ucrdem
ucrdem's JournalHe hadn't stopped Christmas from coming! It came!
Somehow or other, it came just the same!
Meet the Senator from Alabama who preceded Jeff Sessions
and voted against Sessions' 1986 appointment by then-president Reagan to federal district court judge -- Howell Heflin, Democratic senator from Alabama, 1979 to 1997:
from Heflin's March 30, 2005 NYT obit:
WASHINGTON, March 29 - Former Senator Howell Heflin of Alabama, a conservative Democrat who supported civil rights legislation and was sometimes described as the conscience of the Senate, died on Tuesday at a hospital in Sheffield, Ala., near his home in Tuscumbia. He was 83.
(snip)
But in 1986, Mr. Heflin voted against a lawyer from his home state who had been nominated by President Ronald Reagan to be a federal district judge. Several civil rights groups opposed the lawyer, Jeff Sessions, on the ground that he had shown insensitivity to blacks while serving as the United States attorney in Mobile, Ala.
The Judiciary Committee blocked the nomination. Mr. Heflin said he did not know whether Mr. Sessions would be "a fair and impartial judge." But the tables eventually turned. In 1996, Mr. Sessions, a Republican, won the Senate seat being vacated by Mr. Heflin, and he now serves on the Judiciary Committee.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/30/politics/howell-heflin-former-alabama-senator-dies-at-83.html
More here:
https://medium.com/@nmeyersohn/alabama-senator-who-voted-against-jeff-sessions-in-1986-once-said-he-probably-would-have-voted-for-a9ec6817d500
This also turned up:
But, he said, "we live in a nation that daily is trying to heal the scars that have occurred in the past. We're trying to heal problems that still show negative and ugly aspects in our world that we live in today, and perhaps racism is one of the great scars and one of the most serious illnesses that we suffer from still today."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howell_Heflin
So Doug Jones might have a fighting chance of winning Heflin's old seat after all. Keeping fingers crossed!
Biden tells NPR he "fought like hell" to support Anita Hill and oppose Clarence Thomas'
nomination to the Supreme Court:
https://www.npr.org/2017/11/18/564798115/joe-biden-remembers-his-son-in-his-new-memoir
Could it be that conventional DU wisdom on this point is, er, mistaken?
Promise Me, Dad
Hardcover – November 14, 2017
https://www.amazon.com/Promise-Me-Dad-Hardship-Purpose/dp/1250171679/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1510985396&sr=8-1&keywords=promise+me+dad&dpID=41mKurCvohL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch
Something tells me this book is gonna do well this Christmas . . .
Michael Moore rolls in the clover with a show on Broadway and an F911 sequel in the works
Michael Moore gained notoriety for such documentaries as "Bowling for Columbine" and "Fahrenheit 9/11." Now, he has a one-man show on Broadway.
That's right, our favorite liberal bon vivant, who spent the Obama years moping around has-been land, surfacing to join Chris Hedges and Noam Chomsky in a lawsuit against Barack and again to support Sanders in the Michigan primary, has come roaring back to form with a one-man show on Broadway, ending in a few weeks. And then he'll start shooting a sequel to his successful Fahrenheit 911, the numbers this time representing the date of the last election.
Supposedly he's invigorating Democrats to mount a challenge to Trump in 2020 (he suggests we nominate Tom Hanks), but he predicts that Trump will win a second term. He also predicted that Trump would win a first term.
http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2017/10/04/michael-moore-trump
He says he's devastated by what happened in November but he sounds like a guy whose dream came true.
Senate GOP accepting defeat on Obamacare repeal
Source: Politico
Passing a bill by a key end-of-month deadline appears almost impossible for Republicans.
By BURGESS EVERETT 09/07/2017 12:26 PM EDT Updated 09/07/2017 01:50 PM EDT
Senate Republicans are throwing cold water on the idea of holding another Obamacare repeal vote before their opportunity to gut the law on a party-line vote expires at the end of this month.
{snip}.
And that means the dream of repealing the law with all GOP votes is slipping away, at least for now, as Republicans turn to tax reform.
