Black History Month Open Thread

16 Feb 2010 Author: rikyrah

hat tip-Booker Rising
Real life Black History:

First African-American Diving Champion Makes History
Wright first black diver to win national title
Feb. 11, 2010
CBSSports.com wire reports
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — USA Diving officials say Michael Wright’s national championship win in the men’s 1-meter springboard competition makes him the first African-American national champion in USA Diving’s history.
Wright, a 22-year-old senior at Tennessee, won the title Monday at the USA Diving Winter National Championships. He was third after the preliminary round but outpointed David Bonuchi 390-360 on the judges’ scorecards in the final. Weston Wieser finished third.
After competing for the Volunteers as a junior last spring, Wright is redshirting the 2009-10 season. He transferred to UT from Indian River Community College in 2008.
Wright is the first black member of Tennessee’s swimming and diving team.

Tags: Afternoon Open Thread, Black History Month Daily Thread

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rikyrah
Bomb blast hits J.P. Morgan building in Greece
February 16, 2010 — Updated 2030 GMT (0430 HKT)
A medium sized-bomb exploded Tuesday at a building housing offices of J.P. Morgan, the financial services firm, Greek police said.
A warning was phoned to a Greek newspaper 30 minutes before the explosion, and police evacuated the building, police spokesman Takis Papapetropoulos told CNN.
No one was hurt. The callers did not identify themselves, he said.
The warning call “means they don't want to have victims,” he said. “They never say who it is when they call. They claim it after.”
The call came about 7:15 p.m. (12:15 p.m. ET), he said.
There were at least two bombings in Athens last year, one targeting a politician's office and the other at a real estate office. There was also an attack on a television station by masked gunmen on motorcycles who threw a homemade explosive, authorities said at the time.
No one was hurt in any of the attacks.
The latest attack comes as Greece's national budget deficit causes major headaches for the European Union currency, the euro, and financial markets. The European Union earlier Tuesday ordered Greece to cut its deficit to meet EU regulations.
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/02/16/…
rikyrah
What a difference a primary challenge makes
Michael Bennett is a moderate Democratic senator from Colorado. Kirsten Gillibrand was a moderate Democrat in the House until she was appointed to fill Hillary Clinton's Senate seat. Neither is the sort of politician you'd expect to be out front on a major liberal priority. But there they are, signatories to a letter asking Harry Reid to bring a public option up for a vote through the reconciliation process. They're joined by Oregon's Jeff Merkley and Iowa's Tom Harkin, both of whom are more natural fits for this process.
As a substantive matter, I don't think the public option is likely to make a comeback this late in the game. Things are too fragile to reopen that controversy, and most Democrats, for better or worse, want to show they're willing to make concessions to bring Republicans aboard. Resuscitating the public option is going in the opposite direction.
This is, however, a reminder that reconciliation could be used to bring the public option up for a vote in the future. It's also a reminder of the power of primary challenges. Both Bennett and Gillibrand are facing challengers from the left, and so they're signing their names to liberal priorities you might otherwise expect them to avoid.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/201…
rikyrah
I guess it's my fault Evan Bayh quit Congress
By John Amato Tuesday Feb 16, 2010 12:00pm
I was reading a column written by Jill Lawrence of Politics Daily and I learned that I helped cause Evan Bayh to quit his day job.
Evan Bayh and the Senate's Lonely Moderates: Bridge-Builders No Longer Needed
During the long, still incomplete march to pass a health reform bill, Democratic moderates – in particular Montana's Baucus and Nebraska's Nelson — routinely took incoming from liberal bloggers for dragging the bill rightward. The left was especially critical of Bayh's take last month on Republican Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts. Bayh told ABC News that voters up there “just don't believe the answers we are currently proposing are solving their problems.” He said Democrats would court catastrophe if they ignored the wakeup call. John Amato wrote at CrooksandLiars.com that Bayh was promoting Fox News talking points.
