07/18/2010 archive

More of what digby says:

If you have not had a chance to read Ta-Nehisi Coates’ coverage of the NAACP/Mark Williams story this week, then I urge you to do it. His beautiful writing expresses the fundamental issue better than anyone.

For instance, answering those who immediately criticized the NAACP, he wrote this:

   

Dave concedes that the NAACP has a case, but concludes that they’re wrong for making it. But they’re only wrong for making it because the broader society, evidently, believes that objecting to a call for literacy tests is, in fact, just as racist as a call for literacy tests. This inversion, this crime against sound logic, is at the heart of American white supremacy, and at the heart of a country that has nurtured white supremacy all these sad glorious years.

   It is the Founders claiming all men are created equal while building a democracy on property in human beings. It is Confederates crying tyranny, while erecting a country based on tyranny. It is Sherman discriminating against black soldiers, while claiming that his superiors are discriminating against whites. It’s Ben Tillman justifying racial terrorism, by claiming that he’s actually fighting against terrorism. It is George Wallace defending a system built on bombing children in churches, and then asserting that the upholders of that system are “the greatest people to ever trod this earth.”

   Those who employ racism are not in the habit of confessing their nature–inversion is their cloak. Cutting out the cancer means confronting that inversion, means not wallowing in on-the-other-handism, in post-racialism, means seeing this as more than some kind of political game. Someone has, indeed, failed here. It is not the NAACP.

206 Stories served.  29 per day.

This is actually the hardest diary to execute, and yet perhaps the most valuable because it lets you track story trends over time.

• Sunday
• Monday
• Tuesday
• Wednesday
• Thursday (diary 100 BTW)
• Friday
• Saturday

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

Today could be the end, or the beginning of the end, if either Contador or Schleck break down.

The 4 Pyrenees stages are the last places on this year’s Tour that large chunks of time are likely to be available.  Contador is counting on his time trial superiority for some fractions of a minute in the next to last stage, but it shouldn’t come to that and we may know everything by the time the Peloton mounts Port de Pailheres, one of those Kute Kuddly Kitty Kat Klimbs.

I don’t expect Leipheimer or Sanchez to put on much of a move but they are positioned, you can make arguments for others and many will.  Climbs like this can produce 15 minute deltas (for the quants).

There is that recovery day Wednesday and then one more of climbing and then it’s sprinters to the Champs Elysees.

It’s still more exciting than golf even at The Royal & Ancient because of the flaming hunks of twisted metal.  When was the last time you saw someone break a bone in a pot bunker?

Today is 115 miles from Revel to Ax 3 Domaines.  Only 2 climbs, the last one is just a category 1.

On this day in 1940, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who first took office in 1933 as America’s 32nd president, is nominated for an unprecedented third term. Roosevelt, a Democrat, would eventually be elected to a record four terms in office, the only U.S. president to serve more than two terms.

Roosevelt was born January 30, 1882, in Hyde Park, New York, and went on to serve as a New York state senator from 1911 to 1913, assistant secretary of the Navy from 1913 to 1920 and governor of New York from 1929 to 1932. In 1932, he defeated incumbent Herbert Hoover to be elected president for the first time. During his first term, Roosevelt enacted his New Deal social programs, which were aimed at lifting America out of the Great Depression. In 1936, he won his second term in office by defeating Kansas governor Alf Landon in a landslide.

snip

n 1944, with the war still in progress, Roosevelt defeated New York governor Thomas Dewey for a fourth term in office. However, the president was unable to complete the full term. On April 12, 1945, Roosevelt, who had suffered from various health problems for years, died at age 63 in Warm Springs, Georgia. He was succeeded by Vice President Harry S. Truman. On March 21, 1947, Congress passed the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which stated that no person could be elected to the office of president more than twice. The amendment was ratified by the required number of states in 1951

The Dime is a commemoration to FDR and all victims of Polio. The “March of Dimes” was started in 1937 by entertainer Eddie Cantor to keep the facilities for Polio victims at Warm Springs, running. Despite FDR’s generous donation the spa was running very short of funds, Cantor asked everyone to send a small dime to the White House to keep the spa open. The White House was overwhelmed with letters containing a dime. On January 30 in 1946, the first Roosevelt dimes were issued by the US mint and they have been issued ever since.

Sigh . . .

This web site on the ol’ blogosphere isn’t fulfillin’ my hopes and dreams for America anymore.  I’ve been a member for 47 minutes now but it just ain’t workin’ out.  Ya don’t believe me?  Look at all the problems this so-called “Stars Hollow Gazette” hasn’t fixed yet:

My dog rescuing friend knows one of the characters on Pit Boss so I suppose I should mention that they have their second season premier at 10.  AMC has another one of their ‘instant classics’, Troy, which is ok if you like gladiator movies or Brad Pitt I guess.

Sandra Bullock night on ABC Family with Practical Magic and Two Weeks Notice.  I mentioned that Shrek owes Piers Anthony money yesterday.  Discovery has 2 episodes of Powering the Future which is about alternative energy and could be interesting.  Chasing Mummies didn’t turn out to be as compelling as I had hoped.

Looney Tunes: Back in Action is a Roger Rabbit green screen festival and is doubly unsatisfying because it’s one of the latter day Daffy/Bugs pairings that does nothing but remind you of how good they were in the 40s.  Turner Classic goes Morocco mad with Road to Morocco followed by Morocco.  If you can’t get enough Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe you could watch American Gangster.

Later-

TNT has Four Brothers which sounds a lot like Boondocks’ ‘Soul Plane 2: The Blackjacking’.  GitS: SAC 2nd Gig episodes ‘Reversal Process’ and ‘Martial Law’.