Getting some rays in front of beach huts in Blyth, northeast England.
Jun 14, 2009
Newsweek editor says Obama is God
Contrast that with Evan Thomas on the TV talk show Inside Washington, responding to a question on whether the media was unfair to Bush. Thomas said, “Well, our job is to bash the president, that's what we do."Trash Bush and slobber over Obama calling him a God!
If Newsweek continues these unapologetic liberal promoting practices, The National Enquirer will be a more serious - and accurate - newsmagazine than Newsweek!
Link
John Hinderaker talks about MSNBC
Attorney John Hinderaker recently had this to say about MSNBC on Power Line:
MSNBC occupies a curious niche in the media landscape.
It is the first network that has ample financial resources but at the same time, production values are on a par with the average home movie and intellectual standards below those of the typical ninth grader.
It would be interesting to know who comprises their audience.
Don’t hold back John, tell us what you really thing about MSNBC.
Denver Broncos consider selling ads on practice jerseys

The NFL says there will be no jersey advertisements on game day. The ads would only be on jerseys worn on the practice field.
We wonder how much that will help. The practices are often closed to the public. Prior to critical games the practices are even closed to the media.
Maybe the Broncos feel they need every dollar they can get because of future ticket sale loss because they let star quarterback Jay Cutler slip through their fingers.
Link
Loser in Iran election arrested - that didn’t take long!
Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi was reportedly arrested Saturday following the reformist's defeat at the polls by hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Supporters of Mousavi, the main challenger to Ahmadinejad, have responded to the election with the most serious unrest in Tehran in a decade and claim that the result was the work of a dictatorship.
Will Jimmy Carter go to Iran and certify the election of Ahmadinejad like he did the election of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela?
Meanwhile, in the United States, Barack Obama was "excited" by Iran's robust election debate as reported by Reuters news (at the second link below).
"We are excited to see what appears to be a robust debate taking place in Iran," Obama told reporters when asked about the Iranian election during an event at the White House.
Jun 13, 2009
Jumping for joy: Bush skydives on 85th birthday
Bush made the tandem jump from 10,500 feet with Sgt. 1st Class Mike Elliott of the Army's Golden Knights, who guided them to a gentle landing on the lawn of St. Ann's Church.

He said he enjoyed it so much that he planned to do it again when he turns 90.

George W. and Barbara Bush wave to him after the jump.

With Barbara Bush after the jump.
When he was president, Bush was an avid jogger, speed golfer, fisherman and tennis player.
He said he has slowed down since then, but he doesn't intend to stop moving.
And all that from a man who won’t eat his broccoli.
He told reporters that he jumped Friday for two reasons: to experience the exhilaration of free falling and to show that seniors can remain active and do fun things.
Link
Iran election: landslide win for Ahmadinejad

The government said on Saturday that Ahmadinejad won Friday's presidential election with 62.63 percent of the vote and Mir Hossein Moussavi received 33.75 percent of the vote.
Before the ballot counting was over, Moussavi supporters urged the counting to stop because of "blatant violations" and lashed out at what he indicated was an unfair process.
At least Ahmadinejad didn’t use dead people voting and ACORN fraud to win.
Well, he didn’t use ACORN anyway. In a country like Iran you don’t need ACORN to win.
More here.
Jun 12, 2009
Blaming Bush doesn’t work anymore
Nobody’s trying to duck responsibility or make excuses.
At the same time Mr. Obama said:
The financial crisis this administration inherited is still creating painful challenges for businesses and families alike.
Blaming a predecessor is not new. Reagan blamed Carter for the poor economy and raging inflation he inherited.
Clinton blamed the first President Bush and the younger President Bush blamed Clinton.
However, former Bush aides argue that Mr. Obama has done it more extensively and routinely than other presidents have, although this is denied by the Obama team.
An article in the New York Times (see link below) reports that at a certain point, a new president assumes ownership of the problems and finds himself answering for his own actions.
Challenges stacking up overseas may increasingly be seen as Mr. Obama’s soon enough too, say advisers, critics and some outside experts.
By sending an extra 21,000 American troops to Afghanistan and replacing the commander there, Mr. Obama has now made that war his, as many analysts in Washington see it.
Also, the forceful (some say anti-Semitic) position toward Israel adopted by Mr. Obama over settlement expansion makes the Palestinian conflict his own problem.
“Whatever problems he inherited walking in the door, they’re his responsibility now,” Mr. Axelrod said. “Nobody’s trying to duck responsibility or make excuses for them.
David Axelrod is Mr. Obama’s senior advisor.
He gets it.
Yet Barack Obama continues to “blame Bush.”
Link
Its official swine flu pandemic has begun
Thursday's announcement by the World Health Organization doesn't mean the virus is any more lethal — only that its spread is considered unstoppable.
Since it was first detected in late April in Mexico and the United States, swine flu has reached 74 countries, infecting nearly 29,000 people. Most who catch the bug have only mild symptoms and don't need medical treatment.
More of the story here.
Holocaust museum shooter had shocking beliefs
Shown here is a more recent photo of von Brunn than accompanies most stories of the museum shooting.The anger of James Wenneker von Brunn was too big for the quiet civility of the small town on Maryland's Eastern Shore where he made his home for much of the past three decades.
The venom that seethed within him spilled over time and again, shocking the people of Easton who bore witness.
They were shocked once more at news of Wednesday's fatal shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, but not at word that the alleged gunman was the 88-year-old white supremacist who once lived in their midst.
One acquaintance said, "Was he capable of this? Yes! Our intuition that he was creepy, that he might go postal, all came back to us when we heard the news."
Mr. von Brunn was a former Navy officer who commanded a PT boat in the Pacific in the last weeks of World War II.
A 1943 graduate of Washington University in his home town of St. Louis, he bounced from one address to another on the Eastern Shore.
He worked in the mortgage and real estate businesses, peddled his paintings of Western landscapes and shared with all who would listen his hatred for blacks and Jews.
More of the story here.
Jun 11, 2009
Want to get up to 600 miles per gallon?
It is a hybrid, but maybe not what you’d think. It’s a “human-electric” hybrid.

