Sunday Open Thread

7 Mar 2010 Author: rikyrah

Good Morning.

As you go through your weekend with family and friends, don’t forget JJP.

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

And always, have a peaceful day

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rikyrah
I'm sure Gillibrand gives a rat's ass about Harold's endorsement.
March 07, 2010
Categories:
* Campaigns
Ford noncommital on Gillibrand endorsement
Former Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D-Tenn.-N.Y.), who just decided not to challenge Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) in the Democratic primary, isn't ready to say yet whether he will endorse her.
“There will come a time when all those questions will have to be answered,” Ford said Sunday on NBC's “Meet The Press.” “I’ve not been asked. I’ve not spoken with Sen. Gillibrand, but I’m a Democrat, I’m an independent Democrat,” he said.
Ford said he opted against a primary race because it could have been “ugly” and might have helped the GOP snatch the seat.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/politicolive/0310…
rikyrah
nobody cares Harold:
March 07, 2010
Categories:
* Bad behavior
Ford: Paterson needs to think about resigning
Former Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D-Tenn.), who recently considered a Senate race in New York, said Sunday that Gov. David Paterson (D-N.Y.) needs to consider whether he should resign as he faces a series of mounting controversies.
“I don’t know how you govern in this arena in this climate,” Ford said on NBC's “Meet The Press,” apparently referring to claims that state police officials encouraged the alleged victim of abuse by one of Paterson's close aides not to press any charges in the case.
“Almost half the voters in the state believe he should step down. How do you govern in that kind of environment?” Ford said. “Gov. Paterson has to think very seriously about whether he can govern.”
Paterson already dropped his re-election, but has rebuffed calls for his resignation.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/politicolive/0310…
rikyrah
Front Page As Advertising, Shame On The L.A. Times For Selling Its Masthead
I have heard of full page advertising, but until I got my Los Angeles Times from the driveway this morning I never heard of Front Page As Advertising. And when I say front page, I mean the entire front page is an advertisement for the new Alice in Wonderland movie with a colossal half page picture of Johnny Depp jumping out from a fake front page under a real Los Angeles Times masthead and phony news articles around it. To get to the actual news on the actual front page, you have to open and excavate the newspaper from the four full-page advertisement section.
The Los Angeles Times has already cut its editorial staff in more than half, but it's crossed another line here by making the real news little more than an aside to advertising dollars, and selling its masthead off to the highest bidder.
Advertising used to sustain the news, now it's obscured it. Shame on the Los Angeles Time. Let's hope there is a backlash of conscience in the news room today that makes it to the board room.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamie-court/front…
The_A
And thus the public flogging of the Canes begins…
He still gets reelected. I understood that Fenty has no serious competition this year but Um. Well, does anyone know if the exotic dancer and the disgruntled campaign worker are the only other contenders?
Yo Kwame, I'm looking at you.
The_A
And thus the public flogging of the Canes begins…
He still gets reelected. I understood that Fenty has no serious competition this year but Um. Well, does anyone know if the exotic dancer and the disgruntled campaign worker are the only other contenders?
Yo Kwame, I'm looking at you.
Shazza
I remember that 'little creatures' remark and I don't blame Mo'Nique.
Shazza
First the gays, now the Latinos? This is starting to sound like the whole 'Obama's problem with__________ fill in the blank' campaign reporting. Oh but I'm sure the Republicans will be right on the immigration reform.
RobM
Does “(UNITEL) mean the same thing as “shaking ones head side to side while giving the SEOD to the speaker” in NBC transcription speak?
rikyrah
LOL
Town
Half of the voters in America think Obama should step down. How can Obama govern in that kind of environment? Pres. Obama has to think very seriously about whether he can govern.
Town
It is funny to hear the people at work complaining about people on unemployment, like they're lazy leeches or something.
