Showing posts with label chattanooga. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chattanooga. Show all posts

Sunday, July 19, 2015

Chattanooga Mourns Military Deaths

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On Thursday, July 16, 2015, a lone shooter went on a rampage in Chattanooga, Tennessee, targeting Military Recruitment offices. When it was over half the city and state was suddenly on lockdown, and the entire world was watching.

Four Marines died that day, while a wounded Navy Reservist succumbed to his wounds a few days later. A total of six people died, including the shooter, who was killed by police on the scene.

Chattanooga is my hometown, and it is no exaggeration that this crime put all Tennesseans in a state of shock. I had just been at Erlanger hospital that morning for short procedure. After that my husband and I drove home past the Lee Highway recruitment center, just remarking on what a pretty day it was and how green the trees were, and chatting about what to have for breakfast. After a leisurely meal we went home and five minutes later discovered that the shootings had occurred, the hospital was on lockdown, and police were in a manhunt for the killer on Amnicola Highway near our son's college, Chattanooga State. And people were possibly dead.















Later I would find out that the shooter, Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez, attended my alma mater, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, just a few miles from where the four Marines were shot, and where my youngest is working towards a similar Engineering degree. He attended high school with my future son-in-law, who owns a copy of the Yearbook in which he wrote “My name causes national security alerts. What does yours do? -Hijabman.”

If this shooter had wanted just to kill citizens, he could have shot at cars on the highway, or shot at students and families on the Riverwalk, or shot through the windows of any restaurant. But he clearly targeted the military and the police. He had a plan - we could all see that. This wasn't a random crime, but an act of terrorism.

We still don't know everything about him, but we know that he lived among us as a Chattanoogan all his life and then one day, for whatever twisted reason, he woke up and decided to kill regular folks only because they wore military uniforms. For someone who didn't want to be judged by his own name, it is the ultimate act of selfish hypocrisy.

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From CNN
People who knew Abdulazeez were stunned to hear he was the man who sprayed a military recruiting center at a strip mall with bullets, then drove seven miles to assault Navy Operational Support Center Chattanooga. He killed a sailor and four Marines, and wounded two more people, before being killed by police.
Friends described Abdulazeez as a once-devoted, disciplined mixed-martial-arts fighter; a top student known for smarts, charm and humor; and a devout Muslim who kept in touch with his roots in the Middle East.
The FBI hasn't released much information on Abdulazeez, saying it doesn't yet know what motivated the bloodshed but it is working on an assumption. "We will treat this as a terrorism investigation until it can be determined that it is not," FBI Special Agent Edward Reinhold said.























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Friday, August 2, 2013

TN Reporter Fired Over Rude Obama Headline Becomes RW Media Star

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Previous Posts:
Bea's Restaurant in Chattanooga Says No to President Obama
President Obama Visits Chattanooga, TN

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Original Editorial Headline Composed by Drew Johnson:
"Take your jobs plan and shove it, Mr. President: Your policies have harmed Chattanooga enough."
The Title has been changed to "President Obama's policies have harmed Chattanooga enough."

From Talking Points Memo
The editorial, which criticized the viability of Obama's economic plan on a local level, coincided with the president's visit Tuesday to Chattanooga. The Times Free Press determined that editorial page editor Drew Johnson's altered headline was "inappropriate."
"It was not the original headline approved for publication, and Johnson violated the normal editing process when he changed the headline," the announcement read. "The newspaper’s decision to terminate Johnson had nothing to do with the content of the editorial, which criticized the president’s job creation ideas and Chattanooga’s Smart Grid. The Free Press page has often printed editorials critical of the president and his policies."

From The Chattanoogan
Chattanooga Times Free Press officials denied they yielded to political pressure in firing editor Drew Johnson.
The reason given for the firing was a headline he wrote relating to Tuesday's visit to Chattanooga by President Obama.
TFP officials also claimed they had to block Mr. Johnson recently "from touting the benefits of pornography."
Mr. Johnson, since the surprise termination on Thursday, has made a round of TV and radio talk shows giving his version of the firing.
. . . The firing has made news from the Associated Press to the Drudge Report and Huffington Post.
Chattanooga Times Free Press officials said, "Contrary to statements made by former Free Press editor Drew Johnson and national media reports, Johnson was told on multiple prior occasions not to make material changes to editorials or headlines once they were approved by the editor responsible for the page.

