Running into a PUMA

I was leaving the library today and a woman in the lobby thrust a Ted Celeste ad at me that she had just picked up from the table. "Is this the Governor Celeste we used to have?" she asked. I just look like I have all the answers, but I could remember Dagmar, his wife's name, but not Governor Celeste's first name. "Oh, he had a lot more hair than that," I said. "Yeah, but in 20 years?" she said. So together we started running through names. "Go inside and ask a librarian," I said. "They love questions like that, then come back out and let me know." So I waited while she went inside. "Richard," she said when she came out.

We chatted a bit on the way to the parking lot and I flashed my McCain-Palin badge that was under my jacket. "Oh, so you're going to vote for a woman," she said, "So am I." We both agreed that we weren't all that thrilled with either Obama or McCain. "I was a Hillary supporter," she said, "She really had some good ideas. I'm just so mad at those Obama people for how they treated her." "Are you a PUMA?" I asked. But she didn't seem to be familiar with the word, but if ever there was an angry, disenfranchised Democrat, she was it. She just wants a woman in the White House. Then in four years. . . I told her I liked Palin because she was a Conservative and so was I. We chatted a bit and then said good-bye and walked to our cars.

The food stamp challenge

A Lutheran church in Seattle took the "Food Stamp Challenge," to see what it was like to live on a food stamp budget of $1 per person, per meal for one week. I blogged about one couple, Jason and Krista, at my other blog.

The present food stamp program began during Johnson’s Great Society in the 1960s (there was a small brief program 1939-1944) and was expanded during the Carter years, and every administration since, including the Republicans. It is now a massive hot potato that no president or congress dare cut. Food stamps were never intended to replace the family’s food income, but to supplement it so they could have a healthier diet. This is the first fallacy of the “Food Stamp Challenge”--they were supposed to be supplementing a modest food plan.

However, the real motivation behind food stamps is/was to help farmers with surpluses. After WWII, our surpluses (huge expansion during the war) went to Europe to help them rebuild, but eventually they weren’t needed there and they had their own food commodity markets and trade. But our farmers were still raising surpluses. So subsidized food surplus was distributed to prop up agriculture, and to generate additional economic activity. It is supposed to be a type of stimulus for the economy--something Jason and Krista who tried the challenge didn't understand. Like many good intentions, it has created a type of dependency, poor planning, huge bureaucracy and frustration among the poor because it doesn’t do more. Every federal budget, food stamps now called SNAP, is expanded and more people and more programs are added.

According to the Cato Institute, “The largest portion of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s budget consists of food subsidies, not farm subsidies. Food subsidies will cost taxpayers $55 billion in fiscal 2007 and account for 61 percent of the USDA’s budget. The largest food subsidy programs are food stamps; the school breakfast and lunch programs; and the women, infants, and children (WIC) program. The federal government as a whole has about 26 food and nutrition programs operated by six different agencies.“

The biggest distributor of these programs is "faith based and community" initiatives like our church, UALC, which participates in and works at the local food pantry (over 90% funded by the government) and the summer lunch programs (all government).

Update: I didn't know that the USDA also was in the business of providing mortgage money for low income families through a church chipping in the down payment, but it is. Story here about Mennonite Self Help Housing.

Off the reservation?

Leftists can't hack it. Blacks and women are not allowed to leave the reservation/plantation/basement/kitchen. Now the working class can't either. As soon as they discovered that "Joe the Plumber" from Ohio could speak better off the cuff and was more knowledgeable than the candidates, BO and Biden, they swung into action to destroy him. Checked his plumber's license. Nope. Checked his union membership. Nope. Checked his voter registration. Yes (although some got that wrong). Checked his taxes. Wow. Look at that! He like thousands of others, still owes Ohio money. No wonder he doesn't want Obama to raise his taxes. Just like they flew a covey of lawyers to Alaska to find dirt on Palin and her husband and children, they have launched a "destroy Joe" campaign.