For them to be collecting unemployment they had to have been working in the first place.
djchefron
Consent Of The Gullible
Posted by Zandar
It's the Republican way. Tom Delay on State of the Union this morning:
“You know,” Delay said, “there is an argument to be made that these extensions, the unemployment benefits keeps people from going and finding jobs. In fact there are some studies that have been done that show people stay on unemployment compensation and they don't look for a job until two or three weeks before they know the benefits are going to run out.
Digby once again finds the truth here:
I would guess that this is going to catch on among the dittoheads. The right is reasoning that they can appeal to a good number of the majority who are employed and make them question why they should subsidize all those losers who are not. It worked with health care.
Empathy for your fellow man, or even a selfish sense that you might personally need some assistance someday, is being attacked by the right wing head on. And I would guess that there are more than a few people who secretly have thought these things but didn't have the social support necessary to say it out loud. Now they do.
This isn't a widely accepted point of view. Yet. But its infecting the body politic.
Empathy for your fellow man is socialism. Republicans want to teach selfishness to the point that spending tax dollars is evil, and that the federal government itself is illegitimate when it does so.
But now things are looking a bit dicey. According to a recent Rasmussen Poll , only 21 percent of American voters believe that the federal government enjoys the consent of the governed. On the other hand, Rasmussen notes, a full 63 percent of the “political class” believe that the government enjoys the consent of the governed.
It's tempting to stress the disconnect here, and that disconnect is certainly huge. Unsurprisingly, the political class — which talks mostly to itself — thinks that it is far more popular, and legitimate, in the eyes of the country than is in fact the case. In this, as in so many things, America's political class is out of touch with reality.
But forget the views of America — where, it seems likely, more people believe in alien abductions than in the legitimacy of our rulers — and look just at the more cheerful view of the political class.
Even among the rulers, only 63 percent — triple the fraction of the general populace but still less than two-thirds of the political class — regard the federal government as legitimate by the standards of America's founding document. The remainder, presumably, are comfortable being tyrants.
Obama Derangement Syndrome has become so bad that it has turned into Government Derangement Syndrome. The normal process of governance that Democrats are engaging in is no longer legitimate to Republicans, simply because Republicans are not in charge. If the GOP cannot be in charge of the government, then the government's legitimacy must be called into question. That is their plan. They are openly and overtly attacking the basic principles of governance now, when wielded by Democrats, as something that must be halted by any means necessary.
The Republicans are going for scorched earth here. They are going full out now for the destruction of the United States of America. There are those out there that fancy themselves patriots, who take this Second American Revolution thing seriously. The Republicans are overtly appealing to them now with talk of rising up, with talk of “no other choice”, with talk that if Democrats pass HCR, the American Experiment comes to an end. They are looking for martyrs.
If they can't run the country, they will foment its destruction. Period.
Things are about to get very, very bad. And soon.
http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2010/03/consent-o…
rikyrah
Rahm Is Not the Source
by John Cole
Glenn, in a piece I otherwise agree with, updates with this:
One related point about the spate of “Obama-should-have-followed-Rahm’s-centrist-advice” articles that have appeared of late: if you really think about it, it’s quite extraordinary to watch a Chief of Staff openly undermine the President by spawning numerous stories claiming that the President is failing because he’s been repeatedly rejecting his Chief of Staff’s advice. It seems to me there’s one of two possible explanations for this episode: (1) Rahm wants to protect his reputation at Obama’s expense by making clear he’s been opposed all along to Obama’s decisions, a treacherous act that ought to infuriate Obama to the point of firing him; or (2) these stories are being disseminated with Obama’s consent as a means of apologizing to official Washington for not having been centrist enough and vowing to be even more centrist in the future by listening more to Rahm (we know that what we did wrong was not listen enough to Rahm). One can only speculate about which it is, but if I had to bet, my money would be on (2) (because of things like this and because these “Rahm-Was-Right” stories went on for weeks and Rahm is still very much around).
