Powell said that even though his parents didn’t make much while he was growing up in New York, they were able to find stable work, unlike many people who are part of the movement.

“I don’t think either of them ever made more than 50 or 60 dollars a week,” Powell said. “Both my parents worked for as long as I can remember, they always worked, they always had work.”

But this sort of job stability is no longer present, the retired four-star Army general said, a fact that is now serving as a catalyzing force for the Occupy movement.

“People are concerned now that there is not that source of an income, there isn’t that work source that I remember,” Powell continued. “What you’re seeing with Occupy Wall Street and the others are people who are unhappy and they’re directing their unhappiness now toward Wall Street and toward those they think are doing too well in our society.”

Read more at HuffingtonPost.com

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There are plenty of familiar Black faces in the public eye who took time out of their lives to serve their country in the United States armed forces. In honor of Veterans Day, here’s a gallery of some former servicemen you knew about, and maybe a few you didn’t.

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After Colin Powell told CBS News “Face The Nation” that he wasn’t sure who he was going to vote for in the 2012 Election, Limbaugh said on his radio show that Powell will vote for President Obama in 2012 because “melanin is thicker than water.”

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Powell, a Republican, endorsed President Obama in the 2008 election, but did not indicate if he would do the same this time around.

CBS reports:

I haven’t decided who I’m going to vote for.

Just as was the case in 2008, I am going to watch the campaign unfold. In the course of my life I have voted for Democrats, I have voted for Republicans, I have changed from one four-year cycle to another.

Read more at CBS.com

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It was the latest volley in a clash that stretches back to their first years in former President George W. Bush’s administration.

Powell said that if Cheney’s staff and others in Bush’s White House had been as forthcoming as the State Department in the case involving CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson, the indictment and conviction of Cheney’s friend and former chief of staff wouldn’t have happened.

Powell made the remarks yesterday on CBS’s “Face the Nation’’ ahead of tomorrow’s release of Cheney’s book, “In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir.’’ Cheney said in an earlier NBC interview that the book would cause “heads to explode’’ in Washington, a description Powell said he expected from a supermarket tabloid and not a former vice president.

“From what I’ve read in the newspapers and seen on television, it’s essentially a rehash of events of seven or eight years ago.’’

Cheney and Powell had numerous disagreements in the administration, particularly over policy toward Iraq and the run-up to the 2003 invasion by US-led forces. Still, Powell called Cheney’s description of how Powell went outside with his criticism of administration policies “nonsense.’’

“Mr. Cheney has had a long and distinguished career, and I hope in his book that’s what he will focus on, not these cheap shots that he’s taking at me and other members of the administration who served to the best of our ability for President Bush,’’ Powell said.

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ORANGEBURG, S.C. — Colin Powell told graduates of South Carolina’s premier historically black university that they were graduating during a tumultuous time that saw a royal wedding, a pope’s beatification and a U.S. military assault that killed Osama bin Laden, “the worst person on earth.”

But the former secretary of state and Joint Chiefs chairman told South Carolina State University’s 400 graduates on Friday that he particularly enjoyed another recent event: “That was when President Obama took out his birth certificate and blew away Donald Trump and all the birthers!”

The stadium roared in approval of Powell’s comments on the president’s move last week to quell the doubts of those who don’t believe he was born in Hawaii. The retired Army four-star general endorsed Obama’s 2008 presidential bid.

Earlier Friday, Powell was made an honorary member of the school’s ROTC hall of fame.

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“It has been known for several years that the source called Curveball was totally unreliable,” Powell told the British newspaper.

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“The question should be put to the CIA and the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) as to why this wasn’t known before the false information was put into the (report) sent to Congress, the president’s state of the union address and my 5 February presentation to the UN.”

Read The Whole Story

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The Guardian newspaper published an interview Wednesday with Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, who has been identified as the informer called “Curveball,” whose claims about weapon labs formed part of then-U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell’s speech to the U.N. Security Council in 2003, shortly before the war began.

The Guardian quoted al-Janabi as saying: “I had the chance to fabricate something to topple the regime. I and my sons are proud of that.”

Although some intelligence agents were skeptical of Curveball’s story, the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee reported in 2004 that the Central Intelligence Agency “withheld important information about Curveball’s reliability” from analysts dealing with the case.

The Guardian interviewed al-Janabi in Karlsruhe, Germany in a mixture of Arabic and German. The U.S. Senate panel’s report said Curveball spoke in English and Arabic when he was interrogated by intelligence officers.

Asked about his feeling’s about the deaths and destruction during the war and in the years following, The Guardian said al-Janabi said there was no other way.

“I tell you something when I hear anybody not just in Iraq but in any war (is) killed, I am very sad. But give me another solution. Can you give me another solution?” the newspaper quoted him as saying.

“Saddam did not (allow) freedom in our land,” the Iraqi said. “There are no other political parties. You have to believe what Saddam says, and do what Saddam wants. And I don’t accept that. I have to do something for my country. So I did this and I am satisfied, because there is no dictator in Iraq any more.”

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When asked to rate the progress made by President Barack Obama two years into his term of office, retired General Colin Powell said this Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union:

“He’s got a way to go. I mean he hasn’t achieved all of his purposes, but he’s stabilized the economy. … Whether you approve of health care or not, he took on that challenge, which is a major issue for the American people. … I think he has reached out to countries around the world and has developed good relations. … He’s working very hard on the issue of unemployment, which I think is the major problem facing America right now and I hope this will be the centerpiece of the state of the union speech.”

Powell, who was secretary of state under George W. Bush, had this to say about the high hopes and expectations the international community had when President Obama took office:

Read more at TheRoot

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We never anticipated the popularity of this article, nor the controversy that it would cause.  But all we can say is, “Thank you, Rush, for being you.” Before we get into the Top 10 Racist Limbaugh Quotes of All-Time, here are some of Limbaugh’s most recent racist statements.

Do you think any of Limbaugh’s recent rants belong in the TOP 10?  If so, let us know in the COMMENTS!

THE TOP TEN RACIST RUSH LIMBAUGH QUOTES

1. “Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?”

Source

No, but I’ve noticed that all racist bigots think like Rush Limbaugh. Comparing a respected black politician and minister to common criminals is Jim Crow racism. Maybe all black people look alike to him, but I’ve never seen a picture of a wanted criminal that looks like Jesse Jackson. A serial killer that looks like Rush Limbaugh on the other hand.

John Wayne Gacy

2. “Right. So you go into Darfur and you go into South Africa, you get rid of the white government there. You put sanctions on them. You stand behind Nelson Mandela — who was bankrolled by communists for a time, had the support of certain communist leaders. You go to Ethiopia. You do the same thing.”

Source

The communist connection is an old way of dealing with black leaders. They used it on Martin Luther King, they’re using it on Barack Obama and Limbaugh used it on Nelson Mandela. By siding with the racist apartheid regime over a world-wide symbol of peace and freedom, Limbaugh has shown he’s a global racist.

3. “Look, let me put it to you this way: the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it.”

Source

Limbaugh is once again fear mongering and race baiting by associating professional black athletes with criminals and gangmembers. He continues the fear mongering association of good, decent, hard working African Americans as criminals.

4. “The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies.”

Source

Now Limbaugh is saying that an organization with a storied tradition of representing the positive black people for change in their communities are criminals and rioters. An organization that has been represented by intelligent professional African Americans, that has played a part in the Civil Rights movement and continues to be an intelligent, concerned voice for the African American community is degraded to common criminals. There you go Rush. Keep racism alive!!!!

5. “They’re 12 percent of the population. Who the hell cares?”

Source

Decent human beings care Rush. Someone out of that 12% is the President of the United States. Not caring about black people? Even George Bush wouldn’t admit to that.

6. [To an African American female caller]: “Take that bone out of your nose and call me back.”

Source

Okay, Rush, that’s classy. The old African bone in the nose stereotype. Wasn’t funny when the racist white school kids called the black kids that and it’s definitely not funny when a grown man with audience of millions of easily influenced dittoheads says it either.

7.  ”I think the media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well.  They’re interested in black coaches and black quarterbacks doing well.  I think there’s a little hope invested in McNabb and he got a lot of credit for the performance of his team that he really didn’t deserve.”

Source

I wasn’t super offended by this, the whole black quarterback/coach thing has been going on for years in sports, but the quote was so offensive that Retired General Wesley Clarke said:

There can be no excuse for such statements. Mr. Limbaugh has the right to say whatever he wants, but ABC and ESPN have no obligation to sponsor such hateful and ignorant speech. Mr. Limbaugh should be fired immediately.

When a respected, retired general condemns the statement of a sportscaster, you know he’s gone too far.

8. Limbaugh’s many attacks on Obama.

Limbaugh has called Obama a ‘halfrican American’ has said that Obama was not Black but Arab because Kenya is an Arab region, even though Arabs are less than one percent of Kenya. Since mainstream America has become more accepting of African-Americans, Limbaugh has decided to play against its new racial fears, Arabs and Muslims. Despite the fact Obama graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law school, Limbaugh has called him an ‘affirmative action candidate.’ Limbaugh even has repeatedly played a song on his radio show ‘Barack the Magic Negro’ using an antiquated Jim Crow era term for Black a man who many Americans are supporting for president. Way to go Rush.

So Rush Limbaugh has managed to make racist attacks on four of the most admired and respected people of African descent in the past one hundred years, in Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Colin Powell and Barack Obama. He has claimed that Joe the Plumber, who isn’t even a plumber is more important in this election than Colin Powell, a decorated military veteran who has served honorably in three administrations. How can the Republican party stand by this man and let their candidates appear on his show? Rush Limbaugh’s comments are so racist, they’re funny, in a Borat, Archie Bunker kind of way. What is not funny is the millions of dittoheads who listen to him, who take in and re-spout all the racist rhetoric that he spits. Limbaugh’s statements are echoed in the racist, angry Palin/McCain supporters who shout ‘kill him,’ ‘terrorist,’ ‘communist,’ ‘traitor,’ ‘socialist’ and ‘off with his head.’

9. “We need segregated buses… This is Obama’s America.”

Source

Okay Limbaugh let’s take back all of the Civil Rights movement and bring segregation back. But you’re not a racist.

10. “Obama’s entire economic program is reparations.”

Source

So everything Obama is doing is a big plot to give money to Black people. Any evidence? Stop the racist fear-mongering.

THE TWO CONTESTED QUOTES

We ran these two quotes as part of our original list of ten. However, in the fall of 2009, this post surfaced in the debate that followed Limbaugh’s dismissal from an investment group attempting to purchase the St. Louis Rams. NewsOne has, as yet, not been able to determine the veracity of these quotes.  We note the following for the record:

• These two quotes were both sourced to a book by Jack Huberman called “101 People Who Are Really Screwing America,” published by Nation Books in 2006. The author of this book, in turn, claims that he procured these quotes from a source which he has refused to reveal “on advice of counsel.”
• Rush Limbaugh has vigorously denied that he said these things.

