Friday, February 28, 2014
Exclusive: Latinos Are Punch Line at Joe Arpaio Roast | Hatewatch
Arizona State Rep. John Kavanagh, a Republican from the Scottsdale area, had conservatives chortling with one joke after another about racial profiling, “rounding up Hispanics” and much more. For good measure, he mocked the controversy around SB 1062, the so-called religious freedom bill, taking a shot at Muslims in the process. And he mocked the federal monitor appointed to oversee Sheriff Arpaio’s operations after a judge determined that his department engaged in racial profiling and illegal detentions of Latinos.
It’s not uncommon for roasters to push boundaries. People joke about things that might otherwise be off-limits – sex, old age and a person’s personality and appearance. This was different.
Kavanagh, who made headlines last year for trying to criminalize bathroom use by transgender people, used Latinos as a punch line in one racist joke after another, and the crowd lapped it up. The jokes and laughter, caught in an unguarded moment, reveal why conservatives have such a difficult time connecting with Latinos – there is a fundamental lack of respec
Exclusive: Latinos Are Punch Line at Joe Arpaio Roast | Hatewatch
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Monday, February 24, 2014
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Audiobooks and the Return of Storytelling - NYTimes.com
"We tend to regard reading with our eyes as more serious, more highbrow, than hearing a book read out loud. Listening to a written text harkens back to childhood, when we couldn’t read it ourselves, or a time when our parents left off reading the chapter out loud in the middle, a nudge that we’d use our school-taught skills to finish it off by ourselves.
The great linguist Ferdinand de Saussure thought we treated writing as more important than speaking because writing is visual. Speech is ephemeral — you hear a word, and then it is gone. The word written down remains, and so we attach more significance to it. Saussure wrote that when we imagined text as more important than speech, it was as if we thought we would learn more about someone from his photograph than from his face.
But so it is. The ability to read has always been invested with more importance than mere speech. When only a small priestly elite could read, books were sacred mysteries. When more people could read, literacy became a means to move forward in the world. These days, the ability to read is a prerequisite for full participation in the social order.
But for most of human history literature has been spoken out loud. The Iliad and the Odyssey were sung. We think that the Homeric singers of those tales mastered the prodigious mnemonic task presented by those thousands upon thousands of lines of text through an intricate combination of common phrases — rosy-fingered dawn, the wine-dark sea — and nested plots that could be expanded or shortened as the occasion demanded..."
Did White Male Insecurity Kill Jordan Davis? - The Root
For angry white men like Dunn, Jordan Davis’ “gangsta rap” music and Trayvon Martin’s “hoodie” symbolize a larger culture war in which putatively wholesome American culture is under siege by blackness. “Stand your ground” laws, Dunn believes, give Americans the right to defend themselves against “the denigration of women” and “the violence and lifestyle that the ‘gangsta rap’ music and the ‘thug life’ ” adopted by “an entire generation” of “young black men.”
Awaiting trial, Dunn wrote several letters to his family and friends complaining about how “jail is full of blacks and they all act like thugs.” In a letter to his daughter, he offered the following solution to the problem of black thuggery: “This may sound a bit radical but if more people would arm themselves and kill these f--king idiots when they’re threatening you, eventually they may take the hint and change their behavior.”
Threatened by growing black economic and political power in the early 20th century, white men calling themselves the Ku Klux Klan used this same portrayal of black men as violent, sexual predators to justify racial terrorism. It’s estimated that from 1880 to 1930, more than2,400 African Americans were lynched, often for insulting white men or forgetting “their place.” For contemporary angry white men, standing up to “gangsta rap” and “thugs” is akin to night-riding on black men, as portrayed in D.W. Griffith’s classic 1915 film The Birth of a Nation.
Although economic downturns disproportionately affect black unemployment and home ownership, working-class and college-educated whites are now feeling the sting of restricted opportunity. In his book Angry White Men, sociologist Michael Kimmel describes how these men often blame the trifecta of feminism, affirmative action and immigration for their woes.
The relative devaluing of white privilege has been interpreted as racial oppression of whites and “reverse discrimination.” Opinion polls (pdf) suggest that half of all white Americans now see themselves as the targets of racism, and that number pushes past 60 percent among self-identified Republicans and among those who watch Fox News.
