Verizon's diabolical plan to turn the Web into pay-per-view

By Bill Snyder | InfoWorld

Think of all the things that tick you off about cable TV. Along with brainless programming and crummy customer service, the very worst aspect of it is forced bundling. You can't pay just for the couple of dozen channels you actually watch. Instead, you have to pay for a couple of hundred channels, because the good stuff is scattered among a number of overstuffed packages.

Now, imagine that the Internet worked that way. You'd hate it, of course. But that's the direction that Verizon, with the support of many wired and wireless carriers, would like to push the Web.

That's not hypothetical. The country's No. 1 carrier is fighting in court to end the Federal Communications Commission's policy of Net neutrality, a move that would open the gates to a whole new - and wholly bad - economic model on the Web.

As it stands now, you pay your Internet service provider and go wherever you want on the Web. Packets of bits are just packets and have to be treated equally. That's the essence of Net neutrality.

But Verizon's plan, which the company has outlined during hearings in federal court and before Congress, would change that. Verizon and its allies would like to charge websites that carry popular content for the privilege of moving their packets to your connected device. Again, that's not hypothetical.

ESPN, for example, is in negotiations with at least one major cellular carrier to pay to exempt its content from subscribers' cellular data caps. And what's wrong with that? Well, ESPN is big and rich and can pay for that exemption, but other content providers - think of your local jazz station that streams audio - couldn't afford it and would be out of business. Or, they'd make you pay to visit their websites. Indeed, if that system had been in place 10 years ago, fledglings like Google or YouTube or Facebook might never have gotten out of the nest.

Susan Crawford, a tech policy expert and professor at Yeshiva University's Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, says Verizon wants to "cable-ize the Internet." She writes in her blog that "The question presented by the case is: Does the U.S. government have any role in ensuring ubiquitous, open, world-class, interconnected, reasonably priced Internet access?"

Verizon: the new Standard Oil

Verizon and other carriers answer that question by saying no.

They argue that because they spent megabucks to build and maintain the network, they should be able to have a say over what content travels over it. They say that because Google and Facebook and other Internet companies make money by moving traffic over "their" networks, they should get a bigger piece of the action. (Never mind that pretty much every person and business that accesses Google or Facebook is already paying for the privilege, and paying more while getting less speed than users in most of Europe.)

In 2005, AT&T CEO Ed Whitacre famously remarked that upstarts like Google would like to "use my pipes free, but I ain't going to let them do that because we have spent this capital and we have to have a return on it."

That's bad enough, but Verizon goes even further. It claims that it has a right to free speech and, like a newspaper that may or may not publish a story about something, it can choose which content it chooses to carry. "Broadband providers possess 'editorial discretion.' Just as a newspaper is entitled to decide which content to publish and where, broadband providers may feature some content over others," Verizon's lawyers argue in a brief (PDF).

That's so crazy I won't bother to address it. But the FCC has done such a poor job of spelling out what it thinks it has the right to regulate and how that should work that the door is wide open for the carriers' bizarre - not to mention anticonsumer -- strategies and arguments.

I don't want to get down in the regulatory weeds, but there is one bit of legalese that's worth knowing: common carrier. Simply put, it means that the company doing the shipping can't mess with the contents. A railroad is a common carrier, and as such it can't decide whose cargo it will carry and whose it won't.

Before railroads were common carriers, they did things like favor products made by John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, which made him even richer and also led to the creation of a wildly out-of-control monopoly. (Yeshiva's Crawford has an in-depth but readable explanation of these issues in her book "Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age."

But the FCC has never ruled that ISP's are common carriers, partly because it's afraid of the power of the lobbyists to influence Congress and partly because its directors lack spine. And now that lack of spine is about to bite the butt of everyone who uses the Web.

According to people who follow this stuff closely, because ISP's are not common carriers the judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., are looking askance at the FCC's defense against Verizon's lawsuit, although a verdict isn't likely for months.

Here are the stakes: "If Verizon - or any ISP - can go to a website and demand extra money just to reach Verizon subscribers, the fundamental fairness of competing on the Internet would be disrupted. It would immediately make Verizon the gatekeeper to what would and would not succeed online. ISP's - not users, not the market - would decide which websites and services succeed," writes Michael Weinberg, vice president of Public Knowledge, a digital advocacy group.

A taste of the Web's future: The Time Warner vs. CBS dust-up

You don't have to wait for the Verizon verdict to get a taste of what the New Web Order would be like. Time Warner Cable and CBS just had a dust-up over how much Time Warner would pay CBS to carry its programming. When the pair couldn't agree, the cable giant stopped carrying CBS programming in New York City, Los Angeles, and Dallas. CBS then retaliated by stopping Time Warner subscribers from streaming its programming over the Internet.

They settled after about a month. Staying true to form, Time Warner refused to give customers a rebate as compensation for lost programming.

That's not exactly the same issue that we're facing in the fight over Net neutrality, but it should give you a sense of what life is like when the giants fight it out over what you're allowed to access and for how much. Users get caught in the middle, and the rights we've taken for granted simply disappear.

I welcome your comments, tips, and suggestions. Post them here (Add a comment) so that all our readers can share them, or reach me at bill@billsnyder.biz. Follow me on Twitter at BSnyderSF.
This article, "Verizon's diabolical plan to turn the Web into pay-per-view," was originally published by InfoWorld.com. Read more of Bill Snyder's Tech's Bottom Line blog and follow the latest technology business developments at InfoWorld.com. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.

Raspberry Pi as an Ad Blocking Access Point

Ads? What Ads?

Advertising is prevalent on the web. It's a necessary evil at times, but can also be greatly overused by companies slowing down your page loads, and bringing your connected devices to a crawl. Learn how to block these ads using your Raspberry Pi.

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The Day John Boehner Admitted He's Totally at a Loss

The speaker is out of ideas for dealing with his restive right wing.

 

By Molly Ball  

  

On Tuesday, after John Boehner’s last gambit to pass a government-funding bill ran aground in the face of a Tea Party revolt, a reporter asked the House speaker if he had any idea what he’d do next.

“No. Do you have an idea?” Boehner replied, according to Politico. “They’ll just shoot it down anyway.”

Boehner’s dilemma -- finding a way to satisfy the right wing of his caucus that doesn’t involve shutting down the government -- isn’t new. The debate rages in Washington over whether he has an impossible job or whether he’s just terrible at it, but it doesn't really matter.

Throughout it all, as Congress lurches from crisis to crisis, he has always evinced a survivor’s weary optimism that this, too, shall pass. But now he is finally, totally, out of ideas.

This COUNTRY Is NEVER GOING FORWARD Unless WE END Right Wing Rule In The House

Ring of Fire 9/8/13

Farron Cousins from The Trial Lawyer Magazine will be sitting in for Pap this week.

American CEO's are being handsomely rewarded for destroying the businesses that they are running, and Zoe Carpenter from The Nation magazine will tell us how these CEOs continuously "fail upwards."

