Friday, September 28, 2012
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Friday, September 21, 2012
The Choice is Stark and Clear
by Dee Newman
Right wing conservatives have been whining about taxes forever. They believe in a lower, flat or less progressive tax rate that does not increase in proportion to ones taxable income, a tax rate that does not recognize that progressive salaries demand progressive taxes, a tax rate that would only permit government to protect our lives, rights and property, a tax rate that would continue to allow the rich to get richer while the rest of us foot the bill.
Though their trickle-down economic policies, once again, nearly brought us to the brink of another Great Depression four years ago, they still want us to return to those thrilling days of Calvin Coolidge and his laissez-faire government with few regulations, enough only to protect their individual rights from theft and their corporate property rights from organized labor and collective bargaining. We all know (or should know) what that got us – the Crash of 1929 and ten years of mass unemployment and economic disparity.
I realize it is difficult to prove, but most economist (even conservative) believe that we would be experiencing yet another crisis of that proportion, if it were not for President Obama and his fiscal policies.
When the Banking Act of 1933 (the Glass-Steagall Act) that limited commercial bank securities activities and affiliations between commercial banks and securities firms was repealed through the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in 1999, we should have known that it was only a matter of time (less than a decade) before the proverbial shit hit the fan.
I admit, it is beyond my understanding why so many working-class Americans, whose jobs and livelihood have been indisputably threatened by conservative monetary pursuits, would continue to support such repressive candidates and injurious economic policies, policies that have allowed the rich to get richer, while the rest of us are left to scrounge for the dregs and the crumbs.
But, here we are, once again, with a choice – a stark, clear choice – to return to the past of lower and lower taxes for the rich and unregulated corporate greed or forward to a future of progress for all. Yes a choice to vote for an oligarch or a man of the people.
We will only have ourselves to blame if we allow the top one-percent (the filthy rich and powerful) and their uncountable fortunes (enhanced by Bush’s tax breaks and deregulations) to manipulate stupidity and buy this election with their hundreds of millions of dollars of hidden donations.
From The Onion
Romney Apologizes To Nation's 150 Million 'Starving, Filthy Beggars'
September 18, 2012 | ISSUE 48•38 | More News
SALT LAKE CITY—Seeking to limit the fallout from a videotaped speech in which he asserts 47 percent of Americans “pay no taxes” and do not take “personal responsibility and care for their lives,” Mitt Romney hastily called a press conference today to apologize personally to the “150 million starving, filthy beggars [he] might have offended.”
Saying that he deeply regretted his choice of words at a private $50,000-a-plate fundraising function in May—during which he argued “[his] job is not to worry” about the lower-earning half of the nation’s populace—Romney personally appealed to the country’s “dirt-caked garbage pickers and toothless street urchins” for forgiveness.
“First and foremost, I would like to offer a heartfelt apology to all the whores, junkies, bums, and grime-covered derelicts out there who make up nearly half our nation,” a visibly contrite and solemn Romney said outside a campaign stop at a local high school. “Let me assure you that I in no way meant to offend any of the putrid-smelling, barefoot masses out there. My campaign is not about dividing this nation, but about bringing all sides together—the rich, elegant members of the upper class, as well as the 47 percent who are covered in flies and eat directly from back-alley dumpsters.”
“I am fully committed to building a better future for every American,” Romney continued, “and that means ensuring all 150 million grease-and-urine-soaked members of our society get a fair shake.”
The Romney campaign reportedly scrambled into damage-control mode after the video leaked Monday, issuing a statement late last night stating that the intended target of Romney’s remarks was ingrained big-government largesse, not the “hordes of uneducated, loathsome scum who unfortunately populate this country.”
However, with Romney’s comments continuing to dominate the news cycle today, the campaign opted to convene a press event to allow Romney to speak directly to the nation’s “grimy panhandlers and coke-addled whores” so that he could issue an apology and explain his familiarity with their struggles.
“I know just how hard it must be to get through a miserable, destitute life that is rife with crying babies whose shrieks consistently disrupt the affluent members of society who actually contribute something to this world,” said the GOP candidate, adding that he wanted to make amends for his recent statements and reach out to what he called the country’s “snaggle-toothed street people” and “hell-spawned savages.” “I know it can be challenging to wake each morning, covered in your own feces and refuse, and get back out there on the streets to beg for spare change and food scraps, always one step from dying right there in an alley.”