Joe's American Dream: "was to have a house, a dog, a couple rifles, a bass boat. I believe in living life easy and simple. I don’t have grand designs. I don’t want much. I just wanna be able to take care of my family and do things with them outdoors and that’s about it, really. I don’t have a “grand scheme” thing. My American Dream is just more personal to me as far as working, making a good living and being able to provide for my family, college for my son. Things like that – simple things in life, that’s really what it comes down to for me. That’s my dream." Interview

Now Obama is lying on the campaign trail about what Joe said. I heard him this morning on the radio. "How many of you know plumbers who make a quarter of a million a year?" he said slipping into a little patois just to be authentic. Joe never said he earned $250,000 a year--he said he'd like to buy the business some day and not pay even more taxes under Obama's plan. Joe's a working guy who'd like to do better someday. Under President Obama, that's not allowed. Step back, working folk. Do the Obama blue collar, black face shuffle.

Pot to Kettle: Martin Nesbitt's tax liens (Obama's treasurer).

See Michelle Malkin who is tracking this.

Update: This comment #23 at Malkin was good: "Thank you to all the MSM hyper Obambi lovers and supporters. Thank you, thank you, thank you. In your zeal and hatred of the American workers you have kept Joe and his story in the news. This could very possibly be your Dukakis in the tank moment. With the race tightening up voters are hearing Obambi over and over again espouse his socialism and the thug-ocracy of the Obambi machine. Thank you again." Marshall Russ

The MSM has tracked down the truth and reported: His name isn't Joe; that's his middle name. Oh the shame and horror!

Our household income fell by one-half under Bush!

Of course. We retired during the Bush years. Eeek! And our insurance costs have gone up! Just like the leftist say. Yes, we're on Medicare, a government health plan and our costs have gone up! Not nearly as good or cost worthy as what I had at the university. And we're not the only ones, we're part of a million household trend. And it will only get worse, unless Obama decrees that the Census reports can no longer be issued until he's finished with the country. Whenever that will be.

Here's a lefty who just doesn't get it.

Wall Street Journal front page feature, the black McCains

Interesting isn't it, when Barack Obama has slave owners both in his African ancestry and his American white ancestry, that WSJ choses 2 weeks before the election to write about McCain's ancestors who owned slaves?

The first Islamic assault on African culture was the jihad that annihilated Coptic Egyptian culture and Greek culture in Northern Africa. Today these areas are Arabic and Islamic.

That was just the thin end of the jihad wedge. Over the next 1400 years, Islam took approximately 25 million slaves out of Africa. An Arabic word for African is abd, the same word that is used for black slave. Arabic has about 40 words for slaves. White slaves are mamluk. Islam took more than a million European slaves into slavery. The highest priced slave in the Meccan slave market was a white woman.

There is great deal of collateral damage when a slave is taken. A warring party attacks a tribe and when enough of the protectors are killed, the rest will surrender and become slaves. All of those who were strong enough to work were taken away in a forced march for days. But there are many who are left behind -- the young, the old, and the sick and injured.

Estimates vary, but from 5 to 10 people left behind died as the result of taking one slave. So for 25 million slaves, we have the deaths of 125 million Africans over a 1400-year period.

When the story of slavery is told in America, as in the movie Roots, the sailors get off the boats and capture the Africans and make them slaves. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

When the white slaver showed up in his wooden ship, he made a business deal with a Muslim wholesaler. Jihad was the machinery that Mohammed used, and his model worked well in Africa as slavers filled the slave pens for the same reason that Mohammed did it: profit. Whites only traded slaves with Islam for about 200 years. Islam was in the slave trade before and after selling to the West

.From every educational and personal achievement measurement, the black McCains and the white McCains seem pretty well matched in the 21st century, regardless of what transpired in the 19th century. We'll never know if the NGOs and western aid hadn't virtually destroyed African culture and propped up despots, 21st Africans would be doing as well as 21st century African-Americns.

WSJ news coverage is among the most liberal of all the MSM. It's difficult to tell sometimes if journalists or left wing social workers are doing the writing, because much of it belongs on the op-ed pages. Generally, the editorial staff and letters to the editor are conservative. I wonder, do the two cultures of this paper even sit together in the lunch room?

What housing crisis?

