Happy Friday. Hope you’re enjoying the music this week.
Heard it Through the Grapevine
Wiki: “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” is a song written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong for Motown Records in 1966, and made famous by Marvin Gaye in a single released in October 1968 on Motown’s Tamla label.
Originally recorded by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles in 1966, that version was rejected by Motown owner Berry Gordy, who told Whitfield and Strong to make it stronger. After recording the song with Marvin Gaye in 1967, which Gordy also rejected, Whitfield produced a version with Gladys Knight & the Pips, which Gordy agreed to release as a single in September 1967, and which went to number two in the Billboard chart. The Marvin Gaye version was placed on his 1968 album In the Groove, where it gained the attention of radio disc jockeys, and Gordy finally agreed to its release as a single in October 1968, when it went to the top of the Billboard Pop Singles chart for seven weeks from December 1968 to January 1969 and became for a time the biggest hit single on the Motown label.
The Gaye recording has since become an acclaimed soul classic, and in 2004, it was placed on the Rolling Stone list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. On the commemorative 50th Anniversary of the Billboard Hot 100 issue of Billboard magazine in June 2008, Marvin Gaye’s “Grapevine” was ranked 65th. It was also inducted to the Grammy Hall of Fame for “historical, artistic and significant” value.
In addition to being released several times by Motown artists, the song has been covered by a range of musicians including Creedence Clearwater Revival, who made an eleven-minute interpretation for their 1970 album, Cosmo’s Factory; and has been used twice in television commercials – each time using session musicians recreating the style of the Marvin Gaye version: the 1985 Levi’s commercial, “Launderette”, featuring male model Nick Kamen, and the 1986 California raisins promotion with Buddy Miles as the singer for the clay animation group The California Raisins.
Marvin Gaye
Creedance Clear Water Revival (CCR)
Gladys Knight & the Pips
what phuckery is this?
https://twitter.com/thedailybeast/status/606845553549406208/photo/1
Straight up fuckery!
MOFOS PLEASE! Everybody want to be BLACK, but they don’t want to be NIGGERS.
they’ve been told that they better get their azzes out there and save the family gravy train. this is so pitiful and horrible on so many levels.
https://twitter.com/psddluva4evah/status/607001339051286528
That sounds like, “My rapist was very kind and gentle, he even kissed me.”
https://twitter.com/psddluva4evah/status/606982667364638720
https://twitter.com/chicagotribune/status/606959968479145984/photo/1
‘Moron’ terrorist takes a selfie in front of ISIS headquarters, Air Force bombs it 22 hours later
June 5, 2015
Apparently, looks can kill. In a very real story that we assure you did not originate from The Onion, a terrorist from ISIS recently took a selfie of himself and posted it online.
Shortly thereafter, U.S. Intelligence, which heavily monitors social media accounts from ISIS members and supporters, managed to pinpoint an ISIS headquarters building in Syria by using the selfie photo as a reference point.
According to Air Force General Hawk Carlisle (which is a perfect name for an Air Force General we must say), airmen from Hurlburt Field, Florida in the 361st Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group were the first to pick up on the photo.
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/s/moron-terrorist-takes-selfie-front-isis-headquarters-air-104558006.html
Riley’s victory dance, game 1:
https://vine.co/v/eMhdEQJmV6L
https://twitter.com/TheObamaDiary/status/606919361476050944/photo/1
https://a.disquscdn.com/uploads/mediaembed/images/2127/566/original.jpg
I wish these people would just go away. They give me the creeps. What kind of parent would even think this let alone say it publicly? It’s certainly “no great cause for concern” if you want your son to be a rapist and/or a pedophile.
PLEASE, JUST GO AWAY
Friday, June 5, 2015
My One Remaining Question for HRC
It is obvious that Hillary Clinton has put a lot of thought into the roll-out of her presidential campaign. And so far, she’s hitting all the right notes. With her bold speech about voting rights this week, she adds to an impressive array of issues she’s covered so far.
…………….