“I know your challenges, and I am ready to fight for you,” he added
Romney also said he recognized that the hardships of the nation’s low-earners are made more difficult by the fact that so “very, very many of them are drug-addicted, high-school-dropout single mothers and fathers who sleep in gutters while sewer rats nibble at their necrotic flesh.”
In an effort to right his campaign and rebuild his image, Romney promised to bring his message of compassion and economic opportunity to the “ramshackle, mud-floored huts” in which half of all U.S. residents live.
“Let me make this absolutely clear: I have the utmost respect for all of the filth-encrusted, lesion-covered degenerates of this nation,” Romney said. “In the coming weeks, I look forward to meeting real Americans in their squalid, roach-infested hellholes in every corner of this country. I promise to stand up for every one of you, even the 47 percent of you huddled together for warmth, fighting your own family members for moldy crusts of bread as you wallow in your own excrement.”
Added Romney, “And I look forward to serving you as your next president.”
September 18, 2012 | ISSUE 48•38 | More News
SALT LAKE CITY—Seeking to limit the fallout from a videotaped speech in which he asserts 47 percent of Americans “pay no taxes” and do not take “personal responsibility and care for their lives,” Mitt Romney hastily called a press conference today to apologize personally to the “150 million starving, filthy beggars [he] might have offended.”
Saying that he deeply regretted his choice of words at a private $50,000-a-plate fundraising function in May—during which he argued “[his] job is not to worry” about the lower-earning half of the nation’s populace—Romney personally appealed to the country’s “dirt-caked garbage pickers and toothless street urchins” for forgiveness.
“First and foremost, I would like to offer a heartfelt apology to all the whores, junkies, bums, and grime-covered derelicts out there who make up nearly half our nation,” a visibly contrite and solemn Romney said outside a campaign stop at a local high school. “Let me assure you that I in no way meant to offend any of the putrid-smelling, barefoot masses out there. My campaign is not about dividing this nation, but about bringing all sides together—the rich, elegant members of the upper class, as well as the 47 percent who are covered in flies and eat directly from back-alley dumpsters.”
“I am fully committed to building a better future for every American,” Romney continued, “and that means ensuring all 150 million grease-and-urine-soaked members of our society get a fair shake.”
The Romney campaign reportedly scrambled into damage-control mode after the video leaked Monday, issuing a statement late last night stating that the intended target of Romney’s remarks was ingrained big-government largesse, not the “hordes of uneducated, loathsome scum who unfortunately populate this country.”
However, with Romney’s comments continuing to dominate the news cycle today, the campaign opted to convene a press event to allow Romney to speak directly to the nation’s “grimy panhandlers and coke-addled whores” so that he could issue an apology and explain his familiarity with their struggles.
“I know just how hard it must be to get through a miserable, destitute life that is rife with crying babies whose shrieks consistently disrupt the affluent members of society who actually contribute something to this world,” said the GOP candidate, adding that he wanted to make amends for his recent statements and reach out to what he called the country’s “snaggle-toothed street people” and “hell-spawned savages.” “I know it can be challenging to wake each morning, covered in your own feces and refuse, and get back out there on the streets to beg for spare change and food scraps, always one step from dying right there in an alley.”
“I know your challenges, and I am ready to fight for you,” he added
Romney also said he recognized that the hardships of the nation’s low-earners are made more difficult by the fact that so “very, very many of them are drug-addicted, high-school-dropout single mothers and fathers who sleep in gutters while sewer rats nibble at their necrotic flesh.”
In an effort to right his campaign and rebuild his image, Romney promised to bring his message of compassion and economic opportunity to the “ramshackle, mud-floored huts” in which half of all U.S. residents live.
“Let me make this absolutely clear: I have the utmost respect for all of the filth-encrusted, lesion-covered degenerates of this nation,” Romney said. “In the coming weeks, I look forward to meeting real Americans in their squalid, roach-infested hellholes in every corner of this country. I promise to stand up for every one of you, even the 47 percent of you huddled together for warmth, fighting your own family members for moldy crusts of bread as you wallow in your own excrement.”
Added Romney, “And I look forward to serving you as your next president.”
We Must Not Be Complacent
by Dee Newman
The latest Pew Research Center survey of likely voters shows President Obama ahead of Romney 51% to 43%. The poll was conducted and released before Romney’s "47 percent victim" video remarks became public. It would seem that our President’s re-election is more certain than ever.
But, don’t be too sure!
To date, 11 states controlled by Republican governors and legislatures have enacted voter identification laws designed to diminish Democratic turnout and disenfranchise the young and minority voters. They have also greatly reduced the number of pre-election voting days.
