Source of this Topic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aM8VU47pKU&feature=related
Source of this Topic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aM8VU47pKU&feature=related
Source of this Topic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aM8VU47pKU&feature=related
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Reverend Jeremiah Wright at the Press Club / Pt. 2
Source of this Topic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gXnZKUG_ic&feature=related
Source of this Topic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gXnZKUG_ic&feature=related
Source of this Topic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gXnZKUG_ic&feature=related
Reverend Jeremiah Wright at the Press Club / Pt. 1
Source of this Topic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2H1dMbkYa4&feature=bz302
Source of this Topic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2H1dMbkYa4&feature=bz302
Source of this Topic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2H1dMbkYa4&feature=bz302
Is God a Terrorist? When the weather is this bad, what's going on?
Source of this Topic:
Residents return after tornadoes smash houses in Virginia
By SONJA BARISIC, Associated Press Writer
SUFFOLK, Va. - Weary residents and business owners returned to what was left of their homes and livelihoods Tuesday after three tornadoes smashed houses, piled cars on ea
ch other and injured more than 200 people.
SUFFOLK, Va. - Weary residents and business owners returned to what was left of their homes and livelihoods Tuesday after three tornadoes smashed houses, piled cars on ea
ch other and injured more than 200 people. One twister in this city outside Norfolk cut a zigzagging path 25 miles long through residential areas, obliterating some homes in sprays of splintered lumber while leaving others just a few feet away untouched.
Search teams with dogs found no sign of deaths or any additional injured victims, Suffolk City Fire Chief Mark Outlaw said.
"The only thing I can say is we were watched over and blessed," Outlaw said.
Most home and business owners were blocked from damaged areas until officials could assess the damage. It wasn't clear when they could return.
Brenda Williams, 43, returned Tuesday to the shopping center where she was buried beneath a collapsed ceiling in a manicure shop during the storm. She was pulled to safety by a stranger, she said.
"I'm not lucky, I'm blessed," said Williams, who had a 2-inch gash stitched above her left eyebrow and stitches on her right forearm. "I'm fine. I'm here. I'm in the land of the living."
She retrieved possessions from her car, which was flipped on its roof and destroyed in the parking lot.
Several roads were closed Tuesday morning, and traffic was backed up leading into downtown Suffolk, a city of approximately 80,000 outside Norfolk.
Of the 200 injured, only six were listed in critical condition and six were listed as serious.
Officials listed 125 Suffolk homes and 15 buildings as uninhabitable.
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine declared a state of emergency, which frees up resources for those areas hit hardest. Kaine planned to visit some of the most damaged areas on Tuesday.
"It's kind of amazing there were not more significant injuries," Kaine said in an interview with WTOP Radio in Washington. He said he would ask President Bush for a disaster declaration. Jennifer Haines and her two young girls hid in a cubbyhole in her house in Suffolk as the tornado hit about three blocks away.
"It sounded like someone shuffling a giant deck of cards or a herd of wild animals coming through. You could feel the house shaking and hear the wind coming in through the cracks in the windows," Haines said.
"It was so scary I felt like I was having a heart attack." Keith Godwin and his wife and two kids took shelter in their bathroom after he looked out a window and saw one of the funnel clouds.
The Godwins' home is fine except for some debris, as are the rest of those on their side of the street. But houses across the street were badly damaged, including two completely wiped off their foundations and one that was tossed on top of another home.
"All that's left is a concrete slab," Godwin said.
Insulation, wiring and twisted metal hung from the front of a mall stripped bare of its facing. At another store, the sheet metal roofing was rolled up like a sardine can lid. Some of the cars and SUVs in the parking lot were on top of others.
"It's just a bunch of broken power poles, telephone lines and sad faces," said Richard Allbright, who works for a tree removal service in Driver and had been out for hours trying to clear the roads.
The National Weather Service confirmed that tornadoes struck Suffolk, Brunswick County, about 60 miles west, and Colonial Heights, about 60 miles northwest. Meteorologist Bryan Jackson described Suffolk's as a "major tornado."
The Brunswick County tornado was estimated at 86 mph to 110 mph, and cut a 300-yard path, Jackson said. It struck first, at about 1 p.m., said Mike Rusnak, a weather service meteorologist in Wakefield.
The second struck Colonial Heights around 3:40 p.m., he said.
The tornado believed to have caused damage over a 25-mile path from Suffolk to Norfolk touched down repeatedly between 4:30 and 5 p.m., Rusnak said.
At least 200 were injured in Suffolk and 18 others were injured in Colonial Heights, south of Richmond, said Bob Spieldenner of the Virginia Department of Emergency Management.
Sentara hospital spokesman Dale Gauding said about 70 people were treated there, "lots of cuts and bruises" and arm and leg injuries. Three were admitted in fair condition.
Property damage also was reported in Brunswick County, one of several places where the weather service had issued a tornado warning. State Police Sgt. Michelle Cotten said a twister destroyed two homes. Trees and power lines were down, and some flooding was reported.
___
Associated Press writers Dena Potter and Larry O'Dell contributed to this report from Richmond.
Search teams with dogs found no sign of deaths or any additional injured victims, Suffolk City Fire Chief Mark Outlaw said.
"The only thing I can say is we were watched over and blessed," Outlaw said.
Most home and business owners were blocked from damaged areas until officials could assess the damage. It wasn't clear when they could return.
Brenda Williams, 43, returned Tuesday to the shopping center where she was buried beneath a collapsed ceiling in a manicure shop during the storm. She was pulled to safety by a stranger, she said.
"I'm not lucky, I'm blessed," said Williams, who had a 2-inch gash stitched above her left eyebrow and stitches on her right forearm. "I'm fine. I'm here. I'm in the land of the living."
She retrieved possessions from her car, which was flipped on its roof and destroyed in the parking lot.
Several roads were closed Tuesday morning, and traffic was backed up leading into downtown Suffolk, a city of approximately 80,000 outside Norfolk.
Of the 200 injured, only six were listed in critical condition and six were listed as serious.
Officials listed 125 Suffolk homes and 15 buildings as uninhabitable.
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine declared a state of emergency, which frees up resources for those areas hit hardest. Kaine planned to visit some of the most damaged areas on Tuesday.
"It's kind of amazing there were not more significant injuries," Kaine said in an interview with WTOP Radio in Washington. He said he would ask President Bush for a disaster declaration. Jennifer Haines and her two young girls hid in a cubbyhole in her house in Suffolk as the tornado hit about three blocks away.
"It sounded like someone shuffling a giant deck of cards or a herd of wild animals coming through. You could feel the house shaking and hear the wind coming in through the cracks in the windows," Haines said.
"It was so scary I felt like I was having a heart attack." Keith Godwin and his wife and two kids took shelter in their bathroom after he looked out a window and saw one of the funnel clouds.
The Godwins' home is fine except for some debris, as are the rest of those on their side of the street. But houses across the street were badly damaged, including two completely wiped off their foundations and one that was tossed on top of another home.
"All that's left is a concrete slab," Godwin said.
Insulation, wiring and twisted metal hung from the front of a mall stripped bare of its facing. At another store, the sheet metal roofing was rolled up like a sardine can lid. Some of the cars and SUVs in the parking lot were on top of others.
"It's just a bunch of broken power poles, telephone lines and sad faces," said Richard Allbright, who works for a tree removal service in Driver and had been out for hours trying to clear the roads.
The National Weather Service confirmed that tornadoes struck Suffolk, Brunswick County, about 60 miles west, and Colonial Heights, about 60 miles northwest. Meteorologist Bryan Jackson described Suffolk's as a "major tornado."
The Brunswick County tornado was estimated at 86 mph to 110 mph, and cut a 300-yard path, Jackson said. It struck first, at about 1 p.m., said Mike Rusnak, a weather service meteorologist in Wakefield.
The second struck Colonial Heights around 3:40 p.m., he said.
The tornado believed to have caused damage over a 25-mile path from Suffolk to Norfolk touched down repeatedly between 4:30 and 5 p.m., Rusnak said.
At least 200 were injured in Suffolk and 18 others were injured in Colonial Heights, south of Richmond, said Bob Spieldenner of the Virginia Department of Emergency Management.
Sentara hospital spokesman Dale Gauding said about 70 people were treated there, "lots of cuts and bruises" and arm and leg injuries. Three were admitted in fair condition.
Property damage also was reported in Brunswick County, one of several places where the weather service had issued a tornado warning. State Police Sgt. Michelle Cotten said a twister destroyed two homes. Trees and power lines were down, and some flooding was reported.
___
Associated Press writers Dena Potter and Larry O'Dell contributed to this report from Richmond.
Source of this Topic:
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Now this is interesting...
Source of this topic: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080417/ts_nm/palestinians_carter_dc
Speaking at the American University in Cairo after talks with Hamas leaders from Gaza, Carter said Palestinians in Gaza were being "starved to death," receiving fewer calories a day than people in the poorest parts of Africa. "It's an atrocity what is being perpetrated as punishment on the people in Gaza. it's a crime... I think it is an abomination that this continues to go on," Carter said.
Israel has been blockading Gaza most of the time since Hamas took control of the impoverished coastal strip in June last year, allowing only basic supplies to enter.
Israel has not accepted Hamas proposals for a truce including an end to Hamas rocket attacks on Israel and to Israeli attacks on Hamas personnel in Gaza and the West Bank. Israeli officials say a truce would enable Hamas to rearm.
Carter said Israel and its ally the United States were trying to make the quality of life in Gaza markedly worse than in the West Bank, where the rival Fatah group is in control.
"I think politically speaking this has worked even to strengthen the popularity of Hamas and to the detriment of the popularity of Fatah," he added. The United States has been trying to achieve the opposite outcome.
"EXAMPLE TO BE EMULATED"
Carter, who helped make peace between Egypt and Israel while president in the 1970s, said the Hamas leaders he has met so far told him they would accept a peace agreement with Israel negotiated by Mahmoud Abbas -- the Fatah leader and Palestinian president -- if the Palestinians approved it in a referendum.
Israel and the United States say they refuse to deal with Hamas as long as the Islamist movement does not recognize Israel's right to exist and renounce violence.
But Carter said Hamas, which won Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006, had to be involved in any arrangements that could lead to peace.
"One of the reasons I wanted to come and meet with the Syrians and Hamas was to set an example that might be emulated by others... I know that there are some officials in the Israeli government that are quite willing to meet with Hamas and maybe that will happen in the near future," he added.
Carter's talks in Cairo were with former Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar and former Interior Minister Saeed Seyam, who did not speak to reporters.
Zahar and Seyam came to Cairo on Wednesday after the Israeli authorities refused to let Carter into Gaza from the Israeli side. Carter has already met a West Bank leader from Hamas and is expected to meet overall leader Khaled Meshaal in Damascus.
Earlier on Thursday, Carter met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. No details were available from either side.
(Writing by Jonathan Wright; editing by Will Rasmussen and Jon Boyle)
Source of this topic:
Carter calls Gaza blockade a crime and atrocity
By Jonathan Wright Thu Apr 17, 4:00 PM ET
CAIRO (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter called the blockade of Gaza a crime and an atrocity on Thursday and said U.S. attempts to undermine the Islamist movement Hamas had been counterproductive.
CAIRO (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter called the blockade of Gaza a crime and an atrocity on Thursday and said U.S. attempts to undermine the Islamist movement Hamas had been counterproductive.
Speaking at the American University in Cairo after talks with Hamas leaders from Gaza, Carter said Palestinians in Gaza were being "starved to death," receiving fewer calories a day than people in the poorest parts of Africa. "It's an atrocity what is being perpetrated as punishment on the people in Gaza. it's a crime... I think it is an abomination that this continues to go on," Carter said.Israel has been blockading Gaza most of the time since Hamas took control of the impoverished coastal strip in June last year, allowing only basic supplies to enter.
Israel has not accepted Hamas proposals for a truce including an end to Hamas rocket attacks on Israel and to Israeli attacks on Hamas personnel in Gaza and the West Bank. Israeli officials say a truce would enable Hamas to rearm.
Carter said Israel and its ally the United States were trying to make the quality of life in Gaza markedly worse than in the West Bank, where the rival Fatah group is in control.
"I think politically speaking this has worked even to strengthen the popularity of Hamas and to the detriment of the popularity of Fatah," he added. The United States has been trying to achieve the opposite outcome.
"EXAMPLE TO BE EMULATED"
Carter, who helped make peace between Egypt and Israel while president in the 1970s, said the Hamas leaders he has met so far told him they would accept a peace agreement with Israel negotiated by Mahmoud Abbas -- the Fatah leader and Palestinian president -- if the Palestinians approved it in a referendum.
Israel and the United States say they refuse to deal with Hamas as long as the Islamist movement does not recognize Israel's right to exist and renounce violence.
But Carter said Hamas, which won Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006, had to be involved in any arrangements that could lead to peace.
"One of the reasons I wanted to come and meet with the Syrians and Hamas was to set an example that might be emulated by others... I know that there are some officials in the Israeli government that are quite willing to meet with Hamas and maybe that will happen in the near future," he added.
Carter's talks in Cairo were with former Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar and former Interior Minister Saeed Seyam, who did not speak to reporters.
Zahar and Seyam came to Cairo on Wednesday after the Israeli authorities refused to let Carter into Gaza from the Israeli side. Carter has already met a West Bank leader from Hamas and is expected to meet overall leader Khaled Meshaal in Damascus.
Earlier on Thursday, Carter met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. No details were available from either side.
(Writing by Jonathan Wright; editing by Will Rasmussen and Jon Boyle)
Source of this topic:
They Know, they Know, they Know!... But do you know?
