Weekly Address: Out-Innovating, Out-Educating & Out-Building Our Competitors
The President discusses his visit to a company in Manitowoc, Wisconsin and how it exemplified his agenda for America to “win the future” spelled out in the State of the Union Address.
Have a great weekend WSY!
Today, we look at the Negritude movement and the craze known as “Negrophilia” The literary movement, Negritude, was born out of the Paris intellectual environment of 1930’s and 1940’s. It is a product of black writers joining together through the French language to assert their cultural identity.
Aimé Césaire was the first to coin the word in his epic poem, Cahier d’un retour au pays natal, declaring “my negritude is not a rock, its deafness hurled against the clamor of the day” but instead, his negritude “takes root in the ardent flesh of the soil.” Together with Césaire, Léon Damas and Léopold Sédar Senghor created poetry that would make a definition for Negritude. The best-known Negritude works from these poets were Damas’ Pigments, Senghor’s Hosties noire and Chants d’ombre, and Césaire’s Cahier. These poets were brought together in the creation of the journal, L’Etudiant noire.
Continue reading Saturday Open Thread
Welcome to the West Wing Week, your guide to everything that’s happening at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. This week, the President delivered his State of the Union Address, focused on jobs and the economy, and he took those ideas on the road traveling to Upstate New York and Wisconsin.
New York Magazine uncovered the recipe for this yellow, gin and pineapple juice cocktail that was served at the original Cotton Club in Harlem. Photo by Sang An.
3 small chunks ( 1/2 inch cubes) pineapple
1/4 ounce maraschino liquor
1 1/2 ounces Beefeater gin
1 ounce pineapple juice
Credit: Lefteris Pitarakis-Associated Press
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
- Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963
In Egypt, Hosni Mubarak’s government has shutdown the Internet and locked-up one of its Nobel Laureates. Does this sound familiar to you?
Violent protests have rocked Egypt this week, with demonstrators demanding the ouster of the country’s longtime autocratic president, Hosni Mubarak. The tension increased today when Mohammed ElBaradei, a [Nobel Peace Prize Winner,] former top official at the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog agency and a high-profile Mubarak opponent, who had returned to Cairo in a bid to provide a leader for the mass movement, was placed under house arrest.
The unrest in the Arab world’s most populous country — a longtime U.S. ally — comes on the heels of similar protests earlier this month in Tunisia, which forced that country’s president to flee into exile. Today marks a pivotal moment in the anti-Mubarek demonstrations, with the government shutting down Internet access in the country and cracking down on social-media access among demonstrators communicating with the outside world. Mubarek has also imposed a curfew from 6 PM until 7 AM in Cairo in two other cities, which an AP report calls “the most dramatic measure so far to quell riots and protests.”
Michele Dunne is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace. She has served as a specialist on Middle East affairs with the White House and the State Department, and has written widely on Arab politics, and political and economic reform. The Lookout asked her to explain what’s going on in Egypt, and what it means for America.
LOOKOUT: What are the protesters angry about, and what do they want done?
M.D.: Protesters have a large number of economic, political, and human-rights grievances. Widespread youth unemployment, rigged parliamentary elections in November 2010, and the prospect of President Mubarak (in power since 1981) beginning another term-or being replaced by his son-are the sparks that set these demonstrations off. The demonstrators are asking for Mubarak to step down and make way for an interim government to prepare for free elections.
LOOKOUT: Is there a real chance that Mubarak’s government might fall?
M.D.: Yes, there is a real possibility, but that does not seem to be imminent yet. As in Tunisia, the regime would begin to be uncertain if internal security services could not handle demonstrations and the army were called in. Armies generally don’t like firing on their own civilians and sometimes will choose keeping the loyalty of the population over defending an unpopular ruler.
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LOOKOUT: How might a shift in power affect U.S. interests?
M.D.: U.S. interests are being challenged here. The United States has been tepid in supporting human rights and democracy in Egypt for years and has to deal with the resentment among Egyptians because of that. Partly for that reason, and partly because of the close association of the United States with Israel, any alternate group that comes to power might distance itself from the United States to some extent.
SOURCE: Yahoo! Lookout…Unrest in Egypt: What’s going on?
Welcome to Friday WSY!
Today we take a look at how the Harlem Renaissance was impacted by Communism, including authors of the 50s and 60s considered the “children of the Harlem Renaissance”.
I’m sure many of you have noticed in reading novels by authors from the Harlem Renaissance, on through the 60s, where Communism was a common theme: Native Son by Richard Wright, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, The Grand Parade (later renamed Nowhere Street) by Julian Mayfield. Or perhaps you noticed that many artists from these periods, actually became expatriates - leaving the United States altogether, many to France, others to various countries in Africa (most notably, Ghana). What drew these artists to communism? Why did so many leave? Let’s take a look.
In the early 20th century, New York City’s Harlem became a Black cultural and political center in the United States. This was largely due to the First Great Migration of the 1920s, when African Americans left the southern states to escape the terror of Jim Crow laws.
Continue reading Friday Open Thread
Paul Mooney Speaks
(warning: Now you know its strong language…its Mooney!)
Good Morning WSY!
Today we take a look at the musical sounds of the Harlem Renaissance and the segregated atmosphere that exploited the era.
