Mark Nelson Chesnutt (born September 6, 1963 in Beaumont, Texas) is an American country music singer known for his neotraditionalist country style. Chesnutt recorded his first album, Doing My Country Thing in the late 1980s on an independent record label; his national debut came in 1990 with the single “Too Cold at Home”, the first single from his second album, which was also titled Too Cold at Home.
Chesnutt has charted more than thirty singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, including eight Number One singles. He has also released eleven studio albums and a Greatest Hits package. His first three albums — Too Cold at Home (1990), Longnecks & Short Stories (1992), and Almost Goodbye (1993) — and his 1996 Greatest Hits album have all achieved RIAA platinum certification in the United States, while 1994’s What a Way to Live was certified gold. His most recent album, Rollin’ with the Flow, was released on June 24, 2008. Its title track and lead-off single was a cover of Charlie Rich‘s hit single from 1977.
Obama Grants O’Reilly Super Bowl Interview
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/06/obama-oreilly-super-bowl-interview-fox_n_805421.html
MIAMI — President Barack Obama has agreed to conduct an interview with Fox News host Bill O’Reilly as part of a pregame package for Fox Broadcasting Channel’s Super Bowl coverage, an Obama administration official confirmed to The Huffington Post.
This wouldn’t mark the first time the president sat down with a Fox News interviewer, but it would be rare. The White House has sparred bitterly with the network over its coverage of the president, which has occasionally dipped into the conspiratorial.
The relationship hit a nadir when the White House launched an informal boycott of Fox News during 2009. Some bitterness has thawed since then, however, particularly when the administration tried to reach more conservative-leaning audiences during the height of the health-care debate.
That said, Obama’s decision to sit down with O’Reilly may be driven less by ratings than tradition. An aide said it is customary for the sitting president to sit down for an interview with the network hosting the Super Bowl.
Last year, Obama sat down with Katie Couric before CBS hosted the big game. During that interview, the president announced his intention to host a joint health-care summit with Republicans.
Oh sh*t! The last time President Obama went to the lions den…he ate them! LMAO
Boehner Fumbles Budget Question In First Interview As Speaker
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/06/john-boehner-interview-ho_n_805576.html#comments
In his first interview since being sworn-in as House Speaker, John Boehner struggled to identify budget cuts that could be made to reduce government spending. The one-on-one with NBC News’ Brian Williams aired on Thursday night.
Asked to name a specific program that could be trimmed from the fiscal plan, Boehner responded, “I don’t think I have one off the top of my head.” However, the newly-minted speaker added, “There is no part of this government that should be sacred.”
“I believe there’s room, to find savings in the Department of Defense,” explained the Ohio Republican. “There are a lot of needs at the Department of Defense. And I think Secretary Gates has a reasonable plan to allow the service chiefs to go in there and root out wasteful spending — so they can find the money that they’re going to need to make sure that we have the weapons of the future.”
The remarks from Boehner come in the aftermath of the 2010 midterm election season in which Republicans ran on bold promises of plans to reduce government spending. However, just one day after the GOP rose to power in the lower congressional chamber, the authenticity of those vows is already being called into question.
The AP reports on the widely-touted Republican promise to cut spending and the likelihood voters can expect to see it fulfilled:
CUT SPENDING: “We will roll back government spending to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels, saving us at least $100 billion in the first year alone,” the GOP pledge stated. It turns out $100 billion is way out of reach.
By the time the current stopgap spending bill expires March 4, five months of the budget year – which began Oct. 1 – will have passed. Republicans acknowledge it’s unrealistic to force even deeper cuts for the rest of the budget year to make up for money that’s already been spent at the current, higher levels.
LOL! What? You mean Boehner was all hat & no cattle?! But this is who the voters wanted. ROTFLMBAO!