Watching all this unfold, it’s clear to me that Clinton has a plan and is not going to let the media derail that with their trumped-up “drama.” Of course she’ll talk more to journalists over the next year. But for now, she is avoiding them in order to stay on the offense about her agenda rather than get swamped with playing defense to theirs.
As someone who came into all this as a skeptic about Hillary Clinton, I can say that I’m impresed. But I have one remaining question for her to address: foreign policy. Since she has admitted her error, I am prepared to forgive her for giving George W. Bush a “go-ahead” on invading Iraq. But we all know by now that she argued in favor of engagement in Syria’s civil war and has, at best, been lukewarm about the Obama administration’s negotiations with Iran.
Given the unrest that continues in the Middle East, I hope to hear reassurances from Clinton that she will not chose military engagement as her first option when/if things escalate. I’d also feel a bit more comfortable if she would show some willingness to occasionally challenge Israeli PM Netanyahu – as President Obama has done. Ultimately, I’d be thrilled if she embraced a truly feminist foreign policy.
http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2015/06/my-one-remaining-question-for-hrc.html?spref=tw
Hillary Clinton’s Grand Strategy to Beat the GOP: Take Bold Positions Early and Often
By Brian Beutler @brianbeutler
For the better part of 20 years now, Bill Clinton’s presidency has been synonymous with a hazy political concept called triangulation. Since his advisers made the term famous, it has been used to describe everything from standard-issue compromise, to the willingness to confront reactionary elements in one’s own party (think Sister Souljah), to the appropriation of another political party’s policy ideas. The latter is as close to a proper definition as there is.
One big concern bedeviling progressives is that Hillary Clinton’s candidacy will mark the return of triangulation—the preemptive ceding of ideological turf, at a time when, thanks to partisan polarization, such concessions amount to outright victories for the Republican Party. But the early days of Hillary Clinton’s candidacy suggest these fears are overblown—that she is engaged in an entirely different kind of political positioning, one that carries the promise of significant progressive victories or at least of clarifying the terms of key policy debates dividing the parties.
The nature of the strategy involves staking out a variety of progressive issue positions that enjoy broad support, but it’s not as straightforward as simply identifying the public sentiment and riding it to victory. The key is to embrace these objectives in ways that makes standard Republican counterspin completely unresponsive, and thus airs out the substantive core of their ideas: Rather than vie for conservative support by inching rightward, Clinton is instead reorienting liberal ideas in ways that make the Republican policy agenda come into greater focus.
Most recently, Clinton has adopted an aggressive position in support of expanded voting rights. “We have a responsibility to say clearly and directly what’s really going on in our country,” she said in her latest campaign speech Thursday, “because what is happening is a sweeping effort to disempower and disenfranchise people of color, poor people, and young people from one end of our country to the other.”
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/121979/clinton-automatic-voter-registration-plan-puts-gop-defensive
Hillary Clinton Calls the Republican Bluff on Voting Rights
By Jonathan Chait Follow @jonathanchait
Yesterday, Hillary Clinton endorsed automatic voter registration for all 18-year-olds. Expanding access to voting rights is a civil-rights issue that can be justified entirely in good-government terms. At the same time, it is also a completely partisan issue. The Republican Party is in favor of making voting more inconvenient in the correct belief that winnowing the electorate operates to its partisan advantage.
The Republican Party prefers to frame its stance on voting rights as a deep concern for preventing voter fraud. The most common response to this is to point out that voter impersonation is vanishingly rare — since 2000, 31 instances of it have been found, out of a billion ballots cast. But the true nature of its concern reveals itself most clearly when the party’s mania for suppression can be detached from its professed concern for preventing voter fraud and examined in naked isolation.
……………..
Automatic voter registration, which anybody could choose to opt out of, is another idea that would reduce bureaucratic impediments to voting without enabling fraud. It will be fascinating to watch the party generate arguments against this. The current official party response amounts to simple ad hominum criticism of Clinton (Republican spokesman: “Her exploitation of this issue only underscores why voters find her dishonest and untrustworthy,” etc.).
