The Attack Machine is for anyone who likes discussing current events, politics or anything else that jumps in your mind.
This site is run by Dale Jackson, a talk show host at News/Talk 770AM/92.5 FM WVNN in Huntsville, Alabama. You can listen to his show by clicking here.
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The new mayors of Huntsville and Madison decide to "bury the hatchet," they then show us why government doesn't work.
Lame promises:
Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle said that $1 will help pay for a joint road project between the cities. He didn't want say which road - just yet.
It's a friggin dollar.
Inaction:
Battle said a date for a ceremonial burial of the hatchet between Madison County's two largest cities will be set when all the plans are in place for the project.
"It won't be next week, but it won't be a year from now, either," Finley said.
How long have they been planning this?
How many days of cutesy PR coverage are they gonna get out of this.
These guys may be politicians after all.
I think I may steal the hatchet after they bury it.
Alabama Republicans need to jump on eliminating the state's grocery tax, but they need to do it the right way.
The fight to eliminate the state's sales tax on groceries was renewed Thursday when the powerful Democratic leadership of the Alabama House of Representatives pledged to make the issue its top priority.
Looming behind that pledge is the specter of all-out combat between the House, which has supported elimination of the 4 percent tax, and the state Senate, where support for the measure always has fallen short.
Thursday's announcement - by, among others, Speaker of the House Seth Hammett and House Majority Leader Ken Guin - marks the first time the House Democratic Caucus has singled out one piece of legislation as a No. 1 priority.
Now all of this sounds good and well, BUT the gameplan is flawed.
Removing the sales tax on food is estimated to save consumers about $320 million a year. Knight's bill would make up the revenue loss by ending taxpayers' ability to deduct federal taxes paid from their state income taxes, which would raise an estimated $345 million.
345 > 320
This is not a tax cut, it is a tax increase. Got it?
There is a risk of doing nothing...
Emotions surrounding the fight to eliminate the tax ran so high toward the end of last year's legislative session that some members of the Legislative Black Caucus talked about blocking virtually every bill until the tax issue was dealt with.
Please. Do this.
Obama citizenship question goes before the Supreme Court... sort of.
A case that challenges President-elect Barack Obama's name on the 2008 election ballot citing questions over his citizenship has been scheduled for a "conference" at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Conferences are private meetings of the justices at which they review cases and decide which ones to accept for formal review. This case is set for a conference Dec. 5, just 10 days before the Electoral College is scheduled to meet to make formal the election of Obama as the nation's next president.
The Supreme Court's website listed the date for the case brought by Leo C. Donofrio against Nina Wells, the Secretary of State in New Jersey, over not only Obama's name on the 2008 election ballot but those of two others, Sen. John McCain and Roger Calero.
Do you understand the chaos we would see if Obama was ruled ineligible?
Virginia – Monacan High teacher Stephen Murmer posted pictures of what he called "butt art" on YouTube in January 2007. He painted his buttocks and genitals and pressed them onto canvas. Many students saw his painting before the school fired him. He then contacted the ACLU and sued the district, saying it violated his First Amendment rights. Murmer reached a $65,000 settlement with the district.A kindergarten teacher from Prince William County, Va., posted a video of a half-nude man having an orgasm in the shower, the Washington Post reported. Another Prince William County substitute teacher used MySpace to post photos of a woman lifting her dress, showing lingerie and flashing breasts.
Florida – Band director Scott Davis of Broward County posted explicit material about sex and drugs on his MySpace profile. He was later dismissed by the school.Also Florida middle-school teacher John Bush was fired from his position after officials discovered "offensive" and "unacceptable" photos on MySpace.Palm Beach County, Fla., kindergarten teacher Meghan Buckley posted photos on Facebook of herself drinking and having a friend spank her buttocks, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported. Special-education teacher Andrew Summerlin, also of Palm Beach County, described himself as "super horny" and an "A++" in bed.
Colorado – An English teacher was fired for posting explicit sexual poetry on MySpace.
Tennessee – Nashville teacher Margaret Thompson posted "racy pictures" on her MySpace profile.
Massachusetts – Teacher Keath Driscoll referred to women as "whores" and posted photographs of alcohol consumption and "sexually suggestive" pictures. He was originally fired, but the Massachusetts Teachers Association sued. Driscoll received his job back, with back pay, seniority and benefits.
MySpace will destroy theplanet.
Democrats get their head handed to them on the bailout, so after they stop complaining about private jets they demand automakers lay out a plan for recovery.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, "Until they show us the plan, we cannot show them the money." General Motors, Ford and Chrysler quickly issued statements promising to submit what was demanded of them.
The only answer is Chapter 11 and new worker deals, but they fear no one will buy a car from a company in bankruptcy.
And remember this is not an argument about whether to bailout or not... it is about where the money should come from.
The Democrats' had proposed providing $25 billion for an auto industry bailout from the $700 billion approved in October to rescue Wall Street. President Bush and congressional Republicans were opposed to that, saying the money should instead come from diverting a $25 billion program approved in September to help automakers produce greener vehicles. The Democrats said no to that.
Brenda Martin, customer services coordinator for the city, was named to the newly created position of multicultural affairs officer. Martin retains her merit position and will be charged with setting up neighborhood associations and recommending citywide policies on diversity and multicultural awareness in appointment decisions, city marketing efforts and community events. Battle wants better dialogue with neighborhoods on decisions that can affect them.
Huntsville City Councilman Will Culver says when he took office he wouldn't forget former Councilman Glenn Watson's efforts in regulating cell phone use while driving.
Culver says he supports the proposed ordinance, and during Thursday night's city council meeting he presented the ordinance again.
"I think there have been a substantial amount of accidents that can be directly attributed to cell phone use," said Culver.
Culver says he wants to do what's necessary to prevent more accidents from happening.
The councilman points out he's concerned about portions of the proposed ordinance in the way it was written including penalties.
Culver believes a driver who violates the ordinance should only be fined.
They tricked you, they dangled the jail time, then removed it in order to get you to buy into it. (I fell for it)
By the way Councilman Culver, back up this claim:
"I think there have been a substantial amount of accidents that can be directly attributed to cell phone use," said Culver.
U.S. economic and political clout will decline over the next two decades and the world will be more dangerous, with food and water scarce and advanced weapons plentiful, U.S. spy agencies projected on Thursday.
The National Intelligence Council analysis "Global Trends 2025" also said the current financial crisis on Wall Street is just the first phase of a global economic reordering.
The U.S. dollar's role as the world's major currency would weaken to become a "first among equals," the report said.
The outlook is intended to inform U.S. President-elect Barack Obama of factors that will influence global events. It is based on a year-long global survey of experts and trends by U.S. intelligence analysts.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage-finance companies seized by the U.S. government, will suspend foreclosures and evictions over the holidays.
The six-week halt will begin Nov. 26, a day before the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, and last through Jan. 9, the companies said in separate statements today. The hiatus is designed to give servicers more time to implement a streamlined loan modification program for struggling borrowers.
“It’s a giant time out,” Paul Miller, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets in Arlington, Virginia, said today in a Bloomberg Television interview. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see this across the board.”
I am willing to bet money these same idiots who are in foreclosure will now spend big bucks on Christmas.
If you ever questioned whether or not this "Big 3" bailout was really a bailout for the "Big 4" (Chrysler, GM, Ford AND the UAW) then you need to listen to this.
