An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
Archive for 7 December 2007
A Few Grins
NBC: FECKLESS WEASELS!
NBC, that bastion of non partisanship (note a tad of sarcasm?), has rejected ads that thank our troops for their service.
NBC rejects TV ad thanking troops, cites controversial website address
NBC has rejected a TV ad by Freedom’s Watch, a conservative group that supports administration policy in Iraq, that asks viewers to remember and thank U.S. troops during the holiday season.
NBC said it declined to air the ad because it refers to the group’s website, which the network said was too political, not because of the ad’s message.
“Anybody in the world who would look at this ad would come away with nothing other than we should thankful for their service,” Freedom’s Watch president Brad Blakeman said.
The spot was to be part of a seven-figure campaign that includes newspaper ads and television commercials. The ads are to run on CNN and Fox News Channel and are running in various newspapers. The New York Times ran a full-page Freedom’s Watch ad Friday that said “Thank You!” and depicted a soldier reading a letter. The newspaper ad also contained the website address.
Alan Wurtzel, NBC’s head of standards and practices (
), said the network decided not to run the Freedom’s Watch ad because the group insisted that the spot contain the URL address of its website.
Well, if they can’t run the website’s url, then by crackers, they can’t run ANY url, of ANY website. And that includes their darlin’s, the Hildebeast, B. Hussein Obama, John “Two Americas” Edwards, and NO MoveOn.org, who’s website is offensive in the extreme. Oh, but THAT’S different, isn’t it.
H/T: Bear Creek Ledger
In Perspective
David doesn’t post all that often, but when he does, he usually says something worth reading!
After reading several posts at Real Debate (link on the right) it appears that some on the left have lost all knowledge of history (or they are MPS grads).
For your consideration, WWII was NOT what you think it was. We did not go to war and come home 4 years later. Hate to bust your bubble but we fought a resistance in Germany after the “victory†and we still have 60K troops left there.
Korea was not a pretty “UN†sanctioned war that was over in 3 years. It still is not over and we STILL have 24K troops there.
There was no, and there will be no exit strategy for Germany or Korea except the most basic one. We will come home when the host country asks us to leave.
Iraq military installations would be a permanent pain in Iran’s ass. It would give our forces the ability to strike anywhere in the middle east with just an hours notice. That kind of deterrence is what stopped a WWIII in Europe. That kind of deterrence can stop Iran from expanding it’s caliphate. That kind of deterrence is worth more than you can possible imagine.
To ask our ally (Iraq) to make future plans when it is unclear what we will do in the next 24 months is worse than stupid, it is harmful. We should let them know (as our troops try to do every day) that we want them to live in peace and we will stand shoulder to shoulder with them until they let us know we are no longer needed. An American presence also allows for them to use a greater share of their GNP to rebuild instead of beefing up an Army for the inevitable Iranian invasion. To publicly call for our removal of all forces from Iraq can not be construed in any way except for the desire to see that country fail and for Iran and the terrorists IT SPONSORS to win. That is aid and comfort to the enemy. No better, and maybe much worse, than picking up a gun and engaging our armed forces.
H/T: Hobo Springs
And? Yer point?
Thompson does not have hunting license
COLUMBIA, South Carolina (CNN) — Fred Thompson has made a point of visiting gun shops and gun shows while hitting the campaign trail in New Hampshire and South Carolina, usually with camera crews in tow.
But Thompson said Wednesday he does not have a hunting license, nor has be been hunting recently.
“It’s been too long, it’s been too long,” Thompson told CNN Wednesday.
Asked if he has a hunting license, Thompson said he currently does not.
“At the present time I do not, but I have been hunting plenty of times. I usually hunt birds and used to have my own skeet shoot, and I got a chance to shoot and practice a lot back then.”
Thompson, an ardent defender of Second Amendment rights, was appearing in Columbia to pick up the endorsement of South Carolina Citizens for Life.
So, Fred Thompson is pro Second Amendment, but doesn’t have a hunting license? Umm….psst…CNN, neither do I! Lots of folks who are “ardent defenders” of the 2nd Amendment don’t hunt. Ya might want to find another ‘argument’.
Weasels!
Morning Coffee 12/07/07
Bush urged to commute ex-agents’ sentences
President Bush should immediately commute the prison sentences of two former U.S. Border Patrol agents convicted in the shooting of a drug-smuggling suspect, says the chairman of a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee.
Rep. Bill Delahunt, Massachusetts Democrat who heads the subcommittee on international organizations, human rights and oversight, said in a resolution yesterday the 11- and 12-year sentences for Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, respectively, were “profoundly disproportionate” based on federal sentencing guidelines.
People have been urging Bush to do this, or preferably, out right pardon these two guys for quite a while now. When is someone in the White House going to pay attention?
Forecast Calls for 7 Hurricanes in ’08
Hurricane forecaster William Gray called Friday for seven Atlantic hurricanes, three of them major, during the 2008 season.
Gray’s team at Colorado State University issued the prediction six months before the June-November season begins.
The forecast calls for a total of 13 named storms in the Atlantic. It says there is a 60 percent chance that at least one major hurricane will hit the U.S. coastline, compared with an average probability of 52 percent.
“Despite fairly inactive 2006 and 2007 hurricane seasons, we believe that the Atlantic basin is still in an active hurricane cycle,” Gray said. “This active cycle is expected to continue at least for another decade or two.”
Gray has been forecasting hurricanes for more than two decades, and his predictions are watched closely by emergency responders and others in coastal areas.
Okie dokie. When they get the forecast exact for next week, I’ll take them at their word, K?
Doves find fault with Iran report too
The new U.S. intelligence report that says Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 is suddenly raising concerns among the political center and left, as well as conservatives who have long called for a hard line against the Islamic Republic.
Moderate and liberal foreign policy experts said that U.S. intelligence agencies, possibly eager to demonstrate independence from White House political pressure, may have produced a National Intelligence Estimate that is more reassuring than it should be on the potential risks of the Iranian nuclear program.
I automatically had a mental image of my dad cleaning doves in the garage, after a productive day of hunting.
Magna Carta for Sale — To Highest Bidder
The hallowed parchment goes on view Friday at Sotheby’s and will be auctioned on December 18. Estimated to sell for between $20 million and $30 million, it is the only privately owned copy of the Magna Carta, and its owner is the one-time presidential candidate Ross Perot. The other 16 copies in existence are in public collections in Britain and Australia. As a result, this is likely to be the only time the Magna Carta will ever be on the market.
Which begs the question….does Ross Perot need money? He typically does a lot of donating, not selling. Hmmmm….
Ohio litterbug sports hot-pink sign
A litterbug became a walking warning not to mess with Bridgeport – or its mayor. Tommy LaShare and his girlfriend were caught emptying their ashtrays on the street in front of his house, police said.
I know a few folks who could use this kind of punishment. If you wouldn’t dump your trash on your living room floor, why do it in the streets. It’s still ‘home’, isn’t it?
Vote coming on bill to stop teens from using phones while driving
The state Assembly will vote next week on a measure to keep teens from talking on their cell phones while driving.
The bill’s sponsor says he also expects the proposal to get a hearing in the state Senate. It must pass both the Senate and Assembly and be signed by the governor before becoming law.
Should it become law, Wisconsin would be the 16th state to limit or ban cell phone use by teen drivers.
Honestly, yakking on the phone, teen or not, while you’re driving is one of the dumber things people do.
France pushes for tightened sanctions on Iran, despite US findings
France pushed for continued negotiations to tighten international sanctions against Iran, saying Friday that its concerns about Tehran’s nuclear program were not allayed by a new US intelligence finding.
“We need to increase pressure on Iran and the only way to do that is sanctions,” French presidential spokesman David Martinon.
Dang! And this is the French? Smarter than the U.S. main stream media? Go figure.
Russia Ignores Rice’s Calls for New Sanctions Against Iran
Secretary of State Condoleezza said Friday the United States would continue along a two-track strategy to deal with Iran, pressing for new sanctions and holding talks to convince Tehran to come clean about its nuclear program. But Russia ignored her calls to punish Iran.
Despite strong support from NATO allies in the wake of a new U.S. intelligence report that concludes Iran actually stopped atomic weapons development in 2003, the top U.S. diplomat was unable to persuade Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the urgency of fresh sanctions.
When are we going to figure out that Russia is NOT our ‘friend’? I question ANY “intelligence” concerning Iran.
Democrats shelve hate crimes bill
A conservative lobbyist says congressional Democrats knew all along that their hate crimes legislation would not be included in a major defense policy bill.
House and Senate negotiators have dropped a provision from the 2008 Defense Authorization bill that would have included crimes against homosexuals in federal hate crimes statutes. The conferees decided to drop the hate crimes legislation sponsored by Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) after deciding it would threaten passage of the entire defense bill in the House.
First off, it’s a really stupid bill, that threatens the 1st Amendment. Second, tacking it on to a Defense bill is just plain rude. This is Teddy we’re talking about here, so it’s not all that surprising.
7 December 1941
Fred on The Big Story
Hard Times For Some, Brings Out The Slime In Others
Foreclosures inspire surge in home-rescue scams
Martha Crutcher had to make a decision.
She was behind on her $30,000 home equity loan. She had a letter from a law firm that said her house would be sold at a foreclosure auction Nov. 9. And she had letters from companies that said they could help her keep her south Nashville home or even get rid of all her debt.
“It felt like I was sitting there drowning, and they threw me a life preserver,” she said.
