Yeah, that's about right..

The "Help" wasn't very helpful: Part 2

It seems like a trend  for Hollywood to embrace movies that depict African American women as; buffoonish .. think -Whoopi in  "Ghost", uneducated  and  trashy, think  Halle Berry  in " Monsters Ball"...  Violent , think Mo'Nique In "Precious" or domestics think  Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer in "The Help." 

It wouldn't be a problem if  there were just as many roles showing African American actresses playing characters who are  the opposite of the roles I've mentioned. I think there are so many racial wounds that haven't healed yet, and people like to feel that things have really progressed, and then you see  a movie like the "Help," being embraced by the masses.

I posted back in January that I was reading the book "The Help". I was disappointed that I didn't like it as much as I thought I would. I'm a little perplexed as to why the trailer tries to make it seem as though it's a feel-good  chick- flick. 

"Tulane Professor Melissa Harris-Perry broke down for Lawrence O’Donnell the new feel-good move The Help, which downplays the plight of black women during segregation.

“The problem is that it is so ahistorical as to be inaccurate,” Harris-Perry said Thursday after seeing the movie. “Look, the issues that faced African-American women were not ‘Real Housewives of Jackson, Mississippi,’ ‘Mean Girls’ behavior, it was rape, it was lynching.”

“I know there are a lot of bad movies and troubling books, but this one got to me."

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New Rules: Who is Saul Alinsky?!

'Republicans have created this completely fictional President. His name is Barack X." 
One word...Awesome!

Goldie keeps it real!

Goldie is one of my favorite commentators on MSNBC.

This Sunday's Great Minds Movie Pick is: "Shut Up & Sing "

Here's my letter to the editor in 2005, Remember my letter was written when things looked bleak.. when Bush was doing whatever the heck he wanted to do. We felt powerless. 

Remember when people got fired for wearing anti-Bush t-shirts or having a John Kerry bumper sticker? In one town a guy was kicked out of a mall for wearing an anti-war shirt. The climate of fear that Republicans have created is slowing disappearing in this country. I'm not talking about fear of terrorism; I'm talking about fear of being labeled "anti-American," because you're anti-Bush. The heroes are the people who from the beginning told anyone that would listen that this war was wrong. These people went against their neighbors, co-workers and even some family members. 

Yet, with courage and perseverance they continued to fight. Now the majority of people in this country believe that this corrupt administration misled this country into war. A huge tip of the hat to my fellow Liberals, sensible Republicans, Democrats, and Independents who knew from the beginning that this war was wrong and we were being lied to. I'm very disappointed in some of the elected Democrats for not stepping forward sooner to speak out against this corrupt administration. The majority of the Democrats sat by in silence and watched things go from bad to worse in Iraq. Meanwhile they approved more money to be poured into Iraq, without questioning why there isn't a good post -war plan. 

They allowed the GOP slime machine to go after the mother of a slain solider and they didn't put more pressure on Bush to fire Karl Rove. I'm an Independent and I'm pissed that myself and many like me were left out there to fight alone. We didn't have the media or major politicians on our side. I don't care if Bush told them he had a picture of Saddam making weapons, the Democrats should have questioned this and checked the facts. The American people, our troops and the Iraqis were the victims here. We had no means to gain information; we could only go by our gut feelings and whatever information the media decided to throw our way. 

Judy Miller and everyone who pushed for this war has blood on their hands. After the election people who voted for Kerry wanted him to take a stand about the voting irregularities, but we stood alone. We wanted the Democrats to take a stand against the war, but we stood alone. We wanted the Democrats to take a stand against Bush appointing Gonzales and Negroponte, again we stood alone. When you stand by yourself for so long, you began to realize that you're stronger than you think and you really don’t need others to fight your battles for you. You must fight them yourself. As an Independent and someone who has nothing but contempt for the corrupt Bush administration. . . I really wanted to believe that the Democrats were blameless. . . But as a person of integrity I know that isn't true. If Democrats search within their hearts they'll see that their party abandoned them when they needed them most.  

The elected Democrats put their own political aspirations ahead of the people who voted them into office. They were more concerned about being labeled "anti-troop, anti-American" than they were about standing up for what's right. Some will cheer and say it's about time that the Democrat leadership found their voices, but I say they had them all along; we just didn’t like what they were saying.

