CNN continues duping public, working on Clinton campaign

The retired general who was provided the opportunity to query candidates at the CNN broadcast Republican debate on Nov. 28 is a co-chairman of Hillary Rodham Clinton's National Military Veterans group. Retired Brig. Gen. Keith H. Kerr was named a co-chairman of the group in November, according to a campaign press release.
Kerr was also active in John F. Kerry's 2004 campaign for president.
CNN ensured other questioners were elbowed aside to allow Kerr - a co-chair of “Veterans and Military Retirees for Hillary" - the floor and ask his Clinton/CNN-contrived question.
Of course CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, who moderated the debate and the panel, did not identify Kerr as being co-chairman of the Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign.
The CNN/Clinton campaign machine grinds on.

RIP Sean Taylor: Great role model, real prince of a man

On Nov. 27, 2007, Redskins safety Sean Taylor died from complications brought on by a gunshot wound. What follows is a timeline of the key events that helped define this great human being’s career and life since he was selected in the first round of the 2004 NFL draft.

2004
April 19 - Taylor’s playmaking, intimidation make him a top draft prospect.
April 24 - Redskins take Taylor with the fifth overall pick in the NFL draft.
April 24 - Thomas Boswell: Taylor Pick Will Be Steve Spurrier’s inadvertent legacy.
July 23 - Taylor fined $25,000 by the NFL for leaving a mandatory rookie symposium in California.
Sept. 27 - Taylor starts for the first time in Game 3, a loss to Dallas.
Oct. 17 - Taylor has his first great game as a pro, with four tackles, a sack and a fourth-quarter interception that sealed the Redskins’ victory over the Bears in Chicago.
Oct. 28 - Taylor arrested on the Beltway for DWI.
Dec. 24 - Taylor is fined a total of $17,500 for infractions including late hits in consecutive games on Giants QB Eli Manning and Eagles WR Terrell Owens. After a string of personal fouls, he is dubbed “the grim reaper” by linebacker LaVar Arrington.
2005
Jan. 5 - Judge dismisses one of DWI charges from October.
March 10 - Second and final DWI charge is dropped.
May 17 - Taylor is absent from offseason practice.
June 3 - Miami-Dade police have questions for Taylor; safety is ‘person of interest’ in a case involving a stolen car and shots being fired on June 1.
June 24 - Taylor is formally charged with one felony count of aggravated assault with a firearm and one misdemeanor count of simple battery for his role in a June 1 confrontation in a Miami neighborhood.
2006
Jan. 1 - Taylor ties for a team-high 11 tackles (seven solo) and returns a fumble 39 yards for his first career touchdown as Redskins clinch a playoff berth with a 31-20 win in Philadelphia.
Jan. 7 - Taylor ejected from playoff game for spitting in face of opponent.
Jan. 9 - Taylor fined $17,000 for spitting on opponent.
June 1 - Taylor enters a plea of no contest to misdemeanor assault and battery charges stemming from a June 1 confrontation in a Miami neighborhood.
Aug. 7 - Taylor is fined $71,764 by the NFL but not suspended in connection with his June plea bargain on a felony gun charge.
Nov. 5 - Taylor has nine tackles and recovers a blocked field goal with six seconds remaining in the game, returning it 30 yards to set up a game-winning field goal in a 22-19 win over Dallas.
Nov. 26 - Taylor has six tackles, one interception vs. Panthers, named NFC defensive player of the week.
2007
Feb. 5 - Taylor named to the NFC roster for the Pro Bowl after leading the Redskins' defense in tackles with 129 (89 solo).
Feb. 10 - Taylor plays in his first Pro Bowl and makes the highlight reel by flattening punter Brian Moorman during an attempted fake.
May 9 - Taylor skips the first week of voluntary team training sessions in the midst of, teammates believed, contract negotiations.
Oct. 14 - Taylor intercepts two of Brett Favre's passes, making Favre the most intercepted passer in NFL history. The game was Taylor's third straight with at least one interception.
Nov. 11 - Taylor sprains his knee in the loss to Philadelphia and misses two straight games, which is why he was not in Tampa with the team on Sunday.
Nov. 12 - Taylor dies, a day after he was shot by "an intruder who forcibly entered his residence," Miami police said.
Sources: Washington Post, Reuters, AP

