Monthly Archives: December 2009

Uncategorized

2010 Mummers Parade On The Internet

6 Comments

Always anxious to watch the Mummers strut their stuff up Broad St., I have some information from WPHL-TV in Philly about how us folks who have left the area for warmer climes can still see it.

For the parade tomorrow, Jan 1, 2010, it will be available online at this LINK.

A note from C.J. Leonard at the station explains.

Good afternoon,

While we are not actually STREAMING the parade for various reasons, we will have the clips of each group (string band, fancies, & comics) as we get the footage back to the station and up on the web. Video should be viewable on myphl17.com.

http://www.myphl17.com/community/mummers/video/

Parade begins at 10am Friday (unless inclement weather strikes…then it will be 10 am Saturday or Sunday). Accordingly, video clips should be available shortly thereafter.

I hope this answers your questions.

Thanks for your interest in myphl17 and the Mummers!

C.J.

Well, it’s not live but it’s better than nothing.

For all those who haven’t a clue what a Mummers Parade is or what a Mummer is, you must check it out. It’s fun, and entertaining. The way I explain it to people down here in Florida is this, it’s like Mardi Gras except the people don’t ride on floats, they are the floats.

Enjoy the mummers.

—–

UPDATE 1/1/10: On The TV

Superstation WGN America will show highlights of the 2010 Mummers Parade, the STRING BANDS, SUNDAY, JANUARY 3RD at 1 pm. CST. Check your local cable listings for WGN America. On satellite, Brighthouse Ch.20, Direct TV Ch.307, Dish Network Ch.239

related links: WPHL-TV 17 | Mummers History |  The Mummers Museum |  Mummers On National TV

UPDATE 11/28/2010: If you have not already done so, contact WPHL-TV 17 and ask them, like I’ve already done, if, when, how, and whether they will be covering the 2011 Mummers Parade. I’ve not heard back from them yet. It’s only been a few days, and the holiday and all.

UPDATE 12/24/2010: 2011 Mummers Parade On The Internet

Media, Politics, War On Terror

Cheney Saying What Most Are Thinking

As documented HERE, HERE, and HERE, the actions taken by the Obama administration that pertain to the war on terror have been anything but helpful to us in fighting the war. It is Obama’s pre-9/11 mindset put into action that brings out the inexperience and naivete of our Commander In Chief in dealing with real life and death situations.

But nobody, imho,  sums it up better than Vice President Dick Cheney whose direct quote is below and in all its glorious context.  See it all here because the left leaning media probably won’t include all of it.

“As I’ve watched the events of the last few days it is clear once again that President Obama is trying to pretend we are not at war. He seems to think if he has a low-key response to an attempt to blow up an airliner and kill hundreds of people, we won’t be at war. He seems to think if he gives terrorists the rights of Americans, lets them lawyer up and reads them their Miranda rights, we won’t be at war. He seems to think if we bring the mastermind of Sept. 11 to New York, give him a lawyer and trial in civilian court, we won’t be at war.

“He seems to think if he closes Guantanamo and releases the hard-core Al Qaeda-trained terrorists still there, we won’t be at war. He seems to think if he gets rid of the words, ‘war on terror,’ we won’t be at war. But we are at war and when President Obama pretends we aren’t, it makes us less safe. Why doesn’t he want to admit we’re at war? It doesn’t fit with the view of the world he brought with him to the Oval Office. It doesn’t fit with what seems to be the goal of his presidency — social transformation — the restructuring of American society. President Obama’s first object and his highest responsibility must be to defend us against an enemy that knows we are at war.”

Like Cheney said so profoundly, he is pretending that there isn’t a war being waged against us, not to mention the rest of the free world. Even if you don’t accept Cheney’s premise, you have to ask yourself why this is? Why he is acting the way he is?

  1. He thinks it is Bush’s war. So it’s back to the 9/10 mindset of minding our own business and hoping we don’t get fooled / killed again.
  2. He thinks he has the world mesmerized by a few speeches and our enemies will have a change of heart, stop trying to kill us, and maybe even like us?
  3. He thinks that after releasing Gitmo prisoners and closing Gitmo, and not using military tribunals for captured terrorists, but instead give them the same legal rights guaranteed to American citizens, that the war will stop and the enemy will have a change of heart, stop trying to kill us, and maybe even like us?
  4. He is simply too green and inexperienced to be President and Commander In Chief. Is in way over his head. And has surrounded himself with the worst bunch of advisers to handle the problems the Country faces, both economic and in terms of national security.

It’s almost as though President Obama has forgotten, or really does not believe the oath he took when he became President. That’s about all I can think of. Your mileage may vary.

links:

War On Terror

Too Bad There’s A War Going On

How much more at risk from al-Qaeda can President Obama put us?

Here’s a couple things our enemy needs to know.

He can return Gitmo detainees back to Yemen, Somalia, and Afghanistan so they can hurry up and rejoin the fight to kill us. Check.Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab

And, if we happen to catch a terrorist (that would be the ‘man’ part of a ‘man-made disaster’), we won’t press him to tell us what he knows about al-Qaeda and what plans you have for more attacks. He will not be turned over to our military to be tried as an enemy combatant in a military tribunal. No, we will treat them just like we treat our own misfits that rob convenience stores. Check.

Now, as a gesture of how humble, and peaceful, our ‘not a Christian nation’ is, we’ll give him a lawyer, and the same protection of our laws that belong to our own citizens.  That way, the suicide bomber won’t have to say a word if he doesn’t want to. How do you like me now?

Energy, Politics

Democrats Alternative Energy Policy?

2 Comments

Becoming energy independent and developing and employing alternative energy sources like wind and solar are, in fact, something that Democrats and Republicans alike are in favor of. Well, except for these Democrats. Is this Democrats Energy Policy in action?

Like I’ve been saying, a Democrat energy policy is not to get any energy and, not to use what you have. It has been reduced down to the NIMBY principle of this unprincipled bunch.

On wind power, the Kennedys, especially Sen. Ted Kennedy, won’t have anything to do with the Cape Wind project, where a real wind farm there can make a difference. But they are concerned about their oceanfront view. Which I don’t think would be visible from The Kennedy Compound.

On wind and solar power, Senator Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation in Congress on Monday (12/21/09) to protect a million acres of the Mojave Desert in California by scuttling some 13 big solar plants and wind farms planned for the region. Let’s call it the Mojave Desert monument. Oh those pesky environmentalists. Here’s your bone.

DiFi learned from the best. President Bill Clinton shut down the entire domestic low-sulfur coal industry by making that part of Utah a federal park where no mining activity takes place. Where Clinton is concerned, there is a lot more involved. But, the end result is the same. Don’t use it. You may remember some mention of things like the Communist Chinese making illegal campaign contributions to the Clinton campaign, and the Lippo Group. {background: besides Utah, the only other place in the world that has low-sulfur coal is under Communist China control and the Lippo Group.}

So imagine that. Democrats don’t want solar panels or wind farms in the desert where there is lots of sun and wind. And they don’t want wind farms where there are coastal winds. Maybe it’s OK as long as it isn’t in their area? And don’t even think of using any more coal. Who cares if coal produces about half of our electrical energy? We can always buy it from China.

Seems to me that this is an issue that Democrats could brag about working with ‘the other side’ by seeking bi-partisan support for one of the goals we (D’s and R’s) have set for ourselves. What is odd (not really), is that it is members of their own party who need to be told to get on board, not Republicans.

Of course, the action of two senators and a president couldn’t be the definition of the party’s energy policy. That would be making a political leap. Political dynasties in their own right aside.

The story on whether the Feinsteins or the Kennedys shape the Party’s energy policy will be told by how the party handles it. Or not.

Politics, War On Terror

alQaeda, Help Is On The Way

It is a good thing that everyone was focused on the health-care disaster in the Senate last week, otherwise they might have heard about the return of 12 Gitmo detainees, or enemy combatants as I see them, to their home countries. Church lady, ‘isn’t that special?’

It certainly is in keeping with the President’s campaign promise to close Club Gitmo. So let’s see how it breaks down for the 12.

Over the weekend, four Afghan detainees were transferred to their home country. Two Somali detainees were transferred to authorities in Somaliland, the semi-autonomous northern region of Somalia. Six Yemeni detainees also were sent home.

The Justice Department said that since 2002, more than 560 detainees have departed the military prison in Cuba and 198 remain.

It looks like we’re getting down to the worst of the worst at Club Gitmo. And what an encouraging sign for the enemy.  ‘Returning’ these terrorists to these three countries, make that two countries, because Somalia isn’t recognized as a legitimate government by the U.S., but there is that ‘semi-autonomous northern region of Somalia.’

Sending this dog-squeeze back to Yemen, ‘Somaliland’ (rhymes with DisneyLand), and more than even likely Afghanistan, will create a heroes welcome in those countries and most likely be released or allowed to escape back to resume the fight against us.

The announcement came after Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., sent a request to President Obama on Friday to stop the release. The nearly 100 Yemenis remaining at the Cuba facility make up the largest group there. But releasing more detainees to Yemen is raising concerns, because of the country’s security problems and lack of resources.

“I have written you and others in your administration on three occasions imploring you to halt the release of detainees to these countries due to the deteriorating security situations and the dangerous potential for recidivism,” Wolf wrote in his letter.

Now, I don’t blame him for trying to get that trash back to where it came from. But if doing that has the potential for making us less safe, then his judgment comes to question. Maybe not from a point of view of just who’s side is he on? But from a point of view of being stricken with political correctness to the detriment of our safety? Or from the point of view of being an incredibly naive Commander In Chief?

I’m not seeing a good choice.

While we’re on the subject of the War on Terror, and how Barack Obama wants to end it. Did you hear the one about the self-described alQaeda suicide bomber from Nigeria? He’s the one that nearly brought down a jetliner a couple days ago.

Lucky for you (alQaeda), our President doesn’t take your threat seriously enough to keep you under control and behind bars. What it looks like is help is on the way.

links: US transfers 12 Gitmo detainees to home countries | AP source: US knew of terror suspect |  Administration Transfers 12 Gitmo Detainees Overseas, Despite Concerns

Uncategorized

html wizard wanted

If I may leave politics for a moment and enlist the help of somebody a lot smarter than I in the poetry of code called html.

