The "11" Cookie Duster Was Great

Or so says a true intellectual in this video.

Laugh, or cry?  Maybe both. 

Fools and villains are often inseparable.

http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1829.htm

Who Is Owned By Big Oil?

According to Obama, it's McCain, while Obama pretends to distance himself from those eveeeeel oilmen.  

Well, not so much, actually. 

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/08/exxon-hearts-ob.html

Disclaimer:  The linked article contains facts and statistics not yet reviewed by the unbiased accounting firm of Dewey, Cheatham and Howe, nor vetted by the law firm of Swindal, Steele and Finaegle, and therefore will no doubt be dismissed by some as just lousy reporting.  It is also stipulated that some people are convinced that Jake Tapper is an undercover operative of the VRWC (real name Dick Cheney, Jr.), and therefore has to be lying.  No animals were harmed during the typing of this comment.      

Friday Open

This week's open topic revolves around useless acronyms. For example there is BOB, which stands for Bureau of Bureaus (a clandestine government organization).

Feel free to come up with your own acronyms, or for that matter, post anything you like. It is Friday, after all. Have a nice weekend.

Is Blacklisting Back In Favor?

Possibly, from the left. 

When Jon Voight spoke his mind recently, I wasn't terribly impressed.  Oh, it was nice to hear a Hollywood guy with a brain for a change, but still, his opinion isn't worth any more than that of Joe Sixpack just because he's famous.

Well, now I do have a reason to be impressed with Voight.  He's sticking to his guns, and not backing off in the face of harsh talk suggesting blacklisting due to his politics. 

It will be interesting to see how much of a dust-up this will cause, and whether or not the conservatives in Hollywood will come out of hiding.

Tool Shed

The Moment Has Arrived

“Straight talk”. It's just a punch line.

Sorry Situation

I understand non-candidate John Edwards has admitted publicly to conducting an extramarital affair.

It’s an unfortunate and ugly disclosure, especially given the Edwards’ circumstances, and I extend my sympathy to Mrs. Edwards and the rest of the Edwards family (not John. I'm seriously disappointed). This must be excruciating.

Republican Talking Points Explained

While researching another topic, I found it! 

The EISCAT Scientific Association is an international research organisation operating three incoherent scatter radar systems, at 931 MHz, 224 MHz and 500 MHz, in Northern Scandinavia. It is funded and operated by the research councils of Norway, Sweden, Finland, Japan, China, the United Kingdom and Germany (collectively, the EISCAT Associates.)

It's all so clear now...we're being bombarded by European Incoherent Scatter!  No WONDER no one on the right makes sense - it's WELL-ESTABLISHED FACT that the cortical membranes of conservatives are particularly susceptible to these fancy-pants Euroweenie rays!  Look at THIS, if you don't believe me:

Typical Incoherent Scatter radars radiate effective powers measured in gigawatts, but the returned signals normally represent only picowatts.

Pouring out gigawatts, but returning picowatts?  The ONLY POSSIBLE explanations for the dissipation of 10+ orders of magnitude are fried brains and hot air - and that's just what is happening to the Republican Party!   I mean, look at this data, live from their website:

It's so OBVIOUS if you just ignore the faked scales on the graphs.  Clockwise from top left, these are graphs of Congressional popularity, polling results for Obama/McCain/Barr/Nader, the government deficit projection peaking on Inauguration Day 2009, and a infrared-profile target of Obama raising his arms!    THIS EXPLAINS EVERYTHING!  IT'S EUROPEAN INCOHERENT SCATTER!

My gosh, this explains why the government is trying to put SDI systems in Poland and the Czech Republic - it isn't to guard against missiles, it's to kill all the incoherent scatter!  That MUST be it!  I have to get out of here; as soon as I post this, they'll know I'm on to them...tell EVERYONE you know about this INSIDIOUS EUROPLOT!

Paging Al Gore; Paging Al Gore

What is going on here?  We need a Stop the Near-Ground Rainbow Initiative.  This is obviously a gubmint conspiracy, fueled with secret projects from [sneer]  Big Oil. 

