Jump to content

posty

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content Count

    31,844

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    16

Posts posted by posty

  1. Posted

    Here in Northern Virginia, I haven't seen any vandalism, though I have seen McCain/Palin signs that have not been on public property (like the median) that get removed at times and then an Obama/Biden sign replaces it...

     

    I have also seen the occasional Obama sign removed and nothing replacing it...

     

    I would say about 2-to-1 of McCain signs disappearing over Obama signs...

  2. Posted

    http://northernvirginia.cox.net/cci/newslo...validatearticle

     

    (Manassas, VA) -- As the general election nears, cases of campaign sign vandalism are on the rise. In one of the more dramatic cases, a sign endorsing the McCain/Palin campaign was slashed in half and the vandal replaced it with a handwritten note. According to WRC-TV, the note read, "Your and your ignorant, racist views have been liberated. You are welcome." There have been cases of vandalism involving signs for the Obama/Biden campaign as well. In Falls Church, an Obama sign was set on fire in someone's front yard. Other signs in Falls Church were defaced and many in the area say their signs have been vandalized multiple times.

  3. Posted

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081016/ap_on_.../odd_big_burger

     

    CLEARFIELD, Pa. - It took Brad Sciullo 4 hours and 39 minutes to finish a marathon. A meat marathon, that is. The 5-foot-11, 180-pound western Pennsylvania chef is the first person to eat a monstrosity called the Beer Barrel Belly Bruiser: a 15-pound burger with toppings and a bun that brought the total weight to 20.2 pounds.

     

    The mountain of beef is the product of Denny's Beer Barrel Pub, about 100 miles northeast of Pittsburgh in Clearfield.

     

    Sciullo, 21, of Uniontown, said he was surprised he finished the sandwich Monday. "About three hours into it, things got tough," he said.

     

    When asked what possessed him to eat a burger that big, Sciullo said: "I wanted to see if I could."

     

    The burger included a bun, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, onions, mild banana peppers and a cup each of mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard and relish, pub owner Dennis Liegey said.

     

    For completing the challenge in the under-five-hour time limit, Sciullo won $400, three T-shirts, a certificate "and a burger hangover, as I call it," Liegey said.

  5. Posted

    We really need a :potmeetkettle: smilie here. :banana:

     

    You calling me ignorant is akin to Beetlejuice telling Howard he's stupid.

     

    Read up a little on McCarthyism before you post crap like what you posted earlier. You might learn something. Then again, probably not.

     

    FBG has one...

  7. Posted

    http://www.nationalenquirer.com/obama_sex_...celebrity/65575

     

    The ENQUIRER exclusively reports a "sex pervert" was Sen. Barack Obama's longtime mentor and "father figure".

     

    For seven years, the presidential candidate had a "father-son" relationship with Frank Marshall Davis, who has confessed to having sex with children, sadomasochism, bondage and practicing a wide array of deviant sexual activities.

     

    In his 1995 memoir Dreams from My Father, Obama identifies his childhood mentor only as "Frank," but Obama insiders later confirmed he was referring to Davis, a journalist and poet who was a pal of Obama's maternal grandfather, Stanley Dunham.

     

    Frank Marshall Davis admitted in his private papers that he had secretly authored a hard-core pornographic autobiography called Sex Rebel: Black, published in 1968. The author of the book - a copy of which was been obtained by The ENQUIRER - is listed as "Bob Greene." Davis later confessed to its authorship after a reader noticed similarities in style and phraseology between that book and Davis' poetry.

     

    Davis confessed: "I could not truthfully deny that this book, which came out in 1968 as a Greenleaf Classic, was mine."

     

    The appalling catalog of admitted real-life decadence is laced with perverted sexual activity, bisexuality, rape - and the seduction of children.

     

    "Davis' admission he wrote this disturbing book exposes Obama's mentor as living a secret double life - and as a sexual pervert," disclosed a source.

     

    In his shocking tell-all, Davis admits to seducing a thirteen year-old girl, voyeurism, exhibitionism, bisexuality, rape and sadomasochism.

