Jack & Jill Politics

from Coates on the Common brouhaha:

I Feel Like A Black Republican
May 11 2011, 1:00 PM ET

David White picks up on the Common piece and expounds a bit:

You know, normally something this stupid wouldn’t bother me, but this story really gets under my skin. If they can try to paint Common as a ‘dangerous black man,’ what black man is immune?

If they think Common is vile, then I know they have no use for my black ass.

Common is beyond the pale, Michelle Obama hates whitey, Eric Holder is protecting the New Black Panther Party, Shirley Sherrod is discriminating against white farmers, Barack Obama is giving reparations to black people?

Conservatives, do you realize how stupid this sounds to black people? (and I know that black people aren’t the audience for that kind of talk, there’s no need to point that out to me.)

Seriously, you can’t find less-threatening black people. And fundamentally, I doubt if they even think Common’s that bad. He’s a convenient target for a bit of demagoguing, which is even more repugnant.

At least when Lee Atwater used the “Let’s dredge up the ‘dangerous black man’ feelings for a cheap political hit” ploy, he’d choose an actually dangerous black man.

I mean, look, politically, I’m pretty liberal, so it’s not like I’d ever be a regular Republican voter anyway. But shit like this is what prevents me from even getting to the point where I’d give their policies a fair hearing. And I know there are some Republicans and conservatives here, and I say that you have no chance of getting any kind of support from black voters as long as the leaders of your party are pulling these kinds of stunts.

I think that first paragraph captures a lot of what I meant when I asked “Who will they accept? This is different from “Who will they agree with?” I think Liz Cheney’s attacks on Eric Holder were disgusting and erroneous, but they were also pretty run of the mill for American politics.

I think “Obamacare” is disparaging, but it’s also the sort of term that people who disagree with you generally coin. I think “pull the plug on gradma” was a lie, but it was the exact sort of lie that I could imagine being employed against President Hillary Clinton.

David is pointing to something else, something which I tried to get at in my Malcolm piece. Throughout the 80s and 90s, there were a lot of black folks on the public stage who many of us loved, but never really held up as role models or hoped would be “accepted.”

You can understand why, say, Mike Tyson, Chuck D, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, OJ Simpson, NWA, or Snoop Dogg might be polarizing. A lot of these folks were polarizing even within the black community. You didn’t really expect these people to be received as your ambassadors.

But Common is the dude in the Gap ad. His mother is a teacher. Shirley Sherrod is a victim of white supremacist terrorism, who lectures black people on seeing their own prejudice. Eric Holder went to Stuyvesant. Michelle Obama’s mother was a homemaker. Her parents forfeited a full athletic scholarship to send Michelle Obama’s brother to Princeton. They used to watch the Brady Bunch together.

If Common is disturbing, Shirley Sherrod wants to discriminate against white people, MIchelle Obama is obsessed with Whitey, and Barack Obama has a hatred of white people, then the rest of us are in real trouble. When you talk about “nonthreatening” this really is the best we’ve got.

Thank you David and Coates.

I love poetry, don’t you? I remember reading the poems of Langston Hughes and Phillis Wheatley as a young girl. They made a real impact in my life. Perhaps there are American poets that moved you then and move you now?

Get moved today and tonight — the White House is having a celebration of American poetry and prose. The livestream is above. Enjoy the workshop today and the performances tonight.

From the WH blog:

The President and First Lady are welcoming accomplished poets, musicians, artists and students from across the country to the White House today for a celebration of American poetry and prose. Mrs. Obama kicked off the White House Music Series in 2009 with a Jazz Studio, and has since hosted events to promote music and arts education through the celebration of Country, Classical, Motown, a Fiesta Latina, a salute to Broadway, Music of the Civil Rights Movement and a dance tribute to Judith Jamison.

