“Baracks Rogues and Barnyard Cuties”
Now trot those heifers’ out without their curry combs and make-up!

SSSsssssoooooooooiiiiiiiii – PIG!!!

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Brady Street Café, studio close; 23 laid off

By Tom Daykin

Brady Street Café, a longstanding business on Milwaukee’s east side, has closed, shuttering a neighborhood hangout as well as a small performing arts and exhibition space for theater, dance and film.

The café, convenience store and eclectic arts venue, at the southeast corner of E. Brady and N. Astor streets, had its power cut off Friday, ending a long financial struggle for the business, owner James Searles said.

Searles had hoped to get 10 more days from We Energies to try to pay an overdue bill of about $27,000, which dates back four months. Instead, he was forced to close and lay off 23 employees.

“They have no sense of community,” Searles said about the utility.

We Energies spokesman Barry McNulty said the company doesn’t publicly discuss individual customer accounts. A state-imposed moratorium on cutting power to overdue accounts, which takes effect every winter, ended April 15.

Searles owes money to others, including two food suppliers that are pursuing collection lawsuits in Milwaukee County Circuit Court, according to online court records. His business also owes property taxes from 2007 and 2008 totaling $42,295, according to city records. …

http://www.jsonline.com/business/44201122.html

So the man owes nearly $43,000 in back taxes and almost $27,000 to the local power company, and when the power company finally cuts off the power he’s upset because “they have no sense of community.”

Got it.

I cringe for the idiots!

From the (Madison) Wisconsin State Journal:

Proposed ban would prohibit throwing out clean plastic bags in Madison

By Dean Mosiman

In Madison, it soon may be OK to be holding the bag — but not OK to throw it out.

Ald. Judy Compton, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and others on Tuesday will propose banning the disposal of clean, recyclable plastic bags that litter roads and lakes.

It still would be OK to use plastic bags from grocery or retail stores, or bags that hold products such as bread, newspapers, dry cleaning, toilet paper or paper towels.

Soiled bags still could be thrown out. But throwing out clean bags would carry a $100 fine for a first offense, $200 for a second offense and $400 for third and later offenses in a year.

The city is likely to set up drop-off sites that would cost about $24,000 annually to operate and need an initial capital investment of $20,000 to $250,000, depending on the number of sites and type of containers.

“It’s a matter of putting our money where our mouth is on environmental issues,” Compton said. “It’s really a simple thing.”

The city would rely on cooperation rather than enforcement, recycling coordinator George Dreckmann said.

“We don’t send out people looking in Dumpsters,” he said.

Based on national averages, city residents use an estimated 74.8 million plastic bags annually but recycle less than 1 percent of them, Dreckmann said.

“They’re a big problem at the landfill and other places as well,” Dreckmann said.

Some cities, such as San Francisco, ban plastic bags, and others have laws making retailers take them back, but Madison is considering a unique approach in banning their disposal, Dreckmann said.

“It’s much less politically divisive,” he said. …

http://www.madison.com/wsj/mad/top/449576

Who, I wonder, will determine what consitutes “soiled?”

If you picked up dried dog poo that falls out of the bag so it now appears clean, is that a “clean” bag?

If you have a bag that has some crumbs from a sandwich, is that “soiled”?

It seems the wisest move is to just grab ketchup packets from the local fast food place and squirt a bit in each bag before throwing it out – problem solved!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfL-Oj1rQ-c

From Fox News:

Glossy Internet Magazine Targets Americans for Jihad Training

By Eric Shawn

It’s been likened to Al Qaeda’s “Vanity Fair,” a new English-language Internet magazine called “Jihad Recollections” that focuses on the terrorist group, its founder, Usama Bin Laden, and how to commit jihad. It also predicts the demise of the United States.

“This is designed for Americans,” says noted terrorism expert Steven Emerson, founder of the Investigative Project on Terrorism in Washington, D.C., and author of the book “American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us.”

“It’s not for Brits, not for Germans, not for jihadists in the Middle East. It’s designed for Americans and it’s designed to get them to convert to Islam or to carry out jihad acts of terror,” he said.

“What started off as some angry kids in their basement has transformed over the past several years into a robust Al Qaeda propaganda outlet right here in our backyard,” says Jarret Brachman, an Al Qaeda specialist and author of the new book, “Global Jihadism.”

Brachman says “it raises the bar for pro-Al Qaeda propaganda in English. Its presentation is flashier than any English language Al Qaeda propaganda that we’ve seen to date.” He also says “the publication shows how deeply embedded in the global Al Qaeda movement its editors are.”

It is not clear what connection, if any, the magazine has to Al Qaeda or its followers. It is published by the “Al Fursan Media Foundation,” but FOX News could not find such an organization or a way to contact them for comment.

