Monthly Archives: January 2010
Scott Brown changing the political landscape?
American Glob thinks his line, “it’s the people’s seat” might just be a big time game changer. I am not sure, but, I will say this. Those words are resonating with so many because they sum up so well how so many Americans feel. We know damned well, that many of our “representatives” have forgotten where the power lies. They have forgotten who the boss and who the sevant is. Brown struck a chord, hopefully the right cord to win Ted Kennedy’s Senate. And his Democratic opponent is imploding before our eyes. The Democrats are reaching full panic mode too, bringing out the Tea Bagger smear. And as usual, the Leftists are CLUELESS!
That is the other thing about a possible Scott Brown win. That 60-seat majority the Dems have? Kiss that goodbye if Brown wins. The Democrats can feel their power grab starting to fail. They fear losing the ability to strong arm their Marxist agenda down our throats, and it shows. The good news there is that the more radicalized they act, the more likely it becomes that they end up losing more and more mid-term elections. And that includes their majority leader too!
You go Scott Brown! And there is more good news. Iraq War veterans have vowed to Pull Down the Tyrants.
Some other great takes on this include
Family Shut Out Of Their ‘Dream Home’ By Romanian Squatters Who Moved In Over Christmas – Daily Mail
With the building works nearly over, Julian and Samantha Mosedale and their three children were looking forward to moving back into the home of their dreams.
But their hopes have turned into a nightmare because a group of Romanians occupied the property over Christmas.
To add insult to injury, police told them that they were being ‘racist’ for questioning the squatters’ right to live in Britain on benefits.
The unwanted guests have changed the locks at the three-bedroom terrace house and moved in their own furniture.
Mr Mosedale, an illustrator, and his wife, a catalogue manager, both 45, had moved out of the house in Tottenham, North London, in July 2007 for extensive structural and renovation work.
They rented another property and regularly visited the £285,000 house to oversee progress.
But, after spending Christmas visiting relatives in Essex, they returned to the house on January 3 to find the squatters installed.
They now fear they could soon be homeless because they can only afford to foot the cost of rent and mortgage payments until March.
Mrs Mosedale, whose three sons are ten, eight, and five, said: ‘We called the police as soon as we found out they were in there. An officer suggested I was racist when I asked if they were Romanians, and did they have a legal right to be in this country.
‘We are hard-working citizens yet get treated like criminals when our home is stolen. This whole thing is making me feel constantly sick. All we want to do is get on with our lives.
‘We feel let down by the law, by government, and by the police, in fact all the authorities that one would expect to protect society.
‘The house had builders in it while the renovations were being done. It was only in the last couple of months that it was left completely empty.
‘Our lawyers don’t know how long it will take us to get them out and the stress is really getting to the whole family.
‘The kids are upset at the idea that other children are playing with their toys in the garden.
‘Our son Jake is old enough to understand what is going on and he is finding it difficult to sleep.
‘All the children are incredibly unsettled.’
Yesterday, the couple obtained a county court order giving the squatters 24 hours – until 2.15pm today – to leave. But Mr Mosedale fears they will not give in easily.
He said: ‘When the papers were served on them they tore them up and threw them back at the guy who’d taken them round.’
Another ‘See, We Told You So’ Moment
California’s Proposition 71 Failure – Investor’s Business Daily
Five years after a budget-busting $3 billion was allocated to embryonic stem cell research, there have been no cures, no therapies and little progress. So supporters are embracing research they once opposed.
California’s Proposition 71 was intended to create a $3 billion West Coast counterpart to the National Institutes of Health, empowered to go where the NIH could not — either because of federal policy or funding restraints on biomedical research centered on human embryonic stem cells.
Supporters of the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative, passed in 2004, held out hopes of imminent medical miracles that were being held up only by President Bush’s policy of not allowing federal funding of embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) beyond existing stem cell lines and which involved the destruction of embryos created for that purpose.
Five years later, ESCR has failed to deliver and backers of Prop 71 are admitting failure. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the state agency created to, as some have put it, restore science to its rightful place, is diverting funds from ESCR to research that has produced actual therapies and treatments: adult stem cell research. It not only has treated real people with real results; it also does not come with the moral baggage ESCR does.
