James & Bobby Purify were an R&B singing duo, whose biggest hits were “I’m Your Puppet” in 1966, which reached #6 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart and in a re-recorded version #12 in the UK Singles Chart (in April 1976), and “Let Love Come Between Us” in 1967, which reached #23 in the U.S.
James Lee Purify was born on May 12, 1944, in Pensacola, Florida. “Bobby Purify” was actually two different singers. The first was James’s cousin, Robert Lee Dickey (born September 2, 1939, Tallahassee, Florida), who adopted the Purify name for performing, and sang on their early records. The second Bobby was vocalist Ben Moore, who replaced Dickey in 1971 when Dickey suffered health problems. This duo recorded the remake of “I’m Your Puppet,” which become a small hit in the U.K. and the Netherlands.
“I’m Your Puppet” was written by Spooner Oldham plus Dan Penn and was produced by Penn, who introduced Purify to Moore.[1] The record spent 14 weeks in the U.S. chart, and sold an estimated one million copies.[1] It was released in September 1966.[1]
1968 Memphis Sanitation Strikers Inducted Into Labor Hall of Fame
http://blog.aflcio.org/2011/04/29/1968-memphis-sanitation-strikers-inducted-into-labor-hall-of-fame/
In an emotional ceremony, punctuated by several standing ovations, the US Labor
Department inducted into the Labor Hall of Fame 1,300 Memphis sanitation workers whose 1968 strike the right to join a union and collective bargaining was Martin Luther King’s last campaign. King was killed in the midst of the strike.
This is the first time the Hall of Fame has inducted a group of workers. U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said the sanitation workers were “ordinary men who took an extraordinary stand for what is right.”
Oops! Mitt Romney Suggests ‘Hanging’ Obama
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/04/oops-mitt-romney-suggests-hanging-obama/238090/
I’ve just come from the Americans for Prosperity Republican cattle call in Manchester, New Hampshire, where, among other things, Mitt Romney made his debut as a 2012 presidential candidate. I’ll have more later. But the short version: didn’t go so well. Romney made the awkward suggestion to “hang” country’s misery around Obama’s neck–then caught himself, mid-gaffe, and tried to backpedal and emphasize that he meant it metaphorically, and then seemed to decide that he was already screwed and might as well preemptively try to blame the press. Here’s the clip:
Naw buddy, you meant it. Y’all want to lynch the black man in the white house.
Daily Mail Launches Weird Attack On Obama’s Father
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/29/barack-obama-daily-mail_n_855431.html
Here’s a clever thing the the U.K.’s Daily Mail did in response to the release of President Barack Obama’s long-form birth certificate: a brief little item on how Obama’s father was a “slippery character.” Says the Daily Mail, “With a father like this, it is little wonder President Obama did not want to release his full birth certificate” — well, o-kay! (Naturally, this story was picked up this morning by Fox Nation.)
Gathered in this brief are a range of things attesting to the senior Obama’s youthful shadiness, including a whiff of polygamy and the fact that his University of Hawaii student advisor noted that he was chasing a lot of tail at college and “cautioned him about his playboy ways.” It’s implied that the former charge was briefly considered “as a grounds to deny him a visa extension;” the latter basically describes almost every man you ever met at college.
But here’s where they go off the rails:
Obama senior married Stanley Ann Dunham, a white student from Kansas, not only when he was said to have already been married to a woman in Kenya, but at a time when interracial marriages were still illegal in many parts of the U.S.
Oh look, 3 Chics! They have penis envy! Poor thangs!
I Guess This Is Proof Enough
by John Cole
Yesterday, Rand Paul demanded that Donald Trump prove he is a Republican. I think we have found all the proof we need that he is, in fact, a member of the GOP:
During a TV interview Tuesday morning, Trump—who spent his high school years enrolled at the New York Military Academy—said, “I actually got lucky because I had a very high draft number. I’ll never forget, that was an amazing period of time in my life.”
He went on to recall, “I was going to the Wharton School of Finance, and I was watching as they did the draft numbers and I got a very, very high number and those numbers never got up to.” The word “deferment” was not mentioned by Trump during his chat with the morning show hosts on WNYW, the Fox affiliate in New York City.
However, Selective Service records reveal that Trump, the fortunate son of a multimillionaire real estate baron, took repeated steps to avoid serving in Vietnam.
By the time his number (356) was drawn during the December 1, 1969 draft lottery, Trump had already received four student deferments and a medical deferment, according to military records on file with the National Archives and Records Administration. An extract of Trump’s Selective Classification record, seen here, was provided in response to a TSG records request.
In fact, the December 1969 draft lottery occurred about 18 months after Trump graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied business at the Wharton School. So, while claiming that he would “never forget” being at Wharton watching the draft numbers being drawn, the 64-year-old Trump seems to have misremembered, as candidates are fond of saying.
The racist draft-dodging son of a millionaire. What more proof do you need?
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2011/04/29/i-guess-this-is-proof-enough/
hat tip professorx10 @ BWA -The Only Adult in the Room
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More pics fromAlabama BWD -OAITR
http://blackwaterdog.wordpress.com/2011/04/29/all-heart/#comment-57792
I hope 3 Chics friends, visitors & yes, you lurkers too, keep checking out the post on RYANCARE. We’re updating it daily, as more videos of their parinfully hilarious townhalls expose their greed and selfish agenda.
http://3chicspolitico.com/2011/04/26/paul-ryans-plan-to-gut-medicare-stirs-anger-at-town-halls-naw-son-theyre-not-buying-whats-youre-selling/#comment-19054
April 29, 2011
KARL ROVE AND THE AFFECTION FOR PROJECTION…. Karl Rove has a special, some might call it “pathological,” quality as a political pundit. More than anyone I’ve ever seen or heard of, Rove identifies some of his own ugliest, most malicious, most pernicious qualities, and then projects them onto those he hates most.
I’ve long been fascinated by this, but he just keeps getting worse. Rove’s latest WSJ column was almost comically lacking in self awareness, and concluded with this jaw-dropper:
Since Mr. Obama can’t make an affirmative case for his re-election, he has decided to try convincing voters that Republicans are monstrous. As a result, America is likely to see the most negative re-election campaign ever mounted by a sitting president
As best as I can tell, Rove wasn’t kidding. His column wasn’t intended as satire. He seriously believes the president with the most successful record of accomplishments in a generation “can’t make an affirmative case for his re-election.” Rove also seems genuine when he thinks Obama will be more negative than any incumbent president in history.
I don’t know if there’s a prescription available to treat these kinds of delusions, but maybe Rove’s buddy Rush Limbaugh can give him a hand.
