Re Electing President Obama Won’t Be Easy For Many Voters

Attorney General’s Office Flooded With Voting Rights Inquiries

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday the Justice Department opened a record number of more than 100 new investigations into possible voting rights discrimination across the country last year.

During an appearance at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Holder praised the federal government’s aggressive enforcement efforts while vowing to defend a landmark voting rights law that is increasingly under attack in this presidential election year.

On Thursday, Holder said that nowhere is the Justice Department’s commitment to equal opportunity clearer than in efforts to expand access to voting nationwide.

It was the attorney general’s third speech in little more than a month focusing on voting rights, coming amid a flurry of activity by states, largely those controlled by Republicans, to redraw political boundaries and impose requirements that could reduce voting by minorities who enthusiastically supported Barack Obama in the 2008 election.

“The reality is that – in jurisdictions across the country – both overt and subtle forms of discrimination remain all too common – and have not yet been relegated to the pages of history,” Holder told the audience.

Pointing to some of the Justice Department’s efforts, Holder cited as success stories the cases of two Ohio counties – Cuyahoga and Lorain – which agreed to ensure that bilingual ballots are available on county voting machines and that bilingual poll workers are on hand to help. In another positive outcome, said Holder, a northeast Ohio school board let a federal court determine how to structure elections to give blacks a greater chance of being elected.

In December in Austin, Texas, Holder urged the country to “call on our political parties to resist the temptation to suppress certain votes in the hope of attaining electoral success.”

Earlier this month in Columbia, S.C., Holder told thousands of people commemorating the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday that in his travels “I’ve heard a consistent drumbeat of concern from citizens, who – often for the first time in their lives – now have reason to believe that we are failing to live up to one of our nation’s most noble ideals.”

Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act requires all or parts of 16 states to obtain advance approval from either the Justice Department’s civil rights division or a federal court in Washington before carrying out changes in elections. The states are mostly in the South and all the jurisdictions have a history of discriminating against blacks, American Indians, Asian-Americans, Alaskan Natives or Hispanics.

Despite congressional reauthorization in 2006 of Section 5 for 25 years, its future has come under constitutional challenges in federal courts by Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Shelby County, Ala., and some voters in Kinston, N.C.

As of last week, there were 833 Section 5 submissions for proposed electoral changes awaiting approval at the Justice Department from state, county and local units of government.

In one Section 5 action, the civil rights division in December rejected a new South Carolina law that requires voters to present a photo ID when they go to the polls. It was the first time in nearly two decades the Justice Department had reached such a conclusion about a voter ID law.

A pending Section 5 review involves Texas, where the Justice Department has raised questions over a new photo ID requirement. The state reacted by taking its case for the new law to a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., where lawyers from the Justice Department and the state will square off. The Justice Department’s civil rights division also is immersed in a court battle with Texas over allegedly discriminatory boundaries drawn by the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature and signed into law by Republican Gov. Rick Perry.

The challenges to Section 5′s constitutionality followed a 2009 Supreme Court opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts which seemed to raise doubts about whether the provision was still needed.

Section 5 “imposes current burdens and must be justified by current needs,” Roberts wrote. “Today, the registration gap between white and black voters is in single digits” in the states covered by the act’s preclearance provision and “in some of those states, blacks now register and vote at higher rates than whites.”

The stakes would be enormous if the Supreme Court got involved.

In 2006, Congress held hearings and created a 15,000-page record to justify renewing Section 5. Congress found that the Justice Department protected the interests of some 663,503 minority voters from 2000 to May 2006 by refusing to approve changes in political boundaries drawn by states, counties and local units of government. The Justice Department filed over 700 objections to proposed voting changes from 1982 to 2006 in states and counties covered by Section 5. From 1982 to 2003, states and local entities withdrew more than 200 proposed voting changes when the Justice Department started asking questions about them.

Caseclosed2: To voters I urge you to make sure well in advance you are able to vote in your state and have whatever documents you need to vote. This year’s presidential election is crucial and there are many who don’t want to see Obama reelected, however,voters have the final say.

Michael Would Be Proud Of His Kids

Michael Jackson s Children Honor Dad in Los Angeles ( Walk of Fame – Chinese Theatre )

Prince Paris and Blanket Immortalize their Dad’s glove.

Michael Jackson’s oldest son, Prince, compared putting the singer’s shoe and glove imprints in cement at Hollywood’s Grauman’s Chinese Theatre to accepting a Grammys lifetime achievement award two years ago on behalf of his late father.

“For me, and I think I speak for him as well, this right here is his lifetime achievement award,” Prince Jackson said. “This is what he strived to get.”

Prince and brother Blanket pressed a pair of their dad’s shoes into wet cement, while sister Paris used one of his famous sequined gloves to create an impression. All three children added their own handprints in a ceremony on the Hollywood Boulevard sidewalk Thursday.

“It’s a very good celebration and I know if Michael was here he would agree, to see all his friends and loved ones, and especially his fans here to celebrate this with him,” family matriarch Katherine Jackson said.

It was part of the promotion for Cirque du Soleil’s “Michael Jackson The Immortal World Tour,” which makes its Los Angeles debut Friday night.

Quincy Jones, who produced Jackson’s best-selling “Thriller” album, and Smokey Robinson, who called Jackson “my little brother,” spoke, but there was little doubt Paris Jackson, 13, was most excited about her chance to introduce teen pop star Justin Bieber.

“I know my father would’ve wanted to be a mentor to someone like him, and would be very proud that he came to today’s celebration,” Paris Jackson said.

Michael Jackson is his role model, inspiring him to be the best he can be, Bieber said.

“I want to have that perfection, I want to, you know, be the best I can be, that’s what Michael did,” Bieber said. “He always wanted to be the best he could be.”

Jackie Jackson said that a 300-pound block of cement with his brother’s footprints and signature, found in the basement of a closed Las Vegas hotel just before it was torn down, would be placed on the Grauman’s forecourt next to the imprints created Thursday. It was created in 1994 for a Las Vegas walk of fame project “that never materialized,” he said.

“Michael, we miss you,” brother Tito Jackson said. “There’s hardly a day that goes by without him going on in mind somehow, some way, and I know that he is here today with us. That’s for sure.”

Prince, Paris and Blanket Jackson have been more public in recent months in contrast to their lives before their father’s 2009 death, when they were shielded from public view.

The children attended the Canadian premiere of the traveling Cirque du Soleil show with their grandmother in October.

The “Immortal” show is touring the United States and Canada through this year before taking up residency in Las Vegas.

Show biz legends who left their handprints and footprints in Grauman’s concrete courtyard on Hollywood Boulevard include Fred Astaire, Elizabeth Taylor, Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, Sidney Poitier, Clark Gable and Mary Pickford. The tradition started in 1928, a year after the historic theater opened.

Michael Jackson’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star is on the sidewalk in front of the theater.

Georgia’s Racism Is Showing

Democrats to boycott effort to remove Barack Obama from Georgia ballot
6:35 pm January 25, 2012, by jgalloway

Democrats, including the attorney representing President Barack Obama, have made a last-minute decision to boycott the Thursday hearing to consider a “birther” effort to remove Obama from the March 6 presidential primary ballot.

“They can tilt at windmills on their own,” said state Democratic spokesman Eric Gray on Wednesday night.

Last week, in a surprise ruling, a Georgia state administrative judge declined to quash a subpoena directing Obama to attend a hearing Thursday at the Fulton County courthouse on a challenge to strike him from the Georgia ballot this fall on claims he is not a natural born U.S. citizen. Read more background here from my AJC colleague Bill Rankin.http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-politics-elections/judges-order-in-birther-1313941.html

Among tomorrow’s no-shows will be Michael Jablonski, the Atlanta attorney serving as counsel to Obama. He’s written a letter to Secretary of State Brian Kemp, a Republican, asking him to intervene and bring the circus to a halt.

Among those pressing the action is state Rep. Mark Hatfield, R-Waycross. But many ranking Republicans are doing their best to keep their distance.

Here’s the statement just released by Mike Berlon, chairman of the state Democratic party:

“Several lawsuits were recently filed against President Obama questioning whether he is an American citizen in an attempt to remove him from the Georgia primary ballot. Despite the fact that these issues have been thoroughly litigated, a hearing has been scheduled in these cases for Thursday, January 26, 2012. The Democratic Party of Georgia is not a party to any of these lawsuits.

“This afternoon we received a letter from counsel for the President directed to the Georgia Secretary of State asking him to intervene in these lawsuits and bring them to a halt, because it is well established that there is no issue here – a fact validated time and again by courts in this country.

“In the letter, counsel also indicated that they had no interest in continuing to appear or participate further in the litigation and have suspended their involvement.

