Category Archives: history
The Idols of My Generation are Passing: Mike Wallace Dies at 93.
This from CBS:
(CBS News) CBS News legend Mike Wallace, the “60 Minutes” pit-bull reporter whose probing, brazen style made his name synonymous with the tough interview – a style he practically invented for television more than half a century ago – died last night. He was 93 and passed peacefully surrounded by family members at Waveny Care Center in New Canaan, Conn., where he spent the past few years. He also had a home in Manhattan.
“It is with tremendous sadness that we mark the passing of Mike Wallace. His extraordinary contribution as a broadcaster is immeasurable and he has been a force within the television industry throughout its existence. His loss will be felt by all of us at CBS,” said Leslie Moonves, president and CEO, CBS Corporation.
“All of us at CBS News and particularly at ’60 Minutes’ owe so much to Mike. Without him and his iconic style, there probably wouldn’t be a ’60 Minutes.’ There simply hasn’t been another broadcast journalist with that much talent. It almost didn’t matter what stories he was covering, you just wanted to hear what he would ask next. Around CBS he was the same infectious, funny and ferocious person as he was on TV. We loved him and we will miss him very much,” said Jeff Fager, chairman CBS News and executive producer of “60 Minutes.”
A special program dedicated to Wallace will be broadcast on “60 Minutes” next Sunday, April 15.
If all you knew Mike Wallace from was 60 Minutes which he did from 1968 to 2008, then you only knew half of his amazing television career. He hovered between entertainment and news in the 40s and 50s, got his first network presence on ABC’s Mike Wallace Interview – which was based on his earlier NYC interview program called Night Beat, where he developed his browbeating interview style.
CBS News producer Don Hewitt took Wallace’s hard-charging style as a counter to the avuncular Harry Reasoner and on September 24, 1968, Wallace and Reasoner introduced “60 Minutes” to the 10:00 p.m. timeslot, where it ran every other Tuesday. While critics loved it and awards followed. it had a hard time building an audience. After seven years trying various nights, “60 Minutes” went to 7:00 p.m. Sunday, where it remains today.
Mainly because of Wallace’s tough style, it made the top 20 shows in 1977 and the top 10 in 1978, then became the number-one program in 1980.
Myron Leon Wallace was born in Brookline, Mass., on May 9, 1918. He attended Brookline High School and was graduated from the University of Michigan in 1939 with a B.A. degree in liberal arts.
Mike, we salute you.
Related articles
- Twitter remembers Mike Wallace: 60 Minutes legend dies at 93 (examiner.com)
- Mike Wallace, legendary ’60 Minutes’ journalist, dies at 93 (examiner.com)
- Veteran CBS journalist Mike Wallace dead at 93 – network (firstpost.com)
- Mike Wallace dead at 93 (heloise8.wordpress.com)
- Remembering: Mike Wallace, 93 (aarp.org)
- 60 Minutes Legend Mike Wallace Dead at 93 (tvline.com)
- RIP Newsman Mike Wallace (skydancingblog.com)
- Mike Wallace, `60 Minutes’ star interviewer, dies (kansas.com)
Cartoon(s) of the Week – The Court Protects Us All
Tom Toles in the Washington Post:
Government of the people, by the people and for the people…
– and –
Pat Bagley in the Salt Lake Tribune:
Government by the majority…
– and –
Government serves and protects…
– and –
Ben Sargent in the Austin American Statesman:
Government responds to the needs of the people…
Related articles
- Bagley’s cartoon on criticizing Obamacare (timpanogos.wordpress.com)
- Open Thread and Toles Cartoon of the Week (thinkprogress.org)
Good Morning on a lovely Saturday…
I’m over at WSHC (89.7 FM) getting ready for my 11 AM show (which you can also listen to on the internet from wherever you are at http://www.897wshc.org/listen_live/index.html.)
Last night Elly and I went to Shepherdstown Film Society where we have spent many enjoyable Friday nights. The film was George Clooney‘s Good Night and Good Luck which was about Edward R. Murrow‘s exposure of Senator Joseph McCarthy on CBS television news. Filmed in black and white and very cleverly using visual and sound clips of the actual Army McCarthy hearings and other 1954 or so contemporary television videos, Clooney, who plays news director Fred Friendly, and Richard Straithern, who plays Murrow, bring off performances that arfe damned close to reality.
