I’ve heard Jack Abramoff on a few interviews now that he’s out of jail and his new book sounds pretty good. reveals his secrets on how he bought politicians and proposes ways to make it harder or impossible.
Some interesting stuff – like he said he would always offer a politicians chief of staff a job with him “whenever theyre done in politics” so that from that point on they would pass and do whatever he wanted cuz they knew they had a secure high paying gig after their government one. if that was made illegal, they couldnt do that. -stuff like that.
I’ve been searching for years, but finally at long last I’ve found a web design slash pedo-perv boy ring with “modern rocketry” company based in Germany.
This NY Times Obit-type article on Andy Rooney today by Richard Severo and Peter Keepnews seemed wildly inappropriate to me for dwelling on “controversial” things he said that people got pissy about.
Time magazine once called him “the most felicitous nonfiction writer in television.” But Mr. Rooney was decidedly not everyone’s cup of tea.
The New York Times columnist Anna Quindlen, for example, took strong issue with Mr. Rooney’s dismissive comments after Kurt Cobain of the band Nirvana committed suicide in 1994. It was not surprising, she wrote, that Mr. Rooney “brought to the issue of youthful despair a mixture of sarcasm and contempt,” but it was “worth noting because in 1994 that sort of attitude is as dated and foolish as believing that cancer is contagious.”
Mr. Rooney’s opinions sometimes landed him in trouble. In 1990, CBS News suspended him without pay in response to complaints that he had made remarks offensive to black and gay people.
The trigger was a December 1989 special, “A Year With Andy Rooney,” in which he said: “There was some recognition in 1989 of the fact that many of the ills which kill us are self-induced. Too much alcohol, too much food, drugs, homosexual unions, cigarettes. They’re all known to lead quite often to premature death.” He later apologized for the statement.
But the gay newspaper The Advocate subsequently quoted him as saying in an interview: “I’ve believed all along that most people are born with equal intelligence, but blacks have watered down their genes because the less intelligent ones are the ones that have the most children. They drop out of school early, do drugs and get pregnant.”
Mr. Rooney denied that he had made such a statement, and because the interview had apparently not been taped, the reporter was unable to prove that he had. “It is a know-nothing statement, which I abhor,” Mr. Rooney said.
He said that he had accepted the suspension rather than end his relationship with CBS News. He said that when he was an Army trainee, he had been arrested in the South because he insisted on riding in the back of a bus with some black soldiers who were friends of his.
Many of his colleagues rushed to his defense. “I know he is not a racist,” Walter Cronkite said.
Mr. Rooney was suspended for three months but was brought back after only one. During his absence, the ratings for “60 Minutes” declined by 20 percent and the network received thousands of letters and telephone calls from viewers who missed his commentaries.
Mr. Rooney generated more criticism in 2002, when he said in an interview on a cable sports show that women had “no business” being sideline television reporters at football games because they did not understand football.
He did it again in 2007, with a newspaper column complaining about the current state of baseball. “I know all about Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, but today’s baseball stars are all guys named Rodriguez to me,” he wrote.
He subsequently acknowledged that he “probably shouldn’t have said it,” but denied that his intent had been to denigrate Latin American players.
Years ago Michelle Malkin made a similar stink over Rooney saying that “negro” is a perfectly fine word to use and I thought that was equally cheap a criticism as all these others. Wtf is wrong with the word negro other than “racists used to say it along with everyone else when it was in our lexicon”? It’s not a racist word. It’s just not in fashion to say. so what is wrong with Rooney saying he doesn’t see whats wrong with the word? Stupid.
And all these other charges are stupid too but its worse to dwell on them and give them the same stature as other events in his life that actually mattered (good or bad). Shame on you.
Presidential candidate Herman Cain is not going to win the nomination for the Republican party but has been rising in the polls and in response, his critics have been digging through his past to find something salacious to make a story out of. Evidently no one could find anything so the best they could do was make a big deal out of a sexual harassment charge made against him when he was head of the National Restaurant Association. When Cain was head of the NRA it “took care to educate members on sexual harassment law“, whatever that means.
No one can find any details of actual harassment or anything sexual, but the NRA did pay a lady to STFU and leave instead of dealing with the charge so there’s that. A couple other ho’s have come forward to say Cain said inappropriate things in their presence too, but no specifics – which makes them hos. Politico.com is determined to take this story to the bank, however, obsessing over it to cartoonish degrees. They’ve published over 94 stories on this non-story in the past week. Jesus… Maybe their goal is to reach 999?
For those of you not familiar with Herman Cain: his big selling point is that he wants to throw away the current tax system and start with scratch with a 9% income tax, a 9% sales tax and a 9% corporate tax.
The only thing of value that has come from this issue has been the surfacing of the fact that the settlement with the accuser was signed September of 1999 or in other words: 9/99. That, friends, is worth a chuckle.
Sexual harassment is a joke because stupid hippies have made it such. Vague terms like “a pattern of behavior” don’t impress people who aren’t morons. If someone grabs your ass and sais “this candy hole be MINE, bitch. Trick or Treat at mah house 9pm ta-NITE if yu wanna keep yo daymn job tomorrah” is sexual harassment. Telling a joke or complimenting someone is not. Since nothing approaching the charges of the the former have been made and no specifics have been given to show us what gradation of the spectrum occurred in between those two, it’s safe to say this is bullshit.