“We respect the President’s position and urge the Secretary of State to bring this matter to a conclusion. We also believe that each political party has the absolute legal right to determine who should appear on their primary and general election ballots according to their own rules without interference from outside parties.

“In light of these developments the Democratic Party of Georgia has no plans to continue to be involved in these baseless cases. Furthermore the Democratic Party of Georgia will cooperate with the President and his campaign in any way requested to make sure that his name appears on the primary and general election ballots for 2012.”

- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider

CaseClosed2: President Obama hasshown his birth certificate which can be seen here…http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/rss_viewer/birth-certificate.pdf
yet, there are those who don’t have any dirt on the president to reveal to the public, so they go after him based on something that has already been proven;the president was born in Oahu, Honolulu at 7:24 pm on August 4, 1961, geeze just let this go.

Star Jones Will Appear on The View

NEW YORK — Apparently enough water has washed under the bridge for Barbara Walters and Star Jones to reunite for a day.

“The View” announced on Wednesday that Jones will appear on the daytime talk show on Feb. 22 to promote an awareness campaign about heart disease among women.

Walters and Jones had a falling out in 2006 when Jones, one of the five original co-hosts of the daytime chat show, exited “The View.” ABC decided not to renew her contract and Jones took Walters by surprise by announcing on June 27 that she would be leaving the show.

That exit came more quickly than expected. Walters wouldn’t allow her back the next day.

Walters later said that Jones had compelled her co-hosts to lie for her by not revealing that Jones had undergone gastric bypass surgery while on “The View.” Jones took her own shots, criticizing Walters for writing an autobiography that revealed details of an affair.

The women later had something serious in common. Both underwent open heart surgery to repair faulty heart valves within two months of each other in 2010.

Jones is coming back to the show to discuss her involvement in the American Heart Association’s “Go Red for Women” public information campaign. Women are asked to wear red on Feb. 3 to support heart patients.

NeYo’s New Gig

In the latest step to strengthen the new Motown Records, a division of Universal Music Group (UMG), acclaimed artist Ne-Yo will move from Def Jam Recordings to Motown along with his label imprint Compound Entertainment, and will also take on a creative role at Motown as the new Senior Vice President of A&R, it was announced today by Barry Weiss, Chairman & CEO of Universal Republic and Island Def Jam Motown, and Ethiopia Habtemariam, Senior Vice President, Motown Records.

Based in New York, the multi-platinum, three-time Grammy Award-winning recording artist Ne-Yo will continue to work on his eagerly awaited fifth studio album, expected for summer release as his Motown debut. At the same time, Ne-Yo will take on A&R duties at Motown, serving as a producer and mentor to the label’s artists, as well as seeking out and signing new talent to the label. Ne-Yo, who has a co-starring role in Red Tails, the new George Lucas WWII movie about the U.S. Army Air Corps’ Tuskegee Airmen fighter pilots, will also be seen on NBC television’s upcoming season of The Voice, as a mentor for Cee-Lo Green’s team.

“Ne-Yo is an enormously talented artist, songwriter, and producer,” said Mr. Weiss, “in fact, he’s one of the greatest songwriters of our times. His track record of success at Def Jam will always be a benchmark. But this move to Motown will provide new and inspiring challenges for Ne-Yo, as both an artist and a key member of the new senior management team that is taking form at the label in 2012.”

“We are honored and humbled to have Ne-Yo as a part of the Motown family, as both a recording artist and in an A&R role,” said Ms. Habtemariam, who has recently taken the reins at the historic label. “We are committed to discovering, developing and nurturing R&B/Soul superstars here at Motown and in Ne-Yo we have both a global superstar and arguably one of the best songwriters in music. His presence on the executive team only strengthens our commitment to the very best in R&B.”

“I’m a combination of excited, honored and terrified all at once!” said Ne-Yo. “Excited about a new beginning here at Motown, honored that I’ve been given such a prestigious title and trusted with such responsibility, TERRIFIED because I know that playing this role, in the fashion of one of my idols and career role models Mr. Smokey Robinson, these are big shoes to fill…..

but trust, I can handle it.”

President Obama: Game On

(Newser) – President Obama delivered a feisty, populist State of the Union address last night (excerpts here, pictures here), and naturally pundits are dissecting and grading it today. Here’s what they’re saying:

•”Obama had a simple message for Republicans: Game on,” writes Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post. What on the surface was a typical post-partisan Obama speech was actually full of populist challenges to Republicans. “This is Obama version 2.0: Harder, more cynical but perhaps also more effective.”

