Thursday, January 31, 2013

Stand for Hadiya

I rarely if ever criticize President Obama...... he has enough people on both the left and the right to do that...So when I heard that a young black teen who attended his inauguration was slain in Chicago recently and that he wasn't planning to go to her funeral...I was a bit taken aback...


President Obama has no plans to attend the funeral for a 15-year-old Chicago girl who was shot to death a week after marching in the president's inaugural parade.


White House press secretary Jay Carney said the president and first lady's "thoughts and prayers are with the family" of Hadiya Pendleton,(seen above) but there are no plans for Mr. Obama to travel to Chicago for her funeral.

An online petition is urging President  Obama to attend the funeral for Hadiya, who was shot Tuesday in a park by an unknown gunman as she stood with a group of teens seeking shelter from the rain.
A week before the tragedy, the honor student and majorette had performed with her high school band in Washington at Mr. Obama's second inauguration.

Mr. Carney said the girl's death is another example of the need for gun control.

"If we can save any one child's life, we have an obligation to try when it comes to this scourge of gun violence," he said.

"The president has more than once, when he talks about gun violence in America, referred not just to the horror of Newtown or Aurora or Virginia Tech or Oak Creek but to shootings on the corner in Chicago or other parts of the country, and this is just another example of the problem that we need to deal with."

I agree...and I think the President should indeed attend this girl's funeral....He did go to Aurora and he did go to Newtown... This girl's shooting death on the streets of Chicago is just as horrific as those killings because it is so common....It is the real reason we need gun control and reform...This killing is no less important than those killings...In all cases...a young person is gone from here way too soon and needlessly!

Sensible GUN REFORM NOW!

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

The "I" Word

The "I" word was in the news yesterday...Actually I should say in the news.....That word is , drum roll please...Immigration....
President Barack Obama hailed the Senate's bipartisan immigration framework at a major speech on that topic this afternoon in Nevada, but threatened to send his own alternative legislation to Capitol Hill if Congress fails to act.

The president embraced of a statement of principles offered Monday by four Democratic and four Republican senators, which would strengthen border security and employment verification in exchange for a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants in the United States.
"The good news is that -- for the first time in many years -- Republicans and Democrats seem ready to tackle this problem together," President Obama said in his speech in Las Vegas, according to prepared excerpts.

 "And yesterday, a bipartisan group of senators announced their principles for comprehensive immigration reform, which are very much in line with the principles I've proposed and campaigned on for the last few years," the president also said. "At this moment, it looks like there's a genuine desire to get this done soon. And that's very encouraging." he said.

But in a speech in Nevada -- a Southwestern state that has experienced a boom in its Latino and or  Hispanic population --  President  Obama said he refused to allow comprehensive immigration reform "to get bogged down in an endless debate." (which knowing the Republicans...it most undoubtedly will.)


"It's important for us to realize that the foundation for bipartisan action is already in place," he said. If lawmakers fail to advance their own proposal, President Obama said he would send legislation to Congress based on his own principles "and insist that they vote on it right away."


He said at the top of his speech: "I'm here because the time has come for common-sense, comprehensive immigration reform."

  President Obama used Tuesday's speech in Nevada to outline many of those principles, which rest on four pillars: 1.Strengthening border security, 2.Cracking down on employers who hire undocumented workers, streamlining legal immigration and  3rd and may I say  most importantly -- offering undocumented workers an earned path to citizenship.

Those three pillars mostly resemble the bipartisan Senate framework unveiled on Monday by lawmakers, which has prompted hopes that Congress would finally be able to advance a comprehensive immigration reform law, a priority that eluded President Barack Obama during his first term, and President George W. Bush before him.

The primary sticking point in those fights has been the pathway to citizenship, which conservatives deride as "amnesty" for those who have broken the law. Already, some prominent conservatives have expressed their skepticism of the Senate framework for exactly that reason.

"Yes, they broke the rules,"  President Obama said of those undocumented immigrants. "They crossed the border illegally. Maybe they overstayed their visas. But these 11 million men and women are now here."

That is not going to go over well with conservatives and their supporters...and I can predict that they'll take that last statement he made and run with it..


Republicans in particular had been closely watching President Obama's actions for cues as to how the administration might handle immigration, and the emerging Senate deal.

Republican lawmakers have openly worried that President Obama might stake out stark positions and oppose some of the enforcement measures included in the Senate framework, namely the trigger that would only allow a pathway to citizenship once the border enforcement mechanisms had been verified.

 "There are a lot of ideas about how best to fix our broken immigration system," said Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. "Any solution should be a bipartisan one, and we hope the President is careful not to drag the debate to the left and ultimately disrupt the difficult work that is ahead in the House and Senate."
But Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a kind of rock star to conservatives who's seen as eyeing a run for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016, has taken an active lead in selling this proposal to the right. Senator Rubio has appeared in conservative media to both discourage President Obama from opposing enforcement provisions, but also talk up the proposal as the best chance at compromise for Republicans.