Look, 2004 really wasn’t that long ago. Rove was the “architect” of the Bush/Cheney ’04 campaign strategy, and he designed what can fairly be described as the most negative re-election campaign ever mounted by a sitting president.
BC04, for example, launched 64 television commercials after John Kerry had secured the Democratic nomination. Of those 64 ads, 45 were attacks directed at Kerry. That’s the not a ratio used by a campaign eager to make an affirmative case for its re-election.
For that matter, if you have a few minutes, take a look at Bush’s stump speech from the 2004 campaign. Before the then-president could name a single accomplishment from his first term, Bush’s stump speech blasted Kerry as a flip-flopper. From there, Bush touted tax cuts for the wealthy as his most notable accomplishment, and then lied about Kerry’s record of supporting tax increases.
Bush then transitioned to mentioning No Child Left Behind, before blasting Kerry on education, health care, medical liability, gay rights, abortion, and liberal judges.
The stump speech then moved on to national security, with Bush boasting, “Afghanistan is free and is an ally in the war on terror” — how’s that one working out? — and touting progress in Iraq, before spending the rest of the speech condemning Kerry on “voting against the troops,” Cold War strategy, counter-terrorism, international cooperation, and something to do with 9/11.
The accomplishment-to-attack ratio in Bush’s stump speech was roughly seven to one. (Count all the times the rhetoric pauses so the audience can boo Kerry.)
And ol’ Karl is worried about Obama being overly negative in 2012?
This does, however, fit into a remarkable pattern. Rove has spent his professional life engaged in political sleaze, so he’s accused Obama of adding “arsenic to the nation’s political well.” Rove ran a White House that embraced a “permanent campaign,” so he’s accused the Obama team of embracing a “permanent campaign.” Rove embraced the politics of fear, so he’s accused Obama of embracing the politics of fear. Rove relied on “pre-packaged, organized, controlled, scripted ” political events, so he’s accused Obama of relying on “pre-packaged, organized, controlled, scripted” political events. Rove looked at every policy issue “from a political perspective,” so he’s accused Obama of looking at every policy issue “from a political perspective.” Rove snubbed news outlets that he considered partisan, so he’s accused Obama of snubbing snubbed news outlets that he considered partisan. Rove had a habit of burying bad news by releasing it late on Friday afternoons, so he’s accused Obama of burying bad news by releasing it late on Friday afternoons. Rove questioned the motives of those with whom he disagreed, so he’s accused Obama of questioning the motives of those with whom he disagrees.
A lesser hack might find it difficult to launch political attacks that are ironic, wrong, hypocritical, and examples of projection, all at the same time, but Rove is a rare talent.
—Steve Benen 1:25 PM Permalink
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2011_04/029192.php
Rove is ar rat bastard. He fronts on Trump and Palin, all the while we know he’s the one behind these crazy clowns
I’ll REPOST this:
Bachmann Backtracking On Support For Abolishing Medicare?
Some unexpectedly lukewarm words from Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) on the House GOP budget — which she voted for.
“I supported that budget blueprint, though I’ve expressed caution about how we approach the issue of Medicare,” Bachmann wrote in a post at the conservative website Red State. “We must keep our promises to those who receive Medicare benefits, and those who are nearing the age of Medicare eligibility. Our challenge is to reduce the soaring amounts that government spends on health care, without burdening those who are most vulnerable.”
This is technically compatible with the plan Republicans voted for two weeks ago, which phases out Medicare for everybody under 55 and replaces it with a private insurance system. But it’s a far cry from the jubilant spin most Republicans use to defend the vote — that they’re “saving” Medicare.
In the recent past, Bachmann has been blunter about her vision for the safety net. In a speech in February 2010, she explained “what you have to do, is keep faith with the people that are already in the system, that don’t have any other options, we have to keep faith with them. But basically what we have to do is wean everybody else off.”
And wean everybody off because we have to take those unfunded net liabilities off our bank sheet, we can’t do it. So we just have to be straight with people. So basically, whoever our nominee is, is going to have to have a Glenn Beck chalkboard and explain to everybody this is the way it is.
Just over a week ago, she tried a different tack.
She dubbed Ryan’s plan the 55 and under plan. In other words, no one currently at retirement age would be affected by the proposed changes.
“That’s an extremely crucial piece of information,” Bachmann said. “We don’t want any senior citizen to feel, or near senior citizen, I’m 55 years old, and so it wouldn’t apply to me either. And so there are no changes to people who are 55 years of age or older.”
It’s a leap to characterize this as a sign of faltering GOP support for their budget. But it illustrates just how delicate a balance Republicans have to walk on this issue, and trying to sell it to current seniors with hand waving about keeping entitlements unchanged for current seniors isn’t doing the trick.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/bachmann-backtracking-on-support-for-abolishing-medicare.php
BREAKING: Facing Trump Backlash, Groupon Announces It Will Stop Sponsoring The Apprentice
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/28/groupon-dumps-trump/
Potential GOP candidate Donald Trump has been peddling false and malicious attacks on President Obama. He gains much of his prominence from his prime-time NBC show The Apprentice. This morning at 9:30 am on Twitter, ThinkProgress urged concerned citizens to ask Groupon to stop sponsoring the show.
Dear @Groupon: Are you going to continue to sponsor The Apprentice and support Donald Trump + his malicious attacks on our President?
less than a minute ago via TweetDeck Favorite Retweet Reply
Moments ago, a Groupon representative announced that, in the future, they will block their advertisements from appearing on The Apprentice website.
You can contact Enterprise Rental Car, which is telling customers they don’t sponsor The Apprentice, but are currently advertising on their website.
Update Groupon ads previously appeared on The Apprentice website. After hearing a bunch of complaints today, Groupon announced that they will not be advertising on The Apprentice website in the future. But Groupon spokesperson Julie Mossler does not consider placing website advertisements a “sponsorship.” In apparently related news, she also says the company will not offer Groupons for abortions. You can read Ms. Mossler’s statement here.
Nice try Rand, but your attempts to deflect the birffers from the Tea party are sooooo transparent – The GOP are just plain ole crackpot crazy with the help of Rove & Koch
Sen. Rand Paul Asks For Donald Trump’s Long-Form GOP Registration
Source: NPR
It appears that by becoming the nation’s birther-in-chief, Donald Trump may have opened himself to getting a taste of his own medicine. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said Thursday he had his own doubts about the New York developer’s background.
