Why? Why would the NAACP have anything to say about Michael Vick? I don’t understand? The Bush Administration rounded up thousands of Muslims after 9/11 and the NAACP were nowhere to be found. Now, they are speaking out about Michael Vick. Someone please help me understand.
The White House has tortured themselves with this explanation.
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From RS:
The Bush administration has responded to a Republican senator’s request for information about Alberto Gonzales’s conflicting testimony on a secret surveillance program but not by a 12 p.m. Tuesday deadline, CNN reported.
Sen. Arlen Specter, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, still is waiting for a requested response from Gonzales himself, which had yet to be delivered Tuesday night, he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in an interview Tuesday afternoon.
The letter Specter received from Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell seeks to clarify earlier testimony from Gonzales in which he said there was not “serious disagreement” among administration officials over a classified National Security Agency surveillance program. (more…)
I had never really heard of Ted Stevens until a few months ago. The bridge to nowhere. Well, it seems that the FBI and the IRS have a few questions for Senator Stevens. They tried to answer those questions with a raid on his house yesterday.
Although Michael Vick is in very HOT water, Ted Stevens is in a similar situation.
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From WaPo:
Agents from the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service raided the Alaska home of Sen. Ted Stevens (R) yesterday as part of a broad federal investigation of political corruption in the state that has also swept up his son and one of his closest financial backers, officials said.
Stevens, the longest-serving Republican senator in history, is under scrutiny from the Justice Department for his ties to an Alaska energy services company, Veco, whose chief executive pleaded guilty in early May to a bribery scheme involving state lawmakers. (more…)
Cocaine. This addiction must be a bear. The fact that cocaine is moving to and through Africa in such huge quantities is a big problem. Where ever crack goes so goes crime.
Say it ain’t so? Why? Ed Schultz has started a campaign to send ping-pong balls to certain members of Congress who need to grow a pair. I’m trying to image why we would have to expand FISA? The only thing that the Administration can’t spy on is my dreams. I hope that the Dems are afraid that the Bush administration are going to call them soft on terror. The charge is silly and easily fought. We have to be thoughtful about protecting this country and not to try to rush some piece of garbage to the President.
BTW, what’s the rush? Why do we have to have this legislation to the President by Friday?
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From NYT:
“Congress needs to take its time before it implements another piece of antiterrorism legislation it will regret, like the Patriot Act,” said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. “The Bush administration clearly has abused the FISA powers it already has and clearly wants to go back to the good old days of warrantless wiretapping and domestic spying. Congress must stop this bill in its tracks.”
The administration says that digital technology and the globalization of the telecommunications industry have created a legal quandary for the intelligence community. Some purely international telephone calls are now routed through telephone switches inside the United States, which means such “transit traffic” can be subject to federal surveillance laws requiring search warrants for any government eavesdropping. (more…)
Ira F. Aldridge was an actor born in New York City in 1807.
The son of a straw merchant, Aldridge was educated at the African Free School in New York. Some graduates of this school later took part in abolitionist efforts.
As a black actor in pre-Civil War America, Aldridge had to go overseas to practice his craft. Aldridge often performed in England. In England, Aldridge would be booed due to his race. Sometimes there is no peace in this world.
It has been suggested that the fact Aldridge had a white wife did not enhance his popularity in England. Aldridge left England in the 1850’s because he was not being given roles in the best theaters of London.
Aldridge won great acclaim in Germany as a Shakespearian actor. He was also a well-known figure in Russia. It seems he owned the role of Othello.
Aldridge died in Poland in 1867.
The theater at Howard University is named after Aldridge.
I think by now everyone knows that something funky happened in Ohio in 2004. In violation of federal law, those election records like 18 minutes missing on Nixon’s tapes are being lost or destroyed.
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From AlterNet:
Two-thirds of Ohio counties have destroyed or lost their 2004 presidential ballots and related election records, according to letters from county election officials to the Ohio Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner.
The lost records violate Ohio law, which states federal election records must be kept for 22 months after Election Day, and a U.S. District Court order issued last September that the 2004 ballots be preserved while the court hears a civil rights lawsuit alleging voter suppression of African-American voters in Columbus.
The destruction of the election records also frustrates efforts by the media and historians to determine the accuracy of Ohio’s 2004 vote count, because in county after county the key evidence needed to understand vote count anomalies apparently no longer exists. (more…)
Max Blumenthal visits the College Republicans. It is amazing that none of the ones that were filmed said anything original. All of these “healthy” pro-war Republicans, found all kinds of excuses of why they couldn’t or wouldn’t enlist. Their basic motto - I’m a Patriot. I support the war. I’m too important to risk my life on some war.
I’m a Dallas Cowboy fan but I can really appreciate good football. Bill Walsh simply changed football. He changed pro football forever. He took some of Tom Landry’s ideas of motion and cranked it up. He used motion to develop certain match ups. He placed a premium on running backs that could really catch the ball out of the backfield. He proved that you could kill a team with simple low risk swing passes out of the backfield. As soon as the defense commits to the swing pass, a bomb to one of the wide open all world recievers would be served up. Walsh was brilliant.
One game really does make a difference. The Dallas Cowboys and Danny White were one play away from killing Bill Walsh and their first of 3 SuperBowls. The Catch by Dwight Clark was a great play by great players but there was still time on the clock. The Dallas Cowboys had Danny White a young talented quarterback and they still had an aging Drew Person. The Cowboys do get Drew Person free in the middle of the field. Danny White delivers a great pass. Person has just one man to beat and the Cowboys go to another SuperBowl. Joe Montana and Bill Walsh may not become household names. He is caught by a hang nail (I can’t remember who tackled him). Joe Montana and Bill Walsh would go on to win 3 SuperBowls.
