Category: rip

In Memory: Darlene and Vernon Rhoton

I wanted to take a step back from politics for a second and give you all some bad news. For the last few weeks, we have had some tragic events happen around this household.

My Father’s youngest Sister and her husband of many, many years, have both passed away, within 12 days of one another. Both from cancer.

DarleneandVernon
Darlene and Vernon Rhoton – May they rest in peace. 🙁

Vernon’s Funeral was just a few days ago and now it’s Darlene’s turn. I will be going to her viewing today, later this afternoon. The next few days around here is going to be tough. Pray for my Father, his family, and especially me. I got little or not sleep last night. So, I am going to feeling rough a little later.

But, this is not about me at all. Is about my family. Pray for peace, pray for unity — above all — just pray.

I will be gone for the rest of the afternoon, comments will go on moderate till I return.

 

The Late Night Music Express–Special Memorial Edition- Presents: Elvis Presley

Remembering a special dog.

 

Barney Bush 2000-2013 – May he rest in peace. More Barney pics here.

The official statement from the President Bush:

Laura and I are sad to announce that our Scottish Terrier, Barney, has passed away. The little fellow had been suffering from lymphoma and after twelve and a half years of life, his body could not fight off the illness.

Barney and I enjoyed the outdoors. He loved to accompany me when I fished for bass at the ranch. He was a fierce armadillo hunter. At Camp David, his favorite activity was chasing golf balls on the chipping green.

Barney guarded the South Lawn entrance of the White House as if he were a Secret Service agent. He wandered the halls of the West Wing looking for treats from his many friends. He starred in Barney Cam and gave the American people Christmas tours of the White House. Barney greeted Queens, Heads of State, and Prime Ministers. He was always polite and never jumped in their laps.

Barney was by my side during our eight years in the White House. He never discussed politics and was always a faithful friend. Laura and I will miss our pal.

Rest in peace.

Ed Koch RIP

Video:

 

The Story via the New York Times:

Edward I. Koch, the master showman of City Hall, who parlayed shrewd political instincts and plenty of chutzpah into three tumultuous terms as mayor of New York with all the tenacity, zest and combativeness that personified his city of golden dreams, died Friday morning at age 88.

Mr. Koch’s spokesman, George Arzt, said the former mayor died at 2 a.m. from congestive heart failure. He was being treated at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia hospital.

Mr. Koch had experienced coronary and other medical problems since leaving office in 1989. But he had been in relatively good health despite — or perhaps because of — his whirlwind life as a television judge, radio talk-show host, author, law partner, newspaper columnist, movie reviewer, professor, commercial pitchman and political gadfly.

He will be, however, remembered for this:

Out of office, Mr. Koch remained influential in New York politics. He crossed party lines to support Mr. Giuliani in the 1993 mayoral election, an endorsement crucial to Mr. Dinkins’s defeat. But Mr. Koch later turned against Mr. Giuliani, flaying him as “a good mayor but a terrible person” and refusing to endorse him for a second term.

Mr. Koch endorsed Mr. Bloomberg’s successful races for mayor as a Republican in 2001 and 2005, calling him about “as Republican as I am.” (Mr. Bloomberg later refashioned himself as an independent.) And when Mr. Bloomberg engineered a legislative finesse of term-limits laws to run for a third term in 2009, Mr. Koch backed him and called for an end to term limits.

In presidential races, Mr. Koch went back and forth. He supported the losing Democratic ticket of Al Gore and Joseph I. Lieberman in 2000, but joined the Bush-Cheney re-election bandwagon in 2004 and promoted the Republican National Convention in New York, urging New Yorkers to “make nice” to conventioneers. By 2008, he was back with the Democrats, supporting Hillary Rodham Clinton’s bid for the nomination and, when she lost, switching to Mr. Obama.

Now, I do not normally speak ill of the dead; but I will say this: Mayor Koch switched to a Republican stance, because of terrorism and what it did to NYC — that ,I fully understand. I was one of the many who watched 9/11 unfold on television in 2001 on CNN. I found it to be totally unbelievable that we were witnessing an attack on American soil. It was worse than pearl harbor. At the time, I was not really politically active. But, I found the Democrats response to 9/11 and the subsequent cries for “no war” to be sickening. At the time, I felt that we should bombed the entire Arab world for what happened on that day.  

Koch also understood that what happen on 9/11 was a horrible thing and when the Democrats decided to play the role of “lets all just get along,” Koch switched sides. It earned him the praise of the people of NYC at the time; but it earned him the scorn of the political elite of the Democratic Party.  

As for the man’s sexuality, I could honestly give two flips about that; if he was gay at all. You would have never known it about him, he never looked the part at all. Except for that high-pitched Curly Howard sounding voice of his — which is very common in that ethnic group.