Todd Cotgreave, the CEO of WSHC, did the film introduction last night and ran the discussion afterward and those of us who stayed around for it had an enlightening conversation on McCarthyism and that period in American history when so many people were accused of being Communists.
As a follow-up to last night’s conversations, I’m going to play some of Bob and Ray’s 1954 radio sketches from their Mary Backstayge Noble Wife soap opera where Ray Goulding did an amazing parody of Joe McCarthy. It will start with Bob Elliott discussing what they were doing in the Backstayge series and he will also play some original McCarthy material. Then I’ll play one of the episodes which deal with the real-estate hearings in Skunk Haven, NY, protesting Harry Backstayge’s building of a 14 story home. Commissioner Carstairs (the McCarthy character) is the lead prosecutor of the case and it is quite funny.
Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding
So many people who wanted to attack McCarthy in the 50s avoided doing it out of fear that they would be falsely labeled as Commies. The fact that Bob and Ray could do their imitation and not suffer from it is because, as usual, they were remarkably non-poltical. I’ll be playimng these clips sometime during the first hour of my show (from 11-Noon).
Tune in if you can.
Related articles
- History since then vindicates Joe McCarthy: Read Senator Joseph R. McCarthy’s Reply to Edward R. Murrow (trutherator.wordpress.com)
- This Day In History: Edward R. Murrow’s See It Now Airs McCarthyism Episode (1954) (euzicasa.wordpress.com)
Ferdinand Porsche, designer of the 911 Sports Car, dies at age 76.
Porsche, who went on to found a consumer products design firm after creating the 911, died Thursday in Salzburg, Austria.
Porsche’s grandfather had designed the original Volkswagen Beetle in Germany in the 1930s and his father went on to build the Porsche motor empire.
As a child, “Butzi” – as he was known to his family and business associates – enjoyed designing and building his own toys. He studied at the Ulm School of Design before joining the design department of Porsche.
The Porsche 911 was designed in 1963 and went on sale in 1964, as a rear engine vehicle that cost US$5,500.00. The automaker debuted the seventh generation 911 late last year. It now sells for about US$115,000.
Porsche headed the company’s design studio from 1962 to 1972.
Related articles
- “Porsche was his life and what he stood for”: Porsche 911 designer Ferdinand Alexander Porsche dies aged 76 (mirror.co.uk)
- Ferdinand Porsche, 911 sports car designer, dies (newsok.com)
- Ferdinand Porsche, legendary 911 sports car creator, dies at 76 (rt.com)
- Confirmed: Ferdinand Alexander Porsche – designer of the 911 – dies at age 76 (autoblog.com)
- Ferdinand Porsche, designer of 911 and grandson of car company’s founder, dies at 76 (mercurynews.com)
- Ferdinand Porsche Dies at 76 (bloomberg.com)
- Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, 1935-2012 (treehugger.com)
Quote of the Day – Obama at the Center… Where did the Republicans go?
“I think it’s important to remember that the positions I’m taking now on the budget and a host of other issues, if we had been having this discussion 20 years ago, or even 15 years ago, would have been considered squarely centrist positions. What’s changed is the center of the Republican Party.”
The President spoke at an Associated Press luncheon yesterday and reminded campaign journalists about the false-equivalence fallacy:
“I think that there is often times the impulse to suggest that if the two parties are disagreeing, then they’re equally at fault and the truth lies somewhere in the middle, and an equivalence is presented — which reinforces I think people’s cynicism about Washington generally.”
Note that Obama changed his position on the mandate policy, but remember that the mandate was a conservative idea, embraced by Republican policymakers for years.
Obama went from supporting a single-payer plan during the 2008 campaign to supporting a plan designed by Mitt Romney in Massachusetts and backed by moderate Republicans throughout the ’90s.
Does this strike you as Obama moving to the left? As the Republicans look to tear down the plan they had previously recommended, who is really moving away from the center?
Attorneys General in 11 States call on Congress to reverse Citizens United decision.