Republican operatives are now in the process of organizing so-called "voter vigilance committees” to monitor polling stations to prevent (nonexistent) “fraud". In other words, they intend to do everything they possibly can to intimidate Democratic voters and reduce turnout.
At this point we do not know how successful their efforts will be. We only know (as they have proven time and time again) they will do and say anything to win.
And, don’t forget those Diebold voting machines are still up and running?
The polls may indicate that we are in the lead, but we must not be complacent. There is much to be done in the next seven weeks to get out the vote. Do what you can.
And please, vote early (and often). Just kidding about the often.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Compare and Contrast
by Dee Newman
To demonstrate how fair and balanced they are, the news media has found it necessary to compare Mitt Romney's politically embarrassing “47 percent” remarks secretly recorded back in May to a four-year-old closed-door recording of then Senator Obama talking about how some working-class voters "cling to guns and religion" when things are not going so well for them economically. The parallels, they say, between the two events are salient.
But, are they? It’s true; they both expose the candidates candidly characterizing a voting segment of our country. But, Obama went on to tell his supporters that he not only understood why certain folks felt so “bitter’, but that he intended to seek their vote because he felt his plan would help them.
Conversely, Romney’s remarks present an entirely different perspective. Instead of defending the “47 percent”, Romney not only writes them off, he chastises them as government dependent "victims" who need to "take personal responsibility and care for their lives."
Obama’s comments reveal a person who (back then) wanted to become president of all Americans, even to his embittered opposition. Romney, on the other hand, seems to believe that nearly half of our nation is composed of hopeless hostile parasites who do not warrant or deserve his concern.
To characterizes or compare the two events as analogous is ludicrous. The contrasts are too great.
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
From CBS News (Spencer West)
(CBS News) Spencer West completed an amazing feat: He climbed the world's largest stand-alone mountain in the world, the Mount Kilimanjaro Volcano in Tanzania. Even more amazing? He has no legs.
But West says he wants to be defined by more than the fact that he is a double amputee.
"I don't have any legs. That's the obvious thing..." he said Thursday on "CBS This Morning."
"The second piece is that doesn't just define who I am. What defines who I am is my name, what I do for my job, what am I interested in. All of those things define who I am. Not just I don't have any legs. So we can talk about that. But then I would rather be known for the work that I do and who I am as a person other than just Spencer West without legs."
West said he credits his parents for the person he has become. "They raised me...to not ever see myself as different, but to also focus on what I could do instead of focusing on what I can't do because I was told I would never be a functioning member of society. We refused to believe that. We sort of set out to redefine what's possible for me."
West said he realized he was different when he went out in public. He said, "My friends and family treated me like everybody else. I never thought I was different until I went out in public. Then when I went in public, people want to know, 'Where are your legs,' 'What happened?' I was like, 'I'm missing something here, I guess I am different.'"
But being different didn't stop West from taking on challenges such as the climb. He said the catalyst for the effort was to help the people in Africa who inspired him to tell his story.
He said, "This incredible community (in Kenya) that helped me find my passion - in the power of my story - I went back...and I started to see the effects of one of the largest droughts Africa has seen in over 60 years. Suddenly, this community that helped me find my passion now needed my help. That was ...(the) catalyst behind the climb and why we wanted to do it."
West's effort on the mountain helped raise $750,000 for the non-profit Free the Children to help drought-ridden areas in Africa find sustainable, clean water sources.
William Kristol on Romney
"Romney's comments are stupid and arrogant."
The following is what William Kristol said (from The Weekly Standard) about Mitt Romney's comments concerning the 47% who do not pay income tax:
From The New York Times (David Brooks on Romney)
Thurston Howell Romney
By DAVID BROOKS
Published: September 17, 2012
In 1980, about 30 percent of Americans received some form of government benefits. Today, as Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute has pointed out, about 49 percent do.In 1960, government transfers to individuals totaled $24 billion. By 2010, that total was 100 times as large. Even after adjusting for inflation, entitlement transfers to individuals have grown by more than 700 percent over the last 50 years. This spending surge, Eberstadt notes, has increased faster under Republican administrations than Democratic ones.
There are sensible conclusions to be drawn from these facts. You could say that the entitlement state is growing at an unsustainable rate and will bankrupt the country. You could also say that America is spending way too much on health care for the elderly and way too little on young families and investments in the future.