In sum, NewsOne can no longer vouch for the accuracy of these quotes. Nor can we trust Limbaugh, who never denied saying the other eight racist quotes on our original list, and whose own track record of duplicity gives us pause.  We keep them in our post for their news value as a controversial, and perhaps dubious attribution. Segregated, of course. Which should make some people very happy.

1. “I mean, let’s face it, we didn’t have slavery in this country for over 100 years because it was a bad thing. Quite the opposite: slavery built the South. I’m not saying we should bring it back; I’m just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark.”

Source

2. “You know who deserves a posthumous Medal of Honor? James Earl Ray [the confessed assassin of Martin Luther King]. We miss you, James. Godspeed.”

Source

BONUS QUOTES

(…because ten isn’t enough!)

“Obama is “more African in his roots than he is American” and is “behaving like an African colonial despot”

Source

How exactly does and African colonial despot behave? Trying to degrade our President by attacking his African roots?

“Obama is an angry Black guy”

Source

Was John McCain an angry white guy? Was George Bush a dumb white man? Is your hero, Dick Cheney, an evil white demon? Why are you playing off the angry Black guy stereotype to disrespect our President?

ANTI-LATINO QUOTES

“Let the unskilled jobs that take absolutely no knowledge whatsoever to do — let stupid and unskilled Mexicans do that work.”

Source

“You’re a foreigner. You shut your mouth or you get out.”

Source

“A Chavez is a Chavez. We’ve Always Had Problems with Them”

Source

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As Black History Month comes to an end, it is important that we remember the African-Americans who fought and died for America during its many wars. Few people know that the man credited to be the first one to die in the Revolutionary War was a Black man by the name of Crispus Attucks. During the War of 1812, Black soldiers helped defeat the British in New Orleans.

By the end of the Civil War, 10% of the union forces were Black. The 54th regiment, which was an all Black fighting unit, was immortalized in the movie “Glory” and fought a number of important battles, eventually losing more than half of their troops. Two of Frederick Douglass’s sons also fought in the Civil War and Harriet Tubman severed as a scout for the 2nd South Carolina Volunteers.

During World War I, Black soldiers were given full citizenship, although they still fought in segregated units. Many credit Black soldiers for bringing Jazz music to Europe and France.

In World War II, Black soldiers had an increased presence. The NAACP pushed for the War Department to form the all-black 99th Pursuit Squadron of the U.S. Army Air Corps, otherwise known as the Tuskegee Airmen. The Tuskegee airmen were the only U.S. unit to sink a German destroyer. Like the 54th Regiment, the Tuskegee Airmen were immortalized in a movie of the same name.

The Marines first opened themselves to Black volunteers in 1942. To the dismay of the Marines only 63 African Americans joined.

Black officer, Lieutenant Colonel Campbell C. Johnson, decided that he would actively recruit Black Marines. Due to his efforts African Americans began joining the Marines at a rate of more than 1,000 a month in 1943.

Despite the opposition to the Vietnam war from Black leaders and athletes like Martin Luther King and Muhammad Ali, many Black soldiers both volunteered and were drafted to fight in the Vietnam war. Colin Powell joined the ROTC at City College and would go on to be a Captain in Vietnam, later becoming a major. Powell would go on to be National Security Adviser (1987–1989), Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Army Forces Command (1989) and as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989–1993) and eventually as Secretary of State for George W. Bush in 2001.

Another Black Vietnam veteran who would go on to success was Col. Charles F. Bolden. After graduating from the United States Naval Academy in 1968, he became a second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps, flying over 100 sorties in Vietnam. Bolden’s flying skills made him an ideal candidate for NASA, which he joined as an astronaut in 1981. After a long and impressive career as an astronaut, President Barack Obama name Bolden the head of NASA.

From WashingtonPost.com:

Retired Army Gen. Colin L. Powell, whose opposition to allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the military helped lead to adoption of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” legislation 17 years ago, said Wednesday that he now thinks the restrictive law should be repealed.“Attitudes and circumstances have changed,” Powell said. “It’s been a whole generation” since the legislation was adopted, and there is increased “acceptance of gays and lesbians in society,” he said. “Society is always reflected in the military. It’s where we get our soldiers from.”

At the same time, he said, “we’ve had a lot of experience watching what other nations have done.” Of 28 NATO member countries, a small minority prohibit or restrict service based on sexual orientation.

Text continues after gallery…

Click here to read more.

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Dear Michael Steele,

You are in between a rock in a hard place. You seem to talk one way to Black people and another to your Republican colleagues. Do you really think white Republicans are scared of you? It seems like you are more scared of white Republicans. When you called Rush Limbaugh an ugly, incendiary voice, you apologized promptly. So while the GOP might not be scared of you, you are definitely scared of Rush Limbaugh.

It seems to me that both white Republicans and the African American community seem to view you as a joke. Why do you think Republicans scared of you? Is it because your Black? Why do you feel the need to tell them that your on their side? Shouldn’t they already know that considering you’re the head of the RNC.

Since you’re the head of the RNC, why don’t you do anything about the pattern of racist emails and Facebook scandals your party keeps getting into? When you say change comes in a teabag, are you aware of the racism and ugly Anti-Obama sentiment that comes from these rallies.

Your use of slang makes you more of an outdated stereotype than someone who is in touch with Black culture. Black people aren’t stupid. You can’t just say “what’s up, I’m in the heezy” and just get them to vote for your party. Clearly both Obama and Michelle Bachman seem to treat your use of slang as a joke.

