Jack & Jill Politics

Judge Drops Borrower's Mortgage; Feeds $460k FU Sandwich to Lying Lender
by JerichoJ8 [Subscribe]
Sat Oct 24, 2009 at 05:15:36 PM PDT

For years, the banks and mortgage lenders have been running rough shod over borrowers, and recently their greed has exceeded decency(foreclosing on paid up houses, refusing to renegotiate terms) to the point that Bankruptcy Court Judges are calling them on the very details the banks used to slit the borrower's throat.

The banks have lost the paperwork showing they actually own the mortgage. The fact is, no one knows who owns the mortgages. So, when one family fought for the option of renegotiating their mortgage, they got more than they bargained for: a house free of it's mortgage.

One surprising smackdown occurred on Oct. 9 in federal bankruptcy court in the Southern District of New York. Ruling that a lender, PHH Mortgage, hadn’t proved its claim to a delinquent borrower’s home in White Plains, Judge Robert D. Drain wiped out a $461,263 mortgage debt on the property. That’s right: the mortgage debt disappeared, via a court order.

Judge Drain...something poetic about that name...


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/10/24/796793...

"The banks have lost the paperwork showing they actually own the mortgage."

Please. The courts have simply stopped participating in the bank and mortgage industry scam.

How Will Michelle Obama Make Her Mark?
http://www.newsweek.com/id/219373

The author ends by saying
"So I hope Michelle comes to see Copenhagen as a starting point. If she steps out again, she'll certainly risk controversy and maybe even failure. But if she doesn't use this chance to take on the issues that really matter, that's just a failure of another kind."

Laura Bush was in the WH for 8 years, what issues that really matter did she take on? Did the author ever write an article asking her to do so? Why must Michelle be held to a different standard?

Based on everything I have read about Michelle, she seems most focussed on making sure her family is happy, healthy, and whole and that her husband has a successful Presidency. To me, she's determined that for right now, those goals are achieved by taking up non-controversial issues and playing a supportive role to her husband.

Idiots. Always hoisting up false and fake "concerns" and "goals" to diminish accomplishments and achievements of the First Family.

Michelle Obama made her "mark" when becoming FIRST AA First Lady.

I was side-eyeing this article too.

Thursday, October 22, 2009
Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas Feud Ignited by New Book

Wow, is the only thing I can say about this one. You know I am one of the biggest sport's fans around. I can remember the press conference in which Magic announced he had HIV like it was yesterday. It's really interesting to now get a peek into how Magic was feeling during that time and how he felt about the way people treated him. I am definitely getting this book. I wonder if Oprah is going to have him and Isiah on the couch the way she had Mike Tyson and Holyfield.

Via SI.com:


The criticisms are made by Johnson in When The Game Was Ours, which he co-wrote with Larry Bird and author Jackie MacMullan. The book, to be released on Nov. 4, tells the inside story of the most important rivalry in basketball history.

Much of their story involves Thomas, who as captain of the Detroit Pistons served as a primary threat to the championship ambitions of Bird's Celtics and Magic's Lakers. The book offers revelations that have stunned Thomas. Magic addresses years of rumors by finally accusing Thomas of questioning his sexuality after Johnson was diagnosed with HIV in 1991. Magic also admits that he joined with Michael Jordan and other players in blackballing Thomas from the 1992 Olympic Dream Team, saying, "Isiah killed his own chances when it came to the Olympics. Nobody on that team wanted to play with him. ... Michael didn't want to play with him. Scottie [Pippen] wanted no part of him. Bird wasn't pushing for him. Karl Malone didn't want him. Who was saying, 'We need this guy?' Nobody.''

"I'm glad that he's finally had the nerve and the courage to stand up and say it was him, as opposed to letting Michael Jordan take the blame for it all these years,'' Thomas responded during one of several interviews he gave to SI.com on Wednesday. "I wish he would have had the courage to say this stuff to me face to face, as opposed to writing it in some damn book to sell and he can make money off it.''

Thomas, who is the first-year coach at Florida International in Miami, confirmed that MacMullan attempted to reach him for comment six months ago, but he declined through his publicist to speak with her.

Magic's most shocking accusation, however, is that Thomas was responsible for spreading rumors that Johnson was gay or bisexual after Johnson tested positive for HIV, forcing his retirement at age 32. "Isiah kept questioning people about it,'' Magic says. "I couldn't believe that. The one guy I thought I could count on had all these doubts. It was like he kicked me in the stomach.''

Thomas vehemently denied that he had gossiped behind Magic's back, pointing out that he knew better than to engage in such hurtful talk.

"What most people don't know is, before Magic had HIV, my brother had HIV,'' Thomas said. "My brother died of HIV, AIDS, drug abuse. So I knew way more about the disease, because I was living with it in my house.''

His brother, Gregory Thomas, died five years ago, Isiah said.

"Magic acted and responded off some really bad information that he got,'' Thomas went on. "Whatever friendship we had, I thought it was bulls--- that he believed that. Let me put it to you this way: If he and I were such close friends, if I was questioning his sexuality, then I was questioning mine too. That's how idiotic it is.''

The book's main source for this allegation is Magic's longtime agent, Lon Rosen, who says Thomas told him in 1991, "I keep hearing Magic is gay.''

"C'mon, Isiah, you know Earvin better than anyone,'' Rosen replies.

"I know,'' Thomas answers, "but I don't know what he's doing when he's out there in L.A.''

