FOLOW UP: Philly Day Camp

The director of the Day camp was on Foxnews via phone just a bit ago and she says she has the attendence sheet for the day and there were a total of 46 kids there on that particular day ... not the full 65 that was reported earlier.

This could be a simple miscommunication, as she had said that she had contracted for 65 kids ... not that she had all 65 there.

Things that make you go "HMMM"

State to Investigate Racial Discrimination Case at Philadelphia-Area Club Pool - Local News News Articles National News US News - FOXNews.com:

"'Allegedly, this group was denied the use of a pool based on their race,' Glassman said. 'If the allegations prove to be true, this is illegal discrimination in Pennsylvania.'

The club maintains that accusations of racial discrimination are false and claims overcrowding from more than one outside camp was the problem.

The Creative Steps camp in northeast Philadelphia had contracted for the 65 children at the day camp to go each Monday afternoon to The Valley Club in Huntingdon Valley, camp director Alethea Wright said Thursday. But shortly after they arrived June 29, she said, some black and Hispanic children reported hearing racial comments."

Okay I saw Alethea Wright on television this morning with 3 of the kids, and I have to tell you she came across as very credible ... this didn't seem to be a case of 'crying wolf' ... I believe she and the children really do believe they are discriminated against because of race. (I'm trying not to pick sides, but I'm leaning towards the children's side for now)

If it had been an over-crowding issue then they didn't have to kick them out, they could have (and should have somewhere in the emails back/forth) mentioned it to them that there was limited access to the pool section.

If it had been a case of the children misbehaving, not following the pool rules - which is likely in the age range mentioned - then that would be a legitimate reason to end the pool time for the day, but not throw them out ... this woman did not look like one who would have gotten into anyone's face so I can't see that happening.

it is really sad to say ... but as things stand now -- I really feel that the club is going to be in trouble.

Now the question is -- what can be done? They gave ALL the money back ... so the group was 'made whole' as they like to say in the court shows ... they aren't out anything that way ...

maybe they can get the cost of getting the kids there ... but what else? Punitive damages? Now that would be a great case to get in front of Judge Joe Brown - if you haven't seen him, watch him - he would give punitive damages, as much as he possibly could.

I don't think they could get anything in Superior court (case over $5000) ... but if each child filed suit as well as the program (because that's the entity that is really damaged in this case) the club could be hit hard.

$5000 x 65 = $325,000!! Oooooo .... that would hurt ... that would hurt bad

BREAKING NEWS: Roland Burris

Roland Burris is currently making a speech - you may remember past posts about the whole controversy surrounding his appointment by Blago --

its amazing -- I don't recall seeing a press conference with a cheering section, and not just a cheering section but it sounds like they have all come from one of those 'yell it out' churches ... what is with that??

Surprise surprise he isn't running for the senate next year ... but I noticed that he made a point of saying he wasn't running for the US senate seat which leaves open the chance of running for either local office or possibly US Rep.

Actually it would be interesting to have seen what sort of scandals would have come up if he had ran ... not that I think that he did anything wrong, but I have to wonder what possible things would have been slung about.

Actually had he ran, it would have drudged up the whole Blago scandal again and the Dems would have lost the seat ... well that's not exactly true either ... he would still have had to go thru the selection process - and its too bad that the Dems didn't do more to keep him in until that point then they Dems could have SHOWN people that they weren't going to stand for that brand of politics.

I think that would have been a better way to go for the party.

Misleading commercials

There was a commercial that caught my attention today from "Conservative's for Patients Rights" where they bring up the now infamous $500 toilet seat ... it was a seat designed for the Army in the 1980's ... and they are comparing it to Obama's plan for Single-Payer Heallth Care.

here's the problem .... that toilet seat was designed to operate under conditions that regular ones don't, conditions where an ordinary toilet from your local Home Depot can put not only the craft & soldiers in jeopardy but also those on the ground should the plane come down.

This point was driven home during an episode of West Wing ... Christian Slater played a Naval officer working at the White House (he and Donna meet when she accidentally voted for the wrong candidate so she is looking for someone to 'trade' votes for her) .... in it he has an ash tray from his former post upon an aircraft carrier -- its a special gift, you can't buy them and only officers get them, don't remember why only officers got them but it was very special that he got it ...

and Donna (or is it Aimsley?) starts chatting about how its a waste of money when you can get them for like $20 or something at the store ... and he is getting, well fed up, but you can tell he has had to put up with this question about 100 times by then ...

so he grabs a hammer and smashes the ash tray - which breaks into two or three nice pieces. Then he explains that a regular ash tray would shatter into hundreds of pieces and bits of glass dust would be flying around whenever the ship ran into bad weather, or if a sub had to make a deep dive, etc. and that's why it had to cost so much.

Well same thing with those toilet seats -- they have to with stand all sorts of issues, much more than the standard ones used by the airlines. there are weight issues to take into consideration, the average size of the user (which is really different than airlines), military craft go higher/faster and go thru greater temperature changes than the regular air craft.

It is like saying you can put standard tires on a race car ... or you can make race car tires with the same material and in the same manner as regular tires --- it doesn't work.

So trying to compare the Health care plan to the hammer/toilet seat is really a bad correlation -- someone didn't do well on their ACT/SATs -- it is trying to compare apples to carrots, they aren't even in the same genre.

They really need to come up with a better comparison than that.

'Whoa - Dude!!

Apparently you don't make enough money being one of Malfoy's sidekicks ...

'Harry Potter' Star Could Face 14 Years for Growing Marijuana Farm - Celebrity Gossip Entertainment News Arts And Entertainment - FOXNews.com:

"The 19-year-old actor will have to appear in court later this month for the charges stemming from an April arrest.

Waylett, who plays Potter bully Vincent Crabbe, was busted when cops pulled over his vehicle in London and allegedly found eight bags of marijuana. He was taken to a nearby police station before a team of officers raided his mother’s home in Camden, the Daily
Telegraph reports.

A Metropolitan police spokeswoman said the actor would appear in court late this month and “is charged with producing a Class B drug, nearly ten plants of cannabis.”

The plants – valued at more than $3,000 – were allegedly found among DJ equipment and a Playstation, the Telegraph said.

Waylett may face up to 14 years for cannabis production, while the maximum charge for cannabis possession is five years."

Wow, so I guess we won't be seeing him in the last film then, heh? Of course doesn't his character last appear in HBP in the Room of Requirement?

This is actually quite sad .... if he goes away for the 14 yrs (19 if he gets charged for the baggies too) then his career could be pretty much over.

Waylett has appeared a special guest several times on the 'PotterCast' iTunes program.

Things that make you go "EWWWWW"

Factory Worker Dies After Falling Into Vat of Chocolate:

"A 22-year-old factory worker died Wednesday after he fell into a vat of boiling chocolate at a manufacturing plant in New Jersey, police said.

The Camden County prosecutor's office identified the victim as Vincent Smith II. He was a
temporary worker at the Cocoa Services Inc. plant.

Smith had been in the melting pot for about 10 minutes by the time rescue crews arrived, MyFOXPhilly.com reported.

Prosecutor's spokesman Jason Laughlin says a co-worker tried to shut off the machine and two others tried to pull Smith out of the 8-foot-deep vat. He was hit and fatally injured by the agitator that mixes the chocolate.

By the time he was pulled out of the tank just after 11 a.m., he was already dead.

The plant is owned by Lyons and Sons"

I always thought Death by Chocolate would be a wonderful way to go ... but ....

Ewww!

I will never look at an ice cream sundae the same way ever again.

Things that make you go "EWWWWW"

Who thought of this one?
Was watching the View ... hey look my keys are working now, don't know how, but its working ... and Margaret Cho was on (I loved her tv show, which they wouldn't have cancelled it).

Well she had the newest latest craze in female 'mutilation' -- a g-spot shot.