"If, in fact, this bill does not have real triggers in there -- in essence, if there's not language in this bill that guarantees that nothing else happens unless these enforcement mechanisms are in place -- then I won't support it," Senator Rubio, a member of the bipartisan gang of eight, told conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh on Tuesday. "But the principles clearly call for that."

But the President generally spoke in broad terms, and did not draw any bright lines as it relates to the Senate proposal.

"I believe we are finally at a moment where comprehensive immigration reform is finally within our grasp," he said.

I would at least hope so...

Monday, January 28, 2013

R.I.P. Sugarfoot

Leroy "Sugarfoot" Bonner is dead!   A lot of yall don't know who he is do you?  He was the lead guitarist of the Ohio Players...Had the baddest Afro this side of the Jackson Five....I wanted an Afro like his so bad it wasn't funny!...

Leroy "Sugarfoot" Bonner, frontman and founder of legendary funk group Ohio Players, passed away on Saturday at the age of 69, according to a post on his Facebook page. No other details are available, but an official family announcement says he passed away quietly in his hometown of Trotwood-Dayton, Ohio.
The statement continues, "Humble yet charismatic, soft spoken and of few words, the weight of his thoughts, lyrics, and music has influenced countless other artists, songs, and trends. He will be missed but not forgotten as his legacy and music lives on. More details and an official historical perspective of his career will soon be forthcoming."

The Ohio Players stormed  into the 1970s with a hard-swinging sound that combined heavy funk grooves, radio-dominating pop hooks, punchy horns, and sensual album cover art that often became more talked-about than their music (for example, the cover of 1975's No. 2 charting Honey was the source of one of rock history's most enduring urban legends). Formed in the early 1960s from the ashes of Dayton R&B group the Ohio Untouchables, the Ohio Players became intergral in funk's domination of the following decade. Their ubiquitous hits "Fire" and "Love Rollercoaster" topped the Hot 100, and three others ("Funky Worm," "Sweet Sticky Thing," "Who'd She Coo?") topped the R&B charts as well. 

Though Leroy "Sugarfoot"  Bonner was touring with a version of the Ohio Players up until his death, you will hear their contemporary legacy most loudly in bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers (who covered "Love Rollercoaster"), disco revisionists Escort (who evoke them on their recent self-titled LP), and in more than 200 rap songs that sample them. In the hip-hop world, nothing has been more indelible than 1973's "Funky Worm." After appearing in songs on N.W.A.'s landmark 1988 album Straight Outta Compton, sampling, interpoliting, and evoking "Funky Worm"'s swirling, buzzing Moogs became the sound of an entire generation of West Coast hip-hop producers. The tradition is still alive today, as you can even hear a funky worm replay in the coda of Kendrick Lamar's recent "m.A.A.d city."


I was late getting this news, which is weird for me...but I just had to write a blog post on this....a definite part of my past...that's now gone...Seems to be happening a lot lately.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Saturday 7 - 7 Relationship Myths




From time to time I like to keep it smurfy and light hearted on this blog and weekends are that time for me...I tend to shy away from politics and world affairs and center on fun things....Today is one of those days...So consider yourself lucky...






So Let's look at seven relationship myths....

1. Opposites Attract! - Ha...one of the oldest and most untrue myths around...It’s rare to see a long-term relationship that’s been based on opposite personalities or preferences. We are more likely to be attracted to people who are like ourselves in terms of values and background and basic beliefs...but I'm sure..most of you know that right?


2.You Can Change a Person... Another myth....Women believe this one for some reason that is just beyond me....If you meet a person after say the age of 12....They are who they are and as Maya Angelou says.."When people show you who they are...Believe em"....People want to be challenged—not changed. A Guy wants to be challenged to become a better version of himself and who he ultimately wants to be, not the person you want him to be. This probably goes both ways!


3.Women are attracted to different types of Guys at different times in their life/ Men are attracted to different types of women at any given time in their lives... This is probably not a myth...It's probably true!

4.It's Better to Live Together Before Marriage.  - Believe it or not and it might sound surprising coming from me, (Especially if you  have read my fictional stories in my other blog, "Escapades") but this is NOT TRUE!  The value of cohabiting before tying the knot essentially boils down to who you both are as individuals...It is generally believed that couples who don’t live together tend to be more religious than couples who do, and those kinds of differences, not whether you live together before marriage, are more indicative of relationship success. Basically though I believe this...Ladies....if he's that serious about you...Tell him to put a ring on it first...then let him move in.


5.Pheromones aren't real....Oh yes they are!  I know, some of you are going ...Huh? What? They are smells, smells the human body gives off, despite showering and cologne or perfume that makes the opposite sex attractive to you..Animals know all about it. Pheromones are totally a thing, and they help determine whom we’re attracted to. Recent research has shown that women are more drawn to the smell of some men’s T-shirts after the guy has slept in them a few nights. (That's why I keep that Eagles T-shirt around!)


6.Marriage Kills Your Sex Life!   Not True!  I have heard people say this, but it's usually bitter guys, guys who are on the verge of divorce....What they should say is ...a bad marriage ruins your sex life...A study from 1994 shows married people have sex more often than singles and about the same amount as couples who live together.

7.You should wait until the third date before having sex...   Well...I'll say this about that... The average guy  knows pretty soon if he's into a woman and wants to have a relationship,and this goes both ways “If a man sleeps with a woman and doesn't call her again, chances are he was never going to follow up and pursue the woman  in the first place. I'm a guy. Guys don't generally analyze these things the way women think they do. Very few guys will think, I really like her and am into her; but we slept with together…so I guess it's over! And as for the ones who do,Ladies do you really want to date them?" For real?  Bottom line: Do what you’re comfortable with, when you’re comfortable with it.

Well....Now that I've cleared that up for you...Enjoy your Saturday folks!

Friday, January 25, 2013

Weekend Humor

Three absent minded writers were busy discussing a writing project on the platform, while waiting for the train. The announcement was made, and the train finally arrived.

There was complete panic among eagerly waiting passengers as the train made its way to the platform. 
Passengers rushed inside the train, and the train left. However, one of the writers was not able to catch the train in the confusion.

A passerby who saw all this came up to the writer and told him not to worry and catch the next available train. 
The writer replied, “I am not worried for myself, but the real problem is that I was the one who was suppose to catch the train, and the two of them who went on the train, actually came to see me off”.


Have a great weekend everyone!

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Number One With Bullets!



My mother always told me that "There is no lesson, like a bought lesson."  What she meant was that the best lesson learned in life is one in which you had to pay some type of consequence...That's a bought lesson, that's the one that sticks with you...That's the "I aint gonna do that no more...I can't afford this.."type of lesson.

How many bought lessons concerning guns does America have to have?  Or I should say...How many bought lessons will it take before the damn NRA decides to talk sensibly about serious gun control and stop with this nonsense about people needing high velocity, military style weaponry such as the Bushmaster assault rifle used in the Newtown School shootings?

The mass murders at Aurora ,Colorado and Newtown ,Conneticut apparently wasn't enough!   The year isn't a month old yet and already there have been two mass shootings...

An argument between two people erupted in gunfire on Tuesday at the Lone Star College-North Harris campus near Houston and left them and a third person wounded, authorities said.



The two men who were arguing and a bystander were shot in the Tuesday incident outside the library at the North Harris campus of Lone Star College. Authorities early Wednesday charged 22-year-old Carlton Berry with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Court records did not list an attorney for Berry.

Harris County Sheriff's Office spokesman Thomas Gilliland said the 25-year-old, identified in court records as Jody Neal, did not have a weapon. Berry was the only person who shot a weapon during the incident, Gilliland said.

Thomas Gilliland said authorities are trying to figure out if the argument between Berry and Neal was an "ongoing altercation or if it stemmed from that day" and whether the two were students at the community college. The sheriff's office was expected to discuss its ongoing investigation at a news conference later Wednesday.

 The volley of gunshots around noon Tuesday at Lone Star College, located in north Houston, prompted a lockdown then evacuation of the campus. Students were allowed to return to campus and retrieve their vehicles later Tuesday. Classes at the campus resumed on Wednesday.


And in Albuqueque...The news is even worse! 
A 15-year-old Albuquerque boy has confessed to killing his mother, father and three small siblings in a rampage at their home early Saturday morning, according to a probable cause statement by authorities.
The boy also told police he wanted to "drive to a populated area" to "shoot people at random and eventually be killed while exchanging gunfire with law enforcement," according to the statement, which was posted online by local media.

But after the killings at his family's home, the boy went to, get this  church.

At the Calvary Church, where his father had been a pastor, he began to spin stories that would later unravel under interrogation. According to court documents, after arriving at the church, the boy told his girlfriend and her grandmother that his family had died in a car crash.

The document doesn't say how police were led to the boy's home, but after they discovered the bodies, the boy told officers that he found the bodies and wasn't home at the time of the shooting. According to the statement, he called his father's body a "carcass."
The father, a chaplain who volunteered with the local fire department, had been shot in the head with a military-style AR-15 rifle, police said – the type of rifle used in the massacres in Newtown, Conn., and Aurora, Colo.

The boy's case is being handled by the juvenile court system. He has not been charged as an adult.
The boy's interrogator, who signed the statement as "A. Gaitan," slowly set out the boy's initial comments to investigators: He admitted that, yes, he'd packed guns into the family van he drove to church; yes, he had fired them, but in the backyard, and only "in anger" after discovering his family's bodies; and yes, he did touch the shell casings.

When the police interviewer told the boy, who said he didn't want an attorney or an adult present, that his story didn't make sense, the youngster confessed, police said. He said he had "anger issues" and had been "annoyed" with his mother.

Around midnight, early Saturday morning, the boy began to feel homicidal and suicidal, took a .22 rifle out of his parents' closet, and shot his mother in the head, police said. She was in bed with the boy's 9-year-old brother, who woke, and then became upset. The boy shot him too, according to police.
At that point, according to police documents, the boy "lost his conscience" and shot his 5- and 2-year-old sisters in the head in their bedroom, where they were crying.


