A step in the right direction.....for a change.

REVERSE IS REVERSE



A victory against a double standard in the U.S.A.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/06/29/connecticut-firefighters-vindicated-supreme-court-ruling/

A Supreme Court ruling that a group of white firefighters were unfairly discriminated against has quickly turned into a political football -- since the opinion reverses a decision high court nominee Sonia Sotomayor had endorsed in the lower court.

R.I.P. MJ

O'Reilly vs. Frank, Part Deux

You may or may not have been aware that O'Reilly v. Frank - Rematch" was last night, and in case you missed it, here are the vids of the interview.

Personally, I must say this time around, as comical as Elmer Fuddy Frank still is, it was actually a productive conversation and some of it actually made sense......

part 1 of last night's interview:



part 2 of last night's interview:

Obama Is A Vulcan

I know, its been a while since I've posted....we've had so many instances of double standards since the last post that with the way this current administration is going, if you miss a couple days you end up about 100 blogs behind and meanwhile your head is exploding.....and it just snowballs from there.

At any event, I figured I'd fast forward the David F'n Lettermans and such (which Mark Levin did such a fine job discussing kicking off his 6/9 show) up to now, you know while North Korea is threatening to fire a missile towards Hawaii while we simultaneously want to reduce our missile defense funds.....and the current situation in Iran.......I thought we'd just skip along to some much needed frivolous behavior and discuss today's news/press conference which was actually a pretty good one. Shockingly there were no questions about being enchanted or chills running up people's legs, but rather some tough ones thrown at the President (like Major Garrett asking him "What Took So Long?" - man you could almost hear everyone's chairs sliding away from his seat when he asked that one!) Anyway, Obama stated finally today what he should have said a bit ago about Iran. What he said about Iran I feel was good, just a tad bit late.

So in any event, this question happens -



....and Spock is brought up....and to which Obama replies first:

OBAMA: Okay. You're pitching; I'm catching.

TAPPER: Okay.

OBAMA: I got the question. First of all, was the reference to Spock, is that a crack on my ears?

[LAUGHTER]

TAPPER: No.

OBAMA: All right. I just wanted to make sure. No?

TAPPER: I would never make fun of your ears, sir.

............and it finally struck me who Obama reminds me of...



Holy cow. He talks like a vulcan. You put 2+2 together.

Although, I have been reminded that vulcan's can not lie.....so this may cause an issue.

Too Good To Pass Up....

Highlights of the Senate Credit-Card Bill

I'm fair and balanced, if something good comes out of this God-forsaken administration I'll be the first to state it. And so I'll state this Credit Card Bill seems to me to be a good move. Credit card companies need to make money legitimately, not simply off of unethical business practices. The bill passed almost unanimously - and here's what it covers:

Here are the major elements of Senate credit-card bill, just passed by the Senate and likely to be adopted by House.

Existing balances: Issuers cannot retroactively change the rate on an existing balance unless the account is 60 days delinquent.

Payments: A consumer payment above the minimum applies first to the balance with the highest rate.

Teaser rates: Issuers cannot raise rates for the first year after an account opened. Promotional rates must last at least six months.

Bills: Issuers must send a bill 21 days before the due date.

Over limit: Issuers cannot charge over-limit fees on credit cards unless the consumer has signed up to allow such transactions.

Minors: For consumers under 21 years old, a company must get the signature of a parent or another to take responsibility for the debt, or it must obtain proof that the under-21 consumer can repay credit.

Disclosure: Cardholders must get 45 days notice of change in terms.

Fees: Issuers cannot charge fees to pay by mail, phone, and electronic transfer or online, except for expedited service.

Gift cards: All gift cards must have at least a five-year life.

You would think we wouldn't need a bill for some of these things, but at least something is being done about some of these shifty practices.





Meanwhile, Obama calls for strict MPG regulations on future vehicles by 2016.....but when will we figure out that we could create a 200 MPG vehicle but the gasoline companies will meanwhile just be raising gas prices to compensate themselves? What difference does a 20mpg vehicle at $2.25 a gallon make, vs. a 40mpg vehicle paying $4.50 a gallon for gas?

Time to update the list!

In a previous blog I began listing out the excuses we've seen thus far by the gasoline companies as to why prices go up.

Well, according to AAA we've got new ones to add to the list! So I updated the list, and here it is.

