This Week's Pot Kettle Black award winner is.....

John Edwards, the Sultan of Hair, you may know him as the billionaire with a huge heart for the poor.

The NY Times, of all papers, has an expose on a Non Profit organization sir Edwards set up for the poor which pretty much did nothing but fund his trips around the country.

From the article

Edwards, who reported this year that he had assets of nearly $30 million, came up with a novel solution, creating a nonprofit organization with the stated mission of fighting poverty. The organization, the Center for Promise and Opportunity, raised $1.3 million in 2005, and -- unlike a sister charity created to raise scholarship money for poor students -- the main beneficiary of the center's fundraising was Edwards himself, federal tax filings show.

Congratulations Mr. Edwards, we all appreciate your hard work for the poor.

The guy is a selfless crusader for the poor, throwing around $400 for haircuts just so some poor barber can put his kid through college.

News Flash - Journalists are Liberals

I don't typically like to post on surveys which only confirm what common sense already tells us but I'll make an exception in this case.

MSNBC did a review of campaign records and and found out what we would already know. 90% of journalist who contributed to campaigns contributed to Democratic campaigns or cause. In addition, MSNBC followed up with the contributors for any comments.

Here is a list of said comments.

Money Quote from one donor. John Lahr of the New Yorker

"What would you have me write? It would be hard to find a sentient person who could take a strong position for what the Republicans have done in the past six years. What are you going to do, take a position for their position on global warming or the war in Iraq? C'mon!

Naaah, those kinds of opinions would have no bearing on the context of the news they report.

Around the Blogger World

Dann Curses a reporter - King's Right
UC's Financial Debacle - Bizzyblog
Quote of the Day - The Corner
I am both Muslim & Christian - EyeHackerBlog
Porn name World Series - Beavers v. Eaters - The extrapolator
How Nike advertises in Asia - Deuce of davenport

Britain's Got Talent & Bad Teeth

In follow up to my post on Paul Pott's performance on Britain's Got Talent last week, here is his performance on the final show.

I won't ruin the ending for you.

Thought for the day

If I found someone in need of a kidney should I be able sell the person one of mine?

After all, it is my body, I should be able to expel any body tissue out of it that I wish and for any reason?

Do you feel the same way about an abortion?

How do you reconcile any inconsistencies?

Around the Blogger World

Carbon Dioxide Removal Scheme - Interested Participant
Media - Out of Touch - Liberally Conservative
Councilman Breaks Pelvis - Nasty, Brutish & Short
Communist Party Using Democrats to Advance Platform - Red State
Vatican Reverses Kennedy Annulment - One Oar in the Water

Upsetting a Teamster

From the comment posted on my last, I apparently upset a Teamster. Now I can probably look forward to having my property vandalized or destroyed.

I can probably also look forward to Sal, Tony and Carmine "visiting" me in the not so distant future.

I'm sure the guy who commented was getting paid out of the union pension fund. The same fund my dad kicked into for 20 years and has all of about $40,o00 to show for it. You could have invested those funds into a mattress and got a better return.

I'm just glad I don't own a horse.

Coercion over Persuasion

When I was a young pup, my father was working for a beer distributor in Columbus, Ohio.

My dad was a loyal union guy, a Teamster, so I got lots of information about the workings of the union.

During one particularly difficult strike, the union held a contract vote. This is how the vote was taken.

All those against this contract say Aye! ( about 70 % said aye according to pops)

Who are the pussies for it. ( silence)

Let it be noted that rejection of this contract was unanimous.

So when I read articles about the unions trying to get non secret elections for union votes it almost makes sick. Everyone, understands that secret votes are the cornerstone of democracy. Imagine a party official standing beside you as you cast your vote for an office holder. It would be Cuba.

George Will has a great piece about pending legislation making all union votes non secret ballots.

If this legislation passes, you can watch the remaining bits of our manufacturing industry head elsewhere. We won't have to worry about immigration amnesty, we'll all have have to move to Mexico to do the jobs we're doing here.

Juneteenth Gone Wild

In three separate incidents around the country, riots broke out at Juneteenth celebrations in Austin, Milwaukee and Syracuse.

At the Austin riot, a man was killed. It was the second year in a row for violence in Milwaukee.