Jeff Zeleny writes for the New York Times’ The Caucus blog that Paul made a partly tongue-in-cheek request of Trump at a Thursday breakfast meeting of the Merrimack County Republican Committee.
“I’ve come to New Hampshire today because I’m very concerned,” Mr. Paul said. “I want to see the original long-form certificate of Donald Trump’s Republican registration.”
As a bit of laughter erupted in the room, he added: “Seriously, don’t you think we need to see that?”
Read more: http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2011/04/28/1358…
Mass. native to oversee Obama’s fund-raising effort
by Glen Johnson
April 29, 2011 12:00 PM
By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff
Matthew Barzun, a former Lincoln resident who is now US ambassador to Sweden, will give up his diplomatic post to work for President Obama’s re-election by overseeing what some have projected could be the country’s first $1 billion White House campaign, The Boston Globe has learned.
Barzun, a 40-year-old Harvard College graduate, will serve as national finance chairman for Obama for America, the president’s Chicago-based campaign committee. He is replacing Penny Pritzker, the Chicago billionaire who helped raise nearly $750 million for Obama’s 2008 campaign.
During the 2012 race, the Obama committee, working in unison with the Democratic National Committee, expects a fierce advertising battle after the Supreme Court struck down a ban on corporate funding of campaign commercials.
“Not only was Matthew Barzun one of the Obama campaign’s top fundraisers in 2008, but he also brings strong working relationships with President Obama’s supporters from across the country to this race,” said a national Democrat who confirmed the appointment today.
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2011/04/mass_native_to.html
Black Football Players and White Women: Albert Haynesworth’s Defense
April 28, 2011 | 2:51 PM | By Elahe Izadi
Washington Redskins player Albert Haynesworth has been indicted on one charge of sexual abuse after a Feb. 13 incident at the W Hotel, in which he allegedly fondled a cocktail waitress’ breast. According to the indictment, Haynesworth told a security guard, “I didn’t touch her” and that the waitress was “a little black girl” and he “doesn’t even like black girls.” Later, according to the indictment, Hanyesworth told detectives “I know what this is about, she is just upset I have a white girlfriend. I couldn’t tell you the last time I dated a black girl. She was trying to get with me.”
Oh my. Despite obvious problems with such a “victim-blaming” defense, Haynesworth’s remarks touch upon a sensitive topic: interracial dating and black athletes dating white women.
This really came to the fore nationally at the height of the Kardashians’ fame, when two of famous sisters were dating black athletes. The women, who although aren’t technically white, were still viewed by many as fitting the stereotype of black athletes preferring white women to black women, spurring plenty of nasty comments.
http://dcentric.wamu.org/2011/04/black-football-players-and-white-women-albert-haynesworths-defense/
You made your bed with ‘LILLY WHITE satin sheets, now you can go lie in it.
Phuck him! Let him weep!
h/t dj @ JJP
Emperor Trump Has No Clothes
Katrina vanden Heuvel | April 22, 2011
For a media that loves infotainment, the horse race and spectacle—and has trouble tackling real policy issues and digging deep—Donald Trump is the gift that keeps on giving: all spectacle, all the time.
Now he’s out there on his ugly birther trip, riding it to the top of the polls [1] amidst a GOP presidential field in disarray. And other than a few notable exceptions, the media is largely playing the role of cheering spectator for Trump’s latest self-aggrandizing parade—none more so than Fox, which has treated his birtherism-based candidacy as a cause célèbre [2]. Media Matters notes thirteen Trump appearances on the network since March 20.
But the more significant issue raised by the media coverage is this: if Trump is going to portray himself as a presidential contender, and the media is going to give him mega-time to do that, then let’s take a hard look at his record and his views—particularly on “fiscal responsibility,” which Congressman Paul Ryan and the GOP say is the issue of our time.
“I haven’t seen anybody do anything for a long time that’s really tough coverage on Donald,” says David Cay Johnston, the Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter formerly with the New York Times, who has written extensively about Trump’s net worth as well as his business dealings in the gambling industry in his book Temples of Chance [3]. “He’s done exceptionally well at getting the media to treat him on the grounds that he wants—which is he doesn’t mind if you poke fun at him [4] as long as you’re writing about him and making him sound important.”
In a recent column [5], Johnston points out that in examining four years of tax returns he discovered that Trump paid no taxes in two of them.
“He pays little to no income tax because he does these real estate deals that allow him to take—as a professional real estate developer—unlimited paper losses like depreciation against income he gets from NBC for his show,” says Johnston.
He’s also had more business bankruptcies [6] than wives, and Johnston says Trump’s bravado about his wealth and business acumen contradicts his real record. According to Johnston, Trump typically does two kinds of deals: he borrows more than 100 percent of the purchase price for real estate and takes a fee off the top; or he’s paid a fee to put his name on a building.
Johnston suggests that Trump’s fortune relied on government favors and stiffing his creditors.
“Ordinary casino workers who got into debt had their licenses yanked or in one case their wages garnished, but Donald was not held to that standard,” says Johnston.
As Johnston describes in Temples of Chance, in 1990 one of Trump’s advisers told the New Jersey Casino Control Commission that Trump was one day away from uncontrolled bankruptcy. The commission then approved a privately negotiated deal that relieved Trump of millions in debts. Why did the bankers go along?
“Government rescued Trump by taking his side against the banks,” Johnston says, “telling them that if they foreclosed they would own three seaside hotels that lacked casino licenses.”
Trump’s celebrated wealth is also likely not what Trump would have the public believe. In 1990 Johnston obtained Trump’s personal net worth statement that his bankers had prepared for him. At the time, Trump was claiming it was as high as $1.4 billion. Yet the statement revealed a negative net worth of $600 million—he owed $600 million more than the value of his assets. Johnston wrote a column with the lede, “You are probably worth more than Donald Trump.”
“Donald is one of many people in public life who whatever they say at the moment is their version of the truth, and empirical reality may not support what they say,” says Johnston. “He never produced any documented evidence indicating a net worth anywhere in the range of a billion dollars or more, he only claimed it. It doesn’t take that much of an income to appear to be fabulously wealthy. I don’t think he can sue anybody for making that observation.”
Indeed, Trump has proven litigious with those who dare question his version of the truth. He filed a $5 billion defamation lawsuit against Timothy O’Brien for estimating his net worth at between $150 million and $250 million. It was dismissed [7], but NBC investigative reporter Michael Isikoff reports [8] that Trump recently showed up at a Jersey City courtroom where he was “slipping notes” to his attorneys who are appealing the ruling. And former Newsweek senior editor Jonathan Alter recalls appearing in a documentary and saying that Trump was a “media hound” and that his claim of being “the greatest real estate developer in the world not only isn’t true—he’s not even the greatest real estate developer in New York.” Alter says he then promptly received a letter from a Trump attorney threatening him with a lawsuit.
