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Smooth Like Remy
That said, if Tyler wants to make movies for ignorant black folk, that's his right. But the problem is that we have such little representation on film that Tyler Perry's garbage is basically all we've got.
So if black people in Hollywood who are behind the camera and have actual talent want to see someone other than Perry shine, they are going to have to step up their business game. Tyler Perry has no artistic talent. He can't write for shit and his movies are poorly directed and shot. But what he does have is a business sense that no one out there can touch right now.
I don't know whether TP's stuff is coonery or not because I've never see a TP production. I guess TP has a right to churn out coonery just like those white guys who put on any movie starring Jack Black or Anna Farris.
My problem is this: how come nobody else is financing a studio? Why isn't Spike financing his own studio? Or hitting up Will, Denzel, Oprah, Halle, etc. for financing so quality stuff can be put out?
How come BET and TV One arent' producing their own original programming for dramas? Trashy reality shows don't count.
Why do black oriented movies "need" to be on the big screen? I understand that a big part of the problem is distribution, but can't a quality black movie be put out on DVD? Cuz you know black folks stay buying a DVD. Or is it that we need that Oscar validation?
If some chicken chomping rapper can put out a crappy movie on DVD, why can't a quality black film maker put his/her stuff on DVD, bypass the middle man and go straight to the people?
Like they said last night, most whitefolks don't even know who a Madea or Mr. Brown is but Tyler Perry is getting paid. Most whitefolks don't know a thing about Televisa or Bollywood either but those folks are getting straight paid too.
Instead of bemoaning the fact that Lily is the only black person on Y&R or why there are no black people on General Hospital except the fat surly nurse why can't somebody put on a telenovela-style drama for black people by black people instead of begging CBS or ABC to do it for us?
That's all I had to say.
House of Payne started slow and has built itself pretty well. I used to tape it for me no-cable having sister, so I watched a great deal of it.
I have never seen his plays in person, and only seen part of a play on DVD - I don't think I'll ever go see his plays.
I think Spike is attacking him for the content, and who Tyler Perry is. I think there's sort of a intellectual snobbishness going on here. Spike is a serious guy who actually went to school. He thinks of film as craft; art almost. Spike is a 3rd generation Morehouse man, and went one of the top film schools in the country. And here comes a play guy thinking he's a filmmaker.
I remember Spike being harsh on the young man who did The Inkwell; told him that maybe he needed to go to school and actually LEARN filmmaking before he attempted another film. So, yes, I think it's the art part of it; the filmmaking part of it.
there is no doubt that Tyler Perry's audience was not being served, if they were, there would have been another Tyler Perry before Tyler Perry.
that said, I'm scared to death of Perry getting ' for Colored Girls'..I'll say it - I don't think he has the talent to do it justice, and for him to bastardize it and coon it would be unforgiveable.
I don't dislike Perry because he put his OWN money where his mouth is. I never ever would have thought the Black person to fund and build their own studio would be a Christian Play Producer from the 'Chitlin' Circuit'. I believe there are others, who could have pooled their money, if they had been serious about controlling the product. But, that takes entrpreneurial risk. They didn't need to start with their own material; they could have done it small, straight to videos, or coupled with a cable channel. Why hasn't anyone Black hooked up with BET or TVOne to produce 'Lifetime'ish movies based on the novels of successful Black writers? Start on the small screen and build it up. But, they haven't done it, so why blame Perry for making the risk -WITH HIS OWN MONEY?
Most of the fiction I read is by Black authors about Black people, with dimensions. these authors have a built in base. how come BET or TVOne haven't done a deal with Beverly Jenkins the same way that Lifetime has with Nora Roberts? Nobody is stopping them.
WHY is a show like LINCOLN HEIGHTS on ABC FAMILY? are you going to tell me that IT has a bigger audience than BET or TVOne.
look at all these smaller cable channels that have been producing ORIGINAL PROGRAMMING for forever and a day - how come BET or TVOne don't do the same?
the Nigerians have a THRIVING film industry, and nobody Black here has found a way to hook up with them?
Telemundo and Univision can run those telenovelas, -originally produced and advertised right here in the US ofA, and BET/TVOne can't do the same?
all I hear is excuses.
Perry PUT HIS MONEY WHERE HIS MOUTH IS. now, dislike him or not, his critics need to PONY UP.
dang...
Instead of Spike and Tyler sniping at one another, they should be joining forces to produce movies that will be supported by us and everyone else.
