Helen Thomas video documenting her anti-Semitism

Helen Thomas (pictured) has two passions. First, her political leanings are fervently anti-conservative. Second, she is just as fervently anti-Semetic.

Her first passion made her the darling of the leftist Washington press corps. They cheered her on when she asked the Bush White House questions like, “because of your failed policies in Iraq, why do you still….. etc. etc.?

Her second passion forced her into retirement at age 89.

She occupied a coveted front row seat in the White House briefing room even though she shouldn’t have had a seat in the room at all. Seats in the briefing room are reserved for reporters and correspondents - not part-time columnists.

The video below is the “shot heard round the world” and documented once and for all her out-spoken anti-Semitism.

Gulf spill response rated worse than Katrina

Did the Rockies save A. J. Hinch’s job?

The Colorado Rockies may have saved the jobs of A. J. Hinch and his staff after losing the last series with to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The photo shows manager A. J. Hinch of the Arizona Diamondbacks talking with umpire Casey Moser.

By winning the three-game series 2-1, the Diamonbacks snapped a 10-game losing streak (a major league record).

Ten-game losing streaks get managers fired and you can bet the futures of Diamondback manager A. J. Hinch and his staff were shaky at best.

Then the Colorado Rockies came to town with their reputation of “playing down to the level of their competition” and sure enough Hinch and his staff pulled off a series win saving their hides - for now.

The Rockies managed to eke out a one-run win in the final game of the series but only because they used the pitcher with the best stats in the majors this year.

Ubaldo Jimenez got his 11th win of the season despite ending his scoreless innings streak at 33. Jimenez earned run average is a a measly .93 - best in the majors.

Link

Obama returned to the gulf last Friday

In the last two weeks Obama visited the region twice, a marked increase in attention publicly paid to the disaster.

Up until last Friday, Obama seemed disinterested even though he kept saying the government was in charge.

Now the administration feels the heat that Mr. Obama has not been as involved as he should be in managing the disaster hence the gulf trip last Friday.

More here.

Don’t cry for participants in baseball’s spoiled perfect game

The story of a bad call (shown above) by baseball umpire Jim Joyce (on left below) robbing Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga (on right) of a perfect game has been reported over and over ad nauseam.

It’s time to get over it.

Don’t criticize the refusal of Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig for not reversing the call even though camera evidence clearly showed the runner was out and umpire Jim Joyce admitted the call was a mistake.

And don’t cry for the participants.

Jim Joyce will live with his bad call for the rest of his umpiring career. He will forever be known as the umpire who ruined a perfect game.

If Bud Selig would have reversed the call, Armando Galarraga would always be known as the pitcher with the “perfect game - followed by an asterisk.”

Besides, their joint celebrity may be good for both of them.

They may end up like Bobby Thompson and Ralph Branca after the 1951 game when Thompson of the New York Giants hit a home run off Brooklyn Dodger pitcher Branca. The home run put the Giants in the World Series.

It was an historic event. Later Thompson and Branca made appearances together at collectibles shows, and sold jointly autographed baseballs.

Why WH bribed Romanoff to end Senate race

In spite of the expected denials from the White House, we now know that Barack Obama's deputy chief of staff called Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff in September 2009 to offer him one of three enumerated jobs if only he would drop out of the Democratic Senate primary.

Romanoff would have faced Senator Michael Bennet (pictured) who was appointed to fill the seat vacated when Ken Salazar was given the Secretary of the Interior cabinet post.

The question is why was Romanoff bribed.

In the case of the Spector-Sestak bribe, the answer is obvious: The Obama administration wanted the Pennsylvania senator to switch parties so that they would have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.

To persuade him to switch, the White House had to do its utmost to clear the field and assure him a safe path to the Senate nomination in his new political party.

The case of Michael Bennet in Colorado was different.

Having never been elected to a statewide position, he lacked a political base and was never a particularly strong candidate. He only got the Senate seat as an appointment to fill the seat vacated by Salazar.

So why was the Obama administration trying to clear the field for Bennet and assure him of the nomination? It was the passage of ObamaCare.

Bennet had been wavering on backing ObamaCare until soon after Romanoff was offered a job to drop out of the race.

It’s not only unethical, it’s illegal to bribe political candidates.

More here.

NHL team needs help flushing toilets in new arena

The Pittsburgh Penguins hockey team wants to find 250 students to help with an important task and there's only one major requirement: they must know how to flush a toilet.