To us, this is a classic bait-and-switch, an attempt to snatch success from the jaws of failure and take credit for discoveries and advances achieved by research Prop. 71 supporters once cavalierly dismissed. We have noted how over the years that when funding was needed, the phrase “embryonic stem cells” was used. When actual progress was discussed, the word “embryonic” was dropped because ESCR never got out of the lab.
Polish Prostitute Fined 2.3 M Złoty For Tax Evasion – Krakow Post
The Office of Fiscal Control (UKS) in Katowice has fined a woman 2.3 million złoty, or about $820,000, for tax evasion. The woman admitted to having worked as a prostitute while being listed as unemployed.
The fine is part of a larger crackdown on tax evasion in the city, and the authorities have started to track people who report meagre incomes yet are spending millions. The woman, who spent more than 13 million złoty in five years, is the biggest catch so far.
According to Gazeta Wyborcza, the unnamed woman earned at least 13.7 million złoty, which was not taxed at the time. According to her, one particularly generous client paid her five million złoty in a five-year period.
Woman Charged After Throwing Tantrum Over Burger At Midtown McDonald’s – Kansas City Star
Jackson County prosecutors charged a woman with property damage Tuesday for allegedly tearing up a McDonald’s lobby after being served a “messed up” cheeseburger.
Kansas City police arrested Alesha McMullen, 19, on the felony charge Sunday at an apartment where she was hiding in a closet, according to court records. She was identified through calls to the TIPS Hotline after police released video surveillance of the Dec. 27 outburst at the restaurant at 3255 Main St.
According to police, McMullen ordered the cheeseburger snack wrap, a newer menu item, but received a regular cheeseburger. Employees made another burger for her, but she allegedly refused it and demanded a refund.
After employees said no, she threw a water dispenser and a plastic wet floor sign over the counter before knocking three cash registers off the counter, breaking one. Damage was estimated at $3,000.
When questioned by police, McMullen admitted throwing things because the restaurant messed up her order, court records say.
Detectives said McMullen said she was having a “bad day.”
Hallandale Beach Grandma Gets ‘The Bum’s Rush’: Spends 15 Days In Jail For Suspended License Mishap – Palm Beach Post
A 78-year-old Hallandale Beach grandmother ticketed for driving on a suspended driver’s license spent 15 days in jail before authorities announced her license wasn’t suspended and an outraged judge set her free.
County Court Judge Lee J. Seidman ordered Gabrielle Shaink Trudeau’s release in December at her arraignment.
“She’s handcuffed like Houdini, for the record. She’s got chains around her waist, and she’s got handcuffs in front around her hands as if she was some kind of a violent criminal,” said Seidman, according to a transcript. “I want her released. I think she’s suffered enough at our system’s mistakes.”
Safeguards built into Broward’s judicial system are designed to prevent what happened to Shaink Trudeau. But the prolonged jailing of an elderly woman with no previous criminal record over a traffic ticket has left red-faced authorities admitting they botched her case.
“We fell down and we fell down badly,” said Broward Public Defender Howard Finkelstein, better known to South Florida television viewers as WSVN-Ch. 7′s “Help me Howard.”
Foul-ups and inaction are what kept the frail and passive senior behind bars for the first time in her life. Those missteps were largely, but not entirely, the result of Finkelstein’s office — the very office whose job it is to look out for indigents like Trudeau.
Two assistant public defenders who staff Broward’s magistrate court neglected to represent Shaink Trudeau during her initial appearance in magistrate’s court the morning after her Nov. 18 arrest, Finkelstein said. And contrary to office procedure, no public defender went to meet with Shaink Trudeau at the Broward County Jail.
“It was almost like she was invisible. I deeply apologize to this woman,” said Finkelstein.
Shaink Trudeau was having a bad 2009 even before a police officer pulled her over in the 1000 block of West Hallandale Beach Boulevard on Sept. 7 for driving her 1995 green Mercury sedan too slowly.
Neighbors at the Lone Pine Mobile Country Club West said the former waitress lost about $20,000 — nearly all her money — to a Jamaican land sale scheme and that the trailer park was taking steps to evict her because she could no longer pay the rent. Shaink Trudeau confirmed that account in an interview late last week at the assisted living facility in Hollywood where she now resides.
Mayor Crashes New Fire Truck – Jackson County Floridan
Grand Ridge mayor and volunteer firefighter Chris Wright may have cost the city up to $1,000 Thursday, after he struck a pine tree while driving the town’s newest fire truck on a non-dispatched call.