     

    Barack, called "Barry" as a child, was a mere ten year old when he first met the family friend who lead a secret double life.

     

    Obama's grandfather introduced Barry and Davis because he believed it would help his alienated grandson identify with being of mixed heritage because Barack's mother, Ann, was a white American while his father, Barack Sr.black Kenyan.

     

    Obama's parents separated and then divorced when Barack was only 2. Ann remarried and took Barack to live with her and new husband Lolo Soetoro in Indonesia - but Barack was later sent to live with his white grandparents in Honolulu, Hawaii.

     

    Barack describes how Frank Davis had a lasting effect on him and became a father figure over the seven years they knew one another on the tropical island.

     

    In Dreams from My Father, Obama wrote: "He would read us poetry whenever we stopped by his house, sharing whiskey with Gramps out of an emptied jelly jar.

     

    "As the night wore on, the two of them would solicit my help in composing dirty limericks."

     

    Obama described being counseled by Frank often and recalled drinking whiskey with him.

     

    Since Frank Davis has been identified as the author of Sex Rebel: Black, Obama has been extremely secretive about the true nature of his experience with the self-admitted deviant.

  9. Posted

    http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/en...estar-gala.html

     

    "Battlestar Galactica" finally returns with its last set of episodes 9 p.m. Central Time Jan. 16, Michael Ausiello reports.

     

    He calculates that the show's series finale (which executive producer Ron Moore talked about here) would likely air March 20. I don't even want to think about the show ending, but as long as we're on the topic, it's still a little unclear as to how things will play out with the show's final group of episodes.

     

    At this stage, based on earlier "Battlestar" dispatches, we know there will be 10 episodes that will be at least 11 hours long. But it's not clear whether show's final episodes may end up extending beyond the 11 hours that have been allotted thus far. No doubt Sci Fi Channel's supercomputers are at work on this situation as we speak. (There will also be a "Battlestar" movie that will air after the series ends. OK, now click on that "supercomputer" link you just passed over. Seriously.)

  11. Posted

    http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=29041

     

    First, this summer's economic bailout bill put the taxpayers on the line for $152 billion.

     

    Then the housing bailout added $300 billion.

     

    The Paulson bailout cost us another $700 billion.

     

    Now Washington Democrats - already counting on complete, filibuster-proof control of the nation's purse-strings come November - are talking about spending another $300 billion on a "stimulus package."

     

    That comes to a grand total of $1.45 trillion the taxpayers are being asked to provide for Washington's ideas on how to save the economy.

     

    But here's the thing: Has anyone ever asked the people who are footing the bill - the taxpayers - how we'd like this money spent?

     

    How would you spend $1.45 trillion to make America better? Today I'm going to give you an opportunity to tell America how you'd spend this money.

     

    But first some news, with Halloween just around the corner, that should scare us all.

     

    The Reid-Pelosi-Obama (RePO) Team Announces the Era of "Harsh Decisions"

    They've been working hard to show us their happy face, but the mask of the Reid-Pelosi-Obama (RePO) team slipped a bit last week.

     

    The Senate Majority Leader, the House Speaker and the Democratic Presidential nominee are already planning on a total Democratic takeover of Washington following the election, but here's the really frightening news: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that Congress may convene after the election to make "harsh decisions."

     

    "Harsh decisions." Sounds scary.

     

    Will RePO Make the "Harsh Decision" to Raise Taxes? Reward ACORN?

    We should take Speaker Pelosi at her word. What "harsh decisions" does the San Francisco Democrat have in mind for America? Will they be tricks or treats?

     

    Will the RePO Team make the "harsh decision" to raise confiscatory taxes on American businesses, the engine of jobs and economic growth?

     

    Will they make the harsh choice to strip American voters of their right to a secret ballot when deciding whether or not to unionize a workplace?

     

    Will they choose to send hundreds of millions of new taxpayer dollars to the radical leftwing group ACORN (on top of the hundreds of millions in this summer's housing bailout bill that went to radical groups including ACORN) in exchange for getting out the leftwing vote in the November election?

     

    Will Reid-Pelosi-Obama rewrite deadbeat mortgages to steal from lenders and reward irresponsible behavior?

