The Reality Project

VERY BAD LOWER CONTROL ARM BUSHING

2009-12-05T23:45:00.001-07:00

Guess it's time to replace it:

Rockland High School Class of 1979 30 Year Reunion

2009-03-24T23:39:00.002-06:00

It's that time of the decade again. I'm going to attempt to coordinate our 30 year reunion from afar - Colorado Springs. I'll try and keep everyone posted on where we're at with the planning stuff. We have two dates in mind - the 4th of July and September 4th, which is Homecoming.
That's where we're at for now. More later.

I couldn't help it...

2009-02-06T13:33:00.002-07:00

The more I hear about the Fairness Doctrine, the more I cringe. The latest offensive on the subject is Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI). After hearing a recent interview of her, I HAD TO write to the senator (and I encourage others to do so as well) at senator@stabenow.senate.gov. Please include the word Michigan somewhere in the email, or it goes to the back of the pile. She only deals with her constituents at this time, according to her website.

Senator,
In a recent interview, you stated that "I absolutely think it’s time to be bringing accountability to the airwaves." What do they need to be held accountable for? Provided that they comply with FCC regulations, their programming decisions are based on the market for which they air. In other words, their programming selections are what keep them in business.
This has nothing to do with fairness and everything to do with an attempt to cram liberal viewpoints down the throats of the American People ever since Democracy Radio and Air America went under as a result of poor ratings. No one mentioned the fairness doctrine while these networks were on the airwaves. Your husband helped put these failed organizations together, and now that they've tanked, your only recourse is to FORCE radio stations to offer opposing points of view. You know it, I know it, so who are we kidding? Yeah, that's what we need, more government regulation to get us just THAT much closer to communism.
The only medium that has conservatism dominate is AM radio, which is why it is the only medium you're targeting. The print media and the major networks lean very left. So is it "fair" to only go after radio because their broadcasting doesn't fit your political beliefs? Are you going to regulate cable news networks as well? Because I certainly don't see opposing points of view on MSNBC, which might explain why they are 3rd in the ratings of all 3 cable news networks. I'll bet that when they finally go under, you'll want a fairness doctrine for television as well. Problem is, Fox News already offers opposing points of view.
Quit treating Americans as naive, stupid people. Contrary to what you tell us, we know exactly why you and your fellow democrats Pelosi, Durbin, Bingaman and Schumer are doing this. Your networks lost listeners and subsequently went under because of extreme leftist (Franken, Rhodes) viewpoints. Get over it.

$150,000,000: "[Y]ou don't want it to look like a schlock affair"

2009-01-15T10:14:00.002-07:00

Remember this in 2005 when the Bush Administration was criticized by the Left for spending $42.3m on his inauguration? You know, there was a war on and the money was better spent on really important things.
My, how do times changes. The Left has been absolutely silent over the prediction that the Obama inauguration will cost in excess of $150m.

President Barack Obama’s inauguration next week is set to be the most expensive ever, predicted to reach over $150m (£102m). This dwarfs the $42.3m spent on George Bush’s inauguration in 2005 and the $33m spent on Bill Clinton’s in 1993.

Part of the spending includes emergency funding announced by the White House on Tuesday to help with the soaring costs. Most of this new federal funding will be to deal with the huge influx of people, estimated 1.5 million to 2 million.

A White House statement said that President Bush “declared an emergency exists in the District of Columbia”.

If there is snow, the costs will grow higher. The long-term forecast suggests there is a chance of snow on Sunday and again on the day of inauguration, on Tuesday.

Carole Florman, spokeswoman for the joint congressional committee on inaugural ceremonies, told the New York Daily News, which estimated the cost at $160m: “We’re always very budget conscious. But we’re sending a message to the entire world about our peaceful transition of power, and you don’t want it to look like a schlock affair. It needs to be appropriate to the magnitude of events that it is.“

I thought there was a financial crisis in this country.

Gitmo Politics

2009-01-14T05:11:00.002-07:00

One topic I've heard a lot about since Obama was elected is the likelihood that he will close Guantanamo Bay. However, it's not as simple as one might think. One doesn't exactly turn these detainees loose on American soil, does one?
If the secular progressives in this country have their way, Obama WILL close Gitmo, and I suspect that this announcement will come soon, mainly to appease the Left. However, expect the new administration to take their sweet time to work out the logistics. There are other issues that this administration will have to deal with as well. Thomas Joscelyn of the Weekly Standard wrote this piece last month:

The new administration will soon discover from its review of the Guantánamo files what motivated its predecessor: The scope of the terrorist threat was far greater than anyone knew on September 11, 2001. But for the Bush administration’s efforts, many more Americans surely would have perished.

This conclusion is based on a careful review of the thousands of pages of documents released from Guantánamo, as well as other publicly available evidence. In 2006, the Department of Defense began to release the documents to the public via its website. The files had been created during the Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRT) and Administrative Review Board (ARB) hearings held for nearly 600 detainees. This unclassified cache includes both the government’s allegations against each detainee and summarized transcripts of the detainees’ testimony. Although the documents were released in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by the Associated Press, the intelligence contained in the files was largely ignored by the mainstream press for more than two years. Thus, the New York Times reported only the day before the recent presidential election that the files contain “sobering intelligence claims against many of the remaining detainees.” …

The most dangerous men currently incarcerated at Guantánamo are the 14 “high value” detainees. The Bush administration gave them this designation because they are uniquely lethal, having planned and participated in the most devastating terrorist attacks in history. Their collective dossier includes, among other attacks, 9/11, the American embassy bombings (August 7, 1998), the USS Cole bombing (October 12, 2000), and the Bali bombings (October 12, 2002). They are responsible for murdering thousands of civilians around the globe, from the eastern United States to Southeast Asia. Had they not been captured, they surely would have murdered thousands more.

