On the President’s strategy in Lybia To All the WHINING Progressive Left, GOP, Teabaggers, Soul Patrol*looking@youTavis* coons & house negroes, and rightwingers who called the move weak, too slow, too fast, and just plain wrong:
Turkey ready to mediate between Gaddafi and opposition groups – diplomat
Turkey gives green light to NATO on Libya operation
NATO agrees to enforce no-fly zone
HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYBODY!
We KNOW the job on the right is to find fault no matter WHAT option Obama chooses.
It is bad enough that lack of respect and political bashin happens to ALL presidents, his is just exacerbated by his race.
Hi The_Fed. Thanks for stopping by and dropping your thoughts! We appreciate it.
Across Country, Republicans Push Photo ID At The Polls
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/25/across-country-republican_n_840705.html#comments
RALEIGH, N.C. — Empowered by last year’s elections, Republican leaders in about half the states are pushing to require voters to show photo ID at the polls despite little evidence of fraud and already-substantial punishments for those who vote illegally.
Democrats claim the moves will disenfranchise poor and minority voters – many of whom traditionally vote for their candidates. The measures will also increase spending and oversight in some states even as Republicans are focused on cutting budgets and decreasing regulations.
Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett, a Republican, said he believes his state’s proposed photo ID law will increase citizen confidence in the process and combat fraud that could be going undetected.
“I can’t figure out who it would disenfranchise,” Hargett said. “The only people I can think it disenfranchises is those people who might be voting illegally.”
Hargett said the measure currently moving through Tennessee’s legislature – now controlled by Republicans – would accommodate people who don’t have IDs by having them sign oaths of identity, which provide more prominent warning to potential fakers than the standard name-signing.
Party leaders advanced several ID proposals this week with successful votes in Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Ohio and Texas.
A modern day Jim Crow Poll Tax!!!!
The Gop don’t want BROWN & BLACK AMERICANS in their party. They want you to vote for them, but they don’t want you in their party. PERIOD.
The GOP will suppress, lie, cheat, and steal to get into power, and they don’t give a rat’s ass if they are bigots, racists, philanderers, liars, or cheats. They will do whatever it takes to get and maintain therich white boys club, at ALL COST.
Wisconsin Union Law Published Despite Court Order
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/25/wisconsin-union-law-publi_n_840870.html
MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin officials couldn’t agree Friday about whether an explosive law taking away nearly all public worker collective bargaining rights was about to take effect after a nonpartisan legislative bureau published it despite a court order blocking publication.
The Legislative Reference Bureau’s action was noted on the state Legislature’s website Friday, sending confused lawmakers and legal experts scrambling to determine what’s next for the measure that has brought waves of chaos to the state since it first was proposed by Gov. Scott Walker.
Legislative Reference Bureau director Steve Miller insisted the action doesn’t mean his action will result in the law taking effect Saturday. He says that won’t actually happen until Secretary of State Doug La Follette orders the law published in a newspaper.
“It’s not implementation of all,” Miller said. “It’s simply a matter of forwarding an official copy to the secretary of state.”
But La Follette wasn’t so sure, saying it wasn’t clear what the action means.
“I think we’re going to have to get some legal opinion on this,” he said.
And Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said the action means the law takes effect Saturday.
“It’s my opinion it’s published, it’s on the legislative website, it’s law,” Fitzgerald said.
A judge last week issued a temporary restraining order blocking any further implementation of the law while the court considers challenges to its approval. The order specifically blocked La Follette from publishing the law.
What? So Walker is defying a court order? Arrest him!
The President will address the NATION Mondaynight March 28.
PBO will speak at 7:30 pm EST. I’m sure the Sunday talk shows will get their digs in before Monday. I’m looking forward to hearing the POTUS speak to the NATION on Lybia.
Me too!
Let the nuts expell all that hot air, let them get it out of their system. Then POUTS will calmly repeat what he’s said all along about Lybia, if the folks want or need to HEAR it again.
The media and GOP, and the sell-out Democrats as usual have ramped up the rhetoric with the meme of the POTUS is weak, he didn’t tell us his plans for America, nonsense.
And who do they think believes this foolishness, that we’d build a coalition with the UN and go into Lybia without multilateral support.. I LOATHE the media.
OK, this just broke my heart.
…………………
Brooklyn parents in a race against time as both diagnosed with advanced cancer within a week
BY Ben Chapman
DAILY NEWS WRITER
Brooklynites are rallying around a young couple with a toddler who are facing an unimaginable challenge – both parents were diagnosed with advanced cancer in the space of a week.
Friends and family are taking Nathan and Elisa Bond to doctor appointments, watching their 18-month-old daughter, Sadie, and raising money for the battle ahead.
“We’re fighting the statistics so we can be here for our daughter,” said Nathan, 38, an artist who teaches at Parsons.
Nathan was diagnosed with Stage 3 colorectal cancer on Valentine’s Day and given a 60% chance of surviving five years or more.
He was still reeling from the bad news when Elisa, 36, got the results of a lump on her breast: cancer has spread throughout her body.
Her disease is considered incurable because it’s so advanced, and doctors told her she has just a 16% chance of surviving five years.
In spite of the grim prognosis, the Bay Ridge couple’s spirits have been buoyed by all the support they are getting – and their love for their little girl.
“I wanted to grow old with my husband and care for our daughter,” said Elisa, 36, a real estate agent. “Now I’m just hoping for a miracle.”
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/03/25/2011-03-25_brooklyn_parents_in_a_race_against_time_as_both_diagnosed_with_advanced_cancer_w.html#ixzz1HeC24ivz
1 Peter 2:24
This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
Bible Verse Graphics
May God have Mercy on this family. May the Blessings Be.
