The world's smallest violin

The WSJ had an article yesterday (unfortunately not online) titled "The Finest Foreclosures."

It's basically a run down of multi million dollar homes currently in foreclosure.

But what caught my interest was the opening story.

In 2003, Robert Provost snapped up a 2.5 million dollar villa with its own boat dock in Sarasota Fla. A finance chief for an auto-sales chain, Mr. Provost earned more than $250,000 a year and had an impeccable credit history.

Then he lost his job. Mr. Provost missed one $10,500 mortgage payment, then another, This month, the 53 year old put his house on the market for 3.4 million dollars.

Now am I supposed to cry crocodile tears for this douche bag?

He bought a home over 10 times his annual income; his monthly mortgage payment was over 1/2 his pre tax monthly income; he's a finance manager and now, not only do I, as a taxpayer, have to bail out the morons who loaned him the money, I also need to sympathize with this pile of excrement?

This dude knew the game he was getting into; he was trying to buy a big ass house flip it, make a million, and buy another big ass house.

But there's more....

"A foreclosure would be devastating" he says, "My wife and I would have to start from scratch."

I'll tell you what you a-hole, my wife and I started from scratch and we're still scratching and we didn't get the benefit of living in a 2.3 million dollar home while we were scratching.

This clown can bite me.

A comprehensive history of our financial meltdown

Spend the time to listen to this comprehensive history of our current meltdowns in the financial markets by Mark Levin.

It's worth a good listen.

Pot, Kettle, Black award

For the first time in a while, this award is not going to The Billary.

Instead, we give this one to one Charles Rangel. You may know Chuck as the inept congressman in charge of our nation's tax laws, yet can't seem to complete his own return accurately.

Already under fire for his tax troubles, Manhattan Congressman Charles Rangel really put his foot in his mouth on Friday.

In a CBS 2 HD exclusive interview, Rep. Rangel called Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin "disabled."

The question was simple: Why are the Democrats so afraid of Palin and her popularity?

The answer was astonishing.

"You got to be kind to the disabled," Rangel said.

That's right. The chairman of the powerful House Ways & Means Committee called Palin disabled -- even when CBS 2 HD called him on it.

CBS 2 HD: "You got to be kind to the disabled?"

Rangel: "Yes."

CBS 2 HD: "She's disabled?"

Rangel: "There's no question about it politically. It's a nightmare to think that a person's foreign policy is based on their ability to look at Russia from where they live.

More....

Congratulations Detroit

Congratulations to the city of Detroit for swearing in a new mayor for the city, Kenneth Cockrel, Jr.

By appointing another democrat to run the city, Detroit has ensured it's place as America's arm pit.

Keeping crappy jobs at home

Obama Promises To Stop America's Shitty Jobs From Going Overseas

The gift that keeps giving

Joe Biden on the campaign trail

Democratic vice-presidential nominee Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., spent the past two days trying to win over Ohio voters, but he may have undermined that work in one quick dis of the Ohio State Buckeyes football team Friday morning.

Before boarding his flight from Wilmington, Del., to Washington, DC, the loquacious Blue Hen displayed some Fightin' Blue Hen alumni bravado in an impromptu airport meeting with the University of Delaware football team.

"I was out in Ohio," he said, clutching a football. "I told the folks in Ohio that we'd kick Ohio State's ass!"

More.....

Thomas Letson

Obama's secret plan for the economy

From the Obama camp today

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama said on Friday he supported efforts by the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve to shore up confidence in the financial markets and said he would hold off from presenting his own economic recovery plan."The events of the last few days have made it clear that we must take further bold and decisive action to shore up confidence in our financial markets and avoid a deepening economic crisis that could jeopardize the life savings and well-being of millions of Americans," Obama said in a statement.

The campaign equivalent of voting "present".

More.....

Need help with clean up

My nephew in Lancaster, Justin is setting up shop to help out his neighbors.

