Month: May 2009

She’s ecological, she’s hypocritical: Laurie David builds tennis court on sensitive wetlands

Walking, talking one-woman ecological disaster Laurie David.
Walking, talking one-woman ecological disaster Laurie David.

When Laurie David’s on the west coast, she lives in huge energy-sucking home high in the hills above Santa Monica. When she’s on the east coast, she lives in Martha’s Vineyard.

Martha’s Vineyard is also where her hypocrisy is current residing.

According to the New York Post, David, the executive producer of Al Gore’s global-warming documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” was busted and fined $900 by the Chilmark Conservation Commission.

David was cited for violating the Wetlands Protection Act during the construction of a tennis court on her sprawling Chilmark property, when workers installed boards and stones to construct a path to the court.

But David — who spent weeks on the road with Sheryl Crow in 2007 during their Stop Global Warming College Tour — let her contractor, Bart Thorpe, take the fall for the violations. “She’s obviously a very busy person, and she trusted the contractor,” Thorpe told the Gazette. “I inadvertently made a mistake. It’s something she had no knowledge of . . . It’s a minor thing.”

Maybe it wouldn’t be such a major deal on the Vineyard if the supposed eco-obsessed celebrity hadn’t been cited for the exact same violation four years ago. In 2005, David constructed a stone fire pit, a barbecue area and a children’s theater stage in a wetlands area without a permit.

You can’t make this stuff up. If her ex-husband wrote it into a sitcom, you wouldn’t believe it.

Source: NY Post via JammieWearingFool

Book ‘em, Danno: Seattle cracks down on library violence

"I'm looking for Dewey Decimal. I'm gonna kick his butt."
"I'm looking for Dewey Decimal. I'm gonna kick his butt."

What’s going on in Seattle? Bad behavior is running rampant in the Northwest People’s Republic libraries.

In just the first four months of 2009, security personnel have already tossed out 432 library patrons for offenses like assault, drug dealing, intoxication and lewd conduct.

Looking back at conduct violations reports from last year, security booted 113 patrons for being disruptive, 42 more for fighting or assault, another 75 for “making threats,” and an additional 34 for lewd conduct.

Crime in Seattle? Too much coffee. Next time, order your double tall breve sugar-free vanilla latte decaf.

Source: KIRO-TV

Shocker: Successful California school rejects multi-cultural specialists, ultra liberal zealots, college-tainted oppression liberators

American Indian Public Charter School has a better idea: make student achievement a priority now.
American Indian Public Charter School has a better idea: make student achievement a priority now.

Shocker number two: This report on Oakland’s incredibly successful American Indian Public Charter School comes from the ultra liberal Los Angeles Times:

Not many schools in California recruit teachers with language like this: “We are looking for hard working people who believe in free market capitalism…Multi-cultural specialists, ultra liberal zealots, and college-tainted oppression liberators need not apply.”

That, it turns out, is just the beginning of the ways in which American Indian Public Charter and its two sibling schools spit in the eye of mainstream education. These small, no-frills, independent public schools in the hardscrabble flats of Oakland sometimes seem like creations of television’s “Colbert Report.” They mock liberal orthodoxy with such zeal that it can seem like a parody.

School administrators take pride in their record of frequently firing teachers they consider to be underperforming. Unions are embraced with the same warmth accorded “self-esteem experts, panhandlers, drug dealers and those snapping turtles who refuse to put forth their best effort,” to quote the school’s website…

Among the thousands of public schools in California, only four middle schools and three high schools score higher. None of them serve mostly underprivileged children.

At American Indian, the largest ethnic group is Asian, followed by Latinos and African Americans. Some of the schools’ critics contend that high-scoring Asian Americans are driving the high test scores, but blacks and Latinos do roughly as well — in fact, better on some tests…

The short answer is that American Indian attracts academically motivated students, relentlessly (and unapologetically) teaches to the test, wrings more seat time out of every school day, hires smart young teachers, demands near-perfect attendance, piles on the homework, refuses to promote struggling students to the next grade, and keeps discipline so tight that there are no distractions or disruptions. Summer school is required.

Back to basics, squared

We’re not sure what gives us more pleasure: the success of the school or the turmoil it must cause over at the California teachers union headquarters.

Source: LA Times via Ace of Spades

Harry Reid craps out in Vegas

Harry "Mr. Excitement" Reid couldn't contain his glee at Wednesday night's fundraiser.
Harry "Mr. Excitement" Reid couldn't contain his glee at Wednesday night's fundraiser.

Harry Reid called in reinforcements at his fundraiser Wednesday night in Las Vegas.

Here’s how the Huffington Post described the event:

“So, yesterday, the first big political fundraiser of the year was held here at Caesars Palace to kick off Reid’s reelection campaign. Bette Midler, Sheryl Crow, Rita Rudner and Clint Holmes entertained. But the big draw was President Obama.”

Sounds fabulous. Nevadans must have turned out in droves to see President Obama and all those world class entertainers. Tickets must have been hard to come by.

Or maybe not. Here’s the next paragraph from HuffPo:

“At any rate, the fundraiser was a great success. (Even though a limited number of tickets were given away by a business called House Seats that is utilized by local venues to ensure a full house.)”

To repeat, they had to give tickets away because they couldn’t sell ’em. An empty room would given visual evidence of Reid’s shaky grasp on power.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal quotes a Republican on Reid:

“‘Frankly, it speaks to the Democrat Leader’s deep unpopularity at home that he is already calling in reinforcements from Washington to help boost his sagging approval numbers in Nevada,’ Brian Walsh, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said in an e-mailed statement Tuesday. ‘Once again tonight, Harry Reid is simply reminding Nevadans that he’s more in touch with the Democrats in Washington than with the voters in his state.'”

It may be true that Harry Reid is completely devoid of personality and popularity. But in his defense, we don’t think Jesus Christ could draw a full house in Vegas if Midler and Crowe were his opening acts.

Source: Huffington Post, Las Vegas Review-Journal

Kim Jong-Il’s father called him “a genius of 10,000 talents.” Here’s one you probably didn’t expect.

If you think Kim Jong-Il is merely a run-of-the-mill brutal dictator, think again. His father called him “a genius of 10,000 talents.”

Equestrian. Golfer. Film director. Bon vivant. And now, dancer.

Weiner pulls out prematurely, says size does matter

Weiner comes up short. In fundraising, that is.
Weiner comes up short. In fundraising, that is.

After a pregnant pause, Representative Anthony Weiner has officially pulled out of the New York City mayoralty race.

“He is out for sure,” an elected official confirmed.

And size does matter, at least when it comes to a candidate’s campaign funds. Weiner said the primary reason for getting out of the race is the size of Mayor Bloomberg’s war chest.

“In this case, a sports analogy is apt: If one football team has 110 players on the field, the team with 11 has a hard time getting through the blocking and tackling on the crowded turf,” Weiner lamented.

We hope someone puts together one of those celebrity insult dinners for this guy, just so we can run a headline that says, “Weiner roast big success.”

Source: New York Post

Democrat Detroit city council member pays $68 in property taxes, neighbors pay $6000

You'd be smiling, too, if your property taxes were only $68 per year.
You'd be smiling, too, if your property taxes were only $68 per year.

The Detroit Free Press reports that a member of the city council pays just $68 in annual property taxes on her Tudor style home, although neighbors in comparable homes pay $2000-6000.

As you might expect, JoAnn Watson’s a Democrat, but that fact is conveniently omitted from the Detroit Free Press article.

The story gets even more laughable when JoAnn Watson attempts to explain why her taxes are so low.

“I’ve been a target of a smear campaign,” Watson insisted. “… I pay my bills and whatever I was billed, I paid.”

“I pay the taxes. All I know is I had a big drop when my house got hit hard by a tornado,” Watson said. “We had great damage.”

Watson claims her home suffered roof and foundation damage, but the Free Press notes that she never filed an insurance claim.

When did the tornado hit? Well, that’s where Watson’s story gets a tad hazy. She said it might have been 1993. Or it might have been 2002. Who knows?

Watson is a past winner of Detroit’s “Women’s Equality Day Lifetime Achievement Award.” But property taxes were obviously not included in that equality thing.

Source: Detroit Free Press via AP

What happens when you attempt to tell the president that you’re against gay marriage?

screaming_reporter

There was quite a scene at LAX yesterday. Brenda Lee, a reporter for the Macon, Georgia Informer wanted to give the President a letter urging him “to take a stand for traditional marriage.”

Two officers picked her up and carried her away – kicking and screaming — because they were afraid she’d attempt to give the letter to the president.

The One is not one to be trifled with.

Source: NBC Los Angeles

Shocker: Maddow thinks Obama is worse than Bush

It’s too bad no one watches MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow anymore. She just plain went off on President Barack Obama Thursday night. If it weren’t so painful watching Maddow’s tortured delivery, we would say it was a joy to watch.

