Friday Nite Lite: Dope-A-Max Edition
Posted: April 5, 2013 | Author: JJ Lopez aka Minkoff Minx | Filed under: American Gun Fetish, campaign financing, children, Citizen's United & Super Pacs, education, Foreign Affairs, Gun Control, North Korea, open thread, Political and Editorial Cartoons, Saudi Arabia | Tags: Kim Jong Un, Roger Ebert, Wayne LaPierre | 14 CommentsHey Y’all!
I can’t believe it is Friday! This spring-break week has gone by so fast for me. It could be that it is because I have been asleep for most of it, as most of you know….I had a seizure a while back. The doctor put me on Topamax, which I started to take on Monday.
It is amazing to me just how a small dose of medication can give a person such a wide range of side effects. I am being worked up to a full dose, and the tingling in my fingers and toes is supposed to become less noticeable in the weeks to come…but damn it is freaky!
It feels like my hands and feet have fallen asleep…and no amount of movement will wake them up. Not only that, but my eyes feel as if they are popping out of my head. (That is when I am awake, because this medicine is knocking me out.) Like I said, these side effects are supposed to diminish with time. And to be honest, this is nothing compared to the shit I experienced with Keppra.
Anyway, I take my dope-a-max twice a day, and it really kicks in when I usually write the evening reads post. So for the next couple of weeks I am going to take a break from the weekly evening news round-ups. However, I can’t stop the Friday Nite Lite post, those are my favorite ones of the week. Soooooo, I am writing this post at 6:30 in the morning on Friday, before I take my pill.
Here are your cartoons for the week, I think it is safe to say we all need a laugh tonight!
I am going to start with three from my man Luckovich, he has been on a roll lately and damn if these aren’t fabulous.
4/3 Luckovich cartoon: Last man standing | Mike Luckovich
4/4 Luckovich cartoon: Book report | Mike Luckovich
4/5 Luckovich cartoon: I object! | Mike Luckovich
That one about Dubya’s Library made me laugh like hell!
The rest of these cartoons are in no particular order…hope you enjoy them!
Kim Jong Un War by Political Cartoonist Rick McKee
Riot!!!!!!
Totally Safe Schools by Political Cartoonist Pat Bagley
Distinguishing Armed Schools from Prisons by Political Cartoonist Jeff Parker
Ain’t that the truth?
N Koreas Low Tech Threat by Political Cartoonist John Darkow
Evacuate Rodman by Political Cartoonist Jeff Koterba
Yesterday we lost one of the most outstanding film critics ever…Roger Ebert.
Roger Ebert by Political Cartoonist Milt Priggee
ROGER EBERT REST IN PEACE by Political Cartoonist Randy Bish
This next cartoon is about a little news item from a couple of weeks ago…Taken For A Ride by Political Cartoonist Tim Campbell
And finally…
Start Me Up by Political Cartoonist Steve Nease
50 Years of the Rolling Stones? Damn…has it been that long? It’s enough to make a grown man cry…
This is an open thread.
Good Night, Good Luck: Thoughts on Murrow, Journalism and Responsibility
Posted: March 8, 2013 | Author: JJ Lopez aka Minkoff Minx | Filed under: Barack Obama, campaign financing, Citizen's United & Super Pacs, Civil Liberties, corporate money, Free Press, K street, lobbyists, religious extremists, Republican Tax Fetishists, social media, Tea Party activists, the internet, The Media SUCKS, the villagers, U.S. Politics, Wikileaks | Tags: advertising dollars, batshit crazy democrats, batshit crazy Republicans, Bobby Jindal, broadcast news, Democratic politics, Ed Murrow, Fred Friendly, Gov. Scott Walker, internet and mobile media, irresponsible journalism, Joe and Shirley Wershba, Koch Brothers, Lewis Lapham, Main Stream Media, Milo Radulovich, news as entertainment, Paul Ryan, republican politics, responsibility, Roger Ailes, Rupert Murdoch, Sheldon Adelson, television | 23 CommentsGood Afternoon
Thursday night I watched the film Good Night and Good Luck, with David Strathairn and George Clooney. I am sure that many of you saw this film when it came out eight years ago. (Yes, that is 8 years…)
I saw it too back then, but I had not seen it in years…and I never saw the short featurette interviews with the real people portrayed in the film. Joe and Shirley Wershba, Milo Radulovich, Ed Murrow’s son and Fred Friendly’s son discuss Murrow and give some thoughts on the use of television media during the time of the McCarthy hearings. I say television because Ed Murrow was concerned about how viewing the image or picture being broadcast on the screen would change the news story he was telling.
It is fortunate that I found this featurette on the web, it is only 15 minutes but if you can, watch it before you read the rest of my post.
Good Night, And Good Luck – Featurette | SPIKE
Fred Friendly’s widow states that Ed Murrow was, “dubious” about the change from his radio show, “Hear It Now” to the television version “See It Now.” It was Murrow’s belief that the camera changed the story, that people processed visual information and news differently than they did when just listening to the words being said. According to Murrow’s son, the camera invaded the news story, especially in those early days of news broadcast, with the lights and large equipment needed to air the programs, it changed the dynamics of the story in a real big way.
It was during this time the news took on an editorial flavor; there aren’t always two sides to a story. McCarthyism was destroying the country. Murrow got this message out to his viewers, knowing what was at stake. It was personal and it was risky…
The Murrow team had been collecting film on Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy where ever he went…and used it when they got the evidence they needed. Murrow got to the truth of the story by taking McCarthy’s own words and actions and putting them on the air.
Joe Wershba says that Murrow knew the tremendous power of television media…he describes the agonizing question of whether Murrow had the right to use this power against McCarthy. Think about it…Here you have McCarthy, trampling the rights and civil liberties given by the Constitution, and yet McCarthy got all this power because of the very rights he was running over.
This is where Milo Radulovich comes in. Radulovich,
…was an American citizen (born in Detroit) of Serbian descent and former reserve Air Force lieutenant who was accused of being a security risk for maintaining a “close and continuing relationship”[1] with his father and sister, in violation of Air Force regulation 35-62.[2] His case was publicized nationally by Edward Murrow on October 20, 1953, on Murrow’s program, See It Now:
“ That [Air Force regulation 35-62] is a regulation which states that ‘A man may be regarded as a security risk if he has close and continuing associations with communists or people believed to have communist sympathies.’ Lieutenant Radulovich was asked to resign in August. He declined. A board was called and heard his case. At the end, it was recommended that he be severed from the Air Force. Although it was also stated that there was no question whatever as to the Lieutenant’s loyalty.—Edward R. Murrow[3][4]
Murrow used Radulovich’s personal story to get the point across. And when the Air Force finally reinstated Radulovich, people realized just how powerful television journalism was, and Murrow felt the consequences would be great.
On the featurette, Fred Friendly’s son says that “overall climate of television news” today is frightening…and that his father would be horrified by it.
Well, this horrifying evolution of television news can be primarily shouldered by the corporations…specifically the advertising money these corporations brought in…the airwaves were originally thought of as the people’s airways…that the news had to be given to the public straight. But then the news programs became a money-maker, news stories became entertainment. And with this entertainment, the trust people had in broadcasters like Murrow disappeared.
Friendly’s son says in the interview up top, television was making more money doing its worst…than it did doing its best. (Ain’t that the truth!)
Shirley Wershba states how important it was to get the truth to the stories, they used McCarthy own words in their reports, pointing out the hypocrisies and the craziness of McCarthyism. They researched and were very careful with what they reported on the news. It is not like that today. We have seen too many times the mistakes, blatant ones at that, made by the press…they are careless with the facts.
Responsibility. It is something that both MSM broadcast news and the people watching it must take seriously. Responsibility is vitally necessary to get the facts down right. George Clooney says at the end of the featurette he hopes the film Good Night and Good Luck will bring the issue of responsibility to the discussion and I agree with him; we need to talk about responsibility.
I guess my point with all this is just how important it is to question things.
Maybe that is why people like Jon Stewart, sites like Wikileaks, and those who blog and pick apart news reports are popular with folks who look for the big picture, the ones who don’t accept the cropped version as the final word. It is our responsibility to dig deeper than what we see, hear and read in news broadcast…and in journalism media today. I think too many people are not doing their homework. They take whatever bits and pieces they get from MSM and leave it at that. It is a shame, because this lack of attention is causing present day extremist the likes of McCarthy to flourish in our government and politics.
It is ironic, the very rights these extremist are out to destroy… are the ones that allow them to carry out their agenda. The difference between now and Murrow’s time comes down to this…us.
We…the public.
Were our standards were higher? Eh, I don’t know, but I do feel however that responsibility is key.
It seems that there are less Murrows and Friendlys out there who feel responsible to the people, and more importantly…it seems to me the public has become full of people who don’t feel responsible to truth. We get fed the news and opinions the corporations and sponsors want us to eat…but few question it.
I wish news outlets weren’t controlled by the money companies pay to advertise on their shows, websites or blogs. It makes me think about Murrow’s anxiety about the power of television. Think about how the internet has changed the news narrative. The internet is just another powerful technology…like television was in its day….only the web is instantaneous. It is distracting and full of things that manipulate our opinions. But…the internet is also a tool we can use to be responsible to the truth, if we use it responsibly.
I wish people would question, research and look for truth behind every news report being told. I worry that there is no longer a responsible collective voice standing up for what is right or true….unlike the era of McCarthy, we do not have that voice…the sense of duty or obligation to stand up to the money men behind the corporations, politicians and the advertising and lobbying dollars they use to get what they want. And, they have the ambitious McCarthys of today, to do the job for them.
The batshit crazy. It’s been going on for so many years…and my fear is it will keep on going.
Will it ever stop?
Keeping all this in mind, take a look at a few of these links:
Last week Glenn Greenwald had an article about Bob Woodward…you can read it here: Bob Woodward embodies US political culture in a single outburst
I want to bring this part of Greenwald’s post to your attention…where he mentions an essay written by Lewis Lapham back in 2008:
Bob Woodward fulfills an important function. Just as Tim Russert was long held up as the scary bulldog questioner who proved the existence of an adversarial TV press while the reality was that, as Harper’s [sic] Lewis Lapham famously put it, he maintained “the on-air persona of an attentive and accommodating headwaiter”, the decades-old Woodward lore plays a critical role in maintaining the fiction of a watchdog press corps even though he is one of the most faithful servants of the war machine and the national security and surveillance states. Every once and awhile, the mask falls, and it’s a good thing when it does.
This last paragraph stuck with me, and when I watched Good Night, and Good Luck last night…particularly the featurette, I went back to the Greenwald post and dug a little bit deeper.
Greenwald links to this Gawker post from Aug. 2008, A Careful Evisceration Of Tim Russert. Which I will highlight this statement:
…Lapham, sometimes slammed as insufferable bore, has spun a compelling essay out of his rough initial pronouncement that “1,000 people came to [Russert’s] memorial service because essentially he was a shill for the government.”
This is little nugget from New York Magazine in July of 2008, again in reference to Lapham’s essay: Lewis Lapham Unhappy With Political Journalism, Including Tim Russert
Lewis Lapham isn’t happy with political journalism today. “There was a time in America when the press and the government were on opposite sides of the field,” he said at a premiere party for Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson on June 25. “The press was supposed to speak on behalf of the people. The new tradition is that the press speaks on behalf of the government.” An example? “Tim Russert was a spokesman for power, wealth, and privilege,” Lapham said. “That’s why 1,000 people came to his memorial service. Because essentially he was a shill for the government. It didn’t matter whether it was Democratic or Republican. It was for the status quo.” What about Russert’s rep for catching pols in lies? “That was bullshit,” he said. “Thompson and Russert were two opposite poles.”
Well, here is the actual essay Greenwald is refering to: [Notebook] | Elegy for a Rubber Stamp, by Lewis Lapham | Harper’s Magazine
Please read the entire essay, but I just want to point out a few paragraphs to look out for:
Many people loved Russert, and I don’t doubt that they had reason to do so. I’m sure that most of what was said about him on camera was true: that he was a devoted father, a devout Catholic, and a faithful friend, generous in spirit and a joyful noise unto the Lord. I mean no disrespect to his widow or to his son, but if I have no reason to doubt his virtues as a man, neither do I have any reason to credit the miracle of Russert as a journalist eager to speak truth to power. In his professional as opposed to his personal character, his on-air persona was that of an attentive and accommodating headwaiter, as helpless as Charlie Rose in his infatuation with A-list celebrity, his modus operandi the same one that pointed Rameau’s obliging nephew to the roast pheasant and the coupe aux marrons in eighteenth-century Paris: “Butter people up, good God, butter them up.”
With the butter Russert was a master craftsman, his specialty the mixing of it with just the right drizzle of salt. The weekend videotapes, presumably intended to display Russert at the top of his game, deconstructed the recipe. To an important personage Russert asked one or two faintly impertinent questions, usually about a subject of little or no concern to anybody outside the rope lines around official Washington; sometimes he discovered a contradiction between a recently issued press release and one that was distributed by the same politician some months or years previously. No matter with which spoon Rus sert stirred the butter, the reply was of no interest to him, not worth his notice or further comment. He had sprinkled his trademark salt, his work was done. The important personage was free to choose from a menu offering three forms of response—silence, spin, rancid lie. If silence, Russert moved on to another topic; if spin, he nodded wisely; if rancid lie, he swallowed it.
A couple more:
The attitude doesn’t lead to the digging up of much news that might be of interest to the American people, but it endeared Russert to his patrons and clients. Madeleine Albright, secretary of state in the Clinton Administration, expressed her gratitude to Olbermann: “Tim was amazing because I can tell you that, as a public official, it was really, first of all, a treat to get on the show.” Two days later, over at NBC, Mary Matalin (former CBS and CNN talk-show host, former counselor to Vice President Dick Cheney) seconded the motion, attributing Russert’s profound knowledge of national politics to his superb qualities as a rubber stamp. “He respected politicians,” Matalin said. “He knew that they got blamed for everything, got credit for nothing. He knew how much they meant. He never treated them with the cynicism that attends some of these interviews. So they had a place to be loved.” Remembering Russert on ABC, Sam Donaldson explained why too much salt in the butter makes it harder to spread: “He [Russert] understood as well as anyone, maybe better than almost anyone, that the reason political reporters are there is not to speak truth to power . . . but to make those who say we have the truth—politicians—explain it.”
Speaking truth to power doesn’t make successful Sunday-morning television, leads to “jealousy, upsets, persecution,” doesn’t draw a salary of $5 million a year. The notion that journalists were once in the habit of doing so we borrow from the medium of print, from writers in the tradition of Mark Twain, Upton Sinclair,
H. L. Mencken, I. F. Stone, Hunter Thompson, and Walter Karp, who assumed that what was once known as “the press” received its accreditation as a fourth estate on the theory that it represented the interests of the citizenry as opposed to those of the government. Long ago in the days before journalists became celebrities, their enterprise was reviled and poorly paid, and it was understood by working newspapermen that the presence of more than two people at their funeral could be taken as a sign that they had disgraced the profession.
