Wikipedia: Oleta Adams (born 4 May 1953, Seattle, Washington) is an American soul, jazz, and gospelsinger and pianist. Adams was born the daughter of a preacher and was raised with gospel music. In her youth her family moved to Yakima, Washington, which is sometimes shown as her place of birth. Before gaining her opportunity to perform, Adams faced a great deal of rejection. In the 1970s, she moved to Los Angeles, California where she recorded a demo tape. However, many music executives were exclusively interested in disco music rather than Adams’ preferred style.
With the advice of her singing coach, Lee Farrell, Adams moved to Kansas City where she did a variety of local gigs. Adams started her career in the early 1980s with two self-financed albums which had limited success.
Happy MUN-dane, Everybody!
Here are the real stars of dance
Dancing With Dad More than 40 fathers and their daughters connect for a fundraiser. 04/04/2011
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/dancing-dad-13293945?&clipId=13293945&playlistId=-1&cid=siteplayer
that was wonderful
These girls remind me of my daughters with their dad. They ADORE him and he them. It’s precious, the bond of love between a dad and his daughter. If it’s healthy, daughters have the greatest chance of chosing a deserving mate, who treats them with love and respect.
AMEN
Watched this amazing doc last night. It’s MUST SEE.
IN DEPTH WITH ISHMAEL REED
Ishmael Reed talked about his life, work, and career. Topics included the role of the media in American society, race relations past and present, and the impact of the election of President Obama. He responded to telephone calls and electronic communications. Ishmael Reed is the award-winning author .. Read More
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Ishma
Live 2012 Kickoff PBO conference call here now.
http://www.barackobama.com/livestream/campaign-2012-kickoff-call
PBO is on the line.. LOL PBO said he’s FIRED UP!!!!
PBO: We have an array of folks who have loads of money and special interest groups. Folks who want to UNDO everything we’ve done in the last 2 years.
We need to go back to the Basics. block by block, community by community, neighbor to neighbor and listen and engage with folks, not in a flashy way. WE NEED BOOTS ON THE GROUND. listen to struggles and what their concerns are.
SIGN UP AND SAY “I’M IN.”
I’m In!!!!
PBO sounded great on the call. He’s ready for at least 4 more years. He asked for ALL our help. He needs boots on the ground, going door to door, community-community, speaking directly to folks. He knows the media isn’t going to cut him any slack, they haven’t since he took office.
Peter King Gets Severed Pig’s Foot Mailed To Office
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/04/peter-king-pigs-foot_n_844677.html#comments
WASHINGTON — Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) learned Monday that someone had mailed him a bloody, severed pig’s foot, a person close to the Congressman said.
The foot was sent by someone apparently angered by House hearings investigating the possible radicalization of Muslim-Americans that King, who chairs the Homeland Security Committee, held in March. The person who sent the package, who identified herself as a woman, included a message that mentioned the hearings.
“There’s blood, there’s the severed foot. The message refers to Mohammed, and it says all babies in America would be named Mohammed,” the source said. “It also says, ‘Kiss my black Muslim ass.’
Oh really?…. This sounds suspicious.
Breaking:
17 Democratic Governors Launch Preemptive Strike Against Paul Ryan’s Medicaid Proposal
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/04/paul-ryan-medicaid-letter-democratic-governors_n_844697.html#comments
WASHINGTON — Seventeen Democratic governors have signed and sent a letter to congressional leaders stating their firm opposition to a Medicaid reform proposal championed by House Republicans.
The letter, sent on Monday, is a preemptive strike of sorts against House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) before he unveils a 2012 budget proposal that is expected to endorse turning Medicaid into a block grant program.
“We strongly oppose a congressionally-mandated block grant of federal Medicaid spending, which would shift costs and risk to states,” the governors wrote. “Such a cost shift would severely undercut our ability to provide health care to our residents and adequately pay providers.”
Good for those 17 Democratic governors.
Obama: The Liberal Reagan
Michael Scherer shrewdly notes how the Obama campaign has launched itself from the base of Obama’s personal favorability rather than that of approval of Obama’s policies. It makes sense given that 80 percent or more think Obama is a likable person, and 52 percent have a favorable view of him, while 48 percent approve of his actual policies. Money quote:
Obama will be running on his character. The most interesting quote of the video comes from the southern white guy. “I don’t agree with Obama on everything. But I respect him and I trust him.”
That’s exactly what Reagan did in 1984. Remember all those liberal commentators who pointed to the unpopularity of Reagan’s policies in his first time and couldn’t understand why he was leaving them behind in the dust? And just as in 1984, Obama can point to an economic recovery on his watch. For good measure Obama has approval ratings 7 points above Reagan’s at this point in a presidential first term.
My only concern is that Obama should not downplay his actual policy achievements. He needs to re-emphasize his role in stabilizing a world economy in free-fall, preventing the collapse of the US car industry, saving the banks and getting a surplus for it, and presiding over the seismic events in the Middle East with coolness (the one glaring exception being the rescue of Benghazi).
http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/
He needs to re-emphasize his role in stabilizing a world economy in free-fall, preventing the collapse of the US car industry, saving the banks and getting a surplus for it, and presiding over the seismic events in the Middle East with coolness.
Alright now!
I don’t buy that liberal Reagan bullshit. Why must these fools try to pin that demented actor to PBO? What makes Sullivan think PBO won’t EMPHASIZE his policy acheivements?
Sorry, I don’t buy that liberal Reagan bullshit. Why must these fools try to pin that demented actor to PBO? What makes Sullivan think PBO won’t EMPHASIZE his policy acheivements?
Michel Martelly Wins Haiti’s Presidential Election: Report
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/04/michel-martelly-wins-haiti-presidential-election_n_844625.html#comments
PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – Musician Michel Martelly is the winner of Haiti’s presidential election, according to official preliminary results, a senior official at the Provisional Electoral Council told Reuters Monday.
The official, who asked not to be named, spoke before a public announcement expected later Monday to give the preliminary results from the March 20 run-off vote.
Alleged Libyan rape victim no longer in government custody
By the CNN Wire StaffApril 4, 2011 3:37 p.m. EDT
Watch an interview with Eman al-Obeidy, the woman who claims she was raped by forces loyal to Libyan leader Gadhafi, on “AC360”, tonight at 10 p.m. ET.
(CNN) — Eman al-Obeidy, the woman who said she was raped by forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, spent 72 hours under interrogation after being dragged away from the Tripoli hotel where she tried to tell journalists of her alleged abuse, she told CNN by telephone Monday.
