From The Rachel Maddow Show (MSNBC)

Obstacles to Voting

 

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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!

From The new York Times (A Must Read)

Op-Ed Contributor

The Deafness Before the Storm

By KURT EICHENWALD

Published: September 10, 2012

IT was perhaps the most famous presidential briefing in history. 

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.”

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".

From MSNBC ( Barack Obama: Making History )

by Chris Matthews

From The Tennessean

  
Our Beloved Aunt Roberta Died

Roberta Dawn Rochelle Torrence, age 93, died of complications of a stroke on September 8, 2012 at Alive Hospice in Nashville, Tennessee in peace and encircled by her loving family.

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.

From Spiritual Now

 
Instructions for Life by The Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three R’s:
   -  Respect for self,
   -  Respect for others and
   -  Responsibility for all your actions.
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great relationship.
7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and
    think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
19. If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.
20. 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."