This Guy Is Just Pathetic

You know the old saying about what to do when you’re in a hole?

“This was a whole lot more than a simple affair, this was a love story,” Sanford said. “A forbidden one, a tragic one, but a love story at the end of the day.”
During an emotional interview at his Statehouse office with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Sanford said Chapur is his soul mate but he’s trying to fall back in love with his wife.
… In early 2009, after Jenny Sanford discovered the affair, the couple went into counseling. She has told The Associated Press that he asked her several times to visit the mistress and she refused.
But the governor claims he wanted to end the affair in person and, with his wife’s permission, went to New York with a “trusted spiritual adviser” serving as chaperone. The three went to church and dinner together and parted ways the same night.

Oh what a circus.
Oh what a show.

I Hope They Have Seating For 300 Million

The New Jersey “Budget”

Lawhawk has a good summary on this bit of delusional insanity and fiscal disaster. Corzine and every single Legislator who voted for this should be pounded in the polls and thrown from office.

The Electricution Of Mary Poppins

We’ve been out of town for a few days at a family get together. We got home at, oh, 9:30 Sunday night and were greeted by this

That’s an 8′ patio umbrella. Or was, I should say. It seems that on Friday night there was a rather violent thunderstorm that lifted the umbrella up, ripping it out of its heavy stand in the table on the deck in back of the house, carried it completely over the house and deposited it in the power lines in front.

Needless to say I didn’t even attempt to get that sucker down; the good folks at JCP&L came by early yesterday and took care of it.
I got to cut up the tree that came down in the back yard.

Sometimes You Have to Let the Actions Speak for Themselves

…before you say goodbye.

Kenneth Reusser, 1920 – 2009
The funeral for Ken Reusser, a legendary Marine aviator is taking place in Clackamas as I type this. Apologies for not finding out about this sooner.

Reusser is a much-decorated pilot who received the Navy Cross for his actions in World War II. In a dramatic counter-kamikaze mission, he and his copilot tracked down a Japanese surveillance aircraft that was providing information to suicide pilots, chasing it through skies so cold that their guns froze up.

They used their Corsair’s propellers to slice through the tail of the reconnaisance plane.

His passing touches a special place in our family, too ~ he was the Grinch’s Commanding Officer in VMF-232 during the mid-50’s.
Semper Fi, sir.
And God speed your valiant heart through clear skies.

Kcruella and Us Were in New Orleans All Weekend

I have no idea what Bingley’s miserable excuse will be.

“…And I’m Really Having a Beautiful Winter.”

Grace under fire personified has left us.

What a magnificent human being she was.

Someone Knows Me Too Well

Got an email this morning titled “Enhance your pathetic existence…”

“I’ve Never Paid A Woman”

Italian politicians have a certain style that US ones can never hope to master

(CNN) — Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has refuted allegations that he paid prostitutes to attend parties he hosted at his various homes.
In an interview with Italian magazine “Chi,” the 72-year old denied he had ever paid for sex.
”I’ve never paid a woman. I never understood where the satisfaction is when you’re missing the pleasure of conquest,” Berlusconi told Chi.

Very true.

Swilling Trend-Mongers

We are so far ahead of the curve we scare ourselves.
And small children.

I’m Thinking Our Local Dealership Should Rephrase

…their “thank you” emails…

It was a pleasure servicing you and your 2002 E430.

I must have missed something when I dropped it off.

Ed McMahon Has Died

Semper fi and God speed, Colonel.

As Dear Dave E. Notes in My Previous Post

…(on the subject) our Precedent will, indeed, be on the telly YET AGAIN, at 12:30 EST. It seems he’s “scheduled” a news conference vice his EVERY FREAKIN’ DAY telly sneak attacks, ergo committing an error of epic proportion: advance warning. And I have planned accordingly.

At 11:30CST, I’ll be watching the bullriding on Versus instead of the bullshitting on the networks!

