No Time For A Parade

The NBA moved swiftly and exactly yesterday , banning Los Angelas Clippers owner, Donald Sterling for life from the Clippers/NBA and fining him 2.5 million for his racist comments uttered during a phone conversation with his mixed race girlfriend (She's part Black,Part Latina) Friday night in which he admonished her for posing on Instagram with Basketball legend Magic Johnson and other minorities to use his words...

This is just one small victory in the larger war...A lot of people are patting themselves on the back right now ,but I should remind you...There is no reason for a parade...There is still lots to be done.

Minutes after new  NBA commissioner Adam Silver banished Donald Sterling for life, the emails and tweets began to fly, conveying appreciation, relief, admiration, even glee. One statement stood out from the rest.

"We wholeheartedly support and embrace the decision by the NBA and Commissioner Adam Silver today. Now the healing process begins."

The message was attributed simply to "the Los Angeles Clippers." As if the Clippers and Sterling were two separate entities.

Let the cognitive dissonance subside, and appreciate that statement for what it is: a truly historic moment.

Donald T. Sterling, who ran his team like a ramshackle novelty store anyway, who refused to honor coaches' contracts, who balked at paying for an employee's cancer treatment, who paraded women through the locker room to gawk at his players, This same man who discriminated against blacks and Latinos in his apartment buildings and who has been a blight on the NBA for three decades, is at last effectively gone.

Under the terms of Commissioner Silver's edict, Donald Sterling can never set foot again in the Clippers' offices, or slouch in his courtside seat at Staples Center. He is barred from their practice court. He is expelled from the NBA's Board of Governors.

The actual separation of Sterling and the Clippers franchise will not come for some time, until the other NBA owners can vote to force a sale. The process could take a while. Sterling could challenge the decision. He could sue.

But in their message, the Clippers—the players, the coaches, the trainers, the mortified staffers and the demoralized executives—just declared their independence, with a hefty assist from Silver, who just secured his legacy after only three months on the job.

The Clippers could take the court to night as I write this, for a critical playoff game against the Golden State Warriors, with clear minds, knowing that justice had been served, that their league would not tolerate a racist owner.

"On this day, Adam Silver is not only the owners' commissioner, he is the players' commissioner, and we're proud to call him our commissioner," said Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, the former NBA star who is working with the players association.

A commissioner, like a president, does not get to choose the issues or the moments that define him. This crisis, which began when TMZ released an audiotape of Sterling making racist comments, threatened to tarnish Silver's tenure before it had really begun.

Adam Silver happily spent his first three months on the job campaigning for a higher age requirement, flirting with new ideas about the draft lottery and the playoffs, and pushing for greater transparency in officiating. In a time of labor peace and generally strong TV ratings, Silver was free to indulge in visionary thinking.
Then came the audiotapes—first nine minutes and then 15 minutes of rambling bigotry, paranoia, self-delusion and latent misogyny. It hit the NBA like an anvil, disrupting a riveting first round of playoffs, dealing Silver his first great test.

"When I first heard it, I was shocked," Silver said in his news conference. "I was hoping somehow that it was fraudulent or that it had been doctored, that possibly it wasn't indeed Donald Sterling."
The league's investigation was brief, the conclusions unambiguous: Yes, that was Sterling's voice. No, the tape had not been doctored. Sterling admitted to all of it, though without expressing any sense of remorse or regret, Silver said.

Give  credit to Commisioner Silver with acting swiftly and boldly. The lifetime ban and the $2.5 million fine represent the maximum penalties the NBA commissioner can levy under league bylaws. The rest is up to the owners, with a three-fourths majority vote required to force Sterling to sell.

But Silver spoke with absolute clarity: He wants Sterling gone, whatever it takes, and whatever the legal risks might be. It was an aggressive stand, delivered with a righteous fury rarely seen from the lawyerly Silver.

"The views expressed by Mr. Sterling are deeply offensive and harmful," Silver said. "That they came from an NBA owner only heightens the damage and my personal outrage."

As he continued, Silver's tone grew edgier, angrier.

"I am personally distraught that the views expressed by Mr. Sterling came from within an institution that has historically taken such a leadership role in matters of race relations, and caused current and former players, coaches, fans and partners of the NBA to question their very association with the league," he said.

For now,I'll clap my hands...I have to admit...I thought that at best this guy was going to get a slap on the wrist....I am glad to be wrong...but there is no time for any parade.....There is lots of work to be done!

(There Is No Such Thing As )Post Racial America

In 2008 on the night ,Barrack Obama became our first African-American president....I cheered and I admit, I believed that America had turned a corner...a racial corner...He was elected with the votes of Blacks,Latinos and Whites....

This was something that I thought would never happen in my lifetime and if it did...It would certainly be near the very end of it....My Grandson was two years old then..I thought that the first Black president would be someone from his generation...Never thought that it would be someone from MY generation...

The new President and I are only three years apart in age...but I digress...I do that a lot now of days...Shortly after his election...Some people in this country let me see beyond a shadow of a doubt just how far we as a nation have not come...

The nastiness, the ugliness, the unhidden almost proud racism of some of my fellow Americans was unleashed beyond anything I had seen since the 1960's.....The disrespect this President and his family have received , not just from some redneck yokel, but from Politicians, and people with degrees and pedigrees..has been just astounding...

I mean, people aren't even trying to hide it...They are wearing their hatred, their ugliness, their vileness on their shoulders with pride....

Then in 2012...We elected him again!!!!  Immediately, you had people in some of the southern states asking to secede from the union!!! Really??? I was embarrassed that some of my countrymen were obviously so stupid...Apparently they forgot that that matter was settled during the civil war in 1865!

So tell me again that this is Post Racial America...

Last week The Supreme Court declared that "Racism is over" and so we don't really need Affirmative Action anymore...Really?  Then we have Bundy and Donald Sterling coming out the next few days to beg to differ that point...

I would like to not to have to write about race...I would like to just be allowed to be a human being...Just once .....but Black people have never been allowed to be just normal human beings at anytime in this country..We've always been some other beings...Something different....If white people could just see us as human beings just like them...I mean really see us as such...perhaps we could look past race for once...

(Yes Clarence Uncle Thomas...That means you too!)

So tell me again about this Post Racial America!

Polly Wanna Cracka!

I was going to hold my tongue about this old racist bastard...(See my column of yesterday...)Enough people were weighing in on him...His valiant stance against the government... Which made him the darling of the right wing and Fox news crowd...

I was going to hold my tongue until this Village Idiot gave his opinion on "The Negro" and envoked the name of Dr. Martin Luther King in an interview and every sensible Republican (if there is such a thing) began back tracking and distancing themselves from him... Then I knew I had to speak on him.. I just got finished tearing into Clippers owner, Donnie Sterling (again..read the column below this)...

One Weekend...Two Racists....I'm giving them too much publicity!

I think they're mostly upset with him because he said in plain language, what they've been saying in coded language all along..

But I digress-

When asked about his remarks on slavery last Friday morning on CNN, Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy said, "If I say 'negro' or 'black boy' or 'slave' ... if those people cannot take those kind of words and not be offensive then Martin Luther King didn't do his job."

That didn't make sense to me either..


Earlier in the interview, conducted by "New Day" anchor Chris Cuomo, Bundy took his boot off and waved it in front of the screen, saying he didn't want it on if he were about to put his foot in his mouth. Yet that is what he has been doing his entire 15 minutes of fame...

Bundy's remarks about Martin Luther King stemmed from his belief that people were being prejudiced against him and his First Amendment rights. "Maybe I sinned and maybe I need to ask forgiveness … but you know when you talk about prejudice, we're talking about not being able to exercise what we think and are feeling."

 Cuomo began the interview by saying, "I understand that the government was very aggressive with you and many people think it was wrong," but added that he questioned Bundy's reaction to this state of affairs — referring to the comments Bundy made at a news conference that were published in the New York Times last Thursday.

“I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro,” he said. Mr. Bundy recalled driving past a public-housing project in North Las Vegas, “and in front of that government house the door was usually open and the older people and the kids — and there is always at least a half a dozen people sitting on the porch — they didn’t have nothing to do. They didn’t have nothing for their kids to do. They didn’t have nothing for their young girls to do.
“And because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do?” he asked. “They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.”

News  Flash Mr. Bundy...Nobody is better off being a slave....Why don't you try it for a day..see how you like it!!

Chris Cuomo asked Bundy, "Are you a racist?" Bundy responded, "No, I am not a racist," but that he "did wonder" if blacks had been better off as slaves. He went on to discuss Rosa Parks, saying, "I want her to be able to sit anywhere in the bus and I want to be able to sit by her anywhere in that bus."
Bundy has made several other media appearances in the past 24 hours. He went on Alex Jones's radio show, saying, "I'm not racist" and calling for the New York Times to retract its story. "I would appreciate that. They're making it a racist-type thing." Really dude? Are they or are you?

 On Peter Schiff's talk radio show, his remarks repeated many of the same themes that drew attention in trouble in the first place. "Are they happier now under this government subsidy system than they were when they were slaves, and they was able to have their family structure together, and the chickens and garden, and the people had something to do? And so, in my mind I’m wondering, are they better off being slaves, in that sense, or better off being slaves to the United States government, in the sense of the subsidies. I’m wondering. That’s what. And the statement was right. I am wondering.”

For the record...Nobody on Fox News has denounced him as of yet... They're still refferring to him as a Patriot....Nothing he has said sounds any different than what Rush, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity have been saying for years on the air...He just used plain language...No code words....

The first rule of Damage Control and getting out of a hole is to stop digging.

Good ole Boy,  Cliven Bundy just keeps digging, and digging and digging himself deeper into his hole; Why one might actually start to believe that either he isn't that smart; or he actually believes what he is saying so much, he just can't help himself....or both!

I'm sitting back laughing watch some of the Republicans falling all over themselves to distance themselves from him and to denounce him....While others are so embarrassed by his remarks they have been rendered speechless.....As for the ones who actually agree with him...Who cares what they think anyway?

The Sins Of Donald Sterling

I usually don't post on Sunday...But in lieu of Yesterday's controversy ...I feel I have to....Donald Sterling, the owner of the Los Angelas Clippers....a basketball team I have admired and rooted for ,for the past few years just put his foot in his mouth and possibly killed his business...

By now you all know...On Friday night, TMZ published a recording of Donald Sterling telling his girlfriend not to "broadcast" her associations with black people on Instagram... His girlfriend is herself half African-American , half Latina...Go figure.

Donald Sterling bought the Los Angeles Clippers in 1981 for $12.5 million when the team played in San Diego. He orchestrated a move to the bigger Los Angeles market in 1984 in a move that triggered a $25 million penalty by the NBA.

He countersued for $100 million the NBA back down allowing him to pay $6 million from expansion proceeds. As the Los Angeles Lakers piled up titles over the next three decades, the Clippers racked up losses and fired coaches.

