Finally the table are starting to turn… Tell it Tracy!
Wiki: Tracy Chapman (born March 30, 1964) is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her singles “Fast Car“, “Talkin’ ’bout a Revolution“, “Baby Can I Hold You“, “Give Me One Reason“, and “Telling Stories“. She is a multi-platinum and four-time Grammy Award-winning artist.[1] Chapman was raised Baptist and went to an Episcopalian high school.[3] She was quickly accepted into the program A Better Chance, which enabled her to attend Wooster School in Connecticut; she subsequently attended Tufts University.[4] At Tufts she graduated with a B.A. degree in anthropology and African studies.[5]
Spotted, Huntsman flees China rally
By KASIE HUNT & MJ LEE | 2/23/11 7:43 PM EST
Updated: 2/24/11 3:50 PM EST
Jon Huntsman was caught on tape at an anti-government protest in China—and quickly left the scene after someone in the crowd noticed the U.S. ambassador’s presence and accused him of wanting to see chaos in the country.
Huntsman, who will resign as U.S. ambassador to China on April 30 and who is considering a bid for the Republican nomination in 2012, was with members of his family in a crowd gathered outside a McDonald’s in a busy Beijing shopping district in a demonstration designed to coincide with pro-democracy protests sweeping the Arab world.
“Hey Mr. Ambassador, what are you doing here?” a member of the crowd asked upon recognizing him, according to a video posted by the China-based blog Shanghiist.
The video is a propaganda-style clip that has been circulating on nationalistic, pro-Chinese government websites and forums.
“I’m just here to look around,” said Huntsman, a Mandarin speaker, according to Shanghiist’s translation of the video.
“You want to see chaos in China,” the man said.
“No, I don’t,” Huntsman answered.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0211/50077.html#ixzz1EuccVKs2
Indiana’s governor calls public unions ‘elites’
CINCINNATI (AP) —
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels has called public unions “the privileged elite” during a speech in Ohio.
Daniels’ state faces a political standoff over issues including labor legislation. He told a crowd at a county GOP dinner in Cincinnati Wednesday night that public jobs and salaries went up while private jobs were lost and that private sector salaries have shrunk.
The Cincinnati Enquirer reports Daniels said there might have been a time when government employees needed protection and reform, but that was a long time ago.
Public employee rights are a hot issue in Ohio, with a bill proposing to restrict collective bargaining for state workers.
Considered a potential 2012 presidential contender, Daniels stressed he wasn’t making a stump speech. His comments about public employee unions got strong applause.
http://www.southbendtribune.com/article/20110224/News01/110229731/-1/XML
Daniels is another CORPORATE Koch brother-like Puppet. Bashing & trashing the public worker. These MOFOs have NO shame.
YES!
Daniels is a phony and a fraud.
Hello everyone.
Yo Dannie, Sup; how are things in Ohio?
Ohio sucks. How are you?
LOL I’m workin’ it. Are you nursing yet? C’mon now, Dannie. Name one good thing you love about OH. I know you can do it!
I’m still job hunting. And the only thing good about Ohio is I will be leaving it in a year lol
LOL ok, have you checked out Toronto or British Columbia?
February 22, 2011
Court Weighs the Power of Congress
By ADAM LIPTAK
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court heard arguments on Tuesday in a case that touched on the most pressing constitutional question of the day: just how much power does Congress have to regulate matters ordinarily left up to the states? The fate of President Obama’s health care law will turn on how that question is answered.
But based on the justices’ comments, the lurid facts of the case and the odd posture in which it reached the court, the eventual decision will probably offer only limited guidance on the health care law’s prospects.
The case heard Tuesday, Bond v. United States, No. 09-1227, arose from a domestic dispute. Carol A. Bond, a Pennsylvania woman, did not take it well when she learned that her husband was the father of her best friend’s child. She promised to make her former friend’s life “a living hell,” and she drew on her skills as a microbiologist to do so.
Ms. Bond spread harmful chemicals on her friend’s car, mailbox and doorknob. The friend suffered only a minor injury.
Such matters are usually handled by the local police and prosecutors. In Ms. Bond’s case, though, federal prosecutors charged her with using unconventional weapons in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993, a treaty concerned with terrorists and rogue states.
At the argument, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. suggested that Congress had gone too far. Suppose, he said, that Ms. Bond had “decided to retaliate against her former friend by pouring a bottle of vinegar in the friend’s goldfish bowl.”
“As I read this statute, Justice Alito said, “that would be a violation of this statute, potentially punishable by life imprisonment.”
Ms. Bond’s lawyer, Paul D. Clement, said that a chemical used by his client was not much more exotic than vinegar. “There is something sort of odd about the government’s theory that says that I can buy a chemical weapon at Amazon.com,” he said.
