Maybe Mark Dion should read the following article from Free Republic (I know, shoot me), in which a threat on president Bush was considered a crime.
Standish store owner won’t face any charges
Steve Collins has denied any knowledge of the sign seeking bets on Obama’s assassination, authorities say.
The owner of a Standish general store will not face any charges from local police or the Maine Attorney General’s Office for a sign posted in the store earlier this month that asked customers to bet on the timing of an assassination of President-elect Barack Obama, county and state officials said Friday.
Oak Hill General Store owner Steve Collins denied any knowledge of the sign when a Cumberland County sheriff’s deputy arrived to investigate a report of it on Nov. 7, Cumberland County Sheriff Mark Dion said Friday. The sign itself was nowhere to be found at that time, he said.
And, even if the sign had not been removed, posting it was not necessarily a crime, Dion said. ”It doesn’t appear that it was constituting a criminal threat or a terrorizing incident,” he said.
The sign invited customers to participate in an ”Osama Obama Shotgun Pool” and wager $1 on the date of Obama’s assassination, according to two journalists for The Associated Press who saw it while checking out a tip of its existence. At the bottom, the sign read: ”Let’s hope someone wins.”
Bush was all about tearing down our country. Obama clearly intends to build it back up. If history teaches us anything, Obama should be successful at putting people back to work and getting us back out of the “red” just in time for a another republican to come along and destroy it all again.
Obama economic plan aims for 2.5M new jobs by 2011
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Barack Obama promoted an economic plan Saturday he said would create 2.5 million jobs by rebuilding roads and bridges and modernizing schools while developing alternative energy sources and more efficient cars.
“These aren’t just steps to pull ourselves out of this immediate crisis. These are the long-term investments in our economic future that have been ignored for far too long,” Obama said in the weekly Democratic radio address.
The goal is to it quickly through Congress, with help from both parties, after Obama takes office Jan. 20. The plan, which envisions those new jobs by January 2011, is “big enough to meet the challenges we face,” he said.
Obama noted the growing evidence the country is “facing an economic crisis of historic proportions” and said he was pleased Congress passed an extension of unemployment benefits this past week. But, he added, `We must do more to put people back to work and get our economy moving again.”
Paul obviously voted for the economy-destroying Bush four and eight years ago. How does Paul think the economy is supposed to get back up and running? Did Paul think McCain and Palin had a magical wand? Was money gonna pop out of no where and everything get fixed? How the hell does Paul expect that big Iraqi war that he defended all these years to get paid for?
Paul, listen closely, “borrow and spend” DOES NOT WORK! Somewhere along the way, we have to pay our debt. That means you too, Paul.
And firing the guy who obviously did not vote for Bush or the Iraqi war, or this huge debt, or the cluster fuck in which we’re now standing in the middle of… just shows what a fucking republican asshole you are.
In not wanting to pay your share of taxes, the only person I see demanding a “free ride” is you, Paul. So, fuck you! I hope the person you fire breaks your fucking nose on his way out the door you goddamn fucking crybaby.
Some businesses changing for Obama
Before the election, a small business owner named Paul sent me an e-mail. He said he planned to immediately fire one of his two employees if Barack Obama won because he feared tax increases.
“Guess which one it might be?” he asked. “The one with the Obama bumper sticker and who voted for the tax increases, or the one who voted for no tax increase?”
His answer:
“Plain and simple – I will keep the one who wants my small business to be successful and not the one who’s looking for a free ride on the Obama unemployed express,” he wrote.
The way Paul saw it, Obama would usher in tax increases for business owners like him.
He’s a tough old bird. If he can survive the pits of hell, (the conservative Federalist Society dinner in which he was attending at the time), he can survive anything.
Attorney General Mukasey collapses
Top law enforcement official is hospitalized, but doesn’t transfer power
WASHINGTON - U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, the no-nonsense ally in President George W. Bush’s war on terror, was hospitalized Thursday after he collapsed during a late-night speech and lost consciousness.
The 67-year-old Mukasey, wearing a black tie and tuxedo, was 15 to 20 minutes into an address about terrorism when he began shaking slightly and slurring his words. As he read from his prepared text, he seemed to get stuck on a word, paused, then his head bowed slightly and he swayed. Three or four men in suits rushed on stage and caught him at the podium.
“The attorney general is conscious, conversant and alert,” Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr said after doctors admitted Mukasey to George Washington University Hospital for the night.
LOS ANGELES – Dr Pepper is making good on its promise of free soda now that the release of Guns N’ Roses‘ “Chinese Democracy” is a reality. The soft-drink maker said in March that it would give a free soda to everyone in America if the album dropped in 2008. “Chinese Democracy,” infamously delayed since recording began in 1994, goes on sale Sunday.
“We never thought this day would come,” Tony Jacobs, Dr Pepper’s vice president of marketing, said in a statement. “But now that it’s here, all we can say is: The Dr Pepper’s on us.”
Beginning Sunday at 12:01 a.m., coupons for a free 20-ounce soda will be available for 24 hours on Dr Pepper’s Web site. They’ll be honored until Feb. 28.
Arguing back and forth over whether to bail out the auto industry is worse than playing that old computer game.
I think we have no choice but to bail the bastards out. But, by God, I want to see some friggin’ restructuring take place in the coming months throughout these plants! And anyone who screams “deregulation!” from now on needs a shoe sunk deep up their ass.
No need for bailout, say diners near thriving car plant
ANNA, Ohio (CNN) — Many people in the diner know someone working in the car industry. They are certainly in car country — there’s an engine factory down the road, and they live between Ohio’s major plants and the Detroit home of the industry. [...]
“Honda’s really helped this area as far as housing, retail sales, the restaurant business,” said Tim Rogers, who has owned the Inn Between Tavern in Botkins, just up the road from Anna, for 33 years.
“People who are in here at night are also Honda employees. They have more money to spend. My business has been good since Honda came into the area.” [...]
“I don’t think they should bail them out because … obviously something’s not right in the way they’re running their business, and why should the American people have to bail them out if they can’t figure out how to do it right?” September Quinn, the busy waitress, said after the lunch rush at the Inn Between. [...]
“If you just give them money, you will get same-old, same-old results,” [Will Vetter, Plastipak Packaging] said after lunch at the Inn Between. “They’re not prepared to downsize their businesses fast enough and to eliminate their costs at a rate that will make them profitable.”
I used to think how unfair it was that, being childless, I should have to pay taxes just so someone else’s children could attend a public school. But that’s faulty logic. My share of taxes that goes toward helping keep the schools open is a “thank you” for being there when I needed them.
Same as roads. We should all pay the same regardless of whether my neighbor uses them more than I do. I pay so that the roads will be there when I need them. So I think it’s wrong to charge some more for a service we all use at whim.
What I don’t understand is, why is it we were able to pay for all of this infrastructure twenty years ago, but today we’re having to come up with new ways to tax the populace even more. Where is all of that money going?
Proposal Would Have Drivers Paying For Every Mile
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — You could end up paying a new tax for every mile you drive.
North Carolina state lawmakers asked a special transportation committee to come up with ways to fund road projects. One idea is to charge a mileage tax so that people who drive more will have to pay more toward roads.
Committee member N.C. Sen. Richard Stevens, a Raleigh Republican, said, “The more you drive, the more you pay. The less you drive, the less you pay.”
The committee said maybe the state should charge drivers a quarter-cent or half-cent for every mile they rack up. So someone who drives 12,000 miles in a year would pay between $30 and $60 that year. [...]
The committee is also considering toll roads. Some committee members want tolls up and down Interstate 77 and other interstates. Others just want tolls along the state’s borders so that people coming into North Carolina pay for the roads. [...]
The committee plans to finalize its recommendations Dec. 10 and present them to state lawmakers in January. Then state lawmakers will decide which, if any, to adopt.
You morons, you who voted him on, stood behind him and defended him over these past eight years… are you assholes happy now?
If only it were you people that were on the endangered list. Actually, you are. You’re just too stupid to realize it.
Bush set to relax rules protecting species
Interior Department rushed to finish new regulation despite objections
WASHINGTON - Animals and plants in danger of becoming extinct could lose the protection of government experts who make sure that dams, highways and other projects don’t pose a threat, under a regulation the Bush administration is set to put in place before President-elect Obama can reverse them.
The rules must be published Friday to take effect before Obama is sworn in Jan. 20. Otherwise, he can undo them with the stroke of a pen.
The Interior Department rushed to complete the rules in three months over the objections of lawmakers and environmentalists who argued that they would weaken how a landmark conservation law is applied.
I see so many things wrong with this. Does it make more sense to allow law-abiding citizens to freeze to death just so police will have less work to do? Will people actually sit there while their cars are warming, or will they opt to not waste any time and begin their drive in a cold, frosted over car… possibly taking out a police officer two blocks away? (If that did happen, who would you root for in that court room?)
I really can’t see the police force being all that worried over a few cars being used this way. Sounds like someone from the auto insurance industry has done some leaning on the local government of Charlotte.
