.[citation needed] The colorized version was not released on VHS or DVD, and has not been shown since shortly after its initial broadcasts.
The film was adapted by Guy Green from the 1961 book Be Ready with Bells and Drums by the Australian author Elizabeth Kata. The book later won a Writers Guild of America award. The plot differs slightly from the film in that it has a less optimistic ending. In addition to the Best Supporting Actress win for Winters, the film was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Elizabeth Hartman), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Black-and-White) (George Davis, Urie McCleary, Henry Grace, Charles S. Thompson), Best Cinematography (Black-and-White) and Best Music (Original Music Score). Hartman, 22 at the time, was the youngest Best Actress nominee ever, a record she held for ten years before 20 year-old Isabelle Adjani broke her record in 1975.[3]
Breaking News!
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/591423738387820545
Learn something new everyday
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About Con or Bust
General Information
Con or Bust helps people of color/non-white people attend SFF conventions (how to request assistance; upcoming cons). It is administered by Kate Nepveu under the umbrella of the Carl Brandon Society, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization whose mission is to increase racial and ethnic diversity in the production of and audience for speculative fiction. Con or Bust isn’t a scholarship and isn’t limited by geography, type of con-goer, or con; its goal is simply to help fans of color go to SFF cons and be their own awesome selves.
Con or Bust is funded through donations and an online auction held each February. Learn how to support Con or Bust, or donate money through PayPal now:
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https://twitter.com/JeffersonObama/status/591314415322079232
https://twitter.com/Lib_Librarian/status/591341114986082304
https://twitter.com/TheObamaDiary/status/591367248905969666/photo/1
@jbendery: Obama says Dem trade critics need to remember how he got to WH at all: “The Chamber of Commerce didn’t elect me twice. Working folks did.”
@jbendery: Obama to Dem trade critics: Do you remember who I am? I’m for working families. Show me what you don’t like in TPA. This is not NAFTA.
WHAT DA PHUQ?!?!?
……………
Arpaio admits he hired PI to investigate judge’s wife
Megan Cassidy, The Republic | azcentral.com 2:19 p.m. MST April 23, 2015
Sheriff Joe Arpaio knew that private agents had investigated U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow’s wife, the six-term lawman admitted under oath Thursday in an explosive diversion from this week’s contempt of court proceedings.
It was Arpaio’s second day on the stand in a civil contempt of court hearing, where he and a handful of his top aides are facing three broad allegations of defying Snow’s orders, stemming from a racial-profiling suit.
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2015/04/23/joe-arpaio-apologizes-contempt-hearing-day-three-abrk/26240715/
Joyce, I’m thinking about you and your family. Prayers!
Get your Kleenex ready->Girl who was paralyzed surprises her favorite nurse by walking.
https://twitter.com/elisabethepps/status/591341426258018304
Now when is Cheney, Bush, and nem going to apologize to America for the tens of thousands of men & women KILLED IN IRAQ?
Nostradeptus @adept2u
Eric Holder is now preparing for the most epic fuck all y’all let me speak my sober mind tour in history and I’m gonna be there for it.
I sure hope so.
Senate GOP Leaders Endorse Bill To Extend Obamacare Subsidies To 2017
BySahil Kapur
PublishedApril 23, 2015, 11:57 AM EDT
WASHINGTON — The Senate’s top five Republican leaders have cosponsored legislation to extend until 2017 the Obamacare insurance subsidies that may be struck down by the Supreme Court this summer.
The legislation, offered by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), one of the most politically vulnerable Senate incumbents in 2016, would maintain the federal HealthCare.gov tax credits at stake in King v. Burwell through the end of August 2017.
The bill was unveiled this week with 29 other cosponsors, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and his four top deputies, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), John Thune (R-SD), John Barrasso (R-WY) and Roy Blunt (R-MO). Another cosponsor is Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), the chairman of the conference’s electoral arm.