We'll also be discussing the pay-to-play scandals that could finally take down the Keystone XL pipeline.

And we'll be taking a look at a mini-documentary produced by Ring of Fire. The flim features Ring of Fire hosts Mike Papantonio and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. discussing the history of corporate fraud against the government, and the role that whistleblowers play in helping to keep corporations from taking advantage of federal contracts.

Written by Michael Sallah, Debbie Cenziper, Steven Rich

Graphics by Ted Mellnik, Emily Chow, Laura Stanton

Photos by Michael S. Williamson

Published on September 8, 2013

This man owed $134 in property taxes. The District sold the lien to an investor who foreclosed on his $197,000 house and sold it. He and many other homeowners like him were

Left with nothing.

On the day Bennie Coleman lost his house, the day armed U.S. marshals came to his door and ordered him off the property, he slumped in a folding chair across the street and watched the vestiges of his 76 years hauled to the curb.

Movers carted out his easy chair, his clothes, his television. Next came the things that were closest to his heart: his Marine Corps medals and photographs of his dead wife, Martha. The duplex in Northeast Washington that Coleman bought with cash two decades earlier was emptied and shuttered.

By sundown, he had nowhere to go.

All because he didn’t pay a $134 property tax bill.

The retired Marine sergeant lost his house on that summer day two years ago through a tax lien sale — an obscure program run by D.C. government that enlists private investors to help the city recover unpaid taxes.

For decades, the District placed liens on properties when homeowners failed to pay their bills, then sold those liens at public auctions to mom-and-pop investors who drew a profit by charging owners interest on top of the tax debt until the money was repaid.

But under the watch of local leaders, the program has morphed into a predatory system of debt collection for well-financed, out-of-town companies that turned $500 delinquencies into $5,000 debts — then foreclosed on homes when families couldn’t pay, a Washington Post investigation found.

 As the housing market soared, the investors scooped up liens in every corner of the city, then started charging homeowners thousands in legal fees and other costs that far exceeded their original tax bills, with rates for attorneys reaching $450 an hour.

Families have been forced to borrow or strike payment plans to save their homes.

Others weren’t as lucky. Tax lien purchasers have foreclosed on nearly 200 houses since 2005 and are now pressing to take 1,200 more, many owned free and clear by families for generations.

Investors also took storefronts, parking lots and vacant land — about 500 properties in all, or an average of one a week. In dozens of cases, the liens were less than $500.

Coleman, struggling with dementia, was among those who lost a home. His debt had snowballed to $4,999 — 37 times the original tax bill. Not only did he lose his $197,000 house, but he also was stripped of the equity because tax lien purchasers are entitled to everything, trumping even mortgage companies.

“This is destroying lives,” said Christopher Leinberger, a distinguished scholar and research professor of urban real estate at George Washington University.

Officials at the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue said that without tax sales, property owners wouldn’t feel compelled to pay their bills.

“The tax sale is the last resort. It’s also the first resort — it’s the only way in the statute to collect debt,” said deputy chief financial officer Stephen Cordi.

But the District, a hotbed for the tax lien industry, has done little to shield its most vulnerable homeowners from unscrupulous operators.

Foreclosures have upended families in some of the city’s most distressed neighborhoods. Houses were taken from a housekeeper, a department store clerk, a seamstress and even the estates of dead people. The hardest hit: elderly homeowners, who were often sick or dying when tax lien purchasers seized their houses.

One 65-year-old flower shop owner lost his Northwest Washington home of 40 years after a company from Florida paid his back taxes — $1,025 — and then took the house through foreclosure while he was in hospice, dying of cancer. A 95-year-old church choir leader lost her family home to a Maryland investor over a tax debt of $44.79 while she was struggling with Alzheimer’s in a nursing home.

Other cities and states took steps to curb abuses, such as capping the fees, safeguarding houses owned by the elderly or scrapping tax sales altogether and instead collecting the money themselves.

“Where is the justice? They’re taking people’s lives,” said Beverly Smalls, whose elderly aunt lost her home in Northeast Washington. “It’s just not right.”

Colbert: Every Time I Watch Eric Bolling, I Want to Kill Myself

By Heather 



Stephen Colbert gave Eric Bolling the treatment he deserved this Thursday evening, after Bolling suggested saving taxpayer money by sending a suicide manual to violent inmates earlier this week.

About all I can say is the feeling is mutual after watching too much of anyone on that network and I'm guessing Colbert is not alone when it comes to Bolling.

Here's more from Raw Story: Colbert: Watching Eric Bolling ‘makes me want to kill myself’:

On Thursday night’s edition of “The Colbert Report,” host Stephen Colbert praised Eric Bolling of Fox News’ “The Five” and said that Bolling’s ingenious solution to lowering prison costs might be a brilliant way of saving taxpayer money. In fact, Colbert said, why not extend the idea of cash-saving suicides to Social Security recipients and other “freeloaders?” [...]

When he needs a little lift, said Colbert, he turns to “Stephen Colbert’s Smile File” for some happy news. “Tonight’s Smile File,” he said, “Ariel Castro.”

“Now folks, you might be saying, ‘Stephen, Ariel Castro is a vile monster whose suicide this week is just the dark end of a dark life. How can anything associated with that man possibly make me smile?’” he explained. “That’s what I thought.”

“Until I tuned in to Fox News’ ‘The Five,’ starring Eric Bolling, who always sees the glass as half full,” he explained, before rolling video of Bolling announcing Castro’s suicide and crowing delightedly that taxpayers are off the hook for his care and feeding during his imprisonment. Read on...

Liberal Firebrand Alan Grayson Leads The Opposition To Strike On Syria

By Deborah Montesano

Rep. Grayson (D-FL) on military intervention in Syria: ‘You notice how, with 196 countries in the world, no one else wants to touch this problem.’ Photo from The Blaze.

The controversy over whether to punish the Syrian government for the chemical weapons attack that took place there has done the unbelievable. It split the political parties and forged new alliances, creating unlikely bonds between Tea Partiers and liberals. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-FL, has become one of the loudest voices leading the opposition to military intervention in Syria.

Grayson is a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which questioned Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Wednesday about the chemical weapons episode. On Thursday, the congressman appeared on the PBS News Hour and Democracy Now to express, first of all, his appreciation that President Obama put the question before Congress — but secondly, to make the case for not doing as the President requested. He sums up his own conclusion, that a ‘limited strike’ would not be a good idea, with four major points:

1. It not only isn’t our responsibility, but it’s especially not our responsibility to act unilaterally. He said:

You notice how, with 196 countries in the world, no one else wants to touch this problem … The international community has spoken. We are the only ones who are contemplating anything like this.

2. There is not a clear result that a strike can accomplish. It won’t end the regime or the civil war or even prevent another use of chemical warfare:

We cannot dictate, much less even influence, what goes on in Syria. It started as a civil war. It’s evolving into a proxy war between Shiite Muslim fundamentalists and Sunni Muslim fundamentalists, both of whom historically are our enemies.

