June 30, 2014

Very Cheap, Very Useful, Easy To Get and Easy to Use..

(oh, you define the use for the object, if you desire...some kind of good use would be preferable...)

I will start with..............Duct Tape

....


good luck to all...........

June 26, 2014

Red Cross: How We Spent Sandy Funds Is 'Trade Secret'

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/red-cross-sandy-money-secret--2

Talking Points Memo:

Justin Elliott, ProPublica – June 26, 2014, 4:16 PM EDT


Just how badly does the American Red Cross want to keep secret how it raised and spent over $300 million after Hurricane Sandy?


The charity has hired a fancy law firm to fight a public request we filed with New York state, arguing that information about its Sandy activities is a "trade secret."

The Red Cross' "trade secret" argument has persuaded the state to redact some material, though it's not clear yet how much since the documents haven't yet been released.

As we've reported, the Red Cross releases few details about how it spends money after big disasters. That makes it difficult to figure out whether donor dollars are well spent

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In my opinion, this defines exactly who the Red Cross is. It does not want to disclose how the money is spent, don't ever give any money to the Red Cross. And that is not a "trade secret"

June 24, 2014

Second Bridge Inquiry Leads to Christie

Source: Huff Post/ New York Times

Investigations into the Christie administration and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey have zeroed in on possible securities law violations stemming from a $1.8 billion road repair agreement in 2011, according to people briefed on the matter.

While the inquiries were prompted by the apparently politically motivated lane closings at the George Washington Bridge last year, these investigations center on another crossing: the Pulaski Skyway, the crumbling elevated roadway connecting Newark and Jersey City. They are being conducted by the Manhattan district attorney and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The inquiries into securities law violations focus on a period of 2010 and 2011 when Gov. Chris Christie’s administration pressed the Port Authority to pay for extensive repairs to the Skyway and related road projects, diverting money that was to be used on a new Hudson River rail tunnel that Mr. Christie canceled in October 2010.

Again and again, Port Authority lawyers warned against the move: The Pulaski Skyway, they noted, is owned and operated by the state, putting it outside the agency’s purview, according to dozens of memos and emails reviewed by investigators and obtained by The New York Times.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/24/nyregion/2nd-bridge-inquiry-said-to-be-linked-to-christie.html?_r=0

---

2nd Bridge Inquiry??? How Could He Do It?????

June 21, 2014

Christie Says He Has 'Complete Faith' in Scott Walker, Talking Points Memo:

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/chris-christie-scott-walker

Eric Lach – June 21, 2014, 10:09 AM EDT


New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said Friday that he stood behind Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), following the release of court documents where prosecutors accused Walker of being at the center of a "criminal" campaign finance scheme.

“I have complete faith and confidence in Scott,” Christie said, according to The Bergen Record, adding: “I believe he has great integrity.”

Christie made the comments in New Hampshire, where he attended a campaign event and endorsed Walt Havenstein in the state's Republican gubernatorial primary. According to the Record, Christie said he spoke with Walker on Friday, and plans to campaign with him this year.

Walker has denied the allegations made in the court documents released this week. In a written statement on his campaign website published Friday, he wrote that "two judges, one state and one federal, reviewed the accusations of partisans within a Democrat District Attorney’s Office and determined their theories have no merit or basis in law."

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

This one surely speaks for itself...

June 19, 2014

Two in One Day...OH, OH, OH...I AM Happy...Christie and Walker hit the fan on the same day !!!

Christie and Walker ...hit the fan on the same day......OH, OH, Oh.. Yes Indeed...Couldn't Happen Quick enuf....
Hope both get some real good time..like those guys from my home state...Illinois..














See Latest News...links coming up..

Walker:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014829529

Christie:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014829572

June 19, 2014

Megyn Kelly Confronts Dick Cheney,' You Got It Wrong on Iraq,' Talking Points Memo:

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/megyn-kelly-dick-cheney-wrong-iraq

Catherine Thompson – June 19, 2014, 7:48 AM EDT


Fox News host Megyn Kelly confronted former Vice President Dick Cheney on Wednesday night about his own foreign policy track record in Iraq, arguing history proves he "got it wrong."