     

    Just exactly who is going to find their decisions "harsh?"

     

    In this Present Crisis, Government Isn't the Solution to our Problem

    With just 21 days to go until the election, it's becoming clearer and clearer that the choice for Americans in 2008 is a choice between the kind of pro-special interest, pro-bureaucracy, "harsh" decisions the RePo Team isn't even waiting for the voters to ratify, or the sensible, center-right values of the rest of America.

     

    In his first inaugural address, Ronald Reagan memorably said, "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem."

     

    A new Rasmussen Poll shows that a solid majority of Americans - 59%-28% - still agree with Reagan's statement.

     

    Americans from across all age and income groups - including a majority who consider themselves politically moderate - believe that government, taxes and regulation and Fannie and Freddie-style government-backed corruption are what got us into this economic mess in the first place.

     

    It is important to keep in mind that Reagan was not anti-government. As he said in that first inaugural, "Now, so there will be no misunderstanding, it is not my intention to do away with government. It is, rather, to make it work - work with us, not over us; to stand by our side, not ride on our back. Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity, not stifle it."

     

    It is as true today as it was when Reagan first said it in January 1981: in the present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem.

     

    The "Harsh Decisions" Of One-Party Washington Vs. the Rest of America

    And so the decision we face in November is whether we're going to pursue more of the same heavy-handed government policies that got us into this economic mess, or whether we are going to put government on the side of fostering the private sector creativity, ingenuity and entrepreneurialism that made this country great.

     

    But Speaker Pelosi is right about one thing: Congress should return to Washington in a special session to address the ongoing economic crisis.

     

    But instead of making the "harsh decisions" advocated by the RePo Team, Congress should pass a package of reforms that will address the immediate economic crisis while creating jobs, keeping America's energy dollars at home, and addressing the long-term health of our economy.

     

    A Pro-Growth, Pro-Jobs, Pro-Energy Independence Agenda For Congress

    Instead of $300 billion in new liabilities for the American taxpayers, Congress should take action on the following:

     

    1. Zero capital gains tax - Countries without taxes on capital gains, such as China, Singapore, and Taiwan, are magnets for global investment. Economists like Alan Greenspan have called for removing capital gains in order to see increased economic growth and American competitiveness in attracting foreign direct investment and international corporations.

     

     

    2. Repeal Sarbanes-Oxley - After the devastating crash of Enron and WorldCom, Congress rushed to pass a law to alleviate panic. Instead of enacting reform measures that would reasonably prevent fraud, they passed a burdensome, accounting mess. Sarbanes-Oxley is a disproportionate burden for small businesses and start-ups, and has forced many companies to move from New York to London.

     

     

    3. Allow 100% annual expensing for small businesses - Small businesses create 7 out of 10 new jobs in America and account for more than half of the output of our economy. One hundred percent annual expensing would give small business more money to invest in new technologies, like computers and machinery, to improve worker productivity. Likewise, it would allow business to hire more employees.

     

     

    4. Move to break up and privatize Freddie and Fannie - Corporate greed at Freddie and Fannie fueled subprime mortgage loans. Because subprime mortgages carried higher risk, they also offered a higher interest yield that gave executives an increased profit share. Given the government sponsored enterprise, they had lower capital requirements, and were implicitly backed by taxpayer dollars in the case that these assets should crumble. These institutions should be prevented from offering more subprime mortgages, and we should move towards privatizing them.

     

     

    5. Provide a comprehensive plan to keep Americans in their homes - The summer's housing bailout bill gave $300 billion to renegotiate mortgages with homeowners, but forced lending institutions to take an immediate 10% cut in profit, giving little incentive for lending institutions to participate. The government could instead offer a no-interest loan to homeowners who are current on their mortgage payments and work with their lending institution to renegotiate their mortgages into a 6% fixed interest, 30-year loan. We should help those homeowners who have acted in good faith keep the keys to their homes.

     

     

    6. Move towards long term investment strategies - Congress should look to investing in the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation to foster innovation and make America the most competitive market for research and development.