Believe it or not, she actually finds President Bush’s terrorist detention policy preferable to President Obama’s. In fact, she’s absolutely appalled by Obama’s plan.

“How can a president speak with the kind of poetry that President Obama does about the rule of law and call for the power to indefinitely preventatively imprison people because they might commit crimes in the future? How can those two things co-exist in the same man? Even in the same speech?

She concluded:

“…You could get arrested today and locked up without a trial, without being convicted, without being sentenced for, say, ten years, until the threat of your future criminal behavior passes. Prolonged detention he’s calling it. This was a beautiful speech from President Obama today. Patriotic, moving, even poetic language about the rule of law and the Constitution. And one of the most radical proposals for defying the Constitution that we have ever heard made to the American people.”

Relax, Rachel. This plan is much more likely to be used against Janet Napolitano’s right wing extremists than any actual terrorists. Which means readers of IHateTheMedia.com have a lot more to worry about than Abu Hussein Abu bin-Abu al-Abu does.

Idiot jihadists get confused, issue fatwa on wrong guy

Attention, jihadists: This is the wrong Rusty.
Attention, jihadists: This is the wrong Rusty.

Don’t you hate it when Islamist extremists threaten your life? Especially when they do it by mistake? 

That’s what happened to radio talk show host Rusty Humphries. He was the target of a fatwah issued on a vile blog called “The Jew Report.” Unfortunately, the genius jihadists confused Rusty Humphries with Rusty Shackleford, a pseudonym used by the author of My Pet JAWA Report, a website that exposes online support of Islamic terrorists.

The threat, which included a photo of Humphries, said: “Yes this Fat descusting (sic) pig you are looking at is the boss of the website Jawareport.com but their are many fat kafirs like him you might ask why are we talking about him here’s why.”

“The Shaabab and muslim Leaders have said enough is enough he has to go and they dont mean move….Inshallah we will see his Fat rottan (sic) torso dumped in the side of the road or in some Florida swamp.”

In other news, the same Muslim extremists hage declared a fatwah on spelling and grammar.

Source: WorldNetDaily.com

President flies to Nevada to tout “100 Days, 100 Projects.” Uhhh…nevermind.

The President flew to Nevada on Wednesday. While he was there, he gave a rousing speech highlighting a new report on his “stimulus” bill entitled “100 Days, 100 Projects.”

It was a fine speech. Some called it poetic. Others called it an empty promise.

Because, unfortunately, not one of those 100 projects happens to be in Nevada.

Oopsie.

Source: Politico.com

Will Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi live to eat his own words?

Berlusconi underage sexItalian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi beginning a press conference in which he promised to resign if caught lying about allegations of an improper relationship with a teenager. They say Italians talk with their hands, but this is a bit too illustrative.

Source: Time

Crazy, unsustainable salaries doom San Francisco and other California cities

Consider the city of San Francisco a microcosm of what’s happening in the rest of California. A bankrupt microcosm.

As you’d expect, it’s doomed by its own socialist spending spree, the cost of providing education, medical and jail facilities to illegal aliens, and a bloated bureaucracy.

But the salaries it’s paying city employees are absolutely insane. In 2007, the city had more than 8000 employees who “earned” more than $100,000 per year. Here’s a list of the city’s twenty highest-paid public employees:

Top 20 San Francisco government salaries

$350,324 for a Special Nurse. $325,452 for the General Manager of the Municipal Railway. $270,171 for a Captain in the Fire Department. It’s insane.

How can a nurse make $350,324? In a word, overtime. Here’s how Special Nurse Christian Kitchin’s income broke down:

Regular pay $117,262
Overtime pay $216,277
Other pay $16,785
Total pay $350,324

And don’t forget that this is on top of generous government retirement and health care schemes that aren’t available to the rest of us.

You can see the details of all 8,000 of these government employees’ salaries with the handy list generator at SFGate.com.

Mayor Gavin Newsom, the whiz kid whose managerial genius has bankrupted San Francisco, is now running for Governor of California.

We know how we’ll vote.

Denmark proves wind power just a bunch of hot air

How to generate wind power when the wind doesn't blow.
How to generate wind power when the wind doesn't blow.

The global warming crowd constantly bleats that wind power is our salvation and to complete the analogy, that we should follow Denmark’s example like a bunch of sheep.

“Denmark’s wind generation industry already employs 9000 people,” said Australian Green leader Bob Brown, “will nicet (sic) 10% of electricity demand by 2000, and is growing at 20% per annum. It’s a major export earner.”

