Nov 26, 2008 | 3:33 PM
Category:
Political
SOMETHING TO REMEMBER GEORGE BUSH BYPresident Bush has about two months left at the White House. After he leaves office, someone might get the burning desire to name something after him.
Maybe the Guantanamo Terrorist Detention Facility could be renamed George Bush Guantanamo Bay House of Corrections, at least until it's closed down.
Or maybe a park or a sewage plant could be named after him.
Hold on there a second! San Francisco voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposition earlier this month that would have named a city sewage plant after Bush.
Other facilities that could be named after George Bush:
- A public restroom in Memorial Park
- Memorial Park itself
- A gas pump
- The roller coaster at Six Flags over Texas
- Wall Street
- Texas Snake Farm
- A cemetery in Houston
- A Texas state prison
Maybe you have some ideas to throw into the mix.
Nov 25, 2008 | 8:27 PM
Category:
Political
CONGRESS FORGOT A "MUST CONDITION" FOR A BAILOUT FOR THE AUTOMAKERSIf Congress approves a $25 billion bailout for the big three automakers, no lawmaker is demanding that the automakers pledge not to move vehicle manufacturing facilities out of the U.S.
I believe a bailout for the automakers SHOULD include a requirement that they not shift anymore of their vehicle plants to Mexico or any other foreign soil.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to the automakers establishing conditions for a bailout. None of the conditions set out by Pelosi would prohibit the automakers from shifting production facilities to other countries.
If you want to tell Pelosi what the bailout conditions should include,
click on this link to Pelosi's office
Pelosi letter to the automakers
If you read the conditions in Pelosi's letter, you noticed it included no condition banning the automakers from outsourcing autoworkers' jobs to other countries.
Nov 25, 2008 | 4:32 PM
Category:
News
THE HOLIDAY SEASON IS THE BEST TIME OF YEAR FOR IDENTITY THIEVESWhen you go to an ATM for some holiday spending money, make sure you take a good, hard look at the machine, to make sure your not about to become an identity theft victim.
Identity thieves install skimmers over the slot of ATMs to capture your ATM card number and a camera to videotape you entering your PIN number.
Some identity thieves will sit in a nearby car receiving the information transmitted wirelessly over weekends and evenings from equipment they install on the front of the ATM.
If you see an attachment like those in the photos below, do not use the ATM and report it immediately to the bank using the 800 number or phone on the front of the ATM.
The thieves copy the cards and use the PIN numbers to withdraw thousands from many accounts in a very short time directly from an ATM.
Equipment being installed on front of existing bank card slot.
The thief's skimmer equipment as it appears installed over the normal ATM bank slot.
The identity thief's PIN reading camera being installed on the ATM is housed in an innocent looking leaflet enclosure.
The camera shown installed and ready to capture PINs by looking down on the keypad as you enter your PIN.
Have a great Thanksgiving weekend, and make sure an identity thief doesn't make you a victim.
Nov 25, 2008 | 6:02 AM
Category:
Political
THE BAILOUT CLOCK CONTINUES TO TICK, TICK, TICK
The U.S. government is prepared to provide more than $7.76 trillion on behalf of American taxpayers.
The pledges, amounting to half the value of everything produced in the nation last year, are intended to rescue the financial system after the credit markets seized up 15 months ago.
The unprecedented pledge of funds includes $3.18 trillion already tapped by financial institutions in the biggest response to an economic emergency since the New Deal of the 1930s. The commitment dwarfs the plan approved by lawmakers, the Treasury Department’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. Federal Reserve lending last week was 1,900 times the weekly average for the three years before the crisis.
When Congress approved the $700 billion bailout for big business, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department acknowledged the need for transparency and oversight. Now, as regulators commit far more money while refusing to disclose loan recipients or reveal the collateral they are taking in return, the time has come for accountability.
With all the federal tax dollars we're lending or spending on bailouts, we're ending up with commitments that we, as taxpayers, don’t know anything about.
We should slap limitations on the Federal Reserve so that authority returns to elected officials as opposed to appointed ones and so we know we're all our tax dollars are going.
Nov 24, 2008 | 8:29 PM
Category:
Political
It just doesn't seem right!Federal officials should halt the $20 billion government bailout of Citgroup announced this week, until Citigroup does a bailout of its own.
Citigroup should bail out of its $400 million, 20-year contract for the right to put its name on the new New York Mets' stadium. Citgroup is required to pay $20 million a year to have its name on the sports complex.
........
A Citi spokesman, "We remain committed to our relationship to the Mets; it is important to us."
The troubled economy and subprime mortgage crisis have undermined Citigroup, prompting a worldwide layoff of 52,000 workers. Its stock is down some 89 percent in one year. The agreement between the Mets and the banking giant has been in effect since 2006.
Citigroup should strike a deal with the Mets to unload the naming rights obligation on some other big corporation -- one that doesn't need a government bailout.
Nov 24, 2008 | 6:30 AM
Category:
News
DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DODrugs that haven't received the approval of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) aren't supposed to be sold in this country, according to federal law.
But leave it to the federal government to ignore its own law.
The federal government's Medicaid program has paid for almost $200 million since 2004 for drugs for low-income people that have never been reviewed and approved by the FDA for safety and effectiveness.
The FDA's mission includes the responsibility for protecting the public safety by reviewing and approving drugs before they put on sale to the public. But the federal agency's mission statement should be, "Do as I say, not as I do," since it looks the other way as millions of dollars in unapproved drugs are provided through the taxpayer-financed Medicaid program.
FDA mission statement
Some deaths have been linked to the unapproved drugs.
If FDA bureaucrats were required to use the unapproved drugs for their ailments, maybe they'd move faster to review the drugs and approve them or get them off pharmacy shelves.
Nov 23, 2008 | 9:17 PM
Category:
News
ACORN, THE GROUP YOU LOVE TO HATE ACORN chapters across the country will stage events on Tuesday, presenting ACORN “Turkey of the Year 2008” awards to companies the nonprofit believes are getting in the way of solutions to the enormous foreclosure crisis in the nation.
In the meantime, ACORN is calling for three specific actions to start solving the foreclosure crisis:
1) Heed President-elect Obama’s Call for a 90-Day moratorium on foreclosures.
2) Enact Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chairwoman Sheila Bair’s proposal for modifications to the mortgages of 2.2 million American homeowners to save them from foreclosure. Tap $25 billion of the $700 billion government bailout for Bair's proposal.
3) Change federal law to permit federal bankruptcy judges to modify the terms of mortgages of people in bankruptcy. ACORN says this proposed change in law would help an estimated 600,000 homeowners keep their homes and avoid foreclosure by providing them affordable mortgage terms.
I like ACORN's suggestions, but any group that receives federal funding should be prohibited from lobbying Congress. ACORN has received $31 million in federal funding since 1998.
ACORN has a legal right to offer its opinion, but if the organizations goes to Capital Hill to lobby for its mortgage-related ideas, it'll be stepping outside proper boundaries.
In fact, I'd prefer to see Congress halt all federal funding to ACORN. Let the group operate on its own dime.
Nov 23, 2008 | 8:58 PM
Category:
News
AN ESCAPE TO THE SOUTH PACIFICHow would you like a place of your own in the South Pacific where you could escape for a vacation?
What? You can't afford it?
Well, you're still paying for a slice of the South Pacific with your federal dollar dollars, even if you don't get to use the place (pictured below).
The roomy South Pacific digs are owned by the federal Center for Disease Control, which operates an emergency health preparedness program for South Pacific residents.
Studies have shown that Pacific island nations, home to 32 million people, fall short in healthcare facilities and in the workforce needed to recover from disasters.
So our federal government is pouring millions of your federal dollars in the operation of the Pacific Emergency Health Initiative.
What did you say? The South Pacific nations should pay for the program themselves?
Why should they do that, since the U.S. government is willing to pick up the tab.
Nov 22, 2008 | 6:43 AM
Category:
News
THE FAMOUS BOOB SLIP IN HOUSTON JUST WON'T GO AWAY
Singer Janet Jackson's right boob slip in Houston is becoming a topic of discussion...legal discussion that is...at the U.S. Supreme Court.
The U.S. Justice Department this week asked the Supreme Court to overturn an appeals court's decision in July that tossed out the Federal Communication Commission's $550,000 fine against CBS stations for showing Jackson's breast on nationwide television.
It happened during Super Bowl XXXVIII, which was broadcast live on CBS in Feb. 2004 from Houston. During the halftime show, Janet Jackson's bare breast was exposed by Justin Timberlake in what was later referred to as a "wardrobe malfunction".
Why does the Justice Department want to waste our tax dollars on this foolish case?
The FCC and Justice argue that the appeals court did not give due deference to the FCC's "legitimate and rational basis for what it was doing and the court was improperly intruding into the FCC's turf."
Both the FCC and the Justice Department need to drop this case and move on to important matters. The Janet Jackson nip slip was an accident, so give it a rest.
Spent our federal tax money on cases that really matter.
