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Ah yes, KiethS
Here is some clarification on what you and your ilk would call "evidence" and "truth" (to power, or some other faggy, hippie expression):
USA Today acknowledged in a "note to our readers" Friday that it could not establish that BellSouth or Verizon contracted with the National Security Agency to provide it with customer calling records, as it previously reported.
But spokesman Steve Anderson said "this is an important story that holds up well. At the heart of our report is the fact that NSA is collecting phone call records of millions of Americans."
"What we address in the editors' note," he said, "deals with the fact that we originally reported that the telephone companies were working under contract with the NSA. We've concluded that we cannot establish that BellSouth or Verizon entered into a contract with the NSA to provide the bulk calling records."
In an accompanying story, the newspaper reported Friday that lawmakers on House and Senate intelligence committees have said that while the NSA has amassed a huge database calling records, cooperation with the NSA by telephone companies was not as extensive USA Today initially reported on May 11.
USA Today at that time reported that, according to its sources, AT&T Inc., BellSouth Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc. all agreed to provide the agency with domestic call records. The newspaper said Friday that Verizon and BellSouth deny they contracted to provide the NSA with records of their customers' phone calls. AT&T has neither confirmed nor denied the newspaper's report.
I am going to stop the quote right here. I wish leftists and mediacrats would get one thing through their thick heads: you cannot just say something and then defend your story because someone didn't confirm or deny the lies your told. I could say that Howard Dean is a child rapist. And if he doesn't confirm or deny that he is a child rapist give absolutely ZERO credibility to what I printed. I cannot stand it when they do this. Rumsfeld gets on people for this crap all the time...
"Well, you haven't denied this article written in the SPI three years ago..." SO IT MUST BE TRUE!
Some lawmakers briefed on the program said NSA has a database of domestic calls that includes numbers called and the length of conversations, but not what was said. Five members of the intelligence committees said they'd been told by intelligence officials that AT&T, the nation's largest telecommunications company, did cooperate in providing NSA with call records.
Five lawmakers on the intelligence committees said they'd been told that BellSouth did not turn over call records, and three lawmakers said they'd been informed that Verizon did not turn over call records to the NSA.
Lawmakers who support the Bush administration's domestic spying program see the apparent gaps in the database as a problem.
"It's difficult to say you're covering all terrorist activity in the United States if you don't have all the (phone) numbers," Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., told USA Today. "It probably would be better to have records of every telephone company."
In its note to readers, USA Today vowed to "continue to report on the contents and scope of the database as part of its ongoing coverage of national security and domestic surveillance."
Said Anderson: "There have been no denials that this database exists. Nineteen members of Congress who have been briefed following the May 11 article have confirmed the existence of the database."
USA Today is published by Gannett Co.
Posted by Aaron at 01:03 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
Penis Pump Judge Convicted
Posted by Dodo David at 12:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Happy Birthday, Alanna!
Work would not be the same without you!
Posted by Aaron at 07:48 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
LLP Correction on Rep. John Murtha
I would like to offer an apology to Rep. John Murtha for this post.
The Corner points out that the Sun-Sentinal said that Murtha was misquoted and that he was referring to a well known poll regarding world opinion.
The Sun-Sentinel, the South Florida newspaper that first reported Jack Murtha had said America was now a greater danger to the world than Iran or North Korea, has now acknowledged Murtha was misquoted — that he was citing the stats from a poll, not speaking his own views. Here's the correction: "An article on Page 3B of Sunday’s Local section misinterpreted a comment from U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., at a town hall meeting in North Miami. In his speech, Murtha said U.S. credibility was suffering because of continued U.S. military presence in Iraq and the perception that the United States is an occupying force. Murtha was citing a recent poll, by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, that indicates a greater percentage of people in 10 of 14 foreign countries consider the U.S. presence in Iraq a greater danger to world peace than any threats posed by Iran or North Korea."
As bloggers, we have to rely on newpaper accounts for our opinions since we have day jobs. And the media has been known to misquote people.
Again, I unconditionally apologize for this error.
Posted by Aaron at 12:41 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Why Is this Man Smiling?
Becuse the Supreme Court just overrided 200+ years of constitutional law stating that the military cannot conduct tribunals against foreign enemies captured during wartime.
I am glad to know that the Supreme Court found that article II of the constitution granted war powers to the JUDICIARY and not the EXECUTIVE instead of what the constitution actually says.
Posted by Aaron at 10:54 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Terrorist Membership should be punishable by death
That's where I am leaning this morning. I am just enraged this morning finding out that the Israeli kidnap victim was found dead.
As far as I am concerned, Israel has been playing with kid gloves and just need to raze the Gaza strip and ask Egypt to take the Palestinians. If the Palestinians in the West Bank want to play the same game, send them to Lebanon and Jordan.
Posted by Aaron at 04:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Ann Coulter Finishes NYTimes Crosswords with a Pen
Her fav'rite subject is the New York Times. She's leveled supremely written and devastating attacks in her last two books (Treason and HTTTAL(BOIYM)), so she is right to the point on the NYTimes' 5th release of classified information to aid terrorists. These three cuts are awesome:
Liberals invoke "freedom of the press" like some talismanic formulation that requires us all to fall prostrate in religious ecstasy.
It's really a red harring when someone just says "freedom of the press." You never hear them get any deeper than those three words do you--like what is actually written in the constitution. And they never revere the second amendment in such a way. Could I place an ICBM in my back yard and just say: "right to bear arms!" Hardly.
The First Amendment does not mean Times editor Bill Keller could kidnap a child and issue his ransom demands from the New York Times editorial page. He could not order a contract killing on the op-ed page. Nor can he take out a contract killing on Americans with a Page One story on a secret government program being used to track terrorists who are trying to kill Americans.
Perfect analogy.
Ezra Pound, Mildred Gillars ("Axis Sally") and Iva Toguri D'Aquino ("Tokyo Rose") were all charged with treason for radio broadcasts intended to demoralize the troops during World War II. Their broadcasts were sort of like Janeane Garofalo and Randi Rhodes on Air America Radio – except Tokyo Rose was actually witty, and Axis Sally is said to have used a fact-checker.
Why is it called Air America? D'Aquino wasn't called Chicago Rose.
Anyway. Read the whole piece. At least she can discuss the constitution and the law in legal terms instead of rap poetic about third grade notions of the constitution.
Posted by Aaron at 07:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Dodo Beats FOXNews To Story
Surprise, surprise.
The FOXNews website has finally gotten around to reporting a story that appeared on my blog four days ago.
It is the story about the Penis Pump Judge.
Unlike the Dodo version, the FOXNews version does not include a photo of either the defendant or a penis pump. (Nor does FOXNews have the great header and clip art.)
To read the FOXNews version, click here. To read the Dodo version, click here.
Posted by Dodo David at 06:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Bestill my beating heart
WaPo supports offshore drilling:
FOR THE PAST quarter of a century, the federal government has banned oil and gas drilling in most U.S. coastal waters. Efforts to relax the ban have been repelled on environmental grounds, but it is time to revisit this policy. Canada and Norway, two countries that care about the environment, have allowed offshore drilling for years and do not regret it. Offshore oil rigs in the western Gulf of Mexico, one of the exceptions to the ban imposed by Congress, endured Hurricane Katrina without spills. The industry's safety record is impressive, and it's even possible that the drilling ban increases the danger of oil spills in coastal waters: Less local drilling means more incoming traffic from oil tankers, which by some reckonings are riskier. Although balancing energy needs with the environment is always hard, the prohibition on offshore extraction cannot be justified.
Posted by Aaron at 06:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Israel Poised to Invade Gaza
Fox News is reporting that missiles have taken out the only power station in Gaza and that 3000 troops are on the border ready to invade.
I hope Bush is watching closely on how it should be done.
Posted by Aaron at 07:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Things We'd Rather Not Know About
Is he trying to be young and hip?
Because he was the first Democrat to step up and say publicly last year that he’s exploring running for president, we can assume that Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) is plenty interested in the office.
But like most other men, apparently there are things that interest him more.
Speaking to a group of 130 twenty- and thirty-something supporters of his leadership PAC last Thursday, Biden indicated that while he thinks he could be an effective chief executive, as far as the job itself goes, he could take it or leave it.
“I’d rather be at home making love to my wife while my children are asleep,” he said.
What, because he's talking to a bunch of horny younger guys he figures they want to know about how much he enjoys bedroom activities with the wife? Sorry, but thinking about 64-year-old Joe Biden doing the nasty is pretty much the last thing I'd like to do (although it's not as horrible to think of as Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn). Is nothing sacred anymore?
And as for him "taking or leaving" the presidency in favor of sex, I rather doubt it. Of course, he could take Bill Clinton's lead and combine the two. Clinton was a real multi-tasker...he probably invented the phrase.
Joe Biden: Studmuffin?
Posted by Pam at 02:44 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Chloe slipped it into his bag!
Rush busted for drug possession. He had
(are you sitting down?)
a bottle of viagra! Throw him in jail!
Rush Limbaugh was detained for about 3 1/2 hours at Palm Beach International Airport after authorities said they found a bottle of Viagra in his possession without a prescription.
The 55-year-old radio commentator's luggage was examined by U.S. Customs and Border Protection after his private plane landed at the airport around 2 p.m. from the Dominican Republic, said Paul Miller, spokesman for the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.
Customs officials found in Limbaugh's luggage a prescription bottle labeled as Viagra, a prescription drug that treats erectile disfunction, Miller said.
"The problem was that on the bottle itself was not his name, but the name of two Florida doctors," Miller said.
This sounds like a problem that will be solved with a call to his doctors. Was Laura Ingraham and Mark Levin down there in the Dominican Republic with Rush? They had guest hosts the since Thursday as well. Here is Rush's attorney's statement:
Roy Black, Rush Limbaugh's attorney, issued the following statement today in response to several inquiries by the media:
While going through routine Customs inspection of luggage at Palm Beach International Airport upon his return from an international trip, Rush Limbaugh was detained by customs agents after they noticed a non-narcotic prescription drug, which had been prescribed by Mr. Limbaugh's treating physician but labeled as being issued to the physician rather than Mr. Limbaugh for privacy purposes. After a brief interview, Mr. Limbaugh was permitted to continue on his journey.
Seeing as how Air America interns probably rummage through his trash on a daily basis and that Keith Olbermann probably sits outside his house with binnoculars, I totally believe this privacy claim here.
Posted by Aaron at 05:32 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Secretary Snow to Bill Keller: "You lie."
U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow has written a letter to Bill Keller, the managing editor of the New York Times.
The Corner at National Review Online has posted the letter, which you can read by clicking here.
