Day: September 21, 2007
Maybe If Karen Thurman Had Said ‘Pretty Please’
It seems the Florida Democratic Party just gets patheticker and patheticker. According to the Politico, state Chair Karen Thurman, in an effort to make the party’s October state convention at least marginally meaningful compared with its totally meaningless January primary, wrote to the four early-primary states to ask them to permit the Dem prez candidates to attend the convention.
Maybe Karen and Co. can console themselves with a ride on ‘It’s a Small World’ or a visit to ‘Country Bear Jamboree.’
See, following the Democratic National Committee’s smack-down of the the Florida Dems for moving the state’s primary to Jan. 29, ahead of the Feb. 5 earliest-allowed date, the four leading Dem candidates signed a pledge not to campaign in the state unless FlaDems fixed the date thingy. The state party leaders are supposed to teleconference next Saturday and come up with a final solution to the mess before the Sept. 29 5 p.m. deadline. Nothing like leaving it to the last possible minute.
In the meantime, Thurman asked the lead states — Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina — to allow the candidates to come to Disney World for the FlaDem convention next month. (Appropriate venue, no?) The answer? No way, not until you folks get together a “compliant” plan to render your primary meaningless. One wonders why Thurman didn’t wait until after the party had figured out what it was going to do before crawling hat in hands to the early states. But then, one wonders often at Thurman’s behavior. For instance, why wait until just hours before the deadline to convene the party leadership to discuss what to do about Jan. 29.
Here’s the hard-assed letter signed by reps of the four states:
The Hon. Karen Thurman September 18th, 2008
Chair, Florida Democratic Party
Dear Congresswoman Thurman,The Florida Democratic Party has requested that candidates who signed the “Four-State Pledge†with Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina attend their Democratic Convention in October. We understand from the Florida Democratic Party that this is an important event for them.
Each candidate signed the pledge and indicated they understood that the intention of the pledge is to bring finality, predictability and common sense to the nominating calendar. The pledge refers to the 2008 Delegate Selection Rules for the Democratic National Committee, including, but not limited to, Rule 20 c 1 b.
These rules hold true for any state infringing on the pre-window. Candidates have signed a pledge to honor the calendar with regard to the pre-window and that applies to all states moving forward.
Appallingly Stupid M.I.T. Student Not Even Tasered
The prestige of an M.I.T. degree just took a dive.
An MIT student wearing what turned out to be a fake bomb was arrested at gunpoint Friday at Logan International Airport and later claimed it was artwork, officials said.
Star Simpson, 19, had a computer circuit board and wiring in plain view over a black hooded sweat shirt she was wearing, said State Police Maj. Scott Pare, the commanding officer at the airport…
The battery-powered rectangular device had nine flashing lights, Pare said. Simpson also had Play-Doh in her hands, he said.
Man, what an idiot. Logan was the airport where two of the four 9/11 planes took off. I would think they’d be just a tad jumpy about things like this.
The trooper, joined by others with submachine guns, confronted her at a traffic island in front of the terminal.
“She was immediately told to stop, to raise her hands and not to make any movement, so we could observe all her movements to see if she was trying to trip any type of device,” Pare said. “Had she not followed the protocol, we might have used deadly force.”
Of course, had she been trying to ask a question at a John Kerry talk she would at least have been Tasered. So what was up?
“She said that it was a piece of art and she wanted to stand out on career day,” Pare said at a news conference. “She claims that it was just art, and that she was proud of the art and she wanted to display it.”
Simpson was charged with disturbing the peace and possessing a hoax device. A not guilty plea was entered for her at her arraignment Friday and she was released on $750 bail.
She was lucky again. Had she beaten up a fellow high school student in Jena, Louisiana her bail would have $90,000. If she were black, that is.
Does Rummy Miss George Bush?
In article in GQ Magazine, Donald Rumseld is asked about George W. Bush. First, he slips up and tells the truth:
Do you miss him? “Um, no.”
But then quickly covers with a lie:
Still like him? “I do.”
Cowboy Bush Is Scared of Horses?
All Hat and Five Cattle
This this new nugget of info about our swaggering faux-redneck president underscores why it is important to put quotemarks around the word “ranch” when describing Pres. Bush’s vacation home in the hinterlands of Crawford, Texas:
Vicente Fox, the former president of Mexico, derided his political friend as a “windshield cowboy” — a cowboy who prefers to drive — and “the cockiest guy I have ever met in my life”.
He recalled a meeting in Mexico shortly after both men had been elected when Mr Fox offered Mr Bush a ride on a “big palomino” horse.
Mr Fox, who left office in December, recalled Mr Bush “backing away” from the animal.
”A horse lover can always tell when others don’t share our passion,” he said, according to the Washington Post…
The article also points out that there are five cows and no horses on the Bush “ranch.”
Friday Funnies: CheatNeutral.Com
Have you, like me, had problems with the whole concept of carbon offsets? As it’s usually explained, you drive your Lady Hummer, fly when it would be easier to walk, and install an ice rink in the backyard of your Miami home…BUT you also pay someone to clean up enough carbon somewhere else on the planet to make up for it.
Is the problem you have with this somewhat convoluted and contrived brainchild the nagging thought that it would be more effective not to burn all those greenhouse gases to begin with? Well, the British have a parody web site for you.
CheatNeutral.com applies the idea behind carbon offsets to relationships. They sell cheat offsets to those who are being unfaithful to their significant others, while paying monogamous couples to stay that way. Watch them explain the concept to folks on the street, and it really dawns on you how much better it would be to just use less of the planet’s scarce resources. And oh yeah, how much better not to sleep around on your partner!
