"I was shocked when I learned Iowa and Mississippi have never elected a woman governor, senator or member of Congress," she said. "There has got to be something at work here...
The fact we haven't had any good female candidates doesn't occur to the smartest woman in the world. This learned wizard of policy and education hasn't boned up on Occam's razor...
"...other things being equal -- the simplest hypothesis proposed as an explanation of phenomena is more likely to be the true one than is any other available hypothesis..."
All things being equal, the most logical explanation is probably the right one. We haven't had good female candidates to vote for.
Bonnie Campbell was a cold fish who didn't connect with the normal people of Iowa. I remember her running and just about falling asleep during her campaigning. Hillary has the same sort of robot-emotionalized way of speaking.
Still...we're better than Mississippi...
"I think Iowa poses a special burden, or a special obstacle to me because when you look at the numbers, how can Iowa be ranked with Mississippi? That's not what I see. That's not the quality. That's not the communitarianism, that's not the openness I see in Iowa."
Don't expect to see Hillary campaigning in Mississippi...she's already written them a "No Thank You" note. ----------- -----------
Read Greg's NEW eBook! How after years of piddling around, he finally made an income (after expenses) on the internet!
If it looks like a scam, smells like a scam, and reads like a scam...it's probably a scam.
A while back, I referenced a letter I received via email from one of those South African scam/spam sites. Since I'm smarter than your average US Senator, I decided to have a little fun with the attempt at getting me to help assist in "transferring" some money from overseas to the US.
All the email scams sound the same.
"Hey, I found a huge amount of money! But I can't legally bring it to the US...will you help me?"
So, I figure I could have a little fun and play around with them...lead them along for as long as possible in the hopes of wasting their time enough to prevent them from being able to scam someone else.
Read my previous posts on the adventure of scamming scammers...HERE.
Anyway, the latest involves a "phony soldier" (or at least it sounds like one) from Iraq. Here's the letter and my reply below. I've removed the email and website contacts "she" includes to protect my attempt at scamming the scammer...I don't want a bunch of you folks emailing the address to tip her off or ruin my fun...
Good Day,
I found your contact particulars in an E-mail address guide they provide us here, as I desperately needed an urgent help to do this deal. I am seeking your kind assistance to move the sum of $12m {Twelve Million U.S Dollars only} to you as far as I can be assured that my share will be safe in your care until I complete my service here.
SOURCE OF FUND:
A lot of money in various currencies were discovered in barrels at a farmhouse near one of Saddams old palaces in Tikrit in Iraq during an operation Conquest in Fallujah north of Baghdad, and it was agreed by Staff Sgt. Kenneth Buff and I that some part of this money be shared among both of us before informing anybody about it since both of us saw the money first. This is quite an illegal thing to do, but will tell you what? No compensation can make up for the risk we have taken with our lives in this hell hole, of which my brother in-law was killed by a road side bomb last time.
The above figure was given to me as my share, and to conceal this kind of money became a problem for me, so with the help of a British Contact working here, at Southern Basra British fortified green zone, whose office enjoys some immunity, I was able to get the package out to a safe location entirely out of trouble spot. He does not know the real contents of the package, and believes that it belongs to a British/American medical doctor who died in a raid here in Baghdad, and before giving up, trusted me to hand over the package to his family. I have now found a very secured way of getting the package out of Iraq to you, for you to pick it up, and I will discuss this with you when I am sure that you are willing to assist me, and I believe that my money will be well secured in your hand because you have fear of God. I want you to tell me how much you will take from this money for the assistance you will give me. One passionate appeal I will make to you is not to discuss this matter with anybody, should you have reasons to reject this offer, please and please destroy this message as any leakage of this information will be too bad and catastrophic for soldiers here in Iraq. I do not know how long we will remain here, but I hope to have a shift very soon for me to return back to the States.
I have been shot and wounded twice and I have survived two terrible suicides bomb attacks just by special grace of God, this and other reasons I will mention later has prompted me to reach out for help, I will honestly want this matter be resolved immediately, Please contact me as soon as possible with my private email address which is my only way of communication for now.
My private email address is: torcarajjtolbert@xxxxxxxxx You can read more about me at: Website: www.xxxxxx-xxxxxx.com
I thank you so much for everything and anticipate that you will be trustworthy and handle this transaction to the best of your ability to benefit both of us.
