Yuck... This guy seriously thinks he's going to become chairman of the GOP?
Candidate for GOP chairman shows his true effin' colors
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Quantifying corruption - the $42 million Ukranian bribe!
Some places are so corrupt, you can quantify just how bad. In the Ukraine, they do!
In fact, the government releases bribe totals each year in an annual report. D'oh!
From the Kyiv Post:
"In 2008, more Ukrainian officials than ever got their fingers caught in the cookie jar. This year went down as a record-breaking year in the annals of bribes uncovered by law enforcement. (Given Ukraine’s reputation for corruption, one has to wonder how many bribes escaped the short arm of the law here.) Some 1,500 public servants took bribes in 2008, totaling Hr 91.1 million, the Ministry of Interior Affairs announced on Dec. 19, almost triple last year’s totals. These are the top 10 bribes we found, mostly in the public service and real estate sectors..."
Read more at:
Kyiv Post on 'Top 10 Uncovered Bribes'
P.S. If anyone hears of bribes going on in the Mpls-St. Paul area, please do tell. I'm all ears!!!
In fact, the government releases bribe totals each year in an annual report. D'oh!
From the Kyiv Post:
"In 2008, more Ukrainian officials than ever got their fingers caught in the cookie jar. This year went down as a record-breaking year in the annals of bribes uncovered by law enforcement. (Given Ukraine’s reputation for corruption, one has to wonder how many bribes escaped the short arm of the law here.) Some 1,500 public servants took bribes in 2008, totaling Hr 91.1 million, the Ministry of Interior Affairs announced on Dec. 19, almost triple last year’s totals. These are the top 10 bribes we found, mostly in the public service and real estate sectors..."
Read more at:
Kyiv Post on 'Top 10 Uncovered Bribes'
P.S. If anyone hears of bribes going on in the Mpls-St. Paul area, please do tell. I'm all ears!!!
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Eddy Burke and the Consequences
The man I wish I was is a bit of a band whore, sleeping around with all kinds of up-and-coming performing artists and name-dropping them at indie rock parties.
That man has never materialized, but I did buy a beer for a few weeks ago at the 440 Bar for a local bluegrass hero, Eddy Burke of Eddy Burke and the Consequences....
We are now friends on MySpace. I did not catch his show at the Acadia last night but if I had, we'd be fist-bumping and swapping groupies and I would have had the harmonica solo. i just know it.
Listen to the second song here with the Consequences, the bluegrass "If I remember":
http://www.myspace.com/199210144
His sadder folk stuff here -- "That Smiling Girl" is a favorite:
http://www.myspace.com/thelegendofeddyburke
That man has never materialized, but I did buy a beer for a few weeks ago at the 440 Bar for a local bluegrass hero, Eddy Burke of Eddy Burke and the Consequences....
We are now friends on MySpace. I did not catch his show at the Acadia last night but if I had, we'd be fist-bumping and swapping groupies and I would have had the harmonica solo. i just know it.
Listen to the second song here with the Consequences, the bluegrass "If I remember":
http://www.myspace.com/199210144
His sadder folk stuff here -- "That Smiling Girl" is a favorite:
http://www.myspace.com/thelegendofeddyburke
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Military drops the ball on No. 1 soldier-killer
GOP SENATOR RAPS MARINES FOR LACK OF BOMB RESISTANT JEEPS
Military commanders in Iraq asked for bomb-resistant jeeps in 2005; Marine leaders decided armored-Humvees would suffice. They didn't, and roadside bombs became the No. 1 killer of U.S. troops.
Says a Republican U.S. Senator and a new Pentagon study to the brass: YOU SUCK!
When it comes to the military, it's easy to adopt stereotypes about the right and left, to fall back on thinking that says Democrats and liberals are anti-war, anti-military slacker types, while the Republicans are all about serving the country and God bless the flag and bomb 'em all and let God sort 'em out...
Those modalities make it all the more fascinating to watch the military get dissected by a Republican leader like U.S. Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo.
More here:
Republican senator lays in on Marines, military
The controversy centers on "MRAP" jeeps that military commanders requested back in 2005 to protect soldiers from roadside bombs, like the one that killed an old college chum of mine in Afghanistan in May. The Marines dragged their feet and the jeeps never arrived; the bombs quickly became the primary weapon in Iraq and the main killer of American soldiers.
Some telling quotes from the AP article:
QUOTE:
"As a result, the department entered into operations in Iraq without having taken available steps to acquire technology to mitigate the known mine and IED risk to soldiers and Marines," the report said.
This is the report's most "damning conclusion," Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., a critic of the military's wartime procurement practices, said Monday. "It appears that some bureaucrats at the Pentagon have much to explain to the families of American troops who were killed or maimed when a lifesaving solution was within reach," Bond said in an e-mail to the AP.
Here's another choice tidbit:
The February 2005 urgent request for 1,169 MRAPs was signed by then-Brig. Gen. Dennis Hejlik. The Marines could not continue to take "serious and grave casualties" caused by IEDs when a solution was commercially available, wrote Hejlik, who was a commander in western Iraq from June 2004 to February 2005.
Yet despite the stark wording of Hejlik's plea, the request was mishandled and eventually lost in bureaucracy. The inspector general puts most of blame on officials at Marine Corps Command Development Command. Headquartered at Quantico, Va., the command decides what gear to buy.
Military commanders in Iraq asked for bomb-resistant jeeps in 2005; Marine leaders decided armored-Humvees would suffice. They didn't, and roadside bombs became the No. 1 killer of U.S. troops.
Says a Republican U.S. Senator and a new Pentagon study to the brass: YOU SUCK!
When it comes to the military, it's easy to adopt stereotypes about the right and left, to fall back on thinking that says Democrats and liberals are anti-war, anti-military slacker types, while the Republicans are all about serving the country and God bless the flag and bomb 'em all and let God sort 'em out...
Those modalities make it all the more fascinating to watch the military get dissected by a Republican leader like U.S. Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo.
More here:
Republican senator lays in on Marines, military
The controversy centers on "MRAP" jeeps that military commanders requested back in 2005 to protect soldiers from roadside bombs, like the one that killed an old college chum of mine in Afghanistan in May. The Marines dragged their feet and the jeeps never arrived; the bombs quickly became the primary weapon in Iraq and the main killer of American soldiers.
Some telling quotes from the AP article:
QUOTE:
"As a result, the department entered into operations in Iraq without having taken available steps to acquire technology to mitigate the known mine and IED risk to soldiers and Marines," the report said.
This is the report's most "damning conclusion," Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., a critic of the military's wartime procurement practices, said Monday. "It appears that some bureaucrats at the Pentagon have much to explain to the families of American troops who were killed or maimed when a lifesaving solution was within reach," Bond said in an e-mail to the AP.
Here's another choice tidbit:
The February 2005 urgent request for 1,169 MRAPs was signed by then-Brig. Gen. Dennis Hejlik. The Marines could not continue to take "serious and grave casualties" caused by IEDs when a solution was commercially available, wrote Hejlik, who was a commander in western Iraq from June 2004 to February 2005.
Yet despite the stark wording of Hejlik's plea, the request was mishandled and eventually lost in bureaucracy. The inspector general puts most of blame on officials at Marine Corps Command Development Command. Headquartered at Quantico, Va., the command decides what gear to buy.
Monday, December 8, 2008
How my niece learned to see through the wolf-boy and love him too
A little sumpthin' sumpthin' I've started cookin' up:
Learning to love the wolf boy
The way I explained it to my niece, I'd found the wolf-boy alone, at dusk, howling by the side of the road. True to name, he was half boy, half wolf, a werewolf in miniature, smartly dressed in a blue sweater and slacks, no older than five or six. His mother was nowhere.
My niece, being five herself, was of an age where other children fascinated her. On the 4th of July, after I'd made the mistake of pointing out a boy playing with a handheld sparkler in his driveway, she'd cried for the entire 40-minute ride home, desperate to have us turn the car around for a better look. The children in her pre-school class, the neighbor kids across the street, strangers at the playground -- they were her universe, in parallel. Future friends, acquaintances, even lovers. And enemies too.
The wolf boy wanted to get home. How he got separated from his mother , I'm not sure, and I don't believe my niece ever asked. Fathers were irrelevant in this telling. They often are. But a boy separated from his mother -- that's a story.
We were leaving the indoor playground at...
Learning to love the wolf boy
The way I explained it to my niece, I'd found the wolf-boy alone, at dusk, howling by the side of the road. True to name, he was half boy, half wolf, a werewolf in miniature, smartly dressed in a blue sweater and slacks, no older than five or six. His mother was nowhere.
My niece, being five herself, was of an age where other children fascinated her. On the 4th of July, after I'd made the mistake of pointing out a boy playing with a handheld sparkler in his driveway, she'd cried for the entire 40-minute ride home, desperate to have us turn the car around for a better look. The children in her pre-school class, the neighbor kids across the street, strangers at the playground -- they were her universe, in parallel. Future friends, acquaintances, even lovers. And enemies too.
The wolf boy wanted to get home. How he got separated from his mother , I'm not sure, and I don't believe my niece ever asked. Fathers were irrelevant in this telling. They often are. But a boy separated from his mother -- that's a story.
We were leaving the indoor playground at...
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Chicago Tribune bankrupt and the SoCal gun-for-food trade
Sigh. You know the economy is bad when the Tribune Co, the owner of the Chicago Tribune and Wrigley Field, is on the verge of filing for bankruptcy ...
...and Compton gangsters are trading their guns for food!!!
Chicago Tribune on the verge of kaput-put-put-ouch-help-fudge
Guns for food in Compton
...and Compton gangsters are trading their guns for food!!!
Chicago Tribune on the verge of kaput-put-put-ouch-help-fudge
Guns for food in Compton
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