On television the voices of dissent can’t be counted upon to match the studio drapes or serve as tasteful lead-ins to the advertisements for Pantene Pro-V and the U.S. Marine Corps. What we now know as the “news media” serve at the pleasure of the corporate sponsor, their purpose not to tell truth to the powerful but to transmit lies to the powerless. Like Russert, who served his apprenticeship as an aide-de-camp to the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, most of the prominent figures in the Washington press corps (among them George Stephanopoulos, Bob Woodward, and Karl Rove) began their careers as bagmen in the employ of a dissembling politician or a corrupt legislature. Regarding themselves as de facto members of government, enabling and codependent, their point of view is that of the country’s landlords, their practice equivalent to what is known among Wall Street stock-market touts as “securitizing the junk.” When requesting explanations from secretaries of defense or congressional committee chairmen, they do so with the understanding that any explanation will do. Explain to us, my captain, why the United States must go to war in Iraq, and we will relay the message to the American people in words of one or two syllables. Instruct us, Mr. Chairman, in the reasons why K-Street lobbyists produce the paper that Congress passes into law, and we will show that the reasons are healthy, wealthy, and wise. Do not be frightened by our pretending to be suspicious or scornful. Together with the television camera that sees but doesn’t think, we’re here to watch, to fall in with your whims and approve your injustices. Give us this day our daily bread, and we will hide your vices in the rosebushes of salacious gossip and clothe your crimes in the aura of inspirational anecdote.
Indeed, it all comes down to the idea of truth in journalism according to the corporate sponsors…batshit crazy is now becoming symbolic of the myth that there is a “free press” in this country….when the obvious conclusion seems to me centered on one thing…the lack of responsibility from both the media journalist…and their viewing and reading public.
Batshit crazy…Will it ever stop?
In all honesty, the answer to my question above is simple.
No, it will never stop as long as we, the people, fail to hold our “free press” accountable to the responsibility of journalism.
It’s a very sorry sad situation…and it’s a damn shame.
Friday Nite Lite: Disgusted and Angry
Posted: January 11, 2013 | Author: JJ Lopez aka Minkoff Minx | Filed under: abortion rights, American Gun Fetish, Barack Obama, campaign financing, Climate Change, Congress, Discrimination against women, Gun Control, misogyny, open thread, PLUB Pro-Life-Until-Birth, Political Affective Disorder, Political and Editorial Cartoons, Psychopaths in charge, public education, Reproductive Health, Reproductive Rights, the GOP, We are so F'd, Women's Healthcare, Women's Rights | Tags: Janitors with guns | 17 CommentsEvening!
<——– Looks like Karl Rove…yes?
Hey y’all, tonight’s cartoons really can not be labeled as disgusted and angry, that is just my mood the last 28 hours. I guess since I have nothing nice to say I should just get on with it.
Let us start first with this news out of Ohio…Montpelier school board approves carrying of handguns by custodial staff .
I will just post the money quotes for you:
The Montpelier Exempted Village Schools Board of Education has approved the carrying of handguns by its custodial staff.
[…]
“Sitting back and doing nothing and hoping it doesn’t happen to you is just not good policy anymore. There is a need for schools to beef up their security measures,” Supertendent [sic] Jamie Grime told The Blade today. “Having guns in the hands of the right people are not a hindrance. They are a means to protect.”
[…]
Mr. Grime said their legal counsel advised that Ohio’s gun law allows for school boards to authorize employees to possess weapons on school grounds if they pass the requirements of the concealed-carry law.
The school district will pay for the employees to undergo a two-day training class in mid March, when instructors with the Tactical Defense Institute of West Union, Ohio, will give them a defense class on handgun use in Montpelier.
My son made the observation…that school custodians hate their jobs and can’t stand the kids. Yup, that sure is a smart idea to arm these low wage janitors with handguns…but I guess with such involved and time-consuming training…what could go wrong.
One more link before we get to the cartoons. There is an article up at Cagle which I think you all may appreciate, since the cartoon posts are kind of a favorite around here. Cagle Post – Political Cartoons & Commentary – » How to Draw a Political Cartoon by Daryl and Steve
And with that little tutorial, we will start with some early political/editorial cartoons…that being Satirical Maps of long ago. Check out the link for more by the way… Via BibliOdyssey:
‘The French Invasion, or John Bull, bombarding the Bum-boats’Etching by James Gillray; published in London by Hannah Humphrey in 1793
Image source: British Museum
“A comic map, inscribed ‘A new Map of England & France’, actually showing England and Wales, the SW. corner of Scotland, the north of France, just including ‘Paris’, and the Belgian coast as far as Ostend. England is represented by the body of George III (John Bull), his head in profile to the right, wearing a fool’s cap composed of ‘Northumberland’. His left leg is drawn up, Norfolk forms the knee, the mouth of the ‘River Thames’ the ankle, Kent the foot. His outstretched right leg terminates as Cornwall.
From the coast, at the junction of ‘Hampshire’ and ‘Sussex’, issues a blast of excrement inscribed ‘British Declaration’, which smites a swarm of ‘Bum-Boats’ extending from Ushant to the mouth of the Seine. The map is divided (inaccurately, and with omissions, but with a rough correctness) into counties, Wales representing the flying coat-tails of the King, who strides across the ocean with great vigour.”
Hey, doesn’t that give the classic scene from Monty Python’s Holy Grail a whole new meaning.
AAEC – Political Cartoon by Chan Lowe, Sun-Sentinel – 01/11/2013
That fetus needs to be wearing a janitor uniform…don’t ya think? A mop in one fin hand and a AK-47 in the other.
AAEC – Political Cartoon by David Horsey, Los Angeles Times – 01/11/2013
This is what our janitors look like in Banjoville on their days off!
(Actually, it is what most of the population here looks like. And considering that our local sheriff office has worked through an avalanche of concealed weapon permits…over 500 applications since Dec. 14th, you can bet there will be some pistol packing grandmas, Southern belles and banjo playing country folk carrying heat in the mountains of Georgia.)
Speaking of Southern Belles:
I love that one!
AAEC – Political Cartoon by Mike Smith, Las Vegas Sun – 01/10/2013
AAEC – Political Cartoon by Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune – 01/10/2013
AAEC – Political Cartoon by Randy Bish, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review – 01/10/2013
AAEC – Political Cartoon by Ann Cleaves, Freelance – 01/10/2013
AAEC – Political Cartoon by Tom Stiglich, Journal Register Newspapers – 01/10/2013
01/13 Luckovich cartoon: Diversity | Mike Luckovich
01/11 Luckovich cartoon: Gun control | Mike Luckovich
Y’all have a great evening…this is an open thread.
Mega Friday Nite Lite: Open Thread
Posted: June 15, 2012 | Author: JJ Lopez aka Minkoff Minx | Filed under: 2012 elections, 2012 presidential campaign, abortion rights, Accommodation and Compromise, Barack Obama, birth control, campaign financing, Congress, Corporate Crime, corporate greed, corporate money, corruption, Discrimination against women, Economy, Foreign Affairs, Injustice system, Mitt Romney, open thread, Paycheck Fairness Act, Planned Parenthood, PLUB Pro-Life-Until-Birth, Political and Editorial Cartoons, Psychopaths in charge, Religious Conscience, Reproductive Health, Reproductive Rights, Republican politics, Republican Tax Fetishists, right wing hate grouups, Russia, SDB Evening News Reads, Syria, the GOP, U.S. Politics, unemployment, War on Women, Women's Healthcare, Women's Rights, worker rights | 19 CommentsGood Evening!
Tonight is my last post before I head to the swamp…by that I mean Washington, D.C. I was eleven the last time I went to DC…let’s see if the Hall of Dinosaurs is closed like it was way back then. One thing is for damn sure, my dad will not be able to lift my fatass this time so I can look through the little window on the exhibit’s locked doors.
Anyway, it is also exciting because while we are in DC, I am getting my tattoo done, the one that Tashi designed for me. So…my family is in for a good time and I cannot wait.
With all that being said, here is your Friday Nite Lite post, enjoy!
Syria has been one of those stories that seems to be never-ending. So let’s start by taking a look at some editorial cartoons on the Russian Connection.
For another take…
And just one more:
Oh boy, now we head to the states, first let’s start with my Banjoville State of Georgia:
Florida, you’re up next…here we go!
Oooweee! Let’s hear it for Wisconsin, Hoot…Hoot!
That one about Wisconsin is a good segue into the next cartoon…on corporate money:
And with that we come to the GOP section of this political editorial mega post.
This one is by Deb Milbrath, freelance artist, and she has some real good ones. Be sure to check her other cartoons out: GOP GUTS – Political Cartoon by Deb Milbrath, Freelance – 06/12/2012
And no, Obama can’t be the puck…
What about those few Republicans who are coming out of the Norquist closet?
I have to laugh at the look on that elephant’s face, it really does look like one of those guys who should be in a GOP Asshole Men of the Month Calendar. Can you imagine it? With Red Letter days for various legislative anniversaries that celebrate the GOP’s War on Women…including a handy pack of “period” stamps…little stickers that look like menstrual pads so that women can keep track of their periods, and since life begins at ovulation, a little fetus sticker to remind these women what their only reason for “living” should be….being an incubator for the PLUBs (Pro-Life-Until-Birth). Oh but wait, maybe those little stickers are a bit too offensive and “disruptive” for mixed company!
Now, this next cartoon is fantastic!
I love the way John Cole has drawn Mitt doing a Rodney Dangerfield thing with his collar…
Speaking of Mitt:
There should be a blade listed as LGBT Rights and Women’s reproductive health in that one!
As far as a comment on the economy…
The woman in that cartoon looks exactly how I feel…
Did you all hear about the Bacon Sundae over at Burger King?
Yuk!
One thing I don’t get is that there is so much outrage from the right-wing about all those “brown” immigrants picking tomatoes, yet WTF was that crap they call a “Congressional Hearing” yesterday when Jamie Dimon got the gratuitous ass kissing treatment.
