TSA to Require you to Remove Your Skin when You Get on an Airplane

I can see the headline from the future already after the latest insidious terrorist plot.

US officials have warned airlines terror groups may be mulling implanting bombs under the skins of passengers, reports said Wednesday, but stressed the alert was not linked to any specific threat.

The Los Angeles Times said the US administration had warned airlines that extremist groups were considering surgically implanting explosives into people to try to beat enhanced airport security measures.

Passengers flying to the United States could now face even tougher screening procedures, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration, Nicholas Kimball, told the daily.

Yup the TSA will now require you to remove your entire skin so that they can check to see if there is a bomb hidden under there. I think they should just require everyone to fly naked and they just knock everyone out with a cabin pressure change. Then they wake you up after the plane has landed. In the meantime they will scan every passenger with a total MRI to see if there were bombs implanted or not. The TSA is just ridiculous now.

Massive Storm Seen on Saturn: This one is BIG!

It sure is mind numbing sometimes the things that go on in this solar system.

Imagine being caught in a thunderstorm as wide as the Earth with discharges of lightning 10,000 times more powerful than normal, flashing 10 times per second at its peak. 

Now imagine that this storm is still unfolding, eight months later.

Now this is one impressive sight. The idea of lightning 10,000 times more powerful than earth is pretty nuts. Imagine if one of those things hit your city. 

Huge Cheating Scandal Unearthed in Atlanta Schools: 178 Teachers and Principals Involved

Now this is about as bad as it could get for teachers and principals and sets a terrible example to the kids.

Award-winning gains by Atlanta students were based on widespread cheating by 178 named teachers and principals, said Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal on Tuesday. His office released a report from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation that names 178 teachers and principals – 82 of whom confessed – in what's likely the biggest cheating scandal in US history.

It also appears to have all because of filthy lucre.

The 55,000-student Atlanta public school system rose in national prominence during the 2000s, as test scores steadily rose and the district received notice and funding from the Broad Foundation and the Gates Foundation. But behind that rise, the state found, were teachers and principals in 44 schools erasing and changing test answers.

These principals even went so far as to stonewall investigators and punish whistle-blowers. Oh well, I guess no one looks at it as cheating the kids. I mean bonuses are at stake so why shouldn't teachers "teach to the test" or simply erase the answers on the test?

I guess there needs to be more emphasis on other factors rather then teaching. I think it would be interesting to base some of these benchmarks on graduation rate or the number of kids that get into college or technical schools. I mean school is supposed to prepare you for the real world so the idea of real world outcomes might be something to put into the mix.

The Treasure Hunt School of Retailing

Hmm, I think this is a great idea that would certainly get me going back to the store again and again.

Constantly cycling in fresh merchandise is critical as the Web makes it harder for stores to compete on price. After all, why drive to a store that offers "everyday low prices" when you can find the same products cheaper online? Surprises also create suspense and encourage repeat visits.

Yeah, you buy the essentials using something like Amazon Prime and then you go to the retail store to buy something interesting. I remember going to Costco and seeing them stock things like German chocolate or funny biscuits from Europe. I would be much more willing to buy something like this on a whim to see how they taste. As long as the price is reasonable then I would try it just to try it.

The Story Behind the CIA Analyst that Caught Bin Laden

I really hope we have many more guys like him working the front lines at the CIA.

The analyst was the first to put in writing last summer that the CIA might have a legitimate lead on finding bin Laden. He oversaw the collection of clues that led the agency to a fortified compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. His was among the most confident voices telling Obama that bin Laden was probably behind those walls.

Can Obama Get Around the Debt Ceiling usng the 14th Amendment?

Now this is a very interesting issue and might be seen as going around the separation of powers.

Critics of the debt limit cite the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which states: "the validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned." (Emphasis ours)

Of course, the Fourteenth Amendment is open to wide, and varying, interpretation and debate. The most basic question here is, does a limit on debt "question" the "validity" of the debt?

I wonder if this means that we can default at all? It seems to be a violation of Constitution if we "question the validity" of the public debt by defaulting on it.  Would we have to find money somewhere no matter what (I guess lease off some monuments or something) to pay off the debt?

I guess Obama would have a shaky leg to stand on if he just tasked the Treasury Department with paying off our debts no matter what the ceiling is and issuing bonds if they have to. I mean after world markets tank if Congress doesn't get a debt ceiling move he would look like a White Knight unilaterally raising the the debt ceiling. Actually the thing he would worry about is the "validity of public debt" to foreign holders. It is a sticky constitutional issue that might come up in August at the earliest.

Reporter Suspended After Calling Obama a Dick

Um, what is so inappropriate about letting out your opinion on the President. I mean they called Bush far worse than that.

"Are we on the seven-second delay?" Halperin asked.

"We have it. We can use it. Go for it. Let's see what happens," co-anchor Joe Scarborough replied.

"I thought he was a dick yesterday," Halperin replied, sending the hosts into a brief moment of panic.

Halperin apologized later on in the show and issued his own mea culpa hours later via MSNBC.

"I completely agree with everything in MSNBC's statement about my remark," he said. "I believe that the step they are taking in response is totally appropriate. Again, I want to offer a heartfelt and profound apology to the President, to my MSNBC colleagues, and to the viewers. My remark was unacceptable, and I deeply regret it."

Well, MSNBC is a mouthpiece for the White House so I understand that they will brook no bad words against the Fearless Leader. What was funny is that some sources I read called it a slur. I was all expecting Halprin to be "suspended indefinitely" because he called Obama some racist name but since when is dick a slur?

Good News Kids: The Government Can't Stop you From Buying Grand Theft Auto

I guess the parents now need to exercise some responsibility if they don't want their kids playing violent games.

On a 7-2 vote, the high court upheld a federal appeals court decision to throw out California's ban on the sale or rental of violent video games to minors. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Sacramento had ruled that the law violated minors' rights under the First Amendment, and the high court agreed.

"No doubt a state possesses legitimate power to protect children from harm," said Justice Antonin Scalia, who wrote the majority opinion. "But that does not include a free-floating power to restrict the ideas to which children may be exposed."

Well, the different anti-video game groups can now go into overdrive saying that it was violent video games that caused whatever social ill they want to scapegoat. What is funny is that the ban probably didn't effect kids as much as some people would believe. I mean most minors have played these games due to lax parents or an older sibling or friends buying them the game. It was one of those laws like prohibition that no one actually followed unless they weren't likely to play the games in the first place.

Pottermore Appears to be an MMORPG?

I guess this game would be nominally popular but I'm not sure how it will do against so many MMORPGs out there.

A leaked memo has revealed Pottermore to be a persistent world that blends World of Warcraft with real world treasure hunts. Users will dig up clues, which will let them find prizes in the real world. 

The memo says Thursday's announcement, which will come via YouTube, will discuss the project's partners and focus on what people can find - particularly quills and wands hidden around the U.S. and U.K.

The idea of real world treasure hunts based on the game does sound interesting. But I just got the picture of 1000s of people showing up at some rural country area tearing up the grass trying to find the "Trolls Tooth Totem" or other such nonsense. However if the game doesn't have a monthly subscription fee I might try it out just for fun.

Greek PM Survives No Confidence: We Still Aren't Out of the Woods Yet

So far so good. At least we won't get a Greek debt failure yet.

Lawmakers voted 155-143 for the motion, with two abstentions in the 300-member legislature, sticking strictly to party lines after a heated debate that saw sections of the opposition briefly walk out of the chamber.

Outside, several thousand protesters chanted "Thieves! thieves!" and other anti-austerity slogans, shining green laser lights at the parliament building and into the eyes of riot police protecting it.

