"He who works for Sweetness and Light united, works to make reason and the will of God prevail." - Matthew Arnold

« Save Santa Claus From Global Warming! | Home | The Hive – The (Subtle) Changes At S&L »

Selected News For Dec 20 – Dec 26

This thread is for the busy bees of S&L to post news items themselves.

In order to make the articles as readable as possible, please try to stick to the format described in the first of these weekly editions here.

Of course articles that fit under the topic of a recent thread should be posted there. As always, remember to excerpt heavily and to provide a link to the original source.

Related Articles:

 

This article was posted by Steve Gilbert on Saturday, December 20th, 2008 at 12:00 am. You can leave a response.

58 Responses to “Selected News For Dec 20 – Dec 26”

  1. rakkasan
    December 20, 2008 at 8:09 am

    I almost choked on this comment:

    MTV plans 16 new reality shows
    As ratings drop, network overhauls lineup
    http://www.variety.com/article.....4&cs=1

    “Our new shows will feature themes of affirmation and accomplishment,” says Brian Graden, prez of entertainment at MTV Networks music channels and president of Logo. “Our shows are going to focus less on loud and silly hooks and more on young people proving themselves. These are themes that are consistent with the Obama generation.”

    I am both a middle school teacher and a veteran. I am not really sure what a twelve year old who likes High School Musical and Fallout Boy has accomplished yet – well, I guess they really are the Obama generation.

    • Liberals Demise
      December 21, 2008 at 7:43 am

      They need to drop the shiite they run now. Hooking up shows about homos looking for each other, moms & dads gettin’ dates for their loser children. These reality shows suck!! Hence the sucky ratings. What to see the ratings plummet like our economy? Run shows about the Obamanation Generation. “KER-PLUNK!!!!”

  2. 12 Gauge Rage
    December 20, 2008 at 8:37 am

    I thought MTV already had shows of young people filled with affirmation and proving themselves. That is to say filled with an affirmation to speak their naivete’ and prove how obnoxious they are with their vulgar, making an ass of themselves behavior.

  3. BillK
    December 20, 2008 at 8:50 am

    From a gleeful AP brought to us by our favorite hard-left AP reporter, Deb Reichmann:

    Automakers grab loans, look to Obama White House

    By Deb Reichmann

    President George W. Bush gave the U.S. automakers $17.4 billion in emergency rescue loans, but the fate of the industry is in the hands of President-elect Barack Obama.

    Simply letting the carmakers collapse was not an option amid a recession, housing slump and financial credit crunch, Bush said Friday in announcing the short-term loans and demanding tough concessions from the automakers and their employees.

    “The more responsible option is to give the auto companies an incentive to restructure outside of bankruptcy and a brief window in which to do it,” he said.

    Detroit’s Big Three cheered the action and vowed to rebuild their once-mighty industry, though they acknowledged it would be tough to fight their way back from the brink of bankruptcy. If the carmakers fail to prove viability – a positive cash flow and ability to make good on the loans – by March 31, they will be required to repay the government loans.

    That’s something they would find all but impossible to do.

    The autoworkers union complained the deal was too harsh on its members, while Bush’s fellow Republicans in Congress said it was simply bad business to bail out the industry using money from the $700 billion rescue program for financial institutions.

    Obama, who takes office a month from Saturday, praised the administration action but warned, “The auto companies must not squander this chance to reform bad management practices and begin the long-term restructuring that is absolutely necessary to save this critical industry and the millions of American jobs that depend on it.”

    Obama will be free to reopen the arrangement from the government’s side if he chooses, and the head of the United Auto Workers said the union would be appealing to the new president and the strongly Democratic new Congress on that subject. Obama was noncommittal on possible changes but said he would “make sure that when we see a final restructuring package that it’s not just workers who are bearing the brunt.”

    Some $13.4 billion of the rescue money will be available this month and next – $9.4 billion of it for General Motors Corp. and $4 billion for Chrysler LLC, the two auto giants that have said they could be facing bankruptcy soon without government help. GM is slated to receive the remaining $4 billion in loans after more money is released from the financial rescue account. Ford Motor Co. says it doesn’t need federal cash now but would be badly damaged if one or both of the other two went under.

    Under terms of the loans, the government will have the option of becoming a stockholder in the companies, much as it has with major banks, in effect partially nationalizing the industry. Bush said the companies’ workers should agree to wage and work rules that are competitive with foreign automakers by the end of next year.

    And he called for elimination of a “jobs bank” program – negotiated by the United Auto Workers and the companies – under which laid-off workers can receive about 95 percent of their pay and benefits for years. Early this month, the UAW agreed to suspend the program.

    The deal also calls for two-thirds of the automakers’ debts to be converted to stock in the companies. …

    http://customwire.ap.org/dynam.....DOWN_AUTOS

    Guess what? Bush can call for anything he wants to.

    That shadow you see is the giant upraised finger of the UAW.

    It doesn’t matter, you gave them what they wanted – cash to survive until they can get Obama to give them limitless “emergency funds.”

    Meanwhile Obama’s comments about restructuring are laughable at best.

    Can you actually see him demanding the automakers pay back their loans come March 31?

    The most important part of this entire piece is this statement:

    If the carmakers fail to prove viability – a positive cash flow and ability to make good on the loans – by March 31, they will be required to repay the government loans.

    With what?

    This is like saying “if your mortgage is foreclosed upon, you will be required to repay the balance of your mortgage.”

    Let’s see losing billions of dollars, need billions of dollars just to survive, and if we don’t turn things around by April, we’ll have to repay the Government for the billions they loaned us so we didn’t go bankrupt before we lost all their money.

    Yeah, that makes sense.

    • proreason
      December 20, 2008 at 2:11 pm

      The UAW doesn’t care that people like us think they are wacko and that the bailout is straight out of bizarro-world.

      Muggers don’t care what their victims think either.

    • U NO HOO
      December 20, 2008 at 4:49 pm

      ““if your mortgage is foreclosed upon,”

      If Ford can’t pay, the guvmint gets the Edsel Division.

  4. wardmama4
    December 20, 2008 at 10:35 am

    You know it had to happen, the msm is nothing if not predictable. Here it is a week before Christmas – and they can’t help themselves – we have them comparing the Obama’s to – The Navtivity Story.

    It’s best that Obama not check in early
    Rosemary Roberts
    Friday, December 19

    Like most parents, Barack and Michelle Obama must arrange their lives around their children’s school schedule. So they’ve got a problem.

    Their daughters are supposed to begin classes at Washington’s Sidwell Friends School on Jan. 5, but Barack’s new job doesn’t start until Jan. 20. So the Obamas asked George and Laura Bush if they could move into Blair House in early January so the girls could start school on time. Blair House is located across the street from the White House and is used to house visiting dignitaries.

    http://tinyurl.com/9eeqan

    No, not a thing about the apparent wastefulness – Obama has a DC apartment – why not shack up there for the what 2 weeks? Oh, the horror of craming into a one bedroom (?!?) apartment.

    No, not a thing about the apparent wastefulness – The new Queen of Mean wanting those two weeks to be on the taxpayers (fully & in accordence with her new position).

    No, not a thing about how the apparent diss on The Troops – since they couldn’t deign to shack up for the 2 weeks in a Guest House on a military post.

    And it isn’t even being reported by the msm – big surprize.

    • U NO HOO
      December 20, 2008 at 4:46 pm

      Stop the moving vans!

      Hey, what if Michelle and the two girls stay in Chicago in that almighty important house next to Rezko’s lot, finish this year in Chicago schools, and then move to DC? Sane people have been known to do such a thing.

      Remember this, Mary and Joseph were required to travel, Barack and Michelle volunteered for the hardship that they have placed upon themselves and their daughters.

      I wish BHO would be made to read our comments.

    • JohnMG
      December 20, 2008 at 4:52 pm

      What I’d like to see Bush do is to tell Obama that he won’t be able to vacate on the 21st because he (Bush) needs an extra week to get his affairs in order.

      All the same, I hope Obama keeps up a steady stream of this crap. It shows how ’small’ he really is.

    • BillK
      December 22, 2008 at 7:43 am

      I thought I reported this a while back…

  5. DW
    December 21, 2008 at 9:12 pm

    A bit of creative lying from the Associated Press:

    Amsterdam’s gay Christmas angers Christians

    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

    AMSTERDAM, Netherlands – Amsterdam hosted a Christmas celebration for its gay community Sunday featuring a nativity tableau with a male Mary in drag that church organizations denounced as an affront to traditional values.

    Organizers said the event was meant to raise Amsterdam’s profile as a gay capital at a time when homosexuals feel threatened.

    Christians for Truth, an independent religious group, had asked the city council to cancel the “Pink Christmas,” event, saying it made a mockery of Christian tenets. The city did not comment.

    A male entertainer known as Wendy Mills posed as Mary in a blond wig and high-heeled black boots and holding a plastic doll. Another man played Joseph in black leather trunks and a silver shawl.

    The five-person manger scene was staged off the street, in the courtyard of a nightclub. Visitors were invited to be photographed with the group. The first was three-month-old Lily Pink Albers, Mills’ niece.

    Remaining sordid details here:
    http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Wo.....11-ap.html

    Oh, except for this closing remark:

    Frank van Dalen, chairman of Pro Gay, which organized the event, said gays were not satisfied with being tolerated, but wanted to be “socially accepted as an indivisible part of society.”

    There is no doubt that homosexuals feel threatened in Holland and other places in Europe. And well they ought to.
    But it sure as hell isn’t from the Christian groups they’ve been running roughshod over for the past few years.

  6. BillK
    December 22, 2008 at 7:48 am

    From the Washington Post:

    UAW’s sacrifices look to some like surrender

    For decades after its founding in 1935, the United Auto Workers stood as a powerful model for the American labor movement, an influential organization that historians credit with uplifting living standards for all working Americans.

    But with the announcement of the federal loan deal Friday, the union found itself being forced into concessions that some described as tantamount to surrender.

    The $17.4 billion federal loan agreement does keep the domestic auto industry alive. But the terms of that loan also insist that the wages and benefits for union workers be lowered to “equal” the average of nonunion workers,
    specifically those at the U.S. plants of Nissan, Toyota and Honda.

    Those and other concessions would essentially erase the significant distinctions between union and nonunion auto workers, and the lack of such union worker advantages would render moot the union’s fundamental purpose, some industry analysts and labor experts said.

    It was the financial crisis, as well as the domestic industry’s slippage against foreign automakers in the United States, that forced the union to acquiesce, albeit reluctantly, union leaders said Friday.

    In a statement, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said the loan “will keep the doors of America’s factories open, keep Americans working and prevent the devastating economic consequences for millions of Americans.”

    But, he noted, the union was disappointed that Bush “added unfair conditions singling out workers.”

    Exactly how tough the agreement ultimately will be on union workers is far from certain.

    The language of the loan agreement sets specific “restructuring targets” that General Motors and Chrysler must use their “best efforts” to meet. Compensation must be made “equal” to the nonunion workers, and work rules must be “competitive” with those at nonunion plants. The companies also must reduce compensation to workers who have been laid off — the jobs bank — and at least half of the company’s payments into retiree health care must be made in stock, not cash. If the companies fall short of those targets, they are required to explain why.

    The payment in stock makes the health fund more risky. The wage concessions could force average wages down to $24 an hour from $28 an hour, analysts said.

    But it is far from clear whether the Obama administration will hold the companies and the unions to those requirements. Democrats immediately signaled some opposition to the toughest provisions.

    At a news conference in Chicago on Friday, President-elect Barack Obama said that workers should not be the ones “taking all the hits” and that all stakeholders “are going to have to play a part in this process.”

    Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the committee overseeing much of the government financial rescue efforts, was far tougher.

    “The president has added an unfair assault on working men and women, which could require them to accept a disproportionately large reduction in what is currently legally owed to them,” he said in a statement. “I am particularly opposed to the notion . . . that could give foreign auto companies in effect the ability to dictate wages for all American auto workers.”

    Frank said that because those requirements were “unilaterally inserted” by Bush, the Obama administration “should take whatever steps are necessary to remove them.” …

    http://www.madison.com/tct/news/stories/324789

    I urge the Democrats and UAW to keep it up so that we see the automakers come back again and again and again to ask for money.

    As I’ve mentioned before, the real question is how long before Toyota, Nissan, BMW, Kia and the rest are required to raise their costs to meet the domestics’ (after all, that’s what “card check” is all about); equally spreading the pain rather than solving the issue at hand has always been the liberal solution to everything.

    • GuppyNblue
      December 22, 2008 at 12:35 pm

      “the union found itself being forced into concessions that some described as tantamount to surrender.”

      Surrender? It’s like when you hear UAW supporters saying that we want to see the auto companies fail if we don’t support the bailout. They’ve already failed ! That’s why the execs are sitting in front of the adolescents in Congress taking their self-righteous lecturing.

      It used to be if someone was doing something wrong, whether in business or lifestyle, there would be consequences because that’s the natural, healthy way. But I’ve lived in neighborhoods where in hard times, the lazy no good for nothing government moochers would be doing better than me. New cars, cell phones, fat asses, etc. It’s the same bs welfare attitude here.

      No doubt BillK is right – they’ll be back.

    • U NO HOO
      December 25, 2008 at 10:21 pm

      I read that Toyota is losing money.

      How can that be?

  7. BillK
    December 22, 2008 at 8:03 am

    From The Wall Street Journal and Fox News:

    Obama to Detail Contact With Gov. Blagojevich

    President-elect’s office to release full accounting of contact between his staff and the embattled Illinois governor.

    Barack Obama has said that when all is revealed, it will be clear that neither he nor his staff had any contacts with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich that could be considered improper.

    The president-elect’s office says it will release on Monday the promised report giving a full accounting of those contacts, and Obama aides say the official under the most scrutiny — Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel — will be exonerated after weeks of innuendo that they have long said was unfair.

    Journalists, readers and viewers may be busy wrapping presents, lighting their menorahs or just eating when the report is released — while Mr. Obama is in Hawaii and out of public view.

    But there will be no revelations worth burying during the holidays anyway, transition sources say.

    Nobody has accused Mr. Obama or his staff of legal wrongdoing. But the transition team’s sometimes awkward handling of the issue has raised anticipation of just what the report might say — and what the fallout might be.

    The day of Mr. Blagojevich’s arrest, the president-elect said he couldn’t comment on the governor’s alleged efforts to sell Mr. Obama’s vacated Senate seat. The next day, he did comment, calling for Mr. Blagojevich’s resignation and offering assurances that neither he nor his aides were involved in any deal making.

    Then he promised to account for any and all contacts between his staff and the governor’s, setting a release within days. Finally, he said the account was complete, but he wouldn’t release it until Christmas week.

    The slow dribble “hurt him slightly,” because it made him look like an ordinary politician in scandal mode, not the antipolitician people believed they voted for, said Ron Bonjean, a Republican consultant who dealt with scandals affecting then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and then-House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

    Joe Lockhart, a former White House press secretary who dealt with Clinton-era scandals, said Mr. Obama was right to play it safe with the release of the contacts, to make sure the accounting is complete.

    “At this point, they have the benefit of the doubt when they say, ‘We don’t think we know anything, but we’ll look,’ ” Mr. Lockhart said. But if reporters find contacts the Obama team either missed or left out, the terms will change. “When you’re caught you’re seen as fast and loose,” he said.

    Regardless of how clean the Obama camp is, the release of the report isn’t likely to be clean. Thursday, former President Bill Clinton released a list of 205,000 donors — many of them foreign governments — to his foundation, which he had promised to do as a condition for his wife Sen. Hillary Clinton’s nomination as secretary of state. That set off a scramble to tie donors to policy predicaments facing the Obama administration.

    The coming Blagojevich release will have the same effect.

    “The contacts are a potential Pandora’s box,” Mr. Bonjean said. “They’ll take reporters in all different directions, like having dozens of little rabbits running around the White House.”

    http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....agojevich/

    Well hey, if the transition team says the report is no big deal, why should we think otherwise?

  8. BillK
    December 22, 2008 at 8:10 am

    Decent coverage from Fox News:

    Cheney Mocks Biden, Defends Rumsfeld in ‘FOX News Sunday’ Interview

    In one of his last interviews before leaving Washington, D.C., Vice President Cheney, a 40-year veteran of Washington politics, tried to straighten out a few misconceptions about his tenure and the way the executive and legislative branches are supposed to work.

    By Bill Sammon

    Vice President Cheney mocked Vice President-elect Joe Biden’s grasp of the Constitution, defended former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and said President Bush “doesn’t have to check with anybody” before launching a nuclear attack.

    In a blunt, unapologetic interview on “FOX News Sunday,” Cheney fired back at Biden for declaring in October that “Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president we’ve had probably in American history.”

    “He also said that all the powers and responsibilities of the executive branch are laid out in Article I of the Constitution,” Cheney said in a interview that was conducted on Friday. “Well, they’re not. Article I of the Constitution is the one on the legislative branch.”

    “Joe’s been chairman of the Judiciary Committee, a member of the Judiciary Committee in the Senate for 36 years, teaches constitutional law back in Delaware, and can’t keep straight which article of the Constitution provides for the legislature and which provides for the executive. So I think I’d write that off as campaign rhetoric. I don’t take it seriously.”

    Cheney, who is often called the most powerful vice president in history, also challenged Biden’s claim that the Bush administration has amassed too much executive authority, a trend Biden reportedly plans to reverse.

    “If he wants to diminish the office of the vice president, that’s obviously his call,” Cheney shrugged. “President-elect Obama will decide what he wants in a vice president and apparently, from the way they’re talking about it, he does not expect him to have as consequential a role as I have had during my time.”

    Biden bit back, however, in a dueling Sunday morning interview that aired on ABC’s “This Week” in which he said he stood by his statements.

    “His notion of a unitary executive, meaning that, in time of war, essentially all power, you know, goes to the executive, I think is dead wrong. I think it was mistaken. I think it caused this administration, in adopting that notion, to overstep its constitutional bounds, but, at a minimum, to weaken our standing in the world and weaken our security. I stand by that — that judgment,” Biden said..

    Cheney defended the administration’s aggressive prosecution of the War on Terror, which he said was a major reason the nation hasn’t been attacked in seven years. He said the 1973 War Powers Act is a violation of the Constitution because Congress does not have the right by statute to alter presidential constitutional power.

    “That it is an infringement on the president’s authority as the commander-in-chief,” Cheney said. “It has never been resolved, but I think it’s a very good example of a way in which Congress has tried to limit the president’s authority and, frankly, can’t.

    “The president of the United States now for 50 years is followed at all times, 24 hours a day, by a military aide carrying a football that contains the nuclear codes that he would use and be authorized to use in the event of a nuclear attack on the United States,” Cheney said. “He could launch the kind of devastating attack the world has never seen.

    “He doesn’t have to check with anybody. He doesn’t have to call the Congress. He doesn’t have to check with the courts. He has that authority because of the nature of the world we live in.”

    Cheney also made clear that he had tried, in vain, to convince Bush not to fire Rumsfeld in 2006.

    “I did disagree with the decision,” Cheney said. “The president doesn’t always take my advice.”

    Cheney said he supports Rumsfeld’s successor, Robert Gates, “but I was a Rumsfeld man. I’d helped recruit him and I thought he did a good job for us.”

    Cheney also was unapologetic about using an expletive in 2004 to tell Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy what to do to himself. The incident occurred after Cheney heard that Leahy had suggested the vice president used his position in the White House to get contracts for his former firm, Halliburton.

    “I thought he merited it at the time, and we’ve since, I think, patched over that wound and we’re civil to one another now,” Cheney said in the interview.

    Cheney, who has low approval ratings, predicted that history would vindicate him and Bush.

    “We’ve been here for eight years now, eventually you wear out your welcome in this business but I’m very comfortable with where we are and what we’ve achieved substantively,” he said. “And frankly I would not want to be one of those guys who spends all his times reading the polls. I think people like that shouldn’t serve in these jobs.”

    http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....interview/

    I don’t always agree with him, but I will miss him.

  9. BannedbytheTaliban
    December 22, 2008 at 12:53 pm

    A glowing expose on Communism from the BBC:

    Meeting Cuba’s youngest politician

    As Cuba prepares to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Fidel Castro’s revolution on 1 January, most of those in power are the same people who fought alongside him half a century ago.

    Fidel’s brother Raul Castro, 77, is now president and he chose 78-year-old Machado Ventura as his number two.

    But there is a new generation of communists waiting in the wings.

    The majority of deputies elected to the national assembly, or parliament, earlier this year were born after the revolution.

    The youngest, Liaena Hernandez, is just 18 years old. A petite young woman with long black hair and an engaging smile, she has been a political activist since her early teens.

    ……..What followed was called the special period, a time of hunger and hardship. The United States also tightened the trade embargo believing it would hasten the collapse of communism.

    This is the Cuba that Ms Hernandez grew up in.

    Kissing babies

    “I was born with the revolution. I’ve never known capitalism,” she said. “My earliest memories are of socialism, the special period and the US blockade.

    Farmers in Manuel Tames are waiting for land reforms to pay off

    “As a family we couldn’t have all the things we would have liked. For years I had to wear the same pair of shoes to school, we just had to keep mending them.

    “But at least I had free health care and education. And as a nation, everyone was willing to work together to get by and move forward.”

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7784234.stm

    Like most liberals/socialist, she is has formed an opinion on something of which she is completely ignorant. All she knows is want, hunger, and strife. And those things have served Cuba well. But at least there is free health care!

  10. 1sttofight
    December 22, 2008 at 1:03 pm

    This is the Cuban Free Health System.

    http://www.babalublog.com/archives/001470.html

  11. BillK
    December 23, 2008 at 12:07 am

    There’s nothing more important to Democrats than self-preservation.

    From the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

    Reid already preparing for 2010 fight

    Nevada senator asks for contributions to send message to GOP

    By Molly Ball and Steve Tetreault

    Sen. Harry Reid last week launched a year-end rally for his troops to help protect his Senate seat.

    A chief Republican target for the 2010 elections, the Senate majority leader from Nevada sent an e-mail to supporters on Wednesday, seeking a burst of donations at GiveEmHellHarry.com, one of his Web sites.

    The goal, the message said, was to raise $50,000 by midnight Dec. 31, the deadline for contributions that will be reported in the next round of disclosures at the Federal Election Commission.

    “Republicans and the media, both in Washington and Nevada, will use this number to gauge the strength of my campaign,” Reid said.

    As of the end of October, Reid had $2.75 million in his election fund.

    As a motivator, Reid called on the ghost of Tom Daschle, the Senate’s previous Democratic leader. Daschle was taken by surprise when Republicans mounted a full-court press in South Dakota and defeated him in 2004.

    “I will not let them do it again,” Reid wrote. “If Republicans think I am scared of their challenge, they don’t know the fight they are in for.”

    It’s not the only solicitation that’s been going around aiming to build Reid an intimidating early war chest. Other Democratic senators also have sent out requests to contribute to Reid recently.

    An e-mail earlier this month to supporters of Jeff Merkley, the newly elected Democratic senator from Oregon, expressed gratitude to all those who helped him win.

    “Another person I have to thank is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid,” Merkley wrote.

    Republicans are set to go after Reid, Merkley’s e-mail warned. “The election was just one month ago, and the extreme right wing is already gearing up to attack Harry. … With a big show of support, we can let Republicans know that Harry Reid is going to have the resources he needs to win in 2010.”

    Others among Reid’s Senate colleagues sent similar pleas.

    In an interview last month, Reid was asked if, as he campaigns for re-election, he’ll be able to call in chits from all the people he has helped get elected. Reid’s Washington political action committee, the Searchlight Leadership Fund, doled out $2 million this election cycle alone, according to campaign-finance disclosures.

    “I control the DSCC,” Reid noted, chuckling, a reference to the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee. “So it shouldn’t be too hard.” …

    http://www.lvrj.com/news/36558929.html

    But I thought the GOP was done for, especially with a Democratic majority in both houses of Congress and a Democrat in the White House?

    Of course, could you imagine the reaction if a Republican were to “chuckle” and make a similar reference to a Republican campaign organization?

    Why, with Democrats in charge of everything, what could Reid possibly be worried about?

    • Liberals Demise
      December 23, 2008 at 8:07 am

      Shouldn’t the people of Nevada judge Harrys’ strenght by the amount of work done and not the amount of money this feeble old goat can fleece by Dec. 31? If that is the case then we should be buying a cheap gold watch to give “Mr. Reach Across the Aisle” and bid him luck in his waning time of sucking air in that wrinkled skin suit.

  12. BillK
    December 23, 2008 at 1:34 am

    Horrific Gang Rape of Lesbian Occurs, Prop. 8 Blamed.

    From the AP:

    SAN FRANCISCO — A woman in the San Francisco Bay area was jumped by four men, taunted for being a lesbian, repeatedly raped and left naked outside an abandoned apartment building, authorities said Monday.

    Detectives say the 28-year-old victim was attacked Dec. 13 after she got out of her car, which bore a rainbow gay pride sticker. The men, who ranged from their late teens to their 30s, made comments indicating they knew her sexual orientation, said Richmond police Lt. Mark Gagan.

    “It just pushes it beyond fathomable,” he said. “The level of trauma — physical and emotional — this victim has suffered is extreme.”

    Authorities are characterizing the attack as a hate crime but declined to reveal why they think the woman was singled out because of her sexual orientation. Gagan would say only that the victim lived openly with a female partner and had a rainbow flag sticker on her car.

    The 45-minute attack began when one of the men approached the woman as she crossed the street, struck her with a blunt object, ordered her to disrobe and sexually assaulted her on the spot with the help of the other men.

    When the group saw another person approaching, they forced the victim back into her car and took her to a burned-out apartment building, where she was raped again inside and outside the vehicle. The assailants took her wallet and drove off in her car. Officers found the car abandoned two days later. …

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,471308,00.html

    But why might this have occurred?

    Avy Skolnik, a coordinator with the New York-based National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, noted that gay, lesbian and transgender crime victims may be more reluctant than heterosexual victims to contact police.

    “Assailants target LGBT people of all gender identities with sexual assault,” he said. “Such targeting is one of the most cruel, dehumanizing and violent forms of hate violence that our communities experience.”

    Skolnik said the group plans to analyze hate crime data to see whether fluctuations may be related to the gay marriage bans that appeared on ballots this year in California, Arizona and Florida.

    “Anytime there is an anti-LGBT initiative, we tend to see spikes both in the numbers and the severity of attacks,” he said. “People feel this extra entitlement to act out their prejudice.”

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,471308,00.html

    Perhaps they’ll yet be able to indict each individual Prop. 8 voter of a hate crime.

  13. BillK
    December 23, 2008 at 1:43 am

    A pleasant article for once: Sarah Palin is named Human Events’ “Conservative of the Year” for 2008:

    Sarah Palin: Conservative of the Year

    By Ann Coulter

    Sarah Palin wins HUMAN EVENTS’ prestigious “Conservative of the Year” Award for 2008 for her genius at annoying all the right people. The last woman to get liberals this hot under the collar would have been … let’s see now … oh, yeah: Me!

    The entire presidential election year was kind of a downer for conservatives. Once the “maverick” John McCain won the nomination, the rest of the year was like watching a slow motion car crash. Except at least a slow-motion car crash is occasionally entertaining. So it was going to be a long year.

    Until Palin.

    When McCain chose our beauteous Sarah as his running mate, the maverick was finally acting like a real maverick — as opposed to the media’s definition of a “maverick” which is: “agreeing with the editorial positions of the New York Times.”

    Pre-Palin it had been one race — boring old “You kids get off my lawn!” John McCain versus the exciting, new politician Barack Obama, who threw caution to the wind and bravely ran as the Pro-Hope candidate. And then our heroic Sarah bounded out of the Alaska tundra and it became a completely different race. This left the press completely discombobulated and upset. They didn’t know whether to attack Sarah for not having an abortion or go after her husband for not being a sissy.

    I assume Palin was chosen because McCain had heard that she was a real conservative and he had always wanted to meet one — no, actually because he needed a conservative on the ticket, but that he had no idea that picking her would send the left into a tailspin of wanton despair.

    But if anyone on the McCain campaign chose Palin because she would drive liberals crazy, my hat is off to him!

    True, Palin made some embarrassing gaffes.

    She complained that we didn’t have enough “Arabic translators” in Afghanistan — not realizing the natives don’t speak Arabic in Afghanistan, but rather a variety of regional dialects, the most common of which is Pashtun.

    Speaking to military veterans one time, Palin said, “Our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes — and I see many of them in the audience here today.”

    She bragged about passing a law regulating the nuclear industry that it turned out never became a law at all.

    Some days Palin said Venezuela’s dictator Hugo Chavez should suffer “regional isolation” — but then on others she’d say she supported the president’s meeting with Chavez.

    She told one audience about recent tornados in Kansas that had killed 10,000 people. In fact, a dozen people were killed in the tornados.

    She referred to the “57 states” that make up the U.S.

    Speaking of her eldest daughter’s pregnancy, she said Bristol was being “punished” with a baby.

    As you probably know — or guessed by now — none of these gaffes were uttered by Palin. They are all Obama gaffes. Luckily, he made them to a star-struck press that managed not to ask him a difficult question for two years. …

    http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=29995

    Great article, Ann, and congratulations, Sarah.

  14. BillK
    December 23, 2008 at 2:10 am

    There are some really good quotes from Sarah Palin in her Human Events interview which aren’t going to sit will with McCain campaign officials, who have already done all they good to paint her has the reason McCain lost.

    Nevertheless:

    EXCLUSIVE Interview With Sarah Palin

    By John Gizzi

    “Thank you, sir. It is an honor to be named your ‘‘Conservative of the Year.’”

    That’s how Sarah Palin began her third interview this year with HUMAN EVENTS Political Editor John Gizzi. She spoke to Gizzi last April as the first of 16 Republicans he interviewed for HE’s “Veepstakes” election-year feature, and then she sat down with him during the National Governors Association meeting in Philadelphia in July. The Alaska governor last week again spoke to Gizzi, this time about her historic candidacy as the Republican vice presidential nominee as well as about current issues and her future.

