Riding the turnip wagon...

A Pakistani man sits on the back of a vehicle loaded with vegetables in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Too many cooks spoil the broth? Tell Mayor Bloomberg

When Mayor Bloomberg came into office there was just one executive cook at Gracie Mansion (pictured below), the official residence of the Mayor of New York City.

Today there are three chefs to make the VIP feasts - costing taxpayers a whopping $245,000 this year.

And despite the big spending cuts the mayor has ordered across every city agency -- too many cooks won't be spoiling the broth at the city-owned mansion.

According to figures revealed by the New York Daily News, his longest-serving man in the kitchen, Feliberto Estevez, picks up $97,000.

His pastry chef Jerry Montanez who was hired in 2007 is paid $68,000 while Jose Velazquez is on $80,000 after getting a $10,000 pay rise last July.

Last autumn, there were cutbacks in the police, fire and schools and there are more job losses to come across the board.

Although the 69-year-old billionaire Bloomberg prefers to live at his upper East Side townhouse, he does a lot of entertaining at Gracie Mansion.

More here.

Obama advisor thought 4-star general was a waiter

At the link below CNN reports that the controversial Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett mistook four-star Army Gen. Peter Chiarelli -- the No. 2 general in the U.S. Army -- for a waiter and asked him for a glass of wine.

The charitable general excused her stupidity by saying "it could happen to anyone."

But doesn't this point out the incompetence of some of the people advising the president? A waiter wears four stars on each shoulder and a coat full of medals? C'mon, give me a break.

Wouldn't it have been rich if he had replied, "Ma'am, aren't you the lady on the syrup bottle? I'm sorry, I hardly recognized you," but of course he wouldn't have: he is an officer and a gentleman.

CNN's whitewashing of the incident is here.

Climbing the border fence at Tijuana

Deported migrants climb a fence at the U.S.- Mexico border as they prepare for the 6th annual Marcha Migrante, or Migrant March in Tijuana, Mexico.

President Reagan remembered on 100th Birthday

John McCain spent five and one half years in a prisoner of war camp in North Vietnam.

At the link below McCain writes about what he found when he returned home from Vietnam:

We came home to a country that had lost a war and the best sense of itself; a country beset by social and economic problems.

Assassinations, riots, scandals and contempt for political, religious and educational institutions gave the appearance that we had become a dysfunctional society.

Patriotism was sneered at. The military scorned. The great, robust, confident republic seemed exhausted.

Ronald Reagan believed differently.

He possessed an unshakable faith in America's greatness, past and future, that proved more durable than the prevailing political sentiments of the time.

We were a good country before Vietnam, and we are a good country after Vietnam. In all of history, you cannot find a better one. Of that, Ronald Reagan was supremely confident, and he became president to prove it.

He possessed an unshakable faith in America's greatness, past and future, that proved more durable than the prevailing political sentiments of the time.

We were a good country before Vietnam, and we are a good country after Vietnam. In all of history, you cannot find a better one. Of that, Ronald Reagan was supremely confident, and he became president to prove it.

Let us honor his memory by holding his faith as our own, and let us, too, tear down walls to freedom. That is what Americans do when they believe in themselves.

Link

Underemployed hits 19.2%

Gallup Daily: U.S. employment shows:

Unemployed - 9.9%

Underemploued - 19.2%

Gallup's U.S. employment measures report the percentage of U.S. adults in the workforce, ages 18 and older, who are underemployed and unemployed, without seasonal adjustment.

"Underemployed" respondents are employed part time, but want to work full time, or they are unemployed.

"Unemployed" respondents are those within the underemployed group who are not employed, even for one hour a week, but are available and looking for work.

Link

NBC employee fired for posting 1994 'What is the Internet' video

An NBC worker posted an old clip from the "Today" show.

In the clip Katie Couric, Bryant Gumbel and Elizabeth Vargas are wondering, "What is the Internet anyway?"

Filmed in 1994, the clip features Gumbel demanding, with a befuddled expression: "What is the Internet anyway?" and Couric stumbling to define it as: "that massive computer network, the one that's becoming really big now."

In the clip, Gumbel also complains about e-mail addresses, particularly "that little mark with the 'a' and the ring around it."

NBC has fired the employee for posting the embarrassing yet hilarious clip.

The clip can be seen at the link below.

Link

Obama approval dropped 9% in last 7 days!

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 24% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Thirty-eight percent (38%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -14

poll-feb-11.jpg

The president’s Approval Index ratings have fallen nine points since a week ago Monday as the crisis in Egypt unfolds.

This is a devastating drop in just one week. Don't look for this to be covered or even acknowledged by most of the media.

Lawsuit: New York Mets owners owe Madoff victims $300,000,000

A previously sealed lawsuit made public last Friday says the owners of the New York Mets turned a blind eye to Bernard L. Madoff's massive fraud, reaping $300 million in false profits and using a large chunk to run the team.

The lawsuit claims the owners were so dependent on the disgraced financier's too-good-to-be-true returns that it "faced a severe and immediate liquidity crisis" when Madoff's crimes were revealed in 2009.

The lawsuit names Sterling Equities, along with its partners and family members, including Mets owner Fred Wilpon (pictured), team President Saul Katz and Chief Operating Officer Jeff Wilpon, the owner's son.

The complaint alleges the partnership "received approximately $300 million in fictitious profits" from hundreds of accounts opened with Madoff's firm. Of that, it says, $90 million of "other people's money" was withdrawn to cover day-to-day operations of the Mets.

As it turns out, Mets owner Fred Wilpon may have been a big loser in Bernard Madoff's $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

Link

Bernie Madoff's secret revealed…

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Super Bowl commercials

Super Bowl attendees face pat downs and long list of banned items

Everyone entering the stadium must pass through a magnetometer, such as those used at airports, and get a patdown as part of the screening process.

NFL and federal authorities are limiting what fans can bring to Cowboys Stadium.

Small bags are allowed, but will be searched, and jackets will be X-rayed.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Items fans can't bring into Cowboys Stadium:

Weapons, mace/pepper spray, fireworks

Camcorders, tripods, camera cases and binocular cases

Umbrellas, strollers

Grills, tents, poles, sticks

Banners, noisemakers, horns, beach balls, Frisbees, laser lights and pointers

Containers of any type, coolers of any size, backpacks

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Items fans can bring into Cowboys Stadium:

Small cameras and binoculars, but not camera cases and binocular cases

Small bags

Items purchased in Fan Plaza on Game Day

Link

String of failures found in Fort Hood attack

From a report at the link below:

An extensive investigation by a Senate committee says the massacre at the U.S. Army Base at Fort Hood, Texas, in which 13 people were killed and 32 others were wounded should have been prevented, but a “string of failures” by the FBI and the Army allowed a “ticking time bomb” to open fire at a crowded deployment center in the worst domestic terrorism ambush since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee investigation, released Thursday by Chairman Joe Lieberman, Connecticut independent, and the ranking Republican, Susan Collins of Maine, says the FBI and the Army failed to act on evidence “in plain sight” that the suspected shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, had become an increasingly radicalized Muslim and was in communication with radical Islamic cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen.

Much more here.

Global warming has become global weirding

From a report in the Boston Herald:

Meet the global weirdos. They’re the ones telling you that all the snow outside is proof that it’s getting warmer. Only, they don’t call it “warming” anymore.

No, that was back in the “Earth has a fever” days. Back when Al Gore was predicting that the ice caps were melting, the polar bears were drowning and Manhattan would sink beneath 20 feet of water “in the near future.”

Is the "near future" past? Has Manhattan sunk beneath 20 feet of water? Boy, these guys really are weird.

The report goes on:

But then something happened. Since 1998, temperatures have been relatively flat.

We’ve got more polar bears than ever, and Manhattan is buried under snow.

For a planet-roasting crisis that threatened the human race with extinction, there doesn’t seem to be much actual warming.

That's when the chant became “climate change.” The liberals formerly known as “warmists” began predicting that we would experience fundamental changes in our weather.

Scientists at the University of East Anglia — the Harvard of climate change — said snow would be “a very rare and exciting event.” Children wouldn’t know what it was.

We all know how that turned out. Europe has had three winters in a row of snow and cold temperatures.

If the cold and snow in winter prove global warming why doesn't the heat in summer prove global cooling? These people will never admit they are wrong. They are accustomed to saying anything they want knowing 80% of the media will either quote their reports as factual or ignore their reports - as the American media did when they said children in the UK would grow up never seeing snow.

Link

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Cairo demonstrator with makeshift helmet

An Egyptian anti-government demonstrator protects his head with a kitchen pot

Cars stranded on Lake Shore Drive, Chicago

A scene from across America this week

Thousands flock to rice paddy crop circle in Indonesia

People gather to see the 70-meter-wide crop circle that appeared over last week in a rice field in Sleman, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Thousands of curious onlookers are flocked to central Indonesia to look at the facture which looks like an intricately designed flower following rumors it was formed by a UFO.