On Wednesday, Thomas denied that conversation. "I don't know Lon like that,'' he said, adding that he reached out to Johnson at the time. "I remember calling Magic and saying [of the allegations that he was rumor-mongering], 'You know that's some bulls---.' ''


Posted by TheIcon

http://www.the-savvy-sista.com/2009/10/magic-jo...

Growing up in Chicago when Zeke came of age it was always a double edge sword with him.Loved watching him play at St.Joes was heartbroken when he didn't go to Depaul and hated him when he was with the Pistons.That said why bring up bullshit from the past.The book is supposed to be about Magic and Bird and not some locker room gossip about a third person.

Saturday, October 24, 2009
HBCU News: After dispute Texas Southern strips Tavis Smiley's name from Communications building

What is up with everyone turning against Tavis Smiley? I swear this has not been homeboy's year. I guess it's true what they say, "When it rains, it pours."


A long-simmering disagreement between broadcaster Tavis Smiley and Texas Southern University ended Friday when the university's governing board agreed to strip Smiley's name from its communication school.

Smiley promised in 2004 to donate $1 million and to raise another $1 million for TSU. The school later created the Tavis Smiley School of Communication in his honor.

In return, Smiley made one $50,000 donation in mid-2005 and raised $250,000 from three corporate donors.

But he said Friday that he had intended to fulfill his personal $1 million pledge.

"Any institution that turns away a $1 million gift in this economy, I think ought to have good reason for doing that," he said in a telephone interview.

He also said former university President Priscilla Slade offered to name the school for him before he pledged any money.

"I even made a joke, how much is this decision going to cost me?" he said. "She said, 'This decision has already been made.'"

"It doesn't feel good," he said of the board's decision. "My intentions were to help the students."
Ongoing dispute

TSU President John Rudley said the dispute had been going on since he arrived on campus in early 2008.

Talks broke down last month after more than a year of negotiations, and Rudley informed Smiley the deal was off.

"Because you did not fulfill your original commitment to our partnership, TSU plans to treat the partnership as being at an end," Rudley wrote in a letter dated Sept. 28. "TSU will therefore remove your name from the School of Communication and the KTSU Radio facility to allow us to provide other major donors with the naming opportunity."

Smiley promptly responded in an e-mail to Rudley. "I understand your letter to say that you don't want that gift," he wrote. "I ... will continue with my benevolence where it's appreciated."

Smiley is best-known for his work on radio and with the Black Entertainment Television.

He has a PBS program, which airs at 12:30 a.m. five nights a week on KUHF, channel 8.

The flap prompted TSU's regents to adopt a policy last spring spelling out under what circumstances it will consider naming a university building, college, endowed professorship or other program.
New naming policy

Under TSU's new policy, anyone interested in naming consideration for a college has to donate $10 million, with half in hand before the name change takes effect. Naming consideration for a department or school within a college would require a $2 million donation.

"Most universities have a naming policy just so you don't have this kind of misunderstanding," Rudley said.

He also said he doesn't believe the naming of the school wasn't tied to any promised donation.

"My experience with universities is, you don't name something for someone without getting money," he said.

Smiley agreed in 2004 to give TSU $200,000 a year for five years and to help raise another $1 million.

He said he stopped the payments out of concern about mismanagement under Slade.

She was accused of using school money for personal expenses and fired in mid-2006. She eventually was sentenced to 10 years probation after a grand jury indicted her.
Altered agreement

Last summer, Smiley informed TSU he was changing the terms of the agreement.

His business manager, Kenneth Goldman, wrote that Smiley wanted to pay $50,000 by the end of 2009 and $100,000 a year for the next nine years.

He no longer would try to raise money from outside donors.

TSU's well-publicized problems made it impossible to raise money from corporate donors, Smiley said Friday. "And obviously, not unlike most Americans, my personal income has been impacted by this recession."

Still, he said, he intended to honor his commitment, even if it would take a decade to do so. Now, he said he will donate that money elsewhere. source


http://www.the-savvy-sista.com/2009/10/hbcu-new...

He made a deal with Priscilla Slade to raise the money huh?

heh.......now that's just hysterical. One crook making deals with another one.

Why doesn't he donate his earnings from Wells Fargo?

Thursday, October 22, 2009
A few more things never to ask Black People (especially Bougie ones)
As you all know, bouge is equal opportunity and all love. Welcome one and all to BougieLand, please tell a friend. But every once and awhile it seems necessary to offer a few suggestions to keep our lovely diversity melting pot from bubbling over. For the record, I had SIX of these happened to me in the last month. (Just. DO. Better. people) Here goes, a few things never ask a black person:

1.
If something is racist or not: Hmm, if you have to ask… I'd err on the side of caution. Yes, we are supposed to be post-racial these days but if you ask me, the post-racial tension seems just a little more on edge. Any comment or act with the slightest racist tinge while earn you the stern side-eye. In the Ross Dress for Less the other day a woman and her daughter were trying on jeans. The daughter's jeans were WAY too tight. Her mother said, "That makes you look like you have a black woman's ass!" Then they both started doing some sort of big booty dance. The daughter said, "Look Mom, I'm a video ho." I just backed out of the dressing room. No time to correct THAT level of ignorance. Listen up people: When in doubt, do with out. And along those same lines…

2.
If we're offended by whatever borderline racist thing you just said: We probably weren't until you pointed it out, in front of everybody, in a meeting... when we're the only person of color there. Think first, speak later. I remember sitting in a meeting when this guy said he had just come back from skiing. He shared that on the last day he took the black trail. Another guy laughed and said, "Oh does that mean they served Malt Liquor and did the Electric Slide." Half the room laughed, the other half looked at me and then the whole room fell silent. "Oh, was that offensive?" He asked me, "No more than your Opie haircut." I replied and the meeting went on with a laugh and a collective sigh of relief. If you only knew how often we bite back the urge to raise up a black power fist and commence to going in like Stokely Carmichael… you really wouldn't test us.