Bob Herbert to Leave The Times
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/bob-herbert-to-leave-the-times/?smid=tw-mediadecoder&seid=auto
Bob Herbert, a columnist for The New York Times Op-Ed page, is leaving the paper after nearly 20 years.
Mr. Herbert’s resignation was announced in a memo to Times staff members on Friday. His last column will appear in the paper on Saturday.
Mr. Herbert, who started his Times column in 1993, was known for his combative style, blunt language and progressive politics. In a message accompanying the announcement, Mr. Herbert, who is 66, said he was eager to move on to a new form of writing.
“The deadlines and demands were a useful discipline, but for some time now I have grown eager to move beyond the constriction of the column format, with its rigid 800-word limit, in favor of broader and more versatile efforts,” he said. “So I am leaving The New York Times and the rewards and rigors of daily journalism with the intent of writing more expansively and more aggressively about the injustices visited on working people, the poor and the many others in our society who find themselves on the wrong side of power.”
Andrew Rosenthal, editor of The Times opinion pages, said in the memo that he accepted Mr. Herbert’s resignation with “great regret.”
“He was often called ‘the conscience of The Times,’” Mr. Rosenthal wrote. “We will miss him and wish him the best in his new endeavors.”
Hmmm, everybody’s leaving their jobs after having significant tenure, Katie Couric and now Herbert. Wonder who’s going to fill his slot.
2012’s going to be interesting, with all the old timers exiting, there’s no telling what the media will be throwing at their audiences.
Katie Couric Plots CBS Exit
by Howard Kurtz
The CBS Evening News anchor is very likely to leave in June and Scott Pelley is a top contender to replace her but CBS is looking both within and outside the network, Howard Kurtz reports.
The search is on for Katie Couric’s successor.
The new CBS News chairman, Jeff Fager, is looking at candidates both within and outside the network, insiders say.
One strong contender if Couric vacates the anchor chair in early June, as now seems almost certain, is veteran newsman Scott Pelley. The 60 Minutes correspondent has long been a favorite of Fager, who doubles as the show’s executive producer. But with Fager taking a methodical approach to his first major decision, Pelley is not a lock. A few short weeks ago, the expectation in the Couric camp—after discussions with top CBS management—was that she would sign a new deal to stay in the anchor’s job through the 2012 elections as she figured out the next phase of her career. But the thinking on both sides has now changed as Couric has aggressively tested the waters—and found substantial interest in her services.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-03-25/katie-couric-likely-leaving-cbs-news-scott-pelley-leading-replacement/?om_rid=DRaeQf&om_mid=_BNjOePB8Z3$hYo#
Libya: William Hague says Nato control days away
25 March 2011 Last updated at 12:46 ET
Nato will be able to take over command of the entire military operation in Libya within days, according to UK Foreign Secretary William Hague.
He said he had “every expectation” the alliance would assume full command, instead of enforcing only the no-fly zone and the arms embargo.
Coalition forces are into a seventh day of military action over Libya to enforce the UN resolution.
Mr Hague insisted there was no split in the international community.
“If the Gaddafi regime think the international will and unity on this is faltering in any way, they are in for quite a surprise,” he said.
Mr Hague said a conference in London on Tuesday, which will include Arab nations alongside the EU and the US, would lock in commitments of military and financial support which he said were “increasing all the time”.
Prime Minister David Cameron also told a news conference at the EU summit in Brussels that Nato would shortly be providing command and control for the operation.
Dismissing talk of a split within Nato, he explained: “These things always take a bit of time.”
‘Safe and secure’
The BBC’s correspondent in Brussels, Matthew Price, said there were growing signs that Mr Cameron’s prediction was correct.
Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote
Our operations have saved many innocent lives and we are confident that they will continue to do so”
End Quote
Maj Gen John Lorimer
Chief of the Defence Staff’s chief spokesman
“I am getting the impression that is not just wishful thinking, because other diplomatic sources here are saying very much the same thing.”
He added: “Interestingly, President Sarkozy of France is still talking about this overseeing political council, that would include representatives from Qatar and the UAE as well, to keep the Arab states onside.”
Twelve countries, including UAE and Qatar, are now part of the coalition seeking to enforce the UN Security Council resolution passed last week to protect civilians from attack during fighting between rebels and Col Muammar Gaddafi’s forces.
Mr Cameron said the EU summit had agreed that “military action should continue until people are safe and secure”.
British Tornado jets attacked Col Gaddafi’s forces in Ajdabiya on Thursday.
The Ministry of Defence said the Tornados, which were on an armed reconnaissance mission, fired guided Brimstone missiles at armoured vehicles which were threatening the civilian population of Ajdabiya.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12857912?om_rid=DRaeQf&om_mid=_BNjOePB8Z3$hYo
March 25, 2011
‘MCCARTHYITE’ VS. ‘CHILLING’…. Bill Cronon, a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin, has been critical of Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) anti-union efforts, and over the last two weeks, has published an op-ed and a blog post explaining his concerns. For his trouble, the Wisconsin GOP has targeted the professor, demanding access to his personal/university email account.
Cronon talked to Greg Sargent today, and the historian talked about the efforts against him.
Cronon theorizes, based on the keyword requests, that Wisconsin Republicans are trying to catch him in violation of state university rules by using a state email account to engage in “lobbying and electioneering to try to unseat these Repubican legislators.” In other words, he says, Wisconsin Republicans want to damage him professionally in response to his criticism of them.
