Hope you have enjoyed the music of Disco.
We end this week of Disco with its Queen-Donna Summer.
LaDonna Adrian Gaines (December 31, 1948 – May 17, 2012),[1] known by her stage name, Donna Sommer, later Donna Summer, was an American singer and songwriter who gained prominence during the disco era of the late 1970s. A five-time Grammy Award winner, she was the first artist to have three consecutive double albums reach #1 on the United States Billboard album chart and charted four number-one singles in the United States within a 13-month period. Summer has reportedly sold over 100 million records, making her one of the world’s best-selling artists of all time.[2]
Born into a devoutly Christian middle-class family in Boston, Massachusetts, Summer first became involved with singing through church choir groups before joining a number of bands influenced by the Motown Sound. Also influenced by the counterculture of the 1960s, she became the front singer of a psychedelic rock band named Crow and moved to New York City. Joining a touring version of the musical Hair, she left New York and spent several years living, acting, and singing in West Germany, where she met music producer Giorgio Moroder. Also while in Europe, she married Helmut Sommer. After their divorce, she would keep his surname for her stage name; dropping the “o” and replacing it with a “u” for “Summer”.
After returning to the United States, Summer co-wrote the song “Love to Love You Baby” with Pete Bellotte. The song was released in 1975 to mass commercial success. Over the following years Summer followed this success with a string of other hits, such as “I Feel Love”, “Last Dance”, “MacArthur Park”, “Hot Stuff”, “Bad Girls”, “Dim All the Lights”, “No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)”, and “On the Radio”. She became known as the “Queen of Disco” and regularly appeared at the Studio 54 nightclub in New York City, while her music gained a global following.
She struggled with depression and addiction, and subsequently she became a born-again Christian in 1980.[3]
Diagnosed with lung cancer, Summer died on May 17, 2012, at her home in Naples, Florida.[4] She was posthumously described as the “undisputed queen of the Seventies disco boom” who reached the status of “one of the world’s leading female singers.”[3] Moroder described Summer’s work with him on the song “I Feel Love” as “really the start of electronic dance” music.[5] In 2013, Summer was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.[6]
https://twitter.com/BlackHistoryUS/status/459689061951619073/photo/1/large
Thank you Rikyrah. The long version. YAASSSSSSS! Salty I worked away from desk all day. Oh well. I’ll bang this and that SNF soundtrack (“If I Can’t Have You” from Wednesday at work tomorrow… on the good clock lol.
The Kochs’ AFP starts scrubbing its Bundy support
04/25/14 02:49 PM—Updated 04/25/14 02:54 PM
By Steve Benen
It was just two weeks ago that affiliates of Americans for Prosperity, a conservative political operation financed by Charles and David Koch, decided to extend support to Cliven Bundy. Despite the Nevada rancher’s defiance of the law and court orders, and despite the fact that he denied the legitimacy of the United States government, AFP helped promote Bundy’s cause and mock the Bureau of Land Management for trying to enforce federal law.
Then Bundy started speculating about whether African Americans were “better off as slaves,” at which point the AFP apparently decided to join the stampede away from the radical Nevadan.
Americans for Prosperity Nevada, the state affiliate of the Koch Brothers-backed group, appears to have hastily deleted social media posts expressing support for Cliven Bundy, the renegade rancher who exposed himself as a racist in recent press conferences.
A tweet sent by AFP Nevada on April 10 urging followers to read more about the #BundyBattle, which involves Bundy’s refusal to pay fines for allowing his cattle to graze on public land, has been deleted. A Facebook graphic that the group posted criticizing the Bureau of Land Management for enforcing grazing laws against Bundy has similarly disappeared.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/the-kochs-afp-starts-scrubbing-its-bundy
They can scrub all the like, We know who and what they’re about.
Friday, April 25, 2014
Dear America
“Obama owes me personally engraved invitation inscribed with gold letters explaining to me a reason to give a damn and show up and vote in 2014. He owes every single Democratic voter the same. Where’s my invitation, Barry?”