But these are not the sensible arguments that Mitt Romney made at a fund-raiser earlier this year. Romney, who criticizes President Obama for dividing the nation, divided the nation into two groups: the makers and the moochers. Forty-seven percent of the country, he said, are people “who are dependent upon government, who believe they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to take care of them, who believe they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it.”
This comment suggests a few things. First, it suggests that he really doesn’t know much about the country he inhabits. Who are these freeloaders? Is it the Iraq war veteran who goes to the V.A.? Is it the student getting a loan to go to college? Is it the retiree on Social Security or Medicare?
It suggests that Romney doesn’t know much about the culture of America. Yes, the entitlement state has expanded, but America remains one of the hardest-working nations on earth. Americans work longer hours than just about anyone else. Americans believe in work more than almost any other people. Ninety-two percent say that hard work is the key to success, according to a 2009 Pew Research Survey.
It says that Romney doesn’t know much about the political culture. Americans haven’t become childlike worshipers of big government. On the contrary, trust in government has declined. The number of people who think government spending promotes social mobility has fallen.
The people who receive the disproportionate share of government spending are not big-government lovers. They are Republicans. They are senior citizens. They are white men with high school degrees. As Bill Galston of the Brookings Institution has noted, the people who have benefited from the entitlements explosion are middle-class workers, more so than the dependent poor.
Romney’s comments also reveal that he has lost any sense of the social compact. In 1987, during Ronald Reagan’s second term, 62 percent of Republicans believed that the government has a responsibility to help those who can’t help themselves. Now, according to the Pew Research Center, only 40 percent of Republicans believe that.
The Republican Party, and apparently Mitt Romney, too, has shifted over toward a much more hyperindividualistic and atomistic social view — from the Reaganesque language of common citizenship to the libertarian language of makers and takers. There’s no way the country will trust the Republican Party to reform the welfare state if that party doesn’t have a basic commitment to provide a safety net for those who suffer for no fault of their own.
The final thing the comment suggests is that Romney knows nothing about ambition and motivation. The formula he sketches is this: People who are forced to make it on their own have drive. People who receive benefits have dependency.
But, of course, no middle-class parent acts as if this is true. Middle-class parents don’t deprive their children of benefits so they can learn to struggle on their own. They shower benefits on their children to give them more opportunities — so they can play travel sports, go on foreign trips and develop more skills.
People are motivated when they feel competent. They are motivated when they have more opportunities. Ambition is fired by possibility, not by deprivation, as a tour through the world’s poorest regions makes clear.
Sure, there are some government programs that cultivate patterns of dependency in some people. I’d put federal disability payments and unemployment insurance in this category. But, as a description of America today, Romney’s comment is a country-club fantasy. It’s what self-satisfied millionaires say to each other. It reinforces every negative view people have about Romney.
Personally, I think he’s a kind, decent man who says stupid things because he is pretending to be something he is not — some sort of cartoonish government-hater. But it scarcely matters. He’s running a depressingly inept presidential campaign. Mr. Romney, your entitlement reform ideas are essential, but when will the incompetence stop?
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
From Mother Jones
When he doesn't know a camera's rolling, the GOP candidate shows his disdain for half of America.
There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax.Romney went on: "[M]y job is is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."
Mother Jones has obtained video of Romney at this intimate fundraiser—where he candidly discussed his campaign strategy and foreign policy ideas in stark terms he does not use in public—and has confirmed its authenticity. To protect the confidential source who provided the video, we have blurred some of the image, and we will not identify the date or location of the event, which occurred after Romney had clinched the Republican presidential nomination.
[UPDATE: We can now report that this fundraiser was held at the Boca Raton home of controversial private equity manager Marc Leder on May 17 and we've removed the blurring from the video. See the original blurred videos here.]
Here is Romney expressing his disdain for Americans who back the president:
To read the entire article click here.
Monday, September 17, 2012
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Santorum: "We Will Never Have The Elite, Smart People On Our Side"
Rick Santorum, speaking before attendees at the Values Voter Summit yesterday said, "We will never have the media on our side, ever, in this country. We will never have the elite, smart people on our side, because they believe they should have the power to tell you what to do."
"Knowledge is power." – Francis Bacon
"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." – Mark Twain
“Education: that which reveals to the wise, and conceals from the stupid, the vast limits of their knowledge.” – Mark Twain
"Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance." – George Bernard Shaw
"It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." – Voltaire
"Knowledge may be power, but never underestimate the power of manipulating stupidity." – Dee Newman
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Mitt Romney's Offshore Bank Accounts and Tax Returns
My Take: In 2009 the Internal Revenue Service began to crackdown on the use of secret overseas bank accounts as tax havens. They offered a reduced penalty and amnesty to taxpayers who came forward before Oct. 15, 2010.