Yes, I am that mean and scary and Bayh just couldn't handle the heat from C&L, baby.
Look, I don't expect all Democratic politicians to vote 100% across the board, but when there is a signature piece of legislation that could help millions of Americans on a vital issue like health care, then I think the few ConservaDems should not help destroy a bill that is so critical to so many lives. Howie Klein has a breakdown of his voting record.
Last week polls showed ConservaDem Evan Bayh with a nearly insurmountable lead over lobbyist Dan Coats for the Indiana Senate seat. And this morning Chris Cillizza broke the news that Bayh had decided not to run for re-election. That must have been kind of sudden since he spent the last 6 years sucking up to every lobbyist on K Street, raised $8,911,690 and has a hefty $13 million in his campaign account. Beloved of Goldman Sachs, Eli Lilly, Allianz and dozens of corporations with anti-working family agendas, Bayh's fundraising looked extremely… Republican. But then, so does his voting record. Since Obama was elected president only Ben Nelson was a less dependable vote for Democrats when they were needed most– on crucial, substantive roll calls where Democrats either lost or almost lost. The 3 worst scores among Democratic senators for the 111th Congress:
Ben Nelson- 47.76
Evan Bayh- 53.73
Blanche Lincoln- 59.70
Voting almost 48 % of the time against a newly elected Democratic president is beyond being a conservative democrat. it's aiding and abetting the enemy of change. Bayh whined like a teenager whose parents cut off their Internet yesterday when he gave his presser and said he was so tired of the partisanship. He could have done his part and helped President Obama and the Senate put together a good health care bill, but he did not. Politics is a contact sport and he proved he couldn't take it.
Ron Brownstein made a similar point On Andrea Mitchell this morning:
It's hard to see how he justifies this to other Democrats. But look it's more broadly what's happening with the Democratic Party. They've gone from 93-94, it took them 15 years to reestablish unified control of the House and the Senate and the White House as they did in 2009. And here they are, one year into it and the party seems to be in many respects losing its nerve. You have the Bayh thing as the latest in a series of –, Beau Biden, Lisa Madigan in Illinois, a variety of Democratic House members in tough districts walking away.
Look, politics is a contact sport and the Democrats have had the best opportunity they've had in 15 years to advance their agenda, and yet as they take all the flack that comes with that it feels like some of the party is crumbling and losing their nerve. Stunning decision.
Run for the hills you coward. And if your hero is Dick Lugar, why then is he still in Congress and you're not?
And shudder this thought by Digby:
The good news is that we are separating the men from the boys. The Democrats have everything, but it's all so icky and hard that a whole bunch of them are just walking away. Good riddance. If they don't have the cojones to stick it out when their country needs them, then they shouldn't be in politics.
I'm glad these guys weren't in charge during the Depression and WWII. We'd all be dirt farming for the Greater Axis Empire today.
http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/i-guess-it…
http://WeeSeeYou.com Shanti2
Diving; it does a body good! :-)) Congrats Michael Wright
http://thisblksistaspage.wordpress.com/ blksista
Michael Wright…hmmmm, humminah, hum-min-NAH.
(Adding to my list of eye-candy…and nothing wrong with simply looking.)
http://thisblksistaspage.wordpress.com/ blksista
Um, is the revolution at hand in Greece? 'Cause it certainly seems that these people have a major problem with the ruling class, i.e., the banks. Supposedly, if Greece goes down, Iceland is not that far behind.
http://thisblksistaspage.wordpress.com/ blksista
This was supposed to be an answer to Rikyrah's downwind about that explosion in Greece.
mon_dieu_ishmael
UH OH – China is not buying our U.S. Treasury securities.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35420411/ns/busines…
There go the budget/deficit projections.
rikyrah
it's amazing, but not surprising that our MSM don't GET the importance of what's going on in Greece and Iceland.
rikyrah
A lethal business model targets Middle America
Sugar cane farmers from a tiny Mexican county use savvy marketing and low prices to push black-tar heroin in the United States.
