Day: January 16, 2006

Former President Gerald Ford is hospitalized in California with pneumonia-like symptoms, his office says.

UPDATE: “He’s doing very well”.

You already know about the comments made today by Al Gore and Ray Nagin, and now we have a presidential hopeful jumping into the moonbat comment ring.

Sounding a little like a preacher, a fired-up Sen. Hillary Clinton lambasted the Bush administration and the Republican-controlled Congress during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day event, predicting the presidency “will go down in history as one of the worst” and saying the House of Representatives is run like a “plantation” where dissenting voices are squelched.

“When you look at the way the House of Representatives has been run, it has been run like a plantation, and you know what I’m talking about,” Clinton, D-N.Y., told the crowd at the Canaan Baptist Church of Christ in Harlem. “It has been run in a way so that nobody with a contrary view has had a chance to present legislation, to make an argument, to be heard.”

Talk about a double standard. I’m always amazed that Democrats, either white or black, can make racists statements but when a Republican makes comparisons like the one Hillary made they’re immediately branded as if they’re a card carrying member of the KKK.

You’d think so.

In addition to telling a crowd that New Orleans would be “Chocolate” again (no, I’m not kidding, he really did say it – see the video), New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin now claims to know how God thinks.

Nagin: God mad at America, but also at blacks

Mayor Ray Nagin suggested that recent destruction from hurricanes Katrina, Rita and other natural disasters is a sign that “God is mad at America,” and also mad at black communities for tearing themselves apart with violence and divisive politics.

“Surely God is mad at America. He sent us hurricane after hurricane after hurricane, and it’s destroyed and put stress on this country,” Nagin said as he and other city leaders commemorated Martin Luther King Day. “Surely he doesn’t approve of us being in Iraq under false pretenses. But surely he is upset at black America also. We’re not taking care of ourselves.”

You just couldn’t help throwing in that reference to Iraq now could you Ray. Oh, and I see you’ve been “talking” with Martin Luther King too. Well, OK, Martin Luther King’s ghost.

Joking that he may appear to have “post-Katrina stress disorder,” Nagin, who is black, talked of an imaginary conversation with the late civil rights leader. They “talked,” he said, while he was thinking Monday about what to say at the ceremony outside City Hall to kick off a walking parade in King’s honor.

“I said, ‘What is it going to take for us to move on and live your dream and make it a reality?’ He said, ‘I don’t think that we need to pay attention any more as much about other folks and racists on the other side.’ He said, ‘The thing we need to focus on as a community — black folks I’m talking about — is ourselves.'”

Nice try Ray. You’ve fallen and can’t get up.

If you believe the poll data from AP—Ipsos, you’d think so. Just under a fourth of the population said they planned to commemorate King’s birthday on Monday. A solid majority of blacks, 60 percent, said they would be involved.

Among the findings:

• Blacks are more likely than whites to commemorate Martin Luther King’s birthday
• Three-fourths of Americans say there has been significant progress toward equality, but only 66 percent of blacks feel that way
• Fewer than one in six whites, 15 percent, planned to commemorate the day
• Three-fourths of those polled say King should be honored with a federal holiday

All 50 states gradually recognized a King holiday, but only one-third of businesses offer a paid holiday today.

In a ‘pot calling the kettle black’ moment, this poll makes about as much sense as the following polls:

• Christians are more likely than Jews to commemorate Jesus’s birthday, an AP-Ipsos poll found
• Muslims are more likely than Christians to celebrate Ramadan, an AP-Ipsos poll found
• Republicans are more likely than Democrats to support President Bush, an AP-Ipsos poll found
• Non-vegetarians are more likely than vegans to eat pizza, an AP-Ipsos poll found
• Gay males are more likely than lesbians to prefer sexual relations with men, an AP-Ipsos poll found
• People who breathe oxygen are more likely than dead people to live, an AP-Ipsos poll found

Someone over at the Associated Press was obviously trying to be funny by letting this headline get through editorial.

‘Bush Marks MLK Day With Gospel Performance’

Gee, I wonder – what songs did Mr. Bush perform? Swing Low, Sweet Chariot?

This is why I drive / walk past the panhandler without even so much as a glance.

Couple supports family through panhandling

Jason Pancoast refers to himself and his family as “affluent beggars.”

