Enjoying the Colorado high country

Health Secretary Sebelius shows reporter how to sneeze

At a briefing yesterday, NBC's Chuck Todd sneezed into his hand prompting Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to teach him how to sneeze. She demonstrated how to sneeze-in-your-arm-not-your-hand.

Evidently Mr. Obama didn’t get the word as the video below shows him sneezing on a reporter.

(click on picture to see video)
Link

Cemetery lots: buy one get on free

Memorial Park Cemetery advertises a buy-one-get-one-free sale on cemetery plots in Indianapolis. Photo taken last summer.

Wolf Blitzer bombs on Jeopardy

Wolf Blitzer, newscastings answer to cold oatmeal, just bombed.

Yes, yes, I know, but he also bombed on Celebrity Jeopardy.


He ended up with a minus $4,600.00 (-$4,600.00)

Link

Fake cop busts wrong driver - the mayor

A man impersonating a police officer with a flashing red light in his car has been arrested after he pulled over the wrong driver — the mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana.

Police think the suspect was using the in-dash light to maneuver through traffic Monday night in northwest Louisiana.

Shreveport Mayor Cedric Glover said he pulled over when the driver pulled up behind him, but that the man turned around and left as soon as he saw it was the mayor.

Link

Democrats race from the Carter race accusations

From a report at the link below:

Jimmy Carter (pictured) is 84 years old and three decades removed from the White House, but he still has the power to make Democrats run.

Away from him, that is.

From the White House to Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Democrats raced to distance themselves from the former president’s claim that racism was behind Rep. Joe Wilson’s “You lie” outburst and other attacks on President Barack Obama.

From the Obama presidential campaign until now it’s been all about race. The left has used race so much that it isn’t working for them anymore and they are realizing that racism is becoming counter-productive.

Then along comes Jimmy Carter shouting racism.

Congressional Democrats have no interest in starting a racial argument that could turn off swing district voters whose support the party will need if it plans on keeping its grip on Congress in 2010.

And the current occupants of the White House made it clear Wednesday that they have no interest in bringing race back to the fore of any discussion about Obama.

Does anyone really listen to Jimmy Carter anymore? No, he is irrelevant.

That thud you hear is Carter being tossed under the Obama bus.

Link

The time to fix healthcare

(click on cartoon to enlarge)

Painted face of Bosnian bride

A Kosovar Bosnian bride has her face painted on her wedding day for a traditional ceremony in the village of Donje Ljubinje, Kosovo.

The tradition, whose origins date from beyond living memory, is virtually viewed by almost all residents with universal pride as it has come to symbolize a special identity for this location.

Protesting Belgian farmers dump 1 million gallons of milk

Farmers with 400 tractors dump more than 1 million gallons of milk into a field in Ciney, Belgium yesterday as anger mounted over falling prices.

European Union farm ministers recently failed to agree on an aid package for the sector during a recent meeting.

ObamaCare opposition hits new high of 55%

One week after President Obama’s speech to Congress, opposition to his healthcare plan has reached a new high of 55%.

The latest Rasmussen Reports daily tracking poll shows that just 42% now support the plan, matching the low first reached in August.

Link

Sign of desperation? Obama on 5 TV shows Sunday

Jake Tapper of ABC News reports:

Fans of President Obama are in for a treat this weekend. The president is going on a massive publicity blitz as he steps up his push for health care overhaul.

Obama will be interviewed Sunday on five shows -- ABC News' "This Week With George Stephanopoulos," CNN's "State of the Nation," CBS's "Face the Nation", NBC's "Meet the Press" and Univision's "Al Punto with Jorge Ramos" -- in what is called a "full Ginsburg."

In modern media lore, the first time someone pulled the five-show feat was 11 years ago, in 1998, when Monica Lewinsky's attorney, William Ginsburg, made the rounds to defend his client.

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., did a full Ginsburg in 2007 after launching her presidential bid.

For both Ginsburg and Clinton, Fox News Sunday was on the list but not Univision.

Such is not the case for Obama: Democrats said the Fox News Sunday audience is largely entrenched in its opposition to the president, essentially beyond persuasion, and so submitting to an interview might not be the best use of Obama's time.

