Thursday Open Thread |1916 Convention of Ex-Slaves in D.C.

1916 Slaves reunion. Lewis Martin, age 100; Martha Elizabeth Banks, age 104; Amy Ware, age 103; Rev. Simon P. Drew, born free. Cosmopolitan Baptist Church, 921 N Street N.W. (Shorpy)

1916- Former slaves attend reunion of ex-slaves convention. Lewis Martin, Martha Elizabeth Banks Amy Ware, and Rev Simon P. Drew( born free)

An article published by the Washington Post on September 25th, 1916, leading up to the convention.

A mass meeting will be held tonight at Cosmopolitan Baptist Church, Tenth and N streets northwest, to appoint committees and make other arrangements for the entertainment of delegates and visitors to the fifty-fourth annual convention of ex-slaves to be held here October 22-30 under the auspices of the White Cross National Colored Old Home Association of the United States and the National Evangelistic Ministers’ Alliance of America. Dr. Simon P. W. Drew, pastor of Cosmopolitan Baptist Church, will preside at the meeting tonight.

A free dinner will be served for the ex-slaves each day during the convention. Former slaves of Gen. Robert E. Lee and “Stonewall” Jackson will be present. All persons desiring to aid in entertaining the old slaves are requested to send contributions or articles of wearing apparel to Mrs. Julia Palmer, 1513 Tenth street northwest.

Not only were the ex-slaves of Lee and Jackson present, but among the invited included the last living ex-slave of George Washington. It’s unclear whether he attended or not as the Washington Post reported on October 16th that “he may be too feeble to attend.”

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A Native Texan who adores baby kittens, loves horses, rodeos, pomegranates, & collect Eagles. Enjoys politics, games shows, & dancing to all types of music. Loves discussing and learning about different cultures. A Phi Theta Kappa lifetime member with a passion for Social & Civil Justice.
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54 Responses to Thursday Open Thread |1916 Convention of Ex-Slaves in D.C.

  1. rikyrah says:

    Afro-Brazilian Actress Taunted by Fellow Brazilians on Facebook After Revealing Her Natural Hair

    by Lisa Jean Francois – November 5, 2015
    Afro-Brazilian Actress, Taís Araújo, was hit with a barrage of racist comments on her Facebook page after posting this photo:

    http://blackgirllonghair.com/2015/11/brazilian-actress-receives-racist-facebook-comments-after-revealing-hair/

  2. rikyrah says:

    Michelle Obama’s Qatar visit praised by Arabs, slammed by U.S. media

    Staff writer, Al Arabiya News Thursday, 5 November 2015

    Despite mostly positive press coverage of U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama’s recent visit to Qatar, some media outlets appeared to have an agenda when they slammed her trip to the small Gulf state, in addition to the charitable works conducted by the Qatar Foundation.

    During her visit to the capital Doha, the U.S. first lady spoke at an education summit at the Qatar Foundation to advocate her “Let Girls Learn” initiative, a program which aims for providing learning opportunities for around 62 million girls worldwide.

    But some media publications ignored the positive aspects of her visit. U.S. current affairs site Politico, which relied on unconfirmed translations from infamous pro-Israeli media monitor MEMRI, attacked the Gulf state’s policies. According to Politico, Michelle Obama had shared the same Qatar Foundation platform with a “notoriously anti-Semitic sheikh who inveighed against ‘Zionist aggressors.’”

    Politico took to case the fact that Qatar Foundation’s mosque, situated on its multi-university campus area, hosted the controversial preacher who only days earlier had said in a sermon: “To count them [Jews] in number and kill them completely, do not spare a [single] one of them.”

    Politico also mentioned that this same preacher has courted controversy, after having wished in a 2013 speech: “if only Hitler had finished them [the Jews] off.”

    In response to Politico’s article, White House spokesman Eric Schultz wrote an email questioning whether the site was asking “for a response to a statement made about speakers who the First Lady has never referenced, has never met, and nor will be participating in the First Lady’s event?”

    http://english.alarabiya.net/en/media/digital/2015/11/05/Michelle-Obama-s-Qatar-visit-praised-by-Arabs-but-slammed-by-U-S-media-.html

  3. rikyrah says:

    What septic tanks in New Hampshire tell us about how politics works

    By Philip Bump November 4

    Jeb Bush, in the middle of his “Jeb can fix it” campaign push, had to acknowledge a point of defeat during a town hall meeting in Raymond, N.H. on Tuesday night.