3. A strike would be expensive, costing up to a billion dollars:

The best guess at this point is that the attack we’re talking about here, as it’s been described in general terms, will cost a billion dollars. That’s a billion dollars that could be spent, at least in part, on humanitarian aid to help the almost two million refugees who are now in Jordan and Turkey. It’s also a billion dollars that could be used for domestic needs.

4. It could spin out of control:

It’s clear that if the Syrian government does anything other than simply taking a pounding and ignoring it and brushing it off, and it retaliates in virtually any way, then there will be a war between Syria and the United States, and it will involve boots on the ground.

Grayson then puts the matter in perspective by talking about the enormous problems that the U.S. faces, that must be dealt with by Congress, and soon. Yet, valuable time is consumed by the debate over Syria at what is an extremely crucial moment:

… three weeks from now, there’s going to be a government shutdown, and five weeks from now, the government runs out of money when we reach the debt limit.

It’s appalling to me, appalling to me, that we spend two or three or four weeks debating whether to create a whole new category of war called humanitarian war, rather than dealing with our own problems and trying to solve them.

Americans largely agree. The Congressman told interviewer Jeffrey Brown that he and his colleagues in the House are hearing opposition to the president’s proposed strike by a ratio of 100 to 1. Furthermore, at the time the News Hour aired, only 20 members of Congress were supportive of the idea and 183 opposed.

It’s a novel idea that Congress might actually be listening to the people on this issue and that a new coalition, however temporary, is coming out of the process. The participants in the coalition surely don’t all have the same motivation, but what Grayson wants is to focus on the real concerns of the American people — the 20 million who are still looking for full-time work, the 50 million who don’t have food security, and the 40 million who can’t afford to see a doctor.

And he especially wants them to continue making their voices heard. In order to facilitate the process, he has set up a website, dontattacksyria.com. By signing the site’s petition, the people can send a clear message to Congress: military intervention in Syria is totally unacceptable.

Here’s a video from Grayson’s interview with PBS on why he opposes military intervention in Syria:

Muted labor protests amid fears of Walmart retaliation

By Ned Resnikoff

PICO RIVERA, CA – MAY 30: Walmart cashier Martha Sellers (C) walks a picket line with supporters to protest Walmart’s retaliation against workers who speak out on May 30, 2013 in Pico Rivera, California. Sellers and several other striking Walmart employees and their supporters borded a bus to start a 1,500-mile bus journey titled “Ride for Respect,”‘ ending at the company’s annual meeting at its headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

Two fired Walmart workers and one current employee were arrested Thursday during a national wave of demonstrations against the company.

The protesters, members of the labor group OUR Walmart, were demonstrating outside the Manhattan office of investment banker Christopher Williams, a member of the Walmart board of directors. The protesters hoped to deliver Williams a petition demanding that Walmart pay all employees a minimum wage of $25,000 annually and stop its alleged retaliation against strikers. Two weeks ago, OUR Walmart promised an escalation in the ongoing dispute with the company if those demands were not met by Labor Day.

OUR Walmart organizers promise similar events and rallies across 15 cities nationwide over the course of the day. The rolling series of actions, which organizers say will include hundreds of Walmart employees and thousands more community supporters, is expected to be the largest anti-Walmart event since last year’s Black Friday strike.

But this time, nobody is going to be striking; and even though organizers are not asking Walmart employees to walk off the job, fewer are expected to show up than during Black Friday. If Walmart did lay off some 20 organized workers to send a message, as OUR Walmart claims and Walmart denies, then it appears to be working.

“People are scared because they see how Walmart retaliates,” said Colby Harris, an OUR Walmart member and Walmart employee based in Dallas, Texas. He claimed that OUR Walmart has more members than ever, but “not everyone has spoken out because of the reality of losing their jobs.”

In late May and early June, roughly 100 Walmart employees affiliated with OUR Walmart engaged in what they said was an unfair labor practice (ULP) strike against the company. Strikers are protected from termination by the National Labor Relations Act, but Walmart has argued that the category doesn’t apply to workers who engage in what Walmart spokesperson Kory Lundberg has called “hit-and-run intermittent work stoppages that are part of a coordinated union plan.”

“We actually have a very strict policy against retaliation at Walmart,” said Walmart spokesperson Brooke Buchanan. “And the associates who were terminated were terminated for other reasons, violating our policies, and it did not have anything to do with their association with this group or any other group. If a Walmart associate alleges retaliation has occurred, we will look into the situation, investigate, and take appropriate action.”

Dominic Ware, an OUR Walmart member and former Walmart employee based in the Bay Area, said he was fired in early July and that management told him specifically it was because of his participation in the May-June strike.

“They said the strike was not recognized as a ULP strike,” he said. Though Ware has tried to discuss the firing with his former manager, “to this day, he will not have an open door with me.”

In addition to the 20 workers which OUR Walmart claims have been wrongfully fired, they say another 50 or so have been disciplined for organizing. Harris, though he is still employed at Walmart, told MSNBC he had been written up three times already.

Buchanan shrugged off the latest protests, describing them as “a handful of union-orchestrated media stunts” and saying that OUR Walmart grossly exaggerated the number of Walmart employees involved.

“This is not an associate-based demonstration,” said Buchanan. “This has been sponsored and put on by the unions, something they’ve attempted and failed to be successful at over the last couple of years.” She also claimed that many demonstrators were paid to appear at protests, an allegation which OUR Walmart said is untrue.

This Summer’s Parasites and Viruses Continue to Make People Sick

This summer’s two prolonged outbreaks, one caused by a parasite and the other by a rare Hepatitis A virus, are continuing to add confirmed cases. Neither the parasite nor the viruses are common to North America, but both have moved in for an extended stay.

As of Sept. 3, the Hepatitis A virus has sickened 161 people in 10 states, including Arizona (23), California (78), Colorado (28), Hawaii (8), New Hampshire (1), New Jersey (1), New Mexico (11), Nevada (6), Utah (3) and Wisconsin (2).

The common source for the rare virus strain was a frozen berry mix called “Townsend Farms Organic Antioxidant Blend” sold by Costco stores.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, the four cases attributed to Wisconsin, New Jersey and New Hampshire involved consumption of the virus-contaminated berries in Western states. Six other cases are thought to be due to secondary exposure to other confirmed cases.

The illnesses are winding down as the onset dates for the illnesses range from March 31 to July 26.

Almost half of those sickened (70) required hospitalization, but no deaths have been reported.

The majority of victims, or 55 percent, are women. Ages range from one to 84 years of age. Eleven children younger than 18 years were ill, and none were vaccinated for Hep A. The bulk of those sickened, or 57 percent, fell between 40 and 64 years of age.

Summer’s other lingering outbreak involving the Cyclospora parasite has reached 659 cases in 24 states. Texas, where the outbreak has hit hard in the Dallas/Fort Worth metro area, has seen its case count exceed 300 for the first time, coming in at 305.