3.
Why we sunbathe: We come in a range of colors from crème brûlée to espresso. Some of us enjoy the sun and don't care if we add a few shades to the hue. Please stop looking at us crazy when we slather on the Banana Boat and get our sun worship on. Can't tell you how many times BougieSis and I get the "Huh?" look when we settle in with beach bags, iPods, books and icy drinks by the spa pool on vacay. By the way, before you ask – yes… some of us sunburn.

4.
If we think (insert Black Celeb Name here) is cute: Okay, you got us on Idris Elba – far as I can tell all black women think he's droolworthy and are saving up for the clone DNA. Anyone else we might or might not call the Hotness, really depends on individual taste. Some black men think Amber Rose is all that, others not so much. I'm not so wild about Taye Diggs, BougieYoungerBro is not so into Sanaa Lathan – to each his own. How about a pact, stop asking us if we think Will Smith is cute and we'll stop asking about George Clooney. Fair exchange!

5.
Where something in the hood is: As I've said before, I know not from hood. I don't know where that slammin' after hours spot is that you overheard Ray-Ray and dem talking about. No clue. Chances are I can only point you in the direction of what area of town I don't roll through after dark. I might be able to get you to the catfish shack/rib joint (ha!) but that's about it. And speaking of which…

6.
How to cook something you ate at the soul food place: Chances are I do know how to cook it but I'm not your soul food guide. Holla at the Neelys – they have a great cookbook out: Down Home with the Neelys: A Southern Family Cookbook and actually get paid to tell you how to cook things. I don't mind a recipe swap but when the only things you ask me about are collard greens, chitlins and sweet potato pie, you're getting the side-eye. Just out of the blue a woman asked me how to make "real mac n cheese." Not a woman I knew well, just some random broad in an elevator. I told her to Google it.

7.
Anything about Kanye West: Yes he can be a jerk, yes he's a musical genius, yes it's sad his mom died. Beyond that, we probably don't know him personally and can't offer any more informed opinion than you can. Don't know why he does what he does, my guess is as good as yours: publicity, ego, short man's syndrome?

8.
How come we are lighter/darker than our parents/siblings: Again, range of colors people. According my cocoa dad, he wondered how his kids with my cocoa mom kept coming out lighter and lighter. He told her he was one child away from clocking the mailman when my younger brother came out chocolatey.

9.
Why our hair looks different today: Please see installment one, question one… just don't ask anything about the hair. If it looks nice, feel free to say so. Leave it that.

10.
If we've ever been to jail: You read that right! Someone actually asked me this the other day. I was so stunned that I blinked for a minute prompting her to say, "You don't have to answer if it makes you uncomfortable." I wasn't uncomfortable, I was deeply offended. And so I asked, "What is it about me that makes you think I'd been to jail?" She turned bright red and shrugged, "I guess it was a stupid question. I'm not racist." Ri-ight, she's not a racist – she just impersonates one in real life.


http://www.blacknbougie.com/2009/10/few-more-th...

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009
Reggie Miller Caught in a Nasty Swirl Lover’s Quarrel

Posted by Bossip Staff

Former NBA star Reggie Miller is in the middle of a crazy love triangle, and he has gotten a restraining order to protect himself. Flip the hood for the details.

Bossip has learned that Reggie Miller was involved with Ali Kay who was engaged to a man named Alexander Von Furstenberg. Apparently, Alex feels that Reggie stole his chick and has been making his life a living hell since then. Alex has gone so far as to hire a private plane displaying his hate for Reggie in a visible message for the town to see. Alex also has followed Reggie and told him he would beat him down in public.

Well, it looks like Reggie has had enough, and he went to court to file for a restraining order against Alex. Reggie has since cut all ties to Ali (Alex’s former fiancee) and removed her contact info from his phone. He says he wasn’t aware that Ali was romantically involved with someone when they met.

Seems to us like Alex is a lover scorned who should fall back before Reggie puts him in his place.

http://bossip.com/170049/reggie-miller-caught-i...

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
More Details Emerge in the Air McNair and Side Deal Murder/Suicide Case

Posted by Bossip Staff

Text messages from Steve McNair’s alleged killer have surfaced, as well as, new evidence that there might have been someone else involved:

Text messages:

In the early morning hours of July 3, Kazemi sent McNair a text asking if he loved her.

“U love me,” she said. “I love you baby,” McNair replied. Later in the day, Kazemi apparently become stressed and panicked over her financial situation. “Baby I might have a breakdown im so stressed,” she said. “baby I need to pay the cell phone bills n the hospital. can u transfer 2000 to my acc.” Then approximately 5 hours later, from Kazemi: “All this bills n everything else is stressin me out.” She tells him “Baby I have 2 be w u 2nite. I dnt care where.” The last text message McNair sent was at 12:52 a.m. July 4: “No open the front door.” Kazemi replied at 1:14 a.m., “its open.”

CBS’ The Early Show did a report Monday criticizing the police investigation. CBS interviewed friends who portrayed Kazemi as happy and showed she had $2,500 in her account at the time of her death. The police report also confirmed McNair had another girlfriend, Leah Ignagni, whom he last saw July 2.

