Archive for October, 2008
October 10th, 2008 by Bob Schwartz
Sarah Palin says she is innocent of any wrong doing in regards to the Troopergate scandal in her home state of Alaska and to prove it she just release her own campaign staff generated report that says so.
In an effort to head off the report, McCain campaign spokesman Taylor Griffin released the campaign’s own version of events. That report, which Griffin said was written by campaign staffers, says the Legislature has taken a legitimate policy dispute between a governor and one of her commissioners, and portrayed it as something inappropriate.
Karl Rove must be proud.
October 9th, 2008 by Bob Schwartz
The 20 year old son of a Tennessee state representative was indicted yesterday for hacking Sarah Palin’s government personal Yahoo account.
David C. Kernell, 20, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Knoxville, Tenn., for intentionally accessing without authorization the e-mail account of Alaska governor Sarah Palin, Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney James R. Dedrick for the Eastern District of Tennessee announced today. Kernell turned himself into federal authorities for arrest and will be arraigned today before U.S. Magistrate Judge C. Clifford Shirley.
The single count indictment, returned on Oct. 7, 2008, and unsealed today, alleges that on approximately Sept. 16, 2008, Kernell, a resident of Knoxville, obtained unauthorized access to Gov. Palin’s personal e-mail account by allegedly resetting the account password. According to the indictment, after answering a series of security questions that allowed him to reset the password and gain access to the e-mail account, Kernell allegedly read the contents of the account and made screenshots of the e-mail directory, e-mail content and other personal information. According to the indictment, Kernell posted screenshots of the e-mails and other personal information to a public Web site. Kernell also allegedly posted the new e-mail account password that he had created, thus providing access to the account by others.
If convicted of the charge, the defendant faces a maximum of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and a three year term of supervised release. A trial date has not been set.
October 9th, 2008 by Bob Schwartz
Fresh off being taken to the woodshed during a Congressional hearing for throwing a huge shindig, AIG, recipients of $85 billion of your money, plans their next get together on our dime.
American International Group Inc., castigated by the White House, Congress and Barack Obama for hosting a $440,000 conference days after an $85 billion federal bailout, plans to hold another gathering for brokers next week.
The event, at the Ritz-Carlton in California’s Half Moon Bay, aims to “motivate and educate” about 150 independent agents who sell AIG coverage to high-end clients, said spokesman Nicholas Ashooh.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino today called “despicable” expenses from the first gathering, a weeklong conference last month at the St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach. Those costs included $23,000 for spa services, according to Representative Henry Waxman, chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
October 8th, 2008 by Bob Schwartz
It’s getting harder and harder to figure out what the candidates think should be the direction of our country lately. We’re in the midst of a financial meltdown, the likes of which most haven’t experience in their lifetime and all that anyone seems to care about is who has been hanging out with whom.
Obama and his buddy William Ayers, McCain and his buddy Charles Keating and Palin and her secessionist buddy Joe Vogler. So what’s going on with Joe Biden, is he anti-social or something?
October 8th, 2008 by Bob Schwartz
Now that the spineless Democrats have caved and allowed big oil to drill on more offshore sites I thought that I would point out another example of what we have to look forward to.
Hurricane Ike’s winds and massive waves destroyed oil platforms, tossed storage tanks and punctured pipelines. The environmental damage only now is becoming apparent: At least a half million gallons of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico and the marshes, bayous and bays of Louisiana and Texas, according to an analysis of federal data by The Associated Press.
And let’s not forget Katrina which had it’s own environmental issues despite what many big oil surrogates have claimed.
In May 2006, the U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS) published their offshore damage assessment: “113 platforms totally destroyed, and 457 pipelines damaged, 101 of those major lines with 10 inches or larger diameter.”In all, the two hurricanes caused 124 offshore spills for a total of 743,700 gallons, including six spills of 42,000 gallons or greater.
So feel free to enjoy the few pennies in savings we will soon be seeing (like 10 years from now)…
October 7th, 2008 by Bob Schwartz
Governor Rounds has announced his latest pardons and one in particular caught my eye:
Gary Sapulding was sentenced in Fall River County on Oct. 18, 1985 to eight years in prison for sexual contact with a minor younger than 16.
I am not familiar with the circumstances behind this case but is there a reason he is pardoning sexual predators?
October 7th, 2008 by Bob Schwartz
I wrote extensively last month about John McCain’s less than stellar flying record in the Navy which included 2 non-combat related crashes and one near crash. The L.A. Times delves a bit deeper into a couple these mishaps and fills in some of the blanks as to the causes.
In 1960 he crashed into Corpus Christi Bay claiming his engine quit.
But an investigation board at the Naval Aviation Safety Center found no evidence of engine failure.
The 23-year-old junior lieutenant wasn’t paying attention and erred in using “a power setting too low to maintain level flight in a turn,” investigators concluded.
In 1961 McCain’s plane hit power lines in Spain causing a blackout.
In his most serious lapse, McCain was “clowning” around in a Skyraider over southern Spain about December 1961 and flew into electrical wires, causing a blackout, according to McCain’s own account as well as those of naval officers and enlistees aboard the carrier Intrepid.
Nowadays the Navy wouldn’t allow someone with his questionable judgment to fly a multi-million dollar aircraft so I guess it’s only fitting that he could be running the country come January.
October 7th, 2008 by Bob Schwartz
While McCain ramps up his campaign of smears towards Obama, yesterday in New Mexico, our markets tumble. There is no better example of that than the picture below which shows the market ticker while McCain continues his hitting on the tenuous Ayers/Obama association.
Why would one example of this be a big deal? Well if you listen to the McCain campaign, they had decided to abandon talking about the economy altogether because they feel they can’t compete on the issue with Obama. Apparently they have realized that all they have left is to try and smear their way into the White House.
October 6th, 2008 by Bob Schwartz
As of 1:50 PM CST the Dow is down over 700, my 401K is down 26.7% for the year and now word is spreading that the affected banks might not even want government help because of the restrictions.
Fears are mounting that many Wall Street banks and financial firms will refuse to participate in the US government’s $700bn bail-out package, leaving global markets and world economies in a perilous state for months to come.
‘There is a growing feeling that banks … might instead decide to tough it out,’ said Thomas Caldwell, chairman and CEO of Caldwell Financial, a $1bn-plus fund manager. [...]
But Wall Street analysts, believe the addition of so many terms to the bill might deter potential participants.
And what’s the hold up?
One of the least attractive elements is a section designed to curb executive pay at banks that participate in the bail-out package. These include limiting stock-related pay and banning ‘golden parachutes’ for executives.
We wanted to help these companies why again?
October 6th, 2008 by Bob Schwartz
After approving $700 billion to bailout big banks for their poor business practices (did you see 60 Minutes last night?), has our government effectively taken away the excuse that we cannot afford something? We don’t seem too worried about going so far into debt that our children will still be paying it off so why not go all the way and make sure they have heath care while they are standing in line at the soup kitchens?
What else can we now get that we have always wanted but couldn’t afford? Paying for it shouldn’t be a problem, we can just print more. Just wondering….