Bill Walsh had a great eye for talent. A great eye. Joe Montana was too short and too slow. He didn’t have a rocket arm. He took Steve Young. Steve Young was awful at Tampa Bay. Walsh saw something that no one else saw. Roger Craig. Dwight Clark. Arguably the greatest football player of all time - Jerry Rice. There are probably 50 other players that he make great.
Bill Walsh will always be remembered. He will be mentioned with all of the great coaches.
You can read the whole interview here. It is an e-mail interview so you know that Barack didn’t whip this out in a couple of minutes. He had time to craft his answers. He does a great job crafting.
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Brody Question: Senator Obama, thank you for entering The Brody File. Many candidates are talking about hope, change, a brighter future, but why do you believe your campaign is resonating across the country?
Senator Obama: You know, I think Americans are hungry for a different kind of politics - the kind of politics based on the ideals this country was founded upon. The idea that we are all connected as one people. That we all have a stake in one another. We’ve had too many years of bitter partisanship, of lobbyists and influence peddlers with cash and connections determining what goes on in Washington.
I’m putting forward workable, practical solutions to address our common problems, from our health care crisis to bringing a responsible end to the war in Iraq. But I’m also talking to Americans about how we can come together in ways bigger than any ideological agenda or corporate bottom line. I think this approach is resonating with millions of Americans. [Read more →]
Co-defendent rolls over. It doesn’t look good for Vick. The legal analyst is correct. What is Vick’s lawyer doing? If Vick is innocent then he needs to have Vick on every talk show discussing what a great guy he is. If Vick is guilty, then he needs to push Vick to plead.
The NAACP has scheduled a press conference for later on this afternoon. I’m guessing that they are going to supporting Michael Vick. I’m kinda wondering why would the NAACP get involved in this case? Michael Vick is not some poor day laborer or assembly line worker who can’t speak for himself. This is a very strange move.
Finally, I would like to say again, that Vick is innocent until proven guilty.
In Austin, Texas last month, I saw the grave of Negro League star and Hall of Fame member Willie Wells at the Texas State Cemetery.
Willie Wells lived between 1905 and 1989. He grew up playing baseball on sandlots in Austin.
Wells, a home run hitting shortstop, played in the Negro Leagues, Mexico, and Cuba from 1924 to 1949.
He also managed the Negro League Newark Eagles and a club in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
The book Shades of Glory by Lawrence Hogan says about Wells—“Though he was never given a chance to play in the major leagues, Wells is given credit for helping the next generation of players such as Jackie Robinson, Don Newcombe, Joe Black and Ernie Banks.”
Blackbaseball.com says Wells was the equal of the great Honus Wagner. The ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia rates Wells as one of the 12 greatest Negro League players.
Now, this is old gold.
The CarpetBagger had 2 great posts yesterday on Alberto Gonzales. Leaks to the Washington Post and New York Times seem to show how the White House is going to try to spin Alberto out of his current mess. They are trying to say that Alberto was talking about the questionable data mining operation and not the domestic spying program. The argument has so many holes in it you can drive a truck thru it.
Alberto Gonzales personifies truthiness (coined by Stephen Colbert). There is a speck of truth in most of what he says therefore it is very hard to call everything he says a lie. It appears that he nailed himself last week in front of the Senate Judiciary committee. Last week was just the end of a long line of questionable testimony. There has to be a limit to amount of truthiness that the Senators are willing to put up with.
Scooter Libby’s sentence is commuted. I have a few things to say about Scooter with Faiz Shakir from the Center for American Progress who is the chief blogger at Think Progress. I have to continue to look at the Scooter Libby with Eric Boehlert from Media Matters who wrote a piece on how the Washington Post loves Scooter Libby. Great interviews and a great show.
Nice tune.
I’m not even sure where to begin with this one, but E hit on my main questions in his initial posting. Why? Why do there even need to be five helicopters flying around taking pictures of a police chase? Why does there even need to be one. This isn’t journalism. This is voyeurism. There is absolutely nothing learned by the public about any kind of police chase that comes from having had a helicopter shot of the process, but everybody wants to catch the next “White Bronco” moment. The onslaught of news coverage here in Phoenix the next day covered all of the predictable angles and had all of the teary-eyed pictures of grieving journalist colleagues. It is being painted as being the tragedy that it is and details the difficulties that the helicopter pilots face in these situations.
And then the coverage goes south.
Are you telling me that this has risen to the top of the “To Do” list for the House Oversight and Congressional Reform Committee?
On the tail of the murder-suicide deaths of wrestler Chris Benoit and his family in Georgia, the committee, led by Henry Waxman, D-CA, has asked World Wrestling Entertainment to turn over any information it has on steroid and drug abuse in pro wrestling.
What’s next? A hard-hitting congressional investigation on whether or not the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote may have violated certain laws of gravity during their numerous frolics about the desert Southwest? Puh-leeze.
Whenever you think that prejudice is gone in our country just look around. We all still have it. Some of us do better than others squashing our prejudice. Mencia finds a few people in South Cali who let it all hang out.
I’m out of town. Jennifer is back in the studio. I call in and we discuss Ann Coulter. Why? Because I believe that she can’t be ignored. The only reason that she has sold so many books is because progressives have not spoken out against her hate speech. I interview Cynthia Brown, expert on education, from the Center for American Progress. We tackle No child Left Behind and other issues in the classroom. I then chat with Glenn Greenwald, lawyer and blogger at Salon.com, about the US Attorney scandal. Jennifer wraps up the show with a scary journey through several recent Supreme Court decisions.
Rough cut.
Errington C. Thompson, MD, is a surgeon, scholar, fulltime sports fan and part-time political activist. He is active in a number of community projects and initiatives. Through medicine, he strives to improve the physical health of all he treats...