According to the Floridan High Patrol report of the accident, Wright was attempting to turn around in a private driveway off Sand Basin Road when one of the fire truck’s rear tires slid off a plastic culvert and into a ditch.
The vehicle then began to lean to the left and struck a pine tree, causing an estimated $2,000 worth of damage to the left side of the vehicle.
The vehicle is insured by the city, but there is a $1,000 deductible. If the repairs turn out to be more than $1,000, this will end up costing the city of Grand Ridge.
The highway patrol report states the contributing cause to the accident was careless driving on Wright’s behalf.
Grand Ridge Fire Chief Ashley Gilley confirmed Friday that there was no emergency call Thursday, when the mayor was driving the truck. This means Wright took the vehicle out in violation of a city council vote.
According to the minutes of a Grand Ridge Council meeting on Sept. 4 2008, this has been an issue before. In an effort to eliminate this problem, a motion was made by Councilman Thomas Peaden “that the fire trucks would not leave the station unless dispatched by Jackson County.” The motion passed unanimously.
In a brief phone interview Saturday, Wright stated, “It has been about a week or two since the vehicle was last taken out,” Wright said in a phone interview Saturday. “And with it being so cold, we had just put some antifreeze in the truck. But (the antifreeze) doesn’t do any good without running the vehicle and letting it circulate.”
Martha Coakley Ducks Questions As Leftist Thug Assaults Reporter
We Report, We Get Pushed – Weekly Standard
Massachusetts Democratic Senate candidate Martha Coakley attended a fundraiser at the Capitol Hill restaurant Sonoma tonight. After the event concluded, Coakley took two questions from the media but declined to say whether or not she stands by her statement at last night’s debate that there aren’t any terrorists in Afghanistan (and that they’ve all gone to Pakistan or Yemen).
After taking a question from a CNN reporter on the street outside the restaurant, I asked her:
TWS: Attorney General Coakley, you said last night that there are no terrorists in Afghanistan–that they’re all in Yemen and Pakistan. Do you stand by that remark?
COAKLEY: I’m sorry, did someone else have a question?
GRIFF JENKINS, Fox News: I did. Why are you in Washington tonight?
COAKLEY: We planned an event after the primary that would be a unity event in Washington. We’re also in the middle of a very intense campaign [...]
After Coakley finished her answer, she began walking away from the restaurant, and I walked behind her asking why health care industry lobbyists were supporting her at the fundraiser. She didn’t reply.
As I walked down the street, a man who appeared to be associated with the Coakley campaign pushed me into a freestanding metal railing. I ended up on the sidewalk. I was fine. He helped me up from the ground, but kept pushing up against me, blocking my path toward Coakley down the street.
He asked if I was with the media, and I told him I work for THE WEEKLY STANDARD. When I asked him who he worked for he replied, “I work for me.” He demanded to see my credentials, and even though it was a public street, I showed them to him.
I eventually got around him and met up with the attorney general halfway down the block.
“Attorney General, could I ask you a question please?” I said. “We’re done, thanks,” Coakley replied. She walked back toward the restaurant, apparently searching for her car. She remained silent as I (politely) repeated my question.
Coakley staffers told me they didn’t know who the man was who pushed me, though by every indication he was somehow connected to the campaign.
Update: Someone owes me a new pair of pants. I just noticed there’s a large tear in the back of my suit pants.
Update II: The man who owes me a new suit may be the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s Michael Meehan.
Update III: Coakley Staffer Who Attacked Reporter Is An Obama Appointee – Big Government
Big Government contributor Dana Loesch has reported on the Coakley staffer who attacked a Weekly Standard reporter outside a Martha Coakley fundraiser on Capitol Hill. A number of outlets have identified the culprit as Michael Meehan, a long-time Democrat political operative. Mr. Meehan was dispatched to the struggling campaign by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committe (DSCC).
Mr. Meehan, however, also happens to be a recent Obama appointee. On November 19, President Obama nominated Mr. Meehan to serve on the Broadcasting Board of Governors.
Rep. Rangel: Dems Facing ‘Serious Problems’ On Healthcare Reform Bill – The Hill
Congressional Democrats face “serious problems” in getting a healthcare reform bill to the president’s desk, according to a House panel chairman.
