Archive for February, 2008
SNL SKIT HAS LEFT IN SNIT
OBAMA supporters and the left in general are upset SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE uses a “non-black” man in makeup to lampoon BARACK OBAMA. Saying it smacks of “blackface” burlesque comics and if SNL is to continue they should find a black man apparently with suitable ears. Cynics say this is really an effort to stop SNL from spoofing Obama.
TEST “ATTACKS” CHILD SUPPORT JUDGEMENTS
RITE-AID is selling DNA paternity tests for $29.99 and for a $120 lab fee a man or woman can tell who is father and mother. In New Hampshire a study showed 30% of men paying child support were not the biologic fathers of those children – there are an estimated 1.6 million men forced to pay child support who are not the biological fathers.
Many judges order child support if there has been sex whether there is paternity or not. This over-the-counter test is no admissible in court but it will be a lot harder to railroad men into child support.
Michelle Obama Talks Against BIG BAD Business
Friday MICHELLE OBAMA recommended to assembled youngsters in ZANESVILLE, OHIO against working for BIG CORPORATIONS urging more to go into “public service jobs” what she said she and her husband did. She didn’t say that the Obama’s decided to go for the bucks and bagged over $900,000 last year.
Mrs. Obama reinvigorated the debate about her helping or hurting her husband with her extremism. Admittedly her ideas likely resonated in the shadow of the south central “Y-bridge” town of Zanesville but, on a day when the stock market tumbled she send a whole lot of Americans looking for their head scratcher.
Hillary shut up Bill maybe Barck should muzzle Michelle.
Reasons for Rice’s Shift Has Parallels Today
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Condoleezza Rice’s switch from Democrat to Republican was provoked by two events says Ron Kessler of NEWSMAX. (1.) The endless refrain at 1984 Democratic National Convention (that nominated Walter Mondale) to “women, minorities, and the poor, which basically means helpless people and the poor.” Rice, who grew up during segregation, was turned off deciding she would “rather be ignored than patronized.” (2.) Jimmy Carter’s professed shock at the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, demonstrating naivete and spotlighting his feeble approach to national security. The spectacle sickened her.Kessler suggest substituting the name Obama for Carter or Mondale. He raises the specters lurking around Obama including:
Obama Wrong On Al Qaeda In Iraq
“I’ve got news for you, Senator McCain,” Barack Obama said Thursday, in his most recent demonstration of lack of foreign policy knowledge and naivette, al Qaeda was not in Iraq before the U. S. invaded.
In fact al Qaeda was training and operating in Iraq and had a base at Mosul to attack Saudi Arabia with the full knowledge and cooperation of Saddam Hussein.
02-28-08 Conservatively Speaking
J |
ust 24% of American voters have a favorable opinion of the New York Times according to a Wednesday Rasmussen Poll. Two-thirds (66%) say its article about McCain was to hurt him. McCain is trusted more by
55% of voters when it comes to National Security issues versus only 30% who trust Obama. When it comes to the economy, 45% prefer McCain while 39% trust Obama more. On taxes, 42% trust McCain, 37% Obama. When it comes to Reducing Government Corruption, Obama has the advantage.
Overall McCain now leads Obama 46% to 43% and Clinton 48% to 43%. He has consistently lead Clinton but has now moved in front of Obama.
Cuba, China, Vietnam…what’s the difference?
Is McCain’s position on Cuba just another example of pandering to the conservative base, a political move for cementing his vote in Florida, or does he really think that continuing decades worth of failed policy is going to change them?
When his “new found base” supported Chinese WTO membership, MFN status, and normalized trading relations with Vietnam it was oh so good for the country and put America into its proper position at forefront of the Global economy. However when the vote comes to older Cubans in Florida, McCain hides behind the American Flag spouting idiocy like…”we will never sit down with a regime that tortured my fellow solders in Vietnam”. Let me see, wasn’t it Vietnam who was doing most of this torturing? Wasn’t China who supported the communists in Vietnam with weapons, money, and advisors & troops? Wasn’t it China that held American prisoners during the Korean War and have yet to offer up any information about the vast number of missing troops.
Dean Still Recovering From Melt-Down
I remember the melt-down of Howard Dean, past Governor of Vermont, during his bid to be president. He was screaming in-coherently, nearly foaming at the mouth. Apparently he hasn’t gotten over it.
Today he is being quoted from a speech he gave on Black History month at a university. He is quoted as saying, “that with a woman and an African-American as the two front-runners, the Democratic field “looks like America,” while the all-white male Republican field “looks like the 1950s and talks like the 1850s.”
Howard Dean, like most Democrats, just keeps re-writing history. They completely ignore their own failure in their self appointed and oft referenced role as savior and benevolent benefactor for African Americans.
Obama the Moving Target
Barak Obama has made many eloquent speeches without really saying anything. Getting him pinned down on a position about anything is quite a challenge.
In the recent debate it took his opponent and the moderator a long time to get him to make a solid stand on the Farakahn statement of support that was recently reported. He just wouldn’t reject the support. He kept saying that he had denounced anti-semitic comments by the Nation of Islam leader but just wouldn’t come out and reject his support until, finally, after repeated prodding he did. Or did he? He said if the word ‘reject’ pleased Clinton then ok. But he never did, and still hasn’t stated plainly and without question that he rejected the support of Farakahn as well as his divisive rhetoric.
In this same debate Obama said he’d immediately pull our troops out of Iraq. He then said that if Al Qaeda came into Iraq and established a base he reserved the right to take military action. Not if they committed terrorist acts or the atrocities that they are known for…only if they established a “base” in Iraq. Then John McCain pointed out that Al Qaeda was already in Iraq. After having a day to get his answer ready and scripted Obama’s reply was that Al Qaeda wasn’t in Iraq until we invaded there.
What a moving target Obama is. The fact is that he has no firm plan about Iraq. When attempts are made to pin him down on his pledge to immediately pull out of Iraq he falls back on his claim that he reserves the right to take military action, etc. His original comment illustrated just how niave’ and inexperienced he is in foriegn affairs and military issues.
When caught “off-script” like during the Farakahn issue in the debate he shows that he’s not that eloquent and knowledgeable; and certainly not committed to any position. On this Iraq exchange he had time to prepare and trotted out that spiffy comeback that avoided the point made by McCain…and avoided taking a stand once again! He completely skirted the issue.
Obama is a smooth tongued orator that is gifted at talking alot without really saying anything substantive. Like a river boat gambler he is adept at slight of hand with his commentary.
For a president I’d rather have someone that lets me know exactly where he stands. Someone that stands his ground in the face of adversity. A president that, even though I may not agree with him on everything, I know who he is and what he stands for. Not a moving target blown by the political winds and the vagaries of the most recent polls.
Are Visa and MasterCard hurting capitalism?
What happens when a company’s (or industry’s) activities exert a negative effect on the market?
It’s a subject I broach lightly, because I know that criticizing a particular company’s practices when they are not outright illegal can be seen as criticizing the market itself. I’m a firm believer in capitalism. The dog-eared copy of Rand’s “Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal” on my shelf is testament to that (and it’s much better than her turgid, unreadable novels).
However, through the consulting work I’ve done over the past year with a merchant coalition (unfaircreditcardfees.com) I have come to think that what Visa and MasterCard are doing with their merchant fees, known in the industry as “interchange fees,” rises to the level where a legislative remedy may in fact be necessary.
It’s unfortunate when it comes to this. It’s a market failure, and we have to be very careful in defining things.
But the fact is, U.S. interchange rates are among the highest worldwide precisely because the fees are set in secret and hidden from view. Raising interchange fees is how Visa and MasterCard encourage banks to issue more cards, and as long as rising rates are kept top secret, consumers have no way of knowing the extra costs they are paying. Visa, MasterCard, and the big bank credit card issuers win. Only merchants and consumers who are kept in the dark lose. That’s a a functioning market?
Visa and MasterCard operate like price-fixing cartels and violate federal antitrust laws. Visa issuers collectively set credit card interchange fees in secret and MasterCard issuers separately do the same. The fees can’t be negotiated and are not adequately disclosed to merchants or consumers. That’s why credit card interchange rates rise rapidly despite improved processing technology, consistently low interest rates, and rapidly rising card volume.
That doesn’t sound like a functioning market to me. If you’re still reading, I’d be curious to hear what y’all think.
(Note: Cross-posted from RedState)
If It’s Wednesday, It’s Another Republican Sex Scandal!
A Republican district attorney, who once argued that the government had a compelling interest in preserving the so-called “sanctity of marriage” against “extrasexual-extramarital sexual relations” (particularly, homosexual relations) has been caught with his own petard (but, in a purely heterosexual way, of course).
During an investigation, as part of a federal civil rights lawsuit, prosecutor Chuck Rosenthal was forced to turn over some of the contents of his government email account. What the investigators found was racist jokes and adult video clips, not to mention, love notes and sexy emails from the Houston attorney to his former mistress (whom he was seeing during a previous marriage).
On top of that, he’s been accused of drinking on the job and official misconduct, which forced him to resign from the Houston prosecutors office and give up his re-election bid.
Before handing over the files he was subpoenaed to, he tried to delete most of them, and then later, lied about it. So, now he’s being charged with obstruction of justice and perjury. He tried to impede a federal investigation and now the web he has woven may land him in jail with some of the other criminals he has put away.
Of course, instead of taking it like a man, he’s taking it like Britney Spears, blaming his troubles on prescription drug use, that impaired his judgment.