    The admission came in response to the second in a series of questions on a key local issue. “I’m not going to solve your septic tank problem tonight, I don’t think,” Bush said.

    Indeed he didn’t. But the moment offered an interesting insight into how voters engage in politics.

    The septic tank problem to which Bush referred arose fairly early during the question-and-answer part of the event. “First of all, governor, thank you for coming to Raymond, New Hampshire,” the man asking the question said, prompting applause. “We’re a community of a little over 10,000 people and we are facing an enormous infrastructure issues. We need help. We do not have sewers.”

    “Why not?,” Bush asked.

    “We can’t afford it,” he was told. Even the building they were in used a septic tank instead, the man said, “so don’t everyone go to the bathroom at the same time!” (Bush: “Ha ha ha! That’s pretty graphic.”)

    A few questions later, a woman who identified herself as a town planner explained why there was no sewer system.

    “Coming from Florida, we wouldn’t expect you to know this,” she said. “You have sandy soil. You know we have granite here in New Hampshire.” Drilling through sandy soil to create a sewer system is one thing. Drilling through granite is another. “To build the type of infrastructure that Raymond or other small towns would need costs one to two million dollars per mile. … Many small towns do not have the funding to build that infrastructure.”

    Bush’s response was as you might expect: Funding for infrastructure is important, but it should be dealt with by the states. “This is not the job of a president,” he said. “The federal government needs to be a partner with what’s going on.”

    Which is fair. So why did it come up?

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/11/04/what-septic-tanks-in-new-hampshire-tell-us-about-how-politics-works/

  4. Ametia says:

    Full conference here

  5. rikyrah says:

    Tyshawn Lee, 9, Was ‘Targeted, Lured To This Spot and Murdered’: McCarthy
    By Alex Nitkin, Lizzie Schiffman Tufano and Joe Ward | November 5, 2015 2:04pm | Updated November 5, 2015 4:38pm

    CHICAGO — Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee was lured into an alley and executed, likely because of his family’s gang ties.

    McCarthy joined community activists on Thursday at a news conference near the scene of the shooting at 8000 S. Damen Ave. where he also slammed Tyshawn’s father Pierre Stokes for refusing to cooperate with police.

    “This is an innocent child. This is a 9-year-old child, targeted, lured to this spot and murdered,” McCarthy said. “We’re dealing with cowards. I don’t even have words for this quite frankly.”

    http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20151105/auburn-gresham/police-give-update-on-tyshawn-lees-murder-this-afternoon

  6. [facebook url="https://www.facebook.com/SteveHarveytv/videos/1010833075641329/" /]

  7. rikyrah says:

    RIP, little hero.

    A brave 11-year-old boy died after he pushed his little sister out of the way of an out-of-control car as the two siblings were waiting for their school bus, his family said Wednesday.

    Little La’Darious Wylie sacrificed his short life last week, shoving his 7-year-old sister, Sha’Vonta, to safety as a hit-and-run driver barreled into his tiny body at a South Carolina bus stop, the children’s mother told The Herald.

    http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/hero-boy-11-dies-saving-sister-in-hit-and-run-at-bus-stop/ar-BBmSy6F?li=AAa0dzB&ocid=HPCDHP

    • rikyrah says:

      A Carson presidency would also be a direct attack on the health of African-Americans: he equated the Affordable Care Act to a form of slavery. Between 2013 and 2014, Obamacare reduced the number of uninsured blacks from 24.1 percent to 16.1 percent. It also funded community health centers, where African Americans make up nearly 25% of the patients, to the tune of $11 billion. This is a matter of life and death, not political posturing. Black Americans have a life expectancy about five years shorter than white Americans. If you’re black, you have a higher chance of dying than whites in eight of the top 10 causes of death. Black deaths from cancer are much higher than white deaths. Blacks are twice as likely to be diagnosed with diabetes than whites. Yet Carson’s own health-care plan, which he proposed last week, is vague and lacks substance. According to the Washington Post, “it would neither expand access to health care nor improve quality, nor save a whole lot of money.” But it would get rid of the Affordable Care Act.