Immigrants from an obscure corner of Mexico are changing heroin use in many parts of America.
Farm boys from a tiny county that once depended on sugar cane have perfected an ingenious business model for selling a semi-processed form of Mexican heroin known as black tar.
Using convenient delivery by car and aggressive marketing, they have moved into cities and small towns across the United States, often creating demand for heroin where there was little or none. In many of those places, authorities report increases in overdoses and deaths.
Immigrants from Xalisco in the Pacific Coast state of Nayarit, Mexico, they have brought an audacious entrepreneurial spirit to the heroin trade. Their success stems from both their product, which is cheaper and more potent than Colombian heroin, and their business model, which places a premium on customer convenience and satisfaction.
Users need not venture into dangerous neighborhoods for their fix. Instead, they phone in their orders and drivers take the drug to them. Crew bosses sometimes call users after a delivery to check on the quality of service. They encourage users to bring in new customers, rewarding them with free heroin if they do.
In contrast to Mexico's big cartels — violent, top-down organizations that mainly enrich a small group — the Xalisco networks are small, decentralized businesses. Each is run by an entrepreneur whose workers may soon strike out on their own and become his competitors. They have no all-powerful leader and rarely use guns, according to narcotics investigators and imprisoned former dealers.
Leaving the wholesale business to the cartels, they have mined outsize profits from the retail trade, selling heroin a tenth of a gram at a time. Competition among the networks has reduced prices, further spreading heroin addiction.
“I call them the Xalisco boys,” said Dennis Chavez, a Denver police narcotics officer who has arrested dozens of dealers from Xalisco (pronounced ha-LEES-ko) and has studied their connections to other cities. “They're nationwide.”
Their acumen and energy are a major reason why Mexican heroin has become more pervasive in this country, gaining market share at a time when heroin use overall is stable or declining, according to government estimates.
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/14/local/l…
danadevin74
alright now imma see is he going to start getting them Michael Phelps type endorsements you know since he has made history and everything
and yes he's a handsome young man
i bet his family is proud
djchefron
Be Careful What You Wish For
Posted by Zandar
You just might get it, as both the Republicans and the health insurance industry is finding out.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said today the proposed insurance rate hikes from Anthem Blue Cross in California that we've been writing about will serve as a backdrop for President Obama's health care summit next week.
Gibbs struck an ominous tone, suggesting that if reform doesn't pass now, there are more increases to come. It's an issue the Democrats seized on recently as they attempt to push a final measure over the goal line.
“People are getting letters in the mail now. They got them in California. Your health insurance is going to go up almost 40 percent from last year to this year. That's a preview of what's going to happen if we don't do anything,” Gibbs said.
Gibbs also reacted to Anthem parent company Well Point's justification for the hikes – that reform is necessary.
“Well, I would say to this insurer, welcome to the game. Come down and help us — help be part of the solution for cutting costs and increasing coverage,” Gibbs said.
Republicans have not yet accepted the invitation and have said that the White House should start from scratch with a clean sheet of paper. Gibbs mocked the party for not immediately accepting a meeting they called for.
“Right before the president issued the invitation, the — the thing that each of these individuals was hoping for most was an opportunity to sit down on television and discuss and engage on these issues. Now, not accepting an invitation to do what they'd asked the president to do, if they decide not to, I'll let them leap the — leap the chasm there and try to explain why they're now opposed to what they said they wanted most to do,” he said.
Wellpoint/Anthem's national rate hikes and the GOP balking on the health care summit was just the prescription the doctor ordered. Suddenly the White House has a much easier time of selling “Doing something is better than nothing” because in this case, doing nothing equals 40% insurance rate hikes on self-insured with the promise of more rate hikes whenever Wellpoint/Anthem feels like doing it. It's just a matter of time before they decide to raise rates on those who have insurance through their employers.
No wonder FOX Business Channel threw a fit attacking Anthem…not for the rate hikes, but for stupidly doing the rate hikes before the Republicans could kill Obamacare for good. Oops. Somebody should tell FOX Business that complaining that insurance companies should delay massive rate hikes until next year after health care reform is dead is an even worse faux pas.
Suddenly it's looking like health care reform has a new set of lungs…and those new lungs could be the public option making a comeback.
Four senators have signed a letter urging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to pass a public option for insurance coverage through the use of reconciliation.
The list of signatories includes both usual and somewhat unusual suspects, from the progressive wing of the party — Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) — to less ideological lawmakers who find themselves in primary election contests — Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Col.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.).
Time to get serious, guys. Pass the damn bill!
http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2010/02/be-carefu…
morphus
The Black Press of America must take charge of the story of Haiti, own it and not allow it to be distorted, says Black Publisher Karl Rodney, chair of the National Newspaper Publishers Association's new Haitian Project.
Appointed by NNPA Chair Danny Bakewell, Rodney – vice chair of the NNPA Foundation and publisher of The New York Carib News – says the noble history of Haiti has long been overlooked and Black media must seize the opportunity to lift up its legacy as it rebuilds after the earthquake that killed more than 150,000.
“Haiti is the epitome of Black History, Black Struggle and Black Success. And the story of Haiti is the story that the Black Press must own and the Black Press must tell because Haiti is the first Democratic country in the Western Hemisphere, the first Black republic for over 200 years,” says Rodney in an interview with the NNPA News Service. “It has had a history of innovation, culture, technical development. That story has been underdeveloped, underreported and as a result misunderstood.”
Rodney was appointed by Bakewell during the organization’s Mid-Winter Conference in Charlotte slightly more than a week after the Jan. 12 earthquake. He will serve to monitor the Haiti reconstruction, build awareness, encourage NNPA’s 200 Black-owned newspapers to cover its redevelopment, and suggest ways to forge relationships and coalitions with Haitian organizations that will foster growth and healing in the devastated country.
Black Newspapers Must 'Own' the Story of Haiti, Leading Publisher Says
Hope this commitment is not forgotten.
Angelar
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALe…
“The first thing they do after school is homework. If they haven't finished by dinnertime, around 6:30 p.m., they pick up where they left off after the meal. And after that, they can read until they hit the sack. Malia's bedtime is 9 p.m.; Sasha's lights go out a half hour earlier, he said.
The president discussed his daughters in response to a question about what parents can do to help foster learning.”
Angelar
http://politicalwire.com/
Quote of the Day
“I think the president is trying to re-engage with Republicans, but, quite frankly, he's not dealing with the party of Lincoln. He's dealing with the party of Palin.”
– Former Clinton White House chief of staff John Podesta, in an interview with the Financial Times.
Angelar
fyi
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval…
“Coming this April: the Easter Egg Roll
Now on to the really important news: tickets will be distributed through an online lottery system, allowing guests from across the United States to participate in a tradition that dates back to 1878. The lottery will open for entries on Feb. 25 and close on Feb. 28. Full details can be found on the White House web site…..”
Angelar
cool, the Malia and Sasha went skiing for their first time.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/15/obamas…
Shazza
What's going on with speed skater Shani Davis? I heard on Tom Joyner this morning that the Olympic Committee doesn't even list him in the US Team program!! WTH? Because they don't like that he has foreign sponsors. Did anyone here in the US help him out? Because I seem to recall them giving him a hard time during the last Winter Olympics.
morphus
Black Angels Over Tuskegee,” is a serious history lesson told with humor.
Based on true events, this powerful play, on view at off-Broadway's St. Luke's Theatre, is about brotherhood among the segregated World War II pilots known as the Tuskegee Airmen. These men distinguished themselves with honor despite disdainful treatment by their own government, the American public and the military.
Using the story of a group of determined cadets as they go through aviator training and then military assignments, playwright and director Layon Gray vividly depicts the struggles and achievements of the first black military airmen.
