…with my actual day job, I’m bidden to note that today is “National Talk Like A Pirate Day“.
So without any further ado, I will talk like a Pirate.
“I wish management would spend some money so we can get out of the NL Central cellar during our natural lifetime”.
I’m not sure that it warrants a whole national day, but I’m not the one that makes these decisions.
Is it worse that John McCain isn’t especially concerned with life online?
Or that Nancy Pelosi rocks Travelocity?
It was Monday, September 19, 1988.
I called Charlie, the program director at the station in New York. He took my call – always a good sign.
“So – you said to stop by if I was ever in NYC. And I was actually going to be passing through the week of the 17th of October…”
“Great!”, Charlie said. He checked his calendar. He was going to be out of town on the 17th and 18th – but he’d be in on Thursday the 19th.
He gave me the address – just south of Central Park.
And so it was set.
I drove to the travel agency and checked for a cheap ticket for the week of October16th. And found one. Real cheap.
Thankfully.
I still wasn’t sure if this was a good idea. But I mentally crossed my fingers and wrote out a check.
Start spreading the news…
Pelosi urges Bush to take action in letter
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is sending a letter to President Bush pressuring him to offer a “comprehensive and effective systemic response to ongoing market turmoil.”
Ooooh. Nancy. The mumbo. The jumbo. I love it when you use multiple syllables.
“We need to hear from you about a comprehensive and effective systemic response to ongoing market turmoil — one that will restore stability, grow our economy, create jobs, and insulate hardworking, middle-class Americans on Main Street from Wall Street’s crisis,” Pelosi writes in the letter.
Geez, Nancy is that all? As long as you’re at it, why didn’t you ask for the cure for cancer? Government is the solution for all ills, right. Maybe now would be a good time for everyone to get Hillary’s $5,000?
Translation:
We don’t know what the f*ck we’re doing. Harry Reid is crying in the balcony. The Senator from Illinois isn’t even “Present.” So Mr. President, if you don’t mind, we’d like you to look the fool. Please overlook the fact that it is we that have blocked reform legislation since 1992.
Legislation that may have prevented this debacle in the first place.
She also says Congress will be willing to stay on Capitol Hill beyond the target adjournment date of September 26 to deal with the problem.
Well, we know they will be hanging around for at least two or three days until the President gets his letter.
…and removes all doubt.
…and is utterly, completely underwhelming.
“The truth is I don’t know what the bailout is yet,” Biden said Wednesday afternoon in Maysfield, Ohio. “It looks like they’re lending them a little bit of money. I don’t know what they’ve done, I haven’t had a brief on it. I haven’t spoken to the Secretary of the Treasury.”
…and these are the people we’ve been waiting for?
Gee Joe, the economy is the political issue now. Ya’ think y’all might wanna get schooled on the subject?
Truth is, the Democrats don’t know anything about “The Economy, Stupid.”
…and blaming the “suffering” of the middle class on Bush’s policies is political dejecta.
The federal government is loaning AIG $85 Billion at eight percent interest which is to say the Fed could potentially profit in the deal.
Make no mistake. This is an unwise installment is what in looking more and more like a serial government bailout that will only encourage more deservedly failed enterprises to line up with their hand out. Further, these short-term fixes only serve to undermine the long-term health of our economy by weakening our dollar.
The prospect of a government bailout (now in place) of Fannie and Freddie emboldened them to take risks they would otherwise not have taken. The cascade effect allowed Washington Mutual, AIG, and others to follow suit. They, along with GM are now raising the white flag.
These companies should be condemned to suffer quick, conspicuous deaths, allowing their assets to be picked up by their rightful owners – those institutions that wisely resisted the lure of chasing too little reward by accepting too much risk.
Meanwhile, Joe Blow Biden incredulously believes this to be the time to talk of raising taxes.
Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden said Thursday that paying more in taxes is the patriotic thing to do for wealthier Americans. The Republican campaign for president calls the tax increases their Democratic opponents propose “painful” instead of patriotic.
“We want to take money and put it back in the pocket of middle-class people,” Biden said in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
Versus stimulating and enhancing the opportunities to earn it themselves, right Joe? You arrogant socialist hack.
A more accurate choice of words is “confiscate”. Only a liberal democrat would assert that “taking” money from those that have leveraged the American Dream by investing, working hard, and employing others will somehow result in a stronger America.
I’m actually starting to believe Obama’s assertion that Joe Biden is a regular “lunchbucket” kind of guy. Just exactly the wrong kind of myopic mind to be assuming leadership of our nation.