    Veteran Republican political consultant Holly Robichaud, who had arranged the first “Veepstakes” interview between Palin and Gizzi, set up their latest exchange December 12. …

    http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=29994

    Here are the key portions the “Palin destroyed our chances” forces must be absolutely fuming at:

    GIZZI: What was the biggest mistake made in the ’08 campaign?

    PALIN: The biggest mistake made was that I could have called more shots on this: the opportunities that were not seized to speak to more Americans via media. I was not allowed to do very many interviews, and the interviews that I did were not necessarily those I would have chosen. But I was so thankful to have the opportunity to run with John McCain that I was not going to argue with the strategy decisions that some of his people were making regarding the media contacts.

    But if I would have been in charge, I would have wanted to speak to more reporters because that’s how you get your message out to the electorate.

    GIZZI: And what was the most important lesson you learned from the campaign?

    PALIN: The campaign was 99.9% amazing and invigorating and inspiring. But looking back, there were so many things that were outside of my control. I was in a campaign in which I did not know the people individually running the campaign. So I had to put my life, my career, my family, and my reputation in their hands. That’s kind of a scary thing to do when you don’t know the people you are working with.

    Now I have all the faith in the world in Sen. McCain and his family. But some of the folks around him I did not know, and so it was a kind of a risky thing for me to put my faith in the decisions they were making on my behalf.

    As an administrator, as a chief executive of a state, I am not used to that. I am used to proving my abilities by calling the shots. Then I know the buck stops with me. I made the decisions, and I’m responsible. When others are making decisions for me, as they were in the campaign, and I am the one to live with the fallout from the decisions that were made on my behalf, that is something I am not very comfortable with.

    GIZZI: Do you want to give me any names of people?

    PALIN: No. But they’re folks who have done this before. Of course, I haven’t done this on a national level before.

    But my reliance on seeking God’s direction in all that I do — that is good enough for me. And others who have a different worldview and different strategy on messaging and such, I would like to have the opportunity to prove to them that my gut instincts were going to be quite adequate.

    See? She said that G word again.

    Ooooh, frightening.

    • Liberals Demise
      December 23, 2008 at 7:46 am

      See you in 2012 Sara…….Bring your “A” game and ditch the GOP bozos’ who screwed you up last time!!

  15. BillK
    December 23, 2008 at 4:14 am

    Yet another story following the all-too-common template, from the San Francisco Chronicle:

    Family of man killed by cops seeks $5 million

    By Henry K. Lee

    The family of a mentally ill man who was armed with a knife when Santa Rosa police shot and killed him has filed a $5 million federal civil rights lawsuit, alleging officers used excessive force.

    Jesse Hamilton, 24, was fatally shot on Jan. 2 at a home at 531 A Street after he threatened three police officers with a large kitchen knife and ignored their warnings to stop, authorities have said.

    Shouting, “slashing, slashing,” Hamilton said he would kill the officers and came within a few feet of them, authorities said. Officer Greg Yaeger tried unsuccessfully to stun Hilton with a Taser before Officer Michael Heiser shot him four times, according to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department, which investigated the case. Hamilton died six hours later.

    Even after he was struck by bullets, the man fought with police, the Sheriff’s Department said.

    But in a lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Hamilton’s parents, Valerie Barber and Robert Hamilton, said the officers used “unwarranted and excessive lethal force” by shooting him and then handcuffing him before calling for medical help.

    The family’s attorney, Wynne Herron, said the young man was delusional and would not have differentiated between officers trying to protect him and those who were attacking him, Herron said.

    “This should not have resulted in a police confrontation,” Herron said.

    The lawsuit accuses Santa Rosa police of failing to adequately train officers in how to properly use force against people suffering from mental illness. …

    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....14SVDB.DTL

    Yes, once again the police are supposed to be omniscient and know that the person threatening their safety is mentally ill and should alter their use of deadly force in protecting themselves.

    Got it.

    Because, you know, the mentally ill could never stab a police officer to death or otherwise injure others.

    • Liberals Demise
      December 23, 2008 at 7:42 am

      Police have the same rights as anyone when it comes to personal safety. After being shot this R-TARD still comes after the police. The police have done humanity a big favor by cleansing this R-TARDS’ gene pool. Now we won’t be polluted.
      “Hats off to the Santa Rosa Police Dept..”

    • BillK
      December 23, 2008 at 10:09 am

      Don’t forget that in many cities and states, using any force in self-defense will result in both criminal and civil charges being filed against you and your family.

      Let’s not forget Border Guards Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean are still rotting in jail for doing their job, and Bush feels it’s more important to pardon a drug dealing rapper (John Edward Forte) than to even commute the guards’ sentences.

    • sheehanjihad
      December 23, 2008 at 10:15 am

      Ramos and Campean’s being ignored by Bush will cause me to dislike the man for the rest of my life. Those guys did the job, and did it well, and they now sit in prison while an illegal gun toting drug smuggler goes scott free. The justice system in this country flat sucks…and the fact that a President who can, by the mere stroke of the pen free these wrongly accused men and give them their lives back wont consider it is simply appalling. Bush’s legacy will always have that caveat in it, because I plan on seeing to it for the rest of MY life, that those two men are not forgotten, and that Bush chose to take their lives to others may enjoy the 700 pounds of pot that the smuggler sold to our children. No excuse George. You effed up big time.

  16. BillK
    December 23, 2008 at 9:35 am

    From the BBC, perhaps the biggest “duh” headline ever:

    Gay groups angry at Pope remarks

    Gay groups and activists have reacted angrily after Pope Benedict XVI said that mankind needed to be saved from a destructive blurring of gender.

    Speaking on Monday, Pope Benedict said that saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behaviour was as important as protecting the environment.

    The comments were “irresponsible and unacceptable”, the UK’s Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (LGCM) said.

    Vladimir Luxuria, a transgender former Italian MP, called his words “hurtful”.

    The row erupted as news emerged that the pontiff is to pay his first visit to the Holy Land in May next year.

    Pope Benedict made the comments in an end-of-year speech to senior Vatican staff.

    Defending God’s creation was not limited to saving the environment, he said, but also about protecting man from himself.

    It was not “out-of-date metaphysics” to “speak of human nature as ‘man’ or woman’”, he said. It came from the “language of creation, despising which would mean self-destruction for humans”.

    Gender theories, he said, led to man’s “auto-emancipation” from creation and Creator.

    “Rain forests deserve, yes, our protection but the human being… does not deserve it less,” he said.

    LGCM head Rev Sharon Ferguson said the Pope’s remarks justified “gay bashing” and bullying.

    Mark Dowd, strategist for Christian environmental group Operation Noah, said the comments betrayed “a lack of openness to the complexity of creation”.

    And Ms Luxuria, who recently lost her seat in the Italian parliament, said suggesting people like her were destructive was very hurtful.

    “I’m someone who was born as male and has a spiritual and female soul, and it’s contradictory that a Pope just thinks of people just made as flesh and not made of a spiritual aspect.”

    The Catholic Church opposes gay marriage. It teaches that while homosexuality is not sinful, homosexual acts are.

    Earlier this month, the Vatican said that a proposed United Nations resolution decriminalising homosexuality went too far.

    “Unjust discrimination” against gay people should be avoided, but the use of wording such as “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” in the text would “create serious uncertainty in the law”, it said. …

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7797269.stm

    The best part, of course, about the Pope reiterating the church’s doctrine, is that Ted Kennedy and Nancy Pelosi still claim to be Catholic.

    It always amazes me when Democrats profess to be members of a church whose catechism condemns them to Hell for the positions they express for political expediency.

    One would think that the lust for power they possess and are able to attain for fifty years or so on this earth would pale compared to the everlasting torment they, by their self-identification of members of that faith, assigns them.

    Talk about the ultimate in political expediency and hypocrisy, and yet their supporters see no conflict.

    • sheehanjihad
      December 23, 2008 at 10:31 am

      as though somehow the UK’s Lesbian and Gay Christian community’s opinion matters? I am so sick and tired of everyone being offended by anything anyone says.

      Why cant I have laws passed because I am grossly offended by what they say?

      Why cant I have laws passed that gives me the right to charge gays with hate crimes when they call for a boycott to my business?

      Why dont they get arrested and charged doing the same things they accuse me of?

      This used to be a democracy. It used to be the majority ruled. This used to be a country.

      Yeah, you make me want to be so “tolerant”. Just shut up, please. Shut the eff up.

  17. JohnMG
    December 23, 2008 at 10:47 am

    …..”LGCM head Rev Sharon Ferguson said the Pope’s remarks justified “gay bashing” and bullying……”

    …..”Mark Dowd, strategist for Christian environmental group Operation Noah, said the comments betrayed “a lack of openness to the complexity of creation”……”

    …..”And Ms Luxuria, who recently lost her seat in the Italian parliament, said suggesting people like her were destructive was very hurtful…….”

    To each of the above: Each of you display to the world by your comments that you are determined to condemn anyone who will not cave to your line of thinking. You’re living in denial by refusing to acknowledge an aberration of nature manifest through your behavior. Face it. If you were normal, if your lifestyle were normal, mankind would have already ceased to exist. Perhaps your physical perversion is a sign of mental illness. Certainly your inability to see yourselves as outside the norm can only be described as willful ignorance. You’re a sick bunch of bastards, and no amount of howling at the rest of us will effect a cure. Heal thyself!!

  18. proreason
    December 23, 2008 at 1:20 pm

    From the UK’s Telegraph:

    Promoters overstated the environmental benefit of wind farms

    The British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) has agreed to scale down its calculation for the amount of harmful carbon dioxide emission that can be eliminated by using wind turbines to generate electricity instead of burning fossil fuels such as coal or gas.

    The move is a serious setback for the advocates of wind power, as it will be regarded as a concession that twice as many wind turbines as previously calculated will be needed to provide the same degree of reduction in Britain’s carbon emissions.

    A wind farm industry source admitted: “It’s not ideal for us. It’s the result of pressure by the anti-wind farm lobby.”

    For several years the BWEA – which lobbies on behalf of wind power firms – claimed that electricity from wind turbines ‘displaces’ 860 grams of carbon dioxide emission for every kilowatt hour of electricity generated.

    However it has now halved that figure to 430 grams, following discussions with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

    Hundreds of wind farms are being planned across the country, adding to the 198 onshore and offshore farms – a total of 2,389 turbines – already in operation. Another 40 farms are currently under construction.