Not so fast. Turns out Denmark’s windmill miracle is more hot air than hot news. When the recalcitrant winds refuse to blow, the country draws its power from Sweden, Germany and Norway.

Uh-oh. Sweden and Germany generate their power with coal and nuclear.

Another uh-oh. Under the Kyoto Protocol, Denmark committed itself to a 29% reduction in green house gasses in the 2008-2012 period. Even with outsourcing their power production to other countries, the country’s 2006 emissions rose 1.7% above its base year emissions.

Of course, as you might expect, Danes pay the highest prices in all of Europe for their power.

This may not be scientific, but it looks like the only way this wind power thing is going to work is if Al Gore puckers up and blows.

Source: Andrew Bolt/NewsCorp

Liberal prayer breakfast beseeches the Lord to end secret ballots

Over the lips, through over the gums, watch out hypocrisy, here it comes. Amen.
Over the lips, through the gums, watch out hypocrisy, here it comes. Amen.

This is one of the most worst stories we’ve ever read. Really. One of the worst.

“Union leaders, clergy and liberal members of Congress gathered in the mostly empty U.S. Capitol Visitors Center early Tuesday morning,” according to CNSnews.com, “to hear multicultural choir music, speeches from religious leaders–and to pray for the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. The prayer breakfast was sponsored by Faith Leaders for Workplace Fairness–a coalition of liberal religious groups that was formed for the sole purpose of promoting the ‘card-check’ bill.”

Yes. You read that right. These people prayed for the end of the secret ballot in union elections.

Why stop there, you slackers? Why not pray for the end of democracy? Pray that Jimmy Carter will fly in to monitor all future American elections. Pray that Obama takes over every industry he hasn’t yet taken over. Pray that Joe Biden becomes intelligent.

Nah, even God couldn’t pull that one off.

Source: CNSnews.com

How do you say, “What the hell is she talking about?” in Chinese?

"And one order of mu-shu pork," Queen Nancy demanded. "To go."
"And one order of mu-shu pork," Queen Nancy demanded. "To go."

U.S. House Speaker and dim bulb Nancy Pelosi is visiting China. Rumor has it that she made the sudden trip only after getting a fortune cookie that said, “Chinese reporters don’t ask you about waterboarding.”

While speaking at Tsinghua University, Pelosi tried to link human rights and environmental justice and confused those who speak English just as badly as she confused those who speak Chinese.

“I do see this opportunity for climate change to be … a game-changer,” she declared. “It’s a place where human rights — looking out for the needs of the poor in terms of climate change and healthy environment — are a human right.”

She then turned to the president of the university and asked for an order of fried rice, orange peel chicken and pot stickers.

Wouldn’t surprise you, would it?

Source: AP via Google

California bankrupt because it spent too much, not because it taxed too little

Would someone at the L.A. Times, San Francisco Chronicle or Sacramento Bee please explain how it’s possible for San Diego County to run up a $700 million surplus while the state of California is running up a $45 billion deficit?

These esteemed newspapers seem to think the only solution to the state’s legislature-induced suicide is more taxes, higher taxes, and really creative taxes.

Perhaps they should watch as Dianne Jacob, Chairman of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, explains that California has a spending problem, not a revenue problem.

Source: BluegrassPundit.com

Top 10 lines from the Goode Family

“The Goode Family” premiered last night on ABC-TV. It was created by politically-incorrect Mike Judge, who also created King of the Hill and Beavis and Butt-head. Most reviews (including our entire staff) agree it was funnier than hell. Here are the top 10 lines we heard.

1. “We can’t shop there. They don’t even have a mission statement.”

2. Ubuntu: “Sorry I used so much gas, dad.”
Dad: “That’s okay. The important thing is you feel guilty about it.”

3. “Don’t say ‘people of color’ because that’s just ‘colored people’ backwards.”

4. “The View is on. The pretty one is saying crazy stuff again.”

5. On a bumper sticker:
“Support our troops. And their opponents.”

6. Bumper sticker on Goode Family hybrid:
“Earth First – Ask Questions Later”

7. “WWAGD? What would Al Gore do?”

8. “Attention One Earth Shoppers. The owner of the SUV is in aisle 4 wearing a ball cap.”

9. “Your mother accidentally bought two-ply (toilet paper). But don’t worry I fixed it.”

10. Goode: “If you want to have proportionately diverse staff, we need three more minority hires.
Jensen: “Why don’t we just fire three white guys. Everybody wins.”

UC Santa Cruz students launch hunger strike, battle the munchies

As you can see in this video, a group of students has launched a hunger strike to protest Governor Schwartzenegger’s budget cuts. This seems short sighted, considering the fact that UC Santa Cruz has a well-deserved reputation as the marijuana capital of California.

The hunger strike vs the munchies. Which one will win?

Source: KSBW-TV

Democrat Waxman doesn’t know what’s in his own tax plan because he hasn’t read it

Democrats have a nasty habit of passing bills they don’t read, like the Stimulus boondoggle. In this instance, Henry Waxman (D-CA), Energy & Commerce Chairman and author of the National Energy Tax, is unclear on what’s actually in his own bill. But never mind that. Democrats voted it out of committee anyway, 33-25.

In this video, Waxman is questioned by Ranking Republican Member Joe Barton (R-TX) when he admits to ignorance of his own handiwork: “I certainly don’t claim to know everything that’s in this bill…I don’t know the details…”

Totaling over 930 pages, this bill is quite the packed sausage. If We the People are forced to pay for these things, is it too much to ask that lawmakers who supposedly write them at least be forced to read them?

Source: National Review

World saved from global warming, Aussie company trumpets “Flatulence Offsets”

No reason to be embarrassed anymore, Fido. You're saving the environment.
No reason to be embarrassed anymore, Fido. You're saving the environment.

An Australian company is selling carbon credits to make up for farting pets and people. (We agonized over that sentence, but it is what it is).

For just $27, Easy Being Green will sell you enough carbon credits to offset your dog’s annual anal methane production. Making your cat carbon neutral is a bargain at just $6.

And if you’re looking for a special anniversary or birthday gift, imagine how happy your loved one will be knowing that you spent US$16 to offset two years worth of their personal trouser trumpet production.

This is all well and good, but as highly-trained environmentalists and marketing geniuses, we think Easy Being Green is missing an obvious business opportunity.

Here’s our idea:

Wind power is intermittent, but dog farts are a constant. We propose erecting a mini-windmill in every Aussie home. Tie each windmill into the power grid. Train all Aussie dogs to fart into the windmills. The windmills spin. Power is generated free of charge. Oil imports are slashed. The economy booms. Australia becomes an ecological role model for the rest of the world.

And to think Al Gore got a Nobel Prize and we didn’t.

Source: NationalGeographic.com

Sotomayor is Obama’s pick for the Court.
Who’s cynical now?

There is no truth to the rumor that Sonia Sotomayor went into law only after failing to win the starring role in ABC-TV's "Ugly Betty"
There is no truth to the rumor that Sonia Sotomayor went into law only after failing to win the starring role in ABC-TV's "Ugly Betty"

Now that our first black president has made history again with his choice of the first Latina for the Supreme Court, let’s revisit a notable quote made two decades ago about our first black Supreme Court Justice.

Guess who said this: “I think that the only reason Clarence Thomas is on the Court is because he is black. I don’t believe he could have won had he been white. And the reason is, I think it was a cynical ploy by President Bush.”

That would be the ever-quotable Sen. Joe Biden. Now that Biden is vice president, his administration has made what appears to be an equally cynical pick aimed at a particular voting constituency.

David Frum offers this suggestion: “Maybe somebody should ask Joe Biden whether Sonia Sotomayor would have been nominated if she had been male and white. And the great thing about Joe Biden is — the guy might blurt the truth.”

Source: NewMajority.com

Media ignores recent record low temperatures in the United States and Australia, snow in Saudi Arabia

freezing_man The liberal media’s global warming gang is so busy announcing dire threats to mankind’s existence that they can’t find room to run articles like this:

“Record low temperatures in 28 states”

Record low temperatures in 28 states go unreported by the media. Several of the records were more than 100 years old.

Source: IceAgeNow.com

“Coldest May morning on record in Australia”

Two far north Queensland towns experienced their coldest May morning in history on May 22, 2009.

Cooktown, an hour north of Cairns, dropped to 10 degrees Celsius (two degrees below its previous record low), while Coen on Cape York Peninsula recorded just 10.4 degrees Celsius.

Source: Cairns.com.au via IceAgeNow.com

“Snow in Saudi Arabia”

Saudis were surprised by snow in Al-Baha city south-west of Riyadh on May 19, 2009. Torrential rains accompanied by gusty winds left snow on the mountains, valley areas and forests near Al-Zaraeb and Khayrah.

Source: IceAgeNow.com

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