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Happy July 4th weekend!!!  May you sizzle and flash. 

108 Thoughts to “Open Thread………………………………………….Saturday, July 2”

  1. Cargosquid

    Just thought I’d do the math for the above.

    12,830,632 people.
    $887,925,790.00

    About $70 per person/year for the next 10 years going to 100 people.

    Of course, that doesn’t mention what the next 100 people got…….

    Here’s the link to the article. The link in the link above is bad.
    http://www.championnews.net/2011/07/06/ero-early-retirement-option-how-the-iea-politicians-plunder-taxpayers-for-1-billion/

  2. Morris Davis

    “The new reports of stunning intrusions came a day after Britain’s Parliament collectively turned on Rupert Murdoch, the head of the News Corporation, which owns The News of the World, and the tabloid culture he represents, using a debate about the widening phone hacking scandal to denounce reporting tactics by newspapers once seen as too politically influential to challenge.

    The scandal is taking a toll on News Corp., with stock prices falling and new questions about Mr. Murdoch’s proposed $12 billion takeover of the pay-television company British Sky Broadcasting.”
    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/08/world/europe/08britain.html

  3. Morris Davis

    “The new reports of stunning intrusions came a day after Britain’s Parliament collectively turned on Rupert Murdoch, the head of the News Corporation, which owns The News of the World, and the tabloid culture he represents, using a debate about the widening phone hacking scandal to denounce reporting tactics by newspapers once seen as too politically influential to challenge.

    The scandal had been taking a toll on News Corp., with stock prices falling and new questions about Mr. Murdoch’s proposed $12 billion takeover of the pay-television company British Sky Broadcasting.”

    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/08/world/europe/08britain.html

  4. Morris Davis

    Sorry about hitting submit twice.

  5. Moe, you are forgiven.

    Big Dog, keep doing the money dance. It’s working!!!!!!

  6. marinm

    @Morris Davis

    NOTW has been ordered shutdown by Mr. Murdoch.

    Interestingly for those keeping score some senior managers will probably be retained in other endeavors. Line level staff are to be dismissed.

  7. @marin, I don’t understand that entire operation. It sounds like it needs to shut down if they are doing something illegal.

  8. marinm

    Pretty simple really. A tabloid owned by News Corp did something that is very illegal (to be proven) and of questionable ethical standard – even for a tabloid. To not sully the good name of News Corp Mr. Murdoch terminated all the employees and shut down the operation.

    A bit over 200 people are now out of work.

    But, they’re from the UK so I couldn’t give a flip. 😉

  9. Big Dog

    M-H, Love running with the bulls!

  10. 8 days running. go bulls go. Go bulls Go bulls!!!

  11. Big Dog

    It may be the beginning of a summer cold, but felt a twinge of an ailment
    last night that I had in Atlanta years ago but had thought this area
    was immune to (although it apparently use to strike Baltimore decades ago)
    — pennant fever. Gotta love the Nationals – they have a suicide bunt change –
    tough division, etc. — but miracles happen and they couldn’t happen to a
    better bunch. Go Nats!

  12. Cato the Elder

    Moon-howler :
    8 days running. go bulls go. Go bulls Go bulls!!!

    Taking a few profits would not be a bad idea right here.

    1. I have been thinking that all week regarding the precious metals. Everything else is long term these days….

    1. @Cargo, I find anything that automatically divides people into left and right to be a real turn off. Most of us are a mixed bag of tricks. Most of us don’t follow doctrinaire to that degree.

      I don’t think anyone owns patriotism. People show it differently.

  13. Cargosquid

    In case anyone is interested, I’ve posted part two of the Lucky Gunner Blogger shoot over at UCV.

    http://unitedconservatives.blogspot.com/2011/07/lucky-gunner-blogger-shoot-part-2.html

    I shot a bus! Woohoo!