Source of this topic: http://blogs.bet.com/news/pamela/2008/04/17/more-supers-switching/
April 17, 2008 –While the Democratic candidates debated in Philly, there were signs in Washington that more super-delegates had ended their debate over which candidate to back. Two North Carolina lawmakers are giving Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) their key endors
ement.
Rep. David Price, (D-N.C.) and Rep. Mel Watt, (D-N.C.), both super-delegates had been supporters of former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, announced Wednesday they are now throwing their support behind the Illinois senator.
ement.Rep. David Price, (D-N.C.) and Rep. Mel Watt, (D-N.C.), both super-delegates had been supporters of former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, announced Wednesday they are now throwing their support behind the Illinois senator.
Could this be a sign?
“Like a lot of former Edwards’s supporters, I’m supporting Barack Obama because he will bring this country the kind of change I want to see,” Price said in a statement.
Last night at the Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner, I noted Black lawmakers in both camps chatting about the race, but tones were hushed. Watt and California Rep. Maxine Waters (D) a Clinton supporter talked briefly, but with reporters within earshot, avoided any mention of his recent endorsement.
As more of Edwards supporters move toward the Obama camp it increases the speculation of who Edwards will likely endorse. The entire North Carolina congressional delegation had endorsed Edwards, with the recent switch of Price and Watt, only two lawmakers remain uncommitted. The states other Black lawmaker Rep. G.K. Butterfiled has already endorsed Obama.
Watt, who was skeptical of Obama entering the presidential race early on said, “I’d have to say I’m surprised — and pleasantly surprised — that Barack’s campaign has continued to build momentum.”
Obama also picked up the endorsement of the newest member of congress, Rep. Andre Carson (D-Ind.). Carson is the grandson of the late Rep. Julia Carson, who died from cancer earlier this year. Carson ran and won in the special election held in April, and is now campaigning for the primary election being held May 6. If he wins the primary he’ll face his Republican challenger on the ballot in November.
With these recent endorsements, Obama now has an estimated 231 super delegates to Clinton’s 260 according to Bloomberg News.
Source of this topic: http://blogs.bet.com/news/pamela/2008/04/17/more-supers-switching/
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
People making news in 2008
Source of this topic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTWTn6d-Qeo
We need to get to know this brother!
Source of this topic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTWTn6d-Qeo
Watch this and tell us what you think...
Is Satan casting out Satan in 2008?
Source of this topic: http://www.diversityinc.com/public/478.cfm
The Rev. Jerry Falwell acknowledged saying on Sunday that if Hillary Rodham Clinton were the Democrats' presidential nominee in 2008, it would motivate conservative evangelical Christians to oppose her more than if the devil himself were running.
Clinton press secretary Philippe Reines said Sunday, "Working for someone who believes in the Golden Rule, we're not going to engage in such vitriolic discourse—but it seems that a new low has been reached in demonizing political opponents."
Falwell told the AP that he did not intend to demonize the former first lady. "That was totally tongue-in-cheek and everyone in the building knew that and everyone laughed," Falwell said.Falwell said religious conservatives do not favor Clinton for several reasons, but mostly because she is pro-choice on abortion, "the cutting-edge issue for social conservatives."
"I just think that she has enough of a record before our people now to bring most of them to the polls," Falwell said.
The Rev. Barry Lynn, director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said, "I don't know why Jerry Falwell always has to drag politics into the gutter."
Lynn, whose advocacy group scrutinizes the religious right and was monitoring last week's conference, added, "Maybe the devil made him do it."
Attendees also were assured during the prayer breakfast that God would preserve a Republican majority in Congress.
Falwell would not say what he thought would happen in 2008 if Clinton were not the nominee."In '08, I think that's too far ahead to know what's going to happen in the domestic- and foreign-policy issues," Falwell said in the interview. (AP)
Source of this topic: http://www.diversityinc.com/public/478.cfm
Falwell's Hillary/Devil Comment Was 'Tongue-in-Cheek'
The Rev. Jerry Falwell acknowledged saying on Sunday that if Hillary Rodham Clinton were the Democrats' presidential nominee in 2008, it would motivate conservative evangelical Christians to oppose her more than if the devil himself were running.
Falwell said in a telephone interview that his comments to several hundred pastors and religious activists at the "Value Voter Summit" conference were "totally tongue-in-cheek." "I certainly hope that Hillary is the candidate," Falwell said at a breakfast session Friday in Washington. "I hope she's the candidate, because nothing will energize my [constituency] like Hillary Clinton," he said. "If Lucifer ran, he wouldn't."
Clinton press secretary Philippe Reines said Sunday, "Working for someone who believes in the Golden Rule, we're not going to engage in such vitriolic discourse—but it seems that a new low has been reached in demonizing political opponents."
Falwell told the AP that he did not intend to demonize the former first lady. "That was totally tongue-in-cheek and everyone in the building knew that and everyone laughed," Falwell said.Falwell said religious conservatives do not favor Clinton for several reasons, but mostly because she is pro-choice on abortion, "the cutting-edge issue for social conservatives."
"I just think that she has enough of a record before our people now to bring most of them to the polls," Falwell said.
The Rev. Barry Lynn, director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said, "I don't know why Jerry Falwell always has to drag politics into the gutter."
Lynn, whose advocacy group scrutinizes the religious right and was monitoring last week's conference, added, "Maybe the devil made him do it."
Attendees also were assured during the prayer breakfast that God would preserve a Republican majority in Congress.
Falwell would not say what he thought would happen in 2008 if Clinton were not the nominee."In '08, I think that's too far ahead to know what's going to happen in the domestic- and foreign-policy issues," Falwell said in the interview. (AP)
Source of this topic: http://www.diversityinc.com/public/478.cfm
Is Hillary Clinton a desperado?
Source of this topic: http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site.aspx/bawnews/movingamerica08/bitterdebate415
Black political analysts said Monday that the so-called "bitter" debate -- where Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is accused of talking down to small-town blue-collar workers -- is a desperate, manufactured attack by Hillary Clinton seven days before a critical primary in Pennsylvania.
Obama has spent four days on the defensive after comments he made at a San Francisco fundraiser were disclosed that suggested working class people are "bitter" about their economic circumstances and "cling to guns and religion" as a result.
And some in the media, Democrats add, have kept the story alive after Clinton labeled Obama as "elitist" who is "out of touch" with the American people.
Initial indications are that Obama’s controversial remarks have not upset voters. A new Gallup Poll shows Obama continuing to hold a solid lead over Clinton in national Democratic voters’ support for the presidential nomination, 50 percent to 41 percent.
Source of this topic: http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site.aspx/bawnews/movingamerica08/bitterdebate415
Black Political Observers: ‘Bitter’ Debate Reveals Sheer Desperation of Clinton Campaign
Date: Tuesday, April 15, 2008By: Michael H. Cottman, BlackAmericaWeb.com
Date: Tuesday, April 15, 2008By: Michael H. Cottman, BlackAmericaWeb.com
Black political analysts said Monday that the so-called "bitter" debate -- where Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is accused of talking down to small-town blue-collar workers -- is a desperate, manufactured attack by Hillary Clinton seven days before a critical primary in Pennsylvania.
Obama has spent four days on the defensive after comments he made at a San Francisco fundraiser were disclosed that suggested working class people are "bitter" about their economic circumstances and "cling to guns and religion" as a result.
And some in the media, Democrats add, have kept the story alive after Clinton labeled Obama as "elitist" who is "out of touch" with the American people.
Initial indications are that Obama’s controversial remarks have not upset voters. A new Gallup Poll shows Obama continuing to hold a solid lead over Clinton in national Democratic voters’ support for the presidential nomination, 50 percent to 41 percent.
Source of this topic: http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site.aspx/bawnews/movingamerica08/bitterdebate415
Do you know where your children are right now?
Source of this topic: http://www.kval.com/news/local/17683334.html
Boy survives a butter knife in the head
VANCOUVER, Wash. - An altercation in a Vancouver park left an 11-year-old boy with a butter knife in his head.
Tyler Hemmert is a little sore but will be just fine even though the butter knife went four or five inches into his scalp.
Hemmert said he was playing at a park on Sunday when a boy with a butter knife got angry and threw it at him. A buddy ducked to avoid the flying butter knife, which then went straight at
Hemmert, lodging in the right side of his head.
Instead of pulling the knife out, Hemmert ran through the park, asked a neighbor for help and took an ambulance ride to the hospital.
"I just reached up, I didn't know it went in," he said. "I touched it and then I looked over and I could see the handle right there. I just kind of panicked at the time."
At the hospital, Hemmert ended up with five stitches. He said it hurts to chew his food but he is proud of himself for staying calm.
As for the boy who he said threw the butter knife, police let him go home with his mother. A juvenile prosecutor will decide whether the boy should be charged with a crime.
Source of this topic: http://www.kval.com/news/local/17683334.html
Boy survives a butter knife in the head
VANCOUVER, Wash. - An altercation in a Vancouver park left an 11-year-old boy with a butter knife in his head.
Tyler Hemmert is a little sore but will be just fine even though the butter knife went four or five inches into his scalp.
Hemmert said he was playing at a park on Sunday when a boy with a butter knife got angry and threw it at him. A buddy ducked to avoid the flying butter knife, which then went straight at
Hemmert, lodging in the right side of his head.
Instead of pulling the knife out, Hemmert ran through the park, asked a neighbor for help and took an ambulance ride to the hospital.
"I just reached up, I didn't know it went in," he said. "I touched it and then I looked over and I could see the handle right there. I just kind of panicked at the time."
At the hospital, Hemmert ended up with five stitches. He said it hurts to chew his food but he is proud of himself for staying calm.
As for the boy who he said threw the butter knife, police let him go home with his mother. A juvenile prosecutor will decide whether the boy should be charged with a crime.
Source of this topic: http://www.kval.com/news/local/17683334.html
Go Michelle go! Don't let Colbert clown you either!
Source of this topic: http://www.eurweb.com/story/eur42616.cfm
MICHELLE OBAMA TO STOP BY 'COLBERT REPORT': Roots, John Legend, Michael Nutter also tapped for special Philly tapings.
*Michelle Obama, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, will m
ake her first late night TV appearance with tonight's scheduled visit to Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report."
The satirical talk show, hosted by comedian Stephen Colbert, is spending the entire week in the Keystone State with special coverage of the all-important Pennsylvania Democratic Primary.
Others scheduled to appear before week's end include Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell; Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter; Representative Patrick Murphy (D-PA), the only sitting Congressman to have served in Iraq; Chris Matthews; musical performances by The Roots and John Legend; and a special appearance by the Philadelphia Eagles cheerleaders.
"The Colbert Report: Dorito's Spicy Sweet Pennsylvania Primary Coverage From Chili-Delphia -- The City of Brotherly Crunch!" is taping at the 900-seat Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts Zellerbach Theatre on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania and will air nightly at 11:30 p.m. ET/PT through Thursday, April 17.
Source of this topic: http://www.eurweb.com/story/eur42616.cfm
Bob Johnson is proof that money will not solve the problem of ignorance in our communities
Source of this topic: http://www.eurweb.com/story/eur42639.cfm
*Looks like Bob Johnson wants to get knee deep in the Democratic presidential race doo-doo all over again. Actually, he is knee-deep in it.
On Monday, speaking to the Charlotte Observer, he did his best Geraldine Ferraro imitation and that Sen. Barack Obama would not be his party's leading candidate if he were white.
"What I believe Geraldine Ferraro meant is that if you take a freshman senator from Illinois called 'Jerry Smith' and he says I'm going to run for president, would he start off with 90 percent of the black vote?" Johnson said. "And the answer is, probably not."
"Geraldine Ferraro said it right. The problem is, Geraldine Ferraro is white. This campaign has such a hair-trigger on anything racial ... it is almost impossible for anybody to say anything."
"Billionaire Bob," the founder of BET, which he sold for close to $3 billion to Viacom and who also owns the NBA Charlotte Bobcats, is a longtime friend of Hillary and Bill Clinton.
Johnson first stepped "into it" back in January when he was stumping for NY Senator Hillary Clinton by referring to Illinois Senator Barack Obama and "what he was doing in the neighborhood."
Many took that as a reference to Obama's acknowledged drug use in his youth. But in a statement, Johnson said he'd been "referring to Barack Obama's time spent as a community organizer and nothing else. Any other suggestion is simply irresponsible and incorrect."
On Monday, the Observer reported that Johnson also alluded to the incident.
"I make a joke about Obama doing drugs (and it's) 'Oh my God, a black man tearing down another black man'," Johnson said.
The Obama campaign dismissed Johnson's comments. "This is just one in a long line of absurd comments by Bob Johnson and other Clinton supporters who will say or do anything to get the nomination," said spokesman Dan Leistikow. "The American people are tired of this and are ready to turn the page on these kind of attack politics."
Johnson disputed the notion that Obama has built a broad coalition. Most of his support, he said, comes from African Americans and white liberals but not white, working-class Democrats.
"I don't think he has that common -- what I call `I-want-to-go-out-and-have-a-drink-with-you -- touch," Johnson said. Johnson said Obama is likely to win the nomination and has had the support of "the liberal media."
"They sort of dislike Hillary for her vote on the war. They don't want to see Bill and Hillary in power again," he said. "So Obama comes in and runs a smart campaign. But that's not the Second Coming, in my opinion, of John F. Kennedy, FDR or the world's greatest leaders."
Source of this topic: http://www.eurweb.com/story/eur42639.cfm
BOB JOHNSON PULLS A GERALDINE FERRARO: Founder of BET still hatin' on Obama.
*Looks like Bob Johnson wants to get knee deep in the Democratic presidential race doo-doo all over again. Actually, he is knee-deep in it.
On Monday, speaking to the Charlotte Observer, he did his best Geraldine Ferraro imitation and that Sen. Barack Obama would not be his party's leading candidate if he were white.