This Kiss
Allen West: If I Were President, I’d Visit Troops In Combat (VIDEO)
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/01/allen-west-if-i-were-president-id-visit-troops-in-combat-video.php
Newly sworn-in Rep. Allen West (R-FL), an Iraq War veteran whose military career ended after a torture-related incident, is standing by his criticism that President Obama should fly directly out to the theaters of combat when he visits troops. And what’s more, the new conservative star might also be getting just a bit ahead of himself on his political career.
West appeared last night on Lawrence O’Donnell’s MSNBC show, and stood by his comments in a colorful way:
“Lawrence, I’m not going to retract that statement, because I will tell you this — if I was sitting at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, I would fly into a combat theater and I would get out there and visit those troops wherever they are. That’s just the type of leader that I am, and that’s what I believe in. And that’s the type of leadership that was instilled in me, and my father who, when I was commissioned as a second lieutenant back in 1982, he said that the number one job for you, Lieutenant West, is to take care of your man — especially when you go into combat.”
The stupid mofo won’t be there long. He really need smacking…
Hubby and I watched this last night. Please get on a helicopter right now and fly into combat, Allen West. DO.IT.NOW.
Notice, how Lawrence gave him an out to retract the bullshit comment.
Oh, he’s a fking fool!
John Edwards Reportedly Asks Rielle Hunter To Marry Him
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/06/rielle-hunter-john-edwards-wedding_n_805401.html
John Edwards has “reportedly” asked mistress Rielle Hunter to marry him, according to tabloid magazine The National Enquirer.
The Hollywood Gossip has a screenshot of the latest issue of the Enquirer, the publication that broke the original story about Edwards’s liaison with Hunter, his campaign videographer, and predicts that the two might tie the knot this summer, if at all.
While the Enquirer gained some credibility for its coverage of the Edwards affair, it is worth noting that they posted nearly the exact same story regarding an Edwards-Hunter nuptial and a “luxury $3.5 million beachfront home” last year, a report that was later denied.
John Edwards’s wife, Elizabeth Edwards, passed away last month after a battle with cancer. In her will, she left her possessions to her three children, while leaving out her estranged husband entirely.
Someone, anyone, say it ain’t so? He couldn’t possibly be this disrespectful. No way!
Nancy Pelosi: The Most Effective Speaker of the House in History
As Nancy Pelosi hands off the Speaker’s gavel to John Boehner today, she also hands him a tough act to follow. Despite insistent attempts to malign her during her four years as Speaker of the House, the California congresswoman turns out to have been arguably the most effective person in that post in U.S. history. And it’s not just rah-rah Democrats saying so.
“We’re looking at an extraordinary set of accomplishments over a brief period of time,” said Norman Ornstein, resident scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. “She ranks with the most consequential speakers, certainly in the last 75 years.”
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/425315/nancy_pelosi%3A_the_most_effective_speaker_of_the_house_in_history/
OBAMA TOOK MY PENIS!!!! BWA HA HA HA HA
Yepper! that’s the deal.
LOL
That fat slob Ed Shultz is pushing for Michelle Bachman to run in 2012. What moron
Obama to Give Super-Bowl Sunday Interview to Fox’s O’Reilly
By Nicholas Johnston
January 06, 2011, 5:45 PM EST
Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama will be interviewed on the pre-game show before next month’s Super Bowl by Fox News Channel host Bill O’Reilly, an administration official confirmed.
The president is continuing what has become a tradition of his to sit for an interview with the broadcaster of the National Football League’s annual championship game, which this year is News Corp.’s Fox network.
Obama last year discussed the health-care overhaul on CBS with Katie Couric and the year before was interviewed by NBC’s Matt Lauer. O’Reilly last interviewed Obama in 2008 when the then-Senator was the Democratic nominee for president.
The Fox interview was reported earlier by the website mediaite.com. The game is scheduled for Feb. 6.