Donald Sterling was branded a cheapskate for never paying to keep star players and moves like not hiring a coach during the 1998 to save a few bucks. Sterling was lambasted for the Clippers putting up only two winning seasons over 32 years, but started making millions when the team became a tenant at the Staples Center.

The Clippers were dubbed the worst franchise in pro sports by  ESPN The Magazine in 2009. But Sterling’s faults run much deeper than the inability to field a competent basketball team before the last three seasons.

If we look past this weekend's misdeeds.. The laundry list of Donald Sterling’s misdeeds include a housing discrimination lawsuit he settled for $2.7 million with the government where he was accused of not renting apartments to Hispanics and Blacks.

He was sued in 2006 by the Justice Department for allegations of housing discrimination in the Koreatown part of Los Angeles. Donald Sterling was also sued by longtime Clippers general manger Elgin Baylor for wrongful termination alleging racial and age discrimination after Baylor lost his job.

The latest blow is an audio recording released by TMZ that alleges a conversation between Sterling and his girlfriend, V. Stiviano. Sterling rails on Stiviano for associating with black people and posting a photo on Instagram posing with Lakers’ legend Magic Johnson. A couple of the stomach turning comments include: “It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you’re associating with black people. Do you have to?” He later adds, ”You can sleep with [black people]. You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want. The little I ask you is not to promote it on that … and not to bring them to my games.” Sterling’s girlfriend is as I stated above African-American and Mexican.

The NBA has put up with the Donnie Sterling sideshow for too long, while he built a $1.9 billion fortune from his real estate portfolio and the Clippers. The club is now one of the games biggest attractions with stars like Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, as well as a championship coach in Doc Rivers. It is time for new commissioner Adam Silver to step in and remove Sterling from the NBA.

There is precedent for this kind of action. Former Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott was suspended from baseball for a full season for her derogatory comments regarding Jews and blacks. The suspension didn’t help and she uttered her famous line, “[Adolf Hitler] was O.K. in the beginning.” She added: “He just took it too far.” She was then reportedly forced to sell the club by MLB. Baseball seized control of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2011 because owner Frank McCourt used the team like his personal ATM. McCourt was forced out as the team was sold to Guggenheim Baseball. McCourt walked away a rich man when Guggenheim paid $2 billion for the club.


An NBA spokesman issued the following statement: “We are in the process of conducting a full investigation into the audio recording obtained by TMZ. The remarks heard on the recording are disturbing and offensive, but at this time we have no further information.” 

 Donald Sterling has not commented on the reports.No I guess he can't...Right now he's probably drunk out of his mind...

Activist Jesse Jackson has called for a boycott of Clippers games.

NBA Great , Magic Johnson took to Twitter in a series of tweets to express his displeasure with Sterling.

 Now of course all of the apologists want to say that because Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are calling for protests that they are playing the race card and fanning the flames....They said the same thing about Stephen A. Smith, the sportscaster suggesting that the players boycott the game tomorrow.. Some have the nerve to say that while Sterling may be a racist and an asshole...He has a right to his opinion..

You'll get no argument from me there, but what he doesn't have a right to is to be shielded from the consequences of that opinion!

Keith's Music Spotlight..

This guy, Pharrell Williams is everywhere this year....When I drive my car, I hear his big smash hit "HAPPY" playing everywhere...I see people Black and White dancing in the street and bobbing their heads to it...

Well...as the summer approaches us...It looks like Pharrell, who used to be one half of the hit production and songwriting team called the Neptunes has a new song out...and it's hot on the streets  right now...It's called
"Come Get it Bae.."

It features the Queen of Twerking, Miley Cyrus...

Give it a listen...

Weekend Humor

 

Have a Groovy Weekend Everybody!

Keith's Favorite Quotes

While You Were Sleeping

While You Were Sleeping or watching the Real Housewives of Atlanta....The Supreme Court  upheld the State of Michigan's ban on Affirmative Action....

Did that copy?I guess congratulations are in order for those who have considered affirmative action some form of reverse racism. 

While I will get into this a little deeper later on this week...(I just got home from class..I'm dog tired), for some reason I can't help shaking my head at the fact that at the University of Michigan, only 4.6 percent of undergrads are black. But check this out, the majority of the Michigan football team is black, and the basketball team is littered with black athletes, too.

 I t just goes to show that admissions standards don't mean a damned thing so long as you can throw a football or sink a basketball for the Plantation Owners of college athletics, oops, Did I say that?  I meant the athletic department that invariably funds the academic departments that non-athletically inclined blacks won't get an opportunity to matriculate within.

Think on that for a minute...I'll be talking about this some more...I promise....

Boston Strong

An American named Meb Keflezighi, yeah that's right...Meb Keflezihi won the Boston Marathon yesterday...The first American to win it in a long while I'm told...So glad that that was the main news coming out of Beantown yesterday!..

One year after a bombing there killed three people and left more than 260 injured, Meb Keflezighi added Boston to a resume that includes the New York City Marathon title in 2009 and a silver medal in the 2004 Olympics.

Running just two weeks before his 39th birthday, he had the names of the 2013 bombing victims on his bib.
The names included the three people killed in last year's marathon and the name of a police officer from MIT who was allegedly killed by the bombing suspect days later.

Meb Keflezighi (got to get used to saying and writing his name) said he hoped to have his picture taken with the victims' families after his win Monday, but they weren't immediately available.

