Author: michael o. allen
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Illinois Scandal
Illinois Governor in Corruption Scandal By MONICA DAVEY CHICAGO — The governor of Illinois brazenly put up for sale his appointment of Barack Obama’s successor in the United States Senate, federal prosecutors said Tuesday. In recorded conversations with advisers, the governor, Rod R. Blagojevich, seemed alternately boastful, flip and spiteful about the Senate choice, which…
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Illinois Gov. arrested in corruption crime spree
Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, were arrested Tuesday by FBI agents for what U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald called a “staggering” level of corruption involving pay-to-play politics in Illinois’ top office. The predawn rousting of Gov. Rod Blagojevich from his Ravenswood Manor home Tuesday marked a stunning climax to a tale…
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Enough, already, about Palin’s clothes!
I’ve got no love for Sarah Palin. I think she’s awful on many levels. But I’ve about had it with stories about how much her clothes cost. The most recent revelation appears to be that the RNC spent $165,000 on three stylists to give the Alaska governor a wardrobe makeover. So what? Yes, it sounds…
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an ode to a great guy and a great editor
I arrived at the Burlington Free Press in Vermont 20 years ago almost to the day. I stayed in Vermont for almost two years, first visiting frequently after leaving, then those visits peterring out to where I have not been to Vermont in several years now. As it turned out, my Vermont time was a…
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“Gonna be a Bumpy Ride”
The Central Virginia Progressive-The DAVISReport sends us Foreshadowing the “R” Word- A Day Late and Many Dollars Short Our Government is finally admitting what seems to surprise only them, that we are in a recession and have been for some time. “Duh”?! The following is a re-posting of a previous entry on this blog originally…
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“I want to gather talents from everywhere”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv7K8S4kGQM[/youtube] Moderator: Senator Obama, you have Bill Clinton’s former national security advisor, state department policy advisor and Navy secretary, among others, advising you. With relatively little foreign policy experience of your own, how will you rely on so many Clinton advisors and still deliver the kind of break from the past that you’re promising voters.…
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Not nice
Melanie Reid in the Times of London threw the kitchen sink at actress Nicole Kidman: Kidman is one of those women who turns other women off. And no, not just because she’s pretty and we’re jealous. It is because we perceive, and men don’t, that she’s one of the most overrated actors in the world,…
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A worthy comment
Script: Finally tonight as promised, a Special Comment on the passage, last week, of Proposition Eight in California, which rescinded the right of same-sex couples to marry, and tilted the balance on this issue, from coast to coast. Some parameters, as preface. This isn’t about yelling, and this isn’t about politics, and this isn’t really…
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Another inauguration morning
Inaugural Poem, 20 January 1993 On the Pulse of the Morning by Maya Angelou A Rock, A River, A Tree Hosts to species long since departed, Marked the mastodon. The dinosaur, who left dry tokens Of their sojourn here On our planet floor, Any broad alarm of their hastening doom Is lost in the gloom…
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A Mercy
Nobel laureate and Pulitzer-prize winner Toni Morrison has a new book, “A Mercy,” out. I cannot wait to get my hands on it. From a review in the village voice: Seventy-seven-year-old Morrison sets her story down in primeval America in the 1680s, before slavery is institutionalized but when the law grants “license to any white…