Most of us don’t want to believe there are folks out there who would prey on people going through rough times. We know, deep down, they are there, we’d just prefer not to believe it would ever happen to us.
Crutcher, fair housing and lending advocates say, was the ideal mark for a growing business born out of the expanding number of home loan defaults: foreclosure rescue scams. These go beyond legitimate lending practices and typically result in victims paying thousands before ultimately losing their homes.
Isn’t that more like ‘loan sharking’? I always thought that was illegal. Foolish me.
Housing advocates fear the number of potential foreclosure rescue victims could be staggering.There’s no way to track how many people are scammed because some seek private help or never report it at all.
“What we are talking about is literally thousands of people who may be receiving and responding to these offers every day,” said Tracey McCartney, executive director of the Tennessee Fair Housing Council. “And people will do things when they are desperate that are not in their best interest. You just aren’t thinking that clearly, and you’re being circled by vultures.”
Sadly, younger generations, including mine (the ME generation) have failed to learn one extremely important lesson of “the greatest generation”! Save for a rainy day! Those who lived through the Great Depression, living hand to mouth, were sticklers for saving a little something from each paycheck to stave off future tough times. Now days, the majority are just one pay check away from losing the life they’ve created for themselves.
Crutcher called Mark Haining, who had sent one of the many letters. She said he offered to buy the house and enter a lease-to-purchase arrangement. The contract Haining brought over to sign was blank, Crutcher said, but she got the missing details later: $600 a month for the lease and $128,000 to buy the house back. If she missed one payment, she would lose the chance to buy.
Legal loan sharking?
Haining said he was set to pay $34,000 for the house, repairs and what he describes as a one-time subsidy to help Crutcher make the lease. He said the offer was in good faith and couldn’t be characterized as a scam.
“The service we offer is that our clients get to keep a roof over their heads and if they want, repurchase their home,” he said.
Out of the goodness of his heart, he’s going to let the owner pay almost twice the amount for her own house? To quote Baby Herman, “The whole thing stinks like yesterday’s diaper”.
Yes, I am quite aware that many people fell for the ‘you can afford it’ subprime fiasco. Seriously, did you really believe you could afford that $500,000 house on $400 a week, no money down? While I think those particular people are dumber than dog barf, and deserve to learn a powerful, and expensive lesson, there are others who are being caught up in the whole ‘we will save you’ scams who do NOT deserve it.
Fred VS Huck
Heh. Looks like there is still a lot of bark in that ol’ dog.
And then there’s this little tidbit:
Wisconsin Right to Life Endorses Fred
Now, if he’d just stop asking for $2300 at a crack, I’d be a much happier camper. 
H/T: Stop the ACLU
The UN “Buys a Vowel”…..Many Vowels
To prove they are serious about ‘man made’ global warming, the UN holds conferences in naturally balmy climes. Pfft! Glad to see a few folks on the other side of the big pond (Northern Ireland to be precise) aren’t buying into the UN clap trap!
Kevin Myers: So have your luxury love-in, but spare us the Bali humbug
Rio. Kyoto. Bali. That’s environmental conferences for you. They always occur in sunlit places ending in vowels, and with a consonantal component of no more than 50%.
They’re never in vowel-light locations like Nitvinggen or Bblarrgh or Quivdansk, where summer lasts a few hours some time in June, and where the locals spend their long winters rummaging through their clothing of animal pelts, popping lice with gnarled, nutshell fingernails, and musing vowellessly.
For, there is almost a defined UN Green Meridian, where conferences To Save The World must always be held; and where there are not miles of beaches, and galaxies of near-naked lovelies, each one sporting a tiny Ronnie Coleman beneath her wispy thong as she plays beach volley- ball, then there are either some of the greatest palaces in the world, or the most wonderful tropical islands.
An entire vocabulary has come into existence since the first great UN conference on climate change in Rio, an international dialect of carbon footprints, food-miles, greenhouse emissions and carbon-trading, of which almost everyone in the world – apart from me – seems to be master.
Ask just about anyone what the purpose of the Kyoto Treaty was, and they will – with exultant piety – tell you it was to cut the emission of greenhouse gases, and that horrible George Bush was a very bad man for refusing to sign the accord. Actually, not so.
The opposite was the truth. Kyoto was not about cutting the emission of greenhouse gases, but reducing the rate of growth in emissions.
Which meant, of course, that the actual levels of CO2, which had done so much damage to the world, were not being reduced.
And George Bush, being American and an heir to George Washington and his apple tree, on this occasion anyway, felt unable to tell a lie by signing up to a deal he could not possibly honour.
We, on the other hand, felt perfectly free to tell a lie by signing up to a treaty we had absolutely no intention of honouring, just as we also felt we could then piously excoriate President Bush for his honesty.
I accept that global warming is under way, and that it is probably caused by nefarious man-made activities, such as sex before marriage, singing Christmas carols out of season, and pub darts.
