Former South African President and Anti-Apartheid Icon Nelson Mandela Has Died at the Age of 95 … Rest in Peace

The father of modern South Africa has passed …

Nelson Mandela, the former President of South Africa and anti-apartheid leader who spent 27 years in a South African prison, , first on Robben Island, and later in Pollsmoor Prison and Victor Verster Prison,has died at the age of 95. Nelson Mandela had been battling several illnesses for quite some time and had been hospitalized. Sadly, current South African President Jacob Zuma announced late Thursday the death of the man who freed his people from an oppressive minority rule and united a country. Nelson Mandela and his one time enemy president F. W. de Klerk, who preceded him, both shared and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

Mandela is a perfect example that one does not have to be a fan of one’s politics in order to admire him as a leader and his leadership skills that brought a completely fragmented and racially divided society back together … ONE TEAM, ONE COUNTRY!!!

Nelson Mandela: July 18, 1918 – December 5, 2013

“I detest racialism, because I regard it as a barbaric thing, whether it comes from a black man or a white man.”
“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”

CNN:

Nelson Mandela, the revered statesman who emerged from prison after 27 years to lead South Africa out of decades of apartheid, has died, South African President Jacob Zuma announced late Thursday.

Mandela was 95.

“He is now resting. He is now at peace,” Zuma said. “Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father.”

“What made Nelson Mandela great was precisely what made him human,” the president said in his late-night address. “We saw in him what we seek in ourselves.”

Mandela will have a state funeral. Zuma ordered all flags in the nation to be flown at half-staff from Friday through that funeral.

Mandela, a former president, battled health issues in recent months, including a recurring lung infection that led to numerous hospitalizations.

With advancing age and bouts of illness, Mandela retreated to a quiet life at his boyhood home in the nation’s Eastern Cape Province, where he said he was most at peace.

Nelson Mandela’s Life Story

UPDATE I: NY Times Obit

The question most often asked about Mr. Mandela was how, after whites had systematically humiliated his people, tortured and murdered many of his friends, and cast him into prison for 27 years, he could be so evidently free of spite.

The government he formed when he finally won the chance was an improbable fusion of races and beliefs, including many of his former oppressors. When he became president, he invited one of his white wardens to the inauguration. Mr. Mandela overcame a personal mistrust bordering on loathing to share both power and a Nobel Peace Prize with the white president who preceded him, F. W. de Klerk.

And as president, from 1994 to 1999, he devoted much energy to moderating the bitterness of his black electorate and to reassuring whites against their fears of vengeance.

The explanation for his absence of rancor, at least in part, is that Mr. Mandela was that rarity among revolutionaries and moral dissidents: a capable statesman, comfortable with compromise and impatient with the doctrinaire.

When the question was put to Mr. Mandela in an interview for this obituary in 2007 — after such barbarous torment, how do you keep hatred in check? — his answer was almost dismissive: Hating clouds the mind. It gets in the way of strategy. Leaders cannot afford to hate.

ESPY Awards – Nelson Mandela

A truly amazing video … Like I have previously said, like him or not, Mandela was a leader and knew what it took to bring people together, not tear them further apart.

UPDATE II: NBC News – 7 ways Nelson Mandela changed South Africa.

Mandela’s biggest influence on the new South Africa was his personal determination that anger over the crimes of the past, including his 27 years as a political prisoner, should not motivate future laws and actions. Key to this was his 1995 establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission that investigated historic human rights violations and gave vent to grievances.

That same year, South Africa hosted the Rugby World Cup – the first event of its kind to be held there since the end of the apartheid-era sporting boycott. Along with cricket, rugby was a game played and enjoyed almost exclusively by whites, making the event tough for Mandela’s fledgling democratic government to “sell” to a wider population.

Despite resistance on both sides, Mandela swung the rainbow nation behind both the team – the Springboks – and the tournament, which South Africa won (VIDEO). That achievement, documented in the 2009 film “Invictus” starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon, illustrated the extent of South Africa’s rehabilitation and also set the country back on the path of sporting success.

Invictus – Poem That Inspired A Nation

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.

UPDATE III: Comments from former South African president F.W. de Klerk.

Nelson Mandela’s greatest accomplishment was to unify South Africa and push for reconciliation between blacks and whites in the post-apartheid era, F.W. de Klerk, the country’s last white president, said on Thursday.

“He was a great unifier and a very, very special man in this regard beyond everything else he did. This emphasis on reconciliation was his biggest legacy,” de Klerk said in an interview with CNN after the announcement of Mandela’s death.

De Klerk, who released Mandela from prison in 1990 and then negotiated the end of apartheid, called Mandela a “humane” and “compassionate” man who was able to understand the fears of South Africa’s white minority in the transition to democracy.

UPDATE IV: South Africans mourn, celebrate life of Nelson Mandela.

As flags were lowered to half mast, people across South Africa commemorated Nelson Mandela with song, tears and prayers on Friday as the government prepared funeral ceremonies that will draw leaders and other dignitaries from around the globe.

A black SUV-type vehicle containing Mandela’s coffin, draped in South Africa’s flag, pulled away from Mandela’s home after midnight, escorted by military motorcycle outriders, to take the body to a military morgue in Pretoria, the capital.

Many South Africans heard the news of his death, which was announced just before midnight, upon waking Friday, and they flocked to his home in Johannesburg’s leafy Houghton neighborhood. One woman hugged her two sons over a floral tribute.

Florida State Quarterback Jameis Winston Not Charged with Rape of Female FSU Student (VIDEO)

Looks like FSU Football is not Duke Lacrosse …

Willie Meggs, the state attorney for the Second Judicial Circuit will not charge Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston with the rape of a female FSU student. The prosecutor basically said that there was not enough evidence to pursue the rape charges. However, this case could be brought forward in the future if other evidence arises. Looks like the Seminoles get to keep their QB for the ACC Championship game, get to keep their all but certain Heisman Trophy winner and their spot in the BCS National Championship game.  I will ask this one question that I am very suspect of … How did it take a year for this to become an active investigation of an alleged rape that took place on on Dec. 7, 2012? State prosecutor in Tallahassee, Willie Meggs, when he made the announcement this afternoon commented, that the decision was not driven “by any Heisman demands or football schedule.” Hmm. then why say it?

Nearly one year after Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston was accused of rape by a female FSU student, the state attorney has decided not to charge the Heisman Trophy favorite.

Thursday’s decision clears the way for him to finish the season with the No. 1 Seminoles.

Willie Meggs, the state attorney for the Second Judicial Circuit, formally announced the move during a news conference Thursday at the Leon County Courthouse. Winston had faced felony charges after being accused of sexually assaulting the woman at an off-campus apartment on Dec. 7, 2012.

“We’ve carefully examined all the evidence in this case and have concluded that no charges will be filed against anyone in this case,” Meggs said.

“We have a duty as prosecutors to determine if each case has a reasonable likelihood of conviction,” Meggs said. “After reviewing the facts in this case, we do not feel that we can reach those burdens.”

While the case could be reopened if new evidence was found, Meggs indicated that “he had no earthly idea what that would be.”

UPDATE I: Accuser in Winston case releases brief statement.

The woman who accused Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston of sexual assault says she worries her experience and how the case unfolded in the public eye will discourage rape victims from coming forward.
The victim and her family released a brief statement Thursday after State Attorney Willie Meggs told reporters he did not have enough evidence to charge Winston. Meggs says the woman’s memory lapses about the events of last December were problematic.

President Barack Obama Says His Dream Job Would Be To Host ESPN’s Sports Center After He Retires

Obama says he wants to be an ESPN Sports Center host after he retires as president. Scared Monkeys says, why wait …

HOPE & CHANGE … Well now we know what Barack Obama’s master plan was in getting the job as president of the United States. It was a resume builder for his dream job, to be a host at ESPN’s Sports Center. As stated at Hot Air, now it makes sense why Obama has devoted so much time and effort to March Madness brackets, the Super Bowl, and the World Series for the last five years “while casually mucking up giant parts of his day job” as president. I say, why wait? Please just quit now and go to ESPN, please! Although I will also sadly say that he is probably more qualified to be an ESPN host than he is president. I guess we now know why he takes the job so seriously.

Just don’t let him be the new Jimmy “the Greek” picking sports games, as Barack the Socialist is not very good at picking “winners and losers”.  I can see Lee Corso on Game Day doing a perpetual loop of “NOT SO FAST!”

From The Hollywood Reporter:

If you have any doubt as to how much of a sports junkie Barack Obama is, check in with the entertainment moguls who attended a private briefing with the president Nov. 26 before his speech at Jeffrey Katzenberg’s DreamWorks Animation campus in Glendale.

At the end of the conversation — which touched on a myriad of topics, from piracy to Iran — Obama revealed what’s at the top of his bucket list post-White House: “At least I know what I want to do when I retire … host ESPN SportsCenter’s Top 10 list,” Obama quipped as he turned to Disney’s Robert Iger, whose empire includes ESPN.

Weasel Zippers some what agrees,  “Well, he is an expert at reading off a teleprompter”.

However, I would remind all as I did intern for a short period of time at a news outlet that everything is not provided to hosts on a teleprompter. Many times a producer is talking in your ear and you have to ad-lib. I would suggest that Barack Obama nt use the video below as his audition tape.

Fast and Furious Actor Paul Walker’s Autopsy Blames Impact & Fire for Walker’s Death (VIDEO)

The autopsy completed on actor Paul Walker done by the LA County Coroners office detailed what many of us pretty much figured from the pictures and VIDEO tape following the horrific and tragic car crash. Paul Walker may have survived the initial crash but died moments later due to a combination of injuries from the impact and the resulting fire.

“Fast & Furious” star Paul Walker may have initially survived a horrific car crash but died moments later due to a combination of injuries from the impact and the resulting fire, according to a coroner’s report.

The one-page preliminary report released by the Los Angeles County coroner’s office Wednesday listed the cause of the actor’s death as the “combined effects of traumatic and thermal injuries.”

An autopsy concluded that Roger Rodas, who was driving the red Porsche Carerra GT, suffered “multiple traumatic injuries,” but it was not clear in the report if he was still alive when the car burst into flames soon after the wreck.

It is not known how long each man lived after the crash as the fire began, Winter said. That information may be included when full autopsy reports are released in several weeks, he said.

“Young Invincibles” Turn on Obama in a Major Way … Harvard Poll: Millennial’s 18-29 Year-Olds Says 54% Disapprove of Obama’s Job Performance, 61% Disapproved of his Handling of Healthcare & 57% Disapproved of the Affordable Care Act

 Millennial Buyers Remorse …

OUCH … 18  to 29 year-olds are in revolt against President Barack Obama, how he has handled his job, healthcare and Obamacare itself!!!

Hey Mr. President … the millennial’s just are not that into you anymore now that they know they truth and they have been lied to and used. Couple the healthcare lies with the NSA spying scandals and the youth that so supported Barack Obama in the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections now learn that there is nothing “Hopey-Changey” about Obama. He is the same old, same old lying politicians. Maybe even worse. According to a new Harvard IOP poll, among the 18- 29- year olds currently without health insurance, less than 1/3 say they’re likely to enroll in the exchange. 13% say they will definitely enroll, 16% say they will probably enroll; 41% say they are 50-50 at the moment.

• 54% Disapprove of Obama’s Job Performance
• 61% Disapproved of his Handling of Healthcare
• 57% Disapproved of the Affordable Care Act
• 44% said they think the quality of their health care will get worse

The  Millennials actually now look more like the rest of the voter electorate.

Poll – Harvard University Institute of Politics

The Hill:

The trend is daunting for the White House but not necessarily surprising,” said Pew Research Center Director Michael Dimock.

“Younger folks are part of Obama’s base … but the rollout confirmed concerns that were already in their minds.”

A poll released Wednesday by Harvard University’s Institute of Politics found that more than half of 18- to 29-year-olds disapprove of ObamaCare and believe it will raise their healthcare costs.

Even more troubling for the administration is that less than one-third of uninsured young people said they plan to enroll in coverage.

Without a large number of young, healthy people in the insurance exchanges, it could create a “death spiral” of high premiums that could threaten the long-term viability of the marketplaces.

The White House appears to recognize the growing threat, and is making outreach to younger people a major focus of its ObamaCare relaunch.

The president began the effort on Wednesday with a youth summit at the White House where he urged audience members to spread the word about the new healthcare exchanges — and think hard about their own health risks.

IOP Releases New Fall Poll, 5 Key Findings And Trends in Millennial Viewpoints -