Another dude involved:

New and stunning details have emerged in the ever changing story surrounding the demise of star quarterback Steve McNair. Once thought a crime of passion undertaken by a solitary figure, new developments are showing otherwise. Adrian Gilliam Jr. was cited for having been previously involved in the incident after Jenny “”Sahel” Kazemi was confirmed to have purchased the murder weapon from him. Newly released phone records have revealed that Kazemi and Gilliam shared a relationship, with a call ledger showing nearly 200 phone calls and text messages exchanged between them. Gilliam previously denied having any type of relationship with the presumed killer, noting that he could not remember her name nor how they met.

http://bossip.com/169599/more-details-emerge-in...

Yep, the Steve McNair story will require a playbook just to follow the characters matrix.

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009
Knocked up in a Good Way: Paula and Robin are Expecting

Posted by Bossip Staff

Paula Patton and Robin Thicke are expecting their first child.

The couple who dated in high school and wed back in 2005 say they’re happy with each other. Robin says Paula is incredible and can do anything.

http://bossip.com/170497/knocked-up-in-a-good-w...

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009
Here We Go Again: African Pirates Catch A Cargo Ship Slippin…

Posted by Bossip Staff

African pirates, off of their east coast shores, are back riding:

Pirates seized control of a cargo vessel…… near the Seychelles Thursday; one of two attacks that took place within minutes of each other off the coast of east Africa, according to the European Union Naval Force. The EU maritime patrol responded to the early morning attack, along with the Seychelles Coast Guard. The crew of the Panama-flagged MV Al Khaliq said two pirates were on board before communication was cut off.

The EU force confirmed that six pirates have boarded the 180-meter long bulk carrier, with two attack skiffs in tow. They hoisted the “mother skiff” onto the vessel with a crane, the EU force said. A second attempted hijacking took place at approximately the same time, but the Italian-flagged cargo ship evaded the attack, the EU said. Armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, pirates opened fire on the MV Jolly Rosso about 460 miles (740 km) east of Mombasa, Kenya. A Belgium warship, part of the EU force, responded to the attack, which caused no casualties. The 200-meter vessel continued its voyage.

The African pirates have not stopped ganking just because the reports have died down. SMH

http://bossip.com/170023/here-we-go-again-afric...

Geraldo Rivera Slams Lou Dobbs In Speech, Says Dobbs Won't Be Coming To Fox

Fox News reporter Geraldo Rivera spoke at a luncheon sponsored by El Diario La Prensa NY yesterday, during which he unleashed a devastating critique of CNN's Lou Dobbs, and told the assembled crowd that Dobbs' future career path will not lead to Fox.

Rivera told the crowd, "One of the aspects of our reality in the United States right now is the defamatory tone of the immigration debate and how that immigration debate has slandered an entire race of people. It has been reckless beyond imagining, it has been reckless beyond precedent."

He then trained his sights on Dobbs: "Lou Dobbs, a man who was an accomplished journalist, and who left to start his own venture in the digital media... and then came back to CNN, and nobody was watching his program. He discovered that one of the ways he could get people to watch was to make of the image of a young Latino trying to get into this country a profoundly negative icon. Lou Dobbs is almost singlehandedly responsible for creating, for being the architect of the young-Latino-as-scapegoat for everything that ails this country."

As for the chances of Dobbs one day washing ashore at Fox, Rivera told the crowd, "I can tell you proudly, when [Dobbs] was widely rumored to be coming to my network, I called my boss... and he said it's absolutely untrue."


Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/24/gerald...

"Rivera told the crowd, "One of the aspects of our reality in the United States right now is the defamatory tone of the immigration debate and how that immigration debate has slandered an entire race of people. It has been reckless beyond imagining, it has been reckless beyond precedent.""

If Rivera is offended now, just wait until immigration reform debates starts.

Arizona May Put State Prisons in Private Hands
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER
Published: October 23, 2009

FLORENCE, Ariz. — One of the newest residents on Arizona’s death row, a convicted serial killer named Dale Hausner, poked his head up from his television to look at several visitors strolling by, each of whom wore face masks and vests to protect against the sharp homemade objects that often are propelled from the cells of the condemned.

It is a dangerous place to patrol, and Arizona spends $4.7 million each year to house inmates like Mr. Hausner in a super-maximum-security prison. But in a first in the criminal justice world, the state’s death row inmates could become the responsibility of a private company.

State officials will soon seek bids from private companies for 9 of the state’s 10 prison complexes that house roughly 40,000 inmates, including the 127 here on death row. It is the first effort by a state to put its entire prison system under private control.

The privatization effort, both in its breadth and its financial goals, demonstrates what states around the country — broke, desperate and often overburdened with prisoners and their associated costs — are willing to do to balance the books. Arizona officials hope the effort will put a $100 million dent in the state’s roughly $2 billion budget shortfall.

“Let’s not kid ourselves,” said State Representative Andy Biggs, a Republican who supports private prisons. “If we were not in this economic environment, I don’t think we’d be talking about this with the same sense of urgency.”

Private prison companies generally build facilities for a state, then charge them per prisoner to run them. But under the Arizona legislation, a vendor would pay $100 million up front to operate one or more prison complexes. Assuming the company could operate the prisons more cheaply or efficiently than the state, any savings would be equally divided between the state and the private firm.

The privatization move has raised questions — including among some people who work for private prison companies — about the private sector’s ability to handle the state’s most hardened criminals. While executions would still be performed by the state, officials said, the Department of Corrections would relinquish all other day-to-day operations to the private operator and pay a per-diem fee for each prisoner.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/24/us/24prison.h...

Selling death row to a for-profit prison should cause constitutional minded heads to explode.

