This video has been nominated as a duplicate of this video by eric3579. If this nomination is seconded with *isdupe, the video will be killed and its votes transferred to the original.

*dupeof=http://videosift.com/video/Leningrad-Cowboys-and-the-Red-Army-Choir-Sweet-Home-Alabama

@ChaosEngine.
Yes, and I have heard Alabama Shakes..., definitely not on the radio though. The internet is giving some artists a venue that didn't used to exist. Which is awesome.

We have ten radio stations in our town of 100,000. And they all play the same stuff. The playlists are so small, I hear the same songs over and over. Even the classics station repeats the same 20 songs over and over. There used to be privately owned Stations, but they've all been bought out by the bigger corporations, and now they only play the "Approved" list of currently trending catalog songs.

I guess I'm becoming Jaded.

@Sagemind, I hear ya, and yeah, I'm also sick of boring manufactured pop, with marketed manufactured outrage (Miley Cyrus twerks!).

But I don't think things are quite as bad as you believe them to be.

Look at this video on the sift at the moment.
http://videosift.com/video/Alabama-Shakes-Dont-Wanna-Fight-No-More

Here we have a band that play their own instruments, fronted by a plus size black woman playing guitar on one of the biggest TV shows in the US.

Meanwhile, talented guys like Rob Chapman are able to use youtube to make a comfortable living and allowing them to record and tour.

While I find it entertaining and hilarious, this is simply horrible strawmanning. The US has one of the simplest systems of inclusion of any major nation. He either is not understanding, or he's simply being a demagogue about it.

It's really, really simple.

Want full rights? Then join permanently. Become a state. It's literally the exact same thing that Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana, Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, Missouri, Arkansas, Michigan, Florida, Iowa, Wisconsin, California, Minnesota, Oregon, Kansas, Nevada, Nebraska, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Alaska, and Hawaii did.

Guam, the Marianas, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands have the EXACT SAME OPTIONS as those states listed above had when those states were territories.

Samoa is different because they don't meet the minimum population requirement (60K) to be bumped up to qualify for statehood.

They're pretty close tho.

But yeah... it has nothing to do with race or bigotry or anything like that. If John Oliver can't understand that simple system, then how does he explain the different rights of citizens in the British Overseas Territories vs the British Crown Dependencies, or how Wales and Scotland are sort of countries and sort of not countries.

I'm assuming he can understand the wonky UK system, and if that's so, he should easily understand the simple US system (want full rights, vote to join permanently).

Just last year, there was a movement in Guam to call for a vote of statehood. Basically a glorified (but meaningful) petition. They didn't get the required % of people wanting to vote, so, in essence, Guam doesn't even care enough to vote for statehood.

They have every right that every other territory has had in terms of what category they fall under.

Basically, just look at states as permanent (and thusly more rights as well as more responsibilities) and territories as temporary until they decide what they want to be. Or territories can stay in limbo forever.

Guam, PR, and the rest can go the route of Hawaii (okay, that was naked imperialism but whatever) or the route of Cuba and the Philippines... or just stay how they are.

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Alabama Police Officer Arrested Over Severe Injuries To Indian Man

The police chief in Madison, Ala., says that an officer who threw a man to the ground faces assault charges and dismissal. Sureshbhai Patel, 57, was stopped last week as he walked in his son's new neighborhood. Patel remains hospitalized after surgery to fuse bones in his neck; his son says he now has limited mobility.

"I found that Officer Eric Parker's actions did not meet the high standards and expectations of the Madison City Police Department," Chief of Police Larry Muncey said after an investigation. He added that he is recommending Parker be fired.

Parker, who the department says is a training officer who had a trainee riding with him at the time of last week's incident, turned himself in to police yesterday; he faces a charge of third-degree assault, Muncey, said, adding that the FBI is conducting a parallel inquiry into any possible federal infractions.

The case has drawn attention both because of the circumstances and due to video footage of the incident captured by a dashboard camera. That footage, released Thursday, shows that Parker sent Patel to the ground in such a way that for a brief instant, Patel was completely airborne — until his head and upper body hit the ground.

Patel had recently come from India to help care for his infant grandson; he was stopped by police on the morning of Feb. 6, after a neighbor called to report what they saw as a suspicious figure. When police approached Patel, who speaks little English, he was unable to answer their questions about what he was doing in the area.

According to local news site AL.com, Patel's son, Chirag, is an engineer who recently bought a home in Madison, a town about 10 miles west of Huntsville. The family has filed a federal lawsuit over the incident, saying police used excessive force and had no reason to stop the elder Patel.

"This is a good neighborhood. I didn't expect anything to happen," Chirag Patel told AL.com earlier this week.

In a statement released Thursday, Muncey said, "I sincerely apologize to Mr. Patel, his family and our community...our desire is to exceed everyone's expectations."

A GoFundMe account set up in Patel's name has raised more than $50,000 since it was created two days ago. The call for help notes the family's lawsuit and medical bills.

Audio released by the police department includes the phone call that sent officers to check on Patel. In it, the caller says he's seen the same man walking in the neighborhood for a second day.

Describing him, the caller says, "He's a skinny black guy, he's got a toboggan on; he's really skinny. And I've lived here four years. I've never seen him before."

The man adds that he's on his way to work and is nervous about leaving his wife at home with the man standing across the street.

"I'd like somebody to talk to him," he says.

Parker then responded to the police dispatcher's call.

Your video, Redneck News reports on gay marriage destroying Alabama, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

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@kceaton1:

I know you're being serious, and it's a completely and totally reasonable thing to assume and hope the state government offers such things.

But, I hope you know (and I really want to emphasize that I don't intend to be condescending), that will never, ever, ever, ever happen in Alabama.

A new, unfit mother, effectively forced to give birth to the child, would be lucky that they aren't arrested immediately upon giving birth for being unfit.

Have you actually looked at a map of the US? Florida is clearly the prick, Texas is the butt, and Louisiana is the asshole. Mississippi and Alabama would be the taint.

Seems about right to me.

You have been awarded 1 Power Point for fixing the embed code for Dead Pool video King Crismson ~ Live Aus Alabama. Thank you for helping maintain VideoSift's reliability.

For what it's worth, I did some digging and the rumors that Tim Cook is gay seem to be at least partially sourced to a speech he made in 2013.

http://business.time.com/2013/12/15/apple-ceo-tim-cook-gives-remarkable-speech-on-gay-rights-racism/

The relevant bit is at about 3:10 when he says that "I have seen, and I have experienced many other types of discrimination, and all of them were rooted in the fear of people that were different from the majority."

The rest of the speech talks about human rights in general, whether from a perspective of disability, race or gender.

Sure, it sounds like he's hinting at discrimination he experienced as a gay man in Alabama, but it could just as easily be sloppy wording on his part. I'm leaning towards sloppy wording just because I don't think he would hint at his sexual orientation so casually. As Apple's CEO, such a move would be a lot more intentional and carefully orchestrated.

So again, the CNBC host doesn't have a clue what he's talking about and he didn't out anyone. He just spread unsubstantiated rumors.