“That’s what they’re hoping to find,” Cronon says. “They’re trying to intimidate me. What they’re saying is that if an academic raises these kinds of questions, we’re going to make his life really uncomfortable. Intimidating people from asking legitimate questions is a McCarthyite tactic.”
Cronon says the Wisconsin GOP will not find evidence of what they’re looking for. “It’s not there,” he says.
For their part, state Republican leaders are outraged, not just that a university professor would dare to criticize a governor, but also that others might criticize them for their tactics against Cronon.
“[I]t is chilling to see that so many members of the media would take up the cause of a professor who seeks to quash a lawful open records request,” state GOP executive director Mark Jefferson said this morning.
What a curious response. Wisconsin Republicans are angry that their efforts to intimidate Walker critics might have a chilling effect on others who might also want to intimidate Walker critics?
Indeed, as Dave Weigel noted, the state GOP added that asking questions about the party’s efforts are a form of “intimidation,” which is kind of bizarre.
Anyone hoping Wisconsin Republicans would be a little less ridiculous in the wake of the labor dispute is bound to be disappointed.
—Steve Benen 2:10 PM
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2011_03/028632.php
Union: GM to recall 2,000 laid-off workers
Alisa Priddle and Christina Rogers / The Detroit News
The United Auto Workers union says that by fall, General Motors Co. will recall the last 2,000 of its laid-off workers, clearing the way for new hiring at its U.S. plants.
Most of the recalls will be in southeastern Michigan, whose economy was devastated in the downturn.
GM declined to confirm the timeline, but Joe Ashton, UAW vice president in charge of GM, said Wednesday “those people will all be back at work in September.”
“We will have full employment in September for the first time in a long time,” he said.
The recalls are further evidence of the recovery of GM, and the auto industry as a whole. During bankruptcy, GM shuttered 11 plants, eliminated four brands and dismissed tens of thousands of workers. As of December, it employed about 49,000 hourly workers and 28,000 salaried employees. At its peak, in 1979, GM employed 618,000.
The good news came on the second day of the union’s three-day bargaining convention, at Detroit’s Cobo Center. The conference, with some 1,200 participants, wraps up today.
UAW President Bob King said jobs will be restored at a number of GM plants.
GM spokeswoman Kimberly Carpenter confirmed that most of GM’s remaining laid-off workers are concentrated in southeastern Michigan, but she declined to pinpoint which plants or say when new hiring may begin.
“We have announced several actions that will help people get back to work,” she said. Among them: adding a third shift of 750 to GM’s truck plant in Flint, a second shift of 600 in Lansing to build a small Cadillac and 1,550 workers being recalled to build two small cars at the Lake Orion assembly plant.
From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110324/AUTO01/103240394/Union–GM-to-recall-2-000-laid-off-workers#ixzz1HdfhJ0ei
That’s what I’m talkin’ bout!
Michelle Obama to speak at Spelman College commencement
By Christopher Witherspoon
12:51 PM on 03/25/2011
More than 500 graduates of Spelman Graduates are preparing for a commencement address they won’t soon forget.
On May 18, first lady Michelle Obama will deliver the commencement address to the liberal arts women’s college located in Atlanta, Georgia, White House sources said today.
“In a personal address, the first lady will discuss her upbringing, and the significance of being part of the first generation in her family to graduate from college,” a White House source told theGrio. “She will also encourage the graduates to continue to serve their communities, embrace the challenges ahead of them, and strive to fulfill their ambitious goals.”
Last year, the first lady addressed the graduating class at another historically black college, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, which began as the only state-supported University for African-Americans.
President Obama spoke at Hampton University’s commencement last year, telling graduates: “Now that your minds have been opened, it’s up to you to keep them that way, and it will be up to you to open minds that remain closed.”
Several senior White House officials also spoke at other HBCUs last year.
Mrs. Obama will also be speaking at the University of Northern Iowa and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point this May. She will speak to graduates of the Quantico Middle High School in Quantico, Virginia this June.
http://www.thegrio.com/politics/michelle-obama-to-speak-at-spellman.php
Spelman grads will be blessed a thousand fold.
Barack Obama’s Re-Election Numbers Are Strong; How Much of That’s Due to Non-White Voters?
Posted Wednesday, March 23, 2011 11:43 AM | By David Weigel
Via Taeggan Goddard, Pew has Barack Obama looking better for re-election than George W. Bush or Bill Clinton did at this point in their presidencies.
Nearly half (47%) of registered voters say they would like to see Barack Obama reelected, while 37% say they would prefer to see a Republican candidate win the 2012 election, according to the survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press conducted March 8-14 among 1,525 adults. In April 2003, 48% of registered voters said they would like to see Bush reelected in 2004; 34% said they would prefer to see a Democrat win.
Meanwhile, the Field poll in California has Obama outperforming Bush and Clinton, at this point in their presidencies, on the re-elect. The comparison captures Bush at his last big surge of support, during the start of the Iraq War, so it’s impressive. Look down at the Pew internals, though. Ninety-two percent of black voters want to re-elect Obama, as do 66 percent of Hispanics. Only one percent of blacks (!) and 16 percent of Hispanics want to vote against Obama. That’s the source of the positive re-elect number — break it down to white voters, and only 36 percent of them want to re-elect him. For comparison, 37 percent of white voters went Democratic in 2010.
This gets at something Byron York has said for a while — the rock-solid support for Obama among non-whites is responsible for his numbers staying above water. (Bill Clinton, in his weaker moments, lost substantial black and Hispanic support.) There are two conclusions to draw.
– Obama starts 2012 with a voter base that makes Virginia, Colorado, and other states with minority populations of at least 30 percent more winnable than some traditional swing states.
– There’s a big white electorate that’s cold on Obama but know nothing about the lackluster 2012 GOP crop, and Democrats know that many of these voters will head over to the eventual nominee and slash at the re-elect number.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/weigel/archive/2011/03/23/barack-obama-s-re-election-numbers-are-strong-how-much-of-that-s-due-to-non-white-voters.aspx
UNDER
SOME FOLKS IS JUST DAMN CRAZY news…
…………………..
Did Obama write his own memoirs?
Jack Cashill’s new book continues a crusade he began during the 2008 presidential campaign: to prove Barack Obama didn’t write his own memoir. David Sessions talks to Cashill about his strange claims and why he thinks the GOP’s 2012 candidates may soon be drawing from his playbook.
Jack Cashill identifies heavily with Dr. Miles Bennell, the hero of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, who in the the classic 1956 film is the last person on earth to keep extraterrestrials from controlling his mind. The aliens eventually let Bennell escape, figuring no one will believe his wild tales.
Cashill, a Kansas City-based independent journalist, sees the story as a parable of his relationship with the mainstream media. “Most people think you’re friggin’ crazy, but I remain optimistic that someday they’ll see I’m right,” Cashill told me.
His new book, Deconstructing Obama: The Life, Loves, and Letters of America’s First Postmodern President (Threshold Editions) is a good example of why few people believe him. Written like an adventure story, with Cashill as the main character, it intensifies a crusade he launched on the eve of the 2008 election: To prove that former radical Weather Underground activist Bill Ayers actually wrote Obama’s celebrated memoir, Dreams From My Father. Along the way, Cashill throws in that Obama possibly invented a college girlfriend and has repeatedly told false stories about his childhood.
Cashill wasn’t always someone most people would call a conspiracy theorist. Born in 1947 into a “ghetto Irish Catholic” family in Newark, he was educated in the classics, first at St. Regis High School in Manhattan, then at Siena College in upstate New York. He studied Greek, minored in classics and gravitated toward literature. He received his Ph.D. in American Studies from Purdue in 1982, and after a yearlong fellowship in France, moved to Kansas City for his wife’s new job at the University of Missouri.
Barack Obama and Bill Ayers officially met in 1995, the year Dreams was released. But Cashill believes this story of their relationship, like most of the rest of Obama’s biography, was fabricated by Obama’s campaign team and their mainstream media accomplices.
There, he produced a series of documentaries for public television, blossomed as a conservative talking head on the city’s famous talk station, and ran campaign communications for Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) during her days in local politics. He wrote a handful of pieces on Kansas politics for The Weekly Standard, an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal on the Catholic church, and an essay on capitalist heroes in American literature in Fortune. Then the Internet hit.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/dailybeast/13134_jackcashillsdeconstructingobamaarguesbillayerswroteobamasmemoirs;_ylt=AiPHtMfdv1MSFygrDquc5t9H2ocA;_ylu=X3oDMTR0OXJsZTlzBGFzc2V0A2RhaWx5YmVhc3QvMjAxMTAzMjUvMTMxMzRfamFja2Nhc2hpbGxzZGVjb25zdHJ1Y3RpbmdvYmFtYWFyZ3Vlc2JpbGxheWVyc3dyb3Rlb2JhbWFzbWVtb2lycwRjY29kZQNwemJ1cgRjcG9zAzIEcG9zAzIEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yaWVzBHNsawNkaWRvYmFtYXdyaXQ-
The accomplishments of President Barack Obama really fk’d up some folks mind. Jack Cashill cannot accept the success & accomplishments of a black man because it makes all he has ever believed about black people…a bold faced lie!
Reality check..beyotch!
ALL.OF.THIS. But life goes on! Keep moving forward Mr. President; we’re behind you all the way.
Ten Year Old Arrested For Stealing Family Car: ‘We Tried To Stop Him…He Just Floored It’
by Mark Joyella | 10:55 am, March 25th, 2011
Angry over being punished, a ten year old in Texas jumped in his Mom’s SUV and took off, leading his parents on a chase. “We tried stopping him at first, and he just floored it and started driving faster,” Christi Sanders told KPRC-TV.
Sanders said her son led family–and then Sheriff’s deputies–on a chase through traffic that included the boy stopping at a red light and being rear-ended by another car. He drove off, only stopping at a donut shop where officers ordered young Zilan Fitch out of the car. “I saw the cop, so I put it in park, unlocked the doors and the guy was like ‘Holy …! Pull over!’” Zilan said. “I was scared because they arrested me.”
Zilan was happy to show a local news reporter exactly how easy it was for him to drive, jumping in the car again–without the keys. “I just pressed the brakes and turned that on and put it in reverse,” Zilan said. “I just tapped the brakes a little, and when I was ready, I pulled (the gears) all the way.”
Watch it here, from NBC News:
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/ten-year-old-arrested-for-stealing-family-car-we-tried-to-stop-him-he-just-floored-it/
I’m not gonna laugh
I’m not gonna laugh
I’m not gonna laugh
BWA HA HA HA “He FLOORED it.”
am I the only one after laughing thinking BEAT HIS ASS.
LOL
They prolly did!
tee hee hee. Nope, I said, when he gets outta that car, his ass is getting a whooping.
March 24, 2011, 8:30 pm In Defense of ‘Dithering’
By TIMOTHY EGAN
Five years ago a young politician who seemed wise beyond his years was asked by Tim Russert what makes a great president. It was the kind of question that Russert, who could prompt more news in a single interview than entire cable operations do in a year, was so good at.
