Black People, Culture And Poverty – Ta-Nehisi Coates:
“Culture attracts such protest from many blacks not because we think that the culture of poverty is a myth, but because the mass of us who, in the space of about 40 years, have made more progress than any group of blacks before us, don’t deserve to be told that our culture is making people poor. Seriously. Fried catfish and Outkast ain’t never disenfranchised nobody.”
(Via Ta-Nehisi Coates.)
True dat.
How to Blow Your Credit Limit — Without Spending:
“Paul Pensabene of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., received a statement from HSBC on Dec. 8 that said he had a $359.99 balance and remaining available credit of $8,640. But when he went online to pay the bill several days later, his online account showed that same balance put him over his newly-reduced credit line of $300. [emphasis mine] And that didn’t include the $35 over-limit fee. Pensabene grappled with customer service until they agreed to remove the fee, and then paid the balance in full. ‘All I could think was, ‘Good lord, what if this is happening to someone that couldn’t pay their balance off in one shot?” he says. ‘They’d end up in default with these fees piling up.'”
(Via Yahoo! Finance.)
While it’s certainly fair and proper for the credit card companies to clean up their financial houses, this is ridiculous. It demonstrates the level of contempt credit companies have for their customers.
Stewart seen as winner in showdown with Cramer – CNN.com:
“‘People want to see a lot of the financial gurus on a shish kabob, being skewered,’ Seaman said. ‘It’s really important to hold people accountable, and as we saw last night, Jon Stewart is a bit of a wild card, so if you aren’t living up to expectations, he may call you out.'”
(Via CNN.)
Which is exactly why I watch the show. I need that “powerful tool of illumination.”
While I think Jim Cramer shouldn’t be the only face of the problem, I do think this total roasting is completely on the money. I’m reminded of the Crossfire roasting he did years ago. When will they learn? Here it is in unedited glory.
YouTube – Bill Maher’s Real Time | March 6, 2009 | Cory Booker and Erin Burnett 4:
(Via YouTube.)
Skip to 5:02. Preach, Cory, preach!
UPDATE: Fixt graphics and site updates yearly.
Great site on the Federal Budget in visuals. The DoD defense budget budget for military and national security spending just for this year 2009 came to almost $800B. I don’t hear a peep about this from the “Strong Defense”/”Big Government Bad” conservative crowd.
White House Watermelon Email From California Mayor Dean Grose Inspires Outrage:
“The mayor of Los Alamitos is coming under fire for an e-mail he sent out that depicts the White House lawn planted with watermelons, under the title ‘No Easter egg hunt this year.’…
Grose confirmed to the AP that he sent the e-mail to [local businesswoman and city volunteer Keyanus] Price and said he didn’t mean to offend her. He said he was unaware of the racial stereotype that black people like watermelons.”
(Via The Huffington Post.)
If Grose expects anyone to believe him, he’s even dumber than his joke. What exactly would have been the point if not for the stereotype?
William Kristol – Republicans’ Day of Reckoning – washingtonpost.com:
“Conservatives and Republicans will disapprove of this effort. They will oppose it. Can they do so effectively?
Perhaps — if they can find reasons to obstruct and delay. They should do their best not to permit Obama to rush his agenda through this year. They can’t allow Obama to make of 2009 what Franklin Roosevelt made of 1933 or Johnson of 1965.”
(Via The Washington Post.)
How about offering alternative solutions? Oh yeah, you don’t have any that haven’t been offered! That’s when you know the GOP is completely bankrupt of any ideas. People are hip to the tax cut mantra since it did less than nothing to stop our current economic woes. (Quick note: Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act in 1965.)
The Source Of The Beef – Ta-Nehisi Coates:
“One last note. I’ve noticed something interesting about this blog–the complaints I hear from whites (‘Don’t lump as all together!’ We’re not a monolith!’) have an eerie familiarity. I don’t think it’s cool to simplify anyone, ever. But I would ask that we all take a moment and think about how it feels for this to be the conflict of your life, to constantly labor under the weight of idiots who you’ve never met. What if very few people ever cared to sort you out? What if the generalizations which raised your hackles in Henderson’s article weren’t a one-off–they were the media and really the world–as you’d always known it?”
(Via Ta-Nehisi Coates.)
Exactly. (Twice in one day. That’s why I love his blog.)
Some Off The Cuff Analysis – Ta-Nehisi Coates:
“I keep thinking about the big things that have always kept me from being a conservative–the knee-jerk worship of a past that branded me half a man, the elevation of the loud imbeciles who think science teachers should be using the Bible, the toleration and baiting of bigots who cloaked themselves in the garb of ‘States Rights,’ and now run under the garb of ‘protecting marriage.’ The common demonator here is an unreflective veneration of what was, a belief that tradition, no matter how backwards, can heal all.”
(Via Ta-Nehisi Coates.)
Exactly.