Last year’s Super Bowl on CBS was seen by an estimated 106.5 million people, becoming the most-watched program in U.S. television history. The broadcast of the New Orleans Saints’ 31-17 victory over the Indianapolis Colts surpassed the 1983 season finale of “M*A*S*H,” which was watched by 106 million viewers, New York-based CBS Corp. said at the time, citing data from Nielsen Co.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-01-06/obama-to-give-super-bowl-sunday-interview-to-fox-s-o-reilly.html
Republican bid to scrap healthcare hits snag
By John Whitesides and Richard Cowan John Whitesides And Richard Cowan – 1 hr 46 mins ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican efforts to scrap President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform took a hit on Thursday when budget analysts said repeal would add billions of dollars to the federal budget deficit.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated overturning the reform signed by Obama last year would add about $230 billion to the deficit by 2021 and result in 32 million fewer people having health insurance.
That was a blow to Republican campaign promises to slash the federal budget deficit.
Democrats, who control the Senate despite losses in last year’s elections, promised to protect the healthcare law, Obama’s signature legislative victory.
“The Republicans have to understand that the healthcare bill is not going to be repealed,” Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid told reporters.
“We’re willing to work in any way that’s constructive in nature to improve the healthcare delivery system for our country,” he said. “But repealing healthcare? They should get a new lease on life and talk about something else.”
The law is designed to rein in medical costs, cover millions of uninsured people and reform insurance practices, including requiring coverage for patients with pre-existing conditions and other consumer protections.
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives will vote on repealing the law next week in what will largely be a symbolic gesture given the Senate’s likely opposition.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_usa_congress_healthcare
Breaking
2 packages explode in MD Government buildings
Breaking News Alert: Official: Incendiary device goes off at Maryland building
January 6, 2011 3:04:24 PM
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A law enforcement official outside a state building in Annapolis said an incendiary device went off at the Jeffrey building across the street from the State House. What took place “wasn’t an explosion. It was a flash,” the officials told the Post.
WBAL-TV in Baltimore is reporting that a possible incendiary device went off at the Maryland Department of Transportation’s Headquarters in Hanover.
http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/DME6KX/NSFYFZ/BXDHR9/D1GLIO/OCANQ
GOP Repeal of Health Care Bill Would Cost $230 Billion
http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/2011/01/06/gop-repeal-of-health-care-bill-would-cost-230-billion/#disqus_thread
LOL WUH?!!! You mean that same HCR bill the GOP said is supposed to be job-killing?
What’s happening with that dead Bush aide found dead in a dumpster?
John Wheeler’s body was found last week in a Delaware dump, and that may be among the lesser oddities in the case involving the former aide to three Republican presidents. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that police are investigating Wheeler’s possible role in arson involving a couple with whom he had been feuding in court. Meanwhile, Fox News shows surveillance video of Wheeler — the last sighting of him — wandering aimlessly through a Wilmington office building not far from where his body was found:
See video
A coroner’s inquest will be presumably forthcoming, and very enlightening. Could it be that Wheeler just got into a dumpster on his own and died in it without anyone noticing? It would hardly be the oddest development in a case that looks stranger by the day. *******************HUH********************
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/01/06/video-case-of-former-bush-aide-found-dead-in-dump-gets-weirder/
Autism-vaccine study was ‘fraud’ says journal (Update)
January 5, 2011
A 1998 study that linked childhood autism to a vaccine was branded an “elaborate fraud” by the British Medical Journal (BMJ) Thursday, but its lead author said he was the victim of a smear campaign by drug manufacturers.
Living With Autism – New study on challenges faced by families living with autism. – http://www.MassMutual.com
In an interview late Wednesday with CNN, Andrew Wakefield denied inventing data and blasted a reporter who apparently uncovered the falsifications as a “hit man” doing the bidding of a powerful pharmaceutical industry.
“It’s a ruthless pragmatic attempt to crush any investigation into valid vaccine safety concerns,” Wakefield said.
He insisted the “truth” was in his book about the scandal: “The book is not a lie, the study is not a lie…I did not make up the diagnoses of autism.”
________________________________________
Follow up: Autism study doctor says victim of smears
________________________________________
Blamed for a disastrous boycott of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine in Britain, the study was retracted by The Lancet last year and Wakefield was disgraced on the grounds of conflict of financial interest and unethical treatment of some children involved in the research.
