A while back I was playing with the Macro setting on the camera. Most came out blurry, but a couple surprised me. This is the finished photo, originally I wanted to have the flower and the butterfly in color, but the flower is, was, and still giving me fits, so decided on just the butterfly:
Below is the original photo. It was pretty straight forward, I used the B&W tool, and then unmasked the butterfly.
You can find more out and join in with Monocromatic Monday at:
Whether we are Democrats, Republicans, Greens, Independents, Liberal, Conservative, Middle of the Road, we should be furious at the people who got us into this mess, and the same ones are writing the rules for the Bail Out.
More of these congressional hearings from the past dealing with Fannie/Freddie are being researched and found. I only wish the little barbs were left out of the video text, this is too important for our country, we can easily make our own minds up as we see and hear.
Watching this video I cannot but help think of the scene from the movie NETWORK, we need to go to our windows, write our congressmen and women and tell them in no uncertain terms we do not care what party they belong to, We are Mad as Hell and are Not Going to Take it any longer.
Several Months back, our bay was graced with three Tall Ships on one weekend. The replica of the HMS Bounty was one of them. This is a photo of the Bounty's Figurehead. I used the clone tool to cover a motor launch and the shoreline in the background, to give it an on the open ocean look. Then used the B&W tool and played with the shading and highlights.
I always wondered why Figureheads, if they were women or mermaids always seem to have such healthy bosums, little did I realize it had to do with luck. I always thought it was to entertain the sailors after several months at sea. And she has a riding crop, who says those Victorians weren't kinky.
And look Heather, she is showing off her shoes!!!!!
Camera is a Kodak EasyShare Z612
This sideboard explains this particular Figurehead, and why the Figureheads were so well endowed.
Do you think Captain Bligh would have had better luck with his crew, if Miss Berthia had less clothes on??
PLEASE NOTE: If you enjoy the Tall Ships, please visit Amalie2's site, her town recently had a gathering of more Tall Ships than I have ever heard of, and she has some marvelous pictures of the event. The last photo in her Tall Ship page is a slide show. Well worth seeing:
The theme of the week will be posted on FRIDAY. Cutoff for posting the link to your entry is midnight on SUNDAY.
Picture Perfect is about encouraging us to take our cameras out and about with us and have f u n !
Please remember to post a link to your blog entry in your comments and don't forget to make the entry for public viewing. If it is not public, mention it in your comments, so that those not on your friends list are forewarned. This page is open to everyone!
This is just the tip of the iceburg, more will come out, the FBI is now investigating the loan mess. More names, more faces to come. Oh and Congressman Frank has kept his chairmanship of the House FinancialServices Committee, which just happens to oversee Fannie and Freddie. Is it any wonder Congress has a lower positive rating than President Bush. Congress has around a 16% average approval rating, President Bush has around a 30% average approval rating. A long article, worth seeing how congress works. Time for another Boston Tea Party.
Taxpayers are now on the hook for as much as $200 billion (now estimated at $700 Billion) to rescue Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and if you want to know why, look no further than the rapid response to this bailout from House baron Barney Frank. Asked about Treasury's modest bailout condition that the companies reduce the size of their high-risk mortgage-backed securities (MBS) portfolios starting in 2010, Mr. Frank was quoted on Monday as saying, "Good luck on that," and that it would never happen.
There you have the Fannie Mae problem in profile. Rep. Frank wants you to pick up the tab for its failures, while he still vows to block a reform that might prevent the same disaster from happening again.
At least the Massachusetts Democrat is consistent. His record is close to perfect as a stalwart opponent of reforming the two companies, going back more than a decade. The first concerted push to rein in Fan and Fred in Congress came as far back as 1992, and Mr. Frank was right there, standing athwart. But things really picked up this decade, and Barney was there at every turn. Let's roll the audiotape:
In 2000, then-Rep. Richard Baker (R-LA) proposed a bill to reform Fannie and Freddie's oversight. Rep. Frank dismissed the idea, saying concerns about the two were "overblown" and that there was "no federal liability there whatsoever."
Two years later, Rep. Frank was at it again. "I do not regard Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as problems," he said in response to another reform push. And then: "I regard them as great assets." Great or not, we'll give Rep. Frank this: Their assets are now Uncle Sam's assets, even if those come along with $5.4 trillion in debt and other liabilities.
Again in June 2003, the favorite of the Beltway press corps assured the public that "there is no federal guarantee" of Fan and Fred obligations.
A month later, Freddie Mac's multibillion-dollar accounting scandal broke into the open. But Mr. Frank was sanguine. "I do not think we are facing any kind of a crisis," he said at the time.
Three months later he repeated the claim that Fannie and Freddie posed no "threat to the Treasury." Even suggesting that heresy, he added, could become "a self-fulfilling prophecy."
In April 2004, Fannie announced a multibillion-dollar financial "misstatement" of its own. (this is when Mr. Franklin Raines had to resign but during his 5 years at Fannie he took home over $90 million including yearly bonuses, and although resigning aka "early retirement" over the "misstatement" above, he took his 19 million severance package with him) Rep. Frank was back for the defense. Fannie and Freddie posed no risk to taxpayers, he said, adding that "I think Wall Street will get over it" if the two collapsed. Yes, they're certainly "over it" on the Street now that Uncle Sam is guaranteeing their Fannie paper, and even Fannie's subordinated debt.
