shame

Wal-Mart's core shoppers are running out of money much faster than a year ago due to rising gasoline prices, and the retail giant is worried, CEO Mike Duke said Wednesday.

"We're seeing core consumers under a lot of pressure," Duke said at an event in New York. "There's no doubt that rising fuel prices are having an impact."

If this goes on, Wal-Mart could be faced with either cutting hours and laying off employees. That too will add to our economic doom and gloom. It’s just a shame that our leaders in Washington, on both sides of the aisle, are to worried about petty crap and not focused on jobs or rising costs.

A new CNN poll shows the favorability rating of the Tea Party in decline:

The approval rating for the 2-year-old movement fell to 32 percent in a CNN/Opinion Research corporation poll released Wednesday, the lowest it’s been since CNN first polled on the tea party in January 2010

That’s compared to a 46% approval for Democrats and 44% approval for Republicans. Perhaps this gives us more insight to the recent decline:

The biggest drop in the tea party movement’s favorability came among people who make less than $50,000 a year. In October, 30 percent in that income group said they had unfavorable views of the tea party. Now, 45 percent say the same.

While many try and pull the wool over our eyes, people are realizing that the Tea Party is anything but a grassroots movement. It’s a corporate backed social experiment to lure people into supporting big earner tax giveaways.

The real shame is that we desperately need a 3rd party in this country, not an offshoot of the Republican Party. A movement like the Tea Party could have the potential to take off, if it is truly about the people. Get something like that going, something that will refuse the influence of big business and money, and you will have a movement that people can really get behind.

You may recall the story of Anthony Gruber. In July of this year he was speeding down a highway. An undercover police officer pulled a gun on him to stop him. Gruber was videotaping his joy ride and decided to post the video on YouTube, a decision that ultimately lead to his arrest and being charged for a violation of Maryland’s wiretapping law. Gruber faced up to 16 years if convicted.

Well it turns out common sense has prevailed and a judge has thrown out the wiretapping charges against Gruber, leaving only the moving violations for him to face. In his decision, the judge made perfect sense:

"Those of us who are public officials and are entrusted with the power of the state are ultimately accountable to the public," the judge wrote. "When we exercise that power in public fora, we should not expect our actions to be shielded from public observation."

Isn’t it a shame that those who enforce the law can’t use the same type of common logic when deciding who to charge and who not to charge?

Wingnut mouth piece Confederate Yankee:

Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) has seen far better days, and is often little more than a warm body when he is helped into the Senate. Granted, lucidity and coherence is not a priority among Senate Democrats, but Byrd is an embarrassment even for a party that regular drafts the imaginary or dead to vote.

Robert Byrd has been around a very long time, and his many decades of service have made West Virginia a wonderful state in which to manufacture methamphetamine or frame the locals for murder. But it's time for Senator to do the right thing, and expire.

It isn't too much to ask for Byrd to step off for that great klavern in the sky before the Senate vote that may force this nation to accept government-rationed health care. Even a nice coma would do.

Without his frail, Gollum-like body being wheeled into the Senate's chambers to cast the deciding vote, the Senate cannot curse our children and grandchildren with crushing debt and rationed, substandard healthcare.

I suppose some will be shocked and appalled that I'd wish for the former kleagle to die on command. I'd remind them that the party wheeling in a near invalid to vote in favor of this unread monstrosity of a bill is the one that should feel shame.

Yup – the party of God® wishing for people to die.

Hannity has lost his sidekick:

FOX News Channel's (FNC) Alan Colmes will relinquish his role as co-host of Hannity & Colmes at the end of the year.

In announcing his decision, Colmes said, "I approached Bill Shine (FNC's Senior Vice President of Programming) earlier this year about wanting to move on after 12 years to develop new and challenging ways to contribute to the growth of the network. Although it's bittersweet to leave one of the longest marriages on cable news, I'm proud that both Sean (Hannity) and I remained unharmed after sitting side by side, night after night for so many years."

Colmes will continue to have a presence on FNC as he will serve as a liberal commentator on a variety of FOX News programming, including Foxnews.com's The Strategy Room and continue hosting his radio program, The Alan Colmes Show on FOX Talk, a division of FOX News Radio. He will also begin developing a weekend program.

I wonder if Colmes will be replaced next to Hannity, or if he will go solo. It’s a shame that Robert Gibbs got his new gig as press secretary. I would love to see him co-hosting with Hannity.

If Blakeman was really a man he would hang his head in shame and stay away from the media for awhile. Of course he won't, so hopefully we get to see more spankings like this:

A true look into the current chance of Americans rising to the top has taken place and what we use to say about our land is no longer true:

America may still think of itself as the land of opportunity, but the chances of living a rags-to-riches life are a lot lower than elsewhere in the world, according to a new study published on Wednesday.

The likelihood that a child born into a poor family will make it into the top five percent is just one percent, according to "Understanding Mobility in America", a study by economist Tom Hertz from American University.

By contrast, a child born rich had a 22 percent chance of being rich as an adult, he said.

"In other words, the chances of getting rich are about 20 times higher if you are born rich than if you are born in a low-income family," he told an audience at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think-tank sponsoring the work.

He also found the United States had one of the lowest levels of inter-generational mobility in the wealthy world, on a par with Britain but way behind most of Europe.

Alan Greenspan made a speech last year a few months before retiring. He said that the increasing divides amongst our social and economical classes are an increasing threat to our democracy. That is so very true. Considering the fact that to run for a seat on the United States House of Representatives has a price tag in the range of $20 million to $100 million, it is not surprise this threat exists.

If you missed the hearing today on the Downing Street Memo you missed some of
the most compelling and interesting testimony in the capital since Iran-Contra.
The stories ranged from heart-breakers of soldiers who have given the ultimate
sacrifice up to our vice-President over seeing the intelligence to make sure it
fits the administrations agenda.

Even if you were a skeptic the testimony today should at least make you want
to hear the administrations defense on it. This is probably why the Republican
controlled Congress tried every thing they could to block the hearing or
interrupt it. Not only was it a total shame to the American people that we had
to hear about how our soldiers gave their life from a tiny room in the capital
basement, but in order to prevent the members of the House from keeping in full
attendance numerous votes and hearings were also scheduled for the same time.
This just proves the ironic portrayal the right gives the left when they
question the war by dubbing them unpatriotic. In all actuality the fact that the
right tried everything within their power to interrupt this hearing proves they
are afraid of what might come out.

This is also evident in the White House press briefings. For a small example
read how Scott McClellan answered two separate questions today regarding the
Downing Street Memo.

Q Scott, on another topic, has the President or anyone else from the
administration responded to the letter sent last month by Congressman John
Conyers and signed by dozens of members of the House of Representatives,
regarding the Downing Street memo? Has the President or anyone else
responded?

McCLELLAN: Not that I'm aware of.

Q Why not?