•Noted “Obamacon” Andrew Sullivan was disappointed, trashing the speech as a hodge-podge of liberal policies. “I was hoping for a vision. I was hoping for real, strategic reform,” he lamented in his Daily Beast liveblog. “We voted for Obama; now we find we got another Clinton.”
•Steve Kornacki of Salon dubs it Obama’s “99% speech,” because the president drew battle lines around income inequality. “He’s embracing the idea that there is [a] fundamental philosophical divide between the parties,” convinced that it’s “political suicide” to attempt compromise with intractable Republicans.
•Mark Halperin of Time gives the speech a “B,” saying Obama that Obama “achieved a good balance between lofty and accessible” and was “fully in command of policy,” but that “the speech was clearly poll-tested to within an inch of its life.”

Caseclosed2: After last nights Presidential State of the Union Speech, President Obama doesn’t have anything to worry about. He will be re elected. The president brought it last night. He showed us how he does it and it was good and informative. Obama let the American People know the Republicans haven’t been cooperating with him in doing what is best for the American People. The president put it out there. He has dirt on some who have been insider trading and making millions. So they know who they are and they should be willing to cooperate with the president, or it will be put out there for all to see. Ahhh,I love our president….The Man, The Myth, The Legend

Whitney Houston Goes Through One Hundred Million Dollars and Is Reportedly Broke

Diva songstress Whitney Houston is reportedly penniless, after running though a $100-million record deal. The 48-year-old former crack addict is now being supported by her record company, Arista, who has given her an advance off her next album project, according to a source who spoke with RadarOnline.

Whitney’s fortune is gone,” the source said. “Music industry heavy hitters are supporting her and her label is fronting her cash against her next album, but no one knows when that will be released. She might be homeless if not for people saving her. She is as broke as a joke, the source added.

In August 2001, Houston signed a mega-recording deal with Arista/BMG, which was monumental at the time. She agreed to do six albums over an eight-year period for a reported $100 million. The last album was released in 2009. Now, the source reveals:

She called someone to ask for $100. It is so sad. She should have Mariah Carey money, and she’s flat broke.

After a tumultuous marriage to R&B singer Bobby Brown, including allegations of physical abuse and years of drug use, the Grammy award-winning Houston has seen more bad days than good in recent years. In addition to her being ravaged by drugs, there have been reports of alcoholic binges, eating disorders, family stress, evictions, over-spending, and career stalls.

And to add to the turmoil, Houston’s much-hyped return to concert performances have shown that years of near self-destruction have taken a toll on her once-golden vocal chords as disappointed concert-goers witnessed her strugging to sing crowd-pleasing numbers.
Now, Houston will attempt to hit the screen again, playing the character of “Emma,” Jordan Sparks‘ mother, in the upcoming remake “Sparkle.” Houston has not acted since the 1996 film “The Preacher’s Wife.”

As far as the rumors about Houston’s alleged financial dire straits, her spokesperson told the UK’s Daily Mail:

That is ridiculous and not true! She stars in ‘Sparkle’ out in August, which she also exec produced. She just wrapped the film.

Aretha Franklin Calls Off Wedding, For Now

. /The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Aretha Franklin won’t be getting fitted for a wedding gown after all: She’s called off her engagement.

A statement released Monday by her representative said Franklin’s wedding to Willie Wilkerson wasn’t going to happen.

“Will and I have decided we were moving a little too fast, and there were a number of things that had not been thought through thoroughly. There will be no wedding at this time,” Franklin said. “We will not comment on it any further because of the very personal and sensitive nature of it. We appreciate all of the many well wishes from friends.”

Franklin, 69, announced shortly after New Year’s Day that she was getting married. In an interview with The Associated Press, the jovial Queen of Soul talked about getting fitted for gowns by designers including Vera Wang and Donna Karan, and said she hoped for a summer wedding in either Miami or the Hamptons on Long Island, N.Y.

Franklin said Wilkerson was the one for her and that the relationship was particularly strong because they had been friends first.

“We’re very compatible, and he supports me and I support him a lot, and he has given me specialized attention that I don’t think I’ve received from anyone else,” she said.

It’s unclear if the pair are still romantically involved.

Casezclosed2; How is the couple moving too fast? Haven’t they been a couple for awhile? Aretha must have had second thoughts for some reason.

Priest Busted

A priest was allegedly caught inside an adult movie theater with his pants down. (Shutterstock)

Priest Busted With Pants Down in Adult Theater
Mark Stewart Bullock arrested, removed from church duty By Evann Gastaldo, Newser Staff

Father Mark Stewart Bullock went from priest at the Church of the Immaculate Conception to creepy guy standing around pants-less in a porn shop, Baltimore cops say. Police say they responded to complaints of indecent exposure and found Bullock, nude from the waist down, inside a movie theater at the store. He has since been removed from duty at his church, the Sun reports.

Bullock was on a couch, “his pants completely off,” according to a police report; he “was not wearing any underwear and [was] exposing his penis” in a public area. He was arrested and charged with indecent exposure. The Baltimore Archdiocese removed Bullock’s “faculties to function as a priest and initiated an investigation to learn more about the incident,” reads a letter to parishioners.

CaseClosed2: Why does a priest have to resort to such actions because the church doesn’t allow them to have intimate relationships with women? Nothing much has changessince the Thornbirds movie and its forbidden love.

Spike Lee: Never One To Be Silent

Spike Lee’s Sundance tirade: Hollywood execs ‘know nothing about black people’
Jan. 23, 2012, 3:43 AM EST
By Steve Pond
TheWrap

Spike Lee opted not to introduce his film “Red Hook Summer” before its Sundance premiere on Sunday, but he sure knew how to finish the screening with a bang.

In an expletive-laced Q&A, the veteran filmmaker started by encouraging the New York Giants to “kick Tom Brady’s a–!” in the Super Bowl, said that Hollywood executives know nothing about black people, and said he wanted the audience to spread the word that the film “is not a motherf—— sequel to ‘Do the Right Thing.’”

(It is set in the same Brooklyn neighborhood as that film, and includes Lee reprising his role as Mookie, a pizza delivery guy who services the Red Hook projects.)

Lee also looked into the audience and said, “Is Brooklyn in the house? We doubled the black population of Utah, maybe tripled it, up in this room!”

African-American faces in the Eccles Theatre included Cuba Gooding Jr., Chris Rock and U.S. Attorney General Nate Holder.

And it was Rock who set Lee off on the night’s biggest fireworks. After Lee talked about how the movie had been shot in 19 days within a 10-block area of Brooklyn, the comedian and actor stood up and asked a question.

“OK, so you did it. You spent your own money, right?” he said. “What would you have done differently if you’d actually gotten a bunch of studio money? What else would have happened? Would you have blown up some s—?”

Lee immediately jumped on the question, insisting that he already told Rock in a private conversation why he had no interest in asking for studio financing.

“We never went to the studios with this film, Chris,” he said. “I told you, we’re gonna do this … film ourselves! The plan was to make the film, bring it to Sundance, and … “

He stopped, looked over at Sundance chief John Cooper and quickly corrected himself. “Sorry, John, we were gonna show it to you first,” he said, backtracking from the implication that Sundance would have taken anything Lee gave them.

And then he waded back into the fray. “I didn’t want to hear no motherf—— notes from the studio telling me … about what a young 13-year-old boy and girl would do in Red Hook.”

“They know nothing about black people. Nothing!”

After a few more minutes of ranting that included slaps at Universal Pictures for not green-lighting the sequel to “Inside Man,” he stopped and apologized for his “tirade.”

In truth, though, the tirade was more focused and powerful than the film. “Red Hook Summer” is confounding, divisive and messy. It’s a lament disguised as a comedy that turns into a brutal drama and ends up as an epic.

Its best moments are laced with a profound sorrow over the state of the country, but it also bogs down in endless monologues and sermons and awkward scenes between two teenage actors.

And late in its 130-minute running time, a shocking revelation about a central character nearly upends the entire movie and overshadows everything else in the story, which ostensibly focuses on a young boy who is brought from Atlanta to Brooklyn to spend the summer with his grandfather in the Red Hook projects.

Within half an hour of its conclusion, Twitter reactions included “Spike Lee’s most powerful … film in years,” “his most interesting/ambitious film in years,” and at least two people calling it “one of the worst movies to ever premiere at Sundance.”

That’s probably overstating the case — and even if you couldn’t stand the film, you had to admit that it was one of the festival’s most entertaining Q&As.

CaseClosed2: If white producers know nothing about black people where are the black producers who do know?Why isn’t Tyler Perry, who is black, telling those stories and not the stories about the emasculation of black men? He was molested as a child by a black man so his preception of black men is damaged. Until there are other black producers making black quality historical films, the public will have to rely on white producers to tell the stories which will probably be inaccurate.