By way of introduction, a young, unnamed narrator (Antonio D. Charity) says he will tell a story “as it was told to me.” He explains, with heavy irony, that the U.S. Congress had done a study on the “Negro Soldier,” finding that “he was lazy, had a small brain, there is no way possible that he could learn to do high-tech work especially fly a plane.”
[...]
The play may be a bit too long, but it is well-staged and the characters so realistic that the audience can't help but be thoroughly moved by the time the narrator reaches the end of the journal.
Theater: Segregated airmen fight to fly in WWII
The “long play” part gives one pause, but, I imagine it will be worth it.
Angelar
the thing is though…why do we Americans have this outsized need for drugs…?
If there wasn't a market for it, these people wouldn't be here.
morphus
Could the skating community have a problem with his mother who is said to be a mirror of protective father Richard Williams?
RobM
You two……
Calling green lady, Calling Green lady! Two have escaped from the bad chair!
RobM
Green lady calling Green lady! The break out is on the break out is on. Check any place serving hot chocolate for escapees!
RobM
It's on!
ROTFLMBAO!!!
djchefron
IN DEFENSE OF SHAMELESS EXPLOITATION…. The capture of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban's top military commander, is no small matter. It's a “major victory.” Given that Baradar is the most significant Taliban figure to be detained since the war began, and his role in leading the Taliban's military operations, this is a success that may very well pay considerable dividends for U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
As far as the politics is concerned, it's worth noting that U.S. leaders were well aware of Baradar's capture late last week, but deliberately kept the news under wraps in order to help bolster a sensitive and ongoing intelligence-gathering effort. This prompted Juan Cole to note:
[T]hat Joe Biden and others kept the arrest secret, in order to allow further operations against Taliban leaders in Karachi, shows a discipline that Bush and Cheney never had. They were always happy to prematurely release details of ongoing investigations to get a political bump, even if it meant allowing terrorists to escape.
Right. Dick Cheney was blasting the Obama administration on national security over the weekend, and it might have been tempting for Biden and others to use the Baradar capture as evidence that Cheney doesn't know what he's talking about. But the White House Grown-Ups knew the ongoing efforts were more important than making Dick the Clown look foolish. As Andrew Sullivan noted, the president and his team “are serious about national security and do not put domestic political games before it.”
And that's obviously a good thing, which inspires confidence in the administration. That said, Steve M. raises an interesting observation.
[G]uys? You should probably take at least a small victory lap. There has to be something you can do that's more than stoic silence but still well short of the “Mission Accomplished” flyboy stunt. At least send Biden to the morning shows to talk about the capture … subtly, but with pride.
That seems pretty persuasive to me. During the Bush/Cheney era, no counter-terrorism development was too small to trumpet. The arrest of some low-level thug who once said something nice about al Qaeda was reason enough for press conferences and media interviews with high-ranking administration officials. If U.S. officials had helped capture Baradar in the Bush/Cheney era, we'd probably see just about every official you can think of — POTUS, VPOTUS, AG, Defense Secretary, HHS Secretary, NSA, etc. — hitting the airwaves to pat themselves on the back. The goal would be to get a bump in the polls.
Obama and his team are obviously less interested in exploiting counter-terrorism victories for political gain, and prefer to treat Americans like adults, rather than manipulating their fears. As a result, capturing high-profile terrorists (Baradar), killing high-profile terrorists (Hakimullah Mehsud, Baitullah Mehsud, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan), and arresting would-be terrorists (Najibullah Zazi, Talib Islam, and Hosam Maher Husein Smadi) — all victories that bolster our national security interests — are treated as low-key successes. All in a day's work.
That's admirable, to be sure. But a little chest-thumping is hardly out of the question here. If the White House doesn't draw more attention to their victories, the public may not hear about them.
