Obama Shaken by Boehner’s Support
Aides to President Obama said today that he was “visibly shaken” after receiving support from House Speaker John Boehner for his Syria campaign, adding that the Speaker’s vote of confidence was “making him rethink the whole thing.”
An aide to Mr. Obama, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that he was in the Oval Office with the President when he got the call from Mr. Boehner: “As it became clear that Boehner was going to support him on this, he looked more and more stunned. He was trying to stay calm and all but you could see that he was really taken aback.”
After putting down the phone with Mr. Boehner, the President reportedly told aides, “Boehner’s supporting it. That’s so weird. This is still a good idea, right?”
Moments after the President had “seemed to settle down,” the aide said, he received a phone call from House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who also offered his support for the Syria plan.
“That one really rattled him,” the aide said. “He was like, ‘I think I need to take a long walk.’”
The calls from Mr. Boehner and Mr. Cantor have created what the aide called “the biggest crisis of confidence this President has ever experienced.”
“I checked in on him later in the day, just to see if he was O.K.,” the aide said. “He was cradling his head in his hands saying, ‘I just don’t know. I just don’t know anymore.’”
While the President’s plan to attack Syria remains on the table, the aide indicated that the situation is very fluid: “If Rand Paul calls today and says he’s in, the whole thing goes away.”The above is satire, of course, but if you're like me it took you a while to catch on. That's because obama is such a divisive, partisan, narrow-minded ideologue that it certainly wouldn't surprise anyone if he opposed something simply because the other side supported it.
A Gallup poll in 1940, when the German bombing campaign in Britain took place, showed 60 percent of Americans felt it was more important to help England win,even at risk of going to war, than to stay out.Of course, the 'misstatement' went unremarked upon by the obama supporters masquerading as journalists.
Additionally, 68 percent of Americans believed the future safety of the United States depended on England winning the war, and 85 percent felt England would lose if Americans stopped sending war materials to help.
Washington police are operating under orders to arrest tourists and other non-residents traveling with spent bullet or shotgun casings, a crime that carries a $1,000 fine, a year in jail and a criminal record...I guess that means I'd better take this off my key chain.
"Empty shell casings are considered ammunition in Washington, D.C. ...
Houston police released surveillance photos of three suspects wanted in the fatal shooting of one man and the wounding of another at a Denny’s in west Houston.We used to live in that general area. I would on occasion drop into that particular Denny's for a late (or early - depends on whether I was coming or going) breakfast.
The suspects were described as three males with their faces concealed by bandanas or masks.
It happened at the Denny’s along Interstate 10 at Washington Avenue around 10:30 p.m. Monday, according to officers with the Houston Police Department.
Police said three men went into the restaurant and ordered all customers and employees to the ground.
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| Surveillance photo of three suspects wanted in the fatal shooting of one man and the wounding of another at a Denny’s restaurant in Houston. |
A family member of one of the victims said the men took purses and cell phones, and even pointed their guns at small children. The men also stole money from the customers and the cash register.He definitly did the right and honorable thing that night. God Bless him, and God Damn his killers. (Doing The Right Thing - Yes!)
Witnesses said the robbers became angry and started shooting before they left the scene. The bullets struck a customer and an employee who was trying to escape out the front door.
Family members identify the customer as 64-year-old Robert Placette, who later died at Memorial Hermann Hospital.
"He was a good man who always tried to do right by people," said Drue Placette, the victim’s son.
Witnesses say Placette was standing in front of terrified children to protect them when he was shot in the chest.
"They said when they started pointing guns at the kids like that, he got up and stood in front of them. That is the only thing that kind of makes me happy, makes me smile, makes me proud that he would do that," said Drue. "I think that my dad died honorably and I hope people remember that."
CARVILLE: ...I think what really is freaking people out is the incompetence of the Bush administration in Iraq.
O'REILLY: You're going to blame Bush?