 The victims were 8-year-old Martin Richard, 29-year-old Krystle Campbell and 23-year-old Lu Lingzi. MIT Officer Sean Collier was shot three days after the marathon in a wild gunbattle with the two suspects.


"At the end, I just kept thinking, 'Boston Strong. Boston Strong,'" he said. "I was thinking give everything you have. If you get beat, that's it."
Meb Keflezighi completed the 26.2 miles from Hopkinton to the finish on Boylston Street in Boston's Back Bay on Monday in a personal-best 2 hours, 8 minutes, 37 seconds. He held off Kenya's Wilson Chebet, who finished 11 seconds behind.

Meb went out early and built a big lead. But he was looking over his shoulder several times as Chebet closed the gap over the final two miles. After realizing he wouldn't be caught, Keflezighi raised his sunglasses, began pumping his right fist and made the sign of the cross. He broke into tears after crossing the finish line, then draped himself in the American flag.

No U.S. runner had won the race since Lisa Larsen-Weidenbach took the women's title in 1985. The last American man to win was Greg Meyer in 1983. Meyer and Keflezighi embraced after the race.
"I'm blessed to be an American and God bless America and God Bless Boston for this special day,"    Meb Keflezighi said.

Rita Jeptoo of Kenya successfully defended the women's title she said she could not enjoy a year ago. Jeptoo finished in a course-record 2 hours, 18 minutes, 57 seconds. She is a three-time Boston Marathon champion, having also won in 2006.

Rita Jeptoo of Kenya crosses the finish line to win the Women's Elite division of the Boston Marathon.

"I came here to support the people in Boston and show them that we are here together," she said. "I decided to support them and show them we are here together."

Ms.Jeptoo broke away from a group of five runners at the 23-mile mark. Buzunesh Deba of Ethiopia finished second in 2:19:59. Countrywoman Mare Dibaba was third at 2:19:52. All three women came in under the previous course record.

American Shalane Flanagan, who went to high school in nearby Marblehead, Mass., finished seventh after leading for more than half the race. She gambled by setting the early pace, but fell back on the Newton Hills about 21 miles into the race.

"It does mean a lot to be that my city was proud of me," she said. "I'm proud of how I ran. I don't wish I was it was easier. I wish I was better."

After breaking a 27-year American drought at the New York marathon, Meb Keflezighi contemplated retiring after the 2012 NYC Marathon. But that race was canceled because of Superstorm Sandy, and he pulled out of the Boston Marathon in April because of injury.

Meb was the first American to win a medal in an Olympic marathon since Frank Shorter won gold in 1972 and silver in 1976. His 2009 New York victory broke a 27-year American drought there.

Another American, Tatyana McFadden, celebrated her 25th birthday Monday by winning the women's wheelchair race for the second straight year. She was timed in in 1 hour, 35 minutes, 6 seconds.

Tatyana McFadden was born in Russia and lived in an orphanage as a child before starring at the University of Illinois. She also won the 2013 NYC Marathon women's wheelchair race after taking the titles in Boston, London and Chicago last year.


Ernst van Dyk of South Africa won the men's wheelchair division for a record 10th time. The 41-year-old crossed the finish line in 1 hour, 20 minutes, 36 seconds.

ErnstVan Dyk holds the record for most all-categories Boston Marathon wins. This was his first win at this race since 2010.

Marathon officials said 35,755 runners registered for the race, with 32,408 unofficial starters. The field included just less than 5,000 runners who did not finish last year and accepted invitations to return this year.

Soooo..A good time was had by all...No bombs, no lost lives ,no lost limbs....If the only news coming out of Boston this year was an American , whose name I can't pronounce or spell won the who thing, then that is good news...The only type of news that should come from the Boston Marathon!

HAPPY RESSURECTION SUNDAY! (HE IS RISEN!)

The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying. "Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going ahead of you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you."…Matthew 28:6

Thanking My Lord and Savior for his sacrifice!

Weekend Humor

Connie, who was an exotic dancer down at the local strip club dropped off her black dress at the cleaners.

On her way out the door the lady at the counter said ''COME AGAIN".....

Connie replied: "No. its toothpaste this time you nosy B***H!!"

Have a Super Groovy Weekend!

Keith's Favorite Quotes

It's Great Being A Black Man In Amerika~!

I don't watch Fox News...In fact unless an Eagles game is being broadcast on Fox...I don't watch the network at all...Not even the Simpsons or Family Guy which is probably the most intelligent commentary on the whole network...

So I wasn't watching when Brit Hume(pictured above) made his comments...which have my Black Twitter, Facebook and Blogger friends about to blow a gasket...I mean ,what do you expect? He's a 70 year old conservative Republican White male talking to the few like minded individuals like himself that are still alive and lucid....

During this week’s broadcast of Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace brought up Attorney General Eric Holder’s remarks before Reverend Al Sharpton's National Action Network on Wednesday. During the event, Attorney General Holder implicated that race was a factor in the treatment he has received from Republicans in Washington.

ChrisWallace wanted to have a discussion about how big a factor race is in Washington, especially when it comes to how President Obama and Eric Holder are treated.

Of course, since we are talking about Fox News, the panel that Wallace had on for this discussion was quite diverse. That is if diverse means all white. Yes, just as we’ve seen these past few days, Fox News loves to discuss race and the impact of racism, but only if they can do so with an all-white panel. The first person that Wallace discussed this topic with was Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume...Pictured above...