This afternoon, Mrs. Obama will host a workshop for students from California to New York. Designed to educate and inspire talented young people, students will work with the evening’s performers. They’ll also hear from the First Lady and Melody Barnes, the Director of Domestic Policy Council, who will highlight a new study on the importance of arts education. Don’t miss the event live on www.whitehouse.gov at 2:25 PM EDT.

In the evening, artists will showcase the impact of poetry on American culture, with performances by Elizabeth Alexander, Billy Collins, Common, Rita Dove, Kenneth Goldsmith, Alison Knowles, Aimee Mann, Jill Scott and Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers. Tune in live on www.whitehouse.gov or watch and discuss through facebook at 7:10 PM EDT.

 

hat tip-3CHICSPOLITICO

PBO Wins Big on GM- Rachel Maddow -President speaks softly carry BIG STICK

This really is a good segment;Maddow lays out the accomplishments of the Obama Administration, and it seems as if Rachel has made peace that the Obama Administration is not one that stands on the corner with a megaphone screaming LOOK AT ME.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Good Afternoon.

As you go through the rest of your day, don’t forget JJP.

Drop those links. Engage in debate. Give us trivia and gossip too.

And continue to have a peaceful day.

So here we are again. Fox News, Drudge Report, Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity and other conservatives are jumping on a hater posse around Common’s invitation to the White House for the First Lady’s celebration of American Poetry today.

A whole lotta other people are invited like Elizabeth Alexander, Billy Collins, Rita Dove, Kenneth Goldsmith, Alison Knowles, Aimee Mann, Jill Scott and Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers. But no, they gotta pick on Common. Seems they don’t like some of his protest lyrics. Common comes strong but has always been a conscious rapper spittin’ not about “bitches”  and “hos” nor battle-rapping. He’s mostly concerned himself with issues like crime, domestic violence, war, poverty, education, civil rights and more. He also writes some good love songs in my opinion and has a promising acting career. Above, watch the video he did with will.i.am as one of the songs for the Freedom Writers movie starring Hilary Swank as a passionate teacher who inspires a group of at-risk kids to turn their lives around. It’s called “A Dream” and intersperses excerpts from King’s “I Have A Dream” speech with some powerful and inspiring messages for our young people. Is Fox and other conservatives really saying that this guy — the person who could make a beautiful video like this that’s rooted in our past and looking towards a brighter future — is “vile”? Or as Karl Rove put it: a “thug“?

It’s the Beck going after Van Jones strategy. Conservatives would like to use Common as a proxy for implying that the President is a gangsta rapper who hates whitey or some such mess. Lord, will it ever grow old? This is a pretty desperate attempt to slime the President and break his “Protector-in-Chief” halo in the wake of the successful raid on Osama bin Laden’s headquarters. Conservatives want to make Obama the boogeyman again through association. But it’s certainly a reach with Common.

Cuz Fox is talking outta both sides of their mouth on this one. Seems once upon a time not so long ago, Fox News was all rubbin’ up on a brother.

From Media Matters:

Conservatives such as Fox News, the Daily Caller and Sarah Palin are criticizing the White House’s invitation to rapper Common for a poetry event over the purported vulgarity of his lyrics. Fox Nation, for instance, called Common a “vile rapper.”

But roughly half-a-year ago, Fox News had a different tone about Common. In an October 2010 reportfor FoxNews.com, reporter Jason Robinson interviewed the “rap legend” and told him, “your music is very positive. And you’re known as the conscious rapper. How important is that to you, and how important do you think that is to our kids?”

 

Common replied that it’s a “significant role. I just try to show who we are as well-rounded people and I’m happy to be known as the conscious artist.”

Others have debunked the silly outrage over Common’s invite. The Huffington Post’s Jason Linkins writes that Common is “not what I consider to be a ‘gangsta rapper’ or particularly prone to any of hip-hop’s legendary excesses. In fact, it was these excesses – ‘poppin glocks servin rocks and hittin switches’ — that Common famously criticized in perhaps his most famous song, ‘I Used To Love H.E.R.’” The Atlantic’s Conor Friedersdorf, meanwhile, notes that there’s a tradition of previous White Houses hosting people with purportedly controversial lyrics.