    Experts have previously calculated that to help achieve the Government’s aim of saving around 200 million tons of CO2 emissions by 2020 – through generating 15 per cent of the country’s electricity from wind power – would require 50,000 wind turbines.

    But the new figure for carbon displacement means that twice as many turbines would now be needed to save the same amount of CO2 emissions….

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ear.....farms.html

    Is it just me, or is every single claim of the green industry eventually proven to be a lie?

    My dream of a car with a windmill on it seems further and further away.

    But at least we know that UK, even with the current doubling of the windmill requirements, will only need 100,000 Wind Turbines to replace 15% of their energy. That will still leave roomn for an occasional citizen here and there.

    And the extinction of the bird population will be an extra bonus, since birds are notorious carbon generators.

  19. BillK
    December 24, 2008 at 7:25 am

    It’s not just Congressional lawmakers getting a raise.

    From the (Madison) Wisconsin State Journal:

    Raises coming for state lawmakers whether they like it or not

    By Mark Pitsch

    Despite facing a $5.4 billion state budget shortfall, legislative leaders say they can’t do anything to change the 5.3 percent pay raises scheduled for lawmakers next year.

    Lawmakers’ salaries will rise $2,530, to $49,943 annually next year, according to the state Department of Administration. The increases are part of a series of pay raises for elected officials and other state workers.

    But critics say even though the overall amount of $334,000 would barely put a dent in the shortfall, the legislative pay increases send the wrong signal at a time when lawmakers could end up raising taxes and cutting services to close the budget gap.

    “It’s much more symbolic right now for them to give themselves a 5.3 percent pay raise at a time when people are struggling to keep their jobs or are getting laid off all over Wisconsin,” said Jay Heck, director of Common Cause in Wisconsin.

    Heck also criticized the process by which lawmakers increase their pay, in which the eight members of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Employment Relations vote on salaries recommended by the Office of State Employment Relations. He said each lawmaker should have to vote on the increases.

    “If you want a pay raise you should have the guts to vote for one,” he said.

    Because the state Constitution bars changes in elected officials’ pay during their terms in office, lawmakers can’t write a law next year rejecting the pay increases, said Carrie Lynch, a spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker, D-Weston.

    And convening next week to address the matter is impractical, she said, given that the Assembly is still under control of the Republicans. Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch, R-West Salem, could not be reached for comment.

    Lynch and Rebekah Sweeney, a spokeswoman for incoming Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan, D-Janesville, said whether lawmakers accept the raise will be an individual decision.

    Decker hasn’t indicated he will refuse his, Lynch said, while Sweeney said she didn’t know if Sheridan would.
    At least one lawmaker is considering whether he should accept the raise.

    “We’re still in the process of researching and seeing what the options are” for refusing the raise, said Jim Bender, a spokesman for incoming Assembly Minority Leader Jeff Fitzgerald, R-Horicon. …

    http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/325388

    It’s sad that the Republicans involved aren’t simply offering to turn the funds back over to the Wisconsin Department of Revenue as a matter of principle.

    It’s so much easier to simply say “Oh, there’s just nothing we could to about it.”

  20. BillK
    December 24, 2008 at 9:16 am

    The crybaby report, from the Columbia Journalism Review:

    Science Groups Protest CNN Cuts

    CASW, NASW, SEJ, and WFSJ issue first-ever joint letter

    By Curtis Brainard

    Four of the world’s largest science and environmental journalism groups issued their first-ever joint statement today in a letter sent to CNN protesting the network’s decision to cut its entire science team this month.

    The presidents of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing, the National Association of Science Writers, the Society of Environmental Journalists, and the World Federation of Science Journalists signed the letter, which was addressed to CNN’s Jim Walton and Jon Klein, the network’s worldwide and U.S. presidents, respectively. (Full disclosure: CASW president Cristine Russell is a frequent contributor to The Observatory and the joint letter cites two Observatory articles.) The letter is posted at the WFSJ’s Web site, and will be posted on the three other group’s sites as well. The full text is here:

    Dear Mr. Walton and Mr. Klein,

    We are writing on behalf of several national and international science journalism organizations to express our strong concern about CNN’s shortsighted decision to cut its science, technology and environment unit in one fell swoop. In wielding this ax, your network has lost an experienced and highly regarded group of science journalists at a time when science coverage could not be more important in our national and international discourse.

    The environment, energy technology, space exploration, and biotechnology are crucial ongoing stories that will have growing prominence as a new American president takes office and nations confront a wide range of science-based global issues. As the impacts of climate change intensify, shows like “Planet in Peril” cannot make up for informed daily coverage of this important issue and other science topics in the public eye. As with political and policy reporting, it is important that the underlying science be covered by journalists with the skills and knowledge to sort out competing claims.

    Concerned as we are about the dismissal of our colleagues—including the award-winning science reporter Miles O’Brien in New York; Peter Dykstra, head of CNN’s science unit in Atlanta; and five other science producers there—this letter is not about individual journalists. Rather, the wholesale dismantling of the science unit calls into question CNN’s commitment to bringing the most informative science news to the general public, including the science-minded younger audience. If CNN wants to be truly international, it will be at odds with the trend toward increased science coverage in many parts of the world.

    It is difficult for us to imagine why CNN, which has earned a justifiably strong reputation for its science journalism in the past, has opted to widen the gap in science coverage rather than strive to fill it. We would hope that you would reconsider your decision and reassemble a cadre of well-trained science journalists that would enable you to expand unfolding science news and in-depth coverage, not shrink it.

    Your action is an unfortunate symbol of recent widespread cutbacks in specialty science journalism. Our groups will continue to push for more science coverage by the major media and to do our part to promote the highest possible professional standards for communicating complex science-based issues across the spectrum. We plan to publicize this letter as widely as possible to encourage further discussion of the future of science journalism. Thanks for your attention.

    These four groups have for years provided wonderful support and resources to journalists in an effort to improve the quality and quantity of science and environmental journalism. It is exciting to see them banding together to protest the demise of yet another desk. The concerted effort could not come at a more urgent time. …

    http://www.cjr.org/the_observa.....nn_cut.php

    It’s always fun to watch liberals fight amongst themselves.

    I thought that with the Democrats in charge of Congress and his majesty in the White House, there would be no need for science education as the luddite deniers of obvious Scientific Truth were now out of power.

    Or perhaps CNN realized it’s hard to push Global Warming at a time budgets are tight and most of the country is in a deep freeze.

    • JohnMG
      December 24, 2008 at 11:58 am

      Given a choice between freezing to death or burning fossil fuels to keep warm, most of the ‘climate change’ followers seem to have no problem figuring out what to do. The ‘elite’ advocate a doubling of the prices of heating fuels with the aim of pricing them out of reach of the un-washed masses and forcing them to use alternatives. Trouble is, the alternatives are just as costly, or more so, than fossil fuels, and are less efficient. When the stark realities are revealed, even to the most obtuse among the mindless followers, they will opt out of the stupidity. At least until Spring when the furnace can be turned off.

      When the audience goes away, the demand for all those high priced ‘authorities’ telling us what to do evaporates. Corporate America will focus on the bottom line first, and jettison the dead weight in exchange for black ink.

      What all these ’scientist’ types really bemoan is the loss of taxpayer funded “research grants” that tend to insulate them from the economic realities facing the masses. If these guys were so smart they could buy all their pencils without erasers, the private sector would beat a path to their collective doors. In truth, much of what masquerades as scientific research is little more than another form of government welfare.

      If “it” is feasible and profitable, and a market exists, private industry (capitalists) will get “there” first with the greatest efficiency and the least cost. If we must get the government involved, it probably isn’t worth either the cost or the effort.

  21. BillK
    December 25, 2008 at 12:14 am

    The latest “hey, it’s pointless, but it makes us feel good” story from Denver’s KUSA television:

    A parking incentive to go green at DU

    By Jeffrey Wolf and Nelson Garcia

    The University of Denver launched a new program Wednesday to encourage students and staff to drive green cars.

    It’s part of a campus-wide effort to make the school more sustainable.

    “It can be expensive and difficult for people to park on campus,” said Brittany Branscom, a DU graduate student.

    Getting a good spot can be like winning a prize.

    Because of that, DU is turning the 12 best parking spaces on campus, into spots only in “green” cars can park.

    The hope is it will encourage more people involved with the school to buy cars that don’t use as much gas.

    “It’s not just about fuel economy. It’s also how the vehicle was produced, manufactured,” said Buddy Knox, manager of DU parking.

    The cars must pass a certain environmental criteria called Leeds Standards, then they can use one of those 12 spaces.

    “So, these are pretty elite spots, yes,” said Steve Manzanares, the DU field operations coordinator.

    “If you want to make in-road in being a more sustainable campus, we have to change the behavior of people who come to our campus,” said Knox.

    “I think that DU has the community that would really be adaptable to that sort of thing,” said Branscom.

    Across campus, recycling programs have grown, a concerted sustainability has bloomed, and workers have started using electric transportation to cut down on gas use.

    DU even has a compressed natural gas pump to run an entire fleet of vehicles and the school says it is the only campus in Colorado to do so.

    It’s about turning all of DU green.

    “We’d like to think this is just one small step along that journey,” said Knox. …

    http://www.9news.com/news/arti.....;catid=188

    Higher education somehow never ceases to amaze me.

    They admit, it’s near impossible for their customers, their students, to find parking places on campus.

    So let’s take even more parking spaces out of service in the name of a pointless feel good measure.

    Few businesses can actually be openly hostile towards their customers.

    But hey, when your budget comes almost exclusively from the Government, why even try?

    Sort of like the big three automakers.

  22. BillK
    December 25, 2008 at 12:19 am

    The expected article from the AP:

    Retail season expected to be worst in decades

    By Anne D’Innocenzio

    Last-minute shoppers headed to the nation’s stores and malls on the day before Christmas, looking for the final items they needed and searching for good deals — but for retailers, the season was essentially over long ago.

    Many merchants are already tallying up just how dismal their sales were in a season expected to be the worst in decades.

    “It’s beyond the worst fears of retailers,” said C. Britt Beemer, chairman of America’s Research Group.