To: Jack Cafferty, inexplicable pundit
From: Mitch Berg. common citizen
Re: Racism
Mr. Cafferty – let me ask you this: If a political party nominates a black person who believes in nothing I believe in, supports no policies I support, and shows active contempt for a good part of this nation (a part where I grew up, by the way), and is utterly unqualified for office, and I don’t vote for him for those reasons, am I a racist?
I look forward to your answer.
That is all.
Mitch Berg
PS: You were much better with the Beaver Brown Band.
The Florida “saggy pants” law – applauded by sartorial moderates and Joe Soucherays around the nation – has been tossed:
Julius Hart, 17, was charged last week after an officer said he spotted the teenager riding his bicycle with 4 to 5 inches of blue-and-black boxer shorts revealed.
Hart’s public defender, Carol Bickerstaff, urged a judge Monday to strike down the sagging pants law, telling him: “Your honor, we now have the fashion police.”
Circuit Judge Paul Moyle ruled that the law was unconstitutional based on “the limited facts” of the case. Technically, however, the charge hasn’t been dropped yet: a new arraignment awaits Hart on Oct. 5.
Voters in Riviera Beach approved the law in March. A first offense for sagging pants carries a $150 fine or community service, and habitual offenders face the possibility of jail time.
Bickerstaff said she wants the city to drop the law — regardless of whether anyone dislikes low-riding pants.
It’s a good thing it was tossed of course – it violated the Fourteenth Amendment, unduly burdening stupid people who are slaving followers of moronic fashion.
(Via Bob at A Democracy blog)
According to Juan Cole, phone calls from known terrorist operatives overseas to American phone numbers are sacrosanct.
But if you’re an uppity Republican woman?
By now you have heard that Palin’s email account at yahoo has been hacked by those lovable scamps at 4chan. Two quick things:
1.) This merely reinforces how reckless and careless this woman is, and how reckless and careless this choice is. John McCain chose a woman so stupid she runs government business through yahoo.
It’s all whose privacy is being violated.
Juan Cole has re-passed Cenk Uighur as the most loathsomely useless liberal in the business. Again.
UPDATE: Oh, wait – he the “loveable scamps” bit was all sarcasm, and he’d never approve of hacking peoples’ email.
Not sure where there was anything about that above the correction, but hey,a correction is a correction.
OK, Cole. Uighur passed you again.
For now.
As you read the lefty media – everything from the NYTimes to the Strib to the Minnesoros “Independent” – make a point of looking for the subtle bits of “dishonesty by omission” in the language.
I’ve noticed for a while now that, try as you may, when the leftymedia writes about “Immigration”, they never distinguish between legal immigration and illegal immigration – as if there’s no difference between a legally-naturalized citizen who’s followed the rules, and someone who snuck across the border.
Case in point – this deeply-misleading piece by the Minnesoros “Independent”‘s Anna Pratt:
The New York-based political group Progressive States Network (PSN) has just released a report entitled, “The Anti-Immigration Movement That Failed,” which counters media hype around anti-immigration legislation, revealing that over the past few years, states have largely enacted various policies that embrace new immigrants.
Pratt gives a short laundry list of “progressive” pro-immigrant laws – without making the distinction between laws meant to help and work with legal immigrants versus illegal ones.
This is important, since later on she snarks:
Only in a handful of states that were already conservative-leaning were “significant anti-immigrant policies able to make headway in 2008… Everywhere else, states either stalled anti-immigrant bills or enacted positive policies to better integrate new immigrants,” the report reads.
The words “illegal” and “undocumented” don’t really pop up in the story.
Now, in the article she links, they do. And what do they say?
Only 11% of undocumented immigrants live in states that have enacted comprehensive punitive policies, while a significant majority of undocumented immigrants live in states with positive integrative or somewhat integrative policies.
In other words, “undocumented illegal immigrants go where the “progressives” make them welcome”.
Hm. So conservatives are…correct?
Look for the leftymedia to try to spread more obfuscation on this issue as we get closer to the election and beyond.
“…what about those polls that are showing Obama is tied or leading Mac again?”
I respond “Well, yeah – the convention bounce is over, the media’s slime campaign against Palin is taking its pound of flesh, and – as with most media polls – they oversample Democrats anyway”.
As I said last week, the bounce didn’t change the fact that Mac is the underdog. It’s going to be a knock-down, drag-out race – which I, a political junkie, love. And let’s face it – a month ago, I doubt many people thought it was going to be close, in the end. And make no mistake about it – for all the caterwauling that the media hypocritically plays up about America hating it, America loves it too.
It’s time to win this campaign on what matters; the issues, sure, and on the blocking and tackling of running a good campaign.
First, it was the “classic” bumpersticker
If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention
Yesterday, I saw…:
If you’re not overwhelmed with anger, you’re not paying involved enough.