If there is a housing slump or melt down in my neighborhood, it would be hard to tell from the real estate ads in our SNP Upper Arlington News. If you are from San Francisco or the east coast, these may sound low, but for our neck of the woods, they are high. Plus, I'm familiar with some of these properties and I don't think they were anywhere near these prices 5 years ago. My comments appear after the double slash.

South of Lane. Wonderful 2 story in historic Old Arlington. Spacious living room and dining room. Hardwood floors, French doors, screened porch, rec room in lower level. Beautiful gardens. $498,500. New Price. // The key word here is "old." The important thing to notice is the agent doesn't mention bathrooms or garage--the photo appears to feature a home about 80 years old, so I'm guessing a 1 car garage and 1.5 baths.

Cottage style home. Charming 2-story in the Northam Park area. Great details, hdwd floors & built-ins. Generous size living & dining rooms. 1st flr den. 3 BRs, 2 full baths. Paver patio & deck. $398,000. // This is near our old neighborhood, only a bit older--probably built late 20s. From the photo I can see that the "den" is a filled-in porch with windows that don't match the original architecture, a frequent mistake in remodeling. These lots are very small, but with huge gracious trees (very expensive to maintain, btw). Landscaping looks way over grown--probably from early-90s upgrade and now is out of control.

Loch Lomond. Stately entrance to a limestone terrace. Private 1+ acre lot. Gourmet kitchen, open floor plan. 2-sty great room. 5BR, 5 full & 2 half baths. Terrific floorplan for entertaining. $1,475,000. // Not quite sure where Loch Lomond is but I think it is the northern edge of UA. From photo I'd guess a late 80s design from a catalog. This description means "this is a hard to heat barn"--you can square dance in the entry and fly kites in the great-room. The utility bills for houses like this could put a kid through college.

Desirable location. This beautiful 4 BR home is located in a prime UA neighborhood on the corner of Abinton and Redding. Recently renovated, the home features a gourmet kit w/granite counter tops, top of the line appliances & a wine cooler. Each BR is completely renovated, while new French drs lead to the extraordinary patio. Boasting new Pella windows, driveway, and exterior stucco, this home is truly a must see! $739,000.// We lived on Abington so I know this house--I think everyone who has ever lived there has remodeled it which might be why the price is so high. That sounds like a fab kitchen, but Redding Rd is a main thoroughfare through Arlington that cuts through what would be a very small area on the edge of Canterbury addition. Virtually no useable yard. If you have young children, I'd look elsewhere.

Yes, there seems to be 1) a lot of money still available, or 2) people not too anxious to move.

Global cooling suggested

Don't buy those funny light bulbs yet. The regular ones help heat your home. Old Farmer's Almanac is predicting we're going into a cooling period and they're not looking at fuzzy caterpillars crossing the road.

These factors—the cooling Pacific, the yet-to-cool Atlantic, and the historical reduction in recent solar activity—suggest that a staggered cooling period could continue. Absent from most headlines about global warming is a discussion of measures suggesting that the warming has ceased and a cooling may have begun. For example, deep-ocean heat content has not increased during the past five years. Looking at just one year, from January 2007 to January 2008, we find that satellite-derived atmospheric temperatures indicate that Earth was about one degree Fahrenheit cooler at the beginning of 2008 than it was at the beginning of 2007. The United Kingdom's Hadley Centre ocean and land temperature records show cooling in the last seven to ten years.

Are you government approved?

Check out this website and see! I am approved--my BMI was 22.46. But all these folks the government says are overweight:

OVERWEIGHT:
Barry Bonds: 6'2": 228 lbs: 29
David Boreanaz: 6'2": 218 lbs: 28
Tom Brady: 6'4": 225 lbs: 27
President Bush: 5'11": 191 lbs: 26
Nic Cage: 6'1": 210 lbs: 28
George Clooney: 5'11": 211 lbs: 29
Tom Cruise: 5'7": 170 lbs: 26
Matt Damon: 5'11": 187 lbs: 26
Johnny Depp: 5'7": 190 lbs: 27
David Duchovny: 6'0": 212 lbs: 29
Vin Diesel: 6'2": 200 lbs: 26
Cheryl Ford: 6'3": 215 lbs:27
Harrison Ford: 6'1": 218 lbs: 29
Brendan Fraser: 6'3": 234 lbs: 29
Richard Gere: 5'11": 187 lbs: 26
Ethan Hawke: 5'9": 172 lbs: 25
Hugh Jackman: 6'2": 210 lbs: 27
Lebron James: 6'8": 240 lbs: 26
Dale Jarrett: 6'2": 200 lbs: 26
Bobby Labonte: 5'9": 170 lbs: 25
Nick Lachey: 5'10": 180 lbs: 26
Karl Malone: 6'9": 259 lbs: 28
Dr. Phil McGraw: 6'4": 240 lbs: 29
Mark McGuire (playing weight): 6'5": 250 lbs: 30
Donovan McNabb: 6'3": 240 lbs: 30
Yao Ming: 7'6": 310 lbs: 27
Brad Pitt: 6'0": 203 lbs: 28
Keanu Reeves: 6'1": 223 lbs: 29
Cal Ripken: 6'4": 210 lbs: 27
Andy Roddick: 6'2": 197 lbs: 25
Will Smith: 6'2": 210 lbs: 27
Sammy Sosa: 6'0": 220 lbs: 30
Denzel Washington: 6'0": 199 lbs: 27
Bruce Willis: 6'0": 200 lbs: 29
Billy Zane: 6'2": 210 lbs: 27

Do American schools not graduate any physics students?

Does the Zhong Group at Ohio State University look a little unbalanced to you?

Older, male and Protestants lean toward McCain

Jews (78%), other (71%) and no religion (61%) are going for Obama big time. People over 45 are going 45% for McCain, with only 32% in the 65+ age group for Obama. Protestants are 53% for McCain. Males about 50% and single women are all ga-ga over Obama, 62% to 25%.

The one that really puzzles me is investors in a dead heat, 45% and 45%, with 11% undecided. Someone really doesn't understand economics or how we got this melt down. Or how the Democrats tried to block for the last year and a half (since they came into power) any investigation of the GSE's roll role in the subprime housing mess. See IBD poll as of yesterday.

http://www.ibdeditorials.com/Polls.aspx?id=308947386648301

From the fraud we see in Ohio perpetrated by the Obama campaign, I doubt this poll will mean much.

What a first class education and 30 years experience will get you

J-O-B-S is a three letter word. Joe Biden.

I hope Sarah got a good laugh. I sure did.

Wake up America, and smell the gas

"The first results of the survey indicate previous assessments have severely underestimated Turkmenistan's gas reserves. The BP Statistical Review of World Energy, an industry bible, sets the country's reserves at 2.67 trillion cubic meters. Analysts expect that to be upgraded in light of the information on South Yolotan.

The findings suggest Turkmenistan should be able to confidently move ahead with plans to boost its exports of gas. At the moment, it sells most of its gas to Russia -- about 50 billion cubic meters a year, which is mostly resold to Ukraine -- and a little to Iran. But it has plans to export to China and Europe too, as well as significantly boost sales to Russia. China is building a pipeline from Turkmenistan that will have the capacity to bring 30 billion cubic meters a year, and Ashgabad has also agreed to sell 10 billion cubic meters to Europe. The European Union hopes that a gas pipeline will one day be built across the Caspian Sea, which would enable direct imports of Turkmen gas, bypassing Russia." WSJ, Oct. 16, 2009

Now that the fifth largest natural gas field in the world has been found in Turkmenistan, let‘s review what Governor Palin of Alaska, which has the mother load of energy resources for the USA, told Charlie Gibson about our relationship with Putin and former Soviet republics like the Ukraine. You didn’t see this part of the interview because ABC which is in the tank for Obama was trying to make her look like a beauty queen ingénue.

GIBSON: And under the NATO treaty, wouldn’t we then have to go to war if Russia went into Georgia?

PALIN: Perhaps so. I mean, that is the agreement when you are a NATO ally, is if another country is attacked, you’re going to be expected to be called upon and help.
But NATO, I think, should include Ukraine, definitely, at this point and I think that we need to — especially with new leadership coming in on January 20, being sworn on, on either ticket, we have got to make sure that we strengthen our allies, our ties with each one of those NATO members.