But isn’t the real reason Obama is avoiding Fox is the fear that he may be asked tough questions instead of receiving a back-slapping endorsement of ObamaCare?

CNN, CBS, ABC and NBC will be working hard Sunday trying to sell ObamaCare. However, if ObamaCare was a good product he wouldn’t need to have the media try to sell it.

Many think this media overload can only mean he is acting in desperation. Mark McKinnon doesn’t think so, however.

"I don't think he's overexposed at all," said public strategist Mark McKinnon, media consultant to former President Bush and presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. "In fact, I think, in some ways, he's underexposed.

With McKinnon as a consultant, it’s no wonder George W. Bush and John McCain had media problems!

With all this overexposure, one wonders what could be next - a new reality show called Obama Dancing with the Czars?

From a Lucianne commenter:

The people pulling Obama’s strings - the people who write his teleprompter scripts - must be exasperated with him for proving to be such a bad salesman.

After spending all that time and money grooming him to become the William Jennings Bryan of the Third Millennium, all they got was a one-trick campaign pony. And now that campaign mojo is gone.

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(click on cartoon to enlarge)

Face scanner test

This lady is testing the three-dimensional (3D) face scanner used to register individual details of passengers at the SAC Siemens airport centre in Fuerth near Nuremberg, Germany.

The scanner represents the latest technology available from Siemens for all airports and official areas where interior security is required.

Serena Williams picks up pieces after her outburst uproar

Serena Williams, the hot-tempered 27-year-old tennis star, said she was "in the moment" and doesn't really remember her now-famous outburst at a line judge who had called a foot fault.

It was a 12-second verbal attack that has played over and over for three days.

"It was a really tough point in the match and it was really close and got a really tough call that wasn't the correct call, and, you know, things got a little heated and I had a conversation with the line judge that didn't go so well," Williams said.

Williams, ranked No. 2 in the world by the World Tennis Association, said she does not recall moments of Saturday's incident but believes she apologized for her actions promptly and completely.

Link

Report: if you had summer flu it was probably swine flu

A report at the link below says, “despite fears, many have had – and recovered from – the new strain (H1N1).”

If you're wondering whether your sniffling co-worker's bout of flu is indeed the swine flu, then wonder no more.

Doctors across the nation are saying people who came down with the flu this summer probably had the new swine flu (H1N1) strain.

"In the U.S., all the flu that is circulating now is the H1N1 virus," said ABC News Senior Health and Medical Editor Dr. Richard Besser on "Good Morning America" Wednesday. "If you've had the flu; you've had the swine flu."

The report gives two main reasons why the public should not worry more about swine flu than the typical seasonal flu.

Reason one:

The CDC estimates that 1 million people in the U.S. have had swine flu so far, and of those infected, the government has documented 593 deaths.

This is a relatively low death rate when compared with seasonal flu. The public is still edgy about swine flu because of the appropriate precautions taken in May before we fully understood the level of danger.

The swine flu strain has also shown it does not often cause serious symptoms.

Reason two:

Swine flu survivors may be immune to reinfection.

With a few months of investigation under their belt, immunologists are saying that the swine flu comes with more good news: it appears people who get sick with swine flu may not become sick from the same strain again.

What's more, even people who were sick in the past with a slightly different virus may have some protection against the current strain.

So why all the effort to spread fear of swine flu?

A swine flu scare will make most Americans take precautions even if no more than washing hands more often and cover their mouths when coughing and sneezing.

Also, the media is not blind to the realization that perpetuating the swine flu scare may help Americans become a little more inclined to embrace ObamaCare.

Link

He doesn’t like it when they call it swine flu

Why would they name a disease after an innocent lil’ guy like me?

Targeting the Czars - hunting for the next Van Jones

Emboldened by the ouster of presidential adviser Van Jones (upper photo), conservative and business groups are launching fresh challenges aimed at derailing more of Barack Obama's nominees.

David Michaels, Mr. Obama's pick to head the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is a new target.

Michaels published a book attacking corporate executives for the tactics they used to fight class-action lawsuits.

Republican critics said they considered Mr. Michaels to be too close to trial lawyers because of his aggressive advocacy on their behalf.