The jist of the story is that the 25 billion proposed now will not be even close to enough to save the industry and that in March they are in line for more money.
Part of Rep. Barney Frank's talking points is that their is a bias in the bailout. The bias is in favor of white collar" workers over blue collar workers. In order to but this you would have to ignore the fact that the auto industry as set up is not viable.
Well, [insurance company] AIG, which I don't think anyone would think was as important to the American economy as the auto industry ... got $40 billion just now to make it up over $100 billion. To some extent, let's not have a white-collar/blue-collar bias in our public policy. You know, those who say, hey, go bankrupt so you can cut back on what the unions have won — the unions have already made some concessions. But, you know, we've had enough anti-union activity, and enough increase in income inequality in this country. I don't want to set a precedent that bankruptcy now is a way in which you undo what gains unions have been able to hold on to.
Frank want the unions to stay exactly where they are today even after a bailout.
Where are they? Standing on the throats of their own industry.
Frank doesn't care, he thinks there is plenty of money around to bailout the unions IF we end the war in Iraq.
Well, there would be, especially if we'd end the Iraq war. I'm always struck when I'm asked to defend spending that people just take the Iraq war and the enormous defense spending as a given. We have a new president coming in, and I believe he will have the opportunity to save, frankly, almost as much as the $700 billion over the past few years by putting an end to the Iraq war. This is a wealthy country. If we spend things well, we can spend them. But I'm not prepared to say, "You know what? Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of billions for a war that we never should have been in, but we don't save an important industry and protect workers from having gains that they fought hard for taken away."
Read the last part again...
protect workers from having gains that they fought hard for taken away
Unfortunately. those gains have made the industry uncompetitive and unless they change the industry will die, bailout or not. The Democrats clearly are looking to reward union voters for their support, not with public policy they favor, but with your money.
Start referring to this as a bailout for the "Big 4" because that is what it is.
Although Alabama automakers might benefit if Detroit's Big Three go bankrupt, a lobby group representing foreign automakers said Tuesday it's not pushing to kill a proposed $25 billion bailout plan for the American companies.
But experts are divided whether failure of the Big Three would boost foreign auto production in the U.S. or eventually lead to more competitive U.S. firms.
Roughly 13,000 people are employed at Alabama's three assembly plants for Honda, Hyundai and Mercedes-Benz. And the number of auto industry jobs in Alabama has more than doubled to nearly 50,000 since 2001, according to the Alabama Automotive Manufacturers Association.
Sen. Richard Shelby, who represents a state with 134,000 people who help build cars for Asian and European companies, was unpersuaded Tuesday when American auto executives asked Congress for emergency financial aid to stay afloat.
In the end it may not matter since the Senate decided not to vote on it.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., scrapped plans Wednesday for a vote on a bill to carve $25 billion in new auto industry loans out of the $700 billion Wall Street rescue fund.
It's really up to Bush's team to act, he said.
"I don't believe we need the legislation," Reid said. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson can tap the financial industry bailout money to help auto companies, Reid said, but "he just doesn't want to do it."
Not our responsibility, countered the White House.
"If Congress leaves for a two-month vacation without having addressed this important issue ... then the Congress will bear responsibility for anything that happens in the next couple of months during their long vacation," said Dana Perino, the White House press secretary.
This is why split government may be a good thing, nobody has the guts to do anything. Awesome.
"The American way to solve this problem is not to depend on the government for a solution," Bachus said. "The government handing them taxpayer money and telling them how to run their business is also not the American way and will only lead to prolonged pain."
"I'm sensing that on both sides of the aisle is the feeling that America is truly in a crisis and that the partisanship that was so bitter in the past is not working for us. We keep hearing that over and over from both sides, and hopefully that feeling will continue into the new session of Congress.
"GM is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy and who knows how far the financial crisis is going to go.
First al.com reports:
Griffith's stance on a Democrat-proposed $25 billion bailout of American automakers would put him on the outs with his party but likely in line with his conservative-leaning district.
"I don't see that we would be placing the (Big Three automakers) in the situation of a permanent fix if we bailed them out as currently proposed," said Griffith, who is replacing longtime District 5 congressman Bud Cramer, who announced his retirement in March.
Then he says...
"It doesn't appear that there have been any fundamental changes in the management or hierarchy. To write a check for $25 billion with no oversight is, to me, just not good business."
Maybe I am wrong but this sounds like hedging to me... but AGAIN in a new Congress they may not need him.
As Republicans sort out the reasons for their defeat, they likely will overlook or dismiss the gorilla in the pulpit.
Three little letters, great big problem: G-O-D.
I'm bathing in holy water as I type.
To be more specific, the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn't soon cometh.
Simply put: Armband religion is killing the Republican Party. And, the truth -- as long as we're setting ourselves free -- is that if one were to eavesdrop on private conversations among the party intelligentsia, one would hear precisely that.
This is BS. The GOP is in the trash can because they lost their way on fiscal conservatism and smaller government.
Faith is still a factor in America.
A poll by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life earlier this year found...
71% of American adults are absolutely certain God -- or some sort of universal spirit -- exists, and a further 17% said they were fairly certain. Only 5% said flatly that they don't believe.
Earlier this month voters approved Amendment One. In the event of proration, Amendment One allows Alabama to borrow more than $440 million from a state savings fund to pay for schools.
But that money has to be paid back over the next six years. And if sales tax revenue doesn't rebound, the education budget could be worse off next fall and with a sizable IOU note.
"The possibility exists that the 2010 budget would be smaller than the 2009 budget," Morton said. "Who knows? We have to be prepared."
--He's a Republican. Not only that, but he's a Republican primary candidate who the rest of the contenders basically hated, mostly for his repeated statements about where the economy was headed (which pretty much were dead on). You've got a win-win for the Obama camp: "Across the aisle" with a guy who's been beaten up by the rest of the Republican establishment. Talking about having your cake and eating it too: Obama would be able to use the terms "Uniter" without becoming a caricature while lobbing a grenade into the middle of the RNC.
--He's a policy guy, not a banker. This is important because Paul wouldn't have any "former associates" in the banking industry to cover for, sympathize with, or protect. Paulson, on the other hand, can't escape the whiff of insider-ism in everything he's doing. Questions like "Why isn't the bailout being used as originally planned?" and "Why can't we get a clear picture of who's getting the money and who's being turned down?" may have a reasonable answer, but the overall tone of Cover-Your-Buddy's-Ass can't be ignored.
A Polk County man won nearly $2 million in the lottery, but Tuesday he was in a court battle over the cash with his estranged wife.
William and Ida Cody have been separated since 1982, but Ida insists they were always on good terms and she even loaned him the money to buy the winning ticket.
She said he promised to share the winnings with her."You didn't say you would be willing to split the jackpot?" William Cody was asked in court."No, I didn't say that to Ida, to nobody," he responded.
Huntsville "tradition" is illegal.
The tree issue went toxic last year when the city faced cleaning up all that blowing and drooping tinsel. The city said then if its crews had to clean up, the practice would be banned this year.
Garden clubs and other volunteers hit the roadside and cleaned up the trees. All of the trees. They hoped that spruce-up would keep the tradition legal, but it didn't.
"My kids did it with their car pools," Ludwig said. "They had already picked out their tree this year."
"My grandchildren loved it," Keller said. "They would say, 'There's our tree.' "
Keller's husband actually took a weed whacker out to trim grass around trees so they'd be more visible. Oops, she said Tuesday. Guess he shouldn't have done that.