My only complaint with Tyler's movies is that there is always a beaten down sista who starts to get her act together in time for Prince Charming to come into the picture. That's a nice fantasy, and one I've often indulged in, but the reality is, we women need to be working on ourselves and be content in the knowledge that if we get a significant other; that's cool, or if we gotta travel alone, that's cool, too.
I'd like to have a man. But if I'm destined to be alone, I need to know in my heart that it's okay - that women are validated as WOMEN, whether we're in relationships or NOT.
As for Spike's criticisms, I'd had more respect if he'd gone to Tyler mano-a-mano, instead of airing that shyt on TV, so he can give the wingnuts something to flare up amongst ourselves.
I'm sorry, but I know a good number of people who go to see Tyler Perry's movies and his plays, and they are far from ignorant.
It's people like you who need to get over yourselves. The way we react to the arts (music, tv, film) and the disciplines of art (comedy, paint, drama, etc) are subjective.
You don't like Tyler Perry's movies, fine. But that does not make those who do "ignorant buffoons"
If a Jewish director made a movie perpetuating Jewish stereotypes he would shunned
If a Hispanic director made a movIe perpetuating Hispanic stereotypes he would shunned.
If a Black director makes a movie perpetuating black stereotypes not only is he not shunned he is APPLAUDED by black people. SMH
And I'm supposed to support TP because "he used his own money" and it's a "black business." Nonsense, that's the same logic black rappers use to call black women BITCHES AND HOES on records. "You are stopping a black man from getting paid" BULLSHIT. PAID AT WHAT COST?
http://static.reelmovienews.com/images/gallery/...
Now, he is a bubbling fool. Can't speak English properly and his speech and mannerisms are right out of minstrel shows. These same people on here calling me a highfalutin negro would be calling for protests and writing letters boycotting products if Brett Ratner or Ron Howard or any other white director created and directed this character. You can't tell me different.
People on here are giving Tyler a pass for this coonery bullshit simply because he's black.
Spike is right, period.
Yeah, i'm definitely having problems with airing the "dirty laundry" like this in the MSM. In fairness, Spike started this feud on Ed Gordon's program and Tyler upped-the-ante on 60Minutes. Hmmm, 60Minutes vs. Ed's show? Wonder who got more exposure?
We're polling on this issue too (on the front page). Some of us are anxiously awaiting Spike's counter-response and looking forward to expanding threads on this issue.
Will this sh*t get calmed down or will they take it to another level? In the end, is it good for black films?
Oprah could intervene, but I think she's biased now. Spike had to beg folks like Oprah and Bill Cosby to help him finish X financially.
Tyler has given both Oprah and her best friend Gayle white Bentley-convertibles...LMAO, yeah, I think Oprah would be biased about this issue.
Spike begged folks because the studio wouldn't give him the money to finish the project properly and he used his own salary do it. That shows me that he really cares about the story.
"Yeah, i'm definitely having problems with airing the "dirty laundry" like this in the MSM. In fairness"
I hear some negroes say this and they said the same thing when Bill Cosby was TELLING THE TRUTH. I say screw that air it out put it on front street. One thing I will say if black audiences are paying to see the coonery and buffonery what does that say about us?
Anytime a black person puts on a show for the sake of Massa (or the MSM), it's a shucking/jiving Coon Show.
What happens when Spike goes on Morning Joe again? You think that THIS shyt is NOT going to come up? Will he shy away from it, or will he retailate and call Tyler a coon in front of a grinning Joe and Mika? How will he react? Remains to be seen.
Far be it for me to "school" you on AA Cinema...I respect Spike for what he has accomplished, but he is NOT the father of AA Cinema that you're making him out to be.
As far as I'm concerned, the true father of AA Cinema (as we know it) is Melvin Van Peebles. If you knew your history, you would know about Melvin Van Peebles and Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song.
Because no studio would finance his film, Van Peebles funded the film himself (and in part by a $50,000.00 loan from Bill Cosby), shooting the film independently over a period of 19 days, performing all of his own stunts...Van Peebles not only directed, scripted, and edited the film, but wrote the score and directed the marketing campaign.
The film, which in the end grossed $10 million, was, among many others, acclaimed by the Black Panthers for its political resonance with the black struggle.
So for those of us who know our history, we're not buying this bullshyt about Spike being the "Godfather of Black Film" and he certainly does not have the right to be considered the Grand Arbiter of Coonery.
As you rightfully put it, Melvin Van Peebles, along with Gordon Parks, paved the way for the Spike Lees and Tyler Perrys, so they both owe a debt of gratitude to Van Peebles and Parks.
According to Melvin Van Peebles, the original production of SHAFT was of a white detective story, but after the success of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971), the original script was scrapped in favor of an adaptation of Ernest Tidyman's 1970 novel Shaft, which focused on an African-American detective.[1]
If we really wanted to get deep about it, we could go back to Oscar Micheaux, but i've got to give credit where credit is due.
MELVIN VAN PEEBLES WAS AND IS THE SHYT.
Thanks for the Melvin Van Peebles background. I'm sure Melvin busted his ass so TP could come along and make these soul-planish type of movies. If you are trying to dismiss a 20 year career making classics(Jungle Fever, Malcolm X, When the Levees Broke, etc) to some in the closet director who makes a handful of movies WITH THE SAME DAMN CHARACTER and the same buffonish slapstick shtick there really is no point having this debate. No big deal though right. HE'S GETTIN PAID NIGGA. CHA CHING. You know what they say in Hollywood. If blackman needs a hit you know what does? Put on a dress. Maybe for the next one TP he can borrow one out of your closet?
Then further down the thread, you obsess about Spike Lee's jock strap..."Tyler Perry couldn't hold Spike's jock strap." LMAO, forget about Tyler, YOU'RE THE ONE RIDING SPIKE'S SPIKE TONIGHT, You're all "On-that-Jock" Gunns___, lmao.
Introducing jock straps and "dresses in the closet" into the thread--you sure you want to go there with WEBB? I just checked my closet. Sorry, no dresses...but I found your girlfriend's ****** in my dresser drawer.
Maybe TP can borrow anyone of the pretty ones in yours?
No big deal though, right?
Van Peebles CHANGED the Game, forever and ever, Amen.
The Poll-of-the-Moment: Spike Lee vs. Tyler Perry - Where do YOU stand?
One thing that really stupefies me is how afro-americans ignores its artists with a capital A, i mean is there an engaging middle class?
Afro-americans or Blacks today equals hip hop ONLY.
While your culture and contribution to humanity in arts spans a broader spectrum.
I do not know of any people so ignorant of it own culture.
think this will be a movie I will pay to see in a public theater instead of waiting for netflix
I could not have said it better myself.
I hope you are doing well.
I've bought "Madea" movies as gifts...and they were appreciated and the persons who received them were not "ignorant buffoons".
I watched the 60 Minutes Tyler Perry interview and was impressed with the man.
Maybe Spike Lee is jealous.
-----------------------------------------------------------
I have a series of questions AS I EXPECT THE NEXT OUTRAGE OF PROGRESSIVEBLOGSHERE PRESIDENTS:
1. Why is Reid using Obama's language saying "Reid said he is a "strong supporter" of the public option but that is is "not a silver bullet." He said it was a key way to ensure competition among insurers and "to level the playing field.".---- ITS THE DAMN SAME THING OBAMA HAS BEEN SAYING WORD FOR WORD PROGRESSIVEBLOGOSHERE PRESIDENTS.
2. What is the opt-out and why does Reid say there is a co-op too?
3. Why hasn't Reid asked the president to make the calls yet? HUMMMMMMMMMMM let me guess Obama will need to make the calls during conference. And Clyburn had it right he said they did not want Obama heavy involved because the congress and senate actually WANT TO DO THEIR JOB. THAT IS, ENSURE THAT THE SEPARATION OF POWER STAYS IN PLAY INSTEAD OF BEING ORDERED AROUND WHICH LEAD TO THE CLINTON FAILURE.
but i know there is another outrage coming sooooooooon. I hope that Harry Reid is not double crossed and I just want him to get it out of the SENATE. Don't trust him and can someone tell me what is in the opt-out? co-op too?
That Election '08 documentary : For The People is premering on HBO next week. I don't have HBO, so I wish they would show it online too.
Here's the trailer: http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/bythepeople/vi...
OMG!! Ya'll gotta check out the little white kid who was phonebankiing for Obama last year
One Thing that is clear about the HRC debate is that Congress is being forced to relearn this skill. It is messy and unfamiliar territory to anybody who does not remember what a functioning Congress looked like. Most Reporters, staffers and Members have never covered or been part of a functional legislative process. The measurement for Legislative success over the last 15+ years has been: is Congress doing or not doing exactly what Leadership and/or the President wants them to do. The current HCR debate can not be measured by that yardstick. This time success will be measure by how well or how poorly Congress crafts Legislation.