Yesterday, 11 state attorneys general sent a letter to Congress requesting a constitutional amendment which would reverse the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United.
This section of the letter gives the historic background that SCOTUS eliminated:
The case overturned elements of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (also known as the “McCain-Feingold Act” or “BCRA”) pertaining to the corporate financing of electioneering communications in the run-up to primary and general elections. The Supreme Court ruled that these restrictions on corporate political spending violated the First Amendment’s free speech protections, thereby allowing corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money on elections.
In effect, the Citizens United decision overturned a century of jurisprudence, dating back to the Tillman Act of 1907, which supported Congressional authority to restrict corporate political spending on federal elections. With respect to the BCRA, the decision directly overrules key provisions of McConnell v. Federal Election Commission, 540 U.S. 93 (2003), which upheld the BCRA provisions that prevented direct expenditures by corporate entities on electioneering communications. Importantly, Citizens United kept intact other critical rulings in McConnell regarding disclosure requirements. However, by its decision the Court gave corporations the same rights under the First Amendment as individuals, and thereby severely limited Congress’s power to regulate corporate political spending and invalidated bipartisan, democratically-enacted restrictions on corporate behavior.
Hopefully this brings a start to an action which will eventually eliminate the Super Pacs and bring our elections back to the majority voters.
Hopefully, this won’t become a political volley between Republicans and Democrats.
Hopefully.
Lieutenant Uhura Visits the White House…
Nichelle Nichols (who looks great at age 81) visits Star Trek fan Barack Obama in the White House (photo submitted to Facebook by her co-actor George Takei).
Here’s a comment that told me something I didn’t realize:
Anthony Curi (on Facebook) made this comment:
Towards the end of the first season, she became jaded after being written into the background and nearly left the show. However, a letter from one particular viewer changed her mind.
“I am the biggest trekkie there is, and I am Lt. Uhura‘s most ardent fan.”
–Dr. Martin Luther King
The Humor of Mitt Romney…
Picked this off the Daily Kos. Listening to Mitt’s actual words over the cartoon is a gas:
Related articles
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- Morning Joe Hosts Break Down Over Idea Of ‘Unzipping’ Mitt Romney (mediaite.com)
- Mitt Romney Suffers Tragic Humor-Circuit Malfunction [Mitt Romney] (jezebel.com)
- Jon Stewart Surveys the GOP’s Palpable Reluctance Over Romney: VIDEO (towleroad.com)
- Humorous anecdote: Mitt Romney mocked John Kerry for being rich (dailykos.com)
- Oops he’s done it again, Mitt Romney tells ‘humorous’ story of factory closing (lameducks.wordpress.com)
- Romney Tells “Humorous” Story About His Father Shutting Down A Factory In Michigan (alan.com)
How to let the Government know you want their hands off Social Security…
… which does not contribute to the budget deficit… in fact the Government owes Social Security the millions they have borrowed from it that they should not have.
If you want to weigh in, AARP (who have not been totally on our side to keep Social Security from being reduced…until the polls showed that this was not the position of their members) has a means of expression you should try:
For the past year, Washington has been discussing changes to Medicare and Social Security behind closed doors as part of a backroom budget deal. Throughout that debate, we heard from millions of members who said they’re tired of Washington playing politics with the benefits they’ve earned. That’s why we’ve launched ‘You’ve Earned A Say.’ We’re calling it that because Americans have earned their benefits by paying into Social Security and Medicare for years and they deserve to know what the politicians are talking about.
As AARP says on the site: Don’t let Washington decide the future of Medicare & Social Security without you.
Make sure you get your position covered.
Cartoon(s) of the Week – A week of excuses…
Rick McKee in the Augusta Chronicle:
The character of our economy…
– and –
Clay Bennett in the Chattanooga Times Free Press:
The excuse of our generation…
– and –
Charles Britt in the State Journal Register:
The limitations of investigation…
– and –
Mike Luckovich in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
The responsibility of Congress…
– and –
Steve Sack in the Star Tribune:
The concern of Mr. Ryan…
Is everyone getting ready for tomorrow?