Black people will not become Republicans just because you change the name of the RNC’s blog to “What Up.” That is the name of teen Black pop magazine from the eighties. This just makes it look like you are patronizing the African American community and making the GOP look silly.

The problem with the GOP is not its lack of Black figureheads and the use of slang. The GOP has long written off Black voters and has used Black people as scapegoats to get white votes. They have voted against the interests of African Americans, whether it be affirmative action, funding inner city schools, or social programs.

When you stand up for Joe Wilson after he disrespects the President of the USA during a speech, you are aligning yourself with a man with a very strong history of racism against the first Black president.

Colin Powell is a Black republican who I respect. A man who isn’t scared to speak out against Rush Limbaugh and GOP racism. You on the other hand seem to be more of a tool of the GOP racists who only represents your people and culture with slang that no one over 40 (or under) should use.

Sincerely Casey Gane-McCalla

From ABC News:

In an interview with Roland Martin on the Tom Joyner Morning Show this morning, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Colin Powell revealed that he recently advised President Obama to take his time in devising his strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

You can listen to the audio of this interview HERE.

“This is a very difficult one for him,” Powell said. “And it isn’t just a one-time decision. This is the decision that will have consequences for the better part of his administration. So Mr. President, don’t get pushed by the left to do nothing; don’t get pushed by the right to do everything. You take your time and you figure it out. You’re the commander-in-chief and this is what you were elected for.”

Powell said he had “advised him is to not be rushed into a decision because this one is the decision that will have consequences for years to come.”

Click here to read more.

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From CNN:

On the first anniversary of the historic 2008 election, retired Gen. Colin Powell, the first African-American secretary of state, talks one-on-one with CNN’s Don Lemon about on the most pressing issues facing black men in the age of President Obama.

Don Lemon: President Barack Obama issued a national call to service. Do you think African-Americans have answered that call?

Colin Powell: I really don’t know that I know the answer to that question. I do know that in the work that I do and my wife does as the chair of America’s Promise, we are seeing more and more people step forward to try to deal with the problems that we have, to include African-Americans and Hispanics stepping forward.

But it’s not just a one-time thing. You can’t just have, let’s have a day of service on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday or a day of service. We’ve got to get deeply involved in working with our kids on a continuing basis and not just one day a year.

We need more African-American men, for example, to step forward and serve as mentors to young kids who don’t have a responsible, caring adult male in their lives. If I could snap my finger and do one thing, I would make sure that every young American boy or girl, but especially African-American [children], have a responsible, caring adult in their lives.

Hopefully, it’s their parents, even if it’s a single parent. … But without that kind of family support, then we need Boys and Girls Clubs. We need Big Brothers and Big Sisters. We need mentors. Otherwise, these kids will find bad adults to copy from, and we’re going to lose them.

Click here to read more.

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VIDEO: Colin Powell Endorses Barack Obama

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell was mildly critical Tuesday of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., whose angry response to a Cambridge, Mass., police officer touched off a national debate involving President Barack Obama.

Powell, interviewed by CNN’s Larry King, criticized the way Gates dealt with Sgt. James Crowley, a white officer who responded to reports of a possible break-in by arresting the black professor at his home on a charge of disorderly conduct. The charge was soon dropped.

Gates “might have waited a while, come outside, talked to the officer, and that might have been the end of it,” said Powell, one of the nation’s most prominent African Americans.

“I think he should have reflected on whether or not this was the time to make that big a deal,” he said.

But, Powell said, Gates was just home from China and New York and “all he wanted to do was get to bed.”

When asked about the incident at a news conference, Obama said the police acted stupidly. The president subsequently toned down his criticism but not his denunciation of racial profiling generally.

Powell said he was the target of racial profiling many times and he sometimes got mad.

On one such occasion, he said, he tried to meet someone at Reagan National Airport “and nobody thought I could be the national security adviser to the president. I was just a black guy.”

Asked how he dealt with the situation, Powell said “You just suck it up. What are you going to do?”

“There is no African American in this country who has not been exposed to this kind of situation,” Powell said.

But, he said, “when you are faced with an officer trying to do his job and get to the bottom of something, this is not the time to get in an argument with him. I was taught that as a child.

“You don’t argue with a police officer,” Powell said.

WATCH the interview here:

From CNN.com:

Willie Thornton is on a rescue mission. One morning in March he set out to save Desmond Dunklin, a 19-year-old who should have graduated last year from Greenville High School in Greenville, Alabama.

Thornton, 48, the school’s dropout prevention coordinator, and Lt. Malcolm Owens, the school’s police officer, drive the five minutes to Dunklin’s house.

“I need for you to show up,” Thornton tells a sleepy Dunklin, who clearly has just been awakened by the men’s repeated knocking on his door.

Dunklin hadn’t been attending school regularly, despite six or seven home visits from Thornton.

Thornton has been teaching for 16 years, but this is his first year running the dropout prevention program. It is his job to mentor, encourage, counsel and cajole 70 students considered at-risk for dropping out. His school in rural Butler County claims a 75 percent graduation rate, but a number of those kids don’t get out within four years. The Southern Education Foundation, an education research group, says only about six in 10 students in Butler County graduate within four years.

Click here for the full story.

From CNN

As Colin Powell fires back against Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh in the latest skirmish in the battle over the future of the Republican Party, a new national poll indicates that Americans have a much more favorable opinion of Powell than Cheney or Limbaugh.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey, released Monday, suggests that 70 percent have a favorable opinion of Powell, who was Secretary of State during President George W. Bush’s first term, and who served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Persian Gulf War.

