Thursday Open Thread

Jean Carn (born Sarah Jean Perkins on March 15, 1947 in Atlanta United States) is an American jazz and pop singer known for her unique vocalising and her impressive interpretative and improvisational skills. Early in her career, her name was spelled as Jean Carn before she added an e under the advice of a numerologist.

Carn is a vocalist credited with a five octave vocal range.[1] She is recognised for her unique vocal ability and has proven herself to be a vocalist of unlimited depth and dimension.[2]

She began her recording career with her then-husband, pianist Doug Carn, founder of Black Jazz Records.

About SouthernGirl2

A Native Texan who adores baby kittens, loves horses, rodeos, pomegranates, & collect Eagles. Enjoys politics, games shows, & dancing to all types of music. Loves discussing and learning about different cultures. A Phi Theta Kappa lifetime member with a passion for Social & Civil Justice.
This entry was posted in Current Events, Music, Open Thread, Politics and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

75 Responses to Thursday Open Thread

  1. Ametia says:

    I’m giving Scott Brown and the media the SIDE EYE with this sexual abuse revelation. Too OBAMA-like….

  2. Ametia says:

    OH.NO.THIS.DUDE.DID.NOT

  3. Ametia says:

    Wonder what blksista has to say about all of this.

    Posted at 4:50 PM ET, 02/17/2011
    Missing Wisconsin Dem speaks: We’re MIA until GOP drops assault on workers rights
    By Greg Sargent

    I just got off the phone with Wisconsin State Senator Chris Larson, one of the Democrats who has left the capitol in order to stall the GOP’s plan to rolll back the bargaining rights of public employees. Speaking to me by cell phone from an undisclosed location, Larson said he and his fellow Democrats would not return until the GOP takes its assault on organizing rights “off the table.”

    “Each of us is in a secure location,” he told me, confirming that they were not all together but were monitoring events on the Web and on Twitter. Larson refused to say whether he and his fellow Dems had left the state, as some have speculated.

    “We’re going to be staying away until we hear that they are taking the right to organize seriously,” Larson continued, referring to Republicans. “They’re going after 50 years of history in one week. Until they take that off the table, it’s a non-starter.”

    Larson said Dems are not worried about law enforcement pursuing them and dragging them back to the capitol. Though the current proposal exempts state police, he said that individual officers had privately expressed solidarity with the Dems’ and public employees’ cause.

    “They understand the importance of workers banded together to protect workers rights,” Larson said, characterizing his conversations with officers. “They understand why we’re here.”

    Dems will not return, Larson vowed, “until the Republicans are prepared to listen to the effects of this bill on workers and what it will do to our state.”

    http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2011/02/missing_wisconsin_dem_speaks_w_1.html

  4. Ametia says:

    Edited on Thu Feb-17-11 04:57 PM by Ellipsis
    Source: News Of The North

    Madison–Governor Scott Walker on Thursday afternoon released the following statement:

    Out of respect for the institution of the Legislature and the democratic process, I am calling on Senate Democrats to show up to work today, debate legislation and cast their vote. Their actions by leaving the state and hiding from voting are disrespectful to the hundreds of thousands of public employees who showed up to work today and the millions of taxpayers they represent.

    Walker will be holding a press conference at 4:45p.m. CST today in the Governor’s Conference room to discuss the day’s events.

    It will only be open to credentialed members of the media. (UMMM… credentialed? FOX?!!!

    Read more: http://newsofthenorth.net/article/Top_Stories/WI_State_

  5. Ametia says:

    This BEY-OTCH right chere:

    Sarah Palin slams Michelle Obama over nursing
    By AMIE PARNES | 2/17/11 3:20 PM EST Updated: 2/17/11 4:17 PM EST

    Sarah Palin followed in Rep. Michele Bachmann’s footsteps and took a swipe at Michelle Obama on Thursday, mocking her efforts to get mothers to breast-feed their children.