In the letter, Secretary Snow basically says that Bill Keller lied in his public response to the latest controversy surrounding the New York Times.
Meanwhile, Hugh Hewitt tears apart Keller's response in an analysis, which you can read by clicking here.
[Cross-posted at Dodo World]
Posted by Dodo David at 07:37 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Ward Churchill To Be Fired
Associated Press writers Judith Kohler and Dan Elliott are reporting that the University of Colorado's interim chancellor is preparing to fire controversial college professor Ward Churchill.
[Story cross-posted at Dodo World]
Posted by Dodo David at 06:48 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Rush, you Dog!
Rush always get's the hotties! Below, he plants one on Chloe O'Brien from 24!
I'll take Keifer myself...
Posted by Aaron at 06:26 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
The Dodo Report (06/25/06)
Well, my new blog Dodo World has gotten off to a roaring start.
Well, perhaps "roaring" is a bit of an overstatement, but it sure sounds better than "meowing".
Still, I'm happy about how the blog is looking.
I would even go so far as to say that Dodo World is a real piece of art.
Still, the blog is a work in progress.
If you take a look at my newest creation, you will notice that I have been very busy at my computer.
My blog has a feature missing from most other blogs: a theme song.
In case you missed them, here are some of my latest posts:
America's Mother Road: Growing Up On Route 66
Dinner Music (featuring Weird Al Yankovich)
Penis Pump Judge Goes On Trial (a crime story weirder than Al)
Al Gore's Attempt to Suppress Science (also posted on this blog)
Raging about Road Rage
Here are coming attractions:
Monday - Church Folly (featuring a cartoon by Doug Marlette)
Tuesday - The Dodo Makes The News
Wednesday - The absence of war is . . .(rebutting a Liberal)
Thursday - A Liberal Proves Me Right
Friday - Clueless in Kansas
So, if you haven't anything better to do than clip your toenails, then Dodo World waits for you.
Posted by Dodo David at 07:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Tyler who?
WaPo and CNN are running an old news story to cover up the WMD revelation by Santorum and Hoekstra.
LLP talked about this guy in April (see Update II)--and the WaPo is running stories at the end of June?
Everyone tried to say that Santorum and Hoekstra's news that we found 500 chemical weapon shells with Sarin and Mustard gas in various degraded stages was "old news." Everyone knew that there were 500 shells found I guess.
So then why is this old story being reported like it's breaking news?
Remember, there are some elections coming up ;-)
Posted by Aaron at 06:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Can we question his patriotism yet?
This guy is seriously grinding on my last good nerve:
American presence in Iraq is more dangerous to world peace than nuclear threats from North Korea or Iran, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said to an audience of more than 200 in North Miami Saturday afternoon.
Make you sick? Don't pout, DONATE to Diana Irey. Rush was right; this woman is a total BABE!
Posted by Aaron at 02:57 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
Is Superman Gay, Jewish, the Messiah?
Browsing around the internet looking at pictures of the new Superman Brandon Routh (like South) when I came across several articles discussing the size of Brandon's package:
The new Superman is giving movie bosses a headache - because of the size of his bulge.
They fear Brandon Routh's profile in the superhero's skintight costume could be distracting, reports the Sun.
Hollywood executives have ordered the makers of Superman Returns to cover it up with digital effects.
The Sun's source said: "It's a major issue for the studio. Brandon is extremely well endowed and they don't want it up on the big screen."
Well, well, well! I don't believe it, however, because there plenty of sites out there that refute this with pictures of his bulge.
What do you think? The guy is HOT, but I don't see anything below the belt to write home about.
But driving this morning, I heard other interpretations regarding Superman's appeal and identity. The one getting most play is Superman's attraction to gay men. Superman is not gay, per se, but gays identify with his double life--his secret identity. I personally believe its the blue leotards.
I think this is true of all superheros and not specifically Superman. You have discussions of Batman and Robin that ultimately led to the SNL parody of Ace and Gary, the ambiguously Gay Duo.
The next interpretation is that Superman is Jewish. He flees certain destruction as a baby in a basket (like Moses). And the name Kal El sounds like Hebrew for Voice of God:
- Superman was created by two nice Jewish boys Jerry Seigel and Joe Shuster in 1930s post-depression middle America. The comic book industry was dominated by Jews.
- Superman’s arrival and subsequent success is the story of Jewish immigration and achievements into the US. He is taken in by a kind couple in a strange land and given a chance to make good.
- His story is also the Moses story. Moses is rescued from the waters in a basket. Superman is rescued from a field in a basket-like spacecraft.
- He never forgets who he is: he is being a stranger and being at home simultaneously. This is the heart of Jewish tradition, where every Jew is a boundary crosser and Jews remember the stranger and themselves as strangers.
- The Jewish answer to Nietzsche’s superman who was above moral issues; Superman in contrast is immersed in moral issues.
Many simply see the story of a hero sent to Earth by his father to serve mankind as having clear enough New Testament overtones. Others have taken the comparison even further, reading the “El” in Superman’s original name “Kal-El” and that of his father “Jor-El” as the Hebrew word for “God,” among other theological interpretations.
“Superman Returns,” which premieres June 28, has been drawing its own comparisons to biblical accounts, especially after the appearance of its trailer earlier this year.