In the meantime, conservatives bothering to express their knee-jerk hostility have fallen back on their actual conviction, which is that voting should be restricted to a better class of people. An additional registration requirement, writes National Review’s Daniel Foster, “improves democratic hygiene because the people who can’t be bothered to register (as opposed to those who refuse to vote as a means of protest) are, except in unusual cases, civic idiots.” People who don’t have the flexibility to take extra time away from work to jump through whatever bureaucratic hurdles the Republicans throw in their path, or the familiarity with local agencies to navigate them smoothly, are too shiftless and ignorant to be trusted with the franchise.
And so Clinton’s embrace of voting rights may not have any plausible near-term prospects for enactment. But it serves to demonstrate to the party’s core constituents something elemental, and true: At the current moment, there is only one party that respects their rights as citizens.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/06/clinton-calls-the-gop-bluff-on-voting-rights.html
What part of democracy are they afraid of?’
06/05/15 12:51 PM—UPDATED 06/05/15 02:05 PM
By Steve Benen
Hillary Clinton laid out a bold, progressive vision on voting rights yesterday, endorsing both a 20-day early-voting window nationwide and a universal, automatic voter registration system. It was, in effect, the Democratic frontrunner throwing down the gauntlet, challenging her rivals in the other party. “What part of democracy are they afraid of?” she asked.
For voting-rights advocates, it was cause for celebration. But for the right, it’s … complicated.
The challenge for Clinton’s Republican critics is finding something substantively wrong with her proposals, which isn’t easy. We know from recent history that the GOP’s coordinated assault on voting rights, and imposition of voter-suppression schemes unseen since the days of Jim Crow, has positioned the party firmly against voting rights. Indeed, the Republican-led Congress won’t even consider repairs to the Voting Rights Act, gutted by their allies on the Supreme Court.
But GOP officials and presidential candidate can’t come right out and say they’re hostile to voting rights, and they certainly can’t admit that they want to restrict Americans’ access to their own democracy. So how in the world are they supposed to respond to Clinton’s ambitious plan?
So far, it’s a work in progress. The Republican National Committee, for example, called Clinton’s remarks “misleading,” though it has not yet pointed to anything from the Democrat’s speech that’s untrue. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), whom Clinton called out by name, said her plan “defies logic” – he didn’t say why – adding, “Clinton’s extreme views are far outside the mainstream,” as if most of the country is hostile to expanded voting rights.
And then there’s New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), also called out by name yesterday, who offered a rather knee-jerk reaction while campaigning in New Hampshire. The Bergen Record reported:
Governor Christie went on the attack against Hillary Clinton on Friday, saying the Democratic presidential candidate is calling for an expansion of voter registration because “she just wants an opportunity to commit greater acts of voter fraud.” […]
“Secretary Clinton doesn’t know the first thing about voting rights in New Jersey or in the other states that she attacked,” Christie said. “My sense is that she just wants an opportunity to commit greater acts of voter fraud around the country.”
Really? That’s what Christie came up with?
Look, I don’t really expect Republican presidential candidates to endorse Clinton’s ideas or applaud her speeches. It’s a campaign. They’re supposed to draw distinctions and offer competing visions. I get it.
But to say that a universal, automatic voter registration system is intended to create voter fraud – or worse, “greater” acts of fraud – isn’t just wrong, it’s lazy.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/what-part-democracy-are-they-afraid
https://twitter.com/iexplorer/status/606772253754290176
LOL This vine is a real HOOT!
SheriffFruitfly @sherifffruitfly
easy way to avoid it: properly credit Obama for all of her alleged “bold new” ideas https://twitter.com/nationaljournal/status/606892497009307648 …
https://twitter.com/nationaljournal/status/606892497009307648
THIS X’S A THOUSAND!
This is true. So when will she address police brutality, mass incarceration, and the school to prison pipeline for starters?
https://twitter.com/politico/status/606889750759415808
https://twitter.com/attorneycrump/status/606892749531586560
I know that it’s sexist, and maybe men shouldn’t get soooo much credit…but, a man that truly knows how to do his daughter’s hair?