Did White Male Insecurity Kill Jordan Davis? - The Root
Friday, February 21, 2014
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Blanche Armwood's story is one worth sharing | Tampa Bay Times
" My older son is a senior at Armwood High School, and my younger son is a junior at the school, but ask them what they know about the school's namesake and their knowledge doesn't go much beyond "she was an African American educator." Of course, it's difficult for me to criticize when a group of older and supposedly wiser friends recently exclaimed, "Armwood is named after a black woman?" Yes, it is. And not only was Blanche Armwood a black woman, but she fought for her fellow African-Americans with the same fervor often displayed by the high school's football team. Unlike the Hawks, however, Blanche Armwood didn't get to play on a level playing field in the early 20th century. In the Jim Crow South, blacks were relegated to second-class status, endured lynchings and struggled to find equality."
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
De Blasio Outlines Steps to Eliminate Traffic Deaths - NYTimes.com
Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday unveiled a sweeping set of proposals aimed at improving street safety in New York City, pledging considerable police resources and even precious political capital in Albany to a most ambitious goal: eliminating traffic deaths.
The 42-page plan is rooted in a Swedish street safety approach known as Vision Zero, which treats all traffic deaths as inherently preventable. Perhaps the most significant changes involve the New York Police Department, whose officers will increase precinct-level enforcement of speeding.
De Blasio Outlines Steps to Eliminate Traffic Deaths - NYTimes.com
The 42-page plan is rooted in a Swedish street safety approach known as Vision Zero, which treats all traffic deaths as inherently preventable. Perhaps the most significant changes involve the New York Police Department, whose officers will increase precinct-level enforcement of speeding.
De Blasio Outlines Steps to Eliminate Traffic Deaths - NYTimes.com
Monday, February 17, 2014
Sunday, February 16, 2014
On the Killing of Jordan Davis by Michael Dunn - Ta-Nehisi Coates - The Atlantic
I insist that the irrelevance of black life has been drilled into this country since its infancy, and shall not be extricated through the latest innovations in Negro Finishing School. I insist that racism is our heritage, that Thomas Jefferson's genius is no more important than his plundering of the body of Sally Hemmings, that George Washington's abdication is no more significant than his wild pursuit of Oney Judge. I insist that the G.I Bill's accolades are inseparable from its racist heritage. I will not respect the lie. I insist that racism must be properly understood as an Intelligence, as a sentience, as a default setting to which, likely until the end of our days, we unerringly return.
On the Killing of Jordan Davis by Michael Dunn - Ta-Nehisi Coates - The Atlantic
On the Killing of Jordan Davis by Michael Dunn - Ta-Nehisi Coates - The Atlantic
Friday, February 14, 2014
Plutocrats Despising the Poor: An American Tradition | Joseph A. Palermo
High unemployment, low wages, a lack of job security and opportunity, and austerity are the "new normal." The slashing of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the failure to extend unemployment insurance to 1.6 million people are only the latest manifestations of cold-hearted public policy that is only prolonging the slump.
Adding insult to injury we're forced to endure over the public airwaves the incessant whining and moaning of billionaires and millionaires who believe working people are not genuflecting to them enough or doing so without the desired level of devotion.
Plutocrats Despising the Poor: An American Tradition | Joseph A. Palermo
Adding insult to injury we're forced to endure over the public airwaves the incessant whining and moaning of billionaires and millionaires who believe working people are not genuflecting to them enough or doing so without the desired level of devotion.
Plutocrats Despising the Poor: An American Tradition | Joseph A. Palermo
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Monday, February 10, 2014
Samuel L. Jackson DESTROYS News Anchor -- I'm Not Laurence Fishburne, YOU MORON!!! | TMZ.com
Fight Over Minimum Wage Illustrates Web of Industry Ties - NYTimes.com
WASHINGTON — Just four blocks from the White House is the headquarters of the Employment Policies Institute, a widely quoted economic research center whose academic reports have repeatedly warned that increasing the minimum wage could be harmful, increasing poverty and unemployment.
But something fundamental goes unsaid in the institute’s reports: The nonprofit group is run by a public relations firm that also represents the restaurant industry, as part of a tightly coordinated effort to defeat the minimum wage increase that the White House and Democrats in Congress have pushed for.
Fight Over Minimum Wage Illustrates Web of Industry Ties - NYTimes.com
But something fundamental goes unsaid in the institute’s reports: The nonprofit group is run by a public relations firm that also represents the restaurant industry, as part of a tightly coordinated effort to defeat the minimum wage increase that the White House and Democrats in Congress have pushed for.
Sunday, February 09, 2014
A gun bill returns with a vengeance | Political Insider blog
Georgia is a sick place. "Oh, no. House Bill 875, under the sponsorship of Rick Jasperse, R-Jasper, not only includes a backdoor entrance for guns on university campuses, but would give concealed weaponry an unprecedented, protected spot right next to you – in bars, churches, libraries, senior centers, aquatic centers, at zoning hearings and city council meetings.
