"naked, man, driving"
"There has not been a nominee in several generations who has brought the depth of judicial experience to this job that she offers," Obama says.Yeah...I can't remember the last time a President nominated a racist for the position...
French oarsman Charlie Girard failed for a third time yesterday in his quixotic quest to row to France from Cape Cod. And US taxpayers are $80,000 poorer.So, to summarize...the frog gave up for the third time. The US came to his rescue for the third time...and we taxpayers foot the bill every time Frenchman, Charlie Girard wants a little attention...(hmmm...sounds familiar).
That's the cost of dispatching a Coast Guard jet and helicopter to a 21-foot, custom-designed rowboat bobbing 150 miles off Cape Cod, where Girard called it quits 10 days into his latest aborted adventure.
Fearful and cold in a menacing fog, Girard used a satellite phone to place an 8:25 a.m. distress call to the Coast Guard in Boston.
"I can't do anything," Girard, 28, said in a weak, breaking voice. "I'm cold, and I don't know what to do."
"He is well," his website chronicler reported that day. "He becomes used more and more to the life on Caliste. He sleeps better now. A bird accompanied some hours on Saturday. He saw two boats."Who else is a cynic and thinks ole' Chuck is cashing in by taking in donations, starting a journey, and then calling it off after a short period to pocket the proceeds? Maybe...maybe not...but:
The site appealed, in awkwardly translated English, for donations to help Girard "beat the record of the world of the crossing by rows the North Atlantic ocean."
By making a contribution, the appeal continued, "you will allow Charlie to close the budget and you will participate in an exceptional adventure."
On his website, where he says he comes from the Deux-Sèvres region in the west of France, he describes himself as "not a sea man . . . contrary to the previous adventurers, he has only coastal navigation experiences."
Girard will not be billed for the $80,000 expense, which includes six hours of total air time for the jet and helicopter, and the cost of support crews. Petty Officer Etta Smith, a Coast Guard spokeswoman in Boston, said policy is to use taxpayer money to pay for rescues.Effin' French...
Pure Liberals first define "fairness" for the rest of us, and refuse to consider alternatives. This is why just about every issue comes down to identity politics with them. There is no subjective value accepted by a Liberal despite the fact it is purely subjective. They merely pronounce it objective. Facts, figures, statistics and the law are their worst enemy.Now...let's see what's happening in today's news:
Justice Department political appointees overruled career lawyers and ended a civil complaint accusing three members of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense of wielding a nightstick and intimidating voters at a Philadelphia polling place last Election Day, according to documents and interviews.That's Eric Holder's Justice Department. You know...the guy who called us all cowards for not taking a blunt dialogue on racism and bigotry.
(...)
Career lawyers pursued the case for months, including obtaining an affidavit from a prominent 1960s civil rights activist who witnessed the confrontation and described it as "the most blatant form of voter intimidation" that he had seen, even during the voting rights crisis in Mississippi a half-century ago.
The lawyers also had ascertained that one of the three men had gained access to the polling place by securing a credential as a Democratic poll watcher, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The Washington Times.
The career Justice lawyers were on the verge of securing sanctions against the men earlier this month when their superiors ordered them to reverse course, according to interviews and documents. The court had already entered a default judgment against the men on April 20.
The larger point is that liberals and conservatives often form judgments through flash intuitions that aren’t a result of a deliberative process. The crucial part of the brain for these judgments is the medial prefrontal cortex, which has more to do with moralizing than with rationality. If you damage your prefrontal cortex, your I.Q. may be unaffected, but you’ll have trouble harrumphing.Crap by the bucketload...
One of the main divides between left and right is the dependence on different moral values. For liberals, morality derives mostly from fairness and prevention of harm. For conservatives, morality also involves upholding authority and loyalty — and revulsion at disgust.
UNITED NATIONS — With their boundless vistas of turquoise water framed by swaying coconut palms, the Carteret Islands northeast of the Papua New Guinea mainland might seem the idyllic spot to be a castaway.Uhhh...no...thanks to tectonic shift, the islands are sinking. Rising sea levels are not the cause.
But sea levels have risen so much that during the annual king tide season, November to March, the roiling ocean blocks the view from one island to the next, and residents stash their possessions in fishing nets strung between the palm trees.
Now if you ask just about anyone living on the islands why this is happening, they will immediately shout "global warming." I was surprised they even knew this term, but they will point north and describe the melting of the ice in Greenland to make their case for climate change. Other people we interviewed described the tumultuous history of the islands, where at one time they used dynamite to fish with resulting damage to the protective coral. They also remind us that the islands are actually part of an old volcano that has a natural history of sinking back into the sea.I wouldn't be surprised that they knew the term. The United Nations has been force feeding it to them.
Louis B. Susman, Ambassador to the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern IrelandImagine that...the likely new ambassador to the UK is a campaign bundler for Obama and the Democrat Party who was also the vice-chairman of Citigroup before resigning back in February. That's, of course, the same Citigroup which was gifted like $45 Billion of our tax dollars due to their ineptness (and by association, Susman's ineptness). Oh...and he's from Chicago.
The effort to buttress the appeals court judge's nomination from behind a curtain of anonymity highlights the administration's determination to frame the narrative, even as cable news pundits and bloggers were alternately praising and criticizing Sotomayor.This is from a Howard Kurtz piece in the Washington Post today on the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. I found it amusing because Jennifer Loven is the AP reporter who filed her observations on the President's Inaugural address many hours ahead of the delivery. It was one of the examples we use on this site to point out that the Associated Press possesses a Time Machine.
"We protest in the strongest terms the Obama administration's frequent use of briefings done on a background basis . . . especially when the same officials briefing often appear ubiquitously on television shows with similar information," said Jennifer Loven of the Associated Press, president of the White House Correspondents' Association. She said this was particularly true on a Supreme Court nomination, "when the issue does not involve sensitive material such as national security information."
Asked for a response, Gibbs said it was "interesting" that the AP had no qualms about relying on unnamed "officials" in breaking the news of Sotomayor's nomination. "I'm not sure today is the day I'd make that argument," he said.
A media debate over Sotomayor erupted immediately after the AP reported her selection at 8:25 a.m., nearly two hours before Obama's announcement. There had been earlier skirmishes because Sotomayor was high on every media organization's list of possible appointees, unlike in some previous instances where the nominee -- Harriet Miers, for instance -- came as a surprise.Damn Time Machine...
• "It seems that the California Supreme Court justices decided to be indecisive," said Takei, who married Altman Sept. 14, 2008. "Our marriage is intact, but this issue is not settled. Inequality is still the rule of the land."This is the celebrity response to the Prop 8 nonsense over in California. Again, I'll confirm that I could care less about the gay marriage issue. It is of little importance, and I would not have had a problem with the result of the Court Decision one way or the other. Similarly, I had no problem with a majority of California voters deciding that they didn't want gay marriage in their part of the Republic.
• "I'm sure you heard the prop 8 news," DeGeneres wrote on Twitter. "One day when everyone is treated with full equality, we'll look back and realize how wrong this was."
• "Those full of hate and fear will surely be disappointed that 18,000 same sex couples will be living in wedded bliss, kissing their spouses goodnight, checking off those little 'married' boxes on all those forms we fill out nowadays. That's really going to drive them crazy," Melissa Etheridge, who exchanged vows with her longtime partner in a 2003 ceremony, said in a statement. "I am hopeful as I see more and more states turn to the inevitable future of equality, California will get there. Change takes time."
• "I blame miss california," Margaret Cho wrote on Twitter.
• "That's just awful," Elton John said in an interview on AccessHollywood.com. "When you see places like Iowa saying yes, there's now five states in America (where same-sex marriage is legal). California is supposed to be a progressive state. It defies logic to me. I'm very disappointed."
• "This really makes me sad," Kim Kardashian wrote on her blog. "I thought we were more forward thinking than this, and I'm disappointed in the Supreme Court for being so closed minded. Everyone... gay, straight, bisexual, transgendered, EVERYONE should have equal rights to marry who they want to."
• "Gay and lesbian residents of this state are being denied the same rights, privileges and protections that heterosexual couples have when they marry civilly," Hilton blogged. "That is NOT right! That is not fair! That is wrong wrong wrong! This is about equality!"
Not all remembrances on Memorial Day were about the brave ones who went to war and didn’t come home. Memories were stirring as well among those who, typically without the benefit of ever having been in uniform themselves, sent the brave ones off to war.Recent polls have shown that those wearing the uniform don't have a very high opinion of that guy in the White House. So, the New York Times is doing their part to try and sway a bit more support in that regard. The process is a tired "hit piece" on the Bush administration efforting to alienate soldiers by giving the impression that Bush and Co. didn't care. Cashing in...you get the idea.
We are in a season rich with recollections being offered by key figures in the George W. Bush presidency. They have been busy writing their memoirs, or at least shopping them around — people like Dick Cheney, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, Karl Rove and, lest we forget, Mr. Bush himself.
This is to be expected. Once they have let slip the reins of power, senior people in every administration race to their desktops to pound out their side of the story and (no small consideration) to cash in on it. Big time, as Mr. Cheney might say. Former President Bill Clinton remains the gold standard, having received a $15 million advance for a thick memoir judged by some reviewers as notable less for its literary elegance than for its utility as a doorstop.
UN Headquarters in New York will be closed on Monday for the Memorial Day holiday.Good grief!!! Shouldn't they be working on a "strongly worded letter" or something?
The noon briefing will resume next Tuesday, May 26.
The study also found that alcoholic drinks contribute significantly to emissions, with the growing and processing of hops and malt into beer and whisky producing 1.5 per cent of Britain's greenhouse gases.Who do you think will win this battle?
Among several hundred people who gathered to celebrate African-American veterans in Roxbury's General Edward O. Gourdin Park yesterday was the grand-nephew of the famed judge, general, and athlete for whom the park is named.It's interesting that there are no celebrations to honor those veterans with red hair...or veterans with hazel colored eyes. We consistantly and incessantly hear the "drums" demanding equality from those with more melanin in their skin tone. But, we always see segregational type honorarians such as this at the same time.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is supporting a Bush administration edict to end a well-regarded Philadelphia school breakfast and lunch program, according to a high-ranking USDA official.This was/is a pilot program...THAT WAS INSTITUTED SEVENTEEN (17) YEARS AGO!!!
Antihunger advocates are outraged, saying many poor children who normally get free lunch and breakfast may go without if the USDA ends the program, the only one of its kind in the country.
Known as Universal Feeding, the program allows more than 120,000 students in poor schools to eat free meals without having to fill out applications. Children and their families in poor communities don't always complete such forms. The USDA, however, is insisting that paperwork be used, which will result in fewer poor children eating, advocates say.
1. Funding for the next year was based on spending from the previous year (like all government boondoggle...pilot programs).My thoughts fall along the line that without these bogus give-away tax funded entitlements...maybe folks will think twice about having a family they can't afford. Or not.
2. Or...maybe the majority of recipients shouldn't be in this country to begin with...
FRAMINGHAM - Framingham's human resources director says she was unfairly fired from her job after questioning the legality of a round of Town Hall layoffs in February that eliminated the jobs of mostly older female, minority, and disabled town employees.I love it when Liberal policies and precedent shoot Liberals in their own Birkenstock clad feet.
