Oct 11, 2008

Bush meets with world finance ministers

President Bush met with the world’s leading finance ministers from the seven biggest industrialized nations.

“We're in this together. We will come through it together,” Bush said from the Rose Garden, after a meeting with finance ministers from the world's seven biggest industrialized nations.

In the photo above President Bush (center) makes a statement in the Rose Garden of the White House after meeting with G7 finance ministers about the world financial crisis.

Link

Oct 10, 2008

Louis Farrakhan: Obama the messiah!

Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan preaches from the pulpit that “Obama is the Messiah.”

(click on picture to see video)

…found on NewsBusters

MyKey: parental control car key from Ford

MyKey will turn your Ford car into your mom.

Talk about a back-seat driver! Ford Motor Co. has created a device which allows parents to control how fast their teenagers drive, limits the volume on the car radio and makes sure their seat belts are fastened.

It's called "MyKey," and Ford announced this week that it will be a standard feature starting next year on the 2010 Ford Focus and other Ford, Lincoln and Mercury models.

The key can be programmed to limit the car's top speed, sounding chimes at 45 miles per hour, 55 mph and 65 mph.

The car's top speed can be restricted to 80 mph

Another feature disables the car's audio system until seat belts are fastened or limits audio volume to 44 percent of total volume.

Link

Shady associates catching up to Obama

A report at the link below says:

The conservative Judicial Confirmation Network is running a TV ad tying Obama to not just Rezko, but William Ayers (now using cartoons to spread his ideas) and the bombastic Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

You should expect to hear much more about these Obama associates -- some questions fair, others not; many associates legitimately slimy, others mere road kill on this political Autobahn -- in this last full month of the campaign.

Will the main stream media report these stories? If so, will it be the usual, “…let’s move along folks … nothing to see here…” that usually accompanies negative reports about the Obama campaign?

Mark Twain once said, “if you don’t read newspapers you are uninformed - if you do read newspapers you are misinformed.”

Link

GM stock at 58-year low - says not headed for bankruptcy

Shares of General Motors Corp. lost nearly one-third of their value Thursday, plunging to their lowest level in more than 58 years.

Standard & Poor's said the automaker's credit could fall further into junk status due to the “rapidly weakening state” of the global automotive market.

GM shares plummeted $2.15, or 31.1 percent, to close at $4.76 after falling as low as $4.65. That low marked the automaker's lowest trade since March 15, 1950.

The company dismissed speculation that it was headed toward bankruptcy.

A company spokesman said Friday:

Clearly, we face unprecedented challenges related to uncertainty in the financial markets globally and weakening economic fundamentals in many key markets, but bankruptcy protection is not an option.

Link here and here.

Study shows AIDS has been around for 100 years

AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) originated long before it was widely publicized in the U.S. in the early 1980’s.

The AIDS virus has been circulating among people for about 100 years, decades longer than scientists had thought, a new study suggests.

Genetic analysis pushes the estimated origin of HIV back to between 1884 and 1924, with a more focused estimate at 1908.

AIDS wasn't recognized formally until 1981 when it got the attention of public health officials in the United States.

Link

Most British judges to toss courtroom wigs

Judges in most British courts will finally stop living in the 17th century by discarding their horse-hair courtroom wigs (pictured).

While judges in criminal cases will still wear them, those in civil and family hearings will appear bare-headed in court, wearing a new-style plain black robe, the government said.

Wigs have been an emblem of the British legal system since the 17th century when the fashion for wearing them in wider society filtered through to the courts.

John Mortimer, the barrister and author of the Rumpole of the Bailey books, opposed the changes.

“The idea's ridiculous! A barrister without his wig would be like a doctor without a stethoscope,” he wrote in a newspaper article when the changes were first proposed.

Link

Pollster Zogby warns - Don’t believe the hype

Pollster John Zogby says the presidential race is still too close to call and could come down to the very last weekend before voters decide if they like or distrust Barack Obama.

With non-stop favorable coverage by the media, Obama should be twenty or more points ahead.

The report at the link below says:

Zogby’s latest poll, released yesterday in conjunction with C-Span and Reuters, shows Obama and John McCain in a statistical dead heat, with the Illinois Democrat up 48-45 percent.

Zogby said the race mirrors the 1980 election, when voters didn’t embrace Ronald Reagan over then-President Jimmy Carter until just days before the election.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Polls showed Walter Mondale ahead of Ronald Reagan in 1984 and Mike Dukakis ahead of George H.W. Bush in 1988. In 2000 polls showed Al Gore ahead and in 2004 polls showed John Kerry ahead.

This can only suggest that “push polling” was used.

There are many forms of “push polling.” The most common is to include more of one major political party than the other in the sampling base. Also, questions to respondents can be worded so that the desired result is obtained.

This year “push polling” is even easier by simply including a larger percent of blacks in the sample to show an Obama lead.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

A discussion about polling should also include the exit polling on election day in 2004.

The early exit polls from precincts in Virginia showed an overwhelming lead for John Kerry, which had the Kerry Edwards campaign singing and dancing until the real vote counts came in.

It was an obvious ploy to try to influence voters in western states by showing a Kerry win in the making.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Link

Oct 9, 2008

Wide-scale ACORN voting fraud

Wide-spread voting fraud uncovered in several states.

In Nevada, state officials say the fraudulent registrations included forms for the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys football team, including quarterback Tony Romo.

“Romo is not registered to vote in the state of Nevada,” Secretary of State Ross Miller said, "and anybody trying to pose as Terrell Owens won't be able to cast a ballot on Nov. 4."

While those names will be flagged on Election Day, felonious voters may have better luck using other cutouts. Nevada, along with several other key battleground states, requires no ID to vote.

The FBI just raided ACORN headquarters in Nevada as a result of an investigation that revealed thousands of bogus registrations.

In North Carolina, where Obama has been running nonstop ads, ACORN has registered a record number of new voters, many of them suspicious. Statewide, Democrats are doing better than the GOP in new converts - even in traditionally Republican counties.

There have been 218,749 newly registered Democrats in North Carolina since January - more than five times the 38,337 new Republicans, state records show.

The numbers show a startlingly close political battle even in Republican-dominated Union County, with 4,233 new voters registering as Democrats and 4,362 as Republicans. In previous election years, new Republicans have outnumbered Democrats 2-to-1 in the fast-growing Charlotte-area county.

In Missouri, one ACORN registrant named Monica Rays showed up on no less than eight forms, all bearing the same signature.

Link here and here.

Taiwan suggests SARS intentionally started by China

Remember that SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) epidemic of 2002 that seemed to originate in southern China?

Before it was over hundreds of people around the world were killed -- including about 350 in China -- bringing Asian tourism and air industries almost to a halt.

An initial cover-up of the epidemic led to the sacking of Beijing's mayor and the health minister and led to scores of conspiracy theories about the origin of the virus.

Taiwan is now suggesting SARS was intentionally started by China.

Taiwan legislators wearing surgical masks and displaying banners with skull and crossbones took over parliament's floor on Tuesday after the country's security chief accused China of starting the global SARS epidemic six years ago as part of a biological warfare campaign.

Conspiracy theories about SARS have appeared before after two Russian scientists said that SARS could have been manufactured in labs.

Link

Obama objects to use of his middle name

There is an ABC News blog entry at the link below objecting to the use of Barack’s middle name, “Hussein.”

At a pre-rally speech in Bethlehem, PA today, Lehigh County GOP Chairman Bill Platt referred to the Democratic presidential candidate twice by his full name, Barack Hussein Obama.

Critics charge that such references wrongly imply that Obama is Muslim.

Who are the critics? Are they sure Barack is not really a Muslim? After all, he once referred to “my Muslim faith.” No one else said it -- just Obama. Later, it was passed off as a slip of the tongue.

Really, if you were a Christian, how could you mistakenly say “my Muslim faith?” Well, maybe. Give him the benefit of the doubt.

(click on picture to enlarge)

From a Lucianne comment:

When Bush 41 was running, Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) called him George Herbert Walker Bush 50 times in one speech. His point was to make Bush seem elitist and rich because he had two middle names. I still remember the disgust in his voice as he said “Herbert Walker” over and over again.

Obama supporters are publicizing his middle name “Hussein” all the more every time they object to its use.

Link

Environmentalists blast Starbucks for wasting water

Britain’s National Enquirer style tabloid, The Sun, reports on alleged water wasting at Starbucks stores in the UK as well as around the globe.

The article is called The great drain robbery.

The giant coffee chain has a policy of keeping a tap running non-stop at all its 10,000 outlets worldwide, wasting 23.4 million liters a day.

