Detroit may top 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Will the Green Bay Packers hand the hapless Detroit Lions a loss Sunday that will give them a winless season?


A frustrated Lions fan shown above

Only the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers have finished a year without a win.

That was when the Bucs were an expansion team in their first year of existence while the Lions have been around since 1929. That was also when teams played fewer games.

Lion quarterback John Kitna is pictured.

Time Magazine has an online article titled: How Can Detroit Go Winless in Today's NFL?

There are lots of contenders for the worst part of the Detroit Lions miserable 2008 NFL season, starting with the jokes:

How do you keep a Detroit Lion out of your backyard? Put up goalposts.

Football experts all agree that in today's "any given Sunday" NFL — where every team seems to have a decent shot to win, where a salary cap structure, and a draft that gives the worst teams access to the best young talent in a young man's game, creates league-wide parity — going winless is awfully hard to do.

The Dallas Cowboys had a 1-15 season in 1989.

Several teams, in fact, have only managed to put together one victory in a season, including the 2007 Miami Dolphins and the 2000 San Diego Chargers . But failing to eke out one win in a league built on mediocrity takes a certain stunning level of ineptitude.

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Santa does windows? Who knew?

Yup, Santa does windows. He’s gotta do somethin’ to pay for all those toys.

Sarah Palin 2009 calendar tops gift lists

A Sarah Palin 2009 calendar - available online via Amazon.com - is flying off the virtual shelves of holiday gift-giving ideas and is slated to become perhaps the most popular gift giving idea this holiday season!



The 2009 Sarah Palin calendar carries 50 photos of the popular Alaska Governor whose photographs were done by Wasilla, Alaska photographer Judy Patrick.

Palin is portrayed with background images of Alaska and American flags and was not intended as a post-race slap at Democrats.



Why did Sarah Palin resonate so quickly and completely with the majority of Middle America? Unlike most politicians, she is straightforward and sincere as well as intelligent.

Governor Palin would answer questions with a direct response in a short sentence or two. Her responses got right to the point and were delivered with a smile whereas the typical Washington politician seldom answers a question in a simple manner. It always takes two or three paragraphs to wiggle their way around to form somewhat of an answer.

The Palin calendar is a hot seller at Amazon.com here.

The calendar story is here.

Amazon also has a Sarah Palin pin-back button (shown above).

Tiger family

Three eleven week old Siberian Tiger cubs, Sayan, Altai, and Altay with mum Nika at Howletts Wild Animal Park in Bekesbourne, England, Thursday, Oct. 23, 2008.

Siberian tigers feature in the top 10 of the world's most endangered creatures. The three cubs have been named after mountain ranges in Siberia.

Naughty Santa

A Palestinian demonstrator dressed as Santa Claus uses a sling-shot to hurl stones at Israeli border police near the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Santa in a London store window display

This display was found in a London store window showing Santa on a scooter reading a road map.

Blame for subprime mortgage fiasco

(click on picture to see video)
This shocking video shows Democrats in their own words covering up the Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac Scam that caused our Economic Crisis.

Barney Frank: main architect of subprime mortgage fiasco

Rep. Frank (D-Mass) is really the main engineer of the subprime mortgage “financial train wreck.”

Barney Frank (pictured) is chairman of the House Financial Services panel. In a poll he received more blame than anyone else including President Bush or former fed chief Alan Greenspan.

Some [Boston Herald] readers argue all you have to do is click over to YouTube and listen to Frank, in the fall of 2003, swear “Fannie and Freddie (are) not in a crisis!” and are “fundamentally sound financially.”

The second link below shows a September 2003 report:

The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.

Under the plan, disclosed at a Congressional hearing today, a new agency would be created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that are the two largest players in the mortgage lending industry.

''These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis,'' said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee.

Baney Frank’s reply in 2003 was, The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.

As we are finding out now, problem was not exaggerated!

At the third link below is a report saying that Barney Frank was accused of ‘cooking the books’ for his gay lover Herb Moses. At the time Moses was a Fannie Mae executive!

Link here, here and here.

Kicking the Marlboro Man out of Texas

Will the state of Texas get a statewide smoking ban? Will Texas kick the Marlboro Man out of the state?

Oh, wait a minute -- they’re too late. Marlboro Man Wayne McLaren died of lung cancer in 1992 at the age of 51.

McLaren appeared as a rugged cowboy smoking Marlboro cigarettes in magazine ads and TV commercials.

Some Texas lawmakers say the just expanded smoking ban in Dallas may give their proposed statewide smoking ban some momentum.

The Dallas City Council recently voted to expand its smoking ban to bars and pool halls, effectively making it illegal to light up in most Dallas workplaces.

The Dallas ban, which will take effect April 10, also prohibits smoking within 15 feet of most business entrances.

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What the Dickens are you talking about?

Charles Dickens may have missed the mark when describing the “cruel gruel” given Oliver Twist in the 1830s workhouse north of London.

Dickens' eponymous hero famously asked for more of the "thin gruel" doled out three times daily in the grim institution for the poor where he grew up.



Oliver Twist is asking for more in the old illustration shown above.

In fact, contemporary recipes suggest such workhouse gruel was substantial, with each pint containing 1.25 ounces of best oatmeal, and servings supplemented by wholesome coarse bread.

Historical data also shows large quantities of beef and mutton were delivered to workhouses, pediatric dietician Sue Thornton of Northampton General Hospital in central England and colleagues wrote in the British Medical Journal.

Given the limited number of food staples used, the workhouse diet was certainly dreary, but it was adequate.

Dreary indeed! Gruel and coarse bread. Oliver Twist must have been quite hungry to ask for more!

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Dems lower expectations as they fear 2010 elections

Barack Obama was elected with the assistance of an adoring media and the promise of change.

Now that the election is over and it is obvious that the campaign promises can’t be kept it’s time for the media to come to the aid of Obama by not criticizing the lower expectations.

The expectations game is always tricky in politics. To win power, candidates promise to enact sweeping change. But once victory is in hand, they often scramble to lower those expectations so they won't be perceived as falling short.

Democrats are facing an especially precarious version of that dilemma. In crafting a package that will sink hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars into the economy, they are apprehensive about the fallout if the economy merely continues sputtering along for several years.

And lawmakers are already mindful of how they will face voters less than two years from now. The ruling party almost always loses seats in midterm elections, and that trend could be exacerbated for the Democrats if voters think they threw billions of dollars at the economy with little to show for it.

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Merry Christmas

Jordyn, Cailin and Emily wearing new dresses

Jordyn


Cailin


Emily

Tyler sporting a goofy “hat”

Winter wonderland

Santa race in Paris, France

Runners, dressed as Santa Claus, one of them carrying a cross on his shoulders to resemble Jesus, take part in the "Christmas Corrida Race" in the streets of Issy Les Moulineaux, west outskirts of Paris, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2008.

AP Photo

Wild ride

Indian army soldiers perform a stunt during the pre-celebrations of Vijay Diwas, a ceremony to celebrate the liberation of Bangladesh by the Indian Armed forces,in Kolkata, India.

Santa disables speed trap cameras in Arizona

There is a video at the link below showing Santa gift wrapping three red light and speed trap cameras in Tempe, Arizona.

These Santa impersonators are on the naughty list of Arizona law enforcement officials.

A YouTube video posted Monday shows four people dressed as Santa, wearing white beards and red hats, covering three speed and red light enforcement cameras in Tempe.

Two are covered with boxes - one decorated with Christmas wrap - and the third is blocked with what appears to be a red sheet.

The Jackson 5's “Santa Claus is coming to town” plays during the more than two-minute video.

The group that posted the video also wrote “lumps of coal to all of those who make it their business to watch and control.”

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Gov. Blagojevich stole Lincoln’s seat

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Scuba Santa: better not shout

Santa uses a sea scooter to guide him past a school of grunts in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary near Key Largo, Florida.

Kennedy declines to make financial disclosure

Carolyn Kennedy (pictured) who has asked New York Governor David Paterson to appoint her to succeed Hillary Rodham Clinton, is declining to provide a variety of basic data, including companies she has a stake in and whether she has ever been charged with a crime.

If she were running for election to the Senate, Ms. Kennedy would have to file a 10-part, publicly available report disclosing her financial assets, credit card debts, mortgages, book deals and the sources of any payments greater than $5,000 in the last three years.

Ms. Kennedy declined on Monday to reply to those and other questions posed by The New York Times about any potential ethical, legal and financial entanglements. Through a spokesman, she said she would not disclose that kind of information unless and until she becomes a senator.

But several ethics experts, good-government advocates and scholars, who called Ms. Kennedy’s situation highly unusual — because of her overt pursuit of the job, her celebrity and her lack of previous political experience — urged her to reveal information on her finances now, if only for appearances’ sake.