Yes…….sigh…
https://youtu.be/pO9myzqfFEI
https://youtu.be/CikoxQ4ytI4
Does the CBC have any comment about THIS?
https://twitter.com/TheRReport/status/606844198785040384
I guess you wonder how I knew, baby, baby, about your plans to make me blue..
I Heard It Through The Grapevine. ….yes, baby yes!
Video: Spike TV Releases New Look at Epic Summer Series ‘Tut’
Photo of Tambay A. Obenson
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
June 4, 2015 at 10:33AM
Spike TV’s “Tut” will tell the story of the Egyptian Pharaoh in what the network calls an ambitious special-event series, which will follow Tut’s rise to power and his struggle to lead Egypt to glory, while his closest advisers, friends and lovers scheme for their own nefarious interests.
Of note, with respect to this blog’s interests… British actor Nonso Anozie will play the savvy military, yet power hungry, strategist General Horemheb. The accomplished stage and screen talent recently appeared on the small screen as Renfield in NBC’s “Dracula” and as Xaro Xhoan Daxos in HBO’s hit series “Game of Thrones.” Also Canadian-born actress Kylie Bunbury portrays Suhad, the beautiful and endearing girl of Mitanni descent who develops a strong bond with the young Egyptian king, despite the fact she is not of royal bloodlines. Bunbury is best known for her portrayal of Lacey Porter in the ABC Family series, “Twisted,” as well as her co-starring role opposite Jonah Hill in “The Sitter” for FOX.
Rounding out the cast are Ben Kingsley who plays Ay, the Grand Vizier to King Tutankhamun, who wields tremendous power and influence as the top advisor to the young Egyptian ruler; The role of King Tutankhamun is played by Canadian up-and-comer, Avan Jogia; Sibylla Deen who plays Ankhe, the calculating and conniving sister-wife of King Tutankhamun; Alexander Siddig plays High Priest Amun, a major political figure who holds great influence in King Tutankhamun’s inner sanctum; Peter Gadiot plays Ka, King Tutankhamun’s close confidant and seemingly loyal friend from childhood who harbors a secret love for Ankhe, Tut’s wife; and Iddo Goldberg plays Lagus, an Egyptian soldier who develops a special bond with King Tutankhamun.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/video-spike-tv-releases-new-look-at-epic-summer-series-tut-20150604
I really want to like this movie.
……………
Spike Lee’s ‘Chiraq’ Adds Dave Chappelle, Wesley Snipes, Nick Cannon
Photo of Tambay A. Obenson
Two weeks ago, breaking a long-standing rule of his, Spike Lee, likely pressured by publicly-voiced concerns as well as criticism of his upcoming “Chiraq” project, went to Chicago and held a press conference addressing those worries, reassuring Chicago residents that he essentially doesn’t plan to paint a questionable portrait of their city with the film, but rather seemingly quite the opposite – “to help save lives.”
He also challenged his critics, saying, during the news conference at St. Sabina Catholic Church: “A lot of things have been said about the film by people who know nothing about the film… We felt it was appropriate that we say what the narrative is, the filmmakers, the people who are doing this. Not the people that’s judging from afar.”
The film, which we learned will be a comedy musical, is a retelling of the ancient Greek comedy “Lysistrata” – in short, the women of Greece refused to have sex with their husbands, all in an effort to bring an end to the Peloponnesian War, via the signing of a peace treaty. In Spike’s film, the story will center on a woman’s quest to end gang warfare in Chicago, likely via similar methods as used by Lysistrata; i.e., no sex for the brothas in the middle of the gang war, until the violence ends… and it all unfolds as a musical comedy.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/spike-lees-chiraq-adds-dave-chappelle-wesley-snipes-nick-cannon-20150604
I think Viola Davis could make me believe anything in a movie.
……………..
Viola Davis & Jennifer Lopez Are Revenge-Seeking Vigilantes in Trailer for ‘Lila & Eve’
Photo of Tambay A. Obenson
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
June 3, 2015 at 7:32PM
Viola Davis and Jennifer Lopez star in “Lila & Eve,” the “Thelma & Louise”-esque drama-thriller from director Charles Stone III, which also features Shea Whigham, Julius Tennon, Ron Caldwell, and Aml Ameen in front of the camera.
