APRIL IS
Wikipedia: Sarah Lois Vaughan (March 27, 1924 – April 3, 1990) was an American jazz singer, described by Scott Yanow as having “one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century.”[1] She had a contralto vocal range.[2]
Nicknamed “Sailor” (for her salty speech),[3] “Sassy” and “The Divine One“, Sarah Vaughan was a Grammy Award winner.[4] The National Endowment for the Arts bestowed upon her its “highest honor in jazz”, the NEA Jazz Masters Award, in 1989.[5]
Sarah Vaughan’s father, Asbury “Rat Fool” Vaughan, was a carpenter by trade and played guitar and piano. Her mother, Ada Vaughan, was a laundress and sang in the church choir.[6] Jake and Ada Vaughan migrated to Newark from Virginia during the First World War. Sarah was their only natural child, although in the 1960s they adopted Donna, the child of a woman who traveled on the road with Sarah Vaughan.[7]
The Vaughans lived in a house on Brunswick Street, in Newark, New Jersey, for Sarah’s entire childhood.[7] Jake Vaughan was deeply religious and the family was very active in the New Mount Zion Baptist Church on 186 Thomas Street. Sarah began piano lessons at the age of seven, sang in the church choir and occasionally played piano for rehearsals and services.
Vaughan developed an early love for popular music on records and the radio. In the 1930s, Newark had a very active live music scene and Vaughan frequently saw local and touring bands that played in the city at venues like the Montgomery Street Skating Rink.[7] By her mid-teens, Vaughan began venturing (illegally) into Newark’s night clubs and performing as a pianist and, occasionally, singer, most notably at the Piccadilly Club and the Newark Airport USO.
Vaughan initially attended Newark’s East Side High School, later transferring to Newark Arts High School,[7] which had opened in 1931 as the United States’ first arts “magnet” high school. However, her nocturnal adventures as a performer began to overwhelm her academic pursuits and Vaughan dropped out of high school during her junior year to concentrate more fully on music. Around this time, Vaughan and her friends also began venturing across the Hudson River into New York City to hear big bands at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.
Have a Sassy Tuesday!
Pingback: More Voter Suppression Activity From the GOP- this time in KANSAS | Top US News Today
Pingback: More Voter Suppression Activity From the GOP- this time in KANSAS - Jack & Jill Politics
Tom Coburn Traps Grover Norquist
Jonathan Chait
Jonathan ChaitSenior Editorview bio contact meWhy Does The Weekly Standard Hate Hippies So Much? The Goodness Of Paul Ryan Is Self-Evident Fred Thompson Is Not (That) Lazy March 30, 2011 | 11:56 am
Senator Tom Coburn, the conservative Republican from Oklahoma, is doing something mischievous, clever, and important. Coburn is a key player in bipartisan negotiations to reduce the medium-term deficit. Everybody understands that a deal like this can only happen via some combination of spending reductions and revenue increases. The latter part violates sacred GOP theology, and the high priest of this theology is Grover Norquist. Through Americans for Tax Reform, Norquist has gotten most Republicans to sign a pledge never to increase tax revenues for any reason. Coburn is attempting to expose the ridiculousness of this pledge.
Of course, he’s not exactly saying that. His whole fight with Norquist is being conducted in the language of movement conservative cant. But he is doing something quite daring.
The revenue increase Coburn is considering, as outlined in the Bowles-Simpson plan, would, one way or another, reduce tax expenditures. It would not increase tax rates — indeed, it would lower them — but it would instead claw back the vast array of tax deductions that reduce revenue by more than a trillion dollars a year. This would violate the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. the Pledge is not about rates, it’s about revenue. Norquist wants people — and especially rich people — to pay less money to the government. To Norquist, eliminating a tax loophole is just as bad as raising rates. So he opposes any attempt to increase revenue through the elimination of loopholes, however unworthy those loopholes may be.
Norquist and Coburn have been circling each other for months, trading barbs in the media. Now Coburn is using a test case to expose Norquist’s Pledge. That test case is the ethanol subsidy, which is pork that survives due to the strength of the agriculture lobby, but which the conservative movement at least putatively opposes. The ethanol subsidy, like many subsidies, comes in the form of a tax break. Eliminating it is, therefore, a tax increase. Therefore, eliminating the ethanol subsidy, without using the revenue for a tax cut, would violate the Pledge.
In other words, Coburn has set a trap for Norquist. He has proposed eliminating the ethanol subsidy. If Norquist supports it, he has to alter his pledge to allow for closing loopholes that raise revenue. If he opposes it, he has to admit that he opposes closing loopholes that even Norquist admits are unsupportable. Norquist’s response? He opposes closing the loophole:
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) ripped conservative activist Grover Norquist on Tuesday for defending tax breaks that benefit special interest groups.
In a letter to Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, Coburn said a tax break for ethanol producers ultimately raised the tax burden for average taxpayers and should be done away with.
Americans for Tax Reform quickly shot back with a letter to Coburn that accused the senator of misinterpreting its views of the ethanol tax credit, which it said it opposed. The group said it opposed Coburn’s amendment because he did not offset elimination of the tax break with a corresponding tax cut.
So now the trap is sprung. Coburn can now paint Norquist’s pledge as un-conservative — it’s protecting pork and special interest subsidies that conservatives oppose. And Coburn is right! Assuming, of course, that you define conservative to mean a belief in low nominal tax rates and a tax code that doesn’t pick winners or losers, as opposed t a tax code that raises the smallest amount of revenue as possible from rich people.
The implications of Coburn’s fight is profound. Norquist’s vision of conservatism has completely dominated the Republican Party for twenty years. Nobody has even attempted to push back. Coburn may not win, but the mere fact that he is opposing Norquist’s definition of proper party dogma is highly significant.
http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/86012/tom-coburn-traps-grover-norquist
Tax VOX
Little rebellions against party orthodoxy
A few Republicans and Democrats are turning away from their party’s ideology. Can this lead to a bipartisan budget deal?