"In pure financial terms, it is not clear how well the state would make out with the privatization. The 2001 study for the Department of Justice found that private prisons saved most states little money (there has been no equivalent study since). Indeed, many states, struggling to keep up with the cost of corrections, have closed prisons when possible, and sought changes in sentencing to reduce crowding in the last two years."

In addition to the Dept of Justice study challenging the "saving states money" spiel, the original "study" used to launch myth "for-profit prisons save states money" have been thoroughly debunked and proved to be a hoax. The recent story where Blackwater used a front company to buy a prison in Montana shows how the hustlers dupe towns into buying bonds.

States have: lost $$millions$$ in the make-yourself-rich-prison-schemes, built prisons for the for-profits at taxpayers' expense, committed their taxpayers to $$millions$$ in bonds for the for-profit prisons, taxpayers lost jobs competing with prisoner-workers, taxpayers pay per prison-bed fees even when beds are empty, and the list goes on.

The big winners are politicians with the prison industry in their investment portfolios.

How to make a killing in business by 50 cent.

50 CENT - 'I'M THE GEORGE BUSH OF HIP-HOP'

Irony is a .....

anyone watch FlashForward?

just got finished with last week's episode, and I was shocked at the assassination attempts.

I watched. I wasn't shocked though. The president said he had a problem which needed to be taken care of. That always leads to murder or attempted murder.

but, THE WHOLE TEAM...including the chick in Los Angeles?

that's what surprised me

I have not seen this posted and I thought the interview was sweet: Michelle Obama on Jay Leno last night. . .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6aF9nFaJao

A woman imprisoned for her role in the 2007 kidnapping and torture of a black woman by seven white men and women in West Virginia said yesterday that the victim wasn’t telling the truth when she denied this week that the attack occurred.

Frankie Brewster told WCHS-TV in Charleston that multiple crimes were committed against Megan Williams during the attack in rural Logan County, about 50 miles south of Charleston.

An attorney representing Williams said Wednesday that she is now recanting statements incriminating Brewster, her son Bobby, and five others.
--
“It did happen,’’ Brewster said during the interview at the Lakin Correctional Center, where she is serving 10 to 25 years. “All of us participated.’’

Convict says ’07 torture did happen

A couple of days ago, I said this sounded fishy. You link proves that I was right.

This recant was nothing more than an attorney trying to get FREE publicity!
It is obvious to everyone that Megan has mental health issues.

In a rich irony, the Republican congressman leading the fight to have Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) ousted as chair of the House's top tax-writing body turns out to have ethics problems of his own.

Rep. John Carter (R-TX) had nearly $300,000 in unreported profits from oil stock sales in 2006 and 2007, Roll Call reported yesterday.

It was Carter who earlier this month introduced the failed resolution to have Rangel removed from his chairmanship of the House Ways and Means committee. Carter told Fox News that Rangel had been getting "special treatment from the IRS," and that his problems were "embarrassing to the Congress."

GOP Congressman Leading Fight Against Rangel Has His Own Ethics Woes

LOL!

lots of Obama pics in this diary.


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/10/24/796711....

rikyrah: ***OXYGEN MASK*** THANK YOU!! :>)

Have you seen Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs?!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEyjj-L5Mv8

A great movie! Very funny stuff.

And Mr. T (yes, I pity the fool Mr. T) tries to steal the show as a caring loving father & strong black man/chief of police.

The theater wasn't crowded so I'm not sure how much longer it will be around. Definitely catch the 3D Imax if you can!!

Hamburgers falling from the sky. Mmmmmm.

the story about the Wisconsin man who enlisted to get medical coverage for his cancer-stricken wife.

He's in the Army now
Wife’s cancer prompts man to enlist

By Mark Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: Oct. 18, 2009

56 days . . . 55 days . . . 54 days . . .

Chelsea Caudle began signing her text messages this summer with a countdown. At 14 years old, she knew no better way to express what was coming. Day Zero was to be Oct. 7, the day Dad left for Army basic training in Fort Jackson, S.C. He was moving 950 miles from their home in Watertown, 950 miles from Mom.

He was leaving, even though Mom was sick with ovarian cancer. Even though he had been at her side through two long, miserable rounds of chemotherapy. Even though she now faced the likelihood of a third.

In fact, Dad was leaving because Mom was sick.

In March, he was laid off from his job as a raw materials coordinator for a plastics company called PolyOne, where he'd worked for 20 years. His severance package had provided several months' salary, but by August the paychecks were winding down. Soon the cost of his family health coverage was going to triple, then a few months after that, nearly triple again. They needed coverage so Mom could fight her cancer.

Dad's solution: a four-year hitch in the Army.

So Chelsea counted down the days to his departure. When the countdown reached 49, the text message signature began to annoy and depress her, so she stopped. High school was beginning, her freshman year.

In the first week of class, one of the teachers asked: What do your parents do?

The question jolted Chelsea back to the shifting ground of her family. Mom was working part time at a Culver's restaurant, preparing for more chemo, worrying about how to pay the bills. In less than six weeks, Dad would enter the Army and her care would be covered.

The tradeoff was that he would be far away when Mom needed him home, when Chelsea needed him, too. He would miss all of her high school years. The band performances. Prom.

Chelsea thought of all his absence would mean.

When she sent her next text message, she resumed the countdown.

36 days.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/64677772...

PETITION TO PRESIDENT OBAMA: "Every day, insurance companies deny care and let people die. Getting one Republican senator's vote is not worth delaying reform -- too many real lives are at stake. We need you to fight and state clearly that anything less than a strong public option is not change we can believe in."

http://yeswestillcan.org/p-digby

Op-Ed Columnist
The Magic of Michelle
By CHARLES M. BLOW
Published: October 23, 2009

Forgive me in advance for fawning, but Michelle Obama is the coolest first lady ever. She clinched it for me this week by jumping double Dutch on the South Lawn as part of a “healthy kids fair.