Cartman football

Hugo 'Thug' Chavez comes clean: Useful idiots, Fellow travellers silent

Venezuelian President Hugo Chavez warned his supporters on Nov. 23, that anyone voting against his proposed constitutional changes would be a "traitor," rallying his political base before a referendum that would let him seek unlimited re-election in 2012 and beyond.
Critics warn he would also have the power to shut down Venezuelan newspapers, television and radio stations by declaring a state of emergency, and the government could detain citizens without charges during such a period.
Meanwhile, malcontents of Hollywood, academia, and politics, who see in Chávez an ideal ally, say nothing. Just as the sympathetic foreigners whom Lenin called "useful idiots", Sean Penn and Michael Moore are too consumed with idealizing and glamorizing others' revolutionary violence. Purposefully blind to the abuses and ball-peen hammer sensibilities of foreign dictators, just so long as the dictator affirms their own paranoid, anti-western script.
Brandishing a little red book listing his desired 69 revisions to Venezuela's charter, Chavez exhorted his backers to redouble their efforts toward a victorious "yes" vote in the Dec. 2 ballot.
"He who says he supports Chavez but votes 'no' is a traitor, a true traitor," the president told an arena packed with red-clad supporters. "He's against me, against the revolution and against the people."
His speech followed the recent high-profile defection of his former Defense Minister Gen. Raul Baduel, a longtime ally who called the president's proposed reforms a "coup." Others have also broken with the Chavista movement in recent months, including politicians of the small left-leaning party Podemos.
Chavez's opponents accuse him of concentrating power and seeking to be president-for-life like his close friend Fidel Castro of Cuba. Chavez insists he will only stay on as long as Venezuelans continue to vote for him.
"If you don't approve (the referendum), maybe we'll have time for a parachute jump in five years," Chavez, a former paratrooper, told the crowd. "But if you wish—if you approve the referendum—I will stay as long as God wills! Until the last bone of my skeleton dries out!"
The proposed revisions would do away with presidential term limits, extend terms from six to seven years, let Chavez appoint regional vice presidents and eliminate Central Bank authority, among other changes.

Source: Associated Press.

CNN adopts Canadian media tactics

While the Ottawa press gallery chose to fellate Liberal P.M.s Chretien and Martin, their mouths have been engaged somewhat differently with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative government: critical, pointed questions and, on occasion, insightful analysis.
Bravo!
In The U.S., it appears CNN has torn a page from Ottawa’s Parliamentary press gallery Liberal playbook and have assumed a prostrate position before the Democratic National Committee.
The Nov. 15 Las Vegas Democrat debate was apparently stage-managed by CNN to benefit Hillary Clinton, the candidate the network most wants in the White House come 2008.
Maria Luisa, the UNLV student who asked Hillary Clinton whether she preferred "diamonds or pearls" at the debate, wrote on her MySpace page that CNN forced her to ask the frilly question instead of a pre-approved query about the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.
"Every single question asked during the debate by the audience had to be approved by CNN," Luisa writes. "I was asked to submit questions including "lighthearted/fun" questions. I submitted more than five questions on issues important to me. I did a policy memo on Yucca Mountain a year ago and was the finalist for the Truman Scholarship. For sure, I thought I would get to ask the Yucca question that was APPROVED by CNN days in advance."
The debate was analyzed by James Carville (a Clinton supporter) and David Gergen (guy worked for the Bill Clinton Whitehouse). Of course they did what CNN brought them in to do: praise the Democratic vision, praise Hillary.
Almost as ridiculous as looking to the Ottawa press gallery for critical analysis of the Chretien and Martin governments.

Canada's former Prime Minister Jean Chretien dazzles with a touch of eloquent brilliance:

Combo vacation package: Disneyland, gramma's funeral

Your gramma tastes like chicken!

Disneyland workers were recently forced to close the "Pirates of the Caribbean" attraction after a ride security camera caught a woman apparently dumping human remains, in what may be a growing trend.
Workers at the Anaheim theme park spotted the woman sprinkling an unidentified substance into the water on the "Pirates" ride. Anaheim police were notified of the incident.
The woman told Disney park workers that the substance she dumped was baby powder, but officials are investigating the possibility that she sprinkled human ashes, Local 6 reported.
Some Disney watchers said park-goers tell them that people smuggling in the cremated remains of their loved ones and then sprinkling ashes on rides has been going on for a while.
They said it started at the Haunted Mansion, but now the "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride is growing in popularity.
Al Lutz, who runs Miceage.com, told KABC that it is not unusual for people to scatter a loved one's remains at the happiest place on earth.
Disney officials said they were unaware of any confirmed ash-scattering incidents in the park and didn't believe it to be a problem, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Park officials said there was no real way of knowing if cremated remains were dumped into the "Pirates" ride.
Source: Local6.com

Now that's what I call a gas price war!

