As much as the media tried to cover up John Edwards' affair with Rielle Hunter, the National Enquirer and the internet wouldn't let them do so. And pushed to the wall, Edwards has finally admitted what we already knew -- he and Hunter had an affair.

John Edwards admitted to ABC News in an interview with Bob Woodruff Friday that he repeatedly lied about an extramarital affair with a 42-year old campaign employee, but strenuously denied being involved in paying the woman hush money or fathering her newborn child. The former Democratic U.S. senator from North Carolina said he would be willing to take a paternity test and divulge the results publicly.

"Two years ago I made a very serious mistake, a mistake that I am responsible for and no one else. In 2006, I told Elizabeth about the mistake, asked her for her forgiveness, asked God for his forgiveness. And we have kept this within our family since that time."

All well and good -- but he denied the affair this past October when confronted about it by the Enquirer and other media outlets. So not only did he cheat, but he lied about it, too.

Here's where it gets interesting -- he claims the affair happened in 2006, and that there is no way he is the father of the Hunter's child, born this past February. Hunter and a (married) former Edwards staffer CLAIM the baby is theirs -- but the former staffer (Andrew Young -- no relationship to the former UN ambassador and Atlanta mayor) is not on the birth certificate. Furthermore, Hunter lived in the home of Young, his wife and children during her pregnancy -- not the sort of thing a wronged woman usually does in such situations.

But that isn't the biggest question, in my book. To my way of thinking it is this -- why did he hire his (allegedly) former mistress to work for his campaign after the affair was over? Why put himself in that situation, in which he would have regular contact with his (allegedly) former floozie after his dying wife was informed about the affair? Set aside the insensitivity of the choice -- why bring her back into intimate contact when there could easily be other folks who could have filled her spot on the campaign?

And then there are other questions. Why visit the (allegedly) ex-mistress in a hotel in the middle of the night? Why doe he have no recollection of the baby being in the room (or of holding the kid)? And why did one of his close aides start funneling large amounts of cash to both the unemployed Hunter and unemployed Young once both were out of the campaign -- and are we really to believe that the money wasn't in some way authorized by John Edwards, either form his campaign or foundation funds? None of this passes the smell test.

And here's the kicker -- Edwards says he wants a paternity test. But lo and behold, Hunter says absolutely not -- she will never consent to allowing her (allegedly) ex-lover to clear his name, even if doing so would perhaps permit him to be considered for vice president or an early cabinet position in a future Obama administration. It seems strikingly convenient that the one thing that could mitigate most of the damage OR totally destroy him is being denied him -- all due to circumstances (allegedly) beyond his control. This enables him to eventually return to public life while claiming that there is no proof that he fathered the child.

Obvious answer -- John Edwards was doing the horizontal mambo with Rielle Hunter right up until the day that Elizabeth Edwards got her new cancer diagnosis. The baby is John Edwards illegitimate daughter -- and he is misappropriating funds to pay off both his baby-mama and the faux baby-daddy. After all -- John Edwards has already proven that he is more than willing to cheat on his sick wife and lie to cover his own well-coiffed ass. He's even prepared to send his dying wife out to attack columnists who dare write critically about him -- apparently while he is still shagging his mistress behind her back.

That makes John Edwards scum by any stretch of the imagination -- cheating, lying, stealing scum.

Posted by: Greg at 09:24 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Too often, drug abuse happens in our society. So does alcoholism. We have all seen the toll it takes not just on the addict, but also on family, friends, and co-workers. But the impact is most pressing upon those who are addicted. They need the help of a drug rehab clinic to get the intoxicant of choice out of their system and to develop a sustainable, healthy way of life that does not continue in enslavement to the addiction that has come to dominate their lives.

In my opinion, one of the hardest things about the treatment is when the patient who came in for treatment is ready to relapse after discharge from the center. That is why it is so important that the drug rehab center see to it that each patient achieves total wellness, not just social healing but also by being healed mentally, spiritually, and physically. Healing the total 4 aspects of a person is what a family wants for their love one.

That is where a drug treatment facility like Ambrosia comes into the picture. It is important to get a loved one into a good rehabilitation that will focus on the whole person. A solid program with a proven track record of success is very important so that the loved one can get treatment for substance abuse and begin to rebuild his or her life.

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[By David M]

Labor Day Reinstated as Paid Holiday at Shelbyville, TN, Plant; Tyson Foods Requested Change from Union

Springdale, Arkansas – August 8, 2008 - Tyson Foods, Inc. announced today it has reached a new agreement with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), an American union, reinstating Labor Day as one of the designated paid
holidays under the contract for covered employees in the Shelbyville, Tennessee, plant.

Tyson made this request on behalf of its Shelbyville plant employees, some of whom had expressed concern about the new contract provisions relative to paid holidays. In an effort to be responsive, Tyson asked the union to reopen the contract to address the holiday issue, and the union agreed to do so. The union membership voted overwhelmingly Thursday to reinstate Labor Day as one of the plantÂ’s paid holidays, while keeping Eid al-Fitr as an additional paid holiday for this year only. This means that in 2008 only, Shelbyville employees will have nine paid holidays.

For the remainder of the five-year contract period, the eight paid holidays will include: New YearÂ’s Day, Martin Luther King Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and a Personal Holiday, which could either be the employeeÂ’s birthday, Eid al-Fitr or another day requested and approved by their supervisor.

This issue concerns only the plant at Shelbyville, Tennessee. Labor Day has always been celebrated, and continues to be, at the other 118 Tyson plants across the country.

The Shelbyville complex employs approximately 1,200 people. Approximately 1,000 workers are covered by the RWDSU union agreement at that location.

CJ of A Soldier's Perspective writes of this development:

Do I feel bad at having some part in bringing this to my readers' attention and pressuring the company to change its policy? Not in the least. Especially since not one of my three emails to various other questions were answered.

[...]

Americans, real Americans, celebrate Veteran's Day on November 11th of each year, just two days after the approximate start of Eid ul-Adha. One can't help but wonder if Tyson Foods has a plan in place to (or if the union's are already working towards it) to replace Veteran's Day with the Muslim holiday. After all, with the majority of Tyson Foods Muslims coming from Somalia, what stake do they have in a holiday meant to celebrate our nation's veterans? It would be no skin off their leather bound Korans to replace another meaningless American holiday with something they REALLY care about!

This is where multiculturalism goes awry. A nation cannot exist and continue to honor its traditions if we continue to allow outsiders to dictate what those traditions are. I can't imagine Canada giving up Canada Day on July 1st because a bunch of American emigrants found it offensive and would rather celebrate the 4th of July! Isn't it bad enough that the completely non-American holiday, Cinco de Mayo has somehow crept into becoming an official US holiday? What do we care about the victory of Mexican forces led over French forces in the tiny battle of Puebla? Cinco de Mayo is celebrated more in THIS country than it is in Mexico where it is only a regional holiday in the state of Puebla!!

Read it all...

Keep up the pressure CJ, it seems that no one else is.

Posted by: DavidM at 04:05 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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[By David M]

The ever entertaining and enlightening James Taranto gives us his take on the conviction of Salim Ahmed Hamdan and the response of the Pro-Jihadi Newspaper of Record the New York Times.

He writes:

Earlier this week the military completed the first war-crimes trial at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan. The New York Times responds with an editorial titled "Guilty as Ordered" (ellipsis in original):

Now that was a real nail-biter. The court designed by the White House and its Congressional enablers to guarantee convictions of high-profile detainees in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba--using evidence obtained by torture and secret evidence as desired--has held its first trial. It produced . . . a guilty verdict.

