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potless Sun: Blankest Year of the Space Age
Astronomers who count sunspots have announced that 2008 is now the “blankest year” of the Space Age. As of Sept. 27, 2008, the sun had been blank, i.e., had no visible sunspots, on 200 days of the year. To find a year with more blank suns, you have to go back to 1954, three years before the launch of Sputnik, when the sun was blank 241 times. “Sunspot counts are at a 50-year low,” says solar physicist David Hathaway of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. “We’re experiencing a deep minimum of the solar cycle.”
The image, taken by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) on Sept. 27, 2008, shows a solar disk completely unmarked by sunspots. For comparison, a SOHO image taken seven years earlier on Sept. 27, 2001, is peppered with colossal sunspots, all crackling with solar flares. The difference is the phase of the 11-year solar cycle. 2001 was a year of solar maximum, with lots of sunspots, solar flares and geomagnetic storms. 2008 is at the cycle’s opposite extreme, solar minimum, a quiet time on the sun.
And it is a very quiet time. If solar activity continues as low as it has been, 2008 could rack up a whopping 290 spotless days by the end of December, making it a century-level year in terms of spotlessness.
Hathaway cautions that this development may sound more exciting than it actually is: “While the solar minimum of 2008 is shaping up to be the deepest of the Space Age, it is still unremarkable compared to the long and deep solar minima of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.” Those earlier minima routinely racked up 200 to 300 spotless days per year.
Some solar physicists are welcoming the lull. “This gives us a chance to study the sun without the complications of sunspots,” says Dean Pesnell of the Goddard Space Flight Center. “Right now we have the best instrumentation in history looking at the sun. There is a whole fleet of spacecraft devoted to solar physics–SOHO, Hinode, ACE, STEREO and others. We’re bound to learn new things during this long solar minimum.”
As an example he offers helioseismology: “By monitoring the sun’s vibrating surface, helioseismologists can probe the stellar interior in much the same way geologists use earthquakes to probe inside Earth. With sunspots out of the way, we gain a better view of the sun’s subsurface winds and inner magnetic dynamo.”
“There is also the matter of solar irradiance,” adds Pesnell. “Researchers are now seeing the dimmest sun in their records. The change is small, just a fraction of a percent, but significant. Questions about effects on climate are natural if the sun continues to dim.” Pesnell is NASA’s project scientist for the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), a new spacecraft equipped to study both solar irradiance and helioseismic waves. Construction of SDO is complete, he says, and it has passed pre-launch vibration and thermal testing. “We are ready to launch! Solar minimum is a great time to go.”
Coinciding with the string of blank suns is a 50-year record low in solar wind pressure, a recent discovery of the Ulysses spacecraft. The pressure drop began years before the current minimum, so it is unclear how the two phenomena are connected, if at all. This is another mystery for SDO and the others. Who knew the blank sun could be so interesting? More to come…
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/30sep_blankyear.htm?list878321
Here you go Hank.
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime/mdi_igr/512/
Sleeping like a baby.
More on the miracle that is this planet. A tiny world in a hostile universe teaming with life. Here a couple more of the extremely unlikely factors that all came together somehow to provide this unique world.
___________
Slowing rotation makes advanced life possible
The moon has had other beneficial affects on the earth. Scientists now know that the earth originally had a rotational period of eight hours. Such a rapid rotational period would have resulted in surface wind velocities in excess of 500 miles per hour. The gravitational tug of the moon over the last 4+ billion years has reduced the rotation period of the earth to 24 hours (likewise, the gravitational attraction of the earth on the moon has reduced its rotational period to 29 days). Needless to say, winds of 500 miles per hour would not be conducive to the existence of higher life forms (coincidence or design?).
Van-Allen radiation shield is unique to Earth
Another fortuitous result of the collision of the Mars-sized planet with the Earth is the presence of the Earth’s large and heavy metallic core. In fact, the Earth has the highest density of any of the planets in our Solar System. This large nickel-iron core is responsible for our large magnetic field. This magnetic field produces the Van-Allen radiation shield, which protects the Earth from radiation bombardment. If this shield were not present, life would not be possible on the Earth. The only other rocky planet to have any magnetic field is Mercury – but its field strength is 100 times less than the Earth’s. Even Venus, our sister planet, has no magnetic field. The lack of a magnetic field on Venus is thought to have resulted in the planet losing virtually all of its water through stripping by the solar wind (see Venus: Express dispatches from Nature). For more information on the magnetosphere, see NASA’s What is the Magnetosphere? and Space Weather on Mars. The Van-Allen radiation shield is a design unique to the Earth (coincidence or design?).
http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/designss.html
Not so dear deniers of science and truth.
You lose. You lost. Game over.
And guess who’s moderating the Vice-Presidential debate?
Gwen Ifill.
Guess who Gwen is writing a book about?
B H Obama.
Guess when it’s scheduled for release?
Inauguration day.
Big question of the day- would it be RACIST to point out that Gwen Ifill, a black woman, is writing a book about the first black nominee for President, and that said book is due for release on inauguration day, and she’s moderating the VP debate, and maybe she has a vested financial as well as an emotional stake in one party winning over another?
Would it be RACIST to question her impartiality?
“This large nickel-iron core ”
I’m highly curious to know how we “know” this.
Is this one of those scientific theories that is taught as “fact” when its really just a consensus SWAG?
Do you mean this Heckler?
This large nickel-iron core is responsible for our large magnetic field.
That’s very basic science.
Blue Jay
Stop and THINK for a second would you? How do we know what its made of?
You completely missed my point didn’t you? Has anyone been down there to check? NO. Have we drilled down there to take a core sample? No.
All you know is what someone told you in science class somewhere. The question was for someone with a little bit of cognitive ability.
“Ifill’s publisher, Random House, is already busy hyping the book with YouTube clips of Ifill heaping praise on her subjects, including Obama and Obama-endorsing Mass. Governor Deval Patrick. The official promo for the book gushes: ”
“Ifill and her publisher are banking on an Obama/Biden win to buoy her book sales. The moderator expected to treat both sides fairly has grandiosely declared this the “Age of Obama.” Can you imagine a right-leaning journalist writing a book about the “stunning” McCain campaign and its “bold” path to reform timed for release on Inauguration Day – and then expecting a slot as a moderator for the nation’s sole vice presidential debate?
Yeah, I just registered 6.4 on the Snicker Richter Scale, too.”
http://michellemalkin.com/
The question I asked above about the earths core illustrates a little problem I have with a lot of science. But perhaps the problem is not with the science but in how it is presented to us in various forms of media.
The number of things I was taught in school as being scientific FACT that have been dis-proven is getting to be rather large. Perhaps we need to stop teaching things we THINK are correct as FACT and start teaching them the way real scientific study works. Teach what we THINK is correct and give the reasoning behind our thought. It might foster a little more THINKING in school and open peoples minds a little.
We as a people are a little too prone to just accepting what is fed to us by someone viewed as an “authority” rather than applying a little logic and thought to what we hear and rank that information with a little credibility rating before we stash it in the old memory banks.
Learn don’t memorize.
But Heckler….did you expect any less from the hypocrital left?
The question I asked above about the earths core illustrates a little problem I have with a lot of science. But perhaps the problem is not with the science but in how it is presented to us in various forms of media.
Your right Heckler,
Things should be presented more like this……
Secrets of the Hollow Earth
The interior of the Earth, some believe, is home to strange races of technologically advanced beings. Who are they and where are the hidden entrances to their subterranean cities?
Many readers of the paranormal and the unexplained are familiar with the theory that the Earth is hollow. The idea is based on the ancient legends of many cultures that say there are races of people – entire civilizations – that thrive in subterranean cities. Very often, these dwellers of the world beneath are more technologically advanced than we on the surface. Some even believe that UFOs are not from other planets, but are manufactured by strange beings in the interior of the Earth.
Who are these strange races of beings? How did they come to live inside the Earth? And where are the entrances to their underground cities?
Agharta
The Network. One of the most common names cited for the society of underground dwellers is Agharta (or Agartha) with its capital city of Shamballa. The source for this information, apparently, is The Smoky God, the “biography” of a Norwegian sailor named Olaf Jansen. According to Agartha – Secrets of the Subterranean Cities, the story, written by Willis Emerson, explains how Jansen’s sloop sailed through an entrance to the Earth’s interior at the North Pole. For two years he lived with the inhabitants of the Agharta network of colonies who, Emerson writes, were a full 12 feet tall and whose world was lit by a “smoky” central sun. Shamballa the Lesser, one of the colonies, was also the seat of government for the network. “While Shamballa the Lesser is an inner continent, its satellite colonies are smaller enclosed ecosystems located just beneath the Earth’ s crust or discreetly within mountains.”
“Has anyone been down there to check? NO. Have we drilled down there to take a core sample? No”
You risk coming off as ridiculous heckler.
We have evolved a little past the point of hands on science.
We know what stars on the other side of the universe are made of through mass spectrometry.
Ya can’t put the Moon on a scale. But we know its mass by observation of its orbit.
IF you are going to insist on direct hands on science in such matters, you invite us to march backwards.
I appreciate your sentiment to make science a more personal thing heckler.
I do not believe the fact that the Earth has a nickel iron core is under much dispute. Should it be seems not of much importance since observational science would tend to confirm it at least in second hand application.
Blue Jay
OK smart guy, how did we arrive at the composition of the core of the earth?
BJ
“We know what stars on the other side of the universe are made of through mass spectrometry.”
Another good example. To do this we have to assume that the rules of physics as we know them apply the same millions of light years away.
Heckler
Posted October 1, 2008 at 8:13 am | Permalink
Blue Jay
OK smart guy, how did we arrive at the composition of the core of the earth?
————————————–
Nickel iron sounds better than,
“Uh gee Jimmy, thats a good question, we just don’t know”………
Are you aware of any glaring departures from the rules of physics as we know them heckler?
20 Ways to be a good democrat:
1. You have to be against capital punishment, but support abortion on demand.
2. You have to believe that businesses create oppression and governments create prosperity.
3. You have to believe that guns in the hands of law-abiding Americans are more of a threat than U.S. nuclear weapons technology in the hands of Chinese and North Korean communists.
4. You have to believe that there was no art before Federal funding.
5. You have to believe that global temperatures are less affected by cyclical documented changes in the earth’s climate and more affected by soccer moms driving SUV’s.
6. You have to believe that gender roles are artificial but being homosexual is natural.
7. You have to believe that the AIDS virus is spread by a lack of federal funding.
8. You have to believe that the same teacher who can’t teach 4th-graders how to read is somehow qualified to teach those same kids about sex.
9. You have to believe that hunters don’t care about nature, but urban activists who have never been outside of San Francisco do.
10. You have to believe that having self-esteem is more important than actually doing something to earn it.
11. You have to believe that Mel Gibson spent $25 million of his own money to make The Passion Of The Christ for financial gain only.
12. You have to believe the NRA is bad because it supports certain parts of the Constitution, while the ACLU is good because it supports certain parts of the Constitution.
13. You have to believe that taxes are too low, but ATM fees are too high.
14. You have to believe that Margaret Sanger and Gloria Steinem are more important to American history than Thomas Jefferson, Gen. Robert E. Lee, and Thomas Edison.
15. You have to believe that standardized tests are racist, but racial quotas and set-asides are not.
16. You have to believe that the only reason socialism hasn’t worked anywhere it’s been tried is because the right people haven’t been in charge.
17. You have to believe conservatives telling the truth belong in jail, but a liar and a sex offender belonged in the White House.
18. You have to believe that homosexual parades displaying drag, transvestites, and bestiality should be constitutionally protected, and manger scenes at Christmas should be illegal.
19. You have to believe that illegal Democratic Party funding by the Chinese government is somehow in the best interest to the United States.
20. You have to believe that this message is a part of a vast, right wing conspiracy.
And one more:
21. You have to believe that Barack Hussein Obama’s experience as a community organizer is sufficient training to be President of the United States.
Ok, another:
22. You have to believe that it’s in our best interest to cater to the feelings of countries (like France) – despite the fact that those countries have hated us for decades… Even when we were liberating them.
Last one:
23. You have to have an absolute disdain for the military.
BJ
“We have evolved a little past the point of hands on science.”
Yes we have. But we need to temper our conclusions with acknowledgement of the limitations of our methods.
Funny how planets that have life on them also have the conditions for life. Pointing this out doesn’t help the creationist cause any outlander.
proof that giants roamed the earth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4jdrPG0C94&feature=related
Science seems to do a fairly good job of policing itself heckler.
What do you want, disclaimers after every other line in a science book?
Our Earth is roughly 93 million miles from our star the sun.*
*(No one has actually paced out the distance with a pedometer.)
proof of man riding dinosaurs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG61a3KhTD4
BJ
“Our Earth is roughly 93 million miles from our star the sun”
That’s an easy one to measure. Not a good example.