By Howard Gleckman, Guest blogger / February 25, 2011
Ideological heresy may not quite be breaking out all over Washington, but in the growing debate over the burgeoning debt, there are helpful hints of apostasy. And hope of a bipartisan consensus for responsible deficit reduction may lie atop those tiny waves of dissent.
The latest whiff of hopeful heterodoxy comes from three Republican senators– Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, Mike Crapo of Idaho, and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. In quiet backroom negotiations and in a remarkable public exchange of letters with Grover Norquist of American for Tax Reform, the three lawmakers suggest that they might—might—support revenue-raising tax reform as part of a broader deficit reduction deal.
All of this is happening in code, and with classic Washington indirection. The three lawmakers—none of whom would ever be confused with a Rockefeller Republican—are the GOP half of a small bipartisan group of senators that is trying to develop a compromise deficit reduction plan. As members of President Obama’s deficit commission, Crapo and Coburn endorsed the proposal offered late last year by panel chairs Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson. That plan included a call for a broad-based tax reform that would lower rates, eliminate most tax preferences, and raise about $800 billion in revenues from 2015 thr0ugh 2020.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Tax-VOX/2011/0225/Little-rebellions-against-party-orthodoxy
I ABSOULUTELY LOAHTE CHRIS MATTHEWS AND MSNBC for pushing this Trump for POTUS bullshit!
I remember you as you were in the last autumn.
You were the grey beret and the still heart.
In your eyes the flames of the twilight fought on.
And the leaves fell in the water of your soul.
Clasping my arms like a climbing plant
the leaves garnered your voice, that was slow and at peace.
Bonfire of awe in which my thirst was burning.
Sweet blue hyacinth twisted over my soul.
I feel your eyes traveling, and the autumn is far off:
Grey beret, voice of a bird, heart like a house
Towards which my deep longings migrated
And my kisses fell, happy as embers.
Sky from a ship. Field from the hills:
Your memory is made of light, of smoke, of a still pond!
Beyond your eyes, farther on, the evenings were blazing.
Dry autumn leaves revolved in your soul.
Pablo Neruda
Share |
The mofos who listen to ayn Rand are as sick as she was.
You know they’r releasing the movie Atlas Shrugs, and sales of the book have gone up. I had lunch at an Indian resturant a few months ago, and a few white guys were reading the book during their lunch break.
I read 3 pages of Atlas. That book is crap.
I saw the “Fountainhead’ starring Patricia Neal and Gary Cooper. Here’s the scene that gives all those white men hard ons: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc7oZ9yWqO4
I Love these 2 beautiful women!
Me too! First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden are accomplished, intelligent, loving mothers, wives, daugthers and true public servants.
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) —
U.S. Sen. Rand Paul has already filed to seek re-election to the U.S. Senate in 2016.
The Kentucky Republican who has been talking about possibly running for president next year filed a statement of candidacy to run for a second term in the Senate on March 21, some three months after taking office.
Paul, the son of Texas congressman and former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, won the GOP primary in Kentucky last year over a Republican establishment candidate and followed that up with a general election win over an establishment Democrat.
Rand Paul has suggested he may run for the Republican presidential nomination next year if his father doesn’t. While his father hasn’t officially announced another presidential run, he has been testing the water.
Read more: http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Rand-Paul-files-for-re-election-to-US-Senate-1342839.php#ixzz1K0WgfZjb
GTFOOH!
LOL SG2, you know he knows he and any of the other clowns who might run for POTUS in 2012 don’t stand a SNOWBALLS chance in HELL of defeating PBO.
Breaking News Alert: Plane with Michelle Obama had to abort landing due to mistake
April 19, 2011 5:13:07 PM
—————————————-
A White House plane carrying Michelle Obama came dangerously close to a 200-ton military cargo jet and had to abort its landing at Andrews Air Force Base on Monday as the result of an air traffic controller’s mistake, according to federal officials familiar with the incident.
http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/TNGYL1/724XUA/PP15OG/FGXQ4B/ZIT5A/RF/h
Ultimately controllers at Andrews feared the cargo jet would not clear the runway in time, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak for their agencies.
FAA officials confirmed that the first lady was aboard the plane, but had no additional comment immediately. They expected to release a statement later Tuesday. The first lady’s office also had no immediate comment.
The Federal Aviation Administration, already dealing with a series of controversies involving controllers sleeping and watching a movie on the job, on Tuesday sent a team of investigators to the Warrenton radar control center where the mistake was made.
The First Lady was returning from a television appearance and other events with Jill Biden in New York and was aboard a Boeing 737 that is part of the presidential fleet of jets when the error occurred on final approach to Andrews.
The controllers in the tower at Andrews recognized that the massive C-17 and Obama flight designated EXEC1F, a classification for a plane carrying members of the president’s family, were far too close when the Warrenton controller handed off responsibility for the two aircraft.
They ordered the Obama plane to execute a series of S-turns in an effort to create a safe distance between it and the C-17, federal officials said. When those maneuvers failed to achieve the required distance between the two planes — and the Andrews controllers realized the cargo jet would not have time to get off the runway before the presidential plane arrived — they aborted landing of the Obama plane and ordered it to circle the airport.
Because an airplane’s wake causes severe turbulence and, in extreme cases, can cause a plane that enters it to crash, the FAA has strict standards on how much distance controllers should maintain between planes.
A fully loaded C17 can create such turbulence that the FAA requires a 5-mile separation behind it and the next airplane. The presidential fleet 737 already was far closer than that when the handoff took place from the Potomac Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) facility in Warrenton.
“The manager and tower controller at Andrews did several things to try to increase the separation on final [approach] before ordering a go-around,” said a senior FAA manager familiar with the incident.
The FAA manager said that the TRACON controller exhibited “really bad controller technique.”
“Not only did he get them too close, he told the [Andrews controller] that they were farther apart than they were,” he said.
When the handoff occurred radar shows that the planes were 3.08 miles apart but the TRACON controller told the Andrews Tower they were four miles apart. Before handing off, the TRACON controller warned Obama’s pilot of potential wake turbulence.
In the Andrews tower, controllers already had identified “a serious loss of separation” but were reluctant to contact the TRACON to point it out, officials said.
The Andrews controllers ordered the S turns as soon as they assumed responsibility,but the two planes still grew closer. Finally, fearing the C17 couldn’t get off runway 19L in time for the Obama plane to land, they ordered EXEC1F to abort the landing attempt.
“In the grand scheme of things, events like this happen fairly frequently,” said another federal official who works with the air traffic control system but is not authorized to speak publicly. “Unfortunately, this one involves a presidential plane.”
Both go-arounds and errors by air traffic controllers are not uncommon. Controllers at Potomac TRACON, who direct more than 1.5 million flights a year to area airports, made a record number of errors in 2010.
Nationwide, recorded errors by controllers increased by 51 percent last year, to 1,869.
Potomac recorded 52 controller errors, an increase from 21 recorded in 2009. In a memo to his staff last year, the facility’s director cited “a definite increase in sloppy or poor adherence to SOP and handbook procedures.”
In most instances — both locally and nationally — planes came too close but without risk of collision; in some, however, fatal consequences were narrowly averted.
The go-around is seen by controllers as a fairly routine safety procedure that keeps planes out of greater trouble.
In October, National recorded 39 go-arounds, Dulles had 20 and BWI had three , according to an internal FAA document. Last August, FAA records show at least seven instances in which planes on final approach to National were ordered to go around “due to traffic on the runway.”
That traffic on the runway could be there because a plane that just landed hasn’t moved out of the way quickly enough or, more likely, a plane cleared for takeoff has dawdled on the runway past the time when the controller expected it to be gone.
In 2010 the National Transportation Safety Board took an unprecedented step by beginning to investigate the most serious mistakes by air traffic controllers.
Among the cases under NTSB review are near-collisions between a Boeing 737 and a helicopter in Houston; a Boeing 777 and a small plane in San Francisco; and an Airbus 319 and a Boeing 747 in Anchorage.
Another case under review is an incident last year near Reagan National Airport that involved an airliner carrying a congressman. Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) demanded an explanation from the FAA after his United Airlines flight bound for National swerved to avoid another jet after the encounter activated the onboard collision avoidance system.
Ain’t this some shit? And we’re getting patdowns and scans at airports, and teh real threat are incompetent air traffic controllers. SMGDH
WTFF?
I want the air traffic controller FIRED on the fking spot. Don’t start no ish!
Al Sharpton: Media Hypes ‘Black On Black Fight’ Between Black Community And Obama
» 36 comments
by Matt Schneider | 9:15 am, April 18th, 2011
Al Sharpton shared some fiery remarks at his recent National Action Network Forum: Measuring the Movement. Host Roland Martin asked the panel why President Obama’s poll ratings amongst African Americas had dropped significantly, yet Sharpton disputed the accuracy of such results and instead blamed it on the media.
Martin smartly countered Sharpton suggesting “we believed [polls] when it was high,” yet Sharpton backed up his statement:
“What the media has tried to do is to have this black on black fight with the black community and President Obama. . . . Some black leaders who have held [Obama] to a higher standard than some of the white presidents including Bill Clinton they called black.”
Sharpton continued by arguing that Obama is being held to a standard that no other President before had to meet. Finally, when someone from the audience questioned when are the people of color going to form a party to counter the Tea Party, Sharpton proudly pointed to his response to Glenn Beck’s Washington D.C. rally last summer and declared, “we have mobilized and pushed the Tea Party back.”
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/al-sharpton-media-hypes-black-on-black-fight-between-black-community-and-obama/
Here it is rikyrah. So these MOFOs will stop at nothing to suppress our votes.
Voter ID now Kansas law
Posted: April 18, 2011 – 3:49pm
By Tim Carpenter
THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL
Gov. Sam Brownback made a fixture of Kansas politics Monday requirements voters present proof of citizenship and photograph affirmation of their identity as the price of participating in elections.
The measures were long championed by conservatives who expressed apprehension that unauthorized voters were distorting elections through fraudulent means. The rules could spark a legal challenge from voters who feel disenfranchised by the new hurdles to electoral participation.
“I think these are reasonable steps to protect the rights of our citizens,” Brownback said at the Statehouse.
Brownback long ago endorsed the voter ID and citizenship provisions incorporated into House Bill 2067.
Secretary of State Kris Kobach is credited with raising profile of the issue during his successful campaign in 2010. He said the Kansas legislation uniquely combined picture IDs for in-person voting, photo and signature security protections for advance balloting and proof of citizenship.
“No other state in the union does as much to secure the integrity of the voting process,” Kobach said. “If you want the Cadillac of voter security, the Kansas model is the way to go.”
The photo ID requirement will take effect Jan. 1.
Starting in 2013, anyone registering to vote for the first time in Kansas will have to provide proof of their U.S. citizenship, such as a birth certificate or passport, though a Kansas driver’s license could suffice for many.
Election officials will have to verify the signatures of prospective voters before sending them a ballot by mail.
Critics of the bill said the result will be lower turnout and fewer people registered to vote.
Kevin Myles, president of the Kansas chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said minority and poor voters would be the most likely to be disenfranchised.
Myles said the NAACP hasn’t ruled out an eventual court challenge.
However, Brownback and Kobach said the new law would not diminish legal participation in Kansas elections.
The statute requires free photo ID cards to be issued to any Kansan who qualifies and signs an affidavit vowing they can’t obtain other forms of acceptable identification.
Brownback said the state should conduct an aggressive voter education program to inform Kansans of the changes.
http://cjonline.com/legislature/2011-04-18/voter-id-now-kansas-law
Starting in 2013, anyone registering to vote for the first time in Kansas will have to provide proof of their U.S. citizenship, such as a birth certificate or passport, though a Kansas driver’s license could suffice for many.
A birth cetificate or passport? To register to vote? Mofos have lost their fking minds.
thanks for this info
Listen to me as one listens to the rain,
not attentive, not distracted,
light footsteps, thin drizzle,
water that is air, air that is time,
the day is still leaving,
the night has yet to arrive,
figurations of mist
at the turn of the corner,
figurations of time
at the bend in this pause,
listen to me as one listens to the rain,
without listening, hear what I say
with eyes open inward, asleep
with all five senses awake,
it’s raining, light footsteps, a murmur of syllables,
air and water, words with no weight:
what we are and are,
the days and years, this moment,
weightless time and heavy sorrow,
listen to me as one listens to the rain,
wet asphalt is shining,
steam rises and walks away,
night unfolds and looks at me,
you are you and your body of steam,
you and your face of night,
you and your hair, unhurried lightning,
you cross the street and enter my forehead,
footsteps of water across my eyes,
listen to me as one listens to the rain,
the asphalt’s shining, you cross the street,
it is the mist, wandering in the night,
it is the night, asleep in your bed,
it is the surge of waves in your breath,
your fingers of water dampen my forehead,
your fingers of flame burn my eyes,
your fingers of air open eyelids of time,
a spring of visions and resurrections,
listen to me as one listens to the rain,
the years go by, the moments return,
do you hear the footsteps in the next room?
not here, not there: you hear them
in another time that is now,
listen to the footsteps of time,
inventor of places with no weight, nowhere,
listen to the rain running over the terrace,
the night is now more night in the grove,
lightning has nestled among the leaves,
a restless garden adrift-go in,
your shadow covers this page.
Octavio Paz
Share |
Deep…
.Last Updated: April 18. 2011 7:47PM .GOP slams Gov. Snyder recall effort
Paul Egan / Detroit News Lansing Bureau
Lansing— The Michigan Republican Party today denounced an effort to recall Gov. Rick Snyder, citing links between the group behind the effort and the Michigan Education Association teacher union.
A hearing is set for April 29 in Ann Arbor after a group that wants to recall Snyder, Michigan Citizens United, filed its proposed petition wording with the Washtenaw County clerk today.
Michigan Citizens United is promoting the recall effort on its website, firericksnyder.org. The group, described by a spokesman as a grassroots coalition of union members and others angered by measures Snyder announced in his Feb. 17 budget, as well as his support for sweeping new powers for local government and school district emergency financial managers, said it hopes to start collecting signatures May 8.
Paperwork for Michigan Citizens United was filed March 23 by its treasurer, Gail Schmidt of Omer. Schmidt, who could not be reached, works for the Michigan Education Association, records show and her husband confirmed.
Michigan Republican Party Chairman Robert “Bobby” Schostak said in a news release today that the fax number the group filed with the state is the same fax number as the MEA’s 12-D Coordinating Council, where Schmidt works as a field assistant.
An Internet search shows the fax number Schmidt filed with the Michigan Secretary of State matches a fax number for the MEA 12-D office.
“The focus of our educational system should be on what is best for students — not what is best for union bosses,” Schostak said. “Why are teachers’ union dues being spent on an effort to recall a governor who took office less than five months ago?”
Schostak noted the MEA is a significant donor to the Michigan Democratic Party and described the recall effort as “political chicanery at the hands of a recall-for-hire political action committee.”
From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110418/POLITICS02/104180370/GOP-slams-Gov.-Snyder-recall-effort#ixzz1JzTkk49C
Gold reaches $1,500 an ounce for the first time.
By Frank Tang
NEW YORK | Mon Apr 18, 2011 4:04pm EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Gold prices rallied to a record high $1,497.20 an ounce on Monday after Standard & Poor’s downgraded its credit outlook for the United States and as investors worried about debt in the euro zone and inflation in China.
S&P said it might eventually cut its long-term rating on the United States within two years, prompting investors to buy gold as a hedge against economic uncertainty. The ratings agency cited a risk that policymakers may not reach agreement on a plan to slash the huge federal budget deficit.
The CBOE gold volatility index .GVZ, a bullion market fear gauge, surged to its highest level in four months, up 8 percent for its biggest one-day rise since March 1.
“It’s a wake up call that we need to do something in the U.S. Unfortunately, the political dynamics are unlikely to dictate that. Gold is going to benefit for an extended period, meaning that we are not going to resolve those issues,” said Axel Merk, portfolio manager of Merk Hard Currency Fund
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/18/us-markets-precious-idUSTRE73786N20110418
Bites Man
by Tom Levenson
And in other news, Sarah Palin is not running for President.
Yeah, I know. We know this. But confirmation keeps coming in from one angle or another. This time, TPM reports on a new memoir by a disaffected former Palin aide that describes (among much else) Palin’s love of the act of governing:
a leaked copy of the manuscript Friday, describes the book by Frank Bailey “opens with an account of Palin sending Bailey a message saying ‘I hate this damn job’ shortly before she resigned as Alaska’s governor in July 2009.” The manuscript, the paper says, “goes on for nearly 500 pages, a mixture of analysis, gossip and allegation.”
TPM’s story focuses on Bailey’s description of what look like pretty clear election law violations. But the take home for me was exactly what lots of people have been saying for a while. Palin is smart enough not to want to work for the money.
Seeming to run for President is OK—great even; watch the cash register go ka-ching! But the whole theme of her half term governorship was an aversion to actually doing the job.
With each new reminder that this was so, it becomes ever more clear that there’s not a bunny’s chance in a greyhound kennel that she’d ever actually put herself in the way of having to go around presidenting. This latest story is just the next reminder that we’re watching a long con.
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2011/04/19/dog-bites-man-6/
Obama: Let Me Finish My Answers
The crackers have no manners or respect for our president. Wonder why…
You could hear the distain in Brad Watson’s voice while he was interviewing the President. CaC! The gall of this racist!
And asking the President why is he so unpopular? Because it’s a racist state. That’s why! And Brad…why the fk are you so damn ugly? Mofo!
President Obama answered Brad Watson’s question regarding his unpopularity in Texas = Texas being a conservative state just right.
He needs bitch slapping…
White boy was rolling his eyes. He needed his butt kicked. Disrespectful mofo
Brad Watson is a disrespectful punkass sob.
It’s why that bastard is standing outside with a mic on reporting about President Obama and not sitting in the POTUS chair being interviewed himself. BWA HA HA HA
Jealousy is such an unattractive look.
anyone read about voting rights restrictions in Kansas?
I thought I was up to date, but read a reference in passing on another blog without any further explanation.
No; DO tell.
Wis. Dems Filing Recall Petitions Against A Fourth GOP State Senator
Wisconsin Democrats announced late Monday that they are filing recall signatures against a fourth Republican state senator, in the political battle over Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s anti-public employee union agenda. And with this development, the momentum is growing for control of the chamber to be up for grabs in the coming months.
The St. Paul Pioneer Press, whose readership includes people across the Minnesota state line in Harsdorf’s northwestern Wisconsin district, reports:
Democratic Party of Wisconsin spokesman Graeme Zielinski said a petition will be filed with the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board on Tuesday. While he didn’t have a total signature count Monday afternoon — signatures were still coming in — Zielinski said the number is well over the 15,744 needed.Democrats on Monday filed petitions against Republican state Sen. Luther Olsen, and had previously filed petitions targeting state Sen. Dan Kapanke and state Sen. Randy Hopper. These petitions are still being reviewed by the state Government Accountability Board, which oversees elections.
The state Senate currently has a 19-14 Republican majority, with Democrats hoping to pick up three seats in recall elections and win a majority. They are collecting signatures in all eight Republican-held districts that are eligible. Under Wisconsin’s recall law, elected officials must have served at least one year of their term before recalled — thus exempting the half of the Senate that was just elected in 2010.
In order to initiate a recall, signatures of at least 25 percent of the number of voters in the previous gubernatorial election, within the targeted district, must be collected in a 60-day window.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/wis-dems-filing-recall-petitions-against-a-fourth-gop-state-senator.php?ref=tn
Yes, those Wisconsinites are not going gently into that good night. RECALL the ALL.
Poll: 48% Of Iowa Republicans Say Obama Wasn’t Born In U.S.
Nearly half of usual Republican primary voters in Iowa think President Obama was not born in the United States, while barely one-quarter believe he was, according to a PPP poll released on Tuesday.
In the poll, 48% of registered Republican voters said Obama was not born in the U.S., while 26% said he was. Additionally, 26% said they were unsure.
That percentage is actually slightly better than the national average for typical Republican primary voters, a majority of whom believe Obama was born outside the U.S. In February, a PPP poll found that 51% of registered Republican voters said Obama was not born in the U.S., compared to 28% who said he was, and 21% who were unsure.
However, the high birther base does not necessarily mean that the issue will be critical in determining which candidate wins Iowa. Donald Trump, who has vaulted to the front of several polls through a media blitz in which he’s repeatedly questioned Obama’s birth, placed a modest third in the poll’s hypothetical primary election. While 19% of voters who doubted Obama’s citizenship backed Trump, 25% broke for Huckabee.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/poll-48-of-iowa-republicans-say-obama-wasnt-born-in-us.php?ref=dcblt
Arent’ these supposed 48% Republican voters the same voters who DID NOT vote for PBO in 2008? GMAFB
Yes!
What these fools won’t stoop to to try and misinform and discourage supporter/voters for PBO.
April 18, 2011 06:02 PM
Paul Krugman: Let’s Not Be Civil
By karoli
Civility is dead. It was diagnosed as terminal on January 20, 2009, and by July 14, 2009 — the day the House of Representatives reported out the first version of the Affordable Care Act — it was dead, cold, and buried fifty feet under in a concrete box lined with lead to counter the radioactivity of the atmosphere above.
The killers weren’t liberals or progressives, though it’s true that they laughed and ridiculed pretty strongly on the Tea Party’s birthday on April 15, 2009. The killers were the talkers like Rush and Beck and their many clones on the AM radio dial who had no problem saying the most outrageous things. The more outrageous they were, the better it was for the hate talkers.
Which is why it makes me laugh in a cynical, annoyed sort of way when I see the right wing go all whiny about how mean President Obama is to them. To which I say, more meanness please. Bipartisanship is dead. Civility is dead. Meanness is what’s called for.
Paul Krugman:
Which brings me to those calls for a bipartisan solution. Sorry to be cynical, but right now “bipartisan” is usually code for assembling some conservative Democrats and ultraconservative Republicans — all of them with close ties to the wealthy, and many who are wealthy themselves — and having them proclaim that low taxes on high incomes and drastic cuts in social insurance are the only possible solution.
This would be a corrupt, undemocratic way to make decisions about the shape of our society even if those involved really were wise men with a deep grasp of the issues. It’s much worse when many of those at the table are the sort of people who solicit and believe the kind of policy analyses that the Heritage Foundation supplies.
So let’s not be civil. Instead, let’s have a frank discussion of our differences. In particular, if Democrats believe that Republicans are talking cruel nonsense, they should say so — and take their case to the voters.
Exactly. I’m not calling for us to start photoshopping Allen West into overtly racist pictures here, but enough with the pretense of civil discourse. When Andrew Breitbart tells liberals to STFU in public with 5,000 of them just on the other side of a barrier, civility just isn’t a worthwhile goal. Conservatives’ vision for this country is dark, dystopian, and deeply pessimistic. It’s also hypocritical and serves only the goals of their Fortune 500 masters. It does not have to be this way.
