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• Why isn't New Orleans Mother's Day parade shooting a 'national tragedy'?

  historyintheworks:

  A telling excerpt:

  “Unforunately, though, I’ve learned to redefine what constitutes an American tragedy. American tragedies occur where middle America frequents every day: airplanes, business offices, marathons. Where there persists a tangible fear that this could happen to any of us. And rightfully so. Deaths and mayhem anywhere are tragic. That should always be the case. The story here is where American tragedies don’t occur.

  American tragedies don’t occur on the southside of Chicago or the New Orleans 9th Ward. They don’t occur where inner city high school kids shoot into school buses or someone shoots at a 10-year old’s birthday party in New Orleans. Or Gary, Indiana. Or Compton. Or Newport News. These are where the forgotten tragedies happen and the cities are left to persevere on their own.

  So, once again, New Orleans will survive. And move on. Because, really, we’ve been here before.”

  -David Dennis

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  fuckyeahfeminists:

  Costco CEO Craig Jelinek supports raising the minimum wage.

  Costco announced record profits today, averaging $10,000 in profit per employee compared to $7,400 at Walmart. 
  The secret to Costco’s success is paying employees well, providing benefits, and giving them an opportunity to unionize.

  So large corporations’ excuses that treating & paying workers well would damage profits are all a crock of shit.

  
  

• Daily Kos: Florida lawmakers, who rejected Medicaid, have really sweet health insurance deal

  tartantambourine:

  Being a member of Florida’s House is a pretty sweet gig. This group, the ones who went against the will of their governor, their citizens, the health care community and common decency in refusing to expand Medicaid in their state, voted themselves a smoking good deal on their own health insurance.

  House members will pay just $8.34 a month for state-subsidized health care next year, or $30 a month to cover their entire family.

  Well, everyone in Florida should have known the gist of this story. But the details are even more appalling than we might have imagined. Read the whole story.

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  doctorswithoutborders:

  MSF Mother’s Day E-Cards
  

  Still looking for something special for Mother’s Day? Honor a mother in your life with a gift that saves lives. Your tribute will help deliver urgently needed medical care to people—including pregnant women and new moms—trapped in crises around the world. And you’ll have the opportunity to send a beautiful eCard to your mother, letting her know about your meaningful gift (well in time for Mother’s Day).

  
  
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  thepeoplesrecord:

  On the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s poor people’s campaign: ‘We will march to ignite the revolution King called for’
  May 11, 2013

  Happening now! - The Poor Peoples March #PPCmarch2DC is entering the Baltimore center city. March to WashDC 40 miles. Source

  Historically (wikipedia):

  The Poor People’s Campaign was a 1968 effort to gain economic justice for poor people in the United States. It was organized by MLK Jr,  the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and carried out in the wake of King’s assassination.

  The Campaign demanded economic and human rights for poor Blacks, Chicanos, Native Americans, and Whites. After presenting an organized set of demands to Congress and executive agencies, participants set up a 3000-person tent city on the Washington Mall, where they stayed for six weeks.

  Along these lines, Melissa Harris Perry will be hosting a two hour conversation tomorrow on her MSNBC show about poverty. The conversation will be starting from the presumption that poverty can be abolished, and will be focused on tactics for accomplishing that extremely important goal. I don’t usually recommend programming on corporate media (& I’d bet they’ll dance around actually saying the word ‘capitalism’ in the conversation tomorrow) but Melissa Harris Perry’s show is usually packed full of meaningful analysis and useful facts for discussing the week’s current events.

  
  
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• Bill Cheng’s Novel is ‘Southern Cross the Dog’ - NYTimes.com

  From its opening pages, “Southern Cross the Dog” has all the markers of a novel written in the finest Southern gothic tradition. The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 sweeps in, taking a few unlucky characters with it. There are references aplenty to race, poverty, the blues, voodoo and an ill-fated brothel.

  It’s no wonder the Southern literati have raised an eyebrow at its author: Bill Cheng, a 29-year-old Chinese-American from Queens who has never set foot in Mississippi.

  “I was highly suspicious of this book when I first started it,” said Richard Howorth, the owner of Square Books in Oxford, Miss., and a revered authority on Southern literature. “I was won over.”

• Truly, South Carolina politics is a gift that just keeps on giving.

  Gail Collins in her column,  Guess Who’s Back! - NYTimes.com

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  Making the scene at Zoo Atlanta.