In her appeal to the federal appeals court in Philadelphia, Ms. Bond argued that Congress did not have the constitutional power to use a chemical weapons treaty to address a matter of a sort routinely handled by state authorities. She cited the 10th Amendment, which says that “the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/23/us/politics/23scotus.html?tntemail1=y&_r=1&emc=tnt&pagewanted=print
Legal Ethics
Indiana Deputy AG Loses Job After Live Ammo TweetPosted Feb 24, 2011 6:49 AM CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A deputy attorney general in Indiana recently tweeted some advice for police facing pro-labor protesters in Wisconsin: “Use live ammunition.”
The comment and others, made in response to a Feb. 19 tweet by a Mother Jones writer, have ended badly for the government lawyer, Jeffrey Cox. He is now out of a job, according to CNN, the Associated Press and Mother Jones.
The Indiana Attorney General’s office explained its decision in a statement. “We respect individuals’ First Amendment right to express their personal views on private online forums, but as public servants we are held by the public to a higher standard, and we should strive for civility,” the AG’s office said.
According to Mother Jones, Cox said the protesters were “political enemies” and “thugs” who were physically threatening lawmakers, and he called the publication’s reporter a “typical leftist.”
“You’re damned right I advocate deadly force,” Cox reportedly wrote.
Cox often expressed acerbic opinions on Twitter and his blog Pro Cynic, Mother Jones says. He called President Obama “incompetent and treasonous” and said a black teen was a “thug who was (deservedly) beaten up” by local police as he tried to prevent the arrest of his “equally thuggish” brother. The blog has since been taken down, but Mother Jones has published screen shots and some stories still appear on cached pages.
Cox was conciliatory in an interview with CNN affiliate WRTV, saying his comments were intended to be satirical. “I think in this day and age that tweet was not a good idea and in terms of that language, I’m not going to use it anymore,” he said.
http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/indiana_deputy_ag_loses_job_after_live_ammo_tweet?utm_source=maestro&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily_email
Slick Willy, the CaC! We’ve got our eyes on you, dude!
Wake schools catch Bill Clinton’s critical eye
BY THOMAS GOLDSMITH – Staff Writer
Tags: Wake County | education | schools | diversity
Former President Bill Clinton has become the highest-profile figure to wade into the controversy involving the future of Wake County’s public schools.
Clinton chose the opening of an exhibit in his presidential library in Little Rock, Ark. on one of the nation’s most dramatic school integration events to criticize Wake County’s change in direction on keeping schools’ populations balanced by students’ socioeconomic backgrounds.
Previously, newsmakers including federal Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and cable television satirist Stephen Colbert had taken swipes at the decisions made by the board leadership in charge since December 2009.
“In one of the largest, most successful urban school districts in America, in North Carolina, there was a huge busing plan assigned to integrate people not just racially but economically,” Clinton said Saturday before the surviving eight members of the Little Rock Nine, who as teenagers in 1957 were the first blacks to attend Little Rock’s Central High School. “Based on decades of evidence that with really poor people who come from families under stress or from broken homes, if they spend time in stable environments with lots of supportive adults, turns out they’re just as smart as everybody else and they do just as well as everybody else.”
Clinton went on to say that the school board changed direction because members thought student achievement had not improved enough under the discarded diversity plan. The school board leadership has attributed much of its opposition to the old plan on low achievement by low-income students. “And let’s let these people – I couldn’t make this up – let’s let these kids go to school with more of their own kind,” Clinton said. “Maybe they’ll be more comfortable and will do better.”
The Little Rock Nine received worldwide recognition after the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division had to be called in to protect the students as they attended classes at Central High School. .
Asked for comment, Wake school board chairman Ron Margiotta seemed startled that the former president had been moved to comment on the policies of a local school district.
“Why would he want to get involved in Wake County?” Margiotta said Wednesday night. “That’s my only comment. I certainly wouldn’t want to take on a former president of the United States.”
Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/02/24/1009894/wake-schools-catch-clintons-critical.html#ixzz1EtRQV436
Scott Sisters Must Lose Weight to Comply With Prison Release
Jamie Scott Has to Lose 100 Pounds, Her Sister Needs to Lose 60
By CINDY E. RODRIGUEZ
Feb. 24, 2011
The Scott sisters who were released from a Mississippi prison last month on the condition that one donate a kidney to the other will have to wait until they lose weight before they can perform an organ transplant.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/scott-sisters-slim-kidney-transplant-place/story?id=12983690
The Influence Industry
Potato titan convicted for California contributions is also a big donor in federal races
By T.W. Farnam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 24, 2011; 7:05 AM
Last week, Larry Minor, whose Agri-Empire business is one of the nation’s largest potato growers, was indicted in a California court on charges of funneling $66,000 in campaign contributions through his family and employees to two candidates for the state legislature, evading the state’s contribution limit of $3,900.