Anyway, what do you think this is really about? Are you a Common fan like I am? Let me know in the comments.

In the meantime, if you’re interested in watching the White House celebration, here’s the 411:

• 2:25 PM EDT: White House Poetry Workshop (The First Lady w/ some of the artists working w/ hundreds of schoolkids)
• 7:10 PM EDT: An Evening of Poetry at the White House
  • Watch on WhiteHouse.gov/live
  • Watch and discuss through the facebook

The Honorable Kendrick B. Meek, a former Congressman representing Florida’s 17th congressional district, has joined Politic365 as chairman of its Editorial Board.  In this position, Meek will guide the publication’s growth and development of news, perspective and commentary for American decision leaders, focusing first on penetrating communities of color.

“This is a very exciting time for online journalism – history is being made every day, and it’s vital that this history be recorded from the perspectives of all Americans, including those who traditionally haven’t had a sufficient voice at the political table.”

Meek has a record of distinguished public service.  He has fought hard for the social and economic well being of the citizens of a highly diverse state – Florida – and for our nation as well. Now, he will bring that experience to the leadership of Politic365.

“Politic365.com is bringing the power of the Web and modern technology to serve an  age-old concern — the need to connect,” Meek said. “As chair of the Editorial Board, I want to build on this success. I want to make Politic365 an essential part of the daily lives of Americans. I want to build on Politic365’s strengths — its news, its analysis, its informed and civil conversations — on the challenges facing our nation.”

“As Chairman of the Editorial Board, it is my goal to make sure that Politic365 is one of the favorites on computer screens throughout the U.S. for news and information,” he said.

A Florida native, Meek grew up in a family familiar with political action.  His mother, Carrie P. Meek, decided to run for the Florida Legislature when he was 12 years old. He helped out by painting campaign signs at the kitchen table.

He remained a part of his mother’s outreach and activism and was inspired by her service to the citizens of Florida. He was part of her successful effort to make history as the first African-American to be elected to Congress from Florida since Reconstruction.  Meek attended Florida A&M University, where he honed his skills both as an athlete — he was a star on the Rattlers football squad — and in politics — he established Florida A&M University’s Democratic club and became statewide president of the College Young Democrats.

Meek graduated in 1989 with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. He joined the Florida Highway Patrol and became the first African-American to hold the rank of captain.

In 1994, Meek sought election to the Florida Legislature, winning a seat in the House of Representatives, where he served until his election to the Florida Senate in 1998. In the Legislature, Meek built a reputation for his conviction to principles, his determination to make a difference and his ability to build bipartisan consensus. Working with Republicans, he passed a bill that provided compensation for two African-Americans, Freddie Pitts and Wilbert Lee, who 35 years earlier were convicted of a murder they did not commit.

In 2000, when the state’s Republican leadership launched attacks on equal education and employment opportunity, Meek led the opposition. He energized Floridians with a 25-hour sit-in outside the governor’s office, the beginning of a campaign that ultimately led to a more moderate policy.

Determined to reverse the state’s inaction on education, in 2002 Meek launched an initiative to reduce the sizes of classes in Florida’s public schools. Despite heated opposition and pointed criticism from the state’s leaders, Meek led a petition drive that collected more than 500,000 signatures to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot. “I wasn’t fighting just for my daughter, Lauren,” Meek recalled later. “I was fighting for her classmates. I was fighting so that all kids would get a good start in an environment in which they could learn. As a father, and a lawmaker, nothing is more important to me.”

The amendment won overwhelming support from the citizens of Florida. Now, smaller classrooms are the defining feature of Florida’s system of public education.

That same year, Meek won election to Congress, representing the 17th Congressional District of Florida, which includes parts of Miami-Dade and Broward County. In his four terms in Congress, Meek again demonstrated principled leadership and skills at working in a bipartisan fashion to achieve results.