Masked model at Fashion Week

A model wears a creation by Alexandre Herchcovitch during the Sao Paulo Fashion Week in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Unusual style! Looks like the model is ready for "look like a bandit" day.

She would look right at home with the protesters on the streets of Cairo.

Cairo protesters - from camels to burka's

Falling ice at Super Bowl site injures 7

Seven people were injured -- one critically -- when ice fell from the roof of Cowboys Stadium this afternoon.

Five of the seven people were taken to area hospitals.

Photo shows the Cowboys Stadium surrounded by snow.

"The ice and snow melting off of the Cowboys Stadium roof has caused several sliding snow falls onto the plazas,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said in an e-mail sent to the Dallas Morning News.

The accident forced officials to shut all but one entrance to the stadium, the Dallas Morning News reports.

Link

Endless stream heading for US border

Central American migrants ride on top of a northern bound train during their journey toward the U.S. border.

America crushed by snow and ice of Global Warming

From a report at the first link below:

As the deadly two-day blizzard finally passes, huge swathes of America must now brace for more snow and ice over the next three days as a storm brewing in the South and Texas is projected to move north by Saturday, dumping even more snow on top of already record-setting accumulation totals.

Snow is expected to fall over parts of Texas with rain over Louisiana, which will turn to snow over the mid-Atlantic and Northeast. A separate snowstorm will blow over much of the West, just as Chicago is recovering from its most damaging snowstorm in decades.

This week's storm was so catastrophic that buildings were crushed under the weight of the ice and snow.

At the second link below Al Gore claims that this snow and ice is actually caused by 'global warming.'

Remember Al Gore? He is the so-called climate guru who refuses to debate his climate science. He won't allow reporters access to his climate lectures. He relies on the friendly liberal media to give him a pass without challenging his climate science.

At the third link below is a report about a climate scientist in the UK who claimed that Europe would soon not see snow again and that children would grow up not knowing what snow was like.

Didn't Al Gore and the UK climate scientist remember the warnings in the 1970's about a coming ice-age such as the Time Magazine warning about another ice age.

Links:

The "crushed by global warming snow and ice" report is here.

The Al Gore claim that this snow and ice is actually caused by man-made global warming is here.

The claim (with link) that "children in the UK would grow up never knowing what snow was like" is here.

The 1974 Time Magazine 'another ice age' report is here.

New York City smoking ban in parks and beaches

Many believe the Big Apple has become a nanny state.

Smokers have just one message for Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council members: butt out of our business.

"We’re outside. We should have freedom to smoke."

The smoking ban will cover 1,700 parks and 14 miles of public beaches plus boardwalks, marinas and pedestrian plazas.

Link

Obama's electric car hits roadblock:American car buyers

CNN reports on a study that shows:

Barack Obama's goal of putting 1 million electric cars on U.S. roads by 2015 could run into a huge roadblock -- the American consumer.

Photo shows a Nissan Leaf getting a battery charge.

According to a report released by researchers at Indiana University, automakers are unlikely to manufacture enough cars to reach the president's goal because of a potential lack of buyer demand.

Nissan and General Motors, makers of the Leaf and Volt, respectively, already have the capacity to produce enough cars to meet the goal. Serious questions remain, however, about the level of desire among potential buyers worried about cost, ease of use and likely resale value.

If electrics are so good why not make state and local police drive them as a test to see how reliable they are and how their performance stacks up.

If they want the country to go green, start with all police vehicles switching to electrics to prove to everyone if they are reliable and robust enough.

Link

Reporters banned when Obama signed treaty with Russia

The START nuclear disarmament treaty with Russia was promoted heavily by Barack Obama.

However, when it came to signing the document, the White House refused to allow reporters or TV cameras in the room.

Still photographers were the only representatives of the free press permitted to record the historic moment.

If this was a good treaty, it would have been signed in front of several dozen reporters and photographers with Pelosi, Reid and the Russian ambassador standing behind him.

One commenter wrote: "This START treaty with Russia is more like a surrender document. The signing would be more appropriate on a Russian battleship with Obama and our Joint Chiefs of Staff bowing to our new overlords."

From the report at the link below:

The White House Correspondents Association protested the White House’s decision to refuse to permit reporters access to the event, in addition to the dearth of press briefings since the crisis in Egypt began to unfold, a crisis in which President Obama continues to celebrate the great freedoms and openness enjoyed in this country.

No openness during the signing of the START treaty!

Something is very wrong when the President of the United States signs a document with an unfriendly foreign power behind closed doors!

Link

Credit card rates at record highs

According to a CNN Money report credit card interest rates are now hovering near record highs, at an average rate of 14.72%. And if your credit is bad enough, you could even end up with a rate as high as 59.9% APR.

That's because while the CARD Act helped crack down on certain fees and requires more disclosures, it didn't cap every credit card holder's worst enemy: interest rates.

Sure, the new rules prevent banks from raising most interest rates retroactively, but there's no limit on the rates they can charge new customers.

Rates are going up because card issuers know that once you get a card they can't raise the rates, so they're raising rates at the start to ensure they get the revenue from that interest.

First Premier Bank offers a Gold MasterCard with a whopping 59.9% rate for those people with "less than perfect credit", according to its website. And that rate is actually down from the 79.9% rate it originally charged!

Some of the interest rates above are unconscionable. Breathtaking, actually.

Besides a couple of debit cards, we have two credit cards -- one Visa and one MasterCard. However we pay almost no interest on either of them.

There was a time several years ago when we had credit card balances but that was when interest was much lower. Now our Visa and MasterCard get paid off every month just as soon as the statement arrives.

Link

Playing chess amid Cairo turmoil

Cowboys Stadium amid layer of ice

This AP photo taken with a fisheye lens shows a layer of ice outside Cowboys Stadium during preparations for NFL football Super Bowl XLV.

Photo: walking to Cairo airport

Tourists make their way to the Cairo airport.

Red lanterns for Chinese Lunar New Year

A worker lays out newly made red lanterns to dry at a lantern factory in Jishan county, Shanxi province.

The lanterns are being prepared for New Year celebrations and the coming Chinese Lunar New Year, which falls on February 3, 2011.

Newspaper for the iPad debuts

Is Rupert Murdoch's newspaper for the iPad the future of journalism?

It's the only newspaper for the iPad only with a subscription cost of 99cents a year.

Described as the first subscription-based national daily news publication built from scratch specifically for the iPad, The Daily was unveiled Wednesday at a news conference in New York City, as a beaming News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch cradled the tablet on stage like a proud papa.

After first thanking Apple CEO Steve Jobs for being "a champion of The Daily from Day One,' the uber-publisher said the first iPad-only newspaper would be a game-changer for the news-seeking masses around the world.

Link

Get Internet access when your government shuts it down

Internet access was cut off in Iran recently and now Egypt has cut off Internet service and mobile phone service for everyone in that country.

And now the Obama administration has put the 'kill switch' legislation back on the table.

A report at the first link below is titled, "As Egypt goes offline US gets internet 'kill switch' bill ready."

So what will you do when the federal government cuts off our access to the Internet?

A PCWorld report at the second link below offers suggestions and instructions in case Obama shuts down our Internet.

The report is titled, "Get Internet Access When Your Government Shuts It Down."

Link here and here.

Looks like the new teleprompter glasses just arrived

Punxsutawney Phil predicts quick end to winter

That fat rodent from Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania predicts a quick end to winter.

No word if Punxsutawney Phil agreed to put that in writing.

Happy groundhog Day.

Link

Report: Police at Cairo airport demanding bribes

From a report at the link below describing the scene at the Cairo airport:

Airport staff were scarce, food supplies were dwindling, flight information was non-existent -- and some policemen even demanded substantial bribes before allowing foreigners to board their planes.

Cairo Airport was in complete disarray, overwhelmed with over 18,000 stranded passengers, tourists said Tuesday as they detailed a litany of woes. As they spoke, dozens of evacuation planes arrived from all over the world to handle the surging exodus of foreigners and Egyptians amid growing anti-government protests in Cairo.

Much more here.

Yawn!

A young lion yawns as it enjoys the warm sunlight at the zoo of Zurich, Switzerland

Did Obama sink ObamaCare in 2008?

In the video below Obama is talking to Ellen DeGeneres comparing mandatory healthcare purchase to mandatory home buying.

Now the exact same thing is an integral part of his signature achievement - ObamaCare!

Gov. Brown cites Egypt to make case for tax hike

Proving that he is a tax-and-spend liberal from the 'old school', Jerry Brown (pictured) is citing the unrest in Egypt the Mideast to make a case for his tax hikes.

Citing the pro-democracy unrest in Egypt and Tunisia, Gov. Jerry Brown called it “unconscionable” that GOP legislators are vowing to block his attempt to ask voters to extend tax hikes to balance the budget.

“When democratic ideals and calls for the right to vote are stirring the imagination of young people in Egypt and Tunisia and other parts of the world, we in California can’t say now is the time to block a vote of the people,” Brown said in his first State of the State address in nearly 30 years.