Our Potential First Ladies
Who is Michelle Obama? Other than hearing about a few outrageous statements that she has made, I don’t know much about the woman who could very well become the next First Lady. After she did a not so glamorous interview for Glamour Magazine where she said her husband was “snore-y and stinky” in the morning she seems to have been muzzled until the more recent inflammatory statement that she is proud of the U.S. “for the first time in my adult life”.
I think it is past time to better understand who is this woman who could be living in the White House for the next four years. We already know more than we want to know about Bill but Michelle Obama is an enigma. I admit that I also know very little about John McCain’s wife, Cindy, except that she has not embarrassed her husband or his campaign. But it is time that we get to know these potential First Ladies.
Intercalary day - leap year day - tomorrow
Tomorrow is an intercalary day or a leap day the 366th day of 2008. Intercalary is pronounced (in-tûr’ku-ler”ē, in”tur-kal’u-rē) and means 1. interpolated; interposed. 2. inserted or interpolated in the calendar, as an extra day or month. The ancient Egyptians were the first to come up with the idea of adding a leap day once every four years to keep the calendar in sync with the solar year. Leap year; and 1 out of every 4 century years is considered as a leap year. Century years are only considered as leap years if they are evenly divisible by 400. Therefore, 1700, 1800, 1900 were not leap years, and 2100 will not be a leap year. There was debate about when to insert the intercalary day which Roman Emperor Julius Caesar settled in 45 B. C. by proclaiming the last day of February as Leap Year Day. In 1582 Pope Gregory introduced the Gregorian calendar; declared December 31st year’s end and codified the leap day, year and century as described. The leap year calendar, while still imperfect, will do for 3,300 more years when we will have to add an extra leap day.Those born on February 29th usually celebrate their birthday on February 28th but, that’s never been made “official” policy.
BLOOMBERG NIXES WHITE HOUSE BID
New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced Wednesday night that he will not be an independent candidate for president this year, but said he is prepared to support a candidate who calls for unity over partisanship and who is willing to challenge party orthodoxy in favor of common-sense solutions to the country’s problems.
Speculation has been Bloomberg would be forced to decide by March 5th because it is Texas’ first day to petition to he candidate.
Obama’s Ties To Domesic Terrorist Exposed
Barack Obama’s meeting at the home of and with two well known terrorist William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn will escape the remembrance and knowledge of most voters. Ayers and Dohrn are known as two of the most notorious – and unrepentant — figures from the violent fringe of the 1960s. Ayers and Dohrn belonged to the anti-Americans Weather Underground as was former aide to a Santa Barbara County Supervisor. Dohrn was jailed for refusing to testify in the case of the Brinks armed robbery that left three dead, including two New York state troopers.Ayers told the New York Times that he didn’t regret setting bombs and said he regrets not planting more bombs. Obama has not denounced nor stood up to the astonishingly vile and vicious pronouncements of the pair. What does this say about Obama’s politics that Ayers and Dohrn approved of him, and what does it say about Obama that he felt he needed their blessing?President Bill Clinton pardoned Weather Underground bomber, Susan L. Rosenberg with the despicable Marc Rich. It also recalls the fiasco of the FALN pardons, in which Hillary played a major blundering role. What a great way to get that story back in the headlines!
Both distrubing and disgusting Barack Obama does not deny the meeting of the support of this dispicable pair. Why?
Most Booing Journalist
Two thirds of Americans 67% believe traditional journalism is out of touch with what Americans want from their news, a new We Media/Zogby Interactive poll shows. The poll continues what has been at first a slow decline and now an avalanche sized slide in the American public’s lack of confidence in its news media. Last week’s unsourced grocery store tabloid style attack by the New York Times on a woman telecommunications lobbyist is symptomatic of the cynicism uncovered in the poll.
The survey documented the shift away from traditional sources of news, such as newspapers and TV, to the Internet particularly among those under age 30. Forty-eight percent said their primary source of news and information is the Internet, an increase from 40% who said the same a year ago. Fifty-five percent of those age 18 to 29 say they get most of their news and information online, compared to 35% of those age 65 and older. Web sites, the online survey found, are regarded as a more important source of news and information than traditional media outlets 86% of Americans. Whether journalisms plummeting efficacy is a result of or the cause of general challenges in journalism and newspapers in particular was reported by Zogby.
William F. Buckley Jr. Has Died
Erudite author and conservative commentator William F. Buckley Jr. died Wednesday morning at age 82. His manner, verbal and facial affectations made him well known – his towering intellect and knowledge made him well respected.
Is Arnold The Terminator?
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger owns an Austrian M-47 tank and he’s getting it back from an Ohio museum so he can ‘enjoy it’. Californians say he’ll need it along with asbestos underwear unless he stops acting like a Governor and becomes one. Although he continues to have a 63% approval rating among Republicans his overall job approval has sagged to 45%. His approval rating is lowest in the Greater LA region and highest in the inland area according to a mid-month Survey/USA poll.