–David Atkins, Hullabaloo
……………………………………….
If after six years of Tea Party idiocy and 34 years of Reagan’s morning in America you still need a reason to vote Democrat “beyond the notion that they’re better than the GOP”, you’re the exact damn reason they’re in control of the House right now and threatening to take the Senate. You stayed home in 2010, and the GOP took over in a redistricting year. Sure as hell didn’t make Obama getting any of the things you wanted out of his easier, did it?
Oh, and Atkins, screw you for “providing somewhat less expensive health insurance to around 20 million people” as if that’s a travesty of justice. Ask those 20 million people if it matters to them and their families.
Here’s my question. You know now that 2010 happened because liberals stayed home and didn’t vote. Why the hell would you encourage that behavior a second time?
http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2014/04/dear-america.html
Parents keep kids away from popular park after armed man shows up twice
Posted: Apr 23, 2014 10:27 PM CDT Updated: Apr 23, 2014 10:35 PM CDT
By Donna Rapado
FORSYTH COUNTY, GA (CBS46) –
Parents whose children play at a popular park in Forsyth County are worried about a man they’ve seen carrying a gun.
The sheriff’s office investigated after dozens of parents called 911 about the armed man at Fowler Park off Carolene Way.
They said the man was at the park with gun and a knife on Monday and Tuesday. By Wednesday, the normally very busy park was empty, no kids anywhere.
“I’m at Fowler Park Rec Center,” one concerned man told the 911 operator. “This may be perfectly legal. But there’s a dude walking around the parking lot outside the ball fields where all the kids play. He’s strolling around the parking lot, and he’s got a big pistol tucked in his belt.”
One woman called 911 and said, “There’s a man with a gun in his pocket walking around the soccer field at Fowler Park in Cumming.”
“OK, I know we’ve received several phone calls, and deputies are working on the situation,” replied the operator. “It’s the most active time for the children coming in and out. So the parents are starting to get very scared,” said the worried caller.
The Forsyth County Sheriff’s office put out a statement saying it’s aware this man was at the park carrying weapons. But deputies can’t do anything about it because by law the man has every right to be there with his knife and gun.
“Unfortunately for parents the man has an Open Carry permit and isn’t violating any laws,” the sheriff’s office said in its statement.
Children in the United Futbol Academy normally plays at Fowler Park’s field. The league took matters into its own hands.
In a letter to parents Wednesday it explained it had called police and the Parks and Rec Department.
“Unfortunately, there is no restriction on Open Carry in Forsyth County,” the letter said. When Forsyth County deputies questioned the man, “he had a Georgia permit.”
United Futbol Academy explained it’s looking to hire security, which would take a few days.
“So sorry that on this beautiful day we have to cancel training. For the safety of our players and their ability to focus on training we make this very difficult decision,” ended the league’s letter.
http://www.wsmv.com/story/25326365/parents-keep-kids-away-from-popular-park-after-armed-man-shows-up-twice
GOPer Squirms On Obamacare: ‘I’m Not Saying It Hasn’t Worked For Some People’
Dylan Scott – April 25, 2014, 10:17 AM EDT
Confronted Thursday with a constituent who supported Obamacare, Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI) was forced to acknowledge that Obamacare had helped some people.
In a video captured by American Bridge, a liberal opposition research group, Walberg was pressed on the health care reform law during a town hall meeting in Saline, Mich. One of the attendees told Walberg that he would start a business soon because of the flexibility that Obamacare had afforded him, concluding that “sitting there and repealing it when there are things that could be done to fix it is wrong.”
“That’s not to say that the ACA hasn’t helped a few people,” Walberg replied. “I’ve met those people. I’ve also met people who are now being helped by being subsidized who say I never want to be subsidized by the government.”
“I appreciate the fact that it works for you,” he continued. “I’m not saying that it hasn’t worked for some people.”
