Well, This Could Be Awkward
The head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was taken in custody on Saturday, minutes before he was to fly to Paris from John F. Kennedy International Airport, the authorities said.
He was accused of a sex attack on a maid earlier in the day at a Times Square hotel, the authorities said.
Mr. Strauss-Kahn, a candidate for president of France, was taken off an Air France flight by officers from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and turned over to Manhattan detectives, according to a Port Authority spokesman. He was expected to be taken to the offices of the Manhattan Special Victims Unit at P.S.A. 5 in Manhattan, another official said.
It was about 4:45 p.m. when plainclothes detectives of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey suddenly boarded the plane, Air France Flight 23, as it idled on the tarmac at the airport 10 minutes before it was scheduled to take off and took Mr. Strauss-Kahn into custody, according to an agency official.
The Port Authority officers were acting on information from the New York Police Department, whose detectives had been investigating a brutal attack of a woman employee at the hotel Sofitel New York, at 45 West 44th Street, in the heart of the city’s theater district.
Via @nansen, @largebill68 and @marcpuck on Twitter.
The WaPo story makes it sound less brutal.
SNL - Christopher Walken - The Continental
| Myspace Video
Man Without a Past
A former neighbor from Vermont died last week. His name was Kenneth Jerome McCauley, and he was 59.
Ken disappeared after he and his wife split. It had been a couple of years since he'd called his son, I think. They still live here in Vermont, not far from where I live, but Ken had vanished into the aether.
It wasn't a new pattern with him. He had a son by a previous marriage who'd gotten in touch with him a year or two before he left. Where he'd gone was anyone's guess. His second ex-wife, the one I know, figured he was probably in North Carolina, because that's where he had family. She was a bit stunned when she got the call from Ken's mom that he'd died at his apartment in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Neighbors had called the police on Wednesday, when they smelled something not right. Last anyone saw him had been Sunday. His ex had gotten the call on Wednesday night. She told their son on Thursday morning. He cried, but opted to go to school.
Although they were estranged, she and their son went to North Carolina (where she and Ken had met) for the memorial service, Ken having already been cremated, for obvious reasons. There, she learned something odd: Ken's mom believed he was a Dartmouth grad.
For one thing, he had the ring. I've never owned a Dartmouth ring, though it's my alma mater. Even though we lived next door to one another for years, Ken had never told me he was a Dartmouth grad. He'd said that he'd been employed by the College as a student liaison for some years. I assumed that meant through the Department of Student Life. He didn't know anyone I had, but that wasn't surprising: I'd moved off campus my sophomore year, and had a small circle of friends outside of my fraternity. He knew something of the layout of the town, its restaurants and shops. He seemed to know something about fraternity row.
Ken sold internet leads for insurance, loans, and that sort of thing. He was a step removed from spam. I didn't really understand the business, though I weekly sent out invoices for them for some time, a pretty mechanical procedure. Those were the years of the housing bubble, when everyone thought they were sitting on a goldmine. We were slowly, slowly, step by step losing ours because of my inability to make enough money, but we never did anything desperate. I couldn't imagine whom those offers were directed toward. In the event, our place sold for 20% more than our mortgage. It's on the market again, as it appears that about 1 in 5 Vermont homes in this area is, judging by the yard signs.
His ex thought that perhaps there was some Social Security money available for their son. She found out otherwise. From the time Ken had graduated from St. Francis de Sales H.S. in 1969 to 1989, he never once filed a tax return. His ex had his correct Social Security number. He had given a different one to his mom, who wanted it for estate planning purposes.
Ken was missing most of one of his big toes, which caused him to walk with a kind of rolling gait. He apparently had some story that explained the injury, though I never asked him about it. I didn't, because he used the formulation, "The truth of the matter is . . . " a lot, which indicated to me that he and the truth were not really very familiar with one another, though in some ways I liked him. For one thing, he was impulsively generous. He bought a third-wheel type camper for which he had no truck (having a weakness for vintage Mercedes), but when his (not at that time) ex demanded he get rid of it, he donated it to Circus Smirkus to auction. He was inclined to be philosophical, and was a freethinker in most respects. I sometimes thought him a little naive, but never hidebound.
