InMuscatine

A 78-year-old legally blind man nicknamed “The Hammer” has bowled a perfect game.

Dale Davis of Alta, Iowa, nailed 12 consecutive strikes and reached 300 on Saturday night during league play.

“It’s a great sport. It’s something the young, the old and the handicapped can do,” Davis said Thursday. “I guess I count as the old and handicapped.”

Davis has suffered from macular degeneration, a chronic eye disease, for the past decade. He can’t see out of his left eye and has limited peripheral vision in his right eye.

[From FOXNews.com - Iowa Blind Man, 78, Bowls Perfect Game]

Well… don’t you feel stupid now? What did you score the last time you bowled?

Well, so much for the “white knight” routine and taking on the status quo in Washington. It appears McCain is as dirty and on the take as any other politician in Washington.

Sen. John McCain championed legislation that will let an Arizona rancher trade remote grassland and ponderosa pine forest here for acres of valuable federally owned property that is ready for development, a land swap that now stands to directly benefit one of his top presidential campaign fundraisers.

[From McCain pushed land swap that benefits backer - Washington Post- msnbc.com]

Well, so much for that whole honesty and integrity thing. It’s official - the wheels have come off the Straight Talk Express.

Initially reluctant to support the swap, the Arizona Republican became a key figure in pushing the deal through Congress after the rancher and his partners hired lobbyists that included McCain’s 1992 Senate campaign manager, two of his former Senate staff members (one of whom has returned as his chief of staff), and an Arizona insider who was a major McCain donor and is now bundling campaign checks.

When McCain’s legislation passed in November 2005, the ranch owner gave the job of building as many as 12,000 homes to SunCor Development, a firm in Tempe, Ariz., run by Steven A. Betts, a longtime McCain supporter who has raised more than $100,000 for the presumptive Republican nominee. Betts said he and McCain never discussed the deal.

It doesn’t matter if they “discussed” the deal or not - McCain flip-flopped. Period. End of Story. Full Stop. Something caused McCain’s reluctance to melt away faster than a snowball on a June day. The only question to be answered is what made the oh-so-pious McCain change his mind and give the appearance of impropriety.

In an interview, Betts said there is “absolutely no” connection between his contributions to McCain’s presidential bids and the deal involving rancher Fred Ruskin and the Yavapai Ranch Limited Partnership. While his company’s possible involvement was discussed casually before the bill’s passage, Betts said SunCor did not sign on to the project until afterward. “At no time during the consideration of this legislation was there any involvement by officials of SunCor,” McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said in a written response to questions.

Yeah! Who are you going to trust? Me, or your lying eyes?

We also point out there is absolutely no connection - aside from the land being in Arizona, McCain being the man to ram it through Congress, the man with the most to loose being a big McCain donor. Aside from those little things there is no connection what-so-ever.

As McCain positions himself as a champion of environmental causes, observers of the Yavapai Ranch swap say it shows a paradox in the senator’s positions. At times, he has fought to protect the delicate desert ecosystem. But when wildlife concerns have thwarted development, his loyalties have shifted.

“When the public trust intersects with private interests, basically, he has favored land development . . . in every case,” said Rob Smith, director of the Sierra Club’s Arizona affiliate.

Yep. That’s the two-faced McCain we have grown to know and despise. We are thoroughly convinced the man is mentally challenged, and that’s being kind.

Flagstaff Mayor Joseph C. Donaldson, a supporter of the swap, said McCain’s hesitation stemmed from his “insistence that the environment be protected.” But opponents were baffled by the senator’s seemingly contradictory positions. Said Blaeloch: “The bizarre thing to me regarding McCain is, we spent a lot of time with his staff, and we all seemed to be on the same page about the problems with this swap. But somehow, John McCain kept pushing it forward.”

But there was no connection - remember that. Someone has to, because apparently McCain can’t remember from one moment to the next.

As for McCain, some in the Verde Valley say they counted on him to broker a deal that would protect their precious river. Von Gausig now heads the water management commission that McCain added to the bill to gain community support. The Congressional Budget Office estimated it would cost $8 million over five years to fund water studies. But to date, none of that money has been budgeted.

Silly humans! There is a world of difference between creating bureaucracy and funding bureaucracy. It appears they heard what they wanted to hear, and McCain - or at least the lucent on McCain’s staff - can always claim McCain lived up to his word.

Even so, it appears the champion of campaign finance reform is just running business as usual in Washington. We have no doubt more and more of these stories will surface between now and the election. The MSM will labor mightily to elect McCain the Democrat, but they will do their best to destroy McCain if he gives them even a whiff of being an honest-to-God Conservative Republican.

We suspect the press is slowing waking up to the fact McCain shouldn’t be President, let alone be allowed near the White House. We welcome them to the party, no matter how late they are to arrive. We just hope they do some honest reporting on McCain, as there is a lot to report without hyperbole getting in the way, or making a mountain of shavings from grinding ideological and rhetorical axes.

