BREAKING: President Obama will seek authorization from Congress for military strike on #Syria
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Year: 2013
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi says she doesn’t wish to be speaker again.
In an interview published Friday in the National Journal, an inside-Washington magazine, the 73-year-old Pelosi was asked whether she wishes to return to the top job. Pelosi said she did not, pointing out that she has held the post.
‘‘No, that’s not my thing. I did that,’’ Pelosi said.
Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill discounted Pelosi’s comments, saying they’re in line with her stock response when she’s asked about running for leadership positions. Hammill said Friday that she’s working hard to win back the majority for Democrats and that, if the effort is successful, her colleagues would elect their speaker.
‘‘She was simply saying she doesn’t ‘wish’ for things,’’ Hammill said.
Pelosi recently said she will run for re-election to her House seat representing San Francisco.
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A Yankee Carol
It was the night of March 31st 2013. Many of us Yankee fans were getting ready for Opening Day the next day. It was late, already dark for several hours. When out of the cold windy night I heard an unfamiliar sound. Between the gusts of wind on this particularly chilly March night, I heard the sound of chains rattling. The sound continued for some time, seemingly getting closer with each rattle. I began to feel my nerves jumping with each thrash of metal that now sounded like it was outside my bedroom door. I locked the door hoping whomever was out there would be stopped, but I was mistaken. The door swung open with brut force and the chains were thrown at my feet.
Connected to these many links was a familiar man. Though it couldn’t be him, it was, staring me directly in my eyes. I said, “what are you doing here?” Nervous yet excited to hear his answer, hear him speak. He told me of a crime committed against the game of baseball. He said it was a injustice to the game. I asked him who was to blame expecting any answer other than the one I received. “Yankee fans.” He replied in a stern voice. I told him he must be mistaken. That we Yankee fans are among the best in baseball. He emplored me to listen to his reasoning but I interrupted.
“You see sir, this city is the greatest city in the world and so is this team. Winning is our legacy and October is our birthright. We live and die by the World Series.” I believe I spoke passionately, enough to sway him and make him see that we Yankee faithful could not be guilty of a crime. To my surprise, I only angered him. “You do not see the error of your ways!” He said, but continued “there is still time for you to learn what I never did, during the coming months you will be visited my three ghosts. The Ghost of Seasons Past, Present and Yet To Come.” And with that, he was gone. I woke up the next morning believing I had some strange dream the night before. The season started that day.
Before long I was visited by the first ghost. The Ghost of Seasons Past:
He emplored me to pay close attention to Mariano Rivera. Mo had already announced that this would be his last year but after spending almost a full season on the DL with a torn ACL, you wondered how affective he would be this year. The ghost showed me that it was wrong to wonder. Mariano would not blow his first save until late May and would be just as dominant as ever. In his final act, he would take us back to 1996 and show us just how truly special his career is. Watching him has been like watching a man frozen in time and the ghost expressed to me how much I need to cherish the past and be grateful that some things haven’t changed. But then the ghost left and late May is where it all went south for this team.
Everyone was hurt and the guys that weren’t hurt, couldn’t hit to save their lives. No righty power was present. The team would constantly lose low scoring games. The Ghost of Seasons Past was right but this team wasn’t the same anymore. No way they can win a World Series. And as if things couldn’t look any bleaker during the Yankees hitting woes, the Ghost of Seasons Present showed up.
The Ghost of Seasons Present:
The ghost showed me players that the Yankees had failed to re-sign this past offseason. He showed me Nick Swisher that by the All Star break, was having his usual offensive year that could have strongly benefited this Yankee team, but he was doing it in Cleveland.
The ghost then showed me Russell Martin who’s offense had not only improved but who also had become a clutch hitter for the Pirates. A leader for the Pirates as well, being not only a presence at the plate but also behind it. Martin was helping them become one of the best teams in baseball. Meanwhile our catcher was hurt and linked to a steroid scandal and we were stuck with a lack luster tandem of Chris Stewart and Austin Romine.
The ghost finally showed me a player that wrote himself into Yankee playoff history. A player that tied an October game in the bottom of the ninth with one swing and later won it with another. He showed me Raul Ibanez. Ibanez at 41 was having a prime season. One of the league leaders in home runs through the All Star break, missing out on him hurt badly. Especially with the injuries to Curtis Granderson, Mark Teixiera and Alex Rodriguez, the team’s home run threats.
Realizing this could just be a lost season. A season decimated by injuries, the anger faded but the disappointment was still strong as the Ghost of Seasons Present left and the final ghost arrived.
The Ghost of Seasons Yet To Come:
This was the ghost I feared the most. This was the ghost that showed me what the Yankees would be like without its beloved captain. Derek Jeter broke his ankle last October only to re-break it in march. He then came back after the All Star break only to injur his quad in the first game. He came back about 2 weeks later only to injur his calf. He’s provided a small spark each time he’s come back but the ghost was showing me just how little time could be left in the story book career that I and many like me have been blessed to whiteness since day one. The ghost made me realize how much I need to stop obsessing about certain things and just enjoy watching the team I love play the game I love. The players won’t always be the same but the game always will. I have to cherish it no matter what. Find the joy in it even when they’re down because that is the whole point of baseball. It’s a game meant to entertain.
The final ghost left me and I awoke the morning of August 31st. I hadn’t missed it. The season wasn’t over! And miraculously, the bruised and battered Yankees are only 4.5 games out of the Wild Card. Jeter is back again and with the return of guys like Rodriguez and Granderson and the addition of Mark Reynolds, things are looking up. Austin Romine has really come around and shown this team he belongs here and with a gift from the Ghost of Seasons Past, Alfonso Soriano, the Yankees are a threat from both sides of the plate, capable of making any pitcher pay.
They may not make it to October, but they are fighting. They are grinding it out. We Yankee fans are a proud bunch but if October doesn’t end with a parade it’s “bah humbug!” We need to realize that October is not a right, it’s a privilege. And maybe a visit from these 3 ghosts will make us smile a little easier, cheer a little louder and beam a little brighter when our team grinds it out hard enough to have the honor of October baseball. This year, or seasons yet to come.
I think that’s what The Boss’ ghost was trying to teach me, trying to teach us all.
In Kentucky, Mitch McConnell, the party’s Senate leader, is fending off a charismatic and wealthy conservative challenger. In South Carolina, Lindsey Graham, one of the Senate’s most reliably conservative voices on foreign policy, is being painted by primary opponents as a veritable clone of President Obama.
In Tennessee, Tea Party activists have vowed to take out Lamar Alexander, the veteran senator, former cabinet officer and two-time presidential candidate. “Senator Alexander has never been a true conservative,” said Ben Cunningham, president of the Nashville Tea Party. “His support for the amnesty bill has caused great problems for us,” he said, referring to the Senate immigration bill. “He is at best a moderate.”
Tea Party candidates have also emerged in races against Democratic incumbents in Alaska — Joe Miller, who beat Senator Lisa Murkowski in her last primary, has resurfaced — Colorado, Louisiana and North Dakota, and for open seats in Georgia, Iowa and South Dakota. Democrats hope they can benefit from a divided Republican electorate.
The Republican incumbents and party officials say they have learned from the hard lessons of the past when Tea Party candidates from the right were ignored or dismissed, only to prevail in primaries and lose in general elections. They have plans to avoid becoming the next Richard G. Lugar or Robert Bennett, two senior senators who were stunned by losses before the general election.
President Obama spoke about Labor Day and reflected on the contributions of the working men and women in our country. The President said that by recommitting ourselves to the values of working Americans and coming together with common purpose, we can ensure that everyone who works hard has a chance to get ahead.
This Labor Day weekend, as we gather with family and friends, we’ll also come together as a nation to honor some of our own – the working men and women of America who, across the generations, built this country up and helped make us who we are today.
On Monday, we’ll celebrate that proud history. We’ll pay tribute to the values working Americans embody – hard work; responsibility; sacrifice; looking out for one another. And we’ll recommit ourselves to their cause; to securing for them a better bargain so that everyone who works hard in America has a chance to get ahead.
The evidence is “clear and compelling” that Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime used chemical weapons against its own people last week, Secretary of State John Kerry told the American people Friday.
The U.S., Kerry said, knows where the rockets carrying the chemicals were fired from — territory controlled by the Assad regime — and when they were launched.
His words came as the world waits for what are expected to be U.S. missile strikes on military targets inside Syria in coming days.
If a “thug and murderer” such as President Bashar Assad is allowed to do that without consequences, Kerry warned, there will be “no end to the test of our resolve. … It matters if nothing is done.”
In an appearance at the State Department, the secretary also said the death toll from that alleged chemical weapons attack was higher than has been reported. According to Kerry, U.S. intelligence has concluded that 1,429 people were killed. While he was speaking, the White House released some declassified details of what U.S. intelligence officials say they have learned about the attack.
Personally, I agree with the British parliament on this one. No to a war or any military engagement in Syria. It is time we stop trying to be the world’s police and look after our own affairs here at home for a change.
We need the investments here. Buildings are deteriorating, bridges are falling down and major cities are filing for bankruptcy. The American worker is physically and mentally spent, because they are forced to accept jobs that cannot and will not pay the bills, while being asked by greedy employers to do more.
This is not the time to be Randy Macho-man Savage. It is not the time to measure the size of your kahunas because you made a statement about a red line. A red line does not a war make.
Sure, I agree that the decision to gas innocent Syria civilians amount to the most serious of crimes, but that action requires the international community to be on the same page and united in their response. And if the international community thinks it’s best that Syria handle their own affairs, then so be it.
You ran on ending wars and rebuilding the American economy. And for the most part, you’ve been doing that. Let’s not get sidetracked by how the Republicans would spin the story if you decided to do what you ran on. No matter what your decision is, they will find a way to denounce you for it.
Will they call you a weak leader if you decide to invest here at home? Sure they will. Will they call you a weak leader if you decide to fire missiles into Syria from the safety of ships anchored in the ocean? Yes, they will still.
And who cares what other world leaders would think? It was under your leadership that we got Osama bin Laden. And it is under your leadership that we are getting some of the most dangerous terrorists the world has ever known. No world leader would truly say America lacks leadership if you decide against military intervention. On the contrary, it will take real leadership to decide against dropping the bombs.
The military industrial complex would be furious if you don’t follow through with the red line ultimatum. There is a whole lot of money to be made and the stock market is already investing heavily in these weapon manufacturers, in the hope that you will drop the bombs. But consider this: the price of each bomb dropped could be a dilapidated school renovated, a run down bridge renovated, roads built, cities rejuvenated. It could mean sticking to what you ran on and ending wars instead of creating them.
Think about it, a President of the United States actually investing in the United States?
What a concept!
Sincerely
Ezra Grant.
The owner got the dreaded call from his security company that someone had broken into his store. No one was there and the store was supposedly closed and locked. But because of a failure in the security system, the door remained unlocked with the lights on and the four teenagers just walked in.
After walking around the store calling out for the store clerk and finding none, the four teens walked to the unattended counter and left payment for the items they were shopping for.
Imagine the surprise when the store owner got to the store and found everything intact, and a completed sale. Just goes to show you that not all black teens are criminals. Unlike the thinking of some these days.
Kim Jong-un’s ex-girlfriend was among a dozen well-known North Korean performers who were executed by firing squad on Aug. 20, reports said Wednesday.
Sources in China said singer Hyon Song-wol as well as Mun Kyong-jin, head of the Unhasu Orchestra, were arrested on Aug. 17 for violating North Korean laws against pornography and were executed in public three days later.
The victims of the atrocity were members of the Unhasu Orchestra as well as singers, musicians and dancers with the Wangjaesan Light Music Band.
They were accused of videotaping themselves having sex and selling the videos. The tapes have apparently gone on sale in China as well.
A source said some allegedly had Bibles in their possession, and all were treated as political dissidents.
Kim met Hyon about a decade ago, before either of them was married. But he was later ordered to break off the relationship by his father Kim Jong-il and she married a soldier. Since then there have been rumors that the two were having an affair.
Kim’s wife Ri Sol-ju was also a member of the Unhasu Orchestra before she married him. Whether she had any hand in the executions is unclear. The Unhasu Orchestra and Wangjaesan Light Music Band have apparently been disbanded due to the latest scandal.
Hyon Song-wol music video:
A man was clinging to life Thursday after leaping in front of a No. 7 train at the Times Square station, officials said.
