Dvorak News Blog

A Great Question For Muslim Terrorists

By Uncle Dave Friday June 18, 2010

He done blowed up real good!

I love the last part of this:

Qari Zafar, a commander of Pakistani militants, has accidentally punched his own one-way ticket [he blew himself up] to Paradise.
[…]
All you ever hear is “If you die while committing jihad, you go to paradise and get 53 or 72 or 99 virgins (or whatever today’s number is). But we never hear them say “beautiful virgins.”

So we have a question about the whole virgin thing. What happens if you blow yourself up, get to Paradise and find out the reason your 99 virgins are virgins is that they’re so fat, ugly and repulsive that no one wanted them?

Russian President Pushes New Reserve Currency, ‘New World Order’

By Jacob Galt Friday June 18, 2010

21 Comments

Drudge links to this Business Week report:

Russia wants the ruble to be one of the world’s reserve currencies as President Dmitry Medvedev renews his push to reduce the dollar’s dominance and make Moscow a global financial hub.

“Only three, five years ago it seemed like a fantasy” to create a new reserve currency, Medvedev said yesterday in a speech in St. Petersburg, Russia. “Now we are seriously discussing it.”

The Financial Times has the NWO quote:

“What had seemed untouchable has collapsed. The bubbles that created the illusion of flourishing economies have burst,” Mr Medvedev said. “For Russia this situation is a challenge and an opportunity. We are living in a unique time. And we should use it to build a modern, flourishing and strong Russia … which will be a co-founder of the new world economic order and a full participant in the collective political leadership of the post-crisis world.”

Idiotic Laker’s Fanatics Riot in LA

By McCullough Friday June 18, 2010

54 Comments

Now, isn’t that special? Too bad they aren’t that passionate about something even slightly important.

Sen. Dodd (D) Awards 54 Million in Stimulus to Highly Profitable Casino

By McCullough Friday June 18, 2010

48 Comments

With the support of Sen. Chris Dodd, D.-Conn., the federal government has awarded $54 million to Connecticut’s politically well-connected Mohegan Indian tribe, which operates one of the highest grossing casinos in the U.S. The tribe runs the sprawling Mohegan Sun casino, halfway between New York City and Boston, which earned more than $1.3 billion in gross revenues in 2009. Each tribe member receives a cut of the profits, a number a tribal official said was “less than $30,000” per capita per year. The stimulus money is a loan from a U.S. Department of Agriculture rural development program that is meant to help communities of less than 20,000 people that have been “unable to obtain other credit at reasonable rates and terms and are unable to finance the proposed project from their own resources.”

Lynn Malerba, chairwoman of the Mohegan Tribal Council, defended the award of the stimulus loan to the tribe, and said that every member of Connecticut’s seven-member Congressional delegation except one had provided assistance in securing the funds. “The whole Connecticut delegation, I think aside from [Rep.] Jim Himes, who was traveling, sent a letter in support.”

I think the answer to this is to raise taxes…yes, we definitely we need higher taxes.

Vuvuzela Hero

By Uncle Dave Friday June 18, 2010

6 Comments

This horror was found on NeatoGeek

“I apologize.”

By Uncle Dave Friday June 18, 2010

33 Comments

It’s one thing to hide it. We’re used to that and pretty much expect it. But there just ain’t nothin’ like the theater of a politician exposing his and his fellow pol’s corruption on live TV.

When Rep. Joe Barton, R-Arlington, apologized to BP chief executive Tony Hayward on Thursday and accused the Obama administration of conducting a “shakedown” of the oil giant, he drew quick denunciations from members of both parties.

Barton, under pressure from fellow Republicans, retracted his remarks hours later.

But the statement, while politically indelicate, is not a far aberration from the pro-industry positions that Barton has pursued in his 25 years in Congress.

“The attitude behind the remark is not a surprise,” said Jim Schermbeck, a North Texas clean-air advocate who has long clashed with Barton. “That he actually said it out loud gives me pause about his political radar these days.”

Tiny Plastic Toys On Kid’s Hat To Honor Troops Forbidden — They’re Holding Guns

By Uncle Dave Friday June 18, 2010

33 Comments

I assume, since this is a zero-tolerance policy, that pictures of guns being used in wars are torn out of history books. Can’t be too careful.

Christan Morales said her son just wanted to honor American troops when he wore a hat to school decorated with an American flag and small plastic Army figures. But the school banned the hat because it ran afoul of the district’s zero-tolerance weapons policy. Why? The toy soldiers were carrying tiny guns.
[…]
Morales’ 8-year-old son, David, had been assigned to make a hat for the day when his second-grade class would meet their pen pals from another school. She and her son came up with an idea to add patriotic decorations to a camouflage hat. Earlier this week, after the hat was banned, the principal at the Tiogue School in Coventry told the family that the hat would be fine if David replaced the Army men holding weapons with ones that didn’t have any, according to Superintendent Kenneth R. Di Pietro.
[…]
On Thursday, Di Pietro and the principal met with the retired commander of the Rhode Island National Guard, at the commander’s request. Lt. Gen. Reginald Centracchio praised the school system for supporting the military in the past, including with a junior ROTC program. But he said he disagreed with the decision to ban the hat and hoped it offered a chance for the school to review its policies.

“The American soldier is armed. That’s why they’re called the armed forces,” he said. “If you’re going to portray it any other way, you miss the point.”

He said he intends to give David a medal to express veterans’ appreciation that he would pay tribute to their service.

Giant Statue of Jesus Zapped by Lightning

By McCullough Thursday June 17, 2010

40 Comments

MONROE, Ohio – An artist who designed an Ohio church’s giant statue of Jesus that was destroyed by lightning this week says he’s willing to help replace it.

Brad Coriell of Nashville, Tenn., says he has not been in contact with the Solid Rock Church but would be honored to be involved.

Co-pastor Darlene Bishop at the church along an interstate north of Cincinnati says Coriell could be among the artists who will submit designs and cost estimates for a new statue. Church officials say it’s likely to look different from the original six-story “King of Kings.”

A lightning strike Monday sparked a fire that burned down the plastic foam and fiberglass statue that was nicknamed Touchdown Jesus because of the way the arms were raised.

This can’t be good.

Jersey Politician Draws Total Disablity Pay yet Runs Marathons

By McCullough Thursday June 17, 2010

25 Comments

Assemblyman David P. Rible retired as a Wall Township police officer at age 31 with a bad back and a fat pension. He’s collected $570,000 in disability payments since a state board decided he was “totally and permanently disabled.”

Yet Rible competes in five-mile and five-kilometer runs along the Jersey Shore. He exercises at a gym, dances as a celebrity and hauls trash to the curb at his Monmouth County home. He commutes to Trenton to represent the11th District in the State Assembly, where he holds a leadership position as Republican Whip and seeks publicity as a tax-fighter.

In addition to his $49,000 salary as a legislator, Rible continues to receive a state disability pension that pays $54,502 a year – without a second look from authorities.

Now 42, Rible is set for life. If he lives until 80, he will pocket another $2 million from the state pension fund. That would raise Rible’s jackpot to roughly $2.6 million, not including cost-of-living hikes or his medical coverage.

“I do oppose government waste, but I don’t see this as government waste,” said Rible, leaving his health club after a workout. “This is something that has been set forth in the rules of the pension.”

Politics, good work if you can get it.

The Interwebitube “Kill Switch”

By Uncle Dave Thursday June 17, 2010

45 Comments

The federal government would have “absolute power” to shut down the Internet under the terms of a new US Senate bill being pushed by Joe Lieberman, legislation which would hand President Obama a figurative “kill switch” to seize control of the world wide web in response to a Homeland Security directive.

Lieberman has been pushing for government regulation of the Internet for years under the guise of cybersecurity, but this new bill goes even further in handing emergency powers over to the feds which could be used to silence free speech under the pretext of a national emergency.
[…]
The 197-page bill (PDF) is entitled Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act, or PCNAA.

Technology lobbying group TechAmerica warned that the legislation created “the potential for absolute power,” while the Center for Democracy and Technology worried that the bill’s emergency powers “include authority to shut down or limit internet traffic on private systems.”

The bill has the vehement support of Senator Jay Rockefeller, who last year asked during a congressional hearing, “Would it had been better if we’d have never invented the Internet?” while fearmongering about cyber-terrorists preparing attacks.

The largest Internet-based corporations are seemingly happy with the bill, primarily because it contains language that will give them immunity from civil lawsuits and also reimburse them for any costs incurred if the Internet is shut down for a period of time.