After Texas comes Iowa (156), Nebraska (86), Florida (32), Wisconsin (16), Illinois (11), Arkansas (10), Georgia (5), New York, (7) Missouri (5), Kansas (4), New Jersey (4) Louisiana (3), Virginia, (3) Connecticut (2), Ohio (2), Minnesota (2), and one each for Michigan, California, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee and Wyoming.

Like the other outbreak, in a handful of cases the parasites were likely acquired outside of the state where the case was reported.

The Iowa-Nebraska cases were sourced to a mixed salad from Taylor Farms de Mexico, which were served by Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants, among other outlets.

Taylor suspended product shipments to the U.S. from Aug. 12-25, 2013. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the other states continue work to source the illnesses in those states.

Watch_Dogs: Player Freedom and Multiplayer

Ohio kidnapper Ariel Castro dead, suicide suspected

By Traci G. Lee, @traciglee

1:37 AM on 09/04/2013

Convicted Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro was found dead Tuesday night, a prison spokesperson confirmed. Castro, the 53-year-old man arrested and found guilty of kidnapping and raping three women for a decade, was reportedly found hanged in his prison cell in an apparent suicide.

According to a statement from the Ohio Department of Corrections, Castro was discovered in his cell at 9:20 p.m., and transported to the Ohio State University Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead 90 minutes later. ”He was housed in protective custody, which means he was in a cell by himself and rounds are required every 30 minutes at staggered intervals,” the department’s statement read.

Castro was arrested in May after Amanda Berry, one of the three women he held in captivity for a decade, escaped and called for help. The three— Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight—were abducted separately by Castro between 2002 and 2004, and assaulted and raped for years. Castro pleaded guilty in August to 937 counts including kidnapping and rape, and agreed to a life sentence plus 1,000 years without parole.

A spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Corrections says an investigation into Castro’s death is under way.

Will Holder Really Get Tough on Voting Rights?

By Brad Friedman




Note 1: Pardon the herky-jerky Skype web cam video.

Note 2: The BRAD BLOG article about Eric Holder that I believe my friend Mike Papantonio cited during our conversation, was actually written by our legal analyst Ernest Canning. But, of course, I'm proud to stand behind it 100%! Just wanted to give credit where due.

Note 2a: There are several different issues currently in court between TX and the DoJ, and they get a bit conflated during my conversation with Pap. One issue is the filing by the DoJ asking the court to order that the state of Texas be added, or "bailed in", to the list of jurisdictions requiring federal preclearance for all new voting-related laws, given their history of purposeful discrimination with such laws. The current list of jurisdictions is now empty, since the U.S. Supreme Court killed the Voting Rights Act formula used to determine who should be on that list. The other TX/DoJ case we discuss is the DoJ's suit to block the TX GOP's disenfranchising polling place Photo ID restriction.

That law, though it was found discriminatory in 2012 by both the DoJ and a federal court, was re-enacted by TX immediately after SCOTUS gutted the VRA. The DoJ, and other parties, are now suing to block it under the still-existing Section 2 of the VRA, as well as on Constitutional grounds. (We hope to have more details on the lawsuits against the TX GOP's polling place Photo ID restriction law soon. And, I'll add, our coverage should offer some pretty encouraging news for voting rights advocates who, unlike Ernest Canning, may not have dug into all the legal details and already-established facts of the case.)

 Note 3: Enjoy!

Nothing Says You Care Like a Missile Strike

WTF is wrong with Dave Chappelle?

Rumors of Dave Chappelle 'Meltdown' Go Viral

Did he or did he not have a tantrum while walking offstage? Twitter investigates.

Dave Chappelle (Chad Buchanan/Getty Images)

By Tracy Clayton

(The Root) - Late last night, tweets began to fly from audience members of a Dave Chappelle show in Hartford, Conn.

Though all tweets confirm that Chappelle did, in fact, walk offstage - there is video of him walking off as Kanye's "New Slaves" plays -- details vary among those who claim they were in attendance. 

Some say that Chappelle had a full meltdown onstage; others say he just sat down and read a book.

Many angrily blamed Chappelle for the show's end, referencing his record of walking off stages and off his own hit show. But others, like audience member Mike Wellman, point the finger at the crowd, who they say was loud and unruly and became rude once it was clear that Chappelle was not simply going to regurgitate famed lines from his popular television show.

So Dave Chapelle just went on stage, told jokes for around 3 minutes, and the audience wouldnt stop yelling things at him so he stopped
— Mike Wellman (@mikewellman88) August 30, 2013

Everybody hates Dave Chapelle now. I dont. People were not heckling the other comedians
— Mike Wellman (@mikewellman88) August 30, 2013

At one point Chapelle told the crowd “If someone sitting next you is yelling, punch them in the kidney”
— Mike Wellman (@mikewellman88) August 30, 2013

I did want to hear Chapelles jokes but people were literally yelling and yelling
— Mike Wellman (@mikewellman88) August 30, 2013

Based on this account -- and this one by Lesli-Ann Lewis, who wrote about her experience at the show for Ebony -- it sounds as if Chappelle walked offstage for the same reason he walked away from his show: The crowd was only interested in catchphrases and superficial snips. They came to laugh at him, not with him. This is especially easy to believe when you happen upon those in attendance referring to him as a "scum nigger."

There appears to be a pretty clear racial divide in the opinions surrounding the show, generally speaking. Most white commentators seem to view Chappelle's actions as those of a diva throwing a tantrum, while most black observers say he was standing up for himself and protecting his art.

For the ppl who heckled Dave Chappelle tonight, let this be a lesson: you don't disrespect a person & then expect them to perform for you.
— Brian Fleurantin (@BrFleurantin) August 30, 2013

Money has folks feeling super entitled. I paid for this show so I can act a fool. Actually, no you can't. You can act a fool at your house.
— Ashykins (@ASmith86) August 30, 2013

Dave Chappelle reminds me of Lauryn Hill. Everyone wants him to be the guy from the show. He's not that guy anymore, guys.
— Carolyn Edgar (@carolynedgar) August 30, 2013

#TeamChapelle
— Tyrion's Ladyfriend (@larimah) August 30, 2013

Read more at Colorlines.

Tracy Clayton is a writer, humorist and blogger from Louisville, Ky.
Like The Root on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.

Ilford Opens Up a Photo Lab in California, Will Process Your Film by Mail

By D.L. Cade

Good news isn’t always easy to come by in the world of film; more often than not, the stories we run have to do with film being discontinued. But that’s not always the case, and the most recent news out of Ilford should give film lovers something to smile about.

According to Imaging Resource, Harman Technology — the folks behind Ilford — have decided to open up an Ilford lab in California. This means that high-quality black-and-white processing and printing services are now available by mail to all of North America via the Ilford US website.

“It has become more and more difficult for black and white film users to have their films processed and printed to a high quality on real black and white paper,” explains Harman Director of Marketing and North American Sales Steven Brierley. And since their successful UK lab has seen a consistent increase in interest from overseas, Harman is “excited to announce that … we can now offer the same service from a base in California.”

