Both David Axelrod and Jim Messina place out the bait and unfortunately Mitt Romney took it . Joe Ricketts, formerly of TD Ameritrade and whose family owns the Chicago Cubs, proposed putting together a series of Super PAC ads highlighting President Obama's relationship with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Both Axelrod and Messina said that Romney should take a page out of John McCain's book and not focus on Wright. Well, of course, Axelrod and Messina would like that because, gee, McCain lost to Obama. Romney responded it would be "the incorrect course for a PAC or a campaign." So Axelrod and Messina got Romney to condemn ads that haven't been even made. Score one for Team Obama. Now while one could certainly argue that Romney is better off highlighting Obama's three plus years in the White House rather than rehashing Reverend Wright, I reckon Romney took the incorrect approach here. What Romney ought to have said something along the lines of, "We'll take your suggestion under advisement. In the meantime, when is the Obama PAC run by Bill Burton going to return Bill Maher's $1 million?" That would have place the ball back into President Obama's court instead of having Romney juggle a hot potato he shouldn't have touched in the first place.
Read this article:Why Didn't Romney Demand Obama PAC Return Bill Maher's Million?
Donna Summer, who had a string of hits in the 1970s and 1980s, passed away today of cancer . She was 63. I had no thought she was ill. Born here in Boston, Summer was amongst the first artists who popularized disco in 1975 with the 17-minute song "Like to Like You Baby" . She reached her peak in 1978 and 1979 with hits like "Last Dance" , "Hot Stuff" and her cover of Jimmy Webb's "MacArthur Park" which had been a hit decade earlier for actor Richard Harris. Summer continued to have hits in the 1980s the most notable of which was "She Works Hard For The Money" which became a staple of MTV in 1983. I remember when she did a guest spot on Family Matters when she played Urkel's Aunt Oona from Altoona . Yes, Aunt Oona could sing.
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Donna Summer, R.I.P.
Bluegrass banjo player Doug Dillard passed away last night after a lengthy illness. He was 75. Dillard started playing banjo as a child and idolized Earl Scruggs ( who passed away back in March ). After Scruggs answered to a letter he wrote, Dillard convinced his parents to drive him to Scruggs home in Madison, Tennessee. He knocked on Scruggs' door and questioned the bluegrass legend to install his tuners on his banjo. Dillard was only sixteen at the time. Dillard and his younger brother Rodney along with Dean Webb and Mitch Jayne would form The Dillards. They got their first break on The Andy Griffith Show as a fictional bluegrass band known as The Darlings and made regular appearances on the show between 1963 and 1966. Here they are singing "Dooley" . The Dillards were to bluegrass what Bob Dylan was to folk in that they were amongst the first bluegrass groups to play with electric instruments. Dillard liked the electric sound so much that he eventually left The Dillards to tour with The Byrds. He became close with Gene Clark and in 1968 they left The Byrds to form Dillard & Clark. They recorded two albums The Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark and Through the Morning, Through the Night. Neither album sold well but Dillard & Clark were an influence on country-rock acts like Gram Parsons, The Eagles and Poco and The Flying Burrito Brothers. Take a listen to "Why Not Your Baby" and you'll hear why Dillard & Clark were indeed on a fantastic expedition.
See more here: Doug Dillard, R.I.P.
There is a sign from the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) which has been placed on the door of the ice cream stand at Fantastic Brook Farm State Park in Carlisle about 20 miles northwest of Boston. It reads: BUILDING CLOSED NO ICE CREAM UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE Last weekend, DCR officers shut down the well loved ice cream stand and stood guard to ward off anyone crazy enough to reckon about buying an ice cream cone on a warm day. The ice cream stand was shut down because its owner Mark Duffy because construction had been done without local and state permits. Duffy, who operates a dairy farm and has operated the ice cream for more than 25 years, says he has been making improvements everyday without permission. That isn't excellent enough for MCR Commissioner Edward Lambert who said, "I like ice cream as much as anyone, so it pains us to even temporarily close what is an iconic property, but we have to make sure people eating ice cream there are safe." Safe from what exactly, Lambert didn't say. This is a classic case of, "We're from the government and we're to help." Well, their help has forced Duffy to lay off 13 high school and college students who work for him, has affected the ice cream manufacturer in Attleboro which distributes their product to him and if the shutdown lasts much longer it may force Duffy off his farm. This weekend is due to be as warm as the one we had here last weekend and Duffy is being deprived of his livelihood from an unaccountable bureaucracy which applies its authority arbitrarily and capriciously.
View original post here: Building Closed: No Ice Cream Until Further NoticeGovernor Chris Christie and Newark Mayor Corey Booker chose to have a small bipartisan fun in the Garden State. Everyone knows that Christie’s been hard at work dealing with Jersey’s many problems, but unless you’re from around here you may not know that Booker really ran into a burning house to save a woman last month! For real. Here’s the spoof:
See the article here:
Christie and Booker Have Some Fun