He said the budget has tough choices but that the people “have a right to vote” on the package.

Did he once mention that tough choices should be made to cut spending instead of raising taxes? How long before even more businesses and individuals leave California?

Link

Bill would require all South Dakota citizens to buy a gun!

It's a good thing I wasn't having my morning coffee when I read the headline, shown above, in my old home town newspaper the Sioux Falls Argus Leader. Some of the coffee may have spewed out of my nose ruining the newspaper!

Five South Dakota lawmakers have introduced legislation that would require any adult 21 or older to buy a firearm “sufficient to provide for their ordinary self-defense.”

As it turns out the sponsor of the bill knows it will never pass. He is forwarding the bill to make a point.

South Dakota State Republican Congressman Hal Wick (pictured) of Sioux Falls is sponsoring the bill and knows it will be killed. He said he is introducing it to prove a point that the federal health care reform mandate passed last year is unconstitutional.

If a law can force citizens to buy health care insurance, why can't a law force citizens to buy a firearm?

“Do I or the other cosponsors believe that the State of South Dakota can require citizens to buy firearms? Of course not. But at the same time, we do not believe the federal government can order every citizen to buy health insurance,” he said.

Link

Hitching a ride

A lamb rides on the back of a motorcycle near Havana, Cuba.

Judge used Obama's own words against him

The photo shows Obama signing ObamaCare into law in March, 2010 surrounded by many of the lawmakers who helped cram the 2,000+ page bill down Americans throats.

Federal Judge Roger Vinson struck down the entire health care law as unconstitutional on Monday.

In ruling against President Obama's health care law, federal Judge Roger Vinson used Mr. Obama's own position from the 2008 campaign against him, when the then-Illinois senator argued there were other ways to achieve reform short of requiring every American to purchase insurance.

The footnote was attached to the most critical part of Judge Vinson's ruling, in which he said the “principal dispute” in the case was not whether Congress has the power to tackle health care, but rather whether it has the power to compel individual citizens to purchase insurance.

The judge ruled that because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable, the entire Act must be declared void.

Link

California governor Jerry Brown pushing tax hikes

All during the campaign for Governor of California, Jerry Brown's opponent kept bringing up ways to cut spending. That was the one thing Meg Whitman kept harping on and outlining ways to get it done.

Californians instead listened to the bogus story of Whitman's illegal maid and elected the former tax-and-spend liberal Governor Jerry Brown (pictured).

On Monday Jerry Brown said Californians should decide whether they want to pay $12 billion more in taxes to help plug the state's massive budget shortfall.

Brown, who just started his third term after serving as California's governor in the 1970s and 1980s, has laid out a plan to solve the state's $25.4 billion budget shortfall that hinges on voters approving an extension of tax hikes first passed in 2009 to address an earlier shortfall.

That didn't take long. In less than one month he is back in Sacramento raising taxes.

Link

Lake effect ice

There's lake-effect snow -- and now there's lake-effect ice.

A lighthouse in Cleveland has become encased in a thick layer of ice thanks to chilly temperatures and lake spray kicked up by a major storm on Lake Erie.

This photo shows the Cleveland Harbor West Pierhead Lighthouse almost entirely encased in ice.

The left was unprepared for ObamaCare ruling

From a report at the link below:

Liberal pundits who have consulted liberal law professors about liberals' great achievement -- ObamaCare -- are pronouncing the ruling by Judge Roger Vinson to be much to do about nothing.

They call it " curious," "odd," or "unconventional."

These are complaints, not legal arguments. And they suggest that the left was totally unprepared for the constitutional attack on their beloved handiwork.

After all, the recent mocking by the left of conservatives' reverence for the Constitution suggests they are mystified that a 200-year old document could get in the way of their historic achievement. They are truly nonplussed, and so they vamp, not with reasoned analysis but with an outpouring of adjectives.

They truly were unprepared for the ruling.

Will they be equally unprepared for the verdict from the Supreme Court?

Link

Democrats bipartisan seating killed State of Union speech

The Kumbayah "Coke with 2 straws date night" at the State of the Union speech was a bit much.

The bipartisan seating during the speech was a plan to hide the fact that Republicans outnumber Democrats during any joint-session seating.

As a result of the bipartisan seating Obama received subdued reaction at best.

There was even less excitement behind Obama as Biden fell asleep and Boehner looked like he had indigestion.

And we thought the speech was a failure because it was endlessly droning, pointless and predictable.

Details here.