Such a move would seek to protect the GOP from political peril in the 2016 elections when Democrats would try to blame the party for stripping subsidies — and maybe insurance coverage — from millions of Americans in three dozen states. A defeat for the Obama administration in a King ruling would likely create havoc across insurance markets and pose a huge problem for Republicans, many of whom have been pushing the Supreme Court to nix the subsidies.
“This bill is a first step toward reversing the damage that Obamacare has inflicted on the American health care system,” Johnson said.
He recently explained the rationale for the legislation, warning that Democrats would swarm the GOP with attacks and horror stories about “individuals that have benefited from Obamacare” and lost their coverage.
Democrats would probably demand a fix to make the subsidies permanently available if they go down. But they would be hard-pressed to vote down a bill to temporarily extend them if Republicans were to bring it up.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/senate-republicans-obamacare-subsidies-ron-johnson
This is what Citizens United hath brought
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Wednesday, April 22, 2015
They Make Great Pets
Posted byZandar
As Steve M reminds us, in a post-Citizens United world, presidential candidates now have public oligarch support. Got the cash? You too can own your own GOP 2016 hopeful, like Norman Braman.
Or Robert Mercer.
….
As Steve says:
…
The Kochs want a nationalist, protectionist candidate. and Scott Walker has become that candidate, now far, far to the right of the rest of the GOP pack on immigration.
What the voters want is now 100% irrelevant.
http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2015/04/they-make-great-pets.html
https://twitter.com/ABC/status/591302456509865984/photo/1
Yes!
Now Loretta gonna take out the SWITCHES and…….
https://twitter.com/Green_Footballs/status/591273161473134592
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Like A Kansas Tornado, Con’t
Posted by Zandar
The coming shortfall in Kansas’s state budget is now official, and Gov. Brownback’s tax cuts completely failed to create hundreds of millions in new revenue for the state as promised. Now the plan to balance the state’s budget will fall on the poor with a new hike in the state’s sales tax.
So the poorest Kansans have three times the tax burden as the wealthiest do, and that burden is about to be dramatically increased.
http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2015/04/like-kansas-tornado-cont.html
https://youtu.be/8XE_jH2eQl4
deray mckesson retweeted
Frank Thorp V @frankthorpNBC · 24m 24 minutes ago
The Senate is voting now on the procedural “cloture” motion on Loretta Lynch’s nomination for Attorney General, w/ final vote later today
Sidney Poitier fought for the right to be protrayed in “respectful” roles for Blacks. As a result of Mr. Poitier’s journey many black actors and actresses followed this path. Before Mr. Poitier, I remember watching shows of Shirley Temple and black people in theatre as only butlers or maids. The butlers and maids spoke in a thick dialect accentuating this blackish drowl which was very elongated and emeshed with bafoonery words and it was extremely embarrasing. Sidney Poiter didn’t speak this way. He was as elegant as one could be. I loved watching Sidney.
Sidney fought with civil rights leaders. I often wonder how many of today’s black celebrities seperate themselves from current civil rights. They refer to themselves as the “New Black”. They believe racism doesn’t exist anymore. I find this overwhelmingly sad because as our brothers and sisters protest against police brutality, the New Black, like the GOP, state “Post Racial”.
If you state post racial you state no change is needed. We, blacks, not only need change of the police force, we need change of our commmunity and we need change in our financial position in the black community.
Over the past several months with the unrest of the nation over police brutality, manifested through protests, I find there are other categories of blacks other than the new black within the black communites:
1. Blacks supportive of the protests (All incomes)
2. Blacks quiet about the protests (Middle class income or just stable jobs. Ones not wanting to rock the boat.)
3. New Blacks (Wealthy celebrities . Ones who are rich and feel no need to discuss racism as it doesn’t exist.)
Blacks supportive of the protests speak for itself as they feel a need for change in all areas of the black community. The quiet blacks feel they are living stable and content and I feel they work from a level of fear. Fear of losing their job or their current financial status. However, they do feel there could be improvements. I think it would be easy for them to be for the advancement of the black communities. The New Blacks are the most dangerous to the black community because they feel blacks who haven’t made it could pull themselves up by the bootstraps as they did. Additionally, they feel there is no racism and side with post racial whites, i.e., Charles Barkley, Ben Carson. This causes the Whites who feel there is no racism to remain rooted in their beliefs and causes the efforts of the protestors to be long and drawn out.