Cheney had co-authored a blistering Wall Street Journal op-ed with his daughter Liz that blasted President Barack Obama for failing to negotiate an agreement to leave a residual force behind in Iraq and accused him of willfully undermining American leadership abroad.

"Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many," they wrote.

"But time and time again, history has proven that you got it wrong as well in Iraq, sir," Kelly said. "You said there was no doubt Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. You said the Iraq insurgency was in the last throes, back in 2005. And you said that after our intervention extremists would have to 'rethink their strategy of jihad.'"

"Now with almost a trillion dollars spent there, with 4,500 American lives lost there, what do you say to those who say you were so wrong about so much at the expense of so many?" she asked.


________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Video has been posted at above site, if you desire to watch.. As we know, this asshole should be in jail, not being interviewed by anyone at any time. Let him rot forever, with his daughter who cannot even honestly pay for a fishing license..And yes, a set up, but someone did ask this question to the asshole...even Fox News watchers, who watch this shit, can see him lie...Maybe a few, just a few will wake up..maybe..

June 17, 2014

6 Not-So-Subtle Ways Fast Food Joints Make You Want To Eat At Their Restaurants, Huffington Post:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/16/fast-food-marketing_n_5366297.html


The Huffington Post | By Kate Bratskeir


Posted: 06/16/2014 8:27 am EDT Updated: 3 hours ago


America is still a Fast Food Nation.

According to a 2013 Gallup poll, nearly 30 percent of Americans report eating at fast food establishments on a weekly basis. We know this gut-busting grub saturated in calories, fat and sodium is, in part, contributing to our nation's obesity epidemic. We also know the "food" we ingest sometimes does not seemingly qualify as food at all (also see: this 14-year-old McDonald's hamburger).

And yet, despite the eye-widening facts, we still want those French fries. What witchcraft do big companies like Mickey D's, Wendy's, and others employ that have us dreaming of fast food when hunger hits -- and even when it doesn't? Unsurprisingly, there are many tactics these big corps practice to get us in their doors and put their burgers in our bellies.

1. Fast food companies take advantage of our desire for convenience.


2. Fast food companies use "aroma marketing" to tickle your senses and make their product virtually irresistible.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

The other four are at the link. I think this is extremely well written, researched, and informative. I like the word "witchcraft" in the third paragraph. These companies will do almost anything to get us.

June 16, 2014

Fox News Praises George W. Bush’s Ability To Anticipate Problems In Iraq, Think Progress:

http://thinkprogress.org/world/2014/06/16/3449405/fox-news-celebrates-george-w-bush-as-most-clairvoyant-iraqi-analyst-ever/

Igor Volsky June 16, 2014 at 12:21 pm Updated: June 16, 2014 at 12:22 pm
On Monday morning, Fox News reported that at least one man warned about the threat all along: President George W. Bush. The network spent 5-minutes explaining how the president who first invaded the country was also the region’s most clairvoyant analyst.

“In 2007, President George W. Bush pretty much laid this out as it is happening,” Fox anchor Martha MacCallum said, playing videos of Bush warning that violence could resurface should American troops withdraw. After the clips, Andy Card, Bush’s former chief-of-staff, popped up to reinforce narrative.

But a closer examination of Bush’s comments from his July 12, 2007 press conference reveals that Fox News cut the clips to omit a key piece of context. In July of 2007, Bush did predict higher levels of violence if America left Iraq too quickly, but he couched his comments in the advise he was receiving from U.S. military commanders on the ground, saying that U.S. would not “begin withdrawing before our commanders tell us we’re ready.” Fox News did not play those remarks — which appeared just two sentences before his predictions of greater violence — even though by the time Obama came into office, the opinion of U.S. commanders had shifted. The Bush administration had agreed to withdraw all troops from Iraq by the end of 2011, in order to obtain a status of forces agreement in 2008. President Obama later urged Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to accept American troops in Iraq after 2011, but after the Iraqis would not grant a status of forces agreement that would grant certain immunities to American soldiers, the U.S. military advised Obama to completely pull out of Iraq.

“Conditions continue to improve (in Iraq), and specifically, I mean we continue to withdraw forces,” Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in November of 2008. “[We are] clearly moving forward in a measured way,” he said. In 2011, then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates — who also served under President George W. Bush — conceded that Iraq will face security “problems” in the face of U.S. withdrawal — but stressed that “it’s their country. It’s a sovereign country. And we will abide by the agreement, unless the Iraqis ask us to have additional people there.”

Middle East analysts have also attributed the current violence to the failures of the Bush-backed al-Maliki government, which has systematically excluded the Sunnis from power and repressed its political opponents. Maliki’s rise to power “was the product of a series of momentous decisions made by the Bush administration,” CNN’s Fareed Zakaria argued. “It quickly decided to destroy Iraq’s Sunni ruling establishment and empower the hard-line Shiite religious parties that had opposed Saddam Hussein…These moves — to disband the army, dismantle the bureaucracy and purge Sunnis in general — might have been more consequential than the invasion itself.”
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
When one looks at the entire article, then it can be seen exactly how FOX LIES...and edits, and slants and all the tricks we learned in high school or college. Incredible that they get away with this shit, but the do.

June 12, 2014

Impoverished Mother Dies In Jail Cell Over Unpaid Fines For Her Kids Missing School

Source: Think Progress

By Alan Pyke June 12, 2014 at 9:25 am Updated: June 12, 2014 at 9:33 am

A mother of seven died in a Pennsylvania jail over the weekend while serving a two-day sentence. Eileen DeNino, 55, was put in the cell where she died because she could not pay thousands of dollars in fines relating to her children’s truancy from schools in the Reading, PA area.

The cause of DeNino’s death is not yet known, but investigators “found no evidence that the death was suspicious,” according to the Eagle. She was reportedly on medication for high blood pressure and other health issues. “Prison officials said they issued no medication to DeNino before her death,” however.

DeNino had been cited 55 times since 1999, according to the Reading Eagle. On top of the individual fines for truancy, the Pennsylvania courts applied a variety of fees that amplified DeNino’s debt. “DiNino’s court file shows a laundry list of court fees for one case alone: $8 for a ‘judicial computer project’; $60 for Berks County constables; $10 for postage,” the Associated Press writes.

The two judges who preside over truancy cases in the county where the DeNinos live expressed regret and frustration over DeNino’s death. “She didn’t have a job. She was living in a house owned by a family member. She was on welfare. We sat and talked for a long time in my office and I could see that she couldn’t pay the fines,” Reading District Judge Wally Scott told the Eagle. “I cleared all her cases last year.”

District Judge Dean R. Patton sentenced DeNino to 48 hours in jail after she failed to produce documentary evidence of her inability to pay the more than $2,000 in accrued fines and fees. The sentence could have been as long as 45 days of jail time. “I bent over backwards for this woman,” Patton told the Eagle, “but I can’t just dismiss her cases without justification.”


Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/06/12/3448105/mother-dies-jail-cell-fines/

---

This one really is something. I had not read about this before. It really turns my stomach ..
....right here in the good old USA...

June 6, 2014

Ex College Basketball Star Got on Dean's List Without Attending Class

Source: Huff Post/ espn.go.com

Rashad McCants, the second-leading scorer on the North Carolina basketball team that won the 2004-05 national title, told ESPN's "Outside the Lines" that tutors wrote his term papers, he rarely went to class for about half his time at UNC, and he remained able to play largely because he took bogus classes designed to keep athletes academically eligible.

McCants told "Outside the Lines" that he could have been academically ineligible to play during the championship season had he not been provided the assistance. Further, he said head basketball coach Roy Williams knew about the "paper-class" system at UNC. The so-called paper classes didn't require students to go to class; rather, students were required to submit only one term paper to receive a grade.


McCants also told "Outside the Lines" that he even made the Dean's List in Spring 2005 despite not attending any of his four classes for which he received straight-A grades. He said advisers and tutors who worked with the basketball program steered him to take the paper classes within the African-American Studies program.


Read more: http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/11036924/former-north-carolina-basketball-star-rashad-mccants-says-took-sham-classes

---

Something many assumed, but this person has let the truth out of the bag...Let's see what happens...