      Actually, poverty is the form of slavery that is most insidious in America, and it is perpetuated by institutional racism, which Ben Carson seems to deny exists. African Americans are particularly hit hard by poverty: 38.3% of black children lived in poverty in 2013. Yet, Carson insists that the black community must resist government handouts that have made us a welfare state. He praises blacks in history who have pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps to make something of themselves despite harsh circumstances. He further states: “We must not allow their sacrifice to become meaningless by allowing ‘do-gooders’ to replace the chains of overt racism with the new chains of dependency, low expectations, victimhood and misdirected anger.” What makes this rallying cry so disingenuous is the fact that his mother received government assistance while he was growing up, which he acknowledges was crucial. The government gave him free eyeglasses as a child, which improved his grades. In his book, Gifted Hands, he says, “By the time I reached ninth grade, mother had made such strides that she received nothing but food stamps. She couldn’t have provided for us and kept up the house without that subsidy.”

  8. This is so got damn insulting! Who in the living hell came up with this idea?

    https://twitter.com/businessinsider/status/662330117931327488

  9. rikyrah says:

    Get that popcorn!

    ……………………

    A.G. Kane keeps releasing raunchy emails

    By Marc Levy, The Associated Press
    POSTED: 11/05/15, 5:47 AM EST | UPDATED: 2 HRS AGO

    Facing criminal charges, relieved of her law license and threatened with removal by the Legislature, Pennsylvania’s attorney general seems to have decided that if she has to go, she’s going to take others down with her.

    Since all three branches of state government began moving against her over the past year, Kathleen Kane has released hundreds of sexually explicit or otherwise crude emails that had been sent or received by current or former public officials on their government accounts.

    The tangled scandal has led to the downfall of a state environmental secretary and shamed a state police commissioner, a Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice and several former top officials in the attorney general’s office. Another high-court justice resigned after newspapers disclosed his involvement.

    Kane has threatened to release more, and the state Capitol is ablaze with speculation about whose emails may be next in the drip-drip-drip of disclosures.

    http://www.dailylocal.com/general-news/20151105/ag-kane-keeps-releasing-raunchy-emails

  10. rikyrah says:

    Smart Kids Wanted: No Money Required

    Wayne State Universityhas announced a program to provide doctors to underserved communities, ten at a time, by awarding full rides for all four years of undergraduate education and all four years of medical school, including room and board. The total value of each of these ten packages is about $251,000.

    …The new program to educate ten doctors a year at no cost to families is called Wayne Med-Direct. It’s a continuation of Wayne State’s historical mission to serve underserved communities. That would include most of Indian country.

    Besides being relieved of money pressure, Wayne Med-Direct students will be exposed to hands-on research and clinical training in the School of Medicine while still undergraduates.

    Applications will be accepted until January 15 for next year’s freshman Wayne Med-Direct class. The selected students will start in summer school with “enrichment courses” in chemistry, biology, physics, and writing.

    The minimum requirements are a 3.5 grade point average and a score of 1340 on the SAT or 30 on the ACT. Students may apply from anywhere.

    Wayne Med-Direct is aimed at exceptional students from low-income backgrounds and preference will be given to students who plan to study health disparities among communities and how to address them. It is expected that many of the students selected will be minorities underrepresented in the medical profession.

    For more information, and to apply visit Honors.Wayne.edu.

    http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/10/26/smart-kids-wanted-no-money-required-162194

  11. rikyrah says:

    ” Reform’?
    ‘Reform’?

    They want to DESTROY Social Security and Medicare – plain and simple.

    ………………………………………

    Debate over Medicare, Social Security, other federal benefits divides GOP

    By Robert Costa and Ed O’Keefe November 4 at 4:22 PM
    Republicans are openly feuding over whether to seek drastic changes to Medicare, Social Security and other entitlement programs, risking a potentially damaging intraparty battle ahead of the 2016 elections.

    The rift was exemplified this week by the GOP stars of the moment. Newly installed House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) said he plans to pursue a “bold alternative agenda” that would include major revisions in entitlements. At the same time, leading Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump railed against proposals to end or significantly change Medicare.

    The dispute is part of a larger GOP argument over which policies Republicans will present to voters next year and how far the party should go in pushing for changes. Three years ago, GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney and Ryan, his running mate, faced withering Democratic attacks after endorsing dramatic overhauls of Medicare and Social Security that proved unpopular.

    The Republican presidential candidates are jockeying to be seen as in solidarity with Ryan, the darling of party elders, or with Trump, a voice for grass-roots voters.

