Goodbye, Farewell, and Thanks For All the Fish,....

What's Russian for "utter failure?"

Atlantis Makes Final Landing, Ending 30-Year Shuttle Program

After decades of inspiring millions around the globe, space shuttle Atlantis made a final, picture-perfect touchdown at Kennedy Space Center at 5:56 a.m. EDT -- ending the shuttle program.

"Job well done, America," mission control told pilot Doug Hurley and the thousands watching and listening to the landing in the pre-dawn dark.


There was a clear sense of nostalgia on the part of both crew and staff at Kennedy Space Center, as the ship made its final arrival safe and sound.

"Having fired the imaginations of a generation, a ship like no other, its place in history secured, the space shuttle pulls into port for the last time -- its voyage at an end," reported mission control.

"Mission complete, Houston," Hurley responded. "After serving the world for over 30 years, the space shuttle has earned its place in history. Atlantis has come to a final stop."

"It’s been 30 great years for the Space Shuttle program," said Bill Nye, executive director of the Planetary Society, in a statement on the landing. "With this venerable space vehicle retired, it’s on to the next adventure."

The shuttle signaled its approach with its signature dual sonic booms as Atlantis slowed to subsonic speeds at around 5:52 a.m. -- an incredible experience, said former shuttle astronaut Tom Jones.

"Everything seems to accelerate" when you're landing a shuttle, he told Fox News. "It's like going down a dirt road in a dump truck."

30 years advancing humanity into space and one administration driving America into near-bankruptcy and we have to take a backseat to Russia when it comes to psace exploration! Nice going, Barry!

"Vile and Disgusting"

And coming from the leader of the DNC,...pretty much sums up the party's profile!

Rep. West Stands by Email Calling Wasserman Schultz 'Vile, Despicable and Cowardly'

Published July 19, 2011

| FoxNews.com

WASHINGTON -- Republican Rep. Allen West of Florida is standing by an incendiary email he sent to a Democratic colleague after she criticized him in a speech on the House floor.
"I think it's important to stake my ground," West told Fox News when asked about his email to Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee. "It was about enough is enough, and it's my right to say that. She is the one elevating this."


In her remarks on the House floor, Wasserman Schultz had said: "The gentleman from Florida, who represents thousands of Medicare beneficiaries, as do I, is supportive of this plan that would increase costs for Medicare beneficiaries. Unbelievable from a member from south Florida."
She was alluding to a GOP-backed bill to reduce the debt and amend the Constitution to require a balanced federal budget. The House later approved the bill 234-190, but it is unlikely to pass the Democratic Senate.
West, who is in his first term, wasn't shy about his online outburst. He sent his email to numerous lawmakers, as well as Wasserman Schultz and other congressional leaders. The subject line of the email: "Unprofessional and Inappropriate Sophomoric Behavior from Wasserman Schultz."
The e-mail said: "Look, Debbie, I understand that after I departed the House floor you directed your floor speech comments directly towards me. Let me make myself perfectly clear, you want a personal fight, I am happy to oblige. You are the most vile, unprofessional and despicable member of the US House of Representatives. If you have something to say to me, stop being a coward and say it to my face, otherwise, shut the heck up."

Hello, Kettle? Its the Pot on Line 2,....

The Obamessiah, pontificating on the debt issue:


Obama portrayed Boehner as the victim of intransigent members of the House Republican caucus. Seeming to allude to last November’s elections, in which Republican gained more than 60 seats in the House, Obama lamented, “This is part of the problem with a political process where folks are rewarded for saying irresponsible things to win election or obtain short-term political gain … .”


"Nuff said,....

Sucker, Punched,....

Santorum Slams Obama for Foreign Policy "Failure"

On the same day President Obama is announcing changes to his national security team, potential presidential hopeful and former Senator Rick Santorum slammed the White House for appeasing its enemies and failing to advance U.S. national security interests.

"When a president...apologizes for our country and her immediate policies, we do not advance our security - we diminish our credibility," Santorum said at Washington's National Press Club Thursday afternoon, adding that President Obama "doesn't believe in American foreign policy" and is "trying to hide" from "political heat."


Best known for his outspoken conservative views on social issues, the Pennsylvania Republican served on the Senate Armed Services Committee and has been amplifying his criticism of the president's foreign policy in recent weeks. Earlier this month, Santorum announced that he was "testing the waters" for a presidential run.

"Nothing has illustrated the failure of President Obama's foreign policy more than how we have dealt with Iran," he said of Iranian dissidents. "We sided with evil because our president believes our enemies are legitimately aggrieved and thus we have no standing to intervene." (read more)

Men are From Mars, the UN is from,...?