President Obama has given the Legislative Branch his goals and preferences for legislation. He has not given them marching orders--and that is a good thing for our Democracy. Congress will have to sort out the details themselves. It is called Legislation and I for one am glad that this branch of Government is beginning to act like a co-equal part of the Government again. It is also good that President Obama refuses to give into the temptation to tell them exactly what to do. This tough love for the broken branch is way overdue.
I know that many are so used to the unitary executive meme of the Bush years that they think President Obama must do the same, but from our side. Many are dismayed that he is not using that power to ram through progressive policies and forcing a Democratic Congress to rubber stamp them. While it would make it easier to cover issues and fit them into familiar narrative structure, it would still be wrong.
Legislation is messy. Congress needs to do its job as a co-equal branch of the Government. The President in our system is not a King. I for one, am glad to see a President willing to let Congress Legislate as a co-equal.
Regardless of how the HCR debate turns out (and I think it will turn out just fine), this is a good thing.
Congress has been weak and broken for over twenty years. Fixing Congress is important. I'm glad to see the HCR debate be a step in that direction.
DailyKos response: Congress' role in health care reform
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2009/10/26/041...
The absolute nadir for Congress IMO was the vote to authorize military force in Iraq and the many Dems that voted for that.
We can't complain about the danger our democracy faces with an "imperial Presidency" during one administration and then want that "imperial Presidency" back the next one.
works for me!
After a weekend of furious activity, Democratic leaders in the Senate think they are close to getting the votes they need in order to pass an "opt-out" version of the public option.
But they feel like President Obama could be doing more to help them, with one senior staffer telling TNR on Sunday that the leadership would like, but has yet to receive, a clear "signal" of support for their effort.
The White House, for its part, says President Obama supports a strong public option, as he always has--and that, as one senior administration official puts it, the president will support the Senate leadership in "whichever way" it chooses to go on this particular question.
Read those statements carefully and you'll see they don't actually contradict each other. Instead, they offer a pretty good picture of where the public option debate is at the beginning of a week that could quite possibly decide its fate.
For those just tuning in, the underlying issue here is whether to create a government-run insurance program into which people could enroll voluntarily and that might, ideally, provide more affordable coverage while providing the private insurance industry with much-needed competition. As recently as two or three weeks ago, many observers (this writer included) thought the idea was more or less dead politically.
But interest in the public option has surged, thanks in part to anger at the insurance industry and the idea's resiliency in opinion surveys. Supporters of the public plan have made headway by seizing on a proposed compromise first introduced by Delaware Senator Tom Carper--a proposal under which the federal government would create some sort of national public plan, but still allow states to opt out of it.
Key liberal proponents of the public plan, like Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, have indicated they could support an opt-out. More important, key centrist Senators have hinted some they might be amenable to such a proposal, as well. According to several Capitol Hill sources, those statements--along with private conversations between the leadership and their members--have convinced Democrat leaders it's possible to pass an opt-out. In fact, they think may be just one or two votes away from sixty, the number necessary to break a filibuster. (Not every senator who votes to break the filibuster would necessarily vote for the final plan.)
But when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid briefed the president at the White House on Wednesday, Obama responded with a series of tough questions--not rejecting the idea, but not rushing to embrace it, either. When word of that meeting leaked out, public option supporters took Obama's reaction to mean that the administration continued to prefer the "trigger" compromise, under which a failure by private insurers to deliver affordable coverage would trigger the creation of a public plan.
Maine Senator Olympia Snowe, the lone Republican working with Democrats on health care, favors a trigger. And it's no secret that the administration has worked hard to keep her on board--either because Obama wants at least one Republican vote, because he believes losing her might mean losing some moderate Democrats, or some combination thereof.
Whatever his reasons--and it's possible only Obama himself knows--his reaction prompted complaints that generated headlines in the Huffington Post and Talking Points Memo, among others. The administration responded by stating, clearly, it was not trying to undercut the Senate leadership. But it still did not go out of its way to support the opt-out--something the Senate leadership noticed, according to the senior staffer.
The administration could send a signal, in some form or fashion, that they support the Democratic leadership's proposal to include this public option with a state opt-out in the bill. ... a word of support from the president, from [administration spokesman Robert] Gibbs at the podium, any number of ways ... any indication of support would be appreciated by the leadership.
This staffer added that administration officials "seem more interested in pursuing an Olympia Snowe strategy."