    This is the biggest fault line in the party: whether Republicans should be talking about reducing benefits,” conservative economist Stephen Moore said in an interview. “Republicans have fallen on their sword for 30 years trying to reform Social Security and Medicare, but the dream lives on — and it makes everyone nervous. Some see a political trap; others see it as necessary

    …………………

    Generally, there is a class split among Republicans over whether to reduce spending on entitlement programs. Polling of Republicans conducted in the past several years by the Pew Research Center showed that party supporters without college degrees are more supportive of maintaining Social Security and Medicare benefits, while college graduates are more supportive of cutbacks.

    Trump has shrugged off Ryan’s proposals as political missteps. “He’s been so anti-Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, in a sense,” Trump said of Ryan last month on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “Now, he would say he hasn’t been, but [Democrats] certainly played that up hard” in the 2012 race.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/debate-over-medicare-social-security-other-federal-benefits-divides-gop/2015/11/04/166619a8-824e-11e5-a7ca-6ab6ec20f839_story.html?tid=pm_politics_pop_b

  12. rikyrah says:

    I don’t think it’s rocket science.
    1. Asians can see the dogwhistles of hate lobbed at Blacks, Latinos and Muslims. They aren’t delusional enough to go ‘ well, they don’t like THEM, but they like ME.’
    2. Asians respect and want good PUBLIC schools. Look up any highly rated public school system in your area. Check the demographics. Dollars to donuts, Asians will be represented in the demographics at higher percentages than their national numbers. They aren’t interested in tearing down good public schools in order to feed the GOP Charter School Scam Machine.
    3. Asians believe in the American Social Safety net.

    ………………………………………………………………………………..

    Why Asian Americans don’t vote Republican
    By Cecilia Hyunjung Mo November 2

    During the recent No Labels-hosted Problem Solver Convention in New Hampshire, things got a little uncomfortable.

    When Joseph Choe, an Asian American college student, stood up to ask a question about South Korea, Donald Trump cut him off and wondered aloud: “Are you from South Korea?”

    Choe responded, “I’m not. I was born in Texas, raised in Colorado.” His answer prompted laughter from the audience, and nothing more than a shrug from the GOP presidential candidate.

    Media outlets like NPR and the Huffington Post mocked this interaction as a “Where are you from?” moment.

    A fellow conference attendee who walked by Choe subsequently joked, “You’re gonna have to show him your birth certificate, man!

    Although Trump probably did not intend to offend, this interaction likely reminded Choe and other Asian American voters that being Asian often translates to being perceived by fellow Americans as a foreigner.

    However innocuous Trump’s question may seem, this is exactly the sort of exchange that could, in part, be pushing Asian Americans – the highest-income, most-educated, and fastest-growing segment of the United States – toward the Democratic Party by landslide margins.

    In the 2012 presidential election, Barack Obama won 73 percent of the Asian American vote. That exceeded his support among traditional Democratic Party constituencies like Hispanics (71 percent) and women (55 percent).

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2015/11/02/why-asian-americans-dont-vote-republican/

    • rikyrah says:

      I will also say…

      Barack and Michelle Obama did what folks tell their children to do. Go to school. Work your ass off. Keep your nose clean. Barack and Michelle Obama went to some of the best schools in America – White folks believe that we don’t see the fundamental lack of respect shown this President. And, they also believe that others can’t see it either.

      Never will forget a series of letters in TPM after the 2012 election, of people talking about why they supported the President, and a few were from non-Whites telling how they could see the racism thrown at this President and his entire family.

  13. rikyrah says:

    The decline of play in preschoolers — and the rise in sensory issues
    By Valerie Strauss

    Here is a new post from pediatric occupational therapist Angela Hanscom, author of a number of popular posts on this blog, including “Why so many kids can’t sit still in school today,” as well as “The right — and surprisingly wrong — ways to get kids to sit still in class” and “How schools ruined recess.” Hanscom is the founder of TimberNook, a nature-based development program designed to foster creativity and independent play outdoors in New England.

    By Angela Hanscom

    I still recall the days of preschool for my oldest daughter. I remember wanting to desperately enrich her life in any way possible – to give her an edge before she even got to formal schooling. I put her in a preschool that was academic in nature – the focus on pre-reading, writing, and math skills. At home, I bought her special puzzles, set up organized play dates with children her age, read to her every night, signed her up for music lessons, put her in dance, and drove her to local museums. My friends and I even did “enrichment classes” with our kids to practice sorting, coloring, counting, numbers, letters, and yes….even to practice sitting! We thought this would help prepare them for kindergarten.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/09/01/the-decline-of-play-in-preschoolers-and-the-rise-in-sensory-issues/

  14. rikyrah says:

    and this shocks folks?