Keller understands the goal here. City officials "don't want people hurt."
She knows some people didn't like the displays, either. One man stopped last year and yelled so strongly she was actually scared, Keller said.
"You're breaking the law and it's all trash," he said.
But it made children happy, Keller said, and it brought families together. People would claim their trees with Santa hats and think long and hard about their themes.
Bah humbug.
Hitler only had one testicle!
AN extraordinary account from a German army medic has finally confirmed what the world long suspected: Hitler only had one ball.
War veteran Johan Jambor made the revelation to a priest in the 1960s, who wrote it down.
The priest’s document has now come to light – 23 years after Johan’s death.
The war tyrant’s medical condition has been mocked for years in a British song.
The lyrics are: “Hitler has only got one ball, the other is in the Albert Hall. His mother, the dirty b****r, cut it off when he was small.’
Although Alabama automakers might benefit if Detroit's Big Three go bankrupt, a lobby group representing foreign automakers said Tuesday it's not pushing to kill a proposed $25 billion bailout plan for the American companies.
But experts are divided whether failure of the Big Three would boost foreign auto production in the U.S. or eventually lead to more competitive U.S. firms.
Roughly 13,000 people are employed at Alabama's three assembly plants for Honda, Hyundai and Mercedes-Benz. And the number of auto industry jobs in Alabama has more than doubled to nearly 50,000 since 2001, according to the Alabama Automotive Manufacturers Association.
Sen. Richard Shelby, who represents a state with 134,000 people who help build cars for Asian and European companies, was unpersuaded Tuesday when American auto executives asked Congress for emergency financial aid to stay afloat.
Efforts to get Republicans to join Democrats in approving new bailout loans to the U.S. auto industry appear to have hit a wall—on the eve of two days of hearings in Washington during which Detroit CEOs plan to make their case.
But that doesn't mean help isn't on the way. While congressional leaders and staffers said on Monday, Nov. 17, that a bill which would extend unemployment benefits and include $25 billion in loans carved out of the Wall Street bailout bill passed in October will be too difficult to pass, a combination of loans from another piece of legislation, plus an assist from the incoming Obama Administration, is the auto industry's best hope of staving off ruin.
IF General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.
Does he have a plan?
First, their huge disadvantage in costs relative to foreign brands must be eliminated. That means new labor agreements to align pay and benefits to match those of workers at competitors like BMW, Honda, Nissan and Toyota. Furthermore, retiree benefits must be reduced so that the total burden per auto for domestic makers is not higher than that of foreign producers.
That extra burden is estimated to be more than $2,000 per car. Think what that means: Ford, for example, needs to cut $2,000 worth of features and quality out of its Taurus to compete with Toyota’s Avalon. Of course the Avalon feels like a better product — it has $2,000 more put into it. Considering this disadvantage, Detroit has done a remarkable job of designing and engineering its cars. But if this cost penalty persists, any bailout will only delay the inevitable.
Second, management as is must go. New faces should be recruited from unrelated industries — from companies widely respected for excellence in marketing, innovation, creativity and labor relations.
The new management must work with labor leaders to see that the enmity between labor and management comes to an end. This division is a holdover from the early years of the last century, when unions brought workers job security and better wages and benefits. But as Walter Reuther, the former head of the United Automobile Workers, said to my father, “Getting more and more pay for less and less work is a dead-end street.”
Write-in votes are rather amusing in Jacksonville.
WRITE-IN VOTES FOR PRESIDENT
Votes
234
HILARY CLINTON
174
RON PAUL
23
NONE OF THE ABOVE
23
JESUS
21
MIKE HUCKABEE
14
MITT ROMNEY
8
COLIN POWELL
6
GOD
6
LEFT BLANK
5
UNDECIDED
4
AL GORE
4
BISHOP V.M. MCLAUGHLEN
4
FRED THOMPSON
4
OBAMA
4
RUDY GIULLIANI
4
STEVEN COLBERT
3
DONALD DUCK
3
DONALD FOY
3
MICKEY MOUSE
3
T. BOONE PICKENS
2
BILL COSBY
2
BILL McMILLON
2
BILL NYE
2
CHUCK NORRIS
2
CONDOLEEZA RICE
2
FRANK HARDEN
2
FRANKLIN GRAHAM
2
LOU DOBBS
2
PAGO POSSUM
2
SARAH PALIN
2
SEANATOR BROWNBACK
2
GARY BENZENBERG
2
GEORGE W BUSH
2
JOHN EDWARDS
2
LEE GODDARD
2
TIM TEBOW
Among those getting a single vote: Abstain, Against All, Alfred E. Newman, Bill Clinton, Bill O'Riely, Bill Richardson, Bobby Bowden, Bugs Bunny, May the best man win, Me, Morgan Freeman, Mr. Bill, Newt Gingwrich, None (Anarchy), Oprah, Pat Buchannan, Ralph Nader, Hilary Bush, Homer Simpson, Jay Plotkin, Jimmy Carter, Joe the Plumber, John Doe, Lieberman, Theodore Roosevelt, They Both Suck '08, Tiger Woods, Tommy Chong, Truman, Weird Al Yancovic, William Crosby and Willie Nelson.
Jesus? Ron Paul? Tim Tebow? And my favorite... a third George W. Bush term.
Looks like the school system can not make payroll.
For the second month in a row, Alabama will not be able to make its full payroll for the state's 131 school districts on time, state Superintendent Joe Morton said in a memo Tuesday to district officials.
Morton also said he expects Gov. Bob Riley to declare proration during the first week of December. Proration is a term for spending cuts triggered when tax collections fall short of projections.
When that occurs, the state can access the rainy day account for public education, equal to about $437 million.
Huntsville is following the state's lead and having their own traffic blitz.
Huntsville police aren't waiting for the holiday weekend to start their traffic blitzes and DUI checkpoints.
Monday marked the first day of the "Drunk Driving: Over the Limit. Under Arrest." campaign, which will continue through the holidays and into the first week of 2009, said police Lt. Mark McMurray.
The department received an $10,000 grant to continue the previous campaign, which ran from mid-August to Labor Day.
McMurray said more officers will be on the roads for the holiday weekends, but drivers should expect to see a larger traffic police presence for the next two months when accidents and fatalities are more frequent.
"December is the No. 1 month for fatalities, and I think that's because of the amount of celebration that takes place," McMurray said. "While fatalities continue to decrease every day, for some reason, DUI arrests have not decreased. We're looking for those numbers to go down."
Nationwide, nearly a quarter of all alcohol-related traffic fatalities occur during December, McMurray said.
Drake Avenue & Newson / Penny Drake Avenue & Cobb / Hood Bob Wallace Avenue & Leeman Ferry Road Jordan Lane & Mastin Lake Road Bailey Cove Road & Willowbrook Drive / Weatherly Cecil Ashburn Drive & Donegal Drive Bideford Drive & Leicester Drive Andrew Jackson Way & Pratt Avenue Jordan Ln & Mastin Lake / Sparkman Drive
Looks like the number 2 reciever of labor visas in the U.S. (no. 1 was Disney World) will not receive approval for more H2-B visa workers.
No longer will hundreds of seasonal foreign laborers be brought to Huntsville to package and sort DVDs for $8 an hour at Cinram.
The U.S. Department of Labor this year denied the application by Cinram, a Canadian DVD manufacturer, for visas for 800 foreign workers to help with shipping for the holidays.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, the most successful Republican on the Alabama ballot this election, said the GOP had a bad day at the ballot box Nov. 4 because it has lost its way on key conservative principles.
"I think the people of Alabama expect Republican officials to be watching out for their money and proposing solutions that work, and they don't want to hear tired old phrases about liberal Democrats. They want to hear about what we will do to make their lives better," Sessions said. "And we didn't do that."
I can't tell who is more pathetic, Lieberman for wanting to stay or Democrats for letting him keep his positions.Unhappy people watch more TV.
State troopers will begin a week-long statewide traffic blitz Wednesday that will focus on impaired driving.
The state's fourth Take Back Our Highways campaign will include sheriffs and police departments, the troopers' nine portable DUI-testing labs, called Batmobiles, and sobriety checkpoints set up at various points.
The 24-hour-a-day traffic blitz will continue until Nov. 26, the day before Thanksgiving. Another statewide blitz is scheduled to begin Dec. 17 and end Christmas Eve.
This explains alot... I love TV.
How addicted to election coverage were you? Are you going through withdrawal?
Dataheads:
These vulnerable nerds became slaves to number-crunching -- scatter-plotting poll results, waging over-under bets on turnout figures, and impatiently re-explaining the electoral-college system to their cats, sometimes even with spreadsheets.
Favorite Dealers: Fivethirtyeight.com's seductive statistician Nate Silver; CNN's John King, whose compulsion to fondle his interactive touch-screen map bordered on perversion.
Recovery: Start monitoring inconsistencies in Starbucks's new calorie counts.
Scandal Junkies:
Even if they weren't normally Perez Hilton readers, they were jonesing for John Edwards's love-child photos or Trig gestation conspiracy theories.
Favorite Dealers: Gotchaholic Arianna Huffington, whose site at the end of the campaign hyped a rumor that McCain may have been involved in a fatal car accident.
Recovery: Repeat this affirmation: "Today, I move into the silence, and listen to the call of love instead of Joe Scarborough."
Hope Fiends:
Convinced that politics can be great (or, at least, unloathsome) again, they spent lost weekends photographing mini-dachshunds wearing HOPE buttons or browbeating friends to go evangelize in West Virginia.
Favorite Dealers: Will.i.am, whose inspiring music video, "Yes We Can," racked up over 25 million Web views.
Recovery: Apologize to those you've aggressively uplifted.
Palin Haters:
The potency of her profound ignorance lured these addicts into a dark pit of self-destructive eye-rolling. They sputtered over her "real America" remarks, reveled in her humiliation at the hands of Katie Couric and the Montreal D.J.'s Sarkozy prank.
Favorite Dealers: Tina Fey.
Recovery: Reports that she thought Africa was a country will cause many a relapse.
Anxiety Relishers:
These masochistic, defeatist liberals constantly tracked TV and online news in search of scenarios to feed their need for fear, until -- overcome by migraines, stomach cramps, or a satisfying case of shingles -- they'd finally flee their technology, convinced, once again, all was lost.
Favorite Dealers: Fox News and the New York Post, to see a world where Obama pals around with terrorists and Palin's an energy expert.
Recovery: Avoid excessive exposure to Keith Olbermann.
Clinton took the first label, even though she tried valiantly, some would say misguidedly, to run a campaign that ignored gender until the very end. “Now, I’m not running because I’m a woman,” she would say. “I’m running because I think I’m the best-qualified and experienced person to hit the ground running.” She was highly competent, serious, diligent, prepared (sometimes overly so)—a woman who cloaked her femininity in hawkishness and pantsuits. But she had, to use an unfortunate term, likability issues, and she inspired in her detractors an upwelling of sexist animus: She was likened to Tracy Flick for her irritating entitlement, to Lady Macbeth for her boundless ambition. She was a grind, scold, harpy, shrew, priss, teacher’s pet, killjoy—you get the idea. She was repeatedly called a bitch (as in: “How do we beat the … ”) and a buster of balls. Tucker Carlson deemed her “castrating, overbearing, and scary” and said, memorably, “Every time I hear Hillary Clinton speak, I involuntarily cross my legs.”
Palin:
Of course, the myth of Sarah Palin unraveled almost as quickly as it was spun. By now, her bizarre filibustering, discomfiting blank stares, weird locutions, and general tendency to trip over herself verbally are familiar. First, there was the painful Charlie Gibson interview, in which Palin adopted a Toastmasters-style technique of repeating her interlocutor’s name in a vain attempt to sound authoritative. Then Katie Couric, with a newfound air of gravitas, smothered Palin with her simple questions and soothing manner: Palin appeared stunningly uninformed, lacking a basic fluency in foreign policy and economic theory. Even if she had frozen up out of nervousness, or fell into the category of smart-but-inarticulate, it was still unacceptable that she couldn’t recall Supreme Court decisions she disagreed with or name a single periodical she reads. Time? Newsweek? Hello?
Guy hits girlfreind with sandwhich... is this domestic abuse?
A 19-year-old man accused of hitting his girlfriend with a sandwich, knocking her glasses off and nearly causing a traffic crash is facing domestic battery and child abuse charges, according to a recently released police report.
The alleged melee on wheels began after the 19-year-old victim on Friday picked up Emmanuelle Rodriguez -- her boyfriend and child's father -- from his mother's house in Port St. Lucie. They headed north on Interstate 95 to their new apartment in Fort Pierce as their 7-month-old son slept in the back.
Melee on wheels? Awesome.
Thought Obama's questionare was interesting? Check out a mountie application.
So you wanna be a Mountie?
Be prepared for a polygraph test in which you'll be asked whether you've had sex with animals, the worst thing you've done while drunk, and if you've ever seriously thought about committing suicide.
The RCMP says the candid questionnaire is a crucial tool for screening out people unfit to wear the red serge in the post-9-11 era, when terrorists and other serious criminals are trying to infiltrate the police force.
A newly declassified RCMP assessment of the polygraph program's privacy implications says the force was "not doing a sufficient job" of weeding out unworthy applicants.
A South Texas grand jury has indicted Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on state charges related to the alleged abuse of prisoners in Willacy County's federal detention centers. The indictment, which had not yet been signed by the presiding judge, was one of seven released Tuesday in a county that has been a source of bizarre legal and political battles in recent years. Another of the indictments named a state senator on charges of profiting from his position.
Get real.
A school board member gets real with a student... parents of course lose their minds.
Richman's parents feel Narcisse's 11-paragraph e-mail was unnecessarily harsh. But they are more upset with a story Narcisse shared with the teen about an athlete who hadn't focused enough on his academics and was last seen at a convenience store "asking customers for money for wine and offering (oral sex) for money."
Kim Richman, Craig's mother, said the e-mail was offensive and demeaning.
"It was not something you should be getting from somebody who you should consider a role model, somebody who is on the school board," she said.
Her husband, Tom, agreed: "The analogies are inappropriate, especially when he's writing back to a high school student."
Kim Richman said she plans to express her concerns about Narcisse's e-mail to him and other school officials.
Notice the parent went to the press first and not the school board.
Narcisse on Monday stood by the e-mail and said that the teen had heard worse language in the locker room at school. He said the teen needed to be told he had to work harder in order to be a better student.