The boy "stated he hid and waited until his father had walked past him and he then shot his father multiple times with the rifle," the probable cause statement said.
The statement's author, Gaitan, learned about the youth's plans to die in a large public shooting with police, though the boy still had another detail to share.

"I asked [the boy] if he had told anyone else about murdering his family," Gaitan wrote, "and he stated he had taken a picture of his deceased mother and sent it to his girlfriend."

It's not clear who the guns belonged to. Friends described the father as a former "gang-banger" before beginning his years as a chaplain. Neighbors told local media that the boy had been home-schooled and that the family's children were forbidden from watching violent or objectionable media.


Two mass shootings ,one month....the year isn't 30 days old yet and we still are debating sensible gun control!  Doesn't sound like America is learning from any bought lessons to me..  Well, at least not the NRA!


Tuesday, January 22, 2013

The Once and Future President

My wife and I were supposed to go to D.C. yesterday to view the inauguration...  But the people organizing the bus tour we were supposed to be going on couldn't get enough people to pony up their money in time and the trip was cancelled.

That's okay....I watched it on television...which is what I would have done anyway had I not been given the opportunity to go.

Before hundreds of thousands of well-wishers at the National Mall in front of the Capitol and millions more like myself,watching on television, Barack Obama was sworn in Monday for his second term as President of these sometimes United States.. "America's possibilities are limitless," he declared in his inauguration speech.


President Obama aimed for an optimistic tone as he delivered an inaugural address to a nation seeking solutions to economic woes at home and conflict overseas. He started the speech by re-invoking the foundational principles of the Republic — and asking people to hear him.

"A decade of war is now ending. An economic recovery has begun. America's possibilities are limitless, for we possess all the qualities that this world without boundaries demands: youth and drive; diversity and openness; an endless capacity for risk and a gift for reinvention,"President  Obama declared. "My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it - so long as we seize it together."

He closed: "You and I, as citizens, have the obligation to shape the debates of our time - not only with the votes we cast, but with the voices we lift in defense of our most ancient values and enduring ideals.
"Let each of us now embrace, with solemn duty and awesome joy, what is our lasting birthright. With common effort and common purpose, with passion and dedication, let us answer the call of history, and carry into an uncertain future that precious light of freedom."

I'm sure Fox News and the right wing are going to cut this speech up...Dice it, slice it and use it to further criticize and malign a president who might have been more successful in his first term had they not fought him and blocked him every step of the way, which they are still doing...and had they not distracted the nation with nonsense like the birth certificate issue ,Benghazi and you can fill in the blank at anytime...

For it's part..Washington largely shelved its partisan fighting and bickering for the three days of inaugural celebrations. But pressing matters await President Obama as he starts his second term, including three looming fiscal deadlines. He'll also need help from a reluctant Congress if he hopes to fulfill his promise to sign comprehensive immigration reform and tighten gun laws in the wake of last month's school shooting in Newtown, Conn.

The country is not better off than it was when he took office....but not for his lack of trying...He has a chance to make good his promises this time around...and we , the people, the voters owe him that chance by coming out and voting next year and cleaning out the last remnants of the Tea Party and obstructionist Republicans in the house and the senate...

That's what we owe him...He owes us an honest attempt to make good on his agenda to help working and middle class families....Hopefully , this four years will go down better than the last..


Friday, January 18, 2013

Teo



Normally on Friday I write a Weekend Humor piece....but today I had to change up....Here is a case where life is more bizzare than fiction... This is one of those stories I couldn't make up...

Not long before Notre Dame played Michigan State last fall, word spread that Fighting Irish linebacker Manti Te'o had lost his grandmother and girlfriend within hours of each other.

Te'o never missed a practice and made a season-high 12 tackles, two pass breakups and a fumble recovery in a 20-3 victory against the Spartans. His inspired play became a stirring story line for the Fighting Irish as they made a run to the national championship game behind their humble, charismatic star.

Te'o's grandmother did indeed die. Here is the kicker...His girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, never existed!!!!

In a shocking announcement Wednesday night, Notre Dame said Manti Te'o was apparently duped into an online relationship with a woman whose ''death'' from leukemia was faked by perpetrators of an elaborate hoax. The goal of the scam wasn't clear, though Notre Dame said it used an investigative firm to dig into the details after Te'o disclosed them three weeks ago.

Exhale....It gets better!

The hoax was disclosed hours after Deadspin.com posted a lengthy story, saying it could find no record that Kekua ever existed. The story suggests a friend of Te'o may have carried out the hoax and that the football player may have been in on it - a stunning claim against a widely admired All-American who led the most famed program in college football back to the championship game for the first time since 1988.

''This is incredibly embarrassing to talk about, but over an extended period of time, I developed an emotional relationship with a woman I met online,'' Te'o said in a statement. ''We maintained what I thought to be an authentic relationship by communicating frequently online and on the phone, and I grew to care deeply about her.''

Huh?  WHAT?


However, he stopped short of saying he had ever met her in person or correcting reports that said he had, though he did on numerous occasions talk about how special the relationship was to him.