During the summer of 2010 Switzerland's largest bank announced that it would disclose the names of more than 4,000 U. S. account holders.
Romney's Swiss bank account was closed in 2010.
The question remains: What is the real reason Romney will not release his tax returns prior to 2010? Is it because in doing so it would prove that he had received amnesty for a serious crime, which would most assuredly destroy any chance of him becoming president?
Friday, September 14, 2012
Joe Scarborough's Assessment of Mitt Romney's Chances of Winning
The following is how Joe Scarborough hosts of “Morning Joe” on MSNBC and the former Republican representative from Florida’s 1st Congressional District (1995 to 2001) described Mitt Romney's chances of winning the presidency as a guest columnist for POLITICO:
Mitt Romney is likely to lose — and should, given that he’s neither a true conservative nor a courageous moderate. He’s just an ambitious man.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Romney's Statements on Libya Attacks (in FULL)
It is appalling that Romney's first reaction to the attacks were not to condemn the attackers of our embassies, but to attack the President and his administration in an effort to gain some political advantage.
Romney's statement was irresponsible, politicizing an horrific event that took the lives of four diplomatic officials, including U.S. ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens.
Romney's actions were completely inappropriate, especially from someone who aspires to be the President of the United States and the Commander-in-Chief of our Armed Forces.
At times like these we need Statesmen, not political hacks.
On the Campaign Trail with Joe
Vice President Joe Biden's talks to customers during a stop at Cruisers Diner in Seaman, Ohio on Sunday.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Nikki Yanofsky Surprises Her Band - 2009
In 2009 during her performance in London, Ontario at the Grand Theatre, Nikki unexpectedly departs from the setlist and sings an A Capella performance of "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter". Her band retaliates (in jest) and walks off during the song.
She was only 15-year-old at the time. What a voice!
She was only 15-year-old at the time. What a voice!
From The new York Times (A Must Read)
Op-Ed Contributor
The Deafness Before the Storm
By KURT EICHENWALD
Published: September 10, 2012
On Aug. 6, 2001, President George W. Bush received a classified review of the threats posed by Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network, Al Qaeda. That morning’s “presidential daily brief” — the top-secret document prepared by America’s intelligence agencies — featured the now-infamous heading: “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” A few weeks later, on 9/11, Al Qaeda accomplished that goal.
On April 10, 2004, the Bush White House declassified that daily brief — and only that daily brief — in response to pressure from the 9/11 Commission, which was investigating the events leading to the attack. Administration officials dismissed the document’s significance, saying that, despite the jaw-dropping headline, it was only an assessment of Al Qaeda’s history, not a warning of the impending attack. While some critics considered that claim absurd, a close reading of the brief showed that the argument had some validity.
That is, unless it was read in conjunction with the daily briefs preceding Aug. 6, the ones the Bush administration would not release. While those documents are still not public, I have read excerpts from many of them, along with other recently declassified records, and come to an inescapable conclusion: the administration’s reaction to what Mr. Bush was told in the weeks before that infamous briefing reflected significantly more negligence than has been disclosed. In other words, the Aug. 6 document, for all of the controversy it provoked, is not nearly as shocking as the briefs that came before it.
The direct warnings to Mr. Bush about the possibility of a Qaeda attack began in the spring of 2001. By May 1, the Central Intelligence Agency told the White House of a report that “a group presently in the United States” was planning a terrorist operation. Weeks later, on June 22, the daily brief reported that Qaeda strikes could be “imminent,” although intelligence suggested the time frame was flexible.
But some in the administration considered the warning to be just bluster. An intelligence official and a member of the Bush administration both told me in interviews that the neoconservative leaders who had recently assumed power at the Pentagon were warning the White House that the C.I.A. had been fooled; according to this theory, Bin Laden was merely pretending to be planning an attack to distract the administration from Saddam Hussein, whom the neoconservatives saw as a greater threat. Intelligence officials, these sources said, protested that the idea of Bin Laden, an Islamic fundamentalist, conspiring with Mr. Hussein, an Iraqi secularist, was ridiculous, but the neoconservatives’ suspicions were nevertheless carrying the day.
In response, the C.I.A. prepared an analysis that all but pleaded with the White House to accept that the danger from Bin Laden was real.
