Democratic ‘Revolt’ May Slow Obama Agenda…Probably Not

Obama-nomics May Be Starting To Scare His Fellow Democrats

Democratic Reps. Jim Matheson of Utah and Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona have joined a quiet revolt in the House that could slow some of President Obama’s fast-moving priorities.

"Hey guys, I've got tons more great ideas! You ain't seen nothing yet."

The two are among 49 Democrats from congressional districts that backed Republican Sen. John McCain ‘s 2008 presidential race and whose support for the Democratic majority’s progressive agenda is increasingly not assured.

A dozen of them were among 20 House Democrats who voted against the $410 billion discretionary fiscal 2009 spending package (HR 1105) on Feb. 25. Another group later forced House leaders to sideline a contentious bill (HR 1106) to allow bankruptcy judges to modify home loans.

Although only a handful of moderate and conservative Democrats abandoned their leaders during party-line votes on the economic stimulus law (PL 111-5), the group of vulnerable Democrats branded the omnibus spending bill as a budget buster and questioned whether the mortgage bill would raise interest rates on average home-owners and cause some struggling homeowners to rush to bankruptcy.

The defections could cause heartburn for Democratic leaders charged with ushering through Obama’s three biggest priorities: a health care overhaul, a cap-and-trade system to curb carbon emissions and his fiscal 2010 budget blueprint. The president might also have trouble winning their votes for an anticipated second financial bailout package.

“My job is not to be a rubber stamp for the president or Democratic leadership, but to be a voice for the people that elected me,” Giffords said. “I voted for the stimulus, but found I could not vote for the omnibus.” She faces a tough 2010 campaign in a state that will be dominated by McCain’s expected re-election to his Senate seat.

B.S. Report–These are Democrats so I wouldn’t bet that they will stick to their principles.  It’s possible only if they sense a growing uneasiness towards Obama-nomics from their constituents.  These are political animals, so their first thought will always be towards self-preservation.

Earliest Domesticated Horses Dated 5,500 Years Ago

WASHINGTON – People and horses have trekked together through at least 5,500 years of history, according to an international team of researchers reporting in Friday’s edition of the journal Science.

New evidence, corralled in Kazakhstan, indicates the Botai culture used horses as beasts of burden — and as a source of meat and milk — about 1,000 years earlier than had been widely believed, according to the team led by Alan Outram of England’s University of Exeter.

“This is significant because it changes our understanding of how these early societies developed,” Outram said.

Domestication of the horse was an immense breakthrough — bringing advancements in communications, transportation, farming and warfare.

Mare being milked in Northern Kazakhstan...I was "milked" by a few mares at Santa Anita just last week.

The research also shows the development of animal domestication and a fully pastoral economy may well be independent of famous centers of domestication, such as the Near East and China, Outram added.

Compared to dogs, domesticated as much as 15,000 years ago, and such food animals as sheep, goats and pigs, horses are relatively late arrivals in the human relationship.

“It is not so much the domestication of the horse that is important, but the invention of horseback riding,” commented anthropologist David W. Anthony of Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y. “When people began to ride, it revolutionized human transport.”  (Read more.)

B.S. Report–Humans and horses have trekked together for 5,500 years but I’m really mostly interested in the recent past.  Here is a really excellent (and exciting) example of a human trekking with his horse:  The 2001 Breeders’ Cup Classic Starring the Cal-Bred TizNow, the only 2-time champion.  Give it a look!

Chris Brown Charged With 2 Felonies For Beating Up Rihanna

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Chris Brown has been charged with two felonies stemming from what a police detective describes as a brutal argument between the singer and his girlfriend, Rihanna, provoked by her discovery of a text message from another woman.Brown is expected to be arraigned Thursday afternoon on charges of assault likely to cause great bodily injury and making criminal threats. The 19-year-old R&B; singer remains free on $50,000 bail.

Happy Thug...Chris Brown, before being charged with felonies.

The felony complaint handed down in court Thursday morning identifies Brown’s alleged victim only as “Robyn F.” Rihanna’s real name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty.

If convicted, the possible sentence ranges anywhere from probation to four years and eight months in state prison, said district attorney’s spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons.

According to a detective’s affidavit, Brown and Rihanna got into a fight early Feb. 8 after the “Umbrella” singer checked her boyfriend’s cell phone and found a text message from another woman.

Brown pulled his car over and tried to push Rihanna out, but she was still wearing her seatbelt, Los Angeles police Detective De Shon Andrews wrote. He said Brown pushed Rihanna’s head against the window, punched her with his right hand, and then continued driving while hitting her, the affidavit states. He also bit his girlfriend on the ear, the affidavit states.

The affidavit was filed as part of a search warrant request for the phone records of Brown, Rihanna and her assistant.

Brown allegedly threatened to kill Rihanna after she pretended to leave a phone message with her assistant, telling her to have the police waiting at her house.

Pretty Rihanna, before Chris Brown's fist met her face.

Andrews described Brown’s blows as causing Rihanna’s mouth to fill with blood. He also writes that Brown tried to choke Rihanna after she took the keys to his car away. Andrews wrote that Rihanna nearly lost consciousness but also tried to fight back while in the car, at one point trying to gouge at Brown’s eyes.

Brown was arrested hours later and booked him on suspicion of making criminal threats. Police said at the time a woman identified Brown as her attacker during an early morning dispute in an upscale Los Angeles neighborhood.

A phone message left for Brown’s attorney, Mark Geragos, was not immediately returned Thursday. Brown’s publicist Tony Knight said any statement would likely come from Geragos after today’s hearing.

Rihanna’s spokesperson had no comment on the charges filed against Brown.

Brown issued a statement a week after the incident saying that he was “sorry and saddened” about the incident. Rihanna also later issued a statement, saying she wouldn’t comment on the alleged beating at the request of authorities. She thanked fans for their support.  (Read more.)

B.S. Report–He beat the heck out of her…and bit her too.  Aside from getting her shots, she better head for the hills and not get back together with this crazy psychopath.  He tried to throw her out of a moving car?  This guy’s got everything that life has to offer…except class.

I’d really like to see this punk step inside here:

Now that I would pay $59.95 to see...

Congress Enthralled by Brad Pitt…What a bunch of empty nothings…

Politicians Fawn All Over Brad Pitt

WASHINGTON (AP) – First of all, no, Brad Pitt is not short. Yes, he’s handsome enough to stand out in any crowd. And, sorry, Angie wasn’t with him.

An item? Pelosi looks like her heart is all a-flutter...

From the moment he stepped into the Capitol on Thursday, sunglassed and goateed, Pitt’s star power transformed congressional business-as-usual in a way any lawmaker or new president might envy.

“Nice face. Waaaay too skinny,” one Senate source e-mailed on condition of anonymity after catching sight of the actor between meetings with lawmakers about helping rebuild New Orleans.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was not immune to his charms. Praising Pitt for his work to rebuild New Orleans’ hurricane-ravaged 9th Ward, she even allowed that meeting him affords her “bragging rights to my children and my grandchildren – a real treat for me as well.”

B.S.–Pelosi says it was a real treat to meet him…why is meeting an empty Hollywood puppet-head a real “treat?”  Or perhaps she means that just meeting a fellow puppet-head is a treat.

And during a closed meeting earlier, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid confided to Pitt that he was envious that his lieutenan Majority Whip Dick Durbin, got to meet soccer star Mia Hamm a day earlier, according to one person who was present and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Well, Pitt replied, he’ll bring along co-parent Angelina Jolie next time to help Reid make Durbin jealous, this person said.

Later, a Durbin aide sniffed: “Durbin’s already met Angelina Jolie.”  (Read more.)

B.S.–This shows how low our political class has descended…they are drooling because they get to meet a “hot” actor…I guess it’s because politicians and actors have a lot in common–they both have tons of money, power and clout even though they have no tangible achievements. They are just winners of life’s lottery.  But whatever keeps them from conducting business is a good thing.

Gandhi Items Sells For $1.8 Million At Auction

Indian Government Outraged At Gandhi Auction

NEW YORK (AP) — Mohandas Gandhi’s eyeglasses and other items sold for $1.8 million Thursday at an auction that drew outrage from the Indian government, a last-minute reversal from the seller and a frenzy of bidding won by an Indian conglomerate that said the pacifist leader’s possessions will be coming home.

B.S. Everyone hates bidding for their own stuff.  I know Paul McCartney was pissed at Michael Jackson when he bought the Beatle catalog…McCartney said he wrote the songs for free and he wasn’t going to spend $500 million to buy them back.

The lot included Gandhi’s wire-rim eyeglasses, worn leather sandals, a pocket watch, a plate and the brass bowl from which he ate his final meal.

B.S. Report–That’s sounds like a lot of money for “used” goods.  They don’t, by chance, have his “final meal,” do they?

The Indian government had protested the sale, saying the items should be returned to the nation and not sold to the highest bidder. The seller and the government could not work out a deal, and the auction went forward as planned.

But the self-identified owner, California art collector James Otis, told reporters outside the Antiquorum Auctioneers that he no longer wanted to sell the items. Meanwhile, U.S. Justice Department officials served an Indian court injunction on the auction house, blocking it from releasing the items.

Auctioneer Julien Schaerer announced as the sale began that the Gandhi items would be held for two weeks “pending resolution of third party claims.”

Toni Bedi, an executive of the Indian company UB Group, had the winning bid after a furious four minutes in which the offers raced from $10,000 to $1.8 million. Bids came from the floor and by phone and Internet from overseas; none of the other bidders were identified.

B.S. Report–Do the items have a “certificate of authenticity.”  How do we know those were really Gandhi’s sandals and not just some other poor person’s?  Or the eyeglasses?  They could throw any old items they want in their Gandhi museum and just say they were the Mahatma’s.

Bedi said he was acting on instructions of Dr. Vijay Mallya, CEO of UB Group, whose firms in India include breweries, airlines, chemical, pharmaceutical and fertilizer firms and information and technology companies. He said that the company wants to donate the items to the Indian government, and plans to return them for public display in New Delhi.  (Read more.)

B.S. Report–Put me down for a $10 bid on his robe. I think the stuff is really his…you can compare it against the following video:

Obama Doesn’t Know What He’s Talking About…Without His Teleprompter

Mini-Obama...the real brain behind Barack.

Obama’s Safety Net

President Barack Obama doesn’t go anywhere without his TelePrompter.

The textbook-sized panes of glass holding the president’s prepared remarks follow him wherever he speaks.

Resting on top of a tall, narrow pole, they flank his podium during speeches in the White House’s stately parlors. They stood next to him on the floor of a manufacturing plant in Indiana as he pitched his economic stimulus plan. They traveled to the Department of Transportation this week and were in the Capitol Rotunda last month when he paid tribute to Abraham Lincoln in six-minute prepared remarks.

Obama’s reliance on the teleprompter is unusual — not only because he is famous for his oratory, but because no other president has used one so consistently and at so many events, large and small.

After the teleprompter malfunctioned a few times last summer and Obama delivered some less-than-soaring speeches, reports surfaced that he was training to wean himself off of the device while on vacation in Hawaii. But no such luck.  (Read more.)

"I knew it, I knew it! He's nothing but a robot!"

B.S. Report–That explains a whole lot about Obama.  He’s a great speaker…but it’s all empty rhetoric.  He’s nothing but an ideologue…he doesn’t speak in anything but empty platitudes.

At the end of each day, they take him back to the White House and reload his memory tapes for the next day’s nonsense.  Then they just wind him up and send him on his way to do his damage.  He may not be a robot planted by the Chinese or the Russians but they couldn’t have come up with a more destructive device anyway.

Obama the Robot reminds me of this famous robot from 40 years ago:

There is one major difference between Obama the Robot and Hymie the Robot (from the Get Smart show) and that’s at least Hymie was working on our behalf!  Plus he was also programmed for neatness.

Insurance Workers Hit Lottery For $216 Million

I don't think I'll be coming in to work tomorrow...

10 Insurance Co-Workers Split Big Prize

WHITEHOUSE STATION, N.J. (AP) — Robert Space got into work at the Chubb Insurance company at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, realized the lottery ticket he was holding matched the winning numbers, and fired off a one-line e-mail to his nine co-workers who had pitched in to buy it.

“We won the big one,” it read.

The replies came back instantly: “Hahahaha” wrote one. “GREAT. Where do I pick up the cash?” joked another. Then they saw the ticket for themselves.

Space and his colleagues hit the second-largest single-ticket jackpot in New Jersey history, winning $216 million in the Mega Millions jackpot.

“I feel incredibly blessed. I can’t even absorb it,” Space said, surrounded by stunned colleagues and clutching the winning ticket during a news conference at their office in the central New Jersey town of Whitehouse Station.

Space, with $5 from each colleague, said he bought 50 quick-pick tickets Monday afternoon at the Singin Oil gas station in the shore town of Toms River.

Space stopped by the gas station again Wednesday morning to get a printout of the winning numbers to check the tickets.

“I jokingly asked him (the attendant) if anyone had won and if it was sold here, but he didn’t know,” Space said. So he stuffed the list in his pocket.

It wasn’t until an hour or so later that Space had time to review the numbers, scanning each row and growing increasingly shocked as first one, then two, then three – then six numbers matched. He called his wife to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating, then sent out the e-mail.

“It takes a lot of stress out of life,” Space said of the winnings. The 10 will split a $216 million annuity or a one-time payout of about $140 million.  (Read more.)

B.S. Reports–I’ve never bought a lottery ticket before so I’ve never wasted my time dreaming about winning the lottery…though I admit it would be really nice!

Man Posing As Armored Guard Makes Off With Church Deposit

Phony Guard Takes Church To The Cleaners

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Police in Lincoln, Neb., say a man posing as an armored car guard made off with more than $145,000 from a church.

"I'm here to pick up your money. Don''t worry, I have a badge, see?

"Here you go...now how 'bout them receipts?"

Police Officer Katie Flood said Wednesday that a man dressed as a guard walked into the financial office of the Berean Church on Tuesday and told an employee he was there to pick up the weekly deposit.

The employee said the man appeared to know what he was doing, so she gave him the deposit of more than $145,000 in cash and checks.

The real armored car and driver arrived about 15 minutes later and church employees realized they had been robbed.

Flood said no one saw what vehicle the fake guard used.

The nondenominational Berean Church has more than 7,000 members and 20 pastors.

B.S. Report–Wow, the weekly receipts for this Church is  $145,000?  The recession hasn’t hit the donation plate yet…don’t let Obama know how well you’re doing because he’ll take away your non-profit status.

I think everyone in the country should open up a Church to avoid paying Obama’s confiscatory tax rates.

Stock Market Hits 12-Year Low

US stocks plunged overnight on a spate of weak economic news and disappointment about the lack of a new Chinese stimulus plan.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 281.40 points, down 4.09 per cent to 6594.44 just after the closing bell, tumbling to a new 12-year low.

The Nasdaq composite shed 54.15 points, down 4per cent to 1299.59.

The broader S&P 500 skidded to its lowest level since late 1996, dropping 4.25 per cent after shedding 30.32 points to a preliminary close of 682.55.

The market was hit by a wave of negative news, led by fears about the survival of General Motors after the struggling automaker warned it could face liquidation due to the economic meltdown.

Poor Guy Didn’t Know He Married A Monster…Wife Poison’s Husband, Tried To Frame Daughter

Stacey Castor: Murdered 2 husbands and attempted to murder her daughter.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — An upstate New York woman has been sentenced to at least 50 years in prison for poisoning her husband with antifreeze and trying to kill her daughter and frame her as the killer.

A judge on Thursday sentenced 41-year-old Stacey Castor to 25 years to life for the murder of David Castor in 2005 and another 25 years for the 2007 attempt on her daughter’s life.

David Castor Sr.--Poisoned by wife with a chemical found in antifreeze.

Prosecutors say she tried to kill her daughter, Ashley Wallace, with an overdose of drugs and vodka. They say she wrote a bogus suicide note to make it look like the 20-year-old had killed David Castor.

Mother attempted to poison Ashley and frame her for the murder of her husband.

Prosecutors also have implicated Stacey Castor in the death of her first husband, Michael Wallace, in 2000. His body was exhumed in 2007 and investigators concluded he was killed by a chemical found in antifreeze. That’s the same substance that killed David Castor.

B.S. Report–Her plan worked the first time she murdered her husband so she thought she’d try it again.  I guess she doesn’t believe in divorce.

“Honey, what’s the anti-freez doing on the kitchen table?”

–“Don’t worry about it dear…Just drink your coffee.”