Jack & Jill Politics

Here is an interesting comparison I picked up over at Oliver Willis, (by the way, I love his tagline... Like Kryptonite to Stupid.

1860 Cotton Production and 2008 General Election Presidential Vote

FINALLY!! An article that focuses on how Obama was not a friend of Blagojevich and has not been for a long time....great read, here is an excerpt:

"Long before federal prosecutors charged Blagojevich with bribery this week, Obama had worked to distance himself from his home-state governor. The two men have not talked for more than a year, colleagues said, save for a requisite handshake at a funeral or public event. Blagojevich rarely campaigned for Obama and never stumped with him. The governor arrived late at the Democratic convention and skipped Obama's victory-night celebration at Chicago's Grant Park.

Even though they often occupied the same political space -- two young lawyers in Chicago, two power brokers in Springfield, two ambitious men who coveted the presidency -- Obama and Blagojevich never warmed to each other, Illinois politicians said. They sometimes used each other to propel their own careers but privately acted like rivals. Blagojevich considered Obama naive and pretentious and dismissed his success as "good luck." Obama disparaged Blagojevich for what he viewed as his combativeness, his disorganization and his habit of arriving at official events half an hour late. "

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ar...

This is one of my favorite passages:
Even though they both began their careers in Chicago, Blagojevich and Obama operated on distinct tracks. Blagojevich, the son of a steelworker who was born in Serbia, grew up on the city's predominantly white North Side and rode a pair of buses with his mother to his first Chicago Cubs game. He married the daughter of a gritty, deal-making alderman and entered politics as an unapologetic product -- and representative -- of the Chicago Democratic machine. He drew support from the city's white middle class and was elected to the state legislature in 1992.

Obama, a transplant from Hawaii and New York City, moved into the progressive, integrated Hyde Park neighborhood and attended White Sox games on the South Side. In his campaign for state Senate, he cast himself as the righteous alternative to what he called "old-school politics" and pitched his case to a coalition of African Americans and Hyde Park's liberal upper class.


Same city....totally different worlds.

Yes, I really liked that one too, but thought it wouldn't be read if it was too long of an excerpt, lol.

Rikyrah...have you send this vile Open Letter to Obama from John Dean where he alludes to this being a cover-up as venal as Watergate?!

I kid you not. It is like comparing Obama to Hitler, when he was at Brandenburg Gate in Germany, reMEMber that?

The GOP is out to make Obama into a dishonest villain before he is inaugurated!! They want to smear him.

I swear. I hope and beleive that this overkill at this juncture will be like the Rev Wright three week endless loop in the primaries turning out to be such overkill and coming so early that it was ineffective in the general to go there.

Here is the link....be prepared to become livid.
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/12/13...

Frugal Fridays: Grocery Shopping and Eating for Less.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/12/12/21139/...

So today, while I was watching some of the coverage of Blago-gate, I got to thinking that just a little over 1 month ago Barack Obama became the first African American to be elected President of United States. I tell ya, with all this, to quote Rachel Maddow, "Guilt by Proximity" coverage of the Illinois governer that the MSM has been doing lately, the SoS drama, the "angry left" that wasn't drama, I'll admit, I lost some of the glow from election night. So I went to you tube and searched for election night coverage, I was specifically looking for the network coverage from MSNBC where it had the students from Atlanta singing along to "Signed Sealed Delivered" after Obama won.

But of course, like what always happens when you're on youtube, I got caught up in other coverage of Obama's victory that people posted. And you know what, the light is back. Man, I truly believe that we Americans, all Americans, did a wonderful thing on November 4, 2008 not just for us, but for the global community.

So while the conservative pundits, media, columnist, bloggers, and even the so called MSM continues to overblow the scandal du jour, I'll keep looking at you tube to keep my light shining.

I know to some it may seem like I'm choosing to live in la la land, but I refuse to let the media, Repubs, strategist, etc take the joy of these moments from me. I mean think about it, right now, literally, the history of tomorrow is currently being written today, and I am damn well not gonna miss it, or spend most of my time fretting about the scadal du jour.

Likes the song goes: "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine! ... Won't let Satan whoosh it out, I'm gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine"

BTW, here is my favorite video so far:
Busta Rhymes Reacts To Obama Win

Enjoy! Links to the countdowns all around the world

Countdowns to Victory!

The Syracuse one is my favorite for the shock and sheer madness of it!! Of course, the Philadelphia one is also the shiggety because I WAS THERE!!! and those were my peeps!

Thank you. Its so easy to get distracted.

great reminder

Blagojevich fundraiser held by Jackson allies Saturday

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-bl...

Ummm, UM, UMMMM...

So it seems Miami is to Cubans what Detroit is to Arabs what Indians are to ChiTown?


"One said Nayak and Bedi told him and others of their plan to help Jackson.

The second said he overheard Nayak and Bedi discussing plans with Bhatt, the Joliet pharmacist..

"Raghu said he needed to raise a million for Rod to make sure Jesse got the seat," the second businessman said. "He said, 'I can raise half of it, $500,000.' The idea was that the other two would help raise the rest."



Amd all these brown faces of power & political financial muscle never had to fight for civil rights/

The world just keeps on turning...this adds new perspective Obama was so forceful as well in the primaries to renounce the memo from his campaign that designated Hillary as D-Punjab....

His appointment was in the bag. I bet when JJJ and JJSr saw Blago was arrested the morning the announcement was to be made...they were madder than ever.

they had to know their goose was cooked.

What does JJJ brother Jonathan do for a living...does he have the majority shares in the Bud distributorship?

one of the most lucrative Bud distributorships in the country.

I knew it was very lucrative since they own distribution rights to Wrigley Fiedl...but is Jonathan the primary shareholder or is it a family deal...what is Jonathan's bkgrd is he a business man or what?

MBA from Northwestern

I just heard something on NOW that is completely horrifying. The US has 5% of the worlds population but 25% of the worlds prison population. How did I miss this-- just so incredibly fucked up I cant speak. I know there is a prison industrial complex but this boggles the mind.

From NYT http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/us/23prison.html
The Inmate Count in US Dwarfs Other Nations

The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners.

Indeed, the United States leads the world in producing prisoners, a reflection of a relatively recent and now entirely distinctive American approach to crime and punishment. Americans are locked up for crimes — from writing bad checks to using drugs — that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. And in particular they are kept incarcerated far longer than prisoners in other nations.

Criminologists and legal scholars in other industrialized nations say they are mystified and appalled by the number and length of American prison sentences.

The United States has, for instance, 2.3 million criminals behind bars, more than any other nation, according to data maintained by the International Center for Prison Studies at King’s College London.

China, which is four times more populous than the United States, is a distant second, with 1.6 million people in prison. (That number excludes hundreds of thousands of people held in administrative detention, most of them in China’s extrajudicial system of re-education through labor, which often singles out political activists who have not committed crimes.)

San Marino, with a population of about 30,000, is at the end of the long list of 218 countries compiled by the center. It has a single prisoner.

The United States comes in first, too, on a more meaningful list from the prison studies center, the one ranked in order of the incarceration rates. It has 751 people in prison or jail for every 100,000 in population. (If you count only adults, one in 100 Americans is locked up.)

The only other major industrialized nation that even comes close is Russia, with 627 prisoners for every 100,000 people. The others have much lower rates. England’s rate is 151; Germany’s is 88; and Japan’s is 63.

THERE IS MORE

Jails are an employment industry, didn't you know that? !?!

The last I heard the US has more prisoners than all other nations COMBINED.

Does anyone know where Mayor Fenty's children go to school?

rikyrah, here you go! The article is 2 years old.

TOT'S DEVELOPMENTAL SCHOOL.
1317 Shepherd St NW
Washington, DC 20011
(202) 829-7798
They teach K- 8th grade.
*******************************************************
Fenty's Words vs. His Actions

Originally published 09:34 p.m., September 5, 2006, updated 12:00 a.m., September 6, 2006
On the very issue that supposedly forms the foundation of Adrian Fenty's campaign for mayor -- "Making Education Our #1 Priority" -- his own actions disqualify him from any consideration for that office.

"As mayor," Mr. Fenty has said, "my first priority will be building excellent public education." But he has refused to enroll his 6-year-old twins in D.C. Public Schools. Mr. Fenty has also bragged about how he "led the fight in the Council to oppose federally imposed vouchers in the District's public school system." Mr. Fenty, who earns $92,250 as a councilman and would earn $149,200 as mayor, also "led the fight" (his words) to make certain that virtually none of the city's impoverished families would have the option of sending their children to better-performing private schools. Those facts should scream out to voters.

Instead of enrolling his two boys in the first grade at West Elementary School last week, Mr. Fenty kept them at the private ((Tots Developmental School,))) where, according to the mayoral candidate, tuition costs about $6,000 a year.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2006/sep/05...

http://washington-dc.schooltree.org/private/Tot...

Sidwell Friends Students Taunt Rivals By Chanting "Obama" At Basketball Game

Portis/Zorn isn’t the only rivalry to heat up around here lately: For Sidwell Friends/Maret, it’s on.