He was a great lush. Arising at two in the afternoon, he would soon begin beveraging. This he supplemented with weed, and with prescription mood-altering drugs of some variety. He would stay up all night and crash, usually, shortly before the rest of the family awakened, having spent most of the night hustling and chatting online. He had strange gifts. He talked the manager at one local supermarket to forbear actually charging him for most of the groceries (in which were often luxury items) that he put into his cart. Whether this was race guilt (Ken being black) or admiration of the affrontery, it's difficult to say, but he generally enjoyed a 75% discount, according to my observations. He felt that race guilty whites were schmucks. He was continually restocking the trout in his pond, and then having them die off in August. It was always about aeration, with Ken, though you'd have thought the windmill sufficient. I urged him to consider the possibility of placing a few willows around the margins, which, apart from reducing the sunlight, would have sucked up some of the swampiness in the surrounding land, but to no avail. He had it on good advice that the problem was aeration, and nothing else would answer.
He brought strange women with him, too. He was something of a guru to the lost and demented. For the most part, his ex didn't seem to mind, unless they spent too much time and spilled too much dementia at the homestead.
He had many interesting stories, some about the posse that he used to run with, including his bodyguards. These were outlandish enough to be believable. Goodness knows what he actually did for a living when he lived on Key West. Goodness knows how he spent his time down in Myrtle Beach. As self-professed gurus go, he was certainly not the worst. He had some compunction, and wasn't greedy enough to set aside the issue of whether he was causing harm, by his own lights. I doubt that he would have rewritten his life much, had he lived longer, but I wish he'd have had the chance.
RIP, Ken.
Herb Kohl Is Calling It Quits
Which means that the Wisconsin media folks will be struggling to write pieces about his legacy.
What legacy? I mean, as a Senator?
He did his best work as a private philanthropist.
Many Thanks (Plus, Bin Laden’s Pr0n)
I'm back online.
Thanks to Enoch and to all of you who've donated. If you don't mind, I'm going to name you in a bit. If you do mind, then please let me know.
The thing that bothers me most is that you've given me money that I'm still owed by other parties, including the people at RightNetwork. Some of you may have seen awhile back that I posted on them, then took down the post at their request, on condition that they keep the people, writers and editors and perhaps vloggers, updated on how their search for more operating capital was going--which they have not. I know that it's not an easy matter for them to undertake the kind of initiative they have. I don't suspect them of living high on the hog, and their going rate of $100 per article was certainly generous by web standards, but the facts are what they are: they've essentially sandbagged a bunch of contributors.
At Vanity Fair, Jemmy Wolly noticed this and posted about it, but nobody reads his blog, so it wasn't a big deal. I don't know whether he stumbled across a cache of my post on the subject or really did notice it on his own; a charitable construction is that he thought he might be protecting me by asserting the latter, but the truth is (as some other bloggers who've donated to me this time and prior probably recognize with a sign and a shake of the head), I'm somewhat kamikaze. At the time, I got a pretty rapid response from the RightNetwork bigwigs, who didn't want any negative publicity, stated that they considered their debts a matter of sacred honor, and that they'd keep us all informed regarding whether or not they were having any success in acquiring investment capital.
Whether I'm a team player or not is certainly a matter for others' judgments. I might have made a separate peace at the time, but on principle I didn't want to be blackmailing anyone in effect. At one point, I offered to let them cross-post at no charge longer pieces from here, so that there would continue to be new material available to visitors. It certainly would have been nice to have had the money owed me, but there are others (one of whom I've mentioned elsewhere) apart from the writers, who have been dinged for considerably more. One of those people actually paid a writer or two out of pocket for the privilege of editing.
You can go to Mediafly and purchase for your Roku (always buy these little marvels through Glenn Reynolds) a subscription to the videos produced by or syndicated through RightNetwork. Off the top of my head, I think it's $3 or $4 per month. I'm not sure that you'll get much bang for your buck. It's probably a much better investment of your money to subscribe to Pajamas, though certainly there should be room for any number of such operations. But as regards the actual implementation of the business model, I need present you with only three words: Joe. the. Plumber.
Now, I have no beef with Joe. He asked Obama a pertinent question and got an unguarded answer. For that enormity, he suffered the slings and arrows of outraged leftists. But why, why was he created a conservative media celebrity, and why does it persist? Certainly there are people, such as (for example) Jimmie Bise, who've offered a great deal more evidence of having something to say, and the ability to say it well. Whose idea was it to give JtP his own vlog? I can't say that I've ever encountered anyone who's expressed a burning desire to hear JtP comment on any subject beyond the one he's already famous for having questioned Obama about.
