Saturday Open Thread
Happy Saturday WSY Fam!
Hope everyone had an excellent Christmas! Let the 2009 countdown begin; WEE are just five short days away from 2010.
Here’s one of the great songs of 2009–Empire State of Mind by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys:
From Wikipedia:
“Empire State of Mind” is a song by hip hop artist Jay-Z, featuring guest vocals of R&B and soul singer-songwriter Alicia Keys. The song was released as the third single from Jay-Z’s eleventh studio album The Blueprint 3 on his Roc Nation label. The song is an anthemic ode to both artists’ native New York City, featuring a sample of “Love on a Two-Way Street” by The Moments. Jay-Z and Keys performed the song at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, as well as the American Music Awards of 2009. It is also the plate music for New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter.
The single has been commercially successful in the United States. It peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Jay-Z’s first number-one single on the chart as a lead artist. “Empire State of Mind” reached number 2 on the UK Singles Chart on October 4, 2009. The song also reached number 2 in the Irish Singles Chart on September 25, 2009 with no official release.
View Comments
December 26th, 2009
Nice song, good video. I'm not much of a fan of modern music but Alicia Keys is an exception. I remember when I heard Fallin' for the first time, it about knocked me over. What a talent she has.
Hope everybody had a great Christmas. Good morning all.
December 26th, 2009
Good Morning Rose, & Wee Team Family! Happy Saturday!
I had a great Christmas with family & friends & hope everyone else did as well.
December 26th, 2009
Good morning, Rose, how are you, and how was your Christmas?
You have been in my thoughts and prayers.
December 26th, 2009
Sup, SG2, we're getting loads of snow here in Iowa. Ha ving a terric holiday!
December 26th, 2009
Hey Shanti,
I'm happy you're enjoying the holidays in Iowa. I am tired & wore out from Yesterday. We had a blast! You guys be careful on your drive back home. Stay safe!
December 26th, 2009
Blizzard Dumps Snow Across Heartland, Closing Highways
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/26/blizza...
MILWAUKEE — Residents in the nation's heartland were digging out after a blustery storm as meteorologists warned that blizzard conditions could continue across the northern Plains on Saturday.
The National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings for parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin through Saturday. The storm had already dumped significant snow across the region, including a record 14 inches in Oklahoma City and 11 inches in Duluth, Minn., on Thursday.
Slippery roads have been blamed for at least 21 deaths this week as the storm lumbered across the country from the Southwest.
Paul Mews, who drove from Faribault, Minn., to a relative's home in Plum City, Wis., on Friday morning, said the first 15 minutes of the 80-mile trip were clear, but a surge of heavy snowfall produced a stretch of near-whiteout conditions.
December 26th, 2009
Obama Family Vacations In Hawaii
http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/yusG6kcoMK5/Obam...
http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/yusG6kcoMK5/Obam...
December 26th, 2009
Good afternoon everyone! Happy Belated Jesus Birthday!!! LOL!
This week has been especially stressful and yesterday took the cake, however, the show had to go on and Christmas dinner was a success. The menu:
Cajun Roasted Turkey
Honey Baked Ham
Beef Roast w/ Mushroom & Onion Gravy
Macaroni & Cheese
Brown Sugar Green Beans
Collard Greens
Southern Style Creamed Corn
Golden Yukon Mashed Potatoes
Candied Yams
Rice
Cornbread Dressing w/ Turkey Gravy & Cranberry Sauce
Diabetes in a cup sweet & sour punch
Diabetes in a cup sweet tea
Chocolate cupcakes
Apple pie w/ ice cream
^^^Yes, I (with the supervision of my sweet southern “add a little more spice here & there” mother) made all of that w/ a antsy three year old and a beat up husband in the house. My legs are still sore from all the cleaning, decorating, shopping, cooking, and nursing. I'm friggin' exhausted but glad to be back online. You should see a post from me today, God willing.
How did your Christmas go, WSY family?
December 26th, 2009
Hey, carolinagirl; Merry Christmas! Good to see you back online, WEE missed you! Yummy! Your menu is simply to LIVE for! Glad to hear you survived Christmas day. How's hubby?
I created an honorary Link Sweep thread for you Wednesday. If you get a moment, check it out. LOL!
Welcome back!!!!
December 26th, 2009
Welcome back, CG! Wee missed you!
Your menu looks so delicious. Cooking a huge meal is hard work and I can understand you being exhausted. I was totally wore out. But it was worth with because I love my family!
December 26th, 2009
Man the first lady looks like da bomb in that white dress.
December 26th, 2009
yum yum yum
now that's one great menu.
December 26th, 2009
Whole Foods CEO John Mackey Stepping Down As Chairman
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/25/whole-...
PHILADELPHIA — The chief executive of organic supermarket chain Whole Foods Market Inc. is giving up his title of chairman, following years of petitioning by an activist shareholder to separate the two roles.
Co-founder and CEO John Mackey is voluntarily giving up his chairmanship, a position he's held since the Austin, Texas, company's inception in 1978, according to a Thursday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mackey will remain on the board.
Whole Foods said lead director John Elstrott will become chairman. His current position will be discontinued.
