Mike Huckabee’s ‘Very Important Announcement’ -- Washington Post

Posted by The Meck

excerpt ..
Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee is expected to announce whether or not he will run for president on his Fox News Channel show Saturday evening, a major moment in the nascent 2012 contest.

“Governor Huckabee will announce tomorrow night on his program whether or not he intends to explore a presidential bid,” said Woody Fraser, the executive producer of “Huckabee” in a statement. “He has not told anyone at Fox News Channel his decision.”
While Huckabee’s Saturday show is always taped, his announcement about 2012 will run live, according to an informed source.

For his part, Huckabee said Friday that he would make a “very important announcement”. Neither he nor Hogan Gidley, the executive director of the former governor’s political action committee, would expand on just what the announcement would be.

Read more
Mike Huckabee's 'Very Important Decision' - Washington Post - Chris Cillizza and Dan Balz
-
Related
Is Gov. Huckabee Running For President? Major Announcement On His Show Saturday - WSJ
Mike Huckabee Calls President Obama's Decision To Go After Bin Laden "Gutsy" - Birmingham News
-

The Meck Report / Blog - May 13, 2011 - 4:33p

Twitter / Follow The Meck

-

Subscribe To The Meck Report/Blog - Rt column

www.TheMeck.com

Is Gov. Huckabee Running For President ? Major Announcement On His Show Saturday

Posted by The Meck

excerpt ..
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee looks like he’ll give the 2012 White House campaign a pass, says Mr. Huckabee’s top political operative.

Mr. Huckabee has told followers to tune in to his Saturday evening show on Fox News for what he calls a major announcement. But Ed Rollins, who directed his 2008 campaign and has been organizing his 2012 campaign-in-waiting, said he has not been consulted.

“I’ve heard nothing, which indicates to me he’s not running,” Mr. Rollins said in an interview.

Read more:
Is Gov. Huckabee Running For President? Major Announcement On His Show Saturday - WSJ
-
Related:
Mike Huckabee Calls President Obama's Decision To Go After Bin Laden "Gutsy" - Birmingham News
-

The Meck Report / Blog - May 13, 2011 - 4:11p

Twitter / Follow The Meck

-

Subscribe To The Meck Report/Blog - Rt column

www.TheMeck.com

An island unto itself at Players Championship -- Plus Mr. Meckley's Memorial Service 17th Green.

Posted by The Meck

excerpts ..
The Players Championship begins Thursday, and there will be a steady stream of traffic through the gates and toward the 17th hole, with an island green that makes it one of the most infamous holes in the world.
-
The signature hole on the TPC Sawgrass measures only 137 yards on the scorecard and is surrounded by water, an idea that Alice Dye drew up on the back of a cocktail napkin.

The PGA Tour will offer live streaming on its website at the 17th, and asked several players their strategy on the hole. Lucas Glover spoke for most when he said, "Hit it where I can hit it again."

The island green is so much a part of the tournament that NBC Sports is devoting 11 cameras to the hole, which includes two periscope cams out of the water that can turn 360 degrees.

Read more:
An island unto itself at Players Championship - AJC.com
-
Related:

Mr. Meckley's Memorial Service 17th Green

Celebration of Mr. Meckley's Life
- 
Mr. Meckley's obit

Photo Gallery for Photos of Mr. Meckley

Visit the Mr. Meckley Memorial Page

Read eulogies by Pete Davison and Bobby Clampett

David Meckley's Column on Mr. Meckley

Articles: Golf Week.com | Golf Week Magazine
 -

The Meck Report / Blog - May 12, 2011 - 12:36p

Twitter / Follow The Meck

-

Subscribe To The Meck Report/Blog - Rt column

www.TheMeck.com

Obama way ahead of Republicans for 2012 election

Posted by The Meck

excerpt ..
"Most people don't know much about any of these people, and plus there is always an advantage for the incumbent," she said.
The field of possible Republicans challengers to Obama has not generated much enthusiasm so far, with several waiting to announce their candidacy.

Obama, who made history in 2008 by becoming the first African-American to be elected president, leads possible Republican candidates by double digits.

He polls above 50 percent when compared to his closest rivals, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, according to the poll.