Construction is near completion on the NHL team’s new arena, the Consol Energy Center. But like with any new arena or stadium, officials need to simultaneously flush all the toilets and urinals to make sure everything is working.

Link

The latest gulf beachwear

Video: Joran van der Sloot shown with murdered Peruvian girl

This ABC video shows the last seen photos of Stephany Flores before her death.

Joran van der Sloot is suspected in the murder of 21-year-old Stephany Flores on May 30 and the prime suspect in the disappearance of Atlanta honor student Natalie Hollaway in 2005.


The photo above shows Joran van der Sloot with Chile police officers.

Van der Sloot now faces charges in Alabama of trying to extort $250,000 in return for revealing the location of Natalee Holloway's body and details about how she died.

He was arrested twice in her disappearance and released both times for lack of evidence.

Brits are snickering at Hillary's gaffe on Queen’s Birthday

Hillary Clinton has been left red faced after mistakenly sending a birthday message to the Queen a week early.

An official statement from the US foreign policy chief paid tribute to the "Queen’s life and legacy,” despite the fact that the Monarch does not celebrate her official birthday until next weekend.

A spokesman for Mrs. Clinton attempted to make light of the gaffe.

"We were a week early," Philip Crowley joked to reporters in Washington. "It’s is better to give a greeting a week early than a week late.”

No mention if Obama sent along another iPod full of his speeches as a gift to the Queen.

This, after the Obama gift of movies in the wrong format to Gordon Brown and Michelle Obama putting her arm around the Queen (touching the Queen is an unthinkable etiquette breech), surely must have the British thinking how utterly unrefined the American leadership must be!

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Off-shore oil move on-shore

Apple defends iPhone suicide factory

So far this year ten workers have killed themselves at the iPhone factory in China.

They all jumped off buildings at the Taiwanese company Foxconn at its factory in Shenzhen, China.

Apple chief Steve Jobs (pictured) has defended the factory in China where the firm's iPhone is produced, following the suicides at the plant.

Now Mr Jobs has sought to reassure his customers that the company's ethical standards have not been compromised.

Speaking at a technology conference, Mr. Jobs insisted: "Foxconn is not a sweatshop.”

"You go in this place and it's a factory but, my gosh, they've got restaurants and movie theatres and hospitals and swimming pools."

The firm, that makes Apple's iPhones as well as products for Dell and Nokia, has announced it is giving its Chinese assembly line workers an immediate 30% pay rise.

The factory hopes the increase in wages will help improve the workers standards of living and allow them to have more leisure time.


The photo shows the Foxconn factory with nets installed to help prevent suicides from employees jumping to their deaths.

Link here and here.

Wintley Phipps - Amazing Grace

Wintley Phipps talks about the song Amazing Grace

Winking baby lion

A baby white lion appears to be winking at a safari park in Schloss Holte-Stukenbrock,
Germany

Joe Biden on being Vice President

“It's easy being Vice President — you don't have to do anything.”

- Joe Biden, just before the afternoon session of the health care summit last February 25, 2010.

Driver in spectacular toll booth crash claimed she was real-ended

The driver in the spectacular toll booth crash, shown in the video below, claimed she was rear-ended.



The spectacular crash was captured by a security camera. The video was originally posted on Unfair Park, a blog of the Dallas Observer – and then picked up by countless other websites – the video has drawn viewers worldwide.

The driver has become an Internet sensation for flying – literally – through the north toll plaza at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

The driver, 22-year-old Yasmine Villasana, was lucky to survive with minor injuries when her car careened through the air and burst into flames.

Link
www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/060310dnmettollbooth.68e8e169.html

Lego computer printer - delightful

Thanks to Ingrid for the link

Obama heads to gulf - cancels Asia trip

The Obama Asia trip has been canceled.

Obama had a sensitive political decision to make: Risk putting off two allies in a strategic part of the world once again or endure all the downsides, including an inevitable level of backlash, for being on the other side of the world during a huge crisis at home.

The domestic agenda proved dominant.

By canceling the trip leaders in Indonesia and Australia will just have to wait for their Obama bow.

Link

Big jobs increase but 95% were government jobs

Jobs growth is disappointing because of weak private sector hiring.

Non-farm payrolls rose by 431,000 jobs on the surge in government hiring but private employment, a barometer of underlying labor market strength, climbed just 41,000, the Labor Department said on Friday.

The increase of 431,000 jobs is made up of 411,000 temporary census workers.

When the administration touts the May jobs gain as the biggest increase in payrolls since March 2000, just remember that only 5% of the increase was in the private sector.

Link

Seafood from the gulf

Court says Ohio cops don’t need radar guns to ticket speeders

From an ABC News report at the link below :

Imagine a highway trooper pulling you over in the middle of your summer travel and declaring that you were speeding.

How's he know for sure? Because he says so; at least, in Ohio.

The state's Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the trained eyeballs of police officers are enough to hand out speeding tickets. A radar gun is unnecessary.

Most states, cities and counties claim that traffic citations are all about safety. However, in truth, traffic citations are more about revenue than safety.

By allowing a patrolman to judge speed by eye, Ohio will have a chance to increase their revenue from speeding fines.

It will be interesting to know if lawsuits and public outcry will bring an end to catching speeders by eye in Ohio.

Link

Maytag repairmen won’t be lonely with 1.7m dishwashers recalled

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced that Maytag Corp. is recalling about 1.7 million dishwashers because of a fire hazard.

The recall includes Maytag, Amana, Jenn-Air, Admiral, Magic Chef, Performa by Maytag and Crosley brand dishwashers with plastic tubs.

The recalled dishwashers were made with black, bisque, white, silver and stainless steel front panels and sold at department and appliance stores nationwide from February 2006 through April 2010. They cost between $250 and $900.

CPSC advises consumers to immediately stop using the recalled dishwashers and disconnect the electric supply by shutting off the fuse or circuit breaker controlling it.

Consumers can schedule a free in-home repair or receive a rebate of $150 or $250 toward the purchase of select new Maytag dishwashers. The amount of the rebate depends on the type of model to be purchased.

Link

Blagojevich trial to rattle biggest names in Washington

From a report at the first link below:

The corruption trial of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (upper photo) is already shaping up to be a political circus, promising to lay bare the underbelly of Chicago politics.

Corruption in Illinois politics is nothing new. Four former Illinois governors, one Republican and three Democrats, served prison terms. Illinois is surly the only state in the union where former governors made license plates.

Obama has been involved in separate attempted Senate seat “fixes.” The first was with whoever the White House selected to negotiate with Blagojevich to take the Senate seat occupied by Obama - which is what this trial is all about. The second was the Andrew Romanoff case in Colorado (see third and fourth links below). The third was the recent Joe Sestak affair in Pennsylvania.

Now we know why Obama made that last trip to Chicago cutting short his gulf trip to less than three hours and skipping out on the traditional presidential duty at the Arlington Cemetery tomb of the unkowns.

He needed to get his “ducks in a row” before the Blagojevich corruption trial.

One wonders how much influence Obama will have over how Patrick Fitzgerald (lower photo) plans to handles the prosecution.

Obama will probably not testify. However among those who may take the stand are senior White House staffers Rahm Emanuel and Valerie Jarrett, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, U.S. Senator Richard Durbin, and U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.

From one commenter:

Blagojevich probably has hidden paperwork in various safe locations and with people he trusts.

Maybe he has even given it all to a 'conservative' investigative journalist, as no Democrat could be trusted to write objectively about material damaging to the Democratic Party.

He has probably made it clear that he doesn't plan to be the next Vince Foster nor does he plan to be the fifth Illinois governor to end up in prison.

Everyone who could be adversely affected by the Blagojevich trial are high-profile Democrats. It will be interesting to see how left-leaning special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald goes after Blagojevich while trying to minimize the political damage to Democrats.

Will this go on as long as the Bill Clinton impeachment trial? How much of the Blagojevich trial will be made public?

If most of the proceedings are reported in the media it will be interesting to follow but at the same time it will be sad to witness another dark period in Democratic Party politics.

Link here, here, here and here.

Two if by sea …

Rained out

A spectator waits under his umbrella as the game between Spain's Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez and Czech Republic's Lucie Safarova was suspended due to rain at the recent Italian Open tennis tournament in Rome.

Osama Bin Laden gets boarding pass from British Airways

LHR News is a British Airways staff magazine covering London's Heathrow Airport.

The magazine did a cover story about a new service allowing passengers to download paperless boarding passes to their iPhones.

Only problem was, a close-up of the cover photo shows a white boarding pass bearing the name “Bin Laden/Osama.”


The boarding pass is thought to be the work of a disgruntled employee or former employee.

British Airways is currently in the middle of a prolonged labor dispute with some of its unions so the disgruntled employee theory is quite plausible.

Link

Republicans jump to historic lead in Gallup generic polling

From a report at the first link below:

Gallup's generic polling shows the number of voters saying that they would vote for Republicans rising three points from last week, while the number saying they will vote for Democrats dropped four points.

The 49%-43% lead for the Republicans is the largest that the pollster has ever recorded for the party. Moreover, Democratic enthusiasm for voting this fall fell a point, while enthusiasm among Republicans stayed about fifteen points higher. This indicates an even wider lead for Republicans once Gallup imposes a likely voter screen this fall.

The Republican lead may increase as the gulf oil spill continues to be viewed as “Obama’s Katrina.”

Obama’s three hours spent in the gulf last week was only his second visit to the gulf coast since the disaster began last April. It takes him more than three hours each time he plays golf.

Link here and here.

A case made for Obama’s incompetence

A report at the link below is titled, “Obama doesn’t have a clue.”

From the report:

Conservatives are so enraged at Obama’s socialism and radicalism that they are increasingly surprised to learn that he is incompetent as well.

The writer compares Obama’s “blithering and blustering” during the most massive oil spill in history to Jimmy Carter’s incompetence in the face of the hostage crisis.

America is watching the president alternate between wringing his hands in helplessness and pointing his finger in blame when he should be solving the most pressing environmental problem America has faced in the past 50 years.

The environmentalists of America cannot take heart from a president so obviously ignorant about how to protect our shores and so obstinately arrogant that he refuses to inform himself and take any responsibility.

Obama has no more idea how to work his way out of the economic mess into which his policies have plunged us than he does about how to clean up the oil spill that is destroying our southern coastline.

More here.

Joran Van der Sloot is prime suspect in Peru murder

Dutch national Joran Van der Sloot remains the prime suspect in the 5-year-old murder of American student Natalee Holloway in Aruba.

Now, Van der Sloot (pictured) is the prime suspect in the murder of Stephany Flores Ramirez.

The 21-year-old girl was found dead in a Lima, Peru hotel room.

According to police reports, Ramirez was brutally stabbed and was found wrapped in a blanket in a pool of blood.

Chief of detectives Col. Miguel Canlla says that Ramirez was murdered on Sunday.

The victim's father, Ricardo Flores, says Van der Sloot appears with his daughter in a video taken at a Lima casino early Sunday.

Hotel employees also told police that they saw VaLinkn der Sloot with Stephany over the weekend. The hotel room where Ramirez's body was found was registered under van der Sloot's name, says the paper.

According to Peruvian immigration officials, Van der Sloot departed Peru on Monday. Canlla says Peru is asking Chilean authorities for help in the case.

The Dutch government said Interpol has issued an international arrest warrant for Van der Sloot.

Link

Hope and Change working in the gulf

Editorial cartoonist Eric Allie shows how the Hope and Change is workin’ in the gulf.

Bulls and bears take back seat to bees

We usually think of Wall Street belonging to bulls or bears but for a short while last Sunday Wall Street belonged to the bees.

A swarm of bees unnerved New Yorkers before settling on the door of Cipriani's on 55 Wall Street -- but they were removed without incident and are on their way to a hive at some undisclosed location in Connecticut.

Nobody was hurt and no one panicked -- people just gathered to witness the rarity, Verner said. Police closed off a section of Wall Street to allow NYPD specialists to respond to the emergency, using a special device to suck up the bees.

The bees were taken to an undisclosed location in Connecticut.

Link

Facebook 'Like' button draws privacy concerns

A CNN report at the link below says:

When Facebook recently announced a "Like" button that publishers could place on their Web pages, he predicted it would make the Web smarter and "more social."

What Facebook didn't point out is that widespread use of the Like button allows Facebook to track people as they switch from CNN.com to Yelp.com to ESPN.com, all of which are sites that have said they will implement the feature.

Even if someone is not a Facebook user or is not logged in, Facebook's social plugins collect the address of the Web page being visited and the Internet address of the visitor as soon as the page is loaded -- clicking on the Like button is not required.

As more sites participate, Facebook will be able to assemble a vast amount of data about Internet users' browsing habits.

"If you put a Like button on your site, you're potentially selling out your users' privacy even if they never press that button," says Nicole Ozer, an attorney with the ACLU of Northern California. "It's another example of why user control needs to be the default in Facebook."

More here.

It’s June - time to hit the road …

… just to remember to pack lightly and check the air pressure in the tires.

Airport security should trump privacy

US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on Tuesday that concerns over privacy should not hamper cooperation on airport security.

"I want to stress, I am respectful and cognizant of the privacy concerns," referring to protests against a US drive to use full body X-ray scans at airports.

"Respect for privacy is a value we share. But all countries have unique legal traditions, cultural differences, and political realities.

"I believe that we should not allow these differences to keep us from working toward a common goal and a deep and stronger partnership with respect to security and privacy," she said.

Civil liberties groups and Muslim groups have protested the move, because the body scanners provide full-body imaging.

Napolitano went on to say that producers of the body scanners are already working on developing new machines that take privacy into consideration.

Link

(click on cartoon to enlarge)

White House to take credit if oil cap works otherwise blame BP

Justice Department not ready for WMD attack

The Justice Department is not ready to provide a coordinated response to an attack by a weapon of mass destruction, the agency's inspector general said in a report out Tuesday.

In the event of an attack by nuclear, biological, chemical or other mass-casualty weapons, the Justice Department is assigned the responsibility for coordinating federal law enforcement activities and for ensuring public safety and security if the incident overwhelms state and local law enforcement, the report says.

The review found that "the department is not prepared to fulfill its role."

More here.

The government seems to be doing what it does best in the gulf

Convenient truth: Al and Tipper Gore separate after 40 years

There appears to be global cooling in the Gore household.

“Inconvenient Truth” creator Al Gore and Tipper, his wife of 40 years, are separating. The Gore’s are shown here in more romantic times.

Former Vice-President Al Gore and his wife, Tipper, are telling friends they "grew apart" after 40 years of marriage, and there was no illicit affair involved.

According to two longtime close associates and family friends, the Gores say they are separating amicably. Their decision came after a "long process of careful consideration," said one of the associates.

The associates said the Gores, over time, had carved out separate lives, with the former vice-president on the road frequently. One of the associates said: "Their lives had gotten more and more separated."

Which one of them will move out of their mega-mansion? Will Al be able to keep his home office shown below?

(click on picture to enlarge)
The photo shows Al Gore in his office.

Looks a lot like how my “cave” would look if I had that much room for clutter.

I love the frog hanging on the wall.

Link

He set the house on fire when dinner was late

What do you do when your wife is late getting dinner ready?

According to a man in West Virginia, you set fire to the house.

Guy Edward Jones, 60, of Derrick's Creek Road near Sissonville, allegedly came home after a night of drinking late Sunday and got mad because his wife, Beverly Jones, didn't have dinner on the table, said Lt. Sean Crosier of the Kanawha County Sheriff's Department.

Crosier said the couple got into a fight and Mrs. Jones ran to a neighbor's house. Crosier said she turned around to see flames coming out of the basement and her husband coming out of the basement door.

Mr. Jones was arrested and charged with first-degree arson. He was put in Jail the next morning in lieu of $50,000 bond.

Link

Heart attack on a plate #3

Got beef? This Burger King sandwich sure does.

The "BK Quad Stacker" hamburger has four beef patties, topped with bacon, cheese, sauce, lettuce, pickles and onions.

It weighs in with 1010 calories, 70 grams of fat, 30 mg of saturated fat, 3 grams trans fats, 210 mg cholesterol, 34 carbs, 6 grams sugar, 64 grams protein and 1800 mg sodium -- not counting the French Fries!

WH trying to regroup as gulf leak criticism escalates

Climate change and energy policy adviser Carol M. Browner (pictured), said, “it’s important for people to understand that from the beginning, the government has been in charge.” She also said, “we are prepared for the worst, we have been prepared from the beginning.”

If indeed the government was prepared from the beginning, then it shows the incompetence of the government.

The truth is the government has been in charge of nothing but damage control as the White House is afraid to aggressively go after BP, the company that gave Obama huge donations during the presidential campaign.

Listening to the claim that the government was “on it” from day one makes one wonder if they will still be saying that on day 444 like Jimmy Carter was “on it” during his Iran hostage situation?

Link

Guatemala sinkhole swallows three-story building

Tropical Storm Agatha swept across Central America yesterday, bringing torrential rain that killed more than 100 people and opened a 60m-deep sinkhole in Guatemala City which reportedly swallowed a three-story building.


The huge sinkhole has been blamed on a combination of Tropical Storm Agatha and poor drainage systems in the city.

Local reports said one man was killed when the building was swallowed.

In 2007, three people died when a similar sinkhole appeared in the same area.

Link