Nov 22, 2008 | 6:26 AM
Category:
News
WHAT? A BRA FOR MEN!Apparently men all over Japan are getting literally getting into bras as the man-bra takes the country by storm.
The man-bra looks like something that would fail to appeal anyone other than underwear fetishists.
Anyway, if you need more info on the moob-tackling undies, the silky bras come in white, pink and black from the Wish Room site.
Akiko, Wish Room's owner, says that she hopes by wearing the bras men will become more sensitive and gain an insight into what it's like being a woman. I think men could gain insight into what it's like being a woman by actually listening to what a woman says. No bra needed for that, just a pair of ears.
?
Nov 22, 2008 | 6:10 AM
Category:
News
Nov 20, 2008 | 9:30 PM
Category:
News
$40 MILLION DOLLAR TEXAS LICENSE PLATE PLAN GOES BELLY UPYour chance to buy pink Texas license plates or other vehicle license plates with unusual colors and backgrounds has bitten the dust.
The private firm the state selected to boost sales of personalized
license plates, MyPlates, is shutting down, the company announced
Thursday.
The first-of-its-kind public-private partnership, which began Aug. 1,
was unable to withstand the slowdown in the economy and consumer
cutbacks on discretionary spending.
MyPlates was selling more than 20 different types of plates, with plans to generate $40 million in revenue for the state over the next five years.
Oh, well, I guess I won't be buying a pink license plate.
Nov 20, 2008 | 9:06 PM
Category:
News
ALASKA GOVERNOR SARAH PALIN PARDONS TURKEY DURING SLAUGHTERSome videos you just have to see to believe. On Thursday, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin appeared in Wasilla in order to pardon a local turkey in anticipation of Thanksgiving.
This proved to be a slightly absurd but ultimately unremarkable event. But what came next was positively surreal.
After the pardon Palin proceeded to do an interview with a local TV station while the turkeys were being SLAUGHTERED in the background!! Seemingly oblivious to the gruesomeness going on over her shoulder, she carries on talking for over three minutes. Watch the video below to see for yourself. Be warned, it's kind of gruesome.
The television photographer asked Palin in advance whether she wanted to do the interview with turkeys being slaughtered in the background. Palin said, "Oh, no problem."??
Some people have no problem seeing a turkey killed, while others wouldn't want to see that on television.
Palin should have used better judgment and done the interview without the turkey slaughter in the background.
Again, Palin shows poor judgment!
Nov 20, 2008 | 8:53 PM
Category:
News
HOUSTON LAWMAKERS PLEAD WITH PRESIDENT TO COMMUTE SENTENCESTwo Houston-area congressmen, Ted Poe and John Culberson, have joined a handful of lawmakers are asking President Bush to commute the sentences of two Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting a now convicted drug smuggler and covering it up.
The House members say Bush should commute the sentence of the two men before he leaves office to show his concern for law enforcement officers and the danger of their jobs. They asked the Justice Department to recommend the agents' cases to Bush.
The lawmakers pushing for the pardon of the Border Patrol agents say his action on their plea will be a barometer for other pardons.
Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean were sentenced to 11 years and 12 years, respectively, after being convicted in 2006 of shooting now-convicted drug smuggler Osvaldo Aldrete Davila of Mexico and trying to cover up the incident.
Congressman Culberson says lawmakers will pressure President-elect Barack Obama to show leniency to the agents if Bush does not.
What do you say? Should President Bush commute the sentences of the two former border patrol agents pictured above?
Nov 20, 2008 | 8:37 PM
Category:
News
FEDERAL HOMELAND SECURITY'S BUMBLING EFFORTS Protecting the United States from a terrorist attack is one of the most important roles the Department of Homeland Security has on its plate.
Surprisingly, though, Homeland Security officials are bungling that responsibility.
Last year, Homeland Security coughed up $12 billion for 48 projects to improve security at our nation's borders, airports, ports and waterways. The projects include border surveillance and screening equipment, nuclear detection equipment and systems to track terrorist finances and resources.
The 48 projects required "milestone reviews and annual reviews" to ensure the projects were on schedule and within budget.
The results so far?
Federal auditors found that the Department of Homeland Security failed to monitor 45 of the 48 projects. Four of the projects have fallen behind schedule.
The auditors concluded that Homeland Security is doing a "poor" job of providing oversight to ensure the protection we need and want is put in place as quickly as possible and within budget. And more importantly, that the security works!
Homeland Security officials plan to spend an additional $60 billion on security enhancements.
We can only pray that the Department of Homeland Security finally learns how to do an effective job. Our lives may depend on it.