The politician took a thought breath before proceeding: “Obviously, most of the time it seems that the president has maybe 10 percent of his agenda set by himself, and 90 percent of it set by circumstance.”
Barack Obama: meet your 90 percent. The senator who so accurately predicted how events make the leader now finds himself a president trying to lead through those events.
In the process, despite a largely incoherent chorus of second-guessers, Obama has settled into a groove of reflective dithering before making his decisions. For the most part, it has served him well.
Think back to … oh, all of one week ago. The mercenaries of Muammar el-Qaddafi were closing in for the slaughter of people trying to take a breath of the same Arab Spring air going around Tunisia and Egypt.
Had Obama done nothing, as the Dennis Kucinich fringe Democrats and the Ron Paul isolationist Republicans would have it, the blood of many civilians would be filling the streets of Benghazi. Don’t forget: the regime had promised to chase its own citizens into closets and butcher them.
Or, had Obama put U.S. troops on the ground, as the imperious former Bush “diplomat” John Bolton insisted, a humanitarian mission would now be seen as another superpower invasion of an oil-rich Arab nation.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/in-defense-of-dithering/?hp
Got to post the video:
Indeed.. and circumstances don’t create conditions(consciousness) , conditions create circumstances.
THANKS FOR THIS.
this entire Presidency has been CIRCUMSTANCE. tell me a week where something hasn’t come up.
Anti-Union Push Picks Up Steam On Capitol Hill
In the next several days, the state-level fight between Democrats and Republicans over unions will go federal. House Republicans want to re-establish old rules which say that when aviation or rail workers don’t vote in unionization elections, they’re treated as having voted against unionization. And now on of the nation’s largest airlines is getting involved in the fight.
The push is reflected in language in the House’s FAA re-authorization bill. In an earlier stage of the legislative fight, Democrats, joined by a few Republicans, nearly succeeded in getting the provision stripped. Now, sources say, a similar fight is likely to play out on the House floor, and anti-union employees at Delta Airlines are preparing to fly to Washington to join the fight.
In a message to its members obtained by TPM, the group “No Way AFA” — a coalition of Delta employees who want to deliberalize union rights — frames the fight this way. (AFA is the Association of Flight Attendants, the flight attendants union.)
“Title IX of the House FAA Reauthorization bill repeals the National Mediation Board’s 2010 elections rule change, which permits a minority of employees at airlines and railroads to determine whether or not the majority will be represented by unions,” the message reads. “[I]t is anticipated that an amendment will be offered on the House floor to strike these provisions from the bill and allow the NMB’s modified rule to stay in place.”
According to the note, “Delta strongly supports the bill” as currently written.
Members are encouraged to participate in a fly-in to Washington, D.C., to lobby their congressmen, for which “positive space travel” — free travel for airline employees — is permitted.
A Delta spokesperson said No Way AFA operates separately from the company itself, but that the company “allow[s] employees to travel positive space to D.C. when supporting legislative efforts that the company supports.”
By contrast, Delta policy requires employees to fly standby for leisure and personal travel, suggesting that the “positive space” standard for the fly-in could squeeze out seating space for regular travelers.
The spokesperson says Delta avoids such displacement. “[W]e manage employee travel to avoid displacing revenue customers. We block such travel where limited seats are available and displace ourselves for revenue customers whenever necessary.”
“[A]s far as the company cooperating with our group, they’re not specifically,” said No Way AFA leader Mathew Palmer in an email to me. “[I]t’s more that were cooperating with them.”
In other words, it’s no secret that Delta supports the action.
The last-minute push suggests the vote to strip the anti-union provision will be a close one. Several Republicans are expected to side with Democrats on the vote, which is could occur next week or the week after that. The Senate’s version of the FAA bill does not contain this language.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/03/anti-union-push-picks-up-steam-on-capitol-hill.php
you know, ignorance like this is just hard to take
………………..
Mar 25
2011Libya: Obama Quiet as Negative Drumbeat Grows
President Obama returned from a trip to South America on Wednesday. On Thursday he had a quiet schedule. What’s on the schedule today?
9:30AM – THE PRESIDENT receives the Presidential Daily Briefing Oval Office / Closed Press
10:30AM – THE PRESIDENT meets with senior advisors, Oval Office / Closed Press
4:35PM – THE PRESIDENT hosts a reception for Greek Independence Day / East Room
Is this is the schedule of a leader presiding over the world’s greatest military now engaged in three wars? Greek Independence day? Of course the President must do all sorts of ceremonial duties while in office. But this is a simple question: What is he doing after the 10:30AM meeting ends and the 4:30PM event begins? What is he doing after the 4:35PM event ends? Stay tuned for the weekend schedule which comes out today. That usually features plenty of golf and basketball. A sampling of press would tell you that an address to the nation or at least a press conference might be helpful. Many stories today mention that the President will address the nation “soon.”
http://www.crewof42.com/?p=5069
for real?
for real?
someone was actually stupid enough to write this.
damn, watch an episode or two of West Wing reruns, and you’ll know that the President’s day is mapped out, pretty much from the minute he wakes up until the time he goes to bed.
ignorance on this level is fucking scary.
They’re stupid ass clowns!
Funny you should mention “West Wing.” I’m watching my DVDs of West Wing. It’s far better entertaining and true to life than the mockery that is politics today.