U.N. Investigators Depict Equality for Women Efforts Within U.N. System are a Costly Failure

A month after the United Nations last summer announced the creation of a new, $500 million-a-year organization to promote equality for women in global affairs, the U.N.’s own investigators revealed that 15 years of “gender mainstreaming” efforts within the UN Secretariat have been a sweeping and costly failure.  (Isn't that the Untied Nations by definition?)

The report, issued in August 2010, evaluates how gender mainstreaming -- the term that the U.N. uses to describe achieving equality between the sexes in all walks of life -- is being incorporated in all U.N. work to “ensure that the different needs and circumstances of women and men are identified and taken into account when policies and projects are developed and implemented.”

The evaluation carried out by the U.N. watchdog, the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), looked at 20 of the U.N.’s most important departments and offices. It found glaring deficiencies almost everywhere.

Among them:

- A fundamental lack of knowledge among U.N. staffers about the gender policy, with less than half of program managers polled saying they “always” or “mostly” believed their staff understood what gender mainstreaming is or why it should be implemented.

In other words, there was little evidence that anyone was even trying systematically to make the programs work. In the 20 departments and programs surveyed, only 12 had policies or strategies or had distributed specific guidelines on how gender mainstreaming was supposed to operate.

Click here for the full report.

Those conclusions were not for lack of U.N. efforts -- and hundreds of millions of dollars in spending -- on behalf of women’s rights, as the report documents a welter of U.N. officials, many specifically appointed to the task, running off in various directions to promote improved attitudes toward sexual equality, without necessarily indicating what they were trying to promote.

Look! The Emperor Has No Clothes!

Finally,...someone gives it to the Untied Nations!

United Nations

Eritrea to U.N.: Take This Aid And Shove It

By George Russell

In a stinging rebuff to the United Nations and its anti-poverty efforts, Eritrea, one of the poorest countries in Africa, has told the world body that it wants out of its long-term development agreement because the U.N. makes the problem worse, not better.

The reason, given in a January 26 notification letter from the country’s powerful Finance Minister, obtained by Fox News, is that “aid only postpones the basic solutions to crucial development problems by tentatively ameliorating their manifestations without tackling their root causes. The structural, political, economic, etc. damage that it inflicts upon recipient countries is also enormous.” In other words, the government argues, U.N. aid does more harm than good.

Whether that critique, which echoes the complaints of many critics in wealthy donor countries, is the true reason behind the U.N.’s rejection is unclear. Fox News tried to contact the Eritrean finance ministry for further explanations, but was told that the finance minister, Berhane Abrehe, was “unavailable.”

The Eritrean rebuff is another blow for the United Nations in a desperately poor and strife-ridden area of East Africa where the world organization has been struggling to maintain its presence, effectiveness and credibility.

You Know You Stink As a President When,.....

Even the dead are against you!!!

Texas Man Uses Obituary to Campaign Against Obama

A Texas man is trying to tip the tables against President Obama in the 2012 election -- though he died last month from cancer.

Jim Harrison, who died Feb. 27 at the age of 68, used his obituary to call for Obama's defeat, MyFoxHouston reports.

"In lieu of flowers, at Jim's request, please make a donation to ANYONE running against Barack Hussein Obama or the American Cancer Society," the obituary reads.

Harrison's stepson John Rundlof said the obituary was "kind of a parting shot." Though the family has gotten positive and negative feedback, Rundlof said Harrison just wanted to see "change" in Washington.

His widow said she supported Harrison's message.

"We saw it. We said, 'Yes Jim. You've got to put it in.' It was awesome. He's a staunch Republican and everybody, they remember that obituary when they see it," Ginger Rundlof told MyFoxHouston.

Harrison's not the first to include a message for Obama in his obituary. A Georgia businessman made a nearly identical request in his obituary last fall. Last July, a Nevada woman's family used her obituary to campaign against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Click here to read the full story at MyFoxHouston.

This post has not been approved by Jordan Philips or any other Democratic Party Kool-Aid drinker,....

THIS is News??

Fox News Poll: Just 29 Percent of Voters Think Obama Will Win Re-Election

Barack Obama's second year as president is ending on a low note in the eyes of American voters, according to a Fox News poll released Thursday.

The president continues to suffer from upside-down job ratings, and the number who thinks he will be re-elected is down significantly. A slim majority now says the country would be better off with someone else as president. Even so, more voters would still rather have Obama as president right now than George W. Bush.

These are just some of the findings from the latest Fox News national poll of registered voters.

