It is time for summer relaxation.
As such until after the Fourth of July CP will be located under a shade tree with a book (“Impeached, The Trial Of President Andrew Johnson” by David Stewart) along with a glass of ice tea. If not located there, CP will be at the beach.
Summer demands my attention.
Blogging resumes at some point down the road.
And it is good.
Last year, around this time, we wrote about how the three evening newscast had lost more than a million viewers in a year’s time. Well, what a difference a year makes.
With the second quarter of 2011 complete, NBC Nightly News, ABC World News and CBS Evening News have added a combined 1.493 million Total Viewers and 441K A25-54 viewers. The second quarter of 2011 even topped Q2 2009.
#1 NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams added the most viewers with 891K (+12% compared to Q2 2010). ABC World News with Diane Sawyer added 655K viewers (+9%) and the CBS Evening News, anchored the first six weeks by Katie Couric and the last six by Scott Pelley, added 387K (+7%).
I still am fascinated and inspired by the Kennedy family. As such the following news made me smile today.
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the eldest child of Robert is a first-time grandmother. This is also Ethel Kennedy’s first great-grandchild. One of Kathleen’s daughters, Maeve, and her husband, David McKean, had a boy named Gideon Joseph Kennedy McKean. Maeve is senior director at the office of Global Affairs at HHS. David is legal director at the Servicemembers Defense Fund.
There are times for blunt statements when matters are so serious, and out of control that a more mild rebuke would be a mere waste of time. That is what Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy has done in regards to the epidemic of gun sales and the resulting killings and bloodshed that naturally follows. While McCarthy is taking heat for his statements it should be noted that this man has been involved with law enforcement for a long time which has allowed the gritty side of too many guns on the streets to have made a deep impression.
There is no question that gun manufacturers are reaping mountains of money and living lavishly while the inner city poor too often are the victims of these weapons. It is also a fact that inner city poor are disproportionately from the minority communities.
That the NRA has their undies bunched from too much butt-puckering over the truth is really just too bad. More members of law enforcement need to stand up and comment with the same bluntness that Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy has demonstrated.
Caffeinated Politics congratulates Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy!
Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy earlier this month told parishioners at St. Sabina’s Church that federal gun laws are akin to “government-sponsored racism.”
“I want you to connect one more dot on that chain of African-American history in this country, and tell me if I’m crazy: Federal gun laws that facilitate the flow of illegal firearms into our urban centers, across this country, that are killing black and brown children,” he said according to an WMAQ-Channel 5 story that aired Thursday.
McCarthy can be heard telling the congregation in the video about the NRA, “The NRA does not like me, and I’m OK with that.”
McCarthy went on to say that in the debate about gun control, there has to be “a recognition of who’s paying the price for gun manufacturers being rich and living in gated communities.”
McCarthy told parishioners an anecdote about a brutal night of killings in Newark, N.J., where he was previously head of the police department. McCarthy said that after he got home that night, he turn on the TV to relax, and tuned in to Sarah Palin’s Alaska.
“She was caribou-hunting and talking about the right to bear arms,” McCarthy said. “Why wasn’t she at the crime scene with me?”
McCarthy also told parishioners that “everybody is afraid of race. I’m not afraid of race.”
In a statement Thursday, McCarthy said “strong gun laws against illegal firearms are critical in order to maintain public safety and private rights.”
When Elvis Presley joined the army his line upon getting the famed haircut was “Hair today, gone to-morrow.”
Many have been wondering what will happen to Rod Blagojevich who is going to prison, and has some mighty fine hair that he is most fond of, and spends time caring for. (It should be noted that Blagojevich is also an Elvis fan.) Will there be a need to damage the hair, just to make that Blagojevich pays for his crimes while in office?
Well there is good news for hair lovers everywhere.
I actually am glad about this news, as I think Rod Blagojevich has awesome hair. In fact, the hair of the former Illinois governor had made news before on CP. (Can anyone be shocked?)
Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich may have to give up his freedom, but it appears he won’t have to give up his swooping trademark hairdo.
Although it could be months, if not years, before the convicted former chief executive sets foot inside a federal prison, his notorious helmet of hair would not be in jeopardy once he’s behind bars — unless he forgets to wash it.
“There will be no restriction of hair length as long as it is neat and clean,” notes an inmate manual for the all-male Gilmer Federal Prison in West Virginia., which reflects the policy of the more than 100 institutions administered by the federal Bureau of Prisons.
The latest edition of Newsweek should clear up the fact that Newsweek is no longer a serious news publication.
Tina Brown created what would have been Lady Diana’s Facebook page!
Hard news at its worst!
Bye, bye Newsweek.
Just to be clear… when the Declaration of Independence was signed, John Quincy Adams was a nine-year-old boy. But does Rep. Michele Bachmann care?
Seems not, as the video makes clear.
Rep. Michele Bachmann is proving to be as careless with the facts, and as uninterested in learning about her mistakes as Sarah Palin. That will be a dreadful mistake, as Palin has learned.
Rep. Michele Bachmann will find many who will not carry her errors with humor.
‘Now that the mess has been scattered all over the place let’s make sure we clean it up once and for all.’
Isn’t that a message a parent might make in a rather determined way to a child after something that need not have occurred takes places, and then requires a remedy to make sure it never happens again?
The same parental tone and approach needs to be made by the citizens of Wisconsin to the members of the State Supreme Court.
When I can google the Justice Prosser choke-hold story and find it is making headlines all over the nation then it is time to get this mess investigated and sorted out.
As such, I am pleased to know that two separate investigations are now underway to ascertain what transpired among the members of the court.
The separate probes are being run by the Dane County Sheriff’s Office and the Wisconsin Judicial Commission, which oversees the state’s judicial ethics code. The sheriff’s investigation was launched Monday; the commission’s was authorized Friday and publicly acknowledged Monday.
“After consulting with members of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, I have turned over the investigation into an alleged incident in the court’s offices on June 13, 2011, to Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney,” Capitol Police Chief Charles Tubbs said in a statement.
The sheriff’s office in a statement acknowledged it was taking over the case, but declined further comment.
All members of the court should bend over backwards to amplify and illuminate the issues that have led for the dysfunctional nature of the court to occur in the first place, and then grow to such an extent as to cause a statewide embarrassment.
This is not a good time for the political and democratic institutions in this state. All year-long there has been a continuing eroding of confidence and support in the systems that are some of the bedrock foundations of our society. From legislative rancor to the personal animosity on the court there is much to despair over every morning when reading the newspaper.
And it really must come to an end.
Therefore the parties that are investigating what happened to make Justice Prosser snap must get all the facts and present them to the public. If there needs to be some house cleaning, or group therapy sessions, or a collective demand to ‘lets play nice’…once thing is clear. What has been allowed to take place must now end.
No one wants to know that our Supreme Court is making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Lets move forward aggressively with the investigations and then allow for a complete report to be made public. There should be no sugar-coating or cosmetics applied. Let the chips fall where they may.
The public deserves an honest account of what happened, and how it is to be remedied.
CAFFEINATED POLITICS 