It's no way to run a star system. CAUTION: Video may cause flashbacks and/or epileptic fits.
Much ado is being made about the pr0n found on Osama's computers. Mind you, he wasn't able to download any, so I'm assuming that this was relayed to him via courier to his squalid dump of a mansion. Naturally, this revelation is causing a lot of sniggering, but it's not really fair: clearly the man was researching which naked Muslimas were fatwaorthy.
To this end, I present you with a couple of NSFW pics of Sila Sahin, definitely fatwaorthy, from the German edition of Playboy (speaking of squalid dump of a mansion):
Devoted Blogger In Need – an open appeal – or I cans bleg if I want to.
You all know Dan as "Dan" - but what I know Dan as right this moment is "broke".
In fact, so broke is the owner of this corner of the webbertubes that he is unable to blog - on account of having had his intertube connexion turned off.
The first thing that came to mind when I finally learned of why he hasn't been posting is, "Self, do you think Mrs Root would notice if I paid for his innertube connecxion?"
The answer was a resounding, "Hell yes she'll notice... and, anyway, she hasn't been able to get her busted tooth tended to because you (me, as in Enoch) have decided to do this entrepreneur thing again."
So, before yours truly does the ill-advisable and ponies up the entire amount, I thought I would appeal to you, Dear Reader, on behalf of he who perhaps loves too much.
Hit the tip jar and I'll burn another Virtual Koran. Or, I'll do some really long post on any topic of your choosing. Or, I could threaten to send you pictures of my naked arse if you don't.
Or, I guess I could auction one of these from my personal stash should anyone care to know what I was up to in my twenties.
Alternatively, you could purchase one of these and I will send 50% of the gross price (not of the net I make on it) to Dan.
Or, you could contract us to build you a website - and we will send Dan a PayPal payment of 30% of the contract.
If you want to take me up on any of the above (other than straight to PayPal), you can send me an email here: matt dot ocoileain at gmail dot com
That is all. Or perhaps this will motivate you...
President Gutsy McKickazz rides lies again
YOU LIE!
And since as we are all aware Mr. Obama likes to "go big", these are some real whoppers. In the words of Ronald Reagan, "There you go again":
CBS’ Mark Knoller, covering a town hall on the economy with the president this morning, reports: “President Obama blames high unemployment rate on ‘huge layoffs of government workers’ at federal, state and local levels.”
“The reason the unemployment rate is still as high as it is, in part, is because there have been huge layoffs of government workers at the federal level, at the state level, at the local level,” he said. “Teachers, police officers, firefighters, social workers– they have really taken it in the chin over the last several months. And so, what we’re trying to do is to see if we can stabilize the budget.”
Of course, to statists like Mr. Obama, government jobs are really the most vital of all:
OBAMA: Let me just first of all say that workers like you, for the federal, state, and local governments, are so important for our vital services. And it frustrates me sometimes when people talk about ‘government jobs’ as if somehow those are worth less than private sector jobs. I think there is nothing more important than working on behalf of the American people.
FEDERAL WORKER: I thought I would be more important and secure.
OBAMA: I agree with you.
Sure they are...Much more vital than private sector jobs...The kind that the President didn't have any trouble calling on private industry to create more of; despite his administration's hostile attitude towards American business. The same attitude evidenced by his deafening silence in the matter of the NLRB's gratuitous, over-reaching, lawsuit against Boeing to halt their new plant in South Carolina from going into operation. A move, Boeing's attorneys argue, will directly cost that state thousands of jobs, and may lead to much greater job losses nationwide.
Anyway, Jim Geraghty at the corner looks into this claim more closely and, well, finds the facts to be at odds with the President's desired narrative™ . Here's the figures he got from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Stubborn facts and inconvenient truths(click to enlarge)
He also puts up the figures on state and local government employment levels, and notes:
As you can see, in terms of total number of Americans employed in government, there has been no real discernible recession. In fact, the number has increased slightly.
Obama is not even a little bit right. Will anyone call him out on this?