     

     

    7. Develop an all-of-the-above energy policy - Imagine if we invested a fraction of the billion dollar bailout into developing, for example, more nuclear power and coal-to-synthetic natural gas technologies and infrastructure. We should continue to advance clean coal, biofuels, wind, solar, hydrogen, and natural gas technologies. Further, we should increase exploration and development of our own resources offshore and in oil shale, so that we are not defenseless against any energy cartels.

     

     

    8. We should repeal all congressional money given to ACORN - ACORN is under investigation in a dozen states for voter fraud. We cannot afford to be subsidizing an organization that operates under the façade of providing community development and low-income housing, while it has a record of fraudulent activity. See this CNN report about ACORN voter registration fraud in Indiana, where ACORN provided 5,000 new voter registration cards. Indiana authorities started reviewing them and found that the first 2,100 were all fraudulent.

     

     

    How Would You Spend $1.45 Trillion to Make America Better?

    You've heard a few of my ideas, and you've no doubt read plenty about what the Washington establishment thinks we need to do to rescue our economy. But when was the last time someone asked you - the American taxpayer - how we should use the $1.45 trillion of your money Washington has generously offered to spend?

     

    My organization, American Solutions, is interested in what you have to say.

     

    Do you think we should use the money to invest in technology to make us energy independent? Click here and tell us how and why.

     

    Do you think we should use the $1.45 trillion to transform our health system? Click here and let us know?

     

    Or should we just give the $1.45 trillion back to the American taxpayers? Log on to our website and say so. My bet is you'll be the most popular person on the site.

     

    Your friend,

     

    Newt Gingrich

     

    P.S. -- Three Ideas to Transform the Health Care Debate: So far, the presidential debates have raised more questions than answers on how healthcare must be overhauled in 2009. Both during and since my time in Congress, I've been striving to change our ailing system. Regardless of who wins the election, a new administration and Congress brings an opportunity for the United States to shift to a 21st Century Intelligent Health System. It means gritty work and long hours, beyond bureaucracy, with a focus on proven solutions. At the Center for Health Transformation website, we have put forward three proposals that must lead the debate into 2009. I encourage you to be an empowered patient and join our YouTube channel "HealthTransformation."

  13. Posted

    http://drudgereport.com/flashotp.htm

     

    The Obama campaign issued a set of debate 'talking points' to media on Wednesday morning, the DRUDGE REPORT can reveal.

     

    Press Secretary Sean Smith issued the directive in an email from Pennsylvania, 12 hours before the debate.

     

    The directive oddly mirrors much of the main press analysis and theme of the current campaign:

     

    * This is John McCain's last chance to turn this race around and somehow convince the American people that his erratic response to this economic crisis doesn't disqualify him from being President.

     

    * Just this weekend the weekend, John McCain vowed to "whip Obama's you-know-what" at the debate, and he's indicated that he'll be bringing up Bill Ayers to try to distract voters.

     

    * So we know that Senator McCain will come ready to attack Barack Obama and bring his dishonorable campaign tactics to the debate stage.

     

    Obama continues to lead on the economic crisis with a rescue plan for Main Street.

     

    * Over the course of the campaign, Barack Obama has laid out a set of policies that will grow our middle class and strengthen our economy.

     

    * But he knows we face an immediate economic emergency that requires urgent action - on top of the plans he's already laid out - to help workers and families and communities struggling right now.

     

    * That's why Barack Obama is introducing a comprehensive four-part Rescue Plan for the Middle Class - to immediately to stabilize our financial system, provide relief to families and communities, and help struggling homeowners.

     

    * This is a plan that can and should be implemented immediately.

     

    * Obama has shown steady leadership during this crisis and offered concrete solutions to move the country forward - and his Rescue Plan for the Middle Class builds on the plans to strengthen the economy and rebuild the middle class that he's laid out over the course of this campaign.

     

    * Already in this campaign, he's unveiled plans to give 95 percent of workers and their families a tax cut, eliminate income taxes for seniors making under $50,000, bring down the cost of health care for families and businesses; and create millions of new jobs by investing in the renewable energy sources.

     

    * John McCain has been erratic and unsteady since this crisis began - staggering from position to position and trying to change the subject away from the economy by launching false character attacks.

     

    Developing...

  14. Posted

    http://www.nypost.com/seven/10152008/news/...shot_133685.htm

     

    WASHINGTON - You won't find it in his campaign ads, but Barack Obama let slip his plans to become a modern-day Robin Hood in the White House, confiscating money from the rich to give to the poor.

     

    Conservatives yesterday ripped Obama after he was caught on video telling an Ohio plumber that he intends to take the profits of small-business owners and "spread the wealth around" to those with lesser incomes.

     

    The fracas over Obama's tax plan broke out Sunday outside Toledo when Joe Wurzelbacher approached the candidate.

     

    Wurzelbacher said he planned to become the owner of a small plumbing business that will take in more than the $250,000 amount at which Obama plans to begin raising tax rates.

     

    "Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn't it?" the blue-collar worker asked.

     

    After Obama responded that it would, Wurzelbacher continued: "I've worked hard . . . I work 10 to 12 hours a day and I'm buying this company and I'm going to continue working that way. I'm getting taxed more and more while fulfilling the American Dream."

     

    "It's not that I want to punish your success," Obama told him. "I want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they've got a chance for success, too.

     

    Then, Obama explained his trickle-up theory of economics.

     

    "My attitude is that if the economy's good for folks from the bottom up, it's gonna be good for everybody. I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."

     

    Critics said Obama let the cat out of the bag.

     

    "It's clear that his main goal is redistribution of wealth, not growth," said Andy Roth with the anti-tax group Club for Growth. "He's perfectly happy to destroy wealth as long as he can redistribute it."

     

    Obama has been meticulous, Roth said, to conceal the "socialistic" nature of his tax plans. "But every once in a while, he lets it slip," he said.

     

    Republican candidate John McCain yesterday charged that Obama's comment was telling.

     

    "This explains how Senator Obama can promise an income-tax cut for millions who aren't even paying income taxes right now," he said in Pennsylvania.

     

    "My plan isn't intended to force small businesses to cut jobs to pay higher taxes so we can 'spread the wealth around.' My plan is intended to create jobs and increase the wealth of all Americans."

     

    Meanwhile, a New York Times/CBS poll last night showed Obama moving into a commanding 53-39 percent lead.

  15. Posted

    Ok:

     

    Yes I know that they are "national" polls, but Zogby uses a sample size of like 39% Democrat, 33% Republican and the rest Independents...

     

    Partisan weighting targets used by Rasmussen Reports will be 39.3% Democratic, 33.0% Republican, and 27.7% unaffiliated...

     

    I would love to see what the "national" polls use in weighting targets, but I doubt it is this realistic average...

     

    But getting back to your initial post, yes things don't look to promising for McCain, but this still isn't over... 21 days is an eternity in politics...

  17. Posted

    http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798...;u_sid=10460511

     

    You can't sue God if you can't serve the papers on him, a Douglas County District Court judge ruled in Omaha Tuesday.

     

    Judge Marlon Polk threw out Nebraska Sen. Ernie Chambers' lawsuit against the Almighty, saying there was no evidence that the defendant had been served. What's more, Polk found "there can never be service effectuated on the named defendant."

     

    Chambers had sued God in September 2007, seeking a permanent injunction to prevent God from committing acts of violence such as earthquakes and tornadoes.

     

    Although the case may seem superfluous and even scandalous to others, Chambers has said his point is to focus on the question of whether certain lawsuits should be prohibited.

     

    "Nobody should stand at the courthouse door to predetermine who has access to the courts," he said. "My point is that anyone can sue anyone else, even God."

     

    Chambers, an avowed atheist, said he decided to make that point after at least two attempts in the Nebraska Legislature to limit "frivolous lawsuits."

     

    The senator did have a day in court on the case. In August, he argued that Polk should take judicial notice of the existence of God. The senator cited the facts that U.S. currency says "In God We Trust," God is invoked during oaths in court hearings, and chaplains offer prayers before legislative bodies.

     

    "If God is omnipresent," Chambers said in that August hearing, "then he is here in Douglas County and in this courtroom."

     

    Polk was not persuaded.

     

    His Tuesday ruling said Chambers' motion to take judicial notice of God "is denied as moot."

     

    Chambers, reached at home Tuesday evening, said he hadn't yet seen the court order. He declined to comment until he could review the document today.

  18. Posted

    Uh-oh, what is algore going to do now? Of course he will say that it was his movie that opened everyone's eyes and helped this...

     

    http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/53884.html

     

    Two hundred years of glacial shrinkage in Alaska, and then came the winter and summer of 2007-2008.

     

    Unusually large amounts of winter snow were followed by unusually chill temperatures in June, July and August.

     

    "In mid-June, I was surprised to see snow still at sea level in Prince William Sound," said U.S. Geological Survey glaciologist Bruce Molnia. "On the Juneau Icefield, there was still 20 feet of new snow on the surface of the Taku Glacier in late July. At Bering Glacier, a landslide I am studying, located at about 1,500 feet elevation, did not become snow free until early August.

     

    "In general, the weather this summer was the worst I have seen in at least 20 years."

     

    Never before in the history of a research project dating back to 1946 had the Juneau Icefield witnessed the kind of snow buildup that came this year. It was similar on a lot of other glaciers too.

     

    "It's been a long time on most glaciers where they've actually had positive mass balance," Molnia said.

     

    That's the way a scientist says the glaciers got thicker in the middle. Read the complete story at adn.com...

  20. Posted

    http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/07/...in1289745.shtml

     

    (CBS) The following is Sen. John McCain's letter to to Sen. Barack Obama regarding ongoing Congressional efforts towards bipartisan lobbying reform:

     

    February 6, 2006

     

    The Honorable Barack Obama

    United States Senate

    SH-713

    Washington, DC 20510

     

    Dear Senator Obama:

     

    I would like to apologize to you for assuming that your private assurances to me regarding your desire to cooperate in our efforts to negotiate bipartisan lobbying reform legislation were sincere. When you approached me and insisted that despite your leadership’s preference to use the issue to gain a political advantage in the 2006 elections, you were personally committed to achieving a result that would reflect credit on the entire Senate and offer the country a better example of political leadership, I concluded your professed concern for the institution and the public interest was genuine and admirable. Thank you for disabusing me of such notions with your letter to me dated February 2, 2006, which explained your decision to withdraw from our bipartisan discussions. I’m embarrassed to admit that after all these years in politics I failed to interpret your previous assurances as typical rhetorical gloss routinely used in politics to make self-interested partisan posturing appear more noble. Again, sorry for the confusion, but please be assured I won’t make the same mistake again.

     

    As you know, the Majority Leader has asked Chairman Collins to hold hearings and mark up a bill for floor consideration in early March. I fully support such timely action and I am confident that, together with Senator Lieberman, the Committee on Governmental Affairs will report out a meaningful, bipartisan bill.

     

    You commented in your letter about my “interest in creating a task force to further study” this issue, as if to suggest I support delaying the consideration of much-needed reforms rather than allowing the committees of jurisdiction to hold hearings on the matter. Nothing could be further from the truth. The timely findings of a bipartisan working group could be very helpful to the committee in formulating legislation that will be reported to the full Senate. Since you are new to the Senate, you may not be aware of the fact that I have always supported fully the regular committee and legislative process in the Senate, and routinely urge Committee Chairmen to hold hearings on important issues. In fact, I urged Senator Collins to schedule a hearing upon the Senate’s return in January.

     

    Furthermore, I have consistently maintained that any lobbying reform proposal be bipartisan. The bill Senators Joe Lieberman and Bill Nelson and I have introduced is evidence of that commitment as is my insistence that members of both parties be included in meetings to develop the legislation that will ultimately be considered on the Senate floor. As I explained in a recent letter to Senator Reid, and have publicly said many times, the American people do not see this as just a Republican problem or just a Democratic problem. They see it as yet another run-of-the-mill Washington scandal, and they expect it will generate just another round of partisan gamesmanship and posturing. Senator Lieberman and I, and many other members of this body, hope to exceed the public’s low expectations. We view this as an opportunity to bring transparency and accountability to the Congress, and, most importantly, to show the public that both parties will work together to address our failings.

     

    As I noted, I initially believed you shared that goal. But I understand how important the opportunity to lead your party’s effort to exploit this issue must seem to a freshman Senator, and I hold no hard feelings over your earlier disingenuousness. Again, I have been around long enough to appreciate that in politics the public interest isn’t always a priority for every one of us. Good luck to you, Senator.

     

    Sincerely,

     

    John McCain

    United States Senate

  21. Posted

    :doublethumbsup:

     

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...8101301418.html

     

    They really don't keep detailed records on these sorts of accomplishments in the broadcasting business, but one of the most impressive streaks in the history of sports on television is about to end this weekend when John Madden will stay home in the Bay Area and sit out Sunday's night's Tampa Bay Buccaneers home game against the Seattle Seahawks in central Florida.

     

    For the first time since he began calling games as a color analyst for CBS Sports full-time in 1980, Madden, now 72, and working games for NBC on Sunday nights, will not be in action for an NFL regular season game, a remarkable run the network said is now at 476 games.

     

    Eat your heart out Brett Favre, but Iron Man Madden has never missed a regular season week in an NFL football booth in 28 years. Not for illness, not for wedding anniversaries or big birthdays, not even for flat tires or mechanical breakdowns on his "Madden Cruiser" in the middle of Nebraska on its cross country trek to the Meadowlands in New Jersey.

     

    Madden will be replaced in the NBC Sunday night booth this Sunday night by Cris Collinsworth, arguably the best studio football analyst in television who normally serves as the co-host with Bob Costas for NBC's "Football Night in America" Sunday pre-game show. Collinsworth also has done game color for years and will be seamless fit working with play-by-play man Al Michaels. But it will only happen this week because of some extenuating circumstances.

     

    It wasn't exactly Madden's idea to take a deep breath and a day off this weekend, but when NBC Sports Chairman ###### Ebersol first broached the possibility with him last spring, Madden said he'd have to think about it. Ten days ago, he spoke with Ebersol again and told him it might not be a bad idea.

     

    "I wasn't reluctant as much as I was 'let's wait and see how it goes,'" Madden said in a telephone interview Monday. "Last year we had a couple of tough (trips). I still enjoy the travel, but you'd like to be home once in a while. I've got five grandchildren. It's a quality of life issue. The 49ers and the Raiders not being good also has hurt, because you never get a home game. Even when L.A. had a team, I'd get to be home. When you see the grand kids, it's like they've grown two feet. So I'd like to check in once awhile, and this is a good chance to do that."

     

    Ebersol first thought about giving his man a blow when the NFL television schedule first came out last April. He saw that NBC would have a game in Jacksonville on Oct. 5, followed by a game in San Diego this past Sunday (Oct. 12), followed by an Oct. 19 game in Tampa.

     

    Madden's fear of flying is well-known, as is his preference to get from game to game and occasionally home in Northern California on a specially outfitted bus with his personal driver. It's got a kitchen, steaks in the fridge, surround sound, flat-screen TVs and, perhaps most important of all, a bed with the exact same mattress Madden sleeps on at home, the better to nod off any time he chooses without waking up with his spine twisted like a pretzel.

     

    If Madden would have done all three games, it would have necessitated a cross-country haul this week from Jacksonville to San Diego, followed by another jaunt back over the Rockies and east to Tampa starting next Monday, all within the space of 14 days. He had a similar run of travel last year, and Ebersol said he didn't want him to have to do it again, no matter how soft and comfy that mattress may be.

     

    If there is a seventh game in the American League Championship Series between the Red Sox and Rays, it is scheduled in Tampa the same night the Seahawks and Bucs will be playing in the same city. That surely would fragment the television audience by cutting into the eyeballs watching the football game around the country, another factor in Ebersol recommending to Madden that it seemed like the perfect storm of circumstances for him to spend the weekend at home.

     

    And no, Ebersol laughed, the price of gassing up the bus has nothing to do with it.

     

    Madden has been around the often cutthroat television business long enough to be a tad suspicious, even if he is now in the third year of his initial six-year contract to do Sunday nights for NBC. Ebersol said Madden asked him point blank, "do you have another agenda going?"

     

    In another words, would Madden be NBC's Wally Pipp, permanently replaced by the network's Lou Gehrig/Chris Collinsworth the first time he took a day off?

     

    "I said no, absolutely not, I want you for all six years of this contract," Ebersol said he told Madden. "We are a much better organization with John and Cris. To me, it's just a week to rest my best player. It's like giving your best starting pitcher an extra day off in the rotation."

     

    "I don't remember asking him that," Madden said, "but he did tell me he wants me for the whole six years. I mean, this is what I do. I've done it all my life. I'm the luckiest guy in the world. I've done nothing else but football. If it ever gets to the point where I don't love it, I won't do it. The travel, the film study, talking to players, going to practice. It's like my hobby. It's still exciting to me. I love it. It's a way of life for me."

     

    Ebersol said he also was looking ahead to when the league's flex schedule kicks in during Week 11, allowing the network to opt out of its previously scheduled Sunday night game and pick a contest that may be more compelling to viewers. But on three straight flex weekends, starting with the Redskins playing the Cowboys at FedEx Field on Nov. 16, Madden may well have to make two semi-cross country trips in a 14-day span anyway.

     

    After what should be a compelling Dallas-Washington matchup, NBC is scheduled to do another potentially blockbluster game, with Indianapolis heading to San Diego on Nov. 23. That will be followed a week later by Chicago at Minnesota, which likely will also have significant playoff implications and not be replaced by another flexed game.

     

    Travel by bus over that stretch also could be dicey, what with winter weather a possibility, particularly crossing the Rockies to get out to San Diego, then back again to Minneapolis unless the network flexes out to a better game, which now seems highly unlikely.

     

    "Look, I think that John is not only the best game analyst in the history of sports, he remains the best analyst on televi sion," Ebersol said. "I just think it's smart thinking to do it this way."

     

    Collinsworth at some point way down the road may well be asked to move into Madden's analyst chair for Sunday night games when (or if) Madden decides to park the bus permanently. But at the moment, Ebersol said Collinsworth wants no part of going on the road to a football game every weekend. He has children very much involved in high school and youth sports, and Collinsworth said in an interview several weeks ago that working in the studio on Sunday allows him the joyful freedom to see them in action every week, and do a little coaching on the side, as well.

     

    "Cris will tell you he wants his life to stay exactly the way it is right now," Ebersol said. "So let's be very clear about this. I had one goal in mind when we (NBC) got football in April of 2005, and that was to lock up the two best analysts in football. John is the best game analyst, and no one has been better in the studio than Cris Collinsowrth. We're better off having them both, and that's exactly how it's going to stay.

     

    "You know what's so interesting about John? He reveres young people. He'd rather hang around with the production assistants and the athletes. And he gets so charged up for the football season. In the spring, he can't wait to get back into the circus, and I see no sign of that waning."

  23. Posted

    I saw an ACORN official on CNN the other day. She said they take, and turn in, ANY application submitted to them. Then, the appropriate officials reject the bogus ones, as they did with Mickey Mouse.

     

    That is not fraud, nor a crime. I imagine there was some kind of giveaway involved to register people, or just some smartasss kid filled it out.

     

    Now if someone showed up to vote as Mickey Mouse, THAT would be fraud.

     

    Oh, and BTW, Obama ≠ ACORN. Nice try though.

     

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1223940510...emEditorialPage

  24. Posted

    Whether Democrat or Republican you should be disturbed by voter fraud. Bottom Line.

     

    I was watching Bill Maher's show the other night and ACORN was brought up by a guest. His response: "I don't even know what it stands for and I don't care to know, it means nothing to me." This seems to be a shared sentiment with most Obama supporters.

     

    :thumbsdown:

     

    Gee imagine that Bill Maher not being informed... But I do agree, this is disturbing no matter what candidate you support...

×