All races I know, excepts for our black race, are in agreement on important issues. The black race should have meetings collectively to discuss race and how it affects the black community. We allow MSM, White America, to dictate our “State of Affairs”. We should have summits and review hard data and statistics to determine what our “State of Affair” is within black communities. Then we need to discuss how to improve these communities and deliver aid and support.
I will leave these thoughts today as my brother is in surgery for 8 more hours and they are calling us in the waiting rooms for updates.
I hope this post give room for thought. I really want our people to prosper.
Thanks 3ChicksPolitico for the blog.
Ametia,
where is our PRAISE BE GIF?
This comment deserves it.
BRAVO
BRAVO
BRAVO!!
You NAILED these New Fangled Negroes.
IF, back in the Civil Rights Era we had to depend on them to stand up for what is right….
we’d still be drinking from COLORED water fountains.
These new fangled Negroes as you call them think they are immune from the hate-filled bigotry, that they are accepted. But they aren’t accepted. They go along to get along.
TRIPLE 3 CHICS APPLAUSE!!!
A Patch of Blue! I loved that movie. Made me cry too.
Can you believe I missed this film??
Going to find it on Youtube and watch it tonight! :)
It’s so good. I want to see it again too.
I haven’t seen that movie “A Patch of Blue” but I will keep and eye out for it.
I finally posted the collaborative piece. Its and generalization as I’m in the hospital and posted off the top of my head to occupy time. They are coming to get us for an update. My brother still have 8 more hours of surgery. I hope you all are well.
Love your blog.
Joyce, we’re lifting your brother in prayer and praying God’s Divine healing for a complete recovery. In Jesus Name!
Yes.
Amen.
Lifting your brother up in Prayer, Joyce.
https://twitter.com/PzFeed/status/591243320468369408
Politics
Loretta Lynch to Face Long-Awaited Vote for Attorney General
By CARL HULSEAPRIL 23, 2015
WASHINGTON — After months of delay and partisan finger-pointing, Loretta E. Lynch is set to receive a vote in the Senate on Thursday and appears headed toward narrow approval as the nation’s 83rd attorney general and the first African-American woman to hold the position.
Members of both parties say that despite deep opposition to her nomination by Republicans in the majority, Ms. Lynch, currently the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, has at least the minimum number of backers to be confirmed, with five Republicans publicly supporting her with 46 Democrats and independents.
Republicans have essentially not challenged her record or credentials, but have mainly expressed their opposition to Ms. Lynch’s defense of President Obama’s immigration actions last year that Senate Republicans said exceeded Mr. Obama’s constitutional authority.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/us/politics/loretta-lynch-long-awaited-vote-for-attorney-general.html?_r=0
The GOP has acted abominably with respect to the Loretta Lynch confirmation. Initially, I thought they were expressing their contempt for PBO and AGEH. But I now think they wanted the LL tenure to be as brief as possible, as though they are afraid of her and they want to make sure she’s not there long enough to take the DOJ in a new direction OR reinstate the idea that individuals should be prosecuted (think Wall Street and police brutality) rather than solely relying on investigations and reform (think Wall Street and Ferguson.) I don’t know, just guessing like everyone else. The GOPs abominable behavior could also be related to nothing more than the fact that they are contemptible a$$h0les.
https://twitter.com/JeffersonObama/status/591064854565244928/photo/1
https://twitter.com/sportingnews/status/591062258312224769/photo/1
https://twitter.com/trymainelee/status/591068751988133889/photo/1
Good. Maybe the truth will come out this time around.