WALLACE: Attorney General Eric Holder complaining about treatment of him and also the president after another testy exchange with House Republicans on Capitol Hill. And we’re back now with the panel. Well, Attorney General Holder said the Obama administration has faced, his words, “unprecedented, ugly opposition” and speaking to Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, he clearly implied it’s because of race. Brit, does he have a point?
HUME: I don’t think so. And I think, you know, first of all, it’s false that no attorney general and no president have been subjected to this kind of treatment. After all, Bill Clinton was impeached. Think about that for a moment. John Mitchell went to jail. I mean the list is long of attorneys general and other officials who have been subjected to some very rough treatment on Capitol Hill and elsewhere. And this strikes me as kind of crybaby stuff from Holder. My sense of that this is that both Eric Holder and Barack Obama have benefited politically enormously from the fact that they are African-American and the first to hold the jobs that they hold. And this, I don’t know if he’s specifically meant race or not. I suspect perhaps he did. But to those two men, race has been both a shield and a sword that they have used effectively to defend themselves and to attack others. And I think it is depressing at this stage in our national life after all we’ve been through on this issue and given the overwhelming consensus on the issue of civil rights that this kind of stuff is still going on.

Yes Mr. Hume...They have benefited greatly from being African -American males...I know if it were left up to you and your kind....by that,I mean conservative Republican Tea Party types...Civil Rights legislation would be pushed back to 1954 levels...and it would still be great to be an African-American man in this great country of ours...Excuse me...Negro!!!

I digress....I don't get bent out of shape at conversations like the one Wallace and Hume have...The reason why is because I know that they aren't talking to me...They are never talking to me on that network...And no matter how much they cry and whine and complain...here is the fact...The American People...Black,Latino, Asian, Indian and yes...White people elected a Black man president twice....And we have a Black Attorney General and a Latina Supreme Court Justice...There is nothing they can do about that until 2016 and I have a feeling that in 2016 ,they are in for another bitter pill...A woman in the white house!!!

So Britt Hume...You are so right....It's Great Being a Black man in America at this day and time...I wish my grandfather and all of those countless, nameless ,faceless now brothers hanging from the trees in the old south were here to see this day!

Weekend Humor

Have a groovy weekend everybody!

An Almost Awesome Evil

 

 

It always amazed me during the last presidential election how Mitt Romney gave President Obama so much grief over the affordable care act....If you study what Mitt did when he was Governor...You'll see that his healthcare plan and President Obama's plan or what it finally morphed into were not so very different after all..

I'm just glad that recently, someone in a position to know was able and willing to speak on this and give Republicans the tongue lashing they so desperately need for trying so hard (some would even say) above and beyond the call of duty to gut the affordable care act, also known as the dreaded Obamacare!

MIT economist Jonathan Gruber brings a unique perspective to the health care debate. He’s not only an expert in health care policy and the director of the health care program at the National Bureau of Economic Research, he’s also one of a small number of wonks who helped design both Mitt Romney’s health care system in Massachusetts and President Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

 

Mr. Gruber sat down for a fascinating talk a few days ago with Harold Pollack about where the broader policy debate stands, and while the whole discussion is worth your time to hear, I myself was struck by their focus on Medicaid expansion in particular. Jon Gruber insisted we “cannot talk enough” about the “life-costing tragedy [that] has taken place in America.”

 

He had this to say-

 

 
“…I’m offended on two levels here. I’m offended because I believe we can help poor people get health insurance, but I’m almost more offended there’s a principle of political economy that basically, if you’d told me, when the Supreme Court decision came down, I said, ‘It’s not a big deal. What state would turn down free money from the federal government to cover their poorest citizens?’ The fact that half the states are is such a massive rejection of any sensible model of political economy, it’s sort of offensive to me as an academic. And I think it’s nothing short of political malpractice that we are seeing in these states and we’ve got to emphasize that."

 

He also said-

 

"Conservative policymakers in these states] are not just not interested in covering poor people, they are willing to sacrifice billions of dollars of injections into their economy in order to punish poor people. It really is just almost awesome in its evilness.”

 

That's it in a nutshell...Awesomely evil the way they are working so hard to deny millions what they've had from day one...Healthcare.....and not just any healthcare, but the best healthcare....

 

 

Take, for example, the increasingly heated fight over Medicaid expansion in Virginia, where Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) campaigned on Medicaid expansion as a key element of his 2013 platform, but where Republican lawmakers in the commonwealth are prepared to do practically anything to block the policy – including a possible shutdown of the state government.

 

 

Dahlia Lithwick published a powerful piece two days ago,I believe, making the case that she’s “pissed” because “there is no excuse, not one, to block the Medicaid expansion.”

 

The Commonwealth of Virginia is modeling dysfunction yet again this month, as the legislature fights to the death over Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s proposed two-year, $97 billion budget. The government is imploding in large part due to the fact that state Republicans in the House of Delegates have decided to fight tooth and nail – up to and including shutting down the whole government if this is not resolved by July – to avoid expanding Medicaid benefits to cover up to 400,000 lower-income Virginians who fall into the health care coverage gap. 

 

These are the folks who can’t afford to purchase health care under the ACA, but make too much money to qualify for Medicaid. The ACA would have taken care of those people through an expansion of Medicaid – money from the federal government to the states to cover the gap. The high court, in 2012, left it to the states to decide whether to accept the expansion. Virginia is one of the states having a hard time making up its mind. As with all government shutdowns, the answer to “why is this happening?” is “Republicans hate Obamacare.” 

 

 Last week Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe proposed a two-year pilot expansion of Medicaid, which could be canceled if it proved unsuccessful. This seemed very reasonable. The House Appropriations Committee killed it. So yesterday, in Richmond, both the Senate Finance Committee and the Medicaid Innovation and Reform Commission met to argue and vote about stuff. Republicans blamed Democrats. Democrats blamed Republicans. Everyone blamed gerrymandering and gridlock and ideology.

 

And so on and so on and scooby dooby doobie!

 

 
Dahlia Lithwick added that without Medicaid expansion, it’s quite likely that some struggling Virginians will, in fact, die unnecessarily. She added that “the sheer nihilism on display in Richmond shows what happens when you convince yourself that government can fix nothing..And this is what in fact they have done.

Awesomely evil...Awesomely sad...Awesomely unnecessary!

 

Next Time A Republican Tells You He's about Family Values.........

Another Giant Falls

I want to take the time to write a tribute and to honor a man I consider my mentor... If not for this man, I might not have wanted to be a journalist....

Mr. Chuck Stone....If you are African-American and of a certain age and from Philadelphia....You read the Daily News.... Why?  The Daily News was smaller and cheaper than the Inquirer and spoke to the poor and the working class in a way the other two papers ,The Bulletin and The Inquirer did not...

If by chance you read the Daily News...You had to have read columns by Mr. Chuck Stone... I consider him the dean of Black journalists...He was in fact the first Black journalist to have a regular column in the Daily News..

I had been reading the Daily News since I was in High School...(It made me feel more like an adult...and I always liked to know things....It made for good conversation...)

After I read the sports column...I had to read his column....He spoke to me and people who looked like me in a way no other columnist did...



Born in St. Louis and raised in Hartford, Chuck trained with the Tuskegee Airmen as a navigator during World War II. Later, he graduated from Wesleyan University and received a Master's from the University of Chicago.

 Chuck Stone's first career was in journalism, where he quickly became a leader in African-American media in New York City, Chicago and as a White House correspondent. To support other emerging writers, he helped create the National Association of Black Journalists, serving as the organization's first president.

  Chuck Stone next worked as a special assistant to Harlem Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, writing about that experience in the bookBlack Political Power in America and the novel King Strut. Chuck then became the first Director of Minority Affairs at the Educational Testing Service (ETS), where he studied bias in standardized exams. That position, he always said, led to his early involvement with FairTest.

 As a member of our board of directors, Chuck was distinguished by a non-confrontational, almost courtly, style which made his often-pointed questions even harder to answer. After ETS, he returned to journalism as a columnist at the Philadelphia Daily News.

There, he became nationally known for negotiating the safe surrender of crime suspects sought by our city's notoriously brutal police force.

Widely respected by both law enforcement and community residents, Chuck's unique role earned a flattering profile in the Wall Street Journal and two Pulitzer Prize nominations. After leaving Philadelphia, he held the Walter Spearman Chair in the School of Journalism at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

He passed away a few nights ago.... It is still hard to believe .......If Not for him...There would be no Keith's Space...No Field Negro , and few other blogs in which young blacks speak the truth and fight the good fight...

He showed us how to do it and with dignity...

Rest Well Good Soldier!

Chuck Stone- 1924-2014

Issa You Are Or Issa You Aint Serious?

The Crown Prince of the Republican Party west,House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa of California is famous for his witch hunts and conspiracy theories concerning the Obama Administration...He has clearly spun more half baked theories than Agent Fox Mulder of the X -Files.

And it appears that not only the Democrats, but people from his own party are getting a little tired of him and his theories and witch hunts which go nowhere and turn up nothing.

It has never been a secret that congressional Democrats have been frustrated with House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and his often-ridiculous handling of various investigations. The frustrations recently boiled over  last week during a hearing into the discredited IRS “scandal,” when Issa refused to let Democrats speak – and then cut the mic off when Ranking Member Elijah Commings (D-Md.) tried to address the committee he helps lead.

 

What’s less appreciated is the fact that Republicans aren’t exactly happy with Issa, either.

…10 months out from the first IRS scandal headline, some Republicans are unhappy with their party’s investigation – and they point a finger at the man who helped sustain the national uproar: Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.). How ironic that he's the uh OVERSIGHT committee chairman!!!

In background interviews with more than a half-dozen House Republicans on the Oversight and Ways and Means committees, the two panels probing the matter in that chamber, members expressed frustration that the investigation has become a spectacle that’s dragged on and distracted them from serious charges.

It’s funny, in a way...Kind of Ironic too. Democrats have naturally been disgusted with Darrell Issa overseeing witch hunts for some time, But away from the cameras, Republicans have been nearly as disgusted with Darrell Issa for being incompetent while overseeing witch hunts. That's a laugh!

 

GOP officials on the Hill aren’t disappointed that he wastes time and public money on manufactured nonsense; they just wish he were better at it. Go ahead..Laugh...It's a shame that this is true.

“There’s a far better way to take this on. … There’s broad frustration with how this has played out, with the road he’s taken,” one Oversight Republican, who asked for anonymity to speak frankly, said of the investigation.

 

The list of complaints includes: Darrell Issa waited nearly a year to bring a key IRS witness back to his panel; he let an offer to hear that witness speak slip and may even be causing sympathy for ex-agency official Lois Lerner.

In fairness to Darrell Issa, some of his Republican critics may not realize that the IRS controversy is a mirage. They seem to think Darrell Issa has failed to oversee an effective investigation into meaningful Obama administration wrongdoing, which is partly true, but it overlooks a nagging detail: there was no meaningful Obama administration wrongdoing to investigate. I'm not just saying that....There really wasn't.

 

Even the most rabid, partisan scandal-mongers can’t get blood from a stone.

 

With that said.., note that it’s not just the IRS story. Mr. Issa has invested an enormous amount of committee time, energy, and resources into all kinds of “scandals,” all of which he assured the political world would be a huge deal, rocking the very foundations of Washington.

 

And in each instance, the California Republican over-promised and under-delivered, producing nothing!

 

Leave it to Darrell Issa to infuriate Democrats with his pointless obsession, while infuriating Republicans for being bad at it.

 

Olivia Pope!!!  Somebody could use your help!

 

Weekend Humor

Ever have that happen to you?

Have a groovy weekend everyone!

Democracy For Sale

I have not had much faith in the Supreme Court in close to twenty years....and in fact...I have gone on record as saying that this Supreme Court is the worst in modern memory....

Yesterday, they just sold your freedom , your vote to the highest bidder....Now I ask...Is this American...If you don't know what I'm talking about...I'll break it down for you...

The Supreme Court's conservative majority voted Wednesday to free wealthy donors to give to as many political candidates and campaigns as they want, further loosening the reins on giving by big contributors as the 2014 campaign moves into high gear.

It was a fresh declaration by the 5-4 majority that many limits on big-money contributions violate the givers' constitutional free-speech rights, continuing a steady erosion of the restrictions under Chief Justice John Roberts. The biggest of those rulings was the 2010 decision in the Citizens United case that lifted restrictions on independent spending by corporations and labor unions.

Somewhere the Koch Brothers are laughing.


Yesterday's surprising ruling voided the overall federal limit on individuals' contributions — $123,200 in 2013 and 2014 — and may have more symbolic than substantive importance in a world in which millions in unlimited donations from liberal and conservative spenders already are playing a major role in campaigns.
The ruling will allow the wealthiest contributors to pour millions of dollars into candidate and party coffers, although those contributions will be subject to disclosure under federal law, unlike much of the big money that independent groups spend on attack ads.

The early beneficiaries could be the political parties, which have lost influence amid the rise of independent spending, and challengers who may have been cut off from getting money from wealthy contributors who previously hit the cap that the court invalidated Wednesday.

Justice Roberts said the aggregate limits do not act to prevent corruption or the appearance of corruption, the rationales the court has upheld as justifying contribution limits.
The overall limits "intrude without justification on a citizen's ability to exercise 'the most fundamental First Amendment activities'," Roberts said, quoting from the court's seminal 1976 campaign finance ruling in Buckley v. Valeo. By contrast, Roberts said the individual or "base limits remain the primary means of regulating campaign contributions."

The justices left in place limits on individual contributions to each candidate for president or Congress, now $2,600 for a primary and another $2,600 for the general election.

Justice Clarence "Uncle" Thomas woke up from his career slumber and supported the outcome, but said he would have wiped away all contribution limits as violating the First Amendment. Useless...Just useless that man is..

Justice Stephen Breyer, writing for the liberal dissenters, said that the court's conservatives had "eviscerated our nation's campaign finance laws" through Wednesday's ruling and the earlier Citizens United case.
"If the court in Citizens United opened a door, today's decision we fear will open a floodgate," Said Steven Breyer in comments from the bench. "It understates the importance of protecting the political integrity of our governmental institution. It creates, we think, a loophole that will allow a single individual to contribute millions of dollars to a political party or to a candidate's campaign."

They don't care about integrity...What does that mean to these people?


Steven Breyer adopted examples put forward by the Obama administration and campaign-limits supporters showing that an individual now will be able to make $3.6 million in contributions to candidates and parties, hand it over in one check to maximize his sway and have much or all of it directed to a favored candidate. Breyer said the money may have to be divvied up among state and national party organizations and rerouted, but that it can be done without violating the law.

Justice Roberts said the dissenters' fears were overstated because other federal laws prohibit the circumvention of the individual limits and big donors are more likely to spend a lot of money independently in support of a favored candidate.

Running for federal political office has grown steadily more expensive, driven by the costs of advertising, travel, pollsters and the like. Most candidates pay for their campaigns with contributions from individual donors. That money is disclosed in reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

But under the 2010 Citizens United decision, the wealthiest donors seeking outsized influence on campaigns have found a new avenue for their money. Outside groups known as super PACs or nonprofits can take unlimited contributions and spend independently to sway voters. Those donations are often undisclosed, leading critics to refer to them as "dark money."

Reaction to Wednesday's ruling generally followed party lines, with advocates of capping money in politics aligned with Democrats in opposition to the decision.

The administration had defended the limits in arguments at the Supreme Court. "We are, in fact, disappointed with the decision that was announced today," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.
Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York said, "This in itself is a small step, but another step on the road to ruination. It could lead to interpretations of the law that would result in the end of any fairness in the political system as we know it."

However, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus called the Supreme Court decision "an important first step toward restoring the voice of candidates and party committees and a vindication for all those who support robust, transparent political discourse."

The GOP and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky had argued that other decisions relaxing campaign finance rules had diminished the influence of political parties.

Congress enacted the contribution limits in the wake of Watergate-era abuses to discourage big donors from trying to buy legislative votes and to restore public confidence in the campaign finance system.

Republican activist Shaun McCutcheon of Hoover, Ala., the national Republican Party and McConnell challenged the overall limits on what contributors may give in a two-year federal election cycle. The limits for the current election cycle included a separate $48,600 cap on contributions to all candidates.