At least you won't have to worry about price gouging since his services are free,

Jim Johnson

More economic woes

Economists Warn Anti-Bush Merchandise Market Close To Collapse

Advice

The long slippery slope

I am a former liberal, pro abortion, democrat who eventually saw the light. Of course, those were my young adult years when I knew everything as opposed to today when I realize, I didn't know squat.

As I matured and really started to question the whole abortion issue I started to ask the question, "are we not killing inconvenient lives and sanitizing it as 'a woman's choice'?".

When it came to the Terri Schiavo case, I told friends. "Hey, if she has no 'quality of life', why doesn't her ex-husband go into the room and put a pillow on her face and suffocate her? She can't feel it, right? What's the big damn deal?

No, it was easier for Mr. Schiavo not to get his hands dirty by just starving her to death and calling it, well, nothing. She didn't even get the benefit of having her death defined as a "mercy killing" since she had no "quality of life" as the pro death people would have you believe.

I could see the slippery slope of one life being "better" than another. Hey, why not kill that Down Syndrome child. After all, I wouldn't want to live like that.

Now we have this

Elderly people suffering from dementia should consider ending their lives because they are a burden on the NHS and their families, according to the influential medical ethics expert Baroness Warnock. The veteran Government adviser said pensioners in mental decline are "wasting people's lives" because of the care they require and should be allowed to opt for euthanasia even if they are not in pain.

She insisted there was "nothing wrong" with people being helped to die for the sake of their loved ones or society.

The 84-year-old added that she hoped people will soon be "licensed to put others down" if they are unable to look after themselves.

Are you kidding me? Who will be the Solomon who makes all these decisions? Would this be above Obama's pay grade?

But hey, what's the big deal? After all, if a woman can go to a clinic at 7 months pregnant, induce labor so that the baby's brains can be sucked out and we can still call that "choice", what's the big deal? Right?

Mistress of Disaster

A nice profile on one Jamie Gorelick, one of the Clinton hacks responsible for 9/11 intelligence gaps as well as a nice role in the failing of Fannie Mae....

Ken Lay and Jack Abramoff must be green with envy over the all the mischief that has been accomplished by Jamie Gorelick, with scarcely any demonization in the press.

Imagine playing a central role in the biggest national defense disaster in 50 years. Imagine playing a central role in one of the biggest economic disasters in your country's history. Imagine doing both as an un-elected official. Imagine getting filthy rich in the process, and even being allowed to sit self-righteously on a commission appointed to get to the bottom of the first disaster, which of course did not get to the bottom of that disaster or anything else for that matter.

Imagine ending, ruining or at least causing signficant quality deterioration in the lives of millions of people, most of whom will never know your name. Imagine counting your millions of dollars while people who tried to stop you from causing all this mayhem were getting blamed for most of the ills you actually contributed to.

Well, as un-imagineable as this is, there is one American who doesn't have to imagine it. One Jamie Gorelick is this American. And without pretending that she caused the loss of countless thousands of lives and countless billions of dollars of wealth by herself, she certainly did push some of the early domino's in catastrophic chain events that are a major factors in life in America today.

More......

We're still waiting for that congressional testimony for her role in this debacle.

Photo of the wind storm

Here's a root ball from this past weekend's wind storm.

I the bottom picture doesn't really do the size of this thing justice but it's as tall as the house behind it.

You can see the guy on top of his house. where the tree went right through the middle of his home.

I'd say that's a bad day.

The hills they die on #4

Saturday #7 Caribou
Monday #6 Judicial Fiat
Tuesday #5 The NEA

Thursday #4 The Welfare State

On today's reality show, "The Hills They Die On" we'll cover the democrats love of the welfare state.

First, if democrats hate the wasted resources and lost lives of the Iraq War, you'd think they would abhor the War on Poverty made famous by Lyndon Johnson.

After all, trillions upon trillions of dollars have been spent making sure that we eliminate poverty and guess what? Poverty is worse today than it was 50 years ago, before we even had welfare.