The only surprise was that Mr. Hamdan was actually acquitted on the more serious count of conspiring (it was unclear with whom) to kill Americans during the invasion of Afghanistan after Sept. 11, 2001.

The charge on which Mr. Hamdan was convicted seemed logical since he did work as Mr. bin Laden's driver. But it was still an odd prosecution. Drivers of even the most heinous people are generally not charged with war crimes.

The Times concludes:

"We are not arguing that the United States should condone terrorism or those who support it, or that the guilty should not be punished severely."

Meanwhile, an Associated Press dispatch about the trial complains that "Hamdan was not judged by a jury of his peers and he received no Miranda warning about his rights."

A jury of his peers? Hey, that's how we'll capture Osama bin Laden: by summoning him for jury duty.

~~

And we wonder why we question their patriotism...

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Could you imagine the outrage if a former Republican candidate made such a call?

"Find out where he lives. Find out where his office is. If you've got some chutzpah - which is a word that you don't hear often - if you've really got it, find out where he lives, find out where his kids go to school, find out where his office is; picket him all the time. Call him a racist in signs if you see him. Call him an injustice. Call him whatever you want to call him, but in his face all the time. They can't take the heat; deliver it to them. We have to stop laying down to these injustices."

And since we know that Islam is a universally peaceful religion (remember 9/11, Senator), we know that no harm would come to the prosecutor's children or any other child at the targeted school.

The prosecutor's offense? Insisting that terrorist professor Sami al-Arian comply with a grand jury subpoena by providing information about the terrorists with whom he was associated. His refusal to do so has led to contempt charges at the request of the prosecutor.

I wonder what would happen if I suggested that Gravel be targeted in such a manner for his support for terrorism in this call for the harassment of a US prosecutor? What would happen if I suggested that his home and office, those of his children, and the schools of his grandchildren all be targeted -- all with signs calling Gravel a terrorist supporter? Want to bet I'd be receiving a visit from the FBI, and possibly facing criminal charges?

I'm curious -- how will the Democrats respond to this?

Will Obama denounce Gravel, who was one of the contenders with him for this year's Democrat nomination for President? Or is this acceptable to him?

Closing question -- will Gravel have a public role at Barry Hussein's coronation in Denver?

H/T Hot Air

Posted by: Greg at 03:56 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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No book that fails to defer to Islamist sensitivities may be published in America, according to Random House. There is just too much danger of violence and murder.

Starting in 2002, Spokane, Wash., journalist Sherry Jones toiled weekends on a racy historical novel about Aisha, the young wife of the prophet Muhammad. Ms. Jones learned Arabic, studied scholarly works about Aisha's life, and came to admire her protagonist as a woman of courage. When Random House bought her novel last year in a $100,000, two-book deal, she was ecstatic. This past spring, she began plans for an eight-city book tour after the Aug. 12 publication date of "The Jewel of Medina" -- a tale of lust, love and intrigue in the prophet's harem.

It's not going to happen: In May, Random House abruptly called off publication of the book. The series of events that torpedoed this novel are a window into how quickly fear stunts intelligent discourse about the Muslim world.

And it looks like Denise Spellberg, a faculty member at the University of Texas, is right in the middle of stirring up the radicals who led to this act of censorship.

Seems to me that we taxpayers here in Texas should quit paying her to engage in unAmerican activities during her classroom time.

I demand that Random House either change its name to Dhimmi House or immediately publish The Jewel of Medina -- or surrender its rights at no cost to any publisher willing to do so.

Posted by: Greg at 03:43 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I hope not, but I can think of a couple of cheerleaders I have taught recently who would try this stunt -- and who would have been in Austin.

How many cheerleaders can cram into an elevator? Apparently not 26. A group of teenage girls attending a cheerleading camp on the University of Texas got stuck and had to be rescued after trying to squeeze into an elevator at a residence hall Tuesday night.

One girl fainted and was treated at a hospital and released. Two others were treated at the scene.

The elevator doors refused to open after the pack of 14- to 17-year-olds descended from the fourth to the first floor, police said. Responding to a few panicked cell phone calls from the group, police and firefighters summoned an elevator repairman, who spent about 25 minutes extricating them.

Dumb kid stuff.

Right until the cable breaks.

Will there be consequences?

Posted by: Greg at 03:30 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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There is no legitimate reason to give illegals bail.

When federal immigration agents raided a Houston rag factory and took 166 suspected illegal immigrants into custody, a Boston philanthropist and multimillionaire was ready to chip in bond money to help the workers.

Robert J. Hildreth, 57, is the public face of the National Immigrant Bond Fund, a fledgling organization that helps immigrants swept up in Immigration and Customs Enforcement workplace raids post bonds.

The controversial fund has the backing of major immigrant advocacy groups and religious leaders, but has drawn criticism from anti-illegal immigration organizations.

Since spring 2007, the fund has paid more than $180,000 to bond out immigrants snared in ICE raids in California, Massachusetts and Maryland.

Now I know that my point of view sounds harsh, but since there folks have no right to be in the US, they also have no right to walk free.

Detain, Deport. Deny re-entry.

Oh, yeah -- and bomb Mexico into submission after the latest act of war committed by the Mexican military on US soil. Unfortunately, it seems that the US is going to write it off as one more "accident" -- and do nothing.

H/T Malkin

Posted by: Greg at 03:24 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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This is the book ranked #13 on Amazon.com.

This is book #1402 and falling like a rock) at Amazon.com.

So let's talk, folks, about who is really the most powerful woman in America.

Oh, and by the way -- look what is ranked at #12.

Maybe we need to reassess the conventional wisdom about this fall's presidential race.

H/T Malkin

Posted by: Greg at 03:23 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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We all know that sex sells -- but I never considered the possibility of using sex quite so explicitly to sell coffee.

Baristas at the new Belfair Espresso Gone Wild will have to cover up to meet the county's zoning laws.

The stand's sister store in Gorst features scantily clad baristas and "pastie Tuesdays and Fridays." But the Mason County has ruled that such attire puts the stand in the category of "erotic entertainment," which is prohibited in the Belfair urban growth area.

The Belfair stand opened about a week ago, but it was temporarily closed shortly afterward when county planners determined there were code violations, according to county Commissioner Tim Sheldon.

It seems that there was a great public backlash against the unusual attire of the young women in question -- but also long lines of cars on Tuesdays and Fridays. Proof, I guess that there is a wide range of moral views in that community.

And interestingly enough, this isn't the only place in the Seattle area that such issues have come up. Must be a Pacific Northwest thing -- and I say that as a guy coming from a region that may have more strip clubs per-capita than anywhere else in the country.

But I also have a different question -- what about health and safety regulations?

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Some introductions are in order, IÂ’m sure. While Greg is on vacation he asked if I wanted to fill in on Rhymes With Right and I jumped at the offer. So who am I? IÂ’m David M and IÂ’m the Editor of The Thunder Run, a denizen of Castle Argghhh!, and a new contributor at Milblogs.

Having just been locked out of my own blog by Blogger, for reasons not yet fully explained to my satisfaction, I jumped at the offer, and here I am. Of course my blog has been turned back on by Blogger and IÂ’m back to posting like normal at my regular home but that doesnÂ’t mean I canÂ’t help out a friend in need.

