Conservative Corner (my brother, Dan)
Naked and Unashamed (my brother, Scott)
Crazy Aunt Purl
(my friend Laurie)
There's Pie In the Lunchroom
(my friend Chuck)
Too Fat For Ponies
(my friend Sam)
Nashville Junk
(a Tennessean insider)
Recent posts:
2006
Feb. 20-24, 2006
Feb. 13-17, 2006
Feb. 6-9, 2006
Jan 30-Feb 2, 2006
Jan 23-27, 2006
Jan 16-20, 2006
Jan 3-11, 2006
2005
Dec 27-30, 2005
Dec 19-22, 2005
Dec 8-16, 2005
Dec 1-7, 2005
March 3, 2006
Pat Robertson was kicked from the board of the National Religious Broadcasters at their recent convention.
Robertson, 75, a longtime member of the NRB's board of directors, failed to win reelection despite good odds: He was one of about 36 candidates running for 33 seats, NRB President Frank Wright said.
Wright said the elections usually hinge on the relative strength of radio, television and Internet broadcasters, so Robertson might have lost simply because he is a TV guy. But Wright acknowledged that there also was dissatisfaction with Robertson's recent call for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his assertion that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was God's punishment for the ceding of land to the Palestinians.
Bush's poll numbers are in free fall. Even the Fox news poll has him at a 39 percent approval rating. Ouch.
The most recent Gallup poll shows that 59 percent of Americans don't believe Bush can run the government effectively.
Republican Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee says that "Dubai can't be trusted." He also says he will do everything in his power to scuttle the ports deal. Bush is losing friends fast. But not among the punditry.
Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly are all for the president and his scheme to sell control of 21 American ports to the United Arab Emirates.
Republicans are working on a bill to remove warnings from food labels. Now why is that a good idea?
This morning as I got off the interstate and headed into work, there was a man at the first intersection walking along the sidewalk talking to a little boy he was carrying in one arm. A closer look showed that the little boy was actually a doll. The man was talking to himself.
He wore a big sign on his back explaining that God was coming and that Reagan was one of the first signs of the end of the world. The message on the sign was all block capital letters stenciled on in a dense leading, making it difficult to read. He had a second sign sitting at the corner.
So help me, my first thought was "this guy needs a good editor."
And so it begins. The Bush administration is in court arguing that the McCain anti-torture law doesn't apply to detainees held in military prisons including Gitmo. The fact that my president advocates torturing prisoners tears me up inside. How can anyone defend that?
Government lawyers have argued that another portion of that same law, the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, removes general access to U.S. courts for all Guantanamo Bay captives. Therefore, they said, Mohammed Bawazir, a Yemeni national held since May 2002, cannot claim protection under the anti-torture provisions.
So, I guess Gitmo is just a no-man's land where anything at all can be justified? This is amazing to me. No laws apply? No treatment considered too harsh for these people? Ugh. I can't stand this. 2008 cannot come soon enough. The law says you can't torture people in Gitmo, but the law also says you can't use American courts to enforce the law. So it's useless.
A Colorado man was caught in the HOV lane with a mannequin in the passenger seat. That earned him a special sanction from the traffic court judge.
Municipal Court Judge John Stipech sentenced Greg Pringle to spend four, one-hour sessions standing on a major roadway in Westminster, a Denver suburb, holding a sign that says: "The HOV Lane Is Not For Dummies."
Heh.
The Minnesota GOP is distributing a CD that promotes anti-gay issues like banning same-sex marriage. What they don't tell you is that the CD will also be used to collect data on the people who view it.
March 2, 2006
Falwell now claims he never said Jews will go to heaven.
A new poll shows that the majority of Americans believe the government should listen in on international calls that involve al Queda. They just want the government to get a warrant first.
My local CBS affiliate ran a shocking investigative report this week. It seems that if you're friends with a cop or a judge, you don't have to pay your speeding tickets.
I've written before about how often I get email trying to scam me out of my hard-earned cash. If I'd responded to every email that told me I'd won some foreign lottery I never entered, I'd be a rich man indeed. And it seems like every government official in Nigeria is sitting on a pile of cash he or she can't seem to get out of the country without my help.
Just this morning I received this:
Hello,
I work in CBN Nigeria in remittance department, I saw a file in respect of your fund that has been abandoned amount in question $ 12.500.000.00 Million USD. I suggest that I can assist you in getting this fund installmentally,what I need from you is acceptance for me to go ahead and the end of the day 10% will be given to me. If it is ok by you, I will advice you to get back to me so that I will give you more details. and I will need your telephone number for further communication.
Be rest assured that everything is alright.
Thanks,
dave godwin
and this:
Union Bank Plc.
Lagos – Nigeria.