The administration, meanwhile, continued to say what it was saying late last week: That Obama wants the strongest possible public option that the Senate will approve--and that it stands behind Reid's effort to build that support. On Sunday, a senior administration official told TNR
We will be 100 percent behind whichever direction Reid decides to go. ... Reid hasn't asked for help. He is polling his caucus to make a decision on the opt out or the trigger. Whichever way he chooses, president Obama will help make the sale publicly and privately.
http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-treatment/obama-coo...
I think someone posted below Senate you don't need help, you have the power use it. YOU ARE A CO-EQUAL BRANCH act like it. FOR the last 30 years we have had spineless legislature who don't want to do the hardwork or think independently
CO-EQUAL BRANCH [THE PRESIDENT IS NOT THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE, SENATORS DO IT YOURSELF]
Executive Branch---executes the law [elected by the people, states the preferred will of the people]
Legislative--- makes the laws [direct representative of the people ---hence the OFA etc to put pressure on them to make the law their rep. want]
Judiciary: interpret the laws.
Kneegrow just needs to quit.
LOL
Christie's politics are despicable but the manner in which he presents them isn't. Hardball must call both Willie Brown and Ron Christie in advance. Christie goes and receives talking points from the GOP/die hards. Willie Brown appears to have nothing.
When you present a timeline as an argument you represent facts that are verifiable as opposed to a call for patience and deliberation. People don't have patience or deliberation even though that is the correct thing to do. With people like Christie you need to go to a timeline he and then sum up with he got it wrong.
It would be Jul 2001 warning from intelligence agencies attack imminent no deliberat attempt to find out where
Sep 2001 attack
Oct 7th 2001 Invasion of Afghanistan
Dec 2001 truce called in Bora Bora mountains Osama Bin Laden escapes
Mar 20th 2003 Invasion of Iraq on bad information
May 1st 2003 Bush declares mission accomplished fighting still going on in Afghanistan
Dec 6th 2006 Iraq study group reccomends surge
Jan 10th 2007 President Bush announcement surge approved
That is 31 days to make a decision after 3+ years of Mission Accomplished. Who dithered Mr Christie? How long does it take to make decisions Mr Christie. President Obama called for a strategy in Mar of 2009 and in Sept 2009 he calls for a change. Isn't that quicker than Mr Bush and Sheney? No change in strategy in Afghanistan in how long?
Detroit: Urban Laboratory and the New American Frontier
NB: This post is intended to be provocative.
The troubles of Detroit are well-publicized. Its economy is in free fall, people are streaming for the exits, it has the worst racial polarization and city-suburb divide in America, its government is feckless and corrupt (though I should hasten to add that new Mayor Bing seems like a basically good guy and we ought to give him a chance), and its civic boosters, even ones that are extremely knowledgeable, refuse to acknowledge the depth of the problems, instead ginning up stats and anecdotes to prove all is not so bad.
But as with Youngstown, one thing this massive failure has made possible is ability to come up with radical ideas for the city, and potentially to even implement some of them. Places like Flint and Youngstown might be attracting new ideas and moving forward, but it is big cities that inspire the big, audacious dreams. And that is Detroit. Its size, scale, and powerful brand image are attracting not just the region's but the world's attention. It may just be that some of the most important urban innovations in 21st century America end up coming not from Portland or New York, but places like Youngstown and, yes, Detroit.
..........................................
This piece also highlights one the absolutely crucial advantage of Detroit. It's possible to do things there. In Detroit, the incapacity of the government is actually an advantage in many cases. There's not much chance a strong city government could really turn the place around, but it could stop the grass roots revival in its tracks.
Can you imagine a two-story beehive in Chicago? In many cities where strong city government still functions effectively, citizens are tied down by an array of regulations and permits that are actually enforced in most cases. Much of the South Side of Chicago has Detroit like characteristics, but the techniques of renewal in Detroit won't work because they are likely against code and would be shut down the minute someone complained. Just as one quick example, my corner ice cream stand dared to put out a few chairs for patrons to sit on while enjoying a frozen treat on a hot day. The city cited them for not having a license. So they took them away and put up a "bring your own chair" sign. The city then cited them for that too. You can't do anything in Chicago without a Byzantine array of licenses, permits, and inspections.
In central Indianapolis, which is in desperate need of investment, where the city can't fill the potholes in the street, etc., the minute a few yuppies buy houses in an area and fix them up, they immediately petition for a historic district, a request that has never been refused, ensuring that anyone who ever wants to do anything will be forced to run a costly and grueling gauntlet of variances, permits, hearings, etc. Only the most determined are willing to put up with that.
In most cities, municipal government can't stop drug dealing and violence, but it can keep people with creative ideas out. Not in Detroit. In Detroit, if you want to do something, you just go do it. Maybe someone will eventually get around to shutting you down, or maybe not. It's a sort of anarchy in a good way as well as a bad one. Perhaps that overstates the case. You can't do anything, but it is certainly easier to make things happen there than in most places because of the hand of government weighs less heavily.
What's more, the fact that government is so weak has provoked some amazing reactions from the people who live there. In Chicago, every day there is some protest at City Hall by a group from some area of the city demanding something. Not in Detroit. The people in Detroit know that they are on their own and if they want something done they have to do it themselves. Nobody from the city is coming to help them. And they've found some very creative ways to deal with the challenges the result. Consider this from the Dowie piece:
About 80 percent of the residents of Detroit buy their food at the one thousand convenience stores, party stores, liquor stores, and gas stations in the city. There is such a dire shortage of protein in the city that Glemie Dean Beasley, a seventy-year-old retired truck driver, is able to augment his Social Security by selling raccoon carcasses (twelve dollars a piece, serves a family of four) from animals he has treed and shot at undisclosed hunting grounds around the city. Pelts are ten dollars each. Pheasants are also abundant in the city and are occasionally harvested for dinner.
This might sound awful, and indeed it is. But it is also an inspiration and a testament to the human spirit and defiant self-reliance of the American people. I grew up in a poor rural area where, while hunting is primarily recreational, there are still many people supplementing their family diet with wild game. Many a freezer is full of deer meat, for example. And of course, rural residents have long gardened, freezing and canning the results to help get them through the winter. So this doesn't sound quite so strange to me as it might to you. The fate of the urban poor and the rural poor are more similar than is often credited. And contrary to stereotypes the urban poor often display amazing grit and ingenuity, and perform amazing feats to sustain themselves, their families and communities.
As the focus on agriculture and even hunting show, in Detroit people are almost literally hearkening back to the formative days of the Midwest frontier, when pioneer settlers faced horrible conditions, tough odds, and often severe deprivation, but nevertheless built the foundation of the Midwest we know, and the culture that powered the industrial age. No doubt in the 19th century many of those sitting secure in their eastern citadels thought these homesteaders, hustlers, and fortune seekers crazy for leaving the comforts of civilization to head to places like Iowa and Chicago. But some saw the possibilities of what could be and heeded the call to "Go West, young man." We've come full circle.
http://theurbanophile.blogspot.com/2009/08/detr...
Public Option w/ Opt-Out in Senate Bill (Harry Reid).
Governor Pawlenty says MN should opt out. Leave Tim, just leave already. Here's hoping Opt-out is baseline for Conference Commitee. Have a good day.
Heart Attack: Natural Causes Send Madoff Billionaire to the Bottom of the Pool
Toxicology report still pending for the man who pulled more out of Madoff's scheme than anybody.
The body of Jeffry Picower, the man who pulled more money -- $7 billion -- out of the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme, underwent an autopsy today and the cause of death is determined to be drowning as a result of a massive heart attack, according to Dr. Michael Bell, the medical examiner who performed the autopsy.
Bell told ABC News that the toxicology results will take ten weeks and if there is anything found that could have contributed to Picower's death he will amend the death certificate.
The body can now be released for burial, according to Bell.
"Usually the family will have a funeral home fax a release form, at which time we will hand over the body to the funeral home for burial," said Bell.
Picower's wife Barbara called 911 yesterday at around noon when she noticed her husband, who had been swimming in the pool outside their gigantic Palm Beach mansion, had sunk to the bottom.
call it tinfoil hat if you wish.
Neither do I.
Herd Mentality
Now when it comes to computers I am Apple ALL the way.
The iPhone is the Alpha and the Omega. LMAO.
I love the apps!
SWEET!
"The U.S. healthcare system is just as wasteful as President Barack Obama says it is, and proposed reforms could be paid for by fixing some of the most obvious inefficiencies, preventing mistakes and fighting fraud, according to a Thomson Reuters report released on Monday."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091026/ts_nm/us_us...
Nothing particularly new there, but its a nicely timed reminder for the so called deficit hawks.
"Mandatory Compliance Programs for Providers and Suppliers. Requires providers and suppliers to adopt compliance programs focusing on reduction of fraud, waste, and abuse. Empowers the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to disenroll non-compliant providers and suppliers and/or impose civil monetary penalties or other intermediate sanctions.