I think the EU needs to boot Greece out of the Euro so that they could inflate away the problem with the New Drachma. Even then they would have deadly riots over cutting back the spending. Greece is the case in point when it comes to promising people more government then they could afford. You get people used to a certain way of living and when you have to pull back the money for that lifestyle they freak out and riot. 

Interesting Income Stock: NuStar Energy

Well I was researching some stocks and came across. NuStar Energy LP (NS)

This company is a limited partnership that seems to have several things it is trying to do at once. First they are an oil storage company that provides 80 million barrels of storage at 65 terminals. They not only store the oil but provide barges and emergency response and other types of value added services as well. They also own a number of oil and anhydrous ammonia pipelines that are based in the US as well. Finally they have a segment that turns oil into asphalt and buys and sells gasoline and other petroleum products.

The fundamentals look pretty solid with double digit top and bottom line growth year to year. On looking at their 10-Q you can see that the revenue of their asphalt segment is growing great guns with revenue going $1.04 billion from $758 million one year ago. The storage segment went from $125 million from $114 million while the transportation segment fell to $73 million from $75 million. The pipelines segment might get helped out from a 2011 project to provide a pipeline that serves the Eagle Ford Shale. All told operating income was $55.7 million from $33.7 million. It seems that turning oil into asphalt seems quite lucrative for NuStar. I guess you can look into asphalt demand metrics to see if this growth continues going forward.

What actually caught my eye was a great dividend of $4.30 which provides a 6.9% yield. I guess this is pretty much a result of owning those pipelines and oil storage terminals. The only bad thing I could see is that they were carrying 2.4 billion in debt and had only $77 million in cash in the bank. Also they seem to be increasing the debt from quarter to quarter. I guess they are building a leverage horde in order to do more acquisitions down the road.

The stock has been beaten down a bit recently when oil prices dropped from $68 - $70 back down to $62. It bounced perfectly off of $60 so you would probably put you stop below that point. In any case the stock seems like a pretty decent one for income with a growth driver in that oil to asphalt business. They also seem to be a bit lower risk with only a 0.32 Beta.

Wild West Show Turns Dangerous

It seems that some tourists may have gotten shot at a Wild West show in South Dakota.

Three spectators were hospitalized on Friday evening after receiving "wounds that were consistent with bullet-type injuries," Lieutenant Marty Graves of the Pennington County Sheriff's Department told Reuters.

The guns used in the show were supposed to be loaded with fake bullets known as blanks, Graves said. No real bullets or bullet fragments were recovered from the scene.

My money is on blanks exploding near tourists perhaps injuring them. I know blanks can actually kill someone if it is fired too close to them. That is what supposedly killed Brandon Scott Lee in the Crow movie.

Domain Names to Change: You can have GameofThrones.kicksass.hbo now?

Now this seems to be a sea change in the way domain names are doled out going forward.

Experts say corporations should be among the first to register, resulting in domain names ending in brands like .toyota, .apple or .coke.

The move is seen as a big opportunity for brands to gain more control over their online presence and send visitors more directly to parts of their sites -- and a danger for those who fail to take advantage.

Japanese electronics giant Canon, for instance, has already said it plans to apply for rights to use domain names ending with .canon.

I guess this makes quite a bit of sense and will prevent Internet hangers on now. So gone will be the sites that use something like aple.com or other mispellings. Hopefully it will break the back of cyber-squatting and people making large sums of money because they registered sales.com way back in the day.

4 Ways Blackberry Can Save its Ass: Yeah I Don't Think So

Well some of these ideas have merit but here is my take on the subject.

No. 1: Make Like Google, Streamline Management

Having two CEOs seems like a bad idea much of the time. It didn't seem like a liability when they were growing like a weed. Now they will be fighting for survival against two huge rivals and they can afford no further management slip-ups or shakeups. RIM needs to poach some dude from Google or Apple as their CEO and come in for the fight of their lives.

No. 2: Open Up Its Secure Servers

This might be a good idea if it wouldn't cannibalize their handset market share even further. I mean if I could get Blackberry email service with an Android style phone then why would I have a Blackberry at all? If they do go away from handset sales and turn themselves into a server software company by offering a Microsoft Exchange-like email server (that is as good or better then MSFT) then this would be a great idea.

No. 3: Get With Social -- Cultivate Developer Community

Oh man this should be written on every cubicle at RIM headquarters. Their app store is absolutely worthless. I downloaded an NFL app that actually crashed my Blackberry and forced me to take out the battery to reset it. I even had trouble uninstalling that POS. There is no reason for this kind of thing to happen in this day and age.

RIM is now competing with Apps that are leaving the world of tech and entering pop culture. Angry Birds started as an IPhone App and it is now taking the world by storm. I even hear of an Angry Birds TV shows and movie in the works. I mean IPhone and Android Apps are being talked about on Jimmy Fallon seemingly every night. I can't even tell you a Blackberry app off the top of my head and I have owned one for 2 years.

Plus their Blackberry store is a joke that seems to take forever to load and crashes repeatedly. Maybe there is an update floating around somewhere but there is really no compelling reason to download it because there is nothing in the store that is worth checking out.

No. 4: Drill Down Abroad

I guess this all boils down to smash Nokia in the markets that they had once dominated. I guess this is possible if they come out with a dirt cheap Blackberry that is superior to anything that Nokia is putting out. Then if this thing takes off and people use Blackberry messenger instead of texting maybe they have something. Basically RIM would be selling a glorified Internet keyboard and not an actual smart phone. If they are forced to take this route they will join Nokia on the bottom of the handset barrel.

My Takeaway:

I think you can stick a fork in RIM they are done. The stock price will continue to bleed out until Microsoft picks them up for pennies on the dollar. Then you will see MSFT ditch the Blackberry software and just tighten the interface with Exchange and put Windows 7 mobile on Blackberry handsets.

Knowing Microsoft they will then screw up and lock out any user with an older Blackberry and force them to upgrade to the newest models. This will allow a mass exodus to Android and IPhone handsets and MSFT will be holding a big pile of fail. They will then vainly try to ramp up the App store and offer 25,000 Apps (most of them somehow related to Office or Xbox Live) while IPhone and Android will offer 2 million Apps each or something similar.

MSFT will then quietly write off the acquisition and the Blackberry will join the Walkman as a product that was widely popular that had a competitor that come out with something even better. Then the company flails around and tries to protect their lead. Then they try to keep their product on life support.  Then finally their product simply disappears.

I mean this trend seems to happen over and over in the tech world. It happened with the RAZR by Motorola, Guitar Hero and Rock Band, then the Nintendo Wii, and now the Blackberry. What a cutthroat world consumer tech is. You basically go from King to "whatever happened to..." in a few short years.

Weiner Resigns

Well after hemming and hawing for weeks he is finally out of there.

Weiner said he had hoped to remain in Congress but conceded his predicament had made that impossible. Instead, he said he would resign "so my colleagues can get back to work, my neighbors can choose a new representative and, most importantly, that my wife and I can continue to heal from the damage I have caused."

Now the Congress can work on the debt ceiling and not have to worry about getting questions about some idiot Congressman sexting porn stars and 20-something girls. Now he can get a nice cushy job as a pundit after a a year of reflection/divorce from Huma. I mean he has the firebrand chops to be the liberal version of Glenn Beck over at MSNBC if he wants to. I mean if the scumbag Spitzer can find work then Weiner will certainly get his own show.

Stick a Fork in Him Newt is Done

Well I guess he really didn't want to be President after all. It seems his entire staff just resigned on him.

Rick Tyler, Gingrich's spokesman, said that he, campaign manager Rob Johnson and senior strategists had all quit, along with aides in the early primary and caucus states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

Other officials said Gingrich was informed that his entire high command was quitting in a meeting at his headquarters in Washington. They cited differences over the direction of the campaign.

In other words he has to start again from scratch and his ground game in those early states is probably destroyed. He should just pack it in and wait until 2016. Oh well Herman Cain is still in the race so I still have a chance to vote for a Conservative that I think can fix this ailing economy.

Who are Weiners Women? One is a Former Porn Star

I'm sure we will be getting a whole blizzard of them going forward like Tiger's many many girls. But here are the ones we know about.

•Meagan Broussard: A 26-year-old single mom from Texas, Broussard is the women who provided the photos of Weiner published yesterday on Andrew Breitbart's Big Government site. She provided dozens of photos, emails, Facebook messages and cell phone call logs to ABC News detailing her online relationship with Weiner, which began in April. "I didn't think it was him," she told ABC. "I thought for sure, 'Why would someone in that position be doing this?'"

Way to keep it classy ABC News.

•Lisa Weiss: A 40-year-old blackjack dealer in Las Vegas, Weiss told RadarOnline that she "sexted" with Weiner for nine months, beginning last August after they exchanged messages on Facebook. She claims to have more than 200 messages from Weiner and says the congressman phoned her from his private congressional line during work hours. "A few days later, I tried to call him back on that number," Weiss told Radar. "But the number wouldn't connect to his office; instead there was a recorded message that it was an outgoing U.S. Congress line only."

Is that Sarah Palin to her right with the pixilated face? Plus TMZ seems to be a lot more classy than ABC News by showing this woman with clothes on. Go figure.

•Ginger Lee: A former porn star, Lee allegedly sexted with Weiner for months. She has provided emails to TMZ that allegedly show Weiner pressured her to lie about their relationship—going so far as offer "someone on team" to advise her on how to handle the media. On June 2, Weiner allegedly drafted a statement for Lee, that suggested she was merely followed the congressman on Twitter. "The key is to have a short, thought out statement that tackles the top line questions and then refer people back to it," Weiner allegedly wrote. "Have a couple of iterations of: 'This is silly . . . . And then maybe insert some y'alls in there."

You can go ahead and do a Google Image Search for her. Her pictures are NSFW. Suffice it to say she looks like a blond 17 year old who is very small up top and no butt. The part about having people on Weiners team "advising" her sounds pretty sleazy as well. In any case these gals seem to be the polar opposite of his quite put together wife.

So Who Did Weiner Cyber Cheat On? Hint: She is a Muslim "Body Person" of Hillary

Wow from this write up she seems to have been one of the most eligible young women in liberal land.

Her first job for Hillary Clinton was as a White House intern in 1996 when Clinton was first lady. She always worked close to Clinton, and in 2000—when Clinton was running for the senate—Abedin became her ubiquitous traveling aide, the person with Clinton every waking minute, who makes the trains run on time and who must anticipate her boss’ needs. She carries two BlackBerries and is, in effect, the gatekeeper, thereby making her a rather powerful arbitrator of who reaches Clinton.

She seems to be a practicing Muslim that lived for many years in Saudi Arabia and seems to wield a lot of clout with the Clintons. She is one year younger than me and has only been married to Weiner for 11 months. I guess you can insert a joke about how Jews keep humiliating the Muslims but that would be crass.

She was also super private and this whole scandal must be driving her up the wall. I bet Hillary has been asking about Seal Team 6 to lay some smack down on Weiner. She is kind of good looking if you like awfully skinny girls. Yes you can see her bony wrist in this picture.

Base Found on Mars? Um, I'm not convinced.

Well there seems to be a strange anomaly on a picture of the surface of Mars from an amateur astronomer.

Describing the 'structure' as a living quarters with red and blue stripes on it, to the untrained eye it looks nothing more than a white splodge on an otherwise unblemished red landscape.
He even lists the co-ordinates 49'19.73"N 29 33'06.53"W so others can go see the anomaly for themselves.

It seriously looks like a rendering anomaly to me but you can judge for yourself.

Netanyahu's Speech to the Congress: One of the Best I have Ever Seen

Wow the end had me almost in tears. He was effusive in the praise for the US and laid out the exact course that Israel would accept for peace in the Middle East. Plus he handled the Code Pinko heckler like a true statesman. If she interrupted Ahmadinijoke's speech they would find her body in a mass grave years after Iran finally goes democratic. Watch the whole thing it is worth it.

It Seems Cain Might be a Viable Candidate

It is always cool to get in on the first movers on a trend. It seems Mr. Cain might be that trend.

Right now, only one third of Republican voters have heard of Cain. But among this group, 24 percent pick him as their first choice for the nomination. No other candidate performs that well--just 20 percent of the people who've heard of Romney pick him as their No. 1. For Palin, that number is 16 percent; Pawlenty, 13 percent. And Silver explains why this is important:

[T]his measure--a candidate's polling adjusted for name recognition--has a reasonably good track record. It would have identified winners like Michael Dukakis and John Kerry relatively early in the process, as well as Bill Clinton by the time he officially entered the race in November 1991. ...

I think the GOP candidate needs to be either Cain or Pawlenty or Obama wins by default. Romney and Palin cannot win by any stretch of the imagination. I also think Newt is flawed and will be picked apart as a nominee. It would be nuts though to have Cain win the Presidency without holding some other office beforehand. I think only a handful of Presidents pulled off that feat and most of them were Generals.

The Next President of the United States: Herman Cain?

Well, this guy is slowly starting to move onto the political map and from what I see I might vote for him if given the chance.

The American Dream is under attack. In fact, a recent survey found 67% of the American People believe America is headed in the wrong direction. Sadly, this comes as no surprise to those of us who have watched an out-of-control federal government that spends recklessly, taxes too much and oversteps its Constitutional limits far too often.

Well let's look at the qualifications of this guy a little bit. He went to a historically black college, Morehouse College. From what I  read many black conservatives seem to come from historically black colleges. Next he went into the Navy where he was an actual steely eyed missile man. He then went into various executive jobs with Coca-Cola, Pillsbury, and Burger King so he understands the world of business as an insider.

Then he became President and CEO of Godfathers Pizza. In other words he has filled out a budget and made decisions that effected the livelihood of thousands of people. He physically made thousands of jobs and actually returned his company to prosperity when he was CEO. This is all much more then you could have said about our Community Organizer and Chief.

Plus he doesn't have the stench of something like Romneycare to muddy up the things he has done in the past. However, he hasn't held a national office so the rest of the field has that over him. But Cain can run as an outsider that can go in and clean up the mess that the other career politicians have stuck us with. He can understand budgeting and job creation because he had to do both as a CEO. In any case I would love to have a competent businessman running the country rather then a patrician ideologue any day.

Stalin Engineered the Roswell Crash? Too Far Fetched Even for Me

Now this is one far out claim Annie Jacobsen new book Area 51.

According to Annie Jacobsen, the reporter who authored "Area 51," the spaceship was actually a Soviet spy plane that came down during a storm. Jacobsen claims it was filled with bizarre, genetically engineered child-sized pilots. Then-Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was hoping, Jacobsen alleges, that the new cause widespread panic in the U.S.

Well the first problem I have with this is how they got the spy plane into the US in the first place. The plane would have come a very long way just to crash in New Mexico. First they would have to put it on a ship then cross the Pacific and maybe set into somewhere in Central or South America and unload the plane and fly it over the southern border with the US.

I guess it is possible but it would be logistically difficult for a "scare tactics" mission. Also wouldn't the Soviets want to crash it in a place a little more accessible then rural New Mexico if they want to create "widespread panic?" Maybe it was headed to LA or somewhere when it crashed?  

The story gets even stranger: The leader of the USSR had apparently been inspired by the 1938 radio adaptation radio broadcast of the HG Wells story "War of the Worlds," produced by Orson Welles. The broadcast triggered panic in some listeners who tuned in and mistook it for a real-life alien invasion. (Though later students of the episode claim that the media of Welles' day vastly exaggerated the scale of public alarm over the broadcast.)

This seems like an odd motivation to launch what may have been an act of war while Russia was still rearming and fixing their infrastructure. He could have gotten the same sort of thing by planting NKVD agents (the KGB wasn't around until 1954)  in some rural place and taking over a radio antenna.

They could then broadcast an alien attack and it might have been picked up by the wire service and rebroadcast. By the time the authorities went to the station the agents would have disappeared. Maybe they could have even staged an alien attack at the station with burn marks and dead bodies and such. It is still a lot of work from the USSR when it was still picking up the pieces from WW2 which had just ended a few years before. If Roswell happened in like 1957 instead of 1947 then the Soviets could have been better able to pull it off.

And those ET-looking aviators? They were scientific experiments created by the "Angel of Death," Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, for the USSR after the war. The flight was piloted remotely, according to accounts in the book, and was filled with a crew of "alien-like children."

This is the part that had me scratching my head. Josef Mengele was taken as a prisoner of war by the Americans and pretended to be another soldier so that he could be released in June 1945. He was then smuggled into Argentina by ODESSA. I'm not sure how the Soviets were able to get him to work with them during the 2 years they had from when the war ended and when Roswell happened.

I mean the Soviets had to get him from the Americans or grab him off the the farm he was working on in Bavaria in 1947. Then they would have to set up a state of the art lab with science that the probably would never have been able to create in 1947. Then he would have had him whip up the "alien-like children" in only two years. Even if they had all of his research (which the Americans were supposed to have taken) and the lab ready it would still be too quick a time table.

Still more puzzling is how Mengele was able to escape the Gulag and get to Argentina like he did in 1949. ODESSA was supposed to be good at getting Nazis out of Europe but I'm pretty sure they would have had all sorts of problems getting him out of the Gulag system. I don't remember hearing of them springing  any prominent Nazi's from the the hands of the Soviets let alone one of the most infamous ones.

However, if the Soviets used a man like Shiro Ishii from Unit 731 (who was the Japanese equivalent of Mengele) I would have been more apt to believe it. I mean the Soviets could have used easily utilized Japanese geneticists captured in Manchuria before they were tried in the Khabarovsk war crimes trials in 1949. However, Unit 731 was more interested in biological warfare and not genetics so that might be a hard sell also.

Details Emerge on the Bin Laden Mission

Wow, now I really can't wait for these events to be portrayed in a movie.

Adding exclusive new details to the account of the assault on bin Laden's hideout, officials described just how the SEAL raiders loudly ditched a foundering helicopter right outside bin Laden's door, ruining the plan for a surprise assault. That forced them to abandon plans to run a squeeze play on bin Laden — simultaneously entering the house stealthily from the roof and the ground floor.

It also seems like it was pilot error due to the warm conditions and not a malfunction that crashed the stealth chopper.

The plan unraveled as the first helicopter tried to hover over the compound. The Black Hawk skittered around uncontrollably in the heat-thinned air, forcing the pilot to land. As he did, the tail and rotor got caught on one of the compound's 12-foot walls. The pilot quickly buried the aircraft's nose in the dirt to keep it from tipping over, and the SEALs clambered out into an outer courtyard. 

Even though he clipped the wall that burying the nose in the dirt maneuver may have saved those SEALs lives. It was also cool to see how the SEALs had to call an audible right out of the block. They wanted to go in from the roof and the ground floor using stealth. Instead they ended up in front of the gate and had to go room-by-room to clear the house.

This is one thing out soldiers have over the Red Chinese, North Korea, and Iran. When things go bad they don't wait for orders from above for their next move but instead they adapt and get the job done.

The Facebook/Google War: Facebook Stumbles out of the Gate

Now this is a ham-handed way of waging war against your hated rival.

In a twist seemingly out of a Hollywood thriller, Facebook hired a prominent public relations firm to try to plant stories harshly criticizing Google's privacy practices in leading news outlets. The efforts backfired when the firm approached a blogger who not only declined the assignment, but also went public with the offer.

The latest Silicon Valley drama has also evoked chatter of smear campaigns, secrecy and even Richard Nixon. It took the once-secret blogger known as Fake Steve Jobs to help sort it all out.

Wow Facebook as the Nixon Administration? I wonder if we are going to have a bungled break-in of the Googleplex in Mountain View California in order to dig up the sexual peccadilloes of Sergey Brin. I mean he is Russian so he must do some weird thing or another and Facebook must "unlike" that thing. The mental image of Mark Zuckerberg flashing the peace symbol above his head as he gets into a Facebook helicopter just came to mind as well.

German News Program Mistakes Star Trek Patch of Seal Team 6

Well they do seem pretty similar but the words at the top are a dead giveaway that it isn't an American symbol. Plus the Klingon Skull and the bat'leths should be a tip-off as well. What is weird is that this German program just needed to do a Google Search and they would have found the real logo.

This is the Trek Symbol:

This is the real Seal Team 6 logo:

Trends that Women Love but Men Hate: My Take

This article had me thinking a bit about what sort of make-up I like to see on a woman.

1. Heavy foundation and powders: 

I have to agree that a look of tons of powder on a woman's face looks unnaturally weird. I once saw a woman with her neck one color and her face another color. She looked awful and whoever sold her that make-up needs to be fired. I haven't seen too many women with her nose one color and her face another but that would looks freakish as well. I think some black women do this two toned face thing and it just isn't flattering at all. I really never understood why women don't like shiny skin. They look healthy like that rather than sickly when their face is all some matte color.

2. "Bumps"

I have to agree again. Gwen Stefani is normally super hot but her poofy hair made her look like an alien. The same goes for Snooki as well. I think she liked it because it made her look taller but a giant bubble growing out of a woman's head just looks stupid. Hell, I am a fan of the Betty Page strait bangs all the way so most poofy hair looks weird.

3. Neon Lipstick

I'm not a fan of shiny lipstick in general because my OCD is tripped thinking about the lipstick coming off on things. Neon lipstick just looks too 80s and should stay in that era along with Neon colored jackets. I like a retro look but very few things can come back from the 80s and look half-way decent today. I really think Neon in general is one of those things.

4. Too-thin brows:

Yeah a too plucked look is much worse then a woman with thick eyebrows. I have no idea why women pluck out all of their eyebrow hair and then paint it back on. It looks unnatural and is not flattering at all. Women should just embrace the eyebrows they are given. I mean as long as the woman doesn't have a uni-brow it is all good for most men.

5. Bold eye-shadow:

I like the look of a woman with very dark blended color around her eyes as long as it is black. Any other color just looks too weird and this especially goes for blue eye shadow. For some reason it makes me think of an 80 year old woman with pancake makeup trying to look 30 something. Or Tammy Faye Baker which is even worse.

6. Rosy cheeks:

I like a naturally rosy cheek quite a bit. But rouge just looks weird on a woman especially if she is very pale to begin with. You have this pale face that looks nice and there is this splotch of red out of nowhere. Rouge especially looks awful on Asian woman. You got this smooth, beautiful skin covered by a weird splotch of unrelated color. Just not a fan of rouge in general I guess.

7. Two-toned lips:

I think the only woman that this looks okay on are Hispanic women. I'm not sure why they look sexy with their lips like this but they just do. Any other women just look odd for the most part.

8. Glitter:

This I have the disagree with. I really like the look of body glitter on a woman. It is feminine and playful and sexy all at the same time. I guess as long as the woman doesn't look like a tree covered in tinsel then slather on the glitter I won't object at all.

Robert E. Lee's Sword to be Taken to New Appomattox Museum

Now this is a cool museum piece and I would love to go to Richmond to see it one day.

The 40 1/2-inch sword now sparkles, from the lion head on its pommel to the gilded relief on its steel sword. It has an ivory grip.

One side of the blade, in raised letters, reads: "Gen. Robert E. Lee CSA from a Marylander 1863."

The Lee admirer who had it commissioned in Paris by Louis-Francois Devisme is not known, Hancock said.

The other side of the blade reads: "Aide toi dieu l'aidera." Translated, it means, "Help yourself and God will help you."

The scabbard is made of blued steel.

I wonder who the Marylander was? I guess that is one of those mysteries that would only be solved if you went to Paris and checked the books of Louis-Francois Devisme. Here is a pic of Marse Robert's sword:

Playstation Network Down until May 31st?

Well, it must seriously suck if you want to play online games and all you have is a PS3.

Sony claims that its PlayStation Network online gaming service, which went down way back on April 20, may not be fully operational again until May 31. Sony had originally projected that some parts of the service would pop back online last week but had to delay that rollout due to further testing. With the network approaching its fourth week of downtime, several game developers have had to delay the release of downloadable game titles that rely on the online infrastructure for distribution.

Lucky thing huge titles like Battlefield 3 won't be coming out until the fall. In any case it might be a good idea to buy an Xbox360 if you want to get your fill of Black Ops or that new game Brink.

Justice Department Closes in on BCS

At last maybe we can get a Playoff system even if the Feds have to come in and take away their anti-trust exemption. Before anyone says the Justice Department has something better to do read this article.

The BCS is a financially underperforming system that costs mostly public colleges and universities hundreds of millions of dollars in potential revenue while directing tens of millions in student fees and taxpayer funds to third-party bowl games. The money alone makes it a concern for any taxpayer. Then there are the current corruption charges against the bowl business – the Fiesta Bowl is under fire for out-of-control spending and potentially illegal campaign contributions.

There is corruption throughout the system and if you have a public university in your state your tax money is being stolen by these Bowl robber barons. The system keeps a wildly profitable playoff system from being created simply to keep bowl commissioners in $800K a year jobs. I mean some schools are raising athletics fees simply to keep this corrupt system intact. If if it takes a Justice Department Subpoena to make changes then so be it.

Rashard Mendenhall: Idiot Truther and Bin Laden Apologist: Cut Him Now Steelers!

I think the league needs to discipline him and the Steelers definitely should think about cutting him for this comment.

Among Mendenhall’s posts, the day after the bin Laden news broke, was: “What kind of person celebrates death? It’s amazing how people can HATE a man they have never even heard speak. We’ve only heard one side…” He also tweeted on the Sept. 11 attacks: “We’ll never know what really happened. I just have a hard time believing a plane could take a skyscraper down demolition style.”

Yeah, we haven't heard Bin Laden's side Rashard. Um, do you want to support the part where Bin Laden wanted to recreate the Caliphate or just the part where he wanted to murder Jews, Christians, and other Muslims for his warped Jihad? Or do you just like the cut of the mans jib? I mean now we can never hear "his part of the story" Rashard because Navy Seals put a bullet into his head to avenge the death of 3000 people. I bet you are all broken up over that fact Rashard.

Plus, the truther BS is priceless. So how many structural engineering classes did you take at the University of Illinois Rashard? So you can be an authority on thousands of pounds of jet fuel pouring down elevator shafts and causing a fire hot enough to bend the steel? Oh you say fire doesn't melt steel? Then how is steel bent then? By magic?

The funniest part about all these idiot truthers is that Obama being elected is the end of the entire affair. If Bush and thousands of his closest conspirators did "fake 9/11" then political operatives in the White House would have blown the whistle the day after the election was over. I especially like how we got the Jihadists to go along with our whole charade too and claim responsibility for the whole thing. Bush sure is a persuasive guy.

If you say that Obama wouldn't blow the whistle to "spare the country" you have to be nuts. Political hacks like Rahmbo would love to do it because it would destroy the GOP for decades. I mean it wasn't them who did it right? It was evil Dick Chaney and Rumsfeld or whatever cast of nasties truthers can imagine. I mean the Dems would have the House and an filibuster-proof margin now if they dropped this bomb-shell in 2010. Instead they lost. So are you calling Obama a liar Rashard?

Some Backgound on Seal Team 6

Well, I guess many Americans will now be introduced to this group from their success in bagging Bin Laden.

The raid that killed Osama bin Laden will go down in history as the most important covert operation since 9/11, earning the elite Navy SEAL team that carried it out permanent bragging rights for finishing off the most-wanted terrorist on Earth.

It was a near-textbook operation, despite the near-failure of one of the helicopters carrying the raiders. They all made it into Osama bin Laden's high-walled compound in Pakistan, sliding down ropes in darkness, as they've done on so many raids hunting militants since al-Qaida declared war on the United States.

That helicopter failure is still kind of bugging me. I mean this is the one bad thing about the whole operation. You would figure they would have the best equipment and the best mechanics working on that equipment. Instead a mechanical failure nearly took out the men on that chopper. I hope someone will get dinged for not giving these guys the best equipment when they needed it the most.

The conspiracy theorist in me figures that was the payment for Pakistan for letting us overfly their territory and attack a building in one of their cities. Maybe they cut a deal with the Americans because they certainly didn't want to take out Bin Laden themselves and face reprisals or worse yet bungle it thus letting him escape. So they said give us one of your helicopters so we can reverse engineer it and we won't tip off Bin Laden that you are watching him. So Obama took the deal and it was all "Boom! Headshot!" after that.

How Did you Find Out about Bin Laden Getting a "Boom! Headshot?"

This is an interesting story on how the media is changing as we are going forward.

In an illustration of how the information world has changed, many people learned through media formats or devices that weren't available a decade ago that the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks had been killed.

"It just kind of spread like wildfire online," said Stephen Vujevica, a student at Immaculata University in Pennsylvania. "It's amazing to see how social media played a part in it."

I found out on my Blackberry when I went to Yahoo to check the Yankees score. So I guess I was at least logged into the Smart phone angle. Most people I know found out on Twitter or Facebook. However, as soon as I read the Breaking News on Yahoo I tuned into the TV. So in my case New Media was my news flash but the traditional media was my information source.

A Look Inside the "Target Bin Laden" War Room

Wow the look on Obama's face is pretty harrowing. He looks like a man that bet his entire political future on one throw of the dice. I mean if those Seals were killed off or the CIA was wrong about who was living in that compound he can start writing his memoirs now. Also Hillary covering her mouth is pretty nuts too you can seriously see the tension in her face. However, Gates looks stoic in a been-here-done that manner. Even Biden has tension and concentration etched in his face.

click to enlarge

With Bin Laden Dead, Jihad Has Failed and Democracy has Won.

It seems that the Bin Laden Doctrine of violent Jihad to create Theocracies has given way to popular uprisings that create democracies.

It is a different Arab world that bin Laden leaves behind.

Popular uprisings led by youth groups have toppled the authoritarian regimes in Tunisia and Egypt. Similar movements are challenging the autocratic rulers of Libya, Syria, Yemen and Bahrain. And, significantly, the millions who participated in these uprisings have not used violence to press their demands. Their ultimate aim is not the creation of the Islamic theocracies that bin Laden preached, but free democracies.

I think a handful of kids have done more for the Muslim world than a million bomb belts and tens of thousands of dead infidels and martyrs. I mean they stood up to governments that have been dictatorships for centuries and if they are lucky will join the fraternity of democracies.

Their children's lives will be far better then they ever imagined. They get to worry about sending their kids to a top flight school or what mutual funds to invest in rather then being disappeared by the Secret Police or what picture they will use for their martyrdom photo.

Mark my words in 10 years people will be talking about the "Arab Tigers" and how they are changing the world with so many young people and so much new wealth. What a way to go for Bin Laden too. Cowering behind his wife while using her as a human shield in the dead of night. Now his whole movement is teetering on collapse. He will really be a footnote in history.

We Gave Bin Laden a Muslim Burial? Now that shows some Class

Well, I guess we can put ourselves on the same respect level as Saladin who let Christians have a wedding ceremony during the Siege of Kerak in 1183.

The officials said bin Laden was killed toward the end of the firefight, which took place overnight Monday in a building at a compound north of Islamabad, the Pakistani capital. His body was put aboard the USS Carl Vinson and placed into the North Arabian Sea.

Traditional Islamic procedures for handling the remains were followed, the officials said, including washing the corpse, placing it in a white sheet. Preparations for at-sea burial began at 1:10 a.m. EDT Monday and were completed at 2 a.m. EDT, one official said.

That is exactly how we treat our enemies. With respect even though they did so much killing against us. Dignity in the face of depravity is a virtue.

Bin Laden is Now in the Dustbin of History. Literally!

Well you have to hand it to Obama. He carried out the mission and signed the papers and took the risks if we missed him and he bagged the big prize. Here is a great article on how it all went down.

Nestled in an affluent neighborhood, the compound was surrounded by walls as high as 18 feet, topped with barbed wire. Two security gates guarded the only way in. A third-floor terrace was shielded by a seven-foot privacy wall. No phone lines or Internet cables ran to the property. The residents burned their garbage rather than put it out for collection. Intelligence officials believed the million-dollar compound was built five years ago to protect a major terrorist figure. The question was, who?

All I can say is Seal Team 6 is badass and they need to make a movie of their exploits. Also it would be nice to have the members of the team that went in lionized and made into celebrities. After all they killed America's most hated enemy and did not lose a single man in the process.

Silver Mania in the Making? Time to go Short

Well, I think silver might be entering a mania phase according to this article.

Make no mistake: This is speculation pure and simple, and wild speculation at that. Some people may say they have "reasons" for buying now -- inflation, the Fed, the dollar's decline -- but you can hedge against all of those without buying silver.

No, the only real reason anyone's buying silver now is because they think the price is going up soon, and they don't want to miss the boat. That's the very definition of speculation, and it always ends very, very badly.

This article writer recently got a full color glossy ad that touted silver as "the single greatest opportunity of our time." In other words the bubble might soon burst and the price of silver will go back down to the mid-$30s. I love watching for bubbles and this one certainly qualifies. I mean silver is at multi-decade highs and cannot stay that high forever no matter how much "dollar hedging" or "inflation hedging" is out there.

The thing that solidified it for me is that silver miners seem to be going down. In other words people are in a mania to buy the metal but don't want to own the people that take the metal out of the ground. In other words there is no rationality to the market and it is just speculation now.

Losses May be in the Billions as a Result of Sony's Massive Hack Attack

You thought Apple keeping tabs on you is bad this Sony Network security hack might mean billions in losses.

Security experts said Sony would need to account for the loss of business -- as well as damage to its brand -- when it tallies up the cost. Other costs include notifying customers of the attack and bringing in experts to cleanse its network.

Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Ponemon Institute, said the theft could cost Sony more than $1.5 billion, or an average of $20 for each of the 77 million customers whose data was potentially compromised. Poneman's firm specializes in securing information on computer networks.

If I had to cancel my credit card and change any passwords that were the same as the one on the Playstation Network then that would be worth much more then $20 to me. In any case this is one of the times that I am glad I own an Xbox360 even with the Red ring of Death problem. That only caused inconvenience and not the potential for identify theft and credit card fraud that the Sony breach does.

Picky Eating Might be a New Mental Disorder?

Now this is an interesting new finding.

Like kids, adult picky eaters limit themselves to an extremely narrow range of foods. Unlike those who suffer from anorexia nervosa or bulimia, adult picky eaters are seemingly not worried about calorie counts or body image. But so far, researchers don’t know if adult picky eaters just haven’t outgrown childhood patterns or if their eating habits are a new twist on obsessive compulsive disorder. Some may be “supertasters,” with an abnormally acute sense of taste that turns them off certain foods. Many appear to have had unpleasant childhood associations with food.

When I was in high school I was an extremely picky eater. I didn't like melted cheese, raw fish, certain candies, and a whole lot of different things. Then when I went to college I ate more and more stuff and after graduation I try almost everything. Hell, I even ate crab roe in Hokkaido without missing a beat. I think the idea of limiting yourself to only certain foods if you aren't dieting is foolhardy. I mean you never know what new thing there is out there without trying it.

At Last Obama Releases His Birth Certificate, Why Wasn't this Done in 2008?

Our long national nightmare is over. Obama looks like he was born here after all as if there were any doubt in the first place.

"I am so proud of myself because I've accomplished something that nobody else has been able to accomplish," Trump said from Portsmouth, N.H., where he was giving early primary voters a close-up look at a potential presidential campaign.

"I feel I've accomplished something really, really important and I'm honored for it," Trump said.

Well I guess you can give "the Donald" some credit because it was him that took up the banner and the White House finally caved. The funny thing about this whole process is that it should have not been an issue. The Obama people should have just released the damn thing during the campaign when the Clinton's asked for them.

I'm not sure what the hold up was other then ego. I mean the only reason I figured the White House was stonewalling on this issue is because they didn't want to cave in to Fox News and the dirty Birthers. If they would have just released the thing way back when then this issue would have been settled long ago.

Now after waiting so long they look like Trump put pressure on them and they were forced to release it. Or whats worse it looks shady that they are releasing it after stonewalling for years. Oh well in any case the question is settled.

Jobs Fires Back Against IPhone/IPad Location Tracking. Is this an Official Statement?

I wonder why the Apple PR machine isn't the one launching into damage control mode instead of Jobs perhaps sending out a personal email.

"We don't track anyone. The info circulating around is false," reads an email from Jobs to a customer complaining about reports that the iPhone transmits users longitude-latitude coordinates to Apple.

Tech bloggers are taking the emails at face value because Jobs has a history of replying to customers from his corporate email account and MacRumors says the headers of the email match with previous Jobs emails. The remarks are being interpreted as particularly blunt. At one point, the customer wonders why he shouldn't switch to Android because Google doesn't track his every move. "Oh yes they do," responds Jobs.

I guess they are simply going to coast based on their reputation. This sort of screw up would doom Microsoft to years of litigation and destroy whatever rep they have left. In any case they seem to not care too much about having your location in plain text stored on their devices. So I guess Android and the Xoom might be getting my tech money in the near future.

Syria Starting to Boil over with 75 Killed in one day.

I hope NATO doesn't start talking about airstrikes in Syria now.

Syrian security forces fired bullets and tear gas Friday at tens of thousands of protesters across the country, killing at least 75 people in the bloodiest day of the monthlong uprising and signaling that the authoritarian regime was prepared to turn more ruthless to put down the revolt against President Bashar Assad.

It seems like things are only going to get worse from here. I really don't see the army splintering into rebel factions or anything like that. The death toll will simply mount and the international community will sit around because they have their hands full in Libya.

Homeless Woman Who Tried to Get Kid into Better School District Might Face Prison

Wow, now this is a sad state of affairs if she is convicted.

Connecticut authorities have filed theft charges against Tanya McDowell, a homeless woman, alleging that she used a false address to enroll her son in a higher-income school district, The Stamford Advocate reports. If she's convicted, McDowell may end up in jail for as many as 20 years and pay a $15,000 fine for the crime.

McDowell is a homeless single mother from Bridgeport who used to work in food services, is now at the center of one of the very few false address cases in the Norwalk, CT, school district that is being handled in criminal court--rather than between the parent and school. Authorities are accusing McDowell of enrolling her 5-year-old son in nearby Norwalk schools by using the address of a friend. (Her friend has also been evicted from public housing for letting McDowell use her address.)

So she wanted to send her kid to a better school and get him out of a failing one and she might go to jail for 20 years and pay a $15k fine?  In a system of vouchers where you would be able to pick your school this sort of thing should never occur.  In the current system she is penalized and potentially criminalized for being homeless.

This system seems to be put in place simply to keep black people from succeeding. I mean if this kid got a chance to go to this Norwalk school he might get the tools to go to college and maybe have a better life. If he is stuck in the failing school his chances are that much slimmer to be anything but a drop-out and part of the permanent underclass. Maybe that is what the Dems want by keeping this system in place.

GOP Pushes Back Against Medicare Scare Tactics

Well, it is good to see them finally defending their plans to turn Medicare into a voucher program.

In an interview, Stivers said he has been busy explaining to people aged 55 and up that they will see no change in their benefits under the Republican plan which would save nearly $6 trillion over the next decade.

"I talk about how for people 54 and under we are preserving the system, we are reforming it to save it because frankly in nine years if we do nothing Medicare goes broke," he said.

Yeah, pretty much. If it is kept as the current system I will not see Medicare in my lifetime because it would have gone bankrupt decades before I can receive it. I other words all that money I paid into it is pretty much set on fire since I will never see it paid back to me. The system needs to change right now or we will end up with trillions more in debt going forward to keep the current system in place.

So the iPhone and iPad Saves Where you Been for Years? Yeah, time to get a Zoom or an Andriod Phone

I have no idea why these devices would do this but it is a pretty big privacy breach if it is true.

Much of the concern about the iPhone and iPad tracking stems from the fact the computers are logging users' physical coordinates without users knowing it — and that that information is then stored in an unencrypted form that would be easy for a hacker or a suspicious spouse or a law enforcement officer to find without a warrant.

Researchers emphasize that there's no evidence that Apple itself has access to this data. The data apparently stays on the device itself, and computers the data is backed up to. Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment by The Associated Press.

I understand that this data needs to passed on to Verizon or whomever so that they can tell where you are for cell service and to rescue you or whatever. But there is no reason why it is saved on the iPhone in a non-encrypted form. It is even more baffling why an iPad does the same thing. Plus it looks like it saves the file from one software update to another so it isn't a glitch but seems to be intentional.

All I can think of is that this file allows sites like FourSquare or other location marketing firms to verify if you actually go where you are supposed to go. So you won't be lying about trying some new place to earn a badge. Other then that there is really no reason why this file exists at all. It should just flush itself whenever the phone is turned off or just truncate itself after 2 weeks or something. I mean as soon as you turn on the phone it will grab a signal from the closest tower and you have your current location. You don't need to save that data from last year.

I'm sure Apple will survive this with their reputation intact. But I will certainly be buying a Xoom so that hackers can't pull this unencrypted file (I mean encryption is so cheap why is this file in open text?) and find out where I live and where all my friends live as well. Plus it will tell if I am home or not which is as bad as writing on your Facebook that you are out to dinner or something.

Obama Creates Laughable Gas Price Task Force

I guess Obama wants to get to the bottom of high gas prices.

President Barack Obama said Thursday that the Justice Department will try to "root out" cases of fraud or manipulation in oil markets, even as Attorney General Eric Holder suggested a variety of legal reasons may be behind gasoline's surge to $4 a gallon.

"We are going to make sure that no one is taking advantage of the American people for their own short-term gain," Obama said at a town-hall style meeting at a renewable energy plant in Reno.

The national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline was $3.84 on Thursday, about 30 cents higher than a month ago and almost a dollar higher than a year ago.

Um, I wonder if Obama knows that part of the reason for the high gas prices is the war he helped start in Libya? I mean almost all of Libya's oil production is off of the market for an indeterminate period of time. So supply is disrupted and that makes prices rise. I mean this guy went to Harvard right? Maybe he fell asleep in his Econ 101 class or was out shooting hoops or something during that lecture.

Now This is One Intimidating Soccer Mascot

Yes this is a man with a freaking giant chainsaw named Timber Joey and he is the mascot of the Portland Timbers MLS team.

Roswell Crash Real? The FBI Seems to Confirm It

Now this is some blockbuster news if it is true. The text kind of speaks for itself. They described the shape and that they had 3 bodies of human shape only 3 feet tall dressed in metallic cloth of fine texture. We even have a reason why the saucers could have crashed which I haven't seen in any Roswell literature I have read. It says high powered radar interfered with the crafts instruments causing it to crash.

The only problem I see is that this memo is from 3/29/50 and the Roswell Crash was in June or July of 1947. Does it really take 3 years for this kind of information to circulate from the military to the FBI? Maybe the memo wasn't issued until the FBI was tasked with checking into more sightings. Also it would be interesting to find out what the various numbers mean on the sides and bottom of the sheet.

One thing that I found interesting was a very important issue of the well-respected magazine Flying with the topic of flying saucers came out in July 1950. Perhaps this document was part of a larger investigation into that issue. Maybe Hoover wanted to get abreast of the facts before the magazine dropped and potentially caused an uproar.

Government Shutdown Might Be Averted: $39 Billion in Cuts

Well at least they were able to cut something.

Republicans said the deal called for $39 billion in spending cuts, a measure that one official said Boehner told his rank and file marked the "largest real-dollar spending cut in American history."

Over a decade, the agreement would cut more than $500 billion from the federal budget, Boehner added, according to a participant in the meeting.

The agreement marked an extraordinary reach across party lines and the first test of a new era of divided government that includes Obama in the White House, control of the Senate by fellow Democrats and a tea party-flavored Republican majority in the House.

It is good to see everyone working together once and a while. Now lets pass a real budget so we don't have to worry about this crap.

Time to Trump Obama: The Donald Polls Well in the GOP Field

I really hope "Time to Trump Obama" is his campaign slogan.

According to the poll, Trump and Huckabee both garnered 17 percent support among likely GOP primary voters. They trailed Mitt Romney, who topped the poll with 21 percent support, but bested several potential candidates, including Newt Gingrich (11 percent), Sarah Palin (10 percent) and Tim Pawlenty (6 percent).

Yet the most surprising number is Trump's standing with self-described tea party supporters. Among tea party voters, Trump leads the entire 2012 field, with 20 percent support--besting Romney (17 percent), Huckabee (14 percent) and Palin (12 percent).

I mean he has made a payroll and gone bankrupt and rebuilt his empire so he knows about debt and running a large company even in tough times. He knows about the real estate market so he would be well ahead of Obama on the housing crisis. He knows how to create jobs because he has actually created hundreds of them with his own capital. He talks tough and obviously loves his country.

In fact he might be the best advocate for reforming Wall Street and the financial systems because he is an insider. Kind of like LBJ helping to get civil rights passed easier because he was a southerner. We might see some real reform when it comes to these markets because "The Donald" knows what the change and what the effects will be.

However, he is a bombastic windbag sometimes but will certainly make for an interesting debate with Obama. I also think he would have a much better chance to win than Palin, Newt, Bachmann or Romney. Hell, if Paul Ryan doesn't run I would vote for Trump in a minute.

FBI Documents Claim that LAPD might be Involved in Notorious B.I.G. shooting

Now this would be an interesting thing to look into.

Informants told the FBI that the killing of B.I.G., whose real name was Christopher Wallace, may have been aided by corrupt police officers. The heavily redacted case files include several mentions of sources who wouldn't talk to Los Angeles police investigators about Wallace's death because of suspicions about corruption.

The idea that the LAPD aided in the murder or maybe just protected the trigger-men might be an interesting angle for the case. I mean it has been years since he was gunned down and they didn't catch anyone for the murder. I wonder if it was a hit put out by Tupac's people and aided and abetted by corrupt cops in the LAPD? I can see the officers protecting the corrupt cops and not wanting to talk to the FBI. Hmm, it sounds like a cool angle for a "The Wire" episode to me.

Slanted AP Story Goes after the Ryan Budget

Wow, the AP doesn't fool around when it carries the water for the Dems.

A report from the Congressional Budget Office provided added fodder for critics, after nonpartisan experts concluded most future retirees would pay considerably more for health care under the GOP approach — which turns Medicare into a voucher-like plan for those now 54 and younger.

Oh no , retirees will have to pay "considerably more" for their Medicare states unnamed "nonpartisan experts." That is scary stuff too bad the Congressional Budget Office has a different take:

Ryan's plan would put people now 54 and younger in a different kind of health care program when they retire, unlike the Medicare that their parents and grandparents have known. Instead of coverage for a set of benefits prescribed from Washington, they'd get a federal payment to buy private insurance from a choice of government-regulated plans.

"A typical beneficiary would spend more for health care under the proposal," the budget office estimated in its analysis.

Wow, it seems that "considerably" just left the building according to the budget office. People should just admit that the "Medicare that their parents and grandparents have known" is just not fiscally sustainable. I would rather have a voucher program or anything else rather then seeing the damn thing go bankrupt in 10 years. The idea of robbing future generations so that you can have prime healthcare needs to end with the Baby Boomers.

The AP then goes on to say that their budget would hurt the poor and disabled:

They would mean that poor people no longer would have a right under federal law to get health care through Medicaid. Instead, Washington would send each state a lump sum to spend on medical care, nursing homes and other health services. 

Wait what right are they talking about? I read the Constitution and it doesn't talk about medical care anywhere in the document. I like the idea that the states will have to run the program and the government just writes them checks. Hell, if the State Medicare program sucks in one state then a poor person could conceivably move somewhere else. To avoid the Federal Medicaid program that poor person would have the emigrate to Canada or something.

Advocates are worried that states will not be able to offer vulnerable low-income people reliable protection. Medicaid payments to providers are already at rock bottom levels. States pressed for money in a future economic downturn might reduce payments to doctors and hospitals even more, and they might even freeze enrollment. 

Yeah but then you make funding an issue and boot out the State Legislatures if you don't like what they are doing to Medicaid. This would give the poor a powerful incentive to vote and pay attention to their local races.

Even if they did reduce payments and freeze enrollment it would be temporary like furloughs and such. The idea that the Feds need to run programs like this is ludicrous. Hawaii has a Medicaid program that is supposed to be one of the best in the nation. I don't see how other states can't do something similar. The Federal program is a ripoff and actually penalizes states for doing their one thing.

Glenn Beck's Show Done at Fox

Well I guess you can see it coming.

Viewers also began turning away. Beck's 5 p.m. ET show averaged 2.7 million viewers during the first three months of 2010, and was at just under 2 million for the same period this year, the Nielsen Co. said. His decline was sharper among younger viewers sought by advertisers.

Increasingly, the show began to be dominated by Beck standing in front of a chalk board giving his theories about the world's troubles.

I stopped watching his show after he went off on the Egyptian democracy protests. He was talking about the Islamic Brotherhood taking over and other nonsense. Egypt is exactly what the Bush Doctrine stood for and Beck was pissing all over it.  I mean we spent lives and treasure to get this to happen in Iraq and Afghanistan and it was happening on its own all over the Middle East.

Beck was basically a fear monger. Instead of saying Egypt might turn into a pseudo-democratic-Israel he had it pegged as a potential Iran. That is a possible outcome but you figure that a bunch of people that fought for "freedom" probably won't change one repressive dictator for another. The left field outcome was the one he ran with and I didn't like it.

All Beck saw was conspiracy crap about a Caliphate rising out of Egypt and not the potential of several Democracies springing up throughout the Middle East. That might actually lend all sorts of stability to the region because Democracies rarely fight one another. But Beck was convinced that this wasn't an opportunity but a sign of terrible times or whatever. I just stopped watching the show because I can't stomach a guy that can side with a dictator (even a benign one) over people that want free elections.

Obama Starts Re-election Bid; Hopefully Paul Ryan Can Step up and Make Him a One Termer

Well, I guess someone finally convinced Obama to run for a second term.

He offered a kickoff video in which official Washington is ignored and even Obama himself only makes a fleeting appearance. What the campaign wanted voters to see instead were people like them speaking of real-life concerns and their faith in Obama, against wholesome backdrops in every clip: a church, a farm, a family in a kitchen, an American flag.

I wonder if Obama will "only make a fleeting appearance" for his re-election bid as well? However he is still trying to surround himself with sycophants and yes-men.

A huge part of his challenge will be to spark the voter inspiration that often got lost in the slog of governing. His new campaign video gave a nod to the challenge. A woman named Alice from Michigan said: "We're paying him to do a job. So we can't say, `Hey, could you just take some time off and come and get us all energized?' So we better figure it out."

Yup, its your fault America that Obama hasn't energized you. I mean he has to do all that crappy governing and leading and just doesn't have any time to pump you up. You have failed America to be sufficiently jazzed to see 4 more years of his hands-off, no drama, wait until the last minute to make a poor decision style.

In any case the only way Obama wins is if the GOP has Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann or Rand Paul as their candidate. I agree with their substance of cutting and debt reduction but they are not electable as President. The ideal candidate (who isn't Chris Christie) in my opinion is Paul Ryan.

I called it way back when and I think he is eminently electable. A hard worker and an economics wonk would be a perfect academic and chief. Obama is a pretender to that title and only seems intellectual because the media would do anything to protect him. An Obama v Ryan debate would finally expose Obama for the fraud he is.  It will be something to watch an intellectual and policy wonk verses a pseudo-intellectual hopey-changey empty suit.

Natural Gas Bill Brought Back from the Dead in Congress

I was wondering why my Golar LNG (GLNG) stock went up today and it seems like it is Congress who is responsible.

The bill is a revamped version of the New Alternative Transportation to Give Americans Solutions Act, or NAT GAS Act, that died in Congress in 2008. The original act required 10 percent of all vehicles sold in the United States to run on natural gas and all retail gas stations have at least one natural-gas pump by 2018. The 2009 version of the bill would have increased tax credits for natural gas vehicles and refueling.

I'm not sure how a Natural Gas vehicle would work but this bill certainly will raise the demand and the price of the commodity going forward. I was thinking that a natural gas pump would be totally covered with no smoking signs too. I mean one spark and Kaboom. Also if you wreck a natural gas car would flammable gas fly everywhere? I guess I need to do more research into this sort of thing. In any case I would much rather power a car with a fuel that is brought up from the ground under North Dakota rather than Saudi Arabia or Iran any day.