Expectations for Obama's presidency have declined: 29 percent of voters expect Obama to rate as either “one of the country’s greatest” or as a “good” president. That’s down from 43 percent who felt that way a year ago -- and down dramatically from 62 percent who had similarly high expectations soon after he was elected (December 2008).

In addition, the number of Democrats who think Obama will be “one of the country’s greatest presidents” stands at 9 percent -- down from a high of 30 percent in 2008.

Should we now call him "The One and Done?"

Oh, You Poor Thing!

(photo courtesy Wyatt Earp at SYLG)

Michelle Obama Denies Telling French First Lady Life Is 'Hell'

The U.K. Daily Mail newspaper revealed the quote in a review of "Carla and the Ambitious" for Thursday editions.

"Don't ask! It's hell. I can't stand it!" Michelle Obama was said to have told Bruni during a private conversation at the White House during an official visit by France's president, Nicolas Sarkozy, last March.

Yeah, I'm sure travelling to Spain and Martha's Vineyard, having heavily-armed, public-paid babysitters for your children, and posing endlessly for every fashion magazine that fawns over you must be EXHAUSTING! Why not try something easy, like being a firefighter, a police detective, or 47 year old paramedic with a herniated L5 disc!

Instant Classic

From Bitter Friend "The Fed"

It Must Be Dumbass Day!

Pie in the Face Leads to Disabled List
Florida Marlins outfielder Chris Coghlan injured while celebrating

It's always funny till somebody gets hurt—and that goes for professional baseball players hitting teammates in the face with shaving cream pies while they're giving postgame interviews. Chris Coghlan of the Florida Marlins is on the 15-day disabled list and may need knee surgery thanks to a pie-ing that went awry after Sunday's game, USA Today reports.

Wes Helms' game-winning RBI in the bottom of the 11th set off the celebration. "It happened as I was going to pie Wes in the face and when I jumped I landed on my knee wrong," Coghlan, last season's NL rookie of the year, told the Palm Beach Post. Manager Edwin Rodriguez has belatedly banned the pie ritual.

Pastor Plans 'Burn a Koran Day'—September 11
Anti-Islam Florida church also vehemently anti-gay

A Florida pastor whose Bible is apparently missing the page that explains the Golden Rule has big plans for the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks—his church will play host to "International Burn a Koran Day." The Dove World Outreach Center, which is known for the "Islam Is of the Devil" sign on its lawn in Gainesville, says Islam is "a violent and oppressive religion," Kyle Munzenrieder blogs for Miami New Times.

The pastor, Terry Jones, tells Religion News Service supporters have been mailing copies of the Koran to the church. Jones and his congregation have vehemently protested the election of a gay man as mayor of Gainesville, notes Edge Boston. They plan another event, for next month, cleverly named "No Homo Mayor." Asks Munzenrieder: "The Westboro Baptist Church currently holds the title of most insane thing purporting to be a Christian church in America, but could a small congregation of horribly misguided Christians in central Florida soon be taking their place?" For more on Westboro Baptist's recent escapades, click here.

Gentle readers: before you comment, know this: I'm no fan of Islamofascism, but it isn't the book that creates the hate, it's the hateful interpreter that twists the words to to justify the means.

Stuck on Stupid,......

In Philly, the cops are too busy being shot at to do something this dumb,.....

Massachusetts Policeman Resigns After Leaving Beat to See Midget Porn Star

A Massachusetts police officer resigned after leaving his beat to see a dwarf porn star called "Bridget the Midget" and lied about the visit during an investigation into the incident, local media reported Tuesday.

Officer Richard P. Bennett, 28, deserted his late-night patrol to visit a gentleman's club where adult film star Bridget "The Midget" Powers -- billed as "the world's smallest porn star" -- was performing last month.

Bennett was in uniform at the time of his visit to Club Alex's in Stoughton and was reported to authorities by at least five other officers, said Stoughton Police Chief Paul Shastany.

He then reportedly lied about the visit during an internal investigation into the incident, the Patriot Ledger reported.

"Mama told me there would be days like this," Shastany said, on confirming Bennett's resignation. "We are not red-faced. In fact, I am pretty proud [other officers] stepped up."

Oh, yeah,..make's you wanna toss away the Viagra, right?

Who's Zoomin' Who? (a/k/a Racism! Racism!)

Paranoid race baiters teabagged by their own words again:

Video Shows USDA Official Saying She Didn't Give 'Full Force' of Help to White Farmer

Days after the NAACP clashed with Tea Party members over allegations of racism, a video has surfaced showing an Agriculture Department official regaling an NAACP audience with a story about how she withheld help to a white farmer facing bankruptcy.