If you stop on over at The Thunder Run youÂ’ll see my style is a lot different than you are accustomed but IÂ’m sure weÂ’ll get along nicely.

What am I going to talk about first? Bruce Ivins, the accused Anthrax Killer.

Yesterday Richard Spertzel, wrote in the WSJ Bruce Ivins Wasn't the Anthrax Culprit, where states his claim that Mr. Ivins couldnÂ’t possibly be the anthrax killer, or at least he could not have acted alone. Spertzel states in his case:

In short, the potential lethality of anthrax in this case far exceeds that of any powdered product found in the now extinct U.S. Biological Warfare Program. In meetings held on the cleanup of the anthrax spores in Washington, the product was described by an official at the Department of Homeland Security as "according to the Russian recipes" -- apparently referring to the use of the weak electric charge.

The latest line of speculation asserts that the anthrax's DNA, obtained from some of the victims, initially led investigators to the laboratory where Ivins worked. But the FBI stated a few years ago that a complete DNA analysis was not helpful in identifying what laboratory might have made the product.

He then ends with the very critical statement:

The FBI spent between 12 and 18 months trying "to reverse engineer" (make a replica of) the anthrax in the letters sent to Messrs. Daschle and Leahy without success, according to FBI news releases. So why should federal investigators or the news media or the American public believe that a lone scientist would be able to do so?

Why indeed? WeÂ’ve seen this investigation turn into a scene from the Marx Brothers as one suspect Stephen Hatfill is hounded for years only to win a lawsuit against the government for their part in the botched investigation and now this, another scientist from Fort Detrick hounded by the government only this time the investigation ends in suicide.

Now The FBI is ready to consider the case solved but still open:

[A]fter nearly seven years — much of which was spent pointing the finger at the wrong suspect — the FBI is ready to end the "Amerithrax" investigation by outlining its evidence against Ivins, according to two U.S. officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly.

And yet the profile of Bruce Ivins that is emerging is far from the psychotic murderer he is being portrayed as. Even as families of victims were to get the first glimpse inside the case at the morning FBI briefing, the Justice Department, is expected to ask a federal judge to unseal documents revealing how the FBI closed in on Ivins.

It is hoped by many that, that evidence will answer many questions in the bizarre investigation. And yet some of us will be looking at this information to see just what it is that linked Ivins to the murder plot and convinced the FBI they had their man.

As news reports indicate, the case may turn on a couple of key points, including:

An advanced DNA analysis that matched the anthrax used in the attacks to a specific batch controlled by Ivins. It is unclear, however, how the FBI eliminated as suspects others in the lab who had access to it.

Ivins' purported motive of sending the anthrax in a twisted effort to test a cure for it, according to authorities. Ivins complained of the limitations of animal testing and shared in a patent for an anthrax vaccine. No evidence has been revealed so far to bolster that theory.

Why Ivins would have mailed the deadly letters from Princeton, N.J., a seven-hour round trip from his home. In perhaps the strangest explanation to emerge in the case so far, authorities said Ivins had been obsessed with the sorority Kappa Kappa Gamma for more than 30 years. The letters were sent from a mailbox down the street from the sorority's offices at Princeton University.

Investigators can't place Ivins in Princeton but say the evidence will show he had disturbing attitudes toward women. Other haunting details about Ivins' mental health have emerged, and his therapist described him as having a history of homicidal and sociopathic thoughts.

As some are wont to sayÂ….developing.

Up next, Bruce Ivins the man.

Posted by: DavidM at 11:54 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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(Posted by Hube)

I swear no city is nuttier than San Francisco. You can feel totally free to drop your drawers in the middle of the city streets ... and engage in any sort of sexual activity (while even the police watch!!) but if you DARE to mix up those recycling goods? WATCH IT!!

Garbage collectors would inspect San Francisco residents' trash to make sure pizza crusts aren't mixed in with chip bags or wine bottles under a proposal by Mayor Gavin Newsom.

And if residents or businesses don't separate the coffee grounds from the newspapers, they would face fines of up to $1,000 and eventually could have their garbage service stopped.

The plan to require proper sorting of refuse would be the nation's first mandatory recycling and composting law. It would direct garbage collectors to inspect the trash to make sure it is put into the right blue, black or green bin, according to a draft of the legislation prepared by the city's Department of the Environment.

"If we're truly going to be the city we promote ourselves to be, a world-class, 21st century city that advances its values and principles, we're going to have to try new things," Newsom said Thursday. "People are used to doing things a certain way. And when you change that, they say it can't be done. Well, we've proved them wrong."

I wonder if Newsom thinks that 2008 Up Your Alley Fair (first link in first paragraph) "advances [San Fran's] values and principles"? Are those folks at the fair are "used to doing things a certain way"? What can you do to change that, Mr. Mayor?

Posted by: Hube at 08:05 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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(Posted by Hube)

The city has stuck to their guns and said "no" to a Muslim request for "private time" at a city pool:

A group of Somali women have asked Portland Parks and Recreation to accommodate their Muslim faith by allowing an after-hours, women-only swim time at a city pool to be staffed only by female lifeguards.

The cityÂ’s response?

No way. Anti-discrimination employment law wonÂ’t allow it, Deputy City Attorney Lory Kraut wrote in an 11-page memo to the parks bureau June 23.

Ah, but the executive director of the local Center for Intercultural Organizing says "Portland should be flexible" and that it will "exclude" the Muslim community if it doesn't accommodate it.

Y'know what? Too bad. The Muslim community has to be accommodating too -- to their (in this case) new adopted homeland (the women are Somali). And this means recognizing that public facilities have to be religiously neutral.

One of the Somali women suggested renting the pool after hours as an accommodation. (It isn't clear from the article if this was the initial suggestion -- renting the pool -- or not.) The city still has said "no;" however, I don't see a problem with this. Where I live, religious groups (usually Christian) routinely rent [public] school auditoriums for services and other events on weekends, which, like the Portland pool situation, is after normal operating hours (obviously).

For traditionally liberal enclaves like Portland, situations like this must really pose a conundrum. They're reflexively hostile to religion, but at the same time, they're ridiculously PC when it comes to religious (and other) minorities.

Stay tuned.

Posted by: Hube at 06:35 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Looking for a roommate? It can be quite a task some times. Where do you look? The classified ads? On the bulleting board at the grocery store? How about online? That is where Roomster comes in. They can help match you with the perfect roommate for you. Check them out today at roomster.net for the right roomate!

Posted by: Greg at 07:58 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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That is the conclusion of the latest Rasmussen Poll!

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows the race for the White House is tied with Barack Obama and John McCain each attracting 44% of the vote. However, when "leaners" are included, itÂ’s McCain 47% and Obama 46%.

This is the first time McCain has enjoyed even a statistically insignificant advantage of any sort since Obama clinched the Democratic nomination on June 3 (see recent daily results).

Now the lead is insignificant statistically at this point, but it is a first. if things continue to trend this way, we may see some real fun at the Democrat Convention in Denver.

Posted by: Greg at 01:48 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Americans overwhelmingly support opening the outer continental shelf to drilling. Majorities in California and Florida now support such drilling, a radical change from recent years.

But there is one immovable object in the way of drilling -- Queen 9% of the House of Representatives.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday ruled out a vote on new offshore oil drilling even as Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said he might be open to a compromise that included it.