The lab is able to work with black-and-white, C-41 color negative and E-6 transparency films in both the 35mm and 120 formats. Prints will be delivered on Ilford photo paper, and turnaround time is only 2-3 days.

Prices start at $16 per roll, with upgrades, enlargements and digital scans costing extra. To learn more or go ahead and place your first order by mail, check out the full press release or head over to the Ilford US website by clicking here.

---

Image credit: Black & White by DaveBleasdale

GOP leader chose oil industry over MLK marchers

By Alex Seitz-Wald, Published: August 29 at 9:36 am E-mail the writer

The March on Washington anniversary celebration. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

There are 233 Republicans in the House of Representatives, 46 in the Senate and 30 in governor’s mansions across the country. Guess how many made the effort to appear at Wednesday’s giant rally commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington. Zero. Ed O’Keefe reports:

Not a single Republican elected official stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Wednesday with activists, actors, lawmakers and former presidents invited to mark the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington — a notable absence for a party seeking to attract the support of minority voters.

Event organizers said Wednesday that they invited top Republicans, all of whom declined to attend because of scheduling conflicts or ill health.

Democratic congressional leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, weren’t there either, having attended a July commemoration of the march especially for lawmakers — which also included Republican leaders House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia — but the Democratic party was well represented Wednesday by three presidents and a smattering of lawmakers, including civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis of Georgia.

It seems pretty obvious, but if you want to change the fact that your party is viewed skeptically by minorities, and you want to claim Martin Luther King Jr.’s mantel — I’m looking at you Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) – then blowing off the highest profile civil rights event of the year is probably not a smart move, if for no other reason than “optics.” After their losses in the 2012 election, Republicans vowed to make a better effort to reach out to minorities, and just two weeks ago at its summer meeting, the GOP launched a program to attract minority voters by highlighting young “rising stars” in the party.

So what gives? According to O’Keefe, the lawmakers said they “received formal invitations only in recent weeks, making it too late to alter their summer recess schedules.” Republicans had no problem appearing in droves at a hastily organized tea party rally in June, where “[GOP] lawmakers sweltered in a long line waiting to take the stage,” the Wall Street Journal reported. Some weren’t even invited but just showed up hoping to get a chance to speak to the party faithful.

To be fair, Congress was in session then so it was easy for them to merely step outside and into line, but in today’s age, how hard is it to book a plane ticket and reschedule a few meetings? Lawmakers make last-minute changes to their schedules all the time — there is someone in every congressional office whose job is to manage their schedules — so “weeks” seems like enough time to find at least one or two Republicans willing to attend.

So what was did they do instead? Well, Boehner was in Jackson Hole, Wyo., and had no public events scheduled, but he has been headlining GOP fundraisers all this month, so it’s a fairly safe to assume that he was raising cash at the time. Cantor, meanwhile was touring an oil field in North Dakota. The Grand Forks Herald reports:

Cantor, hosted by Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., met with energy industry and community leaders at a crew camp in Williston, toured a drilling site and other oilfield locations in the Bakken and met with North Dakota Petroleum Council members in Watford City.

Cantor praised North Dakota’s approach to energy development and said the country needs to follow the state’s example and adopt a national energy policy.

“I hope to be able to tell the president that there’s a lot for him to learn here as far as energy production here in America,” Cantor said. “North Dakota seems to have gotten it right.”

The North Dakota Petroleum Council, by the way, is a lobby group that represents the state’s oil and gas industry. That’s what Cantor was doing on the day of the march.

“They asked a long list of Republicans to come,” civl rights leader Julian Bond told MSNBC yesterday, “and to a man and woman they said ‘no.’ And that they would turn their backs on this event was telling of them, and the fact that they seem to want to get black votes, they’re not gonna get ‘em this way.” (Sen. Tim Scott, a Republican from South Carolina and the only black member of the Senate, said he was not invited to the march, though leaders say they invited every member of Congress.)

Bond did credit Cantor for trying hard to find a replacement speaker, but, ultimately, the leader was unable to find a single Republican to attend the event.

Assad flees to Iran

By Kevin Brent

Syrian Pres. Bashar al-Assad and his family arrived in Tehran Aug 28, landing at Khomeini Airport aboard his presidential jet. Iranian foreign ministry sources confirmed this with the Lebanese newspaper a-Nahar.

Accompanying the Assad family was a group of senior Syrian government officials who together with Assad are officially there to hold talks with the Iranian government about a Syrian response to a possible US strike on Syrian WMD assets which is expected to take place in the near future.

As this information made its way into a-Nahar, Syrian Army generals continued their dire warning that if Syria is attacked, ‘Israel will burn’ and that if Syria weakens, ‘certain irresponsible groups’ will be formed that would endanger Israel.

Pres. Assad and his family fleeing to Tehran is no surprise. Iran and Syria have been decade’s long allies since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. The Assad’s are Alawite Muslims, which are an offshoot of Shia Islam which is the predominant Muslim sect in Iran.

Syria under the Assad Dynasty of first Hafez and then son Bashar al-Assad were instrumental in helping Iran build, train, equip and supply the terror army known as Hezbollah in southern Lebanon to threaten Israel. Without Assad in control of Syria, Hezbollah can not survive.

Assad's fleeing likely means a Western military strike cannot be far off. If the strike is limited strictly to a brief missile and air campaign, then Assad could return to Damascus once it’s over. If however, events lead to a sustained campaign and/or a ground invasion of Syria by Turkey, Israel or a coalition of nations then Assad’s departure will be permanent.

The most likely reason for the mass chemical weapons attack in the first place, was that Assad’s Fourth Armored Division was in danger of being overrun and they were the last line of defense in central Damascus. Rebels are likely regrouping for a renewed offensive and if Assad does not have any WMD as an option, then returning to Damascus would mean his capture or execution.

There is now a coalition of 36 nations forming for a strike on Syria including Britain, France, Turkey, Australia and Canada among the more powerful nations. It remains to be seen however, whether the United States will participate.

Pres. Obama has been dragging his feet with US allies eager to strike Syrian WMD delivery vehicles and weapons by insisting on a UN Security Council Resolution on Syria, awaiting a UN weapons inspector report when those inspectors have indefinitely postponed any further inspections; and telling world leaders that there has to be accountability assigned before any strike can be authorized.

The governments of Britain, France and Turkey have indicated a willingness to go ahead without the UN on board and have each called their respective Parliaments in to special session for legislative authorization for the use of force. Turkey’s Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan has taken the further measure of asking the Turkish Parliament for a new mandate with language allowing him to act in Syria without a UN mandate or NATO sanction. The existing Syria mandate required one or the other for anything more than defensive operations.

Pres. Assad fleeing to Iran, and with wife and family in tow along with senior regime cronies, is indication that and attack is forthcoming with or without the United States onboard and that someone has tipped off Assad that the attack is pending.

Suggested by the author

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Representative government, my ass

By woo me with science

America does not support strikes on Syria.

Congress is less popular than cockroaches, and strikes in Syria are less popular than Congress.

These corporate pod people we allowed to slither into office over the past 30 years do not represent us. They rule us. We are hostages at this point, not citizens, when it comes to most areas of policy.

Over and over again, we get the big FUCK YOU from our government. They do whatever the hell they want and they use our money to do it. Our tax dollars poured into surveillance systems aimed at us, private prisons, bailouts for billionaires, assaults on journalism, and now yet another bloody war for profit. Meanwhile, they are replacing our paved roads with gravel, shutting down our children's schools, and dismantling our social support systems.

Our "representative government" is an obscene joke at this point, both parties. WE DID NOT VOTE FOR THIS SHIT. 

XBox One Rumored to Debut Nov. 8th

By Chelsea Stark2013-08-27 15:54:19 UTC

Microsoft's Xbox One could beat Sony's PlayStation 4 release date by a week, if a leak from Walmart is true.

Kotaku posted a screenshot that it reportedly received from someone who works for a marketing company that handles signage and product placement for Walmart. The screenshot includes a schedule for all the gaming-related midnight launches through the remainder of the year.

The release lineup mentions major franchise game releases for the rest of year, including Call of Duty: Ghosts, Battlefield 4 and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, along with the confirmed release of Sony's PlayStation 4 on Nov. 15.
Image via Kotaku

Since Microsoft has not confirmed this release date (the company only confirms the console will hit shelves in November), this is purely speculation. Release dates listed on retail websites are often incorrect.

In the screenshot, the Xbox One is the only release date listed without "Confirmed" next to it.
Image: Mashable, Chelsea Stark

Ring of Fire 8/25/13

"Big Pharma's War on Women." Linda Lipsen, CEO of the American Association for Justice talks about big Pharma's penchant for harming female consumers.

"Labor Unions Help Save Lives." Attorneys Mike Burg and Howard Nations talk about recent workplace atrocities around the globe, and how unions could have saved workers' lives.

"Cash Hoarders Devastate Economy." Richard Eskow, host of The Breakdown and senior fellow at the Campaign for America's Future, talks about the top 1% hoarding trillions in cash, and how this affects the income gap in America.

"Your Mortgage Documents Are Fake!" Investigative journalist David Dayen talks about mortgage companies falsifying documents to illegally foreclose on homeowners.

"Senior Citizens At Risk." Attorney Charles Meltmar talks about the rise in cases of nursing home abuse.

NY AG: Trump University a ‘scam from top to bottom’

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Is the NYPD Worse Than the NSA?

By Conor Friedersdorf

The surveillance debate triggered by Edward Snowden's leaks frequently features government spokespeople assuring Americans that the authorities aren't targeting us with their spying activities. Implicit is the notion that if Americans were being targeted, that would be an abuse of power.

In New York City, the debate is different, because there's no doubt about the NYPD's surveillance tactics: They're definitely targeting innocent Americans citizens and legal residents. And that's an ongoing abuse of power, even if comparatively fewer people have heard about it.

We've known for some time that innocent Muslim Americans were ethnically profiled by undercover NYPD officers, causing significant, under-acknowledged hardship in affected communities. Earlier this summer, Charlie Savage reported on four CIA officers embedded within the NYPD, despite the strict rules governing the spy agency's behavior within the United States. And today, New York has published "The NYPD Division of UnAmerican Activities," in which Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman unearth even more alarming details about the NYPD Demographics Unit.

• Official secrecy defined the program from the start. "Documents related to this new unit were stamped NYPD SECRET. Even the City Council, Congress, and the White House -- the people paying the bills -- weren't told about it."

• This is straight-up profiling. "They mapped, looking for 28 'ancestries of interest.' Nearly all were Muslim. There were Middle Eastern and South Asian countries such as Pakistan, Iran, Syria, and Egypt. Former Soviet states like Uzbekistan and Chechnya were included because of their large Muslim populations. The last 'ancestry' on the list was 'American Black Muslim.'"

• Files on New Yorkers were started on the flimsiest of pretexts. "One Muslim man made it into files even though he praised President Bush's State of the Union address and said people who criticized the U.S. government didn't realize how good they had it. Two men of Pakistani ancestry were included for saying the nation's policies had become increasingly anti-Muslim since 9/11. Muslims who criticized the CIA's use of drones to launch missiles in Pakistan were documented."

• Inevitably, spying was used for purposes other than counterterrorism. "Surveillance turned out to be habit-forming .... Undercover officers traveled the country, keeping tabs on liberal protest groups like Time's Up and the Friends of Brad Will. Police infiltrated demonstrations and collected information about antiwar groups and those that marched against police brutality. Detectives monitored activist websites and copied the contents into police files, including one memo in 2008 for Kelly that reported the contents of a website about a group of women organizing a boycott to protest the police shooting of Sean Bell, an unarmed black man killed the morning before his wedding.

The full story contains a lot more objectionable behavior, and after reading how the undercover officers operate it's easy to understand why the unit would cause Muslim-American mosque attendees, small-business owners and patrons, and students throughout the city to grow paranoid in their daily lives. And defenders of the program are unable to point to even a single case where it prevented a terrorist attack -- in fact, they can't even point to a terrorism-related arrest or prosecution.

Usually, when I write phrases like, "This is how a secret police force with files on innocent Americans starts," I'm issuing a warning about the future. But the NYPD literally started a secret police unit that began indiscriminately keeping files on innocent Americans. This isn't a warning about a slippery slope. It is an observation about ongoing abuse of civil liberties in America's biggest city.

Retro gaming with a Raspberry pi

Using a Raspberry Pi for retro I know, that it’s underpowered for quite a few different emulators. I’m very surprised what you can play on it . When you first buy a Rasberry PI, you will have to download their free os called Raspbian. Then you can sign up to the PI store, so you can download all kind of apps. They have four good classic gaming emulators available, all of them are free downloads: MAME4ALL , PiSNES — Super NES emulator, Pcsx_reARMed — PlayStation1, Atari800 — Atari 8-bit computers (800, XL, XE, etc.)

There’s even an image out there called Retro pi. Someone has done all the hard work for you already. The Raspberry Pi will boot automatically into EmulationStation. This is a program running off a custom SD card called RetroPie that allows you to use a controller to select an emulator and a game without ever touching a keyboard or mouse. After everything’s set up, you’ll be able to navigate and do everything you need to do on the Raspberry Pi from a controller.

What systems can you emulate? A lot of them:

• Amiga (UAE4All)
• Atari 2600 (RetroArch)
• Doom (RetroArch)
• Final Burn Alpha (RetroArch)
• Game Boy Advance (RetroArch)
• Game Boy Color (RetroArch)
• Game Gear (Osmose)
• Intellivision (RetroArch)
• MAME (RetroArch)
• MAME (AdvMAME)
• NeoGeo (GnGeo)
• NeoGeo (Genesis-GX, RetroArch)
• Sega Master System (Osmose)
• Sega Megadrive (DGEN)
• Nintendo Entertainment System (RetroArch)
• PC Engine / Turbo Grafx 16 (RetroArch)
• Playstation 1 (RetroArch)
• ScummVM
• Super Nintendo Entertainment System (RetroArch)
• Sinclair ZX Spectrum (Fuse)
• Z Machine emulator (Frotz)

Some of the more advanced emulators like the Playstation 1 and Neo Geo don’t work as well, but for the most part the older systems work great. It has a quick usb copy option, so just format a usb stick and plug it into the retro pi and wait about minute. It will make the directory for you, plug it in your pc and you can just load your roms to your favorite emulator instead of using ftp.

