The 800 Pound Gorilla In The Healthcare Discussion

Here’s a clue: it’s initials are “I.I.”

About 30 percent of all immigrants and their children lack health insurance, Mr. Camarota reports, compared with 13 percent of native-born Americans. One of every three uninsured people in the country is an immigrant or a young American-born child with at least one immigrant parent, he found. Immigrant families account for almost three-quarters of the increase in the uninsured in the past 15 years, he concludes.
…“Immigrants have had an enormous impact on the lack of health insurance,” Mr. Camarota said. “If we are going to have a debate about health insurance, we should recognize that most of the growth in the uninsured comes from recently arrived immigrants and their American-born kids.”

For many many reasons we simply must secure and regain control of our borders.

Sometimes You Read About the Neatest People

…in the local obituaries. We lost Mr. FRANK E. ZIELINSKI (1915 – 2007) this October 24th. He was a drummer. Now, it’s only a couple lines of his story, but they speak volumes…

…After high school he enlisted in the Navy as a musician, a drummer. He served as a Musician for 23 years retiring in 1959.
Frank was serving on board the USS Nevada at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked.

His band completed the flag raising ceremony while under attack and then manned their battle stations.

…don’t you think?

Hit by 1 aerial torpedo and 6, or more, bombs during the attack on Pearl Harbor, Nevada was beached in the harbour entrance to prevent sinking. She rejoined the fleet a year later, after repairs and refitting at Puget Sound Navy Yard.

Bless you, sir, and our condolences to your family.

Ah, Those Crazy “Youths” Of France

‘Tis the Season to be jolly! Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la!

You can tell the Holidays are upon us, as the joyous gallic tradition of the Car-B-Q has returned

Dozens injured in Paris rampage
Rioting youths in Villiers-le-Bel
Rioting youths blamed the French police for the teenagers’ deaths
Youths target police
Nearly 80 French police officers have been injured, six seriously, during a second night of riots by youths in the suburbs of Paris, police unions say.
The police say some officers suffered bullet wounds, while others were hurt by stones, fireworks and petrol bombs thrown at them in Villiers-le-Bel.
The youths said they were avenging the two teenagers killed when their motorcycle hit a police car on Sunday.
A senior union official said the riots had been more intense than in 2005.
The 2005 unrest, sparked by the accidental deaths of two youths, spread from a nearby suburb of Paris to other cities and continued for three weeks, during which more than 10,000 cars were set ablaze and 300 buildings firebombed.

In a bold move squarely aimed re-asserting the Police’s authority and control the head of the national Police Union said, and I quote,

“Our colleagues will not allow themselves to be fired upon indefinitely without responding,” he told the radio station, RTL.

I guess that means if a “youth” takes, say, 10 shots at the cops, well, youths will be youths you know, but if MakmudPierre fires say 30 shots then he’ll get his falafelbaguette taken away lickity-split!
And the reason for these riots?

The youths said they were avenging the two teenagers killed when their motorcycle hit a police car on Sunday.
…The violence happened despite appeals for calm from the families of the two teenagers of Algerian origin whose deaths sparked the violence on Sunday evening.
A state prosecutor has ordered the National Police General Inspectorate (IGPN) – an oversight body – to carry out a detailed inquiry into the circumstances in which the two teenagers – named only as Moushin, 15, and Larami, 16, lost their lives.
Police sources have said that in Sunday’s incident, the motorcycle was going at top speed and was not registered for street use, while the two teenagers were not wearing helmets and had been ignoring traffic rules.

Go figure: ride a motorcycle at high speed, don’t wear a helmet, hit a car…and it’s the Police’s fault you die!

Here We Come A-Car-Oling…

Prince Saud: “No Jooo Jerms For Me!”

A nice mature bunch, these “allies” of ours

WASHINGTON, Nov 26 (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s participation in the U.S.-sponsored talks on Middle East peace was seen as a diplomatic coup for the Bush administration but the kingdom has made clear there will be no handshakes with Israeli officials.
“We are not here for theater. We are here for the serious business of making peace. We are not here to give an impression that everything is normal,” Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told reporters on Monday, on the eve of the conference to be held in Annapolis, Maryland.
“We will not do anything that will divert from the seriousness of the occasion, (such as) shaking hands to give an impression of something that is not there,” he said.

How many lashes do you get for shaking hands with Jooooos?

More Bush Attacks On Our Democracy

When will people say “enough is enough?

(CNN) — A Federal judge sentenced Democratic leader George Clooney to five days in jail Sunday, a day after the actor-turned-politician and other protesters were arrested at a pro-democracy demonstration in Washington.
Clooney was charged and sentenced Sunday for organizing an unsanctioned procession, resisting arrest and chanting anti-government slogans.
The actor said his conviction is part of a government effort to harass him.
“Everything you heard here is a lie,” he told reporters outside the courtroom. “All my rights were violated from the outset, from the moment of my detention.”
Clooney said his arrest was intended to ensure that President George Bush’s party holds on to power. Bush is slated to step down next year at the end of his second consecutive term in office.
Though America’s constitution prohibits a third consecutive term, Bush is expected to attempt to retain power in some form.

It disgusts me how democratic freedoms and rights have been trampled by this regime. No wonder the world is justified in crying out as one against such abuses of basic civil rights.
Oops, silly me, it was that rascal Putin fellow. Well, that’s all right then.
Nothing to see here, folks…cultural differences and all that.

I Don’t Think It’s So Much That the Teddy Bear

…was named ‘Mohammed’ (a truly bad teddy bear name if there ever was one)…

A British primary school teacher has been arrested in Sudan, accused of insulting Islam’s Prophet by letting her class of 7-year-olds name a teddy bear Mohammed, her school said on Monday.
Colleagues of Gillian Gibbons, aged 54 from Liverpool, told Reuters they feared for her safety after receiving reports that young men had already started gathering outside the Khartoum police station where she was being held.

…but that she let her mixed gender class VOTE on what to name him in the first place.

…Gibbons, who joined Unity in August, asked a girl to bring in her teddy bear to help the Year 2 class focus, said Boulos.
The teacher then asked the class to name the toy. “They came up with eight names including Abdullah, Hassan and Mohammed. Then she explained what it meant to vote and asked them to choose the name.” Twenty out of the 23 children chose Mohammed.

Concepts of democracy and female decision-making are not part of the training track, I’ll betcha. You can kiss Teddy Ruxpin adios.

And, in keeping with the best traditions of TRoP, the seven year old ‘catmeat-in-training’ accomplice is on the hotseat as well.

…The bear itself was not marked or labeled with the name in any way, he added, saying Sudanese police had now seized the book and had asked to interview the 7-year-old girl.

How Do You Avoid Those Ugly Holiday Family Fracases

…at Gramma’s? You know, the sister-in-law who drives an Excursion, the pig brother-in-law who is a methane well-head or Grampa who just knows what buttons to push, cranky old bastard that he is and who should be dead by now anyway if he had any decency? Not to mention your basic hardened capitalist versus…well…you ~ the tree hugger home from college in California/Washington/any liberal arts U? Don’t fret, gentle readers. Besides green tips and reviewing books like “Sex in a Tent”, the Sierra Club has thoughtfully provided your talking points for conflict diffusion/resolution dialogue.

…“We’ll see how much we can avoid a dinner table argument this year,” Ms. Roby, 22, said. “There’s always that uncle or grandfather who knows what you care passionately about and is going to say anything he can to rile you up.”
Dr. Wallin said that environmental activists can avoid arguments by trying to lead by example, not by lecture. “Don’t force them to change,” she said. “It may take two or three seasons, but you are not going to get anywhere by showing up and thumbing your nose.”
(Anxious greens can consult the Sierra Club’s Web site, which provides actual scripts to recite during dinner-table debates. For example, when “Aunt Mim” shrugs off global warming, the activist might respond:

“A delicate balance has been thrown out of whack, and the consequences are really rather frightening. At this pace, Mim, we could see an ice-free Arctic by midcentury.”)

(Delicately leaving out the obvious point that sanctimonious old bitch ‘Aunt Mim’ should damn well be dead by mid-century anyway if there’s any warm global justice.)
I guarantee you that, should you utter these sensible, non-inflammatory words, Gramps will get off your ass, Dad will be thrilled with every one of the tens of thousands he’s already spent on your education, look eagerly forward to the next tuition bill and Aunt Mim herself will recognize the second coming in your idiot savant 22 year old brain. Guaranteed.

And no one will yell at anyone any more ever again.

Thanks John

Through thick and thin you’ve always been there to support us, and we appreciate your support. America could have asked for no firmer friend than Australia under your leadership.

A story of the things we need to be thankful for……

Due to circumstances beyond our control, we were unable to travel to Sis’s house for Thanksgiving. We are having the CAGs father and wife over, along with a coworker and his wife. Well, our table does not have a leaf, so plan A was for me to make one, so we went to Lowes on Saturday to acquire the needed lumber. Lacking a planer, I needed to layer a number of boards to reach the desired thickness, but was unable to find any combination of boards that would work for less than the price of a few body parts. So being the anti-hero male that I am, I actually asked an employee in the lumber section for a bit of advice on the project. He looked at me and said “I would just take the measurements to the mill in Mt. Pleasant, and they can plane you a board the needed size for around $20 (ed-It turned out to be $33, but well worth it.).” But it was almost noon, and they closed at 12 on Saturdays, so we decided to call and give them the dimensions on Monday.

Read more »

Bush Creates Roaming Gangs Of Marauding Jellyfish

And the salmon sleep with the fishes

DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) — The only salmon farm in Northern Ireland has lost its entire population of more than 100,000 fish, worth $2 million, to a spectacular jellyfish attack, its owners said Wednesday.
The Northern Salmon Co. Ltd. said billions of jellyfish — in a dense pack of about 10 square miles and 35 feet deep — overwhelmed the fish last week in two net pens about a mile off the coast of the Glens of Antrim, north of Belfast.
Managing director John Russell said the company’s dozen workers tried to rescue the salmon, but their three boats struggled for hours to push their way through the mass of jellyfish. All the fish were dead or dying from stings and stress by the time the boats reached the pens, he said.

On World News Last Night

…Charlie Gibson surprised us.

…CHARLES GIBSON: Let me turn to Iraq.
PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH: Yes, sir.
CHARLES GIBSON: You took a lot of doubting and rather skeptical questions about the surge. I’ll give you a chance to crow.

Do you want to say, I told you so?

Rather a nice acknowledgment of the state of current affairs in a back handed sort of way, n’est pas?

I Mean HONESTLY…

Delaware State Police have arrested a Chester, Pennsylvania, man who they said was running naked and drunk on Interstate-95 and caused three accidents.

*
What else does a guy from ‘BRANDYWINE‘ do?
*Not having the police video of the actual event, I have substituted this photo of Bingley during his traditional holiday revels in order to illustrate someone causing accidents. They don’t call him the ‘King of Turd-ducken’ for nothing.

The Message From the Saudis Is Nothing

…if not ‘clear‘.

The Saudi Justice Ministry Tuesday issued a “clarification” of a court’s handling of a rape case and the increased punishment — including 200 lashes –meted out to the victim.
…The woman was originally sentenced in October 2006 to 90 lashes. But that sentence was more than doubled to 200 lashes and six months in prison by the Qatif General Court, because she spoke to the media about the case, a court source told Middle Eastern daily newspaper Arab News.

And a judicial system that lets you trade up for a stiffer sentence is nothing if not ‘justice‘.
Medieval, even.

…It said the case was treated normally through regular court procedures, and that the woman, her male companion and the perpetrators of the crime all agreed in court to the sentences handed down.

I’m sure the affirmative was nothing if not ‘sincere’.

(…”Currently she doesn’t have a lawyer, and I feel they’re doing this to isolate her and deprive her from her basic rights,” he said. “We will not accept this judgment and I’ll do my best to continue representing her because justice needs to take place.”)

If the lash count (as in, you know, ‘blood and chunks o’ flesh flying through the air, with horrific pain and scarring IF she lives‘) went up exponentially, why aren’t those arbiters of social justice also now slicing off a couple perpetrating schwanzes? You know…blood all around! How biblical! But that would change the rules and it would seem the rules say only women bleed.
Which is okay, too, you know, since…

“…And what they were saying to me is they want to reach out. They want American women to know what they’re like. And these women do not see covering as some sort of subjugation of women, this group of women that I was with.
That’s their culture. That’s their tradition. That’s a religious choice of theirs.”

…she CHOSE that life.

The Kobayashi Maru

Arrives in Cleveland.
Is there finally a solution?

Tell Me There’s NOT

…some weird sort of…

…cosmic connectiveness in this world.

I dare you.

It’s Not Enough

….Megan’s parents had been storing a foosball table for the family that created the MySpace character. Six weeks after Megan’s death, they learned the other family had created the profile and responded by destroying the foosball table, dumping it on the neighbors’ driveway and encouraging them to move away.

But it’s a start. The parents responsible…

…“They’ve absolutely offered no apologies,” Ron Meier told TODAY co-host Matt Lauer on Monday. “They sent us a letter in the mail, basically saying that they might feel a little bit of responsibility, but they don’t feel no guilt or remorse or anything for what they did.”

…should immediately be social pariahs in town and, if there’s any justice, hounded from it by villagers with torches and pitchforks.

…Rather, said Tina Meier, the people are upset with her for going public with their story. Last week, while shopping, she ran into the woman who invented the hoax, Tina Meier said.
“She asked me to stop doing all of this,” she told Lauer. “I told her that we would not stop, that we were going to continue for justice for Megan because we knew what they did.”

Bastards. Inhuman, despicable, self-centered, monstrous bastards.
And if it had been my sweet child, I would plant myself on the sidewalk in front of their house and never move. Until they did.
UPDATE: Wow.

“How Is a Itty Bitty 12 Oz. Roll of Sausage Supposed to Feed

…600 pounds of men?”
It’s a legitimate question. And the man is demanding some answers.

Stick around for the end ~ he’s a little slow ending the call.

Couldn’t Have Said It Better

…myself.

“I cannot imagine that the framers of the 1964 Civil Rights Act intended to say that it’s discrimination for a shoe shop owner to say to his or her employee, ‘I want you to be able to speak America’s common language on the job,’ “

Disaster relief would also be more of an effort if one needed a translator’s intervention before goods and services could flow and needs articulated to be met. I mean, we’ve all seen how Washington, FEMA and local goverments play ‘telephone’ during a catastrophe ~ they’re ALL speaking ‘English’ but there’s little comprehension as it is.
Toss a foreign language into the gumbo and stand by.

…After testy negotiations, the Hispanic Caucus finally agreed to let the tax bill proceed after extracting a promise from Ms. Pelosi that the House will not vote on the bill funding the Justice and Commerce Departments unless the English-only protection language is dropped. “There ain’t going to be a bill” with the Alexander language, Mr. Baca has told reporters.
Sen. Alexander says that if that’s the case, “thousands of small businesses across America will have to show there is some special reason to justify requiring their employees to speak our country’s common language on the job.” He notes that the number of EEOC actions against English-only policies grew to some 200 last year from 32 a decade ago. In an attempt at compromise, he has offered watered-down language that would still allow the EEOC to file many actions, but he says House Democrats rejected it.

I can only infer that the Democrats intend to compel me to learn a second ( or third or fourth) language to be able to communicate with a counter clerk with whom I’m conducting business. I just don’t see how that’s my responsibility.

A New “Boston Tea Party” Is Needed

This trampling of the Constitution must not be allowed

Boston police are launching a program that will call upon parents in high-crime neighborhoods to allow detectives into their homes, without a warrant, to search for guns in their children’s bedrooms.
more stories like this
The program, which is already raising questions about civil liberties, is based on the premise that parents are so fearful of gun violence and the possibility that their own teenagers will be caught up in it that they will turn to police for help, even in their own households.
In the next two weeks, Boston police officers who are assigned to schools will begin going to homes where they believe teenagers might have guns. The officers will travel in groups of three, dress in plainclothes to avoid attracting negative attention, and ask the teenager’s parent or legal guardian for permission to search. If the parents say no, police said, the officers will leave.