''To realize that I was the victim of what was apparently someone's sick joke and constant lies was, and is, painful and humiliating,'' he said. ''In retrospect, I obviously should have been much more cautious. If anything good comes of this, I hope it is that others will be far more guarded when they engage with people online than I was.''

You know soul singer,  Frankie Beverly summed up the feeling of love in song once by singing, "I can tell by the look in your eyes that you're falling in love with me." Manti Te'o hasn't ever looked in her eyes one time, not one time,but he fell in love? Talking to this chick on line for three years and he's in love...REALLY MAN? REALLLY? Come on now!

Word of the hoax spread quickly and raised questions about whether the school somehow played a role in pushing the tale.
Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick said at a news conference that Te'o told coaches on Dec. 26 that he had received a call from Kekua's phone number while at an awards ceremony during the first week of December.

''When he answered it, it was a person whose voice sounded like the same person he had talked to, who told him that she was, in fact, not dead. Manti was very unnerved by that, as you might imagine,'' Swarbrick said.

 Ohhh Puhleaseeee!


Swarbrick said the school hired investigators and their report indicated those behind the hoax were in contact with each other, discussing what they were doing. (and laughing!)

The investigators ''were able to discover online chatter among the perpetrators that was certainly the ultimate proof of this, the joy they were taking,'' Swarbrick said. ''The casualness among themselves they were talking about what they accomplished.''


Swarbrick said for Te'o ''the pain was real.'' (As well as the embarrasment!)

''The grief was real. The affection was real,'' he said.(No it wasn't) ''That's the nature of this sad, cruel game.''

He added, "This was a very elaborate, sophisticated hoax. In many ways, Manti was the perfect victim of a hoax."

But Swarbrick also used the news conference to defend the school's handling of the information when it learned of the hoax from Te'o three weeks ago, and also to put some responsibility on the linebacker.

”Much of what drove the decisions (the school made) relate in part to a fundamental view of the importance of student privacy,” Swarbrick said.” At the end of the day, this is Manti’s story to tell, and he will tell it.

Now if he's smart he will put some distance between him and this ridiculous story..


”While we still don’t know all the dimensions of this, there are certain things I feel confident we do know. This was a very elaborate, sophisticated hoax perpetrated for reasons we can’t fully understand. But it had a cruelty at its core. Manti was the victim of that hoax and will carry that for a while."

Swarbrick contended that a combination of Te’o's profile and personality made him the ideal target for such a hoax.

”He was not a person who had a second thought in offering his assistance,” Swarbrick said. ”Nothing about what I learned has shaken my faith in Manti Te’o one iota.”

Swarbrick had to recompose himself when speaking of the incident as a tragedy.
"There is a lot of sorrow, a lot of tragedy here,” he said. ”The single-most trusting human being I’ve ever met will never be able to trust in the same way again. That’s an incredible tragedy.”

Swarbrick added that at this time there is no way to determine the number of people involved in the hoax. He also stated that, in the era of social media, this should serve as a "cautionary tale for young people," even encouraging people to watch the 2010 documentary "Catfish" about a young man who builds up a romantic relationship through Facebook and the MTV show associated with it, which focuses on the dangers and troubles with online dating.

"(Te’o's incident) follows the exact arch of this," Swarbrick said. "The social media nature of this is harder for me to get my arms around. The way my students, my children are at risk in this environment, you just don't know what you are dealing with."



Swarbrick said Notre Dame did not take the matter to the police, saying that the school left it up to Te'o and his family to do so. He added that Notre Dame did not plan to release the findings of its investigation.

''We had no idea of motive, and that was really significant to us. . . . Was somebody trying to create an NCAA violation at the core of this? Was there somebody trying to impact the outcome of football games by manipulating the emotions of a key player? Was there an extortion request coming? When you match the lack of sort of detail we lacked until we got some help investigating it with the risk involved, it was clear to me until we knew more we had to just to continue to work to try to gather the facts,'' Swarbrick said.
The Deadspin report changed all that.

Friends and relatives of Ronaiah Tuiasosopo told Deadspin they believe he created Kekua. The website said Te'o and Tuiasosopo knew each other. Attempts by The Associated Press to reach Tuiasosopo by telephone were unsuccessful. Naturally.

As for Kekua, Deadspin said she does not have a death certificate. Stanford, where she reportedly went to school, has no record of anybody by that name, the website said. Deadspin said a record search produced no obituary or funeral announcement. There is no record of her birth in the news.

Shaking my head.... Insane! I can't believe a person with a college scholarship could be this stupid!


There are a few Twitter and Instagram accounts registered to Lennay Kekua, but the website reported that photographs identified as Kekua online and in TV news reports are pictures from the social-media accounts of a 22-year-old California woman who is not named Lennay Kekua.