Here’s my challenge, or request.

There’s this plugin that is activated here but isn’t working where I want it to work. It was written to work in the sidebar, and it works as advertised when I use it there. But I don’t want to use it there. I want it to work in my LINKS page, which is a blogroll fashioned inside a table.

What it does, when it works correctly, is it will read 4 or 5 post titles if you mouseover a link and that link happens to have an rss feed. If it does, then the last 4 or 5 post titles will appear in a little popup box and they will be clickable to go right to that post.

Problem is I can’t get the author’s ‘fix’ to work, and I’m guessing it is because the links are inside a table ? but I don’t know.

According to the plugin author, it’s a simple (yeah right) matter of putting a span class statement before, and an end class statement after, each link.

I can’t show you his ‘fix’ here because it doesn’t show up. For the details, I’ll refer you to his blog’s forum where you can see the relevant code.

If you think you know what the heck he’s talking about and can show me how to implement it, please let me know. It’s worth at least a few cheesesteaks to me.

UPDATE 11/15/2010: NEVERMIND: I gave up on it and moved the blogroll back to the margin on the home page where it was designed to work.

Uncategorized

Gun Sales Up, Murders Down

Not only are gun sales up, but ammunition has been in terribly short supply ever since Obama won the election. But the fact that murder rates are down has no correlation to the President.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation reports a ten percent drop in murders during the first six months of 2009, while at a time US gun sales are going through the roof, according to reports obtained by the National Association of Chiefs of Police. Meanwhile, gun sales to private citizens soared almost 30 percent during that same period.

Gun rights advocates claim that these numbers are further proof that there is no correlation between gun ownership and violent crime, state officials from the Second Amendment Foundation, a civil rights group. Further, the SAF contends that the increase in private citizen gun-ownership may have had an impact on reducing violent crime.

A survey conducted by the National Association of Chiefs of Police of the nation’s police executives found:

  • 93.6 percent of the respondents supported civilian gun-ownership rights.
  • 96 percent of the police chiefs and sheriffs believe criminals obtain firearms from illegal sources.
  • 92.2 percent revealed they hadn’t arrested anyone for violation of the so-called “waiting period” laws.
  • When asked if citizens’ concealed-weapons permits would reduce violent crime, 63.1 percent said yes.

Percentage increase over last year of background checks of firearm purchasers for the first six months of 2009:

January 28.8
February 23.3
March 29.9
April 30.3
May 15.5
June 18.1

“What this shows,” said SAF Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb, “is that gun prohibitionists are all wrong when they argue that more guns result in more crime. Firearms in the hands of law-abiding citizens are no threat to anyone. Perhaps violent criminals were actually discouraged by all of those gun sales earlier this year, because the media made a point of reporting the booming gun market.

“Anti-gunners,” he continued, “have lost another one of their baseless arguments. Millions of Americans bought guns during the first six months of this year, many of them for the first time. Yet with all of those new guns in circulation, coupled with an increased demand for concealed carry licenses around the country, the streets have not been awash in blood, as gun banners repeatedly predict.

link: FBI: Gun sales up, murders down

Florida, MRIOTD, Politics

Alan Grayson Can't Handle Free Speech

1 Comment
Liberal Bed-wetter and M.R.I.O.T.D. Award winner Alan Grayson (D-FL)

Hands down, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) wins the M.R.I.O.T.D. Award, for

petitioning the Atty. General of the United States, Eric Holder, to put a website operator in jail for running a website called mycongressmanisnuts.com that seeks to support his removal via the ballot box.

For what? Because the operator doesn’t reside within his district. This guy personifies the ‘Liberal Bed-wetter’ for his childish yet threatening act. Using his authority, or rather, abusing his authority to cause a criminal action against another U.S. citizen for exercising speech that he doesn’t happen to like would be cause in and of itself to bring him under investigation and in front of a Grand Jury. It is typical of how the Left views the First Amendment.

Here’s an idea. Start a website called makealangraysontestifybeforeagrandjury.com and see how he likes that?

The Most Ridiculous Item Of The Day Award goes to Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL)

related links:

Economy, Politics

How Do They Do That?

How does the Democrat plan to run the health insurance and health care industries cover 30-40 million more people and reduce the deficit by $132 billion? The short answer is it doesn’t do that in and of itself.

I’m reminded of a saying that I first heard in statistics class. Figures lie, and lairs figure. According to the CBO, it does it by over $1 trillion in Medicare cuts and tax increases. That’s how. It cannot do it without enslaving the economy and the people with a government-run plan. That is, presuming the American people will want to be enslaved in that way.

If that’s not a prescription for economic disaster and the destruction of the best health care system (as bad as it is) in the world, I don’t know what is. The only success story here is that the government will be taking the giant leap in remaking America into the socialist/Marxist model that the Obama administration so worships. Hip Hip, Ho-ray! Or is it Ho-Ho-Ho?

link: Merry Christmas, from Harry