Pete Souza: Pres Obama speaking in Jacksonville, Florida
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Steve Benen: AG Holder to fight Texas on voting rights
In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on the Voting Rights Act, Republican policymakers acted with remarkable speed – literally, less than 24 hours – to approve new voting restrictions, most notably a controversial voter-ID law.
When the Voting Rights Act was intact, changes to voting laws in the Lone Star State would need to be cleared with the Justice Department in advance of being implemented, but with the law gutted by a narrow Supreme Court majority, GOP officials in Texas assumed the Justice Department is no longer relevant, and they could do as they pleased.
The nation’s Attorney General apparently believes otherwise….
More here
And see TPM: Holder’s Move Against Texas Could Send The Voting Rights Act Back To The Supreme Court
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Steve Benen: Among voter-suppression bills, ‘This is the single worst’
Over the last few years, we’ve seen quite a few states take up new voting restrictions, immediately on the heels of Republican gains in the 2010 election cycle, so much so that the notion of a “Republican war on voting” was widely recognized and understood. After the 2012 elections, despite the failures of voter suppression, state GOP officials renewed their efforts.
But it’s probably fair to say we haven’t seen anything quite as astounding as the proposed restrictions in North Carolina. Barbara Arnwine, president of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said, “This is the single worst bill we have seen introduced since voter suppression bills began sweeping the country.”
More here
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I am sick and tired of Cornel West’s race and poverty pimping, and I am calling him out. http://t.co/5curU3yXnE
— The People’s View (@thepeoplesview) July 26, 2013
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BlackAmericaWeb: Is Anyone Black Enough for Cornel West?
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shock! “@BlackCanseco: #GeorgeZimmerman’s “heroic” car crash rescue may be fraudulent after all. http://t.co/ktNe1UsG3U #thanksgeorge #syg”
— Wieland (@lawscribe) July 25, 2013
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Zimmerman Juror B29 in her own words… http://t.co/VA0y5nRJ89
— Michael Skolnik (@MichaelSkolnik) July 25, 2013
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Trayvon Martin’s parents: Juror B29′s revelations ‘devastating’ http://t.co/J3EezZa8FJ
— theGrio.com (@theGrio) July 26, 2013
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More here
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To see the whole list of 25 Thoughts on Conservative Policies, visit http://t.co/amvoTfLJRR …,
— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) July 26, 2013
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This really is beyond belief:
ThinkProgress: Ohio Plans Unspeakably Cruel Appeal Of Dying Man’s Last Wish
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President Obama tours Jacksonville port with, from left, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx; Dennis Kelly, TracPac Regional Vice President and General Manager; Ray Schleicher, CEO of the Jacksonville Port Authority, and Fred Wakefield, International Longshoreman’s Association Representative
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Text of the President’s remarks in Jacksonville today here
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EXCLUSIVE: Inside Groundswell, the right-wing group where activists & journalists coordinate messaging http://t.co/9GZRllKxED #groundswell
— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) July 25, 2013
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President Obama talks with Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx aboard Air Force One during the flight to Jacksonville, July 25 (Photo by Pete Souza)
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Republicans Launch A Campaign to Convince The Uninsured NOT to Buy Health Insurance http://t.co/jYpAor88Bi via @politicususa #p2 #p2b #ctl
— Sarah Reese Jones (@srjones66) July 25, 2013
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Norm Ornstein: The Unprecedented, Contemptible GOP Quest to Sabotage Obamacare. What the Republicans are doing now goes beyond mere hardball politics – and could hurt millions of Americans affected by health-care reform.
