Archive Blog
The 1984 Miss Alaska swimsuit contest featuring the darling of the GOP, or maybe darling is a little too much.
(h/t - Huffington)
UPDATE: This must have struck a nerve with someone as it was pulled from YouTube for “possible copyright violations” but Huffington Post has a slide show from the video. Too bad as the original YouTube poster promised more footage including a flute recital.
UPDATE 2: The video take 2
John McCain’s shielding of his not ready for prime time VP nominee came to a head today when the networks threatened to ignore Sarah Palin’s meetings with world leaders in NY unless they were given more than just the standard photo opportunities.
Today, the McCain campaign had said it would allow only one editorial person inside. Now, the campaign is saying it wants only the camera inside with no editorial presence. All of the networks are objecting.
The networks eventually called McCain’s bluff by voting to not cover the event at all which resulted in a miraculous change of heart.
12 Noon: Word has come in that a CNN producer WILL be allowed to accompany the camera at these meetings. This issue appears to be resolved.
So much for the “Straight Talk Express”…
UPDATE: It looks like the McCain campaign has the last laugh. While CNN did get a reporter into the meeting, they had a whole 29 seconds in the room with Palin. He better be careful, folks might get the idea that he is sheltering his VP nominee from questions that might not make her look as qualified as the kool-aid drinkers had hoped.
Yesterday I posted about the 700,000,000,000 mortgage industry bailout plan announced by the Bush Administration late last week. While that number is mind boggling, CNBC does the math and if you add everything including Fannie and Freddie, AIG, etc., the actual number could reach close to $1.8 trillion.
So while you contemplate $1.8 trillion for a moment, watch for more stories like this:
Fury at $2.5bn Lehman bonus
STAFF at Lehman’s New York office who helped to cause the world’s biggest corporate bankruptcy are to share in a $2.5 billion bonanza.
The bonus, which has been described by London staff as a “scandal” has been pledged by Barclays Capital, the British-based bank that last week acquired Lehman’s American operation and took on 10,000 staff.
And if golden parachutes like above don’t raise your blood pressure, something else being discussed just might.
It appears that one of the plans floating around Washington includes bailing out foreign banks and if that isn’t bad enough on its own, one of those foreign banks could be UBS which is the current rumor. What is so special about UBS you ask?
I am sure most will remember John McCain financial adviser and possible Treasury Secretary in a McCain cabinet, Phil Gramm. UBS just so happens to be the bank that he is the US Vice Chair of and a lobbyist for.
Chew on that for awhile but be careful not to whine…
UPDATE: Another McCain link to the mortgage meltdown. It seems his campaign manager Rick Davis lobbyed on behalf of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for 5 years helping them beat back more strict regulatory challenges.
One can question the truthfulness of John McCain and more recently Barack Obama’s campaign and a Canadian electronics retailer does just that with one of their online ads.
Having a couple of HD sets myself I can concur with the gist of the ad but like Wilson over at Gizmodo says, the volume should be turned down for the full effect.
And speaking of being truthful, the link above documents some smoke involving the Obama campaign’s possible involvement in a less than truthful viral ad that is currently all the rage on the right. Stay tuned to see if there is any fire.
The AP has been making news this week with their new policy that would charge bloggers up to $2.50 a word to quote from their articles. Apparently not wanting to be outdone, the MPAA wants to be able to collect damages from those that they think have lifted their property without having to provide an ounce of proof.
The Motion Picture Association of America said Friday intellectual-property holders should have the right to collect damages, perhaps as much as $150,000 per copyright violation, without having to prove infringement.
Sounds like the same lawyers that thought up taking away Habeas Corpus from the prisoners at Abu Ghraib are now working for the MPAA…and the AP.
There is a big push to allow big oil to drill in ANWAR and the Gulf of Mexico now that gas has hit $4/gal and of course it is the tree hugging Democrat’s fault that it hasn’t happened yet. With that in mind, why exactly haven’t the big oil companies started producing on the 68 million acres of federal lands that they already own leases on?
The 68 million acres of leased but inactive federal land have the potential to produce an additional 4.8 million barrels of oil and 44.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas each day. This would nearly double total U.S. oil production, and increase natural gas production by 75 percent. It would also cut U.S. oil imports by more than one-third, reducing America’s dependency on foreign oil.
And why are some in Congress drafting legislation to force the oil companies to use existing leases or lose them while at the same time others are arguing that we need to open up the Nation Wildlife Refuge to drilling?
The California Supreme Court Decision that opened up the door for gays to marry had heads on the Religious Right’s exploding everywhere. Then New York’s Governor opened the backdoor (sorry couldn’t resist) for Gay marriage in New York by changing state policy to recognize gay marriages performed in other states which had even more heads exploding. Now a new study should finish off the head exploding, allowing gay marriages could actually boost the economy.
SAN FRANCISCO – Same-sex weddings could create hundreds of new jobs and pump hundreds of millions of dollars into California’s economy, according to a new study released Monday.
Gay couples are projected to spend $684 million on flowers, cakes, hotels, photographers and other wedding services over the next three years – so long as voters don’t put a halt to the same-sex marriage spree, according to a study by the Williams Institute at University of California, Los Angeles School of Law.
During the three-year period, the researchers project that about half of the state’s more than 100,000 same-sex couples will get married and another 68,000 out-of-state couples will travel to California to exchange vows. The nuptial rush is expected to create some 2,200 jobs.
There goes the neighborhood, now Liberal policies can actually help America by creating jobs. What’s next allowing dogs and cats to marry?
You’re well known for losing control of 6 nukes last year when an airmen mistakenly loaded nuclear tipped cruise missiles onto a B-52 and flew them to La., where the plane sat on the flight line, unattended, for hours. Your commanding officer was fired for the screw up. And now you have been given notice well in advance that a major nuclear inspection was coming up. What do you do?
You fail miserably.
DRTA inspectors gave the wing an “unsatisfactory” grade Sunday after uncovering many crucial mistakes during the weeklong inspection, which began May 17. They attributed the errors primarily to lack of supervision and leadership among security forces.
Not only have you failed, your troops get caught playing video games while guarding the nukes!
Inspectors watched as a security forces airman played video games on his cell phone while standing guard at a “restricted area perimeter,” the DTRA report said. Meanwhile, another airman nearby was “unaware of her duties and responsibilities” during the exercise.
And it just wasn’t this one incident. The Air Force Times article also documents a veritable laundry list of breakdowns in the handling, documenting, and reporting that makes you really wonder who is running that outfit.
The incompetence would truly be funny if it wasn’t for what they were supposed to be guarding, you know, freakin’ NUCLEAR WEAPONS!
I saw this headline in the LA Times, “Solving global warming with giant vacuums“, and the classic movie “Spaceballs” immediately came to mind. Who could forget Rick Moranis as “Lord Dark Helmet” ordering Mega Maid to suck all the air from the atmosphere of Druidia? Suck, Suck, Suck….
Seriously, the story documents a Columbia University professor’s solution to global warming: Vacuuming the CO2 out of the atmosphere with 67 million boxcar sized filters placed strategically throughout the world all powered by bunches of nuclear power plants. All this efficiency at the bargain basement price of an estimated few trillion dollars a year.
Is it any wonder that those of us that believe at least somewhat in the global warming phenomenon have such a hard time touting the science behind it when we have scientists like this guy on our side?
May the Schwartz be with you…
Admittedly some of the diaries on Daily Kos go a bit overboard, OK big time overboard, but when one of the most religiously intolerant right-wing blogs on the internet calls them out for being antisemitic, Miriam Webster starts the presses so they can rewrite the definition of hypocrisy.
They just can’t help it. Loony antisemitic diaries keep getting posted at Daily Kos, no matter how much they try to stop them. They’ve encouraged and coddled, and winked and nodded at this kind of hatred for years, and now it bubbles up unpredictably in disgusting articles like this one: Daily Kos: Why I’m Not a Zionist.
This coming from the site that has made it’s name by being nothing more than a hate filled anti-Muslim site, Little Green Footballs.