Interrogators poured water on her face and threw food at her during the relentless questioning, which ended only after she was examined by a doctor to prove she had been raped, she told CNN’s “AC360.”
“And when the test came it verified that I was raped and tortured, and then I was freed,” she said, speaking by telephone through a translator.
Al-Obeidy said that in contrast with the brutality she endured at the hands of Gadhafi loyalists, her treatment after being taken from the hotel was more abusive psychologically than it was physically.
But she said the public statements from a state TV anchor and government officials, who initially called her mentally ill, drunk and a prostitute, have ruined her reputation.
Al-Obeidy said people laugh at her now and that her spirits and morale are low. She said she has nightmares.
“They did not give me a chance to respond,” she said.
Al-Obeidy burst into the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli on March 26 while international journalists staying there were having breakfast
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/04/04/libya.rape.case/index.html
John Adler Dead: Former New Jersey Congressman Dies At 51
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/04/john-adler-dead-dies_n_844641.html
Former U.S. Congressman John Adler passed away on Monday at the age of 51, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
A Democrat from New Jersey, Adler served one term in the House of Representatives after being elected to office in 2008. He lost his campaign for reelection last fall to former Philadelphia Eagles player and Republican challenger Jon Runyan.
This is a developing story… More information to come..
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/04/john-adler-dead-dies_n_844641.html#comments
The Inquirer and Courier Post Online report that the former lawmaker passed away in the wake of undergoing emergency heart surgery last month after contracting “staph bacterial endocarditis.”
Rest in peace, Mr. Adler.
SCOTUS Delivers Another Blow
by BooMan
Mon Apr 4th, 2011 at 03:05:38 PM EST
The Supreme Court that George W. Bush gave us just keeps on giving. Their newest innovation is to revoke individuals’ standing to bring cases to court objecting to the use of taxpayer dollars to fund activities that promote a particular religion. It’s really rather clever. See, if the state of Arizona gives you a tax credit for sending your child to a school that only accepts people who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, that’s okay because the government never collected your 500 bucks in the first place. Let’s let Justice Kennedy explain.
The usual rule is that plaintiffs who merely object to how the government spends their taxes do not have standing because they have not suffered a sufficiently direct injury. But the Supreme Court made an exception for religious spending by the government in 1968 in Flast v. Cohen.
The issue that divided the majority and the dissenters was whether granting a tax credit was the functional equivalent of collecting and spending tax money. Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said the two things were very different.
“Awarding some citizens a tax credit allows other citizens to retain control over their own funds in accordance with their own consciences,” Justice Kennedy wrote for himself, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr.
The plaintiffs’ position, Justice Kennedy wrote, “assumes that income should be treated as if it were government property even if it has not come into the tax collector’s hands.” But, he added, “private bank accounts cannot be equated with the Arizona State Treasury.”
Let’s think about this. Let’s say that you owe the state of Arizona $1500 in state income taxes. That’s what you have an obligation to pay, even if you haven’t actually paid them the money yet. However, you can lower your obligation to $1000 by taking advantage of a tax credit that partially reimburses you for your child’s tuition at the School of the Sacred Bleeding Heat. According to Justice Kennedy, this is not the government cutting you a break on your taxes, but you simply spending the money the way you want to. It doesn’t put anyone else in the state of Arizona out that the government coffers just lost five hundred dollars. And no one has any standing to object despite over forty years of Supreme Court precedent. Justice Kagan wrote the dissent, and she made some rather obvious points:
In her dissent, Justice Kagan said the majority’s position was an elevation of form over substance. “Taxpayers experience the same injury for standing purposes,” she wrote, “whether government subsidization of religion takes the form of a cash grant or a tax measure.”
She offered examples. “Suppose a state desires to reward Jews — by, say, $500 per year — for their religious devotion,” she wrote. Would it matter to taxpayers offended by the practice whether the reward came in the form of a government stipend or a tax credit?
“Or assume,” she wrote, “a state wishes to subsidize the ownership of crucifixes” in one of three ways. It could purchase them in bulk and distribute them; it could reimburse buyers with a check; or it could pay with a tax credit.
“Now, really — do taxpayers have less reason to complain if the state selects the last of these three options?” Justice Kagan asked.
To answer Kagan’s last question, the answer is now ‘yes.’ Yes, we might have standing to object if the state of Pennsylvania decided to buy a New Testament for every citizen, and we could complain if the government gave everyone in our state a check to buy a Holy Bible, but we have no right to say a word about someone getting a tax credit for a sacred book they’ve already paid for (provided that they can produce the receipt). For some inexplicable reason, we have less reason to complain about the last scenario.
This is the kind of high-minded thinking that goes on now on our Republican-dominated Supreme Court. So, if the Oklahoma legislature wants to follow-up on their law banning Shariah Law with a law to provide a tax rebate for Christian reading materials for their public students, they should be able to do that now, provided that the parents buy the materials before they get the money from the government to pay for them.
Welcome to Wingnutistan.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2011/4/4/15538/21669
This is about taxes, more than religion.
Mittens doesn’t know WHICH position to take…being the inauthentic piece of plastic that he is….his weathervane hasn’t caught a position yet.
…………………..
April 4, 2011
WHEN A TOP-TIER CANDIDATE ‘REFUSES’ TO TALK ABOUT LIBYA…. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) spoke in Las Vegas over the weekend, delivering a speech billed as a foreign policy address to the Republican Jewish Coalition’s winter meeting. The focus was on the Middle East.
There was, however, one notable omission.
Yet Romney was silent on Libya, the newest and stickiest military and U.S. policy problem as the United States and its NATO allies enforce a no-fly zone to help rebels oust Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
After his speech, Romney refused to take questions from reporters about his position on Libya. Instead, he and his wife, Ann, fled down a hallway and escaped up an escalator at The Venetian, where the event was held.
Is it me, or does this seem very strange? A controversial U.S. offensive is underway in Libya, a leading Republican presidential candidate delivers a speech on foreign policy, and when pressed for a position, the candidate runs away?
When I talk about the GOP’s presidential field struggling with U.S. policy in Libya, this only helps bolster the point.
—Steve Benen 11:25 AM
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2011_04/028776.php
LOL It’s hard to think when the gray matter is plastic too!
Let the games begin. Who does the GOP money machine plan to sink billions of dollars on as a 2012 presidential candidate?
LOL
I’m watching the look on Brit Humes’ face…Priceless!
Chris Wallace…. is who I meant to quote.
BWA HA HA Brit: “I’oin’t no nothing but folks not payin’ dey taxes; I pay mine.”
