On this day in 1964, Stephen Colbert, American comedian and actor, was born in Washington,D.C., the youngest of 11 children. He was raised in Charleston, South Carolina on James Island until the death of his father and two brothers in a plane crash in 1974, when his mother moved the family to Charleston city proper. During high school he participated in plays and a Rolling Stones cover band.

After graduating from Northwestern University’s School of Communications, he was hired by “Second City” answering phones and selling souvenirs later performing with the touring company as an under study for Steve Carell. He has since written, created and performed a number of comedy shows from “Exit 57” to “Strangers with Candy” and even a gig on “Good Morning America”. He was hired in 1997 by the producer of “The Daily Show”.

His correspondent character, which he described as “a fool who has spent a lot of his life playing not the fool”, would eventually evolve into the parody “Stephen Colbert” character of the much acclaimed “The Colbert Report”. He carries off his parody character so well that many believe that it is really Colbert himself. His performance at the “White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner” in 2006, while not well received that night, became wildly popular on the internet and with the media.

Colbert has also acted in films and TV dramas (Law & Order: Criminal Intent)and provided the voice for animated characters (Phil, “Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law”, “The Venture Bros.” and “The Simpsons”). His book, “I Am America (And So Can You!)”, was #1 on the NYT Best Seller. He was assistant team psychologist for the 2010 US Olympic Speed Skating team and was part of the NBC coverage.

Colbert is married to Evelyn McGee-Colbert, has three children, 2 boys and a girl, and lives in Montclair, New Jersey. He is a self proclaimed Democrat and stated in a speech at Kennedy School of Government at Harvard Institute of Politics, that “he has “no problems with Republicans, just Republican policies.”

Happy 46th Birthday, Stephen

The Iraq War has been officially extended with the issue of this Notice to Congress (warning: pdf file):

   I have sent the enclosed notice to the Federal Register for publication, continuing the national emergency with respect to the stabilization of Iraq. This notice states that the national emergency with respect to the stabilization of Iraq declared in Executive Order 13303 of May 22, 2003, as modified in scope and relied upon for additional steps taken in Executive Order 13315 of August 28, 2003, Executive Order 13350 of July 29, 2004, Executive Order 13364 of November 29, 2004, and Executive Order 13438 of July 17, 2007, is to continue in effect beyond May 22, 2010.

   Obstacles to the orderly reconstruction of Iraq, the restoration and maintenance of peace and security in the country, and the development of political, administrative, and economic institutions in Iraq continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States. Accordingly, I have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency with respect to this threat and maintain in force the measures taken to deal with that national emergency.

h/t emptywheel @ FDL

On this day in 1937, George Denis Patrick Carlin was born in the Bronx. He was raised by his mother in Morningside Heights which he and his friends called “White Harlem” because it sounded tougher. He was raised Irish Catholic and educated in Catholic schools. He often ran away from home. After joining the Air Force while stationed in Louisiana, Carlin became a DJ in Shreveport starting on his long career in entertainment. Carlin rose to fame during the 60’s and 70’s, generating the most controversy with his famous “Seven Dirty Words”:

Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, Cocksucker, Motherfucker, and Tits. Those are the heavy seven. Those are the ones that’ll infect your soul, curve your spine and keep the country from winning the war.

His arrest and the subsequent FCC rulings ended up in the Supreme Court which upheld the right of the FCC to regulate the public airways. In the ruling it called the routine “indecent but not obscene”.

In 1961, Carlin was also present in the audience the night that Lenny Bruce was arrested in San Fransisco for obscenity. He was arrested, as well, after the police, who were questioning the audience, asked Carlin for ID. He said he didn’t have any because he didn’t believe in government-issued ID’s.

We all know the rest. His popularity as a comic and “commentarian” on politics, religion and social issues made him a popular guest on late night talk shows. His death in  June 22, 2008 saddened many. He left behind his second wife, Sally Wade, whom he married after his first wife Brenda died of liver cancer in 1997. He left a daughter by his first marriage, Kelly.

Happy Birthday, George, you are missed.

On this day in 1888, the composer and lyricist, Irving Berlin (Israel Isidore Baline) was born in Tyumen in Eastern Russia. When young Irving was 5, his father, a cantor in a Jewish Synagogue, moved his family to the United States in 1893 as did many other Jewish families which was sparked by the pogroms of the new Russian Tsar. Berlin only recollection of his life in Russia was the burning of his families home during a Cossack rampage of their village.

The Baline family eventually settled on the lower east side of New York City. After his father passed away when he was 8, young “Izzy” drooped out of school taking odd jobs delivering papers and, eventually making a living singing “street songs” for pennies. Eventually, he hooked up with another street kid who was getting by singing his own songs, George M. Cohan and other young song writers. In 1911, Irving Berlin hit the charts with “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” and he was off and running for decades with hit after hit many of which are still heard today. We all know “White Christmas”. And who can forget this classic “immortalized” by the late Peter Boyle and Gene Wilder in “Young Frankenstein”

Irving Berlin died September 22, 1989 in NYC. Happy Birthday, Mr. Berlin.

Lena Horne, who was the first black performer to be signed to a long-term contract by a major Hollywood studio and who went on to achieve international fame as a singer, died on Sunday night at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York. She was 92 and lived in Manhattan.

On this day in , lead singer of U2, Bono was born Paul David Hewson in Dublin, Ireland. He has written almost all of the lyrics to U2’s song using political, social and personal experiences. Bono’s philanthropic work have made him one of the world’s best known performers. he has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, received an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II and named Time’s Persons of the Year in 2005. His work and performance for Amnesty International, Band aid and Live Aid. His advocacy for third world countries has brought the AIDS epidemic in Africa to the attention of the world and it’s leaders.

