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Movies

Somebody tell the GOP, “We Be Free!” – 12 Years A Slave: Chitwetel Ejiofor, Brad Pitt

 

12 Years a Slave starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Paul Giamatti, Lupita Nyong’o, SarahPaulson, Brad Pitt, and Alfre Woodard. In theaters Friday, October 18th.

“As a black person, I can honestly say I am exhausted and bored with these kinds of ‘dramatic race’ films. I’m convinced these black race films are created for a white, liberal film audience to engender white guilt…” — Orville Lloyd Douglas of TheGuardian

Based on a true story of one man’s fight for survival and freedom. In the pre-Civil War United States, Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery.

Facing cruelty as well as unexpected kindnesses, Solomon struggles not only to stay alive, but to retain his dignity. In the twelfth year of his unforgettable odyssey, Solomon’s chance meeting with a Canadian abolitionist alters his life forever.

 

But, Black journalist, Orville Lloyd Douglas of TheGuardian says he’s not too interested in catching this kind of film;

“As a black person, I can honestly say I am exhausted and bored with these kinds of ‘dramatic race’ films. I’m convinced these black race films are created for a white, liberal film audience to engender white guilt and make them feel bad about themselves. Regardless of your race, these films are unlikely to teach you anything you don’t already know. Frankly, why can’t black people get over slavery? Or, at least, why doesn’t anyone want to see more contemporary portrayals of black lives? ”

I can understand his point. No doubt that movies like this may elicit feelings of guilt in white people. I have white friends who ask me, “Why can’t black people just get over slavery? That was hundreds of years ago!”. And I can feel that they truly want to get past the ugly, shamefulness of people who looked like them relegating people who looked like me, a dear friend, to chattel. But it did happen.

And it happened in a place not far away but right here, in this place and space that we’re in right now. Four generations is not that long ago when you break it down from great-great grandparents to grandparents.

The African – American story is as important and as relevant a story as any other race’s in this country. Instead of guilt, try just respecting that heritage. And while were at it, respect the Native – American, Asian – American, Latino – American and every other dash American whose stories get minimized and trivialized when the history of the United States is told.

No one is naive enough to think that any hardcore racists will find their way into theatres to watch this movie. But maybe such ‘dramatic race films’ will cause people, black and white, who are ‘liberal’ mainly at face value — you know, the ones who think that blacks should just “get over that slavery stuff” — to utilize films like ’12 Years’ as an excercise to examine of the various ways in which racism is entrenched in this country, and understand how it draws parallels with how things are right now. Particularly over the last 5 years, as many Americans continue to have a difficult time ‘adjusting’ to the idea of an African-American as POTUS.

But that of course is your prerogative. No guilt, no pressure.

Categories
Music

Ja Rule to DMX – “Put a condom on”

Ja Rule has some friendly advice for his fellow rapper DMX.

Weeks ago DMX (who’s been arrested 25 times), appeared on Dr. Phil and revealed that he has 11 kids by six different women, and 1 more on the way. The “Party Up” rapper also confessed to owing over $1.2 million in overdue child support.

During an interview promoting his new film, I’m in Love with a Church Girl, Ja weighed in on  DMX’s downward spiral.

Put a condom on!,” Ja said.

“I love X, we got a great history. We came up together in this business. It’s kind of sad to watch my homie go through what he’s going through.”

“This is America. We love to see people bounce back. We love that comeback story. I don’t think it’s far off for X to come back and do something significant, and people to love him again. I think he just needs to maybe seek God. It has to be something drastic that changes the way he lives and the way he goes about his everyday life style. Hopefully he’ll realize that what he’s doing is destructive.”

Categories
Technology

Changes to Yahoo Mail Irritate Customers

She may be getting cheered on Wall Street, but Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is getting a thumbs down from users of the company’s email and chat forums.
Thousands of users have complained to Yahoo about its latest redesign that eliminated some popular features while adding others they find clunky and confusing.

“We have refreshed your inbox with more room for messages and added exciting new features you will love,” the Internet giant told users when it relaunched Yahoo Mail last week.
But rather than applaud the overhaul, users have flooded the company’s “feature suggestions” page to demand changes be rolled back and old features restored.

“I HATE IT! Please bring back the old version of yahoo classic,” wrote one aggrieved user on the site.

One of the biggest complaints has been Yahoo’s removal of the email’s “tabs” feature, which allowed users to open multiple emails at once.

A post headlined “Please Bring Back Tabs” has floated to the top of the suggestions page after attracting a whopping 47,302 votes and 3,608 comments as of Thursday afternoon.