And they should also sue Darren Wilson and get that money folks gave him for killing a young black man.
https://twitter.com/rollingout/status/591183514340470785
folks have written it before…
The Clinton Foundation is nothing but a MESS
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https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/591111525118640128
White House HBCUs @WHI_HBCUs
Are you a student who wants to impact your HBCU? #HBCUALLSTAR application period coming soon. @WHI_HBCUs @tvASPiRE
Just finished with this week’s Flash episode.
It was so good!!
not familiar with “Flash.” What’s it about?
Based on a Comic Book – it’s on The CW. Scientist gets hit by an explosiong of a super particle lab. Becomes the fastest person on Earth. He embraces his powers because when he was a kid, he witnessed his mother’s murder by a ‘super fast’ person, but nobody believes him, and his father was convicted of the murder.
This past week, he got conclusive proof that the man he considered his mentor and friend, IS the person who murdered his mother all those years ago.
Steve King unveils radical court scheme
04/23/15 08:00 AM
By Steve Benen
Under the American system of government, elected legislators are responsible for writing laws. If those statutes are legally controversial, they’re challenged in the courts and evaluated by judges. It’s Civics 101.
But once in a while, some far-right lawmakers decide they’re not entirely comfortable with separation of powers and the idea of judicial review. Yesterday, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), usually known for his fierce opposition to immigration, issued a press release announcing a new proposal related to marriage equality.
Congressman Steve King released the following statement after introducing his bill “Restrain the Judges on Marriage Act of 2015.” This bill strips federal courts of jurisdiction to hear cases related to marriage. The effect of the bill would prevent federal courts from hearing marriage cases, leaving the issue to the States where it properly belongs. […]
“My bill strips Article III courts of jurisdiction, and the Supreme Court of appellate jurisdiction, ‘to hear or decide any question pertaining to the interpretation of, or the validity under the Constitution of, any type of marriage.’”
The “Restrain the Judges on Marriage Act” has already picked up seven House co-sponsors – all of them Republican – including some familiar names like Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), Ted Yoho (R-Fla.), and Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.).
And that’s a shame because, even by 2015 standards, this idea is just bonkers.
This came up a couple of weeks ago when Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), soon after launching his presidential campaign, told an Iowa audience “he would prod Congress to strip federal courts of jurisdiction over the [marriage] issue, a rarely invoked legislative tool.”
As we talked about at the time, it’s “rarely invoked” because the approach – known as “court-stripping” or “jurisdiction-stripping” – is so radical, it’s just too bizarre for most policymakers to even consider.
The idea isn’t complicated: under this scheme, Congress would pass a federal law effectively telling the courts, “We’ve identified a part of the law that judges are no longer allowed to consider.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/steve-king-unveils-radical-court-scheme”
Argument analysis: Imagery overwhelms the facts
Analysis
The Supreme Court left the bench Wednesday morning emotionally drawn toward ending an old New Deal program of propping up farm prices, but unsure about how to contain the result so as not to scuttle more than that one scheme. Imagery, of an overbearing federal government, far outran a keen appreciation of the actual facts on how that one program actually works, so the constitutional contest seemed entirely unequal.
At one point during the oral argument in Horne v. Department of Agriculture, Justice Antonin Scalia compared the New Deal era’s “central planning” to what Russia’s communist regime “tried for a long time.” That was more extreme than other comments, but it only made the prevailing sentiment more vivid. Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., conjured up a scene of a government truck coming in “the dark of night” to scoop up a farmer’s produce and haul it off — something that never happens under the program at issue.
What clearly was happening in this argument was that a California raisin-growing family had, through its lawyers, set the Court to thinking that the program that had been running since 1949 with the industry going along all the way was not a delicately balanced marketing regime, but a grab for property with nothing coming back to the farmers.
Although the lawyer for the Horne family, law professor and former judge Michael W. McConnell, assailed the program mainly in calm constitutional language, most of the Court’s members seemed to have formed on their own visceral discomfort with it. Deputy U.S. Solicitor General Edwin S. Kneedler tried repeatedly to emphasize the actual workings of the program, but there was no receptive audience for that.