"What I believe Geraldine Ferraro meant is that if you take a freshman senator from Illinois called 'Jerry Smith' and he says I'm going to run for president, would he start off with 90 percent of the black vote?" Johnson said. "And the answer is, probably not."
"Geraldine Ferraro said it right. The problem is, Geraldine Ferraro is white. This campaign has such a hair-trigger on anything racial ... it is almost impossible for anybody to say anything."
"Billionaire Bob," the founder of BET, which he sold for close to $3 billion to Viacom and who also owns the NBA Charlotte Bobcats, is a longtime friend of Hillary and Bill Clinton.
Johnson first stepped "into it" back in January when he was stumping for NY Senator Hillary Clinton by referring to Illinois Senator Barack Obama and "what he was doing in the neighborhood."
Many took that as a reference to Obama's acknowledged drug use in his youth. But in a statement, Johnson said he'd been "referring to Barack Obama's time spent as a community organizer and nothing else. Any other suggestion is simply irresponsible and incorrect."
On Monday, the Observer reported that Johnson also alluded to the incident.
"I make a joke about Obama doing drugs (and it's) 'Oh my God, a black man tearing down another black man'," Johnson said.
The Obama campaign dismissed Johnson's comments. "This is just one in a long line of absurd comments by Bob Johnson and other Clinton supporters who will say or do anything to get the nomination," said spokesman Dan Leistikow. "The American people are tired of this and are ready to turn the page on these kind of attack politics."
Johnson disputed the notion that Obama has built a broad coalition. Most of his support, he said, comes from African Americans and white liberals but not white, working-class Democrats.
"I don't think he has that common -- what I call `I-want-to-go-out-and-have-a-drink-with-you -- touch," Johnson said. Johnson said Obama is likely to win the nomination and has had the support of "the liberal media."
"They sort of dislike Hillary for her vote on the war. They don't want to see Bill and Hillary in power again," he said. "So Obama comes in and runs a smart campaign. But that's not the Second Coming, in my opinion, of John F. Kennedy, FDR or the world's greatest leaders."
Source of this topic: http://www.eurweb.com/story/eur42639.cfm
Monday, April 14, 2008
Email Blog: Differences between Girls and Women
This email was shared with generously with me by Ms. Wendy Wilson
Grown Women
Girls want to control the man in their life.
Grown women know that if he's truly hers, he doesn't need controlling.
Girls check you for not calling them.
Grown women are too busy to realize you hadn't.
Girls are afraid to be alone.
Grown women revel in it using it as a time for personal growth.
Girls ignore the good guys.
Grown women ignore the bad guys.
Girls make you come home.
Grown women make you want to come home.
Girls leave their schedule wide-open and wait for a guy to call and make plans.
Grown women make their own plans and nicely tell the guy to get in where he fits.
Girls worry about not being pretty and/or good enough for their man.
Grown women know that they are pretty and/or good enough for any man.
Girls try to monopolize all their man's time (i.e., don't want him hanging with his friends).
Grown women realize that a lil' bit of space makes the 'together time' even more special-and goes to kick it with her own friends.
Girls think a guy crying is weak.
Grown women offer their shoulder and a tissue.
Girls want to be spoiled and 'tell' their man so.
Grown women 'show' him and make him comfortable enough to reciprocate without fear of losing his 'manhood'.
Girls get hurt by one man and make all men pay for it.
Grown women know that was just one man.
Girls fall in love and chase aimlessly after the object of their affection, ignoring all 'signs'.
Grown women know that sometimes the one you love, don't always love you back-and move on, without bitterness..
Girls will read this and get an attitude.
Grown women will read this and pass it on to other Grown women and their male friends
This email was generously shared with me by Ms. Wendy Wilson
Grown Women
Girls want to control the man in their life.
Grown women know that if he's truly hers, he doesn't need controlling.
Girls check you for not calling them.
Grown women are too busy to realize you hadn't.
Girls are afraid to be alone.
Grown women revel in it using it as a time for personal growth.
Girls ignore the good guys.
Grown women ignore the bad guys.
Girls make you come home.
Grown women make you want to come home.
Girls leave their schedule wide-open and wait for a guy to call and make plans.
Grown women make their own plans and nicely tell the guy to get in where he fits.
Girls worry about not being pretty and/or good enough for their man.
Grown women know that they are pretty and/or good enough for any man.
Girls try to monopolize all their man's time (i.e., don't want him hanging with his friends).
Grown women realize that a lil' bit of space makes the 'together time' even more special-and goes to kick it with her own friends.
Girls think a guy crying is weak.
Grown women offer their shoulder and a tissue.
Girls want to be spoiled and 'tell' their man so.
Grown women 'show' him and make him comfortable enough to reciprocate without fear of losing his 'manhood'.
Girls get hurt by one man and make all men pay for it.
Grown women know that was just one man.
Girls fall in love and chase aimlessly after the object of their affection, ignoring all 'signs'.
Grown women know that sometimes the one you love, don't always love you back-and move on, without bitterness..
Girls will read this and get an attitude.
Grown women will read this and pass it on to other Grown women and their male friends
This email was generously shared with me by Ms. Wendy Wilson
What do you think?
Friday, April 11, 2008
Why is Bill Clinton lying again...He can't help himself!
Source of this topic: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080411/ap_on_el_pr/clinton_bosnia_fact_check
Clinton misstates wife's Bosnia tale
WASHINGTON - Former President Clinton has added to the falsehoods surrounding his wife's tale of her trip to Bosnia 12 years ago.
In Indiana on Thursday, Bill Clinton defended his wife's mistake in claiming that she landed under sniper fire in Bosnia, accusing the media of treating her like "she'd robbed a bank" for confusing the facts.
The New York senator had repeatedly described a harrowing scene in Tuzla, Bosnia, in which she and her daughter, Chelsea, had to run for cover as soon as they landed for a visit in 1996. Video footage of the day instead showed a peaceful reception in which an 8-year-old girl greeted the first lady.
Hillary Clinton has acknowledged that she got the facts wrong in retelling the tale. Bill Clinton's inaccuracies don't involve long-ago memories, but misstatements about how his wife has handled the story.
THE SPIN:
"A lot of the way this whole campaign has been covered has amused me," Bill Clinton said in Boonville, Ind. "But there was a lot of fulminating because Hillary, one time late at night when she was exhausted, misstated and immediately apologized for it, what happened to her in Bosnia in 1995.
"Did y'all see all that? Oh, they blew it up," the former president continued. "Let me just tell you. The president of Bosnia and Gen. Wesley Clark — who was there making peace where we'd lost three peacekeepers who had to ride on a dangerous mountain road because it was too dangerous to go the regular, safe way — both defended her because they pointed out that when her plane landed in Bosnia, she had to go up to the bulletproof part of the plane, in the front. Everybody else had to put their flak jackets underneath the seat in case they got shot at. And everywhere they went they were covered by Apache helicopters. So they just abbreviated the arrival ceremony.
"Now I say that because what really has mattered is that even then she was interested in our troops," he said. "And I think she was the first first lady since Eleanor Roosevelt to go into a combat zone. And you would of thought, you know, that she'd robbed a bank the way they all carried on about this. And some of them when they're 60 they'll forget something when they're tired at 11 o'clock at night, too."
THE FACTS:
Bill Clinton has many of the facts wrong.
His wife didn't make the sniper fire claim "one time late at night when she was exhausted." She actually told the story several times, including during prepared remarks on foreign policy delivered the morning of March 17.
It's also not true that she "immediately apologized for it." Clinton has never apologized for the comments and only acknowledged that she "misspoke" a week after the March 17 speech when video of her peaceful tarmac reception emerged.
It's also not true that she was the "first first lady since Eleanor Roosevelt to go into a combat zone" — a claim that Hillary Clinton has also made when talking about the trip. Pat Nixon traveled to Saigon during the Vietnam war and Barbara Bush went to Saudi Arabia two months before the launching of Desert Storm.
The trip also was not in 1995, but 1996.
Clinton campaign spokesman Phil Singer responded to the former president's remarks Friday by saying, "Senator Clinton appreciates her husband standing up for her, but this was her mistake and she takes responsibility for it."
She's also told her husband to quit talking about it.
"Hillary called me and said 'You don't remember this. You weren't there, let me handle it.' I said, 'Yes ma'am,'" Bill Clinton, who was in Indiana campaigning for his wife Friday, told reporters.
Funny Emails - Part One
President George W. Bush was scheduled to visit the Episcopal Church in NW Washington as part of his campaign to restore his 28% approval rating in the polls. Karl Rove made a visit to the Bishop and said, 'We've been getting a lot of bad publicity because of the President's position on stem cell research, the Iraq war, Hurricane Katrina, and the VA Hospitals. But, we'll make a $500,000 contribution to your church if during your sermon you will say that the President is a saint. The Bishop thought it over for a few moments and finally said, 'The Church could really use the money so I'll do it.' The following Sunday, President Bush showed up for the sermon, and the Bishop began: 'I'd like to speak to all of you this morning about our President, George Bush. He is a liar, a cheat, and a low-intelligence weasel. He took the tragedy of September 11 and used it to frighten and manipulate the American people. He lied about weapons of mass destruction and invaded Iraq for oil and money, causing the deaths of tens of thousands and making the United States the most hated nation on earth. He appointed cronies to positions of power and influence, leading to widespread death and destruction during Hurricane Katrina. He awarded contracts and tax cuts to his rich friends so that we now have more poverty in this country and a greater gap between rich and poor than we've had since the Depression.' He has headed the most corrupt, bribe-inducing political party since the Teapot Dome Scandal. The national surplus has turned into a staggering national debt of $7.6 trillion, gas prices are up 85%, which the people of America cannot afford, and vital research into global warming and stem cells is stopped cold because he's afraid to lose votes from the religious right.' He is the worst example of a Christian I've ever known. But compared to Dick Cheney, George W. Bush is a saint.
Do you have a funny email? Well either send it to me at marcusgirard34@yahoo.com or you can post it yourself. The rest of us need to laugh too...
Do you have a funny email? Well either send it to me at marcusgirard34@yahoo.com or you can post it yourself. The rest of us need to laugh too...
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
America the Beautiful?
Source of this topic: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080409/pl_nm/usa_florida_guns_dc;_ylt=AgIf1G1.xVtlejDrmiFnnqh34T0D
Florida lawmakers pass "take your guns to work" law
By Michael Peltier 1 hour, 37 minutes ago
TALLAHASSEE, Florida (Reuters) - Most Florida residents would be allowed to take guns to work under a measure passed by Florida lawmakers on Wednesday.
The bill, allowing workers to keep guns in their cars for self-protection, was approved by the Florida Senate by a vote of 26-13. It now goes to Republican Gov. Charlie Crist to sign into law.
Backed by the National Rifle Association and some labor unions, the so-called "take-your-guns-to-work" measure would prohibit business owners from banning guns kept locked in motor vehicles on their private property.
The measure applies to employees, customers and those invited to the business establishment as long as they have a permit to carry the weapon.
Backers say the measure upholds the vision of the authors of the U.S. Constitution, who made the right to bear arms part of the Bill of Rights.
"The second thing they wrote about in that constitution was the right to bear arms," said Sen. Durell Peaden, a Republican from Crestview, Florida. "It was what was dear in their hearts."
The measure exempts a number of workplaces including nuclear power plants, prisons, schools and companies whose business involves homeland security.
Critics say the measure usurps business owners' rights to determine what happens on their property and puts workers and managers at risk from disgruntled employees.
Dozens of workplace shootings occur every year in the United States and studies have shown that job sites where guns are permitted are more likely to suffer workplace homicides than those where guns are prohibited.
"This is an attempt to trample upon the property rights of property owners and attempt to make it more difficult to protect the workers in a workplace and those who visit our retail establishments," said Sen. Ted Deutch, a Boca Raton Democrat.
Oklahoma, Alaska, Kentucky, and Mississippi have similar laws, although in Oklahoma, an appellate court barred the state from enforcing the legislation on grounds that it was unconstitutional.
Florida business groups are urging the governor to veto the measure, saying owners should be allowed to determine what happens on their property.
"We are disappointed that politics clearly won over good policy," Mark Wilson, president and chief executive of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement.
(Editing by Tom Brown and Eric Walsh)
Source of this topic:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080409/pl_nm/usa_florida_guns_dc;_ylt=AgIf1G1.xVtlejDrmiFnnqh34T0D
Florida lawmakers pass "take your guns to work" law
By Michael Peltier 1 hour, 37 minutes ago
TALLAHASSEE, Florida (Reuters) - Most Florida residents would be allowed to take guns to work under a measure passed by Florida lawmakers on Wednesday.
The bill, allowing workers to keep guns in their cars for self-protection, was approved by the Florida Senate by a vote of 26-13. It now goes to Republican Gov. Charlie Crist to sign into law.
Backed by the National Rifle Association and some labor unions, the so-called "take-your-guns-to-work" measure would prohibit business owners from banning guns kept locked in motor vehicles on their private property.
The measure applies to employees, customers and those invited to the business establishment as long as they have a permit to carry the weapon.
Backers say the measure upholds the vision of the authors of the U.S. Constitution, who made the right to bear arms part of the Bill of Rights.
"The second thing they wrote about in that constitution was the right to bear arms," said Sen. Durell Peaden, a Republican from Crestview, Florida. "It was what was dear in their hearts."
The measure exempts a number of workplaces including nuclear power plants, prisons, schools and companies whose business involves homeland security.
Critics say the measure usurps business owners' rights to determine what happens on their property and puts workers and managers at risk from disgruntled employees.
Dozens of workplace shootings occur every year in the United States and studies have shown that job sites where guns are permitted are more likely to suffer workplace homicides than those where guns are prohibited.