Not quite sure why we had the rhetorical escalation. But I will commence looking for:
If your constant rage hasn’t made you incontinent and given you a heart attack, stroke or some hyperadrenal disorder, you should kill yourself because you’re a useless piece of garbage.
Keep me posted.
Allahpundit on the press’ in-the-bagitude for Obama:
I look forward to the media showing 1/1000th the interest in this case of a candidate with a thin resume lying about his credentials as they’ve shown in Palin touting the fact that she canceled the bridge to nowhere — which she did. Exit question: Does a man who comes from the same professional background as Jesus really need to inflate his resume?
What’s he talking about?
Another Obama flight of fancy, background-wise.
Read it. Get back to me.
…a “column I didn’t finish” – one I found so atrociously bad I had to bail out in mid-stream (and not in the bad, AIG, taxpayers-funding-stupidity sense, but in the “save a few precious minutes of life” kind of way).
Garrison Keillor in the Strib:
I saw two moose on a bike trail in Anchorage last week and did not kill either one of them, neither the cow nor her calf, though under the Bush Doctrine I certainly had a right to, since the cow could have charged and pinned me to a tree and danced me to death.
The moose would have gotten off on rhetorical self-defense.
So I was reading this bit, on this website – the website of a company of British paratroopers – and I saw this graf.See if you can spot the further evidence of the overwhelming spread of Yankee cultural hegemony:
The CQMS was pleased to be the main effort through the month of June. It gave CSgt Walker the opportunity to actually figure out what he was responsible for within A Coy. Since he had taken over the stores whilst deployed, he had his work cut out for him to complete the Board of Officers. In his usual fashion, CSgt Walker dedicated himself (and his storemen) to getting everything 100% ahead of time. Although the undertaking caused many long nights and headaches, we came through with flying colors.
Didja see it?
Answer below the jump.
…if you’d asked me in college what kind of band I wanted to have when I made the big time, I’d have probably said something like this.
I’m thinking that I’m going to declare myself bound by ancient Viking law. I think a Holmgang to solve disputes would be a lot more productive than a lawsuit, for example.
No, really. And given this story, it’s probably only a matter time before Justice Antnony “Let’s See What Foreign Courts Have To Say” Kennedy makes this truly awful story a reality here:
Civil and criminal verdicts by Islamic sharia courts are now legally binding under UK law.
A new network of courts in five major cities is hearing cases where Muslims involved agree to be bound by traditional Sharia law, and under the 1996 Arbitration Act the court’s decisions can then be enforced by the county courts or the High Court.Officials behind the new system claim to have dealt with more than 100 cases since last summer, including six involving domestic violence which is a criminal rather than civil offence, and said they hoped to take over growing numbers of ‘smaller’ criminal cases in future.
The revelations sparked uproar yesterday, with warnings that the fundamental principle of equal treatment for all – the bedrock of British justice – was being gravely undermined.
No kidding, Sherlock. Either there is equal treatment under the law or there is sharia. You can’t have it both ways. Under sharia, women are considered to be less equal than men.
Hey, the Vikings didn’t stone gays to death! (He says, after finding no references on Google to, y’know, Vikings stoning gays).
(Via Miss O’Hara)
…that Chad the Elder’s new arrival…:
Scoring for Clan Doughty at forty weeks and three days of the third trimester, my wife. With an assist (albeit a very small one) from me.
…and Pianomomsicle‘s…
i have been having a lot of contractions lately. Yesterday, they were regular and painful…This means two very good things:
- There is a good chance i will actually go into labor this time, and not have to get induced at 41 weeks.
- There is a good chance i will go into labor soon, and most likely we both will be fine.
…would happen around the same time, if only for neatness’ sake.
Alas, it was not to be – just yet:
Bloggers are apparently not known for seizing these opportunities.
Oh, well. Congrats, Chad/Beth/Nate/Nate’s little brother, and all the best to Pianomomsicle and her hubby. Our fingers are crossed!
The next time one of my managers is dumb enough to put us through a bout of writing “mission statements” and “vision statements”, I’m going to print this off:
Mission, vision and statement of principle, all on one handy para-maroon wall hanging, perfect for any meeting room!
Courtesy of 2nd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment (UK) via Michael Yon.
So why did Obama demand that the Iraqis gundeck the Bush Administration’s (and General Petraeus’) Iraq withdrawal plan?
According to Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Obama made his demand for delay a key theme of his discussions with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad in July.
“He asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement until after the US elections and the formation of a new administration in Washington,” Zebari said in an interview.
Obama insisted that Congress should be involved in negotiations on the status of US troops – and that it was in the interests of both sides not to have an agreement negotiated by the Bush administration in its “state of weakness and political confusion.”