    A lot is at stake. The holiday shopping season accounts for as much as 40 percent of annual profits for many retailers, and the earnings outlook is growing more dire every week.

    Retailers’ woes were good news for the dwindling numbers of shoppers who could afford to load up on deals. With mounds of inventory left to sell, merchants are expected to deepen the discounts even more the day after Christmas.

    But if 75 percent off before Dec. 25 didn’t make shoppers splurge, will even bigger deals do the trick amid mounting worries about layoffs and shrinking retirement funds?

    In Christmases past, the retail industry had relied on a surge before and after Christmas to help save the season. But the holiday period was virtually over before the Thanksgiving weekend ended as stores grapple with the most severe retrenchment in consumer spending in decades.

    Facing pressure from vendors and consumers who aren’t spending, Circuit City Stores Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection last month. It plans to keep operating, but toy retailer KB Toys, which filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this month, has already begun to liquidate all of its stores and will shutter operations completely.

    Merchants desperate to pull in shoppers started deeply discounting holiday goods as soon as they hit stores starting in November. But except for a shopping binge on the day after Thanksgiving, Americans have remained tight-fisted. When they do buy, they are looking for small-ticket, more practical gifts.

    Analysts have kept slashing their holiday estimates. Michael P. Niemira, chief economist at the International Council of Shopping Centers, now expects that sales at established stores for November and December will fall 1.5 percent to 2 percent — making it the weakest holiday season since at least 1969, when the index began.

    Excluding Wal-Mart Stores Inc., one of the few bright spots in retailing, same-store sales could be down as much as 7 percent for the holiday period. Same-store sales are sales at stores opened at least a year and are considered a key indicator of a retailer’s health.

    Stores are expected to post an 18.8 percent decline in fourth-quarter profits, marking the seventh consecutive period of profit declines, according to Ken Perkins, president of research company RetailMetrics LLC. He expects profits to keep tumbling into the first quarter, with predictions so far of a 10.4 percent drop.

    Merchants can’t even count on gift card sales, which have been well below last year, to boost profits and sales. In the past, gift cards had lifted post-Christmas season as shoppers went back to the stores to redeem the plastic on discounted and regular-priced merchandise. That’s because shoppers find they get better value by buying discounted merchandise. Consumers are also fearful of buying gift cards from retailers that may go bankrupt.

    Karen MacDonald, a spokeswoman at Taubman Centers Inc., which operates 24 malls in 11 states, said that gift card sales have been tracking anywhere from single-digit declines to double-digit declines this season.

    Crowds were light early Wednesday at Square One Mall in Saugus, Mass., a suburb north of Boston. Wander Caldas, a 50-year-old truck driver from Everett, Mass., said his wife had lost her job and wasn’t working this year, so the family — including his 12-year-old son — had cut their Christmas spending.

    “We cut it like in half,” Caldas said. “That’s why I have to slow down.” …

    http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/biz/325556

    I know the numbers are down, but for anyone who’s tried to find a parking space at their local mall, there are an awful lot of people buying things for people “not spending.”

    Oh, that’s right, everything’s “discounted” and “on sale.”

    Because you know, normally people are thrilled to pay full price…

  23. BillK
    December 25, 2008 at 4:34 am

    The AP is doing its best to make you feel bad this Christmas:

    New Jobless Claims Rise More Than Expected

    New claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, the government said Wednesday, as layoffs spread throughout the economy, more evidence the labor market is weakening as the recession deepens.

    The Labor Department reported that initial requests for jobless benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 586,000 in the week ending Dec. 20, from an upwardly revised figure of 556,000 the previous week. That’s much more than the 560,000 economists had expected.

    That’s also the highest level of claims since November 1982, though the work force has grown by about half since then.

    Separately, consumers cut spending for the fifth straight month in November, a report by the Commerce Department showed. The 0.6 percent drop in consumer spending last month followed an even larger 1 percent fall in October. The steep plunge in gasoline prices, which is good news for consumers, made the declines look worse.

    Excluding price changes, consumer spending would have dropped by 0.5 percent in October and actually risen by 0.6 percent in November. The November increase excluding inflation was the best showing in more than three years.

    Still, economists think the overall trend for consumer spending is down, given the problems facing the economy. They include a severe recession, a financial crisis that has cut off access to credit for millions of borrowers and a massive wave of job layoffs. …

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,472311,00.html

    See, don’t let the fact we haven’t had that second quarter’s drop in GDP yet fool you, now it’s not just a recession, it’s a severe recession.

    The government reported Tuesday that the overall economy, as measured by gross domestic product, was declining at an annual rate of 0.5 percent in the July-September quarter. Analysts believe the contraction will accelerate in the current quarter. Some are forecasting that GDP will plunge at an annual rate of 6 percent, which would be the worst showing since 1982.

    The Commerce Department said Wednesday that orders for large manufactured goods dropped by 1 percent, less than the 3 percent economists had expected. The decline was led by a huge drop in orders for aircraft and a decrease in the automotive sector.

    Once again, these are the magic numbers I warned about – “consumer spending” is down because gas costs less.

    Also:

    A Labor Department analyst, meanwhile, said auto-related layoffs were a factor behind the rise in jobless claims. The four-week average of initial claims, which smooths out fluctuations, rose to 558,000. That’s the highest since December 1982, when the economy was emerging from a steep recession.

    Note another important footnote above – though the actual number of claims hasn’t been seen since 1982, the number of people in the workforce is about 50% larger than it was then.

  24. BillK
    December 25, 2008 at 4:39 am

    From a joyful AP:

    Bah, Humbug! Ahmadinejad Delivers Christmas Message to ‘Bullying Powers’

    LONDON — Merry Christmas, “bullying, ill-tempered and expansionist powers.”

    Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will deliver a Christmas Day broadcast on Britain’s Channel 4 television, occupying a slot used to provide an often controversial counterpoint to Queen Elizabeth II’s traditional annual message, the station said Wednesday.

    In his recorded message, Ahmadinejad offers seasonal greetings to Christians and says he believes that if Jesus were alive, he would “stand with the people in opposition to bullying, ill-tempered and expansionist powers,” an apparent reference to the United States and its allies.

    According to a transcript of the broadcast released in advance, Ahmadinejad says most of the world’s problems stem from leaders who have turned against religion. He doesn’t refer to rival nations or leaders by name or raise the issue of Israel, despite his previous calls for the removal of the Jewish state.

    “If Christ were on earth today, undoubtedly He would hoist the banner of justice and love for humanity to oppose warmongers, occupiers, terrorists and bullies the world over,” Ahmadinejad said, according to the text.

    The U.S., Britain and others suspect Iran of secretly developing nuclear weapons, while Tehran insists its uranium enrichment program is intended solely for a civilian energy program.

    Ties with the U.K. were further strained in 2007 over the detention by Iran of 15 British sailors and marines, who were held for 13 days.

    The Israeli ambassador to London condemned Ahmadinejad’s speech as a “bogus message of good will” and said the broadcast was a disgrace.

    “That (Channel 4) should give an unchallenged platform to the president of a regime which denies the Holocaust, advocates the destruction of the sovereign state of Israel, funds and encourages terrorism, executes children and hangs gay people is a disgrace,” Ron Prosor said. “Outrage doesn’t begin to explain it.”

    Ahmadinejad’s message follows similar Christmas broadcasts on Channel 4 by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sharon Osborne and the animated TV character Marge Simpson of “The Simpsons.” Last year’s message was delivered by Sgt. Maj. Andrew Stockton, a British soldier badly wounded in Afghanistan.

    Ahmadinejad spoke in Persian, with subtitles in English, the channel said.

    Dorothy Byrne, head of news and current affairs at Channel 4, said Ahmadinejad had been selected because relations between Iran and the West are likely to be a key global issue in 2009.

    “As the leader of one of the most powerful states in the Middle East, President Ahmadinejad’s views are enormously influential. As we approach a critical time in international relations, we are offering our viewers an insight into an alternative world view,” Byrne said …

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,472314,00.html

    Just think how jealous MSNBC is today…

  25. 12 Gauge Rage
    December 25, 2008 at 6:20 am

    “As the leader of one of the most powerful states in the Middle East, President Ahmadinejad’s views are enormously influential”,…Yeah right. Only people with an ax to grind let this foaming at the mouth whack job have influence on their lives. And if Jesus was on the earth today he would personally confront this man on the hypocrisy of wanting justice and love for humanity with one breath and then with the next calling for the extermination of the Jewish nation. Too bad that there’s a lot of people in the east and the west buying into his performance. What will it finally take for them to wake up?

  26. sheehanjihad
    December 25, 2008 at 7:14 am

    “What will it finally take for them to wake up?”

    It will take the citizens of Israel waking up to the sun rising and setting at the same time in their country…..and the world will finally realize what happens when they fawn and wring their hands instead of having stopped Iran when they had the chance.

    By then however, it will be too late, because Iran’s threat of contaminating the region’s oil fields with radiation will effectively hold the world hostage…..

    All because our weak and feckless congress was more interested in being in power rather than projecting the power we had when it was necessary.

  27. sheehanjihad
    December 25, 2008 at 8:25 am

    From an ecstatic AP… City workers must undergo “sensitivity training” for doing their jobs.

    ATLANTA – City court workers including a municipal judge in an Atlanta suburb will undergo sensitivity training after police arrested a Muslim woman for refusing to remove her religious headscarf before attending a hearing.

    The judge ordered Lisa Valentine, 40, to serve 10 days in jail for contempt of court after the Dec. 16 incident. She was released in less than a day.

    Muslim rights activists have asked the Department of Justice to investigate the incident that triggered a protest in Douglasville, a city of about 20,000 people on Atlanta’s west suburban outskirts.

    Council on American-Islamic Relations spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said Wednesday the training doesn’t address the problem.

    “We can deal with whether people knew about policies or whether they handled things correctly, but the bottom line is, can a Muslim woman walk into this courtroom wearing religious attire?” he said.

    In a news release this week, the city police department acknowledged that while courtroom rules restrict headgear, Municipal Court Judge Keith Rollins has made accommodations for religious reasons, such as hearing cases outside the courtroom.

    Officials admonished the officer who detained Valentine for not “seeking an accommodation that would preserve the spirit of the law.” It’s unclear whether the officer was punished.