Wakefield, then a consultant in experimental gastro-enterology at London’s Royal Free Hospital, and his team suggested they had found a “new syndrome” of autism and bowel disease among 12 children.
They linked it to the MMR vaccine, which they said had been administered to eight of the youngsters shortly before the symptoms emerged.
But other scientists swiftly cautioned the study was only among a tiny group, without a comparative “control” sample, and the dating of when symptoms surfaced was based on parental recall, which is notoriously unreliable.
Experts said the study’s results have never been replicated.
When asked why 10 of his co-authors retracted the interpretations of the study, Wakefield said: ” I’m afraid the pressure has been put on them to do so.”
“People get very, very frightened. You’re dealing with some very powerful interests here.”
The BMJ charged that hundreds of thousands of children in Britain are now unshielded against these three diseases. In 2008, measles was declared endemic, or present in the wider population much like chicken pox, in England and Wales.
None of the 12 cases, as reported in the study, tallied fully with the children’s official medical records, the journal said.
Some diagnoses had been misrepresented and dates faked in order to draw a convenient link with the MMR jab, it said.
Of nine children described by Wakefield as having “regressive autism,” only one clearly had this condition and three were not even diagnosed with autism at all, it said.
The findings had been skewed in advance, as the patients had been recruited via campaigners opposed to the MMR vaccine, the journal added.
And, said the BMJ, Wakefield had been confidentially paid hundreds of thousands of pounds (dollars, euros) through a law firm under plans to launch “class action” litigation against the vaccine.
Wakefield, who still retains a vocal band of supporters, reportedly left Britain to work in the United States.
Wakefield has previously accused Britain’s General Medical Council (GMC) of seeking to “discredit and silence” him and shield the British government from responsibility in what he calls a “scandal.”
The Lancet told AFP it would not comment on the BMJ accusations.
Autism is the term for an array of conditions ranging from poor social interaction to repetitive behaviours and entrenched silence. The condition is rare, predominantly affecting boys, although its causes are fiercely debated.
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-01-autism-vaccine-fraud-journal.html
Obama chooses JPMorgan exec. William Daley as new chief of staff
By Eric W. Dolan
Thursday, January 6th, 2011 — 12:31 pm
JPMorgan Chase & Co. executive and former commerce secretary William Daley was chosen Thursday to be President Obama’s new White House chief of staff, according to published reports.
Sixty-two year old Daley is brother of outgoing Chicago major Richard Daley and has close ties to former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and outgoing White House senior adviser David Axelrod. He will be replacing interim chief of staff Peter Rouse.
Rouse stepped in when Obama’s first chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, decided to run for mayor of Chicago.
“Bill Daley is a man of stature and extraordinary experience in government, business, trade negotiations, and global affairs,” Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donohue said. “He’s an accomplished manager and strong leader. We look forward to working with him to accelerate our recovery, grow the economy, create jobs, and tackle America’s global challenges.”
Daley serves on JPMorgan’s Executive Committee in charge of Corporate Responsibility and is a board member of the pharmaceutical company Merck.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/obama-chooses-jpmorgan-exec-william-daley-chief-staff/
Dreaming With My Eyes Wide Open
Here we go!
Breaking News Alert: William Daley to be named White House chief of staff
January 6, 2011 11:56:15 AM
—————————————-
President Obama has chosen William Daley, a former commerce secretary, to replace interim chief of staff Pete Rouse.
Rouse, who did not want to stay in the job and recommended Daley for it, will remain at the White House in a senior position as counselor to Obama.
http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/3873VC/8AM6U1/AWKTJQ/EL81CA/GTBCL
SC considers ‘coon hunters’ license plates
By Dexter Mullins
2:00 PM on 01/05/2011
SC considers ‘coon hunters’ license plates
The word “coon” is stirring up a big debate in South Carolina. The state legislature is considering printing license plates that would read “coon hunters” on the back at the request of the South Carolina Coon Hunters Association. Coon has long been considered a racial slur directed at African Americans.
The association made the request to print the plates last year. David McKee, president of the group, says the word coon shouldn’t offend anyone and doesn’t understand what the big issue is.
“We’ve got people from all races that are coon hunters,” McKee said. “I’ve got good friends that are white, and good friends that are black and we’re all coon hunters. It’s not an issue to us.”
The “coon hunters” plate is just one of more than a dozen other specialized plates listed in a bill written by S.C. congressmen Pitts and G.R. Smith that is waiting for a vote on January 11.
Click here to view a slideshow of blacks and whites squaring off over secession
http://www.thegrio.com/politics/sc-considers-coon-hunters-license-plates.php
Breaking:
President Obama names Bill Daley as Chief of Staff
LOL And the PL & Obama bashers heads are completely UNHINGED NOW!
Pass the popcorn, SG2… :-)
Here you go, Ametia!
LOL Thanks! I’m going to sit back and enjoy the show.
Report: House GOP’s Constitution Reading Could Cost Over $1 Million
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/01/report-house-gops-constitution-reading-could-cost-over-1-million.php?ref=fpb
Now this is a laugh. As Vanity Fair reports, the House GOP leadership’s symbolic gesture of reading the Constitution on the House floor today — in an effort to please their Tea Party base who decry virtually all of the Obama administration’s policies as both a monumental waste of money and, more importantly, an affront to our founding document — could also itself cost a lot of money.
The magazine asked an expert on government waste, and he said in part:
The amount I get is nearly $1.1 million. $1,071,872.87, to be exact, though of course this is more back-of-the-envelope than exact. When one chamber of Congress is in session but not working, we the people still have to pay for members’ salaries and expenses, and for their police protection, and for keeping their lights and phones and coffee machines on. Even Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Mike Pence (R-IN) combined don’t blow enough hot air to heat the Capitol in January.
Issa: When I Said Obama Is Corrupt, I Meant Like A Computer (VIDEO)
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/01/issa_obama_is_corrupt_in_the_way_a_disc_drive_give.php?ref=fpi
Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) is now attempting to explain away comments he made about the President Barack Obama being corrupt — by claiming that the media just doesn’t understand what he was trying to say.
“I think people misunderstand the meaning of the word corrupt, and obviously CNN does. Corrupt or corrupted or failure — it’s no different than a disc drive giving you some bits that are wrong,” Issa said.
“I’ve never said it was illegal. I’ve never said many of the statements that are often said on CNN that imply wrongdoing of the president at a criminal level but I do believe the American people have changed the control of the House in no small part because they saw more regulation, more misspending than they ever dreamed possible and they need Republicans to be part of the balance to bring that back under control and we have to be honest,” Issa said.
CNN Host John King said after the interview that Issa was “smartly retreating… but doesn’t want to say so.”
Issa, you’re a damn liar! We know what you meant by the word corrupt. Too late to try and walk your lying rhetoric back.
Definition of corrupt:
guilty of dishonest practices, as bribery; lacking integrity; crooked:
debased in character; depraved; perverted; wicked; evil:
Issa is like a slimy little slug. They start crawling on you, and you swat them off and SQUASH’EM!
House Reading Amended Slavery-Free Constitution This Morning
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/01/house-reading-amended-slavery-free-constitution.php
Members of the House of Representatives, led by their new Republican majority, will kick off the 112th Congress this morning with a reading of the U.S. Constitution. The reading is largely a political maneuver, so it’s no real surprise that the Constitution you’ll hear read on C-SPAN this morning will be the politically correct version.
It’s fairly likely that no elected politician wants to stand up and read aloud the Founder’s vision of African Americans as equaling three-fifths of a white person, so the GOP has decided to leave that part, and others, out when the Constitution is read today.
From The Daily Caller:
Instead of reading the Constitution in its entirety, House members will read an “amended version” that only includes the sections and amendments that were not changed at a later date. The decision in part will allow members to avoid reading less pleasant sections, like the clause in Article 1, Section 2, which counted black slaves as three-fifths of a person.