Obama leads Huckabee by 51 percent to 39 percent, and Romney by 51 percent to 38 percent.

Read more:
Obama way ahead of Republicans for 2012 election - Reuters
-

The Meck Report / Blog - May 12, 2011 - 12:20p

Twitter / Follow The Meck

-

Subscribe To The Meck Report/Blog - Rt column

www.TheMeck.com

Pedrena, World, Prepare To Bid Ballesteros Goodbye - AJC

Posted by The Meck

excerpts ..

PEDRENA, Spain — Seve Ballesteros' funeral will be held in his hometown on Wednesday, bringing Nick Faldo, Colin Montgomerie and other golf luminaries to the small Spanish fishing village to honor the five-time major winner.

Top-ranked Lee Westwood, Sam Torrance and Jose Maria Olazabal also are expected to attend the service remembering Ballesteros, who died Saturday from complications of a cancerous brain tumor. He was 54.
Wednesday's funeral will be held at the 400-capacity church of San Pedro de Pedrena. Ballesteros' ashes will be placed underneath a magnolia tree in the family garden.

The golfing great first will be honored by several young boys and girls in a procession wearing a replica of the navy blue outfit that Ballesteros wore for his first British Open win in 1979. Fittingly, they will each hold a 3-iron, the first club he used as a child.

"The funeral rites will be as simple as those for any neighbor from the village," Ballesteros' brother, Baldomero, said. "He was born here and here he will remain."
Three big screens have been set up outside the ceremony, while Spanish state TV will broadcast the event live from the village of 1,500.
-
Read more:
Pedrena, World, Prepare To Bid Ballesteros Goodbye - AJC
-

The Meck Report / Blog - May 11, 2011 - 1:25a

Twitter / Follow The Meck

-

Subscribe To The Meck Report/Blog - Rt column

www.TheMeck.com

Agent: Tutoring of Cam Newton could be done by Brett Favre -- USATODAY

Posted by The Meck

excerpt ..
Whenever Brett Favre returns this week from assisting tornado victims in the devastated town of Hackleburg, Ala., former Carolina Panthers DT Brenston Buckner has another mission suggestion for the iconic quarterback: Help rookie quarterback Cam Newton be everything he can be for Carolina's Sept. 11 season opener against Arizona.

After all, Favre said last week that he might try his hand at coaching or some TV analyst work down the road.
With the NFL lockout preventing Newton and other rookies from working with coaches or teammates, Buckner told USA TODAY that Favre would be another mentor to help accelerate Newton's learning curve the way Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon and quarterback guru George Whitfield, Jr. already have.

Newton's agent, James "Bus" Cook, also represents Favre and said the former Green Bay Packers, New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings quarterback would be open to Buckner's suggestion as logistics permit upon his return from Alabama.

"What better guy for Brett to coach than the No. 1 overall pick,'' said Buckner, a Charlotte, N.C. sports radio host for WFNZ-AM. "And what better guy for Cam Newton to learn from than a future Hall of Famer.
"Brett has seen everything and has a wealth of knowledge. If I'm Cam's agent, I get on the phone with Brett and say, 'I want you to tutor this guy,' " Buckner said.

Read more:
Agent: Tutoring of Cam Newton could be done by Brett Favre - USA TODAY
-

The Meck Report / Blog - May 11, 2011 - 1:15a

Twitter / Follow The Meck

-

Subscribe To The Meck Report/Blog - Rt column

www.TheMeck.com

SNL features GOP debate among undeclared candidates -- Digital Journal / Video - NBC

Posted by The Meck

excerpt ..

NBC's Saturday Night Live featured a Fox News debate among the 2012 GOP presidential candidates that have yet to formally declare their candidacy, with a re-introduction of Tina Fey's famous Sarah Palin impersonation.
-

Publicly declaring her plans to run for president for the rest of her life, Sarah Palin, as characterized so perfectly by Tina Fey, returned to NBC's Saturday Night Live last night for a 2012 debate among GOP presidential candidates that have yet to formally declare their candidacy.
-

Included in the debate were Mitt Romney, Donald Trump, Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, and Newt Gingrich. The debate was hosted by SNL's version of Fox News' Shepard Smith. "I'm Shepard Smith," Smith began. "My voice is both reassuring and deeply unsettling."