CARVILLE: Of course, the Iraq thing is why people have so much trepidation about going into Syria. They said the last time we went over there, look what happened. I really think this has something to do with it.
"The Syrian resolution could be the first time congress declares war since obamacare."
'Obama' commode sparks controversy in NM town - Outhouse sign says "Obama's Presidential Library"
Just a stone's-throw away from historic Route 66 in Tucumcari sits a sign that everyone's talking about.
The sign sits atop an outhouse and says "Obama's Presidential Library."
Some in town say it's in bad taste, while others support it. Either way, everyone knows about it. One man said people have been treating it like a tourist destination, taking pictures all the time.Yet...
As for the man who put it up, he refused to give Target 7 his name or reveal what prompted him to construct the controversial commode, but he said he has no intention of taking it down.
"It's like watching TV. If you don't like what the hell you're watching, turn the channel," said the man who put up the sign. "I'm not even certain he even deserves that level of respect, but that's my opinion."
"That's my opinion ... and fortunately, that's one thing they haven't taken away from us ... is our right to our opinion," said the man who constructed the sign.
"to identify and eliminate waste, duplication, and inefficiency in government agencies ... The Commission questions the need for each agency, looks for potential duplication of other public services or programs, and considers new and innovative changes to improve each agency's operations and activities."Like many government programs it has produced mixed results. It's a good idea beset by politics and flawed implementation. Still, overall it has done more good than harm, which is not something we can say about most other legislation (see: obamacare).
Nearly 30 years ago, I started a company called Staples Inc. that went on to do pretty well. Launching a business like Staples in 2013 would be a much harder proposition, with success by no means certain. There are so many government impediments to business today that the next Staples—and its 50,000 jobs—might never get off the ground.The King-Blunt proposal is modeled on the Defense Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC). Like the Texas Sunset Commission, BRAC consists of an independent, bipartisan panel. It was created in the late 1980s and tasked with reducing the number of military bases. While not everyone agrees with everything BRAC recommends, the results have been significant.
Chief among those roadblocks: the blizzard of bureaucratic red tape that buries businesses and stifles job creation ... All told, American business faces 46,758 pages of rules to live by in the Federal Register.
This confounding web of federal regulations may be curtailed if Sens. Angus King (independent, Maine) and Roy Blunt (R., Mo.) have anything to say about it. Their Regulatory Improvement Act of 2013 could be a game changer.
The legislation introduced in late July would create a bipartisan Regulatory Improvement Commission, charged with recommending cuts in the regulatory regime, and the law would require Congress to vote on the proposals. This is desperately needed. The government has few processes at its disposal through which it can re-evaluate the efficacy of outdated regulations—and many members of Congress lack the expertise, time and courage to effectively scale them back.
Since 1988, there have been 121 major base closures, 79 major base realignments (which may close down part of a facility or transfer personnel away from it) and 1,000 minor closures and realignments under BRAC.The proposed bipartisan Regulatory Improvement Commission would be charged with identifying redundant, obsolete, and excessive regulations. We all can cite numerous examples of such job-killing and economy-strangling rules. Below are two such tales. The first one is, sadly and unbelievably, true. The second one is not (but no one would be surprised if it was).
In short, the BRAC Commission gave politicians what they crave most: cover. Nobody back home could blame them for losing a military base. The King-Blunt proposal will give representatives the same cover with regulations.
There’s no good way to deliver this disturbing bit of news except to come right out with it: Marty the Magician and others in the business of pulling a rabbit from a hat are under strict orders from the federal government to develop a “contingency plan” for handling their critters in the event of a natural or man-made disaster.
Said plan will be evaluated once a year, when enforcers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) make their annual unannounced bunny home inspections. Oh, and all magicians are required to carry a copy of the contingency plan at all times and make it available for inspection while in “travel status."