AAEC – Political Cartoon by Nick Anderson, Houston Chronicle – 06/15/2012
And about that ass kissing!
Which reminds of a skit on Dave Chappelle:
Vodpod videos no longer available.White Collar Crime…”Law and Order” Very funny…check it out!
And, I have saved the best for last, this time it is a double dose of good stuff. First from Mike Luckovich: 6/15 Mike Luckovich cartoon: Cracking down | Mike Luckovich
Oh yeah!
And then finally this one:
AAEC – Political Cartoon by Chan Lowe, Sun-Sentinel – 06/15/2012
Have a wonderful weekend, and hopefully I can post some pictures and thoughts as I tour our Nation’s Capital…Otherwise…this sister will be sticking a sock in it until June 27th…catch y’all later in a couple of weeks!
Sunday Reads: Purple Rain, Civil War, Women’s Rights and Union Rags
Posted: June 10, 2012 | Author: JJ Lopez aka Minkoff Minx | Filed under: 2012 elections, Austerity, Bailout Blues, campaign financing, collective bargaining, corporate money, Diplomacy Nightmares, Discrimination against women, Egypt, Foreign Affairs, Global Financial Crisis, Labor unions, morning reads, Russia, Spain, Syria, Violence against women, Women's Rights, worker rights | Tags: Egyptian Elections, Happy Birthday Prince!, Muslim Brotherhood, Purple Rain | 32 CommentsGood Morning!
Hopefully you have woken up to a glorious June morning…wherever you may be. Here in Banjoland, we are expecting rain, which I wish would just hurry up and get here…hearing that rumbling in the distance and feeling the hot humid air outside is getting to be a real drag.
I don’t want to lie to you, this morning’s reads are not lighthearted, there is just too much madness going on in other parts of the world.
Like the distant sounds of thunder, I can feel the pounding of despair in my chest, and not being a loner…I guess I have to share it with you.
First let me make this observation…am I the only one who finds irony in the name of the horse that won on Saturday’s Belmont Stakes? Union Rags…yup, that about explains it. The unions, as in labor unions, are in rags.
Funny that it was BIG money that put them there. The Kochs’ Double Whammy
If any doubt was left about the power of big money in our politics, the Wisconsin election destroyed it. Charles and David Koch goosed Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign with $10 million through their front group Americans for Prosperity, $1 million through the Republican Governors Association, and more from members of the “million-dollar donor club” of financial titans that meet regularly at Koch-hosted secret summits. Meanwhile, the official campaign of Democratic opponent Tom Barrett raised about $4 million. Is it any wonder that Walker climbed steadily in the polls and ultimately won?
I know that is not news for our readers…but I wanted to connect the horse’s name with the FAIL we saw in Wisconsin.
Now, on to the world news. According to Reuters: WRAPUP 7-Eurozone agrees to lend Spain up to 100 bln euros
Euro zone finance ministers agreed on Saturday to lend Spain up to 100 billion euros ($125 billion) to shore up its teetering banks and Madrid said it would specify precisely how much it needs once independent audits report in just over a week.
After a 2 1/2-hour conference call of the 17 finance ministers, which several sources described as heated, the Eurogroup and Madrid said the amount of the bailout would be sufficiently large to banish any doubts.
“The loan amount must cover estimated capital requirements with an additional safety margin, estimated as summing up to 100 billion euros in total,” a Eurogroup statement said.
From Spain to Egypt…Egyptian women protesters sexually assaulted in Tahrir Square This is very disturbing.
A mob of hundreds of men assaulted women holding a march demanding an end to sexual harassment in Cairo, as attackers overwhelmed male supporters and molested several of the marchers in Tahrir Square.
Some victims said it appeared to have been an organised attempt to drive women out of demonstrations and trample the pro-democracy protest movement.
[…]
Earlier in the week, an Associated Press reporter witnessed around 200 men assault a woman who eventually fainted before others came to her aid.
Friday’s march demanded an end to all sexual assaults. Around 50 women participated, surrounded by a larger group of male supporters who joined hands to form a protective ring around them. The protesters carried posters and chanted. After the marchers entered a crowded corner of the square, a group of men waded into the women, heckling them and groping them. The attackers chased the the marchers as they tried to flee. Several women were cornered against railings and groped, according to reports. Eventually, the women found refuge in a nearby building.
“After what I saw and heard today I am furious at so many things.” wrote Sally Zohney, one of the event’s organisers on Twitter.
You remember the image of the woman being stomped on by men back in December? If I say two words, my guess is you will remember…blue bra.
In a defining image of state violence against women, soldiers dispersing a protest in December were captured on video stripping a woman’s top off and stomping on her chest, as other troops pulled her by the arms across the ground. That incident prompted a march by 10,000 women through Cairo.
In contrast, the small size of Friday’s march could reflect the fear felt by women in the square.
[…]
“Women activists are at the core of the revolution,” said Ahmed Hawary, who attended Friday’s protest. “They are the courage of this movement. If you break them, you break the spirit of the revolution.”
What kind of revolution is it when Ahmed Shafiq, former prime minister under Mubarak, could be Egypt’s next president ?
The unexpected appearance of Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister in the runoff of Egypt’s first post-revolutionary presidential race owes much to support from business tycoons and other backers of the old regime.
The candidate, Ahmed Shafiq, 70, gained enormous popularity during the final stretch of the race by appealing to weary Egyptians’ desire for a return to the stability of the old Egypt. But even some supporters acknowledge that he also drew on money and expertise from a vast network of Mubarak’s former supporters, whose National Democratic Party is now banned.
[…]
…Shafiq finished second in the first round of balloting and faces the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi in a presidential runoff next weekend. A victory by Shafiq would be seen as a defeat by many who took part in the wintertime revolution last year that ousted Mubarak.
What kind of revolution is it when the other choice is just as depressing, I am talking about the Muslim Brotherhood:
As Brotherhood looks to rollback women’s rights, Egypt women fight back
The Muslim Brotherhood and its political party, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), have condemned the resurrection of the National Women’s Council (NWC) in recent months, arguing that it has no legitimacy in the current political dynamic facing Egypt.
However, the governmental council’s chief Mervat Tallawy, has again lashed back against the conservative Islamic group, accusing it of attempting to undermine women’s rights, including divorce and custody rights.
The Brotherhood has fought back, arguing that the council is a remnant of the Hosni Mubarak era and should be disbanded.
“They are trying to take away rights that women attained in compliance with Islamic sharia,” said Mervat Tallawy, head of the National Council for Women, in comments published by Reuters news agency, adding that criticism of the council was an attempt to erode female rights.
The Brotherhood said in response on its website that the institution was “a weapon of the former regime to break up and destroy families.”
“They do not want a national institution for women,” Tallawy told Reuters in an interview. “They have said that the international (women’s) agreements are imperialistic and part of a foreign agenda.”
Muslim Brotherhood still can’t win backing of Egypt’s revolutionaries
At the hastily arranged meeting, Brotherhood representatives promised to meet the demands of Maher and other revolutionary figures in exchange for their endorsement of Mohammed Morsi, the Brotherhood candidate running against Shafik, Maher said. But when he asked for specifics, the negotiations collapsed in what has become an intractable problem for the Brotherhood: It still has not won the endorsement of its candidate from largely secular revolutionaries, even though they loathe the idea that Shafik, Mubarak’s last prime minister, could win.
The back-and-forth negotiations have come to define the period between last month’s first-round balloting and this week’s run-off. Political parties have called their followers into the streets in hopes of recreating the sense of unity that led to the fall of the Mubarak regime. But the elections and the taste of political power has made it difficult, if not impossible, for the parties to unite enough to ensure that a Mubarak holdover doesn’t retake the presidency, this time in a democratic election spurred by their movement.
The disparate revolutionary groups cannot agree on who speaks for them and what they want. And the Brotherhood cannot agree on what it needs to do to win the revolutionary vote.
From Egypt to Syria…U.N. observers in Syria see gruesome evidence of a new massacre. No this is not the same massacre from the end of May by the way…
Bullet-pocked homes and bloodstained walls. Shell casings littering the ground in a ghost town still smoldering from the onslaught.
A United Nations observer team on Friday finally reached the site of Syria’s latest apparent massacre, a now-abandoned farming village where opposition activists accuse pro-government forces of killing dozens of civilians this week in an artillery bombardment and grisly door-to-door executions.
“Young children, infants, my brother, his wife and seven children … all dead,” said a grieving man in a video distributed by the U.N. “I will show you the blood. They burned his house.”
UN officials said they could smell burning corpses in the village UN observers see burned corpses, scattered body parts at site of Syria massacre .
Bullets and shrapnel shells smashed into homes in the Syrian capital overnight, as troops battled rebels in the streets, in the heaviest fighting yet in Damascus. The violence marked an increased boldness among rebels in taking their fight against the regime of President Bashar Assad to the center of his power.
For nearly 12 hours of fighting that lasted into the early hours Saturday, rebels armed mainly with assault rifles fought Syrian forces. U.N. observers said rebels fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the local power plant, damaging parts of it and charring six buses, according to video the observers took of the scene.
Syrian forces showed the regime’s willingness to unleash elevated force in the capital: at least three tank shells slammed into residential areas in the central Damascus neighborhood of Qaboun, an activist said. Intense exchanges of assault-rifle fire marked the clash, according to residents and amateur videos.
At least 42 civilians were killed in violence around the country outside Damascus on Saturday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based activist group. Among them were 20, including nine women and children, who died in heavy, pre-dawn shelling in the southern city of Daraa, where the uprising against Assad began in March 2011. The group’s figures could not be independently confirmed.
In a Daraa mosque, a father stood over his son killed in the shelling, swaddled in a blanket.
“I will become a suicide bomber!” the father shouted in grief, according to an amateur video of the scene.
Later Saturday, tens of thousands of Daraa residents buried the slain from the shelling. They sang, danced and paraded the dead in coffins around a large square, giving the mass funeral the appearance of a mass wedding party, according to footage of the scene.
These people are going through unbelievable trauma and fear, and it is taking it’s toll on the survivors.
“The heart of this revolt is the poor, jobless youth in the countryside. But that is gathering strength in other places, in Aleppo, in Damascus and even the Kurdish regions,” said Syria expert Joshua Landis.
“The psychological state of the people, after watching these massacres, is so far advanced. People are ready to do whatever it takes. They are frightened; it could come next to them.”
Back in the village where the latest massacre occured…
Saturday, U.N. observers in Syria ostensibly to monitor the cease-fire issued the first independent video images from the scene of the reported massacre in Mazraat al-Qubair.
The video, taken in the U.N. visit a day earlier, showed blood splashed on a wall pockmarked with bullet holes and soaking a nearby mattress. A shell punched through one wall of a house. Another home was burnt on the inside with dried blood was splashed on floors.
One man wearing a red-and-white checked scarf to cover his face, pointed at a 2008 calendar adorning a wall, bearing the photo of a lightly-bearded, handsome man.
“This is the martyr,” the resident, sobbing. He sat on the floor, amid strewn colorful blankets, heaving with tears.
It was not immediately clear if he was a resident of the village or related to the man in the photograph.
“They killed children,” said another unidentified resident. “My brother, his wife and their seven children, the oldest was in the sixth grade. They burnt down his house.”
After the observers’ visit, U.N. spokeswoman Sausan Ghosheh said the scene held evidence of a “horrific crime” and that the team could smell the stench of burned corpses and saw body parts strewn around the now deserted village, once home to about 160 people.
She said residents’ accounts of the mass killing were “conflicting,” and that the team was still cross checking the names of the missing and dead with those supplied by nearby villagers.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned the Security Council on Thursday that a full-blown civil war in Syria was “imminent,” while international mediator Kofi Annan said it was time to step up the pressure on Damascus to halt the violence.
[…]
“The Syrian people are bleeding,” Ban told reporters after addressing the Security Council. “They are angry. They want peace and dignity. Above all, they all want action.”
“The danger of a civil war is imminent and real,” he said, adding that “terrorists are exploiting the chaos.”
Russia however is unyielding In Its Stance on Syria, Russia Takes Substantial Risks
The international deadlock over Syria has, in a dreadful way, provided balm for old grievances in this city. After years of fuming about Western-led campaigns to force leaders from power, Russia has seized the opportunity to make its point heard.
This time, its protests cannot be set aside as they were when NATO began airstrikes in Libya or when Western-led coalitions undertook military assaults in Iraq and Serbia. Instead, the international community has come to Russia’s doorstep.
On Friday, a top State Department official visited Moscow, presumably seeking to persuade the Kremlin to reconsider its stance and contribute to an effort to engineer a transition from the rule of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, a longtime Russian ally. In remarks after the meeting, Russia’s top negotiator was implacable, telling a reporter that Moscow’s position was “a matter of principle.”
Russia’s Lavrov calls Syrian conflict ‘alarming,’ but shuns action
Russia has growing concerns about the conflict in Syria, but it will continue to oppose the outside use of force, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
“The situation in Syria is becoming more alarming,” Mr. Lavrov told a news conference Saturday, during which he pushed Russia’s proposal for an international conference on the crisis. “An impression is being created that Syria is on the verge of a full-scale civil conflict.”
It appears that a couple of Russian citizens where involved in some of the violence last week.
He said two recent attacks had put Russians in the capital, Damascus, in danger: a bus carrying Russian specialists came under fire Saturday, and a grenade attack took place Friday on a building where Russians live. There were no injuries, he said.
Despite growing concerns that the situation may be spinning out of control, Russia, as a member of the United Nations Security Council, “will not sanction the use of force,” he said. Russia has previously blocked proposed U.N. resolutions to impose sanctions on President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Lavrov said Russia’s resistance to intervention is “not because we are protecting Assad and his regime, but because we know that Syria is a complicated multi-confessional state, and because we know that some of those calling for military intervention want to ruin this and turn Syria into a battleground for domination in the Islamic world.”
Well, that should be enough to get the party started…
This week Prince celebrated his 54th birthday…and since he is one of my top 5 favorite musicians, I have to share it with you. Happy 54th Birthday, Prince
Happy Birthday, Prince!
Like the little black dress and kissing in the rain (under an umbrella, lest we muss our hair), his Royal Badness is ageless, timeless and eternally sexy.
As he continues to tour and sell out arena across the land join us in a collective “ow-ah!” to celebrate The Beautiful One’s 54th year!
So here are a couple of videos for you to enjoy. First is a comedy sketch from Dave Chappelle, called Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories. Charlie Murphy is Eddie Murphy’s brother…so, here is a true story about a time back in 1985…Dave Chappelle – Prince Vs Charlie Murphy – YouTube
I have tried to embed this video, but if it is not working please go check it out at the link above.
And here is a video of Prince performing at the Superbowl in Miami in 2007:
See y’all When Doves Cry….I’ll be wearing Diamonds and Pearls, a Raspberry Beret and driving a Little Red Corvette!
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