    The camel’s head is in the tent……sharia law trumps local law……again. Seems to me that the muslim community are the ones who need “sensitivity training” a lot more than any of us do.

  28. BillK
    December 25, 2008 at 9:54 am

    Remember when the New York Times made fun of Sarah Palin for being fooled by a French prankster who was pretending to be the President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy?

    They cited it as an example of her inexperience and why she couldn’t be trusted with such an important job.

    Well… from the AP:

    NY Times published fake letter from Paris mayor

    By Ann Levin

    NEW YORK (AP) – The New York Times admitted Monday it published a fake letter purportedly from the mayor of Paris criticizing Caroline Kennedy’s Senate bid as “appalling” and “not very democratic.”

    “What title has Ms. Kennedy to pretend to Hillary Clinton’s seat?” the letter in Monday’s editions said. “We French can only see a dynastic move of the vanishing Kennedy clan in the very country of the Bill of Rights. It is both surprising and appalling.”

    In an editor’s note posted Monday on its Web site, the Times said the letter signed by Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe should not have been published because it violated the paper’s standards and procedures.

    “We have already expressed our regrets to Mr. Delanoe’s office and we are now doing the same to you, our readers,” the Times said.

    News of the hoax was first reported by France-Amerique, which published a story on its Web site Monday. Editor-in-chief Jean-Cosme Delaloye said an employee of the French language monthly, which is based in New York City, read it Monday morning and was skeptical.

    “When we read the letter it just sounded very surprising, the choice of words sounded very surprising,” he told The Associated Press. “When we called Paris to verify the information … they were very surprised.”

    Virginie Christnacht, head of Delanoe’s press office in Paris, told the AP the letter was a fake.

    “We have asked The New York Times for a denial and an apology,” she said. “Clearly, this was never sent by Bertrand Delanoe.”

    The Times blamed the mistake on a failure to verify the authenticity of a letter that arrived by e-mail.

    “In this case, our staff sent an edited version of the letter to the sender of the e-mail and did not hear back,” the paper said. “At that point, we should have contacted Mr. Delanoe’s office to verify that he had, in fact, written to us. We did not do that. Without that verification, the letter should never have been printed.”

    The Times said it was reviewing its procedures to avoid such an incident in the future.

    Asked to comment, Times spokeswoman Catherine J. Mathis referred the AP to the paper’s Web site.

    http://www.breitbart.com/artic....._article=1

    I don’t suppose an apology to Palin is coming anytime soon now, is it?

  29. BillK
    December 25, 2008 at 9:58 am

    From usually hard-left celebrity scandal blog Gawker:

    Times City Room Will Not Mention Caroline Kennedy’s Special Friendship With Pinch Sulzberger

    Don’t even bother to leave a comment at the Times local news blog suggesting a sexy patrician affair between the Senator-to-be and the publisher of the Times.

    It seems like a mostly legitimate question to ask, doesn’t it? Whether or not they’re having sexy sexy old rich scion sex, the special friendship between Sulzberger and Kennedy is well-documented. And when the publisher of your paper is BFF with a public figure, asking whether that friendship affects coverage of that public figure is certainly fair game.

    But no, no comments allowed asking about the affair. When this guy tried, the City Room editors asked him to please not bring it up again. “we don’t report stuff like this, regardless of the people involved.” Stuff like… what? The Times certainly does report on the sexual lives of public figures, all the damn time, from Giuliani to Spitzer to Paterson. But reporting on the Sulzbergers not so much.

    http://gawker.com/5115286/time.....sulzberger

    Remind me why anyone still reads the Treason Times?

  30. Liberals Demise
    December 25, 2008 at 9:58 am

    Muslims treat their women like an borrowed mule. They are beaten, punched, kicked and made love to only after the family camel is satisfied. But Muslim activist are outraged. over the treatment of said punching bag in a court room. Now they say that the training doesn’t address the problem. The problem IS you people and your caveman religion that says beat and savage your women and kill the infidel but love your animals first. IF YOU DON”T LIKE THINGS HERE…….GET YOUR DUMBASS OUT AND TAKE ALL YOUR BAGGAGE WITH YOU!!! Ya’ll just don’t get it….WE DON”T WANT YOU HERE EITHER!!

  31. BillK
    December 25, 2008 at 10:03 am

    But I thought Bush accomplised nothing in Iraq?

    From the AP:

    For first time, Christmas official holiday in Iraq

    BAGHDAD — Iraq’s Christians, a scant minority in this overwhelmingly Muslim country, quietly celebrated Christmas today with a present from the government, which declared it an official holiday for the first time.

    But security worries overshadowed the day for many, particularly in the north where thousands of Christians have fled to escape religious attacks.

    Overall security in Iraq has improved markedly in the past year, but a fatal car bombing in Baghdad on Christmas morning was a gruesome reminder that serious problems remain.

    The bombing outside a restaurant frequented by police killed four people and wounded 25 others in the Shiite neighborhood of Shula, said a police officer on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give information to news media.

    Also today, an oil official said attackers blew up a pipeline in the city of Kirkuk. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the attack happened Wednesday and pumping was expected to resume within three days.

    In his homily on Thursday, Chaldean Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly praised the establishment of Christmas as an official holiday as a step toward easing tensions.

    “I thank the government for giving chances to all to serve each other for the general benefit, and I thank it too for making this day an official holiday where we pray to God to make us trust each other as brothers,” he said at the Christmas Mass before several dozen worshippers in the small chapel of a Baghdad monastery.

    A senior Shiite cleric, Ammar al-Hakim, attended the Mass flanked by bodyguards in a gesture of cooperation with Christians.

    “I thank the visitors here and ask them to share happiness and love with their brothers on Christmas; by this they will build a glorious Iraq,” the cardinal said.

    “We came here to bring a message of love, respect and gratitude to our Christian brothers and to share happiness with them as we have shared sadness with them during the cruel targeting they came under,” al-Hakim said in an interview with al-Furat TV. “We will do our best for equality between people and a good life for all, whatever their religious, sectarian and ethnic background.”

    He is the son and heir-apparent of Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, Iraq’s biggest mainstream Shiite party.

    Iraq’s Christians, estimated to number only a few hundred thousand of the country’s 26 million people, have often been the target of attacks by Islamic extremists in Iraq. Tens of thousands have fled; many of those who stayed were isolated in neighborhoods protected by barricades and checkpoints.

    A coordinated bombing campaign in 2004 targeted churches in the Iraqi capital and anti-Christian violence also flared in September 2007 after Pope Benedict XVI made comments perceived to be against Islam.

    For Mariam Polis, who fled her home in Mosul a year ago after anti-Christian threats spread and two priests were killed, this Christmas was a day of bitterness.

    “There’s not enough money, no house, no stability to prepare for Christmas Eve,” said the 55-year-old woman who now occupies a one-room clay house in the northern village of Ein Kawa. “It is better for us to die.”

    But for another woman who fled to Ein Kawa, there was a bit of cheer thanks to money sent from abroad by her brother.

    “We got a bright Christmas tree — it is a symbol we love,” Raeida Anwar Abid said. …

    http://www.latimes.com/news/na.....7210.story

    Oh yeah, that’s right, to the left this is another Bush failure – helping to spread the horrific spiritual poison that is Christianity.

  32. BillK
    December 25, 2008 at 10:08 am

    More like first in a series of template reports from Daily Kos.

    From the Los Angeles Times, labeled “News Analysis”:

    Bush a catalyst in America’s declining influence

    The president oversaw a period of eroding economic and political power, in which the rise of China, India and others was a major factor, but assisted by an aversion to him and his policies.

    By Paul Richter

    Reporting from Washington — First in a series of occasional reports on President Bush’s legacy.

    As President Bush’s term comes to a close, the United States has the world’s largest economy and its most powerful military. Yet its global influence is in decline.

    The United States emerged from the Cold War a solitary superpower whose political and economic leverage often enabled it to impose its will on others. Now, America usually needs to build alliances — and often finds that other powers aren’t willing to go along.

    In the 1990s, America exerted leadership in all the remote corners of the globe, from the southern cone of South America to Central Asia. Now, the United States has largely left the field in many regions, leaving others to step forward.

    Bush has been blamed widely for the erosion of American prestige. And the decline in U.S. influence is partly the result of the reaction to his invasion of Iraq, his campaign against Islamic militants and his early disdain for treaties and international bodies.

    But the shift is also a result of independent forces, though hastened by an aversion to Bush. These include the steady ascent of China, India and other developing countries that throughout the last decade have seen their economies grow, amassing wealth and quietly extending their reach.

    As smaller countries have built economic and political ties to these rising powers, they have worked to free themselves from exclusive dependence on the United States.

    “There is no return to the time when the United States was the ‘indispensable power,’ ” said Stewart M. Patrick, a former State Department official at the Council on Foreign Relations. “The world has moved on.”

    Now there are multiple power centers. The institutions that buttressed Western power, such as the United Nations, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, are under pressure to allow rising powers more influence.

    A vivid illustration of the power shift came Nov. 15, when Bush convened world leaders in Washington to develop plans for dealing with the global economic crisis. In the old days, experts said, he would have limited the meeting to a few industrial powers. But Bush realized that the world economy now has a larger cast of influential players, and invited all members of the so-called Group of 20 developed and developing nations, which includes countries such as Argentina, Indonesia, Mexico and Turkey.

    A decade ago, the U.S. might have been able to bring enough economic pressure on its own to force an end to Iran’s disputed nuclear program, said Nikolas K. Gvosdev, professor of national security studies at the Naval War College.

    But Iran has built economic ties to China and India, among others, so the United States has to assemble a much larger group if it hopes to force Tehran’s hand.

    “Ten years ago, the U.S. was generally the only game in town, and it had the power to close or crack open the door to Iran,” Gvosdev said. “Now other countries have more options. . . . This doesn’t mean the United States is weak, but it can’t unilaterally impose what it wants.”

    The U.S. National Intelligence Council issued a report this year, “Global Trends 2025,” that notes a shift of economic power from the West to the East that is “without precedent.” In 2025, the United States will “remain the single most powerful country, but will be less dominant,” it predicts.

