Sometimes greatness is planned.

Sometimes, it just happens.

Best comment thread ever, on a site that isn’t fortunate enough to be this one.

PW comments

par-tay at the Obamas

...The White House grooved to the Motown sound Thursday night, with an all-star lineup performing some of the most memorable songs from the hit factory that started in a Detroit basement.

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama hosted the tribute to the music from Berry Gordy Jr.’s Motown Record Corp. in a concert that will be broadcast on PBS later this year. It’s part of its “In Performance at the White House” series.

Clapping, swaying and singing in the audience were Gordy himself, Motown superstars Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson, Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, and the Obamas as the music that helped shape a generation and beyond filled the East Room.

Obama called Motown’s tunes the “soundtrack of the civil rights era” and cited how the popularity of music by Robinson and others crossed the color barrier to bring together racially mixed audiences.

He recounted the origins of Motown, with Gordy borrowing $800 to set up operations in the basement of a house on Detroit’s West Grand Boulevard.

Wonder also paid tribute to Gordy, saying people would be singing and dancing to Motown music for centuries to come.

Actor and singer Jamie Foxx added an unpredictable element to the proceedings as master of ceremonies, challenging Obama to dance at one point, poking fun at Biden and changing the lyrics of the Temptations’ “Get Ready” for the occasion by singing, “We won the e-lec-tion. The White House, babe, so much fun.”...

and deep too!

...brought to you by the union thug who assaults you and threatens you with anal rape while using a homophobic slur ....
( at about 7:30 )

  “I know I’ve been encouraging people to ride bikes more, but I didn’t mean u could “borrow” my wife’s bike w/o asking,” reads a tweet from Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn. 

The FBI has arrested a 20-year-old Saudi student in Texas suspected of planning a terrorist attack using explosive chemicals. The FBI says his possible targets included the Dallas home of former President George W. Bush.

Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, attending college near Lubbock, Texas, was charged with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. Federal prosecutors say he had been researching online how to construct an improvised explosive device using several chemicals as ingredients.

Federal authorities say Aldawsari’s diary indicated the young man had been plotting an attack for years and obtained a scholarship so he could come directly to the United State to carry out jihad...

Previously....

  How much did the UNION increase the costs of the WOT/Afghan/Iraq Wars? 

Seven-term Democratic Rep. David Wu faced increasing pressure Wednesday to step down amid a series of bizarre revelations in recent days about his mental health, including a photo he sent to staffers during his re-election bid showing him wearing a tiger costume.

The state Republican chair and one of Oregon’s largest newspapers said Wu should resign, but Wu says he has no intention of quitting.

“He has a really important job, and the citizens of Oregon and the citizens of the congressional district deserve to have a congressman who’s completely focused on serving them and being a great congressman,” Oregon Republican Party Chairman Allen Alley said Wednesday.

Wu said Tuesday that it was “unprofessional and inappropriate” to send pictures of himself wearing a tiger costume to staff members while he was in the middle of a heated campaign last year. He also acknowledged taking two tablets of a pain killer that were given to him by an unnamed campaign donor.

“This was the only time that this has ever happened,” the congressman said in a statement of the pain killer episode. “I recognize that my action showed poor judgment at the time, and I sincerely regret having put my staff in a difficult position.”

Seven staff members resigned after the campaign following bizarre behavior that concerned his team at the end of the 2010 campaign. The Oregonian also reported that Wu’s campaign was fined by state officials for failing to carry workers compensation

Wu tried to confront the criticism in a network television interview on Tuesday, telling ABC’s Good Morning America that he’s being treated with counseling and medication and saying he has overcome any mental issues that occurred during a stressful midterm election.  .…

The community organizer who became president has launched a massive pre-reelection year campaign to assemble and train an army of new community organizers to carry Obama’s “movement forward for years to come.”

Strengthening “our democracy” presumably has something to do with reelecting the revered leader in 2012.

However, the Organizing for America recruiting message says nothing about politics or election campaigns and strangely talks in military terms of “a grassroots program that aims to put boots on the ground and help foster a new generation of leaders—not just to help win elections but to strengthen our democracy in communities across the country.”

The same Obama campaign group was reported to be involved in stirring the ongoing Wisconsin protests against Gov. Scott Walker’s budget plans.

The message about what it calls the “Summer Organizing Fellowship” adds: “Effective organizing doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It takes commitment, time, and hard work to build a movement around a cause.” It does not specify what the “cause” is, other than promoting Obama and his agenda.Democrat Obama awaits his entrance cue 9-10-10

News of the community organizer drive went out in an e-mail to millions of supporters and past donors Tuesday night by the ongoing arm of the Obama campaign, Organizing for America.

It appealed for workers of all ages to volunteer to undergo professional organizational training this summer for stationing in communities all over the nation to drive President Obama’s social and political agenda.

The cadres “will be assigned to a specific community,” the message informs, “where they’ll work to organize supporters street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood.”

Their job will involve recruiting additional Obama workers, running Obama-related events, knocking on doors to talk of Obama “and lay new groundwork to carry this movement forward for years to come.”

“In the end,” the Obama campaign appeal says of the community organizer corps, “their work will take our grassroots power to an impressive new level.”.............

just fricken horrible......I don’t recommend that you watch the video, I wish I hadn’t.......

..."The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” has come under fire after a video taken by an onlooker was posted on YouTube this week, showing a camel – apparently brought in for a skit on the Comedy Central show – suffering alleged abuse from his handlers while shooting in the snow and sleet-filled streets of Madison, Wisconsin.
The video shows the camel being jabbed in the neck and marched around a small fence, before becoming stuck between the metal bars.
The frightened animal is then aggressively yanked forward until it slips and falls in the ice while the fence falls down. Despite the animal cowering down, handlers still try to forcefully pull up the camel…

~ ( * ) ~
According to The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the “Daily Show” didn’t use any footage of the camel in its Tuesday night broadcast.
Reps for Comedy Central and “The Daily Show” did not respond for comment.

  “Every once and awhile you need to get out on the streets and get a little bloody when necessary.” 

---Congressman Michael Capuano (D-Mass.)

Whether or not Muslim extremists Anjem Choudary, Abu Izzadeen and Sayful Islam will actually be able to pull it off or not remains to be seen.  However, the trio are planning to stand on American soil in front of the White House on March 3 and proclaim a “call to arms” in which they will , “call for Sharia law to be established across the U.S.,” according to the Daily Mail on Sunday.

Anjem Choudary is the same extremist who has insisted that the Islamic flag will one day fly over the White House.  He also said that he anticipates that thousands will turnout.  Whether that is a bunch of psychological warfare or there has truly been some focused organizing going on behind the scenes will eventually become evident....

Rodgie

Close the book.

My right arm....

...It’s a drum beat that is growing, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 21. About four busloads of UFCW activists stomped uninvited in to the Association of Washington Business’ lobby today to seek support for closing business tax breaks as a way to pay for health care programs that face cuts in the Legislature.

It’s not hard to guess at how well it went over. But I’ll explain anyway, because we’re likely to see a lot more of this as budget cuts come more clearly into focus:

Don Brunell, AWB’s president, gently met the more than 100 protesters who packed a bullhorn and made some noise. They said they wanted a sit-down talk with AWB over the closing of tax breaks to pay for health programs – and one complained about “predatory” lending.

“They delivered their message,” Brunell said after the more than 100 UFCW workers left and the occasionally loud foot stomping had ended. “I think it’s a little unfortunate I didn’t get a chance to address them. They didn’t give me the microphone.”...

Congratulations have gone out from the White House to Chicago’s mayor-elect.
President Barack Obama has sent his good wishes to Rahm Emanuel within hours of his former chief of staff’s victory over five rivals.
The president said in a statement that Emanuel’s victory was well-deserved. He said he couldn’t be prouder of his fellow Chicagoan and friend...

State senators who miss two or more session days will no longer get paid through direct deposit. They’ll have to pick up their checks in person on the Senate floor during a session.

The new rule is aimed at forcing the return of 14 Senate Democrats who have been hiding in Illinois since Thursday. They fled the state to stall a vote on an anti-union bill, and have threatened to stay away until Republican Gov. Scott Walker agrees to compromise.

Tuesday’s vote was along party lines. The three Republicans on the Committee on Senate Organization voted for it and the two Democrats opposed it.

The measure applies to paychecks, per diem checks, and any expense reimbursements. The absent senators will have to collect their checks from the Senate majority leader.

...Given the White House and DNC involvement in the Madison protests, it seems clear that this has become a national strategy on the part of Democrats — to run out on legislatures where they hold the minority, and to hijack government in an attempt to make the majority the servant of the minority.  The party should change its name to the Anti-Democrats … or, since they seem enamored of running away as a political tactic, we can take a page from their book and call them Fleebaggers instead...

Ever wonder where something goes after you throw it away? Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology found the answer for 3,000 pieces of trash thrown out in Seattle....

~ ( * ) ~
...The study showed that 75 percent of the waste reached recycling facilities, which the study says is “significantly above the U.S. average.” Overall, 95 percent of the trash percent reached a local EPA compliant end destination.

The report says the resulting data “speaks to the effectiveness of the municipal waste removal system in Seattle.”

The group was surprised by how far some of the items traveled. The trajectories of the items can be viewed in a map from the trash tracker project. A printer cartridge covered the greatest distance at 3,823 miles, which the study says, may negate the benefits of recycling....

Washington>black>Obama

...George Washington’s name is inseparable from America, and not only from the nation’s history. It identifies countless streets, buildings, mountains, bridges, monuments, cities — and people.

In a puzzling twist, most of these people are black. The 2000 U.S. Census counted 163,036 people with the surname Washington. Ninety percent of them were African-American, a far higher black percentage than for any other common name...

George Washington Statue Hidden In Box By NAACP on MLK Day

Bonus fun fact:

...the ancestral connections between George Washington and all of his successors: