The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) is launching a campaign to find the bumper sticker slogan that will carry us through the 2008 elections. It'll be on their website, on campaign literature and on the bumpers of jalopies coast to coast.
We need a turn of phrase that really jumps out and tells you right off the bat what this election is all about. In 1992, it was "It's the Economy, Stupid." In 2006, Democrats simply said "Had Enough?" It was the only question America needed to ask.
It has it has nice traditional 1960s flavor; Viet Nam, racism, quagmires and all that, but the Dem spin meisters may consider it too transparent and lacking nuance.
After valiant efforts by American opinion-makers to blame the bridge collapse on Bush, the war in Iraq and global warming, the truth may defy such glib pigeonholing:
Pounded and strained by heavy traffic and weakened by missing bolts and cracking steel, the failed interstate bridge over the Mississippi River also faced a less obvious enemy: Birds, specifically pigeons.
Inspectors began documenting the buildup of pigeon dung on the span near downtown Minneapolis two decades ago.
Experts say the corrosive guano deposited all over the Interstate 35W span's framework helped the steel beams rust faster.
We need to bring the troops back from Iraq to shoot all the birds.
#1
Try not to think about the effects of age and bird droppings on the bridges that many cities have that allow commercial aircaft to taxi over traffic.....for instance the A380 and LAX or O'Hare.......
#3
“But it's not against any religion/To want to dispose of a pigeon./All the world is in tune,/On a spring afternoon,/As we poison the pigeons in the park.”
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
08/23/2007 22:36 Comments ||
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#4
Pigeons, why do they hate us?
COME ON, SOMEONE HAD TO.
"To this world I contribute my smidgen,
I eat a squab lest it become a pigeon."
Police in Pierce County said two pit bull terriers broke into a woman's home through a pet door and attacked her in her bed. "Grrrr. Is this the Vick residence?"
The victim, identified as Sue Ann Gorman, was able to grab a gun and shoot at the dogs as she got away and locked herself in her car, where she called 911. Responding firefighters locked the pit bulls in the house until deputies arrived. Officers had to use pepper spray and fight the dogs to get them into custody.
The pit bulls also killed a neighbor's Jack Russell terrier who entered through the pet door after hearing noises in the home, police said. The little boy who owned the Jack Russell terrier that was killed told KING-TV he was sad but he felt that his dog, Romeo, "died as a hero." [damn] He's over the Rainbow Bridge, eating treats and chasing balls. He'll wait for you, kid.
Animal control officers said Gorman, who was hospitalized in serious condition, was covered in blood after the attack. The officers described it as the worst mauling they've ever seen, according to KING-TV in Seattle. Officers said Gorman, 59, was sound asleep at the time of the bloody attack. "Tears into her hands and arms and into her breast and face," said Gorman's friend Carol Southworth. "Pretty much from head-to-toe, she was covered in blood," said Pierce County Animal Control officer Brian Bowman.
"I can just say I'm sorry because I I'm terrified I'm gonna get my ass sued off can't take it back," Zack Martin, one of the dogs' owners Imams, told KING-TV. He said one of dogs was his and the other belonged to a friend. KING-TV reported that Martin said one of the dogs chewed on a rope holding up the fence to his madrassa backyard, and that's how the dogs escaped. "I would never think my dog would do something like that," said Martin. When interviewed by K9-TV, the dogs said "It was the wrong house. But, anyway. Allahu Akhbar!"
Neighbors told KING-TV that they have had problems in the past with the two pit bulls running wild. Prosecutors have not yet decided whether to file charges against the dogs' owners. Animal control officers said they would recommend at least gross misdemeanor charges, according to KING-TV. Why do they hate us?
Posted by: Gary and the Samoyeds ||
08/23/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Neighbors told KING-TV that they have had problems in the past with the two pit bulls running wild.
And that right there is the lawsuit done and dusted.
Vermont's clothing-optional capital is stripping off its temporary ban on public nudity.
"Hello, world! These are our... ummm... publics."
A month after passing the temporary ban after an elderly tourist strolled naked through the centre of town,
"Aaaiiieee! My eyes!"
"Ewwwwwwww!"
"Ban him!"
"I never want to see nekkid again!"
Brattleboro city board members voted 3-2 on Tuesday to reject a proposed ordinance that would have made it permanent.
"Now, looky here, you guys! We ban nekkid because of old Harv, we're also banning the nekkid 18-year-old babez, right? So y'gotta sacrifice if yer gonna have the rewards, right?"
"I dunno, Bob. Old Harv was... [shudder!]"
When the emergency temporary ordinance expires next month, public nudity will no longer be illegal. It is all about tolerance, one board member said.
"We're trying to come up with something that lets everybody take their clothes off but Harv."
"We in this country are going down a slippery slope these days," said Dora Bouboulis, noting a national newspaper recently published an article about the emergency ordinance under the headline "Tolerant town gets intolerant". She said it is not up to the town to restrict anyone's right to dress or undress.
"Yeah. Who put them in charge, huh?"
Before the vote, residents weighed in on both sides of the debate. Michael Gauthier gave the board a petition with signatures of 967 people who support a nudity ban. "What is the point, other than shock and awe, that the nudists are trying to make?" he asked.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Tell them to feel free to run naked in Brattleboro from November to February...
#1
These kids understand EXACTLY how Islam should be treated in free countries. Make fun of its silly aspects. Sort of like Monty Python did with Christianity in the Holy Grail.
#2
Thank God (I mean Allah, sorry) that this was in Cornwall and not central London. They would have been stoned and beaten (by the police) and ostracized by Red Ken, Hugo Chavez O.B.E., Gordonian Knot Brown and Jon Snow.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/23/2007 10:23 Comments ||
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EIGHTEEN sailors from a beached Indonesian Navy training vessel have been found beside the road near Rainbow Beach north of the Sunshine Coast after their vessel was driven aground. The vessel is understood to have been in Australian waters on route to APEC in Sydney.
The sailors, wearing life jackets and speaking little English, sparked concerns they were illegal immigrants from a fishing boat but the men were later discovered to have been from the tall ship Arung Samudera, which beached in bad weather on Inskip Point. Inskip Point is just north of Rainbow Beach, about 210km north of Brisbane.
The crew walked into Rainbow Beach police station at 3am today.
ABC radio said the men were found this morning on Rainbow Beach near Gympie by local man Bob Elmer. Mr Elmer said he found the men on a road behind the beach wet and shivering but looking relaxed. The men told him they were Indonesian and were travelling on a boat from Cairns to Brisbane when their boat broke down.
"There were about a dozen people standing on the road and from what I could understand - and I'm not real good at listening to Indonesians talk - they said they were coming from Cairns to Brisbane and broke down and washed up on the beach," Mr Elmer said. "We've just been trying to organise the police and the SES to help."
The southern area of the Queensland is being lashed by huge seas and high winds whipped up from a low moving slowly north.
Australian Maritime Safety Authority spokeswoman said it was understood the 12 men were Indonesian naval officers on the 40m sail training vessel Arung Samudera. "We believe they were travelling to Brisbane," she said.
#1
So, these assclowns managed to run this three-masted yawl rigged beauty aground? Indonesia couldn't even bother to man the vessel with crew that spoke a smidgen of English? Afraid they'd all jump ship in Oz?
#2
Hey, Zenster. How much Bahasa Indonesian do you speak? Take it easy on these kids. They are cadets in the Indonesian Naval Academy. Looks like some did speak English unless ole Bob Elmer knows more than "terima kasih".
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/23/2007 10:26 Comments ||
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#3
How much Bahasa Indonesian do you speak? Take it easy on these kids.
Jack, re-read my post. I ran down Indonesia's government for not manning the ship with people who had some command of English. After all, they were being sent to an English-speaking nation so it would only make sense to include one or two fluent people. Likewise a competent captain and first mate, but we won't go there. Besides, Indonesian isn't this world's de facto second language.
#4
Indonesia and Australia are very close geographically. But, I would guess there are a lot less Australians who speak Indonesian than Indonesians who speak English -- even though Indonesia is the fifth most populous country in the world, and its language is an official language of Singapore and Malaysia, and also is not infrequently spoken in the Netherlands.
English and Indonesian come from very different language group families. Knowing one language really will not help you to learn the other. And, a lack of practice of disparate languages really makes one rusty -- which is probably the case with the Indonesian naval cadets -- since English is commonly learned at the higher educational levels in Indonesia. For example, saying something like
Can you help me? I am a naval cadet and my ship just got grounded in a storm. Boy, I wish I had more training on sail powered ships, or was on a ship that had a motor!
Would look something like this in Indonesian:
Bisa kamu menolong saya? Saya seorang kadet militer angkatan laut dan kapal saya hanya kandas di angin topan. Ya, saya menginginkan saya sudah belajar lebih banyak di kapal layar, atau kami akan pakai kapal yang mempunyai mesin!
Elvira Arellano, now booted from her sanctuary in an LA Cathedral tells the Mexican Congress that the US broke the law first by allowing illegals to cross the border without documents and pay taxes.
Also note the headline on the linked page doesn't mention the cross the border without papers and just emphasizes the taxes.
It says a lot of about Mexico that she nobody laughed and mocked her.
Chapter III
Of Foreigners
Article 33 - Foreigners are those who do not possess the qualities determined in Article 30. They have the right to the guarantees of Chapter I of the first title of this Constitution, but the Executive of the Union has the exclusive right to expel from the national territory, immediately and without necessity of judicial proceedings, all foreigners whose stay it judges inconvenient. Foreigners may not, in any manner, involve themselves in the political affairs of the country.
#3
In Greenville at the BMW plant they caught several illegals using fake documents, they were arrested and now await deportation.
What is the big problem with other states just enforcing the law like the Judges do here in South Carolina?
No second or third chances; first offense and your gone.
#5
Exactly, tu. She paid somebody else's taxes and is upset about that (cuz she'll never collect) BUT can't, WON'T, see she has committed identity fraud, far worse than illegal entry.
Procopius-Thanks for posting that-it clearly shows the scale of the outrage.
She is no Rosa Parks-we're watchin'em play it that way, though.
A political TV advert that accuses a Catholic candidate of calling Protestants "scandalous, depraved, selfish and heretical" has provoked fury in the US state of Louisiana.
The man at the centre of the storm is Bobby Jindal, a Catholic and the Republican candidate in the race to be state governor.
Democrats say the 30-second ad - running in heavily Protestant areas - simply explains Mr Jindal's beliefs with his own words. But Mr Jindal says his views have been distorted, and a letter has been sent to nine TV stations saying the advert is defamatory and asking them to stop showing it. Fellow Republicans say it is a smear campaign.
The advert features an actress saying Mr Jindal does not respect other people's religions and directs viewers to a website with links to several articles Mr Jindal wrote on Catholicism. In one, Mr Jindal talks of the Catholic religion as the true Christian faith and refers to a "scandalous series of divisions and new denominations" of religions since the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century.
But he also wrote that the Catholic Church must incorporate the "spirit-led movements" of other Christian faiths.
#9
ha! I'm surprised that the Dems would want to call attention to this fact as it will help him get elected in LA. It just shows how little they understand the Christians they fail to represent.
A friend mentioned today that the prisoners on the "Thriller" video were actually forced to perform by the dude that runs the prison. I went to look for some links, and found this great photo essay comparing life in two different Pinoy prisons.
Be sure to read all the way through the comments; if I read them correctly, the prison director himself was trolling:
Subject: a WRITER must deliver a CORRECT informa
Date: Jul 31 2007 04:38:56 AM
Author: Adam Jasper
Awesome. I pissed off Byron Garcia so much he put ten angry comments on this page in one day. This is like school, but better.
One caveat, this site has lots of ads for adult-themed enterprises, some of which display minor nudidity. Prolly (possibly?) SFW, but I thought I'd warn you. And Rantburg, its directors, employees, and affiliates are not liable for the contents of any of the links on the other guy's site.
#1
I like the Phillipines, but I find it a weird hybrid of SE Asia and America. I love both places, but somehow the combination in the Phillipines jars. It's like at any moment you are never sure if you are going to get an Asian response or an American response. I never get this feeling in other parts of SE Asia. Well, except for the Muslims bits where I expect a, you are an infidel so I don't give a shit, response.
Thanks to Sea and RB for bringing us perspectives that the MSM doesn't.
#6
I hope the paleos won't see that pic, or they'll seethe (I mean, they'll be seething like they always do, but for a time, they'll be focusing on that).
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Police in Pierce County said two pit bull terriers broke into a woman's home through a pet door and attacked her in her bed. 
Vermont's clothing-optional capital is stripping off its temporary ban on public nudity.