By early 2007, Rep. Frank was in charge of the House Financial Services Committee, arguing that he had long favored some kind of reform. "What blocked it [reform] last year," Mr. Frank said then, "was the insistence of some economic conservative fundamentalists in the Bush Administration who, to be honest, don't think there should be a Fannie Mae or a Freddie Mac." What really blocked it was Rep. Frank's insistence that any reform be watered down and not include any reduction in their MBS holdings.
In January of last year, Rep. Frank also noted one reason he liked Fannie and Freddie so much: They were subject to his political direction. Contrasting Fan and Fred with private-sector mortgage financers, he noted, "I can ask Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to show forbearance" in a housing crisis. That is to say, because Fannie and Freddie are political creatures, Rep. Frank believed they would do his bidding.
And this is exactly what Rep. Frank attempted to prove when the housing market started to go south. He encouraged the companies to guarantee more "affordable" mortgages, thus abetting their disastrous plunge into subprime and Alt-A loans. He also pushed for, and got, an increase in the conforming-loan limits to allow Fan and Fred to securitize and guarantee larger mortgages. And he pressured regulators to ease up on their capital requirements -- which now means taxpayers will have to make up that capital shortfall.
But the biggest payoff for Rep. Frank is the "affordable housing" trust fund he managed to push through as one political price for the recent Fannie reform bill. This fund siphons off a portion of Fannie and Freddie profits -- as much as $500 million a year each -- to a fund that politicians can then disburse to their favorite special interests.
Top Recipients of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Campaign Contributions, 1989-2008 1) Chris Dodd $165,400 2) Barack Obama $126,349
(some lists have Sen John Kerry slightly ahead of Sen. Obama)
To be fair, according to CNN:
Sen. John McCain has received $19,000 from the two companies in the past ten years.
This is also why Rep.. Frank won't tolerate cutting the companies' MBS portfolios. He knows those portfolios (bought with debt borrowed at taxpayer-subsidized rates) were a main source of Fannie's profits before the housing crash, and he figures that once this crisis passes they can do it again. And this time, his fund will get part of the loot.
Rep. Frank has had many accomplices from both parties in his protection of Fan and Fred. But he was and is among the most vociferous and powerful. In any other area of American life, this track record would get a man run out of town. In Washington, he's hailed as a sage whose history of willful error will be forgotten faster than taxpayers can write a check for $200 billion (now estimated at $700 Billion).
(The Following is from WorldNetDaily, Reader alert, the following contains obscene amounts of pay and bonuses)
In the aftermath of the U.S. government takeover, attention has focused on three Democrats with close ties to Obama who served as Fannie Mae executives: Franklin Raines, former Clinton administration budget director; James Johnson, former aide to Democratic Vice President Walter Mondale; and Jamie Gorelick, former Clinton administration deputy attorney general.
All three Obama-related executives earned millions in compensation from Fannie Mae.
Johnson earned $21 million in just his last year serving as Fannie Mae CEO from 1991 to 1998; and left with a consulting contract worth $600,000 a year.
Raines earned $90 million in his five years as Fannie Mae CEO, from 1999 to 2004;
and Gorelick earned an estimated $26 million serving as vice chair of Fannie Mae from 1998 to 2003, according to author David Frum, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
All three have been involved in mortgage-related financial scandals.
In 1998, according to the Washington Post Gorelick, as Fannie Mae vice chairman, received a bonus of $779,625, despite a scandal in which employees falsified signatures on accounting transactions to manipulate books to meet 1998 earning targets. The moves, in turn, triggered multi-million-dollar bonuses for top executives.
Gorelick was embroiled in another controversy over an alleged conflict of interest when a 1995 memo she authored as deputy attorney general surfaced while she was a member of the 9/11 commission.
The memo, which became known as the "Gorelick Wall," appeared to establish barriers that barred federal anti-terrorist criminal investigators from accessing various federal records and databases that may have assisted them in their criminal investigations.
In a story in the Associated Press, Raines and several other Fannie Mae top executives were ordered in a civil lawsuit to pay nearly $31.4 million for manipulating Fannie Mae earnings over a period of six years to trigger their massive bonuses.
Raines was also forced in the settlement to give up Fannie Mae stock options valued at $15.6 million.
Last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission alleged Freddie Mac had engaged in accounting fraud from 2000 to 2002, imposing a $50 million fine on the company and on four executives fines for amounts ranging from $65,000 to $250,000.
Raines currently advises Obama on housing policy.
Johnson was appointed to head Obama's vice presidential selection committee, until a controversy concerning an alleged $7 millions in questionable real estate loans he received on favorable terms from failed sub-prime mortgage lender Countrywide Financial (Sen. Chis Dodd also received a very low interest loan from Countrywide) surfaced and forced him to step down.
And here I thought Chocolate was addicting by itself!! The Last paragraph is worth reading through to!! And now, I shall take leave of you, I need to get to the store, as I need a Chocolate fix!!!