The scene underscored my impression of the first lady as utterly unencumbered by convention. She seems to feel free — free enough to loosen up and laugh a little, free enough to let her inner child peek through the veil of parenthood, free enough to be herself.

I couldn’t imagine recent first ladies jumping a puddle on the sidewalk, let alone two ropes swinging at the same time in opposite directions. So, on behalf of New York City, the so-called double Dutch capital of the world (so much so that this year it became a varsity sport in the city’s schools), allow me to say: Well played.

I could pile on platitudes here about her professional accomplishments, or explore to what degree she is redefining the role of women, or predict how she will be viewed by historians in the pantheon of her predecessors. I could, but I won’t. That’s not my bailiwick.

But I will say that she seems particularly suited to these times. She provides a certain authenticity and clarity of self in a time of uncertainty, projecting a casual grace onto a world of amplified anxiety. She has become a powerful symbol of fearlessness, refinement, frugality and frivolity, managing to be both fun and serious simultaneously. She’s genuinely human.

Mrs. Obama is redefining my concept of a first lady, and I like it. Apparently, I’m not alone.

In April, at the peak of her popularity, a New York Times/CBS News poll measured her favorability at 67 percent. The same poll found that a stratospheric 84 percent approved of how she was handling her role as first lady. That means that even half of those who didn’t hold a favorable view of her as a person still liked what she was doing as first lady.

(It should be noted that polls by USA Today/Gallup and CNN/Opinion Research Corporation, both released this week, put the first lady’s favorability ratings in the 60s and above those of her husband.)

It’s hard to believe that this is the same woman who during the presidential campaign was repeatedly portrayed as the neo-radical albatross to a postracial candidate.

This is America. We respect fearlessness, regardless of what we feel about the person who embodies it. With Mrs. Obama, we have it both ways.

If George W. Bush was the president that Americans most wanted to have a beer with, then Michelle Obama is becoming the first lady we most want to have a laugh with. And that’s cool.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/24/opinion/24blo...

We Know What He Means
By BOB HERBERT
Published: October 23, 2009

I wasn’t at all surprised at Rudy Giuliani. He couldn’t find his way off the low road with a handful of maps and a GPS device. But I was very surprised at Mayor Bloomberg.

One of the signal successes of Mike Bloomberg’s tenure is that during his two terms as mayor of a rough, tough, extremely contentious city, he has helped lower the racial temperature. You can say whatever you want about his policies, you can like him personally or not, but he has not played that cheap and tired game of ethnic politics. He has not tried to divide people along racial, ethnic or religious lines, exploiting fears and pitting groups against one another. And he has stood up against those who would do so.

The city has benefited from this. So it was truly disheartening, dismaying, to have the mayor turn his back on all that last Sunday during an appearance with Mr. Giuliani before an Orthodox Jewish group in Borough Park, Brooklyn.

Mr. Giuliani, campaigning on Mr. Bloomberg’s behalf, warned that if the mayor is not elected to a third term on Nov. 3, the city could become unsafe — a place of escalating crime and heightened tensions and fear.

Homing in with the instincts of a born divider, Mr. Giuliani suggested that an environment filled with danger might be right there on the next horizon if the voters were to elect “the wrong political leadership.” The “wrong” leadership in this case would be Mr. Bloomberg’s opponent, the City Comptroller William Thompson, who is black.

Giuliani said he worries daily that the city might revert “to the way it was before 1993,” the year he was elected mayor. He then pointedly added, so that no one within earshot could mistake his not-so-coded meaning: “And you know exactly what I’m talking about.”

It was vintage Giuliani, as subtle as a heart attack, deliberately fanning the fears of a community that has long been the locus of tensions between blacks and Jews. And Mayor Bloomberg sat there, allowing that lousy message to be delivered on his behalf.

Mr. Bloomberg has had many opportunities to disavow Mr. Giuliani’s remarks, to say that as a city we’re better than that, to repudiate (as he has before) the very idea that exploiting fear and division for political gain is acceptable in this great city. But he has chosen not to. He chose instead, later that same day, to raise the specter of one of the worst big-city tragedies in American history: Detroit, which was laid low by every ill you can imagine, including a catastrophic race riot in 1967.

Detroit, said Mr. Bloomberg, “went from a great city with lots of good-paying jobs to a city that’s basically holding on for dear life.”

Well, that’s true. But what’s that got to do with New York City, or this year’s mayoral election? New York is not an incipient Detroit. New York will not become Detroit if Mike Bloomberg is not re-elected.

The mayor disingenuously said that Detroit’s decline was more about economics than “some other things.” But anyone who knows the sad history of Detroit knows about those “other things.”

This had all the appearance of Mayor Bloomberg piggybacking on Giuliani’s fear-mongering. He picked the worst-case urban scenario available, a crime-ridden, destitute city from which most whites have long since fled, and offered it as a suggestion of what might be in store for New York, a thriving metropolis filled with people from virtually every ethnic group on the planet.

Open a window, please. Some fresh air is in order.

The Mike Bloomberg that New Yorkers came to know during his first two terms as mayor was not the same man who remained shamefully silent last Sunday, willing to benefit politically from Mr. Giuliani’s toxic remarks.