And from Steve Benen: None dare call it sabotage
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So many OFA vols are calling @SpeakerBoehner today demanding action on #Immigration they are waiting on hold 40 min to leave a message
— Jon Carson OFA (@JonCarsonOFA) July 25, 2013
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What’s most telling re @thehill‘s f**k-up is their eagerness to create anti-Obama story when he wasn’t even mentioned pic.twitter.com/re95CMaBod
— TheObamaDiary.com (@TheObamaDiary) July 25, 2013
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President Obama reaches up to touch a media microphone while talking with people along a tarmac ropeline after arriving at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., July 24 (Photo by Lawrence Jackson)
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New CBO report finds sequester cuts will cost up to 1.6mill jobs by Sept. 2014. Time for GOP to move fwd on a budget: http://t.co/xioecdOjEB
— Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) July 25, 2013
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A southern strategy for the 21st century http://t.co/fcfDS4ZOjW
— Smartypants (@Smartypants32) July 25, 2013
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ThinkProgress: Washington Nationals Use Teddy Roosevelt Mascot To Promote Obamacare
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A MUST READ “@joshuafoust: I made a timeline of Edward Snowden’s flight from the U.S. It raises a lot of questions. http://t.co/MVbbc8jxYF”
— Jeff Gauvin (@JeffersonObama) July 25, 2013
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If you’ve ever wondered what landing on the South Lawn of the White House was like…here you go —> pic.twitter.com/QrqGpUlzEq
— The White House (@whitehouse) July 25, 2013
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USA Today: President Obama is declaring Saturday to be Korean War Veterans Armistice Day.
“I call upon all Americans to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies and activities that honor our distinguished Korean War veterans,” Obama said in a proclamation signed Thursday.
Obama will commemorate the event with a speech on Saturday at the Korean War memorial in Washington, D.C.
More here
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Pete Souza: Pres Obama signing photos backstage in Jacksonville
The Obama Diary 
Hunk alert Whew!!!
Thank you Chips; hope you’re enjoying your evening.
More than anything else, the #GOP will regret the day they decided to Suppress Votes & Be Enemy #1 to the Women of the United State.
#FORWARD
Exactly, Bob, we all know from personal experience how rage against voter suppression drove people to wait in long lines to vote. I saw it first hand in PA and I heard the anger among voters who felt that their rights were being challenged. The GOP does not learn. And they don’t know the power women have when they work together. They are playing dangerous games in their state legislatures and governor’s mansions and every Neanderthal member of Congress had better watch out in November 2014 because we don’t forget.
” …. because we don’t forget.” True, Jackie.
And, We Vote!
Yes We Can
Hola
🙂 🙂 🙂
I am glad that he went on into Florida. He ain’t no scaredy cat.
🙂
LMAO!! 🙂 🙂
GE Chips, TOD……. awesome round up of the day!
shaking fist @zizi, Bob and LL
😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀
Was just getting ready to post those tweets and comments when Ms Chips launched yet another very fine thread.
Congrats on 1st zizi!!
Please take a minute to read about this HERO: Willie Louis in a doorway after testifying in the murder trial, with Detective Sherman Smith.
In the cab, Mr. Reed said, were four white men. In the rear were three black men, plus a fourth — a black youth hunkered down in the very back of the truck. Soon afterward, Mr. Reed said, he heard “somebody hollering” and “some licks like somebody was whipping somebody” coming from the barn. The youth in the truck was named Emmett Till, and he would not be seen alive again.
The next month, the 18-year-old Mr. Reed, after braving intimidation from one of the suspects and walking through the thicket of Klansmen massed outside the courthouse, testified in open court to what he had seen and heard. The son of a family of black sharecroppers, Mr. Reed was spirited out of Mississippi immediately after the trial. He changed his name to Willie Louis and lived discreetly in Chicago, where he worked as a hospital orderly.
Mr. Louis, one of the last living witnesses for the prosecution in the Till case, died on July 18 in Oak Lawn, Ill., a Chicago suburb. He was 76.
Thank you, LP, this was one very brave and good man.
YW Jackie, I had never heard this story until I came across that article.
What a brave and humble man.
After decades he never looked for book deals and movies, he just did what he had to do. I hope that some day a movie will be made of Emmet Till’s life and he will be recognized for his bravery. I cannot help wonder if his family left that hell hole, also. A young man had to leave his home of 18 years for safety because he “stood up” for another young man who was brutally murdered.
Snowden, this is what a hero looks like. Take notes……Spy on, you worthless piece of crap and everyone who rallied behind you and called you a hero.
Thanks LP for sharing the story of this courageous man (at the time a young man actually). There were other courageous people during those days. Another courageous individual in the Emmett Till murder case was Emmett’s own uncle, Mose Wright.
My pleasure Nath! I was completely unaware of the people behind the Emmett Till case.
RW Extremists
Or RW Extremeties! 🙂
hahahahaha….
This is an amazing post, Chips. But I gotta tell ya that as I scrolled down and only had the top part of that last photo visible on my screen, I thought Pete had caught the President washing his hands in the men’s room. (Not sure where that came from, but this is why I really need to take an afternoon siesta every day, not every other day. Me sleepy.) 🙂
I agree with you, J’OB; the mirrors on the wall look like those over the sinks of most public ladies’ rooms.
No need for a nap.
Why would he be in a ladies’ room?
Sorry to muddle things up.
I’ve only been in ladies rooms, have no idea whether men’s rooms even have mirrors.
Just agreeing with J’OB that quickly scrolling down the page, it looked like bathroom mirrors.
Ha! Thanks!
“I thought Pete had caught the President washing his hands in the men’s room”
Jacqueline, I am soooooooo relieved (so to speak) – that is EXACTLY what I thought when I first saw the pic!!!! 😆
Great minds, hey??
Actually, warped minds, but, hey.
*so relieved* (yeah, honey bunch, I see where you were goin’ there)
🙂
I am afraid you were not the only one. I thought the same! 🙂
Ha!
Ditto!
So did I, JO’B, so you quit feeling, um, awkward, okay?! 😉
That left me a long time ago! 🙂
This is yet another moment when America should take stock of where the power structures are leading us, how they play on our fears — fan our fears — to feed their fortunes. On no subject is this more clear than on the subject of guns.
While it is proper and necessary to analyze the case in which George Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin for what it says about profiling and police practices, it is possibly more important to analyze what it says about our increasingly vigilante-oriented gun culture.
The industry and its lobby have successfully pushed two fallacies: that the Second Amendment is under siege and so are law-abiding citizens.
They endlessly preach that more guns make us safer and any attempt at regulation is an injury to freedom. And while the rest of us have arguments about Constitutional intent and gun-use statistics, the streets run red with the blood of the slain, and the gun industry laughs all the way to the bank.
Oh golly, I sure do love PBO!!! 😉 The black and white pics are too awesome!
Good. Maybe some of their goodness will rub off!
Arapaho – By the way, thanks for all of the informative topics you bring here! I always learn from them.
Hubba, hubba on the dynamic duo PBO and AGH!!! Forget the naughty mat, I’ll just stop, drop, and roll right here. #fireinthehole
Too funny. I like a woman who knows her mind. 🙂
LOL! Stop, drop, and roll — cuz you’re on FIYAH!!!!! 😀
“He would sit with Abbas and Netanyahu, and he carried messages and received messages and conveyed different points,” said Dan Arbell, who served as Israel’s deputy chief of mission in Washington during that period. “But it seemed more of a sideshow rather than the main event at the time. Now it seems as though he was preparing himself in Obama’s first term for this moment now that he is secretary of State.
“Pelosi had meetings and made a plea to vote against the amendment, and that had a much bigger effect on swing Democratic votes against the amendment than anything Alexander had to say,” said the source, keeping in mind concerted White House efforts to influence Congress by Alexander and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. “Had Pelosi not been as forceful as she had been, it’s unlikely there would’ve been more Democrats for the amendment.”
With 111 liberal-to-moderate Democrats voting for the amendment alongside 94 Republicans, the vote in no way fell along predictable ideological fault lines. And for a particular breed of Democrat, Pelosi’s overtures proved decisive, multiple sources said.
Love that ad. She is taking it to McConnell in a no nonsense but reasonable way. She is going after him on issues and obstinacy. It is a winner.
Japa, she is a powerful adversary and McConnell would be fool to dismiss her. She’s attractive, energetic, intelligent, reasonable and charismatic–everything McConnell isn’t and could never be.
Let’s be honest, Mitch McConnell is a dam ugly fool.
Reading the TRO in Obergefell’s case, Ohio is on very, very shaky legal ground. The judge went through all the “arguments,” and came out with “well, sorry, but your own laws as well as any number of court cases say that if you’re legally married in one state, you have to recognize that marriage as valid.”
