Sep 12 2014

TDS/TCR (Thought Police)

TDS TCR

Ugh… Sausage!

Life is suffering

I have achieved… nothing.  Doesn’t that make me the better Buddhist?

The real news, as well as next week’s guests below.

This week’s guests-

The Daily Show

The Colbert Report

Tavis Smiley will be promoting his appearance on Dancing with the Stars which is unfortunate because there is so much more to his résumé including his collaboration with Cornel West on The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto.

Washington Post–

Smiley has taken on Obama in a series of commentaries that began as the Democrat from Illinois emerged as the party’s front-runner for the presidential nomination in early January. Days after Obama’s win in the Iowa caucus, Smiley warned on Joyner’s show: “Don’t fall so madly in love [with Obama] that you surrender your power to hold people accountable. . . . I’m not saying overlook Senator Obama, but you now better be ready to look him over.”

That commentary brought a hail of critical phone calls and e-mails down on Smiley, who replied two days later on the Joyner show that he stood by his criticism. “It’s all about accountability,” he said at the time.

…

He also rebuked Obama this month for not traveling to Memphis for the 40th anniversary ceremonies marking the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and for Obama’s decision to distance himself from controversial remarks made by the Obama family’s pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.

…

Roland Martin, a CNN political contributor who hosts a talk-radio show aimed at African Americans in Chicago, said by phone that he was “very surprised” by Smiley’s resignation. “You have to expect to get heat the moment you decide to offer critical comments about politics or social issues,” Martin said. “You have to be tough enough to take it.”

Added Martin: “For a long time, Tavis was used to people applauding him for taking tough stances. . . . This was the first time he had taken a position that flat-out ticked off his core audience. But [criticism] comes with the territory.”

On the Huffington Post Web site yesterday, author and political analyst Earl Ofari Hutchinson suggested that Smiley was the victim of “the black Obama thought police,” which had subjected him to “a verbal public lynching” for comments that ran counter to mainstream black opinion.

Lonn Taylor is a historian who writes about cabinet makers and furniture, Texas, Texas cabinet makers and furniture, and the Star Spangled Banner.

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    • TMC on September 12, 2014 at 05:09
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