McCutcheon gave the symbolically significant amount of $1,776 to 15 candidates for Congress and wanted to give the same amount to 12 others. But doing so would have put him in violation of the cap.

Under the rules that were struck down, a donor could give the maximum amount to fewer than 10 candidates before hitting the cap. The ceiling for giving to parties is higher, at $32,400 per year to a national party and $10,000 a year to a state or local party and a separate aggregate limit of $74,600. So a relative few contributions to party organizations would have been enough to reach the limit.

The decision "provides an avenue for an individual to be more directly supportive of more candidate and traditional political parties," said Bobby Burchfield, a partner at the McDermott, Will and Emery law firm who represented McConnell at the Supreme Court.

Challengers could now see more contributions because wealthy donors will no longer have to pick among candidates to support. With the limits, "traditionally it's the incumbents who have greater name recognition and greater ability to vacuum in that money," Burchfield said.

Relatively few Americans play in the big leagues of political giving. Some 644 donors contributed the maximum amount to candidates, PACs and parties in the last election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The justices resisted one plea from critics of the money restrictions that would have demolished all contribution limits, a call to abandon the court's practice over nearly 40 years of evaluating limits on contributions less skeptically than restrictions on spending.

The differing levels of scrutiny have allowed the court to uphold most contribution limits, because of the potential for corruption when donors make large direct donations to candidates. At the same time, the court has found that independent spending does not pose the same risk of corruption. (Says Who?)

If the court were to drop the distinction between contributions and expenditures, even limits on contributions to individual candidates for Congress would be threatened, said Fred Wertheimer, a longtime supporter of stringent campaign finance laws. (The case is McCutcheon v. FEC, 12-536.)

America!  America! God Shed His Grace On Thee!

7 Million People Can't be Wrong

As much as the Republicans have tried to put the affordable care act down , As much as they've lied ,passed out mis-information about it and tried to discredit it...mockingly calling it...Obamacare....It appears to be working...People are signing up for healthcare...People who never had and would not have healthcare coverage now have it...

At last count...7 million signed up before the deadline...It could be 10 million soon...I wonder what the Republican /Tea Party spin on that is?

President Barack Obama reveled in the last-minute success of the new health insurance exchanges Tuesday, confirming that more than 7 million people have signed up for new plans, a million of them in March alone, and attacking the law’s critics.

 “This law has made our health care system a lot better. A lot better,” The President said at a White House briefing. “Regardless of your politics, or your feelings about the law or your feelings about me, that is something that is good for the economy.”he continued..

Monday was the deadline for people to at least get started in the process of enrolling for health insurance on the new exchanges. People who have not at least started will have to wait until November to enroll for 2015, unless they have a major life event such as losing a job or getting married.

Republicans have ceaselessly attacked the 2010 Affordable Care Act, voting more than 50 times...50 times!! in the House of Representatives to repeal it. (Can you believe that?) But the Democratic-controlled Senate has ensured the bills have gone nowhere.

President Obama acknowledged the glitch-ridden rollout of the exchanges last October and the many adjustments his administration has had to make to the law’s provisions.

"The law is not perfect. We have had to make adjustments along the way. And yes, at times this reform has been contentious and confusing,”  President Obama said.

“Change is hard. Fixing what’s broken is hard,” he said. “But this law is doing what it’s supposed to do,” he added.

“I (have) got to admit I don’t get it, why are folks working so hard for people not to have health insurance?” he asked. “Why are they so mad about the idea of someone having health insurance? Many of the tall tales that have been told about this law have been debunked. There are still no death panels. Armageddon has not arrived,” he said to laughter.

“But the debate over repealing this law is over. The Affordable Care Act is here to stay.”

The Census Bureau estimates that 47 million Americans went without health insurance last year, more than 15 percent of the population. The Affordable Care Act seeks to change that by providing federally subsidized insurance on the online exchanges.

Some states are also expanding the federal-state Medicaid insurance plan for people with low incomes and the administration anticipates that millions will be covered that way. In addition, the 2010 Affordable Care Act sets up strict new rules for new insurance policies that start in 2014.

Insurers may no longer turn people away because of pre-existing conditions, they may not cap coverage and they must pay for certain “essential” health needs, including cancer screening and vaccinations. Health experts believe many more Americans will get new policies under these new rules.

Democrats should be making commercials about this ...Whether  they will, I don't know....They have something that works...Something that benefits all of the people...I know if the shoe was on the other foot, The Republicans wouldn't let you forget it...But that's another blog post for another time.

7 Million people can't be wrong....What we've got is a good thing here!

What I've Learned

 

1.Too much compromise is never a good thing.

2. You don't want things to be nice and easy...You say you do..but you don't.

3.My mother used to be able to look at someone's face and determine that they'd had a hard life...I thought she was pulling my leg until I realized the toll that stress and drug use and alcoholism takes on a person's face.

4.Without Fear, you'd never survive!

5.You can only do so much...Then you're at the mercy of circumstance!

6.There is Genius in simplicity!

7. You are who you think are.

8.I liked being in the military. And I like being out of the military too. It was another job, that's all. I took pride in doing that job well when I was in the military, but to tell the truth me and  most of the guys I served with laughed at the preachers and politicians who thought it was a noble calling.

9.Family and Friends have made me happier than all of the money I earned and lost!

10. Some times you have to walk away from a problem and approach it a different way and a different way!

PEACE!