The author of the post said that tabs is one of the reasons he uses Yahoo Mail over Gmail, echoing complaints on the site that the new interface mimics Google’s system. Mayer was a top executive at Google before she took the CEO job at Yahoo last summer.

“If I wanted to use Gmail, I would do that,” one user griped on the suggestions site. “You didn’t study the customer usability before changing your system, did you?”

Yahoo didn’t immediately return a request for comment, but a recent post on the suggestions site by the site’s administrator suggests that the company is at least aware of the complaints.

“The recent design changes in Yahoo Mail are important steps to building a more modern and personalized version. We recognize that this is a lot of change and are actively listening to user feedback so we can continuously make improvements,” said the post from the administrator.

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chris hayes ObamaCare Politics

Republican’s Reason For Shutting Down Government? Show Unity Against ObamaCare… Really!

Since the Republican Government Shutdown ended its 16th day yesterday, everyone’s been asking the same question. Why? Why did Republicans shut down the government and took this country on what seemed to be a pointless adventure. Well the answers are slowly beginning to come in and this from Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) takes the cake… so far.

The reason for shutting down the government? So that Republicans could “reestablish our brand as being against ObamaCare.” Really? Yea, really. They wanted to show the world that they are united against ObamaCare… a scheme that cost the nation $25 Billion so far.

KINGSTON: People need to exhibit their beliefs and have the opportunity to debate, which is what we’ve been able to do in the last two weeks, and I think you can, you know, from a pessimistic standpoint say, you guys, you Republicans did not get anything out of it.

But on the other side, I think it was important to us to reestablish our brand as being against Obamacare and from what we’ve seen so far, Obamacare is not going to be a winner. It has not decreased the cost of medicine or…

HAYES: Congressman, do you think anyone going into this was confused about the Republican stance on Obamacare?

KINGSTON: You know, you would be surprised. I’m telling you, sometimes our base thinks that we haven’t driven the point enough, even though we’ve had something like forty different votes to defund it in one form or the other, we still get complaints that we’re not doing anything to defund Obamacare.

Video.

Categories
Politics

President Obama’s Morning Message -Back to Work

The President:

Last night I signed legislation to reopen our government and pay America’s bills. Because Democrats and responsible Republicans came together, the first government shutdown in 17 years is now over; the first default in more than 200 years will not happen.

These twin threats to our economy have now been lifted, and I want to thank those Democrats and Republicans for getting together and ultimately getting this job done

Video

Categories
Politics

GOP Should Call It Quits – Fox News Now Against Them

John McCain and Rep Steve King have questioned their party’s decision to shut down the government following the instructions from first year Senator Ted Cruz. That wasn’t expected but it was good to see. When anyone from the most partisan Republican propaganda machine begins to question the wisdom of the shutdown, then you know the Republicans are in deep dodo.

That is what happened when Fox’s Gretchen Carlson interviewed Representatives Devin Nunes (R-CA) and Adam Smith (D-Wa) about the recent Republican government shutdown.

Republicans finally accepted the proposal from Congress and reopened the government last night, but yesterday when this interview took place and everyone knew the details of the Senate proposal, the Democratic Representative pointed out the fact that the House could have accepted this same proposal since the beginning of the shutdown. Smith said, “the shame of it is, this is something we could have done back in the beginning of October.”

This is where the impossible happened. The Fox News host agreed that the shutdown was a failure in the eyes of the sane American citizenry.

“Isn’t this what Americans hate quite frankly, about you guys, members of Congress?” Carlson asked. “That this is something that could have been done long ago and here we are again?”

When Fox News gets it right, then you know you’ve really messed up!

Video

Categories
Politics

New Yersey Election – Teaparty Lose Again With Cory Booker Win

The Teaparty’s attempt to make this nation bow down on all fours came to a crushing defeat tonight, as both Senate and the House voting to end the Republican induced government shutdown. And now this: the Teaparty favored candidate in New Jersey failed to topple Cory Booker for the US Senate.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker won a special election Wednesday to represent New Jersey in the U.S. Senate, giving the rising Democratic star a bigger political stage after a race against conservative Steve Lonegan, a former small-town mayor.

Booker, 44, will become the first black senator from New Jersey and heads to Washington with an unusual political resume. He was raised in suburban Harington Park as the son of two of the first black IBM executives, and graduated from Stanford and law school at Yale with a stint in between as a Rhodes Scholar before moving to one of Newark’s toughest neighborhoods with the intent of doing good.

He’s been an unconventional politician, a vegetarian with a Twitter following of 1.4 million – or five times the population of the city he governs. With dwindling state funding, he has used private fundraising, including a $100 million pledge from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, to run programs in Newark, a strategy that has brought his city resources and him both fame and criticism.

Booker was elected to complete the 15 months remaining on the term of Frank Lautenberg, whose death in June at age 89 gave rise to an unusual and abbreviated campaign. If he wants to keep the seat for a full six-year term – and all indications are that he does – Booker will be on the ballot again in November 2014.

Categories
Politics

America, Don’t EVER Drink The TEA

Finally! After over two weeks of a Government Shutdown in which even Sen. John McCain admitted in a Fox News interview, was completely the GOP’s fault, the Republicans are going to relinquish their unpopular battle and vote on a Clean Continued Resolution which will re-open the Government and put a halt to the ‘Default Talk’ of the Debt Ceiling.

So many questions still remain in this Failed takeover by the TeaPublicans. What was the purpose? Why did they take America to the brink of National Default of paying it’s bills? What Next?

It’s all Very Simple.

The Purpose: Ruin and destroy the Obama Presidency.

Why did they take America to the Brink? Ruin and Destroy the Obama Presidency.

What Next? Ruin and Destroy the Obama Presidency.

From the Beginning of the Barack Obama Presidential Term in 2008, the Great Obstructionist Party’s game plan was to Nullify, Deny, Embarrass, Destroy, Obstruct, Defame, Denounce and Negate the Legitimacy of his presidency.

The very idea that a small faction of the United States Congress could hold this Nation hostage because they don’t like President Obama and Obamacare is unfathomable. Now, as this stage of their hostile Government Takeover comes to a close, it appears the negotiations will last until January 15, 2014 and the Debt Ceiling will be revisited on February 7, 2014. Surely, you know we will go through this again in January.

We have to #EndThisNow!

“Kicking the Can Down the Road” is not the way to govern a Nation. But it appears since President Obama became the Commander in Chief, he has put out fires instead of initiating his policy. I believe this is the GOP’s plan: Manufactured problems like the NSA, IRS, Benghazi, Sequester to the GOP Shutdown and the near Default of the Debt Ceiling has kept this President on defense and reactive than on the Offensive and Proactive. For 5 1/2 years of Obstruction and hindrance from the TeaPublicans, much of the planned agendas from the Obama Administration have not been addressed or implemented.

Remember Immigration Reform, Jobs Initiatives, Increasing the Minimum Wage, Gun Control, Climate Change and Energy Initiatives and Oil Drilling in this country? I do. But what has been done on any of those in the last 6-months? Correct! Nothing. Unfortunately, I feel this will continue. The Teapublican Plan is to make this President look worse than Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush. You remember the Great Recession where banks and financial investors failed, housing market declined, auto companies were abandoned to fail and the stock market dropped below 8,000?

To make President Obama look worse than those disastrous moments in Bush Administration’s history is the plan, so don’t for one second believe this is over. Yes, the TeaPublicans have retreated but the fight is not over. They’ll regroup and between now and January, they will manufacture another crisis.

America, if you’ve seen enough from the extremely radical Tea people. Voting in every election is more critical than ever before! The Koch Brothers and Heritage Action are throwing money into every local election to sway votes with advertisements filled with lies and deceptions. Our Job: Make folk aware of the importance of voting. We’ve got to get behind the President and express our concerns by Voting Out Extremism!

Now is the Perfect time. Never forget America, who Shutdown our Government and nearly Defaulted our country in the eyes of the World.

If you want to make a difference, Vote! If you want this country to Move Forward, Vote! If you believe extremism is what keeps us bound, Vote! Obstructionism is Not Governing! Democracy and Compromise is Governing!

Vote America, Vote!

Categories
Domestic Policies Healthcare News Politics Teaparty

Let’s Fake A Deal

In the end, we got a terrible economic deal, but a nice political gift. Congress essentially kicked the problem down the road and ensured that early January would mark the beginning of other round of hostage-taking on the part of the right, more attacks on the health care law, and an intransigence on raising revenue in a fiscal deal that will raise hypocrisy to a new level, after they lambasted the president for not negotiating on the debt. Which he did. Anyway.

Even worse is listening to chastened Republicans talk about the importance of bipartisanship and how they hope that Democrats learn the lesson that they shouldn’t do this when they’re in the GOP’s position. Remember: Only the right can shut down the government and scare the world into thinking we’d default on our loans.