Last month, Capitol lawyers determined that university presidents couldn’t choose, campus by campus, where hidden, permitted weapons could be toted – killing an effort at compromise over the issue.
H.B. 875 simply decriminalizes the matter. Licensed carriers caught with concealed weapons on public campuses would not be subject to arrest, and would only face a civil fine of up to $100."
That’s a pin prick compared to the cost of speeding through a school zone.
Swiss Voters Narrowly Approve Curbs on Immigration - NYTimes.com
BERLIN — A narrow majority of voters in Switzerland on Sunday approved proposals that would reintroduce restrictions on the number of foreigners who are allowed to live and work in the country, a move that could have far-reaching implications for Switzerland’s relations with the European Union.
The referendum on the changes to the country’s liberal immigration law was a rebuke to the Swiss government, the banking industry and business leaders who had lobbied against the restrictions, warning that such a move could endanger Switzerland’s prosperity.
Swiss Voters Narrowly Approve Curbs on Immigration - NYTimes.com
The referendum on the changes to the country’s liberal immigration law was a rebuke to the Swiss government, the banking industry and business leaders who had lobbied against the restrictions, warning that such a move could endanger Switzerland’s prosperity.
Swiss Voters Narrowly Approve Curbs on Immigration - NYTimes.com
Newspaper: We 'Blew It' With Christie Endorsement
"New Jersey's most highly-circulated newspaper, The Newark Star-Ledger, said on Sunday that it regrets endorsing Chris Christie in his last campaign for governor.
A piece penned by Tom Moran, the editor of the paper's editorial page, says the Star-Ledger "blew" its endorsement of Christie for governor in October."
Saturday, February 08, 2014
Exclusive: AIDS patients in Obamacare limbo as insurers reject checks
"NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hundreds of people with HIV/AIDS in Louisiana trying to obtain coverage under President Barack Obama's healthcare reform are in danger of being thrown out of the insurance plan they selected in a dispute over federal subsidies and the interpretation of federal rules about preventing Obamacare fraud.
Some healthcare advocates see discrimination in the move, but Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana says it is not trying to keep people with HIV/AIDS from enrolling in one of its policies under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
The state's largest carrier is rejecting checks from a federal program designed to help these patients pay for AIDS drugs and insurance premiums, and has begun notifying customers that their enrollment in its Obamacare plans will be discontinued.
The carrier says it no longer will accept third-party payments, such as those under the 1990 Ryan White Act, which many people with HIV/AIDS use to pay their premiums."
Friday, February 07, 2014
How progressives can turn the deep South blue | MSNBC
"The whispers are traveling around progressive circles from Atlanta to Washington: 5 conservative movement among young people and independent white women."
T
Thursday, February 06, 2014
Wednesday, February 05, 2014
Elizabeth Warren backs plan to save USPS, replace payday lenders | MSNBC
" The Office of the Inspector General released a report last week, finding that 68 million Americans – that’s more than a quarter of all households – have no savings or checking accounts. Those Americans handed over nearly $90 billion in interest and fees to (oftentimes predatory) non-banking financial services, like check cashing and payday loans services.
For the average household, that comes out to about $2,412 a year.
“Think about that: about 10 percent of a family’s income just to manage getting checks cashed, bills paid, and, sometimes, a short-term loan to tide them over. That’s more than a full month’s income just to try to navigate the basics,” said the Massachusetts Democrat in an op-ed for the Huffington Post. “The poor pay more, and that’s one of the reasons people get trapped at the bottom of the economic ladder.”
That, combined with the U.S. Post Office losing billions of dollars every year, has resulted in the OIG looking into the possibility of post offices offering services like small loans, check cashing, and bill paying to its customers.
“With post offices and postal workers already on the ground, USPS could partner with banks to make a critical difference for millions of Americans who don’t have basic banking services because there are almost no banks or bank branches in their neighborhoods,” wrote Warren."
Monday, February 03, 2014
The Middle Class Is Steadily Eroding. Just Ask the Business World. - NYTimes.com
As politicians and pundits in Washington continue to spar over whether economic inequality is in fact deepening, in corporate America there really is no debate at all. The post-recession reality is that the customer base for businesses that appeal to the middle class is shrinking as the top tier pulls even further away.
If there is any doubt, the speed at which companies are adapting to the new consumer landscape serves as very convincing evidence. Within top consulting firms and among Wall Street analysts, the shift is being described with a frankness more often associated with left-wing academics than business experts.
The Middle Class Is Steadily Eroding. Just Ask the Business World. - NYTimes.com
If there is any doubt, the speed at which companies are adapting to the new consumer landscape serves as very convincing evidence. Within top consulting firms and among Wall Street analysts, the shift is being described with a frankness more often associated with left-wing academics than business experts.
Sunday, February 02, 2014
A Mayor Most Everybody Looks Up To, Even When He Slouches - NYTimes.com
From left to Right John V. Lindsay 6'4" (my favorite) Ed Koch 6'2" (fun to debate, Michael Bloomberg 5'7", Abe Beame 5'2" Fiorello H.
La Guardia 5'2" and current Mayor Bill de Blasio 6'5-7/8"
A Mayor Most Everybody Looks Up To, Even When He Slouches - NYTimes.com: ""
(Via.)
An Open Letter From Dylan Farrow - NYTimes.com
What’s your favorite Woody Allen movie? Before you answer, you should know: when I was seven years old, Woody Allen took me by the hand and led me into a dim, closet-like attic on the second floor of our house. He told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother’s electric train set. Then he sexually assaulted me. He talked to me while he did it, whispering that I was a good girl, that this was our secret, promising that we’d go to Paris and I’d be a star in his movies. I remember staring at that toy train, focusing on it as it traveled in its circle around the attic. To this day, I find it difficult to look at toy trains.
An Open Letter From Dylan Farrow - NYTimes.com
An Open Letter From Dylan Farrow - NYTimes.com
Saturday, February 01, 2014
Blacks Sleeping Patterns Are Unhealthy, Harvard Study Finds
"Perceived or objective job discrimination, limited control over work demands and a determination to succeed against all odds increase black workers’ stress, causing them to lose hours of restorative sleep compared to their white coworkers, according to a study by the Harvard School for Public Health.
The problem, however, does not end there.
The lack of sleep leads to chronic ailments, including high-blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, diseases that are prevalent in the African-American community. Lack of sleep also can lead to death."
Up With Steve Kornacki - What ex-ally’s letter means for Christie The lawyer for Chris Christie’s former ally David Wildstein sent a letter indicating that the governor knew about the George Washington Bridge lane closures as they happened. Steve Kornacki outlines what this means for the players involved.
Up With Steve Kornacki - Christie administration: Sandy funds ‘integrity monitors’ only in place since January Steve Kornacki examines how New Jersey is adhering to a law designed to oversee the way federal relief money is monitored. Amid reports about questionable contracts and inquiries into how Gov. Chris Christie’s team has managed and spent federal funds for Hurricane Sandy relief, New Jersey’s state Treasury Department tells Up With Steve Kornacki that the monitors under this law were only put in place in January 2014.
Melissa Harris-Perry Scrutiny on Christie intensifies A letter from former Port Authority official David Wildstein’s lawyer alleges New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie knew about lane closures at the George Washington Bridge as they were happening last September. Steve Kornacki, Robert Traynham, Bob Herbert and Ari Melber discuss.
Another Nevada Republican Leaves The GOP
"Days after Nevada's first female lieutenant governor left the GOP, a member of a notable Silver State Republican family is following suit.
The Associated Press reported Friday that lobbyist Neena Laxalt, daughter of former Nevada governor and U.S. Sen. Paul Laxalt (R), decided to register as nonpartisan.
Laxalt's decision comes two days after Nevada Republican Sue Wagner announced she was jumping ship as a "symbol" that she does "not like the Republican Party and what they stand for today."
Chris Christie should resign if bombshell proves true: Editorial | NJ.com
"Forget about the White House in 2016. The question now is whether Gov. Chris Christie can survive as governor.
David Wildstein, the man who ordered the George Washington Bridge lane closures, is now pointing the finger directly at Gov. Chris Christie, saying the governor knew about the lane closures in September when they occurred.
That directly contradicts Christie account at his Jan. 13 press conference when he made this statement: "I had no knowledge of this "— of the planning, the execution or anything about it... I first found out about it after it was over."
Chris Christie should resign if bombshell proves true: Editorial | NJ.com
Ex-ally alleges Christie knew of lane closure | MSNBC Christie's edifice oh lies and strong arm politics is crumbling.
"A former Port Authority official alleged Friday that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie knew about lane closures on the George Washington Bridge “during the period when the lanes were closed” last September. In a letter to the Port Authority, made public by his lawyer, David Wildstein also contended that he had evidence to support his allegation."
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