Only 30 percent of those polled have a favorable view of Limbaugh, the popular conservative radio talk show host, with 53 percent saying they hold an unfavorable opinion.

In poll numbers released Thursday, 37 percent say they have a favorable opinion of Dick Cheney, with 55 percent indicating they hold an unfavorable view of the former vice president.

Read the Whole Story

Powell at Boston Fundraiser

“Rush Limbaugh says, ‘Get out of the Republican Party,’” said Powell, who endorsed President Obama last Fall. “Dick Cheney says, ‘He’s already out.’ I may be out of their version of the Republican Party, but there’s another version of the Republican Party waiting to emerge once again.”

Limbaugh on his Show

“The version of the party that he’s waiting to emerge is not the Reagan wing of the party. Does Powell have the pulse of the Republican Party, folks? He’s for more spending. He’s for higher taxes. He’s against raising the social issues. He’s for affirmative action. He’s for amnesty for illegals. He endorsed Obama.

“And now there’s an agenda — an emerging agenda — that he’s waiting for for the Republican Party? The only thing emerging here is Colin Powell’s ego. Colin Powell represents the stale, the old, the worn-out GOP that never won anything. The party of Gerald Ford, Nelson Rockefeller, Bill Scranton, Arnold Schwarzenegger and those types of people. Has anybody heard Colin Powell say a single word against Obama’s radicalism — or Pelosi or Reid, for that matter? Maybe he has but his fawning media sure hasn’t reported if he has said it.”

The General vs. The Bigot: Cheney’s Choice of Leader

Cheney Picks Limbaugh Over Powell

Colin Powell Disses Limbaugh, Palin and the GOP

While Dick Cheney’s endorsement of Rush Limbaugh might carry the weight of any other supervillain’s endorsement, it is still significant. When Dick Cheney, still one of the most recognizable faces of the Republican Party, chose Rush Limbaugh over Colin Powell, he chose racism over service to your country, divisiveness over diplomacy, and anger over prudence.

Since the Republicans value military service, family values and patriotism so much, it is strange that Cheney would pick Limbaugh. Here’s a comparison of the two.

Education

Powell
Grew up poor in the South Bronx yet managed to graduate from City College.  Received M.B.A. from George Washington University, after his second tour in Vietnam in 1971.

Limbaugh
Grew up rich and flunked out of college after two semesters

Military Service

Powell
41 years of service from private to general

Limbaugh
Draft dodger

Family Values

Powell
Married for 46 years, with one child

Limbaugh
Thrice divorced, no children

Racism

Powell
None to speak of.

Limbaugh
Top 10 Racist Quotes

Sexism

Powell
None to Speak of

Limbaugh
He said:  “Feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream of society,” and also, “We’re not sexists, we’re chauvinists — we’re male chauvinist pigs, and we’re happy to be because we think that’s what men were destined to be. We think that’s what women want.”

Patriotism

Powell
50 years of serving his country under both political parties

Limbaugh
Blind loyalty to his country when his party is in power. Wants his country to fail when it isn’t.

Legal Problems

Powell
None to speak of

Limbaugh
Was accused of laundering money to illegally buy prescription pills. Prosecutors agreed to drop the charge if Limbaugh paid $30,000 to defray the cost of the investigation and completed an 18-month therapy regimen with his physician.

Approval Rating

Powell
80%

Limbaugh
26%

Cheney says that Powell was a Democrat because of his endorsement of Barack Obama. He clearly didn’t listen to a word Powell said when he endorsed Obama. Powell wasn’t abandoning Republican values or principles but was decrying the racism and divisiveness the party was promoting. By choosing a racist, sexist, hate spewing entertainer over a respected, fair ex-general, Cheney is illustrating the new ugly face of the Republican party. A party with no ideas, a party that caters to racists and bigots and a party that wants America to fail.

Dick Cheney made clear Sunday he’d rather follow firebrand broadcaster Rush Limbaugh than former Joint Chiefs chairman Colin Powell into political battle over the future of the Republican Party.

Even as Cheney embraced efforts to expand the party by ex-Govs. Jeb Bush of Florida and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and the House’s No. 2 Republican, Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor, the former vice president appeared to write his one-time colleague Powell out of the GOP.

Asked about recent verbal broadsides between Limbaugh and Powell, Cheney said, “If I had to choose in terms of being a Republican, I’d go with Rush Limbaugh. My take on it was Colin had already left the party. I didn’t know he was still a Republican.”

Powell, who was secretary of state under President George W. Bush and held the nation’s top military post under President George H.W. Bush, endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president last year. Nonetheless, since the election he has described himself as a Republican and a right-of-center conservative, though “not as right as others would like.”

Cheney, citing Powell’s backing of Obama over Republican nominee John McCain, said, “I assumed that that is some indication of his loyalty and his interests.”

Cheney’s remarks on CBS’ “Face the Nation” were the latest step in his slow-motion estrangement from Powell since the two worked closely together to manage the Persian Gulf war in 1991 — Powell as the Army general who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Cheney as defense secretary for the elder Bush.

Under the younger Bush, Powell initially backed action against Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and delivered a famous U.N. speech laying out the U.S. case. But Powell and Cheney increasingly parted ways over the Bush administration’s policies on the war and terrorism, with Cheney usually prevailing. Powell left the administration after Bush’s first term.

Wading into the debate over the GOP’s future, Cheney called efforts by George W. Bush’s brother Jeb, along with Cantor and Romney, as “a good thing to do,” but set a limit on how far the party should go.

“The suggestion our Democratic friends always make is somehow if you Republicans were just more like Democrats, you’d win elections,” Cheney said. “Well, I don’t buy that. We win elections when we have good solid conservative principles to run upon.”