The spectrometry one is a better example of what I’m talking about.
Hee hee heee.
Rachel Maddow said last night that some people believe humans rode dinosaurs while leading unicorns on a rope…
BlueJay
Posted October 1, 2008 at 8:31 am | Permalink
Science seems to do a fairly good job of policing itself heckler.
What do you want, disclaimers after every other line in a science book?
Our Earth is roughly 93 million miles from our star the sun.*
*(No one has actually paced out the distance with a pedometer.)
———————————————-
No we don’t need to have our “hands on” for scientific proof,
We just have faith in our scientists……
I sometimes wish I was a little older.
I barely remember the Moon landings, let alone the space race.
Overly healthy skepticism like heckler’s must have persisted in that time as well.
The fact that the Earth was basically round had been proven thousands of years before, but skeptics lingered through the centuries.
I wonder. Were there people who saw those first pictures of the Earth from space, smacked their hand to their foreheads and said,”by golly it is round!”.
Heh, no, JR.
Folks like heckie did and still do believe the moon landing was filmed on a soundstage in Arizona.
proof moon landing were a hoax
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mouUUWpEec0
Heckler: I agree with you in principle. So much of what passes for “science” is not. Especially when it comes to mere speculation by a person with a science degree masquerading as science.
I get a kick out of some articles that you run into occasionally where, for example, discovery of a portion of a jawbone leads to a conclusion by along the lines of; “It is apparent from careful jawbone examination, that this species were very swift runners, lived in the trees, and probably were able to chase down smaller animals, though they were primarily vegetarians. This, of course gave them the evolutionary advantage they needed to survive to become the ancestor of modern man.
Stick to the facts, jack.
Factoid:
Most of the oil used in the U.S. (53 percent), in fact, comes from North American sources, according to the Department of Energy (DOE).
Then, there was the ‘Nebraska Man.’ A tooth found was said to be an early human, turns out it was a tooth from a…
…pig.
BJ
“Were there people who saw those first pictures of the Earth from space, smacked their hand to their foreheads and said,”by golly it is round!”.
And there were those who werent scientists who understood it was round before science proved it was round.
“Then, there was the ‘Nebraska Man.’ A tooth found was said to be an early human, turns out it was a tooth from a…
…pig.”
Such things happen when amateurs pretend to be scientists. Naturally the scientists (certainly not the creationists) found it out to be a fraud. In the meantime creationists still insist the Flintstone’s was an accurate portrayal of life in the Bible.
“Especially when it comes to mere speculation by a person with a science degree masquerading as science”
versus
Unprovable supernatural superstitions retold by religious cult members
I’ll take the science
“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has directed nearly $100,000 from her political action committee to her husband’s real estate and investment firm over the past decade, a practice of paying a spouse with political donations that she supported banning last year.
Financial Leasing Services Inc. (FLS), owned by Paul F. Pelosi, has received $99,000 in rent, utilities and accounting fees from the speaker’s “PAC to the Future” over the PAC’s nine-year history.
The payments have quadrupled since Mr. Pelosi took over as treasurer of his wife’s committee in 2007, Federal Election Commission records show. FLS is on track to take in $48,000 in payments this year alone – eight times as much as it received annually from 2000 to 2005, when the committee was run by another treasurer.”
NOthing to see here folks, move along. Too be fair, there is nothing illegal here since the bill she supported did not pass. Just another example of some Congressman saying “Do as I say, not as I do.”
Fund raising for Obama questionable.
——————-
Foreign Donations
And then there are the overseas donations — at least, the ones that we know about.
The FEC has compiled a separate database of potentially questionable overseas donations that contains more than 11,500 contributions totaling $33.8 million. More than 520 listed their “state” as “IR,” often an abbreviation for Iran. Another 63 listed it as “UK,” the United Kingdom.
More than 1,400 of the overseas entries clearly were U.S. diplomats or military personnel, who gave an APO address overseas. Their total contributions came to just $201,680.
But others came from places as far afield as Abu Dhabi, Addis Ababa, Beijing, Fallujah, Florence, Italy, and a wide selection of towns and cities in France.
Until recently, the Obama Web site allowed a contributor to select the country where he resided from the entire membership of the United Nations, including such friendly places as North Korea and the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Unlike McCain’s or Sen. Hillary Clinton’s online donation pages, the Obama site did not ask for proof of citizenship until just recently. Clinton’s presidential campaign required U.S. citizens living abroad to actually fax a copy of their passport before a donation would be accepted.
With such lax vetting of foreign contributions, the Obama campaign may have indirectly contributed to questionable fundraising by foreigners.
In July and August, the head of the Nigeria’s stock market held a series of pro-Obama fundraisers in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city. The events attracted local Nigerian business owners.
At one event, a table for eight at one fundraising dinner went for $16,800. Nigerian press reports claimed sponsors raked in an estimated $900,000.
————-
http://www.newsmax.com/timmerman/Obama_fundraising_illegal/2008/09/29/135718.html?s=al&promo_code=6BD9-1
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10392
CHANGE CHICAGO STYLE
Body count. In the last six months 292 killed (murdered) in Chicago , 221 killed in Iraq .
Sens. Barack Obama & Dick Durbin,
Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.,
Gov. Rod Blogojevich,
House leader Mike Madigan,
Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan (daughter of Mike),
Mayor Richard M. Daley (son of former Mayor Richard J. Daley)…..the leadership in Illinois…..all Democrats
Chicago is a combat zone. Of course they’re all blaming each other.
Can’t blame Republicans, there aren’t any!
State pension fund $44 Billion in debt, worst in country. Cook County ( Chicago ) sales tax 10.25% highest in country. (Look ‘em up if you want). Chicago school system one of the worst in country. This is the political culture that Obama comes from in Illinois .
He’s gonna ‘fix’ Washington politics?
A serious question: Could someone on the right explain to me how being anti-science serves your interests?
No one here is anti-science.
Steven I haven’t seen anything here that is anti-science. I have seen discussions about different aspects of science. There are many unproven ‘facts’ that some accept blindly. I see some on here questioning how those ‘facts’ became embedded as facts when we really have no solid proof.
Last night on his radio show, conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt asked Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) if she and her husband “ever faced tough economic times.” Palin responded saying that her family struggled to get health insurance “until Todd and I both landed a couple of good union jobs.” She said further that she could identify with Americans who are suffering as a result of the economic downturn because her family is “going through that right now — even as we speak.”
Listen here:
The Moose-Dresser is right to credit her and her husband’s “good union jobs” with securing her family health insurance coverage. In fact, as SEIU notes, “workers in unions…are 63 percent more likely to have employer-provided health insurance” than non-union workers. Further, “union families pay 43% less for family coverage than nonunion families” and the coverage that union workers receive is “far more comprehensive.”
Too bad Palin has done nothing to actually represent union interests.
Dear Steven,
Serious question. Can anyone on the left even imagine where science would be today without the support of the Christian church over the years?
What has the great and loving religion of Islam done over the years for science? The Hindus? Buddists?
Without Christianity we would still be pissing in our drinking water like they do in Africa today.
#
StevenEDavis
Posted October 1, 2008 at 9:51 am | Permalink
A serious question: Could someone on the right explain to me how being anti-science serves your interests?
———————————-
Using science has a religious substitute is the problem.
Theories are never accurate and by definition can only be accurate dependent on the facts at hand during the contemporaneous time of the scientist(s) proposing the theory.
No one is anti-science. What most people object to is strutting up science based on theories as political banners.
That is, and has never been the goal of science.
But Hank,
You don’t wash your backside in your drinking water?
Steven
I questioned the accepted answer for “what is the core of the earth made of”. The question was ridiculed somewhat by several people. Notable was the fact that none of them answered the question “how do we know this”. They have blindly accepted the answer for years.
Go to Wiki and read their entry for “structure of the earth”. You will see words and phrases like “indicating”, “extrapolating”, “theoretical”, “inferred”, “possible”, “speculation”, “believed to be”, “argued that”, repeated throughout.
Basically the answer is “somewhat better than a SWAG but far from certain”.
Steven
Serious question- How is that being “anti-science”?
“Like a lot of my Democratic colleagues I was too slow to appreciate the recklessness of Fannie and Freddie. I defended their efforts to encourage affordable homeownership when in retrospect I should have heeded the concerns raised by their regulator in 2004. Frankly, I wish my Democratic colleagues would admit when it comes to Fannie and Freddie, we were wrong. By the way, I wish my Republican colleagues would admit that they missed the early warning signs, that Wall Street deregulation was overheating the securities market and promoting dangerously lax lending practices. When it comes to the debacle in our capital markets, there is much blame to go around for both sides.”
-Rep. Artur Davis, D-Ala
“HLP” asks –
” Can anyone on the left even imagine where science would be today without the support of the Christian church over the years?”
One of those typical, tangential “what-if” question the CONs come up with when the facts in front of them are evidence against their mythology. (Like, “What if Napoleon had cruise missiles at Waterloo?”)
Off the top of my head, without the “Christian church over the years” scientific understanding of the universe would be at least 500 years ahead of where we are now.
Look up the Dark Ages.
“What has the great and loving religion of Islam done over the years for science?
They invented the mathematical concept of “zero,” for starters. And Algebra (which, admittedly, terrorizes a lot of 9th graders).
” The Hindus? Buddists?”
The Jews?
Oops.
Another “HLP” theory blown all to hell.
HLP needs HELP.
“What has the great and loving religion of Islam done over the years for science?
They invented the mathematical concept of “zero,” for starters. -Monkey
———–
So Monkey, Islam invented nothing? I can just see that. Ahmad, I had 3 camels, and all three ran away” Now, how many do I have Ehsan?
“What has the great and loving religion of Islam done over the years for science?
They invented the mathematical concept of “zero,” for starters. And Algebra (which, admittedly, terrorizes a lot of 9th graders).
———
They are still way behind us in general.
Their engineering peaked thousands of years ago, it only has prospered recently in isolated areas.
But I suppose with the heat, stoning of women and homos, sawing peoples heads off, blowing up your neighbors, and praying, there isn’t much time left in the day to advance your culture and technology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inventions_in_the_Islamic_world
It wasn’t that hard, dummies.
THOUSANDS of years ago…tard.
“outlander” basks in ignorance responding to –
“They invented the mathematical concept of “zero,” for starters.”
With…
“So Monkey, Islam invented nothing?”
Yeah, “outlander.”
They’re sorta the “Seinfeld” of mathematics.
You obviously have no concept whatsoever how important the concept of “zero” was.
What’s “zero,” for example in Roman numerals?
Before Arabic insight, no one had come up with a way to do more than count stuff.
I’ve posted before that major religions seem to evolve in similar ways. The Jews had their period of wacko fundamentalism taking over back when they were writing Leviticus; about 4500 years ago.
Christianity went through the dumps of fundamentalist doctrinaire about about 1500 years in with the crusades. The Muslims seem to be going through their own version of a “reformation” now and, as all fundies of any faith have demonstrated, the minority of the
stupid“traditionalists” succeed in diverting the inherent progress of human understanding.DEMOCRAT CULTURE OF CORRUPTION CONTINUES…..
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,431204,00.html
House Speaker Pelosi Used Political Donations to Pay Husband’s Firm Wednesday, October 01, 2008
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi paid her husband’s real estate and investment firm nearly $100,000 from her political action committee over the past decade, a practice that she voted to ban last year and that her party condemned as part of the “culture of corruption” when Republicans did it.
The Washington Times is reporting that the California Democrat’s husband, Paul F. Pelosi, owns Financial Leasing Services Inc., which has received $99,000 in rent, utilities and accounting fees from the speaker’s “PAC to the Future” over the PAC’s nine-year history.
“ANTI” tries –
“They are still way behind us in general.”
All they have is all the money.
Ever red-white-and-blue-blooded Republic Party advocate should convert to Islam and get in on the money.
Monkeyhawk
Posted October 1, 2008 at 10:56 am | Permalink
“ANTI” tries –
“They are still way behind us in general.”
All they have is all the money.
=====================
Of Course!! This is evident by the squalor the majority of Islamic people live in.
Islam: Today’s trend setters, on the leading edge of technology! Uh huh…
Regular,
Please elaborate more on what your understanding of a scientific theory is. Specifically what are the components of a scientific theory and what are these components relationships to one another?
Hank,
I concede that the Catholic Church made universities possible. I have never understood why people want to juxtaposition religion and science. Maybe you can offer insight as to why this latter happens.
Interesting that the consensus on the right is that they are not anti-science. Maybe it depends on the theory – say global warming, or evolution, as examples.
“ANTI” tries –
“…the squalor the majority of Islamic people live in.”
It’s a Republic Party wet dream.
Go to the Mississippi Delta, the hills of West Virginia, the slums of South Central and tell me how many “Islamic people” you encounter.