December 26th, 2009
Is this the guy who wrote that anti-HCR op-ed, and started a Whole Food boycott firestorm
December 26th, 2009
The Anti-Corporatist Movement
by BooMan
December 26th, 2009
Yeah, That Plan Won't Work
by CabinGirl
December 26th, 2009
The Anti-Corporatist Movement
by BooMan
December 26th, 2009
I watched a Criminal Minds marathon on A&E yesterday. People are crazy!!!!!!
December 26th, 2009
LOL!
December 26th, 2009
Yup!
That's him!
December 26th, 2009
Yemen Yemen Yemen
This is an increasingly problematic situation.
____________________________________________
Christmas bomb plot complicates Gitmo plan
By: Josh Gerstein
December 26, 2009 07:02 PM EST
Growing evidence that the Nigerian man charged with trying to blow up a commercial airliner as it landed in Detroit Friday spent time in Yemen and may have been fitted with customized, explosive-laden clothing there could complicate the U.S. government’s efforts to send home more than 80 Yemeni prisoners currently at Guantanamo Bay.
Since Yemenis represent almost half of the roughly 200 remaining prisoners at Gitmo, new hurdles to their resettlement could spell more trouble for President Barack Obama’s plan to close the island prison while transferring a limited number of detainees to a prison in the U.S. Six Yemeni nationals were returned home earlier this month, and officials hoped more transfers would follow.
The relatively weak central government has been working, with U.S. military and diplomatic support, to counter two separate insurgencies, and the nation, Osama Bin Laden’s ancestral home, has become a haven for some members of Al Qaeda. That instability has contributed to concerns within the Obama administration and from its domestic critics about returning prisoners there for repatriation.
The Nigerian man charged with the Christmas Day bombing attempt aboard Northwest Flight 253, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, reportedly spent time in Yemen after graduating from a London university in 2008. According to ABC News, Abdulmutallab has told authorities that, while in Yemen, Al Qaeda operatives crafted the explosive device which was sewn into Abdulmutallab’s underwear.
“Yesterday just highlights the fact that sending this many people back—or any people back—to Yemen right now is a really bad idea,” said Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee. “It’s just dumb….If you made a list of what the three dumbest countries would be to send people back to, Yemen would be on all the lists.”
“I think it’s a major mistake,” Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) said about prisoner releases to Yemen. “I don’t think Guantanamo should be closed, but if we’re going to close it I don’t believe we should be sending people to Yemen where prisoners have managed to escape in the past….Obviously, if [Abdulmutallab] did get training and direction from Yemen, it just adds to what is already a dangerous situation.”
While Republicans have long been outspoken against plans to send more Guantanamo prisoners to Yemen, the Northwest Airlines incident seems to have persuaded at least one key Democrat that those plans should be reconsidered.
“In terms of sending more of them to return to Yemen, it would be a bit of a reach,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) told POLITICO on Saturday. “I’d, at a minimum, say that whatever we were about to do we’d at least have to scrub it again from top to bottom.”
Thompson, who said he plans to convene hearings in January about the bombing attempt, said the reported Yemen links to the incident could even lead some members to question whether Yemenis at Guantanamo should be transferred to the new terror prison the administration wants to set up in Thomson, Ill. “It’s something that’s going to be of interest to everybody…We ought to look at everything we have underway to make sure that something hasn’t been overlooked,” the congressman said.
“I’d expect Yemen’s handling of returned Guantanamo detainees to come under intense U.S. scrutiny,” said Matthew Waxman, a Columbia law professor who was an assistant Defense secretary for detainee affairs under President George W. Bush. “In the past, the Yemeni government has not shown great capacity or reliability, but the U.S. hopes to build a stronger partnership and improve that record, in part because it has few other options in this important region.”
The White House had no comment on how Abdulmutallab’s history might impact future prisoner releases or official dealings with Yemen. However, U.S. officials have worked intensely in recent months to support the government of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and to obtain assurances that Yemenis returned home would not take part in violence.
On the same day Abdulmutallab allegedly boarded a flight in Nigeria bound for Amsterdam and then Detroit, Yemeni fighter planes attacked an alleged Al Qaeda compound in southern Yemen. According to the Yemeni government, one apparent target of the strike was Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical American cleric who reportedly had links to the U.S. Army officer who allegedly killed 13 people in a shooting spree at a Texas base last month, Maj. Malik Hasan. It is unclear whether Al-Awlaki was killed in the strike.
In September, Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, visited Yemen to press for greater action against Al Qaeda and discuss logistical issues surrounding prisoner releases. And earlier this month, Obama telephoned Saleh to praise him for recent raids against Al Qaeda and for the nation’s overall cooperation with the U.S. in counterterrorism efforts, U.S. and Yemeni officials said.
While the White House maintains that it is pressing Yemen on both the Al Qaeda and prisoner issues, Hoekstra said the issue of emptying out Guantanamo seems to have priority. “The president appears single-mindely focused on closing Guantanamo. He spends more time and energy on closing Guantanamo than on any of the other issues,” said the Michigan Republican.
One expert on Yemen said the danger it poses to the U.S. has the potential to grow, regardless of whether Guantanamo prisoners are sent there.