Te'o talked freely about their relationship after her supposed death and how much she meant to him.
In a story that appeared in The South Bend Tribune on Oct. 12, Manti's father, Brian, recounted an anecdote about how his son and Kekua met after Notre Dame had played at Stanford in 2009. Brian Te'o also told the newspaper that Kekua had visited Hawaii and met with his son. Brian Te'o told the AP in an interview in October that he and his wife had never met Manti's girlfriend but they had hoped to at the Wake Forest game in November. The father said he believed the relationship was just beginning to get serious when she died.

The Tribune released a statement saying: ''At the Tribune, we are as stunned by these revelations as everyone else. Indeed, this season we reported the story of this fake girlfriend and her death as details were given to us by Te'o, members of his family and his coaches at Notre Dame.''
The week before Notre Dame played Michigan State on Sept. 15, coach Brian Kelly told reporters when asked that Te'o's grandmother and a friend had died. He said Kekua had told Te'o not to miss a game if she died. The linebacker turned in one of his best performances of the season and his playing through heartache became a prominent theme during the Irish's undefeated regular season. He finished second in Heisman voting.

''It further pains me that the grief I felt and the sympathies expressed to me at the time of my grandmother's death in September were in any way deepened by what I believed to be another significant loss in my life,'' Te'o said in his statement.

''I am enormously grateful for the support of my family, friends and Notre Dame fans throughout this year. To think that I shared with them my happiness about my relationship and details that I thought to be true about her just makes me sick. I hope that people can understand how trying and confusing this whole experience has been.''

Te'o and the Irish lost the title game to Alabama, 42-14 on Jan. 7. He has graduated and was set to begin preparing for the NFL combine and draft at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., this week.
''Fortunately, I have many wonderful things in my life,'' he said in his statement, ''and I'm looking forward to putting this painful experience behind me as I focus on preparing for the NFL draft.''

Yes...Please...put this craziness behind you!

Have a great weekend everybody! 

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Reality? Compared to What?

Okay. before I start ,let's get this straight....I don't like so called reality TV shows...None of them...Not one of them...I don't like them and I don't watch them...Not the least bit curious.... I once worked with someone who I think had the goal of being on one....Which was how I learned anything about the current crop. She watched everything from Real Housewives of Atlanta to Basketball Wives ....and would come in to work and talk with several other females about each charactor as though it was one of her girlfriends...someone she actually knew.

On her break, she would stream any shows she missed on her computer....Being two cubicles away...I could often hear the dsyfunction....but I digress....Comedian and Philadelphia native, Kevin Hart appeared on several radio shows hyping up his scripted reality show... The Real Husbands of Hollywood... He billed it as the "fakest reality show in history."  I thought...Wow..a reality show for someone like me who hates reality shows....What the hell, I'll give it a try...

The series is created by comedian Kevin Hart, and follows him and some other celebrities including: Boris Kodjoe, Duane Martin, J.B. Smoove, Nick Cannon and Robin Thicke. The series is  loosely based on the Real Housewives series; however this series is scripted. A sneak peek was shown as a segment during the 2011 BET Awards and the official promo was released in October 2012. Other special guests within the series are: Jay Leno, Ed O'Neill, Shaquille O'Neal, Nelly(who was in the pilot episode last night), Faizon Love, Common and Trey Songz.

 The series follows the daily lives of Boris Kodjoe, Duane Martin, J.B. Smoove, Kevin Hart, Nick Cannon and Robin Thicke as they adventure through their surreal life in Hollywood.

I wanted to like it...I really did...but I didn't find it particularly funny.....Not funny enough to watch it again...I'm sorry.... They even said that it was inspired by HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm in which Comedian Larry David and famous celebrities play exaggerated versions of themselves in a loosely scripted format. The show even features Curb Your Enthusiasm alum, comedian J.B. Smooth, who usually makes me laugh everytime he opens his mouth....Just wasn't workin last night.

See, Curb Your Enthusiasm is actually funny...I can watch episodes of that show over and over again...This show wasn't funny and didn't keep my interest long enough to keep me from drifting to sleep...Again to all you reality show fans out there..sorry.

I think I would fall asleep even on the ones that supposedly aren't scripted and are therefore...real.  Maybe I'm just biased and reality just aint my cup of tea...Maybe fantasy, at least on Television is better!

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

A Looming Showdown

President Obama is flexing as we say in the streets...Using some of that political capital he no doubt has ,since he re-election....He has in effect warned the Congress and the G.O.P. in particular that he isn't going for the debt ceiling shenanigans he had to go for in 2010 that ruined our credit rating.

The President ratcheted up pressure on congressional Republicans to authorize an increase in the nation’s debt limit, warning of potentially catastrophic results for many Americans and the overall economy if the U.S. were to default on its obligations.
“The issue here is whether or not America pays its bills,” President Obama said at a press conference on Monday, the last of his first term in office. “We are not a deadbeat nation.”

The question is...Does his enemies on the right care?  We'll get back to that
.

Anticipating a politically bruising fight this spring with the GOP – members of which in Congress have increasingly and openly discussed the prospect of refusing to raise the debt ceiling or allowing a government shutdown – President Obama urged lawmakers to avoid using the vote over the debt limit as a point of leverage.

