Thursday - February 15, 2007
Help Wanted
Do you want a chance to harass Congress-critters and help make sure they’re doing what we pay them to do? Now’s your chance and all it will take is a few minutes of your time on the web.
I registered this blog with the Sunlight Foundation last year, shortly after they went live. It seemed like an idea whose time had come, namely let’s shine a little daylight on Congress and and expose the crooks and slackers. They’re doing such a good job that they were recently featured and interviewed on FOX NEWS.
I still think it’s a good idea and I urge you to trot on over there (see links below) and sign up. They’ll provide you with a flashlight - all you have to do is go shine it on a Congress-critter’s website and evaluate whether the wankers in DC are actually doing anything or just blowing smoke (at our expense). Now git on over there ...
The Sunlight Foundation Wants You To Research Congressional Web Sites!
The Sunlight Foundation is launching a new citizen journalism project. This distributed research project asks you to dig through the official, taxpayer-funded Web site of a member of Congress, and help determine those that act as genuine tools for transparency.
We’re asking questions in three broad areas: do they provide access to basic information on what they do in Congress (the bills they sponsor, the committees they serve on); do they provide information from or access to any of the legally-required disclosures they have to file (on personal finances or junkets they take), and do they provide any additional information that furthers transparency (their daily schedule, lists of earmarks they’ve asked for or gotten).
We’re asking you to help us determine whether a member’s Web site, by furthering transparency, serves the interests of the citizens who pay for it. The findings will be used to highlight the best practices and to develop a set of transparency standards for sites of members to meet.
The project may take you ten minutes or longer, depending on the size and complexity of the Web site you’re looking at.
To get started, click here: http://www.sunlightlabs.com/research/sites/
Thanks so much for your interest in Sunlight, and good hunting!
Banking Games
Republicans in Congress finally decided to go after Bank Of America for their new Illegal Alien Credit Card™ program ("Don’t leave su casa without it!") and guess who’s leading the charge? If you guessed Tom Tancredo (who pisses off Muslim Congressmen by smoking cigars in his office), then your’re right. All in favor of Tancredo for President in 2008, raise your hand!
For the record, I know why BOA is doing this ... greed, pure and simple. You see, I once had an account with the bastards and I closed it for various reasons: (1) they told me there would be no monthly checking fee - then, after I took a contract with a company that didn’t do direct deposit I found out about BOA’s fine print which says there is no monthly fee AS LONG AS YOUR PAY IS DEPOSITED ELECTRONICALLY, otherwise its’ $14 per month; (2) they offered me a Visa credit card that could be tied to my checking account to cover overdrafts - at 23.9% interest AND a $30 charge any time an overdraft was covered by the card; (3) any check that you deposit that is not from your local Bank Of America is automatically held for FIVE DAYS before your account is credited with it - I deposited a paycheck drawn on Bank Of America in Virginia, where my employer’s corporate offices were, into my Bank Of America account in St. Louis and even though it was another BOA branch they STILL held up crediting my account for nearly a week - DURING WHICH TIME THEY WERE DRAWING INTEREST ON THE MONEY. I finally told them to shove it, closed all my accounts and will never do business with them again. Period.
You see, in days gone by banks used to make a profit based on the difference between the interest they charged on loans and the interest they paid on savings. If they made a million in interest on loans and mortgages and paid out half a million in interest on savings accounts and CD’s then they made half a million profit. That wasn’t good enough - starting about 20 years ago they started raising monthly fees and overdraft charges, increased finance charges on credit cards, hidden charges here, there and everywhere as well as earning interest on delayed deposits. They have reached into every loophole on the books to increase profits, which all goes to the fat cats in charge at the top. Banks have always paid their help (tellers, bookkeepers, etc.) the lowest wages they could get away with - that hasn’t changed. Where does all this increased profit go? I’d like someone in Congress to look into that.
