quot

Oscar Goodman Wants Obama To Apologizes

And we have a new definition of dumb ass – Oscar Goodman:

Sin City's mayor wants President Barack Obama to apologize for saying companies shouldn't visit Las Vegas on the taxpayer's dime.

Oscar Goodman spoke after a regular scheduled meeting with tourism officials where he expressed concern that federal lawmakers might be discouraging travel to the city.

"What's a better place, as I say, than for them to come here," Goodman told KLAS-TV. "And to change their mind and to go someplace else and to cancel _ and at the suggestion of the president of the United States _ that's outrageous."

Obama made the remarks Monday during a town hall meeting in Elkhart, Ind., where the president traveled to muster public support for economic stimulus legislation.

{[}]amp;quot;You can't get corporate jets, you can't go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayer's dime," Obama said.

Um it appears as if Obama was talking in the sense of going to Vegas for a nice little vacation and do some gambling. Goodman can have his tax dollars go for that, but I don’t want mine to. That’s what Goodman is suggesting – that bailout money be used for these luxurious vacations instead of opening the credit markets. Maybe someone should ask the mayor why he hates America so much that he wants to see our financial institutions fail.

FOX Family Values

These are the type of family values to keep the kids from:

TVNewser tipster tells us Aaron Bruns, a producer in the Fox News Channel Washington, D.C. bureau, has been arrested and charged with one count of possession of child pornography. A Fox News spokesperson confirms, telling TVNewser, "We are aware of the arrest and he is currently suspended without pay."

Bruns is in federal court in Washington, D.C. this afternoon appearing on the felony charge.

Bruns has been with FNC for more than six years. He was an embed producer with the Hillary Clinton campaign last year.

Developing...

It turns out that this is not Burns first arrest either. He was busted for the same thing in 1999. Way to go FOX!

Veggie Love

PETA submitted an AD to be aired during the Super Bowl, which NBC rejected. Here is the ad in question:

'Veggie Love': PETA's Banned Super Bowl Ad

Actually I love this ad. I think it sells great, and it’s nothing more than we would see in any other ad. But it turns out there might be a reason for it being banned, and not one you would think:

{[}]lt;p>Last year, they submitted zombie Colonel Sanders spots to FOX for rejection.This time, the animal rights organization says they sent this "Veggie Love" spot to NBC for approval to run during Sunday's Super Bowl. This is of course complete cow manure. PETA submitted this spot for one reason—the disapproval publicity NBC's rejection is generating (this post included). No, they'd sooner go on a fox hunt riding bulls with their bodies smeared in rabbit blood then waste $3 million on 30 seconds of TV ad time. But publicity costs nothing.

Free PR. Looks like PETA one-upped NBC on this one.

Scam Artists Westgate Resorts Get Hit With $1.2 Million Fine

Couldn’t happen to a better bunch of pricks:

One of the nation's largest time-share companies is going to be shelling out nearly a $1 million for making phone calls to people on the national "Do Not Call" list, federal regulators said Tuesday.

Westgate Resorts, based in Orlando, Fla., was named in a complaint filed on behalf of the Federal Trade Commission. The agency alleged that Westgate and two other companies placed thousands of telemarketing calls to people on the list. The FTC says Westgate has agreed to pay $900,000 to settle the charges.

For anyone who has ever been sucked into one of their propaganda filled sales presentations, this should make you smile.

Problem Solved?

Last night President (shiver) Obama ordered the prosecutors at Gitmo to halt all cases for 120 days. Most likely this is so he can figure out what to do with the inmates and finally close down the black eye of the beacon of freedom.

One of the big arguments about Obama closing down Gitmo is what to do with all the inmates. Well we might have a solution now:

Switzerland is ready to consider taking in detainees from the U.S. prison for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba if that helps to shut it down, the Swiss government said on Wednesday.

"For Switzerland, the detention of people in Guantanamo is in conflict with international law. Switzerland is ready to consider how it can contribute to the solution of the Guantanamo problem," the government said in a statement.

Switzerland said it welcomed the expressed intention of U.S. President Barack Obama to close the prison and would investigate security and legal implications of possibly taking in detainees. About 255 men are still held there.

Help from the world. That’s something we haven’t seen in a very long time. It’s a sign of the change that is coming and the hope and optimism Obama has given the world. Of course I got a better idea for the detainees. Send them to live with Bush and Cheney.

Growing A Pair

This is change we can really believe in:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is receptive to the idea of prosecuting some Bush administration officials, while letting others who are accused of misdeeds leave office without prosecution, she told Chris Wallace in an interview on "FOX News Sunday."

"I think you look at each item and see what is a violation of the law and do we even have a right to ignore it," the California Democrat said. "And other things that are maybe time that is spent better looking to the future rather than to the past."

This isn’t about a vendetta against the last eight years of hell – it’s asking for accountability. I want a courts decision on this. Not only do I and many other demand it, but so do countless laws and the constitution. Currently we are going by the word of some lawyers hired by the defendant. If that was the pivotal decider in our system of justice then we could close all prisons now.

Comeback!

Time for a break from politics and a turn to my other love – cycling:

Lance Armstrong made a cautious return to professional cycling Sunday, finishing well back in a 30-mile criterium in downtown Adelaide.

More than 138,000 people turned out to see Armstrong return from three years in retirement and begin a campaign to win his eighth Tour de France.

He stayed well back in the field of 133 cyclist throughout Sunday's race, following team instructions to avoid any possibility of crashing ahead of the Tour Down Under, which starts Tuesday.

Armstrong said, "That was fun. It felt good. I've been training a lot for this comeback and this race. It's good the first day is over and now I can get into the racing."

Lance is the icon we need again in a sport that has suffered some serious taint recently. I am thrilled he has decided to come out of retirement for another run.

{[}]gt;

And back to politics:

Lance Armstrong said Sunday he has high hopes the presidency of Barack Obama will see health-care reform in the United States and more money for the fight against cancer.

We all do Lance.

Organizing America

This is something we really need. It seems like, for all too long, we have had leaders worrying about their own ambitions instead of bettering the nation. Now we have a leader who thinks outside of the box.

Obama has built an enormous wealth of information from the information he collected during his historic campaign. His mailing list alone will be pivotal in reaching out to citizens in order to get their help in this new project.

Below the fold – the entire press release.

Unemployment Systems Overloaded

A sad sign of the times:

Electronic unemployment filing systems have crashed in at least three states in recent days amid an unprecedented crush of thousands of newly jobless Americans seeking benefits, and other states were adjusting their systems to avoid being next.

About 4.5 million Americans are collecting jobless benefits, a 26-year high, so the Web sites and phone systems now commonly used to file for benefits are being tested like never before.

Even those that are holding up under the strain are in many cases leaving filers on the line for hours, or kissing them off with an "all circuits are busy" message. Agencies have been scrambling to hire hundreds more workers to handle the calls.

Systems in New York, North Carolina and Ohio were shut down completely by technical glitches and heavy volume, and labor officials in several other states are reporting higher-than-normal use.

And with rumors that we could be looking at up to a million jobs lost with this Friday’s unemployment report, things are only going to get worse.

Republican Tradesmen?

This seems rather ironic, but during the election we all learned about Joe “the Plumber”, the McCain poster child/supporter who turned out to not even be a plumber. He never completed the state requirements to become a journeyman plumber in his allowed time frame as an apprentice. Now we fast forward a couple of months and here we are again, another person tied to the Republicans trying to become a tradesman under a cloud of suspicion.

I am talking about Levi Johnston, Sarah Palin’s grandbaby’s daddy. There has been a lot going around about his getting into an electrical apprenticeship program in the oil fields, without the mandated high school diploma or equivalency. Now the company he was working for has released a statement on it:

In a written statement, the company said its electrical apprenticeship program eligibility requirements include a high school diploma or equivalent, "but this is not a requirement mandated by the federal government."

So was Levi to become an electrician only by ASRC Energy Services standards? Every state I can think of requires a high school diploma or GED to enter apprenticeship programs for either plumbing or electrical. I doubt Alaska is any different. I don’t know of an actual “federal regulation”, as these licensing requirements are usually mandated by state law, so something doesn’t pass the smell test here.

Guilt By Association

A lot of people have been trying to paint Jesse Jackson Jr. as being corrupt since it was revealed he was referred to in the Blago indictment. Well it turns out Jackson had actually gone to the feds about Blago’s serious lack of ethics:

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who was cited in a criminal complaint against Rod Blagojevich, went to the U.S. Attorney's office about alleged wrongdoers, including the Illinois governor, a Jackson spokesman said Tuesday.

Jackson rejected being labeled with the term "informant" in a message to CNN contributor Roland Martin.

Spokesman Kenneth Edmonds described Jackson's interaction with federal authorities this way: "As a responsible citizen and elected official, Congressman Jackson has in the past provided information to federal authorities regarding his personal knowledge of perceived corruption and governmental misconduct.

"This was completely unrelated to the current investigation regarding the U.S. Senate appointment. And it is absolutely inaccurate to describe the congressman as an informant," Edmonds said in a written statement.
{[}]gt;

It’s amazing what we start finding out once the facts start coming out.

Laugh Out Loud Funny

Oh this is just a gem:

Rove, a former top White House adviser to President Bush, said on Fox News, "[Obama] should have, right from the beginning, been more forthcoming."

The same Karl Rove who insisted the President never had to disclose anything – rather it was on the outing of a CIA agent, lying us into war, his involvment in Abramoff, the mistreatment of our vets, torture, etc., etc., etc.

Arrested Development

Another corrupt politician gets taken into custody:

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested Tuesday on charges of conspiring to get financial benefits through his authority to appoint a U.S. senator to fill the vacancy left by Barack Obama's election as president.

According to a federal criminal complaint, Blagojevich also was charged with illegally threatening to withhold state assistance to Tribune Co., the owner of the Chicago Tribune, in the sale of Wrigley Field. In return for state assistance, Blagojevich allegedly wanted members of the paper's editorial board who had been critical of him fired.

This puts Obama’s Senate seat right at the center of the mess. David Kurtz points out that Blagojevich was apparently thinking about appointing himself to succeed Obama:

"I've got this thing and it's [expletive] golden, and, uh, uh, I'm just not giving it up for [expletive] nothing. I'm not gonna do it. And, and I can always use it. I can parachute me there."

What an asshole. This in no way reflects upon Obama, but you can bet the right is going to try to make the two into one.

The Sum Of All Fears

The latest in the Jack Ryan movies nearly comes to life:

A mysterious night-time telephone call last week brought nuclear-armed India and Pakistan close to the brink of war at the height of the crisis over the Mumbai terror attacks, Pakistani officials said Sunday.

They said the "threatening" call was made, ostensibly by Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee, to Pakistani President Asif Zardari, on Friday, November 28, two days into the Mumbai attacks, in which some 170 people died. India by then had declared that the militants who'd stormed Mumbai were all from Pakistan. The heated conversation left Zardari thinking that India was about to attack and led him to put Pakistan's armed forces on "high alert," according to Wajid Hasan, Pakistan's ambassador to London and a close associate of Zardari.

The phone call was hoax. We are really in dangerous times, and it’s not just terrorists – it’s people like this caller. Sadly we don’t have a Jack Ryan to protect us.

Will McCain Share Now?

McCain is back to being a Senator and offering advice on Afghanistan:

Sen. John McCain says the situation in Afghanistan will get more difficult before it gets easier — "just like the surge in Iraq was."

The former Republican presidential candidate visited the southern province of Helmand on Sunday, where he said NATO forces are at a stalemate with insurgents. McCain says the U.S. will be paying more attention to that part of the country with an influx of troops.

Throughout the campaign, McCain said if he was President he would capture Osama bin Laden – that he knew how to. A lot of people questioned rather he had some great plan to fulfill this promise that he decided to hold onto, instead of sharing with the current administration so that we could capture public enemy number one. Now that McCain has lost the election, and said he has no plans on running again, will he share his great knowledge with Obama, or was he just blowing a bunch of smoke up our asses?