Tired of being screwed over by colluding gas station owners and oil companies; revolted by useless federal employees stealing pay cheques at the Competition Bureau of Canada? Canadians take heart: gas price competition does exist:
Detroit police say a war between two gas stations took a shocking and tragic turn with a station owner shooting his rival who was irate over a gas-price cut.
The shooting happened around 10:45 a.m. at the Marathon station near the corner of Springwells and Fort Street in southwest Detroit.
Investigators say the confrontation started when the owner of the BP station on that corner went to the Marathon station to discuss with its owner why he'd dropped the price for a gallon of unleaded gas to $2.93 per gallon, three cents less than BP.
The discussion quickly escalated into a fight with two more people from the BP station brawling with rivals at Marathon. One man was hit with a baseball bat in the melee. And then, police say, the 51-year-old owner of the Marathon station pulled out a gun and shot the owner of the BP, a 45-year-old father of five children.
In a wild post-script, it appears the BP station is taking advantage of the shooting. While police are still swarming the Marathon station, the BP has jacked up its prices. WXYZ's Bill Proctor reports that as soon as the owner's body was taken away, workers at BP changed the price-per-gallon of unleaded from $2.96 to $3.09.
Source: Scripps TV Station Group
post script: Had the BP owner been armed to the teeth - or wearing Kevlar - when he confronted the Marathon owner and employees, consumers would have benefited through a prolonged price war.

Typical gas station gun fight

Heaven, hell and French mechanics

In Heaven, the policemen are British, mechanics are German, chefs are French,lovers are Italian, and the Swiss organize it all. In Hell, the policemen are German, mechanics are French, lovers are Swiss, and the Italians organize it all.
Case in point:
5 Injured During Ground Tests of Airbus
Nov 15 02:12 PM US/Eastern
TOULOUSE, France (AP) - Five people on board an Airbus 340-600 were injured Thursday during technical tests of the plane on the ground at a French airport, the company said.
Airbus gave no details of the accident.
The company said the four-engine plane, which is scheduled to be delivered to Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways, had been undergoing engine tests outside Toulouse, the southwestern French city where the European plane-making consortium is based.
Source: AP

Filthy Canadian lucre

Source: The Onion

Peyton Manning does it for the kids

Seattle soda-maker promises ham flavor will be kosher

It's rare to find kosher ham. Rarer still to find it carbonated and bottled.
Jones Soda Co., the Seattle-based purveyor of offbeat fizzy water, said Friday that it was shelving its traditional seasonal flavors of turkey and gravy this year to produce limited-edition theme packs for Christmas and Hanukkah.
The Christmas pack will feature such flavors as Sugar Plum, Christmas Tree, Egg Nog and Christmas Ham. The Hanukkah pack will have Jelly Doughnut, Apple Sauce, Chocolate Coins and Latkes sodas.
"As always, both packs are kosher and contain zero caffeine," a Jones news release noted.
The packs will go on sale Sunday, with a portion of the proceeds to be given to charity, the company said.
Jones' products feature original label art and frequently odd flavors. Last year's seasonal pack was Thanksgiving-themed, with Green Pea, Sweet Potato, Dinner Roll, Turkey and Gravy, and Antacid sodas. For its contract to supply soda to Qwest Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks, Jones came up with Perspiration, Dirt, Sports Cream and Natural Field Turf. The company - fortunately or unfortunately - prides itself on the accuracy of the taste.
Jones also makes more sedate flavors, including root beer, cherry and strawberry sodas.
Source: The Associated Press

What says Christmas like a serial killer?

A German advent calendar for children has become a hot seller since word got out it has a picture of a notorious serial killer on it.
The cartoon calendar shows Fritz Haarmann, who murdered 24 young men and boys in the 1920s, lurking under a tree with a hatchet next to the door for December 1. Below him, Santa Claus hands out presents to children in a festive-looking Hanover.
A local tourism office included the serial killer alongside 23 other celebrities in the northern city, including philosopher Gottfried Leibniz and hard rock band The Scorpions.
Haarmann's depiction featured in last year's edition, but this year it is attracting wider attention because top-selling newspaper Bild questioned whether the use of the murderer in a children's calendar was in good taste.
Nonetheless, the serial killer, who was beheaded in 1925, will not appear in next year's edition, Nolte said.
Source: Reuters