I know that Chips posted links to Steve Benen and TPM on AG Holders’ remarks about Texas VRA, but I think everyone here who *predicted* this action by Holder should take a bow.
There’s been speculation (mostly by left-leaning sites) about whether Texas could be a test to get VRA back in front of SCOTUS.
Today Holder made his intent known; the MSM and rightwing choose to examine the AG’s actions only through their own parochial lens without taking into consideration what he’s doing for those citizens who need federal protection from their local lawmakers ill-advised actions. @JoshTPM summed it up pretty well, and @JBenndry offered some text:
http://blog.pfaw.org/content/smoking-gun-voting-rights-case
The Smoking Gun in the Voting Rights Case
Wed, 06/26/2013 – 9:04am — Paul
Lest anyone be fooled into thinking that yesterday’s 5-4 ruling crippling the Voting Rights Act was anything but five justices substituting their ideologies for the law, let us recall that Justice Scalia showed his cards during oral arguments in February.
He denigrated the VRA provisions at issue as a “racial entitlement.”
He said that “this is not the kind of question you can leave to Congress,” even though the 15th Amendment specifically says that “Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”
He cited the “wonderful” name of the Voting Rights Act and the lopsided congressional majorities in favor of reauthorizing the law in 2006 as evidence that Congress wasn’t sincere when it extended the law.
All this, coming from the Justice known for claiming fealty to the text of the laws.
It was no surprise to find Scalia voting to undercut the Voting Rights Act. But his loss of message control during oral arguments makes clear that this decision is about politics and power, not principle.
Great WH page on PBO vision for middle class
http://www.whitehouse.gov/a-better-bargain
Just posted a tweet down range. Should have refreshed before posting.
It’s all good, Alycee! I saw it….yours sticks out better than my link…
So here’s my daily contribution to the Assange/Greenwald/Snowden saga:
https://twitter.com/joshuafoust/status/360427964355190784
1. Assange has to run in a state or territory
2. The voting system used for our senate elections (Senators are elected by a preferential voting system known as proportional representation) make it very unlikely that he – or a party he creates – could win. The two major groups (labor and liberal-national) win 5/6 seats in each state – and the next major party – the greens – often wins the 6th seat. There is occasionally a strong independent who may win a seat. I do not know the level of support Assange may have in the country – but not even being here he would be unlikely to win an election.
3. Elections in Australia are government funded. He can probably get enough votes to qualify for said funding (which is one reason why our senate elections have so many nominations) – perhaps he needs the money.
The US has eased sanctions on exports of medical equipment to Iran, the treasury department has said.
Electrocardiography and dialysis machines are among the items that can now be exported without prior approval.
The department said the expansion of allowed exports was intended to enable “legitimate humanitarian trade”.
Iranians have suffered chronic medicine shortages amid Western sanctions aimed at pressuring Tehran to abandon its nuclear programme.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23453844
cue mcangry and wingnut poutrage.
More in depth story of staged GZ “rescue”….
http://newsball.com/exclusive-pictures-of-the-family-that-george-zimmerman-saved-from-a-burning-car-or-was-it-staged/
Actually…this is rather sleazy to me, after reading the entire thing AFTER I already posted. My bad, for sure. Make of it what you will…stick with the Lawscribe link, I think
What is sleazy is folks trying to make out Zimmerman is superman – and getting help from LE! Problem is democrats have a conscience – hence your concern with sleazy – Republicans just tell the lies and enjoy the consequences.
Note how the national media will go no further with this discussion – George is a hero. Story ends. THAT is sleazy.
From Colorado Springs:
“Peak Vista Community Health Center received the lion’s share of Southern Colorado money. This non-profit, low cost health coverage giant will use the 310 thousand dollars to hire ten new staffers to help you wade through the maze of the new Affordable Health Care Coverage….”
http://www.krdo.com/news/help-on-the-way-to-understand-new-health-insurance/-/417220/21169214/-/nbx6flz/-/index.html
Ugh, I’m even more pissed about the latest juror after reading this: Trayvon Martin’s parents: Juror B29′s revelations ‘devastating’
Ugh what’s the point of her interviews. Is she looking for sympathy? Or we supposed to feel sorry for her. She could have stayed anonymous and let it lie, but no it’s probably eating at her daily, that she didn’t either stick to it, or she didn’t at least make more of an effort to make her reservations matter. The deliberation was 12-16 hours. So in 12-16 hours, she went from leaning for manslaughter to acquitting of all charges!!!
