McCain and Palin to use US flags Dems trashed in Denver

The Democrats left 12,000 United States flags (from their ‘green’ convention) for trash pick-up at Invesco Field.



A worker at Invesco saved them from the landfill and the Republicans will recycle them for use later.

They will use these flags at their own event in Colorado Springs with John McCain and Sarah Palin.

Before McCain speaks, veterans will haul these garbage bags filled with flags out onto the stage — with dramatic effect, no doubt — and tell the story.

A video displaying the garbage bags full of flags the Democrats trashed will probably be on a McCain Palin TV ad soon.

Note:

A link to this story on the Denver Post is malfunctioning - The Post is known for taking down links to stories unfavorable to the Democratic Party. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

UPDATE
The Obama campaign is vigorously on the defensive on this issue claiming the flags were not intended for the trash.

Obama’s surrogates further claim the story is a ‘cheap shot’ by the McCain campaign to make the Democrats look bad.

The McCain campaign simply asks why the flags were tied up in plastic bags and placed by the dumpsters at Invesco Field where an Invesco worker salvaged them.

St Paul RNC most watched convention ever

A report at the link below says:

The Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota was the most watched convention ever.

As for the speeches of the presidential candidates, it was a draw.

As a television draw, John McCain was every bit the equal of Barack Obama.

An interesting comparison - McCain did it without renting an 80,000 seat arena and without a big-name band, styrfoam ‘Barackopolis’ pillars (shown below) and fireworks.

(click on picture to enlarge)

Link

Trucker made license plate disappear to avoid toll

A trucker rigged his front license plate so it would disappear as he drove through a toll plaza to avoid paying the $40 fee.

The Port Authority said driver Orlando Payano ran a cable from the license plate to the dashboard cigarette lighter inside the cab of the vehicle.

Pulling on the lighter flipped the plate under the truck. Cameras are used to capture images of license plates to identify fare beaters.

Police charged Payano with toll evasion and license plate destruction. He told the Daily News that he didn't have "any cable or anything" and that "it's not true."

Link

The last Sarah Palin posting for the week - promise!

She was put on this earth to do two things: shoot caribou and kick butt.

Stand back, cuz she's all out of caribou!

Is there an 8’ mechanical ape wandering around on your block?

There was an 8-foot mechanical gorilla standing outside a flea market store in East Machias, Maine.

The big ape could move its arms but not his legs so he couldn’t have just wandered off.

It was heavy with a concrete base and electric motors to move the big gorilla’s arms.

Now it's disappeared — in broad daylight — and owner Lowell Miller wonders how anyone could move it so easily.

The gorilla was last seen Sunday in front of Sandy's Sales, and Miller realized it was missing when he started to close up at the end of the day. He thought his clerk had wheeled it inside and the clerk thought Miller had moved it.

Maine State Police Sgt. Jeff Ingemi said he thinks the pilfered primate is decorating some college student's apartment.

If if was a college student, the apartment better have has 8 foot ceilings!

Link

Lincoln look-alike on floor of RNC

Missouri delegate George Engelbach walks the floor of the 2008 Republican National Convention wearing a stovepipe hat and beard.



Reuters photo by Brian Snyder

California says electric cars should be noisy

Hybrid and all-electric cars may be better for the environment but the California Legislature says they're bad for the blind.

It has passed a bill to ensure that the vehicles make enough noise to be heard by visually impaired people about to cross a street.

The state Department of Motor Vehicles says more than 300,000 of the vehicles are on state roads. Officials say they don't keep statistics on pedestrian accidents involving those vehicles.

Link

Palin’s teleprompter broke but she didn't break stride

A report at the link below says Sara Palin (pictured) “winged” her speech because of a teleprompter malfuntion.

Halfway through Sarah Palin's speech at the RNC, people following the speech noticed she was deviating from the prepared text.

According to sources close to the McCain campaign, the teleprompter continued scrolling during applause breaks. As a result, half way through the speech, the speech had scrolled significantly from where Governor Palin was in the speech. The malfunction also occurred during Rudy Giuliani's speech, explaining his significant deviations from his speech.

Unfazed, Governor Palin continued, from memory, to deliver her speech without the teleprompter cued to the appropriate point in her speech.

Contrast this to Barack Obama who, when last his teleprompter malfunctioned, was left stuttering before a crowd unable to advance his speech until the problem was resolved.

Link

Another publication member voting for Barack

This is another example of a publication blatantly trying to influence an election.

Us magazine is proving once again that it is a sleazy bottom feeder.

After comparing the covers it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize who Us magazine is voting for.

After the Palin speech at the Republican National Convention, the left will go after her more vigorously than ever because they will see in her a very real threat to the Obama - Biden ticket.

Palin is a hit: liberal leaders panic

The smearing of Sarah Palin (pictured) gets uglier by the day as the media descends to new lows.

Will it backfire?

Tom DeLay, at the second link below, told a press panel in St. Paul

The tough coverage has done something for McCain that the maverick could never do with his own party.

The media has done more for John McCain in the last two days than he’s done for himself in the last year and a half.

Trashing her [Sarah Palin] is waking up the sleeping giant, and the sleeping giant is Republican women.

The feeding frenzy now engaged in by the liberal media is a sure sign that far-left liberal leaders are afraid of Sarah Palin and the very real threat she will help swing the November election away from them.

Link here and here.

Insurance scam exposed when dead man keeps Dr appointment

Dead men don’t usually keep appointments with their physicions.

As a dead man, Ahmad Akhtary shouldn't have needed a doctor's appointment.

Akhtary's checkup, six months after he allegedly died in Afghanistan, scuttled his ex-wife's attempt to collect 300,000 pounds (US$550,000) on a life insurance policy.

At a court hearing last week in Gloucester, a judge sentenced 34-year-old Akhtary to 60 hours of community service and his former wife, Anne Akhtary, to 40 hours of community service but suspended prison sentences of nine months each.

The judge said they received light sentences because they were stupid. Well, actually the judge said “the couple had been less than sophisticated in their attempt and that no money had been lost.”

Link

Republicans most energized since Reagan

Sarah Palin (pictured) has the Republican Party truly energized.

It’s the Sarah Palin effect.

Senior campaign adviser Steve Schmidt decried what he called a "faux media scandal designed to destroy the first female Republican nominee" for vice president.

Speaking about the media frenzy to paint Palin as the worst person on the planet, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the convention's keynote speaker:

Give her a chance to make her first speech, give her a chance to do her first interview.

Former Senator Fred Thompson:

Washington pundits and media big shots are in a frenzy over the selection of a woman who has actually governed rather than just talked a good game on the Sunday talk shows and hit the Washington cocktail circuit.

More from Fed Thompson:

Democrats present a history-making nominee for president. History-making in that he is the most liberal, most inexperienced nominee ever to run for president.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee:

I haven't seen anything that comes out about her that in any way troubles me or shakes my confidence in her.

Link

Oil drops to $105 as Gustov dissipates

What a gas! Oil prices dropped to the lowest level since April.

Oil prices plunged to the lowest level in five months Tuesday, falling to within sight of $100 a barrel on signs that Hurricane Gustav only grazed U.S. energy infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico.

Link

Stilettos flash in Sidney as high-heeled runners set record

Races for women wearing high heels are getting more popular than ever.



Racers above line up for a promo photo.

The Sydney Australia stiletto race set a record for the number of entrants.

Two hundred and sixty-five women dashed their way around the 80m track at Sydney's Circular Quay wearing three-inch heels.

We reported on the Amsterdam stiletto race here. The Moscow race is here.

Link to the Sydney race here.

Copy of Walter P. Chrysler’s WWI draft registration card

(click on draft card to enlarge)

Mr. Chrysler gave his occupation as President and General Manager of Buick Motor Company of Flint, Michigan.

The draft card was signed in 1918 and gives his age as 43.

The photo of Mr. Chrysler below was taken at about the time he signed the WWI draft card shown above

Barack: I’ve got more experience than her

Mr. Obama says he has more experience than she does.