On Saturday, Maret’s basketball boys were leading Sidwell Friends on the road when the home crowd taunted the visitors with a chant ripped from the headlines:

“The Sidwell kids started yelling ‘O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma!’ at us,” a Maret parent who attended the game tells me.
The Maret parent says Maret’s administrators looked confused, and Sidwell’s bemused, as “O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma!” rained down from the grandstand.
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/cityde...

I think this is hilarious. Hilarious. for so many reasons.

the trials of the private school kids.

I guess that was the short version...of Yes, we can, when they were losing?

lol lol...those Malia nor Sasha have been at the school not one day yet. Their lives will never ever be the same..ever never ever

Blago Busted.com : the Chicago Sun-Times' site for all things Blago

That Mother Fucker, Chris Matthews (doing his best Sean Hannity impersonation), along with Jill Zucker of the Chicago Tribune just accused PEO of knowing that Blagojevich was selling his Senate seat! And this is journalism? PEO just gave MTP it's best ratings in four years and this is how the repay him, with this gutter journalism? I bet if Eugene Robinson was on he would have played along with his 'aw shucks' routine. I can not believe this BS! Then again yes I can.

Obama and his entire administration should boycott NBC. Shut those MF's completely out!

Chris Mathews is an idiot. This "scandal" probably gives him a tingle up his leg.

Eugene grew up in the segregated south. When Obama started running in the primaries he was never a booster, always self-deprecating and demonstrating why he was able to be in that position at Washington Post...and Jonathan Capehart was even worse.

I was shocked when I read angry white Dem voters who said he was biased for Obama!! I was like they hear what I can't even hear...but as the campaign rolled on Eugene started to get more gumption and actually defend Obama him and Clarence Paige...I was literally shocked....and yet I had to remember what type of lives these men had to lead in order to be in those positions. Washington and Paige were quietly defiant and softly sliding in blades.
\
Having celebrated the win, they now savor it from the same sycophant positions that got them where they are.

I forgive them. Black folks have lived through some horrific abuse in this country and black men survive the best they know how. I may fault Eugene and Clarence for not speaking out as forcefully and frequently as I would like but they come from a different generation. Their support is in not throwing Obama under the bus, that's how they keep their jobs and dignity.

I have noticed that Shuster and Maddow are the ones saying that Obama has been exculpated by Fitz and Blagos bleeping indictment of him....but the other pundits and talking heads are pushing the we just have not found out how he is guilty yet.

It is a disgrace and an outrage...I agree.

preach it, NMP.

preach it.

guess they're staying married

The Malia and Sasha Effect
Gwen Ifill

"Barack Obama was the one who first got me thinking about the image of these two girls in the White House. It was at a Black journalists convention in 2007 when he mused . about what it would mean for other children to see his daughters running around on the South Lawn. "That changes how America looks at itself," he said. "It changes how White children think about Black children, and it changes how Black children think about Black children."
http://www.essence.com/news_entertainment/news/...

Yes, In DEED!!
I felt that way from the moment, Sasha stole the hearts of America with her HI DADDY!! at the DNC....every white person that had ever watched the Cosby's feel in love with her and she won the hearts and minds of many many many GOP voters.
All they could see was the Cosby kids and recall how he had the same values as them.

And to the rest of us who already knew...that image of those girls just made us overcome with joy...them skipping in the Rose Gardern, them at the annual Easter Egg Hunt and White House Xmas party....o the joy of those images is just one to savor for a lifetime.

Sasha in her raspberry sundress, skipping and swinging with her pigtails flyin!

joy joy joy...O HAPPY DAY!!

Whiterose,

When Sasha said......Hi Daddy, it was just too cute for words! I often think of that moment and smile. Sasha made a lasting impression on many with her sweet innocence!

Yes, it did..her childhood exhuberance just captured everyone's hearts.
Even 70yr old crotchey white men could identify with it!! hahah

Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 39 days!

One of my friends just called me letting me know she has an extra ticket to the Inauguration!!! I'm gonna see history!!!!!! WooHoo!

I'm totally jealous..I admit it.

I'm jealous! I'll be resigned to watching it from one of the jumbo TV's on the Mall, but I'll be there!

That's so cool, JunePearl! Congrats! :-)

Thanks! *e-hug*

I've been in a good mood since she called me. At first I was like, "Why the heck are you calling me at 4am?!" And then she told me, I was like 'oooh never mind girl!! Yeah!"

Moral of the story: Be friendly to people who call you in the middle of the night. LOL!

Way to go, JunePearl! I'll be there too!

Congrats, JunePearl!