Jazz was the sound of the 1920s. Jazz and individuality blossomed in the Roaring Twenties, and there was no better medium to nurture the pure jazz sound than 1920′s Harlem. With the Harlem Renaissance in full swing, jazz became the “people’s” music despite some trouble being accepted by the black “cultural elite.” Even so, Jazz remained very popular with most of Harlem’s citizens and it’s popularity was growing quickly nationally and worldwide.
The Birth of the Nightclub
Nightclubs like the Savoy Ballroom, the Apollo Theater, and The Cotton Club were perfect venues to display the vibrant intimacy of jazz.
Continue reading Thursday Open Thread
Fabulous FLOTUS News: In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, first lady Michelle Obama says the biggest challenge with helping military families is the fact that they rarely ask for help. ”They never ask for help because you don’t do that when you’re in the military,” Mrs. Obama told Oprah in an interview to be broadcast Thursday. “You get it done. That’s how you’re trained. That’s what you’re taught.” Read more here.
No One On The Corner Have Swagger Like Us News: The insta-returns are in and the president knocked the State of the Union out of the ballpark. CBS News’s quickie poll had 91 percent of those watching the speech approving of the president’s performance. Specifically, 82 percent of those who watched the speech said they approve of the president’s plans for the economy, up from 53 percent who approved before the speech. Read more here.
And When You’re Out There Without Care. Yeah, I Was Out Of Touch. But It Wasn’t Because I Didn’t Know Enough…. I Just Knew Too Much… Does That Make Me Craaaaaaazy? Does That Make Me Craaaazzzzaay? Does That Make Me Craaaazzzzzaaay? Possiblyyeeeeee-eee News: Michele Bachmann stirs talk of a GOP divided. Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann’s decision to give a second response to President Obama’s State of the Union — after the official GOP response — draws fire and revives talk of Republicans as split into mainstream and ‘tea party’ factions. CNN’s decision to televise her critique also is criticized. Read more here.
President Obama Is Destroying The Economy News: The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced Wednesday, briefly rising above the 12000 mark for the first time in almost three years as investors digested President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address and awaited the results of the Federal Reserve meeting. The Dow gained gained 13 points, or 0.1%, to 11990 in midday trading, dragged down by disappointing earnings from Boeing. Leading on the upside was Dupont, up 2.6%. A finish above 12000 would reclaim a level that the blue-chip index last surrendered in June 2008. The Nasdaq Composite gained 18 points, or 0.7%, to 2737, while the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was up five points, or 0.4%, to 1297, putting it on the cusp of 1300, a level it last held in August 2008. Read more here.
It’s Safer And Cheaper To Just Wear A Push-Up Bra News: Women who have breast implants may be at greater risk for a rare but serious cancer, U.S. health regulators warned Wednesday. The Food and Drug Administration said it was looking at a possible link between saline and silicone gel-filled breast devices and a type of cancer known as anaplastic large cell lymphoma after 34 cases of ALCL were reported nationwide and 60 were reported globally since 1997. Read more here.
Anti-Forclosure Program News: More than 30,000 homeowners permanently lowered their mortgage payments last month as participation in the government’s anti-foreclosure program accelerated, the U.S. Treasury Department reported. Borrowers aided by the Home Affordable Modification Program grew to 579,650 in December, 5.5 percent more than a month earlier. Participation had grown 4.5 percent in November. Read more here.
Happy Humpday WSY family! Check out the links and come back to discuss. Here’s your Whining Wednesday track…
Continue reading W.E.E. Peeps Wednesday Link Sweep
What a difference a year makes. This time last year, the mainstream media (MSM) was consumed by Joe Wilson’s “You LIE!” outburst and spent weeks chasing and trailing the “reputed hater,” as opposed to focusing on the substance of President Obama’s speech.
A year later and a day after President Obama’s second-ever State of the Union (SOTU) Address, W.E.E. can all breathe a sigh of relief. There were no outbursts last night. His speech commenced without interruption. In fact, his speech was delivered before he even stepped onto the dais…
The White House typically gives members of the media a copy of the prepared remarks shortly before the president begins to deliver them. But National Journal obtained a draft of the speech from a “Democratic insider” and published the entire thing online more than an hour-and-a-half ahead of schedule.
Political journalists immediately began linking to the speech and discussing its contents on Twitter. So just before 8 p.m., the White House released the entire speech—without embargo—to the media, thus allowing more time than usual to chew it over ahead of time.
Update: Obama is certainly aware the speech leaked early. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Obama it was a “good speech” as he made his way to the podium. “I don’t need to deliver it now,” Obama said. “Everybody saw it.”
Alas, those are the perils of the information age in which we live. The MSM will steal a “Brotha’s Thunder” every chance that it gets! While W.E.E. all enjoy and benefit from our live chats, Facebook walls and tweets on Twitter, the obvious reality is that the information is being disseminated at the speed of light.
Last night, Whitehouse.gov stepped up its game with special graphics to enhance the SOTU experience. If you watched the address at Whitehouse.gov, then you may have benefited from an extra array of pie charts and line graphs. There were also online forums with Administration officials following the speech.
Needless to say, there was a lot of information (and more opportunities to get more information) last night. The question then becomes, “Are Americans consuming all of this information? How do Americans get their information?”
Truth be told, America has an attention deficit disorder. Our collective attention span is not very long and America gets most of it’s news through 30-second sound bites. I know that’s an offensive thought for many of the brilliant intellects in our community, but it’s the truth.
Continue reading The Future of SOTU Addresses in an A.D.D. Society…
