Saturday, May 31, 2008

Obama Resigns From Trinity United Church of Christ

He may be slow, but he can certainly feel the heat!
Barack Obama and his wife Michelle have resigned their membership at the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, FOX News has confirmed, after controversies stemming from the congregation created a persistent distraction for Obama’s campaign.
About twenty years too late!
Well! He did promise change!
Cross posted at Say Anything

Scott McClellan on Keith Olbermann

Ms. Underestimated has the video to Scott McClellan's first cable interview. The oleaginous Keith Olbermann simply oozes vitriol as he advances theories that would make any 9/11 truther green with envy!

Olbermann:
“Did Bush see 9/11 as an opportunity?”
An opportunity? It was a terrorist attack that left over three thousand Americans dead and left many segments of the economy wounded. Olbermann pictures Bush rubbing his hands with glee over the prospect of making his Iraq war come to pass. Unbelievable!
Did Bush "use 9/11 to advance his policies”? What a thoroughly disgusting excuse for a human being!
Or the phrase that Olbermann dubs "actual poetry":
"The philosophy of coercive democracy".
Democracy isn't coercive. You remove the impediments from democracy, you do not coerce people to choose for themselves.

McClellan repeats the lies about Rove's and Scooter's involvement in the Valerie Plame leak. Guess he's never heard of Richard Armitage!

If you don't mind ten minutes of slime trail across your monitor, watch the whole thing!
Cross posted at Say Anything

A Little Saturday Night Music

The haunting, mellow voice and guitar of Alexi Murdoch "All My Days"

Yes, you did hear this one on a Volkswagen commercial!

Faith Hijacked By Leaders Who Exploit What Divides Us

Hmmm! Sounds a lot like Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his theology of black liberation! Last June, the Obamessiah spoke to the General Synod of United Church of Christ.

"Somewhere along the way faith stopped being used to bring us together and started being used to drive us apart... Faith got hijacked partly because of the so-called leaders of the Christian Right, who’ve been all too eager to exploit what divides us."

Exploit what divides us??? Substitute "Jeremiah Wright and Father Michael Pfleger" for "leaders of the Christian Right" and he may have something!
Hat tip to Gateway Pundit
Cross Posted at Say Anything

Floridian Democrats Counted As One-Half Persons by DNC

Remember the old canard of how slaves were only counted as 3/5 of a person back in colonial America?
It was, of course, a provision for apportionment of representatives in Congress. It was the anti- slavery forces that insisted on the 3/5 number to keep the number of representatives from slave holding states lower.

Now, we may have its modern equivalent: Democrats want to count Florida voters as ½ when it comes to seating delegates!

Two sources, including a high-ranking official with the Florida delegation, have confirmed that the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee (RBC) reached an agreement last night and will seat the state’s entire delegation but give each delegate half a vote.


Remind me again: Which party calls itself ”Democratic”? Heh.
Image and video hosting by TinyPic
Hat tip Hot Air
Cross posted at Say Anything

Quote du jour

I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican. But if I ever become convinced that Mrs. Clinton is correct that sexism played a role in her disappointing showing in the Democratic primaries – and that she truly is her party's strongest candidate to take on John McCain – I might finally join a party: the GOP. At least it's not infested with sexists.

-Donald J. Boudreaux, chairman economics department at George Mason University

Friday, May 30, 2008

Friday Night Babe

Tonight, we do not go to a well known babe, but to someone who has (allegedly) gone above and beyond the call of duty to entertain the troops!
Note: This is actual news and not just a gratuitous posting of a pretty girl's picture!
tania zaetta
According to Fox News:
A Bollywood starlet who made her name going beyond the call of duty in Who Dares Wins, an Australian TV stunt show, has been accused of having sex with soldiers while on a tour to entertain troops in Afghanistan.

…Zaetta, who has appeared on Baywatch and Mission Implausible, a British pay-TV show, denied the allegations and said there had been little opportunity to be alone with any soldier, even if she had wanted to be.

Here at Proof Positive, we will assume the lady's virtue is intact and wish her well on her chosen career!

Hat tip to Gateway Pundit
Cross Posted at Say Anything

Andy Griffith Show Whistler Dies

Many of us grew up with this guy's melodies stuck in our heads!

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Earle H. Hagen, who co-wrote the jazz classic "Harlem Nocturne" and composed memorable themes for "The Andy Griffith Show," "I Spy," "The Mod Squad" and other TV shows, has died. He was 88.

Hagen, who is heard whistling the folksy tune for "The Andy Griffith Show," died Monday night at his home in Rancho Mirage, his wife, Laura, said Tuesday. He had been in ill health for several months.
...His 2002 autobiography was titled "Memoirs of a Famous Composer - Nobody Ever Heard Of.
A partial list of his show themes:
The Andy Griffith Show
That Girl
The Dick Van Dyke Show
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
I Spy
Make Room For Daddy
Mod Squad
Mike Hammer (Harlem Nocturne)

Cross posted at Say Anything
Note: The video I linked to originally was taken down. I replaced it with a short rendition of the show's theme.

Quote du jour

Conservatives value the lessons of history and respect faith and tradition. They are skeptical of mass movements, perfect solutions and what often passes for "progress." At the same time, they recognize that change is inevitable. They also know that while man is prone to err, he is capable of great things and is meant to be free in an unfettered market of ideas, not subjugated by a too-powerful government.

-Fred Dalton Thompson

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Obama Rally Sets Up Porta Potties At Site of Police Memorial

This next one is kind of hard to believe, but that big Obama rally of 75,000 in Portland that all the libs were bragging about not too long ago? Seems like one of the local organizers had, literally, piss poor judgment!
Portapotties On Police Memorial
PORTLAND, Ore. -- Portland police officers have asked for an apology after they said organizers of a Barack Obama rally set up Porta-Potties on a memorial honoring fallen officers.

Earlier this month, 75,000 people gathered in Waterfront Park in downtown Portland to hear Obama speak at a pre-primary rally.
The flag is still at half mast, honoring fallen officers.
...Brennan, who controlled the crowd near the Portland Police Memorial, noticed several Porta Potties set up in the middle of the memorial. Brennan had been at the site five days earlier for an annual memorial service and a flag was still set at half mast on the day of the rally.

"There was plenty of room elsewhere so space wasn't an issue," Brennan said. "So someone used some really poor decision making, whoever elected to put them there. I mean, it's somewhat hallowed ground, I guess you could call it."

After several days, Brennan attached a photo he took to a letter and e-mailed it to dozens of media outlets and the Obama campaign.

Brennan said officers haven't heard back from the Obama campaign. He said someone owes an apology to the families of the fallen officers.

"Not for a moment do I think that Mr. Obama had anything to do with this," Brennan said. "But somebody at his campaign at a local level made the decision to put them there. And I just want an acknowledgement: 'Hey, we made a mistake.'"
Class! Real Class!
Video is here.
Cross Posted at Say Anything

"Deadbeat Olbermann Fails to Pay New York Taxes, State Issues Warrant"

Via Instapundit: Olbermann Watch has this bit of schadenfreude:

New York State has issued a tax warrant against Keith Olbermann for failure to pay taxes on his humbly named personal corporation, Olbermann Broadcasting Empire, Inc. Olbermann is listed in legal records as the President of Olbermann Broadcasting Empire, Inc.

Empire? Empire??? The guy’s problem is definitely not lack of ego!

A call to the Albany County Clerk’s Office in upstate New York confirmed that the warrant is still outstanding and that Olbermann has still failed to pay his back taxes. State records show that Olbermann’s company failed to pay $2,269.50 in state taxes. A judgement was entered against Olbermann last summer (Docket Date: 8/21/2007), just weeks before Olbermann closed on a a luxurious $4.2 mm condo…

First Franken, now Olbermann...don’t ANY of these liberals who want YOU to pay more in taxes ever pay their own???
Cross posted at Say Anything

"Reverend" Michael Pfleger Rants at Obama's Church (Strong language advisory)

If you have a strong stomach, James Taranto of Best of the Web Today, points to a video of a foul mouthed, mealy mouthed "preacher" who is a friend of Louis Farrakhan and Jeremiah Wright, invited to Obama's church for some Hillary bashing, white bashing and from what I can tell, everything but preaching the Gospel!

I like the way he scrunches up his face when he's talking about other white folk...possibly, according to the Bible, other persons for whom Christ died. He manages to look like he was weaned on a lemon!
The New York Times recounts a $100,000 earmark that Barack steered to this buffoon in sheep's clothing. "You scratch my back, I'll demonize Hillary!" seems to be the Go$pel he understands best!
Cross Posted at Say Anything

When in Canada, Do As the Canadians Do!

Here in Ontario, all of the local papers are consumed with "l'affaire Bernier": A Canadian cabinet minister was careless, perhaps criminally careless with documents of state security.
canada minister and friend
Margaret Wente of the Globe and Mail puts it thusly:
"Why have the media gone so nuts over l'affaire Bernier? Simple. They get to run that picture again and again! The one with the fabulously good looking boob. Okay, two boobs. One is barely contained by a dress that appears to be made from a handkerchief, and the other one is walking along beside."

If it's good enough for our brothers to the North, it's good enough for me!
Cross Posted at Say Anything

Quote du jour

“If al-Qaeda’s getting stronger, it’s only because of the weight room at Gitmo.”
-a reader comment at Jay Nordlinger's Impromptus

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Am Nasty International's Latest Blather: US Not Providing Moral Leadership

Amnesty (Am Nasty) International is marginally in the news again. I say marginally, because, other than a few misguided liberals, does anyone take this group seriously?


PARIS — Sixty years after the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, governments in scores of countries still torture or mistreat their people, Amnesty International said Wednesday in a report that again urged the United States to close down the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba.
In its annual report, the London-based human rights watchdog said “flashpoints” in Darfur, Zimbabwe, Gaza, Iraq and Myanmar “demand immediate action.”

“World leaders are in a state of denial but their failure to act has a high cost,” Irene Khan, the secretary general of Amnesty International, said in a statement accompanying the report. “As Iraq and Afghanistan show, human rights problems are not isolated tragedies, but are like viruses than can infect and spread rapidly, endangering all of us.”


So, Darfur is a “flashpoint” and what was Iraq a few years ago? Chopped liver? The same liberal twits who had aneurysms over Bush taking out Saddam when Iraq was not an imminent threat to the US, are now berating the US for not taking the same type of action in Darfur!


The report assailed the moral leadership of the United States, saying that, as “the world’s most powerful state” it “sets the standard for government behavior globally.” But, Amnesty International said, the United States had “distinguished itself in recent years through its defiance of international law.”


And yet, when the US exercises moral leadership, as in taking out the sadistic, murdering tyrant Saddam, Am Nasty International wets itself over indignities real and imagined. (Mostly imagined!)


In the past, the State Department has accused Amnesty International of using the United States as “a convenient ideological punching bag.”


Yeah! As if any of those guys could throw a punch! Heh.
Cross posted at Say Anything

Quote du jour

Edwards on the ticket? Only if the Rezko thing gets complicated and BHO needs a lawyer. Just kidding. Edwards shows up to cheer the team to victory after the game is over. A profile in courage.

-Alex Castellanos

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Ontario Considers Ban on GPS While Driving

My Canadian friend Wonder Woman points to a story of power hungry bureaucrats (nannycrats) who are no doubt educated beyond their intelligence.
TORONTO - Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said yesterday he is considering a ban on cellphones and other electronic gadgets while driving.
Mr. McGuinty said he has asked Minister of Transportation Jim Bradley to look at the "next-generation legislation" that would outlaw cellphones and other electronics that also cause driver distractions.
Mr. McGuinty said other jurisdictions have only banned drivers from using cellphones while other electronic devices are just as dangerous to use on the road.
"I've asked Minister Bradley to see if there is anything we could be doing
in keeping with police advice that takes into account not just the latest
gadget, cellphones, but GPS and other activities," Mr. McGuinty said.

I just drove five hours to Toronto, and I can tell you what would be dangerous. Me... balancing a paper map and/or directions on my lap, stealing glances at them to see if I'm still on course.
As I told WW, Without the snooty lady on my dashboard telling me where to go (a familiar theme!) turn by turn, I would have been a far greater danger glancing away from the highway to consult map and/or directions!

I also may have mentioned that anyone who wants to ban GPS's is the southbound side of a northbound mule! Heh.

On a Personal Note...

Blogging may be a little light the next couple of days. I'm driving up to Canada to meet with a friend and associate (Just one person!) on business.
At a bare minimum, you'll get some quotes du jour, new Day by Day strips and any other bon mots I can smuggle past the Mounties!
I should be firmly back in the saddle by Thursday eve at the latest. So, keep the home fires burning! Thanks!

I See Dead People - The Video



Hat tip to William Woody for the link

Quote du jour


There's no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you!
-Will Rogers

Monday, May 26, 2008

I See Dead People

No, it's not the Sixth Sense, it's Obama at a speech in New Mexico!
On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes -- and I see many of them in the audience here today -- our sense of patriotism is particularly strong.
Fallen heroes? Heh.
Power Line via LGF
Cross posted at Say Anything

Republicans Seek to Deny Healthcare to the Indigent - Profit Motive Looms Large

Republicans proposed a less than honest front group to lobby the state of Illinois (don’t get ahead of me here!), to “…block a state proposal that would have forced them to provide more medical care to the indigent.”
Who could be so heartless as to deny medical help to the indigent? Oh, wait! It wasn’t Republicans! It was a firm headed by Barack Obama’s chief political advisor David Axelrod! It seems that certain hospitals in Illinois, like the one that employs Michelle Obama?, wanted to block state efforts for them to provide more medical care to those least able to pay.

Axelrod had already been successful in creating a faux-grass roots group, funded by the utility Commonwealth Edison, to lobby for higher rate increases. Higher utility bills and less medical care? Wow! These really are new Democrats!

“Captain” Ed at Hot Air
:
Obama has run on health-care issues to create universal health-insurance coverage to do exactly the opposite of what ASK proposed. Axelrod’s firm wanted to set up another phony front group to oppose that same policy, attempting to fake the public into thinking that the “grassroots” effort had nothing to do with the hospitals themselves. Axelrod’s firm had so much success with their front group for the energy company that they planned to duplicate the same dishonest structure in health care — and in both cases, on behalf of opponents of Obama’s professed policies today.


A lack of honesty and integrity, higher utility prices and less medical care for those who can least afford it.
I guess Obama really does want “change”! Can’t say too much for the “hope”, though! Heh.

Cross posted at Say Anything

Google™ - The Patriotism Impaired

*Sigh* You'd think with all the holidays and pseudo holidays where Google™ embellishes their logo, you'd think that Memorial Day would someday make the cut! Not again this year.


But you can go here and see some imaginative entries they could use if Google ever gave a spit!
Hat tip LGF
Cross Posted at Say Anything

Perhaps we should adopt the liberal taxonomy and dub this "Patriotiphobia" ?

Service Star Banners

Proving once more that there is no such thing as an "ex" Marine, Rod Robison carries out a mission 48 years after joining The Few and The Proud.


Hat tip to Lasso of Truth
Cross Posted at Say Anything

Memorial Day

Most Americans have never heard a shot fired in anger, either on foreign battlefields or what have sometimes been called the “mean streets” of home.
Most Americans have not had to take up arms to stop a threat to their homes or their country.
Most Americans have not been called to a place where they might have to sacrifice their lives in order to save the life of a companion or friend.
Most Americans have not been called to leave the comfort of their homes to live in desolate places under harsh conditions for days, weeks, months on end.
Today is a day to remember the sacrifice of those who have, so that you may not have to.

I’d like to leave you with the words of one such veteran as a part of your remembrance of this day. The speaker’s identity, for the moment, unimportant. Listen to the words:

Unless you are a veteran you might find it odd that I would be indebted to the Navy for sending me to war. You might mistakenly conclude that the secret veterans' share is that they enjoyed war.