 President Obama has  sought to frame the risks of default in stark terms. He warned Congress that markets would go “haywire” if they refuse act;  President Obama said that interest rates would rise, and checks to Social Security beneficiaries and military veterans would cease.

Again I ask...do they care? Or do they still want to play chicken with the American people in order to score political points and make this president look bad?

While some Democrats urge the administration to consider options to sidestep Congress and assert the authority to unilaterally authorize more borrowing,President  Obama all but ruled out these sorts of “Plan B” options.
If the House and the Senate wants to give me the authority so they don’t have to take these tough votes… I’m happy to take it,” he said. But, President Obama added: “There are no magic tricks here, no loopholes. There’s no easy way out.”

It's clear he is in no mood to take the crap off of them he had to take in his first administration...He sees that there is no compromising , no detente with some of them....So..It's time to use the Big stick as Teddy Roosevelt once said.



All but ruling out these fallback maneuvers,President Obama’s pronouncement all but ensures another incident of brinksmanship versus Republicans in Congress.

The past two years of Obama’s presidency were marked by showdowns with House Republicans on taxes and spending that turned acrimonious and extended in most cases to the last possible minute. Fights over extending government funding and raising the nation’s debt limit took the government to the verge of shutdown and default, respectively, in 2011. And the unresolved issues from those debates culminated in the “fiscal cliff” showdown at the end of last year.

Though Republicans eventually acceded to President Obama’s demand that taxes be allowed to rise on the wealthiest Americans, something that was passed with mostly Democratic votes, the fiscal cliff agreement pushed back a series of automatic spending cuts for two months. As a result, the deadline at which Congress must authorize the government to borrow more basically overlaps with the deadline at which the government runs out of money for its day-to-day operations.

 Republicans have argued that tax rates are now settled, and have suggested they intend to use those rapidly-approaching deadlines to extract new spending cuts and entitlement reforms that were absent from the New Year’s deal to handle the tax component of the fiscal cliff.

They can do just that..but  these battles could exhaust much of the political capital won by President Obama during his re-election last November. The president will formally be sworn into his second term on Sunday. My wife and I intend to be in Washington...And while planning for that second term is well underway, top priorities like confirming new cabinet secretaries, reforming the nation’s immigration system and passing new measures to address gun violence might be imperiled by a protracted and bloody fight with Republicans over spending...

Will the battles ever end in D.C.?  Can the Congress and The President ever get together...For the good of America??  Must there always be a bloody showdown over everything???

President Obama said that he would detail one of those initiatives, his administration’s proposals to curb gun violence, later this week. But even as the president renewed his support for stricter magazine regulations and tighter background checks – along with a ban on assault weapons – he nodded to the difficulty in passing those proposals.

“Will all of them get through this Congress? I don't know,” he said

Chances are...They won't...That's just the nature of this beast...

For their part, the Republicans argue that  President Obama and his administration have been largely unserious about actually addressing spending – the primary cause of the mounting national debt, in the GOP’s view.

Republicans cite the president’s request for more infrastructure spending as part of his fiscal cliff negotiations as indicative of the White House’s disinterest in actually cutting spending.

The president and his allies need to get serious about spending, and the debt-limit debate is the perfect time for it,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a statement.
In a statement following the president’s press conference, House Speaker John Boehner said, “The consequences of failing to increase the debt ceiling are real, but so too are the consequences of allowing our spending problem to go unresolved. Without meaningful action, the debt will continue to act as an anchor on our economy, costing American jobs and endangering our children's future."

To my ears...The Republicans idea of taking care of things that need to be done is to do nothing at all.. Yet these same people had a candidate that talked about giving the Military billions that they didn't ask for...Incredible.


But much of Obama’s remarks on Monday were directed toward framing the political terms of that debate, which might dictate the outcome of these impending fights as much as ideological motives.
“It would be a self-inflicted wound on the economy. It would slow down our growth, might tip us into recession. And ironically it would probably increase our deficit,” Obama said of the risk of default. “So to even entertain the idea of this happening, of the United States of America not paying its bills, is irresponsible. It's absurd.”

So I ask again.. Will the battles ever end in D.C.?  Can the Congress and The President ever get together...For the good of America??  Must there always be a bloody showdown over everything???


I sure don't look forward to this spring!

Monday, January 14, 2013

Close Shave


Yesterday, the Atlanta Falcons reminded me of my Eagles...They had a huge lead, with the game nearly over..and somehow, just like my Eagles....They managed to squander a huge lead over the Seatle Seahawks and had to battle for their lives to survive...

The difference between them and the Philadelphia Eagles is ...They won the game...Yeah, they actually won the game...My Eagles would have found a way to lose the game...I know that sounds harsh coming from me..a lifelong Eagles fan, but it's the truth....I've seen it happen too many times....

But this isn't about the Eagles... This is about those other birds... The Atlanta Falcons.


The Atlanta Falcons (14-3) overcame their reputation for choking in the playoffs, winning their first postseason game since 2004.Looks like they'll host the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC championship game next Sunday with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line.