    Ben Carson’s Love Affair With a “Nutjob” Conspiracy Theorist
    A top GOP presidential contender has embraced the dark, paranoid, and crazy worldview of a far-right pseudohistorian.

    By David Corn | Tue Sep. 29, 2015 5:00 AM EDT

    Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon and political novice near the top of the GOP presidential polls, does not spend much time and energy promoting specific policy stances. He has soared to a statistical tie with Donald Trump by emphasizing his outsider status and calling to revive America, deploying general right-wing rhetoric that resonates with social conservatives. At the recent Republican debate, he said, “The thing that is probably most important is having a brain.” But he has provided one important clue as to his fundamental political worldview, by repeatedly endorsing a far-right conspiracy theorist named W. Cleon Skousen, who was characterized in 2007 by the conservative National Review as an “all-around nutjob.” Skousen came to prominence in the 1950s as a virulent anti-Communist crusader; he later claimed that a global cabal of bankers controlled the world from behind the scenes, and he once wrote a book that referred to the “blessings of slavery.”

    Carson swears by Skousen, who died in 2006. In a July 2014 interview, Carson contended that Marxist forces had been using liberals and the mainstream media to undermine the United States. His source: Skousen. “There is a book called The Naked Communist,” he said. “It was written in 1958. Cleon Skousen lays out the whole agenda, including the importance of getting people into important positions in the mainstream media so they can help drive the agenda. Well, that’s what’s going on now.” Four months later, while being interviewed by Megyn Kelly on Fox News, Carson denounced unnamed Marxists who were presently seeking to destroy American society: “There was a guy who was a former CIA agent by the name of Cleon Skousen who wrote a book in 1958 called The Naked Communist, and it laid out the whole agenda. You would think by reading it that it was written last year—showing what they’re trying to do to American families, what they’re trying to do to our Judeo-Christian faith, what they’re doing to morality.” (Skousen had been an FBI employee—not a CIA officer—and mainly engaged in administrative and clerical duties; later he was a professor at Brigham Young University and police chief of Salt Lake City.) And the most recent edition of this Skousen book boasts Carson’s endorsement on the front cover: “The Naked Communist lays out the whole progressive plan. It is unbelievable how fast it has been achieved.”

    http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/09/ben-carson-conspiracy-theory-cleon-skousen

  15. rikyrah says:

    Dems, GOP set stage for major Planned Parenthood showdown
    11/05/15 08:01 AM—UPDATED 11/05/15 08:08 AM
    facebook twitter save share group 3
    By Steve Benen
    The IRS “scandal” didn’t turn out the way Republicans hoped. Neither did the Solyndra “scandal.” Or the Benghazi “scandal.” GOP lawmakers invested incredible amounts of energy – and tens of millions of our dollars – into looking for evidence of wrongdoing, but in each instance, there was no wrongdoing to find. The “controversy” didn’t exist outside the overactive imaginations of far-right partisans.

    But in the immortal words of Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas), if Republicans are being accused of launching witch hunts, “that must mean there is a witch somewhere.” If previous investigations turned up nothing, that must mean it’s time for a new investigation to turn up nothing.

    Two weeks ago, House GOP leaders appointed members to a new anti-Planned Parenthood committee, and yesterday, House Democratic leaders did the same.
    House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has picked six strong abortion rights supporters for the GOP-led panel on Planned Parenthood, setting up a showdown over the already-controversial probe.

    Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), a leading member of the House Pro-Choice Caucus, was picked as the top Democrat on the panel.
    They’ll join the eight House Republicans – four men, four women – who’ve already been named to the committee. The new “Select Investigative Panel” will be chaired by Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.).

    Yesterday’s announcement was not a foregone conclusion – House Dems considered boycotting this new committee, recognizing it as a partisan sham, but as was the case with the Republicans’ Benghazi panel, Democrats ultimately decided it’s worth knowing what the GOP is up to and occasionally trying to set the record straight.