The story follows Lila (Davis), a grief-stricken mother reeling from her son’s murder, who attends a support group where she meets Eve (Lopez), who urges her to take matters into her own hands to track down her son’s killers. They pair then embark on a journey of sweet revenge.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/viola-davis-jennifer-lopez-are-revenge-seeking-vigilantes-in-trailer-for-lila-eve-20150603
That little girl is too cute for words.
I’m still hoping the Cavaliers will win the championship, but Steph Curry is on fire, making that mighty difficult. LeBron James is such a good man, I was just hoping he could win the championship this year. He said he really only wanted one for Cleveland. We’ll see.
I love LeBron and I love little Riley Curry.
OMG, SG2, you have a conflict. I’m going with LeBron because he chose to take his family back home which is where they want to be. He also wanted to give back to his community. He’s not after a string of championships, he just wants one for the Cavaliers and I was hoping it would be this year.
Now, Riley, she is just too adorable and her dad is an amazing athlete. I suspect that Steph Curry has a few championships in his future, and perhaps this year. Lots of good times ahead for those two.
So Han is down with the swirl?
………………..
Meet Han Solo’s Black Wife…
Photo of Tambay A. Obenson
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
June 4, 2015 at 12:25PM
So it turns out that Star Wars’ loveable rogue, Han Solo, had a wife during his romance with Princess Leia – and, oh, by the way, she was black (at least, from what I gather according to the images provided above and below).
A new comic book (the 6th issue of Marvel Entertainment’s new “Star Wars” comic) designed to fill in the gaps between 1977’s “Star Wars” and its 1980 sequel “The Empire Strikes Back,” reveals this little bit of news, which, as I’m just learning, has made waves among diehard fans of “Star Wars”, because, thanks to a decision made earlier this year by new owner Disney, it is considered canonical. So, suddenly, the Han Solo that will appear in JJ Abrams’ upcoming “The Force Awakens” movie this December, now has an even more disreputable history.
She’s introduced as Sana Solo in “Star Wars” No. 6, and, as you can seen, she seems a little upset. Princess Leia isn’t too thrilled with the news either. Apparently, fans were left with this cliffhanger without much explanation in this comic issue, so she could be sticking around, to appear in upcoming issues of the franchise. And, who knows, maybe this introduction might lead to the character appearing in any one of the upcoming core “Star Wars” movies, or spin-off films based on individual characters, or planned TV series also based on individual characters.
So all we can do now is wait to see how this new development unfolds from here-on, even if only in the comics.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/meet-han-solos-black-wife-20150604
BWA HA HA HA HA
one of the many problems with Rand Paul, is that, for all his talk about FREEDOM…he wants all up in the uterus. And, folks don’t think women know that?\
……………
Why Are Libertarians Mostly Dudes?
Rand Paul is polling terribly among women. His political philosophy might be to blame.
By Jeet Heer @heerjeet
Since 1980, the Republican Party has been bedeviled by a persistent gender gap in presidential elections, as GOP nominees have struggled with female voters. But Rand Paul is facing an intensification of this phenomenon: He can’t even win over Republican women. A new CNN poll shows that the Kentucky senator is highly competitive among male primary voters, his 13 percent support putting him neck-and-neck with top candidates like Scott Walker (13 percent), Marco Rubio (12 percent) and Jeb Bush (11 percent). Yet among Republican women, Paul’s share of the likely vote collapses to 2 percent. The small sample size of the poll might have exaggerated the margin of error, but the size of the gender gap Paul faces is far larger than that of any other politician in the poll.
Why is Paul so unpopular among women? Setting aside what women think about Paul’s personal qualities, which would require pure speculation, consider what sets him apart from all the other candidates vying for the GOP nomination: his highly distinct political philosophy. While not a doctrinaire libertarian, Paul is by far the most libertarian-leaning candidate in the race. And there’s plenty of evidence that the libertarian worldview leaves most women cold, despite the fact that female intellectuals—Ayn Rand, most famously—have been pivotal in creating libertarianism.