The Cain campaign responded with the following video showcasing his attackers and comparing this line of attack with the smears against Clarence Thomas in the 90s:
This video is half right. CORRECT: This is a high-tech lynching. the use of a non-story to be the story of the century is inexcusable and discredits those acting like there is any “there” there to this. Theres no argument to be made when you contrast this with other sexual accusations, most notably against Bill Clinton.
FALSE: This is not akin to the accusations made against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas who originated the phrase “high tech lynching”. Thomas’s accuser, Anita Hill was a flat out joke and the use of her bullshit accusations were used to try and prevent Thomas from a job he was nominated for. Herman Cain is running for a job in a competition, so it’s not the same situation to start, but even though the accusations against him are bullshit too, they’re no where near the level of bullshit that Anita Hills were for a bunch of reasons. The biggest is that Cains accuser was paid a settlement and left her job over his remarks where as Anita Hill not only never sued and was never paid anything but actually followed Clarence Thomas to a new job after the remarks that allegedly made her so uncomfortable in the workplace, so
Those are important distinctions to make, but like I said – it’s still all bunk. The sum she was paid to this lady is said to be no big deal in terms of the history of these things.
In my opinion, the reported settlement sums – $35,000 and $45,000 – do not exceed “nuisance value.” In fact, the nuisance value of a sexual harassment claim based on the alleged misconduct of the head of an organization in the late 1990s was probably higher than these sums. Sexual harassment claims have much more potential for embarrassment than ordinary discrimination claims. And in the classic “he says, she says” situation, the outcome is usually much harder to predict. Hence the extra incentive to settle regardless of the merits.
On the other hand, a female who truly has experienced inappropriate behavior of a sexual nature might settle a case for as little as $35,000 or less. For example, a woman who is able to move seamlessly into a comparably paying job will sometimes accept a small settlement (or none) in order to be done with the matter. This is especially true if she did not experience major distress, and is unwilling falsely to allege it. The main goal of a woman who has a creepy boss is often to escape the situation, not to relive it in the hope of extorting a big settlement.
In addition, conduct that many would consider inappropriate, especially in a presidential candidate, might not clearly rise to the level of actionable sexual harassment. The law requires that the conduct alleged be “severe or pervasive.” A woman who experienced only a few incidents of inappropriate language or innuendo, without any pinching, groping, or truly lewd behavior, might reasonably take a small settlement for fear that she can’t meet the legal standard. However, the legal standard doesn’t necessarily coincide with the standard we want public figures to adhere to.
But we’ve learned the most about Politico. Look, for example, at this: Politico this morning had a post about how, after Cain blamed Perry for being the source of the sexual-harassment story, Perry promptly turned around and floated Romney as the likely source. Yes, congratulations GOP on the circular firing squad — but that’s not the point. The point is:Politico knows who the source is.
This isn’t a game-show where the host has the answer on his little card and his job is to have the contestants keep guessing until someone stumbles into the right answer. This is supposed to be news coverage — professional journalism about a serious matter with a goal of edifying the reader about what actually happened.
Politico has now framed discovery of the identity of the source as is a noteworthy story. Yet,Politico knows that if the identity of the source is a story, it is only because Politico itself is being coy. Politico has reported that Perry may be the source and that Romney may be the source. Yet, Politico knows precisely whether the Perry campaign or the Romney campaign (or both . . . or neither) is the source. It is thus almost certainly true that at least some of the conflicting allegations Politico is airing are known by Politico to be false. In fact, both the Perry and Romney camps have denied involvement — if it so happens that one of those camps is the source, then Politico knows the denial is a lie, yet it published the denial anyway. That would amount to colluding with its source in order to tarnish Cain while fraudulently portraying its source as above the fray.
Howard Stern says he thinks its a smear job and Robin responds “of course, but that’s what they do in politics”.
The Des Moins Register reports that a 30 year old woman in Des Moins has been charged with arson after she set her friends house ablaze at 1am while the friend was sleeping in it.
They managed to escape as the siding on their house began to melt from the heat of the fire in the detached garage.
The roof of the garage collapsed on cars stored in the garage. Other stored property also was lost in the blaze.
Officers asked Jim Rasmussen if anyone would want to harm him of his family and he provided the name Jennifer “Jen” Harris. He said Harris was a long-time friend of his wife but they were now involved in a dispute.
A police report says that when an officer asked Nikki Rasmussen about Jen Harris, Rasmussen said “… the two are no longer friends due to a dispute over Facebook. According to Nikki, Jen is angry with her because she ended their friendship on Facebook.”
The report goes on to mention a “fake Facebook account.” But Police Detective Jack Kamerick said only that it involved “Facebook issues and kept building and building and text messages that were sent.”
“Things were posted on Facebook,” Kamerick said. “Jen asked Nikki to create an event on Facebook for a party. Nikki did that. As the date for the party approached “there were a lot of ‘declines,’ on Facebook, the detective said. It was looking like the party might be a bust. The dispute apparently blossomed. So when the garage went up in flames, Harris became the first name that occurred to the victims.
Cover image (and hat tip for this story) via Gawker.
See, the reams of rules and hoops to jump thorugh in the stack of papers in this video below doesn’t matter to you people who don’t do anything bold in the business world, but the rest of us have shit to do and we’d appreciate it if you got the fuck out of our way. <3
My recommended uses for the items above range from “sparingly” to “none at all”.
Not that I wanna rain on the parade of the joke being made. but still: Guns, prescriptions, beer, fast food, marriage (lol) and yes – even marijuana are all okay in small doses. Cigarettes – never. And while it’s not logical that the plant that makes you feel good is illegal vs the more mixed bag of the others – that in itself isnt an argument for completely legalizing it.