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/tim-walberg-obamacare-town-hall
Arkansas Cop Goes Unpunished for Killing Black Teen
The death of Bobby Moore III at the hands of Little Rock police got little or no national attention. Is it because the teenager was not squeaky clean?
By: T.J. Holmes
Posted: April 25 2014 6:45 AM
Once again, the mother of a black teenage boy is crying that there won’t be justice for her dead son. This time, it’s because prosecutors have dropped charges against the white Little Rock, Ark., police officer who was set to go on trial next month on charges he shot and killed 15-year-old Bobby Moore III two years ago. The state first brought charges after a police investigation showed that the officer’s story didn’t match the evidence at the scene of the shooting and that the use of deadly force was not justified.
Now prosecutors say that even though they still believe the officer is guilty of a homicide, it’s apparent that a jury would never convict the officer. How can they be so sure? Because they’ve tried the case twice already. Both trials ended in hung juries. In the first, an all-white jury voted 10-2 for a conviction. In the second, a jury that included two African Americans voted 11-1 to acquit the officer.
Such diametrically different jury outcomes are surprising in a case where the main facts are not in question. We know former Little Rock Police Officer Josh Hastings fired into the car Bobby was driving. Bobby was shot three times, including once in the left side of his head. The real question for the juries in both trials was whether Hastings had a reasonable fear for his life based on a perceived threat posed by Bobby.
That “reasonable fear” question was at the heart of the high-profile trials of George Zimmerman and Michael Dunn. Both men claimed that their use of deadly force was justified under Florida law, and in their respective trials, juries didn’t hold either man responsible for shooting and killing a black teenage boy. (Dunn’s was a hung jury, and he is scheduled to be retried.)
Now Hastings won’t be held responsible for killing Bobby. In opting out of a third trial, the prosecutor said, “The role of the prosecutor is to put before a jury the facts of the case and to advocate for the people of the state of Arkansas and the victim, not to seek a conviction at any cost.” They’ve given up on seeking justice for Bobby.
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/04/little_rock_arkansas_cop_will_not_be_retried_for_death_of_black_teen.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content&mc_cid=b54d438631&mc_eid=1e0cf17cc4
Mitchell: Timing all wrong for Rahm’s new Obama H.S.
Thu, 04/24/2014 – 8:50pm
Mary Mitchell
In announcing plans to build another selective-enrollment high school on the North Side, Mayor Rahm Emanuel might as well have laughed in his critics’ faces.
That’s how wrong the timing is for such an endeavor.
Concerned African-American families on the South and West sides are still so outraged over the mayor’s decision to shutter 50 public schools last year, that an “Anybody but Rahm” political campaign has formed to challenge Emanuel’s re-election bid.
And despite emotional pleas from community stakeholders outside of the Chicago Teacher’s Union, the mayor’s handpicked school board moved forward with plans on Wednesday to turn three more public schools over to a private contractor.
Now, Emanuel’s decision to open a selective-enrollment school named for President Barack Obama in an upscale community where roughly 70 percent of the seats will be filled through an admissions process adds insult to injury.
…………………..
But building a new elite high school on the North Side in the wake of closing so many schools in the black community is about as callous as it gets
http://politics.suntimes.com/article/chicago/mitchell-timing-all-wrong-rahms-new-obama-hs/thu-04242014-850pm
U.S. marshals searching for Rahm’s former city comptroller
Fri, 04/25/2014 – 8:50am
Chris Fusco and Dan Mihalopoulos
n arrest warrant was issued Friday morning in Ohio for Amer Ahmad — Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s former city comptroller — for violating the terms of his bail after pleading guilty to corruption charges in that state, and the U.S. Marshals Service is now searching for Ahmad.
Authorities are seeking to arrest Ahmad, 39, after they “received credible information that Ahmad had violated the conditions of his supervised release,” said Fred Alverson, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of Ohio. “The U.S. Marshals Service is conducting the search for Mr. Ahmad.”
