More on Rhymin' Reverend Wright

Here's a piece on the impact Rhymin' Reverend Wright's sermons have on his community.

This challenge has not gone unnoticed. Each year the federal government spends hundreds of billions of dollars -- specifically, more than $10,000 per poor person for welfare, Medicaid, the earned-income tax credit, job training and food stamps. Put another way, taxpayers are doing their share. We need to work together to help people move from dependency to self-sufficiency. No one, especially spiritual leaders who ought to be lifting people up, should provide rationales for escaping individual responsibility by encouraging perceived victimization.

I have encountered negative messages in many states. A community "leader" in Miami's Overtown neighborhood, for instance, told me that he counseled unemployed people not to work on nearby construction projects because racist employers abused them. Pressed for an example of such abuse, he cited an employer's failure to pay overtime for Saturday work. Two blocks away, more than a dozen homeless men were camped out under a bridge. Yet a man who was supposed to be guiding people was counseling against working.

Life isn't fair for people of any skin color. And sadly, in America today, many blacks face barriers such as economic insecurity, scarce jobs and poor schools, which create even higher hurdles for them to overcome. There is no cure-all for this inequity. But the effect that Jeremiah Wright has on Barack Obama's presidential campaign is far less important than the effect of the terrible message that Wright and others like him send to their congregations.

2009 NFL draft

Last week, I took some shots at guys who follow the NFL draft and I was somewhat surprised that I raised someone's ire so much by calling them a loser.

Doth protesteth too much

If you are one of those guys, take heed. Here are the projections of a 2009 NFL mock draft. Needless to say, they have the Bengals picking fifth, meaning this expert expects them to be miserable.

It's going to be another very long year for Bengal's fans. But just like a crack whore, you'll keep coming back for more.

Sleeping with pols

On Barbara Wawa's affair

A moderate Republican from Massachusetts who took office in 1967, Brooke was the first African-American to be popularly elected to the Senate. Both he and Walters knew that public knowledge of their affair could have ruined his career as well as hers, Walters says.

Questions/Comments

What would have hurt her career more, having an affair with a black man? or a republican?

How times have changed. Now you have an affair and you get to fire the ho, keep your job, and hire a new ho.... see Otter down below.

Is there a politician around who can keep his pants up?

Wait a minute. A black republican was the first elected black senator? How could that be?

Even more bizarre? A republican from Massachusetts?

What ever happened to protecting your sources?

She's lucky. If she would have slept with Teddy K, she'd be fish food by now.

Warmer drops the big one

The fellows at Delta House are moving out.

Marc "Otter" Dann fired and/or received resignations from a whole bunch of pledges, actives and little sisters.

From the Dispatch

He said he took “full responsibility” for the actions of his underlings.

What exactly does "full responsibility" look like? It seems like everyone but "Otter" actually lost their job, yet the guy taking "full responsibility" lives on for his next toga party.

I guess it really wasn't over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor. But then, it never is when you're a democrat.

Friday Funny

A little funny from Jimmy Kimmel

I hope they have workers comp

Some times, your training doesn't go as planned. Normally watching guys get evaporated isn't funny but when it's jihadists planting IEDs I'll make an exception.

That will drop gas prices

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's proposal for a windfall profits tax on oil companies could cost $15 billion a year at last year's profit levels, a campaign adviser said.

The plan would target profit from the biggest oil companies by taxing each barrel of oil costing more than $80, according to a fact sheet on the proposal. The tax would help pay for a $1,000 tax cut for working families, an expansion of the earned- income tax credit and assistance for people who can't afford their energy bills.

More.....

You can't make this up

You can take a man off the toilet, but odds are good he’ll just find another one.

Notorious toilet snoozer Gil Duff was arrested again on the john Wednesday – that’s his third arrest in a bathroom in nine days – this time sleeping in the men’s room at Chamberlain Park in the 7600 block of Plainfield Road.

Duff’s previous arrests took place in a portable toilet in Sycamore Township’s Bechtold Park.

C'mon dude, I hear Marc Dann's looking for a roommate. I'm assuming it's nicer than a portalet.

More.....

We're in a depression

How do you know when your economy is in the tank.