The demographic profile of libertarians is sharply defined. According to 2013 Pew survey, 7 percent of Americans identify as libertarian. Of those, two-thirds are men (68 percent) and nearly all are non-Hispanic whites (94 percent). That is, the typical libertarian is a white man. These firm demographic contours cry out for an explanation since, at first glance, there doesn’t seem much intrinsically white or male about libertarianism. Proclaiming itself a philosophy of individualism, with no overt celebrations of either patriarchy or racism, libertarianism still ends up being monochromatic and male.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/121974/cnn-poll-rand-paul-not-popular-republican-women
Unions Subdued, Scott Walker Turns to Tenure at Wisconsin Colleges
JUNE 4, 2015
CHICAGO — Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who began building a national profile four years ago by sharply cutting collective bargaining rights for most government workers, has turned his sights to a different element of the public sector: state universities.
As Mr. Walker takes steps toward announcing his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination, he and leaders in Wisconsin’s Republican-held Legislature have called for changes that would give a board largely picked by the governor far more control over tenure and curriculum in the University of Wisconsin System.
Critics said the proposal, which is championed by Republicans in the Legislature, would burnish Mr. Walker’s conservative credentials as he is scrutinized by likely primary voters.
As a new and unknown governor in 2011, Mr. Walker quickly drew national attention by announcing legislation to limit collective bargaining rights for most public-sector unions and require workers to pay more for their health care and pensions.
He followed that battle — which included surviving a recall effort — by signing other measures that attracted notice from conservatives nationally: new limits on early voting, the expansion of school vouchers and, this year, legislation barring unions from requiring employees in private workplaces to pay the equivalent of union dues.
Republicans say the new proposal will give university leaders more autonomy and encourage savings and efficiency at a moment when the state is aiming to cut spending to balance its budget. But the plan has caused professors to express alarm.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/05/us/politics/unions-subdued-scott-walker-turns-to-tenure-at-wisconsin-colleges.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
June/July/August 2015
Scott Walker’s Real Legacy
What did the Wisconsin governor’s union busting actually accomplish for the “hardworking taxpayers” of his state? And what do his actions tell us about how he might govern as president?
By Donald F. Kettl
This past February, at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) outside Washington, D.C., Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker rolled up his sleeves, clipped on a lavalier microphone, and without the aid of a teleprompter gave the speech of his life. He emerged from that early GOP cattle call as a front-runner for his party’s nomination for president. Numerous polls this spring placed him several points ahead of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the preferred candidate of the Republican establishment, in Iowa and New Hampshire. Those same polls showed him with an even more substantial lead over movement conservative favorites such as Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Mike Huckabee. In late April, the Koch brothers hinted that Walker would be the likely recipient of the nearly $900 million they plan to spend on the 2016 election cycle.
The source of Walker’s appeal—his singular calling card, in fact—is not hard to identify. In 2011, the governor signed legislation stripping most of Wisconsin’s public-sector unions of their rights to collective bargaining and to require dues from members, essentially busting those unions. He went on to survive a bitter 2012 recall effort backed by national unions and to win reelection in 2014 in a state Barack Obama won in 2012. He then signed “right to work” legislation that massively undercut the state’s dwindling private-sector unions, too. In his twenty-minute CPAC speech, Walker referred to his battles with labor six times directly and as many times indirectly. It is the core of his message.
It is hard to exaggerate the attractiveness of that message to Republican voters. Back in the day, progressive Republicans like Wisconsin’s own Senator and Governor Robert La Follette championed the labor movement, but today’s GOP is overwhelmingly hostile to unions. Only 44 percent of moderate-to-liberal Republicans, and 23 percent of conservative Republicans, have a favorable view of labor unions, according to the Pew Research Center. By contrast, 70 percent of moderate-to-conservative Democrats and 80 percent of liberal Democrats rate unions favorably. Union support is one of the biggest wedge issues.
