Archive Blog
Looks like Leslie Unruh might have a new favorite store and product.
Kmart is now selling abstinence gear featuring bold abstinence screen prints. Because nothing says abstinence like “plastering text across your a**”.
(h/t - Think Progress)
File this one under irony.
The guy with the annoying TV commercials that has his social security number plastered everywhere in an attempt to get you to sign up for his identity theft prevention service has had his identity stolen.
The CEO of LifeLock claims that his company’s identity-theft protection service is so good that he puts his own Social Security number up on billboards and in televised ads.
But now the corporate honcho featured in the spots, Todd Davis, is admitting that he actually had his identity stolen - and his company is facing a major fraud lawsuit by customers.
Now call me naive, but I am guessing this might be bad for business.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy has a malignant brain tumor. Doctors for the Massachusetts Democrat say tests conducted after Kennedy suffered a seizure this weekend show a tumor in his left parietal lobe. His treatment will be decided after more tests but the usual course includes combinations of radiation and chemotherapy.
Definitely not good news for the 76 year old Senator and his family.
Updated Below
Word is coming out that Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy has been hospitalized with stroke like symptoms. Those of us in South Dakota have been through a similar situation almost 18 months ago when Tim Johnson had his own health issues. Hopefully Senator Kennedy will be fine as well.
U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy was airlifted to a Boston hospital Saturday morning after suffering stroke-like symptoms at the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport, Mass.
He was first rushed to Cape Cod Hospital. After being in the emergency room for two hours there, he was transported to Barnstable Airport and was then flown to Massachusetts General Hospital.
UPDATE: The latest news on Kennedy’s condition is much better than first thought. Apparently he suffered a seizure and not a stroke and was well enough this afternoon to catch part of the Red Sox game from his hospital room.
After 2 weeks in the land of fruits and nuts and after a remarkably uneventful return flight that included no delays and empty seats next to me on both legs of the trip home (can the airlines make the seats any smaller?), I am back and catching up on all the news I missed. Besides the seemingly weekly back and forth feud between righty bloggers PP and Sibby that borders on the ridiculous, it looks like the Tim Johnson campaign has stepped in it, ripping possible challenger Steve Kirby to the point that even Johnson supporter extraordinaire Todd Epp is calling foul. I better check to see if hell has indeed frozen over…
Anyhow, while I am still catching up with the goings on here, one observation I had from my time in Los Angeles I think deserves a few comments. Regular readers here will probably recognize my sometimes myopic view of the horrible state of school funding in South Dakota. Having 2 kids in the system makes that subject near the top of my radar. While our schools have serious issues, we should consider ourselves lucky in comparison to some of the schools in the nations 2nd largest city.
In the 2 weeks in town, I witnessed at least 3 school lock downs because of various gun and gang related issues. Lock downs in LA don’t mean just locking the doors to the building like they do here. Things are so bad in parts of the city that many of the schools are actually surrounded by tall sturdy fence structures similar to a medieval fortress with guarded gates in an attempt to provide safe environments for the kids. Hows that for a learning environment? So while I am complaining about our schools it is with the direct knowledge that things could be a lot worse.
Finally as you might have noticed by the headline, I am back but not for long. Having been gone for 2 weeks means I have 2 weeks of work to catch up on and because of other issues I will also be doing some work up in North Dakota so my posting will continue to be sporadic at best. The LA weather was great, but it is nice to be home again!
I just finished up a long day behind the wheel so I don’t have much time but I did come across a few interesting tidbits besides the Shell Oil poverty post below.
It’s been a good week for Conservative Republican scourge John McCain who not only picked up the endorsements of Rudy Giuliani earlier this week and Arnold Schwarzenegger today, he also gained another reason for me to like him just a bit more (not enough to vote for him though). You can now add Michelle Malkin to other wingnuts including Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter that would rather have a root canal than support McCain.
Speaking of Limbaugh, Darth Cheney appeared on his show yesterday to push for telecom immunity as part of the FISA legislation working its way around Congress.
CHENEY: People who don’t want to — I guess want to leave open the possibility that the trial lawyers can go after a big company that may have helped. Those companies helped specifically at our request, and they’ve done yeoman duty for the country, and this is the so-called terrorist surveillance program, one of the things it was called earlier. It’s just absolutely essential to know who in the United States is talking to Al-Qaeda. It’s a program that’s been very well managed. We haven’t violated anybody’s civil liberties. It’s in fact a good piece of legislation.
So Dick, if nobody has violated anyone’s civil liberties, why do they need immunity?
And finally, many have been touting the success of the surge in Iraq and while the effectiveness of this campaign can and is being debated, that little problem in Afghanistan hasn’t gone away either. It seems that bastion of civil and human rights we created after kicking out the Taliban is working just fine.
Afghanistan sentences journalist to death for downloading report on women’s rights
How’s that for progress?
Vending machines are just about everywhere and nowadays you can almost anything being dispensed by one somewhere. Soda, chips, candy, marijuana? In California at least, the answer is yes.
The World’s first “Weed ATM’s” as they are being dubbed should be available for use in LA and elsewhere in the land of fruit and nuts on Monday and each one comes with it’s own security guard to make sure there is no funny business.
AVMs are 24/7 machines housed in standalone rooms, abutting two dispensaries and protected by round-the-clock security guards — like ATMs for people combating psychological withdrawal with a physical one. After cinching up your doctor’s consultation, hit an AVM location to get your prescription approved, fingerprint taken, and a prepaid credit card loaded with your profile: dosage (3.5 or 7 grams, up to 1oz a week) and strain preference (choice of five, including OG Cush and Granddaddy Purple, the mildly hallucinogenic forebear to Prince). Then day or night, all you do is hit a machine and walk away with enough vacuum-sealed, plastic-encapsulated cheeba to adequately treat your illness, and guarantee your car never smells like new leather again.
And to think here in South Dakota we have a hard time just getting the pill.
Can you earn a rebate on something you never bought? The latest negotiations over President Bush’s economic stimulus plan now includes tax rebates of at least $300 even to those that didn’t pay any taxes.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi agreed to drop increases in food stamp and unemployment benefits during the Wednesday meeting in exchange for gaining rebates of at least $300 for almost everyone earning a paycheck, including low-income earners who make too little to pay income taxes.
Families with children would receive an additional $300 per child, subject to an overall cap of perhaps $1,200, according to a senior House aide who outlined the deal on condition of anonymity in advance of formal adoption of the whole package. Rebates would go to people earning below a certain income cap, likely individuals earning $75,000 or less and couples with incomes of $150,000 or less.
So why did TiVo just make me buy their product before I could get their rebate?
How much confidence does Wall Street have in President Bush and his financial “Midas Touch”? Well this morning the Dow was up 150 plus points thanks to good news from IBM, that is until the President announced his outline for a $145 billion dollar aid package. It then proceeded to drop like a rock continuing the slide that has the Dow down over 9% so far this year.
Let’s play what doesn’t belong…or sticks out like a sore thumb.
Laura Bush from her visit to that bastion of womens rights, the UAE.