The source of the problem is TAX BREAKS FOR THE RICH, PAUL RYAN. YOU CAN TALK FAST ALL YOU LIKE, BUT YOU AIN’T SAYING SHIT.
And this shocker….. NOT
Saw this last night; so awe-inspiring…
John E. Sununu
Presidential feints by two media stars
THREE YEARS ago, the names Donald Trump and Sarah Palin had probably never appeared on the same page, let alone within the same sentence. They were a most unlikely pair. She was Alaska, fiscal restraint, and public service. He was the Big Apple, junk bonds, and private jets.
Today, they not only appear destined for a collision in the Republican presidential primary, their lives look more and more like each other every day — book tours, talk shows, reality TV. Thanks to their hair, however, it is still relatively easy to tell them apart.
Both Trump and Palin also seem captivated by the idea of being president. They obviously like the idea of running for president, and spend a great deal of time talking about what they would do if they were president. They are about action, displaying power, and explaining how power should be used. Trump’s solution to Somali pirates: “Give me one good admiral and a few ships and I will wipe them out so fast.’’ Palin on $4 gas: “Drill, baby, drill.’’ In the words of Royal Tenenbaum, they are all about “taking it out and chopping it up.’’
In short, they are exactly the type of political figure our country’s founders were worried about.
The framers were troubled — some might say preoccupied — with the potential dangers of ambition, factions, and concentrated power. They were concerned to a point about ideology, predominantly the question of how much power to vest within the newly constituted federal government in relation to that of the states. But they worried even more about the intentions and motives of their adversaries.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2011/04/04/presidential_feints_by_two_media_stars/
Maine GOP Senators To Tea Partying Governor: Tone It Down
Maine Gov. Paul LePage is quickly cultivating a combative reputation, feuding with labor groups in recent weeks by removing a mural from the state Department of Labor building that he deemed too pro-union and taunting critics who protested the move. But his aggressive tack is generating a backlash from his own party as a group of eight Republican senators publicly call on him to tone it down.
In an op-ed Monday authored by Maine state Sens. Roger Katz and Brian Langley and co-signed by six other lawmakers, the group wrote that they “feel compelled to express our discomfort and dismay with the tone and spirit of some of the remarks he has made.”
“Were these isolated incidents, we would bite our collective tongues, because we are all human and make mistakes,” the piece reads. “But, unfortunately, they are not isolated but frequent. Therefore, we feel we must speak out.”
The senators, who represent a large chunk of the GOP’s 20-14 majority over Democrats in the Senate, singled out LePage’s handling of the Department of Labor mural for criticism, decrying the governor’s unnecessary provocation of union supporters. LePage ordered a mural depicting a history of labor in Maine taken down last month in response to alleged complaints that it made business leaders uncomfortable and resembled North Korean propaganda. The move drew protests around the region and LePage said that he would “laugh at the idiots” who tried to prevent the mural being taken down through civil disobedience.
“Belittling comments, whether they come from the governor or his opponents, have no place in Maine public life,” the lawmakers wrote. “By demeaning others, the governor also discourages people from taking part in debating the issues of the day – worrying if not only their ideas, but they themselves as people, will be the subject of scorn.”
They added: “We are not the enemy of labor and labor is certainly not an enemy to us.”
Maine has a tradition of electing moderate Republicans and the authors of the op-ed cited current GOP Sen. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins as well as former Sen. Margaret Chase Smith and former senator and defense secretary under President Clinton, William Cohen, as models for LePage to follow.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/maine-senators-to-paul-lepage-tone-it-down.php?ref=dcblt
LOL Tone it down? yes, now y’all want to tell the fire/teabaggers to TONE.IT.DOWN. Y’all done let the pandoras out of the box now, good luck trying to shove them back in now.
These GOPers only yell when they are being threatened, everybody else be damned!
No degree, little experience pay off big
Just in his mid-20s, Brian Deschane has no college degree, very little management experience and two drunken-driving convictions.
Yet he has landed an $81,500-per-year job in Gov. Scott Walker’s administration overseeing environmental and regulatory matters and dozens of employees at the Department of Commerce. Even though Walker says the state is broke and public employees are overpaid, Deschane already has earned a promotion and a 26% pay raise in just two months with the state.
How did Deschane score his plum assignment with the Walker team?
It’s all in the family.
His father is Jerry Deschane, executive vice president and longtime lobbyist for the Madison-based Wisconsin Builders Association, which bet big on Walker during last year’s governor’s race.
The group’s political action committee gave $29,000 to Walker and his running mate, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, last year, making it one of the top five PAC donors to the governor’s successful campaign. Even more impressive, members of the trade group funneled more than $92,000 through its conduit to Walker’s campaign over the past two years.
Total donations: $121,652.
That’s big-time backing from the homebuilders.
The younger Deschane didn’t respond to questions about his job.
But his father said he doesn’t think his group’s financial support of the first-term Republican helped his son in his job search.
“He got the position himself,” said Jerry Deschane, who returned to the trade group in September after a hiatus during which he worked as an independent lobbyist for many groups, including the builders association. “I didn’t get it for him.”
One Walker critic isn’t buying it.
State Rep. Brett Hulsey called Deschane’s appointment another case of the new administration using state jobs to repay various industries.
Hulsey said he was unimpressed with the younger Deschane’s résumé, including his lack of environmental or management experience.
“It doesn’t look like he’s ever had a real job,” the Madison Democrat said.
Hulsey noted that the recently approved law that made collective bargaining changes converts 37 top agency attorneys, communications officials and legislative liaisons from civil service positions to jobs appointed by the governor.
“This is an example of the quality of candidates you’re going to get,” said Hulsey, owner of the consulting firm Better Environmental Services.
According to his résumé, Deschane, 27, attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison for two years, worked for two Republican lawmakers – then-Sens. David Zien and Cathy Stepp, now the natural resources secretary – and helped run a legislative and a losing congressional campaign. He held part-time posts with the Wisconsin Builders Association and the Wisconsin Business Council until being named to his first state gig earlier this year.
Deschane’s father said that during the gubernatorial contest he might have reminded Keith Gilkes, Walker’s campaign manager and now chief of staff, that his son “was out there and available.”
“I put in good words for every one of my children in their jobs,” said the elder Deschane. “But that would be the extent of it.”
David Carlson, spokesman for the Department of Regulation and Licensing, confirmed that Gilkes recommended Deschane for an interview with the agency. Deschane’s name does not appear on a list of job applicants with Walker’s transition team, but the governor’s office confirmed that Gilkes interviewed Deschane for a state job in December.
