Jack & Jill Politics

Thousands of US Marines Launch Operation in Afghanistan

http://news.antiwar.com/2009/07/01/thousands-of...

Helmand Governor Predicts Success
by Jason Ditz, July 01, 2009


"Thousands of US Marines launched a massive offensive into the villages of the Helmand River Valley, which they intend to purge of all insurgents before the August 20 presidential election. Military officials describe the offensive as the first major operation of the Obama Administration’s revamped strategy. Helmand’s governor has reportedly predicted the offensive will be a success.

Besides the large number of troops involved in the attack, officials say the operation is set apart from previous ones in that they intend to remain in the area for a prolonged period of time. Helmand, the center of British operations in Afghanistan, has seen some of the worst violence in the nation.

It is unclear how the Marines intend to operate in Afghan villages considering General Stanfley McChrystal’s reported order to stop engaging in fights near the homes of Afghan civilians. Recently US troops operating in and around populated areas have called in air strikes killing enormous numbers of civilians.

Despite repeated calls from commanders for the US to commit even more troops to the conflict, National Security Adviser James Jones declared today that he had told commanders that the administration won’t consider adding more troops beyond the planned surge this year, though President Obama was considering deploying an additional 10,000 troops at some point in 2010."

the times are are definitely changing...I don't see this as small stuff.

President Obama..has truly become the Commander in Chief in more ways than one.

http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2009/07/0...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/world/asia/02...

U.S. Marines Try to Retake Afghan Valley From Taliban

Okay,

I have to admit, I haven't watched the whole BAD video in bout what 15 years. ya know the part with Wesley Snipes! I didn't even reme,mber that the video was directed by Martin Scorceses (WTF!!). It just came on VH1 Soul, the whole 15+ mins of it.

Music vids just aren't 15 mins. You'd be hard pressed to find one that clocks in at 5 min.

And can anyone else remember anyone doing videos will a full cabal of dancers choreographed to within an inch of their lives before Michael Jackson? I can't.

Scorcese directed Bad???????????? DAYUM MJ!

something very serious is going on..pay attention..we have four thousand troops fighting in a war that our president hasn't told us about.


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/world/asia/02...

Ohhh, they are going after the heroin. The Taliban is not going to take that lightly. Poppy fields are worth far more the people.

Stand Down! In case no body told you, the people our Marines are going after came here 8 years ago. Make no mistake our enemy the Taliban will feel the might of our Devil Dogs... Hoorah

A bit of an exaggerated response, maybe? Afghanistan is not a "new" war. I'm very much against involvement, but this didn't just appear out of thin air...

ok, I think not exaggerated....morning will bring other news

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/world/asia/02...

Courts Charge Mother of 555-Pound Boy
A Mother Facing Felony Charges for Her Son's Obesity

The mother of a 555-pound, 14-year-old boy in South Carolina was charged with neglect last week for allegedly failing to control her son's weight.
Before fleeing town with her son, Jerri Gray had been contacted by the local Department of Social Services previous times about her son's weight and was even issued a treatment plan to turn around Alexander Draper's morbid obesity, Gray's attorney Grant Varner told ABCnews.com.

But when Gray failed to bring Alexander in for some of his medical treatment appointments recommended by the department and he continued to gain weight, the state sent notice that Gray would lose custody of her only child.

"She panicked," Varner said. "She had no lawyer, she couldn't afford a lawyer and they took off. They had no destination really. They stopped in Baltimore to do laundry, which is where they were found."

Full Story: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/WellnessNews/story...

This may sound tough but I truly believe that any parent who would allow their child to become so obese is also guilty of child abuse and child neglect. Unless the parent is totally ignorant, they are guilty.

I do not buy laziness, stress or any other problem...oh we want to hold Mark Sandford to account, but, we don't want to hold lazy parents who allow their children to become morbidly obese...?

I dont understand at all, how this child got to 555 pounds. I just can't wrap my head around that, I really really cant. I just can't believe its from eating a lot and for this woman to run off with him like that, ......its abuse.

Um, uh... they weren't 'fleeing' much of anywhere...


(on my way to the bad chair as I type this...)

You going to hell!!!! ROFLMAO!! And sending me with you dammit!!

For Some WH Aides, Public Service Has Its (Six-Figure) Rewards
By Michael D. Shear
The magic number in the Obama White House appears to be 172,000.

Dollars, that is. Per year.

Twenty-two of the president's top aides -- most with the title "assistant to the president" -- make exactly that much in exchange for their service to the country, the White House reported to Congress today. The Obama administration also published the information on the White House blog.

Those making the magic number include 28-year-old Jonathan Favreau, the president's wordsmith (director of speechwriting), and 66-year-old James L. Jones, the national security adviser.

One person in the White House -- other than the president himself ($400,000) -- is listed as making more than $172,000: David E. Marcozzi, the president's director of public health policy, is described as a "detailee" from the Department of Health and Human Services and receives $192,934 for his work. (Vice President Biden and his staff are not included in the White House report.)

On the other end of the scale are Michael J. Warren, a senior adviser for the department of personnel, and Patricia G. McGinnis, who is listed simply as "adviser" to the president. Both make nothing, according to the official salary list.

In between are 462 other employees who make from a low of $36,000 to a high of $163,940. For the utterly curious, the report -- which has been provided to Congress every year since 1995 -- is searchable and sortable on the White House Web site.

There are a few gems in there. Deputy Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer makes a bit more ($150,000) than his wife, Sarah Feinberg, who earns $120,000 as the top staffer to Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

But the gender tables are turned in the case of assistant press secretary Tommy Vietor, who recently proposed to Michelle Obama's press secretary, Katie Lelyveld. At $84,000 a year, she makes significantly more than her soon-to-be-husband ($57,500).

The vast bulk of the employees appear to earn between $40,000 and $55,000 per year, making the White House quite a modestly paid enterprise for most of the workaholics who spend time there.

The list of the $172,000-a-year men and women of the White House:

David Axelrod, Melody Barnes, John Brennan, Elizabeth Brown, Carol Browner, Gregory Craig, Thomas Donilon, Anita Dunn, Rahm Emanuel, Jonathan Favreau, Patrick Gaspard, Robert Gibbs, Valerie Jarrett, James Jones, Christopher Lu, Alyssa Mastromonaco, James Messina, Peter Rouse, Philip Schiliro, Susan her, Lawrence Summers and Mona Sutphen.


http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/07/01/...

all of them deserve every dollar they get and more

I did not see this today, but, I heard it on the radio and I actually had to wince when I heard Gibbs try to respond......me thinks the Obama teams needs to hear what is being said by these people. I don't think they were out of line and it reminded me of how the bushies controlled their "town hall meetings."

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2009/07/...

wow the Bush comparison won't end. Let me guess he goes to Camp David like Bush? He wants them to call him Mr. President like Bush?