    “No wonder Michelle Obama is telling everybody, ‘You’d better breast-feed your baby,” she said at a Long Island appearance on Thursday, after slamming President Barack Obama for rising gas prices and other items — like milk — since he took office. “Yeah, you’d better, because the price of milk is so high right now.”

    http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0211/49758.html#ixzz1EFqpqrwT

    Keep an eye on ole Sarah Palin; she likes to use those crosshair images on the folks thinks are against her.

    • dannie22 says:

      Bye Sarah!!

    • Ametia says:

      A GRIFTING, BRAINLESS HYPOCRITE

      FLASHBACK: Palin Proclaimed Oct. 2007 “Breastfeeding Awareness Month”
      February 17, 2011 4:43 pm ET by Sarah Pavlus

      Fox News contributor Sarah Palin joined her colleagues today with an apparent swipe at First Lady Michelle Obama’s support of women who choose to breastfeed. Politico’s Ben Smith reported:
      Palin knocks breastfeeding initiative
      Sarah Palin, who has made a frequent target of First Lady Michelle Obama, poked fun at her attempts to encourage breastfeeding in her Long Island appearance today.
      “No wonder Michelle Obama is telling everybody ‘you’d better breastfeed your baby,'” Palin said, after suggesting that increases in prices for commodities and gasoline since 2009 are the consequence of her husband’s policies. “Yeah, you’d better, because the price of milk is so high right now.”
      Obama supported including breast pumps under a tax exemption that covers medical equipment. Rep. Michele Bachmann has also criticized the push as a feature of the “nanny state.”
      The perceived dig is quite a turnaround from the position Palin had as governor of Alaska, when she declared October 2007 “Breastfeeding Awareness Month” and issued a proclamation that said, “government and community organizations have a vested interest in protecting and promoting breastfeeding as a means of preventing infant malnutrition, morbidity, and mortality.”
      From a 2007 news release (via nexis):
      Gov. Sarah Palin, R-Alaska, has issued the following proclamation:
      WHEREAS, breastfeeding is recognized as an unequalled means of providing food for infants.
      WHEREAS, throughout their lives, breastfeeding can offer children protection against serious health conditions, including obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Breastfeeding also saves lives by reducing the incidence of life-threatening cancers in women and preventing premature death in infants.
      WHEREAS, breastfeeding forms the most basic bond between mother and baby and is a foundation for lifelong health and wellness.
      WHEREAS, government and community organizations have a vested interest in protecting and promoting breastfeeding as a means of preventing infant malnutrition, morbidity, and mortality.
      WHEREAS, during October, organizations throughout our state will promote the importance of breastfeeding. This year, in conjunction with World Breastfeeding Week – October 1 through October 7 – the State of Alaska will support networks that encourage and promote breastfeeding in all communities.
      NOW, THEREFORE, I, Sarah Palin, Governor of the State of Alaska, do hereby proclaim October 2007 as:
      Breastfeeding Awareness Month
      in Alaska, and encourage all residents to recognize and support the important contributions breastfeeding makes in improving the quality of life for all Alaskans

      http://mediamatters.org/blog/201102170043

    • I mean really! Palin is such a dumb ass bitch. Did she not proclaim Oct 2007 “Breastfeeding Awareness Month”?

  6. Ametia says:

    Barack Obama books in for a stay at Buckingham Palace
    Allegra Stratton, political correspondent guardian.co.uk,
    Thursday 17 February 2011 20.52 GMT Article history

    Red carpet treatment lined up for US president and Michelle Obama for first UK state visit by American president since 2003

    They may not (yet) have been invited to the royal wedding in April, but the US president and first lady will make their first state visit to the UK in May after accepting an official invitation from the Queen.

    Barack and Michelle Obama will spend three days as guests of the royal household arriving on Tuesday 24 May before leaving on Thursday 26 May and travelling on to this year’s G8 summit in Deauville on the northern coast of France.

    Though the pair have visited the UK before, when Obama was a Democratic presidential candidate in July 2008 and next with a high-profile visit in April 2009 for the G20 summit, this time they will get the full regal works – a ceremonial welcome, guest rooms at Buckingham Palace and a banquet held in their honour.

    There will be work too, with Obama likely to bring a delegation and hold meetings with David Cameron. Their sit downs are likely to be less fractious than they once might have been. Obama believes in a strong unified European Union and is said to have been relieved that Cameron’s period as prime minister has so far seen him go easy on the Euroscepticism.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/17/barack-obama-stay-buckingham-palace

  7. Ametia says:

    Chicago’s Urban Prep Does it Again: Every Senior College Bound
    *For the second consecutive year, an all-male charter school located in one of Chicago’s worst neighborhoods is sending its entire senior class to college, reports the Huffington Post.

    Urban Prep Charter Academy was founded in 2006, and its goal from the start was for every one of its graduates to be attending college when they left. It was an unlikely mission, given that only four percent of the school’s first freshman class was reading at grade level when they entered.

    Last year, the school, founded by educator and nonprofit leader Tim King, did just that — all 107 graduating seniors were accepted at the end of the year. And this year, Urban Prep has repeated its success.

    “No other public [school] in the country has done this,” King said, according to NBC.

    And some Chicago bigwigs were on hand to celebrate the result, including Alderman Willie Cochran, Treasurer Stephanie Neely and outgoing Mayor Richard M. Daley.

    “When you are accepted, there are no excuses,” Mayor Daley said, said. “They said we believe in you. … We are going to make you independent.”

    Students at the exceptional all-male school have a uniform of jacket and tie. It also has a school day two hours longer than usual, with two classes per day of English, and every student is assigned a mentor from the staff who has a school-assigned cell phone that students can call them on 24 hours a day. About 60 percent of teachers at Urban Prep are, like their students, black men.

    The students also have a creed, which they recite every morning. It finishes: “We believe in ourselves. We believe in each other. We believe in Urban Prep. WE BELIEVE.”

    http://www.eurweb.com/?p=85463

  8. Ametia says:

    Posted at 2:00 PM ET, 02/17/2011
    Obama: Wisconsin budget fight seems like ‘an assault on unions’
    By Matt DeLong
    During an interview with TMJ4 of Milwaukee that aired Thursday, President Obama weighed in on the rapidly escalating brouhaha over Gov. Scott Walker’s (R-Wis.) proposal to strip public-sector employees of collective-bargaining rights.

    Obama said that while some measures, such as pay freezes for those employees, are “the right thing to do” to combat budget shortfalls, “some of what I’ve heard coming out of Wisconsin, where you’re just making it harder for public employees to collectively bargain generally, seems like an assault on unions.” He added that “it’s important not to vilify” public workers.

    Tens of thousands of state workers and their supporters have turned out at the Wisconsin State Capitol since Tuesday to protest the governor’s proposal. Walker wants to help shore up the state’s projected two-year, $3.6 billion budget shortfall by increasing public employees’ costs for pensions and health-care coverage. Firefighters and police are exempt from the measure.

    On Thursday, state Democratic senators left the Capitol to deny Republicans — who control the state legislature — a quorum to vote on the governor’s bill. The bill is expected to pass.

    http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2011/02/obama-wisconsin-budget-fight-s.html?wpisrc=nl_pmpolitics

  9. Ametia says:

    Profiles In Cowardice: Congressmen Skip Vote On GOP Proposal They Called Unconstitutional
    Last week, GOP Reps. Ted Poe (R-TX) and Louie Gohmert (R-TX) claimed that a GOP-backed tort reform proposal violates the Tenth Amendment. Yet, when given the opportunity to show the courage of their convictions and vote against a key GOP priority that they believe is unconstitutional, Poe and Gohmert were suddenly nowhere to be found:

    Texans Louie Gohmert and Ted Poe, were noticeably absent from the room when the panel rejected two amendments by Hank Johnson (D-Ga) aimed at striking provisions that would pre-empt state medical malpractice laws or constitutional provisions.

    Poe and Gohmert had raised concerns about those provisions when the markup began Feb. 9, saying they doubted the federal government has the power to do that under the Commerce Clause, and they wanted to make sure the bill doesn’t violate states’ rights under the 10th Amendment. Despite their concerns, both voted to send the bill to the full House.
    http://www.thinkprogress.org/

  10. Ametia says:

    PBO=CHESS- THE REST OF THE KIDDIES=TIDDLYWINKS!

    February 16, 2011
    Secret Report Ordered by Obama Identified Potential UprisingsBy MARK LANDLER
    WASHINGTON — President Obama ordered his advisers last August to produce a secret report on unrest in the Arab world, which concluded that without sweeping political changes, countries from Bahrain to Yemen were ripe for popular revolt, administration officials said Wednesday.

    Mr. Obama’s order, known as a Presidential Study Directive, identified likely flashpoints, most notably Egypt, and solicited proposals for how the administration could push for political change in countries with autocratic rulers who are also valuable allies of the United States, these officials said.

    The 18-page classified report, they said, grapples with a problem that has bedeviled the White House’s approach toward Egypt and other countries in recent days: how to balance American strategic interests and the desire to avert broader instability against the democratic demands of the protesters.

    Administration officials did not say how the report related to intelligence analysis of the Middle East, which the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon E. Panetta, acknowledged in testimony before Congress, needed to better identify “triggers” for uprisings in countries like Egypt.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/world/middleeast/17diplomacy.html?_r=3&seid=auto&smid=tw-nytimes&pagewanted=print

    • dannie22 says:

      I’ve been praying for Iyanla today. That interview was unsettling.

    • Ametia says:

      Was she groveling? I haven’t seen the complete interview yet.

      • dannie22 says:

        Ametie, you had to see it. Iyanla did not come out looking good. I’m not quite sure why she went on that show and acted that way. Yea she made a wrong decision going with that heffa baba wawa, but that’s life. You make a mistake and u move on. It was beneath Iyanla to behave that way.

      • Ametia says:

        That’s what my daughter said. She said her heart just sank, she could barely stand watching a black woman behaving like that in the company of another black woman, and Oprah of all people.

  11. Ametia says:

    Obama today

    Before he leaves for his West Coast trip, the president will sign a bill naming a new federal courthouse in Yuma, Ariz., after Judge John M. Roll, who was killed last month in the shooting that also injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.).

    Obama also will meet with a group of members of Congress of both parties to talk about education reform, and will hold a separate session with House Democratic leaders to discuss the budget and other issues.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/17/AR2011021702500.html?wpisrc=nl_tech

  12. CALL EM OUT: ROLAND GOES IN ON RUSH

    http://tvoneblogs.com/roland/video/call-em-out-roland-goes-in-on-rush-2007.htm

    Apparently, Rush Limbaugh doesn’t know what TVOne is or really what Roland Martin does. Well, you know Roland takes this opportunity to inform Rush in his own signature style.

    Get him , Roland! Ka Pow! Kick his mofo ass!

  13. Ametia says:

    First Amendment
    Blogging Teacher Had a Free-Speech Right to Criticize Lazy Kids, Her Lawyer SaysPosted Feb 17, 2011 6:38 AM CST
    By Debra Cassens Weiss

    A lawyer for a Pennsylvania teacher suspended for her blog comments about rude and lazy students says free speech rights are at stake.

    Steven Rovner represents Natalie Munroe, 30, who used profanity and complained about unmotivated students on her blog, the Associated Press reports. The high school teacher in suburban Philadelphia didn’t use her full name, nor did she identify any of the students.

    Among the blog comments was this one: “My students are out of control. … They are rude, disengaged, lazy whiners. They curse, discuss drugs, talk back, argue for grades, complain about everything, fancy themselves entitled to whatever they desire, and are just generally annoying.”