I can appreciate the president's mature, sensible restraint as much as the next guy, but the White House is also facing an aggressive misinformation campaign, launched by those who still want to convince Americans that Obama isn't reliable on national security, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding.
Some understated-but-public appreciation for the men and women in the military and intelligence agencies who make these successes possible seems more than fair
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/arc…_02/0224…
Guns3000
That's a good thing actually. It may force us to get our house in order.
djchefron
Maybe the next bomb will be directed at the head crack dealer.Goldman Sachs
Wall St. Helped to Mask Debt Fueling Europe’s Crisis
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/bu…al/14deb…
djchefron
The same reason people believe in a god.They want to feel good.
Angelar
Don't know that I can sign on to that idea. I believe in God or at the very least a “higher power.” The belief isn't to make me feel good, mostly it comes from personal experience and what I see in nature.
I just can't accept the we are some kind of accident….I believe there was/is a purpose, only all of us billions of people may not ever know whose experiment we were part of.
morphus
t's been more than a decade since Congress first officially acknowledged that this country has a problem with race and health. In 1999 the government asked the Institute of Medicine—an independent nonprofit whose reports are the gold standard for health-care policymakers—to investigate disparities in health and health care among racial and ethnic minorities. The results were damning: the ensuing study, called Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care, found that minorities had poorer health and were consistently getting lower-quality care even when factors such as insurance status and income weren't involved. They were less likely to get lifesaving heart medications, bypass surgery, dialysis, or kidney transplants. They were more likely to get their feet and legs amputated as a treatment for late-stage diabetes. Clearly, something needed to be done.
In the years since the report, the issue has gotten plenty of publicity, more reports have come out, and several agencies—including the National Center on Minority Health—have examined the problem and suggested solutions. Still, studies continue to turn up disturbing disparities. For instance, earlier this month, a paper from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center found that between 1992 and 2004, black women were up to 90 percent more likely to be diagnosed with advanced breast cancer than white women, even though rates of mammogram screening were similar for the two groups. Another recent study put the health data in financial terms and found that race-related differences in health care cost the country $229 billion between 2003 and 2006, a result that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius called “just stunning and shocking.”
So why, now that everyone's aware of the problem, do we still have one?
Why racial disparities in health care persist
Good question.
GreenLadyHere
Rob M: BWA HAHAHAHAHA! :>) THANK U!! :>)
DOG-GONNIT!! :>)
A person TA-RIES 2 get some REST – - -
annnnnnnnnd, OTHER PEOPLE – - SNA-EAK into the SPECIAL BLEND of – -
hot chocolate… :>) :>)
NOW! JUST! GIT! IN-2 – - -THIS – - -4 A TIME OUT!! :>)
Annnnnnnnnnd, – - -NO GIGGLIN' :>)
WHEW!!! ***shakin' my head*** :>) :>)
GreenLadyHere
RobM: RESPONSE MADE!!! :>)
UH! UH! UH!!
I! 'ON'T! KNOW!! :>)
NOW, IMA go TA-RY 2 REST!! :>)
Shazza
Maybe in a mostly white (if not ALL white) sport as in tennis, someone over-protective is needed.
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/JUW6L3XHVYHXROJVKAARVXNCYQ valerie
I hear you on his mom but if having an obnoxious parent was enough to make someone be shunned in any sporting community there wouldn't be to many folks talking to each other.
morphus
What do you think ESPN's Melissa Isaacson is trying to convey in her article titled “The controversy surrounding Shani Davis' speedskating career seems to have subsided“? Personally, I believe Isaacson attempts to create controversy.
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Cheryl Contee aka "Jill Tubman", Baratunde Thurston aka "Jack Turner", rikyrah, Leutisha Stills aka "The Christian Progressive Liberal", B-Serious, Casey Gane-McCalla, Jonathan Pitts-Wiley aka "Marcus Toussaint," Fredric Mitchell, Keith Owens, Anson Asaka, Barbara Moore, Deborah Small, Lisa Coffman, Michael Patton

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