After his move to Los Angeles, his music caught the eye of the mentor for pop/soul quintet The 5th Dimension, and Hutch was soon writing, producing, and arranging songs for the group. In 1969, he signed with RCA Records and put out two albums before he was spotted by Motown producer Hal Davis, who wanted lyrics to his musical composition “I’ll Be There”, a song he penned for The Jackson 5. The song was recorded by the group the morning after Hutch received the call. Motown CEO Berry Gordy signed Hutch to be a staff writer, arranger, producer, and musician shortly thereafter.
Hutch later co-wrote songs that were recorded by the Jackson 5 and their front man Michael Jackson, Smokey Robinson, the newly rechristened Miracles, and Marvin Gaye.
I’m just checking in after a long, but productive day at work. Got her done though!
Now on to the next project.
https://twitter.com/OhOkTash/status/563159575277617152/photo/1
Team Cookie!
http://www.etonline.com/tv/2015/01/24128076/Tumblr_nhu9opKcsa1u5351mo1_400.gif
DAMN! She went there.. I missed it tonight.
Scott Walker wants to drop ‘search for truth’ from the University of Wisconsin mission. Here’s why.
By Philip Bump February 4 at 2:23 PM
In his 2015 budget proposal, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) offers an unusual change amid the details of how and where he proposes spending the state’s money. As noted by the watchdog site PR Watch (and brought to our attention by journalist Abe Sauer), Walker would like to change the statement of purpose and mission for the University of Wisconsin system. Less talk about searching for truth; more talk about meeting the state’s workforce needs.
[…]
There are other proposed changes to the university, too. Among them: a new oversight body called the “University of Wisconsin System Authority,” removing a prohibition against allowing private construction on state-owned land without prior approval of a building commission, and limiting the powers of the Board of Regents. As you might already have read this week, the budget also proposes a massive cut to the university’s funding. It is a substantial overhaul — one that almost certainly reflects the change in language guiding the institution.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/02/04/scott-walker-wants-to-drop-search-for-truth-from-the-university-of-wisconsin-mission-heres-why/
From Reggie Love’s new book:
The next day, Obama and Clinton were both at Reagan National Airport on their way to Iowa for a debate, and the candidates met on the tarmac for what became a brief but heated conversation. Then-Obama personal aide Reggie Love witnessed the event and describes it in his new memoir:
“I want to apologize for the whole Shaheen thing,” Clinton said. “I want you to know I had nothing to do with it.”
The candidate very respectfully told her the apology was kind, but largely meaningless, given the emails it was rumored her camp had been sending out labeling him as a Muslim. Before he could finish his sentence, she exploded on Obama. In a matter of seconds, she went from composed to furious. It had not been Obama’s intention to upset her, but he wasn’t going to play the fool either. To all of us watching the spat unfold, it was an obvious turning point in our campaign, and we knew it. Clinton was no less competitive or committed to a cause than Obama, and the electric tension running through both candidates and their respective staffs reflected the understanding that she was no longer the de facto Democratic candidate. Her inevitability had been questioned. . . .
I remember Obama telling me later that day that he knew he was going to win the nomination after that moment on the tarmac, because Clinton had unraveled, and he was still standing and keeping his cool. It was just the confidence boost he needed.
— from “Power Forward,” by Reggie Love
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/book-party/wp/2015/01/29/the-moment-obama-knew-he-would-beat-hillary-clinton-for-the-2008-nomination/
https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris/status/563054707988758528/photo/1
https://twitter.com/CNBC/status/563029229344788480/photo/1
https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/563030490945703937/photo/1
https://twitter.com/usweekly/status/562465531148922880/photo/1
found at TOD:
http://theobamadiary.com/2015/02/04/vaccinations-and-social-responsibility/#comment-1256454
New York Police Commissioner Wants Resisting Arrest To Be A Felony
Members of the New York State Senate asked Police Commissioner Bill Bratton whether they should increase penalties for resisting arrest. The commissioner agreed.
posted on Feb. 4, 2015, at 12:45 p.m.
Nicolás Medina Mora
BuzzFeed News Reporter
NEW YORK CITY — Police Commissioner William Bratton said Wednesday that he would support legislation that would make resisting arrest a felony.
Bratton made the remarks during a public hearing with members of the New York State Senate. Currently, resisting arrest is a misdemeanor carrying a maximum sentence of one year. Felony crimes can carry much higher penalties, ranging from 4 years of probation to life in prison.
The discussion of new penalties came in the context of a conversation about recent protests against police brutality.
Bratton also asked the State Senate to make publishing the personal information of police officers a misdemeanor.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/nicolasmedinamora/new-york-police-commissioner-wants-resisting-arrest-to-be-a#.rqnJA9Ga
https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/563028616091828224/photo/1
Tue Feb 03, 2015 at 06:10 PM PST.
EXCLUSIVE – Koch Brothers, Rick Scott And Jeb Bush Exposed In Florida Pipeline Scandal
by Leslie Salzillo
Florida Attorney Steve Medina has been working on a case, pro bono, to expose the environmental corruption which has been taking place in Tallahassee and Putnam County, Florida.
Tons of toxic waste is being dumped into St. Johns River, daily, by the Koch Brothers company, Georgia-Pacific. Aspects of the deal allowing Georgia Pacific to massively assault the environment, were misleading, sometimes illegal, and unbeknownst to the local citizens. Florida Governor Rick Scott and former Governor (and Republican presidential hopeful), Jeb Bush, are also involved.
Last week, Steve Medina sent me the information below, for Daily Kos to break the story. The corruption evolves and unravels in a complicated and insidious manner and spans for about a decade, so enjoy the read. All of Medina’s reporting is backed up via extensive public records and court documents. With his permission, here is Steve Medina’s story:
We have learned recently that Florida Governor *Rick “Fifth Amendment” Scott is, how shall we say, ethically-challenged. Actually, that has been known for a long time, but who’s counting the past, this is Florida, land of forgiveness, opportunity, and no state income tax! Give them your relaxed, your wealthy, your huddled plutocrats yearning to breathe free. Put your wretched refuse beneath their teaming shores. Send these, the multi-homed, tempest-tossed, to them: Their elected officials snuff out their lamp beside the golden door.
You may know Florida’s immediately past commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement seems to have been given the heave ho by Governor Scott not only for patently political reasons but without particular attention to Florida law. http://www.dailykos.com/… (In Florida, if you are Governor Scott, perhaps you would not want an FDLE commissioner who actually investigates things, especially potential white collar crimes involving public corruption.)
Meanwhile, you probably don’t know that, for the past two years, thanks to Governor Scott, a veritable fountainhead of toxic waste has been directly dumped every day into the heart of “Florida’s American Heritage River,” http://upf.com/… the St. Johns. As discussed below, it is released through what is contended in a legal action to be an illegally-approved pipeline, the circumstances of which Governor Scott, as the current chairperson of Florida’s Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund, refuses to investigate.
To investigate these circumstances would be to investigate the highly questionable actions of yet another state agency, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. These actions in turn reach back into the Jeb Bush administration (1999-2007), when then Governor Bush and the Florida Cabinet, over the objection of then Attorney General Charlie Crist, gave preliminary approval for a Georgia-Pacific pipeline from its Palatka paper mill to the St. Johns River.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/02/03/1361864/-EXCLUSIVE-Koch-Brothers-Rick-Scott-And-Jeb-Bush-Exposed-In-Florida-Pipeline-Scandal#
this is another reason why they hate PBO
………………
For-Profit College That Allegedly Conned Students Will Forgive $480 Million In Debts
Students who were bilked into taking abusive high-interest student loans out from a leading for-profit college company will get some significant relief, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced Tuesday. A total of $480 million in debt will ultimately be forgiven under the arrangement and 40 percent of the amount will be forgiven immediately for people who took out private loans from Corinthian Colleges’ so-called “Genesis” program.
Under federal pressure over its recruiting and student lending practices, Corinthian just completed a deal to sell half its campuses to a company called ECMC. ECMC will take a number of steps to convert the schools from Corinthian’s notorious business model to one that the Department of Education hopes will operate more benevolently and provide students with better outcomes. Tuesday’s debt writedown will cost ECMC a little bit of money, but in exchange they will be immune from liability in a nearly $570 million CFPB lawsuit.
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/02/04/3618792/corinthian-colleges-loan-forgiveness-debt-buyer/
EMPIRE FANS,
SOME CLIPS
Published on Feb 3, 2015
Jamal takes Cookie to his new recording studio.
http://youtu.be/zCryN6zEzEo
Published on Feb 3, 2015
Cookie fears for her life after a court appearance.
http://youtu.be/_aFIkZN-CoI
Published on Feb 3, 2015
Hakeem finds out the truth about Tiana.
(HE was HER Beard! LOL)
http://youtu.be/v6ZeIhc-aTo
Siding with Obama, FCC to push ‘strongest ever’ Internet rules
By Julian Hattem – 02/04/15 11:12 AM EST
Federal regulators will follow President Obama’s call and reclassify Internet service so that it can be regulated like a utility, the head of the Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday.
Chairman Tom Wheeler announced he will embrace the controversial approach to the regulations, ending months of speculation about the FCC’s plans.
The new rules that he will circulate to his four fellow commissioners this week are the “strongest open Internet protections ever proposed by the FCC,” Wheeler said in an op-ed in Wired.
http://thehill.com/policy/technology/231701-fcc-to-push-strongest-open-internet-protections-ever
Jeb Bush follows familiar footsteps
02/04/15 12:48 PM—UPDATED 02/04/15 12:50 PM
By Steve Benen
Just last week, former Gov. Jennifer Granholm wrote an interesting piece offering words of encouragement to Mitt Romney supporters who were disappointed he isn’t running again. As Granholm put it, “Even though Romney may technically be out of the race, he’s not really out. Why? Because Jeb Bush is in, and the two are basically the same.”
To be sure, the similarities aren’t precise. Bush, for example, won more than one election. But they’re both sons of successful politicians; they’re both former governors; they both have a private-equity background; and they both have a fair amount of experience with off-shore tax havens.
Today, there are some additional parallels to remember.
With his top early rival Mitt Romney out of the picture, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush planned to take the stage [in Detroit] Tuesday to deliver one of his first major speeches since announcing in December that he may run for president.
Bush planned to address the slow pace of economic recovery in his remarks to the Detroit Economic Club, according to excerpts provided by his Right to Rise PAC. He blames Washington politicians for not understanding the needs of millions around the country still looking for work.
In the last election, when Romney first laid out his economic vision, he also spoke in Detroit – it really didn’t go well – which only serves to remind us of something else the two have in common: both opposed President Obama’s successful rescue of the American auto industry, which is of particular interest in Detroit.
From a 2012 report about Bush as a possible Romney running mate:
*Bush said that until the hearing, he hadn’t been asked his opinion on the automotive bailout or the bank bailouts. He told the committee he didn’t support the auto bailout – what he describes as “a form of capitalism where the government intervenes in a very muscular kind of way.” The position puts him in line with Romney.
A couple of months ago, Bloomberg Politics ran a report with a memorable headline: “Jeb Bush Has a Mitt Romney Problem.” Josh Green noted, among other things, “As a budding private equity mogul, [Jeb Bush has] begun to resemble a Mini-Mitt.”
It’s a dynamic to keep in mind as the race continues to unfold.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/jeb-bush-follows-familiar-footsteps
this will not end well
…………..
Kerry Washington’s “Professional” Hair
February 3, 2015 by Julia Robins
Scandal has been lauded, and rightfully so, for its decision to debut Kerry Washington’s natural curls in its fourth season premiere last September. But little has been said regarding the brevity, content or meaning behind the hit television show’s portrayal of Washington’s hair.
So let’s lay it out.
September’s season premiere opened with a camera-pan over miles of turquoise waters before settling on a small island off in the distance. We then see Washington, lounging on the beach of an unmarked island, reading Gone Girl, and sipping on a glass of expensive red wine before getting cozy with one of her lovers. Here on this island, far away from any semblance of the “real” world, she’s not the character Olivia Pope; she’s chosen the pseudonym Julia Baker. This scene of escapism lasts for a little less than three minutes. For the remaining 40, we get to see the “real” Olivia Pope in the “real” world, with hair that “real” professional women sport.
Washington’s curls make a second appearance in Episode Six. This time, there’s no escapism, at least not in the literal sense. Olivia Pope is in her own bed, in Washington, D.C., with her own name and natural curls. But she’s not alone. No, she’s having a sort of sexual fantasy/nightmare that ends with her assassin father shouting at her to “wake up” and begins with her going back and forth between both of her love interests. This scene only lasts about a minute; she has straight hair for the rest of the episode.
http://msmagazine.com/blog/2015/02/03/kerry-washingtons-professional-hair/
GOP plan ‘will be flown in by a unicorn sliding down a rainbow’
02/04/15 10:06 AM
By Steve Benen
The most interesting part of the 56th time House Republicans voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act? The part of the GOP bill that separated it from the first 55 votes.
As expected yesterday afternoon, House Republicans approved yet another bill to eliminate the entirety of “Obamacare” and all of the benefits it’s providing to tens of millions of families, replacing the ACA with nothing. Republicans’ heart didn’t seem in it, but they went through the motions anyway, passing the bill on a 239-186 vote.
Literally zero Democrats went along this time – the Blue Dog Caucus has clearly shrunk – and three GOP members actually broke ranks and voted with the Democratic minority.
Republicans Bruce Poliquin of Maine, John Katko of New York and Robert Dold of Illinois were the lone three defections in either party on what’s being billed as the chamber’s 56th vote since 2011 to undo parts of the 2010 health law.
The defectors’ rationale? They might hate Obamacare, but Republicans still haven’t put forward a legislative proposal that would act as a substitute in the event the law ever got repealed.
“The people of the 10th District sent me to Congress to advance solutions, not sound bites, to the problems we face,” said Dold…. He continued, “Casting yet another symbolic vote for full repeal of the law, without any replacement legislation, simply distracts us from the work that must be done to drive costs down, restore access to care and make healthcare work for everyone.”
But that’s not the funny part. Rather, the most striking aspect of yesterday’s vote was the additional language included in the GOP bill in which Republicans established guidelines for the party’s new-and-currently-non-existent alternative to the Affordable Care Act.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/gop-plan-will-be-flown-unicorn-sliding-down-rainbow
In this installment of The Illipsis, Jay Smooth caps off the most recent NFL season by celebrating “this season’s real MVP,” Seattle Seahawks running back the Marshawn Lynch, whose ornery standoffishness should be considered a kind of guerrilla theater. “It’s shown us so much about how we all think America is supposed to work, and how differently some of us think about that than others,” Jay says. “For a whole lot of the rest of us, Marshawn Lynch’s theater of disobedience has been the most perfect, most poetic counternarrative about how we experience America and how we wish America could work.”
http://youtu.be/SUI54niIfl8
Country singer delights Fox News with song about kicking black Congressman’s ass
David Edwards 04 Feb 2015 at 09:35 ET
Country music singer Larry Gatlin on Wednesday told the hosts of Fox & Friends that he was prepared to physically assault a Democratic lawmaker who had insulted the state of Texas.
During a heated discussion on the House Rules Committee hearing on
Monday about why the Affordable Care Act had not been fully implemented in some states, Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) called Texas a “crazy state.”
“I don’t know about in your state, which I think is a crazy state to
begin with — and I mean that just as I said it,” Hastings said, adding
that he would not live in Texas “for all the tea in China.”
Gatlin, who is a conservative activist and a Texas native, was
invited to come on Fox News on Wednesday to share a song in response to
Hastings.
“The eyes of Texas are upon you / Better not come near,” Gatlin sang.
“The eyes of Texas are upon you / I think you’d best steer clear.”
“You said things about my Texas that just were not kind / And if I get a chance, I’ll open up cowboy boot shop in your behind.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/02/country-singer-delights-fox-news-with-song-about-kicking-black-congressmans-ass/
Minister opens Tennessee Senate with prayer to end Medicaid expansion
State Senate Trots Out Wingnut To Pray … Against Insure Tennessee?
Posted By Steve Cavendish on Tue, Feb 3, 2015 at 11:38 AM
I’ve never really heard a prayer like this before. At the start of the state Senate’s business today, a guest of Sen. Frank Nicely (R-Strawberry Plains), June Griffin, offered the following prayer, with her voice sometimes breaking as she beseeched the Maker:
Almighty God of our fathers, I thank you for this privilege of speaking before this august body, thou who didst lead John Sevier, Alvin York, Brownlow and those great men in our history, I pray that your spirit would be in this chamber. And I want to especially speak about our great heritage of standing up for God and the bible. I thank you that you have preserved us to this hour.
I pray for the people of Tennessee who have been so downtrodden by the wicked courts from on high that they have been subject to tyrannical judiciary. And I pray that you would save Tennessee from the edicts of Washington DC that would go against the plain wishes of the people of Tennessee, particularly pertaining to the 9th and 10th Amendment.
I pray that you would sanctify this state, that it would be holy and would be a leader among the other states. That they would see that there is a God that lives, that you love the people of Tennessee. That you gave your life that we might be saved from our sins. I pray that you would forgive the many sins of carelessness or lethargy or desperation. The compromises.
Oh lord save Tennessee for Jesus sake, and I pray that your will would be done that you would be our coverage, that we would not be forced into these edicts from Washington DC or any other quarter, but let the people know that our coverage is the same as with Moses and the children of Israel when they went through the wilderness with only the divine providence of almighty God.
So I pray that everywhere there are meetings, and there is considerations and deliberations, that you would give these men and women who have been elected, give them the backbone and the remembrance of the Tennessee Declaration of Rights, Article 1, Section 2 — we are ordered to resist arbitrary power.
And I pray that this Bill Ketron would know your healing hand, that you would be with him and show him his responsibility. And show him that you are Jehovah Rapha, I am the lord thy God that healeth thee. I pray that healing would come to our state. That you would show that you favor us, because we love thee. Our fathers loved thee. And so we ask all of these things through our great and merciful high priest, who prays for us night and day. Save us from all of the enemies of our holy liberties. In Jesus holy name, Amen.
http://www.nashvillescene.com/pitw/archives/2015/02/03/state-senate-trots-out-wingnut-to-pray-against-insure-tennessee
Rand Paul and ‘temporal’ relationships
02/04/15 08:01 AM—UPDATED 02/04/15 08:09 AM
By Steve Benen
No one likes admitting when they’re wrong, especially in politics, but owning up to missteps is occasionally necessary.
Someone probably ought to let Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) know.
On a few too many occasions, the Republican senator and likely presidential candidate has caused trouble for himself, and in each instance, instead of acknowledging an error, Paul takes a less constructive course. When he objected to provisions of the Civil Rights Act, the Kentucky lawmaker lashed at out the media for reporting what he said. When he got caught plagiarizing, he again blamed journalists. When he argued that the U.S. should end aid to Israel, Paul denied saying his own words.
And yesterday, it happened again on vaccines.
Paul attempted to clarify his comments in a statement Tuesday, saying, “I did not say vaccines caused disorders, just that they were temporally related – I did not allege causation. I support vaccines, I receive them myself and I had all of my children vaccinated.”
A day earlier, in a nationally televised interview, the senator specifically said, on camera, “I have heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines.”
Paul’s new explanation is that vaccines and mental disorders are “temporally related”? Seriously? The senator would have us believe he thinks vaccines and mental disorders are roughly in the same place on some kind of space-time continuum?
Soon after, the GOP lawmaker tweeted a picture of himself getting a booster vaccine. “Wonder how the liberal media will misreport this?” he asked in the message.
So far, Paul hasn’t pointed to any evidence that news organizations “misreported” his original comments by airing portions of his televised interview.
Making matters just a little worse, additional details from Paul’s recent past came to light yesterday:
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/rand-paul-and-temporal-relationships
saw this last night and just went WOW
https://twitter.com/brianstelter/status/562825549249531906/photo/1
For the First Time, Universal Pictures to Release ‘Imitation of Life’ 2-Movie Collection – Digitally Remastered & Fully Restored
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
February 3, 2015 at 1:17PM
Announced today, from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, the “Imitation of Life” 2-Movie Collection, brings one the of the most beloved and respected stories of all-time to Blu-ray, for the first time on April 7, 2015.
Based on the 1933 best-selling novel by Fannie Hurst, the emotionally-charged drama chronicles the lives of 2 widowed friends – one white and one black – and their troubled daughters, as they struggle to find true happiness in a world plagued by racism. An explosive subject then and now, both films present the cultural dilemma of racial issues as well as romance, family, success and tragedy in surprisingly candid ways that still resonate with audiences today.
The “Imitation of Life” 2-Movie Collection includes both versions of the film: the original 1934 Best Picture nominee starring Claudette Colbert and Louise Beavers; and the 1959 masterpiece directed by Douglas Sirk, starring Lana Turner, Juanita Moore, Sandra Dee and Susan Kohner.
In the roles of the sacrificing mother and her light-skin daughter caught between two different worlds trying to “pass” as white to achieve greater personal success, both Moore and Kohner respectively were nominated for Best-Supporting Actress.
Both films have been digitally remastered and fully restored from high resolution 35MM original film elements and include the following bonus features:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/for-the-first-time-universal-pictures-to-release-imitation-of-life-2-movie-collection-digitally-remastered-fully-restored-20150203
Holder Fires Back at GOP: ‘There’s Been No Politicization of This Justice Department’
by Josh Feldman | 10:04 pm, February 3rd, 2015
Last week the Senate held confirmation hearings for Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch, but a lot of the questions from Republicans centered around the current occupant of that office, with one even going so far as to ask Lynch if she is Eric Holder.
Today, Holder himself held a news conference in which he started out by saying, “For the record, I am Eric Holder.”
From there, the attorney general went after Republican critics in possibly one of the last (if not the last) press conferences of his tenure leading the DOJ. He said it’s “a little irresponsible for people on the hill to say that policy differences that we have with them… can be characterized as political.”
http://www.mediaite.com/online/holder-fires-back-at-gop-theres-been-no-politicization-of-this-justice-department/
Blaxploitation Masterpiece ‘Truck Turner,’ Starring Isaac Hayes, Coming to Blu-ray in July
By Sergio | Shadow and Act
February 3, 2015 at 8:21PM
2015 is increasingly looking like a really great year for Blu-ray DVD releases. First there was the news I reported a few weeks ago (HERE) that the classic film “Coffy,” with Pam Grier, was coming out, for the first time on Blu-ray DVD. And now comes news that another classic will be coming out this summer on Blu-ray as well.
Anyone who has followed this site knows that I deeply love me some Blaxploitation films. I was raised on Blaxploitation movies. They are the films that made me – for better and (mainly) for worse. These were the films that made me want to make movies.
So when Kino Studio Classics announced today that they would be releasing Jonathan Kaplan’s 1974 film “Truck Turner,” starring Isaac Hayes in the lead role, I nearly jumped out of my seat. It’s been a long time coming!
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/blaxploitation-masterpiece-isaac-hayes-truck-turner-coming-out-on-blu-ray-dvd-in-july-20150203
Watch 3 Clips from TV One’s Segregation-Era Original Film ‘White Water’ (Sharon Leal, Larenz Tate Star)
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
February 3, 2015 at 10:09AM
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/watch-3-clips-from-tv-ones-segregation-era-original-film-white-water-sharon-leal-larenz-tate-star-20150203
The Basketball Diaries of Barack Obama
A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the President’s Game; Teaching Sasha the Pick-and-Roll
By
Reggie Love
Feb. 3, 2015 11:00 a.m. ET
15 COMMENTS
The following is an excerpt from the new book “Power Forward: My Presidential Education” by Reggie Love, President Barack Obama ’s former personal aide and a member of Duke’s 2001 national-championship basketball team.
I’ll never forget the night I got an email from the future president of the United States consisting only of Tony Parker’s stat line.
I typed an email back to Barack Obama: “Those are good numbers. But it was against a weak team.” Then I added Chris Paul’s stats.
I had been Obama’s personal aide for a few months by then. But with that little exchange, something shifted in our relationship. I like to believe that learning to handle my responsibilities earned me Obama’s trust. But I also know that the strength of our friendship grew out of our shared love of basketball.
Basketball was our common ground—something we could talk about that didn’t drain him like his other daily conversations could. Basketball modified the tenor of our interactions and took us from boss and underling to something more like friends.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-basketball-diaries-of-barack-obama-1422979251?mod=WSJ_GoogleNews
https://twitter.com/USATODAY/status/562615668248686592/photo/1
https://twitter.com/TheObamaDiary/status/562976348889968641/photo/1
https://twitter.com/ranman09/status/562947325778493442/photo/1
Obama shocked, ‘slightly irritated’ by Mitt Romney’s 2012 concession call: David Axelrod
Feb 3, 2015
President Obama was shocked and irritated by Mitt Romney’s concession callin the 2012 presidential election — and claimed Romney insinuated that Obama won only by getting out the black vote, according to a new book by presidential campaign strategist David Axelrod.
Obama was “unsmiling during the call, and slightly irritated when it was over,” Axelrod writes.
The president hung up and said Romney admitted he was surprised at his own loss, Axelrod wrote.
“‘You really did a great job of getting the vote out in places like Cleveland and Milwaukee,’ in other words, black people,'” Obama said, paraphrasing Romney. “That’s what he thinks this was all about.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/obama-irriated-romney-2012-concession-david-axelrod-article-1.2102383
Well, PBO is right. Mitt Romney made it very clear that he expected to win, that is until it became obvious even to him that he wasn’t winning. He didn’t take it well, as we know.