The scramble over expanded drilling off America's coasts — ammunition for a weekend of rat-a-tat-tat by the presidential campaigns — underscores the political power of $4-a-gallon gas. Though President Bush and other backers of new drilling acknowledge it wouldn't directly affect gas prices for years, they have pounded Democrats for opposing the measure, which is now supported by most Americans.

Pelosi called proposals to allow more offshore drilling a deceptive "decoy" rather than a solution and indicated she would bar a vote on any bill that included it. "I'm not giving the gavel away to a tactic Â… that supports the oil (companies), big oil at the cost and the expense of the consumer," she said on ABC's This Week.

The House started a five-week summer recess Friday despite Republican demands for a vote on lifting the federal ban on offshore drilling. House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio said GOP representatives would be on the House floor today to protest the lack of action.

Commisar Pelosi (D-Sodom and Gomorrah) has decided -- no new drilling. Screw teh President. Screw the rest of the House. Screw the American people. We may as well rip up the Constitution and concede the reality that we live in the People's Republic of Nancy, where the only vote that counts is hers.

Posted by: Greg at 01:42 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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No one can give a good definition, but I'll give it a shot.

A windfall profit is any profit that a group of politicians claims is too high in order to score political points by invoking class envy. There is no formulaic definition.

Take the latest attempt to create a tax on "windfall profits".

Mr. Obama's "emergency" plan, announced on Friday, doesn't offer any clarity. To pay for "stimulus" checks of $1,000 for families and $500 for individuals, the Senator says government would take "a reasonable share" of oil company profits.

Mr. Obama didn't bother to define "reasonable," and neither did Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Senate Democrat, when he recently declared that "The oil companies need to know that there is a limit on how much profit they can take in this economy." Really? This extraordinary redefinition of free-market success could use some parsing.

So as you can see, the distinction between "reasonable" vs. "windfall" profits is ambiguous and subjective. And in real terms, these Democrats are objecting to an 8.4% quarterly profit by Exxon, and similar levels of profit by other oil companies. Exxon's annual profit for 2007 was about 10%

But somehow that doesn't seem to be an across the board standard.

If that's what constitutes windfall profits, most of corporate America would qualify. Take aerospace or machinery -- both 8.2% in 2007. Chemicals had an average margin of 12.7%. Computers: 13.7%. Electronics and appliances: 14.5%. Pharmaceuticals (18.4%) and beverages and tobacco (19.1%) round out the Census Bureau's industry rankings. The latter two double the returns of Big Oil, though of course government has already became a tacit shareholder in Big Tobacco through the various legal settlements that guarantee a revenue stream for years to come.

Interestingly enough, no one seems interested in taking on any of those industries with larger profits as having reaped an illegitimate windfall. So it must not be a percentage figure that leads to that classification.

What does the most recent effort to impose a "windfall profits" tax say?

In a tax bill on oil earlier this summer, no fewer than 51 Senators voted to impose a 25% windfall tax on a U.S.-based oil company whose profits grew by more than 10% in a single year and wasn't investing enough in "renewable" energy. This suggests that a windfall is defined by profits growing too fast. No one knows where that 10% came from, besides political convenience.

But 10% growth doesn't do it, either. After all, no one is talking about imposing a "windfall profits" tax on companies that grow 10, 20, or even 50 times as prodigiously outside the oil industry. And interestingly enough, the figure of 10% growth is set in absolute terms, not growth of profit as a percentage of total revenue. That means that even the shrinkage of profit as a percentage of revenue can constitute a "windfall profit" if total revenues rose due to a steep increase in raw materials.

What it comes down to, then, is that a "windfall profits" tax is in fact a "class warfare exploitation" tax, which is today directed against the politically convenient enemy du jour -- the oil companies.

But interestingly enough, nothing in this "windfall profits" tax will strike at the entity that saw a similarly steep increase in their oil-related profits -- various levels of US government, which received tax payments $64.7 billion from Exxon from 2003 to 2007. For the record, that is more than $19 billion more than Exxon's after-tax profit during the same period. But I don't hear the advocates of taxing "windfall profits" complaining about government raking in such big bucks -- they want to increase the government's take instead.

Posted by: Greg at 01:30 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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More and more folks I know are riding motorcycles these days. I’ve got several colleagues at school who ride in on Harleys – and my principal has a really hot looking Japanese number.

But as fate would have it, one of the guys at school got creamed by a driver (fortunately not a student) on the way home one night, putting him out of commission for several weeks. You donÂ’t even want to think about the medical bills involved in that accident.

Fortunately, he found a good attorney to handle the suit that he filed against the driver, and he made a nice recovery for both his expenses, lost wages, and non-tangible damages.

And it is important to hire an attorney for such cases. The paperwork involved in a motorcycle accident can be a nightmare, and some insurance companies want to blame the biker, even if their insured was at fault. After all, for the insurance company it is all about their bottom line – so you need someone who will look out your interests.

And there is good reason to use a california motorcycle accident attorney who knows the laws regarding motorcycle accidents. You want a settlement that is fair – and it is far more likely that you will get a higher settlement with an experienced motorcycle accident lawyer who knows what to ask for. You may or may not be aware of all you are entitled to claim in a suit. Your lawyer is.

Posted by: Greg at 09:58 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I think I've mentioned a time or two that I am a long time fan of the group Styx.

There is, however, one album that Styx fans don't necessarily like to talk about -- 1984's Caught in the Act. Yeah, it has great concert material -- but also the single worst studio track the group ever recorded.

And what got released as the single? That song -- Music Time.

And the video is worse.

It has to be my nominee for worst video of all time. Watch it with that in mind.

Posted by: Greg at 03:29 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I remember being eleven-years-old when the news broke that the Russians had expelled a dissident writer from their country. I didn't understand the importance of this man at the time, but I later recognized his greatness -- and the importance of his shedding light on the evil of Communism.

Today that man, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, has departed this earthly life.

The Soviet dissident writer and Nobel literature prize winner Alexander Solzhenitsyn has died aged 89, according to the Interfax news agency.

The agency said he died of a stroke, although his son Stepan Solzhenitsyn said his father died of heart failure. The author had suffered from ill heath, including high blood pressure, in recent years.

Solzhenitsyn served with the Red Army in the Second World War but became one of the most prominent dissidents of the Soviet era, enduring labour camps, cancer and persecution under the Soviet regime.

His experience of the network of labour camps was vividly described in his work One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.

His key works, including "The First Circle" and "Cancer Ward" brought him world admiration and the 1970 Nobel Literature prize.

He was stripped of his citizenship and sent into exile in 1974 after the publication of "The Gulag Archipelago", his monumental history of the Soviet police state. Solzhenitsyn then moved to the United States, returning to post-Soviet Russia as a hero in 1994.

His diagnosis for the root cause of the evil that afflicted his homeland was clear and unapologetic.

"If I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible that main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: 'Men had forgotten God; that is why all this has happened.'"

My words are not sufficient to praise one whose words and message were so important to the eventual downfall of communism, and whose suffering for speaking out against evil was a source of inspiration to millions. Let it suffice to say that he was among the giants of the twentieth century.

May Alexander Solzhenitsyn find himself this night in the arms of the Savior who he served faithfully -- and may his loved ones be comforted with the knowledge that this is so.

Posted by: Greg at 12:20 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Cindy Sheehan has turned in enough signatures to challenge Nancy Pelosi for Congress this fall.

It looks as though Independent Congressional candidate Cindy Sheehan has collected enough signatures to challenge House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on NovemberÂ’s ballot.

