BREAKING: US Commerce Secretary Arrested?

Surprisingly it’s not for the damage this Admin has done to the US economy

SAN GABRIEL, Calif. (AP) — Police are investigating two traffic collisions allegedly caused by U.S. Commerce Secretary John Bryson in the Los Angeles area that left him injured and unconscious, authorities said Monday.

One of the crashes was under investigation as a felony hit and run, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s department and the San Gabriel Police Department said.

…Bryson was driving alone in a Lexus on a major street in San Gabriel when he allegedly struck the rear end of a vehicle occupied by three males that had been stopped for a passing train.

The secretary spoke briefly with the occupants and then hit their car again as he departed, the officials said. The three followed him while calling police.

“The preliminary investigation indicates the collision was caused by suspect John Bryson, who is the United States Secretary of Commerce,” the statement said.

Bryson then allegedly caused a second collision minutes later, also on San Gabriel Boulevard, in the nearby city of Rosemead, striking a car occupied by a man and a woman, the police agencies said.

I trust they did a blood test for DUI. Stay tuned for updates.

Update: Why I’m sure he was given the same level of courtesy you or I would be

Bryson was treated at the scene by Los Angeles County firefighters. Authorities said drugs or alcohol do not appear to have played a role in the crash. They said Bryson was cooperative. He was cited for felony hit and run but was not booked into jail because he had been admitted to the hospital. His condition was not known.

I wonder if Lindsay Lohan was in the area?

Update the Second: cited

(CNN) — U.S. Secretary of Commerce John Bryson was cited with felony hit-and-run after causing with two car accidents within minutes of one another in Southern California, a police spokesman told CNN early Monday.

Update the Third: The Commerce Dept says he had a seizure

SAN GABRIEL, Calif. (AP) — U.S. Commerce Secretary John Bryson suffered a seizure in connection with two Los Angeles-area traffic crashes that led to a felony hit-and-run citation, officials said Monday.

Bryson, 68, was treated at a hospital following the crashes around 5 p.m. PDT Saturday, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s department and the San Gabriel Police Department said in a joint statement.

“Secretary Bryson was involved in a traffic accident over the weekend,” the Commerce Department said Monday. “He was taken to the hospital for examination and has been released. He has sustained no injuries and the investigation is ongoing.”

Bryson has returned to Washington and an investigation into the crashes is ongoing, the department said.

Are they claiming he had a seizure, crashed, talked to the guys, got in his car, I guess had another seizure and crashed again, then drove off and had another seizure to hit another car? Really? Really?

As If Yesterday Wasn’t Bad Enough

Waking up to another raging thunderstorm, with Mike Siedel of the Weather Channel broadcasting from here (“Historic Flooding in Pensacola” as the banner underneath) the first thing on the telly when you try to check the radar, seein’ as the ‘puter won’t boot fast enough…kinda puts a damper on things from the get-go. That warm, fuzzy, “we’re boned” feeling.

Round 2 after the break, ladies and germs…

ths update: DAMMIT!

Siedel just announced a rain gauge in our section of the county (SouthWest) measured a shade over 22 inches of rain yesterday. Considering what we slogged through, that seems about right. We lost at least 5 houses to flooding in the neighborhood so far and washed out the main drag thanks to an incomplete county drainage (!) project. Could have gone badly for our house had it not slacked off when it did. Now we’re waiting with baited breath for today’s fun and games to play out, as the cistern behind us has done all it can do dispersing the torrent and the swamp’s full. There’s just no place for any water to go.

But let me add that Mort, on the otherhand, is having a grand time. It’s like box turtle frickin’ Disneyland back there.

ths update: And here are the official rain totals from the National Weather Service:

Public Information Statement
Statement as of 10:45 am CDT on June 10, 2012

…Escambia County Florida

Gonzalez 2.1 E… … … … … … 6.05
Ensley 2.1 ENE… … … … … … 8.23
West Pensacola 10.9 SW… … … .21.70**
Bellview 1.7 NW… … … … … ..8.63
Pensacola 3.8 N… … … … … ..13.88

**That would be US!

Glub, glub and still raining, but thankfully not pouring.