Hey,ANTI
Well, The Muslims did make great advances in personal hygene, they don’t eat with the same hand they wipe their ass with.
I wonder when Congress will launch an Investigation and hold Hearings on House Speaker Pelosi’s giving of Political Campaign Cash to her husband?
“StevenEDavis” –
And let’s not forget all the intellectual advances that have come out of the Northeast Oklahoma Bible College and Discount House of Diplomas.
Any on the right ever read this book?
http://libcat.wichita.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?Search_Arg=structure+of+scientific+revolutions&Search_Code=TALL&PID=LYm0rKCQ_2hcumhwtbXotWeHc1q&SEQ=20081001110822&CNT=30&HIST=1
If you have, please summarize your understanding of its message.
Check out the De Moines Register website.
A bunch of clips of John S (for Senile) McCain the Third (for Shrub’s 3rd term) at his seething, surly best.
(Remember the last time any of the CONs in this forum had anything good to say about McCoot? Neither do I.)
Senator McCain met with the editorial board of the Register and gets stumped by one of the best questions I’ve heard asked of him so far this campaign.
“Throughout your adult life, am I right, as a veteran and a member of Congress and now someone over sixty five, throughout your adult life have you been covered by a taxpayer-financed health care plan?
Think of the brilliance of this question: McCain has received “government-run” health care his entire life, and I’m sure he’s never had a single complaint. If “government-run” health care is so inefficient and wasteful, how has it served him so effectively for over thirty years? If it’s good enough for him, why isn’t it good enough for the 40 million Americans who desperately need it and are forced to live without it?
I’m always amazed at how successful the Republic Party is at convincing voters they don’t want something that clearly works well, and something that they themselves have no problem taking advantage of.
Speaking of hygiene, most Christians will eat pork rinds and read the Bible while taking a crap.
Such solemnity.
Monkeyhawk,
Just say,
GIMME
GIMME
GIMME
Then open up YOUR checkbook, and go pay for your uninsured friend – JR.
Oh, you don’t want to use your OWN MONEY to pay for others?
Neither do I.
“What has the great and loving religion of Islam done over the years for science?
They invented the mathematical concept of “zero,” for starters. And Algebra (which, admittedly, terrorizes a lot of 9th graders).
**************************************
Perhaps:
Islam comes into being around 610-622 ce
Invention of Algebra
but since the decipherment of the Rhind papyrus by Eisenlohr this view has changed, for in this work there are distinct signs of an algebraic analysis. The particular problem—a heap (hau) and its seventh makes 19—is solved as we should now solve a simple equation; but Ahmes varies his methods in other similar problems. This discovery carries the invention of algebra back to about 1700 B.C., if not earlier.
also,
“The first extant work which approaches to a treatise on algebra is by Diophantus (q.v.), an Alexandrian mathematician, who flourished about A.D. 350. The original, which consisted of a preface and thirteen books, is now lost, but we have a Latin translation of the first ”
Both from http://historymedren.about.com/od/aentries/a/11_algebra_2.htm
Invention of zero”
In 498 AD, Indian mathematician and astronomer Aryabhata stated that “Sthanam sthanam dasa gunam” or place to place in ten times in value, which may be the origin of the modern decimal-based place value notation.[18]
The oldest known text to use a decimal place-value system, including a zero, is the Jain text from India entitled the Lokavibhâga, dated 458 AD. This text uses Sanskrit numeral words for the digits, with words such as the Sanskrit word for void for zero (see also the section Etymology above).[19] The first known use of special glyphs for the decimal digits that includes the indubitable appearance of a symbol for the digit zero, a small circle, appears on a stone inscription found at the Chaturbhuja Temple at Gwalior in India, dated 876 CE.[20][21] There are many documents on copper plates, with the same small o in them, dated back as far as the sixth century AD, but their authenticity may be doubted.[22]
The Indian numerals and the positional number system were introduced to the Islamic civilization by Al-Khwarizmi, the founder of several branches and basic concepts of mathematics. Al-Khwarizmi’s book on arithmetic synthesized Greek and Hindu knowledge and also contained his own fundamental contribution to mathematics and science including an explanation of the use of zero
From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/0_(number)
But, I will be the first to admit that Persia, and the middle east, and islamic scholars, contributed greatly to the advancement of civilization.
Max,
Is that of which Speaker Pelosi is accused unlawful now, or was it unlawful at the time of the payments? I’m no fan of the Speaker (far from it), but if the payments by her PAC were for the items mentioned, it seems to not to have been a “gift” in the normal definition of the word.
I’m in agreement that such intra-family arrangements should be prohibited (in this context, intra-family would include not only natural persons, but business entities which are controlled by family members and entities in which the family members have an ownership interest even if not control). However, if lawful, the rationale for an investigation of the Pelosi arrangement would need to center on something else, correct? Such as: were the services for which the PAC made payment rendered? Was the value claimed for the services artificially high? Did the PAC use the real estate for which rental was paid? Was the rental value of the premises less than that charged? Those are the things that should be looked into, regardless of whether it is the Speaker of the House or some first-term member of Congress.
Right now, there is insinuation from the fact that such payments were made that something is wrong, but nothing that has been presented to date discloses any specific allegations of unlawful conduct. A full investigation would develop this, to be sure. I’ve a feeling that there might be other members of Congress (both houses, both parties) who likely did this as well; doesn’t make it right, but could explain a lack of enthusiasm for investigation.
Well Vaughn, not sure we can pass laws for every little thing, but it certainly doesn’t pass the smell test when you have a powerful politician giving her campaign money to her husband.
“MaxGrobnik” –
Go look at the Des Moines Register’s videos of your candidate’s answers.
The taxpayer-funded health care coverage answer even includes one of those creepy McCodger sneers at the end.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has directed nearly $100,000 from her political action committee to her husband’s real estate and investment firm over the past decade, a practice of paying a spouse with political donations that she supported banning last year.
Financial Leasing Services Inc. (FLS), owned by Paul F. Pelosi, has received $99,000 in rent, utilities and accounting fees from the speaker’s “PAC to the Future” over the PAC’s nine-year history.
The payments have quadrupled since Mr. Pelosi took over as treasurer of his wife’s committee in 2007, Federal Election Commission records show. FLS is on track to take in $48,000 in payments this year alone – eight times as much as it received annually from 2000 to 2005, when the committee was run by another treasurer.
Lawmakers’ frequent use of campaign donations to pay relatives emerged as an issue in the 2006 election campaigns, when the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal gave Democrats fodder to criticize Republicans such as former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas and Rep. John T. Doolittle of California for putting their wives on their campaign and PAC payrolls for fundraising work.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/oct/01/pelosis-pac-pays-bills-for-spouses-firm/
Last week, Mrs. Pelosi’s office said the payments to her husband’s firm were perfectly legal, insisting she is compensating her husband at fair market value for the work his firm has performed for the PAC. But ethical watchdogs said the arrangement sends the wrong message.
“It’s problematic,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a nonprofit ethics and watchdog group. “From what I understand, Mr. Pelosi doesn’t need the money, but this isn’t the issue. … As speaker of the House, it sends the wrong message. She shouldn’t be putting family members on the payroll.”
A senior adviser to Mrs. Pelosi described the payments to FLS as “business expenses.”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/oct/01/pelosis-pac-pays-bills-for-spouses-firm/
Ah, got it; hypocrisy. I agree; one shouldn’t vote to ban something that one is participating in personally.
It is my recollection that the subject legislation failed to pass, even with the vote of the Speaker, so I’ll opine she wasn’t the only one involved in such arrangements and give credit to those who opposed the legislation for remaining consistent with their principles.
LITTLE KNOWN PAC FACT:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/oct/01/pelosis-pac-pays-bills-for-spouses-firm/
Mrs. Pelosi’s PACs have been in trouble before. In 2004, one of her political action committees, Team Majority, was fined $21,000 by the FEC for accepting donations over federal limits. It was one of two PACs she operated at the same time. The Team Majority PAC was closed shortly after the fine was levied.
That’s what I read too Vaughn, the legislation did not pass, even though Pelosi supported it.
So it’s not illegal to pay your husband from your PAC.
Doesn’t pass the smell test though, especially when you claim to be the Party to clean-up corruption.
avtolle
Posted October 1, 2008 at 11:29 am | Permalink
Ah, got it; hypocrisy. I agree; one shouldn’t vote to ban something that one is participating in personally.
==============================================================
Self-spanking?
Ouch! Bad girl! Bad girl!
Agreed, Max, it doesn’t pass the smell test, which is why such practices should be proscribed IMHO.
Of Persian / Iranian descent, this young woman scientist is a person I’ve had the privilege of meeting. Not only is she “…rated 49th in Telegraph’s world’s Top 100 living geniuses,” she is a talented musician! A musical geneticist who has made great contributions to our world! She also plays a mean game of tennis.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardis_Sabeti
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/0302/04.html
Ah hell, “littlejohn” –
It’s an open thread so I’ll chase the tangent for a while.
It took forty years for E=mc2 to go from concept to Hiroshima. Ideas traveled slower back in the day.
But one reason why Islam conquered the Middle East and Northern Africa and southwest Europe was the suckers knew a lot of about mathematics, which translated into technological, economic, and military power.
In so many ways, which the willfully ignorant will never grasp, the mathematical concept of “zero” revolutionized human progress. Look at other civilizations. What’s ‘zero’ in Roman numerals. What in the highly complex (and, in their own way, advanced) mathematics of Aztec and Incan commerce was encumbered by not understanding the (to us…now) simple concept of “zero.”
Islam shared that insight with foreign cultures and helped the West pull out of the Christian-dominated Dark Ages.
By the force of the sword? Yeah. Sorta like the United States of America financed the
genocide“salvation” of Native Americans in the 19th Century.Is it part of Islamic tradition to burn witches at the stake?
Is it part of Islamic tradition to burn witches at the stake?
No, just the killing of a family members women if they are raped because they dishonored the family.
My only point was that the concept of algebra, and zero, predated Islam. Perhaps an insigificant point, but in answer to a specific post.
As I stated earlier, Islamic scholars have contributed much to the world.
Is it part of Islamic tradition to burn witches at the stake?
No, just the killing of a family members women if they are raped because they dishonored the family.
My only point was that the concept of algebra, and zero, predated Islam. Perhaps an insigificant point, but in answer to a specific post.
As I stated earlier, Islamic scholars have contributed much to the world.
“Islam shared that insight with foreign cultures and helped the West pull out of the Christian-dominated Dark Ages.”
Which one of these helped bring Europe out of the Dark Ages…
Shakespeare?
Di Vinci and Michelangelo (producing works of art almost exclusively from scenes taken straight out of the NON-Islamic Bible)?
Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Descartes?
Perhaps there are more tagential means by which Monkeyhawk can credit the Renaissance to the religion of Islam.
My point being that none of these men have any ties to Islam. Without the their work combined with many just like them (also having now historical tie to Islam) there would have been no “coming out” of the dark ages at least in Western Europe.
For anyone who still believe in Santa Clause, I mean the Economic Bailout Plan:
NEW YORK (Fortune) — Regardless of what happens with the mortgage rescue bill now headed for a vote in the Senate, policymakers haven’t run out of tools for hacking away at the edges of the credit crisis.
Unfortunately, it’s far from clear that they can be trusted to use their powers wisely, or to any great effect. And if there’s any lesson to be learned from the response to the federal interventions of September, it’s that the siege mentality in the credit markets won’t lift until investors and taxpayers get a sense that Washington is pursuing a grander strategy than writing checks as fast as it can.
“All Washington wants to do is throw money at things,” said Robert Lutts, chief investment officer at Cabot Money Management in Salem, Mass. “What we need is for someone to lay out a tangible plan.”
Among those is the degree to which the candidates would use taxpayer dollars to recapitalize the banking system, which by all accounts is necessary, and where they stand on moves aimed at easing the U.S. consumer spending slowdown – such as new stimulus plans, for instance.
“This is shaping up as the defining issue for the next president and the next Congress,” said Johnson, who is also a management professor at MIT. “I don’t think they can keep punting on it.”
Meanwhile, investors remain frustrated by the failure of policymakers to explain the principles …that will guide their intervention in financial markets.. ,,, it remains unclear which financial firms will be deemed worthy of government support and which won’t.
http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/30/news/rescue.clarity.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008100108
Thowing money at the problem might have a temporary affect on the financial markets, but ultimately fear, and the lack of confidence in the US economy will return.
Funny, the crusader’s, Knights Hospitallers, Knights Templar’s…whatever, worked directly with the Hashshashin. The crusaders went to Arab lands and came back to build giant cathedrals, worthy of God and ripe with “sacred geometry”. They came back with something that made everyone want to give them lands and treasure (enough to start the modern banking system in any case).