The good news is that this deal was worse for the Republicans than even I thought it would be. It was clear that this gambit was not going to help them, and Ted Cruz made it even better for the left because he was convinced that everyone outside of the major cities agreed that the ACA was from the devil and needed to be exorcised. The president stood his ground and public opinion shifted severely away from the GOP. It will take quite a bit of work on their part just to maintain their ranks in the Congress next year. They can kiss the Senate goodbye and might even lose the House, gerrymandered or not.

That this all occurred at the same time that the ACA rollout produced disastrous results makes the episode even sweeter, and is the political equivalent of rubbing salt in right wing eyes. If they had played it straight, they could have earned two years of political capital and would have had the Democrats on the run. But the right made sure that the computer problems will be mostly fixed by the time they’re ready to renew their attacks, and most people won’t pay attention anyway.

The only positive redemption I can see is if the GOP makes the debt and deficit an issue that only they can solve. The public is on their side on that argument, but that would also include cuts to Medicare and Social Security that will not go down well. The shutdown showed that Americans were upset because national parks were closed. Does the GOP think we’d also like to privatize entitlements? I think not.

Let’s hope that Barack Obama keeps his spine straight and forces the right to accept a deficit deal mostly on his terms and without significant consequences for the health care bill. He can also push the immigration bill while the right is down and hope that enough of them see fit to change their minds. Probably not, but it’s fun to dream.

In any case, enjoy the next six weeks. Then it all starts again.

For more please go to:
www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and Twitter @rigrundfest  

Categories
Politics

Professor Alan Dershowitz Schools Ted Cruz on The Constitution

Mr. Dershowitz made an appearance on CNN with former New Mexico’s governor Bill Richardson,  and he had some choice words for his former Harvard student, Ted Cruz.

Speaking about the government shutdown and the looming breach of the Debt Ceiling, Dershowitz said this about Cruz:

“I think it raises very serious constitutional questions of the kind that Ted Cruz should be interested in. Could you imagine Hamilton and Madison sitting around and drafting the Constitution and the Federalist Papers. They’re talking about how the government has to pay its debts, how it has to secure the credit of the United States, how the House of Representatives to originate bills on revenue.

Nobody in a million years would have contemplated the power of Congress to shut down the government, to create doubts about our creditworthiness.”

Nobody except little Teddy that is. I guess Cruz wasn’t paying attention in class.

Categories
Piers Morgan Politics

Piers Morgan Battles Marsha Blackburn Over Republican’s Government Shutdown – Video

Ladies and gentlemen, Marsha Blackburn, a member of the trusted Republican party, went on CNN’s Piers Morgan show and continued showing just how puny her brain is. The two went at it when it came to who should be blamed for the 16 days government shutdown and they went at it when Blackburn insisted that the Republicans shut down the government “for the American people.”

Morgan asked Blackburn if the government shutdown was done with Americans and the world economy in mind or was it done to further Ted Cruz’s political ambitions, to which Marsha answered, “we shouldn’t talk about personalities,” before she rambled on.

“Oh come off it Marsha!” Morgan injected. He then asked about the debt ceiling and wondered what Marsha would be doing to avoid America going into default.

Blackburn answered that she didn’t want to see the nation default then went on about her plans to talk with fellow Republicans to see what could be done to avoid a default. She then said that “every economists around here” tells her that we have to get in control of the debt. Morgan hit back, “every economists around here tells me what is going on is utter nonsense, and should never have gotten this far.”

Morgan went on, “there are many issues to deal with, Obamacare, the American economy and all sorts of things. What you don’t do is shut the government down over what is a law.”

Video

Categories
Politics

Actor Robert Redford – Racism Driving Some Obama Critics

Truth coming out of Hollywood

Actor Robert Redford says some of President Obama’s critics are intentionally trying to wreck his administration, and some of it is driven by race.

“There is a body of congressional people that wants to paralyze the system,” Redford said on CNN. “I think what sits underneath it, unfortunately, is there’s probably some racism involved, which is really awful.”

Saying that Obama’s opponents are trying “to destroy this person,” Redford said that “they wanted, if it meant destroying the government, anything to keep him from succeeding.”

The Oscar-winning director and veteran actor added: “I think just the idea of giving credit to this president, giving him credit for anything, is abhorrent to them, so they’ll go against it. Never mind that it’s the better good of the people, never mind that they’re supposed to be in office representing the interest of the public. They’re representing their own self-interests, which is very narrow and in some cases bigoted.”

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