I had never heard of this so let me explain ... it is meant for women who can not climax thru ... um, how to put it nicely ... carnal copulation ... the doctor (she didn't say if it what kind of dr or if its an outpatient thing) locates your g-spot (in your 'happy place') and uses a needle to inject a silicone bump/pea/pearl which is supposed to stimulate the area during .... copulation.

she said it was awful and very painful and she wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

YOU THINK????

I don't know about you - but the thought of getting a shot before an epitome while giving birth made me ooky .... there's no way you are coming near my whoo-hoo with it to leave something in there.

What sadist came up with this one??? I bet it was a man.

Spendulus Package ... Part One, revisited

In PA they are making curbs ... for no reason.

You read that right ... workers are putting in curbs - where there are NO SIDEWALKS!! You get crosswalks, signals, and handicap curbs where they CAN'T be used. ok, maybe regular foot traffic could use them ... but if there are no sidewalks wheelchairs cant!

Chester county PA officials say they have no idea why this is happening ... that apparently there is some state/fed law in force here that no one seems to know about.

what's paying for all this?

Stimulus money -- $13Million of it is earmarked for 4000 other ramps whether they are needed or not.

Things that make you go "HMMM"

Jackson's Dermatologist Says He Warned About Drug :

"Michael Jackson's dermatologist says he on occasion gave the pop star the painkiller Demerol but warned him about using the powerful sedative Diprivan."

Yeah - I'm sure that he tried to stop him about as much as Willie Wonka tried to stop Violet from eating that peice of gum ... if you don't know what I'm talking about ...



Okay - that a side -- he basically admitted that he knew Jackson was using, or at the least going to use, a substance that is super-duperly controlled. This isn't like prescription drugs ... this stuff can ONLY come to hospitals & resident clinics which do operations where the patient needs to go into a very deep sleep from what I've read.

So why can't ... aren't ... they going after this guy on prescription fraud at the very least?

Jackson Fever

**first let me apologize for the lowercase letters for names halfway thru this post - the 'shift' key suddenly stopped working for my letter keys although it does seem to be working for my number keys at the moment ... no disrespect was intended**

Well you all know how hard it is to get bills into congress ... well not to let anything SERIOUS like the budget crisis, unemployment, or people losing their homes get in their way ... some people in congress are calling for the 'beautification' of Micheal Jackson.

Besides getting all the news coverage for one day ... and yet people still say he isn't being treated 'fairly' as opposed to Elvis or Kennedy ... well, number 1, Kennedy was a PRESIDENT who died in office and his affairs weren't generally known at the time. number 2 - they did SO talk about Elvis' drug addiction, I even heard alligations of domestic abuse -- so don't give me that crap!

Anyways all that aside --

Tx rep jackson-lee wants congress to recognize Jackson as a Global Humanitarian (and he was) and a noted leader in the fight to end worldwide hunger ... seems to me that those are resolutions that should be coming from the UN, not congress myself ... but not from the US congress.

Rep. Peter King wants a House Resolution and a Federal Stamp ... I'm sorry ... what? that doesn't make sense he was the one who blasted the coverage and called jackson a low-life who "by his own admission claimed he slept with young boys"

Rev. Al Sharpton (who seems to only see in black & white) is supporting the jackson stamp. the soonest the stamp could be printed is 6/2014 so its not like its a high priority. there is a push for a stamp where a bit of the price would go to help veteran services - and they can't get that thru, but this is going to take front stage??? c'mon!
***************
so what is the real controversy here? Is it that they want to commemorate jackson?

no

its that they got the bills commemorating jackson and the stamp proposal up (meaning on the house floor) in ONE DAY (my caplock is working now) when they are still trying to get stuff up for 5 months ago.

answer: they are trying to waste time so they can plop in another spending bill without giving the reps time to read it again, in my opinion.

my issue is -- are we paying congress to do this sort of thing? do we really want them spending their time on capital hill working on this - or getting jobs for americans that they can actually LIVE ON without raising our taxes ... or do we want them looking a designs of stamps, figuring out which face is the best to use -- or do we want them to cut spending & waste in governemt to save us a couple of bucks ...

speaking of which -- how much did all this jackson stuff cost the tax payer? and what benefit does the average taxpayer get out of it - not just one group of tax payers - the AVERAGE TAX PAYER?