Some wonder if Ms. Kennedy’s unwillingness to disclose personal information suggests she lacks the stomach for the kind of intrusive questions that could come her way as a candidate in 2010.

So far she is unwilling to answer reporters questions.

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Speed cop Grinch

A Monroe County Sheriff's Lieutenant dresses as the Grinch to remind drivers in Marathon, Florida, to drive safely.

Water main break traps drivers - closes schools

A huge water main break in Bethesda, Maryland closed Montgomery County schools and trapped drivers in their vehicles during the morning commute.

Photo shows a rescue basket lowered from a helicopter.

The break sent several feet of water rushing on to River Road.

Rescuers used helicopters, boats and fire trucks rescued more than one dozen people trapped in vehicles after the 66-inch water main burst.

Terrified drivers and passengers remained in their vehicles, waiting to be rescued as water four feet deep gushed around them.

In one rescue, a firefighter in a small boat helped two women out of a stranded SUV, the windows of which had frozen, reported WTOP's Neal Augenstein who was about 30 feet from the scene. The boat was then sent to the side of the road where rescuers pulled them to safety.

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Sick Christmas party for Illinois Health Dept

Health department workers in southern Illinois may have found contaminated food - at their own office Christmas party.

Bah hambug (pun intended).

After the Lawrence County Health Department had a buffet for 72 people at a restaurant last week, 42 of the attendees suffered stomach problems, including the head of the department, Phyllis Wells.

"I'm telling you, it got me down. I about passed out and everything else," Wells said Monday. "It's not been funny. It's taken the punch out of my whole Christmas."

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Video games sales remain strong in slow economy

CNN reports that video game sales are strong even thought many Americans are finding ways to trim their holiday budgets this year.

According to market researcher NPD Group, U.S. retail sales of video games totaled $2.91 billion in November, a 10 percent jump from a year ago. Overall sales this year through November are more than $16 billion, up 22 percent from 2007.

Video games can take between 10 and 40 hours, sometimes 50 hours, to complete. Gamers can often get two to three months out of one game.

Furthermore, during these recessionary times, Helgeson explains that video games "provide the ultimate escapism."

According to NPD, some of the top-selling game titles in November include "Gears of War 2," which sold 1.6 million copies, and "Call Of Duty: World At War," which sold 1.4 million. Nintendo's "Wii Play" and "Wii Fit" put up impressive numbers, as well.

With those kinds of sales, video games have potential to be one of the most popular stocking stuffers for kids this holiday season.

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How to steal a Senate seat in Minnesota Part 4

There is a report (linked to below) titled, Ballot madness: Tipping the scales in Minnesota's Senate recount.

It is an excellent account showing nine exhibits documenting the ballot madness in Minnesota.

Unless you approve of election fraud, this story may make you ill. It proves once again that the Democratic Party of today is not your father’s Democratic Party!

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Here is what we are learning from three recent Senate seat vacancies:

1.Democrats in Minnesota are attempting to STEAL a Senate seat.

2. Democrats in Illinois attempted to SELL a Senate seat.

3. Democrats in NY are attempting to appoint a Senate seat by royal succession - to Carolyn Kennedy in this instance - because of her famous political name.

Link to the current Minnesota fiasco here. Our previous reports are here, here and here.

Christmas smiles

Amusement park employees dressed in Santa hats laugh during a class of Santa Academy as part of promotional event for the Christmas at the Everland amusement park in Yongin, South Korea.

Christmas is one of the biggest holidays celebrated in South Korea with over half the population being Christians.

AP Photo

Former SF Mayor comments on Obama involvement in Illinois scandal

Willie Brown (pictured), Mayor of San Francisco from 1996 to 2004, predicts that Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich will walk away from the pay-to-play scandal.

I wouldn't bet on him stepping aside anytime soon. If anything, his hand is getting stronger by the day.

Brown also has this to say about Barack Obama’s involvement:

I can't go into details, but my impression is that the whole mess started because the governor had been considering appointing a political rival, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, to the Senate so she wouldn't be able to run against him when he went up for re-election in 2010.

Apparently, Obama's people weren't happy about the idea of Madigan coming to Washington, and there were some pretty heated conversations between Blagojevich and Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, which I understand will burn your ears off.

And Rahm Emanuel claims he hasn’t been in communication with Blagojevich or anyone else in the scandal. It’s no wonder Emanuel refused to talk about any of this.

