A top architect of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial has been criticized for paraphrasing a quote that was inscribed on a statue of the famed civil rights leader - making him seem like an "arrogant twit."

Poet Maya Angelou, who is a consultant for the memorial, is fuming because she believes the restated words completely change the quote's meaning in a way that is unflattering to King, The Washington Post reported.

"The quote makes Dr. Martin Luther King look like an arrogant twit," she railed.

But Ed Jackson Jr., the executive architect of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial, told the paper he got the thumbs-up from the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, which was overseeing design of the memorial.

The original quote comes from a speech King gave during a sermon at an Atlanta church two months before he was assassinated.

"If you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice," King said, riffing on how he might be described after his death.

"Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter."

But that was not the quote that ended up carved into the north face of the 30-foot-tall granite statue in Washington D.C. It now reads: "I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness."

Angelou, who was one of those chosen to pick out quotes for the statue, told the paper that the shortened version of the quote radically misses the point.

"It makes him seem less than the humanitarian he was," she said. "It makes him seem an egotist."

"He had no arrogance at all," she continued. "He had a humility that comes from deep inside. The 'if' clause that is left out is salient. Leaving it out changes the meaning completely."

The designers of the memorial originally intended to inscribe the entire quote on the statue's south face, the paper reported. But a change in plans moved the "drum major" quote onto the north face, where there wasn't enough room.

Jackson told the paper that the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts agreed to use the paraphrased quote.

"We sincerely felt passionate that the man's own eulogy should be expressed on the stone," Jackson said. "We said the least we could do was define who he was based on his perception of himself: 'I was a drum major for this, this and this.'"

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Entry #5,361

September 1, 2011
9:21 am

German city to tax ladies of leisure with a meter

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14730704

2 Comments

Entry #5,360

September 1, 2011
9:10 am

The CDC says not to drink 567,000 calories worth of soda a day

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/video?id=8337658

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Entry #5,359

September 1, 2011
9:00 am

Town decides to write fewer traffic tickets so police can focus on safety

http://money.msn.com/auto-insurance/town-slams-brakes-on-traffic-tickets-carinsurance.aspx?GT1=33033

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Entry #5,358

August 31, 2011
2:42 pm

Glenn Beck: Call African Americans 'colored'

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2011/08/31/2011-08-31_glenn_beck_conservative_exfox_host_on_radio_show_the_term_colored_is_not_a_bad_t.html

2 Comments

Entry #5,357

August 31, 2011
2:39 pm

25 CEOs of the richest American corporations earned more than their firms paid in taxes

25 CEOs of the richest American corporations earned more than their firms paid in taxes: report

Helen Kennedy
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Wednesday, August 31st 2011, 2:08 PM

Adam Berry/Bloomberg

Life is very good if you're Boeing CEO Jim McNerney. He took home $13.8 million - $800,000 more than the aerospace giant paid in federal taxes.

Twenty five CEOs of the richest American corporations got paid more last year than their entire firms coughed up to Uncle Sam, a bombshell new report says.

"These CEOs are reaping awesomely lavish rewards for the tax-dodging they have their corporations do," concluded the report from the liberal Institute for Policy Studies.

The companies, which include familiar corporate giants Boeing, Ford, eBay, General Electric, Verizon and Prudential, made an average of $1.9 billion in global profits each in 2010.

Tax shelters and clever accounting - 18 of the 25 have subsidiaries in offshore tax havens like Luxembourg - most of the companies actually got an average refund of $304 million instead of filling the federal coffers, the report says.

And their CEOs waltzed off with an average of $16.7 million in salary and bonuses, the group found.

"We have, in short, a corporate tax system today that works for top executives - and no one else," study co-author Chuck Collins said.

The report comes as Republicans in Washington are insisting on cutting spending on services to protect low taxes on the wealthy, while pushing for higher taxes on the poor and middle class.

The report was catnip to the Democrats, who have been trying without much success to make financial fairness a resonant issue.

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), ranking member on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, immediately called for hearings on CEO pay.

The highest paid corporate titan on the list, Stanley Black & Decker chief John Lundgren, raked in $32.6 million last year. The company got a $75 million tax refund.

Cablevision CEO James Dolan earned $13.2 million in 2010 as his company had a $3 million refund.

General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt took home $15.2 million, the company received a whopping $3.3 billion refund.

Boeing CEO Jim McNerney took home $13.8 million - $800,000 more than the aerospace giant paid in federal taxes.

Just to stick the knife in, the study noted that 16 of the 25 CEOs who made more than Uncle Sam were educated at taxpayer-funded public universities, including Verizon's Ivan Seidenberg, a CUNY grad, and Cablevision's Dolan, who went to SUNY in New Paltz.

Some of the companies singled out in the report called it inaccurate.

"GE pays what it owes," said General Electric spokesman Andrew Williams, who said the study did not include state taxes. Boeing spokesman Chaz Bickers told Reuters the study is "simply wrong."