“Serving in the Florida Legislature and in Congress gave me a raw perspective on the true needs of the American people” Meek said. “The most important of these was the need to be heard.  I learned to truly listen to and acknowledge what people are saying, and to engage them in a conversation about their ideas and our future. That is my vision for Politic365 – a real discourse and informed discussion on the political landscape of our country.”

Wow!! What a couple of weeks we’ve had. From the faux drama regarding the release of Pres. Obama’s long-form birth certificate to the hoopla surrounding the royal wedding in London culminating with the exhilaration and speculation following the killing of Osama bin Laden, it’s been a heady time for the chattering class. In addition to these stories there’s been the disastrous tornadoes in the South obliterating whole towns and claiming hundreds of lives;  continuing conflict in Libya and murderous government suppression in Syria. Overall, the media have had a lot to talk about. Yet, I can’t help but feel that all these events, while legitimate news stories, collectively comprise a continuing series of distractions that allow us to forget (however temporarily) the vital and pressing issues that continue to plague our society.

Last week’s coverage of the national jobs report was one example of the media’s ability to forget or ignore facts that don’t support the prevailing narrative.  The news that more jobs were created during the past month than economists projected is definitely positive, exceeding expectations – even low ones – is good, though not impressive.  The positive spin on the jobs report avoided discussing important elements that provide a fuller picture of the extent of economic “recovery”.   Not addressed was the disproportionate number of new jobs at the low end of the earnings spectrum – retail employment in places like McDonald’s accounted for almost 1/4 of new hires – hardly sufficient wages to support an individual, much less a family. A significant portion of job growth over the past year has been in service sector jobs (e.g. retail, restaurants, travel & leisure) that often provide low wages and minimal, if any benefits.

Media coverage regarding job growth and the unemployment rate often ignores data on employment participation – the percentage of people able to work who are actively seeking employment – that percentage has steadily dropped to its lowest level in decades. According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) about 131,000 workers dropped out of the labor force last month – meaning they stopped looking for work – cumulatively, since January 2011, more than 548,000 people dropped out of the workforce.  Currently less than 2/3 of the civilian labor force is actively participating in employment. (If these discouraged workers were included the true unemployment rate would easily be in excess of 11%).

We don’t talk about these workers anymore – nor the growing numbers of young people who’ve been excluded from the labor pool.  The rate of youth unemployment has remained above 20% nationally and is twice that among youth of color – a reality with long term consequences. As pointed out in a particularly cogent column by Paul Krugman:

Unemployment isn’t just blighting the lives of millions, it’s undermining America’s future. The longer this goes on, the more workers will find it impossible ever to return to employment, the more young people will find their prospects destroyed because they can’t find a decent starting job. It may not create excited chatter on cable TV, but the unemployment crisis is real, and it’s eating away at our society.

I raise these issues not to beat up on the media or criticize the Obama administration’s efforts to revive the economy, but to point out how our ability to forget or ignore these very real but inconvenient facts skew public debate about economic policy and limit the options we consider regardless of their efficacy. Despite the continuing calamity befalling millions of Americans resulting from long-term and structural unemployment, there is no serious discussion of job creation legislation emanating from the White House or Capitol Hill. They continue to focus on ostensible crises such as the deficit, voter fraud and illegal immigration, while forgetting or ignoring genuine crises created by climate change; anemic economic growth; rising oil prices; failing health and education systems and dysfunctional political processes.

Republicans are ideologically opposed to any substantive  government-funded jobs creation program because it conflicts with their purported belief in limited government. Any attempt to utilize government in ways that serve people undermines their goal of delegitimizing government in favor of corporations. Given the continuing economic calamity generated by corporate rapacity and laissez-faire politics it’s more important than ever for  corporate imperialists and their media lackeys to deflect blame for their failures to government by feeding distrust and suspicion – a diet for which the American public has a huge appetite…..