Put very simply; the man was a leader, something that New York City needed at the time; and he did well at leading the city during a very tough time. One thing he said in that video up there, that I posted; which I found to be very poignant is “You don’t spend money that you do not have!” I only wish that our leaders in Washington D.C. would truly learn that lesson; before America goes into a meltdown. My friends, that is not a Republican or a Conservative position; that is a position of common sense. Something that is sorely lacking in this modern day and age.

Rest in peace Koch, you damned well earned it.

Blogger reactions via Memeorandum: ABCNEWS, The Hill, The Week, Shakesville, Algemeiner.com, The Reaction, No More Mister Nice Blog, msnbc.com, Taylor Marsh, Outside the Beltway, Scared Monkeys, Capital New York, Washington Wire, The PJ Tatler, Deadline.com, Althouse, Discourse.net, Capitol Confidential, Conservatives4Palin,Runnin’ Scared, The Other McCain and Ricochet Conversations Feed, 

The Saturday Night Music Express – Special Memorial Edition – Presents: Stone Temple Pilots

Los Angeles (CNN) — Aaron Swartz, an Internet savant who at a young age shaped the online era by co-developing RSS and Reddit and later became a digital activist, has committed suicide, a relative told CNN Saturday.
He was 26 years old.

A prodigy, Swartz was behind some of the Internet’s iconic moments, soaring to heights that many developers only dream of. At the same time, he was plagued by legal problems arising from his aggressive activism, and he was also known to suffer depression, a personal matter that he publicly revealed on his blog.

Related:

Others: AlterNet, Mashable!, Guardian, The Daily Caller, The Verge, VentureBeat, Towleroad News #gay, The Raw Story and Gothamist,  New York Times, Hullabaloo, Althouse, Guardian and Brad DeLong,  Crooked Timber, The Agonist, The Atlantic Online, Guardian, Balloon Juice, The Lede,Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Gawker, TechCrunch, Althouse and Lessig Blog, v2, The Reality-Based Community (Memeorandum)

The Thursday Morning Music Express Presents: Dave Brubeck

I will not lie to my readers, Jazz is really not my thing. I am a rock and roller. However, I always show mad respect to the great ones in music. Jazz is an American thing, and we invented it, and people overseas wanted to sound like us. This was back, when America was a great Nation and people around the world wanted to be like us.

Enjoy the music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faJE92phKzI

Dave Brubeck, the pianist and composer who helped make jazz popular again in the 1950s and ’60s with recordings like “Time Out,” the first jazz album to sell a million copies, and “Take Five,” the still instantly recognizable hit single that was that album’s centerpiece, died on Wednesday in Norwalk, Conn. He would have turned 92 on Thursday.

He died while on his way to a cardiology appointment, Russell Gloyd, his producer, conductor and manager for 36 years, said. Mr. Brubeck lived in Wilton, Conn.

In a long and successful career, Mr. Brubeck brought a distinctive mixture of experimentation and accessibility that won over listeners who had been trained to the sonic dimensions of the three-minute pop single.

Mr. Brubeck experimented with time signatures and polytonality and explored musical theater and the oratorio, baroque compositional devices and foreign modes. He did not always please the critics, who often described his music as schematic, bombastic and — a word he particularly disliked — stolid. But his very stubbornness and strangeness — the blockiness of his playing, the oppositional push-and-pull between his piano and Paul Desmond’s alto saxophone — make the Brubeck quartet’s best work still sound original.

Outside of the group’s most famous originals, which had the charm and durability of pop songs ( “Blue Rondo à la Turk,” “It’s a Raggy Waltz” and “Take Five”), some of its best work was in its overhauls of standards like “You Go to My Head,” “All the Things You Are” and “Pennies From Heaven.” — Source

Others Remembering — Left and Right: BBC, Gothamist, Los Angeles Times, The Maddow Blog, Gawker, Truthdig, Stinque, The Week, Blazing Cat Fur, Balloon Juice and Althouse, The Atlantic Online, Los Angeles Times, Outside the Beltway, Gimme Noise, The Democratic Daily, The Reaction, Power Line and The Volokh Conspiracy, FIRST DRAFT

In Loving Memory: Ada Arlene Quinn

I just recently lost a family member and I got permission from her daughter Sandy to post this tribute.

arlene
Ada Arlene Quinn – My second cousin or my grandfather’s, Brother’s Daughter

Arlene, as we called her,was my Grandfather’s Brother’s Daughter. This would be on my Mother’s side of the family.  She was born on August 30, 1946 and passed away on October 8, 2012. She was one of the strongest women than I know, outside of my own Mother. I will always remember the kindness that she and her parents, showed to my family, when we would go to Dalton, Georgia every year.

This music video, which happens to be a personal favorite of mine, is dedicated to her, and the legacy of love that she leaves with her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Rest in peace, Arlene and save me a place at the throne; I will be with you in a little while. Angel

My continued prayers for the Quinn family, during this very difficult time.

Here’s the video:

Breaking News: Arlen Specter has died

Some sad news to report on a Sunday.

NBC News Politics:

220px-Arlen_Specter,_official_Senate_photo_portraitFormer U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the Republican-turned-Democrat who played a key role in many Supreme Court nominations, has died. He was 82.

His son Shanin Specter says his father died Sunday morning at his home in Philadelphia, from complications of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. He had battled cancer and other health problems.

Specter served 30 years in the Senate, a Pennsylvania record.

In April 2009, he startled fellow senators when he announced he was switching to the Democratic side because he did not think he could win the nomination for a sixth term in the increasingly conservative GOP. He wound up losing the 2010 Democratic primary to then-Rep. Joe Sestak, who narrowly lost Specter’s seat to conservative Pat Toomey

 

 

I will not write negatively about someone who has died. The man stood for what he believed in. In the wave of the Tea Party movement, Spector became a pariah. Something I know too well about. He tried switching sides, and was not wanted. Spector was from a different era, when politics and Conservatism were not as ugly as they have become in this new era of Sound Bites, and new media.

May he rest in peace, and my prayers to him family in this hour of mourning. Praying

Update: Kudos to the commenters over at DailyKos for showing some serious class on this subject. Applause

Sad News: Church van crash kills two Baptists in TN

So sad to get news like this:

Two people were killed and 12 others injured Sunday morning when a van carrying youth from Cedar Grove Baptist Church in Maryville, Tenn., collided head-on with an SUV while returning from a weekend retreat in Gatlinburg.

The driver of the van, Jeff Trussell, and teenager Courteney Kaliszewski were killed. Ten passengers ranging from middle school to college age were transported to the University of Tennessee Medical Center. Two of those were transferred to Children’s Hospital. According to local media, at least two Lifestar helicopters and three ambulances transported the victims.

The driver of the SUV, 21-year-old Tyler J. Schaeffer of Seymour, Tenn., crossed the center line of Chapman Highway in Sevier County and struck the van head on, causing it to catch fire. Strangers stopped to help rescue passengers in the church van and offer aid until emergency vehicles arrived.

via ABP: Church van crash kills two

🙁

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints. — (Psalms 116:15 KJV)

May they rest in peace.

My Thoughts on the situation in Egypt and Libya

I remember seeing this news breaking early this morning, before I finally drifted off to sleep. I remember thinking to myself, “oh crap…” and thinking, here we go again, another situation in the middle east.

At first, I heard it was over a lamely produced Movie trailer, which was produced by someone claiming to be a Israeli Jew — who might not even be a Jew after all; then I hear it might be a coordinated attack in retaliation over the number 2 of Al-Qaeda’s being killed.

Meanwhile, an couple of Americans are dead today. Their bodies being drug through the streets in some God-forsaken Country. What does our President do? Act like some aloof jackass, who cannot be bothered with the situation.  As for Romney, he takes advantage of the Situation and points out that this President’s foreign policy has been a utter failure. In response, the media tries to portray Mitt Romney as not ready for Prime time. A typical tactic that was used on John McCain as well.  Not to mention the fact that the media is coordinating to try to tear down Romney in this election.

I could sit here and yowl on about this shows that America and Judeo-Christian Values are under attack by Islam and Muslims.  However, I believe most of you, that read this blog already know this. Whatever the cause of these American Embassies being attacked, it is a tragic thing.

However, as a Non-Wilsonian Conservative, allow me to float this idea. Could this be a piece of living, in color, proof that the United States of America ought to just withdraw from these Countries and not have American Embassies in those Country? Perhaps that this is one of the signs that America needs to stop kowtowing down to the United Nations and stop trying to be the world’s policeman. Perhaps we should stop getting involved in the affairs of other Nations. Perhaps we should being to restrict our immigration polices more and stop allowing a free flow of Muslims into this Country.

Perhaps we as a Nation need to take a second look at the practice of Islam and how it is intolerant to other Religion and to criticism; and possibly pass laws banning the Religion in this Country, on grounds it is threat to Nation security.  After all, this attack happened one day after the 11 year anniversary of the terrorist attacks in NYC and at the Pentagon, and Shakesville, Pa.

Again, is it wrong to ask such questions? I am not hating on any religion of any sort. I am looking at the protection of our Republic and all I really know, is that foreign citizens have killed Americans working abroad; this is unacceptable and something needs to be done. However, with the current leadership in the White House, nothing will be done, at all. Yes, I know, Military has been dispatched;  at this point, that is nothing more than window dressing and buttocks covering by the White House. The truth is, that once again, leadership in the White House has failed us.

This is why we must vote differently, come November.