LOL Ignoramouses. SMART Black folks know the deal about the founding fathers, most of whom bedded black women and fathered their children, yet still considered them 3/5 human. SMH@ this 3/5 human, like what was that supposed to make whitey, 100% super human?!
Republicans Block Congressional Health Care Disclosure
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/06/gop-disclosure-rule-government-health-care_n_805146.html
WASHINGTON — The U.S. House of Representatives approved a rules package on Wednesday, the first day of business for the 112th Congress, that will dictate the way the legislature operates this year and reflects a shift to Republican control of the lower chamber. The bill passed on a party-line vote, with 240 Republicans in favor and 191 Democrats against.
One measure that didn’t make it into the rules package was a proposal by Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.) that would have required all members to disclose whether they are taking advantage of their federal health insurance plan within 15 days of taking the oath of office. Crowley’s measure also split on a party-line vote, with Democrats in favor and Republicans opposed.
On MSNBC’s “Hardball” Wednesday, Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), the new chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Dems’ House fundraising arm, accused Republicans of a double standard in blocking the disclosure:
ISRAEL: Every Republican voted to hide their own government health care, while many of them are pledging to repeal health care for everyone else. So, you go from hypocrisy to hypocrisy; from broken promise to broken promise. And this is just the first day of the new Congress.
MATTHEWS: You mean, they didn’t want to admit that they’re taking health care?
ISRAEL: This is a very straightforward amendment that we offered, that, if you’re going to take government-sponsored health care and the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, simply disclose. Let your constituents know that you are taking that government health care. Every single Republican voted to hide their health care while many of them are pledging to repeal it for their constituents.
Really, NO surprises here. GOP=ALL FOR US, NONE FOR THE REST!
Let’s not fall asleep folks.
House GOP kills voting rights for D.C., Puerto Rico, other delegates
By Mike Lillis – 01/05/11 04:11 PM ET
Along strict party lines, House lawmakers on Wednesday shot down legislation allowing delegates to retain certain voting powers.
The surprise vote — the first of the new Congress — surrounded a provision of the Republicans’ proposed rules package that would prevent the six House delegates from presiding over, or voting as part of, the Committee of the Whole — a mechanism used to expedite legislation by effectively turning the entire chamber into a committee.
Under the rules of the last Congress, the six delegates — representing the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands and the Virgin Islands — were allowed to cast votes and preside over the Committee of the Whole. The Republican rules proposal would strip that power.
Delegates may not vote when the House is in regular order.
The House rejected a resolution introduced by Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) to delay a vote on the larger rules package until the delegate provision could be examined by a special committee. Norton says the delegate powers were upheld in a 1994 federal appeals court decision.
“With this motion, we formally begin the protest that will be necessary to salvage what D.C. has won in the past,” Norton said in a statement. “We will need the help of the top elected District officials and District residents, because we are sure this is only the first attack on our rights.”
Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) responded to Norton’s resolution with a motion to table, or kill, the proposal.
The vote was a bad omen for bipartisan cooperation in the 112th Congress: Every Republican voted in favor of Cantor’s motion, while every Democrat voted against it. The final tally was 225-188.
The full House is expected to vote on the GOP rules package Wednesday evening.
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/136213-house-gop-kills-voting-rights-for-delegates
Good morning all!
Morning, Dannie!
Good Morning, Dannie.
YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS ARTICLE?
Opposition to MLK Dog Park Has Deep Roots in Once-Divided City
December 15, 2010
primary Opposition to MLK Dog Park Has Deep Roots in Once-Divided CityMartin Luther King Park and Recreation Center4055 Nicollet Ave, Minneapolis, MN.
The park, named in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. after his 1968 assassination, is the focal point of a stark disagreement in the community about whether spending money on a dog park would disrespect the park’s legacy.
When Charles Mays, a retired youth director for the NAACP, joined some friends at Park ElderCenter for breakfast last week, talk of the proposed dog park at Martin Luther King Park stirred some memories of times that seem far away to most city residents.
The proposed dog park has led to some contentious Minneapolis park board meetings. Supporters and opponents of the dog park have been depicted simply as pro-dog or anti-dog. But it all started when Mays and other members of the Sabathani chapter of AARP planned to host a picnic at the park last summer.
While planning the picnic, the group heard about the possible dog park, for which some Kingfield residents have been advocating. The group was angry, and they were concerned about children’s safety and disposal of dog waste. But their opposition to a dog park at Martin Luther King Park goes even deeper.
“We’re not opposed to dogs,” Mays said, as he sat at the cafeteria-style table along with Liz Moore, who was born in Des Moines, IA, but who has lived in South Minneapolis for the last 50 years.
In the 1960s and 1970s, it was difficult for black people to buy a house in the area around the park, Mays said. “It would say right on the deed that houses should not be sold to negros,” he said.
With the growth of the civil rights movement, the Minneapolis black community received some official acknowledgment of the struggle when the park board renamed the park in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Oct. 9, 1968.
“Unfortunately many people living in the area not do not know the history,” Mays said. “For us to be able to have the privilege of naming that park Martin Luther King Park—people don’t understand.”
http://southwestminneapolis.patch.com/articles/opposition-to-mlk-dog-park-has-deep-roots-in-once-divided-city
The Cable
Big changes coming to Obama’s Asia team
Wednesday, January 5, 2011; 8:13 PM
Big changes coming to Obama’s Asia team
Several senior Obama administration Asia officials are scheduled to either leave government or move to new jobs within the bureaucracy in the coming months, as the White House tries to hit the reset button on U.S.-China relations.
The two top Obama administration officials responsible for driving Asia policy have been Jeffrey Bader, the National Security Council’s senior director for Asia, and Kurt Campbell, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs. Although Campbell is generally seen as more hawkish on China than Bader, the two close friends have worked together from day one.
But sometime after Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit to Washington this month, Bader will leave his post at the NSC, several administration insiders confirmed to the Cable. The exact date of Bader’s departure is not set and could still be weeks or months from now.
Bader, who has been working on China since the 1970s (and was once an assistant to Assistant Secretary of State for Asia Richard Holbrooke), is rumored to be looking for the exit because of the understandable fatigue caused by working a job that has basically required a 24/7 commitment for almost two years.
The leading candidate to replace Bader, according to several administration sources, is the NSC’s Daniel Russel, one of the directors who works under Bader. Russel is a Japan hand, having served as the head of State’s Japan Desk after being consul general in the Japanese cities of Osaka and Kobe.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/05/AR2011010505493.html?wpisrc=nl_fed
Obama Turning to Experienced Hands as He Remakes StaffBy JEFF ZELENY and JACKIE CALMES
Published: January 5, 2011
WASHINGTON — President Obama closed in Wednesday on a decision to fill two top positions and recharge his administration, stopping just short of naming a new chief of staff and a top economic adviser to guide the White House through a new period of divided government.
William M. Daley, who was commerce secretary in the Clinton administration, visited the West Wing to meet with the president and other advisers for a final series of discussions about serving as chief of staff. He has told associates he would accept the job if an offer was extended, and officials said Mr. Obama was favoring him.
Gene Sperling, a counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, was expected to be named on Friday as the director of the National Economic Council, the top economic policy job inside the White House. Mr. Sperling also held the position in the Clinton administration.
The moves would signal an effort by the White House to bring on experienced Washington hands with records of bipartisan deal making as it faces the realities of a Republican-controlled House, a slimmer Democratic majority in the Senate and a resurgent grass-roots conservative movement.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/06/us/politics/06obama.html?_r=2&om_rid=DRaeQf&om_mid=_BNJcG-B8XD5EMn
Good Morning, Everybody! :-)
Morning Graphics – Tumblr Themes
Thanks, SG2!
Here, have some of these: http://ocdeals.ocregister.com/files/2010/03/bagels2.jpg
yummy yummy for my tummy….