"This is an attempt to trample upon the property rights of property owners and attempt to make it more difficult to protect the workers in a workplace and those who visit our retail establishments," said Sen. Ted Deutch, a Boca Raton Democrat.
Oklahoma, Alaska, Kentucky, and Mississippi have similar laws, although in Oklahoma, an appellate court barred the state from enforcing the legislation on grounds that it was unconstitutional.
Florida business groups are urging the governor to veto the measure, saying owners should be allowed to determine what happens on their property.
"We are disappointed that politics clearly won over good policy," Mark Wilson, president and chief executive of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement.
(Editing by Tom Brown and Eric Walsh)
Source of this topic:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080409/pl_nm/usa_florida_guns_dc;_ylt=AgIf1G1.xVtlejDrmiFnnqh34T0D
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
"Is this the work of a 'Real Goon', Mr. Plies?
Source of this topic: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/040908dnmetbirthday.44547a46.html
Man accused of killing 2 at birthday party shooting
04:07 PM CDT on Tuesday, April 8, 2008
From Staff Reports
Fort Worth police arrested a 21-year-old man accused of shooting at a birthday party, killing a grandmother and a 5-year-old girl.
Police located Mr. Davila driving a black four-door Mazda in the Woodhaven area and followed him into an apartment complex. Mr. Davila struck several vehicles before crashing into a tennis court fence, Fort Worth police said. He then tried to flee on foot.
Mr. Davila was taken to police headquarters for questioning and was being held on $1 million.
Police were still investigating a motive for the Sunday shooting in the 5700 block of Anderson Street as people celebrated a girl’s ninth birthday.
Annette Stevenson, 48, and her granddaughter, Queshawn Stevenson, were killed and the birthday girl along with three others were injured.
“This was cold-blooded murder,” said Fort Worth police Lt. Paul Henderson.
It was unclear how Mr. Davila knew the victims.
Source of this topic:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/040908dnmetbirthday.44547a46.html
Man accused of killing 2 at birthday party shooting
04:07 PM CDT on Tuesday, April 8, 2008
From Staff Reports
Fort Worth police arrested a 21-year-old man accused of shooting at a birthday party, killing a grandmother and a 5-year-old girl.
Police located Mr. Davila driving a black four-door Mazda in the Woodhaven area and followed him into an apartment complex. Mr. Davila struck several vehicles before crashing into a tennis court fence, Fort Worth police said. He then tried to flee on foot.
Mr. Davila was taken to police headquarters for questioning and was being held on $1 million.
Police were still investigating a motive for the Sunday shooting in the 5700 block of Anderson Street as people celebrated a girl’s ninth birthday.
Annette Stevenson, 48, and her granddaughter, Queshawn Stevenson, were killed and the birthday girl along with three others were injured.
“This was cold-blooded murder,” said Fort Worth police Lt. Paul Henderson.
It was unclear how Mr. Davila knew the victims.
Source of this topic:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/040908dnmetbirthday.44547a46.html
How to become a 'Ghetto Superstar' and get on You Tube before going to jail...
Source of this topic: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080408/ap_on_re_us/teen_beating
Seven of them remained in juvenile detention Tuesday, authorities said. A boy who was charged as an adult had been released on bail.
Victoria Lindsay was attacked on March 30 by six teenage girls when she arrived at a friend's home, authorities said.
Source of this topic: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080408/ap_on_re_us/teen_beating
8 teens charged in videotaped attack
LAKELAND, Fla. - Eight teenagers have been arrested on charges alleging they beat another teen in an "animalistic attack" so they could make a videotape to post on YouTube.
Seven of them remained in juvenile detention Tuesday, authorities said. A boy who was charged as an adult had been released on bail.
Victoria Lindsay was attacked on March 30 by six teenage girls when she arrived at a friend's home, authorities said.
One of the girls struck the 16-year-old victim on the head several times and then slammed her head into a wall, knocking her unconscious, according to an arrest report.
Later, according to a clip of the video that was released by the Polk County sheriff's office, the teens can be seen blocking a door and hitting Victoria.
"It's absolutely an animalistic attack," Sheriff Grady Judd said Tuesday on NBC's "Today." "They lured her into the home for express purpose of filming the attack and posting it on the Internet."
Victoria's father, Patrick Lindsay, said the teens intended to post the video on the video-sharing Web site YouTube.
Christina Garcia, mother of one of the defendants, said her daughter had turned the tape over to police.
The sheriff's office said that after the attack, three of the teens forced the victim into a vehicle and drove her to another location, where she was told she would be given a worse beating if she contacted police.
All eight suspects were arrested April 2 and charged with battery and false imprisonment. The three teens who took Lindsay to the second location are also charged with felony kidnapping.
Lindsay was treated for a concussion, damage to her left eye and left ear, and numerous bruises, police said.
Lindsay was treated for a concussion, damage to her left eye and left ear, and numerous bruises, police said.
Source of this topic: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080408/ap_on_re_us/teen_beating
Anybody else feeling a little "Awkward" these days?
Source of Topic: http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movies/04/08/people.rosieperez.ap/index.html
NEW YORK (AP) -- Rosie Perez says shooting a steamy sex scene with her good friend John Leguizamo for their new movie, "The Take," was "very awkward."
Perez and Leguizamo, 43, managed to get through the scene by talking about their own experiences and about relationships in general. "It took a lot to go there and be honest," she said. "He has a wonderful marriage, but even in a successful marriage you have times when things are not good and sometimes that plays in the bedroom. And we went for it."
Even though the experience was "shocking" for her, Perez said that "in the end, it was one of the best intimate scenes I've done."
Actress: Racy sex scene with good friend 'awkward'
NEW YORK (AP) -- Rosie Perez says shooting a steamy sex scene with her good friend John Leguizamo for their new movie, "The Take," was "very awkward."
"This is not my first ti
me working with John, we are friends, I've known him very long. ... It was very easy working with him. We have an easy dialogue and between each other there is no ego, no competition," the 43-year-old actress told The Associated Press in a recent interview.
"It was in the sex scene between husband and wife that things started to go bad. ... It was the hardest scene, very difficult," she said. "I respect him so much and he respects me so much. I know his wife, he knew my husband and introduced me to my boyfriend. It was very awkward. Like brother and sister having to do a sex scene."
me working with John, we are friends, I've known him very long. ... It was very easy working with him. We have an easy dialogue and between each other there is no ego, no competition," the 43-year-old actress told The Associated Press in a recent interview."It was in the sex scene between husband and wife that things started to go bad. ... It was the hardest scene, very difficult," she said. "I respect him so much and he respects me so much. I know his wife, he knew my husband and introduced me to my boyfriend. It was very awkward. Like brother and sister having to do a sex scene."
"The Take," directed by Brad Furman, opens Friday in New York and Los Angeles. Perez plays Marina de la Pena, the wife of an armored-truck driver (Leguizamo) who struggles with rehabilitation and tracking down his assailant after a shooting. "We have a great marriage in the beginning of the movie and I'm kind of a regular neighborhood wife. We go to church every Sunday, we enjoy our simple nice life, I'm a simple nice woman in love with her husband and children," said Perez, who was nominated for an Oscar for her supporting role in 1993's "Fearless."
Perez and Leguizamo, 43, managed to get through the scene by talking about their own experiences and about relationships in general. "It took a lot to go there and be honest," she said. "He has a wonderful marriage, but even in a successful marriage you have times when things are not good and sometimes that plays in the bedroom. And we went for it."
Even though the experience was "shocking" for her, Perez said that "in the end, it was one of the best intimate scenes I've done."
Will Obama take Hillary in her own backyard?
Source of Topic: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/
Obama chipping away at Clinton's Pennsylvania lead
Obama chipping away at Clinton's Pennsylvania lead
April 8, 2008
(CNN) — Barack Obama continues to chip away at Hillary Clinton's lead in the crucial state of Pennsylvania, a new Quinnipiac poll out Tuesday shows.
The New York senator's lead over Obama now stands at 6 points in the new poll, 50-44 percent. That compares to the 9 point lead Clinton held in a similar survey released 5 days ago, and an 11 point lead in a Quinnipiac survey late last month.
Specifically, Clinton has lost ground among white voters and men: She now holds an 18 point lead among whites, down from a 25 point gap in last week’s poll, and trails Obama by 4 points among males. Last week, the two drew equal support from men.
But Clinton continues to remain strong with her core voting bloc of older voters and white women, and likely Pennsylvania Democratic voters rate her more favorably than Obama — 71 percent for Clinton and 67 percent for Obama.
With the latest Quinnipiac poll, CNN's poll of several recent surveys show Clinton's lead over Obama in Pennsylvania now averages 6 percentage points. That gap is 1 point less than Monday’s poll of polls and 5 points less than a CNN poll of polls on Friday.
What's behind the shift?
"Obama has outspent Hillary Clinton three to one just on television advertising in Pennsylvania. He spent more than $3 million trying to get his name out and his message out to Hillary Clinton's $1 million," said Mark Preston, a CNN political editor.
The Illinois senator has also heavily benefited from the Service Employees International Union, which according to recently filed FEC reports has spent well over $700,000 on get-out-the-vote-efforts there.
The New York senator's lead over Obama now stands at 6 points in the new poll, 50-44 percent. That compares to the 9 point lead Clinton held in a similar survey released 5 days ago, and an 11 point lead in a Quinnipiac survey late last month.
Specifically, Clinton has lost ground among white voters and men: She now holds an 18 point lead among whites, down from a 25 point gap in last week’s poll, and trails Obama by 4 points among males. Last week, the two drew equal support from men.
But Clinton continues to remain strong with her core voting bloc of older voters and white women, and likely Pennsylvania Democratic voters rate her more favorably than Obama — 71 percent for Clinton and 67 percent for Obama.
With the latest Quinnipiac poll, CNN's poll of several recent surveys show Clinton's lead over Obama in Pennsylvania now averages 6 percentage points. That gap is 1 point less than Monday’s poll of polls and 5 points less than a CNN poll of polls on Friday.
What's behind the shift?
"Obama has outspent Hillary Clinton three to one just on television advertising in Pennsylvania. He spent more than $3 million trying to get his name out and his message out to Hillary Clinton's $1 million," said Mark Preston, a CNN political editor.
The Illinois senator has also heavily benefited from the Service Employees International Union, which according to recently filed FEC reports has spent well over $700,000 on get-out-the-vote-efforts there.
Source of Topic: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/
Why does America pay Entertainers and Athletes so much money, and teachers so little?
Source of this topic: http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1727519,00.html
Jay-Z is not the first A-list recording artist to leave a traditional label for a truck full of Live Nation cash. Madonna announced a 10 year, roughly $120 million deal in 2007, while U2 revealed a 12 year touring and merchandising partnership earlier this week. Still, luring Jay-Z is a major coup for the publicly traded Live Nation. He is not only one of the world's top-selling rappers and concert draws, he's a former record company president. "If the [ex] president of Def Jam decides it's time to get off the sinking ship," says a producer who has worked for Jay-Z, "everyone else is going to start figuring out how to follow."
Jay-Z: Music's $150 Million Man
Thursday, Apr. 03, 2008 By JOSH TYRANGIEL
Thursday, Apr. 03, 2008 By JOSH TYRANGIEL
In a $150 million deal certain to rock what remains of the record industry, Jay-Z has announced plans to depart Def Jam records and give the totality of his creative output — from songs to touring revenue to un-hatched entrepreneurial ideas — to concert promotion behemoth Live Nation. As Jay-Z told the New York Times, which broke the story on its website last night, "I've turned into the Rolling Stones of hip hop."
Jay-Z is not the first A-list recording artist to leave a traditional label for a truck full of Live Nation cash. Madonna announced a 10 year, roughly $120 million deal in 2007, while U2 revealed a 12 year touring and merchandising partnership earlier this week. Still, luring Jay-Z is a major coup for the publicly traded Live Nation. He is not only one of the world's top-selling rappers and concert draws, he's a former record company president. "If the [ex] president of Def Jam decides it's time to get off the sinking ship," says a producer who has worked for Jay-Z, "everyone else is going to start figuring out how to follow."
Live Nation is expected to furnish Jay-Z, born Shawn Carter, with $5 million in seed money annually for his own label, publishing arm and management company, with significantly more funds available for future acquisitions and expansion. He will also receive a $25 million upfront payment and $10 million per album for a minimum of three albums over the next decade.
Given the trajectory of Jay-Z's record sales — 2003's The Black Album sold 3 million copies while 2007's American Gangster barely cracked 1 million — he would have been crazy to turn down the deal. But how sane is Live Nation? Last year the company reported a $12 million loss, and even the most optimistic projections for Jay-Z's sales and entrepreneurship would make it tough for the company to recoup its investment.
But the key to the company's strategy is live performances. Despite the stagnation of record sales, the concert industry is booming. Last year revenues were up 8% to $3.9 billion, and Live Nation is in perfect position to expand its market share. Eight years ago, Live Nation, then a part of Clear Channel Communications, struck a deal with Ticketmaster that gave Ticketmaster exclusive rights to sell most of Live Nation's 30,000 nationwide events. That deal, which accounted for nearly $200 million in revenue in 2007, expires in 2008, and Live Nation's own ticketing system, already the third-largest in the United States, is prepared to ramp up. With top grossing pop (Madonna), rock (U2) and rap (Jay-Z) acts in its stable, the company certainly won't be short on inventory.
Having a single company control so much of the live music market is almost guaranteed to mean one thing: ungodly ticket prices. In 2007, the cost of two seats to see Phil Collins and a re-united Genesis warble Mama was around $400, while two of the best seats for Jay-Z's current 28-date Live Nation tour with Mary J. Blige go for $500.00. Anti-trust laws prevent Live Nation from selling more than 10% of its own tickets, but at those prices, 10% adds up fast. For consumers, the pain could be acute. But for Jay-Z, it's a wonderful morning to be in the music business.