Gutty Seahawks Quarterback Russell Wilson threw two touchdown passes and ran for another, doing all he could to make the Seahawks (12-6) the first playoff team ever to rally from such a daunting deficit in the final period. Marshawn Lynch appeared to have locked it up for the Seahawks when he scored on a 2-yard run with 31 seconds left for a 28-27 lead. Everyone in Atlanta was probably sweating bullets at this point. I was and I don't live there, don't have a dog in this fight...Still I wanted the Falcons to win.


 The Seattle Seahawks' defense, which is one of the NFL's best and had totally stymied the Falcons in the fourth, went to a softer coverage and got burned. The Falcons had just enough time to pull off a comeback of their own....Everyone in the ATL can now exhale....


Matt Ryan , shaking off the struggles in his first three playoff appearances, hooked up with Harry Douglas on a 29-yard pass in front of the Falcons bench, and coach Mike Smith quickly signaled a timeout. Then, Ryan went down the middle to his favorite target, tight end Tony Gonzalez, a Hall of Famer-to-be playing what could've been his final game.


Tony Gonzalez hauled in the 19-yard throw, and Smith called his final timeout with 13 seconds remaining. Instead of risking another play and having the clock run out, he sent Bryant in for the field goal try.
The Seahawks called time just before the ball was snapped, and Bryant's kick sailed right of the upright. That turned out to be nothing more than practice. The next one was right down the middle, giving the Falcons a stunning victory. Bryant took off toward the Falcons logo in the middle of the field, pumping his right fist before he was mobbed by his teammates.

Everybody...Exhale!

 The Falcons won the first playoff game of the Ryan era, having gone one-and-done in his previous appearances to give the team - and its quarterback - a reputation for excelling in the regular season but choking in the postseason. Not anymore. Atlanta is one win away from the second Super Bowl appearance in franchise history...I'm happy for them...

My Eagles have been where they are now...Even made it to two super bowls... Now we've got to win one!!!
But so does the Falcons!

The beat goes on!

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Keith's Music Spotlight


Thank God for Charlie Wilson...Thank God for true soul singing and soul music and thank God, Charlie took those braids out and is sporting his natural hair now of days...Here is his current single...Can't wait for the new release next month!


Saturday, January 12, 2013

Saturday 7 - 7 Plans




As you know, I have said on numerous occasions that I don't make New years resolutions....And I don't...These aren't resolutions....These are plans that I already have in place right now....Kind of like an early bucket list...







1. Attend President Obama's inauguration...  We didn't attend the first one, which was probably the most historic....but we have already booked a bus trip for D.C. on Martin Luther King day to attend.





2. Go to New York City to see Motown on Broadway!  My wife and I have already gotten our tickets and have already booked a bus trip for New York City on March 23rd, the day before my birthday!






3. Read my first E-Book...I initiallly was going to wait until I purchased a Kindle or a Nook, but I have the application on my phone and on this computer...So as soon as my favorite author's book is available...I'm going to download it and read it....





4.Read My second E-Book- I know this sounds crazy...especially since I have the hard copy sitting in front of me and I haven't taken the time to read it in two years....but it would be fun to read this on line too!


5. Give in and buy a Kindle - Time for me to join the 21st Century!



6. Give in and buy an IPod  -Time for me to join the 21st Century...people are downloading music now....and a lot of what I hear...Should be downloaded and not kept in a hard copy form....Think about what I just wrote for a minute!







7. Take a break from the madness and live a little.



I know, I know.....These sound like resolutions....but believe me when I tell you..they aren't...People make resolutions...These are plans...I've already set in motion..... I'm serious......I'm serious!

Friday, January 11, 2013

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Random Thoughts

1. I hope fellow blogger 12Kyle doesn't mind me hijacking this....but the fact that people still read this blog makes me smile.

2. The fact that I still write this blog makes me smile too!




3. Young people don't buy CD's anymore...they download music...they hardly buy books, magazines or newspapers anymore..they download it on computers, their phones ,tablets, kindles etc.  Now I hear that they hardly listen to the radio anymore...They stream music live from Pandora or they create their own stations via computer, tablet,et al.  I love technology as much as the next person, but I feel like they're missing a lot with it....

4.Because My Eagles are out of it...The Playoffs hold no excitement for me this year...I'm more excited about the draft!


5.They say we avoided the so called Fiscal Cliff ....so why when I got my check last week and it was short twenty three dollars, I felt like we fell off of it? (My job figured our do nothing congress was going to fail to come to an agreement in time so they deducted 2% from our checks....They assured us that our checks will be modified  and adjusted next week.!)

6. Is Andrew Bynum ever going to play for the Sixers?


7. What happened to the Lakers?

8.Is it too much to hope that there is no Mass Murder this year?

9.When Am I going to have the time to read an actual book again?

10.Will We finally stop talking about the Khardashians this year?





KEEPING THE FAITH: RANDOM PRAYERS "ON THE DOWNLOAD"










































































"Mommy, can I go to Timmy's blog and play?"



































Click on image to enlarge for reading






Click on image to enlarge for reading



Click on image to enlarge for reading