According to the article

Some people think the violence takes away from the real meaning of Juneteenth.

Ya Think!?

I guess all the rioting was a result of racial profiling. After all these types of things always happen with the Germans on Octoberfest and the Irish on St. Patrick's Day.

I do not know how many Bengals were involved in the incidents.

Party in the Park

Gordon will be down at Party in the Park (downtown - Serpentine Wall) tonight between 6-9 signing autographs and copping a squeeze with the hotties (oops I felt into Clinton mode for a minute). As you know, the autographs will be difficult for me as I have no opposable digits but I'll be there none the less.

Ahhhh the weather's perfect, the beer will be cold and the Rusty Griswold's will be playing.

If you're looking for me. Look for a bulldog with a bunch of hot blond chicks. The girls always confuse me with Spuds McKenzie (that's what I put on my business cards... they think I'm famous even though he's a totally different breed and been dead for 14 years).

Around the Blogger World

Jimma Carter is a Terrorist Loving Anti Semite - Big Dog Blog
Sopranos Washington Style - The radio patriot
Porker of the week - Buckeye Institute
Ohio Unemployment Rates by County - Weapons of Mass Discussion
Clintons flirting with Campaign Laws - Gribbit's Word
Christian and Muslim, Episcopalian Bishop - Virtue OnLine
Dr. McDreamy - Nasty, Brutish & Short

Bloomberg leaving party

NY Mayor, Mike Bloomberg announced that he is leaving the republican party.

The article notes this

He supports gay marriage, abortion rights, gun control and stem cell research and hiked property taxes.....

Exactly what makes this guy a republican?

Then there is this.

Some operatives believe Bloomberg's moderate positions would siphon votes from the Democratic nominee. Others say he could just as easily spoil it for the Republicans.

Why would any republican vote for this guy? It looks like we're already going to have a RINO in the field already so what does he bring that isn't already covered by some variety of socialist already in the field.

Once again, we have another spelling bee winner who's trying to pad his life resume as a result of some classmate taking his lunch money 50 years ago.

You calling me a Liberal?

You want to get a little liberal red meat? Check out this piece by Matt Taibbi, unabashed liberal writer for Rolling Stone. It's an interesting analysis about what's wrong with liberalism.

It's long but lot's of good stuff.

Thus, the people who are the public voice of American liberalism rarely have any real connection to the ordinary working people whose interests they putatively champion. They tend instead to be well-off, college-educated yuppies from California or the East Coast, and hard as they try to worry about food stamps or veterans’ rights or securing federal assistance for heating oil bills, they invariably gravitate instead to things that actually matter to them – like the slick Al Gore documentary on global warming,.....

New Deal liberalism was meant to champion the working stiff, but after the sixties, liberalism evolved into some sort of bastardized feel good, white guilt, politically correct, atheism that actually ran counter to the interest of the working guy.

The Democratic party is now a conglomeration of aggrieved victims (or perceived victims). The poor victimized by the rich; Blacks victimized by whites; Gays victimized by straights; atheists victimized by Christians; the planet victimized by people, it goes on and on and on and on....

How does an environmentalist tell a logger that wiping out his job is good for him? How does a gun control freak tell a UAW member that target shooting and hunting is against his best interest? How does a feminist tell a working catholic that abortion needs to be OK with him?

As a recovering liberal, I feel like Ronald Reagan when he said, "I didn't leave the Democratic Party, it left me".

The best part of this is reading the very whining in the comments that Taibbi calls out... it's great.

Another bird cage liner

Above is the Forum section of the Enquirer delivered to my house. It's pretty obvious to me now that the paper is in trouble financially. Apparently, they can't even afford to pay for ink... let alone a good Red's beat writer.

Terry Hoeppner RIP

I never got to meet Terry Hoeppner and that is my loss.

My only contact of the former football coach at Indiana and Miami was listening to him in various interviews on sports talk shows. Despite such a limited exposure to the man, one could tell this guy is one of the good ones.

His continued optimism, even in the face of terminal brain cancer made this guy one of the rarest of rare individuals.

Many times I like to place people in one of two categories, you're either a contributor or you are a consumer. Hoeppner was a contributor beyond reproach and the world will miss him.

Reality is Long Way away for the Times

The NY Times is a long way from reality these days.