Selecting a tort lawyer as head of OSHA is part of Obama’s plan to assist labor unions.

It will be very easy for Mr. Michaels to find enough nit-pick faults to literally shut down a business that is even thinking about blocking or ousting a labor union.

The last paragraph of the report linked to below says:

"We're going to fight back against it," AFL-CIO spokesman Eddie Vale said. "If Obama is picking nominees that are going to be friendly to workers, we're not going to sit back and let big business go after his nominees."

The criticism aimed at Mr. Michaels follows a pattern that began with the case of Cass Sunstein (lower photo), who last week was confirmed by the Senate as the White House's top regulator.

We reported (second link below) about Cass Sunstein and how he has advocated organ harvest without consent.

To look through the long list of Czars, seems more like looking through a list of radicals.

More of the Czar targeting here. More on Cass Sunstein here.

New mom leaves North Dakota hospital with wrong baby

A new mother was discharged from Williston’s Mercy Medical Center last Saturday.

There was only one problem. The hospital sent her home with the wrong baby.

Mercy Medical Center released this statement:

“We want to assure the community that within approximately one hour of our discovery, baby and mother were reunited.” The statement added Mercy officials are thoroughly investigating the facts associated with the incident “and are reviewing our obstetric unit’s polices and procedures to ensure that we are able to maintain patient security and confidence.”

The statement concluded with, “As quickly as we can conclude our investigation, you can be assured the appropriate action will be taken.”

Williston, located in the northwestern corner of North Dakota, has a population of about 12,500.

There may have been one or more former employees of Mercy Medical Center logged on to Monster.com looking for a job on Monday morning.

Link

Discipline

Chinese soldiers practice marching on a military base outside Beijing in preparation for the 60th anniversary of the Communist Revolution.

White student brutally beaten by blacks on bus while others cheered

A 17-year-old Belleville West High School student was attacked on his school bus, twice within minutes and the bus's surveillance camera videotaped both violent incidents.

Belleville Police called the beatings brutal.


The center of the photo appears to have been purposely blurred in an attempt to protect the identity of the thugs who carried out the beatings.

Belleville is located in southwestern Illinois.

Police Captain Don Sax said the boy boarded his school bus Monday morning, began looking for a seat and was told by several students he could not sit next to them.

The driver instructed all the students to sit, so the boy moved a classmate's backpack and took a seat.

"Pretty soon the kid he sat next to is pushing him, trying to push him out of the seat and the next thing you know he starts punching him and choking him and punching him some more," says Sax. "It's ridiculous."

The victim took at least 15 blows in about 15 seconds. The surveillance video shows the kids on board kept laughing; one even used his cell phone to take a photo of the victim's bloodied face.

"There was a lot of egging on," says Sax.

Four minutes after the first attack, came a second one at the hands of another classmate. This time the victim was punched and slapped at least eight more times, until one boy broke them apart.

Sax says the two suspects are 14 and 15. They are African American. The victim is white.

"There's a strong suspicion that it was race related," says Sax.

There is a graphic video of the assault at the link below.

The bus driver apparently did nothing to stop the beating.

More of the story here.

The Super Ferry that sank in Philippine waters

The upper photo shows the MV Super Ferry docked in Philippine waters prior to September 6 when it sank off the coast of Zamboanga Peninsula, southern Philippines, with 968 people on board. Nine were reported dead in the incident.

The lower photos show the ferry sinking.

Poll: News media’s credibility hits new low

A Pew Research survey shows that the public assessment of the accuracy of news stories and Americans’ views of media bias is now at its lowest level in more than two decades!


The graph above shows public evaluations of the news media from 1985-2009.

The report at the link below says:

Just 29% of Americans say that news organizations generally get the facts straight, while 63% say that news stories are often inaccurate.

In the initial survey in this series about the news media’s performance in 1985, 55% said news stories were accurate while 34% said they were inaccurate.

An example of media bias:

In 1985 we had a popular and effective president that the media hated. His popularity rose during his presidency causing the media to hate him all the more.