Excuse Tracker for reasons that gas prices increase:

1. Winter months, heating
2. Hurricane in Gulf of Mexico
3. Manufacturing demands by industrial nations, i.e. China
4. Americans and SUVs
5. Market speculation
6. March and April "pressures on refineries"
7. Tensions in Middle East
8. A whale died in the Atlantic
9. A turtle sneezed in the Pacific
10. Global warming
11. Pollen levels
12. Jupiter's red spot
13. The dog ate it.
14. Gas prices take a while to come down because the stations are still selling what they bought at the higher prices
15. Gas prices take no time at all to skyrocket overnight, because reason #14 doesn't apply the other way around.
16. Oil up to pay for alternative resource research
17. Because OPEC says so!
*NEW*
18. A special summer blend is more expensive than the winter blend, as it uses special ingredients! But I thought it was higher in the winter because of the heating demands?
19. Summer vacation, kids are off! And since they all drive cars, this makes total sense!
20. Memorial Day weekend and Independence Day, even tho it's still May and that's in July.

When 'Breaking News' is literally breaking news

With the current swine flu, I'm sorry H1N1 (which sounds more like an assault rifle) - it brought me back to the topic of the media, and how the media operates today as opposed to yesterday.

BREAKING NEWS - POSSIBLE CASE IN (fill in blank) COUNTY.
Maybe. Possible. Could be.

In years past, when journalism actually had a code of ethics and were held to some sort of responsibility to actually check facts before reporting something as news, journalism did just that. News was not news until the facts were checked out and a report was given stating all the known facts. Sure there would be a delay but you knew when the report came out, you'd get all the facts and everyone would get their facts straight.

But now? Maybe it's the information age (which ironically seems to be full more of misinformation than information), but it seems that with the evolution of the internet and television ratings, "news media" would rather be the first to the "breaking news" line, whether or not it's true doesn't matter. As long as "I said it first! I win!"

And then, go back and check the actual facts, later. Even though you already threw out a bunch of garbage that people read or heard or watched as news. Most of the time, they don't even go back to correct what was wrong in their new flash, they move on to the next "breaking news". If we're lucky maybe there's a little correction on the back of page 400 in the paper. On TV? Or online? They never go back and correct themselves.

Notice how all the news channels, network channels, newspaper's online entities, they all do it. They all want to be the first to report something, at all costs. Whether or not it's even correct or valid or truthful has become 2nd priority. Never mind it may not be true, just get it out there first, so we can say we were the first to report it. If it ruins someone's name or image, or is completely full of nontruths and unconfirmed "facts" - who cares? We won, we said it first! We got the ratings or the page clicks.

The same goes for the political world, and in this regard Rush Limbaugh has an expression "Drive-By Media", a term I absolutely love. He claims the media does sensationalist drive bys, similar to that of gang-bangers making a hit on a target. They throw something out there for the sole purpose to devestate or destroy someone or something, and then drive off never to speak of it again. Only then others have to come by and pick up the pieces, perform the investigations, see who was hit, and try to heal the wounds, state the actual truth, and point out what was not true, what was flat out lies, or simply made up.

When will journalism be factual again instead of fashionable?

Today In The Media.....

New York Headlines:



Rush Limbaugh on the Gibbs press conference:

Here's Gibbs, this is the best one. This is yesterday at the White House, Gibbs doing the press briefing and he had an exchange here with Chuck Todd of NBC and Bill Plante, CBS. Chuck Todd said, "Do you guys feel you owe folks in New York City this morning an apology for this incident having to do with the airplane that looks like Air Force One, with two fighter jets? There seemed to be a lot of panic."

GIBBS: I would contact the White House. I -- I -- I'd

PLANTE: The White House military --

RUSH: Hold it a second. Stop the tape and recue it. You are the White House! (laughing) The press secretary at the briefing room in the White House, which is in the West Wing, is telling the press to contact the White House.

GIBBS: I would contact the White House. I -- I -- I'd --

PLANTE: The White House military office won't tell us anything. They'll refer us to you.

GIBBS: Then let me go discuss with the White House military -- I don't -- I have seen some news reports, but I don't know. That's -- I have no information on this, what I saw --

TODD: The way this works, I'm just saying, appearance-wise, it's odd that you guys don't have a response. I mean this is the president's aircraft or what looks like the president's --

GIBBS: I -- I -- I was working on other things. I -- I -- you might be surprised to know I don't know every movement of Air Force One or what happens to it, but I will certainly talk to the military office.

RUSH: You certainly as hell know the days you're not going to be on it, and you know the days you are. Boy, I'll tell you this is buck passing like I have rarely ever seen it. I mean, folks, this plane doesn't go anywhere. These two 747s do not go anywhere without Barack Obama knowing about it or being on it because when they're gone, he can't take one, he cannot use one. He's got to know it's not available. I'm surprised Gibbs didn't say, "Well, we're looking into this now. We think that right-wing extremists who are returning from the war have taken the airplane up, we'll let you know."



RUSH: All right. Look, I'm sorry, folks, but I have to ask this question. Thanks for the call out there, Mike. I have to ask this question, because I'm not an idiot. You send a Boeing 747, which is Air Force One -- and either one or two, I'm not sure; I only saw pictures of one, but there might have been two F-16s, the escort jets. Presumably that's where the pictures were being taken, you know, the Air Force jet getting the view of Air Force One right in front of the Statue of Liberty and so forth. But you don't need to do that to get a picture of Air Force One near the Statue of Liberty. And furthermore, do they not have a picture of this 747 near the Statue of Liberty? They've probably got pictures of this Air Force One in Grand Canyon, you know, flying underneath the Golden Gate Bridge.

Well, not underneath, but, you know, they probably got... Why do you need 'em? (interruption) Now, wait a second. No, no. Stick with me on this, Snerdley. It had nothing to do with being Obama's plane. It's not as though you have to have publicity shots for Air Force One in order to sell tickets for people to ride it, because no matter what people do, they cannot get on Air Force One. So what does it really matter? Where is this PR photo going to be used? And to what purpose? You could do the same thing with Photoshop. You really could. You can accomplish the same thing with Photoshop. Now, you stop and think of this. We're all sitting here, and except for the people in lower Manhattan, people are laughing about this.

But you stop and think for a minute: Do you really believe that everybody involved had no idea that this would cause a panic? Do you really believe that everybody involved thought, "Big deal. We're going to go up there and get a photo-op in front of the statue. Nobody needs to know." Do we really believe that there's not one person in the chain of command that caused this event yesterday that didn't realize that a Boeing 747 at a thousand feet over Ground Zero was just going to be looked up at, "Oh, man, Mabel, look at that! Why, it's a little off course. I wonder what the president's doing?" Is that really the reaction people are just going to have? There's more to this than we know. I have no idea what. I'm just telling you the excuses that are coming out of this...

Plane Stupid!

Well folks.......it's been a little bit. And to be honest, when starting this blog, I didn't realize how fouled up, comical, and full of double standards this new administration would be. There just isn't time to keep up. I may have to go with a weekly summary format here, soon, because otherwise I'd be talking on here all day, 24/7. So, there are a ton of things I will be discussing in a summary a bit later, but for right now....I want to talk about the Best of Barry so far this week.

First, we have yet another entertaining gaffe by our Teleprompter American Idol President. This is hysterical, a freakin' comedy skit. The man is a deer in headlights when the teleprompter goes boom. This is who we voted in.






Meanwhile, back at the ranch........ol' Barry's Air Force One is flying around with an F-16 in chase, buzzing the Manhattan skyline at if even 1000ft, making aggressive turns and freaking the hell out of NYC citizens, reliving 9/11. For a "photo-op" with the Statue of Liberty.

What kind of absolute idiots are running this country? Idiots that would not think, that such a manuever, without any warning to the public, in New York City, over Ground Zero of the 9/11 terrorist plane attacks, with a huge 747 Air Force One.....would cause mass hysteria and strike fear in so many citizens who had lived thru 9/11. Working in their office or cubicle. In a NYC skyscraper. Looking out the window and seeing this all over again?

And can we not add the Double Standard of the media had the Bush Administration done this? Can you imagine?



By the way, the official response now, is, that the White House didn't know this was going on. They're sorry about that, and it won't happen again. Oh well, ok then....let's all, "move on".

What is more frightening, that the people supposedly keeping us safe now, didn't know what the hell was going on with Air Force One over the NYC skyline? Or that they really did know, and didn't see an issue with this? Obama's spokesman Robert Gibbs told the press to call the White House, when asked about the President's plane flying around Manhattan. Um, he is the White House spokesperson.

We won't even get into the cost of this 'photo-op'. And what the hell is the photo-op even for? I'm afraid to even ask. Has the Obama Administration never heard of Photoshop?

"Felony Stupidity", "borders on being either cruel or very, very stupid"

Couple videos, among many ou there on the 'net:

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2009/04/video_air_force_one_causes_pan.html

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2009/04/video_lowflying_plane_over_jer.html

Who will Obama point the finger at this time, to avoid taking responsibility and being held accountable?