The conspiracy is deeper than originally thought; as we can see during the intro, it also involves making dictionaries disappear.   

Hat tip: SnappedShot.com

Wow.

Painful.

Yes, They 're Serious About This

Here is the latest "inspirational art" for the Obama people to swoon over.  Really.  This is not a joke, folks. 

The guy behind this "art" really thinks it's a grand idea.   

Ok, everyone!  Let's make the sign of the big...

Well, maybe not.

Definitely not.

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/washington-whispers/2008/08/07/one-nation-under-a-new-obama-salute.html

Hat tip:  Gateway Pundit

Don't Look Now - Banks Still Failing

Much was made of the FDIC takeover of IndyMac Bank, just last month.  While the larger banks seem to have stabilized to some degree, their smaller brethren haven't been so lucky.   In the last two weeks, three more banks have failed:

• June 30th: First Heritage Bank, Newport Beach CA, assets $254 million, deposits $233 million
• June 30th: First National Bank, Reno NV, assets $3.4 billion, deposits $3.0 billion
• August 1st: First Priority Bank, Bradenton FL, assets $259 million, deposits $227 million

Total costs to the FDIC's Deposit Insurance Fund were $936 million.  In other words, we spent almost a billion dollars to salvage three banks, two of which were fairly small.  (The FDIC took a $4-6 billion hit in bailing out IndyMac.)  That brings the number of insured banks failing this year up to eight, as compared to three in 2007.

Regardless of the outcome of this fall's election, increased regulation of the financial industry must be a key point in our new President's agenda.

Obama's America - Not So Good

Either Senator Obama is incapable of putting together a coherent comment without a script, or he is a disturbed America-basher.  Perhaps both. 

I thought he was going to reserve the America-bashing for his German audiences. 

Senator, would it pain you greatly to leave out the typical leftist crap, go ahead and say that the United States is a great nation, and ask for help in making it even better?  Or is that too positive for you? 

Just a Wicked Boat

While I was researching biodiesel for another posting, I ran across the story of Earthrace, which recently set the powerboat record by circumnavigating the globe in 60 days, 49 hours and 23 minutes.  You can read more about the boat and its eco-friendly world record, but I just loved the look of the thing:

78-foot length, 24-foot beam, four-man crew, 26 tons when fully fueled, top speed 45mph...that's good stuff.

Congress Out Of Touch - And So Are Voters

I always say that polls are to be taken with large grains of salt - but this one is just depressing.  According to a recent Gallup poll:

• Just 36% of those polled say that most members of Congress deserve re-election.

Tell us something we don't know, right?  Well, hold on a second, because they also found that:

• 57% of those polled say that their Congressman deserves re-election.
  

Huh?  So, it's all those other Congressmen that are dirtballs?  Ah, the power of incumbency...but hold on, it gets worse:

• 35% of those polled are unsure whether their Congressman is a Democrat or a Republican.
  

Ouch.  Just...ouch.  This is in keeping with some thoughts on voter apathy--namely, that only the "true believers" make it a point to get out and vote--and it tends to reflect the widely held view that "they're all the same," but I still find this rather unhealthy from the perspective of voter involvement.  Things do, at first glance, look marginally better for Democratic incumbents than they do for their Republican brethren:

• Among those who identify their Congressman as Democratic, 64% support re-election.
• Among those who identify their Congressman as Republican, 57% support re-election.
• Among those who are unsure as to party identity, only 51% support re-election.
  

Nonetheless, I don't think that any Democrats should be resting on their (threadbare) laurels; given that the poll suggests a 4-point margin of error, incumbents of both parties are in the same ballpark.  I think that we're looking at a good number of barnburning Congressional races this November.  That's as it should be, I think; incumbents should face strong challenges.

We may also see a stronger "coattails" effect, for better or worse, this time around the track.  Neither Presidential candidate has done a significant amount of campaigning with Congressional/Senate candidates, but I expect that to change in the next month or so.

All in all, it's going to be a wild ride from the top of the ballot to the last race on the ticket.