Given the trajectory of Jay-Z's record sales — 2003's The Black Album sold 3 million copies while 2007's American Gangster barely cracked 1 million — he would have been crazy to turn down the deal. But how sane is Live Nation? Last year the company reported a $12 million loss, and even the most optimistic projections for Jay-Z's sales and entrepreneurship would make it tough for the company to recoup its investment.
But the key to the company's strategy is live performances. Despite the stagnation of record sales, the concert industry is booming. Last year revenues were up 8% to $3.9 billion, and Live Nation is in perfect position to expand its market share. Eight years ago, Live Nation, then a part of Clear Channel Communications, struck a deal with Ticketmaster that gave Ticketmaster exclusive rights to sell most of Live Nation's 30,000 nationwide events. That deal, which accounted for nearly $200 million in revenue in 2007, expires in 2008, and Live Nation's own ticketing system, already the third-largest in the United States, is prepared to ramp up. With top grossing pop (Madonna), rock (U2) and rap (Jay-Z) acts in its stable, the company certainly won't be short on inventory.
Having a single company control so much of the live music market is almost guaranteed to mean one thing: ungodly ticket prices. In 2007, the cost of two seats to see Phil Collins and a re-united Genesis warble Mama was around $400, while two of the best seats for Jay-Z's current 28-date Live Nation tour with Mary J. Blige go for $500.00. Anti-trust laws prevent Live Nation from selling more than 10% of its own tickets, but at those prices, 10% adds up fast. For consumers, the pain could be acute. But for Jay-Z, it's a wonderful morning to be in the music business.
Source of this Topic: http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1727519,00.html
Is life imitating art or is art imitating life?
Source of Topic:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1727386,00.html
South Africa's Crime Wave — in Bookstores
Wednesday,Apr . 02, 2008 By KAREN RUTTER
South Africa's Crime Wave — in Bookstores
Wednesday,Apr . 02, 2008 By KAREN RUTTER
Ncolela Phaliso becomes so angry during a quarrel with his brother and business partner, Godun, that he cuts off his sibling's tongue with a kitchen knife. Later, Ncolela's wife, Hlubi, is found with her throat slit and her breasts severed from her body. Although Godun is the prime suspect, no charge is laid, and the feuding brothers continue to run their Soweto-based security
company together.The story of the Phaliso brothers may sound like one of the dozens of daily crime reports in South Africa's newspapers, but they're fictional characters in Richard Kunzmann's latest novel, Dead-End Road, one of a score of new South African novels focused on crime. Just as violent crime remains a hot topic of headlines and social conversation, so has it become the hot literary genre in a society plagued by a daily surfeit of true-life horror stories.
Two couples lie cuffed near their car after they were arrested by members of the South Africa Police Services for robbing a church in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg, South Africa.
New crime statistics released by the South African Police Service (SAPS) make grim reading: 19,202 murders; 52, 617 rapes; 12,761 home invasions; 13,599 carjackings; 92,021 aggravated robberies — and all of that just in the past year. And writers trying to make sense of that violent social landscape are turning increasingly to the crime genre. During the apartheid years, most would have found it unconscionable to write from a pro-police point of view, but the demise of apartheid has changed the equation. One of the new crime authors, Andrew Brown, whose Coldsleep Lullabye won the 2006 Sunday Times Literary Award for Fiction, was repeatedly arrested during the 1980s as a militant anti-apartheid activist. Twenty years on, he is a police reserve officer.
"Crime has become de-politicized," says Kunzmann, because unlike in the apartheid era where the law served the ends of racial domination, there is now a social consensus over what constitutes a crime. "Police officers [today] are officers of a law we all recognize."
Other crime writers concur: "It's now OK to write crime novels featuring the very cops who before had been seen as the soldiers of an invading army," says Mike Nicol, co-author with Joanne Hichens of Out to Score. "Crime writing is first and foremost about the two great human issues: mortality and morality. If you write about those two subjects you get to the heart and soul of a country, and so local crime writing is trying to make sense of this particularly vicious period of our history."
The topics raised in South African crime novels reflects the trends out on the streets. Margie Orford, author of Like Clockwork and Blood Rose, focuses on the endemic violence against women and children. "I think we are in a state of civil war against women and children and the perpetrators of violent crime are overwhelmingly male," she says. "There is a sense of unbridled misogyny and entitlement."
Other writers have tackled everything from vigilatism and muti killings (where a victim is killed for body parts to be used in witchcraft) to abalone smuggling and the murder of street children. In Nicol's latest novel, Payback, the protagonists are former gun-runners from the liberation struggle days. The new crime fiction captures the frustrations, fears and also optimism of a changing society, offering readers highly complex characters on both sides of the law. In South Africa, so long cast in black and white, capturing the shades of gray is the new challenge.
Angela Makholwa, author of the serial-killer thriller Red Ink, visited prisoners in Pretoria's notorious C-Max prison for research, and got more than she bargained for. "I established a relationship with one of these men, who happened to be one of the most vilified South African serial killers," she says. "The more I got to know him, the more conflicted I became about defining prime evil. Although I knew what he had done, I found my initial impression of him slowly peeling away."
And in Deon Meyer's latest offering, Devil's Peak, former freedom fighter Thobela Mpayipheli is on a vigilante revenge mission after his eight-year-old adopted son is gunned down. Is he the good guy or the bad guy? Kunzman reckons: "The relationship between criminals and the forces of the law is different. American and British crime fiction is largely about a society that is firmly in control, but which is momentarily imbalanced by an act of murder. In South Africa, that's wishful thinking."
So, too, is the sense of resolution and closure offered by dealing with crime via fiction. "It does feel very bleak and black sometimes, but crime is a fantasy genre, even while making social comment," says Orford. "The good guys win, just for a while."
New crime statistics released by the South African Police Service (SAPS) make grim reading: 19,202 murders; 52, 617 rapes; 12,761 home invasions; 13,599 carjackings; 92,021 aggravated robberies — and all of that just in the past year. And writers trying to make sense of that violent social landscape are turning increasingly to the crime genre. During the apartheid years, most would have found it unconscionable to write from a pro-police point of view, but the demise of apartheid has changed the equation. One of the new crime authors, Andrew Brown, whose Coldsleep Lullabye won the 2006 Sunday Times Literary Award for Fiction, was repeatedly arrested during the 1980s as a militant anti-apartheid activist. Twenty years on, he is a police reserve officer.
"Crime has become de-politicized," says Kunzmann, because unlike in the apartheid era where the law served the ends of racial domination, there is now a social consensus over what constitutes a crime. "Police officers [today] are officers of a law we all recognize."
Other crime writers concur: "It's now OK to write crime novels featuring the very cops who before had been seen as the soldiers of an invading army," says Mike Nicol, co-author with Joanne Hichens of Out to Score. "Crime writing is first and foremost about the two great human issues: mortality and morality. If you write about those two subjects you get to the heart and soul of a country, and so local crime writing is trying to make sense of this particularly vicious period of our history."
The topics raised in South African crime novels reflects the trends out on the streets. Margie Orford, author of Like Clockwork and Blood Rose, focuses on the endemic violence against women and children. "I think we are in a state of civil war against women and children and the perpetrators of violent crime are overwhelmingly male," she says. "There is a sense of unbridled misogyny and entitlement."
Other writers have tackled everything from vigilatism and muti killings (where a victim is killed for body parts to be used in witchcraft) to abalone smuggling and the murder of street children. In Nicol's latest novel, Payback, the protagonists are former gun-runners from the liberation struggle days. The new crime fiction captures the frustrations, fears and also optimism of a changing society, offering readers highly complex characters on both sides of the law. In South Africa, so long cast in black and white, capturing the shades of gray is the new challenge.
Angela Makholwa, author of the serial-killer thriller Red Ink, visited prisoners in Pretoria's notorious C-Max prison for research, and got more than she bargained for. "I established a relationship with one of these men, who happened to be one of the most vilified South African serial killers," she says. "The more I got to know him, the more conflicted I became about defining prime evil. Although I knew what he had done, I found my initial impression of him slowly peeling away."
And in Deon Meyer's latest offering, Devil's Peak, former freedom fighter Thobela Mpayipheli is on a vigilante revenge mission after his eight-year-old adopted son is gunned down. Is he the good guy or the bad guy? Kunzman reckons: "The relationship between criminals and the forces of the law is different. American and British crime fiction is largely about a society that is firmly in control, but which is momentarily imbalanced by an act of murder. In South Africa, that's wishful thinking."
So, too, is the sense of resolution and closure offered by dealing with crime via fiction. "It does feel very bleak and black sometimes, but crime is a fantasy genre, even while making social comment," says Orford. "The good guys win, just for a while."
Source of Topic:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1727386,00.html
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1727386,00.html
Why are we trying to kill our own children?
Source of Topic: http://www.fox5vegas.com/news/15814529/detail.html
Woman Accused Of Shooting 4-Year-Old
Police Name Woman Charged With Attempted Murder
Police Name Woman Charged With Attempted Murder
LAS VEGAS -- Police have identified the woman who police say opened fire at a barbecue over the weekend.
Angela Williams was arrested on Saturday on charges of attempted murder with a deadly weapon and battery.
Police said she shot a man and a 4-year-old at a backyard barbecue near W. Sahara Ave. and Las Vegas Blvd. S.
Both victims were in the hospital in stable condition as of Monday afternoon.
Angela Williams was arrested on Saturday on charges of attempted murder with a deadly weapon and battery.
Police said she shot a man and a 4-year-old at a backyard barbecue near W. Sahara Ave. and Las Vegas Blvd. S.
Both victims were in the hospital in stable condition as of Monday afternoon.
Source of Topic: http://www.fox5vegas.com/news/15814529/detail.html
What's your opinion of the great levels of violence in our community? We'd like to know...
Toni Braxton in Hospital!
Source of Topic: http://www.fox5vegas.com/news/15824104/detail.html
Strip Headliner Braxton In Hospital
Officials Say She's In Good Condition
Strip Headliner Braxton In Hospital
Officials Say She's In Good Condition
LAS VEGAS -- Strip headliner Toni Braxton has been admitted to a local hospital. Braxton was admitted to St. Rose Dominican Hospital sometime after her show Monday 
night at the Flamingo. Hospital officials said she is in good condition. It is not clear why she is in the hospital, but Braxton does have a heart condition called pericarditis, an inflammation of the sac surrounding the heart. She found out about the condition after the birth of her second son.
night at the Flamingo. Hospital officials said she is in good condition. It is not clear why she is in the hospital, but Braxton does have a heart condition called pericarditis, an inflammation of the sac surrounding the heart. She found out about the condition after the birth of her second son.Braxton is the spokeswoman for the American Heart Association. Her show is dark on Tuesdays, but ticket holders should contact the Flamingo about her Wednesday night show.
Source of topic: http://www.fox5vegas.com/news/15824104/detail.html
Monday, April 7, 2008
Is this how future stars will make it to the top in America?
Source of Topic: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24000857/
Will Ray J’s sex tape lead to success in music?
Singer was featured in a notorious sex tape with
Singer was featured in a notorious sex tape with
Kim Kardashian
LOS ANGELES - Ray J is cruising down the Hollywood Freeway in his black Lamborghini when fans in a passing car recognize him. The singer/actor/sex-tape star slows down so they can snap a photo. The fans giddily check their digital camera as the $200,000 sports car speeds away.
Ray J, born Willie Ray Norwood Jr., started acting at age 8 and released his first album in 1997. But Brandy’s little brother became freeway-photo material just last year, when his homemade sex tape with Kim Kardashian hit the Internet and he was linked with a fr
eshly divorced Whitney Houston, Lil’ Kim and tell-all seductress Karrine “Superhead” Steffans. Now the 27-year-old hopes to shift the focus back to his music with the release Tuesday of his fourth album, “All I Feel.”If it’s a hit, Ray J will have effectively slept his way to the top. “My main goal was to make sure I got my music out there and make sure I put my acting skills back out in the forefront because that’s what I can do,” he says. “I really know how to sing and create and put things together that entertain ... be it controversially or be it from music or acting.” Though he says he’s not sure what impact his salacious reputation will have on his career, he clearly enjoys his sex-symbol status.
“The energy around Ray J and the movement is just very sensual, sexual. You can feel it in the air when you hit the club,” he says (yes, referring to himself in the third person), adding that he’s turned down offers to direct adult films and serve as “the face of the X-rated world.”
‘Letting it all hang out’The infamous sex tape, which also shot Kardashian to a new level of notoriety, was made in Cabo San Lucas on the socialite’s birthday five years ago. Ray J says the two had been a couple for “four years off and on,” and insists the video was made strictly for private purposes.
“We were just having fun, letting it all hang out,” he says. “But I didn’t think they were going to see it actually hanging out.” He says he doesn’t know how porn purveyors Vivid Entertainment got a hold of the video, but he and Kardashian filed lawsuits after its release. Both reportedly settled for multimillion-dollar sums.
The experience and its aftermath inspired his new music. He says that Lil’ Kim lured him into the studio, and his mom and manager, Sonja Norwood, urged him to release the album on his own Knockout Entertainment label.
Mom just hopes people are as interested in the album as the sex tape. “I can’t say whether it’s done good or bad for him,” she says. “I can say there has been more exposure for him because of it.” That’s the manager in her talking. “As a mom,” she says, “I wanted to kill him.”
Musically, things are looking good so far. The album’s single, “Sexy Can I,” is a legitimate hit, currently sixth on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and the video is getting play on MTV and BET.