He wants to compare his experience with Governor Palin’s experience.

Why?

Last we knew he was the person running for president. The governor is running for vice-president.

The proverbial 3:00am phone call rings at the White House, not at Number One Observatory Circle where the vice president lives.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Just for fun, let’s do an experience comparison anyway.

Senator Obama said:

Well, my understanding is that Governor Palin’s town of Wasilla has, I think, 50 employees.

We’ve got 2,500 in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe $12 million a year. You know, we have a budget of about three times that just for the month. So I think that our ability to manage large systems and to execute I think has been made clear over the last couple of years.

John Hinderaker of Power Line puts it all in perspective here.

Apparently Obama hadn't heard about Palin being Governor of the State of Alaska, which has a budget in excess of $11 billion annually and more than 24,000 employees.

Also, on Obama's theory, the act of running for President gives you the experience you need to qualify to be President. That's convenient for a guy who has accomplished so little in his career in public life.

If our intrepid reporters could focus on something other than Bristol Palin for a moment, maybe they would notice that Obama continues to make a fool of himself on a near-daily basis.

Link here and here.

Clinton impeachment whitewashed in schoolbooks

The impeachment of former President Clinton (pictured) is in a gray area of history, too long ago to be a current event, too recent to be judged in perspective.

History is already judging Mr. Clinton in the place where millions of students get their information about him -- school textbooks.

School textbooks are obfuscating (making obscure or confusing) instead of "tackling"

The kind of contribution to the Hillary in 2008 campaign that will not be officially reported, because it is not money or property, but will be appreciated by the Clinton’s, each of whom indisputably misled the American people.

If Hillary ever claims President Bush should have known that the Clinton Administration and the world's intelligence services were all wrong about the status of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction plans and programs, and that he exhibited the kind of bad judgment that America cannot risk in a President, how will she explain how she was so gullible to believe that President Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky was pure?

The most commonly used texts give straightforward recaps of Clinton's toughest days, with some flavor of how it affected the nation.

Absent are any the lurid details of his relationship with Monica Lewinsky that spiced up daily news reports and late-night talk shows as the scandal and impeachment played out in 1998 and early 1999.

Also absent are the details of lying under oath to gain an advantage in a civil lawsuit and then lying to the American people about his relationship with Miss Lewinsky.

No Democrat Senator ever voted to convict an impeached President (the only two impeached Presidents -- Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton -- being Democrats).

Link

xBus that drives on roads and railway tracks

Rail-busses usually are limited to train tracks. This bus is equipped to drive on conventional roads or rails.

This unique bus operates in Fuji, Shizuoka. Shizuoka, a Prefecture of Japan.

Link

New Palin info may help rather than hurt

Many issues have surfaced in an effort to discredit or undermine Alaska Governor Sarah Palin (pictured).

Fishing permit violations. A blue-collar husband who racked up a DUI citation as a 22-year-old. An unmarried teenage daughter who is pregnant and a nasty child custody battle involving a family member.

But these revelations may have the opposite effect: In one sense, they could reinforce how remarkably unremarkable she is.

The travails of the Palin family probably seem awfully familiar to many average Americans.

It is this averageness that makes her such a politically promising running mate for John McCain — and such a dangerous opponent for Democrats.

Many voters will find it easy to identify with her family’s struggles — a significant advantage in an election where the voting calculus is so unusually and intensely personal.

How far this story will go is uncertain.

One thing is certain. Powerful media organizations are beginning to pour resources into this story.

Florida Congressman Adam Putnam says the media just doesn’t ‘get it.’ He says:

“The media doesn’t understand life membership in the NRA; they don’t understand getting up at 3 a.m. to hunt a moose; they don’t understand eating a mooseburger; they don’t understand being married to a guy who likes to snowmobile for fun. I am not surprised that they don’t get it. But Americans get it,”

Representative Putnam goes on to say:

“A mooseburger means she is like one of us. She is not some jackass who’s gone Washington .”