That, Jim, is the 64,000 dollar question we'd all like to know the answer to. My gut instinct is "No". And our old pal Jeff Goldstein at Protein Wisdom wonders as well, in a post where he unloads on the Make-Believe-Media, the Obama administration, and the progressive left:
The mainstream press, like many other supposedly “neutral” institutions (education, environmental protection, energy dept, etc), has been taken over by leftist activists who at their very core believe that the ends justify the means, and that whatever falsehoods or manipulations of fact they engage are morally justifiable — that is, that every lie they peddle to the proles has as its intent the bringing to fruition of a greater good that only they can see — and so is a necessary component of governing under the guise of social justice.
We are witnessing the apotheosis of leftist governance: power sought and reinforced through narrative manipulation; lies repeated, even after they’ve been corrected or debunked, as a function of turning them into received / perceived truths; demonization of the “enemy” (be he the farmer, the oil rig worker, the coal miner, the middle class tax payer, the small business owner, or the corporate exec working for a company not favored by the administration) who is then labeled generically as being on the other side, or an extremist, or a racist, or a xenophobe, etc.; class warfare resulting from demonization; and an ever-growing, ever-expanding redistributive welfare state model wherein the federal Leviathan solves every crisis and corrects every instance “unfairness”.
Jeff goes on to wonder aloud whether the GOP nominate a candidate who is willing to say these same things to the public; as they say, read the whole thing.
We all feel for folks like Karin Gallo, who are suffering because of the economic straights we're in as a nation. And, I wouldn't be too surprised if Mr. Obama was able to work something out on her behalf; to be trotted out at a campaign stop in the future, of course. Our prayers go out to her and all Americans seeking employment and worrying about the days ahead.
But they also go out to the President and the MBM as well. I pray they start telling the truth instead of shamelessly distorting reality and engaging in demagoguery. Because in these times we need a leader to be straight with us all, and to have a press committed to objectivity, fairness, and getting all of the facts out to the citizens in our democratic republic so that they can make their decisions based on truth and not partisan fantasies.
( H/T Protein Wisdom, ACE, and Drudge ; image courtesy of Shoal Haven post )
Who’s up for a good old fashioned caption contest?
Who's the Mos Def?
I wonder she'll be displaying these moves later when Common comes to 1600 Pennsylvania avenue? You know what they say; Common is as Common does...
Anyway, to the caption contest, I'll Start:
Jam on it, Jam on it, J-Jam J-Jam J-Jam on it!
Now it's your turn, kind reader.
Trump to star in his own comic book
Which is fitting if you think about it, given that he's rather cartoonish anyway. Astonishing? Yes, but as the cliche goes, "fact is stranger than fiction"...
Seriously though, while he says some intriguing things regarding a wide range of issues his "candidacy" was like the sword of Dam0cles hanging over the GOP. Because if he won the nomination his astounding unfavorables would almost guarantee an Obama victory in 2012. Perhaps worse yet would be a narrow defeat in the GOP primaries, and the concomitant following it would provide the brash and outspoken New Yorker; an outcome that would almost ensure that The Donald would run as an independant.
A result that would guarantee an Obama victory, in the same manner Mr. Clinton will always owe Ross Perot a debt of gratitude.
Know Why the Mississippi Is Flooding?
Because of all of douchebags crying us an effing river:
Osama Bin Laden's son has denounced the Al Qaeda leader's killing as 'criminal' and said he reserves the right to take legal action against America.
The statement apparently made by Omar Bin Laden has appeared on an Islamist website.
Omar, who is Bin Laden's fourth eldest son, claimed he and the Al Qaeda chief's other children are reserving the right to take legal action in the U.S. and internationally to 'determine the true fate of our vanished father', said the SITE Intelligence Group, an online monitoring service.
He also branded his father's burial at sea as a 'humiliation' for his family.
Douchebags. Douchebags filled with sand.
Maybe We Could Stop It With Some Death Threats
Some dickhead at LSU decides to steal a flag from a memorial and then burn said flag. The aforementioned dickhead then gets arrested by local police, and a fellow dickhead in arms decides to stage/schedule a flag burning protest. My first thought when reading this was to wonder whether death threats would actually press local officials to cancel the prick permit.
Then I realized the Baton Rouge officials shouldn't be held responsible for the cowardly behavior of local officials in Michigan. Then, I kept reading, and saw what young Mr. Cody Wells is planning in response. Good for him, and I hope he gets the cadets to participate. I hope he's related, but I doubt it.
Follow Dan!
All the Kool Kidz are doing it...
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