Wacko-of-the-Week, Oct. 11, 2008

This Week's Award to MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD and the IRANIAN GOVERNMENT



Now that George Bush has opened talks with the enemy in Iran, they seem to have caught the confusion bug that Bushies carry around with them .

On Tuesday, Iran announced that it has forced an American military plane with American military personnel to land in Iran after it had violated their airspace. CLICK

On Friday, it turned out that the plane was (a) Not American, it was Hungarian (b) Not military (c) had no American military aboard (d) had not defied Iranian airspace but strayed off course. CLICK

Well, hell, what's a little international dust-up right in the middle of a worldwide financial panic and the collapse of the capitalist economy?

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RUNNERS-UP:
Lavarr A. Milton, 21, and Guy O. Walker, 18, have been charged with robbing a gas station in Jeffersontown, Kentucky, and three others in the Louisville area, according to police. They were arrested after they stopped a police officer in the early morning hours and asked directions. CLICK

For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind...
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letter from SPARTY : "Race in election"

"An interesting discussion tonight on the Rachel Maddow show about the "Bradley Effect" in elections (recall that in 1982 Tom Bradley had a sizeable lead in the polls for mayor of LA but lost the election): resulting rule is that a black candidate running against a white candidate should have a lead of greater than 5% or he/she will lose.

"Maddow interviewed a political scientist from Princeton, Melissa Harris-Lacewell, who has studied this issue. She says it is operative in districts where there is a overwhelming white majority. Where that isn't the case (in the campaign for the U.S. Senate in a state like Illinois, for example) a black candidate suffers little when running against a white candidate. In fact, in districts where there is a sizeable minority population there is a reverse Bradley Effect - white support for the black candidate is greater than would be thought likely. She says there is evidence of a significant Bradley Effect going on in three states (she didn't name them) but a reverse Bradley Effect in 12 states.

"Maddow asked her what the McCain campaign should be doing in order to encourage the Bradley Effect, and Harris-Lacewell said imply his differentness by suggesting he has Muslim connections and suggest he also has connections with terrorists - anything to make him, in addition to his race, to be so different that he's dangerous."

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entertainment news a phantom pregnancy

For those of you who turn to BIRCHES for the latest entertainment news, here's an important report.



Someone says JAMIE LYNN SPEARS, who sometimes travels with her own bedclothes, is pregnant again.
Someone else says she isn't.

We cannot yet be sure if she is or ain't, although no one around here is claiming to be the father, although lots of us wold love to try, because we're preverts like that.

We'll keep you posted. Stay tuned.

Two Questions

Here are a couple of questions worth mulling.

1. What effect would it have on the election if, in fact, there IS a big terrorist attack on the U.S. in the days before the election? The threat is obviously out there.

2. What effect would the defeat of Obama have on his supporters if they perceive the election has been stolen from him either because of voting manipulations as in Florida, or because of a racist vote which is hiding in the background?

Thursday Morning Smile Maker (64)

recommended

Go to (click on) ARBORETUM to read a very good essay on: "What Obama Should Have Said" by Scot S.W.
[And leave a comment there, if you like]

a personal note on a public matter

from Bud: 

Those who know me, and readers of this blog, will recall that I used to admire John McCain.  Still, there is no chance that I would vote for him this year for President. He is not the person I thought I used to know, and with Sarah Palin, he's become a totally lost cause. I can't think of a worse insult to hand America that his hugely dishonest and demagogic running mate from chilly Alaska.  

People seem to assume that if a voter isn't for the Republican, he must be for the Democrat, but this is not necessarily so. 

During the Democratic primaries, I didn't make any choice between Obama and Clinton.  Living in Michigan, I would have a right to vote in any primary I wished, but the Democrats took away that choice here by not running a real election.  Most candidates dropped out and the ones who stayed in, didn't campaign here.  