The preview shows the hero with his eyes closed as the voice of his father — Marlon Brando’s, courtesy of 1978’s “Superman” — tells him he was sent to Earth because humans “lack the light to show the way.”
“For this reason,” continues the voice, “I have sent them you, my only son.”
Online message boards and Web logs quickly latched onto the biblical resonance of those lines.
“The allusion to Jesus Christ could hardly be accidental,” wrote Christian blogger Tom Gilson.
“Is this a new Superman for the new Evangelist red state America? Superman as Jesus?” asked one contributor to the Portland-based blog site Urban Honking.
The poster is also getting a lot of attention as well. The caption from canmag.com is:
Look at this image... they might as well of placed a cross behind him.
I just think it is really great when you have a character that can be so much to so many people. Ultimately, I believe Superman's appeal is his goodness and sacrifice. Who cannot like that?Posted by Aaron at 02:47 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Al Gore's Attempt to Suppress Science
In case you haven't noticed, there are scientists who disagree with Al Gore's beliefs about global warming.
In case you haven't noticed, Gore tries to smear any scientist who disagrees with him.
Gore's smear campaign against scientists isn't new. Gore was trying to smear scientists back when he was a U.S. Senator and when he was Vice-President.
One scientist who was targeted for smearing is Dr. S. Fred Singer, an atmospheric physicist at George Mason University.
Dr. Singer writes about the attempt to smear him in a chapter of a book titled Politicizing Science: The Alchemy of Policymaking (link) . Singer's chapter is titled "The Revelle-Gore Story: Attempted Political Suppression of Science" (link) .
Here are the first two paragraphs from the chapter:
This is a personal account linking efforts to suppress scientific publication about climate science and policy by then-Senator (later vice president) Al Gore and his staff. In those efforts, an individual working closely with Senator Gore and his staff made false and damaging statements about my behavior as a scientist. I filed a libel suit against the individual. The suit was settled when he issued a retraction and apology that included a statement that members of Senator Gore's staff had made "similar statements and insinuations" to those that he retracted.
Vice President Al Gore also tried to influence at least one TV news anchor to carry out an investigation designed to discredit those who disagreed with his personal views about climate change. His effort failed because of the newsman's integrity.
In the section of his story titled "Final Reflections", Singer writes the following about Al Gore:
He appears to believe that those who disagree with him are part of some vast industry-led conspiracy, and his ego will not entertain the thought that his opposition really is just a group of individuals and small organiztions led by people whose motivation is something other than financial gain.
It is quite understandable that Al Gore would try to smear scientists who disagree with him. After all, those scientists are revealing truths that are inconvenient to Al Gore's mission . . . and to Al Gore's ego.
This post cross-posted at Dodo World.
Posted by Dodo David at 09:20 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
More HuffPuff Lying Headlines
More of her lying headlines:
Now I am no fan of Rivera, but that is not what he said or meant. Here is the complete quote:
"To withdraw at a date certain. I've know John Kerry for over thirty five years. Unlike me-he is a combat veteran, so he gets some props, but in the last thirty five years, I've seen a hell of a lot more combat than John Kerry"
This is an undeniably true statement. Even that brawl on his TV show when he broke his nose from being hit in the face with a chair is more combat than Kerry probably saw INCLUDING Vietnam.
Leftists have to hide the truth from their readers!
Posted by Aaron at 01:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Well, not any more!
More treason from our newspapers:
The U.S. government, without the knowledge of many banks and their customers, has engaged for years in a secret effort to track terrorist financing by accessing a vast database of confidential information on transfers of money between banks worldwide.
The program, run by the Treasury Department, is considered a potent weapon in the war on terrorism because of its ability to clandestinely monitor financial transactions and map terrorist webs.
Thanks for blowing our cover! What dopes are these people?
NYTimes and LATimes both ran stories on this.
Posted by Aaron at 07:27 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Oh, those WMD
I don't think Santorum would lend his name to something this earth shattering if it were not true:
- Since 2003 Coalition forces have recovered approximately 500 weapons munitions which contain degraded mustard or sarin nerve agent.
- Despite many efforts to locate and destroy Iraq’s pre-Gulf War chemical munitions, filled and unfilled pre-Gulf War chemical munitions are assessed to still exist.
- Pre-Gulf War Iraqi chemical weapons could be sold on the black market. Use of these weapons by terrorists or insurgent groups would have implications for Coalition forces in Iraq. The possibility of use outside Iraq cannot be ruled out.
- The most likely munitions remaining are sarin and mustard-filled projectiles.
- The purity of the agent inside the munitions depends on many factors, including the manufacturing process, potential additives, and environmental storage conditions. While agents degrade over time, chemical warfare agents remain hazardous and potentially lethal.
- It has been reported in open press that insurgents and Iraqi groups desire to acquire and use chemical weapons.
Posted by Aaron at 06:58 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Democrats Illegal Aliens Employment Plan Dashed in Senate
Increase in minimum wage (which would increase demand for illegal workers and jeapordize jobs for Americans) was defeated in the Senate. Good.
Posted by Aaron at 06:21 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
It's Just a Joke
The whole Huffington Post concept is really a joke and the people who believe it and write for it are the butts. Look at this:
Now, you might think there was actually evidence for this. Well, I read the article they linked to and I counted 4 maybe 5 people that had one positive thing to say about Murtha--and only two of them were soldiers! They did not cheer him--they cheered his aid.
And didn't they just get back from Iraq? How many of them would have seen his idiodic performance on Meet the Press?