"Weve seen that we dont have 51 votes to do it, so were going to have to do it bipartisan," said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas in an interview on Thursday morning. Asked whether the Senate would hold an Obamacare repeal vote before the Senate's budget reconciliation instructions expire, he replied: I dont believe so."
"I don't think there's much of a chance," said Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the Senate Finance Committee Chairman. "I think that was pretty well decided by McCain."
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/07/obamacare-repeal-republicans-defeat-242443
If this isn't good news I don't know what is!
Philippines: murdered boy had wanted to be a policeman
Heard on NPR yesterday, transcript and story at the link:
What do the witnesses say about what happened that day?
DAVID: Well, they simply say they saw him being dragged out of his house and brought to a secluded place. And it was there where they manhandled him. And he was bleeding. And he was actually even saying, please, sir - enough - I have an exam tomorrow.
CHANG: But children even younger than Kian have been killed by police in Duterte's war on drugs. What, do you think, is it going to take to change things?
DAVID: I really don't know. All I know is now Kian has awakened people. When it comes close to home and it concerns children who are definitely innocent, people just cannot take it.
CHANG: Do you feel like public opinion against Duterte is really shifting, and then maybe something will change?
{snip}
DAVID: Kian himself wanted to be a policeman. He wanted to support the government in its war against drugs. And many other victims who come from the slums, they speak very highly of the president. And now they feel betrayed.
http://www.npr.org/2017/08/29/546953328/philippine-catholic-diocese-calls-attention-to-war-on-drugs-causalities
"Si je reviens un jour": Les lettres retrouvees de Louise Pikovsky
Je viens de voir cette pièce très intéressante et émouvante sur France24:
En 2010, lors d’un déménagement au sein du lycée Jean-de-La-Fontaine, dans le 16e arrondissement de Paris, des lettres et des photographies ont été trouvées dans une vieille armoire. Enfouis là depuis des dizaines d’années, ces documents appartenaient à une ancienne élève, Louise Pikovsky. Plusieurs mois durant, cette jeune lycéenne a correspondu avec sa professeure de lettres. Son dernier courrier date du 22 janvier 1944, jour où elle est arrêtée avec sa famille. Internés à Drancy, le père, la mère et les quatre enfants ont été déportés à Auschwitz. Ils n’en reviendront pas.
Informée de cette découverte, Stéphanie Trouillard, journaliste de France 24, a prêté main forte à Khalida Hatchy, une professeure de l’établissement qui souhaitait reconstituer le parcours de cette jeune fille. À partir des documents de Louise, elles ont pu retrouver des témoins, des cousins éloignés et des anciennes élèves. Ce webdocumentaire raconte ce travail de mémoire, qui les mènera jusqu’à Jérusalem. Il rend enfin la parole à Louise, une élève particulièrement douée, qui n’a pas pu vivre l’existence brillante à laquelle elle semblait destinée.
Des lettres oubliées dans une armoire
en français/French: http://webdoc.france24.com/si-je-reviens-un-jour-louise-pikovsky/
en anglais/English: http://webdoc.france24.com/holocaust-france-letters-louise-pikovsky/accueil/index.html
No first lady title for Brigitte Macron after petition over her status
Source: UK Guardian
Tuesday 8 August 2017 06.09 EDT
The French president’s wife, Brigitte Macron, will not be given an official “first lady” title or her own budget, the French government has said following a petition against a proposed change to her status.
A “transparency charter” will be published in the next few days to clarify the position of Emmanuel Macron’s wife, but presidential aides insist her role will be strictly public and not political.
The Élysée has made no official announcement, but officials were forced to react after the petition opposed to the president’s spouse having an official title, status and budget was signed by more than 275,000 people in two weeks.
During his election campaign, Macron promised to “clarify” his wife’s role to “end the hypocrisy” over the situation. One of Macron’s first actions after taking power was to set up a working party to examine the “first lady” position.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/08/no-first-lady-title-for-brigitte-macron-after-petition-over-her-status
A YouGov poll for the French edition of the Huffington Post in May suggested 68% of the French public was opposed to the head of state’s spouse being given an official role.
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