All you have to do is drive through one of our inner cities to see that welfare has done nothing to help the masses. All you have to do is read the newspapers to see that murders in our inner cities are record highs, evidence of poverty of the soul. All you have to do is look at the drop out rate in our inner city schools to see the poverty of intelligence.

What's up with that?

As friend of mine likes to tell me "you know, you think poor people would get it eventually, they keep voting for democrats and they're still poor".

Malcom X understood this. Just watch this video...



But that's just the way the democrats like it. See the poverty pimps like Kwame Kilpatrick, Jesse Jackson, Barack Obama, Al Sharpton, Marion Berry, will always have a carrot to throw in the face of their poverty stricken constituency. Hey vote for me and you'll never have to do anything to live in your dump of an apartment.

If they remain poor and ignorant, these circus clowns will always have a voting bloc in the bag.

Just like a coke dealer and an addict.

I'm on the page

I don't know where this originated (Dave , Tom, Matt, Mark) but I'm using it.....

Let's face it, if we had a real republican like Blackwell in office, there'd be a serious solution to the State's problems beside Online Keno.

Who will he vote for? #86

Meet Josh Howard. Why is Josh in the news? (Watch the video)

" 'The Star-Spangled Banner' is going on. I don't celebrate this [expletive]. I'm black."

Howard goes on to make a difficult-to-discern comment that includes a reference to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

OK so this one's a give away. Apparently, Mr Howard intends on voting for Senator Obama.

Now, if you are an Obamamania supporter, how does it feel to share the same political beliefs with a guy like Josh Einstein here?

A real patriot?

More stupidity from The Joe Biden (he's so lame I can't even give him a nickname).

"We want to take money and put it back in the pocket of middle-class people," Biden said in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America."

Noting that wealthier Americans would indeed pay more, Biden said: "It's time to be patriotic ... time to jump in, time to be part of the deal, time to help get America out of the rut."

Yeah, I remember reading my history books about those true patriots Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Hancock, et al, just dying to break away from England so they could pay more taxes.

Wasn't that what the Boston tea Party was all about.?

Didn't they write that in The Declaration of Independence.....

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary to pay more taxes.....

What an idiot.

Blogger Problem?

For some reason, blogger won't allow me to go back and edit any of my posts today. As a result, my last post is missing the last section.

In addition it looks like it won't allow my SOB feed either.

Anyone else, having this problem?

I'm really starting to hate Google more than Microsoft.

More Rangel

The New York Post reports today that House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel's (D-NY) violation of Congressional rules (and tax law) continues. Seems he's been using the Congressional parking lot as a free storage facility for his no longer registered silver Mercedes Benz.

The car is covered with a protective tarp and has no license plates. Rangel's registration on the vehicle expired in 2004, state records show.

House rules forbid use of the garage for long-term storage more than 45 days - and congressional aides told The Post that Rangel's car has been sitting there for years.

more....

Hire this contractor

So you're looking to build a house and you can't figure out who you want to build it?

Pick this guy.....

The aftermath of Ike hitting Tina.

Explosive Video, Fannie Mae CEO calling Obama and the Dems the

We're decent, confused people

How is it that this Obamamania clip missed scrutiny?

Here's the money quote.....

The one thing that I want to insist on is that, as I travel around the country, the American people are a decent people. Now they get confused sometimes. You know, they listen to the wrong talk radio shows or watch the wrong TV networks, um, but they’re, they’re basically decent, they’re basically sound.

Yeah, we're all a bunch of hayseeds mind controlled by Rush Limbaugh. And the elites wonder why normal people think they're elites.


Hat tip Rachel Lucas

"Progressive" = projection

Isn't it interesting that the folks who most complain about Bush reading their emails and tapping their phone calls are the people who have no problem hacking The Palinator's email account and disclosing all her family's emails and phone numbers?

I think they call it psychological projection.