“We’ve got to get a bill that’s more compatible to the House,” Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) said Tuesday. “Forget all the other questions. Two-hundred-eighteen [votes] is the most important issue we are dealing with… We have serious problems on both sides of the Capitol. Serious problems.”
Rangel’s comments come a day after Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) said health reform is “hanging by a thread.”
While it is clear that Democrats in the House and Senate are jockeying for negotiating power, they also are openly acknowledging the daunting legislative obstacles in front of them.
*VIDEOS* Haiti Earthquake Devastation
Haiti Earthquake: Bodies Piled Up On The Streets As Disaster Leaves ‘Thousands’ Dead – Daily Mail
* Red Cross fears around three million people affected by 7.2 quake
* Up to 100 UN staff believed dead after headquarters collapse
* Charities launch emergency appeals to help stricken survivors
* Presidential palace crumbles, hospital collapses and houses swept away
* Britain sends emergency team as Obama vows ‘unwavering’ support
Bloodstained bodies are piled high in the streets of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince today amid fears that thousands have died in a catastrophic earthquake.
Rescuers have been forced to dig through rubble with their bare hands to free trapped survivors as the Red Cross said up to three million people may have been affected.
British and international aid agencies are rushing to assist today as the full horror of the disaster began to emerge.
It is still unclear how many have been killed in the earthquake, which measured 7.2 on the Richter scale, but aid agencies fear thousands are dead.
Haitian president Rene Preval described the scene in Port-au Prince as ‘unimaginable.’
‘Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed,’ he said.
Among the fatalities were up to 100 UN staff, including Hedi Annabi, the Secretary General’s special envoy, who were working inside its five-storey headquarters when it collapsed.
The Roman Catholic Arcbishop of Port-au-Prince Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot also died. His body was found in the ruins of the archdiocese office.
Around 200 people are also feared dead after a hotel crumbled to dust, the National Palace is in ruins and a major hospital also destroyed.
The destruction is said to be staggering, even in an impoverished nation accustomed to tragedy and disaster.
Eyewitnesses said gravely injured Haitians were crying out from the rubble, pleading for doctors as night fell.
With the country in chaos and facing still more damage from a series of 30 aftershocks, their cries went mostly unheard.
The quake, the most powerful in the region for 200 years, was centred about ten miles west of the Haitian capital, a city of two million people, many of them living in flimsy shanty slums.
It struck at 4.53pm yesterday and was followed by as many as 30 aftershocks, one of them as strong as 5.9 on the Richter scale, a sizeable earthquake in its own right.
The centre was also relatively shallow, less than ten miles below ground, raising the risk of damage.
Survivors held hands and sung hymns as they waited for help to come. But many people spent the night fighting for their lives.
UPDATE: Haitian Official: Death Toll May Reach 500,000 – Delaware News Journal
Officials say thousands of people — and perhaps many, many more — are dead after Tuesday’s major earthquake. A leading Haitian senator says the death toll may reach 500,000 based on the amount of the destruction, but there are no firm figures.
The prime minister told CNN that hundreds of thousands of people died.
Haitians piled bodies along the devastated streets of their capital today after the quake flattened the president’s palace, the cathedral, hospitals, schools, the main prison and thousands of homes.
The bodies of the dead were everywhere in Port-au-Prince. Bodies of tiny children were piled next to schools. Bodies of women lay with stunned expressions frozen on the street as flies began to gather. Bodies of men were covered with plastic tarps or cotton sheets.
I am not saying……..
Jumping in Pools is doing a series of interviews with bloggers. Great idea, I look forward each time a new one appears over there. If these guys REALLY want a great interview, well, I would nominate this blog! But I am not saying, I am just saying…..
Your Marxist Moron of the Day
Via Pat Austin, who brings us the sheer, unrefined stupidity of Martha Coakley!
Apparently Martha Coakley has the inside scoop that the terrorists have all left Afghanistan, per this from The Weekly Standard
MODERATOR: “Do you think we should withdraw? [from Afghanistan]”
COAKLEY: “I think we should plan an exit strategy, yes.”
MODERATOR: “And how would we succeed?”
COAKLEY: “I am not sure there is a way to succeed. If the goal was and the vision in Afghanistan was to go in because we believe the Taliban was giving harbor to terrorists, we supported that, I supported that goal. They are gone, they are not there anymore, they are in apparently Yemen and Pakistan. Let’s focus our efforts on where Al Qaeda is.”