Dear Friend,
I am Dr John Uwa the manager of bill and exchange Foreign Operations Department of Union Bank of Nigeria. In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of $11.5 million dollars (Eleven million five hundred thousand United States Dollars) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customers who died along side with his entire family in November 2005 in the BellView plane crash.
Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his relation to come over and claim his money because we cannot release it unless somebody applies for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines.
[...]
We agreed that 35% of this money will be for you as foreign partner, while the balance will be for my colleagues and I. I will visit your country for the disbursement according to the percentages indicated above once this money gets into your account. Please be honest to me.
Therefore to enable the immediate transfer of the funds to you as arranged, you must apply first to my bank as next of kin of the deceased. Upon receipt of your response I will send to you a text of the application with the name of the deceased and his country and other information about him. Note this transaction is confidential and risk free. As soon as you receive this mail you should contact me through my e-mail address.
Sincerely,
Dr John Uwa.
And this:
FROM: BARRISTER TONY MOMO
LAGOS, NIGERIA
TODr. Simon Mkhandi
Firstly, not to cause you embarrassment, I am Barrister TONY MOMO, a Solicitor at law and the personal attorney to late Mr Ali Mkhandi a National of France who used to be a private contractor with the Shell Petroleum Development Company in Nigeria, herein after shall be referred to as my client. On the 21st of April 2002, he and his wife with their three children were involved in an auto crash, all occupants of the vehicle unfortunately lost their lives. Since then, I have made several enquiries with his country embassies to locate any of my clients extended relatives, this has also proved unsuccessful. After these several unsuccessful attempts, I decided to contact you with this business partnership proposal. I am contacting you to assist in repatriating a huge amount of money left behind by my client before it is confiscated or declared unserviceable by the Union Bank, Plc where this huge deposit is lodged.
The deceased had a deposit valued presently at US$12 Million US Dollars and the bank has issued me a notice to provide his Next of Kin or beneficiary otherwise they will have the account frozen within the next thirty official working days. Since I have been unsuccessful in locating the relatives for over 2 years now, I seek your consent to present you as the Next of Kin and the beneficiary to the deceased so that the proceeds of this account valued at US$12 Million US dollars can be paid to you. This will be disbursed or shared in theis ratio of, 60% to me and 40% to you.
I shall process all necessary legal documents that can be used to back up all claims. All I require is your honest Co-operation, Confidentiality and Trust to enable us see this transaction through.
I guarantee you that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law.
1. Your full name and address
2. Your complete Bank Account information(into which you wish the US$12 Million
to be remitted).
3.Your telephone number and fax numbers
Your urgent response will be highly anticipated and appreciated.
Best regards,
TONY MOMO
And that was just from this morning.
It was the Nigerian scam that caught Dr. Louis A. Gottschalk, an 89-year-old neuroscientist who works at the University of California, Irvine. Gottschalk spent about $3 million over ten years trying to cash in on the Nigerian email scam. It has gotten to the point where his son is trying to get the courts to force him from control over the family partnership.
Just goes to show that you can be a really smart person and still fall victim to those willing exploit your greed.
Walter Kronkite, who in my youth was considered the epitome of journalistic integrity and the most trusted man in America, says that the War on Drugs is a failure and we need to reform our drug laws.
Man, the more I hear about this port deal, the less I like it. It turns out I'm not the only one. Republicans are hearing from their constitutents and they're not happy.
Rep. Peter King, Republican chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, says that no one ever looked into connections between Dubai Ports World and al Quaeda. This completely contradicts the testimony of Bush officials before Congress. They assured us that a rigorous process was followed and that the deal wouldn't affect national security. Now I'm hearing from a REPUBLICAN committee chair that they didn't even ask about connections to al Quaeda?
This is bad. And Bush remains steadfast that this deal is going forward. Sure, we can do our 45-day review, but Bush doesn't care about the outcome. He's made his decision.
And hey, what's a few dead miners? The Bush Administration is reducing penalties for mine safety violations and in many cases aren't bothering to collect penalties when they are assessed.
Dollie was livid when she heard about the video that the AP uncovered showing that Bush was warned about the devastation Katrina would cause.
"If I owned a newspaper, I'd put a big headline on page one 'BUSH KNEW.'"
First South Dakota and now Mississippi. States are creating laws to ban abortion in an effort to force the USSC to overturn Roe v. Wade. Fair warning: such a decision will tear this country apart at the seams.
The Mississippi bill, if enacted will ban all abortion except to save the life of the mother. No exceptions are made for rape or incest. Gov. Haley Barbour (whom I've never liked) says he'd prefer to have a bill with the rape and incest exception, but he'll sign this bill anyway.
Alito has the right wingers all fired up at a time when they could use some good news.
