Monday Afternoon Thread: Monday Memories

*FACEPALM*…the picture accompanying this column is absolutely hilarious.

How Eric Cantor Is Trying to Soften the Republican Party
House majority leader’s charm offensive is part of a broader effort by GOP leaders to revive their battered brand.

Eric Cantor grabs a plastic dinosaur from the pile of toys in front of 1-year-old Mekhi Scott, taps the beast on the table and growls, “RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” Mekhi jumps — he’s startled at first — and smiles.

“You like dinosaurs?” coos Cantor, the House minority leader and one of the highest-ranking Republicans in the country. “So do I.”

Watching this weirdly cute exchange Monday at The Preparatory School of the District of Columbia, I realize just how hard it’s going to be for the GOP to rebrand itself after the 2012 election debacle. Republican leaders are a bit like Mekhi’s plastic dinosaurs: Even when they’re cute, they can be scary.

Cantor visited the school for more than an hour to gather information for a speech Tuesday that his aides are billing as an important shift of tone for the Republican Party. The speech will attempt to cast the House GOP’s traditionally conservative policy agenda in terms that appeal to parents, explaining why school vouchers, tax breaks, repealing the health care law, and other Republican standards would “make life work better.”

more here
http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/how-eric-cantor-is-trying-to-soften-the-republican-party-20130204

Miranda I want to thank you for this morning’s post on the black migration north.
It got me to check my Ancestry genealogy page after 8 months of inactivity. And what do you know I found a wealth of info on my mother’s & father’s side of the family. I even found my father’s grandmother who was a slave, I’m am so happy and beside myself right now. YES!

So fascinating. More on Richard the third. I remember reading shakespeare in school, was always intrigued by his short reign. BTW, there is Canadian connections.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-21063882

A skeleton found beneath a Leicester car park has been confirmed as that of English king Richard III.
Experts from the University of Leicester said DNA from the bones matched that of descendants of the monarch’s family.

Lead archaeologist Richard Buckley, from the University of Leicester, told a press conference to applause: “Beyond reasonable doubt it’s Richard.”
Richard, killed in battle in 1485, will be reinterred in Leicester Cathedral.

Mr Buckley said the bones had been subjected to “rigorous academic study” and had been carbon dated to a period from 1455-1540.

Dr Jo Appleby, an osteo-archaeologist from the university’s School of Archaeology and Ancient History, revealed the bones were of a man in his late 20s or early 30s. Richard was 32 when he died.

Essie Mae Washington Williams, Daughter Strom Thurmond Kept Secret, Dies

Essie Mae Washington Williams, the daughter former Sen. Strom Thurmond kept a secret his entire life, died Monday, WLTX-TV in South Carolina reports. She was 87.

Williams publicly disclosed the identity of her father in 2003, six months after Thurmond passed away. Thurmond, who was famous for his support of segregation and opposition to civil rights, never acknowledged his daughter, whose mother was black.

For over 60 years, the two engaged in a clandestine relationship that included financial support, birthday cards, and occasional face to face meetings–but no deep emotions. At one point, Thurmond used one of his nephews as a financial go-between, but that man was never told exactly who he was helping…

After her disclosure, Williams wrote a book: “Dear Senator: A Memoir by the Daughter of Strom Thurmond.” In it, she wrote about how he never told her he loved her, despite numerous encounters.

“As much as I wanted to ‘belong’ to him, I never felt like a daughter, only an accident,” she wrote. “Something, some strong feeling was definitely there. … That was what was drawing him to me, and me to him. But that feeling was all bottled up. We both felt it, from opposite sides of an invisible wall. It was segregated love.

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/essie-mae-washington-williams-daughter-strom-thurmond-kept

LOL..As if he had a snowball’s chance in hell of winning.Tagg Romney Declines Senate Bid in Massachusetts
By SARAH WHEATON

The possibility of a new Romney campaign was dashed on Monday evening when Mitt Romney’s oldest son, Tagg, announced that he would not pursue John Kerry’s now-vacant Senate seat in Massachusetts.

“The timing is not right for me,” Tagg Romney, 42, said in a statement, making him the latest high-profile Republican to decline a bid. On Friday, former Senator Scott P. Brown said he would not seek to return to the chamber.more here: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/04/tagg-romney-declines-senate-bid-in-massachusetts/?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-thecaucus

- – -SAD ENTERTAINMENT NEWS – - – –

- – - -Soul Singer Cecil Womack Dead At 65 —

— – -R&B singer Cecil Womack (pictured) and one half of the famed singing ’80s duo Womack and Womack, passed away at 65 years old on Friday from an undisclosed cause, reports Spinner.

The Cleveland, Ohio, native sang with brothers Bobby, Harry, Friendly, and Curtis in a group and performed on the gospel circuit during the mid-fifties. After the siblings were discovered by the late, great soul singer Sam Cooke, they then decided to rename themselves The Valentinos, making the switch to secular music in 1961.

— – –RIHEP – –THANK U 4 YOUR MUSIC —AMEN –

— -CONDOLENCES 2 FAMILY/FRIENDS/FANS – - -***raises hand***

I see on twitter that there was some emoprogging from Maddow, etc., usual suspects re: drones. IMO these folks have been lulled into a false sense that the entirety of the coalition that came out to support PBO so heavily shares PL thoughts, ideas, and ideology. Okey dokey. They can keep it up with the focus on esoteric issues; the black-phobic obsession with drone attacks while not giving a flying fuck about African American matters beyond lip service and demands that we use our history and movements to move everyone ahead but ourselves…I hope that not of color liberals are able to increase their numbers because I don’t see black people going to extreme lengths again to support this coalition. I hate to be negative but it is what it is. Foreign policy in this country has been a mess for years, and even with the drones, is improved from the last admin. So with black unemployment nearly twice that of the average, black families having a nickel on the dollar of wealth that not of color families have, and the terrifying reality that too many black parents face living in violence zones, why are these people running halfway around the world to obsess about (an albeit controversial) means of tracking down terrorists without opening war theaters which are far more destructive to civilian populations? I don’t know what to say anymore.

This is why Boyce etc. can bitch and moan till the cows come home; Pres O’s stature within the black community is going to remain sky-high mark my words:

How Obamacare Is Transforming The Way Medical Schools Teach America’s Doctors

Obamacare has already begun making big changes to the way that insurers and hospitals do business — and now, it’s changing the very way that medical schools train doctors. As Modern Healthcare reports, medical colleges are expanding programs to teach doctors how to coordinate care with other health care workers, focus on patients’ comprehensive, long-term care, and encouraging more general practitioners and primary care providers in anticipation of a changing medical landscape under Obamacare.

One of the most significant ways that Obamacare hopes to transform the American medical industry is by shifting it from an expensive system of private practices to a coordinated care model in which hospitals, nurses, general practitioners, and physicians work together to provide centralized and patient-focused care — what some in the industry refer to as a “medical home” — to lower costs and improve health outcomes.

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/02/04/1537121/obamacare-transforming-med-schools/

ObamaCares is landmark.

– —REALLY??? – - –:>) – — -

– -Janet Napolitano: A woman to watch for 2016 – –

– - -So, what happens if Hillary Clinton doesn’t run in 2016?

While in Arizona, she was criticized for not being aggressive enough in dealing with the influx of illegal immigrants. But her more recent job gives her an opportunity to change that image. This week, for instance, finds her on a high-profile tour of the southwest border, where she will highlight the stepped-up resources that the Obama administration has been devoting to reducing the flow of illegal entrants to this country.
THERE IS MORE- —-

—– -ABSOLUTELY – -WATCHIN’ – - —:>) — – –

miranda –REV. AL — – -ALWAYS — ON the move – -FORWARD – - -> :>)

— –Rev. Al Sharpton to Hold Conference with African-American and Latino Leaders to Announce New Alliance–

- – —- *Rev. Al Sharpton, host of MSNBC “Politics Nation” and founder and president of the National Action Network (NAN) will join with African American and Latino community leaders at the grand opening of The National Action Network Western Regional and Los Angeles Chapter Headquarters to announce his organization in Los Angeles is forming a committee on Latino and African American race relations in the aftermath of the hate crimes that occurred in Compton, CA.

“The Los Angeles Chapter of NAN welcomes Rev Sharpton to Los Angeles. Rev Sharpton’s bold and courageous leadership where he’s a uniter in solving problems. This is the leadership our community needs right now. Especially in L.A. County where there has been an increase in recent years of racial violence between Latino and African-Americans,” Stated Rev. K.W. Tulloss, President of the L.A. chapter of the National Network (NAN)
THERE IS MORE.

– - – -WHAT a STRATEGIST!! —-:>) – — – - -THANK U — REV. AL.:>) – - -