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Driver thanks man who hit him on purpose
A Boeing manager and engineer by training, Duane Innes of Kent is credited with saving the life of a driver who'd lost consciousness on Highway 167. Innes pulled his minivan in front of the runaway truck before it slammed into other vehicles.
[snipped]
State Farm, Pace's insurance company, covered the roughly $3,500 in damage to Innes' car, and a claim representative sent Innes a letter of appreciation this summer.
"We wish to thank you for the actions you took to save Bill's life," State Farm's Clayton Ande wrote. "State Farm and the Pace family consider you to be a hero. I wish there were more people like you in the world."
[snipped]
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Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
Disqus needs an "ignore" button, especially for certain posters
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Some good "gotchas" ............
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Read more: http://www.theolympian.com/2010/10/25/1415016/good-to-see-return-of-bread-roses.html#ixzz13RTcp4Bk
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Other than Tetra, the posters share respect and support for B&R. I've worked there in a volunteer capacity, and Intertubes is correct. Mostly women and children use the services, and there's no guilt in a hungry child.
Read more: http://www.theolympian.com/2010/10/25/1415016/good-to-see-return-of-bread-roses.html#ixzz13RUjny4K
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Some good "gotchas" ............
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Biffler  Today 07:27 PM |
Read more: http://www.theolympian.com/2010/10/25/1415016/good-to-see-return-of-bread-roses.html#ixzz13RTcp4Bk
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Other than Tetra, the posters share respect and support for B&R. I've worked there in a volunteer capacity, and Intertubes is correct. Mostly women and children use the services, and there's no guilt in a hungry child.
Read more: http://www.theolympian.com/2010/10/25/1415016/good-to-see-return-of-bread-roses.html#ixzz13RUjny4K
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Hypocrites are them
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Stimulating Hypocrisy: Scores of Recovery Act Opponents Sought Money Out of Public View By John Solomon and Aaron Mehta | October 17, 2010
Stimulating Hypocrisy: Scores of Recovery Act Opponents Sought Money Out of Public View By John Solomon and Aaron Mehta | October 17, 2010
FROM: The Center for Public Integrity is dedicated to producing original, responsible investigative journalism on issues of public concern in the USA and around the world.
[snipped]
Scores of Republicans and conservative Democrats who voted against the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act subsequently wrote letters requesting funds for projects in a massive, behind-the-scenes letter-writing and phone call campaign, documents obtained by the Center show.
Those asking for money include Tea Party favorites like freshman Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown and Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., former presidential candidates Ron Paul and John McCain and Republican congressional leaders like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana.
Many Democratic leaders who had boasted they prevented lawmakers from inserting special spending requests in the stimulus law when it passed also engaged in the behind-the-scenes letter writing to secure funding afterwards, including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
[snipped]
The letters particularly dismay conservative advocacy groups like the Tea Party and Americans for Tax Reform that have been backing Republicans in the fall election but now see a touch of hypocrisy among candidates they thought were conservative champions of federal spending cuts.
“The GOP should not be taking this money and spending it regardless of where it came from,” said Rob Gaudet, national coordinator for Tea Party Patriots. “They should be fighting against it with every fiber of their elected beings.”
[snipped]
Over the last year, isolated reports of lawmakers and governors seeking funds from a single agency handing out stimulus money have surfaced in the news media. The Center set out to determine how widespread the practice was and who engaged in it.
Using both federal agency sources and the Freedom of Information Act, the Center collected a stack of letters a foot high detailing nearly 2,000 requests from lawmakers in both parties to secure funding from a law designed to stimulate the sagging economy. The Center obtained a total of more than 1,500 of these letters from just three departments: Transportation, Energy, and Commerce.
The correspondence provides a stark example of the gulf between political promises and action.
[snipped]
While the legislation passed through Congress without any traditional earmarks, lawmakers have worked behind the scenes, cajoling agencies to secure stimulus money for their favored projects for constituents and donors.
The practice — known among lobbyists as “lettermarking” — has been controversial for years. For instance, infamous superlobbyist Jack Abramoff, since convicted on charges related to fraud and bribery, often arranged for lawmakers to send letters to agencies pressing for appropriation funds, then followed up with donations to the lawmakers who acquiesced.
The White House said it anticipated lawmakers would resort to such a strategy, so Obama issued a directive in March 2009 to agencies telling them they must weigh all grant requests on the merits regardless of political pressure.