Every Starbucks branch has a cold tap behind the counter providing water for a sink called a “dipper well”, used for washing spoons and utensils.

Staff are banned from turning the water off under bizarre health and safety rules — bosses claim a constant flow stops germs breeding in the taps.

Starbucks defends itself against wasting water claims by environmentalists.

The company says the flow services a “dipper well”, used for keeping utensils clean, and that the taps run at very low pressure.

Link here for the Sun story. Starbucks rebuttal is here.

Woman took her speeding ticket to State Supreme Court

Christine Downs of Dover New Hampshire was determined to fight her speeding ticket.

The 24-year-old woman interrogated police and filed motions as she represented herself at trial last year to contest the $100 ticket. She even prepared a list of 96 questions.

She lost, but decided to appeal to the state Supreme Court.

She argued that police failed to respond to her request for engineering studies used to calculate the speed limit on the road where she was ticketed in May 2007 for driving 44 in a 25-mph zone.

On Wednesday, she lost again. The high court concluded that Downs “did not overcome the presumption that the posted speed limit was valid” and that the district court did not err in its finding of her guilt.

Link

Half-ton Mexican man dies of heart failure

Jose Luis Garza (pictured) of Juarez Mexico has died of heart failure. The 47-year-old man weighed 990 pounds.

Emergency officials had to knock down Jose Luis Garza's bedroom wall and put him in the back of a friend's pickup truck to take him to a hospital as he fought for his life. He was pronounced dead on arrival.



Garza followed in the footsteps of the world's fattest man, fellow Mexican Manuel Uribe of Monterrey, by taking his weight problem public. Garza lived about an hour away from Uribe in the northern town of Juarez.

Farza’s friend Manuel Uribe, whose record weight of 1,230 pounds earned him a place in the 2008 Guinness Book of Records, had tried to help Garza by sending him kiwis, grapefruit, pears and a protein supplement.

Link

Oct 8, 2008

Foreign media reports what leftist US media ignores

Someone in the media north of our border gets it!

The actual facts of why the US—and now the world—economy are in severe jeopardy have little to nothing to do with the current US administration or Republicans.

However, with the Democrats’ and their media continuing to call and report the Republicans responsible, the public might never know the difference.

Despite all proof to the contrary, the media … refuse to report on the actual programs that led to the current debacle. This is called “faked and manufactured news.”

Beginning with the Democrats and President Clinton’s push to force banks and mortgage companies to lend to low-income home buyers—coupled with the Democrats running Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—the process that has placed us in the position of heading toward the current financial debacle was put into place. Then, with Clinton’s signing of the American Home Ownership and Economic Opportunity Act of 2000, the dye was cast.

Lenders not wanting to those who could not afford to buy homes were threatened by government investigation.

That’s when the ARM (adjustable rate mortgage) came into being in full force.

Huge balloon payments were the norm for the ARM and when they came due and equally huge foreclosure numbers for those who couldn’t pay them were the result.

As foreclosures increased, a domino effect began that took down mortgage companies and publicly exposed the corruptions inherent within the Democrats’ personal slush funds -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Republicans in Washington, including Sen. John McCain, have tried for years to pass legislation that would provide oversight on both Fannie and Freddie.

Democrats blocked each and every attempt.

Link

Democrat politician son indicted in Palin e-mail hack

David Kernell, a 20-year-old University of Tennessee student was officially indicted for intentionally accessing Governor Sarah Palin's e-mail account without authorization.

David Kernell is the son of long time Democrat State Rep. Mike Kernell of Memphis.

The elder Kernell is chairman of Tennessee's House Government Operations Committee and a well-known Barack Obama backer.

David Kernell was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury in Knoxville and faces a maximum of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release. Trial is set for Dec. 16.

Link

NJ Hearse club: put the fun back in funerals

Marijane Counselman and her friend Lisa Schiller co-founded a unique club called the Formaldarydes.

Counselman drives a vintage hearse through the streets of Woodbridge New Jersey. It’s a 1987 Cadillac hearse that she bought on eBay.

Marijane Counselman describes her car's virtues: incredible amount of trunk space, smooth ride and the freaky stares she gets on the street.

Her hearse is decorated with purple flames on the side, a life-size plastic skeleton in the back seat, and cobweb-motif spinner hubcaps.





Counselman is 23 and has a 4-year-old son and a 3-month-old daughter.