We do share a secret, but it is not a romantic remembrance of war. War is awful. When nations seek to resolve their differences by force of arms, a million tragedies ensue. Nothing, not the valor with which it is fought nor the nobility of the cause it serves, can glorify war. War is wretched beyond description. Whatever gains are secured by war, it is loss that the veteran remembers. Only a fool or a fraud sentimentalizes the cruel and merciless reality of war.

Neither do we share a nostalgia for the exhilaration of combat. That exhilaration, after all, is really the sensation of choking back fear. I think we are all proud to have once overcome the paralysis of terror. But few of us are so removed from the memory of that terror to mistake it today for a welcome thrill.

What we share is something harder to explain. It is in part a pride for having sacrificed together for a cause greater than our individual pursuits; pride for having your courage and honor tested and affirmed in a fearsome moment of history; pride for having replaced comfort and security with misery and deprivation and not been broken by the experience.

We also share -- and this is harder to explain -- the survivors' humility. That's a provocative statement, I know, and the non-veteran may easily mistake its meaning. I am not talking about shame. I know of no shame in surviving combat. But every combat veteran remembers those comrades whose sacrifice was eternal. Their loss taught us everything about tragedy and everything about duty.


Duty. Honor. Country. And remembrance. Share the spirit of Memorial Day with those you love.

Cross Posted at Say Anything

Quote du jour

Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference to this world...the Marines don't have that problem!

-Ronald Wilson Reagan

The Marine Corp Hymn

The Few. The Proud. The Marines.

-The US Marine Corp Band

Sunday, May 25, 2008

More “Do As I Say, Don’t Do As I Do” from Barack H. Obama

Filling in for an ailing Teddy Kennedy at a commencement speech, B.H. Obama reverted to more “Do As I Say, Don’t Do As I Do” rhetoric.
MIDDLETOWN, Conn. (AP) - Filling in for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and tying himself to the family's legacy, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama urged college graduates Sunday to "make us believe again" by dedicating themselves to public service.
"We may disagree as Americans on certain issues and positions, but I believe we can be unified in service to a greater good. I intend to make it a cause of my presidency, and I believe with all my heart that this generation is ready and eager and up to the challenge," Obama told Wesleyan University's Class of 2008


...The rest of the 25-minute speech urged students to focus on more than "the big house and the nice suits and all the other things that our money culture says you should buy."

Get that? Don't focus on the big house, like the $1.6 million dollar house Jeremiah "Don't pursue those middle class values" Wright is moving into. Don't focus on the nice suits you could buy if you had a combined income of $2.5 million dollars like Michelle and I received 2005-2006. Take those low paying public service jobs like Michelle was telling you about!
It will make the community a better place. And after all...somebody's got to do it, and it sure as hell won't be Michelle, Jeremiah and me!
Hat tip Drudge
Cross posted at Say Anything

A Tale of Two Robberies

Transsylvania Phoenix relates a tale of two robberies-- one, where an unarmed shop owner is shot and killed pleading for her life, and another, where a customer in the store, with a concealed carry permit, provided for a much happier ending.

Watch the video. I think you'll like it.

The Last Dough Boy

George Will on the last surviving US veteran of WWI at 107.

A soldier in the first World War, a Japanese prisoner of war in the second:

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. -- Numbers come precisely from the agile mind and nimble tongue of Frank Buckles, who seems bemused to say that 4,734,991 Americans served in the military during America's involvement in the First World War and 4,734,990 are gone. He is feeling fine, thank you for asking.

The eyes of the last doughboy are still sharp enough for him to be a keen reader, and his voice is still deep and strong at age 107. He must have been a fine broth of a boy when, at 16, persistence paid off and he found, in Oklahoma City, an Army recruiter who believed, or pretended to, the fibs he had unavailingly told to Marine and Navy recruiters in Kansas about being 18.

...On June 28, 1914, an assassin's bullet in Sarajevo killed the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian empire. The war that followed took more than 116,000 American lives -- more than all of America's wars after the Second World War. And in a sense, the First World War took many more American lives because it led to the Second World War and beyond.

The First World War is still taking American lives because it destroyed the Austro-Hungarian, Romanoff and Ottoman empires. A shard of the latter is called Iraq.

The 20th century's winds of war blew billions of ordinary people hither and yon. One of them sits here in a cardigan sweater in an old wood and stone house on a rise on a 330-acre cattle farm. In this case, and probably in every case, the word "ordinary" is inappropriate.

Another American veteran's story to consider this Memorial Day weekend.

Dinner-Theatre Version of a Soviet Show Trial

...is what Mark Steyn calls the hearings with Big Oil execs before Congress.
With style, wit and too much logic for your average Congress Critter, Steyn skewers the do-nothing, know-nothing legislative body driving up gas prices.
I was watching the Big Oil execs testifying before Congress. That was my first mistake. If memory serves, there was lesbian mud wrestling over on Channel 137, and on the whole that’s less rigged.
Heh.
Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz knew the routine: “I can’t say that there is evidence that you are manipulating the price, but I believe that you probably are. So prove to me that you are not.”

Had I been in the hapless oil man’s expensive shoes, I’d have answered, “Hey, you first. I can’t say that there is evidence that you’re sleeping with barnyard animals, but I believe that you probably are. So prove to me that you are not. Whatever happened to the presumption of innocence and prima facie evidence, lady? Do I have to file a U.N. complaint in Geneva that the House of Representatives is in breach of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?”

Later, he gets directly to the point:
...But, before we start suing distant sheikhs in exotic lands for violating the NOPEC act, why don’t we start by suing Congress? After all, who “limits the production or distribution of oil” right here in the United States by declaring that there’ll be no drilling in the Gulf of Florida or the Arctic National Mosquito Refuge? As Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz herself told Neil Cavuto on Fox News, “We can’t drill our way out of this problem.”

Well, maybe not. But maybe we could drill our way back to three-and-a-quarter per gallon. More to the point, if the House of Representatives has now declared it “illegal” for the government of Saudi Arabia to restrict oil production, why is it still legal for the Government of the United States to restrict oil production? In fact, the government of the United States restricts pretty much every form of energy production other than the bizarre fetish du jour of federally mandated ethanol production.

Read the whole thing.
Cross posted at Say Anything

Quote du jour

"We here have news for Barack Obama. The values of those people you diminished are the values of America. And those people don't like getting patronized, or viewed as an alien species, by a fellow who pretends to embody a new kind of politics, and especially by someone who wants to be president not of red states or blue states, but the United States."
Karl Rove on "bitter" Americans at an extremely bitter NRA convention. Heh.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

The Politically Incorrect Word that Launched Rush Limbaugh’s Career

Before Rush came to national prominence, before Rush had a show in Sacramento, in 1984, there was a radio host on KFBK named Morton Downey, Jr. The late Morton Downey, Jr. tilted towards the right end of the spectrum, but he really wasn’t making big waves at KFBK, as I recall, when he uttered a very unfortunate word, while telling a joke: Chinaman.
This was in the days before wiki, but wikipedia defines Chinaman as:

“Chinaman is a term that refers to a Chinese man. It was not defined as offensive by older dictionaries. Today, Asian American organizations and others have objected to the use of the term as offensive, and it has been defined as such by current dictionaries. The term has been used without stated offensive intent, and has also been used as a self-referential archetype by authors and artists of Asian descent.”

Mort’s use of the word “Chinaman” angered the sizable Asian community in Sacramento. As I recall, there was one Asian City Councilman in particular (whose name escapes me!), who called upon Mr. Downey to apologize for using the term and pressured the station for his resignation. ( I believe that it was really some liberals in that community who were looking for an excuse to rid themselves of the abrasive conservative Downey!) Downey refused to apologize and was forced to resign. (Or fired - take your pick!) That open up his nine to noon time slot for…Rush Limbaugh. And, as they say, the rest is history!
I will admit, that back in the ‘80s, I personally did not realize there was a problem with the word “Chinaman“ . Chinese laborers had come to California during Gold Rush times and were often given very dangerous jobs. The familiar term “Chinaman’s chance” came to denote nearly no chance at all! I had never really given it any thought that it might offend anyone. We call the Dutch “Dutchmen”. I thought it was similar, but I soon learned!