So, I guess those zany Islamo-fascists were worth something.
Doggone I wanted to comment about Pelosi, but got beat to it. She’s a politician and they can’t keep their hand out of the till. Might be legal to pay her husband out of PAC funds, however it’s not right.
http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/oct/01/pelosis-pac-pays-bills-for-spouses-firm/
‘Sarah Palin puts polar bears on thin ice‘
http://www.desmogblog.com/sarah-palin-puts-polar-bears-on-thin-ice
“. . . It turns out that Sarah Palin has played a starring role in the science fiction drama. The UK Guardian breaks the news.”
‘Palin fought safeguards for polar bears with studies by climate change sceptics· Some scientists cited had been funded by oil industry
Governor tries to overturn threatened species ruling’
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/30/uselections2008.sarahpalin1
“The citation by Palin and her officials prompted complaints from Congress. One member, Brad Miller, dubbed the polar bear study phony science.
Palin told Miller: “Attempts to discredit scientists…simply because their analyses do not agree with your views, would be a disservice to this country.”
Miller now says that Palin’s use of the paper shows she differs greatly from John McCain, the Republican presidential contender, who has pressed for scientific integrity. “Turning to the cottage industry of scientists who are funded because they spread doubt about global warming is not integrity,” Miller said.”
“RFL” cites Galileo as an example of Christianity’s support of science.
Oh my…
Phluffer- The crusaders went to Arab lands and came back to build giant cathedrals, worthy of God and ripe with “sacred geometry”. They came back with something that made everyone want to give them lands and treasure.
————————————–
Actually, MOST of the ancient mosques were the “giant cathedrals” built by christians…..
The muslims took them over after murdering the previous owners.
The Earth is the center of the universe. The church was just kiddin’ about all the heliocentrism stuff.
george- Might be legal to pay her husband out of PAC funds, however it’s not right.
——————————————–
Usually followed by a “They have found no evidence that I have done anything illegal.”
Monkeyhawk
Posted October 1, 2008 at 1:17 pm | Permalink
“RFL” cites Galileo as an example of Christianity’s support of science.
Oh my…
==============
Although a devout Roman Catholic, Galileo fathered three children out of wedlock with Marina Gamba. They had two daughters, Virginia in 1600 and Livia in 1601, and one son, Vincenzio, in 1606. Because of their illegitimate birth, their father considered the girls unmarriageable.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei
Sure, just like the temples in Meso-America weren’t always Catholic…just before they were brutally…um…er…”saved”.
I’m saying there were no giant cathedrals prior to the crusaders sojourns to Arab lands. And lo’ and behold maybe that built sum o’ them big buildings there too.
“Deregulation” is the culprit of our current “crisis”? Not so fast . . .
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122282635048992995.html?mod=todays_us_opinion
A running cliché of the political left and the press corps these days is that our current financial problems all flow from Congress’s 1999 decision to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 that separated commercial and investment banking. Barack Obama has been selling this line every day. Bill Clinton signed that “deregulation” bill into law, and he knows better.
. . .
As for the sins of “deregulation” more broadly, this is a political fairy tale. The least regulated of our financial institutions — hedge funds — have posed the least systemic risks in the current panic. The big investment banks that got into the most trouble could have made the same mortgage investments before 1999 as they did afterwards. One of their problems was that Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns weren’t diversified enough. They prospered for years through direct lending and high leverage via the likes of asset-backed securities without accepting commercial deposits. But when the panic hit, this meant they lacked an adequate capital cushion to absorb losses.
Meanwhile, commercial banks that had heavier capital requirements were struggling to compete with the Wall Street giants throughout the 1990s. Some of the deposit-taking banks that were allowed to diversify after 1999, such as J.P. Morgan and Bank of America, are now in a stronger position to withstand the current turmoil. They have been able to help stabilize the financial system through acquisitions of Bear Stearns, Washington Mutual, Merrill Lynch and Countrywide Financial.
Mr. Obama’s “deregulation” trope may be good politics, but it’s bad history and is dangerous if he really believes it. The U.S. is going to need a stable, innovative financial system after this panic ends, and we won’t get that if Mr. Obama and his media chorus think the answer is to return to Depression-era rules amid global financial competition. Perhaps the Senator should ask the former President for a briefing.
——–
Be careful what you wish for; you just might get it.
More-
“Although he seriously considered the priesthood as a young man, he enrolled for a medical degree at the University of Pisa at his father’s urging.”
“Galileo defended heliocentrism, and claimed it was not contrary to those Scripture passages.”
Phluffer- I’m saying there were no giant cathedrals prior to the crusaders sojourns to Arab lands. And lo’ and behold maybe that built sum o’ them big buildings there too.
——————————–
I hate to argue but you’re trying to rewrite history.
Just do a quick search ‘cathedral turned into mosque’ if you are really interested.
If not? Troll on brutha’
When the West was in the Dark Ages, most books banned or burned by the Church, the Islamic scholars collected extensive libraries.
Italians who traveled to Muslim Spain were introduced to new sciences, like astronomy (ever wonder why star names are Arabic?), and different philosophies.
They took these ideas back to Europe and that was the genesis of the Renaissance.
DavidB- like astronomy (ever wonder why star names are Arabic?)
——————————
OMG I wondered who discovered the stars…….
Interesting spin.
The islamic religion is responsible for the Renaissance! Really! And this comes from a culture that can’t teach sex education and driver’s ed on the same day because it is too hard on the camels!
Give me a break.
HLP
Posted October 1, 2008 at 2:10 pm | Permalink
Interesting spin.
The islamic religion is responsible for the Renaissance! Really! And this comes from a culture that can’t teach sex education and driver’s ed on the same day because it is too hard on the camels!
Give me a break.
=========
In an Islamic country you could lose your head for saying that Hank.
There is a very interesting book titled “How the Irish Saved Civilization” that I highly recommend to anyone that believes Islam had any influence at all on our modern society.
In an Islamic country you could lose your head for saying that Hank.
_______________________________________________
Yep, the religion of peace and enlightenment and all that.
But GMC, the Democrats don’t believe Bill Clinton anymore. Obama is their new God.
GMC, a key piece you didn’t paste is below. Bill Clinton says the Congress’s 1999 decision to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 and Clinton’s signing of the Bill was NOT a mistake, and did NOT lead to the current crisis.
Who do you believe, Clinton or Obama?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122282635048992995.html?mod=todays_us_opinion
In BusinessWeek.com, Maria Bartiromo reports that she asked the former President last week whether he regretted signing that legislation. Mr. Clinton’s reply: “No, because it wasn’t a complete deregulation at all. We still have heavy regulations and insurance on bank deposits, requirements on banks for capital and for disclosure. I thought at the time that it might lead to more stable investments and a reduced pressure on Wall Street to produce quarterly profits that were always bigger than the previous quarter.
“But I have really thought about this a lot. I don’t see that signing that bill had anything to do with the current crisis. Indeed, one of the things that has helped stabilize the current situation as much as it has is the purchase of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America, which was much smoother than it would have been if I hadn’t signed that bill.”
One of the writers of that legislation was then-Senator Phil Gramm, who is now advising John McCain, and who Mr. Obama described last week as “the architect in the United States Senate of the deregulatory steps that helped cause this mess.” Ms. Bartiromo asked Mr. Clinton if he felt Mr. Gramm had sold him “a bill of goods”?
Mr. Clinton: “Not on this bill I don’t think he did. You know, Phil Gramm and I disagreed on a lot of things, but he can’t possibly be wrong about everything. On the Glass-Steagall thing, like I said, if you could demonstrate to me that it was a mistake, I’d be glad to look at the evidence.
“But I can’t blame [the Republicans]. This wasn’t something they forced me into. I really believed that given the level of oversight of banks and their ability to have more patient capital, if you made it possible for [commercial banks] to go into the investment banking business as Continental European investment banks could always do, that it might give us a more stable source of long-term investment.”
Is their a point to the Muslim discussion?
Oh, and btw, Maria Bartiromo is HOT!
You simply must take her interviews, especially with Bill Clinton, very seriously.
(Bet Bill was drueling during that interview!)
DavidB- Italians who traveled to Muslim Spain were introduced to new sciences, like astronomy (ever wonder why star names are Arabic?), and different philosophies.
—————————————-
Tell us some more stories uncle davey….
How long was it before those Arabic guys showed the chinese the stars…..
and the incas…..
and the aztecs…..
uncle davey?
were the egyptians arabic?
oh….thought so.
good night uncle davey.
Tomorrow night could you tell us the story of how they invented the community organizer…..
MaxGrobnik
Posted October 1, 2008 at 2:16 pm | Permalink
Is their a point to the Muslim discussion?
======
It’s at the end of the knife.
“How the Irish Saved Civilization”
The invention of green beer?
I never said that the Muslim’s didn’t usurp the cathedrals for their own use. I’m saying that there weren’t such great strides in architecture, ie; the flying buttress, the nave, the transept until after the crusader’s went to Arab lands. Something happened from there to here. What it was, who know? History is written by the victors, after all, and not exactly the true history is written.
Meanwhile out in the real world………….
The United States may be grappling with its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, but these are go-go days in China.
Venture capital, private equity and foreign direct investment are at all-time highs. Although Shanghai’s stock exchange has lost close to two-thirds of its value this year, China’s big banks have escaped the credit catastrophe largely unscathed, and the economy continues to expand briskly.
Fan, an investment manager at Guotai Asset Management, which oversees funds valued at about $5.1 billion, said that despite the country’s inexperience in the financial sector, China has a rare trump card: mountains of cash.
“It is inevitable,” he said, “that we will take the U.S.’s place as the world leader.”
But Shanghai is just one of several cities harboring ambitious — and to some analysts, fanciful — aspirations while the global finance industry is reshuffled.
Tokyo has lifted some regulations on banks and insurance groups and has begun to do something it resisted for a long time: print securities documents in English. The Singapore government, which through its massive sovereign wealth funds has increased its private equity and other financial holdings in recent years, has said it is looking to invest in more distressed assets in the United States.
And Dubai, riding the Middle East’s oil-fired boom, has declared itself the center of Islamic finance and says it aims, in the words of Dubai’s government, to “develop the same stature as New York.”
With U.S. investment houses tumbling into bankruptcy, consolidating operations or transforming themselves into more closely regulated commercial banks, Wall Street’s reputation as the prime address to raise capital, seek investment advice or trade securities is no longer rock-solid.
The flow of capital had already begun moving away from the United States this summer. A survey released last week about the competitiveness of world financial centers found that New York and London, often neck-and-neck in such rankings, were still at the top.
But the survey also found that the two cities’ lead over their rivals shrank after February because of the credit crisis and the collapse of U.S. securities firms. Frankfurt, Germany, and Paris also lost ground. Cities in Asia and the Middle East, meanwhile, were deemed most likely to gain in importance.
“Dubai, Singapore, Shanghai and Mumbai — they are the probable leaders,” said Michael Mainelli, executive chairman of Z/Yen group, which carried out the survey. Researchers looked at factors including infrastructure, foreign direct investment, cost of living and the presence of a fair and just business environment.
Oh, the Libs are trying to show the Superiority of Muslims over Christians?
I get it now.
The supporters of Obama are trying to show how the Muslims are Superior.
Say AmWAy,
You had a nice summary post showing the Laws passed by the Democrats say in 1977, 1995, but didn’t have this piece from 1999 if I recall.
Maybe you could add 1999 to your list and repost?
We could use some clarification on WHO TO BLAME for this BAILOUT CRISIS!
Pleefer- the flying buttress, the nave, the transept until after the crusader’s went to Arab lands. Something happened from there to here. What it was, who know?
————————————-
They visited rome?
biased1
Posted October 1, 2008 at 2:20 pm | Permalink
DavidB-
good night uncle davey.
Tomorrow night could you tell us the story of how they invented the community organizer…..
================================================
Heh heh heh….
I liked that one.
Community Organizers surely originated in the Euphrates Valley, which is now in which country?
Max- Heh heh heh….
I liked that one.
Community Organizers surely originated in the Euphrates Valley, which is now in which country?
————————————–
Kenya?
‘Brokaw Objectivity Questioned, Should Not Moderate Obama/McCain Debate‘
http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/diarypage.php?did=9779
“NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw’s behind-the-scenes relationship with the McCain campaign, as well as evidence of bias toward McCain in Brokaw’s recent reporting on the presidential race, have brought into question his fitness to moderate the next presidential debate Oct. 7.”
More at link.
You’re a certifiable dumb ass Maxi,
I’m no Lib, I’m for fuchs sake NO Obama supporter and I could care less about any of you goofy-assed religions.
Someone upthread said that the Muslims offer nothing to our world’s advancement. So I post something to the contrary and you, like the dummy you are, turn everything into a political speech.