"If I hurt his parents' feelings and his feelings, tough," Narcisse said. "I'm telling him what his parents should have told him."
Craig Richman said Narcisse's sexual reference made him a little uncomfortable, but he was more upset with Narcisse's lack of help on the issue and telling him "life isn't fair" and to "suck it up."
"He shouldn't be saying things like that," Craig Richman said. "He's on the school board and is supposed to be a role model and give words of encouragement."
Good for the school board memeber. Shame on the parents.
If it does go down here is where it will go? (Thanks to LiA's Old Prosecutor)
Granted, this story is from January 2007 but it showed the big loses mounting at the "Big 3" and foreshadowed the impending problems.
Structural inequities between the U.S. and Japan - notably in labor costs and currency - account for a big chunk of Detroit's problems.
Nothing new here, labor costs are strangling the U.S. auto industry and making it uncompetitive with it's foreign competitors.
A big reason is the cost of labor. As analyzed by Harbour-Felax, labor costs the Detroit Three substantially more per vehicle than it does the Japanese.
Health care is the biggest chunk. GM (Charts), for instance spends $1,635 per vehicle on health care for active and retired workers in the U.S. Toyota (Charts) pays nothing for retired workers - it has very few - and only $215 for active ones.
Other labor costs add to the bill. Contract issues like work rules, line relief and holiday pay amount to $630 per vehicle - costs that the Japanese don't have. And paying UAW members for not working when plants are shut costs another $350 per vehicle.
Here's one example of how knotty Detroit's labor problem can be:
If an assembly plant with 3,000 workers has no dealer orders, it has two options. One is to close the plant for a week and not build any cars. Then the company still has to give the idled workers 95 percent of their take-home pay plus all benefits for not working. So a one-week shutdown costs $7.7 million or $1,545 for each vehicle it didn't make.
But all this asks the question: Are the profitable?
Not as much as they used t be...
While Nissan (Charts) was making $1800 per vehicle during the first half of 2006, and Toyota and Honda (Charts) racked up $1,400 apiece, nine-month results for Ford saw them losing $1,400 per vehicle - a number that will go up when the fourth quarter's loss is tallied - while DaimlerChrysler (Charts) dropped $1100 and GM $333.
Soooo what do you do with the government money if you get it?
Half of the $50 billion the auto industry wants is for health care for its current and retired employees. This is the result of increasing UAW demands, strikes and threats of strikes unless health care and pension benefits were regularly increased. While in the past UAW settled for some benefit decreases while bargaining with the Big Three U.S. automakers, according to the Wall Street Journal in September of 2006, “on average, GM pays $81.18 an hour in wages and benefits to its U.S. hourly workers.” Those increased costs, including the cost of health care, were passed along to consumers, adding $1,600 to the price of every vehicle GM produced. In February 2008, after General Motors offered buyouts to 74,000 employees, the Center for Automotive Research estimated the average wage, including benefits, for current GM workers had dropped to $78.21 an hour.
But maybe there is some sanity creeping back into the industry.
New hires pulled down a paltry $26.65. GM, now facing a head-on collision with reality, has taken an important first step toward fiscal responsibility by announcing the elimination of lifetime health care benefits for about 100,000 of its white-collar retirees at the end of this year.
This really sucks, especially for the retirees, but the real question is do the unions choose to kill the auto industry or will they be forced to make concessions to compete with the foreign companies.
Contrast this with non-union Toyota, whose total hourly U.S. labor costs, with benefits, are $35 per hour. Those lower labor costs mean Toyota enjoys a cost advantage over U.S. automakers of about $1,000 per vehicle. Is it any wonder that Toyota is outselling American automakers and from plants that have been built on U.S. soil? According to James Sherk of the Heritage Foundation, Japanese car companies provide their employees with good jobs at good wages: "The typical hourly employee at a Toyota, Honda or Nissan plant in America makes almost $100,000 a year in wages and benefits, before overtime."
Things are going to have to change, either now or in the future. Can a democratic majority stand up to part of their base (autoworkers) or will they participate in their destruction?
Will the UAW cut off their nose to spite their face?
UPDATE:
An interesting question in a Huntsville Times's letter to the editor.
Evolution, capitalism
How can Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and President-elect Barack Obama consider bailing out Ford, GM and Chrysler in the same way the government came to the rescue of Lee Iaccoca when he ran Chrysler?
The auto landscape in America has changed and includes Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Volkswagen, Hyundai, Mercedes, Kia and numerous others.
How can one justify assisting three companies when all of these others are operating with a new paradigm and are now just as much a part of the American automotive industry as the "big three" are? If we believe in the Darwinian theory of evolution and capitalism, shouldn't we allow the survival of the fittest?
Richard H. Reynolds
If the Hondas, Toyotas, Nissans, Volkswagens, Hyundais, Mercedes, Kias and others are building in the U.S., employing workersand contributing to our economy, isn't it wrong to give their competitors an economic advantage?
Democrats circle the wagons on an auto worker bailout.
Efforts to get Republicans to join Democrats in approving new bailout loans to the U.S. auto industry appear to have hit a wall—on the eve of two days of hearings in Washington during which Detroit CEOs plan to make their case.
But that doesn't mean help isn't on the way. While congressional leaders and staffers said on Monday, Nov. 17, that a bill which would extend unemployment benefits and include $25 billion in loans carved out of the Wall Street bailout bill passed in October will be too difficult to pass, a combination of loans from another piece of legislation, plus an assist from the incoming Obama Administration, is the auto industry's best hope of staving off ruin.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, the most successful Republican on the Alabama ballot this election, said the GOP had a bad day at the ballot box Nov. 4 because it has lost its way on key conservative principles.
"I think the people of Alabama expect Republican officials to be watching out for their money and proposing solutions that work, and they don't want to hear tired old phrases about liberal Democrats. They want to hear about what we will do to make their lives better," Sessions said. "And we didn't do that."
Duh.New "Trooper Surge" coming... now for impaired drivers.
State troopers will begin a week-long statewide traffic blitz Wednesday that will focus on impaired driving.
The state's fourth Take Back Our Highways campaign will include sheriffs and police departments, the troopers' nine portable DUI-testing labs, called Batmobiles, and sobriety checkpoints set up at various points.
The 24-hour-a-day traffic blitz will continue until Nov. 26, the day before Thanksgiving. Another statewide blitz is scheduled to begin Dec. 17 and end Christmas Eve.
I have no problem with this one, beats setting up a bunch of speed traps to generate revenue like they did in the past.
The Birmingham News comes out in favor of a ban on double-dipping.
But in real-world Alabama, two-year colleges and legislators were far too busy helping themselves to worry about the pesky taxpayers footing the bill. At one point, a quarter of our legislators were feeding off the two-year college system. We would say they had jobs, but a number of them really didn't. Their only assignment was directing money to their college bosses and collecting their paychecks. The blatant abuse didn't end until this newspaper exposed it, and new two-year college leaders began trying to clean up the mess.
Randy Hinshaw gave the only realistic defense of "double-dipping" that I ever heard, I will paraphrase, he said some legislators had been working at a two year college before they ran for office.
This argument is fine with me, but there should be no new gigs for elected officials that recieve money from the state.
Would we want our Reps. voting on matters that affect their private employer?
Pastor marries 20 year old, then goes on a "racing ministry."
In 2002, three weeks after the death of his wife, Scott, who was then 55, stood before the congregation and announced that the Bible instructed him as a high priest to take a virgin bride from the faithful. A week later, he did -- a pretty 20-year-old who a couple of years earlier had been a star basketball player on the church high school team.
Scott said he has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of church funds on a fleet of race cars and until last year devoted many weekends touring the circuit for his "racing ministry." The church Web site shows Scott and his wife, Greer, 26, posing in racing suits, helmets in hand, beside a red dragster.
How do believers justify this stuff? Rupert Murdoch tells the media "you dug yourself a huge hole". Not because they went to sleep on Obama, but instead because they are losing to the internets.
"It used to be that a handful of editors could decide what was news-and what was not. They acted as sort of demigods. If they ran a story, it became news. If they ignored an event, it never happened. Today editors are losing this power. The Internet, for example, provides access to thousands of new sources that cover things an editor might ignore. And if you aren't satisfied with that, you can start up your own blog and cover and comment on the news yourself. Journalists like to think of themselves as watchdogs, but they haven't always responded well when the public calls them to account."
Falling gasoline prices are putting extra money in the pockets of consumers, but there is also concern some drivers may return to their gas-guzzling vehicles.
The chairman of the Senate Energy Committee said on Monday the new Congress probably will not approve legislation to raise the federal tax on gasoline.
No need to drill now right?
But maybe we can tax people since they are use to high prices?
Scarce American dollars, however, must be invested in the larger public interest. The best bailout is one that weans us off oil and sets us on a path to reduced carbon emissions. Congress and President-elect Barack Obama are not qualified to protect shareholders’ interests, nor can they build a better car. But they can ensure that society benefits from our investment in the automobile industry.
One way to do that would be to establish a price floor of $3.50 per gallon on gasoline. If the price drops below that, as it recently has, the federal government would impose a variable tax to bring the price up to $3.50. If the price goes above $3.50, then the tax disappears. The money raised by the variable tax would be used, at least in the short term, to provide loan guarantees to the auto companies. (To ease the burden of higher gasoline prices on low-income taxpayers, some of the revenue would be provided to them as tax credits or vouchers.)
Politicians can not be this stupid.
Democratic Sen. Jeff Bingaman said he was aware of arguments that a high "variable tax" should be put on U.S. gasoline to prevent falling pump prices from encouraging Americans to drive more while making alternative fuels less attractive.
Such a tax hike "would be very tough to pass," Bingaman said. "I don't think something like that has much prospect of being enacted in my honest opinion."
I told you this last week, Birmingham wants Federal help for their financial crisis.
A Depression-era power of the Federal Reserve, dusted off recently to bail out an insurance company, could provide a salve to Jefferson County's financial crisis, according to a Birmingham congressman who works extensively on financial issues.
After the U.S. Treasury turned down requests to extend the $700 billion rescue of the financial industry to struggling cities and counties, Jefferson County advocates started searching for alternatives.
U.S. Rep. Spencer Bachus says he may have found one, and it's been on the books for 75 years: A Federal Reserve bank is allowed to rescue a non-bank if the circumstances are dire and the loan can be secured.
Luis Perez, 23, is living in a hospital Monday through Friday, and then checking out to spend weekends with his wife and 3-year-old child.
The unusual arrangement is the product of Perez's status as an undocumented immigrant desperately needing dialysis.
The treatment, which filters wastes normally removed by the kidneys, is usually delivered in outpatient centers. But Perez is unable to qualify for government assistance through Medicare that is routinely provided to U.S. citizens with renal failure. So as a last resort, he is getting dialysis at Cooper Green Mercy Hospital as an inpatient, a much more expensive level of care.
It's been going on for three months, and Perez is not alone. A rising number of undocumented immigrants needing dialysis are showing up in emergency rooms locally and nationally, authorities say.
No one is happy about the fact that these individuals are hurting, but the reality is they are no qualified for taxpayers assistance. So they are going to have to pay their own way. LIFE OR DEATH! SHOCKING!
Roy Moore is back, this time talking about the future for conservatives.
For those who might think American conservatism is dead, think again. In every defeat can be found the seeds of victory. It is the nature of politics, and it is proved by history.
The true reason for the success of the Democratic Party in this election is that the Republican leadership deserted recognized principles of conservative government. U.S. Sen. John McCain, by any definition, did not represent many of the views of the conservative wing of the Republican Party, nor did the policies of President George W. Bush. Under Bush, increased spending and growth in the size of government replaced sound fiscal policy and limited government, as evidenced by the recent financial bailout that has no constitutional authorization. The federal budget and the national debt grew almost as exponentially as under Democratic presidents. Republican leaders were even called "big government conservatives" - a contradiction in terms, in my opinion.
In 10 of the 15 elections observed, the market reaction was positive. The largest percentage increase occurred with the election of John Kennedy over Richard Nixon in 1960 (up 3.59 percent), followed by George Bush's defeat of John Kerry in 2004 (up 3.1 percent) and Bill Clinton's victory over Bob Dole in 1996 (up 2.93 percent).
On only five occasions did the market fall, and the declines have typically been very small. The market reaction to the election of Bush over Al Gore in 2000 was down 0.45 percent, to Nixon over Hubert Humphrey in 1968 down 0.18 percent and to Clinton's victory over George H.W. Bush in 1992 down 0.07 percent. Thus, the stock market has typically greeted an incoming administration with either optimism in the majority of cases or with what appears to be indifference in a few instances.
An editorial board disagreeing with the ACLU? Yep. Wow.
Evidently, the ACLU and its Alabama affiliate have decided they know what's best for the children, not the education professionals in our local schools.
Teachers and administrators at Hankins Middle School believe that putting boys and girls in separate classes could have academic and social benefits. This is not an exotic or especially controversial idea: Hundreds of public schools around the country are experimenting with same-sex classes and programs. And single-sex private schools have successfully educated students for generations.
Since 2006, when the U.S. Department of Education loosened regulations on gender-segregated classes, single-sex classes and schools have sprung up in Milwaukee, Miami, Atlanta and Cleveland. Chicago, Dallas and Washington, D.C., also have launched single-sex programs, in an effort to boost academic achievement and improve discipline in troubled schools.
In Baldwin County, Foley Intermediate School began offering single-sex classes in 2004. School administrators there believe the change contributed to students' improved scores on standardized reading tests.
Double dipping A-OK again in Alabama. No need to worry about abuses of government anymore.
In his eight-page ruling, Montgomery County Circuit Judge Johnny Hardwick handed lawmakers who challenged the state board policies a victory while chastising the board for actions he said would have a harmful effect on the public.
"While defendants contend that forcing legislators to choose between their livelihoods and their service to the Legislature has no effect on the public, both policies will have a substantial effect on the public because ... they will affect the very composition of the Legislature, which will be altered by the elimination of a sector of the public - postsecondary education employees - from the body," Hardwick wrote.
The Bush administration misled Congress about how it would spend the $700 billion allocated for the financial industry rescue, Sen. Jeff Sessions alleged in a heated letter to the White House on Friday.
The Alabama Republican, who just won a third term, voted against the bailout plan because he argued it was too much government intervention in the economy. But now he's taking that criticism further by challenging the integrity of the official in charge and urging President George W. Bush to intervene.
"It seems to me that (Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr.), whom you obviously admire, has assumed an inappropriate role in our governmental system," Sessions wrote. "He is acting as a Wall Street investment banker, allocating hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer money, with no oversight and no state plan. This undermines our heritage of law and order, and is an affront to the principle of separation of powers."