With the July 29 compliance deadline looming, the USDA recently sent Marty the Magician (aka Marty Hahne of Springfield, Missouri) an eight-page communiqué detailing requirements for the plan, which must:
All of which means that Marty must prepare for all the calamities that could possibly befall Casey the Rabbit while making the rounds of more than 150 performance venues he visits each year, including schools, libraries, churches, and homes.
- Identify common emergencies most likely to occur,
- Outline specific tasks required to be carried out in response to each of the identified emergencies,
- Identify a chain of command and who (by name or by position title) will be responsible for fulfilling these tasks, and
- Address how response and recovery will be handled in terms of materials, resources, and training needs.
Alas, this isn’t Marty’s first encounter with the bunny patrol. By law, magicians must be licensed by the federal government to use rabbits in their acts, as specified in Title 9, Chapter I, Subchapter A, Parts 1-4 of the Animal Welfare Act.Yes, you read that right. The federal government actually has an agency (and agents!) that regulates and inspects bunny rabbits used in magic acts - and intimidates anyone who dares question them.
Marty’s first home inspection didn’t go so well. He was written up because Casey’s travel cage lacked stickers indicating “live animal” and the arrows pointing upward (in the event he’s tempted to carry the cage upside down). When questioning the enforcement action, Marty was warned that verbal abuse of an inspector carries a fine of $1,000 per incident.
In the year 2013, the Lord came unto Noah, who was now living in America and said: "Once again, the earth has become wicked and over-populated, and I see the end of all flesh before me."Amen...
"Build another Ark and save two of every living thing along with a few good humans."
He gave Noah the blueprints, saying: "You have six months to build the Ark before I will start the unending rain for 40 days and 40 nights."
Six months later, the Lord looked down and saw Noah weeping in his yard – but no Ark."Noah!," He roared, "I’m about to start the rain! Where is the Ark?"
"Forgive me, Lord," begged Noah, "but things have changed."
"I needed a Building Permit."
"I’ve been arguing with the Boat Inspector about the need for a sprinkler system."
"My homeowners association claim that I’ve violated the Neighborhood by-laws by building the Ark in my back yard and exceeding the height limitations. We had to go to the local Planning Committee for a decision."
"Then the City Council and the Electricity Company demanded a shed load of money for the future costs of moving power lines and other overhead obstructions, to clear the passage for the Ark’s move to the sea. I told them that the sea would be coming to us, but they would hear none of it."
"Getting the wood was another problem. There’s a ban on cutting local trees in order to save the Greater Spotted Barn Owl."
"I tried to convince the environmentalists that I needed the wood to save the owls – but no go!"
"When I started gathering the animals, PETA took me to court. They insisted that I was confining wild animals against their will. They argued the accommodations were too restrictive and it was cruel and inhumane to put so many animals in a confined space."
"Then the Environmental Protection Agency ruled that I couldn’t build the Ark until they’d conducted an environmental impact study on Your proposed flood."
"I’m still trying to resolve a complaint with the Human Rights Commission on how many minorities I’m supposed to hire for my building crew."
"The Immigration Dept. Is checking the visa status of most of the people who want to work."
"The labor unions say I can’t use my sons. They insist I have to hire only union workers with ark-building experience."
"To make matters worse, the IRS seized all my assets, claiming I’m trying to leave the country illegally with endangered species."
"So, forgive me, Lord, but it would take at least 10 years for me to finish this ark."
"Suddenly the skies cleared, the sun began to shine and a rainbow stretched across the sky."
Noah looked up in wonder and asked, "You mean you’re not going to destroy the world?"
"No," said the Lord. " The Government beat me to it."
Seldom Bin Layed
One voice in Washington that has been remarkably absent from this week’s Syria debate has been that of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The frontrunner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, Mrs. Clinton hasn’t said anything at all about President Obama’s plans for military strikes against the dictatorship in Damascus. As someone who dominated the US foreign policy landscape over the past four years, Clinton’s silence on Syria is striking. What explains this?She may very well be nervous about what happens next. She damn sure should be, since she's in it up to her wrinkled saggy neck and beady little lying eyes. But as we've seen repeatedly in the past, she is sure to get a pass from her adoring fans in the mainstream media. By the time 2016 rolls around, everyone posing as a newspaper or television journalist will have forgotten all about Libya and Syria.
I suspect a number of factors are behind Hillary Clinton’s reticence. Firstly, a US military intervention in the Syrian civil war is strongly opposed by the vast majority of the American public. A recent poll showed just nine percent of Americans backing US military involvement. She probably doesn’t see another war in the Muslim world as a vote winner in 2016. Secondly, she may well be harbouring doubts over the White House approach, which beyond the talk of airstrikes, lacks a coherent strategy, and the president hasn’t exactly made a clear-cut case that taking America to war in Syria is in the national interest. Thirdly, as “the Obama doctrine” goes down in flames in the Middle East, from Damascus to Cairo, Clinton will be nervous about being seen as part and parcel of it, which of course she is.
Fourthly, Clinton’s own track record on Syria has hardly been stellar. Before Syria descended into war, Clinton was a strong backer of engagement with Syria, greatly underestimating the nature of the Baathist regime, famously referring to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as a “reformer” in April 2011. In addition, as Washington’s most senior foreign policy official, Clinton did little to stand up to Moscow’s aggressive support for the Syrians, eager to appease the Russians through the controversial “reset” strategy, which was her own brainchild. In addition, the Secretary of State was weak in the face of Iran, whose military and financial backing for the Assad regime has been vital to its survival.
Against this backdrop it’s not hard to see why Hillary Clinton isn’t at the forefront of the Syria debate. Her own handling of the Syria crisis was a spectacular failure, as has been President Obama's. The last thing she needs in the lead-up to her inevitable White House run is a reminder to Americans of her poor track record as Secretary of State, from the Syrian debacle to the farcical Russian reset. Syria is a liability for Clinton in 2016, and with good reason she is nervous about what happens next.
This week, the Obamas welcomed a new member to the first family -- a 14-month-old female Portuguese Water dog called Sunny.
"Bo was getting lonely," the president said when asked why they got Sunny. "[He] was getting a little down in the dumps inside the house." With Sunny around, though, 4-year-old Bo has a playmate.
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| Sunny and Bo take a break from their carefree frolicking. |
First Lady Michelle Obama, meanwhile, is in "full parenting mode," the president said -- especially because little Sunny has already had a few accidents in the White House.Sunny isn't the only one making messes in the White House.
The president didn't seemed too concerned though.That pretty much confirms what we already know about that worthless freeloader (barry, not Sunny).
"We live in rental housing. We didn't have to put down a deposit," he said.
In a 2012 paper entitled “Unleashing Presidential Power: The Politics of Pets in the White House,” and published in the journal PS: Political Science & Politics, three professors at George Washington University tracked press mentions of First Pets in order to examine the hypothesis that Administrations showcase furry friends to burnish a President’s image during times of war or scandal but keep them out of sight during economic downturns—the theory being that pets, sometimes a “reassuring public presence” during times of upheaval or war, are likely to trigger resentment if they are perceived to be “frolicking on the White House lawn in hard times.”The way things are going lately, we'll probably see a steady stream of new pets parading across the White House lawn...
The authors ultimately found that higher inflation and unemployment figures related to fewer pet mentions in the press, and that incidents of military action or Presidential scandal were correlated with greater pet coverage.
Roughly half an hour after announcing his administration would seek congressional approval for military intervention in Syria’s civil war, President Obama left the White House for the golf course.Un-friggin'-believable.
The legal prostitution industry in Nevada is on its back. So say brothel owners, their employees and customers.Like Miley Cyrus...
George Flint, who somehow manages to be both a retired minister and the brothel industry's lobbyist (hey, it's Nevada) told ABC News that gross revenues are down 40 percent to 50 percent from what they were 10 years ago. The number of legal operators has shrunk from 37 to 19.
"Just like every other small business in the U.S.," said Flint, "brothels have been affected by the downturn in the economy. In as much as they depend on discretionary spending, there's not a lot of that to go around."
Brothel experts say additional factors explain their industry's slump. The Internet now makes it easy for illegal, freelance prostitutes to hook up with customers, circumventing legal brothels.
"Substitute service is being offered," Flint said.
In addition, he said, the price of diesel fuel is up. That means truckers -- among brothels' most reliable customers -- have less to spend."mom-and-pop operations" ... really? You'd think a lobbyist could come up with a better term for small establishments.
Not all brothels are suffering equally.
"Small mom-and-pop operations with three or four girls" are suffering the worst, said Flint.
But even the biggest operations are reporting sharp declines. The owner of the famous Mustang Ranch, said Flint, told him just the other day that his business, compared to a year ago, is down by 3,000 "dates."In gambling, that's called "betting on the come."
"The concept that sex will always sell probably is not a true concept," said the lobbyist. "It's not that there's any less interest in sex; it's just that people don't have the dollars to spend."
Hard times beget consolidation, and at least one big, deep-pocketed operator is using the downturn as a chance to expand by buying up struggling competitors.
Dennis Hof, who owns the Moonlight Bunny Ranch outside Carson City, Nev., told Bloomberg that the recession has allowed him to buy five more brothels, bringing his total to seven.
When the economy comes back, Bloomberg quoted him as saying, "I think I'm going to do real well."
Meanwhile, a new threat looms on the horizon: higher taxation. To date, brothels have not been subject to Nevada's 8 percent tax on live entertainment. But bills introduced in the state's last legislative session would change that.Combining a new tax on brothels with existing estate taxes means the tax man will get you coming and going...
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| Idle brothel workers sit around and discuss the economy. |
Bertram is perhaps best known for its Oatmeal Festival held each year on the Friday and Saturday before Labor Day (August 30th & 31st, 2013). Begun in 1977 as a good-natured attempt to put neighboring Oatmeal back on the map after state map-makers ignored the tiny neighboring community, the festival has evolved into one of the wackiest, most imaginative small-town festivals anywhere.There's even an Oatmeal Festival T-Shirt Contest. (Sorry, guys, no wet t-shirts involved. Instead, it's a 'design the offical Oatmeal Festival T-shirt contest.')
In 2013, Bertram celebrates 36 years of craziness and fun, and as always, it will actually "rain" oatmeal during the parade! (Watch out for Commander Caraway and the Oatmeal Air Force). Each year visitors come from far and wide, appreciating Bertram's sense of humor and their small town pride and friendliness. Because the festival is sponsored by Three Minutes Brand Oats, every event starts at 3 or 33 minutes past the hour.
The festival begins on Friday night with a BBQ dinner and the Miss Oatmeal Pageant in Oatmeal. A trail-ride moves the festivities to Bertram on Saturday morning, which includes a fun-run, parade, cook-off, zany games, food, and arts and crafts, kids events and more.
In the big beef state of Texas, cabernet sauvignon is king. The bold red wine stands up to our favorite food group — barbecue. The upcoming Cabernet Day on Thursday is meant to help people discover new wines from this varietal.In keeping with that spirit, I'm sharing my thoughts on a big bold wine from the Three Thieves vineyard - The Show.
The Show combines grapes from the Central Coast, Sonoma County, Lake County, Mendocino, Lodi and Napa Valley AVA’s. Anchored by full-bodied Cabernet, it also features Petite Sirah which gives it a deep ruby color and a hint of violets on the nose. The Show is aged in French and American oak.Word.
The Show grabs your attention. Big and bold, it is dominated by full flavors of dried black cherries, jammy preserves and complex toasty, vanilla, and spicy oak.
