Nov 1, 2008

Jordyn

The art of communicating

The pastor noticed a young boy in the church foyer studying a plaque with several names and small American flags by each name.

As the pastor approached the boy asked the reason for the plaque.

The pastor explained, “It’s a memorial to all of the men and women from our church who died in the service,”

They stood there together soberly looking at the plaque.

Finally the seven-year-old, in a voice barely audible and trembling with fear, asked, “which service, the 9:30 or the 11:00?”

Loveland Colorado fall colors

(click on picture to enlarge)



Fall colors reflecting in the calm waters of Lake Loveland with snow covered Longs Peak and Mt. Meeker in background.

…Reporter-Herald photo by Christopher Stark

Oct 31, 2008

Halloween goes to the dogs



Mondex, a Chihuahua, wears a pirate costume during a Halloween dog show benefiting an animal welfare organization in Manila, Philippines.

…AP photo by Aaron Favila

Obama’s Aunt Zeituni lives in US illegally

We reported about Barack Obama’s “Auntie Zeituni” who is living in a rundown public housing project in south Boston here.

An AP story at the link below reports:

Barack Obama's aunt, a Kenyan woman who has been quietly living in public housing in Boston, is in the United States illegally after an immigration judge rejected her request for asylum four years ago.

Zeituni Onyango, 56, referred to as "Aunti Zeituni" in Obama's memoir, was instructed to leave the United States by a U.S. immigration judge who denied her asylum request, a person familiar with the matter told the AP late Friday.

This person spoke on condition of anonymity because no one was authorized to discuss Onyango's case.

Link

Reporters from conservative papers booted from Obama plane

Reporters from three McCain endorsing newspapers were suddenly denied access to the Obama plane.

A Los Angeles Times blog, at the link below, reports that three reporters were “dumped from the Obama plane.” Coincidentally, all three reporters have endorsed John McCain.



The reporters represented the New York Post, the Dallas Morning News and the Washington Times. All three of the papers are conservative editorially and have endorsed John McCain for president.

But, they say, there are only so many seats on the plane that the spunky new Christian Science Monitor politics blog calls “O-Force One.”

An Obama spokesperson said there just was not enough room on the plane. However, two seats did suddenly open up on the Obama plane this weekend to accommodate Ebony and Essence magazine reporters.

Ebony and Essence are monthly magazines. Why are monthly magazines on a campaign plane five days before the election?

Link

US vulnerable in president’s first year

Joe Biden was right when he said, Mark my words, it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama … the world is looking.

The nation's chief intelligence official warned Thursday that a new president's first year in office is the most perilous time for the country.

“I would say the period of most vulnerability for the United States is the first year of a new president,” Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell told an annual conference of intelligence officials and contractors in Nashville, Tennessee, on Thursday.

McConnell cited the attack on the World Trade Center shortly after Bill Clinton took over the presidency in 1993 and the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, which occurred less than eight months after George W. Bush took the oath of office.

America will be especially vulnerable with an Obama presidency because one of the first things he will do is repeal the Patriot Act.

Soon after he will fulfil his promise made earlier in the year to trim the armed forces and spend less on military hardware.

This will be an open invitation to our enemies that Barack Hussein Obama will not be a threat to our enemies.

With a reduced military and our methods of detecting terrorist activities taken away after the Patriot Act is gone, we will be easy targets.

Much has been said by ‘bleeding heart’ liberals about George W. Bush ‘taking away our freedoms’ with the Patriot Act, yet how many times would we have been attacked without the protection of the Patriot Act?

The Citigroup Building in New York (shown below) was only one of the targets by just one man - Dhiren Barot. He planned to attack a host of financial industry targets in the United States.



There is a long list of thwarted attempts here.

The first year vulnerability story here.

Bad bet for billionaire casino mogul Adelson

A report at the link below showcases one of the biggest losers in the recent stock market meltdown.

America's billionaire chief executives, like other investors, have watched their net worth dwindle as chaos continues to dominate the stock market. But one CEO's bet on his own company has made him one of the biggest losers.



Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson (shown above with his wife Dr. Miriam Adelson) has lost more than $16.6 billion in the last 7½ months thanks to investments in his own business, Las Vegas Sands Corp.

The company owns the Venetian, the lavish Las Vegas hotel and casino known for its indoor recreation of the canal-lined neighborhoods of Venice, Italy, and is also developing casino resort properties in Macao, China.