The other thing I found out when it comes to using the Emulation Station and a PlayStation 3 or Xbox360 controller is mapping out the buttons for each individual emulator, it can be a real headache.

There is an auto config tool for the joysticks, but it does not always seem to work properly when you jump from emulator to emulator. So I would recommend going with a third-party generic usb Super Nintendo controller or make your own fight stick. I think it makes a great  Retro Arcade System, and does not cost a lot of money. Here a few links on how to build a Retro pi:

http://supernintendopi.wordpress.com/tag/retropie/
http://blog.petrockblock.com
https://github.com/Aloshi/EmulationStation

KY Gov Praise of Obamacare Leaves McConnell, Rand Dumbfounded

By Nicole Belle

Credit: McClatchy

Lord love Democratic Governor of Kentucky Steve Beshear. Speaking to a crowd of Kentucky voters at a fundraising breakfast, Beshear took the opportunity to praise the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) to the overwhelming support of the audience and take subtle jabs at those who were opposing Obamacare, which include Senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul who were also attending.

Republican Senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul, also attending, weren’t expecting the onslaught. Jill Lawrence reported, “It was not what anyone expected—least of all Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul, who sat stone-faced onstage with Beshear as he unloaded on them without using names.”

Beshear finished with a stab to the heart of GOP’s NoCare, no alternative. “It’s amazing to me how people who are pouring time and money and energy into trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act sure haven’t put that kind of energy into trying to improve the health of Kentuckians,” according to the National Journal.

Ouch. That had to hurt Mitch McConnell especially, who is in a serious fight to retain his seat against challenger Alison Grimes. The National Journal reports that Beshear got very pointed with his criticism:

The governor compared health insurance to "the safety net of crop insurance" and said farmers need both. He said 640,000 Kentuckians—15 percent of the state—don't have health insurance and "trust me, you know many of those 640,000 people. You're friends with them. You're probably related to them. Some may be your sons and daughters. You go to church with them. Shop with them. Help them harvest their fields. Sit in the stands with them as you watch your kids play football or basketball or ride a horse in competition. Heck, you may even be one of them."

Beshear went on to say that "it's no fun" hoping and praying you don't get sick, or choosing whether to pay for food or medicine. He also said Kentucky is at or near the top of the charts on bad-health indicators, including heart disease, diabetes, cancer deaths, and preventable hospitalizations. He said all that affects everything from productivity and school attendance to health costs and the state's image.

"We've ranked that bad for a long, long time," he said. "The Affordable Care Act is our historic opportunity to address this weakness and to change the course of the future of the commonwealth. We're going to make insurance available for the very first time in our history to every single citizen of the commonwealth of Kentucky."

THIS is what I want to see Democrats doing as we near the 2014 mid-terms. Be unapologetic. Put the Democratic agenda in human terms everyone can understand. Push Republicans back on their heels and force them to defend their record.

Take note, Democrats. This is how you do it. 

The Republican Disease Weakens Critical Thinking

Somewhere in the last four or five decades, Republican politicians got the idea in their head that the "R" that was there to identify their party affiliation actually stood for "R" Regressive or "R" Reactionary Rube.

I mean, why is it that every time you hear the loudest, buffoonish diatribe about issues like climate change, stem cell research, education, or religion or damn near anything that demands rational analysis - the buffoon delivering that regressive diatribe is a Republican.

Is it a chicken or an egg analysis that we should apply when we are listening to one more Republican Regressive Rube leaves us dumbfounded with airhead quality opinions about damn near anything that actually requires rational reflection or mature understanding?

Name it -- science or basic narratives about social issues, cultural issues -- why is that character with the big Republican "R" behind their name always the one who leaves us almost breathless as we try to grasp their dullard insight on the topic in question? This past week, for example, one of those Regressive throwback politicians with a big "R" after his name told us that Obama was subverting the will of the American people by trying to expand high speed Internet into every classroom in America.

Michael Grimm, a big "R" Republican from New York was able to lift himself from his knuckles into a fully erect standing position to tell us that the high speed Internet, I suppose, is not good for American students. Seems pretty non-controversial to those of us who stand erect everyday, but genuinely very controversial for a predictable "R" regressive thinker, who again is predictably a Republican leader. I mean, if I had given you those facts and then asked you to guess the political affiliation of the person who made such a remarkable dullard statement, you would have guessed Republican almost 100% of the time without even needing more facts.

Chris Mooney is a hugely talented writer tried that understands that buffoonish big "R" Republican regressive quality. His book, The Republican Brain, questioned why the vast, almost overwhelming, majority of Republicans struggle with issues like Darwin's theory of evolution or global climate change or even Einstein's theory of relativity.

Mooney dug through the Conservapedia, which is the right wing's equivalent of Wikipedia. The creator of Conservapedia is one of Phyllis Schlafly's intellectually and socially disadvantaged home schooled children. The young bone head Schlafly tells the world in his site (for unstable conservatives) that he has proof that abortion causes breast cancer; Einstein was a fraud because his relativity theory questions religion; homosexuality is a depraved mental disorder; Darwin fabricated his research; global climate change is part of the ruse to create a new world order. And it goes pretty much downhill from there.

There was a time when the homeschooled Schlafly dimwit would be summarily dismissed by virtually everyone including Goldwater Republicans as a clownish psycho needing heavy medication. But you know what? Today that crazy crackpot is a respected, even admired Republican spokesperson just like his lunatic mother who is always at the podium in front of massive Republican audiences.

This new Frankenstein mutation of crackpot thinking is who you are if you call yourself a Republican today. It is your brand. It is a contagious infection that chronically weakens progress in science, economics, social or cultural improvement -- It eats away at our ability to even properly educate our children.

It creates a diseased waste around our ability to ever become our best selves. And you need to know if you are one of those Schlafly -quality crackpots still carrying around one of the cards with a big "R" printed somewhere on it -- you help further that disease.

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Rick Perry Quietly Lobbies White House For Obamacare Funding After Maligning It

By Heather



Can you smell the hypocrisy in the air? Sadly, as Lawrence O'Donnell and Ari Melber pointed out in the segment above, if this story gets too much coverage, Gov. Goodhair might use it as an excuse to change his mind and decide to stick it to his constituents rather than accept help for some of the most vulnerable in his state.

Rick Perry Quietly Lobbies The White House For $100 Million In Obamacare Funding:

Politico reported Tuesday evening that Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s (R) administration is in negotiations with the Obama White House to accept about $100 million in federal money to implement an Obamacare Medicaid program to help elderly and disabled Americans.