A month later, Secretary David Ross, a Walker cabinet member, named Deschane the bureau director of board services, a job that paid $64,728 a year.
Not long after, lawmakers approved the governor’s plan to convert the Department of Commerce to a public-private hybrid in charge of attracting and retaining businesses, with its regulatory and environmental functions being moved to other agencies.
Commerce Secretary Paul Jadin then appointed Deschane to his new post there to oversee the changes.
“It was felt that he would be helpful in working through the transition issues,” said Commerce Department spokesman Tony Hozeny.
The move meant a pay raise of more than $16,500 a year for Deschane, even though he had put in only a couple of months with the state.
Deschane’s father said his group doesn’t lobby or work with his son’s division, which deals primarily with regulating underground storage tanks and petroleum tanks and products. Hozeny said the younger Deschane will be expected to abide by state ethics rules in dealing with family members.
A spokesman for the governor said Walker’s team was aware of Deschane’s two drunken-driving convictions, the most recent of which occurred in 2008.
“We . . . felt he had changed his habits and that these past incidents would in no way affect his performance at this job,” said Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie.
Deschane’s father acknowledged that his son had made “foolish” decisions in the past, but he argued that the Walker administration was influenced by the younger Deschane’s strong résumé.
“He’s a bright young man,” the father said.
Michael McCabe, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign and a regular critic of Walker, said he’s not surprised officials claim the builders association’s contributions had no impact on the hiring. No politician concedes being influenced by campaign donations, McCabe said.
But he said it’s hard to reach any other conclusion in this case.
“It has all the markings of political patronage,” McCabe said.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703806304576240751124518520.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories
This type of hiring is NOTHING new. Whites have been hired for decades simply because they were white, while POC have had to fight for affirmative action to get equal & fair opportunities for hiring.
Black have been schooled from day one that you have to get an education and work a gazillion times hard as white folks to prove yourself, yet these folks skate through on their whiteness.
And the fact that Walker’s campaign hired such mediocrity attest to the sheer mockery of his win.
you are so right, but when he’s trying to CUT QUALIFIED FOLKS’ PAY, along with the happenings of that State Senator’s HO’s hiring…these are commericals waiting to be done.
Exactly. And the Dems should be airing these ads on a CONTINUOUS LOOP.
Never Gonna Break My Faith
U.S. Shifts to Seek Removal of Yemen’s Leader, an Ally
By LAURA KASINOF and DAVID E. SANGER
Published: April 3, 2011
SANA, Yemen — The United States, which long supported Yemen’s president, even in the face of recent widespread protests, has now quietly shifted positions and has concluded that he is unlikely to bring about the required reforms and must be eased out of office, according to American and Yemeni officials.
The Obama administration had maintained its support of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in private and refrained from directly criticizing him in public, even as his supporters fired on peaceful demonstrators, because he was considered a critical ally in fighting the Yemeni branch of Al Qaeda. This position has fueled criticism of the United States in some quarters for hypocrisy for rushing to oust a repressive autocrat in Libya but not in strategic allies like Yemen and Bahrain.
That position began to shift in the past week, administration officials said. While American officials have not publicly pressed Mr. Saleh to go, they have told allies that they now view his hold on office as untenable, and they believe he should leave.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/04/world/middleeast/04yemen.html?om_rid=DRaeQf&om_mid=_BNmbhnB8aElSpl
Crystal Mangum charged in Durham stabbing
BY THOMASI MCDONALD – STAFF WRITER
Published in: Durham County
DURHAM — Crystal Mangum, the woman who was at the center of the Duke University lacrosse scandal, was charged with stabbing a man early this morning at a south Durham apartment.
Police charged Mangum, 32, with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, according to a statement by the Durham Police Department.
Police spokeswoman Kammie Michael said officers were dispatched to a stabbing call at 3507 Century Oaks Drive at 3:15 a.m.
When the officers arrived, they found a 46-year-old man who had been stabbed in the torso.
By late Sunday, police had not released the name of the male victim, who was described as Mangum’s boyfriend.
The stabbing apparently occurred during an argument between the couple, police reported.
The victim was taken to Duke University Hospital for treatment of serious injuries.
Officers found Mangum in a nearby apartment. She was arrested and transported her to the Durham County jail. She is being held in custody without benefit of bail, authorities said.
Five years ago, Mangum accused members of the Duke lacrosse team of sexually assaulting her while she was working as a stripper for an escort service.
The accusations were eventually labeled as false and the case was dismissed by state attorney general Roy Cooper, but not before the case garnered nationwide attention.
Mangum made the headlines again last year when Durham police charged her with felony arson, child abuse, vandalism and resisting a law enforcement officer.
In February 2010, police accused Mangum of slashing the vehicle tires of her boyfriend Milton Walker, smashing his windshield with a vacuum cleaner and setting fire to a pile of his clothes in a bathtub while the police and her three children were in her apartment.
Mangum was convicted of child abuse, vandalism and resisting an officer.
The felony arson charge against Mangum was dismissed earlier this year.
http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/04/03/v-print/1102618/crystal-mangum-charged-in-durham.html
What?
Did you see the photo? She looks like a raving maniac in that pic.
http://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2011/04/for-manning/73391/
For Manning
By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Apr 4 2011, 10:00 AM ET
I’ve been struggling all weekend to write something worthwhile about Manning Marable. On Saturday, I had the good fortune of receiving a note from Georgia State historian, and former Marable grad assistant, John McMillan, seeking a place to publish his own tribute. I hastily offered this page and McMillan was kind enough to offer his memories. They are as follows:
In hindsight, this is embarrassing to admit, but here goes. When I first met Manning Marable in 1996, at age 26, I was nervous. Partly I was on edge because I was trying to make a big decision: Should I pursue a Ph.D. in African-American history at either Rutgers or Michigan, where I’d been offered full funding? Or, should I go to Columbia (my first choice), with no money upfront, but with some vague possibility of securing a teaching fellowship down the line?
Months before, Manning had already written me to say that if I were admitted to Columbia, he’d be keen to take me on as one of his graduate students. (That was a thrill unto itself!) Nevertheless, I couldn’t help but wonder (and this is the embarrassing part): did he know I was white? And if so, would he have any doubts about my commitment to Black Studies, or my intellectual authority to work in the field?
Keep in mind, by then I’d read virtually all of Manning’s major works, including the earlier, more polemical stuff, like How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America, where he declared, “Progressive white Americans must succeed in overturning their own racism.”
No problem there, I chuckled. I’d long made a point of challenging racism in others, and I’ve always tried (to the best of my ability) never to tolerate it in myself. But then, he added this:
“Nothing short of a commitment to racial equality and Black freedom such as that exhibited by the militant white abolitionist John Brown will be sufficient.”
Oh.
There was only one way to gauge Manning’s attitude, and that was to show up at his office. I made the haul all the way from mid-Michigan to New York City in my Chevy pick-up truck. At that point in my life, I’d never been anywhere near an Ivy League campus. My first memory of the area around Columbia comes from driving up and down Broadway, Amsterdam Ave., and perhaps a dozen cross streets in-between, again and again and again, screaming and pounding on my dashboard over my inability to find a parking space.
As soon as I met Manning, though, all of my anxiety melted away. As anyone who knew him would agree, one of his most striking qualities was his affability. And although I probably would not have said this in print while he was still alive, the plain fact is, he really did look a lot like a teddy bear.
One thing I remember from that day is how vigorously he stressed the fact that he saw himself as both a scholar, and an activist. For him, the two vocations were inseparable. What’s more, he wanted me to know that when he became the founding director of the Institute for Research in African American Studies (IRAAS) a few years earlier, he’d envisioned it as fundamentally a community resource. And by “community,” he pointed out, “I don’t mean just Columbia, or even Morningside Heights.” He gestured toward the window of his 6th floor office, which afforded views to the north and the east. “We’re not in Morningside Heights! We’re in Harlem!”
To this end, he had a remarkable capacity for making time for virtually anyone who wanted something from him, even including the conspiratorial-minded guy with the rusty stains on his shirt (or was it blood?) who would occasionally show up unannounced at Manning’s door, asking to bend his ear. Then there was this other fellow: he was never around, except for on the periodic occasions when the Institute would lay out a very nice buffet in honor of some distinguished guest speaker, in which case he would always be there, first in line, testing the capacity of his Styrofoam plates with enormous mounds of chicken wings, mini quiches, cocktail shrimp, and whatever else. (Okay, I’ll confess: I once watched as Manning quietly observed this guy from the corner of the room, sighed heavily, and rolled his eyes.)
Manning was also one of the hardest workers in all of academia. In the mid-to-late 1990s, you might recall, a whole corps of “black public intellectuals” was suddenly gaining more exposure than they’d probably ever dreamed of. After a long period during which black scholars were more likely to toil away in obscurity, with their contributions being slighted or overlooked, now at least a few of them – through a combination of intelligence, charisma, and moxie – seemed to be everywhere. And while some celebrated the new visibility of people like Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Cornel West, and Michael Eric Dyson, others sensed a certain entrepreneurialism in their approach. Sure, they could all talk a very good game, people used to grouse. Hell, put them in range of a microphone, and they’ll talk about anything! But when it came to scholarship, what did they actually do?
That was never quite my own view, but regardless: nobody ever credibly said such a thing about Manning. Sure, he made TV appearances and gave paid lectures (oh, how he must have loved Black History Month). But he was also an author of god-knows-how-many books and articles, the great bulk of which showcased his deep immersion in fields as diverse as history, sociology, political science, economics, and even literature. His new, nearly 600 page opus, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, is already being celebrated as an exhaustively researched tome, one that will completely upend our understanding of that fabled leader.
What an incredible exercise in self-restraint it must have been to keep plugging away on that biography for fifteen-odd years, all the while sitting on so many explosive revelations. I remember him excitedly making a few vague allusions to the discoveries he was making, way back in the day. Now we all know just what he was onto.
At the moment, I’m awfully sad that I didn’t stay in better touch with Manning in recent years, though I can take some solace from the fact that about six weeks ago, I sent him a warmly inscribed copy of my first monograph. I have so many fond memories of our conversations from the three-year period that I worked for him, but I’ll always treasure that first meeting the best. After listening to my concerns, putting me at ease, and making me laugh out loud, he said something I did not expect: “I might be able to help you out.”
Five months later, I’d relocated to Manhattan, and I was meeting a considerable portion of my grad school expenses by working as his research assistant. (We collaborated on two books.) Without him, I’m not sure I’d have mustered the courage to go to Columbia, something that later turned out – without question – to be one of the great blessings of my life. And yet whenever I tried to thank Manning for anything – whether for helping to pay for my education, or for buying me a sandwich (as he sometimes did), I always got the same response. He’d shrug, smile impishly, and say, “Hey, what do you expect? I’m a socialist!”
Thanks for this. Marable Manning was a true INTELLECTUAL, HUMANITARIAN, and a Coworker with GOD. LOL, and yes, if you call someone a socialist, because they having a giving sprit, then yes, he certainly was a SOCIALIST.
‘Mr. Sheen and Detroit Proved To Be a Disastrous Match …’
By Ta-Nehisi Coates
No one anywhere saw this coming:
As it happened, Mr. Sheen and Detroit proved to be a disastrous match. The Fox, a lavishly ornamented, carefully restored 5,000-seat show palace evoking a lost golden age of spectacle, is beautiful, but the scene there was ugly, as a boisterous, liquored-up capacity crowd greeted Mr. Sheen with cheers that quickly turned to boos. The show — a ragged mix of video clips, ear-splitting music, profanity-laced monologues and clumsy attempts to encourage audience participation — did not so much end as collapse. After a little more than an hour Mr. Sheen turned the stage over to a rapper he said would “wake up” the increasingly belligerent spectators, or maybe calm them down. After a Snoop Dogg video, the house lights went up, and though the headliner briefly returned to trade insults with a mostly empty house, the evening clearly had not gone according to plan. If there ever was a plan…
There were apparently chants of “refund” during the show. I don’t know. I think if you paid money to see Charlie Sheen live, you got exactly what you deserved.
http://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2011/04/mr-sheen-and-detroit-proved-to-be-a-disastrous-match/73389/
that’s how I see it too…you paid the money…what did you expect?
LOSING! :-O
Virtually Corruption Free
by mistermix
I’m on a New York Tea Party mailing list, mainly just to chuckle over the crazy that’s posted about “Barry Sotero” (which is what those who know the real truth about our homosexual president, who has no fewer than 19 Social Security numbers, call him). The leader of the pack, who last garnered attention by recommending a video of Obama portrayed as a Farina in Little Rascals, has a new hero:
Donald Trump’s involvement in the presidential race will change all the rules. Trump has plenty of money and doesn’t need anyone at this stage of his life so he is virtually corruption free. Unless obama and his thugs can dig up something on Trump to shut him up, it looks to be a very interesting year upcoming.