The car is so much fun to drive that even her mother-in-law, Sharon Counselman, takes it to her job at the main branch of the Woodbridge Public Library, earning her plenty of sideways glances.

Formaldarydes co-founder Lisa Schiller links her desire for a hearse to a life-long love of horror films.

She said her hearse in not welcomed by everyone on her street.

Her block would look like a Leave it to Beaver neighborhood but the hearse gives her house a Munsters’ look.

Link

McCain - Obama poll within 2 points

This is not good news for Barack Obama. After continual favorable press by the nations major newspapers and constant adulation by the alpha networks ABC, NBC and CBS as well as CNN and MSNBC, Barack Obama should be ahead of John McCain by a comfortable margin.

Obama is ahead by only 2 points making the race a virtual tie because the slender lead is within the margin of error.

A Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll, was conducted before Tuesday's Obama-McCain debate. It was performed by live telephone operators in Zogby's in-house call center in Upstate New York, included a total of 1,220 likely voters nationwide, and carries a margin of error of +/- 2.8 percentage points.

Link

Report: McCain narrowly wins boring debate

According to a report at the link below, John McCain narrowly won the second presidential debate.

From the report:

Overall, though, the debate broke no new ground, produced no large gaffes and stained Tom Brokaw reputation. He couldn't keep the debate focused at all.



During the meeting, McCain got in sharply worded responses to practically anything Barack Obama brought up -- on energy, on health care, on world affairs.

By contrast, Obama -- while having some strong stances -- never seemed to gain his footing. He looked uncomfortable during much of the town hall meeting.

The last paragraph in the quote above pretty much summed up the debate.

It emphasized why Obama hates town hall meetings. He kept repeating his memorized pronouncements and campaign talking points.

Link

Oct 7, 2008

Dot com buyout: eBay acquires Bill Me Later

Auction giant eBay has purchased Bill Me Later, an online purchasing system smaller but similar to PayPal which is already owned by eBay.

The Timonium (Baltimore) based Bill Me Later allows customers to pay later for items purchased at more than 1,000 online retailers, including Amazon.com and Walmart.com, without entering credit card information. Instead, the customer fills in his or her birth date and the last four digits of the Social Security number.

The company uses its proprietary underwriting system to approve each transaction, which takes about three seconds. It picks up the tab and is repaid by the shopper. If customers carry a balance at Bill Me Later, they incur interest charges.

Bill Me Later has attracted large retailers, including 75 of the top 200 brand names, and nearly 4 million consumers.

The big question is - will Amazon.com, one of Bill Me Later’s biggest customers, abandon the relationship now that eBay owns Bill Me Later.

It is no secret that Amazon.com is not a friend of eBay but so far has been non-committal about its plans to continue using Bill Me Later.

Amazon.com issued this statement: “Currently, Bill Me Later is still available as a payment option on our site, but I can’t speculate as to whether we’ll continue to offer them going forward.”

Link here and here.

Homeless and felons ‘driven’ to vote in Ohio

Getting votes for Obama by “hook or crook.”

Volunteers supporting Barack Obama picked up hundreds of people at homeless shelters, soup kitchens and drug-rehab centers and drove them to a polling place yesterday on the last day that Ohioans could register and vote on the same day, almost no questions asked.

This was done by a pro-Obama group that takes advantage of a quirk in the state's elections laws that allows people to register and cast ballots at the same time without having to prove residency.

Republicans have argued that the window could lead to widespread voter fraud because officials wouldn't have an opportunity to verify registration information before ballots were cast.

This happened to a lesser degree in Ohio four years ago. This year Ohio Democrats seem determined to outdo the infamous Cook County Illinois “dead people vote.”

Link

Ebay cutting10 percent of work force

Online auction giant eBay has announced a ‘lean and mean’ move.

After a series of changes designed to draw more people to its online marketplace, eBay Inc.'s latest alteration is aimed at its own employees.

The auction site operator said Monday it will cut about 1,600 jobs, 10 percent of its work force, in its largest round of dismissals ever.

About 1,000 full-time employees will be gone, while eBay will achieve the rest of the cuts by letting temporary and part-time workers go and by leaving open positions unfilled.

This is a proactive move by eBay. Shares of eBay stock have lost about half their value this year.

More here.

Kim Jong-il: first appearance since August

The 66-year-old leader of North Korea Kim Jong-il (pictured) has not been seen since mid-August according to US and South Korean officials.