The United Nations, which aspires to protect human rights around the world, is struggling to deal with an embarrassing string of sexual-harassment complaints within its own ranks.Gosh...this surprises me.
Many U.N. workers who have made or faced accusations of sexual harassment say the current system for handling complaints is arbitrary, unfair and mired in bureaucracy. One employee's complaint that she was sexually harassed for years by her supervisor in Gaza, for example, was investigated by one of her boss's colleagues, who cleared him.
Are extreme droughts, and the wild firestorms that they foster, just a fact of life? Is this as bad as it's going to get or could the risk of drought and bushfires such as we saw in Canberra continue to grow?______________________
The severe weather conditions that Australia is currently experiencing are a disaster. But it is not a natural disaster. A report, released on January 14, prepared by Professor David Karoly, Dr James Risbey and Anna Reynolds for the WorldWide Fund for Nature (WWF) Australia, found that the severity of the current drought is a result of human-induced global warming.
CANBERRA, May 22 (Reuters) - Authorities moved to evacuate thousands of people from a second Australian town on Friday as floodwaters from days of torrential rain inundated large parts of the country's east coast.
About 5,000 residents in Lismore, in northern New South Wales (NSW) state, were evacuated from their homes as floodwaters, in some places more than 10 metres (32 feet) deep, surged across riverlands stretching along 300 km (185 miles) of coastline.
Authorities also urged 9,000 people to evacuate the nearby town of Grafton, with floodwaters up to 8 metres deep expected to hit the town late on Friday. State authorities declared disaster zones in six areas, unlocking government help.
Changing behaviour will be as vital as new technologies in tackling climate change. So where is the funding for linguists, anthropologists and sociologists?Of course, we in the States have a separation of Church and State via the First Amendment of the Constitution, and solidified in a letter written by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists in 1802...so good luck with that. Read the comments at Blair's house...there are some real nice ones.
A Quiet Meeting of America’s Very RichestYeah...yeah...I know. This is crap news that means nothing. But, here's the funny thing. A. G. Sulzberger is the son of New York Times publisher, Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. Gosh...wonder how he got his journalist job?
By A. G. SULZBERGER
Published: May 20, 2009
There are fewer billionaires in these tough economic times, so one might imagine that the remaining ones would attract more attention when they moved en masse. Yet when some of America’s most prominent capitalists met earlier this month at Rockefeller University, it took weeks before anyone noticed.
WASHINGTON — An unreleased Pentagon report concludes that about one in seven of the 534 prisoners already transferred abroad from the detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has returned to terrorism or militant activity, according to administration officials.The New York Times needs to finish their sentence above:
The conclusion could strengthen the arguments of critics who have warned against the transfer or release of any more detainees as part of President Obama’s plan to shut down the prison by January. Past Pentagon reports on Guantánamo recidivism have been met with skepticism from civil liberties groups and criticized for their lack of detail.
“It’s part of a campaign to win the hearts and minds of history for Guantánamo,” said Mark P. Denbeaux, a professor at Seton Hall University School of Law who has represented Guantánamo detainees and co-written three studies highly critical of the Pentagon’s previous recidivism reports. “They want to be able to claim there really were bad people there.”If you go to Seton Hall and you have this guy for a class...do this:
Mr. Denbeaux acknowledged that some of the named detainees had engaged in verifiable terrorist acts since their release, but he said his research showed that their numbers were small.
“We’ve never said there weren’t some people who would return to the fight,” Mr. Denbeaux said. “It seems to be unavoidable. Nothing is perfect.”
Neutron stars are the second densest objects in the universe after black holes. A teaspoonful of neutron star matter would weigh about a hundred million tons.The author never met Paris Hilton after a couple of Mai Tais. There is nothing more dense.
The Obama administration's sweeping fuel-economy and emissions initiative announced Tuesday reopens a fierce debate over tradeoffs between fuel economy and auto safety.Yeah...fuel efficient cars won't be smaller... * snort *...The automakers will make big cars and SUV's because...you know...the more parts and raw materials used, the cheaper it is to produce...right? And, of course the stringent environmental requirements will be easier to produce with a larger car/truck. Gotta love "Government Motors."
The government says no tradeoff exists, because nothing in the new rules would force automakers to sell more small cars, which are more dangerous in crashes than larger ones. But some safety experts think otherwise.
For readers of The Telegraph, many of them staunch Conservatives, the revelations have carried an irony of their own. The day-by-day exposures have raised questions about the integrity of many Conservatives, as well as members of Labor and the Liberal Democrats, the third major party in the Commons, making for what some commentators have called an “equal opportunity” scandal.Here's a clue NY Times...we don't prop up corrupt politicians regardless of their party affiliation. We send Conservative politicians packing if they step over the line.
Q: I wanted to know your opinion of Wanda Sykes' routine at the White House Correspondents Dinner and if you thought she went too far with her Rush Limbaugh jokes or if that's within the realm of fair game?Well, Michael J. Fox admitted that he was over-medicating which caused dyskinesia. That's a constant uncontrollable rocking motion for those of you playing along at home. Score one for Mr. Limbaugh...
A: Well, Rush Limbaugh is a great target because he's the one who said, among other things, that Michael J. Fox was faking his movements ... to get publicity. So he's quite capable of crossing the line. ... I think that her main problem is that she wasn't getting the laughs. The joke needed to be a little bit more pointed. Because if it's funny, you get away with it. If it's not funny enough, then you veer into bitterness when you're attacking the opposite team. I think that was a little bit problematic for her. But she was funny on other stuff. And anyway, they love comedians and what we say until they don't love what we say. And then we're in trouble again. Remember, the role of the court jester is to tell the king he's full of baloney. That's what our job is.
So far, though, you have not been told what it’s like as a car; as a tool for moving you, your friends and your things from place to place.Jeremy Clarkson takes a look at the Honda Insight 1.3 IMA SE Hybrid in the UK Times and rips it a new one.
So here goes. It’s terrible. Biblically terrible. Possibly the worst new car money can buy. It’s the first car I’ve ever considered crashing into a tree, on purpose, so I didn’t have to drive it any more.
So you’re sitting there with the engine screaming its head off, and your ears bleeding, and you’re doing only 23mph because that’s about the top speed, and you’re thinking things can’t get any worse, and then they do because you run over a small piece of grit.Clarkson's verdict
Good only for parting the smug from their moneyRead the whole thing...It's a hoot, and indicative of the entire Church of Environmy. Feel the guilt drip away as you limit yourself and sacrifice the bare essensials on a pursuit of Utopia (That's in Kenya...I think).
The New York Times confirmed yesterday that it killed a story in October that would have shown a close link between ACORN, Project Vote and the Obama campaign. The NY Times killed the investigation before the election that would have shown that Barack Obama’s campaign and the Far Left ACORN Organization were guilty of technical violations of campaign finance law.From the unforgiving world of "reality."
If the doomsayers are right, control of New York Times Co. could be up for grabs in the next year or two.My wish is that a substantial portion of the toilet paper stock is purchased by some other elitist Liberal Jackass (David Geffen) so he can lose his silk shirt as well.
BANGKOK — Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, went on trial Monday in a mostly procedural hearing as hundreds of police officers and army soldiers blocked crowds of protesters, according to reports from news agencies and opposition exile groups.Here's what the Obama Administration had to say about this injustice:
Several foreign diplomats were also prevented from entering the court where Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi faced charges that could bring a prison term of up to five years, according to the reports. A United States Embassy official was allowed to enter because another defendant in the trial is an American man who swam across a lake early this month and spent a night in Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi’s house.
CANNES, France — It goes by a single name, but the Cannes Film Festival is a hydra-headed beast. For most of the world it is a red-carpet event, a seductively foreign affair in which glamorous stars wave at the cameras on their way into films that, save for the larger studio releases, much of the world will probably never see. This is the Cannes where art triumphs over industry (if not necessarily good taste), a festival of auteurs whose work has, at least in the United States, become increasingly difficult to sell to the public. This is the Cannes that, in time, shows up piecemeal at places like Film Forum in New York or through download on cable.In short...most of the efforts at Cannes just plain suck.
North Andover woman sought in EPA manhunt; bogus asbestos removal classes put thousands at riskI had to post this simply because of the imagery it presents. What Albania Deleon did was fraud...and criminal in intent. I'm not arguing that point (even if most of the victims were criminals as well...illegal immigrants).
Days before she was to be sentenced for one of the country's most egregious environmental crimes, North Andover resident Albania Deleon begged for the court's mercy.
"I pray that God will forgive my soul," she wrote in a three-page handwritten letter to US District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, "and allow me to atone the rest of my life repaying and repairing the harm I have done. This is my solemn promise."
Then the 39-year-old mother sawed off her ankle monitor and disappeared into a cool March day, becoming one of the US Environmental Protection Agency's most wanted fugitives.
But the storm has fallen with a special ferocity on black and Latino homeowners, the analysis shows. Defaults occur three times as often in mostly minority census tracts as in mostly white ones. Eighty-five percent of the worst-hit neighborhoods — where the default rate is at least double the regional average — have a majority of black and Latino homeowners.Ummmm...how do you comment on this factual reference without some half-wit calling you a racist? How do you evaluate this fact in a politically correct fashion?
And the hardest blows rain down on the backbone of minority neighborhoods: the black middle class. In New York City, for example, black households making more than $68,000 a year are almost five times as likely to hold high-interest subprime mortgages as are whites of similar — or even lower — incomes.
“I don’t want to say it’s in the cultural DNA, but a lot of us who are older than 30 have some memory of disappointment or humiliation related to banks,” Mr. Grannum said. “The white guy in the suit with the same income gets a loan and you don’t?”The simple fact of the matter is that the New York Times thinks that the amount of melanin in a person's skin or their family origin is an important factor in the make-up of those individuals who rather naively and ignorantly signed a legal document without making an effort to determine just what that document entailed. The excuse is how minorities have been treated in the past...on a pure anecdotal basis. They fail to tell you how many of these foreclosed homes were mortgaged by individuals under or over 30 (as if that should be a factor).
“So you turn to local brokers, even if they don’t offer the best rates.”
PARIS — Will May 2009 mark the beginning of the end for the free, unfettered Internet?The red-headed stepchild of the New York Times (International Herald Tribune) has an article today lamenting the fact that putting up a "pay wall" to protect their content will not, likely, solve their financial woes.
From all the wailing on the Web — and the fist-pumping in some old-media redoubts — it might seem so.
In recent days, Rupert Murdoch, chief executive of News Corp., declared that he would end what he called a “malfunctioning” business: the free online newspaper. Other publishers, including The Guardian Media Group in Britain and The New York Times Co., which owns the International Herald Tribune, said they were examining ways to get readers to pay for digital news.
And there is an undertone of political realities at work. Mr. Obama would have had to shut off every television set in the West Wing in recent days to avoid seeing former Vice President Dick Cheney’s assaults on his national security policies. While the Cheney fusillade has left many Republicans wincing, it has reminded Democrats that they could be politically vulnerable should the United States be attacked again.Ummmm...feel the change. I agree. The entire Democrat Party is currently extremely vulnerable. But, it takes an opposition with foresight and fortitude to apply the advantage.
Al Gore said Friday that fellow former Vice President Dick Cheney has jumped back into the political fray too soon into the new administration’s term.Good thing Al Gore invented that internet thingy, or we would take him at his word.
“I waited two years after I left office to make statements that were critical,” Gore said during an interview on CNN, pointing out that his critiques were focused on “policy.”
Thursday, October 03, 2002For you sticklers, that is less than two years from when GWB took office...and it took me all of two minutes to look up. I'm sure I could find better examples...
WASHINGTON — A spokesman for President Bush dismissed Al Gore's criticism of White House economic policies, saying Thursday that "nobody pays a lot of attention to what the former vice president said.
JENKINS: Everybody at a tea party are racists?I love Janeane Garofalo because she is so obvious. The substance of her arguments (and jokes for that matter) are rarely anything close to intellectual. However, she is one of those people who enjoy a self-proclaimed intelligence based on how she answers questions. She tried to employ "big words" with mucho syllables thinking that the application is significant. Those type folks always make me chuckle.
GAROFALO: Yes. Everybody I saw at that tea party are racists.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Amazing.
GAROFALO: It is amazing, isn't it? How dare I?
Obama, who took the stage at Sun Devil Stadium shortly before 8 p.m., urged the 9,267 graduates to stand up to the challenging times by rejecting traditional status symbols as they build their own "body of work," a riff on ASU's decision withhold an honorary degree because the relatively new commander-in-chief had yet to establish a large enough body of work.Priceless...
Obama sought to put to rest the degree controversy, repeatedly joking about it during his speech. The president said the great American story is young people following their passions and not doing it for money.Yeah...you can tell it irks him. How dare ASU denounce "The One."
"A whole bunch of them didn't get honorary degrees," he said. "But they changed the course of history — and so can you, ASU, so can you Class of 2009."
"One of the amazing things about President Obama is his ability to weave together so many references into a powerful, yet lighthearted lesson," said Tempe City Councilman Corey Woods, who was at the stadium. "I loved the fact that he preached a message to the graduating class of never abandoning your dreams while name-dropping Winston Churchill and (Arizona Cardinals star) Kurt Warner in the same sentence. It's an important message that was packaged in a very accessible way."Here...watch me do it.
New York City police officers made more than 170,000 stops of people on the streets in the first three months of 2009, the most for any quarter in the eight years since the department began reporting the data, according to a report made public on Tuesday.Absorb this warped percipience from CHRISTINE HAUSER of the NY Times.
The percentage of the stops that yielded arrests or summonses, however, has remained consistent at a little more than 10 percent.
The report, released to the City Council on May 1 and made public by the New York Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday, says officers made 171,094 stops from January through March of this year. That was an 18 percent increase over the previous record for a quarter of 145,098 in the same period in 2008, according to an analysis of the data by the civil liberties group.Oh Ho....actually, the phrase was "more than 10 percent" so they arrested more than 17,000 individuals. And, the NYCLU says there were over 171,000 stops.
The group also charged that the report shows that a disproportionate number of blacks and Latinos were among those stopped.Uh huh...yeah...well, the percentage of arrests staying consistent regardless of the number of people stopped suggests that the NYPD can do better. When the percentage of arrests drops in proportion to the increase of stops, then the plateau has been reached. In the interim, the Latino and Black communities are absolutely documented in this report twisted by the New York Times to be a bigger part of the crime problem if the number of arrests exceed their percentage make up of the city's ethnicity.
When Bush 41 was ramping up to the Gulf War, assembling a coalition to fight Saddam, Jimmy Carter sent a letter to members of the U.N. Security Council urging them not to rush into conflict without further exploring a negotiated solution.I believe her goal is to enter a divide between Bush 1/ Bush 2 loyalists and Cheney loyalists. Of course, the obligatory unidentified sources are enabled...
The first President Bush and other Republicans in Washington considered this treasonous, a former president trying to thwart a sitting one, lobbying foreign diplomats to oppose his own country on a war resolution. In 2002, when Bush Junior was ramping up to his war against Saddam, Al Gore made a speech trying to slow down that war resolution, pointing out that pivoting from Osama to Saddam for no reason, initiating “pre-emptive” war, and blowing off our allies would undermine the war on terror.
Charles Krauthammer called Gore’s speech “a disgrace.” Michael Kelly, his fellow Washington Post columnist, called it “vile” and “contemptible.” Newt Gingrich said that the former vice president asserting that W. was making America less safe was “well outside the mark of an appropriate debate.”
"...said an official in Bush I."and
"...said a Bush family loyalist."In short, Dowd is the kind of opposition you want in a debate championship. She'll argue your side for you, and remain oblivious to those laughing at her from both sides.
CAIRO — President Obama’s decision to deliver a speech here next month has given significant encouragement to a once powerful ally that has grown increasingly frustrated over its waning regional influence and its inability to explain to its citizens why it remains committed to a Middle East peace process that has failed to produce a better life for Palestinians.I borrowed the Associated Press Time Machine to gaze the occurrence. It went something like this:
ST.-VICTOR-DE-CESSIEU, France — The French, known for their mistrust of banks, are not just stuffing money into mattresses in these anxious days of recession and minuscule interest rates. They are also putting their cash into cows.Don't get to comfortable with the cow thing, my French friends. The United Nations shall be along shortly to...settle up on the methane releases causing global warming.
For Pierre Marguerit, 60, cows make a safe, secure investment, allowing for long-term growth from a renewable resource. The cow contracts are hardly new, but go back to Richard the Lionheart; the French word for livestock, “cheptel,” is the root for “capital.”
These are not exactly cash cows. But investment in Mr. Marguerit’s Holsteins will bring a 4 to 5 percent return a year after taxes, he said, based on “natural growth” — the sale of their offspring. That compares to an interest rate now of 0.75 percent on the basic French bank account.
Muslim chef tells tribunal he refused to cook porkBrussel Sprouts...I would understand.
May 11, 2009
LONDON (AFP) — A Muslim catering manager refused to cook sausages and bacon because he feared he would be splashed with pork fat, he told an industrial tribunal Monday, alleging religious discrimination.
Hasanali Khoja, 60, from London, said he felt he was at risk of contact with pork products even if he wore gloves and used tongs to cook.
Khoja, who claims he was discriminated against due to his Islamic faith, also alleges that in a meeting to resolve the situation, a human resources manager pulled faces and made racist gestures.
"YOU'RE FIRED."He should be...but won't be (wasn't). The cult of Islam reigns in the UK.
Caulking and sealing. Insulation in the walls and the attic. An upgraded furnace. Perhaps even a new refrigerator.And you just thought that you were paying for their mortgage. What a hard nosed callous person you are. You're giving them a new fridge and fixing up the residence, too.
Energy-saving home improvements - that's how the federal stimulus program will first be felt by tens of thousands of low-income American families.
About 30,000 homes in Pennsylvania and 13,000 in New Jersey will benefit from $5 billion that Congress has allotted nationally for weatherization work.
Pennsylvania will get $253 million and New Jersey will get $119 million under a supercharged expansion of a 33-year-old program that was first meant to help the nation cope with the Arab oil embargo and high energy prices of the 1970s.
TIANJIN, China — China’s frenetic construction of coal-fired power plants has raised worries around the world about the effect on climate change. China now uses more coal than the United States, Europe and Japan combined, making it the world’s largest emitter of gases that are warming the planet.Personally, I wasn't aware that we were in a competition with China to see which country could build the most coal-fired power plants. Secondly, the headline is disingenuous:
But largely missing in the hand-wringing is this: China has emerged in the past two years as the world’s leading builder of more efficient, less polluting coal power plants, mastering the technology and driving down the cost.
While the United States is still debating whether to build a more efficient kind of coal-fired power plant that uses extremely hot steam, China has begun building such plants at a rate of one a month.
"China Outpaces U.S. in Cleaner Coal-Fired Plants"The headline should read:
" Current Administration promised to bankrupt coal-fired plants, and his lemmings are letting him do it...and China is kicking our ass in this faux competition overseen by the NY Times..."
WASHINGTON — President Obama will announce today that the health care industry will try to cut $2 trillion in expenses over the next decade to slow the rising cost of medical care, two White House officials familiar with the plan said.Whoa...glad I'm not elderly. Think about this...how will the industry cut costs? Well, that's simple. They will cut treatment. No longer will you have covered procedures where the chance of success is below a certain percentage. Now, think about all those filler lifestyle articles that pop up telling you of a miracle recovery where the doctors invariably say... "I've never seen anything like this."
If successful, the cuts could help reduce costs for families and provide money for an expansion of health care coverage backed by Obama and some Democrats in Congress, said the officials, who briefed reporters but refused to be identified ahead of Obama's announcement.
White House officials offered few specifics about how the cuts would be achieved or how the promise to slow the rate of cost increases would be enforced.Thanks for the clarification...
RUISLIP, England: When Bruce Hardy's kidney cancer spread to his lung, his doctor recommended an expensive new pill from Pfizer. But Hardy is British, and the British health authorities refused to buy the medicine. His wife has been distraught.The United Kingdom is already suffering the consequences of forced cuts on treatment...we're next.
"Everybody should be allowed to have as much life as they can," Joy Hardy said in the couple's modest home outside London.
If the Hardys lived in the United States or just about any European country other than Britain, Hardy would most likely get the drug, although he might have to pay part of the cost. A clinical trial showed that the pill, called Sutent, delays cancer progression for six months at an estimated treatment cost of $54,000.
WASHINGTON (AP) — It was the hottest ticket in town, a black-tie dinner gathering of Washington's political and media elite but Dick Cheney couldn't make it.Yuk it up, rookie...
The former vice president was busy, President Obama joked, working on his memoir "tentatively titled, How to Shoot Friends and Interrogate People. "
Sometimes rules in a single program collide with themselves. Such was the case with Jewell French-Allen, who got tangled in an obscure provision of Massachusetts unemployment law. With a high-risk pregnancy at age 35, Ms. French-Allen left a $40,000 a year job and applied for jobless benefits. But the state denied the request, ruling that she had quit by choice. She then took a sales job at much lower pay, and was laid off.There is nothing obscure about a law that keeps individuals from collecting unemployment benefits when they are the ones that terminate the job. It's called common sense.
Had she never held the first job, Ms. French-Allen could have gotten unemployment benefits. But because her earlier request had been denied, the state added a test — and disqualified her because the weekly pay from the second job was less than the benefits she would have gotten from the first.
In an startling partisan shift, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. on Thursday proposed holding hearings on claims the liberal activist group ACORN engaged in a pattern of crimes ranging from voter fraud to a mob-style “protection” racket.Yeah...right. Here's my response to that thread over at "Stop the ACLU."
Gormless Worm on March 21st, 2009 10:00 amWell...guess what?:
I tend to think that Conyers is merely moving himself to the front of the “relevance line.” His rhetoric will catch the attention of the White House. He’ll be pulled over there for a nice personal meeting…and the all important question will be asked.
“Sooooo…Congressman Conyers…what’s it gonna take to get you back doing the people’s work…instead of poking ACORN with a stick?…I’m listenting.”
Democrat Rep. John Conyers backs down from his pledge to investigate ACORN fraud: Bok, bok, bok.Mission accomplished...
Matthew Vadum zeroes in on the right question: What happened in a mere two weeks to change Conyers’ mind? Did he get a call from friends of ACORN in high places? Did he get something else? Why drop the call for a congressional probe in the very same week that ACORN criminal charges have been filed in Nevada and Pennsylvania?
What gives? Or who gives? (Michelle Malkin's blog)
HONOLULU (AP) - Hawaii's state Senate has overwhelmingly approved a bill to celebrate "Islam Day" - over the objections of a few lawmakers who said they didn't want to honor a religion connected to Sept. 11, 2001.Fantastic!!!
The resolution to proclaim Sept. 24, 2009, as Islam Day passed the Senate on a 22-3 vote Wednesday. It previously passed the House.
The measure now goes to the governor.
The bill seeks to recognize "the rich religious, scientific, cultural and artistic contributions" that Islam and the Islamic world have made.
FDA is failing to meet its food-safety inspection audit goalsWell then, by all means hire someone to head the FDA who has little to no experience in such issues:
The Food and Drug Administration is failing to meet its goals for auditing food-safety inspections that states do on its behalf, FDA data show.
The FDA fell short of its goal in at least 17 of 39 states it paid to do inspections in the 2007-08 contract year, according to data the FDA gave USA TODAY. In five states, the FDA did no audits.
Although she lacks deep experience in drug- or food-safety issues, Dr. Hamburg was an infectious disease researcher and is an expert in bioterrorism and public preparedness, both of which seem keenly relevant. Her leadership in New York has won her admirers among public health advocates, many of whom said she would be a good leader to an agency a previous commissioner had likened to a cancer patient.Obama's Keystone Cops Academy...strikes again.
Mayor Bloomberg may have a lot of dough -- and this time he added a little flour, oatmeal and some raisins to go with it.Hmmmm...this is the Facist mayor of New York who took on a crusade to outlaw trans fatty foods... Let's take a look at his recipe:
The billionaire mayor taped an appearance today on "The "Martha Stewart Show" and shared his favorite recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies with the audience.
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.Yup...there is butter in those Bloomberg cookies...that means trans fat.
2. In a large bowl, using a spatula, cream together butter, sugar, and salt. Add egg, vanilla, and ¼ cup water; mix until well combined.
3. In another large bowl, mix together flour, oatmeal, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and nutmeg. Fold into the butter mixture until well combined. Add raisins and stir until well combined.
4. Using a 1 ½-inch ice cream scoop, scoop out cookie dough onto prepared baking sheets, about 1 ½ -inches apart. Transfer baking sheets to oven and bake until edges begin to brown, about 20 minutes. Let cookies cool on baking sheet for about 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
A number of lawmakers, foreign governments and environmental advocates had urged the administration to offer an amendment to the Montreal Protocol, the international treaty on ozone-depleting substances, calling for the rapid elimination of HFC’s. Some officials at the State Department and the Environmental Protection Agency had pushed for such a course, but the White House decided on a more moderate approach to give it negotiating room in upcoming rounds of climate and environmental talks.Yeah...you know, the HFC's and the CFC's that were outlawed starting 21 years ago (OVER TWO DECADES AGO)...How'd that work out?
HFC’s are used as refrigerants in air conditioners, refrigerators and freezers, as well as in some fire-fighting foams. They are sometimes referred to as “super-greenhouse gases” because they are hundreds or even thousands of times more powerful than carbon dioxide, molecule for molecule, in heating the atmosphere. HFC’s are cousins to chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFC’s), two other classes of refrigerants which are being eliminated under the Montreal Protocol, a 21-year old treaty signed by 195 nations to control the gases that opened up a hole in the earth-protecting ozone layer of the atmosphere.
"We were surprised to find that the closing of the ozone hole, which is expected to occur in the next 50 years or so, shows significant effects on the global climate," said Lorenzo M. Polvan one of two principle investigators and professor of applied mathematics at SEAS. "This is because stratospheric ozone has not been considered a major player in the climate system. We believe the closing of the ozone hole is likely to have profound impacts on the surface winds and, also likely, to have an impact on other aspects of the Earth's climate, including surface temperatures, locations of storm tracks, extent of dry zones, amount of sea ice, and ocean circulation."Yes...you read that correctly. Closing the ozone hole will cause global warming and all kinds of other Irwin Allen type goodies.
The Northeastern moderates tend to style themselves as fiscal conservatives, spinning a narrative in which they’re the victims of a doctrinaire social conservatism and its litmus tests. But many of them are just instinctive liberals who happen to have ancestral ties to the Grand Old Party. Chafee fit that bill; so did former Senator James Jeffords of Vermont, who amassed a distinctly left-wing record after he bolted the Republican Party in 2001 to become an “independent.” For that matter, so does the retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter, a New England native and Republican appointee who often gets described as a moderate, but boasts the jurisprudence of a reliable liberal.You canNOT be a fiscal conservative and vote for an "$800 Billion" bailout. It's a simple litmus test. And, I take issue with all these pundit omnipotent types who claim that the "defection" of Specter was a...loss...or negative in any way. It is very much an improvement to Conservative principles. The more moderate tweeners that are cast aside, the clearer the message of those who are left.
Others, like Collins and Snowe and (until last week) Specter, are simply horse-traders and deal-cutters, whose willingness to cross party lines last month to vote for $800 billion dollars in deficit spending tells you most of what you need to know about their supposed fiscal conservatism. They’re politically savvy but intellectually vacuous. Their highest allegiance isn’t to limited government. It’s to meeting the party in power halfway, while making sure that the dollars keep flowing to their constituents back home.
Susan Etheridge for The New York TimesSome of his points reflect hers, I'm sure. This is the time to clean house and go full out on the offensive...
Just a couple days after Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin talked up natural gas, while apparently moderating her stance on global warming, she received an unexpected present from her state legislature.
SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones)--TransCanada Corp. (TRP) started the permitting process this week for its $30 billion Alaskan natural gas pipeline, while two oil majors work on a rival project.There is still no agreement between TransCanada and BP Conoco, but the trump card is that Exxon (which controls a heap load of natural gas and oil on the North Slope) could apply the screws to the party that has the best pipeline plan to get moving.
The Canadian pipeline company filed a request Thursday with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to start what's called a "prefiling procedure" in which the company works with regulatory staff to ensure it has all the data and information needed to file a formal application for approval of the project.
TransCanada plans to build a 750-mile pipeline from Prudhoe Bay to the border of Alaska and Canada's Yukon Territory, extending several hundred miles through Canada to the continental U.S. The pipeline would ship 4.5 billion cubic feet of gas per day, with possible expansion to 5.9 billion cubic feet. TransCanada will decide on a final route based on shippers' interest. The company also plans to solicit interest in a separate 800-mile gasline from the North Slope to a liquefaction plant in Valdez, where gas would be shipped to the U.S. by tanker.
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- A coalition of Muslim groups is calling for Muslims to stop fully cooperating with the FBI.Plus...you know...the current Administration is implying there are no repercussions for being an enemy of the State. Actions speak louder than words, and reactions usually follow.
The American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections is upset over what it says is increasing government surveillance in mosques, new federal guidelines they say encourage profiling, and the FBI's suspension of ties with the nation's largest Muslim civil rights group.
Since her death Corrie has, outside of the Palestinian-controlled territories, become one of the most famous victims of the conflict. Last week, the Tribeca Film Festival hosted the first North American public screening of Rachel, a documentary by the Israeli filmmaker Simone Bitton about Corrie's death that had its Canadian premiere at Toronto's Hot Docs festival last night.Have you ever noticed that the Left has one hell of a time finding people that can be honored or respected by both sides of the aisle.
"All cities that ever at any time have been ruled by an absolute prince, by aristocrats or by the people, have had for their protection force combined with prudence, because the latter is not enough alone, and the first either does not produce things, or when they are produced, does not maintain them. Force and prudence, then, are the might of all the governments that ever have been or will be in the world."If that is true Machiavellian...sign me up.
Duka said he did not know how he was going to spread word about the case.That's easy...just ask the Philadelphia Inquirer to run a sob story "Bonfire of the Vanities" type piece like the one linked. After all, if the Inquirer had any problems throwing one together, they could take pointers from the Boston Globe's same shameless approach back in March.
"I have to find a way," he said. "Nobody knows my sons better than I do. I know who they are."
And so the latest round of What Should the Republican Party Do?No, Ms. Noonan. It must educate. Conservatives must explain their positions (without compromising Conservative values) in terms relatable and understandable to the populous. It must "take the gloves off" and go on the offensive to expose the basic wrongs of policy and opposition now being put into place.
If it is alive, and it is, it will evolve, as living things do. Beyond that, a thought.
A great party needs give. It must be expansive and summoning. It needs to say, "Join me."
BEIJING — Behind the west Beijing apartment building where Liu Xia keeps a fifth-floor flat, the police have built a guardhouse. Its purpose is not to protect Ms. Liu, who seeks no safeguarding. The house is for the guards who watch her.Ain't no such thing as a little pregnant. Ain't no such thing as a little Democracy. In order to compete and prosper in the global market, China was forced to make concessions. What they didn't count on is that their constituency (especially in the outer Provinces) would grasp onto a whisp and a dream.
Inside, they take notes to record her comings and goings. When she ventures out, a guard picks up the phone. Soon, a sedan with darkened windows carrying a man with a telephoto-lens camera is trailing her.
During a recent chat in a nearby teahouse, Ms. Liu wondered aloud why she unnerves China’s rulers enough to merit her own guardhouse. She is not active in politics, she said, and does not even use a computer. “I take photos, paint paintings, write poems, read books, cook food,” she said with a mirthless laugh. “And drink.”
But, of course, she knows why. She is married to Liu Xiaobo, a writer, philosopher and democracy advocate. On Dec. 10, Mr. Liu and 302 others issued a manifesto, called Charter 08, that urged China’s Communist Party to abandon monopoly rule and establish a multiparty system of government.
The police seized Mr. Liu two days before Charter 08 was released. He has been locked ever since in a windowless room about an hour’s drive north of central Beijing. He is denied access to lawyers, to pen and paper and, except for two brief visits, to his wife.
He is allowed to ask for books. His latest request was for the works of Kafka.
David Souter is coming home to New Hampshire, and it’s likely he’d say that’s something he’s wanted for a long, long time.Souter lives in Weare, NH...which is where I lived for about 2 1/2 years. It's a small town not far from Concord about half way up the state.
Souter, 69, took his place on the U.S. Supreme Court in 1990 but never made any secret of his dislike for Washington, D.C., saying he had “the world’s best job in the world’s worst city.” When the court is out for the summer, he quickly heads north.
On Monday June 27, Logan Darrow Clements, faxed a request to Chip Meany the code enforcement officer of the Towne of Weare, New Hampshire seeking to start the application process to build a hotel on 34 Cilley Hill Road. This is the present location of Mr. Souter's home.I'm disappointed that it never went through. It would have been amusing...and I would have had a place to grab a beer walking distance from my abode.
Clements, CEO of Freestar Media, LLC, points out that the City of Weare will certainly gain greater tax revenue and economic benefits with a hotel on 34 Cilley Hill Road than allowing Mr. Souter to own the land.
The proposed development, called "The Lost Liberty Hotel" will feature the "Just Desserts Café" and include a museum, open to the public, featuring a permanent exhibit on the loss of freedom in America. Instead of a Gideon's Bible each guest will receive a free copy of Ayn Rand's novel "Atlas Shrugged."