Drew Smith on The Daily Caller
It’s very common practice at our paper and I’m sure it is at a lot of papers to just plug in a space-holder headline or you know, you have a headline you’re not happy with and you change it at the last minute. And I probably did it myself once a week. In this case, I put in a placeholder that wasn’t good. It got time to publish the piece and I thought, ‘What goes with jobs plan?’ and I thought the Johnny Paycheck song, ‘Take this job and shove it.’ So I put that in there — put the title that you saw and the next day, while it was becoming literally the most read, not just editorial but [most read] thing ever on the paper’s website.”
. . . So I was brought into human resources today and I was told, ‘You’re being fired for violating the policy that you have to have an editor sign off when you make a change to a headline,’” he said. “Well, I said, ‘That’s funny, because that policy wasn’t in place until after I wrote the piece and you guys told me that was the policy on Tuesday. And I wrote the piece on Monday.









































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Bea's Restaurant in Chattanooga Tenn. Says "No" to President

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Previous Related Post:
President Obama Visits Chattanooga Tennessee

NOTE: According to News Channel Nine in Chattanooga, none of this happened because the Secret Service doesn't announce Presidential visits three weeks in advance. And they are denying that they ever made a call to the owner of Bea's Restaurant. Make of that what you will . . .




From the Chattanooga Times Free-Press
The phone call ended, but like heartburn, trouble followed. Word got out. People started chewing on assumptions and rumors, and with a little help from the Lazy Susan of Internet gossip and Facebook, the story, told across Chattanooga, had suddenly turned into this:

Bea’s wouldn’t serve lunch to the president.

“That’s ridiculous,” Bradshaw said.

In these awful days of social division, where we assume and predict the worst about one another, Bradshaw found himself in a hot mess of accusations: racist, political and more.

“Vulgar,” Bradshaw described it.

Much of it was generated by Facebook and the Internet, something his grandparents and their telephone-on-the-wall-in-the-parlor generation could never have imagined (Bea’s had been in business 34 years before FB founder Mark Zuckerberg was even born).

“It’s not political and it’s not racial,” Bradshaw said. “It wasn’t a refusal.”

The Secret Service just never asked if Bea’s would open on Tuesday; like some jittery preteen, the agent hung up before Bradshaw could even suggest it.

“What greater honor could we have than the president?” Bradshaw said.

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Channel 3, WRCB, Chattanooga
CHATTANOOGA, TN (WRCB) - Sticky Fingers was proud to serve President Obama during his Tuesday visit to Chattanooga but it may not have been his first choice. The owner of Bea's Restaurant says he received a call from the secret service, asking if the president could have lunch there. The problem was, Bea's isn't open on Tuesday.

The owners at Bea's say the conversation only lasted 10 seconds and that they weren't given an opportunity to say yes or no. Part-owner Doug Bradshaw said secret service simply ended the conversation.

"Just the whole thing has been blown out of proportion and taken out of context," said Bradshaw.

Bradshaw says he's under social media and internet fire, people claiming he denied the president a Chattanooga staple when it comes to food.

Not the case says Bradshaw, he remembers the phone call took from secret service, "I asked the date, they told me and I said we're closed Monday and Tuesday. They said thank you and hung up. That's it. 10 seconds maybe."

Bradshaw says they didn't give him time to even discuss opening on a day off, which he says he would have done, "most definitely, I'll open in the middle of the night for the president. If he wants to come here and eat, I'll open."

More specifically open to the public as well, because when President George W. Bush came to Chattanooga in 2007 he too wanted to eat at Bea's but only if it was closed to the public.