Many of us have seen New York convulsed over the decades by one racially charged controversy after another, sometimes violently convulsed. They come easily to mind: The Central Park jogger case, the police killings of Eleanor Bumpurs, Amadou Diallo and Patrick Dorismond, the vicious racial attacks in Howard Beach and Bensonhurst, the Tawana Brawley affair, the Crown Heights riot and on and on and on.

The Bloomberg administration has helped shield the city from similar convulsions. That the mayor is now willing to lock his principles in a safe deposit box and start riding the broomstick of ethnic politics suggests that he’s worried about the outcome of his race against Mr. Thompson (even though public opinion polls and most of the people I talk to expect Bloomberg to win).

One of the ironies at work here is that it is during the toughest economic times that a city, more than ever, needs a mayor who is committed to bringing people together, not playing them off against one another for short-term political gain. This is absolutely the worst time for that point to have slipped Michael Bloomberg’s mind.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/24/opinion/24her...

Guiliani was considered average until 9 11 just like Bush.

Actually he was considered one of the great prosecutors of the modern era. He did launch the "commission case" which was probably the single biggest case that's ever been launched against organized crime.

And now Bloomberg shows his true colors.

CNN Edits Out Dobbs Criticism From Taped Interview

lou_dobbswebThis week, CNN aired a new four-hour documentary called “Latino in America,” exploring how Latinos are reshaping American communities and culture. The broadcast sparked protests in cities around the country, including outside CNN’s headquarters in Atlanta, with minority groups calling on the network to fire anti-immigration crusader and serial misinformer Lou Dobbs.

The New York Times reports that CNN “has not commented on the protests or covered them on its news programs.” But not only has CNN ignored the Dobbs protests, the network edited out criticism of Dobbs from civil rights lawyer Isabel Garcia during a taped interview with controversial Arizona Sheriff Joe Arapaio that aired on Anderson Cooper 360 this week:

[Garcia] who was featured in “Latino in America” and organized an anti-Dobbs protest in Tucson on Wednesday, said that CNN edited her comments about the anchor out of an interview. [...]

She said she called Mr. Arpaio and Mr. Dobbs “the two most dangerous men to our communities,” and said that “because of them, our communities are being terrorized in a real way.” She also asserted that CNN was “promoting lies and hate about our community” by broadcasting Mr. Dobbs’s program. The comments were not included when the interview was shown Wednesday night. “They heavily deleted what I did get to say,” she said.

This isn’t the first time CNN has circled the wagons around Dobbs. Earlier this year, Dobbs was one of the most prominent mainstream media figures pushing the conspiracy theory that President Obama may not have been born in the U.S. Dobbs repeatedly called on Obama to “produce a birth certificate” and said it’s “unfortunate” that the birthers have been “dismissed.” Despite Dobbs’ hysteria and playing on “escalating white fear,” CNN president Jonathan Klein downplayed Dobbs’ antics, claiming the CNN anchor was merely reporting on the birther “phenomenon” and had simply asked why “some people doubt” Obama’s citizenship.

Moreover, while discussing race issues last year on the air, Dobbs became agitated, and it appeared that he was about to say “cotton picking” (often used as a racially charged slur) in reference to then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. But he caught himself, only uttering the word “cotton.” In the official transcript of the show, CNN omitted “cotton” from Dobbs’ remarks.

While Dobbs has been quick to jump on right-wing conspiracy theories targeting Obama (including recently peddling a fake thesis purportedly written by Obama that trashes the Constitution, the Founding Fathers and free markets), his hateful anti-immigrant rhetoric has been ongoing for years. Now, Latino and pro-immigrant activists have launched two campaigns, Drop Dobbs and Basta Dobbs, which are aimed at pressuring CNN to “hold Mr. Dobbs to journalistic standards” or dump him altogether.

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/10/24/cnn-edits-d...

Tuesday, October 20, 2009
The silencing of Dr. Marc Lamont Hill.

Let this be a lesson to all you people out there who like to lie down with the FOX dog: You will always wake up with fleas, or even worse, in the unemployment line.

Seems Radio Rwanda found it necessary to dump Dr. Marc Lamont Hill after a shareholder confronted the Grand Pupa at a recent shareholder's meeting. The man was not pleased that Dr. Hill has been known to support alleged cop killer, Mumia Abu Jamal in the past, and he wanted to know what his black mug was doing on the people's news channel. Well, right then and there, Rupert Murdoch informed the giddy man that Hill would be fired. Yep, bye bye Marc. No more sparring with Bill O'Reilly on his daily show, no more offering your opposing views on important issues of the day to millions of red state minions. Nope, this is how it's done in FOX world. Only certain types of left leaning liberal views are allowed. (See the wimp, Alan Colmes.) And certainly only certain types of black people are allowed as well. (See the slave catcher, Jesse Lee Peterson.)

I feel bad for Dr. Hill. --Even though he pissed me off a time or two when he was here at Temple University, (Never forget where you come from Marc, because, in the end, Karma will bite you in the ass.) he didn't deserve what the folks over at Radio Rwanda did to him. So he defends Mumia Abul- Jamal's right to have another trial,- so do a lot of other people- and Jamal posted a column on his my space site, that doesn't make him one of the 911 hijackers. But apparently the folks on the right didn't like his "radical politics" and they felt that it was time to drop his black ass.

And that's all fine. It's Rupert's network and he can put on it whoever he damn well pleases. I just wish that the folks on the right would remember that when they start crying foul because the fat drug addicted one down in South Florida gets the same treatment.

http://field-negro.blogspot.com/2009/10/silenci...

And people defend that POS rag as press.I dont know Dr.Hill and I dont watch fox but to the people who keep defending them,remember next time it might be you.