Imagine Bush's dumbass answering a guestion from a person he didn't know at a Town Hall meeting? He couldn't even answer questions he knew were coming.

Gibbs got served by the press....the Obama admin. needs to learn from their arrogance....it was painful to listen to Gibbs and his giggle laugh today!

I am not usually given into "secret society" types of things....but, the more I read about this the more I have questions. I'm now thinking the cliche "where there is smoke there is fire" is fitting here.

http://www.jabberwonk.com/flinker.cfm?cliid=10q9uw

"'Family': Fundamentalism, Friends In High Places
Listen Now [19 min 22 sec] add to playlist | download

Greg Martin

In The Family, Jeff Sharlet writes about his foray into Ivanwald, the communal-living stronghold of the fundamentalist group known as The Fellowship. Courtesy of Harper Collins

Founded in 1935 in opposition to FDR's New Deal, the right-wing fundamentalist religious group organizes prayer meetings for Congressmen, as well as the annual National Prayer Breakfast. The group also has an alleged connection to a house in Washington, D.C. known as C Street, which serves as a prayer house and residence for politicians like Governor Mark Sanford, Senator John Ensign and Senator Tom Coburn."

Maureen Dowd hit gold on this article regarding Mark the hypocrite Sanford. I havent' laughed this much in one day for a loooong time. Between Sanford and Palin, the fake plumber, and fat ass Limbaugh....the Republican party needs cpr big time!!!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/opinion/01dow...

"Stay focused, ladies. Here is The Practical Guide to Help Spurned Political Wives Survive Old Problems in the Era of New Technology.

That was a good piece.

Me thinks that Jenny visited a witch doctor down on the coast; she had some serious roots worked on old dude. I have never seen a political figure so magnificently self-destruct, die in slow motion and dig his own grave.

If i lived in SC, I'd be thinking, "My state is fucked. My governor really, really doesn't give a fuck about this state." Sanford is ready to get on a plane back to Buenos Aires as soon as the people will/can fire his ass.

Jenny is the heiress to Skilsaw

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoRh8T_VX-Y

this carving is soooo representative of what she could do to him!

"that tear is not going to deter me"

lol lol

She definitely does not need Sanford's money!

you just made me laugh out loud "Jenny visited a witch doctor, etc"

oh sheez! thank you for that

Yr Welcome Angelar.

TVONE showing a speicall program on MJ called: Michael Jackson: The Life and Times of the King of Pop.

Pawlenty Signs Election Certificate


After being given the green light, Gov. Tim Pawlenty has signed the election certificate naming Al Franken the state's next U.S. Senator.

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS caught up with the governor at the airport Tuesday as he arrived back from Washington D.C.

"Well Sen. Coleman and Al Franken made very gracious statements today acknowledging the work of the Minnesota Supreme Court. They’ve addressed the issues that it’s time for Minnesota to have two senators. It’s past time, so we’re going to get the certificate signed and make that happen," Pawlenty told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS.

When asked about his personal feelings about the outcome, the governor thanked Coleman for his dedication to the state.

"As Solicitor General for the state of Minnesota, when he worked in the Attorney General’s Office as mayor of St. Paul, and as a U.S. Senator—Norm Coleman’s been an extraordinary leader and public servant for Minnesota. I thank him for his service and I know he’ll continue to do great things here and around the country. He’s a friend and a good person," Pawlenty said.

Spokesman Brian McClung says Pawlenty signed the election certificate around 6:15 p.m. at the governor’s residence in St. Paul Tuesday.

The certificate is now at Secretary of State Mark Ritchie’s office for his countersignature.

The certificate and cover letter will be faxed to the Secretary of the U.S. Senate and the original will be sent overnight and hand-delivered on Wednesday.

http://kstp.com/news/stories/S1005610.shtml?cat=1

Sanford drops pledge to release travel records
by Jed Lewison
Share this on Twitter - Sanford drops pledge to release travel records Wed Jul 01, 2009 at 01:35:59 PM PDT
Smoke, meet fire?

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford has backed out of a promise to release personal financial records proving he did not use state money for trips to see his mistress.

A day after Sanford declared in an emotional Associated Press interview that his mistress is his soul mate, spokesman Joel Sawyer says the governor does not want to discuss personal matters in the media anymore.

Unless Sanford plans on resigning, this move doesn't make any sense. He can refuse to release them voluntarily, but sooner or later -- and probably sooner -- he'll be compelled by state lawmakers or law enforcement officials to release the records.

The only possibility of the records staying private -- at least while he remains in office -- is if he resigns

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/7/1/748903/-...

please
he's already told us how he was crying
and volunteering info about other woman
without being asked
he might as well release personal financial records

I cant believe I'm saying this but

Tweety >>>>>> Chuck Todd

Mercy.... he totally sucks in this role.

Chuck Todd = Fail

yes he looked very uncomfortable tonight
like he was nervous

Chuckie T has as much strength and taste for journalism as a watered down can of Campbelll's Soup.

That Murphy dude's gone scruffy. He and Dan Abrams look like they've been at some "Men who run with the Bears" retreat

LMAO

Dan Abrams on Ed Shultz! What's up with that homeless man's beard Dan was sporting? Couldn't stand him when he had his own show, and still can't stand him!

Me either!

whenever i see dan abrams, especially with that fugly hobo beard, the only thing i can think is: "how the f*ck was he dating renee zellweger?!?"

OMG....ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was looking at him wondering what the hell? Did he just wake up, realize he was late and just run over to the studios?? He looked like he just got out of detox.

No, he was also sporting the same lame ass beard the other day while discussing Michael Jackson. Someone needs to tell him that it's not a good look.

I dont know what look he's going for....but the drunken vinyl siding salesman look is what appears to be his goal.

Ed just put e'rybody on blast about healthcare. Don't come up incorrect on Ed 'bout healthcare. He'll cut ya!!

I know!!! He totally rocks!!

I hope Ed's serious about taking Stein and those other folk to Toronto. Hit the streets and interview the REAL Canadian citizens who have universal healthcare.

Contest! Name the next politician to go 'hiking the Appalachian Trail'

You have to hand it to South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, who has publicly confessed to infidelity. He's added a new euphemism for "cheating" to the American lexicon:
"Oh -- he (or she) has been hiking the Appalachian Trail!"
Wink. Nudge. Big smirk. I'd bet Sanford wishes he'd never invented that sorry excuse as a cover for his adultery in Argentina.
The question on my mind is, who's next going to "take a hike on the AT"?
Which means it's contest time!
I challenge you to predict the name of the next national political figure, or evolution-damning preacher, who calls a press conference and fesses up to cheating on his (or her) spouse.
We have two great prizes to offer:

The first is "The Best of the Appalachian Trail Overnight Hikes" 2nd Edition (Menasha Ridge Press, 2007) by Victoria Logue, Frank Logue and Leonard M. Adkins. It will be autographed by Adkins, an outdoors writer who has thru hiked the AT five times and blogs at habitualhiker.com.