As for the Illegal Alien Credit Card program, you can bet there will be a $500 limit, which will probably have to be secured by a $500 deposit in a savings account which will pay 1.9% interest and the Mess-cans will be charged 28.9% interest plus various unspecified finance charges each month. In addition, BOA will move the statement date around and mail out statements only a few days before the due date to confuse the credit card user and cause late fees and other charges.
I know all their tricks. I’ve seen them used - on me and others. Bank Of America isn’t doing the illegal aliens any favors - which they will soon find out. My guess is BOA has to find a new market because most American citizens are on to their trickery and won’t do business with them. That means dropping profits - so it’s time to go scalp a few Mexicans. If Congress really wants to do something right (for a change) they need to kick out the lobbyists from the banking industry and open hearings into bank fraud in this country. Drag a few CEO’s in from Bank Of America, CitiBank, Bank One and a few others and rake them across the coals. If they did that, I might begin to think our Congresscritters are actually on our side - for a change.
GOP Lawmakers Peeved at New Bank of America Credit Card Program
WASHINGTON (FOX NEWS) - Thursday, February 15, 2007
Lawmakers are lashing out at Bank of America Corp. over its new program to offer credit cards to customers without Social Security numbers, saying it creates a dangerous loophole for terrorists and illegal immigrants.
Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., called for a federal investigation of the program on Wednesday, sending Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff a letter requesting a review of the program.
“After September 11, we were told that money was the lifeblood of terrorists, and that we should do everything possible to block their access to financial resources,” Tancredo said in a statement. “Today we are hearing a far different message: Bank of America, it’s everywhere terrorists want to be.”
The program welcomes applicants without a Social Security number and credit history if they have held a checking account with the bank for three months without an overdraft, The Wall Street Journal first reported in Tuesday editions.
Another Republican lawmaker criticized the program, saying it should be stopped to avoid security risks with illegal immigrant members of the program. “If an individual wants to get a credit card, they can get that in their home country,” Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., told FOX News.
“This is something that is of deep concern to me, that Bank of America would choose to market to those that have chosen to break U.S. law to enter this country and then they would give credit to them,” Blackburn said.
Bank of America stands by its program, saying that it complies with all U.S. banking and anti-terrorism laws. Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., said a loophole in a Treasury regulation allows Bank of America to act within the law. The program was tested last year at five Bank of America branches in Los Angeles. It was expanded to 51 branches in Los Angeles County last week.
- More ...
on 02/15/2007 at 01:47 PM
Corruption and Greed • Illegal-Aliens and Immigration • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink
Motivational Poster Of The Day
Quote Of The Day
“Did I hear you say you killed some cancer?”
-- Laboratory colleague of Katherine Shaefer of the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York, who accidentally over-mixed a compound called a PPAR-gamma modulator which then proceeded to destroy every cancer cell in sight in the lab. The researchers will test the new compound for safety as soon as they can grow and culture some more cancer cells for testing. (MSNBC NEWS)
Ann Does Obama
Go grab a cup of coffee and sit back while our gal Ann examines Obama-Rama-Ding-Dong (Sha-Na-Na) ... 
Jonathan Livingston Obama
-- by Ann Coulter
(HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE) - 02/14/2007
In announcing his candidacy last week, Obama confirmed that he believes in “the basic decency of the American people.” And let the chips fall where they may! Obama forthrightly decried “a smallness of our politics”—deftly slipping a sword into the sides of the smallness-in-politics advocates. (To his credit, he somehow avoided saying, “My fellow Americans, size does matter.")
He took a strong stand against the anti-hope crowd, saying: “There are those who don’t believe in talking about hope.” Take that, Hillary! Most weirdly, he said: “I recognize there is a certain presumptuousness in this—a certain audacity—to this announcement.”
What is so audacious about announcing that you’re running for president? Any idiot can run for president. Dennis Kucinich is running for president. Until he was imprisoned, Lyndon LaRouche used to run for president constantly. John Kerry ran for president. Today, all you have to do is suggest a date by which U.S. forces in Iraq should surrender, and you’re officially a Democratic candidate for president.