As recently as ten years ago, I would have considered voting for a democrat. But when I started to realize that I'd be aligning with a collaboration of ding dongs, derelicts and douche bags, I decided I'd start voting for the party of adults.

How do you libs rationalize that?

Quote of the day

Conservatives are always looking for converts, whereas liberals are always looking for heretics.

- Michael Kinsley

How to turn your franchise around

ESPN interviews John McDonough, President of the Chicago Black Hawks, on eight things to change when turning around a pro franchise.

Lot's of good ideas but I think he forgot the key ingredient in turning around a horrible franchise. In the Black Hawks case, Bill Wuertz, the owner, died. His death actually paved the way for someone else to actually change the operation. People actually cheered when he died.

So I guess the only way for the Bengals to actually change things around one Mike Brown, owner of the Bengals will need to die. His lasting legacy is that people will probably cheer when he bites the dust. Nice legacy.

But then, maybe we ought to cheer when a guy who's stolen $800 million from the county dies.

When will this story be vetted?

Obama is right on assaulting the influence of lobbyists in the political process. So I wonder when he's going after Joe Biden for having a lobbyist on his staff.

As Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama targets his Republican rival Sen. John McCain for hiring former lobbyists to work on his campaign, a key member of Obama's campaign is paying a Washington lobbyist for legal advice: his running mate, Sen. Joe Biden.

Lobbyist William Oldaker continues to represent the Delaware Democrat in his simultaneous bid for Senate re-election, serving as legal counsel just as he has for Biden's campaigns for the past 25 years.

Oldaker is an election law attorney and partners with Biden's son Hunter at the Washington firm, Oldaker, Biden & Belair. He is also an appropriations lobbyist who represents lawyers, American Indians, and educational and health care institutions and who drew fire in 2005 for serving on numerous fundraising committees that donate to the lawmakers he lobbies.

That dog gone hypocrisy just keeps showing its ugly head for The Messiah.

More.....

When will this story be vetted

Now that the media has determined that Sarah Palin actually faked being sick at school in 1975, maybe they can pull off one of their reporters and vet this....

The Obama campaign spent more than five hours on Monday attempting to figure out the best refutation of the explosive New York Post report that quoted Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari as saying that Barack Obama during his July visit to Baghdad demanded that Iraq not negotiate with the Bush Administration on the withdrawal of American troops. Instead, he asked that they delay such negotiations until after the presidential handover at the end of January.

The three problems, according to campaign sources: The report was true, there were at least three other people in the room with Obama and Zebari to confirm the conversation, and there was concern that there were enough aggressive reporters based in Baghdad with the sources to confirm the conversation that to deny the comments would create a bigger problem.

Instead, Obama's national security spokeswoman Wendy Morigi told reporters that Obama told the Iraqis that they should not rush through what she termed a "Strategic Framework Agreement" governing the future of U.S. forces until after President Bush left office. In other words, the Iraqis should not negotiate an American troop withdrawal.

According to a Senate staffer working for Sen. Joseph Biden, Biden himself got involved in the shaping of the statement. "The whole reason he's on the ticket is the foreign policy insight," explained the staffer.

More.....

Hey, it's only a violation of US diplomacy laws.

Global Warming Challenge Update

The updated score to the Global Warming Challenge

Warm - 271
Cool - 258

The Joe Biden School of Giving

In keeping with the Joe Biden tradition of non giving, the DNC carbon offset program set up during their convention netted all of $18.34.

The program, set up by the DNC Host Committee through the Denver Convention and Visitors Bureau and rolled out about a week before the convention started, raised a total of $18.34 worth of Canary Tags, offsetting 0.9 tons of carbon emissions.

The offsets were aimed at DNC-goers other than the official delegates, who had a separate carbon offset program through Vermont-based Native Energy. That program, set up in January through the Democratic National Convention Committee, was utilized by 65 percent of the DNC’s 4,440 delegates.