(Cowboys wear brain buckets now…? Is NOTHING sacred?)
Take that, Precedent Carte Obama! Change the channel?
Yes I CAN!

DC Metro Crash

Man, how terrible

WASHINGTON – An inbound Metro train smashed into the back of another at the height of the Monday evening rush hour, killing at least nine people and injuring scores of others in Metro’s deadliest ever subway accident.
D.C. Fire and EMS says rescue workers located three more bodies in the wreckage late Monday night. All three were declared dead at the scene.
Experts familiar with Metro’s operating systems tell The Washington Post operator error and failure of the signal system likely caused the deadly crash.
To prevent trains from colliding, Metro designed a fail-safe computerized system that controls speed and breaking. If trains get too close to each other, the computers are supposed to automatically apply the brakes.

The train just smashed into the rear of the one stopped in front of it.

The operator of the train was killed; I hope she wasn’t texting and didn’t notice the train stopped ahead.

A Token Of My Extreme

The St. Petersburg Times unloads on the Appliantologists. The first of three articles.

The Black Eyed Perez

They’re my new favorite band

TORONTO (AP) – Police have charged the tour manager of the Black Eyed Peas with assault after he allegedly gave celebrity blogger Perez Hilton a black eye outside a Toronto nightclub.
Hilton said he got into an argument with band members Fergie and will.i.am at the Cobra nightclub early Monday morning and was punched outside by Polo Molina, the band’s tour manager. They were at the club following a Sunday night video awards show.
… Hilton, who is openly gay, said in interview with The Associated Press that he called will.i.am a “faggot,” a gay slur, inside the club after the musician told the blogger not to write about his band on his Web site.
“He was like ‘You need to respect me.’ He was in my face. He was obviously trying to intimidate me and scare me,” Hilton said. “I was like ‘I don’t need to respect you. I don’t respect you and I did say this, and I knew that it would be the worst thing I could possibly say to him because he was acting the way he was. I said ‘You know what, I don’t respect you and you’re gay and stop being such a faggot.'”

Hilton should be charged with a hate crime for using such language.
Or punched.

Quote of the Day

That it’s from a Frenchman and not a deafening chorus of American feminists is an embarrassment.

…”In our country, we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity,” Sarkozy said to extended applause in a speech at the Chateau of Versailles southwest of Paris.

“The burqa is not a religious sign, it’s a sign of subservience, a sign of debasement—I want to say it solemnly,” he said.

“It will not be welcome on the territory of the French Republic.”

It has no business ANYWHERE.

Well, That Certainly Reeks

…of “hope”.

…the White House has assumed “a posture of watchful waiting,” adding: “There will be big increases in stimulus spending in the fall and early next year. We have to wait to see what happens with that. If you get to the end of this year or early next year and employment is still limping back, then we have to do some serious thinking about whether there might be special problems in the labor market that require targeted interventions.”

But he’s already been on the telly this morning, so all is right with the world. It’s gotten to be so commonplace that none of us at work ~ including the drycleaning guy doing his rounds ~ can function until the 10 a.m. answer to “Has he been on yet today?” is in the affirmative, “Oh, there he is already!”

Part B of the query consists of “Great. For what this time?” “Healthcare.” “Great. Change the f*cking channel before I lose breakfast.”

Standards At The NYT

When it’s a NYT employee who’s in danger, well, golly, they’re just all mum and agonized and the very souls of discretion

NEW YORK (AP) – Deciding not to report initially on reporter David Rohde’s capture by the Taliban for seven months was “an agonizing position that we revisited over and over again,” New York Times executive editor Bill Keller said Sunday.
“All along, we were told by people that probably the wisest course for David’s safety was to keep it quiet,” Keller said in an interview on CNN.
The Times reported Saturday that Rohde escaped from seven months in captivity in Afghanistan and Pakistan by climbing over a wall on Friday.
Rohde was abducted Nov. 10 along with an Afghan reporter and a driver south of the Afghan capital of Kabul. The Times kept the kidnapping quiet out of concern for the men’s safety, and other media outlets, including The Associated Press, followed suit at the Times’ request.
“It was an agonizing position that we revisited over and over again,” Keller said in the CNN interview with Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz. “But I also have a responsibility for the people who work for me. I send a lot of people out into dangerous places and their security is also part of my job.”

But when it’s a Republican President’s policy that is protecting 300 million people, well, heck, let the sun shine in and the People have a right to know

In a stunning break with her party, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said Sunday that the New York Times damaged national security by revealing the National Security Agency’s top secret terrorist surveillance program authorized by President Bush.
“If the press was part of the process of delivering classified information, there have to be some limits on press immunity,” Rep. Jane Harman told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

But don’t worry: Bill Keller still “agonized” before hitting the “publish” button

KELLER: One of the assumptions that was built into the “Journal’s” editorial is that, you know, when the president tells you that there’s a national security reason for not publishing something, you should take that at face value. And, you know, we certainly believe that presidents are entitled to respective, attentive hearings, particularly in matters of national security. And we gave the White House every opportunity to explain why they thought publishing this information would be harmful. We agonized over it. We, as you say, held the story, and we kept reporting.

Priorities, folks.

Well I’m Sure We’ll All Breathe Easier Now

At least in one Florida city

A Florida city has written common sense into its employee dress code: Wear underwear to work.
The Brooksville city council recently approved a revised dress code as part of its effort to update existing policies.
The revision instructs employees to observe “strict personal hygiene,” including the use of deodorant. It lists “the observable lack of undergarments and exposed undergarments” as “unacceptable attire.”
It also prohibits clothing with foul language or messages promoting drug use, “sexually provocative” garments, halter tops and piercings anywhere except the ears.

You Could “Look for the Union LABEL”

But you’d be much better off carrying a union CARD.

…The Democrats’ other problem is that the usual populist line won’t fly. The party would like to be able to protect itself by saying that only those who now receive the most generous benefits will face taxes. Then again, the Americans who now have the Cadillacs (or, in these post-bailout-days, the Swedish sports car Koenigsegg CCXs) of health-care coverage are union workers. Union workers “would be stuck footing more of the bill than others,” says Paul Fronstin, a senior research associate with the Employee Benefit Research Institute.
This was the big gripe back when President George W. Bush first proposed rewriting the tax code to equalize the tax treatment of employer-provided and individually purchased health care (albeit as a means of creating a market-oriented system, rather than funding a federal entitlement). In Michigan, home of the once-mighty auto workers, Sen. Debbie Stabenow growled in 2007: “There are 160,000 people [in Michigan] with excellent health insurance plans . . . who for the first time would end up paying taxes on them.”
The attack against Mr. Wyden was an early shot across the Baucus-Obama bow, and it resonated. Mr. Baucus officially floated his plans for a tax this week, only with a surprising twist: His levy will not apply to union plans, at least for the duration of existing contracts. In other words, Mr. Baucus intends to tax the health-care benefits only of those who didn’t spend a fortune electing Democrats to office. Sen. Ted Kennedy, who is circulating his own health-care reform,

…has also included provisions that will exempt unions from certain provisions.

I thought we lived in the UNITED States and ALL shared the burden. I’m so naive.

In the age of hope and change, the only ones sharing the burden are the taxpayers who don’t have a card that says “UNITED” followed by “Auto Workers”, Steel Workers”, “Operating Engineers”, “Food and Commercial Workers”, “Laborers International”, or any such thing associated with bought and paid for Democratic voting blocks. The rest of us are chum and I don’t mean the “best friend” sense.
Obama’s given them Chrysler, he’s giving them GM and, any moment now, tax dollars courtesy of your “Cadillac” health benefits supporting Obama healthcare.

…Baucus said his proposal is likely to cap benefits at “a level higher than the actual benefit that members of Congress receive today.” An employer-provided plan worth less than that level [$13,000/yr per family of four] would remain tax-free, he said, while any benefit exceeding the cap would be taxed as ordinary income.
Such a tax, if adopted, would be phased in over “several years,” Baucus said. And it would be likely to “grandfather” in health benefits set as part of a collective-bargaining agreement, he said…

allowing union plans to remain tax-free

…until new contracts can be negotiated.

I despise this guy and his toadies more every day, to the point of choking on bile when his schmug appears, yet again, on the telly. Can anyone count the fuckin’ balls this guy has in the air at any given time? I know he’s hoping the ones that fall to earth won’t be noticed until they’re jammed so far down our throats we can’t breathe to bitch about the ones still suspended in flight.

Healthcare’s the flaming poopie torch on the right.

U.S. Senate Apologizes for Slavery

I sh*t you not.

By unanimous consent, the Senate passed a resolution a short time ago apologizing for slavery and racial segregation.
Republican Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, one of the sponsors, said the measure was no “panacea,” but could help trigger “reconciliation.”
“I am pleased that Congress has officially offered an apology for slavery and it’s long overdue,” he said. “The formation of my home state of Kansas was centered around slavery and came to be known as ‘Bleeding Kansas.’ I believe that this official apology will enable our nation to begin healing our racial wounds rooted in the institution of slavery.”
Sen. Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, was the other sponsor.
The passage coincides with Juneteenth, a celebration which commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S.

I’m wondering how Robert Byrd voted on that particular resolution, or is he still in the hospital? They probably shot it through while he was gone.

What A Pompous Twit

Via Allah, here’s Barbara Boxer, pompous twit extraordinaire.

A Couple More Numbers for Bingley’s Health Care Lament

…There was a report from the Congressional Budget office that the health care plan offered by Senator Kennedy would cost $1 trillion and include only 16 million of the uninsured.

That’s $62,500 a pop for ten years but when have government projections been anywhere near reality.

This was followed by a late report from the Senate that health care plans being kicked around would cost $1.6 trillion over ten years. To Greg Valliere it looks like there is a real threat that President Obama’s campaign pledge to not raise taxes on the middle class will go the way of “Read my lips. No new taxes.” But that is what political capital is for. To be able to react to the real world and not the campaign world. Joe Biden jumped ahead in the cue and said the stimulus won’t save or create 3.5 million jobs but more like 600,000. And it looks like whatever is planned in the White House will have a fight on Capitol Hill as Senator Dodd has said taxing health care benefits is not a good idea while the Senate Finance Committee is kicking around a proposal to tax benefits worth more than $17,000 as regular income.

This is starting to look like the gang that couldn’t shoot straight.

And lucky us!

But…Wait a Minute

… have watched with horror the new footage of violence committed against the youth almost every hour. In at least one film clip, Arabic-speaking men treat a young protester like a piece of meat getting ready to be cut in the local butcher shop. The activists report seeing many of these Arabic-speaking men among the anti-riot police force in the streets of Tehran. This poses a special problem for students committed to nonviolent protest. The cornerstone of nonviolence strategy is to talk to your oppressor, to remind him of your humanity and to show him his family members in the crowd. How do you do all that when your oppressor has been imported from abroad, selected from oppressed, poor Palestinian or Lebanese communities?

Iranians don’t speak Arabic either? Somebody better tell you know who, because…

…In his speech, Mr. Obama uses to call “people of Iran”, however, translators of White House make it look as “Nation of Iranian”! This is exactly what Islamic occupiers of Iran want!

They also wants to make benefit of a short sentence that was used by Mr. Obama to say Happy New Year in Farsi! But in 3 words, 2 of them are Arabic!

So, Farsi was not the main language that was used by Mr. Obama.

…he seems to think EVERYBODY does.
Schmaybe keeping his mouth shut during the current unpleasantness isn’t such a bad thing after all.