    Since World War II, the United States has led by its power of persuasion, as well as its economic might. But other countries’ unhappiness with the Iraq war and the conduct of the Bush administration’s “global war on terror,” means that the “American brand is less legitimate and its persuasive powers are compromised,” said Charles Kupchan of Georgetown University and the Council on Foreign Relations.

    There also has been a dwindling of U.S. influence as the administration has focused most of its energy and resources on the Middle East and Southwest Asia, leaving much less for Central and Southeast Asia, Latin America and other regions. Many are going their own way, developing new ties among neighbors.

    Latin American countries, for example, are building an organization called the Union of South American Nations and a NATO-like defense alliance called the South American Defense Council. The United States, long dominant in the hemisphere, is pointedly excluded from both.

    An 8-year-old group called the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, with Russia, China, and four Central Asian states, has been slowly developing, in part because some members want a bulwark against U.S. involvement in the region.

    Other countries are leading diplomatic initiatives that once would have been the province of the United States.

    Qatar has taken the lead in brokering a deal between Syria and Lebanon, and Turkey has been acting as an intermediary between Israel and Syria.

    As the United States’ political standing has eroded, its economy has remained powerful. Its gross domestic product of $14 trillion a year dwarfs China’s $7 trillion, adjusted for purchasing power.

    Yet American influence on world economic policy is declining, too. One sign: the failure of the United States and its allies to sell a new agreement to the World Trade Organization in the face of opposition from China, India and other nations.

    “The influence of the U.S. private sector is as strong as ever,” said Gary C. Hufbauer of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “But the United States is much less able to shape world policy these days.”

    Many analysts expect that the economic crisis, for which the U.S. is blamed by much of the world, will convince many countries that they shouldn’t emulate the loosely regulated American economic model. …

    http://www.latimes.com/news/na.....3325.story

    Cool.

    The best way to assure the United States’ future economic superiority is for other countries to adopt say Hugo Chavez’ policies.

    The problem is Obama will be in a race with those other countries to do the same.

    Not like Bush isn’t trying to get the country there for him first.

    We’re also supposed to be embarrassed because other countries are mad at the US for the Global War on Terror.

    It remains to be seen if Obama will unilaterally solve that one by making us sitting ducks.

    • Steve
      December 26, 2008 at 11:28 am

      ““There is no return to the time when the United States was the ‘indispensable power,’ ” said Stewart M. Patrick, a former State Department official at the Council on Foreign Relations. “The world has moved on.”

      Now there are multiple power centers. The institutions that buttressed Western power, such as the United Nations, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, are under pressure to allow rising powers more influence.”

      What an ill-timed claim. Given what we are reading about financial state of the globe.

      As always, the US sneezes and the rest of the world catches pneumonia.

  33. BillK
    December 25, 2008 at 10:21 am

    The accompanying photo shows Obama golfing – you know, enjoying himself while Americans are hurting and all that?

    From the Los Angeles Times:

    Obama urges renewed ’sense of common purpose’ in holiday message

    The president-elect draws from U.S. history in a radio address that pays tribute to troops, their families and other Americans enduring tough times.

    By John McCormick

    Reporting from Honolulu — President-elect Barack Obama used a holiday radio address released Wednesday to remember the nation’s troops serving overseas and citizens at home who are struggling amid a troubled economy.

    “Many troops are serving their second, third, or even fourth tour of duty,” Obama said in a recording scheduled for broadcast Saturday. “This holiday season, their families celebrate with a joy that is muted, knowing that a loved one is absent and sometimes in danger.”

    Obama, who is vacationing on his native island of Oahu, also talked about what those away from home are missing.

    “In towns and cities across America, there is an empty seat at the dinner table,” he said. “In distant bases and on ships at sea, our servicemen and -women can only wonder at the look on their child’s face as they open a gift back home.”

    The president-elect has been spending time with troops stationed at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, where he has gone every morning of his vacation for a workout at a fitness center.

    He spent a few minutes shaking hands and greeting about 60 people gathered in a parking lot outside the fitness center on Christmas Eve.

    “Hey, man, how’s it going?” he asked one person before wishing everyone “Mele Kalikimaka,” a Hawaiian transliteration of “Merry Christmas.”

    Then Obama turned to some children and asked, “You guys got your Christmas lists all together?”

    In the radio address, Obama said there was a need for collective sacrifice during this time of economic duress: “That is why this season of giving should also be a time to renew a sense of common purpose and shared citizenship. Now, more than ever, we must rededicate ourselves to the notion that we share a common destiny as Americans.”

    Obama said that was the spirit that would guide his administration.

    “If the American people come together and put their shoulder to the wheel of history, then I know that we can put our people back to work and point our country in a new direction,” he said. “That is how we will see ourselves through this time of crisis, and reach the promise of a brighter day.”

    The president-elect recalled an American moment more than 200 years ago, when George Washington and his army faced steep odds to free themselves from the grip of the British Empire.

    “It was Christmas Day — Dec. 25, 1776 — that they fought through ice and cold to make an improbable crossing of the Delaware River,” he said. “Many ages have passed since that first American Christmas. We have crossed many rivers as a people. But the lessons that have carried us through are the same lessons that we celebrate every Christmas season — the same lessons that guide us to this very day: that hope endures, and that a new birth of peace is always possible.”

    http://www.latimes.com/news/na.....5076.story

    It’s too bad those troops away from home are going to learn what it’s like to have fought in vain when you’re pulled out of a war zone for arbitrary reasons before victory can be achieved.

    I also don’t think I need to explain what “collective sacrifice” means: dragging all of America down to the same level rather than trying to raise more Americans up.

    Or just focus on the word collective.

    If George Washington could see what Obama’s planning, I’m not so sure he would have chosen to cross the Delaware…

    (Nice that since he had to make up the “Office of President-Elect” out of thin air, apparently he’s now made up the need for the President-Elect to address the nation as well. As if we won’t have to suffer enough of his pablum starting January 20.)

    • BigOil
      December 25, 2008 at 1:27 pm

      One wonders if Obama voters were hoping for all of this sacrifice when they decided to worship The One. Fortunately, there are still millions in this country who will not sit idly by…

  34. JohnMG
    December 25, 2008 at 11:34 pm

    If he thinks going to a Marine Corps base and working out at a fitness center there will endear him to the troops, or if he thinks that by associating with Marines he will burnish his image, he’s out of his flippin’ mind.

    Honor! Courage! Commitment!. You don’t have it, “Honest Obe”, and no amount of posturing will buy it for you.

    Good luck with your charade. You’re going to need it, chump!

    • 1sttofight
      December 26, 2008 at 1:33 am

      You got that right John.

      They could only sucker <60 people to show up?

      LMAO.

    • Liberals Demise
      December 26, 2008 at 9:36 am

      Working out to the smell of real man sweat probly pumped up the ONE to false bravado.
      Here is one thing that he can’t ghetto…….THE FEW AND THE PROUD!!
      OOOORAH!!

  35. The Redneck
    December 26, 2008 at 2:48 am

    But the lessons that have carried us through are the same lessons that we celebrate every Christmas season — the same lessons that guide us to this very day: that hope endures, and that a new birth of peace is always possible”

    And here I was thinking that the lessons we celebrate every Christmas season had something to do with the Savior of the world coming to Redeem us from our sins.

  36. BillK
    December 26, 2008 at 10:02 am

    The AP dared to print this?

    Amazon says 2008 holiday season was ‘best ever’

    SEATTLE (AP) — Amazon.com Inc. said Friday that the 2008 holiday season was the online retailer’s “best ever,” with more than 6.3 million items ordered and 5.6 million units shipped during its peak day on Dec. 15.

    Amazon’s upbeat take on the holiday season bucked the drumbeat of generally dismal news from retailers. Holiday sales typically account for 30 percent to 50 percent of a retailer’s annual total, but rising unemployment, home foreclosures, the stock market decline and other economic worries led many shoppers to slash their shopping budgets this year.

    SpendingPulse – a division of MasterCard Advisors that tracks total sales paid for by credit card, checks and cash – said its preliminary data indicates that retail sales dropped between 5.5 percent and 8 percent this holiday season compared with last year. SpendingPulse said the decline was slightly less steep – between 2 percent and 4 percent – when auto and gas sales were excluded.

    Earlier this month, Barclays Capital analyst Douglas Anmuth said Amazon’s competitive position has actually strengthened during the downturn, as some brick-and-mortar retailers were forced to close stores and had difficulty obtaining inventory.

    Based on the number of items ordered, Amazon said its holiday bestsellers included the Nintendo Wii, Samsung’s 52-inch LCD HDTV, the Apple iPod touch and the Blokus board game. …

    http://customwire.ap.org/dynam.....IDAY_SALES

    But I thought electronics were supposed to be the biggest loser in this year’s sales?

    Could it be that you could get one particular 32″ Sony HDTV from Amazon for $599 when the best price on the same model all season at Best Buy or “just barely staying afloat” Circuit City was $749?

    Or say that DVDs and Blu-Ray discs are routinely marked down 30% or more from what they sell for at other retailers?

    Note that other brick-and-mortar retailers that follow similar pricing strategies, such as Wal-Mart, have also done well this season.

    However, the real reckoning is yet to come, as retailers have now done what the Big Three did to themselves years ago:

    A few years back, the Big Three tried to get rid of rebates but their sales plummeted because American consumers came to expect that $2,000 or more check back when they bought a domestic vehicle and wouldn’t buy one without it.

    Likewise, consumers now expect items to be marked down at least 25% if not more, or they won’t buy.

    (Even if money is no object, why buy now when you know sometime in the next two to three weeks the same item will inevitably be at least 25% cheaper?)

    What’s even worse is retailers like Macy’s and Target who don’t have price match policies that extend beyond ten days but have 30 – 90 day return policies, so their results are skewed by people repurchasing an item on sale and returning it against the original receipt.

    So why would customers ever pay full price again when they know a store will have to lower their price on whatever it is they want sometime in the next few weeks?

  37. Steve
    December 26, 2008 at 11:20 am

    BTW, I almost forgot to mention that the bee in the photo at the top is on a “Christmas rose.”

You must be logged in to post a comment.


« Home | To Top
« Save Santa Claus From Global Warming! | The Hive – The (Subtle) Changes At S&L »