Obama made his announcement surrounded by hundreds of adoring Democratic voters. And those were just the reporters. There were about 400 more reporters at Obama’s announcement than Mitt Romney’s, who, by the way, is more likely to be sworn in as our next president than B. Hussein Obama.
Obama has locked up the Hollywood money. Even Miss America has endorsed Obama. (John “Two Americas” Edwards is still hoping for the other Miss America to endorse him.) But Obama tells us he’s brave for announcing that he’s running for president. And if life gives you lemons, make lemonade!
I don’t want to say that Obama didn’t say anything in his announcement, but afterward, even Jesse Jackson was asking, “What did he say?” There was one refreshing aspect to Obama’s announcement: It was nice to see a man call a press conference this week to announce something other than he was the father of Anna Nicole Smith’s baby.
Glowbull Warming Daily Briefing
Yes, it’s February - a month which typically contains what we call “winter”. Sadly, the picture below is not from Maine or Minnesota - it’s from Washington, DC. The glaciers are advancing southward and are thankful for Al Gore, who is doing a wonderful job of distracting mankind while the next Ice Age sneaks up on us. As I sit here in St. Louis writing this, everything is frozen and covered in snow outside and the thermometer says it is 9°F outside. Cold enough for ya ... ?
Snowstorm Closes Schools, Snarls Travel
NEW YORK (ABC NEWS) - Feb 15, 2007
Blowing snow and sleet glazed windshields and roads across the Northeast and the Midwest on Wednesday, messing up Valentine’s Day flower deliveries and wrecking couples’ plans for romantic dinners. The storm grounded hundreds of flights and forced the closing of schools and businesses from Kentucky to Maine. Many of those stuck at home had no heat or lights because of blackouts that affected more than a quarter-million customers.
“I’m just trying to figure out where to take my wife for Valentine’s Day,” said Skip Daniels, the emergency management director in Sussex County, N.J. At least 13 deaths were blamed on the huge storm system.
Blizzard warnings were posted for parts of New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Maine, where as much as 2 feet of snow was possible. Some areas reported more than 3 feet. There were hundreds of accidents. The Ohio State Highway Patrol alone handled more than 1,200, but there were few injuries because most vehicle were moving slowly, Sgt. Brett Gockstetter said.
The storm’s cold, snow, sleet and rain made life difficult for Valentine’s Day messengers. “Cold. Slippery. Nobody has their sidewalks sanded,” said Caroline Roggero at Rose Petal Florist in Newport, R.I. “They all want their delivery today.” The storm was a convenient excuse for husbands and boyfriends who forgot to send flowers.
Some delivery drivers got stuck on the roads. Flowers delivered to offices were turned away because the businesses were closed. And customers had to change their orders to have flowers delivered to homes instead of places of work.
Follow-Up
Well ... she’s free to pursue her modeling career now, provided the National Guard allows her to “resign” ...
Air Force Strips Playboy Poser of Status
SAN ANTONIO (AP) - February 15, 2007, 2:13 AM EST
“I’m disappointed in our system,” Manhart told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “They went too far with it.” Manhart said that she was reverted to her Air National Guard status and that she submitted a “resignation” to the Guard, which she said is pending. Manhart was a member of the Iowa Air National Guard before going on extended active duty.
Oscar Balladares, a spokesman for Lackland Air Force Base, confirmed that Manhart was removed from extended active duty Friday but said Lackland did not discharge her.
“She was removed from active duty status, and thus reverted to National Guard status,” Balladares said. “It is not up to the Air Force—it is not our jurisdiction to discharge her.”
Lt. Col. Greg Hapgood, a spokesman for the Iowa National Guard, said that because the Guard did not have “documentation of her separation” from the Air Force, it did not have her on duty status.
Manhart, a 30-year-old mother of two, said the military’s action against her hinged on the fact that she was pictured wearing her uniform. She was photographed in uniform yelling and holding weapons under the headline “Tough Love.” The following pages showed her partially clothed wearing dog tags and fully nude. After the pictorial hit newsstands in January, Manhart was relieved of her duties pending an investigation.
Border Wars
Meanwhile, down on our Southern border the Mess-cans are throwing rocks at our border patrol agents. I guess they heard that all you have to do is harass our agents until they shoot at you, then you can get the agent arrested and sue the US for millions to boot. How much longer is this screwed-up mess going to go on?
You know ... if we gave our border patrol agents orders to “shoot to kill” and looked the other way, it wouldn’t be long before our neighbors to the South got the hint and left us alone. It worked in 1848. The Mess-cans just need a refresher course in international relations.
Border Patrol Agent Shoots at Immigrants
EL PASO, Texas (AP) - February 15, 2007, 12:00 AM EST
Border Patrol officials are investigating a shooting at the Mexican border that involved one of their agents. Doug Mosier, a spokesman for the Border Patrol’s El Paso Sector, said an agent fired at least one shot at a group of would-be immigrants Tuesday night during a confrontation along the border near downtown El Paso.
The agent fired at least one shot after some of the immigrants began throwing rocks at him, narrowly missing the agent’s head, Mosier said. The immigrants ran from the border after the agent fired. Border Patrol officials do not believe anyone was injured, Mosier said.
The shooting is under investigation, though Mosier said initial reports show the agent fired in self-defense. Last month a Border Patrol agent shot and killed a Mexican national in Arizona, drawing criticism from Mexico’s president. The Border Patrol has said the agent thought his life was in danger and placed him on paid administrative leave.
on 02/15/2007 at 03:39 AM
Illegal-Aliens and Immigration • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink
Mheh-heh
Michael Ramirez - Investors Business Daily
on 02/15/2007 at 03:32 AM
Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink
Wednesday - February 14, 2007
Through The Looking Glass
“Io: The Prometheus Plume”
What’s happening on Jupiter’s moon Io? Two sulfurous eruptions are visible on Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io in this color composite image from the robotic Galileo spacecraft that orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 2003. At the image top, over Io’s limb, a bluish plume rises about 140 kilometers above the surface of a volcanic caldera known as Pillan Patera.
In the image middle, near the night/day shadow line, the ring shaped Prometheus plume is seen rising about 75 kilometers above Io while casting a shadow below the volcanic vent. Named for the Greek god who gave mortals fire, the Prometheus plume is visible in every image ever made of the region dating back to the Voyager flybys of 1979 - presenting the possibility that this plume has been continuously active for at least 18 years. The above digitally sharpened image was originally recorded in 1997 on June 28 from a distance of about 600,000 kilometers.
-- Astronomy Picture Of The Day
Lost!
HELP! I’m about 3,000 feet above the runway of one of the largest USAF bases I’ve ever seen. We’re somewhere in the Far East. All I know is we’re not over any secret bases in Tibet. The Skipper tells me he has flown into this base several times and absolutely loved visiting there. I sure hope he’s right. I just wish he’d tell me where in heck I am. I’ve got a load of snakes on this plane (why would anybody in their right mind ship snakes on a plane?) and I’d sure like to get this crate on the ground FAST! Can you help me? Hssssssss. Down, boy!
(Click image for larger 1060x920 in popup window)
(Photo from Google Earth Desktop)
Glowbull Warming Daily Briefing
The enviroweenies have now decided to go after Valentines Day - and flowers. Yes, it seems it costs too much carbon being pushed into the atmosphere by freight planes flying in flowers from all those tropical Third World countries south of the Equator. They want us guys to switch to chocolates or some other such drivel in order to save the planet.
What they fail to recognize is that our poor neighbors in Africa are already starving - and now they want to take away a source of revenue? Hmmm. Tough choice here. Should we continue to heat up the planet 1/10,000th of a degree per year or should we just let all those starving kids in Africa expire? I vote for the kids. Have a rose on me, Mr. Gore!
Valentine Bouquets Are Bad For The Planet
LONDON (TELEGRAPH-UK) - 1:53am GMT 10/02/2007
In the past three years, the amount of flowers imported from the Netherlands has fallen by 47 per cent to 94,000 tons, while those from Africa have risen 39 per cent to 17,000 tons. Environmentalists warned that “flower miles” could have serious implications on climate change in terms of carbon dioxide emissions from aeroplanes.