Shirley Sherrod, the department's Georgia director of Rural Development, is shown in the clip describing "the first time I was faced with having to help a white farmer save his farm." Sherrod, who is black, claimed the farmer took a long time trying to show he was "superior" to her. The audience laughed as she described how she determined his fate.

"He had to come to me for help. What he didn't know while he was taking all that time trying to show me he was superior to me was I was trying to decide just how much help I was going to give him," she said. "I was struggling with the fact that so many black people have lost their farmland and here I was faced with having to help a white person save their land -- so I didn't give him the full force of what I could do. I did enough."

Sherrod explained that at the time, she assumed the state or national Department of Agriculture referred him to her. In order to ensure that the farmer could report back that she was indeed helpful, she said she took him to see "one of his own" -- a white lawyer.

R-r-r-i-i-ng!! Hello? Yeah, He's Here, Hold Please....Captain Obvious: Phone Call For You!

Gibbs says Dems could lose House

In a rare frank admission of how deeply troubled the Dems are about the next election, Robert Gibbs, Spokesperson for the Obama Administration admitted the serious possibility of losing so many house seats to the republicans, the Democratic majority could be lost. He says the Dems need to wage a strong campaign pointing out "apologies to oil giant BP and complaints about tighter Wall Street rules show how Republicans would govern." Conveniently omitting the fact it was one congressman that made an apology who was quickly rebuked by the rest of the Republicans. One wonders if such deflections will work on people losing their homes and out of work for two years with no prospects in the future. Read the full article.

Time to Raise That Iron Curtain Again!

U.S. Charges 11 in Russian Spy Case

Published June 29, 2010
The Wall Street Journal

Federal prosecutors alleged 11 people were spies living secret lives in American communities, from Seattle to Washington D.C., sent years ago to infiltrate U.S. society and glean its secrets.

In an extensive and bizarre affidavit whose details echoed Cold War spy thrillers, the Federal Bureau of Investigation claimed the alleged spies were sent here by the Russian overseas intelligence service known as the SVR — the successor to the Soviet KGB — as early as the mid-1990s, and were provided with training in language as well as the use of codes and ciphers.

Their mission, according to the FBI, was contained in an encrypted 2009 message from Russian handlers in Moscow to one of the defendants that read in part: "You were sent to USA for long-term service trip. Your education, bank accounts, car, house etc. — all these serve as one goal: fulfill your main mission, i.e. to search and develop ties in policy-making circles in U.S. and send Intels [intelligence reports] to" Moscow.

Cyprus Police Arrest Suspect in Alleged Russian Spy Ring

One of the 10 alleged Russian spies already arrested by the FBI had a fake British passport to help her to travel to and from Russia, it was alleged Tuesday.

A woman calling herself Tracey Lee Ann Foley and posing as a naturalized U.S. citizen traveled to Moscow on the passport forged for her by Russian intelligence services, it was claimed.

The woman was instructed in a coded internet message to pick up the passport in Vienna, sign it and “train yourself to be able to reproduce your signature when necessary."

The message from her handlers at the SVR, the Russian spy agency which succeeded the Soviet KGB, ends: “In the passport you’ll get a memo with recommendations. Pls, destroy the memo after reading. Be well.”

Gentle readers, mark my words: In the coming weeks, Rahm Emmanuel will pump the MSM "Blame Bush" machine to its maximum over this!

Of course, was it any wonder why George W. Bush was so eager to place missle defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic?? The again, President Apologia has been more-than-eager to embrace those lying Cossacks Putin and Medvedev AND eliminate Bush's defense plans for Eastern Europe.

Make's you wonder if we have a 12th mole in our midst:

Federal Bench to Obama: Oil's Well That Ends Well!

Federal Judge Blocks Obama's Offshore Drilling Moratorium in Gulf of Mexico

In a victory for drilling proponents, a federal judge struck down President Obama's six-month moratorium on deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday, saying the administration rashly concluded that because one rig failed, the others are in immediate danger, too.

The White House promised an immediate appeal. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the president believes strongly that drilling at such depths does not make sense and puts the safety of workers "at a danger that the president does not believe we can afford."

The Interior Department had halted approval of any new permits for deepwater drilling and suspended drilling of 33 exploratory wells in the Gulf.

Several companies that ferry people and supplies and provide other services to offshore drilling rigs asked U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman in New Orleans to overturn the moratorium.

They argued it was arbitrarily imposed after the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that killed 11 workers and blew out the well 5,000 feet underwater. It has spewed anywhere from 67 million to 127 million gallons of oil into the Gulf.


Feldman sided with the companies, saying in his ruling the Interior Department assumed that because one rig failed, all companies and rigs doing deepwater drilling pose an imminent danger.