Sheehan submitted 13,300 signatures to the California Department of Elections, which is about 30 percent more than the 10,198 required to qualify for the ballot and certification will just be a formality, according to campaign workers.

“We found that a lot of people are upset about Nancy Pelosi funding the war,” says Sheehan who collected many of the signatures herself. “People also want to see more Democracy, more choice and more debate.”

Also in the race for Congressional District number 8, which covers most of San Francisco, is Libertarian candidate Philip Berg and Republican Dana Walsh.

I'd like to encourage my fellow conservatives to consider the options here. We have a Libertarian who doesn't have a chance on the ballot, and a Republican whose chances aren't much better. Why don't we all drop a few bucks Sheehan's direction and give Queen 9% a run for her money?

Besides, imagine the hilarity if Sheehan actually won! That would be worth the price of admission all by itself!

Posted by: Greg at 11:52 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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They appear to be so interested in saving the lives of animals that the lives of human beings are unimportant.

Two University of California-Santa Cruz research scientists were targets of firebombs early Saturday, a troubling sign authorities said of escalating violence against university researchers who use animals in their labs.

Law enforcement labeled the incidents "acts of domestic terrorism."

In the off-campus incident, a well-known molecular biologist and his family, including two small children, were forced to escape a smoke-filled house using a second-story ladder after a firebomb was intentionally set, Santa Cruz police said. One family member sustained injuries requiring brief hospitalization, and police are calling the firebombing, which occurred shortly before 6 a.m., a case of attempted homicide.

About the same time, a car belonging to a researcher parked at an on-campus home was also firebombed, destroying the vehicle.

The scary thing is that these sick freaks consider scientists who use animals in the search for cures for cancer, AIDS, and other diseases to be the equivalent of those who committed atrocities at Auschwitz. It shows that they have no moral compass -- and place no value on the lives of people.

And what's even more sickening, these punks don't even have the courage to blow themselves up like your average Hell-bound jihadi. They are more than willing to kill others -- researchers, their families, and those dying from the research they disrupt -- but not to risk their own lives in the process.

H/T Malkin

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If Obama is so popular, why is the percentage of Americans identifying as Democrats decreasing?

During July, the number of Americans who consider themselves to be Democrats fell two percentage points to 39.2%. ThatÂ’s the first time since January that the number of Democrats has fallen below 41% (see history from January 2004 to present).

While the number of Democrats declined, there was virtually no change in the number of Republicans. In July, 31.6% said they were Republicans, the fourth straight month that number has been between 31.4% and 31.6%.

The Democrats now have a 7.6 percentage point advantage over the Republicans, down from a 9.5 percentage point advantage in June and 10.1 percentage points in May.

Which means, of course, that the Democrats have lost 25% of their edge in two months, while Republicans have remained firm. At this rate, we could see the partisan advantage drop to as little as 2-3% by Election day.

I wonder -- could this have anything to do with the lack of any serious effort to address the energy issue on the part of the Jackass Party?

Posted by: Greg at 11:25 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Blogger and columnist Don Surber writes the following in response to Paris Hilton's mother's PuffHo column about the "Celebrity" ad:

I donÂ’t like the ad. But McCain should return the $4,600 that the Hiltons donated and tell them to buy panties for their daughters.

What more is there to add?

Posted by: Greg at 11:16 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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There has been a great deal of speculation that a recent US airstrike in Pakistan just over the Afghan border severely injured Osama bin-Laden's number #2,Sheik Ayman Zawahiri. According to CBS News,(which means you can take it with a grain of salt) they supposedly saw a letter from 'unnamed sources' in Pakistan in which a Taliban leader urgently requested medical attention for him.

I personally think this is bogus, and I doubt we managed to get Zawahiri. But the raid definitely had some good results.

Al-Qaeda itself confirmed that four of its 'heroes' ended up on the wrong side of one of our Hellfire missiles. The 'heroes' in this particular cockroach stomp included Abu Khabab al-Masri, a senior Al-Qaeda commander known as a top explosives and poisons expert as well as three other lesser known 'commanders'.

Al-Masri was an Egyptian whose real name was Midhat Mursi. He had a $5 million price on his head from the United States. Among the other high points on his resume,he was believed to have trained the homicide bombers who killed 17 American sailors when they attacked the USS Cole in Yemen back in 2000.

He was also believed to have helped run al-Qaida's Darunta training camp in eastern Afghanistan until he and the boys were run out by the US invasion in 2001. He was famous for conducting experiments in chemical and biological weapons, using dogs as test animals. For that alone I hope he and his pals suffered sufficiently and his death wasn't a quick and painless one.

In any event, a nice job of pest control by our warriors...G-d speed the good work and all that stuff.

-Robert@JoshuaPundit-

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Just when it seemed like the mob bosses who run Fatah and Hamas were all set for a cozy sitdown to resolve their turf wars and get on with the important business of killing Jews, their inner nature got in the way and they turned on each other.

It started with a breakdown of talks mediated by the Egyptians between Hamas and Fatah,with the principles and their various spokesmouths calling each nasty and perfectly accurate names. Then it escalated with arrests and crackdowns in both Gaza and the Palestinian occupied areas of Judea and Samaria (AKA The West Bank)with Fatah and Hamas rounding up members of the opposition in their respective gang territories and subjecting them to a little Palestinian-style 'justice'...nothing too terminal Mohammed, just a quiet little chat between you and me and my pals in a quiet little cell with baseball bats, electrodes and a few lit cigarettes to keep the party fun and interesting.

The real fireworks started at the end of last week when a bombing took out five Hamas members in the Gaza Strip.

It's fascinating observe how Hamas reacted to a terrorist bombing as opposed to the way Israel does...Chicago rules all the way. The Green Hat boys went berserk and started arresting and questioning everyone associated with Fatah they could lay their greasy hands on and soon fingered the Fatah allied Hilles clan. They then attacked the clan's stronghold in Al-Shuja'iyah district in eastern Gaza, killing nine people and wounding more than one hundred,including the clan's leader, Ahmed Hilles.

Over 180 members of the Hilles clan and their assorted allies, including the wounded clan leader fled to - get this - Israel, of all places. And believe it or not, once the Israelis disarmed them and searched everybody and made sure no one was carrying a bomb under their clothing, the hated Jews actually allowed them in and hospitalized the wounded Fatah fighters!

In a bizarre twist, when the Israelis attempted to repatriate the non-hospitalized Fatah clansmen, Mahmoud Abbas refused to accept them into the Palestinian occupied territory in the West Bank and told the Israelis to return them to the tender mercies of Hamas in Gaza...where they were all promptly arrested.Abbas' rationale for this was that he didn't want to eliminate a powerful group of Fatah loyalists from Gaza,but there was apparently something else involved, since that makes no sense whatever, even to a Palestinian. I have a feeling that the real reason Abbas didn't want them in the West Bank is because he was nervous about importing yet another group of fighters into the area whom weren't under his complete control.

It's important to remember that the Palestinians are not a nation as we think of it, but a feudal collection of frequently warring clans.

Meanwhile,Fatah continued its own clean up of the rival mob's gangsters. In Nablus, Fatah gunmen seized the senior Hamas operative on the West Bank Muhammad Ghazal and his family and threatened to execute them all unless Hamas ends the crackdown on their followers in Gaza and releases the Fatah goons Hamas has in its jails.