Fox Is Not a News Organization And Here Is More Evidence

by John Cole

Remember yesterday when all the wingnuts were screaming that the White House was shutting out Fox news:

liars

Allahpundit (who has now gone full metal wingnut) was apoplectic:

Decide for yourself what the most disgraceful aspect of this is. Was it the fact that Gibbs told Jake Tapper explicitly on Monday that the White House wouldn’t try to dictate to the press pool who should and shouldn’t be included — before doing precisely that? Was it Anita Dunn going out of her way to say she respects Major Garrett as a fair reporter — before the administration decided he didn’t deserve a crack here at Feinberg? Or was it the repeated insistence by Dunn and Axelrod that of course the administration will make its officials available to Fox — before pulling the plug today?

The Weekly Standard was aghast:

The White House sent out an alert today to the press pool that “Pay Czar” Kenneth Feinberg would be doing a press availability— a round robin with the major news networks, in which Fox is customarily included. The administration specified that everyone was invited except Fox News, according to Bret Baier on “Special Report” tonight.

You know where this is going, don’t you? IT NEVER HAPPENED. Fox made the entire thing up. Take it away, TPM:

TPMDC dug into it, and here’s what happened.

Feinberg did a pen and pad with reporters to brief them on cutting executive compensation. TV correspondents, as they do with everything, asked to get the comments on camera. Treasury officials agreed and made a list of the networks who asked (Fox was not among them).

But logistically, all of the cameras could not get set up in time or with ease for the Feinberg interview, so they opted for a round robin where the networks use one pool camera. Treasury called the White House pool crew and gave them the list of the networks who’d asked for the interview.

The network pool crew noticed Fox wasn’t on the list, was told that they hadn’t asked and the crew said they needed to be included. Treasury called the White House and asked top Obama adviser Anita Dunn. Dunn said yes and Fox’s Major Garrett was among the correspondents to interview Feinberg last night.

Simple as that, we’re told, and the networks don’t want to be seen as heroes for Fox.

TPMDC spoke with a network bureau chief this afternoon familiar with the situation who was surprised that Fox was portraying the news as networks coming to its rescue.

The question- when will these guys get tired of being made fools of by their media sources and their leaders?


http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=28678

Fox lies and the rest of the media and apologist line up like lemmings and cry freedom of the press.Its sickening and I await MothSmoke and Guns explanation.

I don't owe you an explanation, but since you've failed to comprehend (ignore(?)) my position ... wait no longer.

My response was based upon what Axelrod and Emanuel advocated "legitimate", "traditional" news organization do with respect to FOX. [Muzikal posted the video of their interviews fron last Sunday's (?) talk shows] That's when this began and you can find my initial response on this issue there. My latest comments regarding this matter were made based on what several news orgs reported occurred regarding the interview you mentioned above. I posted the article from Huffingtonpost because the reaction from the networks to FOX not being included was based upon Axelrod's and Emanuel's comments the previous weekend.

Now, if you want to call me out on this -- make sure you calling me out RIGHT. Since this conversation began a week ago, I have made it very clear that my position has been that the WH -- by asking what it determined "legitimate," "traditional" news organizations -- not to treat FOX as a legitimate news org and not to run with it's stories, is infringing upon FOX News' freedon of press and freedom of speech. A free press is essential to democracy and our gov't doesn't get to decide for us who is and is not worthy of being a news org -- we do. If there is any policing to be done -- it will be done by the public and fellow news orgs. As I wrote in several postings, the WH is free to treat FOX News as it pleases -- but not to rope in other news orgs. in its bid to delegitimize FOX. The news orgs should be free to publish whatever nonsense they please and if they choose to run with FOX's stories, they shouldn't have to fear that our gov't will then attempt to delegitimize them and ask the remaining "legitimate", "traditional" news orgs to then stop running with their stories.

Your responses, as I recall, were all based upon FOX not being a news org. If you and everyone in your state don't believe that it's a news org, it's of no moment. They best you can do is flip the channel. The fact of the matter is that, they are treated as such, believes it is such and is afforded all the legal protections and rights due there under as a news org. Until that changes, all of your "it's not a news organization" means nothing in the grand scheme of things. My argument has always been based upon the rule of law and our constitution. Both are there to protect the revolting and the pious. The principle doesn't change just because we don't like the actor.

Now, if you're comfortable throwing out the principle just to get at FOX, that's between you and yours. I'm not. It's not about FOX, it's the principle. Do you now understand my position?

Frankly, I don't think there is anything more for us to discuss on this issue. I'm starting from the premise of what FOX is considered under the law and the constitution. You're starting from the premise what you personally believe FOX news to be. My stance has been consistent throughout. You either didn't comprehend it or in your angst about FOX, decided to ignore it to see what you wanted to see. In any event, there will be no meeting of the minds.

Fact #1 The story was false
Fact #2 Fox lies
Now you are right you dont owe me anything but my point is why defend the indefensible.They are no more a news outlet than my ramblings.If the other alphabet soup media runs with their stories what do that say about a free press?A free press needs to be critical but you and I know that is not the case.I think that we agree on the constitutional right of the press but have a different opinion on what that exactly means.

Hell, the National Enquirer breaks more accurate news more often than not...why not invite THEM to the press conferences, too?

From reading thier posts they are not disagreeing that they are not real news organizations or that their behavior isn't despicable. Their argument is that you can call them out and ignore them at the press conferences but you can not exclude them from any press event period. The exclusion is censorship.
Arguing about what Bush did and how the media didn't call BS is an argument we can make. WE see them. WE know why. In the end the WH has to make the decision. The fight is not among us.