I think I dislike April Fools Day more than any other designated day of the year. I have fallen victim to April Fool gags more times than I can remember… in fact, it’s how I knew my first marriage was ending when my, then, wife didn’t play a joke on me. That didn’t stop most of my friends from taking me in.
Yeah, I’ll put something on the blog which will be a completely humorous fiction… and I’ll respond to e-mails as usual. However, I’ll be happy when the day is over.
So where did April Fool’s Day come from. Infoplease.com gave this historic summary:
Ancient cultures, including those of the Romans and Hindus, celebrated New Year’s Day on or around April 1. It closely follows the vernal equinox (March 20th or March 21st.) In medieval times, much of Europe celebrated March 25, the Feast of Annunciation, as the beginning of the new year.
In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII ordered a new calendar (the Gregorian Calendar) to replace the old Julian Calendar. The new calendar called for New Year’s Day to be celebrated Jan. 1. That year, France adopted the reformed calendar and shifted New Year’s day to Jan. 1. According to a popular explanation, many people either refused to accept the new date, or did not learn about it, and continued to celebrate New Year’s Day on April 1. Other people began to make fun of these traditionalists, sending them on “fool’s errands” or trying to trick them into believing something
false. Eventually, the practice spread throughout Europe.
White House makes Romney’s view on foreign policy pretty weak…
From American Politics Journal and the LA Times:
Reporting from Washington— Al Qaeda is public foe No. 1 for the U.S., the White House declared on Wednesday, not Russia – as Republican candidate Mitt Romney asserted earlier this week.
Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest at Press Briefing...
In fact, the Russians are “working well to isolate” nations with rogue nuclear programs that the U.S. is trying to contain, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.
“You don’t have to be a foreign policy expert to know that the Cold War ended 20 years ago and that the greatest threat that the president has been fighting on behalf of the American people is the threat posed by Al Qaeda,” Earnest told reporters in the daily White House briefing.
The remarks came a day after Romney complained about President Obama’s posture toward Russia, while criticizing Obama for remarks he made to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev this week about his having more “flexibility” on missile defense after the November elections.
Romney called Russia “without question our No. 1 geopolitical foe.”
Obama Campaign changes the focus on “Obamacare” – It’s a POSITIVE label
According to Reuters:
President Barack Obama’s campaign has embraced the term “Obamacare,” seeking to turn the negative name Republicans assigned to his healthcare reform effort into a positive branding tool just as the Supreme Court studies the law’s constitutionality.
“Happy birthday, Obamacare,” Jim Messina, the president’s campaign manager, wrote in an email to supporters last week to note the anniversary of the reform becoming law.
“If you’re tired of the other side throwing around that word like it’s an insult, then join me in sending a message that we’re proud of it,” he wrote.
While it may be a little late in getting around to this strategy, there’s a good chance it can work To help promote it, the Obama campaign is reaching out with promoti0nal products:
T-shirts that say “I like Obamacare” are available on the campaign’s website for $35.
Buttons with the same message go for $5.
I expect to be seeing these around soon… perhaps on me.
Planet Under Pressure Conference in London – We’re getting close to irreversible climate changes…
While politicians argue with scientists, the climate actually goes on changing.. and not to our advantage. Reuters has been commenting on this conference that runs through tomorrow:
Global warming close to becoming irreversible-scientists
The world is close to reaching tipping points that will make it irreversibly hotter, making this decade critical in efforts to contain global warming, scientists warned on Monday.
Scientific estimates differ but the world’s temperature looks set to rise by six degrees Celsius by 2100 if greenhouse gas emissions are allowed to rise uncontrollably.
As emissions grow, scientists say the world is close to reaching thresholds beyond which the effects on the global climate will be irreversible, such as the melting of polar ice sheets and loss of rainforests.
“This is the critical decade. If we don’t get the curves turned around this decade we will cross those lines,” said Will Steffen, executive director of the Australian National University‘s climate change institute, speaking at a conference in London.
It’s amazing how many of the best scientific minds see the problem, yet they are faced with huge negative concepts by the politicians who would have to vote in the bucks to make changes.