Let it be known, here and farging now. I despise McCain and Obama. I’m a CONSTITUTIONALIST and neither one of the clowns posing as leaders are lovers of what makes our country unique. They are quite good at being the uncuous actors and liars that they truly are. They are excellent at heaping loads of bile into your all too welcoming mouths, which you in turn, spew out at the rest of us.
Let’s not forget this Muslim invention described below. (This may explain why Michelle Obama is SO ANGRY!)
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?pagename=IslamOnline-English-Ask_Scholar/FatwaE/FatwaE&cid=1119503543886
As for the Shari`ah stance on female circumcision, it’s a controversial issue among the Muslim scholars and even doctors.
In response to the question, the eminent Muslim scholar, Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, states:
Actually, this is a controversial issue among jurists and even among doctors. It has sparked off fierce debate in Egypt whereby scholars and doctors are split into proponents and opponents.
However, the most moderate opinion and the most likely one to be correct is in favor of practicing circumcision in the moderate Islamic way indicated in some of the Prophet’s hadiths – even though such hadiths are not confirmed to be authentic. It is reported that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to a midwife: “Reduce the size of the clitoris but do not exceed the limit, for that is better for her health and is preferred by husbands”. The hadith indicates that circumcision is better for a woman’s health and it enhances her conjugal relation with her husband. It’s noteworthy that the Prophet’s saying “do not exceed the limit” means do not totally remove the clitoris.
Oh, the Libs are trying to show the Superiority of Muslims over Christians?
I get it now.
The supporters of Obama are trying to show how the Muslims are Superior.
—————————————————-
Nope,
Just showing the results of class and culture warfare.
Flat wages and escalating debt, the country hasn’t been this split since the civil war,
Good job cons bravo!!!
I’m a CONSTITUTIONALIST
———————————-
I think they did a wonderful job of interpreting our constitution from the original arabic script…….
THAT’S IT!
Kenya is where Community Organizers originated.
Go to Kenya to see how organized those Huts are, and see Obama’s brother living in one right now!
Berkshire Hathaway is investing $3 Billion in GE, receiving Preferred stock (with negotiated dividend) and warrants to purchase additional common stock as a result thereof.
http://www.kansas.com/business/updates/story/547501.html
Anyone in the Congress, Administration, anywhere see something in this which might provide guidance for structuring a “rescue plan”?
annie_moose- Flat wages and escalating debt.
—————————–
Thank your unions and your social programs….
Biased 1, I didn’t know you were an architect. How about the ribbed vault or the pointed arch?
http://www.archnet.org/library/dictionary/entry.jsp?entry_id=DIA0078&mode=full
Thank your unions and your social programs….
Explain that one to me
———————————-
U.S. auto sales plunge
Sales sharply lower at Ford, Toyota and GM; auto makers say credit squeeze, customer worries led to sharp drops in sales.
Ford said the credit squeeze led to a 34% drop in sales in September, much worse than even pessimistic industry forecasts.
Ford said the credit squeeze led to a 34% drop in sales in September, much worse than even pessimistic industry forecasts.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Sales at the nation’s top automakers fell sharply in September, as tighter credit for buyers and dealers combined with high fuel prices to curtail demand for cars and trucks.
GM, down 16%: General Motors (GM, Fortune 500) reported that sales of cars and light trucks dropped 16% from a year ago. That was better than the forecast of a 24% decline from Edmunds.com, but it was still clearly a sign of weaken demand. Sales of GM’s cars fell 10% while sales of light trucks – such as pickups, SUVs and vans – declined 19%.
Toyota, down 32%: Toyota Motor (TM) reported that its sales toppled 32% from a year earlier. Sales of its car models dropped 28% and its light truck sales plunged 38%. The forecast was for an overall drop of only 18%.
It was by far the sharpest drop in U.S. sales for the Japanese automaker this decade. After years of steady gains that made it No. 2 in terms of U.S. sales, it has now had year-over-year declines in U.S. sales in all but one month since last December.
Ford, down 35%: The news was just as bad at Ford (F, Fortune 500), which reported that U.S. sales tumbled 35% from a year earlier. The forecast had been for only a 25% drop.
Bias against reality1,
You, along with your butt-pal Max, are a dolt.
Swine.
Pleefer, your flying buttress is showing again.
annie_moose
Posted October 1, 2008 at 2:58 pm | Permalink
Thank your unions and your social programs….
Explain that one to me
———————————-
U.S. auto sales plunge
Sales sharply lower at Ford, Toyota and GM; auto makers say credit squeeze, customer worries led to sharp drops in sales.
———————————————————–
Record high energy prices leading to a pending Global Economic collapse.
But, we can conserve our way out of it. Just go blow air in your tires.
Pleefer
Posted October 1, 2008 at 2:54 pm | Permalink
Biased 1, I didn’t know you were an architect. How about the ribbed vault or the pointed arch?
————————————————
China.
RFL
Posted October 1, 2008 at 12:11 pm | Permalink
“Islam shared that insight with foreign cultures and helped the West pull out of the Christian-dominated Dark Ages.”
Which one of these helped bring Europe out of the Dark Ages…
Shakespeare?
Di Vinci and Michelangelo (producing works of art almost exclusively from scenes taken straight out of the NON-Islamic Bible)?
Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Descartes?
Perhaps there are more tagential means by which Monkeyhawk can credit the Renaissance to the religion of Islam.
=========================================
Monkey / Steven — I am truly beginning to think that these CONS actually do live in a parallel universe…. They plainly dont KNOW, or WANT TO KNOW, the history that the rest of us know….
Which one of these helped bring Europe out of the Dark Ages…
Shakespeare?
Di Vinci and Michelangelo (producing works of art almost exclusively from scenes taken straight out of the NON-Islamic Bible)?
Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Descartes?
Good GRIEF RFL… The answer to your idiotic question is NO!! Reson: The Dark Ages were OVER before any of those on your “list” were around!!
#
Record high energy prices leading to a pending Global Economic collapse.
But, we can conserve our way out of it. Just go blow air in your tires.
———————————–
? the Dems have lowered the cost of fuel almost a buck a gallon
That can’t be it
————————————
Also the Dem led congress has achieved total victory in Iraq
That should free up several trillion dollars a year in borrowed tax money
_________________
Chastina- Which one of these helped bring Europe out of the Dark Ages…
—————————————–
I was going to go with the “burqa.”
or the “beheading.”
much cleaner than pulling them apart.
China? oh you mean those small (by high) towers fashioned of wood called pagoda’s? Yeah, umm, the stone ribbed vaults are the complete reverse of the wooden pagoda style roofs. But screw it, my flying-buttress side is showing through today.
I relent, it’s yours.
biased1 — What the HELL are you babbling about?? And WHO are you talking to, oh you of diminished capacity??
Wow, you remeber the Inquisiton? Beheadings were so passe’ during that festival. Remember the siege at Montsegur against those wascally Cathars?
Those zealots burned themselves!!!!!
Hahaha, good times, man, good times!
Pleefer
Posted October 1, 2008 at 3:31 pm | Permalink
Wow, you remeber the Inquisiton? Beheadings were so passe’ during that festival.
===========
That was a few hundred years ago. Islamist are doing these things TODAY.
Phluffer- stone ribbed vaults are the complete reverse of the wooden pagoda style roofs
—————————————–
Just to show you i’m a sport….
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/china/architecture/
Annie you can thank Newt Gingrich for the lower gas price. Check his campaign and see the date it started and the date gas prices started down. Drill here, drill now, pay less. It has worked.
What plan did the do nothing dim congress do that you think had a thing to do with fuel prices?
Chass says:
“Good GRIEF RFL… The answer to your idiotic question is NO!! Reson: The Dark Ages were OVER before any of those on your “list” were around!!”
The dark ages are over? Why are you still living there?
okobserver- What plan did the do nothing dim congress do that you think had a thing to do with fuel prices?
————————————
Obama’s Rosa Parks stamp?
Ummm… biased1 — I am not sure Rosa Parks has been dead long enough to GET a stamp??
And we’re just a go-fast world here. No nieghbor knows the next and we complain about “55 Stay Alive” and all of that.
We’re (laughed at by you) being acclimated back into allowing torture ie; “24″ and “Club Gitmo”. Whether or not you believe it, you are being trained to accept torture. Pavlov doesn’t know what he’s missing.
I’m no “kook”, just a man without teevee. I watch all of the trained monkeys out and about (see Wal-Mart) and know exactly why our beloved country is being stolen. Divide and Conquer and all of the Machiavellian, “the end justifies the means” type predicaments that I (and the NEW majority of truth seekers in America) see just saddens me.
It was very nice to hear Chuck Norris on the Alex Jones Show today. He is a Ron Paul backer and is indeed, a full blown truth seeker.
America will win, regardless of what you party-liners try to do in order to defeat it.
“Drill here, drill now, pay less. It has worked.”
How? Has one new well been drilled? Where?
Sorry I’ll stick with the Pickens plan
oh and check your tire pressure it’s the patriotic thing to do
tata
Chastina- Ummm… biased1 — I am not sure Rosa Parks has been dead long enough to GET a stamp??
————————————————–
The One sponsored this….
S. 1713: A bill to provide for the issuance of a commemorative postage stamp in honor of Rosa Parks.
Busy little guy eh?
baahhhhhhhh…
baahhhhhhhh…..
hey ok, I’m sure one of these bills sponsored by the One addresses our energy needs right along side of the banking oversight…………
S. 1790: Communities of Color Teen Pregnancy Prevention Act of 2007
S. 1713: A bill to provide for the issuance of a commemorative postage stamp in honor of Rosa Parks.
S. 1513: Predominantly Black Institution Act of 2007
S.Con.Res. 5: A concurrent resolution honoring the life of Percy Lavon Julian, a pioneer in the field of organic chemistry and the first and only African-American chemist to be inducted into the National Academy of Sciences.
S.Con.Res. 46: A concurrent resolution supporting the goals and ideals of Sickle Cell Disease Awareness Month.
S.Res. 383: A resolution honoring and recognizing the achievements of Carl Stokes, the first African-American mayor of a major American city, in the 40th year since his election as Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio.
S.Res. 600: A resolution commemorating the 44th anniversary of the deaths of civil rights workers Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner in Philadelphia, Mississippi, while working in the name of American democracy to register voters and secure civil rights during the summer of 1964, which has become known as “Freedom Summer”.
You didn’t read your own …um…article?
“In the Han Dynasty (200’s BC), Buddhism first came to China from India. Buddhists built pagodas to keep sacred things in. At first these pagodas were wooden towers that got smaller as they got higher. They were related to Indian buildings called stupas.
When Buddhism became more important in China in the 500’s AD, during the Three Kingdoms period, architects began to build special Buddhist temples.
Sui Dynasty architects designed a beautiful bridge at Anji, in the early 600’s AD. The bridge shows the ideas of symmetry and balance that were important in Taoism.
Under the Tang dynasty (618-906), architects designed even fancier Buddhist pagodas, with eight sides. One famous eight-sided stone pagoda is the White Pagoda at Chengde.
Under the Sung dynasty, about the year 1000 AD, people wanted buildings to be tall and thin, with high spires. Buddhist pagodas began to be built of stone. To make them fancier, they had complicated wooden lattices all around them.
The Islamic idea was “batted around” in the early 7th Century. But hey, let’s not fight. Like I said upthread, “you win”.
“Sorry I’ll stick with the Pickens plan. . .”
______________________________________________
Which, by the way, includes drilling as much as possible.
hehehe
nitwit
KAKE TV and Associated Press are spinning the complaint filed against abortionist quack Tiller for last week’s illegal post-viable abortion and illegal follow-up partial-birth abortion and other violations as a groundless falsehood.
Operation Rescue had the victim’s testimony on video of an illegal post-viable abortion, an illegal, follow-up, near-fatal partial-birth abortion, other violations of state laws, medical regulations and standards of care, including involuntary restraint and threats to withhold treatment, not to mention abortionist quack Tiller appearing out of control, shaking, with bad vision while driving. Failure of anyone in possession of such evidence to file a complaint on behalf of the protection of public health and safety would be criminal.
- – -
More than 64% of pregnancies in Russia end in abortion, and 5.5 million Russian couples are now infertile because of the risk caused by the scarring of abortion. Over the past five years, female infertility in Russia has increased by 14%, and over 1.5 million Russians need advanced medical technology to become pregnant and maintain a healthy pregnancy. The number of infertile women in Russia is growing by 200,000 to 250,000 each year — with the main cause complications from abortions. Abortions are currently free for all Russian women in state-run health clinics. Russia has one of the lowest birth rates in the world at 1.17 children per woman, and a declining population.
In Russia, we see a picture of what Planned Parenthood, with Obamanation as their Judas Goat, has in mind for America’s black population.
