Jack & Jill Politics

New film exposes naked truth of Hefner's civil rights activism
By Shanta N. Covington

9:07 AM on 07/30/2010

I know what you might be thinking. Is a woman seriously going to recommend a documentary film about Hugh Hefner, the Playboy guy? The simple answer is yes. This is not so all my male friends will sing my praises, or because I want to seem progressive.Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist & Rebel is worth seeing because like most good documentaries it teaches you something. In this instance what you'll learn about Hefner's support for black writers, artists and performers; as well as his commitment to civil rights will most assuredly surprise you.

Hefner Final One-Sheet.jpg

Before I get to the good stuff let me be perfectly clear that this is not a film for children; nor is it one for people who have difficulty in seeing all sides to a story. It's true that there's a level of nudity that some might not be comfortable with. But you ought to know what you're going to get because it's about Playboy.

This film shows the highs and lows of the Playboy empire. If you can get past the nudity and realize that it's not the focus, but instead about the man who has come to be known simply as “Hef”, then you might get something out of this.

Academy award-winning filmmaker Brigitte Berman takes us from Hefner's pre-Playboy days to the present day where Hef's still rocking it out in his 80s. However, it's what's in between that really gives this project weight.

Now I'll admit the film is split into thirds. One third is about the man himself. The second third is about how he came to create his magazine empire. The last and most interesting third is about his activism against sexual repression, war and segregation.

Did you know that the NAACP gave Hugh Hefner a special award? What about the fact that Alex Haley [Yes, that's the Roots author] conducted the first interview for the magazine? Haley's interviews for Playboy included some of the biggest names of the day. His first was with jazz legend Miles Davis. Subsequent interviews included Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Muhammad Ali and others.

Still not impressed? Well there's more. Playboy's Penthouse, which was a show that Hefner did beginning around 1959, got little to no distribution. You might think it's because there was nudity. Not at all. For Hefner, there were “no race taboos in my life.” Whereas other shows were hesitant to have on black performers, Hefner had a steady stream. These artists included Dizzy Gillespie, the mixed-race group Lambert, Hendricks and Ross as well as Sammy Davis Jr. But they didn't just perform. They were treated as equals, revered for their talents and sat amongst and conversed with their white counterparts of the day.

http://www.thegrio.com/entertainment/naked-trut…

Peter King And Anthony Weiner Shout Their Way Through A Fox News Interview (VIDEO)
Jillian Rayfield | July 30, 2010, 10:29AM

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) went on an apoplectic rant on the House floor last night, and apparently he hasn't cooled off much since then.

Earlier this morning, Weiner and Rep. Peter King (R-NY) shouted and finger-pointed their way through a Fox News interview over a bill that would provide health care to rescue workers effected by the dust from the World Trade Center, which failed in the House last night.

King accused the Democrats of orchestrating a “cruel hoax” with the bill, while Weiner called it “outrageous” that Republicans would vote against it.

Weiner was furious last night that most of the “cowardly” Republicans voted against the bill and then blamed it on “procedure.” Exclaimed Weiner: “You vote yes if you believe yes! You vote in favor of something if you believe it's the right thing! If you believe it's the wrong thing, you vote no!”

On America's Newsroom today, King, who is the ranking Republican on the House Committee on Homeland Security, said that “the bottom line is the Democrats control the House, and they pulled a procedural gimmick starting ten days ago, and they lost the nerve to bring it to the floor on a real vote.”

He also called the whole situation a “cruel hoax,” and accused the Democrats of “moral cowardice.”

“They control the House,” said King. “They could have passed this.”

Weiner shot back: “You know for all the whining about the process, we had an up-or-down vote. Do you know what percentage of Republicans voted for it? Seven percent.” Only twelve Republicans voted in favor of the bill.

“Your rant last night about the process and how bad the process was gave cover for your colleagues,” said Weiner adding, “Twelve Peter? That's all you could muster?”

tempting to get a word in edgewise. But amidst the fray, King accused the Democrats of “phony hypocrisy” and trying to score a “cheap political point.”

“Here's the point,” Weiner fired back. “We support it, your guys don't. That's outrageous to oppose this bill.”

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/07/pete…

Diversity Is In The Eye Of The Beholder: A Day At Uni-Tea

It was billed as the most diverse tea party rally ever. For three hours Saturday afternoon, we waited for the diversity to show up.

Was Saturday's Uni-Tea rally in Philadelphia a success? Well, it depends on your definition of “epic fail”. If you're more on the defensive end of the tea party spectrum, you would have left the rally this afternoon even more convinced that the movement is not now about race and never has been. If you're the kind of tea partier who'd like to see that abounding not-racism result in some actual demographic diversity in the movement, the Uni-Tea rally appeared to be a boderline disaster.

For three hours, a small crowd drifted in and out of Independence Park as speakers and musicians regaled them with paranoia about Democratic politicians and policies and reassurances that no matter what anyone says, there's no racism in the tea party.