As we argue this out for the rest of the decade, we can watch the polar ice caps melt and the tropical rain forests dry up and many species that we rely on disappear.
It is up to us as individuals to push our representatives into dealing with the truth. Right?
It’s over a month… why isn’t Zimmerman in custody?
According to the L.A.Times:
George Zimmerman, whose fatal shooting of an unarmed teenager has sparked nationwide protests over alleged racial profiling, had thought the entire incident would “blow over,” a friend said Sunday. Instead, Zimmerman is hiding amid death threats and demands for his arrest.
As to how anyone could think that the death of a 17-year-old armed with candy and iced tea could just disappear doesn’t realize his own failing.
Although he has some friends coming out to claim that Zimmerman is not racist, there is the problem of the 911 tape, the list of previous calls to the police from Zimmerman claiming other black people in the neighborhood (where apparently there are black residents) and the fact that Zimmerman was told to withdraw, but followed Trayvon Martin anyway.
In any other similar situation, a Zimmerman-type offender would be arrested if only to prevent his leaving Florida. Why not here?
Good Morning, America. Time to get back to our roots…
… and to me that starts with dropping “In God We Trust“ and returning to “e pluribus unum” (Out of Many, One) as our official motto (I’ve been thinking about this all night – 
even in one very bad dream – since posting the last night’s quote from Mark Karlin.)
It was adopted by an Act of Congress in 1782, although not as an official motto but what came to be considered, de facto, the basic statement of the USA. It is on the official Seal of the United States.
“In God We Trust,” in this era of the Religious Right separating itself from any compromise position with the center or the left, is meaningless. What do we trust in God for? That He would allow one side to corrupt the country in His name? If we don’t get back to unifying the many, we will no longer have control of the basics of daily life.
OK… I’m an atheist, as I’ve pointed out many times on this blog. The religious connection with politics, in general, leaves me both appalled and extremely worried. Even if I had a belief that was in line with the other 80% of Americans, I would be upset about single sects pushing their beliefs on everyone else. This is not American…not the American Way.
Show me a candidate that can finish a speech without acknowledging a blessing from their own God, and I will show you someone who is more reliant 
on what he or she CAN DO by him- or herself, with the united population…the one out of many. That, to me, is worth voting for.
Related articles
- Quote to End the Week – We are doing a Bang (Bang) Up Job (underthelobsterscope.wordpress.com)
- What E Pluribus Unum Means (todayifoundout.com)
- Air Farce: Religious Right Allies Complain about Removal of ‘God’ from Military Motto (secularnewsdaily.com)
- In God We Trust (sixpointnineme.wordpress.com)
- Teddy Roosevelt: ‘In God We Trust’ on Money is ‘Sacrilege’ (patheos.com)
Cartoon(s) of the Week – The State of Our World Changes
Robert Ariail in the Spartanburg Herald-Journal:
A whole party that can’t find the main issue…
– and –
Pat Oliphant, Universal Press Syndicate:
A state that has found a neat use for guns…
Clay Bennett in the Chattanooga Times Free Press:
A government that could take control of women’s reproductive health…
– and –
Mike Luckovich in the Atlanta Journal Constitution:
An enemy that responds to our media…
If I could have done something like this at age 11, I probably wouldn’t be stuck in WV now.
Then again, if I were Mozart, I would have been dead over thirty years at this point.
Anyway, this piece, Allegro Molto, composed when Wolfgang was 11, was recently discovered. Take a listen:
This was played by Florian Birsak in Stuttgart on Mozart’s own pianoforte. What a complicated and beautiful piece.
Related articles
- Newly discovered Mozart piano work he composed as a child is performed for first time | Mail Online (livasperiklis.com)
- The Most Heavenly Piano Music? (arioso7.wordpress.com)
I wonder..I wonder…I wonder. How do the Republicans trap lower middle class voters?
Oh. I see. They use stupidity.
Our first Spring Request for Support (and a new free gift):
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Here’s something we can do to head off Fracking in West Virginia (and elsewhere)…
I received this e-mail today from Josh Fox at Gasland. I hope you will read it and follow his suggestions.:
Dear Friends:
I want to call your attention to some critical news and ask you to quickly take action:
FIRST: USDA GATE!!!