In 2009 we have an ineffective president sagging in unpopularity that the media loves. His popularity is sinking during his presidency causing the media to love him all the more.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Just wondering: is Dan Rather still suing CBS for firing him? CBS didn’t mind Dan Rather’s left wing bias. What CBS couldn’t tolerate was the embarrassment caused by the now famous “fake but accurate” George W. Bush National Guard story on a 60 Minutes Wednesday program that aired on September 8, 2004.

More of the media credibility story here.

Warning: high unemployment for years

Barack Obama has been trying to convince Americans that he’s beating back the recession. However, Obama’s chief economic adviser Larry Summers (pictured) is singing another tune.

The president’s chief economic adviser warned Friday that the nation’s unemployment rate could stay “unacceptably high” for years to come.

“The level of unemployment is unacceptably high,” National Economic Council Director Larry Summers said Friday. “And will, by all forecasts, remain unacceptably high for a number of years.”

Link

Cheerleader held up by strong hands

The photo shows a cheerleaders shoes as she is held up by another cheerleader during the BCS National Championship Game between the Oklahoma Sooners and the Florida Gators at Dolphin Stadium on January 8, 2009 in Miami, Florida.

Ukraine says no to Elton John adoption plans

Singer/songwriter Elton John wanted to adopt a 14-month-old HIV-positive child from Ukraine.

Ukraine’s minister for family affairs cites singer's age, marital status. Sir Elton John is 62 and lives with his “spouse” David Furnish.

Photo above shows David Furnish (on left) with Elton John

Adoption and gay rights advocates expressed regret about the determination by Family, Youth and Sports Minister Yuriy Pavlenko, while a children’s charity had reservations about John’s weekend announcement that he and his male partner, David Furnish, wanted to adopt the boy.

John announced his desire after meeting the boy, named Lev, while touring an orphanage Saturday as part of an anti-AIDS charity project.

Link

German farmers protest anti-nuclear energy

Farmers on tractors drive past a CDU (Christian Democratic Union) election poster showing its leader, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, during an anti-nuclear energy demonstration in Berlin.

Brett Favre’s new football contract

Brett Favre (pictured), the well-traveled 39-year-old NFL quarterback (he will be 40 in a few weeks), is back in the game again. This time he signed with the Minnesota Vikings.

He knew the risks: age, injury, December fatigue. The critics, the pressure, the severed ties with Packers fans.

But his instinct to play muffled the alarms in his head.

Now he is back in the NFL for a reported 10 to 12 million dollars.

As Letterman said: “that’s gotta be a record for a ‘cash for clunker’ deal!”

Link

Swine flu stigma gives hog farmers a bailout

Hog farmers have identified themselves as the forgotten casualties of the swine-flu epidemic and asked Washington for financial help.

As a result, the Obama administration has stepped in and purchased $30 million of surplus pork.

That brings the federal total of pork purchases for fiscal 2009 to about $150 million, or close to $100 million more than last year's figure for the same period.


During a Sept. 10 morning press conference, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack also said he would work with fellow Cabinet secretaries in the Defense, Justice and Education departments to encourage pork purchases on military bases, in prisons and in schools.

If you're in prison, now might be a good time to develop a taste for pork. The same is probably true if you're in the military or in a public school.

What else can the administration do with all of the newly acquired surplus pork besides foist it on schools, the military and prisons?

Link

Stop the lies and distortion on healthcare

Tens of thousands of Anti-Obama protestors flood D.C.

When organizers for the Taxpayer March on Washington said they expected tens of thousands of people Saturday, they weren't kidding.


Anti-Obama protestors completely blocked Pennsylvania Ave. from 14th Street, NW, to the U.S. Capitol. The crowds were so dense that organizers for the event decided to start the speeches and march earlier than the scheduled 11:30 a.m. time.


Carrying U.S. flags and signs showing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a Pinocchio - like nose or reading, "I'm Not Your ATM", the protestors told news outlets that the government has gotten "too out of control with spending."


One sign said, “Go green - recycle Congress.”


The sign above shows that there are also Democrats unhappy with Barack Obama.

Most media reports downplayed the number of protestors by simply saying “thousands participated.” A few said there were “tens of thousands” while others said the crowd was between 500,000 and 1,000,000.