We have got to make sure that that is the group that can be counted upon to defend one another in a very dangerous world today.

GIBSON: And you think it would be worth it to the United States, Georgia is worth it to the United States to go to war if Russia were to invade.

PALIN: What I think is that smaller democratic countries that are invaded by a larger power is something for us to be vigilant against. We have got to be cognizant of what the consequences are if a larger power is able to take over smaller democratic countries.

And we have got to be vigilant. We have got to show the support, in this case, for Georgia. The support that we can show is economic sanctions perhaps against Russia, if this is what it leads to.

It doesn’t have to lead to war and it doesn’t have to lead, as I said, to a Cold War, but economic sanctions, diplomatic pressure, again, counting on our allies to help us do that in this mission of keeping our eye on Russia and Putin and some of his desire to control and to control much more than smaller democratic countries.

His mission, if it is to control energy supplies, also, coming from and through Russia, that’s a dangerous position for our world to be in, if we were to allow that to happen.

Reduced to holding pancake breakfasts?

I checked the website of the Prairie Fire Collective, the Weatherman group created in the late 1970s by Bernadine Dohrn and Bill Ayers. There was an ad on the page for a pancake breakfast fund raiser, although it was for December 2006. You really don't know whether to laugh or cry.

The Prairie Fire Collective favored coming out of hiding, with members facing the criminal charges against them, while the May 19 Coalition continued in hiding. A decisive factor in Dohrn's coming out of hiding were her concerns about her children according to Wikipedia. The Prairie Fire Collective started to surrender to the authorities from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. The remaining Weatherman Underground members continued to violently attack US institutions. East coast members favored a commitment to violence and challenged commitments of old leaders, Bernadine Dohrn, Bill Ayers and Jeff Jones.

Here's their statement of purpose. It has Bill and Bernadine written all over it.

We oppose oppression in all its forms including racism, sexism, homophobia, classism and imperialism. We demand liberation and justice for all peoples. We recognize that we live in a capitalist system that favors a select few and oppresses the majority. This system cannot be reformed or voted out of office because reforms and elections do not challenge the fundamental causes of injustice.

Prairie Fire Organizing Committee.

The unrepentent Bill and Bernadine Ayers

Bernadine Dohrn and Bill Ayers turned themselves in on December 3, 1980, in New York. Charges were dropped for Ayers. Dohrn received three years probation and a $15,000 fine. These criminals and others of the anti-war protest groups who tried to destroy the USA in the 1960s and 1970s went scot free and government officials who had violated privacy laws during their investigation were tried during the Carter Administration, receiving stiff fines, prison terms and ruined careers. They were later pardoned by Reagan. [See Wikipedia article which contains citations]

Here's what Bill Ayers, who provided the spring board for Barack Obama's career in leftist politics by including him in the Annenberg Project to radicalize Chicago school children, said in 1970. To my knowledge, he hasn't recanted, but Palin is roundly criticized by the MSM and Obama campaign as "racist" for bringing up his friendship with Obama.

"We were talking the other night and we realized that all our heroes are dead. Wow, what a trip! Ché, Nguyen Van Troi, the Vietnamese who tried to get McNamara. We're running their pictures in our paper with the line 'Live Like Him!' and they've all been killed. Outtasight, man. We've got a new slogan for the people that are going down to help with the sugar harvest: 'Cuba is for the Living!' "

Ayers' remarks typify Weatherman's tendency to define its situation in terms of extremes. Building socialism in Cuba is for the living; overthrowing American imperialism is a death trip. Weatherman, as early as the action in the streets of Chicago, already had begun to live in the shadow of death. Not long after the "Days of Rage," Weatherman would compensate for its death trip mentality with hedonistic orgies. Like a pendulum, moving from one extreme to the other, Weatherman swung from death trips to life trips to death trips … . Bill Ayers is quoted in an article by John Kifner, "Vandals in the Mother Country," New York Times Magazine, January 4, 1970. This quote appears in the publication, Weatherman, by Harold Jacobs, Ramparts Press, 1970. p. 86

Independent, non-profit, non-partisan, pt. 2

When I encounter a new name or organization I first go to the “about us” page, and then to the “funding” if I can find it (and that’s extremely difficult because so many political, community and church organizations both on the left and the right try to disguise or downplay this), and I then look at the “staff” or “advisory board” or “contacts” if possible (that too is sometimes hidden, but you may find an address).