BREAKING NEWS: USDA Reverses Itself and Exempts Rural Properties with Gas Drilling Leases from NEPA
ACTION: Call President Obama and tell him:
“Please do not allow the USDA to exempt housing loans from a full NEPA review.”
White House Phone numbers: 202-456-1111 and 202-456-1414
Here’s the background and the reasons why you should call:
In a move that has angered hydrofracking opponents, the USDA did an about-face and reneged on earlier statements that its popular rural housing loans on properties with gas drilling leases would have to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and today authorized an Administrative Notice stating that rural housing loans would be excluded from NEPA. On Monday, The New York Times had reported the USDA was planning on issuing an Administrative Notice to the opposite effect, telling staff that loans on properties with gas leases must undergo a full environmental review as required by NEPA before mortgage loans are made or guaranteed by the agency.
“The proposal by the Agriculture Department, which has signaled its intention in e-mails to Congress and landowners, reflects a growing concern that lending to owners of properties with drilling leases might violate the National Environmental Policy Act, known as NEPA, which requires environmental reviews before federal money is spent,” the Times wrote. The article quoted the program director for rural loans in the Agriculture Department’s New York office saying that, “We will no longer be financing homes with gas leases.” “Approval of such leases would allow for a number of potential impacts to possibly occur which would need to be analyzed in a NEPA document that would be reviewed by the public for sufficiency,” another USDA official was quoted as saying.
See the full New York Times article HERE.
But in an email statement yesterday, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack reversed those positions and said, “USDA will not make any policy changes related to rural housing loans…The information provided to Congressional offices on March 8, 2012 was premature and does not reflect past, current or future practices of the department. Tomorrow, I will authorize an Administrative Notice reaffirming that rural housing loans are categorically excluded under the National Environmental Policy Act.”
Friends, this is a very important development and one that we need to speak up about. A full NEPA review, like the type the agency was talking about affirming, would have been more transparent, more rigorous and comprehensive. USDA staff experts in the NY office as well as in DC made clear in emails that the law and the science require that mortgages with drilling leases shouldn’t be exempt from NEPA. This 180-degress turn by Secretary Vilsack contradicts both science and law.
Excluding NEPA review of fracking’s environmental impacts is a significant move. It means that environmental review of rural housing loans would be limited to the EPA‘s far less comprehensive national study of fracking, which is focused exclusively on drinking water and does not admit public comment. Doing a NEPA analysis would have ensured that federal agencies issuing loans are complying with the law. In fact, officials expressed concern the agency would be vulnerable to lawsuits if they didn’t conduct the NEPA reviews thoroughly enough. But exempting rural housing loans from NEPA means that gas drilling leases will also be exempt from legal recourse and other basic public interest protections the law was meant to provide. It also means that when property values drop precipitously due to contamination from gas drilling, sometimes to as low as 10% of their original value as we’ve seen in Pennsylvania, the American Taxpayer is going to be left holding the bag.
Not only is this is unlawful, it’s just not right.
Call President Obama and tell him:
“Please do not allow the USDA to exempt housing loans from a full NEPA review.”
White House Phone numbers: 202-456-1111 and 202-456-1414
SECOND: EPA VINDICATES DIMOCK FAMILIES!!!
BREAKING NEWS: EPA confirms Dimock water is unsafe. The Gasland team and I provided Pro-Publica with the unreleased water tests. The families in Dimock, PA have high to explosive levels of methane as well as chemicals known to cause cancer and heavy metals that exceed the agency’s “trigger level” in their water wells. The families have been vindicated. Science triumphs over spin.
Please read the full Pro-Publica story HERE.
Thanks for taking action and being a part of a profound movement to stop fracking!
–Josh
The USDA seems to be in the pocket of the gas companies. It should be the representative organization of the American rural citizenship.
As Josh says: “Science triumphs over spin.”
Quote with a quote for the Afternoon….
From:
Why College Costs So Much… by Doctor Cleveland
Mitt Romney recently told an aspiring college student that if he had trouble affording college, he should just shop around for the best price, which proves that Romney has no idea how college prices work:
“Don’t just go to one that has the highest price. Go to one that has a little lower price where you can get a good education. And hopefully you’ll find that.”
