He he

Not that I care...

Angered that Pelosi wants Democratic insiders to follow the will of voters when they cast their own "superdelegate" votes in the nomination race, 20 of Clinton's top fund-raisers issued a veiled threat to Pelosi and warned her to change her tune. .....

Sources said Pelosi was infuriated by the implied threat the donors would quit giving cash to the committee.

The House speaker was not backing down, however, and is still insisting that superdelegates respect "the decisions of millions of Americans who have voted," her aide Brendan Daly said.

If the reporter or Pelosi think that is an "implied" threat then they need some improvement in their communication skills. Pelosi, who is arguably the worst Speaker of the House in its history, doesn't understand the concept of Superdelegates. They are supposedly "Independent." If they aren't, why have them?

Link


Worse, Senator Nelson of FL has opined:

"My fight has been based on the principle that in America every citizen has an equal right to vote," he said. "It is based on a belief that we all deserve a say in picking our presidential nominees."

Evidently Nelson has never heard of the Republician Party and how they do it. Instead, he decides the Constitution should be turned on its ear, all because the Demos are too dumb to fix their problems. And their problems are simple.

Having made the rules they don't want to enforce them. For a party that is full of members who "voted for the war before I voted against" that is really not a shock.
Having excluded FL and MI they now don't have the nerve to make it stick.

If they can't run themselves, how can they run the country?

Ah the sweet smell of dirt..

The morning was overcast and 6oish but I re-cultivated part of the garden. The smell of fresh dirt brings back memories... I managed to set out my cabbage, onions and bell peppers.

The cabbage and onions should do nicely even if Global Warming retreats. But the bell peppers will be iffy should it turn cold. Oh well, gambling is nothing new to a poker player, eh?? I have two rows of sweet onions, set with 3 across and 4 inches apart. You pick the two outside rows for the young green onions and leave the center row, letting them grow for winter use. I would guess I will have about 50 pounds for the winter. In a few weeks I will set out some Spanish yellows for onions with some zest..

Okra, aka Candy, won't be planted for three weeks, and after last years tomato killing freeze the last week of March, first of April, tomatoes will be another 10 days, although I may gamble with some early ones.

Then the day turned clear and warm, a perfect afternoon for doing anything. I watched Grandson practice baseball. There is nothing better.

Not being able to resist, I just had to do some news sweeps... Hussein is going to save the economy through regulation and taxes while Hillary wants to retrain us. It looks liked the MSM will give her a pass over her fibs regarding combat although I am sure the Repubs are taking notes. Why either Hussein or Hillary would want to to start talking military service with McCain is beyond me.

In Iraq al-Sadir is causing problems, again. We have wasted several chances tokill this guy and will live to regret it. Heck, we have lived to regret it.

In the stupid is as stupid does category a woman was made to remove her nipple rings before boarding a flight from Lubbock to Dallas. In somewhat an understatement she noted that she never knew nipples were a weapon... Obviously she discounted the many problems caused by the American Male's over fascination with the female breast.

At least they weren't box cutters.

Enough. I go to suckle at a Stoly on ice...

Pope Algore is being given

the 60 Minutes pulpit to BS us some more about Global Warming.

Some of the ads will feature unlikely alliances to drive home the message that people of all stripes are concerned about global warming. These include the Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. Pat Robertson, Toby Keith and the Dixie Chicks, and Nancy Pelosi and Newt Gingrich.

Seeing as how most folks I know wouldn't swap nickels with any of these folks I have to assunme that Pope Algore is totally out of touch with reality. Heck. We all knew that. And, of course, this group has such a wonderful education in science...

As for 60 Minutes.....the last time this organization had a claim to make it was touting a fake memo....

CBS

I can get it for you wholesale

Once upon a time when Ma Bell went on strike the network was manned by "management." Mostly engineering, market and sales types. The joke was, "The voice with a smile will be gone for a while. The man with the balls will answer your calls...." Sorry for the vulgarity, but facts are facts.

And the facts also were that the telephone company was a regulated monopoly that had zero competition and made a nice safe return on investment as it boldly strode into the future at a stately three miles per hour. It was a great place to work with great benefits, good if not great pay and a retirement plan that was the envy of many other worker bee types. And since the network could not be let go down, it was staffed at about 1.5 times the number of people needed just to keep it functioning during strikes and other emergencies. Universal service was the goal and it was met. Heaven help the CO Supervisor that had his exchange crash.

Then came the Carterphone FCC decision, interconnect, lawsuits by ITT and the Feds for restraint of trade and Judge Green decided that Ma Bell must become seven Baby Bells. ATT was left to the long distance market and eventually Western Electric and Bell Labs became a step child's step children. Pacific North West Bell, Northwest Bell and Mountain Bell became US West and so on. There were early outs, get outs and don't come backs. Sixty five thousand employees became 50,000 and people were moved and I haven't even touched the Qwest buy out and the other six new companies... But the results were the same. Employment went south, and as technology brought in fiber and the Internet fewer people were required to do more. Productivity improved but the "voice with a smile" wasn't just gone for a while.....it left the country. The new voice had an accent that was almost impossible to understand.

Then a funny thing happened. People started becoming angry that they couldn't get help within a reasonable time and when they did, they couldn't understand it. Further angered by "Press One" for English every time they called a business, songs such as this became popular.

But the kicker was that outsourcing carried with it its very own problems and hidden costs. Language and cultural differences caused problems, not to mention that if you want a 9AM conference call to India, guess what time it is in Chicago? Change orders become guesses and if you need hard copies.... Well, you get the idea.

So now the companies that sent the jobs out, want to bring some of them back.

"We're having trouble finding the numbers that we need with the skills that are required to do these jobs," AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson told a business group in San Antonio, where the company's headquarters is located.

So far, only around 1,400 jobs have been returned to the United States of 5,000, a target it set in 2006, the company said, adding that it maintains the target.

Okay. But maybe Stephenson needs to check the price he is willing to pay. He also needs to understand something else. If you spend 15 years firing people there will not be a pool of people just fighting to get into the business. People are rational. If they see an industry shrinking, they won't be interested.

If you have a culture that glorifies lawyers, doctors, nurses and journalists... Don't be surprised when the market produces lawyers, doctors, nurses and journalists.

He does make one good point.

Stephenson said he is especially distressed that in some U.S. communities and among certain groups, the high school dropout rate is as high as 50 percent.

"If I had a business that half the product we turned out was defective or you couldn't put into the marketplace, I would shut that business down," he said

That of course is the 800 pound gorilla in the corner. The school system has collapsed and won't recover until we get vouchers that let any student go to any school that will accept him or her. AT present we have a school system that is by the education establishment and for the education establishment. The students can each cake.

But he is wrong on the following.

"We're able to do new product engineering in Bangalore as easily as we're able to do it in Austin, Texas," he said, referring to the Indian city where many international companies have "outsourced" technical and customer support workers.

That assumes a stable international situation. Pakistan has nukes. One bomb in India and all of the advantages, read "cheap," that Bangalore brought are gone. And so are companies that can no longer bring new products and services to the market. And there remains the language/cultural problems I mentioned.

So instead of complaining and speaking of "grants," the head of ATT should pick the phone up and start pushing for vouchers for the education system. After all, he does believe in competition.

Doesn't he??

Link

Ooopppps!

This one is for a bud in Atlanta.

The following has been kicking around the Internet

for several years. Many think it is not PC and shouldn't be read and/or circulated. And even I thought about it. But it is also true.

And if anyone is offended they should remember that. It is true.

A lot of Americans have become so insulated from reality that they imagine America can suffer defeat without any inconvenience to themselves.

Absolutely No Profiling! Pause a moment, reflect back:

These events are actual events from history. They really happened! Do you remember?

1. 1968 Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by a:
Muslim male extremist between the ages of 17 and 40.

2. In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred by:
Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

3. In 1979, the US embassy in Iran was taken over by:
Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

4. During the 1980's a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by:
Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

5. In 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by:
Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

6. In 1985 the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year old American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair by:
Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

7. In 1985 TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens, and a US Navy diver trying to rescue passengers was murdered by:
Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

8. In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by:
Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

9. In 1993 the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by:
Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

10. In 1998, the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by:
Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

11. On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles to take out the World Trade Centers and of the remaining two, one crashed into the US Pentagon and the other was diverted and crashed by the passengers. Thousands of people were killed by:
Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

12. In 2002, and since then, the United States fought a war in Afghanistan against:
Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

13. In 2002 reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by:
Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

No, I really don't see a pattern here to justify profiling, do you? So, to ensure we Americans never offend anyone, particularly fanatics intent on killing us, airport security screeners will no longer be allowed to profile certain people. They must conduct random searches of 80-year-old women, little kids, airline pilots with proper identification, secret agents who are members of the President's security detail, 85-year old Congressmen with metal hips, and Medal of Honor winner and former Governor Joe Foss....

....all so that they won't be guilty of "profiling."

Is that dumb or what? Now I know that some, perhaps many, good, peaceful, honest Muslims might be offended by being "profiled." But to that I can only say, so what? It is sad to say, but the problem is a problem that exists within Islam as a violent subculture that has killed thousands and there is no end in sight.

Perhaps it is time for Muslims all over the world to seize control and start a zero tolerance program against those who preach hate and plot to kill.... and yes, I know that many have. But in many countries not near enough.

Bits and pieces

Global Warming made a big time come back yesterday, for which I offer thanks. Much work was done on the yard here at the Palatial Retirement Compound,including the removal of the white oak tree leaves that hang on during most of winter and then drop in early spring. Messy they are and if the pair in the front yard keep offending me I think they will meet with Mr. Chain Saw.

In other non-news I noticed that a US Airways flight lost a piece of wing covering that hit a passenger window, producing a crack and (surely) a fair amount of consternation in the passengers. The plane landed safely so the news coverage was brief and limited, death and destruction being the usual requirement for extended talking head attention.

This reminds me of the Boeing 737 that had the top of its fuselage peel off during an inter-island flight in Hawaii. Southwest Airlines apparently has been ignoring the inspections the FAA mandated after the Aloha 737 structual failure. Given that a Flight Attendant was sucked out of the aircraft during the Aloha incident I would say they are lucky that passengers haven't discovered a hidden meaning in "You are now free to move about the country." If all passengers were shown pictures of the Aloha 737 surely there would be no grumbling about keeping their seat belts fastened while seated....

Returning to the Aloha 737, I can only tip my hat to the crew. Somehow the aircraft held together and the pilot landed it safely.

I was also reminded of a Navy P5M seaplane that had its starboard engine catch fire on a flight from PR to Norfolk. The fire did not go out and the pilot made a rapid descent and landed in the water....The rapid descent and sea water on landing put the fire out and the crew then taxied several hundred miles to Key West with a large crack in the wing. To those of you who think landing on water is "soft" I remind you of what you may have learned in high school physics. Water does not compress. Dirt does.

There is, of course, lots of politics going on but I feel that I have been too focused on Hussein. If the country doesn't know now what a disaster he will be as a President I fear that the stupidity epidemic is advanced to the terminal stage.

However, I note that Hussein's ex-minister the Reverend "God Damn America" Wright has cancelled his planned appearance at a church in Texas because of death threats.

I am sure both the Hillary and McCain campaigns are rushing agents and other protective measures to his side. The Reverend is far too valuable to both to let some nut remove him from his mortal coil.