This puddle jumper is not for the faint of heart, not if you want to get 600 miles per gallon anyway.

Near as we can tell, this vehicle is guaranteed to take the fun out of your driving.
Pedaling extends the range of the vehicle but does not substantially add to the vehicle's top speed.
The vehicle cannot be driven solely by using pedal power. Regenerative antilock braking captures energy from deceleration to recharge computer-controlled batteries.
I wasn’t going to make light of this pedal/electric wonder until I saw the price tag. How many eco-geeks will they find that just happen to have more than $30,000 in their jeans?
We are not sure how Twike is pronounced. Possibly it is meant to sound like “baby talk” for trike.
More here.
Showing off for the ranch hands
China earthquake
Tens of thousands visited the quake devastated town of Beichuan, in southwestern China's Sichuan province.
State leaders laid flowers and survivors burned paper money for departed spirits as a mournful China marked the first anniversary of a devastating earthquake that left nearly 90,000 people dead or missing and 5 million homeless.
Anything goes in Miami Beach - except Mr. Clucky
However, the talented but noisy rooster is being evicted by Miami Beach.
In the live-and-let-live annals of Miami Beach, the city has embraced a disparate cast of characters: the cross-dressing former cabbie who jives to '60s hits for change; the woman who walks her iguanas in a pram built for two; and the middle-aged man who makes custom paintings with his toes, to name a few.
But you have to draw the line somewhere, and so the city has decreed that Mr. Clucky -- the bike-riding rooster known for weaving his way through the laid-back crowds at Lincoln Road Mall -- must go.
Fiat Chrysler deal shifting to high gear
The deal with the Italian automaker will give Fiat 20 per cent of the new company in return for a transfer of technology, with the stake expanding to 35 per cent if targets are met.
The United Auto Workers union is to hold 55 per cent of the group, the US government 8 per cent and the Canadian government 2 per cent.

The tiny Fiat 500 (shown above with Jim Press, president and vice-chairman of Chrysler) is one of the first cars Chrysler hopes to build in North America through its new alliance with Fiat.
An article at the second link below wonders if Americans can learn to love Fiat.
In Italy, the joke is that Fiat stands for “fix it again Tony.”
How excited will Americans be about buying a tiny Fiat, with a Chrysler name-plate, built in a factory whose principle owner is the United Auto Workers union when It was the UAW’s unrealistic demands, along with GM, Ford and Chrysler’s cave-in to those demands, that got the U.S. automakers in trouble in the first place.
I have been loyal to American automakers - until now. We just replaced a Chrysler built van that served us well for the several years. After more than 200,000 miles it was replaced recently by a Toyota van. We are just not inclined to buy a UAWmobile.
More of the Chrysler/Fiat story here and here.
Jun 10, 2009
Museum shooter von Brunn's ex-wife says his racism 'ate him alive'
The ex-wife of the racist who stormed the U.S. Holocaust Museum described him as an abusive alcoholic whose hatred against Jews and blacks “ate him alive like a cancer. It's all he would talk about.”
The woman, who asked that her name not be used, said when she learned von Brunn allegedly acted on his anti-Semitic impulses, she thought about something he used to say when they were married.
"He used to make the statement that he was going out with his boots on," she said.
"I took it to mean that he wasn't just about to lay down and die of old age. That he was going to go out and try to take some people with him."
She married von Brunn in the mid-1960s and they divorced 10 years later. She said he sipped red wine all day and frequently lashed out with verbal assaults.
von Brunn's age is in dispute. Some media are reporting that he is in his 60s, while The Associated Press says he is 89 years old.
Link
Guard dies in shooting at Holocaust Museum
According to reports the guard has died the gunman is in critical condition.
”There were no threats" against the museum, said D.C. police chief Cathy Lanier. "The second he stepped into the building he began firing." Lanier said he was shooting a rifle.
The 89-year-old von Brunn (shown here in a much earlier photo) was released from the federal penitentiary in Ray Brook, N.Y. on Sept. 15, 1989, after serving 5-1/2 years.
He was convicted in 1983 of attempted kidnapping, burglary and assault with a deadly weapon in a 1981 incident at the Federal Reserve.
Von Brunn, a Holocaust denier, maintains a racist, anti-Semitic website and wrote a book titled Kill the Best Gentile.