In the past, I have voted for Ralph Nader. I know he's ugly, I know he's cranky, I know he's obsessed.  But every time I see him or read his words, I find myself agreeing with him.  

Yet, I have decided to vote for Obama this year.  I detest the Republican Party in all its crookedness and bigotry and plutocracy. I think their people have become anti-democracy, anti-tolerance, anti-science. Most of them are abusive, and disrespectful of the aspiration of common folks. They tolerate the bigotry of racists and elitists.  If Eisenhower could see today's Republican Party, he would leave it. He had too much dignity, too must honor, too much honesty for this pack of neo-cons and know-nothings; and he would never have tolerated the thievery.

So I will leave Nader to his loss even though I like his ideas. Instead I add my voice to those who say: Change! Change or we're doomed. And at this point, Obama is the only likely change agent for America. I don't believe any of the scandal and sleaze manufactured against him. He's not a terrorist or crazy man or disloyal muslim --- or any of that. At the debates, he's been the adult in the room.

guillotine time (#4)

[Premise: If the American Middle Class understood what has been done to it in the past few years, they would be setting up guillotines on Wall Street.]
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Lawmakers angered by posh AIG retreat

Associated Press
October 8, 2008
WASHINGTON - Less than a week after the federal government had to bail out American International Group Inc., the company sent executives on a $440,000 retreat to a posh California coastal resort, lawmakers investigating the company's meltdown said yesterday.

The tab included $23,380 worth of spa treatments for AIG employees at the St. Regis resort south of Los Angeles even as the company tapped into an $85 billion loan from the government that it needed to stave off bankruptcy.

The retreat did not include anyone from the financial products division that nearly drove AIG under, but lawmakers were still enraged over the thousands of dollars spent on catered banquets, golf outings and visits to the resort's spa and salon for executives of AIG's main U.S. life insurance subsidiary.

"Have you heard of anything more outrageous?" asked Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, a Maryland Democrat, noting that the bill included $23,000 for spa services. "They were getting their manicures, their facials, pedicures, massages while the American people were footing the bill."

Who Won? 

"THAT ONE !"

guillotine time (part 3)

RICHARD FULD, the CEO of the Lehmann Brothers disaster, explained to Congress On October 6, that he hadn't received $480 million in compensation as Congressman Henry Waxman claimed, but that it was actually closer to $250 million.

Monday Friends Report, Oct. 6, 08

Everyone is still talking about Palin. Everyone is also talking about the economy. There is such cynicism about both. We are also talking about the weather. An almost perfect Michigan September has turned into a chilly and much more gloomy October.
For a lot of folks, the football season is a big topic. Michigan State is doing great, MIchigan is having a tough time, and South Carolina has a season that may turn out great!
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SCOT - tells that his dog Riley is home from the hospital, and after operations and medications, he is slowly coming back to normalcy normality. Here is his beautiful self, and yes, he knows he's handsome.



BILL from WNNCO - sends this picture, which he took, and which can be more easily read if you click on the pic and enlarge it:


MARSHA- recommends an article about research, which may show that the way people vote is sometimes based on genetics. CLICK

DASHMANN - recommends a newspaper commentary on Palin: CLICK

DIG S and JERRY - sends this flow chart (click to enlarge):

Sarah Palin's Debate Flowchart

ALICE - who didn't want that dog that moved in with her is now calling it "My Dog" and speaking about it fondly. We have heard this story before. When was that? Hmm

MARSHA: posing for photo on a victory weekend. South Carolina defeated Ole Miss.

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FELIX - has returned from a stay in Virginia and sends this picture, one of his favorite places in the world.
Near Mt. Rogers, VA
fall 2008.

MIKE CARROLL almost from Carollton - has celebrated his birthday. The party was thrown by his children. It was a well-attended affair, and he says he was completely taken by surprise.

A Thousand Points of Fight

The wonder of democracy is the ample opportunity to fight over stuff. We wouldn't have it any other way, would we?

Here are a few of BIRCHES' ineffectual jabs, arrows shot from the woods:

1. Sarah Palin will destroy her future as a national candidate by turning to the sleazy tactics she has started. Of course, she didn't think of this approach all by herself, but she lends her name and future prestige to the effort, and that will consign her to the back burners with other sleaze artists.

2. If John McCain wants to challenge Obama as "paling around with terrorists" then he should do it face-to-face on Tuesday night like a gentleman rather than a coward.

3. Around here, we simply do not believe that 700 billion dollars can be pumped into the Wall Street money churn and come out pure. It will be stolen in large part by the same people who have gotten rich off stealing from borrowers.

A Light Through the Leaves

"Everybody sooner or later, sits down to a banquet of consequences."
- Robert Louis Stevenson

Sunday silly Sites

Is Barack Obama really a muslin? CLICK

Select a biodegradable coffin for yourself, click on the pic, and order it if you wish: click

Some German boys make a circle and beat on themselves. CLICK

Wacko-of-the-Week, October 4, 2008

Jonathon Guabello

Fort Myers, Florida

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This week, FELIX has nominated the winner of our treasured award. The story contains all the ingredients of a good salacious, nasty romance: (a) quarreling (b) boyfriend-girlfriend (c) living together "in sin" (d) alcohol (e) drugs, and of course (f) GUNS!!!!

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As you study the portrait above of the poor rejected Romeo, you have to think of an evening of drinking, of a lady who is very tired, of a poor fella who wants to screw, and of the heat that is caused when these ingredients are stirred up in the cauldron of late night hours.

When she refused his proposition, he shot himself, staggered about the apartment and collapsed onto the stove, knocking himself out. This put an end to his threat that if she called the police, he would kill her. One minute, lust, the next hatred. tsk-tsk. That is real roller coaster of emotion.
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And, once again proof that guns are needed to protect one's home against ... well, against one's friends and family evidently.

Read all about it here: CLICK - as there are more wonderful details.

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RUNNER-UP:



House Minority Leader, John Boner, and House Minority Whip, Eric Cantor, for having the unmitigated nerve to go before the national press and stand there with God watching, and blame someone else for the fact that they defeated the bailout bill. Why? Because a lady had hurt their feelings. READ IT HERE, CLICK Even for Congressmen, this is an audacious case of bald-faced lying, and nobody in the country is believing them.

Republican Humor ( 61)

This is the latest contribution by Bill from Wnnco.

Remember, if you have some Republican humor to share, send it around.
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One sunny day in 2009, an old man approached the White House from across Pennsylvania avenue, where he'd been sitting on a park bench.

He spoke to the Marine standing guard & said, 'I would like to go in & meet with President Barack Obama.'

The Marine replied, 'Sir, Mr. Obama is not President & doesn't reside here.'

The old man said, 'Okay,' & walked away.

The following day, the same man approached the White House & said to the same Marine, 'I would like to go in & meet with President Barack Obama.'

The Marine again told the man, 'Sir, as I said yesterday, Mr. Obama is not President & doesn't reside here.'

The man thanked him & again walked away.

The third day, the same man approached the White House & spoke to the very same Marine, saying, 'I would like to go in & meet with President Barack Obama.'

The Marine, understandably agitated at this point, looked at the man & said, 'Sir, this is the third day in a row you have been here asking to speak to Mr. Obama. I've told you already several times that Mr. Obama is not the President & doesn't reside here. Don't you understand?'

The old man answered, 'Oh, I understand you fine. I just love hearing your answer!'

The Marine snapped to attention, saluted, and said, 'See you tomorrow, sir.'

Our intrepid leader speaks

The memory is still sharp --

"I remember meeting a mother of a child who was abducted by the North Koreans right here in the Oval Office."

The Human Condition

As a nod to friend, Bill, whose rule of life is that every personal interaction can be explained by one of two constants:
Why in the world would three 17 year old boys want to have sex with their teacher? Hmm

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