Looking back, I wonder if they could do it all again, if the liberals in the KFBK listening area would have put up with one small, unintended slur if it meant that Rush Limbaugh would not have had a platform in the nation’s 28th largest radio market*, on which to build his national show? I often think of this as one of the two biggest unintentional blunders that liberals have committed in modern times.

Cross Posted at Say Anything
*It was at the time. I believe they were up to 26th by 2005. Purists are welcome to correct me if I’m wrong!

California Lawmakers Seek Stimulus From Porn

Budget stimulus. What were you thinking?

LOS ANGELES - California state lawmakers are considering an unusual idea to solve the state’s huge budget shortfall: Tax pornography.

The idea was proposed by a state assemblyman, and would impose a 25 percent tax on the production and sales of pornographic videos—the vast majority of which are made in southern California.


A small dose of reality comes at the end of the piece:

A potential economic downside to the tax proposal is that porn producers could leave California to manufacture and distribute videos in other states that don’t impose the tax.


Any of these limp Richards in the California legislature that don’t think a business would move rather than face a 25% tax should have their anal orifices probed to find their heads.
Hmmm. Maybe if we filmed it, we could tax them 25%?

Hat tip Drudge

Cross Posted at Say Anything

A Little Saturday Night Boogie

Tommy Emmanuel with a little bit of boogie. It starts a bit slow, with him goofing around, but worth the wait!

Hat tip LGF

Key Al Qaeda Figure Killed in Pakistan

The LA Times reports: Key Al Qaeda figure apparently died in U.S. strike in Pakistan.
Or as JammieWearingFool describes it: I Guess He Can Cancel That Sitdown With President Obama! Heh.

WASHINGTON -- An Al Qaeda figure killed in a U.S. airstrike in Pakistan last week is believed to have been an Algerian allegedly involved in training militants and plotting attacks against the West, officials said Friday.

The Algerian, known by the nickname Abu Sulayman Jazairi, apparently died May 14 in the strike that killed as many as 14 people and destroyed a compound near the village of Damadola, an Al Qaeda stronghold in northwestern Pakistan, officials said. A knowledgeable U.S. official and a senior European anti-terrorism official said Jazairi was thought to be dead.
Success is said to have "many fathers", but when it comes to the global war on terror, it seems that success needs a better press agent!

Cross posted at Say Anything

Quote du jour

There may be no candidates and measures you want to vote for... But there are certain to be ones you want to vote against. In case of doubt, vote against. By this rule you will rarely go wrong.

-- Robert A. Heinlein

Friday, May 23, 2008

Friday Night Babe

Gina Elise has graced the pages of Proof Positive before.
Gina seeing red
Her Pinups for Vets raises money for disabled vets. In Gina's words:

I came up with the idea to recreate a nostalgic pin-up calendar that would serve three purposes:

1. The calendars would be sold to raise funds for our hospitalized Veterans.

2. The calendars would be delivered as gifts to our ill and injured Veterans with messages of appreciation from the donors.

3. The calendars would be sent to our deployed troops to help boost morale and to let them know that Americans back home are thinking of them.
Visit her website and contribute. Gina recently made a second trip to Walter Reed and Bethesda Naval Hospital to deliver donated calendars and posters to wounded vets. The calendar is amazing and the money goes to a good cause. (And it gives me an excuse to post pictures of pretty girls!)

Cross posted at Say Anything

Unsung, the Noblest Deed Will Die

Rodney Graves has a piece on the Reader blogs at Say Anything about an Iraqi war Medal of Honor winner, largely unheralded by the Mainstream Media of today. I ran across a another piece at National Review Online, by Mackubin Thomas Owens, titled "Mystic Chords of Memory".

He says, in part:
The sad reality is that Americans have forgotten how to honor their war heroes and to remember their war dead. As “Bing” West observed several years ago in his remarkable book about Fallujah, No True Glory, stories of soldierly courage deserve “to be recorded and read by the next generation. Unsung, the noblest deed will die.”
The posture Americans took toward Memorial Day started to go awry with Vietnam. The press, if not the American people, began to treat soldiers as moral monsters, victims, or both. The “dysfunctional Vietnam vet” became a staple of popular culture. Despite the fact that atrocities were rare, My Lai came to symbolize the entire war. Thanks to the press’s preoccupation with the anomaly of My Lai, Lt. William Calley became the poster boy for Vietnam. The honorable and heroic performance of the vast majority of those who served in Vietnam went largely unrecognized.

For instance, how many Americans know the story of Marine Lieutenant John P. Bobo, who received the Medal of Honor for his actions in Vietnam? Here is part of his citation:

When an exploding enemy mortar round severed Lieutenant Bobo's right leg below the knee, he refused to be evacuated and insisted upon being placed in a firing position to cover the movement of the command group to a better location. With a web belt around his leg serving as a tourniquet and with his leg jammed into the dirt to curtail the bleeding, he remained in this position and delivered devastating fire into the ranks of the enemy attempting to overrun the Marines. Lieutenant Bobo was mortally wounded while firing his weapon into the main point of the enemy attack but his valiant spirit inspired his men to heroic efforts. . . .


The reason for this disparity in coverage is simple. My Lai fit the conventional narrative of the anti-war Left; Bobo’s story did not.

As we remember this weekend, those men of valor, those sons and brothers and fathers and uncles who gave their lives for something greater than themselves, let's remember Lt. Bobo and Pfc. McGinnis and every "dog faced" soldier from here to Valley Forge, and thank God for men like these. And pity anyone who doesn't feel the same.

Cross Posted at Say Anything

Fox #1 Network - First time Since Inception

That's not the sound of fireworks you hear over at Fox...it's the sound of liberal heads exploding! Heh.
NEW YORK (AP) - With a strong finishing kick from "American Idol," Fox captured the distinction of America's most popular television network for the first time since it began operation in 1987.

Fox took that title from CBS. It was the only major broadcast network with more prime-time viewers than the previous season, a distinction helped by its telecast of the Super Bowl. Fox didn't show television's biggest event during the 2006-7 season.
...CBS was second with 10.5 million viewers. It had the sharpest drop among the big broadcast networks, at 16 percent. Analysts said CBS was particularly hurt by the television writers strike, when it relied heavily on reruns that didn't do as strongly in the ratings as the network anticipated.

ABC was third with 10 million viewers (down 7 percent) and NBC finished fourth with 8.9 million (down 9 percent). The troubled CW network was down 19 percent, with 2.6 million viewers...
Hat tip to Drudge
Cross posted at Say Anything

Quote du jour

"You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is, "Never get involved in a land war in Asia." But only slightly less well known is this, "Never go in against a Sicilian, when death is on the line."
-Vizzini (The Princess Bride)

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Obama Delegate on Syrian TV

James Yee, the Army chaplain who was accused of spying at Guantanamo, but has been subsequently cleared, has gone on TV in Syria, giving credence to unsubstantiated rumors of Koran desecration and other things he only knew of through hearsay from incarcerated terrorists. Partial transcript follows:

Interviewer: How was religion being used against those prisoners [in Guantanamo Bay]?

Yee: Great question. One, we've all heard how the Koran has been desecrated down in Guantanamo and as Koran, the holy Koran - the words which Muslims all over the world consider the literal words of God – was being desecrated in Guantanamo in many different ways.

Interviewer: It was thrown into toilets and whatever, that's what we read.

Yee: The initial report that was printed by Newsweek indicated that perhaps the Koran was thrown into a toilet by an interrogator. It was unfortunate, that Newsweek had to retract that story, but I talked firsthand with prisoners who were held in Camp X-Ray, which was the first prison camp of Guantanamo, very early on in 2002, and prisoners told me directly that the Korans that they had brought with them were tossed into buckets - buckets which were used as toilets in that makeshift camp. I myself…

Interviewer: So… Buckets basically of urine and feces, is that correct?

Yee: Right, right, exactly. This was before I got there and this was in Camp X-Ray, where, again, it was a quick makeshift prison, set up for the first prisoners who arrived there. When I got there, Camp Delta, which was a little more sturdy and each cell had its own toilet, was already built by the time I got to Guantanamo in late 2002. The Korans were thrown on the floor by guards when they conducted cell searches. It has been reported and I have learned now that interrogators also were throwing the Korans on the floor or stomping on it. This was happening when I was there, and this was an issue.

Interviewer: You actually saw this happening?

Yee: I didn't see it because I wasn't a part of the intelligence operation, but I was aware directly from the prisoners...
The guy is a POS weasel. It takes a strong stomach to listen to this guy spew his anti-American crap. But, if you want to hear it from his own weaselly lips, you can hear it here.

Oh, and did I mention that James Yee is an Obama supporter? He’s one of Obama’s delegates to the Democratic National Convention.

Hat tip to James Taranto’s Best of the Web Today

Global Warming in Ohio...NOT!

Tomorrow is the start of the Memorial Day weekend. My friends and family in California are sweltering in the heat. And here I sit in my cozy study, warmed by the glow of my Computer's CRT, oblivious to it all. And then, I step out of my study for any reason at all and HOLY COW! It's COLD out there!
I checked just now, and the temperature in my house is where I set the thermostat in the Winter...62 degrees!

If it were not for my computer, hand built from stone knives and bear skins, with a Thunderbolt Greaseslapper processor throwing off heat, I'd have to fire up the furnace! And it's nearly Memorial Day!
Global Warming, my white Irish rear end!

Michelle Obama's Foot Seeks Open Mouth...Mission Accomplished!

The irrepressible Michelle Obama spoke to military wives in Kentucky: I am woman, hear me whine!

“We need to be more aware of the challenges these women are facing,” she said. “I think it’s so important for them to feel like they have a voice. We’re taught as women to keep it all in and suffer and just hold it down.”


-Michelle Obama

Is this the voice of a feminist? “We are taught as women to keep it all in and suffer and just hold it down?” Hello? “I think it’s so important for them to feel like they have a voice.” Feel??? So they don’t actually have a voice?
Michelle: The Fifties are calling… they want their mantra back! Maybe the feminists supporting Hillary are on to something! Not only is “The Guy” getting the nomination, but his Stepford Wife will personally set back feminism at least fifty years!
Heh.
Hat tip Gateway Pundit

Cross posted at Say Anything

Obama Descended From Slave Owners

White slave owners...
WASHINGTON -- Democrat Barack Obama, who would be the first black president if elected, has white ancestors who owned slaves, according to a genealogical researcher.
The researcher, William Addams Reitwiesner , says the discovery is part of his first draft of research into Obama's roots. Obama's father was from Kenya, and his mother was a white woman from Kansas.
...Reitwiesner found in 1850 Census records from Kentucky that one of Obama's great-great-great-great grandfathers, George Washington Overall, owned a 15-year-old girl and a 25-year-old man.

The same records show that one of Obama's great-great-great-great-great-grandmothers, Mary Duvall, also owned two black slaves.

Here's my idea: The next time someone brings up reparations for slavery, they go to the descendants of slave holders first. Pony up, Barack! It's only fair!

Cross posted at Say Anything

Quote du jour

As to liberty, the heroes who signed that great document pledged themselves to buy liberty with their lives. Liberty is always unalienable; it must be redeemed regularly with the blood of patriots or it is always vanquished. Of all the so-called 'natural human rights' that have ever been invented, liberty is least likely to be cheap and is never free of cost.
-Robert Anson Heinlein

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Cell phones May be Sent From US to Cuba

The relaxation of laws forbidding private citizens to own cell phones in Cuba is a little like the law that prohibits both rich and poor from sleeping under bridges… “women and minorities hit hardest”!

On the radio today, it was noted that although they may legally possess cell phones, the Cubans’ average monthly income of $12/ month would keep most Cubans from purchasing one, much less maintaining the monthly charges. Hence, the following story about Americans giving them to Cubans as gifts. (Cuban minimum wage is seven dollars a month.)

WASHINGTON — U.S. President George Bush announced Wednesday that Americans soon will be allowed to send cellphones to Cubans – a move that he hopes will push the communist regime to increase freedom of expression for Cuban citizens.

Addressing recent changes in Cuba, Mr. Bush said, “Cubans are now allowed to purchase mobile phones, DVD players and computers and they have been told that they will be able to purchase toasters and other basic appliances in 2010.”

“If the Cuban regime is serious about improving life for the Cuban people, it will take steps necessary to make these changes meaningful,” Mr. Bush said at the White House as he marked Cuba’s 106th anniversary of independence this week.

If the Cuban people can be trusted with mobile phones, “they should be trusted to speak freely in public,” he said.

Dan Fisk, National Security Council senior director for Western hemisphere affairs, emphasized that the new policy, which is to take effect in a few weeks, is not a loosening of the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba, but a change in U.S. regulations that will allow cellphones to be in gift parcels that Americans can send to Cubans.

However, we’ll take real progress where we can find it!

Cross posted at Say Anything

On a slightly different note, I think if Americans were willing to have all but $12 a month confiscated from them by the government, we could all have “free” health care, too!

A Public Service Announcement

Public Service Announcements - PSA’s as we used to call ‘em in the radio biz! Used to be, they’d turn up in the wee hours of the morning, telling you to buckle your seat belt or prevent forest fires (only you could do that!)
Nowadays, you see a lot of pseudo-PSA’s on TV. The “star” of some network program will impart some gem of wisdom under the rubric of “The More You Know”, or some such:

"It’s better to hug your kids than beat them! The more you know!"

“Don’t feed your pet ferret bad calamari” -NBC cares!

Well, in keeping with that spirit of The More You Know, here is a public service announcement for Say Anything. (This could come in handy if the Democrats win in November and reinstitute the “Fairness Doctrine”!)


The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

-The Tenth Amendment
Because Proof Positive cares!

Cross Posted at Say Anything

Hillary Beating Obama in KY 65 to 30

Hillary continues to rack up impressive wins. Impressive enough to think that the Democrats are having at least a wee bit of buyer’s remorse! (Although, when you think “Clinton” and “K Y”, you usually think of Bill! )
With votes counted from 90
percent of Kentucky’s precincts
, Clinton was gaining 65 percent of the vote
to 30 percent for Obama.
There’s still plenty of dissention in the ranks of Democrats. Operation Chaos, or something like it, is still in effect!

Obama should hold off on the coronation for a little while at least! Heh.

Cross posted at Say Anything

Hillary continues to rack up impressive wins.

Oh, dear! I shouldn't have said "rack"! Hillary is very upset with the sexist tone this campaign is taking. Mea culpa. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa!

Quote du jour

I have a really interesting political point of view, and it’s not always something I say too loud at dinner tables here, but you can’t go from a $2,000-a-night suite at La Mirage to a penitentiary and really understand it and come out a liberal. You can’t. I wouldn’t wish that experience on anyone else, but it was very, very, very educational for me and has informed my proclivities and politics ever since.
-Robert Downey, Jr.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Quote du jour

If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write something worth reading or do things worth the writing.

-Benjamin Franklin

Monday, May 19, 2008

Tribute or Protest?

Posting tonight from the Belly of the Beast…Cruising through Kerry and Kennedy Country, I saw an interesting display by the side of the road today, a few miles south of Ashland MA. I saw, what I first thought might be a flag welcoming home a local service man. There was a flag stuck above a hand lettered poster stapled to a telephone pole. Then, the next pole had a flag that was definitely not American, above another hand lettered sign. A third, further down the road, appeared to be an Italian flag, with an Italian name, so I thought, “Maybe they’re be celebrating the diversity of their community?” The further I drove, the more flags I saw. More signs with the name of individuals, country of origin, and what looked to be the soldier’s age. All of the signs looked to be lettered in a similar hand, and the multi-national flags were all the same size. I suppose, this could have been a tribute to all these brave young men who had given their lives to free Iraq from tyranny. I looked online to see if I could discover who had done it or why. I suspect, that in the liberal enclave of Massachusetts, this was meant to be a reminder of “how President Bush is killing people around the planet.” Eye of the beholder, I guess.
Cross posted at Say Anything

Quote du jour

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I found it!) but 'That's funny ...'

-Isaac Asimov

Sunday, May 18, 2008

On a personal note...

...blogging will be light today. Big road trip today will keep me out of keyboard range. Check out some of the videos from yesterday if you didn't get a chance before...pretty good stuff!
I'll be back in the saddle real soon!

Quote du jour

The liberal is continually angry, as only a self-important man can be, with his civilization, his culture, his country and his folks back home. His is an infantile world view. At the core of a liberal is the spoiled child--miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied, demanding, ill-disciplined, despotic and useless. Liberalism is a philosophy of sniveling brats.
-P J O'Rourke

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Sara Tucholsky's First (and Only) Home Run

Bit of a tear jerker, tonight. At 5'2", Sara wasn't much of a power hitter, but she finally hit one over the fence! Then, things got interesting!

Hat tip Ace of Spades HQ

Cross Posted at Say Anything

The Department of Unfortunate Names

You know, if I were a CEO of a large drug company, and some marketing guy came to me with the following suggestion at 3 PM on a Friday afternoon, I'd have a new marketing team by Monday at 10 ! Consider the drug:
Aciphex
I hear them advertise for this drug, and I say to myself, You've got to be kidding!
I mean, pardon my French, but every time they say it on TV, it sounds like:
"Ass Effects"
Is that the image you would want for your company??? On the other hand, look at all the free advertising they get here!

A Little Saturday Night Music


Andy McKee "Ebon Coast"
Hat tip to LGF

Weighty Matters

One of the problems I have always had with the so-called "man made global warming" has to do with the accuracy of the instruments used to make the measurements. What good is knowing there is a tenth of a degree* rise in temperature over the last hundred years, if the instruments you took the measurements with a hundred years ago, were only accurate give or take a degree?

A similar dilemma faces scientists today:
GAITHERSBURG, MD. -- Forty feet underground, secured in a temperature- and humidity-controlled vault here, lies Kilogram No. 20.

It's an espresso-shot-sized, platinum-iridium cylinder that is the perfect embodiment of the kilogram -- almost perfect.
In the more than a century since No. 20 and dozens of other exact copies were crafted in France to serve as the world's standards of the kilogram, their masses have been mysteriously drifting apart.

The difference is on average about 50 micrograms -- about the weight of a grain of fine salt. But the ramifications have rippled through the world of precision physics, which uses the kilogram as the basis for a host of standard measures, including force of gravity, the ampere and Planck's constant -- the omnipresent figure of quantum mechanics.

In essence, no one really knows today what a kilogram is.
Just when you thought there weren't enough things in the world to worry about, is our kilogram gaining weight or is theirs losing it?

So, you have two samples, that should be identical, which differ by about the weight of a grain of salt. What to do?
Peter Becker, a physicist at Germany's National Metrology Institute, thinks he has a simpler solution: Count atoms. The idea is to define the kilogram as the number of atoms of a specific element.

Becker's hopes ride on two silvery croquet-ball-sized spheres of the purest silicon that cost $3.2 million to make. They are the roundest objects ever made -- within 30 nanometers of perfection, about the width of a few atoms, he said.
I'm surprised that Congress didn't come up with this solution! Spend $3.2 Million dollars to verify a measurement that used to be:
"...the mass of a liter of distilled water at the temperature of melting ice."
And now we get to the crux of the problem:
"The French government created the kilogram in 1795..."
Ah! That's what we get for trusting the French! Heh.

Cross Posted at Say Anything

*Correction: I meant to say "half a degree". I was thinking about reading tenths of a degree of an old mercury thermometer. I apologize for the error.

Starting Rumors For Fun and Profit

According to The Campaign Spot, it seems that the Clinton campaign is circulating a rumor that the GOP has a video of
"...Michelle Obama railing against “whitey” at Jeremiah Wright’s church."

Is it true? Who knows! Is it plausible? Well, yes! I think that anyone who has heard the woman who was "never proud of America in her adult life" until recently, could believe that she could say something outrageous and politically damaging in an unguarded moment. And that would be what La Femme Hillary is banking on, that fear of Michelle Obama's foot-in-mouth, to help her sway the Super Delegates into the Hillary camp.

Hat tip to Conservative Grapevine

Cross posted at Say Anything

According to wikipedia, Michelle is "... her husband’s closest adviser". A little harder to throw her under the bus than Rev. Wright or William Ayers.

Do I Make You Proud?

Thanks to Michelle Malkin for posting this tribute to the U S Armed Forces, set to Taylor Hicks’ “Do I Make You Proud?”:

Michelle dedicates it to Barack's finally proud wife Michelle! Heh.

Cross Posted at Say Anything

Supreme Questions for November

This past week's ruling by the California Supreme Court overturning the ban on gay "marriage" illustrates the importance of the effect that elections can have.
Supreme Court justices are unelected officials who wield an amazing amount of power and control over our lives.
Of the remaining presidential candidates in the race, which would you want appointing Supreme Court justices who would rule on:
The Second Amendment?
Abortion Issues?
School Vouchers?
Gay Marriage?
Immigration Issues?
Affirmative Action?
Separation of Powers?
Church and State?

Who do you think would appoint justices who would adhere to a strict constructionist view of the Constitution as opposed to a "Living" document, into which you can read anything you wish?

IMHO: Some questions about the election are minor, others are Supreme!

Quote du jour

...the Obama campaign, showing a thickness of skin which can be measured in angstroms*, wailed that Bush was accusing Obama of favoring appeasement in dealing with Israel's enemies.
-Rich Galen of Mullings

*angstrom =
According to Merriam-Webster's Third Unabridged: "a unit of length equal to one ten-billionth of a meter"
(used for measuring wavelengths of light frequencies.) Heh.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Friday Night Levity

A little super hero spoof to lighten the mood...

Quote du jour

Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.

- Mark Twain

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Obama Channels Jimmy Carter

As a matter of fact, their policies are almost word for word.


Thanks again to Hot Air and Ed Morrisey

Cross posted at Say Anything

Are YOU Proud to be an American?

Here's a video produced by the Tennessee Republican Party. It's a bit long (runs about four minutes) and the editing leaves a little to be desired, but the sentiment and contrast are very powerful.

hat tip to Allahpundit at Hot Air
Cross Posted at Say Anything

Quote du jour

“…we conservatives like our Constitution like our beef jerky — cold, dead, tough to chew through.”
-Jonah Goldberg

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Solar Powered Bra Stays Abreast of Green Movement

solar powered bra
a solar-powered bra capable of generating enough electricity to charge a cell phone or iPod

Maybe solar power is...worth looking into?

Hat tip KJ Lopez @ The Corner
Cross posted at Say Anything

"Hold On One Second, Sweetie" -Obama to Reporter

Obama has apologized for the demeaning way he addressed a reporter recently, then seemed to indicate that this demeaning behavior is habitual!
“Senator, how are you going to help the American autoworkers,"
Agar asked Obama.

“Hold on one second, sweetie,”

...reporter Jim Rutenberg pointed out this wasn’t the first time Obama used the word: “Back in Pennsylvania in early April, Senator Barack Obama took some heat for calling a female factory worker ‘sweetie,’ in Allentown.”


Obama apologized in a voicemail he left on Agar’s cell phone at 3:16 p.m:

In part:

“Second apology is for using the word ‘sweetie.’ That’s a bad habit of mine...”


Bad Habit? Why do I suspect that women will make great strides in an Obama Administration? /sarcasm

Hat tip Hot Air
Cross Posted at Say Anything

Senate Votes Down ANWR Drilling

“We can’t drill our way to lower prices,” said Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill.


Ever since we repealed that law of supply and demand, economics has been much easier!

the Senate rejected, 56-42, a broader Republican energy plan that called for opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and some offshore waters that are now off limits to oil development.


Next time you fill up your gas tank with overpriced gasoline, thank a Democrat!

Hat tip Moonbattery
Cross posted at Say Anything

Ohio AG Marc Dann Resigns...

...setting new standards for cluelessness.
The Attorney General of Ohio, Democrat Marc Dann, resigned today, without a hint of an apology to his family for the embarrassment he caused them, without a hint of an apology for the shame he brought upon the office, no, he spoke of the need for the AG's office to "continue to save money".
Save money? How about by eliminating the possibility of multiple sexual harassment suits???