National ... security???

Okay - you might recall the commentary on the Poll numbers on National Security ... no that one didnt get eaten .... where 14% of people thought that many of the measures put in place after 9/11 could be dropped?

Well cable news (we all know by now who I watch the most, I think) had a peice on the STUPIDITY that is going on in the name of "security" which has absolutely nothing to do with the Federal side of things .... and everything to do with there being too many Kelso-Cops in America.

There were reports that undercover agents were able to smuggle components & GUNS 10/10 times into federal buildings ... assemble bomb components in bathrooms ... freely wander halls ... without anyone stopping them!

They found one guard passed out (on pain killers) when he was supposed to be working.
One was running his porn-site from the federal computer -- our tax dollars at work.
Another guy put an INFANT thru the XRAY MACHINE --- WHAT???? I couldn't believe this one -- and I couldn't believe the parents allowed it ... I would have told them to strip the baby before putting them thru that.

now granted these are only a few places out of the 9,000 facilities but please - a baby thru the xray machine?? what kind of IDIOTS are companies employing?

Sounds like the senate is going to stop giving money to federal contracted agencies when they find such blatant issues ... well DUH ... its called firing their asses!

Follow Up: Bridge Collapse

Okay -- remember the story I wrote on earlier about the walk bridge collapsing on July 4th while people crowded onto a wooden suspension bridge? Well no wait you wouldn't -- blogger seems to have EATEN the story somehow.

Ok -- here it is in a nut shell .... 4th of July celebration ... people gathered on a cable suspension bridge meant to allow pedestrian traffic (about the width of a sidewalk) ... capacity of bridge was rated for like 48 people tops ... even after it was obvious that there were too many people, others still got ON the bridge and the first ones never got off ... some reports say 100 people were on the bridge ... cables/bolts couldn't take the strain - boom - bridge falls into water below, no one died but plenty were hurt.

Okay so lets remember that this was a WALK bridge, not meant to hold a standing weight ... it was meant for moving traffic.

So who do the "victims" say is to blame?

The cops.

How do they figure that? because the police didn't stop them from doing something they should have known better to do.

WHAT?? the cops on either side of the bridge were supposed to keep a head count? Could you imagine the ruckus that would have caused if they had turned people away?

Here's an idea people --- DON'T STAND ON A WALK BRIDGE WHEN YOU SEE A CROWD THERE!!!!

But of course since no one can take credit for their own stupidity .... and since MN settled out of court with the victims of the 35W collapse .... these people are callling lawyers ASAP.

My understanding is that most of the injuries were not caused by the bridge itself, but rather by the people falling on top of each other when they hit the water.

I say -- pay the medical bills and that's it.

They should have known better ... and even the medical bills are iffy.

Weirdness on Tv

Okay - so I'm not a big fan of early morning network tv ... in fact most of the time I find it a real bother, I'd rather watch the cable news at that time and get things fresh and a little less spun .... hush you Fox haters, they really do less spinning than MSNBC you just won't admit it ....

Anyhow, I was using the DVR and didn't want to watch the program that was on just now so I was popping around thru the regular tv channels -- and happened to stop by CBS's Early Show ... and they were playing a new game called "Do You Have a Permanent Job With CBS" ....

What the heck is that?

Is CBS letting a bunch of staff go?

They have been struggling in the ratings lately, although they seem to have the best Primetime shows .... Two & Half Men, Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Rules Of Engagement, the CSI triplet, NCIS, (gag me but..) Survivor & Big Brother,

yet the News Department is killing them financially -- gee maybe it has something to do with those overly liberal leanings --- actually I think they have a HUGE credibility issue. They have had just one too many scandals concerning the way they have ignored things to put a spin on a story....

I think they have real credibility issues when they influence the way their local affiliates approach local stories as well.

When the problems first started instead of simply handing out the canned apologizes they should have handed out the cannings from the bottom up ... it just seemed to me that all they did by allowing the people to keep the jobs after the scandals was condone not condeem what was done.

Thought he was moving???

