Month: March 2012

Changes to the blog

As you can see, I have decided to forgo the whole “Blog in black” schtick and turn the lights back on around here. I am beginning to come out of my burn-out funk. I just felt like things were getting overly stupid and needed to take a bit of a break. Hopefully, on Monday, I will be able to get back to the writing in full steam here. besides that, the site is not making any money and I really need to make something here. As I am getting some complaints from “you know who…” so, I will be writing a bit more here.

What I will NOT do around here, is stuff like this and this here. I mean, how classless can you get? Threaten to quit, because people are not tossing money into your Tip Jar? That is so “white trash,” that it is not even funny. I have the donation stuff in my side bars and at the bottom of each post, if that is not good enough; then I just do not get any money. For the record, the only time I really honestly thought about quitting was when I was accused of being a Neo-Nazi by some people, who have now been vetted by Debbie Schlussel as being Jew-Haters themselves. The other time was when my former host started acting like complete a-holes. I did end political byline, my former blog, because the Iraq War was basically over and at the time; I did not have another host lined up and at the time, I did not have the cash to get hosting.

More than all of the above, is just the fact that I do not write for the money. I write, when I am in the mood to write; because I happen to love my Country and I am not pleased with what both of these political parties have done to us. I have been doing that since 2006 and I do not regret a minute of that time. When things were really bad, with the first blog; I just kept writing. For a good 2 or 3 years; I did not make squat, especially when I was on blogger. Back in 2006, when I was rooting for the “other team” on my blog “The Populist,”  I did not make hardly any money. I tend to believe that was because the “professional left” did not like me, because I was not on board with the “Gay rights” crowd or the “Baby killing” crowd. I did make a little bit with “Political Byline,” during the Tea Party era. I rode the wave, and then when the GOP started doing business as usual again., things fell off. But, I am here and I am still writing; because this is what I do. I would like it much more, if I got some sort of full time writing job or at least a contributor gig somewhere. But I am just grateful for the privilege to be doing this at all.

Life is what you make of it; you can make life to be the horrible thing or when life hands you lemons, you can make lemonade. It is all in how you view things. As for me, I am making Lemonade and selling for 5 cents a glass. Step right up, get your lemonade here!  😀

 

Jeeez, no wonder Keith Olbermann left Current TV!

Looks like ol’ Keith made a bit of a mistake:

Keith Olbermann wanted out of Current TV well before he was fired yesterday because he felt the network was mismanaged and wouldn’t be around much longer … sources close to Keith tell TMZ.

As TMZ first reported, Keith is planning on filing a lawsuit against the network for his unceremonious dumping yesterday. He released a statement that said in part, “It goes almost without saying that the claims against me implied in Current’s statement are untrue and will be proved so in the legal actions I will be filing against them presently.”

According to our sources, Keith felt the network was a “ragtag operation” that was disorganized and felt thrown together. We’re told Keith felt the entire place was mismanaged … right down to the office supplies.

On one such occasion, we’re told the staff couldn’t use one of the printers because it was out of toner and they had none in supply. In a staff-wide email obtained by TMZ, a production administrator told the staff, “We expect to have replacement toner in tomorrow and will have a better stock on hand for the future. Sorry for the inconvenience.”

via Keith Olbermann — Planning His Exit Long Before He Was Fired | TMZ.com.

Then there is this:

To Keith’s point … they couldn’t even fire him without a giant mistake. In Current TV’s press release to announce that Eliot Spitzer would be taking over for Olbermann, they provided a Twitter account for Spitzer that is not his. The real Eliot Spitzer doesn’t have a Twitter account.

Heh. D’oh! 😀  Sounds like management problems to me and maybe even money problems. I thought that Keith was brought on as a partner and had a stake in the Company? I guess not. 😯

 

Because they are always so misunderstood!

I saw this and I just had to laugh.

Paris (CNN) — The leader of an Islamist group whose members were targeted in a series of French police raids denies any contact with Toulouse gunman Mohammed Merah, lawyer Philippe Missamou said Saturday.

The leader of the Forsane Alizza group, Mohammed Achamlane, was among 19 people arrested Friday over alleged connections to radical Islam, Missamou said.

The raids came a week after Merah, who killed seven people in a series of attacks, was shot dead after a long siege in the southwestern city of Toulouse.

French media reports suggested Merah had developed connections with the pro-al Qaeda group, which has a cluster of followers in Toulouse.

Forsane Alizza was outlawed in January for encouraging French citizens to travel to Afghanistan to fight jihad.

Missamou told CNN he had last spoken to Achamlane on Monday.

At this time, Achamlane told him that the group had not had contact with Merah, and that it had nothing to do with Merah’s killings in Toulouse, Missamou said.

Achamlane said the group did not support armed combat, the attorney said.

via Lawyer: French Islamist group had no link with Toulouse gunman – CNN.com.

Yeah, sure they don’t. They are just a bunch of misunderstood Muslims. Yeah, right, sure they are.

Good on France for recognizing the threat of Al-Qaeda terrorism. The war on terrorism is more than Afghanistan and Iran, it is anywhere that these thugs are allowed to fester. Freedom loving Nations should always be on guard for these thugs and be ready, at all times, to put them out of their own misery.

Keith Olbermann and Current TV part ways

Nothing like a bit of interesting news to bring a burned-out blogger out of his funk.

Keith Olbermann and Current TV have parted ways.

NYT’s Media Decoder has the story:

For nearly a year now, Al Gore and Joel Hyatt have been building their liberal cable news channel, Current TV, with the mercurial television anchorman Keith Olbermann at its center.

This week, the center collapsed.

Current said on Friday afternoon that it had fired Mr. Olbermann — one of the nation’s most prominent progressive speakers — just a year into his five-year, $50 million contract. It was the culmination of months of murky disputes between Mr. Olbermann and the channel that he was supposed to save from the throes of ratings oblivion.

Yet as inevitable as it might have seemed to some in the television business who know the long history of antipathy between Mr. Olbermann and his employers, it was nonetheless shocking to his fans, to his detractors and to staff members at Current when the announcement was made.

Current TV’s Statement:

To the Viewers of Current:

We created Current to give voice to those Americans who refuse to rely on corporate-controlled media and are seeking an authentic progressive outlet.  We are more committed to those goals today than ever before.

Current was also founded on the values of respect, openness, collegiality, and loyalty to our viewers. Unfortunately these values are no longer reflected in our relationship with Keith Olbermann and we have ended it.  

We are moving ahead by honoring Current’s values. Current has a fundamental obligation to deliver news programming with a progressive perspective that our viewers can count on being available daily — especially now, during the presidential election campaign. Current exists because our audience desires the kind of perspective, insight and commentary that is not easily found elsewhere in this time of big media consolidation.

Keith Olbermann’s Statement:

My full statement:

I’d like to apologize to my viewers and my staff for the failure of Current TV.

Editorially, Countdown had never been better. But for more than a year I have been imploring Al Gore and Joel Hyatt to resolve our issues internally, while I’ve been not publicizing my complaints, and keeping the show alive for the sake of its loyal viewers and even more loyal staff. Nevertheless, Mr. Gore and Mr. Hyatt, instead of abiding by their promises and obligations and investing in a quality news program, finally thought it was more economical to try to get out of my contract.

It goes almost without saying that the claims against me implied in Current’s statement are untrue and will be proved so in the legal actions I will be filing against them presently. To understand Mr. Hyatt’s “values of respect, openness, collegiality and loyalty,” I encourage you to read of a previous occasion Mr. Hyatt found himself in court for having unjustly fired an employee. That employee’s name was Clarence B. Cain. http://nyti.ms/HueZsa

In due course, the truth of the ethics of Mr. Gore and Mr. Hyatt will come out. For now, it is important only to again acknowledge that joining them was a sincere and well-intentioned gesture on my part, but in retrospect a foolish one. That lack of judgment is mine and mine alone, and I apologize again for it.

I have a personal opinion as to why things did not work out. This is not snark, humor or whatnot; it is truly my feelings. I believe that Keith just was not happy with this setup. I believe that Keith was not a good a “Democrat” enough for these people. Keith always said on his show, that he did not vote. I believe he is a political liberal. But I do not believe him an establishment figure. This was proven during Keith’s time at MSNBC, when he would criticize Obama.

I was doing some reading on some of the progressive sites out there; and I do notice that not everyone is sad to see him go. This is because Keith went into the tank for Obama, and went after Hillary, this did not sit well with some of the liberal left. To think, the thanks he got for all of his bombast and over the top verbalization, for all that tank diving he did for Obama — was a suck job at a third-rate network. Obama must be proud. The loudest voice of criticism on the left of Obama is now silent.

I will give some unsolicited advice to Al Gore and his partner at Current TV; give Keith the money for his contract, settle the as quickly as you possibly can. Because if you two do not think that Keith will not dish on what he knows about what happened in 2008 and with the inner workings of the liberal media — you are crazy.  Furthermore, let me just say it; when it comes to lawsuits, discovery is a bitch. I would get this out of the headlines as quickly as I could. Because if Keith starts dishing, you think the left is in disarray now? You wait till that starts happening.

Either way, it would be a blog traffic goldmine.

Blogs covering: Gawker, tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com, The Daily Caller, The Moderate Voice, DownWithTyranny!, The Raw Story, CANNONFIRE, protein wisdom, Show Tracker, National Review, Hot Air, Business Insider, Outside the Beltway, Washington Post, Ed Driscoll, Weasel Zippers, New York Magazine, Conservatives4Palin, Althouse, Jammie Wearing Fools, Politico, TalkLeft, The Huffington Post, Hollywood Reporter, Business Insider, Mediaite, Conservative Hideout 2.0, NewsBusters.org, Stinque, TMZ.com,  TVbytheNumbers and Weasel Zippers, Liberal Values, Guardian, Gothamist and dallasmorningviewsblog …,

Mediagazer has more here  and  here,  Here

 

I do believe I have figured Tina Korbe out

I knew there was something a bit….um, special…about Tina Korbe. Well, now I know what it is!

She adores Dr. Pepper. You know, as in the soda? Just like my Mother, she likes that stuff too and yes, it shows. 😯

For the record, I happen to be of the opinion that Dr. Pepper is the worst tasting, rock gut, God-awful, stuff; since them bunch of weirdos decided that Vernor’s was something that the general public, namely me, would like to drink.

I have a theory as to how Dr. Pepper got it’s life; some guy working for that drug store in Waco, Texas, whose name had to be Louie or Tony, was walking across the shop with a bucket of whatever it is that gives that swill its god-awful taste. He was told to measure out a cup or so of it and he dumped the whole damned bucket in there! So, the owner walks over and grabs a cup and takes a drink and spits it out and commences to chewing Louie or Tony’s butt out. Finally, after chewing him out, the boss man calls over his man that works in the shipping and receiving area. His name is Bill, Bill is a bit slow and they offer some to him. He takes a drink and says, “Hey, that’s pretty good!” and that’s when they decided that someone would actually be that stupid to buy that awful tasting rot-gut and that is how America really ended up with Dr. Pepper.

Which is sort of how Vernor’s ended up on the free market too. The really funny thing is, I have heard that Vernor’s is good for people with a sick stomach. Well, of course! You ever smell that rot-gut tasting stuff? Phew. If you have stomach problems, you will not after you get a nose full of that stuff. That is because you will be in the backyard heaving your shoe soles up! They used to bottle that stuff right up the road here in southwest Detroit and yes, it stunk. I had the chance to tour that bottling plant once. I took two steps inside that building and got a whiff of that awful smell; and I made a rather abrupt bee-line for the exit!

Anyhow, as for Tina; She’s a good gal. Even if she does have some oddball tastes in soda pop. (Yes, I will resist the urge to make a crack about skirt lengths. Last time I did that, a civil war broke out in the blogosphere!)

As for me, I can tolerate Diet Pepsi, preferable cold. I happen to adore Mountain Dew, the throwback version being the best.

Rick Santorum commits the worst political gaffe ever

First of all, before I get started here and before anyone comes into the comments section yelling at me. I really do not have a dog in this fight at all. I am not voting Republican this time around either in the general election. This is because I am of the opinion that NONE of these candidates really fit the bill of what I consider a small Government Conservative. Romney is a flip-flopper, a serial liar, and basically said that the big three should be allowed to fail; which pissed me, my family and a good part of Detroit off. Which explains why nobody showed up at his little event at Ford field. Rick Santorum is an anti-libertarian and, as all pro-lifers are, a big Government Statist and a Theocrat.  Not to mention that Santorum and Gingrich are both Catholic, something of which I have some serious issues with; it is simply that I happen to know what the Roman Catholic Church did to my Baptist ancestors. I cannot and will not vote for someone who is Catholic.  As for Ron Paul, while I can appreciate his stance of economic issues; I just cannot and will not support someone, in the general election, who is not supportive of Israel.  Because of all this, I am voting libertarian in the general election. I am a principled voter, not a “go along to get along” voter.

Now that I have said all of that, let’s get to the gaffe already!

Here is the video via HotAir, in which AllahPundit almost caused a civil war!  😯

AllahPundit posted that last night with the following quote:

Faced with the reality that his chances have collapsed, the Sweater Vest begins to unravel…

Based on the comments, all 1,650 Comments of them; I have one thing to say to you Allahpundit — not to rip you off, but — Good Lord. 🙄 I thought I was a poop-stinky starter! I have nothing on AP man, nothing at all.  😀

Of course, this earned him a good smack down by Ed Morrissey, who is a Republican and a level headed Conservative. Ed offers this bit of advice to Santorum:

It seems that Senator Santorum has forgotten the purpose of the Republican primary.  It’s to choose the most successful candidate to beat Obama in the general election.  It isn’t to test a few candidates to see whether the goal of beating Obama is worth the bother.

And why do we need to beat Obama?  The economic policies of this administration have been an utter disaster.  The Senate won’t pass any budgets, not even the President’s, while he’s in the Oval Office.  Energy prices are going through the roof thanks to the massive regulatory hurdles his administration has created to production and refining, especially on federal lands.  An ObamaCare repeal will only happen if Obama is no longer President, assuming that the Supreme Court doesn’t throw the whole law out this summer.

I suggest you go read the rest of that; because I happen to be of the opinion that Ed is very much correct in his assessment.

Of course, Santorum issues a statement, of course, blaming Romney for the mess, which is quite stupid, because Romney did not make the gaffe — Santorum did. Idiots deluxe as always! 🙄

Here is the statement:

“I would never vote for Barack Obama over any Republican and to suggest otherwise is preposterous. This is just another attempt by the Romney Campaign to distort and distract the media and voters from the unshakeable fact that many of Romney’s policies mirror Barack Obama’s.  I was simply making the point that there is a huge enthusiasm gap around Mitt Romney and it’s easy to see why – Romney has sided with Obama on healthcare mandates, cap-and-trade, and the Wall Street bailouts.  Voters have to be excited enough to actually go vote, and my campaign’s movement to restore freedom is exciting this nation.  If this election is about Obama versus the Obama-Lite candidate, we have a tough time rallying this nation.  It’s time for bold vision, bold reforms and bold contrasts.  This election is about more than Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, or Rick Santorum – this campaign is about freedom and I will fight to restore your freedoms.”

Why can’t the man just say, “oops. I blew it. I am sorry, will not happen again.” and be done with it? This is why I could not be a politician. Either that or even better, “Yes, I said it and I am proud of it!” Why this walk-back crap? It isn’t like Santorum is going to be the nominee anyhow. So, why do this? I just do not get it.

Either way, should it be any surprise that Romney is doing well in the polls now? You think it is bad here? Wait till the later polls come out, when this all has had to time to get to the public. I am think Santorum will be backing out soon here. Now, I am not saying that Santorum should back out; I am simply saying he might have suck his foot in his….political campaign.

Bill Maher says stop apologizing, liberals call Maher a “Dirtbag”

I must say, I was rather shocked to see this.

Bill Maher writes a pretty decent Op-Ed in the NYT. Basically saying if you say offensive stuff, man up and stand behind it and don’t apologize.

This gets Maher branded a “Dirtbag” by this blogger here, who writes:

There’s a lot of stupid crap there, but I’m just going to make three brief points:

1. The problem with a lot of the garbage for which public figures end up having to apologize isn’t that it’s “offensive” (although it is). The problem is that it creates, entrenches, and maintains oppressions: It is the pervasive, ubiquitous, inescapable little things that create the foundation of a kyriarchal culture on which the big stuff is dependent for its survival. It’s the little things, the constant drumbeat of inequality and dehumanization, that inure us to increasingly horrible acts and attitudes toward non-privileged people.

2. Maher routinely mistakes for “offended” what is actually contempt, and reads calls for an apology as a game of gotcha instead of a request for meaningfully accountability. See previously.

3. This line, ugh, this line: “I don’t want to live in a country where no one says anything offensive.” My question to that is WHY. Why would he not want to live in a country where no one ever says anything offensive (marginalizing)? What’s the net positive of people saying marginalizing things?

Of course it comes down to the reason he doesn’t want to live in a country where no one says anything offensive is because HE WANTS TO SAY OFFENSIVE THINGS, and the only kind of country in which no one says offensive things that he can imagine is one in which IT’S NOT ALLOWED.

Whereas, when I imagine a country where no one says offensive things, it’s because it’s populated by people who give a fuck about not offending other people, and thus CHOOSE not to offend them, no censorship required.

Unlike Bill Maher, I expect more. Firstly of myself.

Believe it or not; I am actually glad to see a liberal blog taking this issue up. Because if we are going to have this sort of dialog on what is acceptable and what is not, then BOTH SIDES have to be fair and agree to a standard. Not just one side be held and the other not be held to any kind of a standard.

So, for once, I commend someone on the left.