His wife was not so curiously absent from his side, but he dragged one of his daughters out with him (no apology to her, either!), and he spoke of spending more time Focusing on his family! (No indication as to whether or not James Dobson would sue him for copyright infringement!)

What a piece of work!

I almost forgot the best part! He spoke of how he would step aside, so as not to provide any "distraction" to the AG's office from "the political situation that I find myself in"

Did you get that? No culpability! No error in judgment! No, gee! Do you think if I hadn't been boinking the hired help, maybe I wouldn't "find" myself in this situation!

I imagine that Al Capone woke up one morning and just "found" himself in the bootlegging business! Sheesh!

Cross posted at Say Anything

Profiles in Courage- Barack H. Obama

"Profiles in Courage" is how Rich Galen of Mullings refers to BHO's definite lack of courage in voting "Present" 130 times as an Illinois State Senator.
The NYT puts it thus:


In 1999, Barack Obama was faced with a difficult vote in the Illinois legislature — to support a bill that would let some juveniles be tried as adults, a position that risked drawing fire from African-Americans, or to oppose it, possibly undermining his image as a tough-on-crime moderate.
Sometimes the “present’ votes were in line with instructions from Democratic leaders or because he objected to provisions in bills that he might otherwise support. At other times, Mr. Obama voted present on questions that had overwhelming bipartisan support. In at least a few cases, the issue was politically sensitive. In the end, Mr. Obama chose neither to vote for nor against the bill. He voted “present,” effectively sidestepping the issue, an option he invoked nearly 130 times as a state senator.


...An examination of Illinois records shows at least 36 times when Mr. Obama was either the only state senator to vote present or was part of a group of six or fewer to vote that way.

In more than 50 votes, he seemed to be acting in concert with other Democrats as part of a strategy.


Leadership is standing on the courage of your convictions, whether it is popular, or politically expedient or not, and something lacking in Barack Hussein Obama.

Cross posted at Say Anything

Honda Robot Conducts Detroit Symphony

...and it gets 20% better gas mileage than their old conductor!

Honda Robot Conducts Detroit Symphony

Hat tip Drudge

Quote du jour

"It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first."

- Ronald W. Reagan

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

From Those Wonderfully Tolerant "Liberals"...

From those wonderfully "tolerant Liberals, here's a story of just how much they love the First Amendment:
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Someone wants WSB radio personality Neal Boortz dead.

A security official for WSB, Alexander Shapiro, phoned the complaint in to police last week, saying that someone is harassing the radio station's conservative commentator by going to WSB's Web site and sending messages to him "Those messages state that the sender wishes Mr. Boortz were dead," according to an Atlanta police report.

Shapiro told police Friday that he doesn't know who is behind the nasty e-mails; they come from an "undisclosed" address, the report said.


Remember when people would quote:
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. ?


The new Liberal's credo:
I disapprove of what you say, and if I can't shut you up or shout you down, I will kill you if you say it.
Nice.

Cross posted at Say Anything

Nine Articles of Impeachment Filed Against Ohio AG

That's the DEMOCRAT AG (Darn CAPS key stuck again!)
Ohio House Democrats filed articles of impeachment today against Dann earlier today, seeking his removal for allegations including gross neglect of his duties.
There were rumors floated by the Cleveland Plain Dealer than Dann would resign today. So far, no joy!
The nine articles of impeachment can be found here.
They include terms like:
Malfeasance, Improper Exercise of Authority,
Gross neglect of duty, and Gross Immorality

Corrupt politicians...the gifts that keep on giving!

Cross posted at Say Anything

The Poetry Corner

The codfish lays ten thousand eggs.
The lowly hen, but one.
The codfish never says a word
to tell you what she's done.
And so, we scorn the codfish,
while the lowly hen we prize.
Which only goes to show you that
it pays to advertise!

-anonymous

Quote du jour

"The taxpayer: That's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination."

- Ronald W. Reagan

Monday, May 12, 2008

"I Cannot Tell a Lie! - It Was My Staff!" -Obama

Seems like the Wrong "Rev." Wright and Grannie aren't the only ones Obama has thrown under the bus! Jake Tapper for ABC News writes:
We started covering Sen. Barack Obama's inability to hire good staffers in June 2007, when he blamed staffers for some opposition research trying to link Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, to outsourcing in India; for injecting some venom in the David Geffen/Hillary Clinton fight; and for missing an event with firefighters in New Hampshire.

In December, we noted again that Obama was blaming the answers on a 1996 questionnaire on a staffer; and was blaming his touring with "cured" ex-gay gospel singer Donnie McClurkin (which antagonized gays and lesbians) on bad vetting by his staff.

Those five buck-passing incidents were apparently not enough.

Yesterday, in an interesting New York Times look at Obama's rise in Chicago politics, we learned that in 2004 some Jewish supporters became alarmed to learn that in a questionnaire Obama refrained from denouncing Yasir Arafat, or from expressing strong support for Israel's security fence.

Reports the Times: "In an e-mail message, Mr. Obama blamed a staff member for the oversight...
Getting to be a really bad habit with this guy Obama! Any thing that goes wrong, blame a staffer!
In January, during MSNBC's presidential debate in Las Vegas, Obama was asked about a document put together by one of his South Carolina staffers that listed comments made by the Clinton campaign that some perceived to be attempting to stoke racial fires. "In hindsight, do you regret pushing this story?” asked Tim Russert.

"Our supporters, our staff get overzealous," Obama said.

In fact, Jack notes 14
"instances of Obama publicly blaming his staff for various screw-ups. "

Man! That's a lot of buses!
Hat tip to Hot Air
Cross Posted at Say Anything

Quote du jour

I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn’t it.

— Groucho Marx

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Energy Package Before Senate Includes ANWR Drilling

Let's see how much traction this gets in an election year!
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Senate is set to consider competing energy packages on Monday or Tuesday, including a Republican proposal that would allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

...Republicans – including Sens. Ted Stevens and Lisa Murkowski – are pushing a plan to boost domestic production off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and in Alaska.

Murkowski, a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has said she believes oil companies should be allowed to drill for oil along the coast of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and that it can be done in an environmentally sound way.

Republicans claim opening new areas to drilling offshore and in Alaska would produce an additional 24 billion barrels of oil, or enough to satisfy U.S. consumption for five years, which could help knock as much as $63 off the price of a barrel of oil.

$63 a barrel? That ain't bean bag! Maybe now's the time you write your Congress Critters and tell them you're fed up with their inaction on developing domestic oil resources?
Hat tip LGF
Cross posted at Say Anything

Iron Man - A Movie Review

Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man
I saw Iron Man last week, in a nearly deserted theater (not because of the popularity of the movie, but because I chose to take off for a half a day and go to the movies!)
The multiplex, at two in the afternoon, was mercifully devoid of crumb crunchers and other distractions, so I watched the movie in relative peace.

I enjoyed it. I thought Robert Downey, Jr. was brilliant casting, having been known to fight a few demons of his own, as the wastrel industrialist Tony Stark, forged by adversity into Iron Man. Gwyneth Paltrow, as "Pepper" Potts, did an excellent job of transforming the two dimensional female assistant, into a credible human character.

The special effects are outstanding. One problem with larger than life fight scenes is the dependence on Computer Generated Images, or CGI. I find too many "action" pictures rather boring as one CGI character battles another. (Hellboy and Van Helsing come to mind!) There's more to the action in Iron Man than the rapid blur of CGI characters!

Worth the money! As I told one friend, I didn't go there expecting MacBeth, I was expecting a comic book movie. It did not disappoint! Oh, and the obligatory cameo by Stan Lee was kind of cute as well!
Go see it. And, if you haven't heard, and you're willing to wait 'til the end of the credits (which seem to last as long as the movie itself) there is a brief scene teasing what is sure to be a sequel.

A Third Term for Bush Is Better Than a Second Term for Carter!

According to a bumper sticker at Suitably Flip! Heh.
Cross posted at Say Anything

Quote du jour

"The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretence, raised in the United States."