Palin and Bachmann are so 2010.
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2011/04/04/virtually-corruption-free/
A SUCKER’S BET…. The effort to pass a budget for the remainder of the fiscal year will be the principal challenge for policymakers over the next few days, but while that work continues, congressional Republicans will also start a massive fight over the next budget.
We’ll have more on this later — sneak preview: the GOP wants to gut entitlements — but as the process gets underway, it’s worth pausing to appreciate the politics here. The Weekly Standard’s Stephen Hayes has a lengthy new report, arguing that Republicans are prepared to “gamble on entitlement reform,” and the GOP thinks it can win this time.
If there is one thing that political strategists, pollsters, and elected officials of both parties have agreed on for decades, it’s that entitlement reform is a sure political loser. Social Security is the “third rail” — touch it and you die. Suggest changes to Medicaid and you don’t care about the poor. Propose modest reforms to Medicare and you’re the target of a well-funded “Mediscare” campaign that ensures your defeat.
No longer.
“People are getting it that these things are unsustainable,” says Karl Rove. “For so many people, debt is no longer abstract. It’s more concrete. I don’t know if it’s seeing Greece on TV or what. It’s still tough, but it’s not the political loser it used to be.”
Other influential Republicans go further. They believe that getting serious about entitlement reform can be politically advantageous.
“I think it can be a real winner for Republicans if we handle it the right way,” says South Carolina senator Jim DeMint.
The piece goes on to quote all kinds of Republicans, all of whom genuinely seem to believe there’s a public appetite for their entitlement agenda. GOP officials have been too scared to tackle this in earnest before, the theory goes, but bolstered by public support, this time will be different. This time, they say, Americans want entitlement cuts, and Democratic criticisms will fall on deaf ears.
Time will tell, I suppose, but all of the available evidence suggests these folks have no idea what they’re talking about, and are poised to pursue one of the most dramatic examples of political overreach we’ve seen in a very long time.
Republicans can presumably read polls as easily as I can, but let’s focus for a moment on the latest CNN poll, released late last week. Asked, for example, about Medicaid funding, a combined 75% want funding levels to stay the same or go up. For Social Security, 87% of Americans want funding levels to stay the same or go up. For Medicare, 87% want funding levels to stay the same or go up — and most want funding to increase, not stay the same.
For some reason, Hayes and his allies look at numbers like these and think Republicans will benefit from pushing entitlement cuts. No, seriously, that’s what they think. GOP leaders are not only arguing this, they’re actually counting on it as part of a larger political strategy.
Karl Rove, ostensibly the GOP’s most gifted strategist, believes Americans may be “seeing Greece on TV,” and suddenly find themselves favoring Medicare cuts.
I don’t think he’s kidding.
Hayes noted in his piece, “So have things really changed? We’ll soon find out.”
On this point, we agree.
—Steve Benen 8:30 AM
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2011_04/028772.php
Mike Pence: Shut ‘Er Down! (VIDEO)
Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) says shut ‘er down. The one-time Republican conference chair, turned presidential footsie player, turned potential gubernatorial candidate, and always a tea party favorite told MSNBC on Friday that a looming spending cut deal is not worth it. He’d rather have a government shutdown.
“Well, look, I think that really is, Contessa — I think that really is the important question. I think if liberals in the Senate are unwilling to embrace even this modest step toward fiscal discipline in Washington, D.C., then I say shut it down,” Pence said. “You know, look, I think the American people sent this historic new majority to Congress to see the change in this direction.”
Pence defected on the last stop-gap measure to keep the government funded, which was essentially a vote for a shutdown. At the time he went almost as far as he did in his comments to MSNBC.
I’ve learned that more often than not things don’t change until they have to. Until you reach an impasse. And then real negotiations begin…when the board lights up and they don’t have the votes and then they need to come to you and talk about it. Nobody wants a government shutdown, but if we don’t take decisive action to change the fiscal direction of the national government, we’re going to shut down the future for our children and grandchildren.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/mike-pence-shut-er-down-video.php
Tea Partiers Rallying In DC Praise Donald Trump’s Birther Stance (VIDEO)
In the span of just a few weeks, real estate mogul turned reality television star turned Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump went from dipping his toe in the birther pool to diving right into the deep end and claiming that he’s “starting to wonder” whether President Barack Obama was born in the United States.
So we figured it’d be good to ask the Tea Partiers in attendance for the “Continuing Revolution” rally on Capitol Hill on Thursday if speaking out on the issue boosted Trump’s presidential campaign.
For the most part, their message was go, Donald, go.
Elizabeth Johnson, a resident of Virginia said that “Donald Duck would be better” than “this joker in the White House” and that “Donald Trump would be fine.” She appreciated Trump speaking out about the birther issue.
“Why not, if you have it and you’re honest about it, show it. But you know why I think he doesn’t want to show it? It says religion and it says Muslim because his father was one, and that’s what he doesn’t want people to know,” Johnson said.
“I think Donald Trump’s serious, if you’ve got Donald Trump’s kinda money you can be serious,” Mark Lloyd, the chairman of the Virginia Federation of Tea Parties, told TPM in an interview. “If you think about it, that birth certificate issue has been around since before the 2008 election, and it’s a question that’s out there that hasn’t been answered, and I don’t know if it ever will.”
But Lloyd said the Tea Party movement isn’t “a bunch of birthers” and that there were “bigger fish to fry.”
Charles Hoffman of West Virginia said he likes “what Donald Trump is saying, he’s saying what the others wouldn’t say,” including about Obama’s birth certificate.
John Balazic of Maryland didn’t seem all that excited about Trump as a candidate, but said that the birth certificate was an important issue.
“He’s about as documented as most of the illegals in this country right now,” Balazic said. “So unless he can come forward and prove that we’re all wrong, he should be considered an illegal alien, his administration illegal, it should be voided immediately and hopefully we can save what’s left of this country.”
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/03/tea_partiers_rallying_in_dc_praise_donald_trumps_birther_stance_video.php?ref=mblt
I’m done with all these BITCHES, D.ON.E.
As Voter ID Laws Spread Across Statehouses, House GOP Telegraphs Anti-Voter Fraud Bill
With voter ID laws popping up in Republican-controlled statehouses across the country, could a federal bill be far off?
According to data from the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, at least 27 state-level voter ID bills — from Alaska and Arizona to Wisconsin and West Virginia — have been proposed in recent months.