Fax That Compelled LePage To Take Down Labor Mural Conspicuously Missing Date/Time Stamp (Updated)
As ThinkProgress reported yesterday, Maine Tea Party Gov. Paul LePage (R) ordered the removal of a labor-themed mural from the state’s Department of Labor offices. LePage’s administration said they had received complaints from business owners who objected to the mural’s allegedly pro-labor undertones. But LePage has so far produced just a single complaint — an anonymous fax, a copy of which was released today. But as Maine progressive blog Dirigo Blue points out, the fax is missing the date/time and phone number stamp that fax machines automatically place on faxes:
If the LePage administration wanted to redact the sender’s phone number to protect their identity, they could have simply removed the number, instead of the entire stamp. But more importantly, why is LePage making policy decisions based on a single fax from an anonymous “Secret Admirer”? Especially from a sender who saw the mural as reminiscent of “communist North Korea where they use these murals to brainwash the masses.” Even LePage’s spokesperson recognized the eccentricity of the sender, telling TPM that the administration was not trying to “give validity” to the specific sentiments in the fax. So far, LePage has failed to produce evidence showing any kind of major public opposition to the mural.
Update After dozens of news reports from local newspapers all the way to the New York Times reported the mural complaint was a fax, LePage is now claiming that it was in fact a letter, not a fax. Is unclear why LePage didn’t dispute these myriad reports until now.
………………..
don’t nobody believe his lying ass.
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/24/lepage-mural-fax/
As Newt’s Libya Position Implodes, He Accuses Obama of Flip-Flopping
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/03/newt-gingrich-accuses-president-obama-of-flip-flopping-on-libya.php
Newt Gingrich’s explanation of his shifting Libya position is growing even more complicated and contradictory, even as the former speaker slams President Obama for supposedly flip-flopping himself between inaction and overreaction.
“There is now total confusion,” Gingrich told South Carolina Republicans Thursday, according to the AP, describing the no-fly zone as an “open-ended commitment that is a nightmare.”
In an interview later Thursday with FOX News’ Greta Van Susteren, the same outlet where he called for an immediate no-fly zone earlier this month, Newt tripled down on his elaborate explanation as to how he went from demanding immediate military action to protect Libyan civilians to berating Obama for entering an unnecessary humanitarian war.
According to Newt, Obama committed an unforgivable error by demanding Qaddafi step down on March 3. Before that, he claims, he could have gotten away with a quieter non-military approach to removing him from power.
Give it up already, Newt! When you find yourself in a hole….stop digging!!!!!!!!!!!
Newt changes his mind as much as he changes his wives – often
LOL NOT.THIS.TIME. newty newt!
President Obama hosts reception for Greek Independence
March 25, 2011 4:35 PM EDT
http://www.whitehouse.gov/live
LOL One of my favorite lines from “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”
LOL
U. S. Postal Service to Cut 7500 Jobs, Close Offices
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42256357/ns/business-us_business/
And NO weekend mail either.
Is this how you create jobs Boner?
U.S. Supreme Court
A Trend in the Making? Scalia and Thomas Split More Often than Not in Divided Cases This Term
If you think that Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas always decide cases in lockstep, you need to think again.
Linda Greenhouse, the former Supreme Court reporter for the New York Times, took a look at the cases decided so far this term and found that the conventional wisdom isn’t always right. Writing at the Opinionator blog, she detailed several surprises in this term’s statistics, including:
• In divided decisions, Justices Scalia and Thomas were on opposite sides of the case more often than they voted together.
• In divided decisions, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has been in the majority in every one. He voted more often with liberal bloc Justices Stephen G. Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor than with Justices Thomas, Scalia or Samuel A. Alito Jr. (Greenhouse cautions that the results are from only nine cases with little ideological spin.)
• Corporate defendants aren’t always winning. They have lost all three cases in which employees asserted civil rights violations. They also lost cases brought be unhappy investors and a family suing over lap-only seatbelts.
Greenhouse notes a couple criminal law cases in which Scalia sided with the defendants and Thomas with the prosecution. They have split in a total of five cases this term. “An aberration or a trend?” she asks. “Watch and wait.”
http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/a_trend_in_the_making_scalia_and_thomas_split_more_often_than_not_in_divide/?utm_source=maestro&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily_email
The Reverse Migration Cont.
By Ta-Nehisi Coates Mar 25 2011, 9:00 AM ET 1
The Times adds to the conversation:
The percentage of the nation’s black population living in the South has hit its highest point in half a century, according to census data released Thursday, as younger and more educated black residents move out of declining cities in the Northeast and Midwest in search of better opportunities…
During the turbulent 1960s, black population growth ground to a halt in the South, and Southern states claimed less than 10 percent of the national increase then. The South has increasingly claimed a greater share of black population growth since — about half the country’s total in the 1970s, two-thirds in the 1990s and three-quarters in the decade that just ended.
The percentage of black Americans living in the South is still far lower than before the Great Migration in the earlier part of the last century, when 90 percent did. Today it is 57 percent, the highest since 1960.
These are some numbers, but it’s worth reading the article and thinking about some of the quotes. For instance:
The Rev. Ronald Peters, who moved last year from Pittsburgh to Atlanta, said it was refreshing to be part of a hopeful black middle class that was not weighed down by the stigmas and stereotypes of the past, as he felt it was in the urban Northeast.
“Too often, people turn on TV and all they see are black men in chains,” said Mr. Peters, president of the Interdenominational Theological Center, a seminary in Atlanta. “Atlanta is a clear example of a different type of ethos. The black community is not people who have lost their way.”
I think it’s easy to forget how much the 80s really turned a lot of African-Americans off to cities. There was always this weird dissonance for us between, say, “Family Ties” or “The Wonder Years,” and the hot, drug-addled blocks where we lived. The suburbs were sprawling lawns. The suburbs were money. The suburbs where were people had pools. The suburbs were where you heard no gunshots at night.