Posted by Aaron at 12:49 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Safavian found guilty
A jury Tuesday convicted a former Bush administration official of four counts of lying and obstructing justice in the first trial to be held in connection with the influence-peddling scandal of lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Safavian was convicted on four of five felony counts of lying and obstruction. He had resigned from his White House post last year as the federal government’s chief procurement officer.
Good. Hope he gets a great deal of time behind bars. Break the law, pay the price.
Posted by Aaron at 06:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Richard Clarke Woman of the Year
Remember Coleen Rowley? She was the famed "whistleblower" who, if only listened to, could have prevented 9/11. Remember this cover?
Yep, that's her front and center. She was also one of Ms. Magazine's Women of the Year in 2002. Rowley wrote a now infamous memorandum to FBI Director Robert Mueller.
She was vaulted to liberal celebrity being heavily recruited by Democrats to run for congress; she got her own blog on Huffington Post and was also seen cavorting with Mother Sheehan.
Well, what a difference a REAL, thorough investigation (not the 9/11 commission sham) makes:
Today the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General rereleased its November 2004 report on the FBI's handling of intelligence information related to 9/11 with the previously withheld chapter 4 included. Chapter 4 addresses the FBI's investigation of Moussaoui; it (as well as other references to Moussaoui) had been withheld pending his trial. Chapter 4 paints a devastating portrait of Rowley's performance as counsel of the Minneapolis field office during the Moussaoui investigation, contradicting her assertion that the failure to seek a criminal search warrant was attributable to anyone other than herself as well as her assertion that probable cause clearly existed for a FISA search warrant. It is a portrait of a person well over her head. The following paragraphs are taken nearly verbatim from chapter 4; page references to the report are noted for each paragraph parenthetically below.
Read the rest at Powerline. Looks like the Dems might need to huslte to win that seat.
This should demonstrate two things that anyone with common sense would know:
1. People who call themselves "whistleblowers" are often nothing more than people with a grudge against their agency. That is why there is a proper and confidential process within the government through Merit Systems Protection, Investigator General and the Office of Special Counsel.
2. The President is following the law. Democrats and leftists get to throw every leak around knowing that the President cannot respond because of an ongoing investigation. If the Bush Administration was out to smear people like people claim he was doing with Valerie Plame, he could have taken this woman out the day her picture was on the cover of time.
Posted by Aaron at 05:36 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Carnival of Democratic Corruption
Before my power goes out (major storm here in Maryland), we have another chapter in the Carnival of Democratic Corruption--and this touches Mark Warner of VA:
Jerome Armstrong, the political strategist who followed a famous Internet fundraising effort for Howard Dean in 2004 with a book on "people-powered politics," has a sordid past as a shill for a worthless dot-com stock.
Armstrong, 42, touted a dubious Chinese software company, BluePoint, beginning in 1999, without disclosing that he accepted "below-market" shares in exchange for the glowing reports he posted on a site called Raging Bull, according to a 2003 civil suit that named him as a defendant.
"Armstrong posted over 80 times on the BluePoint message board located on the Raging Bull Web site in the first three weeks [it traded]," reads the complaint, filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
At no point in any of the 80 posts did Armstrong disclose he was paid for the service, the suit alleged. In fact, The Post has uncovered hundreds of Armstrong posts from 1999 to 2003, many supporting now virtually or entirely worthless stocks.
Armstrong denied to The Post that he did anything wrong and said the SEC made a mistake in charging him. "This was a long time ago and I settled the case without admitting or denying guilt, and I paid no fine," said Armstrong, who refused to comment further.
Now, two questions:
1. If Dean had become president, would he fire Armstrong?
2. Did Armstrong disclose this incident to Mark Warner? Will Mark Warner fire him?
Posted by Aaron at 06:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Earmarking the $hit out of it!
More on how the Democrats would like to spend our money...
Over the past decade Vibration & Sound Solutions Ltd., a small Alexandria defense contractor, has received a steady flow of federal contracts to work on "Project M" -- $37 million in all from annual "earmarks" by congressional supporters such as Rep. James (Earmark the $hit Out of It) Moran Jr. (D-Va.).
Project M, a technology involving magnetic levitation, was conceived as a way to keep submarine machinery quieter, was later marketed as a way to keep Navy SEALs safer in their boats and, in the end, was examined as a possible way to protect Marines from roadside bombs.
All the applications have one thing in common: The Pentagon hasn't wanted them.
The company is holding out hope, but with little other business and the congressional funding apparently at an end, VSSL is planning to close its Alexandria headquarters and lab.
The government got its money's worth in Project M, VSSL President Robert J. Conkling said in a recent interview. The technology might still be used to help the nation's military, he said.
"I don't know how you can calculate return on investment" on a system that prevents special operations forces from being injured, he said.
Analysts and others who follow congressional earmarking closely say the company's experience exemplifies one of the pitfalls of the process: Once begun, promising but speculative programs like Project M are hard to kill, sustained by members of Congress who want to keep jobs in their districts, military officials who want to keep their options open and businesspeople who want to keep their companies afloat.
Again, does this mean we should not be upset at Republicans who are in control of both chambers about the runaway spending? We should absolutely be upset. But what this demonstrates is the LACK OF CREDIBILITY Democrats have in criticizing spending levels.
Posted by Aaron at 08:12 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Dodo World is born.