The second is "Sex Scandal in America - Politics and the Ritual of Public Shaming" (The Key Publishing House Inc., 2009) by David Rosen. It bills itself as "a comprehensive history of sexual scandals in America from colonial times (including Pocahontas and the Puritans) to today."
Of course, plenty of people already have taken themselves out of the running.

Talking Points Memo and Americablog have done a good job covering adulterous Republicans. And How to Kill Chickens has a pretty good inventory of cheating Democrats. So make sure you don't waste your prediction on any of the folks they've already covered.
You must enter this contest as a comment on this blog. Rules are below the jump. (Click on Read more)
Rules:

http://blogs.roanoke.com/rtblogs/dancasey/2009/...

Ed Schultz is ON FIRE!!!

He rocks.

Term Saw High Court Move to The Right
Roberts-Led March Likely to Continue
By Robert Barnes
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 1, 2009

For the Supreme Court, it was the year of living on the verge.
On the verge of declaring the key provision of the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional, but then stepping back. Looking hard at whether some protections of minorities amount to violations of the Constitution, then leaving the topic for another day. Appearing sympathetic to school officials for their decision to strip-search a 13-year-old student, but shielding them only from any liability for their actions.

The court's term avoided the blockbuster decisions that at one point seemed inevitable. But its path was clear: a patient and steady move to the right led by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., one that is likely to continue even if President Obama is successful in adding Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the high court -- and perhaps two others like her.

The court's conservatives made it harder for those pressing civil rights claims to get into court, and the same for environmentalists. Conservative justices raised the bar for those alleging age discrimination, a decision that liberal Justice John Paul Stevens called "an unabashed display of judicial lawmaking." They declined to find a constitutional right to DNA testing for prisoners who say the tests could prove their innocence.
While there were lopsided majorities on some high-profile cases near the end of the term, the court remained extremely divided, deciding nearly a third of its cases by 5 to 4 votes. Liberals won a few, although sometimes in cases where ideology seemed it should not matter.

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

What's really getting on my nerves about Mark Sanford and his defenders--on the Right AND Left--is the fact that what he did, leaving his state unaccounted for, would have gotten a private AWOL from a base in his state court marshalled!

If a woman with 4 kids took off like that to chase after a lover out of the country and not let anyone know where she was she would be called every name in the book. Think about it, what if there was an emergency with one of his children. The guy is a big jerk and for me it all goes back to one thing, he feels entitled.

yep, and if he were in the Armed Services, he'd be out for adultery.

Adultery is still illegal in S.C. Maybe those who want him out should press charges.

"SECTION 16-15-60. Adultery or fornication.

Any man or woman who shall be guilty of the crime of adultery or fornication shall be liable to indictment and, on conviction, shall be severally punished by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars nor more than five hundred dollars or imprisonment for not less than six months nor more than one year or by both fine and imprisonment, at the discretion of the court.

SECTION 16-15-70. "Adultery" defined.

"Adultery" is the living together and carnal intercourse with each other or habitual carnal intercourse with each other without living together of a man and woman when either is lawfully married to some other person."

http://www.scstatehouse.gov/CODE/t16c015.htm

This Week in Blackness - Ep 2 Season 2

BET FAIL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_fHqx8gskk

Folks loved them some Michael. This will make you smile, as fans around the world have been doing "Moonwalk tributes."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/01/mass-m...

That was nice, thanks

Here is a link to CBS News program from last night about Michael Jackson. It has a segment from MTV, that kinda gives you a glimpse into what MTV may be planning for the VMA or a different MJ tribute.

Michael Jackson King of Pop: Picking Up The Pieces

It's going to be off the charts! BET is planning a "make-up" tribute. Just let it go!

Yep, BET needs to let it go. I actually watch VH1SOUL not BET. I haven't watched BET since bout the time Viacom bought it aloNg with MTV. I actually like TVONE much better than BET.

interesting piece from womanist-musings regarding comments on race from Morgan Freeman

http://www.womanist-musings.com/2009/07/no-more...

I agree with Mr. Freeman. Stop seeing my race before you see me. I am tired of being "the black guy". That title automatically labels my professionalism and my expertise because I am a black guy. We have got to stop being Pavlov's dog, not every bell rings of race.

Do you want to stop being "the black guy", or do you want people to stop labelling your professionalism and expertise because thye see you as black? I, for one, don't want to be "not black", and I don't think it should be necessary for anyone to become "not black" before whatever level of professionalism and expertise they may have is recognized.

Great thread!

I'm still laughing.....hoooo boy! Actually a Palin/Joe the Plumber ticket would be hilarious!!

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-5697-Grassro...

"Asked if he has plans to run for public office, he replied, "I hope not. You know, I talked to God about that and he was like, 'No.

He continued, "I believe he's gotten me on this grassroots movement. If I can encourage leaders to step up, that's what I would like to do. That's a heavy role. That's something I don't know if I am prepared to do yet."

If Palin's on the ticket, I will be an Obama staffer in '12.

You heard it here first.

Huh? Dat you, D?

DAYUM, D, tell us how YOU REALLY FEEL! ROFL

Dang......now God's doing a facepalm, cuz dumb azz Joe the fake plumber clearly didn't understand that "NO" was not limited to just running for public office. Geez.

Palin-Blagoyevich in 2012

"Asked if he has plans to run for public office, he replied, "I hope not. You know, I talked to God about that and he was like, 'No.

Dude! I'm like 'OH HELL NO!

7/01/2009
Mark Sanford's Line in the Twat:

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/

luv Rude Pundit

Apart from Ed Schultz, the Rude Pundit is quick with the rudeness!

Damn, it's times like these I miss Steve Gilliard. The Big Guy would cut folk left, right and center, cause he had it like that.

(dead at the TITLE alone!)___________________________

from Alan Colmes' blog.........surprised SNL hasn't done something on this.

http://networkedblogs.com/p6815748

"Good News: Sanford Will “Try To Fall Back In Love” With Wife
June 30th, 2009, 6:16 PM EDT
Mark Sanford says Maria Belen Shapur is his “soul mate”, but that he is going to try to fall back in love with his wife. Jenny Sanford must be thrilled to hear this.

Sanford also told The Associated Press he has ‘crossed lines’ with women other than Chapur, but never had sex with them.

Sanford said one of the trips to see Chapur included what was supposed to be a farewell meeting in New York chaperoned by a spiritual adviser soon after his wife found out about the affair.

Just what does “crossed lines” mean? I’m guessing he doesn’t mean he busted through protesting union organizers. Does it mean he had dates? Made out with other women? And how soon before another one comes forward?