Can a sex tape translate to music success? But blog editors say sex-tape celebrity doesn’t typically translate to record sales.
Can a sex tape translate to music success? But blog editors say sex-tape celebrity doesn’t typically translate to record sales.
“You get the young girls who say, ‘Oh he’s adorable,”’ says Karu F. Daniels, senior entertainment editor at AOL’s BlackVoices. “You get the guys who say, ‘Ray J is my idol. He’s having sex with all these celebrity women,”’ but no one is writing about the new record, he says.
Fred Mwangaguhunga, managing editor of MediaTakeout.com, says most readers on his popular gossip site aren’t aware of Ray J’s new album. But the popularity of the sex tape, and the new single, could pay off.
“It’s definitely one of the hottest songs out now. If the rest of the album is like his single, he will have a lot of success,” he says. “Whenever you have publicity, it’s always a good thing. A lot of celebrities now are fighting it, particularly when they might not be seen in the best light, but in long run it’s always best to have your name out there.”
A story about Ray J’s run-in with Kardashian’s new boyfriend, football star Reggie Bush, was one of the most read stories on the site last week, Mwangaguhunga says.
Ray J says he expects to work hard to make his album and his label a hit. He plans to tour — he hopes with Mariah Carey or Usher — and develop new artists through Knockout Entertainment. Then he wants to get back into acting, and possibly even produce and direct. “I already had my directorial debut,” he says with a laugh. “I just want to continue to tackle the industry.”
Ray J says he expects to work hard to make his album and his label a hit. He plans to tour — he hopes with Mariah Carey or Usher — and develop new artists through Knockout Entertainment. Then he wants to get back into acting, and possibly even produce and direct. “I already had my directorial debut,” he says with a laugh. “I just want to continue to tackle the industry.”
Source of Topic: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24000857/
I wonder what the NRA would have to say about this...
Source of Topic: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23986213/
Source of Topic: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23986213/
3-year-old girl finds gun, shoots self in head
Detroit toddler reportedly in critical condition; parents questioned
Detroit toddler reportedly in critical condition; parents questioned
updated 11:08 p.m. ET, Sun., April. 6, 2008
DETROIT - A 3-year-old girl found a gun in a bedroom of her home and shot herself in the head 
Sunday, police said. One of the girl's parents apparently owned the gun, and at least one parent was home when she shot herself Sunday afternoon. Police questioned the parents and took the gun, the Detroit Free Press reported. The girl was taken to Sinai Grace Hospital, then transferred to Children's Hospital of Michigan. The Detroit News reported she was in critical condition.
Sunday, police said. One of the girl's parents apparently owned the gun, and at least one parent was home when she shot herself Sunday afternoon. Police questioned the parents and took the gun, the Detroit Free Press reported. The girl was taken to Sinai Grace Hospital, then transferred to Children's Hospital of Michigan. The Detroit News reported she was in critical condition. Source of Topic: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23986213/
Why can't Hillary Clinton tell the truth?
Source of the Topic: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080408/ap_on_el_pr/clinton_hospital_fact_check
Clinton's tale part truth, part errors
WASHINGTON - Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has stopped telling a story of a pregnant woman's medical tragedy after an Ohio hospital challenged its accuracy last weekend.
But recent accounts of the episode have omitted key details that suggest there was more truth in the essence of Clinton's tale than her critics, and even her presidential campaign, have acknowledged.
Since early March, the New York senator has often told campaign audiences a heartbreaking story of a young Ohio woman who began having problems with her pregnancy. She said the woman was twice turned away by a local hospital because she had no health insurance and could not pay a $100 minimum charge.
Clinton, who advocates health coverage for all Americans, put it this way in Terre Haute, Ind., on March 20: "I'll tell you a quick story that I heard in Ohio when I was campaigning there," she said. "A deputy sheriff told me about a young woman who worked at the pizza parlor there and she worked for minimum wage, she didn't have any insurance. She got pregnant, went to the hospital — and I don't blame the hospital. The hospital said, 'We can't take any more charity care. You have to give us $100 before we can examine you.' She didn't have $100. Went back another time, they told her the same thing."
Sen. Clinton said the woman returned a third time "in an ambulance. And they worked hard to stabilize her, and she lost her baby. Then they airlifted her to Columbus to the medical center, and for 15 days they tried to save her life, and she died."
THE SPIN:
Because Clinton never named the woman or the hospital, the story generated only gasps and tears at campaign stops. But on April 3, The Washington Post named the woman, Trina Bachtel, 35, of Middleport, Ohio, who died last August. The Daily Sentinel, a paper published in nearby Pomeroy, Ohio, cited Bachtel's name the next day.
With the patient's name now publicized locally and nationally, officials at O'Bleness Memorial Hospital in Athens, Ohio, feared their facility would be falsely accused. Bachtel was indeed treated in August at O'Bleness, where her baby was stillborn. But Bachtel was never refused treatment there, and she even had medical insurance, the officials told The New York Times in a story published Saturday.
"We implore the Clinton campaign to immediately desist from repeating this story," Rick Castrop, chief executive officer of the O'Bleness Health System," told the Times.
Media outlets and political Web sites began criticizing Clinton for retelling the unsubstantiated story. By Saturday night, Clinton's campaign said she would drop it from her speeches.
"Candidates are told stories by people all the time, and it's common for candidates to retell those stories," said campaign spokesman Mo Elleithee. "In this case, we tried but weren't able to fully vet the story."
THE FACTS:
Clinton said she heard the story from Meigs County Deputy Sheriff Bryan Holman during a visit to Pomeroy, before the March 4 Ohio primary.
In a March 26 phone interview with The Associated Press, Holman said he had told Clinton the story in essentially the same way she was retelling it in her speeches. He said he knew the Bachtel story only second hand, and lacked several details.
The AP then spoke with Bachtel's aunt, Susie Casto of Middleport, who helped raise the woman. She said Bachtel, who worked at a pizza parlor, did in fact have health insurance when she and her baby died.
But at an earlier time, Casto said, Bachtel lacked health insurance and ran up unpaid bills when treated at a clinic near her home in Middleport. When she returned for treatment when pregnant, the clinic demanded $100 per visit to help retire the outstanding debt, Casto said. Because Bachtel could not afford the fees and found it difficult to travel, her aunt said, she postponed receiving treatment.
Bachtel eventually went to O'Bleness, about 30 miles to the north, for attention.
Casto declined to name the clinics or hospitals involved, and said she felt medical professionals did all they could to save Bachtel and her unborn child.
Pomeroy has about 2,000 residents and two medical clinics. One is affiliated with O'Bleness, the other is the Holzer Clinic, part of a nine-facility chain.
O'Bleness Health System spokeswoman Lynn Anastos said Monday that Bachtel was not a patient at their Pomeroy facility and "she would not have been turned away for lack of payment" if she had sought treatment there.
Holzer associate administrator Jim Blevins said his company has no record of Bachtel being a patient for the past five years. About half of Holzer's patients are "charity cases," he said, and the company tries to work out payment schedules with those who fall behind on their bills.
In some cases, Blevins said, Holzer clinics place "credit restrictions" on patients believed to be able but unwilling to pay their bills. That would not apply to patients needing immediate or emergency care, he said.
Clinton erred in telling audiences that the Ohio woman lacked insurance when seeking help for her troubled pregnancy. But according to Casto's account, Bachtel's medical tragedy began with circumstances very close to the essence of Clinton's now-abandoned account: the lack of insurance created a $100 barrier to needed medical attention close to home.
___
By Charles Babington
Source of the Topic: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080408/ap_on_el_pr/clinton_hospital_fact_check
Clinton's tale part truth, part errors
WASHINGTON - Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has stopped telling a story of a pregnant woman's medical tragedy after an Ohio hospital challenged its accuracy last weekend.
But recent accounts of the episode have omitted key details that suggest there was more truth in the essence of Clinton's tale than her critics, and even her presidential campaign, have acknowledged.
Since early March, the New York senator has often told campaign audiences a heartbreaking story of a young Ohio woman who began having problems with her pregnancy. She said the woman was twice turned away by a local hospital because she had no health insurance and could not pay a $100 minimum charge.
Clinton, who advocates health coverage for all Americans, put it this way in Terre Haute, Ind., on March 20: "I'll tell you a quick story that I heard in Ohio when I was campaigning there," she said. "A deputy sheriff told me about a young woman who worked at the pizza parlor there and she worked for minimum wage, she didn't have any insurance. She got pregnant, went to the hospital — and I don't blame the hospital. The hospital said, 'We can't take any more charity care. You have to give us $100 before we can examine you.' She didn't have $100. Went back another time, they told her the same thing."
Sen. Clinton said the woman returned a third time "in an ambulance. And they worked hard to stabilize her, and she lost her baby. Then they airlifted her to Columbus to the medical center, and for 15 days they tried to save her life, and she died."
THE SPIN:
Because Clinton never named the woman or the hospital, the story generated only gasps and tears at campaign stops. But on April 3, The Washington Post named the woman, Trina Bachtel, 35, of Middleport, Ohio, who died last August. The Daily Sentinel, a paper published in nearby Pomeroy, Ohio, cited Bachtel's name the next day.
With the patient's name now publicized locally and nationally, officials at O'Bleness Memorial Hospital in Athens, Ohio, feared their facility would be falsely accused. Bachtel was indeed treated in August at O'Bleness, where her baby was stillborn. But Bachtel was never refused treatment there, and she even had medical insurance, the officials told The New York Times in a story published Saturday.
"We implore the Clinton campaign to immediately desist from repeating this story," Rick Castrop, chief executive officer of the O'Bleness Health System," told the Times.
Media outlets and political Web sites began criticizing Clinton for retelling the unsubstantiated story. By Saturday night, Clinton's campaign said she would drop it from her speeches.
"Candidates are told stories by people all the time, and it's common for candidates to retell those stories," said campaign spokesman Mo Elleithee. "In this case, we tried but weren't able to fully vet the story."
THE FACTS:
Clinton said she heard the story from Meigs County Deputy Sheriff Bryan Holman during a visit to Pomeroy, before the March 4 Ohio primary.
In a March 26 phone interview with The Associated Press, Holman said he had told Clinton the story in essentially the same way she was retelling it in her speeches. He said he knew the Bachtel story only second hand, and lacked several details.
The AP then spoke with Bachtel's aunt, Susie Casto of Middleport, who helped raise the woman. She said Bachtel, who worked at a pizza parlor, did in fact have health insurance when she and her baby died.
But at an earlier time, Casto said, Bachtel lacked health insurance and ran up unpaid bills when treated at a clinic near her home in Middleport. When she returned for treatment when pregnant, the clinic demanded $100 per visit to help retire the outstanding debt, Casto said. Because Bachtel could not afford the fees and found it difficult to travel, her aunt said, she postponed receiving treatment.
Bachtel eventually went to O'Bleness, about 30 miles to the north, for attention.
Casto declined to name the clinics or hospitals involved, and said she felt medical professionals did all they could to save Bachtel and her unborn child.
Pomeroy has about 2,000 residents and two medical clinics. One is affiliated with O'Bleness, the other is the Holzer Clinic, part of a nine-facility chain.
O'Bleness Health System spokeswoman Lynn Anastos said Monday that Bachtel was not a patient at their Pomeroy facility and "she would not have been turned away for lack of payment" if she had sought treatment there.
Holzer associate administrator Jim Blevins said his company has no record of Bachtel being a patient for the past five years. About half of Holzer's patients are "charity cases," he said, and the company tries to work out payment schedules with those who fall behind on their bills.
In some cases, Blevins said, Holzer clinics place "credit restrictions" on patients believed to be able but unwilling to pay their bills. That would not apply to patients needing immediate or emergency care, he said.
Clinton erred in telling audiences that the Ohio woman lacked insurance when seeking help for her troubled pregnancy. But according to Casto's account, Bachtel's medical tragedy began with circumstances very close to the essence of Clinton's now-abandoned account: the lack of insurance created a $100 barrier to needed medical attention close to home.
___
By Charles Babington
Source of the Topic: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080408/ap_on_el_pr/clinton_hospital_fact_check
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Why are so few black people committed to "the struggle"?
Source of this topic: http://www.nationalactionnetwork.net/
King's children, compatriots continue his lifelong fight
Posted Sunday, April 6, 2008
They came to Memphis by the thousands, a mix of pilgrims seeking a connection with their hero and activists tugged by their social consciences -- or, in some cases, a blend of both. There will never again be a 40-year commemoration of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rev. Al Sharpton said Friday, pointing out the obvious but intent on linking the events in Memphis last week with a sense of the profound and important. Bernice Albertine King, King's daughter and very much his heir as a preacher able to stir the emotions and the intellect, seized on the age-old significance of the number.
They came to Memphis by the thousands, a mix of pilgrims seeking a connection with their hero and activists tugged by their social consciences -- or, in some cases, a blend of both. There will never again be a 40-year commemoration of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rev. Al Sharpton said Friday, pointing out the obvious but intent on linking the events in Memphis last week with a sense of the profound and important. Bernice Albertine King, King's daughter and very much his heir as a preacher able to stir the emotions and the intellect, seized on the age-old significance of the number. Thelma Johnson of Chicago gets in the spirit Saturday morning at the National Action Network 2008 National Convention at The Peabody in a rally featuring Rev. Al Sharpton. "According to the Bible, 40 is the number of generation, 40 is the number of no longer wandering in the wilderness," she said. "So as we come to Memphis today, we come closing a chapter in American life. We will no longer wander around poverty. We will no longer wander around militarism. We will no longer wander around racism." Nearly 1,000 endured morning rainstorms for a march from the sanitation workers' union hall on Beale Street.