The president’s microphone wasn’t “accidentally” left on last week. That’s what people do when they want to say it without it being “official”. That message was intentional and conservatives can’t deny the truth of what he said, no matter how hard they try.
Unless we let them. David Brooks can wish on every shooting star in the sky, but there isn’t going to be a beer summit and congenial lunch with Paul Ryan and the president anytime soon. Those days are past. The Party of Loons and Pessimists wants to put Mom in the hands of insurance companies, corporate providers and ration her health care while cutting her Social Security benefits to shreds. This does not call for civility. It calls for open, loud, hostile calls for attention.
http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/krugman-lets-not-be-civil
President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama mark the beginning of Passover with a Seder in the Old Family Dining Room of the White House, April 18, 2011.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/live
President Obama participates in a town hall to discuss his vision for bringing down our deficit.
Northern Virginia Community College, Annandale, Virginia
Thanks!
Oh oh, the POTUS is mentioning the 35 W collaspe bridge in MN. In regards to America’s infrastructure. *looks@youTim Pawlenty*
We’ll need to post the full town hall of this when it’s available. The POTUS is taking it to the American people. I hope they’re listening.
I love me some Ms. Sarah V.
THANK YOU :)
You’re welcome! Please feel free to drop links of some of your favorite jazz artists.
by BRAD WATSON
WFAA
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 6:33 PM
Updated yesterday at 10:53 PM
NEWS 8 EXCLUSIVE
WASHINGTON — News 8 sat down with President Barack Obama at the White House Monday afternoon to discuss the economy, immigration and his approval rating.
The president this week is talking up his deficit reduction plan with town hall meetings in Western states. He met with News 8 for a few minutes to explain why he thinks his plan is better than the deficit reduction plan pushed by Republicans in the House, and why he wants to pitch his plan hard in Texas.
The president said his mix of spending cuts and tax increases on the wealthy offer a balanced approach compared to the Republicans who want cuts in spending and taxes.
VIDEO
http://www.wfaa.com/news/texas-news/President-Obama-talks-with-News-8–120141169.html
Brad’s a liar. The POTUS did not say he didn’t like being challenged.
Obama was asked to defend his deficit reduction plan by WFAA Dallas’s Brad Watson, who noted the president’s unpopularity in Texas.
“If what you’re telling me is, ‘Texas is a conservative state,’ you’re absolutely right,” the president said. “But I would also argue that the future of Texas is going to be Texans’ ability to invest in things like high technology, in research, in not just traditional energy sources, but also new energy sources. And if we’re not making those investments, then you’re going to see a situation in which Texas — like the rest of the country — falls behind other countries.”
Obama took aim at Texas Gov. Rick Perry as well, saying, “Gov. Perry helped balance his budget with about $6 billion worth of federal help — which he happily took — and then started blaming the members of Congress who had offered that help.”
The president denied that his administration sent retired space shuttles to other states key to his 2012 election in a deliberate affront to Texas. And the interview must have been test, as Watson later wrote: “fter the interview, Obama pointed out that he doesn’t like an interviewer challenging his comments.”
“Let me finish my answers the next time we do an interview, all right?” Watson quoted the president as saying.
The president also sat down with WTHR, Indianapolis’s NBC affiliate, but the station had not posted any of the interview online as of 10:45 p.m. ET.
Obama was asked to defend his deficit reduction plan by WFAA Dallas’s Brad Watson, who noted the president’s unpopularity in Texas.
“If what you’re telling me is, ‘Texas is a conservative state,’ you’re absolutely right,” the president said. “But I would also argue that the future of Texas is going to be Texans’ ability to invest in things like high technology, in research, in not just traditional energy sources, but also new energy sources. And if we’re not making those investments, then you’re going to see a situation in which Texas — like the rest of the country — falls behind other countries.”
Obama took aim at Texas Gov. Rick Perry as well, saying, “Gov. Perry helped balance his budget with about $6 billion worth of federal help — which he happily took — and then started blaming the members of Congress who had offered that help.”
The president denied that his administration sent retired space shuttles to other states key to his 2012 election in a deliberate affront to Texas. And the interview must have been test, as Watson later wrote: “fter the interview, Obama pointed out that he doesn’t like an interviewer challenging his comments.”
“Let me finish my answers the next time we do an interview, all right?” Watson quoted the president as saying.
The president also sat down with WTHR, Indianapolis’s NBC affiliate, but the station had not posted any of the interview online as of 10:45 p.m. ET.
http://www.politico.com/politico44/perm/0411/swing_state_tv_49eb27c9-c39f-4b96-9d04-e6c4f57b40cd.html
“Let me finish my answers the next time we do an interview, all right?”
Uh Oh!!!!!
Brad couldn’t accept the fact that the black president asked him to let him finish answering. He lied and said the POTUS doesn’t like to be challeged. WHAT A LOSER… CaC
coffee: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__j-Yh5rKmeY/Sh2rGgOB69I/AAAAAAAAAjQ/o5mFlyVP8pk/s400/cup-of-coffee.jpg
Thank you!
It’s just like I like it! :)
KAPOW! Gov. Rick Perry’s a hypocrite who took billionsin government money and then bashed the POTUS.
April 19, 2011
FOX NEWS’ PARANOID CHAIRMAN…. A few months ago, Esquire ran a fascinating profile on Roger Ailes, the chairman and CEO of Fox News, which made him appear, among other things, pretty paranoid. We learned, for example, that Ailes’ office has seven television screens — six for various on-air broadcasts and one on his desk that “shows nothing but the live feed from the security cameras” in Fox News’ building in New York.
Ailes also maintains a “private-security apparatus” that is “both extensive and expensive.”
Of particular interest, though, was Ailes decision to build a dream home in the Hudson River Valley, about an hour and a half north of Manhattan. The Fox News chief wanted to influence local affairs, so be bought the local newspaper, around the same time he bought all the houses around his home, leaving them empty, to help ensure his family’s safety.