A Sands spokesman said Adelson was unavailable for comment.

Link

Attempts to discredit Joe the plumber

The Columbus Dispatch has the story of attempts to discredit Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher aka Joe the Plumber (pictured).

A state agency has revealed that its checks of computer systems for potential information on "Joe the Plumber" were more extensive than it first acknowledged.

The child-support system was checked as well as a computer search to determine whether he was receiving welfare assistance or owed unemployment compensation taxes.

Wurzelbacher became a household name when Republican presidential hopeful John McCain frequently referred to "Joe the Plumber" during his Oct. 15 debate with Democrat nominee Barack Obama.

The checks began the next day.

Joe the Plumber exposed Barack Obama’s ‘spread the wealth’ socialist agenda in a way that resonated with average working people and especially with others hoping to buy a business sometime soon.

Joe the Plumber had to be discredited.

Wurzelbacher, who has endorsed and campaigned for McCain, had been caught on videotape challenging Obama about his tax proposals during a campaign visit to "Joe's" neighborhood in the Toledo suburb of Holland.

By contrast, many checks have been made into the background of Barack Obama that are either not reported by the media or reported as acts of discrimination against their chosen candidate.

Link

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac cover-up

(click on picture to see video)

Oct 30, 2008

Biden: a politician packaged in shrink-wrap

A Time Magazine online report at the link below is titled, Hidin’ Biden.

Biden (pictured) is like a politician packaged in shrink-wrap. If they don’t keep a tight grip on his lip, there is no guarantee what the glib ‘teddy bear from Delaware’ might say.

While his windy, off-point pontification was the stuff of legend among his Senate colleagues, Biden is now leashed to a teleprompter even when he is talking in a high school gym that is three-quarters empty.

He seldom speaks to large crowds. That way his speaking gaffes will be heard by only a few.

He looks more like a deer caught in headlights than his usual rambling self.

The exposure hound who in recent years appeared more often than any other guest on the Sunday talk shows is a virtual stranger to the small band of reporters on his plane.

Link

Dreaming of next year at Wrigley Field



A die-hard Cub fan dreaming about next year. Proof that Cub fans are some of the most loyal in the country.

Eyeglass sculpture with a story

This is a sculpture by Chilean artist Carlos Altamirano representing part of the destroyed glasses of former Chilean President Salvador Allende, at the lobby of the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry Office in Caracas.



The sculpture, at a scale of 50 to 1, is a replica of Allende's glasses found after his assassination during the 1973 coup in Santiago, Chile.

…Reuters photo

Obama’s Aunt living in rundown Boston housing project

Barack Obama’s Auntie Zeituni has been found in a rundown housing project near Boston.

Zeituni Onyango, the aunt so affectionately described in Mr. Obama’s best-selling memoir Dreams from My Father. Zeituni, lives in a disabled-access flat on a rundown public housing estate in South Boston.

A second relative believed to be the long-lost “Uncle Omar” described in the book was beaten by armed robbers with a “sawed-off rifle” while working in a corner shop in the Dorchester area of the city. He was later evicted from his one-bedroom flat for failing to pay $2,324.20 arrears, according to the Boston Housing Court.

The media in this country has refused to cover any part of the Obama story that is the least bit negative.

She declined to answer most questions about her relationship with the presidential contender until after the November 4 election. “I can’t talk about it, I just pray for him, that’s all,” she said, adding: “After the 4th, I can talk to anyone.”

Was she bribed by Barack Obama’s handlers?

Has the Auntie Zeituni been reported in the Boston newspapers? I didn’t think so.

The media in this country also fails to tell the story of Barack Obama’s brother who lives in a hut near Nairobi Kenya.

Link

ACORN voter card - don’t leave home without it

(click on picture to enlarge)

Obama prime-time ad less than truthful

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama (pictured) was less than upfront in his half-hour commercial Wednesday night about the costs of his programs and the crushing budget pressures he would face in office.

Obama's assertion that "I've offered spending cuts above and beyond" the expense of his promises is accepted only by his partisans. His vow to save money by "eliminating programs that don't work" masks his failure throughout the campaign to specify what those programs are—beyond the withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

At the link below an Associated Press writer lists what voters heard in the ad, and what he didn't tell them.

The AP writer lists the Obama ‘spin’ followed by the facts.