March 1, 2006
As much as I harp on Max's behavior, I know he's actually a very sweet kid. I take solace in the fact that he's never done something as stupid as putting a wad of chewing gum on a $1.5 million painting.
Anna Nicole Smith had her day in court. I'm pulling for her. And I don't mean that in any sort of PG-13 way. From what I've read about the case, she's been railroaded by the dead guy's son.
And while the marriage only lasted 14 months, all indications are that J. Howard Marshall's last months of life were happy ones and that he wanted to take care of Anna and her son.
Yeah, she's an ex Playmate of the Year. Yeah, she's not too bright. Yeah, her reality show was a trainwreck. Yeah, it seemed like she was on something most of the time. But legally, that doesn't matter. What matters is the intentions of the late Mr. Marshall, which were made clear and ignored by his son.
It seems that the Bush administration was warned by the National Intelligence Council in October 2003 that the insurgency in Iraq had deep local roots, was driven by locals and not terrorists, would only get worse and lead to civil war. They chose to ignore those warnings, saying that the analyists at Langley need to "get on the team" and stop sucking their thumbs.
The more I hear about this stuff, the angrier I get. The cost in lives, dollars and foreign relations has been too severe. We aren't any safer with Hussein out of power. We're the enemy in Iraq now. The locals are fighting against us.
This came from the "Heard on the Hill" column from Roll Call.
GOP Leadership High?
Lobbyists are obviously getting very cozy attending the weekly staff meeting of the Republican Study Committee, a coalition of House conservatives. At Monday’s RSC staff gathering, one lobbyist raised his hand not to ask a question but to berate a leadership aide over the leadership’s decision to push a resolution praising the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He told the aide that GOP leaders “ought to lay off the bong.”
The lobbyist, Dennis Stephens, a longtime Republican activist with an extensive history on Capitol Hill, surprised many in the room with his outburst. He called the NAACP resolution “crazy” and said he wouldn’t be able to explain it to his clients.
So, there you go.
Now there's tape. The AP is reporting that Bush and Chertoff were both warned "in dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms" that the levies in New Orleans wouldn't withstand the onslaught of Katrina. But Bush told Katie Couric that no one anticipated the levies breaching.
The tapes show that Bush didn't ask a single question during the entire briefing and simply assured everyone that the government would be adequately prepared.
The AP also reports on a survey taken by the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum that shows Americans know more about "The Simpsons" than they do about the Constitution.
The study showed that 22 percent of Americans can name all five members of the the Simpson family (Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, Maggie), but only 1 in 1,000 can name all five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment (freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to peacefully assemble and freedom to petition the government for redress of grievances).
I guess I'm one of those rare Americans who can name both.
Trent Lott didn't care for Bush's veto threat regarding the port deal. He told the Washington Times:
"I was offended," Sen. Trent Lott, Mississippi Republican, said. [...] He said Mr. Bush "threatened me before I even knew the details of what was involved or whether I was going to vote for the bill or not."
Mr. Lott said his immediate reaction was: "OK, big boy, I'll just vote to override your veto."
All indications are that Bush was out of the loop on the deal until it was too late and then decided that commerce was a higher priority than national security. That's not good.
Once you start picking at the scab of corruption that covers Republicans in the House and Senate, you never know what's going to bubble up. Duke Cunningham's "bribe menu" for example shows how much he charged to peddle his influence on Capital Hill.
The card shows an escalating scale for bribes, starting at $140,000 and a luxury yacht for a $16 million Defense Department contract. Each additional $1 million in contract value required a $50,000 bribe.
The rate dropped to $25,000 per additional million once the contract went above $20 million.
Well, sure. The more you buy the cheaper they are per unit, right?
A lady in Glassboro, N.J. has caught more than 300 people parking in handicapped spaces on film. State law says, if she reports them, the cops have to take them to court. Good for her.
Gonzales is having to explain himself again.
Falwell has decided that Jews can go to heaven after all.
Feb. 27, 2006
The new Volkwagen ads are hysterical. I bring it up because a coworker forwarded links to the ads online. The ads reverse the "Pimp My Ride" philosophy and positions VW (or "V Dub" as the spokesman calls it as a clean, distinct and highly engineered driving machine.
I showed the ads to my buddy Badger and he got a bit out of sorts. See, he doesn't like the idea that my TiVo allows me to skip commercials. He sees me seeking out and viewing specific commericals as somehow hypocritical. He believes everyone should "have to suffer through the commercials" on TV.
My counterargument is that a good ad that creates buzz will be seen in spite of my TiVo.
"You make a good enough ad, not only will I watch it, I'll show it to my friends," I said.
"Well, it still isn't right," he replied. But Badger is a bit of a socialist. He sees all advertising as somehow giving someone an unfair advantage. Advertising leads to product awareness, which leads to purchase, which leads to profit. Badger doesn't like the idea of someone actually making a profit, because that means someone else got the shaft.