“The U.S. is not the target of a disinformation campaign by Usama Bin Laden,” the daily brief of June 29 read, using the government’s transliteration of Bin Laden’s first name. Going on for more than a page, the document recited much of the evidence, including an interview that month with a Middle Eastern journalist in which Bin Laden aides warned of a coming attack, as well as competitive pressures that the terrorist leader was feeling, given the number of Islamists being recruited for the separatist Russian region of Chechnya.
And the C.I.A. repeated the warnings in the briefs that followed. Operatives connected to Bin Laden, one reported on June 29, expected the planned near-term attacks to have “dramatic consequences,” including major casualties. On July 1, the brief stated that the operation had been delayed, but “will occur soon.” Some of the briefs again reminded Mr. Bush that the attack timing was flexible, and that, despite any perceived delay, the planned assault was on track.
Yet, the White House failed to take significant action. Officials at the Counterterrorism Center of the C.I.A. grew apoplectic. On July 9, at a meeting of the counterterrorism group, one official suggested that the staff put in for a transfer so that somebody else would be responsible when the attack took place, two people who were there told me in interviews. The suggestion was batted down, they said, because there would be no time to train anyone else.
That same day in Chechnya, according to intelligence I reviewed, Ibn Al-Khattab, an extremist who was known for his brutality and his links to Al Qaeda, told his followers that there would soon be very big news. Within 48 hours, an intelligence official told me, that information was conveyed to the White House, providing more data supporting the C.I.A.’s warnings. Still, the alarm bells didn’t sound.
On July 24, Mr. Bush was notified that the attack was still being readied, but that it had been postponed, perhaps by a few months. But the president did not feel the briefings on potential attacks were sufficient, one intelligence official told me, and instead asked for a broader analysis on Al Qaeda, its aspirations and its history. In response, the C.I.A. set to work on the Aug. 6 brief.
In the aftermath of 9/11, Bush officials attempted to deflect criticism that they had ignored C.I.A. warnings by saying they had not been told when and where the attack would occur. That is true, as far as it goes, but it misses the point. Throughout that summer, there were events that might have exposed the plans, had the government been on high alert. Indeed, even as the Aug. 6 brief was being prepared, Mohamed al-Kahtani, a Saudi believed to have been assigned a role in the 9/11 attacks, was stopped at an airport in Orlando, Fla., by a suspicious customs agent and sent back overseas on Aug. 4. Two weeks later, another co-conspirator, Zacarias Moussaoui, was arrested on immigration charges in Minnesota after arousing suspicions at a flight school. But the dots were not connected, and Washington did not react.
Could the 9/11 attack have been stopped, had the Bush team reacted with urgency to the warnings contained in all of those daily briefs? We can’t ever know. And that may be the most agonizing reality of all.
Kurt Eichenwald, a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and a former reporter for The New York Times, is the author of “500 Days: Secrets and Lies in the Terror Wars.”
Monday, September 10, 2012
From Face The Nation (Paul Ryan)
Norah O'Donnell interviewed Paul Ryan on CBS's Face The Nation on Sunday, challenging his criticism of the president for the same defense cuts that he voted for and called "a victory."
If only we had more news anchors with her "brass".
If only we had more news anchors with her "brass".
From The Tennessean
Our Beloved Aunt Roberta Died
The youngest of five children, she was born to Lula Hester and William Leonidas Rochelle at dawn on October 13, 1918 in Plant, Humphreys County, Tennessee. She was the last surviving sibling of Marguerite Shannon, Rayburn Rochelle, Eudora Mason and Lois Armstrong. She was born into a family of teachers whom she loved dearly and who taught her to love knowledge, music, literature, and theater, and she passed this love on to her friends and extended family.
Despite her encounters with illness and physical limitations throughout her life, starting with malaria at the age of three, and the hardship of growing up during the Depression, she never complained or focused on herself. Even until her final days, she was concerned with the welfare of others, their comfort and safety.
She enjoyed a good story and had a healthy laugh. She was not one to be left behind by the times. There are not many 93 year-olds who have an iPad and an Impala Super Sport! She had a dry wit, an active and curious intellect, a caring heart, and always a sparkle in her eye. She looked for the best in people and was generous with her time. A 1938 graduate of Peabody College for Teachers, she performed as an acclaimed actress with the Peabody Players, excelled as a student and completed post-graduate studies in library science.
In her first teaching job at Cumberland High School, she met and fell in love with a fellow teacher and Peabody graduate, Joe E. Torrence, whom she married on April 8, 1939. They were married for 63 years until his death in 2002 after his long, distinguished career in public service. They were lifelong residents of Davidson County except for the period of the war years when they lived in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where he worked with the Manhattan Project.