ALTHOUGH PRE-ELECTION polls showed almost two-thirds of Americans favored offshore drilling for oil, the election results provided a major victory for anti-drilling politicians.
The big question is whether the pro-drilling electorate understands that the Democrats' triumph on Nov. 4 may mean the end of the recent push to develop domestic sources of oil and natural gas.
How so? Obama was supportive of it, until he was elected that is.
Barack Obama and other leading Democrats clearly didn't want to swim against the tide of public opinion on drilling. During his campaign, President-elect Obama sent mixed signals on the issue, saying he'd be willing to support limited drilling if it was done in an environmentally safe manner.
"Alabama analysts pointed to the persistence of traditional white Southern attitudes on race as the deciding factor in Mr. McCain's strong margin," the New York paper said in its Nov. 10 report.
"There's no other explanation than race," David Bositis, identified as "senior political analyst for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies," said in the story's dramatic closing paragraph.
This is the New York Times again pushing this myth that the South is a racist backwoods place.
Could there possibly be another reason to be against Barack Obama?
Just possibly?
We can think of two other explanations, say two local experts, who nevertheless agreed you can never ignore race in the South. But religion and the economy were probably as important, they say, especially here.
"Race may have been a factor in the Deep South states," agrees Dr. Tommy Williams, professor of political science at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, "but evangelic Christian votes are also very strong in the Deep South."
"The economic fear factor here was not in play elsewhere," added Dr. Jess Brown, professor of government and political affairs at Athens State University.
By that, Brown means the thousands of local voters directly dependent on federal defense and space spending. Any perceived threat to those programs was a threat to their pocketbooks.
The 4-1 vote for McCain in Hampton Cove? "A lot of those people work on (Redstone) Arsenal," Brown noted.
Williams agreed. "The key here was defense spending and NASA," he said.
Intelligence chiefs on both sides of the Atlantic have indicated that such warnings refer more to a general sense of foreboding than fear of an imminent or specific plan.
Referring to the attacks in 1993 and 2001, General Hayden told a Washington think-tank on Thursday night: “For some people two data points create a trend line. For others, there may be more hesitation to call it that.” He said that the chief danger comes from remote areas in Pakistan that border Afghanistan.
“Today virtually every major terrorist threat that my agency is aware of has threads back to the tribal areas. Whether it’s command and control, training, direction, money, capabilities, there is a connection to the Fata [Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas].”
Violent illegals released from jail.GM is whoring for money.
More form the America sucked, now it's great crowd. This time The Huntsville Times' David Person...
"I never thought it would come in my lifetime," O'Connor said.
Since Nov. 4, I've heard the same thought expressed repeatedly. Different people using different words but the same sentiment.
Many black folks didn't think white voters were ready to put a black presidential candidate in the White House.
Mind you, we blacks have been voting for white presidential candidates for decades, if for no other reason than there have been very few viable black candidates to choose from. But even when given a choice, no matter what right-wing talk show hosts suggest, it's never been a given that race trumped all else for us.
Come off it, 96% of blacks voted for the black guy. That really doesn't speak to the diversities of opinions in black culture.
I bet his latest column on race, his favorite/only topic, would look quite different if whites voted 96-4 for McCain.
Democrats OWN the black voters they know it. Period.
Guess what Republicans know it too. So they don't even bother pandering to them, like they do parts of their base which is more ideologically diverse.
Exit polls showed the dramatic effect: Obama won 43% of voters who said they attend church weekly, eight percentage points higher than 2004 Democratic nominee John F. Kerry. Among occasional worshipers, Obama won 57%, 11 percentage points higher than Kerry, according to the National Election Pool exit survey.
Well there goes the white Christian racist voter block.
Why pander to a group that will break 96-4 no matter what you do?
What would Person say if whites voted for McCain at a 96-4 clip?
If this election proved anything, it proved the old "woe is me" I can't catch a break mentality is dead.
White people as a whole do not care about race. Yes there are idiots who want to make race an issue and they fall into three groups... racists (very few left), blacks, and Democrats.
It is now time for the race baiting politics to die.
I'd like to ask David Person a question: How is that 96-4 split working out for ya?
Amazing, we have all heard the "infrastructure is crumbling" stuff coming from politicians and others that point to the bridge collapse in Minneapolis as a way to make anti-war statements. Here's the problem though:
Federal investigators on Thursday placed the blame for last year's deadly Minnesota bridge collapse on engineering design flaws that led steel plates to buckle under the weight of construction equipment and supplies, rather than on corrosion or a lack of upkeep.
Palin says woman on GOP ticket in 2012 would be good. I wonder who she means?
"It would be good for the ticket. It would be good for the party. I would be happy to get to do whatever is asked of me to help progress this nation," Palin told reporters at the Republican Governors Association meeting.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, DEAR GOD NO.
Here comes the fun. Is Obama going to start a trend of political investigations of outgoing Presidents by the opposing party. If so, buckle up.
Democrats from the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary committees last week sent a letter to the White House demanding that it preserve all records produced by the Bush administration. The letter expressed particular concern that the office of Vice President Cheney would not comply with the law.
The letter, sent by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Sen. John D. Rockefeller of West Virginia and Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, asks White House counsel Fred Fielding to detail steps being taken to preserve White House documents and hand them over to the National Archives and Records Administration.
Keep in mind Bush stopped a Republican attempt to do the same thing.
Because every president eventually leaves office, incoming chief executives have an incentive to quash investigations into their predecessor’s tenure. Mr. Bush used executive privilege for the first time in 2001, to block a subpoena by Congressional Republicans investigating the Clinton administration.
Philadelphia, Phoenix and Atlanta will seek at least $50 billion in emergency financing on Friday from the federal Treasury to help with infrastructure renewal, pension costs and short-term borrowing, which have all been curtailed by the credit crisis.
The voters in Alabama raised taxes on Madison's Limestone County residents. Here is something I did not know.
The amendment's passage also depended on approval by the voters of the City of Madison. They supported it overwhelmingly by 11,302 to 4,327 votes.
Few men can lie across railroad ties and survive when a Chattanooga-bound coal train passes through.
Arnold Romine not only survived but escaped with no visible injuries, said Huntsville Fire & Rescue Capt. David Fry.
"Had he been a bigger man, it might have not turned out as well," said Fry, whose truck responded to the Thursday afternoon accident. "He's really lucky."
Hateful political graffiti on University of Alabama professors door.
Officials at the University of Alabama said Thursday they're saddened by hateful graffiti found on a political poster on a professor's door.
They would not say which candidate the poster represented or exactly what the language was, just that it was offensive.
They won't say what was on the door, but it was "hateful." I have a feeling if it was Obama related we may have heard about it.
As voters left the polls on Election Day, many were asked how they would have voted if the election match-up were between Hillary Clinton and John McCain rather than Barack Obama and McCain. 52 percent said they would have backed the former Democratic candidate; 41 percent would have voted for McCain, wider than Obama’s 7-point margin over McCain.
Interestingly, 16 percent of McCain voters said they would have voted for Clinton, the Democrat, if she had been her party’s nominee.
Looky here, the elections over, looks like it's time to interview William Ayers.
The university professor from Chicago was scheduled to appear Friday on "Good Morning America," promoting an updated version of his 2001 memoir "Fugitive Days." (Viva capitalism!)
In the book's new afterword, Ayers describes Barack Obama as "a family friend," which contrasts with Obama's description of him as "a guy who lives in my neighborhood."
Conservative bloggers and talk-show hosts repeatedly tried to make a guilt-by-association connection between Obama and Ayers throughout the campaign, insisting their relationship was deeper than Obama admitted. Ayers' addition to his book should keep right-wing kibitzers busy for a while.
Um, sorry you mean Ayers' admitting Obama is a liar will fire people up? Imagine that.
Here comes a change in the bailout, now we allocate the bailout funding to homeowners, credit card debt, and loans as opposed to giving the money to the banks. Confused yet? The stock market isn't...
The Dow sinks 411 points as investors are rattled by the grim outlook for consumer spending, a further drop in oil prices and the Treasury Department's reversal.
According to an Associated Press-GfK survey, 80 percent say lowering personal tax rates should be a goal when Obama takes office in 2009. But just 36 percent say the tax breaks should be a very top priority. Just 29 percent believe another top goal should be Obama's plan to let tax cuts expire for families making more than $250,000 a year. The overall economy seems to be more of a concern -- with 84 percent saying it should be Obama's first task.
Great now O'Reilly is going to launch his war on the "War on Christmas." Comes earlier every year.
"We are trying to reach our audience, and sometimes in order to reach an audience, everybody has to hear you. Our reason for doing it during the holidays is there are an awful lot of agnostics, atheists and other types of nontheists who feel a little alone during the holidays because of its association with traditional religion."
Maybe I was wrong about 2 dollar gas? I said people are not going to be happy about gas no matter what and conservation (driving less, wanting more fuel efficient cars) will stick. Huntsville Times Headline - Gas below $2 good as a raise
The average on AAA's Web site is updated daily about 3 a.m., said Clay Ingram, spokesman for AAA in Birmingham. He said the numbers are compiled from data based on transactions across the country.
"The numbers we see tomorrow will reflect what it was today," he said.
"While we do have a number of stations around $1.99, we do have a number of them still well above $2," he said. "It may be a couple of weeks before the state average goes below $2, and I believe we will see that."
Richard Showers wants citizen oversight on police review board.
State sales tax down, maybe they could cut some spending?
ACLU sues over segregated classes, not race but gender.
The American Civil Liberties Union has accused Alabama's largest school system of illegal discrimination for allowing classes to be segregated by gender at a Mobile County middle school.
So I listened to Pamela Furr's show last night and after hearing it the only conclusion I could draw is that I have issues with women. She took me "to task."
I guess I hate them and am insecure in my manhood because I see Sarah Palin as the joke she became. I'm just saying.
Why was she a joke? Well... she was new to the scene and after her two awesome displays at her selection announcement and the RNC she tanked.
She was ridiculed and mocked nonstop. Pamela believes this doesn't matter who cares what SNL does. But, the fact is this was most peoples first look at here, they were still getting to know her. Clinton, Gore, Bush, Gearld Ford and whoever else they mocked on SNL was already an established figure.
Palin's rise was so quick no one knew her and these portrayals destroyed her, by design. Her interviews were bad and trust me as soon as she started doing them you didn't here me calling for more, it was clear she was out of her league.
The new mantra in the Palien Army is a pretty interesting one...
The majority of the Republican Party does not look at her as a disaster.
Well, maybe this is a problem.
You own your base, you don't need play completely to them. The message of conservatism (strong defense, lower taxes, personal freedom) is the key to winning elections, Palin is already marginalized, it's time to move on. I'm just saying. Instead of telling me I have a problem with women and how the GOP loves her tell me how Sarah Palin can get Republican's elected.
Today, as a personality her negatives will overshadow her message of true conservatism. That is bad for the GOP.
What's happening in Alaska undoubtedly is happening throughout rural America. Gun sales are brisk, particularly for military-style weapons, because people are concerned about stricter gun laws after Barack Obama becomes president and Congress begins leaning more to the left.
The Anchorage Daily News today ran a story under the headline "Armed and nervous in Alaska."
Jack Murray, owner of Alaska Shooters Supply, is quoted: "Obama is the best gun salesman we've had in the last 50 years." Murray added that the day after the election, he sold more guns than in any single day in 21 years. "I was crying all the way to the bank," he said.
Nationwide, perhaps because of an expected Democratic victory, FBI background checks on prospective gun owners increased 8% in a period ending Sept. 30, compared with the same period in 2007.
The government is attempting to show how caring it is as it tries to fix the mortgage crisis for "hurt families."
"Foreclosures hurt families, their neighbors, whole communities and the overall housing market," James Lockhart, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, said in a statement Tuesday. "We need to stop this downward spiral."
Lockhart's agency, which took over Fannie and Freddie in September, announced the plan with officials from the Treasury Department, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Wells Fargo & Co. and Hope Now, an alliance of mortgage companies that the Bush administration organized last year. It estimated the program would help thousands of borrowers.
The new program, which is scheduled to start by Dec. 15, is open to borrowers who have missed at least three payments, have loans for at least 90 percent of the home's value, live in the home as a primary residence and have not filed for bankruptcy.
It will reduce payments to no more than 38 percent of a household's monthly gross income by reducing the interest rate, extending the life of the loan, deferring payment on part of the principal, and customized steps, if needed.
Citigroup says it is imposing a moratorium on most foreclosures as part of a series of initiatives aimed at helping at-risk borrowers remain in their homes , making Citi the latest big bank to announce sweeping efforts to try to curtail losses from souring mortgages.
Citi said late Monday it won't initiate a foreclosure or complete a foreclosure sale on any eligible borrower who seeks to stay in a home if it is the borrower's principal residence, the homeowner is working in good faith with Citi and has sufficient income to make affordable mortgage payments.
The struggling auto industry was thrust into the middle of a political standoff between the White House and Democrats on Monday as President-elect Barack Obama urged President George W. Bush to support immediate emergency aid.
Bush indicated at the meeting that he might support some aid and a broader economic stimulus package if Obama and congressional Democrats dropped their opposition to a free-trade agreement with Colombia, a measure for which Bush has long fought, people familiar with the discussion said.
The Bush administration, which has presided over a major intervention in the financial industry, has balked at allowing the automakers to tap into the $700 billion bailout fund, despite warnings last week that General Motors might not survive the year.
Obama and congressional Democratic leaders say the administration has all the authority it needs under the bailout law to extend assistance.
Obama went into his post-election meeting with Bush on Monday primed to urge him to support emergency aid to the auto industry, advisers to Obama said. But Democrats also indicate that neither Obama nor congressional leaders are inclined to concede the Colombia pact to Bush, and may decide to wait until Obama assumes power on Jan. 20.
Obama was against an auto bailout before he was for it.
In July, President-elect Barack Obama was against a bailout of the domestic auto industry.
Now, the Democratic senator from Illinois has asked President Bush to take unprecedented action to save General Motors, Ford and Chrysler before they go bankrupt.
When Obama visited Springfield on July 30, the News-Leader asked him in an exclusive one-on-one interview whether he would support a bailout of the auto industry under any circumstances.
"The truth is that they've made some tough decisions already. They've made some tough cuts. I don't think that what's needed is a bailout," Obama said. "I think that what is needed is assistance making the transition."
Obama said he would favor the federal government helping automakers develop battery technology, improving the electricity grid for increased demand and lowering the cost of health care,