Yet “Jihad Recollections” certainly highlights the terrorist group and the goals of Islamic jihad in a sophisticated and graphically slick presentation similar to any high quality Web site.

The magazine includes the speeches and writings of Bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Articles range from “Four Practical Steps to Expand the Global Jihad,” to “The Science Behind Night Vision Technology” and “Principles of Guerrilla Warfare.”

“The magazine is quite startling,” said Emerson. It is “a veritable manual on how to carry out terrorism. It’s quite shocking, and the question is whether it violates the law or not.”

The first issue says of the 9/11 attacks, that “the strategy was genius.” It calls America “one of the most atrocious and egotistical regimes to date,” and it accuses the United States of spreading corruption in Islamic countries through its embassies. “How can we expect from America any good?” it asks. “We only expect from it every evil and corruption.” …

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,518611,00.html

I wouldn’t be surprised to find it is being published by Vanity Fair – if not the publishers of the New York Times…

The issue, like everything else, is economics – because crack is sold in single doses (being mixed or ‘cut’, if you will, with sodium bicarbonate), it is, ceteris paribus, ‘cheaper’ and more readily available to the poorer (read: black) community. The sentencing laws are purely and simply wrong – remember the equal protection clause? The sentences should be the same, at worst, or crack should be somewhat less, at fairest, as more ‘cut’, i.e., non-cocaine, is contained in crack by volume than in ‘nominal’ cocaine hydrochloride.

Quite frankly, you diatribe is racist. I thought you were more intelligent than the above post reveals…

Credit card legislation faces Senate test

By Marcy Gordon

WASHINGTON – Propelled through the House by antibusiness sentiment in tough economic times, legislation putting new reins on the credit card industry now goes to the Senate, where the bill’s prospects appear promising.

The legislation, which has President Barack Obama’s backing, would eliminate abrupt increases in interest rates and other practices decried by consumer advocates. It could be taken up in the Senate as early as next week.

Supporters want to get a final congressional package to Obama’s desk by the Memorial Day holiday. They acknowledged, though, that House passage of the measure on Thursday was just an opening salvo and that industry interests could succeed in getting restrictions weakened during the legislative slog ahead.

Signaling an aggressive campaign, Edward Yingling, president and CEO of the American Bankers Association, said the group “strongly believes that any additional legislative efforts should strive to achieve the right balance between enhancing consumer protection and ensuring that credit remains available to consumers and small businesses at a reasonable cost.”

“We continue to believe that more work needs to be done to achieve that balance,” he said in a statement.

The House measure, called the Credit Card Holders’ Bill of Rights, passed on a bipartisan vote of 357-70 following lobbying by Obama and members of his administration.

The bill would prohibit so-called double-cycle billing and retroactive rate hikes and would prevent companies from giving credit cards to anyone under 18.

If they become law, the new House provisions won’t take effect for a year, except for a requirement that customers get 45 days’ notice before their interest rates are increased. That would take effect in 90 days.

Consumer advocates and some Democrats have sought for years to bring new rules to the industry.

“This is a unique opportunity to end abusive practices that afflict millions of families across the nation, to contribute to our economic recovery and to take a stand for American consumers,” Sen. Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and the bill’s primary sponsor, said after the House vote. “Now it is the Senate’s turn to act.”

The bill’s boosters are tapping into public anger over corporate excesses and the conduct of banks and other companies receiving billions of dollars in taxpayer money.

Obama’s engagement in the issue diverged sharply from his handling of a plan to spare hundreds of thousands of homeowners from foreclosure through bankruptcy, which met defeat in the Democratic-controlled Senate Thursday on a 51-45 vote. Obama had embraced the plan, but facing stiff opposition from the banking industry he did little to pressure lawmakers who worried it would encourage bankruptcy filings and catapult interest rates higher.

Obama met at the White House last week with executives of the credit card industry and made clear he wants to sign a bill into law. And a day before the House vote, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner convened a meeting with Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., the bill’s chief sponsor, and representatives of consumer and civil rights groups. …

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....RjYXJkbGU-

It’s truly amazing; people beg the banks to be approved for credit cards, then demand a “bill of rights.”

We already know what next year’s headlines will read:

“Millions find credit cards cancelled, Obama demands banks loosen issuing guidlines.”

and

“Consumer anger growing at credit card cancellations among banks having received federal funds.”

So says the college freshman. The above is, in theory, what should take place on college campuses. Unfortunately, most college students are spoon-fed liberal ideas by their liberal professors. Students willingly gobble up these ideas because they sound good and they come from a supposed authority.

Maybe it’s because they knew they’d be reporting on the old heifers’ progress?