  14. Morris Davis

    @Cargosquid

    Dr. Dalrymple – who describes himself as a philosopher, scholar, and writer; a former world-class gymnast; and a fan of the TV show Glee – uses the classic definition of patriotism, a love of country. He then differentiates most liberals (unpatriotic) from most conservatives (patriots).

    First, as a career military member and a disabled veteran who always pays his taxes, I don’t care if Dr. Dalrymple’s education and pondering on the matter leads him to conclude that I’m unpatriotic. There are those who take the field when the nation calls and others that take to the stands to criticize and squall in safety. I’m happy to have helped secure Dr. Dalrymple’s right to sit in the stands and squall. He’s welcome.

    And I take exception to how patriotism divides along liberal and conservative lines in you’re either with us or you’re one of them fashion. Recall that Dr. D’s definition of patriotism – with which I agree – is love of country. Let’s apply his simple love of country standard to assess patriotism.

    “I’m an Alaskan, not an American. I’ve got no use for America or her damned institutions.”
    – Joe Vogler

    (From the AIP website) Joe Vogler became a mythical figure after a lifelong battle with the federal government to gain an independent Alaska. In 1974, he formed the non-partisan Alaskans for Independence (AFI) as an offshoot of the Placer Miners Association, and later founded the Alaskan Independence Party (AIP) which became the third officially recognized party (with the Republicans and Democrats) in the state in 1986.

    Todd Palin was registered to vote as a member of the AIP. Sarah Palin attended their convention in 2000 and sent a video greeting to their meeting in 2008 when she was Governor. I suppose you could call that providing material to support to secession.

    Gov Rick Perry had a Tea Party crowd in Austin fired up in April 2009 as they hooted and shouted “secede!” Perry said Texans have the right to secede from the United States and a Rasmussen poll at the time said 1/3 of Texans agreed.

    Again, I would put my patriotism up against any PINO who supports taking his or her state’s star off of Old Glory and making their state a sovereign nation independent of the United States. Rational people can’t square a desire to disassociate from the Union with a professed unbreakable love of the Union. It’s like telling your spouse, “honey, I hate your guts and I want a divorce … but boy, I love you so much that I should be held up as a model for all dedicated spouses.” You can’t live the first and profess the latter unless your pandering to a gullible crowd.

  15. Cargosquid

    @Morris Davis
    There’s a lot that makes sense in your post.

    That’s why I put the link up. I figured that fine discussion would result.

    I always assume Americans are patriotic until their words or actions prove otherwise. I take it on a case by case basis.

    Cynthia McKinney pontificating in Libya – Not patriotic. Nidal Hassan – Not patriotic.
    Genuine peace marchers, even socialist ones…..patriotic.

    ANSWER, Code Pink, etc…not patriotic.

    However, if one supports, I mean, truly supports an ethos/philosophy/political theory that is counter to the principles supported in the Declaration and the Constitution, is that person patriotic?

    Secession from the federal government may mean that you are patriotic towards the Constitutional principles yet not to DC. If the government turns from Constitutional principles, is ti patriotic to rebel or secede?

    1. Do we really get to stand in judgement of other people’s patriotism? Like religion, different people have a different way of showing it.

  16. Morris Davis

    In the case of Alaska it wasn’t that government was alleged to have strayed. Some like Joe Vogler never wanted to be united with the United States from the get-go. Their motto was “Alaska first – Alaska always.” There may be a term that applies to one who wants to disassociate from his or her country, but that act is the opposite of patriotism.

  17. Cargosquid

    @Morris Davis
    Ok. I’m not familiar with Vogler, but under your definition, he’s not patriotic. And I’m assuming that, because Palin didn’t denounce that party and made positive statements to it, that you are describing her a unpatriotic.

    Ok. Your perogative.

    Oh, and as for your marriage analysis…Its probably closer to, “I love you honey, so much….but I can’t stand being abused by you any longer, nor can I continue to be your enabler…so I’m leaving. Maybe my departure will be a wake up call to you and you can treat the rest of the family better.”

    But, then, I don’t know. I’m not associated with that group.

    Now…I could see a secession where the entire country secedes from DC….. 😉

  18. Starryflights

    The Tea Party and Goldman Sachs: A Love Story

    By Robert Scheer

    In the midst of a jobless recovery, those same corporations are sitting on more than $2 trillion in reserves, refusing to invest in this country, as increasing percentages of their profits are garnered in tax-sheltered operations abroad. And the bankers who caused the economic meltdown have turned against President Barack Obama, who saved them; instead they favor a tea-party-dominated Republican Party that seeks to limit any restraint on corporate greed while destroying the ability of state and federal governments to bring some measure of relief to ordinary folk.

    The whole point of the tea party is to focus concern over our stagnant economy on something called “big government” while ignoring the big corporations that have bought the government as an accessory to their marketing strategies. Big government is big precisely because it now exists primarily to make the world safe for multinational capitalism, whether through a bloated defense budget, trade pacts like the North American Free Trade Agreement, or monetary policies that serve the interests of the largest companies.

    It was their lobbyists who got Congress to end sensible regulations of financial shenanigans, and now, with the new tea party members of Congress as their most stalwart allies, they are yanking the teeth from the very mild regulations that Obama got through the last Congress. As The Associated Press reported: “Congressional Republicans are greeting the one-year anniversary of President Barack Obama’s financial overhaul law by trying to weaken it, nibble by nibble.”

    It is nothing short of demagogic for the Republicans to be complaining about the debt when it was the radical deregulatory policies that they pursued which caused all that governmental red ink in the first place. What a hoax to pretend that teachers’ pensions or environmental protections are responsible for a debt that increased by 50 percent as a direct consequence of the banking collapse. Yet they want to gut even the tepid regulations that became law under the Obama administration, foaming at the mouth about sensible regulation as job killing when it is the uncontrolled greed of Wall Street that is at the root of our high unemployment.

    http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Tea-Party-and-Goldman-by-Robert-Scheer-110706-945.html

    Very well stated. Thanks a lot, tea party, for kicking the middle classes in the butt.

  19. Wolverine

    Either Starryflights is cherry picking grotesquely or he never learned that he should always read a little further.

    So, for all those on this blog, but especially Starryflights, who proclaimed Bill Clinton to be among their most admired ex-presidents, let me give you a couple of quotes from the same Robert Scheer in Truthdig of 21 June 2011:

    “Does Bill Clinton still not grasp that the current economic crisis is in large measure his legacy?….Endorsing the Republican agenda of financial industry deregulation, reversing New Deal safeguards, President Clinton pursued policies that in the long run created more damage to the American economy than any other president since Herbert Hoover…”

    Not an endorsement of Robert Scheer. But, still, one might be tempted to paraphrase Starryflights here just for the fun of it:

    “Very well stated. Thanks a lot, Bill Clinton, for kicking the middle classes in the butt.”

  20. Local candidates need to be very careful that they aren’t aligning themselves with blogs known for character assassination and allowing vulgar remarks about others to stand. It isn’t good for the reputation.

  21. Big Dog

    M-H, The old band wagon ran into a ditch.

    – This morning the market is in the tank , due to, in large part,
    lousy job numbers.

    – My Nats stunk last night.

    Darn

  22. Morris Davis

    Tea Party favorite and author of the Repub austerity plan, Paul Ryan, was enjoying a meal (which cost him $472) in DC this week with 2 fellow conservatives when a patron noted it was ironic that at $350 a bottle the two bottles of wine the 3 men consumed was far more than a week’s wages for a couple earning minimum wage. When the patron made the comment Rep Ryan’s dinner companion reponsed “F*** her!” Just a trio of regular Joes out for a bite to eat.

    http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/07/rep-paul-ryans-pricey-pinot-noir.php

  23. Cato the Elder

    Sounds like someone should be thankful they didn’t leave with a Jayer-Gilles suppository.

  24. Cargosquid

    @Morris Davis
    I notice how you bring up the disparity between all the other politicians too.

    At least they were using their own money.

  25. Wolverine

    So, Cargo, should we expect Moe to raise the subject of Liberal favorite Nancy Pelosi’s empire in the Napa Valley — at exclusive and expensive St. Helena no less? Good story there. Vinyard and winery, exclusive resort, partnership in a chain of restaurants. I hear they’re all non-union, by the way. Talk about swimming in the greenbacks on cheap labor. Wonder if that expensive Pinot noir came from Nancy’s place?

  26. Did Pelosi come up with a severe Democratic austerity plan?
    Who cares that Pelosi has an empire in Napa Valley. All sorts of people in Congress are millionaires, some several times over. The point is that Paul Ryan wants draconian cuts those of us that can’t afford a $450 meal.

    Everyone can go first class. Some can just stay longer than others. Prudent people wouldn’t put on such a big show right under the auspices of the Capitol.

  27. Wolverine

    And Pelosi and her husband make their money on the backs of people who may not even get minimum wage. Last time I looked, there were complaints that some of the grapes sold out of her vinyard were getting five times the price of those from other vinyards in the Valley. Nobody seems to be able to figure this out. But I will say it over and over again: non-union labor; non-union labor; non-union labor. How about hyprocrite thrown in since she bleeds so much for the poor immigrants from below the border? You would think that this “champion” of the poor and downtrodden could at least set an example by giving her own employees union wages.

    And we are supposed to slam Ryan for eating a meal at a D.C. restaurant and indulging in a bottle of wine? Jeez, what shoud he do? Dress in dungarees and eat at McDonald’s? Sell his house and live in a cardboard box? Take his vacations in Spain on $5 a day?

    1. You aren’t going to rile me about unions. I have said all along I am not a strong union person.

      Wolverine, how do you possibly know what she is paying her help? That’s just not something I wouuld worry about. I actually haven’t heard her do much talking about the poor souls south of the border. But I don’t hang on every word out of Nancy Pelosi.

      I think the point is that Tyan created an austere budget but he goes out and flashes around money. Wouldn’t it be more prudent to just be normal while he is in Washington rather than living so high on the hog? Isn’t that pretty much what you guys criticized Al Gore for is does that only work one way?

      Republicans all seem to have the habit of always wanting to say ‘well he did it too’ or ‘he did it first.’

      Bottom line, if Ryan doesn’t want to be criticized in Washington then he should at least put on a modest show in public. That’s just what smart people do.

      Here is an example: I love jewelry and spend way too much money on it. I went to the dentist the other day and I took most of it off before I went in there. I didn’t want her to think I was Mrs. Got-Rocks. Those crowns have variable prices.

      Kapish?

  28. Cargosquid

    Well, guys….

    If you don’t hear from me, its because I’m on another sooper sekrit mishun…..

    I’ll be gone for a week. Shhhhh…..don’t tell anyone……

    Have fun. Fight nice. And if anyone one asks….I’m right. Just ask me.

  29. Cargosquid

    From Instapundit

    PROFESSOR JACOBSON: Obama’s Catch-2012: “The only way for Obama to stimulate the enormous private sector job growth needed to ensure Obama’s reelection is for Obama to announce he is not running for reelection, which would unleash a wave of investment and economic activity not seen since the Great Depression.” (Emphasis added).

    I had to add this before I leave on my sekrit mishun to North K…um, Karolina…yeah, that’s it….

  30. Wolverine

    “Flashes around money”? We get one cherry picked blurb out of Moe, and suddenly Ryan is typecast as a flasher of money all around D.C? Come on, Moon, you’re better than that.

    Next thing you know, I’ll have to talk about ultra-expensive distaff vacations in Spain while the country is suffering through miserable unemployment levels and another mortgage crisis. I have personally never said anything like that about Al Gore, but if you want people to start participating in a “gotcha” contest with Moe, it can be arranged.

  31. Morris Davis

    Michelle Bachmann is the first candidate to sign the marriage pledge. It “condemns adultery, ‘quickie divorce,’ infidelity, pornography, cohabitation and Islamic sharia law.” It also says out of wedlock births among African-Americans increased after slavery ended, that there is a complete absence of empirical proof that homosexuality is innate, expresses disapproval of extramarital pregnancy and abortion, and endorses “robust childbearing and reproduction.” By signing the pledge the candidate vows to recognize “the overwhelming statistical evidence that married people enjoy … better sex” (with each other? The wording is not specific).

    There is at least one Repub candidate that I’m pretty sure will be struck by lightning and burst into flames if he signs the pledge.

    http://wapo.st/ppLcFi

    1. Give me a hint, Moe. Would you be speaking of Newtie? What’s wrong with quickie divorce? It seems a lot better than divorce where everything is dragged out and the lawyers have both people hating each others guts. Then the poor kids get to be raised by two people who hate each other.

      Whats the difference in infidelity and adultery, just out of curiosity?

      How is it statistically proven that married people enjoy better sex? Is there a sex-o-meter out there somewhere? How about that contraption Jon Stewart had?

  32. Lafayette

    Moon,
    Let’s talk about NO street lights in Sudley. However, some of Sudley was lit up by the softball field at BenLomond Park lit up over night and still on at 5:30am. I hope someone from the Park Authority is reading this. These lights should NOT be on overnight. Now, this was just one ballfield in the county. I wonder how many were lit up overnight. Or has the Park Authority started hosted overnight ball games?

  33. Big Dog

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/todays_paper?dt=2011-07-09&bk=E&pg=2

    FYI -Some interesting PWC/ Manassas info in today’s WaPo RE section.
    Jan-March 2010 sales/prices compared to Jan-March 2011.

    Total unit sales dropped from 2,372 to 1,495

    Median price dropped $247,000 to $225,000 or 9%.

    (Zip code 20110 prices stayed flat at 200K but unit sales dropped 199 to 115)

    We aren’t out of the woods yet.

  34. Big dog, I give up on that fancy paper you have. I dont see the article.

    Is that what it looks like if you get subscription?

    yesterday could have been much worse! re market

  35. I am remiss in not mentioning the passing of Betty Ford. She not only survived Washington, she was very courageous.

  36. Big Dog

    M-H, scroll down to the PW RE comparison chart and click on it.

  37. Big Dog

    http://www.center-for-the-arts.org/summersounds

    Old Town Manassas – great entertainment and its N/C.!

    Jay Ungar and Molly Mason – 6:30 this evening at the Harris Pavilion.

    (Suggest you bring lawn chairs or a blanket)

  38. Big dog, do you guys spray for mosquitoes or are you like the county and charge people and then not spray?

    I live in Mosquito City. I can[‘t go outside.

  39. Big Dog

    M-H, Haven’t heard of any mosquitoe issues recently – and never in Old Town.

    A good crowd saw a fine concert this evening.

    Thank you Micron and the Center For The Arts.

  40. Raymond Beverage

    skeeters no have…knats are all over the place!

    1. I hate them too. But I hate skeeters the worst.

  41. Big Dog

    Apparently groups eagerly travel all the way from Colorado to enjoy
    being around our docile biteless (g)Nats.

  42. Lafayette

    Big Dog :Apparently groups eagerly travel all the way from Colorado to enjoybeing around our docile biteless (g)Nats.

    Good one, sir!!

  43. Wolverine

    Hmmm, I do see that Talking Points Memo (TPM) ran with a certain wine story from a source they did not bother to vet and is now eating crow all over the internet. Even the source has shut up. You’ve just got to be careful with that blog cherry picking business.

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