SourceWatch (a wiki) mentioned below defined itself as “a collaborative project of the Center for Media and Democracy to produce a directory of the people, organizations and issues shaping the public agenda.” However, when I looked up that organization and moved past its own glowing descriptions, I found this definition at Activist Cash.com.

“The Center for Media & Democracy (CMD) is a counterculture public relations effort disguised as an independent media organization. CMD isn’t really a center it would be more accurate to call it a partnership, since it is essentially a two-person operation.” . . “Their books Mad Cow U.S.A. and Toxic Sludge Is Good for You! were produced and promoted using grant monies from the Foundation for Deep Ecology ($25,000) and the Education Foundation of America ($20,000), among others. Along with the more recent Trust Us: We’re Experts, these books are scare-mongering tales about a corporate culture out of control, and each implies that the public needs rescuing. Guess who the heroes in this fantasy are? “

If I had scrolled through more stuff on the SourceWatch page and found these titles, I could have figured out all by myself that it is a shill for leftist causes.

Of course, this means I have to go to the “about us” page of Activist Cash.com and find out who funds them.

“This site, created by the Center for Consumer Freedom, is committed to providing detailed and up-to-date information about the funding source of radical anti-consumer organizations and activists. We have analyzed over 410,000 pages of IRS documents to create this database, and new information will be added every month.

The organizations we track on this site are tax-exempt nonprofits. That means you have the right to know what they're up to. The same rule applies to the tax-exempt foundations that pay their bills.”

So then I need to find out what is Center for Consumer Freedom who is paying the bills for Activist Cash.com who is checking on Source Watch who is watching the speaker from AEI who is telling the health care employees at a conference this week, how to use incentives, which just might be affecting my own personal health.

At its “about us” page I learn that

“The Center for Consumer Freedom is supported by over 100 companies and thousands of individual consumers. From farm to fork, from urban to rural, our friends and supporters include businesses, their employees, and their customers.

The Center is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. We file regular statements with the Internal Revenue Service, which are open to public inspection.”

Looking through their material I see a lot on the food and nutrition industry and animal rights scams. So now I know it represents business interests of its clients, so we’re right back to the socialist do-gooders fighting the nasty mean capitalists, or WHAT ELSE IS NEW?

Independent, non-profit, non-partisan, pt. 1

These words have lost their meaning in today‘s political climate. They might have meaning for their tax status, but not their reliability, their slant or values. Ignore these terms when seeking information and do more than a cursory background check before trusting.

Today I was attempting to look up information on a “consumer health care incentives” conference taking place this week. I found that web page from a table of contents that a publisher sent in an e-mail to a librarian list. All the conference topics used what I would call either jargon or mush terms--impossible for the outsider (like me who worked in a medical library for 14 years) to discern. But I could figure out the conference logo--a large carrot dangling in front of buildings labeled hospital, insurance company, government, etc. inside what looked like a stamp. So I examined the list of speakers and just picked one, Thomas P. Miller, who was presenting a paper for AEI, American Enterprise Institute, which I would define as libertarian in its economic views, conservative in its social views, and all over the map politically. Over the years I have found their reports and papers to be trustworthy and well-researched, even if I don‘t always agree with their conclusions.

After browsing Mr. Miller’s resume I found a google link directing me to a wiki, Source Watch. Wikis are all over the internet--they are user-created encyclopedias and they are not peer-reviewed--your 13 year old could contribute and probably has because anyone can edit the information an expert just contributed 30 minutes ago. The most famous wiki is probably Wikipedia, but they are proliferating like pet rabbits loosed after Easter. Sometimes a wiki can help you get someplace, but they are not in the same class with Encyclopedia Britannica which began publishing in 1768 or The World Book that you may remember from your schools days. Their advantage is they often contain really obscure information that isn’t available in a true encyclopedia.

Next entry will continue this theme, but now it's time to go to the coffee shop.

What Sarah really said to Charlie

Remember how she was denigrated and dissed for that interview? Read the full interview and see what was edited out. She had a whole lot more to say about Russia and Iran than what we heard.

The Charlotte Front and Center is a PUMA website for Hillary supporters and it is supporting McCain-Palin in their anger over the sexism and misogyny by the Obama people and supporters in the MSM.

Book TV

Each week I enjoy tuning in a few minutes or hours to Book-TV on C-SPAN, and it was gone! There in its place was a tour of Korea. So I googled asking what had happened to it. It's now on 94, which means I can't get it in my office because I don't have a box.

Bucyrus, Circleville, Columbus, Delaware, Galion, Kenton, Lancaster, Marysville, Mount Gilead, Mount Vernon, Pataskala, Thornville and Zanesville channel lineups

Big Ten Network will move to Standard Channel 58.

When available, BTN alternate games will air on Digital Channels 153-156.
Travel Channel will move to Basic Channel 14.

Time Warner Connection returns to Channel 24.

C-SPAN 2 will move to Digital Broadcast Channel 94.

Product Information Network (PIN) will launch on Digital Variety
Channel 166.

I just hate it when they mess with my favorites.

Vote from Home--in Columbus, Ohio

What a handsome group! Marc Gustafson, the founder, seems to be in two places at once--Columbus, Ohio and Oxford University where he is in Middle East Studies. His permanent address for campaign contributions is New York. He speaks Arabic.

Vote from Home is a Political Action Committee established in 2007 by a group of Marshall, Rhodes, Fulbright and Truman Scholars. VHF's mission is to recruit and track early Democratic voters in Ohio for the 2008 Election.

Walter Cronkite, former news man and Robert N. Downey of Goldman Sachs are listed on the Advisory Board of his other organization Reach The World, which Marc also founded. Marc and his group, none of whom are from Columbus, decided they needed to come to Ohio to register Democratic voters. Who knows if it is legal. They are living on Brownlee, according to Michelle Malkin. How much of this is going on in the critical states under various names? Why do these carpetbaggers think the residents who live here and pay taxes here can't be trusted with the ballot? Do we need snobby, east coast kids who travel around the world and study in Europe to come here for a few months and 'splain it to us dummies? We've got 50,000 students on one campus at OSU, plus Capital, Wittenberg and Columbus State. With OCLC, Chem Abstracts, Battelle, and OSU we are the information capital of the USA. But apparently we're too dumb to know how to register and vote!

Update: Story about the group on Brownlee in Columbus Dispatch.

How to get our tax money back from ACORN

I just sent off my absentee ballot. I took the warning on the bottom seriously:

"Whoever commits election falsification is guilty of a felony of the Fifth degree."

Didn't even say "voting" just falsification. ACORN has been committing a lot of election falsification in Ohio and saying it's up to Jennifer Brunner to figure it out because it can't be responsible for all its workers. Then Brunner says she can't be expected to correct it--there isn't time.

So I looked up 5th degree felony (Ohio felony sentencing law by Burt W. Griffin and Lewis R. Katz is the source cited on the 'net). The penalty is 6-12 months in jail and a $2,500 fine. What if ACORN had to return to the jurisdiction $2,500 for every falsified registration? Might put a huge crimp in that $800,000 Obama gave them for "services." What if Brunner had to pay up for election falsification?

The house on Brownlee according to Malkin contains out of state folks here only long enough to register others, and vote absentee. They are Marc Gustafson, Heather Halstead, Daniel Hemel, Jen Kyle and Greg Nolan. Nice, clean cut looking Ivy League type kids (except Gustafson and Halstead (a couple?) are no kids) working for non-profits, government and businesses, all here to steal our election. Two Truman scholars and two Marshall scholars. Tell me again, Heather MacDonald what exactly you don't like about Sarah Palin's small town, western values and ethics? I'd put her up against these moral midgets any day.