Going to the dogs

A friend once said to my wife that if he came back as a dog when he died he wanted to be ours. But none of ours have ever been treated like this.

He might want to see if he could make a better deal.

Trouble for Trouble! Judge Knocks $10 Mil from Helmsley Dog’s Take

It all seemed pretty rich, until we read about the expense sheet for Trouble (pictured), the Maltese poodle left behind by the late Leona Helmsley, who died last August at 87. In papers that were reportedly unsealed today, Manhattan surrogate court judge Renee Roth, along with New York State’s Attorney General’s Office, reduced Trouble’s trust fund from $12 million to $2 million. According to the report in the NY Post, the deal also entailed $6 million in payments to Helmsley’s two disinherited grandchildren, amid their allegations that Helmsley wasn’t mentally competent when she signed her will.

As for Trouble’s future well-being, she now resides in Florida with Carl Lekic, the general manager of the Helmsley Sandcastle Hotel, reports the NYP. In an affidavit, Lekic said that “Two million dollars . . . would be enough money to pay for Trouble’s maintenance and welfare at the highest standards of care for more than 10 years, which is more that twice her reasonably anticipated life expectancy,” he said.

Lekic put Trouble’s annual expenses at $190,000, which includes Lekic’s $60,000 guardian fee, $100,000 for ’round-the-clock security, $8,000 for grooming, $3,000 for miscellaneous expenses, $1,200 for food and anywhere from $2,500 to $18,000 for medical care.

Yes indeed, it's a dog's life.

The Left is all a flutter over the "world's:

supposed happiness that Bush will be soon be gone.

Yeah. Like these are the people I should be worried over what they think.

This morning, jointly with the Manhattan DA’s office, they announced the indictment in New York’s Southern District of Annan’s handpicked head of the former Oil-for-Food program, Benon Sevan, on charges of bribery and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Also charged is Ephraim Nadler (a.k.a. “Fred Nadler”), a brother-in-law of former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. If that sounds like the UN might be prone to problems at the top, keep going. The web of fathers-sons-sisters-brothers-and-wives is stunning; and there is of course the mystery of the death of Benon Sevan’s pensioner aunt, whom Sevan claimed was the source of the $160,000 that the Feds allege he took in Oil-for-Food pay-offs, and who perished after falling into the elevator shaft of her Cyprus apartment block, just as Oil-for-Food investigations were taking shape in early 2004.

Now the indictment was in January 2007. I can find nothing on his arrest and trial.

In October 2005 it was reported he had fled the US and returned to his native Cyprus. The extradition treaty between the US and Cyprus does not require Cyprus to send Sevan to the US.

We should make a deal with the UN.

You send us Sevan and we will reconisder our cut off of funds to the UN and your ejection from US soil.

Las Vegas Bits and Pieces

So I'm gonna get on a silver bird, see? And I'm gonna go to Las Vegas, see?

Why do I have this urge to talk like that? We all know that Vegas is a family vacation spot, see? errrr, Right? Well actually I think they've given up on that. Now it's, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!"

Of really? Then why does those credit card companies keep sending bills???
And a lapse in judgement with certain, er, ladies... can provide you with something that stays with you forever....

I've been going to Vegas for years and years. Best shows? Sinatra. Period. Besides, what other star could have Sammy Davis, Jr. open for him?

Most obnoxious people in Vegas? The local poker players who will do almost anything to make a tourist that is hot, leave.

Best hotel? Marriott Suites. (I said hotel, not casino hotel.)

Dedication Las Vegas style? A Saturday morning. A 60ish player in the 10-20 poker game looks kinda peaked... grey around the mouth... stands up staggers backwards, falls over.... security rushes up.... medics rush up... start treatment. Floor man counts his chips and picks them up... Dealer yells, "Got a seat on table 6!" And deals..... Elapsed time about 5 minutes.. Hands missed? Maybe 3.

You will find sympathy between shit and syphilis in the dictionary.

Guy wanders up to a crap table, throws a $100 chip on the felt and says, "On the double 6's." Which is a one roll bet that pays 33 to 1... The shooter shoots and 66 pops up... As the house man stacks the $3300 he asks, "Wanna press the bet?"

To which the gambler replies, "You got a mirror?"

Someone says, "Huh? Why?"

The gambler, picking up his money and leaving without giving the table a tote, "I just wanna see if I got STUPID written on my forehead."

A very well endowed lady at the bar about 20 feet away notices it all and starts a path to bump into the gambler as planned and studied as any NFL cornerback would use on a wide receiver.

You want love? Buy a dog or make a nice score. ;-)

Wanna double your money in Vegas? Take it out, fold it over...put it back.

See you later, dear chums. Don't want to miss the flight!

Another scandal

Here's another one. Now you know DEMOCRAT Congressman John Murtha, right? He's the guy who has decided the war is over and who never misses a chance to snark our troops. I mean he gets lots and lots of press.

Are you aware that he is an un-indicted co-conspirator in the ABSCAM scandal?

Much has been made over the fact that Murtha said..."Im not interested. I'm sorry. At this point."This supposedly provides forgiveness. But I ask. If someone had just insulted your character by offering you a bribe, would you apologize for turning them down? I would think there would be some harsh words.

And what did "At this point," mean?

An article from the August 6, 1980, Washington Post, inexplicably unavailable on LexisNexis, fills in some of the gaps. Written by Jack Anderson, the sometimes controversial yet Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative columnist, the article details Murtha's conversation with the investigators and sheds further light on his status as an unindicted co-conspirator. Anderson's reporter, Gary Cohn, apparently reviewed the tapes.

Anderson framed Murtha's performance as "perhaps the saddest scene on the secret Abscam videotapes.... He refused to take the money, but his reason was hardly noble." The column continued:

"I want to deal with you guys awhile before I make any transactions at all, period.... After we've done some business, well, then I might change my mind...."

..."I'm going to tell you this. If anybody can do it -- I'm not B.S.-ing you fellows -- I can get it done my way." he boasted. "There's no question about it."...

But the reluctant Murtha wouldn't touch the $50,000. Here on secret videotape was this all-American hero, tall and dignified in a disheveled way, explaining why he wasn't quite ready to accept the cash.

"All at once," he said, "some dumb [expletive deleted] would go start talking eight years from now about this whole thing and say [expletive deleted], this happened. Then in order to get immunity so he doesn't go to jail, he starts talking and fingering people. So the [S.O.B.] falls apart."...

"You give us the banks where you want the money deposited," offered one of the bagmen.

"All right," agreed Murtha. "How much money we talking about?"

"Well, you tell me."

"Well, let me find out what is a reasonable figure that will get their attention," said Murtha, "because there are a couple of banks that have really done me some favors in the past, and I'd like to put some money in....["]

The dialogue continued as follows:

Amoroso: Let me ask you now that we're together. I was under the impression, OK, and I told Howard [middleman Howard Criden] what we were willing to pay, and [This is where the available videotape begins]I went out, I got the $50,000. OK? So what you're telling me, OK, you're telling me that that's not what you know....

Murtha: I'm not interested.

Amoroso: OK.

Murtha: At this point, [This is where the available videotape ends] you know, we do business together for a while. Maybe I'll be interested and maybe I won't.... Right now, I'm not interested in those other things. Now, I won't say that some day, you know, I, if you made an offer, it may be I would change my mind some day.

Now doesn't that make you want to be lectured by this guy? And think about this. He has been re-elected from the same PA district for 30 plus years.

Is he the best that district in PA has to offer?