While pundits and commentators discuss the potential payoff of the most recent Boehner budget extortion (I mean proposal…) and liberal groups focus on limiting the degree of Democratic appeasement  (of course I mean compromise……) – more and more Americans are falling off the economic cliff with no safety net to catch them. In this “post-welfare as we knew it” America, what’s happened to the people who lost their homes through foreclosure? Or the millions of 99ers who’ve exhausted their unemployment benefits as well as their savings? Or the hundreds of thousands of  college graduates who despite academic achievements have yet to find their first job and no longer believe they can realize the dream of financial security and upward mobility? The media may not care what’s happened to them, but we should  -  they are US!!

Unfortunately, the practice of economic obfuscation and political amnesia is not exclusive to the financial sector or rapacious free-marketeers. As pointed out in another spot on column by Paul Krugman (by the way I’m still mourning the departure of Frank Rich and Bob Herbert from the NYT…..) the country’s academic and policy elite have been guilty of the same self-serving revisionism:

… what I’ve been hearing with growing frequency from members of the policy elite — self-appointed wise men, officials, and pundits in good standing — is the claim that it’s mostly the public’s fault. The idea is that we got into this mess because voters wanted something for nothing, and weak-minded politicians catered to the electorate’s foolishness.

So this seems like a good time to point out that this blame-the-public view isn’t just self-serving, it’s dead wrong.

The fact is that what we’re experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. The policies that got us into this mess weren’t responses to public demand. They were, with few exceptions, policies championed by small groups of influential people — in many cases, the same people now lecturing the rest of us on the need to get serious. And by trying to shift the blame to the general populace, elites are ducking some much-needed reflection on their own catastrophic mistakes.

I believe the old adage is true, those who can not remember the past are condemned to repeat it……..We can’t afford to forgot the precarious state of our economic health or the ones who compromised it. For those seeking more varied perspective on the context and import of recent economic events I recommend the following documentaries: ENRON: The Smartest Guys in the Room; Capitalism: A Love Story and the academy award winning Inside Job.

Obama Makes Immigration Reform Pitch in El Paso

Good Morning.

As you make it through Hump Day, don’t forget JJP.

Drop those links. Engage in debate. Give us trivia and gossip too.

And always, have a peaceful day.

Read the rest of this entry »

“We’re only talking about four billion dollars.”

That’s how former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin defended the tax breaks going to the some of the world’s richest corporations: oil companies.

It may “only” be four billion dollars to these entities; after all, they are reaping windfall profits from rising gas prices. The “big five” oil companies — ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, Shell and ConocoPhillips — made $32 billion dollars in profit in the first quarter. In fact, Exxon is the most profitable company in the world, raking in $30 billion dollars in 2010 — nearly double that of Walmart.

Oil companies seem more than happy to watch us suffer at the gas pump; and, while roughly a dime of every dollar we earn goes to their profits, we — the American taxpayer — then have to write them a bonus check. Read the rest of this entry »

The Entire 60 Minutes Interview with President Obama.

Good Afternoon.

As you go through the rest of your day, don’t forget JJP.

Drop those links. Engage in debate. Give us trivia and gossip too.

And continue to have a peaceful day.

I stumbled upon this great Slate article by Farhad Manjoo from last Aug that includes quotes from JJP bloggers and JJP friends. It’s all about black folks on the Twitter and how that happened. It appears that blue bird of twitter is just as likely to be brown…

Now on the one hand, some of you will be all — why you gotta tell people how we do what we do? Then they’ll do it too! Or figure out a way to stop us!!!

Yet, I’m thinking that we should get credit for our savvy use of social media and figure out how we can exercise this amazing power for good instead of evil. Or ok, I’d settle for good instead of nasty. Manjoo did his research and talked to some smart people about black folks on Twitter. Interestingly, Twitter’s founders have been pretty quiet on this subject even though they must have observed the same trends. Perhaps they fear that if Twitter is identified as black-popular, that it will lose some of its prestige and be seen as ghetto?