Even as just a regular old tea party rally, the event fell flat. Though organizers said the event's website had been visited more than 2 million times in the days leading up to today's rally outside Independence Hall, for most of the afternoon there were fewer than 500 in attendance. It was clear from the large numbers of volunteers and the 1,500 bottles the organizers put on ice that they expected a big crowd to turn out. They did not get it by a long shot. They blamed a traffic jam on I-95 for keeping people away (for the record one organizer said that she counted 1,500 on the high end of attendance, but that appeared a bit generous to us).

Among those who did make it, for most of the time the numbers of non-white faces could be counted on two hands, and maybe a foot.

The same can't be said for the group who went up on the event's small stage. Organizers promised the most diverse cadre of speakers ever to grace a tea party rally, and they delivered. For the most part their message was the same: tea partiers are not racists and never were — but liberals are.

“The more liberals talk about race, the more they show who the real racists are,” right-wing blogger Andre Harper told the crowd. “It's 2010. The tea party has officially moved on passed the race issue. The liberals can have it.”

Apparently, Uni-Tea wasn't only bridging the racial gap. Brendan Kissam and Matt Hissey wandered into the event carrying signs that said “proud gay conservative” and “freedom is fabulous.” They said they were “the Gayborhood's envoy to the tea party.”

The pair said the tea party is welcoming to their minority group, too. “The Tea Party is accepting of everybody,” said Hissey, adding that “Skin color diversity — that's not real diversity. Everyone here has a different life experience.” Hissey recognized that the tea party “might be against gay marriage,” but that's ok, he said, because he is too.

Uni-Tea reached out the hand of tea party acceptance to young people, too — in the form of white conservative rapper Hi-Caliber and a band of veterans called The Bangers. “This reaches out to the 18-34 year-olds,” organizer Jeffrey Weingarten said. It should be noted that Weingarten was successful in getting at least one 18-34 year-old to join him for the day: his son, Freedom Weingarten.

David Webb, an African American top official with Tea Party Federation and the man who shamed Mark Williams and the Tea Party Express for being racist a couple weeks ago, emceed the event and told the tea party crowd that it didn't matter if only a few minorities joined the cause.

“I didn't realize that any movement everywhere had a minimum daily requirement of black people to be legitimate,” he said.

In his speech, Andrew Breitbart, echoed the sentiment, blaming the liberal-media “cabal” evident in things like JournoList for suggesting that there have been moments that tea partiers have appeared to be less than 100% welcoming of blacks.

Most of the emphasis was on how not-racist the tea party is. But one speaker, African American conservative blogger Vanessa Jean Louis offered some solutions for what conservatives can do to reach out to African Americans.

“Black people are very conservative,” she told TPM. “I think the problem is with the packaging of the message. So if we can talk about issues, instead of you know, left talking points and right – wing talking points, if we could talk about the issues, then that would really resonate.”

Louis said there was a simple explanation for why there aren't more black tea partiers.

“Typically the conservative movement is predominantly white,” she said. “But there are black people there. And there are more and more black people waking up to what it means, what higher taxes mean.”

The few African Americans scattered amongst the audience seemed to agree. All of the minorities in the crowd that we talked to said they were comfortable being part of a movement that they acknowledged was very white, and they said that charges of racism against tea pariters from some African Americans are largely coming from the movement's political enemies.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/07/dive…

The Entitlement of Bigotry

by BooMan
Sat Jul 31st, 2010 at 09:20:44 PM EST
I just got home from spending a beautiful afternoon in lower Manhattan, where no one appeared to be thinking about a proposed Islamic Center near the former site of the Twin Towers. But 600 miles south of there in rural North Carolina, Ilario Pantano, 'a former Marine and a Republican candidate for Congress,' is attacking 'the proposal before an enthusiastic crowd of hog farmers and military veterans.' Very few New Yorkers care about this issue, but demagogues are going around the country riling up hog farmers about it.

We have the spectacle of the national director of the Anti-Defamation League comparing the 9/11 families to Holocaust victims, thereby entitling them to some kind of legal jujitsu that can block the First Amendment when it applies to Muslims.

“Survivors of the Holocaust are entitled to feelings that are irrational,” he said. Referring to the loved ones of Sept. 11 victims, he said, “Their anguish entitles them to positions that others would categorize as irrational or bigoted.”

I think Abe Foxman has opened a pandora's box with that statement. I mean, if we're talking about someone's crazy Holocaust-surviving uncle, then, yeah, we're all inclined to give him a little room to maintain his aversion to German cars or Bayer's aspirin without too harshly judging his character. But in what sense is that crazy uncle 'entitled' to his prejudices? Not in the sense that he has any of legal claim. He can't band together with like-minded Holocaust-survivors to ban the importation of Volkswagens. They can't even tell neo-Nazis that they have no right to speak in public.

Now, aside from the legal matter, there is also the question of whether or not it is a good idea to locate an Islamic Center in near proximity to the former World Trade Center. Will the community be able to succeed in its mission or will the controversy surrounding its location make it counterproductive?