    As for why the committee exists, no one involved has offered a coherent explanation. As was the case with Benghazi, a variety of congressional committees have already examined the allegations against Planned Parenthood, and no evidence of wrongdoing has emerged. This new panel was created to help House GOP officials tell their base that they’re “doing something” about an issue far-right activists take seriously.

    For their part, House Republicans “insist their new committee to investigate Planned Parenthood won’t be political.”

    Right. And where have we heard that before?

    http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/dems-gop-set-stage-major-planned-parenthood-showdown

  16. rikyrah says:

    Rubio: Deferred action for illegal immigrants must end
    November 04, 2015, 07:14 pm

    Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on Wednesday said he would halt protections for illegal immigrants who reach the U.S. as children.

    “It will have to end at some point,” he said after an event at Saint Anselm College in Goffstown, N.H., according to Bloomberg.

    If elected president, Rubio said he would discontinue Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) even if Congress failed to pass immigration reform beforehand.

    “[It would be] ideal,” he said when asked if he wanted Congress to act on immigration first.

    “But if it doesn’t, it will end,” the 2016 GOP presidential candidate added. “It cannot be the permanent policy of the United States.”

    http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/259198-rubio-dream-act-immigration-protections-must-end

  17. rikyrah says:

    UH HUH
    UH HUH

    Fox Newsers Suddenly Quiet When Their ‘Hero Cop’ Revealed to Be Fraudster

    Several of the cable net’s conservative commentators were quick to tie a cop’s death to ‘anti-cop violence,’ but they’ve gone silent now that it’s been proven otherwise.

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/11/05/fox-newsers-suddenly-quiet-when-their-hero-cop-revealed-to-be-fraudster.html

  18. rikyrah says:

    hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

    Why Ben Carson Isn’t Going Away — And What Makes That So Scary

    ByED KILGORE
    PublishedNOVEMBER 4, 2015, 6:00 AM EST

    During the last month the long-awaited, heavily-promoted decline in Donald Trump’s standing in the Republican presidential nominating contest has finally begun to occur. But aside from a small reshuffling of the order in the “lanes” (e.g., Rubio moving past Bush among Establishment Republicans and Cruz moving past Huckabee, Santorum and Jindal among experienced Christian Right candidates) to which the candidates have been assigned by the punditocracy, the big beneficiary of softening support for Trump has been another candidate with no experience in elected office, Dr. Ben Carson. He is running either first or a strong second in virtually every national poll, and is now routinely leading polls of Iowa as well. His approval ratings, moreover, are extremely high, and best in the field. It’s safe to say he is almost universally admired by GOP voters.

    The conventional wisdom is that Carson is beloved for being a genial, soft-spoken figure and a non-politician with a distinguished biography. That may be true, though this does not necessarily distinguish him from many thousands of his fellow Americans. An equally obvious factor is that he is African American, and Republicans frustrated with being accused of white identity politics if not outright racism love being able to support a black candidate who is as conservative as they are.

    Less obvious — and finally being recognized by political reporters spending time in Iowa — is that Carson is a familiar, beloved figure to conservative evangelicals, who have been reading his books for years.

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/why-ben-carson-is-no-herman-cain

    • Liza says:

      In 2012, I think we knew it would eventually be Romney on the GOP ticket probably for no reason other that he was the most presentable, therefore the most electable. They were all bad candidates. With this bunch, it’s hard to predict which of these clowns will eventually rise to the top. Maybe it really will be Trump.

  19. rikyrah says:

    Daddy Bush on Shrub’s crew:

    ‘ “He just became very hard-line and very different from the Dick Cheney I knew and worked with,” Bush said, speculating that 9/11 changed the Veep. “Just iron-ass. His seeming knuckling under to the real hard-charging guys who want to fight about everything, use force to get our way in the Middle East.”

    However, he also called Cheney “a good man,” and blamed his son for letting things get out of control. “The big mistake that was made was letting Cheney bring in kind of his own State Department,” Bush said. “I think they overdid that. But it’s not Cheney’s fault. It’s the president’s fault … The buck stops there.” ‘

    http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/11/hw-bashes-cheney-and-w-for-empowering-him.html

  20. Ametia says:

    Mighty WHITE of the presidents to dish out free meals to the slaves during the convention

    • Liza says:

      These are great pictures. I suspect the children are a welcome relief from the pressure, and remind him of why he got into this in the first place.

  21. rikyrah says:

    Good Morning, Everyone :)

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