Now the North Korea leader is reported to have made his first public appearance since rumors surfaced that he had suffered a stroke and undergone brain surgery.

State media said Mr. Kim attended a student football match in Pyongyang.

Photographs accompanied the report of his appearance at the game but the report did not say what day the game had taken place.

Was it actually Kim Jong-il or was it a “double” that appeared at the game?

Link

Oct 6, 2008

Man read Oxford English Dictionary

Not just anyone would read the entire Oxford English Dictionary.

Ammon Shea, 37, who has been dissecting dictionaries since the age of 10, spent a year absorbing 59 million words, from A to Zyxt - the equivalent of reading a John Grisham novel every day.

Cooped up in the basement of his local library, the removal man from New York would devote up to 10 hours a day painstakingly making his way through all 20 volumes of the OED - helped by cup after cup of very strong coffee.

Among his favorite discoveries were obmutescence (willfully quiet), hypergelast (a person who won't stop laughing), natiform (shaped like buttocks) and deipnosophist (a person who is learned in the art of dining.)

Maybe he was obsessed by very, very short stories ... he really needs to get out more.

Link

Roswell NM residents claim Powerball jackpot

Roswell is well known as the site of a supposed UFO crash in 1947.

Last week Roswell is suddenly more associated with greenbacks than little green men.

Nine residents brought different attention to the town Friday when they claimed a Powerball jackpot worth more than $200 million.

Holly Baldwin bought the tickets at a gas station two hours before the Sept. 27 drawing. Her group decided to take a lump payment of more than $100 million.

They plan to invest most of the money and set up a charity trust.

Link

Autumn in the Rockies

Quaking Aspen in autumn gold

Doctors warn against exotic pets for children

The nation's leading pediatricians' group, the American Academy of Pediatrics, has issued a new report about dangers from exotic animals as pets for small children.

About ten years ago the hedgehog (pictured) became a popular pet for children.

Warning: young children should not keep hedgehogs as pets—or hamsters, baby chicks, lizards and turtles, for that matter—because of risks for disease.

Besides evidence that they can carry dangerous and sometimes potentially deadly germs, exotic pets may be more prone than cats and dogs to bite, scratch or claw—putting children younger than 5 particularly at risk, the report says.

"Many parents clearly don't understand the risks from various infections" these animals often carry, said Dr. Larry Pickering, the report's lead author and an infectious disease specialist at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For example, about 11 percent of salmonella illnesses in children are thought to stem from contact with lizards, turtles and other reptiles, Pickering said. Hamsters also can carry this germ, which can cause severe diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps.

Link

Oct 5, 2008

Why a McCain emergence may happen

Hugh Hewitt has a thoughtful, insightful and provocative commentary at the link below (shown here in part):

America is a great and good nation, and it will not turn itself over to a party in the grip of its hardest left cadres, its most corrupt machine and its least experienced nominee ever.

Especially not when it has a man of enormous courage and proven devotion and sacrifice at the ready to lead through difficult times.

In a time of war and precarious economic uncertainty, it would be near suicidal to turn the world's most important job over to him [Obama].

His party is led by hard-left partisans in the House and Senate … there is hardly anything left of the old Democratic Party.

It isn't about a New Deal or a Fair Deal or a New Frontier. It is about radical change, and creepy children singing praises to their leader.

Obama would be a huge risk in even placid times of peace, full employment, and robust growth.

Link

Every boy loves autumn

Extra leg in photo of Nicolas Sarkozy and Pope Benedict

There is an extra leg in the photo below of Pope Benedict XVI and President of France Nicolas Sarkozy.





Was the picture ‘photoshopped’ in an effort to remove a man behind Sarkozy? If so, they forgot to remove a leg and foot … or maybe it’s the leg and foot of a midget walking behind Mr. Sarkozy.

Link

Troubling video of Obama youth group

(click on picture to see video)

What’s going on here? This video begins with youth in military uniforms chanting Alpha, omega...alpha, omega.

Are the young men in this video brainwashed like the Hitler Youth of the 1920’s and 1930’s?

The best adjectives I can think of to describe this paramilitary group is troubling and creepy.

And what about their chant Alpha, omega...alpha, omega?

This is from the Bible (Revelation 1:8) I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord.

Have the people surrounding Barack Obama become ‘handlers’ rather than advisors and do they perceive Obama as the Anti-Christ?