Those who support [the project] seem mystified and flustered by the heated opposition. They contend that the project, with an estimated cost of $100 million, is intended to span the divide between Muslim and non-Muslim, not widen it.

Oz Sultan, the programming director for the center, said the complex was based on Jewish community centers and Y.M.C.A.’s in Manhattan. It is to have a board composed of Muslim, Christian and Jewish leaders and is intended to create a national model of moderate Islam.

“We are looking to build bridges between faiths,” Mr. Sultan said in an interview…

…“The ADL should be ashamed of itself,” said Rabbi Irwin Kula, president of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, which promotes interethnic and interfaith dialogue. Speaking of the imam behind the proposed center, Feisal Abdul Rauf, he said, “Here, we ask the moderate leaders of the Muslim community to step forward, and when one of them does, he is treated with suspicion.”

Only the directors of the project can decide the answer to that question. I don't know. What I do know is that most New Yorkers don't care one way or the other. And no disrespect to any of the fine hog farmers in North Carolina, but their opinion doesn't trump the opinions of the people who live in lower Manhattan. The law is clear. And this controversy is a sad statement on the condition of the country. Irrational fear and hatred don't entitle people to demand illegal behavior from their government.

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2010/7/31/21…

http://mediamatters.org/strupp/201007300021

Sanders said Sherrod is in the process of putting together a legal team to advise her on the case, with Sanders likely “adding support” to the team.

“There is a collection of people advising her,” Sanders said, declining to name them. “She is putting together a legal team and the purpose is to show that people cannot perpetuate lies and destroy people's reputations without legal consequences.”

Sanders said she did not know when or where the lawsuit would be filed or how much would be sought in damages: “She has to make sure it will be filed in a place where people are just.”

Obama to host 120 young African leaders next week

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Thursday, 29 July 2010

IN line with his African roots and the golden jubilee independence celebration of 17 African countries including Nigeria this year, US President Barack Obama is meeting with 120 young African leaders next week at the White House Empowered Newswire has reported.

Nigeria’s Ambassador to the US, Professor Ade Adefuye, on Wednesday, confirmed the meeting, adding that Nigerians would be among the 120 leaders that Obama had invited for the historic White House meeting.

The meeting, which is the first of its kind by a sitting US President will adopt a town-hall meeting.
President Obama will discuss with the young leaders “their vision for transforming their societies over the next 50 years,” according to a White House statement.

The White House statement announcing the meeting stated that the Obama’s meeting with young African leaders was to honor the celebration of this year’s “historic moment,” for Africa.

http://www.tribune.com.ng/index.php/news/8923-o…

Paul Krugman – New York Times Blog
July 30, 2010, 2:21 pm
Don’t Know Much About Economics

Hoo boy. I missed this; but Yglesias points out that in Ezra Klein’s interview with Paul Ryan, Ryan says that the way to increase lending is to raise interest rates:

We need to do things to free up credit. We need regulatory forbearance there. Right now, the policymakers and regulators are doing opposite things. So you’re right that there’s a lot of capital parked out there, and we need to coax it out into the markets. I think literally that if we raised the federal funds rate by a point, it would help push money into the economy, as right now, the safest play is to stay with the federal money and federal paper.

I don’t even know where to start with this. What does Ryan think the fed funds rate is? (It’s the rate at which banks lend each other money overnight, usually to help meet reserve requirements.) He obviously doesn’t know the the Fed funds rate basically equals the return on federal paper, so that raising that rate would make banks more, not less, likely to stay with that federal paper. I’m sure someone will try to come up with a reason why Ryan is being smart here, but the truth is that he’s stone-cold ignorant.

Now, he wouldn’t be the only ignorant member of Congress. But wait — my colleague David Brooks tells me, this very morning, that

Paul Ryan, the most intellectually ambitious Republican in Congress, lavishly cites Brooks’s book. Over the past few years, Ryan has been promoting a roadmap to comprehensively reform the nation’s tax and welfare system.

So this is the smartest Republican Congress has to offer?

Of course, Ryan’s idea of fiscal reform is to run huge deficits for decades, but claim that it’s all OK because we’ll cut spending 40 years from now; and he throws a hissy fit when people challenge his numbers, or call privatization by its real name.

But hey, he’s intellectually ambitious.

Update: And sure enough, Ryan tries to cover himself; see the addendum at the end of Ezra’s interview. But he’s faking it: there’s no way to go from what he now claims he was saying to the words he actually said. So he’s both ignorant and dishonest, which we already knew from the way he tried to deny that privatizing Social Security was actually, um, privatizing Social Security.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/30/don…

There's no way this goes into mediation, except to follow the process towards a formal TRIAL.

Brietbart better look at his assets, 'cause Ms. Shirley will be taking at least 75% of it, unless he catches her in a GOOD MOOD.

Breitbart is prolly going to be shut down, CAPD. Not to mention, having to cough up some mega bucks. His clock is going to be cleaned.