Lilly Marlene

and a rainbow

Crap

No Triple Crown attempt this year, dammit. They’ve scratched “I’ll Have Another” from the Belmont Stakes.

Top 400 Earners Income Drops: “Their Taxes, Tied to Income, Also Fell”

Hard to soak what they ain’t got. As well, it wreaks havoc with both your rosy projections, because there’s an interesting fact attached to these upper echelon guys:

…Of the people in the Fortunate 400, only 27 percent made it into the group more than one year between 1992 and 2009. Only 2 percent made it every year. That means the majority of the 400 top earners fall out of the club after one year – suggesting that we have more of a revolving door of riches rather than permanent plutocracy.

The 400 is most likely filled with entrepreneurs or executives who had one-time income events, like a stock sale or company sale or IPO (think Mark Zuckerberg) rather than a group of entrenched rentiers.

Entrepreneurs or one time scores, they have a tenure of a year or two at most at that income and the aggregate income of the 400 as a whole swings too wildly to estimate any given year.

Great basis for a tax level that you quote a static expected return for.

What am I thinking? All the more reason to grab it while the bastards still HAVE it.

Eric Holder Joke Of The Day

When an email specifically says “Fast and Furious” that’s, er, code for something done by BUSHBUSHBUSH

(CNSNews.com) – Attorney General Eric Holder claimed during congressional testimony today that internal Justice Department emails that use the phrase “Fast and Furious” do not refer to the controversial gun-walking operation Fast and Furious.

…In the third email, dated Oct. 18, 2010, James Trusty writes back to Weinstein: “I think so, but the timing will be tricky, too. Looks like we’ll be able to unseal the Tucson case sooner than the Fast and Furious (although this may be just the difference between Nov. and Dec).”

…In his testimony, Holder said that the emails only referred to Operation Wide Receiver.

Holder told the committee: “That refers to Wide Receiver, not to Fast and Furious. The e-mail that you [Rep. Chaffetz] just read [between Trusty and Weinstein] – now this is important – that email referred to Wide Receiver, it did not refer to Fast and Furious. That has to be noted for the record.”

Shut up, he said.

Update: My bad. He actually said “I’ve got superior knowledge.”

“Uh…No”

In case you hadn’t seen Jon Stewart re-dub them “MSNB-Sad”.

It’s killer.

The Rest of That CBS D-Day Love Story

…right here. Vive la France.

God bless America.

And sweet dreams, brave Billie.

Spam Of The Day

Your blog is great and i also know Allen always adds balsamic vinegar to his soup.

Balsamic vinegar, that’s the key, Friends.

68 Years Ago

…today.

God bless them, every one.

And, please ~ watch this quiet, wonderful story from Steve Hartman of CBS. The second part will be on tonight’s broadcast.

If you’re not in tears by the end of this first part, well…oh, I KNOW you will be.

ths update: To answer Syd’s question in the comments: “no”. President Obama had other, more important stuff to do.

Hail Wisconsin!

Walker wins by more than he did the first time.

A beautiful day, friends.

It’s the End of the World As They Know It

And I feel fine.

Well I Guess That’s Why They Called Him “Flipper”

But did they ingest the drugs on porpoise?

Report: Dolphins died of drug overdose after rave

Two dolphins at a Swiss theme park died after ingesting a heroin substitute around the same time as a weekend rave at the park last November, according to reports from Switzerland.

I don’t know, something about this story is a little fishy.

On, WISCONSIN!!!

And don’t sweat the results, lads!

The trusty, crusty Eric Holder Department of Justice is THERE monitoring things, just like it does in any Third World Banana Republic it wants to have some small influence over.

ths update: DAWG!! Both him AND Kleefisch! Woot! Woot!

Ed Schulz is not having a good night. So I heard on Twitter. I’m not watching. I just heard.