We had no real handle on phrases like “density,” “urbanism,” or “walkability.” We didn’t watch “Friends.” (Well, I did.) We didn’t live in the city because it was “dynamic.” We lived in the city because you couldn’t afford to leave. I have six brothers and sisters–all of them, save one, raised in Baltimore. Of those presently raising kids, I’m the only still living in a city.
Now I’ve lived in cities all my life, and, at this point, I’m a New Yorker to the core. I don’t ever see myself living in the suburbs. But that wasn’t how I thought as a child, and even now I understand the allure. You drive through, say, PG County outside D.C., or the suburbs outside of Atlanta, or, I imagine, outside Houston, and you see all of these black people, with these big lawns, nice cars and sprawling homes. This is the dream of black folks who suffered the Crack Age. This is the dream of finally, at long lost, going home.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/03/the-reverse-migration-cont/73015/
Because There Is No Black Middle Class
By Ta-Nehisi Coates Mar 24 2011, 3:53 PM ET Comment
I’ve been meaning to link to Shani’s piece on black middle-class gentrification in Washington D.C. As it happens, because I’m late, I now end up commenting on the commentary about the story. Shani’s has taken some heat for not interviewing poor black people in the story. From Freddie:
This is a several-thousand word article on the relationship between race and socioeconomic class, and about the tensions between old and new residents and poor and rich residents of a city and a neighborhood. Yet in those thousands of words there isn’t a single interview with a poor, long-term, black resident. It’s a glaring omission.
Postbourgie doubles down:
I’d like to add to that, because it’s an important oversight. It’s akin to writing an piece about nightlife in DC, and then only interviewing your friends about the places in your neighborhood. There are no interviews with neighbors, former residents who have been pushed out of the neighborhood, or really, anyone outside of Shani’s immediate peer group.
I think that last part, is really key from a reporting perspective. If you don’t reach outside your peer group, expect that your piece is going to be somewhat myopic. But with that said, I think it’s really important to consider “Confessions Of A Black Gentrifier” within the context of journalism about gentrification, and the fate of cities in general.
I cut my chops writing and reporting about D.C. for five years. I’ve written and reported on the problems of cities, and the problems of black people, for fifteen years. In all the journalism I’ve produced and consumed in that time, on the subject of cities, in general, and on gentrification, at large, I’ve never noticed any shortage of quotes from the black poor. Indeed the standard conflict pits poor black vs. yuppie whites. More broadly, there’s a recurring theme of black people being “pushed out” usually because of money.
Washington is a city, not simply with one of the most venerable black middle classes in the country, but with one of the most storied engines of the black middle class anywhere in the world (Howard University.) And yet, having consumed articles about gentrification in D.C., for over a decade, the city’s black middle and upper-middle class is a phantom to much of the journalism. I don’t recall much reporting on, say, the state of the Gold Coast up 16th street, or the state of the city’s Jack & Jill chapter. Prince George’s County is the only jurisdiction in recent American history to become wealthier, as it became blacker. I don’t recall much reporting around the conflict inherent in that shift.
From my perspective, Shani is introducing a narrative, and an angle, we see too rarely in discussions about the problems of the city. There is no question in my mind, that more reporting–and specifically more reporting beyond her social circle–would have made Shani’s story better. I hope she’ll take up that challenge in the future.
But I also hope that the people challenging her now will follow suit, and do some writing and reporting, themselves. The biggest problem with this story is that it bears too much weight–there simply aren’t enough stories like it. The same can’t be said of the always booming industry of black poverty porn.
I’m not trying to be dismissive, on the contrary I’m aiming for a call to arms. We desperately need complicated, deeply-reported, long form journalism about black people. Don’t like Shani’s story? Make another one. Make a better one. Start now.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/03/because-there-is-no-black-middle-class/72986/
Loved this piece of commentary. It proves that just because folks don’t write about us, it doesn’t mean that BLACKS-MIDDLE CLASS BLACKS don’t exist.
We have to write our own stories.
under Bitch, Please news:
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Sharron Angle: Veterans PAC ‘Betrayed America’ By Endorsing Reid In 2010
Sharron Angle, the former Nevada state representative and 2010 Republican Senate nominee who is now running for an open House seat, is attacking the now-defunct PAC of the Veterans of Foreign Wars — which endorsed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in that crucial 2010 election — saying that the VFW-PAC “betrayed America.”
In the last election cycle, objections by some VFW members to the PAC’s endorsements, which included various incumbent Democrats, ultimately led to the organization dismissing the PAC’s board, and taking steps to dissolve the PAC entirely.
Now, as Jon Ralston reports, Angle e-mailed her supporter list to promote a conservative group, Veterans in Defense of Liberty, for which she serves on the advisory board.
In the letter, Angle declares that as a “proud American, I was very disappointed” when the VFW-PAC “betrayed America and American Veterans by endorsing liberal members of Congress like Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer and Ron Klein in the last election.”
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/03/sharron-angle-veterans-pac-betrayed-america-by-endorsing-reid-in-2010.php?ref=dcblt
Liar of the day…
by Dennis G.
Everyday, folks from wingnutopia open their mouths and say the darndest things. Competition for the biggest liar/asshole/douchebag of the day is always pretty intense. But today, you just got to give it to pretend reporter John Stossel of Fox News.