“While people say it’s a haven for Al Qaeda, they do not have the kind of cover they had in Afghanistan. The Yemeni military doesn’t like them,” said Charles Schmitz, a geography professor at Towson University in Maryland. “You have a government that’s kind of teetering – That doesn’t have a whole lot of legitimacy….There’s civil disobedience in the south and the Army is basically losing a war in the north. You do have places where they could set up and basically hatch their little plans.”
Hoekstra said the Pentagon has prepared a new report on recidivism among Guantanamo detainees and is keeping the report classified despite repeated Congressional requests to make it public.
While Hoekstra and King were briefed by the White House about the Detroit incident, the pair were also chafing yesterday at what they said was the Obama Administration’s tight control on information about the Detroit incident. As with the shooting at Ft. Hood in November, the White House has ordered federal agencies not to provide briefings or answer inquiries from members of Congress, leaving all such contacts to be handled by the White House.
“I don’t think I ever saw that throughout President Bush’s time in the White House. I could call directly to the director of the CIA or the [National Counterterrorism Center] and get whatever briefings I wanted,” Hoekstra said. He called the briefing limits “totally inappropriate,” but said the White House maintained the orders were needed because of the ongoing criminal investigation.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/30982...
December 26th, 2009
You have a great site here. I have one myself where people from around the world come and debate on popular issues. I am telling you this because I believe you can provide some valuable insight to the readers and other debaters.
Also, I'd like to exchange links with you. If you agree, please leave me a comment under my “Compadres” page letting me know when you have placed my link on your page and I'll return the favor.
Keep up the good work.
Jason
DEBATEitOUT.com
December 27th, 2009
You're still here?
December 27th, 2009
WeeSeeYou.com is dedicated to supporting our President and Keeping Our Eyes on African Americans: Our History, Political Issues, & Popular Culture!
We
Enlighten and
Engage.
We
Encourage and
Entertain.
We
Empower and
Enrich.
December 27th, 2009
LOL! Even Rudolph wouldn't let him join in any reindeer games…
December 27th, 2009
LMAO!
December 27th, 2009
I saw the thread Shanti! That was a wonderful effort! More curse words are needed next time. ;-p LOL.
OTOH, I'm glad I'll be back on the link sweeps next month. I just posted part 1 of my year end review. It's on the top 15 stories in entertainment this year. It's pretty long, but my intent was to make it a very enjoyable, yet informative read. Now I have to work on the Year End Review for sports (which won't really be that long, thank goodness) and politics which may need 2 posts LOL.
December 27th, 2009
Hey SG2!!! I missed you guys! I've been so busy and probably won't be on the site that often except for early in the day and late in the evening.
The fridge is full of leftovers but my punkass mother in law took a shitload of the ham, turkey, and roast. That roast was the shit, and I wanted to keep most of the leftovers for that and it seemed like she took half of it with her! WTF???
*whoooossssaaaahhhhhh*
December 27th, 2009
You'd be surprised to find out that it's the punch that is the first thing to go before the sweet tea (and the tea is friggin' awesome). I don't like sweet tea, but everyone else does, so I let them have at it. I'm stingy with the punch.
I got the most compliments on my roast, candied yams, green beans and mashed potatoes. Everything was good, but I kept hearing about those things. *mouth starts to water* It's too late in the night to get a chocolate cupcake.
December 27th, 2009
LMAO
OOPS!
December 27th, 2009
Thanks Shanti2, it was a nice Christmas. We cooked on Christmas eve after work and took every thing up to Raleigh to have Christmas with my daughter. It was different having everything done ahead of time and got to relax a bit even though the trip there and back was rain and more rain.
December 27th, 2009
My daughter has one of those huge HG TV's that cost about as much as I paid for my car. We got to select which movies we have already seen to watch again. The votes were for Mama Mia and Rat Race. Still can't get those Abba songs out of my head (Yuk). I should have bought a squirrel.
December 27th, 2009
I'm sure your punch is wonderful, but I would have had the tea pitcher right by my side, daring folks to come over and try to take it from in front of me…LOL
December 27th, 2009
BWA HHA! We took a vote on moives too, and “Mama Mia won out X-mas eve. We watched a “Man called Pearl” last night. I'd highly recommend it!!!
December 27th, 2009
ROTFLMBAO!! Naw, I aint trna top ya on those spehphul words. Nobody brings it to the sweeps like you!
Can't wait to check out the top 15.
December 27th, 2009
Tee hee…. You know I can't stand her.
December 27th, 2009
It's up and running. I will move it up so that it is the first post on the front page.
December 27th, 2009
SMH @ you hoggin' all the sweet tea. You sound like me with the punch pitcher. LOL. I love that stuff.
Oh well, back to grilled meats, steamed veggies, brown rice, fresh fruit and tons of water.
Well, for the new year at least. No way I'm going back to my health kick with all those leftovers in my house. Did you know there's an app for your iPod/iPhone that's by Nike that's like a personal trainer? I need to put that into use. Check out my new post. I've been working on it all week (only because of everything going on for the past week, I haven't had a chance to sit down and do it until yesterday).