One thing I find really annoying in my line of work:

Like it or not, most people now have home computers, smartphones, and access to the internet pretty much everywhere they go. (And if you're going to Outer Mongolia or some other place where you don't have it, leave an out of office message that says so.)

There is absolutely NO reason why a member of the press should not be able to contact someone immediately in response to a press release! NONE! Don't be a stooge! Read on:::

One time I received a press release with FIVE different phone numbers on them and NOT ONE SINGLE answer! Either ring-ring-ring-ring or a non-dated voicemail. (I can't tell you how many times people will call me back DAYS LATER after I have left a message!)

If you can't be right at the phone or have someone who will be, and you expect a successful press event to happen, for goddsakes PLEASE record a special message, something like: "Hi it's Phil on Tuesday, November 10, if you're calling about the press release leave your contact info and I will call you right back." THAT lets the person calling know that they have a better than 50% chance of speaking with a live person before DEADLINE... or leave an alternate, a cell number, an email address... if you want coverage!

I took a chance one time and went to a news conference without being able to verify the information that was presented in the press release. Guess who was the ONLY reporter at the event? ME! The other radio and TV stations passed because there were other events (maybe not as important) happening where they WERE able to make contact with a living soul!

In this modern "I want it NOW" world, reporter's deadlines have shrunk like crazy! If you email me your press release tonight, and I read it at 0800 tomorrow, you better have SOMEBODY manning the phones 0900 or before and you better be able to produce people I can interview by 1000! I'm sorry, but that's the way it is today!

Now, if you have a place where you can upload AUDIO and/or VIDEO tracks, you are way ahead of the game and making it eaasier for the press to cover your event! "Oh, you couldn't make it out to hear so-and-so speak about the issue? We have a soundbite on our website and a video of the presser on YouTube." You will be surprised how well that scenario plays out!

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Another batch of "followers" who un-followed me when they realized my twitter account is not set up to auto-follow them in return...
(Actually, even if it was, they would have left anyway - that's what these folks do- they're usually fake twitter accounts set up by money-schemers trying to make extra bucks online by tweeting junk)
And, on the outside chance that I am following any of these peeps, I will soon be UNfollowing them in return!

• Mikesdesk has stopped following you
• ReaganRamirezMM has stopped following you
• Postabon has stopped following you
• gibby10 has stopped following you
• AvaDavis0 has stopped following you
• KaylaCampbellU has stopped following you
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• s_mlbyankees has stopped following you
• HarpForSale has stopped following you
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• aazizabdullah has stopped following you
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• RedCTVcom has stopped following you
• WNJR_Newark has stopped following you
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• JohnAguiar has stopped following you
• • Edietfefw has stopped following you
  • h_enigma has stopped following you
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Ever see those heart-wrenching TV spots for abused animals? If you haven't yet been moved enough to give something, take a look at each of the links below.

Nice Kitty, Dead Kitty

Sexy Asian Babes Stomp Kittens

Kittens abused and killed, then left dead in front of their mother.

Adults drown kittens for fun



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Will future generations be tethered to their digital devices? How many?

How secure and how private will human life be?

Students already face withdrawl and distress when deprived of internet connectivity. One person surveyed said that being deprived of the internet was “like having my hand chopped off.” Others said it was akin to giving up drinking and smoking. Many of them experienced feelings of sadness or loneliness even if denied online access for a short time.

I've often remarked that "if the internet crashed civilization would come to a halt" - we have become far too dependent on the net for everything! FROM EDUCATION TO ENTERTAINMENT TO GAMES AND PASTTIMES!

Smartphone sales Will reach 420 Million by the end of 2011. At what point will we receive chip-like implants to directly connect our brains to the internet? Will that become the Biblical "mark of the beast"?


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I was on hand for the festivities at Albany City Hall Saturday night into Sunday morning: New York is the sixth, and largest, state to legalize same-sex unions. Several other states are considering following suit.

Congrats to all of you couples! Scroll down to the bottom for my musical gift to you!

Six gay and lesbian couples from around the Capital Region were among the first in the state to legally wed under New York’s same-sex marriage law. Mayor Jerry Jennings and Judge Joseph Teresi officiated in Albany. This is what it looked outside City Hall around 11pm, an hour before things got underway...



Lights, cameras... ACTION!

When I first arrived at City Hall, I jokingly mentioned to Dori Marlin that it's been about three years since I last saw her out covering a story. "You're the third person who's told me that tonight," said she... No, she and Dan Levy weren't tying the knot... they were witnessing


Judge Teresi officiating the wedding of an African-American couple who had children with them. I wasn't able to find out who the kids were. Everyone was smiling most of the time, except during those "serious, solemn" moments! Here's the Times Union account of the evening... I mentioned in my radio report that gay rights and human rights activists hope the Empire State's same-sex marriage law will have nationwide impact - that it will impress lawmakers throughout the land, all the way to President Barack Obama. Gay marriage advocates now say they will push for Federal legislation that would require ALL states to recognize same-sex unions.

Mayor Jenning's longtime friends ("Super Secret Couple") Dale Getto and Barbara Laven were married by hizzoner. After the City Hall proceedings, they jumped in a stretch limo and headed up to Saratoga for celebration at Vapor! Congratulations, ladies!


Old chum Dan Levy from NewsChannel 13 takes a seat to jot down a few notes...

Albany City Councilman Anton Konev was on the scene to "witness history." This fellow attends more local events than Brian Scavo!


I love people! Comrades-in-arms Fox23 reporter and cameraman mugged for my smartphone as the crowd began leaving City Hall. Good job, guys!

And here's a musical gift for you Gay Couples! Ronnette's Ronnie Spector with substitute 'nettes Belinda Carlisle (Go-Gos) and Grace Slick (Jefferson Airplane) with the late great Clarence Clemmons on sax!



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via Michelle Malkin's blog • July 23, 2011 12:13 AM

Wu-hoo! Hey, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and Nancy Pelosi,

I’m over here!!!!!!!!

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I touched you for the very last time today,
gave you a gentle pat on the side
after packing up all the leftover things.

I won't forget the times we spent together,
the places we've seen...
the songs and voices we listened to on your radio.

As we took care of you, you took care of us in return,
keeping us safe over thousands upon thousands of miles.
And in the end, you gave up your "life" for us.
Kept us from harm one final time.

I took one last look as I left the field.
I didn't want to take a picture.
I'll just remember you as you were.

A great car.

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Islamic banking necessitated by effect of global meltdown – ADO-EKITI— THE Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, has said the introduction of Islamic banking into our financial system was “necessitated by the effect of global meltdown that castrated the Nigerian financial system and slowed down the growth of the economy.”

He, however, assured that Nigeria’s subscription to Islamic banking would revive the current downturn of the country’s economy.

Sanusi pledged to dialogue with the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, this week on the issue. [Gbenga Ariyibi has more...]

...this I find very interesting, because as society is growing and changing and you could almost compare recent developments on the world scene to the volcanoes and earthquakes that have been re-shaping the planet...

Gold Has Longest Run of Gains Since 1980...

...we need a new system to match up with some of the financial things happening, like the use of mobile phones for banking across Africa and Asia ... the 'micro-loan' concept ... online banking ...

Michelle Malkin

‘Lights Out’: Harry Reid Takes the Debt Ceiling Fear Up a Notch -

So, look at all of the news hitting the "financial fan" - try to make sense of it - and let's keep an eye on this development in Nigeria.

Islamic banking has the same purpose as conventional banking: to make money for the banking institute by lending out capital. Because Islam forbids simply lending out money at interest (see riba), Islamic rules on transactions (known as Fiqh al-Muamalat) have been created to avoid this problem. The basic technique to avoid the prohibiton is the sharing of profit and loss, via terms such as profit sharing (Mudharabah), safekeeping (Wadiah), joint venture (Musharakah), cost plus (Murabahah), and leasing (Ijar).

In an Islamic mortgage transaction, instead of loaning the buyer money to purchase the item, a bank might buy the item itself from the seller, and re-sell it to the buyer at a profit, while allowing the buyer to pay the bank in installments. However, the bank's profit cannot be made explicit and therefore there are no additional penalties for late payment. In order to protect itself against default, the bank asks for strict collateral. The goods or land is registered to the name of the buyer from the start of the transaction. This arrangement is called Murabahah. Another approach is EIjara wa EIqtina, which is similar to real estate leasing. Islamic banks handle loans for vehicles in a similar way (selling the vehicle at a higher-than-market price to the debtor and then retaining ownership of the vehicle until the loan is paid). [source: wikipedia]

Gas prices on the rise; top $4 in eight states...


Tags: World Economy, Islamic banking



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This flier came in Monday's mail. People always say "you should buy gold as a hedge against inflation" and "if something ever happened to our government and/or the monetary system, gold is the currency to hold and behold." NOT SO FAST!

If you look carefully at U.S. Gold Pieces, they have dollar amount face values written on them. If there was a crisis of some sort, they are only worth whatever particular dollar amount has been attributed to them!

I had been under the impression that in a financial collapse, bullion coins could buy more than regular green money. This is obviously a fable. Although perhaps it could be used, in my opinion, as an object of barter, knowing that the coin would always be worth more than its face value. However, it is indeed disappointing that you wouldn't be able to purchase goods at least in the ballpark of what the coin is worth, noting that the true value of the coin is always going to be at a premium to its face value. Interesting.

US Bullion coins can only be used in stores at their stated value. A silver eagle is worth one Dollar, a modern one ounce proof coin is worth fifty dollars, a double eagle is worth twenty bucks... you get the picture!

To get more than this you have to find a person who would be willing to take the coin of your hands.

That person could be a coin dealer or collector, jewelry shop attendant or a bank that trades in bullion. Another way of accessing a higher value for the item is to place it in an auction.

Your coin would generally trade at a discount to 'spot' metal price unless it has some numismatic value.

Of course if there was law and disorder and financial collapse, good luck at finding a shop or a bank open, let alone an auction!

Just musing...

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"This story is available only in print" - the Albany Times Union

Without Anthony Weiner to poke (fun at)and with the Casey Anthony trial "resolved," the Sunday news is a little tamer this weekend: the sensational stories (except maybe for what's happening with Rupert Murdoch) take a back seat today.

It's great when a newspaper takes an original story and keeps readers "in the loop." There's nothing worse than wondering "what happened" - the Albany Times Union has done a marvelous job following the life and times of "Poppy" - and the timing here was just right for a page-one follow-up to the transient's seemingly never-ending story! Poppy has settled for now in Ravena. (For those wishing to read the storyonline, don't fret - the "print exclusives" eventually show up at the TU's website.)

Right below the Poppy article there's a story very timely for seafood lovers: a warning that imported fish containing banned chemicals are being sold in the U.S.

"Death Arrives in the Neighborhood" is a story out of Lake George with a very unhappy ending, like so many stories of "relationship violence" turn out. Just as I wonder about suicides, I wonder how bad life has to be, how low one must sink, how severe heartbreak must be, for things like these to happen. Your prayers for all of the people involved in this and the Massachusetts story that follows below are needed!

THE BOSTON GLOBE has the bigger story (a sensational one in the Greater Boston area)::: that of Nathaniel Fujita, the son of Berklee College of Music assistant prof. Tomohisa Fujita, charged with the July 3rd murder of Lauren Astley.
Back to "LOCAL" ::: Way deep in the "Capital Region" section on pp D10-11, there's a news article/obit for New York State Assembly director Sisa Moyo... the 47-year old found dead in her apartment the other day. I'm glad I don't live alone. If you live alone, you die alone. Across the page there's a story about the army amputee who fell to his death from a roller coaster just outside Buffalo. That's gotta be as sad as the poor chap who fell to his death trying to catch a baseball for his 6-year old son at a major league game.

Deep inside the Sunday Times Union there's an ad where Hannaford vs. Price Chopper over the cost of cereal. REALLY? Hannaford, why the kid gloves? Why not go after them on the cost of MEAT. I'll give you an example. Roughly a pound of hamburger at the Delmar Hannaford cost me $3 and change on Saturday. The same day, roughly a pound of hamburger at the Madison Avenue Price Chopper ran around $7. I picked up a steak at HFD for $2.14. A nice steak, big enough for three (four with samller portions). I couldn't find a steak at the Madison PC for less than $8.

Now, Price Chopper may be advertsing lower prices for meat, but everytime I've gone to the meat section I CANNOT FIND a single package steak or hamburger being sold for less than $4 or $5, where at Hannaford, I can ALWAYS find a $2.50 steak and a $2.89 package of hamburger - and if it expires that day they'll even have a markdown slip on it anywhere from 75c to $1.50 off!

THE SARATOGIAN is running stories about economic uncertainty and the decline of fine arts possibly threatening the New York City Ballet's future with SPAC and the preponderance of "invasive species" making Saratoga Lake a "travel destination."

THE NY POST homepage showcases Derek jeter's 3000th hit. And so it goes. Another newspaper Sunday is in the books.


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视频: 比基尼海选现场女演员被男友怒扒胸罩! (高清)

This video was tops all week on Chinese video sites. An angry boyfriend ripped off his girlfriend’s bikini in public just because she joined a swimwear pageant contest without his permission. The girl is identified as Bai Jing (白静), best known from Chinese dating show "Fall in Love" (爱情连连看) ::: Netizens are wondering if it is real or if it is something done as a public relations stunt...

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I had some serious doubts about this case right from day one...

Here's an update 2 July 2011 ::: NY POST: Maid cleaning up as 'hooker'!

UPDATE July 7 ::: Recent Photos of Diallo

::: JULY 5 UPDATE! CLICK HERE! :::

The woman who cried rape may be involved in a lot more than we have been led to believe. Is she really living in a building that exclusively houses HIV/AIDS carriers? The photo displayed here may or may not accurately depict her. Some say the picture is at least 10, maybe 15 years old. Others say it simply isn't her! What do YOU think? The way things have been going in the news, nothing really surprises me anymore. I have some added in some new information to an article I posted awhile ago. Consider this a "working update" vesrion, one where I will add new facts and allegations as they are reported.

"I have not given birth to a bad woman..." ~ quote from the mother of NYC chambermaid Nafissatou Diallo ::: Ms. DIALLO is quoted in the New York Times ‘Don’t worry, this guy has a lot of money. I know what I’m doing,’ (Diallo is seen in the accompanying photo)

Attention has now shifted from perp to the alleged victim of an alleged sexual assault of a 32-year old hotel chambermaid in New York City on May 14th by the former International Monetary Fund managing director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

The sexual assault case against Strauss-Kahn is on the verge of collapse as investigators have uncovered major holes in the credibility of the "devout Muslim Ghanian" housekeeper.

The maid, Nafissatou Diallo from the West African nation of Guinea, told police that the 62-year-old Strauss-Kahn came out of the bathroom naked, chased her down, forced her to perform oral sex on him and tried to remove her underwear before she broke free and fled the room.

The New York Times reports ::: According to the two law enforcement officials, the woman had a phone conversation with an incarcerated man within a day of her encounter with Mr. Strauss Kahn in which she discussed the possible benefits of pursing the charges against him. The conversation was recorded.

That man, the investigators learned, had been arrested on charges of possessing 400 pounds of marijuana. He was among a number of individuals who made multiple cash deposits, totaling around $100,000, into the woman’s bank account over the last two years. The deposits were made in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Georgia and New York.

They also learned that she was paying hundreds of dollars every month in phone charges to five different companies. The woman insisted she only had a single phone and said she knew nothing about the deposits except that they were made by a man she described as her fiancé and his friends.

In addition, the official said, she told investigators that part of her application for asylum included a previous rape, but there was no such account in the application. She also told them that she had been subjected to genital mutilation, but her account to the investigators differed from what was contained in the asylum application.

Inquiring minds want to know more about Diallo, who received political asylum in the US, and has been employed at the hotel for three years: La famille de celle qui accuse Dominique Strauss-Khan de tentative de viol s'est confiée à SlateAfrique. Elle décrit une jolie jeune femme de nationalité guinéenne sans histoire, sérieuse et qui n'a pu être manipulée.

via SlateAfrique ::: The one who is called Ophelia is not from Senegal, Ghana or Puerto Rico, as some journalists have reported, but from Guinea.

The daughter of a merchant form the Peule tribe (40% of the population in a country of 10.3 million), she is from the Labé region in Guinea, and followed her husband, a Guinea merchant, to the USA in 1998. There, she divorced him and has been raising her 15 year old daughter alone in the Bronx. She has some family in Harlem, including her sister, who is married to a Guinean business man working in the import-export trade.

Nafissatou Diallo holds a green card, and has been working as a maid in the Sofitel Hotel for three years. She has a reputation as a serious girl.

“She is as hard a worker as her sister,” said a cousin of hers on the phone. Diallo’s family has not been able to see her yet. Like everyone else, they read the papers, but they hope the sexual assault is “less severe” that what is reported.

Mamadou Chérif Diallo, from the victim’s family, and a 35 year old Guinean who is working for a New York City agency, who is tasked with representing the family, said this:

She’s a good Muslim. She is really pretty, as are a lot of Peule women, but in our culture, we do not accept this kind of behavior. Seriously, Dominique Strauss-Kahn attacked the wrong person. It’s a scandal! It’s really sad, this accident!

Under police protection

The family explained that Nafissatou Diallo is in hiding with NYPD protection to protect her from the media. She presenting has a lawyer. The attorney general’s office in Manhattan, contacted by SlateAfrique, refused to confirm the identity of Nafissatou Diallo, a common measure to protect sexual assault victims in the US.

French-Cameroonian writer Calixthe Beyala wrote an open letter that has been posted on several websites, entitled: “On épouse une Blanche et on viole la femme noire -or- Rape the Black Woman, and Marry the White One” - here are two snippets:

“...he knows perfectly the Sofitel Hotel in New York led by French. In this hotel, work for many black women! Many of them were raped by the former head of the IMF and the scandalous affairs have always been suppressed by the hotel management...”

“It is traumatising to realise that some Black people still have chains in their minds, and do not question the appetite of powerful men for Black women, a morbid attraction, in which relations haven't changed since slavery.”

Global Voices' Julie Owono explores the possibility that Nafissatou Diallo is a "conspirator".

Does machismo cause rape? Tracy Clark-Flory investigates for salon.com.






Tags: DSK, Nafissatou Diallo, Dominique Strauss-Kahn



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In a sign of increasing pessimism about the direction of the U.S. economy, roughly 4 in10 Americans now believes it is in permanent decline, according to a new CBS News/New York Times poll. (Hover and click on the image below for more details)

(Reuters) - If banks loaned out their $2 trillion cash hoard, if worker training programs were stepped up and if 3 million job openings were filled, the economic recovery would be far stronger, a panel assembled by former President Bill Clinton said on Wednesday. [Read Bill Clinton's remarks HERE]

So what the heck is going on with the economy? Gasoline is a big factor. American drivers are to big oil companies what puppets are to puppetmasters. Like a game, the masters rise the prices up to $4 a gallon and beyond, and just as our backs are beginning to crack under the weight, they ease off agin. Cat and mouse game-like. Torture. Push us to the edge of the cliffs, and pull us back a little bit just as we lose our footing. What else is eating away at our money?

Leading the way: HOUSING ::: AdAge reports "Data being released ... from Experian will show that in the first half of 2010, an estimated 275,000 people just walked away from mortgages they could afford to keep paying because they had become such awful investments. That adds up to roughly 17% of defaulters. While that figure is down 35% from the first half of 2009, as evidence of a double-dip housing crash mounts, "we expect the incidence of strategic defaulting to go up," said Ms. Bremmer.

Estimates of the number of mortgages under water in the U.S. hover just over 1 in 4 but that could jump to half in the coming years. Recent data from Corelogic suggests that almost 10% of mortgages originated just last year are already in the negative equity range. The Federal Reserve shows average homeowner equity at just 38% down from 61% a decade ago ...

...strategic defaulters... are no deadbeats in a traditional sense. The Experian data show that they are more likely to have had a jumbo-sized mortgage, have had excellent credit scores, have had more than one house or investment property, and have a higher than average household income. They also stay current on all their other bills. If you look at the incidence in these charts, the proportion of strategic defaulters keeps going up.

They should be owning and spending like home owners. But they're not, and for up to the next seven years they might have a hard time finding a mortgage while their credit recovers. "As many strategic defaulters as there are," said Ms. Bremmer, "there are many more people who are short-selling. Those people are renting, too."" (In other words, they are driving up rents and eventually will end up defaulting on their landlords).

As I have suggested before, if Barack Obama wants to create a REAL stimulus that will "save his presidency" he must give families a 20% cash down payment on a new or existing home that they can afford that is + or - $150 within the amount they are currently spending on rent.

John Sealander ::: Sound Familiar? "I paid all my June bills today. It's weird. Money comes in the door. Money goes out the door. And nothing really changes. There always seems to be enough to pay the bills on time, but I never really get ahead of the game. Maybe in this dismal economy, that's as good as it's going to get. I really need to invent something that I can sell for $19.95 on the cable TV channels and tell people that if they order right now, I'll send them not one, but two useless gizmos for the same price... with separate shipping and handling, of course."



Tags: economy, Bill Clinton



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I'm not really big on chicken-little style disaster predictions, perhaps the most frightening of which was that whole millenium thing. But I do recall reading a book in the early 90s about Nostradamus, and his prediction (off by a few years) of the 9/11 act of terror "from the skies above the New City".

John Hogue studies Nostradamus. Nostradamus has a few "comet predictions" and as we learned a few days ago, space debris ike comets and asteroids or meteors can pop up out of nowhere, and we'd have about 5 days notice to do anything (if we could do anything) about them.

Elenin is a comet. Hogue writes "As the orbiting earth lined up with it and the Sun a significant earthquake took place either that very same day or within a few days. The first alignment coincided with a magnitude 8.8 quake hit the Chilean coast sending a Pacific wide tsunami on 27 February 2010. Next came a 7.2 temblor shaking up Christchurch, New Zealand on 4 September 2010. The third alignment of Sun-Earth-Elenin happened on 15 March, four days after 11 March 2011 when Japan’s 9.0 quake crushed and later drowned over 25,000 people and knocked out four nuclear reactors along the northeast Honshu coastline with a vast flooding tsunami that also sent waves reverberating across surface of the Pacific Ocean." The comet will align two more times this year, in September and November. Something to think about.

If Hogue's theory is correct, science must assume that earth's inner core can be influenced by gravity or perhaps some undiscovered property of passing celestial bodies. The hardest part of deciphering Nostradamus' predictions is that you have to imagine yourself living in a century where most of the inventions and things we take for granted did not exist. If the man was privvy to "visions" of the future, he must have struggled to convey what he "saw" - especially historical "clips" seen occurring in a different langauage and culture. So if he wrote "Hister" instead of "Hitler" we understand why. We should also understand that until his infamous "Mabus" prediction comes clearly into focus (via the passgae of time), we won't be able to accurately discern the identity of "Mabus".

Nostradamus' 9/11 prediction was accurate, and we come to know that after analysis it conforms to the structure of his previous forecasts. He used anagrams at times (and perhaps other "tricks" so one could not easily figure out exact dates etc.) - and again I'm sure a lot of what he was able to write down he himself probably did not fully understand. Like if you brought Napoleon here to 2011 for 10 minutes and then ask him to write down what he saw - let's assume he was in a room where the TV was on tuned to the news, there were a few magazines and a newspaper on the coffee table, and someone was chatting away on a cell phone. All this stuff is in English and he has to write his experience in his native French.

Back to the comet: we wait and see. What do YOU think? Another "Chicken Little"?

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We're all only human and we make mistakes... people love it when other people make real-life "bloopers" ---

Stephen Dinan / Washington Times:

The wrong John Wayne — Rep. Michele Bachmann kicked off her presidential campaign on Monday in Waterloo, Iowa, and in one interview surrounding the official event she promised to mimic the spirit of Waterloo's own John Wayne. — The only problem, as one eagle-eyed reader notes …

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Discussion: Hot Air, The Blotter, msnbc.com, The Last Tradition, Top of the Ticket,thefastertimes.com, CNN, Washington Monthly, The Note, The Powers That Be, The Atlantic Online, Under The Golden Dome, Guardian, Gawker, Salon, The TrogloPundit, Blogging Blue,Washington Wire, The Washington Independent, Crooks and Liars, Outside the Beltway, Hit & Run, The Daily Caller and Indecision Forever

RELATED:

Alex Seitz-Wald / ThinkProgress:

Bachmann cites wrong John Wayne, praises notorious serial killer — Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) has a thing for John Wayne. In an interview yesterday with Newsmax, she said she wants to live in “John Wayne's America.” And in the Iowa town of Waterloo today, where she announced …

Discussion: NewsMax.com, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Atlantic Online, Washington Monthly, The Mahablog and Towleroad News #gay

Alexander Burns / The Politico:
John Wayne's Waterloo connection

Discussion: TPMDC

Carl Cameron / Fox News:
Bachmann Misspeaks While Noting Her Hawkeye Roots

Discussion: CNN and Associated Press

Eric Kleefeld / TPMDC:
Bachmann Confuses John Wayne With John Wayne Gacy (VIDEO)

Discussion: Mediaite, News Desk and Weigel

Alexander Burns / The Politico:
Michele Bachmann picks wrong John Wayne

Discussion: Girl Friday, Fox Nation, No More Mister Nice Blog, Ben Smith's Blog and Daily Kos

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I thought that we were all done with ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner, roasted to a crisp by bloggers and the mainstream media. But now that the Rep is Rep-no-more, the attention has turned toward his wife, Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin.

The story reminds me of a junkyard dog who somehow, inexplicably scored a fresh bone from the butcher shop that had a little meat on it. The dog becomes reluctant to let the bone go, even after it is old and dry.

The move to hang Huma apparently began when someone translated this article:
همة عابدين «المرأة الغامضة» إلى جانب هيلاري كلينتون: http://t.co/O

From there, things went here: http://bit.ly/kBhGGk

And then, took a darker path, here: an interview with Robert Spencer, the go-to Islam expert for the right wing.

The bloggers are asking questions such as "How is it exactly that a Muslim woman who is connected to the Muslim Brotherhood is married to a Jewish man?" and "Is Anthony Weiner a closet Muslim?"

Other bloggers and columnists are taking a different approach to Huma, viewing Ms. Abedin as a candidate for Weiner's now vacant seat.

Should Huma Run?

By Molly Schoemann: The idea of Huma Abedin
running for her husband's newly vacant seat in

congress is pretty absurd to me,

mainly because ...

The Perpetual Post -

Hey, isn't that...?: Anthony Weiner and

Huma Abedin, grocery shopping
Washington Post (blog)

Huma Abedin joins the 'wives of wandering-eye politicans' club
Washington Post

YOUR thoughts? (there's a "comments" link below!)

Tags: Huma Abedin, Huma Abedin



Permission to reprint this blog post in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author (or authors) and Dave Lucas are properly cited. Permission to reprint any comments below is granted only for those comments written by Dave Lucas and staff.

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Large-scale marrying of African women can effectively solve China’s male-female sex-ratio imbalance problem! ~ ChinaSmack

Not too very long ago, I ran across a blog (I didn't bother bookmarking or digging it or saving the URL) in which the author was concerned about the growth of China, emerging as a world-player. The blogger expressed fear that the Chinese would eventually send troops to conquer North America, so the "reds" could alleviate their "shortage of women of breeding age." Well, I'm here to tell that blogger he has nothing to worry about.

The Chinese, resourceful people that they are, are IMPORTING ladies from Africa!

ChinaSmack has the details...

Tags: Chinese men with African brides, China partners with Africa


Permission to reprint this blog post in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author (or authors) and Dave Lucas are properly cited. Permission to reprint any comments below is granted only for those comments written by Dave Lucas and staff.

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Ed O.G. & Da Bulldogs - Be A Father To Your Child

www.youtube.com

Music video by Ed O.G. & Da Bulldogs

performing Be A Father To Your Child.

(C) 1991 The Island Def Jam Music Group

"Dance with my Father" and the origin of father's day via Michelle Malkin

Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden : The Poetry Foundation

www.poetryfoundation.org

Sundays too my father got up early / and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,

/ then with cracked hands that ached / from labor in the weekday weather made

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