Barry Manilow had a hit with it; David Pomeranz wrote it. Good luck, Governor"

That's so offensive...damn.....

http://www.alternet.org/story/141019/%27i_quit_...

'I Quit the Evangelical Movement in Disgust': Former Evangelist Fears Right-Wing Lunacy Will Lead to More Murder

By Frank Schaeffer, AlterNet. Posted July 1, 2009.

Conservative pundits and GOP lawmakers must try to cure the sickness of their right-wing followers -- before it explodes again. Or don't they care?

What are the Republicans in Congress and the other "respectable" leaders on the far right -- from Focus on the Family's James Dobson to Rush Limbaugh, from Laura Ingraham to the leaders of the NRA -- doing to stop the right-wing domestic wave of terrorism exploding in the aftermath of President Barack Obama's election? I ask this as a former evangelical right-wing and "pro-life" leader who quit the right and the Republicans in disgust over their extremism...

Right-wing domestic terrorism committed by a few unhinged people who take the crazy talk (and nutty "open-carry" church services) seriously is a test of the patriotism of the so-called mainstream right-wing leaders. If the mainstream right doesn't stand up to try to tamp down the fear levels in its very own lunatic fringe, and if it doesn't lower the pitch of its anti-Obama rhetoric, then it is complicit in whatever comes next."

Jul 1 2009, 3:08 pm by Daniel Indiviglio

Who Killed the Public-Private Investment Program?
Earlier in the week, I wrote about my skepticism regarding banks no longer needing the Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP). Ezra Klein seems to be skeptical as well. But he also claims that the program failed, not because the Treasury decided it was no longer necessary, but because banks refused to participate. I don't agree with his logic

Just for some context, Klein is writing about a good post by James Kwak over on the Baseline Scenario. In that post Kwak explains how the government has vacillated between the assets and liabilities/equity sides of banks balance sheets in their rescue attempts. The latest attempt, the PPIP, tries to heal the assets side, as it would allow banks to get rid of their toxic securities.

After quoting a portion of Kwak's piece, Klein says:

I'd amend Kwak's final line a bit: The argument is that as long as the economy keeps improving and the banks can continue raising capital, everything is fine, no matter how many toxic assets the banks hold. And that may be true!
And I agree. But then:

But it continues to be the case that the PPIP plan fell apart not because the Treasury Department decided it was unnecessary but because the banks, which were suddenly flush with fresh capital, refused to participate in it.
Let's think about this. First, the Treasury gave the banks stress tests. Some banks passed; some banks needed more capital. Once that capital is raised, the Treasury is essentially saying, "Okay Generic-Bank, you've reached the capital level we require to deem you safe."

You can question whether those capital levels are truly safe or not. I question that too. But this certainly sends a signal to the market that the government is comfortable with capital levels. And that's a strong vote of confidence. If the bank still had problems after raising that capital, it would have a pretty strong case for going back to Uncle Sam, hat-in-hand, saying: "But you said we'd be okay! Since you were wrong, please bail us out again." Having set those capital requirements killed the PPIP.

Moreover, let's go back to that quote I had from Sheila Bair in that post from earlier in the week, from the WSJ article I source:

Earlier this month, the FDIC formally postponed the loan-buying portion of PPIP, called the Legacy Loan Program. "Banks have been able to raise capital without having to sell bad assets through the LLP, which reflects renewed investor confidence in our banking system," Ms. Bair said.
How can you make the claim that the government didn't kill the program, when you have the head of the FDIC saying exactly that? It's true that banks probably were not so interested in participating, but again, that's because the government first deemed them safe, based on obtaining the capital needed according to the stress tests.

Noam Scheiber over at the New Republic quotes an insider who confirms that the Treasury did not much mind killing the program, given enhanced bank capital levels:

If you had asked--I don't want to speak for the secretary--what's problem number one? I think he'd say capital. Problem two? Capital. Problem three? Capital. Everything was in the service of that view. The legacy loans program was meant to help clean balance sheets. It was not an independent good in itself. It was seen as friendly to equity raising. Now people say the legacy loans thing is not gaining as much traction, so is that a failure? But because we had a good outcome in terms of raising equity, they [the banks] were able to raise equity without shedding assets ... you should be okay with that.
In other words, the Treasury had always been most concerned with capital. Now that they're more comfortable, they're not as concerned with the PPIP going ahead. Banks probably don't want to participate as much now either -- that's true for sure. But their reasoning is the same as the Treasury's: they're happier with their balance sheet due to their new capital levels.

If the banks played any parting killing the program, it was in conjunction with the Treasury. It provided the capital requirement framework through the stress tests and adheres to the same capital-driven philosophy.

http://business.theatlantic.com/2009/07/who_kil...

Obama Takes Health Care Pitch To Annandale, Virginia
Huffpost - Obama Takes Health Care Pitch To Annandale, Virginia stumble PHILIP ELLIOTT | July 1, 2009 03:34 PM EST

ANNANDALE, Va. — President Barack Obama hugged a cancer patient Wednesday at an emotional forum before a supportive audience and vowed to bring greater efficiency and accessibility to the nation's health care system.

Debby Smith, 53, of Appalachia, Va., a volunteer for Obama's political operation, fought tears as she told the president of her kidney cancer and her inability to obtain health insurance or hold a job. Obama embraced her and called her "exhibit A" in what he said was an unsustainable system that is too expensive and complex for millions of Americans.

"We are going to try to find ways to help you immediately," he told Smith as hundreds looked on at a community college forum _ and countless others watched on television. But the nation's long-term needs require a greater emphasis on preventive care and "cost-effective care," he said.

Smith obtained her ticket through the White House. Aides said she was a volunteer for Organizing for America, Obama's political operation within the Democratic National Committee. Among the other questioners were a member of the Service Employees International Union and a person with Health Care for America Now, which recently organized a Capitol Hill rally for overhauling health care.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/01/obama-...

Black and White and Dead All Over
Stop the presses! Will journalism take democracy down with it?
By Dave Gilson

43% of Americans say it would hurt civic life "a lot" if their local newspaper closed. Yet when asked if they'd miss their paper, 42% say "not much" or "not at all."

About 80% of news is originally reported by newspapers, according to former Los Angeles Times editor John Carroll.

In 2006, 62% of all reporters worked for newspapers.

Nearly 1 in 5 newspaper journalists has lost his or her job since 2001.

In the first 5 months of 2009, 100 newspapers shut down and more than 9,000 newspaper jobs were lost.

In April, Lou Carlozo, who wrote the Chicago Tribune's "Recession Diaries" blog, was laid off—and not allowed to post about it.

That same month, St. Louis' Suburban Journals canned Todd Smith, a reporter who was shot last year when a gunman stormed a city council meeting he was covering.