Carbon-offsetting programs estimate the amount of CO2 generated through the burning of fossil fuels associated with transportation, lodging and other travel-related activities. For rates between $10 and $20 per ton of CO2, users purchase the offsets and the money goes to pay for renewable energy projects or other programs that reduce carbon emissions.

I guess they didn't count other items in the collection plate, lint, a bottle opener, an ATM receipt, and a business card for "The Bunny House" Strip Clip.

More....

When are the feds heading to Loveland

I was just wondering. Since the feds have 85 billion to throw around for the bailout of AIG when will they head to Loveland Ohio and bail out all the businesses who have been without power for going on their fourth day?

At least these businesses are down from acts beyond their control. Unlike AIG who's corporate ineptness is the major contributor to their issues.

The folks in Loveland are waiting.

By the way, it's still really eerie to drive through our little business district here in Loveland. Every thing is fine until you cross the river in town Olde Loveland by the bike trail. Then it's total darkness. It's like an old ghost town.

Hopefully, they can get the juice going today.

The hills they die on #5

Saturday #7 Caribou
Monday #6 Judicial Fiat

Today - #5 The NEA

Democrats claim to be the champions of education, but it would take Dog The Bounty Hunter to find a liberal who has a solution other than more money for the existing rot.

The NEA seems to be the only labor union the democratic party kow tows too. After all, they are more than willing to sell out Teamsters and the UAW on a NAFTA deal but you won't find one liberal willing to dramatically change the way our children are educated.... No matter how lousy the current system is.

What makes them so special?

It starts with the understanding that democrats gain when the general public is largely made of dumb asses. It's probably why our current civics and economics curriculum have all the educational weight of recess.

It also helps that the NEA types who run our education system have no problems indoctrinating our youth with nice little socialistic brain washings. You see this in the current teaching of global warming. Forget that global warming is little more than a scientific hypothesis, it's taught to our youth as if all things man = bad and all things animal and plant = good. No more discussion, the science is conclusive. It's also the way evolution was taught to me; without any of the flaws or contradictions in the theory.

What's most interesting is that you won't find one democrat, who has the resources, send their kids to an inner city public school. Mr. Obama sends his kids (9 & 11 years old) to a nice $20k/year school. Mr. Biden sent his kids to Archmere Academy, a presitigious school for which I am very familiar. The list goes on and on....

In fact, public school teachers are more likely to send thier own children to a private school than a regular resident.

Why?

See, these guys know that without a good education, your ability to be socially and economically mobile is limited. So it's nice to have your kids getting a head start on life to the detriment of others.

By the way, another reason our current education system sucks is the number of imbeciles who have PhD's in our universities. From my own personal experience, it is clear that if you are a moron, Teachers College is perfect for you. Which is really a shame because I know several committed and excellent teachers who have had their profession drug down by loads of idiots in the profession. Unfortunately, we'll find a cure for AIDS before we can rid ourselves of these leaches.

Finally, you'll notice how much weight the NEA has with the democratic party with this piece.

Particularly outspoken was Newark’s Cory Booker, who noted how “vicious” teachers’ unions can be in their efforts to stymie reform: “Ten years ago, when I started talking about school choice, I was tarred and feathered,” Booker noted. “I literally was brought into a room by a [teachers’] union [representative] . . . and threatened that I would never win in office if I kept talking about school choice, if I kept talking about charter schools . . . there are billboards all over my city paid for by the teachers’ unions attacking me and I don’t even have mayoral control yet. I just tell the truth about what’s going on.” Booker implored Democratic office holders to “have the political will to stand up against these phenomenally powerful interests” and suggested that “when I started talking about this, I had so many Democratic establishment folks turn their backs on me, and it was Republicans in America that were willing to donate to my campaign in Newark, New Jersey. So we have to understand as Democrats that we have been wrong on education; it’s time to get right.”

But you'll never find a democrat invited to the DNC to give a speech on charter schools, school choice or vouchers because anyone with that view will be kicked out of the party immediately. Because..... it's a hill they'll die on.

Hey Joe Biden, they're talking about you

From Arthur Brooks

When it comes to helping the needy, Brooks writes: "For too long, liberals have been claiming they are the most virtuous members of American society. Although they usually give less to charity, they have nevertheless lambasted conservatives for their callousness in the face of social injustice."

HT Greg Mankiw

He doesn't have the votes yet?

Our guns are safe with Obamamania. Just ask him.

"The bottom line is this. If you’ve got a rifle, you’ve got a shotgun, you’ve got a gun in your house, I’m not taking it away. Alright? So they can keep on talking about it but this is just not true. And by the way, here’s another thing you’ve got to understand. Even if I wanted to take it away, I couldn’t get it done. I don’t have the votes in Congress."

I also notice that he conveniently omits handguns. I'll bet the NRA is getting together right now to endorse him.

Is this his Blubbly?

Mrs. Gekko and I have a 2 year old niece who likes to call her security blanket her "blubbly".

Given that she has to take that thing every where, I was wondering what Obama calls his teleprompter....

It appears Barack Obama's teleprompter is hitting the campaign trail.

The Democratic presidential nominee has never tried to hide the fact he delivers speeches off the device, though normally he doesn't use one at standard campaign rallies and town hall events.

But the Illinois senator used a teleprompter at both his Colorado events Monday — making for a particularly peculiar scene in Pueblo, where the prompter was set up in the middle of what is normally a rodeo ring.

CNN......

Hockey Moms Against Sarah Palin

The Palinator

McCain needs to strike now

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that McCain hasn't roughed up Obama on earmarks and/or his contributions from Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac yet?

From the beginning, I thought that it was a tough sell to transform McCain as some kind of reformer given that he has been part of the infrastructure for 30 plus years.

But if you are going to play that card, you need to get out in front of these economic attacks Obama is unloading on the McCain campaign. It truly paints him as a man with a "tin ear" on the average worker.

McCain can truly establish his role as a reformer by doing the following....

1) Highlight his earmark requests over Obama/Biden
2) Show the Fannie Mae connection
3) Go out aggressively and campaign on how "pay to play" has lead to these Lehman Brothers types woes and that democrats are the ones holding the bag.
4) Be aggressive on how the corruption in Washington has resulted in a weak economy.
5) Using the drilling example, highlight how democrats in congress don't put Amercian workers first.
6) Show the absolute hypocrisy of Rangel's chairmanship of Ways and Means.
7) Highlight the need for divided government

It occurs to me that many of these things are slam dunks and they fit right into the McCain narrative he's campaigning on. Obama's reeling right now and he's back flailing. This is a great time for McCain to put the heat on but it occurs to me like their holding back for an "October surprise".

But as anyone who's ever watched a Bengals game knows, prevent defense only prevents you from winning.

Drill now, Drill often.

Fannie Mae - A democratic who's who

To look at the people who have held high positions within Fannie and Freddie you need a democratic Who's Who listing....

The two institutions have long been run not by bankers but by retired political figures, predominantly Democrats. From 1991 to 1998, Fannie Mae was headed by James Johnson, a longtime aide to former Democratic vice president Walter Mondale. Johnson’s successor, Franklin Raines, had served as budget director to Bill Clinton. Jamie Gorelick, vice chair of Fannie Mae from 1998 to 2003, served as deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration.

These figures have paid themselves impressive private-sector salaries. Johnson earned US$21-million in just his last year at Fannie Mae. Raines earned US$90-million for five years’ work at Fannie Mae. Gorelick got US$26-million.

Yet the companies never had to meet the discipline of the private marketplace. They paid no taxes, and they had access to a line of credit at the Treasury department. More ominously for today’s crisis: They were not required to provide anything like the level of information about their internal operations expected of a privately owned company.

Just out of curiosity, has there been one thing that Jamie Gorelick has ever had her hands on that wasn't run like a pile of doo doo. She's like the Ted McGinley of everything.