---Noah Webster
Hat tip to Walter E. Williams

Saturday, May 10, 2008

New Postage Increase Due Monday

Have you heard about this?

On May 12 the Postal Service will adjust prices for its services. While the most visible change is the 1-cent increase for First-Class Mail® letters

A First-Class Mail stamp will be 42¢.


Rising fuel costs to blame.

Hat tips to Jessica Logan , LGF

Cross Posted at
Say Anything

A Little Saturday Night Music


Shawn Phillips: Discoveries

Obama's Flag Pin

Obama's flag pin
Heh.
Hat tip to Hot Air : Katherine Jean Lopez at The Corner
Credit where credit is due: KJ got the picture at Suitably Flip

Cross Posted at Say Anything

Update: Could this be an Obamanation?

Col. "Bud" Day - John McCain's Roomie at the Hanoi Hilton

Like John McCain, Col. George E. “Bud” Day spent over 5 yrs in Vietnamese POW camps. Day and John McCain were cell-mates for about 2 and a half years. Day is a legendary military hero with more medals and ribbons than anyone since General Douglas MacArthur.


Unlike our treatment of POWs at Gitmo, where copies of the Koran are readily available, there were no Bibles at the Hanoi Hilton. The only Scripture brought in was in the minds of the POWs themselves. McCain, apparently, had quite a bit of Scripture memorized.
Day said he asked McCain if he would be one of his preachers.

“He said sure. He had a great handle on the Episcopalian liturgy, he could just repeat it verbatim,” he said.

But repeating what he went through during his incarceration is something McCain almost never does as a presidential candidate. Day said he thinks he should.

So, just for comparison, we have a candidate who paid attention to what was said in his church, to the point that he could repeat its liturgy verbatim, versus a guy who couldn't remember when his pastor said "God Damn America"? Yeah. Right!

Cross posted at Say Anything

Quote du jour

WashPo has turned on me, viciously, like a pet ferret that ate a bowl of bad calamari.

-Bruce Stockler

Friday, May 9, 2008

Obama -Next President of All 57 States!

That's right! 57! Like Heinz varieties! (Maybe he's been hanging out with the French looking John F. Kerry too much!

If this turkey wants to chide McCain for senior moments, he ought to be able to master the facts that any third grader could!

Hat tip to Hot Air, via The Jawa Report

Cross posted at Say Anything

Hard to say when you're talking such nonsense, but it sounds like he's not including Hawaii and Alaska in the 57 he's visited which makes for about 60 states???

It may be akin to the flag lapel business, in that patriotic Americans are all proud of all 50 states.
Some of those poor "bitter" folk may have even learned all 50 state capitals. I would think that only someone callously indifferent to the poor, bitter folk who live in those 50 states would not know how many of them there are!
BTW: I have never forgotten how many states there are, no matter how tired I was, and that number has changed twice in my lifetime! Heh.
Update: Hi! My name is Obama! Obama Gump!
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Momma always says,
“Life is like a box of chocolates...”

Why Barack Doesn't Wear the Flag Pin

We may now understand why Barack does not wear a flag lapel pin. He's afraid that Bill Ayers will stomp on him.
Larry C. Johnson (writing at the Huffington Post) Heh.

Hat tip: The Campaign Spot

Cross Posted At Say Anything

Great Tits Cope Well With Warming

I am NOT making this up! From the BBC:

At least one of Britain’s birds appears to be coping well as climate change alters the availability of a key food.

Researchers found that great tits are laying eggs earlier in the spring than they used to, keeping step with the earlier emergence of caterpillars.

Writing in the journal Science, they point out that the same birds in the Netherlands have not managed to adjust.


Well? What did you think the story would be about?

(Just waiting for someone to tell me the story just ain’t right without pictures!)

Hat tip to Mullings

Cross Posted at Say Anything

Quote du jour

Those who think the party or the country, will be “taught a lesson” by handing the levers of power over to the liberals will learn a lesson, but it will be at the expense of our country and her liberties. And there are no guarantees that the party or the country will come out stronger, more conservative or better positioned to win elections against the incumbent liberals.

-Proof

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Pinups For Vets - Shameless Flacking

I am once again shamelessly flacking for Gina Elise and her Pinups for Vets fundraisers.
Gina
Gina & Jordan Gina and Jordan
From an email:
"This past weekend I attended an Air Show at March Air Base in Riverside, CA where the Thunderbirds were performing. The two day event had a fantastic turn-out! I had a great time doing fundraising. It was my very first air show and what a treat it was to watch the Thunderbirds--especially because I paid a visit to their home at Nellis a few weeks ago (see "In the Field" Link for pix!). They are simply amazing."
-Gina

It's a good cause, even if it didn't afford me the opportunity to post pictures of pretty girls on my site! : ) You can click the link on Gina's name to access her site.

Jinx on a Terran Inheritance

My first introduction to Brian Daley was through this book:
Jinx on a Terran Inheritance
"Jinx on a Terran Inheritance." It is the second book in a trilogy that is out of print these days, but you can often find a copies used.
The first book in the trilogy, was "Requiem for a Ruler of Worlds". Find that one, if you can to start. I found the first two books in the series to be very fresh and funny. The third, "Fall of the White Ship Avatar" began well, but soon wandered off the mark for my tastes.
It was from this trilogy, that I discovered the marvelous character Alacrity Fitzhugh.
Good reading if you like sci-fi. Possibly, even if you do not!

Flip Flopping, Hypocrisy, Impeachment and Democrats!

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - A Democratic political consultant questions why two former U.S. House members who voted against impeaching President Clinton 10 years ago are now jumping on a bandwagon to force Ohio’s attorney general to resign or be forced from office.

Clinton’s case rings similar to that of Attorney General Marc Dann, a fellow Democrat from Youngstown who has admitted to an extramarital affair with a subordinate and is being challenged for inconsistent statements made under oath.

Congress impeached Clinton, as Democrats are now threatening to do to Dann. Yet Clinton, who was subsequently acquitted in the Senate, never resigned.


Governor Ted Strickland would like Marc Dann gone before the November elections, because he is a bright, glowing neon sign that political corruption is well and truly bipartisan!

Some pundits have opined that the Ohio AG could destroy the Potemkin village of “Democrat reformers” that swept Democrats into office two short years ago, and put Ohio back in play for the Republicans.
...Strickland and Brown are joined by nearly every Ohio political leader - both Democrats and Republicans - in wanting Dann to resign.


Ah! Bipartisanship, at last!
...Strickland (D) says Dann has clearly met the threshold for removal, in part due to his statements to investigators looking into complaints that an aide in his office sexually harassed subordinates.

``There were what I perceived to be some inconsistencies in the testimony, a failure to recognize the seriousness of some of the things that apparently had happened, failure to exercise proper oversight and management of the office,’’ the governor said after leading a Democratic charge Monday to get Dann out of office.


...Republican consultant Mark Weaver said transcripts of a sexual harassment probe at Dann’s office that concluded Friday refer to personal acts by Dann that call his judgment into question. Among them are allegations Dann served drinks to subordinates during off-work hours, made personal and suggestive statements in office e-mail and allowed the hiring of a friend as a section chief despite knowledge that he had a drunk driving conviction.

``With Taft, there was not the direct link back to his behavior that was creating the problems,’’ Weaver said. ``People who accuse Taft of wrongdoing ... said he wasn’t paying close enough attention to what was going on. The argument against Dann is that he was actually fomenting it, he was involved in it.’’


And a “golden oldie” at the end of the piece:

And Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Traficant, a nine-term congressman from Youngstown, never resigned before heading off to prison. He was convicted in 2002 of charges he received gifts and free labor from businessmen for his political help, and took cash kickbacks and free labor from staff.

``Richard Nixon and Jim Traficant are both infamous political figures,’’ Weaver said. ``At least give Nixon credit for not making the country go through an impeachment trial. Jim Traficant would not do that and had to be taken away in handcuffs.’’


Heh. Of course, you might want to check with Elliot Spitzer. They might like handcuffs! Heh. Heh.

Cross posted at Say Anything