The study found the average paycheck for the CEOs of the nation's biggest 500 companies was $10.7 million, while their average employee made $33,121 - a 325-to-1 gap, that jumped from a 263-to-1 ratio in 2009.

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Entry #5,356

August 31, 2011
11:42 am

Father Throws His Overboard and Said It was Just'Horse Play'

Dad: It Was `Horse Play' Before Boy Went Overboard

August 31, 2011

Associated Press

Orange County Sheriff's Dept.

Sloan Briles, 35, was arrested for allegedly throwing his 7-year-old son overboard a Southern California sightseeing cruise during an argument.

SANTA ANA, Calif. – A man accused of throwing his 7-year-old son overboard during a sightseeing cruise around California's Newport Harbor says he and the boy were just "horse playing" and talked about jumping in the water together.

"I was not trying to kill my son. We were playing in the shallows," Sloane Briles told KTLA-TV on Tuesday. "I discussed it with him. We'd jump in together and just thought it would be funny, ha ha."

Two of 85 people who were on the Sunday afternoon tour saw things differently. In 911 tapes released Tuesday, the passengers expressed shock and disgust after seeing Briles toss the boy into the water.

"I'm on a boat tour called the Queen and there's a man who just threw his son overboard," a woman told an Orange County sheriff's dispatcher.

"This man has been bad on our whole trip and he's swimming back to our boat now," she said.

Sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said Briles, 35, was on the tour with his girlfriend and two sons from a previous marriage. Amormino said they got into an argument and Briles threatened to toss the boy into the water if he didn't stop crying.

Staff members on the 42-foot boat said Briles told the boy he needed to toughen up then threw him into the water five feet below, said Charlie Maas, who oversees the tour company.

Someone on the boat threw the boy a life ring, and he was safely rescued, uninjured, by another boater. The father also jumped in to save him before swimming back to the tour boat. Another 911 caller said she thought Briles was "drunk and violent."

Briles was taken into custody for child endangerment and resisting arrest. He denied witnesses' accounts that the boy was crying and said he had never hit his son.

His girlfriend told the New York Daily News that he was only "roughhousing" with his son as he often does and regretted his "stupid" judgment.

"His sons are his whole life," Jennifer Burrelli told the newspaper. "He would never ever do anything to hurt them on purpose. He knows now it could have gone badly. He doesn't even care about the arrest or his own name. He knows it was stupid."

She also said she and Briles were not arguing before the incident.

Both the boy and his brother were returned to the care of their mother. The couple was married in 2002 and separated in 2006 after having two children. They divorced in 2007.

Family court filings showed Briles lost his job in the mortgage industry in 2007 and got another job, but was injured and drew worker's compensation. He successfully petitioned to get his child support obligation reduced and tried for a second reduction, which his ex-wife, Christin, opposed.

"If he truly wanted to support his boys he would find a job," she wrote in the filing. She also wrote that Briles sees the boys only on his weekends and rarely calls them during his off weeks.

Briles pleaded guilty in in February 2009 to being in contempt for not paying child support and was sentenced to three years of probation, according to court records. Briles also pleaded guilty in 2011 to public intoxication.

1 Comment

Entry #5,355

August 31, 2011
4:57 am

Congressional Black Caucus: Declares 'War' on Racist Tea Party

http://youtu.be/tG8x6X8xn3c

5 Comments

Entry #5,354

August 31, 2011
4:53 am

Boy wakes up to find dad has left, driven across U.S. 'because of bad economy'

Minnesota dad who abandoned young son with a note arrested in California

Nina Mandell
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Tuesday, August 30th 2011, 8:35 PM

Steven Cross, 60, was arrested for abandoning his 11-year-old son after explaining himself in a letter, was found working at a California deli.

A Minnesota man who abandoned his 11-year-old son in July has been arrested in California - more than a month after he left his son with only a note.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported that cops stopped Steven Cross' Ford van Monday night after getting a tip that he was working at a deli in the area.

"He was identified and taken into custody," a police spokesman told the paper.

Cross, 60, made national headlines he left his son Sebastian a note on July 18 saying he wouldn't be coming back.

"If this paper is wet it's because I am crying so bad," he wrote in the letter, the Star-Tribune said. "You know your dad loves you more than anything. This economy got there are no jobs for architects so I have to go because the sheriff will take the house July 27th.

"There will be no more me. ... Some good news is your mother is still alive. Though I do not think it is for the best. Give these letters to . Do not open them. I hope they get to give you a chance. There are many great years ahead for you. No so for me."

The heartbroken 11-year-old, who had been raised by his father for the past decade, was placed with an aunt.

He told authorities his father had not been acting any differently the night before he disappeared, The Associated Press reported.

A warrant was issued for Cross' arrest on child neglect charges.

Police said Cross seemed to be living out of his van and they believed he was heading to work when he was stopped.

Authorities are still searching for Sebastian's mother, the paper reported. Steven Cross previously told his son his mother was dead because he thought she was a bad role model.

She received visitation rights in 2001, but after not exercising them, they were suspended in 2002, AP reported.