In his CPAC speech and subsequent ones, Walker likened his clash with Wisconsin’s public-sector unions to Ronald Reagan’s 1981 firing of 11,000 striking air traffic controllers, thus presenting himself as a rightful heir of the party’s patron saint. He extended that connection to foreign policy. A few days after his CPAC speech, Walker told a Palm Beach Club for Growth audience that Reagan’s firing of the controllers was “the most significant foreign policy decision of my lifetime” because “it sent a message around the world [that] we weren’t to be messed with.” Walker’s similar toughness under fire with the unions, in other words, makes him ready to be commander in chief. “If I can take on 100,000 protesters,” he told the crowd at CPAC, “I can do the same across the world.” The mainstream press treated such comparisons as bumbling efforts to cover the fact that, as a governor and former county executive, he has scant foreign policy experience. But conservative audiences loved the show of resolution. Walker wants tough strength to be his calling card; his campaign book is called, not coincidentally, Unintimidated.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/junejulyaugust_2015/features/scott_walkers_real_legacy055860.php?page=all
ok, nobody likes to be stuck in an airport, but this might ALMOST be worth it.
The LION KING & ALADDIN Broadway Casts Airport Sing-Off
https://youtu.be/6ajHZWDP_Vk
https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/606628232067170304
Riley Curry is too dang sweet. I love this little girl.
I love how her dad is empowering her and encouraging her voice, strength, confidence and individuality even as a little girl. And doing the sort of stuff dads usually reserve for their sons with her. She’ll grow up with a healthy sense of self and esteem.
LOVING THIS!
https://twitter.com/OKnox/status/606402427005345792
Bless you Joe…
https://twitter.com/vj44/status/606576743974109185/photo/1
So what has that Banshee Liz Warren been talmbout?!
Why Do So Many Obvious Losers Think They Can Be President?
—By Kevin Drum
| Wed Jun. 3, 2015 12:39 PM EDT
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2015/06/what-do-so-many-obvious-losers-think-they-can-be-president
Scott Walker is Koch PUPPET!
BECAUSE A BLACK MAN IS IN THE WHITE HOUSE!
Scalia’s perfect capital-punishment case falls apart
06/05/15 09:20 AM
By Steve Benen
A little over two decades ago, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was dismissive of then-Justice Harry Blackmun’s concerns about the death penalty. In fact, Scalia had a case study in mind that demonstrated exactly why the system of capital punishment has value.
As regular readers may recall, Scalia specifically pointed to a convicted killer named Henry Lee McCollum as an obvious example of a man who deserved to be put to death. “For example, the case of an 11-year-old girl raped by four men and then killed by stuffing her panties down her throat,” Scalia wrote in a 1994 ruling. “How enviable a quiet death by lethal injection compared with that!”
For Scalia, McCollum was the perfect example – a murderer whose actions were so heinous that his crimes stood as a testament to the merit of capital punishment itself.
Yesterday, McCollum was pardoned. Scalia’s perfect example of a man who deserved to be killed by the state was innocent. North Carolina’s News & Observer reported:
Gov. Pat McCrory on Thursday pardoned two half-brothers who were exonerated of murder after spending three decades in prison.
The governor took nine months to make the decision, saying he thoroughly reviewed the pardons sought by Henry McCollum and Leon Brown. Both men are intellectually disabled.
If this story sounds at all familiar, it was last fall when a judge ordered the men released. The confessions appeared to have been coerced 30 years ago and new DNA evidence implicated another man whose possible involvement had been overlooked at the time.
As recently as 2010, the North Carolina Republican Party used a McCollum photo on campaign fliers to attack a Democratic candidate as “soft on crime.”
McCollum hadn’t done anything wrong.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/scalias-perfect-capital-punishment-case-falls-apart
https://twitter.com/jazziz2/status/606670549511729153
https://twitter.com/WelcomeToDot/status/606660909126307840
https://twitter.com/jonathanweisman/status/606627667841060864
Clinton slams GOP for war on voting, calls for universal registration
Alex Padilla, California secretary of state, talks with Rachel Maddow about California’s progress toward universal, automatic voter registration following a new Oregon law, an idea advanced on a national level in a speech today by Hillary Clinton.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/clinton-slams-republicans-for-war-on-voting-457634883689
Where have all these folks been? I voted for Padilla, but I resent all of these previously mute folks now all finding their voices ahead of the 2016 elections. Where were they in 2012 and 2014?!!