The media would do well to tread softly on the Palin story or fall into a trap that could help elect the GOP ticket.

With a pregnant teenage daughter and an infant with Down syndrome, the Palins, it seems, have been caught up in the same struggles of everyday life that confront many American families. And it poses a difficult challenge for Democrats because she will be juxtaposed against Biden, a United States senator with 35 years of experience.

Link

Democrat leader apologizes for hurricane comment

Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Don Fowler apologized for saying “the timing of Hurricane Gustav demonstrates that God is on the side of the Democrats.”

“If this offended anybody, I personally apologize," Fowler told ABC News. "It was a mistake, and it was a satirical statement made in jest. And one that I clearly don't believe."

The insincerity of his apology can be measured by his additional coment, "One doesn't anticipate that one's private conversation will be surreptitiously taped by some right-wing nutcase."

So there you have it: a “right-wing nutcase” filming a “left-wing nutcase” expressing his true feelings.

Was the apology sincere or was he sorry that he was filmed making the statement?

Link

Preparing for one more summer trip

Don’t forget to check the tire pressure.

Obama's Rocky Mountain low in Denver

A report in the Boston Herald at the link below wonders if the once promising Obama is on a Rocky Mountain low.

The setting invited comparisons to John Kennedy.

The anniversary invited comparisons to Martin Luther King.

The stage invited comparisons to Zeus.

The remarks themselves invited comparisons to every Democratic stump speech of the last 20 years.

Barack Hussein Obama’s convention speech could have been given by Al Gore or John Kerry. Do they all have the same speechwriter? As the report points out, in various forms, Obama’s speech was given by Kerry and Gore.

It was all in there: the lunchbox economic populism, based on the assumption that most Americans are filling their lunchboxes with scraps from dumpsters. The attacks on corporations, millionaires and other sinister job creators.

The Democratic ticket consists of two of the most ideological liberals in the Senate. It includes no reasonable governor, no candidate with Southern roots, no member with a military background (for the first time in decades). And now it offers the purest message of partisan aggression and class resentment.

Link here to Boston Herald article.

Regional United Way CEO earns over $1 million

Trying to justify the $1 million regional United Way CEO’s salary.

For months, the United Way of Central Carolinas board said Gloria Pace King (pictured) was worth every penny of her controversial $1.2 million pay package.

Last week 37 of those board members unanimously called on their longtime CEO to resign or be fired.

King's fall was breathtakingly quick, but not clean.

Critical questions remain. How the board handles them will affect 91 nonprofit agencies and the thousands in need that they serve.

Can the board regain enough public trust to rescue its ongoing fundraising campaign?

It will be very difficult to persuade people in the area to donate to the United Way when the regional CEO earns over $1 million.

Link

Gov Jindal pleads for coastal evacuation

Photo shows vehicles leaving New Orleans ahead of the storm on Interstate 10.

Gov. Bobby Jindal on Sunday afternoon renewed his pleas for residents of coastal Louisiana to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Gustav.

Residents of New Orleans were warned as early as Friday that there would be no shelter for those who stay in the city.

Link here and here.

Obama poll bounce disappeared into thin air

Mr. Obama should be leading in the polls by at least 15 points. So what happened?

Sarah Palin (pictured) is what happened.

The bold McCain pick of Alaska Gov. Palin has neutralized the carefully choreographed Obama speech from the Barackopolis, fireworks and all!

And it didn’t take a hooting crowd of 80,000 to make it happen.

Both CNN and Zogby have McCain and Obama in a virtual dead heat and the Republican National Convention hasn’t even started.

Link here and here.

Jack Nicholson pig-out on French Riviera

Need a less confusing keyboard?

This is not a keyboard you’ll be excited about taking to the office!



Gizmodo says:

There are only four acceptable reasons I can think of for buying this $30 dollar Crayola EZ Type keyboard:

1) You're a little slow.

2) You're under the age of five (and still maybe a little slow).

3) You have a kid under the age of five (and you're both a little slow).

4) You really, reeeeally hate the offset alignment of standard keyboards

Link