Perry has been a heated opponent of the health law. He refused to accept $100 billion in federal funding to expand Texas’ Medicaid program under Obamacare, which could have helped 1.5 million poor Texans afford basic health benefits. As recently as April, Perry essentially called the expansion a joke. “Seems to me April Fool’s Day is the perfect day to discuss something as foolish as Medicaid expansion, and to remind everyone that Texas will not be held hostage by the Obama administration’s attempt to force us into the fool’s errand of adding more than a million Texans to a broken system,” said Perry.

Now, Perry is seeking federal dollars for Texas’ Medicaid program anyway.

The Affordable Care Act grants state funding to expand a program called Community First Choice, which aims to improve the community-based medical services available to disabled and elderly Americans. The wildly popular program is administered through Medicaid and could prevent thousands of disabled and older Americans from being uprooted from their homes and into a long-term care facility for their treatments. Approximately 12,000 Texans could take advantage of it in the first year alone.

Perry spokespeople emphasized to Politico that the governor’s support for the program — and the Medicaid funds that make it possible — shouldn’t come as a surprise and doesn’t change his position on the Affordable Care Act.

Perry's been playing politics with the issue forever. There's no reason to believe that's changed, but if he accepts the funding for his state, that's a move in the right direction. It was predicted that a lot of these states that tried to hold out would end up coming around within a few years. Texas looks like they're coming around sooner than many thought they would.

Brandy performs for 40 people in 90,000 seat arena

Singer Brandy said to have performed for only 40 people in a South Africa arena that seats about 90,000. (Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images for BET)

By Nardine Saad

August 22, 2013, 3:57 P.M.

Brandy reportedly played to a nearly empty arena in South Africa this week.

The Grammy Award-winning R&B star was a surprise guest at the Nelson Mandela Sports and Cultural Day concert in Soweto on Saturday, but nearly all of the event-goers were gone by the time she took the stage, according to the Guardian.

The 34 year old "I Wanna Be Down" singer is said to have performed for about 40 audience members in FNB stadium, which has a 90,000-person capacity. Apparently there had been tens of thousands of people attending the earlier rugby and soccer matches, but most of them left while the musical segment — featuring four acts before Brandy — took place.

"Brandy [just] performed to an empty stadium. With the stadium lights on," tweeted Kabomo, a South African musician. "It was late. People didn't know there was a concert after the games. No one knew Brandy was around. Maybe a 40 people audience ... She sulked after two songs and walked off."

Awkward. In the words of Madonna, "The show is over, say goodbye..."



Brandy Best Friend from the self titled album "Brandy"

Video directed by Matthew Rolston

"Best Friend" is an dance-pop song with urban and R&B influences by American singer Brandy. It was written by Keith Crouch, and Glenn McKinney and produced by Krouch for her self-titled debut studio album, Brandy (1994).

The song released as the album's third single in June 1995. With peak positions of number 11 in New Zealand and number 34 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 the song was moderately successful. However, "Best Friend" peaked at number 7 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The song was also featured on her hit series Moesha, where Moesha and her friend cheerleading in the final scene of the episode "Friends" that aired in the same year.

Chart Position (1995) Peak

New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart #11
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 #34
U.S. Billboard Hot R&B Singles #7



Brandy, full name Brandy Norwood, usually promotes her appearances on Twitter but didn't mention anything about her South Africa performance on social media either before or after the event. The newspaper site reported that the event's nationally televised broacast concluded just before Brandy's concert too.

On Aug. 20, her official website put up a post that seemed to intend to showcase a video of the performance. However, the actual post had no video and nothing beyond the show's basic details.

Perhaps because of the sparse turnout at the South Africa event, the singer has gone full force promoting her performances on both her Facebook and Twitter accounts. Neither she nor the  concert promoters have made any statements about the event, according to reports.

In recent years — since a 2006 car accident that killed one woman and embroiled the singer in years of litigation — the "Brandy and Ray J" reality star has built up her acting career. The "Moesha" alum has had stints on "90210" and "The Game" and appeared in Tyler Perry's "Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor."

She will next be featured on embattled singer Chris Brown's upcoming album "X." Brown was featured on Brandy's track "Put It Down" from her sixth studio album "Two Eleven," which was released last year.

Joe Arpaio's Cops and Militia Dolts Almost Kill Each Other

8/22/2013

// Posted by Rude One @ 3:30 PM

Of all the shit-eating wannabe tough guys out there, few people can claim to have stepped up to the turd buffet to fill his plate as often as Arizona's Joe Arpaio, sheriff of Maricopa County and noted child molester consorter. When he's not exploiting undocumented immigrants in order to burnish his reputation as the biggest asshole in America, he's suckling at the sour teat of conservative fame, the place where you're worshiped by worthless pissbag-toting Rascal riders and their morbidly obese children in the sidecar. And probably Sean Hannity.





Oh, sure, Sheriff Joe has had himself a grand old time fluffing up the barely sentient cocks of the Minutemen and other militia groups who take it on themselves to "patrol" the U.S. border, looking for Mexicans they can round up as trophies. And the Minutemen? They love ol' Sheriff Joe. They love him for bein' brave enough to say that President Obama ain't Uhmerkan. Gave him a fuckin' award a few years back for arrestin' undocumented workers and makin' 'em stay in tents and wear prison stripes and other shit that have nothing to do with helping anything but Sheriff Joe's ego. They love him because Sheriff Joe, he defends the 2nd Amendment, says he ain't no-how, no-way gonna confiscate people's guns, no matter what that prez'dent says, even though the prez'dent's never said anything about confiscating guns.

So it must have been something of a surprise when one of these armed assholes at the border, thinking some Messicans were about to jump him, pointed his gun and yelled orders at one of Arpaio's deputies. The pure comedy part? When the deputy identified himself, the Minuteman, who we'll call "Cooter," because fuck that guy, said, "You aren’t taking my weapons." Poor Cooter. He never had a chance. Of course they took his weapons. Of course they arrested Cooter.

And, of course, Sheriff Joe made a statement where he said his deputies could have put "30 rounds" in the guy and added, without a hint of his own complicity, that there will be chaos "if you’re going to have private citizens dressed just like our deputies taking the law into their own hands." It's like Jeffrey Dahmer saying that the latest Cleveland serial killer should cut it out.  Cooter, for his part, went full Zimmerman, saying that he was standing his ground. According to his statement, "[H]e had the right to point his rifle at the individual because he had reasonable suspicion to believe a crime was occurring."

Now Cooter faces felony assault charges. And the Minutemen no longer have Sheriff Joe on their side. But the more important lesson here is for every barrel-fellating gun nut who thinks that he can defend himself from the evil government: you can't, Cooter. You just can't. In this case, the deputies of the man the militias thought was on their side disarmed the 2nd Amendment lover and threatened to kill him. Oh, Cooter, it's different facing armed authorities and not poor immigrants. And when you're cornered, you'll surrender without a fight.