Justin Wolfers @JustinWolfers
Payrolls rose +280k in May. Unemployment ticks up to 5.5%.
March payrolls revised up +34k to +119k; April down -2k.
It’s a beauty.
280,000 Jobs added in May.
DAMN YOU, PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, DAMN YOU!!!!!
LOL
lol
https://twitter.com/StarTrek/status/606540344034009088/photo/1
Sending healing vibes your way, Ms. Nichols.
https://twitter.com/TPM/status/606501845574516738
I saw a clip where he was trying to justify this madness, and you should have seen and heard the contempt and condescension in his voice and the look on his face. It was reminiscent of a plantation owner dealing with slaves who dared get out of hand. Treating grown adults and the mother of a graduating kid like they were kids themselves. The anger I feel these days, I can barely contain..
https://twitter.com/BroadwayBlack/status/606591113751752704/photo/1
https://twitter.com/NerdyWonka/status/606539995482984448/photo/1
Kai & Victoria @yes4ya
Obama Stands Up For Veterans By Vowing To Veto GOP Bill That Cut Benefits For 70,000 Vets http://www.politicususa.com/2015/04/29/obama-stands-veterans-vowing-veto-gop-bill-cut-benefits-70000-vets.html#.VXAnHngHg-0.twitter …
https://twitter.com/TPM/status/606618701744455680/photo/1
He can regret it all he wants. What doesn’t change is that he is one, stupid, reckless, racist POS.
https://twitter.com/TheRoot/status/606639081662128128/photo/1
That’s sick
Zeke Miller ✔ @ZekeJMiller
WH: This evening, the First Family is attending the middle school graduation of Sasha at the Sidwell Friends School.
Zeke Miller ✔ @ZekeJMiller
WH: The Second Family will also be in attendance for the graduation of Maisy Biden.
https://twitter.com/thehill/status/606642605577904128/photo/1
As first ladies, Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton together with their daughters took thrice as many overseas junkets without their husbands to so many different countries, most during the second term. Both took more foreign travel as first ladies than some former presidents with nary a peep from the media or the loud whiny ‘tax payers’ hounding the Obama family today.
Never once were any of those trips referred to as ‘vacations’ or ‘getaways’. And never once were the Bush daughters or the Clinton daughter ever referred together with their first lady mothers as ‘Bush women’ or ‘Clinton women’.
Even to this day with said daughters all in their 30’s, none of them are referred to as Bush women or Clinton woman. And none are thrown together with their mothers as equals. There is always a distinction as their mothers being more important and in a sphere higher and separate from their daughters.
The Obama daughters are 14 and 16. Since when did that make them women? And since when did these 2 young teenagers become equal to their mother the First Lady of the United States?
I’ve also searched high and lo, and I’ve yet to find a single news article that refers to Laura Bush as anything other than ‘Mrs Bush’ in press releases.
It was always President Clinton and Mrs Clinton, or President Bush and Mrs Bush. But now we get, President Obama and ‘Michelle’ Obama.
I take serious offense at the disrespect.
..TELL.IT.
And what’s with this ‘girls-only’ bullshit. The First Lady is a grown ass woman.
The media’s disdain, disrespect, and dangerously delirious OBAMA derangement is breathtaking.
And another thing, Our First Lady does NOT have to ‘PLOT’ a godamn vacation. with here teenage daughters.
See the implications here? Michelle Obama’s a ‘schemer.’
https://twitter.com/ABC/status/606770865582276609/photo/1
Drip, drip, DRIP!!!!
https://twitter.com/BAM_FI/status/606777735076323328/photo/1
GStuedler @GStuedler
Rick Perry is under indictment, yet he is still running for president. How low will the GOP bar sink to accommodate their members?
TPPBO-in-Chief! @JAPITTER
Just a reminder…Hillary isn’t a leader on this. Obama campaign sues Ohio over early voting law for military | http://fxn.ws/OHKUb3
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Happy FRY-day. Everyone! :-))