And in Gaza, Hamas arrested Fatah operatives Ibrahim Abu an-Naja and Zakaria al-Agha, who were put in charge of Fatah's people in Gaza by Abbas with the same rationale..to put pressure on Abbas to release Hamas prisoners he's holding on the West Bank.

This will probably end up with another mob sitdown and a return to the status quo,believe it or not. Abbas isn't strong enough to oust Hamas from the West Bank,and Hamas needs Fatah to continue forwarding to Gaza The Green Hat Mob's share of the aid money doled out by gullible infidels like the US State Department.

-Robert@Joshuapundit-

Crossposted at JoshuaPundit

Posted by: RobertM at 05:52 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I'm opposed to any situation in which union membership is compulsory, especially for public employees. And while I know the law allows workers to "opt out" in many situations, the employees are often still required to pay the bulk of the union dues for "representation" that they don't want while being deprived of any voice in decision-making after exercising their right to to freely not associate with an organization that they do not feel represents their interests.

Please understand -- I've been the building representative for one of the four organizations representing teachers in my school district for the past decade, so I am not hostile to teachers voluntarily organizing to protect their own best interests. But the problem of the "union shop" model of organization is the arrogance it breeds among the leadership of the union.

A recent editorial in the Washington Post and the response of a union thug official is illustrative of what is wrong with the current model in most places.

On July 23, the Washington Post said the following in an editorial.

IT'S APPARENT that some D.C. teachers union officials don't think much of the people they represent. How else to explain their objections to Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee speaking to teachers about pending contract talks? The suggestion that simply providing information is coercive belittles the people who each day are entrusted with that very duty.

Now please realize -- these meeting were not mandatory for teachers, so no one was being forced to attend. The Chancellor (Superintendent in most districts) was going to present directly to interested teachers her vision for the city's failing schools, including information on the district's proposal for a reformist compensation plan that would allow teachers to choose either a traditional compensation package (set salary, tenure) or an incentive-based salary plan with no tenure. As noted, many of the union traditionalists want no part of the plan -- or of teachers getting their information from any source other than the union. But really, whose interests are harmed by talking and listening?

Which leads us to this response from one of the union thugs officials.

Regarding the July 23 editorial "Teachable Moment":

I dismiss the reasoning in this editorial as that of the right-wing, rich and powerful, politically connected and corporate leaders who seek to control political thought in Washington. But if I fail to respond to The Post's anti-union, anti-teacher discourse, the public just might accept your version of reality, which suggests that teachers unions oppose educational progress and have no right to advocate for teachers. I object to your comments defining me as a hardliner because I am an advocate for teachers, students and schools.

Teachers should be respected as professionals capable of discussing their contract in private without the interference of political lobbying from our bosses and newspapers. Having outsiders present at our informational sessions is totally inappropriate. Washington Teachers' Union President George Parker caused a controversy when he failed to consider input from the union's executive board and membership regarding whether we should invite Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee to our informational sessions.

The Post was simply wrong to weigh in on the decision-making processes of our members. It is time for The Post to stop putting political ideology ahead of equitable coverage of the other side of the public education reform story.

CANDI PETERSON
Member, Board of Trustees
Washington Teachers' Union
Washington

Now let's translate this letter.

PARAGRAPH 1: You fascists hate public schools and teachers. Only union thugs officials care about education.

PARAGRAPH 2: Letting anyone other than union thugs officials have access to our teachers -- whether district officials, members of the public, or the news media -- undercuts our ability to get the teachers to accept our skewed, one-sided view of the up-coming contract negotiations. Less information -- good. More information -- bad.

PARAGRAPH 3: The press has no right to weigh in on the operation of our public schools or the spending of public funds on teacher contracts -- unless they support the views of the union thugs officials who need teacher ignorance to maintain their hold on power. So shut up and butt out.

And folks like Candi Peterson wonder why unions like hers are so often seen as the biggest obstacle to education reform in this country.

UPDATE -- 8/6/2008: Union thugs officials complain that someone other than union thugs officials might talk to teachers about their contract. How awful that members of the public might have something to say on the matter!

Posted by: Greg at 01:41 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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This one falls in the "You Really Can Find Everything On The Internet" category. Now there is a website that is a guide to toasters, toaster ovens, and toaster oven accessories! Now I suppose this could be a great thing for someone who is in need of one or the other, but do many folks really research such a purchase that deeply? I guess they must, for you can find all sorts of information about features I would have never thought existed in these devices.

Posted by: Greg at 09:25 PM | Comments (408) | Add Comment
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Well, someone is finally pointing out the obvious -- sort of.

A dispute over whether black U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama has played the "race card" won't swing the election but could make it harder for voters to trust him, analysts said on Friday.

No African American has ever been elected to the White House and in a country where memories of racial strife and discrimination against the minority are still fresh, Obama must work harder to overcome his doubters, they said on Friday.

References to the Democratic senator's race, if they are seen as clumsy, do not help Obama make the case that he is the most reliable choice to lead the country as it struggles with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and an ailing economy.

No let's begin with certain caveats here.

1. There are individuals out there whose rejection of Barack Obama is based upon his race.
   
2. There are also individuals -- especially among African-Americans -- whose support for Obama is based upon his race.
   

Those points taken together, though, do not add up to this being a campaign based upon race -- at least not on the Republican side. I've not met a Republican whose objections to Barack Obama are based upon anything other than his ideology and his inexperience. Indeed, a great many of us find Obama to be a charming, interesting man with whom we would love to sit down and toss back a couple of adult beverages of our choice. We just don't think that he is the right guy for America in 2008. Opposition to his candidacy does not equate to personal animus -- and certainly not to racial animus.

However, in recent days we have seen Obama (and his surrogates) make specific claims of racial politics against John McCain and his campaign. But as quickly as he made the accusation, he denied it.

I was in Union, Mo., which is 98 percent white — a rural, conservative [town]. and what I said was what I think everybody knows, which is that I don't look like I came out of central casting when it comes to presidential candidates. But that I think that what people are really concerned about, what they're looking for is fundamental change on the economy, things that are going to help their families live out the American dream.

There was nobody there who thought at all that I was trying to inject race in this. What this has become I think is a typical pattern from the McCain campaign, whether it's Paris Hilton or Britney or this phony allegation that I wouldn't visit troops. They seem to be focused on a negative campaign, [when] what I think our campaign wants to do is focus on the issues that matter to American families.

Oh, so it was all about negative campaigning, Senator?

Then explain this.

But Obama's chief strategist, David Axelrod, acknowledged on "Good Morning America" Friday that the candidate was referring, at least in part, to his ethnic background.

When pressed to explain the comment, Axelrod told "GMA" it meant, "He's not from central casting when it comes to candidates for president of the United States. He's new to Washington. Yes, he's African-American."

Excuse me -- those two comments just don't square up. Either it was an accusation that the McCain campaign is making race-based appeals, or it wasn't. it can't be both -- and you can't find a wishy-washy middle ground between these two statements.

Which is just the latest reason that Americans are going to have a trust issue involving Obama.

"I don't think he (Obama) did himself any good with these comments. What he did ... is inject back into this context the idea about (voters') ... comfort level," said [political commentator Terry] Madonna of Franklin and Marshall College in Pennsylvania.

"What he said is not exactly rap talk, black speak, but that is something that Obama has to be very careful about. He just can't let people believe that they can't trust him."