Ahmad — who has continued to live in Chicago since resigning from City Hall last summer — pleaded guilty in December to being part of a large kickback and money-laundering scheme when he was Ohio’s deputy state treasurer.
The crimes occurred before Ahmad joined Emanuel’s administration in April 2011, and an investigation by an outside law firm City Hall hired to review Ahmad’s conduct here revealed no criminal wrongdoing by Ahmad or his staff.
http://politics.suntimes.com/article/chicago/us-marshals-searching-rahm%E2%80%99s-former-city-comptroller/fri-04252014-850am
amk4obama @amk4obama
@samsteinhp – SO? IIRR, there were zero repubs who voted for it.
#ObamaCare was passed by dems from President onwards. Live with it.
zizi2 @zizii2
Follow
@amk4obama @samsteinhp Corporate media wants to separate #Dems from hard won #Obamacare trump card, yet excuse #GOP venality. No, We brag!
8:55 AM – 25 Apr 2014
GOP Candidate Says Women Cause Most Divorces
“Det Bowers, a pastor challenging Lindsey Graham in the South Carolina GOP Senate primary, once blamed women for causing most divorces — even when husbands are unfaithful to their wives,” Politico reports.
“During a sermon on the Book of Peter delivered at the Christ Church of the Carolinas, Bowers said it was an ‘abominable idolatry’ when wives love their children more than their husbands, arguing that’s what causes divorces most of the time. He added that in the ‘vast preponderance’ of situations where men are adulterous, women are to blame because they have showered too much emotion on their children instead of their husbands.”
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2014/04/25/gop_candidate_says_women_cause_most_divorces.html
The Post Office Was Targeted By Bain Capital Vultures All Along
The 109th United States Congress held a vote back in 2006 that did irreparable harm to one of the largest unions in the country and one of the most functional institutes of our government. A Republican Congress—acting at the behest of the Bush-Cheney administration—enacted a law that required the postal service to “pre-fund” retiree health benefits seventy-five years into the future. NO corporation has ever been asked to shoulder such insane financial burdens and Americans had no idea this was even happening. The US Post Office is one of the top employers of veterans. Yet the GOP has repeatedly slashed any means of assistance for the “troops” they claim to support. Not only did those brave men and women fight a senseless war without being properly equipped with safe gear, but their means of livelihood when they return to civilian life has been systematically eradicated by Republicans.
During the 2012 Presidential Campaign, Willard Romney touted his business acumen by boasting of Bain Capital’s retail success. Bain’s Staples Office Supply Stores were the shining example of the “noble” business of venture capitalism. Staples announced recently announced, in twenty-seven states, some of its stores will contain actual U.S. Post Offices.
Coincidentally, the sponsor of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act was Republican Tom Davis of Virginia, an ardent supporter of Willard Romney. Obviously no stranger to corruption, he’s been linked to the K Street Project, a fundraising scandal linked to Tom Delay and Jack Abramoff. It truly is a very strange bill, which went under the radar in the House. On February 9, 2006, the Senate passed the bill. Not sure how they passed the bill, as there was not a recorded vote. The intent was to privatize the mail industry and destroy the Postal Union while enriching obscenely profitable corporations. Staples employees making minimum wage will be performing the tasks of the Postal Union workers while earning neither pensions nor benefits. This is another example of the privatizing of government industries for-profit while underhandedly cutting the throats of the American worker.
http://crooksandliars.com/2014/04/post-office-was-targeted-bain-capital
Supreme Court Agrees With Michigan Voters: Affirmative Action Must Remain for Whites Only
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to uphold Michigan’s voter-approved ban on affirmative action in admissions to the state’s public universities reinforces an ugly reality: that most Americans support affirmative action only when it is for whites and no one else. Nearly every time American rhetoric privileges states’ rights, it leaves marginalized groups open to even bolder discrimination than they already encounter. Michigan is simply reminding us that the South has never been the only place where Americans believe that whites are the only ones who should enjoy equal protection.