Happy Birthday, Bono, and thank you.

On this day in 1914 President Woodrow Wilson issues a presidential proclamation that officially establishes the first national Mother’s Day holiday to celebrate America’s mothers.

The earliest call for the establishment of Mother’s Day in the US came in 1870 with the “The Mother’s Day Proclamation” written by Julia Howe. It was a pacifist reaction to the US Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War. It was Ms. Howe’s belief that women had a responsibility to shape society at a political level.

Arise, then, women of this day!

Arise all women who have hearts,

Whether your baptism be that of water or of tears

Say firmly:

“We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,

Our husbands shall not come to us reeking of carnage,

For caresses and applause.

Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn

All that we have been able to teach them of

charity, mercy and patience.

“We women of one country

Will be too tender of those of another country

To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”

From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with

Our own. It says, “Disarm, Disarm!”

The sword of murder is not the balance of justice!

Blood does not wipe out dishonor

Nor violence indicate possession.

As men have of ten forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war.

Let women now leave all that may be left of home

For a great and earnest day of counsel.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.

Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means

Whereby the great human family can live in peace,

Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,

But of God.

In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask

That a general congress of women without limit of nationality

May be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient

And at the earliest period consistent with its objects

To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,

The amicable settlement of international questions.

The great and general interests of peace.

Welcome to this week’s Health and Fitness. This is an Open Thread.

These are great for breakfast or a late afternoon snack. I had the Kiwi-Strawberry late this morning, far better than my usual slap together poached egg on a muffin or instant oatmeal.

As is now custom, I’ll try to include the more interesting and pertinent articles that will help the community awareness of their health and bodies. This essay will not be posted anywhere else due to constraints on my time. Please feel free to make suggestions for improvement and ask questions, I’ll answer as best I can.  

1973 – A 71-day standoff between federal authorities and the American Indian Movement members occupying the Pine Ridge Reservation at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, site of the infamous massacre of 300 Sioux by the U.S. 7th Cavalry in 1890, ends with the surrender of the militants.

AIM was founded in 1968 by Russell Means, Dennis Banks, and other Native-American leaders as a militant political and civil rights organization.

snip

Their actions were acclaimed by many Native Americans, but on the Pine Ridge Reservation, Oglala Sioux Tribal President Dick Wilson had banned all AIM activities. AIM considered his government corrupt and dictatorial, and planned the occupation of Wounded Knee as a means of forcing a federal investigation of his administration. By taking Wounded Knee, The AIM leaders also hoped to force an investigation of other reservations, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and broken Indian treaties.

snip

The Wounded Knee occupation lasted for a total of 71 days, during which time two Sioux men were shot to death by federal agents. One federal agent was paralyzed after being shot. On May 8, the AIM leaders and their supporters surrendered after White House officials promised to investigate their complaints.

snip

In 1975, two FBI agents and a Native-American man were killed in a massive shoot-out between federal agents and AIM members and local residents. In a controversial trial, AIM member Leonard Peltier was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to two consecutive life terms.

snip

The U.S. government took no steps to honor broken Indian treaties, but in the courts some tribes won major settlements from federal and state governments in cases involving tribal land claims.

The Pine Ridge and other Reservations remain incredibly poor. This past winter was especially devastating with record cold, snow and ice. Residents ran out of food, heating fuel and water became an even bigger problem when water mains froze and broke.  

Elena Kagan is currently the Solicitor General for the Obama Administration. She is the former Dean of Harvard Law. She is currently one of the candidates under consideration to replace Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, who has announced his retirement after this session. Ms. Kagan has never been a judge, not that that is a qualification, but she also has spent little time in a courtroom. Her record on most issues is sparse but what is known about her is very troubling for progressives and this country. Glen Greenwald has been very critical of her citing not just the scarcity of her opinions but her troubling testimony before Senate judiciary committee.

Now four law professors, (Guy-Uriel Charles is at Duke Law School; Anupam Chander is at the University of California-Davis Davis School of Law; Luis Fuentes-Rohwer is at Indiana University’s School of Law; and Angela Onwuachi-Willig is at the University of Iowa College of Law), question her record on diversity while she was Dean.

The first woman Dean of Harvard Law School had presided over an unprecedented expansion of the faculty — growing it by almost a half. She had hired 32 tenured and tenure-track academic faculty members (non-clinical, non-practice). But when we sat down to review the actual record, we were frankly shocked. Not only were there shockingly few people of color, there were very few women. Where were the people of color? Where were the women? Of these 32 tenured and tenure-track academic hires, only one was a minority. Of these 32, only seven were women. All this in the 21st Century.

On this day in 1824, the world premiere of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in Vienna, Austria. The performance is conducted by Michael Umlauf under the deaf composer’s supervision. It was Beethoven’s first appearance on stage in 12 years. Over the years the symphony has been performed for both political and non-political from the eve of Hitler’s birthday, to the celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, to the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. The Ode to Joy was used as the anthem by Kosovo when it declared it’s independence in 2008.

This morning Glen Greenwald posed this hypothetical question regarding the outrage over Sen. Joseph Lieberman’s citizenship stripping bill and President Barak Obama’s assassination policy:

Outrage over Lieberman’s citizen-stripping bill is odd in light of Obama’s assassination program: which would you rather have done to you?

Neither Lieberman’s bill or Obama’s Policy provide for due process.

Hopefully, Lieberman’s bill stands no chance getting even to the Senate floor but President Obama’s assassination policy is already in place.

Do either of these men, who have sworn to uphold the law and protect the Constitution, believe in its core principles?