Read more / Video

SNL Features GOP debate among undeclared candidates - Digital Journal / Video - NBC

-

The Meck Report / Blog - May 11, 2011 - 1:01p

Twitter / Follow The Meck

-

Subscribe To The Meck Report/Blog - Rt column

www.TheMeck.com

Barack Obama becomes the ‘moxie president’ -- Politico / Roger Simon

Posted by The Meck:

excerpt ..

Democrats are weak, and Republicans are strong. Democrats are the Mommy Party, and Republicans are the Daddy Party.
Republican presidents will protect us because they are muscular on national defense. Democratic presidents put our lives at risk because all they care about is peace at any price.

Or at least that’s what Republicans have told us in election after election. But even if it were ever true, it won’t be true in 2012.

Over the weekend, I kept reading the same analysis by different people: The bin Laden “bump” will not last long. Even though Barack Obama got a boost in his approval ratings by finding and killing Osama bin Laden, this will soon fade. And by November 2012, the bad state of the U.S. economy — the analysts always assume it will remain bad — will doom Obama and convey him to the rubbish bin of history.

The analysts never say, however, just who, exactly, will beat Obama. They just figure somebody will.
And they may be right. But I wouldn’t bet the mortgage on it. (Unless it’s a subprime mortgage, it’s underwater, and you’re about to strip the copper wiring out of the walls and leave it for the bank to take back, anyway.)

If you talk to Obama people these days, you find they are not exactly in a state of despair.
Instead, they are trying to tamp down over-optimism and ban exuberance.

Why are they happy? Did you catch “60 Minutes” on Sunday? Did you catch Steve Kroft’s exclusive interview with President Obama about finding bin Laden? About 13.7 million Americans did. (“America’s Funniest Home Videos” came in second during the hour, with 6.4 million viewers.)

And when people watched “60 Minutes,” did they see a Mommy Party guy? Not quite. They saw a determined, strong, resolute president who saw his duty and did it.

Read more: 

Barack Obama becomes the 'moxie president' -- Politico / Roger Simon

-

The Meck Report / Blog - May 10, 2011 - 5:43p

Twitter / Follow The Meck

-

Subscribe To The Meck Report/Blog - Rt column

www.TheMeck.com

Microsoft to buy Skype for $8.5 billion -- CNN Money

Posted by The Meck

excerpt:
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Microsoft has agreed to buy Internet phone service provider Skype for $8.5 billion in cash, the companies announced Tuesday.

The deal gives Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) access to the market for real-time video and voice communications. The software maker said it plans to use Skype to support such products as the Xbox gaming system and Windows Phone.

As the largest acquisition in its history, the deal marks a significant change in strategy for Microsoft, which has not bought another company since 2006.
"Skype is a phenomenal service that is loved by millions of people around the world," said Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer.

In 2010, Skype had 170 million connected users who logged over 207 billion minutes of voice and video conversations.

Read more:
Microsoft to buy Skype for $8:5 billion - CNN Money
-

The Meck Report / Blog - May 10, 2011 - 11:07a

Twitter / Follow The Meck

-

Subscribe To The Meck Report/Blog - Rt column

www.TheMeck.com

TINA FEY BACK AS SARAH PALIN -- POLITICO

Posted by The Meck

excerpt:

“It’s just so great to be back on Fox News, a network that both pays me and shows me the questions ahead of time,” said Fey, as Palin, in a skit called “GOP 2012 Undeclared Candidates Debate," which also featured spoofs of Mitt Romney and Donald Trump. “And I just hope that tonight the lamestream media won’t twist my words by repeatin' them verbatim.”

“First, I want to acknowledge that this week we finally vanquished one of the world’s great villains, and I for one am thrilled to say good riddance to Katie Couric … I’m going to be running for president every four years for the rest of my life. It’s my Olympics and I intend to win a whole bunch of silvers.”

VIDEO/Read more
TINA FEY BACK AS SARAH PALIN - POLITICO 
-

The Meck Report / Blog - May 10, 2011 - 10:47a

Twitter / Follow The Meck

-

Subscribe To The Meck Report/Blog - Rt column

www.TheMeck.com

Ala Tornado: 132 Miles of Devastation: EF-5 tornado deadliest in United States in last 56 years - Huntsville Times

Posted by The Meck

excerpt:

NORTH ALABAMA - The deadliest tornado to sweep across this country in the last 56 years began in Marion County, a few miles from the Mississippi line, where the highway signs now bend toward the ground along U.S. 78 west of Hamilton.

Trees blew over. Hamilton lost power. Yet for 10 miles, the massive storm largely churned above the wilderness, growing in ferocity, sucking moist afternoon air high into rotating clouds. Soon the system would spawn a tornado measuring more than a mile across.

The National Weather Service also reports evidence of satellite vortices, essentially twisters within twisters. Mesocyclone winds swirled along the outside edges, gusting toward the center.

This natural fury first encountered civilization at Hackleburg. A quiet town of 1,600 in the northeast corner of Marion County, the still-standing water tower boasts of a high school baseball championship in 2007. The chief employer had been the distribution center for Wrangler jeans.

Six days after the storm, Tommy Quinn picked through his few recognizable belongings. He held a picture his older brother had painted years ago and a clamp for his piano.
"I was thinking nothing is going to happen," said Quinn, 21, standing near what had been his childhood home. Listening to the weather report on TV, his sister-in-law chose to pack suitcases with diapers and photo albums and urge the family to the storm shelter.

On the Enhanced Fujita scale, a tornado ranks at the highest level of EF-5 when wind speeds top 200 mph. At that strength, brick homes are swept away. Concrete walls give way. Steel girders bend.

About a dozen separate tornadoes claimed more than 230 lives in Alabama on April 27. The storm that the National Weather Service now calls the Hackleburg Tornado, the one that traveled 132 miles and passed north of Huntsville, was the only one rated EF-5.

Read more:
Ala Tornado: 132 Miles Of Devastation, Deadliest In U.S. In Last 56 Years - Huntsville Times
 -

The Meck Report / Blog - May 10, 2011 - 10:34a

Twitter / Follow The Meck

-

Subscribe To The Meck Report/Blog - Rt column

www.TheMeck.com

Army Corps Battles Rising Mississippi From Memphis To New Orleans - CNN

Posted by The Meck

excerpts ..
Waging war against flooding of historic proportions that has already affected thousands of people in eight Midwestern and Southern states, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened a spillway Monday north of New Orleans in an effort to calm the rising Mississippi River.
-
Upstream in Memphis, Tennessee, residents and authorities had prepared all they could Monday as they anxiously waited for the Mississippi to crest Tuesday morning at a near-record 14 feet above flood stage.

Gallery: Floods swamp Midwest and South

Reporter waist deep in Mississippi River

Towns wrecked by floods

- 

"It's sort of torturous, we've been waiting so long. It's hard keeping peoples' attention. It's warning fatigue, if you will," Memphis Mayor A.C. Wharton Jr. said. "But we're ready for it."


The river is the highest it's been at Memphis since 1937, when it crested at 48.7 feet -- 14.7 feet above flood stage. That flood killed 500 people and inundated 20 million acres of land, said Col. Vernie Reichling, the Corps' Memphis District commander.

The river Monday covered the lowest parts of the city's historic Beale Street and had forced about 400 people from their homes, Wharton said. Another 1,300 remained in low-lying areas, he said.

While Corps' officials said it appeared levees protecting the area were holding up well, with only minor amounts of water seeping in from beneath or lapping over from above, local officials were taking no chances.

"It's a very powerful river. It looks like it's running very slowly, but it has a very strong current," said Bob Nations, director of preparedness in Shelby County, Tennessee, which includes Memphis. "We still don't know (exactly what) the river might do."

Read more:
Arny Corps Battles Rising Mississippi From Memphis To New Orleans - CNN

-

The Meck Report / Blog - May 9, 2011 - 3:14p

Twitter / Follow The Meck

-

Subscribe To The Meck Report/Blog - Rt column

www.TheMeck.com