Golf pioneer Charlie Sifford dies
Updated: February 4, 2015, 7:04 AM ET
Associated Press
Charlie Sifford, who only wanted a chance to play and who broke the
color barrier in golf as the first black PGA Tour member, died Tuesday night, the PGA of America said.
Sifford, who recently had suffered a stroke, was 92. Details of his
death and funeral arrangements were not immediately available.
“His love of golf, despite many barriers in his path, strengthened him as he became a beacon for diversity in our game,” PGA of America president Derek Sprague said. “By his courage, Dr. Sifford inspired others to follow their dreams. Golf was fortunate to have had this exceptional American in our midst.”
A proud man who endured racial taunts and threats, Sifford set modest goals and achieved more than he had imagined.
Sifford challenged the Caucasian-only clause, and the PGA rescinded
it in 1961. He won the Greater Hartford Open in 1967 and the Los Angeles Open in 1969. He also won the 1975 Senior PGA Championship, five years before the Champions Tour was created.
His career was fully recognized in 2004 when he became the first
African-American inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. This past November, President Barack Obama presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer are the only other golfers who received that honor.
http://espn.go.com/golf/story/_/id/12276698/charlie-sifford-golf-pioneer-dies-92
Taking ‘E. coli conservatism’ to a whole new level
02/04/15 08:45 AM
By Steve Benen
Several years ago, towards the end of the Bush/Cheney era, historian Rick Perlstein coined a powerful phrase: “E. coli conservatism.” The slogan coincided with a rash of food-safety controversies – tomatoes with salmonella, spinach with E. coli – resulting from lax governmental regulations.
Perlstein’s refrain, of course, was intended to convey a larger policy point: when government pulls back on safeguards intended to protect the public, there are often hazardous consequences. (Rachel had a great segment on this several years ago, highlighting congressional Republican efforts to eliminate funding entirely on an E. coli screening program.)
All of which leads us to Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who argued this week that under his vision of “regulatory reform,” he’d allow coffee shops, for example, to scrap requirements that employees must wash their hands after going to the bathroom.
Andrew Rosenthal noted, “It is often hard to tell whether Republican legislators are joking, because so many of the things they say are unintentionally funny. So I don’t know whether Senator Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, was trying to be a latter day Jonathan Swift or was perfectly serious when he said restaurants are over-regulated and should not be required to tell employees to wash their hands after using the toilet.”
The good news is, Tillis suggested yesterday he was kidding. The bad news is, the far-right senator then repeated his entire argument to an AP reporter in such a way as to make clear he wasn’t kidding.
Tillis defended his point in an interview Tuesday in the Capitol.
“Sometimes there are regulations that maybe we want to set a direction, but then let those who are regulated decide whether or not it makes sense,” he said. They might pay a huge price, he said, but “they get to make that decision versus government.”
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/taking-e-coli-conservatism-whole-new-level
The best snack food in every state
http://www.msn.com/en-us/foodanddrink/foodnews/the-best-snack-food-in-every-state/ss-AA8wlf8?ocid=HPCDHP
mmmm….some look so good.
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Rosa Parks was born on this day in 1913
“Rosa Parks Papers to Be Opened to Researchers”
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/03/rosa-parks-papers-to-be-opened-to-researchers/?smid=tw-nytimes&_r=0
Excerpt:
The Rosa Parks Collection at the Library of Congress is set to open to researchers on Wednesday, coinciding with what would have been Ms. Parks’s… birthday.
The collection includes roughly 7,500 manuscripts and 2,500 photographs, as well as artifacts like her Presidential Medal of Freedom, letters from various presidents and drawings sent to her by schoolchildren.
It is at the library on a 10-year loan from the philanthropist Howard G. Buffett, who purchased the collection through his foundation in August for $4.5 million after a legal dispute between Ms. Parks’s heirs and the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development.
Good morning, Chics! I have to get my dance on this morning. Willie Hutch makes me feel some kinda way playing that guitar! ;)
Good Morning, SG2 & Everyone. :-)))
I see you, SG2, you’re getting your SLICK on. LOL
:)
Check your email
Got it.
Hey, been gone all day. It was foggy and misty. Yuck!
It’s cold as a well digger’s azz, as a witches tit in a brass bra…. Shall I go on? LOL
LOL
SG2….
You’re stepping!!