Provider and Supplier Enrollment Scrutiny. Requires pre-enrollment screening of Medicare providers and suppliers. Screening includes background and criminal history checks, licensure history and compliance with other program requirements before Medicare billing privileges are granted. Allows enrollment moratoria in specifically identified high-risk areas. Limits Medicare enrollment for durable medical equipment and home health services companies.
Enhanced Government Auditing. Requires Medicare and Medicaid program integrity contractors to conduct audits and payment reviews. Gives the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) additional audit powers and the authority to collect overpayments uncovered by audits.
Increased Fraud and Abuse Funding. Increases funding for the Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Fund by an additional $100 million per year and allows for more flexible use of such funds. "
She was disappointed.
Ms. Jalhal, the former Afghan minister of women, bluntly told her both were needed. "It is good for Afghanistan to have more troops – more troops committed with the aim of building peace and against war, terrorism, and security – along with other resources," she answered. "Coming together they will help with better reconstruction."
Rethinking their position
Code Pink, founded in 2002 to oppose the US invasion of Iraq, is one of the more high-profile women's antiwar groups being forced to rethink its position as Afghan women explain theirs: Without international troops, they say, armed groups could return with a vengeance – and that would leave women most vulnerable.
Though Afghans have their grievances against the international troops' presence, chief among them civilian casualties, many fear an abrupt departure would create a dangerous security vacuum to be filled by predatory and rapacious militias. Many women, primary victims of such groups in the past, are adamant that international troops stay until a sufficient number of local forces are trained and the rule of law established. (Read more about Afghan women's concerns here.)
'Code Pink' rethinks its call for Afghanistan pullout
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/10/pariot...
Ugly, especially after there were reports about extensive abuses.
Whisper it quietly. Contrary to popular opinion, the west has won the war in Afghanistan.
How do I know this? Because Barack Obama says the aim of the war is to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat" al-Qaida in Afghanistan – a strategy endorsed by our very own Gordon Brown. If that's the case, then let me spell it out to the president and the prime minister: there are no Afghans in al-Qaida, and no al-Qaida in Afghanistan.
So why not declare victory and bring the troops home?
That's not just my humble view – that's the view of one of the world's leading counter-terrorism experts, Dr Marc Sageman, of the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia: Dr Sageman has impeccable credentials: a forensic psychiatrist, sociologist and scholar-in-residence with the New York police department, he served as a CIA case officer in Islamabad in the late 1980s, working closely with the Afghan mujahedin. His most recent book, based on an analysis of more than 500 terrorist biographies, convincingly argues that Bin Laden and his ilk have ceased to function as an organisational or operational entity and that the "present threat has evolved from a structured group of al-Qaida masterminds, controlling vast resources and issuing commands, to a multitude of informal local groups trying to emulate their predecessors by conceiving and executing operations from the bottom up. These 'homegrown' wannabes form a scattered global network, a leaderless jihad."
...
First, the claim that fighting a war in Afghanistan protects the streets of New York and London from terrorist attack. The crux of Dr Sageman's argument, and empirical research, is that, since 2002, there has not been a single terrorist plot in the west that can be traced back to Afghanistan. "
...
Second, the claim that a resurgent Taliban poses a threat to the west. Dr Sageman is adamant that the prospect of "deeply divided" Taliban forces retaking Kabul and returning to power in Afghanistan is "not a sure thing". Nor would a Taliban return to power "mean an automatic new sanctuary for al-Qaida." The relationship between the two organisations, he says, "has always been strained … indeed, al-Qaida has so far not returned to Taliban controlled areas in Afghanistan." It is a view shared, incidentally, by a senior member of the Obama administration, the national security adviser, General James Jones, who told CNN that "the al-Qaida presence [in Afghanistan] is very diminished. The maximum estimate is less than 100 operating in the country. No bases. No ability to launch attacks on either us or our allies."
Third, the claim that Afghanistan will benefit from an Iraq-style "surge" of western troops. This was Sageman's testimony on Capitol Hill: Dr Sageman is keen for policymakers in the west, who promote falsehoods and myths about Afghanistan while sitting "several thousand miles from the war zone", to acknowledge the futility of escalation, instead of recognising the success in ridding Afghanistan of al-Qaida, as long ago as 2002.
We won't find al-Qaida in Afghanistan
Al-Qaida defeated?
I thought Al-Quaida IS a resistance call.
And i do not think they need a base to operate, neither IRA nor ETA needed one.
I mean is there a stark line these days that separates Al-Qaeda from Taliban?
I tend to ignore journalists most of time, so i do not know nothing about that war.
Surely it is not only about Al-Qaeda and the West DO not care about the well being of those people - NEVER did, it is a political and economic strategy war, i think.
