R.I.P. Gil Scott-Heron

[R]apper Chuck D. discusses the role Scott-Heron played in the birth of rap: "You can go into the beat poets and [Allen] Ginsberg and [Bob] Dylan, but Gil Scott-Heron is the manifestation of the modern world. He and the Last Poets set the stage for everyone else. In what way necessary? Well, if you try and make pancakes and you ain't got the water, the milk or the eggs, you're trying to do something you can't. In combining music with the word, from the voice on down, you follow the template he laid out. His rapping is rhythmic. Some of it's songs. It's punchy, and all those qualities are still used today."

[ LINK: Gil Scott-Heron dies; influential poet/musician helped inspire rap ]

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The cat is the Hat

Photo: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty

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Tea Party Freshmen Hog Defense Pork

After Promising To End Earmarks, Tea Party Freshmen Hog Defense Pork

Tea Party freshmen who were swept into office largely based on their pledge to end congressional pork are apparently hogging the trough. Capitol Hill Blue reports that members of the Tea Party Caucus filled the latest defense appropriations bill with millions of dollars of earmarks for projects in their home districts:

While talking the big plan to be fiscally responsible the Republican freshmen havepacked a huge $553 billion spending bill with millions of pet defense projects for their home districts.[...]

[ LINK: ThinkProgress ]

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Convert Schools Into Prisons To Get More Funding

Outraged By Cuts, Superintendent Asks Gov. Snyder To Convert Schools Into Prisons To Get More Funding

The conservative governors who were elected across the country last November have championedhuge cuts to public education spending while resisting efforts to raise revenues from the wealthiest among us. In Michigan, Gov. Rick Snyder (R) proposed cutting millions of dollars from the public education budget, and this week the GOP-controlled state senate passed a “contentious K-12 budget that cuts $470 per student from school districts.”

Outraged by these cuts, Nathan Bootz, the superintendent of Ithaca Public Schools, wrote a letter to the editor in a local paper proposing an idea that could come out of a Jonathan Swift novel: if Snyder intends on draining funding from public schools, maybe Bootz should convert the schools in his district into prisons to get funding.

Noting that Michigan spends “between $30,000 and $40,000″ on each prisoner but can barely provide $7,000 per public school student, Bootz says that maybe we need to start treating “our students like they are prisoners, with equal funding“:

MORE...

[ LINK: ThinkProgress ]

Note BOLD emphasis is mine.

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National Tequila Party Movement

"We can blame Obama and Republicans and Democrats all we want, but the only way that the Latino community is going to get respect is if we become consistent primary-election voters, as well as general-election voters."

- Belinda "DeeDee" Blase, a spokeswoman for the National Tequila Party Movement, a group aiming to raise Latino voter participation. (Source: Christian Science Monitor)

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Why the Rich Love...

Out-of-work Americans de­ser­ve more than un­employ­ment checks - they de­ser­ve di­vidends. The rich would never have re­covered with­out them.

[ LINK: Why The Rich Love... ]

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Memorial Day

Memorial day is almost upon us. Spare a thought for all those who serve and have served.

 

"A veteran is a person who at one point in his or her life wrote a check to the Govt for, up to and including, one life. They did it willingly knowing that what we have needs to be protected. For all those who "stood their watch on the wall'. "Well done!  You stand relieved" For all those who still stand on the wall, "CHARLIE MIKE". For all those who had their "checks cashed". We will remember

 

William J. Evanow, MSGT USAF (Ret)

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Willie Nelson... about politics.

"I still say that the people have the power to change things and they will if they vote," Nelson replied. "The Teapot Party started as a joke but it could still be a way for people to speak out about important things. I am not a criminal. The millions of pot smokers in this country are not criminals. We don't like being treated as such and I for one will stand up for what I believe in and will vote for anyone I choose. You should do the same. We are not ever going to agree on everything and everybody. The best advice I ever got was from my ex father-in-law. He said take my advice and do what you want to. End of story."

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South

South
by Jack Gilbert 

In the small towns along the river
nothing happens day after long day.
Summer weeks stalled forever,
and long marriages always the same.
Lives with only emergencies, births,
and fishing for excitement. Then a ship
comes out of the mist. Or comes around
the bend carefully one morning
in the rain, past the pines and shrubs.
Arrives on a hot fragrant night,
grandly, all lit up. Gone two days
later, leaving fury in its wake.

For Susan Crosby Lawrence Anderson

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He thinks Palin is...

SUNDAY, MAY 22, 2011

Quote of the Day

"He thinks Palin is an idiot. He thinks she’s stupid. He helped boost her up. People like Sarah Palin haven’t elevated the conservative movement."

-- Anonymous person close to Roger Ailes on the Fox News chairman, who reportedly believes that the GOP he so loves is in serious danger of losing the 2012 election and that he personally doesn't seem to be able to stop the downward slide

[ LINK: Deus Ex Malcontent ]

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