    In another post, Munroe talked about the student evaluations she wished she could write. They include: “I hear the trash company is hiring” and, “I called out sick a couple of days just to avoid your son.”

    Rovner told AP that he sees a free speech issue, and he will consider legal action if Munroe is fired. The blog is “so general that it applies to the problems in school districts and schools across the country,” he said.

    http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/frustrated_teacher_suspended_for_her_blog_had_a_free-speech_right_to_commen?utm_source=maestro&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily_email

  14. Powell Demands Answers Over WMD Informant’s Lies

    http://www.rolandsmartin.com/blog/index.php/2011/02/17/powell-demands-answers-over-wmd-informants-lies/

    Source: CBS News

    Colin Powell has called on the CIA and Pentagon to explain why they failed to notify him of unreliability of a key source who claimed knowledge of Saddam Hussein’s bio-weapons capability, reports The Guardian.

    U.S. secretary of state during the Iraq invasion, Powell said U.S. agencies involved in compiling case for the war should be questioned in response to the newspaper’s revelation that the source, Rafid Ahmed al-Janabi or “Curveball” as his handlers called him, admitted to fabricating evidence of Iraq’s secret weapons of mass destruction program.

    “It has been known for several years that the source called Curveball was totally unreliable,” Powell told the Guardian . “The question should be put to the CIA and the DIA as to why this wasn’t known before the false information was put into the NIE sent to Congress, the president’s state of the union address and my 5 February presentation to the UN.”

    Al-Janabi told the Guardian “it’s great” Powell is demanding that the agencies should be questioned. He also thinks people should know the truth.

  15. Ametia says:

    Poll: America Adamant- No More Bushes
    Posted on Thursday, February 17, 2011 by Paddy

    SNIPPET:

    44% of voters in the country say there’s no way they’d support another Bush Presidency. Only 14% say they’d definitely favor one, and 39% say they’d consider it. The Republican base is decently open to the idea of another Bush- only 10% distinctly rule out the possibility. But a majority of Democrats at 73% and most notably a majority of independents at 50% shut the door to another President Bush. Perhaps those feelings will change in the coming years but it’s unlikely they’d shift enough by next November to allow Jeb to win an election that soon.

    http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/2011/02/17/poll-america-adamant-no-more-bushes/

  16. Sarah Palin To Answer Questions In Front Of Mainstream Media

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/17/sarah-palin-to-answer-que_n_824480.html#comments

    WOODBURY, N.Y. — Forget Twitter and Facebook, Sarah Palin is answering questions in front of the mainstream media.

    The Arizona shooting, President Obama’s performance, a possible presidential run and other topics will be on the agenda Thursday when the former Republican vice presidential candidate appears at a luncheon of the Long Island Association, the region’s largest business group.

    Palin has agreed to answer questions posed by the president of the organization for about an hour with cameras rolling, LIA President Kevin Law said. “It will be interesting to see and hear what direction she thinks this country ought to be heading in,” he said.

    “Maybe this is the start of a presidential campaign,” said Republican strategist Ed Rollins. “She has been beaten up by the media for doing nothing but her Tweets. This may be the first foray. Of course when you stand up in front of the cameras, you have to be on guard and make sure your answers are precise.”

    The Long Island Association has previously welcomed former presidents and other national leaders to speak at its meetings, but the meetings are usually closed to the media at the request of the speaker, Law said. Palin, however, who has been criticized for limiting access to her by the mainstream media, has agreed to allow cameras and reporters record the conversation.

    Law won’t say how much Palin is getting paid, but newsmakers of her stature have been known to cash six-figure checks for such appearances. A spokeswoman for the Washington Speakers Bureau, which is representing Palin for the speech, did not return a telephone call or e-mail seeking comment.

    Law said the Arizona shooting last month, which provoked criticism of Palin for using metaphors and imagery of gun use during last fall’s midterm campaign, would certainly be discussed. “Nobody’s out to sandbag anybody, but we’d like to hear what she has to say,” he said.

    Ruth B. Mandel, director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University doesn’t see Palin’s appearance as anything more than another avenue for her to generate income.

    “She’s building a network, but for who knows what in the future,” Mandel said. “It may be income, it may be political.”

  17. Ametia says:

    Census: More U.S. blacks moving South
    By HOPE YEN Associated Press
    Feb. 15, 2011, 2:21PM

    WASHINGTON — The nation’s blacks are leaving big cities in the Northeast and Midwest at the highest levels in decades, returning to fast-growing states in the once-segregated South in search of better job opportunities and quality of life.

    The Southern U.S. region — primarily metropolitan areas such as Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Miami and Charlotte, N.C. — accounted for roughly 75 percent of the population gains among blacks since 2000, up from 65 percent in the 1990s, according to the latest census estimates. The gains came primarily at the expense of Northern metro areas such as New York and Chicago, which posted their first declines in black population since at least 1980.

    The figures are based on 2009 census population estimates. The recent census figures for blacks refer to non-Hispanic blacks, which the Census Bureau began calculating separately in 1980.

    In all, about 57 percent of U.S. blacks now live in the South, a jump from the 53 percent share in the 1970s, according to an analysis of census data by William H. Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution. It was the surest sign yet of a sustained reverse migration to the South following the exodus of millions of blacks to the Midwest, Northeast and West in the Great Migration from 1910 to 1970.

    “African Americans are acting as other Americans would — searching for better economic opportunity in the Sun Belt,” said Isabel Wilkerson, author of “The Warmth of Other Suns,” a detailed history of the Great Migration. “But there is also a special connection. As the South becomes more in line with the rest of the country in social and political equality, many are wanting to connect with their ancestral homeland.”

    http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/7428444.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+houstonchronicle%2Ftopheadlines+%28chron.com+-+Top+Stories%29

  18. 2011 Texas Legislative Black Caucus Conference

    Time Monday, February 28 at 9:00am – March 1 at 5:00pm

    ——————————————————————————–

    Location Capitol Ballroom of the Sheraton Hotel at the Capitol.
    1108 Lavaca Street

    ——————————————————————————–

    Created By Texas Legislative Black Caucus

    ——————————————————————————–

    More Info With the makeup of Texas and many other states rapidly changing, the Texas Legislative Black Caucus (TLBC) has themed its 11th Summit “African Americans staying relevant in the midst of changing demographics.”

    This year’s Summit will also feature big name speakers – Debra Lee, CEO of BET, and CNN media personality Roland Martin – giving their perspectives on the topic.

    Monday evening the premier event of the Conference, the 2011 TLBC Scholarship Banquet, will be held from 7 to 9 p.m., where the TLBC will award more than 50 scholarships and more than $100,000 in awards.

    Free event registration includes banquet, food and entertainment.

    Register: http://tinyurl.com/TLBC2011

    Please share this invitation with your friends and help us celebrate Black History Month by creating a better future.

    For more information visit: http://texaslegislativeblackcaucus.com/

  19. Ametia says:

    “What’s Disgusting? Union Busting!” Chant Wisconsin Crowds That Swell to 30,000; Key GOP Legislators Waver
    John Nichols

    “I have never been prouder of our movement than I am at this moment,” shouted Wisconsin AFL-CIO President Phil Neuenfeldt, as he surveyed the crowds of union members and their supporters that surged around the state Capitol and into the streets of Madison Wednesday, literally closing the downtown as tens of thousands of Wisconsinites protested their Republican governor’s attempt to strip public employee unions of their collective bargaining rights.

    Where Tuesday’s mid-day protests drew crowds estimated at 12,000 to 15,000, Wednesday’s mid-day rally drew 30,000, according to estimates by organizers. Madison Police Chief Noble Wray, a veteran of 27 years on the city’s force, said he had has never see a protest of this size at the Capitol – and he noted that, while crowd estimates usually just measure those outside, this time the inside of the sprawling state Capitol was “packed.”