- – -
Doug Kmiec, a constitutional law professor at Pepperdine University, former law school dean of Catholic University of America, former legal counsel to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, and former law clerk to U. S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, is currently on a “Faith, Family, and Values Tour” for Obamanation, and proclaims that babies born alive during late-term abortions, but without any expectation of living very long, are not living human beings worthy of legal protection or compassion.
- – -
Franklin Park, IL police are searching for the parents of a 2-week-old baby girl found abandoned Tuesday morning in a garbage pile. The child, in good health, is with the Department of Children and Family Services.
The Illinois safe haven law of 2001, which includes provisions for a hotline and free medical care and counseling, allows unharmed infants up to 7 days old to be legally abandoned at fire and police stations, hospitals, and clinics. Any other infant abandonment is a felony in Illinois. Since its enactment, at least 41 infants have been legally abandoned, but 49 infants have been illegally abandoned in Illinois, 24 of whom have died.
MaxGrobnik posted October 1, 2008 at 3:07 pm
Record high energy prices leading to a pending Global Economic collapse.
But, we can conserve our way out of it. Just go blow air in your tires.
———–
And then read the report that was tasked by the Pentagon,
http://www.oilendgame.com/ReadTheBook.html
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=Chuck%20Norris%20on%20Alex%20Jones&rls=com.microsoft:*:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7GFRD&um=1&sa=N&tab=wv#
‘Are we heading into a new Little Ice Age?‘
http://www.skepticalscience.com/Are-we-heading-into-a-new-Little-Ice-Age.html
“What if the sun did go through another Maunder Minimum?
However unlikely and difficult to predict, imagine for the sake of argument that the sun does go through another Maunder Minimum over the next century. What effect would this have on Earth’s climate? The difference in solar radiative forcing between Maunder Minimum levels and current solar activity is estimated between 0.17 W/m2 (Wang 2005) to 0.23 W/m2 (Krivova 2007).
In contrast, the radiative forcing of CO2 since pre-industrial times is 1.66 W/m2 (IPCC AR4), far outstripping solar influence. And that’s not including the extra CO2 to be added to the atmosphere in upcoming decades.
In other words, the warming from CO2 dwarves any potential cooling even if the sun was to return to Maunder Minimum levels.”
http://www.pickensplan.com/theplan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC8s7VipVic
“With each permutation, the bill has steadily grown in size. Treasury’s initial plan was about three pages long. The House version, which failed, stretched to 110. The Senate substitute now runs over 450 pages. And tucked away in the tax provisions is a landmark health care provision demanding that insurance companies provide coverage for mental health treatment—such as hospitalization—on parity with physical illnesses.”
Dammit!!!! why can;’t the bass turds just stick the subject at hand?!! I thought this was a calamity of epic porporitons, the “crisis of the century” Not just another fundraising idea.
Mfrs. Both sides.
i am sure there is plenty of other crap to appeal to both sides. Sick of the crap. Bass turds all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0807/22/sitroom.01.html
PICKENS: … McCain says, OK off the East and West Coasts. I say East, West Coast and ANWR. Get it all. I mean, to get off of foreign oil, that is the enemy. Get everything you can get. You cannot drill your way out of it. But you’re drilling, and whatever you are able to find and put into the domestic system will help us. But you — you aren’t going to be able to find enough to take care of all the imports that we have.
————
You’ll be lucky to do much more that replace our declining domestic production. — a futile attempt to maintain status quo.
You wont lower world oil prices.
And you’ll waste money buying more oil, which is more expensive than investing in higher energy efficiency.
I see that cosmos is still attributing climate change as a recipient of heat only.
Perhaps someone should introduce cosmos to a science class and tell him about wind, latitude, altitude, water, meteorological patterns, plant life, animals, earth rotation and position.
“And tucked away in the tax provisions is a landmark health care provision demanding that insurance companies provide coverage for mental health treatment—such as hospitalization—on parity with physical illnesses.”
Actually, the bill is attached as a rider to the above.
EXCLUSIVE: Pelosi paid husband with PAC funds
$99,000 for rent, utilities, accounting fees
Jennifer Haberkorn (Contact)
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
EXCLUSIVE:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has directed nearly $100,000 from her political action committee to her husband’s real estate and investment firm over the past decade, a practice of paying a spouse with political donations that she supported banning last year.
Financial Leasing Services Inc. (FLS), owned by Paul F. Pelosi, has received $99,000 in rent, utilities and accounting fees from the speaker’s “PAC to the Future” over the PAC’s nine-year history.
The payments have quadrupled since Mr. Pelosi took over as treasurer of his wife’s committee in 2007, Federal Election Commission records show. FLS is on track to take in $48,000 in payments this year alone – eight times as much as it received annually from 2000 to 2005, when the committee was run by another treasurer.
Lawmakers’ frequent use of campaign donations to pay relatives emerged as an issue in the 2006 election campaigns, when the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal gave Democrats fodder to criticize Republicans such as former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas and Rep. John T. Doolittle of California for putting their wives on their campaign and PAC payrolls for fundraising work.
Last year, Mrs. Pelosi supported a bill that would have banned members of Congress from putting spouses on their campaign staffs. The bill – which passed the House in a voice vote but did not get out of a Senate committee – banned not only direct payments by congressional campaign committees and PACs to spouses for services including consulting and fundraising, but also “indirect compensation,” such as payments to companies that employ spouses.
“Democrats are committed to reforming the way Washington does business,” Mrs. Pelosi said in a press release at the time. “Congressman [Adam] Schiff’s bill will help us accomplish that goal by increasing transparency in election campaigns and preventing the misuse of funds.”
Last week, Mrs. Pelosi’s office said the payments to her husband’s firm were perfectly legal, insisting she is compensating her husband at fair market value for the work his firm has performed for the PAC. But ethical watchdogs said the arrangement sends the wrong message.
“It’s problematic,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a nonprofit ethics and watchdog group. “From what I understand, Mr. Pelosi doesn’t need the money, but this isn’t the issue. … As speaker of the House, it sends the wrong message. She shouldn’t be putting family members on the payroll.”
A senior adviser to Mrs. Pelosi described the payments to FLS as “business expenses.”
Last week, Mrs. Pelosi’s office said the payments to her husband’s firm were perfectly legal, insisting she is compensating her husband at fair market value for the work his firm has performed for the PAC. But ethical watchdogs said the arrangement sends the wrong message.
“It’s problematic,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a nonprofit ethics and watchdog group. “From what I understand, Mr. Pelosi doesn’t need the money, but this isn’t the issue. … As speaker of the House, it sends the wrong message. She shouldn’t be putting family members on the payroll.”
A senior adviser to Mrs. Pelosi described the payments to FLS as “business expenses.”
“She’s followed all the appropriate rules and regulations in terms of records and paperwork,” said Brendan Daly, Mrs. Pelosi’s spokesman. “When [former treasurer] Leo McCarthy became ill, she thought that it was best that that firm did the accounting and she’s paid fair market value in San Francisco.”
Between 1999 and 2006, FLS collected $500 per month to cover rent, utilities and equipment for the leadership PAC, according to the FEC records. The PAC’s address is listed as a personal mailbox in San Francisco, across the street from FLS’s Montgomery Street office building, but the rent payments went to an office space.
In early 2007, the PAC’s treasurer, Leo T. McCarthy, former Democratic speaker of the state assembly and lieutenant governor in California, died. Mr. Pelosi took over as treasurer and his company’s PAC payouts rose.
At that point, FLS started charging the PAC $24,000 per year for accounting work. In January 2008, the PAC’s rent – paid to FLS – also quadrupled from $500 to $2,000 per month.
Mr. McCarthy, the previous treasurer, had done the work as a volunteer, according to FEC documents and Jennifer Crider, a senior adviser to Mrs. Pelosi and spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. She said FLS’ accounting fees are in line with costs for other PACs.
The jump in rent was an adjustment to reflect San Francisco’s pricey real estate market, Miss Crider said. The rent was adjusted to $1,250 per month, with $750 in back rent to reflect that the rent should have been increased in mid-2007. This was the first increase since the PAC was established in mid-1999, records show.
Over the first six months of 2008, FLS was the largest vendor for Mrs. Pelosi’s PAC. Brian Wolff, a political consultant, is the second-largest vendor, bringing in $22,500 this year.
FLS’ payments represent 11 percent of the $213,900 the PAC raised over the first half of this year, according to the FEC documents.
PACs, which are designed to help politicians contribute to other candidates and build influence with colleagues, operate under lighter restrictions than traditional campaign committees.
Meredith McGehee, policy director at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, said putting family members on a PAC payroll is bound to raise questions and, in some cases, allow for abuse.
“The reality is that under the current system, PACs are rife with self-dealing transactions,” she said. “The laws and regulations could and should be strengthened.
“There is a point now that you’re starting to talk about real money,” she said of Mrs. Pelosi’s PAC. “This is not just a mom-and-pop operation and any self-dealing transaction by a member of Congress is going to get scrutiny, particularly with large amounts of money and prominent members.”
It is illegal for members of Congress to hire family members to work on their official staff, but hiring relatives to work on a campaign or PAC is legal.
To be sure, many political action committees employ or work with family businesses. Last year, CREW found that 19 members of Congress used campaign committees or PACs to purchase services from a family member between 2002 and 2006.
Mrs. Pelosi’s PACs have been in trouble before. In 2004, one of her political action committees, Team Majority, was fined $21,000 by the FEC for accepting donations over federal limits. It was one of two PACs she operated at the same time. The Team Majority PAC was closed shortly after the fine was levied.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/oct/01/pelosis-pac-pays-bills-for-spouses-firm/
Gangs trade in guns, drugs, extortion, prostitution and fraud.
Any of you casual users of these street crimes, your part of the problem.
Gangs need customers and there seemingly is enough of them to make criminals profits.
It’s nice to be include when Federal street criminals but miss the drug user customers.
Washington, D.C.– More than 1,700 alleged gang members and their associates, many of them illegal immigrants, were arrested during a four-month nationwide crackdown that spanned 53 cities, including Los Angeles and San Diego, federal officials said today.
“We’ve inflicted significant damage on various violent street gangs in every part of the country, from Wichita to Sheboygan,” said Julie L. Myers, assistant secretary of Homeland Security for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “And that has made our communities immeasurably safer.”
California led the arrest totals with 430 during the course of the law enforcement initiative, which ran from June 1 to Sept. 30 and included 28 states. Of those arrests, 168 were made in Los Angeles, 96 in San Bernardino, and 81 in San Diego. Texas came in second with 271 arrests.
Operation Community Shield mostly targeted Latin and Central American street gangs, including Surenos-13, MS-13, 18th Street Gang, and the Latin Kings, Myers said. The alleged gang members were mostly foreign-born, with many involved in serious crimes including robbery, extortion, rape and murder, according to ICE officials.
“These gangs, and others like them, prey on our neighborhoods, prey on our communities, [and] take advantage of the individuals who live there,” Myers said.
Reputed members and associates of the Surenos-13 street gang, a loose organization that originated in the California prison system, made up the largest number of arrestees representing any one group. Traditionally, most of the arrests have been reputed members and associates of the Mara Salvatrucha organization, a gang of mostly Latin and Central American immigrants known as MS-13.
Of the 1,759 people arrested, 1,029 were charged with immigration violations and face deportation proceedings. The remaining 730 face criminal charges including assault, drug possession, and reentering the country after deportation.
Of those apprehended, 392 were U.S. citizens. arrested on criminal violations, Myers said.
“The problem is not limited to one nationality,” she said. “There are a very high number of U.S. citizens who are involved in transnational gangs, as well as individuals from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and other countries throughout the world.
The arrests this year represent a 34 percent increase from the 2007 operation, , which resulted in 1,313 arrests. Myers called the 2008 crackdown a success and attributed the increase in arrests to the continued cooperation between federal and local officials, some of whom find immigration enforcement to be a delicate issue in their communities.
In a rush, I meant…
It’s nice when Federals sweep criminals up but miss the drug user customers.
I see that multi-nic’d is still posting his usual, stupid, false ad hominems.
#
cosmos_originally
Posted October 1, 2008 at 7:44 pm | Permalink
I see that multi-nic’d is still posting his usual, stupid, false ad hominems.
============================
It’s not ad hominem, it’s an accurate description of you bastardizing science with political ideology.
I see that multi-nic’d is still posting his usual stupid lies, and false ad hominems.
#
Regular
Posted October 1, 2008 at 7:52 pm | Permalink
#
cosmos_originally
Posted October 1, 2008 at 7:44 pm | Permalink
I see that multi-nic’d is still posting his usual, stupid, false ad hominems.
============================
It’s not ad hominem, it’s an accurate description of you bastardizing science with political ideology.
biased1 = Racist Bastard
re: biased1
DNFTT
Multi-nic’d is a dull, boring liar.
