Night Owls…Jukebox Pt.3

DJ LP’s heavy rotation Pt.3

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Laughter Is Good

Something to cleanse the palate.

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I can beat up Thor any day of the week. Including his.

— God (Not a Parody, Actually God) (@TheTweetOfGod) July 9, 2013

I've got the best fans in the whole world because they're the kind of fans willing to kill themselves and each other to prove they are.

— God (Not a Parody, Actually God) (@TheTweetOfGod) July 9, 2013

The bad weather will continue until the climate improves.

— God (Not a Parody, Actually God) (@TheTweetOfGod) July 9, 2013

We must stand our ground..

Reactions from African Americans yesterday to the Travon Martin Verdict

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This and That

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My Family, Our Cancer, and the Murderous Cruelty of Conservatives http://t.co/sE09N3S7zb via @VanityFair

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) July 16, 2013

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NYT: Health Insurance Within Reach

Ever since Marci Lieber, a part-time social worker in Brooklyn, learned she was pregnant, she and her husband have been scrambling to find health insurance. But insurers consider pregnancy a pre-existing condition, and won’t sell anyone a new policy that covers it.

That changes on Jan. 1, 2014, when insurers will no longer be permitted to deny coverage of pre-existing conditions — and all Americans will be required to have health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Ms. Lieber, 37, hopes to purchase a policy through New York State’s new health exchange as early as this October.

Just in time: the baby is due Jan. 25…..

More here

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The Daily Beast: Texas’s Unwanted-Baby Boom

Between the state’s anti-abortion bill, its move to defund contraception providers, and its war on sex education, experts predict tens of thousands of unplanned pregnancies next year.

The war on women is a nationwide phenomenon, but nowhere are women in more danger of having their reproductive health undermined at every turn than in Texas. Under the leadership of Gov. Rick Perry and a Republican Party completely in the thrall of the religious right, Christian fundamentalists have launched a three-pronged attack on the well-being of women of the state….

More here

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@daddylonglegs01

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A peek inside my inbox: Racism & the #GeorgeZimmerman trial. http://t.co/5FH7X934p3 #TrayvonMartin

— Jonathan Capehart (@CapehartJ) July 16, 2013

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I wrote more than 60 posts seeking justice for #TrayvonMartin as if my life depended on it – because one day it might http://t.co/2Ed3MGO9Pi

— Jonathan Capehart (@CapehartJ) July 16, 2013

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ThinkProgress: In a piece that contains the telling (even in context) line “I am a racist,” longtime Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen employed a mishmash of poorly explained statistics and bafflingly ignorant mathematical reasoning to argue that Trayvon Martin was “understandably suspected because he was black” — that is, Americans should assume any young black men they meet are criminals.

More here

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Trayvon Martin and My Old Doctor http://t.co/VHZPuGWLuC

— The People’s View (@thepeoplesview) July 16, 2013

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Richard Cohen flashback Oct. 1986: “Post Offers Apology to Blacks” http://t.co/XPXedVJ1nO

— Michael Calderone (@mlcalderone) July 16, 2013

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The inadequacy of a “good heart” http://t.co/3zcAFFfr05

— Smartypants (@Smartypants32) July 16, 2013

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What Do We Want?….Pictures!

First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden participate in an interview prior to the Kids Inaugural Concert at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Sonya N. Hebert)

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Chat Away

President Barack Obama greets U.S. troops at a mess hall at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, March 28, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

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Rise and Shine

A year ago …… July 16, 2012: President Obama kisses First Lady Michelle Obama for the “Kiss Cam” while attending the U.S. Men’s Olympic basketball team’s game against Brazil at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.

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Today (All times Eastern):

10:0 Vice President Biden will swear in Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) as the freshman Massachusetts senator at the U.S. Capitol

11:0: President Obama is interviewed by Spanish language news anchors

12:45: Press Briefing by Jay Carney

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On Thursday, the First Lady, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Amy Rule, will visit Urban Alliance Chicago, a year-long career education and employment program for underserved high school seniors which enriches students’ lives through paid internships, formal training, and mentoring. The visit is part of the First Lady’s focus on youth empowerment and providing more opportunities for young people to achieve their full potential.

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George H. W. Bush and Barbara Bush present President Obama with a pair of socks, July 15 (Photo by Pete Souza)

‏@ObamaFoodorama

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Steve Benen: For three-and-a-half hours last night, nearly every member of the Senate met behind closed doors in the Old Senate Chamber to discuss a political crisis of sorts: whether the minority would continue to block President Obama’s executive-branch nominees and what the majority intended to do about it.

The meeting itself was rather odd. Senators already have a forum in which they can hold a debate — it’s called the Senate. But their usual chamber has cameras and public seating, and last night, for whatever reason, members wanted to debate in private for a candid conversation.

By all accounts, it was a constructive conversation, but there was no resolution. As I type, there are some back-channel talks underway, but barring a breakthrough, the Senate Democratic leadership intended to move forward with its “nuclear option” plans.

More here

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OFA

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Nobody seems to care that Obama is hurting small businesses! pic.twitter.com/V7lvQMyN #WhiteRage

— Top Conservative Cat (@TeaPartyCat) July 15, 2013

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Eugene Robinson: Justice failed Trayvon Martin the night he was killed. We should be appalled and outraged, but perhaps not surprised, that it failed him again Saturday night, with a verdict setting his killer free. Our society considers young black men to be dangerous, interchangeable, expendable, guilty until proven innocent. This is the conversation about race that we desperately need to have — but probably, as in the past, will try our best to avoid. Jurors knew that Zimmerman was an overeager would-be cop, a self-appointed guardian of the neighborhood who carried a loaded gun. They were told that he profiled Martin — young, black, hooded sweatshirt — as a criminal. They heard that he stalked Martin despite the advice of a 911 operator; that the stalking led to a confrontation; and that, in the confrontation, Zimmerman fatally shot Martin in the chest.

If anyone wonders why African Americans feel so passionately about this case, it’s because we know that our 17-year-old sons are boys, not men. It’s because we know their adolescent bravura is just that — an imitation of manhood, not the real thing. We know how frightened our sons would be, walking home alone on a rainy night and realizing they were being followed. We know how torn they would be between a child’s fear and a child’s immature idea of manly behavior. We know how they would struggle to decide the right course of action, flight or fight. And we know that a skinny boy armed only with candy, no matter how big and bad he tries to seem, does not pose a mortal threat to a healthy adult man who outweighs him by 50 pounds and has had martial arts training (even if the lessons were mostly a waste of money). We know that the boy may well have threatened the man’s pride but likely not his life. How many murders-by-sidewalk have you heard of recently? Or ever?

More here

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Early Bird Chat

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