Contrast Johnston’s hardnosed reporting with New York Times columnist David Brooks’s fawning [9] over Trump in a recent op-ed, “Why Trump Soars”: “Donald Trump is the living, walking personification of the Gospel of Success…. He labors under the belief—unacceptable in polite society—that two is better than one and that four is better than two…. In private jets, lavish is better than dull. In skyscrapers, brass is better than brick, and gold is better than brass.”
In fact, Johnston even has a word to say about that jet: “See how much a 727 three-engine jet that hasn’t been made in over 25 years goes for,” says Johnston. “If he were really rich he’d have upgraded to a G-5 or a Boeing business jet.”
Like so many corporate oligarchs, Trump has done well with the help of his armada of lawyers and accountants to avoid taxes and intimidate those who contradict him. He’s a single entity that has a lot in common with the Big Banks—reckless, highly leveraged, and a look at the books reveals he’s not what he appears: Emperor Don has no clothes.
Fire him.
http://www.thenation.com/print/blog/160112/emperor-trump-has-no-clothes
CONTEXT?
Bitch, please.
……………………………..
April 29, 2011
THE ‘CONTEXT’ DOESN’T HELP…. Given that I took Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern (R) to task yesterday for her brazen racism during a debate on affirmative action, it’s only fair to note that she apologized yesterday. That’s the good news.
The bad news is, Kern still thinks the media is partially responsible for her mess, because the “context” makes her remarks appear less offensive.
“I want to humbly apologize for any statements last night about women and African Americans. My words were, obviously, not spoken correctly and for that I humbly apologize. Unfortunately, when we take ‘words or sentences’ out of the total context of a speech debated on the floor, there can be false misrepresentations, but the most important part is to always go to the heart of the matter. […]
“We live in a sound bite society and our media likes to take only a portion of a dialog and use just a slice of it. You can take a portion of something someone says and make it say anything you want it to say. Without a doubt, what I said was poorly stated and did not convey the meaning I wanted to get across for this I am truly sorry and humbly apologize.”
Kern went on to say in her written statement, “In a very inadequate and poorly worded way I was meaning to say that government should not give perference [sic] based only upon race or gender. I deeply regret the anquish [sic] and insult I have caused to all Africian [sic] Americans and sincerely apologize and ask for your forgiveness. My husband and I serve in an inner city church ministering to people of every race because we love all people.”
Except gays and Muslims, whom she still doesn’t like.
For the record, the larger context just doesn’t help the right-wing lawmaker. Kern not only suggested prisons have high African-American populations because blacks may not “want to study as hard in school,” she also said, “I’ve taught school, and I saw a lot of people of color who didn’t study hard because they said the government would take care of them.”
There is no “context” that makes this anything less than ugly racism.
For the record, several of Kern’s colleagues in the Oklahoma legislature, including at least one leader from her own party, condemned her remarks. As of today, however, she remains a Republican lawmaker in good standing.
—Steve Benen 11:25 AM
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2011_04/029189.php
Nope, bitch, you’re a lying racist who thinks she can get away with saying ugly, derogatory, racist shyt about black people, because that’s what the media now condones and prizes in the 21st century.
Stfu, you lying bitch!
BWD has some heart-felt photos of the citizens in Alabama with POTUS & FLOTUS
Check them out here:
http://blackwaterdog.wordpress.com/2011/04/29/there-are-no-red-states-there-are-no-blue-states/
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Breaking News Alert: NASA calls off launch of space shuttle Endeavour
April 29, 2011 12:31:20 PM
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NASA has called off Friday’s launch of space shuttle Endeavour because of a technical problem.
For more information, visit washingtonpost.com
With Drudge Report’s Help, Birthers Latch Onto Phony Forgery Theory
In a predictable turn, conspiracy theorists are now rallying behind a bogus claim that President Obama’s long form birth certificate is a Photoshopped forgery — with a huge helping hand from one of conservative media’s biggest names.
The fringe theory’s rapid spread within hours of the certificate’s release presents almost a perfect example of one of the White House’s justifications for taking on the birther issue — namely, that thanks to the internet, conspiracy theories can migrate quickly from the fringe and into the mainstream if left unchecked.
In this case, it took only hours. The forgery claim appeared to have first started as an offbeat blog post from an Atlanta-based art director at an ad firm, Bryan Michael Nixon, less than two hours after Obama’s statement. By the end of the day it had become a headline on Drudge Report, one of the single most trafficked news sites on the internet. The debunked forgery revelation drew thousands of comments on messageboards, migrated to birther and truther conspiracy guru Alex Jones’ site, while a video explanation was viewed over 160,000 times on YouTube.
The basis for the forgery claim lay in a basic misunderstanding of how computer image formats work. Nixon observed in his post that the PDF file of Obama’s long form birth certificate could be broken down into “layers,” including a background and separate foreground text. “This in no way proves that anything on it is fake, but only that the document from the WH was composed of multiple elements,” he wrote. “How to interpret it is up to the viewer.”
Of course, viewers who didn’t let President Obama’s short form birth certificate derail their birther fantasies back in 2008 interpreted it exactly as you’d expect, spreading the “layering” claim on sites like conservative messageboard FreeRepublic as proof it was faked.
In fact, the effect was not a sign of foul play at all, but a common attribute of PDF files containing text as an image. On many PDFs, a feature called OCR (optical character recognition) recognizes the letters in the image and separates them into their own layer. This explains why you’re able to highlight and copy raw text from some PDF files even though it’s actually not a word processing document.
The conservative news site National Review Online received so many e-mails from their readers on the “layer” theory that they looked into it and issued their own thorough debunking. To demonstrate that the long form release was nothing unusual, NRO scanned a copy of their own magazine cover into a PDF file, easily recreating the same layer effect in Adobe Illustrator.
As TPM has documented, birthers have wasted no time in promoting alternate theories undermining the president’s legitimacy since the release of the long form birth certificate.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/with-drudge-reports-help-birthers-latch-onto-phony-forgery-theory.php
I concur, and 3 CHICS will continue blogging on it!
A Conversation With John Paul Stevens
By Bill Barnhart
Apr 28 2011, 10:00 AM ET
In a rare interview, the former Supreme Court justice talks about the book he’s writing and why he decided to retire last year.
Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens fiddled with his hearing aids and finally just removed them. He’d turned 91 the day before our interview. It was his first day back in his chambers at the Court since last November. He’d started using the devices near the end of his nearly 35 years on the Court and didn’t especially like them. “I put them on to try them out today, and I think I’ll take them off. I’m not accustomed to using them. They make things a little louder.”
Since clerking for Associate Justice Wiley Rutledge as a fresh law school graduate in the Court’s 1947-48 term, Stevens has heard the full range of volumes on the Court, from hushed to strident. Indeed, over the years, he would occasionally dial up his own soft voice to make a point.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/04/a-conversation-with-john-paul-stevens/237984/
Washington Post Gives GOP ‘Two Pinocchios’ For Claiming Privatized Medicare Like Health Care Members Of Congress Have
As long as self-anointed fact-checkers are dumping on Democrats for claiming the GOP plan to phase out Medicare and replace it with a private insurance system “ends” the program altogether, they might as well fact check the obverse claim. Specifically, the GOP’s argument that their plan “saves” Medicare and provides seniors coverage “just like” the insurance members of Congress have.
The Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler took on the task and concluded, “We think the reference to the health plan for members of Congress gives a false and misleading impression to ordinary people.”
He gives the claim “Two Pinocchios.”
Like other employers who provide health care to their employees, the federal government agrees to pick up a fixed percentage of their employees’ premiums, no matter how quickly they grow. The GOP’s Medicare plan, by contrast, would provide seniors a fixed amount, pegged to regular old inflation, which means over time, a larger and larger chunk of their already-expensive premiums will fall on them.
“Indeed, the main reason for making the proposal is to help bring down health-care costs for the federal government and thus get a handle on the deficit,” Kessler wrote. “The CBO suggests this will be accomplished largely by shifting the costs onto beneficiaries”
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/washington-post-gives-gop-two-pinocchios-for-claiming-privatized-medicare-like-health-care-members-o.php
TODAY 3 CHICS IS GIVING THE WASHINGTON POST THIS:
ttp://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd487/Blutwolfboy/middle_finger.jpg
April 29, 2011
IT MAY GENERATE APPLAUSE, BUT IT ISN’T TRUE…. As has been well documented, the House Republican budget plan intends to do away with the existing Medicare system and replace it with a privatized voucher plan. One of the more common GOP defenses is that seniors will now have “the same kind of coverage members of Congress give themselves.”
It sounds vaguely populist, and tends to generate applause, at least in front of conservative audiences. Sure, Republicans intend to end guaranteed benefits and scrap an effective system, but how bad could it be? Members of Congress have it easy, and now the elderly will too, right?
It’s important to realize that the talking point, touted by Paul Ryan among others, just isn’t true. Glenn Kessler has a good piece on this.
In many ways, the federal plan works a lot like the run-of-the-mill employee-sponsored health insurance plan. The bulk of the costs are picked up by the employer — in this case, the government — with the employee contributing his or her share according to a set or negotiated rate. Under a 1997 law, the government pays a set rate of 75 percent of the costs of the health plans selected by federal employees and members of Congress. The employee (and members of Congress) pick up the other 25 percent.
Ryan, in his quote, said the new Medicare would be “working like a system just like members of Congress and federal employees have.” But the comparison begins to break down once you consider the premium support payments. Ryan would peg the premium support to the consumer price index, a broad gauge that has been rising more slowly than have health care costs.
The Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan arm of Congress, analyzed Ryan’s plan and estimated that by 2030, the government would pay just 32 percent of the health care costs, less than half of what the federal plan currently pays. The other 68 percent of the plan would have to be shouldered by the retiree. (The CBO estimated that if traditional Medicare stayed in place, the government would pay 70 to 75 percent of the costs.)
The CBO analysis also assumed that adding private insurance plans into the mix would raise administrative costs and would not keep medical inflation as low as traditional Medicare has done.
Remember, Ryan assured voters, “We’re saying save Medicare by reforming it for people who are 54 and below by working it like a system just like members of Congress and employees have.”
This is plainly false. Republicans aren’t “saving” Medicare; they aim to replace it. And the new system clearly wouldn’t be “just like” the federal plan at all.
Kevin Drum also had a good piece on this the other day, explaining that Ryan is “just flatly lying,” and adding that “that lots of seniors just flatly wouldn’t be able to afford to buy Medicare” if the GOP plan were approved. “They wouldn’t have enough money to pay their share of the premium, and that means they’d be uninsured and uncovered.”
To equate this policy with the plan available to members of Congress is ludicrous.
—Steve Benen 10:40 AM
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2011_04/029188.php
No matter how much the GOP devils try to hide their horns, their ptich forks remain stuck in the back of working/middle class Americans.
Posted at 11:29 AM ET, 04/28/2011
Why the tea party won’t determine the 2012 GOP nominee
By Aaron Blake
Perhaps more than any movement in recent memory, the tea party has changed American politics over the last two years.
But swinging control of the House and unseating some incumbents in primaries is one thing. Can the tea party actually change the nature of a presidential race?
The answer is yes – at least, to some extent. But there is also plenty of reason to believe that the tea party’s potential impact on the 2012 race is overstated.
Here’s why:
First, while midterm primaries and elections are relatively low-turnout affairs, a presidential election brings many more casual voters into the process. And say what you want about the tea party, they are not casual voters.
Exit polling on Election Day 2010 indicated that as many as 40 percent of voters supported the tea party. Polling then and now shows the larger public identifies with the tea party to a significantly smaller degree – sometimes less than 30 percent.
Now, tea party voters are still likely to be the more active voters, but if a higher percentage of the population is brought into the process, that should dilute the tea party effect.
Secondly, the Republican presidential primary is the only game in town next year, barring a rare and wholly unexpected primary challenge to President Obama. That means voters who want their voices to be heard will have only a Republican presidential primary to vote in.
Particularly in states like New Hampshire and South Carolina – which have primaries that are open to independents and, in South Carolina’s case, all voters – there should be plenty of independents and even Democrats casting ballots in the GOP contest. Even in Iowa, voters can change their party registration on caucus day. Remember Operation Chaos?
The Associated Press noted in a story this weekend that 42 percent of voters in New Hampshire are independents. In 2008, they voted much more in the Democratic presidential primary than the Republican one; this year, that is likely to change significantly, shifting the entire electorate in the GOP primary to the left significantly.
Former Rep. Vin Weber (R-Minn.), an adviser to former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, said that the tea party influence will be felt more in caucuses like Iowa’s, where the activist base makes up a higher percentage of the vote.
“That’s not trivial,” Weber said. “It’s probably still the case that it will have substantial influence in Iowa and Nevada caucuses.”
Third, two years is a long time to keep a movement going. We’ve written before about the (lack of) longevity of these kinds of political movements, and there is already anecdotal evidence that tea party rallies are not what they were even a year ago, particularly the Tax Day events. (It’s important to note that this could be because it’s not an election year.)
In fact, Stu Rothenberg of the Rothenberg Political Report says he fully expects the movement to die down – though not off – by the time the 2012 primary season begins.
“I think there will be some attrition in the tea party movement over the next six to nine months,” Rothenberg said. “I’m not saying it will be 50 percent, but there will be some attrition.”
Democratic consultant Mark Putnam concurs, pointing to the anti-war movement in the latter part of the 2000s as proof that it’s hard to keep momentum going for several years.
“The realities of governing and the necessary compromises that come with it tend to frustrate some voters who expect seismic changes after elections like 2008 or 2010,” Putnam said. “Those voters will often throw up their hands at the mess in Washington and simply not vote the next time around.”
The current budget battles play heavily into that potential frustration.
Many in the tea party were unhappy with the size of the cuts to this year’s budget. With looming fights over future deficit reduction plans and the raising of the debt ceiling, there is plenty of opportunity for these voters to become even more disillusioned – much as the anti-war crowd did after having such a big impact on the 2006 and 2008 elections.
Of course, there’s always the chance that the movement could become even more active, citing the lack of progress on its pet issues. Generally, though, these things head in the opposite direction. (Again, look at the anti-war movement, which is hardly satisfied with continued involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.)
Even if the tea party could keep its momentum through the 2012 primary season, though, it’s still unlikely that its influence on the race would be as outsized as it was in 2010. The nature of the process just isn’t as conducive to one voting bloc having such a big impact.
That is not to say that Republican presidential candidates won’t look for tea party votes and that candidates like Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and businessman Herman Cain can’t catch on. Indeed, those candidates may do surprisingly well, and tea partiers will remain an important vote in the primaries barring a complete collapse of the movement.
It’s just to say that the electorate that installed tea party candidates like Christine O’Donnell and Sharron Angle into the nation’s most important races isn’t going to be the same electorate that picks the GOP presidential nominee.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/why-the-tea-party-wont-determine-the-2012-gop-nominee/2011/04/26/AFbYaz5E_blog.html?wpisrc=nl_politics
April 29, 2011
THE IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATING VOTERS…. Several recent polls have asked Americans for their opinions on the House Republican budget plan, which, among other things, ends Medicare and replaces it with a privatized voucher scheme. The results have been one-sided: the mainstream isn’t buying what the GOP is selling.
But then there was that Gallup/USA Today poll that didn’t match up at all with the other data. Americans were asked, “Which do you think is the better long-term plan for dealing with the federal budget deficit — the Republican plan put forth by Congressman Paul Ryan or the Democratic plan put forth by President Barack Obama?” The results: 44% backed Obama’s vision, while 43% backed the GOP plan.
How is it possible that some polls show 80% disapproval of the Republican agenda while Gallup shows that agenda tied with the president’s plan? It’s surprisingly easy to understand — while GOP officials were giddy with the Gallup poll, the truth is, the question assumes most people know who Paul Ryan is and what his plan entails. They don’t.
Suzy Khimm had a good item on this yesterday.
[A] separate poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation found support for the Ryan plan dropped sharply when survey-takers explained the specific outlines of the Republican Medicare proposal. As Kaiser Health News reports, the Kaiser poll “found just 30 percent of seniors supported the idea of restructuring Medicare into a system where seniors are given government subsidies to shop for private coverage. In contrast, 62 percent of seniors said they wanted Medicare to be left alone with the program continuing to guarantee the same benefits to all enrollees.”
Democrats are banking that the Ryan plan will be politically toxic for the GOP. But these two polls suggest that won’t necessarily be the case: the GOP’s plan could still have widespread appeal unless Democrats manage to communicate exactly how the specifics of RyanCare would impact ordinary Americans. The Dems faced the same dilemma when it came to federal health reform: Americans tend to feel positive about many of the specific benefits of the Affordable Care Act, but the Republicans have continued to succeed in making them feel queasy about the law overall. So Democrats shouldn’t simply assume that Americans will recoil at RyanCare at first blush.
The Gallup results should have been predictable as soon as one saw the wording of the question: asked to choose between a Republican plan and a Democratic plan — with no additional information — of course the public is nearly tied. Most Americans haven’t the foggiest idea what the plans include, so it becomes a straight-up partisan test.
The lesson for Democrats should be painfully obvious: Americans reject the Republican agenda once they’re told what it is — so go tell them.
Ignorance isn’t just the GOP’s friend, it’s the lynchpin of the entire GOP strategy.
—Steve Benen 9:20 AM
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2011_04/029186.php
THIS: “Ignorance isn’t just the GOP’s friend, it’s the lynchpin of the entire GOP strategy.”
That’s why 3 Chics has a great fats “STICKY” on that Paul Ryan/GOP thread!
Donald Trump Curses, Says Our Leaders Are ‘Stupid’ (VIDEO)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/29/donald-trump-curses_n_855280.html
Potential presidential candidate Donald Trump made colorful and eyebrow-raising remarks while speaking at the Treasure Island casino in Las Vegas on Thursday night.
He reportedly called the United States “not a great country” and cursed multiple times during his speech. The AP reports:
In one of his many curse-bombs, Trump lamented the nation’s focus on building schools in war-torn Afghanistan, while neglecting education in the United States.
He said he would not help struggling nations such as South Korea or Libya without payment and promised to use swear words while negotiating with China.
“I’m not interested in protecting none of them unless they pay,” he said.
A frequent critic of the federal health care law passed last year, Trump said the Supreme Court should decide the dozens of lawsuits challenging the legislation and urged district courts not to waste their time on it.
April 28, 2011 04:00 PM
Allen West’s Sanitized Town Halls
By karoli
Allen West, as Susie suggests, has a bit of a problem. For as much as he likes to appear on Fox News and talk about what a good guy he is, he’s really just a shyster pulling the wool over his constituents’ eyes.
The so-called town halls he’s holding? They’re on private property rather than public property (churches, specifically), and all the questions are pre-screened in advance, despite his protestations to the contrary.
Watch the video above, where West’s chief of staff says the index cards with questions are given to a “3rd party” (that would be church staff), who then sorts the questions before they are asked.
Nothing random there, nor is there any sincere effort to answer real questions from real constituents. It’s sort of like a Fox News interview. It gives the appearance of sincerity, but it’s just more scripted nonsense.
Here it is in action, at the town hall where Nicole Sandler was tossed out
After Sandler was tossed into jail, she was held for 17 hours and says she was maced while there.
http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/allen-wests-sanitized-town-halls
BWA HA HA What a sorry as punk-ass bey-otch!
The GOP/Bagger constituency are getting their wake up calls. And Allen The coon had better watch himself, before the folks get all 1950s on him, drag his ass out in the woods with rope. I’m not making light of lynchings, but some white folks are just that nutty and off the chain, when it comes to their MONEY.
Former Obama aides launch independent fundraising groups
By Matea Gold, Washington Bureau
April 29, 2011, 5:10 a.m.
Reporting from Washington— Two former White House aides launched a pair of independent groups Friday to defend President Obama and fight the array of conservative efforts that poured money into the last elections, adopting the same tactics that have been condemned by the White House.
Former White House Press Secretary Bill Burton and Sean Sweeney, who served as a top aide to former Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, said they were moved to create their own outside groups to fend off efforts by conservatives such as the Koch brothers and the groups American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS, co-founded by Karl Rove. Veteran Democratic strategist Paul Begala will serve as a senior advisor to the Democratic efforts.
Priorities USA has been formed as a 501(c)(4) organization – a nonprofit social welfare group that can raise unlimited amounts of money without disclosing the identity of its donors. It putatively is designed to focus on issues – in this case, “to preserve, protect and promote the middle class” – but can spend up to half its money on political activities. The use of such undisclosed money in elections was vehemently criticized by Obama last year, as well as by Burton, then his spokesman.
But in a statement Friday, Burton said the decision by the Supreme Court in Citizens United that opened the door to unlimited corporate and union spending on elections created a new playing field on which Democrats have to engage.
“While we agree that fundamental campaign finance reforms are needed, Karl Rove and the Koch brothers cannot live by one set of rules as our values and our candidates are overrun with their hundreds of millions of dollars,” Burton said. “We will follow the rules as the Supreme Court has laid them out, but the days of the double standard are over.”
A second group, Priorities USA Action, is a so-called “super PAC” that can raise unlimited amounts of money for independent expenditures but must disclose its contributors to the Federal Election Commission.
A video on the group’s website warns that “the extreme right-wing” is “extremely dangerous,” playing clips of Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and Donald Trump. “It’s time to stand up and fight back,” the spot declares.
“This is an effort to level the playing field,” Sweeney said in a statement. “Americans deserve an honest debate about job creation, the economy, national security and education. That debate will never happen if only right wing extremists are engaged on the battlefield.”
Priorities USA is one of several new Democratic groups springing up to take on Republican independent-expenditure efforts, several of which will not disclose their funding sources, as The Times first reported.
The stepped-up outside spending is already apparent in the current battle over the budget, with close to $1 million spent last week by groups on the left and the right on ads about the budget’s impact on Medicare in three dozen swing congressional districts.
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-obama-fundraising-committee-20110429,0,193227.story
Beam Me Up, Scotty
by Anne Laurie
Today, the eyes of the world will be drawn to a momentous and history-making occasion…
Shortly before 4 p.m., all eyes will turn toward the Kennedy Space Center, 12 miles east across the wide expanse of the Indian River Lagoon. There, at Launch Pad 39A, if the weather allows, the shuttle Endeavour will thunder into the sky on a pedestal of flame, carrying six astronauts on a two-week mission to the International Space Station…
Some of the interest in the Endeavour mission is no doubt because of the drama involving its commander, Capt. Mark E. Kelly, whose wife, Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, was gravely wounded in a shooting in January. She is here to watch the launching. And some of it is no doubt because of an anticipated visit by President Obama.
But the main draw is the fact that after this liftoff, and the launching of the Atlantis in two months, there will be no more space shuttle voyages. After three decades, the program has just about reached the end of the line.
“You’re not going to see another one — this is going to be it,” said Truman Scarborough, who was Titusville’s mayor in the 1980s and served as a Brevard County commissioner for 20 years.
Mr. Scarborough and others said that for the past three or four launchings, the crowds have been getting larger as the program nears its end. Officials were forecasting perhaps a million or more for the Atlantis launch, a crowd that would rival the glory days of the space program, when a mammoth Saturn V rocket propelled the Apollo 11 astronauts toward the moon.
I’m not even a big fan of the space shuttle—as a publicity stunt, it’s mostly been a distraction and a waste of precious funds that could’ve gone into real space science—but this is a good article about the end of one more version of the American Dream. Back in the 1970s, “we” were young and naive enough to believe that boldly going where no man had gone before would open up new opportunities, not just ‘new frontiers’ to despoil once we’d crapped up the home planet beyond repair, but new chances for African-American women and (closeted) gay Asian men and half-breed aliens to move into brave new worlds that had formerly been the sole domain of crew-cut white guys.
Especially since, per the Washington Post, we’re shutting down SETI, too:
The SETI Institute has put its $50 million Allen Telescope Array (ATA) into hibernation, effectively shelving its search for extraterrestrial life.
In an e-mail sent this past Friday to ATA private donors, SETI Institute CEO Tom Pierson said there was a shortage of $5 million needed to fund the operation of the giant radio dishes that search the universe for signals from deep space. Starting this week, operations of the Hat Creek Radio Observatory north of San Francisco, where the ATA is located, will be suspended, and the 42 dishes will be put into hibernation.
Scientists and astronomers said the timing was disastrous, as the Kepler telescope had recently identified 1,235 possible new planets, many of which could be similar to Earth in size and habitability…
SETI has set up a page where people can donate to try to save the ATA here.
More possibilities than ever before that we’re not alone, and we’re letting the utilities be shut off for non-payment. Maybe we’re just embarrassed to have anyone see what a dump we’ve made of this lovely little blue marble.
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2011/04/29/beam-me-up-scotty-2/
No need to ask how Unca Clarence voted.
Companies can block customers’ class-action lawsuits, Supreme Court rules
By David G. Savage, Washington Bureau
Consumers have been able to band together to sue corporations, but the Supreme Court rules in a Southern California case that firms can force customers to arbitrate their complaints individually. The ruling is seen as a major victory for corporations.
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court gave corporations a major win Wednesday, ruling in a 5-4 decision that companies can block their disgruntled customers from joining together in a class-action lawsuit. The ruling arose from a California lawsuit involving cellphones, but it will have a nationwide impact.
In the past, consumers who bought a product or a service had been free to join a class-action lawsuit if they were dissatisfied or felt they had been cheated. By combining these small claims, they could bring a major lawsuit against a corporation.