Synopsis:

"The movie from two time Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Barbara Kopple and Cecelia Peck that chronicles the lives of the Dixie Chicks from 2003 to the start of their 2006 tour. It follows the Texas-based country music band while they were under fire after lead singer Natalie Maines publicly criticized the current President of the United States George W. Bush in a 2003 concert in London. Illustrating the day-to-day life of the Chicks, the films shows them with their husbands and their children, at home in Texas and in the recording studio in Los Angeles, getting their hair and makeup done before appearances, exchanging ribald remarks with each other, and writing song lyrics and working on musical arrangements.
All the highs, lows and mayhem that occurred just before and for the three years following "the incident" are all here. The personal attacks, personal growth, a changing world, making music, having babies, receiving death threats, and even a fair amount of laughter."

Click if you're having trouble viewing the film

Simply brilliant! "2012 Debate Audiences: A Tribute To Debate Hate"...

SOTD-"Welcome Back" by John Sebastian..

I grew up watching "Welcome Back Kotter," my sisters and I were madly in love with Vinnie Barbarino and Boom Boom Washington. Sadly, Robert Hegyes who played Epstein passed away. He was also one of our favorite Sweathogs, but  It was hard to have a crush on him, because he looked so much like our cousin.  If you haven't watched the show, I suggest you rent the DVD's, you won't be disappointed.

Did you know?

"In 1976, Sebastian had a number one single with "Welcome Back," the theme song to the Welcome Back, Kotter television show.^[2] His only top 40 solo hit, it found new life decades later when a sample from it became the hook for rapper Mase's 2004 hit "Welcome Back." More recently, he played with John Sebastian and the J-Band, a jug band including Fritz Richmond from the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, Yank Rachell, an original jug-band leader, and Geoff Muldaur.

Several modern musicians cite him as a large influence, including renowned blues harmonica player, Mike Tetrault. As a songwriter, Sebastian's songs have been covered by Elvis Costello ("The Room Nobody Lives In"), Dolly Parton, Del McCoury, Helen Reddy, Brenda Lee, Johnny Cash, Bobby Darin, Slade and Joe Cocker; The Everly Brothers, Tom Petty and Jimmy Buffett have all covered "Stories We Could Tell".

Fun Friday: Okay, so now I'm dreaming about Obama..

Which means I've been watching too many politico shows. In my dream Obama is in a Super Bowl ad, he's dressed like Superman, and he's holding the world up in one hand. Then you see a hand underneath his feet, holding him up. The question in the ad is : Who's holding Obama up? Later in the evening the second commercial reveals the answer....Any guesses? I'll post the answer in a second post just to have a little fun with this.

Fun Friday: "Sonnet 18 "..

 I adore this poem. Can you imagine your sweetheart writing something like this for you? WOW!  I wonder sometimes about the downside of our technology, you know with e-mail and texting. Will the younger generation be able to show their children and grandchildren  texts or e-mails that their sweethearts wrote for  them? 

I'll take a good old-fashioned handwritten love letter from my hubby (MJD, hint, hint) any day, over  electronic communication.

'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath all too short a date.

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimmed;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,

Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,

When in eternal lines to Time thou grow'st.

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee."

-William Shakespeare

"Billboard: Obama Bumps Al Green's 'Let's Stay Together' Sales by 490%"

"Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" got a sales boost last week from an unlikely source -- President Barack Obama.

A video of the president singing the first line of the song at a Jan. 19 fund-raising event went viral the next day, sparking a 490% weekly sales increase for the song. It sold 16,000 downloads in the week ending Jan. 22 according to Nielsen SoundScan. It's the best sales week for the song since SoundScan began tracking downloads in 2003."

Andy and Conan As Newt and Calista..

Thanks to President Obama's bailout, GM is number one in the world..

"U.S. manufacturer surpasses Toyota as top automaker in the world." If Mitt were President he would have let GM fail. Remember Mitt's famous Oped from 2008 when he said: "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.'

"Mr. Romney argued against the multibillion dollar bailout.“If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye,” he wrote. “In a managed bankruptcy, the federal government would propel newly competitive and viable automakers, rather than seal their fate with a bailout check.”

Click to read more

That's no lady, it's the Gov Of Arizona..

How very low -rent of Jan to get in the Presidents face and point her finger. That picture says more about her, than it does about him. Someone should tell Jan that anger and belligerence isn't a good look. She looks and behaves like a barfly, who is pissed off that the guy she had a thing for, didn't return her calls. She even handed the President  a handwritten letter. What's up with that? 

I don't know why she's upset with his immigration policy; Obama has put more officers on the border than previous Presidents, he has also deported more undocument­ed immigrants in a single term, than Bush did his full eight years in office.

Final Post Of The Day: Perspective!

What a wonderful moment. It was the hug that was felt around the world. Best of luck to Gabby and her family. Her strength and courage is admirable.