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s 58-page dissent is a painfully necessary document that asks the nation to live up to its creed, but we desperately need to take this conversation in another direction. Rather than focus on the disadvantages of groups hurt by this decision, Americans must confront the unearned advantage of whiteness that inspired Michigan’s Proposal 2 in the first place. In short, Proposal 2 — and every instance of the sort of rhetoric that aligns with it — amounts to a declaration that setting a quota for whites of at least 75 percent is the American way.
The nation’s most effective, and palatable, affirmation action has always been for whites. In the early days of the republic, how else could land have been distributed to whites and not to Native Americans? The requirement for land was being white; the government set it aside for whites. How else could whites have secured the vast majority of land in the South (where blacks often outnumbered them) after Emancipation? The Homestead Act of 1863 and other government programs ensured that land was set aside for whites. How else did 98 percent of Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans granted between 1932 and 1962 go to whites? Numerous historians have shown that the federal government sanctioned discriminatory practices that ensured that access to home ownership was set aside for whites. And those homes not only enabled whites to build wealth; they also provided access to public schools that prepared their children for college. The same principles shaped the years after World War II. Thus, while G.I. Bill benefits yielded college degrees and small businesses for whites, black and brown veterans more often returned home to collect insult and injury.
Today, being white remains the unspoken — but most important — qualification in college admissions and hiring. As a result, being mediocre is OK as long as you are white. Ever notice that it is only when someone isn’t white that everyone begins working to ensure that standards are not being relaxed “because of race”? Likewise, people only worry that someone is “getting a leg up because of race” when the candidate is not white. In other words, race should be a factor in one’s favor only if they are white. This logic is so acceptable that we are not even supposed to notice it; as long as the person is white, everyone pretends that the decision to welcome them was simply about merit and that “race” had nothing to do with it.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/koritha-mitchell/supreme-court-agrees-with_b_5200809.html?utm_hp_ref=black-voices&ir=Black+Voices
Schuette v. BAMN … An Example of Whitewishing
By: Crissie Brown
Thursday, April, 24th, 2014, 9:49 pm
Chief Justice John Roberts may not appreciate her saying so, but Justice Sonia Sotomayor was right. The Court’s decision in Schuette v. BAMN – allowing states to ban public universities from weighing race in admissions – was a classic example of whitewishing.
Whitewishing is my term for white people ignoring evidence of continued racial inequalities, or pretending those inequalities simply reflect the inherent intellectual or moral superiority of the winners, and the intellectual or moral inferiority of the losers.
In whitewishing, racial discrimination ended back in … well, who cares when it ended. The point is, racism is over and the only racists are people of color and their liberal media supporters who keep complaining about race.
I say “who cares when it ended” because those who engage in whitewishing never answer the question “When did racial discrimination end?” They pretend they didn’t hear it. Or they say President Obama’s election and reelection proved that racial discrimination had ended before 2008. But as for exactly when it ended … umm … err … uhh….
So when the Michigan Board of Regents want to weigh race among other factors – such as family legacies – in reviewing college applications, whitewishers howl “Unfair!” Or, in Justice Scalia’s turgid prose:
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/04/24/schuette-v-bamn-whitewishing.html
DOJ Announces New Pardons Attorney and Equal Justice in the Clemency Process
By: Adalia Woodbury
Thursday, April, 24th, 2014, 8:54 pm
As Sarah Jones wrote on Monday, the clemency process reflects one of the structural problems inherent in criminal justice. Simply put, if you are white and rich, the system is far kinder to you than if you are black and poor. Add to that a Bush appointed Pardons Attorney with his own agenda, one can only applaud President Obama for his desire to establish fair criteria.
On Wednesday, Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole announced that Debra Leff will replace outgoing Pardons Attorney Ronald L. Rodgers, and he elaborated on the plans to reform the clemency process in prepared remarks.