And that is what conflicting messages on this issue creates -- an indication that Barack Obama can't be trusted. But then again, given his flip-flops on virtually every issue, can we really trust the man anyway?

Hot Air offers a particularly interesting analysis of the Obama campaign on this point -- and the slavish devotion of the True Believers at the New York Times. They also point out the more independent coverage at the Washington Post.

UPDATE: Looks like Barry Hussein can't stick to the same story from one interview to the next.

“I don’t think it’s accurate to say that my comments have nothing to do with race,” Obama said.

I guess that would be change he' hopes the American people will not notice -- or will buy into despite it contradicting his earlier denial.

H/T Sister Toldjah, LGF

Posted by: Greg at 01:31 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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As I believe I mentioned earlier, the esteemed Watcher, founder of the Watcher's Council, is retiring due to concerns of a personal nature.

Since this surprise announcement several weeks ago, we members of the Watcher's Council have kept ourselves going on an ad hoc basis while discussing our future.

Consensus was achieved rapidly that we would like to find a worthy successor for our leader emeritus -- and that none of us wanted to take the spot ourselves or lose any of the collection of unique voices that make up the Watcher's Council, though we did have one member step forward and offer himself in that capacity if no better candidate could be found.

And then, through a little bit of serendipity, an outside candidate for Watcher was put forward who could not have better fit the criteria upon which the members of the Council had agreed upon in the course of our discussion. After a bit of dialogue, he has agreed to become our new leader.

Cue the white cyber-smoke over the Sistine Cyber-Chapel

Terry Trippany, one of my favorite bloggers, who created, managed and written Webloggin, and who is also a frequent contributor to Newsbusters, will be the new Watcher. Expect him to assume his new duties as Watcher over the next few weeks, and to see changes in the Watcher's Council website once he does. But what we are all confident will be unchanged is the regular offering of great blog posts from within the Council and around the Internet for your consideration.

Posted by: Greg at 01:08 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Do you need a new car? How are you going to pay for i? If you are like most Americans, you are probably looking for some sort of financing. After all, few of us have sufficient cash-on-hand to walk into the dealership with the entire amount of a new car in cash. That means you need to get a new car loan to pay for the new set of wheels. And if you have any sense, you'll want the best terms available. After all, you don't want to pay any more than you have to for that vehicle. But where can you find a loan that fits your needs? Why not fill out the Online Car Loan Application at CompleteLoanSource.com? After all, they offer loans to fit the needs of folks in all sorts of situation -- even those with bad credit. And they also offer Payday Loans, too!

Posted by: Greg at 12:39 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The Council has spoken!

Here are the winning entries in the WatcherÂ’s Council vote for this week.

On the Council side, first place went to Soccer Dad for Hating Israel more than loving Palestinians.

Council:

On the Non-Council side, first place was a two way tie between Jay Cost for On ObamaÂ’s Message and InvestorÂ’s Business Daily for Barack ObamaÂ’s Stealth Socialism. After the esteemed Bookworm broke the tie, things arranged themselves as follows.

Non-Council:

Posted by: Greg at 12:00 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Imagine that it’s the end of the world. No, not the end of the world as we know it, but the actual end of the world. You can make the cause anything you want – global warming, nuclear war, alien invasion, meteor impact, or what have you. If you could escape with only one thing, what would it be?

Now there are lots of possibilities. IÂ’ll leave out other people, because they really arenÂ’t things. And while the scholarly side of me might want to take a book or a CD-ROM with an entire library of scholarly and religious texts, I think I would settle for something much more simple in the end.

Yeah, that’s right – my dog. Or at least a dog, if Apolitical Pooch weren’t able to accompany my Darling Democrat and I. After all, a dog is such an important source of love and companionship, as well as link to the very first creatures domesticated by humanity millennia ago – because it is believed that canines were the first animals that mankind brought into that special relationship at the dawn of time.

Now there is a neat new game out there, Tabula Rasa. IÂ’m not going to give you a long description, but it is about human beings fighting against an alien enemy, trying to preserve humanity and civilization. IÂ’ll let you check out the details. But its developer is going to be making a journey to the International Space Station soon, and he is taking with him some DNA samples and messages from human beings. You may even be one of those DNA samples, if you follow the instructions for entering the contest at Operation Immortality.

Operation Immortality: Leave your mark. Save Humanity.

Think about it – you could help preserve some small bit of humanity against the end of the world. That is serious stuff.

Posted by: Greg at 11:51 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Great new video from the McCain Campaign!

Damn funny video -- damn serious question.

Is Obama ready to lead, with the experience necessary to occupy the Oval Office?

Well, let's take this expert on Barack Obama and see what he has to say.

I don't think I have a place in history yet. I got elected to the U.S. Senate. I haven't done anything yet.

Those are Obama's words about himself, less than two months after he took office as a US Senator. On the same interview in which he made that damning assessment of his lack of accomplishments and experience, he also said he would not run for president in 2008. He announced his candidacy less than two years later -- despite having no significant accomplishments during that short time in the US Senate.

Posted by: Greg at 03:04 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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It really all depends upon how you look at the numbers.

Exxon Mobil once again reported the largest quarterly profit in U.S. history Thursday, posting net income of $11.68 billion on revenue of $138 billion in the second quarter.

Oh, that is a very ugly number by itself. And if you look at it in isolation, what you appear to have are really bloated profits.

Until you break it all down.

You see, $11.68 billion is a mere 8.4% of the total revenue taken in by the corporation. Put differently, if you owned a company that did $100,000 in a quarter, you would have actually only earned $8400 during that time period -- which would mean that your annual income as a business owner would have been a paltry $33,600. So as you can see, the profit as a percentage of revenue is hardly exorbitant.

Now on the other hand, there are some other numbers in this article that you should consider.

In addition to making hefty profits, Exxon also had a hefty tax bill. Worldwide, the company paid $10.5 billion in income taxes in the second quarter, $9.5 billion in sales taxes, and over $12 billion in what it called "other taxes."

Got that -- Exxon paid $32.36 billion in taxes worldwide last year. Put differently, that means that 23.4% of revenues went to pay taxes. And going back to my hypothetical small business making $100,000 in a quarter, that would translate to $23,400 in taxes for the quarter or $94,600 in taxes for the year. O, yeah -- that would mean that the government would be taking roughly $2.78 for every dollar that you as a business owner made.

The other 68.2% of the revenue? That would be spent on business overhead -- including employee pay. I wish that the financial reports supplied broke out how much Exxon was contributing to the economy in terms of employee salary and benefits. I suspect it far dwarf that $11.68 billion in profit.

But then again, focusing on that number might put an end to the class warfare rhetoric of certain segments of our body-politic.

H/T istockanalyst.com

Posted by: Greg at 02:22 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Queen 9% was not amused when Republicans tried to block adjournment and refused to leave the House floor after the Democrats irresponsibly voted for a 5-week paid vacation for themselves but not for an energy bill that would help the American people.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the Democrats adjourned the House, turned off the lights and killed the microphones, but Republicans are still on the floor talking gas prices.

Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and other GOP leaders opposed the motion to adjourn the House, arguing that Pelosi's refusal to schedule a vote allowing offshore drilling is hurting the American economy. They have refused to leave the floor after the adjournment motion passed at 11:23 a.m., and they are busy bashing Pelosi and her fellow Democrats for leaving town for the August recess.

At one point, the lights went off in the House and the microphones were turned off in the chamber, meaning Republicans were talking in the dark. But as Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz..) was speaking, the lights went back on and the microphones were turned on shortly afterward.