IRS INVESTIGATING BARACK’S CHURCH
The IRS is investigating Barack Obama’s United Church of Christ over a speech he gave to its national meeting last year after he became a candidate for president. The IRS says the speech violated restrictions on political activity for nonprofit groups. The denomination denies any wrongdoing saying he was speaking as a church member and not a political candidate. The Illinois church has taken numerous controversial positions including being Afro-American centric and bestowing its highest honor on ascerbic Muslim activist Louis Farrakhan.
Critics say the IRS’ investigation is politically motivated.
OBAMA IN TKO OVER CLINTON
Barack “B.S.” Obama scored a TKO (technical knockout) over Hillary Clinton in the 20th debate, since February 28th last year. Clinton did not score many points – certainly no touchdowns. Overall it was a “rope-a-dope.” Frankly it sounded like Clinton has accepted defeat. Obama jabbed and jabbed as only champions can do keeping Hillary at bay, and really didn’t have to throw risky punches which he did not. Overall tedious, silly, a waste of time and place.
Hillary has still not figured out she is NOT the “champion” — she is not and she must win the championship belt, and she did not.
Hypocratic hypocrisy among the Caduceus crowd
Drug giant Pfizer Inc. has scrapped its ad campaign for anti-cholesterol pill Lipitor featuring Robert Jarvik, the inventor of an artificial heart, as Congress probes whether the commercials are misleading. The rubs are that Jarvik appears to give medical advice but he is not a licensed medical doctor, and Pfizer used body doubles for Jarvik.
Otherwise there are ethical and even moral questions about the financial and medical impacts of drug companies directly marketing to patients. For decades drug companies marketed through “drug detailers” who were often seen lurking at the back doors of medical buildings hectored doctors to prescribe their wares. Celebrity marketing directly to patients via television, radio and print ads has proved effective by actually creating a demand for those drugs and a willingness of many physicians to comply. Studies show that created demand has become an important ingredients in sharply rising drugs costs which have become a big contributor to skyrocketing healthcare costs.
America’s Religious Decline
Religion in decline in America says a massive survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life - considered the most comprehensive report on religious identification of Americans in recent years interviewing more than 35,000 people across the United States - found 28 percent of adults say they have left their childhood faith for another religion or none at all. Counting people who shifted denominations, the change rises to 44 percent. According to the study the U. S. will soon lose its status as a majority-Protestant country standing now at just 51% of the churched. That drop from about 2/3rd who said they were Protestant in 1960 has seen the number of those who called themselves religiously unaffiliated in the 1980s double to 16% now.In California 21% - more than one in five – call themselves unaffiliated and in Oregon that’s 27%. Religious scholars say the big reason is “rootless” people who have moved into the west abandoning not only their home and family and leaving their religion behind. Overall 28% of adults say they have left their childhood faith for another religion or none at all. The Catholic Church has faired the worst among all denominations falling to 25% from nearly one-third (33%), and it would be worse without a big influx of immigrations from catholic countries. Hindus have the highest retention of members at 84 percent. Jehovah’s Witness lose 2/3rds of those raise in the sect by adulthood. Overall mainline Protestant churches have fewer and older members, while nondenominational Christian churches are growing. Jews, on average, are also older than other groups and are literally dying out.Mormons and Muslims have the largest families. Black Americans are most likely to claim religious affiliation, nearly half of Hindus and one-third of Jews have postgraduate education. U.S. Buddhist adherents are made up mostly of native-born converts.
England’s Oxford University recently received a $3.7 million grant to find out whether belief in a deity is a matter of nature or nurture. Some believe the growth of humanism and secularism is contributing to the decline in religious beliefs leading to the rise in atheism and agnosticism or visa-versa. Others say a consequence is the vast increase in rudderless people saying they are depressed, using anti-depressants, addiction to prescription drugs and use illicit drugs.
OSCAR AND MOORE STRIKE OUT
Sunday’s Academy Awards Oscars set an all time record for the least watched such ceremony ever. The 80th annual Academy Awards telecast was 14% lower than the least-watched ceremony ever and 21% lower than last year. The least-watched Oscars ceremony ever was in 2003, when there were 33 million viewers. This continues a pattern of falling interest that was briefly interrupted last year when viewers rose slightly from the miserable showings the year before. Despite his best effort to shill the show not even Michael Moore’s silly idea of inviting Fidel Castro did any good nor apparently any good for he or his most recent mockumentary “Sicko” that was also panned. Moore did received an unexpected award the HYPOCRISY.COM H. A. AWARD for his misrepresentations of the U. S. healthcare system. That award’s symbol is a Secretariat sized horse’s posterior.