“However, as an Iraqi, I prefer to have a security agreement that regulates the activities of foreign troops, rather than keeping the matter open.” Zebari says.
Though Obama claims the US presence is “illegal,” he suddenly remembered that Americans troops were in Iraq within the legal framework of a UN mandate. His advice was that, rather than reach an accord with the “weakened Bush administration,” Iraq should seek an extension of the UN mandate.
While in Iraq, Obama also tried to persuade the US commanders, including Gen. David Petraeus, to suggest a “realistic withdrawal date.” They declined.
So let’s get this straight; he’d rather hold off the withdrawal and claim the credit than bring the troops home?
Yow.
Longtime Pink Floyd keyboardist and Roger Waters’ kicktoy Richard Wright is dead at 65.
I’m a longtime Pink Floyd non-fan – but not because weren’t amazing musicians in their way. Pink Floyd in its prime was like The Who, in the sense that it was four distinct musicians who were very different, but depended on each other.
Behind David Gilmour’s languid, fluid guitar, filling up the spaces behind Roger Waters’ indifferent thumping and scowling and in front of Nick Mason’s dirgeline plodding lay Wright’s keyboards, especially his work on the Hammond B3. Gilmour – either the world’s slowest great guitarist or the world’s greatest slow guitarist (and no insult is intended, because I play a lot like Gilmour) was the band’s outcry; Mason and Waters were the cholesterol-clogged heartbeat; Wright, like the late Danny Federici and the still-thankfully-alive Benmont Tench was the atmosphere; where that atmosphere for Federici was the big roaring heart of Jersey Shore soul, and with Tench was the tear in Tom Petty’s beer, in Wright’s case it was usually foreboding and menace.
Wright was almost always in the background – never moreso than when Waters engineered his ouster from the band, demoting him in effect to a paid sideman for the band’s last tours in support of The Final Cut.
One of my favorite Wright moments. Hard to concentrate, given the dynamic stage performance, but the song is mostly Wright, and it’s one of Pink Floyd’s best moments.
(Via Flash)
…what I wanted to be when I grew up, I’d probably have answered something like this.
And sometimes, I still would.
And anyone who calls “Obama Girl” a “skank” gets my vote just on principle, anyway.
This looks impressive: five former Secretaries of State speak out on US/Iranian relations:
Five former secretaries of state, gathering to give their best advice to the next president, agreed Monday that the United States should talk to Iran.
Well, that sounds like an august, authoritative body!
Which SecStates are we talking about, here?
The wide-ranging, 90-minute session in a packed auditorium at The George Washington University, produced exceptional unity among Madeleine Albright,
SCREECH.
Albright?
The worst SecState since Warren Christopher, was a failed diplomat in two administrations?
Colin Powell,
An extreme disappointment.
Warren Christopher,
With Albright, the mixed doubles team at the “Most Impotent Hamsters Ever To Represent This Country Overseas” tournament.
Henry A. Kissinger
Er,yeah. Successful, yes, largely, but is his legacy of morally-compromised realpolitik something we want to suck up to?
and James A. Baker III.
Er…yeah. One out of five ain’t bad.
Whew.
…that the man leading the party that has ascribed an insignificant fluctuation in worldwide temperatures to mankind, packaged the phenomenon as a crisis, and crowned a failed Presidential candidate (don’t miss the link – it’s Al Gore – 100 lbs. ago!) and hypocrite as it’s King…
…would blame the failure of a private financial services company during what Alan Greenspan called yesterday a “once in a century” financial crisis brought on by a completely predictable (as to what, not when) collapse in the price of homes when the American congress is controlled by Democrats.
…and John McCain is the liar, huh?
Obama, the Democratic nominee, said President George W. Bush‘s policies have caused “the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression.” He also called for “modernizing” regulations at a rally in Grand Junction, Colorado.
Obama’s economic literacy is limited to the balancing of a checkbook, and even that is an assumption on my part. Obama’s paycheck has never originated from anything other than a government entity. Anyone want to take a guess as to what Obama means by “modernizing” means in this context?
Here – let me give you a hint. Is it…
a. Augmenting
b. Expanding
c. Multiplying
d. Swelling
e. Widening
f. All of the Above
In all fairness, McCain was also quoted as saying more regulations are indicated, but at least he wasn’t obtuse enough to make a lame attempt to leverage the situation politically and blame it on President Bush.
Both candidates were trying to score points with voters looking for reassurance after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. became the latest casualty on Wall Street.
Guess what America? Our economy has cycles. Companies that have irrelevant or outdated business models are supposed to fail and all the better if it happens quickly. Sometimes the risk reward quotient yields the risk; the risks of doing business are realized. Our government can’t be expected to mitigate every risk of life and living in America.
…unless you are a pandering politician.