The Chief Justice sought assurances that the raisin program was nearly unique among federal farm crop marketing regimes, but Kneedler would not concede that, saying that there were eight or ten others that operated quite similarly, and perhaps “scores of others” that might be affected. Justice Elena Kagan suggested that the program might actually be a “ridiculous” one, and was “a weird historical anomaly” — but Kneedler would not accept that as true.
Some members of the Court went so far as to liken this program to one in which the government simply ordered cellphone manufacturers to hand over to the government every fifth phone they made, or maybe automakers to give up every fifth car that they made.
http://www.scotusblog.com/2015/04/argument-analysis-imagery-overwhelms-the-facts/
Dolemite!
LOL
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Dolemite’ (The Blackest Film Ever Made) Finally Coming Out on Blu-ray/DVD This Year
Now, didn’t I say that “Coffy” was the greatest black film ever made, back in January? Yes I did, but, when it comes to just the essence, that certain “je ne sais quoi”of blackness, you can’t get better than “Dolemite.”
Released in 1975 and starring the genuinely brilliant comic Rudy Ray Moore (who passed away in 2008 at the age of 81), “Dolemite” is by no means a good film. In fact, it prides itself on being what it is. A super low budget, it’s sloppily made (the kind where the boom mike keeps dropping into the frame – yes it’s that kind of movie), ramshackled wreck of the film that’s nothing more than a huge ego trip vehicle for Moore. But that’s the glory of it. Everyone involved in the film knew it and they didn’t give a rat’s ass.
Most filmmakers’ usual intentions are to try to make the best film that they can. Even if it’s schlock, they want it to be the best schlock possible. “Dolemite” dispenses with all that. It has a genuine “F–K all ya’ll” rebellious black attitude that’s almost liberating.
And it’s just flat out hysterical – the intentionally and the unintentionally funny scenes. The film is just a straight out blast from beginning to end. The film’s “What are we doing today?”-making-it- up-as-it-goes-along storyline is not really all that important. It’s more interested in set pieces where Moore gets to do his thing -rapping (he made legitimate claims that he was the first real rapper), telling dirty jokes and displaying some of the worst martial arts fighting ever caught on film.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/dolemite-the-blackest-film-ever-made-finally-coming-out-on-blu-ray-dvd-this-year-20150422
Israel’s first Arab newscaster has a message: ‘This is not your country. This is our country.”
During Israel’s Olympics-style Independence Day spectacle on Wednesday, 14 Israelis will participate by lighting torches. They were all chosen in recognition of their extraordinary contributions to the country, but one torch bearer stands out from the rest: the first Arab Israeli newscaster in the country’s history.
Lucy Aharish anchors an English-language evening news show on i24news, Israel’s 24-hour cable news network. She also hosts a Hebrew-language talk show on Israel’s biggest TV channel, moderating a panel of Israelis debating the burning issues of the day.
Yet even as a state committee is honoring her at the torch lighting ceremony for promoting coexistence on the airwaves, her inclusion has caused a tempest.
Aharish is all too familiar with what some Israelis think: “Who is she? Why should we give an Arab the opportunity to light a torch?” she says while sitting in the i24news studio. But she’s equally frustrated by the Israelis who think she should just be happy to be there.
“This [is] patronizing me,” she says. “‘I am happy my country is giving you the opportunity to light a torch.’ Listen, buddy, this is not your country. This is our country.”
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/israels-first-arab-newscaster-has-a-message-this-is-not-your-country-this-is-our-country/ar-AAbvUX2?ocid=HPCDHP
Good Morning, Everyone! :-)
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Good Morning, Ametia and Rikyrah and Everyone :)
Ametia, Thank you for your Sidney Poitier week. “To Sir With Love” is one of my favorites.
Howdy, yahtzee. Glad you’re enjoying Mr. Poitier week.
The majority of the movies Sidney chose to star in were quite enlightening.
GM
Good morning, Joyce! Nice to see your fonts grace our blog.