Andrew Sims, the policy director of the New Economics Foundation, said: “There are plenty of flowers that grow in Britain in the winter and don’t need to be hothoused. Air freighting flowers half way round the world contributes to global warming. You can argue the planes would be flying anyway but the amount of greenhouse gases pumped out depends on the weight of the cargo.”
Vicky Hird, of Friends of the Earth, said: “We don’t want to be killjoys because receiving flowers can be lovely but why not grow your own gift?” The figures also revealed that imports of roses from Ethiopia have grown from zero to 130 tons a year since 2003. Kenya is the second biggest exporter of flowers after the Netherlands, followed by Colombia and Spain.
In total, Britain imports more than £315 million of flowers, with the typical Briton spending £39 a year on them. “That’s very little when you think what we spend on CDs, coffee and even lipstick,” said a spokesman for the Flowers and Plants Association. He said the boom in Third World flowers would help poorer countries to build schools and boost the economy.
Absolute Stupidest Headline Of All Time
See those two gentlemen in the picture below? That is “Hinky Dink” Kenna & “Bathhouse” John Coughlin. They ruled Chicago back when dinosaurs ruled the Earth. They also helped establish corrupt politics as Chicago’s #1 livelihood. They started the old “vote early and vote often” and “raising the dead on election day” drama that the Daleys inherited.
So how can any reporter (or anyone older than 12) be surprised that “graft is #1 in Chicago?” DUH!
Graft Is Issue No. 1 in Chicago Election
CHICAGO (AP) - February 14, 2007, 2:12 PM EST
“At this juncture, people just shrug it off as more Chicago,” said longtime political consultant Don Rose. At the top of the Feb. 27 ballot is Mayor Richard M. Daley, who is running for a sixth term amid a corruption investigation.
Federal officials have nailed dozens of people, including Daley’s former patronage chief and a former city clerk, in an investigation that started with bribes paid to city officials for trucking work and expanded into a broad look at City Hall hiring practices. The mayor has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
Daley blames the wrongdoing on a “few bad apples” and is expected to sail to re-election against two lesser-known political figures who have tried to make an issue of the corruption. He said in December that he has taken responsibility for rooting out corruption, retooling Chicago’s hiring system and limiting fundraising. “So far, sure, I think I’ve done enough,” he said.
If he is re-elected and serves the full four-year term, he would eclipse his father, the legendary Richard J. Daley, as Chicago’s longest-serving mayor. The elder Daley served for 21 years and died in office. Daley has largely been able to brush off corruption questions, instead focusing on improvements in schools, city development and success in lowering crime.
He also got a break when two congressmen who had been considering running for mayor, Jesse Jackson Jr. and Luis Gutierrez, decided against it after the Democrats took control of the House in the November elections.
As for the City Council candidates, Alderman Arenda Troutman, who represents a ward on the South Side, was charged in January with taking a $5,000 payoff to help a bogus developer move forward on a building project. Federal agents had to break a window at her home to arrest her after she refused to let them inside.
Troutman, who has asserted her innocence, does not have to resign her seat while she deals with the charges, but would lose it if convicted. She faces two challengers. “I have been an upstanding alderman for 17 years,” she said after her arrest. She was appointed by Daley in 1990 to fill a vacancy on the council, whose members make $98,125 a year.
Meanwhile, four former aldermen who were convicted of graft want their old jobs back. Three of them—Ambrosio Medrano, Virgil Jones and Percy Giles—were snared in the federal government’s Operation Silver Shovel investigation in the 1990s. The fourth, Wallace Davis Jr., was convicted of taking bribes and extortion in a separate federal probe in the 1980s.
El Cabeza Gorda
How can you tell if you’re living in a dictatorship? Well, the first sign is when people aren’t allowed to poke fun at fearless leader (El Cabeza Gorda). Forget about using the Jews or gypsies or homosexuals as a warning sign. The comedians are always the first ones to be shipped off to re-education camps.
Now here in the Land Of The Free where nothing is sacrosanct we can poke fun at Dubya all day long. We can even make fun of fearless leader’s kids if we want to (especially if they’re caught buying booze in Austin bars while underage).
Not so in banana republics where the supreme dignity of El Presidente is above any such foolishness and will absolutely not be tolerated under any circumstances whatsoever. Comics have been known to mysteriously disappear.
Take Venzuela, for instance ....
Court Fines Venezuelan Comedian Marquez
CARACAS, Venezuela - February 14, 2007, 4:23 AM EST
But Marquez and a publishing company that printed the column in the Tal Cual newspaper are now facing fines imposed by a local court for “violating the honor, reputation and private life” of Rosines Chavez Rodriguez, Chavez’s youngest daughter.
Marquez—one of Venezuela’s leading humorists—denies any wrongdoing and argues the $18,600 fine imposed on the Mosca Analfabeta publisher is part of a government initiative in which pro-Chavez prosecutors and judges are being used to silence critics. Marquez must separately pay a fine of a yet-to-be-determined amount.
“I think this government has a concept of society in terms of friends and enemies,” Marquez said in a telephone interview. “Governments that see society like that are very sensitive to criticism, and they don’t tolerate it.” Chavez, a former paratrooper who accuses Venezuela’s privately-owned media of conspiring to topple his government, denies restricting press freedoms.
Marquez insists he meant no harm when he used 9-year-old Rosines as a medium for mocking her father’s decision in 2005 to remake Venezuela’s coat of arms so that a white horse would appear galloping left, not right—an evident metaphor for Chavez’s revolutionary politics.
During a broadcast of his radio and television show, “Hello President,” Chavez told listeners that Rosines said the horse looked strange running to the right while craning its neck in the opposite direction. Within weeks, pro-Chavez lawmakers pushed through a reform changing the coat of arms.
“He considered changing the coat-of-arms due to a suggestion from his daughter,” Marquez said. “I simply wrote her a letter asking her to request another series of changes.” In the editorial, he suggested she ask her father to trade the horse on the new coat of arms for a devoted house pet, such as a Golden Retriever or tortoise—“a good symbol of our sluggishness in everything.”
“Also tell him not to talk about things beyond 2021,” Marquez wrote. “He shouldn’t do it because those of us who don’t agree with him (don’t worry, there are fewer of us every day, according to the official statistics) get desperate, which isn’t good.” Chavez has repeatedly said he wants to continue governing Venezuela until 2021 or longer.
Representatives of the National Council for the Protection of Children and Adolescents urged prosecutors to file charges against Marquez and the publisher, Mosca Analfabeta, justifying the measures as necessary to shield a child from politics-related slander. The council did not ask that Marquez also be prosecuted on criminal charges. “They saw there was a violation of the girl’s rights, so they took measures,” said Antonio Ramos, who heads the council in central Lara state, where Rosines resides.
Motivational Poster Of The Day
The Bear Facts For Valentines Day
OK, gentlemen! It’s Valentine’s Day and I hope you haven’t forgotten to get a little something for your special lady. If not, then the phrase “get a little” will not apply to your love life for some time. Comprende?
Now, what are you going to get your little gal? Well, the trend in recent years has drifted away from chocolates and flowers and into the bear arena. Don’t ask me why - I just work here.
Now if you’re one of those metrosexual, namby-pamby, sensitive, Alan Alda type guys then you should skip on over to Vermont Teddy Bears and choose one of the lovely little specimens below for your lover.
However, for you real men out there (Yes, YOU!) there is an alternative bear to charm your little sweet pea. Now I’m only talking to the real, butt-scratching, beer-drinking, hairy-chested MEN out there. Odds are that your lover has more class than the kind of gal who falls for Mr. Sensitive. For that special gal there is only one kind of bear. Look under the fold (click CONTINUE READING) and order yours today. She’ll never forget you or this day ...
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