A crowd four or five times that many participated in a "recommitment" march in damp, chilly weather down Main Street, organized by Sharpton's National Action Network. Speakers often sought to address the question of how much
progress had been made since King came to Memphis pushing an agenda focused on three main pillars -- nonviolence (including opposition to the Vietnam War), individual and collective racism and poverty.And so the speakers could rail on the war in Iraq, could point to the poverty rate staying close to 1968 levels (and widening income disparities between the rich and poor) and could remind how the war on drugs has led to skyrocketing incarceration rates among black men. "Sometimes it seems as if we have traveled 1,000 miles in a second, and yet we are almost back at our point of origin," said Jessie Epps, the union organizer sent to Memphis in 1968.
Yet, progress was also acknowledged -- and celebrated. Sharpton's rally Friday was staged in front of City Hall, with Memphis' black mayor, Willie Herenton, providing a welcoming speech. Many speakers also addressed the challenge the black community faces from within. "All of our hell is not coming from white folks," said Charles Steele, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference that King once led. "I don't care if it's black or white. If you are stopping progress, get the hell out of the way. Negroes, you got to hear the truth." Citing her father's final speech on April 3,1968, Bernice King recalled his statement that it would be a "tragedy" if the movement stopped in Memphis.
"We must not stop here," she said. "We shall not stop here. I say to you, 'Let's continue moving.'"
A crowd four or five times that many participated in a "recommitment" march in damp, chilly weather down Main Street, organized by Sharpton's National Action Network. Speakers often sought to address the question of how much
progress had been made since King came to Memphis pushing an agenda focused on three main pillars -- nonviolence (including opposition to the Vietnam War), individual and collective racism and poverty.And so the speakers could rail on the war in Iraq, could point to the poverty rate staying close to 1968 levels (and widening income disparities between the rich and poor) and could remind how the war on drugs has led to skyrocketing incarceration rates among black men. "Sometimes it seems as if we have traveled 1,000 miles in a second, and yet we are almost back at our point of origin," said Jessie Epps, the union organizer sent to Memphis in 1968.Yet, progress was also acknowledged -- and celebrated. Sharpton's rally Friday was staged in front of City Hall, with Memphis' black mayor, Willie Herenton, providing a welcoming speech. Many speakers also addressed the challenge the black community faces from within. "All of our hell is not coming from white folks," said Charles Steele, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference that King once led. "I don't care if it's black or white. If you are stopping progress, get the hell out of the way. Negroes, you got to hear the truth." Citing her father's final speech on April 3,1968, Bernice King recalled his statement that it would be a "tragedy" if the movement stopped in Memphis.
"We must not stop here," she said. "We shall not stop here. I say to you, 'Let's continue moving.'"
Source of this Topic: http://www.nationalactionnetwork.net/
We must register to Vote if we are able to vote
Source of this Topic: http://sclcnational.org/net/content/go.aspx?s=3043.0.12.2607
Register to Vote with Rock the Vote!
The official Rock the Vote web site - Register to Vote.
http://www.rockthevote.org/
Register to Vote
RegisterVote.com voter registration information for the United States, including voter qualifications, voting resources, election links, political party ...
http://www.register-vote.com/
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Source of this topic: http://sclcnational.org/net/content/go.aspx?s=3043.0.12.2607
Is it more important for us to vote this year for some reason? Why? Why Not? What's your opinion, we'd like to know?
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Are 3rd graders criminals too?
Source of this story: http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2008/04/01/threat_0401.html?cxntnid=amn040208e
Third-graders plotted attack on teacher, police say
The Associated Press
Published on: 04/01/08
Waycross, Ga. -- A group of third-graders plotted to attack their teacher, bringing a broken steak knife, handcuffs, duct tape and other items for the job and assigning children tasks including covering the windows and cleaning up afterward, police said Tuesday.
The plot by as many as nine boys and girls at Center Elementary School in south Georgia was a serious threat, Waycross Police Chief Tony Tanner said Tuesday.
"We did not hear anybody say they intended to kill her, but could they have accidentally killed her? Absolutely," Tanner said. "We feel like if they weren't interrupted, there would have been an attempt. Would they have been successful? We don't know."
The children, ages 8 and 9, were apparently mad at the teacher because she had scolded one of them for standing on a chair, Tanner said.
They could be expelled, but a prosecutor said they are too young to be charged with a crime under Georgia law.
Tanner said school officials alerted police Friday after a pupil tipped off a teacher that a girl had brought a weapon to school.
Police seized a broken steak knife, handcuffs, duct tape, electrical and transparent tape, ribbons and a crystal paperweight from the students, who apparently intended to use them against the teacher, Tanner said.
Theresa Martin, spokeswoman for the Ware County school system, said nine children had been given discipline up to and including long-term suspension. She would not be more specific. She said none of the children had been back to school since the case came to light.
The alleged target is a veteran educator who teaches third-grade students with a range of learning disabilities, including attention deficit disorder, delayed development and hyperactivity, friends and parents said.
Tanner said the scheme involved a division of roles. One child's job was to cover windows so no one could see outside, he said. Another was supposed to clean up after the attack.
"We estimate between six to nine students were involved. ... We're not sure at this point in the investigation how many of the students actually knew the intent was to hurt the teacher," Tanner said.
The parents of the students have cooperated with investigators, who aren't allowed to question the children without their parents' or guardians' consent, he said. Authorities have withheld the children's names.
Police expected to forward the results of their investigation to prosecutors, Tanner said.
Children in Georgia can't be charged with a crime unless they are at least 13, District Attorney Rick Currie said.
Martin, told The Florida Times-Union of Jacksonville, Fla., that administrators would follow school system policy and state law in disciplining the students.
"From what I understand, they were considered pretty good kids," Martin said. "But we have to take this seriously, whether they were serious or not about carrying this through, and that's what we did."
Four mothers of other third-grade students at Center Elementary called for the immediate expulsion of the suspected plotters.
Stacy Carter and Deana Hiott both cited school system policy stating that any student who brings "anything reasonably considered to be a weapon" is to be expelled for at least the remainder of the school year.
"We don't want our children around them," Carter told the Times-Union. "The one with the knife could have stabbed my child or someone else's child at lunch or out on the playground."
"This is an isolated incident, an aberration. ... We have good kids," Center Principal Angie Coleman told the newspaper.
Source of this story: http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2008/04/01/threat_0401.html?cxntnid=amn040208e
We'd love to have your opinion on this one!
Third-graders plotted attack on teacher, police say
The Associated Press
Published on: 04/01/08
Waycross, Ga. -- A group of third-graders plotted to attack their teacher, bringing a broken steak knife, handcuffs, duct tape and other items for the job and assigning children tasks including covering the windows and cleaning up afterward, police said Tuesday.
The plot by as many as nine boys and girls at Center Elementary School in south Georgia was a serious threat, Waycross Police Chief Tony Tanner said Tuesday.
"We did not hear anybody say they intended to kill her, but could they have accidentally killed her? Absolutely," Tanner said. "We feel like if they weren't interrupted, there would have been an attempt. Would they have been successful? We don't know."
The children, ages 8 and 9, were apparently mad at the teacher because she had scolded one of them for standing on a chair, Tanner said.
They could be expelled, but a prosecutor said they are too young to be charged with a crime under Georgia law.
Tanner said school officials alerted police Friday after a pupil tipped off a teacher that a girl had brought a weapon to school.
Police seized a broken steak knife, handcuffs, duct tape, electrical and transparent tape, ribbons and a crystal paperweight from the students, who apparently intended to use them against the teacher, Tanner said.
Theresa Martin, spokeswoman for the Ware County school system, said nine children had been given discipline up to and including long-term suspension. She would not be more specific. She said none of the children had been back to school since the case came to light.
The alleged target is a veteran educator who teaches third-grade students with a range of learning disabilities, including attention deficit disorder, delayed development and hyperactivity, friends and parents said.
Tanner said the scheme involved a division of roles. One child's job was to cover windows so no one could see outside, he said. Another was supposed to clean up after the attack.
"We estimate between six to nine students were involved. ... We're not sure at this point in the investigation how many of the students actually knew the intent was to hurt the teacher," Tanner said.
The parents of the students have cooperated with investigators, who aren't allowed to question the children without their parents' or guardians' consent, he said. Authorities have withheld the children's names.
Police expected to forward the results of their investigation to prosecutors, Tanner said.
Children in Georgia can't be charged with a crime unless they are at least 13, District Attorney Rick Currie said.
Martin, told The Florida Times-Union of Jacksonville, Fla., that administrators would follow school system policy and state law in disciplining the students.
"From what I understand, they were considered pretty good kids," Martin said. "But we have to take this seriously, whether they were serious or not about carrying this through, and that's what we did."
Four mothers of other third-grade students at Center Elementary called for the immediate expulsion of the suspected plotters.
Stacy Carter and Deana Hiott both cited school system policy stating that any student who brings "anything reasonably considered to be a weapon" is to be expelled for at least the remainder of the school year.
"We don't want our children around them," Carter told the Times-Union. "The one with the knife could have stabbed my child or someone else's child at lunch or out on the playground."
"This is an isolated incident, an aberration. ... We have good kids," Center Principal Angie Coleman told the newspaper.
Source of this story: http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2008/04/01/threat_0401.html?cxntnid=amn040208e
We'd love to have your opinion on this one!
Be a part of the "I stand with Magic campaign"
Source of this article: https://www.istandwithmagic.com/index.cfm
Blacks make up 13% of the US population1 but account for 50% of new HIV cases in 20042. Abbott has partnered with The Magic Johnson Foundation to establish The Campaign to End Black HIV/AIDS. Together we're committed to fighting HIV/AIDS by providing communities with information and resources for prevention and testing, educational materials to share with family and friends and a way to join together to make a difference.
The "I Stand With Magic" Program is a powerful part of The Campaign because it empowers YOU to take a stand against HIV/AIDS, both for yourself and for your community. With this program, you’ll get the most up-to-date information on the key HIV/AIDS issues:
Education & Awareness
Protection & Prevention
Regular Testing
Available Treatment
Stand With Magic. Join The Campaign today!
We're all in this fight together. So keep checking back – we'll have updated information on activities happening in your community and how our efforts are making a difference.
Source of this article: https://www.istandwithmagic.com/index.cfm
What's your opinion on this topic, we'd like to know!
Blacks make up 13% of the US population1 but account for 50% of new HIV cases in 20042. Abbott has partnered with The Magic Johnson Foundation to establish The Campaign to End Black HIV/AIDS. Together we're committed to fighting HIV/AIDS by providing communities with information and resources for prevention and testing, educational materials to share with family and friends and a way to join together to make a difference.
The "I Stand With Magic" Program is a powerful part of The Campaign because it empowers YOU to take a stand against HIV/AIDS, both for yourself and for your community. With this program, you’ll get the most up-to-date information on the key HIV/AIDS issues:
Education & Awareness
Protection & Prevention
Regular Testing
Available Treatment
Stand With Magic. Join The Campaign today!
We're all in this fight together. So keep checking back – we'll have updated information on activities happening in your community and how our efforts are making a difference.
Source of this article: https://www.istandwithmagic.com/index.cfm
What's your opinion on this topic, we'd like to know!
Did Entertainment Powerhouse's, Jay Z and Beyonce marry?
Source of this article: http://omg.yahoo.com/report-beyonce-and-jay-z-wed/news/7985?nc
Report: Beyonce & Jay-Z Wed
NEW YORK, NY -- Singer Beyonce Knowles reportedly wed rapper Jay-Z on Friday, a source close to the couple told People magazine.
"It happened earlier this evening. Jay wanted it to be a really private affair - close friends and family," the source said.
News of the reported wedding comes after days of speculation following reports, which surfaced on Tuesday, that Jay-Z and Beyonce had taken out a marriage license in Scarsdale, New York.
The couple reportedly followed their private ceremony with a star-studded reception that included Destiny Child members Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams, Tina Knowles, Solange, and close friends Gwyneth Paltrow and Coldplay singer Chris Martin, and Jay-Z's close friends.
Jay-Z's favorite man on the turntables, DJ Cassidy, was at the reception spinning, according to the source.
"Cassidy mentioned a week ago that he was really excited for the Jay Z and Beyonce's wedding party to happen," the source said.
Earlier in the day, speculation that the new couple was marrying reached a new high outside Jay-Z's Tribeca building.
Just before 8 PM local time, Gwyneth Paltrow and her husband, Coldplay singer Chris Martin, pulled up to the locale, where a rooftop event, believed to be the nuptials of the singer and her beau may be taking place later tonight.
Beyonce's former Destiny's Child bandmates - Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams also arrived, but hid behind an umbrella as Gwyneth and Chris were mobbed by paparazzi on the scene.
A fight broke out between paparazzi as Beyonce's father, Mathew Knowles arrived and dozens of them surrounded the vehicle he was being carried in.
Beyonce's sister, Solange arrived shortly after her father, dressed in a white dress.
Earlier in the evening an SUV believed to be carrying Oscar winner Forest Whitaker also turned up.
The number four has particular significance to the couple. Both Jay-Z and Beyonce were born on the 4th - Jay Z was born on December 4, 1969, while Beyonce was born September 4, 1981.
A host of media including four live trucks are currently stationed outside the location in preparation for coverage of the suspected nuptials. More than three dozen reporters and paparazzi are also outside with the numbers growing.
Throughout the day SUVs were seen entering and exiting the garage located underneath Jay-Z's building.
The rooftop penthouse, owned by Jay-Z is adorned in flowers and tented scaffolding.
A Maybach luxury vehicle arrived at the location shortly before 7 PM local time and drove past as it was mobbed by paparazzi. Jay-Z reportedly owns one of the super high-priced cars.
Source of this article: http://omg.yahoo.com/report-beyonce-and-jay-z-wed/news/7985?nc
Care to share your opinion about this?