There exists too much potential for intimidation by the presense of armed officers. There is no way this unconstitutional plan should be allowed to go forward. Do they really think a parent, perhaps on parole themselves, will be able to freely choose to turn a group of police away?
What a horrible program.

“I’m willing to lose my job…”

…”if that’s necessary to set our fiscal house in order.” So says our illustrious Governor Corzine, in yet another effort to paint himself as some type of fiscally responsible defender of the common man.

In a speech Thursday to hundreds of officials gathered for the annual New Jersey State League of Municipalities conference, Corzine said addressing the state’s financial problems would be among the most important things he does as governor.
“It’s time for we elected officials to stop being afraid and cautious and do something bold to right the ship,” Corzine said. He later added: “I’m willing to lose my job if that’s necessary to set our fiscal house in order.”
Along with paying down debt, Corzine said his plan will provide permanent funding for transportation needs and will include new restrictions on state borrowing. He said the full details will come out in his Jan. 8 State of the State speech.

As is usual when Daddy Warbucks speaks, however, not once does he mention spending less. Nowhere does he mention freezing, let alone cutting, the number of state employees; well, no surprise on that, I suppose, given his dating history.
If I may mangle his quote a little, it’s necessary for him to lose his job if we are to have any hope of setting our fiscal house in order. I’m more and more convinced that we really need a shakeup in NJ politics; the last thing we need is another millionaire carpetbagger riding in to ‘solve’ our problems as some pre-retirement vanity project (yeah, I’m looking at you, Mr. Bon Jovi. Yes, you were born in NJ. Yes, you own a lovely house just a couple miles from mine in Middletown. Yes, you’ve done wonderful and fantastic charity work in NJ. But you’ve decided to move with your family to Soho. I’ve got nothing against that, if that’s where you want to live and raise your kids, great. But you live in New York now, not New Jersey, and if you disrupt the kids’ life again by making them move back here so you can do your vanity project you’re a schmuck. Besides, there may be a job opening in Albany pretty soon…).
The state of politics here is simply horrific. How many officials are under investigation? Our Senators are a joke: the only time you hear from “Silent Bob” Menendez is when his staff responds to new rumors of impending indictments, and as for Lautenberg…is he still even alive? I’m serious; when is the last time you actually even heard him mentioned?
Pathetic.
Update: Lawhawk was looking at this last night.

Video: Butter Head

(thanks to LGF for this)

“Punish the Person, Not the Whiskey.”

“Jack never did anything wrong, and the whiskey itself is innocent.”

I’d say it’s like throwing away the money if you were banking without a license, or bulldozing a national treasure. Shoot, SELL that stuff as a fundraiser for law enforcement. They’d sell my house if I was still selling crack and got caught.

Quote of the Day

“When it takes two weeks and six different positions to answer one question on immigration, it’s easier to understand why the Clinton campaign would rather plant their questions than answer them.”

ROTFLMAO.

From Our Reporter In Spitzer’s Office…

Adeebada-deebada-deebada…That’s All, Folks!

Spitzer sputters again

In a second major policy reversal in less than a day, Governor Spitzer is backing down from a plan to require Amazon.com and other online retailers to charge state and local sales taxes on all purchases from New York.
Yesterday, just hours after The New York Sun reported on the new revenue collection scheme, the Spitzer administration announced that it was burying it for the time being — at least until after the Christmas shopping season. The move saved New York City shoppers from having to pay an additional 8.375% on many Amazon.com goods.
“Governor Spitzer believes that now is not the right time to be increasing sales taxes on New Yorkers,” Mr. Spitzer’s budget director, Paul Francis, said in a statement. “He has directed the Department of Tax and Finance to pull back its interpretation that would require some Internet retailers that do not collect sales tax to do so.”

His Megalomaniacness is discovering that he doesn’t quite have the same freedom from question as Governor as he did in his previous job. What with his dirty tricks scandal and the drivers license fiasco and now this, one is almost tempted to think he is a Corzine plant to divert attention away from New Jersey…