[snipped]
ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS CRITICS OF EARMARKS AND PORK-BARREL SPENDING — FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE AND CURRENT ARIZONA REPUBLICAN SEN. JOHN MCCAIN — JOINED THE LETTER-WRITING CROWD AFTER THE STIMULUS LAW HE VOTED AGAINST PASSED. [Capitalization supplied.]
McCain, who made running against pork a key plank of his 2008 presidential campaign, sent a letter offering his “conditional support” for Department of Transportation funds for Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. “My longstanding policy is to treat fairly all Arizona entities applying for federal programs, and I feel it is important not to endorse one applicant over another,” wrote McCain, who also noted that he was writing at the request of the City of Phoenix.
[snipped]
Sessions, the conservative Texan, continued his assault on the stimulus law while trying to justify his request supporting a stimulus grant for Carrolton, Texas. The city did not win the grant.
“The Democrats’ stimulus bill is an abject failure that has cost taxpayers $1 trillion while over 3 million additional Americans lost their jobs. I voted against this borrow-and-spend policy last year, and I would again today if given the chance,” he told the Center in a written statement.
“What I have not done is allow my strong, principled objection to the bill to prevent me from asking federal agencies for their full consideration of critical infrastructure and competitive grant projects for North Texas when asked to do so by my constituents.”
[snipped]
Democrats who have endured months of GOP attacks for supporting the stimulus law said their Republican colleagues are trying to have it both ways.
[snipped]
Like their Republican counterparts, Democratic critics of the stimulus also sent letters seeking funding afterwards.
[snipped]
The behind-the-scenes pressure for stimulus dollars is particularly sensitive for Republicans, who have wooed the Tea Party movement with an incessant attack on stimulus spending as wasteful and ineffective. In fact, the House GOP’s “Pledge to America” campaign manifesto specifically promises to rescind all unspent stimulus dollars if Republicans regain control of Congress in the November elections.
But some of the GOP’s architects of the anti-stimulus campaign themselves tried to secure money from the program, including McConnell, the Senate leader, and Pence, a spending hawk often mentioned as a 2012 presidential contender, who also helped craft and sell the GOP’s “Pledge to America.”
[snipped]
All told, five members of the GOP’s leadership — including McConnell, Pence, Sessions, Alexander, and Washington Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers — sent letters requesting that funds be funneled to more than a dozen projects. All voted against the bill.
[snipped]
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Gee, we haven't seen much publicity on this, have we?
One from The Trib
"Roncella says:
October 22, 2010 at 9:52 am
cirrus, You just admitted your a very slow learner. If the shoe fits.
October 22, 2010 at 9:52 am
cirrus, You just admitted your a very slow learner. If the shoe fits.
Read more: http://blog.thenewstribune.com/letters/2010/10/21/not-a-fan-of-negative-campaign-commercials/comment-page-1/#comment-28331#ixzz13NeEABC9
I just didn't want you to think all the irony is in Olympia.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
I wonder who he'd be in bed with as a US Senator
From the Seattle Times -
A year into his first four-year term, Rossi said, three investors approached him about buying an apartment building. The group included two government lobbyists: David Ducharme and his father, Richard Ducharme, who represented the Building Industry Association of Washington while he invested with Rossi.
A year into his first four-year term, Rossi said, three investors approached him about buying an apartment building. The group included two government lobbyists: David Ducharme and his father, Richard Ducharme, who represented the Building Industry Association of Washington while he invested with Rossi.
Gender and politics: is marriage and motherhood necessary for a female politician?
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Motherhood generates talk in Okla. governor's race
At rallies and other appearances, opponent Rep. Mary Fallin, 55, a Republican congressman, regularly mentions her new husband and their combined six children. Fallin, who had two children from a previous marriage, married a divorced father of four in November. She says her family and her experience as a businesswoman and officeholder have made her most qualified to be governor.
But remarks by Fallin at a Tuesday campaign debate, in which she cited her motherhood as a key difference between the two candidates, drew groans from some in the audience and stirred discussion about whether the emphasis on Askins' unmarried status had gone too far.
Several other women in public life, including Republicans, objected. "I don't understand why that's important," said Brenda Reneau, a Republican and former state labor commissioner, questioning why a candidate's husband and children were worth stressing in a gubernatorial debate. "Is she going to bring them to work? I've never found one thing while I was in office that I needed experience in being married and having children."
State Sen. Judy Eason McIntyre, one of 17 women serving in Oklahoma's legislature, also said Fallin's comment seemed like a "cheap shot." McIntyre, a Democrat, said Askins' unmarried status "doesn't have anything to do with anything."
Fallin supporters insisted the contrast was appropriate. "How can you not talk about family?" said Tulsa banker Charlotte Mindeman.