Fuck people’s rights. What next? Will we be told we can no longer carry cash in our pockets so as to not make robbery any easier for the bad guys?
Police: Don’t Leave Your Car Unattended While You Heat It Up
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It’s cold outside, and that means many people want to warm up their cars before heading out the door for the day.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police told Channel 9 they are cracking down on drivers who heat up their cars and then go back inside.
The ordinance allowing officers to do so has been around for years, but they are cracking down now because thieves are targeting cars that are heating up and then using those cars in other crimes.
If police catch you warming up your car without being in it, they can write you a ticket.
Former majority leader wrote a book proposing health care improvements
WASHINGTON - NBC News confirms from Democratic sources that former S.D. Sen. Tom Daschle will be President-elect Barack Obama’s Health and Human Services secretary nominee.
In addition, an official with Obama’s transition team says Daschle will oversee Obama’s health policy working group.
Daschle had been a close adviser to Obama throughout the Illinois senator’s campaign for the White House. Daschle, who represented South Dakota in the Senate, recently wrote a book on his proposals to improve health care and is working with former Senate majority leaders on recommendations to improve the system.
It’s doesn’t matter how many times I say it, it seems no one is listening… or cares. There are people out there right now dying because they don’t have the money to see a doctor. There are people out there right now dying because it’s cold and they have no shelter. There are people out there right now dying because they don’t have any food and are starving. And the good folks down at the local GM plant, from the high-priced CEO right on down to the high-priced janitor, who never gave a damn about the people living under the bridge, are screaming for free money. How many times have these people voted no to universal health care?
But they will get their helping hand. They. Will. Get. Their. Bailout.
Consumers to suffer if GM goes under
Higher car prices, the end of incentives and vehicle shortages could occur if GM and other Big Three automakers don’t get a bailout, according to experts.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — A bankruptcy of one of the Big Three automakers could hit American consumers hard, industry experts warn. [...]
Executives at GM have repeatedly maintained that bankruptcy is not an option, and Nardelli said his firm also wants to avoid a filing. But there is enough opposition to a bailout to make a bankruptcy, or even outright failure, of two of the nation’s largest automakers a serious risk in the coming two months. [...]
“Vehicles could cost anywhere from 5% to 15% more, maybe even more than that,” said Michael Robinet, vice president of global vehicle forecasts for auto consultant CSM Worldwide.
Study finds gut germ in 40 percent of grocery meats; CDC says not to worry
A potentially deadly intestinal germ increasingly found in hospitals is also showing up in a more unsavory setting: grocery store meats.
More than 40 percent of packaged meats sampled from three Arizona chain stores tested positive for Clostridium difficile, a gut bug known as C. diff., according to newly complete analysis of 2006 data collected by a University of Arizona scientist.
Nearly 30 percent of the contaminated samples of ground beef, pork and turkey and ready-to-eat meats like summer sausage were identical or closely related to a super-toxic strain of C. diff blamed for growing rates of illness and death in the U.S. — raising the possibility that the bacterial infections may be transmitted through food.
“These data suggest that domestic animals, by way of retail meats, may be a source of C. difficile for human infection,” said J. Glenn Songer, a professor of veterinary science at the Tucson school, who talked with msnbc.com about work now under review by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dodd is right. The Big Three do lack vision. Building products that aren’t as efficient as they could be. No apparent planning for the future. There never seemed to be any honest attempt at competing with foreign automakers.
But they’ll always be right there, standing in line with their hands out waiting for a bailout.
And they’ll get it. Don’t be fooled by the theatrics in Washington. They’ll get your hard-earned tax money. They always do. To hell with you if you’re sick or hungry.
Heated debate over auto bailout
Skeptical lawmakers grill auto execs, who make the case for taxpayer help to keep industry from collapse.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The case for a federal bailout of U.S. automakers came under sharp scrutiny on Tuesday at a congressional hearing that portrayed the Big Three as both short-sighted in their business strategies and central to the economy.
“Their board rooms in my view have been devoid of vision,” said Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn. “They have promoted and often driven the demand of inefficient, gas guzzling vehicles, and dismissed the threat of global warming.”
LOS ANGELES – Dr Pepper is making good on its promise of free soda now that the release of Guns N’ Roses‘ “Chinese Democracy” is a reality. The soft-drink maker said in March that it would give a free soda to everyone in America if the album dropped in 2008. “Chinese Democracy,” infamously delayed since recording began in 1994, goes on sale Sunday.
WASHINGTON - NBC News confirms from Democratic sources that former S.D. Sen. Tom Daschle will be President-elect Barack Obama’s Health and Human Services secretary nominee.