From Slate:

Black people—specifically, young black people—do seem to use Twitter differently from everyone else on the service. They form tighter clusters on the network—they follow one another more readily, they retweet each other more often, and more of their posts are @-replies—posts directed at other users. It’s this behavior, intentional or not, that gives black people—and in particular, black teenagers—the means to dominate the conversation on Twitter.

There are loads of caveats to this analysis, which I’ll get to in a moment. But first, a digression into one of the leading explanations for these memes—the theory that the hashtags are sparked by something particular to black culture. “There’s a long oral dissing tradition in black communities,” says Baratunde Thurston, the Web editor of the Onion, whose funny presentation at this year’s South by Southwest conference, “How To Be Black Online,” argued that blacktags were a new take on the Dozens. “Twitter works very naturally with that call-and-response tradition—it’s so short, so economical, and you get an instant signal validating the quality of your contribution.” (If people like what you say, they retweet it.)

To me, the Dozens theory is compelling but not airtight. For one thing, a lot of these tags don’t really fit the format of the Dozens—they don’t feature people one-upping one another with witty insults. Instead, the ones that seem to hit big are those that comment on race, love, sex, and stereotypes about black culture. Many read like Jeff Foxworthy’s “You might be a redneck …” routine applied to black people—for instance, last December’s #ifsantawasblack(among the tamer contributions: “#ifsantawasblack he wouldnt say ho ho ho, he would say yo yo yo”) or July’s #ghettobabynames (e.g., “#ghettobabynames Weavequisha.”) The bigger reason why the Dozens theory isn’t a silver bullet is that a lot of people of all races insult one another online generally, and on Twitter specifically. We don’t usually see those trends hit the top spot. Why do only black people’s tweets get popular?

[snip]

Now for the caveats. There is an obvious problem with talking about how black people use Twitter, as many of the black Twitter users I spoke to took pains to point out: Not all black people on the service are participating in these hashtags, and there are probably a great many who are indifferent to or actively dislike the tags. “It’s the same issue I have with certain black comedy shows,” says Elon James White, a comedian who runs the site This Week in Blackness. “They put out these ideas of blackness that—if it were someone of another race saying them—you’d go, ‘Whoa, that’s racist!’ I remember when #ifsantawasblack hit, I lost my shit. I was freaking out. It was literally a game of, What’s the most racist thing we can say? And it was black people saying it!”

Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t follow football very closely so I admit I was sleeping on the controversy surrounding Rashard Mendenhall of the Pittsburgh Steelers and his controversial tweets after the death of Osama bin Laden.

Here’s the 2 statements he originally put out over Twitter:

“What kind of person celebrating death? It’s amazing how people can hate a man whom they had never heard speak. We have only heard one side.”

(and)
“We’ll never know what really happened. I just have a hard time believing a plane could take a skyscraper down demolition style.”

Now Twitter is a dangerous place to be putting out some controversial shizz just because it doesn’t give you much room to explain yourself or provide context. Twitter’s mighty popular with black folks so in some ways, let this be a warning — think through your tweets, y’all. These tweets made him sound like a truther and a defender of OBL at a moment in time when people weren’t really hearing that.

One of the freedoms we were protecting from the likes of bin Laden is freedom of speech and I think folks have come down a little hard on Rashard. The Steelers distanced themselves from him and he was dropped by one of his sponsors Champion. The media also has been harsh on Rashard IMHO without giving him much chance to clarify his remarks. Personally, I found Mendenhall’s tweets to be unwise in their construction, yet his blog post explaining himself was well-thought out and articulate (excerpt):

When is the last time you heard more than a grunt level sound bite from an active American athlete? When was the last time any 23 year old black man sounded like that in the nation’s mainstream media? I have issues with what Rashard said in his tweets, but I defend his right to speak his mind and I’m proud of him for penning a blog post that’s respectful, moving and intelligent.

Black bloggers out there are having Mendenhall’s back.

Q_Crush over at Talking Loud:

What many people failed to do, was break the comments down into two separate parts (they were tweeted as such.) The first part in which he questions people who celebrate death is spot on… It’s ironic that a country that was established on Christian beliefs would be so contradictory of said beliefs. Matthew 22:39 states that we should love our neighbor as ourselves. No where in the verse is there a conditional clause, saying if he does this you don’t have to and your neighor extends to other countries. While we (myself included) take great issue with what Osama Bin Ladin did, he still was a human in which God commanded us to love.

Jasiri X at All Hip Hop:

Rashard Mendenhall committed the cardinal sin for black athletes for the second time in his short career. No it’s not drinking and driving, refusing to practice, assaulting a woman, or participating in a horrible reality TV show, it’s expressing an unpopular opinion. This time Rashard sent out a pair of tweets about Bin Laden and 9/11 that have been classified in the mainstream media as dumb, stupid, uninformed, and unpatriotic. On closer examination they’re actually evidence of deep thinking (which he clearly shows in his blog responding to the controversy) about complex issues that most Americans would rather sum up in clichés like, “We’re the good guys and they’re the bad guys” or “He’s Dead! Let’s party!” Not surprisingly Mendenhall was vilified and told by fans and the Steelers organization to stay in his place or in other words…. just run the football, boy.

It’s not far fetched to believe most people who took to the streets celebrating Bin Laden’s death have never actually listened to the videos we were told he recorded, and it’s even less of a stretch of the imagination to think that none of them have ever attempted to try and figure out what would drive a human being to an act so barbaric. Whenever the issue of why was raised, the childlike response of “He hates America” was given. When why does he hate America was asked, an even more childish reason was put forth, “He hates America because of our freedom”. Obviously the issue is a lot more complex than that, especially considering the fact that Bin Laden was once a United States ally and was financed by our government. But none of that matters… just run the football, boy.

 

Read the rest of this entry »

FromThinkProgress:

After Citizens United, Conservative Undisclosed Donors Spent 8 Times As Much As Liberal Ones In 2010 Election

Last year, in perhaps the “most consequential Supreme Court decision in decades,” the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) invalidated a sixty-three year-old ban on corporate and union money directly funding individual candidates in federal elections. The SCOTUS decision sent shockwaves throughout our democracy, with many fearing that it would lead to an overwhelming amount of corporate money flooding out the voices of ordinary people.

Now, the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics has put out a comprehensive analysis to assess the flood of campaign money in last year’s election. One of the most shocking results of the analysis finds that the decision appeared to have a sharply partisan and ideological result. The group found that spending by Super PACs and all outside spending strongly tilted towards conservatives, and that spending by undisclosed donors actually was eight times higher for conservatives than liberals, with conservatives spending $119.6 million to liberals’ $15.7 million:

This graph is what Citizens United hath wrought. If you don’t believe that POTUS will need every dime of the billion dollars that he is projected to raise for 2012, you are delusional. IF you also don’t understand that the UNIONS are the only place where Democrats get
a) large sums of money
b) large groups of boots on the ground for GOTV

and THAT is the reason the Republicans are going after them, you continue to be delusional.

It’s not just the AMOUNT of money; it’s also the anonymity. IF you are going to give political donations, then it should have to be declared where it’s coming from, so that the trail can be plain for all to see.

The Barbados Tourism Authority took a group of US Journalists on an Experiential Tour of the beautiful island and we enjoyed the best of Bajan culture and activities, including Outodoor Fun at Sea! Barbados is a small island, 14 miles wide and 21 miles long; however, it has 60 miles of coastline giving you a number and variety of ways to enjoy Barbados’ top attraction – the seaside!  And weather you have confidence sea-legs or still sporting those ‘water wings’, you can still have a grand time in the water.