Powell has argued the Republican Party needs to move toward the center and reach out to growing black, Hispanic and Asian communities, but instead has been shrinking because it hasn’t changed as the country changed in the face of economic distress. “Americans are looking for more government in their life, not less,” Powell said last week.

For months, Powell has urged the party to turn away from the acid-tongued Limbaugh. “I think what Rush does as an entertainer diminishes the party and intrudes or inserts into our public life a kind of nastiness that we would be better to do without,” Powell said.

“Colin Powell is just another liberal,” Limbaugh retorted. “What Colin Powell needs to do is close the loop and become a Democrat.” Limbaugh said Powell is “just mad at me because I’m the one person in the country that had the guts to explain his endorsement of Obama. It was purely and solely based on race.” Both Powell and Obama are black.

Watch Cheney

On other topics on the CBS interview, Cheney:

_said transferring suspected terrorists from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the United States would be a bad idea that would enlarge their legal rights. Obama’s national security adviser, retired Marine Gen. James Jones, told ABC’s “This Week” the White House isn’t going to do that if it would make Americans less safe.

_reiterated his belief the U.S. has become more vulnerable to a potential terrorist attack since the Obama administration renounced harsh interrogation tactics such as waterboarding, which simulates drowning, that Cheney said provided good intelligence. Jones said he didn’t believe the nation was at greater risk and that even some in the Bush administration disagreed with Cheney on that score.

_renewed his call for the administration to release two CIA memos he said list successes derived from those interrogations, including “attack planning that was under way and how it was stopped.” The Obama administration is reviewing Cheney’s request. Obama has said the memos are not so clear-cut and do not address whether the information could have been obtained without such methods.

_said he has been speaking out about the Obama administration although George W. Bush remains silent, because if he didn’t, “then the critics have free run, and there isn’t anybody there on the other side to tell the truth.”

From National Journal

The Republican Party is in big trouble and needs to find a way to move back to the middle of the country, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Monday.

Powell said the GOP is “getting smaller and smaller” and “that’s not good for the nation.” He also said he hopes that emerging GOP leaders, such as House Minority Whip Cantor, will not keep repeating mantras of the far right.

“The Republican Party is in deep trouble,” Powell told corporate security executives at a conference in Washington sponsored by Fortify Software Inc. The party must realize that the country has changed, he said. “Americans do want to pay taxes for services,” he said. “Americans are looking for more government in their life, not less.”

He blasted radio commentator Rush Limbaugh, saying he does not believe that Limbaugh or conservative icon Ann Coulter serve the party well. He said the party lacks a “positive” spokesperson. “I think what Rush does as an entertainer diminishes the party and intrudes or inserts into our public life a kind of nastiness that we would be better to do without,” Powell said.

He also said that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain’s running mate last year, is “a very accomplished person” but became “a very polarizing figure.” He said the polarization was created by Palin’s advisers.

Read the Whole Story

Click Here For More Background on the Concert

More than 2,000 people gathered Sunday at the Lincoln Memorial for a concert honoring the 70th anniversary of Marian Anderson’s historic performance there in 1939.

Because of the color of her skin, Anderson was denied the opportunity to perform at nearby Constitution Hall and local high school. So, instead, the opera singer sang on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in April 1939 to a 75,000-person crowd of blacks and whites standing together.

In the Sunday afternoon sunshine, African-American opera star Denyce Graves performed three of the same songs Anderson sang 70 years ago: “America (My Country, ‘Tis of Thee),” “O, Mio Fernando” and “Ave Maria.”

Wearing one of Anderson’s old dresses, Graves called her predecessor “one of my greatest heroes.”

“It is the honor of my life and my career to be celebrating this day of freedom with you,” she told the audience.

She joked that when she looked over Anderson’s performance list and saw “O, Mio Fernando” she thought “my God she sang that song; that’s really hard.”

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell recited excerpts from President Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address. Afterward he remarked on Lincoln’s famous call to heal the nation’s wounds after the Civil War, “with malice toward none, with charity for all,” telling the audience they should aspire to those words.

The Chicago Children’s Choir, women’s a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock and the U.S. Marine Band also performed at the concert.

Introducing a number called “Would You Harbor Me,” a member of Sweet Honey in the Rock said the song was “written because this country has been a harborer to so many, but at the same time it has rejected so many.”

Those words highlight Anderson’s own story. She grew up in poverty in South Philadelphia, but became famous in the 1930s, performing for royalty and in major concert halls in Europe, New York and Philadelphia.

When her manager tried to book Anderson at Constitution Hall, the largest venue in segregated Washington at the time, she was rejected by the Daughters of the American Revolution, which owned the hall and prohibited African Americans from performing there. The district’s school board also turned her away from singing at a school’s auditorium.

“To me, it’s just very dramatic,” said Josephine Pesaresi, 75, the daughter of Justice Hugo Black, who attended the 1939 event. “People are younger, they don’t realize what huge things have happened and how far we have come. It makes me weep, I’m so happy.”

Pesaresi, who sat near the stage at Sunday’s concert, said in an interview Saturday that the anniversary made her recall how her father had grown in his racial outlook. Black, once a member of the Ku Klux Klan, later joined an unanimous Supreme Court in outlawing segregation in public schools in 1954 and often voted with the court’s liberal wing on civil rights cases.

“He and my mother went to that concert, because he so firmly believed in equality,” she said.

Sunday was a time to reflect “where we were then, where we are now, and how far we have to go,” said Raymond Arsenault, who has written a book on Anderson’s concert and has consulted with the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. The commission and the National Park Service are sponsoring the event.