Minor, 70, is known in his small community outside Los Angeles as something of a local celebrity for throwing his wealth around a bit. When his daughter, Aimee, played softball in high school, Minor built two first-rate fields in his front yard for a new club program. He is a champion drag racer and a member of the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame. He also maintained a zoo outside his company office in downtown Hemet, Calif., that included a herd of zebras.
Within 24 hours of his indictment, he pleaded guilty to violating state contribution limits. A grand jury had brought 14 counts against Minor, but as part of a plea deal he faced just two misdemeanor charges. He will avoid jail time after paying a $60,000 fine and spending three years on probation.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/24/AR2011022402003.html?wpisrc=nl_fed
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Howdy, rikyrah! :-) SG2’s TCB some school business today. Please send up prayers. Thanks
Qaddafi Massing Forces in Tripoli as Rebellion Spreads
By KAREEM FAHIM and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: February 24, 2011
LinkedinDiggMixxMySpacePermalink. BAIDA, Libya — Forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi were reported to be striking back in several cites surrounding Tripoli on Thursday, as rebellion crept closer to the capital and defections of military officers multiplied.
The minaret of a mosque in Zawiya, a city 30 miles west of Tripoli where protesters had claimed victory, was blasted by heavy weapons in a morning attack, killing or wounding protesters who had been using the building as a refuge, a witness told The Associated Press by telephone. And in Sabratha, about 50 miles west of the capital where a government crackdown has been under way for several days, gunshots rang out as military troops filled the town, a witness said. With journalists banned from the area, it was impossible to independently verify these reports.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/25/world/africa/25libya.html?_r=2&hp&om_rid=DRaeQf&om_mid=_BNZln3B8ZUsYYd
Another Runaway General: Army Deploys Psy-Ops on U.S. Senators
By Michael Hastings
February 23, 2011 11:55 PM ET
The U.S. Army illegally ordered a team of soldiers specializing in “psychological operations” to manipulate visiting American senators into providing more troops and funding for the war, Rolling Stone has learned – and when an officer tried to stop the operation, he was railroaded by military investigators.
The Runaway General: The Rolling Stone Profile of Stanley McChrystal That Changed History
The orders came from the command of Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, a three-star general in charge of training Afghan troops – the linchpin of U.S. strategy in the war. Over a four-month period last year, a military cell devoted to what is known as
information operations” at Camp Eggers in Kabul was repeatedly pressured to target visiting senators and other VIPs who met with Caldwell. When the unit resisted the order, arguing that it violated U.S. laws prohibiting the use of propaganda against American citizens, it was subjected to a campaign of retaliation.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/another-runaway-general-army-deploys-psy-ops-on-u-s-senators-20110223?om_rid=DRaeQf&om_mid=_BNZln3B8ZUsYYd
Parents Give Birth to Ebony and Ivory Twins
Cunningham Siblings Are the Face of a New Biracial America Where 1 in 7 Marry Outside Their Race
By SUSAN DONALDSON JAMES
Feb. 24, 2011
At 17 months, Triniti and Ghabriael are chubby-cheeked twins, born 11 weeks early at three pounds each and now healthy and a joy to their parents.
But when their mother, Khristi Cunningham of Akron, Ohio, takes them in public, the babies get a lot of second looks and questions
Triniti has ebony-colored skin and all the classic dark features of an African American, but “Gabe,” as his parents call him, is ivory-white with steely blue eyes and blond hair. He’s now 10 pounds heavier than his sister, but it’s their racial identity that gets people scratching their heads.
“People ask, ‘How did it happen?’ Are you sure they are twins?” said Cunningham, 29. “We get a lot of stares, and I am sure people make comments behind my back.”
Their mother is white and their father, Charles Cunningham, is black.
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/twins-white-black-born-biracial-parents-stirs-issues/story?id=12984334
Can Chris Christie handle the truth?
By Matt Miller
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Washington insiders were stunned.
“Look,” Gov. Chris Christie said to a packed house the other day. “We have to get real. We’re going to double the number of people on Social Security and Medicare as the boomers retire. Even with aggressive cuts in the growth of these programs, taxes are going to have to rise. We’ve already got trillions in unfunded liabilities here. The math doesn’t work without higher federal taxes.
“Oh, I said it,” Christie added with an impish grin, “and I’m still standing. I did not vaporize into the carpeting!”
Maybe you heard about this. And about how all of Washington swooned. But of course I made this up. The “truth-teller” du jour (who unveiled a tough New Jersey budget Tuesday that sensibly asks public workers to pick up more of their health and pension costs) did not have the guts to speak this particular truth. Christie merely said that Social Security’s retirement age would have to be raised and Medicare would need to be tweaked lest it bankrupt us – things that less sexy pols, such as Democrats Dick Durbin and Mark Warner, have noted without anyone fainting in admiration.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/23/AR2011022303216.html?wpisrc=nl_opinions
Good Morning, Everybody! :-)