Although Roberta was a teacher by training, after she married she chose a career as a devoted wife and partner to her husband, and she applied her vast abilities and patience as a teacher to being a consummate mother, grandmother and great grandmother. She was a devoted aunt and great aunt, a loyal friend to many and an inspiration to all who met her. Her beauty and spirit radiated from inside out.
She is survived by her five children, Jeanie Camille Torrence Fohl, Joseph Howard Torrence and his wife Ellen, Linda Rochelle Torrence Muir and her husband Bob, William Giddens Torrence and his wife Cindy, David Cooley Torrence and his wife Bonnie.
She was "Grandma" to eleven grandchildren, Jeanie Dale (Bob), Emily Paisley (Chris), Katherine Hartle (Dan), Robbie King (Kristin), Adam King (Anne), Rebecca Muir, Jennifer Mulvaney (Michael), Stephanie Torrence, Will Torrence, Josh Torrence (Beth) and Joe Torrence. She was "GiGi" to her twenty three great grandchildren, Zachary, Devon and Maxwell Dale, Eliza, Canon and Thatcher Paisley, Houston, Lilly and Addison Hartle, Skylar, Georgia, Lucy and Robert King, Ava and Ethan King, Winfield and Robert Dean, Michael and Ian Mulvaney, Kyle and Erin Torrence, Haley Torrence and Knox Torrence.
Viewing and visitation will be held at Brentwood-Roesch-Patton Funeral Home, 9010 Church Street, East Brentwood, TN 37027 on Tuesday, September 11, 2012 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Funeral services will be held at First Presbyterian Church, 4815 Franklin Road, Nashville, TN 37220 at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, September 12, 2012, followed immediately by a brief graveside service and interment at Woodlawn Memorial Park, 660 Thompson Lane, Nashville, TN 37204.
Pallbearers will be Joseph H. Torrence, William G. Torrence, David C. Torrence, Robert S. King, William G. Torrence, Jr., Joshua D. Torrence and Joseph S. Torrence. Flowers are welcome, and memorial donations in lieu of flowers may be made to the Rochelle Center, 1020 Southside Court, Nashville, TN 37203.
The family expresses the deepest appreciation to Marie Manning, Roberta's loyal friend and caregiver for many years of faithful service, to her doctors for her health through the years and to the caring staff at Centennial Medical Center and Alive Hospice for her care and comfort in her final days. Often reciting the favorite poems of her childhood, Roberta believed as Wordsworth did that our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting, that we come trailing clouds of glory from God, who is our home. She has gone home. She was Love and Laughter and leaves us with her smile.
Friday, September 7, 2012
From Spiritual Now
- Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
- When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
- Follow the three R’s:
- Respect for self,
- Respect for others and
- Responsibility for all your actions. - Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
- Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
- Don’t let a little dispute injure a great relationship.
- When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
- Spend some time alone every day.
- Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
- Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
- Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and
think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time. - A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
- In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.
- Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.
- Be gentle with the earth.
- Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.
- Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
- Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
- If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.
- If you want to be happy, practice compassion.
Our President's Address
In less than four years, President Obama turned us from the brink of another Great Depression, signed a breakthrough health-care reform bill into law, rescued the American auto industry, lowered unemployment while creating economic growth, imposed new safeguards on Wall Street, ended the war in Iraq, decimated al Qaeda, killed bin Laden, reformed the student loan system, and ended DADT.
His challenge last night was to convince undecided voters that despite Republican obstructionism he has done enough to warrant their support once again. If they were watching and listening last night, the election is over. He hit the shot to win the game.
Speaking to the entire country (at least to those who were watching) he said, "If you turn away now -- if you buy into the cynicism that the change we fought for isn't possible – well, change will not happen . . . If you give up on the idea that your voice can make a difference, then other voices will fill the void: lobbyists and special interests; the people with the $10 million checks who are trying to buy this election and those who are making it harder for you to vote; Washington politicians who want to decide who you can marry, or control health care choices that women should be making for themselves."
"Only you can make sure that doesn’t happen," he urged. "Only you have the power to move us forward."
His challenge last night was to convince undecided voters that despite Republican obstructionism he has done enough to warrant their support once again. If they were watching and listening last night, the election is over. He hit the shot to win the game.
Speaking to the entire country (at least to those who were watching) he said, "If you turn away now -- if you buy into the cynicism that the change we fought for isn't possible – well, change will not happen . . . If you give up on the idea that your voice can make a difference, then other voices will fill the void: lobbyists and special interests; the people with the $10 million checks who are trying to buy this election and those who are making it harder for you to vote; Washington politicians who want to decide who you can marry, or control health care choices that women should be making for themselves."
"Only you can make sure that doesn’t happen," he urged. "Only you have the power to move us forward."
Thursday, September 6, 2012
From Nashvillian Jena Lee Nardella
Why didn't we hear a benediction like this in Tampa from the so-called Christian-right?
Praying for the Nation
As a young woman of faith and a leader, I am humbled to follow the First Lady, whom we all admire. So, thank you for inviting me here. As we close this day, let us quiet our hearts in prayer.
God, I stand before You and ask that the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing unto You.
I pray for our President, Barack Obama. May he know Your presence, oh God, as he continues to serve as a leader of this nation, as a husband to Michelle, and as father to his daughters. Help him to seek justice, love mercy and walk humbly with you.
I pray as well for Governor Mitt Romney. May he know Your presence, oh God, as he continues to serve as a leader, as a husband to Ann, and as a father to his sons and their families. Help him to seek justice, love mercy and walk humbly with you.
I pray for our country in the next nine weeks leading up to this election – for those of us meeting here and for our fellow citizens who met last week. May we make our children proud of how we conduct ourselves. We know our human tendencies toward finger-pointing and frivolousness. Our better selves want this race to be honest and edifying rather than fabricated and self-serving.
Give us, oh Lord, humility to listen to our sisters and brothers across the political spectrum, because your kingdom is not divided into Red States and Blue States. Equip us with moral imagination to have real discourse. Knit us, oh God, as one country even as we wrestle over the complexity of how we ought to live and govern. Give us gratitude for our right to dissent and disagree. For we know that we are bound up in one another and have been given the tremendous opportunity to extend humanity and grace when others voice their deeply held convictions even when they differ from our own.
And give us wisdom, God, to discover honest solutions for we know it will take all of us to care for the widow and the orphan, the sick and the lonely, the downtrodden and the unemployed, the prisoner and the homeless, the stranger and the enemy, the thirsty and the powerless. In rural Africa, I am witness to thousands of HIV positive mothers, fathers and children who are alive today because Democrats and Republicans put justice and mercy above partisanship. Help us keep that perspective even as we debate one another.
God, I thank you for the saving grace of Jesus and for the saints who have humbly gone before us. I thank you for the words of St. Francis of Assisi whose prayer I carry with me both in my home in East Nashville and in my work across rural Africa.
As we enter this election season, I pray St. Francis’ words for us all.
Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.
Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
Bill Clinton's Full Speech
You do not have to like or agree with the policies of the Democratic Party to appreciate that what we watched last night was a master at work.
Even Brit Hume of Fox News had to admit that Bill Clinton "is the most talented politician [he's] ever covered and the most charming man [he's] ever met . . . No one in my view can frame an argument more effectively than he can."
The former president found no need to lie, exaggerate or throw partisan bombs. No, he simply told the truth. He talked about the importance of reaching across party lines and defending the nobleness of politics as a profession. As the explainer-in-chief, what we witness last night was the work of an intellect so comfortable in his skin that he was able to ablibbed much of the speech without a teleprompter.
If every undecided voter was watching Bill Clinton's speech last night, this race is over.
If for some reason you were unable to see his performance – here it is in its full majesty:
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
The Gray Treefrog (Photos)
Gray Treefrogs are an inch and quarter to 2 inches long. Visually, the Gray Treefrog cannot be distinguished from the Cope's Gray Treefrog. They are usually gray or green with irregular markings on the back. They have a white spot under the eye, warty skin and a yellowish-orange surface under of their thighs.
The call of the Gray is a short high trill. It is slower and a little more musical than the Cope's Gray Treefrog. However, only through careful examination of their chromosomes can one truly be distinguished from the other.
They are extremely well camouflaged against the bark of trees. They inhabit all elevations of wooded areas most often near water in a wide variety of habitats. Since they forage in the tree canopy they are rarely seen except during breeding season.
Though the Gray Treefrog and Cope's Gray Treefrog are closely related and have ranges that over lap they do not interbreed. A female responds only to the call of the male of her species.
Scientists believe that the Gray Treefrog evolved from the Cope's Gray Treefrog during the last Ice Age when an isolated population began passing on a second set of chromosomes.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Sunday, September 2, 2012
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