"The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is an unprecedented, sad, ugly and inhuman disaster," he wrote. "What seems clear is that the federal government has been pressed by what happened on the Deepwater Horizon into an otherwise sweeping confirmation that all Gulf deepwater drilling activities put us all in a universal threat of irreparable harm."

His ruling prohibits federal officials from enforcing the moratorium until a trial is held. He did not set a trial date.

Ode to Cool Hand Barry

With apologies to Strother Martin and one of the best movies ever made:

"What we've got here is...failure to communicate."

Some men, like Bobbie Jindal and Tony Hayward, you just can't reach. So you get what we had here last month - a "blame Bush" disaster, which is the way CNN wants it... well, MSNBC gets it. I don't like it any more than you men. You'll excuse me now. My TelePrompter has failed to communicate. I must now comb the beaches of Louisiana and find an ass to kick.

Those Who Forget History are Doomed to Repeat It,...

From Reuters:

BP's Gulf battle echoes monster '79 Mexico oil spill

BP Plc's race to cap its ruptured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico is eerily similar to a 1979 accident off the coast of Mexico that caused the world's worst oil spill.

In both cases natural gas flowed unnoticed into the well being drilled, causing an explosion. In both cases a critical piece of fail-safe equipment -- the blowout preventer -- failed. And in both cases the operators struggled to quickly staunch the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

BP's shares have been battered in the month since its Macondo well blew up, threatening tourism, fishing and wildlife along the Gulf Coast and landing the British oil giant with a multibillion dollar clean-up tab.

But while Mexico's Ixtoc well was only 150 feet below the sea surface, Macondo lies at the crushing depth of 5,000 feet, forcing the company to use robots to do all undersea work.

Wikipedia fills in the blanks:


Ixtoc I was an exploratory oil well being drilled by the semi-submersible platform Sedco 135-F in the Bay of Campeche of the Gulf of Mexico, about 100 km (62 mi) northwest of Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche in waters 50 m (160 ft) deep. On 3 June 1979, the well suffered a blowout resulting in the third largest oil spill and the second largest accidental spill in history.



As I said Monday, before the Obamessiah's meandering monologue of pedantic posturing: Make BP and its subcontractors pay for any PROVEN malfeasance, let the professionals figure out how to clean up the mess and le the president take his foot out of BP's ass and put it back in his mouth, where it belongs!

Obama: Talk is Cheap, Oil Isn't,....

As we prepare for a rare, pedantic lecture from the TelePrompter-in-Chief (who's doing a heck of a job, Brownie), we all need to remind ourselves of a few things regarding the BP oil crisis:

• Yes, as some point, BP and/or its subcontractors, cut corners and put production ahead of safety. It cost the lives of 11 employees and is ruining the ecenomy of a vast swath of our nation's Gulf Coast.
• BP and its numerous subcontractors clearly had the techonology and engineering wherewithall to build a drilling rig out there and proceed to drill several miles into the Earth's crust ( a record depth, IIRC) to get at a large pocket of oil, so I would think they just MIGHT have the solution to this mess. This type of situation has never happened before and the learning curve (yes, that's EXACTLY what these failed attempts have been) has been terribly steep and everyone in the oil industry is watching and learning from it.
• Visiting the Gulf four times, walking the beaches and looking to "kick someone's ass" isn't going to clean up the mess. Face it, President Obama: you don't have a clue how to do it and your cabinet is equally clueless to available options. You waited for weeks to address the issue and now you want to address us with your failures? Please, Mister Obama, do us all a favor and simply SHUT THE F**K UP and let BP handle this, OK?

**THAT'S MY OPINION AND YOU'RE ENTITLED TO IT!!**

But,..It Sounds Nicer Than "S**tty Lemons on Wheels!"

GM: Stop Calling Them 'Chevys'
Car giant tries to improve 'branding' by killing nickname

You can see the USA in your Chevrolet, but GM would rather if you stopped driving your “Chevy” to the levee or anywhere else. The company has sent out a memo to all its employees urging them to banish the ubiquitous nickname from their vocabularies. “We’d ask that whether you’re talking to a dealer, reviewing dealer advertiser, or speaking with friends and family, that you communicate our brand as Chevrolet,” the memo read.

The memo, which was sent to the New York Times by an outraged recipient, goes on to explain that they’re trying to tighten their branding consistency, something that “the most recognized brands throughout the world, such as Coke or Apple” focus heavily on. Which is pretty ironic, the Times notes, since “Coke” is a nickname for “Coca-Cola,” and no one uses the word “Apple” when describing their products. Also ironic: the Chevrolet website is still plastered with references to “Chevy.”