As requested. 1999 added:
Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, a Carter-era law that purported to prevent “redlining” – denying mortgages to black borrowers – by pressuring banks to make home loans in “low- and moderate-income neighborhoods.” Under the act, banks were to be graded on their attentiveness to the “credit needs” of “predominantly minority neighborhoods.” The higher a bank’s rating, the more likely that regulators would say yes when the bank sought to open a new branch or undertake a merger or acquisition.
1995: The Clinton Administration’s regulatory revisions with an effective starting date of January 31, 1995 were credited with substantially increasing the number and aggregate amount of loans to small businesses and to low- and moderate-income borrowers for home loans. Part of the increase in home loans was due to increased efficiency and the genesis of lenders, like Countrywide, that do not mitigate loan risk with savings deposits as do traditional banks using the new subprime authorization. This is known as the secondary market for mortgage loans.
1. Bill Clinton says the Congress’s 1999 decision to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 and Clinton’s signing of the Bill was NOT a mistake, and did NOT lead to the current crisis.
Who do you believe, Clinton or Obama?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122282635048992995.html?mod=todays_us_opinion
In BusinessWeek.com, Maria Bartiromo reports that she asked the former President last week whether he regretted signing that legislation. Mr. Clinton’s reply: “No, because it wasn’t a complete deregulation at all. We still have heavy regulations and insurance on bank deposits, requirements on banks for capital and for disclosure. I thought at the time that it might lead to more stable investments and a reduced pressure on Wall Street to produce quarterly profits that were always bigger than the previous quarter.
“But I have really thought about this a lot. I don’t see that signing that bill had anything to do with the current crisis. Indeed, one of the things that has helped stabilize the current situation as much as it has is the purchase of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America, which was much smoother than it would have been if I hadn’t signed that bill.”
One of the writers of that legislation was then-Senator Phil Gramm, who is now advising John McCain, and who Mr. Obama described last week as “the architect in the United States Senate of the deregulatory steps that helped cause this mess.” Ms. Bartiromo asked Mr. Clinton if he felt Mr. Gramm had sold him “a bill of goods”?
Mr. Clinton: “Not on this bill I don’t think he did. You know, Phil Gramm and I disagreed on a lot of things, but he can’t possibly be wrong about everything. On the Glass-Steagall thing, like I said, if you could demonstrate to me that it was a mistake, I’d be glad to look at the evidence.
“But I can’t blame [the Republicans]. This wasn’t something they forced me into. I really believed that given the level of oversight of banks and their ability to have more patient capital, if you made it possible for [commercial banks] to go into the investment banking business as Continental European investment banks could always do, that it might give us a more stable source of long-term investment.”
2003: the Bush Administration recommended what the NY Times called “the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.” This change was to move governmental supervision of two of the primary agents guaranteeing subprime loans, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under a new agency created within the Department of the Treasury. However, it did not alter the implicit guarantee that Washington will bail the companies out if they run into financial difficulty; that perception enabled them to issue debt at significantly lower rates than their competitors. The changes were generally opposed along Party lines and eventually failed to happen. Representative Barney Frank(D-MA) claimed of the thrifts “These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis, the more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.” Representative Mel Watt (D-NC) added “I don’t see much other than a shell game going on here, moving something from one agency to another and in the process weakening the bargaining power of poorer families and their ability to get affordable housing.”
‘’These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis,’’ said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ‘’The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.’’
Hank: Do you mind if EYE am American Way today?
Oh and Max, that would apply to you.
Your day is Tuesday.
Thanks AmWay!
And least we forget HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Happy New Fiscal Year 2009 for our Federal Government. 1 October.
And guess how many of the annual appropriation bills your DEMOCRATIC LEAD CONGRESS has passed this year?
Zip. Zero. Nada!
Yessiree bubba! For the SECOND YEAR IN A ROW A CONTINUING RESOLUTION is running all our government.
DO NOTHING CONGRESS.
And they wanna pass 700+ billion in a week?
HA!
Throw all these bums out. Lowest rating 10% ever.
Worst Congress Ever!!!!
Failure to pass the “nations needed legislation” is EXACTLY what Nancy Boyda and her fellow democrats ran on during the midterm elections.
Remember? Remember the cry about the “DO NOTHING” republican congress? Remember the cry about the EARMARKS?
It’s all true folks, I cannot make this stuff up.
So, libs campaigned and supported democrats last time because of the failure of republicans running congress to act.
Are they going to be consistent?
Maybe that’s why Walker is now calling Earmarks “a blessed thing” in his posting on the subject of the 18 BILLION democrats porked up.
(let me hear about the big bad war costing trillions from some lib who has to JUSTIFY the piss poor conduct of his own party. let me see them redirect. Cannot admit their own party is wrong. Ever wonder about that libs? What does that really say about thou holy party?)
Gee AmWay, you mean the DemoRat Congress hasn’t even submitted a budget yet that was due today?
How can they blame the Repbulicans if they haven’t even submitted anything yet?
‘Senate passes $700B rescue; House votes lured‘
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081001/financial_meltdown.html
Well, the Senate has approved a horrendous bailout for the morgage banking industry.
What I don’t understand is that if we got in this mess by borrowing too much on too little collateral, how is it solving anything to use $700,000,000,000 (what a lot of zeros!) in borrowed funds to purchase investments we already know are extremely risky? Our broke great-grandkids will thank us for ridding them of all those pesky material things that we busted our asses to provide for them!
Yep it’s a new fiscal year. Should be seeing those posts about the RECORD NATIONAL DEBT and RECORD DEFICIT SPENDING any day now.
I HOPE the libs and editors are not so STUPID as to turn around and blame BUSHY and republicans for – the bills the DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS rushed through.
Stimulus Package anyone? 150 billion wasted. Energy Act 25 billion wasted (not seeing lower gas prices or Fred Flinstone cars on the road yet are ya?) And how about another 25 billion in loan guarantees for our BANKRUPT BIG (little now) THREE AUTO MAKERS? Only cost you and my 7 BILLION (count them) dollars to bail out the AMerican automakers. WE gotta support them building those big gas SUCKING cars and gas GUZZLING SUV’s and pickemup trucks.
America is an amazing place isn’t it? Makes you shake your head in wonder.
Soon foreigners from small rich countries will be coming here to gawk at the THIRD WORLD nation America has become.
Can anyone balance their checkbooks?
Are your credit cards paid off?
Got a line of credit, or second mortgage sticking up your butt?
Get in line with your nations government, they are 10 TRILLION DOLLARS in debts, just like most of us.
We will be a walk in zoo for tourists from afar.
due today?
due today?
due today?
due today?
due today?
due today?
due today?
due today?
due today?
Hell, Congress should have acted MONTHS ago, so the 26 major appropriation bills: everything from education, DoD, DoJ, etc…. etc…. etc..
Nothing: FOR THE SECOND YEAR.
Come on Libs!@ THis has to piss you off too!
Hell I admitted the republicans were gonners. I admitted I voted for Nancy Boyda.
Can’t you guys voice disagreement with your party?
How the HELL will we ever voice disagreement when democrats own all three branches of the federal government?
I wonder if we can contract out congress.
W O R S T
C O N G R E S S
E V E R ! ! !
All of a sudden….
The Liberal Democrat OUTRAGE at FEDERAL DEFICIT SPENDING….
has disapeared……
“how is it solving anything to use $700,000,000,000 (what a lot of zeros!) in borrowed funds to ”
JED,
It’s the new economics: Spend your way out of debt.
You know, just like your personal credit cards.
When you get maxed out – you take out another card.
When all your cards are maxed out, you take out another one and consolidate for a lower loan rate for a few months.
It’s the new math.
The more you spend: bad checks + bad checks + more bad checks = economic growth.
HA! HE-HE!
If I don’t laugh, I’d be crying.
WHAT!
The DemoRat Congress didn’t pass the Education Bill?
Dam!
They don’t really care about the children or the teachers!
Dear AmericanWay,
You can be AmericanWay tonight, but I’ll need some help tomorrow and Saturday being Hank.
Max, you’re on your own for now.
The Liberal Democrat OUTRAGE at FEDERAL DEFICIT SPENDING….
has disappeared……”
Yep Max,
GOne like a feight train,
gone like yesterday,
gone like a soldier in the civil war bang bang.
Gone like a 59 Cadillac,
and all the good times.
And nothin’ can bring them back.
American_Way
Posted October 1, 2008 at 9:28 pm | Permalink
due today?
due today?
due today?
due today?
due today?
due today?
due today?
due today?
due today?
Hell, Congress should have acted MONTHS ago, so the 26 major appropriation bills: everything from education, DoD, DoJ, etc…. etc…. etc..
=============================================================
But Amway, Congress was on Vacation.
HLP
Posted October 1, 2008 at 9:33 pm | Permalink
Dear AmericanWay,
You can be AmericanWay tonight, but I’ll need some help tomorrow and Saturday being Hank.
Max, you’re on your own for now.
========================================================
HLP, I’m not Max.
I’m Regular.
This is the first Wednesday of the month right?
Ok, then I must be Regular as Max.
Well, if you can’t appreciate the history of Western civilization and its roots…
I’m Max today.
HEY there Hank!
I was thinking about you the other day when I went out to get supplies for the crash of 08′.
Got a 9mm I inherited from my pa, a 12 gauge pump, and 20 guauge single, and an old AR15 which I have been meaning to convert to get the kick of the three round burst or fully auto using this old automatic shear, I got from an old retired armor. Not sure if that applies to the bolt carrier group, or if modifications are required to the lower receiver group. Not sure if some modifications are required which would require machining – or even if I need a new spring (which I doubt because the 5.56 full metal jacket rounds really don’t have much more kick than a 22 anyway.
But I aim to be prepared when those pesky varmints come a begging for my supplies when the final market crash happens.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTJjdNbWgp4&feature=related
However,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-frHAqOaC3Q&feature=related
Whatever.
Clinton left America with a federal budget surplus… now where are we after eight years of Bushonomics?
Rednecks, God love them! :D
rofl!
http://break.com/index/redneck-woman-rails-on-obama.html
BTW, the woman in the video is a hillary supporter. :D
http://break.com/index/redneck-woman-rails-on-obama.html
“But Amway, Congress was on Vacation.”
Vacation? Hell they got on of those now until next congress thanks to the continuing resolution they monkeyed through.
But I don’t think they were really on vacation. That would mean flying in airplanes, driving their big SUV’s, and wasting gas.
Me thinks they were too busy doing investigations.
Yep, them be some EYE SPY inspectors doing some checkin up on cons. Not quite as good as Illya Kuryakin in the Man from UNCLE in their investigating.
But they sure spend a lot of money spinning their wheels.
Didn’t someone have a list of all the investigations the democratic congress had?
Clinton let Obama go,
3 times.
HEHEHE,
I’m OK, AmericanWay. I’m 63 and if it gets too bad I’ll just go down and start getting my SS check. With the SS check, my Navy retirement and my 1911 I’ll still be able to get a tank of gas each month.
Hopefully I’ll be able to get to the gun show this weekend ad get another two or three hundred pounds of ammo.
I’ll still be able to get my SS, right?
Right?
RIGHT!!??
They can’t take away my Navy retirement can they?
Can they?
WELL!!?? CAN THEY?
Say Hank!
Did ya get your hooves trimmed the other day when the Ferrier came?
Hate for ya to be around them ‘crats with sharp hooves, might actually stick one in the gizzard!
Oh well, I still have my 1911.
hehehehe
#
HLP
Posted October 1, 2008 at 9:57 pm | Permalink
They can’t take away my Navy retirement can they?
Can they?
WELL!!?? CAN THEY?
====================
It’s ran by Congress, so anything can happen.
And my 870.
hehehehe
Uh yeah “Max”?
You have FAR more posts here today, or any day, than I.
Sorta like a guy who runs an office for his wife?
Really Hank, seek help.
I think you were underwater too long.
DavidB
Posted October 1, 2008 at 9:45 pm | Permalink
Clinton left America with a federal budget surplus… now where are we after eight years of Bushonomics?
David you idiot!
National Debt on 01/20/1993 4,188,092,107,183.60
National Debt on 01/19/2001 5,727,776,738,304.64
The national debt increased 1.6 TRILLION (count them) dollars during Clintock’s reign in the white house (and on Monica’s dress).
Yep, can’t really have a surplus if your check register is minus an extra trillion and a half dollars when you left office.
Let me help you understand this. Let’s say you owe money on your: Car, House, and credit card.
But you when $1,000 at the lottery. What do you do?
Do you pay off your debt? Or do you spend it?
If you are Uncle Sugar: YOU SPEND EVERY DIME OF IT.
And guess what? The Debt above is ON THE DAY CLINTON LEFT OFFICE.
So he can’t blame anyone but himself. Well, he could blame Hillary, she was developing her leader experience during those 8 years.