    On Wednesday night, an estimated 20,000 teachers and their supporters rallied outside the Capitol and then marched into the building, filling the rotunda, stairways and hallways. Chants of “What’s disgusting? Union busting!” shook the building as legislators met in committee rooms late into the night.

    The country was starting to take notice, as broadcast and cable-news satellite trucks rolled into town. The images they captured were stunning, as peaceful crowds filled vast stretches of the square that surrounds the seat of state government.

    Republican legislators — who had been poised to pass the governor’s plan Thursday, and might yet do so – were clearly paying attention. Two GOP senators broke with the governor, at least to some extent. Dale Schultz from rural southeastern Wisconsin and Van Wanggaard from the traditional manufacturing center of Racine, proposed an alternative bill that would allow limit bargaining rights for public employees on wages, pensions and health care for the next two years but allow them to continue to bargain on other issues.

    http://www.thenation.com/blog/158661/whats-disgusting-union-busting-chant-wisconsin-crowds-swell-30000-key-gop-legislators-wa

    Look FOLKS, YOU VOTED FOR THIS MAN, NOW YOU WANT TO TAKE A STAND?

  20. Ametia says:

    Army locks down Bahrain, police storm protest
    By HADEEL AL-SHALCHI, Associated Press Hadeel Al-shalchi, Associated Press – 1 hr 7 mins ago
    MANAMA, Bahrain – Army patrols and tanks locked down the capital of this tiny Gulf kingdom after riot police swinging clubs and firing tear gas smashed into demonstrators, many of them sleeping, in a pre-dawn assault Thursday that uprooted their protest camp demanding political change. Medical officials said four people were killed.

    Hours after the attack on Manama’s main Pearl Square, the military announced on state TV that it had “key parts” of the capital under its control and that gatherings were banned.

    The developments marked a major crackdown by the island nation’s rulers to put an end to days of protests inspired by Egypt’s revolt against Hosni Mubarak. Tiny Bahrain is a pillar of Washington’s military framework in the region. It hosts the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, which is a critical counterbalance to Iran’s efforts to expand its clout in the region.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110217/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_bahrain_protests;_ylt=AiD9tsuCe0dQiC7Y8sBE1Ais0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTJrMGpiNDJ1BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTEwMjE3L21sX2JhaHJhaW5fcHJvdGVzdHMEY3BvcwMxBHBvcwMyBHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcnkEc2xrA3Jpb3Rwb2xpY2VzdA–?om_rid=DRaeQf&om_mid=_BNXR$HB8Y96fmX

  21. Ametia says:

    Steve Jobs, Eric Schmidt and Mark Zuckerberg to Meet With President Obama Thursday in San Francisco
    February 16, 2011 9:44 PM

    Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who recently took a medical leave of absence from his company, and Google chief executive Eric Schmidt will be among the attendees of President Obama’s event with business leaders in San Francisco Thursday evening, a source familiar with the event tells ABC News.

    Earlier today, ABC News reported that one attendee would be 26-year-old founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, according to a source familiar with the meeting.

    Jobs has been the subject of tabloid rumors and rampant speculation about his health since announcing last month that was taking a medical leave for undisclosed reasons.

    Schmidt on Tuesday told a conference he was “very, very proud” of Google executive Wael Ghonim, who helped organize the Egypt protests that resulted in President Mubarak leaving office.

    Schmidt himself will step down in April as Google co-founder Larry Page becomes CEO.

    Jobs, Schmidt and Zuckerberg will be among many business leaders in technology and innovation the president will sit down and talk to, as he continues to sell his State of the Union message.

    http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2011/02/steve-jobs-and-eric-schmidt-to-meet-with-president-obama-thursday-in-san-francisco.html?om_rid=DRaeQf&om_mid=_BNXR$HB8Y96fmX

  22. Ametia says:

    Good Morning, Everybody! :-)

Leave a Reply