I think you’d have to be nuts to think Rahm is behind the recent “Rahm was right” stories. It may be “friends” of Rahm who think they are doing Rahm a favor, or it may be folks in Washington playing their own political games, but no Chief of Staff in their right mind would be behind stories like this. Rahm may be a lot of things, but he is not a blithering idiot, and I’d bet anything he hates these stories as much as Rahm.
The second point, that Obama is not only ok with these stories but furthermore is “apologizing” to Washington is as crazy and conspiratorial as I’ve ever seen. It makes, quite honestly, no sense. Obama is ok with spreading stories that appear to have his Chief of Staff undercutting him?
Glenn consistently mocks the 11-dimensional chess when Obama’s defenders use it deflect blame when the Obama team has made mistakes. It’s absurd to then suggest that the Obama team is now deploying 11 dimensional chess with the media in order to apologize to centrist Washington. It particularly makes no sense when you consider Obama has become far more aggressive in the past few weeks (up or down vote, the line drawn at the HCR summit).
More than likely, I’d bet these stories are coming from Rahm’s buddies who think they are doing him a favor.
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2010/03/07/rahm-is…
Plantsmantx
Yeah, but…funny that they've gone on so long apparently without Rham telling his “buddies” that they're “fucking retarded”.
rikyrah
Firms 'missing out on female talent', WEF report says
Norwegian flags
Norway leads the way on moves to get women into top jobs
The world's leading companies are failing to make the most of the talents of their female workforce, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has said.
Women are still failing to break into senior management or onto the board, the Corporate Gender Gap report said.
The US led the way with the highest percentage of female employees (52%), while India had the lowest (23%).
To tackle the problem, the WEF urged companies to do more to educate and utilise female talent.
The report is based on a survey of 600 of the heads of Human Resources at the world's largest employers across 16 industries in 20 countries.
Gender 'myth'
“The findings of The Corporate Gender Gap Report are an alarm bell on International Women's Day that the corporate world is not doing enough to achieve gender equality” said report co-author Saadia Zahidi.
“While a certain set of companies in Scandinavia, the US and the UK are indeed leaders in integrating women, the idea that most corporations have become gender-balanced or women-friendly is still a myth.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8552232.stm
rikyrah
Hundreds feared dead in Nigerian violence
By Tom Burgis in Lagos
Published: March 7 2010 19:07 | Last updated: March 7 2010 23:25
Ethnic violence returned to the central Nigerian city of Jos on Sunday when hundreds of villagers were reportedly killed in an apparent reprisal attack following January’s deadly clashes, prompting Goodluck Jonathan, the acting president, to place security forces on red alert.
Between 200 and 300 residents of Dogo Nahawa, a village just south of Jos, and other nearby settlements in Plateau State were killed by mobs armed with guns and machetes in the early hours, according to Jos residents, local officials and media reports.
Hundreds died in fighting between ethnic groups six weeks ago in and around Jos, a conflict-wracked city that lies between the predominantly Muslim north and the mainly Christian south of Africa’s most populous nation.
“It’s a reprisal,” said a Jos resident who asked not to be named.
Extremist sentiment has periodically spilled over into bloodshed for a decade. The latest violence has added to the pressure on Mr Jonathan, who deployed troops to quell January’s unrest. He is at the heart of a power struggle sparked by the lengthy illness of President Umaru Yar’Adua.
Residents said the killing was perpetrated by members of the Fulani tribe. Like the Hausas who were the principle targets of January’s violence, the largely Muslim Fulani trace their roots to the north and are regarded by some elements of the Berom – the majority in Jos and its environs but a minority nationally – as interlopers who have prospered at their expense.
Dogo Nahawa is thought to be have been attacked because it is home to many Berom Christians.
“They came around three o’clock in the morning and they started shooting into the air,” said Peter Jang, a resident of the village, told the Reuters news agency. “The shooting was just meant to bring people from their houses and then when people came out they started cutting them with machetes.”
Doctors at Plateau State Hospital in Jos showed reporters 18 corpses that had been brought from the village, some of them charred.