The story, paying taxes brings pleasure.....

You know I tried to take off a couple of days and I run into this lunacy.

Next week, the Times will be publishing a story about how being chained up in a Hugo Chavez or Fidel Castro prison is pretty erotic.

The Nuge is loose

Ted's got it going in this opinion piece. Money quote...

As for the American left: One hears the words of Mao Tse-Tung come broiling out of the mouths of its heroes, when Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton et al unflinchingly push for "redistribution of wealth."

Ted would you move in next to me, I've got some critters in my yard that need to be a meal.

A Great Investment

As a resident of Hamilton County, Ohio, I remember when the stadium tax was approved and subsequently voted on by the residents.

The tax was sold on the pretense of economic growth ( or reduction if not approved ).

I knew that was all crap. If professional sports teams provided that much economic activity to the area, the existing tax structure would support the construction. For instance, let's say a sports team brings in 100 million a year in economic activity to an area. Inside the city of Cincinnati 100 million translates to 2.1 million dollars in city income tax revenue.

Now there are some issues around economic multipliers, the amount of revenue generated by money people earned from the activity and respent but I would offer that this money simply offsets the money that would have been spent in the city without a pro team.

With that said, I knew that it made no economic sense to approve nearly a billion dollars in taxes to essentially give to pro teams.

However, where it makes sense is the public persona of having said pro teams in your city. I use the example of a Monday night game. During that game the Goodyear, blimp comes to town, and they show magnificent skyline shots of your city. It would cost you millions to buy that kind of ad time.

But that assumes your teams is going to be on prime time television; which gets me to the point of this post.

The approval of the stadium tax was a monumental waste of resources. All that occurred when the citizens passed this test is we simply put a billion dollars in owners pockets. You know you just got ripped off when the Commissioner that was out front on the deal takes a job with the Bengals.

Our teams are a laughing stock and portray the city as a joke (see Colin Cowherd). Instead of Monday night football shots, we get mugshot photos of athletes. Our baseball team hasn't been on prime time TV in how long? You'd probably be hard pressed to find a person outside of Cincinnati be able to name a Red.

Our city does not deserve this. We paid for first class and we're getting half ass.

I understand the Red's dilemma. They are locked into big contracts with non performers. But that money is gone, and it doesn't give the Red's one more win.

I won't spend one more minute watching Adam Dunn leave another guy in scoring position and I sure as hell will never....never...never vote for another increase in taxes for anything.

Is this even news worthy anymore....

A Bengals player was one of 14 people arrested early Sunday in Huntington, W.Va. when police there tried to break up a large crowd that had gathered outside some downtown nightclubs.

More...

Nifong Loses License

I truly don't like to gloat on anyone's failings. But Mike Nifong losing his law license appears appropriate for his misconduct in the Duke case.

People don't get that not only did Nifong trample all over the civil rights of the Lacrosse players, but he also victimized the alleged "victim" in the case. It should have been obvious early on that this woman had deep psychological problems and for him to exploit her for his political gain was as heinous as what he did to the players.

After these players win gazillions of dollars from their future lawsuits against Duke I will gloat. After all, I am an NC fan.

Taming the Tiger

I know Tiger Woods is the best golfer in the world, maybe ever, but when are we going to see him come back from behind to win a major.

His record when leading after 54 holes is 12-0; his record when behind after 54, 0-26.

When he has won his majors, he's either had a huge lead going into the last round or his competition has wilted under the pressure.

Just once, I'd love to see this guy be about four groups behind post a winner and see one of these also rans beat it, or come close.

Regardless, you just have to love the US Open. Watching guys slapping shots all over the place makes us duffers feel better.

Let's talk to our Father

Most people understand that a muscle grows when used and shrinks when it's not used.

But those same things happen within our character. Traits like honesty, integrity, compassion grow when used and shrink when not.

This is also true of faith. We all need to be vigilant practitioners of our faiths or our relationship with God suffers.

I heard a televangelist once say that prayer life is like a cell phone connection to God and the more sin we allow in our lives the fuzzier the connection gets. But I would offer that the more we are in communication with God, the easier it is to rid ourselves of sin.

So let's get back into talking to God regularly so he can guide us and, more importantly, we can listen to his instruction.