MaxRedline

Tax Dollars At Work - Ground Zero

It looks as though the controversial "Ground Zero Mosque" may qualify for tax-free financing, City Comptroller John Liu said on Friday, and he's prepared to approve it.  Publicly-subsidized mosque construction - kind of puts a whole new spin on religious freedom, doesn't it?

Re-Inventing The Internet

Although we all know that AlGore invented the Internet, that uppity Microsoft co-founder, Paul Allen, is now suing darn near everybody; claiming that Google, Facebook, eBay, and others have built their businesses around technology that he owns.

Good luck with that.  Such suits have a long and storied history of failure.

What Media Bias?

Senior executives, on-air personalities, producers, reporters, editors, writers and other self-identifying employees of ABC, CBS and NBC contributed more than $1 million to Democratic candidates and campaign committees in 2008, according to an analysis by The Examiner of data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.

The Democratic total of $1,020,816 was given by 1,160 employees of the three major broadcast television networks, with an average contribution of $880.

By contrast, only 193 of the employees contributed to Republican candidates and campaign committees, for a total of $142,863. The average Republican contribution was $744.

Given those numbers, you can see why they were so outraged to learn that Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. contributed $1 million to the Republican Governors Association.

Nate Daschle, who heads the Democrat counterpart, the DGA, was so incensed that he wrote a letter to Fox News chairman Roger Ailes demanding that the cable news outlet include a disclaimer in its coverage of gubernatorial campaigns.  Yes, Nate is the son of Tom Daschle, the former Democrat Senate Majority leader.

Maybe that'd fly if all "news" organizations included similar disclaimers as part of their "coverage", but for some reason, the Democratic media doesn't seem to want to go that far.  88% of all political donations from employees at ABC, CBS, and NBC went to Democrats.  They'd like to keep it that way, thank you very much, and no - this isn't a "story" worth reporting.  Which is why you haven't seen it on the nightly "news".

Welcome To Honor

The Left are, at this moment, wetting themselves. Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally is underway, and leftist media are beside themselves, calling Beck a demagogue (among other things) and accusing him of desecrating the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The "Reverend" Al Sharpton is trying to hold a counter-rally, but it doesn't look as though he stands to make a whole lot of progress on that front.

Still, it's rather a sad commentary on the state of our country when professional race-baiters like Sharpton are given national media platforms from which to decry the event.

Beck has every right to hang out on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with a hundred thousand or so of his closest friends.  Only a loon can somehow turn it into a racist event.

Take a look at the clip in the above link for a different perspective.

 

Dudley Charts Kitz

Kitzhaber's organizational front, the DGA, using Blue Oregon's Kari Chisholm as its Web Consultant, launched a websited devoted to attacking Dudley.  The next day, Chisholm boasted in a BO post about a killer ad campaign that DGA has put together in association with the site, noting the "accompanying advertising".

Two days later, DGA purchased about $1 million in airtime to run the attack.

Four days later, DGA sent the ad to stations around the state - then suddenly pulled it.  Oddly, this coincides precisely with the revelation in Willamette Week regarding Kitz, his hottie girlfriend, and the interest by federal and state authorities in said girlfriend's company, 3E Strategies, and one or more state contracts awarded to her firm.  Dudley's campaign has released a moderately helpful flowchart documenting some of the events.

Chisholm has been conspicuously absent over on Blue Oregon since his August 19 post there.  It seems that after things started blowing up in the Kitz camp, there's been a rather sudden change in strategery.

 

Transit With Benefits

Light rail affords such a smooth, quiet ride that you may fall asleep during your commute.  Sweet dreams, then.  If you're really lucky (and presumably, a very sound sleeper), you may get a free massage while you snooze.  Light rail has many unanticipated "benefits".

Just Stop Being Rude

That ubiquitous cell phone has invaded every aspect of life, and it's just plain rude.  You've doubtless had the experience of standing in an express self-checkout line while some idiot scans an item, then stands there holding it in her hand while yakking on her cell.

Eventually, she may get around to placing the item in the bag, but then there's another long wait before she reaches into the cart to get another item.  Her phone is so important that you can just stand and wait for as long as she needs.  The list of such rudeness is virtually endless, and it's about time something like this became widely available.

We're living in an age in which too many children were raised with exaggerated senses of self-importance (or self-esteem, or just narcissism).  Get this: 10% of people 24 and younger think it’s OK to text during sex, according to consumer electronics shopping and review site Retrevo. That brings a whole meaning to the term multitasking.

Pleased To Meet Ya, Ben!

The Oregon Medical Board and Assistant Attorney General Warren Foote are willing to go to any means to destroy Oregonian's legal right to Medical Cannabis. They accomplish this by going after physicians that are compassionate enough to help patients become eligible for this program.

Or maybe they're looking into "Dr." Dover because he seems to issue dope cards willy-nilly.  This whole "medical cannabis" thing is a farce, and most people are well aware that it is.  Dope should be legalized, period.  The system as it's been implemented is a waste of resources, pure and simple.  The only reason why they're not legal is because government knows full well that they can't derive any income from it.  You can grow dope anywhere, which means it can't be taxed or otherwise regulated.

All that our policies are accomplishing is the empowerment of smuggling cartels, which would go away with full legalization.  You still enforce duii laws and similar restrictions, but aside from that, our present approach is counterproductive.

3-D With Touch

Though remarkably inventive, sometimes our Japanese friends are just downright silly.  They've come up with technology that allows users to manipulate 3-D images; touching, poking, pinching.

Sounds cool, and they have, of course, nothing but lofty goals in mind: "This technology could create a virtual museum where visitors, including vision-impaired people, can put their hands on valuable sculptures that are usually untouchable," Nakamura said.

Yeah, right.  And just who do you think will be first to push this envelope?

The Obama Presidency

Hope'n'Change™, it seems, hasn't been an especially strong performer.  In fact, his administration is perhaps best summed up in an old Monty Python sketch: