THIS IS MY BLOG!
Gibson Guitars still waiting on DOJ
Old news that is still new news!
It’s been almost 3 years since the first raid in 2009 and almost a year since the 2011 raid of Gibson Guitars by the DOJ, yet Gibson says they are still waiting on the DOJ to charge them. The CEO of Gibson, Henry Juszkiewicz, says the feds have taken aggressive action against his company that has hurt them severely, and now he worries about the long-term damage to their company as a result:
Fox News’ report on this last year revealed that the feds wouldn’t have targeted Gibson had the imported wood been a completed fretboard, leading Gibson to believe that the Obama administration is simply tried to force American jobs overseas. They also reported that other guitar manufacturers who import the same wood had not yet been targeted by the DOJ, perhaps because their CEOs weren’t Republicans who have donated heavily to Republicans, like Henry Juskiewicz.
Found this HERE.
###
Back in October, a squirrel invaded Busch Stadium during the St. Louis Cardinals run to the 2011 World Series. Fredbird let it live out of kindness, and the rodent would become so popular, it took the place of Skip Schumaker on one of his baseball cards.
Finally, the mascot has been immortalized for all time on jewelry commemorating the Cardinals 11th world championship.
This is not satire: The Cardinals made “The Rally Squirrel” part of the design of their World Series rings, which they received on Saturday. You can clearly see it in the photo, under the “StL” logo and above the crest of the bats and home plate with Chris Carpenter’s No. 29. If Schumaker thought a squirrel on his baseball card was “ridiculous,” what must he think of the rodent on the most symbolic piece of bling a ballplayer can own?
###
20 Things You Probably Shouldn’t Fix With Duct Tape
Overhyped: Proms these days average $1,078
Surveyed: A history of holograms in pop culture
###
###
Massoud Hossaini has won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for his photo of Tarana Akbari, 12, screaming in fear moments after a suicide bomber detonated a bomb in a crowd at the Abul Fazel Shrine in Kabul on December 6. The photograph made the front pages of the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post the next day.
“I was taking pictures and I did want to help,” Hossaini said. “But I just saw that the bodies were completely destroyed and I said, ‘O.K. I can’t do anything for them, so I have to wait for whoever comes.’”
Out of 17 women and children from Tarana’s family who went to a riverside shrine to mark the Shiite holy day of Ashura, seven died, including 7-year-old brother, Shoaib. “When I could stand up, I saw that everybody was around me on the ground, really bloody. I was really, really scared,” Tarana said.
More than 70 people died in all, and at least nine other members of Tarana’s family were wounded. The attack was the deadliest strike on the capital in three years.
A complete list of Pulitzer winners can be found here.
###
Well, it is not Oregon!
Apparently, everyone misinterpreted Matt Groening’s interview with Smithsonian Magazine in which he said Springfield, Oregon, was the Simpsons’ hometown. After Sunday night’s opening credits teased, “Now entering Oregon,” the show’s producers took to Bart’s blackboard in an ambiguous attempt at keeping Springfield shrouded in mystery: “The true location of Springfield is in any state but yours.”
“I have no idea where the hell it is,” Groening said. “Like all Americans, I flunked geography.”
###
Hilary Rosen, a Democratic lobbyist and pundit for CNN, found herself caught up in 24-hour news cycle controversy after she made some inflammatory comments about Ann Romney’s work as stay-at-home mom. Rosen has apologized for her off-the-cuff comments. But the entire story may set off a greater, more substantive inquiry about the nature of Rosen’s consulting firm, SKDKnickerbocker, an unregistered lobbying firm that has become one of the biggest names in the influence business by using its ties to President Obama and leaders in Congress.
Predictably, Republicans have noticed that Rosen is a frequent visitor to the White House. While Democrats are arguing that Rosen is not an advisor to the Democratic Party or President Obama’s reelection campaign, then what are the meetings about? Today in the Politico’s “Morning Money,” reporter Ben White flags a deeper concern:
Per a senior Dem: “Serious Dem operatives are aghast at Hilary Rosen’s misguided attack on Ann Romney’s work history. She and others at PR firm SKD Knickerbocker have represented many clients that have raised hackles with senior White House staff. It’s an open secret in the Dem consultant community that SKD has been signing up clients based on ‘perceived White House access’ tied to prior relationships and employment.”
As we’ve reported, SKDKnickerbocker is led by a team of former Democratic operatives and key White House figures. But instead of promoting a progressive agenda, or even an Obama agenda, these consultants score huge contracts by helping corporate interests lobby for policies that are not in line with the public interest. Many SKDKnickerbocker employees, including Anita Dunn, a former White House communications director, are also frequent White House visitors.
###
###
Welcome to Planet Geithner: Population, one.
Via RCP:
Tim Geithner, Treasury Secretary: Oh, absolute — the president inherited, again, as you know, the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, a crisis caused by a shock larger than what caused the Great Depression. And he did the necessarily, deeply damaging — deeply politically hard things to get growth started again. And he’s done everything he could to convince a reluctant opposition to join him in doing things to make the economy stronger. And we’re going to keep doing that even if they’re against it, even if they don’t like it.
Gregory: But you call it a success story?
Geithner: Absolutely. This president’s policies were extremely successful. If you measure what we did relative to the record of the United States in past crises and the record of other countries, history will judge what he did as remarkably effective crisis management at a deeply dark time for the world economy.
###
Welcome to Planet Obama: Population bit more than one.
But if not for Fat Ass Gore, who says he invented the internet, they would not exist.
(CNSNews.com) — President Barack Obama insisted Thursday that without government spending, “Google, Facebook would not exist.”
Obama made the remark at a campaign fundraiser while criticizing the budget passed by House Republicans. Obama said the Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget would, among other things, cut funding for research.
“I believe in investing in basic research and science because I understand that all these extraordinary companies that are these enormous wealth-generators — many of them would have never been there; Google, Facebook would not exist, had it not been for investments that we made as a country in basic science and research,” Obama said. “I understand that makes us all better off.”
###
Then again, Dyson makes a nice living claiming everything the right says or does is racist.
Via Big Government:
MICHAEL ERIC DYSON: Right. And — and let’s look at the predictability of the pattern here. It is not the case that young white men in hoodies have been assaulted or who are dressed of the inappropriate fashion. Don’t forget, Bob, that dress for African-American people has always signified beyond fashion or sartorial splendor. How we dress is an indication of where we stand in society. Remember, right after slavery, black people got dressed in extravagant fashion and that caused great resentment to — for white Americans who believed that black people were being uppity because they were trying to out-dress their status.
Now it is the case that whatever hoods we wear, sagging pants, those become part of the folklore of American racism because it now signifies to white America that this is a hood, this is a thug, and the suspicion that is cast not only on Trayvon Martin. Look at the President of the United States of America. Here is a guy who do it the right way. He went to Harvard, he’s the President. Look at the — the ready — the — the steady stream of racism and bigotry —
TOURE: He’s threatening Jan Brewer.
MICHAEL ERIC DYSON: — the — the — the stereotypes that prevail, right, I’m afraid of him, he’s a — he’s a moron, he’s an orangutan, he’s an animal. Look at all of that.
###
This is standard Obama, both king and queen, to get someone other than themselves or their buddies to pay the bills.
First Lady Michelle Obama will host four fundraisers today and tomorrow along with an event with service members that could ensure taxpayers pick up a significant amount of her travel costs.
Michelle’s first fundraiser is today in Washington. Tuesday she travels to Nashville for a single money event and then on to Pittsburgh for two more. But included in her excursion to collect cash is an small event in Pittsburgh that is part of her “Joining Forces” initiative to aid veterans and military families.
By throwing in what appears to be an “official” first lady event, the White House may be ensuring that many of the costs of the trip will be paid for by taxpayers instead of the Obama campaign. This event appears particularly skimpy, amounting to little more than a “greeting” by local service members and their families.
###
Want to see the bad side (wait, this is their only side!) of liberals? Who yell and scream if any conservative dare say anything about a liberal?
Go to this site: Twitchy:
###
Homeland: Kenya Sees Spike in Obama Regime-Funded Projects
Zimmerman Requests New Judge — Cites Case Conflict
###
Obama Now Has the Control to Be a True Dictator
(IJREVIEW) An executive order that Barack Obama signed the other day is making headlines all over the nation. The title of the executive order is “National Defense Resources Preparedness” and it is actually an update of a series of previous executive orders.
The original “National Defense Resources Preparedness” executive order (EO 8248) was issued back in 1939. This latest version is very similar to EO 12919 that was signed by Bill Clinton in June 1994. However, several very important changes have been made in this new version.
