Wattree's picture

    Mark Ridley-Thomas and Crony, Alex Johnson - An Insidious Virus Within the Black Community

    By Wattree on Wed, 07/30/2014 - 6:21am |

    BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE


    Mark Ridley-Thomas and Crony, Alex Johnson: An Insidious Virus Within the Black Community

    Richard Day's picture

    RACHEL MADDOW IN NEW COP SHOW!

    By Richard Day on Tue, 07/29/2014 - 5:32am |

    The source of the single funniest line of 2014 (so far!) is beyond my grasp, except I am sure it came from a pundit panelist on MSNBC or CNN!

    The panelist was speaking about this Bundy feller down in Texas and he posited that:

    If I could go down there and ask this fellow one question it would be:

    Besides your opinions on Negroes, do you have any comments or opinions concerning THE Jews?

    hahahahahaha

    Bill Moving Through Congress Would Make Streaming a Felony

    By Beetlejuice on Sat, 07/26/2014 - 8:30pm |

    A Senate committee this week approved a bill that would make it a felony to stream pirated content.

    The Commercial Felony Streaming Act, S. 978, was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee, and now heads to the full Senate for a vote. It would clarify that whether you stream that pirated episode of "True Blood," or download it, it's still illegal. But the bill would only target those serving up the illegal content, not those who watch it online.

    Persisting in obtusely addressing as Indians witnesses from US government agencies, Priceless

    By jollyroger on Sat, 07/26/2014 - 8:24pm |

    It's hard out here for a voter in Florida's 19th Congressional District (Tampa/Ft. Meyers)

     

    First they awoke one morning last year to learn that their landslide elected (62%) first term representative, Trey Radel (late of talk radio--are you listening, Rush?) had been caught buying coke from a snitch in a Washington D.C. sting operation.

     

    Then they had to put up with months of bullshit, including a month of residential rehab for alcoholism (wtf?) while he squirmed to avoid resigning.

     

    barefooted's picture

    Optical Illusions

    By barefooted on Fri, 07/25/2014 - 4:47pm |

    They say a picture paints a thousand words. There's a reason that phrase has been used in song and prose, spanning the years and provoking our imagination. We believe those six words to be true because they speak to the very core of who we are, what we innately desire communication to be. A pure, unadulterated description without motive or hidden agenda -- we see in a picture an innocence lost in words. Yet we rarely consider that pictures can lie.

    Perhaps it would be more succinct to say that pictures can manipulate, by virtue of the fact that they can be easily manipulated. No, I'm not referring to Photoshop or the like, although it would be the easiest example. What I am suggesting is a far more insidious method of alteration, one that carries the heft of a new word: Optics. Ah, therein lies the rub.

    Doctor Cleveland's picture

    Snobs vs. The Ivy League (or, The Question of Bill Deresiewicz's Character)

    By Doctor Cleveland on Fri, 07/25/2014 - 11:34am |

    There is nothing a snobbish Ivy Leaguer likes better than putting down the Ivy League. It's an easy way to signal that you are above your own Ivy League school and the privilege it confers -- all a big humbug that your superior perspective sees right through -- while holding on to every last scrap of that privilege. It allows you to position yourself as not only 1. better than people who didn't get into Harvard, Princeton, or Yale, but 2. the benevolent champion of those little people who didn't get in and also 3.

    trkingmomoe's picture

    Florida's Amendment 2 Medical Marijauna

    By trkingmomoe on Thu, 07/24/2014 - 11:58pm |

    This November the voters in Florida will be voting on Amendment to legalize medical marijuana. In order for it to pass 60% of the voters have to vote yes on it. This will amend the state constitution to allow it's use.  A group called United for Care was the force behind getting bill on the ballot. Florida will be the first state in the deep South to legalize medical marijuana if it passes.  

    Are we Manufacturing Consent on Flight 17

    By Beetlejuice on Wed, 07/23/2014 - 6:25am |

     Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (1992) is a documentary film  with a point of view corporate media is a profit-driven institution which tends to serve and further the agendas of the interests of dominant, elite groups in the society.

    Mexican kids, world's luckiest!

    By jollyroger on Sun, 07/20/2014 - 3:55am |

    Mexican children, unlike their unfortunate neighbors from slightly to the south, are apparently to be envied for the secure and loving bosom  in which their enlightened country envelops them.

    Notwithstanding the depravity of Mexican narco traffickers, who will not hesitate to decorate the public square with the heads of those who discomfort them, no Mexican children are forcibly recruited as drug couriers, sellers, or lookouts, unlike those unfortunates in Honduras, El Salvador, or Guatemala.

    Footing the Bill for Assisted Suicide

    By Elusive Trope on Thu, 07/17/2014 - 3:41pm |

    One of issue that will become increasingly debated over coming ten years, in part due to the aging baby boomers, will be the legalization of assisted suicide. 

    It is already legal in places like Oregon and upheld (surprisingly) by the US Supreme Court.

    trkingmomoe's picture

    Ed Shultz Interviews Annette Taddeo Chair of Miami Florida Democratic Party On Raw Story

    By trkingmomoe on Thu, 07/17/2014 - 10:00am |

    On Tuesday Ed Shultz interviewed Annette Taddeo Chair of Miami Florida Democrats and also a member of the DNC Executive Committee.  

     

    Taddeo at LS lobby

     

    Annette Taddeo

    The Ultimate Bio-fuel we all can Enjoy !

    By Beetlejuice on Wed, 07/16/2014 - 2:15pm |

    Turns out, the dregs left over from the distilling process, pot ale,  for scotch has quite a kick as the drink itself.

     

    So if you want to support a move away from carbon-based fuels, drink more scotch !!!

     

    http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/11/15/2946641/whisky-biofuel/

    barefooted's picture

    A Thank You Note

    By barefooted on Tue, 07/15/2014 - 6:18pm |

    Dear Dagblog,

    Just a quick note to say "thanks" for all your efforts to make us happy! You even went so far as to disappear for over a day, which must have been hard for someone who loves to be seen as much as you do. But you did it for us. Your facelift is amazing! Just enough change to enhance your natural qualities while staying true to the Dagblog we've grown to love.

    Testing

    By bslev on Tue, 07/15/2014 - 9:12am |

    Testing

    Hobby Lobby-A huge gift to the left. Who's your Daddy?

    By jollyroger on Sun, 07/13/2014 - 3:56am |

    It has become a commonplace observation amongst historians of the interface between politics and jurisprudence that the enunciation of Roe v Wade, as much as it brought immediate relief from unwanted pregnancy to hundreds of thousands of women, had the perverse effect of truncating the slow but inexorable progress of democratic reform of patriarchal anti-choice law.

     

    Wattree's picture

    Portrait of a Sixty-Four Year-Old Child - Look At Rick Perry's Expression

    By Wattree on Fri, 07/11/2014 - 10:21am |
    BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE
     
    Portrait of a Sixty-Four Year-Old  Child - Look At
    barefooted's picture

    Breathe

    By barefooted on Wed, 07/09/2014 - 4:37pm |

    Sometimes it feels like the whole world is in turmoil. There's no end to the bad news, no rest for the weariest information Googler or cable news addict. The constant bombardment of brightly colored linkiness is just enough to keep us hooked. Funnily enough, once we check the TV for breaking news, our handheld whatevers for in-depth website analysis and favorite blogs for our opinions, we're kinda let down. Deflated balloons in need of someone else's hot air. How fortunate that it's always abundantly available.

    Wattree's picture

    Frederick Douglass

    By Wattree on Sun, 07/06/2014 - 9:49am |

    Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree
     

    Frederick Douglass: America - Through the Eyes of a REAL Black Man
    

     

    Don't Reform the Supreme Court

    By Elusive Trope on Thu, 07/03/2014 - 1:18pm |

    http://media.komonews.com/images/Supreme+Court+Cellpho_Cata+copy.jpgIn the aftermath of the ruling in favor of Hobby Lobby (and a few other decisions), there are some who are calling for reform of the Supreme Court.  In May, Norm Ornstein in the Atlantic makes a compelling case for term limits, and links to another Atlantic article by David Paul Kuhn a few years back about the increased polarization of the Supreme Court in recent times.

    barefooted's picture

    Personnel File

    By barefooted on Wed, 07/02/2014 - 5:20pm |

    Good morning, employee. I am the Benevolent Overseer of Subservient Subordinates. You may refer to me as BOSS. I understand that you and the other female employees have some questions, and I am pleased to address your concerns. However, bear in mind that while your time is at my disposal your speech is strictly limited, so keep your input to a minimum. Proceed.

    You wish to lodge a what?

    barefooted's picture

    WHAT'S IN A WORD?

    By barefooted on Sun, 06/29/2014 - 9:56pm |

    Reparation. It's a word that elicits gut reactions and knee-jerk commentary. It serves as a blanket to both cover our ills and comfort our transgressions. Yet its fabric cannot repair or replace broken dreams or tears shed long ago. History cannot be changed. But can the glaring holes in the blanket be stitched with inferior threads by a shameful country? Case in point:

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