But C-SPAN, which has no control over the cameras in the chamber, has stopped broadcasting the House floor, meaning no one was witnessing this except the assembled Republicans, their aides, and one Democrat, Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio), who has now left.

* * *

Democratic aides were furious at the GOP stunt, and reporters were kicked out of the Speaker's Lobby, the space next to the House floor where they normally interview lawmakers.

"You're not covering this, are you?" complained one senior Democratic aide. Another called the Republicans "morons" for staying on the floor.

Update: The Capitol Police are now trying to kick reporters out of the press gallery above the floor, meaning we can't watch the Republicans anymore.

Eventually the Republicans were able to continue their protest against the repressive tactics of Commisar Nancy Pelosi (D-Sodom and Gomorrah), ending at 5:00 PM Eastern Time, having made their point that the Democrats have refused to do the people's business and attempted to silence the people's representatives and muzzle the press. Personally, I wish they had camped out on the House floor.

Bravo for the good men and women who participated in these actions -- I can't wait to see the video begin appearing in Democrat districts around the country.

More Coverage from Michelle Malkin (blogging extensively), Don Surber, STACLU, Ace, RedState, Gateway Pundit, Patterico, PowerLine, Hot Air

Posted by: Greg at 01:56 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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Mental midget Keith Olbermann, whose rise as a political commentator is proof that even a second-rate sportscaster can pass himself off as a legal expert on a par with a noted Constitutional scholar like Justice Antonin Scalia, has handed down his ruling on the Second Amendment.

Despite years of fog created by the NRA and right-wing organizations, that isn't very complicated: For the purposes of forming a state militia, you're entitled to keep and bear arms. Obviously, those would have to be the kind of arms in use in 1791, when the Bill of Rights was passed — the musket, the wheel-lock, the flint lock, the 13th century Chinese hand canon.

Well, Keith, let's consider some things:

1. Every other time the Bill of Rights gives a right to "the people" it refers to an individual right.
   
2. Every extant writing of the individual Framers indicates they saw the right to keep and bear arms as an inalienable right of the individual.
   
3. No source dating to the 1790s supports your interpretation of the Second Amendment, while virtually all of the jurisprudence and legal writings of the first 150 years of the Republic supports Scalia's view.
   
4. A quick review of the proceedings of the state conventions ratifying the Constitution (to which the Second Amendment was a response) presumed the right of private citizens to own and keep MILITARY-STYLE ARMS in their homes -- meaning that Scalia's opinion, if anything,failed to go far enough in protecting the individual right to keep and bear arms.
   

But fine, Bathtub Boy, let's have it your way despite all the evidence to the contrary. You certainly won't object to this interpretation of another amendment.

Despite years of fog created by the ACLU and left-wing organizations, that isn't very complicated: For the purposes of engaging journalism, you're entitled to freely operate a printing press. Obviously, those would have to be the kind of printing presses in use in 1791, when the Bill of Rights was passed — the hand-cranked, hand-set, hand-inked lead-type printing press and the quill pen.

And since we are going to agree on the understanding of the Bill of Rights as passed in 1791, let's not forget that insulting and critical comments directed against the President of the United States may legitimately be punished as sedition (remember the Alien and Sedition Acts), individual states may provide tax support to houses of worship, public sectarian prayer may begin any government proceeding, and capital punishment may be imposed for a variety of offenses, with no lower age limit for its imposition. Oh, yeah -- no abortion or gay marriage, either -- and sodomy may be punished as a crime.

Most of us, however, don't adhere to quite so extreme a version of original intent as you seem to -- or should I say as you pretend to, for you would never for a moment accept even a single proposition I put forward as parallel to your absurd proposition. Indeed, you would never accept even one of my parallels, even though your objections would completely undermine your position on the Second Amendment.

And there's the beautiful thing about our country -- they say anybody can grow up to be a an over-paid, under-educated, historically and legally ignorant buffoon with his own television show. And in Keith Olbermann, there's your proof, and every-damn-day's "Worst Person in the World"!

H/T NewsBusters, Right Wing News

Posted by: Greg at 12:44 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Greetings, Rhyme With Righters! Robert fromJoshuaPundit here.

Thanks to Greg's courtesy and his impending vacation, I'll be attempting to fill his shoes somewhat over the next two weeks...a tall order, but I'll do my best.

Now to biz:

President Bush suffered what could end up being a major defeat in the courts yesterday, as a federal judge, John D. Bates of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that ex-White House Aides Harriet Mires and Joshua Bolton are not covered by executive privilege,are required to comply with the subpoena issued to them by the House Judiciary Committee and must testify under oath in front of Congress and cooperate in the overblown saga of the fired US attorneys, one that has already claimed the scalp of Alberto Gonzales

John Conyers, Democrat head of committee almost literally went berserk with joy.

The Democrats have been in a take-no-prisoners attitude towards George W. Bush since they regained the House and Senate majorities in 2006,and the current Congress has a unique smell to it....a stench or pursuing private perks and vendettas rather than the people's business.

The White House will likely appeal this decision,which means this matter will spill over into the next administration. We will likely be treated to a spectacle unique in our history, the hounding and perhaps even the prosecution of a president after he's left office.

As I write this, the House is holding a "special hearing on 'the Constitutional limits of executive power'..or as one congressman put it 'impeachment lite'.

The politics of the possible...and you better not get between a dog and his meat, suckah!

If President Bush had plans of riding off into the sunset and enjoying a quiet retirement, he'd better think again.

Posted by: RobertM at 09:45 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I’ll be honest – I don’t remember much from my first day of school. After all, I was enrolled in a pre-school program at age 4½, and that was some four decades ago. But what memories I do have are of a big building, a huge sandbox, and a pair of cute little girls named Sandy and Roxanne who became two of my best friends for the next couple of years until my family moved away.

Oh, yeah – I remember naptime, and my blanket. And I remember getting into a fight with one of the other guys over my blanket, which he thought was mine. I sure could have used a label on it so that there would have been a nametag to tell them apart – not that either of us boys could have read at that point anyway! Probably some Color labels would have been the way to go.

As a teacher today, I make use of a Dymo labeler quite frequently. I label my classroom set of books, my personal property around the room – even the shelving units that I have bought for my classroom, so that no one from the school will try to move them into another room over the summer. And there are lots of other great uses – file cabinet drawers and the files inside, storage boxes, student folders and notebooks – that I use my Dymo labeler for every year.

Posted by: Greg at 08:36 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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As you may be aware, a couple of weeks ago a bunch of PUMA bloggers on Blogger were blocked by Obamabots labeling their blogs as spam.

Well, the same thing is happening again -- but now being directed against conservative bloggers who have failed to show sufficient respect for the Obamessiah.

Among these are two guys I deeply respect -- my fellow Watcher's Council Member Freedom Fighter from JoshuaPundit, as well as David M from Thunder Run. I've offered them temporary homes here -- so when they show up on the site, give them a warm welcome.

The timing of this is particularly convenient, because I may be posting sporadically for a while due to some family plans, and so these two respected refugees are going to be guest bloggers for me during that time, even if they get back into their sites.

You will also see my old buddy Hube from Colossus of Rhodey making some posts here as well over the next couple of weeks, as a favor. It has been a while since he has posted here, but I know my buddy will be popular here as well.

Thanks to all three guests!

Posted by: Greg at 08:13 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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