But the awkward moment has stirred questions about gender and politics in a race that has been regarded as a feminist milestone here. Would calling attention to a woman's lack of spouse pay off in a conservative state where politicians campaign on family values? Or does no-holds-barred campaigning show how far women have progressed in a male-dominated arena?
[snipped]
Motherhood generates talk in Okla. governor's race
In her quest to become Oklahoma's first female governor, Democrat Jari Askins has amassed an assortment of professional qualifications: she's been a judge, a legislator, the head of a state agency, and a corporate attorney.
But what she hasn't been is a wife. The 57-year-old career woman, who now serves as the state's lieutenant governor, has never been married or had children. And as this historic race between two women candidates for the state's top office nears its conclusion, that gap in her biography is attracting increasing attention.
At rallies and other appearances, opponent Rep. Mary Fallin, 55, a Republican congressman, regularly mentions her new husband and their combined six children. Fallin, who had two children from a previous marriage, married a divorced father of four in November. She says her family and her experience as a businesswoman and officeholder have made her most qualified to be governor.
But remarks by Fallin at a Tuesday campaign debate, in which she cited her motherhood as a key difference between the two candidates, drew groans from some in the audience and stirred discussion about whether the emphasis on Askins' unmarried status had gone too far.
Several other women in public life, including Republicans, objected. "I don't understand why that's important," said Brenda Reneau, a Republican and former state labor commissioner, questioning why a candidate's husband and children were worth stressing in a gubernatorial debate. "Is she going to bring them to work? I've never found one thing while I was in office that I needed experience in being married and having children."
State Sen. Judy Eason McIntyre, one of 17 women serving in Oklahoma's legislature, also said Fallin's comment seemed like a "cheap shot." McIntyre, a Democrat, said Askins' unmarried status "doesn't have anything to do with anything."
Fallin supporters insisted the contrast was appropriate. "How can you not talk about family?" said Tulsa banker Charlotte Mindeman.
But the awkward moment has stirred questions about gender and politics in a race that has been regarded as a feminist milestone here. Would calling attention to a woman's lack of spouse pay off in a conservative state where politicians campaign on family values? Or does no-holds-barred campaigning show how far women have progressed in a male-dominated arena?
[snipped]
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Campaign money sources
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Most of the money coming from outside the state comes from Republican sources supporting Rossi. Do they really expect us to believe that they're doing it from the goodness of their hearts? BS! If he gets elected, he'll owe them big time and he'll pay it off with big money!
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Election media blitz grows
[snipped]
Republicans believe a Rossi victory might hand them control of the Senate. Democrats hope to build a Western firewall to thwart a Republican takeover and have made the Senate races in Washington state, California and Nevada a top priority. [snipped]
Most of the money coming from outside the state comes from Republican sources supporting Rossi. Do they really expect us to believe that they're doing it from the goodness of their hearts? BS! If he gets elected, he'll owe them big time and he'll pay it off with big money!
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Election media blitz grows
With ballots already sitting on kitchen counters and control of the U.S. Senate up for grabs, a torrent of campaign cash continues to surge into the race between Patty Murray and Dino Rossi as independent groups spent almost $4.5 million in three days this week.
More than $11.4 million in independent expenditures in the race have been reported, according to the Sunlight Foundation, a non partisan, non profit watchdog group that tracks such spending using Federal Election Commission filings.
Nearly two-thirds of the money spent on negative advertising has been spent bashing Murray, the Democratic incumbent seeking a fourth term against Republican challenger Rossi.
[snipped]
Republicans believe a Rossi victory might hand them control of the Senate. Democrats hope to build a Western firewall to thwart a Republican takeover and have made the Senate races in Washington state, California and Nevada a top priority. [snipped]
Friday, October 22, 2010
Advertising
After some study on our demographics and the consistancy of page views, I have decided to join Google's advertising program with ThurstonBlog. This is a test to see how and what we'll see in terms of ads and what that means in terms of revenue.
Comments will be welcome.
Comments will be welcome.
A little exchange from the Zip
I know you readers get disappointed when I can't pull up something from the localschmocal so I found this jewel that includes our friend and resident chickenshit Mac Wade, aka Mark Wood, aka gawd knows what else:
And Boehner and his ilk complain about the Democrats?
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Boehner offers plum committees to GOP challengers
Deep in rural Georgia, the Republican who may become the next speaker of the U.S. House is playing let's-make-a-deal with voters.
Minority Leader John Boehner promised this week that if southwest Georgia residents unseat Democratic Rep. Sanford Bishop, he will support placing GOP challenger Mike Keown on the House Agriculture Committee. It's a promise designed to get Keown votes in a red-soil district that harvests the nation's largest peanut and pecan crop.
As Republicans campaign to win a majority in Congress, Boehner has dangled similar promises in Georgia, Arkansas, Missouri, Minnesota and Hawaii, sometimes in districts where single economic interests like farming or defense dominate regional economies.
Such pledges are not unusual in an election year, but they contradict GOP messages about fiscal austerity.
[snipped]
Boehner offers plum committees to GOP challengers
Deep in rural Georgia, the Republican who may become the next speaker of the U.S. House is playing let's-make-a-deal with voters.
Minority Leader John Boehner promised this week that if southwest Georgia residents unseat Democratic Rep. Sanford Bishop, he will support placing GOP challenger Mike Keown on the House Agriculture Committee. It's a promise designed to get Keown votes in a red-soil district that harvests the nation's largest peanut and pecan crop.
As Republicans campaign to win a majority in Congress, Boehner has dangled similar promises in Georgia, Arkansas, Missouri, Minnesota and Hawaii, sometimes in districts where single economic interests like farming or defense dominate regional economies.
Such pledges are not unusual in an election year, but they contradict GOP messages about fiscal austerity.
[snipped]
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Jaime wants to overturn Roe Vs Wade
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvQ25Mw5Bpk&feature=related
Well, if you were looking for a reason to vote for Denny Heck......
Well, if you were looking for a reason to vote for Denny Heck......
To my online stalker.....sweet dreams
To take a phrase from people you love and respect - Asian Angle and Dipshit O'Donnell....
Why don't you "man up" and register for a membership on ThurstonBlog and quit whining about us in The Olympian? If you don't like what we have to say, "man up" and tell us on ThurstonBlog. Do you need to hide behind Tammy McGee's skirt?
Come on out. Let's play.....or can't you "man up"?
::::::eye roll:::::::
Why don't you "man up" and register for a membership on ThurstonBlog and quit whining about us in The Olympian? If you don't like what we have to say, "man up" and tell us on ThurstonBlog. Do you need to hide behind Tammy McGee's skirt?
Come on out. Let's play.....or can't you "man up"?
::::::eye roll:::::::
Stupid quote of recent days
“But when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they’re identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”
Yeah, Juan. The guys that you want to be afraid of are the ones that try to look obviously like Muslims and don't try to blend in with the crowd. Watch out for the guys with the black hats and curls on the side of their heads when you go to a Bar Mitzvah, also. Oh......and don't travel with nuns.
Did you, by chance, work in Intelligence during the Bush Administration?
By the way, for you Constitutional Lawyers without a degree, this is not a First Amendment issue. An employer has the right to fire you for not representing them in a manner which they are comfortable.
Yeah, Juan. The guys that you want to be afraid of are the ones that try to look obviously like Muslims and don't try to blend in with the crowd. Watch out for the guys with the black hats and curls on the side of their heads when you go to a Bar Mitzvah, also. Oh......and don't travel with nuns.
Did you, by chance, work in Intelligence during the Bush Administration?
By the way, for you Constitutional Lawyers without a degree, this is not a First Amendment issue. An employer has the right to fire you for not representing them in a manner which they are comfortable.
Makes you proud to be an American........NOT
SEATTLE – A King County woman has been charged with two counts of malicious harassment after two Muslim women were called racial epithets and one was assaulted at a Tukwila gas station.
Court documents say that in the Saturday evening incident, 32-year-old Jennifer Jennings yelled at the women, calling them suicide bombers and telling them to go back to their home country. The documents say Jennings, also known as Jennifer Adams, kicked and slammed a car door on the legs of one woman and threatened the other.
The women called police who arrested Jennings at the station. She is to be arraigned on the charges Nov. 2.
The Seattle Times reports that both of the women who were harassed are U.S. citizens.
Read more: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/10/21/1391727/woman-arrested-after-muslim-women.html#ixzz133UjCX5a
Court documents say that in the Saturday evening incident, 32-year-old Jennifer Jennings yelled at the women, calling them suicide bombers and telling them to go back to their home country. The documents say Jennings, also known as Jennifer Adams, kicked and slammed a car door on the legs of one woman and threatened the other.
The women called police who arrested Jennings at the station. She is to be arraigned on the charges Nov. 2.
The Seattle Times reports that both of the women who were harassed are U.S. citizens.