Earlier this year, Phoenix's East Valley Tribune won a Pulitzer Prize for an investigative story written by a reporter who'd been let go 6 months earlier.

Even 4 years ago, 37 of the 100 largest daily papers had no full-time investigative reporters.

http://www.motherjones.com/media/2009/07/black-...

Actor Karl Malden dies at 97

Karl Malden, one of Hollywood's strongest and most versatile supporting actors,
who won an Oscar playing his Broadway-originated role as Mitch in "A Streetcar
Named Desire," died today. He was 97.

He'd betta hope Mike get's buried soon if he wants anybody to notice.

Bring it down a notch, Myth

Loved him in "The Streets of San Francisco" with Michael Douglas too.

RIP Mr. Malden.

Greg Tate: Michael Jackson, the Man in Our Mirror

http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-07-01/news/mic...

What Black American culture—musical and otherwise—lacks for now isn't talent or ambition, but the unmistakable presence of some kind of spiritual genius: the sense that something other than or even more than human is speaking through whatever fragile mortal vessel is burdened with repping for the divine, the magical, the supernatural, the ancestral. You can still feel it when you go hear Sonny Rollins, Ornette Coleman, Aretha Franklin, or Cecil Taylor, or when you read Toni Morrison—living Orishas who carry on a tradition whose true genius lies in making forms and notions as abstract, complex, and philosophical as soul, jazz, or the blues so deeply and universally felt. But such transcendence is rare now, given how desperate, soul-crushing, and immobilizing modern American life has become for the poorest strata of our folk, and how dissolute, dispersed, and distanced from that resource-poor, but culturally rich, heavyweight strata the rest of us are becoming. And, like Morrison cautioned a few years ago, where the culture is going now, not even the music may be enough to save us.

The yin and yang of it is simple: You don't get the insatiable hunger (or the Black acculturation) that made James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, and Michael Jackson run, not walk, out the 'hood without there being a 'hood—the Olympic obstacle-course incubator of much musical Black genius as we know it. As George Clinton likes to say, "Without the humps, there's no getting over." (Next stop: hip-hop—and maybe the last stop, too, though who knows, maybe the next humbling god of the kulcha will be a starchitect or a superstring theorist, the Michael Jackson of D-branes, black P-branes, and dark-energy engineering.) Black Americans are inherently and even literally "damaged goods," a people whose central struggle has been overcoming the non-person status we got stamped and stomped into us during slavery and post-Reconstruction and resonates even now, if you happen to be Black and poor enough. (As M-1 of dead prez wondered out loud, "What are we going to do to get all this poverty off of us?") As a people, we have become past-masters of devising strategies for erasing the erasure. Dreaming up what's still the most sublime visual representation of this process is what makes Jean-Michel Basquiat's work not just ingenious, but righteous and profound. His dreaming up the most self-flagellating erasure of self to stymie the erasure is what makes Michael Jackson's story so numbing, so macabre, so absurdly Stephen King.

The scariest thing about the Motown legacy, as my father likes to argue, is that you could have gone into any Black American community at the time and found raw talents equal to any of the label's polished fruit: the Temptations, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, or Holland-Dozier-Holland—all my love for the mighty D and its denizens notwithstanding. Berry Gordy just industrialized the process, the same as Harvard or the CIA has always done for the brightest prospective servants of the Evil Empire. The wisdom of Berry's intervention is borne out by the fact that since Motown left Detroit, the city's production of extraordinary musical talent can be measured in droplets: the Clark Sisters, Geri Allen, Jeff Mills, Derrick May, Kenny Garrett, J Dilla. But Michael himself is our best proof that Motown didn't have a lock on the young, Black, and gifted pool, as he and his siblings were born in Gary, Indiana: a town otherwise only notable for electing our good brother Richard Hatcher to a 20-year mayoral term and for hosting the historic 1972 National Black Political Convention, a gathering where our most politically educated folk (the Black Panther Party excepted) chose to shun Shirley Chisholm's presidential run. Unlike Motown, no one could ever accuse my Black radical tradition of blithely practicing unity for the community. Or of possessing the vision and infrastructure required to pull a cat like Michael up from the abysmal basement of America and groom him for world domination.

Motown saved Michael from Gary, Indiana: no small feat. Michael and his family remain among the few Negroes of note to escape from the now century-old city, which today has a Black American population of 84 percent. These numbers would mean nothing if we were talking about a small Caribbean nation, but they tend to represent a sign of the apocalypse where urban America is concerned. The Gary of 2009 is considered the 17th most dangerous city in America, which may be an improvement. The real question of the hour is, How many other Black American men born in Gary in 1958 lived to see their 24th birthday in 1982, the year Thriller broke the world open louder than a cobalt bomb and remade Black American success in Michael's before-and-after image? Where Black modernity is concerned, Michael is the real missing link: the "bridge of sighs" between the Way We Were and What We've Become in what Nelson George has astutely dubbed the "Post-Soul Era"—the only race-coded "post" neologism grounded in actual history and not puffery. Michael's post-Motown life and career are a testament to all the cultural greatness that Motown and the chitlin circuit wrought, but also all the acute identity crises those entities helped set in motion in the same funky breath.

From Compton to Harlem, we've witnessed grown men broke-down crying in the 'hood over Michael; some of my most hard-bitten, 24/7 militant Black friends, male and female alike, copped to bawling their eyes out for days after they got the news. It's not hard to understand why: For just about anybody born in Black America after 1958—and this includes kids I'm hearing about who are as young as nine years old right now—Michael came to own a good chunk of our best childhood and adolescent memories. The absolute irony of all the jokes and speculation about Michael trying to turn into a European woman is that after James Brown, his music (and his dancing) represent the epitome—one of the mightiest peaks—of what we call Black Music. Fortunately for us, that suspect skin-lightening disease, bleaching away his Black-nuss via physical or psychological means, had no effect on the field-holler screams palpable in his voice, or the electromagnetism fueling his elegant and preternatural sense of rhythm, flexibility, and fluid motion. With just his vocal gifts and his body alone as vehicles, Michael came to rank as one of the great storytellers and soothsayers of the last 100 years.

Furthermore, unlike almost everyone in the Apollo Theater pantheon save George Clinton, Michael now seems as important to us an image-maker—an illusionist and a fantasist at that—as he was a musician/entertainer. And until Hype Williams came on the music-video scene in the mid '90s, no one else insisted that the visuals supporting r&b and hip-hop be as memorable, eye-popping, and seductive as the music itself. Nor did anyone else spare no expense to ensure that they were. But Michael's phantasmal, shape-shifting videos, upon reflection, were also, strangely enough, his way of socially and politically engaging the worlds of other real Blackfolk from places like South Central L.A., Bahia, East Africa, the prison system, Ancient Egypt. He did this sometimes in pursuit of mere spectacle ("Black and White"), sometimes as critical observer ("The Way You Make Me Feel"), sometimes as a cultural nationalist romantic ("Remember the Time"), even occasionally as a harsh American political commentator ("They Don't Care About Us"). Looking at those clips again, as millions of us have done over this past weekend, is to realize how prophetic Michael was in dropping mad cash to leave behind a visual record of his work that was as state-of-the-art as his musical legacy. As if he knew that one day our musical history would be more valued for what can be seen as for what can be heard.