When people aren't willing to dole out $4.50 for a "Verdi" cup of coffee, cappuccino, espresso, latte, or whatever, kind of coffee crap that's sold at Starbucks.

Starbucks, which had 125 stores when it went public in 1992, now has 15,000 stores in 44 countries. But the company has struggled to maintain its differentiation in the face of growing competition. Most recently, Starbuck’s has suffered the effects of the crisis in the housing market, which has put a pinch on sales, particularly in California and Florida. Mr. Schultz said that customers were simply not visiting Starbucks stores at the rate they once did.

Where are the latte lines?

You mean to tell me that the average Joe will now have to buy the average cup of joe. OHHH the humanity.

If you are the kind of person bitching about gas prices as you stand in line at a Starbucks waiting for a $9.00 frappuccino, you should be kicked in the balls.

Global warming repreive

Talk about covering your ass. People are starting to realize that global warming caused by human activity is a bunch of crap. Especially, as some people in North America are still digging themselves out of snow....... in May.

But apparently, it's not that global warming is a heaping load of crap, it's that mother nature is giving us a 10 year reprieve for our sins.

Parts of North America and Europe may cool naturally over the next decade, as shifting ocean currents temporarily blunt the global-warming effect caused by mankind, Germany's Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences said.

Average temperatures in areas such as California and France may drop over the next 10 years, influenced by colder flows in the North Atlantic, said a report today by the institution based in Kiel, Germany. Temperatures worldwide may stabilize in the period.

Maybe after the next ten years we can file the appropriate paperwork and get another 10 year extension before we all die in a global warming fireball.

Stealing from the poor

Now that the state of Ohio has decided that payday lending businesses are bad for the poor, they're finally going to regulate them.

I find it ironic that this law passed the House right on the first of a month. Because today, there will be thousands of poor people all over the state taking their welfare checks to buy beer, cigarettes and lottery tickets. Ask any convenient store owner and they'll tell you that they live off of the first week of the month.

But somehow, I don't see anything in this article indicating the state is going to keep those things from the poor.

Nothing, and I do mean nothing, zaps wealth out of poor communities more than the Ohio Lottery, yet somehow, everyone seems OK with that.

Couple that with the purchase of alcohol and cigarettes and poor people would never need payday lending operations in the first place.

So if you are one of these people who want to regulate payday lenders, I'll ask once again, why is it OK to rip off poor people with the lottery? I guess if you use the money for schools it's OK.

So maybe the payday lenders can avoid regulation by selling their businesses to the state and the state can then rip people off. But that will be OK because they'll use the profits to fund schools or health care.

Sharing DNA with Nostradamus, let me make the following predictions when this law passes.
1) Car repossessions will hit all time records.
2) Bank overdraft charges will run at an all time high.
3) Pawn shops will never be as profitable.
4) Over limit fees on credit cards will reach all time highs

Nice job Ohio.

How mature are "progressives"?

Hometown hottie

I'm originally from Lancaster, OH. I'm one of those bitter, small town, gun clinging, Jesus freaks that San Franciscans are so curious about; like an anthropological study.

Well, Lancaster is home to this honey (do not open at work unless you want a sexual harassment suit or you're a state senator). She's a Maxim Hometown Hottie.

I guarantee San Francisco has nothing like her. In fact, I'm pretty sure Lancaster had nothing like her while I was living there.

The speech Obamania needs to make

I haven't felt the need to post on the recent Wright Obamania dust up because there's plenty of good stuff out there.

Unfortunately, Obamania really misses the mark on his speeches. If he ever wants to make a dent into Reagan democrats (aka those small town, hick, gun totin', Jesus lovers) this is the speech he needs to make.

"For the past twenty years, I have attended TUCC run by Rev. Wright. I became an active member of this church because of all the good this church had done in the community and becuase the Rev. Wright helped me with my faith in Christ.

However, it's clear to me that the messages the Reverend continues to deliver, reinforces the notion that blacks have been and always will be victims of a racist, white society.

In fact, the sooner we can educate african-americans in our society that our government was never responsible for injecting aids into our communities; that we do not have a USKKKA; that Louis Farakhan is more of a problem in this country than a solution; the sooner we can actually start solving the real problems that plague our inner cities."