But in Wednesday’s decision, the high court said that under the Federal Arbitration Act companies can force these disgruntled customers to arbitrate their complaints individually, not as part of a group. Consumer-rights advocates said this rule would spell the end for small claims involving products or services.
In the case before the court, a Southern California couple complained about a $30 charge involving their purchase of cellphone service from AT&T Mobility. The California courts said they were entitled to join with others in bringing a class-action claim against the cellphone company.
But the Supreme Court reversed that decision Wednesday in AT&T Mobility vs. Concepcion. Justice Antonin Scalia said companies may require buyers to sign arbitration agreements, and those agreements may preclude class-action claims. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. formed the majority.
Scalia said companies like arbitration because it is efficient and less costly. “Arbitration is poorly suited to the higher stakes of class litigation,” he said.
But the dissenters said a practical ban on class action would be unfair to cheated consumers. Justice Stephen G. Breyer said the California courts had insisted on permitting class-action claims, despite arbitration clauses that forbade them. Otherwise, he said, it would allow a company to “insulate” itself “from liability for its own frauds by deliberately cheating large numbers of consumers out of individually small sums of money.”
Breyer added that a ban on class actions would prevent lawyers from representing clients for small claims. “What rational lawyer would have signed on to represent the Concepcions in litigation for the possibility of fees stemming from a $30.22 claim?” he wrote. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan joined his dissent.
The court itself divided along partisan lines. All five Republican appointes formed the majority, and four Democratic appointees dissented.
Still pending before the court is a major dispute over class-action suits involving job discrimination. Lawyers for Wal-Mart have asked the justices to throw out a sex-discrimination claim brought on behalf of 1.5 million current and past female employees.
http://www.latimes.com/business/sc-dc-0428-court-class-action-web-20110427,0,6200727,print.story
Let’s Cut the Crap on Trump
by mistermix
Here’s the nut of Trump’s problem:
Trump hasn’t disclosed his financial documents
Questions over Trump’s net worth have persisted for years and his refusal to reveal actual figures in the past is one reason some believe he’ll never run for president, since to register as a candidate involves extensive financial disclosures. Trump sought to tamp down such criticism by pledging to release his financial documents if President Obama released his long-form birth certificate. The president did just that Wednesday. Trump responded by saying he’ll release his financial documents “at the appropriate time.”
There’s no “appropriate” time for Trump to release his financial documents, because most of what Trump says on any topic on any given day is a baldfaced lie, and his favorite topic is the vastness of his riches. His whole faux empire of rented helicopters and jets, over-leveraged hotels and fake reality shows is built on an illusion of fabulous wealth. Filing the disclosures required to run for President would show once and for all that he’s miles from being a billionaire, has filed for bankruptcy numerous times, and that the “art” of his deals is that he gets to be the face for other people’s money.
Trump may or may not announce a run for President, but he will certainly not file the paperwork required for a real run for the office. He knows that the clickslaves in the press who are slavering over his current freakshow are aching to garner more precious hits by mining his financial documents. And he knows that this time he can’t file a nuisance lawsuit when reporters prove that he’s a garden variety millionaire instead of the $6 billion dollar man he claims to be.
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2011/04/29/lets-cut-the-crap-on-trump/
LOL@” garden variety millionaire.”
President, first lady, to visit the storm-ravaged south
President Obama signed a disaster declaration for Alabama Friday, and will visit the region today to survey the damage caused by a series of deadly tornadoes.
The tornado rampage is already being declared one of the five worst weather sprees in U.S. history, having killed at least 288 people and injuring at least 1,500.
The president and first lady will travel to Alabama today:
Air Force One will carry the Obamas to the state, where they are expected to meet Gov. Robert Bentley and then tour storm damaged areas. They are also expected to meet with families affected by the storms.
The White House would not publicly disclose which areas the president would be visiting or his schedule.
Today, the president noted the harm and pain the storms had caused across Alabama and the Deep South.
“The loss of life has been heartbreaking, especially in Alabama,” the president said during a White House briefing called to announce changes in his national security team.
Later, in a press release, the president said this about Alabama:
“Our hearts go to all those who have been affected by this devastation, and we commend the heroic efforts of those who have been working tirelessly to respond to this disaster.”
http://blog.reidreport.com/2011/04/president-obama-to-visit-the-storm-ravaged-south/
The President & Frist Lady will provide much comfort and support to all the victims.
Yes, I woke up early this morning to watch the Royal Wedding. Nobody does pomp and pageantry like the Brits.
Good for you! I caught their kiss on the balcony before I left home this morning. I wish Prince William & Princess Catherine well. Princess Diana would be most proud of her son.
Dr. Phil can kiss my blue-black ASS
by Matt Schneider | 10:08 am, April 28th, 2011
The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward appeared on Morning Joe to discuss some behind the scenes details regarding the White House personnel changes involving Leon Panetta and David Petraeus, but also took time to scold the media for hyping the “manufactured controversy” with President Obama’s birth certificate. Though Mika Brzezinski took issue with Woodard and didn’t understand his assessment that “the news media has got to get a handle on itself on this,” as she argued if Obama held a press conference on the issue, then it is worth discussing.
Woodward first addressed Donald Trump:
“Let’s call things what they are. Donald Trump, I think, was or maybe still is aspiring to be the new Joe McCarthy. No evidence, but you make an assertion and you look at these things Trump said . . . people interviewing him at that moment should have said ‘what’s your evidence.’ Trump has no evidence, and when you have no evidence you have nothing and the discussion of the subject should end.”
Read on
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/bob-woodward-donald-trump-is-aspiring-to-be-the-new-joe-mccarthy/
The president is Citizen Obama. Get over it.
By Eugene Robinson, Published: April 28
Well, that was weird.
Let’s see: The Arab world is in tumult, with worrying signs that a Libya-style descent into civil war may be happening in Syria, where the stakes are unimaginably higher. Nearby, the warring Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah, may be forming a united front. Closer to home, new leaders are being tapped for the Pentagon and the CIA. The government is fast approaching its legal debt ceiling. Painfully high gasoline prices have put the nation in a sour mood. Tornadoes are wreaking death and destruction across the South.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-president-is-citizen-obama-get-over-it/2011/04/28/AFPin08E_story.html?wpisrc=nl_opinions
Eugene, you did good with this piece.
Happy FRY-day, Everone! :-))
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Inspiration for today….
Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
Psalm 34:8
Good Morning, SG2. thank you for the java and the WORD
:-)
Sweet, how’d the heck you do that? Too cool!
:)