TONIGHT, WE ARE ALL CHEESEHEADS!!

And the GOP KEEPS THE SENATE!

Oh, Rachel Maddow’s tears are bitter…

And in CLASSIC EXAMPLE OF DEMOCRATIC GOOD SPORTSMANSHIP: Barrett won’t concede. 225, 000 +/- votes behind the Governor, but, BY GOD, I. AIN’T. DONE. YET!

Ill-mannered dick.

**snort**

@ByronYork: 13 minutes after MSNBC reports Barrett will not concede, Barrett concedes.

He must have heard me.

Or Obama tweeted him and told him to get the f*ck off the stage.

“I Fear for Liberty if Those Priniciples Are Eroded”

And what a terrifying boogeyman this Levenson is. “Witchhunt”, indeed. Hidden behind a benign, smug, academician, Cherokee Milk Maiden-like facade.

We have so many like him who would do the same here.

Britian’s Education Secretary Michael Gove brilliantly argues the case for free speech at the Leveson witchhunt, but Steve Kates’ introduction is also masterly:

Lord Leveson is their version of Mr Justice Finkelstein, that is, someone who thinks he has understood the issues and can be evenhanded between liberty and restraint. That is, he will come down in favour of restraint but then call it liberty. Here is the para of interest:

Lord Leveson told Gove: ‘I don’t need to be told about the importance of free speech. I really don’t. I am concerned that you are saying behaviour which is unacceptable has to be accepted because of the right of free speech.’ Gove was unfazed: ‘I fear for liberty if those principles are eroded.’

You’re damn right it does, old chap. And there are still those among us who will defend YOUR right as well as ours, to be perfectly unacceptable to the Death, if need be, in the United States. God knows what’s happening to your countries.

From Andrew Bolt who knows first hand of having NO FREEDOM to speak one’s mind (read the whole column), via dear friend Spot

How Does Jake Tapper

…still have his job?

…TAPPER: Jay, in the last few days Democrats have expressed real concern about not only the economy but what it says about the president’s prospects for re-election, and with him, the House and Senate and who will control them. Is the President hearing from these Democrats? What is the concern — does the President share the concern that somehow there’s been a tipping point reached, that the economy is now headed in the wrong direction, not just a blip, but in the last two months were revised downward, and the president will not be able to make the argument that the economy — as he has as recently as March — that job growth is happening, it’s accelerating and that his prospects for re-election are weaker? Is he at all concerned about this?

CARNEY: Jake, the president is focused far less on his job than on the jobs of the American people. That’s what he works on every day. That is what drives all of the economic proposals that he has put forward.

TAPPER: Well not today, right? Today he has fundraisers –…

**ths wiping coffee from monitor/keyboard/desk/Scotties/Labradork**

H/T Instapundit

The End Is Truly Nigh!

Now we’ve also lost Mr. Trololo

Damn you Mayans.

Damn you to hell.

(thanks to rdbrewer in Ace’s sidebar)

Where Has All the Oil Gone, Long Time Passing?

No, really.
Where has all the oil gone?

UWF: Most oil from BP spill gone from Gulf along Panhandle
Most crude disappeared, studies show

Two years after tar balls from the Deepwater Horizon oil well explosion began washing up on Pensacola Beach and Perdido Key, there’s good news: Most of the oil is gone from Florida waters.

The fear that vast, gooey tar mats of BP oil are lurking on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico just waiting to be unleashed by a hurricane isn’t valid, according to research by University of West Florida scientists.

The scientists have spent a year on an offshore study to determine how much of the 270 million gallons of spilled BP oil remains in the Gulf between Perdido Key and Panama City. The offshore study will continue for another year. An onshore study will wrap up this month.

“That oil washing on shore will not happen,” said Richard Snyder, director of the university’s Center for Environmental Diagnostics & Bioremediation. “There’s no oil out there to wash up.”

In NO WAY does it excuse any part of BP’s criminal negligence and the Obama administration’s CRIMINAL INCOMPETENCE, but it DOES prove that NATURE is an almighty wonderful, mysterious and forgiving mistress.

“Gulp, gulp”, went the Gulf. Plus those cool little oil eating microbes that live hereabouts.

And I’ll bet you haven’t heard hide nor hair of this little tid-bit on any national news, have you?

Doesn’t fit the narrative.

And Yes ~ She IS One of the Worst People in the World

The classless chunk a’ you-know-what in the green shirt ripping the cleat out of the little guy’s hands (wearing Donald Driver’s No. 85) right at the end there.

Survey Says…

RIP, Newkirk

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Richard Dawson, the wisecracking British entertainer who was among the schemers in the 1960s TV comedy “Hogan’s Heroes” and a decade later began kissing thousands of female contestants as host of the game show “Family Feud” has died. He was 79.

Dawson, also known to TV fans as the Cockney prisoner-of-war Cpl. Peter Newkirk on “Hogan’s Heroes,” died Saturday night from complications related to esophageal cancer at Ronald Reagan Memorial Hospital, his son Gary said.

Your “Life Isn’t Fair, Princess” Quote of the Day

Paul Krugman: ‘It’s Terribly Unfair Obama’s Being Judged on the Failure of the Economy’

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman said on ABC’s This Week Sunday, “It’s terribly unfair that [President Obama is] being judged on the failure of the economy to respond to policies that had been largely dictated by a hostile Congress” (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Begs the question W.H.A.T. in the Sam Hell we are allowed/is-fair to “judge” this President on, since everything in the past three and a half years seems to be off limits, unfair, racist, not-the-point or just not his damn fault to begin with.

All we need is a manic, crying transvestite with running eye make-up shrieking, “Leave Barack ALOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNEEEE!!!!!!!”

H/T Joe Bastardi (yes, the weatherman)

Obvious Ill-Timed Elitest Political Pandering Aside

…how could ANYONE POSSIBLY have any kind of appetite left sitting across from Witch Boil Horse Face Sarah Jessica Parker, for God’s sake?

I mean really…in the kindest possible manner.

Nothing personal…much.

H/T Suzi

Now, Juan Williams said “…It looked like the Romney Campaign planted Dr. Evil in the House of Obama….” during a Chris Wallace roundtable…

…but I just can’t get over the SJP thing.

Nope. Just can’t.

REALLY, Obama?!?!

Do you REALLY want to TAKE IT THERE?!?!?!?

*

Will these BASTARDS EVER exhibit any decency? Any SENSE of the CIVILTY they SHRIEK and DEMAND from OTHERS?

The arrogance is just breathtaking.

(*ths screenshot, because I have NO DOUBT this abominable piece of vile, honorless filth is rabbithole bound. Click through for the big picture.)
H/T HotAir

Grace

…and laughter. This is just precious.

…PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you, sit down. Sit down. Behave yourselves. (Laughter.) Mr. President, thank you for your warm hospitality. Madam First Lady, thank you so much for inviting our rowdy friends — (laughter) — to my hanging. (Laughter.)

Laura and I are honored to be here. Mr. Vice President, thank you for coming. We are overwhelmed by your hospitality. And thank you for feeding the Bush family, all 14 members of us who are here. (Laughter.) I want to thank our girls for coming. I thank Mom and Dad, brother, sister, in-laws, aunts and uncles. I appreciate you taking your time. I know you’re as excited as Laura and me to be able to come back here, and particularly thank the people who helped make this house a home for us for eight years, the White House staff.

I want to thank Fred Ryan and the White House Historical Association and Bill Allman, the White House curator. I am pleased that my portrait brings an interesting symmetry to the White House collection. It now starts and ends with a George W. (Laughter and applause.)

When the British burned the White House, as Fred mentioned, in 1814, Dolley Madison famously saved this portrait of the first George W. (Laughter.) Now, Michelle, if anything happens there’s your man. (Laughter and applause.) I am also pleased, Mr. President, that when you are wandering these halls as you wrestle with tough decisions, you will now be able to gaze at this portrait and ask, what would George do? (Laughter.)

I am honored to be hanging near a man who gave me the greatest gift possible, unconditional love — and that would be number 41. (Applause.) I want to thank John Howard Sanden for agreeing to use his considerable talents to paint my likeness. You’ve done a fine job with a challenging subject. (Laughter.)

In the portrait, there’s a painting by W.H.D. Koerner called, “A Charge to Keep.” It hung in the Oval Office for eight years of my presidency. I asked John to include it, because it reminds me of the wonderful people with whom I was privileged to serve. Whether they served in the Cabinet or on the presidential staff, these men and women — many of whom are here — worked hard and served with honor. We had a charge to keep and we kept the charge.

It is my privilege to introduce the greatest First Lady ever — sorry, Mom. (Laughter.) Would you agree to a tie? (Laughter.) A woman who brought such grace and dignity and love in this house. (Applause.)

MRS. BUSH: Thank you all. (Applause.) Thank you, everybody. Thank you very much. Thank you, darling.

Thank you, President and Mrs. Obama. Thank you for your kindness and your consideration today. It was really gracious of you to invite us back to the White House to hang a few family pictures. (Laughter.) And I’m sure you know nothing makes a house a home like having portraits of its former occupants staring down at you from the walls. (Laughter.)

This is not the first time I’ve had the opportunity to confront an artistic likeness of myself. A few years ago, just after the 2008 election, a friend sent me something he’d found in the gift shop of the National Constitutional Center in Philadelphia. It was a Laura Bush bobblehead doll. (Laughter.) He said he found it on the clearance shelf. (Laughter.)

But I’m flattered and grateful to know that this particular work has a permanent home. And thanks to the masterful talent of John Howard Sanden, I like it a whole lot better than I do that bobblehead doll. (Laughter.)

Thank you very much, John Howard Sanden — you’re terrific to work with. And thanks to Elizabeth and your family who have joined you today. Thank you very, very much, John. (Applause.)

And, of course, it’s meaningful to me as a private person to know that these portraits will be on view at the White House, that my portrait will hang just down the hall from my mother-in-law, and that George’s portrait will hang very close to his dad’s. But what’s more meaningful is it’s meaningful to me as a citizen. This was our family’s home for eight years. It was our home, but it wasn’t our house. This house belongs to the people whose portraits will never hang here, the ordinary and not-so-ordinary people whose lives inspired us and whose expectations guided us during the years that we lived here.

In this room are many of the people who stood by us as we faced the tragedy of September 11th, and who worked with us in the years after. Thanks to each and every one of you for your service to our country. (Applause.)

I hope others will see in this portrait what I see: a woman who was honored and humbled to live in the White House during a period of great challenge, and who will never forget the countless American faces who make up the true portrait of that time.

Thank you all very much. Thanks so much. And thank you, Michelle, if you want to come up. (Applause.)

Wow: When You’ve Lost CNN

The headline on the main page:

Can Administration Keep A Secret?

And the article itself

Loose lips and the Obama national security ship

By Adam Levine, with reporting from Pam Benson and Ann Colwell

The level of detail spilling out through media reports about crucial national security operations is raising the question of whether President Barack Obama’s administration can keep a secret – or in some cases even wants to.

In just the past week, two tell-all articles about Obama’s leadership as commander-in-chief have been published, dripping with insider details about his sleeves-rolled-up involvement in choosing terrorist targets for drone strikes and revelations about his amped-up cyber war on Iran.

Each article notes the reporters spoke to “current and former” American officials and presidential advisers, as well as sources from other countries.

“This is unbelievable … absolutely stunning,” a former senior intelligence official said about the level of detail contained in the cyberattack story.

I guess CNN is figuring if Bill Clinton can start to turn on Obama then it’s okay for them to as well.

To me this is pretty stunning.