Instead we get a denunciation of Wright. Why? Because it's bad for Obamania

"Obviously, whatever relationship I had with Reverend Wright has changed," Obama said. "I don't think he showed much concern for me, more importantly I don't think he showed much concern for what we're trying to do in this campaign."

So for Obamania it's not so much that Wright spews his BS into his community but that he didn't show concern for Obamania.

If Obamania want to score points with all those angry gun toting Christians in Terre Haute or Greensburg or Danville, he could start by calling out all these race hustlers who get rich making sure their client base remains poor.

I don't know what set off Wright, but I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't intentionally sabotage Obama to prove that the whitey will always hold down a "young brother".

Obama would do well to scrape all these guys off the bottom of his shoe. Otherwise, they'll be like quicksand looking to drag him and his campaign down.

What is it about liberals who insist on running on who they are not. John Kerry tried to run as some pro-military patriot when he was anything but and now we have Obamania running on "judgment". Well how much judgment does he have when he's just starting to come to the realization that Wright is a welfare pimp. Something all of us conservatives knew within five minutes of listening to the clown.

What's a liberal to tell us next, that The Billary is corrupt?

Let's start pumping

Economist Robert Samuelson on tapping into US oil reserves.

What to do about oil? First it went from $60 to $80 a barrel, then from $80 to $100 and now to $120. Perhaps we can persuade OPEC to raise production, as some senators suggest; but this seems unlikely. The truth is that we're almost powerless to influence today's prices. We are because we didn't take sensible actions 10 or 20 years ago. If we persist, we will be even worse off in a decade or two. The first thing to do: Start drilling.

Most people, even conservatives, believe that this is a long term solution, but would not impact the current cost of gasoline at the pump.

However, much of what is causing crude prices to spike is speculation on long term prices. If the US were to just announce that they would open ANWAR or the Gulf to exploration, crude prices would probably drop $10.00/barrel on the announcement.

Consider this. Delta Airlines has been butt jamming it's customers in the Cincinnati area for years. They've been able to do that because there's effectively no competition. Whenever a new airline rolls into town and announces fares to, say, Charleston SC for $150.00. Guess what? Delta drops it's fares accordingly. Even the announcement of a new airline in town drives Delta's fares down. They've driven out many a airline over the years using this predatory pricing.

OPEC is no different. They control the worldwide supply of oil. It's never made much sense for US oil companies to pursue Alaskan or Gulf oil because it's more expensive to retrieve then OPEC oil.

Now the price is over $120.00 a barrel, there's an attractive incentive to go get that oil.

OPEC doesn't want that. They'll drop the price just to make it's oil more competitive than US oil. Even if they don't, we'll finally begin to wean ourselves from those jackoffs over there.

Of course you have "progressives" on the wrong side of history again. Their actions surrounding all this global warming bull crap has crippled the US's ability to urge more production out of OPEC. It's one of the main reasons crude has shot up since the democratic congress took over in January, 2007.

Want to see a real price hike, wait until the Wednesday after an Obama victory? Prices may go to $300 a barrel. OPEC will have absolutely no reason to increase production because they know Obama values the kodiak bear & caribou in Alaska than actual human beings in Buffalo.

Recession?

From the Bureau of Economic Analysis

Real gross domestic product -- the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States -- increased at an annual rate of 0.6 percent in the first quarter of 2008, according to advance estimates released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the fourth quarter, real GDP also increased 0.6 percent.

Profiles in courage

Apparently, most of the super delegates have made up their minds as to who they'll back at the convention.

Capitol Hill insiders say the battle for congressional superdelegates is over, and one Senate supporter of Barack Obama is hinting strongly that he has prevailed over Hillary Rodham Clinton.

While more than 80 Democrats in the House and Senate have yet to state their preferences in the race for the Democratic nomination, sources said Tuesday that most of them have already made up their minds and have told the campaigns where they stand.

“The majority of superdelegates I’ve talked to are committed, but it is a matter of timing,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.). “They’re just preferring to make their decision public after the primaries are over. ... They would like someone else to act for them before they talk about it in the cold light of day.”

So let me make sure I have this right. These a-holes could end all this mess for the party by simply publicly declaring their intentions but they'd rather have these candidates twist in the wind and risk a general election defeat.

Real stand up guys.