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - Alec Baldwin interested in congressional run « - Blogs from CNN.com:

"Emmy Award winner Alec Baldwin is eyeing a post-acting career that could take him off a Hollywood soundstage into the halls of Congress.
Baldwin, who currently stars in the NBC comedy '30 Rock,' told Playboy magazine that he is seriously considering running for Congress. But he acknowledged his opponents would have plenty of fodder to use against him."

You know - I thought there was an interview where he said that if Bush won the election he was going to move out of the US??? What ever happened with that??

I first heard about this story from The View -- the ladies were wondering why so many entertainers would want to go into politics ...

HELLO!! They won't have to hand over their money! They are 'immune' from the laws they pass for everyone else .... what are you not catching onto here??

It is the ultimate selfish act ... and c'mon .. who is more selfish than media-hounds???

Yeah they give money to charity - but have you heard of one doing it without making sure they are going to get as much press coverage as possible?? have you seen them attend a small-modest fund raiser? No -- they are always at some swanky $10K/plate dinner where they don't have to rub elbows with the people they are supposed to be helping.

Spendulus Package ... Part Two??

Obama Adviser Says U.S. Should Mull Second Stimulus (Update2) - Bloomberg.com: "The U.S. should consider drafting a second stimulus package focusing on infrastructure projects because the $787 billion approved in February was “a bit too small,” said Laura Tyson, an outside adviser to President Barack Obama." You have got to be shitting me!

So let me get this straight ---

You put out $787Billion 6 months ago without making sure the money was going to go where it was supposed to ... without oversight ... even though everyone told you that the projects they were going for were NOT "shovel ready" ...

so now only 1/10 of 1% of the funds have actually been used for their intended purpose -- the rest of it has been sucked up by administration costs and 'research' or 'studies' (i.e. lining someone's pockets) ... and of the money that was used -- it went to UNION jobs, so that the majority of people who would have benefitted didn't see a single penny of it!

So now after all this --- you want to spend MORE???

Where the hell are you getting this money from??

What country are you selling us to now?

We are already so deeply in debt to China that the White House is afraid to speak out against them ... we keep sending money to other countries and 'forgiving' their debt to us (money we could really really use, btw).

Yet you want to start robbing from our great-great-great-great-grandchildren now?? How the blazes do you expect to get us out of this one?

The last 'package' was going to be paid down by taxing the crap out of average Americans -- yeah they say the rich, but all they did was move the line down ever time you turned around --- what the hell will you do this time? Collect every penny of our paychecks now?

Don't know if you have ever taken a close look at your paycheck but it used to be that the amount of tax you paid in a year covered all your income from Jan-Apr ... the last stimulas package moved that line from Jan - July ... where the heck will this next one move it??? Jan - Oct? MY GODs -- that would mean that you will be taking home only 17% of your pay! How can ANYONE live on that?

Here's an idea -- how about you go after the people who you gave the money to and say -- "Hey-You said you were going to do this ... now get it done within the next 3 months, justify why we should let you keep it - or give it back!"

Freudian slip???

Okay so I'm watching Fox News and the anchor is throwing it to a reporter about Sara Palin stepping down ... he even mentioned that the reporter (Dan Springer) was in Seattle, on his way to Anchorage ....

but Hamner referred to her as the "soon-to-be-former Governor of California" ?????

do they know something that hasn't been released yet??

I know people are not pleased with the way things are in CA (sorry, but it is NOT all Schwarzeneggar's fault - he can't balance a budget if the unions & state legislature won't cooperate, no matter what he does - even if he worked for $1/yr)

But has he heard something about Arnold perhaps stepping down in protest?

I think that would be a terrible thing to do, myself. It will give too much fodder to the Liberals who would try to say he 'ruined' the state and now is running away from it.

Sorry -- you want to see what ruined the state's economy??

Super Liberals --- look in the mirror

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY TO EVERYONE!!

From my family to yours!



I should mention that at the end there is a mention that the last two shots look like "feet" ... that's the code word for 'boobs' around here so we don't freak hubby out when us girls are talking about such things.