Link

Oct 29, 2008

Series fans and players wear ski caps, gloves and parkas

World Series ends in weather better suited for football



Tampa Bay Rays pitcher David Price tries to stay warm in the outfield during batting practice before Game 5 of the baseball World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies resumed in Philadelphia, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2008.

The Philadelphia Phillies won the 2008 World Series in weather better suited for the Philadelphia Eagles and the Tampa Bay Bucks.

Phillies won World Series on Monday - but only in Las Vegas

If you wanted to place a bet on the outcome of the 2008 World Series you were out of luck Tuesday -- in Las Vegas anyway.

A report at the link below says:

The Philadelphia Phillies have already won the World Series -- at least in Las Vegas.

Bets placed on the Phillies to beat the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 5 were paid out even though the game was suspended because of rain two nights ago with the score tied at 2-2. The game was postponed until tonight.

According to Nevada Gaming Commission rules, if a Major League Baseball game is rained out, sports books use the score from the last completed inning, John Harper, senior oddsmaker at Las Vegas Sports Consultants, said in an interview.

The Rays tied the game in the top of the sixth and umpires stopped play before the Phillies had their turn to bat. Most Las Vegas sports books are erasing that run and using the 2-1 score at the end of the fifth inning to determine that Philadelphia won.

Will the 2008 World Series turn out to be one of the most bizarre on record?

Link

Earflaps on baseball caps…



Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon (second right) takes starting pitcher Scott Kazmir (second left) out of the game during the fifth inning of game five of the World Series.

I can remember when major league managers and players didn’t have earflaps on their baseball caps. On the other hand, I can also remember when baseball season ended long before the need for earflaps.

How bizarre can a World Series game get?

Phillies fans are complaining after the Rays tied the game Monday night after playing a half-inning they feel should never have been played because of a driving rain and large puddles on the ground.

The rain delay certainly came at an odd time. If the game had been called prior to that last half inning, the Series would have been over with a Phillies win because the game had gone a full five innings - enough to be considered a ‘complete game.’

Why wasn’t play stopped when Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins muffed two routine plays?

Why wasn’t play stopped when Ray’s Pitcher Scott Kazmir couldn’t keep mud from caking on his cleats?

Why wasn’t play stopped when Ray third baseman Evan Longoria was standing in water at third base?

Simple things like throwing and catching had become almost impossible yet play was not stopped until the Rays scored the tying run.



Tampa Bay Rays center fielder B.J. Upton (2) slides safely past Philadelphia Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz (51) to score the game tying run during the sixth inning of game five of the World Series



Fans watching the game during heavy rain.



Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig making a feeble attempt to explain his decision to wait during a downpour for the game to be tied before halting play.

Obama chose friends carefully - Marxist professors, etc.

(click on picture to see video)

Following are the words of Barack Hussein Obama as captured on the 17 second video above:

To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors. The structural feminists*.

*Structural feminism is a patriarchal structure that holds women back not allowing them to exercise as much power and influence in the world as men.

Extreme sports action in Barcelona



This Reuters photo shows a FMX competitor jumping in Barcelona Spain during the Extreme Sports Festival.

Joe the plumber scared for America if Obama wins

Joe Wurzelbacher aka Joe the plumber (pictured below with Obama) is resonating with folks much like Sarah Palin only in a different way.



Sarah has captured the imagination of voters with her personality and her message.

Joe resonates with voters because of his message, put in simple terms that everyone can understand.

A report at the link below says Joe is scared for America after talking to Obama.

McCain gained in the polls after Joe the plumber came on the scene.

Link

Ohio homeless voters can use park benches as addresses

The picture shown here can be the legal home address for homeless voters in Ohio.



A report from the Columbus Dispatch says:

A federal judge in Ohio has ruled that counties must allow homeless voters to list park benches and other locations that aren't buildings as their addresses.

Link

Oct 28, 2008

What’s happening with the tracking polls?

With the non-stop promotion of Barack Obama by the media and oversampling of Democrats in the polls, why isn’t Obama at least 25 points ahead of John McCain?



One week ago:

The Zogby tracking poll had Barack Obama beating John McCain by almost 10 points among likely voters.

Then came Joe the plumber pointing out what John McCain had been trying to do.

Joe the plumber explained the Obama ‘spread the wealth’ ploy so that everyone could understand the concept.

Today:

It’s a four-point game.