“It’s unbelievable, probably half the states in the country have bills in play and more than a dozen are seriously in the pipeline,” Tova Wang of the left-leaning think tank Demos told TPM in an interview. “It’s really unprecedented in terms of geographic scope. I’ve never seen anything like it certainly since I’ve been working on voting rights issues that voter suppression bills would be introduced in so many places at the same time.”
“Definitely students are a target here. It’s totally clear to me that you saw in 2008 this unprecedented historic turnout among African-Americans, Latinos and young people — and those happen to be the exact groups of people that are being targeted by these laws to disenfranchise them, and that’s really sad,” Wang said.
Wang said the most restrictive bills are in Ohio and Wisconsin, which Wang said require identification issued by the DMV. “Perhaps most interestingly, it doesn’t even include student ID even from schools that are public universities,” she said.
“This apparently concerted effort on the part of Republicans in state legislatures nationwide to effectively suppress voting is as disturbing as it is un-democratic,” said Carolyn Fiddler, spokesperson for the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, an arm of the Democratic Party charged with boosting the number of Democrats in state governments. “Additionally, these restrictive measures are often costly and do nothing to balance state budgets and create jobs, which are the top priorities in statehouses across the country right now.”
So with Republicans in control of the House of Representatives, could a federal bill be far off? That’s what Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-TX) indicated in an interview with KTXS News. But Neugebauer spokesman Matt Crow told TPM the congressman “misspoke” and that there was “no such bill on the horizon.”
Rep. Gregg Harper (R-MS), chairman of House Subcommittee on Elections, held a hearing this week to examine reports of voting by non-citizens and raised the specter of voter fraud.
“Congress often focuses on increasing access to voter registration — making it easier for everyone to participate in elections,” Harper said in a statement. “And that is a goal that we must continuously pursue; however, we must also ensure that easing access to voter registration isn’t also, inadvertently, increasing vulnerabilities to voter fraud.”
“We simply cannot have an electoral system that allows thousands of non-citizens to violate the law and vote in our elections,” Harper said. “We must do more to protect the integrity of our electoral processes.”
Hans von Spakovsky, the former Bush Justice Department official and current senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation who supports voter ID laws, told TPM he hasn’t heard of any proposals yet.
“That’s news to me, unless something’s been introduced recently that I missed,” von Spakovsky said. “I think it would be a great idea to do that for federal elections, but on the other hand they have other serious problems to deal with too, like an overwhelming federal deficit.”
It’s not entirely clear if there is one force driving the spread of voter ID bills in statehouses across the country. Campus Progress reported last month that the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) drafted and distributed model legislation that “appears to be the inspiration for bills proposed by state legislators this year and promoted by Tea Party activists.”
At the True the Vote conference last weekend, president Catherine Engelbrecht said that von Spakovsky had been criss-crossing the country talking to state legislatures about voter ID laws. But von Spakovksy told TPM that wasn’t quite right.
“I haven’t been lobbying anybody, I was invited by the Pennsylvania state government committee to testify at a hearing last Monday,” von Spakovsky said. “I had gotten some prior invitations from some other state committees. I’ve just been going in when I’ve been asked to come in as a witness to testify about voter ID and the law and court decisions about it.”
Democrats face an uphill battle in convincing the American public why voter ID laws can be problematic. As Aaron Blake points out, polls show that the majority of Americans support voter ID bill — Fox found 83 percent approved of such laws in 2009, while an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll put the number at 81 percent in 2006.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/as_voter_id_laws_spread_across_statehouses_house_gop_telegraphs_anti-voter_fraud_bill.php?ref=fpblg
The GOP of THEFT have no viable candidates to run against President Obama, so, in the sytle that they’re accustomed to, they will rob, steal from , pilage, lie to, suppress and oppress the American citizens to gain & maintain power.
Sen. Hall: Minneapolis ‘destroyed’ by integration
Dibble responds, decrying ‘politics of envy, division and protecting our own’
By Andy Birkey | 04.01.11 | 8:23 am
A move by Minnesota Republicans to repeal school integration laws resulted in heated debate about the decades-long program that aims to diversify schools in the Twin Cities metro area and Duluth. During a floor debate on elimination of desegregation programs Thursday, Sen. Dan Hall, R-Burnsville, said, “I watched Minneapolis get destroyed, so I not only didn’t want my kids in the school system. I took them out of Minneapolis because they ruined our neighborhoods with integration and [de]segregation.”
The K-12 education omnibus bill in the House and Senate would take funding from integration and desegregation programs in the Twin Cities and Duluth and shift them to statewide programs for literacy. The bill also repeals the unfunded portions of Minnesota law dealing with desegregation.
Sen. Scott Dibble (DFL-Minneapolis) has significant problems with the bill. “Let’s talk about how segregated many of our communities still are,” he said. “Minneapolis over the last 40 years has been intensely engaged in desegregation and integration. With this bill, all that is now knocked away without any hearings.”
Dibble said the bill would harm college-readiness programs, college and career centers and magnet schools which have helped foster diverse learning environments, improved opportunities for minority students, higher adult incomes for low-income students and low-income students completing more years of higher education.
“I fear what we see here the is the politics of envy and division and protecting our own,” he said, “not the ‘one Minnesota’ we hearken back to.”
Freshman Sen. Hall’s statement on the Senate floor seemed to back up some of Dibble’s concerns. Hall backs taking the integration funds and using them for statewide literacy programs.
“Well, I don’t speak up too often, but this one has pushed my buttons. I am a product of the Minneapolis school system, completing all of my years, all the different schools,” said Hall. “I graduated with a 6th grade reading ability. I struggled my whole life. We need to teach kids how to read.”
“I watched Minneapolis get destroyed, so I not only didn’t want my kids in the school system… I took them out of Minneapolis because they ruined our neighborhoods with integration and segregation.”
He said he applauded the teachers and coaches he had growing up, but said, “The system is broke. My best friends are minority, they think integration in foolish. It’s a ploy to get more money.”
He added, “Treat everyone equally and with respect. Right down the line I teach my kids. I teach them every day we treat everyone with respect. It’s disrespectful to tell my friends, my minority friends that they can’t make it without extra special help.”
The K-12 education omnibus bill passed the Senate on Thursday by a party-line vote. A bill with a similar repeal of desegregation programs passed the House as well. Both are headed to conference committee to hash out any differences before heading to Gov. Mark Dayton.
http://minnesotaindependent.com/79655/dan-hall-minneapolis-destroyed-by-integration-desegregation
Right, one of my best friends is a negro.. bullshit doesn’t cut it Dan Hall. Minneapolis has the largest Hmong population in America, and Somalis are gaining in second place. Better gather a few more minority friends, cause lily white MN is joining the rest of the country in diversity.