(Having said that, my official all-time-favorite Michael clip is the one of him on Oprah viciously beatboxing and freestyling a new jam into creation—instantaneously connecting Michael in a syncopating heartbeat to those spiritual tributaries that Langston Hughes described, the ones "ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins." Bottom line: Anyone whose racial-litmus-test challenge to Michael came with a rhythm-and-blues battle royale event would have gotten their ass royally waxed.)

George Clinton thought the reason Michael constantly chipped away at his appearance was less about racial self-loathing than about the number-one problem superstars have, which is figuring out what to do when people get sick of looking at your face. His orgies of rhino- and other plasty's were no more than an attempt to stay ahead of a fickle public's fickleness. In the '90s, at least until Eminem showed up, hip-hop would seem to have proven that major Black pop success in America didn't require a whitening up, maybe much to Michael's chagrin. Critical sidebar: I have always wanted to believe that Michael was actually one of the most secretly angry Black race-men on the planet. I thought that if he had been cast as the Iraqi nativist who beat the shit out of Marky Mark in Ridley and Russell's Three Kings while screaming, "What is the problem with Michael Jackson? Your sick fucking country makes the Black man hate his self," Wahlberg would have left the set that day looking like the Great Pumpkin. I have also come to wonder if a mid-life-crisis Michael was, in fact, capable and culpable of having staged his own pedophilic race-war revival of that bitterly angry role? Especially during those Jesus Juice–swilling sleepovers at his Neverland Plantation, again and again and again? I honestly hope to never discover that this was indeed the truth.

Whatever Michael's alienation and distance from the Black America he came from—from the streets, in particular—he remained a devoted student of popular Black music, dance, and street style, giving to and taking from it in unparalleled ways. He let neither ears nor eyes nor footwork stray too far out of touch from the action, sonically, sartorially, or choreographically. But whatever he appropriated also came back transmogrified into something even more inspiring and ennobled than before. Like the best artists everywhere, he begged, borrowed, and stole from (and/or collaborated with) anybody he thought would make his own expression more visceral, modern, and exciting, from Spielberg to Akon to, yes, OK, smartass, cosmetic surgeons. In any event, once he went solo, Michael was, above all else, committed to his genius being felt as powerfully as whatever else in mass culture he caught masses of people feeling at the time. I suppose there is some divine symmetry to be found in Michael checking out when Barack Obama, the new King of Pop, is just settling in: Just count me among those who feel that, in Michael Jackson terms, the young orator from Hawaii is only up to about the Destiny tour.

Of course, Michael's careerism had a steep downside, tripped onto a slippery slope, when he decided that his public and private life could be merged, orchestrated, and manipulated for publicity and mass consumption as masterfully as his albums and videos. I certainly began to feel this when word got out of him sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber or trying to buy the Elephant Man's bones, and I became almost certain this was the case when he dangled his hooded baby son over a balcony for the paparazzi, to say nothing of his alleged darker impulses. At what point, we have to wonder, did the line blur for him between Dr. Jacko and Mr. Jackson, between Peter Pan fantasies and predatory behaviors? At what point did the Man in the Mirror turn into Dorian Gray? When did the Warholian creature that Michael created to deflect access to his inner life turn on him and virally rot him from the inside?

Real Soul Men eat self-destruction, chased by catastrophic forces from birth and then set upon by the hounds of hell the moment someone pays them cash-money for using the voice of God to sing about secular adult passion. If you can find a more freakish litany of figures who have suffered more freakishly disastrous demises and career denouements than the Black American Soul Man, I'll pay you cash-money. Go down the line: Robert Johnson, Louis Jordan, Johnny Ace, Little Willie John, Frankie Lymon, Sam Cooke, James Carr, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Al Green, Teddy Pendergrass, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield. You name it, they have been smacked down by it: guns, planes, cars, drugs, grits, lighting rigs, shoe polish, asphyxiation by vomit, electrocution, enervation, incarceration, their own death-dealing preacher-daddy. A few, like Isaac Hayes, get to slowly rust before they grow old. A select few, like Sly, prove too slick and elusive for the tide of the River Styx, despite giddy years mocking death with self-sabotage and self-abuse.

Michael's death was probably the most shocking celebrity curtain call of our time because he had stopped being vaguely mortal or human for us quite a while ago, had become such an implacably bizarre and abstracted tabloid creation, worlds removed from the various Michaels we had once loved so much. The unfortunate blessing of his departure is that we can now all go back to loving him as we first found him, without shame, despair, or complication. "Which Michael do you want back?" is the other real question of the hour: Over the years, we've seen him variously as our Hamlet, our Superman, our Peter Pan, our Icarus, our Fred Astaire, our Marcel Marceau, our Houdini, our Charlie Chaplin, our Scarecrow, our Peter Parker and Black Spider-Man, our Ziggy Stardust and Thin White Duke, our Little Richard redux, our Alien vs. Predator, our Elephant Man, our Great Gatsby, our Lon Chaney, our Ol' Blue Eyes, our Elvis, our Frankenstein, our ET, our Mystique, our Dark Phoenix.

Celebrity idols are never more present than when they up and disappear, never ever saying goodbye, while affirming James Brown's prophetic reasoning that "Money won't change you/But time will take you out." JB also told us, "I've got money, but now I need love." And here we are. Sitting with the rise and fall and demise of Michael, and grappling with how, as dream hampton put it, "The loneliest man in the world could be one of the most beloved." Now that some of us oldheads can have our Michael Jackson back, we feel liberated to be more gentle toward his spirit, releasing him from our outright rancor for scarring up whichever pre-trial, pre-chalk-complexion incarnation of him first tickled our fancies. Michael not being in the world as a Kabuki ghost makes it even easier to get through all those late-career movie-budget clips where he already looks headed for the out-door. Perhaps it's a blessing in disguise both for him and for us that he finally got shoved through it.

An impressive piece of writing. I dig Greg Tate's writing.

Full Moon Crazies Come Home to Roost:
MICHAEL JACKSON'S SECRET WIFE CONTESTED THE WILL
says she is the mother of his 3 children

http://www.okmagazine.com/news/view/15390


Nona Paris Lola Ankhesenamun Jackson is an African Jew from London!!

She now claims, "Though he died to this earth he lives with my father [Satan the Devil] Khalid Lucifer."


ROTFLMFBAO!!! "Khalid" Lucif....