This program is building on the “Smart on Crime” initiative the Attorney General launched last year – a necessary step because our prisons are over populated. After outlining earlier steps by the president to address sentencing disparities, Cole elaborated on the six elements of the new clemency criteria.
1.inmates who are currently serving a federal sentence in prison and, by operation of law, likely would have received a substantially lower sentence if convicted of the same offense today.
2.Are non-violent, low-level offenders without significant ties to large-scale criminal organizations, gangs, or cartels
3.Have served at least 10 years of their sentence
4.Do not have a significant criminal history
5.Have demonstrated good conduct in prison; and (6) have no history of violence prior to or during their current term of imprisonment.
Cole also announced that next week, the Bureau of Prisons will notify all federal inmates of the initiative and provide them with the six criteria. The Bureau of Prisons will provide inmates who believe they fit the criteria with an electronic survey to complete. Department Attorneys will evaluate the surveys to screen if the inmate’s petition warrants further consideration. Inmates who meet the clemency criteria will be provided with a pro-bono attorney to prepare their clemency application. The Department of Justice is detailing lawyers, on a temporary basis, to the Pardon Attorney’s Office in order to review commutation applications submitted under this initiative. The DOJ is also working with the Federal Public Defender Service to find additional lawyers to help with this initiative.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/04/24/doj-announces-pardons-attorney-equal-justice-clemency-process.html
Democrats Are On a Roll as Even Southern Red States Want To Keep Their Obamacare
[….] Majorities in the three states polled (Arkansas, Louisana, and North Carolina) that haven’t expanded Medicaid support expanding it. In Arkansas, the majority of Republicans support expanding Medicaid, while only 21% support the state’s use of federal money to buy the poor private insurance.[….] The support for keeping the ACA goes a long way in explaining whyy Democrats lead or are tied in the Senate races in all four states.
Obamacare is becoming a political liability for Republicans. Even voters in red states want access to affordable healthcare. As the law becomes more successful, Democrats are gaining momentum, and Republican problems are snowballing. Republicans are so dysfunctional that they can’t agree on an alternative plan, so GOP
candidates are stuck with running on a position of repeal. Voters, even in red states, don’t want the law repealed.[….]
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/04/24/democrats-roll-southern-red-states-obamacare.html
Republicans Are Racists? No, It’s Just All a Big Coincidence
The revolting comments. The emails. The jokes. The posters. The T-shirts. The ghostwriters. It’s not like it’s a pattern or something.
Michael Tomasky 04.25.14
Come on, fellow liberals. Calm down. I guess maybe it’s fair to call Cliven Bundy a racist. That “picking cotton” business put it over the top, and wondering whether they were better off under slavery. Even Sean Hannity, Bundy’s greatest media champion, threw in the towel last night: He wanted it to be “abundantly clear,” Hannity said at the top of his show, that he found the remarks “downright racist,” “repugnant,” “beyond disturbing,” and so on.
OK, so Bundy’s a racist. It’s fine to point that out. But point up the fact that he’s a registered Republican? That’s where I draw the line, friends. I mean, come on. That’s just a coincidence. Total cosmic coincidence.
Just like it’s a coincidence that that one black comic, a Barack Obama impersonator, was yanked offstage at an official Republican Party meeting in 2011 for telling a series of racially themed jokes. I mean, that could easily have happened at a Democratic—well, maybe not. But still. A coincidence. Just like it’s a coincidence that one federal judge who sent an email around to friends saying that Obama’s father was a dog happened to be a Republican. Complete and utter accident of fate, the puny matter of his voter enrollment.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/25/republicans-are-racists-no-it-s-just-all-a-big-coincidence.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thedailybeast%2Fpolitics+%28The+Daily+Beast+-+Politics%29
Cliven Bundy: Minority Groups Are ‘Against Us’
Caitlin MacNeal – April 24, 2014, 5:16 PM EDT
Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, before making his comments about “the Negro,” spoke about other racial minorities and their lack of support for his cause, according to additional video obtained by the Washington Post.
“Where is our colored brother? Where is our Mexican brother? Where is our Chinese — where are they?” Bundy said. “They’re just as much American as we are, and they’re not with us. If they’re not with us, they’re going to be against us.”
Bundy noted that he “hardly ever” saw a black person until he was a teenager, and was surrounded by only white people during the press conference he was holding, according to the Post.
He then launched into a story about when he was working in Los Angeles during the Watts Riots in 1965
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/bundy-minorities-against-us
No Bundy, you and your ILK are fearful that you are becoming the MINORITY.
http://3chicspolitico.com/2014/04/25/videos-trms-presents-history-of-southern-racist-jim-crow-links-to-republican-syncophants/
San Francisco sues landlords who evicted tenants in order to rent rooms on Airbnb
The city of San Francisco sued two landlords on Wednesday for
allegedly evicting tenants to rent out rooms on such websites as Airbnb, opening a new front in a controversy over increasingly popular
home-rental services.
In separate lawsuits filed by City Attorney Dennis Herrera, the city
named two groups of defendants that it called the “most egregious”
offenders because they evicted disabled tenants before listing rooms
online for as much as $595 a night.[….]
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/04/23/san-francisco-sues-landlords-who-evicted-tenants-for-renting-rooms-on-airbnb/
More Than 63,000 Bridges Crossed 250 Million Times A Day Need Significant Repairs
The United States has more than 63,000 bridges that are structurally deficient and in need of significant repairs, according to an analysis of government data by the American Road & Transportation Builders Association. Drivers cross these bridges 250 millions times each day. They are all at least 39 years old except for one. The 250 most heavily used bridges that are structurally deficient are on interstate highways, many in California.
These bridges are not necessarily imminently unsafe or about to collapse. But a bridge will be classified as structurally deficit and in need of repair if it is rated four or below on a scale of zero to nine by state transportation inspections of their decks and support structures. The ARTBA wants signs posted at these bridges to let drivers know they’re in need of repairs.[….]
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/04/25/3430786/bridges-structurally-deficient/
South Carolina Bar fights back against Republican Governors Association ad attacking Vincent Sheheen
By SEANNA ADCOX Associated Press
Wednesday, April 23, 2014 9:36 p.m.
COLUMBIA – An ad attacking Democratic Sen. Vincent Sheheen’s work as a defense attorney has prompted the South Carolina Bar Association to fight back against what it calls an unfair smear of the legal profession that should have no place in the governor’s race.
The bar launched a website counteracting a Republican Governors Association ad, which began airing statewide Monday, that condemns Sheheen as protecting criminals. It’s an unprecedented move for a nonpolitical organization to which every South Carolina attorney must belong, with more than 15,000 members statewide.
RGA spokesman Jon Thompson said the ad is about Sheheen choosing in the past to represent a sex offender and several men accused of abusing women, as he’s trying to woo women voters.
Association President Alice Paylor said campaigns should be about issues, not bashing lawyers for providing people their constitutional right to legal representation.
“That’s a basic tenet of the Constitution,” she said Wednesday. “What they’re attacking is the whole basis for the U.S. and the U.S. Constitution. According to them, I guess everyone accused of something is automatically guilty.”
http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20140423/PC1603/140429704
Bundy: If People Are Offended By Me, Then MLK ‘Didn’t Do His Job’
Catherine Thompson – April 25, 2014, 9:18 AM EDT
Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy said Friday that he doesn’t believe his remarks on blacks and slavery were “offensive,” and if other people take them that way, it means civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. “didn’t do his job.”
Bundy was pressed by CNN’s Chris Cuomo to acknowledge that he offended people when he mused about whether blacks were “better off as slaves, picking cotton” than “under government subsidy,” which was first highlighted by the New York Times.