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The Blagojevich probe gets curiouser and curiouser

Blagojevich allegedly pressured 'Individual D' for cash to pick Jesse Jackson, Jr. to replace Obama.

Now we learn that ‘Individual D’ is fundraiser and Oak Brook businessman, Raghuveer P. Nayak (pictured with Blagojevich in the article at the link below).

Mr. Nayak wants immunity for his assistance in the Blagojevich probe. There is reason for Nayak to fear U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald set out perjury traps for crimes not committed in the Plame game fraud a couple of years ago. Maybe he will make amends this time and send people to jail for crimes that have been committed.

Will the Mayor of Chicago, who actually runs political crime and thuggery in Chicago and the rest of Illinois, allow Mr. Nayak to give U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald any meaningful information?

Depending what information Raghuveer P. Nayak ('Individual D') has, he could end up in the Chicago equivalent of Fort Marcy Park (the location in Northern Virginia where the body of Bill Clinton’s White House Council Vince Foster was found).

If they are big enough they will survive. Barack Obama will probably survive any involvement he, or his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel may have had.

Fitzgerald can give little people like ‘Individual D’ immunity from prosecution when they decide to sing but can he give them physical protection?

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Santa gets parking ticket while delivering toys

Santa put a Brooklyn meter maid on his naughty list.

She gave him a $115 parking ticket while he was delivering toys to children.

The 60-year-old retired schoolteacher was riding a horse-drawn carriage and handing out toys and candy canes. An SUV carrying the toys and protecting the horse from traffic was double parked next to him.

(click on picture to enlarge)

Santa says he yelled "Ho! Ho! Ho!" to get the traffic agent's attention because the SUV wasn't blocking traffic. But in his words, "This grinch just went ahead and fined me."

Local politician Martin Golden calls the parking ticket "ridiculous."

Police won't comment on it.

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Slow holiday season for merchants

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Pablum from the president-elect

There is a report at the link below titled: Words Matter: Pablum from the President-Elect.

Every day this week, Obama has held a press conference to introduce new members of his team. In each instance, Obama has said . . . not a whole lot.
Here’s a sampling from his opening statements:

Monday: “In the next few years, the choices that we make will help determine the kind of country and world that we will leave to our children and our grandchildren.”

Tuesday: “In the next few years, the decisions we make, about how to educate our children, will shape our future for generations to come.”

Wednesday: “Our wide open spaces are not only a blessing to be enjoyed; they are the foundations of a brighter future.”

Thursday: “We need to restore and renew those rules today, so that every American from Wall Street to Main Street can have the chance to prosper once more.”

Then the thankful appointees do their best imitations of Oscar winners (“Thank you, Mr. President-elect”; “ I wish to thank you, President-elect Obama”).

The report lists questions to which Mr. Obama answers with words. Words, but that’s about all. Just words.

Does this mean the media is finally realizing that Obama’s message is mostly void of wisdom, facts and ideas? His pronouncements are full of words that really don’t say much.

It is interesting that ABC would wait until after the election to tell us what Barack Hussein Obama is really like.

Is buyers remorse setting in before the inauguration?

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Even Santa gets excited about Christmas!

A man dressed as Santa Claus promotes the beginning of Christmas tree season in a town near Berlin, Germany.

Go play in the snow - this is the weekend

Polaroid files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Polaroid Corp announced it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The consumer electronics company sought Chapter 11 protection in order to facilitate its restructuring.

The company said the restructuring should not impact its day-to-day operations and that it was not seeking additional debtor-in-possession financing.

"Polaroid has entered bankruptcy with ample cash reserves sufficient to finance the Company's reorganization under Chapter 11," it said.

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Just be thankful you have a job

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CNN Meteorologist: manmade warming theory arrogant

A second CNN meteorologist has challenged the notion man can alter climate.

Unprecedented snow in Las Vegas has some scratching their heads – how can there be global warming with this unusual cold and snowy weather?

CNN Meteorologist Chad Myers had never bought into the notion that man can alter the climate and the Vegas snowstorm didn’t impact his opinion. Myers, an American Meteorological Society certified meteorologist, explained on CNN’s Dec. 18 “Lou Dobbs Tonight” that the whole idea is arrogant and mankind was in danger of dying from other natural events more so than global warming.

Myers is the second CNN meteorologist to challenge the global warming conventions common in the media. He also said trying to determine patterns occurring in the climate would be difficult based on such a short span.

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