Whatever. It would have been better for her to STFU just like with the last juror and let the Martin family get some damn closer or something, cause her “a murderer went free” statement does absolutely nothing but pierce the heart of the REAL VICTIM’S family in this case.
Agree. The juror should have held firm. She and the other two were talked out of it by the three who said not guilty. It wasn’t a question of whether GZ committed murder. He did! Self defence…not proved. In a fight, if one person dies it is manslaughter.
“Is she looking for sympathy” – or “is she looking for money”? Most who talk in this fashion want the money. Why was she so keen to be on the jury?
And if you can’t be with the one you love, Honey, love the one your with…
Jovie, you’re going all romantic on me!!
Who sings that song?
You!! 😆
And???
Here is is Jovie:
Stephen Still.
Aargghh, Stills! Am I on the wrong thread?? Ack.
That Alison Grimes against mcturtle is awesome, especially the part about him becoming a millionaire while ‘serving the public’. Hit that corrupt mofo repeatedly with that point again and again.
Great ad, but always pisses me off when I hear these candidates say stuff like “I don’t always agree with the President” – but in their states, I suppose they feel they need to.
That’s a hedge that is unfortunately seems de riguer in wing nut states. As long as she doesn’t dish PBO openly, like that colbert’s sister did and lost against a fucking disgraced philanderer in the end anyway, I am ok with it.
Yeah, I suppose. Still pisses me off, though.
McCaskill…did not attend the Convention…but she was on AF1 with PBO yesterday…so I suppose in these RED states they do as they must to get re-elected…
Yet the same McCaskill endorsed Hilary for 2016. I think PBO’s race is the biggest issue in these Red States, more than anything else.
yup
You can tell he was a little handful, even then!
Halliburton confirmed the agreement with DOJ in a statement late Thursday, saying a subsidiary “agreed to plead guilty to one misdemeanor violation associated with the deletion of records created after the Macondo well incident, to pay the statutory maximum fine of $200,000 and to accept a term of three years probation.”
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/313663-halliburton-pleads-guilty-in-bp-gulf-spill-case#ixzz2a71wvbc4
A maximum fine of 200k???
yeah, wtf indeed, jovie. The corporates has fixed the rules so much over decades that I don’t see much hope in future too, especially, the voters persist with their stupidity of voting against their own interests.
JHC.
$200K is what one Halliburton executive probably spends over the weekend.
This is where we need Congressional/Senate action.
Companies responsible for these catastrophic oil spills should not be allowed to wriggle away with something that amounts to a slap on the wrist.
Reminder:
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/republican-party-affordable-care-act-072513
There simply is no other way to interpret the most recent developments in the ongoing war against the Affordable Care Act except to say that the act’s opponents deeply, fervently believe that a great number of Americans are dumber than a great big box of rocks.
With the Obama administration poised for a huge public education campaign on healthcare reform, Republicans and their allies are mobilizing a counter-offensive including town hall meetings, protests and media promotions to dissuade uninsured Americans from obtaining health coverage.
So..The Koch Bros have a plan!!!>>>>>
FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity, a conservative issue group financed by billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch, known for funding conservative causes, are planning separate media and grassroots campaigns aimed at adults in their 20s and 30s – the very people Obama needs to have sign up for healthcare coverage in new online insurance exchanges if his reforms are to succeed. “We’re trying to make it socially acceptable to skip the exchange,” said Dean Clancy, vice president for public policy at FreedomWorks, which boasts 6 million supporters. The group is designing a symbolic “Obamacare card” that college students can burn during campus protests.
HA! PERFECT comment from this piece:
“The group is designing a symbolic “Obamacare card” that college students can burn during campus protests.”
I hope those who participate burn their fucking hands in the process and must go to a hospital emergency room where they’re told–because they decided not to sign up for an exchange and because they were engaging in “reckless” behavior–they must pay $4750 up front to have it treated, which they will have to call their parents to get. Further, in the months that follow, since there was a delay in getting treatment, the wound never heals properly, leaving scars and disfiguring marks, which causes their significant others to leave them due to the constant smell and sight and ooze of decayed flesh.
Let them, then, apply for a job at Koch Industries, who, even if hired and qualify for the employee health plan, will, of course, deny them coverage on their pre-existing hand wound.
Wowie!!
August is always circus time for the idiotic Republicans and the pathetic MSM who worship them and this one will be no different. They are all such a waste.
df- I echo all your sentiments posted here. Let’s see them get burnt and have to require multiple surgeries over an extended period…and watch the bills AND the scars pile up infinitely….
LMAO @ “…which causes their significant others to leave them due to the constant smell and sight and ooze of decayed flesh.”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
” aimed at adults in their 20s and 30s”
There was one of these folks – young man with GOP hairstyle and best suit – ranting on PBS a couple of days ago – that young people like him don’t need such health care, only old folks get sick – and he should not have to pay. I very much hope he marries – gets his wife pregnant and then discovers why EVERYONE needs health insurance. I’ve had it since I was born (at age 17 had to pay myself) – and other than the birth of my child, used it rarely until I was c. 50 – I have since had repaid 10 fold – everything I paid since I was 17.
The concept of universal health care is sharing the load – why do people get taken in by the charlatans – and then want “the govinment” to get them out of their own stupid.
Ezra Klein links to a Greg Sargent post:
From Greg Sargent’s post:
“one area for such cooperation could be the Panama Canal. With the canal getting a major upgrade designed to allow easier access to the United States for huge cargo ships from Asia, U.S. ports could be poised to gain in a big way — but some are being held back by the need for funds to modernize. So you can bet the White House will quietly reach out to GOP Senators who want federal money to upgrade ports — Graham is already on record calling for this — and raise the prospect of a broader infrastructure spending deal.”
It’s about time someone publicly humiliated that unkempt, narcissistic fool.
We are Americans who realize that our strength is in our diversity.
We display our strength when affluent white college students demonstrate in favor of the Dream Act and immigration reform. We display our strength when the California chapter of the NAACP becomes the first non-LGBT organization to endorse a ‘No’ vote on Proposition 8. We demonstrate our strength when men and women band together in the south to protect a woman’s right to choose. We show our strength when people from all races, rich and poor, old and young, take to the streets in solidarity with a young slain man and his family that none of us personally know.
************************
BRAVOOOOOOOOOOO!
1st.
Thanks for my er..er..award! By the way what is it?!?!?!?
Hopefruit, that was me trying to get rid of my hiccups before I took my spoon of sugar.
Hmm….as Jodi Kantor would say…
Geeky weird people? Why does a spoon of sugar ****always**** make my hiccups go away?
http://kidshealth.org/kid/talk/qa/hiccup.html
Um, thank you Amk.
“Putting sugar under your tongue might work, too.”
Kids Health are talking through their backsides, just swallow a spoon of the stuff and Bob’s your uncle.
whine, whine, whine
Delete the Hs and we’re laughing
😆 Perfect!!!
here you go 🙂 http://mentalfloss.com/article/29674/what-causes-hiccups-and-why-does-sugar-cure-them
Though I must say, THIS ” A spasm of the diaphragm can be brought on by any number of things that might irritate the nerves that control the movement of the muscle. A full stomach, heavy boozing, rapid shifts in temperature either inside or outside of the stomach, and certain emotions like shock or excitement are all common culprits.” little piece about WHY we get hiccups was enlightening!
Heavy boozing? Hmmmmm….
Very cool stuff here from the Census bureau! Know your district!
http://www.census.gov/mycd/?eml=gd
Very interesting and enlightening, Dudette:) Will share at my OFA meeting Sat 🙂
Music time!
New post.
http://theobamadiary.com/2013/07/25/night-owls-greatest-comebacks/
🙂
Wow, great post……Thank You, Chips.