Police say the unidentified man, believed to be in his 30s, hurled himself in front of the southbound train as it entered the station on Seventh Ave. and 42nd St. about 9:45 a.m.
Paramedics rushed the man to Bellevue Hospital in critical condition, officials said.
An MTA spokesman said service on the No. 7 line was suspended between the Hunters Point station and Times Square for an hour and a half after the attempted suicide.
The Fast Food Industry is in disarray all across America. Today, the day after the March on Washington’s 50th Anniversary commemorating one of the greatest speeches and movements this country has ever seen, employees of fast food chains across America have gone on strike in protest of their current wages and hoping to generate a minimum wage hike.
In major cities like New York, Chicago and Detroit to my hometown McDonald’s and Burger King, employees staged a ‘walk out’ in an attempt to muster support from fast food consumers of a pay hike from their employer’s.
The national minimum wage is currently $7.25 an hour which averages around $15,000 a year salary. Protesters are seeking an increase to $15.25 and to become unionized in the process. Increasing the the minimum wage by that additional $8 would take the average salary to a modest $31,720 annually. President Obama has been for a hike to the minimum wage but has been fighting for $9 an hour.
So today’s protest is with Mixed Emotion for me. There are staggering facts about what fast foods can do to the body. Obesity is the 5th leading risk for global deaths. At least 2.8 million people will die as a result of obesity. Diseases states such as diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, strokes and certain cancers are directly attributed to obesity. While fast foods provide that quick fix of price and consumption, it’s slowly destroying the bodies functionality. Yest, the fast food industry is great at advertising what it can do For you. Fast, efficient meals that provide a quick fix for your hunger and cravings. What needs to be advertised is what it will do To you.
Even if the fast food industry gave us the best choices meals for a healthy diet, the price for eating healthy is mind bogglingly 
Have you ever wondered why fast foods are cheaper than eating healthy meals? Have you ever gone grocery shopping and felt the ‘sticker shock’ of purchasing the healthy alternative versus the junk food that seems to creep back into our baskets? My wife and I had this conversation over a weekend of grocery shopping once. It’s got to be a racket and here’s why. Money.
Think about this for a second. Fast Foods are reasonably inexpensive to buy. On average, a fast food meal will cost under $8 with the meal giving you fries and a drink along with the sandwich. Parents have taken the bait on the ‘fast and convenient’ ads for years which is why this industry has thrived for decades. But in turning to fast foods, we increase our risk of all types of disease states mentioned earlier. So we intake the fast foods, increase our weight, go to the doctor who puts us on medications to ‘help’ our disease state, medication causes other side effects, more medication prescribed to offset current medication, healthcare companies and doctors are happy.
The alternative. Eat a healthier diet of grilled foods, vegetables, fruits and drinking water with plenty of exercise. Yes, eating the right meals versus fast foods isn’t the most cost effective way but it’s the Healthiest way.
It’s not easy letting go of fast foods. The craving of a burger, fries, doughnuts, milkshakes are an everyday occurrence for many. But as in everything, one must find balance. An occasional indulgence is to be expected but should not be the norm. When it’s all said and done, it’s Your body, Your health, Your way of living. Either you’ll live a healthy life with a shot at longevity or your life could be shortened with heart disease, diabetes, stroke and being on medications until your demise. It’s your choice.
We are a civilized society. wink wink.
Marsters, a retired Massachusetts police officer…posted a photo of Obama along with a link to a story about a Republican push to impeach the president at 8:17 p.m. Friday, writing “Shoot the Nigger” above it, according to the newspaper.
Marsters told the [Portland] Press Herald that after his Facebook post was flagged to local law enforcement by other residents, he was visited by both the Secret Service and the CIA. He said he told the Secret Service agents who questioned him that he didn’t intend to threaten the president.
Marsters told the Press Herald in a telephone interview that his post was taken out of context.
“I think it’s a lot of hogwash,” he said. “I did not threaten the president. … I might have used the wrong words. … I didn’t say I was going to do it.”
“What I really meant to say is, ‘When are we going to get rid of this (expletive),’” Marsters added. “I should have said, ‘I hope the bastard dies.’”