Hausa women and children were burned alive in January and whole settlements torched. Fulanis are also thought to have died. Berom Christians said they were targeted by northern members of the security forces.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d5a791f4-2a00-11df-b9…
rikyrah
I'm shocked at Roland, considering he so prides himself in being so ' techno-savvy.'
keep on emailing him
and twittering the others. they really need to get with the program.
http://thisblksistaspage.wordpress.com/ blksista
Rinse and then repeat:
Harold Ford is not relevant.
http://thisblksistaspage.wordpress.com/ blksista
Harold Ford is a TOOL.
goldenstar
The best part of Monique's speech came afterward and caught Samuel Jackson's reaction to her. Eyes wide open with an “Ooooo-wee” expression.
http://craighickman.blogspot.com/ CraigHickman
Is Geoffrey Fletcher the first Black writer to win an Oscar for a feature film?
http://craighickman.blogspot.com/ CraigHickman
What Democrat would want to run for public office, for the first time, no less, in this atmosphere?
I guess I'm a fool. Be that as it may, I'm about to go all in….
rikyrah
I don't know…good question
http://thisblksistaspage.wordpress.com/ blksista
Looks like it.
RobM
“only 21 percent of American voters believe that the federal government enjoys the consent of the governed”, is not as far fetched as Zandar would have you believe. Consider Iceland that had a referendum on whether or not to pay back money to the UK and Netherlands. by a vote of 93% they said no, yet the government insists they will. When you have disconnects this big in a country w/ a population as homogeneous as you can get what do you expect in one like ours?
What Zandar and all the rest are missing is that the anger is real and not being addressed in a manner people want/feel, so it is very easy for the Goebbels of the Republican Party to foment not only unrest based on ignorance but to thrive on simplistic answers to difficult questions. As the party in power neither the President not the Congress made any attempt to speak to the anger. In fact the President is on record as vowing not to govern in anger and refuses to admit he is angry about things.
I'm not going to stop harping on the fact that in Mar of 2009 he allowed the financial class to walk away intact on Uncle Sugar's tit. Had he used the TARP legislation to say no your not solvent enough for our tastes he could have gone to court, which is where it would have gone and at least said I tried. That would have gained him far more sympathy and the sense of the man of the people he had so carefully cultivated to win the election. Remember he won more states, carried more Democrats, had more money donated by small donators and registered more people to vote since the beginning of the nation.
rikyrah
Happy about Bigelow and Hurt Locker.
sad about Bullock – wanted Streep.
pleased about Bridges.
http://craighickman.blogspot.com/ CraigHickman
You have a point.
Unfortunately, power isn't so simple.
Never has been, never will be.
rikyrah
he's Buddy Fletcher's brother. (big time investment banker)
wow.
so cool.
rikyrah
really Craig?
WOW!
what position?
you would be a terrific public servant, Craig.
rikyrah
Monique says that she wore blue and the flower in her hair for Hattie McDaniel.
http://craighickman.blogspot.com/ CraigHickman
I'm testing the waters. I'll let you know if I go all in.
http://craighickman.blogspot.com/ CraigHickman
All the Fletcher sons were undergrads at Harvard when I was. I only met Todd and Geoffrey each once.
SouthernGirl2
Mo'Nique got it! :)
Big up for her!
RobM
Do you mean,” I suspect, though I COULD certainly be wrong.” or is this snark?
All people in power bring along people whom run at the first sound of cannons. the object is to make sure they are positioned not to get in the way and are there to be weight upon the final charge.
morphus
Can't speak for individuals mentioned but many AAs using the net are not aware there are plenty of free software and services available for use. Even if they become aware of the freebies the fact that the software or service is free somehow communicates 'inferior'. So, what do they do? They search for a 'brand name' company that will charge them thousands of dollars to perform a function that is essentially free. Then their reason for not performing the service becomes 'its cost prohibitive'.
http://craighickman.blogspot.com/ CraigHickman
Typo, not snark.
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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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