Yesterday: IBD reported, “After seesawing between 3.2 and 3.9 points over the weekend, Obama’s lead slipped to 2.8.”

Gallup’s newest traditional poll has Obama leading by two points.

Probing coverage of Sarah Palin’s wardrobe didn’t seem to do what the mainstream media had hoped.

With the public losing interest in the crusade against Palin, a fresh news cycle has ushered in a serious challenge for Barack Obama.

Americans are scared that the Democratic nominee is a socialist. And it’s not attack ads or robocalls that have created this impression, but Obama’s own words.

As there is nothing moderate about collectivism and wealth redistribution, the new charges could bury Obama.

Link

Gas prices tumble nearly 53 cents in 2 weeks

A national survey shows gas prices continue to decline, falling nearly 53 cents a gallon in the last two weeks.

The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline at self-serve stations was $2.78 Friday. Mid-grade was at $2.93 and premium was at $3.05.

That's according to the Lundberg Survey of 5,000 gas stations nationwide, released Sunday.

Gas was cheapest in Wichita, Kan., at $2.26 for a gallon of regular. It was most expensive in Anchorage, Alaska, at $3.50.

Link

ABC picks ‘Daisies’ while rivals show Obama

ABC will not show the Obama half-hour infomercial on Wednesday night. Instead ABC plans to show "Pushing Daisies" in its usual time period.

The news ends a guessing game that has been going on for nearly a month. The Obama campaign bought a half-hour of airtime on NBC, Fox and CBS on October 9, spending about $1 million per network. ABC was absent from the list, and the network had remained silent about its programming intentions.

I couldn’t bear another minute of Obama overexposure and never did like “Pushing Daisies” so I’ll either do “Monster Quest” on History Channel or turn the tube off and do some writing.

Link

Warning to multitasking drivers

A warning to multitasking drivers was issued by Etmunds last year but it is even more appropriate now.

Mark Stevens is a multitasking maniac. A couple of months ago, the White Plains, New York, marketing consultant was working his cell phone with one hand and his Blackberry with the other while trying to steer his Mercedes SL500 with his wrists and knees — when he plowed it into a rental vehicle in an Enterprise parking lot.

That followed his fourth ticket in four years for talking on his cell phone while driving.

“If you are a determined multitasker, it's an addiction — and you can't stop it,” said the 59-year-old Stevens.



More than 80 percent of drivers surveyed identified themselves as multitaskers. Sixty-eight percent eat while driving; texting or instant-messaging while driving, or fixing hair, is practiced by 19 percent of drivers; 14 percent comfort or discipline children while behind the wheel; and 8 percent drive with a pet in their laps.

The troubling thing about multitasking is that it is more prevalent in parts of the country were the traffic is most contested.

When drivers from small-town U.S.A. are exposed to the 405 freeway near LAX they would be shocked at what some people do behind the wheel.

When they see a cute young thing with a bare foot propped on the steering wheel polishing her toenails it is a reminder they are not on Route 212 in South Dakota!

Link to the Etmunds story here.

Dolphins owner to sell before Obama raises taxes

Miami Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga has announced plans to sell up to another 45% of the team.

Huizenga said the presidential election is among the issues weighing on his decision. If Barack Obama is elected, his administration is expected to mean higher capital-gains taxes.

"He wants to double the capital gains tax, or almost double it," Huizenga said. "I'd rather give it to charity than to him."

"If you do it this year or you do it next year, the difference is humongous because of the taxes," Huizenga said.

Predictably, the Obama campaign has disputed Mr. Huizenga’s reasoning.

Link

Obama is following in his father’s footsteps

The Democratic presidential candidate’s father, Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. (pictured) died in a Kenya car crash in 1982 at the age of 46.

Candidate Barack Hussein Obama's economic blueprint sounds like one his communist father tried to impose on Kenya 40 years ago, with massive taxes and relief shrouded as “investments.”

As a Nairobi bureaucrat, Barack Hussein Obama Sr. advised the pro-Western Kenyan government there to “redistribute” income through higher taxes. He also demonized corporations and called for massive government “investment” in social programs.

Writing in a 1965 scholarly paper, Obama's late father slammed the administration of then-President Jomo Kenyatta for moving the Third World country away from socialism toward capitalism

“What is more important is to find means by which we can redistribute our economic gains to the benefit of all,” said the senior Obama, a Harvard-educated economist. “This is the government's obligation.” The “means” he had in mind were confiscatory taxes on a scale that redefines the term “progressive taxation.”

Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. is following in his father’s footsteps.

He learned from his father's mistakes. Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. learned that revealing his real beliefs can jeopardize his quest for the power needed to put his “redistribution” plans into action.

This time it is the United States at peril rather than his father’s country of Kenya.

Link

Oct 27, 2008

On the job training



Will on the job training begin January 21, 2009?

Standard & Poor's slashed New York Times rating to junk

The struggling New York Times is really in deep doo doo this time.

All together now:

The old gray lady

she ain’t what she used to be

ain’t what she used to be …

That was pretty good. Everyone was right on key.

Can’t say that for the Times. She hasn’t been “on key” for quite some time now.




The New York Times was once a proud lady - called the “gray lady” because of her staid appearance with no color and very few pictures during her heyday.

Standard & Poor's on Thursday slashed its ratings on the New York Times into junk territory and cited concerns about the newspaper publisher's revenue outlook, after it posted a third-quarter loss.

Moody's Investors Service also said it may follow the move, adding the publisher faces risks in refinancing its debt.

It’s just a matter of time before the Times ceases print publication and will be available on the Web only.

Then the Times won’t even be useful as a fish wrap or bird cage liner.

Link

Sarah Palin mannequin seen hanging by rope

A mannequin hanging by a rope around the neck from a house in West Hollywood has been outfitted to look like Governor Sarah Palin.



What would happen to the perpetrator if the mannequin was made up in the image of Barack Obama?

DTV transition - will it bring Jack Benny back?

(click on picture to see video)

Enjoy this humorous public service announcement about the TV transition from analog to digital TV scheduled for February 17, 2009.

Train between North and South Korea mostly runs empty

A daily cargo train service running between North and South Korea and once hailed as a symbol of economic cooperation has been running empty about 90 percent of the time.



Daily service was cut during the 1950-53 Korean War.

The first regular train service in more than 50 years between the two sides began in December along a 20-km (12-mile) stretch that runs northwest of Seoul and heads to a factory park just north of heavily armed border where South Korean firms use cheap North Korean labor to make goods.

The train carried freight only 14 times in 163 daily runs from December 11 last year to late August this year, according to the South's Unification Ministry.

Link

Warning to political sign vandals

(click on picture to enlarge)

Oct 26, 2008

The Obama nanny state illustrated

(click on cartoon to enlarge)

Palin warns against Obama nanny state

Sarah Palin (pictured) warned a crowd in Iowa yesterday that putting Obama in the White House along with Democrats running both chambers of Congress will turn the country into a nanny state.

Palin cautioned Iowans that under Obama’s “big government agenda,” their income, property and investments would be “shared with everybody else.”

She labeled Obama’s plan to provide tax credits to lower and middle-income wage-earners “the philosophy of government taking more, which is a misuse of the power to tax.”

“It leads to government moving into the role of taking care of you, and government and politicians and, kind of moving in as the other half of your family to make decisions for you,” she said.

Sarah Palin went on to say that “they do this in other countries where the people are not free.”

“Government as part of the family, taking care of us, making decisions for us. I don’t know what to think of having in my family Uncle Barney Frank or others to make decisions for me.”

Palin was introduced by Col. Bud Day, who shared a cell with John McCain in Vietnam.

Link

Riding low at Cheyenne Frontier Days



Saddle bronc rider goes head over heels at Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Fake Steve Jobs heart-attack story posted by teen

There was a report earlier this month on CNN’s iReport site claiming that Apple CEO Steve Jobs had suffered a heart-attack.

The report claimed that paramedics had been called after Jobs suffered "severe chest pains and shortness of breath" but was quickly pulled from the site when word spread that it was false.

CNN's iReport boasts “Unedited. Unfiltered. News.” This time the iReport came under criticism because the Steve Jobs heart-attack report caused a drop in the price of Apple stock.

The report marked the second time in two months that Jobs, whose health has been the subject of much speculation in recent months, has been prematurely pronounced dead.



In late August Bloomberg News mistakenly published its prepared obituary for the tech leader before quickly retracting it.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the motives of the unnamed 18-year old who posted the heart-attack report.

So far they have not found any trading records that show the 18-year-old benefited from the more than 5% drop suffered by Apple's stock on Oct. 3.

Link