For example, in Section 201(b) the words “under both emergency and non-emergency conditions” have been added.
So now the federal government can take control of all food, all energy, all health resources, all transportation resources and “all other materials, services, and facilities” in the country even if the United States is not experiencing emergency conditions.
If Barack Obama woke up one day and decided to exercise the powers in this executive order, he would be able to do pretty much anything that he wanted. This executive order would essentially allow Obama to declare a state of martial law in the United States even during a time when no emergency was happening.
From HERE. Yes, do read the rest of the site!
###
Living in a big city as many of us do we sometimes walk out to get our car and either find it booted or towed away. There are probably few jobs in our society less loved than the traffic enforcement-department tow truck driver. I’m surprised that there are neither TV shows or movies ( other than Repo Man) about this occupation.
This weekend reading the book review section in The New York Times I read a wonderful review by Kevin Baker on the book Enemies written by Tim Weiner. In it I learned about an unintended consequence of traffic enforcement tow truck drivers. Baker says that in 1973 the Iraqis planned to kill Golda Meir, the Prime Minister of Israel, on her state visit to New York City. The plot involved two cars packed with explosives that were parked near her route. The unintended consequence of the assassin’s mistake of parking the two vehicles in a no parking zone was that before Mrs. Meir arrived the two cars were towed away by city employees.
The fight against terror is normally conducted by James Bondesq agents, high level military planners, and special forces troops. Sometimes the most effective anti-terror actions are taken by tow truck drivers.
Harlan Platt’s blog at HarlanPlatt.com contains many more unintended consequences as he supplements the ideas expressed in his new book, Unintended Consequences: How to Improve our Government, our Businesses, and our Lives.
###
This weekend marked the 100th Anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, perhaps mankind’s clearest object lesson that neither empty “expertise” nor self-satisfied hubris can prevent disaster.
But sadly, Captain Barack Obama is now ordering America’s ship of state to move at “full speed ahead” towards an iceberg he not only knows is there…but he’s actually doing everything in his power to make the iceberg bigger.
That iceberg is, of course, the National Debt…and according to ship’s navigator Timothy Geithner, the president’s plan is to ram it all full speed just 15 years from now and allow the wrecked U.S. economy to disappear as quickly, completely, and cruelly as the Titanic slipped beneath the icy waves…without even the comfort of an orchestra playing “Nearer My God to Thee” in case any Muslims, liberals, or ACLU lawyers might be offended.
But if Geithner is saying that life as we know it will end in 15 years, why aren’t people in a state of panic and angrily demanding action?
In part it’s because the End of America seems unthinkable, and therefore can’t really be possible (let alone imminent). Right? Wrong. Wishful thinking isn’t going to keep us afloat. But just as importantly, people are failing to realize the gravity of the situation because the captain of our ship is lying his butt off about both the looming disaster and his efforts to avoid it.
How else to categorize Barack Obama’s continued speechifying about the preposterous “Buffett Rule” which will have as little effect on the debt crisis as the Titanic’s buffet tables had on keeping the great ship from sinking?
The Skipper-in-Chief is currently saying that the “Buffett Rule,” which imposes significantly higher taxes on millionaires, “will help us close the deficit.” Which sounds good until you crunch the numbers and find out that it will take 514 years of these increased taxes just to pay off Obama’s deficit from 2011. Which means that the deficit from 2012, Obama’s (hopefully) final year in office, wouldn’t be paid until after the year 3000.
Except, of course, by then our nation will have been gone for 975 years… unknown to anyone except some future James Cameron-type who is willing to dive deeper into red ink than anyone has dared to do previously.
Except for Barack Obama.
From HERE.
###
Dustin Yellin.
Osiris On The Table.
In ancient mythology, Osiris, Pharaoh of Egypt, was torn apart by his evil brother Seth, who was jealous of the way he was so beloved by his people. His grieving wife Isis collected the fragments of his body from the Nile and was so moved by seeing him again that her love brought him back to life. In the same way that Isis collected the torn-up pieces of her lover’s body, Dustin Yellin has pieced together sculpture, art and photography to create a series of nostalgic images encased in glass boxes.
’Osiris On The Table’, is a sculpture of the ancient man’s dead body weaved from vines, insects, waves and flames, with a slick of oil coming from the mouth. Like the rest of the exhibition, the piece combines hope with sadness, leaving the viewer unsure of how to feel.
Leave a Reply