In response, Bundy again slammed the media for portraying him as a racist while stressing that he supports civil rights. He invoked the example of Rosa Parks, saying “I want her to be able to sit anywhere in the bus and I want to be able to sit by her anywhere in that bus.”
“Maybe I sinned and maybe I need to ask forgiveness … but you know when you talk about prejudice, we’re talking about not being able to exercise what we think and are feeling,” Bundy eventually conceded.
“If I say ‘negro’ or ‘black boy’ or ‘slave,’ I’m not — if those people cannot take those kind of words and not be offensive then Martin Luther King didn’t do his job,” he added.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/cliven-bundy-mlk-rosa-parks-offended
I see Murdering Joe had on Eugene Robinson this morning to help them disavow Bundy’s racist rants. Short: The “good Conservatives” don’t support Bundy and his antics. All of these folks, including Robinson, can kiss my natural black ass.
Sending PRAYERS your way, SG2. We love you.
Definitely sending positive thoughts your way, SG2.
SG2 has been hospitalized.
I am sending healing prayers and thoughts your way, SG2.
http://a121.g.akamai.net/7/121/21164/20130613150506/content.fromyouflowers.com/images/products/large/BF2-11K-2-GBU.jpg
Grimes goes on attack over McConnell jobs comment
By RONNIE ELLISCNHI News Service
April 24, 2014
GLASGOW — Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate Alison Lundergan Grimes is castigating incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell for telling a Beattyville newspaper editor that it’s not his job to bring jobs to Lee County.
McConnell says the comments “got lost in translation,” and that “Encouraging positive economic development and job growth is at the center of what I do every day.”
But Edmund Shelby, the editor and general manager of the Beattyville Enterprise who wrote the story, said he “100 percent, completely” stands behind the story as it appeared on his paper’s front page on Thursday. He said his published account represented his conversation with McConnell “word for word.”
McConnell was in Beattyville to address a luncheon of Lee County business and civic leaders when Shelby briefly interviewed him prior to the lunch. According to Shelby’s story, he asked McConnell what he is doing to “bring jobs to Lee County.”
“Economic development is a Frankfort issue,” McConnell said, according to the story. “That is not my job. It is the primary responsibility of the state Commerce Cabinet.”
Shelby goes on to report that McConnell said he’s interested in bringing public works projects to Kentucky but most of those are originated by state government. He quoted McConnell as saying he is “pushing back” against the policies of President Barack Obama which are hurting the coal industry.
The headline on the story read: “McConnell says not his job to bring jobs.”
http://www.dailyindependent.com/local/x360411079/Grimes-goes-on-attack-over-McConnell-jobs-comment
Tee hee hee
You better give McTurtle a righteous BEATDOWN, Alison Grimes!
Bobbi Humphrey was born on this day in Marlin, Texas and grew up in Dallas. From Wikipedia:
The court stacks the deck against minorities
By Eugene Robinson, Published: April 24
Affirmative action has opened doors for disadvantaged minorities and made this a fairer, more equal society. The Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts apparently wants no more of that.
This week’s big ruling — upholding a Michigan constitutional amendment that bans public universities from considering race in admissions — claims to leave affirmative action alive, if on life support. But the court’s opinion, ignoring precedent and denying reality, can be read only as an invitation for other states to follow suit.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eugene-robinson-the-court-stacks-the-deck-against-minorities/2014/04/24/7d2fe2f2-cbe0-11e3-93eb-6c0037dde2ad_story.html?wpisrc=nl_opinions
John Henry Lloyd was on this day in 1884. From Wikipedia:
“The Mighty Giant Pop Lloyd: A Player for the Ages”
http://www.thenationalpastimemuseum.com/article/mighty-gentle-giant-pop-lloyd-player-ages
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Good Morning, rikyrah and Everyone :)
Ella Fitzgerald was born on this day in 1917. From Wikipedia:
The incomparable Ms. ELLA. Thanks for the post, Yahtc.
Good Morning, Rikyrah. Check your email please. THANKS!