Link to more of the story here and here.

Lower ticket sales puts NFL blackout rule under fire

A Time Magazine report at the link below poses a few interesting questions:

After missing last season due to injury, can New England Patriots star quarterback Tom Brady return to Super Bowl form?

After spending nearly two years in the slammer, how will Michael Vick fit into the Philadelphia Eagles' offense, not to mention society?

And perhaps most puzzling of all, why, during these historically bad economic times, is the NFL sticking it to its fans?

It’s the blackout rule which began in 1973.


The blackout rule states that a game would not be broadcast in a team's local market if it did not sell out its stadium 72 hours prior to kickoff.

The league feared that TV broadcasts would stop people from buying tickets. The blackout rule only affected a handful of games.

In the wake of the nation's worst recession in decades, as many as a dozen of the NFL's 32 markets, including Arizona, Cincinnati, Detroit, Jacksonville, Minnesota and San Diego, are in danger of having their local telecasts blacked out.

A Jacksonville Jaguars official says it's "very possible" that none of the team's eight home games will be broadcast in the hard-hit region (by comparison, only nine of the NFL's 256 regular-season games last year were blacked out).

More of the story here.

FOX tops cable news race

Cable News viewership race
Thursday September 10, 2009
As usual, Fox tops all cable news channels.

Fox News - Bill O’Reilly - 3,609,000
Fox News - Glenn Beck - 3,340,000
Fox News - Sean Hannity - 2,986,000
Fox News - Greta Van Susteren - 2,522,000
Fox News - Bret Baier - 2,362,000
Fox News - Shephard Smith - 2,040,000
MSNBC - Keith Olbernann - 1,573,000
MSNBC - Rachel Maddow - 1,164,000
CNN - Larry King - 965,000
MSNBC - Chris Matthews - 882,000
MSNBC - Ed Schultz - 734,000
CNN - Anderson Cooper - 691,000

...from Matt Drudge

Special treatment of Andrew Sullivan in drug case angers judge

First of all, who is Andrew Sullivan?
Andrew Sullivan (pictured) is an author and political commentator. Sullivan has maintained a political blog for several years. In fact, he was probably one of the earliest bloggers.

He describes himself as a “libertarian conservative” and during the Clinton White House years, Sullivan may have been a true conservative.

Mr. Sullivan claims Bush drove this country deeply in debt, yet aligns himself solidly behind Barack Obama who has nearly tripled the debt left by Bush!

He became strongly anti-Bush when George W. Bush opposed gay marriage. Many believed this prevented Sullivan from marrying his male friend, which would have made it easier for Sullivan to get permanent resident status.

As a British citizen, Sullivan was prevented from becoming a permanent resident because he is HIV-positive. Being married to an American citizen would make it easier to remain in America.

About the drug charges against Mr. Sullivan
Sullivan was arrested on a national seashore in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, for illegal possession of marijuana, a misdemeanor that would incur a $125 fine for Sullivan, if found guilty.

No big deal -- using marijuana while frolicking on the beach near Cape Cod is not uncommon.

While marijuana possession may have been decriminalized, Sullivan, who owns a home in Provincetown, made the mistake of being caught by a park ranger with a controlled substance on National Park Service lands, a federal misdemeanor.

The ranger issued Sullivan a citation, which required him either to appear in U.S. District Court or, in essence, pay a $125 fine.

But the U.S. Attorney’s Office sought to dismiss the case. Both the federal prosecutor and Sullivan’s attorney said it would have resulted in an “adverse effect” on an unspecified “immigration status” that Sullivan, a British citizen, is applying for.

It would have been had an adverse effect indeed! Mr. Sullivan, who flaunts his homosexuality, is HIV-positive preventing him from easily obtaining permanent resident status in the United States.

With a drug charge added to his health status he may soon be forced to return to the UK. Some have wondered how he has been allowed to stay in the United States this long.

Anyway, it was clearly special treatment and Robert Collings, the magistrate who would have heard the case, was stunned.

The judge points out that there were several other defendants in the court on the same day facing the same charges for the same offenses as Andrew Sullivan yet facing very different outcomes.

Link here and here.