Romney also made sure to point out that the student should get no government assistance of any kind to go to college, which proves that Romney has no idea how America‘s post-war prosperity worked.
See, college is so much like the business world that Romney claims to represent. Kids just have to shop around to get into the one they want. And if they want one that costs less, there will be no shrinking of the educational value.
The government, apparently, gets no value out of investing in an educated populace, so why should it participate in subsidizing education?
The public colleges and universities enroll three out of every four American college students and have been faced with skyrocketing tuition increases due to the cutting of state funds. When I went to college in the sixties, state and federal funding paid the majority of tuition support for middle class students. Today, however, at some flagship schools, the state’s percentage of the budget is now sometimes 10% or lower. And, if the Romney gets his way, it will be much less.
The rest of the Cleveland article (and its subsequent Part II) will take further view on the subject.
Do Bush Appointed Judges Hate Obama Because He Is Black?
Dennis S wrote an observant piece for Politicus USA. Taking as an example, he cites Richard Cebull, the 67-year-old George W. Bush appointed Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana.
Right-wing Republicans hate Obama because he’s black. That’s a fact that’s been the subtext of virtually every political mouthing made by the extremist element of the party. “Poor, food stamps, housing loans ‘they’ couldn’t afford, ‘they’ don’t wanna work…” There have always
Cebull, the White Jokester
been vehement denials by the offending parties of any racial intent. And here’s another denial. But the action by the judge is so base, so visceral, that it’s beyond denial.
Here’s the email forwarded by the judge to six friends and his brother:
“A little boy said to his mother; ‘Mommy, how come I’m black and you’re white?’ His mother replied, ‘Don’t even go there Barack! From what I can remember about that party, you’re lucky you don’t bark!’”
There was a graphic on the e-mail of a mother and son holding hands and looking at a lake… above the picture was the phrase “A Mother’s Love”.
Federal Judges are, in a sense, employees of the President and are not allowed to criticize or condemn him. Period. This was, apparently, a judge who did not understand that something like this sent by e-mail could get posted on the internet and seen by millions, making clear the opinions of the sender.
Cebull’s statement when exposed said:
“because it’s anti-Obama. I apologize to anybody who is offended by it, and I can obviously understand why people would be offended.”
The only reason I can explain it to you is I am not a fan of our president, but this goes beyond not being a fan. I didn’t send it as racist, although that’s what it is. I sent it out because it’s anti-Obama.”
So here we have a Federal Judge admitting his anti-Obama position. Publicly.
Dennis S sums it up very tightly:
The whole unseemly apology reminds me of Christians who spend their whole lives drinking and whoring around, then think a last minute ‘apology’ will get them to heaven. Folks, you can’t commit sins like racism, and it is a sin, and expect to bail yourself out with an insincere bullshit apology.
This what has become to be known as a “Republican Apology“, often stated when they are caught in a difficult position: apologizing to anyone offended by the comment. Note, this is NOT and apology FOR the comment, but an aim at those who disagree with the Republican position.
Cohen and Conyers... Support Them!
Although it is not likely to happen, Democrats John Conyers and Steve Cohen of
the House Judiciary Committee are trying to get a hearing to have Cebull impeached. With Republican control of the House, it is not likely to happen.
Pass it on.
I Ran The Polls on Republican Voters in Mississippi and Alabama…
…so here is the similar poll of Illinois Republicans before their primary.
Here’s the results of a PPP poll of Republican voters planning to participate in the Illinois primary — you know, the state where President Obama was a resident, state senator and U.S. Senator.
Do you think Barack Obama is a Christian or a Muslim, or are you not sure?
Christian: 24
Muslim: 39
Not sure: 37Do you think Barack Obama was born in the United States, or not?
Was born in U.S.: 36
Not born in U.S.: 36
Not sure: 28Do you believe in evolution, or not?
Believe in evolution: 41
Do not: 43
Not sure: 16
These folks who are “not sure” are a curious bunch…especially on Obama facts, a politician associated with Illinois for years.
Under The LobsterScope 