I'm starting to appreciate The Billary more and more. She is apparently the only person with balls in that party.

Obamania loooooves America

Michele Obama on her feelings for America.

Can't you feel the love? She loves the US almost as much as Rev. Wright.

Franken owes $70,000 in back taxes

Apparently, the most "progressive" of "progressives", Al Franken, isn't so generous after all.

DFL U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken, front-runner in the race to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, said Tuesday that he has paid $70,000 in back taxes in 17 states, where he earned income going back to 2003.


More.......

A great anniversary

Global Warming Challenge Update

The score of the Global Warming Challenge

Warm 126 Cold 125

Another Obamania socialist

Meet Sam Graham-Felson.

According to his personal blog...

Sam is currently on leave as a journalist. He has joined the Obama for America campaign where he works as in the New Media department.

But lo and behold Sam is also a socialist.

Here's a piece he wrote for the Socialist Viewpoint.

Apparently, the guy even flies a communist flag in his home although I can't verify that through a photo or third party.

I would never be critical of Obama personally because of the people who support him. However, what does it say about Obama's candidacy that has all these openly socialist/communist/marxist types out there supporting said candidacy?

Back in December, I called Obama an "empty suit".

Well, your average Che Guevara fan doesn't start campaigning for an "empty suit". What was in his background that had all these people flocking to his campaign? They didn't go running to the Breck Girl, Bill Richardson or The Billary; they went running to Obama.

Why?

Newspaper circulation

The latest newspaper circulation numbers are out and it doesn't look good for the business.

But once again, it's interesting that the media largely ignores some basic facts.

The more liberal a newspaper is perceived to be, the uglier the decline.

Most liberal paper in the US, the NY Times is down 3.9 percent. The WSJ, considered to be the US's most conservative paper, up .4 percent.

What exactly is so "progressive" about going out of business?

Is it the economy?

A few weeks ago, I read this article in the Enquirer about the closing of many restaurants in the area.

I held on to it because the article blamed the economy for the closings even though many of the restaurants were chain types; Macaroni Grill, Don Pablo's et al.

But when I went back to look at the restaurants listed, something else stood out.

Outside of the chains, none of the restaurants were in Northern Kentucky.

So apparently the economy hasn't hit the Northern KY area like it has in Ohio just two blocks away. Or.... maybe it has to do with Ohio's increase in the minimum wage and the smoking ban; those things that make our state oh so blue.

I went to Newport on the Levee (just across the Ohio River for you non Cincinnati types) last week. For bad economical times, how is it that traffic backs up on to the freeway there. I had a hell of a time finding a place to park. Somehow no one told the people there we were in a recession.

So the question is... Are restaurants closing because of the economy or because we put them at an economic disadvantage to our neighbors to the south?

Can we address it now?

Apparently, Obamania says that Rev. Wright is a legitimate political issue.

Lord John McCain says it's OK to bring him up.

And the Reverend Wright has come out with some more fuel for the fire.

My only question is "who is it that's so bitter?"

Let AG investigate

When I first saw this I thought they were talking about Dann's condo.....

Miami University officials and the Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity have suspended the campus chapter pending an investigation into how a student was critically injured over the weekend when he fell out of his loft bed.

He's just a republican

From the Enquirer.

Just six days after a bike cop heard Gil Duff snoring inside a port-a-potty and found the 45-year-old snoozing on the john - pants up, a beer by his side - Duff was once again back on the toilet.

Police arrested Duff at 3:45 a.m. Monday inside a portable toilet in Sycamore Township's Bechtold Park, the same place they found him on April 22.

I guess Larry Craig stood him up. I realize my local watering hole is not so glamorous but it is a notch above a porta potty.

Who made that call?

As part of my birthday festivities, I went to the local BMV to get my plates.

One of the clerks asked me "do you want to donate a $1 to such and such group". Of course, I didn't want to look stingy in front of all those people so I said "No".

Question. Who made the call to decide that this one charity would be the recipient of a dollar contribution from every licensee in the state. That's a lot of money.

How do I get my favorite charity, Cold Beer for Working Little People, on that list?

Seriously, you'd think they'd ask for money on the organ donation program. How did they come up with this one?

Here's a clue, if people want to kick on for a charity, sit down and write a check, I do it all the time, and it doesn't hurt. The BMV has a hard enough time keeping their lines down to twenty illegals at a time. They shouldn't be in the business of generating money for charity, no matter how noble the cause.

Happy Birthday

A big ole Happy Birthday to Midas and myself.

As you can see from the pictures on the side, we're not identical twins. Actually, we're not related at all except for our belief in freedom.

In any event it's nice to know that we share a birthday with Saddam Hussein, Jay Leno, Barry Larkin, Ann Margaret, Penelope Cruz, Jessica Alba, and rapper Big Gipp.

So go out and do a toast for the little Doggies.

PS we are excepting gifts.

Why "progressive" cities are dumps

If you ever wanted to know why "progressives" continue to govern things to bankruptcy, you need only look at the street cars of Cincinnati proposal.

I say bravo to those who have worked hard to achieve this progress. Cincinnati has created positive momentum in recent years, and I think this project might be the tipping point (at least for Over-the-Rhine). I am confident in its success and only hoping for it to grow in the future (more streetcar lines, light rail, commuter rail, etc.) To all you suburbanites: First, get out of our business. We asked for your help with 2002's MetroMoves campaign and you gave us the finger. Now we are going alone. Second, many of you don't seem to get it. Some people like living in cities and riding public transportation because it's not so boring.

John Hoebbel, Northside

First, you dolt, many suburbanites pay city income tax, they should have every right to say how that money's spent.

Second, this is a city that had no money to fund it's public pools last year... Stan Chesley came up with the money so they could open. Does this seem like a frill or a necessity when compared to city pools?

Third, if public transportation was so damn successful in the city, why is it subsidized? In fact, if you ever drive by a Metro bus during non rush hour times you'd be lucky to see three people in one.

Fourth, let's truly examine how this street car is supposed to operate. People are supposed to pay to park at downtown, OTR or uptown, then they pay to take the street car from one of those places to another place and then pay to take the street car back to where you parked.

Doesn't that sound kind of ridiculous? I mean how many people actually have business to do downtown and either OTR or the university?

The fact is, if people do have business in one or both of these areas; they'll drive.

Let me also give this douche bag another lesson in urban government. Did you ever hear of the Cincinnati subway?

How about Fountain Square West? where the city bought a totally functioning department store out only to spend millions and take fifteen years to turn it into, wow, another department store.

Let's look at the another promise in urban development, the Underground Freedom Center.

John, if city life is so damn wonderful, why are people leaving in droves? The city population has dropped from 1 million to 350,000 in forty years. I guess, only you urban snobs can see the beauty of a woman being shot in cold blood with lots of witnesses yet no one seems to be able to tell the police who did it.

I will give you, life in the city is not boring. It was never boring to me when my window was bashed in three times in a three year period. I just couldn't take all that excitement anymore.

Animal House - Columbus Style

A Dispatch article on Animal House aka the AG's office.

Much of the time, Dann's married, high-level aides -- and sometimes the 46-year-old attorney general himself -- were accompanied in their nights on the town by younger, female staffers.

Some of the partying went on at the Dublin-area condo that, at the time, was shared by Dann and two longtime friends from Youngstown: Anthony Gutierrez, general services director, and Leo Jennings III, communications director.

Both Gutierrez and Jennings, who initially denied that staffers ever socialized at the condo, have been suspended with pay in connection with sexual-harassment complaints filed by two 26-year-old women Gutierrez supervised.

The complaints have opened a window into an office culture very unlike what is known of the buttoned-up state law offices headed by Democrat Dann's predecessors, Republicans Jim Petro and Betty D. Montgomery.

snip

On the night of Monday, Sept. 10 last year, Gutierrez pressured Stankoski to go out with him for a drink, she claims. At three different Downtown bars, he drank chilled shots of Crown Royal whiskey and ordered Grey Goose vodka for her.

Later, after Gutierrez took her to the condo, she said she saw the attorney general there with Utovich -- as well as tequila, margarita mix and boxes of pizza.

Gutierrez appeared to like drinking more than most. In 2006, he had a drunken-driving arrest and Dann, then a state senator running for attorney general, picked up his longtime friend and neighbor and took him home.

At work, Gutierrez showed up one morning after a rough night of drinking looking, in Stankoski's words, like a "hot mess.

