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Month: May 2009

Gingrich: Pelosi Dishonest, Vicious, Trivial and a Liar

“I don’t think the Speaker of the House can lie to the country on national security. This isn’t politics, this is national security.”

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich unloads on current Speaker Nancy Pelosi. His outrage is well placed and his articulation is crystal clear. Newt should appear on as many cable news outlets as he can and repeat this 4+ minute political confrontation. He should be on each Sunday news program this weekend.

On the other hand…

A year from now will any of this matter? We’re a country of sheep, led by an empty suit with a messianic complex. The majority of Americans can’t even identify Nancy Pelosi, and they definitely don’t understand the importance of this issue.

But this is a very big deal. I fear that U.S. service men and women will lose their lives because of the derelict Nancy Pelosi and her extreme lapse of judgement. Her self centered power grab is obscene. Pelosi and her leftist special interest groups are willing to throw anyone under the bus for political gain.

One year from now we may not be talking about Pelosi and whether or not she was briefed on waterboarding. But a year from now Americans will have suffered because of her, and our national security will be even further weakened. Our enemies are waiting.

Nancy Pelosi Lies

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi today accused the CIA of lying to her regarding the use of waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation techniques employed by the Bush administration after 9/11.

The CIA isn’t the liar in this case. Nancy Pelosi is.

Pelosi gives conflicting reports almost hourly.

  1. She claimed she was never briefed on the use of enhanced interrogation techniques.
  2. She stated she had not been briefed about the use of water boarding.
  3. She confessed she did attend a briefing but there was no talk of any enhanced interrogation techniques.
  4. She confessed she was briefed but she wasn’t made clear on the definition of the techniques used.
  5. Today, she confessed she was briefed but was never told about the fact that waterboarding had been used on a terrorist suspect, even though terrorist suspect Abu Zubaydah had been waterboarded a month before she was briefed on the subject in Sept. 2002.

And it goes on and on…

Question: Does it matter that one of the left’s most revered leaders is a blatant liar?

Yes, it does. And Pelosi is a liar. She was fully aware of the use of enhanced interrogation techniques and is now only trying to cloud the fact that she knew from the beginning that the Bush Administration was actively employing the practice. It wasn’t very important to her to fret about “torture” back then, but now it’s in her best interest to use it as a political sledge hammer. That hammer is about to fall squarely on her own head.

The politicizing of our national security must end.

Random Waffle Violence

When visiting The Waffle House in Manning, South Carolina, be nice to the staff. If you come in crabby, you might just meet the business end of waitress packing heat.

In the immortal words of Howard Beale…”I’m as mad as hell and I’m not gonna take this any more!”

A Clarendon County waitress is accused of shooting a customer at the restaurant after the two had a dispute.

Yakeisha Ward, 29, is charged with assault and battery with intent to kill.

An early morning run for breakfast at the Waffle House on Paxville Highway in Manning turned terribly wrong for Crystal Samuel.

“I thought I was gonna get me an All-Star,” says Samuel. A popular meal on the menu. “Grits, sausage, toast, eggs and a waffle,” says Samuel.

She didn’t get what she came for. Instead, she says while she waited for her order, her friends started eating. That’s when Samuel says she was told they couldn’t eat from carryout trays inside the restaurant.

“I said what is your fuss about. I said we haven’t paid for our food. She (Ward) said well you all got to leave. How you want us to leave and we ain’t paid for the food yet,” says Samuel.

That’s when it got ugly. Samuel says she threw a waffle at the waitress. “I did actually throw some food but it didn’t hit her,” says Samuel. “That’s when she (Ward) jumped across the counter and we got into it,” says Samuel.

Clarendon County Sheriff Randy Garrett says the altercation continued outside where he says Ward got a gun from her car and a gun magazine from her trunk.

“It’s poor judgment on her part trying to settle this matter with a weapon. Either way she had time to think about what she was doing when she was walking to her car,” says Garrett. (WLTX)

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I think it’s safe to say her mug shot exhibits a certain level of confidence and satisfaction in a job well done.

Should Text Book Publishers Fear Kindle DX?

Well, according to the rumors, yes.

Amazon.com Inc. on Wednesday plans to unveil a new version of its Kindle e-book reader with a larger screen and other features designed to appeal to periodical and academic textbook publishers, according to people familiar with the matter.

Beginning this fall, some students at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland will be given large-screen Kindles with textbooks for chemistry, computer science and a freshman seminar already installed, said Lev Gonick, the school’s chief information officer. The university plans to compare the experiences of students who get the Kindles and those who use traditional textbooks, he said.
More

Amazon has worked out a deal with several textbook publishers to make their materials available for the device, Mr. Gonick added. The new device will also feature a more fully functional Web browser, he said. The Kindle’s current model, which debuted in February, includes a Web browser that is classified as “experimental.” (WSJ)

Are the text book publishers that are working with Amazon thinking clearly?

Amazon has already put the fear of God into trade book publishers with their heavily discounted NYT Best Seller titles for the Kindle. Who’s to say that Amazon won’t also do something similar with text books?

I can see it now. Hello student! You know that text book your professor says you have to buy? Yeah, the one in the book store that costs $150? Well, look no further. Get your Kindle edition for $39.95.

What student wouldn’t immediately jump on a deal like that? Sure, the discount isn’t likely to be that deep (is it?), but the fact that the book will be discounted is enough for the student to happily slap down dad’s credit card.

Text book publishers need a digital strategy, to be sure. Most STM publishers have been digital for years now, so models exist. If text book publishers are hoping Amazon makes their digital market, they’ll won’t be happy at the end of the day. They’ll watch their print sales drop along with the revenue they depend upon. Amazon can be a great channel partner, but no one should give them control of that channel.

MORE: Engadget has a video and details of the new Kindle DX hardware.