I'm still waiting on those Enron like congressional hearings. I'm sure LollaPelosi and company will just combine them with Rangel's and Jefferson's hearings.

More......

Times are tough for democrats

From Drudge....

The nation's financials may be in a spiral, but cash is flowing into the Obama campaign faster than Marvin Hamlisch can play "Niagara"!

Yesterday, Obama declared how we are in "the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression."

Today he will host a dinner in Beverly Hills --- costing attendees $28,500 dollars each!

More....

By the way it looks like all those Hollywierd stars have benefited from those Bush tax cuts. Maybe they could give some of that $28,000 to the poor. They can just ask Joe Biden how to do it.

Oooops, they probably already have.

That explains a lot

Did you ever wonder why you're average vegan or vegetarian liberal, democrat sounds like a dim wit?

Maybe because they are........

Scientists have discovered that going veggie could be bad for your brain-with those on a meat-free diet six times more likely to suffer brain shrinkage.

Vegans and vegetarians are the most likely to be deficient because the best sources of the vitamin are meat, particularly liver, milk and fish. Vitamin B12 deficiency can also cause anaemia and inflammation of the nervous system. Yeast extracts are one of the few vegetarian foods which provide good levels of the vitamin.

More....

The hills they die on #6

Saturday #7 Caribou

Today - #6 Judicial Fiat

There's a perfectly good reason for why you never hear a democrat speak out when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals comes out with one of their goofy pronouncements; like abolishing the term "In God We Trust" on our money.

Because they want it that way.

This, despite the fact that the Courts continually rule in a manner that usurps the authority of the legislative and executive branches of government. You would think these legislators would go ape. Except the courts do all the dirty work for liberals and the legislative liberals never have to get their hands dirty.

Think about it. Can you imagine the stink if Barney Frank introduced a law eliminating the words "one nation, under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance?

But Barney and Co. have the perfect cover, judges get to take the heat for their will. It's all good.

We're always hearing about a judicial "litmus test" as it pertains to Supreme Court Justices. But who really incorporates the litmus test? Has there ever been a democratic appointee who ever left the plantation of liberal theology during their careers?

I'll never forget when the Kelo verdict came out and the liberal woman I was dating at the time made the comment "hey, those are your conservative judges ruling in favor of big business." Except that it wasn't. It was a pack of liberals ruling in favor of big government.

The back lash was so severe, many states had to re write their eminent domain laws. Did you hear a democrat complain? Absolutely not. It was just what the doctor ordered for the liberal brethren.

On a related note, the democratically controlled senate has stalled on the Bush appointments to where it now takes 348 days for confirmation.

Do you think Reid & Co. would risk their careers to block a Bush appointment. You bet your life. It's one of the hills they'll die on.

Back on full power

We're now operating at full power throughout the Gekko real estate empire.

I just drove home from my office and it was quite eerie to drive along through an area with full electric only to go to total darkness when you cross the street.

Good luck to the Duke folks for working their asses off to get us all back on line.

John McCain Gets BarackRoll'd

The wind beneath my wings

The wind was fierce here, near the Gekko compound. I couldn't tell if the wind was from the Bengals sucking or blowing.

None the less, our home avoided much of the wind damage many of our neighbors had.

My office, not so lucky. The roof I was hoping to replace next spring is going to get replaced this fall and an exterior door I just bought will need replacing. Regardless, I still consider myself lucky as we witnessed the damage in the surrounding communities.

On a Bengals front... when does college basketball season start?

Who will they vote for? #67

From Houston.....

Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt says the department made about 30 looting arrests in the 24-hour period.

Houston officials have issued a weeklong curfew for the city devastated by Hurricane Ike, between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Hurtt says the looting arrests, between 6 p.m. Friday and 6 p.m. Saturday, were burglaries at pawn shops, convenience stores and auto-parts stores.

Just for discussion purposes, do these 30 looters represent an Obama or McCain voting bloc?

Sunday Comics