"The few hairs on his head were standing up, he reeked of booze and vomit and boogers or vomit were hanging from his nose."

Niiiiiiiiiiiice........I think we should give Dann a good Animal House type name. Let's call him Otter.

Canadian homelessness

Here's an interesting piece on homelessness in Calgary v homelessness in Vancouver.

Vancouver is in B.C., where homeless people can walk through a residential neighbourhood and pluck peaches off trees, the authorities have virtually legalized marijuana, hand out free hypodermic needles to the junkies and built a warm place for them to shoot up heroin under the supervision of medical professionals.

It's where most of the hemp-wearing, macrobiotic, vegan Froot Loops in the country live, which means the only crimes that count are those committed against the environment.

Spark up a crack pipe in front of an elementary school playground and you're a "victim" because you're suffering from an "addiction."

Forget to recycle your crack pipe when you buy a new one?

Now that's just plain wrong.

How is it that the Canadian's have so much passion for their fellow man to provide them with free health care but they don't care enough to provide them with food and shelter?

Comments from a bitter white person

Your white friends in San Francisco, Barack, probably had cleaning women like my mother (and me when I accompanied her and then had my own cleaning jobs from age 12). As white people from a certain class and with certain connections, your donors knew that their futures would be secure because of their inheritances and the connections they could make in the media, politics, and business. In fact, it would benefit them in the world of “radical chic” to hang around those like you and support your policies. (Great opportunity to be photographed next to a black person!)

In fact, you and those wealthy donors sneer at white people who have had to do manual labor and who have paid for tuition at community colleges with the money earned that way, while our classmates received special scholarships and government grants—from our taxes.

You sneer at those like us who put our faith in God and not in those like you who would presume to know what’s good for us and tell us what to do with our money and our children, and leave us with no ability to defend ourselves.

More....

Who's the loser now?

A comment from a reader

As for calling people who want to sit and watch the draft at their local sports bars losers, coming from a nerd CPA that's funny. At the sportsbar there will be pretty girls to look at, beer to drink and some football related stuff to watch. What exactly are you going to do, be filing someone's tax extension and clicking away on a keyboard? lol..losers..pot calling the kettle black..

So you sat around all day to watch the Bengals draft.... A linebacker, probably the one position where they have any depth, and a wide receiver from Coastal Carolina, projected by most draft experts to be a fourth or fifth rounder....

Mulching my gardens was a better alternative to watching the Bengals drop back to loserdom.

And if you watched that, YOU ARE A LOSER.

More in your face Steyn

Mark Steyn with another in your face challenge to the Time magazine, environazi bio fuel zealots.

Well, Western governments listened to the eco-warriors, and introduced some of the “wartime measures” they’ve been urging. The EU decreed that 5.75 percent of petrol and diesel must come from “biofuels” by 2010, rising to 10 percent by 2020. The U.S. added to its 51 cents-per-gallon ethanol subsidy by mandating a five-fold increase in “biofuels” production by 2022.

The result is that big government accomplished at a stroke what the free market could never have done: They turned the food supply into a subsidiary of the energy industry. When you divert 28 percent of U.S. grain into fuel production, and when you artificially make its value as fuel higher than its value as food, why be surprised that you’ve suddenly got less to eat? Or, to be more precise, it’s not “you” who’s got less to eat but those starving peasants in distant lands you claim to care so much about.

Heigh-ho. In the greater scheme of things, a few dead natives keeled over with distended bellies is a small price to pay for saving the planet, right? Except that turning food into fuel does nothing for the planet in the first place. That tree the U.S. Marines are raising on Iwo Jima was most likely cut down to make way for an ethanol-producing corn field: Researchers at Princeton calculate that to date the “carbon debt” created by the biofuels arboricide will take 167 years to reverse.

The biofuels debacle is global warm-mongering in a nutshell: The first victims of poseur environmentalism will always be developing countries. In order for you to put biofuel in your Prius and feel good about yourself for no reason, real actual people in faraway places have to starve to death. On April 15, the Independent, the impeccably progressive British newspaper, editorialized: “The production of biofuel is devastating huge swathes of the world’s environment. So why on earth is the Government forcing us to use more of it?”