Comments on Bea's Restaurant Facebook Page

Bea's Restaurant
I tried to manage things here on the page as best I could the other day. I'm a lot greyer today than I was on Tuesday. God bless each of you.
Like · Reply · 13 · 13 hours ago

I looked through your posts to find what you had posted earlier about "the call." Evidently I have over looked it or it has been deleted. But from what I read in your posting and shared with a friend when I read what Bea's posted...There seems to be some tweaking to the story today and the posting I can not find on your page. Enjoy your day.
~ Beverly H

Bea's Restaurant Replies to Beveryly H:
Well. I deleted that post because it wasn't intended to incite anything. I wrote it on my phone that is tiny.. And realized I didn't convey what I was trying to convey. In short when they called it was a 45 second call, and when I wrote " we said no" I meant to say that we said " we are closed and there was no call back number because we don't have caller ID".. Not mention it was busy. I wrote that post on an old phone.. In a car with two kids in the back.. And I didn't get it all written like it was supposed to be, then I got home an hour later and it had become something it never should have been.
Like · 10 hours ago · Edited
Bea's Restaurant I couldn't delete or edit on my wife's phone either, and what everyone is missing is that it wasn't the big deal that some want to turn it into. I mis wrote miss conveyed.. Whatever. I'm sorry.
Like · 9 hours ago

A LOT of stuff got blown out of proportion during this recent presidential visit. Just silly. Life goes on--and in another 3 years, no one will care what happened last Tuesday anyway.
~ M

I want to say something, and I do NOT want to start an argument or drama for our friends at Bea's.
I think it is truly SAD , the way people are coming out of the woodwork to crucify a fine,long standing and historic establishment over a situation, that most people, clearly, are not 100% informed. I had hoped the article that was released from the Press this morning, would clear it all up. Sadly, there are those that still choose to berate and belittle the situation.
I am PROUD to live in the same area as an awesome place, that has kept its morals, its business practices, and even kept its prices fair in a really bad economy. Bea's isn't ike a chain or franchise. They reach out to us all, in person and on FB. They are what makes America, AMERICA... I know they didn't "turn away" , anyone, it was a brief call that has been blown WAY out of proportion.
~ L

Comments from WRCB TV Story:

LOL...Sticky Fingers sucks anyway...Rib N Loin is much better.....Way to go Bee's you just lost every black customer in Chattanooga.

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When President Reagan came to town, his chief of staff delayed the takeoff of Air Force One so that they could get burgers from Krystal!


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The president wanted to come to my house too. But I told the secret service that my house was closed 24/7 to a president to abuses his executive power and signs bills without advising anyone else.


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I think that's pretty darn pushy and inconsiderate to call someone unannounced give them a few seconds and hang up. Don't even give them the time to weigh their options like are they for real, can I open on an off day, can I staff enough people, do I have enough time to organize it, what are the repercussions, could we handle customer complaints and so on. You can be an important somebody and still have manners. And how in the world do you live in Chattown for 21 yrs and never hear about Bea's? lol


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With his tight schedule, I am surprised if the president got to wolf down anything before he had to board Air Force 1 and leave. I haven't heard any comments about whether he liked his meal or not or any comments about Chattanooga in general. We are old news, on to other things.


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I wouldn't allow Barack Obama to eat off my toilet bowl. I'd rather invite someone over who is NOT hateful of this country and its citizens to eat.


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I wouldn't have opened my door at home for him to come eat!!


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Never eaten there, but will now.


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I don't know that it has much to do with race, but I do think it's a disrespectful snub, and probably more politically charged than anything else. I don't know of any business owner who wouldn't have gone out of their way and opened their doors for a president they supported. Seems to me like it was just an opportunity to tell the President "screw you." What a unique honor, to have been selected of all the potential eateries in the city. Such a lost opportunity.



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Tuesday, July 30, 2013

President Obama Visits Chattanooga Tennessee

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 Cross-posted on Life in the Snark Lane

































































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Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke Describes Limo Ride with Obama
After being one of the first people to welcome President Barack Obama to Chattanooga, Mayor Andy Berke described his ride from the airport to the Amazon fulfillment center in the presidential limousine, known as "the beast."

"No big deal," Berke joked.
But although the ride may have been brief, Berke said the face time with the president was invaluable for the city. Berke said that during their transit from the Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport to Amazon, he shared stories of the city's success with Obama.

"The opportunity to spend a few minutes with the president of the United States comes only once in a lifetime," Berke said. "I certainly wanted to make sure that I portrayed Chattanooga in the best possible light because I think the president was genuinely curious about what we're doing here. It was a fantastic opportunity."

Berke said he and the president discussed items such as the city's record Internet speeds, efforts to reform education in the state and Chattanooga in general.

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