Michael Bolotin (born February 26, 1953), known professionally as Michael Bolton, is an American singer-songwriter. Bolton originally performed in the hard rock and heavy metal genres from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, both on his early solo albums and those he recorded as the frontman of the band Blackjack. He became better known for his series of pop rock ballads, recorded after a stylistic change in the late 1980s.
Bolton’s achievements including sold more than 75 million records, recording eight top 10 albums and two number one singles on the Billboard charts, as well as winning multiple American Music Awards and Grammy Awards.
Bolton was born Michael Bolotin in New Haven, Connecticut, the son of Helen (née Gubin) and George Bolotin. He has a brother, Orrin, and a sister, Sandra, both older. His family was Jewish, and all of his grandparents had been immigrants from Russia.[5] His parents were divorced when he was very young.
Wed Oct 15, 2014 at 12:25 PM PDT
Kochs now harassing voters in Illinois with registration mailers
by Joan McCarter
The Kochs’ Americans for Prosperity must have decided they need to do some “voter information” in what’s an awfully tight race for governor in Illinois. According to the Daily Kos Elections Outlook, there’s about a 4-point spread between Democratic incumbent Pat Quinn and Republican Bruce Rauner. Enter AFP to try to create a little chaos in the election. And like in North Carolina, where they sent hundreds of thousands of fraudulent mailers, they’re upsetting people by sending mailers to their dead loved ones.
DECATUR – It’s not uncommon for residents such as Maryilynn Baer to receive political mail before the general election.
But when recent letter came to her home that asked for her husband, Edgar, to re-register to vote before the November election, Baer was overwhelmed and upset.
Her husband had been dead since May.
“It was upsetting,” she said. “His name had already been taken off the voter registration list, and I sent the letter to (Macon County Clerk) Steve Bean and told him I had already notified him that Edgar had passed away.”
See, the mailer made it seem like it had one from County Clerk Bean. All over the state, people have been calling their county clerks to find out if they really do have to re-register, because all of the mailings from AFP are meant to look like they’re coming from elections officials. They’re also wondering why their dead relatives are getting these letters, because they’re going to a lot of deceased people. Which means elections officials are having to make a lot of apologies, even though they’re not responsible for the confusion. Says Shelby County Clerk Jessica Fox, “[w]e would never do anything, for lack of a better term, as tacky as to open up these old wounds.”
Voting by mail is convenient, easy, and defeats the best of the GOP’s voter suppression efforts. Sign up here to check eligibility and vote by mail, then get your friends, family, and coworkers to sign up as well.
They don’t know where AFP got the lists they’re using, and AFP hasn’t offered that information. Nor have they explained why they made the letters look so official. But that seems pretty clear—they’re telling people they can’t vote unless they re-register, and are hoping that the people receiving the letters (the ones who aren’t dead) believe it and end up not voting. And they call it “a ‘long-term’ way to get people involved in the political discussion.” That’s what all their voter suppression schemes are, I’m sure.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/15/1336828/-Kochs-now-harassing-voters-in-Illinois-with-registration-nbsp-mailers#
If we ever doubted how disingenuous, underhanded and messy our media is, just step back and think how quickly ISIS which was all the rage just a few days ago, has fallen off the headlines and replaced with Ebola. It’s all about wielding fear over the American electorate just before crucial mid-term elections, for and to the benefit of Republicans.
Also, the leaking of Beau Biden’s Navy Reserve termination, something that happened in June 2013, just before the mid-term elections over a year and some later, is also agenda-driven.
TELL.THE.TRUTH. and BLAME POTUS for EVERYTHING in the whole, wide WORLD!
We had a meeting today at work, and as a former nurse, I told the group, 1 person dies in the USA of ebola 1 fucking person and the media goes wild. Meanwhile thousands will die in West Africa.
More folks ahve died this year of POLICE BRUTALITY AND MURDER than some fucking ebola outbreak media-frenzy.
Black lives don’t matter Ametia. Never have. Not in America , not to the rest of the world. The lack of urgency on the part of the United Nations and it’s public health agency, WHO, is consistent with how little black and African lives matter. It only became alarming and an epidemic once American and European health workers became affected. Don’t even get me started on China which has been pillaging African natural resources for years, but has gone missing as they always do once there is a humanitarian crises or need. They have banned all flights from affected countries and I read some place that they’re revoking visas issued to some Africans.
why is michelle bernard and johnthan capehart CAPING FOR RAND PAUL?