BERLIN (Reuters) - Police closed down a Berlin sweet shop after discovering the owner was selling chocolates and lollipops laced with hallucinogenic mushrooms and marijuana. (Can we all say Brownies?)
The 23-year old owner of the shop in the trendy east Berlin district of Prenzlauer Berg, an area known for its vibrant night life, was taken into custody on suspicion of drug-dealing.
"In the shop we found 120 pieces of magic mushroom chocolate and countless cannabis lollipops," said police, who confiscated around 70 sachets containing various drugs, about 20 marijuana joints, a range of pills and some jars of drug-laced honey.
Police said one customer, who appeared intoxicated, was arrested after trying to buy a bag of hallucinogenic mushrooms from an officer in the shop.
(Writing by Josie Cox, editing by Peter Millership)
Who would have ever believed that an economist would be easy to understand. Professor Williams reminds us of that which Congress would rather we remain ignorant of. And we should keep in mind when reading and listening to the news: CONGRESS CONTROLS THE PURSE STRINGS!!
Here's what the U.S. Constitution says: "All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills." How many times have we heard politicians, pundits and guardians of our news media say that President Bush cut taxes, or Obama is going to raise taxes? The fact of the matter is that presidents have no power to raise or lower taxes. They can propose tax measures or veto them but it is Congress that has the ultimate power to raise or lower taxes since they can, with a two-thirds vote, override a presidential veto. The same principle applies to spending. Presidents cannot be held responsible for budget deficits or surpluses. A president cannot spend a dime that Congress does not first appropriate. Given these plain facts, are politicians, pundits and media people -- who persist in talking about a president cutting or raising taxes, or creating a budget deficit -- ignorant, stupid or deceptive?
Did President Clinton create more jobs, or did President Bush? Let's look at it. In 1996, I landed a job at Grove City College team teaching a course with one of its faculty members, Professor Dirk Mateer. I would like someone to tell me how President Clinton created that job for me. Did he call the college president and say, "Hire Williams"? Did he give Grove City College, a private college, resources to hire me? He surely didn't call me up and say, "Williams, there's a job waiting for you at Grove City College." So what precisely do people mean when they say this president or that president created jobs? You might argue, "You're right when it comes to a president creating jobs, but Congress can create jobs through appropriating money for infrastructure such as highways and bridges."
That's true in one sense and false in another. You can see this by asking, "Where does Congress get the money to create the jobs?" They won't get it from the Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus; they must get the money from taxpayers. That means if Congress collects $100 from a taxpayer for highway construction, he cannot use that $100 for some other expenditure that would have created a job. If Congress borrows the money for highway construction, it causes interest rates to be higher and therefore less job-creating investment. The bottom line is that Congress can only shift employment or unemployment but cannot create net new jobs.
Many politicians and pundits claim that the credit crunch and high mortgage foreclosure rate is an example of market failure and want government to step in to bail out creditors and borrowers at the expense of taxpayers who prudently managed their affairs. These financial problems are not market failures but government failure. The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 is a federal law that intimidated lenders into offering credit throughout their entire market and discouraged them from restricting their credit services to low-risk markets, a practice sometimes called redlining. The Federal Reserve Bank, keeping interest rates artificially low, gave buyers and builders incentive to buy and build, thereby producing the housing bubble. Lenders were willing to make creative interest-only loans, often high-risk "no doc" and "liar loans," in order to allow people to buy more housing than they could afford. Of course, with the expectation that housing prices will continue to rise, it was no problem for lenders and borrowers but housing prices began to fall, leaving some people with negative home equity and banks in trouble.
The credit crunch and foreclosure problems are failures of government policy. In fact, what we see now is a market correction to foolhardy government policy. Congress' move to bailout lenders and borrowers who made poor decisions will simply create incentives for people to make unwise decisions in the future.
English philosopher Herbert Spencer said, "The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools."
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Presidents come and go, some in congress seem to remain forever.--JohnOh
I really like Junior Parker's version of this song, and speaking of taxes, next blog should be about that Congressman who always looks out for us: Representative Charles Rangel (D-NY), Chairman on the House Ways and Means Committee. He certainly has the Ways and Means to bend over the American Taxpayer. . .and he knows how too. To Be Continued.
This is great news for all The Hitchhikers out there. At least I hope it is!!
PROBABILITY DRIVE READY TO ENGAGE!!!!
(Reporting by Peter Griffiths; editing by Steve Addison)
LONDON (Reuters) - Children's author Eoin Colfer is to write a sixth novel in the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series, seven years after the death of its creator Douglas Adams, Penguin (not this one) said Wednesday.
The Irish writer, best known for his Artemis Fowl fairy stories, has the blessing of Adams' widow, Jane Belson, to continue the bestselling science fiction saga.
Called "And Another Thing...," the new novel will be published in October 2009. Colfer said he was a big fan of the original books, which started as a BBC radio serial.
"For years I have been finishing this incredible story in my head and now I have the opportunity to do it in the real world," he said in a statement. "It is a gift from the Gods. So, thank you Thor and Odin."
The satirical books tell the story of a hapless Englishman called Arthur Dent who travels the universe after the Earth is demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass.
The saga centers on the search for the answer to "life, the universe and everything," which after a long wait turns out to be 42. Penguin (Not this one!!) Managing Director Helen Fraser said she hoped Colfer would attract new readers to the books.
Sarah Palin acted in HITCHHIKER"S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY??!!??
Adams died from a heart attack in California in 2001 at the age of 49. He had hoped to finish the series with a sixth novel.
"Five seems to be a wrong kind of number; six is a better kind of number," he once said.
Is this a news story that it has yet to make it here to the US of A? If this is, as written, it should be all over our Headlines and leading the News. And , before all the "thoughful' comments come in, please read past the Headline, this article gives both sides. The French reporter does mention a NY Post article, so will search that out for the reader. I have yet to read this in a US paper or hear it on a US news broadcast myself.
(UPDATE) A reader gives a link to a NY Post article on this:
LONG VIEW: Barack Obama tours Iraq with Gen. David Petraeus in July, when he sought to stall any agreement for US troop withdrawal until President Bush left office.
PUEBLO, Colorado (AFP) — Barack Obama’s White House campaign angrily denied Monday a report that he had secretly urged the Iraqis to postpone a deal to withdraw US troops until after November’s election.
In the New York Post, conservative Iranian-born columnist Amir Taheri quoted Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari as saying the Democrat made the demand when he visited Baghdad in July, while publicly demanding an early withdrawal.
“He asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement until after the US elections and the formation of a new administration in Washington,” Zebari said in an interview, according to Taheri.
“However, as an Iraqi, I prefer to have a security agreement that regulates the activities of foreign troops, rather than keeping the matter open,” Zebari reportedly said.
A US soldier watches as an Iraqi policeman staffs a checkpoint in the western districts of the city of Tikrit on September 12, 2008.
The Republican campaign of John McCain seized on the report to accuse Obama of double-speak on Iraq, calling it an “egregious act of political interference by a presidential candidate seeking political advantage overseas.”
But Obama’s national security spokeswoman Wendy Morigi said Taheri’s article bore “as much resemblance to the truth as a McCain campaign commercial.”
In fact, Obama had told the Iraqis that they should not rush through a “Strategic Framework Agreement” governing the future of US forces until after President George W. Bush leaves office, she said.
In the face of resistance from Bush, the Democrat has long said that any such agreement must be reviewed by the US Congress as it would tie a future administration’s hands on Iraq.
“Barack Obama has never urged a delay in negotiations, nor has he urged a delay in immediately beginning a responsible drawdown of our combat brigades,” Morigi said…
What is very telling here is that, unlike the usual practice, this press release has not been picked up by our watchdog media stateside.
This story is only being reported by the AFP and a few Middle Eastern outlets.
Why is that?
We suspect it is because Ms. Morigin’s statement exactly confirms that yes Obama did seek to delay the negotions with Iraq:
'Obama had told the Iraqis that they should not rush through a “Strategic Framework Agreement” governing the future of US forces until after President George W. Bush leaves office', she said.
UPDATE: 9-9-08 NEWSWEEK also has posted an artilce digging out the truth and uncovering the false/misleading statements about Gov. Palin. "We've been flooded for the past few days with queries about dubious Internet postings and mass e-mail messages making claims about McCain's running mate, Gov. Palin. We find that many are completely false, or misleading."-The Authors of the Newsweek article.
On more than one Multiply blog page I have noticed posted, a "letter" from a person who lives in Wasilla' AK and knows Gov. Palin. Needless to say it is not a positive letter and is filled with un referenced "facts".
I found this page, and I have no problem saying from the beginning that it is from a Pro Palin source, either does the blog owner, but and this is a very important but, he has linked all his answers to some of this very vicious rumors in this list, to news paper articles, YouTube videos of speeches and news reports, and also some audio interviews and reports.
For Cavey, as he loves long legged Americana. . .
Take time to please check out the references and the corrections to so much of the distortion that is out there, from both sides.
There is also a link to the original web/blog page that I notice is missing from so many other postings of "rumors" about Gov. Palin. And please do not forget, when reading the negatives, that Gov. Palin has an 85 to 90% approval rating throughout Alaska, which means for each negative letter is answered by 8 to 9 positive letters. Which may go down as this campaign progresses, being that high, down may be the only direction available. . .
If you want to copy this list, please include a link back to me at least. It’s changing fairly rapidly still, plus, cripes, it has been a lot of work. The permalink is:
Updated as of 2008-09-07 0845: This list has grown quite long and I’m finding people referring to the rumors more and more often by number, so I’m going to add all new rumors at the end, so the numbering won’t change any more. And see above.
Also, I’m scheduled right now to be on Fox News at 0935 Eastern time Monday morning with Bill Hemmer and Megan Kelly to talk about the list. Excuse me while I have a minor fanboy moment about Megyn Kelly.
Yes, as Governor of Alaska, she’s the Commander in Chief of the Alaska National Guard. And yes, her professional military subordinate is quite impressed with her in that role.
And yes, the New York Times says the job of Governor of Alaska is one of the harder, and more powerful, jobs in state government.
Yes, there are people in Alaska who think she’s too liberal.
Yes, she did push for and approve the Wasilla Sports Center. Yes, it did cost a lot of money. (People keep saying $20 million, that article says $14.5 million, but then they also added a $1.2 million dollar food service/kitchen piece. This year, after Palin was out of office as Mayor.) Yes, the city went into debt to do it (how did you buy your house, bunkie?) and raised the city sales tax from 2 percent to 2.5 percent to pay for it. Yes, the city is paying it off early. Yes, there is an ongoing dispute about title (following a struggle with the Nature Conservancy and another buyer. And yes, at the time it was built, Wasilla had a Federal judge’s decision that they had title to the land.
Yes, she did want authority to have wolves culled from the air, because they were taking too many moose and caribou. Which people hunt for food in the back country in Alaska. No, she isn’t shooting them herself. I mean, not that she couldn’t, but I’m sure she doesn’t have time. (Thanks to bluemerlin in the comments.)
No, the Downs baby (Trig) isn’t Bristol’s kid, and no, the kid wasn’t born with Downs because (a) Palin flew on an airplane (b) went home to have the baby after an amniotic leak (c) because he was the result of incest between Todd Palin and Bristol.
No, Track (the kid who is leaving for Iraq) didn’t join the NG because he was a drug addict. He may have joined the NG because he was tired of people saying his Mom was getting him into the good hockey leagues. (Yes, that one was original reporting. I’ve got sources in Wasilla.)
Yes, Trig’s name may be misspelled. Isn’t it usually “Tryg” as in “Trygve”? In any case, I doubt he’s named for the Secretary General of the UN (1948-1952), either. But at least that was before he was born, unlike the others.(Thanks to Chris, via his blog
Yes, it appears that she has a Big Dipper tattooed on her ankle. She lost a bet.
No, she’s never been in any porn as far as anyone can find (and God knows I get enough google hits on those very topics.) I would think the Big Dipper tattoo would be a giveaway.
No, no one seems to be able to even find swimsuit pictures of her from her beauty queen days; God knows I looked. The bikini pictures that are around are photoshopped, just like the Vogue cover I have up.
No, neither the (Canadian) National Post, nor Marc Armbinder at the Atlantic have troubled themselves to issue a correction. Yes, the New York Times did finally correct their story of September 1 — on September 5. And on page 14. This was after Elizabeth Bumiller was quoted by Howard Kurtz as saying she was “completely confident about the story.” Yes, that was after the New York Times’s source retracted the story. Yes, this should embarrass the Times, Bumiller, and Howard Kurtz. No, there have been no signs of embarrassment.
No, she was never a Pat Buchanan supporter; even when Buchanan claims she was, she was on the board of Steve Forbes’a campaign in Alaska. Yes, Palin was a Steve Forbes supporter in 2000.
No, she’s not anti-semitic. In fact, she has an Israeli flag in her office. (Contrary to popular belief, the usual Evangelical thinks Israel has a right to exist, granted by God.)
Yes, it does appear that Palin’s local pastor preached about an end time when God will judge everyone, even Wasilla, Alaska, and the United States. Duh. This is called the Book of Revelations, and while I don’t believe it personally, I don’t see it as a disqualifier for the hundred million or so Baptists, Methodists, Evangelicals, Episcopalians, Catholics, Assembly of God, Presbyterian, Lutherans (traditional and Missouri Synod), African Methodist, and so on Christians in the US.
Yes, I do sometimes wonder about the state of Andrew’s health.
No, she’s doesn’t believe that the Iraq War was directed by God. Yes, she did pray that proceeding with the war was God’s will: “they should pray ‘that our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God, that’s what we have to make sure we are praying for, that there is a plan, and that plan is God’s plan.’” (Ever hear the phrase “Not my will, but Thine, be done”?) Yes, this apparently freaks some people right out.
No, Buchanan doesn’t support her now; in fact he’s supporting Obama. (Buchanan did think her speech was amazing, but then so do 80 percent of the people who saw it.) Or maybe not. Buchanan sure doesn’t like McCain though.
Yes, she was apparently pregnant when she got married
No, so far there’s no confirmation she had an affair while she was married, and they’ve denied it pretty strongly. No, she wouldn’t be the first Christian woman who got a little on the side, if it were true.
No, she wasn’t named as a co-respondent in a divorce; there’s no evidence she had an affair with her husbands’ business partner. The partner tried to have his divorce records sealed because he was being harrassed by journalists who used them to get his phone number.
Yes, barring immaculate conception virgin birth (whatever), Bristol appears to have had sex with her fiancee. No, Bristol didn’t receive only “abstinence-only” sex ed.
Yes, I have it on reliable report that Sarah Levi’s mom has been heard screaming “Way to go Levi!” at her future son-in-law son. No, it doesn’t appear to have been when Bristol broke the news to her family.
Note: I originally understood this story to be about Sarah, not Levi’s mom, in the context of hockey games. As such, it’s shouldn’t be in a Sarah Palin Rumors story, but I like the story too much to delete it.
yes, her 17 year old daughter is pregnant; no, the baby’s father is not an eighth grader; no, having sex at 16 is not statutory rape in Alaska. And no, there’s no way that a 17 year old can be 5 months pregnant as a result of having sex before she was 16. Learn to count for God’s sakes.
yes, she did fire the public safety guy — but he said in the Anchorage paper that, for the record, she never, and no one else in her administration ever, tried to make him fire her ex-brother-in-law
and yes, the state trooper (her sister’s ex-husband) she was worried about did: tase her 10 year old nephew; drive his state patrol car while drinking or drunk; did threaten to “bring her down”; and did threaten to murder her father and sister if they dared to get an attorney to help with the divorce.
yes, the state trooper was suspended when he was put under a court protective order
no, the trooper wasn’t fired
yes, she did fire the Wasilla Chief of Police as Mayor; yes, it was because he was lying to the City Council.
yes, she did try, clearly unsuccessfully, to get Bristol married off to her fiancee before the story came out
yes, she did ask the librarian if some books could be withdrawn because of being offensive; no, they couldn’t; yes, it was “rhetorical”, at least as was reported contemporaneously in 1996[1] ; yes she did threaten to fire the librarian a month later; no, that wasn’t over the books thing but instead over administrative issues; no, the librarian wasn’t fired either; yes, the librarian was a big supporter of one of her political opponents; yes, the librarian was also the girlfriend of the Chief of police mentioned above; no, this is not the first time in the history of civilization that someone has been threatened with being fired over a political dispute
No the list of books she wanted to ban that’s being passed around isn’t real; among other things, it includes a number of books published after her time in office there.
No, that hasn’t actually deterred people from claiming it really is true even if the list isn’t correct. For example:
“This list might not in fact reflect the books Sarah Palin wanted banned. As more than one person in Comments has pointed out, some of them were not published when Palin was in office. It is my hope that the mainstream media will not let this story drop and that at some point an actual list will surface. The very thought of having someone who once advocated book-banning possibly occupying one of the highest offices of our land fills me with profound dread. It should fill you with dread too.”
No, I don’t understand why a fake list is supposed to fill me with dread, either.
no, it wasn’t won’t be [bad tense, hasn't happened yet] a shotgun wedding; Bristol and Levi been engaged for a good while according to Levi’s mother. It was either an accident or just an unconventional order.
No, she’s not anti-Mormon. No, not all AoG churches are anti-Mormon. (AoG is even more hard-core about allowing each pastor and congregation to make their own decisions than the Baptists are.) (Thanks to AnonAmom in the comments.)
No, she’s not from another planet. No, I haven’t actually heard that one yet, but you wait. Okay, I have now heard it.
yes, she apparently believes in some variant of Intelligent Design
no, she didn’t try to force the schools to teach it; she said if someone brought it up, it was an appropriate subject for debate.
No, she doesn’t believe in “abstinence only” education. Yes, she thinks abstinence is an effective way of preventing pregnancy. Duh. Yes, she believes kids should learn about condom use in schools.
Yes, she did smoke marijuana, when it was legal in Alaska. Yes, she apparently did inhale.
yes, she kills animals and eats them, and wears their skins
yes, she was a beauty contest contestant
yes, she was once a sportscaster
yes, she has a college degree in Journalism, but I won’t hold that against her, as she seems to have found honest work as well
yes, she sometimes wears her hair up; no that’s not a “beehive”
yes, her husband is Not A White Person (he’s a Yup’ik; an Eskimo but not an Inuit as my Inuit cousins have taken some pains to explain)
yes, she has on occasion, as Mayor, tried to get money from the federal government.
yes, she was vetted extensively, not just in three days — I’ve got links to press reports about people coming to Wassila on 29 May, and we had her on our Veepstakes at PJM from the first day we ran it.
yes, she want to a bunch of colleges before getting a degree. No, that’s not illegal. Yes, she seems to have made something of herself anyway.
Yes, Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech was written by a speechwriter. Duh. No, none of Obama’s, McCain’s, nor Biden’s speeches were impromptu off the cuff things either.
No, Sarah Palin doesn’t have such control of Alaskans that people are afraid to say bad things about her. (What, are you nuts? Look at this list.) No, I don’t think it’s likely that she called Obama “Sambo”. (Good God, man, I’m ten years older than she and I barely remember “Little Black Sambo.”) Yes, it seems unlikely to me that she’s be real racist and marry a Yup’ik (or a part Yup’ik.) But yes, people are capable of amazing things. Yes, I’m sure there are people who don’t like her — I’ve talked with some myself. And no, I don’t think this waitress would have been thrilled to be called an “aboriginal”. And yes, if she called Hillary a “bitch”, I’m pretty confident is wasn’t the first time anyone in politics has said that.
No, she’s not a “global warming denier”, and when the crush dies down remind me to explain why the very phrasing “global warming denier” is anti-scientific, anti-intellectual, and a clear sign of a desire to impose your beliefs by coercion. But in the mean time, while I do believe that she has expressed some skepticism that warming is wholly human-caused, the existence of the Alaska Climate Change Sub-Cabinet and the Alaska Climate Change Strategy work demonstrate that she’s considering the problem and has brought together people more expert than she to advise her.
Yes, Todd Palin did have a DUI. Twenty-two years ago. Get a grip.
No, Sarah Palin’s brother isn’t in jail. No matter what the commenter at Anderson Cooper’s page says. (Thanks to Galynn in comments.)
Yes, Sarah Palin’s pastor apparently doesbelieve that gays can “repent” and be cured of homosexuality. No, believe it or not, even fundamentalist Christians don’t have to believe every litle thing their pastor believes. Yes, Palin seems to be more libertarian about this.
Yes, contrary to press reports, Sarah Palin’s mother-in-law plans to vote for her and the R ticket (on Inside Edition this evening.)
Anyone who sees a new rumor, leave it in a comment. Update: The Other McCain has a better blurb than I did:
Charles Martin has established a clearinghouse for all the existing rumors about Sarah Palin, and any new ones you want to make up, if you want to try your hand at being a professional journalist like Elizabeth Bumiller.
2008-Sep-05 23:22 Update: Changed it to a numbered list. I’m beginning to think we need to start referring to these things by number.
Every month, the CITIZENS AGAINST GOVERNMENT WASTE give us a Porker Of The Month. This month we are graced with not one, but two members of congress who know how to spend our money better than we do. Doesn't that just drive you crazy!!?? --- JohnOh
Porker of the Month is a dubious honor given to lawmakers, government officials, and political candidates who have shown a blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers.
CAGW Names Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid Porkers of the Month
Washington, D.C. - Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today named Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) its August Porkers of the Month for leading a do-nothing Congress into a five week vacation.
Congress left for its traditional August recess after accomplishing nothing.Of the 106 bills enacted since January, 94, or 89 percent were to name government buildings or lands, extend or make technical corrections to existing laws, or passed either by unanimous consent or with less than 10 dissenting votes.The accomplishments included “Frank Sinatra Day,” National Plumbing Industry Week,” and “National Day of the Cowboy.” (Couldn't possibly be future NationalHolidays, or could they?? --JohnOh)
To answer Cave's question in the comment section.
The deadline for passing the 12 annual appropriations bills has been deliberately ignored.Only one of the bills has passed the House, and only four others have been approved by the House Appropriations Committee.In the Senate, nine have been approved by the Appropriations Committee but none have reached the floor.There are two reasons for this failure to act.First, the Speaker and Majority Leader appear to be waiting for the presidential election to decide what to do with these bills, hoping that the winner in November would favor higher spending and more earmarks.
Second, the moratorium on offshore drilling expires on September 30, and it is usually renewed through the appropriations process.However, both Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid are opposed to lifting the moratorium.Rather than allowing a vote, they shut down Congress.House Republicans took to the darkened House floor, demanding that Congress go back into session and hold an up-or-down vote to lift the drilling ban.
The Speaker’s first response was to continue her taxpayer-financed vacation to promote her new book.She has since indicated some willingness to consider a vote, but only tied to a larger (and costly) energy package.Majority Leader Reid’s response has been to threaten to shut down the government by refusing to allow any appropriations bills to reach the Senate floor, including a continuing resolution that would allow agencies to operate at the fiscal year 2008 spending levels.
For leaving town after Congress has spent nearly all of its time on frivolous legislation, failing to address critical issues, and threatening a government shutdown, CAGW names Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid its August 2008 Porkers of the Month.
Citizens Against Government Waste is the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.Porker of the Month is a dubious honor given to lawmakers, government officials, and political candidates who have shown a blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers.
Like many of you, I enjoy reading what the foreign press has to report on American news stories. Especially in light of the Presidential election. It is a very refreshing change. I found their comments interesting in light of what some our our press were saying about the Govenor of Alaska.
Foreign Media Cover Alaska’s ‘Sharp-Shooting Mom’ Thursday, September 04, 2008 By Patrick Goodenough, International Editor CNSNEWS.com
CNSNews.com) – A week ago, most newspaper readers in Britain and Australia -- and in America, for that matter -- had never heard of Sarah Palin. Today, the Republican vice-presidential pick is a household name in those countries, as commentators line up for or against the choice of the energetic Alaska governor
Dominating themes in the coverage include Palin’s background, family and supposed “scandals” – including the pregnancy of her 17-year-old daughter – along with beauty pageants, fishing, hunting and tattoo rumors thrown in for good measure.
In class-conscious Britain, some pundits detected a level of snootiness in the left’s approach to Sen. John McCain’s running mate.
“Like Margaret Thatcher before her, Mrs. Palin is coming in for both barrels of Left-wing contempt: misogyny and snobbery,” columnist Janet Daley wrote in London’s Daily Telegraph.
“Where Lady Thatcher was dismissed as a ‘grocer’s daughter’ by people who called themselves egalitarian, Mrs. Palin is regarded as a small-town nobody by those who claim to represent ‘ordinary people,’” she said.
Pondering the negative reaction to Palin from some elements in the media, Toby Harnden, the Telegraph’s U.S. editor, identified “a certain cultural elitism,” and warned that snobbery about Palin could backfire in November.
“For every coastal American who thinks she’s a bit common for the Old Executive Office Building there’ll be a hundred in fly-over territory who believe she’s an ordinary real-life American who has her feet on the ground and, in many ways, isn’t that much different from them,” he argued.
Governor Sarah Palin holds a salmon caught with her family in the Bristol Bay region.
Criticism of Palin’s political and personal positions are also commonplace.
Although The Independent in an editorial said it “suspects that a Republican star has been born,” one of the left-leaning daily’s leading commentators, Johann Hari, launched a sardonic attack.
He took issue with Palin’s global warming skepticism and her opposition to listing polar bears as threatened, saying those stances were “part of a wider lack of scientific understanding: she thinks creationism is ‘a credible scientific theory’ too.”
Should McCain die in office, Hari said, “We get Dick Cheney with breasts as president.” (this has to be one of the most disturbing mental word pictures Ihave experienced in quite some time!!-JohnOh)
While declaring herself to be “in awe” of Palin’s achievements and energy, Daily Telegraph columnist Liz Hunt asked, “Just how good a ‘mom’ can she be, given the demands that are being made on her and the demands she is making of herself?”
Gov. Palin gained second place in the 1984 Miss Alaska contest
Hunt also wondered whether Bristol Palin had decided to have her baby and marry the father “at such a young age for reasons of political expediency and her mother’s soaring ambition.”
Conservative columnist Dominic Lawson, writing in The Independent, said Palin had “enraged elements of the sisterhood by becoming an active member of the anti-abortion group known as Feminists for Life. Indeed, her decision to continue her fifth pregnancy to term after a fetal diagnosis of Down Syndrome has, for some reason, offended them even more.”
(Lawson, the son of a former Conservative government minister, also has a child with Down Syndrome. Following an earlier miscarriage he and his wife refused prenatal testing before the birth of their daughter, Domenica, in 1995.)
‘Cultural sneering’
In Australia, meanwhile, an editorial in the national daily The Australian took aim at American media’s handling of Bristol Palin’s out-of-wedlock pregnancy.
In their reporting on the issue, the paper said, “newspapers forgot their progressive embrace of different lifestyles and resorted to reactionary intolerance.”
An op-ed by the paper’s foreign editor, Greg Sheridan, called Palin “the most brilliant, bold, risky, dynamic-changing and consequential choice of vice-presidential running mate that John McCain could possibly have made.”
“The left-liberal media in the U.S. are in a panic. And their loyal Australian imitators are regurgitating a stream of derivative anti-Americanism and cultural sneering entirely imitative of their big brothers at The New York Times.”
Sheridan opined that liberal commentators want politically-active Christians to look “like Elmer Gantry: dreadful, corrupt hypocrites.”
Instead, “Palin is a happy conservative warrior who exudes vitality and a natural gratitude for all the wonders of life and all the wonders of America.”
Sydney Morning Herald columnist Miranda Devine said the “excoriation” Palin has faced since being named as McCain’s running mate “just goes to show that establishment feminists are only champions of women who subscribe to a narrow set of left-wing positions.” “They despise conservative women more than any man, and civil wars are always the most vicious.”
Devine noted that questions were being asked – most prominently by feminist women – about the ability of a mother of five to manage a vice-presidential campaign while giving her children adequate attention.
“But these questions would not be asked of a man,” she said. “Palin is a woman who does seem to be able to do it all, yet feminists don't believe she should. So who is holding women back from the glass ceiling?”
“Despite all their contempt for, and dismissal of, Palin, the secular left deep down is worried sick that the McCain/Palin team may well be a winning combination,” argued Australian conservative commentator Bill Muehlenberg.
Two mutually exclusive worldviews are battling it out for the heart and soul of America. One values life, liberty, faith and family. One values statism, secularism and social engineering. These are incompatible worldviews. Thus the stakes are high, and the left is upset – big time.”
‘X-appeal
Back in Britain, the feisty tabloids are also having their say on Palin, while dedicating a lot of column inches to images of the photogenic governor and her family.
In an article headlined “Why Sarah has X-appeal,” the mass-circulation TheSunpredicted that “the sharp-shooting mom from the wilds of Alaska won’t go down without a fight.”
Another tabloid, the Daily Mail, ended a feature on Palin Wednesday by declaring “for all the skeletons in her gun cabinet, don’t back against the mooseburger-munching frontierswoman bagging a place in history.”
“For as [Sen. Barack] Obama himself had to concede, hers is a remarkable story,” it added. “And Americans love nothing better than someone who proves the possibility of the American Dream.”
In the Daily Mirror, columnist Sue Carroll suggested a novel reason for McCain’s choice of a “deeply conservative, religious, fiercely anti-abortionist, staunch gun rights campaigner, life-long hunter and death penalty advocate” as his running mate.
“I’d have thought it was obvious,” she said. “To annoy the BBC.”
And, Carroll added, “at least Sarah Palin will be well placed to deal with Russia – she lives next door.”
Three months later he repeated the claim that Fannie and Freddie posed no "threat to the Treasury." Even suggesting that heresy, he added, could become "a self-fulfilling prophecy."
Police said one customer, who appeared intoxicated, was arrested after trying to buy a bag of hallucinogenic mushrooms from an officer in the shop.
Dr. Williams' biography: 
For Cavey, as he loves long legged Americana. . .
To answer Cave's question in the comment section.