After much procrastination, this blogger has decided to strike out on his own with his own independent blog, Dodo World. (Yes, I'll continue to blog here, too.)
Considering that there must be a zillion blogs in existence now, why start another one?
Well, for two reasons.
First, as much as I appreciate the opportunity to blog here at Lifelike Pundits, I wish have my own blog so that I can control its tone.
Second, I am in need of a hobby to keep me busy while my wife and son are out of the country.
A reasonable person might ask, "What makes your blog special?"
Hey, I am special . . . at least in my own mind.
Actually, my goal is to make my new blog an acceptable "watering hole" for people of all political orientations. Many older blogs are slanted in favor of a particular political orientation (conservative, liberal, etc.) I want my blog to reflect my own brand of political orientation - that of Dodo.
Plus, I want to feature non-political stuff, as well as express my own weirdness from time to time. As stated in my blog's theme song, "I'm strange, and I like it. That's just the way I am."
Here are links to some of the first posts at Dodo World:
Dodo World Theme Song
Observations from Mamalynn (humor)
A Taste of Heaven (religious joke)
You may be Scottish if . . . (humor)
Political Orientations
More Defining of Political Orientations
Where are you on the political compass?
Posted by Dodo David at 02:51 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Democrats Should Pay Reparations
That's what a study concluded:
North Carolina should compensate victims of racial violence that led to the overthrow of a racially mixed city government a century ago and ushered in a new political era in the Jim Crow South, a fact-finding commission recommended Wednesday.
The murders and terrorizing of blacks by white supremacists in 1898 led to a Democratic takeover from Republicans who controlled the city of Wilmington during Reconstruction.
...By murdering and terrorizing blacks in Wilmington on Nov. 10, 1898, white supremacists were able to overthrow government officials at gunpoint - the only recorded violent government overthrow in U.S. history, according to the 500-page report.
...The attacks killed as many as 60 people and sparked an exodus of 2,100 blacks, the commission concluded. Then the largest city in the state, Wilmington flipped from a black majority to a white majority in the months following the violence.
Democrats quickly passed voter literacy tests and a grandfather clause, which disenfranchised black voters until the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
Wilmington likely became a "catalyst" for the violent white supremacist movement around the country, with other states taking note, said Lerae Umfleet, the state's lead researcher.
The article does indicate that the study was commissioned by a Democrat. So much for the rewriting of history by the leftists in this country.
I am against reparations to descendents of victims, but perhaps the city itself could mount a successful lawsuit against the DNC.
Posted by Aaron at 09:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Democratic Party Nightmare Comes True
Posted by Dodo David at 01:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
DHS Democrat, Pedophile, Bush Hater
Remember when the left wing blogosphere tried to act like this guy was part of the Republican culture of corruption...until they found out he was a Democrat?
Turns out he's a Bush Hater as well:
In Internet and phone chats with someone he thought was a 14-year-old girl, a press aide with homeland security talked about underage sex, boasted about his job and called U.S. President George W. Bush a "liar," according to transcripts released by prosecutors.
Posted by Aaron at 11:28 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Angelina "Frightened" By Birthing Process
I have simply got to get this out of my system: Is anyone else tired of hearing about the birth of Brangelina's baby?
NEW YORK (AP) -- Angelina Jolie, in her first U.S. interview since the birth of her daughter last month, says the experience was frightening.
"You know, because you're there for the birth, which I wasn't for my first two kids, you're just suddenly terrified that they're not gonna take a first breath," the 31-year-old actress says in an interview to air Tuesday on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" (10 p.m. EDT).
"That was my whole focus. I just wanted to hear her cry."
I might be frightened too, if I chose to have my child in Namibia. Actually, since she used a private clinic, I guess she had a better chance at having no problem than the average Namibian. (The infant mortality rate in the US is 7 in 1000 vs. 48 in 1000 in Namibia.)
And while it's admirable that Mary and Joseph...er, Angelina and Brad...decided to donate the $4 million or whatever that was paid for exclusive Messiah...er, Shiloh...baby photo rights to charity, the fact that any publication would pay that kind of money for such a photo op is ludicrous.
We scoff at other countries for having royalty, yet we grovel at the feet of such luminaries as Brad and Angelina and the rest of the Hollywood court jesters because they are good looking and look larger than life on the silver screen. Oh, and they make lots of money and spend it on mansions, private jets and big parties.
With all of the hooh hah, you would think Angelina was the first woman ever, in the history of mankind, to give birth. Until, that is, the next celebrity has a child. I just love the questions these women are asked: How do you manage to have such a fabulous career and still have time to be a mom? Answer: With the boatloads of money I'm paid, I can afford to hire nannies, maids and cooks, as well as personal trainers to get my figure back within weeks.
Who would have thought that actors and other entertainers went from being lower than toilet scrubbers on the social ladder to being top of the heap?
Okay...I feel better now.
The second coming?
Posted by Pam at 07:53 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Damn Fool
Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak on this resolution as the chairperson of the 72-member Out of Iraq Caucus of the House of Representatives. Tomorrow will mark the 1-year anniversary of the Out of Iraq Caucus.
My colleagues and I joined together to form the Out of Iraq Caucus to pressure the Bush administration into telling the truth about what is going on in Iraq, to admit their mistakes, and to admit their misjudgments, and to force them to devise a plan to bring our troops home.
The Bush administration cannot deny that they misled the world about the reasons we invaded Iraq. There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. There was no connection between the unfortunate destruction of 9/11 and Saddam Hussein. We have not been welcomed with open arms in Iraq. We have no substantial support for this war by other countries. Yet, Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, Mr. Rumsfeld, Ms. Rice, Mr. Wolfowitz, and Mr. Karl Rove continue to squander the American taxpayers' dollars on a war that cannot be won with a military solution.
Here we are 3 years later, 2,500 American soldiers dead, 18,498 U.S. soldiers seriously injured, and Congress has appropriated over $320 billion for this war, and the costs will only continue to rise. Even Condoleezza Rice admitted there have been thousands of missteps. The American people are increasingly aware of this mismanaged, corrupt, and bungled war.
The company that Vice President Cheney served as CEO of, Halliburton, has been awarded no-bid contracts for billions of dollars, and they have had over $400 million in unsupported costs and another $1 billion in questioned costs. In simple words, they are cheating the American people. Yet they are not being held accountable for their criminal actions, and the administration has facilitated these illegal actions.
...However, Congress has done virtually no oversight of this war, no hearing, no acknowledging the generals that are trying to tell us about Mr. Rumsfeld's mismanagement of this war. We have not done the oversight, and today, we find that we have this debate. It is not sufficient, nor has it been properly characterized. This resolution we are debating is a sham.
As a matter of fact, it is a trap. It is an attempt to force Democrats to sign on to a resolution that will do nothing to bring our troops home. Oh, they want to make us sound as if we are unpatriotic. They want to make us sound as if we do not support our troops. We love our troops. We are as patriotic as anybody, and so I would implore my colleagues not to get caught into this trap.
A TRAP? She's a damned communist fool.Posted by Aaron at 03:15 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Conservative, Republican Black Woman To Take on McKinney
Go and donate. NOW.
CNSNews got the interview:
A little known African American woman announced Thursday that she will try to unseat Georgia Democratic Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, who has been mired in controversy since she struck a U.S. Capitol policeman in the chest with her closed fist.
Catherine Davis, a human resources manager who has never held elected office, said she is running because McKinney's "dismal legislative record and her outrageous behavior are an embarrassment to the hard-working folks in my district." McKinney represents Georgia's 4th Congressional District.
Davis is conservative. She favors a strict approach to immigration reform - the immediate securing of the borders and deportation of illegal residents, privatizing Social Security, Health Savings Accounts, school vouchers and the Fair Tax, which would eliminate the federal income tax and establish a federal sales tax.
She was beat once, she can be beat again!
Posted by Aaron at 08:41 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Break out the Champagne!
Upload all your pictures of flag drapped coffins and have a party! The left will now have a new number to tout and feign being solemn when they splash their headlines with this:
Huffington Post...
Michael Moore...
Posted by Aaron at 05:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Bill Gates announces retirement in two years
He is making his announcement on Fox News now...
Posted by Aaron at 04:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Are You Sitting Down?
The Dems ACTUALLY released what they are going to run on and stand for in this election. It's quite hilarious:
Democrats in Congress offer a New Direction, putting the common good of all Americans first for a change, and will:
MAKE HEALTH CARE MORE AFFORDABLE
Fix the prescription drug program by putting people ahead of drug companies and HMOs, eliminating wasteful subsidies, negotiating lower drug prices and ensuring the program works for all seniors; invest in stem cell and other medical research.
READ: Fix the prescription drug program by doubling its cost, halving it's efficiency by removing market incentives and invest in EMBRYONIC stem cell research that destroys life and cured NOTHING; and put doctors out of business while our trial lawyers sue them for every penny.
LOWER GAS PRICES AND ACHIEVE ENERGY INDEPENDENCE
Crack down on price gouging; eliminate billions in subsidies for oil and gas companies and use the savings to provide consumer relief and develop American alternatives, including biofuels; promote energy efficient technology.
READ: Bash gas companies who have been shown not to be gouging; eliminate incentives for domestic production of energy through endless regulations and taxation; cause a gas shortage by capping fuel costs and have press conferences and photo shoots with Hollywood celebrities who drive Priuses.
HELP WORKING FAMILIES
Raise the minimum wage; repeal tax giveaways that encourage companies to move jobs overseas.
READ: create unemployment and put small businesses out of business by raising the minimum wage; repeal tax giveaways to the middle class by trashing Bush's tax cuts for the "rich" (people making more than 40k a year).
CUT COLLEGE COSTS
Make college tuition deductible from taxes; expand Pell grants and cut student loan costs.
READ: Make college tuition deductible from the now higher taxes you pay; hand out free money, ipods and condoms to college freshmen.
ENSURE DIGNIFIED RETIREMENT
Prevent the privatization of Social Security; expand savings incentives; ensure pension fairness.
READ: Bankrupt our economy to buy votes now; confiscate earnings to pay for people's poor decisions; reduce savings and planning incentives by taxing the hell out of estates and investments in the market; ensure pension fairness by allowing our union thugs, er, constituents to negotiate fantastical pensions and then have the American taxpayer foot the bill when the pensions go belly-up.
REQUIRE FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY
Restore the budget discipline of the 1990s that helped eliminate deficits and spur record economic growth.