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/NPGateway
Regular, that’s hillarious.
Is that JR’s girlfriend, and JR on the back or the front?
#
MaxGrobnik
Posted October 1, 2008 at 10:01 pm | Permalink
Regular, that’s hillarious.
Is that JR’s girlfriend, and JR on the back or the front?
—————
Naw, that’s Junior’s ex. She left BlueJay for a better looking and more prosperous man (the guy driving the ATV.) :D
Hey Regular! (or Max, I’ve lost my program)
Yep, got all the little hooves trimmed, new shoes on two horses, reset on the other one. Now if we can just get away for one more weekend at Kanopolis before the snows come.
MaxGrobnik
Posted October 1, 2008 at 9:53 pm | Permalink
Clinton let Obama go,
3 times.
================================================
Oops, Clinton let OSAMA go,
3 times.
“Hey Regular! (or Max, I’ve lost my program)”
Uh yeah, I think that, among other things is becoming increasingly apparent.
You con loons should be even MORE fun tomorrow night after lil’ Sarah sinks McCain for good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyKvD-4IxOY
Dat music be reeeel good here!
(Dueling Banjos now, ya hear?)
Dam it! I wanna be someone else!
Whom can I impressonate?
Hank gets to be me,
and Max gets to me,
and we all get to be Regular.
I wanna be someBODY unick!
(Pssst..the banjo player without glasses is JR)
Rachel Maddow is on fire!
Little wonder we are seeing this con….
whatever? here this evening.
McCain down in Florida. McCain down in Missouri.
McCain down in INDIANA!
And this on the eve of lil’ Sarah and her big day.
Hey guys. Don’t laugh at me. I got this here idea from Chas.
cosmos_originally=CapnAmerica
BlueJay=JR+JM
CapnAmerica=JM+cosmos (not originally)
Chas=Sugar+somebody else who’s nic escapes me
DNFTT
(snort!)
#
MaxGrobnik
Posted October 1, 2008 at 10:09 pm | Permalink
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyKvD-4IxOY
Dat music be reeeel good here!
(Dueling Banjos now, ya hear?)
———————-
Yee hah!
AmWay, Thursdays you get to be CapnAmerica.
I’ve met Chas “American way”.
Who has met you?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAF5VNRW7HM&NR=1
On a slow night, Steven plays dueling banjos with himself.
HEY I wanna know who won the Suzuki contest!
I met AmWay.
He looks like Regular, when he was younger, skinnier, and better lookin.
Other then that, they could be twins.
Hank,
I think you are good to go on your MILPAY. I checked the DFAS-CL website, and they still be issuing payments on MYPAY.
The social security is probably good to go for your age group too. If the Mrs. gets a piece, the three together are a nice chunk of change to start with.
Now here’s where I’ve been doing a little studing up on things, seeing as how I’m in a similiar situation, but a few years less TIS/TIG if you know what I mean.
If the dollar continues to drop in value, and investors wake up next month to realize this here bailout is really just another blowout – then the market dives again and the dollar falls further.
Bottom line is I think we will have income with those dollars coming in. But each dollar may be worth a penny.
Worthless democratic congress is running us down the tubes.
And I’ve met Max. He was butt ugly from the day he was born.
Aw shucks AmWay, I wasn’t that good!
I saw God once. Boy I don’t want to ever drink that much again.
Regular, you do realize I was complimenting you.
Your not as good lookin as me, but better then AmWay.
I do have to go though.
Need to tune my banjo, strum a few songs for the yungins, and go to bed and hop on maw.
This one really is one for a bookmark.
Cons? Everything you believe in hinges on the performance tomorrow night of one Sarah Palin.
Discuss.
Yeah, the VP debate matters, how?
WTF cares?
Remember that debate between Cheney and whathisname?
What IS his name?
Yup, very memorable and influentional debates with VP’s.
The pressure, if there is any, is NOT on the rookie Palin.
The pressure is always on the veteran, the favorite, the one who neverhasaslipofthetongue – B B Biden.
And no, Conservatism does not rest on one man alone.
Unlike you Libs, whose holy savior – Obama – must pull through or you will no longer have a God to worship.
Thanks, AmWay,
Couple of weeks ago I went to a reunion in Charleston, SC. An old sub I was on in the late ’60s. Everyone I knew there were old men! Several of them were getting both their retirement and their SS. All doing pretty good.
I hadn’t really thought about it much but since I’ve been back I checked into my SS and I was pleasantly surprised by the amount I qualify for. I’ll wait a couple of years and just get it at ‘65.
My wife has a few years left, she’s 15 years younger than me. She can retire anytime she wants to now, but she’s enjoying her work and will probably work another five years at least.
If things get too nuts, there’s a little place in Tortola we can tie our boat up at. There’s goats for my dogs too!
It MUST matter “Max”.
Why there are members of your own party calling for Palin to step down.
Of course, John McCain dismissed them angrily and told them “good luck!”.
The GOP is cracking. Can you hear the timbers split?
Max,
What’s a compli ment?
Is that spear ment or double ment?
“So JR, how did you let that redneck woman slip away from you?”
Which one?
Somebody take over for me, I’m going to bed.
If the bailout passes the house you dems can kiss your entitlement(welfare) programs good bye. With the taxes going to help fund the bailout there isnt going to be near the funds for the One’s programs.
BTW why are they called entitlement programs? It’s not like they are owed you so therefore you are not entitled to them
Naw Reglar, that be like a mint jewlip.
MaxGrobnik posted October 1, 2008 at 10:33 pm
“The pressure, if there is any, is NOT on the rookie Palin.”
———-
The pressure is on McCain. . . for selecting the rookie Palin.
JR, be a lot on your side (like you used to be for instance) who was for Clinton and saying you woodent be avotin for Obama.
Ok, I’ll play.
Hank is 63 + his wife and means of support is 15 years younger.
=Hank’s wife is 48.
That means I met her when she was 46.
Now, I didn’t take this discussion here.
She looked and acted older than 46.
Yeah,wasn’t he agin Obama before he was fer him?
Freebird1971
Posted October 1, 2008 at 10:54 pm | Permalink
Yeah,wasn’t he agin Obama before he was fer him?
———————————————–
The nutless boy changes his convictions just like Obama does.
First he befo somethin, then he be genst it.
Bailout= goodbye to healthcare.
‘On NPR, McCain Exaggerates Past Relationship with Palin‘
http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/10/10028_npr_mccain_palin_exxagerates_advice.html
Nice cheap shot JR.
Your wife 15 years younger then you?
Oh, never mind.
Now you cons really don’t want me to look up how many of you were fervently FOR McCain during the primaries do you?
Show me where I said I was for either of them
I do not talk down my son’s mother to him “Max”.
Why don’t you ask Hank if he can claim the same?
Oh that’s nice of you JR not to insult your own wife or ex on the blog.
It’s ok to insult other bloggers wives though.
Carry on.
Max,
As much as I disagree with BJ on about everything,I can’t let your last comment go without saying that I felt it was unecessary and uncalled for.
I know it is a difficult day for you “Max”.
Maybe you would like to explain why it is that after almost 12 hours of no posts from me, you launched an attack on me.
I didn’t start it “Max”.
I won’t stop it either.
Thank you.
It appears that evil retreats when forcibly confronted.
Conversing with “Max” is God’s message to you that you have waaaaayyy… too much time on your hands.
He’s a troll, ignore him.
John Prine had him in mind when he composed this song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg0o5drJBik
This video courtesy of MoJo at 3ChordGuitar.com . Night all.
MaxGrobnik posted October 1, 2008 at 11:12 pm
Oh that’s nice of you JR not to insult your own wife or ex on the blog.
It’s ok to insult other bloggers wives though.
————
Max, why do you believe that “she looked and acted older than 46″ is a big “insult”? Are you so insecure that you can only be seen in public with women who appear to be much younger than you?
Aging is natural, and depends on many factors such as genetics, prior sun exposure, stress, illness, etc.
Some people appear to be older (or younger) than their actual age.
Good night and another day, oh TRULY another day closer to victory.
For the cons who come back here and look, looking to carry the personal attacks forward?
Pursue my own personal family values and I will give you one real big October surprise.
Maybe this helps to explain why MaxGrobnik, and others here are so cranky?
‘Skepticism of Palin growing, poll finds
Fewer than half of voters think she understands ‘complex issues’ ‘
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26984684/
they can be cranky all they want… AT THE ISSUES AT HAND…. NOT AT OTHER POSTERS…. LET THEM LEARN TO STAY ON TOPIC, INSTEAD OF MOUNTING SPURIOUS, AND DEMEANING ATTACKS ON OTHERS…
DADMAN… DONT LIKE YOUR CONTENT MUCH…
BUT…. LOVE THEM CAPS!!! ROFL!!!
· Only a month ago, I, along with much of the rest of America, hardly knew who Sarah Palin was. I knew that she was the governor of Alaska, but nothing else about her, even what she looked like. But within the past three weeks, she has really become an inspiration to me, and one of my new personal heroes.
First of all, I love the fact that there is a woman running for a high political office who is NOT a flaming liberal feminist of the Nancy Pelosi or Hillary Clinton type, or someone like the governor of my state, Kathleen Sebelius (who was actually one of Obama’s choices for VP). Sarah’s beliefs are very much like my own – a conservative Christian woman who is pro-life, Bible-believing, and part of a happy, successful marriage. For once, those of us who are republican conservatives finally have a female political role model that WE can look up to.
I also like the fact that Sarah doesn’t come from some famous family well-steeped in politics like the Clintons, Bushes or Kennedys, but whose parents were just ordinary small-town, working class folks. And Sarah just seems like a warm, friendly, down-to-earth type of person, the kind you could imagine chatting with at a neighborhood picnic.
Sarah calls herself a “Washington Outsider” and I’m proud of that. It’s nice to have somebody running for a VP position who isn’t some elite Washington politician who has little contact with people outside of their own private circles, and who have little idea of how the rest of America lives. I want someone who can relate to the average American – not a person who has NEVER had to pay their own gas or heating bills, whose kids have always attended elite private schools, who fly their own jets around and vacation in Europe at fancy resorts.
I also greatly admire the courage that Sarah has shown under pressure. Few candidates could put up with the kind of savagery that she has had to endure from a very liberal and very biased media, who seem to be trying everything in their power to help Obama win the election. She has had to face new challenges, like learning about key components of American politics in a relatively short time, speaking with unfriendly interviewers, and having every single detail of her life, public and private, laid wide open to the American public. But she has persevered in spite of all this, and she continues to inspire and amaze thousands of people across the country. I think she will be a terrific leader, especially with a good instructor like John McCain by her side. John isn’t letting her fend for herself out there – he’s giving her as much help and guidance as he can, to insure that if she should ever have to take the reins, she’ll be ready.
I also find Sarah an inspiration now that I’ve entered the sometimes-hostile world of internet blogging. I’m on a self-guided, unpaid internet campaign, devoting a few hours every night to blogging here, posting on a message board there, and writing letters to the editor (one of which has actually gotten published in my hometown newspaper.) One thing about the internet, especially concerning politics – not only will you come across people who disagree with what you say, they will also not be very kind in saying it. I can handle people disagreeing with me if they do it nicely, but some of these folks are downright vicious, even to the point of insulting my intelligence. But it doesn’t bother me at all – in fact, it actually makes me feel stronger, and I’ve learned that the best way to deal with such people is to ignore them altogether if at all possible, because trying to argue with them gets you nowhere. But I still hate to see Sarah getting slammed like she’s some kind of villianess, because she doesn’t deserve that kind of contempt.
However, I feel that, if Sarah can stand up to an overly aggressive media, then I can handle a few idiot bloggers. I want to do everything I can to help John and Sarah win this election, and I don’t intend to let a few hotheads with major personal issues stop me from doing it.
Policy
Although The Wichita Eagle is not responsible for the content of the comments on this blog and has no obligation to monitor them, it reserves the right to remove any comments that are threatening, libelous, obscene or otherwise objectionable. Please refrain from personal attacks and using other posters’ nicknames. Report possible comment violations to weblog@wichitaeagle.com.
“Please refrain from personal attacks and using other posters’ nicknames.”
Apparently, some here have lost the ability to read, OR just have total contempt of the Blog authority…. :-)
There are many among us who have very deeply held racially prejudiced views… They live among us… Many seem to Blog among us…
Shame on the Racially provocative posters!! And especially shame on those who post racist comments, and then hide behind religious portents.
So mote it be!
Chas posting about Blog Policy and Personal Attacks!
Remember some of Chas’ favorites:
STFU!
SOB!
IDIOT!
NUCKIN FUTS!
Chas, your HYPOCRACY is showing again.
ROFLMAO!
Oh, and SHAME on the Phony Preacher.
So mote it be.