We lost another legend. BB King, the man most people think about when they think of blues, died on Thursday. He was 89 years old.
His daughter, Patty King, said he died in Las Vegas, where he announced two weeks ago that he was in home hospice care after suffering from dehydration.
The Mississippi native’s reign as “king of the blues” lasted more than six decades and straddled two centuries, influencing a generation of rock and blues musicians, from Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan to Sheryl Crow and John Mayer.
His life was the subject of the documentary “B.B. King: The Life of Riley” and the inspiration for the the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center, which opened in Mississippi in 2008.
King’s enduring legacy came from his refusal to slow down even after cementing his status as an American music icon.
Even with a long list of honors to his name — a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, a Presidential Medal of Freedom — he maintained a relentless touring schedule well into his 80s.
Throughout his career, King evolved with the times to incorporate contemporary trends and influences without straying from his Delta blues roots. Whether he was sharing the stage with U2 on “When Loves Comes to Town” — a scene memorialized in the 1988 concert film “Rattle and Hum” — or playing in the East Room of the White House with Buddy Guy, Mick Jagger, Jeff Beck and others, King’s single-string guitar notes trilled with an unmistakable vibrato from his hollow-bodied Gibson affectionately known as Lucille.
Recently, President Obama called out Fox News for unfairly criticizing the poor and for classifying them as lazy people who leash off the government.
In response, Fox News proved the president right by classifying poor people – many of them watch Fox News by the way – as lazy and telling them to “get a job!”
I’m always amazed when rich folks look down on the poor folks who keep the rich folks rich.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie looks on while giving his State of the State address in the assembly chamber in Trenton, New Jersey, January 8, 2013. Christie renewed his calls to the U.S. Congress on Tuesday to quickly pass the full $60.4 billion Superstorm Sandy relief package, saying victims in New Jersey had been short-changed. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3C83X
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie REUTERS/Carlo Allegri (UNITED STATES – Tags: POLITICS) – RTR3C83X
It’s one thing when you have something to run on. It’s quite another when you have to run away from your record. That’s the position Governor Christie finds himself in on the eve of his long-awaited announcement that he will run for president. Most candidates have a signature issue or can point to improving conditions in their state. What can Christie run on?
There’s no New Jersey economic miracle.
His attorneys argued in court that the one significant legislative achievement of his term, a state workers pension and benefits reform bill, was, in fact, unconstitutional, which will require another round of pension cuts and significantly higher health care premiums for state workers.
Property taxes continue to rise.
Funding for education has been cut.
Businesses and the very wealthy continue to enjoy the governor’s protection from tax hikes while middle class workers have seen their wages stagnate to erode further.
He created an atmosphere of fear and contempt in his administration and hired aides who shared his vengeful attitude, which resulted in the Bridgegate scandal that is still rocking the Statehouse.
But you know what? None of this Governor Christie’s fault. How do I know? Because he said so.
On the economy, Christie is taking credit for slowly improving conditions in the state, where unemployment still lags behind the national rate. What he isn’t saying is that job growth during his tenure is 48th nationally, ahead of only Mississippi and New Mexico. His reaction?
“We inherited a wrecked ship,” he said, “and we’ve now made it sea-worthy.”
Arguable, but the bigger issue is where the Governor is steering that ship. Right now it’s going in circles and is perilously close to the rocks. The truth is that after more than 5 years, Christie’s economic plan is dead in the water. The state budget chief said as much in 2013 and Christie mocked him as a fiscal Dr. Kevorkian. And thankfully, the Democratic Legislature killed his proposed tax cut. That really would have sunk the ship. Christie now wants to take his fiscal genius to a national level. For anybody making under $100,000, that would be real suicide.
His proposed national economic plan, just released, calls for the highest tax rate to be cut from 39.6% to 28%. That’s an enormous tax break for the wealthy that will redistribute more income to the upper class and require cuts to the programs that most Americans want and that many desperately need.
As for hiring the best and brightest for his administration, the governor is now saying that he can’t be held responsible for what his aides did on his behalf. Says he:
“I obviously spent time thinking about that, because it’s an obvious question,” the governor said. “But no, I really don’t think so. I think, unfortunately, there are going to be times when people that work for me do things that are completely out of character.”
“I’m accountable for what happened because I’m the governor,” he added. “But you can’t be responsible for the bad acts of some people who wind up in your employ.”
The buck, obviously, stops…there, but never here.
My Ouija Board just spelled out, “I am not a crook.”
Governor Christie has spent a good deal of time during his term in office criticizing people who don’t recognize that he’s telling us the truth on taxes, on pensions, on the role of government and, mostly, on being responsible for our future. His hypocrisy knows no bounds.
Republicans – how is it even possible for a party to always be on the wrong side of everything? How is that even possible?
After multiple deaths and even more injuries in Tuesday’s Amtrak train crash, here comes the Republicans and another attempt to cut funding to the agency.
As investigators still searched through the wreckage of the Amtrak train in Philadelphia, a political battle seethed over funding for the long-neglected rail network.
The crash of the train travelling between Washington DC to New York came just hours before politicians in the capital are due to meet to discuss a budget bill that could see funding for Amtrak cut by millions.
Supporters of Amtrak have been lobbying the House Appropriations Committee, not to reduce funding containing within a broader transportation bill. A draft of the bill would see Amtrak’s funding cut to to $1.13bn from the $1.4bn it typically receives annually, Politico reported.
On Wednesday morning, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the government had sent a letter to the committee urging it not to cut funding to Amtrak.
“There is clearly more that can be done when we’re talking about a railway infrastructure that is decades-old,” Mr Earnest told CNN.
“If there’s an opportunity for us to make further investments in our infrastructure that would better safeguard the traveling public, then those are investments that we should make.”
Reports said that Democrats had already been planning to try and defend funding for the network. But that will likely take on a new urgency given Tuesday night’s accident.
It is a regular talking-point for Republican lawmakers to keep their base afraid, to fool their base into thinking Democrats are against them and are actively doing everything possible to crucify them and their beliefs.
But when Rep. Marsha Blackburn tried to repeat this lie again – that Christians are being persecuted here in America – she did not anticipate a follow-up question from a very inquisitive reporter.
“Can you be specific about the instances in which you feel that Christians are being persecuted?” a reporter inquires of Blackburn.
“You know, there have been several lately. There’ve. Um. I can’t give you a specific (pause) right off the cuff,” Blackburn shrugs. “I’m sorry.”
Then Blackburn smiles, turns away from the reporter, looks back toward the camera, and says, “Yeah. Thanks.”
Pamela Geller is now making out like a bandit, raking in the dough from her foolish donors because of death threats she has received from ISIS over a prophet Muhammad drawing contest she organized. When Geller came under attack from many on the left for organizing the Muhammad-drawing event in Texas last week, it was the backlash on the right that really made news.
One of the most unbelievable responses came from Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera, who implied that just watching Geller on television made him feel so dirty, he gets the urge to go take a shower!
WOW!
“She most reminds me of the Aryan Nation, KKK, racists,” Geraldo said. “I see them on television now and I feel like taking a shower.”
He continued; “If Pamela Geller, if you put ‘Jew’ in there or ‘Irish’ in there or ‘black’ in there, any other groups, she would not be given the tolerance to spew her hateful rhetoric!”
The president of the United States called out Fox News today, as one of the leading voices pushing a false narrative against poor people.
In a speech at the Catholic-Evangelical Leadership Summit on Overcoming Poverty, Mr. Obama expressed his frustration at Fox and other media outlets for constantly painting the poor and less fortunate as lazy leaches on the American Society.
“If you watch Fox News on a regular basis, it is a constant menu, they will find folks who make ME mad. I don’t know where they find them. They’re all like ‘I don’t wanna work. I just want a free Obamaphone.’ And that becomes an entire narrative that gets worked up. And very rarely do you hear an interview of a waitress, which is much more typical, who’s raising a couple of kids, and is doing everything right, but still can’t pay the bills.”
Conservative and Republican hero, Allen West, took to his website to tell the world about his recent encounter with Sharia Law at Walmart. Below is an exert of West’s nightmare.
…..
There was a young man doing the checkout and another Walmart employee came over and put up a sign, “No alcohol products in this lane.” So being the inquisitive fella I am, I used my additional set of eyes — glasses — to see the young checkout man’s name. Let me just say it was NOT “Steve.”
I pointed the sign out to Aubrey and her response was a simple question, how is it that this Muslim employee could refuse service to customers based on his religious beliefs, but Christians are being forced to participate in specific events contrary to their religious beliefs?
Boy howdy, that is one astute young lady.
Imagine that, this employee at Walmart refused to just scan a bottle or container of an alcoholic beverage — and that is acceptable. A Christian business owner declines to participate or provide service to a specific event — a gay wedding — which contradicts their faith, and the State crushes them.
…..
After West published his personal encounter with Sharia Law, his very own website editors debunked his entire story. The editor’s note said that after talking to a Walmart associate, it is Walmart’s policy that alcohol and cigarettes cannot be sold by anyone under 21. This is what the editor’s note said;
EDITOR’S UPDATE: We spoke to the Walmart store, and apparently employees under 21 years old are prohibited from selling cigarettes and alcohol.
The title of the post was alao changed from “Sharia law comes to Walmart?” It now reads, “More ominous signs of Christian persecution.”
The good folks at Liveleaks took a screenshot of the post before it was changed.
Remember when Congressional Republicans were urging members of their party to avoid getting healthcare? It was a calculated effort on their part to make Obamacare fail if people refused to sign up.
Well, that didn’t work as over 12 million smart and health conscious Americans have already signed up. But this man – a Republican who listened and heeded the call to forgo healthcare – refused to enroll, and now he is going blind because he has no healthcare.
Lang, a 49-year-old resident of Fort Mill, has bleeding in his eyes and a partially detached retina caused by diabetes.“He will lose his eyesight if he doesn’t get care. He will go blind,” said Dr. Malcolm Edwards, the Lancaster ophthalmologist who examined Lang.
Lang is a self-employed handyman who works with banks and the federal government on maintaining foreclosed properties. He has done well enough that his wife, Mary, hasn’t had to work. They live in a 3,300-square-foot home in the Legacy Park subdivision valued at more than $300,000.
But he has never bought insurance. Instead, he says, he prided himself on paying his own medical bills.That worked while he and his wife were relatively healthy. But after 10 days of an unrelenting headache, Lang went to the emergency room on Feb. 25. He says he was told he’d suffered several mini-strokes. He ran up $9,000 in bills and exhausted his savings. Meanwhile, his vision worsened and he can’t work, he says.
That’s when he turned to the Affordable Care Act exchange. Lang learned two things: First, 2015 enrollment had closed earlier that month. And second, because his income has dried up, he earns too little to get a federal subsidy to buy a private policy.
Lang, a Republican, says he knew the act required him to get coverage but he chose not to do so. But he thought help would be available in an emergency. He and his wife blame President Obama and Congressional Democrats for passing a complex and flawed bill.
The irony of course is the loudest voices against Obamacare are now covered by Obamacare. Don’t believe me? Ask Ted Cruz.
The Bush family cannot do anything wrong, no matter what the rest of the country thinks, no matter what the rest if the world thinks. And that sentiment was demonstrated in a recent interview when Jeb Bush said his brother George was absolutely right to invade Iraq, and that he, Jeb, would have done the very same thing too, even “knowing what we know now.”
In an interview on Fox, Jeb – a potential candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 2016 – acknowledged that even “knowing what we know now,” he would invade Iraq just as his brother did back in 2004.
“I would,” Jeb said. “And so would have Hillary Clinton, just to remind everybody.”
But as I mentioned above, the vast majority of Americans and the world disagree with the Bush family on this one, even some in the higher echelons of the Republican party. Laura Ingraham – another candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 2016 – concluded that Jeb Bush must be insane.
“You can’t still think that going into Iraq, now, as a sane human being, was the right thing to do,” Ingraham said on her radio show. “If you do, there has to be something wrong with you.”
But it should come as no surprise that “knowing what we know now,” Jeb would still invade. In another bombshell recording, Jeb told a group of donors that his brother George, the same former president who authored the failed foreign policy of the Iraq war, was one of his top foreign policy advisers.
This is not a joke people. These Bush (es) just don’t get it. Although everybody see the fault in starting a war based on lies, Jeb is prepared to walk in his brother’s footsteps again even given what we know now.
Maybe Laura Ingraham is right. Maybe there is something insane about that family.
These are the people hired to help run the Rand Paul presidential campaign. Somehow, I’m not surprised that this is the impulse of this Republican campaign staffer.
The incident happened at a Rand Paul campaign event in New Hampshire.
So Ja Rule went on Fox Business to promote his new credit card venture, but Fox had other things in mind. Inquiring minds needed to know, and the sooner Ja Rule could tell us about politics and the 2016 presidential election, the sooner we can all get on with our lives.
Asked for his analysis of the 2016 political field, Rule offered, “I like Hillary, but you know, it’s crazy because I also think Jeb is a good candidate as well.”
We use cookies to improve your experience on our site. By agreeing to this, we can analyze browsing behavior and unique IDs on this site. Declining or revoking consent may affect certain features.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