That’s from last night’s debate between Coakley and Scott Brown.
So is she suggesting that we invade Yemen and Pakistan? Is she saying we should pull out of Afghanistan, because there aren’t anymore terrorists there, and move on out to Yemen and Pakistan?:
So, there are now no more terrorists in Afhganistan? And they have moved to Pakistanm and Yemen. Now, I think we all know that there are certainly terrorists in those two countries, and many others. Including Afghanistan of course. But I think Pat’s question is a great one to ask Coakley. IS she advocating the U.S. military invading those two nations?
Honoring two great men
Those men, who became a great military team, were Stinewall Jackson, and Robert E. Lee. Very good article on them by Chuck Baldwin
Without question, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson were two of the greatest military leaders of all time. Even more, many military historians regard the Lee and Jackson tandem as perhaps the greatest battlefield duo in the history of warfare. If Jackson had survived the battle of Chancellorsville, it is very possible that the South would have prevailed at Gettysburg and perhaps would even have won the War Between the States.
In fact, it was Lord Roberts, commander-in-chief of the British armies in the early twentieth century, who said, “In my opinion, Stonewall Jackson was one of the greatest natural military geniuses the world ever saw. I will go even further than that–as a campaigner in the field, he never had a superior. In some respects, I doubt whether he ever had an equal.”
While the strategies and circumstances of the War of Northern Aggression can (and will) be debated by professionals and laymen alike, one fact is undeniable: Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. Jackson were two of the finest Christian gentlemen this country has ever produced. Both their character and their conduct were beyond reproach.
Unlike his northern counterpart, Ulysses S. Grant, General Lee never sanctioned or condoned slavery. Upon inheriting slaves from his deceased father-in-law, Lee freed them. And according to historians, Jackson enjoyed a familial relationship with those few slaves that were in his home. In addition, unlike Abraham Lincoln and U.S. Grant, there is no record of either Lee or Jackson ever speaking disparagingly of the black race.
As those who are familiar with history know, General Grant and his wife held personal slaves before and during the War Between the States, and, contrary to popular opinion, even Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation did not free the slaves of the North. They were not freed until the Thirteenth Amendment was passed after the conclusion of the war. Grant’s excuse for not freeing his slaves was that “good help is so hard to come by these days.”
Furthermore, it is well established that Jackson regularly conducted a Sunday School class for black children. This was a ministry he took very seriously. As a result, he was dearly loved and appreciated by the children and their parents.
In addition, both Jackson and Lee emphatically supported the abolition of slavery. In fact, Lee called slavery “a moral and political evil.” He also said “the best men in the South” opposed it and welcomed its demise. Jackson said he wished to see “the shackles struck from every slave.”
Very good piece, read it all.
DaleyGator DaleyBabe
A hot woman with an automatic weapon? Very politically incorrect, and very HOT! Via Theo Spark
You know, that Cafferty guy is growing on me
First, he rips Obama, now, he calls Pelosi a HORRIBLE WOMAN!
The coming plague of batsh*t crazy elitist Rinos
What will the teaming of Fox News and Sarah Palin bring? RS McCain has the news!
Just thought I’d be first in line to make that accusation against my American Spectator colleague, who reacts to news of Palin’s Fox News deal with several predictions including:
Any conservative commentators who disagree with anything Palin says on Fox will be branded elitist RINOs who don’t understand her appeal to real Americans.
Of course, that “real Americans” line will cause great outrage amongst the tolerant Left won’t it? Yep!And that is always a great goal to have. Driving the Left into hysterical sh*t fits is one of life’s simple pleasures! It is easy to do, yet, never seems to get old.
Today’s moment of Sharia assbackwardsness
Hugging a woman? BAD! At least according to the morally retarded asshats that believe in radical Islam. I wonder if they think calling someone a morally retarded asshat is bad too? Support Your Local Gunfighter has the quote of the day.
If there were ever any doubts that Islam is trapped in the 6th Century, this story should dispel them. Any religion that bans beer and hugging women – two acts that are almost inseparable – is seriously flawed.
Mugs and hugs! Come on America! Stand up and fight for the right to hug! And ladies, remember, if you see me in a bar and refuse a hug, the terrorists win!
Gatordoug
darcprynce
Dave C