And why are the Howard U students falling for Rand Paul’s foolishness?
Thank you!!! I just wrote a comment to Rikyrah’s post below about how the media is lavishing Rand with all this undeserved praise simply because he ‘reached out’ to black people.
Rand Paul is a white wolf in sheep’s clothing.
That’s what I don’t get with all the praise they’re showering on him. Rand makes it perfectly clear that he’s out for himself, that he doesn’t care about black people and is only ‘reaching out’ to help himself politically. Even his outreach has been about Rand telling black folks where he thinks they ought to be on the totem pole that is American society, and Rand doesn’t think it’s any where near the top.
https://twitter.com/TheObamaDiary/status/523208902562054144/photo/1
Okay Charlie, you can let go now.
LOL And got his eyes closed like he’s sipping a fine glass-o-wine or sumpthin! Let it go Charlie.
Has POTUS seen this picture?
Why You Need To Know About Lennon Lacy, The 17-Year-Old Teen Found Hanged In A North Carolina Trailer Park
While social media can be overwhelming and frustrating at times, when used in the right way, it can really be informative and make a difference. I was reminded of this over the weekend while scrolling through Instagram. A guy who I follow shared a story from the Guardian that detailed the death of Lennon Lacy, a 17-year-old teen from Bladenboro, North Carolina who was found hanged on Friday, August 29. I hadn’t heard of this story anywhere else, but I knew it was a story that needed to be shared.
According to his father, Larry Walton, he was one of the last people to see Lacy alive. Around midnight on that Friday, Walton got up to get a glass of water and saw his son, in his room, preparing his football uniform for the first football game of the season–which would happen later that day. A starting linebacker on the varsity team at his local high school, Lacy had reportedly been training all summer to do big things on the field. He hoped to have such an impact that he would get a football scholarship for college, and find his way into the NFL in the future. Lacy had big dreams and plans for himself, but he wasn’t able to see them through. According to Walton, after telling Lacy he should to go to bed, he heard the front door open and close. Walton didn’t think much of it and went back to bed. But the next morning, Lacy’s mother found her son’s uniform still on his bed and the police at her door. The teen, known in the neighborhood for being a polite and “well-mannered” young man involved at his church, was found hanging from a wooden swing set a quarter mile away from his family’s home in Bladenboro, near a trailer park.
Since that day, the family has been trying to get answers, answers that the police don’t seem to have and don’t seem to be working hard enough to find. According to Lacy’s mother, Claudia, the teen had indentations and abrasions to his face. The mortician who embalmed his body said that the marks on the teen (including a large knot above his eye), and abrasions he saw on the young man’s arms, reminded him of “corpses he had embalmed where the deceased had been killed in a bar-room fight.”
When his body was found, the size 12 shoes Lacy bought days before for school and had been wearing weren’t on his feet. Instead, he was found with white 10.5 sneakers on his feet. Also, the family says that police didn’t swab underneath Lacy’s fingernails for evidence of a possible scuffle with someone else. If that wasn’t enough, since Lacy’s funeral, his burial plot has been desecrated. The flowers placed there were taken and thrown on the side of the road near the cemetery, and a small hole was dug in the corner of his grave. So many red flags, and yet, District Attorney Jon David and the police in Bladenboro have ruled out foul play: “to date we have not received any evidence of criminal wrongdoing surrounding the death.”
But the family says suicide can’t be possible. Lacy didn’t have any issues that they know of when it comes to depression or mental illness over the years. And despite losing a great uncle he was close to right before his own death, Lacy’s mother says he grieved in the same way the rest of his family had, but carried on with his preparation for the football season.
“I know my son. The second I saw him I knew he couldn’t have done that to himself – it would have taken at least two men to do that to him.”
His brother, Pierre, agrees: “If my brother wanted to take his own life, I can’t understand why he would do it in such an exposed place. This feels more like he was put here as a public display – a taunting almost.”
http://madamenoire.com/477695/need-know-lennon-lacy-17-year-old-teen-found-hanged-north-carolina-trailer-park/
21st century LYNCHING. I.JUST.CAN’T.EVEN….
Indeed. A lynching. I suspect we’ll hear more on this eventually.
Impact Statements (Partial):
http://youtu.be/dGP5nH_wNXY?a
Jordan’s mother’s statement is heart wrenching, as one would expect. What else is even possible? I noticed that Dunn shows no reaction to the impact statements. He probably still thinks there is a way out of this on appeal. He’s going to learn that it’s a hell of a lot easier to get into prison than to get out.
It was heart wrenching. The heaviness of losing your child at the hands of a racist monster, and for no good reason!!! Dunn is evil..
JUSTICE was served. RIP Jordan.
Absolutely amazing, Dunn will never set foot outside of a prison for the remainder of his life. He had a really good life and then just threw it away because he thought he could kill a black kid and get away with it because he’s white.
…And he did it after attending his son’s wedding.
Dunn thought white jurors were going to let him off.
Dunn lived in a beautiful part of Florida, right on the beach. He had a fiance and a job as a software engineer in his family’s business. It never entered his mind, not even for a nanosecond, that he could lose all of that when he pulled that gun out of the glove compartment and decided to open fire on those kids with intent to kill. After all, they were black. He made the wrong assumption that he could sell a made up self-defense story to any jury that was white like him.
Thank God he didn’t get away with this.
Dunn’s racism caused him to throw it all AWAY. Now he’ll die in prison and Rhonda will go on with her life.
Justice for Jordan Davis has been served. God bless the jurors for showing the country how it’s done.
https://twitter.com/TenSpence/status/523142485313609728
Now this sentence gives me LIFE! Enough of these racist white men killing our unarmed boys and men.
Well, Jacksonville isn’t Ferguson or Sanford. They seem to have evolved out of the Jim Crow years better than some of your other southern cities.
When I listened to Rhonda Rouer’s first taped cop interview that was on YouTube, I knew those cops were doing a good job. She had to repeatedly state that Michael Dunn never mentioned to her that any of the young men had a gun, so that it was absolutely clear and could not be contested. That’s why she couldn’t walk it back. These were definitely not Sanford or Ferguson lawmen, these guys knew what they doing and were not biased.
Justice for Jordan Davis, finally.
Michael Dunn sentenced to life in prison without parole.
http://thegrio.com/2014/10/17/michael-dunn-life-sentenced-jordan-davis/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
https://twitter.com/WJXTvic/status/523141165156433921
Now I want to see Michael Brown Jr.’s family walk out of a courtroom like this after that killer cop Darren Wilson is CHARGED & CONVICTED of EXECUTING their son.
#MichaelDunn sentencing. Watch hearing here.
http://www.news4jax.com/news/watch-live-online/23432654
Jordan Davis’ mother is killing me. OMG! It’s so sad. I’m crying too.
Judge Healey: This case shows how society has lost it’s “moral compass”.
Georgia’s Perdue fears voters ‘really don’t understand’
10/17/14 08:40 AM
By Steve Benen
In the latter half of September, eight polls were released publicly on Georgia’s U.S. Senate race, and each one showed Republican David Perdue in the lead. Over the last week, however, three statewide polls have come out in Georgia, and Perdue suddenly isn’t leading in any of them.
Roll Call reported yesterday that the National Republican Senatorial Committee confirmed the party is “looking at a tougher race in Georgia,” where the contest between Perdue and Michelle Nunn (D) “has tightened up.”
It’s not lost on officials in either party that Republicans may come up short in their bid to control the U.S. Senate because of Georgia, Kansas, and South Dakota, even if voters in Colorado and Iowa go with surprisingly right-wing candidates.
There are competing explanations for developments in Georgia, but the most obvious is Perdue’s outsourcing problem – the conservative Republican has boasted, more than once, about his controversial private-sector background, which includes significant job losses through outsourcing, on top of factory closings, consolidations, and reduced work hours at U.S. facilities.
Last week, pressed on his outsourcing record, Perdue told reporters, “Defend it? I’m proud of it.”
A couple of days ago, facing a new round of questions, the GOP Senate hopeful got a little defensive. Laura Clawson flagged this Perdue quote, which was all he would say on the subject.
“You know, the criticism I’ve gotten over the last few weeks is coming from people who really have no business background and really don’t understand, um, you know, what it takes to create jobs and create economic value, which is really what this free enterprise system is based on.”
Hmm. According to Perdue, if the people of Georgia, living in the state with the highest unemployment rate in the country, are bothered by outsourcing, it’s because they’re ignorant?
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/georgias-perdue-fears-voters-really-dont-understand
this mofo here!
…………..
Rand Paul’s recklessness spins out of control
10/17/14 09:17 AM
By Steve Benen
A couple of weeks ago, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) started making appearances on far-right radio, questioning Ebola assessments from the actual experts, blaming “political correctness,” and raising threats that seemed plainly at odds with the facts.
Soon after, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who directs the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Institutes at NIH, appeared on CBS and was presented with the Republican senator’s assessment. “I don’t think that there’s data to tell us that that’s a correct statement, with all due respect,” the doctor said.
At the risk of putting too fine a point on this, it’s no longer clear just how much respect Rand Paul is due. My msnbc colleague Benjy Sarlin reported yesterday from New Hampshire, where the senator appeared eager to move the public conversation backwards.
Rand Paul had a message for students at Plymouth State University who had gathered for a pizza party with the Kentucky senator on Thursday: Ebola is coming for us all and the government is hiding the truth about the deadly disease. […]
“This thing is incredibly contagious,” Paul said. “People are getting it, fully gowned, masked, and must be getting a very tiny inoculum and they’re still getting it. And then you lose more confidence because they’re telling you stuff that may not be exactly valid and they’re downplaying it so much that it doesn’t appear that they’re really being honest about it.”
On CNN, Paul added, “If someone has Ebola at a cocktail party they’re contagious and you can catch it from them. [The administration] should be honest about that…. You start to wonder about a basic level of competence.”
Yes, if there’s one person who has standing to whine about “a basic level of competence,” it’s the often confused junior senator from Kentucky – the one who’s deliberately contradicting medical experts, confusing the public at a difficult time.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/rand-pauls-recklessness-spins-out-control
But to hear the media, he’s the bees knees. Rand has been crowned king because he’s reaching out tho black folks.
A radical ideology comes into sharper focus
10/17/14 08:00 AM—UPDATED 10/17/14 08:30 AM
By Steve Benen
In last night’s debate in Iowa, Senate hopeful Joni Ernst (R) made two observations that connect in an important way. The right-wing state senator argued in support of a constitutional amendment that would require a balanced federal budget, before adding that she wouldn’t raise any tax under any circumstance.
Whether the Republican Senate hopeful understands this or not, the practical implications of these two positions are extraordinary: Ernst would effectively be required, under her own misguided constitutional mandate, to dismantle most of the federal government.
Then again, from Ernst’s perspective, that may very well be a feature of her plan, not a bug. Greg Sargent reported yesterday on a newly uncovered 2013 speech in which Ernst details her “rather stark views about the relationship of Americans with their government.”
In it, Ernst claims that we have created “a generation of people that rely on the government to provide absolutely everything for them,” and that wrenching them away from their dependence “is going to be very painful.” […]
In the audio, Ernst came out for a balanced budget amendment, said that would require “severe cuts,” reiterated her desire to eliminate the Department of Education, vowed a “good, hard look at entitlement programs,” and said electing a GOP Senate majority would be a key step towards all of this. She also said we are “encouraging people” to get on food stamps.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/radical-ideology-comes-sharper-focus
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Not demographics, It’s Turnout! #VoteLocal #GOTV #ShutdownTheGOP: Older Voters Will Decide Your Future? #UniteBlue http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/10/17/how-older-voters-will-decide-your-future.html?via=desktop&source=twitter …
6:10 AM – 17 Oct 2014
Ernst attempts a flip-flop-flip on personhood
10/16/14 04:59 PM
By Steve Benen
In 2014, many conservative Republicans are perfectly comfortable opposing reproductive rights in general, but as we discussed last week, “personhood” has become something of a third rail. Given recent developments, it’s understandable – personhood measures wouldn’t just ban all abortions, they’d also block common forms of birth control.
And Republicans clearly realize that opposing birth control in the 21st century, when the party is already struggling with the gender gap, isn’t a credible option.
With that in mind, longtime personhood champions, including Colorado’s Cory Gardner, Kentucky’s Rand Paul, and North Carolina’s Thom Tillis, have all begun to hedge on the radical proposal. Laura Bassett reports, however, that one personhood supporter is choosing a different course.
Iowa Republican Senate candidate Joni Ernst said she would support a federal bill that gives legal personhood rights to fetuses from the moment of fertilization, effectively wiping out legal abortion in the United States.
Ernst voted for a fetal personhood amendment in the Iowa State legislature in 2013, and she told the Sioux City Journal editorial board on Wednesday that she also would support a federal personhood measure if she were elected to the U.S. Senate.
“I will continue to stand by that. I am a pro-life candidate, and this has been shaped by my religious beliefs through the years,” she said. “So I support that.”
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/ernst-attempts-flip-flop-flip-personhood
Happy FRY-day, Everyone!
Good Morning, Everyone :)