Report: Beyonce & Jay-Z Wed
NEW YORK, NY -- Singer Beyonce Knowles reportedly wed rapper Jay-Z on Friday, a source close to the couple told People magazine.
"It happened earlier this evening. Jay wanted it to be a really private affair - close friends and family," the source said.
News of the reported wedding comes after days of speculation following reports, which surfaced on Tuesday, that Jay-Z and Beyonce had taken out a marriage license in Scarsdale, New York.
The couple reportedly followed their private ceremony with a star-studded reception that included Destiny Child members Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams, Tina Knowles, Solange, and close friends Gwyneth Paltrow and Coldplay singer Chris Martin, and Jay-Z's close friends.
Jay-Z's favorite man on the turntables, DJ Cassidy, was at the reception spinning, according to the source.
"Cassidy mentioned a week ago that he was really excited for the Jay Z and Beyonce's wedding party to happen," the source said.
Earlier in the day, speculation that the new couple was marrying reached a new high outside Jay-Z's Tribeca building.
Just before 8 PM local time, Gwyneth Paltrow and her husband, Coldplay singer Chris Martin, pulled up to the locale, where a rooftop event, believed to be the nuptials of the singer and her beau may be taking place later tonight.
Beyonce's former Destiny's Child bandmates - Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams also arrived, but hid behind an umbrella as Gwyneth and Chris were mobbed by paparazzi on the scene.
A fight broke out between paparazzi as Beyonce's father, Mathew Knowles arrived and dozens of them surrounded the vehicle he was being carried in.
Beyonce's sister, Solange arrived shortly after her father, dressed in a white dress.
Earlier in the evening an SUV believed to be carrying Oscar winner Forest Whitaker also turned up.
The number four has particular significance to the couple. Both Jay-Z and Beyonce were born on the 4th - Jay Z was born on December 4, 1969, while Beyonce was born September 4, 1981.
A host of media including four live trucks are currently stationed outside the location in preparation for coverage of the suspected nuptials. More than three dozen reporters and paparazzi are also outside with the numbers growing.
Throughout the day SUVs were seen entering and exiting the garage located underneath Jay-Z's building.
The rooftop penthouse, owned by Jay-Z is adorned in flowers and tented scaffolding.
A Maybach luxury vehicle arrived at the location shortly before 7 PM local time and drove past as it was mobbed by paparazzi. Jay-Z reportedly owns one of the super high-priced cars.
Source of this article: http://omg.yahoo.com/report-beyonce-and-jay-z-wed/news/7985?nc
Care to share your opinion about this?
Beauty and the Beast?
Why must black men always be shown looking like this image of Lebron James on a recent image of
Vogue Magazine?
Vogue Magazine?
What's your opinion, we'd like to know?Is it dangerous to bury some black folks?
Source of this article: http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB120648161243063499-lMyQjAxMDI4MDI2NjQyODYxWj.html#CX
The violation of the once-sacrosanct funeral is one byproduct of a little-noticed upswing in the murder rate of African-Americans. The number of blacks killed in America, mostly by other blacks, has been edging up at a time when the rate for other groups has been flat or falling.
DEADLY BUSINESS - Violence Roils Black Funeral Parlors
By GARY FIELDSMarch 26, 2008; Page A1
(See Corrections & Amplifications item below.)
By GARY FIELDSMarch 26, 2008; Page A1
(See Corrections & Amplifications item below.)
CINCINNATI -- Clarence Glover has a surveillance camera in the chapel of his funeral home. Joseph Garr sometimes carries a revolver in his hearse. Carl Swann Jr. is contemplating leaving the business.
The three directors of black funeral parlors here have been assaulted at services and each has had gunshots fired during burials. Concealed-weapons, pre-funeral intelligence briefings, cameras, panic buttons and armed security guards are becoming as much a part of services as the eulogy.
"I've been in this business 42 years and I'm jittery now," Mr. Glover says.
Across the country, black morticians are changing the way they operate. The reason: a spike in African-American murders -- and the violence that sometimes follows victims to the grave. In an echo of more volatile parts of the world, such as Iraq and Afghanistan, African-American morticians report seeing an increase in violent behavior, and occasional killings, at funerals.
The violation of the once-sacrosanct funeral is one byproduct of a little-noticed upswing in the murder rate of African-Americans. The number of blacks killed in America, mostly by other blacks, has been edging up at a time when the rate for other groups has been flat or falling. As a result, the black murder-victim toll exceeds that of the far larger white population. According to the most recent statistics from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the number of whites murdered dropped slightly, to 6,956 from 7,005 between 2004 and 2006. The number of blacks killed rose 11%, to 7,421 from 6,680.
African-Americans, who make up 13% of the population, have long had a higher homicide rate than other groups. And the total number of black murders is still significantly lower than in the early 1990s, when the U.S. was hit by a wave of drug-related killings. At that time, though, "funeral homes used to be the most respected places you could walk into beside the church," says Jeff Gardner, a co-owner of A.D. Porter & Sons in Louisville, Ky., and a third-generation undertaker. "Nobody respects life and the young folks nowadays don't mind dying."
What worries law enforcement, criminologists and sociologists is that there's no unifying theme to explain today's increase. Some killings are drug related. Researchers trace others to a glut of ex-felons re-entering society. Others correlate the rise in murders to the lack of a proper education.
Black funeral homes, long a fixture of African-American communities, offer a stark perspective from which to view the trend. There are no comprehensive statistics on assaults or other crimes at funerals. And the violence has not touched all black communities. Still, the topic has become a hot one in the industry.
Rising Incidence of Violence
Last year, the National Funeral Directors & Morticians Association -- a black trade group -- held a panel discussion at its Philadelphia convention about the rising incidence of violence on funeral premises. Among some strategies recommended: increasing security and not publicizing funerals.
Since 2006, police in Boston, Goldsboro, N.C., Louisville, Los Angeles and St. Louis have investigated black murders that occurred at or immediately after funeral services. Of five cases reviewed for this article, four were at the funerals of other murder victims. Two were gang related. One was a revenge killing. Two remain unexplained.
Sitting in the office of his funeral parlor on Reading Road in Cincinnati, funeral director Mr. Glover, 58 years old, can see images from three cameras at once. They allow him to view all the public areas inside the House of Glover Funeral Service as well as the back door. He's had the system up and running for three months.
On at least two occasions, he says, gunfire at grave sites forced him to dive into the dirt. "Bullets don't have names," he says.
If a funeral has the possibility of "drama," as he puts it, Mr. Glover hires security at $25 to $50 an hour per guard. He also assembles his staff two hours prior to a wake for a briefing. "We have a meeting so you know who is who, what to look for and watch out for each other," he says.
Cincinnati is a microcosm of the national picture. Here, black morticians meet regularly. In past months the primary discussion has been about safety. Recently, funeral directors went on local radio talk shows in three one-hour sessions. The subject: escalating violence at funerals.
Cincinnati is a microcosm of the national picture. Here, black morticians meet regularly. In past months the primary discussion has been about safety. Recently, funeral directors went on local radio talk shows in three one-hour sessions. The subject: escalating violence at funerals.
According to the National Funeral Directors & Morticians Association, the average cost of an African-American funeral is about $4,500. In many cases, the specter of violence is driving costs up. In Cincinnati, security firms make regular appearances at services, adding as much as $500 to the bill. Surveillance systems can cost $2,000 or more just to install.
"We've had to alternate funeral procession routes because we have been tipped off," says Duane Weems, president of Elite Protective Services, a local security firm. "Attendees to the church service will tell us that this gang is waiting down there."
Since funerals and wakes draw family and friends of the deceased, they also provide a ready stage for anyone with violent intentions toward the mourners.
Family and friends of Frank Sherley Jr., who died at the age of 70 of natural causes, were arriving at A.D. Porter & Sons Funeral Home in Louisville for his wake May 21, 2006. It was "a perfect day," recalls John Curd, an employee there that Sunday evening. "There was no expectation of violence."
At services for Mr. Sherley, two gunmen appeared in the parking lot and began firing. Mr. Curd dialed 911. He recalls thinking: "This isn't supposed to be happening at a funeral home." One man was killed and four other people were wounded. Police say they don't have a motive and the crime is unsolved.
In his first four years on the job, Mr. Curd rarely tended to homicide victims. In recent years, he sees one to two each month.
Harrowing Experience
Mr. Swann, of Cincinnati, says his family has been burying the dead since the early 1900s. "I caught the school bus in front of the funeral home and I got off the bus in front of the funeral home," he says. Now, at age 37, he's thinking of getting out of the business.
One particularly harrowing experience was the funeral of Raeshaun Hand Jr. The ex-convict had continued to deal drugs after being released from prison, according to police, and was wanted at the time of his murder. Mr. Hand, 27, was found shot inside his car in February 2005.
Mr. Hand's father tried to keep the service private, but word got out. The father stood guard at the church door, trying to limit access. Some mourners made it in, drinking and smoking in the church bathroom, Mr. Swann says. Later as he prepared to close the casket, a large group rushed inside, pinning the undertaker.
"One dude punched me in front of the casket. The dead man's son was there and he got punched and his father was punched. My professionalism went out the window," Mr. Swann says. "I started fighting back, throwing punches. This wasn't in the job description and it doesn't come with the job."
Evacuation Plan
Debora Kellom, director of Wade Funeral Home in St. Louis and a spokeswoman for the National Funeral Directors Association, similarly recalls how a fight broke out during the wake of a murder victim in January. Word spread that there were guns present. Panic erupted. Ms. Kellom ordered the casket closed, moved everyone outside and called 911.
Thirty police arrived on the scene, complete with a paddy wagon. "So many emotions came over me that night," she said. "I was angry because I had to do that. Telling the mother who was crying we have to get you out and protect you."
Thirty police arrived on the scene, complete with a paddy wagon. "So many emotions came over me that night," she said. "I was angry because I had to do that. Telling the mother who was crying we have to get you out and protect you."
At least she was prepared. Ms. Kellom has an evacuation plan for the funeral home. At its core is an electronic switch that allows her to put the facility in lockdown mode.
Mr. Gardner, the co-owner of A.D. Porter & Sons, has also installed electronic surveillance cameras. On occasion, he hires extra security for a funeral that's likely to attract violence. Mr. Gardner says he sometimes must absorb the extra cost, which can amount to hundreds of dollars per funeral. "There's no price too high for safety but it costs and that just eats into my bottom line."
Gayle Graham locks the door to her establishment, W.T. Shumake & Daughters Funeral Home, Louisville, unless a service is under way. "The open door policy is gone even though we're a business. You have to ring the doorbell," says Ms. Graham. Other policies include changing venues for some funerals and not publicizing wakes. Ms. Graham also reports that her insurance costs are rising because of liability concerns.
In some cases, police are shadowing mourners. On the West Coast, funeral directors are now working closely with the Los Angeles Police Department, from planning procession routes that avoid gang territory to coordinating burials so rivals aren't interred in the same cemeteries at the same time.
Detective Sal LaBarbera, a homicide supervisor with the LAPD, says the department routinely attends high-risk funerals to offer security and gather intelligence.
Earlier this year, the family of a gang-related murder victim had difficulty finding a funeral home that would take the body. "This poor family, it took five or six days before they could find a place that would even accept this kid," recalls Mr. LaBarbera.
Once arrangements were set, LAPD suggested that the wrong location and time be disseminated "so the family could have a private service," says Mr. LaBarbera. "On the face of it, it sounds ridiculous but it's real life here."
Anthony Felder, of Los Angeles's Spalding Mortuary, says he routinely faxes basic information to the police if he's handling a homicide case. He also faxes images of tattoos on the body to help the police identify gang members -- and assess any specific risks associated with the deceased. The police in return send plainclothes officers for security.
In St. Louis, Ms. Kellom, 43, says she has gone so far as to ask that the local police department set up a substation inside her facility. She argues that such an arrangement would give her establishment -- and the neighborhood -- a much-needed, visible police presence. She has promised a body-free zone for officers, who she expects will soon be dropping by on a regular basis to monitor the area.
Mr. Garr, 77, has largely taken matters into his own hands. The Cincinnati funeral director obtained his license to carry a concealed weapon in late 2005. His next step is to increase liability coverage in case he has to use one of his two .38-caliber pistols.
The 'S'
At a recent service, mourners driving in the funeral procession began zigzagging in what is known as the "S," says Mr. Garr, weaving so dramatically that they covered three lanes instead of one. He stopped the hearse and asked the participants to stop because they were creating a hazard. When they continued, he began pulling the funeral flags off their cars.
One man grabbed him, Mr. Garr recalls, and said he couldn't prevent them from making such a display, which they called a homage to the dead man.
"I could feel myself reaching for my gun, but then I'm showing the same attitude as the knuckleheads," he says. The young man stepped away, defusing the situation.
As funeral security evolves, Ms. Kellom says the business of burial insurance -- policies sold by directors to help customers pay in advance for funeral costs -- is also morphing. Rather than purchase policies for just themselves, mothers and grandmothers are now taking out policies for younger family members, too.
Says Ms. Kellom: "They come in and say, 'I know I'm going to be responsible for burying him when something happens.'"
Corrections & Amplifications:
Goldsboro, N.C., was the scene of a funeral service referred to in a page-one article Wednesday about violence at funerals. A previous version of this article incorrectly identified the city as Greensboro, N.C.
Goldsboro, N.C., was the scene of a funeral service referred to in a page-one article Wednesday about violence at funerals. A previous version of this article incorrectly identified the city as Greensboro, N.C.
Source of this article: http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB120648161243063499-lMyQjAxMDI4MDI2NjQyODYxWj.html#CX
Marcus Girard would love to have your comments on this story!
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