On Saturday’s Fox News Watch, conservative panelist Jim Pinkerton pointed out that, contrary to the impression given by the mainstream media, President Barack Obama’s approval rating, as measured by Gallup, is relatively low compared to his recent predecessors for the 100-day mark, and is even below where President George W. Bush was after his first 100 days. Pinkerton observed: “Judith Klnghoffer, writing for the History News Network, made the point that Obama actually ranks seventh of the last nine presidents in Gallup poll opinion ratings. So seventh out of nine isn’t so good.”
…and Laura Bush was at 85% while Michelle Obama is at 79%…ed
What was it that Hillary Clinton and Rahm Emanuel said? Never let a crisis go to waste?
The swine flu outbreak is likely to benefit one of the most prolific and successful venture capital firms in the United States: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Thomson Reuters Private Equity Week reported on Friday. Shares of the two public companies in the firm’s portfolio of eight Pandemic and Bio Defense companies — BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (BCRX.O) and Novavax (NVAX.O) — jumped Friday on news that the swine flu killed a reported 60 people in Mexico and has infected people in the United States.
Debt Day comes early this year. Unfortunately, it’s nothing to celebrate. The symbolic “holiday,” which falls on Sunday, marks the point in the fiscal year when government spending exceeds revenue. In other words, the government will stop making money and start borrowing on Sunday. And it’s coming earlier than ever, according to House Minority Leader John Boehner, who’s pointing to Debt Day as yet another symptom of a government he says is spending too much, borrowing too much and taxing too much. Last year’s Debt Day fell more than three months later, on Aug. 5.
The wound on Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse’s slim hand, where he was stabbed by a crew member during his pirate attack on a U.S. cargo ship, has been redressed. He’s been given painkillers and antibiotics for his injuries and a Quran to use in prayer. The Somali pirate is being held alone in a cramped cell for two weeks as part of the typical entry procedure at the federal prison also housing Bernard Madoff. But he essentially has no idea what’s going on, his lawyer says, as he faces what’s believed to be the first U.S. piracy prosecution in more than a century.
The computer teacher who allegedly threatened to blow a Bronx school sky high says he was just making a “political” statement when he barricaded himself in his classroom, sparking a standoff with police. “A teacher did not snap. A teacher did not threaten to blow up the school,” Francisco Garabitos, 55, who had been barred from MS 328 in Marble Hill after allegedly choking a student, said in an interview with The Post.
The “swine flu” that has infected more than 1,000 people in Mexico has led a lawmaker on the House Homeland Security Committee to call on U.S. officials to close the southern border. Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) said the border should be closed until the threat is resolved. “The public needs to be aware of the serious threat of swine flu, and we need to close our borders to Mexico immediately and completely until this is resolved,” Massa said in a statement. “I am making this announcement because I see this as a serious threat to the health of the American public and I do not believe this issue is receiving the attention it needs to have in the news,” Massa said.
Cruise ship fights back against pirates with….gasp GUNS!
The dramatic confrontation was sparked when six men in a small skiff sped up to the MSC Melody late on Saturday, firing their AK-47s and trying to fix a ladder to the side of the ship. A team of Israeli guards hired by the vessel’s owners immediately began firing back with pistols and spraying the attackers with fire hoses. It is believed to be one of the first times that a non-military ship with private security aboard has used firearms to deter a pirate attack.
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Their deaths were squalid, riddled with bullets in a field near their home by Taliban gunmen as the execution was captured on a mobile telephone. In footage which is being watched with horror by Pakistanis, the couple try to flee when they realise what is about to happen. But a gunman casually shoots the man and then the woman in the back with a burst of gunfire, leaving them bleeding in the dirt. Moments later, when others in the execution party shout out that they are still alive, he returns to coldly finish them with a few more rounds.
Calling in sick then using Facebook account = unemployment.
A Swiss woman has lost her job after her employers spotted she was using the Facebook website when she had claimed to be too ill to use a computer. (snip) She said she did not believe the company’s assertion that a colleague had inadvertently noticed her using Facebook, accusing it instead of spying on her. She said the company had created a fictitious Facebook persona which become “friends” with her, allowing the company to monitor her online activity.
Mexican drug cartels firmly entrenched….in Oklahoma. Pose number one threat to state.
Crossing a Mexican drug cartel usually comes with a price — death. On the U.S.- Mexico border, that price is being paid daily with an endless stream of execution-style slayings in a war to control drug routes to the north. As Mexican officials crack down on these cartels, violence spreads. Lives are merely the cost of doing business, and since 2007 the international press has documented more than 7,400 drug war-related murders on the border. Police are gunned down in public squares. Failed drug smugglers are tortured to death and bound from head to toe in duct tape. Enemies are beheaded. U.S. authorities fear the violence is creeping across the border. Yet the truth is that Mexican drug cartels are already entrenched in Oklahoma, casting an ominous shadow on the future of our cities and rural communities. “Oklahoma’s No. 1 threat is the Mexican drug cartels,” said Darrell Weaver, executive director of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control. “Make no mistake.”
A Bowie mother and daughter who managed a D.C. government program aimed at employing blind vendors were indicted yesterday on charges of embezzling $281,000, much of which was supposed to be paid to the vendors, who were working at snack bars, cafeterias and gift shops in federal buildings. In a 13-page indictment from the U.S. attorney’s office, Barbara A. Stevenson-Jones, 70, and Pamela A. Stevenson, 51, were charged with four counts of theft and carrying stolen goods across state lines.
Quote of the day
Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto.
-Thomas Jefferson