Read more: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/10/21/1391727/woman-arrested-after-muslim-women.html#ixzz133UjCX5a
Arizona's answer to 1070 opposition
TUCSON, Ariz. — White powder delivered in an swastika-covered envelope to the Tucson, Ariz., office of Rep. Raul Grijalva is a toxic substance, the Democratic congressman said the FBI told him Thursday afternoon.
It was not confirmed exactly what substance was mailed to Grijalva's offices, located at the 800 block of East 22nd Street, NBC affiliate KVOA reported.
A staff member called Tucson Police earlier Thursday after finding an envelope containing the suspicious white powder. The offices were locked down by Tucson Police, and the FBI arrived to assist in the investigation, KVOA said.
An envelope arrived with swastikas drawn on the outside and a white powdery substance on the inside, Adam Sarvana, Grijalva’s spokesman, told the Arizona Daily Star newspaper.
It’s not the first time his office has been the target of threats, the Daily Star said.
Grijalva received death threats in April, shortly after SB1070, the anti-illegal-immigrant law, was signed. He called for a boycott in response. He closed his Tucson and Yuma offices as a result of the threats, the Daily Star said.
In July, after he called off the boycott, staffers found a bullet and a shattered window inside his Yuma office, the Daily Star said.
Grijalva appeared on a national news talk show this week complaining about racist tactics being used during his campaign for re-election.
Republican opponent Ruth McClung told the Daily Star she condemns the latest news and said violence or threats of violence against politicians are wrong.
tip of the hat to msnbc.com
Sorry......
I tried to find something worth blogging about in The Zip today, but, true to its name - NADA.
Female candidates
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The Incredible Shrinking Women
[snipped]
Presently, 51% of the population is female, yet only 17% of Congress is female. If the old white men – the majority of the Tea Party – want “their country” back, look no further than the Halls of Congress: It’s 87% white and 83% male. If Congress got together and misspelled some Nazi-laden Mao-heavy picket signs, it would look exactly like every other conservative rally since Obama took office. You know, those folks claiming not to have a voice in government.
[snipped]
... USA Today reports the number of women serving in the U.S. Congress could go down for the first time in 30 years. Women have been more likely to vote Democratic, even though feminist author Gloria Feldt (No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think about Power) states that “Democrats have been remiss in recruiting women for office.” Still, a majority of female Representatives in Congress have a “D” next to their names. And it’s going to be a bad year for Democrats. ...
[snipped]
Here’s the thing about women candidates: they are more interesting to the press than their male counterparts. The media just likes them more. There’s an obsession with female candidates’ gaffes. The idea that someone denounces the Supreme Court as “activists judges” yet is unable to name one decision with which they disagree – like Christine O’Donnell and Sarah Palin before her – is noteworthy. ...
[snipped]
Yes, female candidates may get all the ink – but male candidates get all the votes.
And now with Mama Grizzlies roaming about – women voters know that these female candidates sucking up all the oxygen don’t even support traditional women’s issues like reproductive freedoms, child welfare laws and social security. So – ironically – if you’re for women’s issues, you just might have to be against women candidates. Which is getting one step up and a hundred years back.
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The Incredible Shrinking Women
[snipped]
Presently, 51% of the population is female, yet only 17% of Congress is female. If the old white men – the majority of the Tea Party – want “their country” back, look no further than the Halls of Congress: It’s 87% white and 83% male. If Congress got together and misspelled some Nazi-laden Mao-heavy picket signs, it would look exactly like every other conservative rally since Obama took office. You know, those folks claiming not to have a voice in government.
[snipped]
... USA Today reports the number of women serving in the U.S. Congress could go down for the first time in 30 years. Women have been more likely to vote Democratic, even though feminist author Gloria Feldt (No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think about Power) states that “Democrats have been remiss in recruiting women for office.” Still, a majority of female Representatives in Congress have a “D” next to their names. And it’s going to be a bad year for Democrats. ...
[snipped]
Here’s the thing about women candidates: they are more interesting to the press than their male counterparts. The media just likes them more. There’s an obsession with female candidates’ gaffes. The idea that someone denounces the Supreme Court as “activists judges” yet is unable to name one decision with which they disagree – like Christine O’Donnell and Sarah Palin before her – is noteworthy. ...
[snipped]
Yes, female candidates may get all the ink – but male candidates get all the votes.
And now with Mama Grizzlies roaming about – women voters know that these female candidates sucking up all the oxygen don’t even support traditional women’s issues like reproductive freedoms, child welfare laws and social security. So – ironically – if you’re for women’s issues, you just might have to be against women candidates. Which is getting one step up and a hundred years back.
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