I'm a liberal, but he's a looney leftie.
It turns out the Dubai Ports World has contracts pending on 21 U.S. ports, not six.
Heh.
In a aparent nose twist at State Sen. Ron Hood's bill to ban gay adoption in Ohio, State Sen. Robert Hagan proposed legislation to ban Republicans from adopting or becoming foster parents.
To further lampoon Hood's bill, Hagan wrote in his mock proposal that ``credible research'' shows that adopted children raised in Republican households are more at risk for developing ``emotional problems, social stigmas, inflated egos, and alarming lack of tolerance for others they deem different than themselves and an air of overconfidence to mask their insecurities.''
However, Hagan admitted that he has no scientific evidence to support the above claims.
Just as ``Hood had no scientific evidence'' to back his assertion that having gay parents was detrimental to children, Hagan said.
I hold no illusions that Hagan's bill is going anywhere. It was a stunt to get a little attention to an important issue. But I laughed when I read it just the same.
The kids stayed with my mom on Saturday night. I took the opportunity to get creamed in Heroclix tournament and help Dollie with her show. The kids like to stay with "Mimi" because she does things like pay them money not to fight and fill them with candy. Also, her home is a veritable petting zoo.
The newest addition is a litter of puppies. Max quickly made friends with the little black lab mutts. He named them and declared that one particular puppy was always getting in trouble and that another really liked him. Rozzy was thrilled to get to "play with the baby puppies."
Being a family with cats, the kids aren't used to pets that actually like human companionship. The puppies, seven currently survive, will be handed out to people at Wal-Mart as soon as they're weened.
Badger said he might take one. That would be great, because Max and Rozzy could visit it and I don't have to clean up dog poop.
I think Dolls would like to get a dog at some point, but we need to fence in our backyard before that happens.
The county is considering spending some money to renovate the high school where Dollie works. The upgrades would include a new auditorium, so naturally, Dollie is involved. She attended a meeting of the county's budget committee the other night and took the kids.
She had the kids make signs to hold up at the meeting. Dollie understands what makes for a good photo op and she figured there would be a reporter there. Sure enough, the photographer came around and took photos of Dollie, Rozzy and Max. Rozzy held a sign that read "Riverdale Students Deserve the Best" and Max's said "Help My Mommy's School."
On Saturday, the local paper did a photo spread of the meeting with a photo of Dollie and the kids as the main feature. It was huge. Whenever the DNJ puts it up, I'll add a link.
We're keeping our fingers crossed.
| You Passed 8th Grade Math |
 |
Well, I got them all correct. How did you do?
Well, we lost a couple of good ones over the weekend. Don Knotts and Darren McGavin. Don Knotts, will always be remembered for Barney Fife. And while he's created other characters over his career, it's Barney that is burned into our collective subconcious.
He was as talented a comedic actor as we are ever likely to see again.
Darren McGavin is one of those character actors you see all the time, but don't know his name. He played the father in "A Christmas Story" and was the original "Kolchak, the Night Stalker." One of my favorite roles was as Detective Hank Dick in "Blood and Concrete."
So, who's our celebrity third?
William F. Buckley says that our mission in Iraq has failed. It seems like only yesterday that the conservatives were calling Howard Dean insane and Jack Murtha a coward for making similar comments.
The true-believers on the right are going to say something stupid like liberals are glad to see Iraq devolve into civil war. That's not true. We were right, but we're not happy about it.
Hey, remember when I said Bill O'Reilly wasn't an idiot? Well, he's backed away from his position on Iraq, so I guess I have to back away from mine on Bill. O'Reilly has onions, I'll give him that. How else can you explain his bizarre claim that he doesn't engage in personal attacks?
Breakfast may be the most important meal of the day, but around our house, it is a routine of toaster-ready frozen foods and yelling to "hurry up, get you shoes on, do you have your backpack, is everything packed, don't forget your lunch, put your coat on, no you can't take that to school, come on, where are your shoes?, where is your coat?, come on, get in the car, no you get in on the other side, come back here, get in the car, come on!"
You get the idea. So, when we shop for breakfast items, we tend to go the route of the convenient. Max prefers the Toaster Scramble -- a pre-formed crust filled with eggs, cheese and bacon. Rozzy wants waffles -- Nemo waffles, Disney Princess waffles, Spongebob waffles, whatever draws her attention in our grocer's freezer.
The last box we purchased were Lego waffles. These waffles are, I kid you not, shaped like Lego blocks. You can tear them apart and stack them like Legos. One would think that encouraging kids to eat Legos would be a bad thing, but I'm just an advertising executive. What do I know?