“If you’re an affluent beggar you stay in a hotel and eat a continental breakfast,” he says. “It makes it a lot easier to be philosophical about it.”

The family is staying at the Cedarwood Inn in a room with a kitchenette. It costs $243 a week. Johnson and Pancoast are hoping to find something more permanent.

According to Pancoast, begging can be lucrative. He claims the family sometimes makes $300 a day asking for money and has made as much as $800. The family also receives $500 a month in food stamps.

When I was a kid I remember walking down a street in Seattle and seeing two hobos, one in a wheelchair and the other pushing him, stop at a corner. The guy in the chair had a sign that advertised himself as a Viet Nam Vet in need of food and shelter. Before the two crossed the street, the guy in the chair got up and switched places with the other. He handed the sign to his buddy, and they were on their way.

I witnessed this with complete incredulity. Then I got angry. I didn’t even think the scam was creative at all. I just remember how these guys were playing on people’s emotions.

While I don’t deny that there are homeless people who are sincere and are looking for every solution possible to improve their situation, there are a huge majority of bums on the street who love being there, for they know full well that they can have all of their needs cared for by honest, hard working folks like us, and that drives me crazy.

You know, if this speech was delivered by anyone other than Al Gore, I’d be concerned. (video)

I think there’s more of this kind of stuff happening every day. As the competition heats up, reporters have less time to check themselves and do the research necessary for the story, so they cut corners now and then and grab from the myriad of online sources available for free. No harm done, right?

Wrong. It’s not right and it can get you fired.

THE Honolulu Star-Bulletin has fired its entertainment reporter Tim Ryan following an investigation into his stories which seemed to lean a little too heavily on Wikipedia content.

According to editor Frank Bridgewater, Ryan’s stories contained phrases or sentences that appeared elsewhere before being included, unattributed, in stories that ran in the Star-Bulletin.

Ryan had been working on the paper since 1984 and his copy on stories that are stored on the starbulletin.com have been amended.

The whole lot was spotted by Wikipedia editors who noticed that language used in one of Ryan’s stories about Aloha Flight 243 closely matched a Wikipedia article. He was spotted because the bloke that wrote the Wikipedia entry came across Ryan’s story on news aggregator Fark.com.

Ryan told his boss that he got the information from Reference.com rather than directly from Wikipedia. The paper said it would have to run a proper attribution, and promptly did so.

However it also seemed Ryan borrowed content from other online sources including a 7 June 2005 review of the Toyota Highlander hybrid SUV. This apparently came from an article in the Sacramento Bee by Mark Glover, from 15 April 2005.

Another case involved an interview printed in 17 December 2004 which matched another conducted by another journalist in 2003. The interesting thing about the firing was that it did not happen immediately after Wikipedia complained, but only after other news agencies started to run stories based on Wikipedia’s side of the story here.

It seems that Bridgewater felt that there was going to be a little to much heat on this case and culled the wordsmith.

More: Reporter plagiarizes Wikipedia

Everyone seems to be making a big deal out of the remark made by First Lady Laura Bush last week when she said that she’d like to see Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice run for president. Funny thing is, if you actually read her comment, she said it would be likely that the US would have a woman president sometime in the next few election cycles. She said nothing about 2008, yet the media goes ga-ga and so we have this rush to hear the next word from Condi. Well, the Secretary said what we (those who follow politics) expected.

Asked about the first lady’s comments Sunday, Rice laughed and good naturedly answered the recurring question about her prospects for president in 2008. No dice, she said _ for the umpteenth time.

“Obviously, it’s flattering when people say things like that. The first lady is not only a terrific person, she’s my friend. And I was honored that she said that, of course. She’s a wonderful person,” Rice said.

“But I’ve spoken to this. I know what I’m good at, I know what I want to do and that’s not it.”

How about vice president?

“The two are the same,” she said with a grin and a shake of her head.

Can’t you just see the look on the face of the media upon hearing that comment? Good ‘ol Condi – always ready to tweak the MSM.

But the bottom line is Condoleezza Rice is not ready to be president. She’s not ready to be vice president either. In the same way many criticized Dan Quayle, Secretary Rice hasn’t yet had enough time in the seat. She’s just begun to put herself out among world leaders. She needs to be evaluated further on her ability to maneuver foreign relations in real-time. As a communicator, Condi needs more face-time in front of the American public. There’s just a lot that needs to be done to shape her into presidential material.

2012?