God Bless you and your Family Yours, SGT Torcara J. Tolbert
Here's my reply. Let's hope she bites and we can continue our correspondence.
My wife was in the military which is where you probably got my email address. I also had a brother in law in Iraq early last year and my family is heavily involved in the military, so I am graced by your presence. Thank you for the job you do.
I too am a very discrete person, so please share with me more information. Since we are being discrete, I cannot share my full name with you...the President might be listening or reading. I need to be reasonably sure that my name will be guarded as well.
I hope all is well. How may I help?
This should be fun...stay tuned.
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I want to laugh as much as I want to cry, but it's not that far out of bounds from what I seem to be reading an awful lot of in the daily Letters to the Editor in the Cedar Rapids Gazette.
Same tone. Same idiocy.
They don't call the people in Congress "leaders" for nothing. And Representative Pete Stark is the leading asshole among a lot of them in the Democrat party. Sorry to be so blunt, but it's people like Stark that are "leading" me to do it...
In case you can't stomach actually sitting through the video...
"Where are you going to get that money? Are you going to tell us lies like you're telling us today? Is that how you're going to fund the war? You don't have money to fund the war or children. But you're going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the president's amusement."
His official Congressional website doesn't list his email address and the only email he accepts is one from his district. Figures.
WASHINGTON, DC 239 Cannon Building Washington, DC 20515 202-225-5065 202-226-3805 (fax)
FREMONT 39300 Civic Center Dr. Suite 220 Fremont, CA 94538 510-494-1388 510-494-5852 (fax)
UPDATED
Oh, it's just an isolated nobody in the Democrat party and it's so far out there and why pay attention to people like that and you're making too much of it nobody really believes that and he's just saying it for effect he probably doesn't mean it himself you say?
A round of applause from DailyKos...and the Congrasshole stops by to thank the crowd of loonies for their support. (See: Pete Stark Thanks Daily Kos) Caution...link takes you to la la land with the rest of the wing-nut lefties.
Wish the military could do the same.
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Read Greg's NEW eBook! How after years of piddling around, he finally made an income (after expenses) on the internet!
The Des Moines Register has a story today about a company hired to oversee and improve inefficiencies in the health care system.
Many of the letters to the editor I read keep pointing out how health care will be so much improved if we would just elect Obama, Hillary, Richardson, Edwards, etc and let them manage our health care plans...maybe even give us free plans.
There's a debate raging in the US Senate over the expansion of the S-CHIP program to help those fighting poverty to get free health care. By poverty they mean a family of four earning around $78,000 dollars a year. Oh...and "children" under the age of 25.
So, with that in mind, I reference a great quote by a favorite author of mine - PJ O'rourke...
"If you think health care is expensive now...just wait until it's free."
According to the story, "Audit rakes health care overseer," the federal contractor hired to oversee health care in Iowa - and operating in four states with nearly 800 employees - misspent tons of money. They've barely scratched the surface because the audit only looked at 10% of the spending of government funding. There's another $90 million dollars they were given that should be looked over.
Out of the $10 million dollars they looked at, they found extremely questionable expenses and unauthorized use of money to the tune of 7%. Multiply that by the total amount of government funding they received, and we're talking about a potential miss-use of government money ranging anywhere from $5-to-$7 million dollars.
Are you sure you want government helping to improve the US health care system?
As expected, a lot of the fraud and unauthorized spending comes in the form of salaries, kickbacks, trips, food, personal cell phones, chartered jets, and who knows what else.
Details of the story:
A federal contractor in West Des Moines is accused of misspending $739,000 of taxpayer money that was intended to improve health care in Iowa.
The inspector general of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says the Iowa Foundation for Medical Care appears to have misused tax money on executive pay, retreats for its board of directors, chartered airplane trips and food for its employees.
That's just the beginning of the story and it's enough for me. Reading the rest is like reading every other government waste report.
The foundation also is alleged to have improperly spent more than $83,000 on cell phones, computers and other equipment given to employees of the federal agency that hired the foundation to oversee health care in Iowa.
It sounds like they were doing their jobs just like John Edwards does. Understanding poverty and helping unite "the two Americas" by living in a 30,000 square foot house getting $400 dollar haircuts and foreclosing on Hurricane Katrina victims.
Their mission is to improve patient care and eliminate inefficiencies in the health care system.
The inspector general alleged that the foundation:
- Misspent $95,647 on food, including $61,380 for "routine meals and snacks" for employees who were not traveling out of town. The inspector general noted an additional $25,318 was spent on food at meetings of the board of directors, but those purchases were not questioned.
- Misspent $29,616 on chartered aircraft for board members to attend meetings.
- Paid its finance and human resources director almost $255,000 in annual salary. Factoring in benefits, the employee was paid almost $63,000 more than what the federal government considers "reasonable."
Earlier this year, the Register reported that the foundation paid one executive $346,000 annually and gave $563,807 in severance pay to a pair of executives after they resigned.
Yep.
Can't wait for that government health care.
Hillary's health care plan is currently 10-pages (with a promise that the experts in Congress will fill in the blanks), including a really interesting passage direct from the HillaryClinton.com website, "Making the Employer Tax Exclusion for Health Care Fairer"
Don't laugh, someday we may all be voting this way. The lazy way of deciding what candidate you should support based on your beliefs...The Candidate Calculator!
A website my wife found devotes some portion of a good MySQL database to make the job of picking a winner in the Presidential race.
Just answer the questions, select the importance of some basic issues...and voila! The candidate who most closely matches your beliefs pops up on the screen along with a few other lesser tier candidates.
I took the test and found out I should be supporting Mitt Romney. I actually stayed at a hotel recently that he was checked into. Didn't meet him, but met a few of his Secret Service dudes.
I just finished a round of designing some neato shirts and sweatshirts (ladies included) that you fellow Iowans (and anyone else) can show off when the campaigners come a-campaigning...
Not sure if ole deep pockets himself will notice and come a lawsuitin' but...there it is. I think it's kind of creative, don't you?
To see all the items available in my store, go to: Greg Alan's Store
a cease-and-desist letter to CafePress demanding that PoliStew Cafe’s items and other anti-MoveOn.org merchandise be removed from the store.
Move On warn warned: “We have been alerted to an entire page of items on your website that infringes on our registered trademark, and we request that you remove all items immediately, and ask the poster to refrain from shipping any items purchased on this webpage. We also request that you give us contact information for the company / person who posted the items. This content has certainly NOT been authorized by anyone at MoveOn.org, nor anyone affiliated with MoveOn.”
Free speech indeed. I can't wait for my own letter. Hurry and purchase before I get sued!
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Read Greg's NEW eBook! How after years of piddling around, he finally made an income (after expenses) on the internet!
I haven't watched the local news in years...primarily because they usually sound so condescending all the time. Especially Ron Steele and whoever they have with him this week on channel 7. I used to get a laugh out of how they would always be saying such stupid things in the "banter" part of the newscast.
The news on the other hand wasn't much better. The last time I watched the news, I remember the weather guy standing outside telling people not to go outside. And then when they started that whole walking-toward-the-camera-as-you-report-on-the-news thing...it just got annoying.
So, even though I didn't see it...a reporter at KCRG seems to have made the big time. I think that's channel 9...
An eagle-eyed reporter for the ABC affiliate in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, noticed something missing from Democratic presidential contender Sen. Barack Obama's, D-Ill., lapels.
"You don't have the American flag pin on. Is that a fashion statement?"
He could have said something like..."oops" or whatever, but instead of a fashion statement, he made it a political statement:
Instead the Illinois senator answered the question at length, explaining that he no longer wears such a pin, at least in part, because of the Iraq War.
"You know, the truth is that right after 9/11, I had a pin," Obama said. "Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we're talking about the Iraq War, that became a substitute for I think true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security, I decided I won't wear that pin on my chest.
Since we don't actually hear Obama say he no longer wears the pin, in part, because of the Iraq War, I can't say much beyond the following.
This is the silliest thing I've seen in a long time...and probably good reason to continue avoiding the local TV news.
Way to go KCRG....
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Read Greg's NEW eBook! How after years of piddling around, he finally made an income (after expenses) on the internet!
----------- When will the so-called educated (#3 in the nation) people of Iowa rid themselves of the serious waste of skin that is Tom Harkin?
The man is seriously deranged or so un-informed that it literally scares me that people actually believe the crap that comes out of his pie hole.
Tom Harkin, 1992 Presidential run pre-announcement stump speech preparation:
"...Tom Harkin, Viet Nam combat pilot...no, better make that Viet Nam vet...uh oh...nevermind...Viet Nam era veteran...there. That's a little easier for the idiots who vote for me to understand."
And he has just the right amount of brains to be able to read the spoon-fed talking points from Media Matters...a bunch of lazy bottom feeders for lazy bottom feeder journalists who don't know that Google results go beyond just the first link on the search results.
Am I being too harsh?
Tom "the turkey" Harkin...
I have dealt with Tom Harkin as an on-air host a number of times...never once securing an interview from him because he wanted the questions I would ask written down for him in advance.
Any other journalist who has ever been in on one of his so-called "conference calls" with the media knows the truth.
Tom Harkin couldn't complete an original thought if his phony Viet Nam era ass were on the line.
Most of the other times his audio is ever used by radio journalists comes pre-packaged from his staffers who write both the questions and answers for him and he simply records them and sends out a press release for lazy deadline-starved small time news people to fill their "newscasts" with. Seriously. I used to be one of those until I wised up.
Back in the old days, you used to have to call up a certain number listed on the press release sent out by his Senate office. That number was usually hooked to a coupler that would automatically answer and start playing the audio outlined in the press release.
I kept wondering why the audio always sounded so canned. Why there were never any so-called "vocal pauses" that everyone has...some "ahhs" or "umms" mixed in...
They never sounded very "natural" and had a machine like quality to them.
In my early radio career in small town Osage, or Estherville, or even Boone...it was all we ever had, so I ran with it. After a while, I figured even your average doofus listening to a 5-watt bulb of a radio station could probably tell they were canned, so I stopped using them because I thought the audience was smarter than that.
Apparently not. Because every once in a while...I still hear a few of his clips used on a certain News/Talk radio station within range of my radio reception.
If you can't tell he's reading those so-called "comments" presented in most news stories...you're probably stupid enough to still be voting for him.
Speaking of phony soldiers...
Tom "the turkey" Harkin is a supreme example of a phony soldier himself. Just ask him...
"After I got out of college," he says in his standard stump speech, "I spent eight years, eight months and eight days as a Navy pilot." His military record, though, shows he served five years on active duty, from Nov. 21, 1962, until Nov. 30, 1967. The senator arrives at the eight-year figure by adding on three years in the ready reserve.
"Active duty" he was...probably just like John Kerry. Inventing stuff he could use on the dopes back in his home town PO Box in Iowa.
In 1979, Mr. Harkin, then a congressman, participated in a round-table discussion arranged by the Congressional Vietnam Veterans' Caucus. "I spent five years as a Navy pilot, starting in November of 1962," Mr. Harkin said at that meeting, in words that were later quoted in a book, Changing of the Guard, by Washington Post political writer David Broder. "One year was in Vietnam. I was flying F-4s and F-8s on combat air patrols and photo-reconnaissance support missions. I did no bombing."
Tom Harkin. Phony soldier. Because he never did any of that...
How much time did he actually spend in Vietnam? "I wouldn't really know," he says.
But what about those combat air patrols and the photo-reconnaissance support missions? He says he did fly combat air patrols, in Cuba, in 1965 and 1966.
Wrong side of the planet, genius.
In explaining his Vietnam experience at that congressional round-table in 1979, Sen. Harkin says that in retrospect "maybe I didn't say it right."
In April of 1981, Mr. Harkin told Harold E. Roberts, publisher of the Creston, Iowa, News Advertiser, that in Japan he was assigned to a squadron where "we flew many missions to Vietnam and the Philippines."
Whoa! I guess he forgot he said that "I wouldn't really know" part from 1979 because he repeated the lie a mere two years later. Hmmm....
And in a short April 1, 1980, statement in the Congressional Record attacking the Veterans Administration for the way it was handling claims related to the herbicide Agent Orange, Mr. Harkin said that "as a Vietnam veteran in Congress, I feel particularly responsible for seeing that this issue continues to command our attention."
Maybe HE was on drugs all those times he lied and tried to slip it by the lazy media...
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Read Greg's NEW eBook! How after years of piddling around, he finally made an income (after expenses) on the internet!