READ: Restore budget discipline by running away in Iraq; raising taxes; cutting military funding in half; raising taxes; enciting class warfare; raising taxes; creating another economic bubble like the dotcoms; raising taxes; sitting by and allowing scandals like Enron, Worldcom and Tyco to build; raising taxes; mentioning Herbert Hoover as much as possible and, oh and raising taxes.
THE WRONG DIRECTION
The Bush Administration and the Republican Majority in Congress have taken the country in the wrong direction for Americans and their families by:
- Saving our economy from the Kyoto Protocol.
- Saving our economy from the Clinton/dotcom recession by cutting taxes on investment and saving.
- Keeping the economy strong after the Clinton era corruption by Worldcom, Tyco and Enron.
- Keeping the economy strong after 9/11.
- Defeating the Taliban.
- Defeating Iraq's army and taking Baghdad in three weeks.
- Tort reform.
- Capturing Saddam Hussein and killing his evil, demonic sons.
- Putting 2 strict constructionist judges on SCOTUS.
- Reshaping the federal judiciary.
- Defeating al-Zarqawi.
- Five years without a terrorist attack.
- Defeating John Kerry.
- Opening Club Gitmo
- Trying to save social security through sound economic and free market principles
I have to quite my lunch break, please feel free to add to the successes of this administration and congress over the last five years.
Posted by Aaron at 01:11 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
These folks expectations are absolutely obscene!
What on earth is wrong with people??? It's called a disaster.
The first nasty surprise for Paul and Julie Arsenault came on Mother's Day, as the couple helplessly watched flood waters from the nearby Ipswich River seep into the sprawling 4,700-square-foot Colonial they share with Julie's mother in Middleton. By day's end, the entire first floor was covered with nearly 2 feet of water.
The second surprise came in the mail late last week, when the Federal Emergency Management Agency made good on its promise to send aid. The family got a check for $5,400 -- the maximum repair grant. The trouble is, they've sustained about $85,000 in losses, and no local or state agency, or even their insurance company, has offered any further compensation.
``We were shocked," said Paul Arsenault, 37. ``We thought `FEMA is coming, they're going to save us,' but we didn't get a thing. Our home is in my mother-in-law's name. She got the check. My wife and I, we were told we're ineligible for any aid."
According to Arsenault, ``that $5,400 is supposed to help with home repairs -- the floors, the heating system, and the air conditioning unit -- but $5,400 doesn't cover all of that. It might cover the air conditioning, but how do I pay for everything else? It's very frustrating."
Try asking your bank for a loan, try asking your church and family members for assistance or get a second and third job. In the end, you might have to sell your house and move into a one bedroom apartment, folks. You're Americans, you're alive, you have jobs and you have each other.
Posted by Aaron at 10:29 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
Call them out
The method of fleecing America is failing and they hate it:
In spite of the many serious problems we have just discussed, what is the United States Senate going to debate this week?
A new energy policy? NO.
Will we debate the raging war in Iraq? NO.
Will we address our staggering national debt? NO.
Will we address the seriousness of global warming? NO
Will we address the aging of America? NO.
Will we address America’s education dilemma? NO.
Will we address rising crime statistics? NO.
Will we debate our county’s trade imbalance? NO.
Will we debate Stem Cell Research? NO.
But what we will spend most of the week on is a constitutional amendment that will fail by a large margin, a constitutional amendment on Same Sex Marriage—an effort that failed to pick up a simple majority, when we recently voted on it. Remember, an Amendment to our Constitution requires 67 votes. Harry Reid, D-Nevada
And when there is a debate? Well...
Democrats in the House are divided over whether to boycott a debate and vote on the war in Iraq that Republicans have scheduled for today.
Stymied by their inability to offer amendments to the Republican-drafted resolution supporting President George W. Bush's conduct of the war in Iraq, Democrats such as House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, Rep. Louise Slaughter and Rep. Neil Abercrombie are considering a walkout.
...Faced with mounting criticism in Congress and dropping public support for the war, the White House has tried to gain momentum on the war this week. Buoyed by the killing of Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Bush held a retreat at Camp David, Md., with his war cabinet Monday, made a surprise visit to Baghdad on Tuesday and held an upbeat news conference Wednesday.
Rather than engage in what they consider to be a politically disadvantageous debate over Iraq, Abercrombie said he's asking Democrats to assemble on the Capitol steps to protest.
Hoyer, the No. 2 Democrat in the House, and Slaughter, the senior Democrat on the House Rules Committee, said Democrats may boycott the debate.
Posted by Aaron at 09:24 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
And where was Kanye West?
Here is a good role model:
On Monday, the R&B megastar walked through storm-damaged neighborhoods in New Orleans. Tuesday, he helped volunteers clean up overgrown vines at an area high school.
''I'm here to physically do something and hopefully motivate other people to do the same,'' said the U Got It Bad singer.
I want to know what Kanye West has done since alerting everyone to the fact that Bush hates black people.
UPDATE: I was right; he is a good role model. I just found this gem:
R+B hunk USHER is the latest star to attack KANYE WEST over comments he made at an all-star Hurricane Katrina fundraiser a week ago (02SEP05).
The YEAH! singer claims the rapper was wrong to point the finger of blame at President GEORGE W BUSH, who he accused of being a racist, during the telethon.
And the R+B star, who will be among performers appearing on an MTV telethon tonight (10SEP05), states, "I wasn't mad at Kanye's statement - that's his opinion - but it's obviously not the opportunity or the time to poke fun or appoint blame.
Posted by Aaron at 07:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack