Wednesday Afternoon Thread: That’s What Christmas Means To Me

I realized that too, Miranda! I had no idea of the title of the song but when reading Stevie’s name thought… ooooooh.

Self-Destructive Attitude

by BooMan
Wed Dec 19th, 2012 at 10:12:13 AM EST

I want to thank Dana Milbank for writing his column in defense of Chuck Hagel. I don’t want Chuck Hagel to be our next Secretary of Defense, but that’s not the point. We need people, and particularly Jewish-Americans, to come to the defense of those who support Israel but are sometimes very critical of their policies. I think it is a big mistake for AIPAC or the ADL or neo-conservatives to throw the anti-Semitism label at people who have never shown any anti-Jewish animus. I’ve had right-wing blogs accuse me of anti-Semitism because of criticisms I’ve made of Israel’s policies, and it doesn’t make me more of a supporter of Israel. I shrug that stuff off, but not without a certain degree of irritation and impatience.
Let’s be frank for a moment. It isn’t easy to be a supporter of Israel. It may be easy for those who seek high office in the United States, but that’s about where the comfort zone ends. Israel has been losing legitimacy in the eyes of the world for decades now. It simply isn’t possible to defend their expansion of the settlements, and that makes it harder to defend everything else they do.

In my opinion, as Israel pursues its own self-defense they too often do damage to their own self-interest. I have opposed their policies as much for the harm they do to Israelis as the Palestinians. When people make this argument, they should not be called anti-Semitic. It’s misguided both because it is wrong and unfair, and because it pushes allies away.

If Chuck Hagel isn’t pro-Israel enough to be Secretary of Defense, then a lot of people are going to feel like maybe they don’t feel like being pro-Israel anymore.

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2012/12/19/101213/92

Wow…what a difference an election can make huh? LOL

Grover Norquist signs off on Boehner’s ‘Plan B’ tax proposal

WASHINGTON — Grover Norquist, the keeper of anti-tax conservatism, gave his blessing Wednesday to House Speaker John A. Boehner’s plan to increase taxes on those earning more than $1 million a year.

Norquist’s change of heart is a substantial shift for the president of Americans for Tax Reform, who for more than 25 years has been the enforcer of no-new-taxes purity in the Republican Party.

“Republicans supporting this bill are this week affirming to their constituents in writing that this bill — the sole purpose of which is to prevent tax increases — is consistent with the pledge they made to them,” Norquist’s organization said in a statement. “In ATR’s analysis, it is extremely difficult — if not impossible — to fault these Republicans’ assertion.”

“ATR will not consider a vote for this measure a violation of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge,” the group wrote.

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-grover-norquist-boehner-tax-hike-20121219,0,4358721.story

A shift in posture, a sense of ‘weakness’
By Steve Benen
Wed Dec 19, 2012 9:57 AM EST.

Soon after the elections, still riding high from an electoral mandate and improved poll numbers, President Obama entered fiscal talks with congressional Republicans with the appropriate posture. He starting drawing lines in the sand, making unambiguous demands, and presented an offer that Democrats actually liked — without preemptive concessions.

But as talks progressed, the president felt the need to change his posture and show some flexibility. House Speaker John Boehner made a concession over the weekend, and so Obama responded with some compromises of his own.

The fact that Republicans found Obama’s concessions inadequate is not surprising. But Ezra Klein highlights a more important takeaway from yesterday’s machinations.

There are also some who think that Boehner — and, more to the point, Boehner’s House members — increasingly see weakness in the White House’s negotiating position.

A few weeks ago, the Obama administration was firm that they wouldn’t budge on tax rates for income above $250,000 and that they wouldn’t budge on the debt ceiling. They’ve since budged on both. Republicans increasingly think the White House will concede more now, and that if they don’t concede more now they’ll definitely give Republicans a better deal if threatened with debt default. Whether or not that’s true, it pulls Republicans — and Boehner — to the right, as it makes it harder for Boehner to argue for a compromise now.

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/12/19/16018263-a-shift-in-posture-a-sense-of-weakness?lite

here’s your punch in the gut for today.

Jack Pinto’s (one of the Newton victims) best friend wrote him a note.

https://twitter.com/Yamiche/status/281051007172112384/photo/1

seems as if Tapper was disrespectful towards POTUS at the press conference.

Committee vote clears way for abortion care coverage for servicewomen

For the first time on Tuesday, a bipartisan conference committee agreed to include an amendment providing abortion coverage for military rape survivors in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).[....] The bipartisan conference committee added the measure to the NDAA for Fiscal Year 2013 because it had not originally been included in the House’s version of the bill.

This vote is one of the last steps for including the provision in the final bill, which is likely to be passed by both chambers of Congress and signed by the president.[....] Under current law, the Department of Defense is only allowed to pay for abortions if the life of the mother is threatened.

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/12/19/committee-vote-clears-way-for-abortion-care-coverage-for-servicewomen/

H/T David Edwards

Back to school tomorrow. I’ve been dealing with a lot, so work was back burner. And then with the horrors here, I’m anxious about returning “Will you keep us safe, Mrs, C? Did those chidren feel anything?”
And one comment I am sure has gotten adequate exposure here, but I feel a desire to put in in writing. The shootings would not be framed as a Tragic Massacre of the Innocents if it were a Black school. The pain I feel about these little people from Newtown coexits with the shame that pains me over the ratcheting down of the heartbreak if the school were in an urban neighborhood..

All my best to you and yours this holiday season. And from the NON Christ is Our Savior contingent, broochas!

Unbelievable!

Ya’ll knew it was coming: #TapperQuestions

– -POU FAM♥ — – CONTINUIN’ OUR PRAYERS :>) – - — —-:>) — -

– - -Nelson Mandela spends 12th day in South African hospital – - -[REST WELL♥] —

– — -Anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela is spending a twelfth day in a South African hospital after being diagnosed with a lung infection and undergoing gallstone surgery.

On Tuesday, President Jacob Zuma said in a statement that Mandela required “extraordinary care” due to his age and could spend several more days in the hospital recovering.
THERE IS MORE

– - – -Soweto Gospel Choir Blessed in Concert: Seteng Sediba – -

— – There is a well of blood that saves your soul
There is a pool of blood Next to the altar It’s got the healing power of life
They say Amen Halleluja The trinity in the altar, the father, son and the holy spirit
The sinners whose lives are doomed Their sins are washed away by the blood And they live with happiness and forgiveness — AMEN

– -B BLESSED♥- –Dear Madiba.♥ – - -

POU FAM♥ – - – -There could B MORE – –BUT – - –GOOD NEWS 2 THESE 22! :>) – - -

- – -Meet 22 People Exonerated in 2012 – -

- – –For the fourth year in a row, the Innocence Project, an organization dedicated to overturning wrongful convictions as well as making substantive reforms to the criminal-justice system, has released an annual report of people who were exonerated this year after spending time behind bars for crimes they did not commit.

David Lee Gavitt, who served more than 25 years in Michigan prisons for the arson murder of his wife and two daughters, was exonerated after prosecutors agreed to vacate his conviction because it was based on outdated arson science …
THERE IS MORE.

— – -Sooo HAPPY 4 THEM. :>) – -

POU FAM♥ – - -ANNOUNCING —MR. PRESIDENT: – -:>) – –

— –Diplomatic Corps Holiday Reception — -

– – -President Obama delivers remarks at the Diplomatic Corps Holiday Reception at the State Department. — -

- – –YES! — -I like his “TIE”. – - -:>) —OH. — -Annnd his remarks. LOL — -

The Puzzle of Black Republicans
By ADOLPH L. REED Jr.
Published: December 18, 2012

WHEN Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina announced on Monday that she would name Representative Tim Scott to the Senate, it seemed like another milestone for African-Americans. Mr. Scott will replace Senator Jim DeMint, who is leaving to run Heritage Foundation. He will be the first black senator from the South since Reconstruction; the first black Republican senator since 1979, when Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts retired; and, indeed, only the seventh African-American ever to serve in the chamber.

But this “first black” rhetoric tends to interpret African-American political successes — including that of President Obama — as part of a morality play that dramatizes “how far we have come.” It obscures the fact that modern black Republicans have been more tokens than signs of progress.

The cheerleading over racial symbolism plays to the Republicans’ desperate need to woo (or at least appear to woo) minority voters, who favored Mr. Obama over Mitt Romney by huge margins. Mrs. Haley — a daughter of Sikh immigrants from Punjab, India — is the first female and first nonwhite governor of South Carolina, the home to white supremacists like John C. Calhoun, Preston S. Brooks, Ben Tillman and Strom Thurmond.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/19/opinion/the-puzzle-of-black-republicans.html?_r=0

– - –Dear POU FAM♥ – G’NIGHT! :>) MAY U HAVE BLESSED SWEET DREAMS -♥ – -♥ :>) – - -