Let the ELVISication of Michael Jackson run its full course

Sometimes you just got to role the dice and hope they land on "settlement". She won't be the only one throwing their name in the hat for a chance of a payoff.

3 WHITE MEN AND 3 BABIES
MJ names 3 white men as executors of his Will with TOTAL, TOTAL authority over all of MJ's assets.

Does this mean that Katherine has to say. "Massa, I need some milk for these here 3 white babies of Mikuls. I'll take good care of them for my millato son Mr. Michael sir. Can I just get $5"

It means Michael loved his mother but was smart enough to know that he left her with complete executorship, she would have given the money to Joe.

Janet? Tito? Jermaine? Marlon? Rebbie? Anybody AA as executor?

Katherine says "Maybe I can go ask Ms. Diana for $5 for some milk for these babies...or they might have to come stay with her and her 6 kids"

Myth,

Firstly, the one truism we know about Michael Jackson is that he was
not a race man. Moreover, ALL of his adult life, his inner circle was
white. Black folks may be reclaiming him in death, but he was not
ours in life. He rarely spoke to any of his family with the exception
of his mom. The people he appointed as executors were the architects
of his biggest successes. Why wouldn't he trust them to oversee his
estate. He's serving the interests of his kids. As much as he
obviously loves his mother, he knows her lifelong weakness has been
Joe Jackson. Those kids will not be wanting for anything.

"He knows her lifelong weakness has been Joe Jackson"

They have not lived together in over 10 years. And I would venture a guess that she wasn't weak for him for the last 30 years.

Nevertheless, a fourth executor close to the family would have provided her with more assurances

With an estate as complicated as MJ's, I think it would have been irresponsible for him to name any relative as executor. Some issues are best handled by professionals. I don't see why it's a problem that the professionals chosen for this matter were white. MJ employed Black people in other roles important to him.

Outside of Janet, none of siblings named have demonstrated fiscal responsibility. Multiple bankruptcies, foreclosures, and just bad personal decisions all the way around. This could also be a reflection of the just how close (distant) Michael was to his siblings.

THIS IS HILARIOUS!!

HILARIOUS, I tell ya!!

OMG.....LOL...You killin me with that "ELVISication" of MJ...ROFLMAO!!!!!!

Isn't this the same circus (magnified 100 times) when Elvis dies. It was over kill then and over kill X 100 today.

NOW, these sloeful, crazy azz niggas fixta change the location BACK to LA for the MJ Memorial after eerybody got gassed up and mapquest directions to go the Neverland. Geesh

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XY1SyaqDaY

I had forgotten about this one y'all

"I Wanna Be Where You Are" - Vintage Michael Jackson

Nice memories...took me back...I remembered that waswhen I learned that Clifton Davis turned out MJ...after becoming the J5 manager.

Melba Moore bout lost her mind when she found out Clifton was sleeping with men...she was deeply in love with him and it just blew up her whole persona.

Clifton Davis "turned out" MJ, When/How? Some things I don't remember and neither do I want to recall.

What a cheap brawd, $6000 for a "YES" vote on 1.2 billion contract. GTFOH, talk about getting bamboozled. And her husband didn't know $hit about it right? SUUUUUUUURE and Britney Spears is becoming a nun, too. They really need to clean house up there in Detroit. Those good folks up there can't catch a break between the Big 3 automakers going bust, Kwame's shenigans and this Conyers fiasco no wonder why Detroit is the way it is.

From The Black Snob.

Another entry in the SCAN Chronicles:

Sallie Selassie In "This Chateau Isn't Big Enough For the Eight of Us, Pt. 1"
Wednesday, July 1, 2009 at 11:00AM

In the war against ignorance, on the frontlines remains one of the Secret Council of American Negroes’ wiliest of double-agents, code name “Sallie Sellassie.” Living as the adopted child of an infamous, orphan addicted celebrity couple, Sallie’s main objective is to use her parents name for fame to the benefit of Negroes everywhere.

In her last correspondence with SCAN and her “handler,” codename “Brofucious,” Sellassie was dealing with the pressures of living in a house with “too many damn babies” in it, while working to get additional aid for the Gulf Coast. The following conversation took place in early April after Cannes.

More after the jump.


Sallie: What took you so long to answer the phone?

SCAN: Sorry. Things are a little backlogged here. Under new management.

Sallie: So the rumors are true.

SCAN: Black Ops is now being run through the new No. 2’s chief of staff.

Sallie: And you still have a job?

SCAN: Quiet you. What’s going on over there?

Sallie: What are you talking about?

SCAN: You called all freaked out? What’s up?

Sallie: She knows.

SCAN: Who knows? No one knows. You’re like four. Who would suspect you?

Sallie: I won’t eat my Cream of Wheat unless The Man takes a bite from it first. I don’t know if I can trust her.

SCAN: Trust her? Doesn’t she love you?

Sallie: Yes ... but I can be replaced. We all can. There needs to be a thinning of the herd.

SCAN: What are you talking about?

Sallie: I need permission to take Maddox out.

SCAN: Um. Permission DENIED! You already killed that maid that one time and that shit was not unauthorized. Do you know how hard it was to get Aissa Miga to the Chateau just to dump that body in the Danube? She and Rama Yade have more things to do that clean up your boo boos in France.

Sallie: Fine.

SCAN: Why are you so threatened by him anyway?

Sallie: He was the first. Her first. She’s blinded by him and everything he does. Just like she’s blind with Shiloh, the wonder twins and Pax. Whenever there is something broken or dirty or ruined she always looks at ME first.

SCAN: Well ... did you do it?

Sallie: That is BESIDE the point! I’m the only black kid in the house. She looks at me like any day I’m going to shout “Burn, baby, burn” and whip out a machete.

SCAN: I think you’re exaggerating.

Sallie: What do you know, GARY? Your ass isn’t out here on the frontlines. You’re cozy in your little cubicle eating your puffed up fried pig epidermis and hot pickles living the good life.

SCAN: They’re called “pork rinds,” OK? And they’re a “sometimes” food.

Sallie: Hold on. Someone’s coming.

[Sound of someone muffling/hiding the Playskool Phone.]

Sallie: What are you doing in here?

Maddox: I was going to ask you the same thing.

Sallie: We had a deal. You and Pax stay on YOUR side of the suite. You have cooties and this is a cootie-control zone. Plus we have a whole floor of fucking suites! It’s bad enough I have to share mine with The Chosen One.

Maddox: So who are you working for?

Sallie: What are you talking about?

Maddox: I heard you talking to someone?

Sallie: I talk to myself sometimes. I’d talk to you, but don’t want to lower myself to the discourse of cootie ass shit. I have standards.

Maddox: It’s her. Isn’t it?

Sallie: What?

Maddox: She approached you. Didn’t she?

Sallie: I don’t know what you’re talking about?

Maddox: Stay away from her. She’s bad scrambled eggs.

Sallie: Who?

Maddox: She wants to ruin everything and I can’t have that. I can’t let you do that.

Sallie: Once again, numbnuts, WHO ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

Maddox: YOU KNOW WHO?

Sallie: WHO!

Maddox: THE RACHEL! She’s a threat to everything we hold dear.


Rest of it here:
http://blacksnob.com/scan/2009/7/1/sallie-selas...

The Black Snob is a fool. Too funny!!

BWA HA HA HAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can't wait to read a piece on Madona and her crew.

Duke University employee charged with offering son for sex
by Trench Reynolds on June 26th, 2009
Duke employee arrested on child sex charge:

42-year-old Frank Lombard of Durham, North Carolina has been arrested for allegedly offering his adopted 5-year-old son up for sex over the internet. Lombard is also associate director of the Center for Health Policy at Duke University and has been placed on unpaid leave.

An FBI informant allegedly saw Lombard online performing sex acts on an African-American child believed to be one of his adopted sons.

As an adoptee myself this next part really disgusts me to no end. The following is from a chat between Lombard and an undercover agent.

In the chat transcript, “F.L.” is asked how he got access to a child so young. “Adopted,” he replied, and said that the process was “not so hard … esp (sic) for a black boy.”

In the chat, “F.L.” told Palchak that abusing the child was “easier when he was too young to know what was happening and when he couldn’t talk …He had a little too much Benadryl. Was knocked out.”

So not only did Lombard adopt his kids for his own sick sexual fetishes but he also took advantage of the fact that there are an inordinate amount of black children waiting to be adopted into loving homes.

It’s a shame that this isn’t an executable offense because I would volunteer to throw the switch.

Rot in hell scumbag


http://www.parentsbehavingbadly.com/2009/06/26/...

I not a big fan of execution but I say fry the bastard.

Some agencies are shipping black American children off to Canada and German to be adopted.

Ohhhh, nowww - it wasn't like it was his REAL son. He was adopted. It's all A-OK then.

/snark/ (just in case someone thinks I'm serious about this rotted out motherfucker.)

OMG.....wonder who is doing the vetting? Just a few years ago a guy who adopted a foreign girl was caught for selling videos of her. Makes me think the adoption process should also include a few years of follow up. I know at one time foster children in California would have private follow up visits with their caseworker so they could talk freely about anything and not feel intimidated by the presence of foster family members.

Vetting? Black childlren? States are practically paying them to take them with no questions asked.

I hope he's put in general population in a state prison and its announced over the intercom what he's in for.

Kinda like a Public Service Announcement.

Whew Lawdy! This sick mofo even drugged the kids. This scum deserves the sack over the head, up against the wall, ready...aim....

I'm speechless. Mouth hanging open speechless.

Since the Vanity Fair article on Caribou Barbie has come out, Andrew Sullivan is back with his 'Lies of Sarah Palin'. That series was hilarious.


http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily...

i posted that article on my facebook page. it was good and juicy!

Michael Jackson's top two choices for guardian of his children are:
1. Katherine Jackson
2. Diana Ross

So says Rev. Al

TRUE DAT!

From Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Madness of Monica Conyers
01 Jul 2009 01:21 pm

[Gautham Nagesh]


Greetings folks, it's an honor to be part of the team for the week. I spend my days covering federal technology for Nextgov and have also written for National Journal. My main interests are sports, government waste, fried foods and anything involving my home state of Michigan.


One note on Neil's post: I actually interviewed for a job with Vibe when I was in college, where I was asked to name my three favorite rap albums of all time. At the time I replied Ready to Die, Aquemini and Midnight Marauders. Apparently that was not the right answer, because the interviewer did a double take and I didn't get the job.

My topic for today is the ongoing train wreck that is soon-to-be-former Detroit City Council member Monica Conyers. Conyers announced her resignation from office this week after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery in a scandal over a city sludge-hauling contract. If that makes her sounds like a character from The Wire, then you've got a pretty good idea of what kind of politician Conyers has proven to be. From the Detroit News:

Conyers faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine after pleading guilty Friday in federal court to allegations she sold her vote on a $1.2 billion sludge hauling contract to Synagro Technologies Inc. for a pair of $3,000 bribes. Federal officials say no other council members will face charges in the 2007deal.
The News was also kind enough to put together a brief highlight reel of some of Conyers' most memorable public mishaps:


Conyers, the wife of U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Detroit, made headlines even before taking office when she allegedly got into a fight during a birthday party and slugged a woman. No one was charged in the incident.

During her tenure, Monica Conyers put an aunt and her son on city payroll, used city police to escort her to Atlanta and Florida, had police officers chauffeur her children to private school in Oakland County and had spats with colleagues, including an infamous one with Kenneth Cockrel that ended with her calling him "Shrek."


Yes, that's the same Congressman Conyers who chairs the House Judiciary Committee. John Conyers is now facing scrutiny himself after his wife's former aide and political consultant Sam Riddle told the Detroit Free Press on Monday about a letter Rep. Conyers sent in 2007 to the EPA in support of an effort by Detroit businessman Jim Papas to build a hazardous waste injection well in his district. Conyers had previously opposed the well publicly in 2003 and 2004 citing environmental concerns, but that was before Papas indirectly contributed $10,000 to Monica Conyers.

It seems unlikely that John Conyers will meet the same fate as his wife, mostly because it's hard to believe even if he did play some role in her dealings that he would be similarly cavalier about the possibility of getting caught. The Synagro case has been going on for over a year and yet during that period of time Monica Conyers has done nothing but draw attention to herself by causing controversies on the City Council and fiercely attacking her many opponents.

She even launched her own show on local television, "Ask the Councilwoman", where she takes calls from her supporters and admonishes her critics. I've been watching the show on YouTube whenever possible and I have to say my favorite episode was June 9, when she interviewed Princeton University professor Cornel West and dissed Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor as too conservative and unaccomplished. Conyers graduated from the University of the District of Columbia's law school but has reportedly failed the bar exam four times and does not practice law.

Now that she's facing three to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, here's hoping voters have seen the last of Conyers, who hinted at a mayoral run even as the prosecutors circled closer. Her name will remain on the ballot in the August 4th primary for the Detroit City Council, where it will hopefully serve as a warning to others seeking to enrich themselves on the city's dime.

After spending the last couple years embroiled in the saga of disgraced former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick (whose mother Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick is also a Congresswoman and under investigation by the House Ethics Committee), the city deserves leaders interested in something besides lining their own pockets. Another Council member, Motown singer Martha Reeves referred to the Council as her "second job" in an interview with the BBC this week. Hopefully this fall's elections will produce some candidates more interested in fixing the city than dancing in the streets.


http://ta-nehisicoates.theatlantic.com/archives...