This week, Gawker reports on what happened after Ailes bought the local paper, and handpicked the Weekly Standard’s Joe Lindsley to run it like a propaganda outlet for Ailes’ agenda. Lindsley apparently wasn’t entirely comfortable in his new role, so he and two of his young reporters, abruptly quit.
Ailes confronted the three staffers and accused them of badmouthing him and Elizabeth during their lunch breaks. Small towns being what they are, Lindsley, Haley, and Panny frequently drove several miles north of the News and Recorder’s Cold Spring, N.Y., office to privately have lunch in another town. When Ailes accused them, he knew which restaurant they frequented, leading the three to believe that Ailes wasn’t merely bluffing and that he’d actually had them followed.
After Lindsley quit for good, things got weirder. He was driving to a deli in Cold Spring for lunch earlier this month when he noticed a black Lincoln Navigator that seemed to be following him, according to several sources familiar with the incident. Lindsley drove aimlessly for a while to make sure he was being followed, and the Navigator stayed on him. Then he got a look at the driver, who was a News Corporation security staffer that Lindsley happened to know socially. Lindsley continued on his way and later called the driver to ask if he was following him. The answer was yes, at Ailes’ direction.
There was also this remarkable anecdote.
Last winter, not long before Lindsley tendered his resignation, the burglar alarm in the Ailes’ Garrison estate went off while Roger and Elizabeth were away. Roger’s first call after the police was to Lindsley, several sources say. Ailes asked him to rush to the home to let the police into the gate that blocking driveway, but when Lindsley arrived before the police, Ailes ordered him to enter the home in an effort to scare off the intruder. Speaking to Lindsley on his cell phone, Ailes led him around the darkened house, telling him which rooms to check and which lights to turn on to startle the burglar. It turned out to be a false alarm.
Noting all of this, Jon Chait suggests Ailes is “totally bonkers.” That seems like a reasonable assessment.
I’d just add that Ailes takes a hands-on leadership role at his Republican cable news channel, which routinely covers developments through a deeply paranoid lens. Given what we know of Fox News’ chairman and CEO, now we know why.
—Steve Benen 8:35 AM
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2011_04/029010.php
INSANITY
still waiting for someone to talk to her ‘ BLACK FRIENDS’.
apology NOT ACCEPTED.
Read somewhere else that Joe Madison said this is the THIRD TIME with this type of racist shyt from this heifer.
When ISOLATED INCIDENTS are neither ISOLATED not INCIDENTAL…
they form a PATTERN.
accept what the Pattern tells you and proceed accordingly.
……………..
GOP official apologizes for Obama chimp email
Calif. woman sends ‘birther’ message with photo of president’s face on chimpanzee’s body
A California Republican official who sent out an e-mail picturing President Barack Obama’s face on the body of a baby chimpanzee issued an apology late Monday after a weekend of criticism that ended with a strongly worded public rebuke from the local Republican Party chairman, who also called for an ethics investigation into the incident.
Marilyn Davenport, a 74-year-old elected member of the Orange County Republican Central Committee, sent an email Monday afternoon asking for forgiveness for her “unwise behavior,” just before the local Republican committee met for its monthly summit at a hotel in Irvine.
The email sent on Friday by Davenport to a small group of Republican committee members shows an image posed like a family portrait, of chimpanzee parents and child, with Obama’s face superimposed on the young chimp. Text beneath the picture reads, “Now you know why no birth certificate.”
Some voters have maintained since the last presidential election that Obama is ineligible to hold the nation’s highest elected office because, they argue, he was actually born in Kenya, his father’s homeland. Obama’s mother was an American citizen.
Hawaii officials have repeatedly confirmed Obama’s citizenship, and his Hawaiian birth certificate has been made public. Courts have rebuffed lawsuits challenging Obama’s eligibility.
“To my fellow Americans and to everyone else who has seen this email I forwarded and was offended by my action, I humbly apologize and ask for your forgiveness of my unwise behavior. I say unwise because at the time I received and forwarded the email, I didn’t stop to think about the historic implications and other examples of how this could be offensive,” Davenport’s apology read.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42656911/ns/politics-more_politics
Nope! MARILYN DAVENPORT, your apology is BULLSHIT, and you are a RACIST. The monkeys in that email have evolved beyond the behaviors of these cracker ass crackers.
Take your lies and shove them, Marilyn Davenport!
She needs to be put out to pasture, like yesterday. Bye, Marilyn! Bring on the visuals, SG2.
SIGN FOR MARILYN TO RESIGN
http://imeanwhat.com/canyoubelieve/find-marilyn-davenport-and/attachment/call/comment-page-1#comment-17862
LMBAO
Lawsuit Alleges Landmark Steakhouse Employees Referred to African-American Customer as “McStinkynigger” and “McNigshit”
In the Corona del Mar universe, Landmark Steakhouse is for MILFs-in-training, for gals not old enough for the Quiet Woman but too old to serve as eye candy over at Gulfstream. Its food is forgettable; its drinks pedestrian. I wouldn’t go there if the meal was free, but I never once felt uncomfortable at the restaurant on account of my ethnicity or even my empty wallet.
Thank God I’m not Mark McHenry. In a federal lawsuit filed last Friday, McHenry–who is African-American–alleged Landmark employees replaced his name on credit card receipts with crude racial slurs–this, despite the fact he was a regular customer at Landmark.
The Orange County Register first broke this story, but them being a family paper, you couldn’t make sense of what were the offending slurs. Thankfully, the Weekly ain’t a family paper–and we have the offending receipts, which were part of the complaint filed
Eek! The general manager and owner of the group that owns Landmark, CDM Restaurants, of course deny their establishments are racists, but the evidence presented above is pretty damn damning that they’re at least guilty of having idiot employees. We’ll see what a judge has to say…
http://blogs.ocweekly.com/stickaforkinit/2011/04/mark_mchenry_landmark.php
These crackers have lost their damned minds. Yes, stick a fork in this establishment and those employees, THEY.ARE.DONE!
Benton Harbor City Council and Commissioners Stripped of All Power
By: Nsenga Burton | Posted: April 19, 2011
Fresh from our “Isn’t this America?” file, Todd A. Haywood of The Michigan Messenger is reporting that Joe Harris, the emergency financial manager of the city of Benton Harbor, Mich. has issued an order stripping all city boards and commissions of all their authority to take any action.
The order, signed Thursday, limits the actions available to such bodies to calling a meeting to order, approving the minutes of meetings and adjourning a meeting. The bodies are prohibited under the act from taking any other action without the express authority of the Emergency Financial Manager, Joseph Harris.
Harris’ actions are allowed under a newly approved law which granted sweeping new powers to emergency financial managers. That legislation had drawn large protests, including attempts by some protesters to take over the state capitol building. The sit-in resulted in numerous arrests.
What in the world? The people don’t get a voice or representation in any matters related to the city in which they live and pay taxes?
Apparently, this move is spreading. Robert Bobb, the emergency financial manager for Detroit Public Schools announced that he would use powers granted to him under the act to change union contracts. See what happens when you don’t pay attention and you don’t vote? Extremists get into office and strip everybody of their right to representation including members of their own political party. That is not democracy, nor is Harris’ ability to strip elected officials of their power thereby silencing the people.
Read more at The Michigan Messenger.
http://www.theroot.com/buzz/joe-harris-benton-harbor-city-council-and-commissioners-stripped-all-power
Trump’s outrageousness appeals to a desperate GOP base
Published: Sunday, April 17, 2011, 6:35 AM
Things are tough all over these days, even in television. Cable competition is keen and the appetite for trash seems insatiable.
Such venerable cash cows as “American Idol” and “Dancing with the Stars” have slipped a bit. Even Glenn Beck no longer satisfies the appetite for red meat.
What TV needs is another sappy, sexy soap opera — complete with messy marriages, lots of dirty, rotten lies and a cast of comic-strip characters. And, by golly, it has found one.
It’s the fast filling-up field of candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, entry to which is as easy as crossing the Texas border. For pure entertainment, it’s a show that can’t be beaten.
Some predicable performers are already warming up in the green room, including Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney and even Rick Santorum. (Rick who?) This is the retread brigade, guys who used to be somebody — governors, senators or, in Gingrich’s case, a former House speaker.
Those siren sisters of hard-right Republicanism — Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann — also appear ready to make the race, or at least the public debates. And some newcomers soon may jump in, notably Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
But promising as it is, this cast lacks star quality. It needs someone who elicits raves and rage, who brings out the best — or preferably the worst — in the American audience. That’s where Donald Trump comes in.
Improbable as it seems, Trump, the “Great I Am,” has climbed to the top of the slippery Republican presidential poll. It’s a measure of how desperate the GOP’s base is for a candidate shameless enough to voice the most unfounded claims (“birther,” “Muslim”) against Barack Obama.
Trump is outrageous. But he’s not without competition in that category — not as long as Newt Gingrich is in the field.
Newt’s running as the “morality” candidate, which requires uncommon chutzpah considering his three marriages and assorted sexual dalliances. Newt’s got an explanation for his serial adultery; he was driven to it, he says, by an overdose of passionate patriotism. Newt’s got a way with words.
Bachmann likes to display her devotion to the Founding Fathers and the American Revolution, as she did when reminding New Hampshire Republicans that the first shots of the Revolution were fired in their state. Alas, they were fired in Massachusetts, but who’s keeping track?
Palin’s no better. She apparently didn’t know there was a Korean War. Guess if she can’t see the place from her front porch (remember Russia?), it doesn’t exist.
Mitt Romney’s the straight man in this drama, your classic stiff. But there’s more to Romney than his critics let on — especially more positions on more issues. He’s a conservative, for now. But he ran for governor of Massachusetts a few years ago, proclaiming himself “liberal as Ted Kennedy” and pro-choice on abortion, and he authored state health care reform remarkably like the Obamacare he now denounces. He’s a regular whirling dervish.
Haley Barbour is a smart guy with promise. But he’ll have a devilish time explaining his defense of the segregationist White Citizens Councils as just a bunch of benign good ol’ boys. And Santorum? He’s the bloke that Alan Simpson, a Republican conservative, named while condemning “homophobia” in the GOP.
But it’s the Donald who’s the big noise in the GOP race, at least on TV. He’s the one who moves the ratings numbers. But will be really run? Maybe. But it’s doubtful.
To hear him tell it, he’s got enough money to self-fund a campaign and he’s sure got the ego. But with three marriages and as many bankruptcies, does he really want to risk the withering scrutiny a formal campaign would bring? The guess here is no — that once he’s milked TV for the attention he craves, Trump will keep his cash and retire undefeated.
None of the aforementioned notables inspires much confidence, but that may not matter. The GOP is not without candidates with real presidential potential talent. Mitch Daniels, Indiana’s governor, for one. Or Jon Huntsman, Obama’s ambassador to China and former Utah governor. In the end, expect the GOP to choose a quality presidential candidate.
The real show has yet to begin.
http://blog.nj.com/njv_john_farmer/2011/04/trumps_outrageousness_appeals.html
I can’t wait for Trump to go BANKRUPT over his ugly theatrics.
Good Morning, everyone :)
Good Morning, rikyrah. Did you get my email?
I did and thank you.
Good morning all!
Good Morning, Dannie. We appreciated your poetry contributions yesterday. Please feel free to drop more. The month’s not over yet! Thank you. :-)
Inspiration for today…
Bible Verse Graphics
LOL I love, love, love, your Good morning messages and words of inspiration, SG2. Thanks!