According to Arsenault, the 1939 event wasn’t just a concert. “It was this sort of crack in the mold; it just showed people this alternative vision of what America might be like if it lived up to its goals of liberty.”

Seventy-year anniversaries ceremonies aren’t that common, but the Bicentennial Commission decided to hold the concert this year because it coincided with the 200th anniversary ofLincoln’s birthday. Organizers view Anderson’s concert as a major step in the advancement of civil rights that Lincoln helped inspire.

The anniversary performance also occurs within the first 100 days of Barack Obama’s presidency.

Following the hour-long performance about 200 people were sworn in as U.S. citizens, symbolizing the rights all Americans are guaranteed.

Before the swearing in, Powell talked about his parents’ immigration to the United States from Jamaica.

“It wasn’t a perfect place, as we have witnessed here with this celebration,” he said. “But it was a place that just kept getting better and better and better.”

Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell will appear on prime time to thank a disabled Gulf War veteran for his service.

Powell will be shown meeting with former Army combat medic Jeff Cooper and his family as part of an episode of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” airing in May.

Cooper, of Jamesville, N.C. suffers from multiple sclerosis, immune disorders, a collection of symptoms commonly called Gulf War illness and is confined to a wheelchair.

Despite his pain, Cooper devotes his time to making sure veterans are recognized and has lobbied to have all vets who served in the Gulf War get a special license plate of recognition.

The Cooper family is shown living in a decaying mobile home with bad electrical wiring, a sinking roof, and a rotting wheelchair ramp. “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” decides to rebuild their home in just a week.

The Coopers are then sent on vacation to Washington, D.C., where they meet with Powell, who presents Cooper with a gift.

The Cooper family episode, which was taped in March, will air on ABC on May 3.

Other celebrities who’ve appeared on “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” include LeAnn Rimes, Jennifer Hudson and David Beckham.

From Nicholas Graham at Huffington Post:

Colin Powell, in a lengthy interview with Fareed Zakaria on CNN, questioned whether the Republican Party had a future if it continued listening to and taking its cues from right wing radio host Rush Limbaugh. Powell said that figures such as Limbaugh appeal to Republicans’ lesser instincts, suggesting that’s not the kind of party that the GOP wants to be.

Limbaugh responded to Powell today on his radio show, dismissing the criticism as without merit. Limbaugh believes that the Republican Party hasn’t been listening to him over the last six years, as evidenced by its selection of John McCain as the Party’s 2008 presidential nominee.

Click here for the full story.

ALSO, check out the story about Colin Powell criticizing Sarah Palin and the Republican Party.

Colin Powell was interviewed by CNN’s Fareed Zakharia recently. In the interview, Powell criticized the direction of the Republican Party, Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh and talked about his South Bronx value system.

Colin Powell told Republicans to stop listening to Rush Limbaugh

“Can we continue to listen to Rush Limbaugh?” Powell asked. “Is this really the kind of party that we want to be when these kinds of spokespersons seem to appeal to our lesser instincts rather than our better instincts?”

He also criticized Sarah Palin and her polarizing “Pro-America Area” outlook

“Gov. Palin, to some extent, pushed the party more to the right, and I think she had something of a polarizing effect when she talked about how small town values are good. Well, most of us don’t live in small towns. And I was raised in the South Bronx, and there’s nothing wrong with my value system from the South Bronx.”

Watch Powell Criticize Limbaugh and Palin

Colin Powell spoke to CNN about the historical significance of Obama’s victory. He admitted he cried when he found about Obama’s victory and seemed to tear up while talking about him. Condoleeza Rice also cried while talking about Obama’s victory, saying ‘As an African America, I am extremely proud’

Watch Powell and Condoleeza Rice Talk About Obama’s Victory After the Jump

Watch Condoleeza Rice Cry About Obama’s Victory

Colin Powell is riding the wave of his endorsement of Barack Obama, criticizing Minnesota congresswoman, Michelle Bachman over her recent comments on investigating politicians over who is Pro-America or Anti-America.

Watch the Video After the Jump

Yesterday on Meet the Press, Tom Brokaw asked Colin Powell what he would say to people who said that he was endorsing Obama for his skin color. I thought this was a racist question at first. Would Brokaw ask Joe Lieberman what he would say to people who said he was endorsing John McCain because he was white?

After Colin Powell gave such a well though out, eloquent endorsement for Obama where he addressed every issue on why he was choosing Obama over McCain, why would Brokaw even insinuate that Powell had skin color in mind when endorsing Obama?

As a soldier, general secretary of defense and secretary of state, has Powell ever made a decision based on race? If he had endorsed McCain would people be questioning him for endorsing another soldier?  Was he listening to all the key points that Powell brought up to justify his endorsement.? Did he not articulately state the case for Barack Obama? Who would these people who would assume that Powell was voting for Obama because he was black?

Here They Come

Rush Limbaugh

“Secretary Powell says his endorsement is not about race… OK, fine. I am now researching his past endorsements to see if I can find all the inexperienced, very liberal, white candidates he has endorsed. I’ll let you know what I come up with.”

Pat Buchanan

“Alright, we gotta ask a question. . ..look would Colin Powell be endorsing Obama if he were a white liberal Democrat…”

How come they are not asking those same questions of white Republicans who have supported Obama such as Andrew Sullivan, Christopher Buckley, Christopher Leach, Senator Lincoln Chafee and the number of Republican leaning newspapers that have endorsed Obama?