1. Beachside activities
Beach combing and lounging are always in style. All of the fine white sand beaches are public so you’re sure to mix and mingle with tourists and residents alike. The friendly people are happy to greet you, share a conversation with you or invite you to join them in activity. Vendors are also common. If you are staying at a beachfront hotel, like I did at Hotel Tamarind along the West Coast, outdoor living space is also maximized: sun beds, chaise lounges, beach sofas made for two, and outdoor dining facilties. As lovely as the accommodations were, it was hard to stay inside with lovely views as these.

Bathsheba Beach front

West Beach at Sunset

2. Water sports
Sea water is naturally bouyant, so simply splashing and swimming around the roped off sections (for your safety) of the sea are always a hit. However, one must be mindful of the coral along the beach and on the ocean. Unlike the other Caribbean islands, Barbados is a coral island and not a volcanic one. Parts of the sea floor are stone and coral cover which is beautiful, but has been known to cut the skin if one isn’t careful. Included in the cost of rooms at Hotel Tamarind and the other Hotel Elegant properties is pre-paid water sport activities such as windsurfing, sunfish sailing, standup paddle surfing, snorkeling, and scuba diving. I gave standup paddleboarding a try. It was lots of fun but not as physically rigourous as I thought. The trick is to find your balance and just go with the waves. However, I fell a lot. It wasn’t traumatic at all. The water felt great and after blinking a million times to wash the salt out I was fine. I slid myself back on the paddle surf board (a modified surf board) and gave it a try one more try.

Stand up Paddle surf boarding

Me, giving Stand up Paddle board surfing another try

3. Deep sea adventure
Barbados sits in both the Caribbean sea and on the edge of the Atlantic ocean. The East coast is quite choppy each each year, the area known as Bathsheba hosts surfing competitions attracting folks from all over the globe. However, many of these beaches are not for general activity. However, boating and sailing are also popular on the island. Tiami Catamaran Cruises is a commericial tour that takes visitors out to swim with endangered Barbados sea turtles and snorkel over beautiful coral beds along south and western seas. The cruise itself was adventurous and offered spectacular views.

Donning a life jacket and snorkel gear with ME Whitford of the Brandman Agency (our host for the trip) and L Monitz of iExplore.

Barbados was a grand time.

Wet toes on the beach

Have you and your friends and families visited Barbados or the West Indies before? What are your favorite water-side memories from your Outdoor Afro Adventures?

from the The Independent:

Cheerleader must compensate school that told her to clap ‘rapist’
By Guy Adams in Dallas

A teenage girl who was dropped from her high school’s cheerleading squad after refusing to chant the name of a basketball player who had sexually assaulted her must pay compensation of $45,000 (£27,300) after losing a legal challenge against the decision.

The United States Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a review of the case brought by the woman, who is known only as HS. Lower courts had ruled that she was speaking for the school, rather than for herself, when serving on a cheerleading squad – meaning that she had no right to stay silent when coaches told her to applaud.

She was 16 when she said she had been raped at a house party attended by dozens of fellow students from Silsbee High School, in south-east Texas. One of her alleged assailants, a student athlete called Rakheem Bolton, was arrested, with two other young men.

In court, Bolton pleaded guilty to the misdemeanour assault of HS. He received two years of probation, community service, a fine and was required to take anger-management classes. The charge of rape was dropped, leaving him free to return to school and take up his place on the basketball team.

Four months later, in January 2009, HS travelled to one of Silsbee High School’s basketball games in Huntsville. She joined in with the business of leading cheers throughout the match. But when Bolton was about to take a free throw, the girl decided to stand silently with her arms folded.

“I didn’t want to have to say his name and I didn’t want to cheer for him,” she later told reporters. “I just didn’t want to encourage anything he was doing.”

Richard Bain, the school superintendent in the sport-obsessed small town, saw things differently. He told HS to leave the gymnasium. Outside, he told her she was required to cheer for Bolton. When the girl said she was unwilling to endorse a man who had sexually assaulted her, she was expelled from the cheerleading squad.

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Good Morning.

As you go through your day, don’t forget JJP.

Drop those links. Engage in debate. Give us trivia and gossip too.

And always, have a peaceful day.

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