The 14 were originally held not at Guantánamo, but at even more controversial black sites. And the “enhanced interrogation techniques” that have sparked international outrage were principally designed for them. One may doubt the necessity and morality of these techniques, including waterboarding, while still recognizing a fundamentally important point: The 14 high value detainees are not ordinary criminals, but perpetrators of an entirely different order of evil.

It is because of these men, in particular, that the Bush administration initiated the preventive detention regime of which Guantánamo is a part. Processing them as mere lawbreakers would not have advanced the war on terror. To read them their rights and provide them lawyers would have been to throw away their intelligence value. It would have allowed them to carry to the grave many details of still active terrorist plots. The Bush administration chose a different route-harsh interrogations designed to ferret out al Qaeda’s current operations before it was too late to stop them or capture those involved.

Please read that last paragraph carefully. What many people fail to realize is that what occurred at Gitmo saved many lives. Therefore, I have no problem with tactics such as waterboarding, if it can be determined with reasonable certainty that lives were in danger. Regarding any other mistreatment of detainees, I have personally talked with members of the military stationed at Gitmo. Because of the fear of public outcry, these detainees are "treated like royalty" in their own words. Yet it hasn't been enough. The public outcry towards the mistreatment of these detaines continues. Adding insult to injury, The Supreme Court had to get involved in Boumediene v. Bush, which gave detainees access to the federal court system to challenge their detention. Fortunately, most of the key intelligence from many detainees had already been detained before the decision in 2008.

Oh, and another thing: I wish the Left would quit saying that Geneva Convention rules apply to these people. They do NOT wear the military uniform of a particular country, so throw the Geneva Convention out.

The best part is that although many European countries bitch about the way we've treated these detainees, they've also refused to incarcerate them, should Gitmo close.

The most recent concern about Gitmo lately comes from the families of the 17 sailors killed in the USS Cole bombing, as well as the Cole's former Commanding Officer. Two years after the attack, Abd al-Nashiri, a Saudi, was arrested and eventually transferred to the Guantanamo Bay. One of three high-value detainees to be waterboarded, Abd al-Nashiri is the alleged planner of the Cole attack.

This week, al-Nashiri was supposed to be arraigned at Guantanamo Bay, but the hearing has been postponed until February because the defense wants more time. With President-elect Obama promising to eventually close the prison once he's in the White House, some of the Cole families question whether their cases will be put on hold. As a retired Navy Senior Chief, I take this issue a little more personally than most. The possibility that this piece of crap will never answer for his crimes just sickens me.

Say what you will about the Bush Administration, but since 9/11, there hasn't been a single terrorist attack on U.S. soil. Obama wants a return to the pre-9/11 process of simply arresting and trying terrorists in federal courts. That did nothing to end the threat against the US, as a series of attacks abroad proved long before 9/11. On the other hand, as Joscelyn reports, the aggressive, war-modeled approach used by the Bush administration led to the unraveling of many plots, some almost ready to launch. Los Angeles had been targeted in a follow-up mission by al-Qaeda after 9/11, and the Bush administration’s interrogations uncovered the plot and the plotters, ending the threat.

The trial of the WTC I plotters after the 1993 terrorist attack did not prevent WTC II on 9/11. This is what was meant by the September 10th mentality. When Janet Reno and the Clinton Administration treated terrorists like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh the same as armed robbers not only ignored their real threat but also kept the government from gaining the kind of intelligence against their networks that keeps Americans from being killed by the thousands.If we go back to the pre-9/11 approach and process them through the civil courts, we’ll pad our conviction rates and remain blind to the threats amassing against us. Obama may close Gitmo, but in the end, he’ll need to create another mechanism to do what Gitmo did for national security or wind up dropping the ball against the real threats we still face.

CNN Gets Duped

2009-01-09T09:24:00.002-07:00

Our MSM is at it again.

The story was supposedly that a freelance journalist in Gaza returned home to find his younger brother dead, the victim of a missile attack on a residential rooftop from an unmanned IDF drone. The video shows the supposed scene of the attack, and follows the Gaza family from the hospital to the burial, after a heroic attempt by doctors to revive the young child. The scene in question starts at around 1:40.

Only, when you look at the supposedly heroic effort, it lacks one thing: any sense that the two doctors are actually performing CPR with any effort at all. They stop as though they’ve scripted out the moment. That’s when I questioned whether the scene could have been faked, and at LGF, a physician called shenanigans:

I’m no military expert, but I am a doctor, and this video is bullsh-t. The chest compressions that were being performed at the beginning of this video were absolutely, positively fake. The large man in the white coat was NOT performing CPR on that child. He was just sort of tapping on the child’s sternum a little bit with his fingers. You can’t make blood flow like that. Furthermore, there’s no point in doing chest compressions if you’re not also ventilating the patient somehow. In this video, I can’t tell for sure if the patient has an endotracheal tube in place, but you can see that there is nobody bag-ventilating him (a bag is actually hanging by the head of the bed), and there is no ventilator attached to the patient. In a hospital, during a code on a ventilated patient, somebody would probably be bagging the patient during the chest compressions. And they also would have moved the bed away from the wall, so that somebody could get back there to intubate the patient and/or bag him. In short, the “resuscitation scene” at the beginning is fake, and it’s a pretty lame fake at that.

A little more investigation determined that one of the doctors in the video is notorious terrorist apologist Mads Gilbert. The older brother, meanwhile, is no mere “free-lance cameraman” but the owner of a business that hosts Internet web sites for Hamas. In other words, this looks an awful attempt at propaganda that only a “professional” media outlet with a pre-existing animus to Israel would put on the air without any checking of sources.

CNN has pulled the video from its rotation and its web site, without any explanation or retraction. However, the story is still on their website. We’ll see if they own up to their mistake, or simply hope no one notices.

Stooping to a new low

2008-12-31T14:39:00.005-07:00

It's amazing sometimes to see how low some corporations will go when they are in a dispute with another corporation. Take Viacom's latest issue with Time-Warner cable. Viacom wants more $$$ for it's 19 channels such as Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, and Time-Warner refuses to pay, and is planning on shutting off these channels on their cable system at midnight tonight. In response, Viacom has decided to use its children-show characters as weapons in this fight:

Tapping emotional images such as a weeping Dora the Explorer and a distraught SpongeBob, Viacom Inc. is launching a marketing blitz Wednesday aimed at demonizing Time Warner Cable over a television-programming contract dispute.

Barring a last-minute settlement on fees, Viacom’s cable channels — including Nickelodeon, MTV and Comedy Central — will disappear from Time Warner Cable at midnight Wednesday. While programmers and operators often battle fiercely over contract renewals, Viacom’s campaign is notable in its willingness to pull children into the debate.

One ad shows the cartoon Dora the Explorer in tears with the words, “Why is Dora crying?” The ad goes on to explain: “Time Warner Cable has taken 19 of your favorite channels off the air!” and suggests viewers call a Time Warner Cable number to demand that the cable operator restore Nickelodeon and its siblings. That ad is paired with another suggesting that viewers can get Dora back by signing up to one of Time Warner Cable’s rivals such as DirecTV or Verizon Communications. In another, the cartoon character SpongeBob is said to be “freaking out.”

They’re not going to get much sympathy from parents by exploiting these cartoon characters. Families in a tough economy are not going to make the expensive investment in satellite dishes just to get Nickelodeon back. Instead, they’ll find other outlets for entertainment for their children, perhaps permanently. One parent, Chad the Elder at Fraters Libertas, notes the hard sell currently under way:

This morning, Nickelodeon has been running a continuous scroll warning of the channel’s imminent disappearance for Time Warner customers and urging them to call their cable operator to avoid this horrible fate. It’s a clever ploy by Nick to go after one of parent’s critical pain points: the shows their children love to watch. All I have to say is thank God we have Comcast. Don’t get a chance to say that too often.

Hey Viacom: Settle your own problems, and keep the kids out of it.

Welcome to Gaza! Now, get the hell out of here!

2008-12-30T13:12:00.003-07:00

America's favorite moonbat, Jew-hater, conspiracy theorist and racism accuser is at it again. Former U.S. Congresswoman and Green party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney and several of her Free Gaza Movement friends decided to board a cabin cruiser in Cyprus on Monday to deliver medical supplies to Gaza, only to be turned back by an Israeli Navy patrol boat. In the process, the boats collided when the cabin cruiser attempted to get by the patrol boat. Of course, the cabin cruiser passengers are all claiming that their boat was intentionally rammed 3 times, and that shots were fired into the water near them. Well, they had to say that, didn't they? Because there weren't any bullet holes in the hull of the cruiser. Israeli spokesmen concur that the boats collided, but that no shots were fired.
What is not being reported is that Gaza is controlled by Hamas - an international terrorist organization that spends most of its time targeting Israel.
Uh, you don't take a cabin cruiser into a war zone, folks. This was nothing more than a publicity stunt.
I have links here, here and here.
For those of you that forgot about Cynthia McKinney, she's a 9-11 Truther, claimed the DoD had murdered 5,000 Hurricane Katrina victims and had buried them in a Louisiana swamp, and struck a Capitol Police Officer after blowing by a security checkpoint in the House Office building. When the officer did not recognize her as a member of Congress (she wasn't wearing her lapel pin), She proceeded westward down the ground floor hallway and about halfway down the hallway was grabbed by United States Capitol Police officer Paul McKenna, who states that he had been calling after her: "Ma'am, Ma'am!"; at that time it is reported that McKinney struck the officer. Two days later, the officer filed a police report claiming that McKinney had struck "his chest with a closed fist."
Note to Green party: You wanted her, you got her. Just keep her.

But She's a Princess!