TPM Muckraker reports on the doozy of a lie that Stossel let fly this morning while he was on “Fox and Friends” discussing “wasteful Gubiment spending”. See if you can spot the serious patch of crazy:
“Why is there a Bureau of Indian Affairs?” he said. “There is no Bureau of Puerto Rican Affairs or Black Affairs or Irish Affairs. And no group in America has been more helped by the government than the American Indians, because we have the treaties, we stole their land. But 200 years later, no group does worse.”
If you guessed “no group in America has been more helped by the government than the American Indians” then give yourself a gold star. And if you can make any sense of the rest of his statement let me know. He seems to be lying so fast that he can’t agree with himself.
Now, Stossel has been a well known fraud and liar for years when it comes to environmental issues, workers and social justice. So this latest bit of crazy coming from him is not that surprising, but the bigness of this lie is amazing and so is the audacity of it.
Nationally, one in four Native Americans live in poverty (For more details look here) and on reservations the poverty rate can be as high as 90%. They are perhaps the only group in America where open racism is still OK and even trademarked (for example: Redskins). The history of the kind of “help” the Native Peoples of this continent have received from the government is a story of one disaster after another from the first day Europeans landed in the “New World”.
And yet, according to John Stossel that was all helpful. So I guess in Stossel’s rich fantasy life the Government was just “helping” Native Americans at Wounded Knee back in 1891:
And I guess Stossel would say the same thing about the Trail of Tears and the thousands of other crimes—big and small—committed against Native Americans. Stealing their rights, lands, liberty and heritage has been an American passion from Andrew Jackson to Jack Abramoff.
But in Stossel’s world no group in America has done better. Really? I would have put my money on rich white guys getting the most help from the Government. Stossel is just a lying ass.
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2011/03/24/liar-of-the-day/
Pelosi, Boxer defend Obama’s move on Libya
Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writer
San Francisco Chronicle
March 24, 2011 04:00 AM San Francisco 03/24/11
With lawmakers of both major parties increasingly critical of President Obama over his move to involve the U.S. military in Libya, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Barbara Boxer stood behind the president Wednesday, saying his decision was necessary to prevent a humanitarian crisis.
The statements from Pelosi and Boxer, who strongly back Obama’s support of the U.N.-supported no-fly zone in Libya, underscore a growing split among liberal Democrats from California – some of whom have said Obama should not have made the move without congressional approval.
Boxer, at a San Francisco news conference Wednesday, said Democrats were not holding Obama to a different standard for military involvement than they did for former President George W. Bush.
In 2007, as talk swelled regarding possible U.S. air strikes in Iran, Obama, then an Illinois senator and possible presidential candidate, and then-Delaware Sen. Joe Biden said Bush could take no military action without the approval of Congress.
“This is different,” Boxer said Wednesday. Today, “you’re facing a dictator who vowed” widespread slaughter in his own country, she said, adding that Obama “did the right thing.”
“This isn’t America versus Libya,” Boxer said. “This is an extraordinary achievement by the president and our secretary of state to get the world to come together” in a humanitarian crisis.
“Anyone who says (Obama) should have waited,” she said, “doesn’t feel the sense of urgency that many of us feel – that this man was about to destroy his own people.”
Pelosi, a San Francisco Democrat, said Wednesday that Obama and the United States were acting upon the U.N. Security Council’s resolution to use “all measures necessary” to protect the Libyan people.
Pelosi was one of the few leaders from both parties whom Obama informed of his decision on Friday. Political experts have said Obama’s handling of the matter risks leaving him politically stranded.
Boxer’s and Pelosi’s comments put them at odds with other Bay Area members of Congress who this week issued blistering criticism of the president.
Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose and co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus Peace and Security Task Force, said Monday that Obama’s action “sets a new precedent for war powers authorization and sends the message to the world that American democracy is deeply dysfunctional.”
Reps. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, and Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, issued a joint statement this week calling for an immediate end to the bombing in Libya, arguing that the administration’s move “should have been debated and approved by Congress.”
While the two acknowledged that Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy has threatened “reckless, indiscriminate use of force on his own people,” they said Obama’s move represents “a dangerous path toward perpetual U.S. military engagement around the world.”
Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio went even further, saying Obama may be guilty of “an impeachable offense.”
Republicans, including House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, have also gone on the attack. Boehner charged that “before any further military commitments are made, (Obama) must do a better job of communicating to the American people and to Congress about our mission in Libya and how it will be achieved.”
E-mail Carla Marinucci at cmarinucci@sfchronicle.com. Chronicle Washington staff writer Carolyn Lochhead contributed to this report.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/03/23/MNRT1II30A.DTL#ixzz1HX9WluX4
Imagine what would have happened to these people had the President not intervened?
TEAM PELOSI FOREVER!!!!!!!!
Hear! Hear!
Dazed and confused by the Libyan mandate
By Eugene Robinson, Thursday, March 24, 7:53 PM
Is it just me? Am I the only one who’s utterly confused about the rationale, goals, tactics and strategy of the U.S.-led military intervention in Libya?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dazed-and-confused-by-the-libyan-mandate/2011/03/24/ABg80jRB_story.html?wpisrc=nl_opinions
Yes Eugene. It’s just you.
LMAO Gene got to run with the meme or risk increased stuttering when confronted about why he ain’t running with the meme.
WTF’s up w/ Eugene?
Gene’s ‘coonin’ for his supper.
The House Negro Cometh….
BWA HA HA HA
Good morning all!
Good Morning, Dannie & Everybody! :-) Happy FRY-day.
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Good Morning, rikyrah :-)
More Good Morning Comments
Inspiration for today…
Bible Verse Graphics
Amen! Thank you, SG2.