They did everything they could not to hear us. They've been ignoring our demands ever since we asked them to meet with us at their convention this weekend. So, tonight, taxpayers decided to invite ourselves in. All we wanted to do was deliver a letter to the Wall Street bankers to let them know how much they've hurt our communities - and what they need to do to clean up their act.
They wouldn't listen to us. They kicked us out. But, the bad news for them is that we'll be back. We're not going to leave after tonight. In fact, more and more people are coming to Chicago in the next 48 hours. What started as a thousand people tonight will continue to grow up until Tuesday when more than 5,000 taxpayers march on the ABA and demand an end to Wall Street greed.
VIDEO: You Weren't on the Guest List
Steven Hahn
October 26, 2009 | 12:00 am
Up from History:
The Life of Booker T. Washington
By Robert J. Norrell
(Harvard University Press, 508 pp., $35)
I.
Once the most famous and influential African American in the United States (and probably the world), Booker T. Washington has earned at best mixed reviews in the decades since his death in 1915. Black intellectuals and political activists, from W. E. B. Du Bois to the present day, have generally seen Washington as a conservative racial accommodationist, yielding to the repressive power of Jim Crow and urging American blacks to abandon their political struggles for equality and instead to set their sights on a future of manual labor and petty property ownership.
Nothing brought Washington more notoriety than the speech that he delivered in 1895 at the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta when, before a racially mixed audience, he appeared to acquiesce to the imperatives of legal segregation ("in all things purely social we can be as separate as the fingers") while encouraging African Americans to "cast down your buckets" in the Jim Crow South. Although he is still read in college (and some high school) classes, usually against Du Bois, and remains in the pantheon of black historical figures, Washington is widely ridiculed and derided in black communities for his seemingly shameless pursuit of white favor. For many, he is the classic "Uncle Tom." Even his most distinguished biographer, Louis R. Harlan, could not do much better than find at Washington's core a drive for personal power and a penchant for political manipulation. And now that we are in the Age of Obama, when a man of African descent who set his sights on higher education and threw himself into grassroots politics--in short, who did many of the things that Washing-
ton advised against--has been elected president of the United States, do we really need to reacquaint ourselves with the likes of Booker T. Washington? Do his life and views any longer have meaning for us? Do we need another biography?
Robert J. Norrell clearly thinks we do. The author of several histories of race and the American South, including a fine study of the civil rights movement in Tuskegee, Alabama, where Washington flourished, Norrell believes that both the professional and popular wisdoms on Washington are seriously mistaken. In his view, they overestimate the efficacy of protest as a vehicle for change and they underestimate the challenges that Washington faced. Americans, Norrell writes, have lost touch not only with the idea of educational, moral, and economic development as a means for integrating disadvantaged groups in the modern world, but also with the memory of how fiercely Southern whites contested the developmental projects that Washington devised. In Booker T. Washington, Norrell sees a sophisticated mind, a complex approach to social problems, and admirable goals for the people he sought to lead, all in a world that set profound limits on what he could expect to achieve. Rather than take the potentially suicidal path of resistance or simply concede the fight, Washington offered hope and optimism, together with an effort to rise above history itself. But who, we might ask, benefitted from his offer, and how?
http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/the-r...
• Afternoon: President Obama will speak to sailors at Naval Air Station Jacksonville on the first stop of a two-day trip to Florida.
• Evening: President Obama will attend a fundraiser at Fontainebleau on Miami Beach to benefit Democratic members of the U.S. House and Senate. He will stay in Miami overnight.
CPAN: Presidential Remarks at Fundraiser in Miami
Monday Timeline for President Obama's visit to Florida
Online Dating Site: Only the Beautiful Need Apply
The U.S. attorney's office accused Family Bank and Trust Co. of conspiring with with its former top executive and others in 2001 to violate federal bank regulations by failing to file multiple currency transaction reports. The unfiled reports involved deposits of more than $800,000.
The bank has been placed on two years' probation and ordered to forfeit $800,000. It also will relinquish any claims involving $2.2 million being held by the government in connection with the drug trafficking case
In that prosecution, multiple defendants were convicted of structuring cash deposits from their illegal business into multiple accounts at Family Bank to disguise the illegal nature of the proceeds.
Bank admits to laundering drug trafficking money
did you get a chance to watch Madmen?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x9138r_tSA
Jodeci and H-Town need to hang it up! SMH. Devonte's all cracked out w/ meth-head teeth. Sad...