In 2012 matchup against Obama, Bachmann trails, Palin falls
Pollster: President’s in his “in his best position” against GOPers since 2009
Public Policy Polling released a nationwide poll of potential candidates for the 2012 Republican nomination against President Obama on Thursday. Rep. Michele Bachmann would lose in such a matchup by 18 points, but is competitive with friend — and potential rival — Sarah Palin, whose number have dipped since November 2010.
Bachmann garnered 33 percent against Obama’s 51 percent, putting her at the bottom of the pack of five candidates polled by PPP. Seventeen percent were undecided. Obama beat Mitt Romney at 48 to 43 percent, Mike Huckabee with 49 to 44 percent, Newt Gingrich by 51 to 39 percent and Palin with 55 to 38 percent.
Bachmann’s 18-point deficit is similar to Palin’s 17-percent lag. Palin’s numbers have dropped significantly since PPP last polled in November 2010 when Palin was within 9 points of Obama.
Bachmann had a net unfavorable rating with 22 percent viewing her as favorable and 31 percent viewing her unfavorably. Forty-eight percent had no opinion of her.
The polls authors said that Obama had some of his best polling in recent months.
“Barack Obama’s in his strongest position for reelection in our polling since 2009,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “Democrats have really rallied around him since the party’s defeat in November and he continues to benefit from a pretty weak field of potential opponents.”
In a new Washington Post/ABC poll, Obama has a 54 percent approval rating. Gallup and CNN polls also show him with a 53 percent approval rating.
http://minnesotaindependent.com/76522/in-2012-matchup-against-obama-bachmann-trails-palin-falls
LOL YOU BETCHA!!!
Rep. Davnie on Pawlenty’s 2012 prospects: Youth voters won’t like his education record
Former governor met with Iowa college Republicans Friday night
Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty thinks he has what it takes to steal the youth vote away from President Barack Obama, but Democrats are hitting back.
Pawlenty told the Vanderbilt Hustler, a college newspaper, young voters feel “duped” for having voted for Obama in 2008. He said the president has not delivered since his election. Although Obama pushed through student loan reform, and his landmark health insurance overhall included more protection for young people, they have had a much higher unemployment rate in recent years as well.
“For a candidate, I am relatively young. I have a more recent connection to the younger generation than some have or might have had in the past,” Pawlenty said. “We really understand the new era of communications, and that’s why I spend time on Jon Stewart and love to do it. ”
But not so fast, DFL State Rep. Jim Davnie said Friday. At the end of his governorship, Pawlenty cut public higher education by $100 million in 2009, then proposed cutting $47 million in 2010 while saying he would’ve cut more.
“The reduction in state support for higher education opportunities, the high debt load that students leave college with here, and the low, almost non-existent job growth and job development during his tenure all puts together a picture that isn’t inviting to a young voter who wants to get an education, get engaged, get into the world and get a good job,” Davnie said in an interview Friday.
Pawlenty, who spoke to college Republicans in Des Moines last night, is being targeted by state Democrats in the Hawkeye State, but his role as their first target shouldn’t be read as Iowa Democrats considering Pawenty a front-runner, says Norm Sterzenbach, executive director of the Iowa Democratic Party.“We will be taking a hard look at all Republican candidates as they come through,” Sterzenbach said. Due to scheduling of Pawlenty’s Friday night event, they said he happened to be the first target.
Obama won 66 percent of the youth vote in 2008, and recent polling by Harvard’s Institute of Politics found millenials — ages 18 to 29 — gave a 55 percent approval rating of the President. Among students at four-year colleges, Obama’s numbers have increased nine points since last fall to a 60 percent approval rating.
http://minnesotaindependent.com/79757/rep-davnie-on-pawlentys-2012-prospects-youth-voters-won%E2%80%99t-like-his-education-record
Tim Paw’s a loser, and left MN with a huge budget defict. Tim Paw needs to gather his family and take a long fishing trip to the Boundry Waters. It doesn’t surprise me at all about the Iowa youth, Iowa has some of the most progressive/liberal colleges as does Minneapolis. Our youth cannot be hoodwinked and bamboozled.
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Inspiration for today…
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Isaiah 41:10
Thanks for coffe, SG2, and the words of inspiration. :-)
Howdy, rikyrah. :-))
From MLK, a dream for the middle class that cannot be allowed to die
By Benjamin Todd Jealous and Mary Kay Henry, Sunday, April 3, 7:53 PM
“I Am a Man” read the sandwich board posters worn by public sanitation workers in Memphis. Their strike in 1968 came at a time when African American men were still called “boy” to their faces. Their fight for dignity, fair wages and the hope of a better future for their families drew the support of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated in that city 43 years ago today.
The critical services that public employees provided in our communities then and now range from the most humble, such as garbage collectors, to the most dangerous (police officers and firefighters) to the most profoundly influential on the lives of our children.
Yet in state after state, the collective bargaining rights of dedicated teachers and other public employees have been denied or are in serious jeopardy just as they were in the civil rights era. The same politicians pushing these laws are attacking affirmative action, assailing voting rights and pushing laws to block any path to citizenship for millions of hardworking immigrants in this country.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/from-mlk-a-dream-for-the-middle-class-that-cannot-be-allowed-to-die/2011/04/01/AFhz6TXC_story.html?wpisrc=nl_opinions
The end of progressive government?
By E.J. Dionne Jr., Sunday, April 3, 7:53 PM
So far, our nation’s budget debate has been a desultory affair focused on whether a small slice of the federal government’s outlays should be cut by $33 billion or $61 billion, or whatever.
But Americans are about to learn how much is at stake in our larger budget fight, how radical the new conservatives in Washington are, and the extent to which some politicians would transfer even more resources from the have-nots and have-a-littles to the have-a-lots.
And you wonder: Will President Obama welcome the responsibility of engaging the country in this big argument, or will he shrink from it? Will his political advisers remain robotically obsessed with poll results about the 2012 election, or will they embrace Obama’s historic obligation — and opportunity — to win the most important struggle over the role of government since the New Deal?
This week, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) will announce the House Republicans’ budget plan, which is expected to include cuts in many programs for the neediest Americans.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-end-of-progressive-government/2011/04/01/AFQbjTXC_story.html?wpisrc=nl_opinions
FIRED UP & READY TO GO!!!
Fired up & Ready to go! I’m ready to rock & roll! :)