Security researcher Aviv Raff has published code that would allow someone to take control of a computer running Internet Explorer, but there’s a catch. He’s not saying exactly where he’s hidden the attack.

“Somewhere in my blog, I embedded a proof-of-concept code which exploits this 0day vulnerability,” Raff wrote in a Wednesday blog posting. A 0day attack is a previously undisclosed software flaw that has not been fixed by the software maker.

The bug, which affects Internet Explorer 7 and IE 8, could allow an attacker to run unauthorized software on a victim’s computer. Raff informed Microsoft of the flaw on Tuesday and the software vendor has not yet patched it, Raff said.

[From http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/050708-0day-treasure-hunt-researcher-hides.html]

Tell us once again - how insecure are Apple Macintosh computers? We keep forgetting.

We remind the reader there has yet to be one documented case of a Mac OS X system being “pwned” remotely.

Conversely, this is just the latest in a long series of security flaws which allow “hackers” from afar to seize control of your Microsoft-powered PC .

France wants to force aid

down Myanmar’s throats

too bad the junta’s

stubborn like billy goats

Operation Burma Save!

A simple machine

we call the lever

and we see the UN

is as impotent as ever

Operation Burma Save!

Please let us in

the UN begged the thugs

while the junta was pulling out

from under them the rug

Operation Burma Save!

The junta will decide

how they will be lead

pay no mind

to the 100,000 dead

Operation Burma Save!

Give us your aid

and let us impound

but don’t you dare

stick around

Operation Burma Save!

The cyclone came

and knocked everything down

now the world sees

Myanmar’s ran

by a bunch of clowns

Operation Burma Save!

The world sent aid

by boat, plane, and truck

too bad the junta

could give a flying duck

Operation Burma Save!

The suffering is great

so the media said

too bad Myanmar’s junta

is so touched in the head

Operation Burma Save!

We begged and pleaded

but Myanmar said talk to the hand

they still won’t let

US planes land

Operation Burma Save!

The Muscatine Quarterback Club Committee is looking for a new volunteer group to organize Muscatine’s Great River Days Reunion. After this year’s event, the Club will no longer coordinate the community celebration.

“It’s been a celebrated event for right at 50 years and we are hoping that an interested group will come forward to take it on and bring new ideas,” Kerry Keller, Muscatine Quarterback Club president, said this morning.

[From MuscatineJournal.com | QB Club to give up Great River Days]

Please allow us to translate :

We are losing a boatload of money on this turkey, and we are looking for another sucker to step up to the plate.

How can we possibly state this? Simple. This :

If any organization is interested in becoming the new coordinators please contact Kerry Keller at 563-571-0155 or 563-263-3084 or Al Church at 563-299-2892.

If Al Church is involved, it is destined for failure.

Once upon a time, Al Church took it upon himself to attempt to steal the Turtle Races(tm) from the Muscatine Jaycees. Al had this crazy notion the Turtle Races(tm) made a boatload of money for the Jaycees. We know for a fact the most profitable races ever held netted the Jaycees just $300 in profit. If one were to take into account the man-hours that went into running a successful Race, the profit was about a buck an hour.

The Jaycees tried to explain to Al that he was nucking futz, and the Turtle Races(tm) were not the cash cow he thought they were. Al would not be reasoned with, and so we ended up with the Jaycees / Abusing Turtles stories in the Muscatine Journal. Reason just couldn’t seem to penetrate that huge, thick melon on top of Al’s neck.

Now, we can see more clearly Al’s motivation : the QB Club has probably been suffering declining revenues and the attempt to seize the Turtle Races(tm) was just an attempt to prop up the QB Club fiscally. Al was just a drowning man clawing at what he perceived as a life-preserver. Pathetic.

It’s a shame really. No, not that Muscatine will be losing Great River Days. Muscatine deserves to lose Great River Days. No, it’s a shame that many years ago when new ideas were presented, like always those in power shot the new ideas down. So now the roosters are back and looking to roost.

So congratulations Muscatine, and enjoy your death spiral !

Cindy McCain says she will never make her tax returns public even if her husband wins the White House and she becomes the first lady.

“You know, my husband and I have been married 28 years and we have filed separate tax returns for 28 years. This is a privacy issue. My husband is the candidate,” Cindy McCain, wife of Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting John McCain, said in an interview aired on NBC’s “Today” on Thursday.

Asked if she would release her tax returns if she was first lady, Cindy McCain said: “No.”

[From Cindy McCain says she’ll never release her tax returns on Yahoo! News]

If John McCain never touches a single penny of his wife’s wealth for any reason, then we - the public - have no right to see Cindy McCain’s finances. We are certain this is not the case, so the public has every right to see those finances.
More and more it looks as if the Straight Talk Express is flying off the rails.

Republican John McCain pretended to snarl when asked about his temper Wednesday in Michigan.

“How dare you ask that question!'’ McCain said, chuckling. His questioner persisted, reading a comment by a fellow Republican, Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran, that the idea of McCain as the GOP presidential nominee sent a chill down his spine.

“I’m all too familiar with the quote,'’ said McCain, who has since smoothed things over with his colleague.

[From McCain jokes about reputation for temper / QCTimes.com]

Before he wanted to be President, John McCain used to acknowledge the fact his apology notes for his temper could wallpaper the Washington Momument - twice.

If he really had a temper problem, McCain said, he would not have been able to work with fellow senators such as Ted Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat; Russ Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat; and his friend Joe Lieberman, the 2000 Democratic vice presidential nominee who now is an Independent.

We note all the people listed are Democrats. It would seem from media reports McCain’s temper is reserved mostly for fellow Republicans.

Evidence :

Standing on the Senate floor last Oct. 14, McCain, the Republican presidential contender known for a hair-trigger temper, was being pummeled with hostile questions by his longtime nemesis, Sen. Mitch McConnell.

[From Worldandnation: GOP enemy No. 1]

Here McCain is described as having a “hair-trigger temper”. How is it so many media outlets could get the story so wrong for so many years if this is not true?

“But it wasn’t so much the topic that sent the other reporters back to their laptops to type furiously. It was McCain’s tone. His well-known temper emerged publicly for the first time since cementing the nomination last Tuesday.

[From Flash of John McCain’s temper is a click away | www.tennessean.com | The Tennessean]

Please note the reporters use of the phrase “well-known temper”.

McCain said Bush was behind a New York Times article on Monday that portrayed him as hot-tempered and engaged in a feud with Arizona’s governor, Jane Hull, who has endorsed Bush.

Hull told the newspaper that her relations with McCain were ‘’not particularly warm,'’ and that McCain has a short fuse.

[From McCain charges ‘personal attacks’]

We don’t know if it’s a sign of John McCain’s mental instability, but we find it troubling how McCain vacillates between admitting he has anger management issues, and flat-out denials of the problem.

Sen. John McCain admitted Tuesday morning that he has anger management issues, confessing that it’s a problem he’s had to work on for many years.

“I constantly, throughout my career, have had to work on getting angry and frustrated and losing my temper,” McCain told Fox News Channel’s Brian Kilmeade, who was filling in on Tony Snow’s radio show.

[From John McCain: I Have Anger Issues]

McCain has alternately denied he is given to angry outbursts and has admitted he struggles to control his anger. On Oct. 31, 1999, for example, The Associated Press quoted him as saying, “Do I insult anybody or fly off the handle or anything like that? No, I don’t.” But in his 2002 memoir, “Worth the Fighting For,” McCain said, “I have a temper, to state the obvious, which I have tried to control with varying degrees of success because it does not always serve my interest or the public’s.”

This year, the Baltimore Sun quoted McCain on March 20 as denying he had a temper. “Just because someone says it’s there, you would have to provide some corroboration that it was,” McCain said. “Because I do not lose my temper. I do not.”

[From John McCain’s Temper Preceded Vietnam | Newsmax]

We also find it interesting, if one reads the Newsmax story above, that McCain will let reporters see his military record, but won’t let them copy it. What does the Straight Talk Express have to hide?

And then there are these links :

Col. David Hackworth on John McCain

Vietnam Veterans Against John McCain

John McCain : The Manchurian Candidate

Sen. McCain Wants To Be President

John McCain’s Top Ten Temper Explosions

Almost eight years after al-Qaeda nearly sank the USS Cole with an explosives-stuffed motorboat, killing 17 sailors, all the defendants convicted in the attack have escaped from prison or been freed by Yemeni officials.

Jamal al-Badawi, a Yemeni who helped organize the plot to bomb the Cole as it refueled in this Yemeni port on Oct. 12, 2000, has broken out of prison twice. He was recaptured both times, but then secretly released by the government last fall. Yemeni authorities jailed him again after receiving complaints from Washington. But U.S. officials have so little faith that he’s still in his cell that they have demanded the right to perform random inspections.

[From WTKR NewsChannel 3 | The Washington Post: Probe Of USS Cole Bombing Unravels]

Why, it’s almost like they want the terrorist to run free, or something.

It was the 100th episode of “Dancing with the Stars” — but the last for Mario. The 21-year-old R&B singer and his professional partner, Karina Smirnoff, were eliminated during Tuesday’s results show, which also served as a special celebration of the ABC dancing competition’s 100th episode.

[From ‘Dancing With the Stars’ eliminates another celebrity - Yahoo! News]

100 episodes. Wow. That’s crap-tacular!

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents in San Diego are seeing an increase in smuggling by sea. Improvements in border security on land have pushed immigrant and drug smugglers offshore. During the past few months, dozens of small boats have been found on the beaches near the border. Now federal agents are responding.

[From Mexican Smugglers Take to Sea to Cross into U.S. : NPR]

Hopefully, they are responding with live ammunition against vessels with unknown intent invading America’s territorial waters.