During Colin Powell’s career as soldier, general and administration official his integrity and judgment has been beyond reproach by both democrats and republicans. I don’t understand how anybody can believe after what Powell said that he was voting for Obama on racial lines.

Colin Powell served his country as a Soldier, General, National Security Advisor under Reagan, Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff under Bush 41, and Secretary of State under Bush 43. Powell at all times had the respect, and admiration of the American people, politicians and pundits, both Democrats and republicans. Powell even campaigned for John McCain in 2000, before switching to Bush 43 after the primaries. Powell has always been defined by his loyalty to his country and the Presidents that ran it.

Powell had the wisdom to challenge the Iraq war, telling George Bush about the Pottery Barn rule regarding Iraq ‘You break it, you own it,’ yet proved his loyalty by addressing the United Nations on Iraq’s WMD’s, which he later called ‘a blot on his record’ telling Barbara Walters ‘it was painful. It’s painful now’ By admitting shame in his role of the invasion of Iraq, Powell remains one of the few members of the Bush administration to retain his integrity. Powell would leave the Bush white house and unlike many of his cohorts he did not produce a standard tell-all book complete with all the arguments and scandals that he could have.

By insinuating that Powell was voting for Obama because of his race, Buchanan and Gingrich are smearing two of the most respected, not black, but American political figures in Colin Powell and Barack Obama. They have used the typical Republican strategy of blame the messenger. Rather than addressing Powell’s legitimate criticism of the tone of McCain campaign, Sarah Palin, John McCain’s strategy on the economy and the direction of the Republican party they have chosen to racialize his decision.

If Powell was driven by race for political decisions, why was he a  member of the Republican party for so many years when blacks support the democrats over republicans by 90%. Colin Powell is far from the only conservative to abandon the Republican Party after 8 years of Bush and a negative cynical campaign by John McCain. Why is the right wing trying to make it into a racial issue, rather than to address his legitimate criticisms of John McCain and the Republican party and his praise of Barack Obama on issues like leadership, organization and intelligence?

The same republican party operatives that were so in love with Colin Powell that they wanted him to run against Clinton in 96 are now questioning his judgment, suggesting that a highly respected, former soldier, general, secretary of defense, chairman of the joint chiefs of staffs and secretary of state make political decisions based on race. How low can you go?

Colin Powell will have a role as a top presidential adviser in an Obama administration, the Democratic White House hopeful said Monday.

“He will have a role as one of my advisers,” Barack Obama said on NBC’s “Today” in an interview aired Monday, a day after Powell, a four-star general and President Bush’s former secretary of state, endorsed him.

“Whether he wants to take a formal role, whether that’s a good fit for him, is something we’d have to discuss,” Obama said.

Being a top presidential adviser, especially on foreign policy, would be familiar ground to Powell on a subject that’s relatively new to the freshman Illinois senator. Obama has struggled to establish his foreign policy credentials against GOP candidate John McCain, a decorated military veteran, former prisoner of war and ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

In the NBC interview, Obama said Powell did not give him a heads up heads-up before he crossed party lines and endorsed the Democratic presidential candidate on the network’s “Meet the Press” a day earlier.

In that interview, Powell called Obama a “transformational figure” in the nation’s history and expressed disappointment in some of McCain’s campaign tactics. But, Powell said, he didn’t plan to hit the campaign trail with Obama before the Nov. 4 election.

“I won’t lie to you, I would love to have him at any stop,” Obama said with a grin Monday. “Obviously, if he wants to show up he’s got an open invitation.”

Powell’s endorsement came just hours after Obama’s campaign disclosed that it raised $150 million in September — obliterating the old record of $66 million it had set only one month earlier.

He expressed disappointment in the negative tone of McCain’s campaign, his choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as a running mate and their decision to focus in the closing weeks of the contest on Obama’s ties to 1960s-era radical William Ayers, saying “it goes too far.”

McCain, meanwhile, seemed dismissive of Powell’s endorsement, saying it wasn’t a surprise, that the two share mutual respect and are longtime friends.

The Republican from Arizona pointed out on Sunday that he had support from four other former secretaries of state, all veterans of Republican administrations: Henry Kissinger, James A. Baker III, Lawrence Eagleburger and Alexander Haig.

At a boisterous rally Sunday, Obama said McCain was “out of ideas and almost out of time.”

He and his aides appear so confident of his prospects that apart from a brief stop in Madison, Wis., next Thursday, Obama currently has no plans during the next 10 days to return to Pennsylvania, Minnesota, New Hampshire or any other state that voted for John Kerry in 2004.

Instead, he intends to spend two days this week in Florida, where early voting begins on Monday, and travel to Virginia, Iowa, Ohio, Colorado, New Mexico and possibly Nevada and Indiana. Those states hold 97 electoral votes combined, and Bush won all in 2004.

Obama also may stop in West Virginia, where his campaign recently bought statewide television advertising in a late attempt to put the state’s five electoral votes into serious contention.

Colin Powell, once rumored to be running for president himself, is a moderate in his beliefs which may assure voters that Barack Obama is similarly steady. Although he served as Secretary of State with the most partisan administration in years, Powell was never nearly as staunch in his loyalty to the Bush doctrine.

From CNN:

Powell, a retired U.S. general and a Republican, was once seen as a possible presidential candidate himself.

Powell said he questioned Sen. John McCain’s judgment in picking Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate because he doesn’t think she is ready to be president.

He also said he was disappointed with some of McCain’s campaign tactics, such as bringing up Obama’s ties to former 1960s radical Bill Ayers.

Watch Colin Powell Endorse Barack Obama