2008-12-22T15:39:00.003-07:00

This entire notion of trying to get Caroline Kennedy vetted to fill the vacant Hillary Senate seat is getting out of hand. What cracks me up is that many of the people that are pushing this issue of using the Kennedy name as a sole credential for a job in the senate are the same ones that bashed Sarah Palin for her lack of experience. Ed Koch, who's normally pretty sensible, threw this out:

Former NYC Mayor Ed Koch told CBS 2 HD he was won over after she called him and asked to talk about the office.

“When you look at her, and you know what the Kennedy’s are capable of and you know the family she comes from … think of the DNA,” Koch said.

If Caroline Kennedy wants to be a Senator, then she should run for the office and try to convince voters to support her by engaging in the political process, not demand an appointment to avoid the hoi polloi. Gov. Paterson has a constitutional duty to appoint the most qualified person to the seat, not the person who can raise the most money for Democrats. None of the Sweet Caroline Gushing Choir can point to a single qualification (other than DNA) that Kennedy has in greater quantity than the hundreds of New Yorkers who have already involved themselves in the political process and who could actually hit the ground running in Washington DC.

The other part of this story that I enjoyed were some of the reader comments I found:

"Think of the DNA; yeah, normally with the Kennedy males it’s all over the room."

"Is it too much to ask for an end to this practice of governors appointing people to vacant senate seats?"

Then there's the Blago reference:
"Come on guys , a senate seat is a f****ng valuable thing, you’ll be f****ng STUPID if you don’t sell it to the highest bidder, the Kennedys."

"you know what the Kennedy’s are capable of
That’s what we’re afraid of.
think of the DNA
Perhaps Mr. Koch failed History and Civics 101. This is America, we don’t have royalty."

"What is it with New York’s willingness to give a US Senate seat to the wife of a former president, the brother of a former president, and now a daughter of a former president. Don’t they ever consider qualifications?!?!?"

"Hey that bloodline is full of such skilled bootleggers, “not murderers” and pilots. What could go wrong?"

"Let’s also remember that it was DNA that ultimately exposed the Clinton administration for the liars they were."

Scoreboard, Baby!

2008-12-22T15:01:00.002-07:00

For all the Fox News bashers out there, there's a reason it's the number one cable news network in the ratings - and for seven years in a row.

Fox News will finish the year as the most-watched cable news network—for the seventh consecutive year. The network is the No. 3 ranked basic-cable network in primetime, behind USA and ESPN. CNN is ranked 10th and MSNBC is ranked 22nd.

The best part of the article? No mention of Olby.

New Lesson in California: Don't Get Involved

2008-12-22T14:11:00.002-07:00

If you want to become a good Samaritan in California, you better have good legal counsel.

During the 80s and 90s, every state adoped a form of good Samaritan law that prevented rescuers from being sued should their efforts fail and a victim either dies or sustains further injuries from some sort of accident. Now a recent case has changed that (via the LA Times):

The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a young woman who pulled a co-worker from a crashed vehicle isn’t immune from civil liability because the care she rendered wasn’t medical.

The divided high court appeared to signal that rescue efforts are the responsibility of trained professionals. It was also thought to be the first ruling by the court that someone who intervened in an accident in good faith could be sued.

Lisa Torti of Northridge allegedly worsened the injuries suffered by Alexandra Van Horn by yanking her “like a rag doll” from the wrecked car on Topanga Canyon Boulevard.

Torti now faces possible liability for injuries suffered by Van Horn, a fellow department store cosmetician who was rendered a paraplegic in the accident that ended a night of Halloween revelry in 2004.

It's not all bad. If someone is providing medical assistance (which is different from a rescue effort), you are still protected by the law.

I remember when California passed the 1990 law shielding rescuers, and the intent was not just to limit the liability of EMS and other professional rescuers. Cases like Van Horn’s had begun popping up where people who acted in good faith to rescue people in danger had gotten sued for causing incidental or aggravating injuries. CPR, for example, can cause ribcage injuries even if done properly. The legislature intended to encourage people to assist in emergencies, especially those that could not wait for official rescue teams to arrive — like cars about to explode with people trapped inside them.

The court, however, saw it differently.

So what happens when no “medical professionals” are present? If that car had caught fire and exploded and Torti had done nothing to rescue her friend, she would have died, and her family would probably have sued her for that.

The court has sent a signal to the people of California: don’t get involved. If someone’s drowning, don’t jump in the lake and save them. If someone’s trapped in a car that’s about to explode, sit there and watch the show. Just make a phone call, and who cares that it might be several minutes before an EMS team can make it to the scene? If you sit on your hands, no one can sue you for all you’re worth.

He's Baaaack!

2008-12-19T09:06:00.004-07:00

Just when we in Colorado Springs thought we'd heard the last from Ted Haggard, the latest from this scum is that he's recently made a documentary entitled "The Trials of Ted Haggard" in which he discussed his struggles with sexuality.
Haggard, 52, resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and was fired as senior pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs in November 2006 after a former male prostitute went public with allegations that Haggard paid him for sex and used methamphetamine. Haggard admitted to the sex allegations and the purchase of meth, but claimed he never used, contrary to the male prostitute's statement.
Haggard and his family moved to Phoenix last year. As part of a severance package that paid Haggard through 2007, he agreed to leave Colorado Springs and not talk about the scandal publicly. But Haggard made public an e-mail asking for financial support, drawing a rebuke from the restoration team. He has since made his sexual issues the forefront of his "message".

It gets better. He goes into rehab for his sexual "issues" in 2007 and three weeks later, publicly declares he's completely cured. Then in August 2007, he asked for donations to help support his family and suggested that they be sent to a nonprofit whose leader has been convicted of sex crimes. In a letter sent to KRDO-TV in Colorado Springs, Haggard said that both he and his wife, Gayle, are enrolled at the University of Phoenix, and "it looks as though it will take two years for us to have adequate earning power again, so we are looking for people who will help us monthly for two years." Haggard suggested money be sent to his family in Arizona or to Families With A Mission, a nonprofit listed as a charitable organization in good standing with the state of Hawaii. The nonprofit was dissolved in Colorado in February 2007, according to the Colorado secretary of state's office. But here's the kicker: the nonprofit was headed by a Hawaii-registered sex offender named Paul Huberty. Huberty, who was convicted in Hawaii of attempted sexual assault, is listed in that state as a registered sex offender who has moved. He lists his new address in Monument - the same address listed in the Colorado secretary of state's office for Families With a Mission. Federal records show Huberty was convicted by a panel of Air Force officers in 1996 of consensual sodomy, fondling his genitals in a public area, indecent acts and adultery. He was a lieutenant colonel at the time.

Huberty downplayed the association with Haggard, stating "Our non-profit organization never authorized a mass public appeal for donations for the Haggard family, nor were we even aware of it until published by the media. Not one donation has been solicited by our non-profit organization designated to or supporting the Haggard family - and our organization has not sent any solicited financial support to Pastor Haggard." Yet a call to Haggard's residence in Colorado Springs was answered by none other than Paul Huberty.

The documentary, directed by Alexandra Pelosi, daughter of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is set to air Jan. 29 on HBO. The Associated Press reported Wednesday that Haggard has agreed to promote the documentary.

Haggard moved his family to Arizona after the scandal and also lived in Texas. He re-emerged last month at a rural Illinois church, where he delivered guest sermons and said he was sexually abused as a second-grader.

He now sells insurance and, in the documentary, says he isn't successful.

"At this stage in my life, I am a loser," he says.

I couldn't agree more.

The Presidential Pardon that simply cannot happen

2008-12-18T15:16:00.002-07:00

One last bailout.

“This is the last year that President Bush could consider giving a commutation to John Walker Lindh, and there are very good reasons to do that,” attorney Jim Brosnahan said at a news conference today in San Francisco. “I’ve never eliminated the idea that President Bush might think it’s the right thing to do, now that John has served seven years.”

Raj Chatterjee, another of Lindh’s attorneys, said others detained and/or charged in the “War on Terror” under similar or more serious circumstances have been released after serving less time. “There’s a fundamental principle of U.S. jurisprudence, and that is that prison sentences must be fair and similar cases should be treated similarly,” he said. “It has become abundantly clear that John has been treated differently.”…

Frank Lindh said they’re still pinning all hopes on Bush because the events transpired during his Administration, rather than waiting for Barack Obama to become president. Bush initially had referred to Lindh as a “poor fellow” who “has been misled,” but later supported his prosecution.

I don’t understand why this turd has become a cause celebre. He fought with the Taliban against the Northern Alliance after the U.S. entered the war; he claimed that he trained at an AQ camp in the summer of 2001 and was asked to carry out attacks against America and Israel (but declined); he didn’t warn anyone in the United States about anything, least of all Mike Spann even though he allegedly knew that the prison uprising in which Spann was killed was in the works; and rather than challenge the supposedly coercive circumstances of his interrogation in court, he copped a plea that reduced his potential sentence from life to 17 years with good behavior. By his own admission he’s a sworn jihadist, albeit one who’s supposedly expressed remorse for 9/11 (but not, according to his own father, for the U.S.S. Cole bombing). Why, then, do I have an uneasy suspicion that Bush actually is going to trim a few years off his term?

The double standard in action again

2008-12-18T11:24:00.001-07:00

Example A:
On Thursday’s CBS Early Show, co-host Julie Chen came to the defense of would-be New York Senator Caroline Kennedy, who has faced criticism for her lack of experience: "This is so unfair. I mean, look, the system is set up the way it's set up and Governor Paterson decides and that's it. Leave her alone, everyone." That comment followed a report by correspondent Meg Oliver, in which Kennedy avoided tough questions from the press: "She quickly got a taste of the pressure that comes with seeking a high-profile political office...questions mostly went unanswered."

Chen was not so quick to defend Sarah Palin from critics during the campaign. When Tina Fey began impersonating Palin on Saturday Night Live in September, Chen remarked: "Tina Fey has just so much material to work with, this is like, probably a dream come true for her." Earlier in September, Chen wondered about Palin’s foreign policy experience: "The education of Sarah Palin. The Alaska governor has her first meetings with world leaders as they gather at the U.N. How will she do?"

Example B:
What a difference an administration makes. During the Bush years, if a spokesman or the president himself attempted to dodge a tough question, the media would go into their Sam Donaldson impressions and pundits would see a conspiracy of silence.

But now that it's Obama, the dodging that was once denounced is suddenly celebrated. Thus, appearing on today's Morning Joe, Larry O'Donnell declared "impressive" Pres.-elect Obama's stiff-arming yesterday of a reporter who dared asked Blago-related questions.

Their next kid will probably be named "Heinrich Himmler"

2008-12-17T10:22:00.001-07:00

No, I’m not going to get all statist and start demanding that the government approve people for reproduction … but sometimes that option doesn’t sound all bad. Plenty of parents hang atrocious names on their offspring, cursing them for life, but Heath and Deborah Campbell really take the cake. Well, not literally, which is why this Nazi admirer got headlines this morning on the wire services (via Cristy Li):

The father of 3-year-old Adolf Hitler Campbell, denied a birthday cake with the child’s full name on it by one New Jersey supermarket, is asking for a little tolerance. Heath Campbell and his wife, Deborah, are upset not only with the decision made by the Greenwich ShopRite, but with an outpouring of angry Internet postings in response to a local newspaper article over the weekend on their flare-up over frosting.

“I think people need to take their heads out of the cloud they’ve been in and start focusing on the future and not on the past,” Heath Campbell said Tuesday in an interview conducted in Easton, on the other side of the Delaware River from where the family lives in Hunterdon County, N.J.

“There’s a new president and he says it’s time for a change; well, then it’s time for a change,” the 35-year-old continued. “They need to accept a name. A name’s a name. The kid isn’t going to grow up and do what (Hitler) did.”

I’m sorry — did the man who named his child after one of the worst genocidal madmen of history demand tolerance? Campbell walks around in authentic Nazi boots and decorates his house with swastikas, and then demands that people be tolerant of his intolerance. It sounds like a Monty Python skit: No one expects the Nazi Tolerance Inquisition!

And by the way, it wasn’t just the name, either:

Karen Meleta, a spokeswoman for ShopRite, said the Campbells had similar requests denied at the same store the last two years and said Heath Campbell previously had asked for a swastika to be included in the decoration.

You know, nothing says Happy Birthday to a toddler like a big ol’ swastika in the middle of a birthday cake.

And why did these parents lay an Adolf on their child? I mean, besides all of the Nazi worship going on in Chez Campbell? Because “no one else in the world would have that name.” No kidding. Ever wonder why, genius?

Greenwich ShopRite is not a government agency, and they don’t have to do business with the Campbells if they choose to refuse them. It’s not intolerance — it’s a business decision. Campbell could protest it and try to start a boycott, but something tells me that ShopRite’s customers might feel better knowing that the goose-stepping Campbells won’t be anywhere in the vicinity.

How the N.Y Times documents news stories

2008-11-29T21:25:00.002-07:00

From my brother Dan:

A biker is riding by the zoo, when he sees a little girl leaning into the lion's cage.

Suddenly, the lion grabs her by the cuff of her jacket and tries to pull her inside to slaughter her, under the eyes of her screaming parents.

The biker jumps off his bike, runs to the cage and hits the lion square on the nose with a powerful punch.

Whimpering from the pain the lion jumps back letting go of the girl, and the biker brings her to her terrified parents, who thank him endlessly.

A New York Times reporter has watched the whole event.

The reporter addressing the biker says, 'Sir, this was the most gallant and brave thing I saw a man do in my whole life.'

The biker replies, 'Why, it was nothing, really, the lion was behind bars. I just saw this little kid in danger, and acted as I felt right.'

The reporter says, 'Well, I'll make sure this won't go unnoticed. I'm a journalist from the New York Times, you know, and tomorrow's paper will have this story on the front page.. So, what do you do for a living and what political affiliation do you have?''

The biker replies, 'I'm a U.S. Marine and a Republican.'

The journalist leaves.

The following morning the biker buys The New York Times to see if it indeed brings news of his actions, and reads, on front page:

"RIGHT WING U.S. MARINE ASSAULTS AFRICAN IMMIGRANT AND STEALS HIS LUNCH"

Anti-Prop. 8 Mob Watch: A new blacklist published

2008-11-29T21:17:00.000-07:00

Angry gay activists in Austin, Texas, have published their own blacklist to punish supporters of California’s Proposition 8. The anti-Prop. 8 mob in Texas is targeting entire businesses over private individual donations. The insane rage rages on:

Gay marriage activists who lost at the ballot box in California are now lashing out at businesses that supported the ban — and their anger reaches way beyond the borders of Golden State.

In Austin, a gay community Web site has published an “Austin Anti-Gay Blacklist” that encourages consumers not to spend money at companies that financially supported California’s recent Proposition 8 ballot initiative that rescinded gays’ right to marry inside the state.

…According to figures from the California Secretary of State’s Office — which requires campaign donors to list their place of residence, their employer and their occupations — more than 750 Texans donated tens of thousands of dollars on either side of the campaign. One of the biggest Texas donations was $50,000 to a Yes on 8 group that apparently came from the president of a Midland oil company.

About 115 Austinites gave about $180,000 — most in increments of $100 — to fund both sides of the campaign. About 20 of the Austin contributors supported the gay marriage ban; the rest opposed it. Computer giant Apple Inc. is listed as the biggest donor from Austin, with a $100,000 donation in opposition to the measure.

Some gay rights activists say any business that supported Proposition 8 should be boycotted.

“We strongly believe that one of the best ways for the gay community to be heard is by speaking with our wallets,” said Austin resident Warren Clark, whose warrenandderrick.com Web site published the “blacklist” of Yes on 8 donors.

“Blacklisted” by the gay rights Web site are Austin attorneys and tech companies, investment fund managers and doctors, real estate developers and even the Los Angeles Dodgers. Former Dodgers infielder and Austin resident Jeff Kent gave $15,000 to the Yes on 8 campaign.

“It’s a shame,” said Austin real estate developer Michael Knepp when a reporter told him he was on the list for his $10,000 donation to the Yes on 8 campaign.

“Everyone has a responsibility to support the issues they feel strongly about,” Knepp said. “If someone else was offended by that, I apologize, but we just feel very strongly about how (gay marriage) could affect our society - so we made a donation.”

He should not feel compelled to apologize.

No. 1 on the group’s anti-gay “blacklist” — errantly enough — is Dell Computer Inc. That’s because the biggest Austin-area donor to the Yes on 8 campaign was apparently Spencer Wheelright, a Dell marketing employee who gave $25,200 to support the gay marriage ban, according to records from the California Secretary of State’s office.

Dell had nothing to do with the donation and, in fact, the company has an internal rule prohibiting it from taking a position or making a donation regarding any state or local ballot initiatives, said company spokesman Bryant Hilton.

Dell usually gets good marks from gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender groups. It is a supporter of the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign as well as other national and local gay organizations.

“This was an employee who made a personal donation and employers are listed because of California’s reporting laws,” Hilton said. “But this doesn’t reflect the company’s position at all.”

Wheelright did not return a reporter’s e-mail seeking comment. He couldn’t be reached otherwise.

After Hilton contacted warrenandderrick.com about Dell’s inclusion on the list, the site was updated to include a statement from the company. Clark later acknowledged he “may have been a little overly tough” on the company.

“We had some reservations before putting up that list because we realize those were private donors and they may not have been speaking on behalf of the company they work for,” he said.

But they did it, anyway.

I can't help but believe that if the vote had come out the other way and supporters of Prop 8 had attacked gay and lesbian communities and organizations, the public outcry would be like nothing we've ever seen before. But because it didn't go this way, the MSM is giving this story no attention.

What's in a Name?

2008-11-26T10:01:00.002-07:00

AIG and Citi will get billions in taxpayer money in order to keep from failing, but they’ll still pay millions of dollars to keep their names on sports stadiums. Brian Ross reports that taxpayer subsidies for professional sports have reached new highs:

AIG, Citibank and a number of other federally bailed-out financial institutions have no plans to cancel hundreds of millions of dollars in sports team sponsorships, even as they take billions in taxpayer support, ABC News has found.

In boom times, the sponsorships were seen as a way to advertise the firms’ “brands” and appeal to potential customers. Even today, at least one bank told ABC News that a naming deal was increasing its revenue. But critics, including a member of Congress, say the decision to continue them now is hard to defend.

Struggling Citibank just sealed a multi-billion-dollar emergency “backstop” deal with the U.S. government. The financial behemoth, suffering with billions in bad mortgage-related assets on its books, recently shed 53,000 workers and saw its stock price lose over half its value. Yet it’s in a 20-year contract to pay the New York Mets $400 million to name the team’s new stadium “Citi Field.”

King Banaian has a more comprehensive list of banks with naming rights:

* Ameriquest Capital (Texas Rangers, $2.5 million a year through 2034)
* Bank of America (Carolina Panthers, NFL, $7 million a year through 2024)
* Bank One Ballpark (Arizona Diamondbancks, MLB, $2.2 million through 2028)
* Citizens Bank Park (Philadelphia Phillies, MLB, $2.3 million, 2028)
* Comerica (Detroit Tigers, MLB, $2.2 million, 2030)
* Conseco Fieldhouse (Indiana Pacers, NBA, $2 million, 2019)
* Edward Jones Dome (St. Louis Rams, NFL, $2.65 million, 2013)
* Wachovia Center (Phila. Flyers/Sixers, NHL/NBA, $1.4 million, 2023)
* Fleetcenter (Boston Celtics/Bruins NBA/NHL, $2 million, 2010)
* Great American Ballpark (Cincinnati Reds, $2.5 million, 2033)
* HSBC Arena (Buffalo Sabres, NHL, $800k, 2026)
* Invesco Field (Denver Broncos, NFL, $6 million, 2021)
* KeyArena (now vacant in Seattle, $1 million, 2010)
* Lincoln Financial Field (Phila. Eagles, NFL, $6.7 million, 2022)
* M&T Bank Stadium (Baltimore Ravens, NFL, $5 million, 2018)
* Mellon Arena (Pitssburgh Penguins, NHL, $1.8 million, 2009)
* Nationwide Arena (Columbus BlueJackets, NHL, unknown)
* PNC Park (Pitts. Pirates, $2 million, 2020)
* Raymond James Stadium (Tampa Bay Buccaneers, NFL, $3.1 million, 2026)
* RBC Center (Carolina Hurricanes, NHL, $4 million, 2022)
* TD Waterhouse Centre (Orlando Magic, NBA, $1.6 million, 2003)

Taxpayers will wind up getting the shaft twice in most of these cases, if not all of them. Most stadiums get built with substantial public subsidies, despite record salaries and revenues for the teams and athletes involved. Unlike the bailout, the taxpayers get no equity stake in the teams — usually only receiving a vague promise from the teams not to leave town for a few years, or at least until they get the taste for more public financing for upgrades to the facilities.

When these got built, the naming rights were a mechanism to offset some public financing through commercial sponsorship. Now with taxpayers rescuing banks left and right, we’re now picking up the tab for expensive sponsorships. Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense says they should replace the bank names with “US Treasury,” and then adds in a more serious vein:

“Up until now they were businesses who could invest or waste their money as they see fit,” said Taxpayers for Common Sense’s Ellis. “But now we’re the shareholders. And frittering their money away with naming rights and ties to sports teams isn’t a really good investment of taxpayers’ money — particularly when credit markets are collapsed.”

Any organization that plans on spending millions of dollars on sponsorships of stadiums should not get taxpayer money for rescues. Once again, we see that the taxpayer-funded bailouts subsidize poor management decisions, and in this case amounts to subsidizing subsidies. On the other hand, next time you're in one of these venues, you can say that you're now part-owner of the name.

Update: Flip has a much better design for the new Mets stadium.

O'Quiz for the week of Nov 24

2008-11-25T22:07:00.001-07:00

It's here. 5 out of 10 this week. Some obscure questions in there.

O'Quiz for the week of Nov 17.

2008-11-18T22:03:00.002-07:00

Three out of ten. I've been spending more time watching "House" re-runs than I have watching the news because I still suffer from P.E.D.S. (Post-Election Depression Syndrome)

Wanna know how Obama got elected?

2008-11-18T21:52:00.001-07:00

When the richest people in the country own the entire left-leaning MSM, this is what happens.

O'Quiz for week of Sep 15

2008-09-16T16:57:00.001-06:00

Here. The first time I ever got a perfect score. Must've been paying attention to current events lately.

Shut Up and Sing

2008-09-16T14:20:00.004-06:00

I'm getting really tired of all these whiny musicians that object to having their songs played by organizations in which they dislike. The GOP is being targeted by Heart for playing their song "Barracuda", Van Halen for playing "Right Now" and John Mellencamp (Ultra-left-winger) for playing "Pink Houses" and "Our Country". The problem is, they don't have any legal grounds to prevent the McCain campaign to stop the music. Politico writes: "What do all the cease-and-desist letters and testy calls amount to legally, though? Not much, if the songwriters licensed the public performance rights to their music to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers or Broadcast Music Inc. And the vast majority of artists, including Heart, have done that. Buying an ASCAP or BMI license allows a venue (or a campaign, if it purchases a traveling blanket license) to play any of about 8 million songs during their events. Though it might be a nice courtesy, the licensees are not obligated to call the artist to discuss."
So if an artist is going to license the public performance rights to their music (and get paid doing it), and the GOP purchases a license, no crying is allowed.

O'Quiz for the week of Sep 8

2008-09-09T07:27:00.001-06:00

Find it here. I haven't put these up in awhile. Why now? I got my best score to date, 80%.

McCain picks Palin as VP candidate

2008-08-29T23:14:00.003-06:00

I've been gone for quite awhile and lost touch with some of the news, let alone find something worth posting. It's all been about Abama here in Colorado, UNTIL TODAY. As I had hoped back in May when her name was first floated around, John McCain chose Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his VP candidate. Finally we see someone who is not afraid to take on corruption even within her own political party, as her record as governor shows. She's a mother of five, anti-abortion, a lifetime NRA member, supports drilling in the ANWR, and has cleaned up an extremely unethical and corrupt state government.
I can only hope that people will do their research and learn about this lady. Maybe then they'll understand why she was chosen as a VP candidate. It was McCain's smartest move to date.

New Member of the Family

2008-06-05T06:58:00.003-06:00

Last Friday we had to put our beloved dog Spike down after 13 1/2 great years of love and affection. He was suffering from intestinal cancer and we refused to let it deteriorate to the point of suffrage. However, our other golden retriever Joe became very lonely and depressed at the loss of his friend.
A cursory search led me to an awesome dog kennel north of town, and I was so impressed, we purchase a male golden puppy the next day.
His name is Yukon Boomer, named after Spike's father. 10 weeks, a huge 23 lbs.
This breeder seems to be the best kept secret in Colorado Springs. He still has 2 females and 1 male. His name is Randy Kidd and he can be reached at (719) 488-3889. He's also expecting another litter that should be ready to go home in a couple months.

Canada Grows Some 'Nads

2008-05-22T15:20:00.003-06:00

Via HotAir. Starting in June, Canada is planning on 86'ing all U.S. Armed Forces deserters. During the Vietnam war, many draft dodgers sought refuge in the Great White North, but now they're finally taking a stand. Good on them! Maybe I'll start buying their beer again...

Cat Scream

2008-05-15T21:02:00.002-06:00

My Daughter took this pic of our cat Simon in mid-yawn. I think it's an award winner.

Animator vs. Animated

2008-05-01T20:06:00.000-06:00

This flash movie that was created by a friend at work for a college course in 2006 is incredible. If any of you have created animation in Adobe (formerly Macromedia) Flash, you'll recognize the GUI.
The sound is great. There's so much going on, I had to watch it several times to see everything I kept missing.